Weigh in Day: A Week on Track

 

I’m happy to report that I had a good week on track following the plan in a sustainable way. I didn’t feel deprived in any way. Perfect!

I was even rewarded with a loss this time. Imagine that!

I lost 1.5 lbs. for a total loss of 7.6 lbs.

I have to keep telling myself that progress is progress—no matter how many times I fall down, I keep getting up and 7.6 lbs. lost is better than 7.6 lbs. gained!

Here are my stats:

	This Week	Last Week
Weekly Points Used:	49/49	-
Activity Points Earned:	21	16
Activity Points Used:	20	-
Total Steps:	47,410	42,333
Weight Loss this Week:	-1.5	+0.6
Total Weight Loss:	-7.6 lbs.

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I look forward to Fridays even though I’m a SAHM. I look forward to hubby being home and helping out. I love just spending time together as a family.

We’re invited to a bon fire tonight, but I’m not feeling well so I don’t think I will go…again. Last year baby girl was sick on the day of the bon fire so we stayed home. This was right around the time that (looking back) I began to have PPD symptoms. I encouraged hubby to go to the bon fire without me when really I didn’t want him to go, but I didn’t want to tell him that.

When he got home I was so angry. I was resentful and hurt. Was this how my life would be from now on—always missing out on everything? That’s how it felt to me. We had a big argument over it all. I was pretty terrible!

Now I know what was going on with me and I can look at the entire situation through a new set of eyes with clearer vision. I will encourage hubby to go without baby and me again, and I won’t blow up at him when he gets home. ha Also, I don’t mind quiet time alone so much anymore.

Anyways, I just went off on a tangent about motherhood that I think I will save for another post! I love when the creativity takes over and the words just flow. But back to this post…

Other than that, I’m not sure we will do much of anything this weekend. I mostly just want to take a nap and wish this sickness away. It’s nothing horrible, it’s just annoying.

This is the last weekend of my 20s. I turn 30 on Wednesday. It’s hard to believe, but my increasingly white hair proves it’s true. It was just a few years ago when I said I still felt like I was 18 years old even though I was in my 20s. Now, well, I definitely feel 30. I think having a child does that to you. I feel like I imagine 30 must feel—not in a bad way, but there’s room for improvement.

What are you up to this weekend? How did you feel when you turned 30? How did you do on the scale this week?

 

P.S. I am giving Disqus commenting a try so that I can interact with you all better than I can on the Blogger commenting system. Let me know what you think!

Weekend Recap, etc.

As forecasted, we had beautiful fall weather this past weekend! I enjoyed every minute and even cooked up some Slow Cooker Quinoa Chicken Chili, which I featured in my 8 Healthy Recipes for Fall post yesterday.

I actually got out of the house on Friday and went for about an hour long walk. Baby enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. It was beautiful.

We started our weekend by going to Subway for supper. With both hubby and myself on board with eating healthier, this saved us from our usual weekly dining out and eating too many calories/points. That’s an NSV for sure! We still followed it up by ice cream, but counted the points. We would have had a caloric dinner AND ice cream otherwise.

After spending more time on my AJourney2Thin Instagram account, I have noticed that people are losing weight eating like I used to eat—just eating anything in moderation. That’s how I did my best and I felt the most satisfied. So forget all of this clean eating, no carb, no fruit, no gluten, no sugar, you name it diet nonsense. I’m just going to do what works for me. I include plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats, dairy, whole grains, and otherwise very healthy food. But if I want to eat a brownie—well, I’m going to eat a brownie! (if I have the points for it, of course). No guilt. This is my life and I’ll eat what I want. Why has it taken me so long to accept this? ha. BTW, you are free to do what you want too—embrace it and let everyone else do what works for them!

I met my step goal on Friday for the first time in a LONG time. It was a good feeling!

 

I especially like to see those Activity Points add up! When I meet 10,000 steps—I earn 7 APs.

On Saturday, baby girl wasn’t feeling well at all after being sick since last Tuesday. I put her down for a nap and then hubby encouraged me to go run errands and get groceries, etc. alone. I didn’t know if I should leave, but since she was going down for a nap I decided it would be fine.

Well it wasn’t. She refused to nap for hubby and wasn’t feeling well and cried & cried. He was at the end of his rope by the time I got home. Now he knows how stressful being at home with a baby can be! Poor baby girl though.

I decided that it would put my mind at ease if we took her into urgent care to have her looked at. I tend to overreact. I’m learning it’s anxiety which causes this and it’s good that I know I’m over reacting. Seriously though, I Googled and was convinced she had walking pneumonia. I also developed what I believe to have been a salivary gland stone under my tongue and I immediately thought I had cancer and was going to die. It’s funny but it’s not—why am I so crazy?

Everything was fine with baby, they did a strep test and a throat culture and both were negative. But at least we could rest easy knowing something wasn’t horribly wrong—she sounded horrible with her cough, which turned into croup that evening.

I ended up meeting my step goal on Saturday too! I had to walk in place for a few minutes to get there, but I did it!

On Sunday, baby girl seemed even worse. We stayed home all day. Neither of us had much sleep on Saturday night—I slept with her all night and she wanted me there. We napped quite a bit on Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday night, I was prepared to sleep with her again but she just wouldn’t get comfortable and apparently didn’t want me to sleep with her. lol. As soon as I put her in her crib, she was good for the night! Funny girl.

She seemed to feel better Monday morning. What a relief! I was thinking I would need to take her back to the doctor because her temperature had gone up a little bit the night before. She’s still doing better but has a bad sounding cough—at least she doesn’t seem to be in pain anymore though. I have a sore throat and a cough now—drinking up my natural cold and sore throat remedy every day!

I’m still on track with my points! That’s huge for me and I’m proud of myself for sticking it out. I actually feel smaller this morning so I will be anxious to see what the scale tells me on Friday.

Hubby had to be away for work last night, so I had a little extra time to do whatever. I ended up getting most of the house cleaned up. I even set up a new toy storage bin where I’m going to create a play space. It’s really messy right now—but I will get it all worked out! Much better than having all of the toys in the living room!

I think I’ve mentioned before, but I’m turning our dining room (which has never been a dining room for us) into half my office area and half a play space. I’ve decided on light gray for the walls and I’m in the planning stages right now.

I found the cutest baskets/bins at Menards that I’m going to put up on a shelf to store things in. They were even on sale!

I bought a shelf but I think I’m going to return it and find something more distressed looking…maybe at Hobby Lobby? They have a good selection. I could probably even make something myself. We’ll see.

I will need one set of drapes and plan to find something with a little color, but I haven’t decided on a color scheme yet—other than the gray. And the general theme of the office area will be industrial and distressed looking. When we first moved in here, I went a little crazy with the colors. I want to repaint to make the house more neutral and “homey” feeling.

Currently, I have a big book shelf in the room that is filled to the brim with books. It looks horrible and I really don’t need all of those books. I plan on getting rid of a lot of them and I’m trying to decide what to do with the book shelf because I just feel like it takes up too much space and makes the room look cluttered. Maybe I could send it to the basement for hubby to pile his junk on. HA—don’t tell him I said that. I got it for free with a gift card I earned at work a long, long time ago—so no big loss if I get rid of it. I’m learning that it’s ok to just let go of things!

So there’s my little update for this Tuesday!

 

What have you been up to?

Weigh in Day: My Body is Weird

 

After a couple of weeks without exercise or tracking my points you can about imagine what I would see on the scale. But guess what?

I lost 2.5 lbs.!

I am just as shocked. If you remember, three weeks ago I had a fantastic week and gained 1.7 lbs. I’ve jokingly mentioned before that I seem to lose when I eat more and exercise less. Once again this has proved true. My body is weird.

Obviously that philosophy is flawed, but it does give me some insight into the way that my body works. Starving myself won’t be beneficial, nor will bingeing uncontrollably. It’s that ground right in between of just normal eating of pretty much everything in moderation. And of course a focus on the healthy things. That’s how I lost the weight before and that’s how I can lose it again. How could I forget this?

Stats:

	This Week	Last Week
Weekly Points Used:	-	-
Activity Points Earned:	18	17
Activity Points Used:	-	-
Total Steps:	44,216	43,518
Weight Loss this Week:	2.5 lbs.	-

I’m glad that I had a loss because it puts me at 11 lbs. lost, which is just .3 lbs. above my lowest weight. I’m ready to get serious about this again and this time I will have the help of hubby. He is wanting to lose some weight again and I think we can do this together.

Next week will be the first week that I begin to use my Passion Planner to schedule my days. I’ve planned a 6 a.m. wake up to workout. I will have to see how this goes and if it’s something I think I could keep doing and enjoy it.

The other option is to workout in the evenings with hubby, but it’s too easy to decide I’m too tired at the end of the day and not want to do anything. I used to enjoy getting my workout out of the way first thing but I’m not going to hold myself to any specific schedule for the following week because this is all about determining when I enjoy working out the most so that I can be consistent with it. I’ll start with this plan next week and go from there.

I’ve also realized that I haven’t been cooking like I used to. In the past, I would try new recipes and find healthy ways to make delicious dishes. This week I’ve made some different meals and they have been very satisfying to the palate. I look forward to trying more recipes next week and also creating a meal plan, at least for suppers.

This is the perfect time of the year to eat healthy. We’ve started to get a lot of produce from hubby’s parents since they have a huge garden: Green beans, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, onions, kale, cabbage, just to name a few. I’m definitely gong to be searching for more zucchini recipes this year. If you have any, please share!

Have a great weekend!

How was your week? Did you meet your goals?

A {busy} Day in the Life of Post

I thought it was time for a day in the life of post—so here is my Tuesday! I am so out of the habit of doing this that I forgot to take pics of my breakfast and so I decided to just eliminate the food from this post.

I woke up shortly before 7:00. It takes me a little bit to wake up and be ready to take on the day, so I just laid in bed for a little while. I headed downstairs and had to smile when I found this note from hubby on the table. He leaves me a note every morning. <3

I heard baby girl talking in her room at about 7:00, which was at least an hour earlier than her usual wake up time. She just sat in there quietly hanging out—completely content.

She likes her alone time here and there. It’s kind of funny because just about every day she goes over to the door to the stairs and wants to go up to her room. I’ll put her in her crib like she’s going down for a nap and she will spend an hour up there just laying down quietly but not going to sleep. She has started to only take one nap per day now, but she still likes that second “quiet time”—which is alright by me because she usually needs it.

Anyways, she kept acting like she was going to go back to sleep so I finally decided to try to sneak downstairs without her hearing me. Hubby found a way to do so and it’s genius. If we walk with one foot on each side of the hallway the floor doesn’t squeak as much. hehehe I’m sure that we look pretty ridiculous doing it—but it works! And sure enough, she was sound asleep.

I used the time to sit down and do some writing, enjoying the muted light, breeze from the fan, and quietness. I also started drinking a big glass of water—which is something I like to do first thing in the morning because it makes my body feel good.

I actually got my shower in and got ready for the day before baby girl woke up. She slept in extra late today. When she finally woke up, we had breakfast and then got ready to leave.

Hubby was going to be working super late, so I wanted to keep busy throughout the day so that baby girl didn’t get fussy. So the was a little more “fun filled” than most days. Hubby needed to pick up some eggs from his parent’s for a coworker and he wasn’t going to be able to, so I volunteered to go get them for him.

I know his parent’s love their time with baby girl, so I asked if they wanted to spend some time with her while I went for a walk. They were thrilled. This was the first time I asked someone other than my mom to watch baby girl…and doing it didn’t make me anxious like it would have in the past. I think the fact that she’s older and has shown me her growing independence makes me feel much more comfortable with leaving her alone with someone I know and trust. She’s also at an age that’s easier for them.

Oh my goodness, I really enjoyed my walk. I was reminded of why hubby wants us to move out into the country. It is so peaceful out there. I just walked up the gravel road to the next farm and back—which hubby says is exactly a mile away (so I would have walked 2 miles total)—but my Fitbit told me I walked 1.75 miles so it’s probably off a little bit…or maybe it didn’t count steps every time I was wiping away the sweat from my face! Eek.

It was a hazy day, but hot and humid. My MIL commented that it was nice and cool out and they had their windows opened. It never ceases to amaze me how they do that. I get soooo hot and moody that hubby is more than happy to run the AC…haha. And I’m only truly comfortable when it’s set to 72!!

Here I am towards the beginning of my walk—still nice and cool from the Jeep AC… so no oceans of sweat running down my face yet.

We’ve had so much rain lately. The water in the creek was rushing along.

I was going to listen to my iPod, but I decided to listen to the peacefulness instead: the crunch of the gravel beneath my feet, birds chirping on the lines overhead, the soft whoosh of butterflies in front of me, bugs singing in the grass, and water rushing out of the fields through the tile systems. It was really beautiful.

The Iowa corn has gotten so tall and so quickly too! I guess the hot weather and rain will do that. There’s a saying that the corn will be “knee high by the 4th of July”—I would say it’s probably to my shoulders!

On the way back I was facing the hot sun and was feeling tired so I decided to listen to podcasts. I love listening to podcasts when I can—usually when I’m working around the house when baby girl is napping.

On the way back, I found these items on the side of the bridge. I was kind of fascinated by this…odd! It made me wonder where they came from, how old these pieces were, etc.

When I made it back to the in-law’s place, I could see baby girl happily exploring. When she saw me she just burst into tears! I picked her up and she wouldn’t let me put her back down. I guess when she saw me she realized I had been gone! She looked at me like I had betrayed her! Poor baby—but it is good for her. She will learn that mama will always return!

It was lunch time, so I headed to a nearby Subway for lunch. Yummy! I have to order a kid’s meal for baby girl because she literally eats the entire sandwich! This girl eats so much—but she is SO active, so I guess she has to get the energy somewhere. She’s a typical toddler though and eats in cycles—sometimes she hardly eats a thing at a meal or two.

She enjoyed waving to everyone who walked in the door and yelling out “DA DA” to every tall dark headed man that came in…lol. That always makes me feel awkward…

You can see her pretty blue eyes in this one.

After that we headed home. She doesn’t fall asleep in the car very often anymore. I have a backpack full of toys that I keep in the front seat and when she gets fussy, I hand her one at a time. I have all kinds of toys with buttons that make sounds because that’s what she likes best—oh and some books because she loves those too right now.

When we got home I put her down for a nap. She just hung out in her crib for the LONGEST time trying to avoid her nap. She was content for quite a while but then started fussing. She throws everything out of her crib and she can’t sleep unless she has her lovey and her pacifier. I had to make a few trips up to her room to retrieve everything for her. I gave her a couple of books and she eventually settled down and slept for a really long time! She really needed the nap and I wanted to make sure that she took it.

Thankfully, she woke up a happy baby! Sometimes you just never know—sometimes she goes down for a nap an angel and wakes up a little devil! haha

I was pretty tired, so I just hung out while she slept. A vacation day it was! I finally got to enjoy some coffee, I read some blogs, read my book, and got supper together. I made myself a bbq chicken pizza on a tortilla with garden fresh green beans and I made her a chicken parmesan pizza on a tortilla and she also ate some avocado. She had fun making a mess!

After supper, we played and read books. I picked up my book to read a little and so then she picked up her books and would read too. It was cute.

When it 7:00 and the pool would open up again for the evening, I pushed her in the jogging stroller and walked up there. When she saw the pool she got so excited. The water was a little cold but it didn’t stop her.

She is so brave—when I expect her to be scared, she is completely fine. I want to hold onto her hand the entire time and she’s always trying to get away from me—the second I let go, she fell down of course. She got her face in the water and it didn’t even phase her! I expected screams but nope—totally fine. I was the only one upset. lol.

She is incredibly persistent and she spotted something in the lifeguard office and so she repeatedly kept trying to go in there. Oh my goodness! Other than that, all she wanted to do was step up and down from the pool to the edge—she is obsessed with stairs of any kind.

When I was starting to get tired of keeping baby girl out of the lifeguard office, we headed home.

And then it was bath time. After that, she was all tired out and bedtime was no problemo! She was out like a light. I think she requires constant activity and action so I’m going to have to provide that for her!

I did a little maintenance with my flower pots and then decided to call it a night.

I think today proves that I am finally over this “relapse” of PPD. On bad days it’s a triumph to just take a shower. It’s so nice to feel like myself again and have lots of energy! I got over 12,000 steps!

So that was a super long post…are you still with me?! I guess I have a lot of things to say! I’ll try to do these posts every once in a while and I’ll also try to remember to take pics of my food next time!

Weekend, Motherhood, C25K, Aspirations, and Gratitude

I had a much needed restful weekend. After Friday night, I actually didn’t leave the house once—I didn’t even go outside. And for me, that’s what I need to center myself again and recover. When I feel like that, I just don’t want anyone to see me—which I think is a pretty common feeling of those who suffer from depression.

We enjoyed supper out at a Mexican restaurant on Friday—it was delicious. My strategy at Mexican restaurants has always been to avoid the rice and beans. I’d much rather use points on the flavorful food. Most restaurants will bring you a salad instead if you request it. I also always make sure to get my meal grilled or “soft” instead of fried. This saves points and calories.

On Saturday, I straightened up the house that routinely falls apart when I fall apart. I cannot stand clutter. I am on a mission to get rid of things—I’d like to make a few extra bucks doing so but that takes time. So I guess I’ll go slow, but it needs to be done.

In the afternoon, hubby actually told me to have some time to myself and to finish up a movie that we started that he didn’t like. That was wonderful, plus he spent time with baby girl and she loves her daddy. I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel, which wasn’t all that spectacular but it was somewhat interesting to watch. I just enjoyed some much needed alone time.

I am finding that sometimes I just need to be alone with nobody telling me they need something, no complaining and whining, and no one touching me. I know that probably sounds horrible, but even just 15 minutes or an hour and I feel so much better and I’m re-energized and ready to go again. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family so so much and I love being with them and they are a blessing to me, which I am so thankful for. But do any other moms just not want to be needed sometimes? I’m beginning to see that just a little alone time is really important as a mom. Please tell me someone understands this! It makes me feel guilty to “say” it.

Sunday was just a low key day spending time as a family. Last night, baby girl actually laid her head down on my chest and let me sing to her and rock her. Usually she just can’t sit still anymore! That was precious and I savored that moment.

I think that avoiding stress was just what I needed. I am feeling better today and more energized again. I woke up early but felt lazy and just wanted to lay in bed. After breakfast, baby girl was pretty whiney so I decided I’d go for my Day 2 C25K run outside to keep her entertained. I knew I had to get it done this morning because it’s supposed to rain this afternoon (again). I had already made my coffee and everything—but I left it for later and went outside to get it done. (I’m enjoying that re-heated coffee now!)

This was my first jog outside pushing baby girl in the stroller. I liked pushing the stroller—it made me feel like I could hide behind it. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be—but my course was pretty flat.

The pushing of the stroller part was not that hard on my arms, I should say. After completing the workout, I still felt like I was going to die! It was so hot and I was sweating before I even left. There isn’t a lot of shade and the sun was so hot. But, it does make the workout go faster when you’re outside, except that I ended my workout on the other side of town and had to walk home almost another mile. But it’s all about activity.

I was interested to see how my stats compared with my treadmill workout. My average calorie burn per minute was the same. Since I was pushing the stroller, I couldn’t wear my Fitbit on my wrist to track my heart rate so I don’t know how that compares. My workout was also significantly longer since I had to walk so far home. The good news is that I earned 5,217 steps, burned 487 calories and completed 2.33 miles. I’m proud of that.

I was super duper red after my workout!! Told you that I was hot!

I signed up for our annual 4th of July 5K. My dad told me he would walk with me. I just want to walk this year—no pressure. I don’t want to be exhausted for the entire day from wearing myself out. Something is better than nothing! I think hubby is going to try to run it—we’ll see.

I feel like I have an awful lot of quit in me—but I am proving that I still have a little motivation in there too. I am proud of my progress so far and I think it’s important for me to build my self confidence and self image.

I have a whole bunch of thoughts to share with you on self image but I’m going to save it for another day because this post is getting pretty long!

Oh, another thing—I am officially going to work on writing my first book. Thank you for those of you who gave me the kindest compliments on my writing—it was just the push that I needed to take the plunge. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I have to start somewhere! It will be a collection of memoirs/personal essays on postpartum depression. I have shared quite a few of them here on the blog and I will edit those to polish them and also write many more.

I’m almost done here—but I just wanted to say how thankful I am for where I am in my life right now. I am overwhelmed most of the time, but this too shall pass as I overcome the PPD and work on bettering myself physically and emotionally. I am incredibly lucky to be able to go after my dream and I am thankful to my husband for providing so that I can do that. I have always wanted to write, but it seemed with working full time, going to school, taking care of the house, etc. etc. that I just never found the time to really put my mind to it. I have the opportunity to make time for writing now and I’m really excited about that. I feel like I’ve finally found my niche and my voice. I could also share a million thoughts about self image and identity on this one too, but I’ll save that for another post.

Have a great week!

Weigh in Day & Honoring my Commitment

I started this week off tracking everything I ate and sometime Saturday I quit tracking. Monday morning I started tracking again and come Tuesday I wasn’t tracking at all. However, this doesn’t mean I was eating everything in sight. I would say that I ate “intuitively” for the most part. Not all good and not all bad.

I definitely need to track my food—and I definitely want to do that this next week. I want to get back to how well I was doing at the beginning of this and I know I can do that—no holidays this week! But the 4th of July is coming up so this will be the perfect week to practice being on track before the holiday throws me a curve ball.

Alright, so for the results. I lost 1.6 lbs. this week!! That puts me at my lowest weight yet and a total of 11.3 lbs. lost in 12 weeks. Being just under 1 lb. per week- I can handle that. That’s progress.

Stats for the week:

• Weekly Points Used: --
• Activity Points Earned: 11
• Activity Points Used: --
• Total steps: 37,286
• Weight Loss this Week: –1.6
• Total Weight Loss to Date: –11.3 lbs.

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And now for more good news. I said I was going to start the Couch to 5K this week and I finally did it. I got my workout clothes together last night so they were ready to go. I woke up early, fought a million battles in my head and finally got downstairs to get it done…well, after I removed all of the clutter in front of the treadmill.

Honestly, I think I was making it harder than it is in my mind. I remember when I used to do this that I couldn’t run for the 60 seconds without stopping. I slowly worked my way up to running miles at a time. I’m happy to say that I can still “jog” for 60 seconds without stopping.

Since this was my first jog back, I took it a little slower and jogged at a 4.5 mph pace. Towards the end I had to back it off to 4 mph…which I know would be walking for some of you, but I do not have long legs and I am kind of a slow walker—so this is still a slow jog for me.

Anyways, I completed the workout and felt like I wanted to die at the end. See?

But it’s done and I think that finishing strong will spark a fire in me. I forgot how good it feels to blast my music and just focus on moving my body and putting one step in front of the other.

I listened to my old playlist back from when I started and from when I was doing really well with my weight loss. I heard Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter” and that was always a song that inspired me. These are excerpts from the song that have always inspired me in this journey.

After all that you put me through,
You think I'd despise you,
But in the end I wanna thank you,
'Cause you've made me that much stronger

Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

But in the end you'll see
YOU-WON'T-STOP-ME
I am a fighter and I
I ain't gonna stop
There is no turning back
I've had enough

I turned on my HR on my Fitbit and it shows that I was in the fat burning zone for basically the entire workout. I spent like a second in cardio—so I guess I didn’t get my cardio in. haha…but I’m counting it as cardio.

So there ya have it! How was your weigh in?

Our First Family Bike Ride

We had a fun weekend camping for the first time this year and finally being able to be the active family that we want to be.

My goodness, the first camping trip takes a lot of preparation. We brought our camper home and I cleaned it, which didn’t take much time because I cleaned it really well last fall before we put it away for the winter. The hardest part was all of the packing and purchasing of essentials. It took SO much time—especially with the little one following me around.

And then we found out that baby’s new car seat doesn’t work in hubby’s truck so we ended up driving separate vehicles. It wasn’t a big deal but it’s harder to keep baby girl entertained when I’m alone. It was about an hour and a half drive. We just have to have some type of brake system installed in our Jeep and we’ll be good to go for the next time.

So we had all of that and then we arrived and found that the forecast had changed and there would be rain for the weekend—but it did all turn out to be ok. It rained at all of the right times and our plans weren’t interrupted. The rain made the air cool during the morning and afternoon—so that was a plus!

We camped at Lake Red Rock, which is near Pella, Iowa. I had never seen the lake before and it is a really beautiful area. Our campsite had an entrance to a great paved trail that wound through a gorgeous dense forest with huge trees and all kinds of wildlife. I’d say it was the prettiest trail we have ever biked on.

We got a bike trailer so that we can go biking as a family. Baby girl did really well and didn’t get fussy until the very end because she was tired and needed another nap.

We have a helmet for her but she was refusing to wear it. It will be non-negotiable in the future and I’m sure she will get used to it.

This trail was seriously hilly. There were quite a few times we had to stop and walk up the hills or we would make it to the top gasping for air and had to take a break. Really, the Fitbit registered us climbing 33 flights of stairs on this bike ride. Talk about getting back into biking by hitting a hard trail first thing! We haven’t biked in a couple of years since two years ago I was pregnant and last year I was struggling with just trying to get through the days as a new mom with postpartum depression. Both hubby and I aren’t in the shape we were two years ago either. Whew! It was a fantastic workout.

It was so peaceful on the trail. We saw and heard song birds. A fawn ran across the trail right in front of us. A chipmunk sat still on a log just a couple of feet away from us. A thousand cotton tailed rabbits bounced across the trail and into the deep green forest. Butterflies were everywhere—and a variety of them. Purple, yellow, and white wild flowers graced the trail edge. There were glimpses of the lake every so often, including a marina with sailboats resting on the waters.

I was reminded that biking is most definitely my favorite form of exercise. I love being out on the trails experiencing nature, getting my heart rate up, and feeling the breeze in my face.

We turned around when baby started to get fussy and storms were looming on the horizon. Poor hubby had a little mishap on a wooden bridge on the way back—it must have rained in that area and it was very wet and his bike slid over. He caught himself so he was ok. Thankfully, he told me to walk when I caught up to him. My bike kept sliding over when I was walking it across!

Biking has always been a favorite activity for hubby and me. I’m so happy that we will be able to continue this as our family grows. It was a little bit different with stops for diaper changes and snack time, not to mention hubby having to pull around another 30+ lbs. in a trailer!

Overall, the ride was about 10.5 miles and took us about 2 hours because of numerous stops. I was starving when we got back to our campsite. I was happy that I had planned ahead and brought delicious fresh fruit to snack on! It was so refreshing.

That evening hubby and I got to enjoy another campfire and kick up our feet!

As I mentioned I would, I tracked all of my points over the weekend. I did really, really well until yesterday. I ate 1.5 donuts and also had pizza! This was simply because of lack of planning—I was hungry on our drive and by the time we got home I didn’t feel like cooking and pizza just sounded amazing. I ended up using 3 extra points. I think I’ll be ok though because I will do well for the rest of the week.

I’m looking forward to our next family adventure!

What My Future Self Would Do

After reading Roni’s post a month ago, I have been wanting to sit down and write about what my future self would do. I think that it will be insightful as to what my goals really are and how I could start working towards them.

• Set an alarm and wake up early to get a workout in first thing in the morning.
• Search for new healthy recipes to try and plan to make a new meal each week.
• Take time to sit down and read a good book.
• Have an organized and clutter free house.
• Do some form of strength training and have a toned body.
• Be able to go to the pool in a swimsuit and not feel self-conscious.
• Never let my weight get in the way of living life.
• Complete a triathlon.
• Be a good example of eating and living healthfully for my children.
• Eat vegetables at every meal.
• Have a BFF for girl talk.
• Take more care of my appearance.
• Write things that people would connect with and would make a difference.
• Have a workout that I truly enjoy.
• Finish a 5K towards the top of my age group.
• Be at a healthy weight.
• Would consistently reach 10,000 steps per day on the Fitbit.

As I look at this list, there are quite a few things that I can start working on now. For example, I should get started on that Couch to 5K program like I talked about. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by my goals, I will start making small steps toward achieving them.

What would your future self do?

Randoms

I am happy to say that yesterday was a good day of tracking. I kept busy yesterday and earned over 8,000 steps. Now I just need to get back into exercising again and I’d meet 10,000 steps with no problem.

Hubby and I are thinking of starting the Couch to 5K program together. We want to participate in a 4th of July 5K that we have done for quite a few years but missed last year because I basically had zero energy (which I now understand was because of PPD…and just having a newborn in general). I really want to complete it this year even if I just walk it. It would be fun to push the stroller—but we’ll have to see if baby girl would be up for that long of a walk. She might just want to hang out with grandma. Besides, she hasn’t been waking up until 8:45 a.m. anyways!! You never want to wake a sleeping baby.

Last night hubby called and asked if I wanted to meet him in town for supper and then run errands that we didn’t get to this weekend. We got a few groceries, etc. I’m glad to have some good foods in the house again. I have been CRAVING pineapple lately…it’s just so yummy and delicious. I cut it up and keep it in the fridge for an easy and healthy snack.

I’m just wondering, do you all miss how I used to post daily recaps with pictures? I’ve been contemplating doing it again but also not sure I want to deal with some of the “drama” that comes along with it. Those of you who blog know what I mean! Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Well, I’d better get going so I can get to work finding more things to get rid of! No takers on the things I’ve listed for sale so far—bummer. But there’s still the consignment option.

Have a great day!

Funny article for Fitbit users

I came across this article and had to share! Any of you who have a Fitbit will be able to relate...so funny!

19 Very Real and Emotional of Having a Fitbit (or does your Fitbit have you?)

Weigh in Day and Finalized Outfits for Family Photos

Before stepping on the scale this morning, I mentally prepared myself for a large gain. When I stepped on the scale, I was surprised to find that I could actually breathe a sigh of relief.

I only gained .1 lb.! Now imagine if I had stayed on track this week…I probably would have had a nice loss. But you never know.

Stats for the week:

• Weekly Points Used: All of them and then some 
• Activity Points Earned: 22
• Activity Points Used: All of them and then some
• Total steps: 46,546
• Weight Loss this Week: +.1
• Total Weight Loss to Date: –10.3 lbs.

I’m especially happy that I didn’t lose my “10 lbs. lost status”. I haven’t even gotten my pedicure yet!!

This brings up something that I need to work on—when I inevitably mess up sometimes, I need to remember that every healthy choice counts. I don’t need to wait until weigh in day to “start over again” with a clean slate. It’s totally a mind thing and as much as I wanted to keep at it…I kept thinking in the back of my mind, “well, what’s the point? I’ve already messed up this much!”. There is a point—health, and it doesn’t start and stop depending upon a couple of “bad” choices. It all counts.

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I was so excited to see that I received the skirt I ordered in the mail today!! I rushed inside to try it on and…”oh no”…I pulled another Alissa.

You see, I routinely make these stupid mistakes. Like accidently ordering the wrong color leaves for the tree decal in the nursery, or buying paint that I thought was gray and it was actually purple, or adding a cup of rosemary and salt to a recipe instead of 1 Tbs. Ok, that one is from long, long ago and was my first cooking experience, but you get the picture.

So what did I do? I gave the wrong measurements for my skirt! 3” too large, to be exact. I tried on the skirt and I literally cannot keep it on me because it’s so huge.

I may tend to make dumb mistakes like this from time to time, but you know what I’m also good at? Fixing problems. Although my sister says that I do not need to try to “fix” everything all of the time, I tend to think that in some ways this is a good quality that I have when it applies to things that do not involve emotional fixing…which is where I have a problem…and I’m working on fixing that one with my counselor…so I guess I just like to fix things. lol

Alright, so I thought…this skirt is just too perfect for the family photos that I’m not going to just give up on it. Better too big than too small. I safety pinned it together and it works. The next time I see my mom, I will see if she can fix it for me.

I really like how it turned out! What do you think? I will need to wear an additional tank underneath to make sure the chevron doesn’t show through my tank. The picture isn’t the greatest because I don’t have a good mirror (it’s old and has this foggy appearance that doesn’t come off of it).

I bought my tops at Old Navy (both the denim and the tank), and the skirt is from Needle Nook by Marcy on Etsy. The headband is from Hipsy Headbands which I ordered from Amazon Prime (affiliate link).

Here is what baby girl will wear:

And then I picked up this shirt for hubby at Old Navy. I was in a hurry and when I was leaving I saw a shirt that had all of the colors that we’re wearing…but don’t think I’ll have time to go back and get that one.

So what do you think?

A Day Trip to the Pella Tulip Festival

Hubby suggested that we take a weekend trip for Mother’s Day but the hotel in Minnesota we wanted to go was booked…as were almost all of the other places we looked into!

So we decided to take a day trip to Pella, IA to see the Tulip Festival instead. It worked out perfectly because we got to feel like we were on vacation but were still able to rest our weary heads in our own beds at the end of the day.

I’ve heard of acres and acres of colorful tulips during the Tulip Festival and I was excited to see them. I don’t know if we just didn’t know where to look or what, but we didn’t see nearly as many tulips as I had imagined. It was still fun though.

Pella is a unique and beautiful town. It is known as “America’s Dutch Treasure” and features numerous Dutch windmills, including the largest working grain windmill in the United States.

I didn’t feel like I was in Iowa while walking through the town—the architecture was more European and the beautiful city square reminded me of something from a metropolitan area.

We sat on the grass under the shade of a tree in the city square and enjoyed a hot dog from a food vendor at the festival. I could imagine having picnics here every weekend—it was gorgeous!

There were numerous people walking the streets in traditional Dutch clothing—including wooden shoes!

We enjoyed some Dutch treats & ice cream. I let baby girl have a few little bites of ice cream and she kept going “MMMMMMM” really loud—my goodness she loved it. It was so funny.

It was a lot of fun just walking around and looking at the scenery. There were so many people there—at some points it was a little too crowded for me.

After that, we decided to head over to West Des Moines for a little shopping. I found the perfect outfit for baby girl’s 1 year photos on clearance at Gymboree. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything for myself! Even my favorite head bands (Bani Bands) are no longer sold at the Scheel’s there! I was so disappointed. I guess I will have to order online.

The best part—hubby and I really racked up the steps!! I hit a new personal record.

 

I was supposed to pick a restaurant for supper so I picked Jethro’s BBQ. I have been wanting to eat at this place forever. We tried two locations and they were super packed. Since baby was very fussy, we decided to just go to Perkins. It was delicious anyways—but I still want to try Jethro’s!

I hope you had a Happy Mother’s Day!