Do you remember me?

Again, another very long time in between posts…I wonder if I will ever get into the habit of writing regularly. I guess it depends how many out there are actually reading? I haven’t posted not because I don’t have anything to write but in fact have just had no time. Being back at work full time, a very busy toddler, and trying to keep up with the house and everything else that life entails is not an easy feat!

August and September are a very busy time at my work. I would get to work, look up and it was lunch, have lunch then look up and it was time to go home. The days went by very fast, which to be honest, I love when that happens. But on the flip side to that it also made it very tiring.

I will give you a few updates about life but first I will start with my weight loss since it is after all the reason for my blog. I did end up reaching my weight loss goal to hit 190lbs. I did not do it in the time frame that I gave myself since I had some unexpected things deter me slightly, but the important part is I did reach it! I was very pleased with myself when I stepped on the scale to see that I had hit that goal. My hard work and day to day efforts have been paying off. 

Sometimes it feels like my weight loss is going very slow but if I stop to look back at how much I have accomplished in the last 19 months it is actually quite amazing. Since having Rylee I have lost 86 pounds (that number DOES include baby + fluid) and that would average a loss of 4.5 pounds a month. If you also take into consideration that I had a very hard time losing weight while breastfeeding and didn’t start to really be able to take it off until I started weaning Rylee then that is actually quite impressive (in my opinion anyways).

I think that so many times people want it to come off very fast, and get quickly discouraged if it doesn’t. They try fad diets and cleanses that don’t work, or work for the very short term before they put the weight back on. If you want to look at the simple solution you need to eat healthy and exercise. I do believe that you can use some products in conjunction with healthy eating and exercise but bottom line it boils down to those two things. I have been there and tried many things. I got tired of the yo-yo dieting and finally just admitted to what I didn’t want to hear. It was going to take work (lots of work), dedication, and commitment, but in the end IT IS worth it. I don’t lose 5 pounds a week as I know that is not realistic, but when I do lose 5 pounds, it stays off. Long term. I make daily changes that are attainable and I feel great about them. I still eat unhealthy food often but I incorporate it into my daily food and I move on. I don’t stress about it or feel guilty over it. I enjoy every bite, and if something is not good I throw it away! I don’t finish it just because I feel I have to!

Now that being said, it took me a long time to get here. It took me a long time to learn my body and how it works. But I have also not binged on food because I haven’t been depriving myself of anything. I eat very healthy most of the time but still make room for pizza, cake, and chocolate because let’s be honest I don’t want to live without those things (and you shouldn’t either). 

I look back at where I was this time last year and I can see how far I have come! Where were you this time last year? Have you made the progress you wanted to make? Okay let me rephrase that, are you making the progress that is realistic for you to make? Not everyone has weight to lose; you may have other goals you are working towards but have you made the progress that is realistic? If not, sit down and really evaluate why. If this is important to you, you will do what it takes to get it done. If they result of reaching your goal is not worth the effort you need to put in the you will forever be spinning your tires on wet ground.

My next goal is a small one (last time was 10 pounds). This time my goal is to get to 185. I am not setting a deadline for myself because I know that this is a daily process and I am going to keep plugging away at it, one small change at a time. I don’t know yet what my reward will be for it but I am going to think of something good (maybe along the lines of some new make up). 5 pounds off is a lot to celebrate – it really is the small things!

A few other updates happening in the McNamara house: 

We are currently fully renovating our upstairs bathroom! I mean a complete gut. I can’t wait to be able to have a nice bath in my brand new soaker tub! 

Before demo

Mostly demo'd

When we bought our house in 2013 we knew that eventually the kitchen and the bathroom would need to be renovated since they were both really outdated. We had the roof replaced right when we moved in and we also did the downstairs bathroom as well by putting in a heated floor, new vanity, and new toilet along with a fresh coat of paint. Last year we did a major kitchen reno by painting the cupboards and adding hardware, putting up a backsplash, tearing down a wall, new countertop, new island, new ceiling fan, and of course a fresh coat of paint. So in terms of indoor renovations the bathroom is the last major renovation we have to complete. Of course there are little things as there always is in a house but all of the big things will be done.

Next year we will try to focus a bit on the backyard. We are hoping to be able to refinish our main deck and the pool deck, as well as put in a new pool liner. I know that the jobs will never be finished but I feel quite pleased that in terms of large jobs we should be done (knock on wood that we don’t have some disaster!).  Well for now anyways, until a few years down the road we decide we want to change things haha. I plan on doing a garden again next year but will do things a bit differently than this year. My first year with a garden was definitely a successful one.

If you read our camping review you may have noted that we enjoy camping, quite a bit actually. I prefer camping in a tent over a trailer although there are definitely perks to a trailer! Sean and I knew that our current tent would not be big enough next year so at the end of the season clearance we bought a new tent that is really big (I mean REALLY big). We set it up to make sure it worked but we did not take a picture, so next year I will take a picture and show you the new beauty!

This weekend we had our first toddler flu experience. Poor Rylee was really sick on Saturday night but I was very thankful that it wasn’t a work night! I am glad to have that experience over and now I know what to expect next time. It is SO heartbreaking as a parent to see your child going through that. You just want to take it from them and be the one going through it. It was really hard to watch because she is just so little – but that being said she fully bounced back the very next day and was fine so I am glad that is over!


Christmas is coming up quickly (yes I am totally one of those people) and my gift idea list is getting really good. I have a lot of people figured out what I am going to get them which makes the holidays a lot less stressful for me being the planner that I am. 

Fanshawe Conservation Area: camping review

This weekend we embarked on our first ever camping trip with our daughter Rylee (17 months). The forecast for the whole weekend called for Thunderstorms so I wasn't quite sure how things were going to pan out.

I woke up early Saturday morning to get all of the groceries, then came home and prepped the food and packed the cooler. Then we loaded up the car and we were ready to go. I did pretty well with the packing, we each had one duffle bag (not crammed), pillows/blankets, tent/air mattress, camping chairs, one cooler, two reusable bags of food, and our "camping kit". Not too bad for three people (including the baby!). Oh yes of course, and her diapers. Even still the car was pretty full.

When we got to our site we were pleased with the proximity to the washrooms. We chose site number 466. It was good for what we wanted but now that we have been there and looked around I would have chosen one of the sites that are on the bend on in "the birches" section as they provided a significant amount more privacy.

Once we unloaded our gear and set up the tent within minutes there was a heavy down pour. I was thankful that the tent was already set up so we had a place to wait it out that wasn't the car. Thankfully the rain only lasted about 15-20 minutes. 

When the rain was done we opened up our "camping kit" that was a wedding gift from two of our bridesmaids. We had not had a chance to use it yet so it was fun to see what they put in it. We did not pack anything extra knowing that they probably thought of everything and they pretty much did! After going through the box we made our first camp fire and made our dinner (stew and fresh bread). It was very yummy. Saturday night we had some friends over to the site for some marshmallows and drinks.

Rylee gave us a really hard time when it was time to go to bed. She just wanted to play and didn't want to settle, especially since it was a new place and all with LOTS to look at and do. I finally got her to sleep in the Moby Wrap after doing to creative walking around the site a number of times. However, when we went to go to bed she thought that was time to wake up and play! It took about an hour to get her to go back to bed since she thought it was fun to play around and be silly. We finally all got to sleep around 11pm.

At 2 am Sean woke up with a migraine and was quite sick. The man snoring in the tent next to us woke me up then I had to pee. Rylee of course woke up when we both got up so she was wide awake. We tried everything to get her to go back to sleep but she just wasn't having it. During this time she threw her head back and smashed the back of her head on the bridge of my nose. I thought for sure it was going to be bleeding and that I would have two black eyes the next day, although I did not get any black eyes, the pain is STILL there and the area is very very tender. Rylee FINALLY went back to sleep around 5:30am and woke again for the day at 8.

We made our breakfast (yogurt parfaits) and ate them in our camping chairs. Sean did a timmies run for us and the sites around us so I had a bit of quite time just sitting and relaxing. 

Once he got back we got changed and headed out to explore some trails. We pretty much hiked all morning.

Lunch was sandwiches and vegetables. After lunch we tried to get Rylee down for a nap. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to get her to sleep and we all passed out for 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was a much needed nap all around! After the nap we hit up the splash pad...

Once we dried off and changed it was time to make dinner. Typical hot dogs on the fire. I also had salad to go with them. I had just eaten my hot dog and then had two bites of my salad (it was really good). Rylee lost her balanced and tripped coming within inches of the fire. I leaped up to catch her (sending the salad every where) and managed to pull her back just before she fell back into it. She was totally fine and didn't even know anything happened. My salad, however, was not salvageable. BOO! I ended up having a few of the left over veggies from lunch instead. Needless to say from that point on we moved our chairs back away more from the fire to give Rylee more walking room.

After dinner we went for a hike to the beach and saw A LOT of groundhogs. 

We went back to the site when it was getting dark and made some more marshmallows. We knew it would take a while to get Rylee to bed so we started at 9pm and we were right. It took over an hour to get her to sleep but at least she slept through the night. Sean and I did wake a number of times from the loud snoring taking place next door but otherwise night number two was a success! 

This morning we packed every thing up and were out of the campgrounds by 9am. We had all the laundry done and everything put away by noon (Rylee passed out the minute we got home for a wonderful 2.5 hour nap that allowed us to get it all done). A big part of the speedy clean up was that I am pretty organized and put all the dirty clothes in one bag, all the dirty dishes in another, and so forth. Sean cleaned off the tarp and we let the bottom of the tent dry out.

Over all we consider the weekend to be a big success. One thing that we will need to invest in for sure is a bigger tent. It is fine for just Sean and I but by the time you add Rylee and her duffle bag and her diapers + diaper bag it made for a very squished camp (hence the "broken" nose). I think it would have been much easier to move around if the tent had been bigger.

I am also very proud to report that I staying on track all weekend! Again, good planning and healthy food options were a key to my success. I also made sure we had LOTS of water to drink.

I would definitely recommend Fanshawe Conservation Area to people with families as there are a lot of things to do. The only down side I would say is that the map of the park is really difficult to read, although, that could have just been us ;). There were a lot of kids there this weekend but that was to be expected since it was a long weekend. Overall the noise wasn't too bad but as previously mentioned I would choose a more secluded spot next time. 

Let's drop the T's

I’m back! I’m sorry for the temporary LOA but I have returned!

I’ve been spending a lot of me time lately and doing lots of thinking, and reflecting. I’ve been working on making small but positive changes in my life, both at home and at work, you and happen to have caught me on a good day!

I want to share with you something that I’ve been working on lately, and that is dropping the T’s. Okay, so what does that mean? Let’s turn can’t into can, won’t into will, shouldn’t into should and so forth. So much of our lives are spent thinking about the things we “can’t, won’t shouldn’t” do. For example, I can’t accomplish this goal, I won’t make it, I shouldn’t try. So, let’s drop the T’s and move forward.

Now you’re asking…what does that look like? Well, I’m not an expert by any means, but here is what I have come up with (I will do 1 example of the few plans that I have come up with for myself and then you can fill your own goals and make your own plan!)

My plan

What do I want to accomplish? Getting back to my goal weight

Why this is important to me? So that I can live a healthy life, fit back into my clothing, so getting older isn’t as hard on my body, to be able to be an example and to show to everyone that it can be done a healthy way!

How am I going to do this? I am going to make a commitment to myself to loose 1 pound, one day at a time and not look at how much I have to loose total.

I will make my weekly meal plan, and stick to it.

I will get to the gym at least twice a week to start, and build up again from there.

I will see my trainer at least once a week, preferably twice.

I will treat myself once a day, or a minimum of every other day.

I will track everything I eat.

Now it might look like I have put a lot down for how am I going to do this, and yes I started it all at once, but for me these are small changes that I can make to sustain my weight loss/maintenance long term – which is very important to me.

I have made some other goals in terms of finances, my emotional/mental health, and house work. I used a plan for each one and made sure that I started out SMALL. I did not throw out everything in my kitchen and promise never to eat junk food again, because let’s be honest, I’d fail after a few days. I did however look at the small steps that I could take that would get me there. It might take longer than I want, but I will get there. I have also been sending a list of everything I eat to my mom, it will help to keep me accountable.

On a different topic, I have some very exciting things coming up in my near future!

Next weekend: something huge is happening (I can’t post more details right now since it is a surprise for someone, but the wait will be worth it).

May: Going to Chicago with my parents and husband for the long weekend. We are going to a business conference, but it will still be exciting. Plus it’s the same weekend as our two year anniversary!

July: I am going to BC again to see my family <3. This time my parents will be there at the same time as me so it will be extra exciting.

August: Camping!

September: Women’s retreat

Food for thought: When you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything you want