Childhood obesity....

After reading an article this morning on childhood obesity it got me thinking about the things my children put into their bodies. The health and physical fitness of our children is very important to me. I may serve healthy fare in our home, but my kids don't always eat it nor do they always make healthy choices when it comes to snacking or eating out. As their mother, I need to help them improve different aspects of their diet. For example,while Lesley is not afraid to try new foods and eats a variety of fruits/veggies she often skips breakfast because she isn't hungry. {which I hate 'cause it's the most important meal of the day} The boys on the other hand are picky eaters and really need to expand on the variety of fruits and veggies they eat. All I want is for them to have a balanced healthy diet, eat junk food sparingly in moderation, and to always be active.

Note to self...

How are you going to set a short term weight loss goal in the morning and then head to the commissary to buy 3 half gallons of ice cream at noon???? Duhh...ya ice cream freak. Straight from the lips to the hips!!!! Yes I'll be at the gym tomorrow doing damage control :D

Time to pick up the pace...

Alrighty..... I am in the process of finishing some travel plans for a short vacation we are taking to Rota, Spain in two weeks. I am so excited ...especially since our hotel is right on the beach. Lesley and I bought new bathing suits yesterday...which as every woman knows can be a dramatic experience, but I'm happy with what I got. Let me tell ya I have been working out very hard, but for the next two weeks I am setting a new short term goal. I want to weigh in at or below 120 lbs by May 11th the day I leave to Spain.;D {Yes, I may have weighed in at 121.6 lbs. today, but my diet can be bad when I'm hanging out with the girls.} I am really going to need to focus on my diet during the next couple of weeks because my appetite tends to really increase around the time I start menstrating. Uugh....like you really want to hear about that stuff!!! Anyways....that's my new goal and hopefully I won't over indulge at tomorrows drunko....I mean bunco get together. LOL

Ahhhh.....I can't wait to be lounging around here in two weeks. Whooo...Hooo

Quick and challenging workout....

My handy dandy jump rope is breathing new life into my otherwise boring cardio workout. I really am enjoying it mainly because it's something different and fresh. Basically I am using some of the boxing warm up training I used to do and my ipod music to keep the tempo up. No I'm not talking about your average Joe jumping at a slow pace, but rather the fast pace you see boxers do. Here is my quick 25 min cardio workout playlist....and I must tell ya I have been known to break it down when I miss a jump because the music just makes me want to dance. :D LOL

Jump rope playlist:

Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow

Lady Gaga- Poker Face

T-Pain- Freeze

Jamie Foxx- Blame It

Akon- Beautiful

Metro Station- Shake It

Weekend drama,hormonal mood swings,baseball,park fun, and weight update in that order...

Friday night we were supposed to go out to dinner with Trent's coworkers, but that all changed after Trent gave me word as I was about to get ready about his discussion with the detailer. The word is " ......deployment up to one year which consist of combat training and 7 months boots on the ground in Afghanistan." I immediately lost my appetite and no longer was in the mood to do anything. Truthfully I cried and to make matters worse it was not a good day for that kind of news because of the onset of my PMDD symptoms. I could handle 6,7,even 8 months of separation, but a whole damn year...that's just asking a frickin' little too much from me!!! LOL Hopefully my mood will improve in two weeks....because I can guarantee life with me during the next two weeks will be a BiATCH! =) I'll try my very best to push all that worrying to the side and maintain my focus on my health, fitness, and exercise routine.

Frankly I think Trent got himself in this situation because of a discussion he had with his specialty leader last summer and because he doesn't tell people that are trying to groom him to be this asset to the Navy that he has never planned on staying in longer than his obligated 21 years.
Ahhh....I can taste the BITTERNESS in my mouth! LOL I guess the one good thing to come out of this deployment is that I get to go home finally after 15 yrs.

Anyways, Noah's baseball season started on Saturday. His team lost their first game =( , but they played well. Noah is a really good first baseman....he did get upset about a call the umpire made while he was at bat. Gabriel got to hang out and play with a few of his pals while we were at the park. Lesley and her friends found a hedgehog while they were taking snapshots by the woods. He looks a little sickly, but it could just be that he was afraid of us. He curled up into a tight little ball and stuck out his little quills.



On the topic of fitness. Here is my current weigh in pic below.

My goal was to weigh in at 121 lbs. this week, but I just missed it. Below are pics of Gabe expressing excitement over eating brisket, rice, and beans. My old middle school friend Larry (who is stationed here) and his wife cooked it.....

YUMMY......

I'm bored....

After eight weeks I'm beginning to get bored with my gym routine plus it's time to change it up anyway. Some boredom busters I've tried are updating my ipod playlists, downloading 30 Rock shows and Bill Maher podcasts to my ipod, and lifting heavier weights so that my muscles continue to be challenged. They've helped, but basically I'm getting bored with my cardio routine. I do no less than 50 mins. to 90 mins. of cardio depending on the time and energy I have. I may start cross training and incorporating some of the boxing combination routines I used to do. I'm also taking my workouts outside now that the weather is better.

That's just what I did last night after being kicked out of the gym after 40 mins. of cardio. Turns out the gym closed early at 8 pm last night due to Easter Monday. Who knew??? So feeling like I hadn't worked out enough I ran 3.5 miles around the base. I am so happy that I was able to run the entire distance without my right knee acting up. You would think that my torn calf muscle injury from 2004 would give me problems still, but nope it never does. It's always my right knee that kills me. I'm hoping I can get back to running 4 to 5 miles like I use to when we lived on Randolph AFB. We'll see.....if I've learned anything it's not to rush and do too much. It's all about incorporating healthy lifestyle changes that become a natural way of life. It's also about balance and not beating yourself up when you get off track either.

Time just flies by....

Yep, it's been a while since I last posted. In focusing on my health and fitness I've come to neglect this blog of mine. Now to recap the past month....I've got quite a bit to share. First of all I will show the progress I've made so far with my weight.

Feb. 11th

Now- March 26th I have to say I have consistently weighed between 125-124 lbs. this week until Sunday when I weighed in at 127 lbs. I'm hoping that the increase in weight is due to the fact that I will start my period in a few days and is just water weight. Healthwise I feel better and I am doing a good job at using my PMDD symptom tracker. I say in a month or two I should be able to effectively use the tracker to see any patterns I have. I have already begun to see a pattern in the lack of energy and increase in appetite during the two weeks of the month that my PMDD kicks in. I was also able to prepare myself for the mood swings. I have made the decision to try alternative methods to control my PMDD. This entails using natural remedies, excercise, extra rest, and a better diet. I take Estroven (Soy & Black Cohosh), Evening Primrose, calcium, multivitamins (that include zinc, magnesium, B-12, & B-6), and I include flax seed & eat foods rich in omega 3's. During the two weeks that my PMDD is in effect I stay away from caffeine. Excercise is effective in increasing serotonin levels and relieving daily stress so I work out 5 times a week. One hour or more is dedicated to cardio and the rest of the time I lift weights.

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Homeschooling has been coming along okay. We had to get back into the swing of it after Noah was pulled out. We have our schedule and after tweaking it a couple times it seems to be working for us. This semester we are learning about the human body, The Middle Ages, the basics math, reading, language arts. He is also taking online Spanish, Music, and Art courses which he loves. For socialization he is active in Boy scouts and he starts playing baseball this week through the MWR. He also plays with friends from school.

Working on some math:

Art/Drawing:

Learning about construction:

Gabriel is also learning new things. He has his own preschool program, but I haven't yet pushed him to do any "schoolish" learning. Right now it's all about making learning fun for him and if he feels like using his workbooks...YAY..if not it's no big deal. He's just three anyways.

Here he made pumpkins using playdoh and his cookie cutters. I might teach him about making patterns using these tools. He won't even know he's doing something schoolish, but it'll teach him to recognize patterns. Like red pumpkin, yellow pumpkin, blue pumpkin, red pumpkin, yellow pumpkin, blue pumpkin, etc...Letter and number recognition using cheerios during breakfast.
He wanted to use his workbook here. He is coloring different shapes.
He called me over to show me he found a letter Y in his Cheetos bag. LOL
More coloring
Using his fine motor skills and trying to learn how to tie shoes. He's still too young....but he's trying.
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The weather is getting warm so we have been enjoying the parks here. These are pics from Family Fitness Day at Carney Park.

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We got to see AC Milan play against Napoli last weekend. It was an awesome game and the fans were CRAZY. We actually got to see David Beckham and Ronaldino play in this game. Our seats were great and it was one of the most exciting games I've ever been to. When I say that the fans are crazy I mean like they are fanatics......just look at the fire they started in the stands. Believe me that didn't cause anyone in that section to leave. They just stayed put and continue cheering like nothing....it didn't even phase them one bit.

David Beckham is pictured below:

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Lastly, Noah crossed over and earned his Arrow of Light award. He and Trent spent the weekend at Carney Park, Lesley was away on a retreat in Capua, and my littlest guy and I had the whole house to ourselves for two days. We rented DVD's and enjoyed ourselves.

I'm still here...just busy

Seems as if I've neglected this little blog over the past two weeks. All is well I've just been too lazy to blog since I've been taking care of myself. Healthwise I have made myself a priority and I've been to the gym five times a week since I saw Dr. Yao. My appointment with the nutritionist is on March 2 so I'll heed any dietary advice they suggest and incorporate it into my lifestyle. I eat pretty healthy already, it's my portion sizes that I need to monitor.

For Valentine's Day Trent and I had dinner with the kiddos and then saw a movie on base by ourselves. We watched He's Just Not That into You. I'm so thankful I don't have to deal with the whole dating scene again. LOL The movie was good, but the company was even better. I really enjoy spending time with Trent sans the kids. It's great!! He gave me a sweet love letter this morning.

As for posting my weigh in I'll try to do it by tomorrow. I've just been too tired/lazy to upload the pictures I took onto my computer. Hope all is well for you guys.
Stephanie

Following through with some goals.....

I didn't make any New Years resolutions this year, but I did set goals. One of my goals was to be more proactive about my health. Yesterday I went to see Dr. Yao for a full physical and to discuss my concerns. We laid out a course of action that we both agreed to. I have a consult appointment with the nutritionist and today I will begin my excercise program which will be adjusted every six weeks. I am also charting my monthly cycle for the next six months to see visually any patterns that exist. I've used this tool in the past and basically it'll just give me a heads up as to when I should expect any physical/ hormonal changes.

In addition to meeting my weight goal, the excercise program will help me manage my condition and tone up. My weight goal is between 110-115lbs. this is what I weighed most of my adult life until I turned 30 and then got pregnant with Gabriel the Great. Since giving birth over three yrs. ago, the lowest I've weighed is 124lbs. For me personally, I feel sluggish and not physically fit or strong at my current weight. My goal isn't to get skinny....I like the curves I do have. I just want be toned, strong, and healthy. Anyhoo....I am posting a weekly weigh in here to keep me on track. Here's my first:

20 lbs. to go!!!