Achoo

The other morning, I lay in bed with S1 snuggled up beside me. He suddenly sneezed a couple of times. So I said, "Bless you". To which he responded, "Achoo!" I said, "yes s1, bless you." Again he said, "Achoo!" Again I said, "Bless you." Again "Achoo!" "S1," I said, " I know that you sneezed and so I said Bless you." To which he replied, " Achoo, Achoo, Achoo". Of course one more word he can say, not that it is terribly useful, but we'll take what we can get!

Another Good Reason

After I posted about joining the gym, I forgot to mention another benefit to going. I shower every day! Now, it may seem gross to some of you that I didn't before, but as any mother with small children will tell you, daily bathing of ones self is at times a luxury. So, now not only do I feel better, I smell a lot better too! Well, at least after my shower.

You're sick? Thank goodness

Well, as the parent of an autistic child, I can tell you it is difficult when they are home from school. Talk about bored and having to be occupied every minute. S1 normally loves to try and leave the house because he always wants to be on the go. Plus he doesn't understand why there is no school. Well, winter break came and S1 had eight days off plus the two weekends - twelve days without his normal routine and without getting out of the house for extended periods of time. I didn't know how we were all going to make it!

Luckily the first couple of days weren't too bad - he just thought it was the weekend. Plus, we did try to get out of the house to run a couple of errands and play in the snow in our yard. Then he had respite on Saturday. Then it was Christmas Eve and we went to church so he got out of the house then. Monday was Christmas and well, that was pretty exciting. He had so much fun with the new stuff and new DVD's that he forgot all about being outside. Then the "miracle" occurred.

Okay, it wasn't really a miracle, but it definitely was a God send. He woke up Tuesday sick! Not sick sick, I'm not that twisted. Just enough that he didn't want to go outside or move really! He spent the next four or five days just lounging around the house. He never had a fever, threw up or had nasty diapers - just lethargic and a little stuffed up. Thursday he just slept on and off all day on the couch. We did our best to keep him hydrated and make him comfortable. Saturday rolled around and he was up and moving again. But that was alright - we had survived the week! Saturday night (the 30th) we went out as a family and drove to a Christmas lights display. We had tried to go a week earlier but the line to get in was horrendous. This time there was no line at all. It's one of those that you drive through. The kids got a kick out of it. Then we got slurpees (not mom though). Sunday was church again, Monday was New Year's Day so he had fun watching the parade and football games with their bands with dad. Then Tuesday it was back to school!

I am always grateful for small mercies, although I did feel bad that he had to be sick during his vacation time - even though he didn't realize it. That's the only reason I can be happy about it. If he had known, I would have felt worse for the little guy.

Was I lying to myself?

The week before Christmas I was at the mall getting a race car for S2. While there I noticed that the gym was having a special where childcare was free with membership (the gym had a kiosk at the mall, not a gym in the mall). Well, I have always claimed that I am out of shape because even if I could pay $20 a month to go to the gym, I couldn't afford the $80 - $100 in child care it would cost me while I went to the gym. Now, was that just an excuse or was it the truth? Time to test myself.

So I asked the guy about it and found out that for just $279 I would have a 15 month VIP membership (so that's averages out to $18.60 per month), which included up to 90 minutes of child care for each of my kids every day! The only catch was that you had to pay it either up front or in three installments, no month to month. So now I had to face myself and find out if I had been lying to myself (and to everyone else) or if this was the deal that I had been waiting for. It was the deal I had been waiting for. Taking some money that we had gotten for Christmas, I paid for the whole thing up front.

I started going to the gym the day after Christmas and have gone 5x a week ever since. So in the three weeks that I have been going, I have lost two pounds (not very impressive) AND 2% of my body fat! Hooray. Needless to say those stats are keeping me motivated. I also signed up for a personal trainer once a month ($20 a month) to help me keep on track and help me feel accountable. My eating habits have also changed. Instead of eating only one or two meals a day (because I am always running around) I am eating at least four and am keeping a food journal.

Plus, I LOVE going. It is so nice to have time and do something for myself! It is also a great stress reliever so I can better deal with what is going on. I feel so much better now. The first two weeks I was too sore and tired to feel better, but that has gone away now. It's so good to really sweat again. When I was in high school, I played basketball, volleyball and softball plus rode my bike everywhere. In college I didn't play as many organized sports, but I still rode my bike and I took swimming and weight training. After I got married and moved to the frozen land of Rexburg, my activity decreased as I was working full time and commuting. Then I got pregnant and well, it's been downhill ever since. The more out of shape I got, the worse my back and knees got preventing me from doing things and making a vicious cycle.

Well, apart from the other improvements I've made in three weeks, I have strengthened my back so much that it doesn't bother me as much as it used to and my knees are doing fine. So there is more motivation to continue. The only down side is that in order to get the child care at the times that I need it, I have to call in a week in advance-the furthest out they'll let you schedule. So it is a bit of a pain to try and remember to call every morning to get the best times, but it is well worth it. Plus, I usually go when S1 is in school and S2 and S3 love to go to the gym daycare.

Okay, here is the nitty gritty for those of you who care to know (and for journaling purposes), for the rest, just go to another post. When I go, four days a week I warm up on the bike for 10 minutes. Then I do my weight training, which is a four day cycle which I always mix up so my body doesn't get stuck in the same old rut. One day it's triceps, another back and biceps, another shoulders and abs, and last my legs. Then if I have time before my child care is up or I have to leave early to get S2 from preschool, I do 20 minutes on the treadmill. On my fifth day I do cardio. It's 10 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes on the treadmill and then I repeat it.

As far as eating, I have been told that if you don't eat within an hour of getting up, then your body goes into starvation mode and stores the first 1000 calories that you eat as fat (a random trainer told me that). How much of that I buy into (especially the one hour part), I'm not sure. But breakfast is supposed to jumpstart your metabolism and if it's not going, you aren't going to be burning as many calories. So, I bought a box of Slimfast Meal Replacement Drinks and I have one of those for breakfast (meal #1)as I get kids off to school. I have to pour it over ice and choke it down over the course of a half an hour, but it seems to be helping. The first two weeks I went to the gym I was still busy eating all the holiday crap that we had around. I just can't throw it out- that would be a waste!

Meal #2 is mid morning and it's usually whole wheat toast with either an egg or fruit. Meal # 3 is some kind of lunch with veggies or salad and a sandwich with some type of protein. Sometimes it's fresh salsa (only if I can get it on sale) and chips with avocados (also on sale). Meal #4 is dinner. That I keep pretty normal but I am trying to watch how many "extra" calories get added to it in the way of dressings and such.

Plus I am drinking a ton of water now. At least one glass with every meal, but usually closer to two. And I am taking a multi-vitamin. One of those that I have had in my cupboard for ages just I never remembered to take it! Now I get one almost everyday.

So, hopefully the next time you see me I will be looking better. I know that I will at least be feeling better- especially since I am not a liar!

Rambling

Rambling, that's what I plan to do in this post! Can you tell the holidays and the subsequent recovery have taken over my life? I knew it had been a while since I had posted, but it's been almost six weeks. Amazing. So, we stayed home for the holidays, but things were still busy. We had several Christmas parties to attend for David's work and groups he plays in. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to get to go out and not have to pay for it! You all know what a penny pincher I can be. Then it was Christmas, which I will write about in another post soon, I promise. Dave had six days off so there was a lot of Playstation 2 going on at our home. It was also filled with late nights and sleeping in. The best was one day when the kids even slept in until 10:30 am! We also used the time to do things as a family and visit with friends and relatives. Then school got back into full swing and I have tried to get into shape! Well, a shape other than the round squishy one that I am currently in. More on that in another post.

Anyway, since I sent out Christmas letters telling everyone to check my blog, I guess that I had better start writing in it again! Hopefully I will keep up on doing it every few days.