You ever have one of those days where you don’t wake up in a bad mood, but you aren’t really in a good mood either? Totally started my day like this. I have to say, while my DietBet has been amazing in the sense that it really kicked my butt into gear…. I bet money on myself so I can’t give up…. it’s caused me a lot of stress. I don’t feel like I’m one to easily lose weight. I would have been great at surviving a long time ago when your life depended on being able to gain weight. My body is pretty smart, it holds onto anything extra I give it and it even figures out how to hold on to what I’ve got even when I’m being pretty strict. Every morning as soon as I get up I weigh myself to try to see how to the day before went. Not the best thing to think about as soon as you’re awake. I have learned I can’t have anything after dinner. I miss bedtime snacks!

I got my oldest ready and my husband got up so I hoped into the shower. I love morning showers but don’t do them really often. I seem to just hop in the shower whenever the opportunity strikes, as do most Moms with little kids. I took a few minutes and threw on some make up. I don’t usually do a lot of make up the days that I am going to the kids play group every other Friday but I put a little on. My littles slept in a little later than usually so it was to have the opportunity to hang out with my husband for a little bit and have a cup of coffee before they were up. Time change still seems to be causing a little bit of trouble with our routines.

I realized while driving this morning that I’ve been in a little bit of a funk. I think I’ve been stressed about a lot of things, and I need to find some positive ways to handle the stress. My old way was not an option as I have money on the table to get to a certain weight by July 1st and I have to check in monthly not just try hard at the end. I need some sunshine. This winter has felt particularly long. It’s March and we’ve been having back to back storms. While it’s not unusual to get snow in March we haven’t had any warm days in between to melt, in fact it’s been unusually cold.  The real problem for me is that this started in December. The last time we had back to back storms in the later part of the season we didn’t really get any snow until late winter. Not this year. I need some sunshine… sometimes I seriously want to pack up and move somewhere that stays warm. But then I think about the fact I don’t like giant spiders and alligators and the snow doesn’t seem quite as bad.

My seem improved as we got into the afternoon. I am really lucky. My husband is dealing which a lot of stress right now , however will take the time and listen. I was telling him about how I felt, and he listened. It’s amazing sometimes how just talking about how you feel makes you feel better. My oldest got home from school and got ready to go off to my parents for the weekend. He loves weekends there , it’s like a little vacation for him. My mom had picked up my nephew then stopped in to get him.  She stayed for a bit and had a cup of coffee. I felt bad as they were leaving because my little ones want to tag along, but they aren’t quite ready yet.

I splurged the day before and bought some ingredients that I don’t normally buy. I have been craving steak and cheese so badly… for days. So I decided instead of giving in I would make an alternate version. I decided to do Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Mushrooms. I made them before but couldn’t remember the exact recipe. I almost didn’t buy the shaved steak… it was $4.99 a pound and that’s a lot in my book. I prefer to spend under $2 a pound. If I am buying something more expensive I try to balance it with something less expensive so my average is around $2 a pound. I saved money on the mushrooms, I bought the packages of smaller mushrooms because they were $1.54 instead of $3 for the bigger. A little harder to stuff but they cost just about half and you got more of a bite size bite which meant you could feel like you were eating more…. I seem to play a lot of mind games with myself regarding serving size. I also scored a 59 cent a pound turkey… so I feel like it balanced out. This was literally one of the best lower carb meals I’ve ever made… so good. Here’s what I did.

I cooked 2 pounds of shaved steak. While it was cooking I threw in one large onion diced into bite size bits.

While it was cooking I prepped the mushrooms. I pulled out the steams and wided the hole to fit the steak. I saved the pieces of mushrooms… they are super yummy and I had stroganoff on the menu. No sense wasting perfectly good food.

I wanted my mushrooms to taste like a steak and cheese sub. Not everyone may like it this way but I always have mayo on it. So I decided to give the steak a creamy texture and added mayo. I used about a half a cup. I started with less and added more until it was the texture and flavor I wanted. You can always add more but you can’t take it out.

I sprinkled the mushrooms with mozzarella cheese, put in the steak, and sprinkled a little more cheese on top. I baked for about 20 minutes at 400… I checked them after about 10 minutes then again at 15. So so good. I ate a few more than I should of but they were amazing.

As silly as this may sound my mood was even better after dinner.  Nothing like a good meal to make everything better. I spent the rest of the evening just hanging out with my husband and the kids.

After the kids went to bed I hung out with my husband. I love late night hanging out. We can actually chat about stuff and watch something without interruption or the kids begging for their favorite shows. We don’t do it often enough. Our bodies are kind of on a different rhythm. I’m more of a go to bed early wake up early person, he’s naturally synced more the opposite. But every so often I manage to stay up a bit later and am always happier for it. I am a little less rested the next morning, but I still feel energized . We usually have our best conversations then. We talk about fun things, and less fun things but our conversations still make me happy. One thing we discussed was our budget. We try to be pretty frugal people, but there is always room for improvement. He brought up thinking about a total spending freeze. I love the idea. I actually have tried to do those myself with just our grocery budget. I used to watch the snow Extreme Cheapstakes once and awhile. While I never would go to the extremes some of these people did I still remember one thing sticking out. This man would do a fiscal freeze I believe he called it on a regular basis. It forces you to use up what you have, and helps to keep your budget in line. I love doing this with groceries and household items. I referred to it as a pantry or freezer challenge. It helped make sure you used up things in the pantry before the expiration date and things in the freezer before freezer burn happens. I also like to do it when I feel like I’m spending too much consistently, it’s like pushing a mental reset button. We decided to start leaving the credit card at home. I have a separate account for our groceries and household. I don’t like the idea of cash in hand, I worry about losing it. So I use my debit card for groceries. Things like gas, clothing, etc go on the household credit card. I will probably have him get out like $20-$40 that I can keep as emergency cash incase I ever need it or my debit card isn’t working. But it will force us to preplan more. We will take the credit card out if we know we need gas, or we when we plan to go shopping for clothes etc. This will make it so we think not impulse anything. Even small unplanned expenses add up. We try to be mindful of everything we do. I am currently with our kids, and he is in sales. Besides his salary you never know exactly what each month’s commission check will be. It’s been a positive thing for us because it has taught us to be aware of what we spend.

I went to bed much too late by my normal standard, but I went to bed happy. I was excited for the new challenge we decided to do as a family. We want to set up ourselves for success and we know it requires accountability. I worry a little about having one more restriction and thing to think about, but at the same time I do well with more structure and restriction so I hope I’ll be able to rise to the challenge. I see these challenges as another form of self care. While they don’t always feel good they force growth, and they also promote long term well being.