A Shredding I went, Day One!

After a bit of a hassle getting my DVD to me I finally have it in my possession. It was like a prized possession when it arrived, I was jumping and screaming yay.. then I realized I had to leave for work in a hour so it would have to wait another day, that brings us to today!
This is a 3-2-1 interval system that mixes cardio, strength, and abs for extreme weight loss, or so it says.. There are also 3 different levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced. All you need is a little floor space, hand weights and a good attitude.
SO I went with Level 1-beginner, no hand weights, the ones I have a 5lbs, and I can only find 1! Tomorrow I will be purchasing a new set. I must say the video went by amazingly fast. You don't do any one thing too long before you are on to something else.
I felt the strength training part of the work out was awesome, right up my alley, I can feel it in my muscles now, the giggly-ness I will call it. LOVE IT!
The cardio was good, I broke a small sweat, but was very winded due to my asthma, but nothing that I won't be able to handle, which is what I was hoping for.
The abs.. I was a bit disappointed, I am the person that can go to the weight room for the first time in YEARS and do 3-5 sets of 60 crunches varying 30lb and 50lb weights added, and not feel a thing the next day.. So I will have to add some of my own crunch-tastic moves to another workout another time in the day.. Or maybe I will start or end my work out with this..
All in all I am very please with my work out, and I can totally see myself doing it every day.
So for Day ONE of the SHRED I weigh in at 139lbs, with 35" of flubber at my waist.. Let's challenge Ms. Michaels clincher: Lose up to 20lbs in 30 days!

The weigh in

So I am waiting for my new work out DVD, I am thrilled, and I can't wait to give it a go. I am telling all few of you about it in hopes of keeping me motivated and on track with it. Its so easy to say I will do it to myself and then never do it, but if I have to report to someone thats another story completely! lol SO we will give me an estimated starting weight of 140lbs-145lbs thats me on average. I naturally fluctuate 5lbs all month long, I always have. My goal is to get back to 120lbs, and to be more toned. My waist around my belly button measures 35", it used to be 26"! I don't look too bad now, just a little round in the middle parts of the body, and not nearly as toned as I would like. Having been a long distance and short distance runner a good portion of my life I am used to nice toned legs, due to my asthma running is difficult for me so lets help the DVD can help get me into better shape all around. My hips are now 38", they were always 32". Then the chest, that was always 36", it's now 40", that can stay the same and I would be ok with it! I will post after my first work out, hopefully I get the DVD by the end of this up coming week! My before photo:

Let me start with saying this shirt was a shirt I used to wear all the time, and it was a little loose on me. In my defense I literally just finished eating dinner when I decided to take this photo! HAHA!I will try to wear this outfit for each weigh in and photo.. I suppose I will go with monthly weigh ins, unless the weight just pours off me! *Hoping-Praying* lol

My little Things

So last I reported about my "little things" (Thing One and Thing Two), I reported that Thing One was on the verge of walking. Well she still is! It's the most frustrating thing to watch. She took her first steps on December 19, well she is up to 3 steps now before falling. Part of the issue is she lacks balance. She has TINY feet for her cute little rolly polly frame, the other problem is she seems to lack confidence. She pulls up onto everything now, and will walk as much as she can holding on to things. She also gave me a wonderful birthday gift, as we ate breakfast she crawled over to me, got into a squatting position and just stood up. That was a first for her, I was so happy for her, I could see the happiness and excitement in her little eyes, it really was nice for me. So I move her projected walking date, I now say that by her birthday she will be walking, and if she isn't? God help me! lolGood timing with the camera, I was trying to just get her to stand, she decided she wanted the camera!

Thing One is getting more vocal, she said her first "word/words" which were "Uh oh".. Interesting isn't it? I guess we say that a lot these days. We are working with her to get her to label her basic things, baba, eat, etc. She yells aplenty these days, but not in a language that any of us understand!

Thing Two is into doing her own thing these days. She wanders off plays, only to come back in a few minutes to say, Look Mommy, Look, come here Mommy. It's cute, but tiring, especially when she proudly shows me the same things over and over. I am trying hard to remember these days are short, and to appreciate the little things.

She can tell you the names of at least 15 different animals (if not more) and the noises they all make. She can also name every pony she has (20ish), every pony in her books, and on her DVD movies of them! On most days she can correctly identify all the basic colors. She counts to 3, skips 4 & 5 and then sometimes resumes at 6. She has dropped the alphabet completely. We were getting up to E, and she just stopped. So I guess we will wait to see.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

So here we are in the new year, new promises, new everything, including goals.

Goal one, I have decided to take a more proactive role in my baby fat weight loss. I was trying dieting, thats really not for me. I have always been active (I still am), but I am less active now than I was pre-babies. So when a friend of mine told me about a program called Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred and told me she lost 20 lbs and 5 1/2 inches in 20 minutes a day I thought, hey I could do that! I know that my body will never look the same, my Dr. already told me that the skin damage was so bad that the only thing that would correct it is a tummy tuck. However if I can get the rest of my body toned and firm again and rid of excess fat I would be happy. Until I become wealthy I will just have to go buy a piggy bank for my Nip/Tuck fund. I have noticed that since my weight gain my self esteem isn't what it once was or ought to be, and I need to get that back. Maybe I will start a weight loss journal on here for those of you to follow, a little pressure never hurts, right?

Goal two is to work on getting into nursing school. At this point my application is half completed and I have a deadline of January 30th to get it in. Now just because I get all my stuff in order doesn't guarantee me a spot in a program, thats the scary part, but I am giving it my best shot. If I don't get in I will continue taking classes in an attempt to raise my GPA. It's not bad now, but the higher the better especially when the competition is so stiff to get into a program.

Goal three is to get my financial affairs in order. Somehow this ends up a priority every year. Enough said.

Goal four is to live a healthier lifestyle in terms of diet. I am working to cut out soda (I wasn't a huge fan to begin with). I also want to cut out juice, it's so easy to buy a little canister of lemonade or something and then make juice, and lord knows all those Crystal Lights and stuff are bad for you so I need to drink more water. I also need to cut back on caffeine, a little birdie told me that caffeine increases cellulite in women, when I think about the physiology of the human body, this makes sense to me so I will work on that. I also ingest entirely too much sugar, and not enough raw vegetables and fruits. I need to be a good role model for my children and this one is an important one for me.

Goal five is to complete goals one through four!

Good luck on whatever goals you may have made for yourself this year!

Christmastime again

Not too much can be said about Christmas this year. It came, it went, it was a success and the man in the red suit got all the credit again! I wanted to share a few photos for you though.

Thing Two with a gift from Santa.

Thing One tearing open a gift from her Great Aunt.

CRAP!

I am failing at blogging. My life is so hectic I can't take the time to get on here and rave or gripe about it.

The last I was here I was talking about Halloween, Thing One's birthday and my last test at that time. WOW, a lot has happened since.

Let's start with tree hunting, we went tree hunting Saturday Nov. 22nd. I was quite possibly the windy-est, coldest day we had had so far, but Thing One picked a perfect 7' tree in under 15 minutes! We took it home and began decorating it in all of our valued shatter-proof ornaments! lol. Of course over the next few days they started to disappear off the tree at an alarming rate, but luckly the novelty of that has since worn off! Thing One also got into the tinsel one day, I wish I had taken a picture of the "fine" job she did!

Due to the strain of the times I reluctantly started a job at Kmart on Dec. 2nd as a cashier. I was unable to find a bartending job, so I did what I had to do to help out. It's not so bad, the hardest adjustment has been having to leave my kids with someone. I hate that I am no longer the one taking care of them, and I miss them terribly. I talk with all the kids that are in the store any where near my register I miss them so much, and more than half the time I start crying. I know it's cliche, but there truly is no greater love than the love of a child. With in one week I had the best ring rate at the store, and in my 3rd week (this past week) I began being the key trainer for every new employee that comes into the store to cashier. JOY. I know, it's good to be good at your job. I just feel like at the age of 28 I should be doing more with my life.

Tomorrow is part one of my Finals, it's the lab portion. With the new job I have had one day in the past 3 weeks to study, so as soon as I am done with this blog I am off to hit the books.

We took the kids to see the Festival of Lights in New Haven last weekend. It is supposed to be this fantastic light show. All this place did was find all the big lit displays they could find, meaning giant nutcrackers, etc. and arranged them all over a drive through park in no particular order. All in all we drove 40 minutes each way, and paid $10 to get in, I was NOT impressed. I will add it was for a good cause, Easter Seals.

We also took the kids to see Santa last weekend. It was a disaster. Thing One and Thing Two were terrified of the jolly big man. I think it's the beard, I could be wrong. We did manage to get a picture of all of us with him at the precise moment no one was crying.

Last night we went to see the Silver Lights display at Hubbard Part in Meriden, hands down a great light show, and it's free! We even got to have free hot chocolate and a free picture with Santa. We put Thing Two up first in the sled with Santa, she was terrified and crying, it is a cute picture however. I had to go up with Thing One, when we talked in the car she was all revved up ready to go talk to Santa and sit with him, not so much once she saw him! I managed to get her to stop crying and talk to Santa, she told him she was a good girl this year and that she wanted "presents". No lie, she did not ask for anything specifically, just for presents. What a good kid!

Today we are off to a neighbors party (a little break from the books). I hear Santa will be there, and that he will have a present for the kids, this should be interesting!

In other news Thing Two is standing on her own with out holding on to anything. She is also on the verge of walking, she is just afraid to. I can hold her hands and not support her, and she will walk all over the house, as soon as I let go she plops down. If I were to guess I would say she will be walking her first few steps alone in the next week or two. Definetly by the New Year.

So in a nutshell thats our life at the moment. I hope to be a more active person in this blog in the coming weeks! Happy Holidays everyone!
xoxo

Wow look at the time go!

So it's already been 2 days shy of a month since my last blog, I apologize to anyone actually reading these! So much has happened in the past month, I haven't been able to breathe.

SO let's start with Halloween, Thing One was a bee, and Thing Two was a strawberry in a field. We went to the Firehouse for the annual parade and contest, Thing Two won third for most original costume, I was very happy considering I sewed the stroller cover myself! We were worried that Thing One would be scared by a lot of the costumes, she has become very concerned with things like that, but she was fine and was very enthusiastic to run up to each house to get her "loot".While we are talking about Thing One, she has recently mastered potty training, until you put underwear on her.. for that we are working on getting her to tell us she has to go so we can help. She is very independent and wants to do it all on her own.

Then there was her birthday, we had a small party for her and her kiddy friends at the YMCA. There was all kinds of gym equipment and a Bounce House, pizza, cake and a pinata of course. She had a blast! On her actual birthday we had a nice quiet family day with just the kids, Daddy, and myself. We let her open presents slowly through the day. She received a lot of My Little Pony items, which she was THRILLED about!Thing Two has been becoming much more vocal in the recent weeks, which I hope is leading up to a first word pretty soon. She babbles Momma, and Dadda, we are just waiting for something more substantial. She has time I suppose. She is also climbing everything, pulling up onto everything, and using the couch for balance to scoot along. In no time she will be walking.

Gosh, they grow up so fast!As for myself, school is 2/3 over and I have been doing extremely well. I am amazing myself at what I can accomplish with almost no time to study. It just goes to show if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish it... now if I could just do that with the lottery!