It's Time Again - Welcome Back!!

It's time again! Time to start up the weight loss battle to get under 200 pounds. Sweet Sammy was born April 6th, I was 259 pounds at maximum, making a weight gain of about 30 to 35 pounds, 20 of which I lost when having him and the few weeks post-birth. I still have 10 post-baby pounds to lose, and of course another 75 after that. Think I can lose 10 pounds by the family reunion? Man, that would be great. I am now in a size 22, and can squeeze into a 20, but only if I lie down on my bed to zip up my jeans. I have several size 20's in my closet, and it would be nice to have more pants to wear.

I started exercising at home about 10 days ago, doing 30 minutes in my Gazelle strider. Today was the first day back at the Rock Springs Family Rec Center. For over a year, they have been building this GREAT indoor swimming pool addition to the rec center, complete with water slides, a lazy river, a kiddie water playground, and an outdoor sprinkler park. It's all supposed to be ready sometime in August, and it should be great fun all year! I can't wait to take the kids there.

I missed the ENTIRE ice skating season this past winter, and I'm also looking forward to taking lessons again this fall, maybe even helping to teach one of the Beginning Tots classes.

For weeks now, I have been taking lots of naps with the baby, which you kind of expect with a newborn. But he's been sleeping through the night for about a month now, and I'm trying to wean myself from all the excess naps. I cannot tell you how much I like naps. I'd probably sleep 14+ hours a day if I could get away with it. I think my body is still on baby time. So, I'm trying to retrain myself to sleep just once a day, so I can get up and exercise before all the kids are up. As it is, it's after one in the afternoon before I'm exercised, dressed, taken care of the kids, and ready to accomplish other projects. I need to reclaim a few hours in the morning to work on things.

Sammy is my fifth child, and it has put me over the edge in time management. In some ways, he is like that third-child stage that so many moms find themselves in, where you feel like you are going non-stop taking care of kids. There is such a huge gap between #2 (Dani) and #3 (Connor) that it took having this fifth one to have three little people so close together who are high-maintenance, to feel like I'm in that third-child stage. Yes, I do have the teenagers to help me, but then they are around a lot less often, simply because they are teenagers, and I have to drive them all over the place.

So, while I feel better now that I'm getting consistent sleep at night, and I've started taking my anti-anxiety Cymbalta again, I'm still overwhelmed time-wise and not getting done the things I want to. That's why I'm committing myself to regular exercise and healthy eating again. I need to get myself back on a schedule so I can be healthy and accomplish the things I need to, primarily finishing my Medical Transcription course.

So, here goes.

I'm going to take a few pages out of Sue's book, and track my calorie intake. I went to the USDA's website, http://www.mypyramid.gov, and from there I went to MyTracker and MyFood-a-pedia, to calculate my average daily physical activities, and my recommended caloric intake. It says 3374 calories a day. I'm assuming that's what I would eat for weight maintenance, but I'll try to cut that down to 2500 or less.

Weight - 237.5 pounds (all my weigh-ins will be at the rec center)

Exercise - PRECOR Elliptical EFX 556, 30 minutes, resistance 5, 2.21 miles, 3519 strides, 365.3 calories.

What I ate -

Breakfast/Snack - 24 oz. water, 1 med. banana (105 cal), 1/3 cup dry Malt-o-Meal wheat cereal cooked with 1-1/2 cups water about 1/4 tsp salt (240 cal, 8 g protein), 1 Tabl sliced almonds (42 cal, 3.5 g fat, 1.5 g protein), 3/4 cups frozen strawberries (35 cal), 8 oz. 1% milk (100 cal 2.5g fat) 8 oz. water, 2 Cracked Wheat Crackers (52 cal, 2 g fat). Subtotal - 574 cal, 9.5 g protein, 8 g fat

Lunch - 1 Earth Grains multi-grain thin bun (100 cal, 1.5 g fat, 5 g protein), 1 slice Oscar Mayer smoked turkey round (30 cal, 1.5 g fat, 3 g protein), 1 slice white american cheese (60 cal, 4.5 g fat, 3 g protein), 1 Tabl Miracle Whip Lt. (20 cal, 1.5 g fat), 1/4 cup or 1 large slice Romaine lettuce (2 cal), 3 oz. or 7 baby carrots (35 cal, 1 g protein), 8 oz water, 1 small banana (90 cal). Subtotal - 337 cal, 9 g fat, 12 g protein

Pre-Dinner/Dinner - 6 oz. baby carrots (70 cal, 2 g protein), 2 Tai Pei potstickers (104 cal, 2.4 g fat, 5 g protein), 1 oz. chicken breast w/ skin (55 cal, 2 g fat, 8 g protein), 2 cups of chicken fried rice (366 cal, 15 g protein, 2.5 g fat{complete recipe had: 10 cups white long-grain rice 2040 cal, 2 cups celery 32 cal, 1 cup green onions 68 cal, 2 tsp. minced garlic 8 cal, 2-3/4 cup frozen peas and carrots 240 cal 12 g protein, 3 cups cooked chicken breast 630 cal 120 g protein 15 g fat, 1/2 cup soy sauce 80 cal 8 g protein, 5 Tabl brown sugar 255 cal, 2 tsp canola oil 80 cal 9 g fat - Total 18.75 cups 3433 cal 140 g protein 24 g fat}), 16 oz. Crystal Light (10 cal). Subtotal - 595 cal, 7 g fat, 30 g protein

Late Snack - 2 Tai Pei potstickers (104 cal 2.4 g fat, 5 g protein)

DAILY TOTAL - 1610 calories, 26.5 g fat, 59 g protein

Conclusion - I'm hungry!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Need cookies! Feed me Seymour!