Another day, another cookie (or two)

Exercise: I babysat an extra 3-year-old today. Does that count?

Breakfast: cereal and skim milk

Lunch: burrito

Snack: two no-bake cookies

Dinner: pancake, bacon, egg, fresh fruit (unhealthy, but I kept my portions small)

I'm going to try to call it quits for the day but popcorn just may be involved in my evening!

Hip-hip HOORAY

Today was the first day in the history of my lovely little digital scale that the overall weight loss arrow pointed DOWNWARD. I can't remember exactly when I bought that scale, but I know it was while I was living in my first house, so it has to have been at least 3 to 4 years. So I am officially the skinniest I've been in at least 3 years, and I'm not stopping here! Now I am even more determined to keep that arrow pointing downward.

Sorry I haven't been posting my food, but it's the same-old, same-old. I picked up a new website design client so I may be a little absent but I will definitely try to keep checking in with at least my weekly weight on the sidebar!

Woo-HOO!!!

Diet tracker

I bought the newest issue of prevention magazine last night. Like always, it was full of good information. I had never been on the prevention website, so I decided to go exploring. The one thing that I found that I really like is their health tracker. I signed up (for free) and am tracking everything frm what I have eaten to exercise to body measurements. I think it will be very helpful to see the changes that are (I should say will be) taking place. If you are into charts and graphs that show your progress then you will like this site!

I've lost only 2 pounds since I joined The Glen, but I have to say that I haven't been trying very hard either. I have been pretty busy at work, and not at home to eat "regular food." I will start trying harder to make right choices when I have to eat out, and make sure I am getting my exercise in!

Here is the link to Preventions Health Tracker, maybe it will be useful to some of you! Everyone seems to be doing a great job, keep it up!!

http://www.prevention.com/cda/healthtracker.do?fdpath=oi%2FFitDay%2FHomeGuest.html%3F_a_Date%3D1209427200.%26_a_rdata%3DFitWrapper&rdata=FitWrapper&rpagename=HomeGuest&rpagecategory=Home


Allison

A New Week

My food wasn't great yesterday, either...we went to a traditional Japanese meal at some friends after church. So delicious! Lots of vegetables and rice, so actually, it probably wasn't too bad. I did eat dessert, though.

BUT...regardless of all my numerous slip-ups last week I still managed to lose 3 pounds. Makes me think my diet before becoming accountable on this blog must really have been bad!

I'm excited for a new week and deteremined to do even better this week (especially since the first week of a diet is always the easiest to lose).

Exercise today: Jillian Michael's "Shred" video

Breakfast: rice crispies/skim milk

Lunch: two slices whole wheat toast, pear, yogurt

Dinner: taco salad, corn on the cob

Snack: grapefruit

Yay for me! A good day!

Sorry to have been out of touch!

Maria and I were doing so great with our exercise program, never missing a day. But I have slacked off since she left. She is my inspiration, and she keeps me going. I will have to try harder to do it on my own while she is away. She will be getting a little exercise playing with Mitch and Ian while you are away Kirsten, and I got a bit of exercise playing with Maylyn and Tessa for a week, but it doesn't really take the place of good old aerobic exercise. And my yard it calling to me, so I will be hoeing and weeding and digging again soon. Dan and Tim and I planted three HEAVY spruce trees on Saturday, and I actually did some of the digging, with Tessa in my arms. One handed digging doesn't exert as much effort, but it is certainly more awkward! You really should have seen the holes Dan dug! They put the one Dad and I dug to absolute shame!

April 26 food and exercise

I realize today is April 27, but I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, and I will not be posting for the next few days, as I will not have a computer nearby that I can foresee.

Yesterday I had Honey-Nut Cheerios with fat-free milk for Nums (aka breakfast).

Then Maria and I went to our stake women's conference (was yours on "Good, Better, Best" too, Alison?). Excellent talks and workshop, and an excellent lunch consisting of a salad of spinach, grapes, feta cheese, cinnamony-or-something pecans, chicken, etc., a crusty roll, water, and topped off with the most delicious cheesecake with strawberries I may have ever had in my life. There was something different about the cheesecake (was it lime? was it cinnamon? I may never know) but OH it was divine.

Back home: A few pretzels and possibly a few Guittards -- I don't remember.

Bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with fat-free milk for dinner.

A bowl of ice cream during more Seinfeld. No exercising to speak of, and I could totally feel the poundage coming on all week, even though I did exercise a few times. I just ate too much junk to offset it. So I am currently 1.2 lbs. above my Glen Starting Weight and I have no idea how I will be doing next Sunday because B and I are leaving for Las Vegas today for his APA conference until Thursday (which is why Maria is here; she's watching the Boys while we're gone. Thank you, Maria!). I very well may be eating way too much and exercising way too little. Let's hope for the best... Talk to you again in a few days!

BAD DAY!!!!

Any progress I managed to make all week I'm sure I negated today.

Did I exercise? NOT AT ALL!

Did I eat right? OH NO. Not even close. I ate fruit loops for breakfast and it was all downhill from there. I went to a Stake Women's conference and they fed us taco salad, rolls, and rich chocolatey desserts. I ate all of the above. I could have called it quits then but somewhere in the twisted logic of my brain I told myself that since today was already shot I may as well blow it big-time and then I proceeded to eat two pieces of pizza for dinner. Followed by an ice cream cone. What the heck!? WHY would I do this to myself? I do not know. But I know I am feeling miserably guilty about it right now.

April 25 food and exercise

Breakfast: raisin/date/almond granola with a few Honey Nut Cheerios on top (like I've said, I love to mix) with fat-free milk.

String cheese.

Peanut butter and jam sandwich, a few nachos, and some apple slices with peanut butter.

A few Guittards.

Tortilla with cheese and refried beans. Salad.

Popcorn and chocolate-covered almonds while watching hilarious episodes of Seinfeld with Maria. Oh how I love that show. "You're an anti-dentite!" "I am not an anti-dentite!" "Yes you are! First you're going to be saying they should have their own schools -- " "They DO have their own schools!" "Yee-ow!" HA HA HA! Oh, I laugh as I wipe tears from my eyes. Good times.

Exercise:
An hour's walk (carrying I in my arms a large part of the way) around the neighborhood, which included playing "Frozen" tag, hide-n-seek, and pretend hockey, and running a few races around before heading back home.

April 25

A few days ago I slipped on a toy on the stairs while carrying a laundry basket down (obstructing my vision) and hurt my back. It was just a kind of nagging pain but a little tylenol and no big deal. But I must have aggravated it when I did my "Shred" video yesterday because it kept hurting worse all day after that and this morning I woke up and it is agony! The tylenol isn't working at all. So I'm going to take it easy for the weekend and hope to start exercising again on Monday.



Breakfast: Honey Bunches of Oats/skim milk



Snack: another piece of O'Henry. I put the rest on a plate for bringing to the conference and wrapped it thoroughly so it won't tempt me anymore!



Lunch: minestrone soup, the crusts from Cecily's grilled cheese sandwich (typical mom meal, right? Cleaning up our kids meals so they don't get wasted)!

Dinner: burrito, grapes

Snack: popcorn (movie night!)

Uh-oh

I am willing to bet that tomorrow I won't be pre-pregnancy weight anymore! Ha ha...a little too much cookie dough today. Darn J for leaving extra in the fridge!!

Other than too much of that, I had CW and my super easy and quick pasta tonight.

I am thinking about not weighing tomorrow!!

Another day done

Exercise: Jillian Michaels 30 day shred video. Let me just say: ouch.



Breakfast: cheerios/skim milk



Snack: oatmeal cookie (I rationalized...it's mostly oatmeal, right? How bad can it be)?



Lunch: italian wedding soup, pear



Snack: grapes, a soft pretzel (okay, this one I did not intend to eat...honestly! They were cheaper if I bought 4 at my daughters' gymnastics class. So each of my kids ate one and I was saving the other for my husband. But he called to tell me he was going to one of his YM's rugby games and wouldn't be home. Now, as everyone knows, soft pretzels do not keep well! My kids didn't want any more. It was eat it or throw it out. So I couldn't just waste it! But, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it).



Dinner: casserole, green beans

Snack: grapes, and a small square of O-Henry's (tried a new recipe and actually had to taste to make sure it's edible...bringing it for a women's conference on Sat.)

A Royal Announcement

Hear Ye, hear ye! Be it proclaimed throughout all the land that today, the 24th day of the fourth month of the year two thousand and eight, her excellency Genevieve of the Shady Glen has reached PRE-PREGNANCY weight! Let this day be a day of celebration throughout the kingdom, today and forevermore.

April 24 food and exercise

Oh, first of all, last night I didn't do so well. For one thing, I was too exhausted to work on my project, so Brent and I watched a few Jeopardy!s (we're still a month behind!). Which meant, of course, that we needed something to munch on, so we had ice cream with hot fudge sauce. Then I snitched some Guittards and had another string cheese. Maybe that's why I didn't sleep well last night?



Ok, on to today.



Breakfast: Banana-nut granola/ rice Chex combo with fat-free milk.

String cheese.

Lunch: Peanut butter and jam sandwich with a cinnamon-banana shake (2 bananas, a couple shakes of cinnamon, a spoonful of sugar, some ice, some milk, and a couple scoops of vanilla yogurt, divided among Bompa, M, I, and me).

An apple and peanut butter divided among M, I and me.

2 1/2 slices pizza.

A few Guittards.

Exercise:
Uh... none.

April 23 report

I need to start writing down the food as I eat it, I'm probably snitching "tastes" here and there and then oh so conveniently forgetting about it! But here is the day as I try to recall it right now!

Breakfast: toast, chocolate skim milk

Lunch: whole wheat bread, pickle, string cheese

Snack: apple slices, a few honey wheat pretzel sticks

Dinner: meat loaf, steamed veggies

Snack: grapes, string cheese

Exercise: I brought my kids to the park and we ran around there, but that was as good as it got today. I ran from one activity to the next literally all day until 10 pm and by then I'd lost the will to exercise.

April 23 food and exercise

I have not been sleeping well lately (let's see, I wake up when there are sounds, I wake up when it's quiet and have the most impossible time returning to sleep the past few days), and today was no exception. So... today's gonna be blah.

Breakfast I had banana-nut granola/rice Chex combo with fat-free milk (I don't know why I can't be homogenous when it comes to my cereal, but I can't. I simply MUST mix!).

I had a string cheese just before lunch, then for lunch I had more chips and cheese dip (just not as much as yesterday). Tootsie-pop after lunch.

And, for dinner we are having pizza. I just called to order it a few minutes ago so B will be leaving soon to get it. A large Hawaiian and a small Pepperoni (the small was free if we ordered the large!). I make no guarantees about how much I will eat 'cause I'm starving right now. AND, seeing as how the stuff for my *project* came today, I will probably not be exercising tonight so I can work on that. HOWEVER, last night I DID exercise, but I did 1.5 miles instead of 1.25, and at resistance 4 instead of resistance 3. I did my stuff on the exercise ball and my stretches too. No weights, but I didn't think I'd get around to doing those last night anyway. Ok, so that's that. I'm signing out now. Ciao.

April 22

My typical- CW for brunch and 2 eggos for dinner.

And then......

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES - 3 of them....and an undetermined amount of the dough. What was I to do? I have been bummed this evening and my husband offered to make cookies. I was emotionally vulnerable and therefore incapable of resisting!

My Day Two

Did a little better on the exercise...jumped on the trampoline with my kids, rode a stationary bike for half an hour, did some crunches.

Did a little worse with the food:

Breakfast: Honey bunches of oats and skim milk

Lunch: ham and cheese on whole wheat, some baked chips, a pickle

Dinner: cheese quesadilla, salad with cheddar cheese and low-fat ranch, some grapes

Snack; (this is where I really blew it) ice cream cone. Smallish, but still. But it was American Idol night and I made my girls one with intent to resist one for me. But I caved. (I'm so weak! This is why I shouldn't have junk in my house).

April 22 food and exercise

Breakfast: granola and RaisinBran combo with fat-free milk. Hallelujah, the RaisinBran is FINALLY gone. Don't get me wrong, I normally like RaisinBran, but UGH, this box would never end! Ok, moving on.

Lunch: tortilla with melted Velveeta, salad made out of lettuce, carrots, dry-roasted unsalted peanuts and raisins with Romano cheese dressing.

Snacks throughout the day: two cookies, about 4 Tootsie-rolls, a granola bar... yikes.

Dinner: Oh dear, I did awfully today. Dinner consisted of chips and cheese dip. Delicious and way to filling, but uh... not too healthy either. And now I feel fat. I am writing this at 5:30 PM with the INTENTION of working out on the elliptical tonight after the Boys go to bed. We'll see how that goes. Let's hope I don't get distracted with the ... uh... internet and all my uh... blogs... :)

So, in an effort to make sure I don't get distracted tonight, I am going to say under "Exercise" that I did at least 1.25 miles at resistance 3 on the elliptical, did my stretches, exercises on the exercise ball, and if I'm really ambitious, I'll do some weights too. I'm going to write all that under "Exercise", clear off all the zillions of windows that I have up, and hmmm... shut down the computer? That should do it. I'll even try to forget that I know where the power button is. Will that work? Ok, that's the plan. I'm writing it down so that I have documentation, and if I fail, I'll have to 'fess up mañana, so I MUST do it. Ok, that's all.


Exercise:

I INTEND to do at least 1.25 miles on the elliptical at resistance 3 (at least, higher if I think I can. It's been a couple of weeks since I've done exercise on the elliptical), my stretches, exercises on the ball, and I'll have to post tomorrow if I actually did the weights or not. I ate so much tonight at dinner who knows if my arms'll have the strength to do those. ;)

This is so Fun!

I had so much fun tracking what I ate today. It was nice to feel accountable and know that before I ate something that I would be writing it down so to choose wisely.

Breakfast: oatmeal and chocolate skim milk (yeah, I don't do plain milk. Yuck.)

Lunch: yogurt, two slices whole wheat toast

Snack: string cheese and banana

Dinner: small portion of steak, potatoes, steamed mixed veggies, salad

Snack: one orange, one grapefruit

It seems like a lot all written out but I don't really want to feel like I'm "dieting". I just want to make healthy food choices and watch portion sizes. Oh, I was sure to drink a lot of water, too.

Exercise: Here is where I failed. I truly had good intentions to exercise. But the day got away from me. I'll do better tomorrow.

April 21 food and exercise

Breakfast: Cream of Wheat with Guittards.

A bite of string cheese and a few slices of apple.

Two tortillas with melted Velveeta, some carrots and dip, and a few pretzels.

A few Tootsie-Rolls and a cookie.

Grilled-cheese sandwich and tomato soup. A couple of cookies.

Exercise:
Nada today. Tired and cold all day.

The Ponytail Challenge

Hey Guys,
I know some of you may have already checked out The Ponytail Challenge, but for those of you who haven't (and for those who haven't checked it today!), I think you'll be interested in seeing this week's challenge. It goes RIGHT ALONG with the purpose of The Shady Glen! So please, feel free to stop by the Ponytail Challenge and check it out. Leave a comment saying you accept the challenge, report back in a week with your results, and you'll be entered to win yet another fabulous prize. She does a new challenge each week. It's AWESOME. Here's to success in the Glen and at the Challenge! Good luck everyone!

PS. I'm going to link the Ponytail Challenge on the side for everyone's convenience, and you are more than welcome to link it to your own personal blog as well. The more the merrier!

April 20 food and exercise

Breakfast: Cream of Wheat (in your honour, Genny!) with a few Guittards and about a tablespoon of Granola for kicks. I'd forgotten how yummy Cream of Wheat is!

Cookie.

Tortilla with melted Velveeta; carrots, celery and a bit of dip; strawberry yogurt; pretzels.

A few Guittards.

Apple crisp with a bit of Cool-Whip.

Chicken stroganoff, a couple of Tootsie rolls, and a cookie. Time to stop! ;)



Exercise:
I don't normally exercise on Sundays, but this morning, shock of all shocks, we were ready to go 30 minutes early, so we walked to church! And back (obviously!). I think the total walking time was 40 minutes or so, and I was carrying the thousand pound diaper bag (containing my scriptures, B's scriptures, M's scriptures, my lesson manual, diapers, wipes, toys, a couple Friend magazines, and I think a load of bricks. That thing's so blasted heavy!) --ok, I just weighed it and it only weighs 15 lbs. but it feels like a thousand.

Introduction (Alie)

My name is Alison but since I see two of those on this blog already and I often go by Alie anyways, that is what I'll post here!

Thanks, Kirsten, for inviting me to join in the fun here. This is a great idea for a blog site! I am excited to have something to keep me on track. For people who don't know me, my name is Alison Potter Bramhall. My family was dear friends with the Wall family for years while they lived in Duchesne and for years after, until my family moved to Texas and then we all sort of lost touch. I was thrilled to come across Kirsten again on my friend Amanda's blog.

I don't have a big story or any medical issues contributing to weight gain. Mine is just a basic combination of three kids, a love of food, and not a love of exercise! Not a good combination, I guess! After I got married, we both worked and ate out a lot that first year. That is when the pounds started going on, and then we had our first daughter. I joined Weight Watchers with my sister in law and had great success there. I lost the baby weight plus 15 pounds more and got in the best shape of my adult life. Then we had our second child. I joined Weight Watchers again but it wasn't as successful. I wasn't doing it with my sister in law anymore (she'd gone on to college) so it wasn't as motivating. Plus I was so busy with the two little ones. I got close to pre-baby weight but not quite. THEN we had our third child and he has been a challenging boy. He just has one of those high-maintenance personalities! There is just nothing placid or laid-back about him! He is two now and it seems like all I've done the past two years is try to survive it. I have hardly thought about my weight at all, although as I reflect I am not even close to weighing what I did before getting pregnant with him. However, he is definitely calming down a lot now and I have more time to focus on me a little bit. And I'm not liking what I see. The picture above was taken while in Florida very recently and I was discouraged looking at the pictures of me on the trip. Summer is coming and I don't want to look like this all summer! I am anxious to get fit and get healthy once again. So I'll be contributing regularly and I'm excited for the motivation. Thanks again, Kirsten!

Lo Siento

I am sorry I have been absent this week! I assure you that I have thought about you often though!

I posted a 1.6 pound loss this week, to bring my total weight loss since starting this blog to 8.2 pounds! It was my smallest weight loss so far, but I'll take it! It wasn't as disciplined a food week as last week. I indulged in a little pasta, Mexican and some ice cream and departed from my usual routine of Cream of Wheat and Eggos. :o) Next week will be better food-wise. But, if I can keep this up til the wedding I should reach my goal of not looking like the fat sister-in-law!

Imagine my delight this week when I put on a pair of darling capris I bought a couple of months before I got pregnant, ones that were tight and uncomfortable on me even right after I bought them, to find that they were so loose they were almost falling off! I actually found myself considering wearing a belt! It was a great feeling!

April 19 food and exercise

My Boys wanted to help me write this post, so here is their contribution: wvb


Anyway, breakfast: HoneyNut Cheerios and fat-free milk.


String cheese and about 6 pretzels (the little ones!), a few dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts.

Lunch: Strawberry yogurt, tortila with melted Velveeta and salsa, celery and carrots with a bit of dip.

String cheese, a few pretzels, some Guittards, some peanuts, and two mini-tootsie rolls.

Dinner: chicken stroganoff (YUM).

And probably apple crisp for dessert (rough day. Needed a pick-me-up).

Exercise:


2.08 mile walk (a little over an hour) with the Boys and Daddy (I think our resistance level was at about a 10, considering the wind was working against us the whole time, and we had to carry a Bag of Sugar and a Bag of Potatoes for large portions of the journey. If you don't know what a Bag of Sugar or a Bag of Potatoes is, you can ask me.) :-)

B and I are probably going to Jeopardize (we have several episodes of Jeopardy! backed up) while we eat dessert (which, like I said, will probably be apple crisp with Cool Whip), but I shall try try try to walk while doing it, at least to help a bit!

April 18 food and exercise

Breakfast: HoneyNut Cheerios/ Pops combo with fat-free milk.

Probably banana bread, string cheese and dry-roased, unsalted peanuts for a snack.

Some snitches of cookie dough and a cookie.

Tortilla with melted Velveeta, celery and strawberries.

Nacho-cheese gordita, some bites of Brent's Crunchwrap, and Ian's second taco that he didn't eat from Taco Bell.

Popcorn.

Exercise: 15-minute walk to Daddy's work and back. Yea, not much going on by way of health yesterday.

April 17 food and exercise

Sooo, I was gonna announce something yesterday, then lunch happened and I decided not to announce it, and then this morning I checked and it's reasonable, so I will go ahead and announce it. Yesterday morning I weighed myself and I was 154.6, over 2 lbs. less than I was last Sunday, and even less than my starting weight on this blog. I thought to myself (yesterday), "Ok, don't blow this! Don't blow this!" And I was doing pretty well, and then yesterday's lunch travesty happened (see yesterday's post for info). I thought I'd be done for sure, and be well above 160 (expect the worst, you know). This morning I checked, and I was 155.2! So there is still hope for me. Granted, I wish it still said 154.6, but as 155.2 is still less than last Sunday's weight, I accept it as good news. However, there are still a few days to go before Sunday's official weigh-in, so this is why I am posting it here after all: PLEASE KEEP ME ACCOUNTABLE! I really don't want to see an increase on Sunday again. I'm so tired of increases. I accept constant hounding and nagging all day long if that's what it comes to. Thanks in advance.


So, breakfast today: Honey Nut Cheerios/Pops combo with fat-free milk.

Graham cracker with frosting.


Strawberry.


Pretzels and a string cheese.

Two strawberries, strawberry yogurt, and a tortilla with melted Velveeta.

A few peanuts and a string cheese.

1 taco, cauliflower and celery with dip.

Bowl of ice cream with a spoonful of hot fudge sauce.

Exercise:

50-55 minute walk with the Boys, carrying Meister for a large part of it (which, I just measured, was about 1.75 miles).

April 16th-April is going by too fast!

Breakfast: CW (what else?)
Lunch: No time
Dinner: Campbell's old fashioned vegetable soup
Dessert: Js Kettle Corn (and boy I ate too much, my stomach is feeling it!)

Had kind of a crazy day today. I will post on my private blog if I ever get a few minutes more to myself...which probably won't happen the next few days due to the aftershocks of this crazy day.

April 16 food and exercise

Bowl of HoneyNut Cheerios/Pops with fat-free milk.


Banana.


String cheese.


Dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts.


Banana bread (2 slices, one with frosting, one without. Should've left the frosting off. Don't know why I even used it. Should've used cream cheese instead. That would've tasted better.)


Small salad with ranch dressing (alas, a lot of ranch dressing). Flame-broiled chicken sandwich (with nothing on it).

Pretzels.

1 tortilla with melted Velveeta, cauliflower and celery with a bit of lite ranch dressing.

Snitches of frosting.

A few Guittards.

Exercise:

10-15 minute walk to Harvey's Restaurant and back (10-15 minutes total, I'm afraid), where I partook of the salad and sandwich.

Hockey outside with the Boys. Not sure how long, but we were winded afterward.

April 15 food and exercise

Honey-Nut Cheerios and Pops with a few raisins and fat-free milk (one bowl total).


Graham cracker with frosting and a few pretzels.

Tortilla with Velveeta; cauliflower, carrots and celery with lite ranch dip; pretzels; another graham cracker with frosting.

String cheese; graham crackers with frosting.

2 tacos (meat/refried beans combo, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and salsa on a flour tortilla).

And I just brushed my teeth in hopes that I'll resist eating anything else while Brent and I watch our movie. However, as Brent hasn't been feeling too well lately, maybe resisting will be easier than I thought.




Exercise:

About 40-minutes' worth of a walk in the freeeeeezing cold wind (it looked so warm!) with the Boys this morning. It didn't feel like 40 minutes, so I wonder if I got our leaving time wrong.

22-minute walk with the Boys this evening to meet Daddy after work.

April 14th-OH NO taxes are due tomorrow

Breakfast: CW
Dinner: pasta tossed with butter, garlic salt and freshly grated parmesan cheese
Dessert: Some buttermilk syrup and some fudge buttons. Had a major sweet tooth tonight but fudge is so rich it satisfies it pretty quick.

More scrubbing and such. Kept pretty busy today, actually!

Now for taxes....

April 14 food and exercise

Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with raisins and fat-free milk.


Glass of ovaltine.


Tootsie Pop and a mint.


String cheese.


Slice of pizza and some cauliflower and celery.


A few apple slices.

Spaghetti.

Ice cream.

Exercise: A few-minute walk to Daddy's work and back with the Boys to meet Daddy when he was done. Not a healthy day for me today.

Genny, I went grocery shopping tonight though, and guess what I bought in your honour? Cream of Wheat.

April 13 food report

Bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios with raisins and fat-free milk.

A couple of strawberries, and some Chocolate-Caramel Popcorn-Nuts stuff.

2 slices of Maui Zaui pizza from RoundTable.

One bite of ice cream (our Home Evening treat).

Exercise:
I never exercise on Sundays, and today's no exception.

April 12 is super stealth

Yeah, couldn't think of anything else that rhymed.

Today I ate CW and then J surprised me with a trip to Outback. I had some cheese fries (probably too many) and then ordered an 8 ounce steak and 2 salads for my two sides. So I don't know if that's bad or not, I'm sure it's more calories than I have been eating lately, but it sure was nice to eat something other than eggos for dinner!

Tomorrow will be a tough day because Desperate Housewives is coming back on, and my best friend Elizabeth always comes over for every new episode and we make brownies or cookies or something. I don't think there will be any resisting going on! Hopefully I will be able to restrain myself, because I'd really like to stay in this decade.

April 12 to our health

(Yep, still a copycat, Genny!)

Banana bread for breakfast and snack.

Pizza and breadstick for lunch.

A couple Tootsie rolls. A string cheese (or was it two? I don't remember now.)

A couple granola bars, a few pretzels.

Pizza and breadsticks (this time from RoundTable. Much more delicious.)

Ice cream.

Not much exercising today. Yea... a not-good-for-my-waistline day.

Giving you the 4-1-1

Today's food: CW, chicken noodle soup, and one turkey & roast beef sandwich with medium cheddar cheese on a pumpernickel roll...yummmm.

Yeah, that's right, I actually changed things up today!
Oh, and a bowl of the famous kettle corn...hey I've been good all week!

Bad exercise again, but I spent more time cleaning (it is never-ending!)

April 11 on our way to Heaven

G, I just had to copy. I've been LOVING your "cheesy" titles!

Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with raisins on top, 2% milk.

Tootsie Pop.

Nachos, a bit of chili, a slice of apple, and a piece of banana bread (minus chocolate chips. I've had to conserve, and it is sooo boring to have banana bread without the precious Guittards!)

A sliver and a slice of pizza and two breadsticks from Little Caesars. And I am going to publish this now, so it is possible that it won't happen, but I might have some microwave popcorn in a bit too.


Exercise:
30-40 minute walk with Meister. However, it wasn't very exercise-y because Meister was feeling embarrassed (we'd been joined for a little while by a woman we met on our walks the other day), so he didn't want to do anything, and I was feeling upset because the mean CreekBridge lady had gotten mad at us for playing with their precious, million-dollar balloons (all the Boys ever do is touch them...), so the walk was just kind of um... not walk-y.

A short, maybe 20-minute walk this evening to get the pizza (and to see if the mean CreekBridge lady would get mad at us for touching their precious balloons again. Alas, they were taking them inside as we got to the crosswalk. Maybe I'll have words with her on Monday).

April 10, say it again

Oh my, what is up with me and cheesy rhymes?

April 9: CW, Salad, Eggos and Buttermilk Syrup, and a few pieces of Easter candy since we just got our Easter basket from the in-laws tonight. Lucky for me, it's mostly the kind of Easter candy I don't like :o)

April 10, CW for brunch, Eggos and buttermilk syrup for dinner (finally finished it off!).

It has become sadly apparent to me that the only way I lose weight is to eat very little. Lucky for me I am not feeling hungry. I've been lucky (in a manner of speaking) this week in that J hasn't been home for dinner at all, so I haven't had the calories I usually do at dinnertime. I've lost weight every day this week, which hasn't happened in....well, ever.

I am actually feeling encouraged that I might look decent before my brothers wedding (which is still, at this date, not even official...however, he did ask me my opinion on a couple of rings tonight!...ssssssssshhhhhhh don't say ANYTHING. He'd be so mad at me!!) However, I know that to lose I am going to have to keep this kind of diet up, which doesn't bother me a whole lot. What bothers me is knowing that the day I eat a little more than this is the day I gain a pound. It kind of ruins eating out for me. I cancelled a trip to Disneyland partly because I knew if I went I would be eating badly for three days and I didn't want to take that big a step backwards (my cancellation of the trip had nothing whatsoever to do with not wanting to spend 12 hours on a bus -6 of those hours being from midnight to 6 AM-, 3 nights in a hotel, and 16 hours in Disneyland with a 9 month old baby. Nothing at all.....my decision was completely health related. MENTAL HEALTH!!)

I just hope this keeps up for a few more weeks.

By the way, today was a MILESTONE day for me...I dropped into the next weight decade (I don't know what you call it when you drop into the next set of ten). I have made it here twice before, both times right before a vacation which shot me back up into the higher decade. I am determined to stay in this range and not shoot back up! Only about 4 1/2 pounds to go to reach pre-pregnancy!

Sorry if this is rambling, it's 1 AM and I have a headache!

April 10 food and exercise report and some other things

Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios in 2% milk with some mixed raisins on top.

Banana bread and nachos.

Nachos and chili.


Exercise: Took about a 45-minute walk with Meister this morning. Worked on the elliptical tonight for about 15 minutes, but then it was bedtime, and it took forever to get Meister down, so I didn't get back to it.

I'm feeling agitated right now regarding my weight. I've tried really hard to start eating more vegetables (I love most veggies, but my husband doesn't, so it makes it hard to justify buying them when they'll spoil before I can finish them). I've tried to incorporated smaller portions. I've been exercising this week (I regularly exercise, but last week I don't think I did at all due to a zillion million things going on). My weakness is the candy and sweets that've hanging around the house, leftover from my son's birthday party last weekend. But even then, I've tried to only indulge my sweet tooth with a couple, not ten every other minute. But I feel starving all the time, unless it's after a bowl of Cheerios (the blasted RaisinBran is still not gone, but I just can't take any more of it, and what's worse, I am so hungry especially after eating that). But the weight's not budging. When Brent and I decided we were going to get healthy, we knew that "giving up" delicious food was not going to work for us. We'd go crazy! So our plan was "all things in moderation" and exercise. On The Biggest Loser a couple of weeks ago, Bob (trainer) did a "trainer tip" before a string of commercials, and the tip was that once a week you do indulge in unhealthy food. You do this so that 1) you stay motivated the rest of the week to eat healthy, knowing you can indulge later; 2) your body doesn't go completely haywire with its cravings; 3) it helps jump-start your metabolism to help keep you on a path of loss. But how do I get the will-power to resist all week long? Telling myself, "Don't eat that Tootsie Roll today; you can eat it on Saturday!" isn't that thrilling; Tootsie Rolls don't excite me enough to look forward to eating one days later, but they do fill the need for sugar that I have right now. In the past, I just throw away the temptations, but that kills me, since this is stuff that MY MONEY went to, and I've said it before, I'm a cheapskate. How do I throw all this stuff away when it's the same as seeing my precious dollars burn?? And I know, I know, our dollar's not worth that much right now... blah blah blah. It's still worth that much to me. I still need those dollars! So... what am I to do? Suggestions? I weighed myself last night, just out of curiosity, and I was 158. Now, I don't weigh at night (at least not weights that I record) because I know that one's weight is always higher at night than it is in the morning. But I also know that when I weigh myself at night and then weigh myself in the morning, my morning weight is between 1 and 2 lbs. lighter than the nighttime weight. So when I weighed last night, I did so knowing a ballpark of where my "actual" number would be (aka the morning weight, which is the weight I have been using consistently). I also realize that I weighed mid-week, where I only count my Sunday morning weights. That being said, I was extremely upset to see a 158. That meant I was AT BEST at my same weight from last Sunday. At WORST, I was a pound UP. I weighed this morning (always before eating or drinking anything; I try to stay consistent in my recorded weights) and it said 155.4. So I felt a little better, but not much. That's only a 0.6 lb. loss. I guess we'll see on Sunday how I've done this week for sure, but until then, I'm annoyed... OK well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Oh, one bit of excitement from last night: I had just finished watching The Biggest Loser (we recorded it from Tuesday) so of course I had to get online to vote for who I wanted to be the third finalist. While on the site, I saw their BMI calculator. Guess what? I input my information and it said that I am in normal ranges! Granted, it was close to the top of the normal range, but still. For once I am in the normal range.

April 9 food and exercise report

Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with 2% milk.

A bite of a sugar cookie and a couple of Tootsie Rolls.

Veggie sandwich (whole wheat bread, mustard, lettuce, pickles, and a very small bit of cheese, as we were nearly out and I couldn't slice it well and didn't want to bother). Cauliflower and carrots with a bit of Romano cheese dressing. A couple of pretzels.

A couple of snitches of banana bread batter.

A bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with 2% milk for dinner, and a glass of Ovaltine (have to use up the 2% before it expires in a couple of days)


Exercise report:
52-minute walk with the Boys that included racing, running up and down a hill, and playing a serious game of "Frozen Tag".

April Eight and Doin' Great

Forgive me for the incredibly cheesy title.

Breakfast: CW

Lunch: Salad

Dinner: 2 eggos and buttermilk syrup (we have a lot left over from Sunday and I don't want to waste it)

Oh, and a few spoonfuls of the syrup-yes, it's THAT good. Like candy.

Exercise: again, no formal exercise. Had baby duty by myself all day except when I was teaching cuz J had rehearsal.

BUT I did do some heavy cleaning - as in scrubbing floorboards type cleaning, so at least I wasn't sitting on my tooshie all day.

April 8 food and exercise report

Half (if that) bowl of RaisinBran with fat-free milk. Yes, I am sick of RaisinBran. But that's not the reason I didn't finish it. I'd already poured my milk and started to take a bite when I realized the milk did NOT taste or smell good! It had expired only yesterday, but man, it was grody to the max. I couldn't bear the thought of wasting it (yes, I'm a cheapskate), so I tried to push through and just eat it anyway. I trusted that I wasn't going to die, even though the dude in an old episode of The Twilight Zone did. However, after a few bites, I couldn't handle it anymore. Sick-o.

Some pretzels (a couple of them dipped in vanilla frosting...). 2 string cheeses.

Carrots and cauliflower with a bit of veggie dip. A few mini Tootsie Rolls.

A banana.

Spaghetti.

Granola bar.

Exercise:

30-minute walk with the Boys this morning. Couldn't bear to make it any longer, it was too cold and windy out. 1.25 mile on the elliptical (res. 3). A few exercises on the ball.

Hello everybody!

(Before 4/4/08)

So Mary, my dear ol' roommate from Snow College, referred me here but I've been putting off a post introducing myself. So here goes it!

I used to be scrawny with some health troubles. My doc even suggested a Haugendaus (spelling? w/e!) diet. I could eat unhealthy stuff but still not gain anything; ding-dongs, ho-ho's, doritoes, candy and soda pop, etc. Heard of "the freshman 15" in college? Nope, I somehow seemed to loose 15 pounds instead during a slightly stressful time. Then I met my husband who is a good cook (yup, wow, a hubby who cooks; spagetti, lasagna, tacos, etc.) and so I finally gained a healthy weight! Yahoo! Years later now I've surpassed the healthy weight gain and on the verge of overweightness. Is it just me or does one tend to put on some weight after marriage? I should loose a little before children come along especially.

My husband and I have sort of let ourselves go - we ate icecream way too often, holidays would bring candy and decadent desserts (definetly no help there), and we didn't exersize all too well (though Eric does do Aikido once in a while). I tend to also eat as much has he does in portion-size (not good) which he then interprets as me competing with him (but I'm not trying to).

So the time has come to kick our butts into gear and we've made a goal to loose some fat, eat more healthy and proper portions, and exersize more. My weakness is junk food - sugar suGAR, SUGAR! I eat healthy but I also eat the unhealthy and I don't excersize enough. Now that it's getting to be warmer weather, it would be great to go outside for walks and bike rides. I'm counting calories and watching what I eat and definetly how much I eat. If I want a soda pop, that means no icecream or other sugary things, just one sugary item a day. My weight-loss goal is to loose 20 pounds in about 14 weeks or so and also get rid of my unsightly tummy flubby (looks like I'm pregnant). We've weighed ourselves each night so far since last Wednesday and I've nearly lost a pound so far! I'm even daring enough to include a before picture. In 14 weeks, I hope to post a much better looking, new and improved picture (and it won't be photoshopped in any way like many of those advertized weight loss before/after pics).

A support network is especially helpful to me and I'd love to make some more friends here. So check out my own personal blog (http://a-emonson.blogspot.com/) if you'd like to get to know me more than just by my weight goals. I look forward to getting to know you all more and good luck on the goals! I hope we all can reach them. :P Here goes!

Things to Think About

This may or may not be of any use to anyone, but I thought I would throw some ideas out there. Different things work for different people, these are a couple I've found that help me when I stick to them regularly. The first thing is to eat small, healthy snacks between meals. I'm talking something along the lines of an apple, carrot sticks, some yogurt, anything along those lines. I've found this helps in two ways: my blood sugar stays more level thus lowering the temptation of sweet things and I am not so hungry when mealtime arrives so I am more likely to eat a normal serving instead of overeating.

Another idea: increasing your protein intake compared to your carbohydrate intake will make you feel less need for more food. Protein generally takes longer to digest so you feel full sooner and longer. Your carbs are digested quickly, although higher fiber items take longer than sugars or starches, then the proteins are still there to keep you from needing food right away. (This lesson was learned from my diabetic roommate.) It really does help. Good sources of protein include meat, nuts, beans, and most dairy products, amongst other things.

I did get about twenty minutes of exercising on my exercise ball today. We had snow this morning so I couldn't get out for a walk. :-( However, I'm afraid I had several peanut butter cups to counteract all the good I got out of exercising. (They were just sitting there on the table, taunting me, what could I do?)

Meager Monday

Food: breakfast at 2:45 PM (yeah, it was one of those days): CW
Dinner: 2 eggo waffles with buttermilk syrup (see recipe below or on Sugar and Spice)
I was feeling a bit malnourished, so I am currently eating a bowl of vegetable beef soup. Only 80 calories per serving. All in all, I think I ate about 800-900 calories today. I probably should be a little better about that.

Exercsie: No formal exercise. I'm sorry I let you down Kirsten. It was just one of those days, and by tonight when JJ and I were both home and JJ could watch Rylie, I decided to use that time for cleaning instead of exercising. I did the dishes and started going through some cookbooks. While I was looking through the cookbooks, I did walk around and around my kitchen island, so I got a few hundred extra steps in there :o)

April 7 food

Bowl of Crunchy Nums and fat-free milk.

Sugar cookie with rainbow chip frosting.

Veggie sandwich; cauliflower, carrots and celery with dip; a couple of mini Tootsie Rolls; a glass of lemonade; a string cheese.

Snitches of a brownie. (How do I curb these major sweet-tooth cravings? Actually, this is something I wanted to blog about -- remind me, somebody --, after catching a few minutes of "I Can Make You Thin" on tv before Brent and I watched LOTR the other night.)

An apple with peanut butter.

Spaghetti.

A bowl of Crunchy Nums (it was either that or another brownie. The Crunchy Nums have to be better, right?). Ok, make that two bowls of Crunchy Nums. I was so hungry! Why was I so hungry? I did NOT feel satisfied, and I certainly didn't feel full; instead, I felt desperate. GRR.

HOWEVER, when Brent got home from his meeting, we were going to finish watching LOTR: ROTK, and he automatically went to pop some popcorn. I resisted it completely! I didn't even have a single kernal!


Exercising:
45-minute walk with the Boys this morning. 1.25 mile walk this evening (about an hour) at resistances 3 and 4 on the elliptical. Did a few exercises on the exercise ball, but then Ian came and sat on my lap, so that didn't last long. Didn't use the weights tonight because I needed to shower before Brent got home from his meeting.

I didn't drink as much water as I should have, but this is now an issue. See, the water from the tap here STINKS. It is so ultra-disgusting, enough to make you want to vomit. So we usually buy water from the water mill by City Hall, but in an effort to save money, we have changed our ways. (A gallon of water from the water mill was $0.15; from the tap it's something microscopic like $0.01 or something.) We bought a Brita water filter and have been using that instead. It helps -- at least it makes the water drinkable -- but no longer is water enjoyable to drink, and certainly not refreshing. All we drink around here is water or milk (except for after birthday parties when we have leftover lemonade, as was the case this weekend), and as milk is so outrageously expensive, we try to just drink water, but how do we bear to drink it when it leaves this nasty aftertaste?

My Story....

Well, I have almost been avoiding this, but I guess it is about time that I give my story. Before I went on my mission I weighed 110 pounds. On my mission I gained 50 pounds. I came back from my mission and lost some inches here and there, but for the last 5 years, I have not lost a single pound. Like I said, I have lost some inches, just not pounds. Instead it has been adding and adding and adding (especially with the pregnancy). I exercise faithfully and nothing happens. I eat healthier and smaller portions, and nothing changes (doing the exercising and eating together). I feel like I am at my wits end trying to get things to work. Just before Thanksgiving I started eating smaller portions and stopped snacking on candy throughout the day. As we are still organizing our house and going through all of our stuff, we have candy still from 4 years ago when we were first married, I have been throwing away all of the candy that we have in the house (except the most recent Easter candy since it is still eatable). We have a small snack bag of kisses from Craig's mom (which is our Easter candy) and I ate one yesterday and I can't remember before that when I ate one. Anyway, so I have been staying away from candy and sweets as much as possible. I have been walking on my treadmill at least 30-60 min. and doing my ball exercises, but nothing seems to happen. I had to stop the last 2 weeks because with organizing the house and getting the dishwasher in, we had to put everything in the room that I normally exercise in. I just thought that being a "part" of The Shady Glen would perhaps have people giving suggestions of things that they have done to help them loose weight and I wanted to see what others were doing to see if it would work for me. Anyway, this is my story.

Meg's Story

Okay, ever since Genny made me an author I've been intending to add a post, it's just been too hard to find time. Most of the time when I'm checking out blogs I'm holding a baby (or two) which makes it very difficult to type. So, we'll see if I get very far now since I know one of the girls just woke up.

In high school I was very skinny, usually on the too-skinny side if you go by official "healthy weights" and whatnot. When I got my driver's license, for example, I weighed 105. It was very hard to give up that license when I had to ten years later because I knew I would never again have a license that said I weighed 105. Anyway, I went to college and gained, and gained, and gained. By the end of college I weighed around 150, if I recall correctly. I then moved to Alaska which was a very interesting experience weight-and-exercise-wise. During the summer my friends and I were exercising incessantly, I walked and biked everywhere. We hiked, we played soccer and frisbee. We were outside all the time enjoying the sunshine. Then winter would come and we watched movies. So my weight would go down in the summer and up over the winter. I really didn't make any gains since I was back around 150 when I moved back to UT. I did learn one thing about my diet from my time in AK: it is terribly unhealthy. My roommate was diabetic and had to eat well for her health. I learned just how bad my diet is by comparing it to hers.

The next mistake I made was buying a car. Once I had a car it was way too easy to drive instead of biking/walking. So my exercising decreased significantly. I made occasional attempts to increase it, but my willpower is extremely lacking (thus why I am excited about this blog and being shamed into better shape :-). My weight did not improve during my time in UT, I mostly floated between 150-155.

I believe when I moved to WY and met my husband I weighed around 155. (I've avoided scales for so much of my life that I only have guestimates on my weight.) I did quite a bit of walking and biking when I first got to WY, so I wasn't gaining and may have even lost a little bit, but it couldn't have been much, just guessing from the way my clothes fit at the time.

Getting married changed my lifestyle significantly. Almost all exercise stopped. (Why would I walk/bike to an event when my husband was going to drive there? That would just be silly.) I also started eating a lot more. Not intentionally, it just kind-of happened that I took on his habits of eating without letting go of any of mine. I would eat something in the morning, I would eat a bigger lunch than I was used to because I would eat with him, I would eat a meal when I got home from work, and then I would eat another meal when he normally ate dinner -- quite late. Needless to say, I started gaining weight. Less than a year later, just before I got pregnant, I weighed right around 165. I was right to the point where I either had to lose some weight or buy a whole new wardrobe because my clothes were not fitting so well anymore. I really hate that feeling. Then I got pregnant and had to buy a whole new wardrobe anyway.

Pregnancy worked a little differently for me than it does for most women: I lost weight. The first ten weeks I lost 15 lbs. At my first doctor's appointment I weighed 149. I was really, really morning sick. Not fun at all. I couldn't keep anything down. The doc assumed it was because I was having twins. After a few weeks of nausea medication I did start to gain. But judging from the results after the babies were born, I really don't think I gained anything other than baby and water weight. Two weeks after the babies came I weighed 143! The lowest I've weighed in years. It felt really good. I fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes better than I had fit in them pre-pregnancy.

Over the past six months, however, I made the mistake of assuming that breastfeeding two babies would keep the weight off and I haven't been very good at watching what I eat. I also haven't gotten in much exercise at all. It was too cold to walk with the babies and, adding to my list of excuses, the babies take up a lot of time. So my weight has gone back up. I'm right around 155 again.

According to the BMI range for my age and height (5'6") I should weigh between 118 and 155. In other words, I'm right on the verge of overweight. I'd really like to get away from that line. My goal is to get back down to the 135-140 range. Then I could get a whole new wardrobe of smaller clothes, instead of larger ones. :-) I'm going to focus mostly on exercise. I intend to work on eating better, too, but I am nursing two babies so I do have to eat A LOT right now. If I go more than about three hours without eating I feel awful. I'm not sure if I'm up to posting everything I eat every day, but I'll work up to that. However, I love the idea of having to post how much I exercise. I think that will get me going better. Last week I did okay, but not great. I got out for one walk, thank goodness it's getting warmer now, and I spent 25 min on my exercise ball one day. I took a short walk today, too. My basic goal is to walk as often as possible, mostly because that's the easiest way to exercise with the babies, they love to get outside. On days when I can't walk my goal is to spend time on my exercise ball, 20-25 min. I will try to cut out some of the candy and sweets in my diet, also. That's far more difficult since I've been married. I never buy candy, however, my dear husband hits every after-holiday candy sale. We have Halloween candy, Christmas candy, Valentines candy, and Easter candy currently in our house. Some of it is easy for me to avoid; the chocolate, on the other hand... I guess that's my challenge. Like I said, I'll work my way up to posting what I eat. That will be especially good after I start weaning the babies and I will definitely need to cut back on the food intake.

What's YOUR story?

We are so excited that so many of you have wanted to join us in The Glen. Thanks for your interest! But now we are turning the tables; Genny and I are interested in YOU! What's your story? What is your weakness that you want to conquer? What is your strength that you want to share with others? What is your weight-loss goal and what are your plans to reach it? Let's all come together to support each other and build each other and help each other on our journeys to Health Freedom. So all of you current authors, let us know what's up! And all of you readers who want to be authors, email Genny or me and we'll hook you up so you can share your story too. Good luck, one and all!

By the way, Genny and I did "before" pictures to help "shame" us into sticking with our goals. You are free to do the same, but you are in no way obligated.

Also, check out the sidebar. We'd love to have your ideas of little ways you've found to get healthy, so feel free to share! Thanks! Once we have some great ideas there, we'll move it over as a post so we can always refer to it, but for now, this is the easiest way to let everyone contribute to the same thing. (Let me know if you can't access it.)

And finally, we've got a bit of a pattern going now in The Glen, where we document our food-intake each day. We are going to incorporate another Daily Record, which is whether or not we have exercised that day. So, authors all, join us!

I'm At It Again

Thanks to Kirsten and Genny, I felt so guilty when I saw their new blog, Shady Glen, (I love the sound of that title! Ahhhh!) that I decided I had better start accepting Maria's and Katrina's invitation to exercise with them in the mornings. I have done it a record total of three times now. I am so proud of myself. I was always good at exercising daily, until I started feeling the little aches and pains of age coming on, then I let myself slack off. Actually, part of the problem is that I have such an early morning schedule, and I have to do all cleansing of clothing and body in the early morning hours - due to the electricity program that we participate in here in Idaho to save on our power bill - and we are out of hot water early in the day, so it isn't a pleasant idea to go exercise AFTER getting all clean and beautiful (well, sort of ) and then going down to the basement to jump around and get all unclean and unbeautiful. In the summer I weed like crazy EARLY in the morning, then come in and make myself presentable, and since I am not a dainty weeder, I count those 3 or 4 hours of hard physical labor as my exercise. Now I am thinking that is not enough. So thanks for the boost, and wish me luck in sticking to my new efforts.

Fallin' off the wagon

Waffles for breakfast, salad for dinner, and then.......

A WHOLE BAG OF JJ's KETTLE CORN.

Wha...?!?!?! Dang, I really blew it on that one.

April 6 food

Bowl of "Crunchy Nums" (aka Honey Bunches of Oats) with 2% milk (for some reason the fat-free wasn't out and I was too lazy to get it).

Some snitches of brownie throughout the day.

Some Tootsie Rolls.

4-inch Subway sandwich with all the fixins (minus mayo and oil/vinegar and the gross stuff like olives). Cauliflower, carrots and celery with dip. Strawberries and grapes.

4-inch Subway sandwich (that I didn't finish! I only ate half of it 'cause I was full from the veggies and ... the brownie and ice cream we'd had for our Home Evening treat before dinner), carrots, cauliflower and celery.

Brownie and ice cream...

Didn't do so well today. It was Mitch's party, after all...

Let's see. Raisin Bran with fat-free milk minus the Froot Loops (couldn't handle them anymore). Some snitches of sugar-cookie dough. Some sugar cookies. Some snitches of frosting (yea, I checked the calories on the frosting AFTER I'd eaten it. There's like 150 calories in just two tablespoons! What was I thinking?? That one's gotta stop). Two 4-inch Sub sandwiches (one for lunch, one for dinner). Carrots, cauliflower and celery with veggie dip (lite). Strawberries, grapes and apples. A brownie with ice cream. A couple tootsie rolls. Some pretzels.

Oh yea, and I haven't exercised all week. No wonder I gained. Ugh. However, now Mitch's birthday and subsequent party are over, Easter is over, and hopefully I have new-found resolve to handle my Boys better so that by the time I get them to bed I'm not completely exhausted (last week I had the Boys to myself 3 of the nights due to Brent's meetings, and this coming week I'll be bed-timing them by myself 3 nights due to meetings and class for Brent, so I'm hoping I do better this week. Last week was rough) so I can start exercising again and not just want to flop on the couch with a bowl of popcorn.

MUST DO BETTER!

Pioneer Pancakes

This morning (well, early afternoon) I was continuing my Spring cleaning/organization project (again, credit to Mary, Kelly Ann, and Caryn for the inspiration). I decided to tackle my baking/recipe cupboard. This is where I keep all of my spices, baking supplies, cookbooks, and the like. As I was cleaning I came across a little plastic baggie full of wheat with a recipe attached to it for Pioneer Pancakes. I remember getting it in Relief Society about 3, 6, 10 months ago or so and since I am easily distracted when it comes to cleaning, I decided to pause my organizational efforts and make these pancakes since we hadn't eaten breakfast yet. I justified it by telling myself that making the pancakes would make it possible for me to throw away the baggie, thus making more space in my cupboard. They actually turned out really good, and I figure they have to be healthy since you make them with wheat, so I am including the recipe here. Hopefully those of you that have a closet full of food storage wheat and don't know what to do with it (speaking from experience) will find this recipe as easy and tasty as I did:


Pioneer Pancakes
Blend together:

1 cup milk
3/4 cup whole wheat

Blend for 4 minutes. Turn blender to low.

Add:

2 eggs
1T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp. oil

Batter will be runny. Cook on hot griddle (mine worked best at around 300-350 degrees)

And since every good pancake needs some GREAT syrup, here is my favorite syrup recipe (although I didn't make it today, no buttermilk on hand). I think this recipe is from Grandma Hansen, but I am not sure. Maybe mom or one of my dear aunts can tell me for sure.

Buttermilk Syrup

1 c. butter
1 c. buttermilk
2 c. sugar
1/4 c. dark Karo syrup
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla

Place first 5 ingredients in large sauce pan. (baking soda makes it foam up and tends to boil over, so watch carefully) Simmer on low til sugar dissolves, remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve warm. Also great as ice cream topping

And now, for no reason at all but to have this recipe preserved online and not on a loose piece of paper floating around in my cupboard, is a recipe for Brown Sugar Frosting that is DEFINITELY from Grandma Hansen (I know because I ate tons of this at the last Hansen Family Reunion) and is absolutely delish:

Brown Sugar Frosting

1 1/2 c. brown sugar mixed with 1/4 c. cream or rich milk and 2 T butter

Bring to boil, boil 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and beat until creamy. If too stiff, add cream to right consistency. Add 1 t. vanilla (and I am assuming you mix it again after that!)

Enjoy!

Today was a fairly good food day. I had some more of JJs Caramel Kettle corn for breakfast...oops. Then we had the Pioneer Pancakes, where I tried to go light on the syrup. I would rather have just a little full flavored syrup than a lot of the "light" syrup!

For dinner we went to Bill Johnson's for my mother in law's 60th birthday. I ordered the salmon, which I think is pretty healthy. I had corn, a roll, a salad, and mashed potatoes with it. I wish I hadn't eaten the mashed potatoes. They weren't very good. Nothing really was, actually. The salmon was OK, but only after you put a little melted butter on it, so that kind of defeated the purpose! Oh well, tomorrow is Sunday so I should be able to eat better and then we can get back on track for the weekdays.

Friday

Cream of Wheat, then Outback as described below. I actually did it! If I hadn't written my plan down before I went I probably wouldn't have been able to be "good" (good is in quotes, because let's face it, it was Outback...so even being good isn't really all that good).

I also had JJs yummmmmmmmy caramel kettle popcorn for dessert. Had a little too much of that. It was just sooooo good!

I expect to be up tomorrow, in part due to Outback and in part due to the fact that for medicinal purposes I have had to drink a lot of calories today (cranberry juice). I don't like to drink calories, but today it was unavoidable.

I'm running out of ideas to title each post about the day's food...

Had a bowl of FrootLoops/RaisinBran (getting sick of them, yes. Can't wait till they're gone and we can open a new box of Nums) with fat-free milk.


A few snitches of the sugar-cookie dough I made for Mitch's party tomorrow.


Maybe 7 pretzels, plus about 4 broken on my salad which consisted of lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, raisins and sesame seeds with Romano cheese dressing. 1 slice peanut butter and jam sandwich.

1 string cheese. 1 graham cracker. Some Guittards.

Velveeta Chili and tortilla chips for dinner. I want to have some popcorn after the Boys go to bed, but my tummy is feeling funky so that might not happen. We'll see.

"Emotional" Eating

Does anyone do this? On The Biggest Loser, they're always blaming emotional eating for so many of the weight problems. Well, I'm not sure if I do or not. Last night, for instance, I had a bowl of ice cream. It had been an AWFUL night. (Today is following suit...) By the end, I was exhausted, physically, mentally, emotionally. I wanted a bowl of ice cream. I wanted it to taste good, to calm my nerves, to sit in my stomach and take the energy from my brain. (Alas, it didn't. This is why I usually don't buy chocolate chip ice cream. I opt for the good stuff when I buy ice cream, like Denali Peanut Butter Cup, or Andes Cool Mint... However, it's for Mitch's birthday party tomorrow, so he got to choose.)

Often at night after the Boys have gone to bed, whether or not it was difficult, I feel a need to eat something. A few months ago my first food of choice would've been a bowl of cereal, but I'm sick to death of Raisin Bran and Froot Loops, but that's often what we have lately because it's the cheapest stuff at Foods Co. So cereal's out for my After-the-Boys-are-Down food (though, when I do have a bowl of cereal, that's often all I'll need. I love cereal.) We have had granola bars (Golden Almond and Oats & Honey from Sunbelt) the last few days, so I often go for one of those, but that doesn't quite fit the bill, so that's when one more gets eaten. We have pretzels on hand all the time, but I hardly ever "crave" those, and after eating a few it just makes me want something completely different even more. Which is usually when I grab a few Guittards. But this eating isn't "emotional" for me, I don't think anyway. It feels instead like my body telling me, "Hey, you only ate a bit at dinner, I need more to keep functioning!" even though I'm not anorexic or anything. Do I just need to fight through this, perhaps this is why I've plateaued the last few months, because my body is still trying to adjust to a new weight and a lower caloric need? Or is this some sort of "emotional" eating that I just don't recognize because denial is the first step? In the above paragraph, about last night's ice cream, I could see how that would be emotional, but last night was really rough. So what about all the other times? Any thoughts?

Oh Give Me Strength

The weekend is here....and that means restaurants! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

JJ and I were totally going to eat at home tonight, but Richard and Lauren want to go out, and we aren't ones to say no to FAMILY, so we all decided to eat at Outback. I plan on being much healthier than I normally am there-Alice Springs Chicken, but no fries (salad instead), no mushrooms, and light cheese. Of course, I AM going to have to have a few cheese fries. I would just feel too cheated if I didn't.

Tomorrow we are going out to dinner with JJs family for his Mom's 60th birthday. I don't know where we are going yet or I'd be planning ahead for that one too. I hate going to restaurants and eating off their low-cal menus, so hopefully I will find enough out where we are going early enough that I can check the nutritional facts online.

I can tell you, though, there's no way I'd be planning to eat healthy at a restaurant if it weren't for this blog! Especially Outback!

Good Day

Another good day! CW (I eat Cream of Wheat so much that I figure I will save oodles of time if I just write CW instead of its full name every time I write it. Of course, I've just wasted a lot of that saved time by including this paranthetical statement after it.), Salad, and a soup bowl (hey there was only one left at the grocery store last night. It needed a home). Oh, and a few crumbly Lay's cheddar sour cream chips-only a few :o)

Today's Food

Water and levoxyl.

1 bowl Raisin Bran/Froot Loops with fat-free milk. Water and multivitamin.

About 6 (maybe more...) bites of left-over Peanut Butter Brownies. 1 string cheese.

Pretzels; 1 slice toasted cheese; cauliflower, carrots, raisins, sesame seeds, a bit of lettuce, Romano cheese dressing.

A few Guittards (by "Guittards" I always refer to their milk chocolate chips).

Pretzels.

Leftover Venetian Apricot Chicken (1 breast plus a bite) and asparagus. (The menu said it was low-fat...)

Pretzels and a few Guittards.

A bowl of chocolate chip ice cream (that wasn't that creamy, which made me sad, considering it was a rough night and I was really hoping for some creamy ice cream.)

Revenge of the Nerds

It was another good food day-cream of wheat, oatmeal, and waffles....no, it wasn't all for breakfast, and yes, I just realized that everything I ate today was a breakfast food. Alas, I am not as creative with my meals as Kirsten is. I find something boring that requires absolutely no thought on my part, and I stick with it. Oh, I also had some of Rylie's little dried apple snacks. Those are good!

My little success for the day: I was organizing one of my cupboards (thanks to Mary and Kelly Ann for their inspiring organization stories...all I can think about is how to organize my house now. Notice I said think. Although I did actually organize one drawer and half a cupboard, I spent most of my time sitting in front of my cupboards, staring blankly as I wondered what on earth I could possibly do to organize them) and as I was pulling things out of the cupboard, I came across an unopened package of Nerds that I had forgotten about. On any other day, sans blog, I would have opened that package and gobbled them right up. But not THIS day! No sir! I threw those blasted balls of sugar right into the garbage. Score 1 for me, zilch for the Nerds.


OK, here is the embarrassing part. These are officially my "before" pictures, even though they were taken almost three years ago. These were taken the year I gained 30 pounds with the PCOS (that 30 pounds was gained while exercising and running daily, and eating healthy). I was so disheartened when I saw these pictures, and positively dismayed when my mom put one of them on display in her house. I am thankfully not this weight anymore, but I am not far enough away from it for my comfort either.

Even though I know I am a couple sizes smaller now I can't help but be afraid that this is how I still look to other people.

This is a picture taken after the metformin 25 pound loss and about 3 weeks before I got pregnant.

So there you have it! Guess there's no turning back now!

So how did everybody else do today?

Forgot to write yesterday's food...

So here's what I ate yesterday, that I can remember:

Breakfast: glass of water with my levoxyl an hour before Nums (aka breakfast). Bowl of FrootLoops with fat-free milk.

Lunch: cauliflower and carrots with sesame seeds and Romano cheese dressing (oh yum). Puh-Buh/Jam (aka peanut butter and jam) sandwich on homemade white with a bit of whole-wheat mixed in bread (oh and it was so yummy too! I've never made bread so very soft! Alas, that was just about the end of the four loaves I made).

Snacks (throughout the day): a few Guittards (always), a little chocolate soccer ball that was left over from the Boys' Easter candy. A few pretzels. One or two granola bars (can you see where my problem area is? I'm a major snacker). An apple that I shared with the Boys.

Dinner: Left-over Experimental Tater Tot Casserole (see The Behemoth for the recipe).

Breakfast today: bowl of RaisinBran/FrootLoops (yes, I'm a mixer) with fat-free milk. Glass of water with my vitamin (and a glass of water an hour earlier with my levoxyl).

Lunch: Tortilla chips with salsa. Cauliflower, carrots, crushed tortilla chips, sesame seeds, and raisins with Romano cheese dressing. One sliced toasted cheese. Peanut-butter brownies and ice cream (today's Mitch's birthday).

Dinner: A breadstick, some green salad, a couple of little pieces of bread with yummy cheese fondue, and Venetian apricot chicken from Olive Garden. I ate the broccoli and asparagus, and part of the first piece of chicken. Drank water instead of my usual lemonade. Had another peanut-butter brownie when we got home.

Well, gee

I don't know how THAT--------------------------------------------------------------------------->
happened! Grrrrrr......

One Day Down

Well, so far this blog is working! More than once today the thought "Do you want to have to write that on the blog?" went through my mind.

Here's the food list for the day:
Breakfast-oatmeal, half glass of milk
Lunch-salad
Dinner-Soup and bread bowl

Dinner was one of my "little successes" today. I love soup bread bowls, but when I have them I tend to use too much cheese and eat too much soup. So tonight I used less than one slice of cheese and didn't sprinkle any cheese or bacon bits on top of the soup (both of which I usually do) and instead used pepper for a little extra flavor. I also only cooked half of the can of soup so I wouldn't be tempted to eat the whole can (a difference of 160 calories!). I am glad I did that because by the time I finished dinner I was satisfied, but if I had had more soup sitting on the stove I totally would have eaten it, whether or not I felt full.

One *little* failure today was that I had brownies for dessert (small ones...usually we cut them VERY large). But I don't feel that bad. See, I managed to resist eating them all day long. AND I didn't have a glass of milk with them, saving another 100 calories. I told myself I couldn't eat them unless I spent 15 minutes on the elliptical, and I went 20. So I figure I earned a little reward :o)

I actually am looking forward to weighing in the morning! Keep your fingers crossed.

The Ugly Truth (Before)

I couldn't find "the" picture I wanted to, the one where I really felt the worst, but I did find these two beauties, and my, the more I look at them, the more they just might take over as The Worst Picture Taken of Me Ever. The picture I was originally looking for showed me from the side, and boy was I wide. It was the most disheartening thing ever when I saw that picture.

These are both 2006. July and November, if I'm not mistaken.

I CAN'T look like these again! "Don't let me get me!" (Thanks, Pink!)

Care to Join Us in the Glen?

Kirsten and I were chatting and realized that it might be fun to have a few of our friends and family join us in the shady glen as authors. I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner, but if you are interested in posting about your weight loss feats and foibles, your tips, ideas, frustrations, triumphs, or whatever, contact me or Kirsten. We'd love to have you, and the more people holding us accountable, the better off we'll be, I suspect!

Kirsten's Story

Kudos to Genny for her bravery. I shall attempt to do the same, and not hide anything, as embarrassing as it may be for me. Bear with me, please.

Those of you who have known me all my life know that I have never been skinny. In high school I wore a size 10 I think, but the truth is, I honestly don't remember, because I hated it so much that I tried not to pay attention to what the size was, as long as it fit. I went away to college and actually lost weight (again, I know no numbers because of my fear of the scale; I'm just going by how my clothes fit and what people would say to me) over the course of the three years I was there. I don't remember pant sizes, but I do remember that I could fit into medium tops when I moved home in 2000, and that made me thrilled.

Up to this point, I wasn't that active. In high school I was on the soccer team (but I was a crappy player, so I didn't get much playing time) and I took social dance and aerobics, but that didn't really seem to help me much. I would occasionally exercise at home using Matt's workout tape of Dolph Lundgren "Maximize Your Potential" or something like that. Hey, Dolph's handsome. :) I never stuck with it regularly though. During the summer months, Mom and my sisters and I would try to go on morning walks around the neighborhood, but that wasn't regular for me either because I really hate waking up. Mom soon bought the Prevention magazine's exercise tape of "Fat to Fit in 3o Minutes", which I really liked, but it was more for strength-training, not cardio. I would do that occasionally too, but again, not regularly. In college Maria and I would go walking as often as we could, but our schedules would get so crazy with classes and work and fatigue, that that was haphazard too. So again, I say I lost weight in college, but that was not because I was regularly "exercising"; it was just because I hauled around a thousand pounds of books on my back all over the huge BYU campus (it was probably the hike from the RB up to the Benson building after HEPE and before D&C that did it. There were a million stairs!!) and was in love with the Creamery's yogurts, so I would choose that instead of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Ok, so now where are we chronologically? Oh yea, I moved home in August 2000, and I tried to be better about exercising, for a while anyway, because my Mom is so healthy. That worked for a few weeks (at a time. I often start and stop things over and over.) I was still at a better weight than I'd ever been in high school, I think (again, based on how my clothes felt and how I felt overall about my body), but I was still a far-cry from "skinny". Then in the summer of 2001 I moved back to Provo with Ariana, and I got a job on campus as, among other things, a receiver for the Cannon Center, which meant I had to have a physical done to get a license driving the big trucks. At the physical I weighed 155 (if my memory holds true). I thought, wow, that's better than I thought! I asked the doctor what I should weigh, and he said that based on my height (5'61/2") I should probably weigh about 10 lbs. less (is that right? Does anyone have the true numbers, if there are true numbers for this?). I was actually feeling really good about that, because I thought I should be weighing 10 lbs. total (that's always how it felt). Ok, so then I met Brent, he liked me, I liked him, we got engaged, and got married in 2002. I had hoped to lose a few pounds before the big day because I thought that's what all brides are supposed to do, but it didn't happen. Instead, I know I gained a bit (I blame the fat-milk that I had to use on my cereal every morning. Those of you who don't know what was going on then can ask me via email if you really want the dish on that), but not that much. I was still feeling good, feeling like I was skinnier than I had ever been. Fast forward 6 months, and I am pregnant with Mitch. Starting weight: 166. At my last doctor's appointment before Mitch was born (2003), I weighed 192.5. YUCK. 6-weeks later Mitch is 1-month old and happily nursing and I am going to my doctor's appointment for my post-partum checkup. I weighed 162. I was feeling so awesome! I'd lost all my pregnancy weight and then some! I thought I was invincible, that breast-feeding was the cure-all, and as long as I breast-fed Mitch, I couldn't be stopped, I'd be skinny for sure. So... I'll be honest, I was reckless. Ice cream? Give it to me. Nutty bars? Hand 'em over. Candy bars? YUM. Just in the next three months, I could tell I'd really packed on the weight. Not pretty.

We moved to Idaho in August 2003, and I realized I was much heavier than I'd ever been besides when I was pregnant. I really tried to eat healthfully. I soon was walking 6 miles a day (one day I was especially ambitious and walked 12 miles, all in one day! I thought I'd dropped ten pounds easily that day), five days a week, and doing strength-training 3 days a week, and I rarely missed. I was an exercising queen! Then I went to my gynecologist I think in July 2004 for a regular Pap-smear or something, and I weighed 185 (you don't realize how hard it was to type those numbers just now!). I asked her what was going on, because despite my manic exercising and healthful-eating, I was up at least 10 lbs. from the previous summer when I thought I could get no heavier. She ran some tests, and I was told over the phone that I had too much insulin, or something, but I didn't dare go back to find out more because our insurance was refusing to cover anything, and I didn't dare incur more costs. Nonetheless, the weight was here to stay.

In October 2004 we moved back to California and I resumed my old job working at Monterey Credit Union. In February or March 2005, I forget which, we found out I was pregnant with Ian. At my first appointment with the doctor, I weighed 177. At the end of my pregnancy, I weighed 198 I think. 6 weeks later I had only lost 19 lbs., so I was at 179. Breast-feeding wasn't playing the Miracle Worker it had before. A couple of weeks later, for Christmas, we decided to use some of my disability money to get an elliptical machine. 2006 was to be the year of weight-loss. Brent and I really tried to be regular about exercising, and the weight melted off of Brent. Not for me though. However, at this same time, I learned I had a thyroid problem. I had been really shaky (visibly) for at least months now (Ariana says I had been shaky for much longer, but I can't verify this as I always just either attributed it to being hungry or having something to do with being pregnant), and I was always overheating (which, again, I attributed to being pregnant), and my ob-gyn suspected a thyroid problem. I went to see an endocrinologist in January 2006, and the results were that I was hyperthyroid (too much thyroid hormone). My doctor told me I should have been losing weight just by breathing, so he was confused about why it was acting the opposite. He gave me medication to basically "kill" the thyroid. I don't think I was losing any weight at this point. In May my thyroid was sufficiently "dead", so I was given medication to reactivate my thyroid, as at this point I was now hypothyroid (too little thyroid hormone). More weight came my way. In September 2006 I was referred to a new endocrinologist who specialized in my problem areas. Dr. Garcia (new guy) was so great. He listened to everything I had to say, and was determined to get to the bottom of all of this. He ran some more tests, and discovered that I was borderline PCOS (see Genny's post below about the effects of poly-cystic ovarian syndrome), and, like Genny, I was put on Metformin. The Metformin occasionally gave me the runs (sorry, all you queasy folks), but other than that, I didn't have any side effects. November 2006 I weighed my highest non-pregnancy weight: 187. Yeah. I was a fatty.

We went home to Idaho for Christmas 2006, and I was loving every minute of the Christmas Sweets at the Wall house. Christmas is the best!!! However, I thought for sure I was even closer to 200 than I was before. January came and I tried to jump-start the last-year's resolution and get my fat self back on the elliptical. I don't even remember why, but sometime in the first couple of weeks of January 2007 I decided to get on the scale, just to see where I stood. I was SHOCKED. I was down 6 or 8 lbs. I could NOT believe it, and attributed it solely to the Metformin. That did it though. It was the first time I could remember ever really losing weight and really being aware of the loss in terms of numbers. Brent and I attacked that elliptical like it was going out of style. Soon I was down 12 lbs. and my mother-in-law was telling me my face looked skinnier, and had I lost weight? What? She could tell??? AAAH! Hurray! Then the receptionist at my chiropractor's office said I looked like a whole new woman. WHAT? That much of a difference?? Oh my GOODNESS. I was feeling so alive for the first time in a reeeeeeally long time. Bless Brent's heart, he never did tell me I was a fatso, but I sure felt it all the time I was in the horrible 180s. I mean honestly. Let's be real here. Why should I exercise when walking 6 miles EVERY DAY does NOTHING for me? Why should I exercise when all my efforts lead to weight GAIN?? And why on earth should I think my husband finds me attractive when I want to gag at the sight of myself? Brent's my hero, that's for sure.

So, 2007 found me exercising and really trying to be healthy (for the most part, I admit). I could basically count on losing an average of 1-2 lbs. a week for the first six months of 2007. People kept telling me, "It's only 'cause of your miracle medicine. You'll plateau in two weeks and that'll be it." Well, I would plateau, every couple of weeks, but then after that I'd get back to losing. By May or June of 2007, I was down to 157.

My goal on January 1, 2007, was to lose 62 lbs. I have no idea if a woman 5-feet 6 1/2-inches tall should weigh 125 or not, but I really want to be 125, even for just one day, just to feel how it feels to finally be "one of them", to be one of the "skinny girls". However, I am realistic enough to think that I wouldn't be able to stay that weight for long, especially as I have been told by more than one source that a person my height and age (yes, age) should weigh more than 125. So, my goal to satisfy my superficial/image-based need is to weigh 125, at least for a day, and then find a weight that my body and my mind like. My goal to satisfy my healthy body/healthy mind/healthy self-image need is to be 135. My current short-term goal is to be 149 (a milestone for me, as it would be the first time in longer than I can remember that I would be closer to 100 lbs. than to 200 lbs.). All that being said, I am thrilled to say I can fit into size-8 jeans and even a size-6 skirt for the first time ever. Like I said, the smallest I remember being in high school was a size 10. Never single-digits. To be wearing size-8 jeans after being squeezed out of size-16 slacks is a feeling I cannot get over. I never want to get that way again.

The last few months have seen me up and down by a couple of pounds, so basically I've been maintaining my weight. The few days after we moved to this house in January 2008, I was down to 151 and thinking a milestone was near, but alas, that didn't last long and I am currently 155. Brent and I weigh ourselves every Sunday morning, so that is when I will be reporting my weight here.

Oh, as for my thyroid/PCOS status: my dear Dr. Garcia left and I was switched to Dr. Ahmad (anyone but that dratted Dr. King, the first endocrinologist. He was most unpleasant. Don't go to him.) in November or December 2007. He ran more tests, and it appears the Metformin worked! I no longer have PCOS, I am no longer in danger of getting type-2 diabetes, and all my levels are healthy and normal, so he took me off Metformin in December. I am currently taking levoxyl (aka synthroid or levothyroxin, the medication to boost my low-thyroid levels. The condition I have is called Hashimoto's disease, or hypothyroidism). On February 1, 2008, I had the left side of my thyroid removed due to several large lumps that were still suspicious of cancer even after two fine-needle biopsies over the course of over a year. My surgeon said there is a possibility that it was the left side of the thyroid that has been the problem all along, and that the right side just may well start to take over in a healthy manner so I don't have to keep taking the levoxyl, but currently that is not the case. Before the surgery, I was taking 50 mcg of levoxyl/day, and now I am up to 88 mcg/day. However, that being said, it used to be that I wasn't supposed to fast due to the Hashimoto's disease making me have hypoglycemic reactions, but the last couple of Fast Sundays I have tried to fast, and for the first time in a very long time, I have been able to do it just like I would when I was in high school. It is an awesome feeling to feel in control of my body!

Anyway, this has gone on far too long, and I have to make sugar cookies for Mitch's birthday party on Saturday, so I am going to end now.

If any of you would like to join us on our weight-loss crusade, feel free to contact Genny or me and we'll hook you up as an author. Maybe the more people we get involved in this, the more people we're accountable to, the more motivated we'll be to lose and keep off those blasted pounds!

Welcome & My Story

Welcome to the Shady Glen. Kirsten and I felt a desperate need to be held accountable for our dietary actions and out of that desire, this blog was born. The title, "The Shady Glen" has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss, or food, or anything like it, so don't spend any time trying to figure out the correlation. I guess you could say a Shady Glen is what your refrigerator becomes at midnight...or I guess a shady glen could be where you would go to hide from that plate of brownies staring you in the face....but then you'd just be thinking too hard!

Basically, Kirsten and I will be posting about all of our exciting weight loss adventures, our goals, our successes, and our failures. I have more failures than successes, sadly...that's what I am hoping this blog will help change! If I know I have to post every day or so about what I put into my mouth, or about my exercising (or lack thereof) maybe I will think twice about what I am doing and will choose the healthier route! I can't speak for Kirsten, but please feel free to ridicule, yell, and laugh at me when I do things that are not healthy - give me an electronic "kick in the pants", as it were!

I'm a little too embarrassed to post my real weight on here, so I will use "X" to describe my pre-pregnancy weight. So, for example, I am currently X plus 9 pounds...I was X plus 4 pounds before my Utah vacation! Darned birthday cake and Chinese food! My goal is to be X minus 10 pounds before I get pregnant again (although I am not going to put off getting pregnant if I'm not. With the trouble I have, I'll take it when it comes!). Another goal of mine is to be in single digit sizes before Dusty gets married (no, he is not currently engaged...but if things keep going the way they are going he could be by Fall!). The girl he is currently dating is impossibly beautiful and I really don't want to be the fat, ugly sister-in-law. That's how I felt at Richard's wedding-but at least I had being pregnant as an excuse! I will never be back to where I was in high school, but I want to at least like what I see in the mirror and not feel embarrassed every time I see people who knew me when I was skinny.

Which brings me to my story. In high school I was a size 4, but I honestly didn't see myself as skinny. Now, of course, I would love to look like that again. My freshman year of college I gained 30 pounds...although I don't know how, considering I hardly ate the whole year-no time when you are a piano major! Of course, when I did eat it was a quick candy bar that I would grab out of the bookstore on my way to the practice rooms. That could have had something to do with it ;o) Looking back, and knowing what I now know about my health, I can see that it was just my PCOS starting to kick in.

I didn't find out til I was about 25 that I had PCOS-polycystic ovarian syndrome. It is a frustrating condition. Not only does it greatly impede your ability to get pregnant, but it also causes you to gain weight rapidly and makes it next to impossible to lose it (along with a host of other unpleasant things, like increasing the testosterone in your system. Oh yeah, that's a fun one). After college, I started working out and running every day, eating healthier than ever before, and I still gained 20 pounds in about 6 months' time (and no, it wasn't muscle). It was like I was on a roller coaster that just kept going up and up. I couldn't stop it, no matter what I did, no matter how much I exercised, no matter how much I ate-or didn't eat. I topped out at almost 200 pounds-197, to be exact. I never want to see that number again.

Finally, after a particularly enlightening conversation one year at the family reuinion with my cousin-in-law Brooke, I found a drug that was supposed to help those suffering with PCOS to get pregnant-it helps your cycles get started and eventually helps you ovulate(I had maybe one or two cycles a year at most). It was actually a diabetic medication-Metformin. I finally found a doctor who used that medicine as treatment, and over an 8 month period, I lost about 25 pounds.

The weight loss was mainly due to the fact that the metformin made me terribly sick almost every day, so food didn't ever actually stay in my system. That medicine pretty much took over my life. No longer could I jump in the car for a joy ride...if we were going to go somewhere I had to know where the closest bathroom was for any given point on the map. Probably the worst time was when I was visiting my parents in Utah and we decided to drive out to Saratoga Springs, then south around Utah lake. Of course I got incredibly ill while we were out in the middle of nowhere, and the closest town was still 30 minutes away, and when we got to the town, of course everything was closed because it was Sunday. Finally, we found one heathen restaurant breaking the Sabbath. It was so awful. I would really like to never have to go on that medicine again, but if my cycle doesn't start after I finish nursing I will have to.

Finally, I was able to get pregnant and have a beautiful baby girl. But now I am left with the pregnancy weight, and the fact that I still have PCOS is not helping any. I have been at this weight, give or take a few pounds, since just a couple of months after she was born. Like I said, before Utah I was down to just a few pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight, but I gained 6 pounds while there! This happened to me at Christmas too-right before Christmas I was down to the same low weight, but then I went to Utah for Christmas break and gained 9 pounds. It took me all the way until the day before I left for Utah this time to lose what I had gained on the last vacation. I guess I need to stop going to Utah!!

I am hoping that the knowledge that I will have to publish my food follies if I go out to eat and have half a plate of Outback cheese fries, or if I make brownies and eat half the bowl of batter, will force me to make better choices and ultimately lead to the realization of my goals! So here we go. Wish me luck!