fitness time

ok so i read the study the other day that says if you are starting a new fitness routine, & want to keep it up & actually lose weight, that you shouldn't tell anyone. this way you won't get frustrated if (or in my case, when) you plateau & stop losing weight. personally i don't think that i would matter that much in my case. I'm still going to get frustrated when i plateau & the fact that no one else knows my predicament isn't going to change that.

I also read that you are 75% more likely to accomplish your goals if you write them down. So i've been writing down a lot of my goals lately. Today i've been working on fitness goals, i have been thinking about these for quite awhile (i started my weight loss journey back in July) but i hadn't written any of them down so i did just that.

my biggest reason for wanting to be fit

• to be a role model for R
• to get to a healthy weight
• because at a healthy weight there will be less stress on my joints, which means less pain!

I hit a plateau in my weight loss journey because all of the high impact exercise i was doing was causing me serious pain, & i was afraid that it was doing serious damage. so i took a 3 month hiatus from working on losing weight. I made sure that i was still eating well so that i didn't put any of the 17lbs i had lost back on, but i didn't push myself to lose weight either.

For Christmas i bought myself one of these beauties:

It's a Schwinn 420 & i really like it. I don't love it, but that is only because i didn't spend the extra $500 to get the model that has an adjustable stride. Honestly my only complaint about this thing is that it's WAY too tall for me. the stride length is fine, but i can barely reach the arms (i find that you get a better tummy workout if you don't use them so i'm not super mad about it); & it has a book rack on the top, which is pointless for me to use because it's a good half foot above my eyes.

This for me is the key to getting back on the weight loss train, no impact! Not surprisingly i am horribly out of shape. The first time i got on it i lasted a whole 10 mins.....& when i was done i thought i was going to die. My legs were burning, my lungs were burning; i thought for sure that my heart was going to beat right out of my chest. it's been a couple of days & i've made it to the 20 min mark (Yeah! Go me!!). Today i did 15 min & had to get off cuz R decided that she was in fact NOT going to nap, but i got back on a couple of hours later & did another 15 mins. I can already feel my muscles changing & i can do 20 mins without feeling like i'm going to die; i actually am starting to enjoy being on the thing.

my knees were not happy with me today, but i decided that if i didn't work out every time one of my joints hurt that i would fall back into the rut of not working out. so i got on Amazon & found the MTV Yoga DVD for $3!! They also had the Power Yoga & a Pilates Mix so i bought all 3 for under $10 (plus like 7 bucks for shipping with is a total rip off). I am so excited for these to get here! So now the next time my knees won't go for the Elliptical (i got on it today & powered through, but i think i might be paying for it later), i can pull out the Yoga, & since i know i LOVE it i will stick with it.

Another hurdle for me is that i am a total snacker. i'd be ok if i never ate a full meal & just snacked all day long. with the Hubbies new schedule, if i wait for him to cook, we don't eat our big meal until around 6:30p. Now for the last year we've been eating our big meal around 2, & i can honestly say that if i eat a big meal in the middle of the day that i really don't have that much of a problem not snacking.....not so much if i have to wait until the very end of my day to eat it. i feel bad cooking & eating while he's asleep just so that i can eat my big meal in the middle of the day. it means that he has to reheat his portion, & we have a continuous battle about cooking duty & dish duty so inevitably an argument will ensue at some point.

so i have to go back to my goals. i'm really glad that i wrote them down & i think i'm going to make up some motivational posters & put them around my house to help me curb the snacking.

I also browsed Pinterest for some fitness motivation & found some other good reasons to be fit.

• To treat your body how it should be treated.
• to Respect your body
• to have the discipline to not give up
• to move freely
• to be comfortable in my own skin
• to have beauty, brains & brawn
• because strength is the result of struggle
• because this should be your prime
• to see the changes in my body
• to see progress, not imperfections
• because all the excuses have already been used
• because nothing feels as satisfying as sore muscles
• to know that if it came down to it i could knock you out

& maybe most important

• to outrun the Zombies.

Cleaning & Money Savings!

So as i've said before i have really been working on trying to save money. I think my biggest problem is that i'm really not a fan of generic brands, i like specific brands; i think that name brands work better (most of the time) plus they are what i'm used to & they are convenient.

I've tried to switch to natural & generic brands but i always end up going back to my tried & true faves; which results in a lot of wasted cleaners. I am determined to turn over a new leaf this year though, just as soon as i use up the cleaners that i already have.

Almost every blog i've read praises the use of Vinegar in cleaning. This site gives some recipes for making homemade cleaners, most of the blogs i've read list the same ones. I have also used a Hydrogen Peroxide & Baking Soda mixture (1/2 cup of HP with 2T of BS); i used it to clean out my hubby's stainless steel Thermos (it was nasty! one cleaning with this & it was awesome, 2 cleanings it was positively gleaming).

The hydrogen peroxide works like an antibacterial solution. I also use it on my wooden cutting board, along with mineral oil to keep it full of moisture, & lemon juice to deodorize. You can also put some lemon juice down with some salt to draw out smells, just be sure that you use the mineral oil after so that your board doesn't crack.

One of the things i did do was switch to reusable cloth pads for my swiffer. i fully plan on switching to the new Libman Freedom Spray Mop (but at $19.99 i'm going to wait until i get a coupon for it since i really don't NEED it at the moment since i've developed a system that works for now). The Libman's cloth mops fit with the Swiffer WetJet so for the moment i'm just holding onto my bottle of Pledge instead of buying the Swiffer Floor cleaner.

This blog spells out some of the savings, though she is using the Rubbermaid mop which is more expensive. I prefer Libman products, if for no other reason than that they are green in color not red....plus cheaper in this case is just as good, if not better.

*side note: i stopped using Swiffer products a long time ago. they honestly don't clean that well (granted i am a bit OCD so my standards are a bit high), & the warnings on the back of the bottles made me stop using them.

i also purchased a new Dyson vacuum, my biggest reason was that almost everyone i know either has one or wants one. They had a huge Black Friday sale so i snagged one for $120 off. Some of the things that i found out about them also make this an awesome purchase. You don't have to buy replacement filters, you can just wash them monthly (i'm sure eventually i'll have to replace them but not for a while). So far this vacuum is super easy to clean out, this blog details how to clean one (plus she has lots of other AWESOME cleaning tips); it seems really simple. I also love that it has a button to turn off the brushes so i can use it to vacuum my tile floors without the little pebbles my dog brings in hitting my feet! if you don't have one i would definitely suggest getting a Dyson.

One of the blogs i read suggested doing all of your dishes by hand. Now i get it, this will save you money & save water but i'm going to get really serious with you i like that my dishwasher not only cleans but sanitizes my dishes; so i'm going to stick with my dishwasher.

i do, however, wash all of my daughters sippy cups & snack cups by hand. dishwashers really don't get the spouts & straws clean enough for me. plus the extreme heat from the dishwasher can prematurely wear out the silicon, which could mean spending more money in the long run replacing those parts.

Saving Money: Meal Planning

I've been trying to find ways to save more money. We live within our means, but there is little to no room in our budget for paying off debt (we make minimum payments, but they don't make much of a dent). I throw all the extra money we get at our debt but it's going to take us years to get it paid off at this point....hence me trying to find ways to save money. One of the ways that i've found is meal planning.

I was very skeptical about meal planning as a legitimate way of saving money, but i honestly do save $50-$60 a week, just by making a meal plan.

Some of the other benefits are:

• We eat better! One of the first things i noticed was that i hardly venture into the middle of the store. I buy ethnic food, tortillas & cereal in the middle of the store & that's almost it. I buy a lot less processed food, which means we eat a lot less processed food. We eat actual meals that are healthy.
• i buy a lot less food. I'm not wandering down every aisle buying food; hoping that it will all fit together in a meal once i get home. i know exactly what i want & where it is.
• It reduces the need for random trips to the store. I make one big trip every week & that's it. I personally am not one of those ppl who can buy just one thing when i go to the store so only going once a week saves me money.

There are definitly ways that i can improve my meal planning skills & save more money.

• Base my plans on a stores weekly sales ad. If i buy the food when it's on sale it will save me more money.
• Use my coupons in conjunction with sales. I'm not an extreme couponer (though the idea does intrigue me, if i had enough space for a stockpile i'd so get on that bandwagon). I save money by using coupons, but i'd save even more if i bought an item on sale & used a coupon on top of the sale price.
• buy bulk meats & freeze them. This is a long term goal for us. We don't have enough room in our freezer for more than a couple pounds of meat & veggies. Once we get a freezer for the garage i'll totally buy some Zycon meats & start saving!

I hope that some of these ideas help you. Meal planning is one of those "chores" that i don't look forward to at all, but i know that i need to do it. i search lots of blogs & websites (i'm totally obsessed with this one.) for recipes. Some other helpful hints are here. Some meal planning templates are here & here.

Vaccines

*Warning if you are against vaccinating your children this post will prbly offend you.

Let me start this by saying that i fully believe that every parent has the right to choose what is best for their child. No one should take that away, not the government or other family members, no one!!

that being said i have a serious dislike for parents who don't vaccinate their children...especially when their decision is based on information that is FALSE!! vaccinations are one of the most closely regulated medicines out there. they are highly scrutinized, & even more so in the past 10 years as parents have been complaining more about the side effects.

so lets get right to the big one, the MMR. In 1998 Dr. Wakefield et al, published a paper in the Lancet, a British Medical Journal, that stated that there was a persistent connection between the MMR & childhood Autism. What Dr. Wakefield didn't tell you was that he was a paid advisor to some families trying to sue the makers of the MMR vaccine. Another thing that he didn't tell you was the totally unethical treatment of the children in the study. If you'd like to read a little bit more about it go here.

Wakefield was stripped of his license, along with 2 other coauthors of the study....but not before the damage was done. It was 12 years before the paper was officially retracted. Even though the study could never be duplicated (which anyone who remembers basic science knows that if you can't duplicate the results then they are an anomaly & therefore most likely false), the myth still abounds today....with potentially catastrophic results.

To read about a new study on the potential cause of Autism go here.

This year the US & Canada are dealing with the worst Measles outbreaks since 1996 & 1989 respectfully. This is not only a risk for those who are unvaccinated but it puts the kids who are vaccinated in more risk as well.

Measles begins with fever followed by cough, runny nose, and conjunctivitis (“pink eye”). Infections of the middle ears, pneumonia, croup, and diarrhea are common complications. Measles encephalitis (an infection of the brain) occurs in 1 per 1,000 cases of natural measles, frequently resulting in permanent brain damage in the survivors. Approximately 5% of children (500 out of 10,000) with measles will develop pneumonia. In addition, 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who get measles in the United States dies from the disease.

Death is more common in infants, in malnourished children, and among immunocompromised persons, including those with leukemia and HIV infection. (Taken from here).

For more information on the outbreak go here.

My daughter is in more risk of getting the Measles because there are so many kids around her that are unvaccinated. The MMR is 95% effective, which was considered awesome when the diseases it protected against weren't around in the US....that is no longer the case. R has a higher risk of being exposed to MMR diseases & therefore to getting those diseases....did you see that 1 to 3 of every 1000 children who get the disease die?? that's not a huge number & it scares me.

Now as i said in the beginning, i support your right to choose....but please do the work, research fully & then decide based on the real facts....it's not just your kids you are putting at risk.

sometimes

there are times, usually at night, when i just feel empty. like the world around me makes no sense, like the redundancy of my life is meaningless, & like the better things will always remain just out of reach.

it's just because my house isn't clean & my OCD hates it, but my body is too tired to bend down & pick up everyone else's shit.

it's windy here tonight, stirring up all the bullshit, & hopefully the rain will wash it far away.

I want to be a Dragon Mom

If you click the title of this post it will take you to a NY Times article. This article made me absolutely sob, with my toddler staring at me like I was crazy. If you have kids you will find it hard to read, & if you don't then i would honestly question whether or not you should be a parent.

My hubs & i decided not to run any of the tests that would indicate if our child had some sort of disease. We knew that it wouldn't matter. That the baby growing inside of me was created just for us & that we would be given strength enough to raise it. I flat out refused to think about it during my pregnancy. We would cross that bridge when we came to it. After reading this article i am even more thankful that the bridge of birth defects & genetic mutations never came for us to cross.

if i were in the shoes of the couple in the article i don't know that i would survive it. to raise a child that you are certain that you will have to out live would be heart wrenching. to wake up every morning & care for & love that child more than anything, to give her everything you have knowing that it is all going to end long before it should.

i love my daughter, more than anything, more than i thought was possible. i can hardly resist when she brings me her box of blocks & sits on the rug waiting for me to come play. even when she is throwing a full body tantrum, screaming at the top of her lungs & throwing things with a force that shouldn't be possible from someone so small, i still wouldn't ask for anything to be different. sure she can be annoying, (what toddler isn't?) but even through those emotions i recognize one & that is love. a love so big that it shouldn't fit in my heart.

I am a pretty laid back mom, especially for a first time mom, i really don't fret...until it's bedtime. when she's tucked away safely in her room, away from me. then i start to fret about her. she sleeps with like 4 blankets & 3 pillows & trust me if she would sleep without them they would not be in there but she won't so they stay. i have a video monitor that i am eternally thankful for. i wake up in the middle of the night in a panic because she hasn't made any noise (because heaven forbid that she sleep soundly all night long)....how much more would i freak out if i knew that there was a real possibility that i would wake up in the middle of the night only to find that my baby was gone (i can't bear to think the D word)?

i read this piece a week ago & i am still thinking about it. looking around my everyday life for ways that i can be a Dragon Mom. Even as my little one pulls everything off the bottom 2 shelves of all our bookcases.

the joys of parenting a toddler

I took R in for her 15 month checkup this past week. I'll admit that i was a bit worried about this check up. I've been reading about the developmental milestones that she should have met by now & she's behind in language development. Now i know that all kids develop at a different rate, & R is srsly one of the smartest kids i know, but she doesn't mimic, at all. In fact trying to get her to do something that she doesn't want to do is almost impossible. So when our Dr told me that i needed to work with her on naming pictures in books, & more importantly pointing to them, i was worried. I have to take her back in a month & she is supposed to have made significant improvements.

How do you teach a child do something when she won't mimic you, copy you....or really even let you show her how to do something? I'm at a loss.

I've spent the last couple of days grabbing her picture books throughout the day, pointing to & naming the object in the picture. Sometimes she looks at what i'm doing, sometimes she doesn't; most of the time she grabs the book from me & takes it off on her own.

It's not that she doesn't talk, she just doesn't say real words; she spends most of the day talking gibberish. If she could speak in real words i'm sure she'd be telling us a great story, & in her mind she is.

I know that she's smart. I've never seen a kid work so hard to figure things out. I watched her last night as she figured out how to open the cabinets that have the baby locks on them. She figured out that if she reaches in & pulls the lock down the cabinet opens.....& now she has access to all of the dangerous items that i was trying to keep from her. She opens & closes doors (mostly closes). Her blocks are her favorite toys; she loves stacking them & pulling them apart & putting them back together again.....she just won't say real words.

I don't know, is it bad that i'm more worried about what the Dr will say if R doesn't learn to point & say some words than if she actually learns to point & talk in the next month? I know my kid & when she wants to talk i'm afraid it will be in full phrases & not just one word at a time. i guess we'll see what the next month brings.

i suppose i should update this thing....

maybe someday i'll get better at updating this....though prbly not. quite a bit has happened in the last 3 (almost 4) months. R is now walking, & occasionally saying the words that we say. thank goodness she hasn't repeated any of the bad ones! she is becoming more & more independent & yet she is still clingy at the same time, it all just depends on her mood i guess. she is the cutest little girl in the whole wide world....though i am a bit biased! She changes every day, sometimes in small ways & sometimes it shocks me how much she changes. my whole world pretty much revolves around her.

i did get some (sort of) good news in the past 2 months. i found out that i have celiac disease, or at the very least a gluten intolerance. my doctor told me that it was likely the cause of some, if not all, of my joint pain....& sure enough she was right. I've been eating gluten free for just about 2 months now & my joints feel significantly better. they still get tired, but not as quickly; & the rest of my joints still hurt on & off but it's so much better than before. it's nice that when i feed R, which can take quite a while since she is a little pickle, my hands don't cramp up on me. it's not 100% but i'll take it. i've been reading & it looks like the rest of the pain might not go away because the damage has already been done. i can honestly say that i have no hard feelings about this, some relief is better than none. just wish that someone would have thought about this before now.

summer is upon us here in Phoenix! & it is already HOT! i personally don't mind it, though i will admit that i no longer LOVE the heat, but i'm convinced that it is simply because i have a baby that i need to keep cool. we've been to the pool a couple of times & i think it will be a regular event this summer. R loves the water & she is just so stinking cute floating in her ladybug floater, wearing her giraffe print swimsuit. we are both sporting a tan already & i'm looking forward to it getting deeper.

we have plans to go to Utah, though we have to leave my awesome hubby her (& over his first Father's Day as well). i'm looking forward to, no really i'm ecstatic, about spending 2 weeks with my family! we come home & the next day the in law family comes & that will be awesome swimming in the pool at their rental & exploring AZ with them.

ok i think i have touched on all of the major topics, which makes this a decent update. maybe once my computer is fixed i'll get in the habit of posting more often.