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Monday, May 31, 2010

Summer is really here!

With such wonderful weather, I have not posted all the lovely garden happenings or the farmers' market experiences OR the biggest news for me personally - my weight loss journey while eating real food.

Garden Happenings
Our strawberries are turning pink and almost red!

This picture only shows green berries. Clearly I need to take new pictures. However, I know that at least some of these are pinkish. My kids are practically ready to tear down the netting to start the berry harvest. We need 1-3 more days of sun before we have a worthy harvest. I did notice one berry had been bitten, so we may have to study the netting's integrity.

In other delightful growing news, I mentioned that our squash and corn had truly sprouted. Here is some visual proof of that! The picture is old enough now (4-5 days old) that I can honestly say the plants are bigger now.

The corn (right side of picture, back of bed) looks like wide grass as of today. I expect to see a nice squash harvest given the size of the plants. We also talked about possibly needing to transplant some of our cucumbers or carrots based on how many actually took root and have sprouted. They look rather tight.

The only sad news to report is that not a single pepper plant seems to have sprouted from seed. Humph. That's what I get for ignoring the instructions on the package, I suppose. At least I think it's the peppers that didn't take... I didn't label my rows, relying on my fuzzy memory and somewhat alphabetical planting. *shrug* We plant; we learn.

Farmers' Market
Week 2 of the local farmers' market brought more lettuce, the return of chicken wings (meh to me, but Aaron loves them), hanging baskets of flowers for the front porch, tasty bread, and more lovely soap. Our vegetable man says he will have strawberries this coming week, and I'm SO looking forward to REAL strawberries.

Weight Loss Journey (again)
With my kids growing up and my own frustration at my size in mind, I decided it was time to get myself back in whatever shape I thought I might have been pre-kids. It's time to be truly healthy - for myself, for my husband, for my kids. I want to be around for a while, and losing the extra 40 pounds I have on my frame should help with that.

My doctor thinks I'm healthy as I am. He expressed no concern about my weight because I exercise twice a week. Yes, he actually told that to me. I challenged him and informed him that I knew I was not a healthy weight. He said he knew the weight would come off as I exercised. Yeah, well the weight wasn't coming off. I had been exercising for months and remaining at the same weight. I suppose I should be glad I wasn't gaining yet more.

I knew my food intake must be out of whack, so back to Weight Watchers (WW) I went. I am not being paid to endorse them or anything like that. I'm just writing about my own journey. I was hesitant to return to WW because I refuse to eat lowfat cheese and I don't want to give up cheese, but I know that it is a lot of points for a small quantity. Points, for those unfamiliar with WW, are a way of measuring the calories, fat and fiber in a food. Based on several factors, you get a certain number of points per day plus a weekly allowance for splurging. You can earn points from exercising (i.e., exercise enough to have more food). WW basically encourages a low fat, high fiber diet with lots of vegetables.

I've been successful at losing weight with this method before, and my only "failing" at keeping the weight off came from eating without thought when pregnant. I lost weight before conceiving Caleb. I lost weight after Caleb was born by joining and following WW. I expect to lose weight again, and I do believe I can keep it off. This time around, I actually have the activity/exercise component already in place. I actually like exercising - or at least, I don't hate it and I feel better on days when I do exercise.

In my first week of WW, I lost 2.8 pounds. :) I ate full fat cheese in very limited quantities, and I discovered full fat yogurt as a dessert option. I thought I didn't like full fat yogurt, and boy was I wrong! Trader Joe's makes a lovely full fat yogurt that basically makes me feel like I'm eating fruity fluff. I ate lots more veggies, but I also noticed I ate more fruit. I don't eat as many bread/cracker/cookie type foods. Perhaps more important than what I'm eating/not eating is the fact that I actually don't miss what I'm not eating (much), and I feel really good about what I am eating.

I also decided to mix up my cardio workout by attempting to follow the Couch to 5K program described here. I had seen this program many times and kept telling myself that I am not a runner. I still don't think I'm a runner, but I think I could be.

So how does this affect what I feed my kids? After all, this is a blog about what I feed my kids. :) Well, again it's about example setting. I want my kids to see what appropriate portion sizes are. I want my kids to see what well-balanced meals really are. I want them to understand that all foods are OK, in the right amounts and frequencies. I also want them to learn that a lot of things that look and taste like food aren't purely food (high fructose corn syrup, for starters). I want my kids to see that their mom takes care of them and takes care of herself.

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