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A little vlog on where I am according to my "goal"......

Ohhhhh, food....sweet luscious, tempting, sugary food!

I have a sweet tooth and portion problems. Now don't get me wrong, I eat very healthily actually (I love veggies, fruit, nuts, etc).  BUT.... I am also a sucker for those SUPER high calorie desserts which get me into a lot of trouble when trying to melt the pounds. I have a hard time denying myself the pleasure of yumminess.  While I will NEVER be able to be a Food Nazi (you know those people who NEVER.. and I mean NEVER allow themselves a fast food cheeseburger or an ounce of processed sugar....EVER), I did realize at the beginning of this goal of getting healthy that I needed to treat these sweets/unhealthy food items as indulgences, not everyday (okay, every MEAL) necessities.  That was step one. 

The other problem I had was eating until I was full.  Yeah, the age old portion control.  With today's foods being WAY more high calorie than ever before and the abundance of food in general, we have all become accustom to eating to satisfy our want instead of our need for food. At least I have.  I satisfy my hunger long before I satisfy my taste buds, if you know what I mean.  I have a hard time remembering that food is made to fuel our bodies.  Yes, God gave us some wonderful flavors and excess, but it shouldn't be used for gluttony......which, sadly, in many cases it is. 

So what HAVE I been eating? 

A typical ideal day looks something like this...

Breakfast

(one of the following meals with small cup of coffee and 2 T of Coffemate creamer)

• 1/3 cup oatmeal with a T of brown sugar and a splash of milk
• A individual cup of Chobani Greek Yogurt (pineapple is my FAVORITE!)
• Open face egg sandwich with 2 eggs, one slice of bread and one slice of cheese
  

Lunch

(one of the following)

• Apple slices with 2 T peanut butter and 1/4 cup of raisins (and sometimes a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips!) and a piece of homemade bread
  
• Open face egg sandwich with 2 eggs, one slice of bread and one slice of cheese
  
• Bowl of soup with a handful of oyster crackers
• Half of a (light) bologna sandwich with one piece of bread, one piece of bologna, one slice of cheese and some Miracle Whip

Snack

• Cup of coffee with 2 T coffee mate

Dinner

• Whatever I am cooking for everyone but only one plate - NO SECONDS!  
• NOTE: I like a big dinner so my portions, while not huge, are not horribly small either 
  

And in the essence of "keeping it real" for you.....I mess up ALL. THE. TIME!  That is an IDEAL day.  In real life sometimes I grab a couple of graham crackers while I am in the pantry.  Sometimes I finish off a kid's dinner to save it from the trash (bad habit, I know!).  Sometimes I have a little something before bed (again, bad habit!). But those days/weeks I make too many of those indulgences I see it at the weigh in at the end of the week.  The WHOLE month of March was like that for me!  Indulgences coupled with Easter PIE actually caused me to gain 2 pounds back and I am just now back where I was at the beginning of March....UGGGGG.... 

The best advice I can give to anyone who is starting is just STICK WITH IT.  Had I just gotten back on the "wagon" of not treating my pie-hole like a garbage disposer after the first or second episode of eating poorly at the beginning of March, I would have likely kept my slow and steady weight loss and would have been a couple pounds lighter (even with the Easter Pie Episode) instead of struggling back to the same weight at the beginning of April. "Coulda, shoulda, woulda......what good are they?  Sooooo.....I am am getting back on the wagon.  I actually paid some money for some health shakes to do a "re-start".  While this isn't needed, I thought the idea of spending a little extra money for something and having a plan with "rules" it would require the perfect amount of self-disciple and accountability I needed to confidently move forward again.

Updated weight loss:

Pounds lost: 12

Pounds left until goal weight: ONLY 6! (YEAH!)

Things that have blown my mind:   I am fitting into a junior size 5!  But even more amazing is my energy levels have skyrocketed and I am able to do things (weight lifting wise and endurance wise) easily that were SO HARD to do at the beginning of this year!

What the struggles you face that keep you from reaching your healthy weight goals?

Wow, 2 months since and "actual" post......that is record of no-activity for me.....I think?  Even if it is not, it is still a long time to keep y'all hanging.  I apologize.  Life has been busy. Priorities were shifted.  As I mentioned before, writing about my life in this blog, while fun, takes a back seat to actually living my life with my kiddos.  And we have been doing some living lately.  You have probably guessed that a "Random Recap" is in order.   So here is the condensed version of my last two months:

   My baby is SIX months old!  Say whaaaaa????? Yeah, I know, right?!  Mike's super sperm has proven to produce super babies because "Little E" started army crawling at about four months (NO joke!), by five months he was lifting his tummy off the floor practicing his "baby push ups",  and at six months (the first half of six months) figured out how to put it all together and is full-fledged crawling now.  Lord, help me!  No, really.....please help me keep up with 6 mobile children on a daily basis! 

{Yep, that is the end of the non-mobile stage}

{He can't get enough of his siblings!}

  My youngest son is a spitting image of my oldest son. Don't believe me, look for yourself!  I think I had the same baby twice!

{AJ on the left in early 2003, Ezra on the right in early 2013!)

  We FINALLY had a little bit of snow this year.  Right when I was SO ready for winter to be over we got 12" of the white fluffy.  It was followed up by almost 60 degree days and it was a weird phenomenon being able to have a snowball fight while wearing a T shirt.  Really weird!  We took advantage of it and made a huge snowman, snow ice cream and enjoyed far too many snowball wars.

{Snow Ice Cream (and yeah, we added chocolate syrup!).....Thank you, Pinterest!}

{Just the beginning of our 12" March snowfall!}

  Two of my children received glasses.  Both are doing really well with them and I am thinking after Maddie goes in for her consult, she will end up needing some too. Esotropia runs in our family BIG time.  Half of our kids have been plagued by it to one extent or another.  My oldest had surgery at the age of 3.  He may need it again.  We will find out in May.

  Although I have been continuing to loose the baby weight, I am starting to get lazy on the clean eating because I am growing content.  I am only 3 pounds away from my High School weight and 7 away from my goal weight.  I need to push through and finish so I don't drag it out indefinitely.  I am so proud of myself for finally putting my treadmill to GOOD, HARD use. 

{photo taken to text to my acountablility partner, Lauren so she is certain I my butt was on my treadmill.  Lauren, BTW, is doing AM-AZ-ING!}

{a couple of weeks ago, with about 11 pounds left to loose}

  School is going GREAT this year and it has probably been one of my most productive years thanks to the planning I so diligently accomplished last summer.  It has worked so well that I am convicted to do the same this summer and have already started to get our supply list and curriculum choices pinned down. I will do another post on this in the future.

{Maple Sirup Days (yes, that is spelled right...google it!).  We were blessed to have Papa H. come along!}

  I have TOTALLY given up on "a picture a day".  We have just too much going on. Sometimes I remember and other times (okay, most times!) I forget.  Again, priorities.  I am not going to stress about tossing that to the way side. 

  I am starting to toss around some blog post ideas for you all.  Some will be done in video format, because, honestly, sometimes it just faster for me to video tape something then to have to type it all out (and inevitably misspell every other word, leave out complete phrases and completely botch punctuations solely because my brain runs 25x faster than my mouth can even keep up, let alone my poor typing fingers. Some ideas I have stirring in my noggin are:

• Homemade eye makeup remover (LOVE this)
• Schedule update
  
• My chore pack system
• Curriculum contenders for 2013-2014
• School budget for 2013-2014

Any other topics you would like to hear me rattle my jaw about?

 

Week 6

POUNDS LOST THIS WEEK: 1.5

TOTAL POUNDS LOST: 8

POUNDS LEFT TO LOSE: 11 (changed my original goal slightly)

WORKOUTS THIS WEEK: 2

NOTES: Another "slacker week" for me here.  Only 2 work outs.  Stubbed my toe bad (like I think I may have fractured it....it somewhere between purple and black at the moment!), ended up congested/head cold at the end of the week.  Here is to next week, right?

Week 4

POUNDS LOST THIS WEEK: 1

TOTAL POUNDS LOST: 5.5

POUNDS LEFT TO LOSE: 14.5

WORKOUTS THIS WEEK: 4

EATING NOTES: Rough....that is one way to describe this week.  I was SO hungry from nursing that it was killing me to keep my portions small.  I gave in and allowed myself to pig out a bit and really didn't expect to lose anything this week. I would have been happy with holding.  Needless to say I am very happy at my -1.  I am trying to do better this week. 

 Week 2

Pounds lost for this week: 1.5

Total pounds lost: 2.5

Pounds left to lose: 17.5

Workouts this week: 5 (3 cardio/treadmills, 2 weight lifting)

Eating Notes: Did better this week.  Getting used to not snacking between meals and not as many sweets.  Man, I ate a lot of sweets!  Again felt hungry....or maybe just "cravey".  

Week 3:

Pounds lost for this week: 2

Total pounds lost: 4.5

Pounds left to lose: 15.5

Workouts this week: 4 (3 cardio/treadmills, 1 weight lifting)

Eating Notes: Ezra started a growth spurt this week and I was HUNGRY....like a lot.  In order to keep up a decent milk supply and aid in the process of upping my supply due to his growth spurt, I allowed a couple hundred more calories for a few days at the end of the week.  Not sure but I think it will probably effect my weight loss numbers next week.  We'll see.  Ah, the woes of nursing and also trying to loose weight.  I am NOT one of those people who lose weight readily while nursing.  I wish I was.  My body seems to fight back and hold on to a little insulative layer while nursing. I will be happy if I hold steady next week and then I can get back on track the week after.  I will say though; my pants are getting a little loose......whooooohoooo!!

Weightloss Wednesday: Week 1

• Goal for this week: -2

• Actual lost for this week: -1

• Met Goal: No…..Blah…

• Total pounds lost: 1 (better than nothing, I gues!)
  

• Pounds left to loose: 19
  

• Eating Notes: Did alright. I ate way too many energy bites! While they are super good for you and amazingly tasty, they are 100 calories a pop!

• How many times did I work out (goal – at least 3): 6 days of treadmill jogging/power walking (between 2 and 3 miles each).  At least I reached THAT goal.
  

• Notes: Not gonna lie, I felt HUNGRY once or twice.  I realized how much I snacked and ate sweets DAILY!  Quitting both of those cold turkey required some will power, especially during our science project that included OREOS!!!  I am planning on adding in weight lifting this week.  For some reason I did only cardio this week and NOT ONE lifting workout.  I did a few ab exercises, but nothing major.  

Talk of New Year resoultions tend to be all the buzz this first week in January.  While I don’t normally make them, for some reason I decided to make a list of habits and goals to work on in this year 2013.  

Photo Albums -  I am SO behind in making photo albums it is pathetic.  Truly pathetic.  Like you-would-think-I-only-have-two-kids-pathetic.  Our THIRD child hasn’t even made his debut in our photo albums yet….and our SIXTH child is already 3 months old. Wow, that is so shameful.  NO. MORE. EXCUSES.  This year I will complete every album up to 2012.  Yep, I said WILL (not “will try”).  Go big or go home, right?  So far I am already impressed in the steps I have taken.  I have uploaded EVERY photo from 2007-2011 and have an idea of what my albums will look like.  A year or two ago I had planned to make photo books from an online store and even designed two years worth of books.  I had made a few smaller ones before and they always turned out beautifully.  Only problem is that with the amount of photos that I crammed into the big yearly ones they ended up costing almost $100 a book.  So were talking $700 worth of photo albums to catch up! Have I ever mentioned that I am CHEAP frugal?  Yeah, $700 wasn’t going to happen!  Plan B - 12x12 scrapbooks purchased at Hobby Lobby with my handy dandy 40% coupon.  They are expandable and editable.  Which means in a year when I am sitting down looking through them and I find that inevitable misspelled word (I am a horrible speller!) or wrong date I can remove that page, correct it, and put it back.  I can also add photos that I may have forgotten if I find them after the fact. I am planning on using plain solid color page inserts and 4x6 photos with simple black handwritten journaling.  No stickers, no borders, no embellishments; keeping it simple, timeless and EASY.  Easy is the only way it will ever get done!

Photos – After comparing my photos from before 2011 to after 2011 there is a MARKED difference!  Prior to 2011 I have crisp, colorful, artful photos.  After 2011 I have only iphone photos…..not too pretty.  Sure the iphone has a decent camera, but ALL the photos?  I also realized that about the same time I got my iphone I lost my lens cap to my favorite SLR lens.  I stopped taking it with me places because I was afraid that the lens would get scratched.  Tonight I purchased a $9 fix (new lens cap) and I am excited to keep my SLR in a handy, reachable spot in the house so that I can start using it more often.

Crappy, blurry iphone Christmas photo

Pre-iphone Christmas photo......

Any questions?

Photo a day – I am challenging myself to post weekly “Photo a Day” blog posts every Sunday and at the end of the year I will have 52 weeks worth of everyday photos.  A bloggy friend of mine did it last year and it was so fun to follow her through it!  I plan on turning these into mini books and make a copy for each of the children for when they get older. Heck this sounds like an AWESOME tradition if I can keep it up.

Journal – I am going to write down all those funny, adorable things my kids say down.  I think I will never forget, but alas I always do. Darn “Mommy-brain”!  I plan on including these little quotes in my family photo albums.  

Weight – I said I would give myself 3 months to “let it go” and then it was time to start shedding the baby weight.  Well 3 months is up and I plan on start doing something to loose the last bit of pregnancy weight and end up at my hi gh school weight.  I have 4 more pounds left to go to pre-pregnancy from Ezra, and there are 16 pounds that are hanging around from my 2nd pregnancy that I have claimed ever since.  So my goal is to loose 20 pounds and have it off by my 31st birthday in May.

Me in March 2001, 17 years old trying on my wedding dress. TWENTY pounds lighter....ugggg.....

Hospitality - We used to host game nights with friends and have family over for dinner quite frequently.  With each added child it has gotten harder and harder to “host” things.  I miss it.  I would love to do it more whether or not it is difficult to do so.  God’s grace with fill the gaps where I can’t be a great host because I am wiping up the second spilled glass of milk from one of my monkeys.  My goal is one "hosting" event a month.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

We are 23 weeks and this was taken last week (week before?).  Mike thinks I am smaller than the previous pregnancies...I am feeling smaller too... Maybe we will have another little one like Faith (she was only in the high seven pound range...7-15?)  I haven't gained as much weight this time around, but I started at a higher weight than I have with any other of the pregnancies, so that probably accounts for that fact.  I was at the beginning journey of (finally) loosing ALL the baby weight when I mysteriously fell ill...or pregnant, as we later came to find out.  So, I will have a bit of work cut out for me when I get back to my unpregnant state. I am sure there will be many (many!) more pounds coming my way this pregnancy since I seem to ALWAYS (6 out of 6!) be pregnant in the summer and this is what I usually do for fun:

Yep, ice cream, pregnancy and hot weather seem to go together in my mind!

Well, just a quick weight loss check in.  So far I am down to pre-pregnancy weight and have another 15 pounds to go to get to my “fighting weight”.  So far it has actually been quite easy.  I LOVE healthy food so there is no problem with the “kind” of food I am eating, but the quantity was my enemy.  Since I have scaled back portions I have actually found I am hungry less!  I am down about 17 pounds now and I still haven’t started incorporating any weight lifting back into my routine yet.  I REALY want to start lifting occasionally, but right now I haven’t made it a priority to do so.  I do get my fair share of weight training in less obvious ways: dragging a 200+ pound pig house to the “back forty” to get ready for our pig, carrying around kids that weight between 18 and 50+ pounds at regular intervals, climbing hills repeatedly while playing with the kids…..you get the picture.  I am not exactly stagnant!

The good news about being at pre-pregnancy size is that most of my old clothes fit again and I am not just wearing the same 2 shirts/2 pairs of jeans that I had in bigger sizes.  I am looking forward to spring and pulling out some of my spring clothes that I didn’t get to wear last year (because I was ALREADY showing with Georgia). 

I will update you more on farm progress in the upcoming days.  Right now, as things get busier I need to devote more and more time gearing up for the animals and garden which results in less and less time that I have to blog about it!