Implementing Operation Skinny Bitch

Yesterday wasn't the greatest day in the history of being Mama Mc (hoping that this nickname catches on!!).  My poor little Dolly has been sick as a small hospital with a dose of tonsilitis.  The poor divil has had it since Sunday and is on an antibiotic.  As a result she is doing an award winning impersonation of a sticking plaster... Her temperatures were through the roof! But at least we can give her medicine for her pain, there's not a pill in the land that could heal the ache in my heart when I left her at creche Tuesday morning. I lasted three hours in work and then went and collected her.  Thankfully my boss is incredibly understanding and allowed me to work from home for two days.

As I was saying, not the greatest day, but we got through it.  On Tuesday night I set myself a challenge of completing 8,000 steps.  When I realised that I wasn't actually going to get out of the house, I wondered how on earth I was going to achieve that trapped inside my little duplex. Old me (Me from Sunday 26 July 2015!) would have just said "Ah Feck it.  Lets sit down on the couch together and eat our weight in chocolate".  But new me (born Monday 27 July 2015) got creative... Today's weight loss assistants were these bad boys; my dumbells and the two steps out to my balcony.

While they are not the heaviest weights in the world, they are a starting point.  The greatest amount of assistance came from the two steps.  I used these as the smallest stair master ever.  It's a good job we are not overlooked, because if we were I'm pretty sure my neighbors would think I had lost my mind bobbing up and down on them throughout the day.

I decided that to achieve my goal, I would spend a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes of every hour moving.  So I spent a lot of time going up and down these steps like a crazy person stuck on some sort of a loop! But it worked, and I more than achieved my goal  because I actually completed a grand total of 12,589 steps for the whole day.  Which was 112 minutes of activity! I didn't just go up and down these steps 12,589 times, I also got out for a little run. Imagine how boring a workout would be if you just went up and down a couple of steps that amount of times?

My sick little Dolly sat on the couch watching me and laughing her little head off at me, which was great cause at least she was laughing and not crying, or looking to be on my hip.  These steps are hard work, but harder with a 15 month old sat on your hip pulling your glasses off your face....

Operation Skinny Bitch (name courtesy of Himself), is underway...

Thought for Today

Goals!

Thought for Today

6am and I'm already moving

I am apparently very serious about this weight loss thing... it's only 06:38 and I have already completed over 3000 steps...

Body has gone into shock...

All my tomorrow's are gone

I have finally run out of tomorrow's.  There are no more left. The time has arrived to grab the bull by the tubby horns and get my ass back to class!

Today I returned to weight watchers.

I finally ran out of excuses (just haven't the time/money/energy). I had been building myself up to going back the first week in August. I picked that date and decided I was sticking to it. But, me being me, also decided that every day between this and that would be my last supper of (insert unhealthy sugary fatty food here)...

I was getting out of control. Every meal was my last supper. At the rate I was going they would have had to call Dublin Zoo for a lend of their reinforced gigantic elephant weighing scales! Last Thursday, I am ashamed to say,  I ate 3 jam donuts. .. THREE! not all in one go, but definitely within a 12 hour period (am being very very generous with that time period here!)

Anyway! After a weekend of lovely food that I love, I decided that it was time to get back on the wagon before the bank holiday came and went and I was 100 stone and needed a forklift to get me out of my house.

So I am set. I have all my fruits and veggies and lunches for the next three days prepared and ready to go! Mason jar salads is what I've got going on this week! There's a spinach, goats cheese and parma ham salad with balsamic dressing,  a mango salsa with sweet chili prawns and noodles and a lovely tomato and basil orzo salad with parmesan cheese and spinach.

Big thanks to my wonderful leader Nicola who, as always, welcomed me back like a long lost friend and made me feel so good about making the decision to return to her fold!

Beautiful Handcrafted Family Trees

This is a totally random post, that I wouldn't normally do, but my wonderful cousin has started creating these beautiful family trees.  They are handcrafted family tree photo frames which can be personalised to your colour and interior decor.

If you are interested in having one of these beautiful creations made for your family, please visit Elaine's facebook page: 

Lainies Craft www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009420926756&fref=ts 

Something like this would be a beautiful present for new grandparents.

Mama and Papa Advice Required

Image courtesy of www.dreamstime.com 

 I have been getting baby development updates from a website and it has advised that if we haven't stopped giving our Dolly a bottle by 14 months, we really need to nip it in the bud sooner rather than later to protect her little pearly whites.  I have her down to two bottles a day. She has one in the mornings and one going to bed at night.  The bedtime one is my main concern. Usually we go through her bedtime routine and put her to bed where we give her a bottle in her bed and sing her songs or read her stories or just have a chat with her. Then once the bottle is finished she goes to sleep and we take it away (replacing it with a soother of course, but one addiction at a time please!) 

I realise the bottle of milk isn't good for her to be having before going to bed without brushing her teeth. We have tried giving her a bottle and then putting her to bed, but lets just say that went down like a pooh sandwich and we paid dearly for our error that night. And I am weak. I caved in the next night and didn't persevere! 

So the advice I am looking for is this. Should I start weaning her off the bottles? Is she too young to do that? Should I just leave her to her own devices and let her come off the bottle naturally? She doesn't use it during the day or walk around with it and is capable of drinking from water bottles, sippy cups and normal cups. All the stuff I have read seems to apply to babies who are using it as a crutch but I would really like to find out what other Mama's and Papa's have done!