Not a whoosh, but I'll take it!

1 week on Nutrisystem and I'm down 2.4lbs! Maybe it's not the whoosh loss of 5lbs that I dreamed of, but I very happy. All and all it was a good week. I might have slipped a time or two (a glass of wine with friends and a beer Saturday night with my sister), but for the most part I was an ideal Nutrisystem newbie and I'm happy with the results. And just to brag, I completed Week 1 of C25K and did Day 1 of week 2 yesterday.

So what do I think of it? I like it, but I do find it hard to eat everything I'm supposed to at the times I'm supposed to. My work day is somewhat crazy between switching buildings and the ridiculous amounts of meetings and I find that I'm sometimes eating lunch when I should be enjoying my afternoon snack, which then pushes my snack back. Now pre-Nutrisystem there wasn't an afternoon snack where I would instead eat my lunch so I'd just skip lunch, eat nothing (including not eating breakfast) and wonder why I couldn't stop binge snacking as soon as I got through the door.

My other may thought has been only smokes this is a lot of vegetables and fruit! Which just reinforces that I have been eating like crap. I guess it's not surprising that I've been struggling with my weight...

I'm actually looking forward to continuing on Nutrisystem this week. Who da thunk it?

Until next week...

Trying something different

So much for focusing on my blog in 2011! But rather than dwell on it, I’m going to focus on the positive. I’m blogging today and that’s better than yesterday!

Continuing with the positive, I’ve decided to take control of my eating and my health which will hopefully impact my weight. The Saturday before last I sat on my couch drinking some wine and placed my order for Nutrisystem Select (because all big decisions in life should be made while drinking some wine!). Why Nutrisystem? Nutrisystem is attractive to me because it will reduce (hopefully eliminate!) poor food decisions – it’s way too easy at the end of the day to order subs (grinders, hoagies, whatever you choose to call them) or pizza or just throw together the quickest thing I can find which is usually not the best for me. It will also help force portion control and get me back into the habit of eating vegetables and using fruit, proteins and dairy as snacks rather than the delicious processed food that has become a staple for me.

The first batch of food was delivered on Thursday and I made the decision to start on Saturday so that I’d be able to stock up at the grocery store for the fruits and vegetables I’d need to go along with the program. I also decided that I would start the C25K program again (and by again I mean that I think this is the 6^th time I’m starting restarting it – can you say issues with finishing what I start?).

So here I am 3 full days in. Day 1 I was a rock star! I stuck to the program and started C25K. The food was better than I thought and I seemed to be eating all day – probably because I was focusing on it. I liked the cereal, the cheesy potatoes were ok and I really liked flatbread pizza especially with the addition of some red peppers to it!

Day 2 we ran into issues – a baby shower. I went in with a plan, but the plan failed me. How does a buffet NOT have salad? Or ANY type of vegetables? I made ok choices since I was starving. Said no to the French Toast that everyone was raving about, avoided the bread bowl and baked ziti and ordered sparking water instead of the booze that is typically the only thing that gets me through a shower without taking a fork to my eye! But in hindsight I could have been better.

Day 3 we were back on track and I did the 2^nd day of C25K program which was harder for me than day 1.

And here we are on Day 4 – the scale shows 2lbs down, but I’ll wait until Saturday to see how the full week went. I’m encouraged though – so far so good!

I don’t plan to be on Nutrisystems forever, but I needed to do something to get started. To see results and also train myself on what my dinner plate should look like. Breastfeeding your child is wonderful, but those extra 500 calories (or something like that) are hard to give up once you’ve stopped.

Until next week!

First Monday of the New Year

It's Monday and for most Mondays of 2010 that meant McFatty Monday. You'd think that after a year I'd be at my goal. Or at least close to my goal. Unfortunately that is not the case. I did great the first half of the year and even hit my goal weight. For a day. Maybe two.

So here we are in 2011 and I've put on most (maybe all?) of the weight I lost last year. I don't have a ton of weight to lose, but I am overweight and it's not the example I want to set for my son. Looking back on the last year I can now recognize that I've fallen into the trap that a lot of parents do. I've been finishing my son's food. On top of that my snacking has gotten out of control and I've stopped pretty much all activity that would pass for exercise.

So where does this leave me? With a lot of lifestyle changes to make especially since we really want to try for another baby this year and I want to start this pregnancy at a healthy weight. My initial plan is to just start with the basics. Start drinking water again and introduce some exercise into my week. As for food, I know my hardest time is after work so I'm going to have to figure out a way to curb my pre-dinner snacking. Once I get these things under control I will get more ambitions (I will finish the C25k program if it kills me in 2011!)

I forgot to weigh myself this morning -- I know sounds like a convenient excuse, but there was a good reason. I was distracted. No! Not that. Get your mind out of the gutter! It was because I snuck out before the boys were up to walk our dog. It sucks, especially since it was still dark out, but it's what I need to do. I'll be sure to weigh myself tomorrow morning.

Until next status...

Actually before I go, I decided to make 2011 the year I attempt to blog, so if you'd like to see my kick-off post and learn a bit more about me, click here.

My Dilemma. BFing or Baby #2

I'm not going to breastfeed Callum forever. I know this. It would be very embarrassing if I had to go to sleep away camp with him or worse yet, try to move into his college dorm! I'm shocked I'm still breastfeeding him at 15 months. I never thought we'd make it to a year and even if we did, a year was the plan. No more.

Breastfeeding was really hard in the beginning, but we got through it and I think that is part of the reason that I haven't weaned him yet. He's not exclusively breastfed anymore. He takes milk in his sippy cups during the day, but I still nurse him first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I know it's good for him, especially through the New England winter months when it's cold and miserable and any extra antibodies I can give him to get through flu season is a bonus. And most of this is excuses. It's nice. He's not a cuddly baby so this is our special time together and I'm doing it as much for me as I'm doing it for him.

So what does any of this have to do with Baby #2? People get pregnant while bfing all the time. Not me. We were ready to start trying for Baby #2 almost right away. But my body isn't. It took us a while and some help from clomid to get pregnant the first time. I was diagnosed with a mild case of PCOS. Long story short, I rarely ovulate on my own and I haven't had a cycle is two years now. And as wonderful as that is (and I won't lie, it's pretty freaking great!), it makes trying for baby #2 very difficult.

I've spoken to my nurse practitioner (she helped us the last time), and she will prescribe something to bring on a period so I can start clomid again but I have to wait until I stop nursing. That's my dilemma. It's been five months since I talked to her and I really thought Callum would have quit on me by now, but he hasn't and he is showing no signs of quitting nursing on his own.

We really want to start trying for baby #2 and have been for months, but I can't help but feel guilty. I know it's ridiculous but I feel like I'm short changing Callum by taking away something that he enjoys and that I know is good for him. It's like I'm choosing the other baby over him. ...and that sounds so overly dramatic!

That's my dilemma. And because I'm incapable of making hard decisions, I'm probably going to continue bfing him for a bit longer...

Tomorrow's post is going to be on a totally non-baby related. It's about a hat. A friendly, but dirty old baseball hate.

2011 - The year I'll attempt to blog

1-1-11. How did I miss that? My sister texted me this morning with a "Happy New Year 1-1-11" and I'm surprised I hadn't put that together. Maybe it's because they didn't make such a big deal about it like they did with 6-6-06, 7-7-07, etc, but still, I'm usually quicker than that. Maybe the big hoopla will come when we hit 11-11-11. Now that's a lot of 1's.

Huh. This is the year that I want to really put some effort into blogging and that was my opening paragraph. Displaying a fascination with numbers/dates and using the word "hoopla" probably isn't going to convince a lot of folks that I'm worth following... Oh well. These are the types of things that actually go through my head. Scary, but true. Sorry folks. Walk away while you can.

Back to 2011. I'm not really great at finishing projects that I start. I started this blog four years ago, but never really focused on it. My goal is not to be a famous blogger with lots of advertisers and cool giveaways. I'd just like share some of my random thoughts and maybe connect with some people that I stuff in common with. So with that I'm going to give blogging a shot for 2011 and see what happens.

A little bit about myself and my little family. I've been married for 4 1/2 years to a pretty great guy. He's smart, but an idiot at the same time. I'm not nearly nice enough to him, but he sticks around anyways and that's another thing I'm going to work on this upcoming year. We have a 5-year old dog (yes, we lived in sin prior to getting married!). His a name is Chester and he is a Brittany. He's probably the most disobedient dog you'll meet, unless of course you have food in your hand and then he is a angel. And then there is our son Callum. Callum's 15 months old today and is a great kid. He's not a cuddly baby, which I'm now wondering if that's my fault because I'm not very cuddly, but he's very cheerful and good natured and I love him to death. He's also very funny. Or at least he's funny to me, but then again I'm the one that started this post by ranting about numbers and dates! It's been a wild ride since we've had him, but I wouldn't change any of it. In fact the topic for tomorrow's post will be about our quest for baby #2.

A little more about me, I'm a working mom and keep a terrible house. I can't even use the baby as an excuse. I kept a terrible house long before I was even pregnant . I'm not crafty. I hate clutter, but I'm a bit of a pack rat. (If someone could figure that one out for me I'd be much obliged, okay? Thanks!) I'm not a fashionista, but I envy women that are. I'd love to be good at hair, make-up and accessorizing, but I can barely dress myself in the morning. It was probably a blessing we had a boy and not a girl because she'd be totally screwed! Oh and I'm procrastinator. I haven't done my wedding album yet and it's been over 4 years! It's fully paid for by the way, I just need to pick out the pictures. And my MIL is ready to kill because I haven't got her the parents album yet.

That's probably enough for today. If you are not totally appalled by what you read, you are invited to come back again. I'll be here all year!