Friday, January 30, 2009

Where to Begin.................

The last few weeks have been a true test, physically and emotionally. It seemed as if someone was determined to keep bringing bad things into my life. I have apparently been suffering from depression, to be more specific, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or more commonly known as the "winter blues." Minnesota winters keep you indoors ALL THE TIME. I was born and raised in Louisiana, so this has been like a culture shock to me. I was told that the best way to beat this thing is to get on an exercise plan and to get more rest.

I was tortured with the idea of weaning my daughter from breastfeeding so that I could get on a serious workout/diet plan without affecting her. Well, things have a funny way of happening I suppose, because my milk supply has pretty much vanished. Am I sad about that? You bet, what loving mother wouldn't be? Am I going to beat myself up about it? Nope! She is doing great on formula now. She is a very content and happy baby girl(whom I love to pieces).

With all of that being said, I seriously need to quit putting my health on the back burner. I'm going to be 30 in a few months and I don't want to hit 60-70 years old having to take numerous amounts of medication all because of my excuses right now. So Monday morning I'm going to start kicking fat's ass out of my life for good!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Being Sick and Being Selfish

I haven't been blogging because I had a breast infection called Mastitis which is common when breastfeeding. I had a temp of 104.3 and I was just to the point of wanting to die. Then I was put on antibiotics. Lets just say the last week was the week from hell! I didn't get to work out and eating was not at the top of my list.

Anyway, my milk supply got really low as a result and I'm seriously thinking about weaning my daughter and putting her on formula so that I can lose weight more efficiently. Is that selfish of me? Is it wrong to put my need to lose weight and be healthy ahead of my daughter's breastfeeding? I'm really not allowed to "diet" like I use to before breastfeeding. I'm so torn on this issue and hoping for some sort of input from my readers. My husband just said that he's happy as long as our daughter gets the nutrients she needs to thrive.

What do you think I should do??

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Calorie Intake for a Breastfeeding Mom

Okay, so here's the deal. I'm breastfeeding. With doing so, you really aren't allowed to "diet". After doing some research, I am to eat the following everyday:

Food Serving Sizes Daily Serving

Bread cereal, 1 slice or 1 ounce; 6-11
rice, pasta 1/2 cup

fruit 1 medium or 1/2 cup 2
juice

vegetables 1/2 cup cooked or raw 3
1 cup raw leafy vegetables

milk,yogurt 1 cup 3
cheese 1 1/2 ounces cheese

meat, poultry 2 ounces
peanut butter 4 tablespoons 3
eggs 2 eggs

In my opinion, this is A LOT of food. I can't wrap my brain around the fact that eating all this food DAILY along with exercising will help me lose weight. But if my calorie intake gets too low, all the toxin goes into my breast milk and harm my daughter eventually.

To reach my goal weight of 136 lbs by my birthday in May(and thats pushing it a bit), I shouldn't consume more than 2400 calories per day. I don't know I'm suppose to that with the amount of food I'm suppose to eat....blah!!!This crap is too complicated:(

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

I am NOT a morning person

If you have had the pleasure of getting to know me, you know that I can't stand waking up early BUT when you have four kids, you really don't have an option to sleep in. I got up at 6am and headed downstairs and got in a good 45 minutes of exercise. I only did 20 min. on the elliptical machine, 100 crunches, and some triceps extensions as well. I still can't believe I did that lol. I'm hoping that I have the energy to go downstairs during nap time and get in another 20 min. on the elliptical machine before I crash on the couch. We seriously need to get the treadmill in the basement. My loving husband promised we would get it downstairs before Monday but ummmmmmmm isn't it TUESDAY now...blah!!


Dee

Monday, January 5, 2009

Being held accountable

I think part of the key for me successfully completing my weight loss goal is to become "responsible" for it. I stumbled across the perfect thing out in a blog world earlier this afternoon called Manda's Minus 31 Challenge. Its basically losing weight to win something, but to me, its a lot more than that. I've always thrived on competition and always seem to fail without it. So I feel like its a win-win situation regardless of the fact that someone may lose the 31 lbs before me, there is nothing wrong with some healthy competition.

I'm so sore right now that it hurts to sit up lol. I'm definitely going to be stretching before I go to bed. Today I did 4 miles on the elliptical machine, 60 reps on the health rider, and a lot of free weight exercises. I'm going to sleep like a log tonight.

Dee

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Its My Year

Its the first day of 2009 and boy am I ready to get the show on the road. I weighed in at 176.4 this morning. My goal is to get down to 130 by my 30th birthday which is May 29th. I think my goal is pretty darn achievable. But with 4 small children under the age of 7, as well as a household to maintain and a hubby, things can easily fall off track as some of you can attest. I plan to start exercising on Monday. I'm a planner so I have to write out my exercise routine so that I won't get bored with and throw in the towel before I actually get going with any sort of progress.

It kind of bites me in the butt being a great cook. I was born and raised in New Orleans which is known for its rich food and love of fattening ingredients so cooking low-fat is something that I am not use to one bit. Thats going to be a huge challenge for me.

If I can give birth to four children, I'm pretty sure I'll figure out this weight loss thing again:)