As I like to say, life has been getting in the way of healthy eating around here.  Between the hours I spend sitting and reading to my kids, and the hours I spend sitting and working at the computer, it’s been a little too much sitting, and I could feel some extra pounds piling on.  And then there was just not feeling like eating healthy stuff.  It’s funny, though.  In teaching my online classes I managed to inspire myself to Get Back On That Horse.

Last week I stopped into Kroger.  It’s not where I usually shop both because of location and price, but that’s what I was near when I needed to pick up some supplies.  I ended up hitting the jackpot there:

Organic spinach and lettuce marked down to cheaper than non-organic (I got one pound of each!!)

grapes (68 cents a pound), celery, and cherry tomatoes also marked down

organic vanilla yogurt marked down to cheaper than non-organic

and organic milk marked down to cheaper than non-organic!  (for a mighty long time I only bought dry milk since it only use it in baking and cooking.  But lately the price for the dry milk has almost doubled.  So I decided to experiment for awhile with buying the organic milk.  I froze most of what I brought home.  I used little snack size ziploc bags to do this since I don’t use that much at a time, and I think it will be fairly easy to thaw out.)

Then there were a couple of sweet sales on top of that!

(Most of the marked down items were because the food was getting close to their expiration date.  Since we have eight people here, I don’t hesitate to buy up stuff like that.  There’s no doubt in my mind that my kids will be glad to eat up bargain grapes in a day or two.  :))

So I came home ready to force myself to eat salads.  Lots and lots of salads.  Because two pounds of spinach and mixed baby lettuces is A WHOLE LOTTA salads.

Seriously–I use a 10-cup bowl for my salads.  I put in a big handful (or two) of spinach, a big handful of lettuce, some cherry tomatoes, some chopped up sweet peppers,  some salad sprinkles, some salsa, and a little bit of chopped up turkey.  These are BIG salads.  And the amount of greens I use doesn’t even hardly make a dent in the supply I bought.  Ha!  But I was loving it that I was having salads again.  I always wonder why I fell off the wagon in the first place, because my salads are so, SO yummy.  It makes me feel great to have something so healthy and satisfying in the middle of the day.  Usually that’s all I need for lunch.  Often I’ll have a second salad for dinner.  If I want an evening snack, I can have a salad without feeling “guilty” for pigging out late at night.

Since I was concerned that even with eating my mega salads the stuff might get yukky, I decided to experiment with making a green smoothie since my friend Sarah recommended it.  Basically, I put two handfuls of greens through my juicer (you could just do it in a blender) and then added a banana, an apple, and some frozen strawberries.  It looks kind of scary, but it was actually pretty good.  I ate it with a spoon, because it was too thick to make it through a straw.  Next time I will use more berries and fewer greens, and I think I will be able to get my kids to eat it.  (they tried it, said they liked it, but didn’t want to eat any more of it.  And my wonderful, non-picky husband Dave tried it and said it tasted “very healthy” and humored me by eating about 4 spoons of it, and then said he was done.  :)  Obviously I have a little bit of work to do to perfect my green smoothie recipe to make it everybody-friendly!)

After hearing many good things about the Leslie Sansone walking videos for home exercise, I got one out of the library.  I will confess that I sometimes borrow exercise videos or DVDs from the library or netflix, and almost always return them without ever watching them one little bit.  I guess this is just part of my optimistic nature.  :)  Well, this time I actually DID the routine, and it was really, really fun!  The video I got happens to be just a one mile routine, so it only takes about 15 minutes.  You mostly march in place, but also do some side steps, leg lifts, and kicks to spice things up.  Also, in this video there are arm movements to make the workout more aerobic.  If my muscle soreness is any indication, this is a real workout, even if it’s just a mile.

Not being a real exercise enthusiast, I have struggled to find something that I can realistically DO as well as ENJOY.  For a pretty good while last year I worked out at a nearby fitness center, but that just doesn’t fit too well into my life when I have children to teach and care for and a husband that is gone to work!  I like to go for walks, but the kids can’t walk as fast or as far as I like to, so that just ends up being for fun rather than for exercise.  Since I have no trouble finding time for the things I actually LIKE to do, I have been thinking that I need to somehow find an exercise somethingorother that I like doing.

I may have hit the jackpot because I liked this video so much that I’ve done the routine at least once a day since I got it, and decided to not return it to the library today like I was supposed to, because I’m just not ready to part with it yet!  (thankfully, I was able to renew it so now I can keep it until Wednesday)  Netflix has a whole bunch of her DVDs, so I have added a bunch of them to my queue, and plan to start having one on hand all the time.  Yes, I could buy a video, but I find that when you have to listen to the same chatter over and over again, it gets a little annoying.  (my daughter and I already have Leslie-isms that are cracking us up)  Plus, I would like to try out a bunch of her other workouts, including the 2, 3, and 5 miles ones.

So, just a little “keeping it real” here today.  I’m not even close to being perfect.  But I do enjoy it when I have some energy to spend on trying to improve. 

Here’s another great book review.  Many thanks to Christine for taking the time to do it!

Many thanks to Britni for her great review of my book here.  She is working on eating healthier this year, so she shares a lot of menu plans and keeps it real with the ups and downs of trying to eat healthier even when life gets in the way.  You can check out her blog here.

So the owner of the gardening toolkit site decided to offer a one day sale to celebrate the first day of spring. You can get the whole set marked down from $27 to $14. Check it out here. This sale ends at midnight!

Happy Spring!

I just found out that Jim is going to make a better price on the gardening toolkit for One Day Only.  That will be tomorrow–to celebrate the first day of spring!  Come by tomorrow and I’ll have the info for you.  (He’s still putting it together right now)

It’s springtime and those tempting seed
catalogs are filling our mailboxes, inspiring
us to do some gardening! My husband and I
started gardening with our children when they
were young and it was such a fun experience.
We all learned alongside each other and got
to experience the wonder of actual food
growing in our own back yard.

As we strive to eat healthier and to include
more organic veggies in our diet, gardening
is seeming like more and more of a necessity.
Last year I found organic sweet peppers at
the store for nearly $8 per pepper! Ha.
That’s just not going to happen. This year
I’ll be growing my OWN peppers…in all the
colors….for cheap!

If you’re having similar thoughts, you are
going to love
this deal! My friend Jim Erskine has put
together
a fabulous collection of gardening resources
at a super price.
This
“tool kit” has 14 resources that will
instruct and inspire you in your gardening
pursuits this spring. For this week you can
get them at a great discounted price.
Go
on over and check out all these great
resources. They have stuff for organic
gardening, growing potatoes the easy way,
ideas for including your children in
gardening, and lots more.

If there’s one thing that I’ve found most of us have in common, we all love a bargain! Well, this week I have an incredible offer for you that I know you’re going to love.

My friend Tawra Kellam runs Living on a Dime, one of the internet’s most popular web sites dedicated to helping all of us live well on less.

This week Tawra is allowing me to share a fabulous offer with you folks. To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day you can get **17** wonderful eBooks for just $17!! This collection of books includes

• Grocery Savings book
• Menus on a Dime
• Quick Dinners
• Plan Ahead Leftovers
• Teaching your kids about managing money
• Gifts in a Jar recipes and instructions
• Money Management to help you get out of debt
• Debt-Free Holidays
• and a whole bunch more!

I have most of Tawra’s books and can tell you that they are chock-full of practical and helpful ideas that really WILL help you save money!

Stop by Tawra’s site to check out this offer. I think you will be very pleased with what you see there, and that this ebook package will be really valuable to you.

This special sale ends SOON so don’t miss it!

Come back tomorrow for another great GREEN deal that you’ll LOVE!

I know that at this time of year a lot of people are wanting to raise money for spring and summer missions trips, summer camps, and all year round people have special needs they could use some extra money for.  I wanted to let you know that I am open to the possibility of helping you reach your goals.  We can set up a super easy fundraiser for you, selling my ebooks!  If you are interested, just email me at Supermom@SupermomsHealthAndWellness.com and I’ll tell you all about it. 

Paula is the winner of the Bee Strong giveaway from the Ultimate Blog Party.  Congratulations!

It’s time for another blog party! Welcome to the fun!

I’m Erica, and this blog is where I focus on health and wellness issues, including stuff related to my business, Supermom’s Health and Wellness. You might enjoy checking out some of my articles that are pretty popular among moms:

Supermom’s Healthy Lemonade recipe: Great for your health, great for weight loss, tastes excellent, kids love it, and –get this– NO SUGAR! (You’ll love it!!)

Read about the two supplements that have given me tons of energy to keep on keepin’ on with my six kids, homeschooling, and running my businesses.

Here’s something I wrote about my children’s liquid multivitamin that we are so pleased with.

Some fun things I have going on right now:

Get a free ebook: The No-Cry Parenting Guide. Yours when you sign up for my free newsletter here.

Listen to my interview with Cindy Rushton, where we talk about healthy eating, without having to go to extremes.

I am also hosting a great sale on my two healthy eating books right now, with 50% of the proceeds going to Zoe Children’s Homes, which is an organization that rescues children from the evils of human trafficking. You can read more about this here.

In celebration of The Ultimate Blog Party, I will be giving one of you a bottle of the wonderful ENERGY GIVING supplement that I love so much, Bee Strong. To be entered into this giveaway you need to leave a comment here telling me what you would do with more energy! Make sure that I have an email address to contact you if you want to win. (Hey–if you’re allergic to bees, this product isn’t one for you. OK?)

You can visit my Baby Boutique Blog here, and my Supermom’s No-Lice Advice blog here. I have giveaways going on at both sites.

Enjoy the party!!