My new toy!

My husband and I were on the winning team of our Summer Wellness Challenge.  We won $204.  We didn't know what to do with it.  We wanted to buy another piece of exercise equipment but what can you buy that is sturdy and under $204.  Well, I finally found it and I'm SO GLAD this was so affordable.  We have a treadmill but it's getting quite boring and if you haven't noticed, I've plateaued the last three weeks.  It's unnerving to say the least.  But I really feel that our new "toy" will do a lot to help change that within the next two weeks.  I think my body will need time to adjust.

I've only used it for two workouts, but I LOVE it.  I have plans for getting my workout on the machine a little more constructed, but I definitely feel more muscle strength in my body from just two workouts.  I love that we were able to get a strength training machine for such a great price!  Plus I've subscribed to get our diapers through Amazon's subscribe and save feature. So as a member of the Amazon Mom group I get free Amazon Prime for at least two months with ways to earn longer time with free Prime.  So I ordered the machine on Monday and received it on Wednesday.  I've used it on Wednesday and now today!  I LOVE IT!  

How Cool is that!

I am slowly building up food storage, but we seriously lack space in our small home for food storage for 6 people!  Where do I put all this stuff?  Well, for now, I'm still looking for ideas, but I had an idea similar to this one, but haven't seen it used anywhere but my head.  When I stumbled on this today, I said, "LOOK AT THIS!"  to my sweet hubby and he saw visually what I had been thinking about.  (My idea is for one that will fit on the back end of an entertainment center.  So not quite the same, but same principles.)
Original 640w x 385h - shrunk to 480 x 289

Some things to look forward too.

We live in a small community that is locked in from society as much of the U.S. is accustomed to.  We do have two small grocery stores in town with some touristy places popping up around town.  When the heavy rains actually washed the road to the town north of us completely into the ocean and the heavy winds blew a tree down over the road going south out of town, we realized how vulnerable our situation was and that we needed to be prepared for some emergencies.  So we began our food storage.  We had always wanted to have a year supply of food, but we were just out of college and during our college years money was non existent.

Well, in order to have a decent long lasting food storage we needed to store wheat.  Which means we need a wheat grinder.  I love home ground whole wheat!  There is nothing like it!  When you learn how to handle it, you have the best most wonderful tasting baked goods!  I'm going to post some more about all the breads we've done.  I just made homemade honey wheat pita bread today.  I took a bunch of pictures and learned a few lessons.  Here are a few pictures of some of the things I hope to post in the next few days. 

 

Honey Whole Wheat bread filled with tuna and coleslaw salads

Homemade Tuscana Soup

Down 18 - 58 more to go!

Yeah!!! This week I was a little upset because I hadn't lost anything last week. I'm not expecting huge results, just 1 pound a week. Unfortunately despite my working out extra long and hard, I hadn't lost any pounds. It was probably due to my being much hungrier with the harder workouts. So be careful not to fall into the trap of working out like crazy and eating like crazy to keep up your strength. I didn't do any super long workouts this week and my appetite wasn't as ferocious. So it was better that I injured myself this week and had to slow down. This weeks bonus challenge in my Wellness Challenge is to keep a food journal and SHARE IT with a team member. That changes how you look at your plate! It's a good thing.

Poster: Eliminate Food Distractions: Prepare Dish and Sit to Eat!

POSTER - Eliminate Food Distractions! Sit to Eat!

Fire it up Red Team

I confessed that I had a lot of weight to lose. I said I would tell you how in a later post. Well here it is. In March of 2010 my sister called and asked if I wanted to join her in a 12 week health challenge hosted by her friend.

The Challenge:

In this challenge we have 4 teams of 10 people. Each team member pays $30.00 to the host before the challenge starts. The money is used for rewards at the end of the challenge. Who gets rewards: Person with the highest percentage of weight loss, the person with the most inches lost and the person with the highest personal points, and the rest of the money is divided equally between the team members of the team with the highest points for all 12 weeks.


The Point System:

Each person is responsible for these personal points:

Points per day:

1. 5 Fruits and Vegetables = 3pts OR at least 3 of them vegetables = 4pts
2. No Eating after 9 p.m. = 2 points per day
3. Drink 48 oz or more of water per day = 2 points.
4. No Sweets = 5 points (You are allowed 1 free treat per week! Not deprivation, but moderation... ahhh! That's the key!)
5. Exercise = 30 min. = 5 points OR 45 minutes = 7 points (6 days a week - you need to rest your body 1 day a week.)
   
6. Contact at least 1 team member = 1
7. A bonus challenge that changes each week totaling a possible 35 points (usually 5 points per day we do the challenge.

The first challenge my husband and I joined together. I lost 13 pounds in 12 weeks. An average of just over 1 pound per week. That is the best way to lose (1 to 2 pounds per week). I intend to never see this weight again. We had 4 weeks before the next challenge, which I just finished the first week of this challenge. I continued to lose as long as I continued to do the above list of things (- the bonus challenge of course). I lost the first three weeks and on the third week between sessions, I missed 3 of my 6 workouts getting the girls to summer camp and being a little under the weather. I also had a few too many treats. I had been keeping to the 1 a week, but I celebrated a bit with the boys and my hubby when the girls were gone for a few days. As a result, I gained the three pounds I had lost the week before back. Yikes! It was the first time I had gained any weight back since I started losing in April. Oh-well, I still had kept off the 13 pounds from challenge. Plus 2 more before crazy week, so a total of 15 pounds down, 62 to go.

Thankfully I'm back on a team and starting the second week. This first week I managed not to gain anymore weight back. Despite walking on treadmill for 1 1/2 to 2 hours three times this week I didn't lose either. I had hoped that would be enough to get those three pounds down again. I'm sure by the end of this next week, I'll lose those three pounds again.

Here's the Plan

I'm going to do the above mentioned daily items and make them good habits. THAT I KEEP EVEN WHEN OFF CHALLENGE AND ESPECIALLY HOLIDAYS!!! (We'll see how that goes this fall and winter.)

AND

This week I'm going to add some strength training and be more careful about portion control with my food.

If this isn't enough then I'll need to start using Dinner Plate again on a regular basis to keep track of exercise and calories.

Calories in < Calories out = weight loss.

Long Nights!

I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning to a dark shadow looming over my head. I gasped in shock before I realized it was my dear sweet 9 year old daughter. She's been having bad dreams for several months. I let her climb into bed with me and her little body was just shaking. It was so sad. We grabbed some pillows and moved to the couch in a vain attempt to let my husband still sleep before going to work.

I had to talk to her calmly and tell her to take in some deep breaths. With every breath she took I could feel her muscles get a little calmer each time. But I don't believe she really calmed down for at least another 30 minutes of me with my arms around her. It's so horrifying to me to see her so scared to go to bed. Last night at bedtime, as her siblings were getting ready for bed, she put on my apron and started loading the dishwasher and started it. I was on the phone with my mother so I didn't have time to find out why my hide-when-it's-chore-time child was actively and happily doing chores without being asked. After she attempted to start a load of laundry and move on to cleaning up the peanuts her two year old brother left all over the carpet, I asked, "Are you afraid to go to sleep?" She said, "No, I just wanted to clean up this mess." I thought she may not realize it she's scared, but told her how happy I was that she was doing chores without being asked and how glad I was for the help. I read several books to her brothers and when I came out she finally admitted to me that she was afraid to go to sleep.

Before we laid on the couch, I offered to kneel with her and she could say a prayer asking Heavenly Father for help. She said a wonderful heartfelt desire for help to have good dreams and to get some good sleep. As soon as we finished she said, "It's not going to help." I asked her why she said that and she just repeated that it's probably not going to do any good. I told her that Heavenly Father can't help her if she's not using her faith to believe that he can and will help her.

Sometimes in our darkest hours, when we feel lost and afraid, we can't accept any solution or offer of help, because we feel there is no help. That is only true if we make it true. As soon as we open our eyes and our hearts to our Savior Jesus Christ we will be blessed. There is always a way to overcome our problems. When all else fails, I know the way is through our Savior Jesus Christ. No one will ever feel the pain and loneliness that he felt in the Garden of Gethsemane. He understands what loneliness and pain are. He has felt every pain and heartache and struggle that we have felt and will ever feel. Why? So he can be the true mediator for us with our Father in Heaven. So at each of our time of judgment He can truly say to our Father in Heaven that he knows our hearts. That he knows what struggles we had to overcome and where our hearts have been and where they are now. He knows whether we have tried diligently to obey the commandments that he has given us. The commandments are like a road map to lead us safely back to our Father in Heaven without the detours of self inflicted sorrow and pain, or worse the exits which take us far beyond the sight of our path.

I pray that Heavenly Father will help my daughter to understand these parts of faith. I'm sure in time this will prove to be another faith building experience for her as she learns to put her faith in God the Father and in His Son our Savior Jesus Christ. I hope when I am not by her side that she will begin to feel her Saviors arms wrapped around her to comfort her when she is feeling scared. I never knew what it felt like to watch someone I love learn these lessons for themselves until now. I guess I never realized how much faith I have when these moments come to me. It's a different perspective watching others while realizing that I built my faith through similar sleepless nights that kept me up wondering if my prayers would be heard. Now I know they are heard and I know he will answer them in His own way and in His own time.