I cracked. I broke. I ate popcorn with m&ms.

photo credit: robertpaulyoung

I know, I know!

Yesterday was rough. I wrapped Christmas gifts*, hung out with the kids, did laundry – all the normal things one does during the day. Except I didn’t follow my diet plan. I ran out of bars and shakes so need to run to the store. Lame excuses. LAME!

I didn’t work out yesterday either. So it was flat out a loss. Today I am off to a better start! I ate breakfast (eggs and a piece of toast) and plan on taking Chris to work out with me. I definitely need a partner in this. My friend will be on vacation for another week or so and I feel that I will continue to struggle until she gets back.

I need to be able to do this on my own! Considering I love to make lists and be organized I think I will make a weekly food and workout chart. Then I can cross things off, plus have a grocery list to follow. Working out doesn’t have to be hard, you just have to do it.

*I hate that I am so late with Christmas this year. I am usually so prepared, so ready to send things out! This year not so, I just got my family’s gifts in the mail today. Sure priority mail and with luck they will get there in time, but Christmas happens at the same time every year! I should be ready! I’m not sure what happened this year. End of rant.

I’m getting sick. Which for me usually (in this case, yes) means I lose my appetite and don’t drink nearly enough water. I have eaten everything I should today (dinner is cooking now) but not nearly drank enough water. I’m working on that! I will do better tomorrow, for sure!

photo credit: chispita_666

Really, I’d just like to sit on the couch with a blanket or two and watch movies. Or recorded tv. Here’s hoping it goes away fast!

It’s ‘just’ a head cold so I can stil work out. Tomorrow is cardio! It’s only a 20 minute workout so I can easily get that done and then allow myself to be a bit lazy. Both kids have colds too, I blame the weather. It’s been in the 70s and then for a few days in a row it was in the 50s and 60s. Of course today it was back to almost 80, but let’s not get upset. I mean not like it’s actually Christmas day or anything! I know it won’t snow, but as long as it’s cold during Christmas, I’ll be happy.

Kelly over at SparkPlugging put out a reader challenge – respond to something someone on twitter said. She has a list of seven and I picked this one because I’ve been thinking of a friend of mine (mom of a new baby) all night/this morning.

berrybrewer I have a little time to myself, but I’m so pooped that I think I’m going to “waste” it on sleep.

Kelly says Blog this: Provide some reassurance that this baby mommy did indeed make the right choice!

berrybrewer – You are doing great I’m sure! “Wasting” your free time on sleep when you have a baby is the best time waster there is. I have two little ones both coming up on birthdays in August. My daughter will be 7 and son will be 5. I find it hard to believe that she is seven! I remember being in the hospital with her and coming home. We slept for the first week, at least. That’s really all I remember – and I’m sure there are pictures to prove that. You know, the way you take pictures of your first born just sitting there? Yep, been there.

It was the same with our son – that time I gave birth by myself, my husband was gone and a friend was with me. My Mom missed him being born by about 20 minutes. Mom went grocery shopping for me and after coming home from the hospital, the kids and I did nothing but rest. We took naps together and fell asleep on the couch.

I’m a big advocate of just relaxing and being with your baby. Some moms out there have wanted children for so long – whether you had an easy time getting pregnant or it took a lot longer then you hoped, spending time with your newborn may just consist of sleeping!

One of my oldest friends just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. We stopped to see her on the move to Texas and she was *huge* – yes, stars around it and all. She’s a short, petite girl, and seriously, huge. I felt so bad for her! She ended up having a csection a couple of weeks after we drove through. After having her family visit for a little bit, she’s back to just her, baby and her husband. And she’s having a really hard time breastfeeding. Now, not only am I am advocate of napping with your kids, I am an advocate for breastfeeding. I’ve been chatting with her but she doesn’t have any local support.

My advice is just breathe. Just take a nap, waste your time sleeping, stare at your baby and enjoy yourself. Those are all right choices.

photo credit: nine17com

I stopped by the Y yesterday to clean out my locker and remove my name from Dad’s account – and couldn’t resist jumping on the scale one last time. It’s the same scale I was using to keep track of my weight loss. Sure I found one at Target and at the dr’s office, but I know it’s best to stick with one scale since every one can read slightly different.

I took this picture about a month ago – after friends saw it, they commented on how they could tell I lost weight – always a great thing!

And I’ve kept my 20 pounds off! I am wearing a very loose size 16! I am so excited because I have a closet full of size 16 stuff, 16 and 14. I tried on 14s just last night at Target and though they zip up and button fine, they are tight enough I didn’t buy any. But how awesome! I don’t remember being able to fit a size 14 since college which was 8 years ago.

I plan on keeping up watching what I’m eating and buying some kind of exercise machine once we get settled. Chris gave our elliptical away during the packing up of our house so I want to get a treadmill but we aren’t sure how big our house will be. Maybe a treadmill won’t fit with the rest of our stuff. I’m excited about losing a little more weight – I feel great and hey, who doesn’t love shopping!

We are leaving tomorrow to begin the trip to Texas, our next home. We’ll be there by the fourth of July and look forward to cooking out and blowing up fireworks with Chris.

Mommyfest has started! I’m excited about this event being put on by Marie Ynami. This is the fifth year for her event and she is running several contests. First up we have a five things about this mom meme!

* I will be 30 in a month (from today!).
* In the next two years I will move at least twice, maybe three times.
* I’ve lost almost 20 pounds in the past four months.
* I hate birth control pills because of the hormones.
* I love shopping – even though most of the time it is window shopping.

I like how the cleanser and toner feel on my skin – but the lotion that is included has made my skin really oily. I rinsed my face off a couple of times today because it was bothering me so much. I do not like that at all and am surprised – it is made for oily skin! You would think it wouldn’t make it oily because of that. I don’t have oily skin but since I have been breaking out the girl suggested I try it. My skin doesn’t feel dry like it has before when I tried products for oily skin, so at least that.

I am going to try either the mask or scrub tomorrow – the directions to say both can be used two to three times a week. I’ll keep using the cleanser and toner but I admit I’m not sure I want to keep up with the lotion. Maybe I should and see if my skin gets used to it?

I got a haircut today and picked up a travel set of a skin care line I’ve been wanting to try. I am always scared of trying something new for fear of *whatever* going wrong and then I’m out of my cash. I decided to go ahead and buy this because if it doesn’t work out I can take it back and get some other product or store credit for use later.

I think CVS does this? Or … Walgreens? Some store like that.

So I’m going to tonight and follow what it says to do – I got a cleanser, a tonic, a vitamin lotiony thing, a night gel, a scrub and a mask. (I love buying kits!) I figured I would start out with a travel kit just in case it doesn’t work, or I don’t care for it, then it’s less to return and less money out by me.

I have been so frustrated for the past week! Early last week I was so happy because my skin seemed to be clearing up – I’ve never had perfectly clear skin though. So I’m happy and then a few days later – boom, breakout city. Ugh! This is so annoying!

I’ve tried ProActiv which did not work for me because I am allergic to it. I’ve tried ever other over the counter thing and nothing worked – though I did find out what I am allergic to! I even had a script when I was a teenager but I don’t think that really worked either.

My friend Andrea posted about various beauty treatments not too long ago – and I swear I had never heard of any of them! I was so excited about the aspirin one – basically you let uncoated aspirin (3-5, starting off with 3 then working your way up I suppose) in hot water until they soften up. Then you add them to a face mask and use it as usual. I finally got aspirin about a week and a half ago and I used this treatment I know two times, but maybe three, and that’s why I thought my skin was clearing up.

Then I breakout and I have to admit I wonder if I’m allergic to doing using aspirin in my face mask! Or if I just had a reaction to it. I’m scared to try it again but I am just so over my skin thinking it is 16 (ha, I’ll be wanting 16 year old skin when I’m 60 I’m sure!). I want to see a dermatologist but we are leaving in a week so there is no time.

Maybe I need a new face mask too. I know I do, I’ve been using the same brand for ages. I love trying new face stuff and in the past I’ve had to slow down as sometimes that is the case for breakouts as well.

Do you have any tips or tricks for getting clear skin? Mine has never been completely clear though I’ve tried various things like drinking lots of water, exercise, eating better, etc.

Here is to clear skin!

After four phone calls this morning I am now waiting for a call back. It seems that LA Weight Loss corporate has changed to Pure Weight Loss – but the franchises were given the option to stay with the LA name or to change. I didn’t do much searching on that though.

So I call the number on the LA website which somehow gets me a corporate center in Virginia. Okay then. She tells me to call the franchise customer service number – which I did and had to leave a message. I found another number on the LA site and called them – after talking to that person she says she can email the customer service rep for the franchises and that person will get back to me.

If I don’t hear back from someone by Wednesday, I’m calling again. I know there is controversy surrounding the company but I didn’t have any. I paid for the services and expect to be either reimbursed or given the product in whole.

I think it is odd that there is NO more centers in my area. Did none of them want to carry on with corporate changing the name? Has the website just not been updated in ages?

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here but we are moving. The countdown is on and we’ve started getting rid of stuff and throwing stuff away.

We got rid of the crib we had. Finally. We got it when Alice was about six months old so we’ve had it for almost six years. She used it and then Jake used it, it converted into a toddler bed and Jake used that until he got too big for it. He isn’t too tall or anything but just outgrew it. So we stuck it in the garage just last month.

I had a twinge of sadness because the sides have the kids teeth marks in it. When they were old enough, they would stand up and chew on the edge waiting for us to get them. We sanded it down before giving it to Goodwill so noone else will see that.

We also got rid of the pack and play that Jake slept in for a little while. He started out in a bassinet but he was a big baby and quickly outgrew that!

We went through our clothes yesterday too and I found a couple of pairs of shorts that I have had since college! I haven’t gained a lot of weight over the past seven years, I’m two sizes bigger now, but dang those shorts looked small. And I thought I was chubby! I did put them in the giveaway pile and said I’d buy new clothes when I lose weight.

So the countdown! Three and a half weeks to go! Woo hoo!!