A moment of frustration

My sister's gone vegetarian. Which is fine. Tons of people do it. She makes sure to get all her protein other ways.

But it still got me going on the thought that there are SO MANY 'diets' that require you to give something up. Give up meat. Give up carbs. Give up this or that. And I said, "If people just eat the food pyramid, we'd all be fine."

And I realized, thats a good idea. So that's what I'm doing. Its a heck of a lot easier to count servings than points.

I spent hours online trying to figure out a game plan. I finally came upon the Mayo Clinic... which I had heard of before. I was able to type in my weight, age, height, and they gave me more of a personalized food pyramid plan. I then typed up a monthly chart to hang on my fridge and keep track.

I also spent hours trying to find a food pyramid for kids Erica's age. Finally did find one for ages 2-6. So we bought her a dry erase board. I drew the pyramid on it, and in each section drew a sample food: piece of bread, brocolli, grapes, milk, chicken nugget, ice cream. She knows each of them, and so when she eats something she gets to put a dot in that spot. She's liking it. And I'm liking that she won't be eating junk all the time anymore.

I'm a horrible blogger

Yes, it is true. I am a horrible blogger. Not only do I neglect making regular posts, but I hardly ever visit my other blogging friends.

I've been conflicted over how I should be using my time. My sister told me that I REALLY need to work on my book and get it submitted soon. I have quite a bit written [somewhere between 120 and 180 pages, depending how it would be translated into book format], but still have so much to go. There's lots of plot points left to cover, and most books today are 300+ pages.

But yet, even with that in mind, I haven't been putting enough time into writing. Like I said, I've been conflicted, b/c adding into that mix is the fact that I'm a SAHM. My daughter needs attention and loving. I should probably be working more on alphabet and numbers with her. And, even though its been cold and rainy the past few days, the weather will be warming up, meaning more outside time.

Yes, conflicted.

I need to come up with a scedule and stick to it. I was originally thinking Mon, Wed, Fri work on book; Tue, Thur, and weekends [as permit] on blogging.

But as I sit here thinking, I'm realizing that that really isn't enough time dedicated to writing. It'll break the creative/writing process, taking days inbetween.

I won't give up my blog altogether. I may just have to say, once a week. Find an hour or two on weekends, perhaps, that I can dedicate to blogging. Maybe Sunday afternoons; Andrew has baseball practice and Erica takes naps.

I don't know what will happen, but I need to figure something out.

Not so good

Wow, my tonsils [or tonsels?] aren't looking too good. This morning, I had left a comment under my post at Adventures of Mommyhood that said I was doing better and that the white spots were gone.

Uh... Not so much. I guess this morning when I first looked, there wasnt enought light. Using a flashlight now, I can see back there and its horrid!

I'm having awful trouble eating. Swallowing is painful beyond description. So for breakfast I only had yogurt. [Of course, Light and Fit yogurt, sweetened w/ Splenda.] I tried sharing a banana with Erica, but it stung so bad.

Now I'm eating soggy Cheerios w/ skim milk. Woo-hoo for soggy cereal! And even that is stinging some.

I'm leaving for vacation in TWO HOURS!!! What am I gonna do?

Just pray, I guess, that these antibiotics kick in soon!


Vacation Goals:
-Make good food choices. [If I can actually eat anything!]
-Swim some laps in the pool w/ Andrew. [This depends, if Andrew's parents will watch Erica for a little while]

I feel AWFUL!

I think I'm getting strepp throat. Stinks.

If it continues to get worse, I doubt I'll be exercising b/c I'll just feel like crud. Not a good thing, but I'm being honest with ya.

I can still continue to eat according to WW points. In fact, it should make it easier b/c I wont feel like eating. Hence, no overeating.

Unfortunately, I'm supposed to go on vacation Wed night thru Fri night. I REALLY don't want to be sick for that.

Ugh.

Moving on... I haven't lost any weight this week. Granted, my scale STINKS and I can hardly tell what the arrow is pointing at. I really need a digital scale!!!

Goals:
-Eat according to WW points
-Try to spend some time outside every day. [It has been raining though]
-Not sure what to put as a third one... Wow, I'm really out of it!


[Gonna use this post as my Tuesday Check-In even though its monday]

overwhelmed

I've been overwhelmed with how many people have visited by my blog. Thanks!

When I was with Tales from the Scales, I didn't have that many visitors. But with Healthy You Challenge, so many have come by.

Thank You!

I've tried visiting most of y'all, but I have such limited internet time. I'll try to catch up with the rest soon!

Weight Watchers has been okay. I've been kinda lazy, which isn't good; I've been guessing points instead of really really keeping track. That's not a good thing. But I'm back on track today.


Goals:
-Continue eating allotted WW points. COUNT THEM ACCURATELY!
-Get enough sleep at night. I've spent some nights staying up until 3 AM reading books. Not good for me, b/c then I want to nap during the day, which takes away from being active
-Get outside at least once each day w/ Erica. Okay, so I haven't done too well with that, but in my defense its been rainy. But today we were out for awhile, even though it was chilly-willy

Weekend Whoopsie

Sometime soon, I'll write about my weekend over at A of M, so I won't give specifics. It'll suffice to say that Sunday was a BAD BAD day. We did so much traveling to NJ and back, which meant eating out.

Oops.

But Saturday had been great. And Monday was great too. [Technically its Tuesday; just a bit after midight.] So only one little setback.

Goals are:
1) Continue eating allotted number of WW points
2) Try to rest... I'm getting sick. This might be odd, to set a goal to take it easy. But I don't want to risk getting really really sick
3) Spend time outside w/ my daughter at least once each day

Back On Board!

You know, its much easier to blog about dieting than to actually do it.

That's what I had been doing. All those previous posts about joining online groups and whatever. Nope, didn't actually follow through.

I've done it now! Yippee!

I didn't really say anything on blogs or to other people, b/c I didn't want to jinx myself. But its been 3 weeks now. I've lost between 8 to ten pounds. [My scale stinks, so its hard to really tell. I need to get a digital one!] What caused the change? I'm not completely sure. I had a conversation with my sister, and I admitted how much I weighed. She was shocked! Told me that was just unacceptable and that I needed to do something about it. After a few days of thinking that through and convincing myself that it really was time to start, I DID! I kept pushing it off with lousy excuses: Its a pain to keep track of points; its so hard to start b/c I'll be hungry all the time; its impossible to eat healthy while living with my husband. But to my amazement, starting off was so easy!

My favorite indulgence? Turkey Hill's Fat Free / Sugar Free vanilla icecream with sliced strawberries. ONLY ONE POINT for a serving of ice cream! How awesome is that?!?!?

Tales from the Scales is now obsolete. So I'm joining in with the Healthy You Challenge. It looks like a similar blog, and I'm excited about joining in.

Go Veg!

I've decided to go vegetarian. Yup. I am meatless. Have been for about three weeks now. I've lost 10 or so lbs. I'm excited.

Here're my guidelines:

No beef, chicken, pork, or any other kind of poultry or cattle.

On rare occassions fish and seafood.

Try to cut back on milk, eggs, dairy. Go more for the soy and rice milk.

Pilates three mornings a week before school. (ha!)

Go, me!

Major Setbacks

I've been horrid. Today I had a salad for lunch; only 2 points. Breakfast was just cheerios.

But Thanksgiving was brutal. Completely.

And tonight I'm having pictures taken w/ Hubby's family. OH NO! I'm so fat right now!!! Can't we do this next week?

How should I handle my post-holiday cravings? You know what I mean-- you've been eating so much, and your body's adjusted to it, so you are hungry every half an hour. What do I do? Drink water is one option I've heard before. Can I treat myself to coffee, or is it bad to substitute one food item for another?

I need to start up pilates again. Not just for weight loss, but for singing in my choir. I find that I can keep my notes longer if my abs are stronger. [Can push out more air.]

So crazy right now

Weigh-In Wednesday

Another pound. One week at a time.

I'm still proud of myself for making menu plans. It'll be forcing me to eat healthier, I think. I am continuing to find more ways to improve meals, making them healthier. Using whole grains, low fat items, more veges, etc etc etc.

As for goals, I'm not sure what I want to go with this week. I'm afraid that by making too many too soon, I'm setting myself up for failure. I'm gonna pick two:

Goals:
1) Keep track of WW points. Be as accurate as possible.
2) Write down on my weekly planner what I do during the days. Though this isn't directly related to weight loss, it will help me learn some discipline and use my time wisely. If Hubby comes home and sees that I didn't write much down, he's gonna know I was lazy that day. If he comes home and sees a long list of accomplished tasks, he's gonna know I was very active that day. And the more active I am, the better.

Menu Plans

I actually did it. For the first time in months.

I made up menu plans.

So, this may seem 'old-hat' to some people. But its really important, and a big step to controlling what foods I eat.

I did it! -- well, sort of

My goal from yesterday was to wake up early and then exercise until Erica wakes up.

My plan was thwarted.

It started out okay. I woke up w/ Hubby, went downstairs to get his breakfast together. [He's a hot cocoa kinda guy; I normally can't afford that luxury and prefer coffee w/ sugar free flavoring.] I even managed to get out to his car and turn it on to warm up for him!!! I think he was surprised... its been a long time since I've done that for him.

Well, we were talking w/ each other. Totally acceptable. Except that our noise woke Erica up!!! I said "Oh Drat!!!" Hubby left, and I listened closely to her crying. She didn't sound awake. Not the kind of whining she normally makes when she's ready to get out of her room in the morning. Instead, she sounded half-asleep still. I decided to wait a few minutes and see if she fell asleep again or woke up completely.

Here was my mistake-- I laid down on the couch while waiting. She indeed did fall back asleep; and so did I! There went my brilliant plans. I was kinda miffed w/ myself. And often when I'm frustrated like that, I'll eat unwisely. But, we had cheerios: a good & nutritious breakfast. When Erica asked for a lollipop afterwards, I didn't raid the Halloween stash for myself. A plus chalked up for me.

We sat and watched a Care Bears movie then. Yeah, not the wisest choice for me again. BUT I DETERMINED that afterwards I WOULD exercise!!! And by golly, I DID! I put in my "10 minute pilates" video and picked three segments to do: buns & thighs; waist slimmer; and finally the stretching segment to calm down. At first, Erica exercised with me. IT WAS SO CUTE!!! But then she got bored and decided to "bake a cake." I paused my movie to quickly get out some safe supplies to use. [She wanted to use up my milk, eggs, and other important things. I gave her salt, pepper, an almost empty container of parsley, oatmeal, water, and an almost empty container of stove top stuffing. Not really cake-stuff, but they were things I didn't need.] So she spent time mixing it all together. Made quite a mess, but she was happy. And at least she was exercising her imagination skills :o)

Continued goals to remember today:

-Stay away from candy; if I eat any, remember to add it into my WW points allotment for the day

-Write my accomplishments down today: try to clean, do dishes, maybe a load of laundry.

And let's end with something "SCARY" in honor of Halloween...

Yes, isn't that scary? My arms are looking big. And my face is pudgy. What ever happened to my skinny body??? Next Halloween, let's aim at dressing as a mermaid or belly dancer! [Not really, but you get the point!]

Erica, of course, is cute. As always. She's my "Skinny-Minnie." Actually, she's in the 90th percentile for her age... but that's okay considering she's really tall. Actually, her weight is like 85 percentile, so she's good proportions. No, I'm not really obsessing over my daughter's weight. But I do need to remember that my eating habits are affecting her own eating habits... and I want her to start out in life with good habits, not bad ones that will need to be fought against later in life.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

My scale is so difficult to read. Its really hard to tell where the line is actually pointing; I need to get a digital!

I think I've lost a pound. Not much; but its just a begining, right? We can't all be on The Biggest Loser and lose 20 pounds in one week.

So, my goals for this next week were stated in the previous post. But I'll expound today.

-Get up in the morning w/ my Hubby and then exercise until Erica wakes up. This way, I'll warm up and not be so tempted to cuddle under a warm blanket all morning! Its so cold-- brrrr!

-Say "NO" to Halloween Candy. Lets get a bit more specific/realistic. A little bit isn't gonna kill me, as long as I allot points to it. Only one or two points a day on candy. That means, not much! But just enough to satisfy any sweet-tooth cravings.

-I want [need] to start writing down my daily happenings again. I have a little weekly calendar thing. I've been writing down all of the tasks I do-- so that when Hubby comes home and says: "So, what did you do today," I can point him to my list of accomplishments. Even if its just something like 'read books to Erica; played with play-doh with Erica; paid bills.' Doing this helps hold me accountable to my time.

Good luck this week!

It's SOOOO cold

Its so cold in the morning. Absolutely awful. Hubby doesn't want to turn the heat on yet, b/c by afternoon it does warm up to a good temp inside.

My solution today: Cuddled underneath a blanket all morning.

Was that a wise choice? Absolutely NOT.

So, what should I do the remainder of the week[s]? I think it would be a great idea to exercise then, first thing in the morning. It should warm me up nicely, plus wake me up and kick off the lethargy of the night's sleep.

That's my goal this week! Well, and saying "no" to Halloween candy.

Mission Completed

Okay, I had a FAB time at the mall today w/ Erica. Can I count all of the walking as exercise? Probably not. Maybe. I dunno. If I had one of those pedometer things I'd have a more accurate idea.

I broke down and bought Crocs. **GASP** I swore that I never would b/c of the price. But my knees are so bad, and I can't wear my 'fake croc' sandles during the winter. I'd gotten the flip-flops at K-Mart, but they don't have any winterized ones. So, when I saw these at the mall, I had to get them. They're not the ordinary/original kind; there are no holes on it. And the top of the shoe has a fake-suede look. So I can wear them with almost anything. Hoorah!

I also stuck to my goal of not eating junk food at the mall. We packed sandwhiches [on 100 calorie / 8g fiber english muffins], apples, raisins, and unbuttered popcorn. [Popcorn is actually pretty good as long as its not buttered up. There's lots of fiber to it.]

My weekend goals:
-Find time tonight and either Saturday or Sunday to exercise
-Go easy on the food at Saturday night's family picnic. I'm supposed to take a cake, which is actually GREAT for me & my diet. I'm gonna make one regular, and another w/ Splenda and white whole-wheat flour. [Never used it before; heard its a great way to trick people into eating whole wheat w/o realizing it.]
-Take at least 30 minutes this weekend for "me" time, to relax, let go of stress, and think through goals, etc.

I DID IT!

Yes, I exercised today. Isn't it amazing??? Yes, you can tell how lame and out-of-it I am by this admission.

My knees are hurting though. That's probably my #1 excuse to not exercise. I have such terrible knees and certain exercises can aggravate them. But, I've found in the past that Pilates is good on my joints and even helps strengthen them. Today I used a new Pilates Video, and the one section was hard on my knees; I'll have to go back to the other DVD instead.

So, my goal/strategy: When Erica sits down to watch a movie, I put my exercise DVD into my laptop and work out at the same time. She's preoccupied and it's time that I can take undisturbed.

Another goal: Okay, this is a small thing. Tomorrow I'm taking Erica to the mall. My goal is to NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT buy anything to eat: no burgers, french fries, ice cream... Nada. Oh, does that also include coffee? Maybe a sugar-free latte with fat free milk would be acceptable; the only calories to it then are from the milk.

weigh-in Wednesday

Okay, I'm only three days in... So, how much weight have I lost?

None.

But that's to be expected.

Counting points has been going okay; exercise isn't happening though. My week has been SOOOOO busy. Excuses, excuses, excuses

Happy Birthday to Us

Happy birthday to us!

Happy birthday to us!

Happy birthday Abby and Me!

Happy birthday to us!!!

Well, how did I spend my birthday? Not in the wisest way, considering my new determination for dieting. Hubby and I went out to Shady Maple for dinner b/c you get a free meal on your birthday. The place is a huge smorgasbord, all-you-can-eat of whatever you want!!!

I tried to be good. I didn't eat much earlier in the day. And for dinner, I had lots of veges and fruit, fish and turkey instead of some of the higher fat/calorie meats. I really limited my intake compared to what I would have done in the past.

But I couldn't say no to dessert! They have fantastic Apple Dumplings. They are so good; oh, how I love them. I did fore go the ice cream with it though.

To my dismay-- but luck-- it tasted horrible. It wasn't completely baked all the way, so the dough was still chewy, not flaky and delicious. My mind was saying "Eat it anyway; you deserve it; maybe that next bite will be better..."

But I stood up to temptation! I put my fork down and said "no!"

Moving on...

Today I'm meeting my SIL and MIL at the mall. We'll undoubtedly have lunch there, at Chik-Fil-A. So, I need to go over to Dotti's Weight Loss Zone and check out the point values of their food items.

Brutally Honest

I just read an entry at Tales from the Scales. It made the very good point of being brutally honest with yourself... The reason your not losing weight isn't b/c of this or that, but b/c you aren't adequately sticking to it.

My official "start-date" is tomorrow, Sunday Oct 21 2007. Its a crappy day to pick, b/c my birthday is Monday and my Hubby wants to take me out to dinner. But, I'll just need to save up my daily points and then also make wise choices when out.

What are my goals? Many are the same as before, but I need to remind myself...

1) Weight Watchers Flex Points. I currently get 26 points a day. Lots of fruits, veges, fiber! I'm already pretty good with the fiber, but need to up the veges and fruit.

2) Exercise 3x a week. At minimum. More is definitely better, but I don't want to set myself up for failure by requiring every day already. After pregnancy, I've gained a HUGE butt and a very protruding belly. Need to work on those areas.

3) I'd like to get my clothing size down to a size 8. That's what I was in High School. Okay, I'd settle for 10. Even 12. Right now, I'm 18 but some things can be 16. Yes, my size goal is lofty. So for now, I'm aiming for 14.

4) This may seem ridiculous, but I don't think so. I want to shower everyday, make my hair curly and sexy, wear lotions and perfume, keep legs shaved, put on full makeup, and dress nicely. Currently, I do wear makeup everyday, even when I'm staying home all day with my 2 y/o. And I do try to dress nice. Showers don't occur on a daily basis; gross, I know. Mainly it's b/c I can never shower alone; my daughter always wants to get in.
Why, you may wonder, do I want to do all of this? B/c it will make me feel better about myself. I always feel wonderful when I have a nice outfit and makeup on. And if I have a great attitude, then it will be easier to stick to a weight loss regimen.


Well... here we go! It's 11:11 PM. In only 49 minutes I'll be dedicating myself to this plan. Cheers and good luck!

Hiatus

[Okay, really this is Becky. Abby is the primary holder of this blog, so I needed to sign in under her account to change the template.]



Well, we've had a very long hiatus. Abby is still pretty much MIA from the blogosphere. I, however, have been keeping up with Adventures, JAQQ2, and now [hopefully] this again.

I recently found an intriguing weight-loss challenge blog/website: Tales from the Scales. Looks really good. I think I'm going to try it out.

I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that this SAHM can handle a toddler girl AND all of these blog things.

[I've been going through template-withdrawal. So, I spent most of my free time today changing this blog's template. Great, or what?!?!? Its so much fun to do. Maybe I should go into business providing fun templates for other bloggers? Nah, I'm not that good.]