Changes All Around!!

So I am so sorry that I haven't posted in a while, well a while doesn't really sum up the 6 weeks of neglect.  But, with the balance of mommyhood, sometimes things fall behind, and unfortunately this blog did just that.  On a positive note, it has been a very busy but successful last 6 weeks.

First I would like to talk a little bit about my accomplishments.  I have registered for 3 triathlons!!! My first one is on July 18th and I am super excited.  Needless to say, I have finally grabbed hold of my life and made it a priority for me find time to workout for myself.  It has been easier than I thought and its definitely great that James enjoys going for runs and Matt and James will bike with me!  Even more I have found some great friends at work who are a. joining me in the last tri and b. pushing me to work out!  On top of all of this success I am happy to report I have officially lost 25 pounds.  Its so exciting for me, as my weight has always been a struggle, and now I have made some head way -- I still have more to go, but its a start!

On another note, we have made a lot of changes with James.  First we found out that he is suffering from 5ths disease which is leading to contact dermatitis.  Therefore, we have now switch to Tide Free detergent and we are still laughing that our detergent was the last "natural" switch that we have made.  Maybe the smell of the blue Tide makes me nostalgic, but all in all we have seen a remarkable recovery with a simple switch in laundry detergent and of course, the prescription hydrocortozone.

The other big change we have made is that we have switched to cloth diapers!!!  We are using Happy Heiny's and the Diaper Lab in Somerville has been a huge help!  We are off there this weekend because of James' sensitive skin we have to get totally enzyme free detergent (I never realized that even the organic all natural detergents that are main stream still have enzymes).  Anyways, we love the Happy Heiny's and James loves them too.  They are pocket diapers so you have to stuff them, but this means that you can add extra absorbancy for the night time or decrease the absorbance for light wetting times.  They are super easy to clean -- just throw them in the laundry, and so affordable!  We are so happy with the change!

Accomplishments!

So I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, and for that I am sorry.  But the last couple of weeks have been great.  First, I have been working hard at loosing weight and I can officially say that I am now down 10 pounds.  So I still have some ways to go, but I am truly excited to be loosing weight once again.

The past couple of weeks have also been great with James.  As I blogged earlier, we were working on getting James to keep his binki in the crib.  It was really rough and we seemingly gave up on the whole idea, but almost like a light switch James suddenly took to the idea.  Now, every morning he leaves his binki in his crib and he gets it when he is put down.  It's such a nice change and relief for us. 

It's just makes us so happy when goals can actually be accomplished.  Its such a struggle at this age, we feel like there are weeks or even months that all you do is take steps backwards, so when you finally make a significant step forward it feels like a huge accomplishment!!!

Goals Moving forward:
1. Continue weight loss through diet and exercise
2. Continue to encourage James to use his words and aid him through his transition into the toddler classroom at daycare -- hopefully this goes smoothly over the next week!  We will keep you posted! 

Obesity Epidemic

I have had a couple of rough weeks, and so I never posted last week.  I do have some good news though; I have lost a total of 6 pounds since I re-dedicated myself to losing this excess weight.  That is something I am really proud of, and last week I also ran 4 miles in 36:07 minutes.  My best yet and pretty much a 9 minute mile.  I hope to continue working on getting my time down.

I do want to explore an issue that has been bothering me for a long time, and I am so ecstatic that CBS and ABC had the guts to expose it on prime-time.  ABC did it through Jamie Oliver on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and CBS did it by airing Food Inc. Both of these programs expose the growing epidemic of obesity in this country.  It’s not only that we are more unhealthy today than ever before, but even our own government is setting up guidelines and instituting regulations that are actually enabling obesity.  Here are some important facts to consider the next time you go to the grocery store or allow your child to eat a school provided lunch:

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup “HFCS”:  This is a bi-product of corn that came out of World War II.  Our government, in response to the Great Depression, started a program to support our farmers by buying corn.  We therefore, had such a large surplus of corn that our government went to food producers and offered to supply them with corn and all of its bi-products at a very minimal cost.  Thus, our food manufactures moved away from using sugar in their products to HFCS.  Did you know that HFCS can cause an unresponsive insulin spike which over time can lead to fat storage and even diabetes?
2. Flavored Milk: I had no idea that chocolate milk has more sugar per serving than a can of soda.  Thanks to Jamie Oliver who pointed out that we can’t teach our children to eat the right balance of fruits, vegetables and diary if it’s always covered in sugar.
3. School lunches:  Why does our government consider French fries a vegetable?  In my family potatoes always were considered a starch and never a vegetable.  Why are we teaching our children that fried foods are vegetables?  Why is the very institution that should be teaching our children in fact encouraging them to be obese by feeding them nothing but processed foods?  We should be appalled that our schools primarily feed our kids pizza, chicken nuggets, and other non-nutritious foods.
4. Chicken nuggets: I have always known that chicken nuggets weren’t the best thing for you, but until I watched how they were actually made: ground up bone, skin and chemicals; breaded and then fried in oil, could I truly understand that there is absolutely no nutritional value.
5. Chicken breast:  When we see the huge chicken breasts in the grocery store we should think, wow, what did they do to get it that big?  The answer – hormones.  Ever wonder why our daughters are going through puberty on average 2 years earlier than ever before?  It’s because our cows which produce milk, our chicken, our meat is all pumped up with hormones.  Furthermore, non-organic chicken is pumped full of dye in order for it to appeal to the American public, because after all of the altering of the meat by the hormones they need it to actually look like chicken.
6. Juice – most of it is just sugar and water, even most that say 100% juice.  Even if the label says only “apples and water” know that most of the nutritional value has been pasteurized out as all of our foods are required to be pasteurized.  Encourage your child to eat the fruit and to drink water; they will get more vitamins and fiber from the fruit and learn that water is really the best liquid to drink.
7. Brand named processed foods: Do you know that companies like Kellogg, Nestle, Kraft, etc. all have research departments that are trying to invent new processed foods that will appeal to the American public, and will sell.  Furthermore, they pump these foods full of sodium, fat and sugar in order to make sure who ever buys the product becomes addicted.

This is only a sample of how we are being duped into being obese and how we are letting the manufactures and government lead our children into obesity.  It’s a staggering fact that the children today have a shorter life expectancy than us as parents due solely to the increased factor of obesity.

Now, how do we make a change?  First, we take ownership of what we bring into our homes.  I am not saying we all have to grow our own gardens or only shop for organic produce, but we should shop at local farmers market, buy frozen vegetables over canned, buy local if possible, and most importantly read the ingredients.  I think we should continue Jamie’s food revolution and stand up and say enough is enough.  We should return to going to the butcher for fresh meat that hasn’t been pumped full of hormones, we should go to the local bakery for fresh bread that isn’t pumped full of stabilizers and we should take ownership of our health and our children’s health.

One of my goals as a mom has been to teach James how to eat.  We laugh that he eats sauteed mushrooms with quinoa, tomatoes, broccoli, zucchini and even spinach, but we have also done the work to get him to eat these vegetables.  We put it in front of him everyday regardless if he eats it, because one day he will decide why not, and believe me it works.  Desert in our house is fruit.  Fruit is always used as a snack along with “fishies” (Gold Fish).  But we are extremely happy with the way we are shaping our little child’s eating habits, and hopefully we will continue (hopefully our government will also jump onto the wagon and get in the program) to teach James to eat fresh and healthy so that he can have just as long of a life as us.

My goals for the rest of the week:

1. Continue running.  I hope to get in a couple of solid runs this week and to continue my weight loss.
2. Try a new recipe.  There are a lot of studies out there that say if you continuously try new recipes you will be a healthier eater.  Matt and I used to do this all of the time, but with the addition to our family we have become “lazy” in this category. 
3. Continue tracking on WW and hopefully to loose at least a couple more pounds.

Mommy's Goals Only

So last week I tried my best to meet my 10 mile run goal, but unfortunately life got in the way.  I wasn't able to get to the gym on Thursday or Friday of last week due to work so it was up to running on Saturday and Sunday.  I ran 2 miles on Saturday then that afternoon, we walked about 4 miles. So in total I ran 8 miles and walked over 6 miles this week.  I was shy of my goal to run 10 miles but I was proud of all the exercise I did get, including spending all Sunday morning lifting boxes and cleaning out our entire storage area.  Let me tell you I haven't been that sore in a long time.

As for this week, I have so new goals.  1. To track every day on weightwatchers.com  2. To run 11 miles 3. To complete the 5K I signed up for on Saturday.  I hope that this week I am more successful in completing my goals.  So far, I am off to a great start.  Today I ran 4 miles in 37:50 -- not so bad :).

Mommy's Goals and Consumerism at its worst

Okay, so in terms of meeting my goal of 10 miles and 1 weight session, I have so far run 6 miles with no weight session.  I hope to be able to get my weight session in tomorrow and complete the last four miles on Friday and Saturday.  I can definately say that running 3.5 miles in under 35 minutes today was painful -- wow taking 4 weeks off certainly does effect you!

On a mommy note, I recently ran across a very thought provoking book, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.  The title of this book alone gave me chills down my back.  This book really brings out how we in society are being targeted from every direction to be consumers; so much so, that our children no longer are expected to use their imagination to entertain themselves.  Now, there is a toy for every single age, every type of play, every type of situation.  Are we taking the fun and development out of childhood by supplying our children with all of these material goods, tv, video games, etc?  My answer is yes (anyone else have an opinion?)

We have definately fallen into the consumer trap, this idea that you need to give, give, give to your child. Before James was even born we had a house full of gear that we were told we HAD to have, and now I can tell you we dont use half of it. 

I hope that we can get out of this need to get James everything, maybe that just comes with the territory when its your first, but I know Matt and I have recognized this and we are trying to get better.  That said, what I do know is that we do love to encourage James to be creative, to be outside, to love and laugh, and hopefully, we can instill these qualities in him versus instilling in him how to be a good consumer...I guess time will only tell.

Me, myself, and I

Well, over the past couple of weeks I have been dealing with a lot of "James" issues, whether its because he is sick or trying to get him to change a behavior and because of this I have found that "my" issues have really fallen to the wayside.  Not that this is surprising to me at all, I mean after all once you have a child, they do come first in your life in so many ways.

However, I do believe that my biggest struggle in mommyhood is really allowing myself to have what I call me time.  Therefore, I have decided that each week I am going to set-up a "me" goal.  Some weeks I might fail sometimes I might succeed but after 18 months I really need to learn to not to lose myself, my identity.

So, this week, my goal is to run at least 10 miles total and to get in at least one weight session.  After taking nearly 4 weeks off, I want to get back on the horse and re-lose the 5 pounds that I lost in February.  I am taking back control of this!

So, I am on my way.  I ran 2.5 miles today in 23.5 minutes, and I walked for 27 minutes at 4.0.  I hope to keep this going this week and surpass my goal; and, hopefully the weather stays nice and we can all go for a run as a family.  James loves going in the running stroller and I hope that this weekend we can really get back into our habit of going for runs outside.  We did go last Saturday and he was so happy, talking, and laughing the whole run.

On a James note, we have successfully cut milk out of the crib!!!  James now take some milk at 7pm, then brushes his teeth, then books and finally bed!  Last night, even after two days away, he went to bed without a peep!  We love it when he does that!  Some may not like that we are so routine oriented and not understand it, but it makes us so happy when our child willingly and happily goes to bed!!

Big Boy Night Night Routines

Last Friday James had his 18mth doctors appointment.  It went fairly well.  James is growing, he is 33 inches tall (70%) and weighs a whopping (sense my sarcasism) 24.10 lbs (30%)!!!  At this point, the doctor is not concerned with his weight as he is gaining, so we are happy with our tall peanut.  Luckily, companies such as Gap have prepared for these growing discrepencies and have nicely placed adjustable waist bands inside their clothes -- a godsend for us since James is in 2T's for lenght but could be confortably in 12-18mth for his waist.  James is not showing signs of Autism and is finally talking up a storm.

The only "thing to do" that came out of the doctor's appointment was what I had been fearing...No, it was not fully giving up the binki, in fact, our doctor told us that he doesn't care what or even how much James uses one until he turns two.  (We are still trying to limit his use to night time, but we are not as super obsessed as we were trying to be).  The thing to do was to stop letting James take milk to bed.

James has been taking a sippy cup to bed, and it has worked well for us, but the doctor said no more -- its bad for his teeth and it can lead to an increase in ear infections.  Therefore, we officially stopped giving him milk at bedtime.  We started on Saturday night -- we give him a cup of milk at 7pm, then we brush our teeth at 7:20pm then off to the bedroom to read 3 books (always ending with Goodnight Moon where we pretend to eat the bowl of mush and we tell the whole room hush).  James took his binki out to give me a night night kiss and then confusingly allowed me to carry him to his crib.  He cried a little and even threw out the water sippy cup we had put in there -- just in case he still needed the security of the cup.  James cried for maybe 2 minutes and then he was out.  Even better,  he slept better that night than he has been.  We have now been doing this for 5 nights and its going pretty well.  James still doesn't go to bed without crying, but its getting shorter and shorter and he is sleeping better and better. 

I think that James will fully adapt to this new routine and start to go to bed as easily as he once did with the milk.  It is kind of funny looking back and thinking how much we were dreading this day-- getting the official STOP from the doctor (even though we knew we probably should have stopped about 3 mths ago).  We really didn't think our schedule driven child would adapt so well, but we definitely under-estimated him.  He is doing great!

Changing routines, I believe, can be (and is for us) just as hard on the parents as the kids.  We as parents worry every time we change an aspect that we think our child is attached too -- how is going to effect them, are they going to hate us, are we going to be able to stand our ground.  But at the end of the day, I truly believe that schedules are the best thing for our young children.  Yes, we have veered off scheduled -- which is good because it teaches James to cope, but overall, we stick to a pretty structured routine.  This takes a lot of stress off of James, and a lot of times us.  He knows after lunch we wash our hands and walk to the bed room, say bye to all the people and then he goes down for a nap till 2:30/3pm and he is not taken a back when we say its time for bed.

We have friends that are not schedule oriented and they wait till their kids just drop and fall asleep.  If this works for them and their child that is great -- but how does that child re-act if all the sudden they need to put structure in their life?  I am not really sure, and I can't answer that, but what I can say is that my child asks to go to bed, and does not seem surprised when we tell him its time to eat, sleep or play.  He seems at ease and much happier when we are on-schedule and he knows what the day is going to entail -- for this we are a happy family unit and we are truly happy that James was able to adapt so nicely to the new bedtime routine without milk!!