On the Wagon ... Again

No, this is not the Christmas blog I promised (it will come ... I promise).  This is about my New Year's resolution.  I, like so many other people, have resolved to lose weight this year.  This is something that is near and dear to my heart (among other parts of my body) and something that I've struggled with for most of my life.  I've discovered what the problem is ... everything that is delicious is packed full of calories because that's where the flavour is hidden! : )  That's not the only problem (sorry if I'm repeating myself from my post about this last year when I decided to work on a new me).  I also have a metabolism that's slow like molasses in January, I really don't have a lot of hobbies that involve physical activity, I have a husband that can just think about it and lose 5 lbs so he doesn't care what he eats, I have a job where I sit at a desk for 8 hours every day ... as you can see there are a lot of reasons.

So what makes me think I can succeed this time?  Well, I believe I've found something that works for ME.  I've tried different things in the past to lose weight that have worked for other people I know, but none of them have worked for me.  So, at the beginning of the year I was talking with some girls from work about losing weight since it's a goal/resolution we all have for this year.  One of the girls told me that she'd downloaded an App for her phone that counted calories for you.  At first, I was like, "Well that just sounds like waaaaaaaay too much trouble."  But my friend explained that this App has a HUGE invntory of nutritional information for food and even has a scanner feature that lets you scan the barcode on your food and then it will find that information for you itself.  Well, that was pretty impressive for me.  So I thought, "Well, it's free so really what does it hurt to try it out."

So on January 7th I started using "myfitnesspal."  If you're interested in checking it out but don't have a smartphone, you can can also use it online at myfitnespal.com.  After inputting my personal info, the app calculated how many calories I'm "allowed" in a day and I was off.  Now, here's why I think this particular "program" is working for me.  I worked OT on the 7th and a few of the girls wanted to get A&W for lunch.  I love me a Teen burger and onion rings so I tagged along for the ride.  Well, wouldn't you know that my new "pal"contained nutritional information for A&W?  Here's what I learned: a Teen Burger and a small fries (I decided to go for fries instead thinking they'd be less calories) contains 760 calories.  Yes, you read that correctly.  That is just for the burger and a SMALL fries.  That does not include a beverage. 

Entering that into my "diary" was my "aha" moment.  I thought to myself, "Well no wonder none of my dieting has ever worked."  You see, as I've said before when discussing losing weight, I am VERY good at rationalizing why I should eat something, especially when it falls into the delicious category as described above.  You know, loaded with calories.  One of the main ways I rationalize is when I have exercised.  I figure that since I burned x amount of calories on my eliptical in the morning I can eat that burger, or chips, or whatever and it won't matter because they'll balance each other out.  Right?  WRONGO!!!  So when I "elipticize" in the morning, I have my eliptical set at resistance level 15 (and it goes up to level 16).  I run for 33 minutes which allows me a bit of a warm up and cool down at the end and I usually burn around 600 calories doing so.  So in this example, the Teen burger and small fries contained more calories than what I'd burned off, and that was only 1 meal!  So that's not including what I'd eaten for breakfast, what I'd eat for dinner or for snacks.

Anyways.  I've stuck with this calorie counting regime for 3 weeks now and I've lost 13 pounds!  That's pretty exciting for me!  Another reason why weight loss hasn't worked for me in the past is that I get frustrated when I don't see results.  It doesn't matter how many times I tell myself, "You didn't put it on in a day/month so it's not going to come off in a day/month."  (And I will once again say that putting it on is so much easier and fun than trying to take it off!)  I need to see some sort of result that my hard work is paying off.  And this time I am seeing it!  I have become slightly obsessed (I have some OCD with inputting things into my phone) with what I eat and measuring things out, but it's working.  Eventually I think I won't need to be quite so meticulous with my measuring as I get more used to what "1 cup' or '1 tbsp' looks like.  But in the mean time I am driving my husband (and I'm sure my friends) a little crazy.

I also really like that I can eat whatever I want with this system.  Now that doesn't mean that I should eat whatever I want.  I got all cliche on Jay when I was explaining it and did use "It's a lifestyle/mindset change."  It's not about denying myself (which really hasn't worked for me in the past).  It's about making different decisions.  So, if I want to have some chips, I can have them.  But instead of eating the whole bag, I only eat the 16 chips or whatever is in a serving.  Or I can opt for baked chips which have fewer calories.  Or, if I know that I'm going to eat out for dinner (like last night when we went to Cheesecake Cafe) perhaps I have something that's lower in calories for lunch like a salad.  Or, rather than ordering a burger and fries from Original Joe's (which has their nutritional info online) I ordered a chicken quesadilla and spring mix salad.  I also really like that you can add recipes into the app (or online) and it will figure out how many calories are in a serving.  This is really great for me since we do most of our eating at home and from scratch.

Anyway, that's my pep talk for the day.  It's working for me, but that doesn't mean it's right for everyone.  If you want to try it out, good for you.  If you don't, that's fine too.  It hasn't been all sunshine and lollipops and I have gained back 2 pounds that I'd previously lost during this 3 week stretch.  The important thing to me is that I didn't let that stop me.  I kept on keeping on and lost those 2 pounds again as well as 2 additional ones!  I know that there will be fluctuations and plateaus in my weight loss future, but I'm feeling good about the success I've had so far and looking forward to the day when I can say that I've achieved my goal.  Look at me being all "glass half full."  I've added a tracker to my sidebar that'll keep track of my progress, so feel free to check in on me from time to time.  And I'm feeling brave, so here are some pictures:

This is me on January 28, 2011

This is me last Saturday, January 21, 2012.

Oddly enough I was wearing the same shirt (not on purpose) 

Side view (there is sucking in involved.  I'm not that brave!) 

Me in a jean jacket that Kelly gave me over a year ago.

I can finally do all of the buttons up!

And here's my new motto (which you might have seen on Facebook last week):

Suck it up today, and one day you won't have to suck it in!

Thirsty Bears

I know I haven't blogged in forever ... again.  I've been super ridiculously busy with work this month and will likely continue to be super ridiculously busy with work until the end of February.  I will endeavor to get some pictures and posts up, but in the mean time here's a video of Paxton being cute today.

Apparently his teddy bears and ALL of the pieces from his safari puzzle were very thirsty : )

Paxton at 2

Another year has come and gone, and Paxton's had his second birthday.  Seriously, how is time going so fast?  I swear it speeds up more and more every year ... didn't we just have Christmas 2010 and now 2011's is only a week away?

Anyway, Paxton's birthday was on a Friday this year so I took the day off work to spend some quality time with him.  And by quality time, I mean a trip to the dentist, grocery shopping and some other equally exciting activities.  I'm rather surprised he survived all the excitement!  Auntie Kinsey assures me that Paxton did really well for a 2-year-old during his first dentist visit since he didn't cry and he sat in the chair all by himself.  He was pretty excited to see "Annie" when we got to the appointment and was all smiles for her.  However, once Dr. Goth arrived Paxton clamped his lips shut and wasn't opening them for anything!  Dr. Goth sort of pried Paxton's lips open, but Paxton wasn't going to unclench his teeth to let him look at the backs of his teeth ... no way, no how!  But, Dr. Goth said that Paxton's teeth are a really nice color on the fronts so he's not worried about cavities or decay on the backs.  And the boy is only missing 4 molars that should come in within the next year ... joy of joys.  After picking out a "treasure" with Auntie Kinsey we made a flying trip out to Raymond and back so I could pick up my Uppercase Living stuff and get some "Happy Bum Cream" for my friends' kids.  (Seriously the BEST diaper rash cream EVER is from the Raymond Pharmacy.  It's magical.)  Once we got back to Lethbridge, we did our Costco run which really is one of Paxton's favorite things.  He loves to sit in the cart and look at everything and everyone.  Most of the time I don't even have to put the seat belt on him since he's content to just sit!  After Costco, I met up with my friend, Kim, and dropped off some bCharmed stuff to some girls at work (yay for super cute new jewelry!).  And then it was off to meet up with Grandma Daryl for lunch.  We had Chinese and Paxton was doing really well with the rice and deep-fried wontons.  However, then he tried some cabbage from the chow mein and there was no going back.  Apparently cabbage taints everything else around it.  Kids are so weird.  More grocery shopping at Wal-Mart was on the docket after lunch and then it was home to get a quick nap in for the boy.  Phew!  Busy day : )  Paxton's birthday was also my work "Holiday Party" so Paxton got to have a "date" with Auntie Kinsey while we were out ... and I made her come over early to do my hair.  Best babysitter ever!

Paxton's birthday party was on Saturday the 3rd.  We kept the guest list really small, mostly because I just didn't have the energy to do anything else.  My Mom, Kinsey, both sets of Jay's parents and our friend Kaity with Paxton's girlfriend, Lainey, were able to make it.  Paxton got pretty spoiled as usual and then it was cake time.  I actually made a chocolate cake complete with icing and it was pretty yummy if I do say so myself.  However, being the complete airhead that I've become I completely forgot to serve ice cream with the cake!  And I'd even made a special trip to the store on Saturday morning to get the stupid ice cream!  Silly, silly me.

I can't believe how much Paxton has changed in the last year.  He is a joy (most of the time) and we're so lucky to have him in our family.  At 2 years old, Paxton:

- weighs 32 1/2 lbs and is 37 inches tall.  This puts him in the 90th percentile for his height and weight!  His head is 50 cm around which the doctor says is a good size but she didn't tell me what percentile that puts his head in.  The doctor says she has no concerns at all about Paxton which is great to hear!

- calls his Aunties "Annie."  It sometimes sounds like he says "Honey", but either way it's pretty stinkin' cute.

- loves shoes whether they're his or not.  He often comes clunking into the room wearing a pair of mine or Jay's shoes or a combination of the two.  When we were at Jay's Dad's house last weekend he even came into the living room with Auntie Mandy's shoes on and they had a bit of a heel on them!

- is super sweet sometimes.  When I had bronchitis last week he'd come over whenever I had a coughing fit, touch my knee or my arm, look up at me and say, "Ok Mom?  Ok?"  And then he'd wait until I answered that yes I was ok before he'll go back to whatever he was doing. Absolutely heart-meltingly adorable!

- says "choo choo" whenever he sees a train ... or Santa's sleigh and reindeer.  I guess it sort of looks like a train?

- gives kisses.  He's pretty good at blowing kisses.  He'll usually give me kisses on the lips when I ask for them and alternates between saying "yummy" and "yucky" afterward.  Paxton usually won't give Jay a kiss before bed but thinks it's pretty funny to give me one instead : )

- is sort of potty training.  Some days he does really well and is all about sitting and going on the potty.  Other days he couldn't be bothered.  But we're remaining positive and I think we're moving in the right direction with the whole thing.  Hopefully he'll start disliking dirty diapers soon and that'll speed things along.

- is talking a lot.  He seems to add new words to his vocabulary every day.  And people who aren't me or Jay can understand him now!

- loves to run.  He'll run in circles around the island indefinitely if he's got someone to chase him.  And of course said running MUST be accompanied by high pitched giggling and squealing.  I think it must be some sort of exhaust system or something that little kids come equipped with ...

- can plug the snowflake lights in, and unplug them, and plug them back in, and unplug them, and you get the picture.  *sigh*  I bought a little rug to put over the extension cord today in hopes that this would sort of distract him from the cord, but alas it doesn't seem to have worked!

- hates the snow.  The first good snow we had this year we took Paxton out with his snow boots on.  He got snow on his boot and tried to brush it off with his mitten which led to him falling over and getting covered in snow.  It was not a good situation.  He says "yucky" whenever there's snow on the ground and will try to avoid walking through the snow at all costs.  If he's out when it's snowing he tells it to "Go 'way!"  I guess maybe we won't be needing the new snowsuit he got for his birthday this year after all.

- loves puzzles.  He got a bunch of puzzles for his birthday and can almost do this one by himself.

It's supposed to be for ages 3 and up.  That's right.  My kid's smart : )  He also got one of a train that makes a train noise once all the pieces are in it.  He seems to be a bit leery of it since I actually put batteries in though.

- loves the "Shrek" movies that have Puss in Boots in them.  Coincidentally Mom and Dad really hate Shrek 2 and 3.  He says, "I want Puss" pretty much every morning when he gets up and when he gets home from daycare.  This also led to a vocabulary lesson between Paxton and Dad a week ago.

- absolutely loves chicken fingers/nuggets and fries.  I'm pretty sure he would eat them for every meal if he could get away with it.  Yesterday we had them for lunch.  I had 3 chicken fingers; Paxton had 4.  Ya, he likes them that much.

- loves the 2 Christmas spin me story books Grammie gave us a while ago (they have little wheel things on the side and if you spin them then stuff in the pictures moves).  They're his new favorite potty books as well.  Apparently watching things spin helps with the b.m. 

- loves to dance.  It usually involves some swaying, some yoga-like moves (downward facing dog anyone?), a lot of jumping around with the occasional pirouette thrown in.  He also likes to head bang to Christmas music, and not even "snappy" Christmas music.  I was sitting at the computer last weekend and all of a sudden Paxton pulled a chair up to the computer desk, climbed up on it, braced his hands on the desk and started head banging.  And it was to like "I heard the bells on Christmas Day" or something like that.  I just about died laughing.

- wants my iPhone a lot.  He likes to throw a fit and tell me that it's "mine" when I take it back.  Grrrrr.  Paxton can look through the pictures on it by himself and has a puzzle app that he can do himself.  The puzzle app is on the easiest setting so he only has to move 2 pieces to complete the picture, but still, pretty good I think.

- likes to touch my necklaces and says "ees pitty" about them.

- knows who Santa is this year.  I don't think he's figured out that Santa brings presents yet, but he'll point at pictures of Santa and say "Santa!"

- has figured out the unwrapping thing with presents this year.  We were at Jay's Dad's house last night for Christmas and he started unwrapping his present before Grandpa got in there with his camera.  Pretty funny.

- thinks everything is "funny."  His newest thing is to do a fake laugh and then say "ees funny."  Yup, he's a pretty funny kid.

- has been pretty good with the Christmas decorations this year.  He definitely knows what "don't touch" means.  Paxton stayed over at Grammie and Pa's house a few weekends ago.  They told me that he climbed up on the back of their couch in the basement so he could see all the nativities in the window.  He'd say "oooo, no touch" then "run" to the other side of the couch and repeat.

- throws more fits and is whinier than he used to be.  I'm told this is just because he's testing the boundaries.  Mom does not appreciate this new found independence. 

- likes to line things up ... puzzle pieces, mega blocks, the bins from his toy shelf.  A little OCD anyone?

- likes to build towers.  Good thing he has a bunch of mega blocks!

- is not good at sharing.  Apparently he's great at daycare, but if we're at our house or our friends' houses, he totally hoardes the toys and does not want to share with Carter or Alexander.  *sigh*  He seems to have made an exception for Lainey when she was here for his birthday.  Ah, young love!

- is one of my favorite people in the whole world!  Even when he's making me mad I still love him to pieces!

Christmas Time Again

We decorated on November 26th this year ... I tried to get Jay to let me do it earlier, but he refused.  I guess I just got away with it last year since I could play the "sad returning to work after a year off" card.  Anywho, we got the decorations up and didn't have any "divorce fights".  I decorated the tree and Jay decorated pretty much everything else.  It worked out pretty well ... except that Jay came down to the living room with a box of "approved" decorations and informed me that those were the only ones I was allowed to use so that the tree wasn't "gaudy."  There were some raised eyebrows and some words exchanged, but at least I didn't have Jay following me around the tree and moving my ornaments around this year.  We got a few new decorations this year and used most of our old ones too.  Anyway, here are the pics:

Maggie and Mo could barely contain their joy about me finding their hat and antlers in the first box we opened!

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Paxton was pretty excited about the Santa hat too. 

I know he doesn't look too impressed in this picture, but Paxton brought me the antlers and asked me to put them on him.

Festive Christmas shelf 

Festive microwave with a bunch of snowman stuff 

New giant Christmas balls from Costco 

This did not take nearly as long as it did last year.  Apparently when Jay's not trying to do it at 1 am it goes faster. 

This countdown is one of my new Uppercase Living decorations.  Love it! 

Nativity section 

My other Uppercase Living purchase 

My super cute souvenier from Jackie and Cristy's Mexico trip.  I absolutely LOVE it!!!  Much better than the tacky tourist shirt I was threatened with : ) 

Little tree.  Hopefully Paxton doesn't pull it over on himself this year ... he still has the scar on his forehead from last year! 

Santa Visit 2011

Seeing Santa this year was quite the adventure.  Since Jackie and Cristy were going to be in Mexico for Paxton's birthday this year we decided that everyone would come over to our house prior to the trip to the mall so that Paxton could open his presents for them.  He got pretty spoiled with some clothes and noisy toys *ahem*.

After the present-opening we were off to see the fat man in red.  We were all pretty excited ... well the parents were pretty excited anyway.  And we got there just in time for Santa to take his supper break.  Awesome.  Well, since we hadn't had supper yet ourselves we headed to the food court, then did some browsing at the "As Seen on TV" store and attempted to take some pictures of the three boys together.

Seriously.  These kids are so not cooperative.  Carter loves to "hug" Paxton and Alexander.  Paxton really does not appreciate Carter's feelings and was trying to escape while we were taking pictures.  After our failed picture attempt we headed over to wait in line for Santa.  We still had about a half our before Santa would be back and the boys were ready to wait patiently ... NOT!!!  An almost 2-year-old plus 2 1-year-olds definitely does not equal a good mix for waiting.  So we took turns as parents chasing our kids and waiting in line so we'd be first when Santa finally arrived.  Paxton was pretty interested in the decorations on the trees. 

And then when that got boring, Jay took him over to see the "rides."  Now, I had previously avoided these things like the plague because I knew that once Paxton had sat on them he wouldn't want to leave ... and I was right!  Especially once someone put some money in the train so that it moved.

Finally Santa showed up.  Paxton was pretty good while we waited for Carter and Alexander to have their pictures taken, but once it was his turn all he'd do was arch his back and try to get away from Santa.  Out of all the pictures they took, we ended up only having 2 poses to choose from because Paxton was blurry in all the others!  But really, for as unhappy and uncooperative as the boys were, their pictures turned out not too bad.  Oh happy memories!

Paxton 

Carter 

Alexander

Super Yummy Pork Chops

I know I haven't posted for a while ... and I know that I need to post about Paxton's birthday and such ... and I will get around to it soon, I promise!  But I wanted to share the recipe for the super yummy pork chops we just had for supper.  If you're looking for something a little different you might give this one a try ... and it's for the slow cooker, so it frees up some time : )

Orange Apricot Pork Chops

6 pork chops
1 cup apricot jam (Jay accidentally bought apricot/passion fruit/peach jam but it was still very delicious)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges (and juice!)

The Directions.

Put pork chops into your crockpot. In a small bowl, combine jam, brown sugar, and spices. Spoon over pork chops. Add the entire can of mandarin oranges evenly over the top. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours, or on high for about 4.

Serve with rice to soak up the yummy juice.

It's from this blog and was shared with my by our dayhome lady.  I think I'm going to have to look for some other yummy recipes to try from there one of these days : )

Oh So Yummy Artichoke Dip

I had another B-Charmed party for my friend, Kim, yesterday afternoon.  It was lots of fun and everybody who attended is getting some fun and fabulous jewelry!  But this post is not about jewelry.  It's about the artichoke dip that I made for the party.  And when I say "I made" I mean that I intended to make it but Jay ended up making it since he was at the house : )  It was soooo delicious and this is all that was left at the end:

Ya, so good.  Mom, I will make you try this.  So this recipe is courtesy of the Costco magazine that they send out every month.  I actually opened it this month and I'm so glad that I did!

Hot Artichoke-Parmesan Dip

Prep Time: 5 min
Total Time: 20 min
Makes: 560 mL (2 1/4 cups) or 18 servings, 30 mL (2 Tbsp) each

250 mL (1 cup) Miracle Whip Dressing
250 mL ( 1 cup)  Kraft 100% Parmesan Grated Cheese
1 can (398 mL) artichoke hearts, drained, coarsely chopped
2 green onions, chopped

Heat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Mix ingredients
Spoon into shallow, ovenproof dish.
Bake 15 min. or until hot and bubbly

Easy, right?  Now, instead of the Parmesan cheese, we used Kraft's parmesan, romano and asiago mix.  (It's still a "sprinkle" cheese that comes in a container.  The only place I've been able to find it is Sobeys.  So delicious!)  We also doubled the recipe for the party (which was definitely a smart idea).  We served it with Ciabatta baguettes from Costco.  Someone said that it was also pretty delicious on the crackers I had out.  I replied that I'm pretty sure it would taste equally as delicious on a spoon.  Holiday potlucks watch out.  This is what I'm gonna be bringing : )