Me On A Diet

I get asked all the time what I eat, how much I eat and why I do it that way so I'll do my best to explain my eating habits. Every morning I have an omelet with Eggbeaters, ham, 2% cheese and tabasco. I add a piece of high fiber toast most mornings since I usually workout fairly soon afterwards. At lunch I eat 4 oz of chicken with some sort of seasoning and fruit (generally strawberries or an apple). At dinner I eat another 4 oz of chicken, a vegetable (right now corn since it's in season) and maybe a fruit if I've worked out or am extra hungry. For an evening snack I do a low sugar oatmeal with a scoop of ice cream. It adds up to around 1200-1300 calories a day. I do still run, but not as much. Today I hit the track and ran 5 miles but that's pretty rare for me. You just can't work out like a crazy person when you're doing such a low calorie diet. I'm smart enough to know that at least. I run a mile or two a day, or I do the elliptical and I lift weights 3 days a week or so. I put in about an hour a day 5 days a week. And you know what? I feel so much better doing it this way! My size 6 jeans are getting just a tad bit big. That's kind of a scary thought! Once I get my tummy tuck I could easily be down to a size 2-4! Most of what I have left isn't fat at all. There's nothing I can do to get rid of it and I'm willing to admit that and do what it takes to get rid of it. I've worked hard for this body and I'm not willing to just say I should deal with what's left. I'm going to continue working hard and trust that a fabulous plastic surgeon can take care of the rest. I'll keep you all updated on prices and such when I get them!

Zoo Trip!

The kids and I ventured out to the zoo this morning! It was crazy humid and kind of miserable, but we made it. We got some new zoo keys and headed on our way.

My kids LOVE the reptiles. Love them. We spent over an hour in there today. I don't hate snakes, but they aren't my favorite animals in the whole world. This one was kind of cool though.

J was having some sort of weird hand washing moment. He washed his hands 6 times. For no reason. I think he just really liked the drier. Weirdo.

I hate the farm section and rarely let them go in there. It's just gross, it smells weird and the kids get to touch the animals. Ick!










So there you have it. Two posts in a row about my children! Next one is about me again. By request so it's not my fault!

What? This Blog Is For My Kids?

So since I've pretty much hijacked this blog and talk only about myself all the time I suppose I should throw a post up about my children once in a while. :) Well let's see... J had his speech evaluation and they he measured only half a point below normal so we're just going to wait it out a bit longer and see if he catches up on his own. The schools wouldn't accept him as a candidate for therapy so they didn't think we could easily get him in anywhere. He's been kind of a pain lately because everything is all about Batman, Transformers, Star Wars and just general violent big kid things. And of course he imitates everything he sees so he spends roughly 50% of his day in time out right now. And all weapons have been confiscated. It's tiring to tell the kid no all the time. I feel like all I ever say is "Quit doing that!" and that gets very tiring both mom and dad. He's really pushing his limits lately. More with his dad than with me luckily. ;)

M has got me all kinds of confused right now. I took her shopping for shoes yesterday. Big disaster. She hated EVERYTHING! I'm not even kidding. The kid tried on 20 pairs of shoes and found something wrong with each and every one! Too big, too small, wrong laces, too brown (?!?!), not brown enough, too sandal-y, too many colors, too white... Yeah. I'm serious. She told me shoes were too brown. So after leaving the shoe department and completely giving up I thought we'd try our luck in clothes. It went even worse if you can imagine. She won't wear anything denim, with buttons, anything tight, anything with tight sleeves, no belts, no ties in the back and yesterday she didn't want anything green. I mean seriously it's ridiculous! She came out with 2 dresses with leggings. One has a skull and crossbones. With rhinestones. Yeah. The kid has her own style. And we have matching necklaces for the outfits. I may not survive the teenage years with that one.

So there you have it. I posted an update about my children for once. I may even have to post some pictures from t-ball tomorrow night! Go Jaguars!

Whining About Weight Loss Crap

Ok so I've avoided whining about this for a long time but seriously I just can't anymore. So I've lost all this weight and have a rockin' new body to show off, right? Wrong! Because I've lost more weight than I care to even think about and had a few pregnancies and 2 babies (one that was a c-section none the less) so what I'm left with is seriously not good. So you know what I'm doing today? I'm sucking it up and calling plastic surgeons. Because this is seriously ridiculous. Why did I work this hard just to end up hating my body even more. Honestly I think it will take another 5-10 lbs off when I have it done. Which would put me at a weight I've never even dreamed of being. Right now I'm teetering right at about 143 but don't feel like I look like it. I have rock hard abs that can't be seen. It totally sucks! So I'm done whining now and I'm going to make my phone calls. :)

Dessert Tip

A while back I was reading a magazine and some celeb (can't even remember who) was being interviewed about her diet, workouts, tips and she said when she's craving dessert she would make a packet of instant flavored oatmeal and add 1 serving of low fat ice cream on top. I kind of hesitated to try it because I'm not a big oatmeal eater. In fact I rarely eat it unless there is literally no other option in this house. A while back I was craving a good dessert. Something substantial like apple pie with ice cream. One of those desserts that ends up being 10,000 calories at a restaurant. I remembered that article and got out a packet of brown sugar oatmeal (because we have about 10 big boxes from a Target clearance find) and made myself some oatmeal with 1 scoop of ice cream. It was fabulous. And filling! The oatmeal makes it seem like more of a substantial dessert and it equals 260 calories for me. I count it as my 4th meal since I'm eating 4 meals a day (with breakfast being the most calories) and it works well for me. So there's your public service announcement for today. :)

Activity Overload.

So the kids and I had to sit down and figure out what they want to do this fall and it's just slightly overwhelming. We have t-ball until August and we opted out of dance for this month because she changed the schedule and it's on the same night as t-ball games. We still have piano lessons (which I like that she's doing and I'm trying to encourage without pushing the issue) and we have MDO but this month is relatively calm. Kind of. But in a few weeks school will start and both kids will be going 5 days a week (WOOHOO!) and activities will be mostly in the evenings and weekends. So we sat down and made a list of the things they want to do, things they have to do and things that I'm making them do whether they like it or not. :)

Our behavioral specialist suggests that we keep J in structured activities so build up his ability to play on a team and realize that he's sometimes accountable to people other than himself so I plan to keep him in at least one activity year round. T-ball will end in August and soccer starts 2 weeks later so he'll do doing that. Then basketball starts the week after soccer ends so I'll put him in that too. And as a bonus they are all through the YMCA so he already has the shirt, although he'll need a bigger one soon. With 5 days a week of school, 1 practice a week and 1 game a week I think that will keep him pretty busy.

M on the other hand is an entirely different story. She wants to do dance, soccer, piano, basketball, girl scouts and cheerleading. Yeah. Not going to happen. I'm keeping her in dance so she's safe on that one. I really do want her to play some sports so we'll do the soccer and then basketball (and I think she'll be able to wear J's jersey when I get him a new one...lol) so she can try those. Girl Scouts and cheerleading I'm thinking won't make the cut (I am signing her up for a cheer clinic this month so she'll get some cheering) simply because I don't know how I could work it all in. Piano is something I want her to continue so even if we have to figure out how to fit her lessons in, she'll be doing it somehow.

It's crazy. I'm trying to convince J to play sports because he really needs them for structure and I'm trying to convince M she doesn't need to be doing everything that everyone else is doing. My kids are such polar opposites. Looking at the schedule for fall has me realizing that the older my kids get, the less time there's going to be. Days will be at school and nights and weekends will be activities. What happened to my babies that were happy to play with their toys and run around the house?!? Those days are long gone!

Comfort Zone

I haven't talked much about weight loss lately, mostly because I've been crazy busy and haven't had time to do a real post, but here I go again. At this point I'm not trying to lose any substantial amount of weight. I'm just trying to find my comfort zone of what makes me feel good and I think I finally found it! Right now I'm eating 1200-1300 calories a day, doing 1 hr of cardio 5 days a week and doing strength training 3 days a week. It works out to be about 7-8 hours per week in the gym (which is way less than the 12 I was doing a few months ago) and 4 small meals a day. I'm keeping my carbs right around 100 and really limit what processed things I eat because I retain water really easily. I'm still losing a little bit. Maybe half a pound a week most of the time. I'm not looking for quick weight loss but this seems to be the calorie range and workout schedule that makes me feel good! I'm not sore from running 7-8 miles a day. I'm not laying in bed at night dead tired because I put all of my energy into working out and chasing kids. I'm spending more energy playing with my kids and hanging out with my husband instead. Forget weight loss goals and the number on the scale, this is what I always wanted. I wanted a reasonable workout plan that I could do forever, a diet that I could keep up for the rest of my life, energy to play with my kids and still be awake enough to spend time with my husband in the evenings. I made it. I finally made it. It took me 2 years and a lot of hard work, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.