Project Momma: 16 weeks

Hurray for new workout clothes!  That deserves a selfie.  And I even smiled.  :)

I still have a little bit more bootie than I would like to be able to fit into my "normal" pants.  We're getting there!

I didn't lose weight this week, but I had to step it down a notch again because I'm afraid to hurt my knee more.  However, this morning I went running anyway, and it's okay.  I think if I wear the brace that my doctor gave me, it will be better. The problem is a tight tendon, not a sprain or anything.  As soon as I'm warmed up it doesn't hurt, it just might hurt later after I exercise and my muscles cool off.... BAH! Injuries are the worst.

So this was the first week that I didn't keep any sort of log.  It was kind of an experiment and I'm pretty sure I didn't eat as many fruits and veggies as I normally would.  I know that when I keep track of them during the day, I'm more likely to make better decisions later on in the day if I only need one or two more servings.  If you haven't kept a food log before, you'd be surprised how quickly you forget what you've eaten.  Just try doing it.  I dare you.  ;)

It was easier to keep track of my 7 treats goal since all I had to do was keep it to one treat a day. However, I didn't do that either.  Which leads me to my topic of the week:  Intuitive Eating. I know I've already talked about this a little bit in a Previous Post, but I thought about it a lot this week.

As I've been working on eating less sweets, it has gotten much easier.  I usually don't crave them much and some days I don't feel like I need them at all... until this week.  There was a few days when I just needed chocolate.  I'm not talking about the old waxy Easter bunny from my kids' Easter baskets, but good chocolate.  It's for times like these that I always try to have a stash of "my" candy or Oreos, etc.  The nice thing is, when I eat a couple of Oreos, then the craving is satisfied and I can move on with my life.  If I don't eat something to satisfy my craving, then I will eat something else, and since that isn't what I needed or wanted, then I'll try some other kind of substitute.  Then after all that, I end up just eventually eating what I wanted in the first place with in addition to the extra food that I ate to get to that point.

I didn't meet my 7- treats goal again because I had a few days like this.  But I also stayed sane on those days.  I would like to think that I have a good relationship with food.  I allow myself to enjoy food.  I love my chocolate brownies, but I also LOVE my daily salads.  I love my meals loaded with fruits and vegetables, but I'm not gonna lie, I had chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes for breakfast and dinner last night.  (I need to go to the store tomorrow).

One of my favorite lessons about intuitive eating is thinking about how toddlers are natural intuitive eaters.  If you were to put them in a room for a day full of healthy choices and sweets, they would not only eat the sweets, but would eventually choose healthier options as well.  They listen to their bodies.  Some days they eat a lot of food, some days they hardly eat anything.  I'm not saying that we should do that, but I do think that we should listen more to our bodies.  Ask yourself questions like:

Am I really hungry?  Or am I just bored?
Is this a healthy food choice?
Am I eating because it's "lunchtime" (noon) or am I really hungry?
Am I NOT eating because it's NOT "lunchtime/ dinnertime?"  (I often need a small snack around 10:00 or 4:00).
Do I need to eat something now, or can I go to bed just a little bit hungry?
Am I really hungry or am I just thirsty?  (Drinking water may help)

So although I didn't have very many healthy choices yesterday, I also wasn't very hungry.  It's tough as a mom because you still have to make meals for your family, but try to listen to your body.  Eat if you're hungry.  Stop when you're full.  Try to make healthy choices when possible, enjoy a treat if you really want one.

GOALS
Scripture Success
A goal I made this week was to wake up at 6:15 every morning.  My kids usually wake up around 7:30.  Sometimes earlier, sometimes later, so I usually wake up with them.  However, I was not getting my scripture reading in.  So, I decided to wake up an hour earlier and read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and 10 pages in the Old Testament so I can try to catch up.

IT WAS AWESOME!

I felt like I had so much more time.  The trick is, if I read before exercising, it can be easy to fall back asleep.  So instead of reading in bed or on the couch, I sat on the floor.  I didn't fall asleep and I was able to get some good reading done.

Strength Days
This was another goal that I would not have accomplished had I not specified what to I wanted to do.  I did weights twice this week.  Even though my knee hurt one day, I still did the class (at home in my living room) without the squats and lunges.  I think I would have avoided that before.  The second day I added the squats and lunges without extra weight and it felt okay.  Fingers crossed!

Goals for this week:
1.  Bed before 11:00 pm
2.  Wake up at 6:15 am
3.  Read daily in the Book of Mormon (keep up with BofM365 schedule)
4.  Read 10 pages a day in the Old Testament (to catch up with Standard Work in a Year)
5.  Keep a food log of fruits/ veggies, treats, and exercise
6.  One treat a day/ 7 treats for the week
7.  5 solid workouts including 2 strength training (I don't need to specify because I LOVE getting a good workout in- but for me, a solid workout would entail 30-60 minutes of medium-high intensity cardio or interval strength training).  I will give a detailed log of my exercise like I did with my eating last week to give ideas and thoughts I have.

It's gonna be a good week!

Spiritual Moment
I had a few "pity me" moments again this weekend.  I realize that a lot of times my thoughts are irrational and I should be able to control them better, but sometimes I just don't want to.  However, it sucks being in that state of mind.

Today we celebrated Memorial Day.  I think about all of the people who sacrifice so that I can be with my family in a free country living the comfortable life that I live.  It's silly that among all these blessings, some of my "biggest worries" are trying not to eat too many sweets.  First world problems.

I am so blessed and extremely grateful for my family and health.  I have great friends, a good home, my husband and I have good jobs, and we live in San Diego for Heaven's sake!  I have a lot to be thankful for.

My Mother-in-law has a tile in her house that reads "Gratitude turns what we have into enough."  I love that phrase.  We can always want more, but only when we truly have gratitude, is it that we realize that we are doing pretty well.  I love my life.  

Project Momma: 15 weeks

I finally had a "normal" week of no travel or illness and it felt so good!  So many good things came from working on my goals this week.

- 5 days of good workouts
- I zipped up 2 skirts that I couldn't zip up a month ago ( I love using clothes as a success measure rather than the scale)
- Down another pound (168)
- 10 treats (I know it's not my 7 treats goal, but the 10 this week was easy)
- 5 days of 4-5 fruits and veggies

And I took a selfie!

Maybe someone should remind me to smile next time I take one.  :)  I'm still wearing my maternity jeans, but I'm feeling more and more like myself again.

So I promised a detailed list of some of my goals so I can explain how I am able to accomplish them and hopefully give you some ideas as well.

Tuesday 
I had a handful (1 cup) of fresh raspberries and blueberries on a bowl of instant oatmeal with a piece of toast.  (I used to have 2 pieces of toast with my oatmeal, but decided I only need one)

I went for a 3-mile walk with a good friend.  We caught up and got our kids outside, and exercised all at the same time!  I have a double jogging stroller, but if I'm walking, one of my older kids can sit on the front of it and Voila!  Room for three (or technically four- it has been done).  I just won't run with them like that since they're not buckled in the front.

I had a favorite mid-morning snack of banana and peanut butter (I get a spoonful of peanut butter (1 Tablespoon- half a serving, so I know how much I eat)

Salad for lunch- Salads are my new favorite way to get veggies.  I used to get the bagged kits at the store, but you eat it too often and you get sick of it.  So I started having my own "salad bar" on stash.  I start with the organic Spring mix from Costco.  It's huge and only $3.50.  Then I'll have a bunch of toppings: Costco rotisserie chicken, craisins, bell peppers, apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, etc. Then top it off with some feta or bleu cheese and have a few really good salad dressings to choose from.  I love having a variety of different things.  I love taco salad too when we have taco leftovers like black beans, salsa, and greek yogurt.  (These are easily 2-3 servings of veggies/ fruit)

Then I had some broccoli soup for dinner.  We make it with our Vitamix.  It's creamy, but only has broccoli, potatoes, almonds, some onion and chicken stock.  I LOVE it!  It's by far my favorite thing to make with our blender.

I enjoyed a Magnum bar for my daily treat.

(P.S.  This is NOT a food log.  I ate other foods as well, I'm just giving examples of how I got in my fruits and veggies, what I did for exercise and what I ate for my treats).

Wednesday

I had a banana for a snack and a salad for lunch.  I didn't get quite as many in that day.  But you know what, I don't stress about it and most days I do get it in.

However, this was an awesome workout day because not only did I do a 3-mile run, I had some friends come over and do a BodyPump class with me.  I need to go back to teach at the gym next month and need the practice.  It's always more fun to workout with friends!

I had a serving of leftover Cadbury mini eggs from Easter as my treat.  I still have some left, aren't you proud of me????

Thursday

I got up and ran 3 miles again.  It was tough because I really didn't want to, but knew that once I got up early (6:00 am) and did it, I wouldn't regret it.

I had oatmeal with berries for breakfast again.  But this time they were berries from the community garden I help out with.  They were amazing.  It's so great to eat fresh foods and enjoy the natural taste of them without adding sugars, sweeteners, butter, etc.

I had a banana for a snack, salad for lunch, and mixture of corn and bell peppers for dinner.

Some people have asked me if starchy vegetables count as a vegetable serving.  Of course they are vegetables, but I wouldn't consider potatoes a vegetable serving unless it's a sweet potato.  There is more color in a sweet potato, so that means there are more nutrients.  Corn is fine, but not as nutritious as broccoli or green leafy veggies.  The more color, the better.

I made chocolate chip cheesecake cookie bars for dessert because we had friends over.  This was a 2 serving treat day because I had a serving of dough in addition to the dessert later on.  I was quality control so I needed to taste test it... believe me though, in the past I would have had 2-3 servings of dough... it's all about being a little better each week.

Friday

This was a no-workout day.  I had made the goal for 5 days this week and I chose this rainy morning to get up and make my kids pancakes instead.  But my pancakes are full of frozen blueberries and topped with applesauce, raspberries, and a sliced banana with some drizzled syrup.  (I used to eat pancakes with my syrup.  I've come a long way).  People usually think the applesauce is a weird topping, but it's a great, healthy way to use less syrup and keep your pancakes from tasting dry.  I also have tried to stay away from the chocolate peanut butter.  It's another favorite pancake topping, but adds a lot of extra calories to an already hefty meal.

I enjoyed some leftover broccoli soup with a grilled cheese for lunch.

This was again, a 2-treat day.  I had a little piece of leftover cookie bar, then went to fro yo with some friends that night.

Saturday

Since I had made the 5-day workout goal, I got up and did a workout class in my backyard.  I was about 20 minutes late to my daughter's friend's birthday party, but I figured it was a good sacrifice for a good workout.

I had pancakes again, loaded with my fruit toppings (keep in mind, this is not 3-4 raspberries, but a huge handful with 1/2 cup of applesauce- just because it's a lot of fruit doesn't mean it's a serving.  You need to measure to be sure.)

I had a huge salad when I got home from the party to help out with the Chuck E Cheese pizza lunch, and watermelon chunks for a snack.  I always find that if I cut up the entire melon when I first buy it, it is much easier to eat.

I had a 1/2 cookie bar (they're almost gone, but I'm making them last!!!) and split a
chocolate milkshake at Habit Burger with Ryan.  I LOVE their shakes and it's really hard not to eat it all myself, but half was enough.

Sunday

Finished off my pancakes with all the toppings, threw in an apple to eat at church while I fed Molly, then Ryan grilled some squash for dinner.  It's amazing!  He chops it up and sprinkles powdered garlic, salt, and pepper, drizzles some olive oil and grills it on our charcoal BBQ.  It's sooo good.  I steamed up some broccoli too.

Sunday is always my rest day from exercise.  Even our bodies need a day off to recover.

I made a really good chocolate pudding cake for dessert because we had friends over again.  It was pretty darn good, but I did without the ice cream on top.  I try not to layer treats if I can help it.  Besides, I had already had enough batter when making it to possibly constitute another serving...

Monday 

I got up at 6:15 to run 3 miles this morning.  It's starting to feel good again.  When I came home to stretch, my knee started hurting again.  NOOOOOO!  I hope it doesn't stick around.  I don't know what else to do.  It hurts to squat, lunge, etc.  No bueno.

Berries on my oatmeal for breakfast and an apple for a snack at the zoo with my kids.  I grabbed a quick salad before I left (I was so close to make a PB and J to take with me, but knew that the salad would get me more servings.

Then I had some mixed veggies and watermelon with my dinner.

I had half a cookie bar for dessert.  The homemade baked goods are my favorite, but also my weakness.  As long as I only eat a small half piece, I can have some, enjoy it, and make it last.

I won't do this log every week, but thought it would be good to hopefully give you some ideas of fitting in some more fruits and veggies.  I made the goal to do 3 sets of 20 push-ups every time I run too, which helps as well.  I went to bed much earlier this week (close to 11:00, but not always).

Spiritual Moment

I had some great insights while reading my Book of Mormon this past week.  I was studying in Mosiah 26 in the first verse when I had some thoughts.

"Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers."


I thought about how King Benjamin's speech in Mosiah 2-4 is one of my favorite scripture passages, but that because the 'rising generation' had been too little to understand it, they were falling away from the church.  My first thought was "What about their parents? Didn't they teach them?"  It's not the children's fault if they don't believe something they heard when they were little, they need to review with their parents. The parents should be teaching them.

While all this is true, I put aside my judgmental ways as I kept reading and realized that some of the worst examples of these "Prodigal sons" were King Benjamin's own grandsons and the Prophet Alma's son.  I'm pretty sure that they would have been taught his words many times.

I have shared with people many times about my fears of teenagers.  I am busy with my little kids, but they love me.   I'm not so sure I will feel that love so strongly in about 12-15 years when they're in high school and I'm trying to guide their choices.  The wonderful thing is, they have agency.  I can't force them to make good choices.  Just like the Prophet Alma did, he fasted and prayed for his son.  He must have felt so helpless, but knew that all he could do was pray for his son and love him, the Lord answered his prayers and helped Alma the Younger, his son, change his life around.

I love my kids and I want them to always make good choices.  But I can't make them choose correctly, and they probably won't. I can have faith that they will remember what Ryan and I taught them.

My Goals:

My new goal this week is to wake up between 6:00 and 6:30 (before my kids) and either read scriptures or go for a run (depending on my knee of course). If I don't read in the morning, I will read when my kids go to bed before I do anything else (tv, laptop stuff, etc).   I was able to do both this morning and it was awesome!  I haven't been able to keep up on my Old Testament reading, so I think this goal will solve that problem.  Then of course I have the 10:30- 11:00 pm lights out goal that accompanies the 6:00 am goal.

I again am working toward 5 workout days, 7 treats this week, and 5 fruits and veggies.  Along with my 5 workout days, I want to make 2 of those include 20 or more minutes of weight training.  I need to get these muscles back in shape!

Project Momma: 14 weeks

It has now been 8 weeks since Project Momma started.  It hasn't gone quite as expected, but here's the updates.

Selfie: I tried to take a selfie, but taking a selfie at night is just depressing, so I'll be sure to take one for next week.

Weight:
Pre: 174
Now: 169 I made it to the 160's!!!!
It's only 5 pounds in 8 weeks, but I have not been able to workout much at all the past month because of my knee and a sinus infection, so I'm trying to be positive and realize that at least I'm still moving in the right direction.
Goal: August 1st: 147 (22 more pounds in 11 weeks)

Cardio: 5k (3.1 miles) in 28:00
Goal: A mile in under 7 minutes/ 10k (6.2 miles in under 50 minutes)
As I mentioned, I had to take a few weeks off running, but now that I can started running again, I will definitely be able to run further and speed up my time.

Strength: Again, due to my lack of exercise, my push-ups have gone down lately instead of improving, but I did get a 1:45 plank!

Food Plan: 5 daily fruits and vegetables and 7 treats per week.  I went 3 DAYS without eating a treat!  It wasn't even that hard.  My body didn't crave it and I listened to what would make my body feel my best.

Spiritual Moment: I recently made a goal to have more sincere prayers.  Well, last week I drove 6 hours to Arizona with my 3 kids by myself.  It was fine until my 2-year-old got tired, and it got really dark and windy in the middle of the desert.  After he was screaming for 20 minutes, my 4-year-old started screaming that his screaming hurt her ears, and then the baby woke up.  I was only 15 minutes from my next stop and I wasn't about to pull over in a dark, deserted desert.  I told my kids we were going to say a prayer and about 10 seconds after I finished, my parents called.  They were able to help calm them down and we made it in one piece.  (My kids slept the second half of the trip and it was heaven).  Not only am I grateful for the power of prayer, but I am grateful for people who are inspired to be the answer to my prayers.


Although I could be discouraged about my minimal weight loss, I am really trying to focus on the things that I CAN CONTROL.

I can't control my weight loss, but I CAN control my food choices.

I can't control getting sick or injured, but I CAN control how I spend my time.

I can't control my inability to go to the gym or for a run because of my kids, but I CAN do my best to workout at home, even if it's not ideal.

I can't control certain difficulties of traveling, but I CAN make the best choices when they are MY choices (i.e.:  salads at Burger King and McDonald's)

Positive Outcomes in spite of Roadblocks
I've hit quite a few roadblocks this past month (injured knee, sinus infection, husband out of town 5 different times, 2 road trips totaling 12 days, etc.), but I am really proud of my food habits I've made in the past 8 weeks.  When I started this Project, I would eat maybe 2 servings of fruit and vegetables a day.  Now I easily eat 4 or 5.  I would eat 20 treats a week, if not more.  This past week I ate about 7.  The best part is, I don't feel like I'm dieting, I'm just making better choices.

I fully attribute this to making small, attainable goals and working on them each week.  If you try to cut out all treats at the beginning, it won't last and you'll feel guilty when you finally give in and eat some.  If you don't exercise at all and try to workout every day, you'll wear yourself out and probably get injured or burned out sooner than later.

Goals for this week:

Because I was sick and went out of town, I didn't do very well on last week's goals, so I'm going to repeat my Food Plan and Sleep goals

Food Plan- 7 treats this week 
5 fruits and veggies 
Don't eat within 2 hours of going to bed

Exercise Plan- 30 minutes of exercise 5 days this week

Sleep-  I am going to go to bed, lights off by 11:00 pm. 

Spiritual Moment- I am falling way behind on my Old Testament reading, but rather than focusing on how far behind I am, I am going to stay caught up on my Book of Mormon reading and then read 8 pages a day for OT since that's double what it should be.  I will catch up eventually.  

Project Momma: 13 weeks

I finished out my trip to Utah very successfully!  It was such a great week with family, we made some good memories.  I also made pretty good choices.  Since last Monday I had quite a few treats, I decided that I would only have 6 left for the rest of the week- one per day.  I haven't done my "treat a day" goal for a while, and you know what?  It wasn't even hard!   A month ago there is NO WAY I would've been able to accomplish that, or if I had tried, I would have felt deprived and it wouldn't have lasted.

I had really eaten more than one serving of trail mix on the way home (it was a really good one- peanuts, raisins, M&M's, peanut butter chips, and chocolate chips. YUM!) So that meant that last night I really didn't have any treats left.  As soon as I realized that, I was totally fine. I didn't "need" anything.  It made me think about how many times I have had a dessert just because I knew I could.... hmmm. This week's goal might be a little more challenging.

As soon as I decided I wasn't going to have a treat, I thought I might have a bowl of cereal instead.  Well, out of the corner of my eye I saw something run across the room.  Yes.  Seriously, I did.  It was a mouse.  How gross is that?????  I saw it run back toward the door to the garage and since my husband was out of town, I called my neighbor.  There was no way I was going to try and catch it by myself.  My kids were in bed, so I couldn't go to the store to buy a trap...  Anyway, my neighbor came over, but we assumed that it ran back through the crack on the bottom of the door leading out into the garage.  We stuffed a towel down in the crack and I figured that the mouse had gone in the garage and I was safe.  Then I realized that the cereal I wanted was in the garage.  I guess I didn't need to eat that badly.

I went to bed a little hungry and I realized that that is okay.  It is good to be a little hungry when you go to bed so that you are hungry when you wake up.  (By the way, my babysitter saw the mouse in my house again tonight so I'm headed to the store tomorrow to get traps. So gross).

The 5k went really well this week!   Some friends and I did the Fro Yo 5k in downtown San Diego and it was really fun. I was so glad that I made the goal to run twice last week while I was in Utah.  Even though it felt like I was breathing through a straw and I only went two miles each time, my knee didn't bother me much.   It's been a long time since I did a race, and I'm not gonna lie, those 3.1 miles were really hard.  Just a month ago I was running an easy 3 miles, but your body can get out of shape FAST!  However, I ran it faster than expected and still ran it in about 28 minutes which is what my goals was originally before my knee injury.  Yay me!

Weekly Selfie: This is an awesome picture, don't you think?  Running the last half mile during my race.  I hate action running shots.  They are never flattering.

Just so you know, we did not indulge in the free fro yo at the end.  My veggie omelet at Pegah's restaurant was much more satisfying.

My goals for this week:

Food Plan- 7 treats this week (I can do this!)
5 fruits and veggies (I was not good at writing these down last week, so I will write them down and make sure I get them all in)
Don't eat within 2 hours of going to bed- I hate to give a specific time like "No eating after 7:00" but if I know I'm going to bed within a couple of hours and I'm not starving, I won't eat.  My body doesn't need the extra calories to sleep.  And if I had a good dinner, then I will be good.
Post a detailed list of Food Log

Exercise Plan- I've had sinusitis the past couple of days.  Lame.  Even though my knee feels better, I feel like the top half of my face is compressing into my skull.  If I feel good later this week, then I am going to work out.  However, I am going to Arizona this weekend, so we'll see if that happens.  I know, you're jealous of my exotic traveling lifestyle.  Believe me, driving 6 hours in a minivan with 3 kids by yourself is not something to be jealous of.

Sleep- Especially since I've been sick and been out of town, I haven't been getting to sleep as early as I should.  (I also started watching Grey's Anatomy on Netflix.  No Bueno.  I can watch 3 episodes in a row, easy.) I am going to go to bed, lights off before 11:00pm.  (As I'm typing this at 12:30, Don't judge me.)

Spiritual Moment:  I did not catch up on my scripture reading and I have not been praying as faithfully as I would have liked, so I am resetting those goals for this week.  But as I sat on the couch yesterday with my sinuses feeling like they were about to explode, I felt helpless as my husband was getting ready to go out of town again. It's hard enough with three kids when you're not sick.  I asked him for a blessing and felt so much better.  I held 3-month-old Molly on my lap while Lucy (4) and Liam (2) played in their room.  They came out during the blessing and stood quietly until he finished.  I could tell they knew it was a special moment.  I'm so glad to have a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder and great example to my children.  Most especially I'm so thankful for the peace that I feel knowing that my Father in Heaven is there to help me during those rough times.  Today I bought a sign that says "If storms should come, but then we shall just dance in the rain."  I love that.  We need to make most of the time we have, rain or shine.