Christmas 2009 versus 2010

Monday, December 27, 2010

I saw a few blogs like this the other day and this morning, so I thought, why not? It is hard for me to look at old pictures of me, but it really does help when needing that extra kick in the pants to go to the gym, or to pick myself up out of the "I feel fat" muck.

Last year (and please pardon the fact that I am seriously not handling my darling baby appropriately):



And this was Christmas Eve (I actually thought of having someone take our picture together!). Oh, and yeah, Kaylee was not being very cooperative, but that is how it is with a toddler nowadays!



A picture is worth a thousand words to me....and I promise myself I will never hurt my body like this ever again!!

OH!!! And as an aside, my Christmas present is a trip to Cancun (for 5 days) in March! Yay! Here's to that bikini (kinda) body! Had a seriously rocking workout this morning with 55 minutes of spinning and 40 minutes of ST! Got my sweat on, and am FEELING those muscles. My poor abs hated/loved me after it all was said and done.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!



Erin

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Our Santa/Kaylee experience

Friday, December 24, 2010

Just a short clip of Kaylee and Santa as filmed by daddy with me in there for a few seconds...

P.S. It takes a minute to start on my end here....so just in case it doesn't start for you right away, hang in there!

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Feeling like I got punched in the face...literally....

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Ugh! Okay, so yesterday I noticed that all of the top teeth on the left side of my face hurt, and my cheekbone is feeling like it has been punched. Don't tell me that what I was experiencing before was just sinus congestion and now it is an infection..

I didn't go to the gym yesterday since I spent about an hour and a half shoveling (and sure feeling it today). I did great with my eating yesterday, and ended the day pretty happy about how I did.

Cue up this morning. At 3:30 a.m. my daughter wakes up crying. I go in to see what is wrong, and she has thrown her pacifiers on the ground (yes, plural, she likes to have at least 3-5 in the crib with her. It's her vice). I gave them back and went back to bed. 10 minutes later, the same thing. And over, and repeat, and over again. I gave her Tylenol thinking the molar she is teething is bothering her (and realizing that I don't have Baby Orajel handy since I lost it). Again, 10 minutes later she is crying. We tried CIO (crying it out), but she just got mad along with the crying. I gave her a bottle of milk (last resort kind of deal) and she fell asleep for 20 minutes. Finally, at 5:20 this morning, I soothed and rocked her until she fell asleep (which she normally does NOT let me do...danged independence she has). So, at that point I realized I would usually be getting ready to go to the gym. Yeah, right. The left side of my face is banging like a drum. I can hardly open my mouth, and I have a RAGING headache along with a bit of a lack of sleep (thankfully I went to bed at 9, but I need 8 hours a night, trust me).

So, I chose not to go to the gym. Again. And that is driving me nuts. I had my weigh-in for the Periwinkles today, and though I am down 2 pounds from yesterday, I am still up a LOT from last week. I know it is a combination of stress, water retention, and a lot of bad food mixed in with no gym time since last Wednesday, but I really really want to be in the gym tomorrow.

So, I made an appointment this morning at 10:30 with my doc to see if I need to be on antibiotics. I have been still running a low-grade temperature of 99.5 since Saturday (when it was up in the 100s). I just want the pain to be GONE already! And the snot. Really, that's just gross. And I can imagine how it will be when I am running. Great gobs of snot.

Ugh.

But, other than that little vent, I am still going to be a happy person today, because though I can't change certain circumstances, I can change my reaction to them.

Have a happy day, everyone, and change a negative into a positive!

Erin

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Perspective/Changing Negative To Positive

Monday, December 20, 2010

We all have our ups and downs. Sometimes more up, sometimes more down. This time of the year, there can be a lot of negativity in our lives.

What are some things we can do to change that? To change our perception of a negative? To change the perspective even? I would love some examples from my friends on here :o}

Here are a few of mine:

1. Lately, for the last few weeks/month or two, I have been obsessing about weighing in at 160 at Weight Watchers. It's not about the number as much as about the fact that once I hit that "magical" number, it is my goal weight and if I stay between 158 and 162 for 6 weeks, I become a lifetime member and no longer have to pay $40 a month to weigh in weekly there. That is huge for me because I pay $40 for the gym membership and have been doing this both for nearly a year now. But, that number eludes me at the meeting. I can weigh 160 (or even 159) at home easily, but it seems that when Tuesday hits, and I go in there at 5 p.m. in clothes, it goes like this (here are the past 8 weigh-in numbers starting October 19): 161, 161, 160.4, 163.4, 162.2, 163.8, 164.2, 160.6, 161.4, 161.4. That is 10 weeks of NOT hitting 160. You have to hit it on the nose or be under it for it to count, so you can imagine my frustration when 160.4 or 160.6 came up. Yup.

Changing negative to positive: Last year, on this very day, I weighed 239.6 pounds. So, despite the fact that I am in the worst plateau of my LIFE, I am still down nearly 80 pounds from this time last year. That is amazing! So, my lesson for myself today is to look at things long-term when I need to so I can change my short-term negative outlook :o}

2. I was sick this weekend and couldn't work out, which depressed me to no end and, in fact, I haven't worked out since Wednesday.

Changing negative to positive: I took care of myself this weekend, so instead of being sick for a week or MORE or having the illness change to something more (like a chest cold/bronchitis/pneumonia) I am thinking that I can do some strength training and even go to the gym tomorrow! And I know my body will not lose its stamina and fitness just because I had to rest. And now I am valuing my health even more now.

Okay, I want to do more, but I really should be working! So, come on, Spark friends. Tell me something negative that you can change into a positive in your life!



Erin

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My weekend can SUCK IT!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Whew! I am so glad the weekend is over. All of last week, too, really! Between my daughter being sick off and on with the stomach virus and then I myself got a sinus infection on Friday and developed the stomach bug on Saturday. My husband sure was not having fun on Saturday, that's for sure....

On Friday, I didn't eat that great. Wasn't horrible, but not great. Cue up Saturday. I ate nearly NOTHING. I started out trying to drink water, but that didn't stay down. Later I tried drinking Powerade Zero, which did okay. I was getting dehydrated and really had to try to keep things down. I was pretty much laid up since sitting or standing really exacerbated my nausea. Later in the afternoon, I was able to get in half a banana, and later on 1/4 cup of no sugar added applesauce. About 7 p.m. I was able to eat Campbell's chicken noodle soup and have a bit of Diet 7-Up. I will not go into details of my day other than I just rested.

Yesterday was better, but just really a rest day for me. My daughter unfortunately still had a touchy tummy, so she threw up in the early morning hours. I stayed in the house most of the day, eating things on the BRAT diet for the most part (bananas, applesauce, toast) and drinking Powerade and Diet 7-Up. I didn't throw up, but just felt shaky and tired. My fever finally broke about noon, which helped tremendously! I did upgrade my diet as tolerated in the evening. I had sweet potato fries (1 serving) and later on had 2 servings of low-fat Neapolitan ice cream. My treat of the weekend, and it was delicious....

So, now it is Monday. I didn't go to the gym this morning. I wanted to, but I woke up with a wicked sore throat, and my nose was still extremely congested. Me on a spinning bike this morning just didn't sound good. And running would have really sucked. I do, however, feel I can work on my ST today. I plan on taking breaks today to take my dog on a 1-mile walk twice, and each time I will do a bit of a mini-circuit. The first one will be 25 each of forward lunges, squats, push-ups, and crunches. I will work on variationes (side lunges, different crunches, sumo squats, etc) with each different break. If I am feeling good, this evening I will do the Biggest Loser Bootcamp DVD. If I'm not, I won't. I do hope to go to the gym to run lightly tomorrow morning. Mainly because it is my weigh-in.

Oh, and I forgot to mention this before! I got my TOM during this whole lovely shebang!!!! Wouldn't be much of an issue, except this is my SECOND one this month!!!!! WTH??????? Yeah, I really needed THAT bloaty fun. I weighed 166 on Friday (the result of bad eating, so much sodium, and well....just bad eating). This morning I weigh in at 161.4. I am still not happy with that number and know that it has a lot to do with the fact that I was sick over the weekend. But, I'll take it and work with it.

I am doing my food blog again starting today. This morning I started out with an English muffin with reduced-fat PB and a Gala apple with water. I want this week to be as healthy as possible given the fact that I am cooking Christmas Eve dinner, then we are having a Christmas Day dinner at my mom's! Eek! More on that soon.

Well, just thought I'd let everyone know that my weekend can SUCK IT! And it is gone, done, and over with, and I am so happy to be...well, happy...and healthy again!!!

Love you all ~

Erin

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