Let's Face It..

The article came out in yesterday's Salem Times Register. Meg Hibbert had come to our house to interview the Janssens, who were staying with us for a couple of days during their Live Lightly Tour. It was a wonderful article and I'm so glad we were able to help bring something green to Salem. But, let's face it, that picture of me wasn't pretty.
OK, where to start. Let's start with the positive first, since that can so easily be over-looked. One ~ it wasn't a very clear picture. Two ~ I've got some really big boobs, so there that is. And then Three (the most important part) ~ I LIKE who I am. I am OK with the fact that I am a bigger woman. I like having curves. I'm almost 6' tall, I have broad shoulders, wide hips, big boobs, and the big mouth to top it all off! :) I also like to indulge myself sometimes. The Milk Man gave me some ice cream (mint chocolate chip!) as a birthday present. I VERY much enjoyed every bite of it and I had no intention of sharing!! :) I like food, I like to eat. I'd rather be a couple of pounds healthier and living the life I want than skinny and deprived.
Now the time to Face It: I gained a LOT of weight with Shannon (66 lbs)! Common with first pregnancies, but still, that's a lot. I was probably 10-20 lbs more than I would've liked when I got pregnant (a result of finding out how much I like stout beers ~ they don't call 'em stout for nothing!). I never lost all of the weight I gained with Shannon. When I was pregnant with Tristan I only gained 18 lbs, and I've managed to lose all of that and about 5 lbs more, though I've been yo-yoing on those 5 lbs.
And what do we eat? Well, we certainly eat a lot healthier over-all nowadays. I cook most of our meals from scratch. More and more of our food is not only organic but locally grown as well (so we know even more about it and how it came to be food), including what we grow ourselves. I've tried cutting out a lot of white starches: we use turbinado (or demerara) sugar, eat brown rice & pastas, and use a light wheat flour. Ok, the wheat flour is sometimes a mixture of whole wheat and white ... the whole wheat still is too heavy for us all to eat and enjoy. But, taking out a lot of the white starches helps with the glycemic index of foods. Eating locally grown, pasture & organically raised meat and eggs is SO much healthier than store-bought alternatives. So those are some pluses. For the most part, if we want to eat pizza, I make it from scratch ~ so that's a lot healthier. And even with drinking, we just made our own Coke last night. Ok, not the healthiest thing, but it was made with turbinado sugar and no high fructose corn syrup ~ so that's a big plus.
But still ... I looked like I was wearing a stuffed Santa suit (or maybe a stuffed Mama Taney suit?)!! Something needs to be done. I'm ok being a bigger woman, I'm happy living my life on my terms, but I am NOT happy carrying around this extra weight, this baby-body. Time to shit or get off the pot.
I'm not going to lie. If there were actually a pill that would take me back to the body I wanted I would probably take it. If I had the money to go under a knife and wake up with the body I wanted I would heavily consider it. BUT, deep down, I don't believe in those things. I believe in life-style changes. Those things might be able to make you "instantly" what you want, but unless you do something to keep things that way, you're likely to go right back to what you were before. And it doesn't do anything to help you emotionally and psychologically. How can you feel better about yourself if YOU didn't do anything to achieve the end result? No, it has to be something you decide to do for yourself. For me, for us, it is about trying to add more excercise to our lives and trying to watch portion control, along with remaining constantly aware of what we're eating.
Last night Justin & I did sit-ups and crunches. I did some leg-lifts as well (helps tone your lower obliques ... much need post-baby). The fun of having a post-baby body is that I can only do 10 sit-ups at a time before I piddle a little. So I did 3 sets of 10 reps regular sit-up, then 1 rep of 10 "side-to-side" sit-up (5 ea. side) where you come up and twist your body across to one knee, this helps work your outer obliques. Justin did crunches and side-to-sides as well. We charted what we did and plan to do it again tonight.
This is the start. We're starting from a positive light. No judging on how things came to be, no making anyone feel bad about their bodies. Everything starts somewhere, the point is that you start something. Then you do what it takes to keep it going. Maybe that is why I am blogging about this. If I put it out there, if I acknowledge it all, then maybe that will help me keep it going. I also want to be honest about it. Post-baby bodies are totally different than pre-baby. Your whole world is changed and your body is as well. There is no shame in that. We shouldn't strive to look like we never had kids necessarily. We should be happy and proud of what our bodies accomplished. But that doesn't mean you should let yourself go either. Be proud of the age you are, the stage you are at in your life, who YOU are, and showcase it in the best light possible. Show your self-pride by taking care of yourself, and showing yourself off in the best light possible. Be YOU and be proud to be it! No hiding behind baggy clothing!! We're starting from here, let's watch where we go and enjoy the journey there!

Some 2007 photos

Reusable Bags

The other day I went and did our bi-weekly grocery shopping. I went to Walmart (ugh, but they do have a lot of organics now, so that is good) and I made sure to take my own grocery bags with me. Its normally kinda a pain at Walmart because of their carousel set-up, but I wanted to do it anyway.
It was a pain loading up all the groceries, but I was able to fit them all into just three bags (count 'em 3!!)!!! Actually, it wasn't even that much of a pain to load them, it was just the rush of getting them all into the bags while she piled them all up onto the top of their carousel. I was able to bring all the groceries into the house in one trip as well.
It is so amazing how much simpler bringing your own bags really is. There isn't nearly the waste, you don't have to worry about crappy plastic bags tearing with heavy items in them, and you can actually get in the door without making a million trips (total plus when you have kids!!).
I recently went shopping with a friend and she even brought along her own cloth bulk-item bags! How cool!! I had never thought to do that, although I at least re-use the plastic bulk item bags for bread (since I bake my own bread). I have now ordered some of those bags and am looking to try and make a couple of my own here soon.
Anyone wishing to try bringing their own bags along should really consider it. I began using old canvas totes (the type companies give you for free), then I started using other funky bags. If you're interested in buying some bags specifically for your grocery shopping you should really check out: http://www.reusablebags.com/
*Special Note of thanks to Sara from http://www.livelightlytour.com/ for the heads up to this link!

Time Flies when You're Brain Dead

I haven't posted in forever. I know, bad me! Honestly though, I hadn't been online in a while with enough time to post, then we redid our computer and I lost everything, then I just forgot how to log on. That's the problem with having so many accounts ~ you have to remember the details for them all!
Life here has been wild. Tristan is now starting to walk and is cutting more and more teeth. Shannon is growing like a weed and becoming smarter by the day. It is so much fun to watch them, to see their personalities and to see their thought processes. I'm always amazed by it and consider myself very lucky to be home with them.
And now here they both come, wanting attention. I will post a picture really quickly ~ this is one of Tristan's 15 month old photos that I took the other day:

I love this photo of him. It is such a sweet, and yet sad, moment. There is something there in his eyes and it is like he is caught in his own world. How wonderful. How I long to see the world through their eyes.