My Resolutions!

I have been stuck at a current weight for almost a year now. Then just two months ago I broke through it and lost that last 5 pounds! And more inches all around! I felt great. This is smallest I have been since having kids. I was so excited. But guess what?! The holidays came and went and BOY did they leave a mark! I am back up to where I was! Dang. Why is it so hard to lose that last 5-10 pounds and in just a short time gain it back!?  Five pounds isn't a lot, I know that. But it took forever to lose it in the first place, so it feels like a lot! And it's amazing the difference five pounds can make in my energy and feeling. I feel sluggish and gross inside. So next time I start to eat a entire 3 pound BAG of truffles, I need to remember how I feel right now at this moment and find the willpower to refrain myself!

To start this year right I have made some fitness goals for the month of January. So far so good. I have already lost three pounds!

My goals:

1. No eating passed 7pm.

2. Exercise everyday. (started P90X...again.)

3. No candy/sugar for the next three weeks.

I also set some personal goals to STUDY the scriptures, not just read them everyday, but actually study them more. And to listen better to my kids. And the last thing I really want to work on this year is to stop raising my voice to the point of yelling. I am not a huge yell-er, but when I do, I hate it. So when I feel myself getting to that point, I need to stop, take a breath, think for a moment then work on the "problem". As I know when I do that, the "problem" in hand, is much more minor and unimportant then I first thought it was.

Those are MY resolutions! What are yours??

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone!!! I am really excited about 2011. I think it's going to be a great year, I just feel it! We partied hard...till 8pm last night. I know, late huh? 

Emily, Avery and Madi bringing in the New Year with Style.

Family bringing in the New Year by playing Wii.

Spare! good job Madi!

Kisses all around

Yay for ice cream!

Emily takes eating her ice cream very seriously.

Everyone make a New Year's Resolution already??  So I gotta be honest here, I have never really gotten into the whole "New Year's resolutions", unless that means just the month of January, excluding weekends, holidays and "I'm too tired" days. haha!

Everyone has made New Year's goals through out their life some year or another, but not many people actually go a WHOLE year keeping that resolution. I would say it's pretty slim that most people do. I am not trying to be negative in saying that, just saying most people I know, including myself, set a New Year's resolution but seem to give up or stop for some reason, usually only a few weeks into January!

For example, if you have ever gone to the gym the first week of January, there are tons of people there, vigorously working out! However, by mid-Jan, not as many and by the end of January you wonder if there was a fire alarm, because you and the tough guy benching 350 lbs were the only ones not notified that the gym was closed. It's almost hysterical...and would be if I didn't find myself being one of the people quiting by the end of January. So why is that? Why do so many people make new "year" resolutions and only get through the first month?

I am also troubled that we seem to have to wait till New Year's to make these "life changing" commitments and promises to do better or to be a better friend, mom, dad, sister,wife, etc. Why do we wait till New Year's Day?

Many New Year's resolutions seem to be commitments of some sort to a diet plan, workout or exercise routine, which only last again through the first few weeks and they are right back where they started from. Discouraged and eating a box of chocolate chip cookies dipped in chocolate while watching the Biggest Loser...oh, wait, that's just me. :)

This post sounds so discouraging, doesn't it!!??

I am sorry, really I am. I will get off my soap box now.

This Year, I will be better, promise. =)

I have to say that my husband has made me a little more optimistic about conquering a New Year's Resolution than ever before. Why? Well this last year, as I have mentioned in a previous post, his goal was to not drink ANY pop/soda for an ENTIRE year. And he did it! I was so shocked. I honestly didn't think he could do it. For his love of pop is as great as my love for chocolate chip cookies! So in honor of my husband who stuck by his Resolution last year here he is drinking his first Root Beer in a year.

wait for it....

Happy New Year! chug, chug, chug...

   Ahhhh!

 His response, "It doesn't taste as good as I thought it was going to."

HUH?

Anyway, I know this post is long enough, but I wanted to share my resolution for this year...this may be easy for some of you but for me it's challenging...

Working out AT least three times a week. (or more if I feel so inclined). 

And my month of January resolution: I am giving up sweets for a month! 

What is your resolution?

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses...

I can't believe this month has come and gone already. (And I don't know why each paragraph has a different font nor do I have the energy to fix it.;) I have been meaning to blog every day for the past 20 days or so but something would always come up and then I would be too tired to SIT at the computer and type. Pathetic, I know.

No really though, I have a good excuse. Actually, a FEW good excuses for not blogging.

My 1st excuse...

I have three kids. Enough said.

My 2nd excuse...

Ryan is on his last rotation and graduates next Friday!!!! August 6th. Can't believe he will be done with school and we will actually become contributing members of society and tax paying citizens. FINALLY. I have always wanted to pay lots of taxes, I was almost feeling left out. ;)

My 3rd excuse...

Ryan and I have been on the lookout everyday for jobs. He has had a few interviews here and there but nothing yet. We realized however that we weren't being as aggressive or proactive as we should have been the last month. So this week we have already seen some progress with job openings.

My 4th excuse...

I have been training for a marathon and since I have been running so much I have been extremely tired. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday my friend, Emily and I have been running. We have been running 12, 14, 15, 16 mile runs on Fridays. This Friday we are up to 17 miles. Just thinking about it makes me tired and ache with pain. But it is also so empowering to be able to run that far and I feel good... inside that is. I can't say the same thing about my outsides. I have bad knees so my knees are always sore and it's very painful to even walk for the next couple of days after a long run. But I keep pressing on anyway because as my husband says, "I'm crazy." My 5th excuse...

We went to Boise because one of my best friends from high school, Krista finally was able to have her husband with her after more than a year of being a apart! It was so good to finally meet him and see them together. They are such a cute couple and I am so happy for them. And Krista looked so beautiful. (Love you Krista!) It was so nice to catch up with some old friends too. I have known most of these girls since middle school and they were beautiful then and even more beautiful now! Kaitlyn, Shannon, Krista, Hayley, Me, Rory

Dan, and Brad

Emily and me

While we were in Boise we got to stay with some good friends of ours, the Morin Family. We always have such a great time hanging out with them.

We went to a water park in Meridian and the kids had a ton of fun splashing and running through the spraying water fountains.

Even Emily got in on some water action.

Brooke, Kade, Madi and Avery enjoying a movie together.

Joanna and I were able to get away for a girls' night out to the movies. We went and saw what else but Eclipse!

My 6th excuse... We had a Cherryholmes family reunion. It was great to see my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles on my mom's side that I haven't seen in a few years. Such good memories were made!

Cousins and sisters-Me, Tracy, Celeste

Lauren, April, Lindsay

And finally my last and 7th excuse for not blogging in awhile...

Ryan and I were asked by our bishopric to build a float for our stake in the 24th of July, Pioneer Day Celebration Parade. It was a BIG job. So we have spent the last month almost every night planning, measuring, drawing, cutting, paper mache-ing, painting...did I mention, PAINTING!? Yeah, lots of painting and then building the float.

Our stake president wanted something totally different this year, completely opposite of Pioneers! He said and I quote, "I am tired of handcarts." So we thought Harry Potter would be a fun float to do, because kids love Harry Potter! We made a castle with 4 towers on each corner. Here's a few pictures during the drawing up process... Ryan did most of the drawings and I did most of the painting...

I made this sign for the front of the truck...and my friend Pam helped me glue it all together. Here is Pam's son, Marshall. He and I are great pals and we got to ride together in the back of his grandpa's model A truck. It was pretty sweet. Marshall would lean over, hug me and say, "We're on a date." haha! He is such a sweet boy. I just love their whole family. And here's the stars of the show... Ron, Harry, and Hermione. (Jo, J.C., and Nicole) Harry, Hagrid and two house elves. Ryan was Voldermort. And here's pictures of our finished float. Our Hogwarts Castle And Amy Schwope did an AMAZING job on the Whomping Willow Tree! It looked incredible!

***A special thanks goes to Amy and Lance for helping us with the planning and design of the float. The Hill family...Pam, Alan, Melissa, Nate, Marshall, and Spencer for letting us use their trailer and garage to put it all together. Thank you Pam for making the flags for the castle. And to Alan, Mike, Duane for helping us stabilize the castle onto the trailer. Thank You! A BIG thank you to brother and sister Atkinson for being there to help put it all together as well. And another BIG thank you to the Smith family and to the Bishop and his wife for helping us with the painting of the many clouds and putting it all together! THANK YOU!!! And guess what?!?!

We won Judges' Choice Award! Whoo-hoo! I am sure after reading this post you are ready for a nap. I know I am ready for one. If you like to belly flop onto the couch for a nap then here's Avery demonstrating how that can be done...

Or if you prefer a more upright position while napping, Madisen perfectly demonstrates that here...

Sweet Dreams and Happy Napping!

A few of my favorite foods...

For breakfast or for a snack, I sometimes have a cup of low-fat cottage cheese with fresh blueberries, strawberries and peaches. SOOOO good! You are drooling at the mouth, aren't you?

I love love LOVE a good salad. In my opinion there is nothing better than that. It makes you feel good, it tastes good and it's good for you. I eat a salad almost everyday whether that be for lunch or dinner. Most of the time this is what I make for lunch:

Love at first sight, right??

I buy a big bag of grilled chicken strips at Costco that usually lasts me almost a month. Before I prepare my fresh salad and cut everything up I grill up about 3 ounces of chicken strips.

With the chicken grilling, I add my lettuce, cut up red peppers(sometimes orange), broccoli, sliced red onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, sometimes an avocado, and sometimes dried blueberries or a few dried cranberries. And then I top it with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds. For dressing I add about 2 tablespoons of poppy seed dressing. I have tried about 5 poppy seed dressings, because I wanted to find one that was low in calories yet not disgusting to MY taste buds.

This dressing was definitely my favorite as far as flavor goes, but

LiteHouse makes a pretty good poppy seed dressing that is half the fat and calories and tastes similar to the Brianna's brand.


Now obviously you can add whatever you want to YOUR salad. I just wanted to share my specialty salad with you. My husband loves it and even my girls love it. I like to see them eating healthy foods along with me.



What is your favorite snack or salad?

Burn and Run

I only wish it was that easy, to stand on a scale all day and see the pounds just shed off! Wouldn't that be nice? Unfortunately getting good results takes hard work. I love the feeling I get when I have accomplished something hard. Someone made the comment that it's really not about the number on the scale but more about body fat, and inches. Which is totally true! I completely agree with that. But I also just want to get down to where I was when I felt my best. So I am going to keep burning those calories out of me.

Training for this half marathon has been so empowering. It feels great when I get done with a long run...well, besides the sore knees, bad back, and blistered feet ;). Last Friday, Emily and I did our 10 mile run and I have never ran that far ever. We are trying to set a goal to stay around 10 minutes a mile. Some miles we do about 9 minutes, other miles are more like 12 minutes as we climb up hills. This morning we ran 3 miles and did it in 28 minutes... I am hoping we can keep that pace through the whole race on Saturday. I am also hoping I (as in, ME ) survives it. hehe.

Wish us luck!

Back on the Scale, Again.

I am a BIG fan of the show, The Biggest Loser.

I love it. I love the contestants. I love the trainers. I love the drama and the intensity of the workouts. It inspires me to work out harder. It challenges me to not give up so easily. It motivates me to work a little harder; to run a little farther, to be a little better.

The final four contestants ran a marathon. That has always been one of my goals, to be able to run a marathon. And if they could do it, so can I.

I was able to lose 25 pounds after the twins were born and I was really proud of myself. However, (and I am not proud to say this) I have already gained back 10 pounds!


And even though I have been training for a half marathon, I still have not lost a single pound. In fact, I have GAINED a few besides the 10. I am pretty sure I have gained some muscle mass, which we all know weighs more than fat. Yet I don't want to blame gaining weight on gaining muscle weight. What a lame excuse that would be. Plus, that doesn't make me feel any better to see that awful number on the dreaded scale.

Someday I want to be able to do this...

Instead of this...

So, once again I am committing now to work hard at losing the weight for good and KEEPING it off. For some reason it is easier for me to make weight loss goals by telling people. Weird, I know. It's probably just because if I have to report to someone it makes me do it. So that is what I am going to do on this blog, report every week to YOU.

Keeping the weight off is going to be a life long battle, I am sure. But I can't give up and throw in the towel now or ever. I am going to start counting those calories again and working harder than ever. So please, pray for me. haha!

No. I'm serious.


My mom has inspired me lately. She has lost 22 pounds as of last week and I am so proud of her. She looks great! She wants to lose another 17 pounds to reach her goal and be that "sexy lady". I think she already is! Good job mom!

My goals: To lose 15 pounds in three months...by August 19th. And to run a marathon this summer.



Isn't that the truth??