My own worst enemy

I have been going to the gym now for a good 2 months.  I have lost 5 lbs since January.  Out of context this seems great.. but guys.. its APRIL! Even if I only lost a pound a week, I should be down about 15 lbs.  I have really been struggling with this lately but I can't beat myself up about it.  I am eating the best I have ever eaten.  I finally feel ok with eating very little processed foods.  My daily diet consists mostly of : almonds, eggs, greek yogurt, chicken, tilapia, broccoli, salad, whole grain bread and peanut butter.  I'm learning to like other things like hummus, and chickpeas.  We eat more beans and brown rice.  I bake or pan sear nearly everything and only treat us to a "fried" food occasionally.  Even the kids are adapting.  They are eating fruit, popcorn,  and homemade granola bars for snacks, I hardly buy packaged snacks and stopped buying chips.  I make homemade tortilla chips baked in the oven instead and my oldest LOVES them.  I know its time to get groceries when the refrigerator is getting empty.

After meeting with the personal trainer, I have been trying to incorporate more weights with my exercises but for the last month, the scale hasn't budged.  I began researching and realized that likely my 1400 calorie diet was too LOW.  It seems odd, but I needed to increase how much I was eating in order to jump start my weight loss again.  I am still in trial mode as I only began this a week ago.  Although the scale isn't moving, it hasn't fluctuated up either so this keeps me hopeful.  Like I had said this was really dragging me down.  It is so frustrating to watch your husband literally decrease his food intake and start dropping pounds every day.  I have to keep going to the gym even when I don't feel like it.  I did have my body fat percentage evaluated though and I have lost between 3-5% body fat so that makes me want to keep chugging along also.

Today for example, I was going to skip it.  I was tired, had a headache and just was feeling down.  Right before I went to pick my son up from school, I told myself , "Who am I kidding? Jessica, get off your butt and go to the gym."  So I did.  After picking him up from school, off we went.  While I was warming up on the treadmill, a couple moms from the school showed up and they invited me to come lift with them.  I thought sure.. why not.  She set up a circuit training routine and said we were going to do 4 sets.  When I got off the couch today.. I had no idea this was in store for me.  This was THE hardest workout I have ever done.  I burned more calories in that hour than I ever have before.  It was so hard but I am so glad I got up and went today.  It looks like I now have my own personal trainer and workout partner.  She invited me to join her anytime she was there and gave me her schedule.

I really hope this is what I need.  I realized today that maybe I just wasn't doing enough or pushing myself hard enough and I just need to keep doing it and keep being patient.  In time the weight will come off, for now I am enjoying my victory of defeat over the old me and becoming friends with the new one.

A place of my own!

 Finally! I have something I have wanted for a LONG time.  I have a real garden area.  I have a reputation for not being able to grow things due to my own negligence and frustration and it is often a topic of humor around the home.  I have never successfully grown a vegetable in all the years I have tried and even my flower pots wither away by the end of the season.  I really hope to change things around and actually get something to grow.

Last month we finalized the design of the beds and off I went to Lowes to pick up my lumber.  I managed to successfully pick out un-cracked and un-warped wood and Brent went on and put them together.  Our original 2-bed plan was swapped for 4-4x10 ft beds that stand 9 inches high.  He really did a fantastic job and I am glad we decided to double the amount of space because it doesn't seem like a whole lot of room.  I may be a little over ambitious though with what I intend to grow.

On Friday a HUGE pile of dirt was delivered to the house and most of my Saturday was spent filling up the beds.  I thought I would be extremely sore today but to my surprise, I felt really good when I woke up this morning.  We still have a lot of work before the area looks like we want it to but the most important this was I am now able to plant some things.  Which is exactly what I did this morning.  The back right bed is now holding  seeds for carrots, radishes, scallions, and two varieties of lettuce.  I left about two feet on that bed to plant some more lettuce in a few weeks in order to extend the growing season.

When I was perusing around the net one night, I came across a blog that had introduced a nifty free online program that will help you plan a garden.  This is exactly what this Master Gardener wanna-be needed.  It is called Smart Gardener and tells you pretty much everything you need to know about planning and caring for a garden.  It starts you off with the design, and takes you through seeding, sowing, planing, care and harvest.  it provides information such as climate factors, plant compatibility, pests and control, diseases, how and when to plant and harvest.  It is an amazing tool!  Here is what our garden will potentially look like when it is all planted.

I love that it gives me a weekly to-do list that I can check off as I complete it.  It goes so far as to remind me when I need to water.  I am terribly unorganized and very forgetful.  This little program takes all the guesswork out of my garden.  Now I am just crossing my fingers for some sprouts to show up in about a week.

We decided to omit the potato bins this year and just concentrate on the main beds and getting a compost bin set up.  We are going to take out all the grass around the beds and along the back fence and possibly put some sort of curbing or barrier between the lawn and the garden area.  We still have quite a bit of work to do but I think we will be able to get it done eventually.  

One of reasons we never did this before is because we just couldn't afford it.  I think that is part of the reason why this is so gratifying. Thanks to Pear Budget we have been able to purchase the supplies we needed without having to worry about it cutting into the grocery bill.  Since we have set aside money since January each month for this project and others that we plan on doing throughout the year, it is a huge burden lifted.  Knowing we are going to be growing natural, fresh produce for our family in an affordable and responsible way is so rewarding.  I'm still going to keep my fingers crossed in hopes that something makes it past my black thumb!

40/40 : Part 1

I have had a little lapse in content so I decided to post the first half of an idea I picked up over at Sara's Organized Chaos.  She made a 30/30 list and did really well at accomplishing a lot of them before she turned 30 this past March.  I really enjoyed reading about all her adventures.  It inspired me as I am 4 years into my 30's to make a 40/40 list and am hoping it will encourage me to accomplish some of the things I have been wanting to do.  I will be honest in saying it is hard coming up with 40 things I want to accomplish in the next 6 years but I really think if I try I can do most of them.  Today I will give you the first half of my list and a brief explanation of why I chose that item.  My whole list is not complete but when it is, I will be sure to post Part 2.

1. Graduate college- When I returned to school in 2009, I planned on graduating in 2 years.  I am now 2 classes away from being finished.
2.  Go on a week-long backpacking trip- I have a LOT of preparing to do before this will happen.
3.  Own another Great Dane- 

my beloved Kadokah

4.  See the Ocean

5.  Stay in a yurt

6.  Go snowshoeing

7.  Quit Wal-Mart- I have worked there since 1994, half of my life.  I began when I was 16.  While it has been flexible during all my moves, having 5 kids, and going to school.. I hope achieving #1 will help me complete this one.

8.  Have a healthy BMI- I hesitate to put a specific weight here yet.. in all actuality.. I just want to be healthy.

9.  Go to Seattle

10. Go to Canada

11.  Take a kickboxing class

12.  Finish all my cross stitched stockings- back story: When my second child was one, I began these stockings.  I made mine first out of pure selfishness.  And then I started Taylors'. I will start working on them again and then my hands hurt but this is something I really want to finish.

13.  Make a Quilt for my bedroom

14.  Visit Monterey, CA- I lived there when I was really little and my dad was in the military.  I remember it being a spectacular place and I want to visit it again and see where I lived for a few years.  I also want to see their superb aquarium.

15.  Go whale-watching- ok ok, so a lot of these things I can meld together during different trips.

16.  Ride in a hot air balloon- This is probably #1 on my bucket list.  I have wanted to do this for sooo long

17.  Become a Master Gardener- This is a course a person pays to take that will teach them all they want to know about gardening.  I was in the Idaho Master Naturalist class and really enjoyed it.  It was a spin off of the Master Gardener program.

18.  Go to my 20 year high school reunion-  I have NO idea why.. but I missed my 10 year one so I want to go to my 20 in 2015.

19.  Go to Disneyland-  Hopefully in 6 years we will be ale to do this with all 5 kids!

20.  Soak in a hot springs

OK folks, I know it seems like there is a lot of travelling in our future.  A least the places I want to go aren't too far away.  I feel like all these things are attainable and hopefully putting it down on "paper"  will help me stay focused.  I will keep this blog updated as I complete any of these tasks and as soon as I come up with 15 more, I will deliver part 2!