Boredom is not my Problem

This time of year is tough anyway but I figured since the kids would be here and we would be busy that I wouldn't have time to just relax and get bored and therefore I wouldn't eat as much. I was very wrong. When I get bored if I want something to eat I take the time to fix me something good so I'm not as likely to eat badly. So I haven't done great this week. I've also had yet another cold so the first few days of it I drunk pop when I shouldn't have. I have walked most days but didn't get to do any other kind of exercise. I know it all sounds bad but I weighed yesterday and I still lost 1 pound this week. So it's not too bad.
I've also found something very interesting. If I do my walking and exercise I am much less likely to eat when I shouldn't. I guess its that I don't want to waste all that effort.
I did pretty well with Christmas dinner at mom's too. I ate every thing that I wanted; I just didn't eat as much of it. I only had one of her homemade rolls and believe it or not only one piece of her impossible pumpkin pie.
As of last night we attended the last party for awhile so now maybe I can get serious about this thing. I realize that I have to be realistic and that there are times that you can't avoid eating things you shouldn't but those times can be few and far between. I don't intend on completely depriving myself either, I think that would only make things worse but again the treats can be few and far between. So wish me luck.

Treadmills, Sugars and Scales

I see no reason to even start on this journey of healthiness if I'm not going to do it right. The problem is in the figuring of what is right. How exactly do you find that? Some things are common sense but other are not always quite so clear.
Common Sense- I need exercise, there is no doubt about that. I will not walk around here alone and it is really hard to find the time to walk with someone else everyday, so we bought a treadmill.
Not so Clear- How fast should I walk? How far should I walk? How often should I walk? I have researched this and researched it and I still can't find a definite answer, so I am doing what I am comfortable with and that's that!! I know for a fact that something has to be better for me than nothing.
Common Sense- Sugar is not good for you.
Not so Clear- What all contains sugar? How much is okay? It is all so unclear. I have figured a lot of this out from research though. Let me just say first of all that there are very few things out there that don't contain sugar of some kind, it is ridiculous. From what I have read though if you want to completely free your body of the craving for sugar you need to go 2 weeks without it. I can do that; I really can….just not right now. I am avoiding all sugar here at home but its Christmas time and how do you go somewhere else and not eat sugar, it's impossible. And I will not miss my mom's cooking on Christmas Day. So for now I am doing my best to stay away from it. After the holidays, I'm kicking it for good. Then from there we will decide what kind of sugar is okay and in what amount.
Now a side note: I bought a scale when I went to the store the other day and from the highest I weighed at the doctors office (after all of the steroids) until this morning I have lost around 14 lbs. I know the scales can be different and I didn't have my shoes on, so I am guessing about 10 lbs. I already feel so much better though and I can tell a huge difference. A lot of it was swelling and water retention and to be rid of all of that is a great feeling all on its own.

Fit (not necessarily) Thin

I don't do diets. I have never seen the point. You can look at me and see that. I have at times tried to lose weight but only by trying to be sensible not by dieting. Only once in my life have I been at a weight that I thought was good (at the time). I can look back now and see that I should have been happy at other times but I wasn't. This one time that I was satisfied, I was going to a weight loss group with Mom and got pregnant with Audrey. I was so sick the first few months that I got to my goal weight easily. Isn't that a joke? Seriously though I have gained about 10 lbs. with each kid and then a little extra after that so I easily need to lose 50 lbs.
My big concern though is with my health. While I was sick over the last few months it really made me realize that all I am doing is hurting myself. The doctor did a complete work-up on me because of all the different things that went wrong while they were treating me for the pneumonia and almost everything was good. Almost that is because even though my cholesterol was perfect and everything else was right on target my triglycerides were through the roof. She gave me a list of things to avoid and things to eat while at the same time saying that she had never seen results quite like that. That's comforting!!!
So I started researching and found that the list of fats she gave me to avoid probably wouldn't make a bit of difference. Sugar was my culprit!! Now if you know me at all, you know about my love affair with Coke and although I had pretty much given it up already I had just moved on to something just as sugary but without the caffeine. I continued to research and guess what (this was very painful to me) the biggest source of sugar in our "diets" is CARBS!!! Okay you can have my pop and my junk but my bread, that's just not fair. I am doing it though or at least trying.
I've been at this for almost 2 weeks and have debated whether or not to post about it on here but this is the conclusion I have come to. Yes there is a chance that I may fail and everyone will know it but if I don't hold myself accountable in anyway to anyone then I have no extra motivation to keep me going when I could care less if I'm really healthy or not. So here it goes!! I'm going to start posting about how I'm doing and what I'm doing to get there. If you don't want to know, that's fine. If you just want to be nosy, that's fine. I would really appreciate any feedback or encouragement though. I promise to try to keep you updated regularly and to do my best to be healthy.

My How Far We've Come

Sometimes it's great to just take a look back and see just where you've been. When we get caught up in our lives and start to feel overwhelmed it can be helpful to look at what all we have made it through. I spent so many years of my life pregnant and raising SO many small kids that it seemed, at times, that there was no end to the madness. So when Matt turned 6 a few days ago I just had to dig up this picture and remind myself. No it isn't always a picnic but it is so much easier than it was when they were all little. When Matthew was born I had a 2, 4 and 6 year old. Now that seems like an impossible feat and I'm sure that I probably couldn't do it at this point in my life. How did I ever handle 2 kids in diapers and all of the crying and long nights? I honestly don't know but I made it through and If I can make it through that I can make it through the problems that they throw at me now. At times now I feel so alone but I can remember all of the long days of handling all of those kids by myself and realize that there is nothing wrong with having to do things on my own. I did pretty well with them, if I do say so myself. Don't take that wrong, yes I have a husband and he is exceptional with the kids but he has to work and most of his time with them gets to be fun. When I need him, he is there but I see so many people that have so much help with their kids and it gets upsetting but God knows what he is doing and what I can handle. We have made it this far and I know that we will do our best to raise the best human beings that we can.