A loss but not by much….

I weighed in last night. I’m down another 0.2 pounds. That brings me to 16.2 pounds in 4 weeks. I feel great about this. I really do. I was expecting to be down more than 0.2 pounds, but I need to look at it as it was at least a loss and not a gain. I also stuck to the gym thing, 4 times again! Wahoo! They are now offering 25% off fruit smoothies (only 4 WW points!!!) on Sundays… so maybe I’ll hit it 5 times this week and reward myself with a fruit smoothie.
David just got back into town last night. It’s so wonderful having him home!! He just makes my life so much easier. It’s amazing. Last night while I was giving the girls their baths somehow the kitchen got clean and the dishwasher got loaded. Oh, then while I was reading to Ashlynn, both the girls lunches got packed for the next day…. It’s almost like magic… but it’s David. I swear he is the best husband and father I could even wish for.
Now, I’m starting to prepare myself for my first international (if you don’t count Rocky Pointe) vacation. David has business in Belgium again… so I’m tagging along. He flies out Feb. 27. I will leave March 3 to meet him. I’ll explore Gent, Belgium while he works for a few days then we’re off to Paris, France. We’ll take a train from Belgium to Paris and spend 2 ½ days in Paris. I cannot even begin to find words to explain how excited I am about this vacation. Paris with my husband! This is a trip of a lifetime for us. I’m actually looking forward to the long flight out there by myself. For the flights I have checked out Stephenie Meyers’ Twillight and New Moon books from the library. I will get to read grown up books! Well, actually they are young adult, but still there will be no rhyming or pictures! Oh, I will also be splurging on a new Sudoku book to have for the flight. Any other suggestions for 20+ hours of traveling by myself?
Equal to my excitement is my guilt for leaving my girls for 6 days. I have never been away from Ashlynn or Brianna that long. They will be staying at my parent’s house, which always seem like a party at their house. Ashlynn is already excited about going and thinks it will be cool to spend 6 nights at grandma’s house. I just know I will miss them terribly.

Thank you!

I would like to thank Ben for his comment on my previous blog. He is absolutely correct. I read his comment and had a light bulb moment. I need to remember that my main goal is to get healthy and to feel good. The weight will come off if I focus on my overall health. It will be hard a times to remember this, but I will try to step back and remind myself of the larger goal, to be healthy for my girls and husband.
Although, I didn’t have my light bulb moment until after I weighed in last week. Good and bad news. Good news first. I was down another 3.4 pounds for a total weight loss of 16 pounds in 3 weeks. The bad news is that I ate light, (very light) the day of weigh in. I ate so light that I only ate carrots for lunch. Not good. I don’t believe in not eating to lose weight, but I was so desperate to be down on the scale I did a silly thing. So, this week I promise myself that I will eat a regular lunch the day of weigh in.

Frustration

Tomorrow is weigh in day. The scale is showing a 0 weight loss. I have been so very good, eating within my points, working out 4 times a week, totally following the rules. However I think this week I’m going to weigh in the same as last week. How is it possible to eat correctly and workout but not lose any weight in 7 days? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad. I’m not throwing the towel in. I’m not even close to giving up. But I just don’t understand. I know I dropped a lot of weight the first 2 weeks. I totally expected that. I also know that my body will have to ‘catch up’. Again, totally expect that too. But what I didn’t expect is to not lose ANY weight for a whole week. I honestly thought I’d start to see the 1 or 2 pound weeks, but not a 0 week. I’m the type of person that needs to see results. Again, no worries, I’m totally committed to it… BUT JUST GIVE ME SOME RESULTS DARN IT! So, we will see how tomorrow goes at weight in. Keep all fingers crossed for me.
I spoke to Amy (you remember, that trainer I might have previously referred to as the devil a couple of blogs back) at the gym today. She said it would do me good to do another assessment 30 days into my new lifestyle. So in a few weeks I will go through the weighing, measuring, and flexibility (oh the fun) tests to see those results. I need to see results.
David has been out of town sense Friday last week. I miss him big time. He’s in Gent, Belgium working. His project seems to be going well and he seems to be having fun. He toured a castle, which was really cool he said. He also said he got some good pictures I will post when he gets home.
Keep those fingers crossed for me right at 4:00 pm tomorrow.

Superbowl

The Superbowl was great! Even though our team didn’t win, it was a great game. A fun time was had by all. And as usual, there was a lot of great food! Here are a few pictures of the kids playing football in the backyard.




Weighed in today, I am down another 4.2 pounds. That puts me at a total of 12.6 pounds lost. Wahoo! I also stuck to the gym thing this week. Been there 3 times already this week and plan on going tomorrow night too.

Tomorrow David leaves first thing in the morning for Belgium again. He will return home the 14th. I am so happy he gets to do all this wonderful traveling with his job… but it can make for a pretty long week for me when he isn’t here. He is such a wonderful ‘hands on’ father always helping me. So… if any of you get a phone call from me saying, ‘whatcha doing…” just humor me, I’ll be bored after my girls go to sleep.

My Uncle Ralph is visiting from Illinois. It's been awesome having him around. I miss my family from Illinois, so it's always fun getting a visit from someone. He plays so well with my girls.

Workout

It’s been a good week. I started back at Weight Watchers and had my first weigh in yesterday. I’ve decided that I need the meetings once a week. It’s the only way I will stick to this again. I’ve tried to do it on my own and it just doesn’t work for me. I lost 8.4 pounds my first week at weight watchers.

I’ve also hit the gym 4 times this week. I hurt. I hurt badly, but no pain for glory, right? When I joined the gym I got a free 1 hour with a personal trainer. So I decided, why not? I got this very cute, very sweet looking girl named Amy. Let me assure you that Amy is not cute nor is she sweet. Come to think about it, I am pretty sure Amy is the devil. Oh, but Amy is good at her job, very good. During our ‘free’ workout (I like to refer to as the hour from hell) she was very supportive coaching me along, never getting in my face or yelling. Just quietly saying, “Ok, 5 more”. Let me tell you, 5 more is way over-rated! At one point I wanted to throw up. Honestly, I really wanted to throw up. Now 2 days after the ‘free’ work out I cannot sit down to pee without my thighs shaking and bringing tears to my eyes. Come to think of it, they should really give a free bottle of Advil with the hour from hell … um I mean free workout. Oh and the topper was I saw Amy this morning at the gym during my OWN workout. She had the nerve to smile at me. S M I L E!!!! Can you believe her? She even went as far as to ask, “How are you feeling?” So, I had to answer her honestly. “Sore, but good.” So, ever though it was an awful hour, I do honestly feel better after it than before it. But I really am sore!

No we’ve been getting ready for our Superbowl party. We love this party! It’s about the only time (other than kid’s birthday parties) that we have everyone over. I think I might change that this year. Maybe in May I will have a party just to have a party! Maybe we’ll make it a Rock Band party…. Now that would be fun!!!!
That’s pretty much it for us, as usual, nothing exciting.

Take care!!!

Much Love

My girls LOVE each other.... just look at this! I'm not sure when the fists (hair pulling, name calling...) start to come out... but I'm loving this phase of life!!

Just some pictures

Hi all,

I really don't have much to update you on. Brianna has been sick with a nasty cold, she was even on breathing treatments, but she seems to be doing better.

Today we went and had the girls pictures taken. This was suppose to be for Ashlynn's 5 year.... but we're about a month behind!

We joined a new gym today, Lifetime fitness. It seems pretty awesome. The best part is both my girls WANTED to stay in the children’s area while on tour, so they did! David and I finished the tour childless. The kid zone is beyond anything I could have hoped for with 12 computers, an art & craft area, a toddler zone, an outdoor play area, and much more. I was thinking about signing Ashlynn up for some swim lessons soon. Now I can do it at Lifetime, so Brianna can play, I get to work out while Ashlynn is doing a swim lesson... talk about multitasking! Right now when we're at an activity for Ashlynn all I do is chase Brianna around telling her, "don't touch that, don't go there, Brianna come here." We’re pretty excited. It's very difficult as a working mother to turn around and 'drop' your child off at another location. But if it's somewhere they want to go, well, lets just say it's easier on my emotional state!

Well, that’s about it for us. Here are a few of the 76 pictures (no joke) they took of the girls today! So hard to narrow them down.