Him & Her

Sweet as pie

So not shy

Too close for she

As close as he'll ever be

Sassy and smiled

Born to be wild

Small changes can equate to big wins in fitness

We just finished week 2 of the Project 10 challenge and I am happy to say that things are going well! I am sticking to my plan and working on the small goals I set for myself. I survived the past week without sweets. I accidentally cheated once, and remembered that I was abstaining AFTER I shared a banana pudding pop with the girl child. Not bad for an entire week! I like the idea so I am going to do it again this week. We are going to a wedding so I will allow myself one cheat and eat some wedding cake.

I have also been trying to eat only until I am not hungry instead of eating until I am full. This is hard for me because I eat fast. And by fast, I mean lightning speed. I am trying to slow down and not clear my plate. Old habits die hard so this one is a big goal for me.

I managed to meal plan for the week and we have had fruit and yogurt for me to bring to work for snacks. I realized that by cheating and buying a container of cut fruit, I am eating more fruit. My hubbs was a little ticked that I spent $20 on cut fruit, but it is worth it to me! I have only bought lunch at work one day in the past week and even then, I bought a "wellness approved" sandwich and still brought snacks from home.

So where am I at overall? Down 2.5 pounds from the start! I lost inches everywhere except my thigh (which went up 1/2 in for some reason, I hope it is muscle gain from the squats and lunges) and my chest. Small improvements, but I am starting to see that sticking to my plan is giving me results. The weight loss is right on target to where it should be to be sustainable.

Link up with us or check out my fellow fitness friends working toward a healthier lifestyle!

Motherhood...it's not for the weak

On Friday I went to see Motherhood the musical with some lovely ladies I met through a local blogging group. If you are local to Rhode Island or Southern Mass, or even if you're not,  you have to check out Rhody Mamas. They post the best deals on shopping and host amazing mom's night out events!  I hadn't read about the musical before we went, but I assumed it was a comedy. I mean, it is about being a mom which would have to be a comedy. My thought is, you have to be able to laugh about  the ridiculous situations you deal with as a mom. If you don't laugh, you will find yourself crying. Of course they covered the hilarious topics of incessant cries of, "Mooooommmmmyyy" from little ones,  becoming bulk shopping obsessed (Costco anyone??), going on a cleaning strike and getting a mini-van. I found myself relating to just about every character at some point. It also had some very touching moments mixed in with the laughs. I was relieved to see I wasn't the only one tearing up.

It was so nice to have a night out, watching a musical about my existence as a mom, and knowing that I am so not alone in this crazy thing called motherhood. The best part was not the show, but a text I got about half way through from my hubby. Of course he was on solo bedtime duty since I was out. I don't have a fancy iphone like the rest of you so I re-created my own text bubbles!

I love when art imitates life...and I'm not the one who has to clean it up.



An honest look at my unhealthy habits

As part of project 10, I have decided to take an honest look at my most unhealthy habits and see what I can do to make changes. I made a list of some of the things I do and what I will do to work on them:

Sweets and Treats: I am not a snack food girl. Chips and pretzels are not my thing. Candy, cookies, ice cream etc...THOSE things are my weakness. I was watching Extreme Makeover, weight loss edition and they have tips at each commercial break. One of the tips said that the more sweets you eat, the more you actually crave. I don't know if I really "crave" anything in particular. I just think I pretend I have no will power and I just tend to gravitate to something sweet. If it is not in my house it is a lot easier to avoid, but I have come to terms with the fact that temptation will be around me all the time, so instead of avoiding it, I want to be strong enough to just not eat it. GOAL:No sweets for 1 whole week. I am hoping that this will help me not want to eat treats all of the time. And when I reintroduce them I will do so in moderation. There is nothing wrong with having ice cream, but get a scoop out of the container...don't eat half of a Ben and Jerry's in a sitting!

Saying I am "Too Busy" to exercise: We all have time in our day. Even if you say you have no time, if you actually think of how much time you waste on putzing around, we can all fit in fitness. It doesn't need to be insanely intense or a 5 mile run, but 20-30 minutes a day is definitely doable. GOAL: To work out a minimum of 5 days a week. I would like to say 6 as my goal, but I would rather be realistic and overshoot my goal than to fall short every week and get down on myself.

Slacking on Meal Planning: When I plan my week's meals and go shopping I eat right. When I am too busy lazy on the weekend,  and don't take the time to plan and shop, we end up getting takeout. It takes me about 30 minutes to plan the meals and an hour to shop. My health and fitness is worth 90 minutes of my time. I need to make it a priority. GOAL: Be vigilant on meal planning, making sure that we are eating a balance of healthy foods and that I have leftovers to take for lunch.


All of that being said I managed to lose 1.5 pounds last week! I will be doing my measurements next Wednesday again and updating that. I am going less by the weight and more by my overall fitness. I know as I gain muscle for working out, I will fluctuate on the scale, but I will record it anyway.
Start:156
Week 1:154.5

If you want to join us on the Project 10 quest then head on over to Stephanie's Mommy Brain and link up!

Wild Kratts Birthday Party!

Nate turns 5 tomorrow but we had his party on Sunday. He loves the show Wild Kratts so we decided to run with that theme! There was a lot of Pinterest browsing for this party! I had a good time pinning away and, as you will see, used a lot of good ideas that I found. I decided to make Nate's invite myself in Photoshop. I found a couple of images online and then did the rest.

We had the party at an awesome playground called the ImPossible Dream. It is actually the only fully handicap accessible playground in RI! The had a room that is inside the playground and it was a perfect spot to have our party. I tend to go a little nuts for birthdays and I saw some friends on FB post about an amazing local woman, Stacie of Stace Your Face,  who does face painting. I noticed that she was especially good at animal faces so I booked her for the party! Of course the rebel birthday boy was all about being Spiderman instead of an animal, but I let it go. It WAS his birthday after all! Luckily all but 1 other child decided to rock the wild life look! I set up a "photo booth" and took a picture of each child right after they got their faces done! For the favors I made each child a Wild Kratts vest complete with attachable creature power discs!

My sister in-law owns a bakery in Boston called Treats on Washington and they made my son's birthday cake! It was a creature power disk with a cheetah on it. He was very impressed..and so was his stinker of a sister who took a bite out of the side before it was time to sing. Clever turning of said side away from the camera and walla, you can't even tell! Grr.

The kids had a great time. We didn't get to play the games I planned, but I suppose it was a lofty goal to get 15 kids to do anything at the same time! Instead, they ran and played in the huge enclosed playground and had a blast!

I am proud of the fact that I managed to get into 2 pictures this time! I had to ask someone to take them, but I stepped out from behind the camera for a minute so when my kids look back, they know I was actually there! Do you like my "snow leopard" shirt. I use quotes because I have no idea if that's what it is. I found it and A's cheetah pants while getting other things at Walmart. Gotta love trashy Walmart for its availability of $4 animal print shirts and $3 kid's cheetah leggings!

It was an amazing day and I would recommend this park to anyone. They are open to the public 7 days a week too! Now for a quick rundown of all of the party stuff:

Animal print balloons: Amazon
Birthday Banner: Made by me with animal print paper, sticky foam letters and twine
Cake Inspiration: A Mom Photographer's Crazy Life
Vest Inspiration (I used fleece and felt and just measured Nate to figure out the dimensions):Mom Endeavors
Cake Made by: Treats on Washington (in Brighton MA)
Amazing Face Painting: Stace Your Face
Animal plates: Walmart in the paper goods (not party) section
Photo booth: Made by hubby out of plywood and covered with zebra fabric from Jo-Ann

Project 10! Real Women, Real Fitness

As you all know, in my quest to get fit, I have been running. You'd think after running a half marathon, I'd be in better shape than I am. No really, I seriously thought I would be in better shape than this! We trained for 12 weeks and, while my cardiovascular endurance is great now, I am still squishy in all the wrong places. I have come to the conclusion that running just isn't enough. In order to get fit and healthy I need to do more. I need to add strength training and more varied cross training into my workout plan.

I am a member of a local blogging group and one of our members, Stephanie of Stephanie's Mommy Brain, came up with the concept of Project 10. It is 10 weeks of support and motivation in the form of  other women in the same boat, all working toward better health and fitness! We each have different plans to get to our fitness goal, but we are all in it together.

I won't be posting the before pictures I took until the end when my after pictures can over-shadow the yuck with their awesomeness (I have lofty goals here people). I will, however, post my stats. I took measurements and will be taking them at 2 week intervals. All measurements are in inches and are not making me happy. At. All. So here it is. All out on the table. I will be journaling my progress weekly. Any struggles and setbacks will be included so feel free to offer up support to keep me going!

There are many lovely ladies joining me in this quest so drop by their blogs and see how we are all progressing!



Stephanie at Stephanie's Mommy Brain
Sarah at Sweet Lil You
Liz at Learning to Juggle
Sarah at Soxy's Diamond
Megan at A Baby Makes Four
Kristin at Mama Luvs Books
Candace at The New Modern Momma
Melissa at Filling Our Bucket
Jodi at Blush Mamas
Carla at All of Me Now

Another awesome member of our group is a personal trainer and will be helping us along! A big thanks in advance to Samantha at Running and Cupcakes for her guidance as we get fit!

First Day June 2012

If you want to participate in the First Day posts, visit Journey to Josie and link up!