Lifetime Wellness Challenge

For months I've been promising myself that I would start better habits.  At first it was going to be 'after the first trimester'.  Then it was 'after the baby is born'.  Then it was going to be 'after we move'.  So when someone in our new ward sent an open invitation to join in the Lifetime Wellness Challenge I jumped at it.  I knew some outside motivation would help me.  The challenge started yesterday and these are the basic rules:

 

1. Exercise 30-45min. five days a week.

2. Eat five fruits and vegetables daily.

3. No eating after 9pm.

4. 3 or fewer sweets per week.

5. Drink 64oz. water daily.

 

There are some other things involved, but those are the important ones.  I'm on a team of six and we are competing against other teams with this.  The team with the most points at the end wins, and there is also a weight loss % winner.  That's where the outside motivation comes in.

 

I'm excited because this will hopefully help me develop better habits.  I like that it's realistic for life; I can eat some sweets and I don't have to count calories. 

 

Every week we will have an 'extra' assignment.  This week involves a fitness test, before picture, goal/ reward, and a personal letter.  I don't have to do any of it publicly, but somehow I wanted to do this piece of it on my blog.

 

Dear Becky,

 

Right now you are very focused on making this wellness challenge a success.  You could list a dozen goals, but really all you want is to have more energy and feel healthy.  You remember what it felt like a year and a half ago to reach your all time heaviest weight.  You were tired all the time and didn't even want to do active things.  You felt sort of sick all the time.  You reached a point where you didn't care how you looked anymore, you just wanted to feel better.  And so you made your first successful weight loss plan.  You took this before picture with the thought of sharing it someday if you succeeded.  Because you'd never before succeeded so you weren't very confident.

 

April 2012

Twenty pounds later you felt a LOT better, but didn't want to stop there.  You wanted to be free from the 'overweight' range, and this time it had nothing to do with what you saw in the mirror.  You wanted the energy you remembered from not so many years before.  But then a greater wish was granted and you spent nine months growing a precious life.  So you had to put the lesser desire on hold.  You promised yourself that you would exercise during your pregnancy, but an early scare convinced you to take no chances.  You're not sorry about that.  Your sweet Abigail was worth it.  Here you are with 35 additional pregnancy pounds.

April 2013

You were fortunate to lose all of your baby weight plus five and you breathed a huge sigh of gratitude.  You thoroughly enjoyed the extra energy you felt, but you knew it wouldn't last.  You kept promising yourself that you would eat better and exercise 'when'.  That 'when' finally came yesterday.  You wondered if it would be worth it to wake up at 6am just to exercise (the early hour was new to you).  Then as your body screamed, 'What do you think you're doing?!!' while you jogged a 'required' mile, you smiled inside and said, 'You'll thank me later'.  Yesterday you had a killer headache from the first high impact exercise you've had in years (because you've been swimming and using an elliptical instead), but your body felt HEALTHY.  Your children were impressed with all the vegetables you were snacking on and got the funny idea that you weren't going to eat anything else.  You experienced a little pregnancy deja vu as you frequently visited the bathroom.  And it felt so good.  This morning your thighs were sore and you were extremely grateful for your elliptical.  Then your bad knee started aching during your workout and made the last five minutes feel like an eternity.  But then you really felt good during school time.  You know your thighs won't be sore forever (or even next week probably), your knee will adjust, and soon all of it will feel good.  You're kicking yourself for not doing these things sooner.  So, here you are at the beginning of this new challenge.

September 2013

Now you're once again focused on the old goal, but with a different plan.  You feel pretty good now, but know you can feel even better.  Ultimately all you want is more energy.  You have a lot of things you want to do with the rest of your life, especially concerning your children.  You need energy for many years to come.  You need your body to cooperate.  And so your ultimate goal is energy.  For this challenge they want a measurable goal too, though.  So you're going to try to drop a clothing size during the next eight weeks and if you do it your reward will be a new pair of tennis shoes (because you also have to choose a reward).  But you know that won't be the real reward.  The real reward will be how good you feel.  Day number two is going well so far; just keep taking it one day at a time!

Sincerely,
Yourself

Old House, New House

I'm posting these pictures for two reasons.

1. I'm always bummed after we move if I don't have pictures to remember what our old place looked like.

2. I always like seeing where my friends live, especially if they are too far away to visit.

 

First is the old house.  I'm still missing it, but not as much, and I'm looking forward to buying our next house.

This is the biggest thing I'm missing.  That was an ideal kitchen for a family, especially a homeschooling family that needs counter space to work on projects together.

Now for the new house.  I don't know how long we'll live here since we're only renting it.  It really is a decent house and I'm liking it better than I anticipated.  It's smaller, but we really do have enough space.  The only things I really dislike about it are the small kitchen/ dining area (we can't fit our whole family around the table anymore and it's difficult to include kids at the counter) and the extremely creaky floors that wake everyone up at night.

The girls room is actually pretty cute.  I had a hard time taking pictures because most of the rooms are on the small side.

The finished part of the basement is really very nice.

The boys have a big room in the basement.  It works out well at bedtime because Alex fights going to bed.  This way he isn't bothering his sisters and creating a domino effect (of resistant children) with all of his tricks to avoid going to bed.

There is a third very small bedroom upstairs that we are using as an office.

The kitchen is cute.

The kids were excited when they saw wildflowers growing across the street.  So they picked me a bunch and they currently adorn the counter.

There you have it!

Kids Say

I turned off the shower one day and heard Logan calling me through the door.  "Mom I'm sorry!"  Me, "For what?"  Logan, "I was mean to Annie.  My behavior was atrocious!"

During family meeting Alex was called upon for announcements.  He immediately called out, "I under the table!"

Jim invited Logan to share his salmon with him (something they both consider a treat).  Logan's response, "Can I finish cleaning up real quick?"  Jim, "Sure."  Logan, "Thanks Dad!"  (What kid wants to finish his chores before having a treat?!!)

We saw an adult on a three wheeled bike one day and Logan thought it was pretty cool.  His observation, "That bike is like a tricycle for grown ups.  It is actually good because you can take a hand off the handle bars and scratch if you're itchy."

Logan's Birthday

We celebrated the 7th anniversary of the day we became parents yesterday.  In other words our oldest had a birthday!  We are so glad Logan is part of our family.  I can't imagine life without this awesome kid.

 

On Wednesday Logan and I had a date to celebrate.  When I asked him if he'd go on a date with me he requested the library.  That's my boy!  So we went out for ice cream and then to the library.  He ordered a chocolate mixer with caramel and M&M's at Culver's.  He ate the entire thing.  I couldn't believe it; that's a lot of rich ice cream!

On Friday we were planning to go camping as his big birthday activity, but the weather was VERY hot and humid.  So we had to skip that.  We let Logan choose an evening activity instead; he chose to watch a movie.  I also made his cake.

He still had a campfire.  :) 

He made a special request for a chocolate swiss roll cake, so I attempted it.  It was a first for me; I was worried it would fall apart!  It survived, though.  Because we were going to turn it into campfire logs, I rolled it width ways instead of length ways.

I had planned to frost the outside to make it look more like wood and less like cake, but as soon as I had the 'logs' stacked I realized that wouldn't be necessary.  The roughness from the towel combined with the powdered sugar gave it the perfect unintended effect.  Woohoo!

The 'coals' were donut holes, and the 'fire' was orange wedge candies and red fruit roll ups. 
Logan wanted a picture with his cake as soon as it was finished.

Logan woke up extra early on his birthday (Saturday) and was bouncing off the walls with excitement.  Because our plans were pretty flexible we let him open presents right after breakfast.

He received several cards with gift money.  He's excited to spend it.

Next he opened Alex's present.  I'd taken Alex and Annie to the Dollar Tree to choose something for him a few days before.  He liked the glow bones that Alex gave him.

When he was opening Annie's present she told him that she wanted him to hug her to say thank you.

He sweetened the deal with a thank you kiss.  (It doesn't look like it, but he really is kissing her on the cheek.)

He liked the puzzle she gave him.

Next he opened our big present.  This was from us and my mom.  I saw this on a friend's blog recently; she'd given it to her 7 year old for his birthday, and I knew immediately it would be just the thing for our 7 year old.  This is a kid friendly circuit board complete with instructions to make hundreds of cool projects.

We sent him searching for his last present.

He was pretty excited when he found his new bike.  This was from Jim's parents.  It's a size up from his old bike, so he was pretty nervous about riding it at first.  With the seat lowered all the way he can't quite reach the ground.  I had to demonstrate that I have the same problem with my bike before he worked up the courage to ride it.  We took it for a quick spin around the block to boost his confidence.  Then we loaded the bikes in the van and headed for the state park. 

We had a picnic at the park and then headed for the trail.  As were getting everybody ready to ride, we found this little snapping turtle crawling across the parking lot.

He was definitely a baby.

Jim's bike parts are on back-order, so he pushed the double stroller instead of pulling the bike trailer.

Annie and Logan rode at a very nice pace for this out of shape momma. 

I could have ridden a lot longer, but it was hard to keep everyone together since Jim had to walk.

After bike riding Logan was excited to open his Snap Circuit kit.  He spent the rest of the day working with it.

Some of the projects are really cool.  He can make an a/m radio, all sorts of alarms, lots of cool sounds, lights, and a lie detector, just to name a few.

We had to pull him away for dinner and birthday cake.  After he blew out the candles he went right back to his Snap Circuits.  We had to call him back to the table to EAT the cake.  Funny guy. 

I don't know why these pictures are so bright.  :(

I really wish this picture had the right color.  How often do all the kids give great smiles at the same time?!

After cake Alex had as much excitement as Logan because he also got a 'new' bike.  Jim put the training wheels back on Logan's old bike for Alex.  He was thrilled and rode around until bedtime.  I was impressed with how well this kid could pedal.

Happy birthday Logan!