The Ultimate Loser Update

I am feeling super excited about The Ultimate Loser again.  Last week and the first half of this week was gloomy, but my knees are *mostly* better now and I am back to the Gym-Three-Hours-A-Day routine.  The weigh-in today left me 6.2 pounds down.  Wahoo!

Frustrating!!

I have been so excited about this Ultimate Loser experience!!  I have given it everything I have to the point of puking!!  And now, for almost a week, I have been unable to do any weight bearing exercise.  That includes eliptical.  And I am FRUSTRATED.  It is only a ten week program and, after the two-three weeks the doctor estimates I will be out (patella-something-or-other) I am feeling at least a little short changed.

I am feeling lucky to have good trainers, though.  I will be doing separate workouts (upperbody) while everyone else gets the real thing, but at least I will have the help of some super-knowlegeable people.  And I am still in love with my Exerspy and my Dotfit program, so that's a plus.

My second weigh-in (last Friday) left me down another 3.8 pounds, so even without the exercising I am off to a decent start.  Just imagine if I could really give it my all...

1st Weigh-In (Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnn)

The first day of Ultimate Loser was this past Monday, so this weigh-in only reflects the past five (well, we weighed first thing this morning, so four) days.  The exciting total:  FIVE POUND WEIGHT LOSS in 4 days!!

The Ultimate Loser!!

I am SO FREAKIN' PUMPED!!  Today was day four of  the Sports Academy Ultimate Loser training.  It is SO HARD!!  I am absolutely shaking by the end of (middle of... 5 minutes into) it.  We alternate between two awesome trainers and mix up the workouts like crazy.  In addition to the one hour of ass-kicking training I have been meeting my goal of an additional hour at the gym.  I am not at the point where I stay after training... I come home for an hour or two between, but I always go back!  

One of the most awesome things that this program entails is an EXERSPY (updated Body Bugg, like Biggest Loser contestants wear).  It is FREAKY how much this thing knows!!  I wear it all of the time (minus showers) on my upper arm and it constantly tracks my activity and the calories that I have burned.  You can click into each MINUTE OF THE DAY and see how many calories were burned.  You can also find out sleep patterns.  Even though I lay in bed for about eight hours each night (so I totally thought I was sleeping eight hours) when I clicked into the breakdown it showed how often I was awake and laying down, or when I would sit up for a minute, and also when I was actually asleep.  After taking it all into account it turns out I am only sleeping just over six hours each night!

The Exerspy goes along with a food log (type in what you ate and it finds the calorie intake right down to taking the brand you were eating into account) that updates calories and compares to the calorie expenditure and at any give time you can see your calorie deficit!  It is SO EXCITING!  I weigh in tomorrow, but I feel super-good about it!  Even though I am the biggest chick in the group I am doing very well at keeping up and, well, KICKING BUTT!!   

Family Pictures

I love taking pictures for people! It is one of my favorite things ever! However, I am not so crazy about being in front of the camera. But let's face it, family pictures are important. And when you are friends with an amazing photographer you just don't have an excuse to not get pictures done! So, here they are: My family pics! Thanks SO much to Alexis (who I love!) for shooting these for me, and also for teaching me so much in Photoshop (I did the edits).

The Shark and the Lobster

We are all ready for Halloween at our house! The theme this year (yes, a costume theme... I plan to coordinate the boys until they are old enough to make me stop!) is ocean creatures! Quinn is crazy about sharks and loves to wear his costume around the house. He can't get enough of staring in the mirror in amazement of his awesomeness. The first time he saw himself as a shark I thought I might never get him away from the mirror; he was totally in awe!

Miles is my little lobster. It's the cutest thing ever when he crawls around in his costume with his little lobster tail swooshing behind him! (I will get some better pictures of their tails and post them... it is the best!) Miles is ten-month-old... this costume is a size 12-18 month costume... it does not come even remotely close to fitting over this fella's head! Look at how it doesn't even reach his ears! Haha, I love my fat-headed babies!!

Just a random inquiry... I have been playing around in PSE and wanted some feedback on this composition of the same pic from above... is it fun or is it too much?-

Dear Blog, I missed you.

I'm not sure what has kept me away... perhaps it's Facebook (yeah, that definitely has something to do with it...), but after a blog-break as long as this one I was needing something to be a big-deal before I broke the blog-silence. And here it is:

My apartment is a two level, tall skinny apartment with 15 fairly steep steps. Where the stairs begin is the area that we keep shoes in (right inside the front door) so we have a baby-gate to keep Miles out of the shoes. Today I was working frantically upstairs trying to finish a disk of pictures and I spaced out closing the gate. When I realized the gate was open (because Quinn kept coming up and going down) I figured that as long as the door was open I could hurry and finish what I had started... that way I could still hear Miles and keep an ear out for trouble.

Quinn ran upstairs into my computer room and slammed the door shut. I explained to him that I needed the door to stay open so I could hear Miles playing downstairs. I opened the door and Quinn ran back downstairs. No more than two minutes later, Quinn ran back up and slammed the door again. I told him, "Miles is stuck downstairs and I need to be able to hear him if he needs me. We have to keep this door open." I went over and opened the door again... and there was Miles! My 9-and-a-half month old, who has never been on a stair in his life -and has only been pulling himself up on furniture gracefully for a few weeks- successfully (thank goodness!) used his determination and Quinn's example to climb every step and come to the room that I was in! My baby!! Yay!! (And how terrifying that I underestimated him so greatly to leave the gate open!!!)
We recreated it when Travis got home (Travis followed him up while I coaxed him from the top) and Holy Cow, I was amazed how fast he found his way up!

Here's a pic of my little guy on the first step to give you an idea of his journey: