Nice People

I would not consider myself a nice person. I can be kind and do things that are sweet for others. But being nice ALL the time is just too much work. And I don't trust people who are happy and nice all the time. At my last job I met someone that didn't talk about other people at all, I knew right then we could never be friends.  It just seems to me that at some point that happy, nice person has their moment when they are frustrated, upset or angry, but they hide that part of themselves. I'm better with people when they are themselves and not hiding that "other" side. I try to be sensitive and read people so that I'm not offensive but sometimes that smart ass in me just can't keep quiet. For example yesterday I was volunteering and the other person in the office said we should have Christmas music. She started to sing and my first response was "Please don't". I may have hurt her feelings and as I type this I'm thinking I'm a jerk, but I couldn't help it. I did laugh after I said it but I'm not sure that helped. Then I had to back pedal and say I wasn't accepted in the choir in 8th grade and I stopped singing. I suppose a small part of me felt bad.  Its better if I just stick to my friends and family who understand that sarcastic side of me. I blame my mom, she is worse than I am. The good thing is I'm confident enough to say it doesn't hurt my feelings if you don't like me. I don't need to be friends with everyone. So if you are offended, you were warned at the beginning that I'm not a nice person ;-)

Christmas Giving

A couple weeks ago I received an email from my friend stating she had everything she needed this year and if I planned to buy her something for Christmas she preferred the money be used for charity. It was a group email she sent to all of her friends and family. My first response back to her was "So does this mean you aren't getting me a gift this Christmas??" She laughed and said she was making gifts, which she does every year. I know this wasn't her intention but now I feel like the a-hole that wants gifts. I love Christmas and my favorite part is getting gifts for my friends and family. Gifts don't have to be extravagant, for me truly its the thought. I've also made this into a competition with the pilot. He of course doesn't see it as a competition but my goal is to win. He does so many wonderful things throughout the year, I at least have this one chance to out do him and get him the perfect gift. The other fun part is when you have kids, the excitement they feel for the holiday is contagious. Of course I do want to teach my son to be generous, I will make sure to do something where he sees that we can help others this season. My parents are going out of town and decided not to buy any gifts. I'm totally fine with that if it makes them happy.  It is very easy to be stressed about the holidays, what gifts you are going to buy, are you charging all this on credit cards, are you trying not to hurt feelings if you can't buy any gifts. My thought is don't go into debt for the holiday, if you can't afford gifts, take pictures of your family and send those out with maybe a update letter of what is going on in your life. If they are truly your friends and family they will understand.

Wanting to Quit

I feel like maybe I should just keep driving and not take the exit of change. Its been 4 weeks and I'm back at only a 5 pound weight loss. I've exercised at least 5 times a week and continue to follow the Eat to Live plan. Now the challenge is to continue. Its strange its not like I have any particular cravings,  I think I just need variety. Breakfast is easy, but the focus is on so many vegetables that I've started to want something different. I tried to inspire myself the other day by taking a picture of me with my bikini on. I'm hoping in another 4 weeks I can take another picture and actually be able to see a change. Its difficult when I see myself every day and I can't tell if my body has changed or not. It probably doesn't help that the pilot's schedule has really sucked the last couple of months.
My friend pointed out today that its kind of like a honeymoon when he is home, then when he leaves it feels lonely. I suppose my comfort before may have been food or an evening drink.  However those things don't really make me feel better anymore. The easy thing for me now would be to quit, go to a drive thru get my buffalo chicken sandwich, fries, and strawberry shake. But this time I'm not going down that path. I'm tired of quitting, I'm tired of being disappointed in myself for not trying a little harder.  Several years ago when I worked with a personal trainer she would let me have one free day. A day where I didn't worry about calories or the nutrition of what I was eating. I may go back to that after the 6 weeks is done. I think the true challenge for me is to figure out what my balance is going to be. What depressed me the most about this book is according to Dr. Fuhrman (the author), I should weigh 111 lbs for my height. Which means I weigh 30 lbs too much!  We are going out of town in a couple weeks, thank goodness. I need to focus on something else, on somebody else, on anything else.

Being Happy and Thankful

This was a couple years ago in our front yard. D-boy loves when the pilot rakes up the leaves so he can run in them. This year we watched our new puppy go crazy running around through the leaves. We have 3 huge trees and the leaves are insane every year. I could easily gripe and moan about helping with this chore, but instead I get to watch my sweet boy run through the leaves with a huge smile on his face.
My friend and I talked about being happy tonight. We both know people who have that sense of entitlement and that their life is so unfair. Its not that I think their aren't those out there who have it rough, I just believe that we have it within ourselves to be happy. Happiness is a choice, just like being angry is a choice. I have my grumpy days and trust me I've been frustrated and upset. But I have more reasons to be grateful for the life I have with my family. When the pilot was sick, I was even more thankful for every day and every moment he was here. I think now that he is healthy I need to have that same outlook. I don't ever want to forget the wonderful gift of life my best friend gave him. She told me that she was not just doing it for him but for our family. Their will never be enough words or love that I can show her to let her know just how thankful I am. She saved my pilot's life. So this Thanksgiving, I will remember to be thankful for this life and for each day I get to spend with my amazing family.

The Note

First a translation of my son's note: mom and dad I stole ate patrick's cookie at lunch. I will bring a piece of candy tomorrow. (Of course I did save this note because I thought it was cute)
However, I was disappointed that day because my son had taken something away from his friend. Especially since his teacher told me he had shown such compassion to Patrick earlier in the month. We had a little talk at home and I asked him what if somebody took your cookie without asking, how would you feel? I also said that before he does something he should think would I want somebody to treat me this way. I think as adults this basic idea goes a long way. I treat others the way I want to be treated. Do I want to be flipped off by a driver because I didn't put my foot on the pedal fast enough when the light turned green? Nope.  I know their are rude people everywhere but I find when I don't return that negativity, I'm treated differently. Its hard for them to be rude when they've got some sweet, cute, curly haired, crazy woman smiling at them. And this doesn't just apply to strangers, what about our family and our friends?
The holidays I know can be stressful, but just remember how do you want to be treated? I want to be treated with love and respect, so my plan is to treat my family and friends with love and respect.

Food For Thought

How many fruits and vegetables do you eat on a daily basis? Before I started Eat to Live I could honestly say maybe one fruit and does lettuce count if it's on a burger? Usually when you tell someone you are no longer eating meat the first thing they say is, but what about protein? Now I have an answer broccoli has twice as much protein as steak. The other thing I've learned is most diets fail because they involve limiting our food and our minds think we are starving. This plan changes the way you eat dramatically for 6 weeks, but I think its to get our minds to figure out we are eating badly. I'm never hungry and I eat a lot of food. For example today I had a strawberry-banana smoothie with soy vanilla milk, piece of toast with cashew butter, and a chai tea latte. Lunch will be a huge salad with avocado, beans, carrots, broccoli, red pepper, and salsa for my dressing with an apple. For dinner I will probably make a fake chicken sandwich with my rice cheeze and a side of steamed broccoli and carrots. Before I started I received a phone call from my doctor saying my cholesterol is high and I needed to make a change in my diet and exercise. In 3 months I will get tested again and I really want to see what this has done to my cholesterol numbers.
Thanksgiving, I plan on making Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, yams and pumpkin pies. But I will also have veggies and a fruit tray to munch on before dinner. I will have a small portion of each thing and then Friday I will be back to eating healthy. I think its ok to balance, but I think at some point the urge for those bad foods will go away. Or at least when I eat them my body will remind me that I don't need them anymore. I'm out of excuses for eating the way I did, it was time for me to make a change. And I can honestly say I feel great!

Talent

I have no talent. I am totally fine with this but I do wish that I did. When I was 8 years old my father sent me to piano lessons. I had lessons until I was 16, I was terrible. I begged my dad to please let me quit. He told me that one day I would tell him that I wished he would've made me keep playing. 21 years later and I still feel the same way, I'm glad he let me quit. I love to listen to others that can play an instrument. I'm hoping that D-boy has a talent, he has a guitar and loves to sing. We watch The Voice together every week, I think secretly I want him to be inspired. However I think this might've backfired on me. Last week he told us he wants to be a teacher which I thought was sweet and then he told me his reason. He wants to be a teacher for the hugs. Cute when a 5 year old says it but I'm thinking he should leave that off his resume at 25. Then this week he told me instead of being a teacher he wants to be on The Voice. I wasn't sure how to explain to him that being on The Voice is not a job. The list of what he wants to be when he grows up is getting longer. Rock Star, race car driver, professional soccer player, teacher, aspiring singer on The Voice. My hope for him is he finds something he loves to do and does that. I do feel bad though if he ends up playing the guitar, because I will ask him to play it every day and night :-)

Don't forget to vote by clicking the vote for me icon above, Thanks

The Weigh In

I used to hate the scale, it was my secret enemy and every time I got on I knew it would attack. Give me bad news and make my day worse. Of course I make sure I get on first thing in the morning with no clothes so that I weigh as little as possible. Its been 2 weeks since I started Eat to Live and I've lost 6.3 pounds. Yes I'm putting the .3 because damn it I worked hard for it.  I don't feel deprived at all, I found alternatives to my favorite foods. The pilot laughed at me when I told him I bought vegan spicy chicken. I also have a new favorite rice cheeze, yes its a real thing (not real cheese though).  You might think I'm crazy for starting this before Thanksgiving, but I had to do something. I was tired of wanting to take a baseball bat to the scale for not giving me the number I wanted. And conveniently the pilot has a bat under our bed which isn't that far from the bathroom scale. Losing weight does make me happy, especially since I know I'm doing it the healthy way. The book says eating this way will lead to a longer life. The little devil in me though was thinking maybe I'd rather not live as long and still eat my bacon. Of course as soon as I got on the scale this morning, that changed my mind.

Today I have my own happy quote:
"Find what makes you happy and do it!" Jody

Grumpy Chicken Nugget

I walked into to Zumba tonight and the teacher had only a sports bra on and Zumba pants. No exaggeration, her abs looked exactly like the picture above! I'm not sure if this motivates me or just makes me want to go home and eat an entire box of Oreos.  I tried to make myself feel better by saying she isn't that cute, but I wasn't even fooling myself with that. I'm doing all of these positive things, eating better, exercising daily, and yet tonight I just felt grumpy. No particular reason rock hard abs probably.  I don't know why but several years ago we called it being a grumpy chicken nugget.
Today D-boy's teacher told me he had been really emotional and he was crying when I picked him up. When I asked him why he said he didn't know. Is it in the air? For me it might be because I haven't had coffee, meat, dairy, or sugar in 2 weeks. The Eat to Live book says eventually the craving for those things will go away. I'm not so sure, I did write an entire blog about my love of bacon. I almost ate something "not allowed" tonight but I decided to read instead. I was thinking a cup of tea might do the trick. Great now I sound like some a-hole from England. Alright, its time for me to go relax and stop being a Grumpy Chicken Nugget...

Twilight Addict

Yes I'm counting down the days until this movie opens. I plan on going Friday afternoon with another mom in her 30's. I own all 4 movies and I have the books on my nook. Take a moment -  laugh - then judge. Ok now, why am I and so many women hooked on this series?? Its vampires and werewolves, can this be any more unreal? Deep down its truly a love story and I have to say I'm a sucker for a love story. When I met my friend she asked me who's team I was on. If you haven't seen any of these or don't know what that means, well I'll give you the short version. Bella is the girl, Edward is the "soulmate" vampire and Jacob is the best friend werewolf. Apparently there is Team Jacob if you want Bella to be with Jacob and there is Team Edward if you want Bella to be with Edward. This sounds even more ridiculous as I type it, but I'm still hooked. For those of you hanging on to your seats wondering, I will tell you now I am team Edward. And so is my friend so I passed that test.  The acting in the first movie is terrible and yet I couldn't seem to turn it off. Which lead me to watch the 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  I think I feel like a teenager again watching these movies. Especially since that seems to be there target audience. Friday will be a little bittersweet, since this is the last one and I'll have no more to look forward too.....

Chuck e Cheese

My son is 5 and I've kept him from this franchise for 5 1/2 years. Friday night we went to a birthday party at this fine establishment. I've had very low expectations of this place, since I had heard the pizza taste like cardboard and everything else wasn't great. When you go in with low expectations it's easy to be pleasantly surprised. When we first walked in we were greeted by red ropes, is this some sort of VIP entrance? I found out they stamp your child's hand and the parent, to make sure you match on the way out. Not a bad idea. Surprise number 1. Next the tokens are 25 cents or less depending on the amount you purchase. And every game is only one token, surprise number 2. Since we were at a birthday party, the tokens were included. They sell beer for under $4 and wine, another surprise. I didn't have the pizza but the other parents said it was pretty good. I was also able to eat at a salad bar, which wasn't fantastic but I'm glad it was there. The birthday was fun and it was great to watch D-boy have such a great time with his friends.

On the way out he told me this was the best day of his entire life. WHAT? Apparently I could've saved a ton of money by knowing this earlier. Our trip to Legoland and the San Diego Zoo apparently didn't compare to Chuck E Cheese. Or the 4 day trip this summer to Disneyland. Or the trip to the Toys R Us in Times Square. Nope nothing compares to Chuck E Cheese. On the way home I had to remind him that this place was only for special occasions. I'm not sure how well that went, his definition might be different than mine.

If you enjoy the blog, please vote for me by clicking the vote for me icon above.

Favorite Things

Last night D-boy decided to draw out all of his favorite things. Some were very cute and some just seem so random. Here is a list:
Favorite number: 120
Favorite animal: Cheetah
Favorite dog: Curly (not one of our dogs, one of the foster puppies)
Favorite food: Pizza, soup and apple pie
Favorite drink: Milk

The funny thing is he wanted me to guess. When I started to get it wrong, he would start slowly saying what it was and I would guess right, of course. At the end he told me I was really good at this, Yeah I'm great when someone is telling me what to say ;-)
I was thinking about a few of my favorite things. My favorite mini-series is The Tudors. It is based on King Henry the 8th, although I guarantee the real King Henry is not as good looking as the actor who plays him. My favorite number is 4, I think its because my birthday is in April. When he asked me my favorite food, I couldn't come up with an answer. With changing my diet I guess I didn't want to commit to any one type of food. I suppose my favorite things are also cute and random. I see now where he gets it from.

If you enjoy reading my blog, please vote for me by clicking above. I'm so excited because I was just accepted to their website. They are full of wonderful mommy blogs.

Changes

I chose the most random day to make changes in my life, Tuesday October 30th. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions because I feel like I'm just setting myself up for failure. In one week I've lost 5 lbs, which is definitely a first for me. I don't feel groggy anymore and I've made more meals this week than I have in a very long time. One of the reasons I decided to make a change was because of the pilot. He has been wanting to eat healthy for a while because of his kidney transplant. He doesn't want his new kidney to have to work any harder than it needs too. I think I was being a little selfish by not making it a bigger issue in our home. It is important to him so it needs to be important to me. This leads me to my next change, being a better wife. I'm a stay at home mom and I need to be proud of my job. I don't want the pilot to feel like everything is his turn when he gets home from a trip. I want him to enjoy his family time especially since there are times he is only home for a couple days and then gone again for 4 or 5.
My friend told me that today is her "someday". She has decided to do all the things she had been putting off for that someday. I thought that was a great way of putting it "Today is my Someday". There is no reason we should have to wait till New Year's.
Is there something in your life you'd like to change? Or make a new commitment to? If so don't wait, decide to do it now.

A Happy Evening

Last night we had a similar meal to the one pictured above. Tofu and veggie stir fry, we all loved it, even our 5 year old. The best part is he wanted to help make dinner so while I chopped up the broccoli, him and his daddy cut the tofu together. It was so sweet watching them work together as a team. I love these moments, especially when I think about when my son is older and he remembers how his daddy taught him how to cook.
We never turned on the TV, we just enjoyed each other's company. Music was playing in the background, I prefer music over the TV. I wish I could just bottle up these family moments, I try to appreciate them and not take them for granted. After our meal, D-boy picked up all of our dishes and took them to the sink. Now he is learning how to load them in the dishwasher. I love that he wants to help. I want him to be self-sufficient when he is older. Its amazing as parents the affect we have on our little one's lives, how we are shaping them. My goal is for him to be happy and to always know how much his parents love him. Its great when I hear other parents tell me how sweet and kind he is to others. Hopefully these are traits we can continue to nurture in him.

Happy quote for today:
We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.  ~Frederick Keonig

The Nut Man

We went to Sprouts yesterday and as I was filling up a bag of slivered almonds, the nut refill man was repeating over and over "Seriously!!" It sounds and looks a little silly when somebody else is angry. The reason he was so upset is somebody dumped granola all over without picking it up. It was all over his face and his body language that he was really upset about this incident. I can understand that it is probably annoying when you are the one that has to clean it up but is it worth getting that angry about?
A couple a weeks ago my friend and I were discussing being mad. She mentioned she had heard from Oprah or Dr Phil (same thing), that we should think when we get mad "Is this something that will matter in 1 hour, 2 hours or 24 hours from now?" How much energy do I really want to spend on being upset?  I've really thought about this when I tend to get upset over the most trivial things. I want to teach my son as well to not get too upset over things he can't control. And I have to say the nut man did look ridiculous, I will try to think about that the next time I'm mad.

The Food Trap

A couple months ago I had a spicy chicken sandwich with fries from chic fil a for lunch. Afterwards my stomach didn't feel so great, although I loved the taste of what I ate I think my body was telling me something different. Dinner that night was buffalo chicken pizza from Papa John's, after that my stomach felt even worse. Reading the book Eat to Live is very enlightening. As Americans we eat so much food that has no nutritional value. I've been following the plan in the book since last Tuesday, I've lost 3 lbs. Doesn't seem like a lot but for me to lose any weight in that short amount of time is amazing. I'm not ever hungry I just changed what I eat. I didn't realize how much my life revolves around food. I have gone out to eat and still was able to follow the plan. Not only am I eating healthier but so is my son. We have more fruit and veggies in the house, so when he is hungry I cut up an apple for him or give him carrots. The way I was able to make this change is I started to think about all the new foods I could make and could have, and not what I couldn't.
If you drive around look at all the places there are to eat. Its amazing, fast food, chain restaurants, take out. Our society really revolves around food, we go out to eat with our family, our friends, spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends (not at the same time). This is a day to day thing but I think for me it is going to change my entire perspective on food.

Boot Camp Friday

Went to a new class today and I really liked it!! The guy that teaches the class is also a personal trainer at the gym. It was tough and I was sweating which means it was working. I did mumble a few four letter words during the workout but in the end it was worth it. Now I know this is where I will be every Friday morning at 9:30. And whats even better is I know someone else in the class.
Now for my observation, there was a lady up front who looked like she was made of pure muscle. She definitely seemed like sunshine at 3 am. She was jumping and moving the entire time, even when we didn't have to, WHO DOES THAT?? The class is hard enough and then you add your own moves. I say Good For Her. During the class at moments she was my motivation and at other times I wanted to call her a show off.  I'm not sure why I do this to myself, I tried many times to look away but I couldn't.  It seems every class I go to has its show-offs. At least in this class it was only one. If I'm lucky in 6 months maybe that will be me..... doubt it ;-)