Thoughts as a new month begins....

Friday will be 2 weeks on the diet. This past weekend wasn't good as far as dieting goes. I indulged in snacks at the surprise birthday party - and on Sunday had some sushi (rice is not allowed). It seems like it's really easy to fall off the wagon - and difficult to get back on! Today I'm feeling really good about things though and have had a strict day so far!

Today is the end of the month and so with the start of a new month I took a few minutes this morning at the gym to write about how January went and make some goals for February. I lost 7 pounds in January and did a pretty good job at exercising every day. I set a goal to exercise every day in 2007 and I've already wrecked that. I missed 3 days in January - all weekend days. I think the key is going to have to be that on weekends I will get up early and exercise first thing. It's hard to fit in gym time on Saturdays - and so if I do I'll just consider that a bonus - but I can still get up early and exercise. I've had a couple conversations with Misook lately, one of the instructors at the gym. She has noticed that I seem to be getting stronger - and it's true. I really am. I didn't go to a class yesterday or today and instead did cardio and then used some machines. I used to do the fly with 40 pounds as the max. I can do 70 pounds now!! It's tough - but I can do it. I've also increased what I can do with leg extensions. 30 pounds used to max me out and now 40 or 50 isn't a problem! Wow! It's very exciting for me.

I wondered this morning if I could go through the entire month of February without cheating on the diet even once. I will put a box around each 'no cheat' day in February on the calendar where I keep track of what I eat. I should try and think of a good reward for a certain number of 'no cheat' days - but the truth is the weight loss will be enough of a reward!! I know that if I'm really strict I can lose weight quite quickly. Funny how I don't do that often enough though.

My mom has been here this week. She's dieting too - but differently than me. She's taking some kind of pill that suppresses your appetite and just watching what she eats. Every day she has popcorn. I had some on Sunday and Monday but yesterday decided I would not have anymore. My dad is doing the same diet - and she says he has 3 or 4 donuts every week. I hate how men can lose weight more easily. It just doesn't seem fair.

Anyway, enough of the not fair. I'm very excited to see some great progress in February. I would like to lose 20 pounds this month. This Friday is my mini-goal day. I'm 3 pounds away from being on the low-end of the mini-goal. I'm going to do my darndest to lose those 3 pounds by Friday.

Wish me luck!

Surprise!!

Soon I am going to hit the big 4-0. Yesterday my dear husband pulled a little party together to celebrate that. It was a total surprise. My parents were coming to town Saturday and
so that morning I cleaned up the house. In the afternoon I took
my kids to a play (it was great!! A twisted version of the 3 little
bears...hilarious!) Anyway, when I got home Allen had done more
cleaning. He mopped and put stuff away and the house was absolutely
immaculate. My thought was, "well, I'm not going to criticize you for
doing it - but we really don't need to go to such great lengths when
my parents come to visit honey." LOL

When my parents arrived dad said that he wanted to take me out to
buy me a birthday present...just him and I. Weird. But I was happy to
go. However, it turned into the longest meandering trip to a store
you ever saw. We went to one part of town and couldn't find a Linens
and Things. He was insistent that we go to Linens and Things (he
wanted to buy me a tablecloth). It was all kind of weird. Finally we
stopped and got a phone book and found there was one on the other
side of town. So he says, "Well, let's go there!" I was thinking what
the heck are you talking about?? We could go to the Wal-Mart close to
my house, or any other similar home-type store as there were plenty
others to choose from...but whatever! So off we go to the other side
of town. Pick out a table cloth - and then head back home. Only he
has to drive by their old house, and drive by the place Allen
and I lived in when we first got married, and drive by his favorite
old chicken-restaurant - and a bunch of other weird things like that.

Finally we get home and when we got in the house the house was PACKED with people. They yelled surprise - and it took me a minute to clue in that we were having a
party! It was pretty funny.

I went around the room and said hello to everyone and thanked them
for the surprise. The funny thing that is by that time my thought
was, "Rats! I really was looking forward to going to bed early
tonight because I'm in the middle of a really good book!" Needless to
say I didn't get to my book....but we had a great party. It was a fun
night. I've never had a surprise birthday party before! I truly
didn't suspect a thing. After the fact I did put a few things
together and realized maybe I could have figured it out - but I
really didn't suspect anything. My birthday actually isn't until next
Sunday. I'm going to be the big 4-0! I don't feel like I always
thought I should feel at 40 though. :0) Maybe my kids keep me
younger. :0) (That's my theory - and I'm sticking with it) LOL

One Week Report

Well, I've been back on the Dr B diet strict for a week now. I was down a pound this morning at the clinic - so that means 7 for the week. Yea!! Can't complain about that!

Yesterday I worked out twice. I didn't really feel like it was two work outs - the morning was a yoga class - and then in the evening I went to a Body Pump class. When I got to the gym one of the employees said, "Hey! Weren't you here this morning?" I answered that I was - and she said, "You shouldn't do that! That's bad, very bad." She reiterated that same thought went I left the gym after the class. This morning when I was there again she talked to me again and asked how tired I was today. I told her I felt great - which I do!

I don't get it. I see lots of people do a cardio class and a pump class back to back. What's the difference?

It's funny how things that people say cause me to second guess myself. I shouldn't worry about that. I just have to remember that I'm totally at peace with myself right now in my weight loss journey!

FHE

Tonight Peirce, who is 4, gave the FHE lesson. He was so thrilled to do it. For his primary lesson yesterday they had a paper they brought home with some roadsigns about commandments - so we cut them out and put them on popsicle sticks and he taught us about choosing the right by following the commandments. He liked being in charge so much that after that he went and got a coloring book he'd been working on today that he got from a fireman in the grocery store the other day and told us all about being safe from fire and such. We finally had to just cut him off and sing a closing song. I think he would have gone on forever. It was pretty cute. He was really proud of himself to be able to teach the lesson.

WOW!

I love this diet. This weekend I was very careful - not perfect, but careful. And it was totally worth it because I am down 6 pounds!! Wow!! If I could lose 2 pounds a day this will take no time at all!

I have 60 pounds to lose. Today at the gym I picked up two 30 pound dumbbells. I can't even imagine how agile I'll feel when I'm not hauling those extra 60 pounds around with me all the time! Honestly, I can't even imagine it. However, when I lost the first 40 pounds and then went to the gym it was amazing to me how much easier it was to do my workout on the elliptical machine.

Today I did a step class for the first time. Now there's a humurous picture!! It took me a while to catch on to things - and then the moves would switch. I will continue doing it though as it's a great workout. I got a good sweat going and by the end I was VERY red in the face. Loved it!

Church Today

Today was a good day at church. Jill and I played a duet: I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go. It was actually a piano and flute duet - and she played the flute part on the piano. We had a couple trip ups - but all in all it was great. I felt so proud of her for even being willing to do it!

They re-organized the RS presidency and the Primary presidency in our ward today. It will be interesting to see how life in RS changes! The new RSP is quite young. One of her counselors is not as young (well, she's about my age - so that's not very old either!) and the other one is young too. Our new RSP was the Primary President before. She brought one of her counselors with her.

I just wished they had included me in the changes! Oh well. Will keep on plugging away at this! We have the Sweetheart's Ball coming up. I'm hoping we can get a lot of people in our ward to go to it. Allen and I have never gone to it in the past - so I can't even go on about how much fun it is. Frankly, I'm not that interested in dancing to big band style music - but it's $20 and there's a meal - so that's a pretty good deal just by itself.

Dieting

Well, I've decided I've got to lay out the cash and go back to the clinic where I was before in my efforts to lose weight. I have been trying to do it on my own since Jan 1 and the scale hasn't budged. Well, that's not true - it did go up a few pounds. So, today I bit the bullet and went back. I'm excited! I figure if I can be really disciplined and stick to it I just might be at my goal by the end of March. Time will tell! Today I feel VERY motivated. And there it is in black and white...my weight goal. Can you even imagine??! Actually, they say my goal should be 115-125. 115 is something I can't even imagine. Frankly, I always figured if I was 140 that would be glorious. I guess when I get there I'll decide if 125 is reasonable or not.

The BOM and Reading Skills

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about teaching reading. It's a topic I'm interested in because Peirce is almost 5 and seems to be demonstrating a number of interests and skills that show that he's ready to take things to the next level. I've heard a lot of people say when they have a child that has really good reading skills that it's because they read the Book of Mormon together. I'm wondering if there's something inherent in the BOM that helps kids develop strongerreading skills - or is it just because they're reading something each day with an adult?? I suppose it would be an interesting study to look at - kids that read every day with an adult versus kids that read the Book of Mormon everyday with an adult versus kids that don't have very strong reading skills. With some learning disabilities any amount of reading each day with an adult isn't going to help (not that it'll hurt) but intervention of a different sort might be required. I guess what I'm really wondering is if there is something 'magic' about the Book or Mormon and emergent readers.

I know from my teaching experience that the best thing for a reading program is a home reading program where parents read with kids every day. I think it's the key to success in getting kids to learn to read.

I did a little surfing on the topic and ran across a reading program put together by Grant Von Harrison. I've seen his manual before - but have never been able to thumb through it as it's always wrapped in plastic. When I saw it I thought it was pretty expensive ($120+) and I'm not likely to spend that much on a reading program unless it looks quite impressive - so I've never bought it. However, looking at the BYU bookstore website I see that it is only $30 now! Hmmm....

I did a little reading around his website. He says:

"After two decades of researching the best methods for teaching reading, and extensive research of the Book of Mormon as a text for learning to read, Dr. Harrison concluded that the Book of Mormon is ideal as a text for learning to read. It provides children with extensive practice with every critical sub-skill of reading; more so than other books and materials. Using the Book of Mormon to teach reading also gives parents the opportunity to teach principles of the gospel and interject feelings about the book. According to Dr. Harrison, if a parent or adult will systematically tutor children when they start school, they should be able to read the Book of Mormon independently by age 8."

For anyone that's been educated in teaching reading that's a bit of a no-brainer...and I'm not sure I totally agree. I don't know if there is a perfect 'text' out there for teaching reading - but instead think the key is exposure to PLENTY of texts.

It does look like a good marketing ploythough! His page that has research basis isn't that deep or impressive - but then again, most parents don't want to get into some deep educational theories so he probably doesn't worry about that. I'd be interested in reading more about his journey in coming to his conclusions.

I'm not a big fan of workbooks - which it appears this is - but then again, sometimes have a systematic approach is quite helpful...and that would be a good thing about his book.
Maybe I just don't have enough faith - but I don't think the Book of Mormon is a cure-all in teaching reading.

Perhaps I should just give it a whirl. He has some free downloads. The big question really is whether or not I'm disciplined enough to take the time to work on this every day with Peirce!

Mr Positive

Peirce often has the darndest things to say.

Today we were driving to the gym and I was grumbling about the fact that we had hit every red light. He piped up with, "Mom! It's a good thing! You're just early for the green lights!"

Love it!

Work Load

I'm all pumped up and ready to be the greatest scheduler ever...and it seems that I have a serious lack of work this month. My biggest project has just ended (I didn't know it was ending!) and one of my regular projects is not active in January (didn't know that either!). Not only that, I got really ambitious at the end of December and got a bunch of my January work taken care of before the month started....so! ...????

I'm thinking it might be a good time for a house-project! Perhaps time to paint the family room! (Oh boy, I'm sure if I think hard enough I can come up with SOMETHING else to do!)

2007 Goals

I know New Year's Resolutions get a bad rap - but I love the new beginning and opportunity a new year brings (heck, in my work I feel like that with the beginning of every month! Each months brings a new chance to get the job done right! I love the freshness of a new month!)

These are my goals for 2007:

1. Lose 60 pounds - I'm excited about this...and I think it's do-able. I've really increased the exercise I'm doing - which often makes me ravenous....but I'm working on it!

2. Participate in the Melissa's Road Race in September 2007 - This is a tentative goal. I want to be a runner again - but my left knee hurts when I run. Hopefully with more weight off that will just disappear...but if it doesn't I might have to adjust this goal

3. Have a meaningful FHE every week (i.e. A lesson!) I was having a discussion with a friend a while ago that is a seminary teacher. She said in her class she had encouraged the students to give a FHE lesson on a topic they were discussing in seminary. She said it was quite interesting to hear the reactions. There were almost no students that could follow through on the assignment. Either they didn't have FHE, or they never had lessons. I'm on a couple email groups for FHE support and ideas and this is one thing I've noticed there...very few people report having had a lesson on this or that. Usually it's an activity of some sort. We're guilty of the same thing often times! I'm going to try to raise the bar a little and have a lesson every week!

4. Memorize 52 scriptures (one a week) - Been thinking about this one for a long time! One scripture a week seems like it isn't much....but time will tell! I'm not very good at memorizing so this one will take some work.

5. Read the Book of Mormon as a family - we started on this one today. Jill has read the BOM but Peirce hasn't had as much experience with it. Our goal with him is to just keep him at the table (we read at breakfast). Jill started us off today and as she read 1 Nephi 1 she commented, "You know, now that I've read this a few times I love this part!" Music to my ears!