Overwhelmed

It's getting really crazy around here, so I'll probably disappear for a while.

The wheat free thing isn't happening, the kids are psycho, the move is stressful and I'm on the verge of a breakdown.

PMSing much? ;-P

I'll be back, just not sure when.

A Wheat Free Week

So that's my plan for this week. To be 100% wheat free. I think I can do it as I'm pretty well stocked on the stuff I can eat. I'm still loving my shakes and my meat-in-romaine-wraps. I could (and sometimes do!) eat them for breakfast and lunch. I usually prepare a meal for dinner and have the meat and a vegetable.

The problem with this plan is this: I'm having MAJOR PMS and craving all things salty and sweet. Right now, I've been wanting honey roasted peanuts, but I'm not supposed to have peanuts. I want salty french fries, and chocolate, and chips and toast and all manner of things not healthy for me.

I think I'm going to go to the health food store later and check out Essence bread and Manna bread. Along with Ezekial bread, those are the breads that I can eat. I know they are dry; I've had Ezekial bread before. But here's the thing-- I LOVE TOAST! And I can have butter for my blood type. So toasted bread with butter would help get me through some of those cravings.

My kids have been totally out of sorts this entire past week (maybe longer? I'm sort of entering into zombie blur stage) so it depends on whether or not they will act like human beings whether I get out to the store. Plus, it's raining really hard and it takes a lot of work to get them all buckled into the car and then keep them all lassoed in the (cramped, expensive) store. I'm getting weak knees just thinking about it. :-P

Anyway, if I don't make it out today I'll go Wed cuz I have a babysitter that day. I have enough other stuff (hello Rice Works Sweet Chili chips!) to keep me happy until then. ;-)

Other than that I'm mostly just packing (the garage is completely sorted, organized and packed, YAY!!) and trying to figure my kids out. The boys in particular haven't slept much since they got their bunkbed. The novelty hasn't worn off yet, and they are staying up late and getting up early. Oh, and not napping. :-D But I'm glad they have a few weeks to adjust to the bed before they have to adjust to an entirely new house, too.

That's about it for today. Exciting, huh? ;-)

Busy, Busy Bee

Today has been super duper busy. We're packing, organizing, bought and set up a new bunkbed with new mattresses, bought a hide-a-bed couch for our new house and I listed quite a few things on craigslist for sale. Thankfully much of it is already moving! YAY! It's so nice to be able to get rid of stuff and even get a little money in return.

Eating has been good. I started making these protein shakes... I think I've mentioned it but can't remember (ha, obviously the fish oil isn't helping my brain tons yet) :-P I make it with protein powder, rice milk, a banana, walnuts and flax seed. It is SO good. I look forward to having it in the morning, but it's really weird. If I drink it fast it makes me nauseated. I'm thinking you've all heard this story before. Oops, sorry!

Anyway, I had that for breakfast and then made some wraps with romaine lettuce, turkey, pastrami and a little mustard for lunch. SO GOOD. I also had some Rice Works chips. Haven't had dinner yet, but I've snacked on a few more Rice Works, an apple, 4 meatballs and a string cheese. Oh, and 4 bites of cheesecake before I threw it away. Too much of a temptation. I didn't eat the crust. ;-)

I am super de duper tired. I hope to get the kids in bed, maybe watch a movie or play a game with Josh, and then go to bed early. I really wish I had a BodyBugg today, to see how many calories I've burned organizing, packing, etc... My pants are definitely falling off. It's super annoying, but I'm so skeptical that I'll fit a size 12 in my butt and thighs. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and find out pretty soon, because I am TIRED of hiking my pants up all day. Belts don't help either, because... well, I don't know why but they just don't.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend. =)

Friday, ahhhhhhhhhh

Good Morning, my dear bloggy friends!

I weighed in at 166 today. I'm good with that cuz last night I went WAY overboard with pizza and breadsticks and garlic sauce. It was a really rainy, wet day and we spent a lot of time in Costco and by the time we were done the kids and I were ready for a quick warm dinner. So pizza it was. =)

I did end up getting sick; not sure if it was from the wheat or the copious amounts of coffee I drank.

We're going to my mom's for lunch today, and we're having cheesecake afterward to celebrate my stepdad's straight A's. He is a surveyor but has been unemployed for basically ever. So now he's going to school to be some sort of engineer and he got straight A's, which is super great. I told her we needed to celebrate with cake, so we are. ;-)

I did stock up on some major goodness at Costco. TONS of meat (holy moly, expensive much!?) including chicken, hamburger, turkey and pastrami. I also got stuff to make protein shakes consisting of: chocolate protein powder, flax seed, walnuts, rice milk and bananas. I made one this morning and it's really, really good. But very rich (from the flax seed, I think). So I have to sip it slowly.

I got 3 big bunches of bananas, apples, mozzarella cheese that can be sliced (which I plan to eat with my lunch meat wrapped in romaine lettuce), eggs... basically I'm good to go for a while.

Obviously I'm eating wheat today, with the cheesecake. But starting tomorrow I plan to see if I can cut it all out. But I want to make this doable, so it may take some slow weaning, and I'm okay with that.

I've also started taking more supplements. You should see my vitamin cupboard! I'm taking fish oil and Icelandic kelp. The kelp helps with my thyroid and also has iodine which is something I'm lacking in, and the fish oil is supposed to help my brain. I sure hope it does!

Anyway, I feel pretty good and prepared for the busyness that is coming my way. I have a friend delivering 40 boxes today so we can start packing tomorrow. Josh comes home tonight, WOO HOO! I do so love that man.

I was looking at pictures from our honeymoon today, and remembering how much fun we had (we went to Hawaii) and longing for another warm vacation with him. But I sort of want to lose these extra 40 pounds before we go, so it's easy to be patient. ;-) Look, here we are on our honeymoon, 6 years and 30 pounds ago:






Our computer is seriously breathing it's last breaths. I thought for sure it was a gonner yesterday, but this morning it was miraculously still functioning. If I go missing for days on end, you can safely assume the computer is kaput. But never fear, I'll be back as soon as I can. =)

I hope everyone has a really great weekend!!

Cuz breaking up is hard to doooooo

I've been trying to break up with wheat. It's hard. It's not going so well. :-p

A big part of the problem is that I need to go shopping, but part of it is just convenience. EVERYTHING has wheat in it!

I have a big shopping trip planned today, so hopefully that will help. Once I get meat and eggs stocked again, I'll be much better off.

Lately I've been having a lite string cheese and some deli meat for breakfast, and although that sounds weird, I'm totally loving it. I really like meat (holla, Dawne!) especially meat and cheese together.

I'm planning to get some deli meat from Costco and romaine lettuce and making wraps with the lettuce and some mozzarella cheese. I also plan to get some Rice Works chips; they are super good and NOT wheat. :-)

Well, this has been a pretty boring post; I'm sure you're all enthralled with my shopping list. :-D

Not much else going on. I'm really having a hard time coming up with things to blog about, since I'm not exercising or trying hardcore to lose weight. But you know, that's ok. I don't want diet and exercise to be my life. I want it to be a part of my life, a part that helps me stay healthy and have energy for my kiddos, but I will never be a workout machine. That's ok with me.

Off to start the day; I hear a white chocolate Americano calling my name since I've been up since 5:30. =)

Happy Thursday, my friends!

Wheat IS the plague!

Oh my goodness. Yesterday I didn't eat wheat all day. Until dinner.

I made spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. I hadn't eaten wheat all day, and wasn't planning to eat this meal. The bread smelled so good, that I had a piece.

My stomach INSTANTLY went into overdrive. Cramping, aching, bloating, gas. It was crazy. And now I know.

NO MORE WHEAT FOR ME.

It hurt long into the night, which is weird because I've eaten wheat before without a response like that. But anyway, that's it for me and wheat. We're done. Over. Done. ;-)

Other than that things are going really well. I am getting stuff around the house done, eating on plan and feeling pretty good.

This coming weekend is going to be a whirlwind packing/purging extravaganza. It's the only free weekend we have before our actual move date! I'm looking forward to it, even though I know it's going to be busy and crazy.

I'm really looking forward to being moved into the new place and getting some routines going. My hope is to put Kate in morning kindergarten so I can drop her off at school, hit the gym, shower and then be done in time to pick her up on my way home. Sounds perfect, no? :-D

We'll see how everything ends up working out. I don't have my treadmill anymore as I gave it to my SIL. It was really hurting my SI joint to use it, and she desperately wanted it, I desperately didn't want to move it, so it all worked out nicely.

Not much more going on around here. I hope to get back into full-on weight loss mode once we're settled in from our move. I'd love to see the scale start moving down again, and hopefully have it be a pound or two a week that is coming off.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Starting to Pack

Well, the packing has begun. So has the purging.

I went through the kid's toys last night and have a big bag to take to Goodwill, a few to sell on Craigslist and the rest are neatly organized... for now. ;-) I also de-cluttered our art cabinet, the top of the fridge and a few other little things.

So things are starting to move forward, slowly but surely. I am going to try to get to the linen closet today and we'll see where I go from there.

Foodwise... Pretty good. Last night I tried to eat some ice cream. Now, I'm not really an ice cream person. I could go the rest of my life without it and not miss it. We had company the other night and served ice cream, hot fudge sauce and peanuts. There was some left over and while we watched our movie I decided to have some. I'm a freak of nature and don't like fudge sauce; Hershey's syrup makes me shudder. Josh had actually purchased some really good quality fudge stuff, but I didn't like that either.

Anyway, I make a small bowl; maybe half a cup of ice cream sprinkled with salted peanuts. I *LOVE* salty/sweet combos. Long story short, the ice cream made me so incredibly sick. I ended up throwing up and this is gross, but I was surprised that the Kashi I had eaten 6 hours before came up too! Isn't that sort of long for it not to be digested and still sitting in my stomach? Cuz it gets worse.

For lunch I had half a bagel with some smoked turkey on it. That came up too. And it had been over 9 hours that it had been in my stomach! GROSS.

So, I'm taking Greta's advice this week and I'm going to avoid wheat like the plague. (BTW, Greta, I haven't emailed you my measurements yet cuz I still haven't procured a tape measure.) ;-) I'm going tomorrow to do another foot bath... eek!

I'm also really constipated, so I'm hoping cutting out wheat will help with that. Today I had a banana and 2 turkey sausages for breakfast. I'm debating drinking coffee. It usually helps get things moving for me, but at the same time I'm trying to cut back on it because I don't feel all that great when I drink it. Decisions, decisions.

However, seeing as I have laundry to do today... a homemade white chocolate Americano might just be what I need to get me through. ;-)

I sort of like posting random facts about me, so here's one for your Monday morning:

I don't like cold water. I prefer room temperature. Like, I'll run the water out of the tap and add a bit of warm so it's not icy cold. I can drink way more if it's room temp. The ice cold not only hurts my teeth (my enamel is worn away from years of throwing up due to my pregnancies and now due to my... digestion issues???) but my throat closes up when the cold water hits it. So I try to leave a big glass of water or my water bottle out on the counter and then sip it when I go by.

Drinking enough water is still a huge challenge for me. I'm working on it, but it's definitely a work in progress.

I hope you all have a great, successful, healthy day! =0)

Down a pound =)

I weighed in this morning at 166, and I am so pleased with that! I have been really constipated lately, so I'm hoping once things start moving again I'll continue to lose.

Ok, WARNING--NASTY PICTURE COMING--

I did an NRG footbath; anyone familiar with those? You can read more about it here. Basically, all the toxins in your body are positively charged, and the machine is negatively charged. It acts like a magnet to draw out the toxins from the body through the feet, which have the largest pores.

It was amazing and disgusting and cool all at once. As soon as my friend turned it on the water started turning brown. I think I did it for 45 minutes total, and this was the end result. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR WEAK STOMACHED!!!!!












Is that disgusting or what!?!?!? BLACK WATER. All of it coming out of my body.

My friend does these on a regular basis and has gotten to the point where she can do the bath and at the end the water is still clear. I'm definitely intrigued by this! She invited me to come back next week and do it again, and I'm planning to do so.

She is also a huge proponent of the Live Right for your Blood Type diet, which I think is what Greta follows too. It's pretty strict as far as what you can and can't eat... well, I should rephrase that. What you should and shouldn't eat.

Right now it's way too much for me to do; especially because SO MANY of the foods I love are bad for my "O" blood type-- avocados, strawberries, gouda cheese, oranges, corn, wheat, most dairy, etc...

But it is something I will be checking into. I'm going to see if I can find a copy of the book and slowly start incorporating the "right" foods more into my diet.

I'm feeling really good today. I feel well-balanced and happy and not stressed. It doesn't hurt that my husband is FINALLY coming home!! Man, I tell you what, 3 days has never seemed so long! I'll be so glad when we are moved and can see each other more. I miss him. ;-)

I hope you all are doing wonderfully! Have a great weekend!

Computer Woes

Oh dear, our computer is really acting up. Plus, my kiddos managed to break our wireless router. So between the two, I haven't had internet access, thus my absence.

I am here and alive and well, though!!

I had a spectacular weekend and felt really good about my eating. I weighed 167 Monday morning, and that was after eating and drinking.

All in all, I'm feeling really good. I think for me, right now, the best thing is to just eat in moderation and reduce my portion size. That's been working so far, and it's what I continue to do through the move.

Once we get moved I plan to join a gym and hopefully really kick-start some weight loss. I have heard the gyms there are pretty nice and the daycare for the kids is excellent. Plus, Kate will be in school starting in Sept so I plan to try to go while she is there so I'll have one less little one to worry about.

I'll try to get back on later. Today Kate turns 5! She is my St. Patrick's Day baby, so we're busy celebrating her birthday and getting ready for her party tonight.

But I'll try to be back later!

Perfect 10 Challenge Update

The scale said 166.5 this morning, and I'm good with that. It's going down, albeit slowly and I still have .5 a pound to get back to where I left off at the end of February.

Today will be busy; it started early with my 2 year old getting up at 4:55a.m. Um, yeah. Not gonna work for me. I put him back to bed and he fell asleep again, but I didn't. So I'm working on my first cup of coffee. ;-)

I'm going to focus on drinking water today. It's one of those things that is the first to go when I get stressed or busy. I plan to set my timer and drink a glass every hour. We'll see how it goes.

I have friends coming this morning, then my sister coming for lunch, then errands to run this afternoon before packing up for my retreat. And, Josh comes home tonight, YAY! It feels like he's been gone FOREVER. So I'll get to see him a bit before I leave. :-P

Okay, not much else to report as of now.

So my tidbit for the day about me... Hmmmmm... Maybe I'll do a few random things...

I can swallow a LOT of pills at once. Like 10-20 in one fell swoop. I take a lot of vitamins and supplements and can get them all down in one mouthful.

I am pretty much blind without my contacts.

I love ellipses... LOL!

I don't like any seafood. No fish, crab, shrimp, lobster, nadda. I can stomach tuna like twice a year. I just don't like the taste or texture. Yuck!

My ring size is fairly small at 5.5

And last but not least...

I WILL LOSE EVERY SINGLE LAST POUND OF THIS EXTRA WEIGHT!

So there. =)

Happy, Happy Friday!

Doing what I can

Matt left me this comment yesterday:

"I eat pretty much every kind of food there is, I don't count points, calories, or anything else, and yet I have managed to chip away 20 lbs in 2010. The biggest thing I've done differently from years past is just eat reasonable portions and only eat when I'm actually hungry. That's about it. I try to get in the glasses of water and exercise when I can, but really I think the lack of mindless eating has made the biggest difference."

Thank you so much, Matt, that was exactly what I needed to hear. Although I work on it, I still feel so much pressure, to do this, that and the other thing. I see the great results others are getting and want to jump on that bandwagon. But I just can not do it. I don't have even 1.5 hours to exercise; wait, I do have the time but absolutely not the energy.

Subconsciously I felt like if I wasn't doing the WHOLE MEAL DEAL, i.e. exercise, low calorie dieting, then it wasn't worth doing. But every little bit helps, right!?

So I will continue to work on eating clean, wholesome meals. I will work on eating only when hungry.

Today went pretty well. I was super productive with the house; cleaned the bathroom, caught up the laundry (again! Second time this week! WOOT!!), ran the dishwasher twice, swept, dusted, took care of my kiddos and even baked banana bread. =)

I ate well, too. I had coffee, scrambled eggs and 1 turkey sausage for breakfast, a piece of banana bread for snack, 4 chicken nuggets and 1/2c. peaches for lunch, apples, grapes, another cup of coffee and another piece of banana bread for snack (I only ended up eating half of it, because I was full. Imagine that!) and for dinner I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and one serving (that would be 7) chips.

I feel good about it. I probably didn't need to have that second piece of banana bread, but I didn't eat mindlessly and I stopped when I was full. I actually was quite full after the apples, grapes and banana bread and thought I might not need to eat again, but once dinner time rolled around I was hungry so I made a sandwich.

I think the key was keeping busy. I hope these next few weeks, which will be busy with packing, cleaning, organizing and moving, will help get me in the habit of only eating when hungry. And eating moderate amounts. I tend to forget how little food I really need, calorie-wise.

I'll weight in tomorrow (I hope! I always seem to forget) for the last week of the Perfect 10 Challange and hopefully I'll see 166.

This weekend I'm going to a women's retreat. The funny thing is, when I think about it--or any type of gathering/vacation--what comes to mind first is the food. How fun it will be to have snacks. But then once I get there, it's totally NOT about the food. Yes, I enjoy it, but it's not my main focus. So weird. Anyway, I plan to eat with thankfulness all the good food that is set before me, but in moderation and not just because "I can".

Thanks for sticking with me, guys. I appreciate everyone who leaves comments (Dawne, Sunshine Mama, Matt) it really does motivate me.

Sunshine- My back is feeling better, thanks for thinking of me. When I have busy days like today, especially days that include laundry, it flares up. But if I keep moving it usually doesn't become unbearable. ;-)

Have a wonderful evening/night!

The Zoo

Sorry about my lack of post yesterday. Josh worked a half day (since he worked til 11p.m. the night before) and we took the kids to the zoo. I was very disappointed. It was SO sad! The animals are in tiny enclosures. At least they aren't square metal cages, but still. It was so sad for me to see the monkeys just sitting there, staring back at me from their concrete pen. And the giraffe had a postage stamp size area of grass. The saddest part of all was the polar bear. He was swimming in circles over and over and over and over; doing the exact same thing every time. He'd swim around the perimeter of his pool, push his plastic toy out of the way, get to the end, do a back flip, swim on his back for one length and start all over.

Maybe it's different in the summer. Maybe they have bigger outdoor areas that they let the animals use, but wow. I felt really bad for them. I know they get good care and easy meals, but still. To just have to sit or swim in such tiny enclosures compared to what they'd have in the wild was sad.

Ok, I'm getting off my soapbox now. ;-)

My weight is holding steady at 167. Honestly, I haven't been trying at all to lose weight. Haven't been eating well or exercising. My chicken I baked up is still sitting in the fridge, and I'm pretty sure it's bad now. How long can baked chicken stay in the fridge? It's been a week and a couple days. I've had one green smoothie all week. I mixed up some more this morning and will drink some, but my spinach is gone and I need to cook up more chicken.

I've lost motivation to lose weight. Why? I'm not sure. I feel pretty happy with my life. The stress of finding a house is gone. The stress of packing is still there, but I plan to enlist some of the girls from our church youth group to help me with that. I know I still have weight to lose, and lots of it. I can see it in the mirror.

I think part of the problem is that I am so tired all the time. I mean, it's abnormal. Last night I fell asleep at the dinner table. Like a little kid. Sitting there eating, and the next thing I know my husband is gently shaking me telling me it's time to go to bed (at 5:30pm). I have NO energy. None. I probably need to get my thyroid checked, but I just can't be bothered right now. I've been through that rigamaroll before and it didn't really seem to help that much.

I'm going to keep striving to eat clean and healthy. I'm going to keep buying healthy food. This week I made a batch of one of my favorite cookies- the coconut milk chocolate ones, and I've only had 3 so far all week. I'm sort of over them now. Maybe I'll hit up Costco today for more salad, but since Josh will be gone til Friday night I feel like I might need to conserve my energy. :-P

Anyway, I don't want to give up totally because I *do* want to lose these extra pounds. I do want to become healthy. But I guess I just started feeling like it was ruling my life, dictating everything I did and ate, and it just got to be too oppressive. I feel that I really need to focus on my kiddos; they are going through, um, interesting times. It's never been "easy" having 3 little ones so close together, but as they get older and start understanding more of what's going on and start realizing that they don't always want to do what I ask them to... Well, it's hectic and stressful and I'm trying to learn every day new ways to work with them.

So that's where I am right now. I will probably start blogging a little less frequently, just because I need to start cleaning and packing and such. But I don't want to disappear because I know that I'll lose all motivation/accountability if that happens. So, the Skinny Turtle will be around... you just might have to look a little harder to find her. ;-)

Packing... Bleh

Oh, how I hate packing!! Almost as much as I hate laundry. ;-)

If anyone has any great tips, ideas, or suggestions on moving long distance, I'm all ears! I'm going to start slowly packing away the things we don't use on a daily basis, in hopes that it won't be such a mammoth job on the day we are trying to get all our stuff out.

Also, any helpful hints on removing hideous floral wallpaper is appreciated too. We removed one wall's worth, and it is HARD work and so tedious and time consuming. We have 3 more walls to go. We figure we'll have a better chance of renting this house out if it's not QUITE so dated. ;-)

Today is going to be a productive day. Just cuz, it is. :-D I've got my laundry started, the dishes are done, the kids are fed. I need to do a deep clean vacuum; you know, clean in between the cushions on the couch and stuff.

I have my spinach and chicken, and I'm actually looking forward to having it for lunch. I've had a cup of coffee and half of a mini bagel so far. I also plan to mix up some green smoothie. I am really super tempted to make these cookies called "Cocolattes". They are coconut and chocolate and reaaallllyyyy good. Usually when I mix up a batch of cookies I send the bulk of them back to work with my sister (who visits me on lunch) or to work with Josh. That way I'm not tempted to eat them all. ;-)

We'll see if I end up doing it. It's a gloriously beautiful day outside, so the park may be in order.

My back is totally out again, and super painful. I think it's from sitting in the car for hours and hours on Saturday. I took a Percocet last night and the dang thing did NOTHING for the pain. I have them left over from when I got my wisdom teeth removed, and also got dry socket. They helped the pain with my teeth, but they just don't touch my back/SI pain. I'm walking all bent over and crippled, which is just not fun at all. So any exercise I do will be slow and easy.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Yippee ky-aye, Mr. Falcon!

Ha ha, we were watching Die Hard on tv once, and it was dubbed to be "family friendly". Well, instead of saying the curse words, they dubbed-- Yippee ky-aye, Mr. Falcon! HA HA HA! ;-)

We had a great trip this weekend. We were able to spend some super nice quality time with friends there AND we found a house! It's huge. Old, but huge and it will fit our needs perfectly. There is a huge finished basement with a wet bar, so when people come to visit they will have their own private area, with bathroom, sink, mini fridge and microwave. =)

I am so excited, and it's such a HUGE relief to have that done. Josh is signing all the paperwork this week. We turned in our application then headed back home, and on the way the owner called us to say that the system was down so he couldn't do our credit check until sometime next week. A little later he called back and said that he really like us, to the point that he wanted to rent the house to us without even bothering to check our credit!!! So crazy, but we really "clicked" with the owners. They are young like us, and the house is just so perfect for what we need. Not flashy, not showy, but perfect for us.

It's in a great school district. It's on a quiet road. It has a large backyard with a nice deck. It's over 1800 sq feet, so plenty of space to play inside on those rainy days. And it's within 15 minutes of pretty much all of our friends up there. Oh, AND close to shopping!

So needless to say, we are very thankful. We looked at 8 houses, and this one was our favorite by far.

My eating was pretty good too. We went to Applebee's on Friday night and split the nachos and chicken wanton tacos. Super yummy. Then once we got to our friend's house, I did snack too much. She had malted milk eggs (Holla, Matt!) and sour cream and cheddar chips. We sat and talked for FOUR HOURS. Until 1:00 in the morning. And nibbled here and there. This morning I had eggs, 2 sausages and 1 cinnamon roll with a cup of coffee. Lunch was a 6" sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub (no chips!!! even though we got Cheetoh's, which I love) and dinner was one chicken enchilada. Oh, and we stopped and bought a box of Thin Mints from this adorable little girl selling Girl Scout cookies at a roadside stand by one of the houses we looked at. I had 4, which is 160 calories. Totally worth it. ;-)

We are pretty beat so I'm headed to bed. I'm excited for a successful week. Eating wise and exercise wise and being a good wife, mom and homekeeper wise.

Happy Saturday!!

Perfect 10 Challenge Update

The day seems sooooo long when it starts at 5:00a.m. ;-)

I weighed myself this morning and was very pleasantly surprised to see I was down to 168, which is only 1 pound more than last week. This, in short, is a miracle.

I've eaten well today. I had a bowl of cereal with almond milk for breakfast (surprisingly good! I used the unsweetened vanilla flavored almond milk on my Honey Bunches of Oats). I had 2 granola bars for a snack and then a 6 inch Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich for lunch. With 2 square of chocolate as a dessert. I've also been drinking water. =)

Josh and I are headed out of town for another weekend of house hunting, and we have 3 or 4 to look at, which is good. As of now it looks like we'll be moving the 3rd weekend of April. We have LOTS of friends that have offered to help with packing and cleaning and moving; we're really blessed.

I'm feeling oh, so much better. This past week has been really hard, really interesting and really good for me. I'm feeling much more positive about making changes, small changes every day, and being happy with the results. I'm not a workout machine. I probably never will be. I'm a mother and wife who is learning to be healthy in my every day life. And I'm content with that.

I pretty much laid out my plans in yesterday's post, but the Cliff's notes version is this:

1) Eat cleaner. Salad and chicken, whole grains, low fat and low calorie.
2) Exercise when possible and branch out; DVD's and the treadmill aren't the only available options for exercising!
3) Learn to have a healthy lifestyle, in all aspects, and not just be on a crash diet.

Okay, interesting fact for the day. It's about my uncle.

In college he became totally obsessed with the theory that the government killed JFK. He even went on to write a book about it. A couple years later he was driving home and "was involved in a single car accident, where the car caught fire and his body was incinerated." There was no body, therefore no autopsy. The road conditions were clean and clear, it was the middle of the day and he was a healthy man with no health issues. But, according to the government, that's what happened.

Strange, no?

New Day, Fresh Start

Today has gone much better than the previous days this week, and for that I'm thankful. It doesn't hurt that it's gloriously sunny outside either. =)

I had one light string cheese and 1 granola bar for breakfast and then chicken, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers and red pepper on a salad with my good friend Jen. ;-)

I STILL need to go to Costco and get my spinach and chicken. It's been over a week and it's definitely NOT helping matters that I don't have those staples in the house. I just haven't had the energy to go there with all 3 kids. But today is the day. Once the kiddos are up from their naps, we'll head over and stock up.

I feel rejuvenated and like I'm able to begin anew today. I weighed myself and I've gained 3 pounds, up to 170. We'll see what the scale says tomorrow for my official weigh in for the Perfect 10 Challenge.

It is HARD WORK to lose weight. All of you reading this know that. If it were easy, everyone would be fit and thin. I think Americans are at a HUGE disadvantage for obesity, simply because of all the processed foods that are readily available. Walk down any grocery aisle store and there are crackers, cookies, pop, popcorn, sugary cereals, prepackaged meals, pizza, fried foods, etc... Not to even mention all the fast food places.

It's not easy to eat clean in the world today. It's not impossible, but it's certainly more expensive. And more time consuming, as fresh produce and food either is eaten much more quickly or goes bad quicker, resulting in more trips to the store, additional gas, etc...

But it CAN be done. I've realized recently that I feed my own children things that I don't necessarily even eat. Corn dogs and chicken nuggets being the two main culprits. It's easy and fast. But it's also processed and probably more calories than they need!

I do feel good about the amount of fruit we eat, but I would like to focus on eating healthier whole grains (whole wheat noodles, for example) and cleaner food in general. I want to teach my children good eating habits and I want to just be a good example of health in general. I don't want them to see me struggling with dieting, then going over the edge and binging, then trying to scramble back on the wagon.

Which is TOTALLY what I've done this week. Once I introduced carbs, I went way deep into the ditch of eating all carbs, all the time. I totally blew it and it was not in moderation. And I felt crummy because of it!

I can absolutely see how not being prepared, i.e. having chicken and spinach readily available, pushed me towards the chips in the cupboard. Because I was hungry and that's what was there. I simply had to open the bag.

So anyway, that was a lot of rambling but I just want to say I feel more centered, more balanced. I don't want to be consumed or possessed with losing weight. It's NOT the most important thing in life. I have a wonderful, loving, caring husband who finds me just as sexy today as the day I married him. I have three rambunctious, sweet children that I need to set a good example for and BE THERE for.

I don't want to spend all my time exercising and counting calories, but in the meantime push them away. I'd much rather go through life with some extra padding but have a good, solid relationship with my children. It's all about finding balance, and that is something I'm still working on.

For now, like I said yesterday, I'm focusing on my food intake. I'll work in exercise as I can. The thing is, when I think of "exercise" I think of using the treadmill or doing a DVD. But walking with my kids to the park is exercise! Pushing them on the swings and playing chase with them is exercise!

So that's my plan for now. Focus on getting my eating on a healthy, balanced scale and finding time to fit exercise in as it fits, while being there for my kiddos. It's not their fault I'm overweight and I don't want to "ruin" their innocence by constantly being talking about or moaning about or forcing myself to diet and exercise.

So. Although this past week has been a wreck of sorts, I've learned from it. I know now that it is vital to have healthy foods on hand and to keep the processed foods to a minimum. So, even though I've gained 3 pounds as of today and even though I totally fell off the bandwagon and crashed and burned and then burned the bandwagon itself, I'm not giving up.

After all, that's the whole premise of the skinny turtle! Slow and steady. Steady and slow. Keep on keeping on. Never, ever give up.

Switching Gears

I don't know what's up with me lately, but I just feel under TONS of pressure and a bit frazzled. I have all these ideas of what everyone out in weight-loss blogland is doing, and how I should try this, or that, or the other thing. I can't take it!

So today I decided I'm ONLY going to focus on my eating for right now. I'll definitely work out if I have the time and energy- two things that I haven't had lately. Well, okay, I've had time. But definitely not energy.

So I'm just going to try to eat well and hope everything falls into place. We'll see.

Today I've had a banana, one piece of french toast with butter and cinnamon sugar, a cup of coffee and a chicken breast.

The Doritos are gone. ;-) I threw them out.

I'm currently waiting for some new medicine from my doc in AZ to get here, Lord help me I hope it arrives today! I'm all sorts of overwhelmed. This is how I get when my hormones decide to go wonky. It's not pretty. Or fun.

It feels like every day I wake up with A Plan. And then by 8:00a.m it's all in the dust and I'm just hanging on by a thread trying to ride out the day without exploding at my kiddos. Much less exercise. Or clean. Or do any of the errands that need doing.

So, this is where I'm at right now. I'll work with it. I'll learn from it. And, hopefully, I won't gain 7 pounds from it! LOL

Houston-We have a problem

Um, yeah. Today has been a total bust. =) The thing is, I don't even care! I had Doritos and a diet coke for lunch. I had animal crackers for lunch. I had a couple chicken nuggets thrown in there, as well as a toddler sized popsicle.

I'm not sure what happened. I have no energy; woke up with none. I had great plans to get up and take the kids to the library, but instead we all vegged on the couch. And it was bliss.

I don't feel bad about today. I probably should, considering what I've eaten and the fact that my sister is on her way over and we have plans involving cookie dough. But I don't.

I'm not giving up. I don't feel depressed. I don't feel like it's a total loss--this diet of mine. But today is definitely been a de-stress, don't care what I eat type of day.

I'm hoping to be back on track tomorrow. =)

Steps in the right direction

I did my Shred video! Miraculously, it worked today. I don't know what was up on Friday; I cleaned it and tried it 3 times and it just said the disc couldn't be read. Whatever, it worked today! I feel better already, just having made that effort.

Also, I had an epiphany today. The treadmill is usually so boring for me; but today I came up with the idea to listen to books on tape! I can just plug it into my CD player and listen to a good story while doing my HIIT. Hopefully it works out as nicely in real life as it has in my head. ;-)

Today I've had:
2 cups of coffee with non-dairy creamer
6 animal crackers
A bunch of grapes; as in a cluster, not in a lot :)
1/4 chicken breast
16 wheat thins with 1 tablespoon hummus
20oz green smoothie

My husband requested Frito Pie for dinner, lord help me! For anyone who doesn't know what that is... It's Frito chips with chili, cheese, sour cream and any other condiment you want on top. I'm not particularly fond of chili so I'll prob just eat some more chicken. Or maybe a burrito that is leftover from my family's dinner last week.

The Skinny Turtle is on her way!

Trying to get back in the groove of things...

It's Monday morning and I've had my cup of coffee and a few animal crackers. I can tell I need to keep a check on myself regarding carbs, as now that they aren't forbidden I want them all the time, in copious amounts. ;-)

I am really, really tired. Exhausted. I don't know what's going on with my body, but it's not normal. I will try to do my exercise, but just the thought makes me want to cry, curl up into a ball and go to sleep. So that means that I'll have to be extra vigilant with my eating, so that I don't eat my way to high heaven and then not exercise at all.

Anyway, I feel some pressure now. Pressure to be successful because I know people are reading and rooting for me. I'm trying to just learn to live a healthy lifestyle and not worry about what people think, but the pressure is definitely there. I don't know if that's good or bad, LOL!

We are having a guy come appraise our house today so we can put it on the rental market. We are looking at another house this weekend, which means leaving the kiddos. I think they will be okay, though. Hopefully this new house will work out; Josh drove by it and it's in a very nice, affluent neighborhood, in a great school district and only 5 minutes from our friends! The landlords seem really nice and are being very helpful working with our schedule and all. Hopefully we are able to sign a lease!

Over the weekend I went a bit overboard. Well, Saturday night, really. My 2 good friends and I (who happen to be my sisters in law also, aren't I lucky!!) went to see a movie and then to Applebee's. I had some nachos, chicken and a few fries. I was sick all day on Sunday; my stomach was just in turmoil, my head hurt, my ears hurt. It was horrible. I weighed myself at the end of the day, cringing to see what damage I had done, but miraculously the scale still said 167. I don't know if I can trust my scale!

Anyway, I haven't weighed this morning. I just don't want to step on it, see a gain and fall deeper into the hole of depression that is threatening to swallow me. I'm going to attempt to do an exercise video; or maybe I'll just do HIIT on my treadmill. I'll try to do something. Then I need to get the house in order for the appraisal, meanwhile working with my kiddos.

It's so odd how they are acting. I really don't recognize them and don't know how to work with them and help them. I know they are probably feeding off my negative/stressed/disappointed in myself energy. So today I'm working on being extra extra kind and patient with them.

They woke up at 6:30, which is loads better then 5:30! I got up and started the coffee and was treated to a beautiful sunrise! It was really nice to see and so pretty.

I want to apologize in advance that I won't be reading blogs for now. I just get so sad when I see it succeeding for everyone. I know that is extremely selfish and immature. But I don't want to throw in the towel, give up, gain the weight I've worked SO HARD to lose (those dang 7 pounds, ha ha ha!!!) so I am just going to focus on myself for now. My eating, my exercise and my family. Not in that order, necessarily. ;-)

I do appreciate your care, concern, advice and just any comment you take the time to give me. I hope to get back in the groove of things and be able to return the favor. I just want you to know there is no expectation that you leave comments since I can't reciprocate right now. But I do heart you all!

Here's to a new beginning; to continuing this journey to the end even if it takes WAY longer than I had hoped and anticipated, even if every single one of you lose your weight and go on to be GQ and Victoria's Secret models and I still haven't attained Skinny Turtle status yet. ;-D