New workout routine

I have been fighting for the past 9 months to 1) find motivation to move forward in my weight loss journey & 2) to lose weight. So back in September/October 2012 time frame I decided to get set up with the trainer at the gym on base so I could get a more focused routine and plan. It seems like ever since I did that I fit problem after problem trying to get in the way of staying on track. But over all I finished the first 6 weeks of his program of daily weight training and 40 minutes of endurance cardio. I of course didn’t lose a pound but I did improve my flexibility a bit, increased my strength some and best of all went from a VO2 pathetic score to being VO2 elite. (VO2 a measure of your cardiorespiratory fitness level) So not all was lost, some things were moving forward, and now I ran about a 5K daily, took on the stair master and could start to see some muscle definition.

With the first 6 weeks done, it was time to switch weight training up and push harder in cardio. Time to move forward – insert here: more shin splints, hip pain and weakness, physical therapy for hip, family visiting, the holidays, and 2 allergic reactions. Working out and losing weight was a mini rollercoaster, up a few pounds then back down to my plateau weight, up a few, down a few, and return to my plateau weight. Im so tired of feeling like this battle is never going to be over. I have to change something to move forward.

My sister-in-law with the start of her weight loss journey has inspired me to hop back on the wagon, but this time I am trying something different, I am going back to the basic with my cardio and pushing myself more in strength training. Back in the beginning of 2012 I lost 34 pounds and have at least managed to keep it off and at that time I was learning to run. So, run a little, walk a lot, trying to improve my time and distance for a July 5K. I never kept track of my heart rate then, even though I was encouraged to, things were going good. Therefore, I am slowing down and paying attention to my heart rate with a new routine.

The new plan:

Keep my heart rate at about 70% for a 2 mile, 30 minute walk, checking my heart rate at about every half mile.

I have also compiled a strength training routine for the week too, my goal here is to improve each week on either the count, time, or modification (doing straight leg arm dips, straight leg push-ups, adding weights, etc.)

Monday – Arm dips, push-ups, bicycle crunches, plank, jack knife crunches

Tuesday – Jump squats, lunges, calf raises, bridge side crunches

Wednesday – Superman, Russian twist, inclined push-up, mountain climbers

Thursday – Glute kickbacks, inner thigh raise, side leg raise w/ half circle, pile squats, side plank

Friday – Wall sit, plank, burpees, squats, push-ups

As far as my eating I am following weight watchers.

Here’s to moving forward.


source



Last 9 months in shorts

Well is has been some time so here is the last 9 months in shorts.

Jul 2012



Steven & I celebrated our 6th anniversary



Aug 2012



Steven & I finished our first 5K Mud Run, Fl ROC. So much fun!!!!


Oct 2012

Landen really enjoyed trick-or-treating this year. By the end he was more interested in finding out if homes had dogs more than candy.

 Nov 2012



Campouts in the living room with Grandma & the Buddies visiting



Dec 2012 - Busy Month

Eli the Elf came to visit. Our mission was the teach him about Jesus' love and grace. Boy, did he sure get into a lot of trouble. There were a few nice nights when he left treats for Landen.

Family Vaction to Sea World and a citrus farm with a monster bus tour. Very neat.

Picking oranges and limes.

G Papa went home to be with Jesus.

Eli continues to get into mischief

Eli gave Landen a great good-bye hug when Santa visited & picked up Eli to return home to the N. Pole.



Landen got his first gun from his Grandma and Grandpa Smith.



Jan 2013 - Happy New Year

We went to the circus and got back into the swing of things.

Feb 2013 - The boys went to the Monster Jam Show & Steven was baptized!

Landen tried out t-ball. It wasnt for him, so we finished that quickly.

Mar 2013

That crazy mischief making leprechaun visited. Maybe next year we will plot to catch him.

We visited the Easter Bunny



We colored eggs.



We had a great time visiting family at the GA farm.

Easter Sunday Landen was most impressed on how big the stone infront of Jesus' tomb was and that he wasnt still there. It is so neat to see Landen learn about our Lord. While we were at church the Easter bunny stopped by Nanny & Papa's & left bunny prints all over, a hello message for Landen and hid some eggs.

Other tidbits -

*We have been praying hard for God to take care of Landen in his schooling since the school in our zone is one of the worst in Duval, and we are up for orders. We feel like God has told us homeschooling Landen is the route to take. The idea has been so exciting and we have already started having fun with more learning focused play times. He is picking the letters he didnt know, learning to write his name, learning about butterflies and counting higher.

*We are still praying for God's will in getting our orders, we will go happily were He sends us. We are hoping for San Diego though, because of a wonderful new job opportunity. We are hoping to find something out at the end of the month.

*I am trying something new with my workouts and weight loss. More on that in the next post.

*We are starting to plan Landen's 4th! I know 4th birthday. We are thinking it is going to be a messy event.

Update & Goals

It’s been about 8 weeks, a lot has happened but all is well in the Smith house. Landen of course is growing and developing by leaps and bounds, his speaking has become a lot clearer, he never seems to stop ‘practicing’; even in his sleep he talks. He is fun to listen to, most of the time, and is starting to tell stories and recount events well. His imagination is another thing that is starting to develop greatly, we seem to have monsters and crazy monkeys under each bed and the couch, mostly blue ones.

Landen this past Monday, June 25, moved up to the preschool (a.k.a. big boy) class at school, he is enjoying the computers, big bikes, and the lego table. In just a short week I have already noticed a difference in his speech, his counting – he can now faithfully count to 4, and jumbled up to 20, he can sing a good bit of his ABCs and has already pointed out the letter ‘S’. He is really enjoying the new class, activities and skills.

I have had an up and down past 3 months as far as weight goes, I have managed to lose about 5-8 pounds depending on the day. But I did another Bod Pod evaluation and I did drop my body fat % by 2.8% & the amount of fat weight by 7.9 lbs and gain 2.5 lbs of muscle, so overall not a loss of three months. So I am going to pull up some motivation from somewhere and get on track again to get on with losing weight more steadily again.

As far as running and my couch to 5K, I was majorly slowed down by some pretty painful shin splints and calve strain, but I started using the elliptical most days and weight training to strengthen my leg muscles. It has been working so far. I still can’t run a steady 5K, I still do lots of starting and stopping but I can complete the 3.1 miles in about 36-40 minutes. I can’t complain about that, being that when I started about 10 weeks ago I couldn’t run one minute straight and one mile took me about 20-25 minutes. I did complete the July 4^th Celebration 5K in 38:07, and finished 371 in a race of 540 & 37^th in my class of 54. I’m not unimpressed.  My dad ran with me as well which was incredibly special and my mom, the Hubs and the Boy waited for us anxiously at the finish line. They said the Boy kept telling everyone around him “My mommy’s running”. So special!

Now that the 5K run in done, the Hubs and I are starting to train for the Fl Roc Mud Run. This will be my goal of strength, I will be working a lot on my growing my muscles and upper body strength. I want to be able to hold my own.

Rewarding Thanks, W3D3, & 2 A.M. Again!

We started attending church regularly in March and have so thoroughly enjoyed it. The teachings are done in series so a bigger lesson or story can be taught, this also seems to give the church more opportunity to be involved. This past week, we finished out a Beyond series, which charged us, the church to reach out into our community, country and world with prayer, acts of service and gifts. One of the first weeks of Beyond were able to help send some infant vitamins, lice shampoo, crayons and stickers with our missionaries going to Brazil. This was a great chance to teach Landen that we can give to others with a joyful heart.  The Sunday before last we were encouraged to reach out into our own community and give thanks to our community service workers. So we did. We brought a dinner to our local fire station to tell them that we are thankful for their service & dedication. They were equally grateful, we spent about an hour with them talking and learning. The Fire Chief happen to be visiting so we were able to meet him as well as two fire fighters, Jack & Jammer. They enjoyed Landen’s excitement and eagerness to peak at everything. Landen & Steven even got a short ride in the fire truck. We were told that it had been a very long time since anyone stopped by to visit the station or show the guys appreciation. Even before this visit Steven & I had decided to make our show of appreciation for our community service members a monthly action and now we couldn’t be more convinced that this is a great decision. We never thought it would be so touching to give gratitude.

Jammer showing Landen the Air Truck

 I completed week 3 yesterday and I am thinking I am going to veer a little off course. Week 3 I needed to run 3 minutes solid & I am really struggling with this, on the other hand though I don’t feel like I need to walk a straight 3 minutes to recover from running. I have been running 2 miles in about 23:30 so I am going to do a little of my own thing with the couch to 5K direction. I am going to try to run against the clock for the next week, sticking with 2 miles. Next week, in accordance with week 4, I am going to increase my distance to 2.5 miles, trying to still increase my time in small bits. I am also trying some compression therapy for my calves. I don’t think it is my shins that are bothering me as much as my calves. I learned this week that as you run and blood starts circulating faster and better through your body that it can tend to collect or pool in your calves. This without being counteracted is painful, very painful. So I am hoping with a little compression therapy I can help the circulation and relieve some of the pressure and pain. Let’s hope.

Sleeping has always been something I enjoyed but never really been great at. This being said I have been trying to stretch out my sleep aid prescription, so when I went yesterday to see about refilling it, I was told about melatonin. Something your body produces, usually more around evening time to make you tired and help you sleep through the night, I can take more of this in a vitamin form to help me naturally stay asleep through the night. So I thought, “why not?” I’ll give it a try, anything more natural. So last night was my trial run, I fell asleep fine & though I didn’t stay asleep all through the night, it seemed easier to fall back asleep after waking and the periods of wake seemed to be shorter. Good, right? Well Landen has not been the most soundful sleeper lately either & his waking seems to be right around 2 A.M. Landen last night moved his time to around midnight and since the hubs is on vacation I was able to encourage him to check on Landen at that time. So no 2 A.M. calls for Mama, right? Wrong! My normally quiet, sound sleeping Kora started barking right around 2. Scolding from bed didn’t work, so again Steven got up to get a quick glance that she was fine or to see what the ruckus was. She was fine & he didn’t see any reason of why she got this wild hair. So a few minutes more of listening to her bark I got up to dig around in the bathroom to see what the deal was. I was surprised, very surprised to find our aquatic pink frog trying to hide from this crazy little puppy. This frog somehow made it out of the only small hole in the fish tank lid, where the filter flows, and made it across the living room, into our room, under the bathroom door and into our bathroom, to make sure I was again awake at 2 A.M. After convincing Steven that I can’t make up a claim like this, he saved the frog from Kora, checked it over, flipped on a few lights and made sure everyone was in their appropriate beds we finally got back to sleep. 

W3D2

Whew, I could use a nap, I’m beat! I did better today with week 3, the first 3 minute cycle I only walked 10 seconds again but at the 55 second point this time, and then the second 3 minute cycle I didn’t walk but once for 10 seconds (which went by in a blink) at the 50 second point. So, over all slow progress, but it is progress & I’ll take it. My shins though are really killing me, I am going to spend the next 3 days, taking it easy, taking anti-inflammatories, using biofreeze, & staying off the beach. I hope some extra babying will help them enough to get back to running Monday, but if not I think I am looking at taking some time off from running. I will make sure to nag the hubby to air up my bicycle tires this weekend so I don’t have to be stuck in the gym if I can’t run. That or I may just spend the week working on building muscle.

W3D1

I didn’t do week three perfectly, for my first 3 minute cycle I walked for 10 seconds at the 2 minute mark and then finished jogging the last 50 seconds, then the second 3 minutes I walked 10 seconds at 1 minute and then again 15 seconds at 1:45 seconds. I feel like I still did well. Since I didn’t run the straight 3 minutes like I needed I went ahead and went to the 2 mile mark then pushed on my way back to see what my time would be for it. I did really well for me, I finished 2 miles in 23:30, making that an 11:45 mile. I am aiming to run the 5K in July in 30 minutes so I have some improving to do, but at least I am better than my starting 15 minute mile.

The First Thing I See

I had a good workout today, my calves & shins have been really bothering me (silly me won’t stay away from the beach where the sand re irritates my shins), so a strength days was needed.  The breeze was night today & I worked really hard, I tried to use my 8 pound weight more than my 6. It was a good workout.

I have noticed in the past week or so that the first thing I think when I look in a mirror now is not “I’m fat”, it’s now “I look pretty”. Not to sound conceded with saying that, but I am one of those people that I like how I look. I can now start to see the difference I have made with my weight, with my hard work. I am still not satisfied with my body, but I sure am a happier girl.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

I measured myself yesterday and even though I only just broke my weight plateau of about 5 weeks and only lost 4.2 pounds this month my measurement showed that I really did work hard this past month. Here is how I did:

                                April's Loss             Total Loss

Neck                        -.25”                      -1.25”

Arms                        -.25”                      -1”

Bust                         -1”                          -5.25”

Waist                       -1.5”                      -6.75”

Stomach                   -1.5”                      -6.5”

Hips                         -2.25”                    -9”

Butt                          -2”                        -5.5”

Thighs                     -.5”                         -3.25”

I finished my week two of the Couch to 5K training today, it felt good but I sure am worried about moving on to week 3. A 3 minute steady run may seem like nothing but to me it is a ton. I have never been able to run more than a minute straight, even in high school, nor walk/run a mile in a healthy time. I am a firm believer that runners are made not born & I am just a bit of a late bloomer, LOL. Other than that the weekend was good, I feel like my eating was not as bad as it could have been and I did not drink. A beer or glass of wine or two (or three, or four, depending on the situation) at least one weekend night is pretty normal around our house. This week I plan to enter in all my points Monday thru Friday into my Weight Watchers points calculator.

I am going to do well this week.

W2D2

A few of my muscles I worked on Tuesday are still a little sore so I decided to run again today & strength train tomorrow. So I finished my day two of week two, it was tough but I did it & it didn’t kill me. Here is a fitting picture for today.

Running Backwards W2D1 C25K

I am coming to terms with understanding that this couch to 5K journey is going to be an eventful one. :) Today I had everything ready to go, I fixed my favored timer app, had my music set, I’ve been really pampering my shin splints, I’ve been doing everything I can to push past my cold & the weather was beautiful, I was headed out for my first day of week 2, looking forward to the challenge. Challenge is what I got; I didn’t realize I programmed a 3 minute warm up timer until I was 2.5 minutes into running it & thinking “this 90 seconds is killing me!” No big deal right, I would just adapt & walk the remaining 30 seconds then walk the upcoming 90 second jogging cycle then jog the walking cycle since this week was 90 sec jog/90 sec walk. Wrong. This week was 90 sec jog followed by a 2 minute recouping walk. I kept wondering why my timer wasn’t matching up with my watch & why 90 seconds seemed to be so much harder than 60 seconds, which I jogged fairly easy last week. I pushed hard and did my best to stay on track with the training schedule though. Then it all dawned on me to verify the times. So the last 2 cycles of jogging I got everything back on track with the correct plan & finished up.

I have to say I am proud of myself though for doing my best & really pushing hard to complete today’s backwards training. I am hoping that day 2 of week 2 done properly will be easy breezy compared to today. I am also proud of myself today because it is Secretary’s Day and my boss and a co-worker got me a cup full of candies (that will probably go to Landen) and offered to take me to lunch if I wanted as well, I declined because I would rather continue spending my lunch break exercising. I didn’t take the easy way out or a day off to go eat, I made the healthy, dedicated decision & he fully understood. I may have a little glass of wine to celebrate myself tonight though. I think I deserve it today.

W1D3 C25K

I am starting to feel that something is against me in this C25K training. Today again was a struggled success, my timer app removed itself from my phone, but luckily I had more than one kind downloaded to try a few, so I just programed a different one. I didnt like this one nearly as much you really had to pay attention to the clicking & I couldnt listed to music over it. Oh well. The crazy Florida weather and decided to play a trick on those of us who were getting use to the warm weather, it was around 55-60F out and super windy, not real ideal for the cold I am now battling. All complaining aside though, my lungs didnt completely fail me today, they made it a little harder than normal but over all I finished my week 1, day 3! On to week 2 if this cold subsides or at least doesnt get any worse.

W1D2 C25K

I had no complications today, I got outside before the rain and my phone worked as my interval timer and tunes. I didnt die either! I had to push myself, reminding myself that 60 seconds would be over quicker than I knew it, and it usually was, I did well and finished the whole program today successfully today. I am looking at moving to week two with optimism.

My Arms are Noodles

Today was my strength training day. I look forward to these the most, it is easy to see my progress when I can do more reps or a new harder exercise, or for the old ones to get easier. Push-up are one of my favorite pushing and bragging points, when I started and as far back as I could remember I could never do  even one modified (on my knees) push-up. I am now working on doing regular (on my feet) push-up, and today I did 5, and then did another 20 modified push-ups. Planks are another huge pushing point, I have been doing planks for 30 seconds on my forearms and today I cranked out 45 seconds in full push-up position!!!! I’m darn proud of myself today! I tried not to over work my legs since I am pushing myself on the Couch to 5K and running is hard for me, but boy, do my arms feel like noodles. Feeling good.

W1D1 C25K

First day of my couch to 5K training was good, I don’t feel like it was overly hard & it was right with where I am with running. I had a few malfunctions with the app I was planning to use to train but I worked best I could around it & didn’t let it stop me. I did 1.5 miles in just under 30 minutes, so I think that is pretty good to start out with. I didn’t feel right just stopping with my 30 minutes of cardio so I of course had to get some strength training in there, so I put some extra effort into my core. I did a variation of 150 crunches and then a 45 second plank, which is my best time yet! Yea! I have been topping out around 30-35 seconds with it & would love to work my way up to a minute, so here’s to move on up.  I also decided to just use an interval HIIT timer which I preprogrammed and tested, so I should be set to rock & roll tomorrow.

I am Active & Excited

I’m excited. I’m excited today for my workout. Boy, I never thought I would say that! I’m excited today for more than just my workout though, I have set some new goals and changed a few things around for me. I have been doing great with my weight loss, I FINALLY broke under 200!!! It has been years since I have been under 200 & not struggled to stay there. But, now that I am here I am stuck between 197 & 199. I have hit a plateau of almost 5 weeks now. I have not lost motivation or determination; I have tried several things to break it. Working out harder, eating more, eating less, but I remain stuck. I do know that a little part of it is gaining muscle I didn’t have before, which I am so proud of but most of it is just being stuck. Well, I’m DONE! I’ve put on the gloves and am determined to get over this hump.

I have put the scale away in the closet so I don’t have to face the same daily frustrating weigh in. In the last 30 pounds I would weight myself every day for a guide of how I was doing since I wasn’t counting calories or tracking much. I will pull it back out when I do my 1^st of the month measurements.

I have also started back with tracking my diet with Weight Watchers, since it has worked well for me in the past. Since I have been cutting out a lot of processed foods and all wheat I didn’t know if I would be able to make enough Points daily for the program to work. I think after really looking at it and giving it the time, it is going to work just fine for me, maybe even give me a little more freedom. I don’t mind either keeping up with the Weight Watchers Points, but I hate counting every tedious calorie.

The thing I am most excited about is I have planned to run my first 5K on July 4, it is the Independence Celebration run, how fitting, right?! I am starting a couch to 5K program today since I am not a runner and will be aiming for a 30 minute 5K by July. I have 11 weeks to build myself up. It is a big goal but I want something I have to push myself to strive for. I though am not going to be disappointed if I don’t do a 30 minute 5K, I am just going to be thrilled to actually RUN it. Then, in mid August the Hubs and I are planning on doing a 5K mud run. It looks a little intimidating to me, but in a good way. If I could finish the mud run and all the challenging obstacles, that would be the ultimate accomplishment.

So, I’m excited, I’m motivated, I’m encouraged, I’m driven and excited proud.

New Things are Happening

I have started a new way of life, a new way of knowing and understanding food and tried to cut out a lot of unnatural things from not only our family diet but also our lives. It has been an exciting journey so far & I am excited to keep going.

I will start off with the most exciting part of this new life, getting healthier & stronger. I have changed my way of thinking and my visions of stride. Healthy is the new skinny. Instead of striving to look like a current actress or skinny girl, I am aspiring to be like the girl at the gym that can do pull ups, crank out push-ups with perfect form, enjoys cardio, has great flexibility and eats and drinks clean. I want to be strong. I have already done things physically I could never do. I can do 20 push-ups (on my knees, working my way up though) when I could not do one, I can do a 30 second front & side planks and my back doesn’t hate me the next day, I enjoy my cardio – youtube zumba right now or walking, and best of all I have energy after 30-45 minutes of cardio then 20-30 minutes of strength training I still pep through making dinner, washing dishes/house work/ enjoying Landen, getting Landen in bed and can enjoy my evening with my love. I can work hard without dying.

Eating healthy has been fun as well. It has been exciting to try new things & not be scared of calories. Now when I turn a product over I look at the ingredients first not how many calories it has. I don’t mind 300 calories when it consists of fruits, veggies and is packed with protein. I am really proud of what I eat on a daily basis. Fruits and veggies don’t stick around our house too long anymore. I find myself running to the store weekly to refill fresh items that we have ran out of. I have tried new things that I never thought of trying before, that I didn’t even really know were out there & so great for you. Some of our favorites have been star fruit, kale, almond milk, flaxseed, cacao powder, bee pollen, raw apple cider vinegar and tofu.

We have also added some new gadgets to our kitchen.  My favorites have been my ninja blender; it is so easy to use and easy to clean. Now it takes mere seconds to chop vegetables so there is no trouble adding them to our meal due to laziness, and the options for smoothies are endless. One of the best gifts I ever received. I also love my juicer, I have never even thought about getting a juicer, we are not big on juice anyways. But if I could have juice that is not full of sugar, packed with fresh nutrients, free of preservatives and fills me up – I’m game. Carrot juice right now is easy, there is a lot more juice in a carrot than I thought, and it’s cheap, add an apple or orange and bam an instant after work, guilt free pick me up or a late night satisfaction.  A few other things that are not everyday gadgets but super fun to have are our dehydrator, we made some peach, pear, mango and banana pieces to add to flavor up oatmeal or yogurt or just for a snack. We also made some granola bars; they are coconut, date, oats, and nuts bars & are the perfect snack, just enough crunchiness and a slight sweetness to tame that growling belly. These I don’t think are going to last a full week in our house. Lastly our guilty pleasure is our ice cream maker, though not so guilty. It is amazing knowing just what is put into your ice cream, frozen yogurt or sherbet. It doesn’t get too much easier than strawberries, water and sugar or other sweetener.

I am proud of what I am eating and doing now. {Today’s menu: breakfast - ½ cup oatmeal made with almond milk and dried peaches, lunch – purple cabbage and eggs, snack – cucumber and 2 oranges, and for dinner I’m thinking cauliflower pizza.}

As well as changing what I am eating, I have changed items around our house to more natural items. I have jumped on the no “poo” bandwagon and stopped using conventional shampoo and conditioner. I now use baking soda to wash and vinegar to condition my hair so it can natural cares for itself. This is one of the best things I’ve cut out, my hair takes very little styling now and doesn’t frizz in the humidity like it use to. We have stopped buying store made laundry soap but instead started using a very natural and economical homemade mixture, with a few scent beads thrown in. We have started using fabric napkins around the house, though we keep a roll of disposable ones for events or times then it should just be thrown away. This is a major cost savings not to mention less disposable waste. Lastly we have been recycling, which seems like a common thing, but fairly new to us. We actually started not mainly for environmental reasons but because we wouldn’t use as many trash bags therefore saving us money. It does feel good though to use more natural items and to be cleaner, personally and for the world.

More changes and discoveries to come.

Meal time is a little different now

Meal time is a little different around our house now. About 4 weeks ago I had a bad allergic reaction to something; we weren’t sure what though. It started with my ears, they started itching and swelling and then my legs started itching and developing little bumps. By the time I made it home from work it was starting to spread even more, my arms, my neck, my chest, anywhere that would not be covered by shorts and a tank top. Strange. This was Monday that the itching started so we were thinking back on the weekend and the only time I wore shorts and a tank top was to cut the grass Saturday morning. That was a difference in 48 hours though, but we were thinking that it took a while to “bake” in. We couldn’t think of ANYTHING else. Tuesday morning I woke up to my eyes being swollen with what looked and felt like a burn under them, and everything else was worse than the day before. So after dropping off The Boy at school I headed to the ER to see what they could do to help me. They gave me the typical steroid, in pill form, which would take about 48 hours to kick in, so only about 48 more hours of this torture. Wrong!  It did get better, a lot better but it did not go away. All the swelling went down around the 48 hour mark and a lot of the bumps went away, but I still itched, constantly.

Week two, I headed back to talk to a family practice doctor to see what I can do to get this to get better or when I should expect to get better because we are still thinking it was something I came into contact with. The Doc told me to go back to anything I changed, which was nothing, and gave me some medicine to help with the itching temporarily, but I would need to slowly do some detective work to figure out what I reacted to. She also gave me a blood test to check me for allergins that I could have inhaled or came in contact with, such as, grass, pets, woods, etc. The results came back stating that I only had a slight allergy to cockroach, which I already knew. She said with confidence that it will clear up soon that we may never know what I reacted to. I changed and washed everything that week with still not much relief.

So, week three back to the doctor, a different one, still in my same clinic to discuss this detective work a bit more. By this time the itchy rash had subsided to my knees and lower legs primarily and occasionally on my wrist. I asked the Doc about the possibility of it being a skin rash not an allergic reaction to something, especially with the weird locations of the rash, she said that it was defiantly an allergic reaction and could be something I was eating. But at every meal or every day? I still didn’t have a time when I didn’t itch, it just wasn’t as intense. So she put in a referral to an allergist to have the reaction more closely looked at, but said to expect 2-3 weeks for it to process. So I left with not much hope I would stop itching anytime soon.

The only thing that that started about the time I start itching was an increase in my Coke & Pepsi intake, but are people really allergic to cola? I don’t drink caffeine after 1600 if I help it so I can’t figure out why I was itching so badly a night if I had cola only during the day or in the morning. With a little research it seemed farfetched, allergic to cola, Coke or Pepsi products, or caffeine, really? Farfetched & silly. So I figured I would just wait to see the allergist.

Lying in bed one night after having Olive Garden for dinner and then a beer afterwards I started feeling really sick, maybe dinner didn’t agree with me. Then a light bulb went off! Wheat, could it be wheat? It is in just about every meal we eat and is even in the caramel coloring in coke. The symptoms seemed to fit mine perfectly. So the next morning, at the 10 day mark I called to check on the allergist and it had just been processed, so I got the office information and call right away to make an appointment. What great news, an end is in sight. When I called to make the appointment I expected a week maybe 2 or 3 to see to Doc but the offered me an appointment that same afternoon. Who was I to refuse! What a great birthday present, a means to an end is now within my reach.

During my visit I was asked all the expected questions, what have you changed, what have you ate new, that have you been doing or going? I didn’t even have to mention my suspension of a wheat reaction; he recommended that I drastically reduce my wheat intake, including cutting out coke & beer.  So a little worried I wouldn’t be able to eat anything I left his office with some hope that I wouldn’t itch much longer.

A week later being on a gluten-free diet, I do feel better. I itch VERY LITTLE, my ears still itch here & there, but it seems like even that is solving its self. I have had great support from my family with this transition. Meals around my house are a little different, it takes a little more planning to bring my meals with me to work and snacking is a bit harder but I am eating better again and feeling better. I even had a monthly cycle, this may not seem like much, but I haven’t had one since I had gotten pregnant with The Boy, three years ago, and even then they were forced with medicine. I am also on the Depo-shot & have been for two years now, so it is expected that monthly cycles don’t show up at all. This is all either my body in shock or breathing a sigh of relief.

Since everyone asks “so what gluten-free mean you can’t have” here is a small list of the major ones I am finding a little challenging to adjust to:

Beer, pizza, bread, pasta, cake, cookies, muffins, pancakes, breaded fried items, soy sauce, dressings & condiments (ranch, bbq sauce, teriyaki sauce, syrup, etc), prepared & processed foods (seasoned packets of rice, lunch meat, hotdogs, sausage, seasoning mixes, etc.), cereals, crackers, flour tortillas, some chips, prepared coffee drinks, breadcrumbs (meatballs, meatloaf, meatrolls), some milk chocolates and candies, any dark cola, baked beans.

What I CAN have though:

Rice, potatoes, gluten-free cereals (chex and rice crispies have some), bread made with rice or potato flour (tends to have a dryer/stale kind of consistency) meats, dairy, oatmeal, corn and potato chips, corn tortillas, vegetables, fruits, things that come in a natural state and can be prepared at home.

Homemade Monday #4

This week is another work in progress, The Boy's room. I am going for a colorful transportation theme, this past week I was able to get a little work done in there due to a major allergic reaction I had. I was confined to the house due to my spots, puffy face, spots and medicine. Here are just a few pictures.

Handmade Monday (Christmas Project) #3

This week has been a busy whirlwind of production. I chickened out on trying the finger crocheting and went with trying the huge Q-19 needle. I have fallen in love with it, it makes such fluffy, large blankets, quickly too.  I made this blanket to cross off my Christmas list.





I have also been working on a few side projects, a pink & brown giraffe that is still in too many pieces to recognize and a hound dog pillow for The Boy for Christmas. The hound is also still in progress, his legs are made & read to be sewn on but I needed a break from him & they haven’t been attached yet. I hope to do that this week.   

Yet to be finished

We continued to work on our new kitchen furniture and cleaned what was getting to be our very ‘lived in’ house. I thought it would be easier to get down on the floor and scrub all the floors by hand since The Boy insisted on using the shark (steam mop), so I figured getting us both a bucket of water and a sponge would let him help and let me be productive, but now my knees look like I’ve taken a good stumble. He had fun; I didn’t think to ask The Hubs to get any pictures of my little Mr. Cinderella.

I also thought it was time to go through all my coupons. I had about 5 weeks of coupons sitting in stacks, some still in their Sunday papers. I buy 4 papers every week so they start taking over pretty quickly. I have tried several ways of organizing them and storing them & nothing seemed to fit my needs and style. I have seen the file whole inserts by week, use an index box, use baseball cards and tried them all.

The file by week left me with stacks of papers lying around the house & not really knowing what I had, the indexing box would have worked better if I wanted to staple my sets of coupons or if I only bought one paper.

And then there’s the baseball card binder, I used this for a while, even got a special bag to carry it all, ‘all’ meaning what seemed like 10 pounds of it. It was taking me too long to cut all the coupons, fold them and stuff the card inserts, I started dreading Sundays, hence the papers piling up.

Then it hit me, a new way of doing things.

I pulled out all the pages from my inserts that had even one coupon I wanted on it, chucked the rest of the pages (before I would have kept them for a just in case there’s a blow out sale on something I don’t even use, but could make $0.05 on), took me a whole 5 minutes or so. Bought a binder & some regular document protectors, slipped all my pages in & bam! Organized- enough for me, clean, tidy & quick, what more could a girl ask for. I don’t make quick trips into stores in hopes of an unadvertised sale, so I don’t need it to be portable, and I don’t mind looking through it and pulling the coupons as I need them. Perfect! I also added a few baseball sheets to the front for coupons I get in the mail, at the store or clip and don’t use. I am using a few tag post-its to remind me of coupons I don’t want to forget to use as well.

I already planned a large shopping trip & it took me no longer than any other way would have. I think I may have found my fix.

Here is a shopping trip I did not too long ago to help inspire.

All this stuff today for….ready?......$6.76!!!!​!!!!! Summary, (2) men dove deodorant, (2) sargento shredded cheese, a cool blue listerine mouthwash, (4) tostitos chips, (9) bags of frozed veggies, (2) oral-b power toothbrushes, a large bottle of contact solution, (2) Lysol toilet bowl cleaners, (2) fab laundry detergents, and a womans secret deodorant!