Sunday, September 30, 2007

Aaaah

I slept in until my mom called me at 10, I walked down the hill to get coffee from Starbucks, and now I'm waiting for Casey so we can go to lunch, I'm going for a walk with my mom and then cleaning my house up a bit. Happy Sunday!
My kids are camping with their dad, uncle and cousins and I have spent a glorious morning all alone...aaah.

By the way....weight loss challenge girls...
My friend Jen wants in and she happens to have weighed on the day we started this. She went to her doctor that day and has a recorded weight. Do you mind if we let her in? Hey, it's another twenty dollars to the potential winner! That will make 11 of us.

Also, I wanted to clarify something.
The winner is the person who lost the most start to finish not week to week. Make sense?
So, if you weighed 140 at the beginning 122 in the middle and weighed 125 at the end then you lost 15 pounds even though at some point you weighed 122. We are counting start weight to end weight as your loss.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Movie Stars

Hey, heads up!
Keep an eye out for a Mayor Dave Bieter Campaign commercial....my girls and Jimmy are in it.
They filmed today so I don't know when it will be out.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Don'f forget!

Weigh tomorrow at about the same time that you did last week.
Then email or post your loss.
Good Luck!

What the F?

Why don't I weigh 110 pounds? Maybe because my poor body is starving!
Yesterday I wrote down all the things I ate. I did this at about 930 pm.

Breakfast:
Black coffee...0

Lunch:
3 pizza snacks...255

Dinner:
Grilled Chicken Fillet from Wendy's...320

Snacks:
10 Hot Tamales Candies...?
11 Baby dill pickles...55
Activia Vanilla Yogurt...110
Baggie of Kix...110

That is just sick! On a normal busy day that is what I eat. Gross.

Note to self: EAT! BETTER! MORE OFTEN! DUH!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

My weight loss plan

Just to put it out there I wanted to share my weight loss goal and plan.
I want to lose 10-12 pounds over the next 8 weeks. That's about 2 pounds per week, which I feel is realistic. Here's how I'm going to do it:

* Stop eating after 7:30
* Have only 1 glass of wine
* Walk/jog for 50 minutes 5 days/week. (At 5 miles/hr that's about 420+ calories burned 5 days/week=2100 calories a week) I also hope to work up to 7 miles/hour for 30 of those 50 minutes.
* Drink 4 liters of water every day
* Rock climbing class with Olivia on Saturdays.
* Long walk/hike with Stella and swimming with the kids on Sundays.
* Try to keep my calorie intake at about 1,500 a day by eating regular meals at home and healthy snacking.

I think I can do it!

The reason that I'm not making any drastic changes in my eating habits is because I know that is always my downfall when dieting. When I think about food all day, I just want to eat all day. I also know that it is better to make small changes a little bit at a time for long term weight loss.

Anyone else want to share their plan?
Do you have a plan?
You should make one if you don't.

I found a couple of good resources for calculating how much water you should drink and how many calories are burned while walking.

Other cool calculators here

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

So far...

We have...

*Sarah

*Pam

*Kathleen

*Melissa

*Sara

*Erika

*Buffy

*Sue

*Sheri

I'm waiting to hear from Jann whom I'm pretty sure is in and I would also love to hear from anyone else that wants in!

Na? Darcie? Kori? Casey? Amber?

We could get it up to $300!!

Game on!

I weigh 140 pounds on the dot!

Remember to post or email me today.
sarahbella@juno.com

Good luck!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Ok, who's in?

Sounds like we have an interested group here? Yes?
Here's the rules/timeline/etc.

1) Contest starts on Wednesday, September 19th and ends Wednesday, November 14th. That's 9 weeks.

2) Please post your weight on my blog (or send me an email if you want it kept confidential) by Wednesday the 19th and every Wedenesday until the contest ends.

3) We all agree that we will contribute $20 to the day spa "pool" at the end of the contest. So, invite your friends to participate if you want a really big day at the spa!

4) If you don't want to post your weight then please post your "loss" each week.

5) This obviously won't be an exact science but please try to weigh on the same scale each week to ensure accuracy. Also try to weigh at about the same time each day.

6) Plain and simple...whoever loses the most weight wins!

I will start by posting my weight on Wednesday morning.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

That's it...


It's on!
This is what I'll be looking like and you girls will wish you never told me to eat cookies!
Ok, on a more serious note...I'm in. Lets make some rules and goals and think up a prize. Anyone else?
My goals...15 pounds and a stomach that I don't have to continually think about sucking in. Maybe some nice arm muscles!
How about you?

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A reminder

I really like this quote and I have posted it before so I wanted to drag it up again as a reminder to myself...

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom
goes on as fruit.
-Dawna Markova

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I can't win!

I spent half of my morning trying to get just the right amount of cereal and milk in Jamie's bowl. I spent at least 15 minutes getting her the "right" drink of water. Another 15 minutes trying to fix a broken banana just right. Another 10 minutes trying to hold her the right way on the couch. An entire freaking hour trying to figure out what the hell, "I want my blanket way out" means.
I did every single thing wrong over and over again. I have spent nearly 3 hours out of my day trying to reason with a two year old terrorist.
WHAT THE HELL????????????
This is how babies get shaken!
I am so beyond frustrated with her I could actually hurt her right now. Don't worry, I didn't.
I walked away. But what I really wanted to do was beat her.
I am the most frustrated with myself. Since when do you try to reason with a psychotic two year old? Dammit!

Monday, September 10, 2007

2nd week of school and some randomness

1. 8:45 is too damn early to be at school

2. We got a new nephew this weekend! Of course he doesn't have a name yet because that's what Jimmy and his brother do just to be irritating. He was born Saturday at 2:40 while Jimmy and I watched his sisters. We were laughing at our car full of 4 girls and thanking god that we only have 2 kids. I'm not tough enough to handle any more than that for more than a few hours at a time.

3. Olivia is loving school. Her teachers said that she is very engaged and she is doing a great job of getting what she needs from her teachers as far as being new to the school.

4. We had our little class potluck last week and watched a video that The Children's School made the first year that I taught there. It was cool to watch because those kids are 11 and 12 now. I also received my 12 page parent handbook that I have to read and sign that I've read it. Funny!

5. Jamie had that one hard day but since she only has class T-Th, we haven't been back yet. It will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes. I think she'll be fine. I love her teachers. They are both so sweet and nurturing...very, very toddler oriented. I love it. Her little class only has six kids and two teachers so it is a very low-key, quiet class.

6. We went to Art in The Park on Sunday. We just had Jamie since she didn't go to church with my mom. She was feeling a little yucky. She is such a different kid when we are one on one. She was so quiet and just looking at everything.
Art in the Park is one of those things that reminds me that Boise isn't as small as it used to be. It was so crowded but it was kinda cool to see so many people that you know and be reminded that it is still a small town!

7. Did I mention that we have a foster dog? We have my brother's dog, Stella, for a while. He and his fiance are looking for a house to buy so they moved into a tiny little apartment to save rent and we got Stella. She's a great dog. She's so good with the kids, she loves walking and she really loves swimming! I took her for a little walk behind Camel's Back Park yesterday...it was nice to have a walking companion that didn't require a lot of talking. I threw a stick into the pond for her for about an hour and she loved it. I think she would have stayed there to swim all day.

8. That's about it! I'm going to wade through my laundry because tomorrow is my turn for cleaning club!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

One of those sissy parents

Today I became one of those parents that I used to roll my eyes at before I became a parent. You know how everyone is an expert parent when they aren't one? Well I was one of those to the extreme. So judgemental, so absolute in my opinions, black and white, cut and dried. In my eyes there were so many things that parents did that were so stupid. And so obviously stupid that it befuddled me how they ever made it past junior high with their glaring lack of common sense. I can not tell you how many time I said, "I will never do that."
When I became a parent I got my first lesson in "never say never" by my 2nd sleepless night. In a sleep deprived stupor I stumbled from my nicely appointed breastfeeding chair and into my bed, child in arms. There we slept, all three us snuggled together, Olivia in the middle, for an entire year! Olivia never slept in her own bed a single day until Jamie was born 13 months later.
So today I sat in the office of Jamie's school and repeatedly sent the administrative assistant down to check on her while I cried. All because she cried a little when I left.
I have said to hundreds of parents (well maybe not hundreds but dozens) "She will be just fine in five minutes. I will reassure her that you are coming back, she will get engaged in play and she will be just fine. If you need me to (insert serious eye rolling) I will call you in a little while. Go ahead and go to work or whatever it is that you are doing." What I meant was, "Oh my god lady, get a grip, go to work and do not sit in the office and send someone down here to check on her repeatedly."
Well I did it and I can now say that I know why they all did it and now I feel bad for being so judgemental and harsh.
I will have to look back on this post later because I think that even after you become a parent and you realize how different it is, you still sometimes sit in judgement of other's parenting. Sometimes we parents of preschoolers judge parents of teenagers because we have no idea how it is to be one. I promise I'll try to remember!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Guess what I did?

I FINALLY went to the store today! Sheesh!

I have to say that I learned something from this experience.
When you think that you have no food in your house, you actually have a lot of food.

I was really shocked when I got through the line and my total was $86 and some change. Granted, I didn't buy any meat because I usually buy it at Costco and I have enough to get by for a couple days. But, I think that a huge factor in the small total was the onset of autumn. Sounds crazy, I know, but hear me out.
I hate cooking in the summer, it's too hot, no one is very hungry and I lose all motivation to move when the temperature reaches 100 degrees for the 976th day in a row. So as a result I buy a lot of convenience foods. Well, when the weather cools off I revive and I get hungry! I also dredge up some cooking motivation and voila! I buy less convenience foods therefore less processing and packaging equals less money!

So, scooch back off the edge of your seat because here is what you have all been waiting for....the after picture!
Yes, I still have the box of wine. Which, by the way, is left over from the 4th of July. Don't ask me why in the hell it is still in my fridge. I guess I'm saving it for an emergency.

Oh and check out my fruit bowl still life. Hee Hee

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The First Day of School



The girls started their new school today. Jamie is in the 2-3's class and Olivia is in the 3-4-5's class at The Children's School.
It was a little surreal to be there as a parent. It was the same feeling that I get sometimes when I am in a tough situation with the kids. I feel like a kid pretending to be a grown up. Like I am not old enough, smart enough or grown up enough to really be the parent of these children.
But it was a great day. Both of them separated very well and it seems they really like their new school.
It's too late and I've been up since 6 am (which is seriously early for me) so I don't have the energy for much more. I'll smother ya'll with all the sentimental, "My baby's growin' up" at another time.
For now I'm too tired from really being the parent of these children,

Monday, September 3, 2007

Sunday, September 2, 2007

My husband...

...teaching girls everywhere, the joy of shooting shit in the desert. This is our friend Amanda and this is her first time.
So, anyone for an outing next Sunday? Jimmy can teach you how to shoot a gun and then you can post a picture of your bad-ass self on your blog!
And if you're really lucky it will be muddy and you can do a little mud-bogging and possibly even get stuck!
Come on...get in touch with your white trash side.