Measuring in Monday

My new gym opened up 29 days ago. According to the online check in, I’ve gone in 27 of those days. And it’s starting to show.

In the past 4 weeks I have dropped: 14cm around my waist. 3.5cm around my hips (come on, hips! Shrink already!). 2cm around my arms. 4cm around my bust (measured each Monday morning after feeding the baby). And 9cm around my thighs.

I haven’t stepped on the scale yet today. I’ve decided not to at home today. I torcher myself every Monday by weighing myself at home multiple times and then get upset if the scale at the meeting doesn’t match. Hello! Different scale, crazy lady! I know better. I just seem to enjoy driving myself crazy. Well, not today. I did my measurements; I’m very happy with them today. That’s enough for now. I’ll just cross my fingers and hope for a scale loss too. If there’s no moment for the second week in a row, I will look at how many centimetres have melted off me and hold my head up high.

My wonderful motivator, Hubby, says he’s noticing a difference in my body. Yep; I am too. I no longer look 6 months pregnant. I look 4 months pregnant. Maybe in another month or two I will no longer look pregnant; just a little chunky. Hubby says I don’t look pregnant and that I stopped looking it in two months of having the baby. He’s sweet. And I don’t believe him. Or I see myself much differently than he does.

I’d love to be able to see myself through his eyes. This is a man who clearly loves me for me since he has been with my through my biggest years. Looking back at the pictures, I was huge. I didn’t realize I was that big for a long time. I just didn’t see it. Did he? I was also with him during his biggest years. I loved him when he was soft and squishy and comfortable to curl up to; and I love him now with his tight muscles. He physically feels like a different person, but he’s still the same great guy I fell for. The same great guy I keep falling for over and over again.

I consider myself super lucky to have Hubby. In my meetings I hear woman complain that they have to make two meals; that their husbands don’t understand or support them; that it’s a struggle at home. Hubby has lost a lot of weight. He’s been in my shoes. Only he didn’t need WW to keep him accountable like I do. To each their own, right? Hubby understands what I’m going through. It helps to be able to try out WW recipes or tweek our favourite recipes to be healthier and have him okay with that. He’s always looking for ways to add flavour and subtract fat. He’s okay with skipping the pop and chip aisle at the grocery store.  He’s on board with berries for dessert. He’s loves trying new produce we need to google to figure out how to pronounce them. On days I’m being lazy and don’t want to go to the gym, he’s pushing me out the door with my gym bag. He tells me I’ll feel better once I’m done. And he’s right. I always do.

Monkey #1 does his best to support me too. Yes, he’s always bugging me for candy and McDonald’s, but he’s freshly six years old. That’s what they do at that age. He does ask for lots of berries and fruit too. And he goes to my meetings with me. He loves coming along with me. Since I don’t really know anyone at my meetings, I enjoy having him with me. He reads Captain Underpants to me most nights before the meeting starts.

I have a great support team here in my home. With them, I can achieve my goals. It’s only a matter of time and hard work.

I can’t wait to get to my meeting tonight. Not only to see what the scale says, but to find out more about a new contest WW is putting on. I want to hear more. What’s it about? Will there be prizes? How’s it going to work? I’m so curious!

Weekend

I should be happy this weekend. It's not only Mother's Day tomorrow, but Hubby is home all weekend long. Mr Work-Too-Much has had 2 days off in the last 40 days. He was asked to work this weekend again, he finally said no. His boss is **** off, but Hubby needs recharge time. He's not stressed out (so he says) but he's exhausted. So we get two full days with him.

And I get to spend time with my family today. I'm not looking forward to all the junk food that will be out today, but I am looking forward to being with my family.

For those reasons I should be happy. Instead I am in a fowl mood.

 Number one reason I'm so grumpy...Lack of sleep. It's a killer for me. And the baby made sure I got little to no sleep last night. Multiple wake ups, wanting to sleep in my arms instead of in his bed and thinking 3am is the perfect party time.

Another reason, getting verbally attacked by a "friend," and I use that term loosely, about a personal issue. I'm not going to go into details. I may have taken too much to heart. I'll get over this attacked feeling. Not too sure about how I feel about having such a "friend." Might cut some ties. Right now I'm burning with emotion. It came in handy at the gym last night. I'll use the left over emotion to fuel me again today at the gym. Better than reaching for a chocolate bar or two or a package of cookies.

So I'm tired and **** off; I'm in a bad mood. I'll do my best not to bite anyone's head off today and fit a workout in somewhere. Tomorrow will be a new day.

Evil Temptation!

Life without treats is boring. We all know that. Having pizza this week, although it made me feel like crap, was great. I enjoyed the taste at least. Now we’re scheduled to go over to my parents’ house on Saturday. I’m looking forward to why we’re going over.  I get to see my mom since I won’t get to see her on Mother’s Day (I’ve been told that my crew has plans for me). I get to see my sister before she goes back up to North Bay. I get to pick my brother-in-law’s brain about exercise one last time. I get to spend time with my dad. All great things.

Unfortunately, I know there’s going to be an ice cream cake there for dessert. A peanut butter blizzard cake from DQ! I love ice cream. I super maga love peanut butter cups! I joking told Hubby that I’m just not going to eat anything all day long so I can have a big slice.

My real plan? Grapefruit for breakfast, toasted tomato sandwich with a huge side of raw veggies and hummus for lunch, fruit and veggies for snacks (regardless what my dad puts in front of me during the afternoon) and then watch my portions at dinner. I will share a slice of cake with Monkey #2 . If my dad or sister are the ones slicing the cake, the slice will be at least 2 or 3 times bigger than it should be, so sharing will be ideal. If I’m brave enough, I’ll let Monkey #2 be the one in control of my spoon(or fork). I’ll get messy, but he’s bound to destroy the cake enough to me pass up on goopy slop.

I love my family to the moon and back, but they’re dangerous when it comes to my weight loss. Hubby even managed to avoid going over to my parents’ house all last month while he was doing Paleo. My family always means well, but most of them can eat whatever they want and not gain weight. My mother has never been over 110 pounds in her life. That was while she was pregnant. She never looked more than 3 or 4 months pregnant when she was 9 months along. She’s naturally super thin. She can eat more than my dad and doesn’t put on the weight. My dad is a thin guy too. He also has a sweet tooth. My sister has gained weight since getting married, but she’s still a very healthy weight. She went from looking sickly thin to healthy looking. And my brother-in-law…Well he’s in awesome shape. Six pack and all. When the cookies, cakes, pies, candies, chocolates, fried foods, pizza, garlic breads, cheese dips and so on come out, they can all enjoy guilt free. Me? Not so much.

I look at that stuff and pack on the pounds. I do what’s recommended by WW to help prepare myself. I preplan my points. I drink a lot of water. I try to fill up on veggies and fruits. I avoid the treats as best as possible. It’s hard when you have kids running up to you to show you their chip or cookie or chocolate milk. I’ve even sat down to talk to them about how hard it can be for me. They turned the table on me and asked why should they give up what they love just because I don’t want it.

Family!

Anyone want to join me for an eye roll here?

So I’ll do my best tomorrow. Then once we’re back home and the kids are all tucked in for the night, I’ll go to the gym for an hour to try to burn off some of those fatty calories. And hope there’s no treats on Mother’s Day!
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Side note: Wednesday was Hubby and my anniversary. Seven years! I can't believe it's been seven years already. I can still remember how the butterflies felt in my stomach the first time I saw him. I can still remember how those same butterflies felt on our first official date, switching from friends to more. Now here we are, all those years later, and he still gives me butterflies. 
How did we spend our special day? Sitting in a super hot school gym watching our son sing Twist & Shout with his little kindergarten peers.

Pass the Pizza

Hubby and I stopped ordering in pizza years ago. We discovered a pizza dough recipe and never looked back. We love trying out different ingredients. For our current favourite pizza, we make the dough, roll it out super flat. I spread on a thin layer of PC blue menu Alfredo sauce, add a little shredded cheese (normally swiss but we do change it up sometimes) and then top with lots of shredded, seasoned, cooked brussel sprouts and a little bacon crumble.

Last night was the school spring concert. We opted to order in pizza as a special treat for the boys. I preplanned my points early in the morning. I knew how much I could eat and what I was going to reach for if I needed more food. I ate my slice and a half with carrots and hummus on the side. It went down well. It tasted so good! After eating it, my stomach felt heavy. I wasn’t full; but it didn’t feel good. It got me thinking….Is pizza worth it? It’s high in points. I could easily eat half a large pizza on my own if I let myself; yet it makes me feel gross to eat one and a half slices.

I don’t know, sounds a little evil to me.

I think I’ll stick to my own pizzas. I make them more WW friendly; and more stomach friendly too I suppose. I’m not saying I will never order in another pizza. That I won’t ever go to Boston Pizza or Pizza Hut again. It will just be a once in a blue moon sort of thing.

Fresh Produce

I have always been one to eat my vegetables. My parents always made sure there were vegetables at lunch and dinner. There was always a raw vegetable plate out among the treats at family get to togethers and holidays. Unfortunately, because my dad was picky about his vegetables, it was always the same ones.  Peas (which I actually don’t like. Never have), corn and yellow wax beans for dinner. Raw carrots or broccoli for lunch. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes for veggie platters. That’s it. 17 years living under their roof and that is all I was exposed to.

When I lived on my own all I ate was canned corn, canned green or yellow beans, broccoli and carrots. And they weren’t often. I lacked on my vegetable intake big time.

I was never one to eat fruit. I was a sugar junkie and choose to eat fruit flavoured candy instead. Bad move.

Even when Hubby and I moved in together we didn’t buy too much fresh produce. If we did, it was after Monkey #1 came along and he got the fresh stuff.  I make my own baby food. Always have since the first monkey. Don’t go thinking I’m one of those moms who thinks jarred baby food is nothing but crap. It might be, I don’t know. I’ve never looked into it. I looked at price point. It was, and is, a heck of a lot cheaper to make my own baby food than to buy it done. Sure, it’s a little more time consuming. But I don’t mind that. Parents do what works best for their families. For me, it’s making my own baby food. And I’ve gone completely off topic here. Where I was going with this is that I would take the time to pick good looking, fresh produce for my baby, but I didn’t bother to for myself of Hubby.

No wonder we gained weight!

Our grocery bill is much different now. We pile up on the fresh stuff. We love trying new vegetables and fruits. And yes, I eat fruit now. We bypass canned vegetables and fruit cups, opting for frozen instead if the fresh doesn’t look too great.

Once upon a time, our plates were half protein, nearly half starch (potatoes or rice) and just a touch of produce. Now it’s half produce, a bit of weighed out protein and just a touch of starch. Sometimes we leave out the starch. I love potatoes. I thought I would always eat my weight in potatoes. We didn’t have a single potato last month while Hubby was trying out the Paleo diet. I didn’t miss them. Of course, when we cooked up potatoes on the BBQ last weekend, they tasted heavenly!

We’ve really changed the way we look at produce. I love seeing all the different colours in our fridge and in our fruit bowl. I love that everyone in our house reaches for carrots, berries, apples, oranges, etc before reaching for the pudding, crackers or fruit roll up.

I’d also like to add that I love how we no longer eat until we feel full. We eat until we feel satisfied. Such a better feeling than feeling full. Honestly, I never want to feel full again. That’s yucky bloated, heavy stomach feeling is a thing of the past. 

Proud Mommy Moment

I'm going to take a quick break here from my weight loss recording to share a special little moment.

My baby boy, who just hit six months last week, is sitting up all by his self now. He started sitting by his self a couple of weeks ago, but was still a little wobbly. He has it nailed this week.

Where is the time going? I swear it's going by faster than it did with my other two monkeys.

Oh, baby boy, slow down! This mommy wants to savior each and every moment since there will not be anymore babies in this house. At least not for many more years when our babies are ready to have babies.

Feeling Defeated

Last night on the scale, my heart sank. The numbers on the scale didn't move from last week. I thought I did so well. I ate well, I exercised hard; I was expecting at least a pound and a half. I thought of the TWO cupcakes I had over the weekend. I put blame there first. Then starting thinking that maybe I didn't drink enough water throughout the week. Maybe I didn't push myself at the gym as hard as I thought I did.

The excuses kept popping up in my head. They haunted me all night long. Hubby gave me the speech I knew was coming; you didn't gain, you lost inches, you should be proud. All I could think of is how I want to throw out those leftover cupcakes; how I can revamp my exercise schedule. I racked my brain all night on how I can ensure a loss next Monday evening.

Obsessed much?

I know, deep down, that everything Hubby said last night to make me feel better is true. I've dropped 4 inches around my waist in two weeks. That’s huge! That’s something to be proud of.

I think I put too much pressure on myself. I have a goal in mind and want to get there as fast as possible. I have a long road on this journey of mine. I need to understand that it’s going to take time. It took me years to pile on the weight. It’s going to take more than a few weeks of a couple f months to take it all off.