Cornbelly Preschool trip

 

 

Wyatt's preschool class took a trip to Cornbellys. Our family has gone there every year and it was fun for him to go with his preschool friends. However it was FREEZING! The kids had a hard time staying warm.

 The hayride was really cold, but fun.

 

 Wyatt's favorite spot (for the last couple years) is the corn pit. I didn't mind him spending so much time in there because it was a little warmer in there.

 He got a pumpkin at the end and chose this ghost one. I just love this little preschooler!

Fight on

USC!

 Brandon got us AMAZING tickets to the USC/U games. We were sitting RIGHT behind the USC players. 50 yard line, row 1! It was so much fun!!!

 I am not a big football  fan, but something about going to the game and the great seats made me excited to be there. We had a blast!

Brandon really liked seeing all the players and being so close to them was awesome!

The Scratchy is here to stay!

 

My Mom and Dad finally moved up here permanently! The boys are thrilled to say the least. My Parents have been coming up to help me when I have mutual on Tuesdays and have taken the boys to do so many fun things!

 There is a pond on the way to their house with tons of geese and ducks. The geese wanted nothing to do with our bread, but the ducks went crazy! The boys really liked it.

 Scratchy took just the boys for a hike. They loved it. That night told me all about it and his favorite part (stopping to eat a snack). They both held onto the rope that was tied to Scratchy and had a blast.

 See how beautiful the canyon looks from their house! it will be so pretty in the snow too.

 We also go for lots of walks and also went to feed some horses. Watch out though, some people put up electric fences (Wyatt found out the hard way).

 I am feeling so spoiled having my parents here and just want them over everyday. I love them and am excited that they will be here to see the boys and build great relationships with them!Love you guys!

Ryan turned 2!

My cutie pa-tootie turned 2!!! I can't believe it. He is a smart little booger who is sweet when he wants to be and sassy all the rest of the time. He is about half the size of Wyatt, but 3 times as rough.

 

When you ask Ryan to smile you get this face above

But when you ask him to "show you his teeth" he gives the face below.

 

 For his birthday he asked to go to the farm. Wyatt tried to talk him into the Dino museum.

 After we had a small get-together with some little kids from his nursery class. Very low key (and last minute)

Wyatt started his second year of Preschool at Miss Kayley's. He is in love with going! Big Boys.

 Our small garden was semi successful this year, but it was a great learning session and I look forward to next years garden. We only got two pumpkins, but that was perfect for our little family.

 

Here's the deal

I figured I'd let you guys know what I did to help lose the weight. The first and most important thing I did was get a blessing and I prayed and asked my Heavenly Father for a lot of help through the whole thing. I think this was important because I knew if I kept up my end of the work, so would He.

 

I did the slim to win program through Lehi city. We met with a personal trainer once a week. My trainer didn't really like me, but a good friend from my last ward helped me out (she is a personal trainer too) and gave me eating and exercise advice. She helped me more. The winner of the program would win $1,500, so having that carrot dangled in front of me was the extra incentive to keep going.

 

 

For a good month our trainer (who didn't love me) started us out on HIIT. this stands for High Intensity Interval Training. We did ours on the treadmill, but you can do it on an elliptical, or anywhere. Look up some HIIT routines online and you'll find some great ideas. We would start with no incline, and run as fast as we could (maybe around a 8 speed at that time) for 1 minute. You are giving it everything you can during the minute "on" periods. Then we would rest for 1 minute. The next on minute we would raise the incline to a 2, and be running about a 6 for 1 minute. Then off for a minute. Eventually we would keep going up in incline and down in speed, but that minute your "on" you are having a very hard time breathing. I bought a heart rate monitor and looked up information on line about where my heat rate should be to burn the most fat, but some treadmill have this feature, and if you can't breath or carry on a conversation during the "on" minute and take the full minute "off" to recover, your probably doing just fine. She has us so this 3-4 times a week. Most people can only do HIIT for 30 minutes or so. During the other days I would take a cycle or zumba class. I would go to the gym from 5-7 so I would get HIIT in and a class. HIIT is super effective at burning fat and worked well, but I got bored only doing that. My eating at this point was better than before, but I was replacing real brownies for fiber one brownies. I was obsessed with finding "replacements" for my snacks. I was eating kashi cereal in the mornings, and trying to experiment with more veggies at dinner and lunch. 

 

After a month of being bored with just HIIT (I guess I thought it would be trickier than that to lose the weight, plus HIIT is hard so I hated it every time) I told me friend trainer that I was bored with only doing HIIT. She said she had started her team on weight lifting. I was jealous and she could probably tell because she showed me a whole body weight lifting routine the next week. I loved lifting weights. It was hard, but different than what I had been doing. Plus more muscles = more fat burning. You can look up whole body weight lifting routines online. just lift every other day if your doing full body to give the muscles time to repair themselves. I love/hated being sore the next days and couldn't wait to lift more. My routines get easier as I get stronger and I need to change my routine/ weight every 2-4 weeks. I like the variety. I started losing more weight when I added weights. 

 

My trainer kept promising that my taste buds would change and that I wouldn't even want the bad stuff anymore. I was sure that was a bold faced lie. I once asked her what to do if I was craving a brownie or cookie and she said drink water, or eat an apple. I almost slapped her face. The honest truth is your taste buds do change, but you have to change the way you eat. I was obsessed with looking for substations for my bad food instead of just accepting that these foods truly aren't good for my body.

 I watched a lot of documentaries (any on netflix that I could find). Although some scared me, I knew most of the information was true. The ingredients in processed foods were causing me to be overweight and will have damaging effects on me if I kept eating them. I decided I would go all in and give up sugar and processed foods like white bread, white tortillas, and everything like that. I also was determined to not eat out at all. This was hard because Brandon and the kids would still eat out. It wasn't their fault. Sometimes I was too frustrated to make myself bell peppers for dinner and cook them lasagna. I would get frustrated and ask Brandon if he and the kids could just eat something easy so I wouldn't have to deal with making them good food.

 

I was addicted to sugar. I didn't realize how much until I tried to cut it out. I would pace my kitchen, opening the pantry looking for the sugar that wasn't there. Every night when the kids went to bed I would NEED something sweet to eat. It wasn't a "I would like something sweet" it was a NEED. It took me weeks to get over that feeling. It was so bad when I would sit down to watch T.V. that was the worst. I kept telling myself  "you'll survive, your not going to die because you can't have ice cream"....and guess what...I didn't die. I got over the cravings and fruit really helped me. 

 I began focusing on feeding my body on a nutrient dense level. I only had a couple chances a day to feed my body, so I might as well give it the vitamins and minerals it really needed. When you feed your body what it is really needing the cravings for bread, sweets greatly reduce. A lot of eating and cravings in a mental game, but eating cleaner helps get rid of those urges.

 Vegetables are the best thing for your body. Green vegetables. I wasn't (I don't know really anyone who is) a big fan of eating straight spinach for months and months everyday. I started juicing. I don't want to get you all excited because these aren't good froo froo juices. They had romaine, spinach, celery, kale, and every other nasty tasting weed I could put in it. I tried to put a minimal amount of fruit in to avoid the juice turning into a sugar fruit drink. Just enough apple to help cut the taste of the broccoli! Gag! It helped, but it takes a long time to get used to. I don't know if juicing is for you or not. I also made green smoothies when it got warmer. I tried to use berries and only a little banana. Then a couple of handfuls of spinach. You honestly can't taste the spinach if you make them right and the kids loved them. I really enjoy green smoothies. They are another good way to get your green veggies in.

 1 month in

 

 2 months

3 months

 4months

5 months

Before  After

 

Near the end I was getting pretty crazy following a bodybuilders diet to cut weight and fat. I cut carbs out to very little (only wheat bread occasionally) and I was eating tons of protein. My diet consisted of oatmeal, little fruit, asparagus, broccoli, fish, and a gallon of water everyday. This is extreme and for me, not sustainable.

 

 

I am now still trying to get in as many fruits and veggies a day as possible. Those are the first things I go for when snacking and eating. I have a salad every day and I don't buy and processed junk food or breads. When I want to make a cookie, I do and give most 90% away. I still lift weights 2-3 times a week and do cardio for an hour every morning. I still do HIIT 1 time a week, and I don't hate it as bad because it is shorter than an hour class. There are so many other ways to lose weight and I know I didn't do everything right and didn't try everything I should have, but it has worked well for me and my goals. Hopefully this can help someone decide to change just one thing and try to get healthier.

 

 



Family

In between the crazy days of Disneyland we got to see some family. I got no photos of sweet baby Rose and Beautiful Cali. Amy says they may visit Utah soon so I will have to get some photos then.

I only snapped a few photos when Big Pop Pop, big grandma, Nana, and Robin came over. I can't believe I didn't get any of Robin and Wyatt playing. They were imagining so many neat things. Wyatt loved her attention! She is amazing! We are so thankful for our families traveling to see us when we come because sometimes we over schedule ourselves. We love our family so much and I cherish the bonds and memories the boys are making with everyone. Thanks to Heather and Bill of letting us stay always and doting on us!

California Adventure

Put your hands up!

 

 We purchased park hopper tickets, so later in the week Scratchy and Grandma got to go to California Adventure with us! I am so thankful my parents came with us. The boys just had so much fun!

The kids enjoyed so many rides. It was so fun watching them laugh and be excited at all the neat things I enjoyed as a kid. Wyatt got to go on almost everything. He tells everyone about the sailing over California ride, and keeps reminding me and Brandon how much he didn't like tower of terror. Ryan was so excited to see Mickey, he gave him a big hug and kiss before we took the picture. It was adorable. I am so happy we got to go and I keep telling Wyatt we will go back.