Diane

Down 2 pounds from my last doctor’s visit and blood pressure is almost down to normal.  Did 15 minutes of exercise this morning instead of just wasting my time.  Might not sound like a lot, but it’s 15 more than I’ve done in 10 days.  Planning to do some more tonight after the kids are in bed. 

Been trying to get things straightened out in my life lately.  Trying to figure out what to do once the kids are in school.  I am pretty sure it will involve going back to school.  One of the local universities has a really good College of Pharmacy.   Have to pick up a couple of classes before applying since I was very anti science classes when I got my BA.  Really biting me in the butt now. 

I have my list of changes that I want to complete.  Now I will start working on them.  Some are being done first not because they’re really important, but because they are time senstive.  My kids will look funny running around in Halloween costumes in November instead of on Halloween.  Of course, my DS will probably be wearing his in November and December and January . . . 

I am going to bug my Mom until she becomes my accountability partner for exercise.  She has had two heart attacks and needs to exercise as much as I do.  Not sure how it will work with there being 1200 miles in between, but I think it needs to be done.

Hope everyone has a wonderful afternoon.

It’s so simple - eat the right amount of healthy foods and exercise.  How much easier could it be?  Then why is it so damn hard?  I look in the mirror and vow to change what I see.  I have the healthy food in the house.  I have the exercise DVD’s that I like; I have Wii Fit.  I’ve two functioning legs and plenty of walking routes.  So why do I not lose weight?! 

How do I get beyond the excuses?  Some are real.  It’s hard to exercise when just breathing causes coughing so painful it feels like a lung is going to come up.  But I haven’t been that sick for a week now.  Getting my migraines under control has forced me to accept that getting up earlier is not a good idea.  But let’s see, I still have 16 plus hours a day to get in 60 minutes of exercise.  Eating healthy isn’t hard - I don’t keep much junk food around.  So why do I mess up a perfectly good banana with peanut butter and chocolate syrup? 

I’ve tried over analyzing, under analyzing, planning, not planning, calorie counting, no counting, excessive exercise, excessive food control.  I get so freakin’ tired of it all.  I want to quit sometimes, until I see my reflection in the mirror.  Oh, and having my darling 5 yo daughter say I need to shrink to fit into a shirt . . .  Well, I am not going to quit.  I just need to figure out how to get moving forward again.

It’s barely 7 a.m. and I have done 30 minutes of cardio already.  Woke up at 5:45 and couldn’t go back to sleep so instead of continuting to try, I got up.  According to Wii Fit, I am down 4 pounds since Tuesday.  According to my bathroom scales, I am down 1.5 since last Saturday.  Either way, for the first time, they match with what the number is.  I love that Wii Fit allows me to put in how much my clothing weighs to get a more accurate number.

This past week wasn’t all that wonderful, but I did learn a couple of things.  First, take the kids to the doctor when they start getting sick!  My DD brough home kiddie crud from pre-school and was sick all week.  My DS and I got it on Wednesday.  On Friday, after a bout of croup for DS, we went to the doctor - each had an ear infection and I had two as well as being on the verge of bronchitis.  My husband had a business social after work that I had to go to with him.  How I managed to pull off being awake and still able to breathe freely is beyond me.  I was a walking drugstore. 

However, despite part of the week being terrible, I did remember that I don’t need a lot of food at one meal.  The social was a sit down dinner at a local micro brewery.  My DH was very sweet and made sure there were vegetarian options for me.  I had one slice of pizza and a quarter of the dessert he and I shared.  Yesterday I ate small portions of everything and was satisfied.

Among other accomplishments, my DS is now in a “big boy” bed.  We took the side of his crib, something he hadn’t wanted me to do until this week.  He’s only fallen out once.  I went in last night to make sure he was covered up, could hear him breathing, but couldn’t find him.  He was almost completely under the crib except for his head and that was in a shadow.  A little freaky, then a little funny.  He is also trying to use the potty a bit more.  I so want him out of diapers. 

Well, it sounds as thought the rest of the family is waking up.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

A piece of advice from another site that I think is some of the best I’ve heard in a long time for when it feels like everything is out of control.

“If you’re unhappy with your life, make a list of things that you’d like to be different.  Cross out the ones that are out of your control and get to work on changing the rest of them.”

Here is my short list of things I want changed:
Weight - I am not happy where I’m at and I can do something about it
Time Management - I alone am in control of my schedule.  There is no reason waste as much time as I do.
Organization - I wish I were more organized.  I can organize anything - as long as it isn’t mine.  Since I can do that, I can get my own stuff organized as well.
Unfinished Projects - Way too many around

So far today, working toward the changes - 45 minutes of exercise, plenty of water.  I’m getting all of my unfinished projects together and figuring out what to do first.  As Dawn posted a few days ago, I too feel like I have wasted a lot of time.  No more wasting of time.  It goes by so quickly and I don’t want to miss out on another minute.

Thoughts on it?  I don’t want to go to meetings since I never know when my husband is going to be home to keep the kids.   Thanks!

No offense to any blondes.  That’s just how it was written.

A blonde is terribly overweight, so her doctor put her on a diet.
“I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for 2 weeks.
The next time I see you, you’ll have lost at least 5 pounds.”
When the blonde returned, she shocked the doctor by losing nearly 20 pounds.
“Why, that’s amazing!” the doctor said, “Did you follow my instructions?”
The blonde nodded…
“I’ll tell you though, I thought I was going to drop dead that 3rd day.”
“From hunger, you mean?” asked the doctor.
“No, from skipping.”

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Great News!  Chocolate is a Vegetable

Chocolate is a Vegetable:
Chocolate is derived from cocoa beans.
Bean = vegetable.
Sugar is derived from either sugar CANE or sugar BEETS.
Both are plants, which places them in the vegetable category.
Thus, chocolate is a vegetable.
To go one step further, chocolate candy bars also contain milk, which is dairy.
So candy bars are a health food.
Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.
If you’ve got melted chocolate all over your hands, you’re eating it too slowly.
The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car.   The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.
Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal.  It’ll take the edge off your appetite, and you’ll eat less.
Chocolate has many preservatives.  Preservatives make you look younger.
Put ‘eat chocolate’ at the top of your list of things to do today.
That way, at least you’ll get one thing done.
A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place.
Now, isn’t that handy?
If not for chocolate, there would be no need for control top pantyhose.  An entire garment industry would be devastated.
You can’t let that happen, can you?

I have read several of the high drama blogs today, something I don’t normally do.  It saddens me to see a site designed for support to have seemingly degenerated into what I’ve seen today.  I realize that there are many more people who use this site than those that have posted and that gives me hope for it.

 My first year of university was at a small college in New England.  There was a lot of ethnic diversity and, sadly for a Christian school, a lot of tension that went with it.  I never had any issues with anyone, but it was very real and very apparent that differences were not being well tolerated.  My resident assistant was wonderful.  She had a group of kids who were from every corner of the globe and because of her, we all got along better than the rest of the dorm.  The following poem is something that she gave us at the beginning of the fall semester. 

Acquaintances move on.

People change homes.

People grow apart. 

Enemies hate and move on.

Friends love and move on.

You think of the many people who have moved in and out of your hazy memory.

You look at those present and wonder.

I believe in God’s master plan in lives.

He moves people in and out of each other’s lives, and each leaves his mark on the other.

You find you are made up of bits and pieces of all who have ever touched life.

You are more because of them, and would be less if they had not touched you.

Pray that you accept the bits and pieces in humility and wonder, and never question and never regret.

Bits and pieces, bits and pieces.

The local Mom’s website is doing a cookbook and they accepted one of mine for their holiday issue.  Someone just came and took a photo of the dish and another of the kids and I.  Definitely will be a unique recipe, but there are a lot of vegetarians in the area so hopefully someone else will enjoy it.

Aside from that, not much is happening here.  Trying to get my butt back in gear.  The Biggest Loser really startled me the other night.  I’d never once thought about how fat is restricting my lungs and heart.  Now I can’t stop thinking about that, the 4 yo girl who weighed 63 pounds, my kids and if the fat is that bad around the heart and lungs, what is it doing to the rest of my organs?!  

Okay, I think I’m going to go exercise now.  Done well with my food intake so far today.  Time to move.

Here is the recipe Vegetarian Pot Roast

My husband was supposed to be in California this month.  Part of me was looking forward to it - one less person to worry about on a daily basis.  His boss called Friday morning to tell him that he wouldn’t be going after all.  I’m glad he’s home, but it does disrupt my plans.

I’d planned to surprise him by working really hard at losing weight for the next month.  Various factors, the least of which is him being home, completely knocked the wind out of my sails.  My mother-in-law was here last week and DH took the week off.  My DD started school 3 days a week.  TOM was here and brought a week long migraine with him.  Finally had to go get a shot to get over it. 

So, I haven’t been exercising and I certainly haven’t been eating well.  Reassessed my situation today and decided that my new goal will be to in the 230’s, even it’s 239, on Oct. 8th when I have to go back to the doctors.  My goal after that will be to be in the 220’s by Nov. 11th. 

. . .and that’s a good thing.  My kids don’t care what I eat so why am I not limiting my food intake?  They don’t care if they eat healthy - most of the time they prefer to have a salad or soup to junk food.  So why do I not eat that way too?  Well, that salad and bug issue for me, but still, I can eat it.   The kids don’t care if I eat with them as long as I’m at the table with them so why do I eat dinner every night when I really don’t want it?

And now I have a goal to work toward.  On October 4th I want my husband to come home to a lot less of a wife than he’ll be leaving on Sept. 7th.   My plan is to use the Wii Fit for 45 - 60 minutes in the morning and then do a 2-4 mile WATP in the evening after the kids go to bed and eat no more than 1200 calories.  Oh, and not say a word to him so it will be a surprise. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  For me, well, my MIL will be here on Sunday for a week visit and my baby is turning 3 on Sunday as well.  That makes me a little sad.