WOE - Week 1 Complete and the results are in…

Drum roll please…6 lbs!! Snoopy Dance! AND 2 inches off the waist. Snoopy dancing naked!! (Got a little over zealous there). Now I did have a challenge to overcome and that was breastfeeding. I believe my supply dipped a bit so in order to compensate I ate a tad bit bigger portion and ate two extra servings of cheese a day. I can already tell my supply is back up by making those mods. It should be smooth sailing for the duration since I get to eat me some carbs…in moderation of course but I’m so excited about my sugar free Jell-O with reddi whip tonight!! Oh…and I just made the Crispy Lettuce Wraps…YUM-O! Ok…enough with the exclamation points already.

I visited the dermatologist today and she froze a bunch of stuff that I can’t remember the name of but were brought on primarily by pregnancy and those hormones that come along for the ride. I had a spot on my face that looked like a gynormous sun spot and she took care of it. Only downside is that I get to walk around for about a week with an even darker mark on my face; worth it, totally.

I’m on the downside of week two of WOEing it; yeah…I’m a blogging slacker. Things just come up…and I’m choosing sleep over blogging. I know…and I call myself a blogger. Yeah…yeah…yeah. I bet most of you do your blogging at work and I just can’t seem to fit my updates in as frequently as I used to.

Back to downside to week two, initial thoughts not bad at all except I went a little crazy on Friday and had sushi for lunch, come on I haven’t had REAL sushi in ten months. At least it was for lunch and not dinner and I made it work by switching my carb up days from Saturday to Friday and I got my weight back down. Of course I’ve been weighing myself everyday, which I know you are not supposed to do but I had to see the damage I had done. It was very reassuring to me that I can make mid week adjustments if necessary because life happens and still stay on track. Another thing that helps is the hubby is only eating fish for the next few weeks so for dinner…my protein is pretty much always some sort of fish.

Whey Protein Story…I went to buy more vanilla whey protein powder at our local Mr. Nutrition. Two things, one…I could put the little muscle bound dude in my pocket, I think my newborn is only slightly smaller than he was; and two, the idiot knew nothing about protein powder. Well…let me give him some credit, he didn’t know ALL the things he should know about protein powder. He didn’t even know who Jay Robb was…WHAAA? Nor did he have a clue what the brands he did carry were sweetened with. Seriously. We did buy some crap and I hate it but I’m going to push through, I still have the chocolate flavor from Jay Robb that will be what I drink in my shakes and I will put this crap we bought in everything (oatmeal, crepes, pancakes) so I can hurry up and buy JR’s vanilla flavor again. Aftertaste in anything that isn’t a warm walnut and chocolate chip tollhouse cookie SUCKS. Blah! Pushing through.

Can’t close without mentioning hurricane Gustav. It looks like we in Houston will be spared however those to the east of us…not so much. The weather peeps are saying it is going to be nasty and I am hoping against all hope we don’t see a repeat of three years ago. A good friend of mine has family that lives in Houma, keep them in your prayers as well as all the others sticking around for their own reasons. Heaven help us with the media coverage. I think some of the reporters are actually disappointed it isn’t coming our way.

And finally, Labor Day, Why exactly do we have this holiday? Not that I am complaining it is just we were talking about it with the boy and we couldn’t really tell him why we have the day off; to celebrate Labor? I think we are off the hook this year but next year we really need to be better prepared.

Have a great celebration of Labor…Day!

I’m out.

Childrens Museum

Saturday the family visited the Houston Childrens Museum and who knew all the exceptionally fun stuff they had there. We decided as a family to plan family outings…other than errands for a change. First outing…the HCM and it was lovely. The boy had a blast. We got there as soon as the doors opened so we were able to enjoy about thirty minutes of a thin crowd then it began to fill up and fast. The boy had sensory overload and kept running from one thing to another.

I see a pattern developing with him and I must say I am guilty of it to and have to make a conscious effort to enjoy the present, I’m always looking for what is next and it is hard for me to stop and smell the roses per se. I see this in the boy and I hope I can find guidance to manage that trait because I don’t necessarily think it is healthy and could lead to an unfulfilling life. Like I said I know this about myself and have to make an effort to keep it under control.

Back to the museum…I had the monkey strapped to me in the Bjorn and we bounced around the place trying to keep up with the boy, I’m thinking it will get real interesting when two are going in all different directions. The hubby and I are working on our tag teaming skills so hopefully will have it figured out in a year or so before the monkey learns to walk.

The hubby and I just finished watching “Crank”, it’s one of those overly violent, indulging popcorn films and I like it. Jason Statham is my new favorite actor. You can see him in the new movie “Death Race” and he was also in “Snatch”. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is I like so much about him but he definitely has presence as a leading man in all of the films I’ve seen. Check out “Bank Job”, the hubby and I saw that last weekend, that was a good one to watch and based on a true story.

I think the monkey is FINALLY on a schedule at night. For the past two nights he has only gotten up once and the first shift of sleep is now four hours I’m so not complaining. I hope to be back in my bed by the months end.

Finishing up the first week of WOE tomorrow is my last day of the deplete cycle thank goodness. Starting Tuesday my meals should be more “normal” of sort and I believe I should be back on track with breastfeeding meaning I can tell there has been a slight decrease in production and my energy level so I’m eating a bit more in portion size and drinking a ton, no…literally a ton of water every day to compensate. I have 500 calories at least I have to make up!

I’ve been weighing everyday and I know I shouldn’t…I’m fixin to throw the scale out the f’n window. Regardless of the numbers I can tell I’m shrinking and that so jazzes me. I’ve promised myself to stay off the scale and wait until Tuesday to weigh and measure…wish me luck.

Look at me posting on a Sunday!! Changes…they are a comin…stay tuned.

I’m out.

Lunch with the ladies today was wonderful. All of us are doing the WOE and it was great to talk about it and compare notes. I also got caught up on the work gossip as always. Nothing too exciting but I always look forward to the company and conversation…it’s getting me through my maternity leave time…love my girls.

I’m a buckethead and forget to check the diaper bag for diapers and low and behold I go to change the monkey who had a dirty diaper and guess what…no diapers…that’s a problem. Thankfully I use cloth diapers for burp rags and I slapped one of those on the monkey’s bottom and off we went. Of course it took him all of two minutes to wet through the diaper but it was a quick fix until I got home.

This weekend I am bound and determined to have a good weekend with the family. Saturday we’re going to go to the Children’s Museum downtown and I just know the boy will have a great time and it will do the family good.

I planned my menu for next week…OMG…if you don’t have an Iphone GET ONE!! There is an application called Shopper and it allows you to create a shopping list of whatever, even has categories and such. I checked the food I needed based on my menu and emailed it to the hubby in case he goes to the grocery store this weekend!! How awesome is that.

Now I’m attempting to plan the weekend so we can be productive and have quality family time. The boy starts his new school on Monday and he is soooo excited.

I get to exercise beginning Tuesday so I need to plan that too. I will have to stick to the elliptical for now cause the ‘girls’ (e.g. boobs) are not ready to run yet, talk about painful. So I’m planning elliptical and core training.

Have a great weekend everyone…look at me…posting two days in a row!

WOE is me!!

It's finally time to fess up...I've joined the "Crack The Fat Loss Code" [Way of Eating] bandwagon...My plan was to keep it a secret and surprise everyone with seeing less of me by the time I return to work in a month but that lasted all of one hour. LOL I had to tell somebody and honestly it will help to have the support of everyone during those hard days. Plus a few of the girls are two and three weeks ahead of me and they have been losing mad weight and INCHES. The good thing about this program seems to be it pretty much mimics what I’m doing now but gives more insight to how foods work together therefore I am able to tweak my food to work the best for me. Oh and cut out the sugary cereal before bedtime. Prior to starting this program I’ve felt snacks and lunch were the hardest and the after dinner sweet craving. I am hoping the recommendations in the program will provide me with my cravings but in a healthy way.

I took my measurements today which is what I'm more concerned about than the weight. If I weigh 150 but fit into a size six...who cares about the scale.

Here is my recap of the last few days.

Day 1 (Tuesday) – went well. I ate about every two hours and all six meals. It wasn’t too difficult and I didn’t get all that hungry. I looked forward to the next meal AND I even ate cottage cheese. Thanks to my little friends Splenda and Cinnamon. YAY ME!

Day 2 – struggled a bit. I think I am having feeling the decrease in energy the book talked about...waiting for that surge any minute now...waiting...waiting. All during my pregnancy and up until Tuesday I’ve been indulging in carbs galore. I’ve had a dull headache for the past two days. Also, I wanted bread…I went through the pantry looking for what I could find that was low in carbs. Thankfully I looked at all the labels and finally gave up and had cheese instead. I am experiencing hunger in between meals. The book says if that happens you aren’t eating enough but I am eating the portions they recommend so I’m wondering if it has anything to do with breastfeeding. I’ll experiment on day 3. Oh…I’ve limited myself to one Diet Dr. Pepper a day which is no big deal but while I was out running errands I was hungry and I wanted a DDP and oddly enough Target was sold out of the cold ones. Obviously I wasn’t meant to have one…which would have been two and a total of three servings. Staying on track!

Day 3 - getting there. I woke up a bit groggy...mostly from staying up to watch May/Walsh win gold and then I was up every three hours with the monkey. Around 3ish I think I finally felt the 'surge' she talks about. I read the suggested time in between eating is 3-4 hours...ha...ha...not so much but did go three hours today so perhaps I'm evening out. I made the Turkey Taco Salad...YUMO! Actually all the suggested recipes have been tasty. Oh and cottage cheese three days in a row...you don't even know how big that is for me. I didn't weigh just to see what was going on and down 3lbs...holy cow this may just work.

Go Professor/Beijing Beast (Rogers/Dalhausser) who go for GOLD tonight.

YAY to the USA Women's soccer team who won the GOLD against Brazil. We so rock!

Rock on!

DMB

Friday night Nic and I attended the Dave Mathews Band concert while the hubby watched the boys. This was the hubby’s first time to be alone with the baby for more than 20 minutes and it showed. The monkey was not happy and cried most of the time, I was afraid that would happen. I was anxious to get home and relieve the stress on both of them. When I walked through the door the hubby was in the recliner rocking the monkey and the monkey was out. I have a very supportive hubby and even under the amount of stress he has been under of late he didn’t hesitate to take on watching a 9 week old baby for six hours along with a four year old to boot. Gotta love a man like that.

The concert was great. Nic had great seats…it was hotter than hell but totally worth it. I’ve seen Dave 5 times since my first in 2001 and each experience has been unique. That is why I keep going back time and time again. This year Tim Reynolds made a guest appearance and Dave played two covers, “Burning Down the House” from Talking Heads and “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel. Now I don’t particularly care for either of those songs but when Dave is playing them they are my most favorite song ever. It also amazed me that for not liking either of those songs I knew every word…thanks to the radio playing them over and over and over and over…back in the day before there were Ipods.

Oh and a super secret great way to get in and get out when attending a concert at the pavilion…valet park at Market Street. Shhhh…the best 5 bucks plus tip ever spent. Just make sure you pick your car up before midnight.

Saturday I took the boy to a birthday party, I can only imagine the hubby looked forward to that time alone, even if he was running around the city all day long. After the party all the young boys took a nap and you know what that means…Mama gets to take a nap too! It was heavenly.

Sunday we ran errands in the morning then napped and watched the Olympics and of course witnessed Michael Phelps get his eighth medal. Oh…I caught the women’s marathon and I was sad to hear Dana Castor had to bail shortly after the race started. Horrible luck after all that hard work to get there.

The week for me will be busy with knocking stuff off my to do list. I’m taking a week off from the exercise; I’ll pick it back up with a vengeance next week.

2 week recap AND the Olympics

Gots a lot to write about and although old news at this point I absolutely have to bring up the media coverage for Tropical storm Edouard and I can capture the experience in one word…LAUGHABLE. I mean seriously…some yahoo in Baytown was standing in his rain slicker, in the gutter and actually reporting on the water running, make sure you are sitting down for this one, TO THE SEWER. Yes, he was standing in the gutter as the water trickled over his wellies. I hope there is some sort of broadcast journalism award he can be nominated for because although it was normal rain runoff making its way to the sewer he was reporting the shit of out of the experience.

The Wayne’s, yeah, we got water and I kept the boy home from school and that’s about it. We did move the patio furniture in the garage to be safe, I blame that on living on the Gulf coast for most of my living years and being used prepping for hurricanes like no ones business. Thankfully it turned and we received some much needed rain. Let’s hope that will be the worst we get this year.

This weekend we had a family outing and attended Maddox’s third birthday. The theme was Scooby Doo and the cake…YUM-O! It was like a mini wedding cake…one of the good ones. The boys did well, including the hubby, after running to Target to get the formula that I forgot to pack that is… The boy played and the monkey stuck with me in the Bjorn, absolutely a must have with this one. It was nice to socialize with adults and see my friends. We stayed a few hours then headed home. So much more work than it used to be. We were wiped out.

This week as been a flurry of business; Monday and Tuesday were chores and errands. Wednesday was the monkey’s two month doctor’s appointment. Yes, it’s been two months, can you believe it…I can’t. The monkey got a rave review, 10lbs 10oz, 22 inches long and healthy. He got four shots and I think it was harder on me than it was on him. Although he did wake up after his nap and he was hurting. He ate a bit and I just held him as he whimpered. I put a cold pack on his little legs and that seems to help a lot. I thought it was going to be a long night but it turned out to be a decent one.

One thing I absolutely have to talk about is something the hubby and I witnessed at lunch yesterday. We ate at Sweet Tomatoes and for those not in the know it is a soup, salad and some various sides and dessert buffet restaurant. The hubby, myself and the monkey were sitting in the corner eating our salads and we preceeded to watched a kid sitting next to us go back for more food at least six to seven times. Now it wasn’t one or two items he would come back with it was six or seven things with his plates runneth over. In your mind you may be picturing an overweight person participating in such an event. NOPE. The man boy looked like he was anorexic, seriously. The hubby and I think he may be on drugs and he might have been his allocated one time a week prior to going on a bender. There is no possible way a normal human being could consume the amount of food he was eating in one sitting without something abnormal going on, made for good conversation though.

This morning the family went to our local Montessori school so the boy could take a look around and we wanted to gauge his reaction to the new school, looks like we have a winner. We sat in on the class for about 45 minutes and the boy participated in a few class activities and did well. He didn’t have to be instructed more than once and he did what he was told once. I would like to think it wasn’t just because we were there. One thing the hubby noticed was there was not a single toy in the classroom. I think this is the program for us and the boy is going to thrive. The hubby and I did talk to the boy’s current school owner and told him of our plans, he was great and solidified he does what he does for the kids and not to make a buck. He gave us a lot of advice and some things to think about before the boy goes to Kindergarten or first grade.

After our visit it was off to meet the girls for lunch. We had yummy bbq. I look forward to meeting with my girls every week. Tomorrow Nic and I are going to see the Dave Matthews Band. Whoo hoo. I’m so looking forward to getting to be me for a night but it will be the first time I will be without the monkey (expect for 15 minutes once when I went to pick the boy up from school). We will have fun and I hope he does well for the hubby. It will be challenging, not going to sugar coat but I hope that all get through it unscathed.

And finally the Olympics. I love me some Olys! I get the pleasure of watching the games during the day and I love every minute of it. Even the badminton, fencing and archery are fun to have in the background as I’m doing chores. It is getting bad though, I had a dream about Michael Phelps last night, he was levitating and I was walking underneath him. Not saying I’m a Phan but the media is gaga over him so I’m thinking the amount of hours I watch the Olys is starting to take their toll. And those Chinese gymnasts…so not 16! Go for 8 MP!

I’ll try not to wait so long next time in between posts I know it makes for a hard read.

I’m out.

Catching Up and a Tropical Storm to boot...

Wednesday lunch with the girls was great, I didn't want it to end, good conversation. The hubby asked me later that night what we talked about and I had to think about it and it occur ed to me that I did most of the talking. Oh well, lots to catch up on, thankfully I have IM and I still get to stay dialed in.

I didn't waste any time packing up all the maternity clothes on Tuesday afternoon, I was bound and determined to get them out of my house and back to Jodie. Two boxes of maternity clothes and a additional box of the preemie clothes are officially out of the house. The hubby will be so happy.

I borrowed Jodie's jogging stroller and I was so excited about trying it out on Thursday. First of all the Monkey looked like a spot in that thing, he is still so little. Second, he hated it!! I resigned to the fact that he is still too little for the jogger but it was so nice, even heavenly with it's smoothness and being able to shield the sun with the cover stead of burp cloths. Oh well, back to the carrier and snap n go, temporarily.

I am happy to report I've been walking regularly and doing core exercises all week that is everyday except Wednesday and that's because I met the girls for lunch and it takes like five hours to get anywhere with the monkey it tow. I'm feeling really good about it all, this first week anyway. One week closer to getting my body back.

After lunch I stopped by Granny's work to surprise her, she was so happy to see the monkey and loved him up.

Friday I finally received an email from a blast from my past...Mandy. She and I were best friends growing up, she moved to Dallas my Freshman year in high school and we managed to stay friends until I graduated then we grew more distant.

Mandy still lives in Dallas and coincidentally enough she was coming to Houston on Saturday to pick up her kids from the airport. Turns out her hotel was about 15 minutes from my house and we were able to arrange seeing each other for dinner at mi casa. I was excited to see her, a bit nervous, it's been almost ten years since I saw her last and that didn't go too well. Bottom line I hated her husband and she was the shell of the girl I knew. She got here around 6ish and after about ten minutes it was like we were 16 again, it felt like old times. Turns out we still have so much in common, I've decided I'm going to make an effort to keep up correspondence, she's good people and one should always keep good people in their circle.

Sunday I went to Granny's for a scheduled visit. It didn't go too well, the Monkey was fussy and it wasn't a relaxing visit by any means but I was glad Granny and PaPa and that other boy Donald got the see the boys, especially meeting the monkey for the first time.

Now it seems we are prepping for Tropical Storm Edouard. Fun stuff, I'm keeping the boy at home no matter what, that way I know he is safe. Tornadoes are the big concern and I want as much of my family as possible to be at home and safe.

One more note, the Monkey is going to sleep around 8ish...what a glorious feeling. The hubby and I actually get a hour or so for each other. Now we need to figure out what to do with all that time.