2 posts tagged “summer”

(Sorry -- sacrilege not REALLY intended.  Just couldn't resist.  Actually that was a prayer...)

This is THE BUSIEST WEEK OF OUR LIVES  (and stupid ME for signing them up for so much all in the same week -- but that's when all the programs they REALLY WANTED or NEEDED to do were happening...), and probably the most challenging aspect of it is our church's Vacation Bible School, which is held in the evenings. 

We changed to from daytime to evening a few years back b/c we could get so many more volunteers in the evening.  But, it is really quite hard on the little kiddoes.  (and isn't it supposed to be for them? -- Eh, never mind.)

Not that they're not having a wonderful time, but they get home well after their normal bedtime, and then they take a while to wind down, and then they don't sleep in in the mornings, so by today the cumulative sleep deficit was--uh, well let's just say it was CLEARLY having an impact.

Poor Eldest Son is really struggling with his allergies too, which usually manifests itself in him as a constant post-nasal drip leading to constant hacking cough, usually leading to some form of secondary infection, this time an ear infection and probably sinus too.  He's on Benedryl for the allergy-cough, and antibiotics for the infection, so don't look at me like that when I tell you that I let him continue going to his activities if he feels up to it.  (And so far, he has only missed one session of Science Camp -- that's how I knew he was sick in the first place, when he said he thought he was too tired for that...)  So tonight he was just absolutely beside himself, just completely, completely...

Lord.  Give me strength.  (I mean that.  Or maybe not strength, maybe patience and flexibility.  Or maybe just whatever the dickens you think I need -- that usually works...)

He fell asleep tonight within about 5 minutes of being dragged up to his room -- protesting he wasn't tired.  Let's just hope he really sleeps in tomorrow -- he's not real good at that.

And Princess!  Man alive, that little woman was a stinker and a half today.  It was like she did not understand English.

Littlest Brother was the only one of them who was remotely normal today -- and, of course, he's the one who stayed home with me last night and went to bed at his usual time.  Plus he still takes naps, although this week he's getting shorted on them a bit b/c of the schedule for Precious Princess's Safety Town class.  By the time we get home from dropping her off, he doesn't REALLY have enough time for a nap before we have to go pick her up again.

Ai-yi-yi, well, over the hump, anyway.  Tomorrow evening's the last day of VBS, and then on Friday we have just the two camps in the afternoon -- Safety Town and Science Camp.  A nice slow Friday morning will do us all a TON of good.

Plus, I'm tired, and when my sleep deficit gets high enough, well, let's just say that an outside observer could probably tell. 

So g'night! 

So I sort of stalled on my weightloss goals since the end of May.  At that time, and coincidentally (not) at the time of my last update here, I had lost 21 pounds since the beginning of February. 

And since then -- June, July, and August -- I've lost a NET TOTAL of.... 3 pounds.  Woo-hoo...??

Well, to look on the bright side, at least it wasn't a net GAIN.

So I've lost a total of 24 pounds since the start of February.

What I figured out is, contrary to expectation, I lost LESS weight over the summer.  This surprised me, but after mulling it over, I decided it was because...

- Eldest Son was home from school. 

And it's a lot easier to schlep 2 kids into the double stroller and go on an exercise walk at an adult pace, than it is to do the exact same thing with 1 additional child.  The only way to do it is to have him ride his bike alongside me.  But then even so, he can't go as far as I like to walk.  And then, there's all kinds of issues with THAT, but don't get me started...  And then there's the mental and energetic hurdle of getting YET ANOTHER kid motivated to get out the door and get with this program... THIS kid in particular, particularly since he will be expected to make some effort himself (biking) and not just get pushed in the stroller.  (And believe me, that's a sore point with him.) 

And then there's the whole "managing stress through carbs and chocolate" thing involved with Eldest Son being home from school.  I had a lot less success controlling my food intake over the summer. 

- Lost a lot of momentum with the doomed garage sale.  For two weeks in June, all my "free" time was eaten up prepping for this event, and then boxing all the stuff back up and schlepping it off to charities afterward.  So no exercise.

- Two vacations, with all that implies for time spent travelling, general schedule upheaval, and too many good eating opportunities.  And not enough exercise.

I know myself well enough to realize that I simply CANNOT lose weight UNLESS there is a hefty exercise component in the mix.  Regular and strenuous exercise.  I can limit my food intake all I want, but I will NOT lose weight unless I'm also exercising. 

Believe me, I know. 

You wanna know about weight loss?  Hey, I'm an expert. 

Over my adult lifetime, I've lost... let's see here, I'm going to add it all up...

Say 10 pounds here, 10 pounds there; 20 pounds, definitely, before my pregnancy with Eldest Son...  That's 40.

Then... a total of 30 pounds after I gave birth to Eldest Son and before my pregnancy with Precious Princess.   That's a running total of 70.

Then... let's see, let's see... another 35 pounds after Precious Princess and before Littlest Brother.

That's a running total of 105 pounds.

Between Littlest Brother's birth and the start of 2007, I lost a total of 15 pounds.  So with my 2007 total so far of 24 pounds... 

That's nearly 145 pounds I've lost over the past 10 years.

That's more than my entire mother weighs.  That's as much as I used to weigh, in college.

(Sigh...)

Okay.  If there are any skinny people out there who are just itching to give me (unsolicited) helpful hints on weightloss -- ???

-- Stuff it.

I've lost more pounds than you even WEIGH, so don't think you can tell me anything I haven't already learned about how to lose weight and why I should.

Ooh, ooh, little boil of bitterness surfacing here, better lance it.  Watch out for the pus.  (Sorry, bad visual.)

Why, you may ask, all you healthy skinny people, do I keep losing and gaining the same weight over and over again?  Why can't I just keep it off, once and for all?

Well, it all boils down to one word:  Pregnancy. 

This is how my family's body type does it.  Just ask Pumpkinshell.

Pregnancy, for us, involves lethargy like all your mitochondria just went on strike at once, combined with a hellacious case of morning-afternoon-and-evening sickness that WON'T go away UNLESS you EAT.  And I'm not talking things like oranges and rice cakes, either.  (Some helpful hints from people whose pregnancies, clearly, went a bit differently from mine.)  Something with CHEESE and FAT and GREASE and CARBS.  A two-egg cheese omelet on a croissant would be the perfect mid-morning pick-me-up... that's after regular breakfast at home and before a complete lunch.  And oh by they way, mid-afternoon snack involved everything I had USED to eat for lunch.  Well, then there's dinner, of course, and a big bowl of ice cream before bedtime. 

Pregnancy, for us, involves the complete destruction of your body and mind, in order to host that little miracle.

You think I liked feeling like that?  You think I liked eating like that?  You think there wasn't some part of my mind, the willpower part, that was screaming in rage and anguish, watching the animal part devour 1500 EXTRA calories a day for 3 months?  There was that part, believe me, but it was bound and gagged and thrown in the trunk for the duration. 

Ugh.  The very thought of being pregnant again just makes me break out into a cold sweat.

Between pregnancies, I would be like, okay, next time I will just get up the gumption to keep walking through the first two trimesters.  Next time, I will carefully manage my caloric intake throughout the day, yada yada yada.  Only next time, strike up the raging hormones, and there goes Willpower Carole, bound and gagged and locked in the trunk.  AGAIN.  There goes Mitochondria Carole, flopped on the couch.  AGAIN.

The pregnancy where I was MOST successful in keeping my weight down -- ? I gained 42 pounds.  And that felt like a huge victory, considering that in the other two, I gained 75.

Ugh, ugh, ugh, I'm feeling all tense and stressed right now, just thinking about it.

Whew.  IN with the good air, OUT with the bad.  IN with peacefulness, OUT with stress. 

IN.  OUT.

IN.  OUT.

("Reclaim that feeling of wellbeing that is your birthright..."  Who says yoga isn't good for anything?)

Better now.

Getting back to the bright side:

On THIS Shore trip, I was wearing a size 16 swimsuit.  (Also some 18s, but one suit said 16, darn it!!)  At the LAST Shore trip, 2 years ago, when Littlest Brother was a new baby, my swimsuit was size 22W.

So that's an accomplishment.

On THIS Shore trip, I gained back 1 pound, not the usual 5.

So that's an accomplishment.

And now that school has started back up again, I should be able to get more regular exercise.  So that's something to look forward to.

Okay. 

Getting back on track now, before the holidays hit.  September, October, November.

GO!