Back Then

Yesterday I wrote about:

a) the fabulous weather we've been having
b) getting my first sunburn of the season, a burn that had already faded, and the fact that I probably wouldn't burn the remainder of the year
c) my excitement over DATE NIGHT with my hubs

Twenty four hours later and:

a) it's pouring down rain.  POURING.  And thundering and lightening and there's, like, an 80 billion percent chance of this continuing the rest of the day.  AND my  husband didn't drag the trash to the curb this morning which means Imma have to do it at some point.  In the rain.  And thunder.  And lightening.  That has, like, an 80 billion percent chance of continuing the rest of the day
b) I got burned AGAIN yesterday.  It was SO PINK too!  This morning it's mostly faded but still.  Is this a sign that I'm getting old? 
c) I realized that a DATE NIGHT that falls on St. Patrick's Day means every place is going to be way crowded with drunk people including chicks who are like 0.034% Irish and wearing shirts that say "Everyone Loves an Irish Girl" and "Kiss Me!  I'm Irish!"  Also, my wardrobe choices will be decided by leprechauns. 

Anyway.

A few weeks ago I was asked to post some pictures of me at my heaviest.  I've been putting it off and putting it off.  Because . . . well, I'm not 100% sure why.  To be honest, I'm not really embarrassed by these pictures.  It's who I was.  I don't look at the pictures and think, "that's disgusting" the way I've seen some people talk about their "fat" pictures.  It mostly just makes me proud that I took control of my weight and my  health.

Before I even post one single picture just let me say this: early last year, I joined a weight loss group on Facebook.  I needed to knock off my holiday pounds (I do a good job of maintaining my weight but I refuse to not enjoy the holidays to the fullest!  I've written about that before) and thought the group would be good inspiration.  And it totally was!  But, at first, I almost left the group.  Why?  Because people were posting things like, "I feel chubby at anything over 120" and "I'm really at my best at around 130."  Ya'll.  I have never in my life weighed 120!  Or even 130!  Okay, okay -- maybe in junior high.  It was hard for me to realize I was in a group with people who had a starting weight that was my goal weight.  But you know what?  When it comes to weight, it's all relative.  A number on the scale that looks good on one person might be too thin on another person -- and vice versa.  Of course, you can get too extreme on one end or the other.  But it's really about what feels good ON you and TO you.  That's the weight that matters.

The '05 picture is so HORRIBLE.  OMG.  What the wha wha was I DOING?  This was the only picture that was even close to "full body" that I could find. 

Check it out!  I've been doing The Drink Picture since [at least] 2005!

Oh, look!  Found another full body picture:

To be honest, I would LOVE to have those boobs back!  But I can't stand how full my face gets when I pick up weight.

Hell-o, Boobage!

2005 was such a rought year for me!  I moved back to Arkansas.  I left a job I loved for what I could find.  I ended up in a job where I not only sat on my butt most of the day but was also extremely stressful -- leading me to run to the Sonic next door almost daily.  I wasn't exercising much.  I have always been an emotional eater and that was a very emotional year.  I gained around 35 pounds just in 2005!  For comparison purposes, here I am in 2004:

It's really scary how fast I packed that weight on!

I think one blessing of becoming a parent is that I realized I had to take control of my health.  I owe it to my children to BE HERE for them.  Believe me, I was not healthy when I larger.  My blood pressure was too high.  I have a family history of Type II diabetes and heart disease -- both things that carrying extra weight doesn't help with!  My children also deserve a mom who sets a healthy example.  I hope I can teach them to make wise choices, indulge every once in a while, STAY ACTIVE, and just be all around healthy people.  Most of all, I want them to be happy with who they are -- regardless of whether they weigh 130 pounds or 230 pounds.  As long as they are happy and healthy, that's what matters.  And having a positive self image about ME and MY BODY even though I know I'll never be 130 . . . that's the best way I can teach them that.

Just for fun -- here's one (I think) I've showed before.  This was when I was pregnant with Kyan, one month after he was born, and when he was eight months old.  I lost almost 75 pounds within this time frame!

P.S. I love, love, love to talk to people about weight loss and offer hints and tips.  Really.  I sort of wish I had done Weight Watchers the "right" way (i.e. going to the meetings and everything instead of just using stuff I found on the Internet) so that I could be a leader now.  I guess I just . . . I feel so great (physically, mentally, and emotionally) right now compared to the place I was in before and I want other people to feel that too!  Anyway, if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or even shoot me an email (via the contact tab).

Thursday Things

1) I weighed in today, a day early, because one of my Favorite People is in town and I want Buffalo Wild Wings and wine tonight.  And possibly ice cream.  Chocolate ice cream with Pinnacle Whipped. Thoughts?  Anyway.  I'm down 1.8 pounds which brings my grand total to 7.8 pounds since January 1st.  All my holiday weight is GONE!

2) At dinner the other night I asked the boys what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Jaidan told me he wanted to be a firefighter.  No big surprise there.  I'm pretty sure every single five-year-old boy in the history of ever has aspired to be either a firefighter or a policeman.  When I asked him why he said, "to have one of those fire dogs with the spots, to be able to slide down a pole, and to help people."  Love those priorities, son.

Kyan also wants to help people (his words) but he wants to do it as . . . a knight.

Both boys weighed in on what Karis is going to be when she grows up.  Jaidan said a ballerina and Kyan said a princess.  Then a fight ensured over which was prettier.

3) Another reason I'll be glad January when is over?  Weight loss commercials.  I'm so tired of seeing Jennifer, Janet, and Mariah.

4) I've realized that my lazyness this January is not a result of the weather.  For the most part, the weather has been almost . . . well . . . perfect.  For January, anyway.  We have a really cold day here and there but mostly it's been pretty mild with most days in the 60's and even some 70's.  We were even able to spend the entire afternoon outside the other day!  I read somewhere that we're having this nice, mild January because it's a La Nina year.  Last year's craptastic weather was a result of El Nino.  So, in other words the boy causes everyone to feel miserable and disgusting.  ANYway.  The weather hasn't given me a case of the lazies . . . I just have vacationitis.  I have two weeks until I leave and I don't want to do anything but think about New Orleans and Nola related things and Nola food and Nola drinks.  Nola brain.

The other day I had a long list of things I planned on getting done.  Instead, I spent the day texting my friend Courtney with reasons she needs to go with us.

Did it work?  We'll see.

5) We've been able to walk several days a week.  On my Android phone, I had the CardioTrainer app.  I LOVED it.  I was able to turn it on when I set off on a walk and it would tell me how far I walked, how many calories I burned, that sort of thing.  I can't download it on my iPhone but I found a pedometer app that's okay.  I've been using it to monitor the number of calories I burn on a walk.

6) The boys got a little room re-do last week!  We didn't do much -- just hung pictures on the wall.  I know the days are limited - very, very limited - where Jaidan will be content with anything Disney Pixar being used to decorate his room.  So I wasn't ready to put a lot of time/ money into their room.  When he's ready for an "upgrade" Kyan is going to want it too since he wants anything Jaidan wants.  So, for now, their room looks like this:

Sidenote: I am so, so, so, so, SO incredibly sad that Picnik is going away.  What am I going to use for my collages?

7) I don't keep up with country radio.  I'm the only one in my house who appreciates country (unfortunately).  The boys like Zac Brown Band and Kyan still wants to rock out to Blake Shelton's Honey Bee (and by "rock out" I mean dance around the kitchen with me which, HELLO, I love).  The only time I really listen to country is on Pandora and that's not all the time.  So I realize this song may have been out for a while but I only discovered it a few weeks ago.  LOVE.

The first few times I heard it, I was very "wtf."  Ludacris on a country record?  LUDACRIS?  And Jason Aldean attempting something that's kind of like rapping?  But it's grown on me.  I like it.  I like it a lot.

8) Karis is in the stage where she picks 329849823 toys to take to bed with her.  The other night she took a water gun and a toy chainsaw.  Totally LOL'able.

9) I don't think there's anyway possible that I could be LESS excited about this year's Super Bowl.  Oh yay.  Tom Brady and the Patriots are going again.  Woo Hoo.  :/  At least there's a Manning in it.  Us SEC girls love our Mannings.

10) My current favorite ecard making the rounds on Pinterest:

Current favorite because HELLO.  MOST TRUE THING EVER.

It Happened This Week

Let's get the important stuff out of the way first, shall we?

• I lost 2.6 pounds this week.  We'll pretend last week's little rant on metabolism never happened, mmkay?  I'm down a total of six pounds and I only have one to go to be back where I was in October.  Which is definitely do-able by the time I leave for New Orleans.  And I hope that pound is gone before February 5th so I can pig out during the Super Bowl.  Which I'll be watching at home.  With my kids.  I don't care though -- I'm all about celebrating when Tim Tebow is not a part of it. 
• I attribute this 2.6 pound loss, in part, to being able to GO OUTSIDE and burn calories.  We were able to get out and walk, um, four days this week.  (Oh and Mother Nature decided to be a HUGE B-word to us yesterday and temps didn't get out of the 30's - after it was close to 70 on Friday - which meant I had a baby girl who sat by the back door and whimpered to go "ou-shide" constantly).
• We worked this week on Jaidan learning his address and phone number.  He has the address down.  The phone number . . . notsomuch.  I only know one phone number from memory and that's my own -- I'm not exactly setting the best example of what to do in an emergency when your iPhone is dead.  #parentingfail
• I started tweeting again this week!  I actually went over to Twitter to be an asshole to someone and got sucked in.  Freakin' Twitter.
• I said I wasn't going to drink any alcohol again until Nola but I had two glasses of Moscato the other night.  I blame it on my children.

Pictures of our week:

Sunday 1/15:

Monday 1/16:

Doooood.  She looks like her Daddy in this picture!

Tuesday 1/17:

Wednesday 1/18:

Thursday 1/19:

Friday 1/20:

This little turd.  She hasn't taken a nap this week unless I take her for a walk "a wawwwk!  A wawwwk!" and she falls asleep in the stroller.  Oh, and if she DOES happen to take a nap that's longer than, like, 45 mintutes?  She won't go to sleep at night.  She is SO MUCH like Jaidan was at that age.

Saturday 1/21:

Stupid Metabolism

I heard on the radio once that a woman's beauty peaks at the age of 32.  I actually believe this.  You might not be as firm as in your 20's but, by that time, most women have developed their "honey badger don't give a shit" attitude.  Where the firm thighs leave off, the confidence picks up.  Confidence is attractive. 

I turn 32 in May.  Which means I should be smoking hot come May 19th -- and for the 365 days that follow -- but then it's all downhill from there.  Yeah, that doesn't suck or anything. 

Want to know something else that happens in your 30's?  Your metabolism slows down.  This possibly sucks even more than realizing you're only going to get uglier.

You know how most college students pack on the "freshman 15" during their first semester of school thanks to lots of delivered pizza and beer at frat parties?  Ever the overacheiver, I gained my freshman 15 during my senior year of high school.  I started college at my highest weight ever and spent my first semester eating daily doses of Whataburger (what?  I was living in Texas for the first time in my life.  I was going to enjoy the Whataburger!) and packing on more and more pounds.  My second semester of school, I was all "nuh-uh, oh no, no more."  I have no idea how much weight I lost -- I'm not even sure I ever stepped on a scale -- but I began the semester busting out of size 14's and refusing to buy size 16's (and I was in a land of size 0's and 2's - ouch).  I ended a size 8/10.  I lost a lot of weight.  And in less than a semester.  And all I did was start working out daily and substituted Subway for Whataburger and ate a lot of Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice. 

I would never, ever in my life want to be 18 again.  But I would love to have that metabolism back.

I can't lie: when I started this diet (less than two weeks ago!) I really expected to lose 4-5 pounds in the first week.  That's how things have gone for me in the past.  Sure, it's all water weight.  But who cares?  Pounds off the scale!  Well, I only lost two pounds in the first week.  I was okay with that - not ecstatic, but okay - because I was thinking I could keep that up and my seven pounds would be gone before the end of January.

I lost 1.4 pounds this week.

Stupid metabolism.

Yeah, yeah.  A loss is still a loss!  At least it's not a gain!  Slow and steady.  Yadda, yadda.  I get it.  But I'm still irritated.  WHY CAN I NOT HAVE THE METABOLSIM OF MY 20'S AGAIN?  WHY DID I NOT APPRECIATE THAT METABOLISM WHEN I HAD IT?  Why, in the past, would I complain about only losing two pounds in a week?  (Yes, I realize the difference in 2 lbs and 1.4 lbs is not that substantial but I'm not being rational right now -- it's 27 degrees outside this morning, my 3-year-old woke me up at 5:45 this morning, and Jay-Z's "Glory" is on a Yahoo poll for best lullaby along with Beautiful Boy and Isn't She Lovely and I'm wondering if people really - REALLY - believe his stupidity belongs on the same level with John Lennon and Stevie Wonder). 

Stupid metabolism.

The Chubby

** This will be a boring post if you're not chubby, have never been chubby, and/ or don't care how chubby people try to change their chubby**

I decided something at the end of 2010.  I would rather really enjoy the holiday season (and in my mind the "holiday season" encompasses Jaidan's birthday on October 10th right up through New Year's Day) and eat whatever I want, gain weight in the process, and then turn around and work really hard in January and February to take it off.  Life is too short to spend the best [food] time of the year eating "just two bites" of your favorite casserole or only having one chocolate covered cherry.  Gimmee the whole damn box.  I'll Jillian Michaels it off come January.  I did it last year; I'll do it again this year.

So, cliche as it is, I am trying to lose weight this January.  Again.  I was determined not to even step on the scale at all until today (after a full five days of not eating like an asshole and an extra work out added to my daily routine) but I decided to hop up on there Sunday and see what it said.  I was up seven pounds from mid-October.  Okay.  Not too bad. 

Five days later and . . . I'm down two pounds.  Not too bad!

So what do I do to get the weight back under control, out of the danger zone?  This is the same thing I post pretty much every year, just tweaked slightly.  (And, ha!, funny enough.  I went searching through my archives and found that I posted this on January 6th two years ago as well!)

1) I cut calories.  (In the past I've also used Weight Watchers.  I think their point system is AWESOME and I LOVE IT.  It helped me lose almost 75 pounds after I had Kyan).  I try to keep my daily calory intake between 1200- 1500.  Definitely no less than 1200.  How do I cut the calories?  Just making better choices.  Here is what I had for my three squares yesterday:

Breakfast was two slices of turkey bacon (each one cut in half so I *felt* like I was having more), scrambled egg whites with salsa, two pieces of wheat toast (with 0 calorie butter-like-substance), and a clementine.  Total calories = 280
Lunch was a bowl of chicken taco soup with a tiny bit of cheese and some homemade tortilla strips.  I had half a frozen banana as my "dessert" Total calories = 309
Dinner was ham, ranch potatoes, and green beans.  Total calories = 270.  (And, yes, I totally rocked my dinner on a paper plate.  Sue me).
The rest of my calories came from snacks -- banana chips (I'm a sucker for dried fruit), hummus with pita chips, sweet peppers, and apple slices.  Oh!  And one Hershey's Kiss after dinner.  Mama's gotta have her chocolate. 

2) EXERCISE.  I already exercise daily so I added in one more work out to my routine.  I heard from a reliable source that the best way to lose weight is to do 45 minutes of cardio twice a day. So I get up at 6:00 and get one work out in before the kids are up and then do another one in the evenings after they go to sleep.  I think it's seriously so important to find a work out that you enjoy.  If you dread working out, you're just not going to do it.  I have an exercise bike and I love it.  I've tried to be a runner in the past and it doesn't work for me.  But riding my bike does.  I also (ocassionally) get in a work out with Just Dance or The Biggest Loser on the kinect.  (I have Zumba too but I have no rhythm and just hate, hate, hate Zumba.  I'm probably the only person in America that feels that way but really.  Hate it).

3) I drink one Coke Zero a day but the rest of the time it's water.  Water, water, water.  This is an actually an all the time thing for me.  I've been drinking water for so long that it's just what comes natural now.  I add a packet of the Hawaiian Punch lemonberry to each 1 liter bottle of water and end up drinking about 5-6 of those through out the day (yes, I constantly run to the bathroom).  The lemonberry packet adds 10 calories for each one but that only adds up to an additional 50-60 per day.  Worth it to get me drinking water.

4) I track my calories!  I use the (free!) MyFitness app to keep up with what I eat and with my workouts.  I had it on my Droid and now I have it on my iPhone. 

Did you know you lose 50% more weight when you keep a food diary??  That's pretty good incentive, in my opinion.  By the way, when I was losing all that weight after I had Kyan I wrote down everything I was going to eat the day before.  I'm not that rigid now.  But I do try to input lunch and dinner in the mornings.  That way I know how many calories I have to play with when it comes to snacks.

(And, yes, I know those Boca burgers are terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad and should not be considered health food.  BUT I LIKE THEM!)

5) No more alcohol until New Orleans.

Hold me.

6) I pay attention to serving sizes and measure everything.  If it says a tablespoon then I measure out a tablespoon, I don't just try to eyeball it. 

7) I don't eat after dinner.  People.  I love me a night time snack!  Seriously, love to curl up in bed with . . . something.  But I know late is the worst time to eat: the only way I'm going to work THOSE calories off is by sleeping.  And I'm really, really good at sleeping -- but not enough to burn off a Hershey bar or chips and queso. 

Tonight, though, since I had a loss today (and since I won't weigh again until next Friday) Imma reward myself.  After the kids go to bed, I'll watch the Cotton Bowl with some potato skinnies and pita chips with hummus.  (I do not wish it was chips and queso.  I do not wish it was chips and queso.  I do not wish it was chips and queso).

8) It's a diet, okay?  It's not a lifestyle change.  The lifestyle change is in October when I go from eating small portions or healthy snacks to devouring half a loaf of pumpkin bread all by myself.  It's okay to call it a diet.  Really.  It is.

You can follow this link to see alllllll the posts I've made on weight loss since starting this blog (there are also lots of low calorie recipes following that link).  Feel free to ask any questions you might have!