New Year's resolutions: almost one month strong

I am generally not the type to make New Year's resolutions, but this year, major changes were implemented by Hubby and I right around January 1. And three weeks later, they are all still going strong.

1. Exercise
In case you didn't notice, I had a baby last July and I am anxious to get, not only my pre-baby body back, but a rockin' body back. I started going back to Bikram yoga twice a week around Thanksgiving, but I wanted to add some sort of strength and cardio training as well. It just so happened that a CrossFit studio just opened up five minutes away from my house, so I pounced on the grand opening 50%-off class packages and bought 20 classes. For three weeks I have been going once to CrossFit and once or twice per week to yoga. I am actually starting to notice a difference (in addition to being sore!)

But even more awesome than my workout program is Hubby's new workout schedule. Hubs joined a gym (not the impressive part because he has many times shelled out hundreds of dollars on equipment and memberships never to use them) AND has gone three times per week since January first. WOW!

2. Eating/drinking healthy
Organic. Again, not because of the new year, but in the recent past, Hubs and I started buying organic here and there. But now, having read so much about pesticides and hormones and antibiotics in food, we have decided that it is a habit we will keep up with (though I will not stress if the product is regular grade on occasion.) Milk, yogurt, chicken, peaches, apples, pears, celery, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, spinach (and other greens), and strawberries are our organic hit list (items that are typically high in the bad stuff). 

Soda. I also have eliminated soda from my life. I used to religiously have one Coke or Dr. Pepper in the morning when I got up. But I want to lose baby weight, so extra sugar does not help. So I have been brewing pitchers of iced tea instead. No sugar added.

Water. Drinking water has never been a problem for me. I love bottles of water. But Hubs never drank any water. I'm really not exaggerating. He wouldn't drink anything all day and then enjoy a couple brewskis when he got home. That was the extent of his liquid consumption. So for Christmas I bought six fancy glass drinking bottles and a fridge water purifier. Guess who's been drinking multiple bottles of water every day?! Which brings me to my next point...

3. Reducing recycling
We are a recycling household, but giving up soda and Poland Spring bottles makes me feel like I'm doing good for the planet in some small way.

4. Getting organized
This is not really a routine to track, but I'm on a mission to get rid of all the crap in the house. I started with the "junk drawer." Everyone has one. I think we have about five. So I bought a drawer organizer, pulled out a trash bag and purged the worst offender. Three weeks later, it is still clean and organized! Now onto the others...

I'm pretty proud of us, even though it is still only January. 2012 is off to a great start.

More mispronunciations

Cavan uses our tea tettle to make pretend tea in her kitchen.

Daddy plays the tigaur...very similar in look and sound to a guitar.

Cavan loves when I tell her stories about "mis-serious" animals getting in trouble. Translation: mischievous.

More quirky Cavan comments...

**Cavan was carrying her baby doll up the stairs and halfway she turns and says,"Mommy, can you hold Betty? My arm is about to fall off."

**New phrase: Holy crap-a-mole. I guess that's a combination of holy guacamole and holy crap. Not that we ever say holy crap in our house.

**During show-and-tell, a little boy at Cavan's preschool was showing a piece of art he made out of wood. The teacher asks, "Does anyone know where wood comes from?" Cavan responds, "Home Depot."

I will teach her...

Cavan and I are sitting at the dining table this morning eating scrambled eggs and I ask Cavan if she is going to teach Emma everything she knows. Cavan says "Yes!" and proceeds to tell me everything that she will teach her little sister.

I will teach her how to walk outside.

I will teach her how to drink a sippy.

I will teach her how to climb the rock wall on my swing set.

I will teach her how to eat with a fork.

I will teach her how to draw my name and her name with pencils.

I will teach her how to learn her letters.

I will teach her how to put diapers on Betty [her doll].

I will teach her how to lock Spoonsy [the dog] in his crate.

I will teach her how to turn on the big music and the little music [the stereo system and the ipod dock].

I will teach her how to put the [re]cycle in the bag.

I will teach her how to put one leg and two legs like this and flip right off [in reference to climbing of the bench].

I will teach her how to cook in my kitchen.

I will teach her how to rock on my rocking horse.

I will teach her how to climb the stool.

I will teach her how to pet The Boodgies [the cat] so nice.

I will teach her how to vacuum with my vacuum.

I will teach her how to eat eggs.

Those are all the things I will teach her.

Diet (not-quite-derailed) update: Day 4

Quick update on the diet. Yesterday I finished off a bag of Kit-Kats for lunch. I have decided it is much easier not to eat the chocolate if I simply don't buy it at the store. So until all the candy and ice cream has been eradicated from my freezer, I am not responsible for my irresponsible consumption of sweets. Which will be soon because I also finished the container of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream after dinner last night. (Yes, AFTER dinner, not AS dinner!) Now I just have to polish off the bag of mini Reese's peanut butter cups—this should only take a couple of days—and my daily diet will be the poster child of health and wellness.

But despite the aforementioned caloric setbacks, I have been keeping up with my green smoothies. Today is spinach-apple-banana-lime. I actually like this one better than the romaine-strawberry-banana. The lime gives it a nice kick—a kick in the fat pants!

Personal Ad

I will ask you if this outfit makes me look fat, and you will be honest. Even if I get pissed at the time.

I will tell you not to buy me a birthday present, and when you do, my eyes will light up. And when you don’t, I will love you even more for being true to my request.

I will watch the Yankees with you, and you will flip to American Idol during the commericials—and wait for the next commercial to click back to baseball.

I will make you Kraft mac and cheese, and you will make me potato-scallion crusted halibut with asparagus drizzled in hollandaise.

I will feed, change, tickle, bathe, teach, referee and spoil the kids all day, and you will put them to bed while I sit on the couch and veg out with a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

I will love you because you will do what you love, even if we'll never be rich.

I will love you despite worrying about money every time the 1^st rolls around, and you will work even harder every time I write a check.

I will love you because you will put our children first.

I will love you because you will make our kids scream with hysteria every time you make a fake fart noise.

I will love you because we will be a team.

And you will love me when I am a pain in the ass.

The Green Smoothie Diet

I'm starting the first diet I've ever been on in my life. Yes, I gave birth only two months ago, but I am beyond ready to get my pre-baby body back.

Step One—old habits: I will have to abstain from eating a whole bag of mini Kit-Kats while watching Bravo's The Millionaire Matchmaker as baby sleeps on my lap. And I'll probably have to avoid eating chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and a bologna sandwiches for lunch. Or Lay's sour cream and onion chips paired with half a cantaloupe. Noticing a trend. Apparently my pregnancy cravings did not disappear with my baby tummy. Therefore, I still look like I have a baby tummy.

Step Two—new diet: Integrate one quart of green smoothies into my day. Green smoothie, you say? Basically it is drinking a fruit and lettuce salad. The premise is that most people are seriously delinquent in eating green vegetables, particularly leafy vegetables, which boast super vitamins and minerals and low calories. I know I fall into that category. So instead of eating 800 calories of Kit-Kats (as satisfying as that is), I will drink my greens.

This week's concoction: 1/2 head of romaine, one cup of strawberries, two bananas and two cups of water. This makes one quart, which you should drink in one day, every day. The fibrous texture was a little odd to start with, but since I like salad, the smoothie itself is pretty tasty.

Next week (since you are supposed to vary the type of greens on a weekly basis): 1/2 bunch spinach, four apples, 1/2 lime with peel, one banana, and two cups water. Yields one quart. Drink every day.

Another twist to the diet—it was Hubby's idea. Not for me to lose weight, but he was the one that wanted to start the diet himself. So we're going to do it together.

Eventually I'll have to start exercising, but that is a blog for another day.