Struggles of this fat girl

Friends, times are tough.

I'm not talking about the dow jones, my 401k or the economy. I'm talking about weight loss. Or rather my lack of it. This is about weight gain, which I have been doing fabulously. I am up 3 lbs from the biggest loser contest weigh-in from 2 weeks ago. I have lost my momentum and am having a heck of a time getting it back. I haven't been to the gym in over a month. Yes, I've been blaming this on Spring soccer, cub scouts, daisy scouts and ballet. I have been eating terribly, especially this past week. I do great while at work but the evenings are killing me. At one point I was actually up 5 lbs, but managed to get rid of a couple of those.

Weight loss stinks. It is incredibly easy to fall back into old patterns. I must confess, the other night, while watching "The biggest loser", I actually ate ice cream. Geez.

It is constant, neverending work. I do believe this is a journey I am supposed to be on but I can't say I enjoy it. Yes, I am proud of what I have accomplished and continue to focus on that.

Today is {another} new day!

Rainstorm

Spring weather in Spokane is C.R.A.Z.Y. Crazy I tell ya! Sunny one minute, storming like crazy the next, then back to sunny skies. The other night I let the kids sit out on my new wicker chairs (oh how I love them!) under the umbrella during the storm. Does allowing them to sit under a metal umbrella during a nasty storm qualifiy me for mother of the year?

Our 14th anniversary

Last Tuesday hubby and I celebrated our 14th anniversary! Well, to be honest there wasn't much celebrating, since we had soccer practice and other odds and ends that took up our evening, but we did get a little quality time. We are going to go out to dinner child-free courtesy of my wonderful mother in law sometime soon. I can't believe it's been 14 years. They have certainly been full of ups and downs. We don't have the perfect marriage...I don't believe that even exists. Every day we try and make it better. Some days we fail miserably. Other days are amazing. Look at what my sweet guy brought home for me....Gerber daisies! Love them!

We have a life filled with happy, healthy, loving children, wonderful family and great friends. We are healthy, have good jobs and a home to live in.

Aren't we lucky?

Getting my groove back and composting (what a pair!?)

Ohhhhh, boy. I have been terrible. T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. After the biggest loser contest I completely went off the deep end for a week and a half! Completely lost my drive. What's up with that? I am motivated by competition so when that ended so did my willpower. I'm feeling back on track today and have some serious ground to make up. (along the lines of 5 lbs!!!!)

Yesterday I completed my compost bin. This is the first time I have had one...and I am SO excited about it. I love the idea of recycling your yard waste, kitchen scraps, etc and turning it into something amazing for your garden! Did you know nearly 1/3 of your kitchen scraps can be used for compost? It's a great way to fertilize organically.

I drilled holes in the sides and bottom for aeration, and will have to find a makeshift lid since I don't have one. I started off by adding dry leaves, twigs, shredded newspaper and cardboard. Then I added a layer of manure, grass clippings,  corn cobs (and the water I boiled them in), vegetable peelings and coffee grounds. I covered that with a layer of topsoil and moistened the pile down. It should be cooking in no time! Now I am on the hunt for red-wiggler worms, which are said to be amazing for compost piles.

Wish me luck!

Library cards

On Friday evening the kids and I went to the library so they could get their own library cards. This was a wildly exciting way to spend a Friday night actually pretty fun. Here they are with their cards sitting in the children's section. (Sorry for the lousy quality, I was using my cell phone camera. I love my Blackberry, but am less than impressed with its camera!).

Gracie picked out a Ramona the Pest book, and a huge book that is way too long for her. She insisted, so I gave in. After all, it's HER library card and HER choices...as she reminded me. Cole chose a couple "Choose your own adventure" books. Remember these? I loved them when I was a kid. He and Paco like to read these together. Here he is at the self-checkout counter stamping his own book. He loved it. He has control issues. I wonder where he got those?

Our garden, 2010

The kids and I planted our garden a few evenings ago. We love doing this together. Last year, Paco built our raised garden.  It did AMAZING!! He has promised to build another smaller one next to it so we can grow even more. I did a few things differently this year. No zucchini or cucumbers. They just took up too much space. However, I will do cucumbers again when I have more room. This year we planted: sweet corn, red and orange peppers, bush beans, snap peas, radishes (Gracie's favorite!), carrots, onions, yellow tomatos, red tomatos, chives, broccoli, basil, oregano, and cilantro.

I had to throw in this picture from last year, when we were filling our new garden with soil. Obviously, gardening is tough work! (FYI, there was a bit of exaggeration going on in this photo!)

We can't wait to watch it grow this summer. Gardening is something I love sharing with my kids and I hope they carry on with it with their families...it's so rewarding!

Mother's Day project

On Mother's Day morning, the kids and I made stepping stones for our garden together, while Paco was making omelets. The kids had fun mixing the plaster, and with a few glitches (A.K.A Mom yelling at her children to bring more water, FAST!! RUN!! NOW!!) we finally managed to get it to the right consistency to set.

Cole's finished stepping stone

Isn't it pretty?

Greenhouse project

Paco bought Cole and I a mini greenhouse project to work on for one of Cole's cub scout achievements. We planted Basil, Oregano, Chives and Cilantro.

So far so good! After 1 week our herbs are sprouting up! Who needs herbs? This is a bit more than we can use!

missing in action

Just a quick update as I am about to head out the door to work. It has been a busy hectic week, and frankly it is all I can do just to keep up. I am looking forward to summer when all the extracurricular stuff stops for awhile.

I was considering applying for a new job earlier this week and was really excited about it. I thought it was just the change I have been looking for....until I found out it would be a $5.00/hr pay cut, and the pay tops out at less than I already make now. By the time I calculate in daycare for the kids after school, it really wasn't such a great deal after all.

Sigh.

On a positive note, I did a bit of planting last night and that always brings my spirits up! I planted some new perennials in my back flowerbeds to add in a bit of color. This weekend I will plant all the annuals and the kids and I will plant the garden! Yay!

I will update later today...it's off to work I go. Hope everyone has a great day!

Still a big loser.

Yesterday at the final weigh-in I weighed in with the highest percentage of weight loss during our 3 month contest! I won another $200.00 (I won $350 last time, but we had less people participate this go around) and will use it to buy clothes!! I'm feeling good about that...but even better about being over halfway to my goal, and feeling amazing!
The funny thing is....weight loss can be an uncomfortable situation. Frankly, while I'm proud of how much I have lost, I'm also a little embarassed at how heavy I let myself get. By the time I reach my goal weight, I will have lost 120 lbs, or a whopping 45% of weight loss. Nearly half of me will be gone. That's a person. What brought me to that point of not respecting myself enough to take care of myself? I don't know. I don't really even know what it was that finally clicked and started this change in me. Maybe this is all part of the journey God has mapped out for me. Maybe it was the fact that my husband has always been so supportive and loves me just the way I am, no matter what.

I know I've talked about this before, but one of the most rewarding parts of this journey is the impact it has on others, especially my children. Cole loves to come up and hug me and make a big deal about how easily he can wrap his arms all the way around me. He's so supportive and is always calling me "skinny girl". He tells everyone how much weight I've lost. Both of the kids have really soaked up this new lifestyle of healthy and nutritious eating. Sure, they have their share of popsicles and occassional drive-thru...but they know that these kinds of foods are okay once in awhile, and they're not the norm. They see me getting out to excercise and keeping active. I am laying the foundation for what will hopefully be healthy and fit living for the rest of their lives.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not preaching about being perfect. For example, last night I met a couple girflriends for dinner and proceeded to down 2 dacquiris and a veggie patch personal pizza that had way too much cheese.

Yes, I know that celebrating a weight-loss victory with food is counteractive, but I'm not planning on spending the rest of my life denying myself of everything. I don't regret it this morning (ok, well maybe except for the headache), and I'm so much less likely to make bad choices when I know I can have some fun once in awhile.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend...keep your eye out for tomorrow's post in which I consider making a scary life changing decision!

(no, it doesn't involve giving up sunchips. The horror.)