Spaghetti squash, green beans, and finger painting!

So this week I actually tried 2 new recipes and 2 projects for the girls from Pinterest. Well I guess my recipes weren't exactly from Pinterest, but that is where I looked to find inspiration to make them.

At Trader Joes this week I bought a Spaghetti Squash. I had never made one, but been told it was easy. So I looked up recipes on Pinterest and decided to just make spaghetti with meat sauce, replacing the pasta with squash and using ground turkey. It was delicious and easy and lower calorie than regular spaghetti! Oh and the leftovers were excellent too! I'd recommend searching for ways to cook the squash on your own. My way wasn't as easy as it could have been I think. Trying to cut it open before it is cooked is nearly impossible. Just a heads up. Next time I will bake it whole first.

The 2nd recipe was actually inspired by Steven's Aunt Teresa and Uncle Mike. While we visited them in Columbus, IN they made us sautéed green beans that were Chinese style kinda. My description isn't great sorry, but they were delicious and I knew I needed to make them. Thankfully they told me what they used. So I used frozen French style green beans (partially thawed), half an onion, soy sauce, garlic and garlic powder. Sorry no real specifics, but I sautéed the onion first, then added the green Beas and the rest. It's just a guessing game really. You play with it, add a little at a time. They are good I promise. At least a change from your average green beans!

Now for the "crafty" projects. Well neither went exactly how I wanted, but I would try them again. The first I tried was homemade edible finger paint which I found here http://www.bowerpowerblog.com/2011/07/michaelango-his-two-muses/
It is fairly easy to make and the girls enjoyed it, just not for as long as I hoped and Mady didn't like using her hands. Not a surprise. I would not try using regular paper. If we did it again I'd use poster board. The paint ended up being too wet for regular paper. The first 2 pictures are the colors we used, and the girls painting.

The second project we tried was a no mess finger painting. I found that one here http://hippiehousewife.blogspot.com/2012/01/mess-free-finger-painting.html?m=1
I didn't use 2 colors, just one, and I didn't use enough paint, but the girls still liked it. I did make sure the tops of the ziplock bags were extra taped. I picked both of these projects because they were easy and I had everything needed around the house. So we'll see what I pick next week!

New Goals Part 2

So I worked on our new list of fun things we are going to do for the rest of the year. Some things need to be done at certain times, but others are a bit less specific. So here is the list.

October
*Miramar Airshow - October 12-14
*Go to a Pumpkin Patch - October 20

November
*Sea World

December
*Visit Santa and do a Christmas Activity
*Walk/Drive to see Christmas Lights and have Hot Chocolate
*Make Decorations and Decorate - 1st week of December
*Other assorted Christmas Activities (there's so many to choose from!)

Anytime
*Mommy Day Out
*Daddy Day Out
*Movie and dinner out with Mady
*Zoo (Probably more than once)
*Volunteer (trying to figure out something that would be good to have the girls do too, suggestions welcome)
*Beach Day
*Science Museum
*Brynn day out by herself

Okay so December will have a few more things, because well it's Christmas time, and I love Christmas activities. I also realize that not all of these will be done, but I'm hoping that we will do at least one fun thing each weekend. We'll see how it goes. At least it's all written down now.

My New Goals!

With a new month coming I have decided that I want to make some new goals for the final 3 months of the year. Some are things to do with the girls, others Steven, others the whole family and a couple just for myself. And I'm gonna get specific, something every week. That means I need to work on my list, so I will post that list tomorrow, but for now I will tell you about some of my other more general goals for the rest of the year.

My weight loss goal for the rest of the year is 13lbs. That will put me at an 80lb weight loss for the year!

My fitness goal is to try P90x with Steven. And to sign up for a 5k or some kind of walk/run. And since I Have not accomplished the running a mile goal yet, I'd like to get to be able to do that too!

Pinterest is wonderful. I just love it. I really do. If you don't use it, give it a try, it's fun. Currently I have something like 1300 pins. Yet I have not done a ton of those things. So one of my goals is to do or use ideas from 2 pins a week. I want to use 1 recipe a week and then 1 other activity or decorating or crafty thing. And I want to blog about it and let you know how it goes! And yes some of these will overlap with my other goals.

Okay between that and the holidays and raising 2 girls, I think that is good on the goals. I am excited to make up the weekly list of things I will be doing. Hopefully I can finish it today with some help from Steven after work.

For now I have to get the girls up and ignore the hole that will hopefully be fixed today. At least Mady's class will get us out of the house for a bit!

Getting back to normal

Well 3+ weeks with help nearly everyday and business nearly everyday and today is time to get back to normal. Steven is back at work, and I am getting ready to spend the day with the girls. Including a 1 year doctor appointment for Brynn falling right at lunch time. Ugh. Oh well, making things work when the schedule isn't perfect is just part of being a mom.

Being back home also means getting back to our normal eating and exercise routine. This is exciting for us. We didn't eat that poorly while we were gone, but it is still nice to be in your own home and get your own groceries and cook whatever you want for your family.

The great news is while we were gone I lost another 6.5lbs, which puts my weight loss down to 66lbs for this year. And for those who are really curious, it puts me down 80lbs from my highest not pregnant weight (which was right before I got pregnant with Mady). That's a lot of weight and something that I am proud of.

The weight loss is great and seeing that number on the scale is awesome, but even more great has been some of the other side effects of losing weight. The biggest one for me recently has been having my pant size go down and down and finally being able to fit into jeans in the regular women's section. While we were in Indiana I got to go into the Gap and try on jeans. This is a big deal to me. I remember the day I tried on pants in the Gap and they didn't fit. And from that point I moved on to plus size stores for my pants (tops are a different story). So going into the Gap I was so excited to go into the dressing room and have jeans fit me and look good! And not even the biggest size! It was awesome.

Now we return to reality. Tonight we are having chicken and going for a run before dinner, it will be life as usual. And there is something comforting about that. As good as it was to be with family and friends from back in Indiana, it was great to get back to our home and eventually have our routine back. Wish me luck though, because we have Brynn's 1 year doctor appointment right at lunch time. Oh well, flexibility is something we all have to have in life.

The picture is Steven and I at Nick and Kristen's wedding!

Giving yourself a break

When I began this whole losing weight process I was fully into it, 100%. Counted every calorie walked everyday. I thought it would always be like that, but the reality is life happens, and sometimes you have to give yourself a break. Some days you have to be able to say okay I'm going to eat what I want and maybe not workout. If you don't you will go crazy. You will start to regret your choice to do it and this doesn't mean that once a week you go way off track and eat all the sweets in your house, but it does mean on occasion you watch yourself a little less.

Before I came to Indiana I knew my eating and exercise would be off. We would be eating out and I would be busier than normal. So I accepted my weight loss would slow. I'm very happy I have continued to lose weight and haven't gone too crazy. During the weekend of my brother's wedding though I decided to let myself go. I ate what I wanted, I drank alcohol (not much but I typically do not drink my calories, I'm weird), I took the weekend off of working out. And it was great. I enjoyed it and did not feel guilty. Okay maybe I felt guilty about the 3rd cupcake I had today (my tummy is mentioning it may have been a bad choice). But overall I felt great about it. And truthfully, aside from the cupcakes, I made pretty good eating desicions, because it was what I wanted.

Now going back to eating like my normal, I will be happy about it. And I will look forward to my next planned break day. Definitely Thanksgiving, but I may need something before then. We'll see. So if you are in the middle of a weight loss or getting fit plan look at a date and say on that day or for that event I am going to not care and eat what I want and take a break from the workouts. One day or weekend won't ruin all your progress. And who knows maybe you will surprise yourself and lose a pound.

Oh and below is a picture of me and my new sister Kristen at her wedding! Don't we look good?!

Wedding Weigh In

Well tomorrow is the big day for my baby brother and his bride to be. I can't believe the day is almost here for a few reasons.

Nick and Kristen have been together for longer than I've known my husband. She has seemed to be part of the family for years, but I still think of both of them as the kids from high school who are just having fun. But they are in fact grown ups with real jobs and all the works. And now they will be married! I am so happy for them!

I also can't believe that I have actually stuck with my weight loss plan and it is working. Admittedly I have been a little more relaxed about what I eat while I've been in Indiana, but I have still managed to work out 5 times a week and lose 3.5lbs. I've seen many people who knew I had lost weight and they have commented on how I look good, but probably theist surprising comments came from my brother's friends last night. They had no idea I was losing weight, as far as I know, but they all commented on how good I look. It was surprising and awesome!

I am beyond excited for the wedding and today will be my last weigh in till Monday. Too much good food and fun to be had to worry about gaining a pound or 2. So for my last weigh in I am down a total of 63lbs since February! My first goal was 50lbs and my second was 60, so I pretty much killed those. I am down 4 pant sizes, and they had to take my bridesmaid dress in 2-3 inches on each side. I was happy about that! I am curious as to what size it would be now, maybe I'll have to go try on dresses for fun sometime.

For those who are interested I have dropped my BMI by almost 10%! That is huge! And if you are really curious I am down 108lbs from my ultimate highest weight, I was pregnant with Mady at that time, but still it was my highest and I am no where near that anymore and I never will be again!

Brynn Alexis

I had all intentions of writing this yesterday, but the day got away from me. This post is not about exercise, losing weight, or anything like that. This is about my little Brynn. She turned 1 year old yesterday and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. I believe sometimes how a child enters the world can effect how they are in life. I guess my best examples are my own kids so I don't have too much of a reference. When Mady was born it was a planned unplanned csection. It was a weird situation, and it essentially ended up being an emergency csection and all happened very fast. Mady has always been on the move and the go a flurry of activity from the beginning, which is how an emergency csection happens.

Brynn was a planned csection. She was a breech baby and big (9lbs 12oz). As the NP told me she was not coming out by herself at all. So September 9 we got up, and headed for the hospital. We were calm, having been through it all once fairly recently helped. Everything went relatively smoothly. Brynn Alexis was born at 2:34pm. She had chubby cheeks and chunky thighs and she was our adorable little girl. We were elated to have our second daughter!

She started as a calm baby girl who slept a lot and loved to cuddle. She is still like that, well she sleeps less, but she is a happy, playful, energetic new toddler. At 1 she is walking nearly all the time, she is starting to talk, she is nervous around strangers, but once she warms up, she loves everyone. Seeing her walk up to you with a huge smile and arms up can make your entire day better. I know soon she will be running and wanting held less and less, so we are taking advantage of the cuddle time and baby love she gives now.

I pray that Brynn never loses the happiness and joy she has now. That she is always that girl with a big smile! She will always be to her mommy at least.

Another pound bites the dust!

I apologize for not blogging as much recently. I thought I'd have extra free time in Fort Wayne, but it turns out we have been busy. So I am sorry. On a good note though I have found time to workout nearly everyday, which in my book is a win. And I have finally gotten that pesky half pound off, so I have I'm total lost 60lbs this year! Yay! It feels good to hit my goal. Now I get to start working toward my goal of 20lbs more by the end of the year. It is doable, but will be a challenge at the holiday time. I know I can do it though.

For those who are wondering about my long term goals, after completing my 20lbs more for the year, I want to lose about 50lbs more. This would put my weight loss total at 130lbs. I say that is my goal, but the truth is I just feel like I'm not close enough to even know if that is a good weight for me. That is why I do shorter goals. I have this weight in my head that I'd like to hit, but in all reality if I get to a number higher than that and feel like that is where I am comfortable and healthy then I will adjust. And the same goes if I get to my goal weight and feel like a lower weight would be better. When you have larger amounts of weight to lose I feel like it is hard to nail down a number until you are closer to a realistically healthy weight.

One big goal I have is to be able to walk into any women's clothing store and know that I could buy a pair of their pants and they'd fit. That doesn't mean a size 2, but it means a healthy weight for me. I am getting closer. I recently bought a size smaller in jeans. They may be tight now, but I have confidence soon they will be loose too. For now I have stuck with the same kind of jeans from target, because they are cheap and stretch. Eventually I plan to actually take time and go find better jeans, but when I am down a bit more weight. Maybe that would be a good Christmas gift for me. Time to go out by myself to try on clothes. Hint hint husband ;)

Weird Things about Losing Weight

When you lose weight you have in your mind things that will happen. Your clothes will get big, you will start to feel better, but for me there have been some surprising things that have happened while losing weight. I thought I'd share.

1. The first place I noticed weight loss was not an obvious or expected place. It was my wrists, fingers, and ankles. It was like one morning I woke up and my bracelets and ring were too big. And not a little, an huge amount. I have one bracelet that is holding on for dear life about half the day, and my wedding ring is in desperate need of a resize.

2. It is always a shock when clothes don't fit. You know that they are going to be big, but when you put on your favorite shirt or pair of jeans and they are just too big, I get a little sad. It's for a good reason, but still, a little sad.

3. My collar bones are more prevalent, and recently I was touching my upper chest and couldn't figure out what the bumps were. It's bone, I couldn't as easily feel before.

4. I don't get winded walking up the stairs, or as often as I used to doing just regular life things.

5. I don't eat just to eat anymore. I legitimately think about the things I put in my body and if I really want it.

6. I am excited to go pants shopping I used to hate it, but seeing smaller sizes is so enjoyable!

7. I don't despise the scale. I don't mind looking at my weight. Even if it's the same or up from the day before. I am still far from where I started.

8. I am proud to tell people I have lost weight and want to lose more. I used to hide it for fear of failing, but now I want other people to know they can do it too.

9. At a party I don't feel the need to hide the fact that I want a piece of cake or a cookie, because I can just have one or a couple bites and feel satisfied.

10. Fruit and vegetables are daily parts of life. There is no question in my family we will have fruit with breakfast and lunch and lots of vegetables with dinner.

11. I want to exercise. Even when it sucks. Last night I got on the elliptical for the third time and I did a sprint program. Half way through I was tired and wanted to stop, but found the willpower within myself to keep going.

12. I can out workout with my husband and not be embarrassed. I know you shouldn't be embarrassed in front of your spouse, but I didn't want him to see everything all jiggling around and see how bad I am at certain things. Now I don't mind if I'm not doing things perfect or as fast, at least I am doing it. And he loves me despite the jiggling.

Okay 12 things, that's good for now. There are tons of other differences, but I gotta get the girls dressed and go to the party store. I can't believe my little Brynn will be 1 on Sunday! Where did the year go!

August Progress

So it has been just over a month since since I marked the 50lb weight loss and I wanted to do an update on my progress.  Thankfully I have continued to lose weight.  So far I am down another 9.5lbs and almost to my revised goal for the middle of September, which is 60lbs total.  I am confident I can do it, but this half pound just seems to be kicking my butt.  I think it has to do with the travel and irregular schedule we've had recently.  Tonight was the first night since Wednesday the girls have gotten to bed before 9pm.  Mommy is very relieved about it.  Hopefully this will help put them on a regular schedule.  Anyways, I am happy to say that I have not gained any weight since getting here.  This morning I did the elliptical for the first time in, well... a long time.  It was great.  I was happy to be able to do it for 35 minutes.  I felt good afterwards, and that is the important part.

One thing I was not able to do in August was run a whole mile without stopping.  I have made sure that I can run a mile, I just can't do it all at once.  But I have improved tremendously on my running form and feel like I am starting to find my stride.  I am proud how far I have come, even if I didn't meet my goal.  

Something great that I have been experiencing is people seeing me for the first time in months or even a year and getting their reactions to my weight loss.  Everyone has been so supportive and it very touching.  I never expected anyone to say that I have inspired them or that they want to start trying too.  It brings me joy to know that other people see me do it and want to as well.  I am flattered by the amount of people that read my blog, that comment on how good I look, and want tips.  Thank you to everyone.  Thank you to the friends and family that have supported me and given me kind words.  

Being in Indiana has been wonderful so far and I am excited for to see more people during our trip.  I am also ready for a little down time.  Hopefully tomorrow things will be a bit calmer and we can play at home and get to see some of my girlfriends!  For tonight though I am going to enjoy the downtime that I have before I crash.