Biggest Loser; Challenge Accepted! Week 5 update

So it's been 5 weeks since we started and I'm about 15 pounds lost! I feel great! Hungry, but great! We have been trying really hard to not do our favorite late night snacking. We are eating less, but more often and working out more. On Saturday we went on a 20 mile bike ride! I was so proud of myself, it was tough, but I did it and want to do it again. I love how biking has become a family hobby!

So as I mentioned in a introduction post about this contest, the person who loses the most percentage wins the $140 and the person in 2nd place gets their $20 back. After another month of not getting pregnant, I have found new motivation! Lose weight and you can get pregnant!!!

Now I fully understand that my weight might not be what's keeping me from getting pregnant, but I think it is a possibility. So instead of thinking what I could spend with the $140 it's I wonder when my due date would be, I wonder if we will have another boy next or get our little girl!

Chase has held the title so far, but the last 2 weeks he's gained weight back (which suck because he's been working hard too!). I've been in 2nd place most of the time, but slipped into 5th place this past weigh in. But this week has been great so far and everyone is really close to each other it is anyone's game!

Thankful: Day 2 and Ryderbug Boutique

Courtney: I'm grateful for extended family as well. They are so much fun. I love my in-laws too. I'm so glad for the people who married into my family and for the family I married into. I feel like my relationships with them are getting closer and we are hanging out a little more.

Today I hosted a boutique at my house for people to come and sell their items. I had my Ryderbug stuff, Barb did her bags and cards, Ashlee set up Scentsy, Stephanie sells chunky necklaces, Jen did her graphic home prints and invitations, Karen was doing wood signs, and My mom was selling cinnamon rolls and cookies. Then there were 2 other friends there. It was so much fun being surrounded by family! It was a great time. We all had at least one sale and most did really well for being such a small event. Looking forward to giving the spring a try. Definitely again next Fall. It was great to have their support and to be able to support them in their little shops.

Ryder: Bed

Thankful: Day 1

HAPPY NOVEMBER!!!

So I wanted to things we are grateful for in November, at least leading up to Thanksgiving. Here are mine and Ryder's answers. Chase can do this if he so pleases...

Courtney: I am grateful for my family! I love them so much and can't imagine life without them. They are such a great support to me in all of my crazy ideas. Seriously they are the best!

Ryder: Rest

Hummus

If you read the previous post you know that I'm participating in a biggest loser challenge with some family members. I haven't been doing to great so far. The first day we didn't really have much healthy stuff in our house, the 2nd day I had a Mystery Shop so I had Panda Express for lunch.

Today I had made a smootie, but that doesn't fill me up at all! We had some hard boiled eggs so I thought, how about an egg salad sandwich? I love egg salad sandwiches! The toasted bread, the white bread, the mayo! Ugh, but I can't do a mayo filled sandwich when I am trying to eat healthy. Enter hummus...

So I have been wanting to make my own hummus for quite a while now sole because it is pretty healthy. I'm actually never been a fan of it, but it's growing on me. And besides the beans, everything else I had on hand so it's fairly cheap too! I used this recipe except did chili power in place of cayenne because I didn't have any. Pureed it in my food processor and it was done!

According to somewhere it's 80 calories for 2T. So I put 1T on my sandwich and used the other tablespoon for carrots. A little goes a long way when dipping. I still had a good amount left on my plate that I added to my sandwich.

I think it's a little bland and missing something? Maybe the cayenne would solve it.


I also got my arm workout today. I ground up some flax seed with our wheat grinder! I would have just bought the already ground stuff, but Winco was out so I decided to take on the task myself! Do you have any favorite uses/ recipes for flax seed? I'm just planning on using them for extra fiber in smoothies, but other ideas would be great!

Biggest Loser; Challenge Accepted!

So I know it has been awhile and you have probably all forgotten about me, but here I am! The reason for my blogging today is because some members of my family are taking on a little challenge...

The Biggest Loser; Challenge Accepted! Is what we are calling it. Because it is 1. Similar to the show Biggest Loser and 2. 6 out of 8 of us love How I met your mother!

So here is the gist of it. There are 8 of us doing it. We had official weigh ins last night, that was our starting weight. We will do weekly weigh ins on our own to track how we are doing. Then final weigh ins will be on January 18th in the morning so it's a more true weight. The person who looses the most weight percentage wins!

What do they win you may ask? A pretty decent earnings! We are each putting in $20 to participate. So the winner will get $140. Then we are having a 2nd place winner and that person will get their $20 back. In the event of a tie the 2 people will split the $160.

I'm really excited about this! I'm hoping this will be the encouragement I need to jump start a big change! We did a facebook group just for us to track progress, share recipes and tips, etc. We even are having a motivator of the week. That person will be in charge of keeping us pumped! (We'll see how long that goes)

So with that being said, if you have any awesome healthy recipes please send them my way!

Where does the time go?

Really??? It's sad that I post more on my "craft" blog then my personal life. It's not because things aren't happening because they are. It's just I get a little behind and it seems impossible to catch back up.

So the last few months have been great! Chase got a contract doing the same thing he was doing. Only now he gets benefits. Because of that though his hours changed a little so he had to drop one of his classes. Blessing in disguise, he was able to sign up for another one that was online. So he is taking 3 online classes this semester.

He is still biking around. Unfortunately a few months ago his nice road bike that his Cousin gave him was stolen. We used our tax return to get him a decent hybrid bike. So he is back to biking. He was going to do the Tour de Mesa, but it is $115! Can you believe it??? So I told him to just make is own Tour de Chase.

As far as I go things are unbelievable! The craft blog has been so so. I have very few followers (If you don't follow me please do, you'll probably know more about us from that then this). So I am planning on doing a craft fair in November. One of the things I wanted to sell was a carseat cooler.

Since it is hot now I decided to give it a try and sell them on a facebook group called Mesa Consign. One of my friends saw it and asked it I wanted to sell them on a deal a day website she co operates. So if things go well I'll be selling them on this site all over the country! So I'm going to be popping these out like crazy trying to make as many as I can! So I feel like everything else has been put on hold because of this. This weekend I'll be getting the fabric to get it started! So exciting!

So with this experience I wanted to be able to have a business sounding name so when they describe my product it's not just Courtney, a mom.

SIDE NOTE: I did the top a week ago. Had to stop because I heard a strange noise outside. Went to check it out and Ella had her puppies! Well at that point she only had one. Over the next several hours she ended up with 5 healthy puppies!!! (1 unfortunately didn't make it). So if you are looking for puppies in like 6 weeks let us know!

So as I was saying  wanted to get more in the business mode. So I came up with my business name... Ryderbug! It is one of my nicknames for Ryder and I love how it fits! So my Brother Bryan said I should call my carseat cooler a Cool Ryder! LOVE IT!!!

Now onto Ryder. He is a smart little boy! Loves being outside and TV (kind of opposites). We recently took him to Toys 'R Us and let him pick out a toy to buy with his birthday money. He had the best time! He's walk around examining each toy. He ended up getting a Batman and Joker little people and 2 train cars. Not bad for $10! Technically he owes us $.44, but we'll let it slide:)

Tonka & Ella still like to escape the yard. Ella had 5 puppies as mentioned earlier.

Mother's & Father's Day came early this year. I got a Kitchenaid mixer and Chase got a grill! So much fun!