FAT Friday:6/22/12

It has been so hot here this week that I have been running at 5:00 AM. That sounds worse than it is. I am used to early mornings. My daughter got up between 4-5 every morning for a year. We are early morning people. I love working out in the morning. I love to have it done before the rest of the day gets in the way. Unfortunately, it is only during the summer, when Scott isn't working that I have the time. 

I'm linking up with Ginger for her FAT Friday series

You know I like to get to the nitty gritty first.

I am down another pound this week. Honestly, I am lucky to have lost it. I wasn't great this week. I wasn't awful, but I wasn't great. I had a real problem with night time snacking. I always struggle with the desire to have snacks after the kids are finally in bed and I can relax a little. It has nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with wanting to treat myself at the end of a long day. 

In more important news, I am now a three time graduate of the Couch to 5K program. I finished it up a few days ago with a 30 minute run. I am still a little shy of 3 miles so I'll keep working up to 3 miles and then settle in a that distance until I run the    5K in August. Then I'll start working on adding mileage with the Frederick Half Marathon in May as my goal. Hopefully, I'll be carrying around significantly less weight by then. 



Next Week's Suggested Topic:  Summertime=Vacation Time=Overindulging= FUN Possible Derailment!  What summer vacation(s) do you have planned and how to you plan to be proactive in staying (mostly) on the healthy living train?

I was just thinking about my upcoming vacation. In 4 weeks, we will be heading to Virginia Beach where will be staying in a house with my parents and my sister's family. I'm finding that it is a little less stressful to go to the beach fat because I'm not trying to drop as many pounds as possible before hitting the beach in my bathing suit like I would if I were thinner. No, at my weight, a couple of pounds isn't going to be the difference between a bikini and one piece. Let's face it, after 2 kids, one of whom was almost 11 pounds, my stomach is never going to see the light of day again. So I'll just put on my lovely Land's End swimsuit and enjoy playing on the beach with my kids.

But that's not what the question was. It is going to be hard to stay on track. My mom is a wonderful cook but doesn't have low cal repetoire. She is old school Southern. With my sister there, hopefully we can help steer the meals toward the leaner side. Grilling is going to be the way to go, I think. I don't really have a plan yet but I'm working on it. I may have to volunteer to do the grocery shopping (ugh, I HATE grocery shopping) in order to have the right kind of foods on hand. 

I will definitely be going on a few runs while I am there. With so many babysitters on hand, I have no excuses not to work out. My sister is a runner too, so I'm hoping we can go on some bonding runs together. She lives in California so we don't see each other very much. 

Whether, I stay on course or fall off miserably, it is going to be a great, relaxing vacation and I can't wait.

See you next week. 

Potty Training Success

Last fall, my then 21 month old daughter sat on the potty and peed. A few days later she did it again. And again a few days later. I was getting smug. My little prodigy was going to be using the potty by the time she was 2. What a wonderful mother I am.

And then she didn't pee on it anymore. Oh, she sat on the potty. Played on the potty. Sang songs on the potty. But she didn't pee in it.

Until now!! 8 months later!!!

Last Wednesday, as part of his "exhaust the children" summer program, he took them to the library for Wiggle, Giggle Story time and to pick out a few books. He brought this book home

It's the story of Ashley, a little girl learning to use the potty. I don't think there is anything more special about this book than a lot of other potty books but for some reason it spoke to Caroline. She wanted to read it over and over. That is the case with a lot of books though.

On Thursday morning we were reading it and Caroline announced, "I have to pee pee on the potty" and then she did.

Conquered!

On Friday morning, I got a call from my husband informing me that she had independently taken herself to the potty and used it. She walked out, announced what she had done and demanded 3 gummies (the reward for potty pees. yes, we bribe). And that was that. She has peed and pooped on the potty during waking hours every since.

Oh she still wears diapers at naps and at night, though she does wake up dry sometimes. And she wants nothing to do with the big toilet. But I know that we are at the place where there will be no going back. There may be accidents. There may be resistance sometime. But we're done with full time diapers on this girl.

I wish I could pat myself on the back for my great PTing skills or that I could tell you there was a trick but really, we just kinda dumbed into it. When they're ready they're ready and all that.

Lest I get too happy about it, this morning Landry peed all over the bed, the changing table and my husband as a reminder that I still have many days ahead of me dealing with the excrement of small humans.

That's just my baby daddy

This guy:

He was apprehensive about entering fatherhood again when we got married. He was terrified when he found out we were having a daughter. But he fell so in love that he couldn't wait to have another.

He is the primary in project potty training of that same daughter.

He is known as the baby whisperer.

When I thought I couldn't make it through those painful, frustrating early breastfeeding days, he is the one that encouraged me and kept me going. One more feeding. Just till Sunday. Even though, he loves the chance to get to feed a baby. 

He thought I had lost my frickin' mind when I brought cloth diapers into the equation. Today he has his own diaper washing system, is sunning all the diapers and can fasten a mean angel wing fold.

He supports me in every crazy thing I come up with and goes with the flow. He is the master of living in the moment. He plays with the kids without worrying about what needs to be done. OK, I do wish he would occasionally worry about what needs to be done (laundry!!!) but I wish I could be more like him.

He's not afraid to get silly. He's right there on the playground with them. He plays princess when he needs to.

He is a babywearing MoFo.


He's come a long way and I am so glad to have him by my side as we raise these remarkable, wonderful, exasperating children. I am so glad he is the father of my children. They are lucky kids indeed.

Happy Father's Day!

FAT Friday: Patience is a virtue

This mornings weigh-in showed a 0.4 lb loss. :sigh: Thank god I am not looking for a quick fix, because I would have jumped off the train by now. A loss is a loss but it was still a little disappointing (not enough to ruin my Friday or anything though).  Since I started making a real effort 6 weeks ago, I am down 5.4 pounds. That is less than a pound a week. It is all about the big picture though. At this rate, 6 months from now I can be 30 pounds less than I started.

And really what are my other options other than to have patience.

• I could give up. Guaranteeing no weight loss but probably weight gain. No health benefits. Model bad eating behavior to my children.....Not an option.
• I could drastically cut calories. Sabotage my milk supply so that I couldn't feed Landry, not only denying my child the best food source available for him but also cost my family money by having to buy formula. Also, try to fool myself that hunger is a "sustainable lifestyle"...Not an option.

So I just keep plugging away. I am eating in a calorie range that is comfortable to me. It's not too restrictive and as long as I don't eat junk, I am never hungry (well not for long anyway). I'm keeping my goals in the forefront of my mind and for once they are not (entirely or even primarily) appearance related.

I want to live to 100. For reals. I didn't have my children until my late 30's, if I want to see them become adults and have time with my grandkids, I'm gonna need to stick around a while. I'm finally old enough that I do have to think about the health consequences of being overweight. My mother's family is obese and they have high blood pressure and Type II diabetes. I don't want that crap. I want to be an active parent and a spry senior citizen.

healthawarenessfoundation.org

 Yeah, it's like that.

Speaking of slow and steady. I am on the last week of the C25K program. Two runs to go. I should finish it up on Sunday. I am excited, primarily because that means I can use a different program for measuring my runs. The C25K app measures the warm up and cool down walking and I don't like having that in my time and pace measurements. Also, I am dying to try out Zombies, Run.

I'm planning to run a 5K in August and then set my sites on longer runs. I have my sites set on the Frederick Half-marathon in May. I used to run it every year but due to pregnancies and births, I haven't run since 2008. 

Till next week then, when I will be a 3 time graduate of the Couch to 5K.

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Vacation

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!

That, my friends, is the sound of summer vacation starting. Not for me. I still have to get up every morning and drive nearly 40 miles to work. But for my husband, a teacher, it is the start of 8 weeks off.

I used to be jealous. Before we had kids, he would just hang out all summer- going to the pool, lazing around the house, occasionally, but not nearly often enough, doing something useful.

But now in the summers, he is a stay at home dad. Not an easy job to be sure, but one I would trade him for any day of the week.

Since the first summer after our daughter was born, I have come to realize just how wonderful it is for one part of a married couple not to work. Now, instead of rushing every morning to get lunches and diapers packed and kids up, dressed and fed before trying to get everyone out the door on time, I just had to get myself ready. I just had to pack my lunch. When I left the house this morning everyone was still in their pajamas and it wasn't my problem. It wasn't a problem at all.

For the next 8 weeks, all errands are to be done by my husband. Midweek trips to the grocery store, cooking dinner, trips to the library, all his job. All I have to do in the evenings is take the kids off his hands. OK!!!! I don't have to get bottles ready for the next day, he can fill them as he goes during the day. I don't have to make sure diapers go through the whole diaper routine, if they aren't clean and dry by morning no biggie, he can finish them during the day. Cooking dinner- for some reason, I still have to plan all the meals but he will cook them!

You have no idea how much time all of this frees up. To be able to come home and just focus on playing with my kids rather than worrying about getting everything in motion to be ready for the next day. To get up in the morning with only myself to worry about. To have all the errands taken care of so that weekends can be about relaxation and fun!!!!!! It makes all of our lives better.

Unfortunately, we are not in a position for one of us to stay home full time, all the time (I'm looking for the right work at home opportunity but it has to make us at least break even). This is why I am in the market for a sister-wife. An independently wealthy, OCD cleaning, asexual, unattractive sister-wife.

The kid

I don't know how it happened. It was so subtle, but a change has occured. Somehow she has gone from this:

to this:

She's not a baby. She's a little girl who walks and talks and can tell stories. She remembers things that happened months ago, she has ideas and an imagination ("I'm a ballerina and you are princess" is our favorite game).

And as of yesterday:

She no longer sleeps in a crib.

Bittersweet.