You're 8

1/26/11


My Dearest Shawna,


Today is your birthday and you’re 8 years old. We’ve been looking forward to this day for months and it’s finally here.


I am so blessed you are my daughter. My heart bursts with happiness and love when I’m around you. You are a treasure.


We enjoy snuggling on the couch together, giving each other lots of kisses. We play thumb wars and you win! We enjoy our cooking shows and plan meals we’ll make together. If you don’t grow up to be a “Foody” I’ll be totally surprised. You’re almost never afraid to try a new food plus you eat as much as one grown man.


You’re also my mini-me. People often tell us we look alike. As a child I was a chatterbox just like you. I made friends with everyone, adults and children, no matter where I was. You are the same.


People tell me all the time how sweet and cute you are. Teachers and other mom’s at school love your hugs, they love receiving your compliments on their perfume, clothes or hair. You notice and comment on details other children your age don’t think about mentioning.


You enjoy coloring and doing art projects using Bendaroos, crayons and markers. Scissors are also fun. Our refrigerator, your bedroom, my bedroom and many other places around the house are often adorned with your lovely artwork.


Bling and accessorizing is YOUR thing. Your wrists normally sport no less than 5 bracelets or Funny Bands at any given time. You like fake tattoo’s, nail polish, fancy scarves, shorts & summer dresses in the winter, and fancy shoes. Thankfully you’ll wear boots but socks aren’t your thing.


Neatness is also not your thing. I joke how I know where you’ve been by what’s on the floor. However, this week in anticipation of your birthday party at our house, where you told me our house has to be REALLY clean, you’ve been especially good about keeping your room tidy and neat and I love you for that. I love how you want to make a good impression for your friends.


For your 8th birthday you get an American Girl doll. First you looked in the catalogue we had at the house, than we looked online together. You have blond hair and green eyes. The only green eyed AG doll has bangs. You do not like bangs and made sure that I knew you do not want a doll with bangs. This does not surprise me since you may remember how when you were 3.5 years old you decided you no longer wanted bangs so you removed them completely with a pair of scissors, much to your father’s dismay, who found you that way. So your AG doll will be blond with blue eyes and layered hair, no bangs, per your choice.


I’m the luckiest Mommy in the world to have my Shawna girl. Thank you so much for being my daughter.


Love, Mom

XOXO

1/20/11 diet status

~ Recap

Day 10 - 145.8

AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Lunch: Shredded pork, lettuce, and tomato
Today I had a lunch meeting for our employee activities committee. They had tortilla shells with shredded pork and all the fixin's, but I restrained and just ate the pork (not a meat choice ON the diet btw), lettuce and chopped tomato and a water.
Dinner: Chicken, asparagus, wine, WW bar, 2 string cheese, 2 pieces wheat bread w/cream cheese

Yeah, do you see what I did there? I OVER ATE.  I let my cravings get the better of me and ate bad things. haha
But, the scale didn't move!  Also, I made 36 chocolate cookies for my 4th graders Treat Day tomorrow and didn't even eat one. Go me!  It was tempting, but I restrained. See, I have some will power.


Day 11 - 145.8

AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Snack: Chinese cookie - A coworker offered me a tiny cute square Chinese cookie.  I felt bad declining (cuz hello!  It's a cookie) I'm counting that as my carb for lunch.  It has sesame seeds on it.  Yum.
Lunch: Spring lettuce, rice wine vinegar, apple, chicken
Dinner: TBD
I have to pick up Paula from volleyball practice tonight at 7:30pm.  Normally on late nights I'm better and don't overeat.  The more I'm in my house, the worse I am.  Heh. 

I drank much more water yesterday like I hoped I would.  I'm going to do that again today.

More of my unique HCG (not really) diet stats

Recap ~ Day 9 - 146.0

AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Lunch: See picture below. That was lunch. Spinach lettuce with rice vinegar dressing, halibut, apple and 1 Melba toast, and diet Coke (not on diet list but was craving soda)
Dinner: Chicken breast (half), asparagus, wine and WW bar.
I didn't drink as much water as I should have.  I think Day 10 may reflect that fact.

 
Day 10 - 145.8

AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Lunch: Shredded pork, lettuce, and tomato
Dinner: TBD
Today I had a lunch meeting for our employee activities committee. They had tortilla shells with shredded pork and all the fixin's, but I restrained and just ate the pork (not a meat choice ON the diet btw), lettuce and chopped tomato and a water. 

I'm really going to try and up my water intake. I haven't had a bowel movement today and I'm starting to be constipated in general.  Need to get this body moving! 

Day 9 HCG diet

Recap ~ Starting weight 151

Day 8 - 146.4

AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Lunch: Green salad (mixed spinach w/spring lettuce) with chicken, a few cucumber slices (not supposed to mix the veggies btw) and rice wine vinegar, 1 Melba toast and an apple.
Dinner: Chicken, asparagus, 1 Melba toast, wine and WW ice cream bar. I skipped the fruit for the wine.  Grapes are a fruit but not on the HCG diet list.  Whatever, I like my wine and my chocolate dessert. 

Day 9 - 146.0
Only lost .4 today.  After I got to work I had a movement that would have dropped my weight further. 
Hey, I count everything!

AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Lunch: TBD (stayed tuned for updates)
For lunch today I'm hoping my cafeteria has fish I can have. Yesterday they had tuna which is a no no per the HCGdiet.com book. 
Dinner: TDB (stay tuned for updates)

Tonight I have a school board meeting at 7pm so dinner won't be until 8:30pm.  Also, last night I steamed 2 bunches of asparagus (1 bunch comes rubber banded at the grocery store, then chopped them into 1 inch pieces.  I ate some for dinner and have enough for a few nights. 

Breakfast:
Tea or coffee in any quantity without sugar. (One tablespoon of milk is allowed per day.  The all-natural sweetener, Stevia is great to use! (they added the (!) not me)

Lunch (I'm not going to type it all out but it says measure before you cook and all visible fat s/b removed, only grill or boil the meat)
100 grams of veal, beef, chicken breast, fresh white fish, lobster, crab, or shrimp. 

The veggies your allowed to have, per the HCGdiet.com book are:
One type of vegetable only to be chosen from the following:
spinach, chard, chicory, beet-greens (never eaten or heard of beet-greens), green salad (I think this must just mean lettuce because you can only choose ONE right?), tomatoes, celery, fennel, onions, red radishes (do they come in other colors?), cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage, (Any reasonable portion of vegetables is allowed)

As you've seen from my diet log, I've mixed up some veggies in my salad to add variety, but you're not supposed to. 

Also, for Fruit: 
An apple, orange, 6-9 strawberries or 1/2 grapefruit. 

Dinner
The same four choices as lunch (above)
Do not eat the same meat for both meals

Staying positive

My HCG diet (I flip between caps and lower case on that...I know it. Go with it) is going okay. I didn't do awesome this weekend, but I didn't totally fail either. Failing to me is gaining it all back. 

Friday, as I mentioned in my previous post, we had the Harlem Globetrotters game to attend (which was totally fun btw!).  Check this one out of Shawna holding the girls' new Official Harlem Globetrotters basketball. 

For Friday dinner I had asked Todd to bring me a piece of chicken I could eat in the car on the way to the event.  The store didn't have any pre-cooked whole chickens that looked any good to him so he just bought chicken tenders which are breaded. Normally, breaded chicken would be fine, but not on this diet.  But, I thought I could remove the breading.  Not so much.  It just wouldn't come OFF without taking all the meat with it, so rather than starve, I ate the entire thing, breading and all. 

So, let's recap Friday:
Day 5 - 147.2

AM: Coffee with 2 TBS milk, Stevia
Lunch: Chicken, green salad, cucumber, apple, 1 Melba toast
Dinner: Chicken tenders (breaded), cucumber.  That's it!  I didn't do the Melba toast since the meat was breaded.  I didn't do the fruit because the meat was breaded. 

As always I take the liquid 3X a day, then before bed I take my vitamin B12, a multi-vitamin and 2 calcium pills. I also drink water during the day.  Perhaps not a half gallon or gallon like the diet recommends, but I'm regularly visiting the bathroom to pee, so THERE.
Day 6: - 146.4 
Weight loss!!!!  Woo hoo.  But, this is a Saturday now we're on and traditionally on diets I have problems holding to the routine on weekends.  When I did WW in 2005 I regularly fell off the wagon on weekends, but kicked butt on weekdays.  Every morning I'd have high hopes that I could stick to it, but sadly, I'd give in to some craving. This Saturday would be no different. This day was emotionally very hard for me.  I was an idiot and left too late to watch my daughter perform a cheer leading dance routine in a huge competition.  My husband was there with her, but my other daughter and I left the house too late (totally MY fault) so we missed it.  I was soooo upset with myself I was on the verge of tears for hours.  Still, during the rest of the competition I ate what I'd brought.  It was when I got home that I failed. 
AM: No coffee.  Nothing. 
Lunch: Chicken pieces, cucumber, 1 Melba toast, 2 cuties
Dinner: Chicken breast, cucumber, 1 Melba toast, apple
Snacks (here is the problem:) Lots of wine, 2 string cheese, WW ice cream bar (1 point bars if you're on the WW plan)



Day 7 - 147.4 
I gained a full pound!*!$% Todd said it was water weight but I was kinda (A LOT) upset with myself.  Had I stayed the same weight I would have been okay, but to gain a full pound sucked.  Also, I slept like crap that night and was awake from 1am to 5am stressing and remembering how lame I was to miss my daughter's routine AND over eat the day before.  I knew I'd still have a problem not cheating but I would try to limit my over indulging from the previous day. 
AM:  Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia. 
Lunch:  Chicken breast, cucumber, 1 cutie, 1 Melba toast
Dinner:  Hamburger patty, tomato, 1 Melba toast, apple, less wine, WW ice cream bar

Day 8 - 146.4
Phew!    Lost that weight again.  Go me. 
AM: Coffee, 2 TBS milk, Stevia.
Lunch: Green salad (mixed spinach w/spring lettuce) with chicken, a few cucumber slices and rice wine vinegar and an apple.
Dinner:  Chicken, asparagus, 1 Melba toast, wine and WW ice cream bar. 

My newest conquest

I recently started the popular, very talked about HCG Diet.  I read a bunch of articles online before purchasing.  One article said the hcg liquid is actually snake oil.  haha

I decided to try it anyway.  My sister-in-law is a chiropractor with 4 years of medical training.  She did (and is continuing to do) the injections of hcg.  She's lost over 30 lbs.  She's a naturalist, organic food buyer, waited a few months before immunizing her daughter for the first time, type person. She knows what is healthy and what isn't. If SHE'S on this diet, I know it's not all bad.  So, I went online & ordered it. 

A bit of back history on me. 

I've always had to worry about my weight a little bit. I've never been huge, but as I get older and become less active my weight goes up. When I was married in January of 1999 I was a size 8 and about 135 pounds. I hold my weight everywhere with a pretty good even distribution. Some people gain weight just their hips  but I gain it everywhere, and you can definitely see in my face when my weight is up or down. My cheeks and triple chin (haha) show my weight. 

Below is me in 1994.  We had a hat party.  :)  Size 8.

Below in 1999 on my wedding day

In 2001 I had my daughter Paula and in 2003 I had my daughter Shawna.  In 2005 my weight stablized around 150. 

This was me in August 2004.  (the baby I'm holding is not mine but she sure is cute!)  I'm pretty sure those were size 12's I'm wearing. 

In May of 2005 my friend Tina and I decided to start Weight Watchers together.  We were totally committed and supported each other.  In 5 months I lost 22 lbs. My goal weight was 128 and I hovered around that weight (up or down 2 lbs) for a few years.

Below was our December 2005 company holiday party. Tina is on the right, I'm in the middle. The three of us all did WW together so we were celebrating our skinniness with dessert! 

Some friends said I was too skinny at 127 but I loved it.  I could wear a size 4 or petite 6 in pants.  The blue dress above was a petite 8.  I felt SO good in my skin.  I'm only 5'3" so 127-130 is a good weight for my height. 

I'm below on the left at my 20 year high school reunion in August 2006. I was 127 lbs   :) 

Then, in 2008 I got hooked on this speciality salad at work in our cafeteria.  It was a Waldorf salad.  It had chicken, blue cheese, cranberries, apples, candied walnuts and a raspberry dressing.  OMG I ate it everyday.  But, as you can see by the ingredients, it's not a low calorie lunch.  Salad doesn't mean low calorie.  Gradually, without really noticing anything dramatic, in 1 year I'd gained 10 lbs.  In January 2009 I was 141 lbs.  I still looked okay but I wanted to lose the weight and wear my small clothes again.

Me in 2009.   Size 10. 

Then something awful happened. In 2009 I got hives for no known reason.  I was tested by an allergist and found to be allergic to NOTHING.  But the Prednisone (steroid) they put me on to stop the itching made me STARVING. I would feel as if I hadn't eaten for days, even when I'd just eaten a huge meal 2 hours ago.  I could have eaten a couch.  I quickly, and I do mean QUICKLY, gained a fast 8 lbs by the end of that stint.  Sadly, that weight didn't disappear when I stopped the evil (but necessary) Prednisone.  So then I was back to my original weight from early 2005.  During 2010 I managed to maintain that weight, give or take a couple pounds.  I did attempt to go back on WW, but my heart wasn't in it so I wasn't successful.

My daughter Paula and I on a Christmas Train in December 2010.  See my cheeks? Yeah, big time weight gain.  Size 12. 

During the holiday's is when my brother told me about his wife's HCG diet. I saw her on Thanksgiving and WOW, she looked amazing.  I mean amazing.  I decided to do my research.  I considered doing the injections like her.  When I was pregnant with my youngest daughter I had to inject insulin 4 times a day for a month for gestational diabetes so I knew I could handle that part, but in the end I decided on oral. 

Last Saturday the HCG kit arrived from hcgdiet.com via UPS and I had to sign for the package upon delivery.

I immediately opened it.  Of course. Hello! The rest of my new life starts today! 

According to the book, Day 1 and Day 2 your supposed to start the drops (3x a day) and eat a bunch of fatty foods. Then on Day 3 you start the 500 calories. But since eating fatty foods doesn't scream DIET to me, I say the day I started the 500 calories is my day 1.  Got it?  Ok. 

Let me start out by saying I'm not doing this diet exactly by the book. I don't own a food scale, and don't plan to buy one.  Also, my schedule is chaotic with work, kid pickup, volleyball games and cheer competitions.  I eat lunch at noon and dinner at 7 or 8pm.  That's probably not the best for this low calorie meal plan since I'm STARVING by dinner time, so I've had to eat an orange or Melba toast in between meals.  Also, I'm a wino.  Wine makes me feel civilized and if I don't have my wine at the end of the day I feel jipped. So I need to have 1 glass a day.  Again, not on the meal plan.  But, I'm on day 5 and have lost 4lbs so I'm doing something right.  Also, it says don't eat the same meat for lunch and dinner.  I'm going to fail on that some days.  I'm a huge chicken fan.  Also, I'm drinking several glasses of water during the day. Sometimes it's green tea, unsweetened ice tea or just plain water. 

At night I take the B12 drops that came in the kit, with a multi-vitamin and 2 calcium pills.

Day 1 - weighed 151 lbs.
Actually, this was the first time in months I weighed myself at all. The book recommends weighing and measuring before you start the FAT eating diet.  The last time I weighed myself I was 153 or 154 lbs so I'd actually lost weight somewhere over the holidays which shocks the heck out of me but I'm not complaining.  Also, I didn't measure my body parts.  Measuring is recommended but I couldn't find my measuring tape until day 3. 
Menu:
AM: Coffee with 2 TBS milk, Stevia sweetener
Lunch:  Halibut, spinach lettuce, apple, 1 Melba toast
Dinner:  Crab meat (fake crab meat), asparagus, orange, Melba toast

Day 2 -  150.8 lbs
That's barely any loss so I was a bit worried this whole thing is a sham.  Also, I was hungry the day before.  Today was rough because before I went on this diet I'd already made plans to go out to lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in 2 years.  I changed our venue from Vietnamese to Applebees and ordered off the WW menu, but tweaked it. 
Menu:
AM: Coffee with 2 TBS milk, Stevia
Lunch: Shrimp skewers (it had a sweet bbq sauce (didn't know it came with the sauce) but I'd asked for no oil), broccoli (not one of the veggie choices in the HCG book but oh well, I'm still learning this whole thing.
Dinner: Chicken, asparagus, orange, 1 Melba Toast

Day 3 - 149.4 lbs
AM: Coffee with 2 TBS milk, Stevia
Lunch: Trout, spinach lettuce, 2 cuties, 1 Melba toast (2 cuties aren't the same as 1 orange I'm told,  Higher sugar content in a cutie)
Dinner: Chicken, cucumber, apple, 1 Melba toast, red wine

Day 4 - 148.2 lbs
AM: Coffee with 2 TBS milk, Stevia
Lunch: Chicken, green lettuce, cucumber, 2 cuties, 1 Melba toast
Dinner: Shrimp, cucumber, cutie, 1 Melba toast, red wine

Day 5 - 147.2
AM: Coffee with 2 TBS milk, Stevia
Lunch: Chicken, green salad, cucumber, apple, 1 Melba toast
Dinner: No idea.  We're going to see the Harlem Globetrotters tonight. I've asked my husband to bring me some chicken to eat in the car.  I have some fruit (orange/cuties) with me and my Melba toast.
I'll try to not blow it. Wish me Luck!

1/11/11

Today's date makes me want to do a blog post. 

A summary of things going on in my world. 

1.  We had a nice holiday vacation.  My company was shut down the week after Christmas so Todd, the girls and I went to my parents for a few days to visit, relax and visit the snow.  I prefer to "visit" the snow, not live in it.  I'm a California Girl after all.  I managed to read two and a half books while at my parents house. Reading is luxury I truly enjoy, but don't always do enough of it. 

2. We celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary this month.  This is the first time in 3 years we actually celebrated.  We went to dinner to a favorite fine dining Italian restaurant of ours.  For daycare that night, Todd arranged for the girls to spend the evening with the daycare provider from when they were born.  Both girls were 4 months old when they started going to Maureen, but Paula was in kindergarten when we stopped going and Shawna only 3.  My older daughter remembers Maureen much more than Shawna but both were soo happy to see her and vice versa. Daycare providers play such an important role in your child's early development.  I'm so thankful we found Maureen when we did.  Love her.

3.  I started the HCG diet everyone raves about this past weekend.   I'm hopeful I can follow through with this diet because I NEED to lose 20 pounds.  I WANT to be healthier, and I WANT to look HOT again. 

4.  I'm now planning my youngest daughter's 8th birthday.  She has requested an American Girl Doll which I've ordered already.  We're doing a bowling party for her per her request. I really need to get on booking that. The decor will be Selena Gomez.  haha

5. My older daughter has a California Mission model to build for her 4th grade project.  In addition, she needs to put together a scrapbook of the Mission all by January 28th.  My kitchen table has transformed into a crafts center.

6.  For several weeks now my youngest daughter (2nd grader) is partaking in a psyche evaluation to help finalize her dyslexia diagnosis.  Today is hopefully the last day of testing. I'm anxious to see the final results.  She has received tutoring for dyslexia last school year and this school year. She wrote her name in cursive for me last night.  Cursive is something she learns in tutoring because it's easier for dyslexics to read.  I'm sooo proud of her. 

7. We still have the rental dog (foster dog).  Yesterday he ate a phone.  He really did a number (pun intended) destroying the phone.  H'es a Chihuahua.

I'm starving right now.