Live the Life: Day Two

I thought I did really great yesterday until I realized I made some mistakes: like the milk I bought that I thought was non-fat is really 1%, I threw my carrots in the microwave to cook them because you can only crunch through so many vegetables in a single meal and forgot about them, I forgot to do my strength training as my day got crazy and I accidentally ate double the amount of jerky. ops! But I think besides that it was a pretty good day.

They say in the manuel that my sister read you will feel full until your matabolism speeds up and then once that happens you will be starving. They said you can get that starving feeling on day three or up to week three. Well, I am on day three and I am starving. I am so hungry. Which is weird because I am eating so much its 10:23 and I've already eaten two cups of my strawberry protein concoction, and a giant egg burrito and I cant wait until I eat again. So hungry. They say that is when you know you are going to start losing weight. Well, bring it. But I need to find out if I will spend my entire life eating like a pig and feel like I am starving. Um, I sure hope not. I don't like hunger.

I haven't really talked about the exercise. Its really rather moderate. 30 -40 of cardio and then up to 30 minuets of strength training...they don't really care what cardio you do but they do have set strength training circuits to do. I just bought a Jillian Micheal's strength training video that I love so I am doing that instead but I know from reading the list of exercises that the exercises are very much the same.

I've been realizing for that past couple months that my muscle stores were wiped out with Genevieve's pregnancy and that it really takes me more effort to maintain my muscles and the power house of calorie burning that your muscles are. So the once "never touch weights girl" is now a firm believer in strength training.

So we'll see how the rest of my day goes. I am sort of having sweets withdrawals but like I said knowing I will have something to eat soon really helps me power past the urge to eat the crust of my kids PB&J's and stuff. I love that this "diet" lets you eat carbs and have fruit and such. I hated that with my tries with south beach and atkins earlier this year.

Live the Life: Day One

I Seriously like it so far. It is a lot of food. It will be fantastic if I can loose weight eating all this food. It is good food and really healthy, you feel good eating it. I do like not having to think about what my food will be or feel any guilt about what I ate or didn't eat. I didn't really like making dinner....I was a little uninspired to cook for the family. But you can get over that. I quit diets because I end up feeling deprived and controlled. If this diet doesn't give me that feeling I would be so happy. We'll see. My last day on the diet is Halloween...I have many parties and such in which I will not be eating anything so I"ll have to see if I feel deprived. I think I wont because I always have a yummy meal to look forward to in just a few hours. I did crave my evening sugar fix but I wasn't hungry and I knew I had "dinner" in an hour so I didn't pay much attention to it.

I realized that you need to eat on time. I kept eating a little bit later then I was supposed to and then by the end of the day I was having my 6th meal at 10:30. I ate and jumped into bed as you are supposed to bed to bed by 11pm and my husband goes to bed at like 9:30 and I hate going to bed without him. That was weird to be cooking a pita pizza at 10 at night when I wasn't even hungry and was sort of just doing it because and then going to bed but I want to do it right so I did it.

So anyways I like it so far....here are a list of my meals I get to eat for the next six days:

- Strawberry "ice cream" shake, very good does taste like it has ice cream in it
- Egg burrito, I cant have many eggs so I 1/3 the eggs and substituted with cottage cheese and chicken as they suggest, I really like it with hot sauce. :O) This was super filling.
- Tropical Fruit shake and beef jerky, I loved this! Really good. I'm a jerky girl and a smoothie girl, loved!
- Mexican chicken rice bowl, I added a little Tabasco to jazz it up. Filling and yummy too!
- Veggies, crackers, and ranch dip. You make the dip with cottage cheese and ranch powder I thought I would hate it but I loved it!
- Pita pizza with chicken, veggies, turkey, and pineapple on the side. This was yummy too.

Well, I am off to eat my egg burrito! Poor me! ;) and then do my weight trainning I couldn't get in before the kiddos woke up.

Stewart is getting really old!

Okay, not too old but he is getting old-ish. Were are both realizing that once you have four kids, own a minivan, a house, are a doctor, have no idea what songs Justin Bieber actually sings, and listen to talk radio when you are driving, you are in fact old. So to the point...My hubby turned 30! That is a big one! I was racking my brain to get all these really fabulous exciting things we could do to celebrate but then I realized that what my easy-going introverted husband would really like for his birthday is a "down day". So I called it our introverted birthday party and it was just that. In fact it was fun because in the end we sort of relived a day in the life of Stewart's childhood. :O)

Let him sleep in till 7 am! How sad is that?!?!? But I assure you that is sleeping in for him. Let him open presents in bed. Then I made him his favorite breakfast while he watched the Disney Nature movie I bought him, African cats...he loves wild cats and animals and such. Good movie.

After Breakfast we jumped on the trampoline all together which was really fun. He taught us all his childhood games. He was impressed I could jump on it without wetting my pants (its a I've had a million babies thing). The kids thought their dad was the coolest when he showed off all his back flips and stuff. Then we played the board game I bought him and the kids and he loved it.

Then we went swimming and had a great time playing in the water. Stewart loves swimming.

After swimming we ate my attempt to create his favorite Mexican resturant, Cafe Rio. It wasn't as good but it was still yummy. Dinner of course was followed by desert. My fanciest ice cream cake I have ever made. We were FULL.

It was simple but it was what I think he really wanted. He doesn't get many "just chill" days and so it was a real treat for him.

Oh, and least I forget...I bought him his dream b-day gift a month before since I knew he wouldn't get to enjoy it once he started his back to back ward rotations..... A big, flat screen TV. It is a smart TV which is awesome and its also 3D. The 3D is really so cool! He loves it. :O)

I did want to say how much I adore my husband. He is not only a great person who is so diligent in everything he does but he is my best friend and the perfect husband and father. He is such a good man. Solid through and through. I am so proud of him and all he has accomplished this year. It has been such a crazy year for him! Finishing medical school, becoming a father to four, matching and interviewing, taking months off to vacation, starting an etsy business with me, falling in love with woodwork, starting residency, and working so hard. I was listening to him talk on the phone the other day about his patients and I was so impressed with all he has learned and all his capabilities. His patients love him and he is such a hard worker. Plus he looks very handsome in scrubs! LOL. :O) I am so glad he is mine and that we have shared these past 8 years together. He is absolutely my favorite.

Genevieve is 9 months old

Oh, she is such a doll! Wherever she is people are constantly grinning right back at her. She just sparkles when you look at her and people cant help grinning just as big as she does. She is just so cute. These pictures don't really capture her cuteness that well, she had just woken up when I plopped her out in the leaves. So just times her cuteness in these pictures by ten. :O) She really has a gift for making people happy. Even mom's who are sitting there holding their perfect cute babies start ogling over her. Its really fun to have such a "sparkler" on our hands. And man is she BUSY! Sitting through church is becoming very comical with it being just me and four kids. This month she has grown up a lot. She is all about learning new things: new sounds, new tricks like clapping and waving, how to climb more, only eating real food, and trying to get more and more mobile. She is in such a delightful stage and we are all just loving every moment of it. She wrestles the big kids and gets all of us giggling with her cuteness. I love hearing the kids call her "my baby" when they introduce her to their friends. Her favorite thing in the world is jumping on the trampoline with us. She giggles and giggles. I love her fluffy hair that seems to be staticy 24/7. At night I hear her and Angeli giggling in their room together and in the mornings Genevieve wakes Angeli up with her cooing and jabbering at her. It is very cute how their little relationship is developing. Anyways, We love her like crazy. Happy nine months!

Preping: "Live the Life"

Okay so my life is crazy and to be completely honest very stressful and a bit sad right now....So today not yesterday I went to the store and bought all the food for the challenge. My sister helped me with the amounts I needed to buy since it doesn't give amounts on the shopping list, that was annoying. So I will list below the amounts she gave me if you want to try it too.

It was basically the worst shopping experience of my life. I left fighting back tears. I don't think it had very much to do with the "live the life" stuff but that did add an element of stress. I think if I do the program I will only go shopping for my food when I can go alone. I was having to read labels and stuff to make sure I was getting the right calorie, protein, carb proportion in my items I bought which was annoying too. I will list below what products I found that best fit their criteria. I think in time this would get easy as you got used to buying the same items over time. My sister said in the real program they tell what brand and items fit their criteria. So that would be good to have.

It was quite a bit of food. I guess you eat a lot in a week. It cost me about $ 70.00 for most everything minus the stuff I already had at home with the most significant thing I didn't buy being the chicken.

My sister said that she found it works for her best if she buys her food on Friday, cooks it on Saturday, assembles it into containers on Sunday, and starts her week on Monday. But you could do it all in one day...she has five kids so life is BUSY for her. I can relate. She said its a lot of food to cook at once but then your week is super easy as you never have to worry about what you will eat and when. I am hoping to get it all cooked and packaged for me to start on Sunday or Monday. I hope this is a good thing that will be a life style that will make my life easier not a giant waste of time and cause undue stress!

Amounts for a week:

Jillian Micheal's Protein Powder: 1 small can
Salsa: 14 TB
Brown Rice: 2 cups
Black beans: 2 cans
Corn: 2 cans
Pizza sauce: 1 small jar (14 TB)
Ranch powder: 14 tsp
Strawberries: 7 cups
Skim milk: 2 quarts
Cottage Cheese: 1 quart
Chicken: 28 oz.
Eggs: 21
Oats: 2.5 cups
Whole grain crackers: 84 (kashi original)
Jerky: 9 oz. (any type and flavor)
Tortillas: 7 of them (low carb whole grain kind)
Pitas: Whole grain 7
Deli turkey: 3.5 slices
Crystal light: 7 tsp
Oranges: 3.5
Baby carrots: 56
Cherry tomatoes: 56
Bell peppers: 2
Onion: 14 TB
Zucchini: 2 cups

Live the Life Challange

I don't believe in diets. I don't. I think they may be good for some but a diet is not what I want out of life. I want to just live my life in such a way that I can look good, feel good, and not stress about it! Not stressing being the biggest component that has been hard to come by. Besides not believing in diets they have NEVER worked for me. I have had to just live my life with a general effort to be healthy and that has always worked for me, Well until now. The fourth baby has cursed me. I think its universal, "the fourth baby curse" I mean. I've been craving the science I need to know how to live with a nonexistent metabolism and with my schedule being sooooo busy. I'd just accept my mom body but honestly I just cant be really happy with that. So I have been floundering and praying I will magically start living the magically way I need to.

Then my sisters found "Kristy Approved Program" called what would you guess "LIVE the LIFE". It already sounds like my dream plan. They are two Mormon girls, and I assume their hubbies, that I think are going to change the world of health and fitness for regular people like me. My sisters have gotten fabulous results and I love that my sisters talk about how un-stressful and easy it is. Music to my ears.

Here is my very basic break down. They give you a shopping lists, recipes, and times to eat your food. Then you make all your food for one week and have your meals portioned out in your fridge ready to go when its meal time. Then you do weight training (not tons) and cardio (20-45 min) almost everyday and then tada. So here I go. I am taking their free seven day challenge.

And I am going to do it publicly. So cheer me on peeps! ; ) Or even better join in!!! I think this may be "IT" but we'll just have to see. And lucky you, you get to see it with me. I will journal for you all and let you know what I am doing and all my results. If I feel like it I will even take a pic for you all. Ha, we'll see about that one though.

Today: I am going to go to the store to buy everything on my shopping list. Pray that my elliptical I ordered last week arrives, and make sure I understand all the exercises and all that jazz. Then I will pick my start date. I am sort of wanting to wait for my elliptical to arrive but maybe I will just gun it without it.....running with the triple here I come! I've got to get everything else in order first and then I will be letting you all know when and how and all my results. ha! I know my teaming readers are on the edge of their seats! LOL but maybe one or two of you out there will get a kick out of this and maybe someone will even find that this will bless their life. Hopefully it will bless mine! : O)

Turning 27

I am now 27. Woot woot. That seems a little too close to 30 for my liking but what can you do? Every year you get a year older - unless you are dead and aging is a much better option in my opinion then being dead. :O) This year we had a lot of fun for my birthday. Our play days are dictated by Stewart's days off so the day before my birthday Stewart had a day off and so that was our party day. As almost all of my favorite days I woke up early and did some awesome exercise including a lovely run in the misty chilly morning. LOVED.

Then Stewart and the kids surprised me when I came home with my gift, many cards, and the house decorated all cute for me. Stewart always is so sly with his gifts and bought me my little dream gift from Hallmark that I wanted all the while I was thinking he hadn't even thought about getting me a gift. So sweet of him. I love it. Then Stewart and I went to the temple. I honestly think that was my favorite thing we did. I miss Stewart with how many hours he works. So to be in the temple with him and to be the witness couple was really nice. Plus it was snowing at the temple when we got there, it was this pretty fluffy snow and that was really fun.

Then we raced home for a showing of the house... I picked Bridger up from school dropped the babysitter home and grabbed some lunch for us to eat on our way to see the puppies!!!! Oh, we were so excited! We get the pick of the litter since we are the first ones to reply to her add. She lives out in the middle of no where Nevada about 50 minuets east of us so I don't think we'll make the trip too many times but at least once more before we pick up our puppy next month. These little pups are just 3 weeks old. So cute to watch them walking...they are all clumsy. It was hard to tell much about their personalities since they are so young but we narrowed it down to two, Choco (short for chocolate) and Cuddles. Stewart wants both of them but I don't think that will happen. :O)Cuddles:Choco:Then we hung out until we were hungry and headed to a yummy Thai restaurant...but we were disappointed because they have new cooks in the kitchen and the food was not real great. One dish was so disgusting I sent it back it was inedible. I was really nice about it but I wanted them to know that some of the food they were serving was really nasty. But the kids loved what we ordered them so that was good. They were all like, "Lets come here all the time!". After that we headed to pets mart to get some food for our little pet lizard Blue. And While I waited in the car with Genevieve for them to get their crickets I checked my email and found out we got an offer our our house. That was awesome. We could be moving in two months! So crazy. Then we headed home for a movie, cake and ice cream. It was so lovely. Hearing the kids sing to me was my perfect finish to my day. I felt so blessed and so loved and so in love with my cute family. It was a very happy birthday!

Getting Spooky!

We love this time of year. The changing leaves, the cooling crisp weather, the indulging in soups and homemade bread, and of course the anticipation of Halloween! I saw these cute jammies and I couldn't pass them up. I thought Stewart would be bugged that I bought the kids holiday jammies (not really a necessity) but when the kids jumped out and scared him when he got home form work he loved them. He declared they were their Halloween and radiology jammies....such a nerd. LOL! The kids look pretty dang cute in them. I love these crazy kids of ours!

Cheese!

Bridger lost his first tooth! He was so cute about it. It was super loose but no one was willing to pull it but dad and Bridger wouldn't let him. After a long "here let me try and pull it out" session with Bridger crying in fear I told him that when I was a kid I pulled out all my teeth by myself and he should just try it. So he said ok and gave it a little pull and to all of our amazment and laughter it popped right out. He was so excited. Well, all the kids were. Well, I think Stewart may have been the most excited. He was beaming, you'd think his kid had just one the noble peace prize or something Stewart loved it. :O) Then we busily got ready for the tooth fairy to come. Bridger has three more on their way out. He is going to be a rich kid at the rate he is going. His smile is so cute! I love it. In a couple months he'll have giant hole in his mouth. One thing he loves is that he can stick a straw through it while he drinks. :O) Its the simple things in life that give a kid a thrill!That is the little pouch that came with the little tooth fairy kit I bought at Barnes and Noble for $10 bucks. It was cute it had a book, a frame, a little night light thing to help the tooth fairy see in your room, and then a little pouch to put the tooth in. I love the pouch.

A well oiled machine and other such things

Ok, the real point to this post is that whenever Stewart's schedule gets very busy I find that I miss those extra hours in the evening and those weekend days when we are used to talking and discussing things. And well lets just say that isn't happening lately. So I have the need to talk about the mundane things I wouldn't normally dedicate a whole post too and so I lump them all in this random mixture of "what I'm thinking about these days" sort of post. If you love me enough to care then enjoy but if life is to busy then you can look forward to posts on Stewart's 30th birthday and our fall family pictures as our coming attractions. :O)

-My mom always said that after you have several kids its not that hard adding more because eventually you are a well oiled machine and everything is already in motion. I sort feel that my family has gotten to the point recently. Not that I am adding another baby any time soon but rather that we are a big family that is running like a well oiled machine. So that is very nice. I always get comments about how many kids I have and it has been fun lately to be able to tell people how much I love it and how fun it is. I think I shocked a lady nearly to death yesterday when she asked if I was done I replied that I would have ten more if I could.

-I am finally feeling really comfortable in my calling in the young womens. I think I am actually doing a good job. I hope I am. I really enjoy my girls though remembering what teenagers are like was a bit of a reality check. I forgot how the years between 14 and 16 are really hard and confusing. Oh, my miamaids I love you! Getting to activities with no husband to watch my kids is going to kill me though. As part of my calling I am going to be doing a lot of the trunk or treat planning and Young Women in Excellence planning. I find that a bit scary but it will be fine I know it.

- We are getting a dog! Well, a puppy! I am sooooooo excited. Eeeee! We always said we were going to wait like another ten years but a series of events happened and I knew that we needed to get a dog for Angeli, our resident animal lover. We are getting her a dog, a cute little dog not the type we'd thought we'd be getting as our first but I couldn't be more thrilled. (I'm a small dog kind of girl) We have a local breeder picked out and the pups will be ready in November to bring home. In the meantime I am researching dog training like you wouldn't believe. Cesar Milan is the BOMB! Love him. If I can help it we are going to have the most obedient joyful dog ever. I don't want to worry about her getting out and all that jazz. I want her to be a complete blessing to our family. I hope I can accomplish that!

- Bridger is getting ready to lose his first 4 teeth. Yes, he has four loose teeth. He is excited to get money from the tooth fairy.

- I found out to my dismay that my insurance does not cover my varicose vein treatment. I seriously have been crying on and off for about a week because of it. I had everything all lined up with these amazing different specialist and then it was a no go. I am so sad I will have to deal with my veins for another pregnancy down the road. sigh.

- Benjamin fell last week and got three stitches in his chin. He was our first to need stitches. I cant believe we made it this long without getting stitches. his little chin was all bruised and swollen for a couple days. Poor little guy.

- I finally have a good routine for getting in the exercise I like to and I am finally consistently loosing weight. It is so slow but in the past three/four months I have lost 7 pounds. I still have 16 pounds I'd ideally like to lose but I'm just taking it easy. If I cant loose it within a life style I like living then I guess I am not loosing it because its not worth that much to me.

- We started giving allowance. Stewart came up with the system and I love it. I think his parents did it this way but maybe not. They get smiley faces on a sheet of paper with their name on it and then at FHE they get to cash them in (and pay their tithing). Each smiley face is worth 5 cents. If they do their daily jobs they can earn 25 a day. It has been a big success.

- I am so excited for Halloween! The kids are being cowboys and cowgirls. I bought them guns and hats and stuff. they will be so cute....well, I hope!

- Then there is Christmas. I am already having so much fun making gifts.

- No action on the house yet. Oh, well. I am glad I'm not having to deal with moving in the near future. Right now thinking that moving after Christmas sounds pretty nice. time will tell how off I am.

The End

GeneV

My little baby is now 8 months old. Whenever people ask me how old she is I sort of hate having to answer 8 months because I am sad to acknowledge that so much time has passed. She is such a doll. She brings such a sweet and happy spark to our family. Her days are filled with food, mischief, naps, riding in the car, exploring, and giggles. She is still a bit of a mommy's girl and likes to have her mommy close by. But it amazes me that she can go and find a little corner of the house to explore and play there on her own for 30+ minuets at a time just entertaining herself.

She hates getting in trouble. All I have to do is say somewhat sternly "no baby" and she starts to cry. I think she'll be an obedient child. :O) She likes to cuddle just as much as she likes to be on the move. She crawls to me and crawls up my legs til I pick her up and then she rests her head on my shoulder as if to hug me and then prods me to get walking. She does not like sitting through church. She is so wiggly that I end up just plopping her on the ground and she crawls under peoples' legs and has herself some fun as different people pick her up and love on her.

She is a pincher. She love to pinch and I cant tell you how many little pinches I get all day. She likes when we go on walks or jogs together and loves taking baths. She loves to eat, and by eating I mean dirt, grass, paper,.... she gets a lot of fiber. She loves being sung to and if you take the time to get her giggling she will love you forever.

I still call her "my little perfect" because she is just so perfect to me. There is something about her spirit that is so regal to me. I get the sense that she is such a noble little spirit. And much as I hate that her baby days are passing I likewise am so excited to see what wonderful things she does in her life. I have no doubt that she will make this world a more beautiful place then she found it. I cant even express how much joy my babies bring me. I wish that these days would never end. Oh, my kids just make my heart sing! Happy eight months my sweet little girl. Your mother loves you very much.

Weight: 21 lbs (89th percentile)
Height: 27 in (41th percentile)

Mr. Benjamin all Grown Up in Big Boy Underwear!

The past two months we have been potty training Benjamin. I was a little nervous to do it because it can be stressful especially with people randomly showing up to look at our house but lucky for us Benjamin did great.

The last two weeks he really took off and basically potty trained himself. He just started going all by himself whenever he needed to go. On Sunday he made it official when he wore his big boy underwear to church and did perfectly. By the end of the day he had filled his potty chart he"d been working to fill for the past weeks and then earned his special toy he picked out. A Star Wars bouncy ball!!!!! He loves it. :) He is so delighted with himself. I love how proud he feels about himself because it really was his determination that made it happen. He set a goal, he practiced it, he mastered it, and he loves getting all the recognition for his accomplishment. That is golden confidence building. :)

The big kids were really good coaches and cheer leaders too. Potty training a child with older brothers and sisters is easier then your first which is so awesome. Lots of things in parenting get easier as its your third and fourth child....life is more hectic but the tasks themselves get simpler. Bridger and Angeli were just as excited about each time he went potty in the toilet as he was and were just as proud of him too. I really appreciated their support of him.

So, Ben good job! You are so full of goodness. You are such a positive, hardworking, brave and steady little man. I love being your mommy. Here is our grown up boy! He is too cute. :)


This is my method of potty training that I think is the least stressful and practical way I have ever heard about. Plus my kids don't have accidents as much as some other kids...I give them a longer time to learn and decide to be potty trained and I think it pays off in the end. But each mom knows their kids the best so like with everything always do what feels right for your child.

1.) So I decided they might be mature enough to handle the responsibility of being potty trained and then I start educating them as to what being potty trained means. I read them little books about the steps to going potty. I show them little videos about potty training. If they genuinely seem excited about the concept then I go forward with it.

2.) I give them lots of opportunities to try and go. I let them pick out their own underwear and let them wear them whenever they want at home - letting them know that if they wear them they need to go potty in the toilet if then have an accident I put a diaper back on. I don't get upset when they have accidents. Its all part of the learning process. They need to realize that they need to pay attention to when they have to go and they need to go in the potty. I make a sticker chart and they pick out stickers for it and they pick out a toy that they win after they fill their sticker chart. I make my sticker charts long. Two stickers for number two and 1 for number one and I make sure its long enough that when they win their prize they are really truly potty trained. I also tell them they get two stickers for going in public bathrooms.

3.) If and when they get overwhelmed by the responsibility of it all I let them know its ok and that we can go back to diapers. It may feel like you are regressing but not really...it is all percolating in their heads and it will come. I really think they need time to absorb the reality of going potty in the toilet and decide they really want to do it themselves all the time. Some kids do this really fast and some kids take their time. But giving them lots of opportunities to decide and to keep trying is a great way to approach it. I try to never get mad at them and I try to encourage not pressure.

4.) After they get so they aren't having accidents at home anymore I take the lunge and say okay no more diapers - not even to stores or things. I find if they pee their pants at a store I am more easily upset with them and they get embarrassed with all those other people around when its a big deal and mess to clean up. That can really turn them off to potty training so I don't even go there until they are ready.

5.) Then after 7 to 10 days of them waking up in the morning with completely dry diapers I stop putting diapers on them at night. I am lucky that night training has been really easy for my kids. This can be a tricky one.

And then ta da! They've done it! And I don't think a kid is potty trained completely until the parent no longer has to ask them all the time if they have to go. Sure a lets go before we leave the house and a question when you are close to the bathroom at the store is great but for me it should be all on them for it to be official.

So those are my thoughts. Take them with a grain of salt but I am grateful that it has worked for us and my kids haven't been traumatized or overly stressed by it.