Drumroll Please...

I DID IT!!!!! 30 Days with no candy or dessert. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. However, I'm done with the "feast or famine" practice. My goal, now that I have the power to turn these things down if I want to, is just to practice moderation. But I do admit to have Graeter's two days in a row. What can I say? I had to take advantage. Here's me with my friend's daughter, Ella. I got ice cream and she got to stay up past her bedtime. Good times for all.


Here's the results of the dress. Me posing with the Bride, who looked absolutely gorgeous. I think I did a great job of making her look extra thin that day. She's the bride. Mission accomplished. Now to attack that double chin... hmmmm.

I joined a fitness group called Stroller Fit. They also go by Mommy Muscle. It's a fitness group that incorporates your little ones into the workout. I have a great time, get a good workout and don't have to pay a babysitter. Genious!

Ice cream at the end of the tunnel

If anyone really knows me they will be able to answer this question... "What is Natalie's favorite ice cream?" I consider myself to be an amateur ice cream connoisseur. I think amateur and connoisseur cancel each other out so that just makes me someone who enjoys eating lots of ice cream. But to answer the question, my favorite ice cream is Black Raspberry Chip from Graeter's Ice Cream in Ohio. Here's a picture of it.

Ironically enough, my second favorite is Pumpkin ice cream from... yep, you guessed it... Graeter's. When I was living in NJ, I wrote Graeter's asking them when there were planning on opening shops on the East Coast. They actually wrote back saying that they didn't have plans to do so and I was pretty bummed about that. Anywho, I have decided that this will be my first dessert after my 30 day dessert fast. I am heading to Ohio next week for the afore-mentioned wedding and I'm almost just as excited to have this ice cream, which I haven't had since 2005! And it will really be a treat since I have been abstaining from desserts this long.

I have gotten lots of compliments from friends and family about this goal I've set for myself and while I feel good about it I have to admit some shortcomings. No, I haven't had dessert, but this doesn't mean I have abstained from sugar. A couple of times I have made french toast or pancakes for breakfast just so I could slather on a good dose of butter and syrup. And on our trip home from Utah, I stopped at a Starbucks and ordered a sandwich and before I knew what I was doing I was walking out with a frozen such and such with skim milk and whipped cream... I always get strange looks for that one. It's like I'm trying to be healthy with the skim milk but then I add whipped cream... doesn't quite work. Anyway, I told myself that was my drink with lunch... but in reality I probably shouldn't have ordered that, or at least left off the whipped cream. But honestly the drink was in my hand before I realized what I'd done, so now I've just avoided Starbucks altogether.

But that's it. Those are my admittances. If you are going along on this ride with me and you've chosen to give up something for 30 days, stick with it. It's a good feeling to know that you have that power within yourself. Believe me, if I can do it, no wait... if Jenny McCarthy can do it, then we all can.

Day 13 - Still Going Strong

This has been an interesting experiment. It's actually amazing to me that I don't have more cravings than I do. That just goes to show how addictive sugar is.
Being in Utah was tough. It wasn't easy to pass up all the treats at the family barbecue. But Corey's family was actually very supportive and made sure that there was a lot of fruit there for me. It was funny because when we were driving up, Corey's mom called and asked what kind of ice cream I like. It was difficult trying to explain the situation. Everyone knows how much I love ice cream.

Also, yesterday I took Elise down to San Diego to meet up with Corey and she screamed the entire way down, but that is another story. When I was checking in at the hotel, the woman noticed that I seemed a but frazzled and she offered me a warm c.chip cookie. I tried to refuse but she insisted and gave it to me with a smile and a wink. It smelled sooooo good. But I saved it for Corey. Hehe. But seriously, since when do treats just get thrown at me? Hello! I'm on a mission here.

An update on the dress situation. There was another bridesmaid that had to back out of the wedding and had a larger dress so I offered to buy her dress at half price. But now that leaves me price and a half in the hole. Also the dress has spaghetti straps and the tailor said there wasn't anything he could do about adding sleeves. So we left and on the way home we noticed an Alfred Angelo store. I just about died. Alfred Angelo is the brand of dress that we are wearing. But I didn't buy the dress from them directly, so there wasn't anything they could do about the dress itself, but they sell little short sleeve jackets to wear with their dresses and they had one in the color I needed, so I bought that and now I'm all set. What a crazy situation. I'm just trying to do the right thing here and I keep getting curve balls. Also, it's costing me a fortune. I told the bride that I'm just subtracting the amount from her wedding gift. I think she is going to get
-$400 from us at this point :)

Day four

So I record Oprah everyday. And I was watching Friday's episode and she had Jenny McCarthy on and she announced that she was doing a challenge where she was giving up desserts for the next 30 days and you can join her at Oprah.com as she blogs about it. Well I think Jenny McCarthy must have been reading my blog that morning and stolen the idea. Don't get me wrong. I'm extremely flattered. But now she is going to get all the credit. She always does...

Anyway, I had to re-start my day count because my parents had a cake for Corey's birthday and I didn't want to turn it down. It was just the four of us and it would have been weird. But this is good because I started the count on a Sunday and that is easier to keep track. So here we are day 4 and things are going well. However, I've been on house arrest with Elise while Corey has been traveling and there hasn't been much temptation. This weekend we are traveling to Utah and this will be the real test. His mom is notorious for making some of the best goodies in the world. It will be tough but I have to stick it out.

It's been interesting cutting out treats because I realize how much I ate them. Basically I was craving sugar all the time. Now I have to get creative. How about an apple and peanut butter instead of a cookie? Or Fresh fruit salad when I'm craving something sweet. I haven't been grocery shopping this week since we are going out of town but that will be interesting as well.

Oops!

So I'm in a wedding in June. I'm super excited because I've never been a bridesmaid before. Ordering my dress was a little more difficult that usual because I was 8 months pregnant. So I wasn't able to get measured. Not only that, but I was ordering long distance over the phone. But I digress. So I ordered the dress 2 sizes larger than my pre-pregnancy size. Which is about what I am so I guessed correctly. HOWEVER! The catch is that these dress sizes run 2 sizes too small. Ugh! So the dress came and I tried it on and it's a no-go, folks!!!

Just as an example. This picture shows how the skirt to the dress is smaller than a skirt that I fit into before I became pregnant. I don't know how I'm going to pull this one off but believe me it will be a feat. I can't even zip the top. And I'm not ashamed to say it. It's just how it is.





Now, about pre-pregnancy weight. I'm looking forward to getting back to that. And before people get all crazy and start making excuses for me, let me say this. I have lost 30 of the 50lbs that I gained and I feel very good about that. But the truth is, I took a vacation during pregnancy, to a place called "I-can-eat-whatever-I-want, USA". You may have heard of it.. it's in a state called "No-exercise". So this isn't a matter me starving myself in order to fit in my skinny jeans next month. No. I'm well aware of the fact that my body has just gone through something tremendous and physically altering. My goal is to lose the extra 20 lbs that I have hanging around. But not by using trickery. By simply eating healthy and exercising.

Here's the thing. I'm posting this because I need to make myself accountable. Even if no one reads this blog, it's still out there. And every time I log on I will know that I have set this goal for myself. A goal isn't a goal until it's written down, right? So there it is.

To start this process I've set two rules for myself. No desert, and no red meat. Now this may sound strict, but this is just for the next 30 days. I'm trying to do everything I can to look decent at this wedding and save the amount of fabric paneling we will have to add to the dress. Of course at the wedding I will allow myself cake. But the truth is during my pregnancy, I had chocolate breaks frequently throughout the day. And I also ate tons of cookies and ice cream. I mean a lot! This is day 3 and things are looking good.

So here I go! Anyone interested in joining me in this venture? What food item can you do without for the next 30 days? This could get interesting.

Mommy pains

I have what's called a perma-headache. It's from lack of sleep. And today my eyes aren't focusing. Corey tells me to take a nap, but I don't know how to do that. I will lay down with my eyes closed for an hour and not sleep. I've never been able to sleep during the day.



Last night was interesting. Elise slept for 6 hours before waking up a 4am. You would think that this was great and that this should allow me to sleep, but my head hurt so bad last night that I couldn't sleep and I just laid there staring at the ceiling. I always feel like I've just dozed off by the time she wakes up. Also, when she sleeps for that long, I wake up engorged looking at her like "HELP!".



But of course there are the good things. Elise is smiling more and focusing her eyes on things more often. Even at 4am when I'm dead tired after a feeding, she will smile at me and it makes it all ok. I'm still trying to get a good smiley picture. But this one is pretty cute too.

Welcome Elise

I know! It's been a month! But here she is.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ncnielson/WelcomeElise#5326905098978085666

Is this really happening?

I'm scheduled to be induced Friday the 20th at Midnight. Just FYI for the three of you that have access to my blog thus far. I'm still trying to figure this thing out.

The Waiting Game

First Post Disclaimer: I'm not going to go into a long introduction here because if you are reading this, then you probably already know who we are. And if you don't know who we are, then I assume that reading this blog will be extremely boring to you and you have lost interest by now.

Moving on...

My due date came and went on March 13th. People have been asking me if I'm getting anxious. And I go back and forth. I have to keep reminding myself that there are just a few more days to go since my Dr. is planning on inducing me Friday the 20th at the earliest. But truthfully I'm hoping that something happens naturally earlier. So I've just been doing random things. Dusting, bulking up the food storage, packing and repacking my hospital bag, dusting, replanting the long lost herb garden, dusting, purchasing life insurance and dusting again... you know that sort of stuff. I'm sure most women who have reached this point in pregnancy can relate. I'm also getting in those last servings of dessert because I'm serious about slimming down in time for my friend's wedding in June. I wouldn't be that worried if I weren't actually in the wedding. Losing baby weight, blah blah blah.

Corey had to work today and was nervous about being tied up when I'm so close to delivering. But the truth, folks, is that I'm really not close. I can just tell. He is sweet for worrying though. But he is literally 20 minutes away, so I'm not that worried. We both are trying to enjoy these last few days just the two of us. People ask all the time if we are "ready" and I'm not sure how to answer that question. Can you ever be ready for a life-changing event? Chew on that while you anxiously await my next post.