Dinner on the road

We don't travel a whole lot except to see family. My family lives an hour away and Josh's lives nearly 2 1/2 hours away. It's always been the thing to just stop at McDonald's or whatever on the way out of town for lunch or dinner. Now that I'm on a pretty strict diet I am trying to avoid stopping for anything, including kids foods. We've been planning this short little jaunt to Josh's dads house for really like a week and started my diet Wednesday so I kind of panicked when I started thinking "what am I supposed to eat?" I knew I was going to have to bring a few of my own foods to keep me on track, but knew if we stopped for kids stuff I was going to be too tempted to not eat what I brought along. So to the drawing bored I went (aka pinterest). There seemed to be few solutions but all seemed either expensive because I didn't have that stuff around the house or the revolved around sticking fast food in a convenient basket. I wanted healthy, and I wanted cheap!! I ended up just going to the store and just looking for something. Figured I'd end up with baggies or something and just pass them out. Get to the "food storage" isle and low and behold ziplock had 2 packs of sectioned reusable containers for a little over $2(still more than I wanted to pay but whatever). Then we grabbed some kid print paper cups, with lids and straws and some life waters to drink.
When I got home I set to work on making dinners since I had 2 hours before we left (if you know me this is pretty good timing). I just used what I had on hand, frozen pb&j(I cheated I know), wheat thin sticks, fruit/granola bars, celery, peanut butter, and a nut mix. Baby got bananas, wheat thins and nuts, he's picky and getting eye teeth right now so barely ate anything :(. However the kids love it and their only complaints were "are we there yet?!", which I'm used to by now. I'll upload more from my camera when we get back.

Oh and as for myself I brought thin bagel with a little cream cheese and Chobani yogurt.

Giveaways

I shoulda posted something before hand. Just had a 75 fan giveaway on Facebook, winner won a custom photo prop or diaper. Will have another "Anything Goes" giveaway at 100 fans!

Week 2

I don't look any different, actually gained 6lbs, then lost it, then gained it again lol. It makes no sense!! Anyhow I'm 2lbs heavier now than when I started which is so discouraging. I don't look much different other than my arms and legs are getting toned. I think I'm going to jump into the second segment. Maybe adding to the intensity will help burn off this additional weight gain.

After workout: OWWW. I thought I was working a lot of muscles already, Jillian seriously knows how to kick butt!! I can power through strength and abs but the cardio needs some serious work!! Tomorrows another day, hopefully it's a little easier. Photo I me completely exhausted. I think my stomach looks less like I'm 5 months pregnant today...

Worrying about the big stuff

I'm up way too late trying to figure out why I'm gaining weight and really stressing considering how hard I'm working out. I'm not changing my diet because a) I don't want to and b) if I do that for 30 days, once 30 day shred is done I'll eat a popsicle and blow up again. Besides that I don't eat bad, I do eat about 1500cal on a daily basis, sometimes more sometimes less so it's not a lot. Anyhow, doing research and seeing people are reducing their body fat percentage and not weight makes me feel good. I don't care about being skinny if I'm still fat. I've seen lots of people who are "skinny" but it's not muscle, when they sit down they are all chub, not the image I want for myself, hence the working out (chub and mommy belly is gross). An I know I have the biggest legs known to man, thoroughbreds would be jealous of the saddlebags lol. Seriously though I already had big legs, now they're big muscley legs, guess that's a good thing. And my arms, oh my arms. I already had broad shoulders, always have, now they have actual muscle in them (not bulky, that's not cute), no cap sleeves for me ever again. Blah, whatever. I'm gonna junk this stupid scale, it pisses me off. I have a couple tape measures and a calculator, I'm gonna concern myself with body fat percentage not BMI or weight because neither of those factors in your actual health.

HOLY CUTENESS!!!

My favorite part of making photo props is seeing them in action. Laying it out on the floor, table, bed, etc, never does anything I make justice. Seeing it being worn and photographed not only shows me that a) I've done a good job, but b) things I have my sizing down pretty well.
Here's a couple of recent pics I've received with my props!

Many thanks to Stephanie and Nicole for their amazing photography skills and for letting me share their work! 

http://www.facebook.com/TimelessMomentsPhotoNE

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Schweitzer-Photography/155214044589601?ref=pb

Day 2

I took yesterday off from working out, my muscles were sore and I'd stayed up too late the night before, the combination seemed to scream "You're gonna hurt yourself!". Today I'm back to it. Feeling better. My legs arent so jiggly and Josh has taken one too many snap shots of my butt on his phone, guess that means its working ;)

Bring it on Jillian

I've been steadily working out for a couple months with no real results because I'm not good at keeping up with it. I've had Jillian Michaels 30 day shred for a while but after 2 days I was in so much pain I just gave up. Now that the muscles have been worked a little from my non-rigorous routine I figured I'd give it another shot. Today is day 1, it was rough, but I got through it and my legs don't feel so stiff, wobbly, but not stiff. Anyhow, this morning after breakfast I was 185, I usually fluctuate between 178-185. I'm hoping to be 165 in 30 days. I'm 5'8" so that's a healthy weight for me and should put me in a size 8/9(I'm a 12 now). We'll see. I'm goin to post weekly on my progress just to keep myself motivated. Below is a picture of me Pre-work out.

Quick breakfast

As a mom of four, one who loathes the moment kids come rouse me out of bed hours before I'm ready because I stayed up too late reading, I need easy breakfasts. Non time consuming ones that I can put together and go lay back on the couch for another 10 minutes or so.
Here's my compilation:
Cheerios;heart healthy, not loaded with sugar, and great for babies!
Toast!; add some peanut butter for protein or do a butter and honey for a sweet treat
Bagels; mini are even funner. Use cream cheese or fruit spread of some sort
Whole wheat frozen waffles; avoid a mess and a sugar high by not serving with syrup. Try peanut butter and raisins instead.
Eggs; we always have eggs, more than we need. I personally love a fried egg. sandwich with two pieces of buttery toasted bread.
Oatmeal; I cheat and buy the flavored stuff. It's not horrible so on this I don't mind indulging the kids.
Serve everything with fruit and a small glass of milk. By serving such fruits as an apple or proteins like eggs with breakfast you are keeping your kiddos full and not Asking for lunch in an hour. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day and I like to make sure my kids are prepared for the day even if I'm not ready for it :)

Too hot?!

It's the beginning of June and already well over 90. Im the biggest whiner when it comes to heat. I'm pale, don't tan, and rarely get burned because I don't go outside in the summer. This means play time for us is restricted to the pool or short park trips. So since the kids would be extremely bored of we didn't learning or workbook pages all the time we let them play video games. I know, I'm a horrible parent. But these aren't normal video games, and it's not vtech either. Instead they play MineCraft. It's basically a game where you "mine" items to make new ones. You mine wood, make a work bench, mine some more wood(cutting down trees) and make an ax, mine coal make a fire...so on and so on. On top of that it's like playing Legos. The kids build houses out of stone or wood, dig a whole surround it with a brick wall and fill it with water for a well....I mean these kids are in love with the game. They play it on easy so there's no bad things in the night, but if you're mom or dad playing you can set it on hard where there are monsters, zombies(creepers as they are called), and more lurking around at night or in the underground mines. It's actually just a game for my kids to use their imaginations and build whatever the want. My daughter loves building sky houses where you have to walk up thousands of stairs to get inside the actual house(she's 6 1/2), my son is one who likes to dig holes as deep as possible and find his way out (he's 5) but both love the game, and since it's free...Egh, why not?!

14 months

Baby isn't such a baby anymore. He walks, heck, he runs now, has for the last 4 months. Has 12 teeth, "talks" all the time, and is just plain getting too big too fast. It's sad. Being the last baby means I'll never see these moments again. It's a bittersweet ending to my child baring years. Soon all the kids will be out of the house and have their own kids. I wish I could slow time, stop it a few days, keep my kids as kids for a little longer, but I know I can't. Boo!