Mono?

Blah, Blah, Blah, I had mono.  The mono test came back negative, but my IgG test said that I have had mono before.  On this particular test, if you score over 21.9 then it shows that mono anti-bodies are present and therefore you have had mono.  My score was 600.  What?  The doctor guess that I must have had if very recently.  Of all the tests that they did, this was the best possible situation.  Yay!  The strange thing is my joint pain and that I'm still filling symptoms and that I still have petechiae from time to time.  Well the Doctor said that sometimes you immune system takes some time to heal.

In the mean time, some things that I'm trying to do for my immune system is get enough sleep.
Ideally from 9:30pm-5:30am with a 30 minute nap in the afternoon.

I'm doing push-ups, mountain climbers, yoga bicycles, and planks in the morning before I get going.  I'm starting slow with these and each month I'll add to it.  I'd like to jump right in to exercising again, but I know I have to take it slow.  I love the exercise and the way it makes me feel.

On Mondays I teach my yoga class.  On the other days of the week, I'm going to start walking.  First starting with a mile and progressively adding to that amount.

In the evenings, if my husband is home, we'll go for a 30 minute walk.  (except on Tuesdays, I'll go to a 60 minute yoga class.)  If he's out of town, I'll do some yoga at home for about 20-30 minutes.  I really love exercising in the evening!

In January, I'll start adding a yoga class on Fridays.

Before bed I do a series of slow deep yoga stretches.  The bedtime routine is, standing forward fold, standing wide angle forward fold C, pigeon/king pigeon, child pose, thread the needle, wide angle forward fold and then to the side to each leg, bridge pose, happy baby, supine garudasana twist, legs on the bed then butterfly while on my back, and then savasana.  After this my mind is quiet and ready to commune with the Divine.  It's beautiful!

Now as far as nutrition.  I'm really into intuitive eating so it is difficult to say exactly what I eat, but the things I really try to fit in are
1.  Warm lemon water first thing in the morning
2.  Fresh carrot/apple/grapefruit juice
3.  Green smoothie with two huge handfuls of spinach

The rest I try to have good meals that taste good.  I enjoy eating lots of vegetables and fruits.  I try to add them whenever I can.  I also try to avoid white flour/rice and red meat.

That's the plan.  I hope it works and I stop ending up in bed with a fever and aches.

Soon, I'm going to tell you our story about a dog and how this is going to be THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!

I've been reading Michael Pollan

What he has said rings true.
Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.

That makes sense.  I can do that!

He also talks about eating things in season and meat sparingly.  I've thought the things he is talking about for a long time.  Yeah!

Daily Food

Here is what I ate today.
Breakfast - Red Rover Cracked Wheat Hot Ceral, pecans, milk, pinch of raw sugar, pinch of salt, blueberries
Snack - almonds and cutie orange
Lunch - salad, balsamic vinaigrette, spaghetti squash w/pecans and olive oil, bite of potato salad

Snack - bread, cajun, sweet potatoes, egg with olive oil mayonaise

Snack - LaDonna's Delight

Dinner - homemade chicken noodle soup

Unplanned snack - potato chips

I ate too much, but I ate when I planned.  That is progress.  Baby steps.  I'll get there.

Let's face it

I have come to accept that I'm just going to have to write down what I plan to eat the day before. I have done this in the past and it works well for me. After awhile I can stop writing everything, but I'm definately not at the point.

So what point am I at? Well, I had a 9 pound baby and 10 ounces and had a lot of amniotic fluid so I lost about 20 pounds in the first few days after m y dear baby was born. I do not have a scale at home so I haven't weighed myself for a week or two (he was born on March 20th), but I fit into a lot of my fat jeans and get a lot of compliments from others, especially my hubby. My husband doesn't give comments that he doesn't mean so that means a lot. Here is the thing though, my metabolism is in top gear right now and so I want to eat well so that I can get rid of extra fat. I don't want to cut huge calories, but I want the ones that I do eat to be healthy.

I'm ready to be healthy. It is not all about weight right now. During this pregnancy I had some physical problems and that was hard for me. I have always been very healthy and active and I love that. After I had the baby my back was very sore and I couldn't walk well for a week or two. I'm so thankful that I can move and I want to preserve my health.

So it is going to be hard to plan everything that I need to eat especially tonight because I need to go to the store (well my hubby does - I hate grocery shopping and he likes it so we are a good pair). We don't have a lot of food to choose from.

I will try to take time to plan tomorrowa good shopping list and game plan.

In the meantime, here are some things I can do.

breakfast is cereal, banana and milk
snack is apple and peanut butter
lunch is carrots and 2 pieces of cheese pizza
snack is apple and 1 piece of pizza
dinner is main dish with two vegetables
floating snack is glass of oj and a granola bar
The vitamins I want to take are multi, C, E and B-multi, and calcium

Here I go to a healthier me.

Explanation

Here is an explanation for those of you who are just stopping by for the first time. I am due to have a baby in March and so due to that I am simply trying to eat healthy (protein, fruit and vegetables, etc.) and after the baby comes then I will hit it and try to eat for just one instead of the five I've been eating for for the past year. This is my fourth pregnancy and I started out about 20 pounds heavier than I did with the rest. That fact is nothing I can change now, but I hope to be able to take care of myself better after the baby is born. I realize that this will be tough because I will have limited sleep and time, but I've got to do this. When you take care of your body then your spirit is more free to acheive what it is meant to do.

So I'll see you in March or maybe April and we will hit it. Deal or No Deal?

The Power of One Good Habit

December 2007
I like the show, Zonya’s Health Bites. She talks about how important it is to just start small with one good habit. The two good habits that I would like to start with is 50 jumping jacks a day and three to four fruit servings a day. No big deal right? Maybe if I do this every week then I will be back to the old health conscience me.

How will I do this? I will do jumping jacks after my afternoon nap to get my blood flowing.

I will eat breakfast. Before I do my morning activity my snack will be water, fruit and some protein like cottage cheese or string cheese or a few nuts. I will have lunch (with a vege of course) and then another snack right after my afternoon nap that is similar to the morning one. I will have another snack around 4:30 that is just fruit and water and then I will have dinner (with two vegetables) around 6:00 or 6:30 and I will be done for the night unless I really need a vegetable for a snack.

September 13th, 2007

Okay, so I’m back. I have lost weight – not a good thing and I have gained back weight too. I do not want to diet, but I do want to be healthy and have healthy weight gain. I should only gain about 25-35 pounds. All of my pregnancies I have gained around 45-50. I don’t want to do that again. I’m older and I know the pounds will come off slower. I am going to count points. I am going to give myself extra points though honestly you are only supposed to be eating 300 more calories a day than a normal healthy diet. The baby doesn’t need that much. I am still going to do WW. Now that I feel better I feel I can count points without wanting to vomit. I am doing WW not to lose weight, but to gain a healthy amount of weight. I also am doing it because when I was doing it I ate more fruit and vegetables than I normally do and I drank more water. Now what pregnant woman couldn’t benefit from that?

Food For Today
1/2 cheese stick 1
Malt o meal 4
Milk 2
Cheese 5
Pickles 0
Graham cracker/milk 4
Spaghetti-Fazoli’s 9
Bread stick 2
Cereal/milk 2
Turkey soup 2
Cookies and frosting bunch
Carrots/dip 3

I was shooting for a total of 35 points. I can see from what I ate that if I cut out the junk, or limited it more and added more fruits then I would be eating quite well.

I walked for 30 minutes at a slow rate. It is my first time back in awhile and I can already feel stretching in my hips and pubic bone. I think I’m going to switch to swimming. I need to buy a suit that will fit my full figure tomorrow.

I’m excited to back and keeping tack of my life in my journal. Thanks for joining me.

What is New

Here is what is new here in our house.

I’m teaching 6yo piano. I had initially planned on waiting until he was 7 ½ because I heard the older the better, but he has been asking and the other day he brought over some of my piano music and said, “Mom, I just need to know what each note means and then I can play a song. Can you teach me?” So I went and got him some beginner books and he has been excited since. Of course, it has only been two days so it is still quite novel. I started piano when I was six, but a lot of teachers recommend age eight.

I have been looking for swim lessons for the older boys, but everywhere close only has lessons that are every single day for two weeks. I don’t like that because it takes over your life for those two weeks. I would rather a month of twice a week. Well I decided to teach them myself. (A random fact about me is that I started swimming at a very young age and when I was in high school I got my first state title when I was a sophomore in a relay swimming race and then I took my first individual first place when I was a junior in high school and defended my title my senior year.) SO I plan on teaching them when I start feeling a little better. Hopefully that will be in a week or two. It is better to teach with about four kids so I might invite a friend and ask her to watch my 1yo while I teach the older kids. We will see what I feel up to. I may just teach my two in the evening when dh can watch 1yo.

We went to meet a midwife. I really like her. She has attended over 3000 births. We heard the baby’s heart rate and that was really exciting. DH was singing the entire way home.

DH and I went to play games tonight with three other couples. We met at a friends’ house that don’t have kids and the rest of us got sitters. It was lots of fun and a great break. Things like that always make coming home and being patient with the kids so much easier. The cat had an accident in the house while we were gone, but other than that, everything was fine. An interesting side note, you can sure learn a lot about marriage relationships when people play game together. Plato said something like you can learn more about a person in one hour a play than you can in one year of conversation.

I’m really looking forward to feeling well again. I really want to get on a schedule again and feel productive. I devised a new one for the coming school year today. I’m excited to implement it.

I also want to stop eating ALL the time. Just before I got pregnant I was really good at restricting and controlling my eating to healthy amounts. I will not change that now, but during my second trimester I plan on implementing Dr. Beck’s Diet Solutions and not restricting, but choosing more wisely and judiciously.

I finished Jane Eyre. I read part of it and listened to the other part on CD. The reader on the CD was so excellent that it felt like I was watching a movie. I would like to own the CD. She reads so well that I went back to the parts I read myself and listened to them with her being the reader. She gave them new spirit and excitement. If you are looking for a book on tape I HIGHLY recommend Jane Eyre.

Weigh In

I'm up two pounds this week. I have been eating more and exercising less. That equals a gain. I guarantee that it is not the baby that weighs that!

Here is the plan. For the next few weeks I will continue to eat what I feel my body needs and when it needs it. I will exercise when I feel good enough to do so.

Next trimester I will start practicing the Beck Diet Solution Tips. I will work on eating more mindfully, sitting down, writing down what I eat and eating for hunger reasons and not for emotional. If I can practice these habits while pregnant then I feel I will be ready after I have the baby to hit it.

I simply do not want to continue to gain after I have this baby. I will put all the restrictions and goals aside for a few months, but I'm determined to hit it when I get back in the game.

Grandma Elaine Southwick

I went over on my points toady. I didn’t eat all my fruits and vegetables. I find when I do eat enough of the good stuff then I don’t really have room or want the high point stuff. I will try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Pioneer Day when we remember and celebrate the trek of the pioneers across the plains. As per tradition we taught our children about one of their ancestors for tonight’s family night. This year I taught them about my grandma Elaine Southwick. I told them about the gold CTR (Choose the Right) Ring that she gave me when I was 18. I told them about the poetry book that she published and I read them some of the poems that mention my name. I then showed them pictures of when she was honored by a university as one of the key founders. There was a large dinner and celebration and presentation of an oil painting of her that was painted by Del Parsons. She was quite the lady and I hope my children have a glimpse into who she was and what they can accomplish too. We then went to a nearby park where they had pioneer games, pony and tractor rides. We finished the night off with cake in honor of my grandma and sang happy birthday. (I smile when I write that we sang happy birthday because I‘m not sure why we did it, but there was cake and we were thinking of someone special and it just happened.)

Weigh In

I haven't weighed in for 2 weeks because of travel. Well, I'm down 1.5 pounds. I'm so happy with that. 1 and 1/2 pound loss with travel and delicious food is something I'm proud of. There was such a wonderful meal spread at every meal. I made sure I only put the things on my plate that looked really good and then I enjoyed one plate full and no seconds. I also let myself have one helping of dessert. MMMMMMM! How wonderful that we can live normal lives and lose weight or keep a healthy weight. We just have to keep our portions in check. I counted points when I could, but for the most part the huge meals I lost track and just guessed, but it worked out okay.

Food for Today

I had an apricot before my morning workout. I did stair stepper for 15 minutes and then treadmill walking for 20 minutes. The stair stepper almost killed me.

Then I had one pancake with syrup

I had cucumbers for snack. (We have sooo many in our garden.)

For lunch I had left-over lasagna with extra green onions (from a friends garden)
and green peppers from my mother-in-laws garden. :)

I had a snickers for a snack.

Dinner was a wonderful, easy grilled chicken recipe that a friend gave to me. I put the chicken in an olive oil and lemon pepper marinade and then grilled it. Simple and delicious. My kids kept munching on it all night.
I put a can of diced tomatoes in a pan that had green chili peppers and some other seasonings in it along with garden green onions and banana peppers. We put the sauce over whole grain noodles and had the chicken on the side as well as, of course, cucumbers.

I had LOTS of water today and have felt GREAT.

Today I went to a friends house in the morning to hang-out and chat and to let the kids play. We came home for lunch and then quiet time. After that we went to another friends house for water play. It was fun as we haven't left the house much since getting back from our vacation - except for a tour of a local candy factory yesterday.

We had dinner, fed the neighbor's dogs that we are caring for while they are away and then watched Man vs. Wild as a family. My boys LOVED that show. 3yo is still awake now and wanting to have his nightly play time with mommy and dear hubby is upstairs doing the dishes. I've also got a load of laundry in the drier. I forgot to start it this morning. Oh how I hate when I do that. Luckily it didn't smell so I dried it without rewashing it.

Goals

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams," wrote Henry David Thoreau, "and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

Weight Watchers

I'm finally facing the fact that I do need to be more specific with my plan so I'm thinking about Weight Watchers along with the Beck Diet Solution. My plan that I made up caused me to want to change the rules all the time. I talked to a friend this morning and she is doing it and I think I'm at the point now that I'm willing to give it a shot. I spoke with her after breakfast and that quickly I decided to start - right then. So today that is what I did and I ate way less than I normally do. I was tempted to snack, but then I thought, "That is not worth the points." It worked. Hopefully it will work in six weeks too. I will not attend meetings as I weigh-in at a friend's house and we talk about it all.

I mentioned it to hubby on the phone today and he didn't seem that excited about me doing WW. We didn't have time to talk about it at the moment, but we will tonight.I wonder if he thinks he'll have to eat diet stuff - he loves a good meal.

We have another vacation to Indiana coming up this Friday. That poses a problem. I think I will just try to be aware of what I'm eating and then write it when I have a private moment and calculate the points. I will try to make good choices and only eat the high fat things if they look really good and I really want them.

Oh and a bonus is that you have to have at least 2 dairy products a day for calcium.

Here is what I ate today
Breakfast - Burrito 7pts
Orange Juice 1/2 pt
Triscuits 1/2 pt

Lunch - Kashi Natural Frozen Lunch - 7pts
2c Watermelon - 2pts
Taste of Macaroni and Cheese - 1pt (not worth the point)

Dinner - chicken (5oz)6pts
salad 1pt
green beans 0pt

Total 25 points
Points Banked - O

exercise - 1 hour power pump class

7-7-7 (cool date - heard there were a lot of weddings today

Hubby went with his brother, brother-in-law and dad for a guys weekend. They had a great time with a movie, paintball and golfing. I had the boys and we had quite a good time too with movies, outings, baseball and treats. I’m noticing as my boys are getting older how much easier they are when hubby is gone. I don’t dread it like I once did when they were a couple of years younger.

I stayed the same yesterday. I wrote a longer post about it, but just as I was about to post it 1yo climbed beneath the desk and turned off the main power switch. I’m not going to rewrite it all. The short story is that I need to reevaluate since last week I gained and this week I stayed the same. I know the eating plan will work, it’s just getting the will or desire or whatever it takes to decide that is what I will do. Maybe if I remind myself that it will get easier as I practice resisting going off plan, but sometimes it is overwhelming.

Not sure what will help at this point.

July 5th, 2007

Tomorrow is weigh-in day. I’m worried. I probably ate only at 50% capacity. Meaning that I could have done 50% better, but I did exercise everyday – except on the 4th. I’m trying to monitor my thoughts at this point. I know I’ll be sad if I don’t lose and quite discouraged. I will be discouraged not because I think the plan doesn’t work. I really believe that if I followed the plan I would lose. The plan is good it is my ability to stick to the plan.

If I lose I will be so happy and know that I could lose even more if I try just a little harder. If I get to bed tonight I will workout in the morning – stair stepper to get ready for a huge hike at the end of the summer with hubby.

I am very proud of myself today. I slipped a little, but there were many times that I had rationalized to eat a snickers, cookie, you name it. I came up with great reasons as to why I should eat these goodies, but when it came down to it I reminded myself that it WASN”T on the plan for the day. I succeeded. Hopefully this is getting my resistance muscle stronger and eventually things will get easier because right now they are not automatic and not easy. I just need to remember that it is easier today than it was three weeks ago and if I keep trying it will be even easier in another three weeks.

For exercise I swam. I used to be a competitive swimmer, but haven't gotten in the pool for quite some time. Boy it was hard. Then I took my older boys back to the pool for some play time.

Here are some quotes and ideas I got from other blogs.

The first is from someone named Peter – that’s all I know about him and the second is a challenge that Kim is doing on her site.

As you know already, what determines weight-loss success is not just a blossoming of inner gumption. It's not a raw Triumph of the Will, in other words, so much as it is a whole, fairly undramatic congeries of factors, often environmental as well as internal, that collectively make it possible to first develop a new set of habits, and then to stay uninterruptedly within the groove of those new habits long enough to pay down your calorie surplus.
If you can keep from being interrupted in your good habits, you'll keep off the weight that you've lost. If you are interrupted in them by illness, injury, unhappiness, the influence of another person, forgetfulness, a different job, bad weather, a child, or the like--and such changes are common in many lives, at least over the medium term--you'll have to work at coming up with more new habits that can take account of that changed life situation.
If you can stick to a routine--almost any routine, really--you can lose weight, since the helpful behaviors will become habitual. It's just that you also need to be able to arrive at other, entirely new routines as your circumstances change. And this is where many people stumble, at least a little.
In other words, willing your own sense of urgency not to fade is necessary, but probably not sufficient.
1. Drink a minimum of 64oz of water a day.
2. Depending on your current activity level, complete a minimum of 10 to 30 minutes of exercise everyday.
3. Eat 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day.
4. Keep a positive attitude. If you slip up, forgive yourself and get back on track THAT SAME DAY.
5. Be kind to yourself. In your thoughts, and in your actions.
6. Weigh yourself once a week and report in.
7. Take your measurements to compare at the end of the challenge.
8. Take a before and after photo to see your progress.

Food for Today

B - Nectarine
malt 'o meal
milk

L - salad
plum
beans and rice or whole wheat noodles and red sauce

Before Dinner - 4 carrots

D-buffalo chicken salad
with black beans, cheese, and whatever vegetables I can find

1 piece of Zonya Foco's Banana Bread
(If you haven't watched Zonya' Health Bites on PBS then you are missing out. It is my favorite show and is all about healthy living. And she give recipes too. This will be the first time trying this recipe if I have time to make it today.)

Floaters
V8
egg
vegetables

Food for Today

B –
Nectarine
Egg
Cereal
Milk
Banana

L- ONE serving of whatever

D- ONE serving of whatever

Floaters
V8
Fruit
Vegetables
(I can have unlimited amount of these for snacks on this trip.)


Exercise - 1 hour Power Pump (already did it!!!)
It is okay to be hungry. It is not okay to eat junk. I want to eat like a healthy person. I want to look healthy and it is something I'm willing to work for.

July 2nd, 2007

I had a couple of unplanned eating episodes. I was able to stop at one cookie the first time and I even turned down twizzlers and some other sweets. When I got hungry I went to food on my list instead of goodies – thanks Coach Emily. :)

I did yoga during my boys’ nap times and then after we had a wonderful family night, (Hubby taught a scripture story about Alma the Younger and then we went to a petting zoo.) I ran home from the petting zoo. I had planned to do this, but when it came right down to it I didn’t want to. I still had dinner in my stomach, way too much dinner to be honest, and it was hot and I was sluggish. My family encouraged me so I started on my way. It was about two miles to home.

I was jogging along when there was my family in the van. The boys were hollering out the window along with dad. They were all so excited. They drove away and around the next corner there they were and the entire way they cheered me on. It was such a boost and so encouraging. It actually made me want to train for a 5K or a swim race just so my kids could cheer for me and see their old mom work hard at something and finish. Wouldn’t that be fun? I used to compete in both swimming and running and it might be fun to go down that road again. I guess I’ll start with a small town 4th of July 100Meter race at a little park that we are going to. That will be fun.

Dinner was my problem today. In order to not go into details and beat myself down lets just say I didn’t stop at seconds. I went to thirds and dessert to. I had all the thoughts go through my mind, but I pushed them all aside. I need an action plan. I think Plan A will be to put all leftovers away before I even start eating. That way it will be a huge hassle to get them out of the fridge. The problem with this is if someone else wants to eat more. Plan B would be to leave immediately after eating. The problem with this is that DH would have to help the kids finish and clean up by himself. Plan C just came to me and I think I like it the best. I will eat my dinner. Ask if anyone wants any more food. If they say no, then I will put it all away. If it is yes then I will ask them to put it away when they are finished and I will proceed to clean up. We’ll see how this works.

Tomorrow we are going south into the heat, but to see family. It will be fun and I should still be able to workout there. The trick will be the eating, as it always is. I think my plan will be to eat three meals and three meals only. I will put my food on my plate and eat only one helping. This is going to be hard. I think my plan of action will be to eat later in the eating schedule so that I won’t be tempted to go back and my kids will all be fed and I can relax and enjoy and then I will leave the food area immediately (or offer to help cleanup) after I’m done eating. I’m going to have to print this out and read it the next couple of days.

In summary
After eating ONE plate of food get up and start putting things away or just leave the room. That shouldn’t be too hard right?

On normal days I will stick with my list of food for the day and I will immediately get up from the table and put away food or cleanup.

The thing I like about the Beck Diet Solution is that it is not only very positive, but it helps you feel in control and that is what I LOVE.

Food for Today

"What you eat in private is what you wear in public."
I just saw that quote today and it is perfect for me. I don't have as many problems at social events because I'm busy being social. It is when I'm not busy or putting off being busy that I eat.

B- cereal
banana
milk

L- tuna sandwich
nectarine

Before dinner - 4 carrots

Dinner - 1 chicken twinkie
1/4 - 1/2cup mashed potato
broccoli
cauliflower

Floaters
V8
milk
cookie
egg

Exercise: yoga - if the boys nap well.
I don't want to stress about it, but if the day works out well then I will get in a quick jog or something - maybe this evening. I slept in this morning. :(