Mucus Monday

Help. I'm hip deep in snot. Please send more kleenex and some waders ASAP.

Poor 3ft has a virus. Which means he stayed home from school today. Which means I didn't get my walk in this morning. However, necessity is the mother of all invention and with my nifty spiffy new pedometer attached to my sweats, I jogged around my apartment for 40 minutes. And in that 40 minutes I jogged 3.537 miles or 7,463 steps.

Wait.

3.5 miles is a 5K.

Holy crap I just jogged my first indoor 5K in 40 minutes. That's about 11 minutes a mile. I'm totally ecstatic! *does a booty shake*

Now if I can just quit stress eating the Jelly Belly's on my counter all would be well with the world. So far I've avoided them for an hour and a half as I stopped eating them to jog and then I've been chugging water and ignoring them since I got done.

White Mochas...

Are the nectar of the gods when your toddler decides to not sleep the night through the last three nights in a row. And as I really don't like the taste of coffee, immersed in white chocolaty goodness is the only way I can get the caffeine jolt past the lips and over the gums for my belly to look out cuz here it comes. I don't drink them often, I don't really do the whole caffeine thing on a whole, but once in awhile I need the buzz to take the fuzz off my brain. So I had one this morning. I'm not in the least bit guilty either. I figure wrestling with the 23ish-pound-Grumpybutt not through one store but two and then carrying him the whole way walking home from my friend, Riana's house, should've burned off the excess calories. Especially with all the squirming he did.

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm totally excited to announce that I got a pedometer today. I asked my friend, Nunan (a HUGE inspiration for me), what one she had and if she loved it. So after not being able to find the brand she had (which is Weight Watchers, by the way), I at least found one that did all the stuff hers did. Especially since she said she loved it and I really want to know what kind of mileage I'm putting in a day. I think it'll be fun to see. So I'm going to start using it everyday and then, of course, brag about how far I'm going. Lucky you.

I also got a new pair of pants -- not for the ultra cool reason of dropping another size but because my washer ate my favorite pair and I needed another one because I was down to one pair that actually fits right. It was almost a horrible experience. I picked out a pair because I liked the butt pockets and tried them on (I almost didn't as they're the same brand and size and cut of the pair of jeans I was already wearing). They fit my legs and rump great but I couldn't get them buttoned or zipped over my stomach. I was horrified. So help me, Bob, I even laid down on the dressing room floor to try and make them fit.

Devastated, but putting on a brave face, I took them back to the rack of pants when I saw a couple other size 18s. For grins and giggles I held them and the one I had together and the one I had was an inch smaller around the waist than the other pants labeled the exact same (I got some sizing freak of nature pair on my first grab, I guess). I ran back to the dressing room, slapped the other 18s on and voila... fit perfectly. Much relief. I couldn't believe I'd gotten fatter when I hadn't gained any weight and was still actually losing -- albeit slowly.

So in celebration of not having gotten fatter, thank goodness (look how I say it's not about the weight but have a mini meltdown thinking I'd gained some inches -- talk about a hypocrite, eh?), I bought a couple new shirts too. They were on sale so I got three -- a white, black, and purple one. Hooray for new clothes now I feel all sassy rocking my new wardrobe.

I'm Not Dead...

I just seem that way with my lack of blogging and facebooking as of late. I've just been crazy busy. Yeah, I know. Excuses excuses. It's all I got and I have a ton of them. The biggest is, of course, my youngest, the Grumpybutt, and his unfortunate decision to drop his morning nap. So now I have a narrow 2 hour window to get everything I need to get done in the day (work wise -- don't I sound so busy). And then I run into the, "I'll blog tonight." and then "Oh, crap! I forgot, I'll do it tomorrow!" as I'm already in bed and snuggled warm in my blanky.

I suck. I know. I swallow too. Dirty minds. I *innocent face* was of course talking about food and beverages. Sheesh people, this is a family blog. *chortles* I am cracking myself up over here.

Anyways. I digress (yeah, I know, what else is new?)

So, I've been on a huge walking kick. I'm up to about 4 miles a day and it takes me about 48 minutes or so to do it. That's about a 12 minute mile. I drop 3ft off at school and then the Grumpybutt and I start walking. I'm already up and dressed to take 3ft to school so it's nice to just walk and get it done, out of the way, and anything else I do is bonus. Which is crawling around on the floor after the Grumpybutt, wrestling with 3ft, and doing sit ups. *glares at my stomach roll* Why won't you go away?

I've been doing pretty good eating wise. I'm not the intake slave I was. I eat when I'm hungry, I don't eat when I'm not. But when I am hungry I eat what sounds good. Whether it be a bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch w/ almond milk (my new addiction), jamaican banana bread (my newest creation -- which is just banana bread with rum, coconut, and lime added to it), or a cupcake or something perhaps not as good for me.

I'm living.

I'm still losing the weight. Perhaps not as fast as I was but then it never really was about the weight loss that was just the added bonus. I just want to be healthy and active for my kids. I figure as long as I do that my body will get where it's comfortable at. Which is good enough for me. My husband already tells me how beautiful and sexy I am (I'm thinner and healthier now than the day we met 10 years ago), and I feel beautiful, so that's all that really matters to me.

Can I get an amen?

The Power of Poop!

This could be a post about the not talked about power of being regular -- absolutely a weight losers friend...

But it's not.

It's about how Mr. Grumpybutt's stinky diaper saved the day! How did his excrement save the day, you ask? I'll tell you.

I mentioned that I'd gone grocery shopping the night I lost my ring, right? Well all the Safeway bags get stored in a small cupboard to wrap stinky diapers in so I don't have a smelly garbage cupboard and I don't have to walk to the dumpster every time the Grumpybutt poops. So, I changed his diaper, pulled out a Safeway bag, and PING!

Something hit the floor at my feet. I screamed, dropped the bag and the diaper (it was closed up securely there was NOT a poopy mess everywhere, in case you thought so), and fell to my hands and knees. There under the oven was my RING!!! It must've gotten pulled off when I shoved the Safeway bags into the cupboard. I didn't even THINK to look there.

POOP totally saved the day. I have MY RING back! I couldn't be more excited. I put it on for all of one second -- to savor the feel and the knowing that I had it back -- then put it up to be resized. I have definitely learned my lesson. I still feel naked without it. I still try to fidget it with it like it's there and every time I don't feel it I have a split second of panic before I remember it's NOT lost -- IT'S PUT UP! *does a spasmodic happy dance*

A Drawback of Weightloss...

Skinnier fingers. Which in and of itself is a good thing until you add into the equation one wedding ring.

Skinnier fingers + wedding ring = lost.

Yes, I freaking lost my wedding ring. I've been talking for MONTHS about how I need to get it resized because it was getting way to loose on my skinnier fingers. I'd even had it slip off a time or two. Now, did I get it resized? Nope. Did I stop wearing it? Double nope. I could kick myself.

Somewhere after dinner when I massaged olive oil and sage into chicken breasts (oh yeah, *cue porn music* the chicken liked it) but before the husband and I watched Machete (which was an awesome over-the-top action movie, btw) I lost my ring. It slipped off my finger and I didn't feel it this time.

The husband and I rifled through the garbage in the house, dumpster dived to get the garbage we'd thrown away earlier and then rifled through it, checked the car, the mailbox, the sidewalk, all the pockets of every pair of pants I own (not just the ones I was wearing), and I stuck my hand into the black, murky, disgusting depths of the garbage disposal. No ring. We turned our apartment upside down looking for it and can't find it anywhere. I even called Safeway (we'd gone grocery shopping after dinner) and no one turned it in (shock, I know).

The ring is well and truly lost. The first ring a boy ever picked out and bought just for me. The only wedding ring I've ever had. The one I've worn for the last 9 years. Gone. I'm devastated. My husband keeps telling me he'll get me a new and better one, bless his heart, but I just want the one I had back, you know?

I know there are worse things that could happen to a person than losing enough weight to lose a wedding ring but it still sucks the big one, sideways, while choking.

I know I've been awful quiet lately which some people might take as a sign that I haven't been doing my healthy lifestyle or exercising as that's been my MO in the past. And while you're not all together right you aren't all together wrong either. Mostly I haven't been blogging because when I think of it the Grumpybutt won't let me and then I forget about it til I'm in bed. So, I'll do it tomorrow, and then it's the same routine all over again. But some of it is: I haven't been doing as well as I could be.

I'm an emotional stress eater. I know I've mentioned this before. Well my one-year-old has been stressing me the hell out on a daily basis since his birthday. We're trying to wean him off his bottle and trying to get him to eat FOOD at the same time. I swear this child is going to suck on his bottle til he's 18 years old. Perhaps if he can't get a date to prom he'll give up the bottle. He is killing me. I battle with every meal and snack time to get him to eat something. Anything. Let me rephrase. Anything BESIDES Cheetos.

And so he fusses and whines constantly because he's hungry and he wants a bottle. And I battle wills with him that he has to eat SOMETHING before he can have a bottle and I only let him have 3 bottles a day. By the time I get the Grumpybutt down for his naps, I'm frazzled and just shy of an emotional breakdown. So what do I do? I eat.

On the plus side: I'm binging on healthy food.

On the negative side: Calories still add up. It's still a horrible thing to do and I know this while I do it but still can't stop but at least it's not awful for me food, you know?

However, while I've gained a little weight back it's not much -- about 5lbs. I've been walking over 3 miles a day -- at a 12 minute mile pace -- everyday before picking up 3ft from school. So that's at least some balance in the upswing of food inhalation.

I've not completely fallen off the wagon but I'd say it's dragging me behind it. I can't let stress win, so I'm dusting myself off and hopping back on the healthy wagon of life. No more binging, damn it, even if it is on healthy foods!