Being a parent is tough but what is tougher than anything else is how unprepared I am. My son’s third birthday is coming up and more so than ever before I find myself vulnerable. I am not ready for so many things to happen. I’m not ready for them to go to school. They will both be in school in three-four years time and although that seems like a long time, I have only but blinked hard and my son is turning three. My daughter who once would sit and holler at me because she would get so frustrated from not being able to move around by herself, is now running all around the house, fixing to turn two in May. I some times over look how much both of them are really growing. It becomes drowned out in all of the background noise in our day-to-day lives that I just stopped realizing how much time I’m letting get by me. Just the other day Ben, my son, came up to me while I was crocheting and wanted to help me, he actually put up a hook and yarn and made all of the right motions while making a big mess of tangles and Liz came running in the bathroom wanting to sit on the big potty. I am not ready! I am not ready for the day they don’t need my help to get dressed or to go potty, for their first report cards, for kindergarten graduation, for the first dates, for the first heart breaks. I am no ready for all of the fights I am sure me and their father will surely have with them as teenagers, high school graduation, college graduation. And on a much smaller side of it, I am not ready for the day they look at me and say “no mom, you don’t have to chase away the monsters or lay with me until I fall asleep”, “I don’t want you to hold me”, “I can do that myself”, “Don’t wait up! I’m just going out with friends.” There are so many things that I am not ready for, but at the same time there are so many things that I have loved seeing and can’t wait for. I couldn’t wait for them to be here, so that I could see their precious faces. I couldn’t wait till they could talk or walk, or watching while they learn new things. To see the light and happiness on their face when they finally accomplish something they have been trying to learn is priceless! I can’t wait to see them when they are older and helping them to grow, watching them develop their lives and personalities. I can’t wait to see the people they grow up to be, to have actual conversations with them. But most importantly I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life as their mother, it’s because of them that I have been blessed with the title of mom, and they are the best two miracles I could have ever hoped for. As a parent we are constantly in a state of never being prepared for the next milestone to happen and anxious to see what happens next. And even though its cliché and gets said too often from one parent to another, enjoy every moment of it. Because time passes by way too fast to do anything but.
Is it Christmas YET??
Is it Christmas yet??? Oh how I love Christmas! Yes I know it is only the beginning of October and we still have to go through November but my love for that late December holiday is strong. Don’t get me wrong I like Halloween and Thanksgiving too but Christmas is my favorite. There is just something, and forgive me for being cliche but, magical about this time of year. I do my Christmas shopping early so I am always in Christmas mode way earlier that I probably should be. For me there is just this nostalgia about it. I have a big family, like huge, or at least that is what it feels like. It is a blended family so there are always a million places and different events throughout the year. But on Christmas, everything just kinda stops. On Christmas morning we wake up early, because no one sleeps in on Christmas around my house, we have a hard enough time going to bed on Christmas Eve. Then after we are all up we do Christmas with the kids and then we go over for breakfast at mom’s (I do, my sisters sometimes can make it but they have other family members that do breakfast too.) and eat with my parents and my memaw and papaw and any other family that is there. I get to enjoy my dad’s Christmas punch! Oh how I love that punch, and he only ever makes it on Christmas! Then we go back home and take naps and then get ready to go back to my parents house and do Christmas with my parents and sisters, visiting and exchanging gifts, trying to get dad to make more punch and just laughing and carrying on. Then to end out the night we go to a select family members house (it changes every year) and have a big get together with my dad’s whole side of the family and eat and play dirty Santa between the adults and kid cousins. Then the next day or a few days later we get to do it again with my mom’s side of the family! There is just always so much going on in all the other days out of the year that this one day, out of the entire year, everyone just kinda stops and spends it all with family. I mean yes there are a few bickers here or there about whatever and running from house to house like you were Santa himself, but any other out of the year we may spend a few hours together or even just a few minutes but on Christmas….on Christmas we get the whole day. And nothing is better, to me, than to get to be with my family. So yes I will talk and bug people about Christmas and Christmas shopping/plans starting in September every year because to me there is no better time! (:
Quick Update
Hey Guys!!
It has been a while since I have wrote anything on here. Just a quick update, I am not even a fraction of where I want to be but I am not giving up. If there is anything that I have found through my yo-yo dieting, it is that I never feel worse about myself than when I am not doing anything at all. So now that my vacation is over it is time to jump back on my treadmill and get to work. But before I go, the most important thing is to love yourself. Love yourself no matter how you look or whatever the number on the scale is, because if you don’t love yourself, that mirror and that number on the scale will never be enough.
Here are some great recipes that I have tried to ease the sweet tooth and that aren’t all that bad for you!! Haha, maybe a little (: Enjoy
http://www.itsyummi.com/peanut-butter-dip/#_a5y_p=3559530
http://www.skinnymom.com/recipe-peanut-butter-apple-nachos/
Fast Food Sucks!!!!
Yup, you read the title right, Fast Food SUCKS!! Okay so I obviously don’t mean in taste especially since some foods are really good and depending on your hunger level can just taste down right sinful. But health wise it isn’t good for you. I mean we have all heard and we all know but not many people really talk about it. I personally have been told for years to “get the chicken instead,” “No you need a small fry not a large” and don’t even let me get started on the rest of them. It’s common knowledge, or well I think it is, that sodas are bad for you and fast food is unhealthy. What you really don’t know is just how bad.
So let me just give you a little over head. For men the break down of recommended calories for healthy weight management goes as such: Men aged 19-30 need from 2,400-2,600, ages 31-50 need 2,200-2,400 and 50+ need 2,000-2,200. Whereas for women it just says that you should take your weight and multiple it by 13 or stay within 1,600-2,000. All data is based on an inactive daily life, aka sits down a lot. Although the numbers will change for different reasons, this is where the hate for men and weight-loss comes in. Our highest number is the same as the lowest number for a 50-year-old man or older, how is that even fair!? It’s not! But that’s life I guess.
Back on point as to why fast food is so evil when you are on a diet. Most meals from any fast food restaurant is going to border on or over 1,000 calories, usually over. Now in bigger towns people may have more options but here in small town Forrest City, AR, there just isn’t. I mean yes we have some great family run restaurants and have all of the usual spots; McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Wendy’s and so on and so forth. But see here is the thing, if you are on a calorie based diet like I am, one meal and boom there goes all your allotted calories for the day. All I have left for the day, is air and water. Now I ask you, how delicious does that sound?
Are there other options? Yes there are. You don’t have to get the burger and fry or $5 fill-up like you want to, you could get a salad or just get a piece of the meal not the whole sha-bang. While that sounds great in theory, it isn’t always as fulfilling as you would hope. Don’t get me wrong there are some great salad options, Wendy’s is my favorite place to grab one and they have half-sized options. There full-sized salads run anywhere from 390 to 590 calories and half-sized from 210-350 calories. They also do leave me feeling satisfied, which is a great combo but when a full-sized salad is almost $7 before tax and I am running on pennies to make it to pay-day, that isn’t always an option. Then there is option two, home-made lunches. In theory you would either run home on lunch and eat or make it before you head out the door in the mornings or the night before. All sounds good right?? For those of you have no children or non-busy life styles, this may very well be a great solution for you, for all others…I am in the trenches with you my friends. I work from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. I get an hour for lunch which is great. My house isn’t even too terribly far from work, but it is inconvenient. I say this because it is a 10-15 minute trip one-way from my house to work, with no stops in between. Yes I have timed it. Which if you take an hour and cut out the drive time that leaves me 30 minutes. That gives me a grand total of 30 minutes to figure out what I want, prepare it and then it eat it before I have to run out of the house to get back to work on time. Then let’s not forget about packing one before I go to work or the night before. Here is where my kids factor in. In the morning I get up between 5:30 and 6 a.m. and have to be backing out of my driveway before 6:30 a.m. Now in that 30 minutes to an hour after I wake up, I have to get the kids up, find them clothes, get them to brush their teeth, hair, etc., all while still getting myself ready. Some mornings are better than others but most days it is a fight to get them out the door, because they are not morning people. A trait they picked up from me no doubt, which now leaves the night before. My kids go to bed between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. which is great but after making dinner, bath time and the bedtime routine, the very last thing that is on my mind is what I am going to eat for lunch the next day. Usually it’s time to go clean up the kitchen, I have laundry to work on, getting a few precious moments to myself or with my husband or I just simply go and pass out. Now I am probably making it sound a little worse than it is but the fact is my life is busy, so busy in fact that I tend to forget about all the good things I plan on doing. Which I’m not the only one with a busy schedule, there are folks who have to drive all day for work or only have 30 minutes for lunch or less, and many more scenarios. And for those people, myself included, fast food is the most convenient option. Just beware of what you are actually putting in your mouth and how it can hurt or help you. We don’t always have the time make the healthier option and nothing is wrong with guilty pleasure food, we just can’t do it every day. So here is to opening eyes and trying to do a little better for ourselves!
Week 1
Okay so just a quick update! It has been a whole week since I have officially re-started this journey and I have already bombed out, or well at least on part of it. I fell off with my exercises. But I started again today. Last week when I started them I did really well until Saturday. Saturday me and the husband went out of town and well I got a little lazy, even though we did spend all day rowing a raft down Spring River. I did however keep up with my calorie counter. There were some days I went over my daily allotted limit but most days I stayed right at or under.
Lucky thing for me though is that we have family friends down in Louisiana and he just so happens to be a certified fitness trainer. So after talking to him some I had to change my calorie goal from 1,800 to 1,600 maximum. It is harder to stick to but I am determined to try and do better. But he also did say that it isn’t the number on the scale you need to worry about. It is your size in clothes and how you want your body to look. But if you are anything like me, I would like to lose the sizes and inches but it would also be really great if the number on the scale went with it! haha.
Then on my exercise, I have cut out the gym. Not because I think the exercises are too much although they are butt-whooping, doing it all together. But because it is summer and I want to be outside. I have access to a pool and I am going to do laps in place of the gym, and hopefully if I get motivated enough I will even do some exercises on my Wii Fit.
Okay, so before I go I do want to tell how my blog is going to work. I probably won’t post a weekly update on the exercise/dieting portion but I will at least try to post about some recipes I have tried and worked really well (which by the way I have a few to pass along), some exercises I found really helpful and so on and so forth. But it won’t just be stuff like week 1 good week, bad week, etc. That just gets boring to read and helps no one. I also don’t have any quota to fill so I may post one a week, two a week, none, it just depends on time and availability. Also as a fair warning, not all will be about my weight-loss. Some of it may be about my life, family or just funny stories.
Side-Note:: If you want to do this with me, exercises, recipes, tracking your loss in inches or weight feel free to comment, e-mail me at jamie@arkradio.com or find me on Facebook. I love work out buddies and don’t mind providing morale support and being that same buddy to you! You don’t have to tell me your numbers even, just because I am open about all my stats doesn’t mean that you will be as well! Hope to hear from you!
Being a “Young” Parent
Hello again!
I want to write about something that has been on my mind lately and that is being a “young” parent. I put it in quotation marks to show how I am labelled, which I personally don’t believe in. I am a parent, just the same as my mom or sisters, aunts and cousins, and so on. But due to society’s terms, I am a “young” parent. I am 22 and the mother of two, not one, but two children.
For starters let me say this is not what I had planned for myself at 22. My original thought was that at 22, I would have done graduated college, to be an RN, have a job, all the while trying to establish myself. That was not in my deck of cards. For starters I changed my mind on the whole RN thing and for the second, I got pregnant. Telling my parents and family that at 19 years old I was going to have a baby was probably the hardest thing I have ever done, the look on my mom’s face and my dad’s reaction will always be seared into the back of my skull.
Now I am no dummy, no matter how air-headed or oblivious I may act. I heard the whispers and knew what everyone was saying about me. And let me just tell you that it sucks and it hurts, very bad. You hear a lot of “How irresponsible can you be?” “She did it just so they will have to accept her boyfriend.” “I thought she was better than that.” “She has ruined her life.” “Well now she’s gonna drop out and do nothing with her life.” “Suppose she is going to get married now” and much more.
Now my pregnancy wasn’t planned but there are some people who do plan them and they get the same treatment. I mean how fair is that? Yes life isn’t fair but why is it that the first thing people do is jump on the negative train and ride it through town? I don’t mean everybody but there are quite a few people that do, especially towards people who are unmarried like I was.
But my life was not over or ruined, or anything else that was said about me. Just because I got pregnant didn’t mean I was irresponsible, in fact I wasn’t. We had taken precautionary methods. My life wasn’t ruined. Jump-started, a little complicated and enriched, yeah. Being pregnant didn’t change the kind of person I was either, I was still a good person and I didn’t/haven’t given up. I still pursue my career and education goals just like before. And no, I repeat no, I did not get married to my husband just because we were expecting a baby. Matter-of-fact I threatened his life if he were to ask me, lol.
Yes, you read that right I told my then boyfriend that he was to not ask me to marry him. My exact reason was, that I was not getting married just because I was pregnant, period. Even if he was going to ask before that happened it was going to have to wait because right then I wasn’t agreeing to anything. The whole experience was conflicting and difficult at first but one of the best things that had ever happened to me.
Benjamin is my son’s name, and he is the sweetest, smartest little boy ever. Yes, I am biased. He changed my life in so many different ways and the experiences we have all gone through together have made me a better person. Before him, I was spotty on what I wanted to do with my life, worked all the time and just generally wasn’t very motivated to do anything. But once he came into my life, I wanted to do better and I wanted to be better. Because of having him, I am closer with my family than I have ever been, more motivated and head strong about college and completing my career goals, more driven to be healthier and just generally pushing to be the best that I can be, so that I can give him and his sister the best. Since his birth, I have gotten married, had his sister Elizabeth, bought a new truck, my husband and I are buying our house, I have gotten a much better job, continued with college, even graduated with an associates degree and still going, gotten them into one of the best daycares in the area and continued to do things, learn things and love things. My kids, early in life as they came, have showed me what love truly is, how it feels to love something so completely that it changes who you are.
In the end, I am still just a parent. One who loves her children with all that she is. And I am not the only one who has faced these kinds of things. There are single mothers/fathers, mothers who have children late in life and so many more. We are all just parents; and pregnancy, birth and children are all beautiful things. We all face the same issues: toilet training, wanting a vacation away from the kids, homework, hormones, sleep deprivation and much more. So let’s just celebrate motherhood/ parenthood and forget about the labels.
Getting Started
I’m so excited to start this! And I guess I will start this with why I am doing it, then to where I am currently and where I wanna be and then to how I plan on getting there! So let me be slightly vain here and say that yes, I am trying to lose weight so that I look better. It is not that I look bad, matter-of-fact I am quite happy with how I am currently, well at least until I go clothes shopping. That is a challenge all on it’s own. But there are plenty of reasons for me to tackle this, including family health conditions related to weight, like heart disease and high blood pressure. And they do contribute to my resolve but I guess the main reasons I am doing this is for me and my kids. Let me clarify as to why I include my kids. My kids are my world. The very thought that I might not be able to move and groove with them or even be around for them tear apart my very soul. So I need to be healthy for them and I want to show them how to live a healthy lifestyle. Then for me, I simply want to look better. Now, try not to judge me too harshly on that statement. As I said I am happy with how I look, but I am not satisfied. I want to be better because I know that I can, plus their is a very rewarding feeling in taking a picture and thinking “Gee that’s the best picture of me yet” as opposed to “Oh no, please delete that.” So my journey is starting again today. As I said in my first post I am currently 215 pounds and I stand at 5’5″. My current BMI is 35.8 which is classified as obese (The worst curse word ever). Now I have two separate goals, my goal to get to and then my ultimate goal. Or in translation of Jamie talk, where I will be very happy/pleased and OMG! I did it! My first goal is to reach 160 pounds/ BMI of 27 and the ultimate goal of 130 pounds/ BMI of 24. So now that we have talked numbers let’s talk about what is actually going to matter, I know that number on a scale or even a BMI rating isn’t exactly accurate. They both can be wrong if you happen to gain muscle while losing weight. So I am going to try to not stress over mere numbers, as my memaw says “I don’t care if I weigh 500 pounds as long as I don’t look it.” But goals are goals so here is my plan. Eat better and Exercise more…okay I’m done see you next post!!!
Ha ha! Just kidding. Although that is my plan summed up, short and sweet. But at length, Here it is. I went online and found a calorie calculator. Long winded description, cut short, you plug in your information and gives you the number of calories you would need to maintain, lose 1 pound a week, lose 2 pounds a week and the opposite of each (http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html). For me specifically it told me to maintain I could eat up to 2,083, to lose 1 pound a week its 1,583 and to lose 2 pounds it would be 1,083 per day, and that’s not counting exercise. I have tried calorie counting before and it is hard, you have to very dedicated and although those look like big numbers, they lie! But I am going to try and do it again. My phone is relatively awesome in this aspect as it has this program called SHealth built into it and it tracks everything, calories, steps I have taken, sleep, heartbeats, water intake, caffeine intake and more. If you don’t have a galaxy like me, there is this other app that I have used once that I thought was really good, it is called SparkPeople. But I am going to use my SHealth app to help track everything for me, and for calories I am going to start out at 1,800 between my maintain goals and lose a 1 pound a week to get used to it and gradually move down. This is probably going to be my biggest challenge simply because there are times that I am not hungry but I think I should eat and other times that I just compulsively snack. So hopefully I can keep this under wraps, after all they say that eating is 70% of the battle. Then for the exercise part I am going to start out doing Two 30-day challenges, while including a Bye Bye Jiggly Arms exercise with them. The two challenges are the Abs & Squats challenge and the Plank challenge. I don’t necessary believe in target training because if you are working it off I think it will pull off fat/weight from everywhere but I do believe in target toning. I would love to tone up the flab on the backs of my arms, belly and to firm up….well you know lol. Who wouldn’t want to have a nice looking boo-hieny. I will attach pictures of each if you want to join me! I will starting these today! But in addition to these I will still be trying to do what I have been doing, which is making it to the gym at least 3 days a week, when able, and doing the treadmill and elliptical. I started going to the gym in April and attempted a diet plan and did fairly good for about two weeks before my eating fell off and then about two weeks ago I fell off the bandwagon and have only gone once in two weeks. So back to it, with my nose to the grind and my head held high!
A little bit about me.
Okay, so here it goes. My name is Jamie Dias. You have probably pronounced my last name like Diaz by now or at the very least trying to figured it out, haha. No worries it took me maybe two weeks to get it right when I started dating my then boyfriend, Robert. The correct way to say is like Dye-as with a short “s” sound, but even if you say it wrong I will still answer to it, lol. I am 22 years old, married, with two children. I would like to think I am a very happy, positive person, who unfortunately is very gullible. My husband loves to exploit that at times, lol. I am also quite scatter-brained and tend to ramble, so even though I do plan out the things I intend to write, don’t be surprised if you find out-of-nowhere comments or if I veer off of topic. I am good like that. I love being outside, summer is one of my favorite times, simply because I get to go swimming. I love to read books, mostly fantasy books, but I will read all kinds, I also love to bake and cook, and just a lot more things, I could list things for days. I have a huge family! My mom is the oldest of seven and although my dad is the oldest of three, he has a total of five daughters!! Count them that is one, two, three, four, five! Needless to say, he spent a lot of time on the golf course when we were all at home. Even though our family is huge it pales in comparison to how much we love each other, yes I know that is cliche but I don’t care. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I am also a big sap. I can’t help but fall for a good love story, romantic or otherwise. But I will talk more in-depth about my family on another post. My main purpose for starting this blog, believe it or not is to help me lose weight. Although I have no intention of making this a fitness blog, because believe you me, I am far from a fitness guru. I love to write and can become quite dedicated to it, so in my thinking if I dedicate myself to this it will help me stay on track with my weight loss. I am currently 215 pounds of pure fluff. I am not ashamed to admit it, I got this way by my own hand. Yes I could blame it on the fact that I have had two kids but that would be a lie. I have been on the heavier side of things for most of my life. I have tried countless things and they have either worked and then fell through, or I fell off the band wagon. I am not looking for a quick fix nor am I looking for diet programs to join. What I am planning on is to do the 30-day exercise challenges that I have seen on Pinterest and Facebook, as well as changing my eating habits and tracking my progress here. I may be trying to start out a little over ambitious but plans can always be altered. My next post will about my plans, goals and what I think my weaknesses will be!
First blog post
Okay, so here it goes. My name is Jamie Dias. You have probably pronounced my last name like Diaz by now or at the very least trying to figured it out, haha. No worries it took me maybe two weeks to get it right when I started dating my then boyfriend, Robert. The correct way to say is like Dye-as with a short “s” sound, but even if you say it wrong I will still answer to it, lol. I am 22 years old, married, with two children. I would like to think I am a very happy, positive person, who unfortunately is very gullible. My husband loves to exploit that at times, lol. I am also quite scatter-brained and tend to ramble, so even though I do plan out the things I intend to write, don’t be surprised if you find out-of-nowhere comments or if I veer off of topic. I am good like that. I love being outside, summer is one of my favorite times, simply because I get to go swimming. I love to read books, mostly fantasy books, but I will read all kinds, I also love to bake and cook, and just a lot more things, I could list things for days. I have a huge family! My mom is the oldest of seven and although my dad is the oldest of three, he has a total of five daughters!! Count them that is one, two, three, four, five! Needless to say, he spent a lot of time on the golf course when we were all at home. Even though our family is huge it pales in comparison to how much we love each other, yes I know that is cliche but I don’t care. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I am also a big sap. I can’t help but fall for a good love story, romantic or otherwise. But I will talk more in-depth about my family on another post. My main purpose for starting this blog, believe it or not is to help me lose weight. Although I have no intention of making this a fitness blog, because believe you me, I am far from a fitness guru. I love to write and can become quite dedicated to it, so in my thinking if I dedicate myself to this it will help me stay on track with my weight loss. I am currently 215 pounds of pure fluff. I am not ashamed to admit it, I got this way by my own hand. Yes I could blame it on the fact that I have had two kids but that would be a lie because I have always been on the heavier side of things for most of my life. I have tried countless things and they have either worked and then fell through or I fell off the band wagon. I am not looking for a quick fix nor am I looking for programs to join. What I am planning on is to do the 30-day exercise challenges that I have seen on Pinterest and Facebook, as well as changing my eating habits and tracking my progress here. I may be trying to start out a little over ambitious is my plans but they can always be altered. My next post will about my plans, goals and what I think my weaknesses will be!
Life, Love and Family with the Dias' 