A Long Post

TODAY'S MOTIVATION

There are sad stories all over the place. In the news, on the internet, everywhere. I also work in a job where I hear sad stories about children every day. Before I had Maya I think I got to a point where these stories were almost the norm, it was as if I had become desensitized to it and had forgotten that not everyone has such tragedies in their life. Now that I am on parental leave and away from all of that, I have been able to avoid hearing such stories on a day to day basis and I have been soaking up a lot of the joy in my life. But on the odd day that I come across something on the news, or someone forwards me something sad, it is like I can't even bear to hear about it anymore. Before Maya, I could sit in a room with a child and hear about their tragic story and still go about my day. After Maya, I don't even want to finish listening, reading, seeing, what is happening. I hear people say all the time that when they become a Mom they no longer watch the news, they no longer want to hear about anything that pertains to children being hurt, etc. I totally get it because you can relate on such a different level and your heart hurts thinking about what you would do if that were your child or your family.  Anyhow, someone forwarded me this web site the other day. A story about a family. I only read through half of it. It was very sad indeed. These things make me realize that I've got it good. I hope things like this never happen to my family, but if it does, I want to face it knowing that I cherished everything I had when I had it.  There were a few times this weekend where I had a pile of things to do and just stopped in the middle of it and spent some time with my family. It was great. The stuff still got done - it just got done later that day. So what I am trying to say today is that I have a happy life and I don't want to waste it by being unhealthy. Today I will continue to remember that if I feel the need to stray from my meal plan. 

I'm about half way towards my weight loss goals, so thought I would post an updated picture. The first picture is of me the weekend before my sister's wedding when my weight was at an all time high. The second is a picture taken of me yesterday, 24 lbs lighter.  I know I should have done some sort of before and after pictures when I started this so you could really see the changes but I didn't think of that so this is all I've got. I promise I will try to post some better pictures for comparative purposes when I find the time to go through the pictures I do have.  I think the biggest difference is that my neck blob is going away a bit and I am fitting in to smaller clothes. I am getting a bit more toned from kickboxing. My biggest thing I am still trying to battle is the sausage arms. I think they will be the last to go. In the mean time I will keep fighting the good fight. 

RANT OR RAVE

Can I just say that I am in love with hummus these days? There are so many meals you can incorporate it in. You can use it as a dip, a filling, a flavouring - you name it, you can use it. My meal plan calls for food that is natural and free of preservatives so hummus is a good fit for me. I can use it as an alternative to other things I used to add to my recipes. 

Sure, chick peas are not super low in fat, but its not a bad kind of fat, know what I mean?  Kind of like avocados, which is a whole other food wonder that often gets under-rated. 

RANDOMS

Ok. So I have been posting my self coping talk I have been trying to use with myself whenever I get a negative thought that enables bad eating habits, etc. The thing is, I feel like I no longer need to externalize that as much anymore, like I have a handle on it. It is becoming more automatic for me, which is a good thing. I figure you may be getting sick of hearing about it all the time so I thought I would switch it up a bit and just talk a bit more about my life in general, via, random pictures. 

So here was my day yesterday:

Maya has learned that her voice has multiple volumes and now prefers to speak at an all time high frequency. Most of what comes out of her mouth is screams, growls, and shouts. Yesterday it felt like there was a strange animal in my living room. She was quite amused by herself. 

So I'm looking out the window when I see this strange bird, sitting like a statue in my back yard. I had never seen this kind of bird in my yard before so I tried to take a picture (yes this is my entertainment now that I am home all day).  It's hard to see, cause it was far away - it's right smack in the middle of this picture.  Not like the usual geese visitors we get. 

It looked so still and statue-like forever, and then all of a sudden it spread it's wings and it was off.

The wings were huge. Because of all the changing leaves, you can barely see it in this picture. Bonus points to whoever can find it.

There it goes, off to god knows where.

Later that day I was looking out the window in the front yard and saw a bunch of squirrels playing around. Now we get tons of squirrels hanging around and I love to watch them because they are so quick. Most of them are black, but there are a few grey ones that hang out too. Sometimes I see this flash of silver out the window and I am like "what the heck was that?" and then I realize it is the reflection of a squirrel's tail. It's kinda weird and hard to explain. Anyhow, that's what usually catches my eye and then I watch the squirrels.  These two were playing yesterday. They were fighting over some nuts, it was pretty funny. Again, I don't have much entertainment during the day when Maya is sleeping. I haz issues, I know.  But squirrel watching is better than folding laundry.

In the late afternoon I dropped what I was doing because it was too nice outside and decided I wanted to take Maya for a walk. Such a lovely walk it was - got some exercise and some fresh air. It was perfect. We also decided to do a quick trip to the grocery store. Sometimes it is a pain having to lug Maya and the groceries into the house -  I get a bit distracted. When we finally got everything into the house I looked over at Maya and she had this lady bug just sitting on her face, just hanging out, enjoying the softness of her cheek.  Am I a bad mother because I grabbed the camera and took a picture of it before taking it off of her?  Like I said..... issues - I haz them.

Ok I love lady bugs, but after setting it free outside I was freaking out a bit because I realized it could have been any bug on her and what it it were a  spider? I don't think I would be able to handle that. Then it got me thinking that there are so many things I just cannot control. Any kind of bug could just crawl right on her and if I were not there to notice it what would happen? Maya was just sitting there like having a lady bug on her cheek was the most normal thing in the world. It didn't even occur to her to scratch it off or anything. Seriously, I don't like to think about it. 

Later that day Maya had her swimming lessons with her Daddy. 

Back float....

Blowing bubbles....

Playing with rubber ducky...

Jumping into the pool...

Front float....

Relaxing in the hot tub...

The day ended with me and Chris going out for dinner in honour of his birthday which is coming up on Wednesday. That is where I regaled my husband with the random events of the day.