Weekly Weigh-In: -1.7 pounds!

Add this week's 1.7-pound weight loss to last week's and I have lost 2.2 pounds!  Woo-hoo!  A little slower than I'd like to see it come off given my fondness for immediate Ooompa Loompa delivery, but still! The numbers are inching in the right direction, and I am getting used to eating less and exercising more.

The exercise thing is what surprises me the most.  I have aimed for 5 days a week for years now, and I usually do 30-ish minutes (never less but not usually much more).  Now, though, I have a calorie goal in mind, and I am working out 7 days a week for 40 minutes minimum.  Frequently, I do 40 minutes in the morning and another half hour at the end of the day.  Or we take the kids for a walk in the morning (I wear Dorothy and if I am by myself, I push Jack and Cooper in the double; if Ben is with me, he does the pushing) for at least an hour.  It's fantastic!  And it lets me drink beers after the kids go to bed!

Last night, Ben and I ate dinner after the kiddos were asleep (I was a total bitchface for about 90 minutes when I thought I might STARVE TO DEATH), but it was worth the wait.  We filled a 8X8 cake pan with unsalted Donkey Chips and covered them with 1/2 cup of reduced fat cheese, cnhopped tomatoes, green onions, bell peppers, and jalapenos. Then we baked them for a little while at 350 and ate them with carefully measured sour cream and a shit load of salsa.  I ate 2 1/2 servings of chips and still consumed less than 500 calories.

I have also been really into Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares-- only 70--calories each and really satisfying.

But mostly, lots of chicken, fish, and spinach here.  And a new attention to vegetables which I used to just steam and forget about, but OMG.  Brussels sprouts are so fantastic tossed in olive oil, lemon, juice, and sea salt and roasted.  So is broccoli.

You get the idea.  Healthy eating and exercise= weight loss.

Park interlude

 Really it's hard NOT to eat her

 Her little pouty sleep face

 Love this outfit-- looks like something a grown up would wear

I took everyone by myself to the Children's Museum, and it was unremarkably pleasant

 July 10th is Teddy Bear Picnic day, FYI, so mark your calendars for next year.  I mentioned it off-hand at dinner on the 9th, and Ben mocked me. The kids, though, were ready on the 10th, stuffed animals in hand at breakfast time.  I thought I got off cheap because I made oatmeal (bears eat porridge, DUH) and bear toast (shut up) and downloaded Rosemary Clooney singing Teddy Bear Picnic.  But then Cooper barreled through the screen door, so there's that.

 She's so adorbs.

 The Art Cart which is a roving art van sponsored by our contemporary art museum that goes to parks all summer long was at the one across the street yesterday.  Awesome!  I love it when educational activities fling themselves onto my doorstep.

 She kills me in a real stroller-- so big already!

 This is what she and I do 90% of the time.  The kids run amok while I am in the shade with the baby, though, charging a million dollars worth of candy and bacon (wth?) to our account and generally acting insane.

 She's so cute naked, who needs clothes?

 Cooper always wants to keep Dorothy company in her gym. Cute, but dangerous.