Post Baby Weigh In Week 1: A Huge First Step!

I have AMAZING news! 

Tonight I stepped onto that scale at my weight loss competition and I lost SIX pounds. 

This was my exact reaction:

"Um. That has to be wrong. Yup, I'm sure that's wrong"

My Coach: "Nope, it's not wrong...you lost 6.2lbs!"

I am honestly in utter amazement. What a great feeling to start off my new journey!

Now, I know a lot of it may be "water weight" or whatever...but I am going to celebrate it like it's six pounds of pure fat! I'm so over the top excited!!

So that's it for my first weigh in on this journey. I am SO PUMPED!

I don't care.

The title of this probably makes me sound like I am some crazy insensitive person. And after I write this you make think I am....but...I don't really care :)

Being a mom has taught me so much. People like to give their opinions on everything from sleeping to eating to pooping. And while some of this advice is friendly and loving and caring, some of it is simply not. You learn pretty quickly as a mom that you have one of two options:

1. You allow others thoughts or feelings about you affect you and get you down 

-or-

2. You simply don't care.

Not caring includes ignoring, letting the words "roll of your shoulder" or just simply stating politely "Thanks, but I think for MY family we have found that some other options work best!"

This attitude can be applied to so many things in our lives. A nasty coworker that is intent on bringing you down, a grumpy grocery store clerk that is angry at your coupon usage, a nasty family member who tends to live on the negative side of life. 

Now I am not saying that I am anyway near not caring about what people think of me...but I AM saying that it's a new goal of mine :)

Guess what? At the end of the day it's YOUR life and theres only one person that has to live with your decisions: you. So why don't you start today at taking steps to make YOU happy and not care what anyone else thinks? I know I am!

Looking Forward

Tomorrow is my first weigh in through this weight loss competition. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. A lot of me wants to think don't expect much, but then again I don't want to get myself down or discouraged. I had a fairly rough week this week but I do have to reward myself and say it's been the best week of eating in the last 5 months. And that's what counts right? There's no way I'm going to go from all or nothing. I'm learning how to adapt to a whole new post-pregnancy, nursing mother, out of shape body. 

Right now I'm not counting calories and just focusing on eating nutritious, which I think is a great, long term route to go. I will always allow myself a treat or two once in a while because in the past if I ever tried not to I just ended up bingeing. 

I remember one of the key aspects to my past weight lost journey was remembering to never give up. Even if I had days, or weeks where I consumed massive amounts of unhealthy calories, I put it behind me and looked forward and asked myself: how can I make the next eating decision a healthy one- from this moment on?

My pledge:

I will not start to tomorrow, or next week. I will start now. I will not give it up and say the day or week is ruined. I will make the choice to make my next decision a healthy one, no matter what!

It's all about the money

I would love to say I'm not a person that could be pulled into anything and completely motivated by a chunk of change, but if I said that I'd simply be lying. Being a stay at home mom means living on one income- which means spending cash is few and far between. So when I heard about a local weight loss competition in my area that promoted a cash prize for the biggest loser, I knew I had to be a part of it. 

I actually heard about this competition a little over a year ago when I had already lost the 35lbs and was working my way down. At that point I thought it would be fun, but I also knew that I was close to my goal weight already and I didn't probably have enough to lose to make it worth my while. 

So maybe I can think of it as a positive thing that now I have weight to lose? haha. It is definitely serving as the motivation I need in order to get my butt in gear!

The cool thing about this competition is that it's actually a nutrition "class." It lasts 12 weeks and each week we learn something new about healthy eating. This week's topic was protein! I will never say no to an opportunity to learn something new, especially when it has to do with a subject so close to my heart (or belly) :)

The best thing I think is that the competition and class only cost $35! That seems like a steal to me since I am an ex- Weight Watcher that was easily throwing $40 bucks a month away and eating mine and my friends share of points! (I think WW is awesome and a totally amazing program, just not for me)

I weighed in last Wednesday night, got my measurements, and "before" pictures taken. I am so pumped about this new 12 week journey! 

Is anybody out there?!

Hello to whoever happens to still subscribe to this blog. I wrote a while back that I would be taking a break from the losing weight game to focus on growing a human inside me. Well guess what? That human finally appeared...on my birthday! March 17th, 2011, my baby boy Haden Carter was born into this world:

What an amazing feeling becoming a mom is! My kiddo is now 5 months old:

How cute is that?!

:) it's been an amazing 5 months and although I would have loved to keep up with the blogging thing throughout and capture all these amazing moments...I had a newborn...so yeah! I'm sure all you other parents can sympathize. 

The one not so lovely thing that has appeared in my life is the awesome pregnancy weight that decided to stick around! Thanks to a lovely 9 months of "indulging" myself (all for the little guy of course) I am now up a good 20lbs from where I started from last summer. But that's ok! Because guess what? I lost 35lbs before I got pregnant, and by golly, I CAN DO IT AGAIN!

So welcome, or welcome back, to my journey as I hope to lose the "baby" weight and get back on track to my lost but not forgotten healthy life!

(if you are reading shout hello! I'd love to hear from you!)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Thanksgiving?

:) Just kidding.

Christmas! It's almost Christmas people!!!

The first year Kellen and I got married I made SURE to send Christmas cards. I accidentally was a big slacker on my thank yous for my wedding and was feeling slightly guilty when it came to December....whoops!

Not only that, but who doesn't LOVE receiving Christmas snail mail! Opening your mailbox to find a hand written card is probably one of the best joys in life (in my opinion!).

Shutterfly has some great options for Christmas cards. I actually LOVE the shutterfly site and have ordered several books for Kellen and I, and last year I pretty much did all my Christmas presents through this site.

This year Shutterfly has some beautiful selections for Christmas card products. One thing I love is the ability to use lots of fun photos on ONE card, like these:


So adorable!

Last year for Christmas I made Kellen's family a calender collage with pictures of all his brother and sisters (he has a lot!). His parents absolutely loved it! Shutterfly's picture wall calenders are a great place to display all of those pictures you maybe didn't know what to do with!


I am secretly already checking out Shutterfly's kid's birthday party invitations- they are just too cute to resist. I know Haden isn't even born yet....but how can I resist browsing at invitations that look like this!


So there you have it on my personal review of Shutterfly. I am a big fan....and you can be too! :)

*Please Note that I am receiving 50 free photo cards for this post, but all opinions are mine*

Inside My Head

So I had this random idea the other day that I would write down thoughts that came inside my head to share with you all on my blog. No requirements whatsoever. Some of them are really strange and random, some questions, some opinions, some negative, some happy. It's actually been quite fun and I think I might make it a regular addition to my  blog. So here we go with random thoughts from Nicole...round 1!

1. Why is eating out with a group of women always so awkward? 

So maybe these women look like they are having a blast. And realistically it usually is fun getting together with a bunch of girlfriends and having a nice meal. But I definitely think there are really awkward elements too. First of all, why is it that whenever the waiter brings the bread basket, it's always extremely awkward to see who takes the first piece? I could be totally and completely starving and wanting bread, but it always seems like once it is delivered it is customary to torture yourself for a good 5 minutes before indulging. Apparently this conveys a sense of healthiness and self control? Secondly, why do women mostly order salads when they are out with other women? It's like, if they are with their spouse or something, they of course get the hamburger and fries- but since they are with other women again- you must seem in "control" of your eating? Thirdly, does anyone else tend to watch how much the other person is eating? You certainly don't want to clean your plate if the other person in only going to eat half. 

Ok, so maybe these are just things I think about in my OWN head- but still- the patterns to which I see these things happen when women eat together astonish me! For once I want to see a large group of women dive into the free bread basket, order their weight in spaghetti or french fries, clean their plates, and finish off with dessert. OK, I know I am the ultimate bad healthy food blogger for condoning this behavior...but it's the freedom of self conscious thoughts I am aiming at here, people!

2. Why are on the label recipes always best? 

Again, maybe this is only my experience. But honestly, it seems like EVERY time I use a label recipe it works out perfectly. Not to mention it is so, so simple. Why is it so hard to find simple recipes online and in recipe books? Sometimes I just want PLAIN OL' chocolate chip cookies- not something fancy shmancy! 

3. Why do old people like to talk about their symptoms?

Have you ever had an experience where you are out in public, sitting near an old couple, and they are discussing their bodily functions or current health symptoms? Well, I have. And I find it rather amusing because, well, most of the time they are kind of gross, and they talk rather loudly (as to hear the other person). Most of the time it is a wife yelling loudly to a husband that doesn't say much. I start to wonder what he is thinking- is he embarrassed that his wife is discussing this topic and such a loud noise level in public? My guess is probably not. By that age, I don't think people really get embarrassed much. Or maybe he is just can't really hear her at all and he's imagining what she's saying? Either way, it really makes me giggle. 

4. Wearing leggings does not give you an excuse to wear an unusually short skirt/dress. 

While I DO appreciate the fact that you are wearing leggings underneath your skirt in general, (seriously, thank you!), I still hate to inform you that it's really just not that appropriate to think that leggings equals an excuse to wear a mini that shows off your tush. I personally don't really want to see something that is so skin tight I can see the shape of your bottom, unless perhaps it is a bathing suit. So please, choose an appropriate length for your skirts and dresses, even if you do decided to cover up with leggings. Thank you.

5. I really like coming home to a clean house after a trip somewhere. (No this is not my house, but it's adorable!) I bet I couldn't find many of you that would disagree with me on this one. Coming home to a clean home just feels so...welcoming. Unfortunately, this means that on top of packing and other "trip" preparations, you must also bust your butt cleaning it before you go. But oh, it's so worth it when you finally return!

Well, that's it for now of the first round of getting inside my head. Stay tuned for more next week (or whenever I gather enough random thoughts!).