Let's try this again.

As part of my increasingly complicated attempts to step away from Facebook I've decided to resurrect the dead blog! Hazzah! 

We all know how I feel about people in general and Facebook just has so many of them. Which should technically be fine because I don't have to interact with them, but that's the problem. My brain THINKS it should. It thinks that if I don't click like on someone's picture of their baby that person will think that I must hate their baby. (It's highly unlikely I hate their baby but that I am ambivalent towards that baby.. that's possible, but I don't need THEM to know that.) hmmm this isn't off to the best of starts, I don't need my friends thinking that I'm ambivalent about their babies! I meant babies outside of my monkeysphere. I've been trying to whittle the number of people on my facebook down to something closer to my Dunbar Number.. but even if I haven't interacted with Ms. Whosist What's Her Face from middle school for a decade I'll still feel like I'm insulting her if I remove her from my friend's list. What if she wakes up and wonders what she did wrong to be deleted by a near total stranger? (You say that's just something my brain does?... maybe... but also maybe Ms.WWHF's for short brain works the same way as mine?) 

There's only so many people you can mute before your brain is like... hmmm maybe there's a problem here. However this doesn't negate my need to chronicle and share, but perhaps over sharing on a platform that almost no one actually looks it is a little less like oversharing and more just getting it out of my own head? We will see. 

Now to see if I remember any html, css and all that jazz so I can somehow drag my layout out of the early 2010s and make it into something a little less... well... less orange. 

Oh... incase I didn't mention or you've slipped in here from outside my monkeysphere... I'm learning Korean. Expect that to show up from time to time and just brace yourself cause well... it's happening. 어쩔 수 없어요 

Week 4

I wasn't sure what I wanted the theme, if any, to be this week, but when I saw the three of them together I knew exactly the moment I wanted to capture. (Umm... Project 52 + 1?) I love these guys, video game addiction and all.

Week 3

Only got one of my two pictures this week. Some years I'd have just given up at that point, but you know what? I'm nowhere near perfect and I'm going to embrace that: (Project 52 -.05) = acceptable.

Dress Up.

The littlest is full on into his Star Wars phase. 

Week 2

When the littlest lands on his head trying to do a handstand and it's 72 degrees in the middle of January the only solution is Popsicles. 

Project 52 (Take 3) Week 1

Let's try this again shall we? I started this project twice before (First Go) (Second attempt- which lasted a couple weeks longer) but it never really took. Third time's the charm right? One portrait per child per week. 52 weeks ~ 104 pictures. On theme if possible.

Week 1 "Out of Focus"

This boy LOVES playing outside, the tree probably doesn't love him quite as much..

I love that she loves to read. A snuggly blanket, a good book and a rainy evening. Nothing better.

OCD

You know your OCD is showing when you take a picture of your loaded dishwasher because the configuration of dishes fit perfectly. Side note: It almost never happens. We've had this dishwasher since April and every time I load it, I feel like I'm playing tetris against a super computer and I always lose. Today I won.

You know what would have been better? If I took a picture AFTER the dishwasher had run.

Build It!

The total cuteness and terror that is a toddler with a hammer. 

He did so well with the hammer. Like, remarkably, mind blowingly well. 

*why can't I make this upload in HD? this blurry vid is killing me.

He got a bit bored when it came to painting and made Mommy finish. He was happy with his Batman tic tac toe set regardless. 

Princess bear did her entire school house money bank project on her own with just a few assists from Daddy. 

So nice of Home Depot to let Gabriel do a project too since technically the workshops are for ages 5 and up! I'm not sure I'll take him back every month but we'll definitely go every now and then. 

*lack of quality photos because my fingers were COVERED in paint and it was hard to touch my phone.

The final weigh out!

ooh wow... got so distracted with the holidays that I never checked in with my final 90 day totals... oops? Sorry about that. With the spring 90 day challenge beginning in less than a month let's go back and see what I can piece together.

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15   168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

9/22/15  164lbs  and   37.1%bf

9/29/15 162.9lbs and 36.5%bf

10/6/15  162.1lbs and 36.3%bf

10/13/15 163.1lbs  and 35.9%bf

10/20/15  161.4lbs and 35.8%bf

10/27/15  161.2lbs and 35.8%bf

11/04/15   160.9lbs and 36.4%bf

11/07/15   1589.9lbs and 37.2%bf *

  (lookie! exaclty 10 less than my weigh IN!)

Painfully obvious when I stopped lifting weights isn't it? The weight continued the downward trend but the body fat percentage started to climb back up. 

All in all the 90 day challenge was a great experience that really kept me accountable but the bad news is that since it finished right before Thanksgiving I've let my fitness regime slip... big time. The weight has crept back up. Me and the kids all took turns being sick through most of December so the gym was pretty much off limits. I pulled a back muscle last week and it's taken a week to just feel almost normal again. (Did I pull that muscle being awesome in the gym you ask? Alas no. I twisted exactly the wrong way picking my toddler up at story time!!) 

New challenge starts Feb 4th and it looks like I may have convinced Mark to do it with me this time....!!!! 

The Tree!

I think we've stumbled into a new tradition! 

Nobody (except maybe my mom) was super keen on my idea to film the family decorating the tree but I was insistent. I thought it would be cute. I think I was right. ;) 

Mark totally got on board when I started editing though. No way I could have made the music half as seamless as he managed. 

Honestly? It's actually much funnier to watch than we thought it would be. Tip: if you want to laugh just keep your eyes on Gabriel. 

We'd intended to decorate with my parents but wound up getting the tree a day late and then had to let it drop a bit before we could decorate and by that time they were headed home. 

The confusion doesn't come across in the video (which is a good thing!) but we are missing an entire box of tree decorations. Looks like it's back into the attic I go. Oh and turns out the star was completely out of frame. oops.  I wish I could have uploaded the movie in full resolution but that would have been a 3gig beast so the internets will just have to make do with the lower quality. I'm so looking forward to doing this every year now!

Weekly Weigh In 9,10,11, and 12!

Oh gosh... how behind am I? I don't even have an idea. I'm going to have to go back and look at my last post to work it out.

After finishing NROLFW stage 1 my dedication completely fell apart. Instead being able to knock out a workout in 35 minutes, stage two was taking me almost and hour and a half. I do not have that kind of time to devote to the gym 3 days a week. Add in visiting grandparents and I can honestly say I've only made it to the gym once a week recently (and that was for yoga!) I did make it to LifeBarre last night so I feel like I'm on my way to getting back in the groove but we'll see.

I only have 11 days before my final weigh out. Ideally I'd like to see that scale tip below 160 (it's been YEARS people.) I know it's just a number and if I start lifting properly for the next 2 weeks I know the scale might actually go up but it would be lovely to see. I'm going to try to really recommit myself for this final push.

Okay time for the numbers... (looks like the last weigh in was the 12th)

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15   168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

9/22/15  164lbs  and   37.1%bf

9/29/15 162.9lbs and 36.5%bf

10/6/15  162.1lbs and 36.3%bf
10/13/15 163.1lbs  and 35.9%bf
10/20/15  161.4lbs and 35.8%bf
10/27/15  161.2lbs and 35.8%bf

and here it is in a pretty graphical representation

whoo! It's not a lot but it's progress. 

Weekly Weigh In 8

Despite celebrating a belated birthday weekend for my Mom in NoVa this weekend, I still managed to come away from the weigh in with good news! (Take that Cheesecake Factory!)

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15   168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

9/22/15  164lbs  and   37.1%bf

9/29/15 162.9lbs and 36.5%bf

I have officially lost 5lbs LOL!! Slow but steady right people? I'll get there... eventually!

Stage 1 - Workout B recap

Call me absent minded. I totally forgot to come back and post Stage 1 - Workout B's recap!



 However, it's not like I'm saying goodbye to any of these moves, stage 2 just modifies them a bit. Lunges and deadlifts will be elevated, wide grip lat pulls switch to an underhanded grip, shoulder presses become Cuban dumbbell snatches.. planks and pushups will remain as is (just hopefully with better form!) Wish me luck folks! I made it through Stage 2 Workout A this week already but tomorrow will be my first go at S2B1! (stage 2, workout 1 of B)

 ps. Can I just add how totally impressed I am with myself after figuring out to embed that pdf file into the blog all by myself? Whoo!

Weekly Weigh In 7

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf
9/22/15   164lbs and   37.1%bf

Weekly Weigh In 6

You know when I drag my feet on the update this long that the news isn't good. It didn't go up much so I guess things could be worse. On the bright side, in the past week 4 different people have commented on how much weight I look like I've lost. Haven't the heart to tell them it's only 3lbs..... oi. We're halfway through and I still have so far to go. I'm so conflicted. Do I stay with the weights, which I enjoy and can see progress with or do I focus on my diet/cardio and try to drop some of this weight faster than lifting will do?

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf

8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

9/15/15   165.2lbs and  37.7%bf

Stage 1 - Workout A

I did my last NROLFW "A" workout this morning! (Technically I have one more workout but that's just going back to my beginning weights and seeing how many reps I can crank out. Perhaps I'll update later. Right now I'm just excited that I've completed something!) Friday morning will be the last B workout, but for now, here's Stage 1:Workout A in it's entirety.

I'm kinda impressed with the weights I was able to get up to, (disregarding the seated cable row because that beast refused to get any easier once I got to 85lbs!) My elbows still flare out a bit too much on the pushups and I'm definitely not getting as low as I should but I'm still proud of the ones I can do.

A Meal Planned Week.

After lamenting on facebook my inability to force myself to create a meal plan, my friends came to the rescue with multiple suggestions, commiserations and tips. Instead of nodding at their helpful advice and then promptly forgetting it 2 hours later [what you think I've done that before? Surely not.] I decided to commit to a week of planned meals, and we all know that I'm way better at sticking to something if I tell people I'm doing it first. Sometimes harnessing the power of peer pressure is a good thing.

However I'm not doing a week. I'm doing 5 days. A "work week" if you will. (Though that doesn't actually exist when you have kids. Enjoy sleeping in you yuppies!) I'm also not doing breakfast and lunch yet because I'm a completely newbie and we're taking baby steps here people.

[I'm going to write this as the week progresses so maybe you can have recipes and pictures as well but that also means I'll probably be all over the place with my tenses. Prepare yourselves for past, present and future all mingling about in the same paragraph! ]

Here's the plan.

Monday Night
Skinny Quiche (I've already misplaced the website I adapted it from.)
Whoops. Mark's tires were all low this morning, turns out he needed four new ones. The evening was a complete mess. We got a pizza to go from Mellow Mushroom. Off to a great start... 0_o

Tuesday Night
This needs to be a crockpot meal because JBear has swim lessons until 6:15 and it will easily be 7 by the time we get home. It also needs to be something I know both kids will eat because they'll be starving by the time we get home.

I did it! Pork chops in the crockpot with raw green beans. (No time to cook side dishes, hahaha) They were delish, but both kids chose to eat their leftovers from the weekend instead. Ie, hamburger and chicken fingers. Whoo, healthy.

Wednesday Night
Gymnastics until 6:45 not home until 7:30. I need something she can eat before we leave but then have 'second dinner' from when she gets home and is hungry all over again. Another crockpot meal. 

Oops. Forgot to plan crockpot meal. Turned into last minute stop at grocery store on the way home to buy mince and hamburger helper. Yeah. You can see why I need to try harder at this whole "planning" thing.  At least I served it with an organic salad!

Thursday Night
We'll all be home, so I'm choosing something that will be fun to pull together as a family.
Imitation PFchang's Chicken Wraps. (Hmmm.. I'm looking at this currently - Thursday morning. I think not. I have some italian chicken destined for the grill tonight. Let's see how this pans out...)
Hamburgers!

Hahaha In my defense I did cook the chicken to have on salads for the next few days.

And doesn't this salad look yummy???










Friday Night
I'm trying to resist writing the words 'Pizza Movie Night' with every fiber of my being... I sooo want to write 'Pizza Movie Night.'

Impromptu dinner with friends! A friend I haven't seen in 15 years and thus have not met husband or children of! I made steak pie, puff pastry and roast potatoes. They brought apple pie. Heaven help me but I refused to count calories and just enjoyed the company! 

In short I'm going to call this "meal plan" a complete fail. LOL I must try harder next time. 

Weekly Weigh In 5

Erg. I think I forgot to post last week. Brain is in total mush state at the moment. Kids are playing with both water beads AND kinetic sand simultaneously. This cannot end will. We'd started out optimistically cleaning out the craft cupboard but that just lead to the desire to play with everything.

I managed to get my workout in this morning, which is a good thing because after my first chiropractic adjustment in years this afternoon, I'm feeling a serious amount of... shall we say, discomfort? More on my wonky spine later.

Stats

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

9/8/15    164lbs    and 36.9%bf

We finally have a downward trend!

Prospects are not good for tomorrow. I went to two kids birthday parties this weekend and both involved pizza and cake (which is as we all know, are the BEST birthday foods.) I managed to practice some restraint but come on people. Pizza. My workouts have also slowed to an average of one lifting routine every two days rather than every other day with one 2 day rest in the week. Tomorrows' Try It Tuesday is Pilates! I've been doing yoga since I started at this gym but pilates is a private class costing extra so I've not been to one. Should be interesting. 

Weekly Weigh In 4

Oh gosh. I can't even remember what I did last week. I had 5 sentences written but couldn't for the life of me fill in the blank spots so I'm just going to skip over this week's exercises and jump straight to the weekly weigh in. I was at the gym loads I promise. I was more tired and over scheduled though so I think I averaged more like 2 days between each lifting session but I still got them done. 

I'd signed up for the Try It Tuesday class but when I realized it was just in introduction to dumbbells and would add a considerable amount of 'getting to the gym on time' stress into my life I decided to cancel my reservation and just do some cardio and stretching. (That's another reason I've been adding some rest days this week - my left hip is achey. I'm not sure why and it doesn't feel like my normal tight hip flexors, so I'm trying to go easy on it till I see the chiropractor next week.)

Good news this week. The numbers on the scale actually went down!

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

9/1/15     165.1lbs and 38.3% bf

Rank is #107 in my club. Definitely have a lot of hard work ahead to get back into the top 50. Just happy the scale was on my side this week though. Adding in some cardio was definitely necessary. \

We can't find my 'before' measurements... granted we only took two, but from what we think we remember I see to have lost almost an inch around my stomach. Whoo! Progress!

The third weigh in.

Soooo... yeah. No news was good news but I promised I'd keep you up to date. 

Tuesday was crazy. Like, "Oh my gosh, what I have done?! Why did I schedule so many things in one day?!" crazy. 

10:30am Gymnastics - Gabriel

11:30am Try to get my NROLFW workout in knowing that I needed a full hour and a half for Gabriel in the kids club that evening so tried to get it in as quickly as possible. I got through almost all of it. I had one set of lunges and one plank left when the kids club beeped me. He's pooped. That's okay.. I was almost done anyway and was running a bit over schedule. On the not okay side, he's still technically clocked in to kids club while frantically changing his diaper and trying to get us out of there before I use up the time I need tonight. 

12:30pm Home, lunch and nap. Alas for him not me. 

3:10pm Leave crazy early to get in line for carpool. If I get to carpool at 3:40 (school gets out at 3:45) then I'm not through the line until about 4:05. I'd signed up for the try it tuesday class at the gym which started at 4:30. The gym is about 24 minutes from the school and I'd still need to put my stuff in a locker and check the kids into the club. This means I needed to get through carpool earlier (but definitely not quicker) We got there about 3:20 and were still considerably far back through the line. We got out by about 3:55. Not worth it in the usual since but since I needed those extra minutes to get somewhere on time it had to be done.

4:30pm Try it Tuesday. Team Weight loss. Spend 40 minutes on the elliptical with my heart rate hovering around 175. Ouch. Then we head over to the dumbbells and repeat almost the same exercises I did this morning except with dumbbells instead of the bar. Fun. Class is running long. Which would be okay if I didn't have to get Jessica to her swim lesson by 5:45. (Thankfully it's in the same building.) This also means I don't have time to wait in the weigh in line before getting her to swim, plus Gabriel's out of time anyway. 

5:40pm Headed to kids club I pass a friend who I rapidly explain my situation to. She's all kinds of awesome and volunteers to watch Gabriel while I go weigh in. I get Jessica ready for swim, drop her with her instructor and deposit Gabes with AWESOME friend. 

5:50 Waiting in weigh in line (weigh in closes at 6 btw.) I'm watching the line. There's two machines. I want the one on the right because it's the same one I used last week. They're different models so I'm guessing variation between them is to be expected. I work it out and I'll definitely be on the one on the right. Hooray! Apparently slow foot in front of me wants the same thing. Both machines open up and instead of heading to the left she deliberately waits for the trainer to wipe down the right machine. Inner rage! Argh! I have to get back to Gabe though so friend may actually work out, so faffing about waiting for that machine isn't in the cards. Weigh in. 

8/8/15     168.9lbs and 40.1% bf
8/18/15   167.4lbs and 37.9% bf 

8/25/15  168.2lbs and 38.8% bf  

Noooo!!! That went the wrong way! I thought I was staying under my caloric target but when you stop weighing everything things can get away from you. I also went out to dinner twice this week which apparently sent me in the wrong direction. This week I will add more cardio and work harder on my diet. The leader board is all screwy this week. They somehow switched my club so the rankings are all off. I assume that my national ranking is right though. Ugh.

But wait... Tuesday wasn't over! 

6:00pm Collect Gabriel. Talk and lament my weigh in with awesome friend. Ack! Lose track of time. Must collect Jessica from swim lesson. 

6:15pm Collect Jessica, meet Mark in the locker room. Get Gabriel ready for the pool and send the kids off with Mark. I'm going to shower, get changed and head out to dinner with my craft club!

6:35pm Out of shower.... but where are my clothes... dude. The clothes I packed along with swim stuff for the kids, toiletries, shoes, snacks etc etc etc. No clean clothes! Grudgingly put smelly gym clothes back on. (Yes, the SAME gym clothes I was wearing at the gym this morning and then again for 2 hours this evening.) Head to semi fancy restaurant and meet friends for dinner. I knew I'd over packed the day and that something was going to give. I just never thought it was going to be my clothes.

When I got home that night I found them in a nice folded stack on the dryer. Whoo. Go me. 

Weekly Recap

eegads. It's Tuesday again already! That means tonight or sometime tomorrow morning I'm supposed to hit publish on this week's progress. Unfortunately (for me) I have not been journaling the week as it progressed. Let's hope my memory is up to the task.

Wednesday
Exercise: I don't think I did anything...
Steps: Fitbit says I didn't wear my watch today.

I do remember going to Chick Fil A for dinner... oh my. We are not off to a good start here. 

Thursday
Exercise: Up at the crack of dawn to make it to the 9am Yoga Yin class. (Excuse but getting out of the house with a toddler in tow by 8:25 after making sure the kindergartener is ready for school is the crack of dawn for me. We don't do early mornings here.)

After Yin I met up with a brand new buddy who's doing the NROLFW too. I met her online. What are the chances? She's awesome and it's great to have someone to cheer you on. I did Stage 1 Workout 3:B

Steps: Fitbit reports 7,168 steps but I took the watch off around 7pm so it should be a bit more than that. 

Friday
Exercise: I watched Jessica do her fun run at school. She ran 27 laps and raised $54 for her school. What do you mean that doesn't count as exercise for me? :(
Steps: Did not wear fitbit.

Saturday
Exercise: Multiple walks with the family. (Mom and Dad were visiting!) I also ran. Yes. You read that correctly. I ran. Outside, and there were no lions in sight. Dad has decided to take running back up and as much as it's not my thing I decided to go on a short run with him to help with motivation. We went .46 of a mile in 5 minutes 46 seconds and I thought I was going to puke. Super fun. 
Steps: 12,162!  Woohoo look at that! Fitbit is happy with me for once!

Sunday
Exercise: Stage 1 workout 4:A followed by an hour of Yoga Yin. Mark didn't get to come with me this week because Gabriel had a fever and needed to stay home. 
Steps: I wore the fitbit at the gym and only the gym. 2,540. 

Monday
Exercise: Definitely a recovery day. I took the kids swimming. I did two laps in the pool and sat in the sauna. 
Steps: Did not wear.

Tuesday
Exercise: Stage 1 workout 4:B in the morning. Team Training (a Try it Tuesday event) in the evening. 
Steps: Didn't put it on until 4pm! Only really used for heart rate today.

I've been trying to eat healthy but you saw how the week started.. I'm pretty nervous about the weigh in tonight. Check in tomorrow for the numbers and the leader board update!