Peel Off The Pounds

 Last week on Friday I started a Peel Off The Pounds Challenge it is 8 weeks long and we have almost completed the first week. The place I do Zumba is hosting the challenge and there are other local businesses who sponsor it. We have 4 people on our team (which is names Mission Slim-Possible) and your goal as a team is to basically lose the most weight out of all the other teams. You win money and they also donate to a charity of your choice if you win. 

I wasn't super excited about joining the challenge at first but thought why not? I have been "stuck" at the same weight since i had Kendall and seemed no matter what i did i couldn't not lose the weight. I decided to do a complete lifestyle change during the challenge and hopefully it will carry over after the challenge.

As of last week on Friday i have completely changed my diet. Here is a sample of what my daily food intake looks like:

Breakfast @ 6:30 am:

coffee with sugar free creamer

Smoothie 

4oz orange juice

4oz milk

1 orange yogurt

Mix it all together in a blender bottler and it makes a very filling smoothie that requires very little work 

Morning Snack 10:00 am:

I have one of these options

hard boiled egg

1/2 wheat english muffin with fat free cream cheese, no butter :(

1/2 avocado

Lunch 12:00 pm:

1 Cup Brown rice 

1/4 Cup spinach

1/2  tomato, diced

1/2 Cup lean meat (Ground turkey, grilled chicken or grilled deer/elk steak)

1 T balsamic vinaigrette

I heat it all up together and its really good and very filling

Afternoon snack 3:30 pm:

Celery

Hummus

V8 (small can)

Dinner 7:00 pm:

Dinner Salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Cucumber

Lean Meat (turkey burger, grilled chicken or grilled deer/elk steak)

I use My Fitness Pall (follow me MichelleDM1987) to track how many calories i am eating a day. It gives you a suggestion of how many you should eat based on how much you weigh and how much you want to weigh. It says no matter what you should eat a minimum of 1200 calories a day. You can track your exercise and put in how many calories you burn. I have found even though it looks like i eat a lot of food during the day, because i almost eliminated all carbs i don't reach the 1200 calorie mark. If that happens i will add in a serving of cottage cheese with my dinner or eat a healthy snack so i reach 1200. 

I have completely cut out bread other then the whole wheat muffins, potatoes are a big fat no (i did try to make sweet potato chips but i failed), absolutely no white rice and because cheese doesn't really agree with me i have completely cut that out other then cottage cheese and fat free cream cheese they don't even count as "real" cheese anyways. I try to not eat any beef either which is actually really easy since we have a freezer full of wild game. 

Instead of working out only 3 days a week i now do 5 days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday are Zumba classes. Tuesday is Zumba toning and Thursday is a strength training class. When it decides to be spring i will add walking/jogging into the mix.

The best news of all of this is since i changed me eating habits i have lost 5 POUNDS since i weighed in Friday evening. I was noticing last night how good i feel. I don't feel weighted down from all the "heavy" food. Although i don't notice a huge difference in my body yet, my stomach doesn't have the "pooch" it normally does from eating carbs. 

Water is also a big help. I drink over 100 ounces of water a day. I take vitamins in the morning with my smoothie (its important to eat when you take vitamins it helps break them down so your body can absorb them) so i am not depleting my body of all the important stuff it needs.

To make the eating easier, I made a meal plan and grocery shopped for the whole week and made all my food over the weekend so all i have to do is grab a container from the fridge and heat it up. 

I am dreading when i hit a slump because i know it will happen when i reach a certain point. I will have to work hard to get over that obstacle and not get discouraged when i don't see the results i want. 

Set a goal for yourself, it will make you work harder to reach it and once you reach it you will feel very accomplished.

I hope this helps more then just me :)

Lastly, who cant resist a sloppy kiss from this sweet girl, i sure cant. 

52 Week Money Challenge

While browsing Pinterest a few weeks ago I saw this and after looking it over i thought it was a really great idea. I, like many other people, have a hard time saving money and usually only put money into my savings account if i feel like i have a little extra that month. 

I decided i was going to do this challenge and so far it has been really easy. It works well for me because i get paid every week. Every week on payday i log into my online banking (which i highly recommend would be the easiest way to do this) and transfer however much money i need to that week. I printed off a copy of the picture and pinned it right next to my computer at work so i can't accidentally forget to transfer the money. It has been 4 weeks so far and well my savings account has only gone up $10, but that is better then nothing. I still plan on adding in money when i have extra. But I am looking forward to the end of the year when i will have saved up the full $1,378.00 

There are different ways you could do it. You could try saving cash every week. That doesn't work for me cause i would end up spending it. By putting it directly into my savings account i can't access it as easily as if i just had a wad of cash sitting in a drawer (plus i never have cash on me). The plus side of putting it in my savings is that i will earn interest on it. If you are really dedicated you could double the amount you put in weekly which would give you an end result of $2,756.00

One of my new years resolutions was to stop spending so much money on meaningless things that i wanted but didn't really need (like nail polish) so i could save up more money. When i saw this i new it would be perfect for me. When i started i didn't really have a specific goal in mind for what i want the money for other then for savings. I would rather have money saved up for a rainy day or unexpected expenses then worry about where i am going to get money from if i ever get into a bind. 

This is really helping me and I hope by passing it a long it will be able to help other people as well. 

PS: I just got back from sunny CA and it was in the high 70's. Today i am sitting at my desk bundled up in a blanket with the heater on freezing my butt off.

I've been busy

So I know it has been a while, but i decided it was time to update The Ol' Blog. What can I say, I have been super busy with the holidays and work (its our busy season). These photos are not even close to being in order but i just want to give an update :)

She got to spend lots of time playing with friends.

4th times a charm. After pink eye, a staph infection and the flu she FINALLY had her eye surgery. Her daycare closes for the holidays and i pulled her out a week early to keep her home away from the germs so she wouldn't get sick. She looked like a baby toddler zombie for a couple weeks cause the whites of her eyes were completely bloodshot red. It was a little nerve racking but she handled it really well. The anesthesia did make her sick but that is normal and she was back to her stubborn self the day after surgery.

It snowed a lot and has been really cold, but we braved the weather and she got her first sledding experience and she loved it.

Second sledding experience with dad she did not enjoy so much. I don't blame her, we went up to the sledding hill and it was only about 10 degrees outside plus she didn't have a nap and was crabby.

Christmas lasted 3 days and she got an insane amount of presents for Christmas. We spend Christmas Eve with Jason's family, Christmas at home. It took her all day to open presents because she was so over stimulated and just wanted to play. The day after Christmas we got some presents late in the mail and she was excited she had more paper to tear up. She still randomly asks me to open presents.

Daddy (Jason) had to go out of town for a week for work and she missed him a lot and wanted to take lots of pictures for him but would never sit still long enough. She is actually in this picture saying "miss you daddy"

(this picture should be at the top, oops) Auntie CoCo came and visited us for a month. She was able to go with us to her surgery and since I pulled Kendall out of daycare for a couple weeks they got to spend a lot of time together so i could still work. We enjoyed having her here. It has been a long time since she got to stay and relax with us for that long. 

This weekend we are going on a little mini vacation to visit family in California and we can't wait to get out of the single digit temps and into a sunny 70 degrees. 

I am hoping i might be able to get back into the swing of blogging once things at work slow back down a little. Or i might just have to stay up late every night so i get a chance to blog :)

Oh Deer

I had a little run in with a deer last night, things did not end well for either of us. But I did get my trophy buck for the year. I have been driving in Montana for 10 years and have hit my fair share of turkeys, pheasants and smaller birds. But I have only ever come "close" to hitting a deer until last night. That sucker literally jumped out RIGHT in front of me. There was no deer then the next thing i know BAM DEER RIGHT THERE!!!!! 

I was going about 60mph and was slowing down cause i was about a 1/4 mile from where i needed to turn off the highway to go home. I was going to hit it no matter what i tried to do. I had a few seconds to react so i grabbed the wheel with both hands and slammed on the brakes to try to slow down as much as possible. 

One thing you NEVER do is try to swerve out of the way. It will just land you in more trouble. You're probably still going to hit the deer and potentially also roll over. Its better to just hang on and hit it. 

I was in the fast lane so i got over into the center turn lane to get out of the 5pm traffic and by this time it was completely dark outside. I called dispatch and told them what happened and a sheriff was driving by so he stopped and was able to stop traffic so i could get onto the shoulder of the road. But since i was on the highway other then helping to get my car moved he couldn't do much. He had to leave to go to another call but sent a Highway patrolman to take my statement and call a tow truck. We were only there about an hour but it seemed like a really long time.

I made the claim with my insurance this morning. Since I have really good timing and this happened near the holiday the adjuster probably wont be able to come out until Friday or the beginning of next week. Once that happens I will no more about the extent of damage. It was squirting fluid out of it so there is some engine damage and obviously my headlight is completely gone and the hood and right panel have some serious dents. I am hoping there isnt TOO much damage to the point where they total it and that it is ok to fix. I was planning on trading it in in the spring but i might have to look into getting a new car.

Pinspiration

This has been a hair lifesaver. I started taking it about 2 weeks ago and the hand full of hair that used to fall out everyday is now just down to a few strands a day. 

Literally everyday for a long time when i take a shower i lose so much hair and there would always be a big ball in the drain. Even if i bought expensive shampoo or didn't wash it every day no matter what i always lost so much hair. It used to be pretty thick and it still looks pretty thick because of the fro i have going on from the curls but when it is up in a pony you can see how thin it really is. 

I have seen it on Pinterest several times but whenever i was at the store i always forgot to buy some. I finally remembered one day and i have been very pleased. I did do some research on it and what it does for the body. I never new that you needed Biotin and i don't think of lot of people do. I take a multivitamin and it has some in it but it wasn't enough. 

There hasn't been any improvement (that i have seen) on the skin and nails part of it. I was slightly hesitant about taking it at first because i HATE clipping or filing my nails and i thought this would make them grow faster then they already do. My skin has stayed about the same. 

I am more then pleased with the results it has provided for my hair. It did worry me as to how much hair i lost on a daily basis, but it has been cut down by i would say at least 80% I still lose a few strands but that is normal. Hopefully now it will start to fill back in and thicken up again. 

Happy Halloween

Yesterday I took the afternoon off from work so I could take Kendall to the Main Street Halloween Parade. We met up with Grandma Marci (Jason's mom) and walked over and went to all the businesses and trick or treated. Kendall was a little shy at first but after a while she started warming up to people.

Grandma Marci gave her a princess cup that she loved i eventually had to take it away from her so she would collect candy.

This is the most precious picture ever (this is our friend Sydney's niece Austin) they were walking down the sidewalk holding hands and getting candy together.

Papa Scott had to work so when we were done at the parade we went and trick or treated at his work so he could see the kids.

(They both look so thrilled in the picture but its just too cute not to post)

 We went to a big indoor Harvest party with Jason and Marci. We only stayed long enough for her to eat, play a couple games and see Grandma and Grandpa. It was too crowded and she was tired of waiting in a line to play all the games. The church my parents attend puts the Harvest party on every year and they give out TONS of candy and there is free food for anyone to enjoy. 

Yes i know she doesn't have a coat on and every one else looks all bundled up but it was actually pretty warm outside and she was not cold.

Over the duration of the night she only ate 2 suckers, a cookie and a couple pieces of licorice, which is way more sugar then she normally has. She was pretty amped up from being around a lot of people all afternoon. We were home by 7pm and we just relaxed and read books so she could wind down before bedtime. Over all it was a very successful Halloween and I think she was the cutest kid in the cutest costume.

Spring cleaning in the fall

The last few weeks i have been in a cleaning frenzy. I have felt like i have too much "stuff" and am not organized enough. Part of the problem was i was living out of 2 bedrooms. I started off sharing a room with Kendall when she was a baby but it got to the point where she was older and if either of us were going to get any sleep we had to stay in separate rooms at night. So I started sleeping in the guest room and when family would come to stay i would just deal with it and share a room with Kendall for a couple days. All my clothes were in the closet in Kendall's room but i was sleeping in the guest room and by the end of the week i would have this pile of clothes in my "sleeping room" because i could never get into the other room to put them away because when i did have the time Kendall was sleeping.

I was looking for a dresser to put things in and couldn't find a decent used one. The underneath of my bed was filled with purses (yes i have a problem). The shelves in my closet were loaded with things that didn't need to be hung up. Kendall's toy box was overflowing in the living room but there was no place in the bedroom to put any of her toys. The bathroom cabinets where full of stuff from when we were all kids living at home and there was no room to put anything. It was stressing me out and one day i just couldn't take it anymore.

I went through the bathroom and threw away (almost) everything that was in the cabinets but hasn't been used in years. I got rid of all the half empty bottles of lotion that were "someday" going to be empty. I probably filled a garbage bag full of stuff we didn't need anymore and boy did it feel good. There is now room for everything although it is still a little unorganized it all has a place.

I finally convinced my parents to let me just move into the guest room since i was pretty much living in it anyways. Sunday my mom helped me clean out the closet and moved beds around. There was a dresser in the guest room that is now filled with clothes that didn't have a place before and my purses now get to live on a shelf in the closet instead of under the bed. Kendall's room still has an extra bed but it is smaller then the one that was in it so when we have company i will just sleep in there and they can have my room. We will be able to move her toy box to her room and just keep a few things out on a shelf in the living room so it cant get as cluttered as it did before. Plus with the holidays coming up who knows how many more toys she is going to end up with.

Its amazing how much stuff we have. At the beginning of the summer we gave 4 truck loads of stuff away to a high school for a fundraiser yard sale and just a few months later we have at least 1 more full truckload of stuff that we are giving away to a church rummage sale. There is still so much more stuff but it feels good that we were able to downsize and get rid of some more "stuff" that other people will be able to use.

On a (kind of) sad note, my phone is being stupid and wont let me post pictures. Something to do with being out of data although that has nothing to do with being able to send pictures. It should be back to normal in a few days. I can't wait to show off Kendall's Halloween costume.