I need an exercise program.

Period. Yes, I just said that publicly. Why??

1. I have extra me that I want to lose.

2. My brain is about as foggy as London (which is about as foggy as foggy gets, right? I mean seriously- it is imperative that my head stay attached to my body at this point. Otherwise I will lose the damn thing.).

3. I want to firm up my arms and increase muscle mass.

Now, I started stair-climbing last Friday on a whim at my job while on a break. In this Texas weather, when it can be too windy one day and/or too cold the next (then too hot!), I needed something I could do away from the elements. Wow, it's challenging; much more so than I expected! Seeing as I have a two-story house, I expected it to be fairly easy. Well, getting to the second floor was. Beyond that, it becomes challenging. But let's re-visit last week.

Friday, I climbed up to the fourth floor (out of 10) and by the time I reached the mezzanine, I was out of breath and my heart pounded. Now, my heart still pounds a bit, but not nearly as much. Until I reach the fifth floor, that is. Then I am just as winded as I was last week at the fourth floor. I still haven't decided when I want to move up to the sixth floor (ha), but I think I'll take my time on that one, as I am in no rush and want to not only get in shape, but want to STAY in shape. Now, while I can't work on the arms this way, I can at least firm up the gleuts.

And now that I have discovered the goodness that is gelato, I really need an exercise program.

Wait, was I supposed to take the picture first?

I want to do all of the above, and not go to the gym (as for why, that's a whole other post). So please help me... what are some good home workouts I can do? Preferably not too noisy since I would be doing them either very early in the AM or while the girls are napping, assuming it takes place at home.

Keeping my gelato would be great, too. ;)

~~CrazyMom

Sweet Sensations

Those who know me know that I like chocolate. No, scratch that- I don't like it. I love it. In fact, if there wasn't such a stigma tied to sugar, carbs and calories (ahh, the good stuff), I would devour one small solid milk-chocolate bunny every single day if they were made year-round.

I'm sure we all know about the various research studies pointing to the many health benefits of chocolate, mainly with the heart. Not only that, but who doesn't feel soooo good after having some? Many like the dark variety, without the sugar and milk sweetening it up. In fact, that one is supposedly healthier. However, I just like mine with th emilk and sugar. The dark kind is a little too bitter for my taste.

In fact, I wonder if that is why the babyjess is such a happy girl... The only time I see her unhappy is when she is sick, tired or hungry... or tired of sitting wherever she is at.

Her second smile, at approx. 1 month and 5 days old.

And yes, this mama ate quite a bit of chocolate while preggo with her.

Now off to eat some chocolate for Jessy's little sister (still yet nameless...). ;)

Thankful Thursday

Nom, Nom, Nom! I'm so thankful for my babyjess, even if she does chomp on her toes!

I'm sooo thankful for my husband, who also loves the babyjess.

Things may not always easy 100% of the time, but hey if it was, life would be no fun. And in my book, no challenges=no fun. My recent job loss created a bit of a financial challenge- mainly b/c it was after another job change and being out of work for 7 weeks without pay (my maternity "leave" from having Jess. But that's another post, for another time). It adds up. That's all I'm sayin.'

So while times have been a bit challenging for us in light of the craziness in our lives, I have a *ton* to be thankful for. My extended family, my mom, my HUSBAND, my JessyNicole, my NEW JOB, my car and house, our health and safety... I could go on and on about what is right with my life. And maybe I will ;)

Whoa, Horsey.

Back in 2007 I was diagnosed as having the lovely Fibrocystic Breast Disease. Basically, I have bumpy boobs. And it sucks. After a weekend (which felt like a YEAR!) of tearing my hair out, popping out tears and screaming and shouting, I had a breast biopsy. You may be wondering why I went so crazy before this procedure, as for me it was quite simple: get numb, needle in the boob, cool u/s pics, blah, blah, blah... but it was the words I NEVER wanted to hear from my doc after having a u/s of my breast: Solid nodule. It scared the wits out of me. And I heard the words at pretty much straight-up 5pm, on a Thursday afternoon. It couldn't get better than that.

This is one of the things I love about my DH (fiance at the time of this disaster)- he has a calming way about him. He was able to put me at ease like *this* (snaps fingers) and let me cry, scream, and have a fit, right there on his shoulders. I was utterly terrified of the C word.

Back to the main story line... the biopsy came back benign. Thank God. I was (and still am, knock wood... plan to stay that way!) cancer-free. But the doc had a caveat for me- stay away from the caffeine. At the time, I was so addicted to caffeine that 70 cups of coffee a day didn't touch me. (OK, slight exaggeration there. ;) ) I took what I thought was the easy-way out: I quit cold-turkey. A couple of days later, I had headaches- the kind that made me just want to give up and go have a few make-up Jolt colas. But I kept on keeping on, and two weeks later I felt much better again- like a human being. I was awake once again and my co-workers began filling me in on what had happened over the past several days. I slowly began allowing myself caffeine again, here and there about another week later.

This incident inspired me to do some research as to exactly how much caffeine is in any given drink at any given time. I thoroughly researched the drinks I frequented, and thought I had a grasp on it all- supposedly the amount of an ingredient in something can be somewhat-deciphered by where it is in the ingredient label of its product. For example, take a can of soda, read the label. Then pick up its diet counterpart, and do the same thing. According to that wisdom, the diet soda would have less caffeine in it since caffeine is mentioned more toward/at the end of the ingredient list, as opposed to the beginning/middle.

Well I sure was shocked tonight when I went online to research the amount of caffeine in iced tea and decided to look up diet soda as well. Apparently I need to just stock up on the iced tea and forget the soda- because diet and regular have the same amount of jolt juice in them- which is more than iced tea AND a Hershey Bar, combined! eek. There are a ton of these charts online and believe me, I have looked at several. And they all pretty much agree on the caffeine content of drinks/foods, within about 5-10mg of each other.

Here's one to get started on. Siroter votre boisson.