My Weight Loss Journey.

Since starting this blog, I have been asked by a few people on how I've managed to lose 58 pounds since having my daughter in January. To be honest with you, i've done a combination of things.

Counting calories.
Counting calories+working out
South Beach Diet

I had a c-section in January so obviously, I couldn't work out for awhile (and at 215 pounds before delivery, I didn't really want to). I started counting my calories and tried to cut 500 daily. If you want to lose between 1-2 pounds a week healthily, it is suggested you cut 3500 calories a week (which amounts to a pound). You can do this by lowering your calorie intake or upping your workouts. I managed to do this by keeping a detailed food journal in my kitchen and writing down every.single.calorie that went into my mouth. Including that starburst. :) This kept me accountable and also helped me see what I was truly eating and where I could make changes. To make things easier I also started eating Weight Watcher frozen meals for lunch and dinner (which are beneficial even if you don't count points because they tell you how many calories are in each one!). I am not one to get tired of repeatedly eating the same foods so this worked great for me and didn't keep me guessing how many calories I had eaten.

When I started my plateau at around 170-180 pounds, I decided to start working out again. I started by walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes then upping it to 45 minutes and so on. After I was comfortable with that, I added free weights and an exercise ball to tone. I had a tonsillectomy in April and that threw my workout motivation out the window so i'm slowly building it back up again. I also use my Wii fit and Jillian Michaels DVD to change it up a bit.

I hit another plateau at around 164-167 pounds so I decided to do what my in laws where doing and try South Beach. I'm normally not all about "fad" diets, I prefer to do it the old fashioned way. But I love meat and chicken and I'm ok with cutting out processed foods such as bread and all the sugar and flour. I managed to break through my plateau but be warned, I didn't follow it to a T so I didn't drastically lose 15 pounds the first 2 weeks. I think I ended up at about 5-6 pounds lost but hey, loss is loss. While I didn't follow all the veggie recommendations and all, it did show me how to really cut back on sweets and gave me the ability to be able to occasionally eat just 1 cookie and not the entire package. To this day, I still don't eat bread (if I order a burger I just eat the pattie with cheese) and I think that is why I've managed to continually lose weight.

One last thing...WATER! I know we have all heard how important water is to our diets and at first, I didn't believe it because i'm a Diet Coke addict. But I started cutting back on my Diet Coke and replacing it with water and I noticed the more water I drank, the more I lost. So it obviously works! LOL. I also realized that they now make Vitamin Water Zero which has been a blessing! :)

This is just a snippet of what I have been doing for the past 6 months but let me tell you, I know for a fact that I am not a doctor or nutritionist. I do what I do because I research a lot online and read a lot of books so I come up with my own conclusion. Please don't take this as me giving advice, just telling you what worked for me. :) Make sure you always ok things with your own doctor before you start anything! :)

**Bargain** butterfly layout :)

I went diaper shopping yesterday and while my usual stop is Walmart, I decided to take a detour to Target because I missed it oh,so much. While I was in there I waltzed into their scrapbook aisle and noticed they had a $.99 section full of stickers, stamps and paper :) I am obsessed with paper so I was excited to see they had patterned stacks for the same price (8 pages) so I went ahead and purchased one. I made this entire layout for what would come out to about $.25 since the pink glitter paper was in my scraps. Not too bad for a cheap page! :) (Please excuse the blurry pic)

*Butterfly cut from Hannah Montana cartridge*

Preschool layout.

I'm pretty biased because i'm their mom, but i'm pretty sure I have the cutest boys ever! LOL These pics were taken on their first day of preschool and I couldn't have been more proud. :) I always said, I desperately wanted a little girl but I was blessed and lucky enough to get 2 little boys first! Now I think I identify with them more! haha :)

Cousins Layout.

I recently purchased Jubilee on ebay for a GREAT deal and I was so excited to get it in the mail today! I had the cutest pic of my oldest son and my nephew that was taken last weekend and they were so excited because my dad was about to take them to McDonalds! :)


Supplies:
Jubilee (or any font cartridge)
George and Basic Shapes (or circle chipboard shape)*
12x12 patterned paper
8 1/2 x 7 1/2 different patterned paper (differnt pattern/same color family)
6 1/2 x 7 colored cardstock
4 1/4 x 6 1/4 photo mat (I used leftover from my 8 1/2 sheet)
2" border for the bottom
Red boxes cut out at 2"
Letters inside boxes cut out at 1" (I used Jubilee)
Glossy accents to outline the chipboard. (I ran out..hehe ;)

*I used George and Basic Shapes to cut out 3 circles at 2" for my embellishments. I used the back of a cereal box to do so.
Blade Depth=6
Pressure= Max
MultiCut=3

American Girl crafts :)

Growing up I was so obsessed with my American Girl doll that I could not wait to have a little girl to share my love of AG with. When I first found out I was pregnant with my baby girl at 8 weeks I loaded up my boys (and my dad who always likes to help me out! lol) and while my DH was at work, headed off to the American Girl store. I just *knew* this one was going to be a girl, even choosing to name her Julie, in part, because there was an American Girl doll with that name. (That is not the ONLY reason but a big one!) Call me crazy, or silly but that is my story about her name LOL. When we found out she was definitely a girl (after having been told it was a boy) I cried and could not wait until she was big enough to start scrapbooking and "Crafting" with me.

I went into Michael's a few weeks ago and noticed that they have an American Girl crafts section and I think I was more excited that anyone to find it! I immediately started stocking up on their sale items and have come up with this loot so far. Nothing huge for the time being but yes, this is all stuff I am saving for my little girl so she can have her own supplies. (And wont go digging into mommy's.) My husband thought it was so cute and I can't wait until she's big enough for me to give them to her! :))

Cricut Circle!

Woohoo! My package arrived today! I'm so excited! :)) I have some ideas for that Eiffel Tower... ;)

Sugars layout.

My husband and I call our youngest 'Sugars' and I was trying to come up with a cute layout that would incorporate her nickname. I had also purchased some Pearls at Michaels that I had been dying to use! The patterned paper I used for the background was purchased at Hobby Lobby (single page) in the baby scrapbook section. It says all kinds of little baby nicknames like Daddy's little girl..etc. It is SO cute!




Material:
12x12 patterned paper with baby girl sayings
9 1/2 x 8 1/2 white cardstock
2 4x6 photo mats cut from brown and pink cardstock
pink and brown ribbon
6 3D pearls for bottom and top of photo mats :)
"Our Sugars" cut out from Jasmine font at 2"