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. 

But I don't have time...

How many times have you used this excuse for anything? Yes I said excuse. "But I'm really busy!" you say. I dont doubt that you are but if there is something you really want to accomplish, you will MAKE the time. 

I started back to work a few weeks ago and have a baby that is madly teething right now. I can now understand why it is SO tempting to stop at a drive thru on the way home. But for me my health is worth more than that so I put in extra effort to buy healthy groceries and make healthy meal plans. 

Rylee is doing really well at daycare but hasn't been napping as much as she should. Pair that with waking up earlier than normal and we have one over tired, teething, baby with a nasty case of a teething cold. But I am still managing to get the things done that I need to get done. How you ask? 

For starters it helps that I am very organized. I plan my meals in advance and prep my grocery list too. This helps with that large "chore". Right now my meal plans are very simple with dinners that take less than 20 minutes to prepare and the crockpot has become my best friend. 

I pick out all of Rylee's clothes for the week on Sunday so every morning I just grab that days clothes and we head out the door. 

While Rylee is finishing her supper I pack my lunch for the next day + snacks. By doing this I never have to run to tim hortons or the caf and buy something unhealthy. 

I pick one cleaning item each day to do so that I'm not spending hours cleaning at a time. Because no one has time for that! Haha

I put my workouts in my calendar. I am much more likely to stick to them of I put them in there. For the weeks my hubby is on afternoon shift I workout at home. I also have started taking the stairs at work and looking for extra ways to get activity in! Going for walks at lunch are great mood lifters and help to keep me from wanting an afternoon "pick me up" treat like a donut or chocolate bar.

I use my calendar/schedule and make lists ALL the time. There is no way I could remember everything if I didnt do this step. I also frequently set alarms for myself too to remind me to do something. 

Go easy on yourself and give yourself breaks. When you need a minute to yourself take one!

Pick one thing you want to focus on and start small. Don't try to revamp everything and do too much at once! 

I'm not claiming to know everything and yes I am aware I only have one child who is not involved in activities yet but that doesnt mean I'm not busy too! If it is important to you, you will make the time. 

There are lots of things that I struggle with still and am working to find a balance. Like for example I have no problem getting motivated going to the gym but when the gym isn't an option I find lots of things to do or reasons why I "can't" workout at home. I'm getting better at that though! 

This winter has SUCKED for everyone. We've been cooped up far too long and we are all feeling it! BUT! The snow will soon be melting and then we can get outside and be active in a whole new way again! 

My challenge to you is pick one thing that you want to accomplish. Make a plan, write it down, and start putting it into action TODAY! Not tomorrow! 

My fitness goals

Like many people I have a list of goals that I want to achieve for my life. I have a list of five main goals that are very important to me. Weight and fitness is one of the goals. I'll lay out exactly what my weight/fitness goals are:

Weight:

My first weight goal is to drop 25 more pounds by March 1, 2014 by following the automatic body program and working out.

My second weight goal is to loose 56 more pounds (that includes the 25) and get back to my goal weight. I don't have a dead line for this one as I will set that on March 1st when I have reached my next 25. At this point I should be back into my size 8 clothes which is very average for my height. I have a large bin of basically new clothes waiting for me...calling my name!

My third weight goal is to maintain my goal weight. 

Fitness:

My first fitness goal is to increase my upper body strength.

My second fitness goal is to increase my flexibility.

My third is to tone everywhere in general. Since I have a lot of loose skin it will take some time, but I am confident I can do this.

I also want to pick a physical goal like doing a mini triathlon, or running a race ect. But I don't quite know what I want it to be yet.

______________________________________________________________________________

My biggest concern is to get the weight off and focus on living a healthy lifestyle. Which I have already been working on with the automatic body program, making one small change, and weight watchers and have been having good results. Now it's time to kick it up a notch!

I am SUPER excited that I am going to be starting with a personal trainer again. I know when I worked out hard before I felt great. This time will be different though for a few reasons. I am going to be working with a new trainer who has very clear goals for our sessions and what we want to accomplish. He is listening to what I want but will also put in things that he knows will help as well. He is as committed to my goals as I am and will be reliable and consistent. We are going to change up the workouts every time so that we aren't just doing the same exercises or even types of exercises week after week. 

Today we met up as an intro and did my measurements, "starting weight" (starting weight with him, although not my automatic body starting weight) and went over what my goals are and a rough plan. Monday we are going to do our first session so he can see where I am at and make a more detailed plan to follow. I'm really pumped to get started and take my weight loss and fitness goals to the next level. 

He says that we will crush my 25 pound goal -- I'll hold him to it and he'll hold me to it!

So although I really liked my old trainer, it wasn't the right fit. I'm ready to get serious, and my new trainer is ready to help me with that goal.

Follow me on my journey!

If you don't take care of yourself...

...no one else will.

I have a lot to share with you tonight so hopefully you're up for a long read.

Over the past two years I have been all over the place with my weight loss. I have tried many different things only to get discouraged over and over again. I would eat really well and write everything down for a few days and then fall off the wagon and binge. My blogging has been all over the place too - making it hard to follow me and know when I have posted new posts, and for that I am sorry.

So here goes, I will try to get out what I have been thinking in my head.

Weight loss is a journey, and I get so frustrated at myself for putting back on weight after I worked so hard to lose it. I want to try to lose it overnight and get back to the closet full of great clothes that I have, but that is not going to happen. I am not going to wake up tomorrow and be the size 8 that I was two years ago this very day. And you know what? That is okay.

Weight loss is a journey, a life long battle that I am going to fight. The past few weeks I have been having a lot of joint pain and feel like I am 70 years old. I'm actually very thankful that I have the pain because it has taught me a VERY important lesson. This is NOT what I want to feel like at 70 years old. I want to be one of those seniors that you see out riding bikes and speed walking to keep healthy and keep their joints from stiffening up. 

Again, I am not going to achieve this over night. I am going to have to work hard to break down the real reasons behind my weight problem. It is not going to be easy, in fact it will be the hardest thing I have ever done - but I know at the end of it, it will be worth it. I hope you will join me on my journey and I hope that I will inspire you to find your own health. Leave all excuses at the door because there is no habit that you can not break, nothing you can't accomplish if you are willing to put in the time.

I have been doing my HBL challenge for the month of May and I will give you a bit of an update. My body still really hurts, but I have been taking small steps to feeling better (stretching more, walking, hot baths ect.) I am still not noticing a huge different though with one exception. My knees are not hurting any more because I am not crossing my legs at all or pulling my legs up under me - which is VERY hard on your knees. My back is still bad but I did go to my doctors this week and I am going to do physio to strengthen the muscles. He also gave me a prescription for a med that helps with inflammation. This should also help my joints too.

This weekend I decided was the best weekend to do the La Bamba diet. It's a 3 day cleanse that helps to kick start your weight loss. A lot of people get great results by doing this but I am going to give you my honest feedback about it.

The first day you are to drink two 1 gallon jugs of the mixture of protein juice, tea, and herbal aloe powder. I had one jug of peach juice and one jug of wild berry. You have to consume 1 16oz glass every 30 minutes for 8 hours.

The mixture was not TERRIBLE - however it wasn't exactly "good". It tasted like very watered down camp juice. I drank every half hour and I was told to and was quite satisfied. I did not feel hungry once while I was drinking the juice mixture. Near the end I did start to feel like I was going to float away. I felt like my stomach was a balloon of liquid and I did not feel good - but I was still not hungry. I finished my last glass around 5:45pm. On the first day you are allowed NO food - just liquid.

I went to bed around 9:30 and was VERY hungry. I thought maybe if I go to bed I won't think about it and then tomorrow will be good because I can have a shake. Well a few things happen when I am hungry. First of all I get MISERABLE. I whine and cry and pout - I pretty much act like a child. Second I start to get really bad headaches that often end in vomiting. So I tried everything I could think of to get to sleep but I was just SO hungry. I tried drinking a few glasses of water, but since I already felt really sick that didn't do much of anything. I was laying in bed dreaming of salad so at 11:30 I finally got up and went to the kitchen to have some salad. That worked well until about 12:15 am. As I was still laying in bed miserable - my headache was getting much worse to the point where my whole head was just throbbing. I said enough already and went and had a peanut butter sandwich.

So I did not even last one day of the La Bamba diet, which is only a 3 day weight loss jump start and I will never do one again. However, it did make me realize a few things. That is not the way that I want to live - doing fad diets. I want to eat right, exercise and just be healthy - and still have treats sometimes. I want to be able to have a treat and be in control and not have that lead to a binge, which is what happens when you deprive yourself. I also go myself a nice new hair cut to be a symbol of my starting fresh. It's not too short, but to my shoulders. I can still get it up in a pony tail but it gives me lots of new things I can do with it!

Today I woke up and still did not feel good, my back was sore and I still had a bad headache. I had a good breakfast and took today one step at a time. Sean and I wrote a list of things we wanted to get done and tackled it one thing at a time. We ended up going on a hike today which was more than my back could handle so now I am paying the price for that. However, I was happy to get the exercise in and time with my hubby and my pup pup.

Sean and I rented a movie tonight and I plan on snuggling up with him on the couch and just relaxing. The weather today was so beautiful and I feel so blessed to have been able to live this day.

I will be posting my Elton John blog soon - I was just waiting to get all of the pictures. I can't believe that happened two weeks ago. I wish it had lasted forever :)

From the past week...

I wrote this over the course of the week and kept meaning to post it, so here it is:

Well, after my not so healthy weekend, Monday was good…then
Valentine’s day. I thought it would be no problem because I
didn’t really have anything to worry about, until a co-worker
brought in my favourite chocolates in the whole world. I was counting
honestly…for a while. Then I lost count and gave in all together. SO, I
guess I didn’t even make it to Tuesday before I was not tracking
everything I ate. But I’m not going to give up. There is still hope
for me! In my old department where I worked they knew not to bring me
chocolate of any kind, but in my new area, and since I have not been
very disciplined the past few months year, they don’t know that.

On Tuesday I had a session with my trainer but something came up and he
wasn’t able to make it. We had pasta with veggies for dinner and then
took Levi to his second last dog training class. I felt like a terrible
person because we had to teach them two new tricks over the last week,
but life just got in the way and that didn’t happen. All of the other
dogs showed off their tricks while Levi was just a spectator. But he did
manage to do one trick that he didn’t know before, so I didn’t feel
quite so bad. After that Sean and I went home and watched Homes on Homes
and snacked on chips…I feel like the theme for this blog should possibly
be weight gain, not weight loss since I have clearly fallen off the
beaten path. 

I have let the stress of life take over and have not made any time for
me or my health. My parents are a big help right now because they are
going to be helping me with the busiest part of my business so that I
can try to take some time to focus on getting going again. I really
appreciate that they are helping me, because I just keep going deeper
and deeper - the wrong way!

On Wednesday I did my 3km run – in training for this half marathon
Nicole and I are doing in October. Sean and Levi came with me, and we
finished the whole thing without stopping, but I did go pretty slow.
When we were finishing up the last part of the run I was thinking about
how much I actually hate running. Really – I can’t stand it. I like
the idea of running, but anything long distance is not for me. I enjoy
100m sprints but that is about it. So I thought, why am I doing
something I hate so much? I texted Nicole and told her that I am not
going to do the half marathon and she understood. Now I just need to
find a new activity/sport that I could possibly compete in. Any ideas?

The past few days my hands have been really cracked and dry since when
Nicole left she took her Herbal Aloe Hand Cream with her, so this
morning on the way out the door I grabbed my tube of Herbal Aloe Hand
Cream to stash in my desk and put some on when I got to work. What a
difference it makes! It’s not greasy at all, and with one application
my hands stay soft all day. Everyone could smell it and asked for some,
which of course I shared since you only need a tiny amount (size of a
dime) to do both hands.

You can find it by going to the following link:

Canadians: https://mygreatshapetoday.com/kelly_12/product/ca-skin-care-and-fragrances/ca-herbal-aloe-hand-and-body-cream-200ml

Americans: https://mygreatshapetoday.com/kelly_12/product/personal-care/us-herbal-aloe-hand-and-body-cream

Ahh, speaking of hands. It’s time to admit something that I am REALLY
not proud of. I can not longer wear my wedding rings because they are
too small; with the weight that I have put on my fingers have also
gotten bigger so my small rings were blocking blood flow. It was a major
struggle to get them off, and saddened me very much - but maybe it will
motivate me to get my butt into gear (since I think it is really
important to wear my wedding rings + I love them). My husband just told
me that I should just get them made a size bigger, but clearly as a man
he doesn’t understand… that is just as crappy of a feeling as buying a
pair of pants in the next size up. When I got my engagement ring I was
heavy, and I had to get it sized smaller about 4 times. And when we
bought my wedding band, it fit right off the shelf (which made me so
happy because they keep them small and hope that you will nee
d it a bigger size).  Anyways, now my fingers feel bare and I hope to change
that soon.

On the depressing topic of what doesn’t fit, I will also point out
that my winter coat is a struggle to do up every day and I have NO idea
how the zipper hasn’t ripped out of it by now! I bought it at the end
of the season last year and it fit great…but this year, not so much. Of
course I was too cheap and too proud to buy another winter coat this
year (thinking I was going to lose the weight and fit into it), so I
have been wearing my good one either not done up, or wearing my rain
jacket which has no insulation at all. Being cold is kind of a cruel
punishment to me since I don’t fit into my good coat.

This post is starting to become very depressing so I am going to finish
up with this note. Even though over the last year and a half I have been
going in the wrong direction on the scale I WILL NOT GIVE UP. I worked
far too hard to lose all that weight and there is no way I am going to
just give in and put it all back on.  I will take this time my parents
are giving me, and focus completely on my health, and get myself back on
track and going the right direction. I know how to do it - I just need
to be able to put it into motion. So join me on my journey of getting
healthy! (Again!)