Blue-eyed beauties 3-2-1

I wish I could say I’ve been busy slaying dragons and conquering new skills, but no. Mostly just housework, hanging with the littles, and reorganizing my house. Actually, we shall restate that first bit. I have slain a dragon. Our playroom. I have completely reorganized it into an entirely unbeautiful and very functional toy storage system a la Rubbermaid, that makes it way easier for the kids to spend five minutes cleaning up. Instead of me spending two hours reorganizing every toy into it’s special spot, I have a bunch of buckets that are either by theme or by type, and they get one at a time, and if they want another they throw everything back in the Rubbermaid first. Pinworthy and beautiful? Not particularly. Functional? Absolutely.

I’ve also been working on skills, actually. Firstly, on my houseworking skills. Let’s be real here – it does not come to me naturally. If I strike you as the homemaker type, I apologize. In reality, I am the artsy fartsy type, and if I leave myself in my natural state I tend to sit up every so often and wonder what the heck happened. I’m forcing myself to create new habits and routines and so far I’m doing pretty well. I mean, two steps forward and one back – I have a toddler and a baby after all.

Secondly, I’m giving running another go. It’s actually just happenstance that I took it up in the New Year. That’s just when my husband and I came to the conclusion that going to the gym was not fitting in particularly well in this season of my life. Jackson has been clingy off and on, and my husband struggles with him when I’m gone, and that’s stressful for everyone involved. So in lieu of not having a whole gym available we opted for a second hand treadmill. I’m nearly done my second week of it and I’m getting stronger, faster, and yes, losing weight as well. But mostly I’m feeling more energetic, which is really helping with that housework skills thing… especially since I’ve got less sleep lately than I ever got when Jackson was a newborn. C’est la vie, and this baby season is long days and short years, and all the snuggles and laughter are totally worth the lack of sleep.

However, I have resolved to do or create something every day, even if it’s just a photograph. So, on a particularly crazy day, I pulled out my dslr and took pictures of my crazies. Then I edited them another day. Every day a little bit of something! Running and creating even just little bits, that’s what’s keeping me in a happy, healthy place (mentally and physically) this cold cold winter.

How about you? How do you keep in the happy healthy zone?

Very important and fascinating things

I know you all keep coming back to this blog because I am so fascinating and witty and I do exciting things like come in contact with poop and fold laundry and make sandwiches. So here’s some more of that adrenaline-inducing stuff, illustrated with unrelated pictures of our annual Rake Up Leaves And Jump In Them photos. You’ll be excited to hear that this year, not a single leaf or bug found its way into my bra. And also, it’s snowy and longjohns-cold outside, so don’t think this is what it’s like here right now.

First of all, in exciting and earth-shattering news, I’m caught up on my blog reader for the first time in literally months. It took a lot of skimming, ‘mark all as read’ on some blogs, unsubscribe to others, etc. Any blogs that posted as many advertisements, Todays Deal At This Deal Site Is, etc as regular posts in a week got the boot. I was sad to see some go, but some of the blogs I unsubscribed to were craft blogs that posted once or twice a day with half of that trying to get me to buy something. Drives me loco. I totally understand that getting free stuff and/or money is enticing, but if I want a shopping blog, I’ll sign up to a shopping blog. I even have… Bargainmoose.com anyone? :)

Equally exciting – okay, more exciting – is that I have been focusing on my health and fitness since the end of October. When Olivia weaned herself (aww, I wasn’t ready, but she dropped one feeding after another and eventually lost interest entirely.) I gained about 8lb in one month… ouch!! ! ! ! !!! and was suddenly pushing it in size 12 jeans. I’ve been eating clean and working out two to four times a week and I’m nearly in size 8 jeans now in early December. About 7 weeks, nice! (I can button the size 8 jeans but have muffin top.) I’m focusing on health and strength, rather than weight loss, and while the weight loss excites me I am treating it as a byproduct/reward for healthy living. And oh yes… I graduated high school as a size 12. :) I’m so proud that I can barely do five REAL pushups, when I could barely do girly pushups to begin with.

I recently read something in a fitness magazine from a mother who had turned her lifestyle around from couch potato to fit, and she said something along the lines that it suddenly occurred to her that by being obese, she was modelling to her children that it was acceptable to be obese and to not care about your body. That really struck me. I have thought a lot about health for the last few months, and I think it’s so important to teach your children how to love their body no matter what their body type, but also how to take care of their bodies. Nicole and I have a big bone structure. I always thought of it as big boned as in destined to be fat, but recently I’ve been thinking it’s more like an athletic build! My husband and his brothers are all built that way too, and they are big STRONG men. I want to be a STRONG woman! I want to dance in my kitchen with my kids for a solid half hour without losing my breath or skipping a beat! I want to race my daughter up and down the hill and only PRETEND to let her win. And I want to teach my daughters to be passionate about their HEALTH rather than their SIZE. If my daughter asks me why I exercise, I tell her its because it’s good for me, NEVER because ‘I’m too fat.’ Exercise isn’t a punishment!

I actually quite enjoy going to the gym. Nobody there expects me to wipe their bum, ever. Utopia. I only make it out about twice a week at the moment, but I try to make the most of the equipment when I do. When I’m at home, it’s pushups, lunges, squats, etc… all while being attacked by small human projectiles. It’s exciting and painful simultaneously. Ask Nicole to show you how to exercise and she’ll do strange random repetitive motions while grunting like its taking everything she’s got. Flattering indeed. I find many little home-workouts on Pinterest or bodyrock.tv for free! Then I get a lot of variety in my workouts, my body never knows what's coming, and I feel like that helps get results.

Whew! I got a little excited there! I have been doing a lot of reading, and thinking, and thinking, and reading. I haven’t really had anywhere to channel that except internally, though! I’m not always sure how much I can say without coming off as a jerk ;) No judgement for anyone else… these are just my thoughts as I feel like they apply to me! Other people’s perspectives have inspired me and I hope mine is either inspiring or boring, rather than getting anyone’s undies bunched.

Lets go back to these photos… Olivia was not too impressed with her first Leaf Pile Jump. The above picture is her trying to run away.

This above picture is a little bit more accurate. See those arched brows? Not impressed. Now watch her run away again.

Don’t worry, we were watching her the whole time, and my brother was loitering behind the scenes (he was not being photographed because his hair was not pretty. My brother is kind of Maintenance, lol!) so Olivia The Adventurous was supervised quite well.

I really am making progress on this whole ‘back to blogging’ thing. I have some projects ready to be photographed and blogged, and I’m about 80% done clearing out my horrifyingly messy storage room craft room as of today.

I literally iced Olivia’s birthday at 9am for her 10am birthday party. Whoop whoop!  I did a bit of a faux-ombre, I have seen all these lovely ombre cakes floating around on pinterest. I just iced the cake in the light pink, then mixed more red into my icing to darken it up. I put some darker pink icing around the bottom of the cake and then went around a few times with my icing spatula to blend it in the middle a bit. And then I took it back down a few notches by randomly spewing icing doodles on the top like a pro.

Faux-ombre. Fombre. I think it’ll catch on. Remember where you learned the word. That’s right, the ever-fascinating and rarely long-winded blog of Laura V. PS, do note the fruit platter. If you only buy one snack food for your next little kid party, buy a fruit platter. Or make one. I was trying to be healthy, and we put the fruit platter down and this tiny little hoard of small children descended on it and made it vanish. They wanted it more than the cake. I wouldn’t joke about something like that.

I Love Myself Today

I love myself today, and you should too. Yourself, I mean, not me. I won’t argue if you’d like to love me too, though. To warn you, this is a really long, drawn out story of my own little body image journey. It’s kind of blah de blah blah, so feel free to just hit ‘next’ in your blog reader.

I haven’t always loved myself (and don’t many of these tales start this way.) I considered myself fat as early as grade one, when an astute classmate pointed out that me and another girl were bigger than the others. I wasn’t actually fat, looking at pictures. I was quite normal sized. But perspective does a number on you, and after that I was never athletic either. Fat girls are not athletic, and as such, I was not. It became a self-fulfilling prophesy (and doesn’t it always.)

Fast forward through this little sob story, and I was engaged to a man who loved me, curves and all. He almost never encouraged me to lose weight. (we’ll get to the almost later.) However, I couldn’t afford food, I was getting married, darnit! I lived off of oatmeal and coffee for a few weeks there, and walked everywhere instead of taking the bus. I was paying for a low budget wedding on a low budget. I slimmed down from a XL/1X to my junior high size, a Medium. I felt pretty self-satisfied in that wedding dress.

Then I got pregnant. I felt beautiful all through my pregnancy, and for the first time in my life, I was incredibly focused on being as healthy as possible. I ate right, I went for lots of long walks. I took good care of myself.

A few months after my first daughter was born in July 2007, I had eaten right and exercised right down to just five pounds over my prepregnancy weight (in September 07). However, while some people have that mummytummy skinflap thinger just melt right away, mine didn’t. I hated it. As time went on, I felt chubbier and chubbier. It became a self-fulfilling prophesy (again!), and this was me in August 2008. I didn’t love myself one bit, and it really, really showed.

I remember that camping trip so vividly. I didn’t enjoy it at all. I was out of breath and tired the whole time. I blamed it on the heat, the humidity, being under the weather… anything but the basic truth that my body was not being cared for, and couldn’t run properly as a direct result. My husband was trying to suggest to me that maybe I was getting a bit on the unhealthy side, which as I’m sure you can imagine, went over quite well. Still, it took until April 09 for me to really catch on. I took a trip to visit a girlfriend, and then when I got home, looking through pictures of what should have just been deliriously happy memories, I was horrified. Photos told a truth that my face-level mirror and I had been in denial about.

  

200 pounds of love for you,  right there. Even now, looking at that picture, I see my bra roll first and the scenery second. Booooooo. 

I talked to my doctor. She wrote me a prescription for weight loss pills. I put it on the fridge with a magnet. It stayed there for about a year and went from being my biggest shame – to be prescribed that! At my age! – to my pride – I did it without.

I buckled down. Wii remote in hand, I started doing Wii Fit daily, stopped buying junk I knew I’d just eat if it was in the house, drank one million bottles of water. For a while I did it because I knew I had to. If I skipped a day, I shrugged it off and just did the next day instead of beating myself up. (I truly believe that this is the key to longterm success.) Then I started doing it because those numbers were dropping. Then I kept doing it because I felt amazing. (Wii Fit was a great stepping stone, I mostly did step and yoga. When I got to a point where that wasn’t enough, I did other kinds of exercise as well.)

This is me in September 09. I felt great. (I know I look crabby, but there was a giant dog pooping in my yard when this picture was taken, hahaha.) Then in February 2010, after trying to get pregnant for one year and then stopping trying for another year, I got pregnant with Olivia. I was elated. I was also terrified about what would happen after she was born. I knew no amount of healthy living would prevent the onset of that dreaded mummy tummy again.

However, something happened after Olivia was born. Something very, very important.

I cut myself a break.

I said “Good grief, woman. You pushed a 9lb 5oz baby out of your body; You look fabulous.”

Yup, that’s me at a waterpark five weeks after having that baby, mummytummy and all. And did I hide in the water the whole time, yanking at my bathing suit? No. I cut myself a break. I shoved that post-pregnancy skinflap into my tankini bottom, shaved my legs, and played with my three year old. And then I posted pictures of it online.

Now my baby is nearly seven months old, and my mummytummy is slowly going away. s-l-o-w-l-y being the key word. But you know what? Who cares! If the occasion calls for it, I’ll shove on some utility undergarments. I joked to my friend the other day that date night these days calls for more equipment than any sporting event ever could. Other than that, I just dress carefully to flatter – not hide – my figure, chase my kids, try to take care of myself (when I remember) and cut myself a break. I do plan on upping my game soon and adding in regular exercise to our (attempts at) healthy eating. But I try not to hate on my love handles (those were some gooooood cookies, nomnomnom) or stare at my butt in the mirror.

I think it’s easier for me, though, just because I’ve been down and back again. I sure as heck look fab compared to August 08, eh? Ehhhh? Yup. (and no, apparently the photographer doesn’t make it into many pictures, because the shots of this dress are the only recent full-body ones I have.)

Losing It

The weight, that is.

I've been asked for a few tips on weight loss. I'm down nearly 15 pounds now, by the way. And I'm anti-diet, so if you're asking me to tell you to gag down smoothies for a month you're in the wrong place.

See, I love food. I love food too much to be 'just friends'. Let's face it - most of us do. So it winds up as a love/hate relationship. We take breaks. Then we sob into a brick of cheese or a bucket of ice cream and we're back together. But it's not a healthy relationship. Every relationship needs to be a healthy one, and whether it's a man or a box of ding-dongs, you shouldn't be obsessing, over indulging, or spending All Your Time Together. Tis just not healthy, ladies!

How can something so wrong, taste so right??

So, first of all, I try to excercise half an hour a day. Don't tell me you don't have time, you're full of it. You're full of it and you know you're full of it. I'm sorry, if you're reading my blog right now, I'm pretty sure you can eke out a few minutes SOMEwhere. ;) Don't feel bad, I used to lie to me about it too.

And honestly, I don't excercise Every Day. I *try* to. If it doesn't work out that day (ha ha) then I move on and try again. Seriously, people, get over yourself. And get over excercising. It should be like brushing your hair, you try to do it every day, but if you throw it up on a pony one day because it's hectic you don't sit there either brushing your hair all night until you hate your hair, or cutting your hair off altogether. I was going to say brushing your teeth but that would be like admitting that I sometimes don't brush my teeth with my SAHM-self and i TOTALLY NEVER DO THAT.
So, tangent. Wow, okay, so a sidenote here, I've been described thusly : She does have a train of thought, it just jumps the tracks a lot. NOBODY WILL ARGUE.


Okay, so. Try to excercise every day. Even if you're just doing step while watching TV. I don't care if you don't think step is real excercise, is sitting on your ballooning patootie real excercise? Yeah, that's right. I thought so. Don't argue with me, I've lost 15 pounds. (I try to workout during naptime, for at least half an hour)

The other thing, with the eating. Try to eat more vegetable matter than anything else. And drink a gazillion glasses of water. If you're hungry, drink a glass of water first, wait a few minutes, THEN maybe eat.

Also, don't buy snacks. I don't care if your kids whine, tell them to suck it up and eat a broccoli. Just kidding, I do have a snack jar for my daughter. Buy snacks for your kids that you don't like yourself. Or even better, if you have the time, make them. But, I have the time and I sure have that jar of gummie bears, so no judgements here. But I also have super healthy muffins made with applesauce instead of oil. Just sayin. I mean, go ahead and pick up a bag of chips for movie night. But don't buy them with your groceries. THEY ARE NOT GROCERIES.

If you start off by eating more vegetable matter than anything else, and eating your veggies FIRST instead of LAST, you will find that eventually you'll start eating less. Or at least, I did. Except last night when we had pork roast, and I had NO VEGGIES. and enough pork roast to feed a small family. WITH GRAVY. FATTY, FATTY GRAVY. MMMMM. I love food. Did I mention that? But, hey, I let myself have a little date night with it from time to time.

So, that's about it I think. To be more specific about my workouts, I use the Wii Fit. I like something that feels like its sorta game-like. I'm ordering a salsa dance workout video as well, just for funsies. And I try to go for a 3k jog/powerwalk twice a week. Which has happened twice ever, before I sound all athletic-like.

You should also know, I've been the fat kid since I was five. I don't blink and lose weight. I have always had to work for it. In the past that has involved living off of coffee and oatmeal and other such stupidities. But I am a MOM now. I can't be sitting there staring off into the land of the stupid because I'm starving myself for a jean size. There's a two year old sitting here who needs to be fed, clothed, and not allowed to stick things into electrical sockets.

I lost those 15 pounds over at least six months. It's gradual but I am pretty sure it is for LIFE. I am looking better, and I am feeling better. 15 pounds ago my doctor wrote me a perscription for a weightloss pill. I'm 22, what a kick in the ass that was! (It's magneted on the fridge, if you're curious. Girl, we don't need fitness trainers and diet plans here in Manitoba. That's not how we do. DIYODS.)

Oh, and one more thing. Buy spanx and a good dress. You need to feel like the hot mama you are, no matter what your size. Work it, mama!