craft night and addictions

Well craft night was a success.  I can't say I got much one but being able to visit with other women while cross stitching was very enjoyable.  I can't wait for the next one.  One person brought a bib she was crocheting around the edge.  Another brought pictures to put in order before she put them in her photo albums.  Another brought her oils and gave hand massages and another just stopped by for a minute to visit.  I loved it.  What a great way to de-stress than visiting with good friends and crafting.

I was going to post yesterday that I realized I have an addiction.  Home made cookies and chocolate!  Store bought cookies aren't all that tempting but home made cookies are hard to resist.  So I decided Sunday night that I needed to do better.  I needed to do something about this addiction.  So I'm going cold turkey.  Yesterday my goal was not to eat any cookies, candy, sweets or anything that I could go overboard on.  I stared at the clock a lot willing snack time to come and go without me giving in to my cravings.  I was very tempted to at least have a glass of hot chocolate because although I really like hot chocolate I don't tend to go overboard on it. 

Well I did it.  I didn't eat anything I told myself I couldn't.  I ate a lot of grapes to get past the cravings.  Craft night helped keep me from eating after the girls went to bed.  I feel really good today knowing that I had enough self control yesterday.  So I am setting the same goal for today.  I am just going to take this one day at a time.  I can do anything for one day.  I'll just make the pumpkin cookies later when I have room in the freezer to put them so they wont sit on the counter begging me to eat them.  I'll let ya know how it goes.  I should be pretty busy today so it should help.

Thinking ahead....

I know that I still have a little over 3 months until this baby is due and another six weeks after that before the doctor normally gives the go ahead for a person to start exercising again but I'm trying to find a goal to set.   Right now I live in Oklahoma and they have the "Oklahoma Freewheel" every year.  I think that would be really cool to ride it.  It is usually over 400 miles.  Each year varies a little in distance and always in location...or at least that is what I understand.  It is a week long bike ride.  It takes place in June.

The other thought I have is to train for a half marathon.  I ran one last year in Idaho close to Halloween and realized that I should have trained a lot better/more.  I would like to do better. 

So my questions are these:
1st are these crazy goals? (keep in mind I tend to do crazy things)
2nd Which should I do first?  The ride is in June.

My thoughts are that if I train for the free wheel and jog on the side then I will lose weight and get back in shape without beating my body up with a lot of running with extra weight. 

Any thoughts or advice.  I can't start training until the new year but I'd like to start planning and setting up a schedule and.... don't tell my husband but I'm going to try to convince him to do one or the other with me or both and this gives me time to work on him.

Goals

It is now September, holy cow time is flying so fast!  I set a goal during the last week in August that I wanted to lose 2 pounds by the 31st.  I set mini goals to help me reach this goal.

I would run 4 times and bike 3 times in the same week. 
I would eat healthy.
I would strength train.

Well it is the 2nd of September and I wanted to tell you that I achieved my main goal.  I lost two pounds by the 31st.  I didn't make all my mini goals.  I only ran 3 times and biked twice.  I did try to eat healthier and although I didn't strength train as much as I should have I did more than was before.

I have run and biked this week.  I have eaten healthy this week until today.  I have struggled to be good today.

I hope that you are all reaching your goals, whatever they may be.

A good day..progress!!!

Well I just finished the birthday present and it is so cute.  I'll tell you what it is and show you pictures as soon as she has it in her possession.  I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Well my youngest who is 8 months has been dubbed "swiper" by my 3 year old.  She likes to watch Dora the Explorer and if you have seen it then you know who "swiper" is.  Every time Yana crawls in Sarah's direction she says "Swiper, no swiping!"  It is cute but at the same time I wish she wouldn't.

She is constantly hiding things worried that "swiper" from the movie is going to find and take her stuff. 

While I was sewing today she was pretending to make a sword to fight off monsters with.  She was so excited to give it to Grandma.  Apparently, Grandma has a lot of monsters in her neighbor that I didn't know about.

Having a three year old is definitely entertaining.

Have a great day.  I'm off to make cupcakes and icing for my cake decorating class tonight.

Sewing again

Well I don't know about you but when things get busy my sewing time tends to suffer.  I haven't been sewing a whole lot since we got home from Idaho a month ago.  I've had a lot going on.  Well my goal for this week was to get a few projects done. 

My sister's birthday was Sunday and sadly I didn't have her present done.  I should have it finished today and in the mail tomorrow morning.  That is my goal. 

Tomorrow, if not today, I would like to get the free motion stitching done on a quilt I am being paid to finish.  Then I will just need to bind the two quilts and get them in the mail.  I want them mailed off by the 30th at the latest but sooner if possible.

Once those are done than I want to start on my Halloween projects and then move to fall.  I am also planning on making several hair clips to sell on my store.  They are so much fun and enjoyable to make.  I can make them at night when my kids are in bed.

I am also crocheting wash clothes to sell on my store.  So hopefully there will be several new things being posted on my store soon...within the next two weeks hopefully.

Well Yana is napping and and Sarah is watching her afternoon movie so it is off to the sewing room.  Yay.

Late to bed does not make an early riser!

Last night my husband stayed up late getting some work done that needed to be done for today.  I stayed up to keep him company.  We didn't get to bed until almost midnight.  I had plans to get up for my exercising and ride to Walgreen's to get the Sunday paper (on a Monday).  It is roughly 4 miles from my home so it would have been 8 miles total.  I figured that would be a good ride.  However, last night my husband decided that he should get up at 4 so he could go to work early to get the rest of his stuff finished.

So needless to say I was very tired and he wanted to get up early (which he didn't because he was so tired).  So I haven't exercised yet today.  I did decide this morning to take to the girls to the park right after breakfast.  We did and it was great but it was so hot already. 

I am from Idaho where it is dry heat and here it is humid.  Yesterday it got to 107 degrees.  We just stayed in our house after church.  I decided while we were on our walk home from the park that I would start getting my girls up at 7 so we could eat breakfast and then go to the park every morning before it gets too hot.  It will also allow us to still go do the rest of our daily activities without cutting out the park.  So that is my new goal for this week. 

Tonight for Family Home Evening we are going to make our own laundry detergent.  It should be fun.  It will also depend on when my husband gets home from work.  He will be working late this week in order to get as much done before we go on our vacation next week.  We are so excited.

Jogging

I love to jog or I guess more the feeling I have after I have gone for a good jog.  I had a really good jog tonight and remembered why I enjoy it so much.  I got back into jogging about a month ago and then things got hectic, there were snow storms, weddings, and laziness.  I lost 6 pounds a month ago and have just been hanging out in limbo.  I decided that I had to get back into jogging.

Why do I jog?  Why do I jog to lose weight?  I do because it works for me.  My daughter Sarah is 3 now.  I gained like 50 pounds during that pregnancy and about 30 pounds between my wedding and when I got pregnant.  After I had Sarah it took a couple months but I finally got fed up with being so heavy.  I was sick of myself really.  At that point I found Sparkpeople.com and followed their steps and started doing exercises.  I walked a lot, did a lot of wall push ups, sit ups, crunches, leg lifts and lots of other exercises.  I had started running at the end of my mission and really enjoyed it so I started jogging little by little and every week I tried to lose 2 pounds.

I had slow weeks and hard months but in the end I got back down to 170 and loved it.  It works for me and I enjoy it.  I ran a 10K and loved it and would like to run another race.  I would like to run a half marathon but need to get in shape first.

I still have 30 pounds to lose and finally got sick of seeing all my close folded on the top shelf of my closet.  Saturday I started running again and today I ran again.  My goal is to run 3-4 times a week and get over my afternoon eating temptations.  I will get down to my goal weight and I will use jogging again to do so.

If you don't jog and want to jog just start slowly, that is what I'm doing again.  I struggle with the fact that it takes time but I am so excited for the day when I get back to where I was before.
Remember to stretch after a run and drink lots of water.

Good luck.  It will come.

Sewing Goals for this week

Last week I added sleeves to two prom dresses and this week I need to fix a different prom dress so it is ready for two more proms.   I haven't added anything to my store in a long time.  My goal for this week is to finish the two table runners that I started a few weeks ago and add at least one grocery sack holder.

So to clarify for myself I will be adding one grocery sac holder and finishing two table runners this week.  I think that should also mean that I post the two table runners.

Is their anything that you would want me to blog about or post on my store?  I'm thinking about making a tutorial of the grocery sac holder.  Is that something anyone would be interested in?

I have so many things I would like to get sewn and added to my store.  I am thinking about making each week of the month a different item to work on or maybe two weeks because I would like to have more table runners on there and it will take more than one week to do that.

Here is a list of some of the things I would like to have on my store:

Table runners

Pullover bibs

Aprons

Cute robes for toddlers

Lap quilts

Grocery Sac holders

Place mats

Children's hats and clothing



At one point I had a whole list of things I wanted to make and sell.  Those are just a few.  If you have a preference for what I make after I get some table runners made please let me know.

I am setting a new goal.

Thank you for following my last goal.  I had wanted to lose 6 pounds by my sister in laws wedding.  Well, her wedding came, was beautiful, and is over.  Did I make my goal?  Yes I did.  I lost 6 pounds exactly.  I was 6 pounds lighter the day before we left for her wedding. 

Ok so now I am officially under the 200 pound marker and happy to finally be there.  I still have at least 30 pounds to go to get where I want to be.  So I am setting a new goal.  I have another wedding that we will be attending on the 1st of April.  I want to be at least another 4 pounds down by then.  I have a week and a half so that is roughly 2 pounds a week.  I can do it.  I am feeling better and hopefully tomorrow I will be back to normal.

My game plan is that I want to eat the right portions at eat meal and have snacks in between my meals.  I also want to exercise every day.  I want to run at least 3 times a week and do my kettle bell workout at least 3 times a week.  Other than that I just need to be active everyday.

So I want to be two pounds lighter a week from today.  I'll let you know if I make that small goal.  Good luck to everyone who is trying to lose weight.  Feel free to share tips and ideas or your favorite healthy recipes with us.

Goal continues.....

Well I started jogging again the week before last and I was being careful with how much sweets I ate and I lost weight last week.  I lost about two pounds.  Pretty good since my goal was for a 1 1/2 pounds a week.  I just need to lose another 3 to get below 200 and that was what I wanted to do by the end of this goal.  So I'm really going to be good this week.  Last week I didn't jog at all because things kept coming up.  It is amazing how fast life can get busy and how hard it is to keep up.

My sister in law gets married on Saturday and I'm really trying to hard to get into those size 14 pants.  They are still snug but I hope if I do really good this week they will fit.  The one thing I decided though was that if they fit but weren't comfortable I would wait until they were comfortable.  I want to be comfortable at her wedding and while visiting and I don't like that poured into the pants look.

This week is going to be so busy I'm already having a hard time keeping up.  I will be getting up with my husband again and eating breakfast with him and then I'll start to get things done.  Hopefully with the extra 2 hours I'll be able to get everything done.

I will let everyone know how things go this week Monday after the wedding.  I hope that you all have a wonderful week and are able to reach your goals and get everything done on your lists.  Good Luck to all of us...

Goal continued...

Well needless to say I didn't lose the 1.5 pounds that I wanted to last week.  I'm really struggling to eat portions and crave healthy food.  I am trying.

Yesterday morning wasn't the greatest as far as healthy goes.  I didn't really eat anything structured.  My daughter and I ate snacks and things throughout the morning and lunch.  Dinner was an actual meal though so that got me back on track as far as eating goes.

Earlier in the day I really wanted to go for a run so I got everything ready and got dressed and ready to go and as soon as my husband got home I was out the door and going for my jog.  My daughter wanted to go and as much as I wanted to take her I decided that I wanted to see if I could run a mile and I didn't want to push a stroller while doing so.  So I ran and it felt awesome.  It was a little chilly outside but running when it is cooler is my favorite time to run.  I kept running and I didn't stop.  I went once around the pond which is 3/4 mile and once around our little block which is .4 miles.  When I got to my house my daughter was outside so I told her to come with me and I jogged right past the house to the corner (two houses down) and up to the next corner (another 2 houses).  I felt great.  I felt like I could keep jogging like I used to but I decided that I shouldn't.  I heard that if I push too hard when getting back into it I could hurt myself or overdo it so I stopped jogging at the corner and walked back with my daughter.

Oh I felt great.  I decided that I am not a wimp after all it must have been trying to jog with the strollers as a wind catch.  I will eventually be able to push the stroller but I guess for now I need to just get into shape first.

It was a great workout.

A Goal shared with others will hopefully get accomplished.

I don't like making New Year's resolutions because by about the 2nd week in January I forget the goal.  I do better just setting normal goals.  I keep setting one specific goal and it never seems to work out the way I plan.

A little background.  While I was serving my mission in Russia I lost 50 pounds and got down to 170.  I loved being at 170.  I could maintain it and I felt very good about myself.  Then I got married and between college and homework and being newly married I gained a little weight and then I got pregnant with our oldest daughter Sarah.  I gained a lot of weight while pregnant with her.  I had gotten to my highest weight and wasn't happy about it.  After I had Sarah I tried the program "Slim in 6" and liked it other than the fact that I struggle with indoor workouts when they are always the same.  I get bored and eventually find myself doing nothing.

Then I got back into jogging (my last companion got me addicted).  I started jogging farther and farther and started losing the weight.  I eventually lost about 80 pounds in a year and got back down to 170 and was very happy.  I kept it off pretty well until I got pregnant with our second daughter.  My goal at this point was to eat better and exercise (things I didn't do while pregnant the first time).  I did better but living in a hotel for 2 months really didn't help.

So here I am 7 1/2 weeks after the birth of my daughter Yana.  I have about 30 pounds to lose.  I have been stuck here.  I am trying nurse my daughter even though I do not produce enough and exercise to lose weight.  I had started running and then we got hit with a huge snow storm here in Oklahoma and I couldn't run outside for fear I would get lost in the snow or slip and hurt myself.   So I have been trying to do the Biggest loser workout on my Wii and a kettle bell routine. 

The thing I have learned in my weight loss journeys is that if I keep it to myself than when I don't succeed there is no one to disappoint besides myself.  So this is where you all come in.  I used to be able to lose about 8 to 10 pounds in a month and that was my goal originally.  I think that right now I should aim for half that until I figure things out.

My first goal will end March 11.  My sister in law is getting married on the 12th and I was hoping to be in my size 14 pants by then.  I can wear them now they are just really snug.  I want to lose 6 pounds by the 11th.  That means about 1 1/2 pounds each week.  I'll keep you posted every Monday how the last week went.  This way I will feel that I have to be accountable for what I eat over the next 4 weeks.