Amber's Prep for a Healthy Pregnancy Journal

[lindalinda]

I think its a really good idea to start posting your food and stuff again on a regular basis. I hope I can get back into it too soon. I think when kevins schedule lets up a little (november) I will start again with a vengeance.


Sorry about the PMS thing. I swear, I actually scare myself sometimes from it, I get so mean! Like I' m looking at someone taking over my body If its too bad tho, you should talk to your dr.

I thought your new place had weight watchers or something? Or did that go away? Maybe a buddy system or something. I have not found that to work where I am tho. It seems to me if people know you are on a diet, they seem to try to get you to eat MORE. So I dont tell anyone anymore. But maybe thats just me

Tell your hubby I'm proud of him for sticking to his guns about eating out!


Have a good weekend!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

The PMS has let up now. Thank goodness! I usually lasts a little less than a week, but sometimes it just hits harder than other times. I was thinking of trying to see if there are any natural remedies that might help to control the hormonal swings?

I was thinking about the Weight Watchers thing at work Friday actually.... I'm not sure if they are still doing it or not? I think I will look into it. I agree with what you said. I think that they try to tempt me more because I said I was trying to eat right again. Also I made the mistake of telling them that I am trying to budget and going to try to cut my eating lunch out Way down. Then they tried to get me to eat out like everyday Not cool!

I'm proud of him for refusing to eat out Thursday also. He Very often gives into me WAY too easy Can be good and bad

So yesterday...
B- kashi w/ milk, coffee
L- pimento cheese sandwich, half a can of soup
D - FONDUE!!! cheese course, salad, entree (steak, chicken, & pork, w/ various veggies), and Chocolate course!!! and 3 glasses of wine.

SO, we totally blew the budget last night We had planned to cook at home last night and get take out tonight because the guys are here all day today. When I got home though I really wanted to go out and do something, which didn't have to be dinner. I was thinking something like a movie. DH suggested that we go to dinner and then he could cook tonight. Sounded good to me.

This new Fondue restaurant just opened here in Macon, before now we would have had to go to Atlanta for Fondue. So, we decided to go there. We knew that it would be expensive, but we were hoping it would be a little cheaper here in Macon... apparently NOT! So, we ended up getting the meal for two. It was very nice and YUMMY! We were there for two and a half hours too! The feast includes a glass of wine per person, but you can use that to get a credit toward a bottle of wine, so we did that We had a great time and would definitely go again, just not very often at all!

Anyway, that one dinner was more than our whole eating out budget for the month. So, we agreed to take the majority of it out of our entertainment budget. I think the entertainment budget is a bit high anyway so that will work out hopefully. We have enough money in our dinner budget for one more dinner out basically.

I'm sure it was WAY over my calorie budget for the day, too. Oh, well, I'll do better today.

Today so far-
L- pb&j sandwich, 2 cups of coffee
Uh, just realized that is all I've eaten... No wonder I'm HUNGRY!!
Gonna have Red beans and rice for dinner, hopefully soon.
Wine will also be partaken of tonight. The guys are all here drinking, so I'm sure I will join in sooner or later

No exercise today or yesterday. Tomorrow we will be walking around the fair all day, but then we will also probably eat fair food (entertainment budget ) so it will not do much good.

I have to tell you guys about my day so far Dh & I got up and were getting ready for the guys to come over. Low and behold who shows up but my MIL. So, I've been creating a Photobook online through Disney's Photopass website and had said I would make her one too. I specifically had not invited her over to see it yet because I WASN'T DONE YET!!! But, here she was. My plan for the day had been that I would finish my photobook and maybe start on hers, but I had other things that I wanted to do today also. But, here she was. So, I figured I might as well just go ahead and make her book today and get it finished and then I won't have to deal with it anymore. That ended up taking us the better part of 6 hours
I'm glad that we got it done and I don't really spend much time with my MIL so it is not that bad. It just derailed my plans for the day, so I wasn't all that pleased. What's done is done though.
Then my mom shows up like 10 minutes after my MIL leaves. This was just not meant to be my day to do what I want. She only stayed like 20 minutes though, so that wasn't too bad.

Anyway, just had to get that off my chest. WOW, I'm really long winded today! Hope you brought your coffee to this reading session

Tonight the guys are here, so I'm gonna spend part of my time on the computer and then hanging on the couch watching tv and planning menus for the week. Boy I live an exciting life

K, enough ranting and rambling for one day. See you guys tomorrow, probably.

 

[lindalinda]

Hi Amber. Sounds like you are working on your budget. I think its perfectly fine to use your entertainment budget for a nice dinner. It sounds great too. I have never been to one of those fondue places. I bet I would love it too. Cheese and chocolate. Basic food groups for me!

I am so feeling sorry for your 6 hours with MIL. I would have freaked out. Really. But does that mean we will see some vaca pics ?

Do they have those fried oreos at your fair? I love those. Its bad I know, but I do!

nite

 

[kmp1191]

Hey Amber....sorry I haven't been on your journal in a while. Been a little selfish and focusing on me lately.
I took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace course, and I also read both his books...(really liked Total Money Makeover..actually I'll probaly go buy it again and start a "do-over"!) ( i gave the first copy to my sister)
Anyway, he is pretty much the reason I became a photographer! Took a second job to pay off the credit cards...found something that I liked doing and it worked out pretty well...4 years later I'm a professional photographer...and the credit cards were paid off until this move came along!

ASIDE from the fondu night...your food looks good...keep it up!!!

later girlie!!
marie

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Wow. Sorry it's been over a week. I have been meaning to check in but just haven't had it in me.

I had a pretty rough week at work this week. Just emotionally draining things that are going on with one of my cases. It is the one I've been in court over for like 3+ months. It just didn't go the way we thought it would and has reeked a good bit of havoc. I am not being blamed for anything cause most of what happened was before I took the case, but it is still just crazy. Sorry I can't be more specific.

So, anyway that kind of threw me off and I ended up allowing myself to drink wine several more nights than I would have normally

We are doing pretty good on sticking with our planned meals and not eating out for dinner! Lunches for me have been difficult. We had a birthday lunch planned for a Co-worker on Wednesday. She is a BAD planner and ended up not coming to her own party! So we all went anyway and then they are planning to take her out this coming Tuesday. I will probably go to that one too, even though I know I shouldn't cash-wise. It is my whole unit that goes so it would be really weird not to. Then Thursday, one of my coworkers had a girl who is aging out of the system (and doing REALLY well) so we took her to lunch and did presents for her. So, neither were all that great for the budget or the waistline. I'm not over budget though so I'm doing ok on one

I had the work thing and DH came down with a cold, so we didn't end up with any exercise this week. Gotta work on that big time!

So, I have to tell about our Friday night! DH had the day off so he went grocery shopping, cleaned up, and cooked dinner The dinner wasn't ready when I came home, but that was planned. We sat on the porch and drank some wine while it cooked. Then we had (canned) Minestrone as our first course. He made goat cheese chicken cutlets w/ lemon butter sauce (DELICIOUS!!) & then white wine roasted tomato and herb sauce over angel hair for the side dish! OMG!! It was SO Awesome! I was seriously thinking this man should be a Chef! It was really nice to because we normally would have gone out for dinner, spent way too much money, and not had a meal half as good! Plus his dinner was actually pretty healthy and not too fattening. The only fat was the butter and the goat cheese and there wasn't really much goat cheese.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I woke up at 4:45 am and could not go back to sleep. Finally I got up at 6:45 I don't get up that early during the week! So, I watched the sun rise and just chilled for a bit. Then I worked on my trip report. I have decided that I am going to put one together. I want to get a little further into writing it out before I put it online though. I MAYBE will start it officially next weekend, depending on what we end up doing.

Then Dh got up and we went to two little artsy markets that were going on this weekend. We bought a little pepper plant that has really cute purple and red peppers on it (it was partially a farmer's market also). I was most proud of us for coming home to eat lunch rather than eating out We had the leftover pasta and tomato sauce from Friday and DH cooked a little bit of leftover HC sausage to add to it. It turned out Really good and was another example of how eating at home can be way better than eating out.

We had Dh's best friend and his family over last night for dinner. This is the wife that I am not too sure about. She was very surprising last night though. She was actually easy to talk with and was not Negative every other word! very different from what I'm used to with her. She talked about how she has been looking for a job, but is having trouble finding one and she actually said "but I'm not going to be discouraged about it" (normally she would go on FOREVER about how horribly depressed she is about it) AND she talked about her husband in a normal way that wasn't what a horrible husband he is and how he doesn't make enough money! I was amazed that it went as well as it did. If she keeps this up I might could actually enjoy getting together with them more often than once every 6 months! The girls (4 & 6) were the really well behaved kids they always are and they even cleaned up after themselves when it was time to go! They stayed for about 4.5 hours total and it was a really good evening.

Oh, yeah, we had steak (hotdogs for the kids), potato salad, corn on the cob, chips (they brought them), and chocolate pudding cake. I made the cake from the American Heart Association Meals in Minutes cookbook that I've been using for everything lately. It was pretty good. The cake was a little less sweet than I would have liked, but it had a really yummy "sauce" that is at the bottom. I am taking the rest of it to work tomorrow because I forgot to take snacks when it was my turn for snack day last Thursday Yeah, they instituted "snack day" every Thursday, conveniently they took that vote when I was off! I have agreed but I am going to try to bring healthier snacks or lower fat stuff. This time the cake is at least lower fat, but I'm also taking some cheese rounds that I made. They aren't exactly low cal/low fat, but at least it isn't fast food!! Usually the other ladies bring donuts or sausage/chicken biscuits. I WON'T GO THERE!

Today has been mostly a chill day. I had a leftover hotdog, corn, & potato salad for lunch. Dinner was Spanish shrimp & peppers over rice, with a guacamole salad on the side. The guacamole was homemade, YUM! DH at work again! Also, no cheese on the salad, just guacamole and lettuce. I LOVE guacamole salad This was a Really healthy and well balanced meal. We each had 1/8 a pound of shrimp and just a handful of rice. The rest was all veggie!

We have the rest of the weeks meals planned out too! We will have shrimp burritos w/ the leftover shrimp dish from tonight. The leftover rice will go into a pork fried rice which will be two dinners. Then we will have chili also. That should get us through the week pretty well.

I really want to get moving on my exercise again. I think this week should go pretty good. I love what the weather is doing, it is so nice outside!

I am going to do my best to post more often so that I can stay on track better!!

Have a great Monday!!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Oh, yeah, after all that rambling I realized I didn't answer you guys' most recent questions

Linda - I didn't see any fried oreos at the fair, but I did see that they had fried snickers which was really tempting. I had not eaten yet though. Fried Oreos would be Awesome though because Oreos are my Favorite cookie! I usually Love to get one of those Giant cinnamon rolls they have though. I was proud of myself for not getting one We didn't end up staying at the fair long though.
Disney pics.... I'm gonna work on that along with the trip report. I've just been moving slowly. I did finish my photo book today and ordered them. I'm excited to see what they look like

Marie- just wanted to say that it is not selfish to focus on yourself! You need to sometimes especially when you have so much going on! I think that it is really cool that you got into photography because of the Dave Ramsey thing! I am really enjoying it so far and it is helping DH & I with the whole budget thing


Again, I thank you guys for sticking with me I feel like you guys give me WAY more support than I could ever give back in return!
I feel like we've all been having a rough time lately. We're all gonna get through this year! I Promise!!

See you guys soon!

 

[lindalinda]

Hey amber! Sounds like you had a great weekend! I hadnt checked in in a couple of days because of working.

I know I told you about kev wanting to try out for a DCI corps. Well the 2 that were reasonably close BOTH decided to go inactive next year. Capitol Regiment and Southwind. So he is bummed. The others are really too far away for me to get him for all the practices (one weekend a month). He is considering Memphis, which is a smaller corps, but we will see. Thats still a long drive!

Sorry you didnt get to try the fried oreos. If you ever see them...give it a try, they are awesome!


I havent been postin much on my journal, mostly because I am so off-track! I have a plan though. Just a couple of weeks more of slovenly behavior, then I'm back on the wagon!


Have a nice week!

 

[kmp1191]

I know I told you about kev wanting to try out for a DCI corps. Well the 2 that were reasonably close BOTH decided to go inactive next year. Capitol Regiment and Southwind. So he is bummed. The others are really too far away for me to get him for all the practices (one weekend a month). He is considering Memphis, which is a smaller corps, but we will see. Thats still a long drive!

Not meaning to hijack....but Linda....how far are you from Memphis? Would the practices still be one weekend a month? Let me know....maybe I can help ya out.....

marie

(pm me...or call...you have the info!)

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Well, if Linda's coming to Memphis once a month, then I'm coming too!! Seriously though if all the planets align correctly then we should all get together one of those weekends!

K, so I was gonna do a real post tonight about all my food since Sunday. But then my mom and dad came over at 8 and stayed til just now And they were supposed to be out of town until Sunday

I think they are trying to con DH and I into going on vacation somewhere with them again next year. I don't think DH is falling for it though

K, see ya tomorrow

 

[kmp1191]

Ya know.... ....this could be doeable......
of course, I have to get back to memphis first!!!

I'm sure we'll be talking more about this!!!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

We'll definitely have to keep that discussion open.

So, I have been doing better on my eating for the most part, but still drinking more than is good for a diet

Monday - my food was pretty good for breakfast and lunch, dinner was soft tacos made w/ the leftover spanish shrimp and some black bean and avocado salad. Overall Very good calorie day... Then, I had a couple of glasses of wine

Tuesday was a bad food day all around - coworker's bday party meant lunch at Red Lobster, then I forgot to set the meat out so we went out for dinner (it was cheap at least ) Then a little wine

Yesterday was my first good day
B- kashi w/ milk, coffee
l- 1 slice leftover pizza, black bean and guacamole salad
d- homemade pork fried rice
NO Wine!! or other booze

Today
b- kashi w/ milk, coffee
l - pb&j sandwich, bb & guac. salad
d- leftover fried rice
no wine... yet? We'll see though

We have yet to get back on track with the exercise thing. I have had a lack of motivation because I've either been getting home late from work or simply been too drained from work. It has been kind of a high emotion couple of weeks. I am hoping it will get better pretty soon.

Weather is kind of good for walking... except it almost got too cool too fast can we have some sort of in between time here? it used to be called Fall

We got our photobooks in from Disney today They are really cool. the only thing I would do different next time is that I would take way more pictures (both personal & photopass) then I could add extra pages! It costs $1.50 extra for each additional page, but I think it would be worth it. The book just seems so flat and thin. That is the only negative about it though. the pictures came out really nice and the backgrounds are cool. Most of all I like that we have a completed scrapbook of our trip and we haven't even been back a full month yet I still haven't done anything w/ my wedding pictures and that was 5 years ago!

I haven't really had any time to work on my trip report since last weekend, but I am going to set some time to work on it this weekend. Then I will most likely start trying to post in w/in the next week. I think once I actually have a thread then I will be encouraged to work on it more diligently. I hope.

So, I went to this Halloween store today and looked at all the really cool Sexy costumes and that made me wish that I had been more diligent all this time at trying to lose weight. They just aren't as sexy w/ big fat rolls hanging out of them I may buy one and hang it on my closet door where I will see it everyday! Maybe that will motivate me! Then I could put a picture of me wearing it on the fridge to gross me out before I open it to eat K, so maybe that's not the best of ideas

K, that is enough silliness from me tonight. See ya!

 

[lindalinda]

I am not sure how far exactly it is to memphis...maybe 6 hours? The trouble is, I have to take kev down on friday for the camp, drive back to work saturday, then drive back down on sunday to pick him up. I am not exactly looking forward to that, but I guess I will at least let him go to the first camp and see if he likes it. I would have to have split days off, and spend both driving 12 hours. ugh. We'll see. Maybe I can get a few saturdays off and spend the weekend tho. That would be fun, I have never been to memphis.

I am totally in the same boat as you Amber, on the exercising. Just not quite there yet. Soon tho.

Keep up the good food choices, and the rest will come.

Nite

 

[kmp1191]

Amber - get your butt in gear and start working out!!! (there, that's all the lecture I have in me for now!!)

Linda - i'm gonna pm ya....

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

You know if I stay at home my food choices are great, but when I go out I am Horrible
Friday I went to Stevie B's pizza buffet for lunch w/ my coworker
Saturday - DH & I went out to a new place "The Shamrock" which is an Irish pub. We shared a cup of Irish Stew, each had a salad, and shared the Shepard's pie & green beans. I would say that this was not too bad though. Could have done better at home, but not bad for out.

So, the other thing that I really feel I need to work on in order to start losing again is WINE Thing is I enjoy my couple glasses of wine. I just don't think my waistline enjoys them

I also know that I have to get back on track w/ the exercise. I just feel like there has been SO much going on lately. I am going to work my way up to it. I am going to try to get DH to walk around the lake after lunch some today since it is such a nice day.

Well, we are in the last few days of the month... budget had been going really well all month. However, going to that fondue place really put a hurting on our entertainment and eating out budget. next month we don't think will be nearly as bad cause there isn't much going on, dh is on call twice, and its thanksgiving. So, we ended up stealing from Nov.'s food budget for dinner last night. We had gone to MIL's house and stayed to long and were just overly hungry. So, we also may steal from Nov.'s entertainment budget for a haunted house either tomorrow or tuesday. We went to this one last year and it was really good. It is supposed to be better this year. I Halloween so I really wanted to do something cool. We aren't actually going on Halloween though because we did that last year and the wait was 2 hours

BTW, WOW Linda, I didn't realize how far Memphis was from you! I figured maybe 3-4 hours. Maybe someone else from nearby will be going also and you guys could trade off driving down? Long shot, but you never know.

K, think that is it for now. See ya soon!

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Ok, I was trying to work on how many calories a day I should allow myself. At one point when I was really counting, I had been allowing myself about 1600. But I wasn't seeming to lose much. Then for awhile I was doing between 1000 and 1200. That seemed to work for a bit, but I was really hungry.

So, I was looking at some calculators today. All of them say that to maintain my weight I need 2000 or more calories So then why wasn't I losing when I was doing 1600?
My fitday says that my basal metobolic rate is 1672 per day.

This is what one site said:

You need 2238.6 calories per day to maintain your current weight without exercise.

You need 2149.3 calories per day to reach your goal weight slowly and maintain that weight without exercise.

If you reduce your current caloric intake to 1738.6 calories per day you will lose one pound per week without exercise.

If you increase your current caloric intake to 2738.6 calories per day, you will gain one pound per week.

Exercise and Calorie Needs

If you exercise for 30 minutes each day, you may increase your caloric intake to 2488.8 calories per day and still maintain your current weight.

If you exercise for 60 minutes each day, you may increase your caloric intake to 2801.6 calories per day to maintain your current weight.

If you exercise for 30 minutes each day, you will be able to reach your goal weight with 2388.7 calories per day.

If you exercise for 60 minutes each day, you will be able to reach your goal weight with 2688.1 calories per day.

That seems like a LOT of calories! That is about the numbers that all of the different sites show.

I am 5' 9" and a medium build. I have a mostly sitting job. I weigh 191 right now. (BTW, I've been at least maintaining that for most of this month )

What do you guys think? According to these numbers I'm thinking maybe I should go back to around 1600 calories a day and try to exercise 3-4 times a week also. I am wondering if w/out realizing it I was putting my body into starvation mode? It doesn't seem like it though

HELP!

 

[lindalinda]

Amber, I really suck at figuring these things out. I would say definitely go back to the 1600 cals. But maybe make sure they are the good stuff, protein, whole grains, vegetables, etc.

I KNOW I have destroyed my metabolism, and I dont want you to do it!

Plus, this is your "prep for a healthy pregnancy" journal


nite

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

This week was not a good week for the diet. Halloween was rough. We had loads of candy at work, because the daycare next door trick or treats through the office. Then a coworker made caramel apples and chocolate apples. YUM

Thursday - a coworker brought in pigs in blankets and I ended up munching on them all day. I did end up skipping lunch though somehow I don't think it balances out.

Friday I had fast food for breakfast (no milk in the house ) & lunch (had to take a Foster kid out) then junk food for dinner

Mom & I went to a scrapbooking crop last night. The lady said dinner was included that ended up being pimento cheese sandwiches, 7 layer dip, and candy/dessert not really my idea of dinner. We had a really good time though and I got some scrapbooking done. We will go to the next one, which probably won't be until after the holidays. But I will know to eat a light dinner first.

Today we went out to try to buy some Halloween props on sale but didn't really find anything that seemed worth it. I would really love to decorate the house and yard really well next year and have a cool Halloween party. I've been looking online though and I think we will likely end up making most of our props/decorations. It seems fairly cheap and easy especially compared to the outrageous prices on already made stuff.

So, other than that I'm taking it easy today. Hooray for the time change tonight! Hopefully that will help me to actually get to work on time next week for a change

K, well, chat w/ ya later.

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Oh, by the way. I still need to work toward my "healthy pregnancy" regardless. But I still have not officially decided whether or not I am going back to school or not.

I kind of think that I will, because I plan to work for the most part & I want to stay in social work. SO, it really only makes sense to get the degree. I would get a 10% pay increase once I got it too (plus they would pay for it). Also w/ my masters I could get a job in the school system as a school social worker (down the road) and that would give me the same holiday schedule as my kids which would be really nice! Summers off would be FAB. I also understand that school social workers make good money! another bonus

But, I really need to get my tush into gear if I'm gonna do it! Ah, well, there's always tomorrow

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

So, Sunday I was all pumped and proud of myself. I got up a little early and did a Total Body Sculpt video for 25 minutes and then convinced DH to walk a mile w/ me.

THEN....

5am Monday morning, DH gets paged for work. He falls down the stairs landing hard on his rear end. I jump out of bed to check on him just in time to watch him stand up, then faint and fall straight back. He hit his head on our laundry room door (which luckily is hollow, so cracked and came off the hinge) Then once he was on the ground he started convulsing I called 911 and had them send an ambulance. The ambulance couldn't find us and in the meantime DH decided that his head didn't hurt (he didn't remember the second fall) and all that was wrong was he hurt his butt. The ambulance came and looked at him, but didn't make him go to the hospital. I had forgotten to tell them though that he had what I thought was a seizure not sure why that part slipped my mind
So we went back to bed, but didn't sleep much. He goes into work and talks to a buddy who used to be a nurse. The buddy says he needs to go to the hospital. So I took him in. They did a CAT scan of his head and an X-ray of his butt. They said his brain is fine and that most likely the fainting lead to the convulsions and he'll be fine. However, he did crack his tailbone. So, he's been pretty miserable all week because he sits at his computer for a living. And he has to put up with "Broken Butt" jokes for at least a month

So, anyway, I haven't really done anything this week cause I've just been kind of taking care of him. In the evening he just wants to lay down on the couch because it takes the pressure off his tail and his back. So, we've been watching a lot of TV.

I got off work early today because we had kind of a retreat It was pretty fun and it's always fun to get away from the office

Oh, yeah, also we got word this week that my great uncle is not doing well. He had throat cancer Many years ago and has just had Loads of complications off and on ever since. They had given him 6 months a few months ago, but he has taken a turn for the worse. His son is my age and is in the Army overseas. They said the Red Cross is trying to get him home in time Mom and I are most likely going up on Saturday if things go well until then. I hope so.

Not much more right now... not sure if I'm gonna get back on track at this point with the holidays all coming up so quickly

 

[Foxfiregrrl]

Just a quickie for now.

My great uncle actually died on Tuesday evening, but no one told me until late Thursday evening So, the funeral was yesterday. Mom and dad went up Friday for the viewing and stayed the night. I drove up yesterday for the funeral. It was good to see my cousin. He is my age and lost his dad I just can't begin to imagine. He is also in the military and is supposed to go back to Iraq (for the second time, a year after returning from a year in Afghanistan ) in two weeks. I feel so bad for his mom to lose her husband and then have her son away too.

DH is managing w/ his broke butt. He actually got his Rxs on Friday and is using them some to help w/ the pain. He'll be fine, but he just says its miserable having to sit all day at work.

I'm off work tomorrow I think I'm gonna drag out all the Christmas decorations to see what all I have even though DH won't let me put them up until after Thanksgiving.

K, that's all for now. See ya!