So, this past weekend my daughter was sick.  At first we thought it was a cold but then she got a fever so we figured it was some type of virus.  Anyway, after sleepless nights, hugging, kissing, and snuggling to make her feel better I too am now sick.  Of course we were kind enough to share it with my husband and mom.  Yet my son somehow has managed to stay healthy.  Go figure! 

     Anyway, I find myself using a lot of the same tricks my mom used to help me feel better when I was little on my daughter.  So, it isn’t doctor’s orders but moms orders:

1.  Ginger Ale – My mom could get us to drink this when we were sick and it kept us from getting dehydrated.  I am sure there are “official” drinks out there now but I seem to always go back to Ginger Ale. 

2.  Toast or Bread – Easy on the tummy and my mom always claimed it absorbed snot in your stomach.  TMI I know but my when daughters belly hurts and she eats bread or toast she always says her belly feels better. 

3.  “The bucket” – basically a container that will catch you know what if you don’t make it to the bathroom in time.   

4.  Vicks Vapor Rub – you know it doesn’t smell great but it really does help with the pain in your throat and chest.

     Please feel free to add to the list in the comments.  As my daughter seemed to have gotten well within 48 hours I am still suffering along with my husband and mom.  To make matters worse I really can’t take anything since I am still breastfeeding.  Let’s hope this isn’t the beginning to a long winter!

       Reading about the recent infant deaths due to formula tainted with melamine in China just breaks my heart.  I had to write about this story because it hits so close to home with myself having a 4 month old.  I have been so lucky that I have been able to breastfeed both of my children with no problems and no assistance from formula.  So, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have a child who became sick do to the formula you feed them every day.  These parents put their trust in these companies to provide them a product that they feel will best help their child only to find out they have been betrayed.  

    I just think about what choices those parents have now.  Your baby needs to eat but what can you feel them?  The story I read on CNN.com said that Chinese investigators have found melamine in almost 70 milk products from more than 20 companies.  That is just disgusting.  I can’t imagine what person in their right mind would do something like this.  Are people really so greedy that they don’t care if another human being dies in order to make money?  It just makes me sick to my stomach.

     So, let’s see China provided us with tainted pet food last year which coincidentally enough was also tainted with melamine.  Then we have the wonderful lead paint in toys panic.  Let’s, also not forget the wonderful Aqua Dots toy that turned in to the date rate drug when ingested and the Pokemon Valentine lollipops that contained metal.  Then last but certainly not least they are now killing their own people by tainting their infant formula. 

     I just don’t even know what to say about this except that it is scary……….. 

     It’s a balancing act trying to lose weight and nurse my son at the same time.  When you are nursing you have to take in so many calories a day or your milk supply begins to drop.  However, if you take in too many calories it makes it impossible to lose weight.  I know some people say while they were nursing the weight just fell right off but I have never been one of those lucky few.  Yes I lose a pretty good amount right after birth but the last 10 to 15 are more work.  Plus this time around I hope to lose more on top of that.

     Anyway, I have been bad and was not taking in enough calories the past week or so and my son let me know it.  I just saw the numbers on the scale dropping and it was enough for me to not eat as much as I should have been.  Now don’t get me wrong I was still eating but it just wasn’t as much as I should be to sustain my milk.  It was more like what I would have been eating if I wasn’t nursing.  So, as great as it was losing weight I am now eating more and he is happy but the scale went up a little too.  My plan of action was to tell my husband to hide the scale.  My son’s health and development is way more important than some stupid number on a scale.  I figure I need to focus more on eating right, exercising, and feeling good than anything else.

     Also, it has been about a month since I took the picture of myself to mark the beginning of my weight loss journey so this past weekend I had my husband take a second photo.  I must say I looked great!  Ok well I am not near where I want to be but from where I was there have been amazing changes.  Even my husband was really impressed.  I can tell I am gaining a lot more muscle and things are starting to firm up.  YES!!!!  So, despite a less then stellar performance on the scale my pictures are worth a thousand words.

     So, goodbye scale and hello happy mama!   

     On my quest to cut out high fructose corn syrup from my families diet I threw out my old ketchup and found an organic one made my Heinz.  Here are the ingredient: 

organic tomato concentrate made from red ripe organic tomatoes, organic distilled vinegar, organic sugar, salt, organic onion powder, organic spice, natural flavoring. 

     Now what would happen if you took the word “organic” out from this list?  You would still have a list of natural ingredients and a healthier version of ketchup.  So for the life of me I cannot understand why a company like Heinz would not just make their regular ketchup the same way as the organic just without the ingredients being organic.  Why does a company feel the need to add high fructose corn syrup when they can clearly make a product without this being added?  Is it really just because they can make it cheaper?

     The second shocker came when I looked at my Yoplait yogurt only to find it also contained high fructose corn syrup.  Seriously!  In my yogurt!  My dad was also a big Yoplait fan and has since switched to another yogurt that does not contain high fructose corn syrup.  Funny enough when I asked him how he liked it he said it was great because he could really taste the flavor of the yogurt and it wasn’t just sweet. 

     I think it is crazy how our taste buds just started to adapt to high fructose corn syrup and it was accepted in so many foods.  I love that by now cutting it out of my diet I am actually able to taste foods for they way nature intended them to be.  Ok so ketchup doesn’t grow on trees but you know what I am saying!    

     A few months ago hubby and I decided that we were going to cut fast food out of our diets.  We made an agreement that if we did have to run out for food we would only get Subway.  That really worked well for us and I can honestly say we only slipped up one time and had Arby’s.  Overall I have been feeling great because we are eating as healthy possible and it has helped in my weight loss.   

     Anyway, we have now set a new challenge for ourselves in that we are not going to eat out at all for two weeks.  I must say I really love eating at home more than going out but my downfall comes after a long day with the kids.  Some days I just feel exhausted at the end of the day dealing with 2 year olds emotional highs and lows and a baby needing my attention all at the same time.  Those tend to be the days I just don’t feel like cooking and say lets hit Subway.  But for the next two weeks eating out is no longer an option.   

     So, wish me luck!  I hope maybe one or two of the days I might be able to convince hubby to cook for us.  Then again maybe I will just suck it up and do it myself!

     A few weeks ago I posted about my weight loss journey and the future goals I wanted to meet.  Well, on Friday I reached my first goal of getting my weight into the 140’s!  I was so excited that I was going to post on Friday but I wanted to make sure it was official so I gave it a few days.  As of this morning I am still holding strong at 149.  Thank you all for the support! 

     “You spent how much on a blender?”  That is pretty much the same reaction I got every time I told somebody how much I spent for the Vita-Mix.  It seriously got to the point that I stopped telling people how much we spent because it took away from the fact that this blender is absolutely amazing.   Yes these blenders start at around $450; however this is one of those purchases where the quality of the product makes it worth the money you spend.  After spending around $60 each year to buy a new lesser quality blender I figured why not just put the money towards something that will last.  

     The problem we used to have with lesser quality blenders was the ability to crush ice.  Even the blenders out there that claimed to have ice crushing abilities all ended up pooping out after a year.  They never really seemed to be able to blend ice to a smooth consistency which is pretty important if you are making smoothies (which is what we use our blender for the majority of the time).  Of course these blenders also had a horrible time blending frozen fruit.  Well, after having the Vita-Mix now for a few months I have never had this problem.  The nice thing with the Vita-Mix is that it comes with a tamper which you are able to use to push the food down into the blades to help it mix.  I noticed now when I make a smoothie I can use very little liquid unlike with other blenders where I would have to put an overabundance of liquid just to get everything to mix properly.

     I also love that in their newest series, the 5200, all of the container are made of a BPA-free material known as Tritan copolyester.  With the whole BPA in plastic scare going on right now it was important for me to find a blender that was BPA-free for the health of my family.

     Cleaning the Vita-Mix is also a snap.  Instead of having to pull all the pieces apart to make sure you don’t leave any food, all you do with the Vita-Mix is put some soap in the container, fill with water, and blend for a minute.  Rinse the container out and you are good to go.  Let me say being a busy mom this makes life very easy being able to make a smoothie during the day with very little prep or clean up. 

     Anyway, out of all the blenders I have ever used this is by far the best.  Backed with a 7 year warranty I feel like I made a great purchase.  I can continue to make great smoothies (which by the way my two year old loves) and know that I am doing something healthy for my family.  So, if you are ever in the market for a new blender I would highly recommend you look into the Vita-Mix. 

My daughter’s favorite smoothie (note she doesn’t drink all of this at one time)

1 banana

frozen strawberries

frozen blueberries

plain yogurt

dry oatmeal

apple juice        

     Well, today was the second day I have been working with my daughter on potty training.  Let me just say that I love being a parent but potty training has by far been my least favorite thing!  This has been horrible.  Both of us have ended the day exhausted and worn out from working so hard.  It truly takes a lot of work, energy, and patience on both parts to make it work. 

     I have come to the conclusion that not one thing is going to work for every kid.  I have gotten more advice on the right age, time, tricks, and tactics to get my daughter to go and let me tell you she is so hard headed it has been quite the challenge.  So, I figure you just have to keep trying a combination of things until your child decides they want to go on the potty.  Or as my mom would say it comes down to who can outlast who.  Also, whoever said potty training a girl was easier lied!!!

     Wish me luck.    

     For my birthday my husband got me a subscription to Women’s Health Magazine.  I must say I love this magazine!  Anyway, in this month’s magazine they are pimping their Fit Coach, which is basically like having your own online personal trainer.  Here is the description from the web site:

With Women’s Health Fit Coach you’re just a click away from your best body ever! Log on anytime, anywhere to access this step-by-step online training and diet program. You’ll get everything you need to tone and sculpt your body just the way you want to: a fully customized, interactive fitness and nutrition program designed specifically for you, so you can see results faster than you ever thought possible!

     Now I must say I really found this idea interesting.  Yes I know I can get this information for free many other places.  In fact I read plenty of blogs that give me wonderful tips, tricks, and ideas to keep myself fit.  So, you might be asking why I would bother to sign up for Fit Coach.  Well, I honesty just don’t have time to set up a plan for myself.  Sad excuse yes but it is the truth.  I find myself doing the same exercises because they are things I know how to do, but I get bored doing the same things.  I also know it is better for your body to switch it up and for those reasons I really think I might give Fit Coach a try.  I need to mix it up and I know if I have a plan to follow it will make it so much easier.

     Right now they are offering a free 30-day trial.  The only catch I have found so far is when you sigh up you have to put a credit card in so if you don’t cancel within the 30 days they can catch you and charge you.  The second catch is that they charge you three months at a time.  YIKES!  That could really suck if you get stuck having to pay if you forget to cancel.  Other than that it seems pretty straight forward.   

     Anyway, I am still up in the air on the idea.  I really have the diet information down so it would really only be used for the workout stuff.  What do you all think?  Deal or Dud?

     Pretty much my whole life I have just been your average size person.  I wasn’t too big or to little just right there in the middle.  My weight gain really didn’t start till college.  My first semester I was pushed by my parents to attend the same college as my sister even though it was not what I really wanted to do.  I have never been a huge fan of school and once I left I became really home sick.  To top it off my husband Chris, fiance at the time, had just finish his stem cell treatment for cancer so I was not excited about having to leave him at home.  Instead of the normal eat to cope I pretty much did the opposite.  I just never felt hungry and by the time I came home at Christmas I had lost quite a bit of weight.  Needless to say that January I started attending a college closer to home.

     Anyway, back at home with Chris around I was happy and content.  So, what did I do but eat.  We would go out to dinner, eat popcorn at the movies, stop by a gas station and pick up some nachos…you get the picture.  We did workout so at the time that did help control my weight.  The problem really didn’t start to show its ugly head till my senior year.  I was working almost 30 hours a week, going to school full time, and also doing 12 hours a week at my internship.  My days started at 5 and didn’t end till well past 11.  That is the only time when I truly did not have time to work out.  With my bad eating habits and lack of working out my weight ballooned to 150.  Now mind you I am 5’2 so really a healthy body weight is anywhere between 110 and 137. 

     Totally devastated by my new figure I vowed to change myself as soon as I graduated.  I also had extra motivation since I was getting married in December and I didn’t want to look back in pictures and wish I was skinnier.  In order to reach my goals Chris and I started back up at the gym and I also joined Weight Watchers.  By the time I got married I was down to 127 and felt fabulous.  I was doing great keeping the weight loss until I became pregnant 3 months after getting married.  It was quite the shock since the doctors told us we would never have kids after Chris’s stem cell transplant.  Unfortunately, I miscarried with that pregnancy and my body got all out of balance.  I started to gain weight and by the time I got pregnant again three months later I was around 135.  During the pregnancy with my daughter I gained around 40 pounds.  More than I would have liked but it is what it is.  Anyway, it took a little over a year but I got back down to 137.  My goal was to get back to at least 135 before I got pregnant again.  I figured I was within two pounds so we started trying for our second child thinking I would have a few more months to lose the last 2 pounds.  So, imagine my shock when I got pregnant the first month.  Now during this pregnancy I was sick as a dog for the first 20 weeks so in the end I only ended up gaining 32 pounds. 

     Now, here I am almost 9 weeks after having my son and I am down to 150.2.  I must say I am super proud of myself for losing the weight quicker this time then with my daughter but my body is not bouncing back as great as last time.  I figure I am not brave enough to post my before and after pictures on here but at least I can keep myself in check by posting my weight and future weight loss.  Also, I have set some goals for myself to reach. 

1.  Reach the 140’s

2.  Get back down to 137 which is the very top of the healthy range for my height

3.  Get back to my pre wedding weight of 127