Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Spin class outcasts

Well, I weighed myself this morning and the result was....I don't really know because I forgot what I weighed last week :-(  I lost either 2 or 2.2 (or maybe 2.4?) pounds though, so I at least know it's a decent amount in the right direction.  January is my weight loss month...years ago Will and I used to take a trip to the Caribbean every February so January was always time to buckle down and lose as much as possible because I'd be sporting a bathing suit soon.  I have managed to lose 10 pounds over the course of January several times and it would be nice if I could do it again this year, but my body just doesn't like to drop weight as much as it used to so I'm happy with 2ish pounds so far.  Plus I used to do Weight Watchers Fast Track for the 4 weeks of January which was 20 points a day and no extra weekly points so I was miserable and starving (which doesn't really work when I'm in charge of 2 kids all day and REALLY need my patience!) so I would rather be eating healthy stuff and enjoying myself with slower weight loss.

I didn't feel like making oatmeal this morning so I had some shredded wheat instead.  As a kid I used to love shredded wheat as long as I could douse it with sugar, and to this day I really like the crunchiness and sweetness of sugar on my shredded wheat.  I don't like the calories though, so I  use powdered erythritol now instead.
2 Barbara's Bakery shredded wheat biscuits with blueberries and erythritol (milk not pictured), egg + egg white and Valentina's hot sauce, decaf green tea
After preschool drop-off I headed to the gym to take a spin class with my mom.  She's been trying out some new classes (she still won't try Zumba though!) and I've been accompanying her.  We did kickboxing last week and both had pretty sore backs for way too long afterward so this week it was spin.  I used to take my friend Ken's spin class on Friday evenings and it was awesome.  Several other couples I knew (plus Will) would take it too, we'd all chat and joke and have fun during class while we worked our butts off and then we'd all shower and go out drinking for the evening.  Well APPARENTLY the spin class I took today was not that kind of spin class because when I leaned over to (quietly!) encourage my mom to pedal faster because "There's a guy right in front of you!  You can pass him!" the teacher called me out and told me that if I could talk I wasn't working hard enough and that talking bothered the other bikers.  Well hmph!  I'm debating whether to #1 not go back or #2 go back every week religiously and talk more.  Possibly on my cell phone.

But no matter, after that I had my snack in the car...
Babybel light, Kevita (or perhaps KeVita is more correct?)
 ...and took my baby to Toys R Us to get her special birthday balloon and crown.
Excuse the mouth full of crunched-up lollipop
Charlotte's turning 2 tomorrow!  I definitely am the mommy of 2 little girls now, no more babies around here!

I also wanted to get her some presents because I haven't bought any yet :-(  Now before you go thinking I'm a horrible mother, YOU try to think up enough presents for a small person who doesn't really have many interests yet for Christmas and then 3 weeks later for a birthday, then we'll talk.  My plan was to push her around and note the things she was interested in since everyone keeps asking me what to get her and I DON'T KNOW!  I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO GET HER MYSELF!

One of my dirty little tricks though is to get dual-purpose gifts, especially when the kids are so little that they don't even know any better.  Last year I got Charlotte some Very Hungry Caterpillar toys for Christmas so that I could use them as decorations at her birthday party.  This year I got her some penguins for Christmas so I can do the same thing.  And today I steered her towards the Disney stuff so that we can take some of her birthday presents with us when we go to Disney World in a couple weeks and maybe we can get away with buying minimal souvenirs while we're there (I can hope).  I only do this with things she actually likes, of course, but it still makes me feel slightly guilty to push presents that have an agenda.

Justin Beiber is staring at my child
 Charlotte picked out a Mickey and after some consideration, a Pluto as well.  As soon as we picked Emily up at Preschool, Charlotte handed Pluto to Emily and said "Pluto for Emmy!"  I'm not sure now who it actually belongs to, and I'm a bit worried that there may be custody battles to break up in my future, but it was darn cute at the time.

We raced home to have lunch and get Emmy changed for dance class, and I ate a bit of salad at home, some in the car, and some at dance class.
Greens, cucumbers, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot slaw, blue cheese, 1 tsp olive oil and  truffle balsamic glaze
 My salads never seem to stick on Tuesdays (must be all the kid wrangling I have to do at the dance studio) so I made a smoothie almost as soon as I got home.
Same old...1 peeled orange, 1 banana, 1 cup fat free plain greek yogurt, lotsa ice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg
 I was worried since I had my smoothie so early that I'd be starving for dinner, but my picture-taking kept me from snacking until dinner was fully made and plated.  I really like this!

I was expecting my dinner to be voluminous (as you can tell by the large bowl I used) but it turned out to be kinda small.
1/2 cup quinoa, 1 cup black bean salad (recipe from Clean Eating Magazine) topped with 1 oz leftover pork and lots of cilantro
I decided to use quinoa as a base instead of the rice I had originally planned because I was trying to use just a bit of meat and quinoa has more protein than rice, and I thought it might be too similar to our dinner last night if I had used rice.  It wouldn't have been...because the beans were pretty bland.  I had to add extra salt and hot sauce to make it taste all that interesting.  Charlotte liked it though.
Still sporting her jammies from naptime
 I was worried this small amount of food wouldn't hold me all night and I was right.  So I had another cup of the bean mixture with 1 tsp oil drizzled over it since I hadn't gotten in my second oil serving for the day yet.

More beans
 Now both the girlies are in bed, and here is the OFFICIAL last picture ever of Charlotte as a 1 year old!
The almost birthday girl
By the time she wakes up tomorrow she'll be 2.  I was thinking of sneaking some balloons into her room so that she sees them when she wakes up, but we don't seem to have any balloons left.  I guess that means I should go wrap her presents so she has SOMETHING special and birthday-ish to do tomorrow!

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