Christmas 2012

We had a very full 3 days of celebrating Christ's birth with family!  Jeremiah loved pulling the wrapping paper off of the gifts!  Naturally, he didn't care too much about the gifts themselves, but now that the paper is gone they are more entertaining :)  

Helping Daddy hang an ornament on the tree :)

His first "big kid" dinnerware set from Grandma Becky and Grandpa Doug.  He was loving chewing on the bowl!

Jeremiah loved playing in the wrapping paper! :)

Helping Uncle Brett open his Christmas gifts . . . he sure does love spending time with his uncles! :)

Christmas morning with Daddy is the best! :)

Jeremiah loves his new "Monday the Bullfrog" book! :)

Jeremiah and Baby Kyla . . . he's 3 months older than her, but twice her size! :)  They had on matching onsies so we had to get the photo op! :)

Jeremiah LOVES Grandma Peeka!!  Every time we go visit her, he tries to get to her and smiles non stop at her!  It's no wonder, she's easy to love! :)

He sure loves his great Grandma Winsor, too!

Now it's boy time . . . hanging out with great Papa Winsor . . .

And great Papa Virgil!  All in all a great first Christmas . . . I just wish we had got our picture taken with Grandma Carol & Papa Hank! :)

Weigh in Weeks 3 & 4

This has been a crazy last two weeks!   Last week I was down three pounds and was really excited about it.  This week I was hoping at best to maintain, since we celebrated Christmas this week.  I pretty much ate whatever I wanted for three days, so I really expected to gain this week.  You can imagine how elated I was this morning to step on the scale and see that not only did I not gain or maintain, but I lost another three pounds!!!!  I am officially down 20 pounds!!  This is really exciting to me!  I knew when I started Weight Watchers that I would have Christmas coming up, I just hadn't planned on all of the candy/cookies in my house!  I am still thanking God for giving me the strength and endurance to get myself into shape!  I grew up over eating . . . I remember being 12ish and eating a Big Mac and large French Fries in under 10 minutes and telling my mom that I was still hungry.  Over eating is not a new thing in my life.  After 26 years of over eating it is only by God's strength that I am doing as well as I am!  We got gift certificates to Red Lobster & the Warren for Christmas, so I'll plan accordingly for those places.  My favorite meal that I get every time at Red Lobster is probably close to 20 million points, but I'm looking at it like I did Christmas - I know it's something I'm going to eat, so I have to behave myself the rest of the week!

Jeremiah has recently started going to sleep on my shoulder.  He never used to do that!  I have noticed that with losing the 20 pounds, my back doesn't start hurting right away like it did when I'm standing trying to put him to sleep.  Jeremiah started this about three to four weeks ago, and I couldn't stand to put him to sleep . . . I'd have to give him to Ben, I just couldn't stand with him that long.  With my bulging discs it is hard for me to just stand for very long.  If I'm moving I'm ok, but just standing hurts.  I'm so excited that this is becoming less of a problem! :D

Baby Food

Jeremiah was doing awesome at sleeping 7-9 hours at a time, but over the last few weeks we haven't had a night where we were up fewer than 4 times.  We decided to try him on some baby food and see if that helps.  I gave him prunes, because he hadn't had a Miralax bottle yet, and was supposed to.  He did pretty good for his first time with baby food!  After every bite he'd make a horrible face, and then he'd start laughing!  Oh, how I love that little boy! :)

Weigh in Week 2

I weighed in for week 2 yesterday, and was excited to see the scale down another three pounds! Last night the three of us went shopping to get a couple of things for Jeremiah, and I saw my "old love" . . . a candy bar!  I really wanted one, but managed to talk myself out of it...guess I'm really ready to do this!  I could have justified it, because I have all of my weeks flex points left, but chose not to.  It sounds silly, but that was a big accomplishment for me, it would have been nothing for me to grab a candy bar in the check out line and think nothing of it.  So I'm on to a new week, and hopefully a few more pounds gone! :)

Weight Watchers Pizza

I have a recipe for a whole wheat flour pizza crust that came on my flour bag.  I know the pieces of pizza don't look big, but it is thick crust and since it's whole wheat, it's pretty filling! The way I made it (with tons of pepperoni's and cheese!!!!!!) makes it work out to 5 points a slice.  I had two pieces and am quite full!

I'm pretty excited, I made the crust from scratch!  I usually can't manage to make things from scratch without goofing something up! ;)

All of the peppers are from our garden.  Ben pickled the banana peppers, so they were really tasty :)

Weigh in Week 1

Well, I've completed my first week on Weight Watchers, and I've got to admit, it was a lot easier than I figured it would be!  I lost 11.5 lbs in the first week!!  Ben and I are both dedicated to getting healthier, and I know it's going to take some time, but I'm excited to see our end results!  I'm thankful that I'm making these changes now, instead of down the road.  I want to be able to go do things with my kids without my back hurting.  My goal is to eventually start listening to my internal cues as to when I am full.  Right now that is still a problem that I struggle with, so I'm having to use my external cues and limit how much food I take in one serving.  After one week I'm already noticing that I don't feel so distended, and while I haven't changed dress sizes yet, I think that when I looked in the mirror, my tummy didn't look like it was sticking out quite so bad! I know a lot of that is because I'm not eating the large quantities I used to.  I also noticed that my stomach is shrinking quickly!  I had a burrito bowl from Chipotle last night, and it was almost more food than I could eat . . . that was not a problem that I had before!  :)  Well enough of my rambling for now . . . have a great weekend all!

Lifestyle Change

Well, when I was pregnant with Jeremiah I had morning sickness for the first 16 weeks, resulting in losing 20 pounds.  Once he was here, and I was nursing, I continued to drop weight.  I quit nursing when Jeremiah was 13 weeks old, and my weight has skyrocketed!  He will be 19 weeks on Monday, and I am heavier than I want to be, so I decided to start Weight Watchers.  I have done WW before and lost a substantial amount of weight.  My mistake was letting down my guard, and as a result, gained all of the weight back, and then some.  I am determined to get this weight off, not only so that I feel better about my appearance, but so that I am a healthy mom for Jeremiah and our future children.  I want so badly to be able to be active with my children, but right now (I really think it is because of my weight) my back often hurts if I'm standing/walking for too long . . . especially if I'm carrying Jeremiah.
Today was my first day back on Weight Watchers, and honestly, after I ate dinner, my first thought was that I must have done something wrong because I felt full!  I have spent my life trying to lose weight, and I am used to associating losing weight with being hungry.  I am really excited to see my progress and how much happier/healthier I will be by this time next year!  Ben has decided to make this lifestyle change with me, and I am so excited for the support we will be for each other!  I never could have imagined how much he would truly be my best friend . . . I know that trusting God will bring the rewards He wants for us, but I never could have imagined what a wonderful partner He had in store for me in my husband/support system/shoulder to cry on/one who can make me laugh when I'm sad/well, I could keep going on, but you get the picture . . . I'm thankful for Ben!