I told Scott I didn't really want to, but I couldn't disappoint my blogging public, so here's the picture y'all requested. It's newly "skinny" me! How I did it you ask? Good ole' fashioned exercise and diet. For exercise I do Leslie Sandsone's two mile brisk walk (it's a DVD) three times a week. I like it because I can do it at home, it only takes 30 minutes and it's much easier on my back than running. She's the cheesiest person in history, and I spend the whole half an hour mocking her, but I feel great when I'm done. I also have a DVD called Yoga and Pilates done by some Australian chick. Louise Solomon. She's also fun to mock. I try to do one of the two half an hour workouts on her DVD three times a week as well. I like hers a lot because it really helps with my back. I don't think it really matters what you do as long as you are consistently exercising. I have also stopped drinking all carbonated drinks, again mostly to help my back, but there are definitely other health benefits.
Okay, diet. As many of you know, Scott let me purchase three months of NutriSystem. But looking back I wouldn't do it. I have some guilt over this puchase, but it was good in a lot of ways. My food was ready to eat in perfect portion sizes with all the right calories, protein and fiber. I can tell you the secret. For breakfast you have an entree (simply meaning main course. Something like a whole grain muffin, bagel, pancakes, eggs, protein bar, cereal etc.) a fruit serving, and a protein serving. For lunch you have an entree (tuna, chicken or egg salad, soup, pasta, lean pocket, etc) a salad serving, and a protein serving. In the afternoon, you have a snack of a fruit serving and a protein serving. Then for dinner you stuff yourself. Honestly, I have NEVER been so full in my life. I'm eating more food than I ever have, it's just the right food. You have your entree, TWO vegetable servings, a salad or a fruit serving and then some kind of snack.
A couple of tips. You can have what you want, you just can't have everything you want. If you wake up thinking, "I really need to have a brownie today!" By all means, have the brownie, but only have one brownie and then that is your treat for the day. I try to save it for after the kids go to bed when I can really enjoy it! It seems to me like fruit and vegetables should constitute about half of what you eat in the day. Remember also that typically a serving size is the size of your fist. Remember too that you are fueling your body you don't want to eat less because your body will think there's a famine. Try to eat whole grains, try to pick foods with low carbs, make the best choices you can and try to keep everything you eat in a day under 1,200 calories. I also, one of the first weeks I started, did a detox. I drank this totally gross seaweed stuff, but I really think it was a good jump start to kick my body out of it's homeostasis. Your body gets used to how things are running and is very resistent to change. Something to force it out of that homeostasis is always helpful! I have also started taking a fiber supplement which really helps to keep your body free of toxins and moving regularly. If you want more information on what constitutes a serving, what the salad, dairy or vegetable servings on leave a comment and I'll email you some things.
Okay, here's what I'm wondering. Everytime I look at some of the digital layouts I did first, I feel deeply embarrassed. They are definitely sub-par. I have gone back and redone two of them. My question to y'all, my faithful friends and fellow bloggers, is this: do they look enough better to justify the time spent on re-doing them? I leave it to you. Let the voting commence! Original.
re-do
original
Pack Meeting, which usually bores me out of my mind, was fun this week. Mostly because Ryan got a ton of awards! Go Ryan! He received his Wolf Badge, and then he got called back up again to receive six or seven belt loops and two pins. Hooray for Ryan!
Here is Ryan picking a cheer out of the "Cheer" box. He chose the fly snap. Probably the quietest of all the cheers!
I think this is my favorite of the ones I've done in the last couple of days. I love the colors and the "simplicity". I love how the things behind the pictures really make the pictures the focus of the page. I think that's what my pages have lacked in the past--focus! Most of the items were from Miss Mint's Candy Fairway kit. I also took some things from Raspberry Road's Oriental Dreams kit, and some elements from Royal Garden by Amelie Scrap. I also spun this layout, you can see it here.
Haddie's face just screams rescue me. I love the desperation, the drama, the disgust at how I could let such a thing happen to her. We still have a problem with the older kids thinking Haddie is a toy. I try to explain to them that she isn't a doll, she's a person. She's not for their enjoyment pleasure to be carried around, prodded pinched, stuffed into small places. We're still working on it. The other day I left Haddie and Ben upstairs (with the stairs blocked off) so I could shower. I about had a heartattack and died when Ben came marching into the master bath, carrying Haddie, who was practically dragging on the floor. I have told him so many times that he's not big enough to carry her, but he always thinks he's done the good deed by bringing her to me. Aaaahhhh! At least they love her, right?
It's so funny to me, and I'm still not quite sure how it happens, but by the end of eating time Haddie always ends up scrunchled in the corner. Too funny!
I told Scott I didn't really want to, but I couldn't disappoint my blogging public, so here's the picture y'all requested. It's newly "skinny" me! How I did it you ask? Good ole' fashioned exercise and diet. For exercise I do Leslie Sandsone's two mile brisk walk (it's a DVD) three times a week. I like it because I can do it at home, it only takes 30 minutes and it's much easier on my back than running. She's the cheesiest person in history, and I spend the whole half an hour mocking her, but I feel great when I'm done. I also have a DVD called Yoga and Pilates done by some Australian chick. Louise Solomon. She's also fun to mock. I try to do one of the two half an hour workouts on her DVD three times a week as well. I like hers a lot because it really helps with my back. I don't think it really matters what you do as long as you are consistently exercising. I have also stopped drinking all carbonated drinks, again mostly to help my back, but there are definitely other health benefits.
This is how I found Hadley entertaining herself during dinner preparation today. She was fixing the pantry for me :)
Crawling baby alert! This is how Haddie attempts to entertain herself while I make dinner. It doesn't usually work. She usually ends up looking like this. . .
All wet and snotty.
She really has gotten to be a good crawler in a short period of time. She now thinks it is my one and only duty to help her walk around the house. It's killing my back!
This is a classic Haddie face. She's such a funny "piece of peanut butter" to use one of my mom's favorite expressions.
Somehow these pictures ended up on my camera's internal memory instead of my memory card. I had forgotten all about them. Julia decided she wanted rollers for her birthday so she could have beautiful curls. We spent that evening rolling up the girls. They were very excited about the whole thing. I think they look absolutely adorable!
All I can say is. . .vogue.
I have to admit to everyone how much of a weenie I am. I had a very hard Sunday afternoon. Scott is currently serving in our ward as the Elder's Quorum President. He purposely chose Fast Sunday to be his busy day so he didn't have to think about the fact that he's fasting. Which is great, except I get to spend it alone with crazy kids eating right in front of me and going crazy because daddy isn't here. I was also fasting, which I don't do well with. I'm pretty sure I'm borderline hypoglycemic. It does me in for a couple of days. But I felt like we were really in need of a blessing right now.
I had Julia's "bestest friend in the whole wide world" Elisabeth here today as well. She is a pistol. It is just one "good" idea after another. They scrounged things out of the study I didn't even remember were there and made kites and then just had to go and fly them. While they were at the park there were some boys there killing baby birds with bebe guns, and Elisabeth got in there faces and was telling them why they shouldn't and almost got herself and Julia shot with a bebe. Then she pulled a huge rubbermaid container of costumes down from the top of the playroom closet (I'm still amazed no one got hurt). The next thing I knew Julie and Elisabeth were climbing up the two twin box springs we have stacked upright in the study in their underwear. I just about lost it! I think the thing that bugs me the most is that when she's here Hadley turns into a plaything. They haul her around like she's a babydoll and do crazy things with her like she isn't a real living human being. It's definitely NOT my favorite!
Everyone today commented on Haddie's double sproutlets. I thought they turned out rather cute myself.
