No Turning Back

In approximately 22 days, I'm going to turn 30. I know what you're all thinking: "No way is Erin almost 30! She's gotta be only 25 or so!" That IS what you were thinking, right? I thought so. :)

Anyway, I am not really at all depressed about turning 30. In fact, I'm kind of excited. It's a whole new decade, a whole new phase of life. I thoroughly enjoyed my twenties, so why shouldn't my thirties be the same? Plus, I'm going into my 30th year probably in better health than I was when I turned 20! I decided that I needed to celebrate this milestone in some special way, but I wasn't sure what to do. Stephen and I are going on a little trip to St. Louis, but we'll be back before my actual birthday, and I still wanted to do something to mark the day I turn 30.

Finally I figured out what that "something" will be. I signed up for a 4 mile race! This race, to be precise. I considered doing a 5k but then saw this race and thought I would challenge myself even more and go for the 4 mile distance! I've never run in a 4 miler before, and I don't even think there are that many races offered in that distance, so I'm seizing the opportunity. I registered today so there's no turning back! I can't change my mind. I may finish dead last (which is looking like a real possibility at the moment, with only 7 people registered), but I am going to finish and be PROUD.

Look out, 30, I'm coming for you!

Link Love

I thought I'd start posting links to blog posts or websites that I happen to be enjoying during the week, in case something I see might interest any of my readers. I can't promise I'll do this with any regular frequency, but that's kind of the theme of my blog lately: all kinds of nothing with unpredictable patterns of frequency. :)  And while we're on the subject of the theme of my blog, a big thank you to all of you who commented on my last post. I have such smart, encouraging readers! I was especially encouraged by something Andrea said in her comment: " But maybe you don't even have to write for others... you can just do it for yourself." This is it, exactly! If this blog stops becoming something I enjoy and something I write for myself, then what's the point?

Anyway, on to the links!

1. Stephen and I watched a documentary called 180 the other night and were really intrigued and moved by it. The documentary is done by Ray Comfort, a theologian, and his approach to abortion and the way he dialogues with those he encounters in the film is really provocative. It's about 30 minutes long and well worth your time.  Click here to see it.

2. I loved this fun tutorial from Kayla on creating fun rosette and ribbon designs on basic onesies! It's just too bad I can't sew and therefore will continue to dress Charlotte in all store-bought, unoriginal clothing. And Kayla's blog is one of my favorite mom blogs, so check it out!

3. I also thought this tutorial on making a fall wreath was super fun. For a moment I too believed that I could create a craft. But then reality set in. I did not inherit the crafty gene, people.

4. Gypsy Mama's most recent post about how she wants to be known by her kids blew me away. I love reading her thoughts on motherhood.

5.  Jen's entry about entitlement eating set off all kinds of bells in my head because I do this ALL. THE. TIME. It's ridiculous. I'm sure no one else can relate to eating a donut after going for a run, though, right? I thought so. :)

6. And if anyone is looking for something to buy me for Christmas, I would love one of these. I mean seriously, how awesome is that?


Hopefully you saw something you liked in the links! Leave me a comment and tell me some of your favorite links from this week.

Stuck

So I kind of don't know what to do with this blog. I'm having a blog identity crisis, I guess. I don't really feel much like writing about weight loss since I'm not weighing very frequently and even when I do, I'm not having dramatic losses. It's kind of hard to have a "weight loss blog" without the weight loss, don't you think? I also am struggling with the fact that in January, I will have been blogging about losing weight for four years. Is that inspiring? I mean, who wants to read about a woman who's been trying to lose weight for the better part of FOUR YEARS and still hasn't reached her goal? I'm pretty sure that timeline of progress is not going to get me on a talk show anytime soon, unless the topic is slowest losers.

The other thing I blog about most is Charlotte, and while I of course love posts about Charlotte, I'm not foolish enough to think everyone else is completely enamored with my daughter. I worry about posting too much about her and boring everyone (although let's face it, she's the cutest thing on the face of the earth, and no, I'm not biased).

So where does this leave me?

I have no idea.

What does everyone think?

Life Lately

Charlotte is growing and changing SO much. She's started sleeping through the night for about 12 hour stretches (Praise the Lord!), and she's so happy to see us in the morning. She is rolling all around and has discovered that being on her belly is not the torture she previously acted like it was. She even (gasp!) sleeps on her belly now. She also randomly gets stuck underneath our bed when she rolls all about the bedroom, haha.

She recently tried sweet potatoes for the first time, and we got the moment on video. It's pretty hilarious.

She didn't like them, and she still doesn't really love them. She does seem to like carrots okay, and next is butternut squash.

I've also introduced her to the sippy cup, with mixed results. She loves to hold it and bang it on her high chair (who wouldn't love that), and she loves to put it in her mouth (as she does with everything), but she hasn't quite figured out how to get the liquid out of it.

She's even begun to have tea parties:

 

And she still falls asleep sometimes while eating: 

I could not love that little face more.  Life lately? It's glorious.

Biting the Bullet

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on my scale dilemma (pun obnoxiously intended). I'm sure you're wondering what I decided (and if you're not wondering, too bad because I'm telling you anyway!).  Well, I did it. I bit the bullet.

I weighed myself on Saturday.

Weight on Aug. 24: 190.2

Weight on Sept. 17: 188.8
LOSS of 1.4 pounds

I have to be honest: I was completely relived to find out I didn't gain 5 pounds! While losing 1.4 pounds over a 3.5 week period is nothing to brag about, I am just glad I lost anything.

However...

Clearly this experiment of staying away from the scale did not work for me, and that's okay. I guess I'm not quite ready to let go of the scale. But I don't want that silly little number to have the power to affect my mood, so I'm still going to limit how often I weigh. I think what I've decided is that I'm going to weigh on the first of the month and the fifteenth of the month. That way I won't go more than 2 weeks between weigh-ins and won't be weighing so frequently that I get obsessed. I'm hoping this middle ground will work for me and help me focus on what really matters in this weight loss journey: being healthy. I'm still working on my healthy habits, and I think that renewed focus on those coupled with routine check-ins on the scale will get me to my goal weight, sooner rather than later.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some fruit to eat. :)

My Scale Hiatus: An Update

It has been 22 days since I last weighed myself. (For the record, I haven't been keeping a daily count. I just counted up the days for this post.)

To be honest, I don't think this experiment is going very well. That whole healthy habits checklist I created? Haven't looked at it on most days. I also haven't been exercising regularly, nor have I been tracking my food. I have done pretty well getting enough water and fiber, but those were things I was already doing on a regular basis. Most mornings I remember to eat fruit, but I haven't done as well at lunch and dinner.

And to be honest, the degree to which I feel bad about this lack of success varies on a daily basis. I have enjoyed not weighing in. I have enjoyed not being obsessed with all things healthy. But I haven't enjoyed feeling like I am fat and always will be. I haven't enjoyed thinking about the fact that I will be 30 next month and would like some new clothes, but I don't want to buy them from the plus size section.

Am I healthier than I was 4 years ago? Without a doubt. But am I healthier than I was one or two years ago? Definitely not. Apparently unless I am weighing myself or obsessing, I do a really lousy job of being healthy. So what do I do? I have no idea. I kind of want to weigh myself to give myself a good kick in the pants, but I don't know if that would motivate me or just depress me.

For today, I'm just trying to get all of the things on my checklist checked off. Fruit with breakfast and veggies with lunch. Lots of water and fiber. Logging my calories.

Tomorrow I'll do the same. And maybe, hopefully, somehow, the healthy habits will actually become just that--HABITS, and not something I have to always think about.

To weigh or not to weigh? That is the question.

Meeting Erika

Last Wednesday, September 7, my sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, my niece Erika Nicole! So this weekend we naturally went to Memphis to see her!

 

 

Doesn't she have the most kissable cheeks??  And you'll notice that she has just as much hair as Charlotte did when she was born, so clearly it runs in the family.  Erika slept the whole time we were there, and apparently she does that most of the time. I wouldn't know what it's like to have a newborn like that, since newborn Charlotte wasn't fond of sleeping but preferred fussing, except when visitors were over.  Of course then she was a perfect angel. :) Charlotte was quite interested in Erika, and when I sat her next to Erika, she decided she wanted to play with her feet.  It was too cute.  I am so excited that Charlotte will have a cousin who is just 6 months younger than her. It will be so fun to see them grow up together!

We also took Charlotte to get her 6 month pictures taken at JC Penney, since I got a great deal on Groupon.  Most of the time, Charlotte is very smiley and happy, so I was looking forward to capturing some of those great smiles on camera. But for whatever reason, the minute we got into that studio, she decided she was through smiling for the day.  It would have been comical to see a tape of my mom, Stephen, and I all trying to get her to smile because we looked like complete goofballs.  We managed to get a few smiles out of her and ended up with some cute pics, but we couldn't get her to smile in any of the pictures with Stephen and me.  Oh well, such is life with an infant!  I couldn't figure out how to post the album on my blog, but if you're my friend on Facebook you can find the link there.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Charlotte at 6 Months

Have I really been a mother for half a year already? It hardly seems possible. I think I fall more in love with Charlotte every day. Her personality is really starting to come out now. She is super observant and doesn't miss a thing. She loves watching people's faces and is curious about everything around her. She's not quick to laugh, but when she does laugh she does it with her whole spirit. She smiles with her eyes as well as her mouth. Her daddy can make her laugh more than just about anyone/anything else. Her eyes light up when we pick her up from daycare. She knows we love her and that we are hers, and she is ours.

The fact that God chose her for us and us for her still blows me away. I feel blessed each day I wake up and see her sweet face smiling up at me.

At 6 months, Charlotte:

• weighs 17 pounds, 11 ounces (almost 11 pounds more than she weighed at birth and between the 75th and 90th percentile!)
• is 27 inches long (in the 90th percentile)
• has a head with a 45 cm cicrumfrence (95th percentile-haha. Her head has to be big enough to hold her genius brain.)
• wears 6-9 month clothes
• still loves jumping in her Jumperoo
• grins and squeals and babbles more than ever
• has outgrown her beloved bouncer (sniff sniff) and has upgraded to this fabulous seat
• has begun eating oatmeal with true gusto and is going to graduate to veggies this weekend when Mommy has time to make some for her
• has learned that a bottle contains food and now opens her mouth really wide and wiggles her arms and legs furiously when she sees it
• still wakes up randomly in the middle of the night but is learning how to put herself back to sleep because her cruel parents are letting her work it out on her own
• can sit up unassisted for several minutes before toppling forward or backward
• is known as Char, Char Mar, Squirmy Wormy, Roley Poley, Munchkin, Lil' Bit
• has mastered rolling from back to tummy and tummy to back 
• has two bottom teeth (which arrived on September 4, the very day she turned 6 months old!)
• is the most wonderful, adorable blessing that we can't begin to deserve. 

One Measure of Success

I measured myself two nights ago and wasn't particularly thrilled with the numbers, but then I found a happy surprise when I logged on to SparkPeople to record my measurements: I'd measured myself back on June 15, and since then I've already lost some inches! 

Since June 15, I've lost:

• 2 inches from my waist
• 2 inches from my hips
• 3/4 inch from my thighs
• 1 1/2 inches from my arms
• 1/2 inch each from my chest and bust

Granted, these aren't huge numbers, but I am really excited to see that I've made some progress in this area and hope to see a lot more progress over the next few months. I'm not quite comfortable with posting my actual measurements on here yet, but I am planning to measure myself at the end of every month and will update my blog with the results, good or bad!

If you're trying to lose weight, I strongly encourage you to take measurements of your body. It can be an encouragement when the scale isn't moving in the direction you'd like, and it can be a motivator to work harder as well. For me, it's one of the few ways I have to gauge my progress since I'm on a scale hiatus, and I hope it helps me stay focused!