Fat Tuesday Sounds About Right

Today is the eleventh day that I have done the 30 Day Shred video. It feels like I've been doing it for about 20 days already. Writing that out puts things in perspective a bit for me...11 days is not a long time. I have to confess, I had very high expectations, what with all I heard about the video, the guarantees the instructor makes, and cutting out all of my soda calories. I was sure I would see, even if it were just a little one, a difference by now. As far as I can tell, I don't look different, my belly is just as jiggly as it was when I started (in fact, to me it looks fatter, more sticky-outy), and my legs aren't smaller (or less cellulitey). I do think my arms are stronger. When I flex, my bicep looks pretty good. But I'm not walking around with the big guns pulled out, so the changes aren't visibly noticable. 

So, to be honest, I've been feeling a little discouraged. BUT! In a highly uncharacteristic twist of personality, I am NOT giving up! I'm going to continue to do the exercises. I also added walking daily. And doing all of this madness exercising earlier in the day, rather than after I get everyone in bed.

It's probably not very effective to exercise at a high intensity and then go to bed, don't you think? 

I'm hoping the calorie-burn-effect will increase if I begin my day with a very vigorous walk (there is a crazy hill around the corner that I push the jogger up, and literally have to tell myself,"Okay, just a few more steps," until the next street over which I can go downhill), and then do the video sometime after lunch. 

I don't mean to sound whiny, but today I really felt how much I had come to use food as a coping mechanism, whether it was soda, or a sweet, or...well, mainly soda and sweets. Ha! There were so many times that I just wanted to crack open the two-liter of Dr. Pepper in our fridge, and drink straight from the bottle! The burn! I miss it. And in the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I ordered pizza tonight (half off of my order at Papa John's...nice!) and thought I would have just a tiny bit of D.P. with my two slices of cheese. I poured a bit from the bottle that was open (Mike has had some of that, not me) and took the tiniest of sips, and it was totally flat. Then I didn't want any anymore. I thought,"It's not worth it."

But I really, really, really, really, really wanted to open the other bottle. For a second. 

I also denied my desire for a chocolate chip cookie hanging around on my counter, the small bit of ice cream that was left after I served the kids their dessert, and the rest of the Pringles that I bought last week (there are like four left in the can). 

I don't know what else I can do right now, except keep doing what I'm doing. I've cut out a lot of calories, I've eaten much less junk and dessert kind of foods, I've tried to eat less amount-wise, more frequently. There has been much less sugar in my diet in the last week and a half. I actually like to exercise; I think it makes me more cheerful and pleasant. So...I'll keep on truckin'.

Don't forget to check on Taylor...she had a good week!

Getting Fancy on My Blog

I started a new section on the blog (I guess I should say restarted, because I started it a while ago and then stopped it and now it's up again). It's for recipes! And it's called A Recipe for Disaster. Trust me, it's aptly named.

I am not a food blogger. I repeat, I AM NOT A FOOD BLOGGER. I'm more like the anti-food blogger. Not in the sense of being against food bloggers, but in the sense that I don't like to cook that much, and I don't really like very interesting foods.

Doesn't that make you want to hop right over and read all of my food posts? 

While I am not skilled in the art of cooking, nor in the art of photographing the food, I did think it would be entertaining to capture a little bit of life in our kitchen. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's dangerous. Sometimes...well, sometimes ordering pizza would be better. 

Check it out if you want to. I'm having fun with it.

Spring Springs (Read: Attacks)

The month of April has not been kind to Eliana. It started out just fine, but these last two weeks have been a bit unusual. The spring, also known as Allergenicus Beastus, always deals us some heavy blows. Eliana, Michaela, and I all have allergies; Christian seems to be mildly affected, but not as badly as us girls (...we girls? Grammar nerds, let me know which is right.). I knock myself out with Benedryl, and have had some good experiences with Allegra. The girls? I kind of wing it. Michaela has been taking Allegra and thinks it works pretty well. Eliana...well. For a while she would take Benedryl at night and it seemed to get us through the days. Then I ran out of the liquid Benedryl, so I bought a new one-the exact same brand (I guess to be entirely accurate, I should say it was the Target knock-off of Benedryl) and the exact same flavor. However, this bottle apparently tasted completely different than the other one. "Weird," as someone I know put it. This same someone complained, fussed, whined, ran away, and generally refused to take the fake Benedryl, the Benedryl imposter imposter. I tried to use a squirty shot kind of medicine administrator (that sounds like a tough job, doesn't it?) and...she managed to spit it back out all over herself. 

I think that because she was no longer taking the antihistamine, she became very congested and drippy. I also believe that it messed with her ears. Along with all of this allergy tomfoolery, she also had pink eye. 

Let me tell you what is a lot of fun. Putting eye drops into a four-year-old's eyes. Especially eye drops that are thicker than tree sap. I'm fairly certain that one-hundredth of one percent of what I put in her eyes actually got into her eyes. They did clear up! So...hopefully that tiny percentage was enough! 

However! During the time period that I was ridding this precious child of the pink eye, she told me her ear hurt. I called the doctor right away. Because this girl? Does NOT tell me that anything hurts, ever. Even when she has clearly hurt herself and is crying behind a bed with a black eye (yes, she ran into a door knob...it was not pretty). She had a very high fever when I took her in, and he prescribed an antibiotic for her ears. 

Then! A week into taking the antibiotic, she woke up greatly speckled. I am talking from her cheeks to her cheeks. And beyond! Arms, legs, belly, back! Even her ears! Again I called the doctor and spoke to the nurse. She did not seem very worried, but (like me) thought it was probably related to whatever gave her a fever last week. She did say that if Eliana had any respiratory issues to call 911 immediately. So, that was reassuring! 

Eliana does not seem to be fazed by her "bumps." They are itchy, sometimes. She looks rather alarming, so I have not taken her out and about too much. I know what I would think if I saw someone out with a polka-dotted kid. 

At any rate, I'm looking forward to the arrival of summer. I think that with it our allergy problems will exit! Do you battle allergies? Press on! Spring has to end sometime!

Getting Shredded

So.

I have completed four days of the 30 Day Shred. I think. It could be five. I cannot remember when I started, and I cannot even piece it together based on correspondence with others. I confuse even myself. 

The point is, I haven't missed a day since I started (whenever that was). I also have not had soda since I started. The first day of my Determined Effort, I had some sweet tea. Since then I have had only water (except a smidgeon of fresh squeezed orange juice that I made...Michaela said it was the best OJ she had ever had, so how could I not try it?!) and I feel really good about that.

Tonight was a battle. Not because the exercises were hard, but because I was in a bad spot mentally. A really bad spot. You might call it a pit. I even started the DVD, stopped it two minutes in, and changed and went to bed. I was lying in the bed and there was a voice in my head that would not shut up. This voice was calling me names. And for a few minutes I lay there and listened to the words. Then I got mad. I got up. I got on my exercise clothes.

I turned on that DVD with tears in my eyes. I told that voice that I wasn't going to listen anymore. And I did the [insert expletive here] video. (You know, pastors' wives should probably not use certain words...but I think that sometimes certain words just work.) (Especially when you are telling off the Devil.) (Now you all think I'm a loon.) (Well, I could have told you that up front.)

Taylor over at The Lumberjack's Wife is starting up a Fat Tuesday series the month of May. I'm joining her, so I'll try to update on Tuesdays. She can do it! And so can I! And so can you, if you want to!

Stonewalled

Do you ever feel like wherever you go, you are running into brick walls?

'Cause I sure do.