My first goal reached!!!

I did it!

I lost all the weight that I gained since last March. I don't know how much it was, but I can tell you that from every picture of myself taken since last March, it was like a slideshow of fat growing on me. But now I'm back down, and that was in 11 days! I'm so proud of myself.

We are still continuing the first phase of the diet for another week. I am eager to see what happens in the coming week, anxious to see what dieting and exercising does for my self-esteem and my weight loss.

"Did she just say exercising?" Yes, yes I did.

I have 2 videos that I would like to do to lose weight. The first is a Pilates for Dummies video and all I've learned is that it hurts my tailbone to do it on the bare carpet in my bedroom. So today I went out and got an exercise mat that's foam and pink, hoping that it will help me to be able to do Pilates easier.

In addition to my mat, I also got an exercise video - Leslie Sansone Walk at Home. This woman annoys the crap out of me, but I'm determined to do this video until I can finish the 4 miles on the video in less than an hour. And that's some commitment, considering this woman loves to refer to her happy thighs in almost every video.

I'm buying myself a scale and I'm going to update every week with my weight loss. Hopefully I'm meeting my goal by sticking to the diet and the exercises. I'm keeping the faith!

I slipped!!!

Oh, I'm so ashamed...

Yesterday, after our playdate, Katherine and I came home and made cookies. Since I've been okay with pizza and fast food restaurants, I didn't think anything of making cookies. As I was finishing up the first batch of baking, I licked my finger!!! I immediately spit the bits of cookie dough out, but I was mad at myself - I slipped!

I've been trying not to focus on it so I don't psych myself out, but it's hard when I've been doing so well for 11 days and "the slip-up" happens. Ah!

Previous to this, Jonathan and I had decided to do 3 weeks of phase 1, so although I would love to be able to have the whole grain blueberry waffles on Wednesday morning, if it means I can lose more weight faster, I'll do it!

I have yet to weigh myself again, but I'm hoping that the new number will be fantastic! When I do, I'll let everyone know how much I've lost so far.

Enjoy your Sunday!

The South Beach Diet - Day 9

Hello all! Just here to report how things are going on my new diet - new lifestyle - towards a new me.

We are on Day 9 of Phase 1, which means 9 days of virtually no sugars of any kind. No breads, no fruit, no nothing that I crave most days. The first couple of days (Days 1 through 6) consisted of Jonathan and I throwing back and forth ideas of what we would eat if we could. The winner is a Taco Bell chalupa, beef baja, and a huge Mountain dew. Second place is Pancakes with butter. Third would have to be the pizza we've been smelling.

But besides the immense cravings, we've been doing very well. We've not eaten anything unless it was on Phase 1's "Foods to Enjoy" list. And I've come up with some splendid recipes. We've enjoyed salisbury steak, ham, cauliflower and broccoli, turkey and ham sandwich wraps with lettuce and a lot of pickles. Plus being able to enjoy the no sugar added fudgsicles makes things a lot easier. And the sugar free candy is actually pretty good.

I haven't started exercising yet, but I'll get there. I have a pilates video that I would love to try. When spring comes and they open the parks again, I'd love to start taking family walks.

I said that this is a diet or lifestyle change for me, but it's actually for all 4 of us. There is no pop or juice in my house right now. If they're thirsty, we have milk or water. For snacks, there's fruit (apples, oranges and bananas), cheese, lunch meat; but no chips or other fattening snacks. The only "cookies" in our house are Teddy Grahams and graham crackers. As we progress further into the diet and we get back into our main food groups, we will be substituting more items, such as our breads, cereals, pasta, vegetables, etc. We need to get back to whole foods, not the processed stuff we've been consuming for so long.

And for all of this and how expensive it is, it's completely worth it to me. To have healthy kids to know how to eat right and eat smart is more important than the cost, and well worth the money.

As for how the kids will react, Nathan seems eager to start this diet with us, though he doesn't realize how in depth the eating rules go. He's already enjoyed the whole grain waffles and the whole grain pita pockets in place of white bread and plain waffles. Katherine, with her love of chicken nuggets, french fries and pizza, will probably be harder to influence, but I think she'll adapt over time.

Nathan's doing poorly in his classes, no matter what we say or do. It's discouraging as a stepmother to have to live with this day in and day out, encouraging, cajoling, punishing, and not getting any results. Hopefully he realizes that we are hard on him because we love him and want him to do better. Ah, the folly of youth.

Well, almost bedtime. Being sugarless & caffeine-free makes me tired!

Out of the mouths of babes...

Katherine: "Mama, are you a boy?"

Me: "No, I'm a woman. Is Nathan a boy?"

Katherine: "No, Nathan's a man."

Nathan nods in quiet approval.

Uploaded more photos...

I just uploaded photos of the kids back from the "olden days", also known as 2003 to 2006. Enjoy!!

Our Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I had an awesome Christmas!

My parents and Big Papa came over to our house on Christmas Eve for gifts and appetizers. The food was yummy and we had a great time together. Big Papa and Papa watched a movie while the rest of us hung out. It was really nice to have everyone over.

It was just the 4 of us on Christmas morning, opening gifts, having sweet rolls later on and napping later on. I swear I have the weirdest kids - they woke up about an hour after I did!

The kids made out like bandits! Nathan had Christmas at his mom's house last weekend and he got a Wii. (Sweet ass Jesus I wish we had a Wii. Tax time is coming though!) Comparatively, it's hard to live up to a Christmas where a kid gets a $300 gaming system, but we tried.

Nathan's big gift for this Christmas was an acoustic guitar. For his birthday we'll buy him stuff so he can learn how to play it, but for now it's really beautiful and sounds amazing. He also got 2 PS3 games, some clothes, books, candy, a new wallet and some board games.

Katherine's big gift for this Christmas was her Fun2Learn Computer Cool School from Gigi and Papa. She really loves it! We also got her all 5 Yo Gabba Gabba plush characters. Those are her favorite things. She got a Life Size Barbie and she loves that one too. She also got regular barbies, clothes, art kit and drawing kit, books, puzzles and candy.

Jonathan told me not to buy him anything, so I didn't, but the stinker went out and bought me a new set of knives! I love them completely. When I opened them up I thought I had a stroke since I couldn't feel my face for a good 2 minutes. It was the best gift and I love them!

Jonathan and I got clothes and body stuff from my parents and a new king size comforter from his parents. Coupled with the fact that we were all able to be together on Christmas, it was a great holiday and we were very lucky.

After Christmas, I was able to have my cousin Steven come over. He's been visiting the last couple days and we've had a blast, especially Nathan. We don't have extended family around here, so when they do come over, it's always fun.

I was also able to go see Sarah and Jackson, which was the first time seeing Jackson. What an adorable boy! Katherine fell in love with him. Sarah took pictures of the two of them playing, so hopefully those will be up on Facebook soon!

Katherine took a picture of me while I was folding clothes last week and I saw how HUGE I am. I'm not happy. I knew I was gaining weight, but this is ridiculous! So Jonathan and I are going on the South Beach diet together starting next Wednesday. This will be something that will help me to feel better about myself and be healthier for me. I'll also look better so that's a plus.

Tonight is New Year's but I don't have any plans except for to get drunk on Crown Royal and Coke and watch movies! Maybe not drunk, but I will drink some. =)

So with my new goals and achievements for the new year, I will start 2009 with high hopes!!!

Posted new pictures on Facebook... here and here. Enjoy! And Happy New Year!!!

Santa RULES!!!

I found the Yellow Robot today at K-mart. WOOHOO!!!!