Today is my last day of Pretty Fierce: Weightloss! I am so excited even though I wish I could have maybe lost a few pounds more. I guess that will happen when I start Pretty Fierce: Lean Out tomorrow. The end results are: I lost five or six pounds. I say this because the scale moved around a bit and my lowest weight was 114 pounds three weeks into the program, but I ended at 116 pounds. I started at 120.5 pounds. Keep in mind the last three weeks focus more on muscle tone than cardio and the first few weeks are all cardio and some toning. I feel safe to say I will probably see that 114 again if I bump up the cardio. I think I lost an inch in my measurements, but I lost the document with my actual measurements. I remember some of them and I can now fit into a pair of jeans I bought in a size too small because the company would no longer be selling the jeans and I knew I would fit into them someday. I bought them after Charis was born and never used them. Now two more babies later they fit! Crazy. I still wish my belly looked better than some of my friend's newly pregnant photos, but I was pregnant a lot in the last 8 years and this is the longest break my body has had in 5 years!
I will post a photo soon. I had my husband take one this morning, but now I cannot upload it until we update some software.
As for my overall sanity... I think working out takes away the element of wanting to feel better about oneself, but never doing much about it. There is power in knowing that maybe I am not where I want to be, but I will be someday and there is some progress. Between Ellie and Dominic I had two years of no pregnancies. I did breastfeed that whole time, but the scale stuck at 118 pounds ( I was 101 pounds when I got pregnant with baby number one) and never moved. I ran six miles at a time several times a week. I did situps...all the stuff that worked in high school. None of it helped. I never restricted my diet, so that sure did not help. I felt like maybe I would never enjoy getting dressed again. Now I know that it doesn't have to be that way. It isn't even that bad not eating every cookie I just baked, or just eating because I feel sad and lonely. I like the energy from the workouts too. I have not had caffeine on purpose for a couple of years now and I feel much better too. The workout is all I need to feel ready for the day. Even though I get moody, I was more moody with my daily cup of coffee. Red tea is just fine. I love the occasional latte too. :) Decaf these days and it must be fair trade, swiss water processed.
I imagine I will always struggle a little with diet more than working out because I love food. I love making food and I love eating food. I have started to make up healthier ways to eat things, but let's face it, real ice cream is better that everything else...coconut is a close second. I hate agave, so if it is coconut I must make it myself. I think there are too many diet fads out there and I never want to have to say I will eat with your family if you follow all of these rules. There are some things that I have to avoid like peanuts and that is frustrating enough.
So there we have it...Still not perfect. I still have 15 pounds to shed before I read my weight before no babies, however I am still breastfeeding so if I get rid of 5 to 7 pounds I will be thrilled at this point. I need to keep some until I finish nursing.:0) I am happy to be a few steps closer to my goal.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
Week 6: Pretty Fierce Weight Loss (Lindsey Brin)
I only have two more weeks to go until I complete all of Pretty Fierce Weight Loss! My weight has stood still this week, but I am not worried about that yet. I seem to see a bunch of weight loss and then none and then some again. Plus, I am glowing from being told by a someone at a shop I frequent (but maybe every 3 months or so) that I look great and I must have lost a lot of weight. The true test is when people who barely know you can tell the difference, right?
This week is going to be tough with workouts. My husband's new job has him leaving the house earlier and earlier. Sometimes he is gone by 6:30 A.M. I have had to change up my routine to fit a workout in after I put the kids to bed, but it is far less fun because I am then telling the kids to go to sleep constantly as I attempt to get the most out of my workout. This is why mom's join the gym and just leave for a break. The last week of workouts has a session that is over 70 minutes long, so figuring out how to get this done will be interesting. I might be up super early that day.
Other thank working out, I am still attempting to find time to read. I like quiet, so having the kids running around is not going to work. Tim gave me one of his books to read and I hope to get it finished by the time we have our romantic Valentine's day dinner. I don't always read what he reads, in fact he reads, and I write, but I promised him that my gift would be a conversation on the book of his choice this year. Usually I just listen while he talks about his books. It is not that I don't miss learning new topics, but being a mom fills 90% of my brain and the 10% left is used for projects. However, I miss college and I miss great ideas and meaningful conversations, so it is time to attempt to add this back into the mix.
It is now almost one year since the estimated time of my dad's passing. People say it hits hard again around this time and they are not kidding. All of a sudden it feels like yesterday that I had the last conversations I would ever have with my dad. I miss our trips with the kids. My dad always took us on walks, trips to the lighthouse, aquarium visits, and so much more. This is now missing and I wish he was still here to be a part my life.
The kids are missing him again too. They go through periods of time where they talk about him a lot. This is one of them. He was going to take them camping last summer and they are still sad they never got to go. They tell Isaiah that he would have loved my dad.
There really is no cure for the pain other than to feel it and find some peace in it. I wish there was a zap of joy you could have to counter the pain, but pain is there and it is real. 31 is too young to no longer have a dad. I think about how much more he could have been around to see. It saw a lot of my failures in my 20s. I am thankful he got to see most of my family, but we should have had more time.
Homeschooling is now a set part of our life. We are making it work and getting everyone involved. This week the little kids are involved in Joel and Ellie's mini play on firetrucks. This play is a musical with their songs and dances to go with. We plan to show Granny at a Sunday night dinner. It has been a dream of mine to have all our kids be a part of dance together. I can see that happening now.
My new kitchen discovery is all about almond meal. It is expensive so I got in bulk from Azure Standard. We have been making fruit muffins using almond flour instead of flour and these muffins are filling. Greek yogurt goes really well with them too.
Here is my recipe:
4 cups of Almond flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup fruit
4 TBSP melted butter
bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven
line the muffin tin with 12 cups and fill evenly. These muffins stay about the same size when cooked. Ice with 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt and 1 TBSP of honey. You will love them:)
This week is going to be tough with workouts. My husband's new job has him leaving the house earlier and earlier. Sometimes he is gone by 6:30 A.M. I have had to change up my routine to fit a workout in after I put the kids to bed, but it is far less fun because I am then telling the kids to go to sleep constantly as I attempt to get the most out of my workout. This is why mom's join the gym and just leave for a break. The last week of workouts has a session that is over 70 minutes long, so figuring out how to get this done will be interesting. I might be up super early that day.
Other thank working out, I am still attempting to find time to read. I like quiet, so having the kids running around is not going to work. Tim gave me one of his books to read and I hope to get it finished by the time we have our romantic Valentine's day dinner. I don't always read what he reads, in fact he reads, and I write, but I promised him that my gift would be a conversation on the book of his choice this year. Usually I just listen while he talks about his books. It is not that I don't miss learning new topics, but being a mom fills 90% of my brain and the 10% left is used for projects. However, I miss college and I miss great ideas and meaningful conversations, so it is time to attempt to add this back into the mix.
It is now almost one year since the estimated time of my dad's passing. People say it hits hard again around this time and they are not kidding. All of a sudden it feels like yesterday that I had the last conversations I would ever have with my dad. I miss our trips with the kids. My dad always took us on walks, trips to the lighthouse, aquarium visits, and so much more. This is now missing and I wish he was still here to be a part my life.
The kids are missing him again too. They go through periods of time where they talk about him a lot. This is one of them. He was going to take them camping last summer and they are still sad they never got to go. They tell Isaiah that he would have loved my dad.
There really is no cure for the pain other than to feel it and find some peace in it. I wish there was a zap of joy you could have to counter the pain, but pain is there and it is real. 31 is too young to no longer have a dad. I think about how much more he could have been around to see. It saw a lot of my failures in my 20s. I am thankful he got to see most of my family, but we should have had more time.
Homeschooling is now a set part of our life. We are making it work and getting everyone involved. This week the little kids are involved in Joel and Ellie's mini play on firetrucks. This play is a musical with their songs and dances to go with. We plan to show Granny at a Sunday night dinner. It has been a dream of mine to have all our kids be a part of dance together. I can see that happening now.
My new kitchen discovery is all about almond meal. It is expensive so I got in bulk from Azure Standard. We have been making fruit muffins using almond flour instead of flour and these muffins are filling. Greek yogurt goes really well with them too.
Here is my recipe:
4 cups of Almond flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup fruit
4 TBSP melted butter
bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven
line the muffin tin with 12 cups and fill evenly. These muffins stay about the same size when cooked. Ice with 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt and 1 TBSP of honey. You will love them:)
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Half way through Pretty Fierce
I am so excited to have made it this far through my workout program. Week five has been my favorite week because I finally get to rest a little bit after four weeks of working out almost everyday. My body really needed a little more sleep and I still feel great. I even lost one pound.
I did notice it is hard to stop working out once one gets use to an every day workout. My baby got spoiled to because I would feed him and jump out of bed, let him play, and I worked out. Now he is trying to figure out why I am struggling to get up.
Week five is still four days of working out, but two of those days are only eight minute abdominal workouts. It is all to prepare my body for the next three weeks of more challenging workouts. I am looking forward to that too.
As for some attitude changes, I am learning a lot about how kids are so different. When one has six, juggling those personalities can be challenging. They have a lot in common, but a lot of differences as well. Since my family started homeschooling our family dynamic has completely changed. I love some of the changes like watching older kids help out younger ones. Other things are not so great like that fact someone always seems to be crying, or my house sounds like a circus whenever I am on the phone.
I will be honest, I never planned to homeschool my children. I went to public school and thought it was fine, but then I met Tim. One of his first priorities was homeschooling, so slowly I have read more about it and I understand his reasons. Understanding those reasons and taking on the responsibilities of homeschool are two different things. I have put off having all kids home because of lots of pregnancies close together, but now seems like a good time to try and start. My two older kids have some basic reading and math skills, but still don't love working without me helping a lot. I am learning to balance that need with the fact that there are four other kids that want my attention nonstop.
Homeschooling is a juggling act. I want to plan a lot that includes everyone, but it doesn't always work. Baking works the best, but we cannot do that everyday. Most of the kids like coloring. I read other homeschool mom's blogs and they try and do similar things. I hope as we get used to our new schedule things will get better.
For now I need to learn to smile more. I love my kids, but it is loud a lot more and sometimes I want to lock myself in my room for hours. I have less energy to be a great wife, but I will be working on that. It is tempting to only complain about the kids. They are my whole day at this point and even with some fun moments, there are more challenging ones at this point. Keeping a good attitude is half the fight, but not always as easy as it seems.
I am not writing these things to be negative, but to be honest. I am human and I am not yet supermom, though I aspire to get better at that.
For now some pic of my workout progress.
I did notice it is hard to stop working out once one gets use to an every day workout. My baby got spoiled to because I would feed him and jump out of bed, let him play, and I worked out. Now he is trying to figure out why I am struggling to get up.
Week five is still four days of working out, but two of those days are only eight minute abdominal workouts. It is all to prepare my body for the next three weeks of more challenging workouts. I am looking forward to that too.
As for some attitude changes, I am learning a lot about how kids are so different. When one has six, juggling those personalities can be challenging. They have a lot in common, but a lot of differences as well. Since my family started homeschooling our family dynamic has completely changed. I love some of the changes like watching older kids help out younger ones. Other things are not so great like that fact someone always seems to be crying, or my house sounds like a circus whenever I am on the phone.
I will be honest, I never planned to homeschool my children. I went to public school and thought it was fine, but then I met Tim. One of his first priorities was homeschooling, so slowly I have read more about it and I understand his reasons. Understanding those reasons and taking on the responsibilities of homeschool are two different things. I have put off having all kids home because of lots of pregnancies close together, but now seems like a good time to try and start. My two older kids have some basic reading and math skills, but still don't love working without me helping a lot. I am learning to balance that need with the fact that there are four other kids that want my attention nonstop.
Homeschooling is a juggling act. I want to plan a lot that includes everyone, but it doesn't always work. Baking works the best, but we cannot do that everyday. Most of the kids like coloring. I read other homeschool mom's blogs and they try and do similar things. I hope as we get used to our new schedule things will get better.
For now I need to learn to smile more. I love my kids, but it is loud a lot more and sometimes I want to lock myself in my room for hours. I have less energy to be a great wife, but I will be working on that. It is tempting to only complain about the kids. They are my whole day at this point and even with some fun moments, there are more challenging ones at this point. Keeping a good attitude is half the fight, but not always as easy as it seems.
I am not writing these things to be negative, but to be honest. I am human and I am not yet supermom, though I aspire to get better at that.
For now some pic of my workout progress.
 |
| still not perfect, but better |
 |
| I look less pregnant |
 |
| My sweet Isaiah |
 |
| Before Pretty Fierce |
Made Through Week 3
Week three of Pretty Fierce: Weight loss (Lindsey Brin) has taken me longer than a week to finish. My family got hit pretty hard with the stomach flu and I lost two days recovering myself. Just getting a taste of what it is like to sleep in until 6 A.M. instead of 5:40 A.M. spoiled me just enough to not want to get up when the alarm is ringing. I got to cheat a little on my early morning workouts this week as Monday was a holiday and my husband was home from work. There are optional outdoor workouts that I never do because it is usually dark and cold, but I took advantage of the sun and a much needed break from our house and did some interval running for 35 minutes. It was great. I love the trails near my house for this.
Two days after being sick I stepped on the scale thinking I probably should at some point. It was in the garage to stop me from being obsessive about the scale. It is too easy to feel like one is making no progress when the scale doesn't move for weeks. So to my surprise the scale moved more than I could imagine. I was 120.5 when I started working out and two and half weeks in I was 114. This was too good to be true and my body has since settled into 117, which is still less than I did after Ellie was born (baby 2) and before I got pregnant with Dominic.
No I am challenged with my focus. I nameless person asked me, "Why do you keep saying you want to get back to where you were?" I guess the concept of "getting back" doesn't really work. Let's face it there are six kids, I'm 31 years old, and my body will have the marks of pregnancy probably forever, not to mention some gray hair. Maybe it is not getting back, though when I say that I am not erasing my children in that mix, I am talking about being strong and having my body look like it did before having children maybe I should build some more goals.
When one has been pregnant more than not it is easy to think, after every baby, I will finally remember what it is like to be me again. However, me, has changed right? Me has a baby or two or sometimes six. Who is me then? I am trying to figure that out too. Am I getting back to a girl barely out of college? No, that cannot be right. Am I trying to figure out what it means to be thirty one and really an adult. Is this a mid life crisis?
My goals for the future have always included being married and having lots of kids. I never realized that wonder woman with 48 hour days was also on the list. If I did everything I wanted to do I would never sleep again. In college my schedule looked something like this:
8:00 A.M. press snooze bar
9:00 A.M. wake up
10:00 A.M. super early class
11:00 A.M. class
12:00 P.M. work at The Kid's place during lunch
1:00 P.M. class
2:30 P.M. serious nap
4:00 P.M. start homework?
5:30 P.M. dinner
7:30 P.M. ballet
9:00 P.M. Go to the library and get all the homework I did not finish done
3:00 A.M. Bedtime
Think about how many wasted hours are in the schedule! I had no idea that was such an easy life. This is my schedule now:
5:30 nurse baby
5:40 workout
6:20 shower
6:30 eat breakfast
8:00 get baby back to sleep for nap
8:30 homeschool-family reading
9:00 snack
9:30 more homeschool
10:45 think about getting the kids to clean up and the eat lunch
11:30 little kids need a nap, School kids have some kind of educational game to play
2:00 Nap is over, try to play outside
3:00 Dinner prep
4:00 other than Tues. we eat (Tues is dance class night)
5:00 wind down
6:00 and 6:30 bedtime for kids
7:00 Mommy and Daddy time, RubyRumps sewing, writing...etc
10:00 sleep.
Yes life is different. Sometimes I am crying other times I amazed at how much one can pack into a day. :) The person who challenged me with the concept of "getting back" is right. I cannot get back to old me, but I can make a new better me. I long to be a loving wife and good mother. Sometimes my attitude needs some help too. Other than trying to change the outside, I plan to work on my mind too. Maybe a I need a reading list. I am open to hearing about some good books.
Two days after being sick I stepped on the scale thinking I probably should at some point. It was in the garage to stop me from being obsessive about the scale. It is too easy to feel like one is making no progress when the scale doesn't move for weeks. So to my surprise the scale moved more than I could imagine. I was 120.5 when I started working out and two and half weeks in I was 114. This was too good to be true and my body has since settled into 117, which is still less than I did after Ellie was born (baby 2) and before I got pregnant with Dominic.
No I am challenged with my focus. I nameless person asked me, "Why do you keep saying you want to get back to where you were?" I guess the concept of "getting back" doesn't really work. Let's face it there are six kids, I'm 31 years old, and my body will have the marks of pregnancy probably forever, not to mention some gray hair. Maybe it is not getting back, though when I say that I am not erasing my children in that mix, I am talking about being strong and having my body look like it did before having children maybe I should build some more goals.
When one has been pregnant more than not it is easy to think, after every baby, I will finally remember what it is like to be me again. However, me, has changed right? Me has a baby or two or sometimes six. Who is me then? I am trying to figure that out too. Am I getting back to a girl barely out of college? No, that cannot be right. Am I trying to figure out what it means to be thirty one and really an adult. Is this a mid life crisis?
My goals for the future have always included being married and having lots of kids. I never realized that wonder woman with 48 hour days was also on the list. If I did everything I wanted to do I would never sleep again. In college my schedule looked something like this:
8:00 A.M. press snooze bar
9:00 A.M. wake up
10:00 A.M. super early class
11:00 A.M. class
12:00 P.M. work at The Kid's place during lunch
1:00 P.M. class
2:30 P.M. serious nap
4:00 P.M. start homework?
5:30 P.M. dinner
7:30 P.M. ballet
9:00 P.M. Go to the library and get all the homework I did not finish done
3:00 A.M. Bedtime
Think about how many wasted hours are in the schedule! I had no idea that was such an easy life. This is my schedule now:
5:30 nurse baby
5:40 workout
6:20 shower
6:30 eat breakfast
8:00 get baby back to sleep for nap
8:30 homeschool-family reading
9:00 snack
9:30 more homeschool
10:45 think about getting the kids to clean up and the eat lunch
11:30 little kids need a nap, School kids have some kind of educational game to play
2:00 Nap is over, try to play outside
3:00 Dinner prep
4:00 other than Tues. we eat (Tues is dance class night)
5:00 wind down
6:00 and 6:30 bedtime for kids
7:00 Mommy and Daddy time, RubyRumps sewing, writing...etc
10:00 sleep.
Yes life is different. Sometimes I am crying other times I amazed at how much one can pack into a day. :) The person who challenged me with the concept of "getting back" is right. I cannot get back to old me, but I can make a new better me. I long to be a loving wife and good mother. Sometimes my attitude needs some help too. Other than trying to change the outside, I plan to work on my mind too. Maybe a I need a reading list. I am open to hearing about some good books.
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