Need to recommitt

As my ticker reflects, my weight loss has taken a hit in the last few months.  It started slowly, at first I just plateaued, then slowly I started to gain a few of those pounds back.  I wasn't working out as much and I was not making good food choices. 

I have had to admit that I am definitely a comfort eater.  If I've had a rough day, if I'm stressed, I tend to make poor food choices, or treat myself.  Life has been stressful lately and with it being birthday season around my house (we have 5 birthdays within less 33 days!  Michelle's, mine and Angies, my mom, and Adam all between April 27th and May 30, plus at least 3 other birthdays in the close family and friends) there is a lot of leftover cake to resist.  When we get busy, we also tend to eat out more.  Adam and I will forego making our lunches in favor of eating out.  And lets face it, when I eat out I want to eat what I want. I don't want to go order a salad every time.  I try to watch the portions, but it's very hard.  Add that to the fact that I've been run down and just not feeling my best physically, plus stress (car issues, working on the house, family stress, work stress etc etc etc) and it's a recipe for disaster for my waistline.

The bottom line is my clothes are getting tight and I'm starting to hate how I look in them again.  I see myself in photos and I don't like what I see.  Of course when I gain weight I gain it in my tummy.  I don't like how I look or feel.  I need to change it.  I worked too hard to lose all that weight to gain it all back. So I am recommitting.  Adam and I are going to eat in more (which also helps save money) and I'm going to start working out again.  I am going to track my calories--I hate doing it, but it really makes me more accountable.

So here we go. If I put it out there, maybe it will help me stick to it.

Updates: Kiddos and more

You guys, my baby starts school in four days.  I seriously can't believe that.  I'm working on a post about our FANTABULOUS overnight anniversary trip, but first, I thought I'd throw together a little update post on the boys, since the big event is coming up!

I took Tyler to the doctor the other day for his last two shots.  Thankfully, they went much better than last time, that MMR was awful for him.  His leg swelled and was red and hot.  This time you can't even tell where the shots are on his little legs.  I think these were for polio and chicken pox.  We checked his height and weight too. We had suspected that he'd hit a little growth spurt and we were right!  He'd grown 1/2 inch and 2 whole pounds!  He's in the 20% for height (he's a shorty) and I think the 30% or 40% in weight, I can't remember, but for him, it's a good steady growth.  So yay!  He's did great with the shots, only cried a little bit and perked up when I brought out the secret weapon--sour patch kids!  Now we just need to get his hair cut this weekend and he'll be totally ready for school!  He's excited and has even been counting down the days on his calendar.  I'm sad that he's growing up, in a way, but I hope he likes school and I think he will.  Adam and I are both taking Tuesday off so we can take him to school and pick him up on his first day.  We might even go for lunch, but we haven't decided yet.  And of course we'll take obligatory first day photos! 

My goofy big boy

As we were getting ready to go, Amber brought his shot record in and pointed out that for some reason his first Hepatitis B shot was missing from the records sent over by his pediatrician when I started bringing him to our family practice.  She said it was the very first one missing, which he should have received while still in the hospital.  She told me to fill out a request form at the desk and they'd try to request the record from the hospital.

I filled out the form and called them back today to see if they'd heard back from the hospital.  Initially they said no, but she called me back before I could even call the hospital and said they'd just received word that the hospital had no record of it either!  They suggested I call the pediatrician and double check with them. I tried their number and was reminded that they'd closed permanently.  I called the office again and she suggested I contact the health department, since these records are usually sent to them.  Thankfully, they were able to find it!  Apparently, he has two records at the hospital and one is just the one vaccination by itself.  I have no idea why, but at least they found it!  Luckily, the DOH wasn't far from work, so I ran there on my lunch break, then took the record to the doctors office to get the entire record so I can send it to school WHEW!  Dodged a bullet!  I don't know if they would have refused to let him start school (I don't think so) but I'm glad it's taken care of!

As for AJ, he's being such a character lately!  He's starting to show a little a defiant side!  He loves to push buttons and he's constantly turning on the DVD player or grabbing the remote or the telephone, no matter how many times we have told him no!  He can drink from a straw finally, but only seems willing to do it when it's OUR drink (usually soda), he's refusing straw-sippies or the take and toss with straws.  He's still not talking as much as maybe should be. We were trying to count last night and he only says maybe 10 or so works CONSISTENTLY.  He'll repeat other words or has said them randomly, but no so much on demand.  He calls me Mama, but really don't address Adam or my mom as anything consistently.  He says things like ball, up, bye bye, night night,  PACI, COLOR, (in caps because it's usually said LOUDLY), juice, Mama, no, and a few other things.  He loves to stick his finger in things!  He is very attached to his paci and it's the soothie ones, the big round rubber ones and they have these two holes in them that he loves to stick his pinkie in.  He also sticks his fingers in the windows of his dye cast Thomas trains and any of the recessed screw holes on his toys.  His new thing is the "Happy Dance" where he gets super excited about something and sort of runs in place and waves his arm and sometimes shrieks.  The other day at the doctor my mom was giving him some yogurt bites and he would do the happy dance every time she offered him one!  AJ is a pretty good eater, though he still has a habit of shoving too many of something in his mouth and starting to choke, scaring the beejeezus out of us.  He doesn't eat a HUGE variety of foods and he isn't always willing to try things, but sometimes he'll surprise us and want what we're having for dinner, like taco salad and last night, meat loaf!  His favorite food is "sketti" (spaghetti) and peaches.  He's crazy and silly and I think he'll be taller than his big brother before too long!

Practicing for when he's older and unavoidably bespectacled...also notice his B/F/F, Paci

As for me, I have worked out the last two days (yay!) so I'm trying to get back on track there.  I need to focus on my eating habits too. I wasn't nearly as sore as I was beginning the routines this time. My joints hurt some, but it's manageable and my muscles aren't too bad.  Hopefully the numbers will start to drop again!

So there's my update for now!  I'll get back to working on our trip post, I want to do it justice!  And I really should finish my post on considering baby number 3, since that's been on my mind lately.  Stay Tuned!

School Supplies and SkyZone

Another weekend over!  They always go so quickly.  This one was fun and productive, though!  Saturday, Adam had to work, so my sister Michelle and I took the kids out to run errands.  We went to a uniform sale and I scored 7 shirts and 6 pairs of pants for Tyler's school wardrobe for less than $60, which I thought was pretty good.  Then we went to Walmart and picked up some essentials and everything on his school supply list.  Check out our loot!

School clothes and supplies, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Bookbag, lunch box, and pencil case

 I still can't believe I'm buy school supplies for my BABY, but we'll leave that meltdown for two weeks from now!  After our shopping spree we went to lunch with Angie (twin) and her b/f Jon.  We ordered way too much food!  I ended up with like 4 takeout boxes (one was twins)!  After that we went home and hung out and the kids napped.  Adam brought home pizza for dinner and that was Saturday.

Sunday I did my usual grocery shopping and then met my friends Pam and Gabby for a little girl time.  We went to SkyZone, which is an indoor trampoline park.  It was crazy and man, was it a workout!  It was really fun, though!  We were missing Mandy from our foursome.  Her grandfather had passed away on Friday so she had to cancel :(

We had major fun jumping, playing basketball and dodgeball!  Here are some pictures:

Ready to get our jump on!

Me--Striking a pose!

Gabby's tuck jump

Hard to tell, but Pam was literally bouncing off the walls!

Gabby and I doing what my cousins and I used to call "butt busters"

Gabby and Pam, hamming it up!

Yep, that's me in the foam pit, which is REALLY hard to climb out of!

So much fun!  After jumping for an hour (whew!) we went to get a bite to eat a Panera and I was already feeling sore!  Then we picked up a card for Mandy and went our separate ways.  A quick stop at the grocery store for sour cream and ibuprofen (lol) and then I headed home for the usual Sunday night dinner, laundry, showers, etc.  My joints feel better than I expected them to today, but my muscles are majorly sore!  It was a good time though! 

One more random weekend picture--AJ, who suddenly likes to pull up his shirt and pat his belly!  Not really sure why!

Up next--our 10 year anniversary and our weekend (well, night) away!  Can't wait!!!

A year later...

It's been awhile since I've updated about my fitness journey.  Mostly because progress has slowed and focus has shifted.  But it's been about a year since I began, so I figured I would do an official update.  I consider my starting date July 11, 2013.  It's been a long year!  My six month update is here and contains the basics of my approach.  Since then, I haven't been as strict on my diet as I would have liked to be. I continued to work out pretty consistently (aside from the last three weeks of insanity), but not always the 5-6 times per week I had been managing. For me, to begin this journey it had to be a main focus in my life.  I spent quite a bit of free time thinking about it, preplanning, tracking, etc.  But an average jane like me can only maintain that kind of focus for so long before other things get in the way.  That's what the last six months has been.

I had hoped to be at my goal weight (preliminary goal) by the one year mark.  That did not happen, but I'm a peace with it.  Between THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, and THIS, I think I've done well to not only maintain my hard-fought weight loss, but to continue to move the scale downward, even if the progress has been slow the second half of the year.  At my six month update, I had lost 36 lbs.  As of my last weight in, I've lost 45.2 lbs.  I am pleased with that.  45 lbs in a year is not amazing, but it's good and it's far better than any weight loss I've ever managed in the past.  I definitely have new habits that I'm able to stick to.  I would like to lose an additional 22-28 lbs to reach my initial goal.  I think I will do it, but it is just going to take longer than I had hoped. And you know what?  If it's weight loss I can maintain, I'm okay with it taking however long it takes.  They just announced another weight loss challenge here at work, so maybe that will be motivation to kick it into high gear again.

The past three weeks have been the most physically taxing and challenging of the year.  Between the entire family being sick on and off (my throat is still annoyingly scratchy, despite finishing my 10 day course of antibiotics), twin's hospital stay and surgery, and my 10+ day headache that I still can't quite convince myself is gone, I haven't worked out.  At all.  I haven't laid off the workouts like that in a whole year (a few days, maybe a week when my back was messed up or I was sick).  But I'm not letting that make me think I won't start up again.  Especially with what I know now about my body and it's apparent auto-immune problems, I realize I need to be careful about pushing myself too fast.  Normal stressful life really wore me down in June and I had to recognize that and really take a break.  I'm still not 100% sure and I'm not decided on WHEN the strenuous workouts will recommence.  I'm going to listen to my body and wait and see.  The ironic thing is, I lost 5 lbs of that up and down weight I've been struggling with to hit and all time low since this break began and my eating certainly hasn't been on point (in a hurry/feeling sick means eating whatever sounds good or is handy).

I didn't reach my goal weight in a year, but I am thrilled with my progress.  I had no way of knowing if I would really do it this time, really make progress.  And I did.  I look better and I feel better about myself.  Physically, I feel better than I did, even with the complications I've had health-wise. I know this was the right decision and I'm so glad I did it.

I've had great support here, and thank you all so much for that!  It means so much!

Things that make you go hmmmm

I had planned for my next post to be about my thoughts on possibly trying to have a third baby.  But then something happened that put those thoughts on hold, at least somewhat.

I went to my doctor about two weeks ago.  I'm still stuck on this stupid plateau, probably mostly because I haven't been doing that well on sticking to my diet food-wise, but I was also frustrated because pain in my knees was keeping me from doing my workouts full-out.  I've been having particular problems with my right knee, which I always depend on being the "good" knee.  I've had two surgeries on my left and it's just weaker. It hurts and gives out and I just don't trust it much, so when my right knee started to hurt during certain moods, I knew it wasn't a good thing.  My workouts (I am partial to Jillian Michael's DVDs) are very heavy on the squats and lunges and I was actually getting pretty good at most of them (aside from left leg only squats, I don't know if I'll ever be able to do much with that).  But suddenly I couldn't do much bending with weight on a leg without pretty significant sharp pains in my knees. 

Since I had a few other minor issues, I decided it was time to see my doctor.  I see a Physician's Assistant, actually and I've mentioned before that I love her to death.  I went to see her on May 20th.  We had a good talk and she decided that my knee pain could be one of a couple things.  It could be an injury, maybe even a partially torn tendon, although I didn't recall a certain OW moment, just a gradual increase in pain.  But she also was suspicious of something like arthritis, particularly because my knees are not the only thing that hurt on an every day basis.  I also have had trouble with my lower back, neck, feet and more occasionally, my hips, wrists and elbows.  These range from minor to severe (particularly my back, which I've talked about here before and my neck, which mostly causes very bothersome headaches).  So in the end, she decided to do a battery of blood tests and also send me to physical therapy.

Since it was just before a long holiday weekend and they were ordering quite a few tests, Amber told me that the results probably wouldn't be back until the next week.  I scheduled an appointment with the physical therapist and waited.  Tuesday afternoon on the way home, Amber called with my results.  The good things were that my cholesterol was great (yay!), and actually my rheumatoid factor and sed rate (both indicators of arthritis) were both normal.  My white blood cell count was only slightly low (pretty good number for me, since I usually run quite low).  My vitamin D level was also low.  She said they'd like to see a level of 50, and mine was 28, so she wanted me to start taking extra supplements. I already take a multi-vitamin, but now I'm taking 2000 iu more a day. 

The main concern was that my results showed positive for something called ANA.  That stands for anti-nuclear antibodies.  Apparently, a positive result can be an indicator of an auto-immune disease.  The results come back with a number that has something to do with diluting the sample.  The higher the number, the more dilution is necessary (higher=more ANA in the blood, which is not a good thing).  It's done in a series--1:40, 1:80, 1:160, 1:320 and so one.  My result was 1:1280, so that's high.  It's also classified by the pattern such as homogeneous, speckled, centromer, etc.  My result had a speckled pattern. So, long story short, my doctor was quick to refer me to a rheumatologist.  She did say that another test the run that can point to an auto immune problem (ENA) was negative.

The rhuemotologist insists on a two week window before any new appointment, so they can get your records.  They asked me to call my doctor to remind them to send them over, so I'm betting they already have them by now, but still I have to wait until June 17th for an appointment.  I really hate having things hanging over my head.  Of course I've been spending time pouring over my test results and googling like crazy, but basically the bottom line is, it could be something or not.  With as high as my titer (that's the term for the number on the result) is, it's pretty unlikely that it's NOTHING.  I'm the type of person that good or bad, just prefers to KNOW what I'm dealing with.

I'm conflicted too, I've dealt with pain like this for a long time. It would be nice, in a way, to know that there is a reason for the pain and tiredness that I've tried to convince myself were normal.  And yet I don't want it to be something scary, as silly as that sounds.  Years ago, probably close to 10 years ago, I tried to find out if it was indicative of some sort of problem, but at the time, all seemed normal.  I don't know if they tested my ANA back then or not. 

The more I read up on some of the possibilities, the more I think that certain things could fit.  For example, my low white blood cell count can be a symptom of auto-immune diseases.  So could the mouth ulcers I've gotten on and off since high school--they aren't fever blisters, they are actually in my mouth and are terribly painful.  I've recently noticed several small rashes and itching on my arms and elbows.  Infertility and pregnancy loss can even be related.  But all of these things could be totally unrelated too.

So I wait for answers. In the meantime, my doctor prescribed some cream for my rashes and an anti-inflammatory/pain reliever called meloxicam.  So far, I'm not noticing a difference with the medication.  For now, I'm doing my workouts as much as I can (though my PT said no squats or lunges for a week) and going to therapy.  My PT Kathy is very nice.  Apparently, my knees are a mess (not surprising).  My kneecaps are crooked, my left leg has significantly undefined muscles compared to my right, and she's found several weak spots we're working on.  Yesterday she taped my kneecaps into the right positions and that feels really weird and actually makes them ache, but hopefully it will help.

I'm not good at waiting.

Still here! So much!

Wow it's been over a month since I've posted!  YIKES!  I know I know, you didn't notice and that's okay! :)  We've been SUPER busy!  Let's see...

We had a realtor over to start the process of HOPEFULLY selling our house.  She's amazing and I love her and OMG WE HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!  We really want to try to list in in the next few months, but first we need to do a bunch of projects including:

• Kitchen-remove wallpaper, repair (thanks CATS) and paint walls, paint cabinets, paint hinges, replace hardware, possibly re-line cabinet shelves
• Downstairs bath-new flooring, do something about the walls (they are mis-matched paneling and I'm not sure they can all be painted), add drop ceiling, close in heater/water heater
• Upstairs bath-new flooring, new tub surround, new vanity, replace light fixture, paint
• Upstairs hall-remove carpet, put in laminate
• Downstairs hall/family room-replace carpet
• Outside-paint shutters, fix downspout, fix/replace outdoor carpeting on front and back stairs, minor landscaping
• PAINT/WINDOW TREATMENTS-Living room, hall, Tyler's room (with border removal), Master bedroom, downstairs hall, touch up in AJ's room

See?  A lot.  I'm totally overwhelmed.  We tried to get a start on the kitchen, but the wallpaper was apparently put right on top of bare sheet rock--not good.  It's basically like removing two layers of wallpaper and it's impossible not to damage the walls (more than they already were (Thanks AGAIN Cats), so then we are having to go over everything with drywall mud to get it flat.  Adam ended up buying the wrong stuff to repair it too, so that wasted half a day and had to be redone. As it stands we have basically we have managed to get the paper off 1 1/2 walls and he's patched the upper half of one wall.  It's going to take awhile :(

Then I went to Birmingham, AL for work, which went really really well.  I'm helping to develop training for my position.  See, I do all the invoicing for my location and there are between 1 and 3 people at each location that do what I do.  So when a new person starts, we didn't really have a true planned training for them to undergo--they either worked with the others at that location or did some information training at another location.  Since I've been doing this for about 8 years now and I'm always looking for opportunities to do more and hopefully advance somehow one day (tough to do at my company and my location), I was asked to help.

I've been to Birmingham once before, with the whole group of invoicers, but this time was just me and one other girl coming into town.  We were both delayed getting in and slightly delayed leaving, but aside from that, the travel was fairly smooth, the event went well and Adam and my mom were able to manage the kids while I was out of town.

New 'do before the trip

It was cloudy and rainy on the way to Bham, this was my view the whole flight

There is a lake outside the corporate office, tons of turtles, ducks, etc

My seatmate on the flight home!  Olaf!

Sunset going home

Downtown Indy at night from the air

 The weekend I got back my mom and I took the boys to the zoo and had a close encounter with the flamingos!

The tubs had shrimp infested water in them

Tyler loved it!

AJ and Gaga ride the train!

Let's see, I was back at work for a week, catching up, and then we took "vacation" which included work on the kitchen and did responsible things like get our oil changed and get our fridge fixed.  And Easter funtimes.

AJ tries swinging

Found one!

AJ loved wandering around but wasn't that interested in the eggs

But he found some!

Tyler on the hunt!

Oh and we took Tyler to his new school for a meeting!  He did so well, even when we had to leave him in the classroom and go off to a presentation for a bit!  He was soooo cute with all the other kiddos, showing off little "cheers" they'd taught him (he was so not good at them, he is super smart but so not coordinated)!

Blurry picture, but he's in the middle--the shortest one!

Then last week was about catching up at work (AGAIN).  Shew.  Oh and I turned 32 years old HUZZAH!  lol Happy birthday to me and TWIN!

Flowers from my friend Nova for my bday!

And from Hubby and my babies!

Over the weekend Adam took me to the outlet mall in Edinberg and got me a new Coach purse for my bday and then I had lunch with my BFF from college (luv her!) and THEN Adam, the kids and I went to our friend's daughter's first birthday party!  It was gorgeous outside and Little Miss Harley was an absolute doll and everyone had a great time.  The boys were WORN OUT!

He really was having fun, I promise

Tyler and Logan!

The girls: Mandy, Pam with Harley, Gabby, Me

Sunday was about groceries and overdue lawn mowing.  We've been spending a lot of time outside now that the weather is finally nicer!

This house had been living in our garage, but the kids are loving having it on the patio!  The kitchen set on the far right was mine when I was little!  They are crazy about it!

BUBBLES--AJ's new obsession!

Get 'em!

Some help from big brother!

So fun!

Mommy gets in on the fun!

LOVE MY BOYS!

And that leads me to this week.  My mom's birthday is Thursday (we are totally in Birthday season at my house, three down, two to go before the end of the month, plus Mother's Day Sunday) and we're taking AJ to get his hearing checked.  He's still not a big talker, and while I'm not super worried about it, I thought it was time to just make sure he hears okay.  He may be suffering from SELECTIVE hearing lol. He really seems to totally ignore people sometimes, but other times he seems to hear quiet things just fine, so who knows?  Right now, he has a little cold, so I'm hoping that doesn't interfere with the test.  In fact, the poor baby--yesterday, he sneeze and his head went forward and hit a table, leaving him with a "third eye" according to my mom:

Poor buggy!

This weekend we are hoping to work on the kitchen some more and Sunday of course will be Mother's day.

WHEW see?  LOTS going on!  On the weight loss/fitness front, I've been bouncing around this 5 lbs zone, which for me is basically maintaining (my weight naturally fluxuates up and down) for the past few weeks.  I've been as low as nearly 45 lbs down and go as high as around 41 lbs down.  I just haven't been able to make it my main focus, and honestly, I'm not sure I will be able to right now, not with the house and the kids and all that.  I'm going to try my best though. I know I need to go back to tracking my calories.  And I need to workout more consistently.  Lately I've been down to 2-4 times per week (I was managing 5-6 until recently).  I have finally conquered AJ's bedtime, so that will help, allowing me to get him down early enough to still work out after he's in bed (and still be finished by 9pm) when I can't get it done before.  I know I just need to make another good long push to get where I want to be (which is to lose another 25-30 lbs).

So that's a somewhat condensed version of what's been happening! Next post--Considering baby #3 and my thoughts on THAT subject!

WHEW, now I'm tired too AJ!

Plateau

Man, I would post a lot more often if Blogger would stop CRASHING on my phone all the time!!!!  Grr.  Anyway.  I guess it was just a matter of time before I hit the dreaded plateau.  I'm there.  It started off when the weight loss challenge at work ended.  I allowed myself to slack slightly on workouts and food, then things got stressful at home (nothing bad, just very busy and a lot going on), then I caught a cold that was awful for two weeks and lingered longer than that.  On the plus side, I've basically maintained (my weight fluctuates up and down every day, but basically it has a sort of average), which is awesome.  It lets me know that once I've gotten to a goal weight, I should be able to maintain it pretty well with 3-4 workouts a week and watching what I eat.  On the down side, I just haven't managed to buckle down and really get the routine back.

I had been doing an ab DVD, but I decided it probably wasn't as effective at weight loss as it is toning, so I'll save it for later.  I splurged a bit on phase 1 of Jillian's Body Revolution.  It's a slightly different program of hers.  Basically there are 5 workouts--4 circuit training and one cardio.  Weeks 1 and 2 are basically this:  Monday-Workout 1, Tuesday-Workout 2, Wednesday-Cardio, Thursday-Workout 1, Friday-Workout 2, Saturday-Cardio, Sunday rest.  Then weeks 3 and 4 is the same, but with workouts 3 and 4.  I like this kind of set up, something different every day.  It comes with a resistance band too, which is a nice thing to add to my repertoire, though you only use it once is workout 2 so far.  There are two more phases after this one, for a 90 day program altogether, although I can't seem to find anywhere that sells the second or third phase WITHOUT being bundled with the first, but I guess I'll figure that out later.  I did three days last week and then life happened and I got distracted.

I have to recommit.  With today's weigh in, I have officially lost 40 lbs (my ticker has been rounding down for the last two weeks since I last updated it--I had been at 39.6 so it bumped me to 40), but that's only down 3.8 lbs since 1/6 and I need to do better than that.  I can do better than that.  I'm not going to let it get me down, I'm still doing well.  I didn't stop watching what I ate altogether, I didn't stop working out, I just relaxed my habits a bit.  But its time to get serious again.  I still want to hit my primary goal weight of 155 lbs by my one year mark, July 11th.  That's 137 days from now or 19.5 weeks.  That basically means I need to average about 1.5 lbs a week.  So far I've averaged 1.2 lbs per week.  I can do it, but it won't be easy.  But to quote Bethany Hamilton (or the movie about her, at least), "I don't need easy, I just need possible."

I need to get back to tracking my calories.  I hate it, but I do better if I'm tracking.  And I want to get back to working out 5-6 days a week at least.  I need to MAKE time.  This is important.  I feel better physically having lost 40 lbs, I know I'll only feel better losing more.   I like how I look in clothing better now, but I know I can look better (darn stubborn tummy).

I can DO this!

In other news, had a great three day weekend to make up for a rotten/busy few ones recently. Adam's been working (installing flooring and doing two Saturday's this month) so we really needed a nice weekend and we got one.  Friday we hit a few Goodwills (he hunts for things to sell online) and I even scored with a couple of sets of ankle and wrist weights and a few other items (usually I don't find anything for myself).  We had a nice lunch with mom and the kids too and went back out in the evening for one more goodwill and dinner, just Adam and me and the boys.  Saturday was errands, hitting the mall for a few things, and buying a new microwave.  The Saturday evening was DATE NIGHT!  We had a great time, dinner at our favorite steakhouse and a movie.  There wasn't much out we were interested in seeing, so we opted to see Frozen, which twin said was awesome. She was right, it's adorable!  Great music, super sweet (and sad) story, lots of funny bits.  We felt silly, two adults seeing it, but I don't regret it. I wished we'd brought Tyler, but I'm not sure he's ready to sit through a whole movie.  Sunday was grocery shopping and then twin came over for dinner and I had her look through some of my old clothes that I'm getting ready to take for consignment.

Oh...one more thing I did on Friday.

Registered Tyler for kindergarten.

WHERE did my BABY go?!

Withdrawl

I never thought it would happen...I'm having workout withdrawl!  I have a miserable chest/sinus/throat/infection/cold/whatever and I haven't been able to work out since last Thursday!!  Adam's dad was in the hospital all last week and we were sort of on alert waiting to hear if he'd need surgery or not (thankfully not!) so that was why I missed Friday and after that, sick won.  I missed work Monday and Tuesday (Tuesday it snowed again, just a few inches, but sick + snow = no way).  I'm starting to feel a little better, but still have a nasty cough (it's reminding me to keep drinking water though lol) and a runny nose, plus my temperature tends to go up when my cold meds start to wear off, so I know I have to lay off the workouts for at least another day or two and it's driving me crazy!  It makes me anxious!  I guess it makes me worry that once I've stopped I won't start up again.  But I really will this time.  I look in the mirror and I see results and I want MORE!  This is just a delay.  Delays are okay, as long as we don't let them stop us for long!  My weight is good though, which is a relief!  I've stuck to eating pretty well in the absences of my workouts and that's probably helped!

So much to do!  I have to schedule Tyler's bday party!  You guys, my baby turns FIVE next week!  I can't believe it!  *sob*

The kids have to get haircuts on Saturday.  Writing it down will make it so!  LOL  AJ is looking like a wildman!

Brunch with my friends Sunday!  Hooray!  Don't let the snow ruin it! (SO MUCH SNOW UGH)

That's all I have the energy for right now!  OH!  But here's a photo collage I put together from 2013 photos!  What a year it was!

What a difference six months make!

I have survived Snowpocalypse 2014!  Between late last week and over the weekend, my city got somewhere between 16-18 inches of snow.  The second storm, which gave us 10-12 inches was followed by sub-zero temperatures.  Seriously, it was like 45 degrees below zero with the windchill. One local weatherman reported that is was six degrees colder here in Indianapolis that in the SOUTH POLE.  Cold people.  For here, anyway.  So we got a ton of snow and didn't leave our house Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.  My workplace was actually closed Monday and Tuesday.  And the roads are still crummy, though improving.  So yeah, that was a fun and interesting start to the year.

But before that happened, I got to see my awesome friend Paul who moved from Indy to Texas a few years ago.  We had lunch and talked and talked.  He's working on a story/screenplay and we're bouncing ideas back and forth about it which I am super excited about.

SO!  Onto the title of this post.  As of today, it has been six months since I started trying to eat better, get healthier, and lose weight.  So I want to take a second to reflect on that.  I've tried to get healthy before, with varying success, but no attempt lasted very long or made huge impact.  I don't know why this time was different.  My mom says I was just ready.  I'm not sure if I simply found the right combination or if I was more determined, or if it was fueled by being unhappy with my appearance, but the motivation finally kicked in and as the weight started to come off, I was excited and encouraged.

I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app to my phone and tracking my calorie intake.  I was immediately shocked by how quickly the calories add up and just how many are in the kinds of foods I ate.  I started making some significant changes that worked for me--eating more fruits and veggies (low cal, filling), finding low cal "treats" to satisfy my sweet tooth while keeping my calories on track, drinking more water, eating smaller portions, and most importantly not depriving myself of food I love.  The last was was crucial for me.  If I completely cut out certain foods and treats, I just won't stick to a diet plan.  I like burgers and fries and pizza and ice cream.  And I can have those things--in moderation and sometimes slightly different than I would have before.  For example, I don't need a double cheeseburger.  A single is plenty.  And often I skip the bun or bread altogether.  Treats and ice cream are an indulgence and usually I just have a very small amount.  I trick my mind into thinking that one piece of pizza is two by cutting it in half (sounds silly, I know).  I tried and enjoyed vinaigrette instead of creamy french dressing.  Little changes made a world of difference. 

But eating better wouldn't do it all, I knew I had to get active.  I started off just walking.  Then I got out the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred video I bought just before I found out I was pregnant with AJ.  The first three or four days were agony.  My muscles rebelled and every inch of me ached.  But after those few days, it got easier and it almost felt....good.  I was surprised and please that I could do the moves and exercises.  Maybe they weren't pretty, maybe I had to modify a few, but I could do them.  But then my back problems reared their ugly head.  I took a few days off of exercising, and then eased back into it with workouts on my elliptical.  It helped me stay active, but I have found over time that I get a lot more results from my workout dvds.  So I went back to the shred and this time, I finished it!  It took a couple extra days, but I did 30 full days and was so proud of myself.  I was so encouraged I jumped right into Jillian's "Ripped in 30" workout DVD.  It's circuit training, like the 30 Day Shred.  I've found that her DVDs are great for me, because I get bored easily when it comes to workouts.  Each move comes up only once per DVD program and you only do the move for 2 minutes at the most.  Each DVD also comes with 2-4 workouts, so you only do the same workout set for a week or so before moving on to a new set of moves.  I don't get bored and I end up working different muscle groups all the time.

I finished Ripped in 30 a week or so before Christmas, so I repeated it for a few extra days, since I'd asked for a few more DVDs for gifts.  I was thrilled to get "Shred It with Weights" with accompanying Kettlebell and two of Jillian's Ab DVDs.  I jumped right into the Kettlebell workouts and love it!  It's a great change, very challenging.  It only has two workouts on the DVD so after about 3 weeks I was getting bored so today I started her Killer Abs DVD.  I'm betting I'll have trouble sitting up in the morning!

So that's six months of new eating habits and six months of workouts.  And six months of results!

Here are a few "before" pictures. 

December 2012 (I cringed to post this.  Bad angle, but wow)

May 2013 (you think an outfit is flattering, but then...)

I don't have a lot of pictures of myself along the way, but you can sort of tell from these:

August 2013, in jeans that don't fit!

September 2013, celebrating fitting into a smaller jean size!  This was about 15 lbs lost.

And here I am today, six months in as of Saturday, 36 lbs and 25.5 inches lost (I'm really bad with measurements, not consistent about WHERE I measure my waist, for example, but it's an estimate)!

In my workout gear. Forgive the mirrored-tile mirror left by the last owner of our house. Also the cup leftover from the kids' baths.

I've done some figuring and I should be able to reach my goal weight by mid June, so my conservative goal is to be at my target by my 1  year anniversary of getting healthy, July 11th, 2014.  I think I can do it!  It will be a total loss of almost 70 lbs in a year.  I know that might seem sort of slow, but right now my average is about 1.4 lbs per week and I think that's reasonable for me.  I'm okay with this taking time as long as I can keep the weight off and I think I'm more likely to do that if I take it slow.

And now I want to thank you ladies (and gentlemen?) who read my blog from time to time.  You've all encouraged me and complimented me and it means a LOT!  My family has also a huge source of support and encouragement. They never make me feel bad if I splurge or skip a workout here or there, but are the first to comment that they see the results and are proud of me.  My Facebook group has been a great help as well.  I'm so lucky to have the encouragement of those around me and I couldn't do it without you all!

Thanks always for reading!

Whew! Well hi, 2014!

Oh my goodness, I always forget how insane December can get!  I'm glad it's over, but I'm actually having a hard time adjusting to not being so busy!  I still want to do my ornament post, but I haven't had any luck getting good pics. My cell phone flashes too much.  We'll see if I get it done before we take down the tree!

Still going strong on the fitness front--I placed second in the challenge at work, with a total of 13% lost--the winner lost 14%, so close!  I'll get $100, so that's good.  I've been doing Jillian's Shred It With Weights, which is a kettlebell workout--super intense!  Next up is abs, I feel the burn already!

Christmas was very nice.  AJ still doesn't totally "get" it, but Tyler had a ton of fun. I'm loving my kindle fire (thanks babe!) and my mom likes hers too.  New Years was quiet and uneventful, aside from Tyler being a little bit sicky. 

And so!  Another year gone!  Last year was...well it was!  Nothing horrifically awful, nothing amazingly life changing!  So here's my yearly survey thingy!

YEARLY SURVEY!
1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before? I visited the West Coast, California!  It was AWESOME!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  I don't know that I "resolved" anything, but I finally FINALLY made some major progress on losing weight and getting healthy.  I'm inching toward 40 lbs lost and I LOVE IT!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Pam had her first baby girl in April!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Adam's Grandpa passed away just a few weeks ago. 

5. What countries did you visit?  Still no progress on that one.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you didn’t have in 2013? I would like to be able to buy a bigger house that suits my growing family better!--That was last years answer, but it REALLY needs to happen this year!

7. What dates from 2013 will be etched upon your memory, and why? Nothing really jumps out this year.  I'm okay with that though, we'll call it a rebuilding year

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? Has to be getting healthier, dropping over 35 lbs and at least two pants sizes!

9. What was your biggest failure? I'd like to think I didn't have any major failures!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nope, stayed pretty healthy this year.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Well we bought two "new" cars this year and I am really hoping they go on to be reliable long time vehicles for us!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? AJ's milestones--it's so fun to watch them do things for the first time!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Nothing is immediately coming to mind.  I'm sure there were news stories that got to me though.

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, cars, kids

15. What did you get really excited about? California and each pound that I lost!

16. What song will always remind you of 2013? Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus.  She annoys the pants off of me and that video is needlessly raunchy, but I like the song, damn it.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier, THINNER (YAY!), and about the same I guess

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? House projects!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I can't really think of anything

20. How did you spend Christmas? We stayed at home and enjoyed ourselves immensely!

21. Did you fall in love in 2013? More and more with my kids and hubby every day

22. What was your favorite TV program? Still gotta be the Big Bang Theory!

 23. What was the best book you read? A tie between "Single Infertile Female" and "Hyperbole and a Half" both written by bloggers I adore.

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? I'm sort of in love with Pink!

25. What did you want and get? Healthier!

26. What did you want and not get? A promotion and a house

27. What was your favorite film of 2013? Catching Fire!

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 31!  I think we were all just getting over being sick and I was super busy at work, but I'm sure we had dinner and cake and loveliness.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? More SPACE!

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2013?  Well, not by choice, but baggy clothes!  Nothing fits, in a good way!

31. What kept you sane? My family, especially my kiddos, my friends, working out (it's true, it's stress relieving) and a little bit of relaxation time daily.

32. What political issue stirred you the most? I'm so sick about hearing about the healthcare drama I could puke.

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt--still true

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013. Take time to work on yourself is sooo important!

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year."Say what you want to say, let the words fall out honestly. I want to see you be Brave!" Brave by Sarah Bareilles

Where'd he go?

You guys, where did this little baby go?

I swear, he was just here.  But it seems as though this big guy has taken his place. 

Don't mind the drool

He's ONE, already!  I can't even believe it, it doesn't seem possible.  I still haven't turned my mind completely off from all those months of trying to conceive him, and yet here he is, a babbling, toddling little (big) guy.

I'm a little late on this post, delayed by the remembrance day post and, well LIFE in general being super busy.  AJ turned one on October 12th.  On his birthday, my sisters came over and we did a small dinner with cake and presents.  Little man was having way too much fun and went to bed quite late!  He enjoyed smashing some chocolate cake, and let us give him a few bites as well.

Sunday afternoon, we lucked out with amazing weather.  We invited over our immediate family and had a barbeque with hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, au gratin potatoes, and pasta, plus cupcakes for dessert.  Everyone hung out on our patio and in the yard and we put out our corn hole set (you might have to be from the midwest to know what that is!) and some balls and frisbees.  I think everyone had a good time and AJ seemed to enjoy himself in the playyard and being passed around, despite his cold.

Presents?!  My smiley boy

Going for the covert nose-wipe. He hates it.

It all went off without a hitch. The food was good, everyone made it and we celebrated my little booger turning one, amazing!

He also had his check up last week.  My "little" guy is 23 lbs 13 oz and 32 1/2 inches long! That puts him in the 85% for weight and the 95% for height!  We're having some struggles with solids (non-baby foods) because his gag reflex seems a little strong.  He's doing okay with some new stuff, but so far he absolutely does NOT get the idea that he can pick up food and feed himself.  He won't do it!  I'm hoping he gets the idea soon.  Couple that with no more formula (YAY!  Saves $45 per week!) and starting the transition to a sippy cup, plus working through sleep training issues and there are a lot of changes going on in the life of AJ!  But he's doing great and we love him!

Aside from that, we're dealing with some car drama I'm not really feeling like getting into just now (except to say I do NOT recommend Ray Skillman's auto group anymore).  Tyler is doing pretty well, recovering from his own cold and maybe a tummy bug as well.  I have finally succumbed to the cold myself, after fighting not to come down with it for over a week (everyone else had it).

Still doing pretty well on the fitness front.  Today's weight it officially placed me at 24 lbs lost, which is over 10% of my body weight!  WOOT WOOT!  I realized tonight that I have lost an AJ!!  He weighs right at 24 lbs, the amount I have LOST! For some reason, that really blew my mind!  Pretty soon NONE of my clothes are going to fit!  In a GOOD way! :)  Not sure what I'll do about that though!  I finished the Shred and having been doing my elliptical, but I bought a new DVD, Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 that I will try soon (after this blasted cold buggers off).

That's it!  We'll let AJ wrap things up.

LOVE HIM! :)