Monday, January 30, 2012

Week 2 Update

Another fantastic week! I went to they gym every day except Sunday, and I haven't had a single oz of sugar since I started two weeks ago. While my body often feels sore from my workouts, I am feeling great!

One of the hardest things with this process is meal times. I used to cook almost every meal for Lance and I. But now that I'm trying to eat healthier, I usually eat my standard meals, while leaving him fending for himself. I've tried really hard to still have meals together and to make him what he wants, but I know that he feels guilty if I cook something for him, knowing I'm not going to eat it also. It honestly doesn't bother me, and I LIKE to cook for him. I just wish that he would let me more.

I met someone at the gym this week who is a real inspiration for me. I see her there every single day, and she runs the ENTIRE time I'm there. And it's not just a light little jog, it's a full on run at a speed that I'd be lucky to maintain for more than 20 seconds. After seeing her there so often, I finally decided to talk to her. I was curious how far she usually ran every day. She said she probably averages around 8 miles a day! Wow! She is amazing, and I would love to be in that kind of shape one day. Well, maybe not 8 miles a day, but I'd love to be running 5 miles per day.

This week, I was also introduced to My Fitness Pal. It is by far my new favorite website. You can keep track of how many calories you burn at the gym, plus how many calories you are consuming throughout the day. It gives recommendations on how much you should eat if you want to get to your goal weight, as well as many other cool things. It is seriously the greatest, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is trying to lose weight, or just be healthier.

My birthday is this week and we will be going out to eat. It will be my first time cheating and splurging a little. But I plan on doing good all week, and getting a really good workout in that morning so help make up for those calories at dinner.

Weight loss for Week 2: 4.6 lbs


Half way done with the 30 day challenge!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

9 Months

9 Month Stats
 
 Weight: 21.74 lbs - 71%
Height: 29.75 in - 91%
Head Circumference: 18.5 in - 90%

1/10- Will learned how to get to a sitting position from his stomach. I've been hoping he would learn how to do this for a while now. I usually place him on the floor sitting down but then he sees something and goes on his stomach to reach it. Then once he has what he wants, he'd rather be sitting again.
Will is still not crawling, but he sure is close. When he is sitting up, he will go on his hands and knees, move forward a little bit, then decide to go on to his stomach. But he is still pretty mobile. He'll do that and get forward a few feet, sit back up, do that again...and suddenly he's to the other side of the room.
01/15- Will got his first real kiss (from someone other than mom.) There is a little girl in our ward that is a couple of months older than Will. Today in church, they were having quite a bit of fun playing in Sunday School. Will was so excited to have a friend. They just sat there jabbering to each other and playing for a bit. At one point, she was sitting pretty close, like practically on Will. Then she started to crawl away, back to her parents. Will grabbed her dress, pulled her back to him, then he leaned in and planted a kiss right on her mouth. He really needs to work on his technique though, because the girl seemed a little traumatized.
Another humorous kissing incident: We recently put up a few mirrors in our living room. And every time I walk by, I make a point to show Will himself in the mirror. It's so funny to watch him see himself. He gets a huge grin and starts talking to his reflection. One time as he was talking to himself, I told him give a kiss, and made a kissing sound. Sure enough, Will leaned into the mirror, and tried to kiss himself. Haha.
1/22- That morning Lance was ironing some shirts downstairs and apparently Will really wanted to participate too. Suddenly he started scooting/army crawling across the floor to the ironing board. This was the first time he had ever done anything like this.
Then within a few hours, he was no longer scooting, but actually taking several steps on hands and knees. My baby is crawling! He still is exploring it and not entirely comfortable crawling, but he is getting better each day.
He has also started pulling himself up to things.
His favorite thing: my leg. I can't sit anywhere without him coming over and crawling all over me. He will also knee against the couch, stairs...pretty much anything. And now he is even going from kneeling to standing up. It seems like he is suddenly learning so fast. It's fun and exciting to watch.


Will LOVES bread. I usually put him in his high chair and cut up green beans and put some black beans down for him. He'll very slowly and casually pick them up and eat them. Or he will play with them. But once I put a few piece of bread down with those, he will grab the bread and eat them as fast as he can. He has both hands shoveling bread into his mouth. He'll eat every crumb of bread while not touching anything else.
When Will feeds himself, he has to stick his fingers all the way into his mouth. He doesn't just put the food in, sometimes it seems like his entire hand goes in. Haha.
Will's favorite thing is to go to our entertainment center and pull out all of our DVD's. He doesn't like to play with them, or even look at them really. He'll just grab one, throw it behind him, and then grab the next.
Another of Will's favorite things is wires. He loves playing with cords such as phone chargers, camera connectors, computer wires, etc.
 
Will now has 4 teeth. Two in the middle on the bottom, and two off to the side on the top. He is currently teething and getting the teeth on the other side on top. This has definitely been the most painful teething episode for him. His gums have been swollen and bothering him for the better part of a week and still not pushed through yet. When something hard hits them or rubs them the wrong way, he'll scream forever and no matter what I do, he won't calm down. It's hard to see him so miserable.
He used to be the most content baby. Now it seems like he screams more than not. It's been going on for about a week, and I'm hoping its just a phase connected with his teething. But almost every time I sit him down, he will scream bloody murder. Then if ANYONE leaves the room, he will scream, even if someone else is still in the room playing with him. It could be a little bit of separation anxiety, but again, I'm hoping this phase doesn't last long.
This picture makes me laugh. He was so laid back and just relaxing while watching tv.
Will does some pretty weird and funny things. Like lately when he's eating in his high chair, he will sweep his arms and clear off the area in front of him. It sends his food to the edge of the tray, or on the ground. I got a video of it so you can understand it better. The first part is a bit slow because he wouldn't cooperate, but then it gets better. And at the end, he was just a giggling away. I love his laugh. (Looks like I can't get the video to upload on this post. I'll try again another time.)

The happiest time of the day is still bath time. He especially loves playing with his rubber duck and other bath toys. When you lay him down, he kicks and splashes like crazy. You can't sit next to the tub unless you have a towel covering you, unless you want to be soaked.

This picture makes him look so big! I can't believe how fast he is growing up!

When you put a shirt on Will, he can kind of help. He'll move his arms until he finds the arm hole, then he will straighten his arm to get it through the sleeve. I also started noticing today when you pull his arms out of his shirt, he will pull his shirt over his head. Such a great helper!
Will's sleep habits have been all over the place lately. On a great night, he'll wake up once. On a bad night, it could be anywhere from 3-5 times. And where he used to take two 1-2 hour naps, I'm lucky if he now sleeps 30 minutes. Again, hoping its just connected with this irritable phase and that he'll return to normal soon.
Will is starting to get brave and thinks he can do all sorts of things...like stand up to things and let go when he's not balanced. Or open cupboards and slam them in his face. It's only 2pm today, and he's already fallen and smacked his head on the tv stand twice, his his head on his jumper 1 and tumbled many more times. I hate seeing him hurt so much, but I guess he has to learn somehow.
I've been trying to get a video of Will crawling ever since he started to a few days ago and I finally got one! Yay!
I love this picture of Will.

I love him more and more every day.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Week 1 Update

This past week was fantastic. I went to the gym 6 out of 7 days and I ate extremely healthy all seven days. I didn't cheat once, which is a miracle considering the fact that I made cookies, pancakes, and other yummy  things for Lance. That's right, I tried an entirely new chocolate chip cookie recipe and I didn't have a single bite. If that's not self control, I don't know what is. Lance even made one of my favorite chip dips for the football games, but I didn't give in. I thought it would be more difficult, especially having to smell and see the things that Lance eats, but I've been surprised at the lack of temptation. Usually the tiniest piece of chocolate would last about...2.5 seconds in my apartment, but I find it doesn't it sound that great right now. (Thank goodness!) And if you know me at all, you know that is a miracle!

I think a big part of why I'm not craving junk is because of how good I am feeling without it. I used to feel sick and gross after most meals because I had eaten too much, or the food was so unhealthy. Now, I never feel sick or guilty or bad in any way after a meal. In fact, I usually feel really good about myself.

After I get a good workout in at the gym, my day is so much smoother. I have so much more energy and feel way more productive. Heck, on Wednesday I spent about 3 hours cleaning our bathroom alone...reorganizing everything, scrubbing every nook and cranny. And I enjoyed it!

Of course the biggest perk of all is feeling good about myself and the way I look. I can already tell a difference in how my shirts are fitting me and I love it! I even had to tighten my belt the other day because it just wasn't doing the job anymore.

I'm exciting to continue working hard this week and striving to be healthy.

Weight loss for week one: 5.2 lbs


I know this next week will be even harder to lose the weight, but I'm very motivated and determined to keep it up. Look below for details off my workout and eating regiment.

Workout: I prefer going to the gym first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. And as of now, I am focusing mostly on cardio to burn as many calories as I can. Eventually I will incorporate some weight training, but for now I am going to stick with the treadmill.
 -Treadmill: Walk at pace 3.8 mph, incline 12% for about 2.5 miles. Then I jogged 0.5 miles at 5.0-5.5mph. Then do a little cool down. This usually takes between 45-55 minutes. Each week I plan on increasing the distance that I run.

Diet:

Breakfast:
Protein fruit smoothie right after my workout.

Lunch/Dinner: Several options: Grilled chicken breast, lettuce, cucumber, peas, salsa on either a tortilla or bread. Or occasionally I'll make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to have with a bowl of vegetables.
 
My favorite find this week are these flat bread/bun things. They are great for making sandwiches! They have half the calories as a normal piece of bread, half the amount of carbs, and taste great! I'm a huge fan!
Well I think that about covers my update! Didn't plan on it being this long, sorry! Stay tuned for the weigh in next Monday! Hope everyone has a great week!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

From Bad...to Worse...to GREAT!

I have had an interesting day, to say the least. I had a bit of a rough morning. Will was not a happy baby and refused to go down for a nap. After several attempts, I FINALLY was able to get him asleep...only to have him wake up about 25 minutes later. (This was supposed to be a 2+ hour nap!) We'd had an extremely rough night last night, so by this point I was simply exhausted and very frustrated. Luckily I was able to go to the gym and work off some of that frustration/stress and get a little bit of a breather while Will was in the Day Care. That helped a ton and I felt much better.

Then right as I'm leaving the gym, I get a call from Lance telling me the car wont start. It's been randomly having trouble starting but it will usually work within a few tries. Not this time. So I headed over to campus to give him a jump. Nothing happened. After speaking with my brother, we determine it is most likely the starter, and we'll have to get it replaced. Plus we'd have to get it towed to the mechanics. Instantly all my stress and frustration returned. It would likely cost us between $200-$400 to get it fixed. Great.

Lance had to work pretty soon, so we left the car on campus and headed home. By the time we got home, I was freezing from standing out in the rain looking at the car. Plus my clothes were wet from sweating at the gym. Soon after we got home, I was curled on the couch with multiple blankets and a rice bag, simply trying to warm up. It was bad enough I had to convince Lance I was fine so that he would go to work.

After I warmed up, I began working on our "problem". The mechanic said they wouldn't be able to fix it until tomorrow morning. But we still needed to get it towed so we wouldn't get a ticket leaving it parked on campus overnight. And the last thing I wanted to do was have to pay for a tow truck.

After asking around, I learned that there were a few people in my ward with trucks. I called one of them and asked if he had any cables that could be used for towing and if there was any way he'd be willing to tow our car to the auto repair shop. And luckily, he said yes! Yahoo! First good news of the day! Because we didn't want to drag Will along, he decided to call another person up to go help him so that I could stay home.

Around 5pm, they stopped by our place and grabbed the keys to the car. I told them where it was parked and asked them to drop it off at the mechanic. They said they would leave the key with the mechanic so they could work on it in the morning.

Two hours later, they show back up at my door with my key. I was confused and unsure what they were doing. I figured they must not have left key with mechanic, but just decided to bring it back. Then it hit me, they had been gone for TWO HOURS! I panicked a little, asking them why it had taken so long. They kind of shrugged it off and wouldn't answer. Then I asked if there were any problems towing it. Again, they just kind of mumbled no. Finally I asked if the car was ok, to which they replied that it was fixed and handed me the key. Wait, what? The mechanic said they couldn't do it until tomorrow. These two men from our ward had gone at bought a new starter and replaced the broken one themselves. The car was parked in my parking spot, completely fixed.

I was stunned. Both of these men have families at home but they were so willing to take the time and help. And they went WAY above and beyond anything I ever expected. I felt bad enough just asking them to tow the car for crying out loud! I honestly just wanted to throw my arms around them and give each of them a big hug. That was such a big service to our family and I am so deeply grateful. I don't think they realized how much it meant to me. And it completely changed my day. I've had a smile on my face ever since they stopped by.

Prayers are answered, and we are so blessed. I am so grateful for those to men for being so willing to help and for taking time away from their families to serve us. You guys are awesome! Thanks!

Monday, January 16, 2012

30 Day Challenge

Once the holidays were over, I honestly felt like crap. I spent the entire month of December loading my body with chocolate, cookies, and everything else I should probably avoid and my waistline was feeling it. My pants were feeling tighter, and my shirts aren't fitting quite how I want them to. I decided that I want to live a healthier lifestyle. Yes I know that losing weight is one of the most common New Year's resolutions and the one that people probably fail the most at. Luckily, my New Year's resolution is not to lose weight. One of my resolutions is to run a half marathon sometime this summer. I will probably either run the one up at Bear Lake in June or one down in Cedar City at the end of the summer. Still haven't decided yet.

At the start of the year, I started forming the habit of going to the gym. It is amazing how much can change in just two short weeks. I already feel healthier and like my endurance is improving. I feel great and am excited to keep getting better. I am so much more productive during the day after I get home from the gym.

Last week, I noticed a sign-up for a 30 Day Challenge at the Sports Academy. If you can lose 10 lbs in 30 days, then you get $10 on your account. I know $10 doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to motivate me that much more. 

So today I met with a personal trainer who weighed me in and measured my body fat percentage. Sorry, but I'm not quite ready to disclose that information. Then we talked a little bit about some goals. While I only need to lose 10 lbs to complete the challenge and get the money, I want to challenge myself even more. My goal is to lose 15 lbs over the next 30 days. My weigh in date is Feb. 15th.

I will be doing weekly (if not more) updates on how I am doing. This is mostly to hold me accountable. I feel like by posting this and announcing it to the world I will be more likely to actually follow through. Plus I need the support of family and friends. If you offer me something to eat, and I decline...please don't pressure me to eat it. And don't be offended; it has nothing to do with you.

I decided to do before and after pictures. I'm not sure you'll even be able to see much change with only 10-15 lbs, but we'll see. Also, this picture is terrible/embarrassing and it is going to help motivate me.

Ick, those are worse than I thought. Well, say goodbye to that Bobbi. I'm really hoping she'll go away and not come back. Wish me luck!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Families Are Forever

January 7, 2012
This was a very special day, and I am so happy that I was able to be a part of it. On this day, my sister Cindy and her husband went through the temple for the very first time. There they were sealed together for time and all eternity, along with their two boys. In the temple, we can be bound to those that we love forever so we can be with them after we die. 
What a great blessing! I would hate to think that I would never see my family after I die. And yet there are so many that believe that is the case. I feel so grateful to KNOW that I will be with my family forever.

After we did the endowment session, we all went straight into the sealing room. Once Cindy and Josh were sealed together, they brought in the boys. And then the room got very emotional. There was such a strong and amazing spirit in that room. The boys walked in quietly with their arms folded, all dressed in white. They looked so adorable it was a special moment. I am so happy for my sister and her little family. It was an amazing day and one I'm sure she will never forget.

Cindy asked me to take some pictures when they got out of the temple. It had just snowed that morning so there was a beautiful layer of fresh snow covering the ground. It was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, it also made the boy very cold and not super cooperative for pictures.
I took as many as I thought the boys could handle, then we sent the back inside to get changed.








 


 While the boys were getting dressed, I took some pictures of Cindy and Josh alone.



 

















Isn't the temple wonderful? This was my first time doing a session at the Salt Lake temple since I did my own endowments. It was really nice to go back and to go for such a special reason. I'm so proud of my sister and am blessed to have such a great family. I love you all.