Ahh, Parenting

It seems like everyday I say something in the line of being a parent that I never saw myself saying.  Usually, it's something I would never have dreamed up the instance that would require it.  I'm sure you could add your own!

-Please stop poking the dog in the eye.  (Dog, MOVE!)

-We don't hit the dog with a branch.

-Sure, I guess you can take a balsa wood airplane into the shower...

-You're going to take a whole hot-wheels race track to the bathroom with you?  Why not.

-Don't touch the poo-poo!

-You can't have Tylenol, you're not sick!

Funny Stuffs

Healthy Journey- Part 2 (Choosing Your Choices)

At the outset of my Health Journey I set certain rules for myself.  I wanted to start a lifestyle that I could easily continue forever.  That meant I was not going to do anything that I wouldn't be able to do long-term.  So, that meant no 3-hour workouts.  No way I can do that very much with a baby to car for.  I was not going to do anything that interfered with my being a great mom and wife.  I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight that wasn't healthy.  THIS IS A HEALTH JOURNEY, NOT A WEIGHT-LOSS JOURNEY.  So no pills, so starving, etc; because that is not healthy.

There are many theories about what to cut, what to include, what to avoid, what you might be allergic too, etc.  If you sincerely think you have an allergy to something, get the blood-test to check.  I ruled out a thyroid issue before starting.  Otherwise, you are going to just have to pick what makes sense to you, because you can't cut out every single thing that might contribute to health or you'd have nothing left to eat.  Here is what I focused on:

1. Portion control (I tend to eat as much as I can before exploding)
Read labels do you know how big a serving is.  A lot of things look healthy till you realize a serving in a tablespoon, a half a bottle, 6 per bag, etc.  You need to learn how much of a food is considered a portion.

2. Having a routine time for meals
I tend to either eat a lot because I'm home doing nothing and bored, or forget to eat till 5 PM and then eat till I can't possibly stuff another bite in my mouth.  Turns out, it freaks your body out and your metabolism.  According to articles I can't find right now, if you eat later than usual, you body will go into starvation mode. If you eat at regular intervals, your body will expect the food to be there the next time and won't hoard anything.

This was easier for me when I started because I had my kiddo to feed, so I would feed him and eat with him and I didn't forget to eat.  Also, since I was fixing something healthy for him, I was more likely to eat healthy and not just grab whatever was grabbable.

Now, I have my body programmed to be hungry at meal times and I am HUNGRY at meal time.  It is much harder to forget to eat when your stomach is growling.

3. Eat breakfast, and focus your carbs there.
Another article I read but can't find to link to, said that you want to put your carbs in the morning.  The carbs are what your body uses for energy, so it makes sense to eat them before you start your day.  Everything says it's better to eat ANYTHING at breakfast than nothing.  One article even said a donut was better than nothing.  So, eat in the morning and pack in all the nutrients you can.  Before, I was one of those people who didn't eat breakfast.  I wasn't hungry, it made my stomach hurt, whatever.  Force yourself to do it, start out small and build up.  My body got used to eating in the morning and I can't imagine not eating breakfast now.

4. Exercise 5 days a week
And by exercise I mean jog, swim, aerobics, etc; has to get your heart-rate up for the duration of the activity.  Also, you want some sort of muscle-building too.  Weight lifting or using your body to do the same thing, but SOMETHING.  Muscle is what burns calories.  Weight-training is what builds muscle.  Cardio is what enables muscles to burn the calories.  You won't get the best results unless you do BOTH.  What I do is jog a mile, then do a work-out with hand-weights and a stability ball.  It takes about 30 minutes to do BOTH.  That is ALL I have done.  Ever.  No 3-hour work-outs, no Insanity.  I am literally done by 7 AM and on to the rest of my day.

5. Drink Lots of Water
Seriously.  A LOT of water.  Like constantly.  Carry a gallon jug of it in your car.  Take a cup of it with you to work.  Keep one at your computer desk.  Have a water glass over the sink.  DRINK WATER ALL THE TIME.

6. Act like the person it is my goal to be
One thing I realized was that there were things I thought to myself, "If I were thin I would ____ right now".  I would hop up and run over to grab something I left in the kitchen.  I would dance to this song on the radio.  I would run across the parking lot.  Then it occurred to me, if I plan to be a thin person, I guess I should be doing those things!  I may look silly doing a dance, be out of breath running, or too lazy to go back to the other room, but by golly I'm gonna do it, because that's what a thin me would do, and that's who I plan to be!

7. Be Genuine
This may not be one of your goals, but it was a big one of mine.  I didn't realize how big until I started implementing it.  I didn't realize how much I censored myself to be what I thought other people wanted.  Screw other people!  If you are silly, be silly!  If you like to sing commercial jingles while you grocery shop, just keep it to an 'inside-voice'.  Be who you are and you won't have to remember who you're trying to be.

I am a person who does little dances and sings little songs and is silly.  I have to face that.  I am professional, but I am an elementary teacher, maybe there's a reason I chose that profession?  Kindergartners love silly little dances, just saying.

8. Eat to live, not live to eat
People who overeat generally do so because they are either emotional-eaters or boredom-eaters.  I thought I was an emotional-eater, but by the time the first day of my journey was over I realized I am actually a boredom eat.  Instead of eating because it's fun or makes you feel better, you want to think of food as fuel that helps your body run at it's best.  If the food you are holding doesn't improve your body's ability to function, you don't want to put it in your body.

9. Limit salt
Adults NEED salt.  We need 1,500 mg a day for our nervous system to function.  That is less than a tablespoon. You have to remember this number when choosing your food for the day or you'll meet it by the end of breakfast.  Choose foods that don't need salt, or that you make at home and so have less salt, or that are low-sodium.  You will become more sensitive to the salt.  I promise.  You won't miss it forever.

10. Get enough sleep
Sleep is essential is being and staying healthy, losing weight, and not killing people.  Also, your sleep BEFORE midnight counts for more than the sleep AFTER midnight.  So go to bed at 9 PM and get up early, not go to bed at 1 AM and sleep till noon (Annie!).

And the big, scary one;
11. No added sugar
Okay, so this is pretty much the decider in whether you'll be successful or not.  Sugar is not your friend.  Sugar hates you.  Sugar said really nasty things about you to that person who didn't even need a reason to dislike you, and now they hate you even more!  Okay?

I must add that by "sugar", I mean the kind of sugar in cookies, candy, Carmelizer's, Icee's, birthday cake, cupcakes, pastries, and everything else that makes my mouth water thinking about it.  Sugar that occurs naturally in a food, like apples, is fine!  In a fruit, sugar is paired with nutrients that tells your body what to do with it.  It uses it for energy and makes you happy.  In a milkshake, it just turns into fat in like 5 minutes (obvious exaggeration).  This does not make you happy.  This makes you cry in the dressing room while trying on bathing suits.

So; Fruit=Good, Candy=Bad.  When I started my journey I didn't pay attention to calories at all.  I just followed the above list.  When I plataead after a couple months, THEN I added in paying attention to calorie intake.  I don't count calories, but I will do an estimate in my head when putting together my meal.

I will elaborate on these in the next posts.  This is the basic list.  Don't get overwhelmed!  The big things are exercise every day and avoid sugar.

Healthy Journey (Part 1-The Psych Up)

People ask all the time how I lost weight after Desmond.  I think he are usually hoping for an answer like, "I found this herb/pill/surgeon/etc."  When I answer, "I jog a mile every day and avoid added sugar," they tend to say that it's great, but they could never do that.  Uh, yeah you can!  You may not WANT to, but you can. You maybe need to choose an alternative to jogging, but you can do it.


Getting healthy and losing weight has been an adventure.  It's caused me to learn a lot about eating right, thinking right, setting myself up for success, and it's made me want to share that with other people!  So, I've found myself repeating everything I did and trying to remember everything.  I suck at that, so I am going to write a series of posts detailing it all.

As a note before I begin; I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or exercise expert in any way.  I took a PE and a Nutrition class in the course of my Elementary Ed degree and I read everything I could get my hands on while I was on my journey (which is continuing, so I still do) and when I had questions I called my cousin who is a health-nut and has been a personal trainer.

Being "Ready"

Being overweight or unhealthy does many things to your mental health.  I'm talking about my experience and that of my friends, but I assume most people feel the same, or similar.  First off, you feel overwhelmed with the idea of doing anything to improve your health, and that makes you feel like a failure.  The desire to control our lives doesn't like the possibility of feeling out of control while trying to change our lives, and constantly intrudes in our thoughts demanding we give up and do whatever we want.

I recently read a great blurb about this in a Facebook group:

"When you feel like you've failed, or are struggling to maintain newly acquired habits, remember it's NOT YOU. Changing health behavior is INCREDIBLY HARD. The brain doesn't like change. The brain is hard-wired to maintain the status quo. In any given year only 1 in 5 people, using the best available programs, are able to lose a mere 10% of their body weight for five years and that percentage is similar for maintaining exercise habits.

Rather than let that get you down, I want that to comfort you when the going gets tough. Because it's NOT YOU. You aren't a failure, you are human, normal, and there isn't a single behavior out there that has a high success rate when it comes to change. It's the way it is. 

The unconscious part of our brains is hardwired to look at immediate benefit (within about 10 min) and creates habits quickly based on relief or reward. Habits are a 'sort' of memory that never goes away. So again, it's NOT YOU. It's the way things are set up. This is not all bad. It's what allows you to get on a bike and ride after years of not riding. It's what allows us to describe other people's personalities because without the maintenance of habits, people would be constantly changing and never predictable in the least. 

When you have a 'relapse' -- whether that means overeating, eating mindlessly all day, forgetting veggies for a week, missing your exercise for several days, don't despair. Relapse is also normal. NOT just 'common' normal but inevitable. Relapse is NOT evidence of failure, but an expected part of changing. What we often do wrong is view relapse as a failure and then act as though we never embarked upon change in the first place. Don't do that. Just get right back up, brush yourself off, and view it as a learning experience.

Making healthier choices more often, on its own, will improve your life anyway, even if you never reach "perfection" or a fixed permanent state of success. If you rarely eat vegetables and you aim for 5 a day but end up getting 5 a week...THAT is an improvement! THAT is worth getting excited over because you've just added THAT much more nutrition to your diet. Don't get fixated on perfection!

Healthy habits, even if not perfect, also have a ripple effect. When one person in a group of smokers quits, it often leads to others attempting it and even succeeding. When one person in a group loses weight, starts running, vows to eat more nutritious foods, it has a profound effect on others. So not only does a little improvement do good things for YOU, it can influence the people around you. 

Moral of the story? If you're struggling, don't give up. Difficulty means you're growing. If you've had a set back, don't give up. That's also part of growing and par for the course of changing habits."


So basically, your inner desire to "do whatever you want" is only thinking about the next 10 minutes.  Part of growing up is thinking about FURTHER into the future than the next 10 minutes.  It's a hard thing to do, but really, life is not pleasant if you don't learn to do it.

You will often find articles about deciding whether you are ready to get healthy or whether it's a good time to start trying to lose weight.  These articles basically just give you a good excuse not to work on your health.  They will say not to start a health change when you're stressed or going through a life change or blah, blah, blah.  When, as an adult, are you NOT stressed?  There is always going to be some crisis.  There is always going to be stress and something happening that makes things difficult.  That's just life.


Whatever your health change, whether it's quitting smoking or losing weight, you just have to dive right in.  Set yourself up for success and don't accept excuses from you.  You are only punishing YOURSELF if you do.  Nobody else is effected by your health MORE than YOU!  If you have kids and it helps to remember that you want to be there for them and be lively, great, remember that.  But you have to want it for YOU.  Do it for YOU not them.  YOU are the one you need to worry about letting down.  YOU are worth being healthy, you have to make your health a priority!


The big thing about starting your health journey is being creative to figure out how to fit your health choices into your routine.  For me, it means getting up early and exercising before my son gets up.  Then, making sure I have food in the house that allows me to pack good lunches for work.  I have NEVER been an early riser.  Never.  Ever.  But I realized about half-way through the major part of my journey that working out in the afternoon was too hot and intruded on my day and getting up earlier would make the rest of the day go more smoothly and keep the "healthy" part out of the main part of my life.  So, I am now a person who gets up at 6 AM.  Yeah, there is really a 6 AM.


What I need to stress the most about my health journey is that it was a "Health Journey", not a "weight-loss method".  I wanted to be healthy so that I was setting a good example for my child, to play with him actively, and to feel pretty again.  I wanted to be healthy mentally also, which meant working to be less non-confrontational, being more genuine, and not putting up a front of what I felt others wanted or expected from me.  Of this journey for health, weight loss was a happy side-effect.  Remembering this fact can really help on a week with no pounds lost.  The goal is HEALTH; weight loss is a side effect of health.


So, are you ready to begin your own health journey?  It's a pretty easy question to answer.  Do you want to be healthy?  Do you want to live a life that is more comfortable and energetic?  I won't say longer, who cares if it's longer if it sucks?  Being health makes you feel good.  THAT is what is worth the trouble.  Are you tired of looking in the mirror and not liking what you see?  Are you ready to do whatever if takes, even if it means NOT taking a pill or going on a week-long juice-only diet?  What kind of crazy crap do you put yourself to in order to avoid, *gasp* possibly having to exercise?  I promise you, it's just not that bad!  The principles I use are simple.  All you have to do is bring your determination and set yourself up for success.


I must also mention that during your journey as you move towards being more genuine or start losing lots of weight or both, you might find you have some rocky times in relationships with family or your spouse.  Changing who you are means changing how you see the world and how other people react to you.  I found that without all the weight, I am much more vulnerable.  I don't have a little voice saying in my head, "They aren't critiquing the real me, they are just responding to the front I put up/fat me."  Whatever people do or say now, they ARE responding to the real me.  If they're unhappy with me, they are unhappy with ME; not a facade I put up.  It took a while to figure that out and come to terms with it.  I'm good now, but it was hard for a while.


Is it worth the trouble?  Uh, yeah!  Size 6 is worth getting up at 6 AM.  More energy is worth not having a Carmelizer everyday.  Being true to my personality is worth the looks from people who think I'm crazy.  It's freeing not to worry about what other people think.  I am who I am, and my kid thinks I'm hilarious.  So I do a little dance and I sing a little song.  Seriously, I do; he laughs, it's awesome.

Decorative Owls (Craft)

So, Des and I have a fondness for owls.  Hoo-Hoo was the first animal noise he learned and he really embraced it.  We point out owls to each other everywhere we go.  Artistic owls that barely resemble the real thing, photos of real owls sitting on branches and flying with their wings out.  Big owl fans.  Anyway, the other day I was looking for projects to do with toilet paper tubes and I found these adorable decorative owls.  There is another example that is slightly less formal.

I thought these were pretty darn cute, so while Des was watching Phineas & Ferb yesterday, I got out the tubes and started making ears.  They're really easy, not too messy and only as time consuming as you want them to be.  They aren't easy enough for a 2-year old, so Des just watched, but kids not too much older could handle the ear-tuft folding and kids that like to paint and draw more could do that part.  Des isn't too much into painting, unless you can use a back-hoe, so I just let him watch.  I was using these as my me-time.

First, select your tubes.  I plan to save these and do something with them (haven't figure out what yet), so I chose tubes without bent up edges.  Rub the places where the glue was holding paper on to make sure it's all off and they're smooth.  Next, for the ear-tufts, fold the end down and try to get it matching up as evenly as possible on top.  You could cut some so they are shorter than the others if you wanted to give them varying height.

For the next stage I would put out newspaper.  Grab your favorite colors of acrylic craft paint and a brush.  I used aged paint from my craft stuff that is probably from a class I took in high-school, so probably going on 10 yrs old, and a narrow foam brush because it was handy.  I used two and just had to keep washing them out as I switched colors.  It worked fine, but it would be handier to have as many brushes as you do paint.

Next, paint each tube in as many coats as it takes to look like it's not a toilet paper tube.  It took only a couple coats on the pearlized paint, several on the yellow and orange, so it just depends on the paint.  Just keep adding layers and letting them dry till you're happy with them.  Don't forget the top and the edge where it meets in the middle; you'll want to make sure it's coated so you can't see brown from any angle.

After your paint is completely dry, find yourself a really nice permanent marker.  I used the type that is wide-tipped and you'll want one with good ink flow.  Settle yourself somewhere comfy; I picked in front of the TV watching with Des-man, so I believe it was Oomi-Zoomi.  Draw on your owl's features.  I decided to be more realistic than my examples, but stylized looks fun, too, and I might do more that are even more patterny.  They dried really fast and the pen wrote great on the paint, which I wasn't sure it would.  I didn't even end up with too much marker on ME, which I thought was pretty impressive.

Last thing was that I sprayed them with Matte Finish spray to make sure the paint and marker didn't get rubbed off.  I wanted to use a gloss finish so they'd be shiny, but I didn't have any handy.  I wasn't sure if the spray would make the marker run, but it didn't.  I think it did make it bleed when I held the can too close, but if you make sure you stay about 8 inches from the owl, you should be good.  Also, so several layers and let it dry a few seconds in between, that also helps with the not bleeding.  They dried really fast and Des was able to hold one in minutes.  He really like the Hoo-Hoo's and make Daddy look at them.  He watched me photograph them in their "natural habitat" from the yard and had a hard time not coming to "help" me.  Did manage to let the dog out and he didn't come back till this morning and he's been sleeping all day, so he must have had some adventure out there.

There are my finished Decorative Owls!  They were pretty fun.  I have to think of something neat to use them  for, haven't decided what yet.  They're currently just hanging out on the fireplace.  Any ideas?

So You're Going To Have A People-Baby...

There comes a time in life where your foals and woolly aged horses no longer satisfy the maternal instinct.  Perhaps you have acquired several small dogs to have something to cuddle.  Family members might have started encouraging you to have "a baby".  You may have said, "But Gallahad/Bootsy/Sgt Silly-Pants IS my baby!"  Most likely they rolled their eyes and muttered something about not being mother-material as they walked away.

At this point, I must remind you; mothers are born when their children are born.  You never start out mother-material; BEING a mother MAKES you mother-material.  Being a good mother requires the same selflessness and lack of vanity that being a great animal owner takes.  So, look at your animals.  Are they up to date at the vet?  Eating healthy food?  Shiny, happy, waiting for you to drop food as you read this?  Is their living area safe and free of pointy objects?  Then you're probably good.

So, the time is take to have a baby is about the same as when horse-shopping for a really good horse; almost a year.  Pregnancy is more physically exhausting, but I supposed you could get bucked off a prospective horse and end in the hospital, so that would be worse.  The biggest difference is probably that people don't start asking you when you're going to buy a horse, how you found out about the perfect horse, whether it took a long time...actually I probably would, so I guess it depends on who your friends are.  Okay, your MOM won't start asking you when you're going to get a horse and aren't you wasting time.

Here are some handy translations.  I have a 2 yr old people-baby and I still have to stop and think sometimes or ask someone nearby what the word is I'm looking for (seriously).

Horse/Dog:                                        People:

Vet                                                     Doctor (Pediatrician for baby people)

Paddock                                             Play-Pen

Dam                                                    Mother

Sire                                                     Father

Muck                                                  Change Diaper/Clean up

Jolly Ball                                               Sesame Street

(I'll keep adding to this list)

Some things ARE the same.  Both drink milk from the mother.  Both will play/fight with siblings.  Both LOVE attention and may HATE bathes at first.  They both may kick you in the face and break your nose.  They're both super adorable and everyone will want to pet them.

2012 Is Here!

Desmond is so hilarious. He wants to be part of every joke and he loves to make people laugh. If the rest of us are laughing he joins in. He likes to make funny faces to get you to laugh and he loves being tickled and putting things on his head to be silly. He has really enjoyed seeing his out of town relatives this Christmas. They start leaving this week and we're all going to miss them. We had a good weekend, I got to spend more time with Des and he was really fun. Full of hugs and laughs.