Happy Halloween and the Crud!

I haven't posted much and to be completely honest haven't stayed on task this week.

Last Saturday we had a church Luau. It was a lot of fun with great food and wonderful entertainment. Come Sunday night I had a child throwing up, at midnight two more began to vomit. I was up until 4:30 a.m. caring for three vomiting kids.

When the day started to progress on Monday I found out over 38 families had been hit by the same thing. Many thought food poisoning from the Luau but new outbreaks let us know it was just a bad bug, someone came sick, that got to many. I've been spending my week caring for kids. A fourth came down with pneumonia. One of my vomiting girls threw up more than 50 times. With nothing in her tummy she started vomiting up a little blood. She missed the whole week of school, not good when it's your senior year. To top it all off I got sick last night.

This Halloween day wasn't what we planned but so far it's been a success. Daddy took the three youngest out while the older four were at parties at their friends' houses.

I'm giving myself one more day to sleep, recuperate and then Monday I'll be hitting my plan again!

Checking In

All right, it's almost 11:00 p.m. but I want to check in before heading to bed! I really want to stay accountable and I LOVE the support I get from reading others blog so it's keeping me motivated to maintain one for myself.

It's been a crazy day. Even though the fever seems to be gone at our home it's left my kids CRANKY! My one-year-old wanted to constantly be held. My routine ended up being cleaning for 7-10 minutes (if I was lucky) and then sit and cuddle for awhile. I DO love a cuddle from my little ones (hey, even my big kids!!!, and I mean BIG. My 15 year old is 6 foot 6. Love it when they come cozzy up with me on the couch.)

I just have so much on my plate a lot of times I don't stop to enjoy things. Today my mom and her husband came to town. I wanted to get my home cleaned up before they arrived but it didn't happen. I think they'll love me anyway. My mom lives two hours away and in January will be leaving to live in Johannesburg, South Africa to do missionary work for our church. She's trying to catch up on all the grandkid stuff she can before she leaves. Today was a football game (we won) and my oldest's orchestra concert (she plays the viola). Tomorrow is another football game, free day on Friday, Pumpkin patch on Saturday, a niece's baptism on Sunday and then my daughter's last cross country meet on Monday. My mom has 15 grandkids in town so she'll be spread thin trying to get in all the activities but we're glad they made the time to come!!!

Okay, so I'm trying to get really committed to this. I've gone back and forth not really knowing which way I want to go about losing the weight. In 2005 I lost 70 lbs in 3.5 months on a high protein low carb diet. It came off and it came off fast but it obviously didn't stay off. I want a little bit more freedom to eat whatever I want but at the same time don't want too much freedom. There are some things that one little taste will throw me off the deep end. Chocolate is one!!! I'm going to count calories fluctuating between 1500 and 1750, to keep my body guessing. As the weight comes off I'll lower the numbers a bit.

The big key for me is keeping a journal of everything I eat. I went and bought a cute one today but I might start another blog that keeps track of my eating. I made a yummy recipe, first time to try it. I even took the time to sit down and figure out the calorie content for the whole meal and then divided it by 12 servings. Each serving came out to be 350 calories. Not bad with a huge side of green salad. As the nights get colder one of my weaknesses is to enjoy a cup of HOT chocolate once my kiddos go to bed and I have a chance to unwind. I usually have a large mug but tonight I made do with a regular one serving size and it was just fine. I might change my cocoa to the diet kind to give me more wiggle room in the calorie counting.

I sat down to tally my calories for the day and I came up with 1560! Not bad!!! I was worried about making a normal casserole for my family and me eating some and having the hot cocoa but it all worked out. It's a good thing I didn't cave and have seconds on the yummy dinner!! I almost did but...NO SECONDS.

I did have a failure today, no exercise. I really have to make the time to do it first thing in the morning. My day, afternoon, and evenings get so CRAZY that if I don't get it done first thing it's not going to get done. This is a huge deal because I know the weight will NOT come off unless I get this body moving.

So some of my goals:
Exercise a minimum of 30min six days a week (I'll add strength training soon)
Drink 8 glasses of water. I usually do five.
Log every bite taken and stick to between 1500 and 1750 calories a day.

I'm heading off to bed. 5:30 comes way too early. Good night!

First Week Complete

I made it, I got through my first week of changing the way I eat and take care of my body. There were ups and downs, I wasn't perfect in my plan but I kept plugging away. I weighed 317.4 which gives me a loss of 4.2 lbs!!! I'll take it. My goal now is to NOT see those same four pounds again.

Tomorrow will be the first day in 2.5 weeks that I'll have all of my school-aged kids at school. I'm looking forward to it!!! Taking care of sick kids can be very taxing and definitely threw me off of my game plan once or twice.

Yesterday, with three kids sick, I knew it was going to be a crazy day and if I didn't get my exercise in first thing that it wouldn't get done. At 8:45 when my healthy 4th grader was heading off to school I decided to leave my sick five-year-old with his sick 13 and 15 year old brothers and go for a walk. I loaded my 21-month-old into her stroller, walked to the school giving my 9-year-old a kiss good-bye and off we went. We did a nice 1.5 mile walk. We walked past a fun park and my little one let out screeches wanting to play. I told her no, today we're out to walk. On the way home we had to pass by the same way. Again I heard screams of delight coming from the stroller as the slides came in view. I started saying No, we need to get home but then stopped myself. I'm trying to change my bad habits, live healthier and teach that to my kids. We pulled off the trail and hit the play-structure. We had a blast!

My first week I walked 1.25 miles each day since that's what my 11-year-old runs for her cross country meets. Well, this week I'm upping it to 1.5. I think I'll add a little bit each week until I get up to a 5k then I can work on cutting down my time.

One of my favorite shows on TV is The Biggest Loser. I always record it while I'm helping kids with homework and getting little ones to bed then when things calm down I'm able to sit down with a cup of Diet Hot Cocoa and enjoy their struggles and successes and gain inspiration. Today had been a very tiring day and I was so looking forward to the show. I forgot to set the record button but quickly got it going 15 minutes into the show. Finally at 9:40 I was able to stop what I was doing and enjoy my ME-time! I grabbed my hot cocoa, sat in the recliner, put it in the recline position, grabbed the remote control, turned on my dvr and clicked on The Biggest Loser. Ahhhh, this is the life, I thought, as I felt myself relax releasing the stress of the day. The stress quickly resurfaced when not Biggest Loser came on but the Baseball game. WHAT?!?!?! Somehow the game got recorded even though it showed the title Biggest Loser and it was NBC. ARGHHH. I needed some inspiration for the contestants. I'll have to look forward to watching it later this week on reruns.

Well, it's late now, I need to get to bed so I'll be able to get my kids up early for school. It's been a great week, I've met some great new friends and HUGE examples out in the blogging world. 4.2 lbs and counting...WooHoo!

Today was a wonderful Sunday but as the day progressed I've felt myself bracing for a difficult week.

My one year old has a 103 fever, it's now 10:30 at night and she's still up crying.

My five year old who had his tonsils and adenoids removed two weeks ago (he's missed school for that long as well) came down today with a 104.5 fever. He's very disappointed because he was looking forward to finally going back to school tomorrow.

My just turned 15 year old might have pneumonia, we'll find out tomorrow when we go to the doctor.

My 13 year old came down with the stomach flu tonight, he's not able to keep anything down.

It seems like this is what happens, anytime I try to get started something gets thrown in my way to slow me down. I AM staying committed. It will make it tougher to get my exercise in as I care for all the sickies but NOT impossible. I am telling myself there will ALWAYS be something to use as an excuse but that's why I am where I am, I've used all the excuses...No longer!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hands washed hoping we can keep these germs from spreading to the rest of the family. I don't even want to think how long our home could be sick with 9 family members and two different germs going around.

Determined but shaky!

I'm still plugging away. My older kids didn't have school yesterday so my cross country runner and I went to the high school track, along with my one-year-old, and exercised. While she got her running in I was able to walk my goal of 1.25 miles. She finished sooner than me and took her little sister out of the jogging stroller and watched her while I finished. It was fun to watch them "run" the track together.

Today is my 2nd child's 15th b-day. He had some friends spend the night so it was a crazy night at our house. This morning my daughter followed through with our commitment to go walk again. This time we did it in our neighborhood. We did 1.5 miles today, it felt great, but tiring!!!

I'm committed to my workouts, it's something I can do, check off my list and go on with my day. The eating portion is a different story! I'm a stress-eater!!! Almost any fluctuation in emotion can set me off on a craving. The hardest part is I constantly have to focus on it, be aware of it, monitor it and then try to talk myself down when it seems I can't resist the HIGH CARB, Sugary foods calling my name.

When I've had success with weight loss it's like a switch went on that kept me focused on the goal and nothing could get in my way. The switch hasn't gone on yet, it's something I'm trying to force because I know it's needed for my health and well-being. There may be, I take that back, there WILL be slip ups along the way but I'm hoping the more I fake the right moves the more they'll become a natural part of my routine and lifestyle.

The Little Child Shall Lead You!

So my last post was made about a month ago. I'm still watching Biggest Loser, still inspired and motivated but obviously NOT enough to do anything about it.

I know a change needs to be made, known it for years. I've tried off and on, mostly off, to do something about making a change. EVERY time I've tried I've seen results, my problem is sticking with it. Most attempts have been one day, some a week or a month. The longest was 3.5 months in 2005 when I lost 70lbs. I was looking so good then life got in the way and I never got back on track.

Here I am back again, making the effort to begin again. It would be so easy to just sit back and continue living as I am but the result of that would be a lot of pain, fear of dying, not being actively involved with my family and the ultimate...DEATH, an early one.

Am I 100% committed to doing this? NO! But I know I have to take the first step and hope by doing so I'll find more enthusiasm as the numbers I see on the go down and gain more energy. I need to say the kick in the rear I received this time came from my 11-year-old daughter, although she didn't realize she was doing it.

My wonderful 6th grader is amazing, gorgeous, fun and, yes, overweight. She hasn't always been but because of the bad example of her parents she hasn't truly learned the right way of eating. When she started middle school in September she came home talking about her P.E. class and how they had to run/walk a mile, improving their time each day. Then she started coming home talking about Cross Country. I could tell the way she talked that it was something she was contemplating. A week and a half into the season she said she really wished she had signed up for Cross Country. I was shocked, surprised, and impressed!!! There's no way I would ever have considered doing cross country as a youth...or NOW. I got on the phone, called the school and asked if it was too late. They said that their first meet was in two days so the coaches would have to make that decision. My daughter was thrilled to get called down to the office to be told that YES she could join the team.

I missed her first meet due to my five-year-old having surgery but her second one was this Monday. She headed to the park where the meet was being held with her school and I drove over there to meet her. Not knowing exactly where the actual meet was being held in the extensive park I decided to park my car and just walk until I found it. I ran into parents from another school who were also trying to track down the kids so we walked together. The whole time I was walking I was embarrassed about my weight, my size and more importantly the difficulty I was having walking with complete strangers and starting to breath heavily.

We finally found the kids and I was able to walk around slowly, cooling down, catching my breath after what felt like my own personal 5K race.

I don't know if you've noticed but most people who gravitate to running are skinnie-minnies!!! As I saw the kids line up I was nervous for my daughter. She definitely doesn't look like a runner. We've been talking about how she's not going to win the races this first year but that she can race against herself and improve her times each week. They blew the gun, the runners were off and the spectators cheered.

Since it's cross country those watching weren't able to see the whole race. At one point the kids disappeared and all the parents lined up where they would be coming out to cheer them on. Soon the leaders were seen trickling in, then a larger pack of kids. My nerves were picking up as more kids came running by but none of them were my daughter. Then I could spot her, rounding the corner. She had the HUGEST smile on her face and was trucking along. The feeling of pride I felt was indescribable. Then she passed me and turned a corner, once again to run a section of the race unseen. I hurried over to the finish line where most of the other parents were already stationed yelling for the runners as they crossed the end. Once again there was a long wait until my sweet girl came running out of the trees. She was tired, her face was red and there was sweat dripping off of her but she was still plugging away. By the time she crossed the finish line, not in last place (WooHoo), most of the cheering crowd had already headed off with their runners so there were few to welcome her at the end but the impact of watching her cross that finished line made a huge impact.

I had an ahh-ha moment, a moment of really taking in what my daughter had accomplished! She was breaking the mold. She was reaching out and doing something that would and can change her lifestyle for a healthier one. The thought crossed my mind, as I watched her, I can support her and follow her lead and help insure that she takes better care of her body than I have or I can continue to sit on my rear, eating junk, not being active and I can bet sooner or later she'd give up and do the same thing. Right then I knew what I had to do.

As we made the long walk back to the car, with my arm around her shoulders, I let her know how proud of her I was. Then I teared up and told her she was my hero, my example and if she could push herself out of her comfort zone and do what she was doing I could too.

So today was my first day of acting on that commitment I got on my treadmill and walked the 2000 meters that my daughter runs for her meets. I was slow, took me a full 30 minutes, but I DID it and I WILL do it everyday. Thanks to a wonderful 11-year-old who broke out of her comfort zone and pushed herself.

Biggest Loser 2nd Chances...and 3rd...and 4th...ETC...

I just finished watching the season opener of Season 8 Biggest Loser. WOW!!! It grabbed me, pulled me in and hasn't let go yet. I was crying, evaluating, discouraged and motivated! They're naming the season 2nd Chances. I've had that many and more. How many more are waiting for me before I'll be like Tracy? I really hope she does come back but at some point there are NOT any more chances. When will I have my last chance?

I've been missing in action. I'd just like to give a HUGE thanks to those who have still reached out. I know to receive support I too need to give it.

The title of my blog is Overhauling-Me! Besides getting in shape there are many other areas in my life that need to be overhauled. Organization, finances, marriage, kids, health issues, etc... For several months I haven't been working on my weight but I have been working on many of the other areas. It's been a long haul,I feel I've made improvements but there is still a long way to go in every category and it is so exhausting. I need to learn to take things a little at a time to keep from burning out so that I can keep making the changes no matter how slowly.

Focusing on a healthy me needs to be a priority. How am I going to get going? I'm not sure. I haven't made a game plan. There is always the basic one...eat less, move more. Those four simple words is really the key to losing weight, getting healthy and keeping it off.

I'm thankful for this opportunity to have yet again another wake up call and another chance.