Update: 60 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Today is the anniversary of my mom's death. My mom passed away from breast cancer at age 36. I was only 8 years old when she died. I have been thinking about her today and the challenges she faced in fighting cancer. And thinking about her young death makes me think of my own mortality. I want to be around for a long time for my husband and children.

I have to admit, I haven't been doing the greatest job of taking care of myself lately. I was doing really well last year. Do you remember when I wrote about doing a weight loss challenge? One of the main reasons I joined the challenge last year was because of my mom. Her weight fluctuated off and on for as long as I could remember. I am sure that it played some role in her cancer. I am turning 35 this year and I am increasingly concerned about my health considering my mom's history.

I was by no means obese, but the extra weight had started creeping back on after I stopped nursing my youngest daughter. I knew what I needed to do to get healthy, but I needed the extra push to get motivated. I can be competitive and I am certainly a perfectionist. So, having a point-based system and a team that I didn't want to let down was perfect for me to succeed.

I ended up losing 16 pounds and 10.5 inches overall.

 

After the challenge ended, I thought for sure I would be able to keep up with the challenge requirements on my own. Unfortunately, with dealing with depression and being busy for the holidays I started to gain a few pounds back after the challenge was over.

I joined the maintenance challenge over the holiday season which kept the pounds off but, I wasn't as committed to that challenge, as the first one. After it was over, a couple more pounds crept back on. I wish I could say that I was still losing weight but I am not.

So, for the next few weeks, I am going to try to do what I was doing before when I was in the first challenge. If I can't stay motivated on my own, I will be joining the challenge again in April. It is important for me to stay at a healthy weight. Not only for me but to set a good example for my kids.

Two of the tools that are really helpful to me are the MyFitnessPal app and the MapMyFitness app. With My Fitness Pal, you can track what you eat, how much you are exercising, and how much water you are drinking. I use Map My Fitness on my phone with the GPS when I walk to track my progress. And now, you can link the apps together to have your exercise imported into My Fitness Pal from Map My Fitness.

I know what I need to do. I just wish it wasn't so hard to stay on track. Even when I know how much better I feel when I eat right and exercise, it doesn't come easy for me. I am an emotional eater. And battling depression has made it difficult to stay on track with making good choices, both with eating right and getting in the amount of exercise I need.

For more information: 60 Day {Body, Mind, Spirit} Challenge

What tips do you have for getting and staying healthy?

Honoring the Fallen

My heart has been heavy these last few days. As some of you may know, I live just outside of Prescott where the Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters were from. I know this story has impacted our nation, but it has especially affected me because it is so close to home. One of our best friends is a firefighter and although I am thankful to say he was not up here when tragedy struck, it still shook me to know he 'could' have been.

Source: via Heroes Memorial Fund

My husband knew one of the firefighters and I have many friends who knew or went to school with some of those men. And even though I personally did not know them, I am deeply saddened by their sacrifice. I have been very distracted this week, so I haven't gotten the posts up I had planned. I cannot seem to escape all that is going on here. My personal Facebook page is flooded with outpourings of support and heart-wrenching stories about the families. Our local news is filled with images of the fire and the men's faces.

I will be the first to admit I am not very religious, but this whole tragedy has humbled me and I have been praying. 

Praying for the wives, children, parents, families, girlfriends, and friends of the firefighters to find strength.
Praying for the lone survivor of the Hotshot crew to find peace about losing his 'brothers'.

Praying for rain to come and the winds to calm so the remaining firefighters can safely contain the fire.

Praying for the 250 families that lost their homes to this fire.

Praying for our state of Arizona during this scary wildfire season.

Praying for the families of firefighters everywhere that were so vividly reminded about how dangerous the job of these men and women can be.

I am blessed and grateful to live in a community that is able to come together in a time of tragedy and show such a great outpouring of love to honor the brave men that died on Sunday. Last night our community had a candlelight vigil to honor the fallen men. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but thousands of people from the community banded together to show support for the families and honor those brave men.

Thank you for allowing me to share my heart with you. Words cannot really express all the things I am feeling. On my personal Facebook page last night I shared that I would love to give each and every one of the wives, children, girlfriends, parents, brothers, and sisters of those brave men a huge hug.

We honor those 19 men for their courage, bravery, and selflessness in order to keep the rest of us safe.

We Love Otter Pops and Otter Art

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Jel Sert. All opinions are 100% mine.

True story. When I was pregnant with my son, I was so sick. I had terrible 'morning' sickness. But you couldn't really call it morning sickness. It should have been called morning until night (and sometimes while you are trying to sleep sickness). I had an awful time keeping anything down. For a while, Otter Pops were the only thing that I could keep down. Something about the sugar and the cold, I guess.

So, needless to say, I have a certain fondness for Otter Pops. (I used to joke with my husband that my son was going to come out as an ice-cube!) My kids definitely love Otter Pops, too. My daughter's favorite is Alexander the Grape (mine, too!) and my sons is Louie-Bloo Raspberry.

Summer is the perfect time for a cold treat. We love to go out on the porch in the afternoon to have a little snack. I love that Otter Pops are self-contained in their own wrapper. Regular popsicles on a stick always end up dripping in a sticky mess all over the floor, and all over hands and clothes!

In honor of our love for Otter Pops, the kids decorated their very own otter coloring pages I found online.

I got out a bunch of art supplies and let them be creative!

Quick, impromptu art projects are a huge sanity saver for me over the summer months with both kids at home all day. I think the kids spent almost a full half-hour on their masterpieces! Aren't they cute? (My daughter is a fan of the HUGE google eyes!)

Dear Olivia ...

Dear Olivia,

 

Three years ago we welcomed your sweet face into this world. I was so thrilled to have a little girl. I couldn't wait for the day when we could play dress-up, dolls, and Barbies. Those days have finally arrived!

 

You are such a little girly girl! You love to dress up like a princess. It is a daily occurrence that you will put on a princess dress, fancy shoes, a tiara, bracelets, rings, and your wand. Then, you will come to me and say, "Will you dance with me, Mama?" Yes. You say, "Mama." Just a few months ago you started calling me Mama instead of Mommy. It is so sweet and melts my heart every time.

 

 

 

Even though you are so into dressing up, Barbies and dolls, you love to rough and tumble, too! You work so hard to keep up with your big brother. One of my favorite things to watch is when you two play together. You fight monsters, hunt bugs, and play in the mud! You are not afraid to get dirty and you are certainly not afraid of bugs. This summer it was common for me to find bugs all over the house that you had brought in from outside - even picking up the grasshoppers with your bare hands!

 

 

 

You are a stubborn little girl. If you don't get your way, everyone in the whole house is going to hear about it. You are so persistent in whatever it is you want. I was like that as a little girl, too. So now I have a little insight into what my parents went through. (Sorry, by the way!)

 

You have such an infectious laugh. Especially when you find something funny to do out of the blue. Like the time you asked everyone at the dinner table to "watch this" and crossed your eyes at us. One of the funniest moments we have had at the table!

 

You have a heart of gold. You are always willing to share with your brother and all of us anything you have. You take care of us when we are not feeling well. You are the first one to pass out hugs if someone gets hurt. 

Happy Birthday, sweet girl! Mommy loves you so much. 

Love, Mom 

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Life-n-Reflection. I receive products to try out and review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Thank you to Kristy at Life-n-Reflection for the great Parisian storyboard and wallets I enhanced my photos with for this post! To create the first photo collage, I used the Life-n-Reflection Dreamer Storyboard. For all of the other photos, I used the Parisian Photo Wallets. Aren't they beautiful? 

Click the following tutorial to learn how to create a storyboard like the one above in Photoshop: Quick Page Video Tutorial

Heartbreak . . .

This morning as I hugged and kissed my son and put him on his school bus, tears welled up in my eyes. Tears for the families who should be putting their kids on the school bus this morning and can't. Tears for the families that will have to put their kids back on the bus and send them to school after such a tragedy has occurred. Tears for my own son knowing there is no way I can protect him and keep him completely safe.

In the wake of Friday's tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, I have been trying to compose my thoughts and feelings to share with you. The struggle comes in that there are absolutely no words. No words to describe how horrific the whole situation is. No words to express how completely heartbroken I am for those families involved.

I spent Friday watching the news, but mostly getting my information online so I wouldn't have to expose my kids to the tragedy. I had to spend the rest of the weekend with the news turned off because I simply could not watch it anymore.

I cannot begin to imagine what the families of those who lost their lives are going through. You expect to send your child to school and for them to return home safe. Those sweet children got up Friday morning, expecting it to be like any other day. Ready for the weekend to spend time with their families. Excited for Christmas to be here so soon. And all of that was taken from them. From their families. Twenty-six families will be spending the holidays with a huge hole in their hearts. How can they pick up the pieces and move on? I honestly do not know. All I know is it is devastatingly heart wrenching to even think about.

There is nothing anyone can do or say to help ease the grief those families must be feeling. All we can do is offer our empathy, love, and prayers.

I want to share the United Way page for Newtown in case you are looking for a tangible way to help. You can find the information for making a donation to help the victims. United Way of Western Connecticut