New Beginnings

Life has been crazy and hectic since my last post. Here's some of the great things happening in Casa de W.

1. My sister gave birth to a healthy as can be expected, baby girl, Samantha Leann at 30 weeks gestation while visiting PA from NC.  Sammi was 17 inches long, 4 lbs. 2 oz., is breathing on her own, pooping, and sucking ever so lightly on a pacifier.  She'll be in the NICU until she at least reaches 34 weeks gestational age, so Pat will be hanging in PA with the baby for the next month.

2. C had her appointment with her nephrologist, who has cleared her for surgery.  We are currently looking for an automatic blood pressure machine with a child sized cuff so that we can monitor her blood pressure.  This will help to determine if her high readings were stress related or indicative of kidney scarring.  The Nephrologist noted that the right kidney is smaller than the left and may be scarred. This could cause high blood pressure and protein in her urine.  Little to no risk of this turning into something that would cause the need for a transplant or dialysis.  WooHoo!

3. We registered our big girl for Kindergarten. She is so thrilled and doesn't quite understand that she will have to wait for September for school.  This month, she will play tee-ball for the first time, and next month, she'll have her dance recital for ballet and tap.

4. Baseball season has started for L (not for J, yet).  This will be his first year in coach pitch, and he is finally excited. Originally, he was fearful of having to hit a moving ball, but he seems to be more excited as practices progress.

5. I got a "real" job.  By real, I mean a full time, out of the office, job.  I am working for a local healthcare BPO, as a process analyst.  Boy, oh boy.  There is a lot to do.  I just hope I am as good as I sold myself to be.  The people are all really nice and seem dedicated to doing the right thing, though, there is a mix of those that are looking for a free ride.  Here's hoping this career is worth missing my babies.

6. As a result of getting a job, we also got a nanny.  The kids love her, well, I think. J seems to be giving her some problems if she's told to do things she doesn't want to do.  It pretty much sums her up, as she behaves the same way with me (until I lay the smack down ;-) ), so I will have to assume she feels comfortable around her.  The thing that makes going to work easier is that Q just loves the nanny.  She waves to her constantly and smiles in her presence.  Though I don't want to be replaced, I am glad she feels safe and loved.

7. P and I are having a bit of a difficult adjustment to both of us working.  The other day, we woke up and realized that there was no bread, no fresh fruit and not much in the house that the kids could or would eat.  That night, we went grocery shopping and didn't get home until 9 pm.  Don't worry.  We won't be having that problem again. We spent a month's budget in one night.  Here's hoping I can figure out a good schedule.  If you've got one, please share.

I'm also having a hard time trying to figure dinner out.  By the time I get home, I nurse the baby, then its 6 pm.  The kids need to be in bed before 8, and 3 nights out of the week, we have "stuff" to do.  We'll figure it out, but I'm guessing it'll take time.

8. Weight loss has been a challenge for me, to say the least.  I am having a hard time making it to the gym or downstairs to the treadmill because Q has, again, decided she needs mommy by 6 am every morning.  So, exercise has been pretty much non-existent.  Again, ideas are appreciated.    And, don't get me started on food.  My new coworkers seem to have an addiction to sugar that is contagious.  HELP!

9. Let me not forgot my baby Q's milestones.  After soldier crawling for 2+ months, she has finally decided to crawl on all 4's, just yesterday.  She doesn't do it if she's in a hurry, but she will if she's going somewhere ever so slowly.  Oh, and now she's decided that she should climb the stairs, too.  She loves to wave, even though I was trying to teach her the sign for "milk", and she turned it into a wave.  She's just an amazing little girl, like all my kids were are. I can't believe she's growing so fast.

10.  Today, we went geocaching for the first time ever.  Basically, its a scavenger hunt. You are provided GPS coordinates to an item which you then seek.  When you find it, you sign the sheet and celebrate your success.  The kids LOVED it. It was great to do something outdoors as a family, and even better to do something that made us work together.  If you've never done it, I recommend you give it a try.  Visit www.geocaching.com and let me know what you think.  This was recommended to me by a friend, so I am paying it forward by telling you about it.

To all my friends reading this: I love you and miss you, all!  I wish we could chit chat more, and get together.  Don't become strangers!

Vegan Experimentation ~ Fighting Fatty McFatFat

Obesity is a problem in our country.  We hear it all the time.  The solution?  Get moving.  Yep.  That's it.  Congress, the schools and the 1st Lady all tell us that we need to exercise each day.  I've done it.  I've done it and felt great.  I've loved it.  But, I've learned a lot.  The most important thing:  It doesn't really help you lose weight if you are still eating crap. 

That's right!  Weight loss is more what and how much you eat than your workout ethic. I exercised for 5 months and dropped 2 pounds.  That's it.  

This time around, I've decided to focus on our food first, partly because I know it works and mostly because I'm a little bit lazy right now.  In the last 3-4 weeks, I have lost 6 1/2 pounds.  That's not tons, but I'm trying to lose weight responsibly, since I am still breastfeeding.  Also, I've been kind of lazy and had a few fat girl days where I've enjoyed way too many of the sweets.  

Here are a couple of great recipes that P, the kids and I have tried and really enjoyed.  These are all easy things that you would probably have in your house any given week.

Vegan French Toast (adapted from the Engine 2 Diet)

Ingredients: Banana (mashed), Cinnamon, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Whole Wheat Bread

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a pie plan, dip bread in the mixture, cook on griddle pan.

Vegan Lemon Blueberry French Toast

add the zest and juice of a lemon and a handful of mashed blueberries to the above recipe

Veggie Latkes

Ingredients: 1/2 head of small cabbage, 2 carrots, 2 scallions, 2 potatoes, ground flax seed, water, flour, garlic powder, ground hot red pepper, salt, pepper

Directions: Mix 3 Tbsp. ground flax seed and 9 Tbsp water.  Set aside until it gels.  In the food processor, shred the cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  Drain as much water from them as possible.   Season with spices and add diced scallions, flax goop and approx. 5 Tbsp of flour.  The flour is kind of there to suck up the water and the flax seed acts as an egg to help keep them together.  Put mounds in a hot skillet, cover and cook on both sides for about 8 minutes total.

Variation: I added some left over mashed sweet potato and it was delicious!  

Serve with an Asian flavored sauce (soy, rice vinegar and ginger) or even just ketchup.

P's Stir Fry

Ingredients: 2 packages of Shirataki Tofu noodles, cabbage (bok choy is a yummy choice), mushrooms, carrots, red bell peppers, edamame, scallions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar

Directions: Cook all veggies until desired softness, add rinsed noodles, 1 part soy sauce, 2 parts vinegar, and freshly grated ginger (to taste). 

Sprouted Hummus

Ingredients: 2 cups of cooked sprouted chickpeas, 1/4 cup tahini, juice of 1 lemon, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 big bulb roasted garlic, 1 small onion (caramelized), salt to taste

Directions: Throw all ingredients in a food processor and process until desired texture

Veggie Panini

Ingredients: whole wheat bread, spinach, tomatoes, spicy mustard, salad blend (I like the herb blend from Olivia's Organics), hummus, marinated artichokes

Directions: Spread generous amount of hummus on both slices of bread, pile the veggies high in between the 2 slices, put on a griddle pan and put something really heavy on top of the sandwich and cook for 3 minutes on each side.  Dip in mustard, if desired.

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients: Frozen bananas, dark chocolate chips (if you are having a craving)

Directions: Place ingredient(s) in blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza

Ingredients: Homemade pizza dough, tomato sauce (seasoned with basil, oregano, garlic, onion) or coconut curry sauce, spinach, artichokes, black olives, garlic, any other veggies of choice, cheese (if desired)

Directions: Top the pizza dough with a generous helping of sauce, especially if you aren't using cheese, add veggies and bake according to the pizza dough instructions.

We've had a lot of trials with this whole vegetarian/vegan/plant strong diet that we've been working on. Some foods have been harder to give up than others, like hot dogs for P and the kids, and cheese.  Cheese and milk. I've been more successful than the rest of the family, but probably because my true struggle is sweets...chocolate and sugar, in general.  I've never been huge on meat, and the cheese/milk urge has pretty much been decreased immensely by the documentary, Forks Over Knives.  

P has been doing really well, but admits that he doesn't think he'll ever be able to give up milk.  That's understandable, he's been drinking milk in his tea since he was a wee lad in jolly ol' England.  hee hee

I'm looking forward to trying some more veggie dishes, continued weight loss and some increased success and motivation on the exercise front.  Stay tuned!

Playing Catch Up

Its been quite a few days since I last tracked both my and my kids' progress with our new little life changes, so I thought why not just do one quick entry and catch everyone up, as well as keep myself honest.


Q: On Friday night, the 5th night after starting the cry it out method, Q slept through the night for the 1st time in a long, long time.  I didn't sleep through the night, but she did, and well, that's all that matters.  Saturday, we all slept through the night.  Ah-mazing!  I felt so refreshed on Sunday morning.  Let's just say that I am so happy that I finally decided to do this.  Its something this mama (and daddy) really needed.

L: The eye patch has no longer become a fight.  Instead, L seems to be doing really well, reminding me that its time for him to get his patch.  I normally don't hear the can I take this off question until at least 3 hours into it.  The only problem lately is that his eyelashes seem to start to bother his patched eye.  I'm hoping that we can figure out a way to avoid this in the future, but our efforts so far have been for naught.

Fighting Fatty McFat Fat: Friday through Sunday were not too good for me with the diet and exercise.  Not good.  P left tons of junk food (potato chips and crackers) and I had leftover baking goods (marshmallows, cake mix, chocolate chips) that for some reason were just calling my name.  I swear, they were literally calling my name as I walked by the pantry.  Eat me!  Eat me! Come on, you know you want to have just a little bit.  Look, I'm not bullet proof.  I'm just human, and I gave in! I gave in hard.  Tsk! Tsk!

Regardless, I did lose 1 1/2 pounds. Okay.  That's not great, but its not bad either.  I mean, really, its healthy to lose 2 pounds a week, and with nursing, I don't want to be too ridiculous.  Okay, I'm not thrilled by the number, but every little pound counts.

What went wrong the last few days?  P was out of town, so I didn't have to make dinner.  The kids are perfectly happy with sandwiches and cereal. I also had a dinner party to attend.  The problem was that I was then really tired towards the end of the day, each day, getting more and more exhausted and therefore, more and more lazy.

This week, I'm going to be more focused.  Even though P will be out of town 2 nights, I will make sure that I make dinner.  I have 3 dinners in the freezer that will be easy enough to pull out and defrost.  I also have some great dinner ideas tagged on my pinterest boards and I've learned a lot this weekend about how to more easily eat a whole food, plant based diet, including a great resource on the Engine 2 Diet website.  P and I are hoping to really make this a lifestyle change that will stick.

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Day 8

Today was actually okay.  I stepped on the scale and got several different numbers, the highest being 186. That's 3 pounds down in 1 week.  I'm good with that.  In the past, I've been able to drop more in a week, but I'm nursing and need to be very certain that I am losing this weight responsibly. So, thank you, 3 pounds.  I'll take that!

The food was okay today.

Breakfast: oatmeal with apples, peanut butter and raisins

I was quite hungry this afternoon, so I ate big lunch: salad (greens, cucumber, tomato, balsamic, avocado), 5 pecan cookies (pecans, dates, coconut, 8 chocolate chips) and a slice of sprouted bread with hummus

Needless to say, dinner was just 1 small bowl of Veggie and Chickpea curry.

As far as my workout went, I did my 5 burpees, along with walking (jogged only a short time) for 200 calories on the treadmill, and did a few strength training exercises before my one hour time limit was up.

I'm feeling great and looking forward to another 3 pound loss this week.  Fingers crossed!

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Days 5, 6, 7

Day 5: No exercise today :-(  Well, I did my 2 burpees, in the waiting room at the car dealership, but that's about it.  I was just running from one appointment to the next all day long.  By the time I figured out what was going on, it was 8:30 and I was ready to hit the hay.  I had a healthy breakfast, but that had to last until 2:30 when I finally made it home to have a quick lunch before quick leaving to get the boys from school by 2:40.  Paul ended up bringing dinner home, so I ended up with a veggie burger to end my blah day.  Food was good until then.

Day 6: We focused on getting Christmas put away, so I didn't have time to get to the gym.  Instead, I did my 3 burpees upstairs in the hallway and then did some strength training in the bathroom in an effort to entertain Q while C and J were in the shower.  She laughed every time I bent over her.  It was a great little workout and even better, it was a fantastic time with my baby.

Breakfast: small bowl of granola with almond milk and a banana

Lunch: ants on a log, apple with peanut butter, raisin and rosemary crackers, and a fantastic salad with avocado, carrots, cucumber and balsamic vinaigrette

Dinner: homemade pizza on a homemade whole wheat pizza crust.  I made 2 pizzas, both with spinach and artichokes. 1 with tomato sauce, feta, Parmesan and ricotta, the other with a coconut curry sauce and roasted red peppers.  I went really easy on the cheese to reduce our animal product consumption and our caloric intake (for the adults only).  These were really good pizzas!

Day 7: I did my 4 burpees this morning before taking J to the hospital (she has an UTI which presented as blood in her urine), but that's about it.  Crappy on the exercise again today.  I can't wait to hit the gym tomorrow.

Breakfast: peanut butter toast and a spinach/strawberry/almond milk smoothie

Lunch: 4 pancakes (which I inhaled because I had to run back up to the hospital), 5 carrot spears, 1/2 orange

Dinner: 2 veggie sushi rolls made with brown rice and 1/2 an avocado roll made with white rice from Wegman's

Today, I'm not feeling too successful.  I know they say to "stop with the excuses and just get it done," but I am really having a hard time managing my schedule, sick kids and this new whole, real food aka no processed food thing I'm trying to do.  Perhaps I've taken on too much.  Either way, I know that I need to tackle the food thing first, or I can work out until the cows come home and I won't drop anything.

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Day 4

We went to a play date today.  Oh, what's that have to do with anything, right?  Wrong.  In my world, a play date = a sweets feast.  Yes, there were 2 kinds of blueberry bread, mini cinnamon rolls, fruit snacks, grapes, cheez its, pita chips, hummus and carrots, along with coffee and several creamer choices, juice and water.  Eek!

Yes, there were healthy options, but let me tell you, it is so hard to sit at a table with yummy yum yums, knowing that you shouldn't eat it.  Not only because its not good for your waistline, but also because its just poison to your body.

That being said, here' what I ate today:
Breakfast:  Oatmeal (soaked overnight in water), with some peanut butter, apples and cinnamon
Lunch: spinach and artichoke hummus with carrots, coffee with "all natural" creamer
Dinner: Organic beef stew, ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins), and some homemade whole wheat bread with a little peanut butter, herbal tea.

Holla!  I didn't eat junk, besides the coffee!  WooHoo!  Okay, though, I messed up the order again.  I know that my biggest meal should be lunch, but I just can't seem to get there.  I'll try my hardest tomorrow.  Usually, while I'm making dinner, I snack because my lunch wasn't big enough.  Today though, dinner was in the crock pot, so I didn't have that problem.

Exercise: I took a zumba class this evening and did 1 burpee.  1 burpee? Why yes.  My girlfriends and I are doing the 100 day burpee challenge.  That means that you do 1 burpee on day 1, 2 on day 2, 3 on day 3...100 on day 100.  If you miss a day, say day 10, you have to make it up on day 11 by doing day 11's 11 burpees plus all the ones you've done to date and the ones you missed.  So, day 11, you would do 11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1.  You get it.  You don't want to miss a day.

I also signed up for the Dirty Girl 5K mud run on May 5 to motivate me to start giving my workouts more attention and direction.  We'll see if it works, but I'm hoping so.  I've already got a great team of ladies that are doing it with me, so hopefully we can keep each other motivated.

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Days 2 & 3

Day 2:  Well, let's see. I got not even 1 hour of sleep the night prior, so this day was a complete bust as far as working out goes.  I did okay with my food though, but could have done better.

Breakfast: cheese and turkey roll
Lunch: portabello mushroom sandwich on 1/2 a kaiser roll with roasted red bell peppers and grilled onions from Cara Mia's...YUM
Snack: 1/2 turkey sandwich
Dinner: Salad with feta, cucumber and carrot

 Day 3:  Today was okay. I think I got about 1 1/2 of sleep last night. Got to the gym and did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and some core weight training, for just about 10 minutes because I was out of time.  I spent some time talking with the owner of the gym about nutrition.  P and I are going to take the nutrition course from him, I believe.

I'm also going to order some wheat berries and a grinder so that I can sprout my own wheat and make sprouted bread.  I'll place the order tomorrow because I am beat.

Breakfast: SMALL bowl of granola
Lunch: Salad with carrots, walnuts, cucumbers, feta and peanut butter and jelly on a slice of homemade whole wheat bread
Snack: 50 calories worth of Trader Joe's ABC cookies, carrot
Dinner: Homemade Chicken Noodle soup and a smoothie

I must say that the kids loved  the smoothie...and I mean loved it!  Here's what I threw in the blender:
1/2 frozen overripe banana
1/4 c. (probably less) frozen organic blueberries
1 c. almond milk, unsweetened, vanilla
1 big handful of spinach

I think I've just been way to tired to do anything.  I've got so much running through my head that I need to kind of figure out how to focus...and SLEEP!

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Day 1

I got up this morning, eager to begin this weight loss journey.  Then, Q threw up all over me, my head started to hurt from sleep deprivation, and I just essentially lost all the motivation with which I started the day.  In an effort to manufacture some additional motivation, I decided to take a drastic step.  My girlfriend, Karen had mentioned that her husband took some before shots of her.  I thought that was a great idea.  Right?  Who doesn't love to see absolutely hideous photos of themselves (well, to be honest, her before shots are my hopeful after shots, but we all have our goals, don't we?!), especially posted on the internet?  She didn't post hers, but I'm thinking that its the only way to hold myself accountable for my gross negligence.  Yep. Gross, disgusting and just plain right unacceptable negligence.

Karen turned me onto the Body for Life fitness plan.  It looks great.  I did a couple of days of toning with her, but not enough to make a dent in the damage I've done.  I've gained 7 pounds since Q was born, all since the beginning of December. I can thank my lack of willpower and my love of sweets for that. So, I decided that I'm going to do the 12 week challenge, without the supplements because I'm nursing.

This morning, I attempted to do the cardiovascular workout.  About 5 minutes into the run, I got bored.  I really can't say that I couldn't do it because I don't believe I even gave it enough time.  Its strange.  Its like I gave up before it got too hard because it was getting a little hard and boring.  Instead of doing the 20 minute prescribed workout, I ended up doing 25 minutes of my own little interval training.  It was quite pathetic.  I even had Forks over Knives playing, a documentary about the link between nutrition and poor health, and I still couldn't stay motivated.

I kind of had a mini emotional moment with P later, expressing my wishes to go back to my summer of 2010 life.  That was me, at my thinnest, loving to workout with my girlfriends, and really focused on my diet and that of my family.  If only there was a rewind button.

Yet, there isn't.  Now, I've got a lot of work to get done and so many different ways to go about it.  Here's my plan:
The next 3 weeks: The 21 Day Total Body Transformation
The 12 weeks after that: The Body for Life Challenge

Of course, none of this will work if I continue to consume garbage, so our diet is a primary focus.  We will be reducing our meat consumption and focusing on a more plant-based diet.  This doesn't mean that we are removing meat from our diets completely, but I'm going to be pushing for no more than 10% of our daily consumption to be from animals.  Not to mention, we are going to be increasing our veggie and water intake.  Sundays will become our free days, to keep the metabolism pumping.

Here's what I ate today: Ham and cheese sandwich with Dijon mustard, lots of water, coco pops with peanut butter and a little strawberry preserves, and a salad with feta, cucumbers, carrots and balsamic vinaigrette

Not the healthiest of days, as I should have increase my veggies and water, but okay given that I took a nap and didn't wake up until 5 (probably coming down with something again), absolutely starving.

Here are the pictures of my starting weight, at a whopping 189 pounds.  Yikes!

Okay, ignore the wet marks.  This was immediately following my rendezvous with Q's vomit.

Freaky!

Okay, not horrible at the back, but whoah! Don't look at the purple!

Let me tell you.  I am nervous as all get up to post these and let you in on my dirty little secret.  My hope is that you can help to motivate me on this journey, and that I can possibly help to inspire you on yours because you'll know that if my chunky butt can do this, then you know you totally can!