Wednesday, play date fun with Hudson and Natalie

 Thursday night I went to the first of four classes by Jill Tanis on feeding our kids healthy, nourishing meals.

I'm probably going to recap some of the things I've taken away from the class here because I'll most likely lose my notes :)

~We talked about our attitudes and beliefs we bring into our eating experience and how to change them into being more positive. 

~We learned how to change our mindsets and eliminate negative language about meals/food. How to model healthy choices for our kids, how important it is to teaches them you're serious by being consistent and offering the same things over and over to train their taste buds.

~One of the things I'm most excited to do is to start involving the boys in the grocery shopping, prep work and menu planning.  I know Gray for sure would love a little input on what fruits and vegetables to buy and take home to eat. I've also noticed how exited he is to eat the things he's helped me prepare, so I'm definitely going to try to include them even more.

It was a great first class, I'm looking forward to learning more recipes, tips, and tools to make meal time less stressful.

One of the reasons I put it off for so long is because I am not an expert, this is what worked for me, it may not have been the best way or the right way, and it may not be what's right for you, so keep that in mind while reading! This is the first time I have ever lost weight on purpose, so it was all new to me.

So here's the story.

Since my transplant I put on over 30 pounds, 10 of those were necessary because I was too thin from being so sick and I did not look or feel healthy. I remember at my lowest weight I felt like a little girl, no curves whats-so-ever. 

(summer 2008, chicken legs,)

I think the combination of my new medications (steroids) and being a stay at home mom packed on the pounds. When I stay home all day I'm not as active as I was when I was out of the house, working and I also ate a lot, partially because the food was right there all day, and partially because I couldn't stand to waste food, so whatever the kids didn't finish at meal time, I would eat it for them.

At the end of March, my friend Angie started her own Zumba class, so to be supportive I went to one of her classes and was hooked! I felt so good after working out and Zumba was the most fun I'd ever had working out. So I figured while I was going to Zumba 1-3 times a week I might as well make it worth something and diet while I'm at it. I also did workout videos at home, did some treadmill workouts, took walks with the boys, rode bike and just overall tried to be more active throughout the day. I tried to get my heart rate up, in some way, everyday. 

I used the myfitnesspal app on my iphone to track my calories. It was super hard at first to trade in my Oreos (not kidding) for carrots but after awhile I really started to actually enjoy eating healthy, burning calories and watching the number on the scale go lower and lower.

By the end of Summer I met and ever surpassed my goal weight.

(Summer 2012, same jeans I have on in the above picture)

 I lost a total of 22 pounds and I'm now working to maintain that weight, and it's a constant battle to stay toned and not turn to flab, even if the scale stays the same.

I don't workout near as much as I did while I was trying to lose weight and I don't track every calorie anymore.  I can enjoy a donut every once and awhile, I even had my first Oreo (and then many more) the other day after 10 months without, but I still try to make healthy choices the majority of the time.

I  also want to say how helpful it was for me to have a weight loss buddy! My sister, Lisa, started her journey to weight loss around the same time I did (she's lost over 60 pounds and still kicking butt!!) and I found it so helpful to be able to support each other and keep each other accountable while we sat around the cottage all summer watching everyone eat Klondike bars while we munched on carrots!

So if you can team up with a friend or your spouse, I'd highly recommend it!

 If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them in the comments sections. 

We got finished up for the night around 9:30 and then headed to Logan's Roadhouse with the Flokstra's for appetizers. We had a great time! 

Saturday morning we headed back to church for the second half of the retreat. It got done at noon and we went to pick the boys up from Lisa's house where they spent the night. They had such a fun time at their sleepover with Aunt Lisa! 

 We relaxed in the afternoon, it was nice to be home after being gone most of the week.

 At night we went out with Scott and Stacey. We always have a great time! 

Sunday we went to church and sunday school, we had a speaker who works with an orphanage in Haiti during Sunday School so Mindy took Sadler back to my parents house while we listened to him and Gray had class. 

We picked Sadler up afterwards but Gray then wanted to stay, so we did a little swap for the afternoon.

On the way to the Revolution service we picked him back up. We spent the rest of the evening together watching The Bible. Anyone else been watching? I think it's really neat to watch the Bible stories come to life.

as i mentioned before, this little Houdini has started climbing out of his crib, so we turned the crib around so the high side was facing out and the low side that he climbed out of was to the wall. This bought us about 2 weeks, until he figured out how to climb out of the sides!

Next step was to take the bottom spring part totally out of the crib and drop the mattress to the floor, still inside the crib! Genius! There was no way our little peanut could climb out now!

 He climbed out in 2 minutes flat and would continue to get out over and over again.

Nothing would stop him!

love our lunch dates with daddy

 finally took myself and my love handles back to Zumba last week!

Target  online Spring shopping on a snowy day

Gray found a puzzle that was intended for a birthday present and helped himself to it! at least he liked it!

naps for both boys are now few and far between since Sadler's escaping routines, so rest time watching Ice Age movies is in order!

 Sunday night dinner with friends

This past week my family and I were in Indy for the work truck show, the guys had meetings and us girls and the 4 kids did a lot of shopping (so fun to shop in another town!) and playing in the hotel room

 Aunt Lisa was a great pillow for the boys on the way home!

 

Sadler and I hit up Target today and found a great deal on towels, for 70% off I snatched some up for the camper!

It took awhile to get to this point, but yesterday I wanted to truly celebrate Brenham's birthday.  His short life had such purpose and meaning and his death taught us so much. 

I was still sad at times, and a few tears still came, but mostly I felt grateful for his life, and his eternity in Heaven. 

Robb took the day off and we started off at Ihop for breakfast. 

After coming home for lunch and naps, we headed to Grand Rapids to drop off 104 baby blankets to the NICU at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. 

*I want to take a minute to thank you for your donations. We really feel so blessed by those of you who donated a blanket in his memory. We know that these blankets will also bless the babies and their families who receive them. 

It was the best part of the whole day for me.

When we left the children's hospital we grabbed dinner at Arnie's, cupcakes were a must!

Then, the part Gray had been looking forward to most, Disney on Ice! This boy had the biggest smile on his face the whole time, and amazingly it got even bigger when Buzz Lightyear came out!

It was a special day, in memory of a special boy. 

Thank you for your love and prayers for us.