Countdown to Pasadena: 15 Weeks

You thought I was gonna bail again, didn't you!  I'm still here, just had a minor fiasco yesterday that prevented me from blogging.  I went out for my 5 mile run @ 6:00.  It was starting to cool down and the sun was still out.  When I walked in the door around 7, I heard piercing screams and the sound of water running.  Baby E. had thrown up EVERYWHERE!  My husband was desperately trying to gather up everything with puke on it and shove it into our little bathroom sink.  He had left Baby E. up on the changing table, which she didn't think was such a good idea.  I ignored the puke and picked her up - I already stank enough after my run.  I took her outside to help her calm down in the cool evening air and then proceeded to help my hubby get all the puke filled linens out of her room.
After a quick hop in the shower (during which time, Baby E. upchucked again - this time on Ian's clothes!) I spent the rest of the evening taking care of baby girl.  Poor thing ended up waking up every hour to puke.  It was not a fun night.  Then, around 3 AM, Ian wakes me up to tell me that he has got this stomach bug too.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stops there!

She was so happy earlier in the day...

I had a pretty decent week with my small changes last week. No, it wasn't perfect.  But, it was definitely better than crap.
Monday: 3 mile run
Wednesday 3. 5 mile run
Saturday: 1000 meter swim
Sunday: 5 mile run
See - better than crap!  I had two days of crummy eating, but managed to get back into the grove by the weekend.    This week, I hope to do about the same - we'll see what happens with this stomach bug.

I promised updated pictures.  Avert your eyes if necessary! I can see the difference from my earlier pictures.  But, I can also see how much farther I have to go. 

The good news is that this is the first time I fit back into my Speedo.  Everytime I went to the pool this summer, I had to wear a big mumu suit that I couldn't swim laps in.
Here's one last super cute picture to send you off into your week.  Big O LOVED my goggles.  He called them 'swim glasses' and spent an extra half hour in the bath playing with them.

Future swimmer???

Have a great week,
Big Mama

Countdown to Pasadena: 16 Weeks

First week of training for the half marathon felt great.  I'm still walking/running. But, my running stretches are getting longer :).  I managed to do 6 miles today. My half marathon plan called for 5 miles, but I somehow ended up doing 6 instead.  I couldn't find my phone to take my post run picture.  Believe me when I say it wasn't pretty.

Instead, I'll show you cute pictures of Elkie!! She scratched her eye - at least that's what I hope it is.  I really, really hope she doesn't have pink eye. She and Big O are obsessed with the fireman hat this week.

After my run, Big O and I made some shortbread cookies.  I don't know why, but all week he's been asking for 'star cookies.' So today, I busted out the star cookie cutter and we had a good time getting flour everywhere, eating the dough, and cutting out star shapes. (the dough i made had no eggs, for those of you concerned about kiddos eating dough). Then I gave him about a half a cup of flour which he poured into different containers and scooped up using different sized measuring cups. Disaster ensued.

Ian wasn't too happy about the mess, but Big O had a great time.

WEEKLY UPDATE:
Current weight 167
lost 1 pound last week :).

Food was so-so this week.  Most days I was either at the cusp or over my calorie limit.  I have to say, My Fitness Pal saved my butt a few times this week.  I was feeling like throwing in the towel and stopping to get a six pack of Reese's Eggs

My Current Junk Food Obsession

But, when I entered my calories on MFP, I saw that I was actually pretty close to my target calorie intake for the day.  It really helped break the cycle I have of eating one piece of junk food and then using it as an excuse to blow my diet.


Exercise last week:
Monday: ran 3 miles (treadmill)
Wednesday: Ran 3 miles (treadmill)
Friday: Ran 3.15 miles (treadmill)
Sunday: Ran 6 miles (outside).

Next week should look pretty similar except that my Sunday run will only be 5 miles instead of 6.  Also, I plan to go swimming on Saturdays.  I'm still hoping to do a triathlon this summer. 

I'll be sure to post photos next week

Big Mama

Countdown to Pasadena: 17 Weeks

OK,  so it has been a REALLY long time since I posted to my blog. 
Here are some significant events y'all have missed
1) I moved! We relocated to Sacramento, CA back in September.  With the moving, a new job, and the newborn, maintaining a blog kinda fell off my radar.
2) Weight loss.  I'm down under 170 now.  That's quite a bit of progress since my last post.  There were some ups and downs.  I did a few juice fast for a week - that helped me dropped a few pounds, but then I went back to eating a ton of junk which put some of it back on.
3) About a month ago my son was diagnosed with Autism.  We had our suspicions, but were still rather taken aback by the diagnosis.  He's such a sweet boy, but he will need some extra help with language and social development. 

4) Baby girl is HUGE.  Last time I posted, she was still just a little sprout.  Now, she is a superchunk. She is so darn cute!!

So, that's the major update.

I need to make some commitments to keeping fit and staying on track.
My brother and I have registered for the Pasadena Half Marathon at the end of June.  I'll try to provide weekly updates and commitments.
http://www.pasadenamarathon.org/

Weekly Plan
Try to keep calories around 1800. 

Monday: Run 3 miles
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: INSANITY
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Run 3 miles
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Run 5 miles

4 workouts is definitely doable.  I can commit to that! 
My plan is to wake up early on Monday and Wednesday between 5:30 and 6:00. 
Wish me luck :)

2 Small Victories

I finally broke the dreaded 180 barrier.  I weighed in today at 179.7.  It took a little longer than I would have liked, but I made it.  Yay me!  Of course, when I pulled on my pants this morning I wondered why they weren't any looser.  And I remembered that I've got all this extra belly flab where baby used to be.  Dang - can't just pay attention to the scale - gotta actually do some exercising and toning too. 

This revelation led to small victory #2 - I ran/walked 3 miles tonight! My in-laws are in town so I took the opportunity to head out this evening to Alki beach for a run.  To get myself back into running I had considered doing a couch to 10K program, but I really can't stand the short periods of walking and running. I feel like you never get into the groove of either.  My favorite way to ease back into it is to run/walk by song.  So, tonight I walked a song and then ran for 2 songs.  My final workout was 3.07 miles in 37:13.  Nothing to brag about as far as time goes, but it felt so good to be back out there!

I like running because it helps get Backyardigans' songs out of my head!

Tomorrow is the West Seattle Grand Parade.  I'll share some of its grandness with you!  The in-laws are flying back to Sacramento which means a little less down time for me. :(

Thankful Thursday

I'm back! My life has been pretty hectic and blogging has taken a back seat. I'm teaching a summer session class on Monday's and Wednesday's for UW. It didn't seem like a big deal when I agreed to do it, but it has been so difficult for me to balance working, eating healthy, exercising, being a good mom and being a good wife. So, the first thing to go was exercise. It's been over a week since I've had a real workout. Soon after I stopped logging in to my fitness pal and overrate a few days. In essence, I give up my me time/focus to keep on top of everything else.

But, I'm not giving up! It's going to be tough, but I know that I can make the small changes I need to find a better balance.

Here are the things I'm thankful for right now

#1. My In-laws. My in-laws are visiting for a week and it has been awesome to have the extra help around the house. They want to spend as much time as possible with the kids which has given. Me time to focus a but more on work. Also, my mother in law is a bit of a neurotic cleaner. I used to take it personally, as a kind of judgment, when she would visit and clean the whole house. Now I'm just grateful that someone other than me is doing it!

#2. Big O turned 2 on Monday!!

He is getting so big and I am just so in love with him!! We had a small get-together with the in-laws, my sister in law, and a few friends. Here's the 2 year old with his favorite present.

Yes, he LOVES Cars.

#3. Sunshine! We've finally got a little sun here in Seattle. I know the rest of the country is enduring a heat wave, but we've been overcast and cold all summer. I'm just excited to get a little warmth in my bones.

Hey, It's Summer in Seattle!

We finally saw summer weather yesterday for the 4th of July. I know the rest of the country keeps complaining about the heat, but I've been dying for a little sunshine up here.

I never do too well eating healthily on holidays. Yesterday was no exception. I found a half eaten carton of trader joes mini milk chelate peanut butter cups that Ian's sister left here in the fridge. Between that, the bottle of Lambec I polished off, and out dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, I definitely went off my healthy eating plan. But today I'm back on track.

We had a mellow fourth. I got to catch up on some more true blood. My friend came over with some sparklers and root beer floats. Oh yeah, I forgot about the floats... Here's Big O's first experience with sparklers.

He never actually held one of the sparklers. He was kinda scared, kinda distracted, and not really sure what was going on. Thank goodness the kid can sleep through anything cuz the people in our hood were setting off fireworks most of the night. Oh, and here's a picture of Baby E inner patriotic duds.

Today was great too. In the morning I took the kids down to Alki playground, which is Big O's favorite. There are tons of Tonka trucks there that he loves to play with.

Baby E just chilled in the stroller.

Then, this afternoon we headed back to Alki. Ian went for a bike ride with Big O. I strapped Baby E into the Bjorn and went for a 2 mile walk. Felt good to get a little exercise, I need to do this more often. :)

I'm thinking I should focus more on just getting out of the house and walking rather than running. I really want to get back into running, but until baby can go with me in the stroller or until we have some extra child care, it's just too hard to get out and do the runs. Am I just being lazy, or realistic?

Small changes, remember

So, this blog is called Big Mama Small Change for a reason. I am a complete perfectionist and making small changes is really freakin hard. I want to do EVERYTHING perfectly.

And of course, I fail every time. In my last post I said I wanted to exercise EVERY day. And, I've been reading more and more about low carb diets. I'm a vegetarian, a breaditarian actually. I live on carbs. When I started this blog my small change was adding fruits and veggies. I took it to the extreme and started obsessing about eating a low carb diet and completely changing my meal plan. Why? Cuz that's who I am.

So last night instead of working out I sat down with a bottle of wine and polished most of it off while watching more True Blood.

I went over my calorie limit and felt pretty damn guilty when I woke up this morning. Have I learned my lesson? Hell no. I'll do it again. But, at least it was just a day and I am back in the saddle, living life imperfectly.