28 Weeks

Week 28 -

Baby's Size: kabocha squash

Baby's Length: 14.80 in. 

Baby's Weight: 2.22 lbs

Things are going great, another week checked off.  This pregnancy feels like it's going by a bit faster than usual, just trying to keep busy.  I did planks today, 12 minutes, plus 6 eccentric push ups.  Haven't read much more in my book.  We're going on a trip for a week on Saturday, hopefully I'll have some time to read then.  I'll try to limit myself to 3 books.  Weigh in today was 162.  I've been maintaining it here in the low 160s for a few weeks.  I didn't buy any junk food last time I went to Costco, bought lots of fresh and frozen produce, nuts, and eggs.  I didn't even get chips for the kids lunches, I think they'll survive.  :)  They keep asking me for "fruit snacks" and I know they mean the regular junk food, and I say "Sure!  We got apricots, raisins, dried plums, or craisins, which would you like?"  Non of those former fruit snack to be found on the premises.  Makes it easier to eat healthy if it's not around the house!

Schedule this week:

Mon - 12 minutes of Planks + 6-10 eccentric push ups

Tues - 400 lunges

Wed - 200 deadlifts + yoga

Thurs - planks + upper body

Fri - active rest, pack for trip 

Sat - drive to Vegas, swimming with kids :)

Next week I'll try to keep up with my planks and maybe I'll even make it to the gym at the hotel and do some eccentric cycling as follows:

10 minutes - 2 min warm up, 30 seconds up the resistance so you have to stand to pedal and push as hard as you can to un-clog your body.  Repeat that 4 times to total a 10 minute workout.

27 Weeks

27 Weeks -
Baby's Length: 9.25-9.50 in.
Baby's Weight: 2-2.25 lbs.
Baby's Size: Sock Monkey

Yeah, there's our precious sock monkey baby.  Kind of a nonsensical item to compare to.  I liked a half gallon of milk better.  27 weeks is also a head of cauliflower.  So, there ya go.  

Feeling good.  Starting my new healthy lifestyle today, we'll see what it does to my energy and weight by next week I guess.  Feeling really well though.  I've started a new exercise regimen too based on the Smarter Science of Slim book.  Chapter 28 (page 209) he talks about how much more effective deep exercise is.  "Deep-Exercise More Muscle Fibers to Burn More body Fat".  Instead of shallow exercises over long time, exercise your muscles deeply during less time.

So, for exercising today, instead of doing 100 pushups, I'm going 6 eccentric push ups.  What is an eccentric push up, you ask?  He explains on page 239, It's basically a really slow push up, and the part I loved is that on the pushing up you can go on your knees.  On the lower down you hold yourself at the bottom position for 10 seconds.  Then on your knees and go up, repeat.  Once you have lowered yourself six times, for ten seconds each time without resting in between, you are done.  

He has pretty simple illustrations showing the exercises and shows how to do several different exercises for different muscle groups at home or at the gym.  

Fill Up Your Cart

A year ago my kids and I were watching "The Biggest Loser" and I learned a great visualization tip for when you go grocery shopping, reposted below.  A nutritionist took them to the grocery store and told them all this:

When you go shopping, pretend your cart is your stomach.You want to fill it up first with fresh produce, your veggies and fruit, so put those in your cart first, then your proteins and healthy oils, and last the carbs.

So then, when I read this in The Smarter Science of Slim, by Jonathan Ballor, I thought it was great advice, (I also thought "That is a ton of food, and for two people!?!) Definitely see how one could be too full for dessert!) Here is step 3 from the chapter "5 Steps To Eating More-Smarter", from page 192:

"A great way to affordably eat a lot of high-quality food is to buy it at bulk wholesalers like Costco or Sam's Club whenever possible.  By buying in bulk, you will be able to eat more higher-quality food while spending about $10 per day on food.  That is a great deal.

Here is the actual grocery list my wife an I take to Costco every other week.  That is the other nice thing about buying in bulk.  It dramatically reduces the amount of time you have to spend grocery shopping.

Non-Starchy Vegetables

2 bulk packages of mushrooms

3 bulk packages of red peppers

1 bulk packages of all natural tomato sauce

5 bulk packages of romaine lettuce

5 bulk packages of spinach

2 bulk packages of frozen mixed vegetables

2 bulk packages of frozen green beans

1 bulk package of celery

2 bulk packages of sugar snap peas

1 bulk package of carrots

Seafood

2 bulk packages of salmon

1 bulk package of canned tuna

1 bulk package of salmon burgers

Meat Eggs

1 rotisserie chicken

1 bulk package of eggs

1 bulk package of ham steaks

1 bulk package of turkey burgers

1 bulk package of ground turkey

Fruit:

1 bulk package of grapefruit

1 bulk package of oranges

3 bulk packages of frozen blueberries

3 bulk packages of mixed berries

1 bulk package of frozen strawberries

Nuts/Seeds

1 bulk package of mixed nuts

1 bulk tub of natural peanut butter

1 bulk tub of soy nuts

2 pounds of milled flax seeds (ordered online)

Other

1 bulk package of 2% fat cottage cheese

1 bulk package of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 bulk package of black beans

1 bulk package of fat free or low-fat plain Greek yogurt

This is a lot of food.  Fortunately, it only costs about $10 per person, per day, and we do not need to buy all of it everytime we go to the store.

So, $10 per person (and he said it's for him and his wife, so 2 people) per day for 2 weeks, ~ so he's saying all that food is just $280? Seems to me that it should cost more than that?   Although I'm used to paying a lot for groceries with the 8 kids we have, and since this seems like soo much food to me, maybe that's why I'm thinking it should cost a lot more, I was thinking atleast $400.  I'm going to take this list to the store with me next time I go, cause even if the kids don't eat it, if it's just a list for him and his wife anyway, then Corey and I should be able to eat it all, right?  Maybe I'll start giving the kids salads for their school lunch instead of pb sandwiches and chips?  Hmmm...  Also, wondering if the food goes bad?  Maybe with things like the fresh veggies it'd be good to get less packages on the first visit, and then run out for more the second week.  Although I just like going to the store, it's part of my weekly schedule, and I'm enjoying keeping to it.  :)

12 Week Challenge

Hey, just noticed from my pregnancy widget on the right side there that I have less than 100 days!  Cool!  On this upcoming Monday, I will be about 12 weeks away from delivery day, since I usually get induced at 39 weeks, so planning that July 7th will be the day we get to greet this little angel.  For the next 12 weeks I am really going to focus on eating healthy.  I've been reading this book by Jonathan Ballor, and he shares something most people know, that starving doesn't work, you cannot not eat, but you have to eat so much of the good stuff and get so full on veggies and healthy foods that you won't want desserts.

Also hoping that eating clean like this will help to lower my set point, something else he talks about, and that I won't gain anymore weight.  I had my 26 week appointment yesterday, and was grateful that I only gained 3 pounds during this past month instead of 10 like I had gained the past 3 months.  I'm at 163 right now.

A friend recommended this book and lucky for me it was at the library, so I got it and have really liked what I've read so far, and things I've read as I thumbed through.  Good stuff.  From the back cover, "Jonathan Bailor spent the past decade collaborating with top doctors and researchers to analyze more than 10,000 pages of academic research related to diet, exercise and weight loss.  The end result is this very straightforward, simple and easy to read book, where Bailor bridges the gap between the academic world and the everyday world ti  dispel the myths, lies, and corporate sales hype that have fueled the current obesity epidemic."  So I'll be posting some things I learn from this book as often as I can.  Here's today's insight from page 41-42:

Eating Less does not create the need to burn body fat.  IT creates the need for the body to slow down.  Contrary to popular opinion, the boy hangs on to body fat.  instead, it burn muscle tissue, and that worsens the clog problem.  Only as a last resort, if the body has no other option, ti may also burn a bit of body fat. 

Why does the body hang on to boy fat and burn muscle?  To answer that question, let's look at it another way.  What does our fat metabolism system want more of when it thinks we are starving?  Stored energy.  What is a great source of stored energy?  Body fat.  So when our fat metabolism system thinks we are starving, does it want to get rid of or hold onto body fat?  It wants to hold on.

Next, what does our fat metabolism system want less of when we are starving?  It wants less tissue which burns a lot of calories.  What type of tissue burns a lot of calories?  Muscle tissue.  So when our fat metabolism system thinks we are starving, it gets rid of calorie hungry muscle tissue.  Studies show that up to 70% of the weight lost while eating less comes from burning muscle, no fat.  

Burning all this muscle means that starving ourselves leas to more body fat--not less--over the long term.  As soon as we stop starving ourselves, we have all the calories we used to have but need less of them, thanks to all that missing muscle and our slowed-down metabolism.Now our fat metabolism system sees eating a normal amount as overeating and creates new body fat.  In the Journal of American Medical Association, researcher G.L. Thorpe tells us that eating less does not make us lose weight, "...by selective reduction of adipose deposits (body fat), but by wasting of all body tissues...therefore, any success obtained must be maintained by chronic under-nourishment."  It is not practical or healthy to keep ourselves "chronically under-nourished," so we on't.  Instead, we yo-yo diet.  And that is hwy eating less is not an effective long term fat loss approach.

Eating Less

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Starvation Detected and Hunger Triggered

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Need to Burn Body Fat Drops 

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Muscle burned

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Need To and Ability to Burn Body Fat Drops

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Temporary Weight Loss

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We Gain All Weight Lost Back as Body Fat

26 Weeks

Baby's Length: 9-9.25 in.
Baby's Weight: 2 lb.
Baby's Size: Liter of soda

Did 12 minutes of planks and then 100 push ups today - of the pushups, the first 20 were on my toes, the rest on my knees.

Next week I will have 12 weeks left (planning on being induced at week 39). I'm thinking it would be great to really focus on diet for these next 12 weeks. After having that thought over the past few days, a good friend called me today and after chatting she shared a book she's been reading - The Smarter Science of Slim. I think it sounds like a perfect book for me to study and it's checked in at the library, sweet. :) She said he talks about not dieting, just eating the right foods. I try to eat veggies, protein, and whole wheat everyday, but I also let the sweets slip in. Going to go get the book and let that teach me and re-focus my efforts on that for the next 12 weeks. it will be good. and will help the time pass by! The teen weeks went slow, that was probably cause of winter though. Now that spring is in the air, the 20s have been going quickly and I'm keeping busy. Good stuff.

25 Weeks

Baby's Length: 8.5-9 in.
Baby's Weight: 1.5-2 lbs.
Baby's Size: 5 lb. bag of flour

Interesting that the baby's the size of a 5 lb bag but barely weighs 2 pounds.  So, 25 weeks yesterday.  Life is good.  I'm staying busy and that helped March really seem to fly by, hope April is the same.

Planks & 100 push ups today.  :)  Plus lots of cleaning around the house and no nap, it feels good to work hard.