The New Me - 2010!

I know my last post was Christmas, but I have a good excuse this time, I promise. A lot has happened in the last 5 months, and I would have LOVED to blog about it, but our computer crashed and for about a months time, we were missing 3 months worth of pictures. We had been backing up our pictures on an external hard drive, but I hadn't backed it up since the middle of December. (When we bought the EHD, I had a feeling the computer was on the verge of crashing. But when the computer continued to go strong for another year, i guess I got complacent and forgot to back up my new pictures). Anyway, I had reconnected with an old friend on Facebook (gotta love Facebook), who heard about my computer and volunteered to recover the lost pictures. My heart felt gratitude to Tara Henderson Schuler for recovering all of those important files. Most pictures weren't that important, just the yearly traditions of decorating Easter eggs and Birthday parties, but I was most sad about the pictures from my sister-in-law's funeral. I mean, it's not everyday that someone so important to you passes away. I was pretty bummed that I hadn't backed those pictures up. But they're back!! Thank you Tara! Some of the pictures were ruined, but most are back. I plan to eventually blog all the events of the past 5 months, but here's a summary of the important stuff:

My sweet daughter #2, Ashlin, turned 4 years old. The next day my eldest brother, David, lost his wife, Jenn, to cancer after 7 years of fighting. A couple days later Ashlin had her first friend's party (for which I was flat on the couch with the flu), and my nephew, Johnny, received his Eagle Scout. The next few weeks consisted of funeral arrangements and traveling to Utah for the burial. Then it was back to the real world, trying to help my brother and his two sons, 9 and 11, adjust to life without their wife and mother. Gunnar started crawling, Grant got poison oak, then shingles, then the flu. And last week he had his gallbladder removed. He finished his Soccer season with the JV team exceeding expectations and the Varsity team winning the Pacific League Championship for the first time in CVHS history. Then Baseball season where he helped lead the JV team to a third consecutive Championship. We planted a garden, I renewed my love and talent for dance at a class at the YMCA and in the middle of all this, started a weight loss frenzy. From the end of January to today, I have lost 40 pounds. It's a little embarrassing that I actually weighed 40 pounds more than I do now, but I did, and more importantly, I got rid of it!

What led me to this sudden need to lose weight? Well, it was a whole lot of things: the clothes fitting too tight and refusing to buy new ones since we didn't have the money, or the pains in my elbows and shoulders after a work-out consisting of push-ups and weight baring exercises, or the embarrassment when running in to old High School classmates, the thought of meeting my brother's professional dancer of a girlfriend and claiming to have been a dancer myself when I knew I didn't look like one. But I think what set me over the edge, was when I received a coupon (around the 20th of January) for a scale from Costco. I bought it, set it up in my bathroom, stepped on it, and had to face reality. I honestly wasn't surprised at what it said. I think I had a good guess what I weighed, but having the actual data in front of me prohibited me from denying reality any longer. That night I made a goal to lose 20 pounds by the end of April. I met that goal by the end of March, and have doubled it my the end of May. I'm in the best shape since High School. This week I pulled out all my clothes B.C. (before children). I went on a shopping spree, and the best part, it was entirely free! I pulled out all the clothes in my closet that were too big and stored them away (hopefully never to be pulled out again). I'm eating right, exercising 5x/week (running up to 5 miles on the treadmill, dancing, yoga, step aerobics), and I'm loving it! As much as I hate to post these pictures side by side, here are some before and after pics:


These pictures were taken a couple of weeks into the diet, so I had already lost about 5 pounds

This picture was taken May 19th while waiting for Grant to go back to surgery. Sorry, no full body shots yet.

How have I done it? Well, I don't believe in dieting. I've just been making sure the calories that I put in my body are less than I expend. I've been trying to eat lots of fruits and veggies and lean meats and find things that are lower in calories that I also enjoy eating. I eat a high protein breakfast (eggs and salsa or oatmeal), have small and nutritious snacks throughout the day, make lunch for myself BEFORE feeding the kids (basically trying to never be too hungry), and I track all of my calories on this amazing website: www.thedailyplate.com It's free and has a huge database of foods. I still eat treats, I just wait until it's the very last cookie on the plate, or right as I'm leaving the activity to eat it (that way I only eat 1 instead of 10). Grant got started on a "diet" as well, but then he had a gallbladder attack, sending us to the emergency room and flipping our lives upside down, so he kinda lost focus on that. But he doesn't need it as bad as I did. Stay tuned, in 2 more months I plan to be another 20 pounds lighter! Bring on the swimsuits! (well, I'm not THAT confident, yet!)