Breakfast of Champions

Weight loss has been slow. It doesn't help that I bought Family Digestive biscuits... those things are my Kryptonite. I have no idea why I bought them, I'll tell you it was for the kids but I've had twice as many as they have.

So I'm starting today off on a good foot and made my favourite smoothie. I also started walking every second day with my friend Sara. We walked (briskly) either outside or on the track at the community centre and chitter-chat. It's been a lot of fun! It definitely helps when you have a friend with similar goals to stay on track. So this week I will make tracking everything I eat and getting out for my walks a top priority, and I'll have one if these smoothies for breakfast everyday!


Peach-Mango-Pineapple Smoothie

1 cup frozen peach slices
1/2 cup frozen mango
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 tsp chia seeds

1. Put all the fruit and the juice in a blender and purée until smooth.
2. Mix in the chia seeds and enjoy!

Makes 2 servings.

Crazy-Busy

I've been a bad girl. The past two days I haven't tracked anything on WW. I've been too busy! I know, I know, it takes 2 seconds, but really, I had THIS to deal with...

1st Weigh-In

So, I'm on day 4 of my journey to skinny jeans and I had weigh-in today. I chose Friday as my weigh-in day because Monday morning is hard enough as is (am I right? Slap it high!). So even though I've only been on the program for 4 days I weighed in at -.6lbs. I'll take it!

Jan 1 - was a good day. Stayed totally on program and didn't snack. I vented a LOT on twitter about how hungry I was. It was pathetic.

Jan 2 - was not so good. I had 3 friends and their kids over for a playdate (which WAS fun) and I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies.... and had 3. BUT I did track everything and that's a huge goal for me.

Jan 3 - was another not so great day. I had a hunk of toblerone (damn you delicious holiday chocolates) and for dinner I made butter-basted steak. Yes, steak bathed in butter. It was delicious. I had to use flex points for it but that's what they're there for right?

Hoping today I can reign it in. Going to start my day with oatmeal and we're having homemade pizza tonight so I'm going to load it up with veggies and have a salad so I can get away with only having 1 slice and not be wanting to stab someone by 9:00 from hunger.

Organizing our new playroom today. That should be some good cardio.

2013 - {hopefully} A New Beginning

I am DONE having babies! I'm excited and sad about that decision, but really, my uterus is not a clown car and the insanity must stop. 4 kids are a lot by today's standards, trust me, I get a lot of "looks" when I take all 4 to the grocery store. Not only is having 4 kids expensive, time-consuming, exhausting, and a strain on our square footage (yes, it is incredibly wonderful and fun too, I'm not all doom and gloom!) but it was really hard on my body. REALLY hard. I developed bad lower back pain (Sciatica) that *was* only affecting me during pregnancy until #4 when it decided to just be my new norm. I have lingering knee pain from carrying an 8mth belly AND a 1 year old around. I am also covered in stretch marks and have loose skin issues (gag). But my biggest issue is my weight.

Having babies close together was great for their relationship (my kids are 6.5, 4, 2, and 8mths) but not having much "recovery" time in between pregnancies meant not enough time to devote to getting back in shape. My starting weight wasn't that great to begin with but then keeping around 10lbs per pregnancy didn't help the situation.

My first go-around

 I originally started this blog back in 2006 after the birth of my oldest and I was really successful. I lost all the baby weight and then some. But a miscarriage a few months later sent me into a tail spin of emotional eating and it all came back. Then I got pregnant again and got stuck in the "I'm too tired and there's too much to do to work out." excuse cycle. Then I had another baby... and another.

I'm STILL tired and there is still TOO MUCH to do, but I need to do something for ME, and my husband and kids. I need to take care of myself. What good am I to anyone if I develop heart disease or need back or knee replacement surgery at 35?

So I'm going to do Weight Watchers again because it worked for me before, and I'm (literally) dusting off my elliptical/step machine to use. I'm going to attempt to do my pilates DVD but have no delusions that I'll be able to finish the Hundred for a while as I rebuild my core.

I think a big part of why I was successful the first time around was that I really committed myself to this blog and felt like I was being held accountable by it, whether anyone was reading it or not. So I'm going to (try) to do that again, post my successes and my failures for the world to see. I took my weight and measurements this morning which I'll share and I took pictures of myself, in spandex *shudder* that I'm going to hold off on posting for a bit until I have some progress pics to post with them cause I'm vain like that. If anyone else out there is starting the same journey today I really encourage you to start your own blog or at the very least, share your progress with friends and family via twitter or Facebook. The support you need is out there!

Here's to 2013, the year I get myself back!

Starting weight - 196.5lbs yeah, I know, so bad
Goal weight - 135lbs this is a marathon, not a race.

Head Space FAIL

I just can't seem to lock myself into the right frame of mind. My fitness is doing okay but my eating is still out of control. I've had 3/4 of a box of pot of gold over the last 3 days. Damn those chocolates, damn them all to hell.

My friend Julie got engaged Saturday night I really don't want to go to another friend's wedding fat! I have got to up my water intake, cut out the junk and track track track!

All for now, I'm dying of thirst after my run.

Oh, I almost forgot, a note about the look of my blog. It's been all over the place recently and I decided to strip it down tothe bare essentials. No hiding behind frilly backgrounds and cool gadgets.

It's just me. Exposed and out there. So that's what's going on.

Now for water.

The year of ME!

The other day on Twitter I declared this year "The Year of ME". I turned 32 this November and I don't want to hit 33 and feel (and look) the way I do now. As much as I love giving, and giving, and giving, and... well you get the idea, I need to start letting my family fend for themselves (in some respects, I'm not expecting my 3 year old to make her own dinner here!) a little so I can start taking care of myself. So I decided to write down some goals so I have something to work towards.

I feel like I've lost control of a lot of areas of my life. I spend a lot of time tidying, but my house is always a disaster zone. I spend a lot of time on the internet, but my blogs aren't being updated regularly and I'm terrible with keeping up with work. I spend a lot of time with my kids, but I don't think much of it is quality. And I don't spend enough time alone with my husband, or myself for that matter.

Here's where the goals come in, I need something to focus on, a destination to reach beyond the number on the scale. I need some short term, medium term and long term goals so I feel like I have some control over the direction my life is headed in. I don't want to be a passive spectator to my own life anymore. I want to be in the driver's seat! So here goes:

Short Term:
1. get into the habit of weighing, and measuring everything until I get a better grasp on portion sizes and I can eyeball it.
2. get serious about my workout routine and stick to it.
3. make sure I devote 1 night a week where I give my husband my undivided attention for a few hours after the kids go to bed.
4. make sure I devote 1 night a week where I leave the parenting to my very capable husband and do something I want to do.

Medium Term:
1. lose 10% of my body weight, a goal I've been anxious to reach but know will take some time
2. develop a better routine for cleaning the house and make other people pick up after themselves, I'm no body's maid!
3. make cooking lighter a more regular occurrence
4. continue to focus on my weight loss efforts as a priority and not a luxury

Long Term:
1. lose the 50lbs that are weighing me down (literally and figuratively)
2. spend more time taking care of me, more spa visits are in order!
3. get rid of all my "big" clothes so I don't backslide

I'm thinking I should be able to accomplish this over the course of the next year. It will take some focus, some energy and a lot of support from my family, which I'm sure they'll only be too happy to give. And even if I'm met with some grumbling, too bad, afteral, this is The Year of ME!

The Weekend - A Recap

Well, I had a so-so weekend. Jason's work Christmas party was Saturday night and it was a buffet dinner. I only had 1 plate of food and tried to load it with veggies and 1 slice of turkey and a small piece of fish but who knows what you're getting when you hit a buffet line. Igrabbed a piece of cake for dessert (what? it was a party!) but only had a couple of bites cause it was ridiculously sweet. I also had 1 glass of red wine, and 2 cocktails but we NEVER go out and I didn't know anyone there other than my hubs and I wanted to have fun. The best part was I got to wear the new LBD I bought and my gorgeous new shoes! LOVE THEM!



excuse the crappy picture, I took it myself using my ravel tri-pod and the timer button which I set and then had to sprint over to the stairs and pose to use, hence the lack of a smile, I *just* made it :)

I didn't manage any workouts this weekend (boo to my lazy ass) but I plan to do something tomorrow for sure. Kick my ass if I don't!

I weighed in so my official weight right now is 191.8... le sigh. I WILL do better!