Twilight

I have read the Twilight book series, and I took my daughter Kayla to see the movie yesterday.

Isn't fantasy great? I'd love Edward's abilities. To run without getting tired, winded or sweaty? Definitely a great thing! But then, he wouldn't need to run for exercise anyway as becoming a vampire makes you extra beautiful. Does that mean my fat would just melt away as soon as I turned into a vampire? Think of the weight lifting levels that could be achieved with that kind of strength!

But that is the world of fantasy. (I mean, really, teenagers who find true love within days of meeting each other?) And to really get my weight to melt off me is going to take (and has taken) a lot of work, will power and sweat. I get tired, winded and sweaty when I exercise. My face gets really red, sweat drips off me, I start breathing heavily, and it's really not a pretty sight to see.

And I have to turn down sweets and other snacks I enjoy sometimes, not because I am a vampire who no longer needs or desires normal food, but because turning it down is what is best for me despite how much I might really crave it.

And it's a good thing that I am not a vampire. Edward abstains from sucking the blood of Bella despite the fact that her blood smells like the greatest, tastiest thing ever to him. Me? If I was a vampire and a guy smelled as tasty to me as chocolate or ice cream or even Mexican food, I'd probably take a bite out of him!

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On a side note, I have some designs in my shop for Twilight fans. Have a look: http://www.cafepress.com/fyfephotography/6222223 (There are only a few designs there right now, but look back by Friday of next week and there will be many more designs added.)

Wii Fit

We broke it already. Either that or the special battery that came with it has already gone dead. My 6 year old was on it when it suddenly had a disconnect from the board and told us to hit the power button on the board. We did, but nothing happened. The light doesn't even flash. We've only been using the board since about 4 days ago!

The hula hoop game on it is hilarious to watch others do, but when you do it yourself, you find that it is a really good workout! The jogging was a bit boring though. I tried a lot of the aerobic games on it yesterday and one of the weight training games. Some of the balance games are fun too, but I am really not very balanced.

I am going to recharge the batteries and stick some of our cheaper batteries in it to see if it's the batteries that are the problem.

New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve and many around the world are making resolutions for the new year. I plan on hitting my goal weight in 2009, but it's not really a new year's resolution. It's a plan, and one I made when I first started eating healthier, exercising and losing weight back in May.

What are your plans and goals for the new year?

Slimmer Of The Month

I lost half a pound this week! I am really pleased to have lost half a pound during Christmas week!

I am still down 65 pounds, and I feel really motivated to keep at this. At the Slimming World meeting tonight, the club introduced a new, more flexible plan, but it sounds a lot like the way I was already using the plan.

Also, I won Slimmer Of The Month for December and got a Slimming World mug as a prize.

Robert lost 3.5 pounds this week!

There were only six of us at the meeting. A result of the holidays?

Wii Bit Of Exercise!

Hope everyone had a terrific Christmas!

We bought a Wii and a Wii Fit for Christmas. We haven't used the Wii Fit yet, but we have been playing some sports on the Wii.

Gabby, my 6 year old daughter, was playing with our Wii today - the boxing game. It was so funny to watch! Little kids really make the Wii into an exercise art! Robert used his new Flip MinoHD to video her. Please watch this if you want a bit of a laugh (he put it to music and added it to his blog): http://diaperblues.blogspot.com/2008/12/you-know-when-all-you-parenting-has.html (Oh, and comment if you find it funny. His blog needs some comments in it.)

Too bad uploading video to YouTube lowers the quality. The Flip creates beautiful videos! Dh is really pleased with it. (I show a link to the one I bought him in my Christmas post in my family blog http://gigglesandkisses.blogspot.com.) (You'll have to copy and paste the links as I still have not figured out how to make them clickable.)

Up Half A Pound

At yesterday's weigh-in, I gained half a pound. I wasn't surprised though. I was relieved it wasn't more. I spent the week not getting any exercise and eating about 100 to 200 more calories a day than what I've been eating to lose weight. It could have been worse.

Robert gained a pound and a half, and, after last week's two pound gain, he is now out of his "target" range and will have to pay for the meeting next week. He wants to revise his target for even lower now.

So we are both devoted to getting in more exercise this week and eating better. I don't see Christmas dinner as being much of a problem. The Slimming World plan allows us meat and potatoes, and we can use our "syns" allowance for things like stuffing and bread rolls. Or use it on dessert.

For the Slimming World meeting, it was another day to bring food in for everyone to try. I will share the recipes of what we made later. I made Lemon Fairy Cakes. Robert made grapes dipped in dark chocolate, Winter Bites (a recipe of his own concoction) and Breakfast Eggs (another one he created).

It was all really yummy.

For Slimming World members, the Breakfast Eggs and Winter Bites are "free" on Original and Green (when using the bacon in the Breakfast Eggs as a healthy extra), the chocolate dipped grapes are 1 syn each and the Fairy Cakes are 5 syns.

Someone there made Bombay Potatoes and they were really tastey too.

So Far

Things are going well. I am sticking to my daily calorie allowance, and, although I'm not using the elliptical trainer every day, on the days I am not using it, I am getting other forms of exercise. I walked a couple of miles with my husband yesterday.

I still feel like I'm not really exercising unless I bore myself for at least 45 minutes on the elliptical machine. I know that's not true, but it feels true.

My back has been hurting lately. I think it's because I am nursing the bay so often and I sort-of hunch over when I'm nursing him. I can't find an easier position to nurse in though.

Robert made us some stuffed cabbages (stuffed with lean beef mince, rice and tomato sauce) for dinner the past couple of days. They were tasty amd healthy! They didn't stay together very well though, so we might try to make them again and take a picture of how it turns out next time.

Yay!

Well, I needn't have worried about my weight loss this week. At my weigh-in, I showed a 2 pound loss for this week! Woohoo!

I've now lost a total of 65 pounds. I am almost halfway to my ultimate goal. I am only 5 pounds away from having lost 5 stone, and I am only 8 pounds away from seeing onederland!

Next week at our Slimming World meeting is another week to bring a dish to share. I am thinking of making Lemon Fairy Cakes from one of the Slimming World recipe books.

In A Funk

I'm in a funk. I thought I had this motivation thing all sussed out and would never fall into this kind of situation, but here I am. I have only exercised on the elliptical machine once this week (although I've gone with my husband to walk the dog in the evening several nights). I went over my daily calorie allowance twice this week, and for most of the week my calories hovered at the high end of what I allow myself.

I've had to fight cravings that have been hitting me in waves. Maybe it's because I'm nursing the baby. Maybe it's because I'm not getting any sleep. I don't know why the cravings have been so bad lately or why I have not felt motivated to exercise.

I weigh-in later tonight. I have no idea if I will go up or down on the scale. I am hoping, of course, that my weight will go down. But I have not put in the effort to make it so this week. So I optimistically hope that nursing will do for me this time what it has never done before and suddenly the weight will just "melt off" as so many of my friends have claimed it does for them when they nurse. Or I find myself hoping that the water-weight and other stuff from the pregnancy has not finished falling off of me and I will see a bit more of it come off this week. Or maybe I'll just be lucky.

I have not consumed enough calories to gain weight this week, but my body doesn't always follow the rules. So I will just have to wait and see.

I am so close to onederland and I can't wait to reach it! So why am I suddenly slacking off? Why am I in this funk?

Will It Be Another Good Week?

With a new baby, lack of sleep and two of my kids down with chicken pox (again, but that's another story which can be found in my personal blog at http://gigglesandkisses.blogspot.com ), I can feel the stress making me want to munch. The urge to snack, and not just on anything but on high carbohydrate, sugary things is really strong right now. I should technically still have some of the weight left on from pregnancy-related gain still coming off of me right now, but will it be enough if I succumb?

I'll just have to make sure I don't give in to my attack of the munchies so that I won't have to find out.

I'd love to lose another 7 - 10 pounds by New Year's and that doesn't leave me much time!

Incredible Weigh-In!

I had a wonderful weigh-in yesterday at Slimming World! I dropped another 10.5 pounds this week! I have now lost a total of 63 pounds! I am so happy! I feel like celebrating! Woohoo!

Weigh-In!

I lost the weight of the baby at least! My offical weigh-in was tonight, and I lost 6.5 pounds for a total loss now of 52.5 pounds!

I plan on losing big this week too! My husband Robert and I are both going to work together again on losing weight during the week. (Since he's been at target, he's not been working with me as much on it.)

My back is still hurting from the botched epidural during my labor, but I think I can still get some exercise in this week.