TRX

In sticking with my resolution to better myself and have more adventures, I joined my sister for my second Saturday TRX training class. Oh man, these classes are hard, but so much fun. I really like how it is all based on your abilities and using gravity and your body weight as resistance.

The only thing I hate is that afterwards I feel really sick, like my muscles are releasing toxins into my blood. I feel weak and ill. Maybe it's just because I'm super out of shape. Just because I'm smaller than I used to be, doesn't mean I'm fit! And it's definitely evident in my performance in class! Haha. I am so happy I went, and I am so happy my sister Nikki invited me. I can't wait to move home and workout more at gyms. Yreka doesn't really have a set up I can use because I have Mish and we are away from anyone that I would trust to watch her. Michael could, but he works full time and I don't want to head to the gym late at night. So, I will stick to at-home workouts and jogging.

Today we head back up to Y and it's very bittersweet. We are excited to see the cats and get back to our normal routine, but we are going to miss everyone and being in the home we own. We love our house! It's so hard to drive away from its warmth and beauty, to a small rental house that is freezing and just isn't ours. 7 1/2 more months and our lives will involve a lot less travel and a little more home renovations.

40 lbs down, Happy, and Healthy

I am pleased, and a little shocked, to say that I am down 40 lbs since starting to change my diet and lifestyle. These past 4 months have been amazing for my health, self-esteem, and credit card (lol). I keep thinking to myself that I look exactly the same, but then I try on size 8-10 pants and they fit, or I catch sight of some old picture of me that makes me do a double take. I never felt huge before, I just felt chubby. But man, I've come a long way and I feel like I could still lose 10-20 more pounds and look good.

In these past four months I went from being "obese" with a BMI of 31.6 to "overweight", to just barely dipping my toes in the high end of the "healthy weight" range with a BMI of 24.8. I know that there is a lot of controversy with using BMI, especially for women, but seeing "obese" on a chart with my little star next to it was horrifying for me. I've had plenty of doctors tell me I was just overweight and to focus on eating right, but I couldn't get that "obese" label out of my head. I'm officially over worrying about BMI, but it felt good to put it down that I am not "obese" anymore. Lol.

Let me clarify, I don't think people that are obese should freak out and start obsessing about their weight and labels being put on them. I think people in general should think about eating healthy and staying active - regardless of size. Our insides need nutrition, our bodies need exercise. All of us.

This month I am going to start an exercise challenge to get myself into a good routine of staying active and working on my general fitness. I created a little calendar (below) and I've already got a few brave souls ready to try it with me! I got a little ambitious by putting down push-ups (I can barely do ONE!) but I figure I've got to push myself in order to get better. Even if I fail the push-up portion of my challenge, I'll still consider it a win if I stick with it every day.

If anyone wants to do it with me, comment on this blog, or post on my SP or FB profiles! I'd love to have people to keep me accountable :)

Update

Aye yi yi! Of course right when I get into a good blogging flow, I get the flu! Last week was miserable, but this week has been much better :) I actually feel pretty darned good, which means I am completely out of excuses when it come to working out! Lol.
I'm still riding my weight loss plateau, so it's time to shake up the daily routine and get my saggy booty moving! I want to end 2013 the healthiest I've ever been. I'm on the right track, so I want to end this year on a high note.

My awesome sister Nikki is coming up to Yreka this weekend with my two nieces. I already know I want to take them to Ashland one day, and then explore Yreka the next day. I'm so excited that they are driving all the way up here on a 3-day weekend just to see us :) I miss our family! I hope my in-laws and my parents will come up too! We miss them all so much <3
My dad is currently in Yosemite fighting the fires. He was also on the Sacramento morning news this morning! I bet he is having a good time taking care of other people. Doing this is definitely his passion.

Ok, well my rambling is over. Maybe I'll have something of quality to write about soon.

Ashland? Awesomeland!

Yesterday Michael and I spent the day in Ashland, OR. It was such a great day and really made us feel like we found a bit of "real world" up here. We kept repeating over and over how cute the town was, and how much we wished we lived up there.

If I had to describe it, I would call it a cross between Berkeley and St. Helena. It's quaint and cute, but also has a hippy, nature loving feel about it. 

We started off our day by going to the farmer's market and wandering around some cute cobble stone streets. We bought lots of delicious fresh vegetables from the cutest stands, and Mish especially liked sampling the microgreens and sunflower sprouts. 

After we walked to an artisan fair and had lunch outside by the river/creek. It was so hot outside, but under our little umbrella table with ice water and fresh fruit, we never felt the need to go inside. We got the BEST baklava for dessert, and knew that we made a great choice for our lunch spot. Green Leaf Restaurant, we'll be back! 

We did some window shopping in all of these cute shops, and tried on masks a a costume shop. Then we walked to Lithia Park and watched ducks play in the pond, and ran around in the grass. 

Then we did some shopping at our staple stores (Trader Joes, Costco, etc) that we don't have access to in Yreka. Lastly, we went to Red Robin for big delicious burgers (chicken for Michael, boca for me) and ended the day by renting a movie. Some lady gave me a promo-code for the movie, so it ended up being free! A perfect end to a wonderful day!

Weight Loss Updates

I think my weightloss journey has been the weirdest thing in my life. While I'm elated that I'm losing weight consistently, I'm still eating junk and not exercising. I tell myself everyday that I need to start working out, but I can't motivate myself nor stay determined!

Eating right is easy, well..eating the correct amount of calories is easy. It's eating healthy, good-for-you food that is hard. Ice cream is just too tasty!!

Anyhoo, I'm down to 148.8 lbs. That's 33.3 lbs from when I started Sparkpeople, but 136 lbs from my normal weight resting place of 185. At one point (not counting pregnancy!) I was 191, so any loss is exciting for me :)
However, lately I've been having a hard time not binge eating. Thankfully it's not like it used to be - it's more over-eating than binge eating (HUGE difference) - but it's still got me worried about my mental space with my new lifestyle. I wish I could emulate the mindset that these fitspo blogs have. They revel in their exercise-based lifestyles and their new workouts. They push themselves hard and eat wonderfully. I, on the other hand, am losing weight through basic math (calories in versus calories out) which does nothing for my life, longevity, nor internal bodily functions. It's just helping me lose weight, which is still awesome! I want to be strong, lean, and healthy. Being skinny and flabby and dealing with health problems does not appeal to me. Here's an article I just read on being skinny yet unhealthy: click here.
My dilemma reminds me of an article (<- click there) I read last week. Maybe I shouldn't have blown off the author's thesis, because I fear I'm starting to hold myself to crazy standards. BUT, at the same time, I really do need to step up my game. By the way, I seriously recommend reading that article. :)

Ok, sorry for another rambling blog. Let's see, I lost weight, still losing more, want to eat better and workout, but health is the most important thing! Yay blog summaries!

Weight Update

These past 8 weeks have been so productive for our weight loss! Michael and I have each dropped down a pants size! We've been tracking, measuring, and weighing our food intake, and it's paying off!

Michael has lost 30 pounds, I have lose 20 pounds! We definitely have a long way to go, but we're so pleased with the progress we're making. It's especially exciting to hear that other people can see a change in our losses!

I'd love to drop 20-30 more pounds within this next year. I know it's a lot of weight, but I have a lot to lose! I know I'll never be a skinny-mini size 2 (my body just isn't built that way - BIG hips run on my dad's side and I have 'em), but I want to be fit and healthy! I want to be able to buy things because I like them, not because they're the only options. I want to be comfortable in my skin. I want to be able to keep up with Michelle as she grows and explores. Thankfully Michael and I are doing this as a team, so we keep each other motivated and accountable. I wouldn't have made it this far without him.

Happy Days

This past weekend was fun-filled and family oriented. Just the way I like to spend my weekends :)

On Friday night we went to Vacaville's Creekwalk Concert series with our friends Jeff and Jessica to watch an R&B/Funk group perform. It was fun to sit in the grass and enjoy the music. Michelle had so much fun dancing and playing! She really took to Jeff - climbing on him and playing with him! She also had fun hugging and kissing on her cousin Izzy. Silly girl!

So sweet!

On Saturday, we spent the day going on another one of our family walks, shopping, and spending the day together. I could spend the rest of my life with only Michael and Michelle, and never bore of them. They always keep me so entertained! 

She LOVES our walks! She likes it when Charlie runs :)

Sunday was Father's Day! Michael and I planned on spending the day with both of our fathers, so we started the day off with my family at a local diner chain. Michelle had so much fun playing with her cousins and eating her own big girl breakfast (a scrambled egg!). She was sad to leave her cousins when it was time to go.

Group Hug!

We headed to Napa to hang with my in-laws for the rest of the day. Michael and his dad went to the golf range to hit balls, so I hung out with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Rachael. Mish had so much fun crawling all over the house, playing with the special toys Grandma bought, and climbing aunt Rachael's bed all by herself. I liked being able to relax while Rach chased Mish around. Family! Yay!

The Bergman Dads

This week has been nice too. I was able to go shopping with my mom yesterday (before she leaves for Mexico! Boo, I'm going to miss talking to her everyday. She'll be back in a week though), on a very long family walk, and watch Michelle do some break-dancing! Haha, I wish I had a way to share iPhone videos on my blog! She is hilarious when she dances!!

Everyday feels like a gift lately. I love watching Mish grow, get closer and more attached to Michael, and watch their bond shift. He's always been the most attentive father, but Mish nurses full time, and never wanted me too far away. Lately she's clapping and cheering whenever Michael walks into the room, and wanting to cuddle with him after work. I think I have a daddy's girl on my hands!

Cuddle session. She NEVER does this with anyone! It was so adorable!

Tomorrow we are going to San Francisco for a Giants game with my in-laws and Michelle's cousin Nichole :) The girls are 3 weeks apart, so it's fun to get them together as much as we can! 

Let's Go Giants!!!

Family Walk

Yesterday evening Michael and I took Michelle and Charlie on a walk through the hills in our neighborhood. We've been trying to incorporate more healthy living activities in with our everyday family activities, so this was really nice!

It never ceases to amaze us how gorgeous the hills (and subsequent views) are around our house.

There is a group of cows that likes to come down and hang out by the really nice houses on the hill, so we weren't too surprised when we came upon this beautiful lady:

Michelle was pretty excited when she noticed the cows! She actually started to fuss when we continued on with our walk. Lol, that kid of ours sure does love animals! She takes after her Papa!

Michael and Charlie were less interested in the cows, but still let Michelle and me swoon and coo at the beautiful lady! 

Towards the end of the walk, Charlie started to get tired, and even had to be encouraged to keep up with us. Silly pup; I swear, he's been super down lately and has been digging like crazy, so this walk was much needed!

I really hope we take another long walk through the hills soon; it was a perfect evening. 

Healthy Living and Life

Last Thursday, Michael and I went to a weight management class. We decided it's time to get healthy and do things right. I'm a binge eater, no doubt about it, so I've been trying to be super diligent about tracking my calories on Spark People. I really love that site, and the fact that I can scan the barcode of things I'm eating, and my calories will be tracked, is AMAZING!

Besides eating better, I am going to start exercising. I say "going to" because I haven't started yet. The backyard took up all of our time this weekend, and today I cleaned my filthy house. Who knew working with dirt for days on end would track dirt into a house, causing rocks and dirt to cover your baby's knees as she crawled? GROSS!

Tomorrow I have jury duty and I'm dreading it. I don't pump my breastmilk, and Michael will have to call into work and miss 1/2 day. Hopefully they don't expect me to serve on a trial, because I will bawl! :(
I'm getting sad! Here are some pictures to brighten the mood! They're from my blogging hiatus. They're all of the cutest Bergman ever: Michelle!

In a firetruck, visiting Papa's station!

Easter eggs and presents!

Being a cool kid on the swings!

xoxo

Weight and Backyard update

As much as I wanted to keep a running blog of the progress in our backyard, I couldn't! This yard project has dominated every weekend since we've started!

Since we started, we removed the concrete in the yard, removed the raised beds and replaced with redwood and healthy soil, dug trenches for a sprinkler system, and are 99% finished with the sprinkler installation!!!

All that's left is to finish the sprinklers, add sand and soil to the yard, add grass, and relax! Kinda. Lol. The front yard got messed up when we were taking out the concrete, so we are still trying to make everything look pretty.

Today Michael and I went to a weight management class to get on the road to healthier living. My goal is to lose 35 lbs by Xmas, but 50 lbs overall. I'm kinda nervous to start, because every other time I've started, I've failed. Thankfully Michael and I are on the same page, and we're doing this together!

Michelle started crawling, and drives around her princess scooter like a beast! She loves to pull herself up to stand, and thinks the dog is her personal jungle gym. She's really coming into her own. She has her own personality, gives kisses and cuddles, and cracks her self up all day long. I really love the little person she is becoming.

Sorry for the lack of pics, I'll update this week! Promise!

xoxo

Color Vibe 5k

On Saturday I participated in my first 5k event! I did it with my friend Jessica (and her cousin, who we lost on the run), my mother-in-law Diann, my sister-in-law Rachael, and my husband's Aunt Cate (and her son's really nice girlfriend)! Below is our before picture! See how clean and sleepy we look? :)

We all paired off and ran/jogged/walked. Rach and I went off together. It was so much fun! We only ran half of it and walked a lot of it. Then we rolled in the leftover color and danced like crazy women!

The original plan was to bring Michelle, but after the first ten minutes of color blasting, we decided to leave her with Michael in the "dad area" (tons of dads hung out with kids and strollers, gotta love 2013). Her stroller was still a sight to see :)

After the run we all got together and posed like the gorgeous models we are, then went out for breakfast and confused the non color blasted patrons.

This was a good way to ease myself into starting to run in organized events. I didn't train like I wanted to, because I had the flu for two weeks, and then we had holidays to contend with. I'd really like to start training again, then see if there are any 5k runs going on.

Yay for 2013!

xoxo

End of 2012

Man, life really caught up with me, and before I knew it, 2 months had passed since my last post! Michelle, my amazing, inquisitive beast, popped out two bottom teeth, and is now trying to pop out four more on top! Despite teething like a monster, she is so sweet and happy.

Mish had her first Thanksgiving, which was the time we started giving her vegetables! She really loves sweet potatoes, but also will eat squash, peas, and carrots. On Christmas she got a big box of baby food fruits, and she couldn't have been happier. She loves her fruit, but her tummy doesn't, so we're still working out how to regulate her system. 

Speaking of Xmas, Michelle met Santa! My dad dresses up as Santa for his town's annual Santa visits through the fire department, so we took her to sit on his lap. She was the luckiest baby there - she got a big kiss from Santa! 

For New Years Michael and I decided on the same old resolutions (lose weight, be healthier), but I also thought a lot about this last year. I realized, it has been the best year I've ever had. Had a beautiful baby, graduated college, celebrated my first wedding anniversary with Michael, and signed up for my first 5k (running it in two weeks!!! The Color Vibe Bay Area!). I decided that I'd like to make next year just as good by leading a clean life. By that I mean cleaner foods, cleaner attitude, and a clean house. Maybe clean is the wrong word, but it's what I'm going with. 

I'd love to end this blog with a million pics to update you on my little lady and our life, but I just did that on Facebook, so here's the link! Click Here!

xoxo

Update

Oh Bean, Mama loves you so much, but the damage you're doing to my body is unacceptable. I mean, lowering my immune system during midterms? Not cool. Yep, I'm sick...I keep wondering if that darned flu shot would have prevented this (it's in the beginning stages, so I'm not sure if it's the flu or a cold).

So, I stepped on the scale and I've lost more weight; awesome right? No. I am getting big and my clothes are fitting differently. I was hoping my belly would just kinda stay as-is until it popped out. I don't really get how the scale is going down, when I am getting bigger, but at least it gives me a little more room to grow on the scale in my later months.

Last week, instead of writing the paper I'm currently taking a break from, I moved 50% of our office into our cat's bedroom. Yes, our cats have a bedroom. After moving our recliner, bookshelf, and movie/cd spinning thing into the room, I carried about 20 engineering textbooks into the room, reorganized the existing furniture, and set everything up (Michael got all mother hen on my ass, by the way. He says I need to take it easy - why?- and let him move the big stuff). I hate to brag, but it looks fucking awesome! The office is still kinda in the funky/half empty state I left it in, but I'll have more time to get it ready for Bean during the winter holiday away from school. I like sitting in this room, imaging where I'm going to stick everything, and how I'm going to decorate. The previous owners must not have used this room for much, because the carpet looks awesome and there are no little holes in the wall I have to patch. We're really lucky.

It's so crazy to think about classes ending in 3 weeks! I can't wait for this break; I really need it. Also, we get to see the baby on the 28th in a regular ultrasound, and then on the 11th of December for the creepy 3D ultrasound to determine the sex. How cool?! We will be able to call the baby something other than "it" or Bean in about a month! Have I mentioned baby name ideas on here? Well, shit! For a little girl, we love the name Michelle (or Misha for a nickname), and for a boy we are struggling between Sam and Michael. I have been in love with the name Sam for a long time, but we both adore the name Michael (shoot, my husband is Michael and so it his dad - family names, gotta love 'em). We'll probably decide once we know the sex for sure. In the mean time we're debating the whole Michael K Bergman III thing, or going with a different middle name, or going with Sam. Aye yi yi. Naming people, it's something you have to live with forever! Very stressful.

Uh oh! Hubby is coming and I promised I'd be working on that damn paper! Lol!

Weight Gain

Being a healthy weight is something that's always on my mind. I'm just one of those people that eats right, but still carries a heavy load. The frustrating thing about this while pregnant, is that my problems will negatively  influence my baby's development. My baby is at risk for being overweight too, if my weight gain gets to be too much. Then, there's the risk of gestational diabetes on my part, which could make my baby way underweight! I know I'm overweight, and I think I technically drift over to the obese category every once in a while. Not to sound like a dick, but I while I'm overweight, I never think of myself as obese. It's a scary word, but apparently one I need to hear.

Based on my BMI, I shouldn't gain too much weight with this pregnancy. Really, it would healthiest if I gained 15 pounds. Only gaining this much means I need to lose some fat while I gain some fetus, which might be hard. I mean, if losing weight is so easy, don't ya think I would have lost some a long time ago? Well, either way I've started focusing on my weight and what I eat (pretty much like I always have) and we'll see what happens.

I'm scared to be that woman who gains a bunch of weight w/ my pregnancy, and then never loses any. I want to be healthy to promote a healthy lifestyle for my little bean. If I can barely lead a healthy lifestyle now, how will I do it when I have extra baby weight and a little one in tow? It's time to make a change. Hopefully a public declaration will keep me accountable.