Updates!

Okay, so I am SUPER excited and wanted to update a few things. First of all, all this dieting has REALLY helped my metabolism... my energy levels have skyrocketed which is crazy awesome. The last few days I have scrubbed my house to a sparkling shine & organized closets, caught up on laundry, etc. Lots of things I'd been behind on... it feels so good. AND I've officially lost 17.5 lbs this month! Hard dieting and exercising, not to mention the workout I get from scrubbing my house has really paid off! I'm almost half way to my goal!!!! I know the first 20 is the easiest and the next 20 (22.5) will be much harder, but I'm so excited that all my clothes are getting a bit baggy. Love it! I'm down 2 sizes in jeans already. Ahhhh feels good. So anyway, the kids are in shock. Mama has been getting up at 6:30 so by the time they wake up at 9 I'm already mostly done with my housework each day so we get to spend the whole day playing and goofing off together. They love it, I hope this energy thing lasts... I love having energy still when Jay get's home from work. It's been nice staying up and spending time with him. Usually when he get's home its dinner, bath, bed time for the girls & then I'm usually asleep shortly after they are. But the last few days I've been able to stay up, watch movies, plan our budget together, etc. Sooo nice. Anyway. Feeling good and slightly smaller! Just wanted to share! :D

Progress.

Well, I'm down another 2.5 lbs. It's been a long week, but I do have more energy which is very helpful. We had our bi yearly bug spray yesterday which always makes for a crazy day... We have a pond/lake behind our house so the mosquitoes & palmetto bugs (aka roaches) are always plentiful in our backyard & garage... and when the weather warms up we start seeing them inside too. Gag. That's what you get for living in a 30 year old house with crappy insulation... So every 6 months we have someone coat our yard in an environmentally friendly layer of bug zapper, as well as the garage, kitchen and bathrooms. Which means on that day we can't come home until everything dries. However yesterday, he decided to do some new gloss under our sinks, fridge & stove to prevent any bugs from being able to live there, ever. Which is fabulous & I'm all for it (I have a pretty bad bug phobia, crazy yelling & chasing the mosquitoes around until I squish them is fairly common in the house... my kids refer to it as "ew buggy buggy mommy's crazy!") ...what I didn't realize is that we can't USE our sinks, dishwasher, stove or anything that will warm up the kitchen until the gloss sets... which takes 5 days. who what?! I just paid $ for someone to incapacitate my kitchen for a week. Crap. It was worth it I guess... I mean, no ants, no squitoes, no roaches ever again? I'll believe it when I see it... but for now, we'll be dining in the play room for a week on cold cuts & fruit. Yesterday was a loooong day. We cleaned in the morning, played at the park with some friends until lunch time, drove over an hour to meet daddy across town, ran a few errands for him, went to Ye Old Fashioned for yummy ice cream, picked up some Milk & Candyland 3D onsale for $3. Then came home, played the game, had dinner in the playroom (yep, you guessed it, cold cut sandwhiches) and then they both passed out at 6:30. Yes, we did the whole day with no naps. Eeks. Always a risk... but it worked out okay & they both slept hard and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning. :)

As for my diet, I'm not working out nearly as much as I want to. Screw the 3-5 times a week with arms/abs in between... I'm lucky if I hit the DVD 2-3x's and remember my arms and abs once on my days off. But I'm trying. Having more energy is making me a braver mom, I take the kids out on longer play dates, am willing to wear them out and tolerate the melt downs when I cut it too close. Normally I don't play that game, we're very routine people but it's nice being outside & enjoying this weather more and letting the routine slide a bit. I'm looking forward to a summer full of park dates, pool time & sandcastles at the beach! I have the girls closet stocked for summer, and I've made over 75% of it myself from great deals on fabric! Woot!

Anyway, just wanted to update. My jeans are getting a bit baggy. And I'm perfectly happy with that. :)

Curveball.

Granted this is public, but seriously, who really reads it? I'm about to take this blog to a new level of personal. That's right baby... it's diet time. I had a major curveball thrown at me last week while visiting the doctor. Well, let me back up first. Anyone who knows me very well (or knew me at all while I was pregnant the second time) is aware that I had some serious depression while pregnant with Madeline. I was miserable in my body, got sick way too many times, and had the doctors from hell steering my big behind in the wrong direction for 9 months... all that to say, while it improved after I gave birth, it was still enough that I was miserable, scared & needed some help. I went to my doctor and he suggested I try Celexa, an anti-anxiety/depression med that would help me mellow out a bit. I've now been on the Celexa for nearly 2 years and frankly, the difference in me is amazing. Where I was once so high strung I would snap at the slightest whisper of trouble, I'm now able to handle life in a more relaxed, take it as it comes way. I've thought about going off of it several times, but if a tiny pill keeps me less angry with my husband and kids, dude... bring it. I'd much prefer to be mellow. I've lived the high strung life, and maybe when my kids are older & I'm ready to tackle that hurdle when I don't think I'm going to scar them for life with my crazy high's & lows... I'll go off of it. But for now, the whole house is better off with mama chilled out. SO last week I went in for my annual check up & to renew my perscription when my doctor casually mentions my weight. God I hate when they talk about it... at the time of last weeks visit I was exactly 20 lbs less than when I gave birth two years ago, which is exactly the weight I was when I left the hospital with Madeline. Haven't lost a single pound since I gave birth to her. And yes, that's 45 lbs over what I was when I got pregnant with Madeline. I seem to gain ungodly amounts of weight when pregnant despite eating healthy for the most part. It's really ridculous, both of my pregnancies I gained 60-65 lbs in 9 months. After Elizabeth I was back to my pre baby weight minus an additional 10 lbs when she turned a year old. Madeline however was a different story. I've yet to bother dieting, preferring to play ignorant pretending we don't have a scale, and who needs it anyways?

Well... at last it's time for some decisions. My doctor said I really need to lose about 40 lbs to be in my healthy range. Ouch! I can't say I'm disappointed in myself because really, aside from hating dresses, shorts & swim suits... it really doesn't bother me that I'm the biggest I've ever been aside from when I was pregnant. However, when you mention health I'm a little more logical. I know I'll feel better about myself & my body if I lose some weight. My self confidence is pretty much shot, I prefer to mock myself before others get around to it... but I don't seem to mind it enough to actually do anything about it.

And there lies the problem. I'm now going to try to lose about 40 lbs simply because my heart & body will be more healthy for it. Everything else is sort of non important... but being healthy is a priority, I go out of my way to be sure my kids are in excellant health, yet somehow I've let my own healthy choices fly out the window. Not any more. Starting last week (the morning after my doctor visit) I put myself on a strict work out/diet routine. Yes I'm not one who will lose weight just by eating healthy... I need to diet. Strict, hard core, kick my butt diet. It's the only way for me... once I reach my goal I can maintain pretty easily... but the actual losing part will require lots of work.

I'm happy to report that 1 week in, I'm already down 10 lbs. Which, is mostly b/c I'm sweating off all the water that I normally drink. The first 7 lbs came off within 3 days simply by eating LESS. The next 3 lbs have come from taking in less calories than I'm burning. Dana recommended a great at home work out DVD which is kicking my butt. I'm only on level 1 and it leaves me breathless, exhausted & wanting more at the end of each work out. I was soooo stinking sore those first few days, but I'm getting better at it. My goal is to do a hard work out 3-5 times a week and at least work my arms & abs on the all the off days as that's where I need the most work. Arms & tummy. Ew.

Hopefully by the end of summer I'll have hit my goal weight. My goal is our anniversary in September... if I do hit my weight, I'll be in desperate need of clothes that fit as I have nothing saved from my smaller days. I guess that's not exactly a "bad" problem to have though. lol I love shopping so more motivation right?

I'll try to update every week or two on the weight stuff. It'll be good for me to be accountable to my blog. LOL Bring on the curveball! Let's lose this weight!

Easter.

Easter 2010 happened to be an insanely gorgeous day for celebrating the resurrection. We made a weekend out of it, spending Saturday with grammy and Sunday with Nanie & Pawpaw. I had planned all week to visit the Summerville Easter Egg hunt at Azalea Park Saturday morning with the girls for lots of Easter fun. However we over slept, decided to work out & then hit the hunt in the afternoon as I thought it was at 1pm... nope. The kids hunt was at 10am. Oops. You can't just tell your kids "sorry guys, mom's mistake, maybe next year?" Nope. I had promised an egg hunt & gosh darn it we were going to have an egg hunt. So off to grammy's house we go where we hid 42 eggs filled with jellybeans & grammy had Easter presents waiting for the girls! Liz was thrilled to find the Princess & The Frog DVD in her grammy loot. Grammy also found matching outfits for the girls which made me smile... we all know what a fruit loop I am about matching my girlies. We followed our fun (no nap) day up with dinner at Wasabi. Now I realize most people don't think of Easter dinner involving Japanese food... but seeing as how I had a coupon, and Linda & I are sushi nuts... we decided Wasabi was a great place to celebrate together. Mm mm mm. Sooo delicious. Following our delicious food we rolled ourselves on over to church for the Saturday night service. It was amazing... our worship team is really incredible. They are such a talented group & never cease to amaze me. What a celebration it was & with tears in my eyes we ended our evening thankful for the grace we've been given so freely which cost so very much... He is risen... indeed! Sunday morning I left my girls devouring their Easter candy & playing happily in their new swim suits, flip flops & beach towels which I put in their baskets every year. (I figure I'm going to buy them new suits anyway, why not put them in their Easter baskets?) So off I go (in a dress no less, which is highly rare for me) to church to serve in the nursery all morning. What a great morning it was. We had 10 babies in nursery for one of the services and somehow I was lucky enough to get the 6 week old angel baby who was so tiny and precious I absolutely melted. He snuggled into my arms for an hour while I blissfully remembered those early days with my babies... such a special Easter gift for me. Who needs candy when you have a sweet little one to rock and love for an hour & then give back when they get hungry?! Not I! After nursery duty we spent the day at my mama's... which was more fun with the candy, clothes, big baskets, lots of thankfulness and amazing food. Whew it was a crazy weekend!

Here's a couple pics of the craziness!

Family pic...

Mommy & Daddy's Easter Basket goodies!

Easter Dresses - Sister lovin - 2010