Here we go again

Maddie has reached two big milestones this past week. 

Firstly, she finally cut her first tooth! She's been teething non-stop since about 2 months old, but it has taken over 5 months for that tooth to pop through. I think the second one is close behind. Her favourite teething remedy seems to be cold pieces of sweet potatoes. Figures it would be food! I swear that kid could eat all day long.

The second milestone is that she started crawling! She's still in "army crawl" mode, but boy is she good at it. Her world has expanded and no longer is she trying to scoot over to the toy a few feet away; now she is all over the place - the kitchen, the living room, the closet. It's been three years since we went through this with Cate, and so we've forgotten all the little dangers hidden all over the house. Time to re-baby proof.

The biggest change I've noticed is that Maddie is turning into a little girl more so than an infant. She is strong willed and determined. She has decided that she would like to stand and walk to everything and refuses to sit. She's always been a squirmer, but this is getting a bit ridiculous! I'm beginning to dread our upcoming flight to Florida!

I love that she is growing and thriving, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that I will miss my sweet little baby. This week has been a reality check and a good reminder that life keeps moving forward whether you're ready or not - I'd better catch up!

Weekly Wrap-up - September 25, 2011

Overall weight lost: -60lbs

Weight lost this week: +5lbs

Work outs: Monday - Sight Seeing & Walking (8 hours) / Tuesday - Sight Seeing & Walking (4 hours) / Wednesday - Off / Thursday - Body Attack (60mins) / Friday - Yoga & Cardio (75mins) / Saturday - Off / Sunday - Off

Accomplishments: I tried a new class this week - Body Attack. It was a combination of sports drill type exercises, but the foundation was basically "don't stop moving". According to the Les Mills site, the average calorie burn for the 55 minute class is about 735! The footwork involved was a little tricky and so I wasn't able to give it my all since I was trying hard just to keep up and not fall over, but I think that after a few more classes, I'll really enjoy this class.

Challenges: My challenges this week revolved around the weight gained from a long weekend away. In four days I managed to gain a whopping 10lbs! I'm still not sure how that's possible since we must have walked 10 miles a day while we were away. Regardless, I've taken off the first 5lbs this week, and am hoping to take off the other half this coming week.

Thoughts: I truly think that I'm stuck in a self-sabotaging cycle that I don't know how (or necessarily want) to break. I will lose the weight just in time to go out for a celebratory dinner on Friday night, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by our dinner club, followed by Halloween, followed by 2 weeks of vacation, followed by Christmas. At this rate I'll be lucky to reach the New Year weighing what I weigh right now. I just don't find that I have the same strong resolve that I've had in the past. I'm looking forward to getting back into a good gym routine since September has been pretty scattered.


How do you survive a never ending streak of food-centred occasions? How do you get your "mojo" back?

Weekly Wrap-up - September 4, 2011

Overall weight lost: -65lbs

Weight lost this week: -0.6lbs

Work outs: Monday - Cardio (46mins) / Tuesday - Antigravity Yoga (60 mins) & Strength (35mins)/ Wednesday - Saunders Farm Fitness Class (60 mins) / Thursday - Off / Friday - Off / Saturday - Cardio (15mins) & Strength (30mins) / Sunday - Cardio (40mins) & Strength (20mins)

Accomplishments: This week I bought a Groupon for The Athletic Club. I tried a number of new things, but the biggest accomplishment is most certainly the antigravity yoga class that I took on Tuesday. Since this was my first class, there was a fair bit of introduction time rather than actual calorie burning exercise, but my success is in knowing that I made it through the whole class and was able to do all but one of the poses.

I did this!

Challenges: My challenges this week were more based on circumstances that prevented me from going to the gym. On Thursday I had all my gym stuff together as I headed to the east end for Maddie's Dr's appointment followed by what was supposed to be a new exercise class, but I realized that I had forgot to book the kids into the childcare and as it turned out, they were full. Friday was similar in that Cate had a Dr's appointment at CHEO mid-morning and I had plans to go out at night and so I didn't have a chance to go due to the restricted childcare hours. Hopefully with the arrival of fall and Cate's return to daycare, I will no longer find myself too busy to workout.

Thoughts: My favourite part of this week was heading to The Athletic Club with my friend this afternoon to enjoy a Girls Afternoon Out at the gym! We tried a bunch of new cardio machines, followed by a swim in the pool and a quick dip in the hot tub. We enjoyed a protein shake at the cafe and then headed out for a little shopping before heading home. It was awesome!

The Good News

Thank you for all your empowering comments on yesterday's post. I am so lucky to have such a strong cheering squad :) Your words have prompted me to reflect on my goals and how I'm going to achieve them. More on that in the posts to come.

Today I am going to write about success.

Success #1 - Potty training success!

I have been longing to write about this since I first started my blog. Heck, to be honest, I had hoped that I would never have to write about this, but now that we reached this milestone, it is what it is.

It seems as thought our resolve to not purchase anymore diapers for Cate came at the right time. After a bumpy start, we persevered and kept her in big girl underwear. Since we took the diapers away, there have only been 4 accidents, three of which happened within a three hour span on day 2.

We are still putting a pull-up on her at night, but for the most part she wakes up dry, just sometimes she's too tired/lazy/stubborn to get to the potty in the first few mintues of waking. She has about 25 more pull-ups (the crummy ones that don't protect very well) before we run out and I'm hopeful that will be it.


Success #2 - Skinny jeans!

Today I bought my first pair of skinny jeans! I can't remember if I blogged about it, but a few weeks ago I tried on a pair of skinny jeans at Joe Fresh. Now I love Joe Fresh, but I have yet to properly fit into a pair of their pants (yoga pants excluded). They looked ridiculous and were obviously not made for anyone who has had a baby.

Obviously, this is what I look like in my
skinny jeans. It's such a close match
that it wasn't worth taking a picture....



I was doing a little retail therapy today and wandered into the Esprit outlet store. I don't usually shop at places like this because their size Large is usually another store's Small, however, I was feeling adventurous and thought I'd take a look. I saw these jeans and thought the cut looked good. I hummed and hawed for a few minutes until I decided to give them a try.

I searched through the rack for my size, realizing that they bucked the trend by using measurements rather than sizes... grrr... women don't shop like that! I went to the back of the rack and pulled out the biggest size they had. They still looked pretty tiny...

I ventured to the change room and got down to business. I slowly started wiggling my way into them. Wow, they made it over my "riding calves"... next rolled up over my thighs... I'm sure I won't be able to do up the button... OMG! I did them up!!! They weren't a perfect fit, but as with most jeans, it takes a few hours to wear them in and stretch them out a bit... Good enough. I bought them if only for the fact that I could do up the button!

I've wore them around this afternoon and they are now feeling pretty good. The rise is a little low for my liking, but hopefully with a few more weeks of good core workouts, they will be just fine :)