Weigh in - 1 month

It was a month ago today that I wrote this post beginning my goal of eventually losing 30 pounds.  I've decided that I'm going to weigh in here once a month.  The results are in...

But first I'm going to make you all sit through an analysis of my diet and workout regime this last month.  Ha!  See how I'm the blogger and so I have the power?  (What?  You're just going to scroll to the bottom of this post anyway?  Ok cheatypants.  Way to rain on a blogger's parade.)

I've only been half serious about my diet.  I'm making a lot of healthy substitutes: fruit or gum instead of other sweets, turkey instead of fattier meats, salads with low-calorie dressing, etc.  But I'm still not counting calories.  I know that would be most effective for me (and it's what I prefer to do, diet-wise) but I hesitate to do so because I'm still breastfeeding and there's no way to know how many calories that burns.  Also, we eat out about once a week and I know I'm not making low-calorie decisions when it comes to eating out.  I tell myself that it's only once a week so I can splurge a bit.  Which is a fine mentality to have, I think, but it doesn't exactly help shed the pounds.  On the positive side, I have noticed a huge cut back in my snacking.  And for Halloween we didn't even hand out candy because I didn't want it in my house.  (Mira has some candy that she got from trick-or-treating, but for some reason I'm not tempted to eat it, probably because it's HERS and I don't want to take it away from her.)

But as blase as I've been about my diet, I've been totally attacking my workouts.  I'm going usually 5 times per week and working out for 50 minutes to an hour each time.  I usually do the eliptical, since that seems not to aggravate my plantar fasciitis.  Actually it's this weird eliptical that makes your legs go out in front of you like you're doing a knee lift, instead of going round in circles under you like a traditional eliptical.  I prefer that one because it burns a lot more calories in less time.  So doing 50 minutes on that thing, with a pace of 120-130 strides per minute (which is pretty fast, I maintain that rhythm using music that is 120-130 beats per minute), at an incline of 3 and a resistance of 20 (whatever that means), I can burn 500 calories in 50 minutes.  Which I do.  About 5 times a week.  I'm starting to get a little bored with that though, and I want something that's more of a whole body workout.  Not to mention that I don't want my body to get too "used to" any specific workout.  I tried a zumba class and thought it was fun and definitely intense, but I felt like I was spending too much time trying to get the choreography and it was still just all cardio as opposed to having some strength training.  So today I tried the rowing machine for the first time.  Whoa.  Fifteen minutes on that thing and my butt was kicked.  My total workout today was 20 minutes on the eliptical, 15 minutes on the rower, and then another 20 minutes on the eliptical again.  I wish the rower would tell me how many calories I burned on it because I bet it was a ton.  If I had to guess, I'd say I burned about 200 calories in that 15 minutes on the rower, making my total calorie burn today a whopping 600 calories.  It felt good, but my shoulders are already a little sore.  I think I'll keep the rower in my workouts for this next month and see how that goes.

Ok ok... here's what you've been dying to know.  In the month since my last post, I lost 4 pounds.  I feel good about that.  It's a rate of about a pound per week, which I think is realistic and maintainable.  That said, I have hopes that this next month will yield bigger results.  Mostly because Mira, Ellowyn, and I were all sick TWICE last month and when any of us is sick, it's pretty impossible to get my workout in because I can't go to the gym.  So there were a lot of times last month that I wanted to go work out but couldn't because someone was sick.  Hopefully we will all be healthier this coming month and that won't be a barrier for me.

One month in and I've lost 4 pounds, putting me 26 pounds away from my goal of losing 30 pounds.  Feeling good.

Halloween 2011

This year was the first time that Mira picked her own costume.  She chose an adorable little witch outfit (and I added the striped tights because every good witch has striped tights and also because CUTENESS OVERLOAD).  And poor Ellowyn got Mira's hand-me-downs, like always: she wore Mira's old goldfish costume.  Someday that girl will have something of her own... I'm just not sure when that will be.

This year the girls made good use of their costumes; we attended FIVE different Halloween events.  (It would have been seven if Mira hadn't been camping the weekend prior... yeah, we get around.  :-P)

1) Halloween party in the park:
The Tuesday before Halloween, we met a bunch of friends at the park for a Halloween costume party.  We painted pumpkins, ate Halloween themed snacks, and played on the playscapes.  At one point several of the kids were all sitting together eating lollipops.  It was so cute how they were all lined up together.  I swear the photo below is completely unstaged!  (I didn't bring my camera, but my friend shared with me this photo that she took.)

2) Halloween party at a friend's house:
Saturday evening on Halloween weekend, we went to a big party with a bunch of Mira's friends.  One of the moms hosted in her big beautiful backyard.  The costumes at this party were awesome.  It made me wish that I had dressed up as something, since Brian and I were one of the few not costumed.

Yes, the baby there with Ellowyn is dressed up as french fries.  His big brother was a hamburger.

You've heard of mini golf... well here's witchy golf.

Why yes, that is a bouncy house in the background.

3) Hyde Park Fall Festival:
My parents' house backs up to a park owned by Hyde Park Church and every Halloween they throw a big festival there.  It's really great for preschoolers: activities, bouncy houses, a train ride, crafts, a puppet show... basically everything a toddler could want in a Halloween celebration.  So the Sunday of Halloween weekend, that's what we did.

"Fishing" for candy.

Ball toss.

Bean bag toss.

Everyone's a winner!

Crafts.

Cookie decorating.

Obstacle course

Ellowyn had fun from her comfy seat in the stroller.  Plus this sock is delicious.  Wanna bite?

4)  Fall Fun Fest in Round Rock:
And the Hyde Park Festival was so fun that we figured we'd do it all again the next day.  On the morning of Halloween (Monday), the city of Round Rock put on a similar festival in Old Settler's Park.  We also ran into quite a few of our friends at this event, so that was fun.

Watching the jugglers.

Bean bag toss.  Again.  By the end of the festivities this year, she was a pro.

There were some uniformed police officers there with a police car for the kids to look around in.

More crafts.

5) Trick-or-treating:
And of course, Halloween evening we went trick-or-treating in my parents' neighborhood.  Last year, Mira was only up for about 4 houses.  But this year, she thought trick-or-treating was the best thing since sliced bread.  She said "trick-or-treat" at every door and remembered her manners with a "thank you" after receiving candy or compliments on her costume.  After every house she'd say "And now let's find ANOTHER house!"  I think we probably did about a dozen houses before Ellowyn demanded bedtime.

"And now let's find ANOTHER house!"

The last house we trick-or-treated had this strange bearded man... oh wait it's just Grandpa.