Random Thoughts

I know I should have started this in the beginning but I just always forgot about it. It is hard to remember if I miss a day or two so I am going to try and write down everything I eat.
I found a free calorie counting web site called www.livestong.com it let me put in everything I ate that did not have its own label so I could look up the calories. So far today I have eaten 835 calories for breakfast and lunch.

FYI: There are lots of free sites out there.

My daily calorie goal is between 1600-1700 calories.

According to the proper nutrition goals we want about 50% of these calories to be from carbohydrates (half will be the whole grain carbohydrates). Lots of simple carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables for the other half.

30% of these daily calories will come from fat with less than 10% of that 30 to come from the bad saturated fat. I am shooting to more like less than 5%.

I want 20% to come from protein. Protein is the best way to build muscle. This means the leaner body mass will increase with the protein. Not high fat protein though. No bacon etc. I want the good protein. I love fish and fish is a wonderful low fat and low calorie protein. If I choose any type of nut almonds seem to be the best choice. Not the honey roasted or coated almonds, but plain almonds, which I love anyway.

Calorie counting is key. It was an old 80’s myth when people thought we only needed to count fat. Hello….. calories can make fat. Too many calories even low in fat can be stored in our fat cells so it takes more than fat counting to be successful.

Did you know that Judge Judy is on the $20 bill? You can’t argue this because my 4 year old daughter has informed that Judge Judy is the face on the $20 bill.
She was looking at a $20 bill this morning and asked me who the “woman” on the bill was. I said “It is not a woman it is a man, and I can’t remember which president it is.” She then precedes to tell me that it is NOT a man it is a woman, stops and thinks for about 15 seconds and says “ah Mom it is Judge Judy!”

As any of you know I cannot and am not allowed to argue with a 4 year old child that knows everything. So, in our house Judge Judy is on the $20 bill.

FYI: She knows about Judge Judy because mommy watches her every day.

I just did 20 regular pushups, yah! I have been doing them on my knees for years because I have not been able to do regular pushups at all.

I did 2 sets of 10. I did not go ALL the way to the floor but went about half way. I am really happy with this because I could not even hold myself in plank position for very long. It is getting rather easy to hold myself in plank position and going about half way down and back up 20 times did not totally kill me. Whihoo!

So I have a stress acne picking problem. I was unsure if I ever wanted to fess up and post this on here but since I am doing so well with displaying my weight loss on line on my other blog (tawnasplan.blogspot.com) I am thinking that maybe posting my struggle with the picking problem may help me quit.
Below you will see a picture that I posted on my weight loss blog after my 30 pound loss. If you look at my arm you can see some red/brown marks all over it. Well that is nothing but acne and not just flared up acne but actual scars too.

Someone asked me the other night if it was bug bites and I could have lied but I told her what it really was. I have been embarrassed about it for years but I need to stop doing it so I am hoping be honest about it may help me refrain from doing it anymore.

The problem is that I get stressed out about money, marriage, time management, etc and I find a small tiny bit of acne on my arms and I pick it to death. I have not always done this but with the house going into forecloser and the lack of sleep etc. I am finding it real hard to stop.

Any suggestions (besides therapy) please let me know. I am too poor to pay anyone and I need to stop this on my own. Hay, if I can battle and eating disorder on my own with close family 14 years ago then I can battle this right?

Here is the picture taken a couple weeks ago

All are in inches
Now 5-3-10:                                                3-18-10            Loss or Gain
Bust: 43 (maybe it is a perky 43 now lol)       43                     0
Waist: 44 (stubborn c-section waist)             44                      0
Hips: 46 ½                                                   47 ¼                  L ¾
Thigh (1): 26 ¼                                            26 ¾                  L ½
Arm: 12 ½                                                   12 ¾                  L ¼

Total loss since 3-18-10 (6 weeks) = 1 ½ inches
Not the fastest but still a loss.

I have only been trying to do 2 work outs a day for a handful of days now so hopefully I can double this loss.

I started level 3 today of Jillian Michael’s 30 day shred. It has taken me awhile to get to level 3 because I do not like to start a new level until I can do everything in the previous level for the entire work out. It hurt me a bit and I left a pile of sweat on the floor but I feel good about it.

After a couple weeks of level 3 hopefully I will not be doing any of the beginner stuff at all. I really do like her work outs, hope I see great results!

Fighting today and half winning and half losing. I want chocolate and steak today and that is killing me.

I have been pretty good not eating all day long but I have given into a nice steak for lunch and a whole caramel candy bar I bought from a fund raising event. I would feel guiltier but it was so incredibly good I can’t feel that guilty yet. I am glad these PMS cravings only last like 1-2 days because it is killing me.

I am not going to kill myself today for giving in a bit as I have been on a very good track for a long time and it is OK to cheat a bit and give in every now and then. This way we don’t want to binge all the time because we are not totally depriving ourselves of guilty pleasures.

I can’t wait till tomorrow so these cravings will pass. It is funny how incredibly hard it is to ignore them.

My daughter has had night terrors since about 2 ½ years old but they were very spread apart. Lately she has been having them rather frequently. She has been having them every 2-3 weeks. It never fails; she seems to have them on the nights that I go to bed early.
I talked to a friend today and she said that the worst thing you can do is talk to the child while they are having these. My husband and I constantly try to ask her what is wrong and she goes hysterical. I guess I will try anything so maybe just holding her or lying with her may help her calm down more?

Anyone have any suggestions? It is so hard to be dead tired in the middle of the night and not get upset when she does this. I would like to know what works before our second child goes through this faze. Anyone else heard anything that works?

I decided to try Debbie Meyer’s Green bags because I was sick and tired of my fruits and vegetables spoiling before I got a chance to use them.
My review:

I totally LOVE them for vegetable, they are great. The vegetables last at least the entire 2 weeks between pay checks and I love that they stay fresh. I do not like them for avocados though and I will explain as it is for the same reason I will no longer use the bags for my fruits.

Why do I dislike them for my fruits? There is something that the bag is made out of that actually seems to get into the taste of the fruits and it is nasty. I bought avocados, tomatoes, and pretty much every other type of fruit and they all have the same “bag” taste to them. I love bananas but not when they come out of the green bag. It only takes about ½ a day for the taste to get in there too.

It does not seem to be there when you cook the vegetables so that is why I still use them for anything that I will eventually cook. I have also noticed that the lettuce does not seem to pick up the nasty bag taste so I use them for my lettuce as well. It seems to only be bad with the fruits.

My 4 year old has been getting the education on the difference between the male and female anatomy ever since her brother was born. It is funny because it took her a few months before I got the question “what is that on Brahnan Mom?”
My husband and I talked about this before the baby was born because we knew he was a boy and that we would have many toddler questions. However, my husband and I husband do not see eye to eye on how to answer these questions. Some aspects we agree on but not all of them.

My husband asked me what we should tell Rae what the male anatomy is called, I said “uh penis, what else?” He said “I am not comfortable with that can we call it something else?” I said, “NO.”

Why are people so embarrassed to call it what it is? Why should we wait and let other people’s children and the school system educate our children when it comes to everyday life. Even though my husband said he did not agree with it I did tell my daughter that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina. This reminds me of the 80’s movie kindergarten cop and it makes me chuckle every time she says it.

I know that this is an ongoing challenge for parents but I really do believe that as parents it is our turn first to educate and the schools and friends should definitely come 2nd or even 3rd or 4th. By the time our kids our old enough to attend school they have already been mis-educated and it is a nightmare to try and undo the mis-education they have received.

We should not be nervous or embarrassed to teach our kids. It has been shown time and time again that those kids that are more educated at home have fewer problems with teen pregnancy, STD’s etc and etc. I am not going to be embarrassed to answer my kid’s question. This only makes children stop asking their parents questions because they know they won’t get an answer or it is hard because the adult gets embarrassed and they rely on their friends. I don’t want them relying on other kids their age.