December Life Tips and Tricks

I feel like December is always such a crazy busy month for everyone. Shopping, decorating, parties, and more! But I have a few tips and tricks to make the month of December a little bit easier.


1) Clothing

Every December turn the hangers around "backwards" in your closet like this...


Then as you wear the clothes put the hangers back "the right way." If you get to the next December and there are still hangers "backwards", remove those clothes and give them to Goodwill before January first to get one final tax write-off and make room for the new clothes you get for Christmas.

(Don't you love the mismatched hangers in my closet?)


2) Shoes

With the holidays usually comes a slew of holiday parties - work parties, church parties, friend parties, etc. And if you're a girl, you'll be in heals for most of those parties.

To find a pair of heals that don't kill your feet, shoe shop at DSW.


Why DSW? At DSW you can try on any shoe in any size without the help of a sales person. And then you can walk around the store in the shoes you try on. I always put on the shoes I want (with socks or footie stockings) and then walk around the store while I shop for more shoes. I figure if I can wear shoes while walking around a store for 15-20 minutes and they still feel good, I can wear them to a party or night out.


3) Weight Management

I always gain weight around the holidays. But this year the Mr. and I are tracking our calories on the "My Fitness Pal" app (available on iPhone and Droid for free!) and we've actually lost weight this month!

The interface is super easy to use. It has the calories thousands of food items stored in the app and you can create your own favorites too. And there's a social aspect to it as well so your friend/friends can keep you honest.

We've also kicked up our number of workouts per week because My Fitness Pal calculates your workouts and gives you more calories for the days you work out. We need those extra calories for cookies and wine!


4) Shopping

I don't do Black Friday shopping but I do do "Day after Christmas" Shopping. There are some GREAT deals on clothes but also on holiday decorations for next year.

My favorite place to "Day after Christmas" shop is Crate & Barrel. I always stock up on holiday candles and decorations for next year for SUPER cheap. Then when I open my Christmas boxes next year I already have new stuff!


I think Crate & Barrel opens at 9:00 AM the day after Christmas. Get there early to get the best stuff. It runs out by later in the day.

What tips and tricks do you use to make your December easier?

10 Year Panic

When I was a Sophomore in college there used to be advertisement at my gym that I'd see all the time about a girl working out hard to look killer at her 10 year high school reunion.

And with that simple ad, an idea was born. I decided then and there that I would be thin, toned, and hot at my 10 year reunion.

And I proceed to carry this idea around with me for many years after. So much so that I even decided that I didn't want to try for babies until after the 10 year reunion (I even put that on my Baby Bucket List).

I'm not sure why I got stuck on this idea so hard. I mean I was not a fat girl in high school. But I was not a skinny-mini thing either. I'm tall and Scandinavian, so I do remember feeling "big" a lot in high school, even though I was not.

As evidence, here I am, summer before my senior year.


I mean, I was a double varsity athlete for gosh sakes, so I was in good shape. I just never felt like I was "hot" like the smaller cheerleader friends of mine.


As I've grown up I've gotten more comfortable in my own skin. I appreciate that I have a husband who loves me as I am, that I can afford to buy nutritious food, and that I have a body that's rarely sick or injured.

But last week when I got the invitation to my 10 year high school reunion, I couldn't help but remember my goal, set over 8 years ago, of rockin' a killer bod at that reunion.

So I did some quick math... my reunion is in 12 weeks and I'd like to lose 10 pounds.

Losing 10 pounds would bring me down to my wedding weight, which was the lightest I had weighed since I was 13 years old.


OK, 10 lbs in 12 weeks, I can do this, right?!

I just keep reminding myself that "nothing tastes as good as being thin feels" and that "sweat is fat crying." I even started a Pinterest workout motivation board to counteract all the delicious sweets I see on Pinterest. Like these amazing truffles that I plan to reward myself with in October.

So tell me, did you go to your 10 year reunion? Did you do anything to prepare? And more importantly, was it a good time?

And are there any other Class of 2001ers out there?

Too Much Tracking?

I'm worried that I'm accidently becoming obsessive about tracking my life and everything in it.

As you know I track every dollar we spend and all of our finances in a giant spreadsheet.

And you know that I use natural family planning and track my fertility.



Well, recently I discovered Fertility Friend online and mobile. It's amazing! So much easier than the paper charts I'd always forget to write on. Now I'm a little bit obsessed. I can't stop looking at my charts and entering data pieces.


And recently I rejoined Weight Watchers online (girlfriend needs to loose 15 lbs) and I'm tracking everything I eat and drink.

I love the new points system and I love Weight Watcher Mobile because I eat out a lot and can check the points values on my phone.

But I wonder if this is all too much? I mean every day there is record of every food I eat, every dollar I spend, and everything my body does. It's a bit insane.

But I love it.

Nose Dive!

So I've been wanting to recap my Utah trip, but first I had to share my crazy injury that I got on over the weekend...

(picture taken yesterday AM after the Dr. No makeup. Keepin' it real)

Nope I didn't fall on a double black diamond on the slopes. I feel into the dresser in my bedroom! It was the middle of the night and I got up to go the bathroom and tripped.

Yup... skiing = easy... walking in the dark back at home = difficult. In short, I am a klutz.

I went to urgent care and they sealed my nose with glue stitches (but not before asking me a bajillion questions about how this happend with the subtext of "does your husband beat you?").

Now I'm feeling fine but looking pretty awful.

Here's how I looked before work this AM...


I'm really afraid of scarring though. Has anyone had any success with Medera or other scar-removing solutions?

It's Not Easy Eating Green

For a long time I could have cared less about organic food or being green in my food choices.

I had decided that organic food was probably just an expensive gimmick. I mean if the food and the plastic packaging was allowed to be sold, it had to be safe, right?

Or maybe not...

It all started when I gave up artificial sugars and lost a bit of weight and massively decreased my sugar cravings.

"Hmmm that was interesting..." I thought to myself. I wondered if there was more to this whole "chemicals and food" thing.

Then I started doing some research about eating organic. Reading books. Watching movies like Food Inc. Reading blogs, news sources, and magazines. And I started to become convinced.

What stood out most to me was some of the alarming stuff about pesticides/chemicals and fertility. So I decided to make it a part of my "Baby Bucket List" to stop eating non-organic food from the "dirty dozen" list and limit the amount of BPA in our home.

(BPA is a compound used in some plastic that is an endocrine disruptor, which means it mimics or alters the effects of a particular hormone, in this case estrogen, potentially throwing your body way out of whack. It's found in the highest quantities in certain plastics and canned goods. You can read a great article about it here.)

I'm happy to report that I've now accomplished both!

Here's how I did it...

First, I realized my biggest obstacle to eating organic food was just getting into my house. So I looked into getting an organic food delivery service, and found a great one called Beach Greens.

We signed up and now two times a month we get a crate that looks like this:


It's filled with some of most delicious fruits and veggies I've ever had!

Like juicey oranges...


And crunchy kale...


I supplement the deliveries with additional "Clean 15" fruits and veggies from the local grocery store. But overall we're eating a lot more fresh produce and a lot more organic produce and loving it!

(Note: To find a CSA like Beach Greens in your area, go here.)


Then I went on a BPA purge.

I got rid of every plastic bottle that has #3 or a #7 on the bottom. Then I went to Costco and bought glass food storage/microwave dishes and got rid or the plastic ones.


The left container is what I got rid of and the right container is what we have now.

And (sadly) I stopped buying by my beloved canned soups.

I know I can't purge all BPA from my home, but these were the best places to start according to my research.


Obviously, I can keep improving my green ways of eating and living, but overall I feel like I'm off to a good start. My next "green" task is to start making more of my own organic cleaning supplies!


Note: This post is not intended to tell you how you should or should not eat. I know people still having conflicting opinions about organics, BPA, chemicals, etc. So I won't judge you if you're not on the organic food train. This post is simply my story and journey.

How did I get here?

First a bit of background...

Age 12: I start complaining to my friends that I'm "fat." (I'm already 5'8" at this point)

High School: I varsity letter in two sports (tennis and basketball). I'm never "thin" in the tradition sense but very fit and muscular.

College and the years after: I put on over 20 pounds.

The year before our wedding: I lose 25 pounds reaching my lowest weight since middle school and finally reaching my "happy weight".


And today...

I've gained 12 pounds since our wedding on 8/16/08. Ugh.

It was this recent picture of me that really brought the gain to my attention.

I compared it to a similar picture taken at my bachelorette party in 2008.


So I admit that the 2008 picture angle is better and the outfit is more flattering. But the 12 pounds is definitely noticeable in my legs, tum, and face. And I can feel the gain in way my pants fit.

Now I need to lose weight. Again.

I'm embarrassed to be back here.

I keep asking myself, "how did I get here?!"

But I know the answer... I got here by working out less and not tracking how much I eat/drink.

I have to lose the 12 pounds before 12 becomes 20 again.


So what's the plan?

The plan is start tracking how much I eat and drink using Weight Watchers points again.

I'm also jumping back on the workout train by:
- Hitting the gym 2 times a week
- Doing yoga 1 time a week
- Walking or hiking 1 time a week
- And for something new, swimming 1 time a week

My goal is to lose 10 pounds.



I'm posting this here to a) keep it real with you all and b) create some motivation and accountability for myself

I hope that in 6-10 weeks I can post a success story here!



Does anyone have any other tips for me?

Catching Up: Skiing, Fertility, & Awards

A series of epic storms swept across California last week. They flooded Long Beach and closed mountain roads.

So did we end up taking our ski trip to Tahoe? No.

We decided it was too risky to spend the time and money trying to get to Tahoe only to deal with closed airport, closed roads, and stormy skiing.

But did that keep us off the slopes? Nope!

The siren call of the snow-capped mountains east of LA called our names. So Sunday morning at 3:30 AM we loaded up our Toyota Solara with skis, snowboards, and chains and headed up to Big Bear.

It was a bit of a tense drive up, but in the end it was all worth it!

The sun was shining and the the powder was unreal!


Big Bear was the prettiest I've ever seen it!


The resort was pretty much empty (due to the closed and icy roads)


And we had an amazing time!
(Please excuse my lack of makeup, I just can't be one of "those girls" that gets all glammed up for skiing)


Switching topics...

A few people have asked me how I've been doing since my "Taking Charge of Your Fertility Post" (men, just skip this section).

Welp, I didn't get myself preggo yet. So that's good news!

I've been doing the charting, although I don't think I'm ovulaing yet due to the fact I was on birth control for a while (temperatures don't show a pattern at all yet). I love not being on birth control. I was worried about bad cramps or bad skin from going off it - but so far, so good!


And finally...

A few wonderful bloggers gave me awards! I'm really bad about responding to these or posting about them. I don't know why, but I am really honored to get them!

The Life of An Army Wife , Newlywed Giggles, and Angry Julie all gave me awards! Thanks ladies!

Two of these awards asked for seven random things that you didn't know about me. So here are my seven random things:

1. I love organizing. When I was kid, I’d organize my friends’ closets… for fun. The container store is pretty much my heaven on earth. I heart the show, “Clean House”.
2. I am a giant Microsoft Excel geek. I make fancy Excel work plans at work and for tasks at home (like furnishing our condo or planning our Wedding). My Wedding Planning excel document is legendary. If It can be managed via an excel doc, I’ll make one.
3. The Mr. and I are the world's worst painters. We painted two rooms of our condo and then had to pay someone to fix it. We learned an important lesson about home improvement... hire someone.
4. I love the snooze bar. I will hit the snooze bar 2-3 times a morning. This drives the Mr. crazy!
5. My favorite red wine is Cabernet Sauvignon (although Syrah has been moving up my rankings lately) and my favorite white wine is Sauvignon Blanc (although I love Viogner too)
6. I come from a long line of only-children. My Grandma is an only child, my Dad is an only child, and I am an only child. Sometimes I think I want to have an only child.
7. Your sweet comments about my wedding album and pictures make me so happy! Sometimes I get a serious case of wednvy (wedding envy) when I look at other blogs, but your comments help remind me what a wonderful and blessed wedding I had. Thank you!!!

Want to know more random stuff about me? Check out my 20 questions post!

Our Weight Loss Story

Before you all knew us as the Newlyweds Next Door, we weren't always the fittest couple.

We both were Varsity High School athletes. But once we went to college and lost our team workouts we definitely let the fitness slide. Add in a steady diet of beer and Del Taco and our weights shot up.

But even after college, the weight didn't melt away. In fact for me, I hit my heaviest weight in Summer 2007 (by that Summer the Mr. had already taken off a few pounds from his heaviest weight in 2006).

In Summer 2007 I decided that it was time to lose the weight for good and over the next year I lost 25 pounds!


Take a look at our befores and afters:


How did I do it?*

1. Weight watchers. Religiously counting points and sticking to it. I've gone on and off it, but it always works for me if I don't cheat.
2. Cutting out ALL artificial sugars. That means no yogurt with fake sugar, no diet sodas, not sweet & low in my coffee. If I want sugar I eat the real thing and count the points. To this day I don't eat fake sugar.
3. Eating small dinners of mainly veggies and protein. I realized on weight watchers that by dinner I only had about five or six points left. Which meant that most dinners became pretty light, which is funny because usually dinner was the heaviest meal of the day. Not to say that I don't eat big dinners sometimes on weekends, I just try to limit myself during the week.
4. Working out three or four times a week. This is an area where I could do better. But for me weight loss is more about food intake than workouts. The fact of the matter is I often don't have time to work out during the week with my work and travel schedule, so I just try to eat healthy.
5. Drinking lots of water. I try to drink at least 60 ounces of water a day.

*Quick caveat... I know I'm still not the thinnest girl out there. I never have been. I've been 5 feet, 8 inches since I was 13 years old and I'm built from large Scandinavian stock. So growing up I felt "fat" a lot even thought I was just tall and broad. After losing the 25 college lbs I am now at what is considered a healthy weight for my height, and I finally feel happy with my size.


But the Mr's weight loss story is truly incredible. Over two years he lost 60 pounds! He doesn't even look like the same person!

How he did it:

1. Joining a gym and working out four or five days a week
2. Cutting out fast food
3. Eating smaller dinners

No special secret sauce there, huh?


My health goals for 2010 are to continue to do weight watchers and eat more organic food. I know that I would be healthier if I ate more organic, but it's so much more expensive. Sometimes I just can't bring myself to spend the money on it even though I know I should, ya know?


Want to see more weight loss stories and ideas? Check out Kelly's Korner this week!

Taking Charge of My Fertility

Note: this post is for all of the ladies who read this blog. My one or two male readers can just skip this one. K, thanks!

A few months after I started blogging I started to hear more and more about a certain book, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility", particularly around the TTC, baby, and mommy blogs.

I'm a pretty voracious reader, so I thought, "hey, this could be interesting" and headed down to Borders to grab a copy.



The book was very interesting! I definitely learned way more about my body than I had ever learned in any high school class. But a lot of the book, particularly the parts about cycle charting and ovulation, didn't apply to me at the time because I was neither trying to get pregnant nor trying to use natural birth control.

Flash forward almost a year later ...
For the past several months I've had what I believe to be side effects of "the pill", as well as some other "female problems" related to aunt flo (I'll spare you the details). So I've decided to go off of the pill and use other forms of contraception to let my hormones reset and to allow me to chart my cycle to see what is really going on.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility talks about how to use "Fertility Awareness Method" (FAM) as a form of natural birth control. Has anyone out there used FAM as an effective birth control method? If so, please let me know your "best practices."

Obviously, I can't use FAM as my primary birth control method until I've charted my cycle (using basal temperature, cervical fluid, and cervix position) for several months to establish a pattern and let the hormones get out of my system. So in the mean time, I've been researching other birth control methods. I found a really cool interactive Birth Control Effectiveness Chart. Does anyone have experience with any of the female "barrier methods" listed in the third row?

The irony of this whole situation is that one of the reasons that I want to chart my cycle is that I'm afraid that some of my female problems could indicate infertility (although I have no solid evidence for this outside of personal paranoia). But now I'm also afraid that I am going to get pregnant before I want to be!

Note: Sorry if any of you find this post boring or disgusting. One of the reasons I love blogging so much is that this community of women offers such great and diverse advice that I could never find in just my circle of real-life friends.

Regardless, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on how it goes!


PS- Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my sicky post. After a weekend of lots of rest I am feeling much better!

Sicky Equation

This

+ this

+ this


= One sick Friday working from home.

I have an awful head cold (thanks goodness, it's not H1N1). I blew my nose so many times that I made the Mr. do a special run to CVS to get the Kleenex with aloe in it. Now I just need to get through eight more hours of work. TGIF.

Diagnosis: Ulcer

For the last two days I've been really sick to my stomach with sharp pains that come and go. Finally this afternoon, I went into my doctor. The diagnosis.... stomach ulcer.

She prescribed nexium and told me to eat a bland, carby diet for the next week (did I mention no wine and no coffee?! Horrible!) and hopefully the ulcer will heel. If not, I have to go back to the doctor for more tests/treatment.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling horrible and finding it hard to get through my work day



Have any of you ever had a stomach ulcer? Was there anything that did or didn't help?