8 Months to a Better Me: Week 17

Hard to believe this is the last day of April already! The past week was fairly good. On Monday I was still pretty sick, but felt like myself once Tuesday rolled around. I waited until Wednesday to start working out again though just so I didn't overdo anything. This morning, I weighed in at 126.5!! Very pleased with that =D Here's a recap of last week:

Monday: No exercise
Tuesday: No exercise
Wednesday: 2 mile walk
Thursday: 2 mile walk
Friday: Yoga: Abs 10 minutes
Saturday: No exercise
Sunday: 2 mile walk
100 squats 4x during the week
Drank average of 40oz liquid each day

I'm also very proud of myself for not having a single bad drink until the weekend!! I did indulge in two 12 oz pepsi's over the weekend, but I only had good drinks the rest of the week! In the 3.5 months I've been really working hard on this, I've lost 11.5 pounds! I have 4.5 months to lose the remaining 6.5, I know I can do it!

My goal for this week was to do Zumba Sculpting today, Tread climber Tuesday and Thursday, Zumba Cardio Thursday and then Yoga on Friday with  few walks over the weekend, but I already haven't done Zumba today. Hopefully the wind won't get too bad so that we can take a walk later on. My mom is heading to Maine for 3 weeks tomorrow, so Lexi and I went over to see her instead of the normal Zumba workout. My other goal is to get to 126 by next Monday.

Our Silly Lexi Roo

Lexi is growing so fast! She's learning new things each day and this video really shows it.

8 Months to a Better Me: Week 16

Well yesterday morning I weighed in at 126! But...I was pretty sick Sunday night too. I started not feeling great on Friday and then Saturday I just felt like my brain couldn't get out of a fog. Got hit hard Sunday, was passed out from NyQuil on Monday and today feel pretty much all better. Anyway, I know that's why I lost 2 pounds last week, but hopefully I can keep some of it off and actually stay 126 and below soon. Here's a recap of last week:

Monday: Zumba Sculpting, 45 minutes; 2 mile walk
Tuesday: Tread climber, 40 minutes, 1.57 miles, 303 calories burned
Wednesday: No exercise
Thursday: Tread climber, 45 minutes, 1.78 miles, 343 calories burned
Friday: 2 mile walk
Saturday: No exercise
Sunday: 2 mile walk
100 squats 6x during the week
Drank average of 42oz liquid each day

Hoping this week to maintain at least 127lbs and start back into exercising tomorrow. Derek and I are looking for a jogging stroller so we can start running together again this summer. I think Lexi will love it too. Till next week :)

8 Months to a Better Me: Week 15

Happy Monday once again. Well this past week I didn't think I did great, but apparently I did something because I weighed in at 128 again this morning. The weather started getting much cooler on Tuesday, so we didn't take many walks at all. Even though we took one last night, it was pretty chilly. Here's the week's recap:

Monday: 2 mile walk
Tuesday: 2 mile walk (okay, guess the weather turned sour starting Wednesday then lol)
Wednesday: Tread climber, 45 minutes, walked 1.78 miles, burned 348 calories
Thursday: Tread climber, 45 minutes, walked 1.79 miles, burned 348 calories
Friday: Yoga for Buns and Thighs, 10 minutes
Saturday: No exercise
Sunday: 2 mile walk
100 squats 5x last week in the mornings
Drank an average of 32oz liquid a day (I think it was a tad more, I forgot to record my water last Tuesday)

I did drink quite a bit more than the previous weeks and cut back on things like Pepsi and mochas. My goal from now on is to only have those drinks on the weekends as a treat. I know this will help keep the weight down and cut several hundred calories. Plus, makes the weekend even better :) We still have a TON of Easter candy here, but I'm also trying to greatly limit that too. If we end up throwing some away, so be it. So now, I'm allowing myself one after lunch and one after dinner. Yesterday I don't think I had any!

Big Girl Cups

Lexi's cup from Great Grandma Willa

We've discovered that Lexi only likes drinking milk from a bottle, nothing else! She doesn't like sippy cups either. But, she will drink her juice from a big girl cup :) It's so cute to watch her try to drink it, she kind of tries eating and drinking at the same time and bites the cup quite a bit. A lot goes down her chin, but I must say more does get in her mouth than not, so that's good. She doesn't know how to hold it herself yet, but she'll get there.

She likes apple juice and banana yogurt juice.

Such a big girl

And here's a fun video of her drinking out of her cup.

Baby Food Bonanza

For some reason, I'm obsessed with baby food! No, I don't eat it :) Every time I'm at the store, I end up buying Lexi some new flavor of baby food. Which is great because then she has a good variety when she doesn't like the other things, like carrots and sweet potatoes. We've decided she doesn't like any vegetable that's orange, except squash, but that's more yellow than orange. It's a lot more fun to buy food for her than us, that's for sure...much cheaper too. And she eats better than we do. Last night she had a turkey rice dinner with green beans on the side and vanilla custard with bananas for dessert and a banana yogurt juice drink. We've established a great routine for eating so at 10:00, she gets her cereal: rice, oatmeal, or barley with a type of fruit: pears, bananas, apples, apples and blueberries, pears and raspberries, bananas with plums and grapes...the list goes on. Then at 5:00, she gets her dinner: green beans, squash, turkey with rice, veggies and onion powder (this is a new one that she likes), mac and cheese (her favorite) with dessert: mango smoothie, fruit medley smoothie, pudding, yogurt, or peach cobbler. Sometimes she gets a little snack too which consists of apple bites, cheddar puff things, banana rice puffs and yogurt bites. She's getting so good at putting things in her mouth. If only our meals were so fancy :) I found a baby food holder at K-Mart yesterday while picking up diapers and had to buy it!

Seriously wish it wasn't sideways, dumb blog!

Anyway, I love this! I really should have taken a picture of the 'before' since all these cans and containers were under the island or crammed in the pantry. It turns around and is just so easy! Plus, the spoons are stored on top for even more usefulness.

8 Months to a Better Me: Week 14

And it's Monday again. Mondays are good when you don't have to work them! Well last week wasn't great health and exercise-wise, but it was an amazing week. Derek was off all week and today so that's been great. We did manage to go on a few walks during the gorgeous weather, but I also only worked out hard twice and with Easter and all the goodies, I did gain back 2 pounds so am at 130 right now. I'm pretty sure I had a bad drink each day too. I try to only have one Pepsi and/or coffee per week, but I ended up having one per day and sometimes I had one of each a day. (I did learn that our movie theater has amazing iced coffees hehe!) Back in high gear now though, so I'm sure I won't have a problem shedding the poundage once again. Here's a recap:

Monday: Zumba Sculpting for 45 minutes (that was an incredible workout that I'll be trying to do once or twice each week now instead of just 25 minutes).
Tuesday: Tread climber for 47 minutes, walked 1.84 miles, burned 356 calories
Wednesday: 2 mile walk
Thursday: No exercise
Friday: No exercise
Saturday: 2 mile walk
Sunday: 2 mile walk
100 squats 6 days in the morning
Drank an average of 24oz liquid each day

We're really starting to work in the yard too, so I know that will help and Lexi loves it outside too. Nap times have been perfect for doing outside cleaning like getting rid of the old weeds, concrete, dog poop (how fun lol), that kind of stuff. Derek got the front yard completely sodded last week and today he's putting in stone barriers and bushes and I'm pruning the Lilac bush to make room for all the new growth. Mmmm Spring is my favorite season, especially when it actually visits us before June! I think we'll have tulips and lilacs in a matter of weeks instead of months :)

Happy Easter

He is Risen
He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter everyone! Today has been such a wonderful day. We slept in until about 8:15, which is late around here since Lexi is usually up around 7:15, but I guess we all were worn out from the weekend. We went to the church service at 10:45 this morning at the Senior Center, Emmanuel's sanctuary isn't big enough to hold both services combined plus visitors. It was so nice and they kept the doors open to let in the fresh air. We dedicated Lexi to the Lord today. Pastor Abe did such a nice dedication for us and the other family with two children. Lexi even got to walk around with Pastor Abe, so she enjoyed that. Derek's dad took video and pictures for us with his camera and my mom took a few pictures with my camera.

Alexandria's dedication

Lexi receiving her certificate and New Testament

Today is such a beautiful day too! The forecast is 62 degrees and sunny. So far, it's 58, sunny and no wind! We're so happy to have Lexi's first Easter snow free! She got lots of goodies from everyone and the Easter Bunny came to visit too.

Lexi made out like a bandit

Playing with her new books

Easter bunny came!

She looked so cute in her new little Easter dress too!

Such a pretty girl

Checking out her basket

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter today.

Lexi at 10 Months

Our baby is almost not a baby anymore! Soon we'll be planning her first birthday and giving her the 1-year-old sugar high! We're going to get 1 year pictures/family pictures taken around that time too, so I'm excited about that.

She's doing so much these days, hard to believe a little baby can learn so quickly. Let's see:

She pulls herself up all the time on anything that supports her, and even things that don't.
Thanks to Grandma Hargis, she can walk with furniture now and play peek-a-boo.
She's starting to master the finger food concept and now that's starting to include not so edible objects like Winnie hair and straw wrappers.
Yesterday, she tried to put her hat on her head.
Her vocabulary includes: daddy, mama, hi (which comes out sounding like haaaaaiiiii) da or ya for yes, dat for that, boba or botta for bottle, doda for dog when she feels like saying dog lol, aww du for all done, aaaayyy for yay and some others. She's starting to repeat sounds pretty regularly now.
She now points and reaches for things she wants.
She waves every time you say "bye bye" and sometimes she'll wave with both hands, it's so cute!
She claps when you say "yay", but she's been doing that for several months now.

She's just a fun, happy baby. We're looking forward to celebrating her first Easter on Sunday.

8 Months to a Better Me: Week 13

Well at the beginning of last week I was trying to get over my cold so didn't feel too good and at the end of the week I was wishing I was in labor instead of having a filling put in my mouth haha. Anyway, here's my recap of last week:

Monday - Zumba Sculpting for 10 minutes, it was all I could manage before my nose and throat felt on fire.
Tuesday - Tread climber, 47 minutes, 1.83 miles, 360 calories burned
Wednesday - Tread climber, 35 minutes, 1.35 miles, 266 calories burned
Thursday - No exercise
Friday - 2 mile walk
Saturday - No exercise
Sunday - 2 mile walk
100 squats 5x last week while brushing my teeth
Drank an average of 29oz liquid each day

The last few weeks I've seemed to be taking turns in either losing or gaining weight. The good thing about this, is that when I lose weight, I have been going under what I was the previous time I lost weight. I was back to 130 last week, but this morning I was 128!! I'm pretty darn excited about that! 8 more pounds to go!