Ramblings from the weekend

With the long weekend coming to an end there is a fair bit to share that happened in our home.

{This part of my post is my own personal convictions and in no way am I trying to impose my beliefs or feeling on anyone. I hate conflict and disagreement but wanted to share with you how this weekend is different for us compared to how it use to be.}
To start off with my husband and I have never celebrated Easter with the chocolate, bunny and egg thing (when we were kids yes, but not since having our own children) because we could never see the relationship with these things and the death and resurrection of Jesus. So we always have had a nice dinner on Sunday, attend services on Friday and Sunday and tried to teach the children about the sacrifice made for us. We whole heartily gave this weekend to proclaiming what we would call the 'true meaning' of Easter.
To my shock I did some research on the origins of easter and I am so disappointed....Christians years ago took over this easter celebration thing...changing its name from Eastre which is a goddess of spring to easter and claimed it as a christian holiday and from here families have had these fun egg hunts and eating of chocolate not knowing where the traditions have come from. At least I didn't! Now knowing its pagan roots I can feel good about not exposing my children to these traditions. So this weekend is just a nice long four days off together!!! and I love that!!!

I have been fighting a head cold and dizziness since Wednesday and have been feeling terrible but I have got in a few good workouts; Thursday I did a 5km weight loss workout on the Elliptical, Friday I did nothing, Saturday I got in a 5km run, Sunday was lots of biking with the children and today I did the Biggest Loser Bootcamp.

My eating has been good...I have been thinking about writing down my food intake daily here on my blog but I have not decided yet if I will.

I spent all day Saturday going through all the children's closets and drawers to take out the winter or too small clothes and replacing them. What a job that is twice a year! I took 3 garbage bags and 4 boxes full of clothes to the local church for their rummage sale. I can only store so much and then my husband puts a stop to it!! He went as far to call me a hoarder on the weekend....but really he knows I am just trying to save the expense of buying new all the time. We have been blessed to have clothes of good quality given to us often.

I must get caught up on laundry today before the school week starts tomorrow for us. It is hard to get full days in with the nice weather as the children love to go in and out all day long...this I have resolved is what happens in the spring and I can't change it. They are active, explore, build and work together to do things...sounds like a great way to live. I call this school too!

Week Fourteen Weigh In

A quick long weekend post to tell you that I am down this week!

Down 2.4lbs putting me in the 170's at 178.4lbs. GOOD BYE 180's!!!

Have a blessed day to you all and don't eat to much chocolate!!!!

March In Review

For the first time a set goals for the month of March.
Overall I am pleased with my ability to accomplish most of these goals.


1. I did 10 days of abs/arms training when I had planned to do 12. Close but not perfect so this will be an area to work on in April.


2. My goal was to run/walk 48 km this month....I did over 76 km. Yeah me! and I have worked myself into doing most of my km as running. I didn't know if I would like running but I wanted to give it a try and I am now officially hooked. I don't think walking for me would feel like a workout any more.


3. Take my vitamin daily, well that was a bust...it really wasn't a priority...enough said.


4. Weigh myself only once weekly. Only one week did I weigh myself more than once. Not to bad.


5. No sweets/desserts expect for my birthday. I did it and am well on my way to the goal of 100 days of sweets free! 24 days down, almost a quarter of the way.


6. Lose 6lbs....I worked off 9 of them!!!! YAW!!! I am very excited about this...can you tell?


A few other things to share about the month of March.... back in January I had signed up for a contest through the Weight Watchers boards for a Biggest Loser with Kids competition and guess what I won...no $250,000 prize but I earned the bragging rights.


I received my first "You have really lost some weight" comment from my brother whom I had not seen since Christmas. That felt nice!


I lost inches as well this month, I am down .75" from my neck, .25" from my ankle, .5" from my upper arm, 1" from my upper leg, 1.25" from my lower leg, 1" waist, 1.5" from hips and my bust stayed the same. That is a grand total of 6.25" off my body in one month.


April' s Goals are on the side bar.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

April Fool's Day Progress Pictures

A while back I committed to doing a progress picture day on April 1st!!!

No this isn't an April Fool's Day joke....I wish it was!

I can not remember which fellow blogger put the call out for this but here they are and I hope some others of you are doing this today.

These pictures were taken of me at 199lbs..that is 10lbs less then my start weight of 209lbs on December 27th, 2009.

I looked as terrible as I felt!!!

These two are me now at 180.8lbs.

I couldn't figure out which set of clothes best showed my progress so therefore I put one of both in.

I am not that impressed with the quality of these pictures but it does show some difference.

Breakfast

Here is my breakfast from this morning. I enjoyed the look and taste so much that I thought I have to share this with my blog friends.

It is homemade Buttermilk Pancakes with lots of berries, pecans and real maple syrup. The syrup was given to us from a local family that makes their own...it is yummy!

Sorry the quality of the picture isn't the greatest!

Butter Milk Pancakes

Whole Wheat Flour 3/4 cup
All Purpose Flour 3/4 cup
Brown Sugar 2 tbsp. packed
Baking Powder 1 tbsp.
Baking Soda 1/2 tsp.
Salt 1/4 tsp.

Combine these ingredients in a medium bowl.

In a separate small bowl whisk together;

1 & 1/2 cups 1% Buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tbsp. Oil

Then add the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until moistened.
Cook on medium heat in a non-stick pan until golden on both sides.
Makes 12 pancakes. (For those of you interested in calories each pancake is 123 calories.)

Everyone love them!

Bob

Today I received in the mail my new DVD workout....Biggest Loser Boot Camp!
That Bob guy can kick my butt just as good as Jillian. I am feeling it in my gluts.

I got in a morning elliptical workout too!

I love working out as of late!!!! I never would have said that 3 months ago!!!

I started reading The Maker's Diet book last night by Jordan S. Rubin. This man sure had a rough go in his earlier years. Interesting theory he has too....I eat similar to what he suggests without the 'drinks' and aromatherapy stuff. I will comment more on it as I get into the book more.

Off to get the nightly routine done with children. Sweet dreams everyone!!

Week Thirteen

While after an emotional week I am happy to report a loss of 2lbs.
That brings me to 180.8lb today.

I am now over half way to my goal for November 7th (my baby's 1st birthday) of 54lbs.

I tried out the elliptical trainer yesterday and it kicked my butt.....and it felt great. I had a good sweat on and my legs were jittery by the end. I did an interval training workout that was for 26 minutes long and the machine said I burnt over 400 calories....I hope that is accurate!

Off to get ready for church....blessings to you all today!