HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! I want to say I am truly thankful to all the men and women who sacrafice their lives for our FREEDOM in this country. Thank you for your bravery and dedication!!

Katie had another diaper explosion this morning so I had to bathe her and Brad changed the bed sheet. Joy, joy. I fixed my breakfast then headed out for a walk and It was mostly cloudy and It felt wonderful!!! I did almost 4 miles then came home. We loaded up and went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few food items to hold us over until we go for our usual grocery shopping tomorrow. Katie was MORE THAN ready for a nap. I put her down when we arrived home then we went to plant flowers in the front yard and It turned out to be a really beautiful day once the clouds went away. Before lunch, I did a mini upper body workout. The rest of the day hasn’t been eventful.

After my weekend of going higher calorie I’m definetly up in water weight so just gotta wait for that to pass. I’m changing my eating plan again… I thought I would try the 3 meal a day plan but after much research, I’m going back to my 3 meals, 3 snacks spread out. Breakfast, pre-workout snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and then dessert/snack! I was doing OK with the 3 big meals a day but I’ve felt better today from re-introducing the 6 a day. I think the key to getting my hormones and metabolism in the right direction is to continue this 6 meal a day plan and make sure to keep my calorie intake at the right amount and try to hold steady around that area. I was not doing those things for a long while. I was waiting too long between meals and then when I did eat, It wasn’t enough and that has thrown my metabolism into starvation mode for a long, long while now. Now I just have to revive it and get it going. I will get there!

What did you do for Memorial Day???

I made sure to eat even more today also to get ready for my usual exercise-packed week so I can have plenty to burn and keep my body out of starvation mode or atleast I hope so. I know my belly is stuffed right now! Church went really well and we got a little storm while we were in our meeting. Afterward the meetings, we had our potluck and I ate a little bit of this and that. I had a good portion of fruit… YUM! Our friends were supposed to come hang out at our house this afternoon but they had to leave early so we’ll have to reschedule which sucked because I wanted to hang out and talk with them.

Tonight’s line-up? Digest this food in my belly, relax, surf the web and possibly watch a movie before calling it a night for some (hopefully) restful sleep so I can get up and go full speed ahead for tomorrow! That’s the plan anyway.

Ooo check out our garden sprouts!

first up… cucumber!

and our squash

Can’t wait to see them grow!!! We’re hopefully going to plant more tomorrow and Tuesday!!!

I want this day to be a RE-DO dangit. Sigh…. just one of those days. I feel lonely. I miss my Mom. I miss having friends… I wish I had a stay at home Mommy friend who wanted to hang out with me and be my workout buddy. Wouldn’t have to be a Mommy either! Spending 2 years with no one but a toddler during the day is starting to make me crazy.

I STILL haven’t been satisfied with food and have found myself the last few days still hungry after meals so today I loaded up with carbs. Ugh.. I ate too much for breakfast and lunch but IF IT’LL HELP RESET MY HORMONES, lets go! Hopefully with today being a high calorie day then I can give my body the right fuel to work towards more energy and everything. I think I need to set my “usual” daily calorie intake a little higher. I was sitting right around 1500 but I’ll do fine for a few days then find myself too hungry after a few days with only 1500 so I think I’m gonna bump it up to 1700-1800, espically with all the exercise I do during the week. Sigh, we’ll see. I’m tired and my muscles are sore. Oh and while getting dinner ready, I accidently hit my face with the cabinet door… ouch. Brilliant.

Meh.

Wow, I am give out! I took Katie out for the morning walk and saw a dead snake, eek! HOLY COW, I went up and down some serious hills! When I went down the hills I tried to jog down them since It seems easier to run than to try to walk with the weight of the stroller. I think we walked over 4 miles before heading back. I collected piles of dead straw and leaves then put it into our burn pile that we have then picked a few weeds by our strawberry patch. Also carried our big glass tank that was sitting on our front porch out to the barn for storage. Katie went down for her nap and I had wanted to do an exercise circuit for my last “planned” workout for the week. I wound up doing 10 minutes on the exercise bike, 10 minutes with the resistance ropes plus 100 crunches, like 17? minutes on the treadmill then ended with 10 minutes with a few various kettlebell exercises and I was SOAKED. Really good stuff but I’m definetly feeling the tiredness of it! I zonked out again during my bath for just a little then rested a little more afterwards. Soon I’m going to start my dinner of steaks, shrimp, peas, mushroom and onions! PLENTY of PROTEIN!!! Tonight we’re finally going to watch The Biggest Loser FINALE!!!!!!!! Cannot wait!!

Brad isn’t having the best day. I’m trying my best to help him see above the bad and to look to the good. I know It’s hard when you’re having a tough day but that’s what we must do in able to overcome days like those. I’ve said this before but we tend to make situations out to be worse than they really are and that just raises our stress levels that much more. Next time you’re having a bad day take a deep breath and think about the GOOD things in your life. There’s so much more to this life If we could all just reach for it but there’s only one way to do that and that is to TRY. We can not finish what we never begin. We cannot succeed If we do not try. Our day is bad so what do we do? Continue to stress, stress, stress? NO. We must recognize what is stressing us out and take time to think about it. It’s really not that bad, is it? The more time we spend stressing is more time spent wasted that could have been used for the good, the happy and that’s what we all should strive for. No, no one wants to have a bad day or stress but a lot of the time we do nothing to overcome those things and then it spirals into bitterness, anger and bottling up feelings and etc.

This life is meant to be spent happy so what can you do today to be happy? Let nothing ruin your day. God has given us this life to try to figure out how we can shape our lives towards happiness and success. Stand up for the good and be strong in times of stress and adversity because Satan will try each and every day to bring us down to misery and discontent in EVERY way he can. Let us RISE ABOVE those things. We are better than that! We are children of God and we can be strong If we just BELIEVE and TRY! Trying today starts with a smile and a little positive thinking. I can testify those things can do a lot for your day and your life.

I spent most of my morning exercising! After the usual morning routine, I took Katie out in the stroller for our walk and overall I think I walked almost 5 miles? Once back in our yard, I let Katie roam free while I pulled more grass, dead leaves and whatnot out of the front flower bed until It was time for her lunch and nap. I decided to hop on the treadmill for a more INTENSE workout and did intervals of walking and running for a total of a little over 2.3 miles! It made me feel good and I really need to get back to running like I used to! I’ve really fallen behind. I was SOAKED after that so I sat outside in the cool breeze to read for a few minutes before lunch. After lunch, I took a shower then soaked in the bath for a bit and dozed off! It was loooovely. This evening I’ve been doing some online work and now I’ve got my DINNER cooking!!!!!!!!

OH OH! We watched the FRINGE finale last night. NoOooOoo! It was awesome but of course they’ve gotta leave me hanging. I’m SUPER SUPER SUPER excited to watch Biggest Loser – we’ve got 1 episode then the Finale to watch. I really wish we could WATCH IT ALL tonight but alas, we will only have time for the 1 episode before It’ll be time to head to bed. Yup, days sure do fly by! For my evening line-up… dinner, Katie’s dinner, my dessert, her bath+bed time then getting Brad’s dinner fixed then straightening my hair and watching BL! There ya have it. I’m so thankful for my life. I’m thankful for each and every day. I love The Gospel and everything it has brought into my life. SO MUCH GOODNESS! Thank you Heavenly Father for this wonderful day.

I am so blessed. Walked and randomly ran over 3 miles outside and then we loaded up and went to the lawn and garden shop to pick up a few things. We got to plant more seeds in the garden together!!! Then this evening was Katie’s birthday party and we all had a great time! I’m about to head to bed but I leave you with a great picture….

What a wonderful day! Gonna post this sortof bullet style since I’ve got some online work to download then get ready for SLEEP.

~ Walked (and ran a little) almost 3 miles outside this morning
~ While I was gone, Brad took Katie outside to play in the frontyard
~ Returned and we loaded up to go pick up garden items from Wal-Mart and run errands
~ Fed Katie lunch then her nap while we went to start our GARDEN
~ We took turns digging and smoothing out the dirt
~ Got eggplant, squash, cucumber and pea seeds planted!!! Got lots more to plant
~ It was already after 3PM so LUNCH! Got a shower then waited for Katie to wake
~ Fed her then out the door for groceries!
~ Shop, shop! Picked up items for Katie’s BIRTHDAY PARTY tomorrow! We’re gonna bake the cake plus cupcakes.
~ Decided since It was going to be late when we were finished to go pick up Subway since we haven’t eaten out in a loooooong time! I got a 6 inch Subway melt, veggie delight salad and an oatmeal raisin cookie!
~ Unloaded and put away groceries, ate my food, fed Katie dinner and put her to bed

And VOILA. I was hoping to get to watch the Fringe finale but not going to have time looks like. Tomorrow I definetly want to watch Biggest Loser after we get back from Katie’s birthday party at Brad’s Moms house. I’m so excited about our garden! I also bought some flower seeds to plant in front of our porch. Squee! It was really great to spend that time outside working in the garden with my love!!! Can’t wait to work more tomorrow!

Woke up this morning at 6AM to get ready and leave for my early church meeting. My ride was coming at 7:10AM and I was still trying to cook my breakfast at 7AM so I had to take my oats and fruit and mini Luna bar with me and eat on the way. The meeting went really, really well! After that, we had the usual church meetings and then we came home.

I got to talk to my Mommy!!! I’m definetly feeling the fatigue of getting up at 6AM… so I look forward to sleep in a few hours. I just finished dinner and am about to get up and fix my dessert and relax. Tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be busy yet I know they will be wonderful!!!

We watched the season finale of One Tree Hill last night… whaaaaaat! Hah. Now we still have Mercy, Bones and Fringe left to watch so we shall watch atleast one of those tonight. Hope everyone has a relaxing evening!

From everything I’ve been reading lately, It seems that my LEPTIN levels are really low and that is what is causing so many problems for me with my appetitie, sexual health, reproductive health, metabolism and weight loss!

I’ve dug into the Leptin diet and immediatley set it into motion after my morning snack. The Leptin diet has these rules…
* 1. Never eat after dinner. Finish eating at least 3 hours before bed
* 2. Eat three meals a day. Allow 5-6 hours between meals. Do Not Snack!
* 3. Do not eat large meals. Finish eating when you are slightly less than full.
* 4. Eat a breakfast containing protein.
* 5. Reduce the amount of carbohydrates you eat.

I haven’t been doing rule number one for a loooong time now. Lately we eat around 9:30-10:00PM (used to be later than that!) and then go to bed around 11-12AM (used to be around 1AM) so I am not getting the 3 hours between meal and sleep that I need. I have been eating 6 meals a day and It has NOT NOT NOT been working for me so I’m going back to the good ole’ fashion 3 big meals a day plus my allowed dessert and be DONE with all FOOD by 8PM. I always eat plenty of protein with my breakfast so that is not an issue at all. I used to be really, really, really low carbs but then I began to incoperate more but I’m thinking of backing off a little bit and putting in more protein. Also, since Brad is taking the Brewer’s Yeast tablets to see how he does with those, I’m going to steal his multivitamins and start taking those. I took the first one this morning! Hopefully that will help me get back in balance too. I ate a huuuge lunch which included my “usual” lunch of a salad, tuna sandwich then I added my “snacks” that I usually have later which today included a smoothie, small cup of cottage cheese and cut up apples and carrots and a dish of scrambled egg and 2 turkey sausages. Sounds like a lot huh? Well, that’s going to keep me going until dinner which is going to be around 7PM then I’ll have dessert and be done! I have problems with insulin too so eating the 3 big meals and having plenty of time between meals I think is key for me and balancing my hormones and metabolism back again.

I think how I feel tomorrow morning and after breakfast is really going to give me a hint as to see If this is going to be the right thing for me. I’m pretty certain this is the answer I’ve been waiting for. Another answer is to continue to get as much sleep as possible. I have to get up super early in the morning for an earlier than EARLY meeting at church so I need to go to bed at a decent time tonight so I can wake up refreshed and fill my tummy for the 6 or so hours I’ll be at church, lol.

Today has been HOT! It’s up around 90 degrees!!! I cleaned house and just been researching on Leptin more and more. Waiting for Brad to call me for his work break then I’m gonna feed Katie and get ready to fix my dinner! That means I don’t get to eat with Brad anymore… =( Ah well, I’m trying to do what is best for my body. I’m EXCITED to hopefully see things start to go in the right direction for my body! Come back energy! Come back sex drive! Come back “fullness”! Come back period! Come back LEPTIN!!!!!!!!!

How many meals do you eat a day??