You must give...

In order to receive. You would think that since I have heard that most of my life, I would already have learned it by now. In fact, I used to know it so well that all I ever did was give...which actually turned against me, but that's a whole other story!

Being a SAHM I don't get out much. When I worked I worked with friends. Up until last quarter I had classes that I went to, which kept me in touch with people. Now I have nothing. My close friends are gone because, well we just drifted apart. Our lives are so different. I have 3 kids now, and most of my "friends" have none. I don't have anyone to talk to. I started going to MOPS, but that is only twice a month, and it's just hard for me to feel like I am connecting with anyone. It's a blast while I am there, but in the meantime I sit alone.

Even in the blogging world, I feel a little alone. I love reading other people's blogs. I love reading about the successes, failures, motivations, and lack thereof. However, I hardly ever comment. I am always afraid I will say something wrong, come off as "stalkerish" or something weird like that. I will start to comment, but then decided what I have to say just isn't worth saying. Hmmm. And then I wonder why no one comments on mine...Maybe others have the same issue, maybe I am just not writing anything interesting, maybe I just shouldn't worry about it! I am writing this for me, so I can keep track and stay motivated. I want to be able to motivate others, but that takes an extra step, right? You have to give before you can receive. So here's my little bit of giving. I want to share a handful of my go-to blogs, the one's that really inspire me to keep going.

Skinnyemmie - this particular blog post is the reason why I am not wallowing in self pity today!

80 Sticks of Butter - she always motivates me to work a little harder, and she usually can make me laugh!

Green Lite Bites - my first go-to for new recipes to try. I have loved almost everything I have ever tried from here...and so have my family!

Stephanie - she has totally inspired me to continue going even with such a small child at home

Emily - her site will be moving soon, and I will continue to follow...her posts are so inspiring!

Kendra - oh my gosh this girl cracks me up! I look forward to her posts because they are definitely never dull!

That is just a few to get me started. I am going to try and link at least one other person to my blog and explain just how they inspired me that day. Since I do read blogs daily, it will be my way of paying it forward so others can be motivated as well! Thank you to all who continue to inspire me on my journey, even if I haven't told you yet! I will make it a point to comment on those blogs that keep me going so you know how much you are helping me and my journey.

Biggest Loser 10

I am having another off day today, and I know it's because I am still sick. Plus it's a MOPS Tuesday which means I am privy to way to much yummy food and not nearly strong enough to just walk away from it yet. I did not eat as much there as I usually do, but I did indulge. Then at lunch I was just wanting sugar. I had some. Then I remembered there was a hot pocket type thing in the freezer, so heated that up. I realized it was almost 600 calories. I still decided to eat it...until I took two or three bites of it. It was disgusting. I was only eating it because, well I don't even really know why. I was exhausted. So I threw it in the trash after having only eaten a few bites. I usually eat things out of obligation. I hate wasting food. But I knew I didn't need it. I knew it was gross, not only in taste, but for my body. So in the trash it went and I took a short nap instead of eating more crap.

Note: Spoiler Alert...if you haven't seen tonights episode and don't want to know how it ends, don't read on!

Now on to the Biggest Loser. I don't know how many people watch the show. I have been watching the show for the last 3 seasons and I have to say that normally I really enjoy it. This season is really making me mad. It has gone from last season all about helping each other lose weight (which is the point of the show, right?) to this season and it's all about the game play. I am having a difficult time enjoying the show this season. I find myself yelling at the people on tv! I get so frustrated. This show used to encourage me and motivate me. Now all it does is make me mad. Is anyone finding that true this season??? I think that they need to screen the contestants better next season. They need to have people on there that actually want the help to lose weight, not to play the game the way they have. Lisa doesn't even want to be there anymore, and yet she is still there because she's not a threat. And Elizabeth? All she does is depend on everyone else to keep her there. They should have gone home. Although I must say that Bob was totally right on when he said that Aaron and Jesse had totally won it because they got it. Jesse was awesome in saying it is not the finale he looks forward to, it's the day after when he eats a healthy breakfast and goes for a jog. I need to remember that even though I am not in a "contest" it's about the every day of "getting it". I want to be the one that gets it. I want to make it stick.

Feeling good

Funny how some days you just feel really good. About almost everything.



Although this is only partly true about today as I am currently beginning to feel crappy, but that is just the cold talking. Other than fighting off this silly sore throat and stuffy nose, I feel great today! It's absolutely amazing how our bodies are created to work...you fuel it with healthy, nutritious food and it rewards you with feeling great and more energy.



Yesterday is just a bad memory. I did not let it affect my attitude today. Even when I saw another gain on the scale this morning. I could have not weighed myself, but I have learned in the past that weighing myself after a binge day and seeing a gain is actually good for me. It shows me that I really did nothing good for myself by gorging on sugar. I had a scrumptious breakfast to start my morning off and I have stayed on track all day long. I even got a 2 mile run in today. Each run is getting a little easier, a little faster, and a lot more enjoyable.

When I began running again after Sean was born, it was difficult. I still enjoyed the feeling afterwards, the endorphin rush of completing a great workout. However, I would be stiff and sore, it would be difficult to climb the stairs. Just after 2 miles, and that wasn't even running the whole time, not even half the time! Now I am running the majority of the 2 miles (I am working my way up to running the whole thing) and I am not sore after anymore. Instead I feel incredibly energized. Today I even wondered if I should have tried for 3 miles because 2 was almost too easy. Although if you had asked me while I was on the treadmill if I thought I could do it I would have laughed in your face and said Absolutely NOT!

I am feeling my body getting back to where it was last summer. Where it was fueled with good, real food and it was being worked out with strength training and running, training for a 5k and then a 10k. I knew I was still 30 or 40 pounds away from my goal weight back then, but I was learning how amazing my body was and learning to love my body as it was. Now I am 40 pounds heavier than last summer, and I am relearning this all over again. I really dislike what my body looks like, most of the time. But if I can get past what it looks like on the outside and focus on what it does for me every single day, despite what I have done to it, I am in awe. I need to remember this feeling. I need to remember that my body thanks me when I fuel it the right way. My body thanks me when I try to get it into better shape. Our bodies want to be healthy, they were created to be healthy. They were created to function properly. It is my responsibility to give it what it needs. It's the only body I will ever have, and I need to treat it better. I deserve to feel good. Even if I am not happy, yet, with the shape of my body, it is getting closer every day to it's ideal shape.

Emotional eating

Today was not a good day for me. Not only did I wake up with my daughter's cold, but everyone in our family is sick with the same cold. The girls have it the worst. Sean was up because of it last night. And I was quite miserable due to it most of the day. Add to that the stress of dealing with a hubby that would rather watch football than help with a sick 2 year old, and I was pretty stressed today. It's just so easy to lose your temper when you don't feel well, especially when the child is extremely fussy because they don't feel well. Ugh! Just a crappy day...and my eating showed this. I wanted comfort food this morning, so I started my day with cereal instead of oatmeal. Not that bad, right? Wrong...cereal is a trigger food for me. I had two rather full bowls of frosted flakes which led to cookies, which led to candy, and so on. The only good part of my day was dinner. I ate a great dinner. I made Simple Tuna Burgers and they turned out really yummy. I added cayenne pepper to it because I looove spicy food. They are definitely something I will be making again.

I did not get a run in today because of not feeling well. I am hoping that tomorrow will be better, and not worse! I am keeping my fingers crossed that I don't end up really sick tomorrow...that would really bite! So I am heading to bed extra early tonight! Well, Sean is calling for me...apparently he wasn't quite finished nursing when I put him to bed :)

Down another pound

Today has been a good day all around...I got to take a nice 2 hour nap this morning, worked out for 30 minutes, then ran almost a whole mile! It was my best run yet! I ran all but .1 of it. And that was right after working my legs out. On top of all of this, the hubby declared today that he NEEDS to lose weight. He also worked out, including raking the leaves in the backyard, and he made dinner. He is suddenly interested in healthier foods...not as much as I am, but it's a start! That made my whole day. He is about 285 pounds. Now he's not a small guy, fairly tall at 6'3", but he is definitely in need of dropping at least 50 pounds. He doesn't think he will ever get under 200, which is fine, as long as he is healthy!

Yesterday I decided that I need to do something with the sweet potatoes before they rotted on my counter. So I chopped them up with some carrots, peppers, and zucchini drizzled it with olive oil and added oregano and course sea salt. Threw it all in the oven and roasted them. They turned out AMAZING! I am not usually one for a plate full of veggies, but you best believe that dinner last night as well as lunch and dinner today included half of my plate full of those veggies! The best part is they are so filling! I don't feel like I need to eat my weight in meat to keep myself satisfied. I am not a fan of white potatoes, but they were on sale so we have a bag of them. So the hubby found a recipe for onion, apple, potato hash. I had a small helping of that with dinner tonight. The apples made it seem like I was eating sweet potatoes! Oh, and I decided that since I was going to have to use up the rest of that chocolate chip cookie dough, I needed to make cookies that I won't feel guilty about eating. So I tried Roni's Molasses Cookies and they are sooo incredibly good! I was nervous that I wouldn't like them because they wouldn't be sweet. They are the perfect amount of sweetness. Even the hubby like them, although he commented that they definitely weren't sweet. I thought they were perfect! I will definitely be making those again! Elise had a blast "helping" make the cookies.

So I am completely satisfied with my day today, even though I didn't lose the 2 pounds I had hoped for. One pound is still awesome since I am now 1 pound closer to my goal. I know that I had a few rough days this past week with the candy, so I know that this coming week will be better. The hubby and I will be working out a menu tomorrow, I will get the necessary groceries on Monday. I am currently trying to use up the tons of food we have in our pantry, so I am trying to create our menu around that. So far it has worked out really well for us. I know that Shannon actually blogged about that either yesterday or today. It can be tough to eat healthy on such a tight budget, but we are managing! Tomorrow I am also planning on at least a 2 mile run, hopefully outside! We'll see how that goes....

A 5k for Thanksgiving?

I have been in search of a Turkey Trot to do this year. It would be a first for me. Of course I cannot find one that is close. There are some in the cities, but I really don't like the cities. I am a small town girl. Or at least smallish towns. It's at least a 40 minute drive to the cities, and then there's the traffic. Eww. I hate traffic. I also don't really like large crowds. I know that races are usually large amounts of people, but the cities have HUGE crowds. There is one more local, but it's not ON Thanksgiving. It's on the 13th. Or the 18th. I found both dates for the same place.

So here's my idea. And it might be more than I can handle, but here it is anyway. I want to start my own. Does that sound crazy? Because it does to me! Obviously I won't be able to do it this year, although I still will do something this year. The hubby even agreed to do it with me! I would love to plan and organize a Turkey Trot race in my area for next year. I would love to have the proceeds of said race go to families that cannot afford a meal for Thanksgiving...or something along those lines. I would want the proceeds to go a worthy charity. I am not sure how to go about said project. Do I need to contact the city in order to get a spot to hold the race? Does anyone have any experience doing such things? I welcome any and all advice regarding starting a race! I think that there is not enough emphasis on a healthy lifestyle these days, especially during the holidays. I am excited to reach out to others and get them excited about running. Or even just walking! Am I crazy here? Or is this something that is totally doable???

Sugar is not my friend

I know this. And by know, I mean I KNOW this!

I have studied nutrition now for 3 years. Of course I do not know everything. I am constantly learning more. I love to learn! I love that I can continually better myself. Knowledge is an amazing thing! However, sometimes there is a disconnect between head knowledge and applying it to every day life. I know how to eat healthy and live healthy. Sometimes it's just harder than others!

I missed my blog post yesterday because our internet/cable was out. It was down everywhere around here. So it seems a little unfair that I will miss my goal due to unavoidable things, but that's life. Life is not fair of course. It is what it is and I will move on! Yesterday was a great day for me. I did a 20 minute weight circuit and I ran a mile. Well, I ran most of the mile :) My eating was much better yesterday, until right around dinner time. I think that I just need to eat more after I work out because by the time I was cooking dinner I was starving. Again. I hate that feeling! Because then I have an uncontrollable urge to eat. I say urge and not need because I could have stopped at the 4 baby carrots, or the two cookies, but no, I had to eat 6 cookies plus the carrots. Then I ate dinner on top of it! It's definitely not me eating out of boredom, but I tend to OVEReat when it gets like this. So I need to make sure I do not let it get that bad. I need to have healthier snacks on hand. And I need to get rid of the sugar in the house! The cookies are gone now...sort of. We have all the cookie dough still. So I think that it will be safe to make them after awhile. I need to "detox" my body. I need to get the sugar out! Once it is out, it is MUCH easier for me to avoid. The candy must go as well. I can stay away from the kids' buckets because I would feel much too guilty, but the big bowl of leftover candy from Halloween? Yeah, it's gotta go. It taunts me from it's place above the cupboards. I can see it all day long from where I sit to feed Sean, where I sit with my laptop. It's high enough up that I need a chair to reach it. I only gave in once (on Monday). Honestly it's easier to avoid because I know all the good stuff in there is gone. All that's left is stuff I don't necessarily crave. Ever. The inlaws house is another story. They have all the chocolatey good stuff. We were there today because they are leaving tomorrow. So that temptation will be gone. But not after I had my fill of Snickers, Kit Kats, and Dove dark chocolates. Ahhh well.

One of the things I have been "struggling" with lately is the quality of food versus the quantity of calories. I do know that it is possible to eat whatever foods I want, as long as I am within a certain calorie limit, and I can lose weight. Problem with this scenario is typically eating those foods in such limited amounts may lead to a binge fest later on. When you are used to eating large portions of your favorites, sometimes it's just too hard to simply scale it back. Anyway, I digress. The way I know is best is to eat healthier foods. Eating fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean meats...these are the foods I need to be consuming. And I mostly do. I typically eat a fairly well rounded, balanced diet. Right now, however, I seem to be justifying this sugar kick with, I know I need the calories because I am still nursing AND I am working out. Hmmm. This doesn't really seem smart. I know that Sean will still be getting the calories he needs. But I am supplying the best milk I can by eating things that are not as nutritious? I am not sure how it all works, but I assume that the food I eat must affect the milk he gets. And just because something is low in calories doesn't make it good for you. So here I sit, desiring to eat healthier and really struggling with all the temptation in the house at the moment. I just don't know what to do! My mom tells me to throw it all away. I might have to do that. I also don't want to take the candy away from the kids, but I don't really want them eating it all either! At this point, they are allowed one piece a day, which doesn't ruin them and doesn't deprive them either. That's a whole other blog post! I would rather give the big bowl of candy away so the hubby doesn't eat it all either (he also doesn't need it!).

What do you do with the Halloween candy that just sits in your house??? Throw it, keep it, give it away?

Oh, and my challenge stats as of yesterday (Day 12):

CE 17/55
RT 3/15
CT 6/20
PG1 11/33
PG2 7/22
PG3 11/33
WL 2.4/8

Great run today

Had a much better day today! I ended up not doing what I had expected, but it was a great day nonetheless. I didn't get to work much in the kitchen, but I got a great 2 mile run in! I ran more today than I have since the baby was born! And I probably could have kept going. I only quit because I figured I needed to shower so I could nurse Sean. However, he ended up sleeping an hour more than I thought he would! I am not disappointed though. I probably did just what I needed to do :)

I need to update my challenge numbers...I haven't been tracking my food the past 3 days (due to a hectic weekend. I do know where I am sitting in the challenge, I just need to put it together! I should have that to post on tomorrow. I plan on doing some resisitance training tomorrow as well as a run.

I made some AMAZING pork chops tonight with some apples sliced up, a little brown sugar and cinnamon. They were delish! I used some steam fresh veggies and made some stuffing (I only had a small amount of the stuffing). It was something even my oldest ate :) That doesn't happen all the time! Tomorrow night I am planning on making the Deep Dish pizza again. I also plan on making some more snack foods. I roasted some pumpkin seeds yesterday. I need to make some more pumpkin oatmeal cups and hopefully some other good healthy snacks for myself. Yay for a good day!

Feeling like crap today

And it's totally my own fault.

It has been a crazy weekend with all the Halloween plans. We took the kids to the mall for trick or treating and to get their pictures taken (my sister works at Flash!). Anyway, by the time we left I was wiped out. I knew we still had trick or treating in the neighborhood too. So we ordered pizza. I started with just 2 pieces, but went back for a third. I even said halfway through the third piece that it didn't even taste good. But of course I finished it. It's that whole, finish what's on your plate, don't waste food and therefore money by not finishing your food. So I ate it. I knew I would gain overnight just because of the salt content of pizza. I was doing well with the whole candy thing until the hubby bought 6 or 7 bags of candy for us to hand out. Of course we didn't hand it all out. So there's tons sitting right by the door. I ended up eating several pieces last night. Whatever, no big deal right? The hubby put the candy up somewhere hard for me to reach so I wouldn't be as tempted.

I also told him to take the leftover pizza with him for lunch today. He didn't. So when lunch came around and there wasn't anything "easy" to make (read quick...I was hungry!) I had the leftover pizza. Then I proceeded to have 6 cookies! Geez! I then ate a bunch of candy. I felt really sick today. I still feel really gross. So I went somewhere else for the afternoon so I wouldn't be tempted by the candy (of course they had candy sitting out at their house too!). I didn't have time to make dinner, so the hubby stopped at Jimmy John's so I got an un-which. It was AWESOME! I need to remember how much better I feel when I good food. Real food. I know that I feel so gross when I eat the junk food. It just is hard to remember that when I am trying to figure out what to eat. Convenience just ends up winning!

But I did stock up on some healthy stuff from the grocery store. I bought lots of pumpkin so I can try out some new recipes. Tonight I will do better. No more food. Just lots and lots of water. Tomorrow is a new day. I have the ability to change the course of my day with every new decision I face. I am choosing not to workout tonight because I feel so awful. I will get a workout in tomorrow (the hubby doesn't work for the next two days). Don't forget to vote!!

Down 2.4

I was very excited to see a 2.4 loss on the scale this morning. I am very happy to report that I kept up my momentum today as well. I did a quick resistance training workout and then I ran a mile. I felt amazing. My arms are a little sore right now though :) My eating was great until dinner. I was so hungry. I know better! But I had my yummy soup, and then ate 4 fish sticks. Which wasn't so bad. But Neika had a fundraiser that I bought cookie dough from. I promised her we would make cookies. I have had 5. Now they aren't very big, but 5 is a lot more than I have had in over a week. And way more than I needed.

I am tired tonight, so this is about as much thought as I can put into a blog tonight. Sorry! I should be back to my chipper self tomorrow :)

Running makes me...

Feel like I can do anything! I absolutely love the feeling I get after a run.

Now, right now I can't even run a whole mile at a time. I am still doing intervals at this point. Since I rested my knee it has been doing SO much better. It doesn't hurt at all anymore. So I thought I would give it a try today. I popped in a DVD I hadn't seen before and warmed up for a about .25 of a mile. Then I covered the display on the treadmill with a towel and I ran. It's actually the only way I can run on the treadmill. Being able to see the time tick by drives me nuts and makes the time move slower. Having the movie on definitely helped me in being able to run for longer periods of time as I was distracted. I did 2 miles in 31 minutes. I know it's not where I was last year, but you know what??? It's better than I was doing two months ago! And I feel great! I am definitely making progress. I love love love how I feel when I run. A great workout always makes me feel better about myself. Not only do I feel great just because I ran, but I begin to remember all the reasons to love myself as I am right now.

Sometimes I get so hung up on who/what I want to be that I forget that I am still going to be the same me. I have a hard time receiving a compliment right now because I honestly don't believe them (when they are talking about my physical appearance). I get caught up on the fact that I am not where I want to be yet. But I need to remember that I am not going to get where I want to be without accepting where I am right now. I am slowly learning to love myself where I am at right now. This is really tough for me. I decided a month or so ago that whenever my husband complimented me that I needed to just say thank you. Instead of my usual eye roll, whatever you say attitude that I had before. It's taking time to adjust, but it makes a big difference for me. I need to believe him that he thinks I am beautiful. I do believe him. I just don't think it about myself yet.

So incredibly tired

I feel like I am dead on my feet right now. I could blame it on the fact that I have 10 week old baby...

But he sleeps through the night most of the time. I could blame it on insomnia...

Except I am sleeping so soundly lately that I sleep through the alarm clock. I could blame it on just lack of sleep...

Except I get a good solid 6 hours most nights. Well, maybe it's just not enough for me. I could try to go to bed earlier, but then there goes any time during the day that I can spend doing what I want to do or spending time with they hubby. Typically I am in bed by 11 and up between 5-7 for a baby feeding. I get up around 7 for good in order to get Neika to the bus stop on time.

I have no energy to workout, no time to take a nap. Today I had every intention of working out. It just never happened. I did however, manage to make 3 different new dishes today. I have a TON of dried beans, peas, and lentils in my pantry. Yesterday I soaked and cooked a pound of white beans, today I put them into 2 different recipes. One was really good, Pasta Fagioli, and the other one had no flavor at all. I will need to play around with it to get it to be edible. It's a good recipe base, I just need to add something...still trying to figure out how to spin it into something I will really enjoy. The third one I am trying is a white chicken chili. If it ends up good I can post the recipe for it. But it won't be done until tomorrow. Gotta love crock pot recipes!

So for being extremely tired today I did manage to accomplish a lot. This was due to the help of my mother in law as she watched the little ones for me during parts of the process. It was also the only thing keeping me awake! If I sat down I felt like I would start to doze. I knew I couldn't fall asleep with a 10 week old and a 2 year old running around the house (the 2 year old was running, not the 10 week old...he just kind of laid there, just wanted to clarify this!) So I feel like I didn't accomplish anything because I didn't actually do what I set out to do. What I need to do is focus on the fact that I have 3 very nutritious meals that I can feed my family ready to go. I have been really working on making food to freeze and I am doing fairly well with this task. I am learning to really love working in the kitchen and trying out new recipes. I think I have tried something new every day this week! It's been a blast! Now if I could just get enough energy to actually workout...

Quick update tonight

I was dreading doing a blog tonight...not because I had a bad day, but because I am so freaking exhausted! But blogging daily is one of my challenge goals. Then I realized that not every post needs to be forever long. So I will try to make this short and sweet since once I start typing I tend to get carried away :)

Today went well, it was just incredibly long. It started of with snow. Great. I really don't like cold weather. Not sure why I live in Minnesota! Anyway, food was great today. We went to my parents for dinner before church and my mom made spaghetti. Since she is gluten free I ended up choosing her brown rice noodles over the regular white pasta. Great choice! They were awesome! I might try to use that instead of whole wheat pasta (which I only use because I know it's better for me). I have always preferred regular angel hair pasta over anything else, but these were incredible! I had a nice portion and one slice of bread. Bad part was that I added crushed red pepper. I added a little too much of it...ended up with another piece of bread and a glass of 2% milk since that's all they had. I only poured myself about half a glass though. I felt really full after dinner. I think it was due to the extra piece of bread.

Had to take a rest day for workout today since I literally had no time. And I am going to head to bed shortly since I keep having to retype words here...I keep messing up because my eyes are crossing trying to see the computer screen! Good night and I hope everyone had a great day today!

Another successful day

I am proud to say that today was another successful day. Especially since it started out really rocky.

Sean was up in the middle of the night, which of course meant that I was up for awhile. So when the hubby's alarm clock went of this morning apparently I never heard it. At least not until the fourth or fifth time it went off! This mean we were about 20 minutes behind schedule on a day that I can't afford to be behind schedule. It's the one day a week that after the bus stop, I actually have plans for me. I get to go to MOPS a (Mother's of Preschoolers) and meet with other mom's. Seeing that I don't have a single friend right now (other than my mom or my sister) being able to make on this particular morning is important to me. It's pretty much the only social opportunity I have right now. Anyway, the mom's always provide breakfast foods. The spread ranges from egg bakes, hashbrown cheesy potatoes, fresh fruit and veggies, homebaked goods, and other things that are not really on my "plan". Usually I eat before I go so I won't eat there...or at least much. This morning sleeping in too late meant that I missed breakfast. I HATE missing breakfast! I went in knowing I would be starving. I also knew that I could make the right choices if I really wanted to. So I had very small portions of the things that might not be that great for me. I took a variety of foods. But even when I was still hungry I did not take anymore.

I know that it was a horrible breakfast for me because I was starving by the time I got home for lunch, and even my nutritious leftovers from last nights AMAZING dinner didn't fill me up! So with my new found knowledge of nutrition and how my body reacts to food, I decided not to eat anything extra. I put my energy into making different nutritious snacks in the kitchen. I tried making Roni's Pumpkin Oatmeal Cups which turned out really nummy. I will definitely be making them again. The 2 year old ate 2 of them and kept asking for more all day long! I also baked some chick peas for a nice little salty snack.

After picking my oldest up from the bus stop, I came home and made a really scrumptious dinner. Chicken (I try out a new chicken recipe almost every time!) which turned out really good, brown rice, peas, and a salad with mandarin oranges. I normally don't blog about my food, but when it's really good, I usually like to share!

The weather today has been absolutely horrible, so that nixed doing anything outside with the kiddos. I also didn't know when I would get a workout in since it's Tuesday, which mean's Biggest Loser and Parenthood. This is the only night that I plan to sit and watch tv. But I fed Sean at 7, and as soon as he was done, I changed into workout clothes and hopped on the treadmill. I brought my workout clothes down with me so I didn't have the excuse of not wanting to go upstairs for them. I did a little over 20 minutes because I wanted to be able to join the #fitblog chat tonight. I managed to run for about 3 minutes of it. I didn't want to overdo it since my knee had been hurting. I feel like I did all right!

I am very proud of myself for making today be great even though I normally would have decided today would be a throw away day just because I missed breakfast! I really enjoyed my day. So Day 4 is done! And I am loving it!! :)

And the mystery is SOLVED!!

So in all our efforts to locate my shoe (i.e., tearing apart the basement) we never thought to turn the treadmill on. I had orignally left my running shoes on the treadmill. The girls had set up a "tent" using the treadmill as part of it (I told them not to, but they did it anyway). My daughter's friend, who is 6, was walking on the treadmill without it being on, just using her body weight to make the belt move. Somehow my shoe got stuck underneath the belt and went into the front of the treadmill! I turned it on to walk for my warm up tonight and heard a kathunk from under the treadmill and it slowed down. I turned it off and looked underneath...lo and behold there was my shoe! I almost cried I was so excited!

So I decided to do the EA Active...thankfully because had I done the Shred I never would have turned the treadmill on! I am feeling pretty awesome tonight! Oh, and I did discover tonight what has been hurting my knee...the kick ups. When they have you do fast kick ups it puts extra strain on my knee. So I will have to do something else instead of those and maybe I will get back to running next week! EEEK!! I am super pumped!!!

Day 3 and still going strong

Typically when I participate in a challenge it is around the 3rd or 4th day that things usually start to go downhill for me. I am determined to change that with this challenge!

Several of my goals have been quite easy to keep on track with. And some of them are a little more difficult just because I seem to have a hard time finding time in my day to workout. It was icky and cold out today, so no walk with the little ones. I need to find some sort of activity to do during the morning with the two small ones. Something indoors where I don't have to spend a lot (or any!) money. So I am still working on that.

Today went really smooth to start with. Things always seem to fall apart once I pick my oldest up from the bus stop. It's always a difficult process to make dinner. The 2 year old insists on helping me in kitchen...helping is not necessarily the right word for what she does! Anyway, tonight was no exception. I made Deep Dish Crescent Pizza Casserole that Roni spoke so highly of. I subbed tomatoes for the mushrooms and I used turkey sausage. It was to die for! Oh I loved it! I don't usually like zucchini...ok, so I pretty much hate it. Except zucchini bread, but that's a whole other topic. Anyway, it turned out so yummy! The only person that didn't like it was the 2 year old, but she was really tired and when she gets tired she doesn't eat anything. Neika even liked it! Mine ended up browner on top, but it was delish. It will definitely go on my list of recipes to rotate through! I am loving all the new, healthy recipes I am getting from fellow bloggers and tweeties.

I plan on working out tonight...possibly the 30 day shred once Sean is in bed. Either that or the EA Active. The shoe is still missing so I have to make due with the ones that are too big.

Oh, and TOM has definitely arrived...trumpets blaring and banners waving arrived. Bummer. I guess it's not all that bad, but when it's been gone for 11 months it kinda sucks when it comes back! So I assume that the uptick this morning had to do with that. My size "16" jeans (which are actually 18) from Old Navy wouldn't stay up even with a belt. I was getting so annoyed with them. My mom and sister are both losing weight, they are about 10 pounds ahead of me (their in the 180s already, and both are taller than me). So my mom gave me 2 pairs of jeans. A real size 16 and a size 14. The 16 are perfect and the 14's are only a little snug.

Well, I'm off to go workout...maybe I can get it in before I Sean goes to bed which will give me more time to knit later! I updated yesterdays numbers in my Challenge tab for the 33 Day Challenge.

The day is not over til it's over

I had a rough day. So to speak. It wasn't rough as far as the challenge goes. Not really. The hubby got on my every last nerve since last night. I hate that!

So last night I did manage to get about an hours worth of knitting done. I am hoping that with my goal to do it every day I might manage to actually finish this blanket. When I do I will post a pic so I can share it with everyone! Anyway, the hubby was on his computer until 2 am! So this meant that I didn't get any extra rest this morning, he needed it. He got it yesterday too. Typically we take turns on the weekend...one day he sleeps in, one day I sleep in. This time I didn't get any extra sleep at all! I was a little annoyed. But that wasn't the kicker...the kicker was when he got up and got right back on his computer! Now, we have a 2 year old and a 2 month old...you'd think he would do something to help! Ugh! However, I did not let my annoyance with him overflow into my eating. I ate really well all day today. I might have one more little snack this evening still, but I doubt it. The later it gets, the less likely I am to eat because I don't like eating too close to bedtime. The only thing that ended up being affected today was my workout. I was going to go to my mom's for a walk, but we ended up not walking. The 2 month old has had a tummy ache this afternoon/evening and I didn't get to do anything except try to comfort a screaming baby. He is finally sleeping in his swing at the moment, but I don't expect that to last very long!

So all in all, the day wasn't lost. Healthy eating always makes me feel better! And I still have time to do some sort of workout, but I think I will take a day off and try again tomorrow. It's no big deal, yet. However, the day isn't done! There are still hours left for me to accomplish at least 2 more things! I plan on knitting for 30 minutes while watching a movie, maybe I will walk for 30 minutes first...

I was at my mom's for dinner tonight since the hubby is at BWW for the Viking/Packer game. She made tilapia and rice. Yummy! I was going to make chicken and rice, so this was right up my alley for the evening. The only thing that would have made it better is if it were brown rice instead of white rice. Oh well. It was still good.

I was amazed to see an almost 2 pound difference between today and yesterday on the scale, but it was definitely in the right direction! I only post my official weight on Saturday's, so I will just see if we can make it lower by then! For the 33 Day Challenge I will record my weight daily, but I will only record pounds lost on Saturdays.

Day 1 of 33 numbers:
CE 2/55
RT 0/15
CT 1/20
WL 0/8
PG1 1/33
PG2 1/22
PG3 1/33

Day 1 of Challenge

The mystery of the Disappearing Shoe saga continues today. Still is nowhere to be found! So this morning involved going to the in-laws house (where we used to live) to find an old pair of gym shoes. I found 2 pairs...a 7.5 and an 8.5...guess what size I am??? Yeah, that would be an 8. Go figure. So I went with the pair that was too big and tied them super tight. It worked out ok for what I needed them for today.

So this morning I was very excited to report a 195.4 on the scale. Especially with TOM around, this number is still trending in the right direction. I haven't seen anything lower than that for way too long! I am really excited to be farther away from the 200s these days. I can't wait until I just never see that number again (sometimes it pops up after a bad few days of extra sodium). Anyway, I woke up super pumped to do this challenge. There is just something about doing a challenge with other people that keeps me more motivated. Yesterday I posted my goals for the Healthier Me in 33 challenge. Today I managed to convince the hubby that we really needed to get out of the house. Our 2 year old is too in love with the television these days, so I really wanted to do something out of the house. So we loaded the kids up (just the younger 2 today) and headed to the inlaws (because I HAD to have shoes!). By their house is a great path beside the lake and a great park, so we took the long way around to get to the park. All in all I walked about an hour. And at a good pace, not some liesurely walk. And there were hills. Several of them. I was pushing the stroller. I felt like I got a great workout in with that walk. I wish I could run, but the doc recommended not yet, so walking it is! I will begin running again once my knees don't hurt. So I count this as one of my cardio goals. :)

Food was pretty good today. I did have 2 healthy eats, breakfast and dinner. I am not too sure about lunch as it was provided my mother in law. She made turkey chili and I had about a cup and a half. It was pretty yummy. I ended up having too much cheese during that meal, making my calories pretty high for lunch, but I still think I did pretty well! We also had my grandpa's 80th birthday and their 60th wedding anniversary party to go to. I had one very small piece of cake there. Nothing overboard. So I am feeling pretty good about myself! As soon as I am done here, I am off to work on my knitting project :) I am almost done with this blanket that I have been working on for about 6 months now. I can't wait to finish it and start working on the one for my little man!

Goals for new challenge

Ok, so I thought about some different goals for Samantha's 33 Day Challenge and I came up with one's that I think are doable for me. I may have to invest in a new pair of shoes since one of my $130 pair of Nike shoes has mysteriously disappeared. The hubby and I are completely dumbfounded about this. We have completely torn apart the basement trying to find it. Grrr. I am sooo frustrated about this! But I will not let this keep me from meeting my goals. I will see if I can find my old gym shoes to use...I don't even know if they will fit! They are still over at the old house...

Anyway! Here are the goals that I have set for the next 33 days :)

Clean Eats 0/55/66
Resistance Training 0/15
Cardio Training 0/20
Weight Loss 0/8
Personal Goal 1 Knitting at least 30 minutes a day 0/33
Personal Goal 2 Do one active thing with the kids during the week 0/22
Personal Goal 3 Blog daily 0/33

Now knowing how I feel about challenges I am going to focus and give it my all. I know that there a few other amazing women participating in this challenge as well which should make it more motivating! I look forward to tweeting my progress daily and blogging my successes. Here's to a great 33 days!!!

I wonder no longer :)

So I did eventually figure out why I was a bottomless pit yesterday!

There is good news and bad news...but mostly good news.

So the bad news is that having the Mirena placed triggered my "time of the month" (TOM). This is bad news because I am nursing and I was REALLY hoping it would stay away for 6 months like it did last time. Oh well. It's not horrible, it's just not great. Good news is that TOM explains why I was starving all day yesterday! It totally makes sense. I had cramps this morning but the other good news is because of the Mirena, TOM is really, really, really light. Like I almost didn't even notice light. I can totally handle this! More good news: the scale showed almost a 3 pound difference since yesterday morning. Which means all the weight I thought I gained was indeed water weight. Awesome! I feel so much better about all this! In the bad news department....I still can't find my other shoe!! Geez!

However, I did go for a short, liesurely walk with the kids. It wasn't much, but at least it was something! I did enjoy being outside. I will try and take them out tomorrow in the new double stroller. I also heard about a 33 Day Challenge that I am absolutely looking forward to! I need to write out some goals for myself and I will post them later tonight. I am really excited to be part of this challenge! I know, I know, I usually hate challenges. I still hate them. This one I willing to go for. Not sure what makes this one different. I do know that I am going to give it all I've got and if I stumble one day then I will move on and try harder the next day. I just really need to find my shoe! Either that or find a yoga DVD to do so I don't need shoes :)

I wonder...

Two weeks ago I was feeling absolutely satisfied with my food choices. I wasn't hungry after eating a meal, and I didn't feel the need to go back for seconds.

This week it doesn't seem to matter how much I eat. I feel like a bottomless pit.

The difference?? Well on Monday I had the Mirena put in. I know that one of the "side effects" can be weight gain. I happen to disagree with this. Weight gain shouldn't be a side effect unless it makes you gain water weight which is completely out of your control. I think it should be "causes excessive hunger". That makes more sense to me. This means that even though it makes me feel hungry, I have to ability to keep myself from eating myself silly. It doesn't make it any easier to do though.

So today I lost the fight with the ice cream. It's gone now, so the temptation is gone. I had a great breakfast, a great lunch, but then I was starving all day. I had a small piece of cake after lunch. I have actually been chewing Extra gum in order to keep myself from munching all afternoon! I know that I am eating enough, so I am not worried about that. I just don't want to overeat. I don't like not being satisfied. I wonder if that internal switch that says "STOP! You're full!" will come back once I become used to the hormones. Or maybe it will just be a constant struggle to lose weight with the IUD. Either way, it's much better than me being sick all the time and feeling like I'm losing it like when I am on the pill. So I will continue to log my food (I stopped since last Thursday...oops!) for the rest of the week and see if things get better. Knowledge is half the battle, and if I KNOW that I am extra hungry due to hormones, I can try and do things to distract myself.

I also tried to go for a walk today. This ended up being impossible as one of my running shoes has disappeared. It's gone. No clue where to find it. I keep them on the treadmill since that's the only time I use them is for a workout. And I could only find one. They were there on Saturday. I was really really frustrated as I do not own another pair of shoes suitable for walking or running. So the hunt continues...

Rough weekend

It all started Friday night...

I had been cleaning all day. Lost track of time and went way too long without eating. Realized I was starving (so was Elise, she was waaay crabby!). The hubby was calling, on his way home from work. I was in no frame of mind to cook. Period. So we ordered pizza. First of all, waiting that long to eat is a bad idea because it takes too long for my body to register there is food in it, so I tend to overeat. Second, having pizza to fill that very empty tummy is bad news! I of course overate. Plus, with all the sodium in pizza I showed a huge gain overnight. Now I KNOW it was just the sodium, but it didn't make me feel any better about myself.

So Saturday was the birthday party for my girls. I made sure the hubby bought a veggie tray and fruit tray along with other snacks so there would be something healthy to eat. Ummm, yeah. Didn't even touch the veggies! I had some fruit, but the chex mix was awesome :( So I ate that. I also had two pieces of cake...that's what happens when there are two cakes to choose from. You just have a piece of each! I was so sick to my stomach Saturday night. You would think I had learned my lesson. But oh no...of course not. I had leftover cake on Sunday along with a couple scoops of ice cream. My eating has seriously taken a nose dive. So far today I am doing well, the only thing off track that I have had is a handful of candy corn. But I will write it down and be accountable for it.

I also haven't been working out. Now at least there is a semi-sort of good excuse for thise one. Friday was my rest day, so I cleaned all day. The last week or so, my right knee has been bothering me. A lot. And I am not wanting to risk injuring it. So I took Saturday and Sunday off. I asked my doc about it on Monday since I was already there for something else. He thinks it's me starting with too much too fast at a a weight my body just isn't used to. Ok, I can understand that. But I am only about 10-15 pounds heavier now than the last time I starting working out and running...so I am not sure what to think about that. He told me that I need to start with just walking. Bleh. Walking can get boring for me. Unless it's outside. So I didn't do anything Monday or Tuesday. So far I haven't done anything today yet either. I am a little depressed that I can't run...I know it doesn't mean I should do nothing. But it is hard for me to be motivated right now. The scale showed a 4 pound gain since Friday. Now I don't know how much of it is water weight and how much is real weight, but it sucks. I don't want to be this way anymore! And I am really just struggling right now.

Got it done early today

Well I managed to sneak in my workout during the naps today. I did EA Active and a 2 mile run. I almost didn't get to do the run and then it kept getting interrupted for potty breaks (the 2 year old had to go potty, twice). But I got it done. And I feel great! I ran more today than I have before...I think. Out of the 2 miles I ran 1.2 miles of it. In intervals of course. I still can't do more than half a mile at a time for running. But I am getting better. I was able to run a little faster today.

Eating has been great so far. I plan on having my stuffed pepper leftovers f0r dinner tonight while the hubby has the leftover pork sandwhiches. Both sound really yummy right now. I am always really hungry after a workout, but I never know what to eat! I know I need proteins and sugars, but I am not sure what the best thing is. I usually end up eating several small things before I feel even remotely satisfied. Like today I had 2 hard boiled eggs, a cup of fruit, and string cheese. This a great snack for me. But after a run it just doesn't cut it. What do others eat after a great workout??

A good day

Today I did well.

I ate healthily all day long, whith one bite of cake top from my mom's house as I walked out the door. I didn't take any the whole time I was there, so I had one tiny bite while I was leaving. My mom decorates cakes so there is always cake tops that she just throws away...and they are my favorite part! So it was awesome that I was able to walk past them and not have a bowl full! I am sure it sounds odd, but it is what it is. Anyway, I tried a new recipe for dinner tonight. The total calorie count was 620 for these stuffed peppers, but they would have been less if I had ground turkey instead of ground beef and if I had used 6 peppers instead of 4. But they were really yummy! I took a picture and was going to post it, but it didn't turn out as well I had wanted. It definitely doesn't do it justice. I am just starting to photo document some of my foods, which is kind of fun. I kept forgetting to do it until after I ate half of it. I also seem to not get a good angle and the food looks really gross in the pictures. I took the time to hard boil eggs today so that I would have another option for a snack. Today I had 2 with a cup of fruit. It was a perfect amount. I ended up staying under my calorie goal today, which seems to be a good goal for me with nursing. I am still losing weight (slowly) and my milk doesn't seem to be affected. I think I have my goal between 2200-2400, so I think I will cut it to 2000-2200 and see how that goes. It's weird to eat so much and yet still be losing! I love it! Except the days where I have a hard time eating enough...and it does happen.

I did manage to get an EA Active workout in. I missed yesterday so I did yesterdays workout today. So I believe that puts me at Day 5 today. It was tough, not gonna lie. I had to do squat jumps and lunge jumps...my thighs were burning! It's a great feeling :) Nothing beats a great workout! Oh, I just realized I didn't stretch...I should probably go do that right now! (I just finished my workout). Hope everyone had a great Wednesday!

A learning process

I did not respect my body today.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Will it affect me negatively going forward? No.

I did not respect my body today by putting food in it that wasn't needed to fuel my body. No, I ate food that tasted good but that my body doesn't need. It doesn't deserve to be treated like this anymore. I deserve to be healthy. I deserve to fuel my body with nutritous, whole foods. I deserve to have a fit body. My deserves to be worked out in order to keep it in working shape. I ended up skipping my workout so I could watch the Biggest Loser. Afterwards I did realize that this might have been a good decision as my knees are bother me a bit, so the day of rest might not have been awful.

This morning I ate breakfast on my way to my MOPS meeting. I brought fresh fruit since it was my tables turn to bring food. I figured if I ate breakfast I would be less tempted to eat all the other goodies there. While at the store I found these little yummy two bite caramel toffee scones. Mmmm. I should have left them there! I ended up eating a huge plateful of food anyway. And then when the container of scones was almost completely full I had to bring it home with me. I am pretty sure I ate 3/4 of that container. Maybe a little less, but not by much. I also ate a huge salad at my mom's house. I also ate dinner because I knew skipping a meal is just as disrespectful to my body as cramming it full of crap.

I refuse to say today was failure. Why? Because with every mistake made, knowledge is gained. I am learning what it is to respect my body. I am working on chaging my thinking about what I "deserve". I deserve health. This is a hard way to think when you are taught to think that sweets and desserts are "treats" or rewards for when you are good. Why should I reward myself with something that will eventually harm me?? How did we all come to think that we deserve to treat ourselves like crap? I am tired of feeling sluggish and tired. I love the energy I feel after a great workout and eating well. So no, today was not a failure. It was a learning opportunity and I will continue on tomorrow as I usually would. I will have my reallly yummy nutritious breakfast and I will workout, and I will run. I will feel great! I will because that is what I deserve :)

Quick post tonight...

This will probably be quick post tonight since I am exhausted and the little man is not settling down, may have to go nurse him some more.

Today I managed to get Day 4 of the EA Active 30 Day Challenge done. It was focused on upper body, and I definitey felt it! Then I did manage to get a 3 mile run/walk done! I thought about quitting at 2 miles but I really wanted to get to the 3 miles. I started out by running .5 then walked .25 then run .25. It worked for a bit, but then I ended up walking .5 because I was just too tired to run much more! I think it will be easier to do the long runs on days I do not do the EA Active. Tomorrow is EA Active Day 5 and a rest day for running.

Eating went really well today. Breakfast was my usual, which I have been LOVING! It's so simple, and yet so good! Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas. I was very impressed with myself at lunch today. The hubby made a pizza and I made myself a wrap. He asked if I was going to eat pizza. I said yes, but I only wanted to eat one or two slices and if I didn't eat something healthier first I would eat at least half the pizza! So I ate my wrap, and I ate 2 pieces of pizza and I did NOT go back for more! The time it really tempted was after my workout. I had a banana and some string cheese but was still starving. And there were two more pieces of that pizza left. It would have been so easy. It wouldn't take any preparation. But I resisted and had strawberries and yogurt. Much better! My biggest thing right now is remembering to fuel my body with what it needs, not with what I think I might want.

My mom sent me home with some fresh grown peppers, so I am going to have fun working those into some recipes. I am becoming quite skilled at getting my girls to eat them without them knowing it by hiding them in the meat of food. I know they lose some of their nutritional value by being cooked, but at least they are getting some more veggies!

So all in all it was a pretty good day, and now I am beat. I guess this was little longer than I thought, but now I am headed to bed. The little man has settled down, so I am off the hook and go to sleep myself. Good night!

My rest day

So like I said yesterday, today is my rest day. Which ended up being a good thing because I really don't have any idea where I would have fit it in!

We had such big plans for my daughters' birthday today. However, most of it didn't turn out quite how we wanted. Naps were needed sooner, lines were longer than we thought, and we just plain ran out of time. Regardless, the day was still a success for the girls. They both had a blast! My eating was less than great because of it all, but I made better choices than I usually would have. We ended up at Dairy Queen for lunch when we found out the wait at the restaurant was and hour and a half! I ordered a bbq sandwhich and when they asked if I wanted the combo I hesitated, but said no. The hubby got me a glass of water (I love that he is totally getting this!). I did eat some of his fries and about half of his cheese curds, but it was better than eating a whole order myself. We did get dessert, of course. But when he asked if I wanted a medium blizzard I said no, just a small. I was so glad he asked me! Earlier today he offered me a strawberry and a mudball, and I declined on both because I just wasn't hungry. I feel like I am listening to my body more than I did just a week ago. Tonight after dinner (which was bbq...go figure!) I realized that I was still feeling hungry. Usually I give myself about 20-30 minutes for food to settle before I would eat anything more. I felt hungry, but when I drank some water it totally did the trick. So I must be slightly dehydrated for the sodium in my food. Dinner consisted of pork sandwhiches with bbq sauce and potato chips. Definitely not something I would normally have, but it was yummy.

Tomorrow is Day 4 of the 30 Day Challenge. I am scheduled to do a 4 mile run/walk, but I think I will try for 3 since I didn't quite manage it yesterday. The hubby has the day off tomorrow, so I know I will have the chance to get the whole workout in without feeling rushed too much.

Oh, and yesterday was my weigh in day. I weighed in at 197.6, which I expected after the sodium the day before. This morning I weighed in at 195.4 which I am much happier with! I will still take the 197 as my official weight and we will see what is like after a full week of being dedicated :) I am so enjoying how much extra energy I have now that I am working out again!

Day 2 done :)

Well I managed to get it done. It took a while, and I thought it might not happen. But I did it.

I completed Day 2 of the EA Active 30 Day Challenge. On moderate intensity. I then attempted my 3 miles. I made it 2.15 miles. I walked half and ran half. Okay, I jogged half. I just didn't think I could do 3 miles. No, that's not true. I KNOW I could have gone 3 miles. But I knew I was in a time crunch and had to shower before I could feed the little man again. So I stopped. I don't regret this decision at all. I did what I knew I was capable of doing. I haven't really worked out in over 10 months. I have to cut my body some slack or I will burn out buy next week! So I did Day 2 and did 2 miles. And I feel AWESOME! My eating has been fairly good today. If anything, I haven't eaten enough. So I should probably have some post workout protein here! Tomorrow is my rest day for both EA Active and running. Plus it's both of my daughter's birthdays tomorrow. My oldest turns 7 and my youngest turns 2! So we have a pretty busy day booked for tomorrow. If it's nice we are going to test out the new double jogging stroller I bought today! Of course I won't actually be jogging since it's my day off, but we'll see how it works with both the 2 year old and the 7 week old in it :) I hope everyone is having a spectacular Saturday!

To workout or to not workout?

That is the question! At least it is for me this morning. The little man woke up at 6:15 which means that right now I am wide awake after getting 7 hours of sleep! Yay! I feel awesome this morning and I was able to resist going back to bed. So far. But here's the deal...I know that I work out better later during the day. I learned this about myself before I got pregnant. I learned that I had much more stamina if I worked out any time after lunch. I know this is because I have fueled my body all day long and therefore I am not working out on just having eaten after a night of sleep. Something about working out in the morning causes me to burn out much quicker. However, there is no guarantee that I will be able to do it later. I can absolutely plan for it to happen, but plans change. Especially with a 7 week old baby and a 2 year old in the house! I know that the hubby has to do dock out this morning and this evening he has to make phone calls. So that leaves the afternoon, which should work out for me. I just hate to put it off because I KNOW I have the opportunity now (well sort of...little man is still making all sorts of noises in his crib). I just know that I will not be able to workout with the intensity I would like to. Plus I am doing EA Active as well as a run...I need to have energy to be able to finish both!

Ok, that being said, I think I will wait. My parents are delivering a couch (YAY!) to my house at 9 am. I can see if my mom will stay and watch the kids then. Otherwise I WILL do it during Elise's nap. The hubby should be home by then and I will have the time to do it. I am looking forward to it! I am not feeling sore at all this morning, so that is good. I am feeling awesome! Since I am now going to workout later, I can either go back to bed for a little while, or I can get some stuff done around the house....hmmm. I think bed sounds nice :) But I am working on a little blanket that is sooo close to being done....

I learned something about myself today...

I don't like challenges. For whatever reason I hit a roadblock when I am in a challenge. Maybe it's the word itself. "Challenge". Like it's something that I really can't complete. I know this is untrue because I have accomplished so many things! A challenge is there to improve yourself from where you are now, to continually better yourself. It is meant to challenge where you are physically or mentally to get you into a better place. I typically am in school, I took the quarter off due to the baby. I mentally challenge myself constantly, and I enjoy it. Yet when it comes to weight loss, diet, or exercise I hit a wall when I am challenged....I am still trying to figure out a solution to this one. Last time around it worked for me to take it day by day, but it also was very easy to get off track. So for right now, it is one day at a time....

Today was an EA Active day. I restarted the 30 Day Challenge (there's that word again!). I had only done 2 days of it before on easy intensity. So this evening I revved it up to moderate intensity, and I know I will be feeling it in the morning! However I feel absolutely amazing right now. I always feel great after a good workout. I feel like I can conquer anything. Eating was a little less than stellar today, but it wasn't horrible. I wrote down everything I ate, but didn't get the calorie counts for everything so I'm not even sure where I am at with that. And tomorrow is my weigh day...go figure. But all is well, I know that I have been trending downward so even if there is an uptick tomorrow, I know it would be from all the sodium I ingested today. I have been downing the water like crazy too. And tomorrow is a new day! I can say that now because today is almost over :) My husband offered me a mudball (one of my mom's really yummy oreo truffles) after my workout. Normally these are hard for me to resist. I could eat the whole box in one day. I was able to turn him down. He teased me because I just worked out. In all honesty, I just wasn't hungry! I told him I had eaten what I needed for the day and didn't want/need anything else. I was really surprised at how true the statement was. I didn't want it. It didn't even sound good. I was very proud of myself to listening to my body instead of mindlessly eating something I know to be quite scrumptious but totally not good for me!

Tomorrow is Day 2 of the EA Active 30 Day Challenge. I am also scheduled to do a 3 mile run/walk. I look forward to a really good workout tomorrow!

FINALLY!!

I know I have posted something just about every 4 hours or so, but I had to say I finally got my run in!!! It took some doing since my mom is sick and couldn't come help with the kids. I thought I wasn't going to be able to get it in since Sean was being fussy, but I laid him in the crib and let him cry for a few minutes and before long he was sound asleep! So I was able to get my run in after all. I only went 2 miles, but then it's been like 10 months since I ran last. I tried using Week 4 for the C25k, but found it quite difficult (I was going to do week 3 but I couldn't find it on my iPod). So I just alternated my running and walking as I felt necessary. I feel good. I am looking forward to getting back up to funning several miles at once, but I know it will take some time to get my stamina back. I would share my run with you, but I can't figure out how to do it anymore! The site has changed some since I was last on it :)

Now tomorrow will be an EA Active day.

Can't get up in the morning...

I need a new plan. I need to make time for my workouts during the day, but I don't know where they should be. I usually feed Sean between 5 and 5:30 in the morning. I contemplated just staying up and working out then. However, last night he decided to get up at 2 am as well. My bed just called my name! I am planning on running during Elise's nap, if Sean also takes a nap. Otherwise I may call my mom to come over to watch him so I can get it in. I NEED a plan of action, something that I can stick to everyday. I don't know how to get there. Mornings are just sooo hard! I always seem to talk myself out of it. My goal is today is to restart the C25k. Not sure where to start though. I am sure that week 1 will be too easy. And possibly even week 2. So I may try week 3 just to see where I am at and go from there.

Yesterday I wrote down everything I ate. I wrote down the calories of all the stuff I knew the calories of. The only thing I didn't know was the fruit I had. I didn't eat well all day, but I tracked it. I owned it. The scale showed down 1 lb since yesterday, which is always encouraging. So far today my eating has been stellar. I am planning a low calorie meal for dinner, I already know what I will eat for lunch...it's in between there that's the hardest! I need to get more fresh fruits and veggies today so I have healthier food to munch on. I also need the option of something sweet. Yesterday when my sweet tooth kicked in I had 2 toaster struedels...Not the healthiest choice! I need to find something that will satisfy my sweet tooth without making me feel crappy for eating it!

I finally found it!!!

After searching and searching boxes that have yet to be unpacked and coming up empty handed, I finally found my iPod charger! In a most unusual place, I might add! It was in a basket on top of my fridge. Go figure. Never thought to look there! I was actually looking for batteries at the time. I lifted the basket and I knew there was no batteries in it, but I looked anyway. Lo and behold, there my charger sat. I was sooo excited! I even said "Huzzah" (my sister is trying to incorporate that word back into everyday language) because I couldn't believe I finally found one! What is sad is that we actually have 3 of them and they were all missing. So my iPod is now charging up. I also took the advice of a fellow BTLer Lynette S. and tried using a magnet from my hubbies old work pin he had to wear in order to get the treadmill working. It worked!!! I seriously am ecstatic that I will be able to run tomorrow!!! I would do it tonight, but the baby still cluster feeds at night, making it virtually impossible to do anything other than nurse him. So tomorrow morning I am gonna go for a run! It's been sooo long! I know I will have to ease myself into it again, but I so look forward to it.

Failure is not an option!

So things have not been going as I wanted. No, that's not true. I have not made the effort to make them go the way I wanted! Between being tired and the extra stress in my life, I have not been eating healthy at all. Thankfully I have only maintained my weight and I haven't gained anything! This morning I weighed in at 199.0 which I am horrified to be at this weight still, but will not stay here for long! My sister has lost a bunch of weight and hit the 180s recently. I have much farther to go than she does since I am shorter than she is, but it is nice to be losing weight with someone! (Especially since the hubby doesn't seem to be interested in it right now!) So here is why I am struggling...I am not writing my food down. I kept saying I didn't need to track food, just eat healthier. Well, that's just dumb. I lost a lot of weight before (3o pounds) because I wrote down what I ate! So I started writing down my food yesterday. And yesterday I ate a lot of crap. So today I am choosing healthier options. I just went grocery shopping, so we have lots of stuff in the house. Now, not all of it is healthy, so I have to be careful. Tracking my food just keeps me mindful of what I am putting into my body. So, we'll see how it pans out this week.

On the exercise front, well, I was able to work out 2 times with my EA active that my hubby got me for Christmas last year! I am having a difficult time finding time to do it! I just need to get my butt out of bed in the morning! But when I wake up at 5 to feed the baby, all I want to do is go back to bed until 7. I just need to stay up at that point and workout. Another issue I am having...I cannot find my ipod charger anywhere. So I have no music and no way to track my runs if I run outside. I could run on the treadmill except the magnetic key for our treadmill has mysteriously disappeared. So it doesn't work. And the only place I can find to replace it will cost us 50 bucks! Geez! So I am feeling less than excited about running outside with no music. I have to stop letting that keep me from working out at all. I can still do other stuff like the 30 day shred, EA active, Wii fit, Core Rythms, No More Trouble Zones (which I haven't even tried yet!). So I need to just get off my butt during Elise's nap. Yesterday I took a nap instead.

I have been watching the Biggest Loser which is a huge motivation for me. It makes me realize that I can really do it. If they can do it, I can definitely do it. I just need to make the time. I can't just squeeze it in, I have to make it a priority. I know that things will get easier as Sean gets older and he doesn't nurse ever 2 hours, but until then I must find time for me to get myself healthy. I am tired of blogging about what I will do. I want to blog about what I have accomplished. That's part of the reason I haven't been blogging these days. But no more! I will accomplish my goals! I will make a lifestyle change! And I WILL get HEALTHY!

A New Day

I love that every day is a new day. You get a fresh start every morning. A clean slate. The only problem with that philosophy is that if something bad happens to you, you chalk it up to a bad day and the rest of your day goes to hell. Not so much a fan of that. So on top of every day is a new day, every choice is a new choice. I can choose to not let the fact that I had a rough moment ruin the rest of my day. Living moment by moment, not allowing one bad decision to mean that more bad decisions need to follow. I did that today. We went to the Rennessaince Festival today. For many people that means gorging on food. Thankfully I am not one of those people. However, today was the wine and chocolate weekend. I am nursing, so the wine tastings were out for me, which I am totally ok with. But there was chocolate! There were a few places sampling chocolate, so I had a couple of bites. I even indulged in a chocolate covered strawberry! I had a slice of cheesecake covered in chocolate (that was my big treat, my hubbie got cheese curds). All in all, I ended up doing all right. I allowed myself to have little tastes of things, knowing this isn't a normal day for me. Treating myself in situations like this is ok because I do not overindulge. I had enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but not so much that I felt sick (which is something I usually do). So I will take my successes today and move on to the next moment. The next choice.

We walked a ton and my feet are sore. However, I am thinking I will try and get up before the kids and walk on the treadmill in the morning. Either that or I will walk during Elise's nap. I watched The Biggest Loser's premier on nbc.com tonight. I didn't even realize it was back on! That show always motivates me so much! I know that the weight loss and progress shown on the show is quicker than it will be for me, but it keeps me going when I feel like I am struggling. While I was watching I realized that for the first time in my life I am THAT heavy! I mean, I know I just had a baby, but some of those women were only a little heavier than me. At my heighest weight (which was the day I gave birth) of 224 put me 100 lbs overweight. I am now, as of this morning, 198.4. The heaviest weight I remember being at non-pregnant was 186. So I am still 12 pounds heavier than my heaviest weight prior to this pregnancy. I am not proud of the fact that I gained so much weight. I am very excited that I have lost as I have already. Last pregnancy I lost 22 pounds right away and then stayed like that for 10 months. Yuck. I am already down 25.6 which is almost halfway to prepregnancy weight.

Oh, and my water goal? I am almost done with my 4th Camelbak of water for the day, plus I had a 20 oz bottle of water at the Festival. So I am counting today as a successful water day as well. And just because it will help me keep things in perspective, I will end with my food intake for the day:

Small bowl of Oatmeal Squares
1 banana
slice of cheesecake dipped in chocolate
1 cheese curd
bowl of white rice w/terriyaki chicken
4 very small pieces of chocolate
1 chocolate covered strawberry
turkey wrap w/shredded cheese, spinach, mayo
leftover chowmein
2 slivers of fudge
1 white chocolate macedamia nut cookie
2 vanilla cookies
1 sugar cookie

Total overload on sweets. Again, I know this was because of the day and it's not normally like that. It also looks a lot worse than I thought it was! So tomorrow I will make sure to go easy on the sweets!

Good Intentions

One thing about good intentions...they don't usually turn out the way you want them to! It's like, sometimes I know that other people do things with good intentions, yet it still irritates me that they are doing it. Same thing with my good intentions to eat healthy and walk...of course I WANT to do them, but taking those good intentions and making them a good reality are two totally different parts of the process.

So after reading Week 2 of Elaine's Corner, I realized that my goals weren't very SMART. Now, I have used the SMART system before and thought I was doing a pretty good job of setting goals. My exercise goal is SMART. I set time frames and it was measurable, however I just didn't do it. Partly because I am still so tired, but that is getting better! I was going to walk tonight but decided to fold laundry instead. So anyway, back to the SMART goal. I know I need to revise my "eat healthier" goal, so here goes.

One thing I know about myself, and probably every single person out there, is that I cannot just overhaul my whole life at once. So I am going to break this down even further. I can't just say I am going to choose healthier foods, because it is still ok to have my treats every once in awhile. I am not going to drive myself nuts feeling guilty for having ice cream cake (last night) to celebrate my good grades this last quarter (still managed an A and a B- even with the new baby!!). The easiest meal for me to eat healthier is breakfast. Today, for example, I chose my Quaker Oatmeal Squartes over the Coco Puffs. Much better, right? I am sure I can still do better than that, but honestly I don't always have much time. I am working on even getting the whole family to have healthier breakfasts. Lunch, dinner, and snacks are where I really struggle. I am going to focus for the next 2 weeks on having a healthier lunch. Choosing whole grains, veggies, and fruits over the processed boxed food like my daughter's favorite: mac and cheese. After 2 weeks of focusing on lunch, I will focus on snacks for 2 weeks. I know that during this process I may naturally start to snack healthier or make better dinners just because I will want to feel better, but they will each have their own 2 weeks for me to really focus on accomplishing them.

So the past 2 days I have spent slaving away in the kitchen. I made 2 great low calorie, low glycemic soups to freeze (it would have been 3 but I ran out of time!). I made a yummy low calorie chow mein (also low sodium!) for dinner. We did top it off with ice cream cake, but like I said before, not gonna beat myself up over it! I also made a batch of peanut butter oatmeal cookies. Today I made tuna hotdish for dinner (only had a small portion of it) and made 2 batches of cookies, sugar and vanilla. Now, the cookies are for my husband and daughter to take in their lunches. Of course I know I will be eating them too, so after today my limit on cookies is 2 per day. I didn't eat much of anything healthy today (my mom was baking too!) so when I got hungry this evening I made myself a turkey wrap with spinach and a little cheese. I know I still need the calories, so again I am still not calorie counting, just making a healthier choice.

Tomorrow is Rennaissance Festival (if the roads aren't closed due to the rivers rising), so that will be my walking. I am bringing the baby to wear in the sling, so I know I will be tired by the end of the day! He gets heavy fast! If I don't end up going, I will walk at least 30 minutes on the treadmill. I know that blogging in the evenings really helps. It also helps to make these a little shorter! I will try to get on here to blog every evening. My evenings are just usually taken up by the little man wanting to nurse the whole time, which makes it difficult to type! So at least every other evening. I don't typically like to journal my food on here, but if it helps more I may end up doing that. Still haven't decided on that one yet. My last goal is water intake. It has to be up since I am nursing, but on days like today having a solid goal amount will make it easier to do. I am pretty sure I HAVE to get at LEAST a gallon a day! I fill up my awesome Camelbak which holds 24 oz at least 4 times a day if I can, sometimes 5. So I will make my goal 5 a day.

I am feeling really good about myself these past few days. I know part of it is catching up on sleep some. The other part is I know my 6 week visit is coming up. Sometime this next week I am going to figure out rewards for my weight loss progress. Once I can figure out how to put tabs on the top of this blog....still trying to figure out how it all works :) Well, I must get some sleep since little man is sleeping now!

Challenge...

Well this challenge seems to be just that, challenging!

I am having a really hard time with making sure I am eating healthier and walking more. I don't know why it's so hard! I still haven't gone to the grocery store! We have so many canned goods in the house so I have been playing around with different things in the kitchen. Most of them involve pasta since we also have a plethera of that in our pantry. I am just trying to clear some stuff out of there. We also have a TON of beans and lentils. I want to make soups, but I need fresh veggies to do that. Which means I need to go to the store. It's so hard to coordinate the two little ones in order to go to the store. We are totally out of milk now, so I HAVE to go tomorrow. I am planning on putting some oatmeal in the crock pot tonight so we have steel cut oats for breakfast tomorrow. That way I don't have to worry about making breakfast in the morning. Mornings have been pretty hectic here.

As for the walking, well I should be walking while Elise is napping. That has been my goal. However, today Sean happened to sleep at the same time as Elise...so I totally took advantage and I crashed for about 1 1/2 hours. I totally needed it! Sean has been pretty much sleeping through the night, but I am still up a lot because he's supposed to be up...I just wake up when he should! Anyway, I am still so exhausted from that, and I guess maybe from the calories being burned by breastfeeding. I haven't weighed myself in the last few days. I know I am not down though, but that's from sodium. I need to flush out my system! I could get up earlier in the morning, but that's tough because I am so tired. I know that if I start walking daily I will have more energy, but it's so hard to believe when you are on the back side of that. It's a tough cycle to be in! If Sean eats early enough tomorrow (would have to be around 6 or so) I will try and get on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes. I should have done it this morning after he went back to bed, but my bed was totally calling my name even though I only got about 10 more minutes of sleep! I am really struggling with how to fit exercise into my day. I need to just do it. My 6 week visit will be next week and I will be given the go ahead to exercise again and I am not going to be ready for it! I wanted to have been walking this whole time so I could start running right away. I am beginning to think that running may actually be a little painful right now...

I am going to try a little harder this week to get back on board. Being done with school for a quarter now will definitely help. I had my last few weeks of school and being really behind in homework weighing over my head last week. This weekend we were out of town. But this is no excuse, especially not for the almost completely empty bag of candy corn that has been mainly consumed by me since Sunday! Yikes! I need to make HEALTHY choices!

Bottomless Pit

That's how I feel today...like a bottomless pit! I can't seem to eat enough to satisfy me. I am drinking lots of water to try and help the situation, but I still seem to be hungry. I did not get to the grocery store today, nor did I get a chance to walk, but I did make dinner. It wasn't the "healthiest" option, but I had a small portion of it and had a salad with fresh from the garden veggies. But then I topped it off with a Hershey's bar (I seriously need to get this junk out of my house!). My day started a little hectic again, I think it will until we get a routine figured out. And I almost didn't get breakfast, so I grabbed the rest of Elise sandwhich from Jimmy Johns from the night before. It was about half a sandwhich. I was so hungry I thought I might pass out! We didn't have anything else easily accessible. So when we came back from the bus stop, I had a bowl of Raisin Bran. Lunch was a huge helping of leftover spaghetti and some garlic bread, with 3 oreos for dessert. It would have been only 2, but there was 3 left in the package, and who leaves 1 oreo?? I mean, come on! Dinner was "crap in a pan" which is something my mom makes. It's chicken and either rice or noodles covered with either alfredo sauce or spaghetti sauce plus whatever else you have in the fridge. I used alfredo sauce since we had spaghetti two nights ago. I put some cheese (not as much as I used to use), chicken broth, cream of mushroom soup, a little ranch dressing, and a little water. I poured that mixture over egg noodles and four chicken breasts that I cut into smaller portions. I took about a cup of the noodle mixture and two small cut up pieces of chicken for my dinner. It was sooo good. I need to figure out the calorie count on it. I am sure it's pretty high. I am going to try and figure out what veggies would be good to put in there and make it lighter. I thought about putting broccoli in it, but my oldest does NOT eat cooked broccoli. So I need to figure out a way to sneak veggies in it without her knowing. I used the other 2 chicken breasts that came in the package to make a topping for salads for lunches the next few days. I just cut the chicken into strips and put it in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil and put some spices on it...so yummy! I usually cook it until it's a little crispy.

So that's my day today. I feel like I ate all day, but I guess I really didn't do sooo bad. Not as bad as I thought, unless I am forgetting something that I ate...oh yeah, I had a blueberry bagel with cream cheese too! I knew I forgot something. I am just trying to listen to my body's cues and eat when I am hungry. Again, the problem is not having healthy options in my house. But getting to the grocery store is tough since I am supposed to be doing homework. I have 10 papers due by Friday, granted they are all short, but still. I have 2 quizes, 1 final, and I have a convention to go to tomorrow. I still don't know how I am going to swing that since I am still breastfeeding and I am supposed to be gone for several hours. It's also downtown Minneapolis. I hate driving downtown. I am really not looking forward to tomorrow. Maybe I just won't go...but then I would probably have to write yet another paper...ugh! I am feeling very stressed out about it right now.

8 Week Challenge: Days 2 & 3

Well my next two days of my challenge were not as great as the first day was. I am still making sure to choose healthier options on most of my foods, but now I am thinking I am eating too much. It's hard to know because I am starving all the time, and I don't know if it's a legitimate hunger or not. I don't know if I am eating too much. I didn't weigh myself this morning due to not enough time to even breathe getting the kids ready to get out the door on time. It was a little frantic at my house today. I was very pissed today, as a matter of fact. I left the house with no breakfast, something I NEVER do these days. I haven't missed breakfast in over a year! So I was really annoyed. I could have tried to find something healthier than Arby's breakfast, but I didn't. It was on the way to my next stop and I didn't have much time. So I ate a greasy, fatty breakfast. Ewww. The rest of my day wasn't much better. Half a pizza at my mom's house (a Tombstone pizza, not delivery) and one and a half Jimmy John subs. Just junk all the way around today! And I am feeling it. I also did not get a chance to walk yesterday or today. Things seem to be soo busy during the day! On the brighter side, I made a homemade dinner last night...granted it wasn't all that healthy, especially when you have two helpings of it. I made spaghetti sauce and put in the crockpot to simmer for the afternoon. Next time I think I will use ground turkey. I may also find a substitute for the noodles...if I remember correctly you can use zucchini instead of half the serving of noodles?? I will have to look it up later to find out. Part of the issue of not eating better is I still haven't made it to the grocery store. That will be my goal for tomorrow. I HATE grocery shopping, but I have to get over it and just go. I planned out my meals for the week yesterday and already had the hubby stop and get Jimmy Johns on the way home today. Ugh...I have to stop that! Not only is it not healthy, but we can't affor it either!

So tomorrow is a new day. I will wake up with a new attitude (well I think I will go to bed with one!) and make sure that it's a fresh start. I will get to the grocery store and I will get a walk in and I will get my homework done...not sure how I will accomplish all of it, but I will!

8 Week Challenge: Day 1

Yesterday I had really high hopes to take a nice long walk with my husband, Elise, and Sean(Neika was at her dad's). However, when Sean's diaper managed to explode on me, I had no pants to wear and was therefore unable to actually go on my walk. I was very sad about that since I had set those goals for myself. Although, I knew it didn't have to happen yesterday, I just really wanted to get out there. So today my husband made sure we were able to go. I went to my mom's house so he could take a nap without me being mad that he was sleeping :) Then afterwards we drove over to Excelsior and we walked about 25 minutes down the trail and then turned back. We turned back mostly because of the bugs, plus Sean was going to need to eat soon. The walk was great. I was pushing Elise in her stroller and she kept putting her hands up and saying "shake your whole body...SUPER FAST!!" which is from the little Disney cartoon show Little Einsteins. So when she would say super fast I would run for about 5 seconds, maybe 10 depending on my mood. She thought it was hilarious. I thought it was wonderful! I really miss running! I can't wait to start up again! So it gave me a small taste of running, which really motivated me. It wasn't hard...now I know I didn't run for long times or distances, but I did do this the whole 25 minute walk back to the car. Probably ever 2 or 3 minutes. I felt awesome that I finally got out for a nice walk.
I also managed to do ok with food, for the majority of the day. I measured out Raisin Bran for breakfast this morning rather than free pouring a bowl of Captain Crunch. I made a HUGE salad for myself to take to my mom's. It had a whole fresh homegrown tomato, half a fresh homegrown cucumber, a handful of baby carrots...it was really good. I allowed myself to have ranch dressing since I can't cut my calories too much. The point isn't to cut my calories at this point in time, but to make healthier choices. So the reason I had the salad was so I wouldn't eat a huge plateful of chow mein at my mom's (it's homemade and lower in sodium than most, and absolutey delish!). I figured out the calories for it, definitely not a high calorie dish, which is good to know! So I had a small serving of that. Then when we went for our walk, I realized that I really hadn't had all that many calories and my lunch was wearing off. So I stopped at a gas station and got a ham and cheese sandwhich. Not the greatest option, but it was something. I wanted to treat myself, so I bought a Skor bar. This would have been totally fine in my book, but then when we went to dinner we went to Adel's which has really good deli sandwhiches. I got a club, which is also delish. I only ate about half my chips. Adel's is actually famous for it's custard. So we couldn't leave without some of course. I got small (usually I would get a large) concrete with snickers. Extra snickers. I am a little upset at myself for getting it, but on the brighter side, it was a smaller size than I normally get, so that's a better choice. I also didn't finish it. So that's another positive. Baby steps.
Now I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow and get some good food back in the house. I need to plan out a menu for the week so that we have dinners all figured out ahead of time. This will eliminate the need to order out or anything for the week.

Goals

So one of the blogs I follow is Roni's Weigh, which actually is the blog that led me to Blog To Lose which is the site that I have been blogging at for the last year and a half, off and on anyway. I was reading up on Roni's blog today and catching up on the last weeks worth of postings since I hadn't been able to read them yet. She had someone else to a posting on goals this week and it looks like she will be posting something there once a week during an eight week challenge. I was actually hesitant to post any goals for myself since I am still within the first six weeks of giving birth. But then I figured that this was a very lame excuse, so I set two goals for myself for the next eight weeks. Eight weeks seems easy enough! If I don't start now, I won't start until I am done nursing. I need to stop being nervous about my milk supply. There are plenty of mom's that workout and still feed their babies. So, that being said, here are my goals for the next 8 weeks.

Goal 1: For the first 3 weeks, I will walk 3 times a week. Then once I am given the go ahead from the doctor, I will start running again. My goal for the last 5 weeks is to get back into training for a 5k at least 3 times a week. I am sooo excited to do this!

Goal 2: I need a food related goal. I know I need to eat a lot of calories, but they don't need to be empty calories. My goal is to eat healthy meals at least 5 days a week. I am not going to kill myself over it if I can't do it 7 days a week, that seems unreasonable. 5 days a week seems reasonable. I need to be making healthier choices for snacks. I have been doing ok, but I have been really craving sweets. No more DQ trips though. They have to stop. I will be making a grocery list to stock up on some healthier options for snacks in the house.

I am planning on starting an excel spreadsheet of my weight progress as well as how often I workout. I am hoping to be able to take that information and see how the exercise affects the weight loss. Not sure how that will all work out, but it will give me one place to track it all daily. I weighed in at 201.8 this morning. So I finally broke through the 202 barrier. I can't wait to be out of the 200s. I really don't like being this heavy. I know that there are moments that it really affects my mood...especially on the days that my clothes just don't fit right. I know I need to give myself time since I just had the baby, but I am very anxious to drop this baby weight.

New Blog, New Start

After having a baby less than 3 weeks ago, I am ready to get back to eating healthy and getting fit. I must say that I did not have the best day today, seeing as how the church was providing our meals for the past couple of weeks as well as my favorite blizzard of the month at Dairy Queen right now. So I did not eat well today. I know that this weekend will be filled with meals out or meals brought in since it is a holiday weekend. With the start of a new school year for my oldest on Tuesday, I hope to get things into a routine rather quickly. I can't wait to get back into running on a regular basis, but in order to do that I have start somewhere, which is walking every day. So with this new start I will have to learn how to eat right all over again, since I still need to eat enough calories to keep up my milk supply, but low enough calories to be able to lose weight. I think that before I get into counting calories, I will work on concentrating on the quality of the food I will be eating.
I am noy really new to blogging, as I have been blogging on Blog To Lose for over a year now, but I have never blogged really on my own. I have started this blog in hopes it will help to keep me on track. I also started one about my family. So I guess we'll see how this goes! I am looking forward to having this outlet to go to during the frustrations and successes of weight loss, eating right, and exercising.