AND...I stayed the same...

Last week I did not have 100% faith in my scale. While I reveled in the large weight loss, there was a nagging feeling in the back of my head that something may be off, that I might not have truly lost that much weight. So I wasn't surprised when I got on the scales yesterday (Saturday) and stayed the same. I will admit I was a little disappointed though. I am SO close to that major benchmark for me and I just want to get there. It will make me feel so much better about this journey!

I did have one victory this week. I ran (slogged as I like to call it) for 25 straight minutes. I burned over 400 calories and made it to the three mile mark! I am slow, very slow, but am getting the job done. I tried to do it again this morning, outside, but had timing issues so I am not sure if I actually went 25 minutes or not.

Halloween candy is slowly working its way into our house, which is never a good thing. Between now and Easter there is candy everywhere, all the time. And the problem is I like it ALL! From candy corn to (Starburst) jelly beans there isn't much candy I don't enjoy. AHH THE TEMPTATION!

Have a great week!
Mummy Qua

YUCKY week ends well.

This past week has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. Started Sunday PM with a disagreement between friends that turned ugly. The weather was gross...lots of rain. After being on dorm duty over the weekend I chose to sleep in on Monday. I worked out at school that afternoon. Slept in again on Tuesday and had no time to workout in the afternoon. Wednesday AM I was feeling sorry for myself - I think I didn't sleep well - a common theme with me. I had to take Jacob into Boston that day and knew I wouldn't have time to work out in the afternoon. Somehow that didn't stop me from having McDonalds for lunch WITH a snack size McFlurry!

Thursday took the week from bad to worse. DQ came to bed at 11:00 PM Wednesday night with a migraine. He was up ALL NIGHT LONG, writhing in pain. Finally at 6:00 AM I called a friend to come be with the kids and I took him to the ER. Once I got him settled I ran home to take the kids to school and check in at work. Then I spent the day running back and forth between work and the hospital. I ate very poorly. Breakfast was a full fat caramel macchiato with reduced fat coffee cake from Starbucks.

Friday DQ stayed home with Kate, who was sick. Again I slept in - by now I figured why bother working out?! The week is already shot. I ate OK. Actually, I ate really well.

Saturday AM was weigh in time. I was prepared to stay the same. I would have been OK with that and even understand why. I went to bed Friday night ready to work out Saturday morning. Imagine the surpside when I got on the scales and was floored to see I lost 3.8 lbs! I am now just 1.2 lbs away from a major milestone. I am trying not to get my hopes up but it would be awesome to hit that milestone next Saturday. My dad and brother arrive next Sunday and I haven't told them I am working out. I hope they can see a difference!

til next time -
Mummy Q.

Three weeks later

My hopes of blogging once a week are obviously not coming to fruition! School is in high gear and it is a little nutty around here. All five of us are at a different school on a different schedule. I have started teaching PK and KDG PE which is something I haven't done for a long time. I had forgotten how crazy working with the wee ones are. They are always on the go and need to move constantly. Four and five year olds do not like to sit and listen to directions for very long!

Once school began I started getting up at 4:30 AM to head to the gym. I'm not gonna lie...it's been exhausting. I am in bed by 8:00 or 8:30 PM. Someone once told me that if you do something for six weeks then it becomes a habit. I am a month in and am hoping that in two more weeks it will become habit! I have woken up a few times before my alarm so maybe I am almost there. It has been hard though. I have been doing a program called Couch Potato to 5K. Supposedly in eight short weeks you can go from sitting on your couch to running a 5K. I started on week three, as I have a teeny, tiny base of endurance to start from. I made it to week five almost two weeks ago. It is HARD! I am going to do it again this week. The thing with CPT5K is that they only have you running three days a week, and it is a walk/run program. Week five goes like this: day one you run for five minutes, walk for three, repeat. Day two is run for eight, walk for three and repeat. Day three has you just go out and run for 20 minutes! Uhh...NOT! I have been stuck on day one for a while now. I think I will be there for another week at least. Sometimes I have to stop running and walk. Not sure if that would be the case if I was out on the road, as opposed to the treadmill. There are three 5K runs in the two months that I am hoping to run so maybe that will be a better gauge of my endurance.

As for my eating it has been OK. I have an app on my iPhone called LostIt that I track my weight and food. I have been doing really well, despite having to eat in the dining hall. Candy corn may be my downfall. I like it, I love it, I want more of it! I keep a jar of it on my desk. Not the best choice, I know!

As of this morning I have lost a total of 10 lbs. Very exciting on paper. I am a little bummed that my clothes aren't fitting better. Well, maybe they are. Sometimes I think, when I am at my heaviest, I am in denial as to my real size. So maybe now my clothes fit better; I just don't look like a stuffed sausage anymore!

'til next time -

Mummy Q.

Labor Day

Hello! I have been reading all my old posts. When I first started I was a blogging fool! I am not sure how I am going to find the time to blog so much but will shoot for once a week.

So the past week has been a good one. I met all my work-out goals. I worked out M, W, Fri, Sa, Sun and again today (Monday). By mid-week last week I was logging all my food.

I did weigh myself again on Saturday AM and was quite pleased. I had lost a total of five pounds! YEA! Really made me feel good and I still went to the gym. I kind of had a cheat day on Saturday. Well, I DID cheat but not until the evening. I had brie, brie and more brie for an appetizer. I ate very well at dinner and then had a lovely dessert. Sunday was much of the same. Good b'fast, lunch AND dinner but had chips and salsa for an appetizer and half a woopie pie and ice cream for dessert. OH YEA - and I made cookies and ate my weight in dough and then had at least three cookies.

This morning I started week four on the Couch Potato to 5K. A LOT more running this week. It has me running five straight minutes. That's something I haven't done in years. I did it though...slowly but I did it. My legs have been hurting this evening.

School starts again tomorrow. I do so much better on a schedule. I bought lots of snacks - Luna and Mojo bars, yogurt. Hoping to lose another pound this week!

til next time -

Mummy Q.

Bleck...

I was able to get in two work-out this weekend. I am doing the Couch Potato 5K plan, trying to build up my endurance. I finished week two over the weekend and started week three today. You are only supposed to run/walk three times a week but I am going to do it at least five time. Three just doesn't seem like enough.

I am didn't sleep well last night. I hate having the A/C on at night (we have window units) because the noise keeps me awake. I tossed and turned all night long. Right now I feel like I have been hit by a 2x4. But I did roll out of bed at 4:30 AM and eagerly weighed my self. Mistake number one! I only lost 0.8 lbs. Now I have been at this long enough to know all the pep talks.."at least you didn't gain weight...or stay the same!" or "you are moving in the right direction!" Either way it sucked.

I have been reading my old posts, back to the very beginning, for inspiration. I had some pretty good thoughts back then, such as "you didn't gain all the weight overnight, you can't expect to lose it quickly either."

In a poopy mood...

til next time, whenever that is!

HQ

Baby steps...again

A week ago we joined a gym. An expensive gym. I am feeling a little guilty. I only really use cardio equipment so I could join Evolve, again, even though I hated the place. However DQ went down to check out the really nice gym and came home with two memberships. DQ wanted a place with a pool and this is the only gym around with a pool - on the second floor no less!

I went for the first time the day after we joined and went two more times during the week. Then this morning I tried my first ever Spin class. It was quite a work-out. It was not really what I expected. You may be thinking to yourself "what did you expect from a spin class?" It was a lot more up and down off the bike as well as adding (and taking away) resistance. I will take a spin class again and one day I would like to keep my butt off the seat as much as everyone else!

My goal for the upcoming week is as follows: it is Friday night right now so my goal for the weekend is to work out at least once, if not twice this weekend. Maybe just a walk tomorrow as my knee is hurting. I hyperextended it getting off the bed this evening. Ouch.

As for the rest of the week I hope to work out M, W, and Fr. DQ will go to the gym on Tu and Th. I am a little worried about losing momentum by not going every day. When I had success last time I was going to the gym almost everyday. But hopefully the desire to lose weight will out weigh (haha) any loss of momentum.

I will briefly check in again on Monday, my new weigh in day.

til then -

HQ

Here I go again...and again...

In the weeks following K's birth I had every intention of keeping the blog going. I was lucky enough to stay home with her for almost six months. Finding the time was not really an issue. To be honest, I don't really know why, at first, I stopped blogging. But I can tell you that after awhile I realized this blog would have held me accountable for my eating/working out and I did not want that at all.

For the past seventeen months I have thought about how I would start the blog. I mean literally, what I would say. Even as I sit down tonight there are so many angles I want to come from...so overwhelming.

For example: even coming up with a title for this new, "first" blog has given me pause. Early on it was something like "Isn't she gorgeous!" Later on, and more recently, it is more like "you know you have a problem when you are hiding food," or "My a-ha moment." How about "nothing motivates you more than people telling you that you look good!"

What have I been doing over the last seventeen months? Well, I have fallen madly in love with my daughter. As I type this I am misting up just thinking about how much I love her. At 17 months I swear she is the smartest little thing. She can say "Mama, Dada, bath, dog, ball, Eden." She also signs and has tried her hand at the potty.

What else have I done...hmmm...getting back to teaching post-baby was a challenge. At the end of the school year I felt like I never really got the hang of things. Juggling the kids, teaching, and dorm life was a challenge. To say it was a battle is too strong of a word but it was much more work than I thought it would be. That's not to say I didn't think it would be a lot of work. I guess I just took it for granted how independent the boys had become, and having a wee one depend on you 24/7 was exhausting! Throw in trying to be super, uber mom and I was spent.

I can tell you what I wasn't doing, and that is working out and eating right. With all three of my children I have had food cravings AFTER the baby. With E it was those pink and white circus cookies. I would keep them in my closet to hide from DQ but I went through bags and bags. I would only eat them when I was nursing. With J it was Oreo's. Again, only when I was nursing. With K it was white, sugar frosting. Anything that had that frosting that you can actually taste the granules of sugar in it was worthy of eating. Little Debbie Swiss Rolls were a big hit and usually hidden in my bedside table.

A year ago I was about 31 pounds less that I am right now. Crazy as that is I weigh more now that the day after K was born. I was svelte in the weeks and months following her birth. All those clothes in my closet I was desperate to get into finally fit and I loved getting dressed everyday. So many choices. I even wore belts almost everyday! I was not skinny by anyone's standards but I was feeling good and a mere 13 lbs from my weight of choice, the weight I feel I can stay at healthily. DQ was working out like crazy and he kept saying "We've got to do this together!" And I kept saying "I know, I know...I don't want to go back to the way I was." But alas, here I am. Again.

A day doesn't go by that I am not thinking about my weight. Even more so that I now have a daughter. Last summer DQ and I did a 5-mile run/race type thing. I was sucking wind and crying "I don't want K to feel like I do...I don't want her to have weight issues." Now I am not saying she will have weight issues but right now her favorite thing to do is go to the pantry and help herself to a snack. I also worry about J. He is built like me and the poor kid likes to eat like me. I have really worked hard this summer to make him think more about what he is eating. Hopefully upcoming life/food changes will benefit us all! As for E, he is rail thin. He had an amazing teacher this past year who spent a lot of time talking about making health choices. That really sunk in with him and he really listens to his body re: being full and what to choose to eat.

WHEW...so much to write. I told you I had a lot of thoughts to put down! Just one more!

I had a "a-ha" moment this past spring. I guess I will never be on Oprah now she is in her last season so I will share this moment with you! Here it goes: My father is a recovering alcoholic. This winter he will celebrate 3o years of sobriety. For the last 30 years of my life I have been show statistics and been told over and over about my chances of becoming an alcoholic. Aside from my father, my grandfather and older brother were/are also alcoholics so I choose not to drink. Or at least rarely drink. I have vivid memories of my dad as an alcoholic and don't want that for me kids. This year I realized that while I may not drink, I do have an addictive personality. For me, my addiction if food. (the a-ha moment I was referring to!). Having that realization was huge. HUGE! H-U-G-E! But what was I going to do about it?! I looked into going to Overeaters Anonymous but I live in a small town and would be mortified if I saw anyone I knew. But clearly looking at me you know there is a problem!

So I had that a-ha moment but what was I going to do now? Well, I worked out a couple of times here and there in the spring. I have so many issues with being outside, in the morning, alone. I took the dog with me but gave up after a few weeks. I tried really hard over the summer to eat more fruits and veggies. We were in Michigan and I felt like all we did was eat. Worked out once the entire time I was in MI.

Fast forward to now...late August...and you will have to read my next blog to find out what I am (hoping) to do!

bye for now -

HQ

QuaFamilyPics

I THINK MY CLASS IS AWESOME! By Jacob Qua

Today at school my whole class wrote about what our favorite seasons are! What is your favorite season? My favorite season is the Summer! In the Summer I like to see my cousins Grace and Claire! This Summer Me, Eric, Grace and Claire all helped each other make a garden at the point! We also got Huccleberrys for Huccleberry pie! I jump off the dock

THANK YOU FOR READING!