I am still alive and kickin'...just suck at bloggin

Well things have been up and down for me last week I was up 2.4 and I was bloated like I am not sure what.  My stomach was as hard as a rock so I knew I was in for the worst when I stepped on that scale.  I did not quite expect it to be that bad but life goes on and I just said tomorrow is another day.  I love that quote and if I am having a rough day I just tell myself that over and over again.  Well this week was much better I lost 3.4lbs which brought on a pretty big smile as it was not only a good loss but it was also me breaking those 20's. I think now that the weather is finally nice out that is helping out a lot.  I find myself outside every afternoon with my daycare kids whether it is just have little plays in the gross sopping wet grass or breaking ice outside but atleast I am out there and at this time that is all that matters.  I have also started walking in the evenings and have marked it out to be 1.3km.  It is nice having my amazing fiance to walk with and our dog.  However with this wet weather our dog comes back and is no longer white on her belly she is black and soaked and full of rocks which is kind of a pain in the ass to clean her everytime.  So it was time to think of something different, so Chadd and I decided to start walking in the mornings.  Seeing as he leaves for work at 645 we head out at 5:00am so he has time to get back and get ready.  I have decided to do my workouts in the morning when we get back from the walk so I don't just plunk my butt on the couch until my daycare kids show up at 7:30.  Let me tell you when we headed out at 5:00am I looked at Chadd and said; "what the hell are we doing up so early, then I stopped him before he could say anything and said cause we are on our way to being healthy and we both can and will do this.  I encourage you all to get up and moving it is a struggle in the beginning but friggin amazing within 5 minutes of getting up and going.
I have also decided seeing as I am not getting any younger it is time for me to start getting more calcium into my system.  I HATE (and yes I capitalized those on purpose) milk.  I dislike the taste and the smell.  Yes call me crazy but I gave it a smell and in my world it smells like cows.  No it does not smell like cow shit but I could not determine the smell so I have come to conclusion it smells like cows.  So after some thoughts I decided to try almond milk as I am not a huge fan of soy milk.  I brought it home and Chadd and I both said ok lets try it if we die from it atleast we will die together from it.  Total sarcasm in our voices by the way.  I had the first taste and it was not to bad.  Chadd however said he will stick to cows milk (I just puked in my mouth) and I will stick to almond milk.  I am still working myself up to getting used to drinking milk again but I will do it.
So that has been me and my journey in a nutshell for the past little while.  I am going to keep on trying to stick to posting but please don't count on me for doing weekly ones cause I just don't seem to put the time aside for it like I said I would.  To all my followers I hope you are still workin hard and I believe that you can do this.  If I can so can you! 
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ` Dr Seuss

Amy

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Softies

I got this recipe from my new WW Points Plus Cookbook and Chadd and I cannot keep our hands out of the cookie jar, they are delicious!!!

1 Pt for mine as mine made 50 cookies

Mix together:
3/4 flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (set a side)

Blend together with mixer until light and fluffy:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter ( I used the light PB)
4 Tbsp margarine softened ( I use the blue becel)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Add:
1 lrg egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Add in your flour mixture

Stir In:
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 raisins
1 medium apple peeled and cored and cut into small pieces

Put on an ungreased baking sheet and cook at 325 for 12 minutes.  Yields 36 I got 50 out of mine

Sometimes I Just Don't Understand

So my goal for this week was to stay on the healthy track with eating and to be more active.  Well I go back this past week and re-visit at what I ate each day-check I ate damn healthy, cut out a lot of carbs and replaced them with jazzing up vegetables instead.  Other then this past Friday I went for an evening walk at least 30 minutes every night as well as did my exercise video twice and dealt with snow and ice shoveling this last couple of days.  So I am super pumped tonight to hit the scale at my Weight Watcher meeting and BAM, a whoppin 1lb loss.  I am still happy don't get me wrong but I was really working on atleast a 2-4 lbs loss.  I was a little sad when I saw the little number then told my brain to smarten up and be happy with a loss. 
I am not sure if any of you deal with this at all, but it is real kick in the ass.  This has not been the first time I have busted my ass and result in a little number, but it did not get me down and I am not about to let it get me down.  I am going to increase my walks to 45 minutes this week and stick to being as healthy as I can.  This weekend may be a bit of a challenge as my fiance and I and another friend are headed to Edmonton for the weekend to help move our friends girlfriend back to the city.  With my fiance being with me I know it will be easier to make wise decisions when it comes to food as he will want to make those decisions as well.  I was also get my walking in, it will be slow but it is still walking as Saturday is designated to shopping at IKEA all day.
So here is my blog for the week, hope you all have bigger and better numbers then what I did. 

Cheers,
Amy

Still Here...

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have come to conclusion I am a terrible blogger.  I need to set a time out every week to write a blog....hmmm now to find an evening that works.  Anyways hang in there I promise I will keep blogging just not regularly at this time.
Last weeks weigh in was much better then the past couple of week but still not something to jump up and down about, I was down 1.4lbs.  I am happy with that as I do not want huge numbers as it said that if you lose the weight too fast it will only come back that much faster, and I will not let that happen.  Thankfully the weather has somewhat smartened up a bit so I have finally braved the great outdoors and have been getting in my evening walks and even more so getting outside with the daycare kids.  However Friday was an exception there was no way I was going out in those frigid temperatures and high winds.  My goal I set for myself this week was to get outside and to be more active since it is slowly getting nicer out.  I am pretty happy as ever night except Friday I have gone outside and had atleast 30 minutes of physical activity.  I truly believe that is a huge factor in weight loss and getting in your water as well.  Speaking of which I need to get my water in for the day.
This past week has been insanely busy with work and my evenings have been packed with to do's.  I have been running after 8-9 daycare kids this week and let me tell you that exhausts a person right out.  But I take each day as it comes and have fun with it.  I am also still participating in my weekly volleyball which I absolutely love soo much.  I have always been a volleyball player since my younger years and I am so glad my friend asked me to play with their work group.  We played pretty competitive on Thursday so actually worked up a sweat and then on top of that I came home and walked the dog for 45 minutes. 
For those of you that have been following the basement is slowly coming along still so much work, so I just decided to suck it up and start doing my workouts upstairs, as there just is not enough open space downstairs to work out in.  I am sure I would fall or trip on something cause I am not always that graceful when I am working out.  As my friend says at times I have 2 left feet.  haha!!  But I must jet here and go and get my water.  So keep on all my fellow blog followers, together we will lose this weight.  It will not happen over night nor will it happen next week or next month.  But we must give it time and soon we will all be celebrating as we have reached that goal. 

Amy

Well it was not much, but there is next week...

Well I was pretty hesitant to step on that scale last night as good ol' Aunt Flow was visiting and she has not been very nice to me.  I feel like I should tie myself to something as I am beyond bloated and feel like a balloon that could float away an minute now, yuck!  I am pretty sure that had a little something to do with the wee little .2lbs that I lost this past week.  It is down and not up which was pretty nice.  I listened to a friend who gave me a little advice, hold back on carbs the week before you are expecting this visitor and this should help.  Well I believe it helped at the scale as I usually am a gain when I weigh in during this "week". 

I am hoping to get the basement semi organized this weekend so I can get back to my Biggest Loser workout, I really miss it and I slept so much better when I worked out or hell when I was able to go for a walk outdoors.  The way Mother Nature is treating us lately we will not be able to go outside anytime soon without freezing our asses off.  My poor dog is dying to go for a walk but like I said previously if her paws get cold she does the 3 legged hop and she is as coordinated as Mamma and cannot walk if we are not able to use all the legs God granted us with.  Maybe if I was not so top heavy I would not struggle...haha!!
Anyways here is to another week and if you don't hear from me in a week chances are I got lost in the disasterous mess downstairs attempting to clean it.

Amy

My apology for being a terrible blogger and in return I give you....

Wow I have totally come to realize I am a terrible blogger good thing I do not have to many followers and to the people that are following my sincere apology.  Well I will just add a quick little update at where I am at right now with WW and my life.
Right now things have been slower then normal on the scale but I have no one to blame but myself as I have not been pushing myself to much and with this friggin cold ass weather there is no chance in hell I am taking the kids out to play in it let alone go out for a walk with the Beagle.  She is famous when it is cold she does the 3 legged hop within 5 minutes into our walk as she is rotten for licking her paw pads.  Silly dog.  Right now I am sitting at being down 32lbs.  I by no means am complaing as I have never lost 32 lbs in my entire life.  I have a long way   to go yet but that is a good start.  Last week I was down 1.6 lbs which was nice as the the 2 weeks before that I was up .2 and then .8.  I know when you look at it those are little numbers but they add up and I don't want them to be adding up and then my number of pounds lost going down.  So I had to pick it up. 
We have been in the middle of demolition on our basement as we had to get 16 braces installed.  So that meant for Chadd and myself having to tear all the drywall and wall framing down. That was a mental workout and a half and I could not understand the one day why my arms and shoulder was so sore.  Well the night prior to that I myself had torn out 2 full walls including the framing.  FML!!!!  Oh well makes up for me not doing my other Biggest Loser workouts.  I know it is should not be an excuse but I am making it one.  Our DVD's are burried behind all the stuff that was in Chadd's office and what we had stored in our storage space under the stairs.  Also I always worked out downstairs on the BIG TV and it has been covered so none of the dust ruins Chadd's baby ( tv).  I know lame excuse but it is.
 So that has been me in a nutshell. I took advantage of the nice day today and went on 2 super long walks with Chadd and Ivy and boy did it feel good and I know I will have that much better of a sleep tonight.
So in the end I would like to share this website with you that my friend Karla shared with me.  You will so happy with it or atleast I was especially when I found my "fall back appetizer snack" recipe.  Jalapeno Poppers.
Enjoy!!

Ginas Skinny Recipes

www.skinnytaste.com

Madly in Love with Oranges

Well as most of you know Tuesday evening is my weekly weight watcher weigh in.  This week I have had a strong addiction to oranges, if I am craving something sweet I want an orange, if I want a snack it is an orange and lately for breakfast rather then a piece of whole grain toast I want an orange.  I am not sure if it is just this delicious box of navel oranges I bought or if I really am falling madly in love with oranges...haha!  My family is prone to getting hives if too many oranges are eaten so I was a little bit hesitant about this addiction with them and one morning I was going to wake up with hives.  But I have been very lucky and they are just filling in that gap where I sometimes would fill in with something not so healthy. The other day I did my Biggest Loser Max Cardio workout and holy dynamite two days later I am still feeling it.  I gave it all I had that afternoon so I am sure that has something to do with it.  The first 3 times I did I slacked a little as I was just learning it and the moves.  The third time well I did it during quiet time and I have a 4 yr old boy who does not usually nap so he wanted to do it with me, so that slowed me down a little bit as I did not want to kick him, run into him and he had a million and one questions.  When I work out I like to concentrate on it so I was a little "blonde" when doing my workout with him cause ever time he asked a question I had to stop or slow down.  Oh well we both had fun and lesson learned for me; if you wanna give it all you got do your workout alone.

It was awesome the other evening Chadd said he wanted to go to the gym but forgot to plug in a vehicle so I told him to try it out so he said yes I will try that or your Taebo as he has done that one before and it kicked his ass.  So the next morning he did my BL workout and I bbm'd him that morning to see how it went and all he said "it kicked my ass and my legs are burning"!  I might have had a good chuckle.  I believe you can have a pretty rockin workout at home for 6.95 (what I payed for the DVD) rather then spending 50.00 a month to go to a gym and feel intimidated that all the pig headed muscle freaks are looking at you and thinking what the hell is s/he doing.

Anyways so what I was getting at after blabbering on is the scale and I got a long quite nicely last night and I was down 4.2lbs.  I think I had the hugest smile walking out of that room.  Hooray for another 5lbs star and I am now down 31.4lbs.

Hope you all have a good rest of the week!

Dear Aunt Flow...I Strongly Dislike You

Well as you can tell from the title the bitch decided to come and visit, like she does every month at this time.  However this time she came with all force, I think she has been working out too cause holy hell it feels like she is kicking the shit out of ovaries and everything down there.  Well I knew last nights weigh in was going to suck because I not only was I super sore but I was bloated and pretty sure I resembled a beluga whale of some sort.  I tried having a hot bath before weigh to reduce some of it but no such luck.  Stepped on the scale and up 2...I was pretty upset about it cause I worked my butt of this week and stayed on track and this is what I get in return.  Yesterday afternoon I even took my last 3 of 8 kids I had left for the day for a walk.  So after figuring it out  the 3 of them together would have weighed in just shy of 100lbs and took the dog with us so I had a 35lb dog pulling my other arm.  As someone mentioned to me, I likely felt like Gumby and too think of it I kind of did.  Oh well ce la vie ce la vie.  Stepped on the scale this morning and I am down 5lbs to what I weighed in at yesterday so that makes me feel better knowing that and hoping that I likely lost 2 lbs this past week.   I have taken up using resistance bands this last couple days and wow I sure feel it is my arms and legs lots but no pain means you are not doing a whole lot so bring it on.  I also love the nice weather as I get double the workout- 1 taking 25 minutes getting all the kids bundled up and 2 playing outside with them in the snow or taking them for walks.  I know this weather is leaving us on Friday but take advantage of it while you can, remember our bodies love atleast 30 minutes of physical activity in a day, even if our minds like to tell us different.  So lets get up and go!

Good bye 30

Well it is about frickin time I finally lost 30lbs.  It has been a long fuckin haul but worth every meeting let me tell you.  I have a very long ways to go but this is a huge goal for me.  My goal for July is to be down another 30.  I wanna feel good and look partially good for some of the summer.  I know it won't be till next summer when I hope that I feeling amazing and won't be shy to wear shorts or tank tops.  Right now I am a t-shirt and yoga pants kind of girl when I am at home.  They make me comfortable.  For the longest time I refused to wear jeans cause I felt so gross in them and I did not like the way I looked.  Well thanks to weight watchers I bought a pair of jeans that fit me properly and I felt ok in.  Well hooray those are now in the fat bag of clothes and I went out and bought 2 more pairs of jeans that are 2 sizes smaller and I bought a belt.  A belt I never thought I would ever need one of those as I always had my spare tire of a gut to hold them up.  Well although I don't see it just yet it must be starting to shrink.  Soo high 5 to smaller jeans and being able to use a belt for more then a fashion look.  Here is too another week my friends, even though I just lost 1 lb this week it was a loss and not a gain.  Now I just have to work out my poor fiance who had a pretty rough week and time to get him back on the healthy boat.  He had a rough Sunday and did way too much snacking and went out last Friday with the boys and drank lots of beer and had nachos.  So here is to each of kicking each other in the butt and to an amazing week and a better weight loss then last.

Sure wishes for spring and summer to come

Well this week I started back at the gym and it made me really miss being able to exercise outdoors.  Nothing beats being able to go for a nice long walk or bike ride after supper on a nice warm summer evening.  However I guess I must let reality check in and stick with the gym until atleast April as I am sure that is going to be when we start getting some warmer temperatures.  I am not one who is big into weight training but I do love my cardio work outs.  The other night I did 12 minutes on the eliptical on the weight loss setting and holy crap it kicked my butt and then from there I went and did 35 minutes on the treadmill with every 2 minutes at 4.0 speed I would increase the incline by 2 till I hit 15 and then I did a nice slow the heart rate down session.  It felt fantastic and I felt really good when I got off of it.  However I went in with knowing I need to take it easy as I have a mean head and chest cold.  After I got ready to go home it really kicked in how soar the old lungs were.  So I have decided to take the rest of the week off and get over this cold before I end up having to go to the doctor or hospital.  I am still going to continue to use my eliptical at home just maybe at a lower pace or I might even dig out my wii fit and dust it off and get my butt back on it.
Well I only lost .4 pounds this week but I have to smile and remember it was a loss and not a gain and just to keep on going.  It is only going to get better from here on in.  So keep smiling and remember "Success is not a race, be patient".  So cheers to another week my friends.

Amy