The "Game On" Diet

This past month I participated in the "Game On" diet - with my mother in laws co workers. I didn't know any of the people in the game, but I thought - heck....it is a month long health challenge..... maybe I could win some money .... maybe I can lose some weight .... but mostly I just wanted to prove that I could do it. So 4 weeks ago it began.

I was on a team with 3 other women, whom I didn't know, and we each earned a certain amount of points each day for doing healthy things. These healthy things were to drink 3 liters of water daily, exercise 20 minutes daily, sleep 7 hours each night, keep a new good habit, and eat 5 small meals daily. Being in a team and not just being accountable to myself really helped me a lot! If I didn't get the points for a meal, or if I didn't exercise - I wasn't just letting myself down - I was letting these ladies who didn't even know me down. It was a killer to mess up. I felt so bad on the weeks that I didn't get full points!

So now that the month is up, we tallied our scores, and unfortunately, my team did not win. I am okay with it though because I lost a good 8 pounds this last month, and I feel like I can keep going!

The food is the hard part - for sure. Each meal has to have protein, a healthy carb, and a healthy fat. I have a hard time thinking of new things, but I think I can keep this up for most of my meals. The hard part is dinner - because I don't want to subject Ryan to bland fare - but he probably doesn't know the difference since I am not a great cook anyway!

So cheers to the "Game On" diet. You got me out of my rut - you got me motivated - and I am glad I participated.

Here's to a new healthy life!

On Again

On again - that is with dieting... I am the WORST at this part. I love all sorts of comfort foods, and never feel full eating unless I have me some good ole carbs. Oh well. I realize that this needs to happen, but I am still not happy about it. But come to think of it - am I happy the way I am now? No - for sure not. I am so sick of feeling inferior to others and not leaving the house because I have nothing to wear or I feel stupid because I have gained over 40 pounds since having my first child.

There, I finally said it. I have to lose at least 40 pounds to be back to pre - 1st pregnancy weight. That is ridiculous! I keep trying to hide myself and my weight. If you are a follower of my actual family blog - you may notice that I am in maybe 1 out of every 100 pictures. Why is this? Because I weigh too much! And I don't want anyone to know about it. So I avoid people and situations where I have to see someone I haven't seen in a while. How sad. Weight is a big problem, and I am sick of it. Things have got to change.

So thanks to my iphone I am tracking calories on the "Lose It" app. Too bad I struggle with finding healthy things I like to eat. Here's to a good week!

Love Your Body 10k

I'm doing it ... anyone else in?

(P.S. Jogged a solid 2 miles today - I'm well on my way!)

Goals Unfulfilled

So I didn't reach my goal of reading the entire Book of Mormon in the month of June :( Things just have been crazy and we have been having too much fun going camping and everything to just sit and read. Maybe I will try this project again in the winter - and then we will see how it goes. Unfortunately, finishing the book is also an unfulfilled goal. I am so close - so hopefully by the end of July.

In other news - I am training for a 10k! I once attempted to do a half marathon. I even paid the $35 to register for it - but when it came down to it, I knew I wasn't ready and didn't do it. I have always regretted it - plus this was back in 2007. So now, 4 years later, I have decided to at least do some sort of race and to get motivated to do it. Enter the "Love Your Body" 10k. It is on October 8 - and I am only 2 days into the training. So far, so good. I did pretty awesome on my jog yesterday (yes, I jog - I do not run). I only had to go for a mile, but I jogged for that entire mile without stopping. It is quite a big accomplishment for me. Hopefully I will keep up with the program!

I Have a Little Crush

So I have been continuing reading - and am on track. Today I am going to finish the book of Alma - and let me tell you - after reading this book of scripture I have a little crush. Alma the Younger - what a guy huh? He is amazing and is my new favorite prophet in the Book of Mormon. Most of the book of Alma is of his experiences preaching the gospel and changing the lives of those around him. His ultimate joy was in bringing others to the gospel. I can't say that bringing others to the gospel is my forte. I pretty much do nothing in that regard. I guess I just feel that the people who live around me here in Utah have been "fellowshiped" way too much and don't want me to bring my little experiences their way - but maybe this is not the case. I guess if I am just more open about sharing the gospel, that I will feel when I should share certain things.

Just this experience of reading the Book of Mormon brought one type experience my way just the other day. Let me share. So since Tara and I have been doing this project, I wrote her a little note on Facebook to indicate that I was behind. Well, I guess this sparked the interest of a mutual friend of ours who saw the post - she has never been a member, and we were always good friends in High School. I never really shared much with her in High School because I thought she was just sick of it. She would come with "the girls" to girls camp and Young Women's, but that was as far as it went. So anyway I was on Facebook again (a little too often actually) and she wrote me an IM asking what Tara and I were doing. At first I thought I should play it down and not make it sound like not a big deal, but then I realized I don't have to be ashamed of my religion and what I believe - especially not in what the Book of Mormon represents. So I told her flat out what we were doing. I don't really know how she took it, but we had a good conversation about what was going on in our lives and now she knows that this is an important part of my life. It probably won't result in any conversion, but at least I was willing to share.

Okay, so that may be a lame example, but I am happy with myself okay? So if you are reading this, take 2 things away from this post: 1) I have a crush on Alma, and 2) be willing to share the gospel and not be ashamed!

Spiritual Revitalization

So basically all of these posts have been about weight loss, dieting, and exercise - which I must say I am bombing at. I am just off the wagon for sure.

So I decided why not try to increase something in other areas of my life. I have taken on a challenge. Read the entire Book of Mormon during the month of June. My friend, Tara, posted that she was doing this, and I thought - Heck! I can do that! And I need to do it too. I have not been doing so well spiritually and it is showing. My poor 3 year old doesn't even know about personal prayers, family home evening, etc. and I know it is my fault because I am not on a spiritual "playing field." I have been relying only on myself and my husband to make things "right."

Yesterday I started the challenge and was intrigued by one scripture. 1 Nephi 2:16. "wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers." As I was reading about Lehi taking his family into the wilderness - I couldn't help but think that if it were me and my dad was making me leave all my friends and comforts, I would be a GIANT whiner. I would not be happy about it. And I guess I always thought that Nephi was so excited to go and so obedient from the get-go, but this makes me second guess that. I am sure he wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but instead of complain, he "cried unto the Lord" to soften his heart and help him understand. I know I need to do a lot of that. I need to not be so ill-minded about what the prophets and the scriptures tell me to do and just cry unto my Father in Heaven and ask him to soften my heart.

So there it is. I need to pray to be more excited about the things I should be obedient with. Hopefully I will find another gem of a scripture today as I read.

I am on my Way!!!!!!

So I have not had an ounce of dessert like food for over a week now. It is AMAZING. I can't quite believe it myself, but now that I have made it a week, I need to make it at least 2 and then I will have to make it 4 and then this exponential growth will go out of control. I have also vowed to not have white bread and no soda. I have not done the best on those two things this week. I had some breadsticks for dinner last night and have had pasta and such this week. I also had 2 diet coke binges, but at least they were diet. Right?

So this next week I am going to not do carbonation and lay off white things completely. This means a lot of things that I was able to eat last week that made the week bearable.

I also did quite well on exercising 4 days straight. 2 on the treadmill, and 2 with Jillian. Unfortunately I felt like I was getting stress fractures on both of my legs so I took 3 days off to heal a bit. I feel much better and am a little worried about exercising today. But it has to be done and I have to do it.

The thing that gets me through this whole thing is realizing that summer is so close and I do not want to feel fat this summer! The last few have not been very fun and I don't want to hold back Ryan or my kids with my feelings of embarassment. I want to be in full swing and having fun with them!

Bad Habits are Still Here

I went for over a week without exercising - yet again. I finally broke the time yesterday with a Jillian workout, and I am feeling it today. I wish I could do better at this! It is all about getting up early and I am awful at that! Also, we just switched to Daylight savings time, so I always feel like I am an hour behind anyway.

Oh well, today I will begin day 2 of exercising. Today is treadmill day. Hopefully I will be able to get this a full weeks try. Yeah - with a word like hopefully it is bound to happen - right?! Not really. I guess it is my mood today. I am a little bummed. I had plans and was excited about them, but I feel like I was nudged out of those plans and lied to by the nudger. I hate that. Why not still be in elementary school or junior high.

So how to get out of this mood? Well for starters, I need to exercise. I think doing this will have a HUGE impact on my self esteem and then increase my mood. Then we are all going to get ready and get out of the house to do something fun. Maybe take Henry to the Discovery Gateway or something. We shall see. I will post tomorrow on how it all worked out - and how I worked out.

Going Strong

Day 2 of exercising yet again. Today I ran on the treadmill - the one my dad let me borrow - I did a 4 minute warm up/walk, followed by intervals of 2 minutes walking at 4mph then jogging 2 minutes at 6mph. I did that 4 times, and then did 4 intervals of walking for 1 minute at 4mph and then jogging for 1 minute at 6mph. I hope to increase the intensity of my intervals in the near future and jog for a solid mile.

My next goal is for Monday - I will be doing the Jillian Step 1 workout. I am going to get up at 7am and be exercising by 7:30. Hopefully I will be able to do this before the 2 boys wake up.

Well I am proud of me for doing exercise today. I am also proud that I have not had a single cookie and I had to make some for tonight's get together with the Davis' at SDJH. More games and exercise tonight!

Not Progressing

So it is now the beginning of March and all I have to say is this: I am a lazy bum! I have not been doing what I intended this blog to help me do - get my bad habits into good habits. I am pretty sure the biggest of those bad habits is my lack of exercise and my inability to eat healthy. I have failed miserably on those two! I just weighed myself and I am now a good 10 pounds heavier than when I started this thing. Talk about yo-yo dieting! But I did do a workout today! that is the good news. The bad news? I am pretty sure I need to wake up earlier so I have the time to exercise. That is just SO hard for me. I am a sleeper - I love it - and the kids don't ever nap at the same time (if at all) - so I am not going to get any more sleep then. Blah - lets see how this goes. I am going to get up at 7am every day. Workout or no - at least I will be getting up earlier to get something done.

Green Eyed Monster - Get thee Hence!

So it has been a month since my last post and to be honest, it doesn't feel like it has been that long. I have kind of dreaded coming back here to write and mull over what I am doing right and wrong. So I am forgetting about all that and just going to focus on the fact that it is a New Year. This past week has been quite rough I have a sick 4 month old and a sick 2 year old - both demanding my full attention. I had to take the baby into the doctor's office yesterday and we were there for 2 hours with no conclusive things to do about his illness except to "wait it out" and give him a little tylenol to sooth the fever. He has bronchiolitis - which is inflamed branches of the lungs (as opposed to bronchitis which is the inflamation of the larger airways in the lungs). It is no fun. He has been snotty and coughing and throwing up. My 2 year old must have had the same thing only days earlier, but we just thought it was a random cold. He is finally getting over it so I have some hope that the baby will do better soon.

It has also been rough because everyone I know is going on vacation. Except us! As I type this my mom is in beautiful L.A. or Disneyland or somewhere out there, and our renters just went to L.A. My husband's cousin is in Hawaii - I think you probably get the point. My jealousy is so strong right now! I have decided I have a hard time being happy for people who get to do cool things - especially when they have done nothing to deserve it. Now, the people I just mentioned deserved to go on vacation - everyone does - but I must say I have seen some people from my past who have done nothing special to get their lives of luxury and it makes me sick. I am a green envious monster and am not able to be happy for others! Even my husband - when he goes and has a guys night or goes fishing, I am pretty sure I make him "pay" for it by trying to make him as guilty as possible for leaving me with 2 kids like he does every day. Does he not deserve to have some free time? Why of course he does.

So here is one of my pledges for this new year - to not be a Green Eyed Monster. Just to be happy for those who have awesome adventures, good times, great vacations, and free luxuries - and not dwell on it! I have an awesome life with 2 adorable boys and a hottie husband. I live in a warm home and have all the needs I could ask for. Sure I would like to lose weight a little easier, and sure I would love to have the cars paid off and some new clothes in my closet. But it ain't happenin! And it isn't going to for some time. Enjoy the time now and be happy for those that may have more than me. There are plenty more that don't and I need to be grateful. So long green eyed monster. It's been nice knowing you.