FXB Week 6

I was really worried about Week 6 because of my travel and I was right to be worried.  I struggled.  Bad.  

Not with the exercise though!  I exercised every single day – twice on one day!   Unprecedented behavior people!  I felt really good about that.

But my nutrition - that was pretty atrocious.  It was super, duper difficult to follow the 6 small meals, carb/protein balance plan.  Super, duper.  I started off strong on Monday and Tuesday and at least did a decent job of following my Weight Watchers points guidance even if I didn't always get the protein/carb mix right.

But with the stress of the travel and all the temptation in my face, I broke on Wednesday.  Bad.  I completely fell apart and the old me from nearly two years ago was there stuffing her face with breakfast burritos, cinnamon rolls, cookies, trail mix, bread, seconds of bread, more cookies, more trail mix, greasy burger smothered in onions and cheese on buttered texas toast, ice cream & brownie dessert, chocolate.  Oh.  My.  GAWD.  I felt so sick.  Physically ill from all that crap.  Emotionally wrecked from my total breakdown and lack of self-control.  AND, to top it all off, I looked 6 months pregnant with that full, bloated belly.  Awful.

I texted Joel with my woes.  And you know what my super smart husband said?  “So what.  Make it your fun day.” Duh.  His suggestion allowed me to regroup and forgive myself for my food sins.  So on Thursday, my last day of travel, I got it somewhat together and ate somewhat reasonably.  Still not something to be proud of cause I still over did it.  But at least I didn’t reach the end of the day completely hating myself.  So that’s sort of a win.

Since I didn't get home until after mid-night on Thursday, I ended up going to the 7am kickboxing class on Friday morning.  It was soo different than my normal 5am class.  It had about 1/3 the people and the overall energy was just so different.  I missed my people.  I'm looking forward to getting back in it on Monday.

And, lucky me, I will get a chance to redeem myself with respect to my eating behavior on travel.  I have to (get to?) go to Phoenix on Wednesday, returning late Friday night.  I am psyching myself up to not screw up this time.  Work travel is going to be a part of my life this year and I need to learn how to resist temptation, be reasonable about my choices and not go off the deep end at the first available excuse.

I missed Wacky Sock Wednesday this week but here's my crew.  Looks like it was a light bunch this week.

Catch Up and Week-In-Review

First things first - must catch the blog up with photos I nicked off Joel's phone.

These kiddos freely and willingly took some of their candy leftover from Lily's birthday party and filled up these Easter eggs for the daycare/church.  I figure we're essentially just trading some of our candy for new candy that the kids will get when they do the Easter Egg hunt in a few weeks.

Tyler wanted to get some books from his dresser so he drug the ladder (which I had forgotten to put away) over to his bookshelf.  Smart little dude, eh?  Lily then saw this as an opportunity to thief the Olaf from on top of his dresser.

If these pictures had a timestamp on them, it would say 5:29am.  Cause that's a totally appropriate time to do artwork in the playroom.

We love snuggling on the couch.

On Valentine's Day, the daycare had a parent appreciation breakfast.  It was a nice treat to get to eat with them!

These two were pretending to take a nap on the floor and were snuggling.  How stinking cute is that?

And that gets me all caught up from Joel's phone and on to this week.  And what a week it was!  I had a trying week with travel and Joel had a trying week flying solo with the kids. 

My travel was a nightmare.  I flew out of Indy early Monday morning – was headed for Memphis by way of Charlotte.  I landed in Charlotte to find out my flight to Memphis was cancelled due to the ice storm they were getting.  The airline couldn’t get me to Memphis until late Tuesday night – best case – and I decided I didn’t really want to hang out at the Charlotte airport for 2 days so I opted to return to Indy.  I get back to Indy around 3:30pm – my luggage did not arrive with me.  Awesome.  Talked to the agent and all he knows is it’s in Charlotte – but no one in Charlotte has eyes on it and he has no idea if it’s going to come back to Indy or head on to Memphis at the next available flight (since the bag was tagged for Memphis).  Okey-dokey!

So then I book another flight to Memphis (direct this time) on another airline for Tuesday morning.  Then I make the crappy drive back to Columbus on snow covered, slick roads.  I go straight to Walmart to basically restock all my toiletries since they were stranded somewhere in the Charlotte airport.

I get home around 6pm with dinner.  When I walked in the door Lily said “Is it four days already??”  The kids were not expecting me because they thought I was going to be gone for four days so they were somewhat excited.

There was 3 inches of snow on the ground and since it was the first snow, the kids were DYING to play in it.  We scrambled through dinner and got them suited up.  It was FREEZING but they were determined.  They had a great time.  The snow wasn't very wet so they had a rough time trying to make a snowman.  Joel improvised...

After snow, they enjoyed some hot chocolate.  

We get them off to bed without a hitch and I then go about packing a new bag for my early morning departure and redo at getting to Memphis.

I get off without a hitch on Tuesday morning.  Once I arrive, I spent pretty much the rest of the day making phone calls to see if the remaining 14 people I’m supposed to meet up with are actually going to make it to Memphis.  It was kinda miserable and stressful.

Meanwhile, Joel was having a MUCH more traumatic experience with the kiddos Tuesday morning.  Wouldn’t you know that they both decided to sleep in?  At 6:00am, neither of them were up yet.  THEY NEVER SLEEP THIS LATE.  NEVER.  Well, when our kids don’t wake up naturally on their own, they are in HORRIFIC moods.  Especially Lily.  She fought Joel every step of the way.  Wouldn’t get dressed for anything.  At one point, Joel is putting Tyler in the car and Lily is standing in her underwear and bare feet in the driveway screaming (recall we had 3 inches of snow and it’s sub-zero temperatures outside).  He finally wrestles her in to some clothes, gets them school and gets in to work 15 minutes.  So for all his troubles with the kiddos, he’s awarded with an occurrence at work. 

Fast forward to the end of the day of and the kids pretty much pick right up on where they left off.  Joel sent me a video of Lily screaming, slamming doors and throwing things.  “I WANT MOMMY!”  I think part of the reason this happened is because I came back unexpectedly on Monday night and then left again early Tuesday before they got up.  Talk about gut-wrenching Mommy guilt.  Joel said the kids took turns screaming and yelling all evening with only about a 15 minute respite the whole time. 

To top all that off, Tyler crapped in the bathtub.  He’s never done this.  Never.  Not even as a little baby.

Wednesday was a lot better with no tantrums so that was a relief for Joel but then Wednesday night Tyler got up at 11pm, 3am, 4:45am.  Then Lily got up at 5am and had wet through her pull up so her sheets were wet.  Then Tyler got up too.  So, Thursday morning, while there was no fighting, there were plenty of other disturbances – at least no one was screaming.

Joel was exhausted.  I felt like crap for not being there.  Nobody wins.  They did at least go and enjoy some pizza together on Thursday night.  There is just something about this place that seems to set things with with the world!

And, I had a stroke of luck with my luggage.  My colleague also flew in to Memphis late Tuesday morning and I had to pick him up from the airport.  I checked on my luggage and found out that it was en route to Memphis from Charlotte!  It arrived about the same time as my colleague so I was able to retrieve it!  Yes!  I suppose something was bound to go in my favor!

And the last installment for today is that we sent Lily off on vacation to Grams house for the week so we could work with Tyler on his sleep issues.  See, when Tyler wakes up at 2am, 3am, 4am - whatever - we end up doing whatever he wants us to do just to try to keep him quiet so he doesn't wake Lily up.  Well 7+ months of this and we are throwing our hands in the air and calling and intervention.  It's ridiculous.  We're tired.  This has to stop.  

So we're taking this week to work with him on this.  We've put a baby gate at his door.  We plan to leave his door open so that he doesn't feel as trapped, but he is not allowed to come out of his room (unless it's to potty) until it's wake up time.  And if he screams, he screams.  We have to find a way for him to realize that when mean it when we say 5am is not wake up time.  Locking him in his room just scared him.  At least this way, even though he's still stuck in his room, he can see out so maybe he won't be frightened and will just go back to bed.  

Wish us luck.

Meanwhile, I'm missing Lily like crazy.  Since I was gone most of the week and then took her Mom on Friday night, I've hardly seen her and now I won't see her until next Saturday.  I'm a little Lily-sick.  

FXB Week 5 - What a Week!

This has been a big week.  BIG.  I mean HUGE.  Ok, where should I start...

I paid my money for one year of FXB FIT membership.  Non-refundable.  Non-transferable. 

Ohmahgawd.  WhathaveIdone?

Oh yes, that's right, I committed to waking up at 4:15am 5-6 days a week until (at least) the end of next Spring.  No, no.  Not supposed to look at it that way.  How's this:  I committed to continue on this journey to a stronger, healthier me for (at least) the next year.  Yes, that's what I did. I'm still in shock (a little) that I committed to this before I even reached the end of my 10 week challenge.  But I kinda had to since space is limited and I didn't want to risk losing my 5am spot.  Sh*t or get off the pot, so they say. 

New FXB things:  super sets came our way - which is a quick succession of band exercises intended to cause muscle confusion and build you up stronger.  My muscles must have been confused because they were screaming "KELLY, WHAT THE @#$% ARE YOU DOING?!"  Haha.

We also had band kicks.  Your partner holds you back with a resistance band, by doing a deep squat, while you attempt to roundhouse kick the punching bag.  This. is. hard.  For both partners.

Ring of Fire happened on Friday.  Set up the punching bags in a giant circle and move around them doing our kickboxing thing and then trade with your partner who is being tortured in the center of the circle with burpees, jump squats, supermans, 4-count pushups and the like.   Good times!

Wacky Sock Wednesday - Week 5 - I got some new socks!!   Those who know me well know that it's kind of a big deal that my sock wardrobe includes something other than St Patrick's Day socks.  Though guess this photo doesn't really prove it cause you can't see my face. 

Here's why we never win the weekly wacky sock trophy.  Pictured above is MAYBE 25% of our class.  Ding #1 - poor participation.  Ding #2 - our pose is always about 4 steps behind everyone else in the creativity department.  Check out these other two classes.  Anybody have any ideas for creative poses??  I'm so embarrassed for my class.

Week 5 also brought Freaky Friday.  Freaky Friday means each class time picks a theme and dresses accordingly for said theme - it's a contest similar to Wacky Sock Wednesday but a little more involved and eXtreme, if you will (tee hee).  "Kickstartin' the day at 5A" elected to choose "JoshStrong" as our theme.  Josh is a high school student who was in a terrible car accident on Super Bowl Sunday and is fighting hard to recover.  Josh's parents are in our 5A class and we wanted to show our support for them and what they are going through. At least we had awesome participation for this - probably >95% of the class!

Here is Erika, Pooja and myself sportin' our Freaky Friday gear.  Don't we look awesome?  And FIT?  And STRONG?  And FIERCE!  And it's only Week 5!  Erika and I are both in for a year of this.  Mess with us, and we will take. you. down.  Don't let those smiles fool you.

Week 5 brought progress testing.  A repeat of orientation day (minus the picture).  My stats:

Weight:  decrease 5.8 pounds

Body Fat %: decrease 2.3%

Chest: decrease 2 inches
Waist:  decrease 0.75 inches
Arm: decrease 0.75 inches
Thigh: decrease 1.25 inches
Hips:  decrease 1 inch

Sit and Reach: from 19.5 inches to 22 inches

Push Ups (from knees): from 21 to 44 in 60 seconds

Sit Ups (full sit-ups - not crunches):  from 17 to 30 in 60 seconds

1 Mile Run:  from 11:30 minutes to 10:15 minutes

So yeah, that's pretty incredible as far as I'm concerned.  I'm so proud, I'm bursting at the seams.  I cried no less than six times before, during and after the 5 week testing.  I was just so overwhelmed.  I never thought I would be where I am.

One more huge thing happened in week 5.  I hit a milestone I never, ever, ever dreamed imaginable.  Never.  Ever.  I stepped on the scale, at home prior to my FXB weigh in, and the number jumped around for a second (I felt like I was on the Biggest Loser where they do the weigh in and the numbers jump like 10 pounds in each direction for dramatic effect before settling on the true weight). And then it stopped.  I almost fell over.  I immediately ran back into the bedroom to grab my phone.  I came back to the bathroom - jumped on the scale again - cause I was pretty sure it was a fluke.  The same number came up.  I took a picture.  Why?

Because since starting all this on June 24, 2013, I have lost 100 pounds.  

 ONE HUNDRED POUNDS!!

I'm starting to get emotional just typing that out.  I had to document it because today was Fun Day, and I earned it, so I'm quite sure I completely undid my milestone but that's ok.  At least for one day, I was a woman that lost 100 pounds. 

Not to end on a down note or anything but I'm very nervous for Week 6.  I have to travel 4 days this week for work and will miss class.  I will get in a workout of some kind every day - at least I will do my very best to try.  But I'm worried about trying to keep up with the nutrition given the temptation and lack of routine that comes with traveling.  I will have to work extra hard to remain focused.  Plus, it's ok to undo my milestone a little bit because of Fun Day.  It's NOT ok to undo my milestone because of a week full of poor choices.  Wish me luck - this is week 1 of 3 in a row where I have to travel.  I can do this.

I love this woman.  She gave me two kids and made me who I am today.  But I don't ever want to see her again.

June 2013

Change is Afoot.

We have lots of random things going on in our house right now.  We are trying essential oils on the kids (and us) at night to see if it helps with sleep.  Definitely not claiming victory.  The first two nights, he got up around 5:30am - which isn't TERRIBLE but he refuses to go back to sleep or stay in bed.  This morning, he got up at 4:45am and went back to bed for 10 minutes and then got up again and refused to go back to bed.  That is still way too early to be getting up.  We get notes from his teacher that he gets grumpy and sassy and it's clearly because he's tired. 

We're not really following a rigid plan with the oils.  There are six different ones and we tried putting certain ones in certain places according to the hippie directions on the internet, but Tyler pretty much wants to run the show and pick what goes where.  So whatever.  We are just rolling with it.  If it starts to work consistently, I don't give a crap where he puts the oil!  Or maybe to GET it to work consistently, we need to follow the hippie directions.  I don't know.  I'm so not in tune with this kind of stuff.  Too fluffy for me.  Maybe that's why it's not working spectacularly - first I must truly believe!  :D

At Lily's doctor appointment yesterday, I talked about how stubborn she is and all our struggles with dinner time, bed time, get dressed time, bath time - well you name it, Lily will have a tantrum about it and be stubborn to the point of bringing me to tears of despair and frustration.  Constant power struggles.  I told the doctor about how we try so hard to stand firm and most of the time we do, but sometimes we just cave because we're exhausted.  She said it sounds like we're doing everything right except the occasional cave - that has to stop.

She also said that the whole fixing of 2 or 3 different suppers needs to stop.  The children will learn to eat what I fix.  They won't starve.  If they are hungry they will eat.  Etc etc etc.  Stuff Joel and I have discussed over and over.  We get it in our brains.  We know that this needs to happen - we've just never felt brave enough (energetic enough) to take it on.

Until now.  Last night, I had made turkey meatballs and zoodles (zucchini noodles) with a side of asparagus.  Probably not exactly the most kid friendly meal to start with so we compromised and gave them a tiny bit of meatball and a tiny bit of asparagus along with some fruit, cheese and yogurt (things we know they will eat).  They couldn't have a dessert and they couldn't have seconds of anything on their plate unless they tasted all items on their plate (pretty sure this was the rule in girl scouts except you had to eat THREE bites).  

Anyhow, Lily was stubborn and wouldn't touch the meatball or asparagus - flat out claiming that she doesn't like it.  Followed by the claim that she doesn't want a treat anyway and that was that.  No fit from her really.  Just stubborn defiance.  But I think she sensed that we really meant business today - I don't know if her hearing it from the doctor made a difference or what.

Tyler, on the other hand, threw a huge fit because he didn't want his meatball or asparagus.  He completely removed the asparagus from his plate to a napkin.  He was given umpteen chances to eat it.  I even gave him some ketchup in case the meatball could be more easily consumed covered in it.  He still refused, his plate was removed from the table and he was told he couldn't have a treat.  Then he screamed for about 30 minutes that he wanted his plate back so he could get a treat.  I finally distracted him with a bath and that's the only way we got out of that mess.

So, night #1 of not giving them PB&J or pepperonis for supper wasn't a COMPLETE disaster.  I was honestly expecting far worse.  I was expecting Lily to sit at the table for 90 minutes refusing to give in and try the food AND refusing to get up til she could have a treat.  I was expecting bed time to be a train wreck of Lily claiming that she's hungry followed by Tyler also claiming hunger and both of them screaming for grapes or pretzels for 45 minutes.  But none of that happened.  So, let's do this.  

Night #2 of giving them what we ate (pulled pork and salad) was a total success with Tyler.  He tried and/or ate everything.  He scored two treats (Hershey's kisses).  Lily on the other hand absolutely refused to taste the pulled pork.  But she did eat her salad - lettuce and orange tomatoes (tomatoes must be orange for her to eat them) - and everything else on her plate, so she scored one treat.  I would say this is a tiny, tiny victory with Lily.  I'll take it.

In addition to that advice from the doctor, Joel and I watched a free webinar last night on "Get Your Kids to Listen Without Yelling, Reminding and Nagging."  It was a pretty good seminar, and Joel and I laughed out loud several times because the speaker was describing our situation to a T.  But of course she only gave you this much advice >  < and a teaser to this much advice >                   < she has to offer if you are willing to pay $179 for the online course.  Joel, with his infinitely greater internet searching patience, is going to see what he can find for free before we spend any money.  But it's awfully tempting if what she says works.  Would be worth every penny.

Other current events:

For Fun Day last weekend, we went to Crackerbarrel for supper (breakfast for most of us).  Tyler had said several times during the day that this belly hurt and his appetite was a little suppressed but he was acting totally fine all day.  Two bites in to his pancakes, he hurls all over himself and his pancakes.  Stomach wise, he was totally fine after he did that but he was completely distraught over his wet clothes.  Of course we haven't carried an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag since Tyler was 12 months old.  But, alas!  We're at Crackerbarrel!  Where they have a "country store!"  I found this cute John Deere T-shirt on the clearance rack - but unfortunately no pants.  This bothered Tyler for a minute or two but then he got over it. 

I kinda like the tractor shirt / boots / no pants look.

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We paid a visit to Kids Commons last weekend too.    The kids had never been there before and they had a great time.  Particularly in the giant toilet.

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Fun with a wolf hat and a tea set.

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Saturday morning waffles while I was at the gym.  Lily using her knife very responsibly (the trick is convincing her you CAN NOT lick the peanut butter off the knife...it's a KNIFE....KNIVES CUT (disclaimer - it was a plastic knife, but still)).

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Tyler recently became more interested in Lily's tablet so we finally took his out of the box from Christmas.  These two have been playing with them side by side.  And, if you can believe this, STILL arguing over them.  Each one wanting whichever tablet the other kid has AND THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME.  Crazies.