Lost in the World of Motherhood

I took a look at my last post and realized it has been a month and a half since then. Whew, where does time go? I wish it would hide out in my pocket or something, so I could save it for when I really needed it. Which is like, all the time! :)

I'll admit it, I have been lost away in this place called Motherhood. And to be honest, I do love it. I love being a mommy. The new things that come along with a growing baby can be quite challenging at times, but then you just get past the bump in the road and keep going until the next one comes up.

My little girl is just amazing. I love her to pieces. She makes me smile every morning I go to get her from her crib. I know she can hear my footsteps when I walk into her room... then I take a peek at her and she realizes it's me, and out comes a big smile from her little mouth. Ahh, that is what makes it all worth it, friends! Layla is 5 months old. Can you believe that? Seems like not too long ago I was gigantically pregnant and on "couch-rest", and now I have a beautiful daughter who shares every moment of the day with me. I do enjoy having a little girl, and I know it will only get more and more fun as she gets older. We do everything together. Where I go, she goes. What I do, she does. I think she just might be the mini-me someday. The poor girl. ;)

So while I have been occupied with mommy things, we have also been on a new diet, which takes a little more thought and time each day. About a month ago, we decided to try the Paleo diet. No refined sugars, grains, dairy, gluten, etc. The nice thing about this diet is that you can tailor it to what your body responds best to. So while we may not be 100% Paleo in our eating, we follow the main principle. And that is to cut out a lot of refined, processed, boxed foods and eat more fresh, raw foods. I personally have noticed a huge difference in the way I feel. My skin is finally clearing up and healing (part of that is from using coconut oil on my face), I have lost weight, and I feel less lethargic during the day. Finding enough food to fill us up that isn't a grain, gluten, dairy or full of sugar was hard at first. But we are getting it down now. We bought RAW Meal Replacement powder to make shakes in the morning. That fills us up for quite a while and is extremely good for us. It's plant based and full of live enzymes. We do "cheat" a bit on the weekends, but I feel that is perfectly okay as long as it's not a binge fest. When I say cheat, I mean, we eat some gluten, grains and dairy... we don't eat desserts all weekend or stuff our face with chips. Hehe. Layla will also be practicing the Paleo diet with us until she is a bit older. I'm waiting to introduce grains to her, and am sticking with veggies and fruit. I plan to make all her baby food homemade.

Today is Saturday, and that means we are together as a family. I look forward to this day every week. Hope you all enjoy your weekend! Here's to hoping for some nice, spring weather. :)

Grapefruit

So after not writing for quite a while, I randomly decided to blog about grapefruit. Sounds about right! I started buying grapefruit about 2 weeks ago because I was wanting to add something refreshing to my breakfast options. I didn't really realize just how refreshing and healthy grapefruit was! And not only that, but if you cut them in half and eat a half each morning they go a long way.

I looked up the health benefits of grapefruit and was so amazed at how many things I found. Grapefruit is low in calories, boosts your metabolism, aids in weight loss, assists the body in fighting off illness, clears skin, protects against cancer... and has many, many more nutrient benefits! Go here to read about the numerous health benefits of grapefruit.

How could I not add this to my daily diet after hearing all those? I especially love grapefruit for the refreshing scent and taste. I top mine with a bit of honey, which is also very good for you, and takes a bit of the tart edge off. There is something about it that just starts the day off well. It may sound silly, but I feel very good and ready for my day after I am finished devouring my grapefruit! We will see if I notice any health changes after a while. I am sure I will.

Try adding it to your morning ritual - it's soo good!

A Healthy Habit

I know, I know, it has been forever since I have posted anything health related, but I haven't given up on that area of my life! It has just sort of been a little crazy around here to focus solely on health and fitness.

We make it a priority to eat healthy, balanced meals in our house, yet the whole fitness area has lacked immensely. Ever since my husband started his new job, our schedule has turned upside down. It has been great having him come home each evening to stay. Yet, every night he comes home, he heads straight to the gym and I am left to prepare dinner. No complaints with getting dinner on the table, but there is no space for me to get to the gym with him! I am going to have to get my own gym membership so I can go during the day... but it has helped to have healthy meals and snacks to keep my weight in check.

I'm happy to say that I have not gained all my weight back and have stayed in the same basic area for over two months. I believe that has all happened because of how we eat. And if I can get exercise on top of it all (which I am going to do!), the two will work together and I will be one healthy chickie. :)

To get into eating more fruits (which is what I am always needing), I have found this to be quite helpful in attaining that goal:
Buy fresh fruits at the beginning of the week, chop them all up, and make a yummy fruit salad! You can keep it in the fridge all week and scoop a little out each day for a healthy breakfast or snack (or stash in plastic containers to take to work). This has helped me to eat more fruit and it is soo delicious and refreshing! I love chilled fruit. Mmm. You can put whatever you wish in yours, but I stick with pineapple, strawberries, apples and bananas. The banana is kept out of the salad... just slice it on top when you are ready to eat. It really completes the salad. Fruits kind of give your body that jump start it needs for the day. In Weight Watchers, I have heard that fruit counts as zero points, so eat all the fruit you want! I would like to say eat 100% organic fruit, but I know that isn't always possible.

I am giving myself an attainable goal. I'll be in a wedding in July and want to look my best. So I figure if I lose 5 1/2 pounds a month, I will reach my goal of weight loss for the entire year! That is such an easy goal (hopefully) and I am really excited after looking at the overall picture. Seems like a lot when I say 30 pounds... but when I space it out and have a goal, it is much easier to get excited about.

Hope this is encouraging to those out there who are in the same boat. It all takes work, but it's worth it... as always. ;)

Forming New Habits

Feels like it has been quite a while since I have blogged anything about my health and fitness goals. It may seem like I have given up on it all, but that is not the case! I'm still working away on my challenge, just not so intently. ;) Things have picked up, and for some reason it just hasn't worked out to get to the gym with Kyle. He either isn't around with the car to take me when I'm available... or I'm not around to go with him when he has free time. It just hasn't worked, and is a complete bummer.

However, because of the months that I worked so hard at watching what I eat and trying out new ideas, I formed habits that have stayed with me and helped me to keep all of the weight off and lose more! I didn't even realize until recently that I am subconsciously keeping to my healthy lifestyle without even trying! I kept wondering why on earth I wasn't gaining my weight back, because I wasn't getting to the gym. And it's not like I am counting all of my calories...

It's really exciting to see the new habit formed. And it gives me great hope for the future when I get to my goal and want to keep healthy. If I can continue on with these new habits, I think it will be easier to stick with them later on.

I have been keeping pretty busy between my house cleaning jobs, recovering from the respiratory infection, being involved a lot in church events, etc. Time just seems to be getting used up more than I thought it would... for being a stay-at-home wife, I certainly have enough to keep busy with. I love the flexibility of being able to run a part time job on the side, be there for my husband with whatever he needs, be involved with things at church and positions that need to be filled, and also be a help to my parents and siblings whenever they are in need.

So with the schedule and sickness and not keeping to a strict diet and not getting to the gym... I still have managed to lose a total of 14 pounds! Woohoo! Soo excited and encouraged to keep going. I have yet to measure myself again, but I know I have lost over 12 inches since my last measuring about a month ago. So who knows... maybe more.

Also good news: I have a new cleaning job starting Friday! Credit due to Sarah Bowler, who told her friend about me, and is the reason for my other cleaning job as well... word of mouth works! Thanks, Sarah!

I have a few new recipes in the making that I want to post at another time. I am trying out new vegetables in my meal planning that I have never had before and am really wishing I had known about them earlier!

I better close this before it gets too long.

Goodnight all.

One Month Mark

It's been exactly one month since I first measured myself and began working toward my new goal. Seems like I just started! Last week could have gone better, but life happens and there's not much you can do about that! So I was only able to make it to the gym a couple times last week, but I did make up for it a bit with getting exercise in other ways.

Come Saturday morning I started getting blurry vision and a headache. If anyone has had that before you know what's coming next: a migraine. Only, I seem to get really weird things with it like numbness on one side of my body. All of a sudden my hand and arm got numb and tingling and it began to work its way up to my face and ended with my tongue. Scary. But this type of thing has happened to me before, so I knew all I needed to do was take pain relief and sleep it all off. Talk about a crappy way to spend a Saturday! I didn't stick well to my diet that day, sadly. Kyle took me to work with him that night so I didn't have to be alone, and we kinda got a few treats. ;) I slept through Sunday morning, which was weird not going to church… But I needed rest.

All this to say… Even though I had a crummy weekend and didn't stick to my diet, I lost two more pounds! Last week I only dropped 1. After measuring myself today, I have lost 6 1/2 inches total and 7 pounds! I wanted to lose 10 pounds in a month, but I'll take 7. ;) I'm almost there though, so that's exciting!

This week is going to be better. I hope to drop those last three pounds… A big goal for one week, but it's possible. I just have to make sure I keep eating… And work out harder.

That's it for now! I'll blog again soon. Have an awesome week and enjoy this gorgeous weather!

Slow Going

Today being Saturday, I decided to weigh in this morning. Since I normally allow myself a little "cheat" day on Satudays, I figured it might be best to do it this morning instead of waiting until Monday. While doing lots of research, I have found that it is a necessity to have a cheat day... not really to feed my hormones with chocolate and fattening things, but so my body doesn't just shut down. I chose Saturdays to be my cheat days, but I'm sure this will change occasionally with the holidays coming in a few months. These days don't include binge eating, but I do treat myself to a little more than usual and give myself a little break of not being so hard on myself! That was a mouthful. Anyway, back to my weigh in.

I was sooo discouraged when I found my weight hadn't moved ONE BIT since Monday. I was like, how on earth could that be since I worked out almost all 5 days this week and ate so well?!?! I was about to get discouraged about it, when I decided to measure myself based on some measurements I took at the beginning of this whole thing. It boosted my spirits a little to find that I had lost 1/2inch in three different places and more than one inch in another!

It's a slow process, but slow and steady wins the race. I hope that by next weekend I can drop some weight, but we will see.

That's all for now. Hopefully more good news soon!

Success is Sweet

To continue off of my last post, I am going to just share how my first week (last week) went with my new health and fitness challenge. If I wait for a time to go somewhere where there is internet so I can use my laptop to post, it won't happen for a while. It's true. It won't! So please excuse any spelling errors that my phone thinks is correct that really is not... That I don't catch. :)
My first week in the challenge, I found a really awesome app on my phone called: myfitnesspal. It has a database with millions of different foods that you can search so you can find out how many calories is in that particular food. You can also scan barcodes on products! Way cool. I set up my weight and my goal and it gave me a calorie intake plan based on that. You can also add exercise to your "diary" so it adds more calories when that is necessary. It seems awful low, but it has me at 1,200 calories a day. I have even been under that amount, but believe me, I am eating and not starving! Proteins have been essential to keep me fueled, and a good higher calorie breakfast is really important!
I actually feel the best I have in a really long time. Part of that I know is because I am more focused and am seeing results. If you actually counted how many calories you ate before calorie counting, you would be totally shocked. I am completely full from what I am eating now, yet to imagine all the unnecessary calories I was eating before that I really didn't need... It's amazing. And not in a good way!
I'm also exercising. Kick butt exercising. Really. I want so bad to be slim and healthy again that when my legs burn or my lungs hurt, I keep pushing because I want to be better. And when I push myself, the burning stops soon after and I can walk away from that elliptical with a smile on my face! The gym is amazing. I love going with my husband and working beside him when he isn't weight lifting. A little of the stair stepper, a little of the bike, some elliptical, and I am drenched it sweat. It feels good! Mentally it is nice at the end of the day to say I have gotten good exercise. It does wonders for stress and improves your mood if you are having a hard day. Better than taking your stress out on someone you love!
So my first week wasn't drastic, but I dropped 3 pounds! This week I am working out more, so I hope to see more off when I weigh in on Monday. I love having this goal, and I am really driven this time to not quit after two weeks. My family is astounded and my husband is always encouraging.
I would recommend to anyone to start eating better. Whether for weight loss or not, you will feel soo much better. And exercise- I believe that is a huge reason why  I always felt so sluggish all the time.
So, just wanted to share a bit of success and glimmer of hope for a better lifestyle all around! More later. I hope to post some ideas that have been working for me later on once I get a good grasp on this. Goodnight, guys. :)

Beginning A New Challenge

With a lot going on in life, sometimes we just need something else to focus on to take our mind off of things. I am in that boat right now. For a while now I have wanted to get more fit and lose weight, but I have found it hard to do so at home. I think a lot of people feel the same way...
Kyle recently bought a gym membership where I can go with him, so I have decided to really take time to focus on it for the next few months. So many times we have these days where we feel motivated to get in shape, but then it never lasts until we are serious about it. I'm right there and I am ready to go. We already eat pretty healthy - mostly home-cooked meals, fruits, veggies, nothing processed, etc. I am going to try to work really super hard at cutting out all sugars.

My goal is just to keep faithful with going to the gym and getting exercise. I know how much weight I want to lose, but I don't want to set a huge goal and get discouraged that I don't make it.

The most important thing is that I am healthy. I'm excited to see where I can get, and it's also encouraging to be able to go to the gym with my husband. It makes me feel more comfortable and is also like a little date for us! Goals made with someone else is more motivating too.

So why am I blogging this? Well, I want to make sure I don't give up. :) I'm looking forward to being a happier, healthier, more beautiful person.

<3