There is nothing wrong with you exactly the way you are.

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It may not be pretty but we’re getting it done.

I recently watched this incredibly compelling presentation. And I wanted to talk about the fact that you have the right to look however you want to look. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked “female”. Pretty isn’t going to get this done, anyway. It’s not going to protect your kids from strangers, it’s not going to make you a fun grandma, and it sure as heck is not the measure of your character.

I don’t have a daughter but I don’t think that matters. My relationship with myself is going to set the bar for how my boys view women. I want them to see us as strong, capable, intelligent human beings. I want them to grow up and respect everyone, regardless of how “pretty” or not they are. I want them to understand that attractiveness and value are not the same, regardless of your gender. I am really not sure exactly how to do that, but I am going to start by working hard at being STRONG. I’m going to break up with my fat pants. I’m going to think in terms of healthful and unhealthful, not slim and heavy.

I pledge not to measure myself by how any celebrity looks in her swimsuit, and also not to value HER by how she looks in her swimsuit. I will not compare my journey to anyone else’s. I will offer a helping hand whenever I can. We are all in this together. Let us leave no one behind.

Please join me. Today, let’s eat our vegetables in the interest of being the oldest lady anyone knows, not of looking “good” in a swimsuit. Let’s lift some weights and do some plyometric exercises so we can jump on the trampoline with our teenagers someday. Let’s celebrate ourselves, our lives, and our families in all their glorious, beautiful, imperfection. You are not a marble sculpture. Your beauty comes from the love that shines out of you. LET IT SHINE.

Day: 64
The scale has moved: -15 lbs (50% of my goal!)
The inches have changed: -16.75 inches (and my waist hip ratio is now a “healthy” 0.8!)
I feel: AMAZING. Loved. Just fine the way I am.
I’ve walked: 80.77 miles and counting!

Roast Beast

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Ian got a “red” (that’s a poor behavior report) at school today (near as I can tell for a terminal case of “getting on his teacher’s last nerve”) which meant no TV or computer, so he had time to make this lovely meatloaf for our dinner. Apparently he approves of everything but the name, because he keeps referring to it as “roast beast.”

Roast Beast

  • 1 pound ground “meatloaf mix”
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Worcester seasoning (not the sauce, they sell this next to the pepper.)
  • 3 Tablespoons dried onion flakes
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 8 ounces no-sugar added tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
  • 1 Tablespoon dijon style mustard
  1. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix with a potato masher. Be sure to describe each step of the process using as many construction metaphors as you can think of. (Apparently, tomato sauce looks like concrete when you pour it.)
  2. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and pat mixture down evenly. Using a silicone spatula, sign your name on your work.
  3. Bake at 375 for 1 hour.
  4. Enjoy together as a family.

Naturally, the master craftsman signs his work.

Overheard

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Me: Ian, wait for me before you go out the door. I hate it when you are on the sidewalk before I even pull the door shut.
Michael: Yes, we have to keep track of you.
Ian: But, Mommy, I will fight any strangers!
Me: Listen, baby, first choice is nobody has to fight any strangers. Second choice is Mommy fights them. So wait for me.
Ian: (Showing his moves) But Mommy, I am a good fighter! I will go pow pow pow pow pow pow
Me: Yes, very good, honey, but Mommy is bigger. And a lot meaner.
Michael: Dude. You have no idea how true that is.
Me: So if there are any bad strangers, I will fight them. Copy? I fight them, you run home and get Daddy.
Ian: COPY!

No 7 Week Itch here!

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I have finished seven weeks of my workout and healthy eating overhaul. (If you look up at the top right of my homepage, you’ll see that this now has it’s own page, titled “Project STRONGER!”) This week, I started the 10 lb Slimdown Xtreme and also had a nasty stomach virus, just to keep things interesting. (We wouldn’t want me to get bored and quit, now would we?) Which was fun because it was an opportunity for my motivation and my perfectionism to have a cage match showdown in my head.

The fact that I had to take a day off my plan on account of illness was not a decision, it was simply a given. I could barely function, let alone work out, even Yoga.  The issue came the NEXT day, when I was on day 6 of my week and day 5 of my plan. Which didn’t matter much because I wasn’t up to the full workout in any case, so I did a short day of yoga and planned to continue the workouts in sequence, skip the rest day (since I’d already had one) and keep going. Which totally doesn’t work. (I’d have been doing the same workout two days in a row.)

So now I’m on Day 7, week 1, of the plan, and I’m on day 8 of my week. (Also known as week 8, day 1 of this project.) See my problem? Not only isn’t it enough time to show I care, It makes me feel like I left the windshield wipers up in the middle of the windshield when I turned off the car. NEVER do that. It’s very disconcerting.

I’m trying not to let myself ruin this for myself, though, so I’m just going to roll with it. What do you do if you have a “sick day” in your workout plan? Do you skip over that day’s planned workout, pick up on the next workout in the plan, or rearrange the workouts on your list so you get them all in by the original end date, whatever that may be? I’ll have to see if I can deal with having it take me 29 (or more) days to complete a 28 day workout plan.

Monday Progress Report:

I feel like I should specify here that I’m tracking my TOTAL progress. So when I say + or -, I mean vs. day 1, not since my last progress report. It helps me to keep the big picture in mind, so I don’t get discouraged on weeks where progress is smaller.

Day: 57
The scale has moved: -14 lbs
The inches have changed: -15 inches
I feel: Grateful not  to have been sicker.
I’ve walked: 66.7 miles and counting!

Recuperating

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Sweetly, so sweetly, infecting us all…

For the purpose of getting over our stomach bug, we are mostly taking things easy (if by “easy” you mean I did 40 minutes of kickboxing but skipped my walk in favor of steam cleaning the carpet… hm. I may need a tutorial on “taking it easy.”) and trying to clean anything that might be contaminated with our germs.

Also, our appetites are not completely back to normal so I’m mostly eating soup and smoothies. I made a blueberry chocolate smoothie I found here that (surprise!) has spinach in it. It doesn’t taste like spinach at all and features my very favorite Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder. I did tweak it just a bit to suit my taste, so my final recipe was:

Dark Chocolate Blueberry Smoothie with (Surprise!) Spinach

  • 1.5 oz fresh spinach (I used the food scale- you could measure 2 cups as in the original recipe, but I’m never sure how tightly to pack them. I used regular spinach rather than baby with no problem.)
  • 1 Tablespoon sweetener
  • 2 Tablespoons Special Dark Cocoa Powder
  • 1 scoop unflavored protein powder (or 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt or silken tofu works too)
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup cold coffee (intensifies the dark chocolate flavor. You can certainly use decaf if you prefer.)

Blend until smooth.

This smoothie was very thick and delicious. I enjoyed it more the longer I drank it! I have a friend who is a Dagoba chocolates fan, like myself, who has ideas about experimenting with adding some lavender to this smoothie to mimic her favorite chocolate bar. Hopefully she will report back on her progress!

 Thank you www.metaphoricalplatypus.com and thepinkpeppercorn for making your images available via Flickr Creative Commons.

Overheard

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It’s bath time and when I stripped Keeghan for the tub, he ran away laughing, which is adorable and heartwarming because, after all, nothing sounds happier than a baby laughing. I was slowly following when I heard Ian shout, “Mommy, Keeghan’s peeing.” followed in a few seconds by the matter-of-fact update “now he’s putting his hand in it.”

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Bath time is AWESOME.

I have chosen the right life.

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A nasty stomach bug knocked us on our tushies yesterday. Except for Keeghan who had it about 24 hours before the rest of us. At any rate, what could have been a hideous nightmare turned into a peculiarly beautiful family bonding experience. Unable to do much of anything at all, we spent an entire day together. As wretched as I felt, I enjoyed spending the day with my dudes. Under any other circumstances, what went on here yesterday would have been absolutely horrific parenting, but we muddled through somehow, all as happy as our respective miseries would allow us to be. I hope this bug spares your family.

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Progress Photos

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Ian has a new game, where I stick my arms out and he climbs up me and then slides down. He loves it and I have to admit it’s cute and fun but I feel like I should caution him never to try this on anyone who isn’t expecting it… particularly since I once tried to jump on my babysitter, Jane, when she came to pick me up to go see the Nutcracker, and I thought for years that I had broken her back. I was probably his age at the time.

“Mommy, that’s me, climbed ALL the way up.”

I realize we have been a bit slap-dash about these this week. Next week I’m sure we’ll do better. Or else, we will do worse and you’ll look back on these and they’ll look good in comparison. Either way, really. Oh, and if you have a short attention span or you missed them yesterday, here are this week’s stats. Also, that’s about as close as I’ll be getting to New Year’s Resolutions, so have fun with that.

I want to take a moment to shout about my workout buddy Jenn, who is doing SO AMAZINGLY WELL! She is about to outstrip me on every metric which is only remarkable because she has been sick for basically the entire holiday season. Instead of using that as an excuse to curl up with as much cake as she could eat, she has been super careful about what she eats and she looks AMAZING in her New Year’s Eve photos!