Little Writer Monkey

Happy New Year! So far the day has been interesting. Besides the EPIC temper tantrum this morning because I wouldn’t let him play with the knife drawer, the little man is doing better. Nate and I were actually able to give him amoxicillin without covering ourselves with it as well. I love how the pharmacist gives you the medicine and says, “Good luck.” Because that’s exactly what you need to give a toddler medicine. At least this isn’t as bad as the eye drops for pink eye. That was the worst! Nothing like holding your son down while he screams his little head off and there is nothing you can do about it because he has to have the medicine. But, I digress.

Day 5 in my Dr. Oz plan calls for me to memorize a poem. I should have mentioned before that the 28 day plan is a mind, body, soul kind of plan. Due to the fact that memorizing yet another poem makes me think about graduate school, I think I’ll skip this one (and just read a book) and move on to Day 6. Oooooops. Okay, Day 6 is “Get Busy Getting Busy.” I’m SO not going to blog about that here. Darn it, blushing already.

On to Day 7 “Write Every Bite, Scribble Every Nibble.” Oh, I like this one. This is quite frankly the best thing I believe a person can do to lose weight. I really do have to write down everything I eat and count those calories. Before I started doing this last year (when I lost 20 pounds), I had no idea how much I was eating. I mean, I guessed 200 calories, 500 calories, but really didn’t have a good concept of how much total I was consuming during the day. A friend of mine showed me the Lose It! ap for the iPhone. It also has a website: http://www.loseit.com/. The best part about this ap – it’s FREE. Plus, the people who use it really do support each other. I’ve posted my weight loss on their Facebook page and so many people show you the support and love. It’s awesome. I’m really fortunate that my husband is doing the Lose It! thing with me again. We both log, we’re friends through the site, and I can see his progress and he can see mine. Plus, this time around they added bar code scanning. Ooooooo. Now that is awesome.

The good news is that this morning, after only doing the diet for 5 days, I lost 2 pounds! It may not sound like a lot, but that little needle moving 2 little notches is pretty awesome. I even feel skinnier. Because we’ve been doing so well, we treated ourselves with a pizza today. The best part is that the pizza was the California Pizza Kitchen Thin Crust Sicilian, which is only 540 calories for ½ of the pizza. It was delicious and it didn’t destroy my progress. Perfect.

Well, back to relaxing while the little one naps. Enjoy your day everyone!

Well, it’s not all balloons, confetti, and roses at our house this New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, the little man is not the only sick person in the house. Now, all three of us have the COD (cold of death). Fortunately, the Sudafed is actually working and I don’t feel like passing out from lack of oxygen anymore. The hubby is feeling the ick coming on. What a way to celebrate. At least we have one special item in the house – an entire bottle of champagne that Nate and I will be consuming all by ourselves tonight. I’m going to try to convince him to get a second bottle while he’s at the store.

I have to admit, for our family, 2011 wasn’t too bad. The first half was pretty stressful. There was a lot of uncertainty about it. I didn’t love working with a weird schedule. Nate was stressed at work and traveling a lot. We were kind of flailing. There is a great C.S. Lewis quote that describes my life at any given moment. “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.” I believe that I fall into the second category most of the time. Usually I do it my way until I’ve become completely lost in the brambles or I’ve completely messed up everything. Then, I pray for God to intervene. I’ve been very blessed in my life that there have been very few times when He has not intervened for me. Fortunately, we were blessed again and God intervened for us and put our life back on track or, at least, offered a little boost and some clarity.

I’m definitely one of those people who look at the New Year like a new start. Not necessarily a “do-over” but a chance to reset my mental clock. From fixing what I’m eating, to starting yoga again (yep, I did sign up for a class that starts in mid-January), to setting some goals for myself, I feel ready to explore all of the possibilities. I’m taking this opportunity, this “break” from the world of work, to figure out (amidst the work of a stay-at-home mom) to figure out what the heck I want to do with this life I have. What’s next? I’m not really sure. We’ll see what 2012 holds.

Here’s to a happy, productive, and fulfilling New Year. “May you live all the days of your life.” Jonathan Swift.

While I appreciate the results from a good healthy diet, I really, really hate the first three days of any diet. No matter how many good things I eat, I’m still craving those carbohydrates. Sugar addictions are really nasty. No wonder it’s hard to lose weight when you start a diet and your body is literally going through withdrawals. It’s a mental game. I know I’m not hungry. I’m sure of it, but my mind is saying, “Eat, eat, eat!” The good thing is that I’ve done this a number of times, so I know the first 3-4 days are the worst and then it gets better. I just have to make it these next few days.

Speaking of diets, I started Dr. Oz’s 28-day thingamajig. Today was the “Go Green” day, meaning drink green tea. So I’ve had a cup of green tea after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I do like green tea, so this one is really easy. Apparently green tea has a number of interesting side effects. It lowers risk for some cancers, it can lower bad cholesterol, and it can promote weight loss – all awesome. Tomorrow is “Indulge in Dark Chocolate” day. I’ll let you in on a little secret – I started this one a day early. Yum.

One more funny side effect from the first day of my “cleanse” is that I have had to pee like 50 times. I must have been retaining about 5 gallons of water. Holy cow!

Where’s the sun? This has been a terrible May. My mood has been in a steady downhill slide since we had that wonderful, glorious 80 degree day a while back. I mistakenly forgot which state I live in and assumed that spring had arrived and that the rest of spring would be just as glorious. That was stupid.

It probably doesn’t help that my back problems have been flaring up again. It’s so frustrating. I feel like I’m making some progress and – wham – I’m back to where I was three months ago. Back to a ton of Advil and icing my back. This time I haven’t been letting the back stuff slow me down too much. I’m still taking Fynn out to do things and just sucking it up. Movement is actually better for back problems than just lying around anyway.

Another thing that has come to a screeching halt is my weight-loss goals. I’ve been sneaking in crappy food. It’s not that I’m gaining weight – luckily – it’s just that I’ve stopped losing. To get a little motivation, I watched Biggest Loser last night. I was reminded once again that I have to stop bitching about the 10 pounds I need to lose and just put down the peanut M&Ms.

Given the fact that my back problems have resurfaced, I need to refocus my energy on working out. Increasing blood flow to herniated disks helps them heal…although they will never fully heal. At least it will keep the month-long flare ups at bay.

The good news is that I feel as though I’m still making progress on my goals. I’ve definitely been reading more. I have been avoiding regular soda, and for the most part I’ve been eating healthy food – at home, too! It’s a good time to refocus my energy. Once the crappy weather goes away, there will be plenty of time to get outside and get good exercise. I’m pretty confident that I will hit my goal by July 4th. Definitely before the family and I go out to California to visit Nate’s parents and family.

Wish me luck! And good luck on your goals, too!