Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday Weigh-In - Week 2

Well this weeks wasn't as good...by A LOT!

I had a gain this week :P 2lbs to be exact. I know why, so there wasn't really any surprises when I stepped on the scale.

Although I did eat mostly whole foods, I didn't eat enough fruit and vegetables (need to up that this week) and too many grains. We also ordered in one night and had dinner at a friends one night. The dinner at friends was all great whole type foods (beef, chicken, salad, corn on the cob, mini new potatoes and homemade peach cobbler)...the problem was it was too great and I ate way too much! I also slowed down on my water intake and drank too much diet pop (which totally goes against my whole foods thing, so I need to break that bad habit ASAP!). Also, not enough exercise.

Now I know what I'm doing, I can improve this week and hopefully see a loss next week!!

The week was generally ok otherwise. Did my first grocery shop of planned healthy, whole meals and was a bit worried about the cost of eating healthy, but I did manage to do it a little cheaper than normal! Quite unexpected!

Couple of big storms this week that knocked out our power around here. Nice light shows though.

This weekend kept me very busy. Late Friday night we decided to change up the house and then slept on it. Saturday morning we got to work. We moved ALL of the kids toys out of the playroom and into the family room, including the cabinets and shelves. The LCD tv came upstairs to the livingroom and the armchair in the livingroom went to the back room. We juggled more and more stuff around until we'd redefined all the spaces. The backroom upstairs is now a sitting room with 3 armchairs, and also the piano. The livingroom now has the TV in it plus the 2 leather couches. The familyroom downstairs is now totally a kid space with the small tv for them and the old playroom is now a office/scrapbooking/cardmaking/cakestorage room for me :)

The office was looking ugly, ugly, ugly...so I went and picked up some paint and spent Sunday plastering, sanding and painting the walls and trim (and now have sore arms and shoulders!). It's now ready for another coat and I'm LOVING the way it looks! Next step is to get the furniture in, mine and Jay's computers and then all the scrapbooking/cardmaking stuff of my Mum's from Dads. I will include pics when it's all finished :)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Greif's Timetable

It's been about 3 weeks now and all that time I got asked the questions, "how are you?" or "are you ok?" and my response was always, "yes, I'm ok".

Well 3 weeks I guess is the time limit to BE ok, cause the questions have stopped. I feel like I was ok then...but as the time has passed I feel like I'm not ok now. I guess it's all taken time to sink in, because now I feel sadder than ever. But society seems to think I should be ok now. Well I don't feel it. I'm now breaking down a couple of times a day. I am really missing her...each day more and more.

And yet, everyone seems to be done talking and asking when I feel I need people the most...guess our busy schedules of today dictate everything...including how long you should grieve.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Lonely...

I'm feeling quite lonely today...thinking of Mum and missing Jay (who's on business in Sudbury & North Bay). Plus the 13 hour work days are feeling VERY long! Dad is coming for dinner tonight though...I'm thinking steak, potatoes & veg.

Eating is going well. For breakfast was 1 egg+ 1 egg white scrambled with garlic & herbs on 1 slice of toast (ran out of homemade bread so had to eat store bought *YUCK!*) with a little taco sauce. Definitely need to find a taco sauce recipe so I can eliminate that processed food...and a good salsa recipe.

Think I'm going to experiment with some new recipes for the kids for school this week. Got a couple of granola bar recipes to try. Also want to make some carrot/parsnip muffins and some pumpkin spice muffins...anything to get some vegetables into Ben!

Hmmmm...think that will be my quest today...find some more good school recipes for the kids and set out a couple weeks of menus for the school year. Will help me have everything ready for the week as well as making sure I don't over buy at the grocery store.

I am hoping to get back to exercising regularly again soon. Once the kids go back to school I'll have a little time in the morning to exercise. Want to get back to jogging again, but also doing some yoga and strength exercises. May do some of the "Wii Fit" again daily to get me started.

Decided to organize photos and home video on my hard drive...what a mistake that was. Had to close them and don't think I'll be able to do that for sometime. Much to soon I suppose.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Monday Weigh-In - Week 1

OK, every Monday, I will check in here with my weight loss...well hopeful weight loss!



Last week I was back up to almost my highest weight. VERY disappointing after losing most of the weight I wanted and getting down to 130lbs, but such is the PCOS beast. This time I want to forget "diets" and change what I eat for my health and not just to lose weight.

So first my starting weight...here goes....

August 10th = 178lbs

Today's weigh-in: August 17th = 172.5lbs

I am VERY pleased with the results...shocked actually! So I will keep this up and hopefully it will continue to drop off. More slowly I hope, but still consistent losses would be great :)

Until next Monday...

Well it's official! I am running my own cake business now. It's called "Sweet Ideas".

A lot has changed since my last post about cakes. I started taking classes and really enjoyed them. I continue to learn new techniques. People started seeing the cakes and asking if I could make some for them. A friend who works with brides wanted some cards to hand out. So to make a long story short...

Now I've got the website (http://www.sweet-ideas.ca), the business cards and the orders are pouring in. It's hard work, but I'm really enjoying it. Had no intention of doing this when it all started, but it seems like people are enjoying the cakes, so I will continue to make them as long as people are ordering :)

The website says it all, so I'll just include a few pics here:



It's been a while...

It's been a while since I've posted. Why? Guess life gets in the way, especially lately.

On July 31st my Mum lost her battle with cancer. It had been more than 9 years, but it doesn't make it any easier. Jason and I were away camping when it happened and we didn't find out until the Monday. This made me feel guilty, but I know that being there wouldn't have changed anything. My Dad had lots of help from our wonderful friends. The week went by in a flash. Tuesday was the visitation. A lot of people came, including some old friends from high school. It was lovely to see everyone...but naturally bittersweet. Wednesday was the funeral. There were 18 of us. It was probably the hardest day of the week. Was hard to say good-bye. That night, Fran arrived. It was lovely to see her. She reminds me a lot of Mum. Thursday was the memorial service. So many people showed up (hundreds!) and every single one had something amazing to say about Mum. She was the most amazing woman...and I hope I can be just a little bit like her in my life.

Now life has gone back to "normal"...back to work, back to my cakes, back to being a mum and wife. But will life really get back to "normal"? I'm guessing some day it will feel like that. It does a lot of the time now, but then something triggers a thought or emotion and I get overwhelmed with sadness. Watching a movie, smelling Mum's smell, seeing her jewelry... Sometimes there isn't a trigger at all and I just feel sad. I am not trying to get rid of those feelings though, just trying to ride them out and feel those feelings and emotions and enjoy the memories they bring.

I went to sort through her clothes, jewelry, etc. on Saturday. It was tough. Not while I was actually sorting, but it really built up through the day until I felt out of control emotionally. I am now happy to have Mum's charm bracelet. I will wear it at all times.

Two things I've become aware of since this has happened, and they are quite opposite in nature:

1) I feel the need to defeat this horrible disease in some way. For now, that seems to be helping prevent myself and my daughter from ever having to deal with it. So Jason and I have decided to change how we eat. We are cutting out the processed foods (hopefully completely within the next year), start eating organic produce and organic/hormone-free meats...perhaps even one day going vegetarian and then vegan. So far so good with that. I have lost 5.5lbs this week from doing that which is shocking to me! We have also started going for walks every night with the kids. It's important for them to understand how to look after their bodies also and starting them off young is the way to go.

2) So above I'm trying to be careful, but I also feel the need to be a little reckless and take some risks. I want to live life...I want to indulge in all this world has to offer. I want to uproot and travel, try new things, suck the marrow out of everything! Carpe diem, right?! To heck with "high-powered careers" and "luxury cars" and "Starbuck's coffee"...I want to take my kids up north and show them how to make an eco-friendly house, grow their own food, appreciate nature...I want to take them to impovrished parts of the world and let them see life there and teach them to help others and realize life isn't about "things" but about "people". I want to simplify life and get more out of it...which seems "risky" to me in todays society, but I feel it's the right thing to do. Will I end up doing all that? Hopefully. Realistically? Maybe not. But I'm going to do my best to try.

First "risky" move though...a tattoo. Plan to get a pink ribbon tattoo for my Mum :)