The Spike Diet - It's Already Working!

Before I got pregnant with Sweet Pea I weighed a certain amount.  Pretty quickly after she was born I lost the weight and was back down to that certain amount.  I stayed there until we started having trouble having another baby, and gradually put on 30 pounds.  I've lost weight before but my body keeps settling in at the 25 lb weight gain point. 

While doing The Sound of Music last summer I got to know Russ Branjord.  He has developed a diet called The Spike Diet, which allowed him to lose 50 lb in about 6 months, and go on to lose over 100 lb!  Check out his blog here.  A while back he had a giveaway on his blog and I won a copy of The Spike Diet book.

Winning that book was the push I needed to get motivated to lose these pesky 25 pounds.  The very basic idea of it is 6 days of specific to your weight/height/age calorie restriction, followed by 1 day of calorie surplus - or your spike day.  You watch what you eat for 6 days, and then so that your metabolism doesn't tank, you eat whatever you want on the 7th day.  The details of the diet are best found on his websites, along with testimonials, but it's about burning fat and boosting your metabolism.

I've been doing it for 2 weeks now, and I think this could really work for me.  It helps that Spencer is doing it too, though he actually goes and works out, I'm just dieting at this point - hopefully the workouts will start soon.  In two weeks I've already lost 5 pounds, and am wearing jeans that I haven't been able to button up for years!  And my belt is too big!

It's easiest for me to count calories at this point by eating prepackaged protein/fiber snacks and shakes, and eating dinner based on how many calories I have left at that point (always leaving room for a snack in the evening!).  Once I get used to counting calories I'll start branching out with my snacks and meals.

The best part? SPIKE DAY!!  Throughout the week I'm surrounded by a lot of bad food choices - foods that would ordinarily cause me to throw my hands up in the air and say, "It's not worth it to give up all these foods I love!  It's too hard!"  But now I see them and just tell myself I can have as much as I want of it on Saturday.  Saturday's are my spike day (at least until Thanksgiving and Christmas) and this past Saturday I ate the following:

candy
pb and j sandwich
piece of cheese pizza
little bag of Fritos
handful of fruit
little cheese and meat
handful of Combos
can of pop
more candy
2 enchiladas
small white pumpkin mocha
and more:o)

Doesn't look like dieting food does it?  If my weight loss keeps going like it is, I'll be down to my goal weight in just 10 weeks!  By Christmas!

The Spike Diet blog was helpful in getting to know the concepts of the diet, but the book has been great for getting a more in depth understanding of the diet, and lots of yummy, and easy snack and meal ideas.

My favorite part, other than the losing weight part? Spike day!

Spencer's favorite part?  Center cut bacon is encouraged throughout the week!

Now that you've read my blog post, check Russ's out with the link above!  I'll keep you updated on my progress!

When I was a (dumb) curious kid

The temp is dropping here in the icy state of Minnesota, this morning it was well below freezing.  The mid-sized kids just went outside and the compact-sized kids have to stay in this morning.  While I was sending the mid-sized kids out, I warned them not to lick anything or their tongues would stick to it and it would hurt really bad. 

Why do I know this?  Because I was warned as a child not to lick metal in the winter or my tongue would stick. 

Did I listen? Not really.

Generally speaking I was an obedient child, but I also have a curious nature - and you know what they say about curiosity. 

Curiosity led me to learn about lots of different and wonderful things throughout my life, but it wasn't so helpful one cold day when I was little.

I'm not sure how old I was, I was no older than eight though because it was at my "old" house.  My neighbor friend and her 74 big brothers were over in our yard sledding down the hill, through the open gate, and onto the frozen creek. 

After sledding for a while, I looked at the metal chain-link fence that I'm pretty sure I had just ridden my sled into and wondered, does your tongue really stick to frozen metal, or is that just something grown ups say to you so you don't lick stuff?

And so I nonchalantly stood up to the fence, and put my tongue on it. 

And I was stuck.

Not wanting to panic or ask for help (I've never been good at asking for help) I thought I could pull my tongue off. 

So I put my lips on the bar for leverage.

And they got stuck too.

I don't know how many seconds or minutes I stood like that, not sure what to do, but I would have been mortified if my neighbor friend and her 74 brothers knew what had happened.  The fear of being laughed at was too great.  In fact my friend saw me and asked if I was ok.

I responded with , "lm lhm" in a very "yep, I'm just hanging out by the fence" kind of way.

It was time to free myself, so I did the only thing I could think of to do...

I braced myself, and yanked my face back away from the fence pole.

holy frankfurters did that hurt!!

I looked at the fence in front of me and there, staring at me, was the outer layer of skin from my tongue and lips!

I don't remember sledding anymore that day, but I do remember trying to figure out how to explain my mangled appearance to my parents without looking like a total idiot.  I thought I had told them that I was sledding and crashed into the fence in such a way that my mouth got stuck to the top bar on the fence, but my parents tell me I fessed up at dinner when they asked what was wrong with my mouth.

So now, every year, I warn the kids not to put their mouths on anything outside or they'll get stuck, and it will hurt, and that I know this because I did it when I was a kid.

And then I shake my head at myself for being such a dumb curious kid.

Wishful Wednesday

Wishful Wednesday came and I forgot about it?? It's the easiest post and I forgot about it??  Whatevs. Here it is, a little late on Wednesday night, but probably makes more sense than posting it tuesday night. 


I wish I didn't have to lift 20-something lb children.... can't they just learn to leap into their highchairs/boosterseats/cribs/the car/shopping carts?  I mean, it would really help my back out!

I wish I had fully realized the wonderment that is Once Upon A Child sooner!  I'd been in one of these stores WAYYYY back when Sweet Pea was a baby, and it was really junky and chaotic.  I went into one tonight and wanted to stay for hours!  Clean, organized, fantastic stuff, great prices!   Ok, commercial over.

I wish it was Saturday cuz there's stuff I wanna eat.  I'll tell you more about what I'm talking about next week, if when I weigh myself on friday I have indeed lost the weight I think I've lost.

I wish we had a second car.  Most of the time having one vehicle is fine for us, but it's getting tougher.

That's all I have tonight!  What are you wishing for? Come on, speak up!  You don't have to have a google account to comment :o)

Little Man Hamming it Up

Little Man was hamming it up for the camera the other night, and I can't help but put up cute pictures of my baby boy. 

This was his after-the-flash face that he enjoyed doing and kept it up long after the flash was over :o)

Getting that Christmas card picture = pain in the butt

It's the time of year when I start thinking about Christmas, not seriously yet, but I'm thinking about it.  I start thinking about gift ideas, decorations, if we'll get lights on the house this year, how I'm going to deal with Christmas cookies on my new diet (remember, I have an illness when it comes to cookies... might as well be crack), and Christmas cards.

Then I start to worry because everytime I try to get a picture of my 3 kids together, someone looks weird, mad, or doesn't look at the camera at all.  I started sifting through pics throughout the year of my kids together... here's what I found:

Babydoll looks adorable, Little Man looks fine, Sweet Pea... not ready

These two shots were cute, but there's a big bright spot from the window, and blurry spots from a smudge on my lense.

LM looks ok, BD looking at the Easter bunny, and SP not excited to be having her pic taken with the Easter bunny

Apparently 7 was too old for that.

Near success, but though Christmas and Easter are most certainly related, sending a Christmas card with the Easter bunny on it is not quite my style... close, but not quite.  Funny, but not the pretty picture I want.

great picture of my kids dressed up at the Rennaisance Festival, but for some reason, SP with her belly showing is just not Christmas card material.

This is an option, not sure though.

I love this picture of me with the kids, but we can't send out a Christmas card with me and the kids and not Spence or people will get the wrong idea.

I love these pictures we took the other night of the kids in their new pj's.  In this one LM's smiling but his thumb is in his mouth, and when we had BD hold his hand he'd just lunge for it

This is one of my favorites of my kids together.. I love it.  Christmas card? maybe?

I'm sure this would be Spencer's pick for the card, but I don't like how mad LM is here, he has such a bright smile, I didn't want to lose it for the card.

So you can see I've had a bit of trouble getting that "perfect" Christmas card picture (not that I'm under any delusions that my family is perfect and should be represented as such, I just want my kids to look like themselves - cute, happy, and beautiful.

I think I've figured it out, and I have a card design done but not yet ordered, I may just get the "perfect picture" yet!

Once I get them finalized, and eventually sent out, I'll post it here for anyone who wants to see what I ended up with!



I'm Still Here

I'm still here.

I'm just busy:o)

This blog will return to it's regular scheduled programming soon.

Thank you!

Movie Trivia Time!

edited: answers are now at the bottom.

I put this up on Facebook for fun, and because I didn't blog on thursday or friday last week, I'm putting it here too for fun. 

Now if this blog made any money, and I had spare cash to give away, there would be a prize for the winner.  But Babydoll's birthday is tomorrow and the little dear wants a present, and a cake.  She's so demanding that way. 

So the prize is praise, aknowledgement, and your name next to "And The Winner Is..."

Name the movie quotes, without looking them up online.


‎1. Well I may be an outlaw, darlin', but you're the one stealing my heart.


‎2. As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced that a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo.

‎3. Now let's cut the stupid cake because I know the fat guy's gonna have a heart attack if we don't eat again soon...

‎4. George: This is Jack. Second in line to the throne. And that one's Michael. He's only five.
Michael: And I'm in prison for it.

5. Please excuse my father. It makes him feel young and powerful to treat us like idiot children.

6. You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts.

‎7. So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day.

8. What's his type? Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?

‎9. --- Do you know if the hotel is pager friendly?
--- What do you mean?
--- I'm not getting a sig' on my beeper.

10. There's a lot of people out there, and they ain't just gonna go away. They got voices now and they're goin' to be listened to. Putting them in jail is not going to stop them. That's the power of the press, Joe. So thanks for teaching me about it.


****Nobody played on the blog post, but I got people guessing on Facebook, many of the quotes were figured out!  Here are the answers!****

1. Thelma and Louise


2. Kill Bill

3. The Wedding Singer

4. Finding Neverland

...5. Legends of the Fall

6. Wedding Crashers

7. The Notebook

8. Moulin Rouge

9. The hangover

10. Newsies

Wishful Wednesday and a Theater Plug

I wish I had unending energy.

I wish all diet food was like Diet Dr. Pepper, by this I mean I wish diet food tasted more like regular food.

I wish I didn't have crumbs stuck to my feet right now, we just finished lunch.

I wish all of my children slept as well as Little Man does... knock-on-wood.

I wish for an awesome weekend of theater for my friends who are in Dracula and Side by Side by Sondheim this weekend! Can't wait to go see them!  I'm particularly excited to be seeing Dracula with my dad!

Sister Wives??

A few weeks ago I started watching a new train wreck reality show on TLC called Sister Wives.  My first thought - "Are these ladies nuts?"  Actually my first thought was, "Ooo, it's a real life Big Love!"  Then it was, "Are these ladies nuts?"  Followed closely by, "Is this guy nuts?" 

Who would want to share their husband with 3 other women?  I mean, sometimes I get sick of my husband (as I'm sure he occasionally gets sick of me) but I don't think I could handle other women claiming him 3 out of 4 nights.  I love the fact that I am the most important woman in the world to my husband, and couldn't imagine him splitting that up between 3 other wives.

And as far as the guy goes... we as wives generally have a lot on our plate, and if our husbands aren't keeping up with it, we can get a little aggravated.  Why would a man enter a situation where he has to support and keep happy 4 different women?  I mean there are some obvious advantages for the husband to having multiple wives when it comes to... eh hem... night time, but there is so much partnership that goes into a marriage, how does he think he can do that partnership justice with 4 wives.

I recently proclaimed on Facebook that, and I quote, "I could totally handle it all if I had a full time housekeeper, cook, accountant, chauffeur, nurse, and masseuse." (meaning taking care of kids would be a breeze if I didn't have all that other stuff to take care of).  The one advantage I could see right away to having sister wives would be more moms/wives/housekeepers/cooks/accountants/chauffeurs/nurses/masseuses to help out.  Although would it all be negated by the fact that this particular polygamist family has now 16 children?  Having another woman in the house that was part of the team would probably be pretty darn helpful, but is the trade-off of sharing your husband worth it?

While watching the first season of Sister Wives it seemed clear that the greatest hardship seamed to fall on the first wife, and the incoming wife.  The first wife openly talked, repeatedly, about her jealousy.  And the incoming wife struggled to find her place in the family, to bond with Kody (the husband) without stepping on the other wives toes.  And all the wives had a hard time when Kody started courting Robyn (the incoming wife) with the fact that he was gone so much more and that he... (gasp)... kissed Robyn before they were "married".  The weird thing, well one of the weird things, was that it was the first wife who suggested that they all consider adding Robyn to the family!

I guess the nice part though was the bond that the sister wives share.  They truly seem to be best friends, or sisters.  They all seem fairly normal, outside of the polygamy thing.  I think I'd rather my best friends not live with me though, and not share a husband with me.

What I really don't get though is how this Kody guy managed to get 4 women to agree to marry him!  He's kind of a dense idiot and clearly doesn't brush his long mane of hair.  You'd think if you were getting married you run a brush through it, but apparently not for your fourth wedding, even if she did spend the entire day running around like a bride does getting everything ready, ugh.  And the hair thing is really no big deal compared to the man's denseness when it comes to his family.  For example, while the first wife was trying to make her husband understand her "jealousy issues" she asked Kody how it would make him feel to see her kissing another man.  The level of hypocrisy then witnessed was ridiculous, he wouldn't even answer her because the thought of her taking another husband or lover was so disgusting and awful.  It's hard to describe how moronic he seems to be, I'd like to, but trying to type it out is giving me a headache.

That's it, my rant.  And because I work at home and don't have a water cooler to stand around chatting about reality tv, and the short people I spend my days with would rather talk about Arthur and Wizards of Waverly Place, I'm really wondering if anyone out there has watched this show, and what you thought!

Random Things I've Learned

Some random things I've learned:

When you take your kids places where they get free suckers, like the bank, it's best if all of the children get the same flavor.

Don't follow up a cough drop with coffee... doesn't mix well.

It's best not to watch the Food Network when you're on a diet and have already eaten your calories for the day.

I can't expect myself to get anything productive done while my husband is away at a wedding reception and I'm stuck at home.  It aint happ'nin.

Bring your own childrens books to the pediatricians office, you don't want your kids touching any of the entertainment there!

I had others but have totally blanked on them, I'll just have to save them for the next Random Things I've Learned!

Candid Moment

Me and Babydoll

She turns 4 pretty soon.

Sweet Pea started piano lessons!

When I was in third grade, my dad bought an old, upright piano for $50.  It was probably the best $50 he ever spent!  It needed a little fixing up and cleaning, but before long my mom had it looking pretty great.  I started taking lessons that year and didn't quit playing until I went off to college and left my the family's piano behind.  All those piano lessons, though I didn't always want to practice when I was younger, were incredibly important to me.  Piano, to me, was one of my main forms of emotional release.  When I was happy I played upbeat songs, when I was upset I'd play somber songs, and when I was mad or frustrated it was loud, dissodent, angry songs.  If I hadn't been able to play the piano I don't know know how I'd have dealt with all of the craziness that comes with being a teenager. 

Since Sweet Pea was born I'd been dreaming about the day that she'd start piano lessons.  So you can imagine how happy I was when my parents gave me my the piano, and we got it tuned, and SP wanted to take lessons!  Happy!  Since I had taken 8 or 9 years of piano lessons and continued on my own after that, I decided to teach her myself for as long as it works for her.  We just started two weeks ago!

After talking to a few friends of mine that teach piano, I decided on Piano Adventures by Faber.  She was really excited to get her books when we took a trip down to Schmitt Music with Babydoll and Little Man.  Can I just say that going there for just SP's books was like taking a kid to a candy store and telling them they can only pick up something for someone else and can't even look around?  Because taking an 8 year old to a music store is fun, but taking a 3 year old and a 1 year old as well means that I have to constantly keep them from grabbing music off the shelves or pulling down electric guitars.  And that means I wasn't able to browse. But it was still exciting to be picking up SP's books!

Anyways, we started two weeks ago and she loves it so far.  This week we started unit 3 and she has been surprising me with how quickly she is picking it up! 

My greatest hope is that piano gives her the same musical base, emotional expression, and joy that it gave me!

And that in a few years Babydoll wants lessons too.  And Little Man a few years later.

Did you take any instrument lessons when you were a kid?  Did you love it or hate it?  Did you keep up with it?





Wishful Wednesday

I wish every naptime break was as awesome as today's was!

I wish my dad was healthy.

I wish my husband wasn't diabetic.

I wish dinner cooked itself.

I wish I had a lifetime supply of Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper.

What are you wishing for?

Photo Sessions Stress Me Out!

We had a family photo session at a park with my inlaws tonight as a gift for their wedding anniversary.  These things stress me out so much.  It was not a big deal to make sure I was ready to go the second my daycare kids left, but it's a whole other story when I also have to make sure my husband and kids are also ready for pictures!  I'm sure there are plenty of moms who do not get stressed out about these things, but I'm not one of them.  I worry about their hair staying clean and decent, their clothes staying clean, and their moods staying up... and then I get frustrated if they suddenly decide not to smile in front of the camera, or they smile like they just ate a lemon.

Our photo session tonight probably went better than I thought it was going, I did see a few of the shots and they looked wonderful.  We'll most likely order some prints of Babydoll, and maybe Sweet Pea (she's getting school pics done on wednesday) but I don't think the photographer got a single good one of Little Man, LM wasn't cooperative.

All of this was after a stressful day that I was not prepared for.  And tomorrow I'll be bringing, if I get the parents permission, my daycare kids to the dr with me for Little Man's check up.  Then tomorrow night I have an interview with a family with a baby, so I have to prepare for that as well.

Now I'm exhausted and must still clean the house, do a load of dishes, and get to bed. 

If you don't hear from me in the next 2 days, send help.

Apple Jacks

Every fall, since Sweet Pea was a newborn, it's been our tradition to go to an apple orchard with Spencer's parents.  Most of those years we went to Apple Jacks orchard.  There is a lot for the kids to do, and though there are a ton of people there on the weekends the only time it gets annoying is when you're in line to buy food.

The first thing I wanted to do, before anyone got their faces painted, was get a picture of the kids together.

Have you ever tried to get 3 young kids to sit together and smile, especially when one of them is 18 months? It did not. go. well.

attempt #1

attempt #2

attempt #3... Oh I give up!

Time to just take pictures of them seperately I guess.  Notice the thumb in the mouth.  It is a constant thing with him and it's driving me crazy.  I love that he is a thumb sucker at night, but he constantly has it in his mouth during the day now too.  It got bad when he got his molars, and starting this week I'm on the lookout for something to put on his hands to make him stop sucking on it. 

Thank you girls for being cooperative!

At Apple Jack's they have facepainting, candy-tube filling, apple picking, pony rides, and wagon rides.

Little Man with Spencer

Three generations.

Sweet Pea enjoys pony rides, even when she was two and my aunt Diane brought her horse to the birthday party to give the kids horse rides, she's loved it.  Babydoll on the other hand, was extremely excited to ride a pony, until she got on.  She panicked, and wanted off immediately.  I knew she was scared because she had a death grip on me for several minutes!

There's also the "cow train".  A train made out of milk barrels that have been turned into cows.  This is a huge highlight for them every year...

even Little Man got to ride it, and I rode with him.  He actually rode it last year too.  He was 6 months old then and Sweet Pea held him in her lap.  I was a nervous wreck the whole time watching them go around a big strawberry field, but they made it safely back to me.

There is a petting zoo (sort of) where you can see and feed goats, turkeys, and chickens.

We have a great time every year, and this year was especially great because the weather was gorgeous!  Those of us wearing sweaters had the wrong idea, because the temp was in the upper 60's, beautiful!  We ate baked goods with apples, brought home some apples, apple bread, and apple cinnamon rolls (which I burned...oops!) and enjoyed the beautiful day before it was time to go home for dinner.

Little Man looks so very comfortable up there doesn't he?

Blog Issues

I'm having blogger issues.  Ever since I created a gmail account the other day, I haven't been able to upload pictures.  I go to upload and I get a google menu thing and get hopelessly lost.  That's if I even get that far.  Most of the time when I click on the photo thing it just makes a bunch of clicking noises and doesn't load up.

If anyone knows what the heck I'm supposed to do, please let me know so I can continue blogging!

Wishful Wednesday

I wish I didn't have to pee right now. sorry, first thing that came to mind.

I wish bleach didn't make my hands dry.

I wish for a magic wand.

I wish for super cool ninja moves.

Wishful Wednesday seems to be very random today, so have fun with it.  What are you wishing for?

Sneak Peak

Me and my kids at the apple orchard this fall, ignore the 2009.



I'll post more apple orchard stuff later this week.