Preparation

So I'm officially a distributor for Advocare now!  Here's the website if you want to order! 

www.advocare.com/130346245

Feel free to message or e-mail for questions or diet information.

I'm excited to be getting ready to do a 24 day challenge this time instead of just the cleanse.  The challenge includes the 10 day cleanse that I have done before, plus another 14 days of vitamins that are designed to help control appetite and help rev up my metabolism.

For exercise I'm keeping up with my trusty treadmill but going to try a few new things. I have the May AB calender to do, but I also had a friend on facebook share a link about a condition called diastasis recti which is a common condition women develop after pregnancies where the abdominal muscles don't come back together and allow the common tummy pooch.  There are 6 abdominal exercises aimed at correcting this condition that I plan on doing at least 3 times a week in April to get me ready for the AB calender in May.  The website this information is from is http://inspiredrd.com/2012/06/dear-diastasis-recti-im-so-over-you.html.   They say that you can do all the crunches in the world and if you have diastasis recti then it won't help get a flat tummy.  The website also says how to tell if you have diastasis recti and is written by a physical therapist.

Another thing for exercise I'm trying is the Advocare 24 DVD set, that is supposed to be a good exercise DVD that has beginner, intermediate and advanced.  I hope that a combination of these things will help me stay motivated to exercise because I'm getting a little tired of the "same-old same-old".  I've been just doing the treadmill for a year now and getting a little burnt out!

I'll stay in touch!  Let me know what you think!

I'm back!

I'm back and at it again!  School has been going good, and life has been hectic but I've got some new life resolutions to get to.
Number one is weight loss and being healthy.  I have maintained what I have lost and looking at my before and after pictures are like WOW!  Here they are:

 April 2012

August 2012

I want to keep maintaining and maybe loose a little more which means getting back on my diet and exercise routine.

Also, I have been such a fan on Advocare that I'm going to be an independent distributor to get a discount on products and start a 24 day challenge in May.  Also in May I'm going to do an AB workout routine called Marvelous Ab May to put a little extra in my workout! 

I also have new diet ideas to get out of the funk we've been in with eating unhealthy or the same old boring foods.  We're going to buy a bunch of chicken breasts and fish and put them with marinade in baggies and freeze to save a little time and add a lot of flavor!  It's also getting to the time of year that we'll be able to find better fresh fruits and veggies, because we've resorted to more frozen and canned this winter because of poor produce.  This will also be better for Eli because we'll be back to family meals instead of Eli's meal/our meal.

Another resolution is manners and behaviors for the kiddos.  Ella has been getting in trouble at school and dance class more, which seems to kind of be this time of year but I noticed that with the attitude she is using less pleases and thank yous so my idea is if she's more polite then maybe she'll just be better behaved with it.  It's an idea.  Lyle and I also noticed that we have had less patience because of the kids misbehaving and have less manners ourselves, so I'm reading a book about raising kids with good manners and Ella has her own kids age book for manners, so we'll see how this goes!  The first lesson has been table manners which she and I went out for dinner one night and practiced and we're practicing at home with the idea once she has it down she can get dressed up and go on a date night with her dad to show off her skills!

Long Time

Hey, It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I knew it would be like this!  School is winding down and despite using more carbs and chocolate to help me through the treadmill has helped me keep my weight consistant at my goal!  I just took my wedding rings in to be re-sized and will have them back next week and bought a ton of new clothes!  Size 12- heck yeah!  :) 
Eli's speech is getting clearer every day even though he hasn't had therapy for a long time.  His therapist is on maternity leave and I still haven't heard about replacement or if they are going to comp the hours, but really it doesn't matter because he's doing well. 
We had a great vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge where we swam over 4 hours each day, did crafts, did Magi Quest (an interactive wand game that Ella became a Master at and defeated the dragon), and just had some wonderful family time.
We had Thanksgiving for Lyle's family at our house last minute due to a death in the family, but we all had a nice time I think and it went well. 
And now I only have one test and getting totally geared up for CHRISTMAS!  I'm so in the mood this year!  Can't wait!  Hopefully I'll have some tasty and somewhat healthy and/or allergy friendly recipes to share this holiday season!

Little update

Okay, so for inquiring minds I completed the second 10 day cleanse and did okay- I got back to my lowest weight which was a total of 35 lbs off!  While I didn't get any more off, I was pleased to get back on track with my diet, which I'm doing a decent job of sticking to.
Don't expect a lot of posting (not that I'm good at updating anyways) because school is back in.  So I'll be busy keeping up the workouts, diet, working, family time, and sanity to worry about a blog! :)  Hopefully the pounds will continue to slowly work off at this point and I can keep up my working out and have continued good results when I do get on to post!
Oh, and an update for Eli.  He's doing much better with his speech over the last few months with no help from a speech therapist.  He had his first meeting with the school speech therapist yesterday and was doing good about using sentences.  He's still not quite clear and does some "blending" of words which she'll work on for a little bit, but it doesn't look like he'll qualify for services long and will probably be discharged this fall sometime! :)

Renewed determination

So it's been awhile and I have been cheating a lot on my diet, not just once a day.  Luckily I've been sticking to my exercise so I haven't gained weight, I've just been staying consistant even though I have about 8 lbs to go to my goal of what I weighed when I got married almost 10 years ago!  Here's the latest "after" picture with the first before picture.

April 2012

August 2012

Oh my!  Right?!?!  Huge difference.  So now I'm getting back on track starting another 10 day cleanse to force me to stick to my diet (I just started day 3 today) and have a new exercise routine for the next 10 days at least.  On the first day I did 45 minutes on the treadmill, and whenever I walk on the treadmill I'm using resistance bands to work my arms, and I'm also using my exercise ball for crunches and pushups.  On the second day I did the Zumba Flat Abs video and then 30 minutes on the treadmill.  I will alternate each of these every day for the 10 days.  I will be done with the 10 days before my schooling starts, so while I need to keep up eating good and exercise I may not have the time to devote over an hour every day like I can the next 10 days.  So that's the plan and we'll see if I can make my goal- which overall is a total of 40 pounds gone!!!!!!

Eli's birthday and Two special treats!

The first of two birthday parties for Eli was yesterday and I made a few special treats just for him!
The first is an Eli friendly mini-pizza.  There was only one pizza sauce at the store without soy in it, so I bought that.  I used a corn tortilla for the crust, topped with sauce, lunch meat, and then his Diaya dairy free, soy free and gluten free cheese product that I've had in the freezer for over a year (I bought it at Jungle Jim's in Cinci on one visit with my sisters and haven't gotten around to using it).  That cheese stuff tastes funny, I can't lie.  But Eli doesn't know and loved it and loved saying he was eating pizza (usually he has salad bar at the pizza place while we eat pizza)  Here's some pictures.
 The ingredients:

 Pizza before cooking:

Pizza after cooking:

The next treat for Eli was ice cream sandwiches for his birthday!

I used Rice Dream ice cream, which does have Soy Lecithin which the allergist has said is okay, but we generally avoid.  We tried it anyways.  It has a little better texture than the Tempt Hemp milk ice cream we've tried before.  We sandwiched this between two enjoy life snickerdoodle cookies and tahdah!

 Here's the finished sandwiches:

Here's my big boy enjoying his pizza!  :)

Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Coleslaw

Had a yummy dinner last night- I made BBQ pulled pork and coleslaw.  I've been talking about pulled pork for weeks and been trying store bought pre-made and wasn't impressed, so I looked up recipes online and printed off Emeril Lagasse's recipe from the Food network website.  It included a recipe for the pulled pork, Essence ( a creole seasoning in the rub), a wet mop sauce, barbecue sauce and coleslaw.  It also has fried pickles, but I wasn't interested in that.  The pork and BBQ is Eli friendly, and he had some but not the coleslaw because of buttermilk and mayo.
Here's some pictures of the progress...
This is the pork before cooking...I prepared the rub and applied it the night before and also prepared the wet mop sauce (not pictured) the night before so the flavors can blend.

 This is the BBQ sauce, it was sweet and tangy!

 This is the pork after 7 hours at 225 degrees.  The juice on the bottom was the wet mop sauce that I basted the meat with every 45 minutes while cooking.

 This is the pork in the bowl after I shredded it.

 This is the homemade coleslaw- probably the best coleslaw I've ever had (but I'm not a big slaw fan)

 Eli's plate- potato chips, pulled pork and BBQ on the side.  The meat was quite spicy (from the cayanne pepper) but the sweet BBQ really toned it down.  That wasn't good enough for Ella who wouldn't eat it.  I think a lot of the spice was from the wet mop, so if I wanted to tone it down I might cut some things from that.

 My sandwich- yummy!  Pulled pork, BBQ, coleslaw on a honey bun!

 Yum- a good and messy sandwich! :)

Lyle and I loved it just the way it was!  The kids thought the meat was too spicy.  The link for the recipe is...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/barbecued-pulled-pork-sandwiches-with-homemade-bbq-sauce-cole-slaw-and-fried-pickles-recipe/index.html