Loving it!

I am down 10 pounds in 4 days!! Tomorrow I get to re-measure myself to see my results. I don't quite feel thinner but I can see a difference in my face and under my chest. I will be thrilled to see the change in my booty and thighs!

My cheats: I put about 1T green or red taco sauce on my salads because I cannot take ACV twice a day. It really makes a chicken salad!

I got some spray conditioner that I spray on just the length of my hair. I would be a hot mess without this.

I also use baby oil (yuk!) and just got some oil free Neutrogena face moisturizer because my hands actually started falling apart. Dr. Simeons says the fat flowing in your body will give you a youthful glow but I am not seeing it yet!

Today was my first day at school while on the diet. I brought a taco salad and an apple. I actually wasnt hungry for the apple until on the way home. I thought I would be exhausted but I had plenty of energy and felt great all day.

Lost a small sack of potatoes!

I've lost 2 more pounds for a total of 5 in 2 days! That is incredible. I am still in bragging mode about the diet because I seriously have more energy and am not hungry at all. I do have to fight off cravings though.

Last night I was sad because while I could have gone out to Chelino's and devoured 2 baskets of chips and an extra large plate of lard, I was eating chicken soup. And when I say chicken soup, I mean chicken in water, spices and spinach. I did make a baked an apple though and it was fabulous! It does make me sad that I have to diet like this but it will be worth it. I just keep thinking bikini body!

Baked apple recipe:
Core 1 granny smith apple
Place in baking dish and fill bottom with water about 1/4 inch to keep moisture in.
Pour pumpkin pie spice and stevia to taste in core.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
YUMMY!

Since I cannot be fun anymore aka eat or drink, I basically cleaned all freaking day. Including the chicken coop which was a nasty and I am pretty sure I have some disease now because while I tried not to breath as the wind blew the poo piles in my face, it was a little tricky. So if I die, let the news channels know that it was my love for my chicken that killed me.

Woohoo

I was so excited to wake up this morning to weigh myself. I lost 3 pounds! I started blogging Wednesday but it was just embarassing to put into words all the food I ate and how I felt about it! Yuk. I don't want to go back there.

Yesterday was the first day on the VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet). I had alot of expectations and it was nothing like it. I was NOT hungry in the slightest. It was even hard for me to eat that much.

Brkfst: Coffee

Lunch: Tilapia, Spinach with strawberries drizzled in apple cider vinegar

Dinner: Ground beef, iceberg lettuce drizzled with taco sauce (not sure if that was allowed, says no sugar or calories so I did it)

Snacks: Orange and 2 melba toasts (not at once)

I made my family tacos for dinner so it was not hard to resist since I got a faux taco salad!

I have to go out in the cold and start my car because I am pretty sure it is below freezing. I have to go to school and of course I have to stop for gas. Normally my husband will go out and "fill er up" for me but he was sick and was not catching my hints last night.

Abcense Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I have lots to update since last June! Time flies when you are having fun!
1. I started Nursing school last week and in 16 months I will be an R. N. with a BSN! Woot Woot!
2. I feel extremely guilty leaving my kids 17 hours a week while I am in class!
3. I am on a building hiatus. Since I last posted, I have built a toddler bed, twin fort bed, King bed, 2 bookshelves, step stool and dining table and bench! There are probably a few more things but I cannot think right now.
4. I have started feeling FAT again!
5. I don't know where this random list came from but it feels right so let's go with it.

That last one is the most important to me. If I do not feel good about my body, everything else in life goes wonky. I wish that weren't true but it is. So here is my plan to fix it.

HCG DIET! (If you don't know what this is, here is the protocol straight from the creator, DR. Simeons http://hcgdietinfo.com/Dr-ATW-Simeons-Pounds-and-Inches.htm. Check it out! After you get all skeptical and health conscience on me, google hcg before and after pics. You will be amazed. I truly believe that the reason this is not marketed more is because where would it leave the big ballers who sell weight loss pills? Broke!

I bought the homeopathic drops from my local health food store for $50 for the 23 day supply.

Wish me luck! I just took my before pics and they are appalling! If you looked like I do in a bikini, you would jump on the bandwagon too!I did my measurements too and weighed in.

So today is Day 1 or the binge, pig out, gorge day! I have eaten a Sausage and egg biscuit, embarassed to say I could not eat the hashbrown because I was so full, chocolates that have been hiding in my cupboards since Christmas whispering my name 3x day, Wendys chicken nuggets that the kids begged for and then decided they werent hungry, potato soup which is my fav food ever and 2 glasses of wine. I feel like I should eat more but I cannot stuff anything else in this fat belly. So, that's it for Day 1.

Tomorrow, I have class in the morning and then more eating to do!

Well, Well, Well!

Well, well, well! What have I been up to?

I don't know if I got this crazy idea at the thought of farm fresh eggs in my backyard or after seeing pictures of adorable coops! I wanted it to be cheap and to use as many of my scrap pieces as I could. I found plans that I liked, like the Playhouse Coop but the plans were not easy for a novice. I found the Backyard Chicken site which allows readers to submit their pics and the building process for their own coops. It was a challenge to sort through all and find one I liked, considering I knew very little about chickens and how they lived.
So I drew up many, ideas on envelopes of bills. But then I would toss them after they were on my counter for too long. They were never worth keeping anyway.
I kept going out to my building area under the carport and looking at all the wood I had accumulated and putting a few pieces together. I think after about a week my husband started feeling sorry for me. He is not really that great at creating plans either though so we were not a great pair.

It has been over 2 months since I last blogged and for good reason might I add. I have been so busy this spring and now it is already summer! Yay! I love, love, love summer. We have a swimming pool so everyday has a little sun and water in it. My kids love to swim, and play in the water and as a fair skinned red-head somehow, I am TAN!
I started back to school to prep for my trip to Nursing School at Oklahoma City University in January by taking Principles of Chemistry at OCCC. It is 8 weeks and ohhhh so intense. Luckily I had to take Advanced Chem in high school so it is all very vaguely familiar. High School was over 10 years ago so I must add the very to vaguely.
I have been most busy with my building obsession. I love surprising myself. I love challenging myself. I love to show off my skills to my husband. While I did show off my skills, I also go in way over my head and needed more help from him than I intended. But, the end result was AMAZING. So amazing that 8 chickens are now the residents of my latest obsession,

A chicken coop!

I have to give thanks to Ana at Knock Off Wood, whom I mentioned a few months ago when I built the West Elm Modern Farmhouse Table and Benches. She is this super talented, beautiful and most generous blogger who shares her own plans to Pottery Barn look-a-like furniture.
After I had built the West Elm Farmhouse Table and two benches, a Pottery Barn Madison book shelf and a preschool picnic table, I decided I needed something bigger. I am not sure if it was the idea of raising my own chickens and going out for farm fresh eggs every morning or the idea of these super cute yet functional chicken houses that I found at Backyard Chickens. This website gave semi-instructional pictures but no plans! So I gave it my all and just went for it. A divorce was almost caused in the process but now that it is all said and done, we are all a happy family again. All 15 of us. Yes, there are now 2 parents, 3 sons, 2 dogs and 8 chickens! This is the final result:

For Crepes Sake!

I used to be a good mommy. With my first child, David, I made him homemade baby food. I was even working full time in the Air Force! Every Saturday I would spend about 5 hours preparing and freezing months worth of baby food for him. He was NEVER served a jar of Gerber. And yes, I was damn proud of that.
With my second child, I attempted to do the same. It lasted 10 days. . . He was ONLY served jars of Gerber. Well, not completely. I tried and tried but it was much harder to do. I did not feel like less of a mommy for this, this time around though.
Well, over the past (David's fourth birthday is in less than 2 months)few years, I have given in to requests for Pop Tarts, Coco Puffs, Coco Pebbles. . . I could go on and on. I take my kids with me to the grocery store which makes it very hard. I want to keep the peace so we can get out with a happy mommy.
My challenge to myself this month is to make more healthy, homemade breakfasts for them. Cooper (17 months old)will eat anything and would devour any homemade breakfast. David, on the other hand, is a very picky 3 year old. He used to love waffles and pancakes. Now, he prefers dry cereal on the couch with some Dinosaur Train.
David is like his mommy in the mornings. Grouchy! In his case, he needs some dry cereal and Dinosaur Train on tv. In my case, I need just shy of a full pot of coffee. Somedays I do not fully awake until noon.
Back to the point, I am going to branch out from pancakes and waffles and move on to CREPES!

I just made a batch of them and they are waiting until morning in the fridge. We will be having blueberrys and syrup as the topping tomorrow. In David's defense, he has been trying so many new foods lately, it's like he is a different child. We do not pressure him with food. If he does not eat what is served at mealtime, he will wait until snacktime to eat again.
Do you have any tips or breakfast recipes for a picky child? Next, I will be making strawberry muffins and freezing them for the month!

Here I Am!

I am still alive and well. Just have been busy lately. No shredding to report. No 5K training to report either. So what have I been doing? Took a spur of the moment trip to my moms in Jupiter (Palm Beach area) Florida. Just me and the kids drove 24 hours there and 24 hours back. We were able to stay a week which was so nice. I got to spend alot of time with my sister who is 18 and is like a real grown up now! When I have visited in the past, she has never wanted anything to do with me or my kids. This trip was so special because she spent the entire time with us! I also got to see my mommy! We talk on the phone 5 times and day, skype twice and message each other in between. It was so nice to just sit and be with each other.

On my way back to Oklahoma, I heard some gut-wrenching news that a mama from my playgroup lost her 6 month old son to SIDS. It is the saddest thing because he was the happiest baby and while I only knew her for 4 months, they were a part of our lives. As a group, we ordered her a necklace with her sons name and "Forever Loved" hand-stamped on a silver pendant and a heart charm with baby foot prints. I hope it turns out great and she really likes it. We are also wanting to bring over meals for her family but she is not wanting guests so we will just have to keep in touch and be there for her when she is ready. I cannot imagine the pain to lose a child. My heart ached all week for her.

My husband is back to working out of town during the week so I am starting another woodworking project. I think I posted earlier about the modern farmhouse table and bench from West Elm that I wanted to build using the plans from Knock Off Wood. I already have one bench so I went and got the lumber for the table today. I cannot wait to get started! The weather is supposed to be great this week so I hope I will stay busy outside.

I will try to get better with my blogging! I really want to, I swear!

Boring!

Note to self: Do not run during American Idol on elimination night. You will be bored out of your mind. Wait to run during Grey's Anatomy or Real Housewives. Even better, put in your new Glee DVD set. Even better better, work on your ipod playlists and run to music since that is what you prefer anyway. You can do it.

Well, I ran 2 miles last night but it was hard to keep myself going. I
basically wanted to quit after 2 minutes. I planned on doing 3 miles but I am still happy I ran. I am going to shoot for 2 miles twice a week and 3 miles at the end of the week. Then every week I will up my mileage by a half mile.

On a side note, what face moisturizer do you use? I had gotten a sample of Olay ProX and this tiny container I got in the mail for free lasted me about 2 months.

Well, when I went to Target to replace it, it costs $39.99! So, I am a cheapo and I just bought the generic Target brand of regular Olay face moisturizer for around $4. It really is awful and I may try to return it and just spend the money on the ProX. It was so wonderful. My skin right now is dry and flaky and I have not been like that all winter until I ran out of ProX. What do you all like? As I get older, I find it more important to use something good to fight aging! It is my face after all!

Amazed

I am always reading a highschool friend's facebook posts about her running and working out basically on a daily basis, and I find myself wondering why I couldn't run too?? She is such a sweet person and she told me all about how she does it and what her goals are and that she lost 60 pounds last year. I mentioned before that I want to run a 5K but of course I have not started training. I have alot of goals and plans people. Most of them just stay in my head. I have a goal tonight to run 3 miles on my treadmill as I watch American Idol. So, since it is already 7PM, I must get to it! Off to run!!!

Who am I rooting for on Idol?


Are you surprised the long haired blond boy is not up there? Me too.

New DVD

Meant to post this yesterday but got sidetracked. . .

Jillian Michael's new DVD came out today, called Yoga Meltdown. From what I have read is that it is set up like Shred but only two different levels, each 25 minutes. I WILL be going to WalMart tomorrow to pick this up. I would have gone today but I had to babysit for a friend. I have been trying to do the Shred every other day or so. I have lost 2 more pounds in February!! Yay! I am trying to figure out how to eat healthy but it is a challenge every meal! I really do not eat alot of convenience foods or packaged foods. My problem is pasta and potatoes. I tried to do a modified South Beach diet but it only lasted one day! ha So, tonight I am grilling cheeseburgers and fried potatoes. Is that healthy? No way but my family will eat it and they will love it and I hate putting very much thought into food! I like cooking new things and finding new recipes but when it comes right down to it, there are a handful of meals that I make over and over and over. Don't worry, I will be swapping the potatoes for a salad.

On another note, I finished the bench I was working on last week. On Sunday, Scott gave me some lessons on how to use the tools. It really helped. The bench is not perfect in any way but the lumber cost less than $20 and I made it all by myself!!
Still have to sand and stain (and start the other bench and table!) If you think you cannot build things like this, you are so wrong! You should have seen me the first day, it was pathetic. I had no clue what I was doing. I kept it up though and finished it!

Let me know if you have tried Yoga Meltdown or your thoughts on the Knock Off Wood blog. I would love to hear what you all are up to!