Shrinking Days of Summer: Week 5

Yep. I missed last week due to being on vacation.
I was scared to death to weigh when I got back. I had actually contemplated taking my scale with me.

Challenge Starting Weight: 178.8 lbs
Last week: 172.4 lbs
This week: 173.8 lbs
Change: up 1.4 lbs
Loss For Challenge: Down 5 lbs
Total Pounds Gone: 90.2

So I gained almost 2 pounds. While it kind of bums me out, it makes me happy at the same time. Sounds confusing? From the day my family arrived to the day they left I didn't follow my eating plan. I had fruit loops for breakfast, McFlurries, Frosties, french fries, alcohol, Pâté chinois ... it goes on.  Being able to eat what I wanted for that long and only gaining 2 pounds made me realize that once I reach my goal weight, it will be easier to maintain it. On the down side, back to my eating plan. I want all the junk again!

I have decided that July is going to be a big change for me.
I've decided to start running again and to finally start eating clean. I will be following the Couch to 5K program again. Since I usually do that Monday, Wednesday and Friday; I plan on doing some type of strength training on Tuesday and Thursdays. I have 3 pound hand weights and resistance bands. I am sure I can find some links or videos on YouTube to figure out exactly what to do.

Winner!

We have a winner for the Shushybye Giveaway!


Congratulations to Jessica, who wrote the 6th comment.
Thanks to all those who entered!

Les Poutines

When I think of Quebec Cuisine, one thing jumps out at me more than anything else: Poutines!
What are they?
They're french fries, with brown gravy and cheese curds (which is hard to get here.) Most people have never heard of cheese curds. I remember buying them in the cheese section of our local grocery store. My mother said that you can buy little snack packs of cheese curds at convenience stores.  I personally don't like them. Then again, I don't eat much cheese.

After the cheese curds, the other memory of eating in Quebec is the fries. They are hand cut and deep fried. Even in most smaller sit down restaurants they are done this way. They used to have "home style" fries at East Coast Wings. That was my main reason for eating there.

Back Again!

I just had a great visit with my mother from Canada. Can you believe it's been over 5 years since I've last seen her? The last time I saw her, Brye was a few weeks old and I spent the afternoon with her. My parents had an ugly divorce. We had a chance to sit and talk and air things out. To make things even better, my mother and father spent a few days together with us and there was no arguing or anything. I think that's the first time in my life I remember both parents in the same room and no dirty glances.
I really hope that my family is on the road to better times and that we can all put the past behind us for the sake of the next generation.

Stay tuned for pictures from our vacation at Myrtle Beach and some great French Canadian meals.

Left: 20 some years ago.. They look sooo happy.

Right: June 19th 2010

Shrinking Days of Summer: Week 3

Challenge Starting Weight: 178.8 lbs
Last week: 173.2 lbs
This week: 172.4 lbs
Change: Down .8 lbs
Loss For Challenge: Down 6.4 lbs
Total Pounds Gone: 91.6

Less than spectacular.
With my Mom and Sister coming in from Canada this Saturday, I've been stressing big time. I've been trying to get the house completely in order, only to have it destroyed in 5 minutes.  There's been a lot of comfort eating.  As usual, my weight went up close to 180 over the weekend. I guess when you factor that in, my weight loss was pretty good.


I've decided to start eating clean.
Most of my diet is already "clean" but I have a weakness for diet soda and my protein bars. I can't seem to find much out about it online without the website trying to sell me a book. My understanding is that if it's something you can grow or hunt, then it's okay to eat. That leaves me with fruit, veggies and proteins. I like everything plain and simple so it should be easy to make the final switch. I also only eat raw veggies. They joys of being a picky eater.




I'm trying to figure out how to reduce my body fat.
By my calculations, my current body fat is 26.28%. At the beginning of May it was 29.96%. Once I figure in my weight loss for the time frame, almost all it came from "fat". This is, of course, according to the results from the calculator. I can feel my boney hips, ribs and see them in a few other areas. So when I look down and see this big 'ol belly it makes me scratch my head. Not sure how much elasticity is left to my belly skin. I was overweight for a few years before I got pregnant with Brye. With both pregnancies I was H-U-G-E. I know there's still fat in there with all that skin. I think I'm going to try and focus reducing body fat.





I guess as I get closer to my goal that everything is going to start slowing down.
That stinks.

Freedom's (failed) Rainbow Care Bear Cake

I'm just now getting around to transferring the pictures from Freedom's birthday to the computer.
I made Freedom a "Rainbow Care Bear Cousin Cake". It's very, very far from what I had first planned on. I was wanting to make a cake in the shape of the monkey. I realized to do that, it would be almost as big as my kitchen table. I guess I could have made it smaller, but I'm not that skilled.

Might just be my lack of awesome cake skills, but it looked more like a tie dye cake. I can handle that though. I cheated. I used a box mix. It was the Funfetti type, the only cake mix permitted in this house! Brye, the pickiest boy alive, will only eat plain Funfetti cupcakes. I tried a cake once, un-iced, but it was NOT a cup cake. Shame on me for thinking it was the same.










I made the cake according to the directions on the box.
I took the batter, and split it into several bowls. I used three for one layer and four for the second one. To have made the cake more of a rainbow, I should have made more colours and used the same number.





Plop the batter in.
Plop the other colours on top, right in the middle.
Don't worry, it will spread out!






Now here is where I think I messed up.
The cake pan was very big, like 13-15". I had a hard time flipping it out of the pan. It broke a bit and I thought I could cover in the "holes" with icing.






This is the only picture I have of the finished uncut cake.
I took it with my cellphone right after I was finished, that's why you can see my lovely mess.

I had planned on making the monkey outline with chocolate and then filling it in with the coloured sugar stuff.
The chocolate broke. The store only had red sugar stuff. I cut out a copy of the monkey and tried to trace it with a tooth pick. Icing is sticky. I learned the hard way. I barely had a line to follow. It was late and I didn't want to head back out to the store in hopes of finding a small tube of yellow or black icing to trace it in. I thought I would be smart and use the only yellow icing that I could find after work... the cupcake stuff in a can. HA! It was horrible. Mostly due to the fact that I had to freehand most of the monkey with a chunky can. I didn't have black icing, so I thought I would outline it with the only colour that was dark... blue. Feel free to laugh.






So there it is, the awesomeness that could have been.

Shrinking Days of Summer: Week 2

Challenge Starting Weight: 178.8 lbs
Last week: 176.2 lbs
This week: 173.2 lbs
Change: Down 3 lbs
Loss For Challenge: Down 5.6 lbs
Total Pounds Gone: 90.2

Woot!
I can officially say that I've lost 90 pounds!
Before last weekend, I was down to 173 lbs. I expected to be able to update today being at least I gained a few extra thanks to Chinese food, ice cream, Doritos and some Smirnoff. It was good.  The crappy feeling afterwords kind of sucked though.

There was a water challenge last week. I rocked it!
A few weeks ago, I won a water bottle from the "1 Lb at a Time" challenge. I also had another 32 oz BPA Free water bottle. I drink at least 100 oz of water a day. I aim for 3 bottles of water from either of these bottles. Today, I drank 64 oz of water during my 3.5 hour shift.

The mini-challenge for this week is to get in 13.1 miles since some of the girls completed a 1/2 marathon. Congrats on the by the way! As far as me getting in that much. heheh. I wore my pedometer today at work. It's telling me that I walked 7 miles. NO WAY! I can see maybe one.

If you caught my confessions post, I mentioned that I talked the kids into watching cartoons so I could use that as an excuse not to do any work out DVDs. Bad Mom, I know. Today when Brye got home from school I scrounged up enough batteries for the Wii Balance Board.  While not as strenuous as The 30 Day Shred, the kids played along too. It was cute to see Brye and Freedom laying beside me as I was attempting Jack Knifes.  I let Brye pick out some of the activities. I got 43 minutes, and according to Wii Fit Plus, I burned 156 calories.  Brye's been playing it for the last 30 minutes. He loves to run and golf. Yoga is "oh so hard". It is hard, when you have a two year old who wants to jump on the board and hug your legs.

True Confessions

• I looked at the work out DVDs. Sat them on the shelf. Asked the kids if they wanted to watch cartoons so I would have an excuse not to do them.
• Felt guilty so I push mowed our yard.
• I had some alcohol over the weekend... and 3/4 of a HUGE bag of Doritoes
• They were AWESOME!!
• I continued to lose weight, but magically gained 3 lbs this morning.
• Oh there was a Chinese Buffet this weekend.
• I shared an ice cream cone with Freedom
• ... and had a SMALL McDonald's milkshake. I could have got a medium one.
• I was so upset with my belly yesterday that I Googled Tummy Tucks to find out the cost.
• The recovery pictures were gnarly and scared the crap out of me.
• I feel bad for Brye. Tomorrow is his last day of school. He's already said he missed his friends.

Shushybye Book and CD : Review and Giveaway

Bedtime.
Not such a fun time in our house. I assume it has a lot to do with Freedom being two. Brye on the other hand will stall as much as possible. He's five and a half.

I was given the opportunity to review Shushybye Close Your Eyes. I had not previously heard of Shushybye.

SHUSHYBYE is an interactive television show, book and music ritual for parents as they prepare their preschoolers for sleep. The books offer colorful characters and charming stories, while the accompanying catchy and spirited original SHUSHYBYE rock and pop songs help inspire children to look forward to sleep-time.

To summarize the story:
Leo and Leona are two kids who stay up past their bedtimes.  Since they aren't going to sleep, they miss getting their Special Shushybye Dream Boxes.  Snoozles is the Shushy who makes their dreams. He was worried because they never opened their dream boxes.  He ends up visiting the kids and brings them, and their parents, back to Shushybye to visit the King and see where dreams are made. After their visit, Leo and Leona are excited to go to sleep and finally get their very own Dream Boxes.

I thought the book was creative, cute and loved the illustrations. The book seemed a bit long for Freedom. I think it's mostly due to her age. She loved turning the pages. After a few nights, I ended up summarizing the paragraphs. Brye, on the other hand loved the story. When I asked him what he thought about The Shushys making his dreams, he thought it was really cool. That night he told me that he needed to go to sleep so he could get his "super cool box of dreams".  The following nights, while I was reading the book to him, Freedom took more of an interest in it.  The book also came with a read along CD. I popped it into our Xbox while I read the story. Freedom was mesmerized by the voices. Brye told me it was "so cool to hear the picture's voices".

We also recieved the Shushybye & Goodnight Deluxe Edition CD to review.  We're not that big on kids music at our house. So, when I put in the CD I didn't really know what to expect. I was surprised. It was catchy and (most importantly) decent.

The music is a wide range of styles - from classic rock to progressive rock/country to pop, and even jazz. The SHUSHYBYE music is the antidote to today's crop of synthesizer-drum machine-based songs that parents have to 'endure.' The music is written for parents (and children) - the lyrics are written for children (and parents).

Giveaway!
One lucky reader will win both the Shushybye: Close Your Eyes book and the Shushybye & Goodnight Deluxe Edition CD

How to enter:
Mandatory Entry

• Visit The Shushybye website and tell me something neat and intersting that you find there.

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Please leave a separate comment for each entry. For the bonus entries, please leave the appropriate number of comments. The extra entries are each worth one entry unless otherwise noted.
Please leave your email address in your comment so that I have a way to contact you.
Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian Residents.
Giveaway ends June 29th at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be chosen using Random.org notified via email and will have 72 hours to respond. If there in no response, a new winner will be chosen. 
Winner has been chosen and has responded. Congrats to Jessica!

Disclosure:
I was given the opportunity to review this product because of my membership at The Product Review Place. Shushybye provided me with the book and CDs, for free, to review. Shushybye is responsible for prize distribution. I didn't receive any money or other type of compensation for this review.  My thoughts and opinions are my own.

These Are The Months of The Year!

Two Years Ago ...

Two years ago, this July 11th Brye and I witnessed something that I hope no one ever has to.

We were on our way to a playdate and I needed to get a check cashed.(Yay for small town banks that don't offer debit cards)

We walked into the bank ... as it was being robbed! 

I think we surprised the "bad guys". We entered the side door less than five minutes after they opened and I remember thinking it was weird that the phones were ringing like crazy. I have the tendency to walk with my head down, so I didn't notice much until I heard a guy yelling at me. I looked up to see a guy running out of the vault with an assault riffle. I was shocked. I honestly thought with it being so early in the day that they were doing a mock robbery, like a fire drill type of thing.  We were told to get on the floor as they grabbed what I was holding in my hands. Thankfully I had only walked in with the check I was going to cash and a loaner cell phone.  They threw down my check but stole my phone.

At the time, Brye was only 3 and didn't really know what was going on. The only thing he really said was "Take Mommy Phone." He wasn't really talking at that point. Lately though he's been asking me if I remember it. Yes, almost two years later he has started asking "Do you remember the time we went at the bank and the bad guys took your phone. But then the cops came and you were crying?"  It might make me a bad person, but in a way I had wished that he was too young to understand (and remember) what was going on.

I am still kind of bothered by it.
With my job now, I have to take the deposit once or twice a week. I still panic when I enter banks. It took me close to a year before I would enter any bank without my husband. When I go in now, I keep my phone and keys in my pocket. I never chance bringing in anything like a purse. I always check the parking lot lobby.  I am aware of my surroundings.

We stopped banking at that bank shorty after.
Even with the police report, I still had to pay another $50 insurance fee to get my phone back.  The loaner was obviously stolen. I paid $50 less than week before that to even get the stupid loaner phone. I got one "We're so sorry" phone call from some bank person.  Thinking back, I should have told them they should pay for therapy or something. 

The funniest part?
At 9:15-ish A.M. in JULY, two guys got away ON FOOT through our city with ASSAULT RIFFLES wearing COVERALLS and SKI MASKS ... in July ... in North Carolina!

Shrinking Days of Summer: Week 1

I didn't post before the challenge started last week.
It's an eight week challenge, in which I hope to lose 10 lbs.

Challenge Starting Weight: 178.8
Last week: 178.8
This week: 176.2
Change: Down 2.6
Loss For Challenge: Down 2.6
Total Pounds Gone: 87.8

I am surprised that I lost any. I've just said goodbye to my pesky monthly friend. I usually gain like crazy the week before and during. Last Thursday was Freedom's birthday. Over the weekend I finished off her cake and made my way into the extra chocolate chips. I've also been stressing myself over the pictures I took for Brye's Preschool class.
To be down 2.6 pounds is amazing.

I had planned at the end of every month to do take a progress picture and measurements. I think I'm going to skip the photos for the end of May and do it every two months now.  There's not really been much improvement to me. I've not lost much inch wise either. About .5-.75 inches on my waist and hips each.  Starting to worry that it's the lean muscle mass that I'm losing.

So, with the challenge we're supposed to be drinking at least 64 oz of water a day. This one is so easy for me. I love my water!

Exercise?
Not really ... yet. (again)
Seems to be the recurring theme with me. I gave up on P90X for now. I did a few days of  "The 30 Day Shred" but it's just so boring. That, and Freedom thinks that when I get on the floor she's supposed to climb on me.  It's been so effin hot that we've not walked at all. So much for the jogging stroller I just had to have.
Excuses... Excuses...

Here's to hoping that next week I can claim that I've lost 90 pounds!

For more personal motivation, I put those two picture together. The first one is from February of 2009 weighing 264 lbs. The second is from Mother's Day, obviously May, 2010 weighing in at 181.8 lbs. A difference of 82.2 lbs.  I really need to dig out that original outfit.

Preschool Graduate!

Congratulations Brye!

He graduated from preschool tonight.
I wasn't one of those parents who cried when he started school, but now at the end of the year I'm a bit saddened. He will be going to a different school and will probably never see these kids again. He's made huge improvements since he started last fall. He had a really bad stuttering problem, and barely spoke. The pediatrician couldn't understand when he spoke to her. He was shy and didn't know how to interact with other children.
Now, he talks on par with kids his age. He's made many friends, and even has a few girlfriends.

The first day of Kindergarten ... that may be a different story.