Awwww

Aw I am so happy, I got to see my sister one last time today before she is induced tomorrow(1 week overdue). Got to see my mom and niece too. It was a great day.

Health Update Week 3

Height: 5'5"
Weight: 130.5lbs (-2.5lbs)
Waist: 29" (-1.5 inches YESSSS)
Hips: 38.25" (-.5 ")
Bust: 36.5"(same)
Arm: 10.5"(same)
Thigh: 22" (same)

WHR: Waist(30.5) divided by Hips(38.75) = 0.787096774 TODAYS: 0.758169935

Waist to Height Ratio is ideally less than .50.  Mine is: 0.46 bleh

TODAYS:
0.446153846

Its coming off slowly but that is good because hopefully it will stay off! I am proud of my efforts and losing 2.5 lbs and several inches off my waist despite turkey day being smack dab in the midst and now I gotta keep on keeping on with Christmas right around the corner. I have to admit being broke is a good thing for dropping inches and pounds. We just plain don't have the money to be buying a bunch of goodies and crap food:)

No Weekly stats today

From a couple hours before we ate turkey! My belly is getting there and I am workin on that hourglass:)

I will probably do them Sunday or Monday instead. In light of all the turkey I ate, bloating I have and swelling from salt overdose lol I just dont wanna step on a scale or measure anything. I can tell simply by my tight fitting jeans that I am ickity from too much Thanksgiving food. Off to work out!

Shameless Baby Love

Jaxxon at 6 weeks

More snow last night

 racoon tracks were EVERYWHERE this morning



Some Fun Pix

 Kayla right before family Christmas photo

 MaeMae before Christmas pics

 Sisters:0)

 His handsome Christmas pic attire

 Jaxxon's first snow

 Our house

 View of our street

 Musket's first snow

 Now thats an igloo haha

 View from balcony

 There were actually 4 racoons in our yard the other night

 Perfect chaos

 My love

 Lake Arrowhead 2010

 He loves the outdoors hehe

 Maemae in the flower garden up in Arrowhead

 Kayla is getting so grown up

 Ebbers and Jax

 Lake Arrowhead

foggy

All these pix were taken over the last 2-3 days, went from beautiful sunshine to dumping snow! Its so gorgeous though I can't complain a bit, rain, snow or shine.....mountain weather is unbeatable!

Health update

I am not convinced of the Schwarzbien plan for my particular body type any longer. The scale didn't budge until I started doing the shred DVDs for the last 3 days and even then I only budged 1 lb and honestly I have never felt worse in my life energy-wise. I feel like a walking zombie with such low carbs. I had one cheat day and I was feeling terrible until that day, the last 2 days again I feel like death. I made it one whole week and 1 day on this plan and I am so irritable, dizzy shaky, etc despite writing down everything I ate the other day and realizing I was getting almost 2200 calories a day(another reason I probably only lost 1 pound all week) and I typically don't take in that many calories and feel much more vibrant. I am calling it quits on this plan and I will take up body for life as of today and report back next week. Basically I won't be counting calories just the same as this past week but I will be eating lower fat and 6 mini meals a day with 1 protein and 1 carb per meal and veggies with 2 of those mini meals. I will keep up with the shred DVDs every other day as there is no way to walk outdoors anymore since snow season has begun and the weather is frigid hitting low to mid 30s midday with no sunshine. So, those are the tweaks I am taking in the health regime this week.

Stats from last week and today:
Height: 5'5"     Same today


Weight: 133 lbs Todays: 132

Waist: 30.5"      Today: 29.5" I thank the SHRED for this inch gone!! woohoo

Hips: 38.75"      Today: 38.7"
Bust: 36.5"         Today: 37" (gained .5" probably milk is full lol)

Arm: 10.5"         Today: 10.5"

Thigh: 22"           Today: 22"

WHR: Waist(30.5) divided by Hips(38.75) = 0.787096774  TODAYS: 0.762273902
Waist to Height Ratio is ideally less than .50, but most beautiful at 39.5 for women, Mine is: 46.9 bleh
TODAYS: 0.453846154
Amazing how much 1 in off my waist changed those ratios!! YAY me, small progress, but progress nonetheless

Sample day on body for life eating plan:

I will be adding coffee back in, I LOVE coffee and some things in life are worth splurging for, especially as cold as it is here!
Breakfast: Slimfast shake, high protein kind
Snack: fruit and string cheese
Lunch: grilled chicken sandwich with veggies on it and use a whole wheat thin bun
Snack: hummus and crackers
Dinner: salmon, sweet potato and asparagus
Snack: cottage cheese and activia yogurt(these are so yummy together)

I like this plan better as it allows more carbs and even if I wanted to eat something unhealthy, no biggie just make sure it has a protein and carb ie a slice of pizza with a salad for lunch, just make sure the pizza has some sort of meat and cheese on it. It allows more flexibility and is a great way of life as I was on this plan for about a yr after MaddiMae's birth. It seemed to work for me and keep my weight and body composition nice along with constant flow of energy all day not feeling all drained and icky.

11/21 Update: I lost another pound and another .25 inches off my waist! I feel better and my energy is returning on this eating plan.

Heres to Health

       I hate to say I am trying to lose a bunch of weight because I am not, so I hesitate to even put this in the "weight loss" section of my blog, however, it most closely relates AND if thats my body's "ideal" than I will be happy to lose a few pounds. I am pre-diabetic or insulin resistant and I am noticing since the birth of Jaxxon who is now 1 month old, that, although I am under pre pregnancy weight by a small amount, I am having issues with belly fat which I have never had much trouble with. I started looking around online about insulin resistance and belly fat and found a few books and websites that I started reading up. I went straight to Amazon and bought the books and have already finished one and am working on another 2 about weight loss, belly fat and insulin resistance. What I have found through all my reading is that our bellies are our insulin meters(of course you can get it confirmed through a simple blood test or find out on accident like I did) and if we tend to carry weight around the middle(I never used to), it is almost sure that we have some amount of insulin resistance. Of course, insulin resistance can make weight loss difficult and can cause a whole host of other issues which can lead to PCOS(have this mildly and need progesterone to stay pregnant because of it as my ovaries are so cystic they don't produce enough progesterone on their own). It can also cause many other hormone imbalances beyond this. Now I blogged a while back about overexersicing and how I was stopping that. I have also learned that doing that can help push you into insulin resistance and I have to wonder if I didnt end up this way from so much overexercise over the years. Also, I learned that the low fat epidemic closely relates with the rise in diabetes. As they removed more and more fat from foods and we were all taught to follow low fat diets, many Americans became and are becoming diabetic and overweight. Obesity and diabetes is sort of a chicken/egg theory because being a tad overweight can cause insulin resistance but also just eating a higher carb diet where you have sugar ups and downs all day can lead to insulin resistance and once you have that, you have a recipe for fat storage and then with fat, you become more insulin resistant and then you end up a full blown diabetic which in turn makes it very difficult to lose weight and reverse the diabetes because insulin is the hormone that causes fat storage. Funny enough, in my reading, I am finding that fat is the ONLY type of food that does NOT cause an insulin spike when we eat it and therefore cannot make you fat because insulin opens the fat cells. Fat is not typically stored as fat either because of the way our bodies process food. Sugar/carbs are stored most readily as fat because they also cause the highest spike in insulin and blood sugar which opens up fat cells and they grab on and get bigger.

       This whole process is like a downhill spiral as once you get diagnosed with diabetes they will give you the ADA diet and you will get even sicker as it is a pretty high carb plan which only leads your body into yo yo sugar levels all day. Carbs, especially with low fat and moderate or low protein will cause sugar levels to go up and down like a bouncing ball which causes higher insulin, more resistance and the need for more drugs to help the diabetes. The book I just finished is by Dr. Schwarzbien and she recommends a very interesting approach to insulin resistance. She says to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, each meal contains about 15g of healthy carbs only, a portion of fat(i.e butter, sour cream, etc), a portion of meat and a veggie. The snacks are 7 g or so of carbs with protein. A handful of nuts or a string cheese with an apple, stuff like that. Basically the lower carbs and higher fat and protein help slow the carbohydrate digestion and fuel your body in a way that it can rebuild lean muscle as you do light strength training and walking for work outs. With more lean muscle, your body can start eating up its own fat stores. As your metabolism starts on this cycle, insulin stabilizes and belly fat melts off and your body will become the correct shape and composition. Weight shouldnt be the matter here but if you are overweight, you should slowly see your body go back to its ideal size regardless of calories in this "diet".

        Dr. Schwarbien started her career working as an endocrinologist for diabetics and figured all this out by accident as she watched patients who followed the "ada diet" perfectly and getting sicker and then other patients who "cheated" and ate higher fat/protein were loosing weight and getting off diabetes meds and slowly she perfected this plan of eating which ended up working on all her patients. She extended all her knowledge to everyday people and helps people with a variety of issues and this diet has helped  a lot of people with an array of health issues or just ones who needed to drop some weight and she has written several books. I am fascinated by her findings and her stories in the book I read thus far and I am willing to give it a try for healths sake. I do NOT want to become full blown diabetic like my grandma and dad.  Here's a sample of the diet, my day one. I will try to post stats, a day of meals and how well I am sticking to it once a week.

Thus far I am on day one:

Breakfast: Spinach and blue cheese omelet(1 egg) cooked in real butter and a tangerine

Snack: 23 almonds unsalted

Lunch: Cheesy chicken salad with olive oil and vinegar for dressing, 5 baby carrots and an apple

Snack: String cheese and an orange

Dinner: Brat with sauer kraut, 1/2 a whole wheat bun, sauteed veggies(olive oil and kosher salt)

Because I nurse, I will add a snack at bedtime as well or I will starve to death so I will have some cottage cheese(carb and protein in one

Of course 8-10 glasses of water and NO caffeine or alcohol and a vitamin and fish oil
Stats for day 1

Height: 5'5"
Weight: 133 lbs
Waist: 30.5"
Hips: 38.75"
Bust: 36.5"
Arm: 10.5"
Thigh: 22"
WHR: Waist(30.5) divided by Hips(38.75) = 0.787096774
Waist to Height Ratio is ideally less than .50, but most beautiful at 39.5 for women, Mine is: 46.9 bleh


The ideal waist to hip ratio size aesthetically is going to be .70, but health wise its also linked to better fertility, lack of insulin resistance and better overall health according to many Drs and experts so while I would love to get to .70, I am doubting I will~! Who knows though

First Smiles at 4 Weeks

 Trying to caputure all his first smiles

 He was thinking hard here

 Staring at mama with love in his eyes

Closing his eyes because by this point he wore himself out smiling so much

 The infamous OOOO face

 My wuv bug

A Great time with besties up in Lake Arrowhead

Jaxxon is growing so fast. its. honestly. painful. I wish he would slow down. He is an amazing, beautiful baby. We are so incredibly blessed and I have been taking this month to count those blessings more than normal:)  I am so excited to report that Jaxxon, although a large preemie, has continued to gain really well even after the doctors tried scaring us because he left the hospital almost 1 lb below his birth weight. He left the hospital at 5.9lbs and is already well over 8 lbs at 1 month and growing everyday. Everyone is well, schedules are adjusting nicely to a new baby, the mountain air is crisp and cold and the trees are absolutely breath takingly beautiful. We have health, family, amazing friends, and a beautiful place to live. Life is good.