What can I say?!?!? It's a happy day; my pants fit! I successfully met my goal and dropped the last 20lbs left with lots of work tracking my diet and exercising. Every single pound of the 42 lbs (gasp...I know) I gained during pregnancy is gone.
Now to get onto the work of toning the saggy body. Don't let the fact that I have reached my pre-pregnancy weight fool you into thinking I have my pre-pregnancy body back!
I am still using myfitnesspal.com and have set myself up on a plan to "maintain" my weight (a 700 cal/day increase). I love that program.
I have to give T some credit too for dropping 15lbs by default during it all. He made a more conscious effort to watch what he ate and then the fact that treats and high fat snack haven't existed in our home these past few months apparently made a huge difference.
Little JA wanted to bake cookies the other day and I was a bit surprised to realize we didn't have an stick of butter or a single chocolate chip in this house. I guess it really had been a while since we induldged!
Thanks for all the support (especially all my fellow MFP users).
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fit back into my pants - photos
I am excited to announce that I am within a couple pounds of being back to my pre pregnancy weight. My plan has worked like a charm (with tons of hard work and no cheating).
I didn't take an official picture of myself at about 4 1/2 weeks post baby when I started because let's face it, no lady wants that BUT my husband snagged a couple pics of me that give you an idea.
(AL and I are trying to copy some martial art moves of a few other fountain goers)
Mid/late August - 20 lbs to go
Mid Sept -about 8 lbs down
Today I realized I was wearing the same outfit and might as well snap a pic. Late Oct - 18 lbs down
Mid Nov - another pic to come
Now that the weight is basically back to normal I will continue to put my efforts into toning and getting my body in a less saggy state ;)
I'll say it again and again but myfitnesspal.com is the secret! Oh and my pants are fitting pretty great (just still a tiny sore on the tummy with a few low rise jeans)
I didn't take an official picture of myself at about 4 1/2 weeks post baby when I started because let's face it, no lady wants that BUT my husband snagged a couple pics of me that give you an idea.
(AL and I are trying to copy some martial art moves of a few other fountain goers)
Mid/late August - 20 lbs to go
Mid Nov - another pic to come
Now that the weight is basically back to normal I will continue to put my efforts into toning and getting my body in a less saggy state ;)
I'll say it again and again but myfitnesspal.com is the secret! Oh and my pants are fitting pretty great (just still a tiny sore on the tummy with a few low rise jeans)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
My Fit Back into my Pants Plan - 2mth update
Another month has passed and I am happy to report that my "fat pants" are starting to feel too big, I am constantly having to pull them up during the day! With tons of hard work, planning and zero cheating I am now down 13lbs. Feels good.
Myfitnesspal.com has seriously been the secret. I track all the calories I eat and stick within my daily goals and it seems to work. I love the support that comes from other friends on the program as well.
Join in the fun if you aren't already.
Meal planning takes a lot of thought but the longer we do it the easier it is getting. T is down 10lbs as well ( that is just from cutting out snacks and having healthier meals at home but zero tracking or exercise). Over Thanksgiving weekend we had back to back turkey dinners (one at our place and another at my parents). I took a few minutes to work out portion sizes and calories earlier in the day and managed to enjoy a delicious meal, feel full, stay within my daily calories and still drop a pound after the weekend.
About 5-6 weeks ago I started back on the elliptical and even went on a run. After a month of increasing times and intensity my knee injury (IT band) that I sustained from running last fall came back pretty quick. Darn. That hasn't stopped me though. I got a membership for the pool and having been swimming laps for 45-60 mins several times a week. What an awesome workout! I haven't swam laps since I was in my early teens in swim lessons but each time I go I start to improve more and more. I just have to remind myself not to be intimidated by all the super amazing swimmers in the pool. I seriously love to quiet time that comes in the water, so great.
Stay tuned for another update in a month. 6-7 more pounds to go!
Myfitnesspal.com has seriously been the secret. I track all the calories I eat and stick within my daily goals and it seems to work. I love the support that comes from other friends on the program as well.
Join in the fun if you aren't already.
Meal planning takes a lot of thought but the longer we do it the easier it is getting. T is down 10lbs as well ( that is just from cutting out snacks and having healthier meals at home but zero tracking or exercise). Over Thanksgiving weekend we had back to back turkey dinners (one at our place and another at my parents). I took a few minutes to work out portion sizes and calories earlier in the day and managed to enjoy a delicious meal, feel full, stay within my daily calories and still drop a pound after the weekend.
About 5-6 weeks ago I started back on the elliptical and even went on a run. After a month of increasing times and intensity my knee injury (IT band) that I sustained from running last fall came back pretty quick. Darn. That hasn't stopped me though. I got a membership for the pool and having been swimming laps for 45-60 mins several times a week. What an awesome workout! I haven't swam laps since I was in my early teens in swim lessons but each time I go I start to improve more and more. I just have to remind myself not to be intimidated by all the super amazing swimmers in the pool. I seriously love to quiet time that comes in the water, so great.
Stay tuned for another update in a month. 6-7 more pounds to go!
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
"Fit Back Into My Pants" Update
It has now been a month on my "fit back into my pants" plan. With tons of hard work and self control I have hit the 7lbs down mark! Hooray. I love seeing progress every week.
Myfitnesspal.com has really become my life line in it all. I am an organized/planner type of person and I LOVE being able to track everything I eat and all the exercise I do. It just works for me.
I am not going to lie, there have been some hard days and moments (ie.children melting down and wanting to just dive into the chocolate) but it is becoming so much easier every day. We are really spending more time thinking through our meal choices and portion sizes. Lots of lean protiens and wide varieties of veggies and fruits and minimal carbs. Quinoa even made it to our dinner table this week for the first time.....yum! Unhealthy/high calorie night time snacking is becoming a thing of the past.
My husband is doing great too. He is walking away from the tables of treats that always seem to be set out at work and dropping the pounds. Nice work T!
My body is starting to heal from surgery and each week I am able to move more. We are enjoying evening walks with the kids and long trips to the zoo and other local attractions this month are starting to leave me with less and less pain. This week I even hopped back on the elliptical. I am aiming for 3 mornings a week and just taking it slow and steady so that I don't over do it and reverse the healing process. It's hard but feels so good.
On a side note I have some new favorite pants to plug! One word, Jeggings. I bought a couple pairs (Calvin Klein at Costco of all places) and love love love them. As comfy as sweat pants and so easy going on my incision and their stretch sure does suck in all the extra rolls.
Stay tuned for next months update. Anyone else want to join in the fun?!?!? The more the merrier.
Myfitnesspal.com has really become my life line in it all. I am an organized/planner type of person and I LOVE being able to track everything I eat and all the exercise I do. It just works for me.
I am not going to lie, there have been some hard days and moments (ie.children melting down and wanting to just dive into the chocolate) but it is becoming so much easier every day. We are really spending more time thinking through our meal choices and portion sizes. Lots of lean protiens and wide varieties of veggies and fruits and minimal carbs. Quinoa even made it to our dinner table this week for the first time.....yum! Unhealthy/high calorie night time snacking is becoming a thing of the past.
My husband is doing great too. He is walking away from the tables of treats that always seem to be set out at work and dropping the pounds. Nice work T!
My body is starting to heal from surgery and each week I am able to move more. We are enjoying evening walks with the kids and long trips to the zoo and other local attractions this month are starting to leave me with less and less pain. This week I even hopped back on the elliptical. I am aiming for 3 mornings a week and just taking it slow and steady so that I don't over do it and reverse the healing process. It's hard but feels so good.
On a side note I have some new favorite pants to plug! One word, Jeggings. I bought a couple pairs (Calvin Klein at Costco of all places) and love love love them. As comfy as sweat pants and so easy going on my incision and their stretch sure does suck in all the extra rolls.
Stay tuned for next months update. Anyone else want to join in the fun?!?!? The more the merrier.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Decisions
My little Buddy has been going for speech therapy over the last year. Two is the magical age to get any sort of speech assistance BUT it is focused on helping the parents assist their child in building a good base of words. The past year I have gone to seminars on this topic and then we have attended a monthly play and say group where speech therapists and assistants work with 2 or 3 kids and their parents in a play setting and model tactics for parents and take notes on the children.
Now that JA is finally at the magical age of 3 he can be more formally assessed to see which funding and programs he qualifies for. JA and I headed to the health centre this morning for his formal assessment. I must admit that I was stressed and praying hard for it to go well. JA is sooooo shy and I always feel like every time we have gone to the play group he must be in pain being so quiet and shy; literally the moment we would walk out of the door he would talk and talk and talk but would barely say a word while there.
He was for sure shy today and really didn't string an entire sentence together as often as he can but he did warm up and give simple answers. It was a long tough process of testing via flip charts, pictures, having him complete sentences, etc with small breaks to play or treats as bribes to keep going! It was painful for him and for me. It was so hard to watch and see him not answer something correctly because it was too complex for him or just because he was tired and really does know the answers. (ie one of the more extreme examples, Point to the smallest cat that is closest to the turtle? Not one cat was located next to the turtle and there were several small cats in the pic. When he points to a small cat that isn't closest to the turtle he is scored a zero. Complex.) It is always hard to see your child not understand something.
He was assessed as having a severe speech delay in the 1st percentile and 15th percentile for understanding. I know that it isn't a completely accurate assessment of where he is at but I know that he is behind for sure.
I got in the van, called T and had a little cry and then resolved to get him the help he needs.
He qualifies for ECS programs that are located in elementary schools at various locations, 4 times a week for 3 hours with bus service provided. I was immediately discouraged after calling all of the schools anywhere close to our house and finding out that they don't take children that aren't in their neighborhood. There is no school in our neighborhood with this program. I called schools as far as a half hour drive away to find all are full. One school that is about 20 mins away put him on their wait list (#33 with 18 accepted). Discouraging.
I finally got in touch with two organizations that will partner with your child and the community preschool that you have him registerd in and that you pay for. They will send him an educational assistant to work with him each and every day he is in preschool and then monthly visits for an assortment of speech, OT, behavior experts. Both organizations are meeting with me next week to discuss their program. They both stressed how valuable it is to place a child in their community program with "normal" children that don't have speech delays or other delays and can model the language they want him to learn. One program in particular really struck a cord with me (and my teaching background) on the plans and goals they put in place. I am feeling much more hopeful now.
With a new baby this summer and one child starting kindergarten at the school down the road keeping JA in the neighborhood preschool seems so much more appealing then shipping him off on the bus half way across town.
Now to start applying to the provincial education program to get him qualified for all of this funding now that the assessment is complete.
Anyone who has some local insight and advice on the subject please pass it on to me.
Now that JA is finally at the magical age of 3 he can be more formally assessed to see which funding and programs he qualifies for. JA and I headed to the health centre this morning for his formal assessment. I must admit that I was stressed and praying hard for it to go well. JA is sooooo shy and I always feel like every time we have gone to the play group he must be in pain being so quiet and shy; literally the moment we would walk out of the door he would talk and talk and talk but would barely say a word while there.
He was for sure shy today and really didn't string an entire sentence together as often as he can but he did warm up and give simple answers. It was a long tough process of testing via flip charts, pictures, having him complete sentences, etc with small breaks to play or treats as bribes to keep going! It was painful for him and for me. It was so hard to watch and see him not answer something correctly because it was too complex for him or just because he was tired and really does know the answers. (ie one of the more extreme examples, Point to the smallest cat that is closest to the turtle? Not one cat was located next to the turtle and there were several small cats in the pic. When he points to a small cat that isn't closest to the turtle he is scored a zero. Complex.) It is always hard to see your child not understand something.
He was assessed as having a severe speech delay in the 1st percentile and 15th percentile for understanding. I know that it isn't a completely accurate assessment of where he is at but I know that he is behind for sure.
I got in the van, called T and had a little cry and then resolved to get him the help he needs.
He qualifies for ECS programs that are located in elementary schools at various locations, 4 times a week for 3 hours with bus service provided. I was immediately discouraged after calling all of the schools anywhere close to our house and finding out that they don't take children that aren't in their neighborhood. There is no school in our neighborhood with this program. I called schools as far as a half hour drive away to find all are full. One school that is about 20 mins away put him on their wait list (#33 with 18 accepted). Discouraging.
I finally got in touch with two organizations that will partner with your child and the community preschool that you have him registerd in and that you pay for. They will send him an educational assistant to work with him each and every day he is in preschool and then monthly visits for an assortment of speech, OT, behavior experts. Both organizations are meeting with me next week to discuss their program. They both stressed how valuable it is to place a child in their community program with "normal" children that don't have speech delays or other delays and can model the language they want him to learn. One program in particular really struck a cord with me (and my teaching background) on the plans and goals they put in place. I am feeling much more hopeful now.
With a new baby this summer and one child starting kindergarten at the school down the road keeping JA in the neighborhood preschool seems so much more appealing then shipping him off on the bus half way across town.
Now to start applying to the provincial education program to get him qualified for all of this funding now that the assessment is complete.
Anyone who has some local insight and advice on the subject please pass it on to me.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Melons.....have you checked yours?
We made our weekly trek to the grocery store this morning. As we entered the store we were greeted with crates full of watermelons. As I knocked on several melons listening for that perfect hollow sound it occurred to me that I had yet to make a post about melons of sorts.
Rewind to two weeks ago.
I was sitting in my doctor's office telling her about a lump that I had noticed in my left breast. As she examined my right side we laughed as I made jokes about my lack of anything in that department since having children. The doctor smiled and laughed right along with me and then I saw her face instantly drop and become dead serious. I knew that she had found the lump and that she could feel it too.
Within one business day I was at an appointment for a mammogram and ultrasound. As I sat in the room with the mammogram machine waiting for the nurse to return from talking to the radiologist, I noticed I was surrounded by literature about breast health and breast cancer. It was all a little surreal and then I noticed that every piece of literature featured a picture of a women.....a women anywhere from age 50-70years of age. At 30 years old I felt very out of place. I hadn't given much thought to breast health at my age until this moment.
The lump was a cyst and I am in the clear for now. I will however never miss a month of self breast examination from this day on. I will not think of it as something that I don't need to worry about until the magical age of 50. As stressful as wake-up calls can be they sure can bring much needed perspective!
Have you checked yours?
Rewind to two weeks ago.
I was sitting in my doctor's office telling her about a lump that I had noticed in my left breast. As she examined my right side we laughed as I made jokes about my lack of anything in that department since having children. The doctor smiled and laughed right along with me and then I saw her face instantly drop and become dead serious. I knew that she had found the lump and that she could feel it too.
Within one business day I was at an appointment for a mammogram and ultrasound. As I sat in the room with the mammogram machine waiting for the nurse to return from talking to the radiologist, I noticed I was surrounded by literature about breast health and breast cancer. It was all a little surreal and then I noticed that every piece of literature featured a picture of a women.....a women anywhere from age 50-70years of age. At 30 years old I felt very out of place. I hadn't given much thought to breast health at my age until this moment.
The lump was a cyst and I am in the clear for now. I will however never miss a month of self breast examination from this day on. I will not think of it as something that I don't need to worry about until the magical age of 50. As stressful as wake-up calls can be they sure can bring much needed perspective!
Have you checked yours?
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