Visiting the Happiest Place on Earth

This past week we went to Disneyland. It really is the happiest place on earth! We made it through two 13 hour drives (to CA & back) and 6 days of playing and sightseeing with practically no squabbling and only a couple of meltdowns by Emma.

We spent four days in Disneyland. On the other days we also went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, the La Brea Tar Pits in L.A., sight seeing (otherwise known as driving around lost) in L.A., and visiting the L.A. temple, the Newport Beach temple, Newport Beach and we drove along the coast.

Some of our favorite memories:

• Getting photos with the Disney characters. All of the kids were excited to do this and Zach went so far as to want individual pictures with most of them (especially the princesses). Zach was adamant he had to have a photo taken with Snow White (who always was leaving when we found her), but in the end we managed to get the photo. He didn't want the evil queen in the photo too, but felt it would be rude to ask her to stand out of the picture.

• Claire begging from the moment we entered the park to go to the Haunted Mansion.

• Emma was fascinated by the colorful and elaborate rides like Alice in Wonderland, Ariel's Undersea Adventure and It's a Small World.  

• Half way through our ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (a train roller coaster) Emma was screaming at me that she wanted to get off now.

• By the time we had gone on 3-4 fast rides Emma learned to ask as we got in line, "Is this ride fast? Is it scary?" Then she endured it even if it was fast and scary.

• Mike's awesome high scores on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Toy Story Mania shooting games.

• Mike conquering his fear of heights to go on the Ferris Wheel, Splash Mountain and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

• The guys didn't want to watch the special attractions (the parade, the fireworks and the World of Color show), but they ended up loving those as much as the girls did. 

• Swimming at the hotel pool was almost as important as going to Disneyland for the 3 youngest girls and Zoe learned how to swim on her back.

• When we went to Newport Beach we had to walk down a long pathway and then flight of stairs to get down to the beach. As I snapped a picture of the other girls Emma took off up the stairs barefoot. By the time I reached her she had made it all the way back to the parking lot (close to a 10 minute walk). She had gone in search of something to wipe off her sandy, wet feet.

• Zoe & Isabelle were snapping pictures of absolutely everything they saw.

• Soarin' Over California was awesome and felt so realistic. You feel like you are in a hang glider soaring over the sights of California with breezes and scents to make it feel real. When we "flew" over the water Emma would yank her feet up because she thought her feet were going to get wet. 

• One day we decided to eat in the park. First we checked out a pizza place by Space Mountain. Mike didn't want to spend $32 on a pizza so we decided to check out the corn dog stand in Frontierland. Well that would have cost us $50. So then Mike decided we should just go to the place where he had bought a meat skewer the day before because it would be cheaper (plus he really liked it). When we got done with our order we had spent $60+.  It was good and he learned that you can't feed 7 people cheaply in Disneyland. :)

A few lessons learned during this trip:

• DO stand up for what you need at your hotel. The place we were supposed to stay checked us in quite nicely. Then we entered our hotel room and knew immediately it was a smoking room (and floor). (They had overbooked the nonsmoking rooms). Mike informed them we couldn't stay in the smoking room and got our reserved hotel to get us a room next door in the Marriott Suites. Our reserved hotel paid for our first night at the Marriott and for our parking.  

• DO take plenty of snacks into the park. We pretty much ate breakfast & dinner with lots of snacks in between. But those were some yummy dinners! We found the best bar-b-que place in town too.

• DON'T attempt to do laundry while in the hotel. We wasted a couple of hours on two different mornings because there were not enough laundry machines. We were trying to save space by packing light, but next time we will just pack enough clothes to last the duration of the trip.

• DO take a GPS. We didn't need one just to drive from home to our hotel, but we were certainly wishing for one while driving around L.A.

• DO use the Fastpass in Disneyland. Even with the shorter off-season attendance you still have long lines on some rides, especially on the weekend.

• DO stay as many days as you can. We packed a lot into our four days in Disneyland/California Adventure and still didn't get to do everything. 

So here is what you really care about. The pictures!

I'm On My Way!

Happy dance! In the last five weeks I have lost 15 pounds and over 2 inches on my hips! You probably can't even tell it yet by looking at me, but my loose pants sure feel good.  I am so excited and plan to keep going until I reach my goal. Here’s what I have been doing to make it happen.

The first Monday in January I started attending the gym 5 days a week. I walk on the treadmill for 45- 60 minutes. Each week I have been able to go a bit faster speed for longer stretches of time. After two weeks I also started using the weight machines twice a week so I can maintain muscle as I lose fat. I am a weakling for sure! 25 pounds on my arms is all I can take right now, but it is better than nothing. In a couple of weeks I will add a third day to my weight training. The best part is that I always feel good when get done exercising. I am starting to feel that exercise is my stress reliever now instead of food.

I admit that some days when I go to the gym I feel self-conscious because the other people on the treadmills are running and I am just walking. But then I give myself a reminder that those people are much more fit than I am and it doesn’t matter what they are doing. What matters are the changes that I have made in my fitness level.

As mentioned last week I have made some significant changes to what I am eating and trying to eat healthier overall. I am eating about 1400-1800 calories a day, making sure to eat all of the nutrients needed to still be healthy. I eat 3 meals a day and usually a couple of snacks. And I drink tons of water. No fad diets or HCG here! I still eat carbs, protein and fat. Just the healthier kinds in reasonable portions.

I know I would not have been able to keep my calories in control if I had not been tracking what I ate. Before I started trying to lose fat most days I ate over the recommended calorie intake (obviously!) and regularly indulged in favorite treats like brownies and chocolate bars. My idea of a portion was not reality. And I never exercised. Bad combination! After the first week of changing my diet I stopped feeling hungry so often and my strong cravings for treats has greatly diminished. Isabelle has tried to tempt me numerous times with donuts, brownies, etc and I have been able to walk away. I never thought I would be able to turn down chocolate!

(Cue music) “I'm on my way from misery to happiness today. A huh, a huh, a huh, a huh. I'm on my way to what I want from this world…I’ll do my best to do the best I can.”  (I’m On My Way- The Proclaimers)

Wow! This actually tastes good!

I am happy to report that I am making progress on my weight goal. But you will have to wait until next week when I have my weigh in with my sisters to hear the result. So this week I will share some of the changes I've made in my diet to accomplish my goal (besides eating less calories and not eating junk food). I have never been a health food nut so these little things are big for our family.

·         Fruits & Veggies- Low calorie and nutritious! Out of my family I have always eaten more fruits and veggies than the rest of them, but still not the recommended amount so I have increased my quantities of these things. I have never been a spinach eater, especially cooked spinach- yuck! But I have started adding spinach to my salads and my sandwiches and it is very good. I've also added sprouts. And I have cut out the veggie dip too. (Which I never used to eat until a couple of years ago. Hmmm, maybe that has something to do with the weight gain.)

·         Ground Turkey- I have heard people recommend it, but it never sounded appetizing. I have now tried it in a couple of dishes and it tastes good and is lower fat than ground beef. (I still eat some ground beef, but now we get the extra lean). The only drawback is that ground turkey is pretty pricey. I will need to shop around and see if I can find it for a lower price at other stores.

·         Greek Yogurt- I have been eating more yogurt in general (good source of protein), but lately I have been seeing a lot about Greek yogurt. Last week it was on sale at the store so I decided to give it a try. Greek yogurt is thicker, tangier, has half the sugar and twice the protein of regular yogurt. Because of the thicker texture and less sugar it was hard to adjust to it. I tried it with some Grape Nuts cereal mixed in and then I was able to eat it ok. I did stay quite full after eating it because of all the protein in it. So, it will be an adjustment, but I think I will try to eat it a couple of times a week. I will try a couple of other brands to see if there is one I like best. I also read that plain Greek yogurt can be used as a substitute in baking and as a substitute for sour cream on top of potatoes or for a veggie dip. We may try some of those ideas soon.

·         Whole Grains- The white bread is gone. Now we are eating whole wheat bread, tortillas and pitas. The wheat bread actually adds a lot of flavor to the sandwiches. The younger kids are having a harder time adjusting to it though. A new favorite dish is homemade pizzas with wheat pitas, marinara sauce, low fat mozzarella cheese and veggies. Low calories, healthy and yummy!

·         Special K chocolate granola bars. Not so great. I bought a box in case I had a chocolate craving (which I used to have daily, but now rarely have). If you are really craving chocolate it would probably be better to just eat 1-2 Hershey kisses and actually have the craving satisfied. That said, some of the other Special K cereal bars are pretty good.

  Do you have any favorite healthy foods I should know about? Tell me!


 

A New Way of Living

January always brings new resolutions that last about a month. Not this year!

My big goal this year is to lose weight and become healthier. So cliche, I know. But I have hit my highest weight and do not want to see it go any higher. After each baby I kept a little more weight on and gradually I got to where I am today. The last year and a half I put on quite a bit of weight that I attribute to stress and some depression.

I have never been a dieter. Or an exerciser. Here and there I would start walking routines that lasted a few months and then slowly faded away. I am hoping that my lack of previous fad diets will help me reach my goal a little easier since I haven't messed up my metabolism too much. I have simply been eating more calories than I was expending.

Here are the reasons this is the year to succeed.

~The biggest reason is my sisters and I devised a plan to work together to support and motivate one another. We all have weight goals to meet. When we reach certain milestones we get set rewards. Our reward at the end- a big vacation to an as yet undetermined location. And no one gets the reward until we all reach our goal. Support and guilt are great motivators!

 ~I am tracking my caloric intake and activity levels on Fitday.com. Because of this I am learning portion control. It is amazing that many times what I think is a serving is 2 or 3 servings according to the food labels. I really recommend using a program to track your food, exercise, weight, etc. It really is eye opening.

~We have gotten in a bad habit of buying treats. I'm not going to buy the things that tempt me like, cookies, brownies and chocolate. If it's not here I won't eat it.

~I have begun exercising. I have been attending a gym and look forward to continuing and trying new things.

To start this all off, I had Zoe take a couple of hideous "before" pictures. When I have made some progress I will post some before and after pictures every so often. And maybe even divulge my actual weight. :)