Category: Weight

I’m Still Here

I can’t even fathom the fact that it’s been almost 2 weeks since I last posted.

The thing is…..I want to be on here recording more of what’s going on in our lives and yet…..i just haven’t.

Our lives are busy. Good busy! But busy, nonetheless, and I’m typically exhausted and I like to bring funny stuff here. As I type this, it makes no sense to me because who cares if it’s funny. I just love to go and read about other people’s lives. And even the boring stuff is interesting to me because it’s more insight into who they are and what they are doing and why they do things the way they do.

I know that it’s only a “part” of their lives, but I still find it fun and interesting.

So, here I am.

I think the biggest thing that I’m frustrated is the fact that I am currently spending 8 hours a week in the car travelling and that SUCKS! That’s an entire day of my week gone. I’m trying to figure out how to use that time….on the phone or when Jon’s with me we can be planning and discussing things, but more often than not it’s just wasted time. DOUBLE SUCKS!!

AND….on top of that, I’ve started to exercise and I’m up to 40 minutes on my eliptical machine which if you throw in a shower at the end – which is totally necessary – that’s an hour each time, and I’ve scheduled in 3 times for sure and if I can, I try to do more. This whole exercise thing is funny. I hate it. Even after almost a month, I still hate it, and yet I think about getting on that machine way more than I ought to – so there is something that is happening that my body is craving…..and I seem to hit my stride at about 12 minutes in and then I LOVE IT for the next 20 minutes and then I HATE IT for the next 8 minutes. They usually go something like this…..imagine me trucking along on the machine and as the cycle of information (minutes done, speed, distance, calories and heart rate) pases by I count down in 30 second intervals (that’s how long it takes to cycle through) 8 minutes…….7 and a half minutes……..7 minutes…..6 and a half minutes……Jon, come and distract me……Siah, come and dance for mommy…….I wonder how long I’ve got left to go now…..AAAAAAAAAK! Are you kidding me still 5 and a half minutes…..okay, 5 minutes, now….

And it goes like that all the way until the 40 minutes is up….LOVELY, eh?

I know that I’m feeling better and that I have more energy, and there are times that I “WANT” to get moving, but somehow it’s not my most favorite thing to do. Any of you, out there, exercise freaks? Will I start LOVIN’ this at some point? Or is it always just going to be a decision to make it happen?

Another thing that’s frustrating me about this is that instead of losing weight……I actually put on weight? I’m watching what I’m eating and I gained about 4 pounds. When you are trying to “LOSE” weight – well, the gain just really threw me. I’m sticking with it, and I’m now at 183, but still…..what’s up with that?

I wish I had taken my measurements at the beginning to see if I’m losing inches. I think I am because the “muffin top” that hung ever so elegantly over the waistband of my jeans is almost non-existant and I have room in my belt when I put it at my normal “comfy” belt hole. So, both of those things would lead me think that I’m changing shape, even if the number hasn’t done what I’d like it to. Oh, and there’s the loving way that Jon mentioned that where my butt had pretty much slid down into my thighs, now it’s retaining a more shelf like appearance. Thanks for putting that so eloquently, honey! You’re have such a way with words – eloquence like a poet…..seriously.

Well, I’m sure that I could ramble some more, but i got a baby to feed and myself to get ready for the day and then I gotta kick it into high gear as today is an “at home” day and I gotta lot to do in a short amount of time.

Slowly but surely….

Well, I think that January has been fairly good to me.

I joined a biggest looser challenge because I really wanted to have someone to be accountable to. I know that if I really set my mind to it – I could just lose the weight that I want to. I just happen to find it so much easier when I’m in the mind set that I’m completing against others.

And so, while the first few weeks seemed a bit slow as far as weight loss – I think mostly because I was trying to wrap my head around what I should/could/needed to be doing – I think that I’ve settled into a fairly decent stride.

I knew going into this 3 month challenge that I would need to add some exercise into my life if I were really serious. I started the month off @ 189.8 pounds…..SUCKS! I had been down as low as 175lbs a year ago and then the weight started to slowly creep back on…..15 pounds in a a year! Not good!

I weighed myself this morning and am currently – 182.4 lbs. So, just under 7.5 pounds of weight loss in one month. And….I’m pretty happy with that.

We bought an eliptical machine and I’ve got a decent groove going on with that thing – now the trick will be to just keep going with it. I see it as so necessary, not just for weight loss, but also for my health in general.

I’m still in the “hurting” phase of my exercise journey……my legs and lower back are not happy right now, but soon….soon they will be loving me and my machine.

I’m loving that my clothes are not pinching me as much as they used to a the beginning of the year, and I’m looking forward to the day when I have to go and buy new ones because my current wardrobe doesn’t fit.

Until then, I will be watching what I eat and exercising….that’s my plan…no gimmicks, no pills, just common sense and hard work.

Do you have any weight loss or exercise or health goals this year?

Happy New Year Y’all

Alright, so did ya party it up? I hope so….

Me??? I hung out with Jon and Chris and we ate steak and crab legs and “Wii’d” it until approximately 11:30ish and then I tidied the kitchen….’cause I’m a party animal like that….it was AWESOME! Let me tell you…

And now..now, here we are 4 days into the New Year, and well…..there are some big changes that have happened and some more big ones still to come.

Jon and I are now on staff at the Life Center in Vancouver. At this point that means an hour’s commute….doesn’t that sound SO TOTALLY AWESOME!

We had our first day today and we had to leave the house by 8am and we didn’t get home until after 4pm. That was a LOOOOOOOONG day for us and it felt even longer for the kids.

We’ve been throwing around the idea of moving – not really “if” we would move, but more along the lines of “when” we should move…..tonight after dinner, the girls were talking and mentioning how LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGG the day was and how if this was going to be “normal” then we should probably move in sooner rather than later.

We’ve been talking about staying put until the kids are finished school in June…..BUT….that’s 6 freaking months away and I might be just a little bit insane at that point…not to mention that I thrive on highly effective uses of time and energy and the thought of 2 hours of driving in a day just about kills me….fortunately we have decent phone plans and can make somewhat effective use the time so it’s not a COMPLETE waste…but still….it’s definately not the most effective use of time and energy and it makes me cringe a little…well…..a alot….so…..(you lik my use of periods there….it just means that I’m pausing in my thinking – work with me……’mkay?) we obviously have some thinking and forward planning to do.

So, ya…..well….Jon is still working doing Web Design and we have some planning and organizing and some decisions to make about that too…what to do? What to do? What to do?

It will all work out, but…….like my children who are still awake even though they were sent to bed 2.5 hours ago because they too are reeling a bit by all the change and tying to sort out what that means to them and how it will affect them – I am also trying to work out how this will all play itslf out. It’s a bit messier than I’d like. I don’t mean that it’s a messy situation, but that I like things neat and structured and this is a bit more of a fluid situation and I “get” to learn how to function within the fluidity….it’s a good challange for me and I like challenges…right?…..sure I do?

I will probably be working my thoughts out a bit in between all the other mindless drivel that I spew on you and so I welcome you along for the ride. It’s going to be fun and I have to say that for all my apprehension about the unknown, I know that its going to be good and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all plays out and to seeing where we are at in a few months.

So, that was my big New Years excitement….how about you?

Oh, I almost forgot….I am also a part of a Biggest Loser Challenge and so I’ll be moaning about weight loss over the next 3 months…and that should also be AWESOME!

And then I BARFED…..Yes! I really did!

I’ve been wanting to get physical for a while now…..NO! Not that kind of physical, but I’ve been an absolute SLOB for FAR. TOO. LONG!

Tim – my brother – has been doing Bikram’s Yoga for a while now, and I told him that I wanted to join him, so I’ve signed up for the introductory week offer, and TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY!

I was a little nervous. So nervous, in fact, that when I tried to go to sleep last night at 10:30pm…..well, I couldn’t sleep.

I keot thinking ALL. THESE. THOUGHTS. – like….. How hot will it be? and Will I fall over? and Will everyone be perfect and beautiful? and Will I even be able to stick it out for the 90 minutes class? and What if I sleep through my 5am alarm clock? (the class started at 6am, but I needed to be there – in Langley – at 5:45am to register) and What if the baby was awake ALL. NIGHT. LONG? and how would he handle me not being there in the morning?

And then………..I started to wonder if the downstairs people were going to have their 4X a week party complete with loud, bass-filled music, alcohol, cigarettes and sometimes even pot….It makes for a good time at 4:30 – 5am.

Now imagine all of that, competing with a nagging voice chanting,

“Go to sleep, go to sleep, Rah, Rah, Rah”
“Go to sleep, go to sleep, Ha Ha Ha”

It was AWESOME! and then…….then one of my girls started talking in their sleep and they called out for me, but when I got up to see what they wanted…they were both sound asleep and I was WIDE AWAKE, and it was 11:30pm, and it was even AWESOMER!

So anyway, I did get up at 5am and aside from one little freak out because I couldn’t find my water bottle and I was stressing about being late – I did make it out the door and on the road all in good time.

The class got started and I was feeling all cocky and sure of myself. You know, aside from the wobbly jello legs and arms, and I was desperately trying to hold my body from shaking so wildly that the sweat that was gushing in rivers….no oceans….off my body wouldn’t fling around the room and shower the rest of the people with my “toxicity” and…it was all going good…..until about an hour into it all…then we did this one pose and the blood all rushed to my head and when we relaxed after it, I felt all light headed and like I was going to pass out…so I just layed around for a bit (in the relaxing laying on the floor “healing” pose – yah I’m going with that) until I felt not so woozy. I did make it the 90 minutes in the freaking hot-ness and then after it all I went and grabbed my stuff from the change room and then I started to feel funny. Like I was going to barf…but because I am an expert barf-er (see all previous pregnancies), I figured that I could tough it out.

So, Tim and I went outside on the deck, and I figured that if I had some fresh air and just stayed VERY STILL that I’d be able to fight it off…..NOPE!

I had to make the mad dash into the bathroom, and of course…I’m trying to be all cool about it, and not slam into the bathroom door and run into anyone and then it looked like I was going to be using the garbage can, because I thought that both stalls were in use, and all this time, I’m barfing and ……swallowing…CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? All because I was trying to be SOOOOOOO cool.

Yah! I rock!

I guess I still need to work on the whole “pride” issue.

So, two retches and some water and stomach bile later….I’m ALL GOOD!

I go back outside, collect all my stuff and head on out to my van.

I’ll be back again tomorrow, only I think I should eat something as soon as I wake up….although I’m a little concerned about barfing anything other than water….I HATE BARFING.

But, I LOVE stretching, and although I know that I didn’t do the poses and stretches and exercises all correctly….it was still more work than I thought it was going to be – I can imagine that, done correctly and by someone who hasn’t done NOTHING for the past 10 years that it could be quite the work out.

So, I go again tomorrow for the 6am class…..that’s really early.

Oh, and just for accountability’s sake….I’m 180 lbs right now, and I want to get down to 170, at least….well see how that goes. I might be able to sweat that off by Friday at this rate.

ps….I just added a category for exercise….that seems SOOOO weird to me, but I’m hoping that this is the start of a good thing.

Two Medium Pizza’s, one and a half pieces of Cheesecake and Five Pounds later…..

Apparently, that’s how much dairy is too much.

I feel BRUTAL today.

I’m supposed to be trying to add some dairy into my diet to see how it affects Josiah (and myself). We are both on some naturopathic “stuff” to help us to deal with the different affects that it has on us. And apparently I’ve figured out how much is too much.

‘Siah has a tiny bit of a rash on his cheeks, and while it could be the starting of exczema, it could also be from teething and his fingers and slobber in and out of his mouth ALL FREAKING DAY. But….he has been dealing with what seems to be acid reflux, and has actually been barfing a little bit. All of that would indicate to me that it would be okay for me to injest a little bit of dairy if I came across it at a restaurant or even going to someone’s house for a meal or even if I wanted to cheat a little, but apparently 4 days of cheating with a half a piece of cheesecake, and then splitting a medium pizza with Jon , and then splitting another medium pizza with Jon because the first was just that good, and then my veryown piece of cheesecake…..apparently that it where the line is drawn….somewhere in all the middle of that.

And for me….I feel bloated, and people in the next city can hear my stomach as it grumbles its complaints to me feeding it that horrible, terrible, no good dairy….and I just feel sluggish and have a headache and feel like I’m in a brain fog, and not to mention that I’ve gained 5 pounds. Nice, eh? It was so not worth it.

So, I think that what I’m going to do is to just go back to taking it easy on the dairy in our own house and with the way that we normally eat. I feel SO MUCH BETTER off of it, and apparently, so does ‘Siah.

In Jeremy related news….

He had another good day. He was thrilled to bring home 4 stickers, AGAIN, and even more thrilled to bring home a friend. Yup! He actually brought home a friend from school, and they played so nicely together for about two hours, until the kid’s father came to pick him up. That is the first time that J has brought a kid home from school, and again….it could all be coincidence or not.

Now, after my whole…..no negative side effects blah, blah blah from yesterday….

We found his lunch from yesterday (almost the entire thing) in the front pouch of his backpack….so that’s not good, especially seeing as I found almost his entire lunch in his backpack again today….so appaerently lunch is not going so well.

We’re going to go in and talk to the principal tomorrow and we’ll mention that, and see what he says about it all; and see if he can help us out with it.

Jeremy seems to be eating well at home, and if lunch is the only meal affected, then Oh Well! He’s eaten an apple and a muffin and some popcorn since he came home, and we’re just about to have dinner so we’ll see. I still think he’s eating enough during the day, as a whole, just not “in school”.

Oh well! I’m sure it’ll all work out. Right?

Reflecting

Great Title, eh? 

Sounds like this should be a great inspiring post, full of all the wonders of 2007.  Maybe it might include some of the struggles and hardships that have been overcome or worked through…….NOPE!

I’m justnot feeling that deep this morning.

The kids are GONE! back in school, and my house is quiet, and except for the 4am fight that Jon and I had last night….all is well in my world.

I just realized that all I mention is when we fight….and well, it’s not as bad as it sounds. 

Please realize that we have a 5 month old who is not sleeping through the night, yet; so we are both over tired and on edge.  The fight last night was a stupid one.  Jon had got up to try to get the baby back to sleep (’cause if he smells me then he wants to nurse, and he really doesn’t need the middle of the night feeds anymore, so if he can learn to sleep through, then we’ll all be happier).  So, I was saying….Jon had gotten up at 3am to put the baby back to sleep, and by 4:15am – I couldn’t handle it any more. Jon was agitated, the baby was agitated, and I wasn’t sleeping anyway and I was agitated.  I just figured that an hour and 15 minutes was a good shot, and I’d nurse the baby and be done with it.  I know that’s just teaching him to wait it out, but with no one sleeping in our house, today and tonight should be fun times…wanna come over?

Anyway, Jon was annoyed and the Baby was crying and we were all tired, and some nasty things were said, and it was not a good time.  For some reason, after we had our little fight, the baby went to sleep and slept until almost 7am.

Middle of the night is not a good time to try and work anything out, so we both went to sleep, and now we still have to deal with the rubble of last night.  Not fun!

Moving on, ’cause that had nothing to do with what I originally planned to write out……ha ha HA HA HA!  That makes it sound like I had a plan when I sat down here in front of my computer.  There was no plan.  Which is why this ends up rambling……that’s something I want to stop doing.  I’m planning to have a plan…..see how tired I am….

Any way, I’ll just stop there and continue on down here.

We had a great Christmas holiday time, and you can check out the pics if you so desire.

Our Christmas Eve…….we found out that Taco Time is pretty simple and basic as ingredients if you are looking for a fast food.  Although the hard shells are corn, and some need to stay away from corn….but we were thrilled to find something that had no wheat, dairy or eggs in them….YAH!….oh, we skipped the cheese, and sour cream……that’s how they were “okay”.

I love this shot of me and ‘Siah……not cause it’s an okay shot of me, but mostly ’cause EVERY TIME he sees it, he stops whatever he is doing and smiles HUGE.

I also love this one of the 4 kids…….

…..to go to any of the “sets” just click on the pics, and it’ll take you there.

Then we had Christms morning with just the 6 of us, and it was so amazing. We usually have those mini cereal boxes, but we just bought 2 sugar cereals that we knew had no dairy in them…..but had WAY too much sugar in them.  The kids did pretty good considering they’ve been off sugar for a while now.

The presents part of Christmas was fun, as always.  My parents went overboard, and totally blessed the kids with stuff that they actually needed, and maybe a few things that they didn’t need.  I think the the highlight of Jeremy’s Christmas, though, was the stacking cups that he got.

He’s played those things non-stop since he got them…..everybody’s played those things non-stop since we got them.  I’ll post a video or two hopefully tomorrow.  It’s pretty funny to see grown men challenging each other over “those stupid cups”….even funnier to show them the links to the “pros” and to watch how fast they really can stack those things.  

Jon’s parents came over for the rest of the day.  We had so much fun playing games and eating dinner and opening presents and just spending some quiet time with each other.  It was a very nice Christmas with them.  But it was a little different ’cause ha;f of our fmaily is on the other side of the world…..missed you guys!

Then, on Boxing Day…..are you tired yet?  I know I was, and we’re not even done yet?…….my family got together at my sister’s house to celebrate Christmas.  We had another good time.  The kids all got the play together and the adults all got to play together, and we ate some good food, and well….it was just a lot of fun.  Too bad Xani couldn’t keep her eyes open…I guess the day just wiped her right out.

THEN………the next day, Jon and I headed back to Debbie and Denver’s house to meet up with these guys.  We had such a fun time.  We showed up around 6pm, and then we finally looked at the time, and it was midnight…..it’s true that time flies when you’re having fun.  I just wish they didn’t live so far away. 

We had the 28th off and on the 29th we headed to another friends house for a evening of fellowship, fun and FONDUE!  It was a blast, and there were so many of my old friends that I hadn’t seen in a while, BUT……I stupidly forgot my camera.  Oh well! 

The 30th was Jon’s birthday, and we had a big lunch time breakfast for him, and then we did NOTHING on the 31st, and then we had…….you’ll have to check back tomorrow to check out what we did on NEW YEARS DAY!  Mean, aren’t I?

Anyway,  I don’t really have any NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS, but if I did….and I don’t……I’d be working towards being 175 pounds…..that’s my first goal…I seem to be sitting right now between 178 and 181lbs. and I’d like to drop a few more instead of just sitting here stagnant.

AND……… I want to start posting more…..like every other day, for sure, I hope, I’d like or whatever……..

How was your holiday’s?

Few and Far Between

I had really good intentions of posting before now, but hey, based on my recent track record…..twice in one week ain’t all that bad now, is it?

Josiah is sorta doing better.  When I have a bit more emotionl energy to actually talk about what’s really been going on – I will.  I’m not really holding anything back, per se; but you’ve just heard the bare bones of it all and as I’m sure you’re aware – I can be a lot more long winded and verbose about it all.  There are probably details that might help you to understand things  a bit better but for now – He’s doing a bit better.

We are almost ready for Christmas.  I have a hard time believeing that I’m saying that.  I haven’t left things this close to Christmas in quite a while.  It’s hard to not be on top of things, but this Christmas I almost don’t even care.  It really doesn’t even feel like Christmas.  I’ve not done any decorating except the tree and that means that I’ll have nothing to tear down except the tree…….and that’s the way it stands this year.  I have no Christmas baking because no one here can eat it, and that’s kinda hard, ’cause I LOOOOOOVE baking.  I have pulled off a few recipes, and I made vegan Oatmeal Cookies, but substituted Kamut for Oatmeal ’cause Xan and me are not supposed to have oatmeal……and I made vegan Gingersnaps and they were pretty good also…actually they were delicious, but Xan took the majority of them to her class party and so we were left with only 8 to split between the 5 of us. 

I think that I’ll ramble for a bit about everything and nothing.  I have seen the left side of 180 pounds a few times……I’m hovering weight wise right around 180…..178 – 181 – 179 – 180 – 179……I’ve been watching my weight creep down over the last 2 months and it’s been pretty cool to see those 170’s in there.  I was almost 180 when I got married and so to be at that weight is pretty exciting…….(whispers outta the side of her mouth) although I’m in no where near the same same as I was back then…..Oh to have that body back, but that would require some gravity defying surgery as “things” have sagged and fallen to lower levels and I’m not just talking about my butt or my under arm skin…….

We are trying to get back into some semblance of order here in the Culley house.  Jon’s been doing an amazing job of getting up with the kids and getting them off to school,then usually ends up putting them to bed ’cause I’m nursing Josiah…

The kids know that he’s nicer than I am and have stretched out the evening schedule to an hour and a half.  RIDICULOUS!!!! Not only that, but they continue to get out of their beds even after that, and I can’t handle it ANYMORE.  So, I’ve laid the “SMACKDOWN” on them all, and we are on a freaking rigid schedule that will not be mucked with on pain of death…….we are eating dinner at 5pm, cleaning up as soon as we are finished, and tidying the house if necessary (and you know it’s always necessary) then if that’s all done by 6:30 we’ll play a family game (either a board game or card game or puzzle or something) and then at 7pm they have 5 minutes to get jammies on and brush teeth and if that happens then Jon is reading to them until 7:30pm and then it’s on bed and Lights out for Jeremy and the girls get to read until 8pm UNLESS they’ve been rude or cheeky or disobedient……then they go to bed at 7:30 as well.

I’m not even getting angry or upset with them…..we are talking a lot about choices over here right now…if they make bad choices, then they end up with negative consequences and good choices result in positive consequences…….they may not always know what the consequence may be, but they are constantly making choices and their choices ALWAYS have a consequence……It’s been a week, and already I’ve seen a positive change in behavior and attitude….although they are still balking a bit at HAVING to tidy up EVERY NIGHT……things are still more positive than negative and so we are headed in the right direction.

One thing that I still need help with, I want to get something for my Dad…….and I’m STUCK!  I have no clue as to what to get him.  What do you get someone who can buy anything he wants.  I got him a gift certificate to a outdoorsman store for his birthday, but that just seems so…..so…..thoughtless…..What would you get for someone like that?  Surely some of you have to buy stuff for someone who can get whatever they want………What you you suggest?