Family Challenge Day 2

Well day one of swimming was almost a bust.  My hubby works at the local university so Mini and I suited up to hit the pool.  Got over there, swiped my ID (dressed in my suit with mini in her water wings), and cross over to the big closed sign on the pool.  Um, what?!?  No mention of this on the website, nothing on the door, the girl at the desk didn't mention it as we water winged our way into the building.  But alas, there will be no swimming in the dark, empty pool.  not only is it closed, its closed for the next MONTH!  The tears start up as Mini is devastated by this news.  I walk back to Susie Oblivious at the desk and was like, "so, I guess no swimming."  She looks up from her magazine and responds, "oh, us that why she is wearing those.  yeah,. sorry.  Pool is closed.  There is a paper somewhere."  Then she shuffles through the stack of print outs on her counter until she finds something about the pool closure.  Great.  Tears still coming from Mini.

Think!  Ok, so I call the city rec to see if they have open swim now.  Hallelujah they do, so we get back in the car and drive to the city rec.  Once we arrive and walk in, Mini remembers our scout trip here.  The girls learned about healthy eating and fitness and got to do some exercises.  She seems happy to be here and asks why we don't come more.  Well, we don't have memberships anymore.  This answer seems SUPER lame though, especially now with our Family Challenge.  What to do?  Easy, renew!  So I renew the family membership and we are off to the pool.

The water actually feels glorious.  We have opted for the actual rec and not the outdoor pool too so we have the pool pretty much to ourselves.  Mini doesn't really know how to swim (yet) so this is a 2 fold victory.  We get some kick boards and set to it.  Before I now it, we have been floating and paddling around for an hour!  We still have to hit the grocery store though so I pull a very reluctant and unhappy girl out of the water with a promise to return the next day.

Now, I don't know of it was the swimming, the hike she took with dad and dog earlier...or just natural inclination but she loaded our cart with fresh fruit and veggies.  I LOVED it!

Today at work I get a text, "when will you be home?"  Someone wanted the family to swim together.  So i finish up my day and head home and this is what I am greeted with

In her suit ready to go back to the pool.  I have to say here in all honesty, the hubs was already in his suit too.  :)

I hurry upstairs to get my suit on to and we head off.  For day 2 since there were 2 grown ups in the pool, we were ab;e to take turns doing laps while the other played with Mini.  Another fine hour of swimming in for the day, and later this evening we are heading out on a family hike!  Look out world, here we come.

If it were up to Mini, we would be swimming everyday.  And while I do like love the full body, non-impact work outs we get in the pool...I need a little variety in my workouts.  We girls may try and squeeze in a short bike ride before the hike.  We are just on fire.  Hopefully we are going just as strong in 40 more days!

Family Challenge Day 1

My hubby is still in recovery mode from his back surgery.  We had hoped that by the end of the 90 day window from the surgeon he would be back to 100%, that is not quite the case.  When he was in the worst part of his pain, he had lots of numbness from where his disc was pressing on the nerve that ran down his leg into his foot.  He had pain, numbness and at times had to walk with a cane.  For someone with a VERY physical job, this was hard...add in our two very active children and it was near impossible.

So now we are cleared by the doc, he can go back to doing everything he did before the surgery...but he still has this numbness from time to time and residual pain.  It's so hard for me to watch him be in pain and suffer...so what to do?  Well, last night we were sitting in our family room after dinner and he looks at me and says, "Lets see how healthy we can be from now until vacation."  Now, we have had these little challenges before, but there is more at stake this time.  I know he is worried about begin able to walk around Disney for a few days with how he is currently feeling.  With that in mind, there was no need to pause, I knew this would be good.  "Ok, lets do it!"

So here we are on day one...we have 42 days until we leave and I think that maybe by doing SOMEthing everyday it will help build strength back up in his muscles that was lost during his pre-surgical time and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) re-strengthening this will help with his pain. 

This little challenge is a two-fold one for me though.  I have decided to help get myself back in the habit of sitting here with YOU more to blog each day of the challenge as well.  What the what?!?!  Yep, I'm going to do my best to sit down at least for a few minutes everyday and keep you up-to-date on how we are doing as well as keep my self honest and accountable about how we are doing. 

How does that sound?  What I am most excited about with this one is our inclusion of the kiddos too!  It really is a full family challenge, and to me that makes it the best!  So, what do we have planned for day one?  Swimming. 

My big girl had a soccer showcase this past weekend on the other side of the state so we all packed up and headed down.  She stayed with her team in one hotel and Mom, dad and lil sis stayed elsewhere.  Sher is going to be a freshman and we were literally just down the way from her so if she needed anything we were right there...but we tried to give her the freedom of being with the coaches, team and team managers.  We know we have to loosen the strings some now that she is in high school.

Anywho...if you know me then you know that I generally don't swim.  It seems tat whenever we have access to a pool the water is always far colder than I would like, so I just don't do it.  Well...after 4 hours in the car and sitting through 3 hours of games in 90+ degree heat, I was game for he hotel pool.  It was magical.  The water felt perfect.  We got in and swam around for the better part of 45 minutes before getting dressed and going out to dinner (a nice anniversary steak dinner to top of the night for us and some delish looking ribs for Mini Me). 

The next morning Mini wanted to swim again...with how well behaved and patient she has been so far sitting and cheering on her big sis through the heat...how could we say no?!? My first thought too was, "well we were SO hot yesterday that is why the water felt so good, today I'm sire will be no dice."  Much to my surprise the water felt even BETTER the next morning.  So Mini Me hopped in while Dadoo hit the hot tub for a few...then we had a nice family swim, ending with Momma getting a few minutes in the hot tub.  This renewed my faith in swimming a bit.  Top that off with the hubs stating both the first night and next morning how good it felt on his leg to be in the pool and how that relief actually carried out into the day for him.  Swimming is going to be a BIG part of this challenge. 

So here we go, time to "dive in!"

Inching closer to the goal

As we  all trudge forward into another  glorious year, I felt like this picture was a perfect mindset to start off the year.  I wrote a  piece( for The Journey) called Ho-Ho-Hold On that hit on the  New Years Resolution phenomenon..ALL those bodies in the gym...but it was about then that  too...it  was about taking those small steps towards the bigger goal.  What a perfectly named site right, The JOURNEY because that IS what it  is all about.

I decided  this year to try something different.  I've talked about accountability, and that is SO  important,  but what have I really put at stake?  What measurable goals have I shared with you? None.  How do you know how I  am doing other than through these fabulous updates?  You don't. How do I really know?  I don't.  and that isn't fair...to  you, or to  me.  So this year I am laying it all out there.  

It has been a rough few weeks.  This  hip pain has only gotten worse, so  I am FINALLY going to see another doctor  and see what  we can do.  My hubby is having a similar problem, so there has to be something more to it all then just an overworked hip flexor muscle.  I am excited about our appointments because we are meeting with a very accomplished kinesiologist and will both be getting full work ups...nutrition, blood  work, alignment, everything. It has been hard with all this pain to even walk  sometimes, so I am DEFINITELY not at a happy place on the scale...but  even that doesn't matter.  The goal is to  get there.   The goal is to  see what I am doing to my body and correct  the things that aren't working properly.  

All that being said...it's time to look at hard numbers.  I am a vain person.  I have NEVER  posted numbers like this before,  but I think in order to make it sink in for myself...I need to be as honest as possible with myself...and with you, so  here  it  goes.

As of  this morning, Monday 1/15/15:
Weight: 131 (not since I was preggers have I hit this number)
Bust:  34
Waist: 27
Hips: 38
Thighs: 22

How do I set a goal from here?  Inch wise  I have no idea...less is  better I guess, right?!?!  weight wise, I am at the high end of normal for  my height...so I would like to drop at least 10.  Not a huge amount, but they always say the last 10 are the hardest.    I have my work cut out for me.  I will keep you posted, and will update  the numbers once a month.  I will let you know  what the new doc says too...I am excited to see how my inner workings are doing.  I think I will be in for a shock.  The general stuff is good,  that I  know from having them done in November (cholesterol,  BP, etc), this will go  into things like thyroid and liver function, general nutrition, etc.

Back on Track(ing) and a better late then never Friend Making Monday

In honor of my renewed zest to peel off these pounds that keep clinging (mostly to my thighs), I am going back to good old fashioned calorie counting again to help myself.  I logged into myfitnesspal this morning, and I'm not sure...but I think I may have heard it say " Welcome back old friend, I knew you'd come back sooner or later."
It can be really hard sometimes to make sure I track everything I eat...especially when I am home.  The kids (more correctly the Baby Bear) doesn't like it when I have my focus drawn to anything other then her.  I can't really argue that though, she IS adorable. :)

I think that when I take this route, getting back into the swing of tracking and sticking with it is the hardest part.  Which is odd because it's the one thing that has worked without fail for both my hubby and myself.  It makes sense.  Here's hoping friends, here's hoping!

And now, better late then never...

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: http://www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

 

Blogger to Blogger

 

1.  Does your blog have one overwhelming theme?  When I started on this journey I thought I had a specific goal for my blog.  To help me track and maintain new years resolutions from last year.  It quickly grew into so much more though.  I guess now, the only overwhelming theme is ME.  It's all about me.  My life, my struggle with my weight, my fitness goals, my crafting., my kids, my hubby, my life.  Me. 

2. How did you come up with the theme for your blog? Was it intentional?  I took great care in coming up with the theme and title of my blog at first.  I love puns, so I thought it was quite clever to play on the term Wait (since I talk about things I had been waiting to do/try and also my working on my own WEIGHT).  Also relating to weight is the measureMENTs portion, and the waiting on goals and things holding me back as well as how I judge the quality of things I do and try are the measurements.  What do you think?  Does Waits and Measure(ment)s work for you? 

3.  Share something cool that has happened in your life as a result of blogging.  I have been able to expand my support network...even to the point of being asked to guest blog for a few folks.  VERY exciting to me.  

4. How much time to do spend reading blogs everyday?  A few hours off and on throughout the day almost every day.

5.  Do you blog on the weekends?  I am trying to blog more from home on the weekends.  I added the app to my phone to make it easier.  I am thinking of maybe doing some vlogging from home...then the kiddos could help too :)

6.  Do you keep track of your stats?  Do they matter to you?  I do check my stats, I'm not ALWAYS sure what they all mean, but I like seeing the number of viewers go up and where they are and how they find me.

7. How do you decide how much to share about your personal life?  I don't think its always a conscious decision.  It depends what I'm writing about and how deeply it affects me I guess.  There are some things I am very guarded about and don't disclose as easily...but I am also trying to work through some of that too.

8. Do you aspire to be a writer, or did blogging happen for some other reason?  When I was younger, I wanted to be the next the next Bronte.  Now, it's just a release for me to get my thoughts out.  I guess by hoping for more and more followers/viewers I hope to get more notice, but that's not the primary reason I blog.

9. As a blogger, do you think it's more important to write for yourself, or for your readers?  I think it's a delicate balance.  It's important for me to be able to get out and discuss certain things, and I think that those topics must also be important on some level too to my readers or else they wouldn't be there.  I have also asked for topic suggestions because I want to make sure I address or at least add my thoughts to things that others find important.  It may be stuff that I haven't even considered.

10.  What kind of plans do you have for the future of your blog?  To continue to try and make it grow and thrive.

 

Now it's your turn to answer this week's questions.  Don't forget to come back and link up in the comments.  Happy Monday!