Tonight I took my new Pampered Chef Air Fryer for a spin. Here’s the link to the recipe I used for this evening’s delicious “City Chicken” meal. https://mylifecookbook.com/low-carb-city-chicken-air-fryer/

Last Tuesday, my awesome Mom let Ed and I escape to the grocery store sans kids. Hey, we’ll gladly take the alone time! Our mission: buy enough meat and veggies for dinners over the next week or so. We shopped at Market District and took full advantage of their 5 for $20 proteins deal – ground turkey for tacos, two packs of beef strips for stir fry, sausage, and the pork cubes with skewers for tonight’s meal. Picked up chicken breasts and zucchini, forgot the broccoli and peppers (whoops), then grabbed cans of carrots and peas because the kids refuse to eat fresh cooked ones (grrr). We are still realistic in that we expect to eat out once, possibly twice.

Sometimes we’ll hit up our cookbooks and actually scribe a list prior to our departure. My favorite strategy is to wing it, meaning I wander the aisles hoping for inspiration to strike. Seeing sales helps direct us as well. Either way, when we put thought into meals for the week, we succeed at dining in vs. rolling through the drive-thru.

One issue I find myself looking to solve is how to deal with the plethora of freezer food we’ve been hoarding for a while now. We just cannot remember to pull out the stuff so it thaws overnight! Sounds ridiculous, right? Every month we talk about taking inventory and finding little nuggets like those crock pot pre-made bags (hmmm… though I’m not sure the last time we put those together). Maybe this weekend we’ll finally pull the trigger and clean out the deep freeze. Problem is we’ve started enjoying our fresh food meals so we may notice a difference in taste (ewwww burn). But no matter where we procure our food from, the process remains the same – sketch out the menu and execute!

With this being the start of my 40th year around the sun, I finally am focusing on my health. Browsing through the Facebook memories reminds me of the ups and downs of my weight over the years. Super skinny stature (almost too much) in high school led to complacency. As a sophomore in college I wore my size 3 prom dress to a frat party so I still felt fine.

A few years later, when I studied abroad in Germany and London, I believe my size ballooned to somewhere in the 10 range. Then, at my first “real” job, my slacks read 14. Before growing my first two little babies I gained and lost here and there. With my first pregnancy I put on around 70 lbs. Yikes! My daughter was only six months old when I found out I was having another lil one. But believe it or not, after my son was born I managed to get back to a still large but comfortable 150-160lb range. At that weight I exuded more confidence, yes, because I liked my reflection in the mirror. Outward appearance should certainly not fully define a person’s self-worth. However, I really miss those feelings from when I was lighter.

Fast forward a handful of years… several factors came together to drive me to a previously inconceivable number – 200lbs. At that point I began to give up and have now found myself facing the terribly embarrassing 240 on the scale. I can’t believe I am even admitting this to not only myself but also anyone who might read this.

My longing to experience again that physically-induced comfort of years ago finally spurred me to create this BHAG. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the acronym, BHAG means Big Hairy Audacious Goal. At one of my past jobs I was introduced to this concept and draw from this idea my 142(lbs) by (age) 42. Even if I land in the area but not that exact number, wow, will I be proud. So I cannot just throw an idea out into the universe and expect to just have it happen. Nope. I drew up a plan.

• Cook at home at least 5 dinners and 5 lunches a week.
• Control portions using my color coded containers (e.g. green for veggies, yellow for starches, red for proteins)
• Track what I eat and read the articles in Noom (since it already renewed I should at least use it for real this time)
• Drink one 32oz bottle of water a day
• Work out on my new elliptical for *at least* 30 min a day

Gotta start somewhere! For my own posterity, I will update a separate “142 by 42” page with statistics on how I’m tracking with the above goals. I’ll share highlights through posts here on the main blog. Would love to have people rooting for me along the way, and if anyone wants to join me as accountability buddy let me know!