The New Year always brings a fresh start doesn’t it?  This year, I’ve vowed to get fit and while I’ll still be enjoying all of my favorite food items (with portion control), I’ll be adding a few healthier alternatives to the mix as well.

I have no clue how that ice cream got in there but it’s totally not for me;)  As you can see, I’m adding Cheerios, Special K, Yoplait yogurt in yummy flavors for little man and Dannon Activia for myself.  Also bought, Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, and Extra Fruit Sensations Gum.  WOOHOO!!!  I truly believe every small change helps and that is my goal for the year, baby steps to a healthier me.

On my personal blog, I shared my weight loss fitness goals and you can’t have one without the other so I’ll be sharing my food goals here with you guys.  I’ll be using a Food Tracker to get a better of idea of what I’m eating and soaking in every single healthy eating tip I can.

First thing in the morning, I’ll be starting with Cheerios.

What will you be having for breakfast? And do you have any eating changes planned for this year?

Disclosure: I am an official Walmart Mom. Follow me and my fellow Walmart Moms as we share our ideas and tips for a healthier you! Walmart has provided me with compensation and gift card in return for my time & efforts to create this post. My participation in this program is voluntary and my opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.

When I started my weight loss journey, I had no idea how hard it would be but I am finding things that make it easier.  I load up on fresh produce every week, drink tons of water, and always keep a few convenience items on hand.  When my man wants those super fattening jalapeno stuffed sausages for lunch, I can easily grab a Lean Cuisine dinner and not have regrets later.  Of course I don’t JUST have a Lean Cuisine dinner.  I also incorporate a small salad with it, whether that consists of Romain lettuce & tomatoes or an apple & orange salad just depends on my mood but I always add another dose of healthiness to the plate.  I noticed they have another pizza version, BBQ Recipe Chicken Pizza-Wood Fire Style! YUM!! I have got to find that one for sure!

One of pet peeves about packaged food is not being able to easily find the nutrition value.  When I head to the grocery store, I’m shopping for a family of five, usually with a three year old in tote, and a husband that text or calls every few minutes adding to the shopping list.  I don’t have time to search a package for the amount of calories-fat grams per serving and that’s just one thing I love about Lean Cuisine.  Their new makeover makes it simple to read and understand.  Check it out:

By the way, I have NOT tried this one so if you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. You can see how easy it is to see the fat grams, calorie count, and fiber grams.  The whole design is fresh and clean and I can see the name and what’s in it easily. Maybe I’m partial to the colors too….some of which remind me of my own blog colors;)

Do you find that packaging makes a difference?  And since I’m still trying some of the varieties of Lean Cuisine, I’d love to hear your favorites.  As you can see, I had the pizza here (because I’ve had it for a while now and didn’t see it fall behind our beef) but I have a few others to try out like the Roasted Honey Chicken and the Thai-Style Noodles with Chicken.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for afternoon walk.

P.S.  Just like the fresh design on the Lean Cuisine packages, I find that presentation matters so placing my meal on a decorative plate makes it that much more enjoyable.  Like I’m fine dining….

Disclosure: This post is part of a 12mth campaign partnership with Lean Cuisine, which is compensated for my time and efforts. As always, opinions are my own, always have been and always will be. See my full disclosure for my blogging ethics.

One of the things I struggle with during my Operation Fatty, is having food that is more healthy than what I eat now.  It’s a pain to cook separate dinners for me and my family so I’m on the prowl for diet food delivery style!  Living way out here in the middle of nowhere means I can’t just run to town to pick up some healthy dinners or grab some fruits and vegetables.  Often times I run out of the “good stuff” and have to make do until I can get to town.

This is where a delivery service would be helpful.  Some places that deliver diet food include Medifast, Nutristystem, and even the Zone.  Now trying to decide if any of these systems fit my needs is a different story.

I’ve tried Nutrisystem and to be honest, the food is not so great in my opinion. Maybe I didn’t get enough variety in there?  I’ve done Medifast and must say, this worked but the portions are very small.  The flavor is much better though and the shakes are filling.  I have had some zone bars before and found them to be very filling.  I haven’t tried anything else from them. Have you?

I think that if I had prepared meals, I would do much better on my weight loss journey. It’s real hard to cook for the cowboys and control myself from eating that food I cook for them.  If I have prepared meals, I can simply grab one to eat while they are eating theirs.

So, what I want to know is if you have had diet food delivered to you?  What program? How was the taste? Etc…….

My weight loss goals this year include more healthy recipes and taking baby steps to going green, so having the chance to try this grill pan out made me more than happy.

Some facts you should know right away about this line that makes it special, is that it is 100% PFOA FREE!  A very important factor for people living green.  The line is dishwasher safe and can go in the oven up to 500′.  It’s of some of the highest quality you can find out there and the company, Scanpan has been around for over 50yrs and has a very good reputation.

Believe it or not, I have NEVER owned a grill pan.  *gasp*  We grill outside all the time but during the winter and on ugly days, it’s nice to be able to use the grill inside for some healthier eating.  Today we decided to do hamburgers and of course my husband took over because the one thing he cared about, was the grill marks!  Men!

The handle does get hot (because it’s oven safe obviously) but lucky for you, they provide you with a handle sleeve.  What I cared about though, was the cleanup.  Am I right??  You know how grill pans or anything with grooves can be a pain to clean right.  I was very pleased with the cleanup with this pan.  I had no trouble at all and the food had been there for about 3hrs so it had time to “stick”.

Everything cooked evenly, the grill marks turned out great, and cleanup was a breeze.  Definitely a great pan and if you care about living green, eating healthy, and high quality cookware, then this line is for you.  I cook nonstop for my family and for the ranch cowboys so I need cookware that will last.  It is slightly on the pricier side but you get what you pay for.  I’m all about quality and the Scanpan Professional line fits the bill.

Want to win one? Well lucky for you, I have a Scanpan Grill Pan to giveaway to one lucky reader! Valued at about $150.

TO ENTER:

Leave a comment on this post telling me what you would cook in your grill pan OR what steps you’re taking to eating healthier or live greener.

Additional ways to enter. You may do one or all but each one you do should be left in a separate comment.

• Blog it and tell me how bad you want this baby!
• Tweet it and include @ACowboysWife and the link to this giveaway.
• Stumble it and/or Facebook it.
• Subscribe by Email or by Reader!

This giveaway ends on March 30th (which happens to be my birthday) at 10pm CST,  or until comments are closed.  For more info on how I run my giveaways, read the “official rules“.

In my quest to lose weight this year, I’m on the prowl for TASTY GOOD snacks that I can indulge in–Snacks that are going to soothe the craving.  I’ve tried another brand (WW) that were so horrible that even my kids wouldn’t eat them and they eat everything!  But these Little Debbie Snacks?  These are sooooo good.  You would have no clue that they are only 100 calories.  Not to mention they are cheaper than that other brand.  AND, there is currently a coupon for .55cents off!!!  Feast your eyes on these goodies…..

These are only 5 of the 8 that I tried out.  The other ones didn’t even last one day because of the boys aka hogs.

These are not large portions but they are not meant to be….the whole point of them being 100 calories is to provide a healthier alternative in a portion control size.   Yes fruit is healthier but sometimes you just need to indulge in something like this so that you don’t fall off the diet wagon, you know?

Anyways, Little Debbie snacks have been around for years so I found it to be a breath of fresh air to bring in a lighter version of their snacks. OH, and if you don’t give a rat’s butt for lower calories, then check out this Strawberry Shortcake Roll recipe!!!  It includes one of my most favorite debbie snacks ever.

So guess what?  You can WIN IT!

Oh yeah!  3 winners will get this HUGE box of 100 calorie Little Debbie Snacks.  The same box that I received in fact.  And my favorite part about their box?  It has their twitter handle on it!!  So cool that they are also trying to stay in the cutting edge of social media.

This is what you will get…..

Which ones did I fall in love with?  The Snow Puffs were my absolute faves.  Then the rest are all tied…seriously.  They are THAT good.

HOW TO ENTER:

Go check out the Little Debbie Website and tell me which one is your favorite snack! It doesn’t have to be a 100 calorie one either…..Come back here to this post and leave a comment.

Additional ways to enter include & should be done in a separate comment:

• Twittering this

100 calorie @LittleDebbie snacks giveaway over at @acowboyswife ‘s food blog! http://tinyurl.com/9tgbc3

• Blog it
• Stumble it

This giveaway ends on January 16th.  Rules

I have been trying really hard to work on my weight here lately.  I’ve cut out sodas a LOT and for those days that I can’t live without it, I bought the mini cans of soda.   You know, for a fix.  Yes, I truly am addicted to soda and have withdrawals and need fixes.

So, I also have been doing Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer.  Now you would think that you can really do much for your entire body in that 10 minutes but GOOD GAWD, it kicks my butt!  I have this  great video of me working out to it but my windows movie maker apparently doesn’t like the how it’s formatted and won’t import it.  Arrrrgghhhh…..so I can show you my fat butt doing push ups and such.  Anyways, I love the workout and my body is sore everyday…still have not gotten through the soreness but I will…hopefully.

I’m also eating better.  Cutting out sugars, salts, and carbs….well, not completely cutting them out but trying to be smarter about it.  It’s all about baby steps for me.  Since we live a good ways from town, we always ending up eating in town.  Something I’ve been trying to do is pick smarter choices from the heart attack filled menus at fast food but what has been really great are those beautiful half white-half yellow words called, SUBWAY.  Man, these people did it right!  Delicious, healthy choices with options.  Since I rarely step outside the box to try something new, I always get the 6incher….Roast Beef, NO cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard on whole wheat.  Is it still healthy if you ask for extra roast beef?  Just curious………

WIN IT

So to celebrate my upcoming New Year’s Resolution (weight loss & being healthy), I have a giveaway!

There will be 2 winners.

1st place winner will win the Tony Horton 10 Minute Trainer bundle..valued at well of $100.

2nd place winner will win a $15 Subway Gift Card!

HOW TO ENTER:  READ THE RULES!

Leave a comment telling me some ways that you try to stay healthy during the holidays AND what your favorite Subway sub is!

For additional entries:

• Blog it
• Twitter it, including @acowboyswife and link to this post. (can be done daily)
• Stumble this post (leave your stumbleupon username in comment)

Please leave each additional entry in separate comment.  Giveaway ends on Dec. 18th.

Well, I said I was gonna start my weight loss journal back up and I am.  I’m weighing in a 190, with a goal of 140 but I’d take 150;)

I’ll be using Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer, taking diet pills, and drinking my trusty Propel.  I think I can manage the 10 minutes for sure and depending on how well my body takes it, I can also do more.

http://www.youtube.com/v/SDOGalg1euo

Join in Taking it Off Tuesdays with Leigh.