Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Oh, poop!

On my way home from work on Friday I got a text from Joe saying that Kara had pooped on the toilet and we were going to have a special dinner that night!!  Kara has been wearing underwear for a year and a half, but would not poop in the toilet.  At one point she was only pooping at daycare during naptime when she had a diaper on, once she wasn't wearing diapers at daycare anymore she would ask us for a diaper every time she had to go.  We have offered everything we could think of as a reward/incentive to get her to go on the toilet, but she didn't care, she wanted to poop in a diaper... so her pooping on the toilet was HUGE!!  After she pooped on the toilet Friday night Joe and I decided that we would not give her anymore diapers anymore, she would have to go on the toilet.  The rest of the weekend she didn't go.  Anytime she had to she would throw a royal fit and scream and yell for a diaper, but we didn't cave.  Finally on Monday she was pacing all over the house, we could very clearly tell that she HAD to go.  I told her she was either going to go in the toilet or she would have an accident.  She tried to convince us to put her in a diaper any way that she could think of, but she wasn't going to poop in the diaper.. yeah right!  Finally Joe brought her in the bathroom, set her on the toilet and she went!! WOOHOOO!!  We told her again that there were no more diapers and she would have to go on the toilet every time that she needed to go.   After she went she asked to get her camera from grandma and grandpa's house, this is a reward they have had waiting at their house for her for months!!  Joe and Kara drove out in the snow to get her camera, and she was so excited!  So today, Tuesday, she has gone poop on the toilet nine10 times, yes, you read that right...9 TIMES and now 10 TIMES and now we are up to 11 Times!!, and it's only 6:00 pm!!  haha, Joe said she needs to find a new hobby.  I am so proud of her, and so, so, so glad that we seem to be over the fear of pooping on the toilet!

On to me... Last week was pretty rough on my diet and exercise.  In the end I gained 2 pounds, but I am still down 6 overall... so that's a plus, and much better than what I was expecting.  I am working hard this week at counting calories and I started the Couch 2 5K program on Sunday, so I am hoping that will help motivate me to get to the gym at least 3 times a week.  The Couch 2 5K is a 9 week program, 3 workouts a week, in the end you are supposed to be able to run a full 5K.. wouldn't that be nice?  You can check out the program here.  There is also a nice free app for the android phone, you can listen to your own music and there is a beep every time you are supposed to switch from walking to running, it worked great for me on Sunday when I tried it out!  Hoping to get to the gym tonight for day 2!

I have also become rather obsessed with crocheting lately.  I learned how to crochet about 3.5 years ago, but I was taught wrong, so nothing ever turned out right for me.  I took some time to read my crochet book and look up stuff online and I think I finally have it figured out.  I am currently making infinity scarves.. I have made 8 so far, only 2 for me!  I also made super cute hats for the girls, a couple of headbands for Macy, a hat for Joe and a Valentine's hat for Macy.

Here are a few of the things I have made:







On to Macy, she is an eating machine!!  She eats 4 ounces just about every 2 hours on the dot!  She still sleeps through the night, which is awesome, so I guess she's just making up for all the ounces she isn't eating overnight.  She has found her hands and is constantly trying to get them into her mouth.  She has also starting reaching and grabbing for toys on her play mat.  I just love her!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things...

Today is my 4th day back to work, and I finally feel like I am getting the hang of this again (other than waking up to my alarm at 5am!!)  Sadly, my calorie counting and exercising has taken a back seat this week.  We had a catered lunch at work on Tuesday, ordered a heart-shaped pizza for dinner that night for Valentine's Day and then I went out to lunch yesterday... ugh!  But today I am committed to getting back to calorie counting and hopefully we can get a schedule down soon so that I can find some time for the gym or working out at home. 

Tuesday was Valentine's Day - it was pretty much perfect, other than the killer headache that I had!  Joe and I had both bought each other a 6 pack of Bell's Hopslam, which is a very rare seasonal beer, he turned it into a beer heart....





He also bought me these beautiful roses


We ordered a heart-shaped pizza for dinner, and it was delicious!  Our Valentine's was not fancy and extravagant by any means, but it was absolutely perfect!

Last night we had Macy's 2 month appointment, she is 11 lbs 3 oz, which is the 56th percentile and 22 3/4 inches which is the 63rd percentile!  She is growing so quickly!  The whole time I had her at her appointment she was smiling and talking to the doctor, well, up until the point where she had to get her shots...  She did so good though, and is such a happy baby!  We have gotten so lucky with our babies, both Macy and Kara were sleeping through the night by 6 weeks and both were content babies!  I don't know how we got so lucky, but I'm fine with it!!  

Joe is doing great with his current role of stay at home dad!  He had both girls home with him yesterday and sent me multiple pictures of them sleeping, and when I came home they were both asleep!!  That's pretty impressive to get them both to sleep, let alone at the same time! 

That's all for now.  Hopefully I'll have some good news to report soon about weight loss and exercising! 

Monday, February 13, 2012

Busy Monday!

Today was a big day!  I returned to work after having 9 weeks of maternity leave, Macy is 9 weeks old today and I weighed in this morning.

After spending the last 9 weeks home with Macy, and a big part of that time home with Kara and Joe too, it was hard to go back to work today.  Especially because I got sick this weekend and am feeling pretty miserable.  My co-workers were kind enough to fill my cube with latex balloons.  I should probably mention that I have a strong fear of latex balloons...


And of course we had to deflate all the balloons, I wouldn't allow them to pop the balloons, cause I'm scared of that!  So we very carefully deflated them.  I was told there were about 300 balloons!!


So I survived my first day, although, I don't really remember how to do my job yet, so I should probably figure that out in the next few days.

My little baby girl is 9 weeks old today!  Joe sent me some cute pictures of her while I was at work, but I can't seem to download them from my text messages...  Macy is such a good baby!  She is sleeping through the night, usually from about midnight to 9am!  I don't know how we got so lucky to have 2 good babies, but I'm not going to complain about it!  Over the last few weeks she has started to smile and coo a ton.  She loves her big sister, whenever she sees her she starts smiling and talking, it's so cute!  We bring her in on Wednesday for her 2 month appointment, I can't wait to see how big she has gotten! 

Monday is my official weigh-in day.  I am down 2.5 pounds from last week and a total of 8 pounds so far!  Woohoo!  I like those numbers!  I have now lost 25 pounds of the 50 that I gained while I was pregnant.. hopefully those next 25 will be gone within a few months!  

Last weekend we had some pictures taken with Auntie Em, here are a few for you to enjoy :) 







Friday, February 3, 2012

Day 3!

Today is day 3 and I am still going strong with calorie counting!  It's ridiculous how quickly the calories add up once you start counting them!  I am trying to get back into the swing of this and trying to remember old foods I used to eat that were healthy, low in calories and kept me full.  Once I get used to eating healthy and smaller portions it's not so hard.

Tonight I went to the grocery store and loaded up on fresh produce and some healthy snacks.  When I got home I made some chicken stir fry with broccoli, red pepper, onion, carrots, pineapple and brown rice, it was pretty good, but the recipe for the sauce included quite a bit of soy sauce - I'd definitely use a different sauce if we make this again!

After dinner I made a bunch of pre-packed snack bags - I think snacks are always the killer to me counting calories, I think I'm hungry and end up eating something I shouldn't have, I'm trying to avoid that by planning in advance!  For my snack bags I counted out pieces to the correct serving size and wrote the # of calories on the outside of the baggie, so rather than sitting down with a bag of potato straws, I can quickly and easily grab a pre-packed bag and know that it is 130 calories.  I also did some dry-roasted peanuts, dark chocolate almonds (not the kind dipped in chocolate), pretzels, celery and broccoli.  I only have one more week of maternity leave - so I hope I can get in some good habits before I go back to work!

I haven't worked out in the last two days.  Yesterday I was too sore from my walk/run the day before and today I really did plan on going to the gym or working out at home, but it's 9:00 and I am just sitting down!  I started cleaning closets in our bedroom today - I cleared out so much stuff and have so many bags ready to donate, it's ridiculous how much stuff we have!  After cleaning I went to the grocery store, brought the groceries in and put them away, made dinner, cleaned up dinner and made my pre-packaged foods... all while helping Joe take care of Kara and Macy... I think I had enough packed in to today!

Alright, that's all for now!  Hoping to get some exercise in tomorrow!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Day 1.

Yesterday was day 1 of my life transformation.  I'm not calling it a diet, because it's not.  I want to make healthy changes to have a healthy life, but obviously the goal of this life transformation is to lose weight, feel better and be healthy.

I am still holding on to about 30 pounds of pregnancy weight.  I have lost this weight before, so it's kind of frustrating having to lose it again, but I know that if I don't make changes that this weight will never go away.  And I know that I have done this before so I can do it again!  It's also hard starting to workout again.  I quit exercising while I was pregnant, so I am pretty much starting all over with that too.  It's frustrating having to start from square one with things that I used to do on a daily basis, they are harder to do now both because I am out of shape and I am 30 pounds heavier than when I was doing them before.  But, I started somewhere before and made it to the level that I was at, so I know that I can do this and get back to where I was.

To make these changes I am back on the calorie counting train.  I lost about 80 pounds counting calories before, so I know this is an effective way to lose weight for me.  I have been messing around with the apps My Fitness Pal and Lose It to track my daily caloric intake.  I think I am leaning towards My Fitness Pal to be the one for me.  With My Fitness Pal it is so much easier to find foods in their library, I can easily find homemade foods, store bought foods and easily add my own creations.  With Lose It I have found it very difficult to find foods - I can't just type in 'peaches and cream oatmeal' and find it, everything is categorized funny.  It is easy to find things by using the barcode scanner, but you don't always have a barcode to scan, and My Fitness Pal also has this feature.   And the deal breaker... My Fitness Pal has beer in their food library, even Surly!  I know I shouldn't be drinking beer while I am trying to lose weight, but you better believe if I have calories left at the end of the day, I will be drinking them!  You can have 'friends' on My Fitness Pal, so if you're using it too, find me kristinlien04.

I also joined the gym again!  They had a deal to join for $14.99/month and if I go 8 times a month I will get reimbursed $20/month by my health insurance, so I'll be making $5/month.  Can't go wrong with that!  Yesterday was my first attempt at running on a treadmill.  It was slow, but it was a start!  When I first tried running 2 years ago I couldn't run for 60 seconds straight.  After nearly a year off of running I am pretty much back to where I started at.  I did manage to have a couple of 2 minute and 2.5 minute stretches, which I consider a success!  I did 3 miles in 45 minutes, extremely slow, I know... but I did it!  The treadmill that I was on was acting kinda funny, so it made it hard to run... every time I increased the speed the belt would slip. I have to make sure not to get that treadmill again!  I am using dailymile.com to log my miles, if you use it, be my friend!  My DailyMile profile

I will be doing my official weigh in every Monday.  But I am a freak and like to weight myself daily.  I know some people say not to do this, but it keeps me in check with where I am at, so I do it!

My first goal is to run the Get in Gear 5k on April 28th, and to be down about 20 pounds by then.  The run is 12 weeks away, so that should be plenty of time to drop 20 pounds and to get myself prepared to run.. wish me luck!

My overall goal is to fit into all of my pre-pregnancy clothes, and for them eventually to be too big for me!!

I know this will be a daily struggle, but I need to remind myself that it's worth it.  I am ready to enjoy clothes again, to feel confident, to enjoy exercising.  Every day is a struggle, but I feel so much better at the end of the day when I know I stuck with my plan!

This about sums it all up for me:


I also have a pinterest board for all these lovely motivational and inspirational quotes to keep me going.. feel free to follow it!  Post Pregnancy Body board