Since You've Been Gone...

.... or maybe "since I'VE been gone" but no matter.  I haven't written much. At all.

Week Four of the Weight Loss Journey:  Stagnant.  Stagnant like stinky gross pond water.  I must get re-focused and motivated.  My good buddy gave me a helping hand with that earlier last week.  She helped me see that nearly everyone else in the world who is in shape has made choices that led them to be in shape. I think this is how I started my weight loss journey four weeks ago - knowing that I would need to make the choices, have the self-discipline, etc. to reach my goals.  But I've already begun to be an expert in excuse-making in the last four weeks.  But instead of excuses for my behavior, they were excuses as to why other's could be fit and I couldn't:

* "Well, she has REALLY good genes.  Being thin is natural for her."
* "She actually LIKES to work out!" [gasp] (Wait a minute, I used to like to work out too! Hmmm.)
* "Her metabolism is just so high."
* "It's not my fault I need more sleep than so-and-so."

And on and on... it's not healthy. And, more importantly it's really not true.  No matter the genes, metabolism, sleep habits, if I'm not working out or eating right there's no where else for me to look.  And so, we are back on track.

Despite my lack of improvement on the scale, I did have a good and exciting moment this week:

On a whim, I popped into a dress store for a formal dress for a gala dinner that P and I will attend at the end of September.  I found one I liked and sent camera-phone pictures to my sister.  It was a size 12.  (There, I've said it, it's a size 12... I was going to make it all ambiguous like "the size I have been since post-partum #3", but I'm throwing it out there and stating my size.)  So, as I said, this is the size I've been in my post-partum days (after breast-feeding did it's work and all the initial weight dropped off).   ANYWAY.... I put the dress on hold until I can get another opinion. So, the next day, I take my good buddy shopping with me.  Thanks to the camera-phone pictures texted to my sister, she suggests I try a size 10. My sister is certain I'm wearing my clothes one size too big because I'm not used to "tight" clothes and I'm just being baggy. So, I look to grab a size 12 and 10... but lo and behold there is no size 10.  Only a size 8.  My good buddy encourages me just to grab it anyway and so I head into the dressing room with a comfy size 12 and a tiny size 8.  On goes the 12 and good buddy says "Oh yes. I DO like it!  Definitely worth the sales price for sure!"  Into the dressing room I go to change into normal baggy clothes.  The size 8 is eyeing me and daring me to squeeze into it.  And so I do... and up goes the zipper all the way to the top!!!!  Good buddy gives me a look that makes me wonder if she's about to say "Oh dear, good buddy"  as in "Oh dear, good buddy, don't wear that in public."  But instead it comes out as, "Oh dear, good buddy I didn't realize when you were wearing it but the size 12 is definitely too big.  This is the size you should get."  So... triumph of the month... I walked out of the store with a size 8!!!  And a size 8 that was 50% off, no less!

My next goal for exactly 21 days is to make my new size smaller-than-normal dress to fit just absolutely perfectly.... it's time to tighten up a bit here and there.  I have invested in some new tools.  Two DVD's are on their way to help me trim up.  I'm looking forward to giving you the "skinny" on them next week.

Week 2: Coughing-the New Ab Exercise

So early last week I started having a scratchy throat, which quickly progressed into a tight chesty cough, which transitioned into a hoarse voice, stuffy nose, and a cough that always included at least a dozen linked coughs.  You know the kind, you start to say something and then you have a little tickle, a little cough, bigger cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, hack, hack, hack. Ugh.

My exercise included nothing more than coughing and walking around looking for where I last put the kleenex box.  My diet was minimal as everything tasted like nothing. I could not smell since my nose was completely stuffed.

The good news is... I'm down a pound.  Not as fantastic as last week, but I will take it!

My goals and motivation and everything will be the same as last week, but with minimal cardio since my lungs are still bronchitis-y. Taking deep breaths still puts me into a coughing tizzy.

I am hoping that this week I will find the energy and thoughts to post a blog every evening.  It was for your benefit that I took this week off as my topics would have included: "bronchitis - the good, the bad, and the ugly," "the inside of my lungs are itchy," "how many tissues does it take to get my nose empty," and "Nyquil delirium."  I'm sure there are more interesting things to read on the internet and so I spared you.  Hopefully this week will be filled with brilliance and wit. (maybe.)

Week 1: Weight Loss Journey

Well, ladies and gentlemen (if there are gentlemen reading this?), I had my first weigh-in this morning and the results are: lost 5.5!!!!  Wahoooo.  So, I'm definitely on track for losing the 10 lbs. by Halloween.  It feels good to be going in the right direction, but I'm still a little leary for the following reasons:

1. I've been trying to lose this weight for a year, and this is the first time I've had serious results.  Is it a fluke?
2. I haven't really done much different this week; I worked out 4 days and tried to push myself a little harder, I ate the same amount of food just tried to eat more filling foods (I feel like I ate my weight in egg whites, spinach, and chicken breasts!).
3. I'm heading into a "heavy" time for my body, so this weight loss could easily bounce back to a weight gain.

HOWEVER, I'm determined to have a more positive outlook on this journey than I had over the past year.  For all those times I said, "I'll probably never actually get down to my goal weight," or "There's no way I can stick to this long enough," or "My thighs can never be thin and lean,"  I'll now be saying "I will be at my goal weight on my birthday" [even writing that, I had some doubt creap up "really?! will I really get that low?"] and "I will stick this plan as long as it takes, but all I need to think about is sticking to it today" and "If I want thin, lean thighs, I best make friends with a treadmill, my pilates dvd, and squats!"

So, I'm thrilled with the results, but hesitant in a good way that will keep me from giving in to my cravings for chocolate.  I taught my Zumba class this morning and pushed myself pretty hard.  Tomorrow will be an earlier-than-normal gym day at 8am, Wednesday will be a light exercise day that will be done at home, Thursday will have to be hard gym day, and Friday night Zumba class.

New addition for this week
Daily Exercises when I wake up:
* 10 push-ups (real ones, not "girl" ones.... why are easy push-ups "girl" push-ups?!)
* pilates ab series, I can't remember the official name, but I'll know what to do.
* 50 squats
Daily Exercises during kids' nap time:
* 10 push-ups
* 50 squats

Goal for this week
* To not gain the weight I usually do during "this time of the month." (TMI, I know.)

Motivation for this week

This is a stock photo... obviously, since I have dark hair and Paul is blonde. However, the idea of a tropical location for our 10 year anniversary trip is definitely motivating.  Who wants to be sitting in that chair thinking "man, my thighs are squishy."

I've been hosed.... well, it's shocking, really.

I'm too tired tonight to write something interesting... here is a bit of an email I sent my husband who is out on an aircraft carrier this week. The week has been a busy one for me, so most of our emails have been short and sweet and not too in-depth.  I thought I would send him a more detailed update of some of our excitement:


On Tuesday night I had a conference call for The Crib at 7pm.  I had
strategically planned the day so the kids wouldn't nap (except Sam) so
they would be tired and quiet by 7pm.  Well, we were driving home from
the gym around 5:30pm and saw this lady setting up some of those
crawl-through tubes in the common area. I thought "now there's a
motivated mom!" We ate dinner and at 6pm we head up to bath... just
enough time to get everyone washed and squared away. Grace is standing
on the steps looking out the big window "MOM! Look what is happening
in our field?!" And guess what... it wasn't a motivated mom... it was
the Fire Dept. They had apparently sent emails out that I didn't get
about a Family Night Out. The fire truck was there SPRAYING WATER into
the field (like way up into the air so it wasn't crushing kids, of
course) and they had games and a water-table and face painting!  So I
stood there debating on what to do.. but how could I NOT let them go
out there and check it out?! I mean really, with Matthew's love of trucks...
and I've never seen a fire truck spraying its hose! So we ran and put their 
swimsuits and water socks on and went out for some fun.  They got a little 
timid in the water because there were some older kids running around but they had
fun with the other stuff (no face painting).  I figured if we could
get back in the house by 6:35pm I could skip bath, get them into
jammies, get Sam down, and the big kids into my bed for a movie.
Well, Sam decided he wanted to check out the water too and he loved
it. And he fell in the newly mowed field and was all wet and came out
looking like a scarecrow! So... into the bath they all went... grass
was everywhere in our bathroom.  Out of the bath they all hopped.
Grace hopped a little too much because she was so wound up from the
fire truck excitement, she fell into our shower stall and got a bloody
nose!!!!!!  It's now 6:50pm. Bah! Cleaned her up (it wasn't too too
bad) and got Sam into jammies and settled in to give him a bottle.
Then he drank a great big mouthful, got a cough and coughed it up on
me. Awesome. Anyway, after that I was able to get him down, got on the
call about 10 minutes late which was not really a big deal, and the
kids went to bed after that.  geesh.

Today I was cleaning up the kitchen and Matthew says "Mom, come look!"
so I follow him to the front room and see our tall lamp laying on the
floor!  "Sam pulled it down." First thought: Phew. No one was hurt.
Second thought: I bet the bulb shattered.  So the lamp is laying on
the ground with the bowl-shade-thing laying flat on the floor upside
down... like it had slipped off the pole and flipped 90 degrees.  So I
carefully pick it up and there are no shards of glass. Phew. Again.
but I can't get the shade back up because the bulb is cock-eyed
because the bulb holder (I'm sure that is the technical term) is also
cock-eyed and not through the hole in the shade.  So.. I glance down
one more time to make sure Sam isn't finding glass that I had missed,
grab the bottom of the bulb holder with my left hand and ZAP!!!!!!!
HOLY CRAP!!!!!  My index finger and thumb clench onto whatever that
thing is called, and I can feel electricity zap up through my elbow
and shoulder and I swear my heart skipped a beat or two!!!! HOLY CRAP. 
I involuntarily went "HUUUUUUUUUUH!" Dude. E.D.Electron is no joke.  My
hand was tingly for a good two hours, but I'm back to normal now. I
unplugged the light and give it the evil eye every time I walk by it
now.
*****************************************************************************
So that's what we've been up to.  Shockingly good times! 

                                                        The Lamp that Shocked Me Silly

Two-A-Days + Good Friends = Happy Mom

Whew. I remember at the end of summer in high school, the volleyball team would have a week or two of "two-a-days."  It wore me out. My entire body ached to the point that I had to sit down in the shower.  I was exhausted.  Well, today we pulled a "two-a-day" not for volleyball, but for play dates.  I'm almost as tired and sore as I was in 1996.

We had a great time playing at a friend's house late-morning through lunch. We came home and had "rest time" which is code for "kids slept while I worked on invitations to my sister's baby shower, cleaned out the ottoman where, unbeknownst to me, the kids had been storing all of the parts to all of their board games - including 4 Memory games, folded laundry that has been in the basket for... well, nevermind, and gagged over a bottle of milk that someone had hidden in one of my pots." When the unrestful rest time was over, we headed off to another friend's house for a delicious dinner and more play time.  The kids were in bed and asleep without complaints, trips to the bathroom, or requests for water.  Everyone is tuckered out.

I'm not complaining though. I'll take this exhaustion any day.  It sure beats the exhaustion that comes from a day of two pre-schoolers and a toddler whining and fighting and picking on each other because there's nothing else to do.  This is the happy fatigue that comes from a day well-spent and well-played.

And this leads me to my happy thought for the day: Good friends are truly priceless. Always. But good friends who can be open and honest with you, who don't worry about how clean their house is because they've seen your house at its worst too, who let you clean their dishes as a 'thank you' for a yummy dinner, who don't think you're crazy when your kid walks around with tomato sauce behind his ears and in his hair.... now those friends... Those friends are the saving grace for this happy and exhausted mom.

And, Good Night!

(This photo is obviously not from today since Grace is now almost 5 years old, BUT it pretty well captures how I feel right now.)

Kids Say the Dang Darndest Things

Yes, I know you know kids are funny.  Dude. There used to be a whole show about it.  They come up with the goofiest, silliest, most philosophical stuff. Kids. Are. Funny.

However, I'm dedicating this post to the hilarity of some things that have come out of my kids' mouths. I won't even be able to remember all the silly things they've come up with but there are a few that deserve a moment in the blog-light.

First, kiddos start off saying just random funny things. It's not because they're trying to be funny or witty or smart.  They're just too little to get it right.  And that itself is funny.  My daughter used to walk around saying the "F" word.  It's not a word my husband and I use frequently, if at all, but it was what she thought a duck said. "Quack, quack, quack!" Sweet little pig-tailed 18-month-old walking around swearing like a sailor. Well, a sailor with a one-word vocabulary.

A good friend of mine has a daughter who used to crack us up with her word mix-ups.  When she was just a wee one and was trying to do something difficult, she would say, "It's too HEAVY." Ha. It usually did not have anything to do with weight, but that was just the word she grabbed onto.

Then the little toddlers seem to morph into whole new funny beings.
My kids started asking particularly bizarre and funny questions:
"Mom, what if my toes fall off?" - uh... huh??
"Daddy, did you know that the sun is the lightbulb in the sky?" - ohhh, he's sooo smart!
"Daddy, did you know Mommy is my MOMMY?!" - ohhhh, not that smart!

And saying funny things:
"My best buddies are Jacob, Matt Matt, and the cow at Chic-Fil-A." - <snicker snicker>
"Mom, why don't you bring me my breakfast on a tray that you carry on your head? Cinderalla and Rapunzel can do it." - <chuckle chuckle>
"How big is Sam?! Soooooooooo... medium!" - <snort!>

The funnies are continuing to build today.  They are spending time with other silly kids at summer school and coming home telling me that I might be "lactose intolerant."  They are memorizing Disney movies and walking up to people saying, "Frying pans! Who knew?!" (Tangled, in case you didn't know the movie reference.) They are using their little growing brains to talk themselves out of trouble "I wasn't meaning to kick him [her brother] in the face, I was just practicing what I would do if a stranger tries to snatch me.  You TOLD me to!"

The kids are just funny. And some days, nothing feels better than to laugh so hard I start snorting.

No Time Like the Present

There's "no time like the present", or "no time like when prepping for a cross-country move", or "no time like when you know you are ALL DONE having babies", or "no time like 9 months before your 32nd birthday"to finally, finally, finally lose the extra weight that you've been carrying around.   So now, I'm putting it in writing.  If you are reading this, I give you my full permission to ask me how my weight loss journey is going whenever you want.  I'm putting it out there so that I will feel accountable to more than just myself.... I am an outstanding excuse-maker and an even more outstanding excuse-acceptor, so I have not been holding myself accountable very well.

If you know me (which I assume you do because how else would you be reading my bloggity blog?) you know I've been chatting about getting this weight off for a good year now.  But I mean it this time.  For real.  It's time for true-blue healthy eating with no excuses.  It's time for working out with no excuses.  

I've been wanting to drop these pounds for awhile without  being willing to make any drastic changes.  I've taken several classes in college about phyiscal fitness, I'm a certified group fitness instructor and have been teaching Zumba for a year. I KNOW what I need to do.  However, I can't seem to get my rear in gear and DO what I know I need to do.  I'm hoping by putting it in writing I'll be able to follow through and have a place to go to remind myself of what I'm doing.

MOTIVATION

1. I want to be happy with what I see in the mirror.

2. I do not want "well you did have three babies in three-and-a-half years" to be the response I get when talking about weight loss. (I DARE you to write that in my comments.  I DARE you!)

3. I want to move to California and not feel completely out of place with all the skinny-mini health nuts out there.

4. I want to surprise Paul when he comes home from deployment... he doesn't leave for a few more months, but I need to use those months to get some good habits going!

5. I want my kids to know that a fit mama is not a rare bird.

GOALS

1. Drop 40 pounds total (and I do not mean "drop a 40 pound dumbbell on my toe).  That means: 10 pounds by Halloween; 15 pounds by Christmas (allowing some wiggle room for holiday eating); 25 pounds by Valentine's Day; 35 pounds by Easter; 40 pounds by my 32nd birthday.   Howdy Ho Weight Loss!   

2. Get into my all-time favorite jeans that I wore before my first pregnancy.  Yes, I know "your body may never go back to the same size as you were pre-pregnancy" but let me tell you... I was not super-model skinny before Grace... I'm confident this is a do-able feat.

3. Wear a bikini when Paul and I go on our 10 year anniversary trip. 

ACCOUNTABILITY

1. I am going to blog my thoughts and progress every Monday.  If you don't want to hear about yet another weight loss journey, just ignore my Monday blogs.  Sorry, but I gots to do this.

2. Again, feel free to corner me the next time you see me and ask me if I'm sticking to it.

3. Pictures from my anniversary trip... hopefully I'll be sporting a two-piece (that doesn't include a tankini and a skirt as my current swimsuit does now).

Okay, present... there's no time like you!  Time to step away from the Nutella tub.  It's time to eat CLEAN and get strong.  

A List of Lists

We found out last week that we need to be on the other side of the country by November 1.  Not too bad, right?  That's still a good three months away.  Moving is a part of the Navy lifestyle and isn't really unexpected in the least.   But now it means it's time to get organized.  One thing I know how to do is make a list... and here is my list of lists:

LISTS:
1. Grocery List (always ongoing)
2. Local Activities To Do Before We Move
3. Purge and Organize (basically this is just a list of every room and closet in our house)
4. Things To Do for Renting Our House
5. Things To Do for House-Hunting Trip
6. Things To Do for My Sister's Baby Shower
7. Phone Calls to Make Locally (Utility Companies, Dr's offices, etc.)
8. Phone Calls to Make At Our New House (Housing Office, Pre-Schools, Utilities, etc.)
9. Packing List (Items that need to come with us and NOT get packed by movers)
10. Decisions That Need To Be Made

You know you're making lots of lists when your daughter plays pretend and says, "I'm the Momma and I'm making a list!"