I have been trying to blog but my brain has flat lined. Seriously. It is hard to put sentences together lately. Moms seem to always joke that they lose some of their brain power after children. It's no joke. There are just days when the only things I can remember to do are feed, clothe and entertain my son. Forget other things like paying bills and making appointments and trying to keep in touch with my friends and family. With hopes for future children (none on the way people), I don't see this problem resolving itself anytime soon. With that said, here is the latest in my world:
My weight loss was pretty disappointing this week. It was .3 lbs. Not even 1 pound! UGHHHH! Since I did well with exercise, I have to blame my poor eating habits. When the hubby is away, I don't plan my meals well. It's kind of like "hmmm, I should eat something" at 8pm and all there is in the house is baby food and popcorn. Then an hour later I'm hungry again and eat something like cheese and crackers. So this week I am really trying to focus on healthy, balanced meals that provide some nutrition.
I was able to head to the gym today for 2.5 hours. It felt great! Then I went on a long walk with my neighbor. The weather is absolutely beautiful here. We just had to go outside. With the walk and the gym, my fitness watch clocked 4 hours and 28 minutes of exercise and said I burned 943 calories. I'll accept those numbers. :-)
My brain is now officially blank. My pillow has never looked so good!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Busy Day
Today is looking like it will be a busy and fun day. I have to head to the gym in about 20 minutes for 30 minutes on the elliptical machine and 30 minutes of personal training. I always feel like "why did I sign up for this?" before I do a training but always feel great afterward so I am trying to stay positive about this morning. Then I am meeting a friend for lunch and tonight a few of my mom friends are having a much needed girls' night! I should really be doing some cleaning right now but ah, that can wait.
I called this morning to register for my German lessons. I am going to take a 16 week intensive course that is 5 days a week, 90 minutes a day starting October 17th. It's a little scary because it's a huge commitment, but it is one that I need to make. Living in a country where you don't speak the language is frustrating. It's hard to understand what is going on around us and it leaves me with a feeling of being out of the loop. It's also tough because a lot of people want to chat with me about the baby when we're out and about and we just can't communicate. I feel like the language barrier has been the number one thing that is keeping me from embracing Switzerland as my home. So, let's just get that out of the way and be done with it! I know it won't be that easy. They speak Swiss German here, which is a dialect and something not taught in language schools. The swiss write in High German (which is what I'll learn) so they can understand it and speak it if necessary. I won't be a fluent German speaker but I am hoping for a little bit more understanding of the things around me.
OK. Time to exercise!
I called this morning to register for my German lessons. I am going to take a 16 week intensive course that is 5 days a week, 90 minutes a day starting October 17th. It's a little scary because it's a huge commitment, but it is one that I need to make. Living in a country where you don't speak the language is frustrating. It's hard to understand what is going on around us and it leaves me with a feeling of being out of the loop. It's also tough because a lot of people want to chat with me about the baby when we're out and about and we just can't communicate. I feel like the language barrier has been the number one thing that is keeping me from embracing Switzerland as my home. So, let's just get that out of the way and be done with it! I know it won't be that easy. They speak Swiss German here, which is a dialect and something not taught in language schools. The swiss write in High German (which is what I'll learn) so they can understand it and speak it if necessary. I won't be a fluent German speaker but I am hoping for a little bit more understanding of the things around me.
OK. Time to exercise!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Kenpo X
I was trying to decide what exercise to do this morning when M went down for his nap. I put in a yoga dvd and that lasted about 7 minutes. I wear a heart monitor and am addicted to getting my heart rate up and watching the calories burned go up and up. Yoga does not provide the instant gratification I am looking for. So, I popped in the P90X Kenpo X dvd. It was more enjoyable than I had anticipated. It wasn't super difficult but it was challenging and before I knew it, the heart rate was up and I was burning those calories. Woo-Hoo!!! I clocked an hour and 12 minutes of exercise and burned 271 calories. This has earned me another smiley face on my goal chart which looks like this:
The visual is really helpful for me. Tomorrow I have a personal training appointment at the gym so I know I'm on way to a good exercise week.
Not much else is going on around here. We had a nice weekend running errands and spending time together as a family. Michael was traveling all last week and came home late Saturday morning. It was nice to have him with us again.
Well...M is awake so I have to run. Hope you all are having a great day!
Not much else is going on around here. We had a nice weekend running errands and spending time together as a family. Michael was traveling all last week and came home late Saturday morning. It was nice to have him with us again.
Well...M is awake so I have to run. Hope you all are having a great day!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Kid Fight
I broke up a kid fight today. I was walking to pick up my Bubba from daycare and passed by the school next to our house. In front of me were three kids who were probably in third grade. They were goofing around (or what appeared to be that) when two of the boys got angry and started kicking and punching each other! It was strange because I thought for a moment about what I should do. Then the mama bear/lunch lady in me sprung into action. I got right in between them and yelled "knock it off!" They immediately stopped (thank goodness) and the young girl started explaining to me in German that one of the boys was trying to break her umbrella. I told them it didn't matter and they should keep walking and leave each other alone. One of the trouble makers walked the other way so it was all good. It was one of those situations that caught me off guard because suddenly I had to be the adult. I realize they probably thought I was a kid myself until I jumped in. Sadly, they were about as tall as me. Sigh...
Other than the afternoon 3rd grade brawl, today was a productive day. I decided to head to the gym and got a 90 minute workout in. Combined with walking the babe to and from daycare, my total exercise today was 2.5 hours burning 650 calories (according to my heart monitor). This is excellent progress for a Monday. Tomorrow I will do a P90X dvd while M is sleeping. I made myself a chart today that has 56 days on it. My goal is to put a lot of smiley faces on it (for the days I exercise) and be down 10lbs by the time the chart is complete. I will continue the P90X as well as go to the gym and eat lots of healthy food. Let's hope for good health for me and the baby so we can make days like today part of our routine. That would make this mama very happy!
Other than the afternoon 3rd grade brawl, today was a productive day. I decided to head to the gym and got a 90 minute workout in. Combined with walking the babe to and from daycare, my total exercise today was 2.5 hours burning 650 calories (according to my heart monitor). This is excellent progress for a Monday. Tomorrow I will do a P90X dvd while M is sleeping. I made myself a chart today that has 56 days on it. My goal is to put a lot of smiley faces on it (for the days I exercise) and be down 10lbs by the time the chart is complete. I will continue the P90X as well as go to the gym and eat lots of healthy food. Let's hope for good health for me and the baby so we can make days like today part of our routine. That would make this mama very happy!
Friday, September 16, 2011
TGIF and after 8pm
It's Friday and after 8pm. Yes! I don't go to work so I guess the days of the week don't matter much. Every day is usually the same. I wake up around 5:45am when the babe gets up and get to relax after 8pm when he goes to sleep. But today really felt like a Friday. It was a loooooong week. Having a very sick baby was no fun and waiting for his fever to go down seemed like forever. We finally got an antibiotic today and hopefully that will help. I think we are both ready to return to the park, see our friends and get back to our usual routine.
This is short and sweet. My bed is calling my name. It's 8:17pm. I know. I'm a wild woman!
This is short and sweet. My bed is calling my name. It's 8:17pm. I know. I'm a wild woman!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Life Happens
Oh how life throws a wrench in my plans. Tuesday morning at 2:30am my sweet bubba woke with a high fever. He was acting pretty normal all day (eating, drinking, sticking to his nap schedule) but the fever kept climbing so off to the doctor we went. All seemed ok. Just a virus to be treated with tylenol and ibuprofen.
Yesterday (Wednesday) was a whole other story. The bubbster woke up at 5am and was miserable. He would not let me put him down the entire day. I watched tv while he napped on my chest every 30 minutes and in between we read books, sang songs and tried to do quiet activities. He had no interest in toys, food or moving for that matter. Poor guy. He was so sick. By 6pm, his fever was 105.5 and I was on the phone with the emergency room. I was instructed to double the tylenol and wait an hour for the fever to go down. Luckily it did. By 8:45pm, both me and the babe were sound asleep. He woke up this morning with no fever but still wanting to be held and no interest in his toys. Hopefully as the day goes on, he'll regain his energy.
Michael is gone this week so the baby being sick has made it difficult to get anything else accomplished besides attending to his needs. I am not going to be hard on myself though. Life happens and sometimes focus needs to be shifted. I am doing well eating healthy so as soon as Mickey gives me an hour, I will get right back to my P90X. Today I'll be lucky if I get a shower. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Yesterday (Wednesday) was a whole other story. The bubbster woke up at 5am and was miserable. He would not let me put him down the entire day. I watched tv while he napped on my chest every 30 minutes and in between we read books, sang songs and tried to do quiet activities. He had no interest in toys, food or moving for that matter. Poor guy. He was so sick. By 6pm, his fever was 105.5 and I was on the phone with the emergency room. I was instructed to double the tylenol and wait an hour for the fever to go down. Luckily it did. By 8:45pm, both me and the babe were sound asleep. He woke up this morning with no fever but still wanting to be held and no interest in his toys. Hopefully as the day goes on, he'll regain his energy.
Michael is gone this week so the baby being sick has made it difficult to get anything else accomplished besides attending to his needs. I am not going to be hard on myself though. Life happens and sometimes focus needs to be shifted. I am doing well eating healthy so as soon as Mickey gives me an hour, I will get right back to my P90X. Today I'll be lucky if I get a shower. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Day 2: Tough Stuff
I was giving myself every excuse not to exercise today. I didn't fall asleep until midnight last night then my son woke up at 2:30am with a 102 fever. He didn't fall back to sleep until 4am and then was wide awake by 6am needing 110% of my attention. By the time he went down for his morning nap I was already exhausted and in need of a break. BUT...I know myself. I know no matter how much I tell myself I'll exercise in the afternoon, I won't do it. It's best for me to do it and be done! The second day of P90X was much harder than the first and I found myself trying hard to do what I could then running in place. If I can do some of these exercises by the 2nd or 3rd month like the guy in the video says, I'll be really impressed with myself.
The rest of the day kind of fell apart as my son's fever only got worse. We were in the doctor's office by the end of the afternoon. Hopefully with some medication and a good night's sleep he'll be on the mend but unfortunately he can't go to school tomorrow. Not great for trying to get him to love his daycare but that's life. It means more snuggling, reading books, playing with blocks and trying to keep him from busting his head open as he tries to pull himself up on absolutely everything! Hopefully he'll nap long enough for me to do Day 3 of P90X. I can hardly wait. :-)
The rest of the day kind of fell apart as my son's fever only got worse. We were in the doctor's office by the end of the afternoon. Hopefully with some medication and a good night's sleep he'll be on the mend but unfortunately he can't go to school tomorrow. Not great for trying to get him to love his daycare but that's life. It means more snuggling, reading books, playing with blocks and trying to keep him from busting his head open as he tries to pull himself up on absolutely everything! Hopefully he'll nap long enough for me to do Day 3 of P90X. I can hardly wait. :-)
Monday, September 12, 2011
Day 1: P90X and the Journey begins...
I was doing really great in the exercise department and having a lot of success. I was going to the gym every week day and most Saturdays and eating healthy foods (mostly). My gym had free childcare while you were working out and the lady was wonderful. My little guy loved going there to play. It was win-win as far as I was concerned. Then, I received a letter in the mail from my gym saying they were closing the childcare center to build some fancy spa area. UGH!!! They gave all the parents 3 weeks notice and would not change their minds no matter how much we protested. As soon as the childcare ended, my exercise went on a serious hiatus along with eating healthy.
This is really a vicious cycle for me. I get focused, lose some weight and then go back to bad habits. This time I am deciding to take a different approach and not focus so much on pounds but more on the journey to getting back to a healthier me. This includes mind, body and spirit. A lot has happened this year and I feel like I am just starting to reconnect with myself. So, I am setting a few goals and making my declaration today publicly so that I can hold myself accountable. Here they are:
1. Focus on the positive in my life by giving thanks everyday while learning how to let the negative go. There is so much to be thankful for but it has been more difficult for me this year to embrace my unique circumstances of living far away and in a country where I don't speak the language. I want to be more present in my life. It is going to take some soul searching and some work but now is the time.
2. Complete 90 days of P90X training and make better food choices on a daily basis. This is completely doable and I just have to do it! Today I completed Day 1. It was 45 minutes of hard work and it felt great. I know I feel better when I am exercising and there is nothing from keeping me from doing it daily except myself.
3. Be a better friend to my husband. This sounds weird. My hubby is my best friend in the whole world and he works so hard for our family. The hard work means lots of travel and late nights so we often have opposite schedules. By the time he is home, I am ready for bed. I want to focus on a few small things like staying up an extra 30 minutes so we can eat dinner together and planning some fun family activities on the weekends so we can explore the cool things in Switzerland together. The main word being together. :-)
That's it. Nothing too extreme (I think) but some small changes that will lead to big changes. I will start to blog more too (yay for having some extra time) so you fabulous readers can track my progress. This will be good. I am excited to begin work on these things.
This is really a vicious cycle for me. I get focused, lose some weight and then go back to bad habits. This time I am deciding to take a different approach and not focus so much on pounds but more on the journey to getting back to a healthier me. This includes mind, body and spirit. A lot has happened this year and I feel like I am just starting to reconnect with myself. So, I am setting a few goals and making my declaration today publicly so that I can hold myself accountable. Here they are:
1. Focus on the positive in my life by giving thanks everyday while learning how to let the negative go. There is so much to be thankful for but it has been more difficult for me this year to embrace my unique circumstances of living far away and in a country where I don't speak the language. I want to be more present in my life. It is going to take some soul searching and some work but now is the time.
2. Complete 90 days of P90X training and make better food choices on a daily basis. This is completely doable and I just have to do it! Today I completed Day 1. It was 45 minutes of hard work and it felt great. I know I feel better when I am exercising and there is nothing from keeping me from doing it daily except myself.
3. Be a better friend to my husband. This sounds weird. My hubby is my best friend in the whole world and he works so hard for our family. The hard work means lots of travel and late nights so we often have opposite schedules. By the time he is home, I am ready for bed. I want to focus on a few small things like staying up an extra 30 minutes so we can eat dinner together and planning some fun family activities on the weekends so we can explore the cool things in Switzerland together. The main word being together. :-)
That's it. Nothing too extreme (I think) but some small changes that will lead to big changes. I will start to blog more too (yay for having some extra time) so you fabulous readers can track my progress. This will be good. I am excited to begin work on these things.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
My First Real Day Alone
Yesterday was my baby's first real, long day of daycare and I had 8 hours all to myself. It was very tough dropping him off. He immediately started crying and I felt awful. I stood outside the door for a few minutes (probably the wrong thing to do for myself. He couldn't see me) and convinced myself he had stopped crying before I left. The house seemed very empty when I walked in and I had no idea what to do. I felt like just walking around and doing nothing but knew it wouldn't help so it was time to get busy. Here is a list of what I accomplished:
3 loads of laundry folded and put away
Ironing
Cleaned kitchen
killed a big, hairy spider (ick!)
Took out the garbage
Did the recycling
Went to the bank, the pharmacy and the grocery store
Cleaned my desk
Filed papers
Paid bills
Vacuumed
Made baby food
Ground coffee
Changed sheets
Put things away downstairs in storage
Once I picked him up from school, I realized I hadn't sat down all day. Amazing what nervous energy can do. The teachers told me he did great! He settled down and played, ate and slept. Everything a mother could ask for so I really had nothing to worry about. And now that all my work's done, I might be able to sit down on Wednesday and watch tv or something. Pretty soon I'll start my German lessons and should start going to the gym again but for now I will enjoy the quiet time on Wednesday (and miss my son terribly!).
3 loads of laundry folded and put away
Ironing
Cleaned kitchen
killed a big, hairy spider (ick!)
Took out the garbage
Did the recycling
Went to the bank, the pharmacy and the grocery store
Cleaned my desk
Filed papers
Paid bills
Vacuumed
Made baby food
Ground coffee
Changed sheets
Put things away downstairs in storage
Once I picked him up from school, I realized I hadn't sat down all day. Amazing what nervous energy can do. The teachers told me he did great! He settled down and played, ate and slept. Everything a mother could ask for so I really had nothing to worry about. And now that all my work's done, I might be able to sit down on Wednesday and watch tv or something. Pretty soon I'll start my German lessons and should start going to the gym again but for now I will enjoy the quiet time on Wednesday (and miss my son terribly!).
Friday, September 2, 2011
Daycare Day 1
My baby went to daycare today. It was tough but I am hoping to pick up a happy child who had a great morning. He will go 2.5 days a week so I can take German lessons. I guess I might have a little more time to blog too! A lot has been going on. My babe is crawling and standing up on things. He is trying hard to stand on his own and finding more independence as each day passes. He is also super attached to mommy, making daycare a tough transition. I am recommitting myself to my fitness routine and will have a lot to say about that soon. So stay tuned...
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