Bursting N2 Summer Challenge - Week 2

Well here we are in Week 2 of this 11 week challenge for the Sisterhood. I'm actually glad that this challenge is so long....maybe it will give me time to get my act together and lose the weight! So it's weigh in time -- let's get to it, shall we?

Starting challenge weight: 194.6
Last week's weight: 195.2
Today's weight: 194.6

Yes, that's right I weigh exactly the same as I did 2 weeks ago! I know it sounds lame but I am actually pleased to see that I have lost the weight that I gained last week. I have been sidelined from exercising more than just basic stretching since Sunday. I took Friday and Saturday off from exercising since I was having some good "mom time" out with some friends. So....basically I haven't exercised since Thursday! That's nearly a week without exercising and that's a long time for me! i am pretty consistent with my exercise, even if it is just something easy and light-weight I try to do something nearly every day. BUT...having such intense leg cramping that I can't walk isn't very conducive to exercising. I'm feeling better tonight thanks to Roo's advice and @ArcticEase's great wrap! I'm planning to go for a short walk tonight after dark (since it's nine million degrees here in Texas!) and see how I feel after I do that. I'm hoping to get back to the ShrinkingJeans Bootcamp soon! I need it sooooo badly! and I want to push myself beyond my comfort zone!

This weeks challenge was to eat breakfast! I am happy to report that not only did I drink all my water but I also ate breakfast everyday! Saturday I almost forgot, but just as I was walking out the door I remembered that I hadn't eaten anything so I grabbed a protein bar and ate it on the way to meet my friend!

This week's challenge is to eat my fruits and veggies! The times where I actually do this I am consistently shocked at the fact that I can eat so much more food and feel full longer! and my calories are so much lower -- cuz ya know fruits and veggies have WAAAAAYYY less calories than say a coke or a bag of chips or almost anything!! So this is definitely gonna be a goal of mine for the week. It is almost 7:30p.m. and I am happy to report that I did indeed have all my fruits and veggies for today! I ate a nice big salad for lunch and that helped a lot!!

Ok...so it's time for me to get some stuff done around here...since I have been in and out alot for the past few days, the house is starting to fall apart!! Does this happen to anyone else? or is it just my household??

Hope ya'll had a great week and are doing well with this challenge! If you are struggling just get back in the saddle, k?

Disappointment

I'm laying in my living room floor with an ice pack on my quadricep. I have been stretching, icing, heating and stretching more! I have taken advil, eaten bananas, and tried to relax and nothing seems to be helping. I'm so frustrated!
Last week while doing the boot camp workouts I noticed my quads seemed really tight so I spent extra time stretching them. I did the workout Monday and was sore but felt great! I felt like I had challenged myself and I was proud of the fact that I had accomplished something challenging. I was still pretty sore on Wednesday but went ahead with the workout! The sprints were pretty slow, even for me but I had pushed myself and I got the heart rate up which is what the purpose of the sprints were. I was gone all day Friday and busy again on Saturday so I didn't get the workout done when I wanted but I had noticed my quads were pretty tight so I figured an extra day off would probably be ok. Sunday evening I was a little stiff but figured once I got moving I would be ok. I got That Other Kid to bed and dressed to start my boot camp workout. I devided to do 10 minutes step aerobics for my "warmup" walk. Then I told hubby that I was doing the sprints outside and he was concerned about me being out in the dark so he came out to make sure I was safe. I stretched for a few seconds and pushed my run keeper app to start and took off! After 10 seconds bothy quads cramped up to the point of tears! I couldn't move! I just stood there screaming in pain! Hubby helped me back in the house where he literally lifted my legs onto the ottoman so I could wait for heat to be applied. I stretched, heated, iced, took advil, ate a banana, and drank a bunch of water. 45 minutes later I could walk by myself!

It's been 26 hrs with repeated icings, stretching, heatings, advil, and tlc and I still hurt when I walk very much!

I so wanted to do boot camp with all the ladies at Shrinking Jeans but now I am sidelined and don't know how to make my quads work well enough to do what they need to do.

Hubby suggested a deep muscle massage and if they don't feel better by tomorrow evening I guess I will be making an appointment for a massage. I may be sidelined for awhile because if this but I'm not quitting! I will complete the 6 week boot camp!! I want this and will get it!!

Bursting Into Summer (or not!)

It's time for weigh in Wednesday and I kind of hoping against all odds that the weekend food fest that I had wouldn't hurt me too much BUT I guess it was just too much to hope for. So let's get the ugly part of this post over with so we can go on to the better things of life, ok?

Last week: 194.6
This week: 195.2

Yes, I know in the big scheme of things that a gain of .5 is not that bad but u think the thing that bugs me so much about it is I once again let circumstances dictate my food choices! My allergies are incredibly bad right now and instead of eating as I should I told myself that it was ok to eat crap because I didn't feel good. Bottom line is right now I can't really taste anything so I should be eating the good for me stuff since I can't really taste the crap food! Instead I ate junk and kept wanting more and more!

But today is a new day and I'm going to stick with my low glycemic index foods. I know following this plan I can lose weight and a decent amount of it!
So expect to see a lower number on next weeks weigh in post!

I did the boot camp workout Monday and honestly I am still sore from it but I need to do today's now! I figure if I do it today even though I am sore by Friday I will feel pretty good. Besides it felt great to push myself like that!

Hydration was the challenge for the week and that wasn't a problem for me as I usually drink around 100 oz a day. Monday I think I drank about 130 oz and based on how hot/humid it is today I'm sure I will do the same or more today.

This weeks challenge is breakfast! This one is a bit more challenging for me but as long as I stick to the LGI plan I have this one under control too.

Hope everyone has had a great start to the challenge and has a good week!

Confessing It All

Today is Tuesday over at the Sisterhood and in honor of April and her wonderful poem and a GIVEAWAY for POPCHIPS (the most wonderful chips I have tasted to date) I am going to attempt some of my confessions in a rhyming fashion.

Allergies suck and I let them lead me down a slippery slope of eating crap food this weekend. How crap you might ask? To the tune of 4 ice cream bars, 3 Heath candy bars, 2 huge scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough (yes, raw), and just to round this out nice and neat, 1 row of brownies that were supposed to be for hubby for fathers day!

During the weekend of crap food I did little more than lie around on the couch and sit at the computer complaining to myself and others who would listen (which really was no one) about how badly allergies suck. Meaning no exercise really got accomplished although there was plenty of time to do so. I would have felt better too! I did manage to drink plenty of water during the weekend because I was so thirsty so I guess it wasn't all lost, huh?

Monday morning I woke up and decided enough was enough, allergies will be what they will be but I don't have to let them define me! (See I rhymed that line!)
I ate a good breakfast, and decided that no matter what the Shrinking Jeans bootcamp workout was I was gonna do it to the best of my ability. Then I saw that the first part of the workout was SPRINTS!

Come on now....I don't run fast! I barely run at all! I sucked it up and decided YES, you can do this! Your sprints may not be fast compared to others but for you they are fast...JUST DO IT!! So I laid out my game plan. Got dressed in workout clothes, decided where and when I would workout and didn't let anything change my mind! Once I dropped That Other Kid off for karate class (for 3 hours of me time!!) I went to the local high school track and found a bunch of high school kids having a meeting of sorts on the track! Oh no, what now? I decided to go over to a local park that has lots of different areas and I found a great place to workout! So I did!!

Yes, the sprints sucked, but I did them! Yes, it was hot (95ish) but I found trees and shade to do the workout in, so I did the workout there! Here's another confession at the time, I didn't really think the workout was all that tough. Yes, it was challenging but it all seemed doable to me. BUT... by the time I was done and started walking back to my car I was already feeling the effects of that workout! My legs were sore (and I did do my stretches at the end) and I was having a hard time walking back to the car! By the time 8 o'clock hit last night I was so sore I could hardly get up and down out of the chair.

I asked That Kid to go over to the track with me so I could walk around to stretch my legs but he was engrossed in a game with friends so he said he wasn't going to go, so I decided the best thing for me to do would be to sit on the floor and stretch! I ended up stretching for 30 minutes...I'm glad I did too, cuz I can't imagine how sore I would be today if I wouldn't have! I'm gonna have to invest in something like a foam roller or Artic-ease I think!

Food yesterday was very good....I didn't want to blow that great workout by eating crap food! Today is shaping up to be a good food day! I don't know what I will do workout wise but I know it will involve a lot of stretching. I'm hoping to do the #tworkout tonight too!

I'm hoping that my indiscretions of the weekend don't hurt me too much on the scale tomorrow. I have a great team of ladies counting on me!!

Our Week In Pictures

I downloaded Angry Birds on my phone this week and on Monday afternoon, the 13th both boys were arguing over who was gonna play each level! Nothing like a little sibling rivalry even if they are 13 1/2 years apart in age, huh?!!


I wore this t-shirt on Tuesday, the 14th while I grocery shopped. The cashier said, "yes it is" and I wondered what he was talking about. He said, "your shirt says life is good and I just wanted to agree!" I had to agree that "Life is good" no matter how we feel...living is better than the alternative, right??!


One of his many Lego creations this week was built on Wednesday, the 15th! A 2 story house complete with stairs!


That Kid started learning cursive this week in our homeschooling lessons. He decided (on his own I might add) to practice on Thursday, the 16th! I thought he did a great job!


Friday, the 17th we went to a local Splash Park and That Kid was resting on this spinning seat that they had on their playground area!


We celebrated Father's Day on Saturday, the 18th since That Kid was supposed to work all day on Sunday. This was a picture that we took at dinner....Both boys and myself!!


I just couldn't figure out what to take a picture of today, since it was just a pretty routine day around these parts, but I thought it was funny that of all the places our white kitten, Mickey could choose to sleep he chose to sleep on That Kid's laundry that is waiting to be put away!

Burst Into Summer - Start Up

Well today is the first day of the Burst Into Summer Challenge over at the Sisterhood. This challenge is 11 weeks long which is longer than most of the challenges with the Sisterhood. It is also a team challenge, which I have had some success with in the past and some failure. It all depends on what I put into it! I can tell you that I am going to be putting everything I have into this challenge. I'm getting to team up with some ladies that I don't really know well, too, so that will be fun to team up with new women and get to know them and their strengths and weaknesses!! We are Team 3, but we are calling ourselves the Fierce 5.

I am personally trying to get as much weight off as I can over the next 11 weeks. The end of this challenge is near the time that That Kid leaves for Marine Corp bootcamp and I really want to get some more weight off and tone up between now and then. I'm not sure what kind of goal I want to set, but I really think if I put everything into it then I can lose up to 20 pounds this summer. I can do this, if I continue tracking food, getting enough exercise, and staying with the low glycemic index diet plan that I was so successful with in May. So back to work!!

Today my weigh in was 194.6 which is up 1 pound since last week. Based on my lack of exercise and excessive amounts of junk food I had this past week I'm truly surprised it wasn't more than that.

The mini-challenge for this week is drinking 64 ounces of water a day...shouldn't be an issue for me since I generally average 100 ounces a day. Of course, it's nearly 7pm and I'm still working on my 64 ounces so maybe it is gonna be harder than I thought! lol

I'm going to be participating in the online boot camp with the Sisterhood that starts next week. That should help me tone up and get me moving in the right way. I'm also planning to get back to my NTC app and I'm wanting to do some of my Wii games again, too. I have grand plans...now just to put action to them!!

For tonight, I'm watching the Stanley Cup Finals - Game 7 between the Canucks and the Bruins! Yes, I'm a hockey fan and I'm not ashamed to admit it!!

This Week's Pictures

This was a really long week. That Other Kid was sick most of the week running a fever of up to 104.6 and vomiting. Hospitalization for dehydration was tossed around by the doctors and I was a wreck wondering why my baby was so sick. He was put on amoxicillin on Wednesday and by Thursday his fever was gone and he was feeling better! Pictures this week reflect the sickies of the week and other random stuff!

I got nothin' for Monday, the 6th! I had gotten about 2 hours of sleep and That Kid was violently ill! I just couldn't conjure up the ability to take a picture of anything!


This picture was taken on the Tuesday, the 7th. He had been sick with high fever and vomiting for more than 48 hours, but he could still smile for the camera!


This is from Wednesday, the 8th! After waking up with a fever of 104.6 Wednesday morning and going in to see the dr AGAIN, he was given 2 doses of medicine. Finally the fever broke...Happy dance!!



He was feeling better but not 100% on Thursday and he was complaining of being cold, but the blanket was a whole 10 ft away and the pillow case was right there, so he curled up in that instead! I thought it was pretty humorous and apparently so did a lot of my friends...I got several comments from facebook from this post! Becca even decided to give it a try and curled up in her own pillow case!


This one is from Friday night, the 10th. Since one of the reasons I decided to do this "daily picture taking thing" was so I could get some pictures of That Kid before he goes off to boot camp I decided to snap a picture of him doing what he does best...sitting at the computer!!


Saturday, the 11th was kind of a lazy day since That Kid was finally back to mostly normal and it was too hot to do anything outside...apparently the kitten thought it was a great time to curl up on my lap and take a snooze, too!


This picture of That Other Kid and I was taken tonight as we were snuggling up before bedtime!! He's such a goofy boy and I love his smile!

Hope you had a great week...and I hope to take more exciting pictures this week as I continue my picture taking journey!

Confessions of a Tired Momma

I had a pretty good week as far as staying on track with the food and exercise UNTIL Sunday night and Monday!

That Other Kid went to sleep surprisingly easy Sunday night (which should have been my first clue that he didn't feel well!) and I went out to relax for a few minutes and then I was about to exercise when everything went down hill! That Other Kid woke up vomiting and burning with fever about 10 p.m. It continued all through the night. Meaning momma didn't get much sleep...cuz it's hard to sleep when your child is vomiting every hour and burning with fever and doesn't want to leave your side, ya know??! I probably got an hour or 2 of sleep Sunday night. I took him to the dr Monday morning and he has a stomach bug that apparently is going around here...let me tell ya it sucks to have your child vomiting and dry heaving water cuz he doesn't have anything in his stomach!! I'm so ready for him to be over this!

I did sleep last night!! Really deep, so deep in fact that he came and got in bed with me and I didn't know it till he started coughing and vomiting!! Fortunately it was short lived and he went back to his own bed and slept through the night! Today the fever doesn't seem to be as high and he has moved out to the living room couch to lay on! He has confiscated my IPhone to play games on he hasn't vomited since early this morning so maybe just maybe he is getting better!!

Ok...so on to the REALLY BAD part of this confession...see this list of foods and calories?? This is what I ate yesterday!!

Dannon Greek Yogurt, Plain 80 calories
Braeburn Apple 80 calories
Almonds, raw (16 almonds) 80 calories
McDonald's Small French Fries 230 calories
McDonald's Large Coke 310 calories
Coca-Cola Can Of Coke Classic 140 calories
Lay's LAY'S Classic Potato Chips 450 calories
Jif Peanut Butter 190 calories
Mrs.bairds 100% Whole Wheat Bread 120 calories
Lay's LAY'S Classic Potato Chips 150 calories
Taco Cabana Chicken Fajita Nachos 1,200 calories
McDonald's Large Coke 310 calories
Totals: 3,340 calories w/an anstounding 163 g of fat!!

Do you see that total for the day?? That is MORE THAN TWICE what I am supposed to have in one day!! Did you see those fat grams?? That is just a sickening number of fat grams!! Did you notice all those COKES I drank?? and yesterday was the first day in probably a year or more that I haven't had even 64 ounces of water in one day!!

This makes me sick to my stomach....how could I have treated my body so badly? I know....I just didn't care what I ate and I was too tired to really care!

So...I'm moving forward and back to my normal healthy eating today. I'm rested and I'm ready to tackle this stomach flu that That Other Kid has and not treat my self with such disregard!!

Hope ya'll are healthy and enjoying your summer!! Do you have confessions?? If you do feel free to confess here and over at the Sisterhood of Shrinking Jeans! You'll feel better and you'll get plenty of support to get back on track!

A Week in Pictures

All year I have been watching my friends post pictures from their week. All year long I've been thinking I should do this, especially since That Kid will soon be away for long periods of time with the Marines. Sooooo.....this week I decided to jump on board. I downloaded the "Project 365" app and started finding things out of my day to snap a picture of. Some are gonna be pretty random. Some will be goofy. Some will be serious. Some will just be my life!

Here are the first 5 pictures I have taken this week!


That Other Kid showin' me his 'guns' and abs!!




My best friend, 5 weeks post breast cancer surgery! She looked radiant on Thursday and I just had to take a picture of her!


The boys hanging out...That Kid playing video games and That Other Kid watching!


One of the kittens that came home to join our family in December! He's grown so much since that time...it's hard to believe he is less than 8 months old!


I guess I'm finally coming to grips with That Kid joining the Marines and leaving me in a few months cuz I sat on the couch and looked at this shirt for a while this afternoon while he played video games (and I didn't cry!) and I realized that he's my kid and he's soon gonna be "the few, the proud, the marines". He could leave anytime between now and September 19th.

May Your Way (or The Month I Lost 8.4 Pounds!)

May has gone very much my way for losing weight. I can safely say that this month has been one of the most successful for me in A LONG TIME!! So a big THANK YOU goes to the Sisterhood of Shrinking Jeans for being here to encourage, push, and challenge me to a great weight loss this month.

So here are the stats:

Starting weight 3/25/09: 226.8

Starting weight for challenge: May 1st, 2011 - 201.0

Last week: 195.2

Today's weigh in: June 1st, 2011 - 192.6

so what does this mean? It means I lost a freakin' 8.4 pounds in just a month!!! Even with my set back last week I still managed to lose weight and recover from a few bad days last week, get back on track and pulled out of the slump I was in and I started losing weight again!!

How did I do it, you might ask? Well first of all I set out 3 goals for myself and I stuck to them pretty well, ifIdosaysomyself!

1) Follow a Low Glycemic Index diet (as much as possible): Accomplished I have a list on the side of my fridge of foods that follow the Low Glycemic Food Index and every time I ate something I looked at that list to see if what I was about to eat (or had eaten) followed that plan. I'm a pretty picky eater so my list of foods that are eat-able(yes that's a word!) is not too hard to browse through quickly. I'm also in charge of the cooking and grocery shopping so I pretty much know what is in the house and available to eat! Shockingly, it wasn't that hard to stick to this plan...I don't know why I didn't stick to it 2 years ago. BUT, I'm sticking to it now and that is what matters, right?

2) Exercise a MINIMUM of 30 minutes a day: I admit I missed a few days on this goal but I'm not beating myself up over it. (Shocking, right?) I'm still calling this goal accomplished because the only days that I didn't exercise 30 minutes were not because of laziness. They were simply days that things like caring for a family got in the way. That Kid moved back home this month, my hubby has finally gotten extremely busy with work, therefore making me busier cuz he can't help out as much and then this weekend That Other Kid got sick. I still have managed to exercise MOST days this month and that has certainly helped me lose weight!

3) Track food and exercise on MyFitness Pal/Livestrong: Accomplished
Yes indeed, every day this month I have tracked my food into My Daily Plate. There were a few days that it was not pretty and I really didn't want to record those brownies bananas that I ate, but I did it anyway. It was very eye opening, too. We eat out one fast food meal a week and those nights I got online and checked out the food choices that I wanted to eat. There was one week I went to 3 different places just so I could get something that wouldn't blow my plan out of the water!! And did you know that a hot fudge sundae from Sonic (yum Sonic) has 342 calories?? It was soooo not worth it so I TURNED IT DOWN, thankyouverymuch!! And did you know that a huge salad that you make at home only has around 60 calories without dressing?? That has been a huge help in keeping my weight going down this week, because I've had a salad nearly every night!!

My final goal that I set up for this month was to lose 11 pounds so that I could be at 190 pounds by today, BUT I felt this was a pretty unrealistic goal for myself. I'm not holding this against me because although I had set out to lose 11 pounds this is the first month this year that I have actually lost a decent amount of weight! I'm counting this as a "mostly accomplished" goal since I lost 8.4 pounds this month and that was even with having a gain last week!

I also found I was having a harder time getting a decent amount of sleep so I added a goal of getting to bed by 1 am and getting at least 7 hrs of sleep. There were a few nights that I didn't get to bed by 1 am but if I didn't I made sure I managed to sleep enough to get my 7 hrs or more of sleep. One night this weekend I think I got about 4 hours of sleep but that was because That Other Kid was sick and kept waking up....he's better now but still has a cough and a stuffy nose...allergies suck is all I can say about that!!

So...overall, I am very pleased with the way May has gone and I'm happy to be 8.4 pounds lighter than I was a month ago!! I had fun participating in SisterChats and the SisterSays challenges. This week's challenge was to try new fitness/exercise - I did a couple of different things; I did a 30 minute Nike Training Club app routine and I did a Netflix Instant dvd exercise routine - Dance off the Inches - Fat Burning Jam. It was nice to push myself in a different direction with these exercises although That Kid thought my "dance" moves were a bit goofy! But that's what he gets for coming through the living room while I'm exercising! lol

I missed the SisterChat this week and for that I am bummed. I heard it was just Mary and one other lady so apparently everyone else was busy or forgot too! It was nice to sit down and chat with my sisters for a bit and I got lots of laughs and a lot of information too! I hope this feature hangs around cuz I need this!!

I did manage to do #Tworkout every week this month...even the week the Dallas area was hit was tornados and everyone was telling me to get to shelter!! See I'm telling you the love is thick around here!! I did head to one of our bathrooms and I took my phone so I could keep up with everyone and the weather! I did the tworkout mostly on my own that week but at least I did it, right??!!

All in all it was a great month and a super week! I hope you guys have had a great May and are looking forward to a wonderful summer! It's already stinkin' hot here in Texas so I'm looking for things to do INSIDE or late at night! I'm also checking out the apartment complex pools to see if any of them are clean enough for us to use this summer so we don't have to go to the community pool and pay money to use them!

Hugs!!!