Running Update

Remember this post about running? And this post about my most recent run on the sidebar? Well, I haven't given you an update on running, so here's one!

I started running in July, then I ran quite a bit in August, I steadily declined in September and Travis and I started a workout called Insanity (have you heard of it?) we did Insanity for September and October before I decided to call it quits. I was actually gaining weight, Travis thinks because I wasn't eating as much as I was burning.

So now I'm back to running! It feels great too. I'm not sure why I stopped but now I'm kind of addicted to it and I'm finding my stride. My stamina is definitely a lot better (due to Insanity) and I'm running faster and farther than I've ever ran.

I've reached two goals:

• Ran 3 miles straight
• Reached Orange Level on Nike+ (log a total of 30 miles)

Now, I guess my goals are to run for 4 miles and work on reaching the next level (at 154 logged miles). I'll be sure to keep you updated! And don't forget to keep track of my miles ran by checking the sidebar ever so often!

------------------------------------------------------------------->

There's...

...a jiggle in my wiggle.

I've finally decided the time has come to do something about it. I'm pretty darn lazy and I don't like doing more than I have to to get the results that I desire, so I've decided to start...running.

blech.

I hate running, but I hate the way I feel in my body (after having 2 kids and gaining and losing over 100lbs combined) more. Running is a fast and easy exercise that will tackle all the things I'm looking for in my "getting healthy" journey.

My husband asked me what my weight loss goal was and I had to tell him, it's not about losing weight. I don't need or want to lose weight, I just want to burn the fat that's hanging around in the places I don't want it hanging around, and gain stamina. I just want to feel healthy.

So, there you have it. 

It's gonna be hard but I think baby steps is the key. My first goal is to be able to run a mile loop near us without stopping. Small goal but it's achievable with just the right amount of difficulty with the changes in elevation.

Look at me ready for my first run...I did NOT look like this afterwards

If any of my followers or lurkers have Nike+ I have an account too, we can follow each other! Woot!

I'm also on a lookout for a widget to share my miles ran with you all but it's proving to be a difficult thing to find. I will find a way to update you and share my miles with or without a widget!

Car Seat Safety

Charlotte 3.5
Lexi 1.5
Still rearfacing

What is it about car seats that parents think they can just slack off and get away with no research, buy the cheapest of the cheap and celebrate the day their child can turn around to face forward? 

I hear a lot of people say, "Well I'm a safe driver." I don't care how safe you think you are, what about the millions of other people driving around on the road? Teenagers texting, business people talking on their "smart phones" and drinking coffee, soccer moms late for practice...there are so many distractions out there, even for the safest driver.

You would think parents would want their precious cargo buckled in as safe as possible but many people don't even bother reading the manuals that come with the seats!

My friend Danielle at Mama Dani's Musings worked with a Certified Car Seat Safety Technician to come up with a 4-part series about Car Seat Basics, check it out, read all 3 posts and ask all the questions you could possibly have on the 4th post. 

I guarantee you will read something that you did not know before and your kids will travel safer because of it.

One Week

So much has happened in such a short amount of time! I feel like I have been cut of from my little blogosphere and am now feeling up to regular postings again.

It has been one week since I've had surgery to remove my branchial cleft cyst. Surgery went well as far as surgeries go I guess. Most of what happened that day is a blur but, here's my recollection. Checked in at 6:30 a.m., went back to prep around 8:00 a.m., worked myself up so much about getting my IV put in I threw up as soon as the nurse got it in, I am such a baby. Anesthesiologist put the anesthesia in my IV, started getting sleepy while they wheeled me back, put me on the operating table and I was out around 8:30 a.m., next thing I remember was waking up in PACU (which I found out I was in for 2 hours before waking up) extremely sleepy. All I remember from that area is that I told the nurse that I liked her glasses (even though I couldn't open my eyes and wasn't wearing my glasses), my blood pressure dropped really low (like 70 something/something) and that the guy recovering next to me pooped on himself. I was transferred to another recovery room where Travis was and spent the next 6 hours in there struggling to wake up, forgetting to breathe every once and awhile, waiting for my blood pressure to get back to normal and throwing up IV fluids. Finally I woke long enough to move to a wheelchair and go home. Originally the surgeon was going to keep me over night but he was so pleased with my surgery that he decided to send me home that day, I was one of the first patients in recovery and the very last one out.
But anyway, it's been one week and recovery is going well, I am up and moving around and taking care of business as usual.

My super awesome cut

It's been one week since I've used shampoo. My hair is doing great! A bit greasy in the bangs but overall it feels pretty good! I'm pretty excited this is working out so well (so far).

Hair looks nice and clean still!

It's been one week since Lexi has nursed. I didn't nurse her the day of my surgery because I was pretty much dead to the world. Travis said she was nuzzling him at night but once she figured out he was the wrong person she rolled over and went back to sleep. I didn't nurse her the next day because I was pumped so full of drugs (I really didn't even know which ones) so instead of risking it she just didn't nurse. Then the days just kept going and now it's been one week. This may or may not be a coincidence but she has slept through the night 4 nights out of the week, which she's never done before in her life. (I am not suggesting that weaning your baby will make him/her sleep through the night. All babies are different. Weaning did not help Charlotte sleep through the night).

What sleeping through the night looks like

In one week, I've gotten further on a project I've been working on than I have in six months. I've been taking drastically large steps in order to be ready to start a toddler/preschool art group by Spring and I'm very excited about that!

Changes happening in the Art Studio!

I filled out my application for student financial aid. Yes, school again, and if it doesn't pan out this time I'm just cutting my losses. I have gone to school multiple times for art-related degrees, I finally just thought, why am I beating around the bush, I might as well go for just plain old art...education that is. 

ART TEACHER!

I am such a cool art teacher, check out my hot legs

We made our first appearance back to storytime. Once we got there I couldn't believe we hadn't been in so long and was wondering why, the kids love it and it's not even a hassle to get my butt up to take them. Glad to be getting back into the storytime groove.

Looking at the list now it doesn't seem like so much but I suppose when you think about doing all of this while recovering from surgery it seems like almost too much. So that's what's been going on since I've last blogged, hope all of my lurkers are doing well!

No Poo?

About a year ago I came across the concept of going "Poo Free" which is just going shampoo free, some even go soap free as well. I thought it was an interesting concept and people were raving about it but I didn't give it much more thought than, "Hmm."

Then about a week ago I came across this blog:
I haven't used soap or shampoo in a year, and it's awesome: personal experiment update

and it struck my interest up again. Then one of my Facebook friends posted a question about going poo free within the same week and I was like, "Whoa, this is a weird coincidence." AND THEN I saw a link to this blog post:

Triclosan, Soap and Pregnancy...What's the big deal? (GIVEAWAY!) 

which includes a link to a site called Skin Deep which will tell you the toxicity rating of the cosmetic products you use, enough to make you cringe...also in the blog post is a giveaway for handmade soaps.

All this lead up to something wonderful happening, I don't know why it took so long but a light bulb exploded in my head!

Anything that we buy in the store, we can make ourselves.

DUH!

I mean, that IS what people did before businesses started making the stuff for us and we all forgot how to make the stuff ourselves and then it became so convenient we started buying stuff we really don't need and now there are shows like Hoarders and people have bad credit.

I'm guilty, you're guilty, we're all damn guilty!

So anyway, I think I may go poo free, there is tons of information about it on the internet and you can choose your cleaning method. Some just rinse with water, some use only conditioner, I've seen some about people not using regular liquid shampoo but bar shampoo and then there is the most popular method of choice: baking soda with apple cider vinegar rinse. I think that is the route I am going to try. I figure with the surgery coming up next week it will be the perfect opportunity to try this out and see how it goes. There is a transition phase that will be tough to get through though. 

Here's what happens:

Shampoo strips your hair of natural oils, in return, your scalp produces MORE oils to make up for the oils that were stripped, therefore if you skip a day of shampooing your hair gets really greasy/oily really fast. 

You just have to get through that transition period where your scalp is trying to regulate the natural oils on your head and then your free...poo free!

I will however not be going soap free.

I instead will try my hand at making my own soap. Really, how hard can it be? I already make my own detergent, so I'm sure bar soap isn't any harder, not to mention you probably get a few bars out of every batch. I probably will still buy antibacterial hand soap though for when I cook with raw meat and clean up yucky baby poop and stuff that's gross.

I think going poo free will be better for the fam, especially the girls. Even though they bathe/shower everyday they only get soaped up as needed. I can always tell when they use soap too, frizzy hair and ashy skin and that is exactly the same thing that happens to me. 

If this goes well (poo free and handmade soap) deodorant and toothpaste will be next to research on the "do it myself" list.

So, with everything I'm starting to do myself, little by little, I'm feeling kinda like a modern day pioneer woman (which I'm still really far from) and I really like that feeling. 

Now to only figure out the deal with going organic which I've been putting off and putting off...baby steps...

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We made our own laundry detergent! So far I love it! Simple to make, makes a lot for a small price and seems to get my clothes cleaner than commercial detergent. The first load I washed with it was a load of cloth diaper inserts, when they came out they were soft like when I first bought them and I swear they were whiter. Here's the recipe I used but I think we'll also go through this list and try some others.

Here are the only ingredients: soap, borax, washing soda and water (not pictured)

The washing soda was the hardest to find but we finally found it at our local Ace Hardware store.

Dissolving the soap in the heated water, not as quick as it would seem, once the water starts getting super soapy it takes longer to get the last pieces dissolved.

The day after is was a firm gel but a quick stir broke it up and it's super easy to use! I love it!

Step 4...

So some of my regular readers should know that I've been recently taking some steps to live healthier by home making stuff (see this post). I had already taken about 3 steps and wasn't quite sure what would be step 4, well I think I figured it out. I recently read a blog about making homemade laundry detergent. I've seen it before on a

special about the Duggars (you know the people with a million J-named kids) and thought it was neat but never looked into it. Now after reading that blog and reading how easy it is to make, I think that is going to be step 4! I think also it will help out around here with sensitive skin issues. Those of you that have known me since Char was a baby know that we went through a crazy bout of eczema (mostly on her face) that appeared when she was around 3-4 months old. Even now I am still in disbelief as to how bad it was. Sometimes I can't even look at the pictures, it was really heartbreaking to go through. Luckily, Char has seem

ed to grow out of the worst of it, she still gets signs of an outbreak on occasion but nothing like she used to get.

(Charlotte at about 14 months)

Her poor little face used to be red 24/7.

When Lexi was about 3-4 months old I watched her face like a hawk! Always checking her sweet baby cheeks for any signs of eczema, she has been free and clear up until recently.

I've been finding patches on the backs of her legs and on top of her feet and I know that it's eczema (ahhhhhhh). I guess there isn't much we can do about it but treat it and see what happens, but every little bit helps and that's why we are going to try making our own detergent. Here's hoping it helps!

Our First Random Route

View Larger Map
View Larger Map

4 miles in a little less than 2 hours. For some odd reason Travis walked with a backpack filled with 50 pounds worth of weights and I was pushing the stroller which is pretty much the same thing. Strangely enough my legs aren't the least bit sore. I did drink quite a bit of water throughout the day which I think helped in that aspect. The weather is getting nicer so the walks should be getting longer!

Steps To Healthier Living

I hate grocery shopping! Especially the checking out part when I get stuck with a $400 bill for two weeks worth of groceries. I have friends who are coupon gods, saving boatloads of money on groceries. I have not seen one coupon for any items typically on our grocery list except for cereal. "They" (whoever they are) say you should only shop the outer edges of your grocery store: dairy, meat, produce. "They" fail to print coupons for such things! The majority of ourbill is meat+produce. It used to be meat+produce+diapers but since we switched to cloth we're saving at least $25-$50 a week! Woo! I wish I did cloth with Charlotte because the way I figure it we spent at least $1000 on diapers for her in just one year. So in an effort to start saving money on our bill we've been taking steps to eliminate items on our list which is helping us live a healthier lifestyle simultaneously.

Obviously step 1 was cloth diapers

Step 2 was eliminating red meat from our diet, turkey and chicken only for us! We were buying boneless skinless breasts but Travis happened to befriend a dietitian who told us they are filled with preservatives and more sodium than you could possibly ever need. So now we've switched to buying whole chickens and cutting them up ourselves. We really need to go price what they have at Central Meats and maybe we can go free range, yum! Eventually we might take step 2 a bit further and go meatless for good but I like eating meat so we'll see, that'll be like step 101.

Step 3 making our own bread products. Biscuits, pancakes, cakes, loaves, anything bread! It is so easy it's ridiculous that I haven't been doing it for longer. The last recipe I made gave me two loaves, so I figured a 5lb bag of flour will give me at least 7 loaves of bread. The flour costs about $4 the bread we usually buy costs about $3.50 a loaf. I have been looking through my cookbooks for the most nutritious bread recipe but think I may have to get an actual bread

cookbook to find the kind of recipe I'm looking for. Another plus to this step is Charlotte loves to help me cook, she's a great stirrer!

Step ? vegetable garden. I've been saying for almost 2 years I'm going to plant a garden. The first time I was planning I was pregnant with Alexis and that fell through, this past year I just got lazy and the upfront finances got in the way. I have been reading a book about square foot gardening for 2 years now, this upcoming spring is the damn year! If it doesn't happen this year I think I will make the effort to join a co-op, there is a farm right up the street from us that does it. I'm not quite sure what step this will end up being because we might come up with something else in between now and spring when we start the garden.

So far I like the way the steps are going and I like how healthy we feel knowing we are eating what we are actually eating and not some hidden junk.

I'd love to hear some ways my readers are leading healthier lifestyles!