Little Writer Monkey

Finally, I’m off that stinking weight loss plateau. After about 4 weeks, I’m finally making downward progress. I think that a major development has been not being sick as a dog. My teeth are out, the cold is gone, and I’m feeling good. I was able to get on the spin bike for the last three days, and I’ve been doing my physical therapy exercises for my back. All good things. I’m also feeling much more motivated lately. I’m sure it’s the summer weather. Plus, I’d like to get out of this “inbetween” size so I can buy the correct size clothes. I’m not complaining that my pants are loose, but it’s not entirely professional to walk around the office holding my pants up. The new change this morning was that my belt that was tight only 2 days ago is now too loose. Good grief.

I’m excited that it’s Holy Week. It is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I just feel very refreshed after Easter Sunday. I think it’s the feeling of renewal and the emotion involved in the entire experience. This year, Nate and I are going to do try an Easter egg hunt with Fynn after church. We’re actually going to the sunrise service since Fynn is up by 5:30-6:00 anyway. Might as well get to church.

If I don’t write before, Happy Easter!

So far so good! It’s January 17, and I haven’t had regular soda since Dec. 26. It feels awesome! In addition, I’ve lost a little over 5 pounds! Only 14 more to go to my first goal. I’m pretty happy about that. I’ve been logging my calories every day and attempting to work out, but it is still an uphill battle with my back problems. It’s a frustration, but I’m doing my best.

Just a quick update!

I had a few minor New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day slip ups with my diet. Appetizers, pizza, chips…all stuff I shouldn’t be eating. Oh, and wine and champagne have a great deal of calories. The good news is that it’s January 2, and I’m back on track. The better news is that it’s Sunday and I have not had regular soda since last week. Pretty exciting for me considering I’m completely addicted to sugar.

So, today the goal is to get back on the spin bike (I have to start working off those New Year’s Celebration calories) and get organized for the week. The nice thing is that Nate is off tomorrow too. So we both start back at work on Tuesday.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Well I can’t believe it, but another year is almost over! Just today and tomorrow left! I say, “Welcome 2011!” I’m hoping and praying that it is a better year for health and work. Along with the upcoming new year, I have some updates because I decided to start my resolutions early this year.

1. Losing weight. I’m happy to say that I’m only about 18 pounds from my goal this year. Apparently being completely stressed out helps with weight loss. I’m just kidding, but I started this week weighing in at 159 pounds. I’m happy to say that I’m now 157.6. So only about 18 pounds until my goal weight of 140. I’ve started a new diet using the Lose It! diet app and it is AWESOME. I love it. So 4 days down and I’m feeling good. On another note - I’ve been on the spin bike Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday…with plans to ride this afternoon. I’m feeling really motivated and good right now. Way more motivated than I was last year at this time.

2. Soda consumption. I haven’t had any soda since Sunday. Not a drop. Only water and coffee. I’m not even craving it. Last night I went to a work party and I was still able to stay away from the sugary nectar. Again, very good progress pre-New Year’s Day! Yippy!

3. Television…this goal is still up in the air. Contemplating cancelling cable. Stay tuned.

So here’s to another New Year! Resolutions/Goals and all!

At about 7:00 PM, I was sitting on my couch watching The Office on Netflix. I had just finished unpacking, cleaning up, and eating dinner (not the healthiest dinner in the world, but I had eaten) when I decided i could just as easily watch The Office in my bedroom while riding the spin bike. It’s a good think that The Office episodes are only about 20 minutes long, because that is about all I could muster. It occurred to me that I hadn’t been really active since I hurt my back in August, and before that I hadn’t been very religious about working out. I just have to say that I’m in terrible shape. Luckily, my back didn’t hurt at all while I was exercising, and I was able to do my physical therapy abdominal workout after I was done. A very good sign.

As I was riding, I remembered something my physical therapist said. She told me that I don’t have to get my entire workout in at one time. Since I have the time this week, I’m going to try working out twice - 2 20-minute workouts - during the day. This week it shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll let you know how it goes.

It’s December. How many of my New Year’s Resolutions have I completed? None. So sad. Good thing there is a New Year right around the corner. So New Year’s Goals - take 2! I think this time around I’m going to focus on one goal. That goal will be to work out at least 4 days a week. I fell off of that goal early in 2010, and my back pain as well as Fynn’s fall didn’t really help that goal.

I’ve decided not to wait to start that goal. So I’m declaring on my blog that I’m going to get on my exercise bike tonight.

I shall report back tomorrow.

We are six months into the new year and I have to say my New Years Goals are falling a little short. I have yet to lose more than 3 pounds, I’m still drinking soda, I’ve read several books (but by no means as many as I should), and we’re still eating out way more than we should (we’ve discovered take out…bad).

With that said, I’m NOT giving up. There are still 6 more months to this year and I will reach these goals. A few things are helping me on my path.

1. Weight. In six months I’ve lost all of 3 pounds. I’m going to blame a little of that on my back injury, but I’ve learned a couple things this week that I think will help me get back on track. 1. When I spin, my back doesn’t hurt anymore. Strange but true. While I’m on the bike, I feel no pain what-so-ever. This is a very interesting development and I’ve decided a blessing, really. So I’ve been on the bike nearly every night this week. And the final night I rode for 25 minutes and barely broke a sweat, so I need to amp it up. All good news. I’m thinking that if I get in better shape the back problems will take care of themselves. 2. To that end, I’ve signed up for Yogilates at my friend’s studio for Monday evenings through the end of summer. I’m pretty pumped about it. I’m feeling back on track and with just a week of working out I’ve noticed my mood has improved as well. The house is even clean (although cluttered).

2. Sugary sodas. Okay I’m drinking a Coke as I type this blog. Sad, but true. I have three more Cokes in the fridge and I intend to drink those as well. But then…that’s it. I’m not buying one more soda and bringing it into my house. I’ve purchased coffee, and I’ll start my morning with that to ward off the headache. Hopefully the working out will increase my energy levels and I won’t need that afternoon Coke to get me through until evening. Keeping my fingers crossed because I have this feeling that the sugary sodas are thwarting my weight-loss attempts. I guess I don’t have a “feeling” as much as I know that they are thwarting my weight-loss attempts.

3. Reading. Okay, so working from home even part time has been interesting. I’m not putting in as many hours as I should and kids are expensive. With that said, Nate and I have a much tighter budget than we’ve had in the past and it’s been quite an adjustment to just his income and less than a quarter of my previous income. So we’ve been looking through our budget at possible trimming we could do to save a little cash. One item keeps popping up - cable. We pay a ridiculous amount on cable, and I’ll admit I spend a ridiculous amount of time watching cable. It’s silly, really. I should be reading books. I’m sick of TV, and there is nothing I really want to watch, so why am I paying for PREMIUM cable. To that end, we’re dropping HBO/HBO On Demand and all of our premium cable channels. We’ll at least save $20-$30 per month. It’s a start and it will help this reading goal a lot. Of course, reading can be and expensive habit as well, so I’ve renewed my library card and we’ve already started using it. Much better idea than buying, plus my shelves are full and another shelf will not fit in our living room.

4. Eating out/cooking. We’ve already started getting better at this. We looked at how much money we were spending on going out and decided that it was crazy. So we’re starting slow and we’ve been going to Trader Joes to pick up food. It’s way cheaper, especially for two + people and our grocery bill has nearly been cut in half. Plus, the majority of the food is organic which has made me feel much better already. Strange how that works.

Well that’s the New Year’s Goals update. I refuse to give up on this. I want to be able to say that I’ve accomplished all of these goals in December. I know I can do it. A little will power and a little determination and I’ll be able to push through.

So in the last two days I have been both on and off the wagon when it comes to my dieting goals. Yesterday I ate pretty well and I rode my new spin bike for 30 minutes. Speaking of spinning, I forgot how intense that workout can be. Only 15 minutes in and 1/2 way “up” my first “hill,” I thought I was going to pass out. I’m excited to jump on and ride again tonight. Which brings me back to my “off and on” goals issue. So today I started off pretty well, decent breakfast and lunch. I even went to my first private yoga session (which was amazing by the way - even with my 30 lb sidekick). Then I stopped at McDonalds on the way home and picked up a large Coke and 3 chocolate chip cookies. I then proceeded to eat several chips while watching “The Office” on Netflix. While I’m planning on riding again tonight, I think it’s going to be pretty difficult to burn off all of those extra calories.

That’s my MO lately. I’m not afraid to work hard when I exercise. In fact, I’m not afraid of doing it every day. I’ve just never really watched my eating very well. My plan right now is to get really religious with my daily exercise, and then really work on the food. For this week, I think I’m going to work just on breakfast. Once I get breakfast going well, I’ll move on to lunch and dinner.

I’m very excited about tomorrow! Last week a friend of mine invited me along on her yearly birthday massage ritual. Another good friend of mine is going to watch the little man while I get a massage and a manicure! Yay!

Given my recent back pain, my new goal is to “reclaim” my body. I told Nate the other night that I feel like 1 year and 9 months ago I lost control of my own body. Between being pregnant and taking care of Fynn, I really haven’t taken care of myself very well. I just need to start taking care of my body and my mind as well.

Here’s to a great weekend (and my first Mother’s Day)! I hope all you mommies out there have a great, relaxing weekend!

I’m back to my 20 lb weight loss goal. Is it only April? Almost May? Don’t you worry, I can still lose 20 lbs by January 2011. Today we recieved a very important tool to help me accomplish that goal - a spin bike. I’m not talking about the cheap exercise bikes you can buy. I’m talking about a gym grad spin bike from Spinning. It is pretty exciting. I tried it out right after it got here, and I was sweating in about three minues. I don’t know if that is a testament to the great potential of the bike or to my general out-of-shapeness. Probably more of the latter.

I know I also started a “no more soda” goal earlier this year. I have completely fallen off the wagon on that goal, but I asked my husband to bring home my last (I promise) soda. I chose Mountain Dew. I’m not sure it’s the best of choices, but it will do. I have to write this goal down so that I’ll feel silly when I drink it.

Other than my goals, it was a good day all around. Back to my book goal for the evening.

Have a good night, all!

I can’t believe that it is already April 15. What happened to February and March? I’ve fallen off my goals a bit for the new year. However, I’ve actually got one big goal accomplished.

We purchased new furniture. This a big project Nate and I have talked about for a couple years. We had been using old furniture of mine - desk, dining room table, etc. Plus we had glass tables, which I’ve been REALLY sick of for a while now. I hate cleaning them and they always look dusty. Plus, we need a lot of storage with a small apartment. We have both become tired of the constant clutter. So, we went on a shopping spree at Ikea. We purchased a new dining room table and chairs, a new desk/office unit with tons of cubes and storage - awesome - and we replaced one end table with a simple wood table and replaced the other with another cube/shelf unit. Then the same for the bedroom. No more glass - yippy! Our house looks so much better and it does amazing things for my mental health.

Other than that, it has been sort of interesting at the Kogler household. Fynn is doing great. He’s getting so big and he is cruising now. He doesn’t want to sit or crawl, he just wants to move from one piece of furniture to another. It’s way too cute. However a mobile baby means it is a lot harder to get work done during the day. I think back to when I was working full time and working from home on Fridays. He was such a calm little guy. He would just play under his gym or in is exersaucer while I would work. Now, he’s trying to break my computer screen and he complains if I’m not playing with him. I know it’s good for him to play by himself, but I really like playing with him…so I think I’m my own worst enemy on that front.

I’ve been talking about going back to work part time in the fall. Mostly doing what I’m doing at home in an office. It’s a bit hard to work out. Daycare is expensive when you’re working only part time. I also don’t think it will be any more cost effective to hire a nanny (nanny taxes, etc). I’ll have to do a lot of thinking about this. If it works alright to just keep doing what I’m doing for a while, that might be how it has to be. Now that the house is set up better and baby-proofed correctly, I think this might get a little bit easier (not a lot easier) but a little bit over the next few weeks.

I’ve picked up one other problem. If anyone has a solution to this, I’m all ears. As some of you might know, I have a gigantic child. He’s not fat, just a really big guy. I just have not been doing a lot of core exercises and my back is killing me. When I mean killing me, I mean I’m all hunched over and can barely carry the little guy or walk for that matter. I just have this huge muscle knot in my left side. I’m working hard on carrying Fynn on both sides, but he’s heavy and picking him up hurts. The problem is that I can’t really rest. I mean, I’m a stay-at-home mom and neither set of parents live in town. I just have no one to call for help. I just wish I could call my mom and ask for help. Even 1 week of half day help would be a life-saver. My back was getting better when Nate was home for a week. Just to share the load until I can recover. Alas. Maybe when my mom retires, they can stay on the boat for a few weeks in June or July and help me out. Until then, I’ll get a walker.