Taking Care of ME for a Change...

 When my kids started school in the middle of August I decided it was time to do something for ME.  I had three kids in three years (not on purpose) and that wreaked havoc on my body.  I wasn't able to lose my baby weight between pregnancies and when I was done I was a lot heavier than when I started.  After I had my last daughter I was a size 14.  I wanted to do something about it but it's hard with three little kids to focus on anything or have time to do anything for yourself.  There was always an excuse not to start like  I was tired, it's too hard to start an exercise program, most people who lose weight just gain it all back anyways, I don't have time, etc.  I started running at the end of April and had continued to run 3 days a week but without changing my diet it wasn't really doing much for me.
I had a friend who was starting a 90-day fitness challenge with a group of women and I thought that would be a great way to motivate myself to get moving in the right direction.  It's always easier when you have someone else doing it with you.  I didn't diet...I hate diets.  I mean if you want to drop some weight fast for a special event or something a diet works great, but you always gain the weight back when the diet is over.  I also didn't cut any food groups out of my diet completely.  I don't think that's healthy either.  Your body needs a balanced diet and I don't like eating the same thing every day.
What I did do was start tracking my food and exercise on a website called MyFitnessPal.com.  I was able to figure out how many calories my body needs on a daily basis to maintain a constant weight.  When I enter in some form of exercise it adds calories on because your body needs more food when you exercise.  Then I was able to track how many calories I ate and how many calories I burned with exercise.  It was easy.  I tried to make healthier choices with my food and cut out a lot of junk food and empty calories.
I have been running 3 miles 3 days a week and I do Zumba for about an hour 3 days a week.  I have started doing more weight training now because I'm ready to focus on toning now instead of just weight loss.  I know I'm not super-model thin but I'm happy with where I am at.  I even managed not to gain weight over the holidays ;o)  That's a first! 
Anyways, I have been so happy with my results I just had to share them with all of you.  If you are debating about whether or not to start taking better care of yourself, just do it.  You won't regret it.  I am now a size 8 but some of my size 8 pants are already getting a little big.  Here are some before and after pictures of me:

BEFORE:

I was trying to hide my body with my daughter...too bad it didn't work very well!

Not too flattering and I don't just mean the fabulous look on my face.

Here I was dancing with my son at my sister's wedding.  Look at that huge arm!

AFTER: 

This is me now at a healthy size 8.

I've lost a lot of weight in my face too.

Oh darn, I had to get a bunch of new pants because my old ones were too big ;o)

I feel like I can wear belts now because I'm not constantly trying to hide myself.

Settled into School

Wait a minute...where did the summer go?  We didn't do anything big and extraordinary this summer but we did have a lot of fun.  We went bowling, miniature golfing, swimming several times at the lake, played at several parks, went to Elitch Gardens, camped in the backyard a couple of times, Emmy had a luau birthday party, and Brandon played baseball so we spent many nights watching baseball.  Oh, and I ran three different 5k races this summer...go me!  I started running in May and I am finally to the point where I really enjoy it and miss it when I don't do it.  Yep, just an ordinary hanging out with the family kind of summer.  It was nice.  It was also busy, which is why I have pretty much sucked at blogging.  I will have to try to do better.

Now the kids are all settled into the school routine again.  They have been back in school for a month now and they all seem to like their new teachers and classes.  Brandon is in 3rd grade, Emmy is in 2nd grade, and Katelyn is in half-day kindergarten in the mornings.  We have been riding our bikes to school most days now that Katie got her training wheels off of her bike.  It has been good exercise for all of us.  Lucky for me we only live a half-mile away from the school because I have to make 3 trips to the school everyday (once to drop them off, once to get Katie, and once to get Brandon and Emmy). 

I have started volunteering at the school again too.  I like to see what is going on in the classrooms and see how my kids are doing in the classroom setting.  Plus, I can give dirty looks to all the little punks who make fun of my kids, or push them in the hall, or call them a crybaby...you get the idea.  Just don't mess with my kids and we can all be friends :o) 

Here are some random summer pictures and some pics from the first day of school.  

Here is the luau cake I made for Emily's 7th Birthday.

Brandon shooting his BB gun at the farm.

They had a blast playing in the mud!  What can I say...my girls aren't always the girliest of girls.

Millie got in on the fun in the mud too!

Ready to go to school.

I built a fire for smore's all by myself :)

And I put the tent up all by myself.  Fun times! (although putting it away is not so much fun)

Brandon batting in one of his games.

Brandon trying out playing catcher.

This was Brandon's baseball team.

Brandon and his friend, John, tied up their sisters and stuffed them in the closet.  BOYS!

Dance Recital 2012

 All dressed up and ready to go!

The girls had their dance recital  this week.  They were absolutely adorable!  I love watching the dance recitals!  All the little girls all dressed up and the little preschool girls have no idea what they are doing and it's just too stinking cute.  Our girls both did really well in the recital this year.  They were in the same class this time around (mostly to help with mom's sanity because it's hard having everyone in something different all the time!).  Watch the video of their dance below!  It was taken at their dress rehearsal and they did quite a bit better in their actual performance but it gives you an idea of how their dance went (and I apologize for the shakiness of it...my 8 year old son insisted on being the camera man) :o)

Other than that summer is a super busy time of the year around here!  We have had two picnics at parks this week and today we had 4 friends over to play.  We always seem to have extra kids around :)  Brandon has at least 1 baseball game a week and he is LOVING it!  I should probably get some pics of him doing baseball on here.  We are going to go to Elitch's next week I think and we have our annual camping trip at Hermit Park next month after Emily's birthday.  Too bad we can't have campfires this year :(  They have banned all fires because of this stinking HUGE High Park Fire.  I guess we will be roasting marshmallows over the camp stoves instead. We hope you are all having a fun summer too!