Changes

So.

Apparently I am not as good at juggling school, family, therapy, housework, exercise, church, and extra activities as I thought. As you can see, my poor blog has been sadly neglected. It certainly isn't for lack of blog post fodder - the posts keep piling up in my head. It's just finding a solid time to sort out all the random thoughts and get them published in a coherent post.

But.

I'm not giving up! I do love blogging and will persevere to find that magic time to do it. There is way too much happening in our little family that needs recording for posterity. :)

One of the things that has been keeping us pretty busy is our new gym membership. We have been talking for a long time now about getting healthier and setting a good, positive example for our kids. Of course, it was all talk and not much action. The truth is - we are both pretty unhealthy, with the Nerd needing to lose a lot of weight and myself needing to change some bad habits. We finally found a gym that really works for us. It is completely family oriented, and our membership fee includes childcare (huge benefit for me!) and racquetball (huge motivation for the Nerd.) Since we joined, we have been at the gym almost every day. I am still amazed at how motivated we are this time. I actually look forward to going every day! It makes me smile when the kids eagerly ask if we get to go to the gym each day.

Along with exercise, we have been slowly changing our eating habits as well. The Nerd and I keep track of our calorie intake on our I-phones each day, and I have been making extra effort to get the kiddos to try new, healthier snacks and meals. We even celebrated the Beast's half-birthday with chocolate bean cupcakes (cupcakes made with pureed black beans and whole wheat flour). Amazingly, the kids loved them!

Our results at the end of our first month of healthier living? The Nerd lost fifteen pounds and is playing racquetball competitively in a league. His extra energy has helped him get a lot more things crossed off his "honey-do" list. :) I have lost eight pounds and have noticed extra energy as well. We are so excited at our progress and are determined to make this next month even better!

And part of this healthier lifestyle is getting a decent amount of rest; so I am going to log off and get under those covers. :) happy Monday all!

Week Four Weigh-In

Um yeah. It's been a crazy week.

Well, when I put it that way, it could get rather redundant. I mean, all my weeks are crazy.

So let's just say not much effort was put into the weight-loss plan this past week. Very little exercise was accomplished, healthy eating was thrown out the window, and the burning of the midnight oil continued.

Hmmm. I know, I know, a little self-discipline is in order. So after I finish this Pepsi and eat this ice cream sundae, I'll get right on that.

Just kidding. At least partly. ;)

I did manage to lose another pound however, putting my total weight loss so far to 5.8 pounds.

I always have been more of a tortoise than a hare.

Week Three Weigh-In

Week Three of the big plan to get healthier, lose weight, yell at the trainer, and overall feel good has been completed. I did exercise five of those seven days, although I must admit my nutrition and general diet plan was not great. (read: a couple of Hot Pockets, a moment of ice cream weakness, a pizza party, and the last of the Christmas candy lurking around the house).

However, there was some weight loss - I am now down to 167 pounds (1.6 pounds less than last week). Even more importantly, I noticed an increase in energy. I felt that I accomplished a lot more overall during the week and perhaps did not snap at the kids quite as often. (The trainer, however, was fair game!) Yesterday, I even managed to fit in baking a couple of loaves of bread from scratch. This, I tell you, is quite the feat for Miss Not-So-Domestic!

Of course, then I discovered how wonderful a grilled ham/cheese sandwich on homemade bread was. So yeah. Still have to work on monitoring my food intake.

Besides being my own food police, my other goal is getting to bed at a decent hour so that I get proper sleep. This is ridiculous considering that I am blogging this at 1:00 am! I just need the self-discipline to tell myself, "Go to bed already!"

Hmmmm. . . after stating that, would continuing this blog post be considered a lack of self-discipline? I'm off to ponder that in my warm comfy bed. . . until I have the lovely privilege of waking up early and attempting to make my body do many painful and probably-not-meant-for-humans things.

Week One Weigh-In - Off to a Great Start!

My muscles are sore. My body craves ice cream. And yet I am pretty happy with how the first week of my new fitness commitments went.

I exercised five days out of the seven, using "Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy" for the Wii. I must say that these workouts kicked my tail! In case you're not familiar with the program, it basically works with a small camera that tracks your movements while Jenny McCarthy's voice corrects you and "encourages" you. (haha) Each day the program monitors your progress and sets up the next day's workout for you based on that progress. It's tough, and not always fun, but I am enjoying the way I feel after each workout.

As for diet and nutrition, I didn't really make any major changes yet. I tried to focus more on getting back into a regular exercise routine, and I hope to work a little harder on controlling my food intake this coming week. I did avoid the extra ice cream and attempted to keep my portion sizes correct.

And (drum roll please) my starting weight for this week is: 168.0 pounds. That means I lost a total of 3.8 pounds this week! Woohoo! It feels like a great way to start, anyway.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments last week, by the way. Knowing that I was going to be reporting my week's exercise and results to my blog was very motivating!