Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Confession

I was talking to a friend tonight at a baby shower, and she wanted to know what I was eating to lose weight. Well, today was a bad day! For some reason I was really tired all day today, and I always have a hard time staying away from treats when I'm tired (I've heard that it's self-medicating.) For breakfast, I had Kashi-Go-Lean Oatmeal and a glass of milk. After breakfast, I ran 2 miles at the gym before taking Claire to school. For my morning snack I had some banana-cream pie (made with sugar-free, fat-free pudding and cool-whip.) For lunch I had a slice of pizza and some carrots, then a tube of m&m minis and some graham crackers with frosting, marshmallows, and vanilla wafers, and half a twix bar for my afternoon snack. For dinner we had hotdogs and tator-tots, and at the shower I had a big, yummy slice of chocolate cake and lots of other snacks. So actually, this would be a pretty normal day until recently. I think a lot of my control has come from getting more rest at night, because then I'm not as hungry and don't crave the sugar as much. I've always been a treat-junkie, though, and rarely go a day without one or more sweets.

One time, I gave up sweets for 18 days, and without changing any other part of my diet except substituting different snacks for the treats, I lost five pounds. So, that tells you how bad I am normally. Anyway, no more secrets - if I have a bad day, I will take responsibility for it!

I really don't want to go back to counting calories, becuase I think I need to change some habits instead, so that when I do lose the weight, it's not because of a diet, but a lifestyle change that I can continue. (I have done calorie counting in the past, though, and it is a very effective way to lose weight.) Here is a great link from my friend Shauna for calculating your daily calorie needs:

http://www.ultraprevention.com/tools/calorie_intake.htm

What age do you act?

You Act Like You Are 25 Years Old

You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel like an adult, and you're optimistic about life.
You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

You're still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up.
The world is full of possibilities, and you can't wait to explore many of them.



hmmm... guess that's a good thing! Most people are surprised when they find out how young I am (27) - the kids seem to age me! I definitely feel older having three kids!

Monday, January 28, 2008

135!

Yea - go me! Goals for this week:

1. Continue exercising and sticking to set snack times.
2. Eat all the veggies in my freezer and fridge.

Monday, January 21, 2008

WET BANDITT STRIKES AGAIN!!!




Remember this guy? That's right - it's Darren. I like to call this his mug shot. When I look at this picture, it makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. He is SO sweet, but seems to get into a lot of trouble!!! I was just thinking the other day, "Wow. I guess by now it's pretty much child-proof upstairs. I'm not worried anymore. My craft paint is all gone (dumped out), my glue, dumped out also, the scissors and markers have gone into hiding, I really don't have anything to worry about anymore."

WRONG!!! In just five minutes last night, Darren managed to flood the upstairs guest bathroom sink so badly that it went THROUGH the floor and into the kitchen below - through a light fixture! We collected about four inches of water in our 13-gallon trash can where it was leaking and used about 20 towels to dry up the mess upstairs and downstairs. Goodness!

136.8!!!

This week I did great, although I have to credit some of the weight-loss to being sicker than a dog and not eating for a day (thanks, Claire!)

Here are a couple easy tips for eating out:

1. Before even beginning the meal, set aside a portion of your entree to take home with you. I ordered a hamburger this weekend, and saved about a third of it.

2. Almost all restaurants will let you substitute fries for another side, such as steamed vegetables. I asked for vegetables because I knew I could eat a few of Darren and Claire's fries and be a little more healthy with my veggies, too.

My goals for this week are:

1. stick to 3 designated snack times
2. exercise every day

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Update

So, yesterday was my birthday and I had some cake. It was really good, but I only had two small pieces, and we froze the rest for Sunday evening when my family comes up. I DID NOT buy donuts, or chocolate, or twizzlers, or oreos when I was at the store yesterday. This is doing really well for me, especially since it was more tempting to indulge since it was my birthday. I have to admit that one of the only reasons I didn't buy donuts, though, is because Claire was sick and throwing up, and would be sad if she couldn't have any. I do not believe in dieting, but I am working to make better eating choices and gradually change the way I eat in general. I have decided to set smaller weight-loss goals instead of one really big one. So, the first one is to lose 5 lbs. by Valentine's Day.

Monday, January 14, 2008

139.0

I read in a magazine today that blogging about weight-loss can help you lose more. Although I have lost 42 lbs. since having Miles, I want to lose the additional 25 that I didn't lose after having Claire. So, there it is. Now you know. I weigh 139 pounds right now. I'm already feeling the motivation! The plan for this week is to make sure that I exercise at least a few minutes every day, and cut back on snacks after the kids go to bed. And hopefully next week, I'll have something good to report. Anyone feeling brave and want to join me?

on another note, Darren can count all the way to twenty-ten! (. . . twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-ten!)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

And the winner is. . .



Michele, with a good guess from Becky, also! For all of you who have been dying to know, the picture in the previous post is an "extra" circle of drywall cut out of the ceiling when Jerry was installing some recessed lighting. Whoops! He was soo careful in measuring and cutting and doing the wiring that it ended up taking almost an entire day to install recessed lighting in the family room. By the time he was ready to cut out the circles we had marked, it was pretty dark (the power was turned off, also.) So he's cutting along and everything's going great until I hear, "Oh, SHOOT!!! Oh, SHOOT!!!" We had changed our minds about the placement of one of the lights and had drawn another circle close by, and he cut out the wrong one. Oh well - nothing a patch can't fix - but for now, we have a 6-inch hole in the ceiling.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Guess what this is???

Home Improvements





Over Christmas, Jerry was busy doing a couple of home improvements. Here are pictures of our attic, which he finished. Before, it consisted of a couple pieces of plywood in front of the door where we could store things, and a bunch of loose insulation covering the rest of the area. He added more insulation, rerouted some of the wiring, built blocks around the ducts, and put flooring everywhere, making about 300 square feet of storage space. What a handyman!!!