Sleeeeeep

I am sleep deprived. I might as well admit it. Strangely, this deprivation leads to sleeplessness around midnight. If I have not managed to fall into bed COMPLETELY exhausted by midnight, I am up for at least another hour. My monthly has come and I am feeling anemic on top of exhausted. I need help getting back on the exercise track. My eating is still good. In fact, I am a little worried my milk production is not what it should be because I am not getting enough calories. Towards the evening Jane seems to be less and less satisfied with her nursing. I know they say stress can make your milk stop, but how do you stop stress? I cannot, but I CAN always eat more. :) I think I may have to start feeding Jane rice cereal to supplement her. Oh, I did skip rocks at a pond tonight. Does that count as exercise? Hmmm. I think my exhaustion is evident in the rambling and random content of this post. I shall go now.

DErailed

I have not exercised in two weeks. So sad. I have just been feeling like crap (emotionally and physically) lately and cannot call up the motivation to exercise. I have returned to being sugar free after a few days off last week. It was our anniversary last Wednesday (Four Years!) and I made brownie sundaes. And then proceeded to eat brownie sundaes for every meal until the brownies and ice cream were gone. You were right, Kyla. Anyhoo, that was only for a few days and I have been doing just fine with the sugar free lifestyle since then. I started Sarah's at-home preschooling on Tuesday and have been having a lot of fun with that! We are doing it Tuesdays and Thursdays. That means that every other week I will have stuff going on 6 days out of the week. I know that most of you already have that, but I am still trying to stay afloat after having Jane! Wish me luck on somehow managing to schedule fitness into my... schedule. "Allow myself to introduce... myself." I am lame. Goodnight!

Monday

Today was our Greeley trip. I had peanut butter honey toast with banana slices on it for breakfast. We ate at Burger King for lunch. I had the grilled chicken salad. Side note: Burger King does NOT have great salads. I also had 3 of Sarah's chicken flavored, crown shaped sponge nuggets and some of her fries, too. Sarah did not eat much of her lunch and I found out why when we were leaving. She threw up allllll over the bathroom floor. Stupid "green" movement meant there were no paper towels, just an air drier. I had to push the puke into a puddle with wet wipes and go tell the worker that there was a tidy little puddle of puke under the sink. Lovely. Anyway, I should not have eaten her food. We had turkey burger patties wrapped in whole wheat tortillas with spinach and tomatoes for dinner. AAAAND, my personal favorite, sweet potato fries! Yum. I made them with olive oil, agave nectar, salt and pepper. I try not to use that agave nectar too much, but this is one of my favorite ways to prepare sweet potatoes. I usually use brown sugar, so it is an improvement. :) I had some grapes and cheese and crackers for snack today, so I definitely hit my fruit and veggie quota for the day. And it was not even hard.

Sunday

I skipped breakfast today. We were going to be late and I taught the lesson in RS so we had to be there on time. When we got home I just ate both breakfast and lunch for lunch. :) We had Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner. Delicious! I was not that hungry today. Full on sickness has hit. Yesterday I could barely talk. Today my voice is better, but a cough has set in. It is crappy. I am going to see how I feel tomorrow before I decide if I am going to exercise. I have to drive to Greeley tomorrow to drop off the check for our new car. It is three hours round trip. With two children, maybe more. Still no sugar! It is getting easier to stay away from, too. I almost ate some out of habit the other day, but caught myself before I made a mistake. I bought Sarah some yogurt covered raisins. I was looking for a healthy snack and saw those. I almost reached for them, but then I remembered they are loaded with sugar! It will be easier to have those things around when I get into the habit of NOT reaching for them! I am tired and want to go to bed now, so goodnight!

First skip

I skipped my Power 90 today. I am going to skip tomorrow, too. I am sick and would very much like to get better. I am taking it easy and trying to get plenty of rest so I will be able to fight this off quickly. My personal goal this week is to take my vitamins every night, so I am hoping that will contribute to a speedy recovery. My eating was ok. I got in my fruits and vegetables. Still no sugar. Mucho tired. Need sleepy. Good night.

Grrrr

I managed to eat mostly healthy today. Peanut butter English muffin with banana slices for breakfast, ham and cheese wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with spinach for lunch, and a chicken wrap on whole wheat tortilla with spinach, tomatoes and a little bit of ranch for dinner. I did break down and have a peanut butter and honey English muffin with pumpkin seeds after the girls were in bed, and I ate some Fiber Selects Veggie Wheat Thins this afternoon. I woke up with a headache and kept trying to work at the knot in my neck. Did not seem to help. Thought maybe it was food related. Eating did not seem to help. I finally caved and took some Tylenol. This afternoon I started feeling not well. Sore throat, fatigue, cough. Not fun. I hate exercising when I feel like crap. I am glad tomorrow is just strength training. I would not want to do cardio feeling like this!

Shopping Day

Wednesdays are my shopping days. We used to always stop at Burger King, or Sonic, or Taco Bell, or, well, you get the point. Since we have to drive so long it seems like we are always out during lunch time. I made a special effort to get going early this morning so we could be home in time for lunch. We were hungry on the way home so I got the grapes out of the grocery bags and we ate those on the trip. I got whole grain tortillas and when we got home I had a ham and cheese wrap with spinach. Some days I seem to really get it, and some days I struggle to find something healthy that I want to eat. I am realizing that my eating is stalling out my weight loss. If I want to get my pounds down, I really need to crack down and change those things that are STILL holding me back. I only ate peanut butter honey once today. :) That is quite an improvement from yesterday! I make peanut butter and honey on multi-grain English muffins topped with sliced bananas or pumpkin seeds. I may try the bananas on it without honey. That will be fewer calories anyway. I am beginning to learn how to adjust recipes to be healthier and making healthy choices out of habit. It is pretty exciting!

PMS

Ate p.b. and honey on bread for 3 meals today. I sprinkled pumpkin seeds on it to help beef up the nutrition. I am approaching the p-word. I am sure that has a lot to do with it.

And I'm Back!

It has been a few days since I last posted. My girls and Tyler are all sick. I have had a lot of late nights and tired days and blogging has been low on my list of priorities! I woke up with a splitting headache this morning and missed my morning workout. I did get it in after I put Jane to bed, though. I was really thinking I might miss it today, but Tyler gave me a little encouragement and instead of snapping at him like I would normally, I got my butt in gear and did Power 90! I am glad I did even though my headache is back and it really was a little late in the day for me. I think I am definitely a morning exerciser. Lesson learned. I will not put it off this late again!

I am getting pretty excited about starting running. I still have 30 pounds to lose before I want to start running, but I am feeling a second wind in my eating efforts. If I want to run a half-marathon, losing weight is not one option, it is the only option!

I got rid of a bunch of "skinny clothes" today. I was going through old boxes looking for clothes I can wear while I am losing weight so I do not have to waste money on clothes I do not plan to wear for long. I found all these clothes that I loved and had not wanted to get rid of, but a lot of them were dated or not age appropriate. I found it quite liberating to get rid of all these clothes I was waiting to fit in!

Friday!

Another week almost over, thank goodness. Still have not missed a day of Power 90. I may not be physically ready for running, but we are starting to have crisp, cool autumn mornings and it makes me want to get out and run in it. Maybe I will be able to start my running after I am done with Power 90 and my healthy challenge. It is too bad that soon winter and snow will be here and then no more running outside. I will have a good three months, though! And some surprise days in winter, too, if it is going to be anything like last year.

My eating today was ok. I ate a lot of fruit, but haven't had my second serving of vegetables. I am still going to count it because I ate sooooo much fruit. I have been in a snacky mood today, but I managed to keep my snacks healthy (whole grain crackers and Laughing Cow light cheese, grapes, an apple).

I am starting to make healthy choices out of habit and I must say, it is really nice not to have to struggle about whether to eat brownies or an apple for snack. This is one of my big motivations for getting healthy. I am so tired of always having to think about being fat and if what I am doing is contributing to my health or my obesity. I can hardly wait until living healthily is second nature. :)

Blah

I am feeling pretty miserable and have been indulging in some comfort food. I ate two rolls with my lunchtime lentil soup. And I had two servings of eggplant parmesan for dinner. I baked it instead of frying it, though. Our neighbor brought us an eggplant from the farmer's market and it was about to go bad. We had all the ingredients for eggplant parmesan and it seemed fairly simple. I had never cooked eggplant before, so I was looking for simple! It turned out very well. And fairly healthy with whole wheat pasta and baking the eggplant instead of frying.

I really kicked it up a notch in my Power 90 workout today, really trying not to do too many of the modifications. I want to get the most out of my workouts and that means increasing my effort as my stamina and strength increase. I am feeling it tonight, though! My obliques are pretty sore.

I was trying to figure the date that my 10-week Healthy Challenge and my Power 90 would be up. They are only a week apart! My Power 90 ends Oct. 30th and my healthy challenge extends to a week after that. I am going to start recording my weight and maybe my measurements on my healthy challenge point sheet every week. I cannot believe that my weight is dropping just from cutting out sugar! I feel like I have not cut back in any other area, but the proof is in the scale!

Yay!

Today was a busy day. I feel like I was on the phone all day and we had to go to Sterling to do our grocery shopping. We are not stopping at fast food places for lunch anymore, so I had to plan ahead and prepare a lunch for Sarah and I. We got a late start so we ended up picnicking at the park before shopping instead of just eating it in the car on the way home. We left at 11:30am and did not get home until 2:30pm. This morning as I was getting ready to start my workout, Ali called and we have been texting back and forth so I knew I needed to talk to her. I ended up having to skip my workout. I have been afraid of this happening from the beginning. Afraid that if I missed one workout I would never get back on track. Well, booyah to myself because I totally did my workout when we got home! I just need to remember that I can do it!! AND today is my half-way mark! Forty-five days of Power 90 and going strong. My eating could have been better today, but still no sugar. :) I am watching a movie with my hubby, so I am going to consider this done!

Still Truckin'

I am still going. No sugar since last Monday. Still doing Power 90, although I really did not want to this morning. I have been feeling exhausted lately. I fell asleep putting Sarah to bed last night around 8 o'clock. Ridiculous. And frustrating because I lost a bunch of points. I usually do my blogging and my fifteen minutes of spiritual reading after the kids are in bed, but there was no "after" for me yesterday. Then this morning I could barely make it through my workout. I seem to have shaken it off for the most part because I totally kicked booty tonight! I made dinner, washed my dishes, did a bunch of laundry, folded and put away all my towels. I am afraid I cannot mark my point for healthy eating today because I made Cheddar Cabbage Casserole which has cheese (as the title implies), butter coated cornflakes, cream of chicken soup and mayo. Our next door neighbor brought us over a cabbage from the farmer's market and this is the only recipe I have for cabbage. And I do not really like cabbage. This recipe makes it palatable. Even Sarah ate it! But I imagine almost anything would taste good if you smother it in cheese and mayo and top it with butter coated cornflakes.

Sunday

I like Sundays because we are at church, or traveling to church, for 4 to 6 hours, depending on whether Tyler has meetings after the block. That means there are 4 to 6 hours I do not have to worry about eating! I had leftover wheat crust veggie pizza for breakfast and a salad for lunch with grapes on the side. I feel pretty good. Still tired, but my sugar headaches get less and less intense everyday! I am not sure what I am making for dinner tonight. I hope it is something healthy!

So Sad

This morning I realized how much my sugar addiction has effected my family. Sarah asked for a popsicle for breakfast. We compromised and she had half a popsicle after breakfast. Twenty minutes later she was asking for candy. This is no way to raise children. I am going to try extra hard to change the way I eat, and the way I talk about what I eat and will not eat. I want my family to be healthy. I do not want my daughters to have the same struggles I do. Instead of giving Sarah candy when she asked for it, I offered a banana. She was perfectly happy with that compromise. We even put some sugar-free peanut butter on it and she liked that too! I just want to be a good mom. I always knew that what I feed my family is a huge part of that. I just had not realized how short I was falling in my responsibility. You may have noticed a new name in my Million Dollar Bloggers section. My friend referred me to her sister-in-law's website. She's a personal trainer with four children. She has a lot of recipes on her blog that are healthy and kid-friendly. If she can do it with four children AND a job, I figure I can make a good go at it.

Almost Over

I am so glad this week is almost over. It has seemed grueling to me. No sugar since Monday, though. And no missed days of exercise. :) I was just talking to Kyla about how you get ready to run THIRTEEN miles. I really have to crack down on the eating. I cannot start running until I lose 35 more pounds. I am exercising, but to lose weight I really need to watch how much I am eating. Today was horrible. To compensate for not being able to eat what I really wanted (sugar) I ate like 30,000 calories. At least it felt like it! Sarah's first dance class was today. Adorable, by the way. I rushed out the door without eating breakfast. Jane and I went to the grocery store to get something, and instead of getting junk, I got bananas and high fiber crackers and Laughing Cow cheese spread. I was also proud because I did not spend a lot of money and only got what I needed. That is important because we are buying a new car and our budget is going to be what it was when we were living on our savings. Time to start remembering how to be frugal again!

Still Holding Up

Today I was having some MAJOR sugar withdrawal. My head aches constantly, I am mucho irritable, and my brain is not seeming to function correctly. We were in Sterling again today and had to eat. We went to Burger King, but I stayed strong. I got the Tendergrill chicken sandwich on a wheat roll. I should have asked for no mayo, but live and learn. There were some kids in the play area that had these delicious looking ice cream drinks. I was very tempted to get some and relieve my pounding head, which, as you can imagine, is not helped by sitting in the play area at Burger King. BUT, I just busied myself with taking care of Jane and tried not to think about it. So YAY for day 3 of being sugar-free! Still going strong with Power 90. Next week will be my halfway point. I am in awe of my perseverance. I know it is through the Atonement that I am able to finally make these changes. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for lending me the strength to do this. I just hope it extends to my eating!

Eh

I went to McDonald's with Sarah to have a playdate with her friend. I did get a salad. Not a great salad, but a salad. I did not eat any major sugar today, just what was in the salad dressing. I got my two servings of fruit and vegetables. For dinner we had spaghetti. I have been buying the whole wheat noodles for quite a while now. We also had garlic bread and a delicious salad. I realized that one of my biggest problems last week was just not having enough vegetables to eat two servings everyday. When I went shopping today I made sure to load up on veggies and fruit so that we wouldn't run out. I also got sweet potatoes because they keep a little better than other vegetables. If I plan my meals and snacks the day before I am a lot less likely to eat poorly. I am finding that I can plan ahead for my eating just like I plan ahead for my exercise. Speaking of, I got some eight pound weights today to replace my five pound ones. I am getting stronger! Well, the baby is crying so I will consider this as filling my positive writing point for the day.

Week two of Healthy Challenge

Monday was a bad start to this week. We were traveling home from Pueblo so I ate horribly and did not get to do the other assignments for the challenge. I did get up and exercise before we went home. I still haven't missed a day of Power 90. Day 38 tomorrow and still going strong! I bought most of the stuff to make Kyla's granola that will help me get through without sugar. I did very well today, I thought. No sugar, 2 servings of fruit and vegetables, minimal snacking between meals. I did good. I am hoping not to miss any points this week. That is why I am up writing this at 11:27pm. :) I hope everyone else is doing well!

Huge Embarrassing Failure

This is the end of my 4th day of the Healthy Challenge. I hate it. I do not have time to shower recently, I am on my period and I am exhausted because Jane is not sleeping AGAIN. Add to that all the requirements of the Healthy Challenge and you get, as the name of this post implies, a huge embarrassing failure. I am still doing Power 90 and I am sure I burned a ton of calories today trying to get all my housework done. I had to add that. The Healthy Challenge point is for positive writing. :) I talked to Kyla today and she said to start with eliminating sugar. I think I may have to do that, dogonnit. I have been feeling like crap lately and I have been completely exhausted after exercising. I know it is because I have not been putting the correct fuel in my body. I was talking to a woman in our ward who has a daughter in gymnastics. The doctor told her that when people work their bodies that hard, eating sugar will leach calcium from their bones. She has to be on a strict non-sugar diet as long as she competes in gymnastics. I was thinking that sugar is not a good idea if I hope to train for a half-marathon! And it is probably better to start now! I am going to do some shopping while we are back in Pueblo this weekend and see if I can find some naturally sweet stuff at Vitamin Cottage.

Day 2 and Day 30

Day 2 of the healthy challenge: not so good. I ate horribly. But no sugar. I have to make extra sure I do all my other points so I only lose the one point. I am working hard at not giving up because I mess up. That is what The Beck Diet Solution talks about. I do not have to give up on my health because it is hard or I am not perfect at it right away. I am determined to keep going, no matter what! This is what the Atonement is about. I can do better every time I fail. BUT, I am doing well with Power 90! I am currently surfing the Crimson Wave and I was tired and grouchy and bloaty and achy this morning. Putting my workout clothes right next to the bed before I go to sleep has been extremely helpful. Some mornings it is all that keeps me going. That proved true this morning. This was the first day I seriously contemplated skipping my workout. Those clothes sitting right next to my bed were the encouragement I needed. I am even more convinced than I have ever been that it is necessary to prepare for success.

Day 1 of Healthy Challenge, Day 29 of Power 90

Day 1 of the Healthy Challenge is going well. I have already been able to mark off 3 points today! I have not been terribly tempted by sugar or sweets, which is something I was worried about. I have been busy today and that helps. I got up and did Power 90 (1/3 of the way through, YAY!), went to my moms' group at 9, got home at 11:30, and I have been trying to get things back to normal after our trip to Pueblo. That means LOTS of laundry and general picking up. I am not quite sure what else to write, but this is for a point so I feel like only writing this much would be cheating! I am still going strong with Power 90. No missed days for a month! I am glad I have stuck so faithfully to this because when I went to Pueblo my consistency re-inspired Megan to make time for exercise. I had a wonderful visit with everyone while I was there. I think that little boost is making this 10 week challenge a little easier! I hope everyone else is doing well and progressing in their goals. Ooh, that reminds me. My personal goal for this week is to read my Advantages Response Card before every meal. That is an index card with my reasons for wanting to lose weight written on it. It makes it harder to overeat with those reasons fresh in my mind at every meal!

10 Week Healthy Challenge

This is the message my friend sent me about the Challenge. Anyone who would like is welcome. to join. Just send me your totals every day. Thanks!


So here is the 10 week Healthy Challenge: The healthy challenge is a point based challenge. There are 10 things to do each day for a one point, for a total of 10 points a day and a total of 70 points a week. The items that are included exercising, eating 2 servings of fruits and vegetables, drinking 48 oz of water a day, eating healthy, no sweets, no eating after 10 pm, positive writing, say I love you, set a personal goal, 15 minutes of spiritual/uplifting reading. There is also 10 free points a week.The weekly 10 free points: Each week you start with 10 free points (1 per category) or you can take one whole day off....your choice. I usually saved my free points for the weekend. Use them Monday and you'll be so sorry! When I used a free point, instead of a '1' on my spreadsheet, I would write a 'F' so I could make sure I only used 1 per category each week! Sugary snacks include all candy, cookies, ice cream, sugar cereals, syrups, chocolate, etc. Don't worry about a cracker that you know has white sugar in it...we aren't being that strict! Watch the labels as several health bars, granola bars, diet drinks are loaded with sugar. You are allowed ONE sugar substitute snack a day (sugar free ice cream/candy, etc), Splenda type packets and crystal light are allowed, however the crystal light only counts as 1/2 of your water for the day.No soda pop includes diet pop too!! Chemicals=bad for us!Eating after 10:00 includes ALL eating after 10:00-yes even protein drinks! Water of course is allowed 24/7! Your personal goal needs to be the same goal for a week and something that you can work on/do each day. Change up each week or keep it the same for the 10 weeks, how many WEEKS you do it is up to you! If you choose to quit the challenge prior to the 10 weeks, you agree to still email in points. YES this is a pain but the whole purpose of this challenge is self improvement & reporting will help keep you GOING and NOT quit!!!PLEASE email your totals each Sunday night by 10:00 so I can post the totals Monday morning.

Ten Week Health Challenge

My friend on facebook is doing a ten week health challenge. It is based on points. There are categories that you earn points for every day like eating 2 servings of fruit or vegetables, no sugar, exercising, positive writing (can be in a journal, a blog or even a letter to someone), 15 minutes of spiritual reading, etc. You have ten free points every week, so if you eat sugar one day, or, like me, choose not to exercise on the Sabbath, you use one of your free points and mark it with an "F." There are a bunch of us starting it and I thought it would be good. I would have to e-mail in my points at the end of every day. Maybe this will help me be better about my eating. It starts August 30th so I have a week to prepare. I like that it is not JUST losing weight, but about improving yourself. Let me know if anyone would like to get more details. Maybe we could do a splinter group!

Day 19

As the end of week THREE draws to a close, I can proudly say I have exercised every planned day! Six days a week of exercising for three weeks! Well, when I exercise tomorrow it will be three weeks, but close enough! The workouts are actually getting harder because I no longer have to do the modified versions of some of the exercises. My push-ups are lookin' good! Even though I still have to do them from my knees. I still have to do the modified dips, but now I can do 12 instead of 10. I wonder how long it will take before I can actually move to the circuit 3-4 DVDs. I would like to go through Power 90 once, then do it again, adding Zumba in the afternoons. We have P90X, but I am thinking it may be a while before I can do that one! I am getting SO excited about all the exercise programs that look so fun I am planning to try. I never would have even thought myself capable of them before. And I am discovering I really love exercising. My eating could still use some work, but like Anbo encourages, I am taking baby steps and getting there. I signed up for the No Excuses Workout e-mails and he always says that a year from now you will wish you had started today. I am no longer in that category! I have started! I hope everyone else is doing well and discovering encouraging improvements. Thanks for all your comments and support. It makes this even more exciting!

Day 16

And the difficulty sets in. I am still doing Power 90 every day except Sunday. Buuuuuut my eating has not been fantastic. I am on my period and my hormones are still crazy from the pregnancy. My cravings have been insanely intense and I must admit I have given in to them on a preeeeety regular basis. I am in the wrapping up stage so I am hoping that these cravings recede. I have not been eating after 8 (except for Sunday night, blah) and I have still been exercising, but eating at the table has not been happening. I am snacking too much between meals and I have not been eating the best things (i.e. almost an entire pan of brownies in two days). I feel some of this is due to Jane not sleeping more than two hours at a time at night. I am exhausted and the effort of eating well seems to be beyond me at the moment. I am hoping some of my exhaustion is hormonal so it will get easier in a few days. Any tips for staying motivated when you just do not have the energy?

Day 13

Saturdays are always hard for me. I am usually feeling a little worn down and tired by Saturday, but I did Power 90 anyway. I went to the public pool with the girls yesterday. I put on my swimsuit I had worn just the weekend before I started Power 90. I cannot believe the difference! I still wore Tyler's swim trunks and a tank top over. There is a limit to what 2 weeks can do, but it was definitely encouraging!

Day 11

Today had a rough start. I did not get to bed until midnight and Jane woke up every two hours. I woke up exhausted and grouchy and we had to be at a moms' group at 9am. I am glad I have been establishing my Power 90 routine and had my workout clothes, shoes and a pair of socks right next to the bed. It would have been very easy to skip it, otherwise. AND the payoff- I put on a pair of capris I have been avoiding because they were skin tight and gave me the attractive front butt and they were a bit too BIG! Yay! Now I have another hot weather option instead of wearing full length pants and roasting. I am pretty excited by all these positive changes. It helps me stay motivated.

Day 9

Success!! According to my bathroom scale, I have lost FOUR pounds! And that was even after I had eaten breakfast! This is the encouragement I needed after watching that show about saggy skin. I feel SO much better. I never noticed how poor my balance had become, but I have noticed a huge improvement since starting Power 90. I have more strength. When I shave my legs in the shower, the leg I am standing on does not start to hurt or get tired. I can carry Jane up the stairs without leaning on the wall. My clothes are starting to fit better. I can fit into clothes I have not been able to wear for quite a while, so it is like having a new wardrobe! It is amazing how much difference nine days can make! This makes me excited to do my workouts!

Day 6 - Completion of first week of Power 90

I DID IT! I really did not want to do Power 90 this morning. I have not been getting much sleep lately and we have a Court of Honor at 10:30am for the bishop's sons who got their Eagle. But, by golly, I did it! It might have been a tad half-hearted, especially because I am feeling a little deflated today. Last night a show came on after Say Yes to the Dress. It was a show about people who have lost 100 pounds or more. All of them had trouble with huge flaps of saggy skin, especially on their abdomen. What I got out of that is that even if I lose weight, I am still going to be gross and unattractive because we cannot (and never will be able to) afford the $12,000-$20,000 it costs to have a "trunk lift" as they are called. I will stick with it anyway. I will just buy girdles to keep my saggy skin under control once I have lost the weight. *sigh*

Day 5

Five days of Power 90 down, 85 to go! I am starting to feel less sore, thank goodness. I can already feel my strength and balance improving. I can carry the baby up the stairs without having to lean against the wall for balance. My back does not hurt as much when I stand for long periods of time thanks to my strengthening core muscles. I was pretty tired after exercising the first few days, but now I feel energized by my workouts. I have 40 pounds to go until my pre-Sarah weight and 80 pounds to go until Tyler buys me a new couch for our living room. I really feel like this is the time I am going to go all the way! I cannot have any more children until I am in the best health I can be in so we do not have the complications we had with Jane and Sarah. That is pretty good motivation. Also, I am mucho excited to run a half marathon with my fabulous family and to be cheered from the sideline by Anbo. :)

Day 3

I ate horribly today. Too many snacks, and a Sonic Lemon-Berry real fruit slush that I found out contained 500 calories! I went on Calorieking.com to check on it and was really sad to find that Tyler's greasy, deep-fried onion rings had less calories than my real fruit slush. But other than that, I did Power 90, did not eat after 8pm, and made a concerted effort to sit down at the table and eat consciously. We have a lot of soda left from when everyone was here for the blessing, so I have definitely been consuming a lot more liquid calories trying to get rid of the soda. Most of the soda is caffeinated which saves me from having to drink it, too, at least. Overall I will consider today a win, because it makes me feel better to do so! :)

Day Two

On Monday I started implementing my plan for weight loss. I am still far from perfect, but I am giving myself credit for what I am doing and trying to be consistent in my efforts. So far, really the only things I have done is not eat after 8, try not to snack as much between meals, and exercise. I have done Power 90 two days in a row. I am preeeeeetty sore today, but I am not going to give up. I thought I would be more tired, but I have to say, I feel pretty good. I wanted to start with exercise because when I exercise I am less likely to eat poorly and undo all my hard work! I really want to go all 90 days with the Power 90 program. I have never gone all 90 days, but even for the amount of time I have done before, I definitely noticed a difference in my body. I am excited to start seeing results!

One More Time with Feeling!

So, my sisters and I are all wanting to run a half marathon in November 2011. I cannot run it weighing 240 pounds! So here we go again. I am on a quest to lose weight. I have discovered that "diets" do not work for me. I want to be able to cook meals that my whole family will eat and sit down and eat with them. I am just going to start off small by only having one portion of what I am eating, sitting down at the table and paying attention when I eat, and not eating after 8pm. I want to start doing Power 90 six days a week and lose at least 40 more pounds before I start running. I am hoping that we can all get our blogs going again and encourage one another and be accountable to one another. This is going to be difficult with two children, one of which is a nursing infant, so I'll need lots of support. Come on, ladies! Let's get in shape!

Update

I'm not sure how much everyone knows about what has been going on, but here's the story. Three weeks after the c-section, I had a big hard knot in my stomach. Having the infection after Sarah, I wasn't quite sure what was normal, but when a long red line appeared above my incision I called the doctor to make an appointment. They were going to see me the next day. That night, around 2am, I was sleeping in the recliner when Jane woke up. I twisted in my chair to lift her and my incision popped open and blood literally POURED out. I ran down the hallway leaving a trail of blood behind me and jumped in the bath. There was probably 2 cups of blood in the bathtub and I was really worried I was going to bleed to death. Then I saw clots in the blood. I called my doctor's office and they connected me to the doctor on call. She told me it wasn't life threatening, but to go to the ER. We loaded up the babies and went to the hospital where they gave me a cat scan to determine if I was still bleeding into my abdomen or what was going on. Lucky for me, I was not still bleeding, but a large hematoma had formed on my abdominal wall. At 12:30pm that day I had surgery to remove the hematoma. Additional incisions were made to insert drains into my abdomen in order to prevent fluid build up that could become an infection. I was not able to nurse for the first 24 hours after the scan because the dye they use can be passed through breast milk. Jane had to have formula for a whole day and at night when she was home with Tyler. Tyler had to take both our children home every night and be a single parent. He did a great job. I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for him. After 3 days in the hospital, we were released to go home. It has been a week and a half since my second surgery and my wound is weeping quite a bit. This is what happened when my infection in my c-section incision started after I had Sarah. They had me on heavy duty antibiotics, but I'm finished taking them. I see the doctor again on Wednesday to determine whether it is, in fact, infected or not, so I'd appreciate anyone who wants to pray that it won't become an infection. Possible infection aside, I am feeling a lot better without the hematoma. I was still in quite a bit of pain and was starting to get frusterated that I was still hurting that bad 3 weeks after the c-section. That's what has been going on here. I hope things are well with everyone out there!

Post-baby

Here we are, two weeks and one day into life with two children :) Jane is amazing and sweet and Sarah LOVES her. Mom left on Tuesday morning, I got the stomach flu around 3 in the morning on Wednesday and was so sick I could barely function until today. In spite of all that, Tyler has been a huge help in keeping up the house and between my feeble efforts and his hard work, the house has been kept in functional form, including laundry. A lot of this is due to my mom's hard work while she was here, so all we have to do is maintenance, but it was one of my greatest fears to have our house fall apart after I had Jane and we have managed to keep that from happening so far. So YAY!

Getting there

Things are finally starting to return to some kind of normal after sisters weekend. Tyler was home all last week for Spring Break and he was really helpful in getting the house back into shape. I am entering utter exhaustion phase in the pregnancy. I feel pretty comfortable besides the baby crushing my bladder. I get up to pee like 7 times in the night. That's no exaggeration. Really. Like 7 times. And Sarah is still waking up in the night. I think that's one of the reasons I'm having such a hard time keeping up with my routines. I mostly want to sleep all day! Other than that, I'll just keep on keepin' on until the baby comes.

Today!

This morning when we woke up, I discovered that Sarah had peed through her diaper and all her bedding was soaked in urine. There's nothing to jump start laundry like a bedding incident! I got up and put her bedding in the laundry right away because if I waited, either she wouldn't have any sheets to sleep on tonight, or she'd be sleeping on pee soaked bedding. Neither of those seemed acceptable scenarios to me, so into the washing machine it went! That led me to sort the laundry I've been putting off all week and get it started, too. We are going to Pueblo for the weekend tomorrow since Tyler has Friday off, and I do NOT want to leave my house a filthy pig mess so I can come home to a filthy pig mess! We also need clean clothes if we want to be able to pack tomorrow before Tyler comes home. So today is my no excuses/anti-procrastination day! This house is getting clean if I have to pass out 20 times to do it! All our beds are made and I did my FULL swish and swipe this morning instead of just wiping down the counter. I have load number 3 in the washer and I microwaved my sponge in preparation for the dish washing marathon awaiting me in the kitchen. This house will be clean 15 minutes at a time! Wish me luck!

Still trying...

I've really been struggling with getting my house cleaned up. I was sick the day after we got back. Sarah and I both just kinda laid around, so nothing got done. Then I was having major dizzy spells and had to keep sitting down, so day 2 of nothing much getting done. I do a little something every day, but I'm so far behind that by the end of the day anything I managed to get done is undone! I have a dish marathon waiting for me in the kitchen, a major toy removal and vacuuming marathon in the living room, piles of trash to take out, and my bathroom needs a major overhaul. I must say, my bathroom counters are cleared off and wiped down. And we made Sarah's bed and my bed this morning. That's about all I can say for my accomplishments. The bigger I get, the more exhausted I get and it is getting increasingly difficult to do anything with the energy of even 2 weeks ago. Just wish me luck. I'll keep on keepin' on. Send your prayers my way. I only have 2 months before baby comes and the whole reason I started this was to have my house in order before that occurs. I'm going to go get dressed to my shoes right now and see if that helps.

I'm baaaaaack

Today is my first full day back from sisters weekend. We got home around 2:30 yesterday afternoon, unpacked the car, sat down for a few minutes, then left to get my ultrasound around 3:20pm. Everything looks good. The baby is actually a little small! Not an amount to worry about, but definitely not oversized! We got a few 3D images, too. Beautiful little girl! Makes me anxious to meet her. AND my blood test came back normal. NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES!!! Yay! We didn't get back from Sterling til almost 8pm so I hurried got Sarah ready for bed. We were reading stories in Tyler and I's bed when Sarah started coughing. She coughed so hard she threw up her dinner all over in our bed. I quickly stripped the sheets and got new ones, but by the time I got Sarah to sleep it was 9:30pm. Too late for me to stay awake considering the busy day we had! I fell asleep. That means this morning I woke up to all our bags still on the living room floor, a pile of puke sheets at the bottom of the stairs, and dried puke in the bathtub. And I had to go grocery shopping first thing. I'm back from shopping and feeling a little overwhelmed. I need to set my timer and jump back in. My goal is to NOT let my little vacation derail my routines. Wish me luck!

Sisters Weekend

We're getting ready to leave for sisters weekend in about 3 hours. Yay! I have to say, being organized makes taking a trip a lot easier! Tyler and I cleaned our cars out yesterday in preparation to switch. Mine actually didn't really need all that much cleaning. I've been trying to bring all our stuff in every time we get out of the car. In the past, we would have put it off til this morning and had to go down in the dark and cold and try to figure out what we needed and what needs to be taken out. I have Sarah's and Coy's car seats sitting by the front door. I have a list of things not to forget. All my laundry was done and I was showered last night before I went to bed. I have a few dishes in the sink and my living room and kitchen need a quick clean, but other than that I'm leaving Tyler with a clean house. I'm hoping this will mean I get to come home to a clean house! We'll see. I wrote down Heather's flight information on a note card last night and put a roll of quarters in my purse for paying my parking at the airport. We started packing yesterday, so today we just had to put in our clothes from last night's laundry and the stuff we had to use last night. I'm sitting here with almost nothing to do! I'm used to traveling with my family. Everything is put off til last minute and we are ALWAYS late starting. What a difference being organized makes in the stress level of traveling! I hope you guys all have a great weekend! I'll be back Tuesday!

More Benefits!

Yesterday I made dinner for my family. This is nothing new. I make dinner almost every night. BUT last night, I made beans in my Crock Pot, Mexican rice AND corn bread. I usually just make the main course and barely get that done in time! I don't dread cooking anymore, because I know the dishes will get done that night and not sit and multiply for 2 weeks until I have an all day dish washing ahead of me. This means my family will have better rounded meals and I'll be able to make vegetables on the side. Who would think that keeping my house clean would have an effect on our food? This morning Sarah wanted macaroni and cheese for breakfast. It's a strange request, but I gladly complied! Sarah is NOT a breakfast person. If I can get her to eat anything before 11 I'm totally excited. Because all my dishes were done from last night, I didn't say no. I knew things would get cleaned up as soon as we were finished so one extra pot in a day wouldn't hurt anything! Which makes me think I could eat hot cereal for breakfast every morning! That's healthier than Marshmallow Mateys! Keeping my house clean is just branching into so many areas of my life. I continue to be amazed and excited!

Holding Steady

Things kind of fell apart on Sunday. We had a rough night and Sarah cried almost the entire 45 minutes of the drive home. I was exhausted and grouchy and took a nap on the couch. I didn't wash the dinner dishes, shine my sink, OR pick up the living room before bed, but I got up and got dressed to my shoes, made my bed and put away my clean dishes this morning. Then I did a 5 minute rescue in the living room, which is really all it took! I am gearing up to do the dishes right after I post this. One of the best things I've noticed about this: Tyler and Sarah have started picking up after themselves and pitching in more. Tyler made the bed on Saturday, as he was the last one up. Sarah's toy room hasn't been torn up. She's getting out one thing at a time. Tyler will actually wash dishes if there are just a few in the sink! I guess everyone else likes having a clean house, too! I bought some microfiber cloths to put in my bathroom for my daily swish and swipe. I hang it on the towel rack and anytime I wash my hands in the bathroom I dry the counter and look for any spots to clean off the mirror. As a result, my bathroom counters are always cleared off. I put my dryer, flat iron and brushes away as soon as I'm done, because who hides a candle under a bushel? Sarah is starting to understand these changes are due to Flylady. We listen to her on BlogTalk radio and when Sarah asks me why I'm doing something that's part of my routines, I tell her that Flylady tells me to do it so we can keep our house clean. Developing routines for my cleaning is helping me develop routines for prayer and scripture study, and, like Anbo, I'm growing more and more thankful for Heavenly Father's help in overcoming my myriad weaknesses! He really does help us and let's us know just where to start when the list seems so overwhelming! I can't say it enough: FLYLADY.NET! I recommend it to anyone who wonders where all their time goes and yet nothing ever gets done! It has been life changing. It helps me live gospel principles better and I feel so much better about myself.

Nirvana!

I'm getting there! I'm beginning to see how small habits build up to make a clean house!!!!! Every day, I get out of bed and right away I make it. My bed looks so nice, I never leave anything on the floor. My room has been clean for 2 weeks now. Sarah's room is easy, I just make sure anytime I go upstairs I check her room for things that don't belong there and put them back where they go. I've been keeping up with laundry, so there aren't mounds of clothes everywhere. I fold everything straight out of the drier and put it away as soon as possible, so I don't have clean clothes sitting all over either. I never go a whole day without doing all the dishes that are in the sink at the time I do dishes. I have left some in the sink overnight, but they never sit there for 24 hours. Usually, not even 12 hours! I haven't done any 2 hour dish washing marathons for quite a while now! Sarah's toy room is clean, and she put all her toys that she'd brought to the living room back in the toy room before dinner. I did my swish and swipe today, so my bathroom is clean. My whole house is almost clean, and I can honestly say it was with hardly any effort on my part. All I did was get off my franny for a few 15 minute cleaning sessions! I even got to spend more time with Sarah today than usual. We snuggled on the couch and watched The Secret of NIMH, did puzzles, and colored a little! My house is cleaner than it's ever been AND I have the most time I've ever had to spend with my family! I didn't think those two things went together! My extra room is still a disaster, but I really need to just set the timer for 15 minutes and get it done! I can't believe that this has happened since the week after Valentine's Day, when I more fully committed to the FLYlady program AND a regular scripture study and prayer program! I have to add that. I feel the one would not be possible without the other. Thanks, Anbo, for your encouragement. Your great success has inspired me!

Small Setback

Yesterday I let my perfectionism get in the way of my 5 minute room rescues. I did clean in each of the 4 rooms, but in the extra room, instead of picking up all the stuff all over I scrubbed a place on the carpet where Sarah spilled something that dried into a crusty stain. It took me 10 minutes to do something insignificant compared to the 5 minutes it would have taken me to pick up the whole room. *sigh* I did clean all the books up in Sarah's room and mostly cleaned up the living room. I did a 30 second room rescue in the toy room :) My kitchen was a mess, but right before I went to bed I decided to shine my sink which led me to clean the counter! It's still better than it was a few months ago, but I'm a long way from FLYing. One good thing that has happened with Flylady, though, is that all my bills have been on time for 3 months (Tyler used to pay the bills and it took me a while to get in the groove, especially when I was sick) and I never have any late fees at the library. Our routines and schedules have helped! One little thing at a time until my house is a well-oiled machine!

Fluttering

Us FLYbabies call it fluttering when we're striving to keep up our routines, however imperfectly! I think that's pretty accurate for what I'm accomplishing. My dishes are done. My kitchen is (mostly) clean, I took out the trash and cleaned the bathroom. I dressed to my shoes. I made my bed. I took out everything that didn't belong in my bedroom. I'm fluttering, alright, but I'm not giving up! My living room, extra room, and Sarah's toy room are all disasters and Sarah threw all her books out of her bookcase in her bedroom. I guess three out of four rooms isn't too bad. And it's certainly an improvement from just 3 weeks ago. I'll keep fluttering as long as it takes until I'm FLYing! I want to establish a "house of order" for my family. That phrase comes to my mind often as I pray and study. Heavenly Father wants us to have the peace and ease of living in an orderly environment. I want to work on the 5 minute "room rescues" that Flylady suggests. Five minutes at a time is most certainly doable! That's my goal for tomorrow. Five minute room rescues in all the 4 rooms that are not in order. I'll report back tomorrow evening.

Ppbbbbtttt

Today was not a good day for Lent resolutions :) I woke up around 6:15 with Sarah to several inches of snow outside and it was still coming down. I knew we would not be driving to Fort Morgan to do our grocery shopping! I stayed in my pajamas til around 1 pm, didn't do my dishes or make my bed. I guess it wasn't a total loss. I DID put away the dishes I did last night, swept the snow off the front porch, got dressed to my shoes (even if it was a liiiiitle late), and washed some of Sarah's stuffed animals I was afraid of catching the plague from. Some of my habits were not broken. I think I need to give myself a little leeway on some things. Being pregnant means that no matter how well I treat my body, there will be days when I am sick or exhausted and pushing myself to do everything I planned will only make it worse. I'm beginning to realize this a little late in the pregnancy. "But, Sybil," you might ask, "weren't you pregnant once already? Didn't you know this?" Answer: No. With Sarah I was able to lay around all day without worrying about a two year old destroying the house. I could nap all day if I wanted. It's quite different this time around. I am glad for the challenge, though, because I'm also learning that I can always do SOME things, even if it's only 5 minutes at a time.

Flylady

I wrote about giving up procrastination in my last post. For the past two weeks I've been striving to keep my house clean. I try to keep my bathroom counters cleared and wiped down. I try to keep my dishes done and my kitchen sink shiny. I make my bed every day and try to get dressed to my shoes so I'm ready for any errands or emergencies that might come up. I've been doing my laundry consistently, even throwing in a load NOT on my "laundry day" and I can't believe the difference this makes! I love Flylady.net! Best program ever. It has taught me that I can do anything for 15 minutes and that small changes can make a big difference. I am going to try to keep adding routines and stick with the ones I've already established for the entire 40 days of Lent. I've been reading my scriptures and saying my prayers every day and that helps with ALL my other resolutions! Including being more patient with Sarah. I hope that I can keep up all the hard work!

Well, I might be dieting after all...

My doctor's office called today. I have to go in for a 3 hour blood glucose level test. Apparently, my numbers were a little high with the one hour test. If I have gestational diabetes I'll have to go on a diet! No sugar! We'll see. I am really hoping I don't have it. Wish me luck!

Random

This is a weird and random post, but I had no other outlet to post my new discovery on. Kate Moss has revealed her gray hair and I think she is beautiful. She has a kind of wise and weary delicacy that reminded me of a favorite graphic novel character from my youth. See for yourself.