Win $100 Visa Gift Card- Accountability & Those Dreaded New Years Resolutions

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Jimmy Dean. However the feelings and opinions expressed here are my own.

Lots of sugar, not good for me at breakfast... good thing the temptation is in Paris

This post contains probably more than you care to know about my eating habits *grin*... but keep reading you can win a $100 Visa Gift card, details at the end of the post!

Accountability.... oh what an ugly word. Especially when it's associated with those dreaded New Year's Resolutions.

You see it's easy to make a New Years Resolution in your head.

Come on you know you do it! At the beginning of each new year, you dream of changing those things about you that you think are not right. However when it comes to the "next step" you  don't dare to write it down or even *gasp* tell someone else about it.

I'm the Queen of what I call the "imaginary" New Year's Resolution.  Imaginary because it exists only in my own head.  I can't remember the last time I wrote down a New Year's resolution.  I'll spare you the list of things on my imaginary resolution list in the past...

2010 was an odd year for me, one of great accomplishments but also of a few great trials.  I feel like the year just blew by and I haven't even had time to take a breath and realize it was here, now it's almost over.

One of the things that fell by the wayside last year was me taking care of myself. Now I don't mean the "do your hair, get out of bed and get dressed" take care of yourself, that I'm fine with... I mean the "eat healthy, exercise and don't wear yourself out" take care of yourself.  I know as women we have an innate instinct to put others (mostly our families) first, but I really feel like this can be a problem sometimes. I can not tell you how many times I've stayed up too late or spent my whole day driving kids around then eaten a horribly "anti" nutritious fast food meal for dinner. Only to wake up the next morning feeling like I got hit by a truck... my "take care of everything else" first instinct having failed me.  Causing a completely unproductive day the next day due to the fact that I wore myself out the day before.

This time last year,  I was at a checkup with my Doctor- just a routine checkup, nothing wrong, and I complained to her that I just can not "get going" in the morning. It's true- I'm usually pretty much useless before noon. Her first question to me was "what are you eating for breakfast?"... Me, not being one to miss a meal, said "oh I always eat breakfast, usually cereal".  She just gave me a disapproving look and told me that I needed to drop the carbs in the morning.  "Really?" I thought to myself. You see I fancy myself a bit of a carb addict and was not prepared to hear that my little addiction might be getting in the way of going about my daily routine.  She proceeded to tell me that I really needed some protein in the morning, no sugar and very little carbs.  I was spiking my blood sugar first thing when I woke up putting myself on a downhill slide the whole rest of the day. She also explained to me that as I age I may be able to help fend off some weight gain by increasing my protein and decreasing my carbs.

So I went about trying to dump the morning cereal. But you see there is a problem, I do not make the wisest decisions at 6 am.  That bowl of cereal is just too easy to pour. Making an egg requires a pan, which requires cooking, neither of which I was in the mood to do at 6 am.  I tried eggs, protein shakes, yogurts, cream cheese, and even a spoonful of peanut butter.  None of which worked their way into my morning routine. About February, my "high protein" plan was out the window.

Then a few weeks ago BlogHer told me they were looking for some bloggers to try out a new protein based breakfast food.  At first I hesitated then I realized that this program could give me just the push (and accountability) I needed to drop my morning carb habit...


Accountability...

yes that awful word. But I "signed up".. and now here we are.

As part of my the healthy choices I'm making for the new year... I am going to KICK that cereal habit.

Jimmy Dean offered to let me try some of their new D-Lites line. Convient, yummy, and high in protein. They might be just the thing that I need.

I picked the D-lights Canadian Bacon on a Honey Wheat muffin and the Turkey Sauseage Muffin.  I tried the Canadain Bacon muffin I got the Turkey Sausage for my husband since he's also trying to eat more protein in the morning.

iPhone photo - snapped right before I ate it- you get a photo of the food- not of me at 6 AM! :)

I will admit I was a bit nervous, the whole concept of microwaving an egg sounded a little unappetizing, but I was very pleasantly surprised!  I took off the cheese before I microwaved it because I don't like cheese, but you don't have to do that. One tip I will share with you, take it out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge to defrost, I think you get a better result.

So..... the egg was NOT rubbery and the bun was soft not chewy or hard.  Honestly you could not tell it was microwaved, it tasted like I had just cooked it. I really liked it, plus it was quick and easy & I think this has got a really good chance of making it into my morning routine.

My husband also really liked the sausage muffin.  He's really short on time in the morning and liked the idea of microwaving something that he can take with him, or even just cook when he gets to work.  I think next I'll try some of the bagel varieties, my 15 yr old daughter is not a great breakfast eater but she loves bagels & sausage - maybe if it's fast she'll eat something in the morning.

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I recognized I've not done the best job taking care of myself in 2010, so for 2011 I really want to make being healthy a goal.  It's time to stop burning the candle at both ends, eating too much fast food and get back on that elliptical machine!! (oh, do we even want to talk about the dreaded exercise topic right now?)

So for 2011- My Better Choices Resolutions will be:

-Eat Protein at Breakfast

-Exercise 3x a week.  (I know that 5 is ideal, but I'm are moving up to 3x a week from zero the last 3 months). I don't even know what I can still do.. Have my legs turned to jello? This could be scary *grin*

-Vitamins every day! Including extra calcium.. and Vitamin D during the winter (yep, I think it really does help with the "blahs"..)

-Stop before I'm "burned out"... stop over committing myself, say "no" when appropriate. My kids aren't going to be little for much longer and I don't want to miss it because I was too busy doing other things.

So what about you? What are some of the "Better Choices" you are going to make next year?

Do you dare write them down?


Better yet do you dare share them here with everyone?? Cause you know.. then you'll be committed!!

Just to give you an extra little "push" Jimmy Dean is giving away a:

$100 VISA GIFT CARD!!

as part of their Jimmy Dean D-Lights "Better Breakfast, Better  you"  program

to enter:
No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment describing ONE thing you want to try to do better next year! (It doesn't have to be food or health related!!)

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) Read the official rules for alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Be Sure to read:
Official Rules

Check out the Better Breakfast, Better You round up page to see what other bloggers are saying.

Contest open December 28th 2010 - January 30th 2011