Catch Up

It is has been a busy week and so here I am catching up for the past three days.

Tuesday – Valentine’s Day

Had a nice day.  We have not really celebrated it because both my hunny and I work and it is hard to doing something together on a weekday.  Maybe we will do something this weekend (may just the two of us too since my MIL will be in town and might be willing to watch the kiddos).  I did make dinner and it was quite yummy.  I made chicken marsala with garlic sautéed broccoli and sautéed squash with peppers and onions.  The chicken was very tasty (I don’t really like chicken so this was great for me find something I like) and the broccoli and squash were also a huge hit.  My son could have eaten the whole bowl of broccoli on his own.  The entire meal was low carb and was within phase 1 of South Beach.  Woohoo for staying in plan!

BDS Day 7 – Change Your Environment

This topic was about changing your environment to better prepare for dieting and losing weight. The first step is to remove temptations.  For me this is out of sight out of mind.  Since I have kids it is hard for me to get rid of all the goodies so the key for me is to put them in the pantry so they don’t tempt me.  If I don’t see the cookies I don’t want the cookies!  The second step was to consider other people at home and work.  My family is well aware of my goals and they are on board so I don’t have to be too strict about what we are eating or what they are eating in front of me. I am also exercising some amazing self-control so changing my environment has been pretty easy to do.  I was able to walk past three large plates of homemade cookies at my office without eating any of them.  They were on the table for two days before they were all gone.  I am quite proud of this accomplishment!

Wednesday – Weigh in day – Official Weigh-in – 236.5!!

Wednesday was a typical rush out the door, get the kids to school, work, run errands, work some more, get kids home from school kind of day.  During the evening I had to prepare the kids picture outfits for today since they were both taking school pictures this morning. 

For dinner I made a fabulous Curried Beef Stir-fry.  OMG it was good and low carb and phase 1 of SB!!

I’m going to try and be a little more adventurous with my seasonings and expand my palate and not my waist.  Also, since I am eating more meat, I have to make it tasty since I am not a big meat eater to begin with.  Giving up the rice and other starchy carbs I’ve used to fill my plate in the past is definitely a change for the better and I am going to embrace this new low carb lifestyle to the best of my ability.  Especially since I am already seeing some really positive movement on the scale! Monday morning I was back up to 241.8 after a weekend of binging on carbs and today I was at 236.5 that translates to a 5.3lb loss in three days.  I know some of it is water weight and it will taper off, but right now it is super encouraging!

BDS Day 8 – Scheduling

This topic is all about scheduling time to diet.  Making time to prepare foods, eat slowly, shop for proper foods, and exercise.  I was required to write out my schedule to make this diet happen.  Below is my proposed weekday schedule (I am going to put it into effect starting next Monday.)

Today

This morning was another rushed morning.  I am having a lot of pain in my right hip at night when trying to sleep (I think it might be bursitis L, so I am going to start a regime of some anti-inflammatories, icing and stretching to see if I can get it feeling better), so I am not sleeping well which is resulting in me oversleeping.  Not good when trying to get three people ready in the morning.  Today the kids had their first official school pictures and I had to get them both adorable for them.  It is crazy, but  my 3 month old had her first school picture taken this morning and she was too cute!  She wore a fabulous pink and white polka-dotted dress with a matching flower hair clippie.  My son was looking pretty cute too in his blue and orange striped rugby shirt and khakis! I am excited to see how these pictures come out.  Dinner tonight will just be leftover stir fry, since I will be trying to clean house a little to get ready for company this weekend.

BDS Day 8 – Select an Exercise Plan

Today’s topic was to pick an exercise plan.  I’ve been pondering my plan for exercise for the past couple of weeks and now I have to decide what I want to do and when.  I actually really love to exercise, but my schedule has been preventing me from doing it so I had pretty much stopped.  I know to lose weight I need to get back on track so no more letting my schedule control me.  I will just have to schedule it in (first thing in the morning) and suck up the lost sleep.  Hopefully the benefits from extra energy because of the exercise will help me power through the day. 

So starting Monday, I will be getting up at 5:00 so that I can do Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.  I am also going to try and start walking a couple of evenings a week since it is finally getting lighter and I can see where I am going with two kids in tow.  I also want to try and do yoga once a week on either Friday evenings or Sunday afternoon at my favorite studio.  Those are the days that they have community donation yoga and the cost is substantially less.

I am also starting to think long term about my goal to do a triathlon this year before my 35^th birthday and if I am going to do this I need to get my bike repaired and start swimming.  I am looking to which triathlon I want to do and possibly joining the local tri club so I can receive some proper training regarding transitioning and pool privileges.  Decisions!

QOD – What is your favorite exercise?

First Week Back At Work - New Routines

On Wednesday, January 18^th I returned to work after being out on maternity leave for 12 weeks.  First, let me point out that it really, really sucks to go back to work and leave me sweet little baby in the care of someone else!  On the upside, I really like the location I choose to watch and teach my children. I hope this will alleviate some of my stress.

Second, my morning routine is going to be a balancing act.  I have to get myself up and ready, get Logan up and ready, and then get Madelyn up and ready. I have to make sure everyone is fed, school and work bags packed, drive half-way across town to drop the kids off at daycare and pre-K, then get myself to work by 9 am.  I have to leave my house by 8 am to get to work on time.  Of course I want to maximize my sleep because I am still getting up in the middle of the night to feed a baby so the earliest I can tolerate dragging out of bed is 6 am.  So far I think this schedule will work for us, however I definitely need to utilize some preplanning the night before to make sure it all goes smoothly.

Third, my job can be extremely stressful at times and at other times, very boring.  Both instances send me searching for food! I could easily sit at my desk and consume a day’s worth of calories in just a few hours, make that a few minutes!  To end this vicious cycle of eating (and to save money) I am packing my own lunch and snacks. 

Lastly, our evening routine will hopefully be the easiest part of the day.  We do not get home until 6 pm and everyone is starving by then so the challenge will be making sure that I am prepared to make quick and healthy meals for us.  It is so easy to just stop and get fast food on the way home, but my huge butt and empty check account can attest that this is not the best idea!

The next challenge will be working some real exercise into this schedule.

So far the first three days back at work have gone pretty smoothly and the routine seems to be working.  Hopefully it will get easier as time goes by.

Now that I am almost caught up on getting this blog going, I hope to post at least once a day.