Hello There!

Long time no talk huh? Yeah its been awhile since I have done anything really good for myself. But today I am happy to announce that I have started up again!
We are Netflix members ( I LOVE THIS!) and I just got a new DVD. It is called Gabrille Reece's Complete Maternity and Pregnancy Workout. Its great! She is a pro volleyball player that is now pregnant and it is one of the best pregnancy workouts I have done. And I have done my share ha ha.
In this video she demonstrates the workouts while her personal trainer tells her what to do. They use dumbbells, bands, and an exercise ball.
Funny story, I started doing the video and realized that she uses all of these things. So I stopped the video, packed the kids in the car, and ran to Walmart to get the equipment. I LOVE them! I did the first trimester workout and I am already sore, even though the workouts are pretty low-key. I highly recommend getting the equipment and doing the workout because 1. it is greater motivation to workout since you spent money to do it, 2. it is an awesome workout, and 3. you will feel so good about yourself!
But, I haven't yet told my hubby about the $40 I spend to get it all. Shhhhhh! I'll let him know after he feels my rock hard body! Then he can't complain right?! HA HA!

Man! I'm pooped! Today I don't have the car. And I wanted to go and pick up the graduation announcements I am making from the local Walgreens. So I thought, "Hey! I need to exercise, and I need to go get the announcements, so I'll do both and walk there!"

BAD IDEA!

It is 1.4 miles there and good thing I didn't know that before because when I left I was thinking that it wasn't too far at all. LM #1 decided that he wanted to ride in the backpack instead of his brother. I thought, "Eh, they're only 5 lbs different, how bad could it be?" BAD. Not only is LM #1 5 lbs heavier, but he is a lot longer and so his weight is distributed differently. On our way there I tried to get him to sit in the buggy but he wasn't going for that. Oooooh no, he wanted to ride in the "pack-pack" with Mama.
Well, when we first left the house it was overcast and not too hot. But, true to Utah weather (and my bad luck), about half way there the clouds departed and the sun decided to show its awful face! ha ha But seriously 95 degrees wearing a 26 lb child and pushing a 21 pound child for close to 2 hours is not exactly my idea of a good time.
But hey, I got a good workout in right? Let me tell you this though, I was one hot, sweaty, sticky, smelly Mama.

This weight had better come off FAST!!

Monday 26 July 2010

So I decided today that I had better get back into trying to lose the baby weight again. I am home now, no more student teaching, and I have become quite lazy. Hubby and I were talking last night about how we have totally slacked off on our scripture reading and prayers personally and as a couple. So we made a commitment to each other to do MUCH better.

Well I was thinking this morning that I also need to do better on getting exercise in my day.

Then I thought about this blog and what a lazy bum I have been...

But I do have 'reasons' why I haven't been doing very good.
1. I only have a single stroller and 26 and 21 pound children. That means that I will be wearing one of them and that isn't a very appealing thought to me.
2. I like food. But Dr Laura says: "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels".
3. I am moving in less than three weeks and there is a LOT to do between now and then to get ready. I have tons of stuff to sell and I need to get on it.
4. It is HOT! And I really don't want to be outside. Lame I know.

All that being said, I will get 30 minutes of exercise in each day from now until we move.

Wish me luck! And I will let you know how it all goes.

April 21, 2010

Ladies and... well ladies (cause I think thats all who reads this ha ha)!
I have started my student teaching this week and if you will remember my goal was to loose 19 pounds by this time. If you will remember, here I said that I wanted to loose 10 pounds by the 19th. Well, I didn't quite loose 10. I had extenuating circumstances that prevented me from keeping up with my exercise regimen quite like I had wanted to. My only consolation is that I am now standing up 24/7 because of my teaching.
That said, I did loose 5.6 pounds! Yeah baby! I now weight 184.4 and here are my measurements:
Bust: 41
Waist: 34.5
Hips: 45
Thighs: 26

So, that means that I have lost a total of 1.5" in my thighs, 2" in my waist, and half and inch in my hips. Not too shabby eh?

I am making it a goal to wake up early and exercise at least 2x a week. That means that I will have to wake up at 5 am, but what can ya do right?

Wish me luck friends!

Wel, I'm really sorry readers. I have had to put this, and all other fun activities on hold until further notice. I really have no time to do anything other than my independent study class. I hate this!
But good news. Last wednesday I weighed 188 lbs. Today I weigh 185.4! Yee haw right?

So maybe all this stress has an up side after all...

Day 13

Guess what? On Saturday I did a 5K! My hubby said that I couldn't say I 'ran' a 5K because that would be decieving, becasue I didn't run it. I power walked. And jogged a little. But come on, can you blame me? I was wearing an 18.5 lbs baby on my chest! Daddy was pushing LM1 in his stroller and I was wearing LM2, but we switched halfway through. I was kinda funny becasue I couldn't go faster than a power walk wearing LM2 and Daddy was telling me to go faster. But then when he was wearing LM2 it was a different story! ha ha

I did the 5K in 55.54 minutes. Not bad for my very first 5K ever, huh? I was pretty proud. Of course I came in last. Well actually 2nd to last becuase I jogged to the finish line and Daddy only walked ha ha I was really great to have my honey to do it with. His knee kept him from running it and so we went the same pace. It was great. We listened to music, talked, and had a great time.

After the 5K there was an Easter Egg Hunt for the children. It was hilarious because LM1 couldn't walk! ha ha He'd been sitting in the stroller so long that I guess his legs fell asleep of something becuase he couldn't move the normal! He kept falling down all over the place ha ha. But he had a blast and has been carrying those eggs with him ever since :-)

Day 11

Okay, I'm getting my days mixed up because stupid blogger isn't working right. I posted a couple of times and they haven't shown up in the correct order that I posted them and it is really annoying...

Oh well



Today was AWESOME! Daddy came home early from school so I could go do homework at the library. Well when he got here I decided that I would go to the gym first and then to the library. See, it snowed today. That means that it was WAY to cold to go exercise outside, especially with my babies.

So I got my shorts and sweatshirt on and jogged to the gym. I was actually really proud of myself that I jogged for as long as I did. Normally I don't jog because I am scared of hurting my knee, but it felt really good this time! I had to stop after 3 blocks though because it was SOOOOOOOOOOO windy!!! I couldn't breathe! It was awful! The wind was going straight through my sweatshirt and I was freezing. Then it started to snow. I really felt like a retard because here I am walking around with shorts on in the snow! Duh! ha ha

When I got to the gym, got my wristband I was feeling pretty good. I had my warm-up and I was ready to go.

*Disclaimer* I really have no idea how accurate the measurements for calories lost are, but I am going to pretend that they are spot on.

I started with the elliptical machine and did it for 15 minutes, ran 0.71 miles, and burned 145 calories. This really killed my thighs and calves. ha ha when I got off and walked to get a drink of water it was really weird. I could hardly move :-) I actually felt like I had just stepped off a moving sidewalk and was like floating. You know the feeling? It was so weird

Then I did this oblique twister machine. You sit down on the stool with your knees hugging some pads and your arms at 90 degree angles and you twist your torso. That was cool and I twisted 30 pounds 50 times.

Next I went to the stationary bike, because I was hoping to get a bun work-out. It burned my thighs more that my rear, but thats still good. I biked 2.89 miles, burned 189 calories, and did it for 11 minutes. I only did it for that long because I was scared that someone was going to take this other really cool machine I saw and wanted to use (ha ha) which was another stationary bike with your feet out in front, instead.

Here is a picture of the bike.



I'm guessing that it was a lot easier on my knees. And I LOVED to use it! On this machine I biked for 35 minutes, burned 117 calories, and biked for 6.46 miles! It was awesome!

So here are my stats for the day:
Minutes on machines- 61
Miles moved- 10.6!
Calories burned- 451!

Pretty awesome! I would venture to say that today was very successful. And I had a BLAST while doing it!
Thanks Honey for taking over for the evening, when can I go again?? ;-)

Day 10

Awe man! I forgot to write last night again! Well yesterday's walk was really fun becusae Daddy came with us! We did the normal route and even got to see an old friend of mine along the way. It was really warm, which made the walk all the better. I didn't even have to wear a coat! But poor LM1 got cold and we didn't have a blanket for him so we used my coat as a blanket for him.
It was a really nice walk.

Begining of Week 3

Well today was a pretty good day. I went out and walked around for an hour so that was pretty sweet. I walked to Macey's and back. It felt REALLY great today, even at 7 pm when I went for my walk. the walk there and back was 2.4 miles so I feel pretty good about that.
Well, this morning when I weighed myself I was super bummed because I actually gained weight. I didn't post my weight last week, but it was 189 lbs. This week it was 191.8 lbs. So this morning I was pretty bummed out about that. But then this evening when I took my measurements I was really excited! Look:

How totally awesome is all that?? I am actually getting smaller already! YA HOO!
So after thinking about it I decided that weight can change a lot, even from one hour to the next. So small weight changes aren't really all that much to celebrate or grieve about. But measurements are pretty concrete and I am THRILLED to death!!



Here I am this week:
I think I have a very bad wardrobe for my body type. Actually I have a very bad wardrobe period. ha ha

Day 9

Today I just walked my normal route, 10 blocks, and then came back home.

I can tell that I am getting slightly lazy when it comes to my walks. Sure I do them, but I still go pretty slow and I don't really get my heart rate up all that much, which is what helps burn fat. The boys love going outside so we get out plenty, I just need to start going faster.

I heard from a friend about a workout video that I really want to get. She says it really kicks your butt so I want to try it out! I like to do workout videos, they're fun. Plus I can do them when it is too cold to go outside.

I am beginning to question though my body's ability to lose weight while nursing. Most women shed the pounds like sweat while nursing. But, unfortunately for me, I retain all of that weight. This is really lame btw. Seriously, by all standards of normalcy I should be already losing weight given how much I feed my LM2. But I don't. I have to work really hard to get it off. Is this genetic? Or am I just expecting too big of results too soon?

What are yalls thoughts?...

I'm Back!

Hello Hello Hello!
I am sooooo sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. It isn't because I slacked off! Last week was honestly the hardest week of my life. First LM1 got the stomach flu and threw up 8 times in 12 hours. Then the next day LM2 got it and he was throwing up all over too. The following day our washer broke, overflowed, and flooded our entire back room and went down to the basement. Yeah. THEN the next day I got the stomach flu as well as LM2. I'm sure you can see why the exercising was put on hold. ha ha
We're all doing good now. And today was the PERFECT day for being outside! We went on a good long walk with a friend and had a great time being outside. We walked a little over an hour and I felt great after getting home. Hopefully tomorrow will be pretty again because it makes exercising so much easier ha ha
So I didn't see how I changed last week but I will this week.

Day 6

Yesterday went well, despite my boys both being a little under the weather. I am finding it harder to make it out every day. Not so much because I don't want to, because I do, but because I have so much else to do that I almost feel guilty for leaving. But it is pretty much a habit now, and it isn't something I forget to do anymore, thank heavens.
Yesterday I walked about 1.5 miles. So not too far. I just wandered around the neighborhood really. But as we were crossing a street LM1 dropped his ball and it rolled across the street. I said "uh oh" and was surprised because I stopped, stooped down to get the ball, and walked back over to the stroller all without a peep from him. I thought for sure that he would have freaked out because his ball was gone. When I went to give him the ball back I realized that he was sleeping! It was 10:30! I guess he needs a new nap time now. This is the third time he has fallen asleep! ha ha poor little thing.


Okay, so I have a question for all of you. I have discovered that I am addicted to snacking. I seriously can't help myself. It's like every second I want to put something in my mouth and I don't know what to do about it. Whats wrong with me? Sometimes I am genuinely hungry, but most of the time I'm not. So what do you do when you are bored and you feel like snacking? I really need help.

Me Week 1

Awe man, sorry guys.

I keep forgetting to publish this picture of myself.


Here I am the begining of week 1



I really can think of more flattering pictures of myself. I look frumpy.

Day 5

Today is Sunday.

The day of rest.

And thats just what I am going to do.

Rest.

At least thats what I thought I was going to do. Thats is until LM1 pesterd me for 30 minutes, got his coat and shoes on and got a blanket for his brother. All he would say was, "go buh-bye, walks, walks" over and over again. At least I know that if I ever feel like giving up I will have him right there with me saying he wants to go ha ha.

So we took a nice easy Sunday stroll to see Daddy who had meetings all day after church. We walked 15.5 blocks to the Stake Center where his meetings were. It was 1.25 miles or so; but, it took me 45 minutes to do it. Now I was wearing dress shoes, so that really slowed me down, but still, a very bad time.

Okay thats all I did yesterday.

Day 4

Oh my goodness! I can't believe I did it again! I feel asleep before I blogged about yesterday. Bummer.

Well Here's what happened...

Daddy was home with us again and I said to him, "Are you ready for our walk today?"

Then he looked at me and said, "Another walk? Really? We just went on a walk yesterday!" ha ha ha It felt very strange to be the one encouraging him to exercise. ha ha

On Friday a good friend told me about a trail that runs alongside the Provo River, that she likes to take while she is running. So I told my husband that we should try it too. The thing was, that I didn't know exactly where it was. He said that he did, so I followed him and we walked over to the river. I knew that it was a ways away from our house, but I didn't know it was that far! Man! It's really far away!

When finally found it we started on our journey. It sure was a pretty walk. LM1 couldn't keep his eyes off the "wa-der".

See, in both of these pictures we couldn't get him to look at the camera ha ha

Apparently I don't know my geography very well because I also was unaware as to where the Provo river crossed a major road. See, here in Provo there are two roads called University, Univ. Parkway, and Univ. Avenue. I thought (for some odd reason) that the river crossed University Ave. and not University Pkwy. So when I said that we would head back home when we got to University, I was talking about University Avenue, not Parkway. Needless to say my walk was a L O T longer than I was planning.

My knee was bothering me when we first started because of my running experience yesterday (see day 3) so we were going r e a l l y s l o w. I guess it was good that our walk was long because by mile 3 my knee didn't hurt at all! It was great! I could actually feel the pain in my knee go away, it like completely dissipated. Crazy huh?

Our walk ended up being an hour and a half long, and would you like to know how far we went? 5.5 miles! Can you believe it? Because I sure can't! When we looked at the GPS after getting home I was shocked and quite pleased with myself. But I'll tell you what, I was pretty sore after yesterday's walk.

Oh but how cool is this? All morning while we were walking the weather was dry. But just as we got home it started snowing! Heavenly Father was looking out for us. Daddy said it was so the boys didn't get wet :-)

I wouldn't have kept going if it wasn't for this guy, thanks Honey!

I did mention it was a really long walk right? ha ha Both LM1 and 2 fell asleep :-)

Day 3

So, I'm really sorry that I didn't post last night. I actually fell asleep before I could ha ha I was really tired.

Yesterday threw off my groove.

You know how we usually go first thing in the morning right? Well yesterday we took Daddy to work so that we could go eat lunch with him after he finished instead. After we got back home from dropping him off we ate breakfast and then we left for our walk. On our way, we pass a couple of my friends houses. They were outside with their kids playing, and of course we had to stop and play right? ha ha Maybe I should change my route and go by there on our way back home...

Anyways well I wasn't thinking and I left too late to make it home in time! See on Fridays LM1's little friend comes over to play while her parents are at work/school. I felt sooo bad when her Dad called to see where I was at, so I ran back home. Believe me, that was not a pretty sight. I couldn't do it for very long either, not with LM2 bouncing around while strapped to my chest.

That was my first attempt at a walk.

See we couldn't go while LM1's friend was here because I only have a single stroller, and we couldn't go right after she left because LM1 needed to take a nap (he positively can't with his friend here, they're having too much fun!). So 5 o'clock rolls around and I was just able to go, and guess who walks in the door? Daddy! It was perfect because I really didn't want to go by myself seeing as it was getting dark.

We packed the boys up and walked to the park! LM1 loves to slide so we played around there for awhile and then went to the library, and then back home. We really didn't walk that far, but at least we did, right? We probably walked a little over a mile. It was super fun though. Especially because the park we went to had swings! I love swinging and LM1 has never done it. Here are some pictures of us:

See, even exercising can be fun!

Day 2

Doth mine eyes deceive me? NO! My jeans are fitting looser! Or at least thats how it seemed to me. Of course it could have just been wishful thinking on my part, but I really do think that I am slightly slimmer that I was. And I'm feelin good baby!

Today was another successful day. LM2 woke me up at 7 this morning and I was surprisingly less tired than I have ever been. Usually when I wake up in the morning I am exhausted. I used to think it was because I am up 3 times in the night feeding LM2. But I fed him just as many times last night and I wasn't tired this morning! I attribute this to my work-outs.

So ya see, I've already seen two benefits today!

Daddy was home this morning and so he got to go on our walk with us. It was really fun to have him come too. I insisted on still wearing LM2 and pushing LM1 because I want to be consistent. So, Daddy was in charge of tracking our walk. He has this really cool app on his phone that GPS tracks you and gives stats on your walk! It was so cool to use it. So, here is what we did:

Total Distance: 3 miles
Total Time: 43.55
Average Moving Speed: 4.4 Mph
Minimum Elevation: 4465 ft
Maximum Elevation: 4657 ft

Pretty cool huh? I thought it was awesome to see everything I did.


When we came home I did my ab work-outs. I decided that I was only going to do them to one song because my abs are killing me and I really didn't think that I could do them for longer than that. But guys, that was the longest song I have listened to in my entire life. I was DYING! But I did it, I kept going, and mainly because I didn't want to loose face in front of all of you ha ha


Oh, one thing that helped to keep me going was that I visualized what my abs were doing while I crunched. So, you know those commercials where they are trying to get you to buy a new ab work-out product, and they show the woman doing the work-out? And you know how her abs always look awesome and you can actually see her muscles contracting? Well I could just see my own abs doing the same thing. Of course that was only in my head, because if you actually saw my abs during my work-out all you would see is a blob. But all the same, it helped me to at least pretend that I have the abs of a Michelangelo statue.

Oh, I added a new exercise today! Bench pressing LM1! ha ha It was pretty funny to watch. He liked it at first, he thought it was funny to be pushed up and down in the air. But then he got bored and wanted to go play so I had to switch to LM2. He was a little easier to bench, and not just because he is 6 lbs lighter, but because he was a lot less squirmy.

I thought it would be fun to include picture of me doing them so here it is:


Well that was pretty much all I did today. Oh, but when I mopped the kitchen floor I felt like I was not going to be able to move again. Who knew that when you mop and sweep the floor that you are using your stomach muscles that much?? Well I am here to tell you that you do, and it hurts.



But it really is a good hurt, kind of like an I-feel-strong hurt.


And I do, I do feel strong.

Day 1

Well today was very productive in my weight loss journey! I know this because I can barely move ha ha My back is sore, my legs are sore, my feet are sore, my arms are sore, but they are all good sore. I feel so great! I'm not really all that tired, just... well... sore! HA

Today I started the day off really well. LM1 woke up at 7:45 and after diaper changes and getting dressed we were off! LM1 got in his stroller and I wore my 20 lb, 6 month-old in my homemade Moby Wrap. We walked 10 blocks to the post office and it took me 40 minutes to get there and back. I think that was a pretty good start. Both LM1 and LM2 LOVE going for walks, or "going buh-bye" as LM1 calls it.

When we got home LM1 was really fussy and said that he wanted to go "nigh-nigh". Now, mind you, we got home at about 9:30, so he had been awake for a total of an hour and 45 minutes. Off to bed he went and he slept until noon. It must have been really tiring for him to sit in a stoller and eat while being pushed around every where. Yea, exhausting.

After the boys awoke from their naps i wanted to do some ab exercises and this is what I came up with: LM1 loves it when I bounce him up and down on my legs so I combined this with crunches for a pretty serious work-out. I turned on some rockin' tunes and got goin! LM1 loves to dance so my heart was pumpin and LM1 had a blast. I will definitely keep doing these. And yes, I actually did do the workout in my jeans, I have an extremely limited wardrobe. Come on, at least those are the jeans I wore before I got pregnant with LM2!

Well, around 4 I was getting antsy again! I was bored just sitting around the house like I normally would, so I asked LM1 if he wanted to go buh-bye, and immediately we were getting shoes on and heading out the door ha ha We walked about 4 blocks to my friend's house were the LM could play with their friends. Then we walked the 10 blocks and serious incline to campus for a visit with Daddy. LM2 fell asleep on the way there and LM1 shed major tears when we finally had to walk away from Daddy.

Conclusion: Today was an awesome 1st day. I may have started a little over-zealously, but I'm feelin great and ready for another day!

Thanks for reading!

The Begining

This is not going to be a comfortable blog to do. I am overweight and very self-conscious about it. But if I do not confront this head on, I will never change.
So, I am going to document my progress on exercising daily and weekly I will take a picture of myself, weigh myself, and chart my measurements. I am so not excited about putting myself out there like this; but, I know that if I don't I will not change the way I want to. I need the accountability.

There are a few challenges I see with doing a blog like this:

• I am home by myself with two children all day! And we know that it is hard to do things with them.
• We are poor so I can't afford a gym membership, especially one with child care.
• I have bad knees so I can't do the good aerobic work-outs like I would like to.
• I live it UTAH! So it is frigid outside at least 6 months out of the year.
• And last, but certainly not least, I am scared that I will fail and everyone will know about it!

But, I WILL DO IT!

So here I am today:

My dress size: 14
With just my underwear on I weigh: 190.0 lbs
My hips measure: 45.5"
My waist measures: 36.5"
My thighs measure: 27.5"
My bust measures: 41"

Now, granted, I am still nursing every 3-4 hours, so I know that when I stop nursing him my bust will shrink a lot, but still.

Here are my goals:

1. Each day I will go for a 30 minute walk minumum
2. Each day I will drink at least 8 cups of water
3. I will lose 10 pounds before April 19th
   

I am going to be doing workouts and exercises that anyone with problems like myself can do. I hope to be able to inspire other mothers in my same position to change like I will be.
Wish me luck friends!