The Scale said WHAT??!?!…AKA…Totally Let Myself Slip UGH!

Ok so confession time. I have been bad both diet wise and work out wise the last couple months.  To be totally honest, I probably started slipping around Christmas. I can give all sorts of excuses, the holidays, winter weather/snow, new job, 4 kids/husband….but really its my fault for not prioritizing and for losing focus. At first it was just a couple slips…oh its Christmas, I can’t NOT have mashed potatoes. And the it was ‘Oh I have been good all day, I deserve this Creme Brulee’ and now its morphed into ‘I’ll start being good next week’ as I eat spinach lasagna, chocolate lava cake and some Cabernet.

Well I weighed myself for this first time in months this weekend AND HOLY WAKE UP CALL, BATMAN! I gained 20 freaking pounds in the course of 3 1/2 months. Gained back all I lost PLUS 10 pounds. WOW. I knew I gained some back, but yeah….that was shocking…upsetting….and has officially put me back on track.

I have Tough Mudder in 6 bloody weeks. I know I can run 6+ miles…and I’m sure some of the weight gain isn’t all fat, I HAVE been weight training, but not nearly as much as I should be. So that is getting upped. I have training appointments 3 x a week until tough mudder and I am going to run 3 x a week (probably 2 short runs like 2-3 miles and 1 long run 6+ miles and growing) and have 1 rest day. So upping my work outs to almost double. Now I don’t to ramp up to fast, so I will play it by ear and make sure to take an extra rest day if needs be.

BACK ON PALEO! LIKE NOW! No more cake, no more pasta, no more wine, no more beer, no more cheese, no more bad carbs and dairy! (at the very least until Tough Mudder, then I might put my light cheat day in for Saturdays)

Dinner yesterday: Shrimp w. guacamole and homemade bacon bits. Water. (Thats another thing I have not been keeping up on)

Breakfast today: Protein Shake w Almond Milk, Water, Hot Tea

Snack: Banana, Water

Lunch: Spinach salad w. Chicken

Snack: Larabar (coconut creme pie, if I remember right)

Dinner: ….Not sure yet but Im thinking Chicken breast w. lemon and capers with a side of asparagus.

Desert: Blueberries

SO HERE WE GO! I’M BACK IN THE GAME AND GOING TO KICK SOME ASS! So mad I let myself down, but going to turn that into focus!

WOW P.S. Just chose the ‘Losing the Baby Weight category for this post and was thinking how long its been since I used that one. Good Grief, Chantal!

Paleo-ish Recipes: Steak GLOOORIOUS Steak…Filet Mignon

The Husband and I LOVE a good Filet. Over the years we finally nailed down how to make a top notch steak with a great crust.

So first: Assemble the Ingredients! We have the steaks, pepper, salt, dried rosemary (from our garden), olive oil, garlic powder and butter. Preheat oven to 450

While assembling, I start the heat on high on my cast iron skillet. You want that pan super hot (if you flick some water on it, it should sizzle) Put a couple tablespoons of oil in the pan.  You want your steaks to be close to room temp, so have them out for 30 minutes before you throw them on the pan.  We take a lil oil and rub the steak. Then on both sides add all the seasonings.

Then throw em in the pan and don’t touch! Let them hang out for about 4 minutes and then flip. (Thats The Husband’s hairy arm up there btw)

NOM look at that crust! Let it cook another 4. Add a slab of butter on the top of both and then place pan in the oven for about another 5 minutes. Take the steak out of the oven and off the pan on to a resting area (cutting board, plate, whateva) Let them rest for about 5 minutes and then FEAST! I got too distracted by the delciousness so I didn’t get a plating shot. We served with some spinach and asparagus 🙂

1 Years Old!…AKA WOW Time flies for my Twins!

I can’t believe its already been 1 year that we have that Miles and Jack. It BLOWS MY MIND! So thought I would do a post covering the last year!

So a year ago today I went into labor! (after a couple false alarms) I made it to 36 weeks which was nuts since I had Charlie at 35 weeks and Ethan at 33 weeks! Oh that giant belly! And a month before, for the first time ever, I cracked open an egg with a double yolk! SO WIERD! SO anyway, my water broke (a first for me) and we went to the hospital. The contractions were WAY WORSE that my first two times around, prolly cuz the water breaking and all. So we get to the hospital and wait around for a bit, they check me and Im at a 4 and they decide to go ahead and get the epidural dude. In the meantime, the contractions went NUTS! It was almost constant. I would get a break every now and then, but I was just…wow. Never had anything like that with my other boys. The nurse was even amazed at how long they were and how little the breaks were in between. The epidural dude comes to the room, the nurse checks me and HOLY CRAP. In 30 minutes I went to a 8. He quickly puts the epidural in. It only works on half my body (another first). We find out that it wasn’t work on that half because MILES WAS COMING! THERE IS HIS HEAD! SO they rush me to the surgical suite (required for twins) and we get to work. BAM BAM BAM, like 4 pushes and Miles is out.  He was quiet though which scared the crap out of me…but I quickly got distracted by Jack. He was feet first…..and didn’t turn while Miles was making his exit…so… (THIS PART IS NOT FOR THE WEAK OF HEART SKIP AHEAD IF YOU GET GROSSED OUT EASILY) The doctor had to go up there and find his feet and pull him out. Found foot #1 very quickly, foot #2 was a little harder to grab. They got the ultrasound out, found it and started pulling. He got stuck at the shoulders…more pulling…(in the meantime, The Husband hung out with Miles, he couldn’t watch the pulling part) and there he was! 10 minutes later both babies now crying and very very healthy!

 

It was awesome, they were so healthy! They got to come with us back to the room after they had all their freshly newborn procedures completed. We never had that! Both Charlie and Ethan were in the NICU after being born. It was so wonderful having them there with us and being allowed to hold them! These are the professional shots they did in the hospital. Love them!

They came home with us less than 2 days later, another first. Charlie was in NICU for 10 days and Ethan an additional week. It was kinda scary honestly! I was used to my fresh newborns being on constant supervision to make sure they were breathing, heart beating, ect. Now they were coming home with us right away! And I was SICK, very sick. I had lost too much blood during the birth and was extremely weak. They had me on meds to help it, but the day I went home, I couldn’t even sit up in the car. I almost fainted on the car ride home every time we hit a bump or turned too fast. It was bad. For over a week I was still bedridden. But then it abruptly turned around and my health came soaring back. We started to learn how to take care of twins vs a singleton. Feeding two at once. We quickly learned that if one woke up to eat at night, we would wake his brother up and feed him as well. I mastered tandem breastfeeding, but as they got bigger, they would be harder to juggle so fed one at a time until we switched to bottles.

Then the time flew! Summertime!

6 Months old

Halloween!

Christmas!!

And now here they are at 1 years old! With frosting mustaches and beards 🙂 Both standing, on the verge of walking. 4 teeth each, babbling in short syllables (mamamama dadaadabababababa) Jumping up and down in their cribs when we come int he room in the morning, playing peek a boo with each other in their high chairs, stealing each others foods, fighting over toys, following their big brothers all over the house via crawl and ape walks. This last year has been a blast!

TV Parental Controls ON…AKA MY BABY NO LONGER HAS VIRGIN EYES!

OMG. Charlie bought porn on the tv through on demand. 15$ porn. And he watched probably 5 minutes of it before it was realized what the heck was going on and then see on the tv… a guy on guy BJ. WOW. No more virgin eyes for my 4 year old!

He got punished at for buying a show through On Demand, we immediately put the parental controls on and beat ourselves up for not doing it before. I can’t believe that the thought never even crossed my mind!

I’m not sure if I should talk to him about what he saw on the TV though. Perhaps he is young enough still that he doesn’t know what sex is and doesn’t need explanation yet? Or am I just trying to convince myself out of an awkward conversation with my 4 year old? Maybe see if he asks about it? Or do what the other half of me (and the couple friends I have told about this) does and just laugh it off and forget it about it until he asks about sex later?

On the bright side, at least he doesn’t seem to discriminate by sexual orientation…….

too soon?

First 10K -Ran the whole thing!!!!…aka WATCH OUT, I’M A ROCK STAR!

So had my first 10K this weekend -KILLED IT! Ran the whole honkin thing! (And honestly….my training has been sub par, so kinda amazed) My time was very turtle rather than hare, but hey slow and steady got it done! I averaged about a 12 minute mile, but I did get 10th in my age bracket! YAY! My running buddy got 2nd in hers! She was hilarious. We were walking by the announcement area joking about how we totally wouldn’t be getting medals, and the called her name! She jumped up yelled ” OMG THATS ME!!!” and grabbed it! Srsly so proud! And afterwords they had Lagunitas IPA, def a nice gift after the run!

SO NEXT UP! Half Marathon w. obstacles at the Tough Mudder in May! Now that we know we can run 6 miles, we are amping up our training and def doing longer distances! (The insanely gorgeous weather we have been having, totally helps!) And my trainer and I are now meeting 2 x a week and focusing on muscle groups that will help me get through that sucker! Esp back/arms for the monkey bar/climbing type stuff and legs for the log carry and also climbing type stuff. SO EXCITED!!!!!!

But yeah…did I mention I ran a WHOLE 10K??!??!?!?!?!? OMG!!!!! SO HAPPY!!!!!! (and sore) (but so happy!)

OH! And My wonderful husband gave me my birthday gift a couple days early (it was burning a whole in his pocket) I got the Fitbit Charge!!!! Yeah…he rocks. This thing is so cool! When he called me this morning, it buzzed and his name went across the screen. I feel so high tech and cool (at tough runner-esque rar!)

MBA: School synopsis



Ok so I have narrowed it down to 3! I have done several admission events and I am going to apply to Northwestern/Kellogg, Loyola/Quinlan and DePaul/Kellstadt.

I’m on the fence about DePaul because I couldn’t find event I could go to that didn’t require me to take time off of work.

I eliminated University of Chicago/Booth due to the fact that there was an overwhelming number of engineers/ math peeps in the program and they were very…unsocial. Which as in introvert wouldn’t be a problem but half the reason to shell out that cash is the network. And as one of the guys I talked to at my Northwestern class visit, who was accepted to both, said “I can’t imagine having a beer with the crew at Booth” I can see his point.

So Northwestern is my number one. I have the GMAT on April 18th….I am very worried about it….and hope I get a decent score! But as my boss said, “dude they want your money.” So who knows. Maybe I’ll get lucky!

I also really liked Loyola, especially since they recently started offering classes in the Northwest burbs at Cuneo in Vernon Hills. Very convienent and beautiful facility. So they are my number two.

Fingers crossed!

In other news….tomorrow is my first 10k!!! Wish me luck!!

Chicago Botanical Gardens….AKA ITS ALMOST SPRING, LETS GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!

So this weekend the temp reached 40….and in Chicago that means you go outside and enjoy the springlike weather!

To get outside and frolic, we (my mom and I) took the older two boys to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Big Success! For the most part we gave them free reign to lead us around, which was probably half the fun, and expel all sorts of energy.  It was really cute, they took turns leading the way. Their favorites were the English Walled Garden and the Japanese Garden. They LOVED the bridges, which cracked me up. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Follow the leader!

Orchid Show (I kept telling him not to pick the flowers, and he kept answer back OMG MOM I KNOW!) At one point I said ‘Charlie, watch where your going babe’ (he was looking at flowers and bumped into an older gent) and the man turns around and looks at me a funny smile, and then realized I was talking to the lil guy behind him. I guess his name was Charlie too! Charlie got a kick out of the multiple Charlie phenomenon.

Great shots of the boys

These totally reminded me of ‘The Secret Garden’ Loved that book when I was a kid

BRIDGES OMG!

Just some cool nature shots

A focus on texture

Bird Bath

I love interesting trees

So overall, it was an awesome time! If you have a garden in your area, highly recommend you check it out. Its one of my favorite places. I get a lot of walking (and boy chasing) in, the boys get to explore and get to see beautiful sites! Ethan said Hi to everyone he passed by. Cracked me up. Made friends everywhere we went!

Winter Activities…AKA How to Keep the Minions Busy

We had two activities that kept the oldest busy for at least a couple minutes….or distracted him…or just got him engaged in something other than torturing his younger brother…and getting into messes with blue dye….uh yup!

First up…Window Coloring! This was like a forbidden fruit to him, so this really kept him busy for a good hour and there have been several follow up requests. These are neon white board erase markers that on the package said were good for window coloring so though, aye why not? HE LOVED THIS!!!!

Another fun activity was playing with his rock collection..yup thats right. This was his special christmas present request. As luck would have it, my mom had a huge interest in this when she was a kid as well and was able to get one together for him. So we found some rocks buried in the snow around the yard and compared them to the rocks in his collection. Compared if it was smooth vs rough, colors, shapes, edges ect.  It was a good time and educational too 🙂

Purty

Bright side of being awake at 3am….found a cool photo op