Baby Number Two

I have recently found out after having a mth on the south beach diet and losing 15pds that we are expecting our second child. I am very excited about this - and hope that we are prepared for another one. A lot has to be done to the house and several new things have to be purchased but above all - we are going to be fine and just have to take it one day at a time. I think that some people are shocked because Connor is only 1 1/2 years old but he will be 2 1/2 when the baby is born and that is an okay amount of time inbetween children. They will be able to grow up together and enjoy life and that is how i am looking at all this. I will be very content because then my family will be complete and i will be able to then fully concentrate on raising my children the proper way and enjoying our life together. I have been extremely nautious everyday and gotten sick several times already. This is the part of pregnancy I havent missed. I am starting to get tired mid-day and just go down hill from there. I am also starting to look @ Connor a little differently because he will now be a big brother. It is a special feeling and a scary one all at the same time because you know you are giving them a sibling but at the same time, you are worried about how the first child will react. Will they feel neglected or replaced, will they go back thru the stages of trying to be a baby again for attention. All of those things are heavy on my mind right now -as i am mentally preparing for a new baby and what that will mean for our routine and family life now. Should be interesting.

3 weeks with South Beach

I am now three weeks into the diet and I cant stand the site of meat or cheese. I have had so many salads that if I never saw lettuce again - i would be absolutely fine with it. I am down 12 pds. Which is amazing for someone with thyroid problems and polycistic ovaries. I only have one week to go and I have already cheated for one full day - not over eating but having a cookie and a piece of bread with lunch. I feel that if you deprive yourself of too much then you will go absolutely crazy. I am so excited though to being switching to phase two in 5 days. I never made it to that stage last time due to finding out I was pregnant with Connor after the first phase. I really need to purchase the supercharged book and info. because I feel there maybe updated information about each phase. My husband is very supportive and tries to help me out with meals. Its hard when you are buying your family regular food and you are dieting to stay on track and disciplined. I will make it through - just gotta keep on going and remembering to eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner so that my body keeps burning the food for me. keep you updated

2 weeks down on S.B - Two more to go!

I have been on the South beach diet for 2 weeks now and have successfully lost 10 pounds. I am feeling great and dreading the next two weeks as the food is starting to get tasteless and boring. I am going to do phase one for 2 more weeks which is what I did last time and lost 25 pds. I take a bite of something yummy every now and then just so I don't drive myself crazy. I want to have lost at least 40 pounds by christmas - and I think I can do it, if I just stay motivated and strict on myself with this diet. Phase two is much more easier to maintain and you stay on that phase until you reach your goal weight - I have a heart murmur and cant take over the counter diet pills because they make my heart race. I also have poly-systic ovaries and thyroid issues which makes losing weight almost impossible. I wont give up, and I will keep trying to loose for my sake and for my family's. I am glad that I can depend on a diet that limits all bad carbs and teaches me the proper way to eat rather than depending on a surgery, or weight loss pills. Thanks for all who have supported me so far

3 days in on South Beach

3 days in on the south beach diet and i am hungry for carbs. Steven has donuts, cakes, starches, pizza for the next two weeks and I have only protein and vegetables. I know in the long run it will work out for me and I will feel better about it but it is so hard living around all that yummy food. I feel that my goal should be done in steps - i had a goal to lose 50 pds by christmas and I could still do it. I am going to pick up my walking again in the evenings and start doing a little weight lifting for my flabby arms. I really need to purchase the South beach Supercharged book and the South beach cookbook to stay on top of the diet and fix foods that arent the same old thing. I am already feeling better about having control over what I eat. I just wish I had someone to do this diet with me and split the bill. Eating healthy is so expensive, seems silly, it should be the other way around heavy yummy starches should be more expensive.

South beach diet here I come!!!

I lost around 15 pds when I was on South Beach. I was very proud of myself at that time because it was right before I had little Connor. I was only on it for a mth and lost that much. It is limiting all pop, sugar, carbs in general and fruits at first. Mainly it is protein, vegetables, and a lot of patience. The first phase is only suppose to last 2 weeks but I pushed it to the entire mth. I was going to stay on it after getting pregnant but all the vegetables made me a little sick. I have no choice, because strickly exercise and eating 5 small meals for me is just not cutting it for some reason - like it would for most people. After I had Connor, I immediately had to have my gall bladder removed. I have always wondered since South beach makes your liver work harder maybe it was too much for my gall bladder and thats why I had such complications. Now with it gone, I hope to not have any other issues. I will have to get a South Beach diet cook book so that the food doesnt start to bore me. Wish me Luck. The best part is there is a gal here at work who is willing to limit her carbs to so we can keep each other accountable. let you know how it goes in a few days

Not Following thru

I have been so busy with this and that -and havent had any time to exercise or eat properly at all. and isnt that the point, that you get so busy and just forget to pencil in time for you and you alone. You know it is important and yet you still find ways of getting out of it because other thing come up. It's sad but i am still the same weight which fluctuates up and down over the same number about 5 pds - either up 5 or down 5 and sometimes right on that number. HAH - you thought i was goign to reveal all my secrets. I know to be healthier and stronger at my age I could be carrying around (one less person) which is the current weight I want to drop in order to reach my goal, so why then do i procrastinate. It use to be because I hated exercise all together, aching muscles, perspiring, embarasement around other people etc.... but now that I exercise in the evenings alot of that is eliminated. I wish at times I had a health consious, healthy eating/excercising mate that would help me along with this. It seems at times an endless battle to go to the store and buy whole wheat bread, salads, fruits, more vegetables but then in the same motion reach for the doritos, cookies, cakes etc... for my husband. I want to be better and I want to be better now. Anyone reading this, please just encourage me to stay on track. Thanks everyone

Sorority Excitement

For the last two days, I have done nothing but run around for the sorority. We have a new girl running the show and she is good - and we are trying desparately to get everything together. I have had to go to skit practices, meetings with the recruitment team, preference practice - it has been non-stop and this is just the beginning - the prep work. Recruitment is Sept 5-9th and I will be a nut-case the entire weekend. I didnt excercise Mon-tues-Wed-or thurs due to all of this and I am paying for it- put back on 2 pds and have been doing well on the eating part. Gotta get back into the groove of things and looking into purchasing Leptopril for the store to aid in the weightloss. Connor has been an amazing baby all week. He is laughing more and really getting into some of the Disney/Pixar movies: incredibles, bugs life, Toy story. We bought him some maracas and want to get him some more instruments and we have also been working with him on coloring and holding the crayon the right way. All he seems to want to do is hit us with the maracas and eat the crayons-but thats another story. He has a deep cough right now which makes me realize that fall will be here soon and so will the cold symptoms. Yuk!!!

eating better and feeling good

I feel so good after I have exercised and actually eaten the way I am supposed too. I have been eating about 1300-1400 calories a day and then burning a few away at the end of the day. I have to continue the exercising and not quit after 2 weeks simply because I dont see the results I want or because I slink back to my old ways. Steven and I both have to start watching everything- when it comes to our health. I dont feel as if i have anything to loose other than weight and a fat complex. if exercising makes me feel good, look good and improve all my health issues -then i need to keep this going. The world is usually settling down or falling asleep by the time I get out to walk -so it almost makes me feel as if it is my little secret and that it is just for me. Time set aside for me to relieve stress, think, and just breathe the fresh air. I would like to get some weights for my hands and feet to add weights to my walking. Hopefully I can keep finding time to keep going with the exercise and the energy to keep eating well.

Back on track

I started walking again last night - I walked 5300 steps based on my pedometer. That equals 2 miles or (4000 steps) and an aditional 1300 steps. My goal is to walk 12 miles a week because I read on a medical website that when you have deep belly fat you need to atleast attempt to walk 12 miles a week. I have not seen any results off of the scale but I hope to see something happening soon. I feel amazing and the extra endorfin's make me feel like I could conquer the world. I am really watching what i eat - the only time I've ever lost on a food diet is when I went on South Beach diet and was only consuming meat and cheese - I lost 15 pds that way right before I got pregnant with Connor. I am going to postpone the weight lifting and other training until I make it to 21 days of walking straight - simply because it takes 21 days to form a new habit or to get rid of habits. Then I will add some strenght and functional training to my routine. I would love to purchase a bike and ride to work on Sat. and Sundays - my work is only about 10 miles or less from my house. I would of course have to commit to getting up earlier but I think it is worth it. My problem is that I cant seem to find a bike that suits my stature as it is now. My weight has been a problem for a while now when it comes to finding the appropriate seat to sit in, riding at amusement parks etc...I am determined to lose this weight - i dont care if I have to struggle the whole way - it is worth it to be with little Connor and my family.

I've been bad

I took thursday and friday night off from exercising and ate reasonably but ate what i wanted to. I have started taking fish oil for the Omega-3's everyone is raving about right now for a healthy heart. Many of you might not realize that I have a heart murmur that I've never really had much trouble with but now that I am over weight -i need to be more cautious about.
One new funny on Connor: I was changing him thursday night to put on his night-night clothes and fresh diaper - he is into this new thing where he like to stand up on the changing table right at the very moment i get the diaper off and smile at me -like he has accomplished something. I usually just lay him back down and stuggle to get the diaper on him while he kicks like he's just learned to swim or something.
We'll on thursday night -got the diaper off of him - he stood straight up on that table and smiled at me - I helped him balance while trying to open the diaper to get it set up and felt a warm sensation on my stomack - i looked down and Connor was peeing on me and just smiling away as if he had just struck gold. I tell ya -sometimes this mommy thing is comical - and all you can do is just say oh well and smile back at them. i love being a mommy

Took a break

I didnt workout today at all other than going to the grocery store and fighting with Connor allday about sitting in the buggy the right way. I guess you could call that work. Today we celebrated Malcolm's 49th birthday adn he seemed pleased that we coult all get together. We ate dinner and had light conversation and watched Connor act a fool all night - crying and throwing a fit because he wanted down from the high-chair we had him in. With the teething, small tantrums, and tearing into everything he sees- you can only imagine that my child hear's and answers to his new nickname "NO"--Poor kid. And we aren't even into his terrible two's yet - I cant imagine. Today while out doing my daily payday thursday grocery shopping and bill paying, I bought Connor some new sippy cups to start using in place of his bottles. Because I bought these cups today, I felt it was time to put away the bottles. I was so depressed packing up all the bottles, bottle warmer, extra nipples, and formula dispensers. Something about putting them up -brought on a sinking feeling of my baby isnt a true baby anymore. Granted he still has his "Binky" which we are using to get him thru the rest of his teething-in which two bottom front teeth are working their way thru the gums as we speak. The dentist informed my yesterday that we should be taking the bottles and pacifiers away at 17mths because their teeth are being shaped right now and those two things can do more damage on little teeth than we know. He is 17 mths Today and slowly but surely all of the baby's things are starting to have to be put up and I am suddenly sad. I know he has to grow up but he has been the most wonderful baby, we could have and I hate to see this time pass- the time is gone and I wish I could go back. Luckily I have documented a lot of his milestones in his scrapbook and documented funny doing's and saying's in another notebook- so we can reflect on this time and those special moments. I've got great black mail material for later. Signing off now but my mood is definitely Reminisant and sad

Working on the Weight loss

This week I have cut back on my calories completely. Trying my best to only consume 1300 calories a day. I have been exercising for 4 full days now, by walking around the neighborhood - 2 miles a night which burns about 200 cal. a day alone. I have stopped drinking all sugary drinks, luckily without any major headaches or withdraws - on average I would drink4 Pepsi's a day = 600 cal just in what I was drinking. I have introduced strength training and functional training to my routine tonight and feel like I cant move. However, I can successfully report that I am down 7 pds since I started simply by cutting the pop out of my life--boo hoo and walking.
After 4 days I will have successfully walked 8 miles or 9300 steps towards my 10,000 steps a day goal! By December, I would like to be down 50 pds. I have carried this weight too long- almost 10 years now. My goal is to eventually weight somewhere between 135-150. I walk at night after the world has gone to bed, including my toddler who goes down about 9:30pm each night. It is nice at that time of day. No traffic distractions, people out staring at your flabby butt, and first and foremost- no sun, completely nice and brezzy outside. It is an amazing part of the day when I can reflect on my life, parenting skills, wife-skils, work, and the most important pray and talk to God. When I find that I am struggling to reach the top of the hill, I simply say to my self these few thoughts, "Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, so that we could live and be happy"-so " I can sacrifice and hurt and struggle so that I will I will be around for my family and be happy." I also cheer myself on by saying motivating things like " You are doing awesome baby just a few more steps til you are up the hill." I enjoyed looking at the full moon all week long - sort of a reward as I would round the curve to my house to start another lap around. I can do this - I cant give up - for me and my families sake

Getting started

I am just getting started with this blog page because I needed a place to put my thoughts, notions, to-do lists, weightloss progress, projects, scrapbooking ideas. I am so excited to learn about this blogging website from my friend Kim, who is blogging on her site about her new baby girl, Kelsey that she is adopting from Korea. I thought it was a great idea to share pictures of the experience and keep family and friends updated thru the whole process. I wanted the same so here it is. My site, with my favorite things, written down for all to see. Cant wait to get this really going.