Arms... Arms... ARMS!!!

One of my biggest problem areas have always been my arms... I hate them! I am not one to cover them up because of my hatred for them, because lets face it, if you don't like me because of my fat arms well I really don't want you to be my friend anyways. BUT I do hate them and wish they were smaller.

 

The 1st time I lost my weight (before my reconstructive knee surgery and depression in 2012) I had focused on cardio and not so much on weights. My arms shrunk but nothing like I had hoped for.

 

When I lost my weight the 2nd time (2013) I started lifting weights and BOOM... I started seeing the change I wanted. Who knew that lifting weights would help change my arms. Ha! By the time of my wedding (March 2014), I didn't hate my arms anymore... I didn't LOVE them either but I was proud of my baby bicep and how that didn't droop down as much anymore. (the picture is blurry because I had to zoom way in... sorry not sorry)

 

 

Since quitting the gym after my miscarriage (summer of 2014), I have noticed that my muscles in my arms were the 1st set of muscles to pack their bags and leave me. It sucked but at that point I didn't care. Now that I am allowed back in the gym, I am going to focus on getting that muscle back. It is going to take time to build up my strength and it will take time because I am only allowed to lift light weights... but I am going to do it.

 

 

I plan on to lift upper body at least twice a week, while doing cardio daily, and adding in a yoga session weekly. Today I planned on doing arms but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do and then yesterday Skinny Meg (LOVE her) posted a great arm workout... so I did that one! I did have to modify it some since I am pregnant, but it was a GREAT workout and I can tell tomorrow I will probably be sore.

 

 

If you have never visited Skinny Meg's website, you are missing out... www.skinnymeg.com she is so down to earth, tells it how it is, a working mom (whose kids are way adorable) who is on a mission to lose weight... oh and she is funny!!!

 

Oh and just because I am loving my belly (heck, I never thought I would say that) so much here lately, I will end this blog with a belly picture and a quick update on Dax. We had our anatomy scan yesterday and he is doing great. He is 10 ounces and a little longer than 6 inches and measuring ahead of schedule... so they moved my due date up 3 days, not much but when your pregnant every day counts! Next Tuesday will mark 20 weeks and we will officially be half way done baking this little baby boy!!

 

 

 

Back to the Basics

Yesterday was my 1st time at the gym since being pregnant, so... 18 long weeks! I have to admit, I am out of shape!!

 

 

I walked 5 blocks to my gym on my lunch break and used that as my warm up. To be honest climbing the flight of stairs to the locker room could have been used at my warm up. Haha! Please don't think I am joking, because I am not! Going from doing basically nothing the past 4 1/2 months to getting my butt back in gear while carrying a baby bump, it was work!

I changed, took my gym selfie (because it really didn't happen if you don't take a selfie, duh!) and headed out the floor. I have  to stop and admit something here, I kind of felt sexy. I don't know why, so I guess it was because I am pregnant and working out. I don't know?! I never worked out with Caleb so this was a new feeling for me... and I loved it. It is actually what drove me when I wanted to give up. I had a few stares from people as I worked out and that helped too. I am pregnant, not injured... I have to keep reminding myself of that.

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/205308572/pregnancy-tank-top-im-not-slow-im?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_query=I'm+not+slow+I'm+pregnant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

 

I started with arms...

Alternating bicep curls - 7.5 pounds - 10 on each arm for 3 sets

Overhead Press - 7.5 pounds - 10 reps/3sets

Triceps kickbacks -7.5 pounds - 10 reps/3sets

Hammer Curls - 12.5 pounds (someone took the 7.5 and the 10s) - 10 reps/3sets

Tricep extension (overhead) - 12.5 pounds - 10 reps/3sets

Then finished up with cardio...

Elliptical - 30 minutes, manual speed, intensity 4 and incline 1

Bike - 10 minutes cool down

I wont lie, about 10 minutes into the cardio all I could think about was food. I wanted to quit so bad and go grab some lunch. Then about 20 minutes in all I could think about was if this is hard, labor is going to be horrible for me. I decided to stay on and fight for this, fight for my energy level to go back up, fight to get back in shape and fight for my health.

I have been so scared to get back in the gym and have made so many excuses since being released to go back to the gym at 12 weeks... I am glad that today is my Monday and that I pushed my fears aside and went back to the gym.

I am very proud of myself!

Baby on a Budget

Having a baby can get kind of expensive.... and I am not even talking about all of the hospital visits, labor and delivery and test you have to pay for!

 

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I am a Budget Betty... Toot Toot! Seriously though, I get it from my Momma. I don't like to consider myself to be cheap, but I do like to find the best deal out there before I buy something. It is easier when I have a lot of time, lets say... 9 months!

 

Casey and I found out that we were pregnant with our miscarriage baby at 5-6 weeks and I decided why not go ahead and start buying stuff? If the worst happens (and it did) we can save it for the next baby. So when we got pregnant again, we had a lot of the bigger items I had found for dirt cheap. All I did with this pregnancy was find a checklist online, print it out and start checking items off. You can find the check list I used here:

http://static.abbottnutrition.com/cms-prod/similac.com/img/baby-registry-checklist.pdf

 

We then decided to stock up on diapers. For the past 6 paychecks, we have been buying 1 case of diapers. We played around with the math for a little bit and decided to buy 8 boxes of size 1/2 diapers ($19.99), 7 boxes of size 3 diapers ($38.99) and 2 boxes of wipes ($19.79). We have been buying most of these from Costco, however we have bought a few different brands just to be safe too. This comes out to right under $500 that we have slowly spent over the time of us being pregnant. The only down fall to this is making room in the house to stockpile all of these diapers!

 

 

We bought the dresser from Good Will, a friend gave us the desk and another friend sold us the crib and mattress for $50. Nothing matched at all so we sanded it down and re-painted everything to match. This saved us a BUNCH of money.

 

Another way we have saved money is accepting hand me downs! Never and I mean never be too proud to take hand me downs. My only piece of advice is to really inspect the item(s) and clean them up some before using them. Hand me downs we have received: excersaucer, baby bath tub, rock and play, and TONS of clothes...

 

 

Facebook Resale Pages - this has been a saving grace for me! I am not on the pages ALL the time, like Casey thinks I am BUT I do get on every once and awhile to look for good deals. I bought a bumbo with a tray for $10, a boppy pillow with 2 covers for $15, matching swing and bouncing chair for $100 (retails for over $200), a glider rocking chair for $20, a wooden highchair for $40, changing pad with 2 covers for $10... and so much more!

 

 

Kid Resale Stores - Kid-to-Kid has been a GREAT go to store for me. I bought Dax some clothes from there (before I received the hand me downs) and stocked up on some bottles (that I took home and sterilized and bought new nipples for) all for under $50!

 

 

Being Crafty - This has helped save us a lot of money! I love to sew anything and everything... so I decided to try and make a lot of Dax's stuff myself. So far I have made him a carseat cover, 2 new covers for his changing pad, cushions for his highchair, and I have recovered his bumper pads in his crib.

 

 

 

Burlington Coat Factory - for any of you who have never been here... girl you are missing out! They have one of the BEST baby depots you will ever find. Most everything is name brand and marked down really low!! They also are online (www.burlingtoncoatfactory.com) and they sale maternity clothes too! We found this adorable diaper bag for $40 on their website and they accidently sent us 3, I called and they told me to keep them or return them for in-store credit... so I returned one and then while we were there we found this Jeep jogging stroller that was marked down from $160 to $50 because the model was out of date... we ended up buying it and with the in-store credit, we only spent $10!!! Steal of a deal...

 

 

 

Babies are VERY expensive, but there is always a way to cut down on the cost if you have the time and energy to really sit down and figure it out. I high suggest planning ahead and starting early. Yes, a baby shower is a great place to receive a lot of these items and I am all for baby showers... just don't rely on getting EVERYTHING you need/want.

 

 

The Pegboard

I found this idea off Pinterest, man I love that website!

 

 

The nursery was my craft room (don't worry, I meshed the craft room and the guest room so I didn't lose my momma cave all together) and I had a full size peg board (1 sheet of plywood) hanging on the wall. We had NO room to move it into the guest room so my lovey husband suggested moving it to the garage for him to hang his (and my) tools on. I was thrilled when I found this idea because I am in love with pegboards, they make life so easy!

 

I showed Casey the pictures I had found and he was on board... but then again, 99.9% of the time he is on board with my ideas. I love that my husband trust me and my creative gene!!

 

Me and my type A personality wanted to get to work that exact night... but this wasn't the case. It was a couple of months before this happened. Casey is pokey (love ya babe) and I have learned that if I want him to help me with things (lifting the pegboard, cutting it and re-hanging it) I would have to get on his schedule. Pooh!

 

 

I decided to draw out the space I wanted to cut while it was still hanging on the wall (behind the crib) and hopefully that would give him so UMP to take it down and get it cut... and it did!

 

Last weekend we finished up the project! I bought the border, measured it out and sprayed it turquoise. I will admit if you zoom in on the picture you will notice my measurements were a tad bit off on one of the vertical borders and there is a small space gap... We realized this after it was hung up and I decided to just leave it because if we had to re-cut it that meant we would to buy more border and that stuff wasn't cheap.

 

 

Casey hung the pegboard and border for me and I decorated it. I am just in LOVE with how it turned out.

 

 

I would have to say, one of my favorite pieces on the pegboard would have to be the arrow. There is a button you push to turn on the lights and it puts off just the right amount of light for diaper changes. Another pieces I have been complimented on is the oversize safety pin. I found that in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. It was broken and pink... I took it home, glued it back together and sprayed it yellow!

 

 

Applying Fabric to Walls

After posting the blog about Dax's nursery, I had a couple of people ask me how I applied the polka dots onto the wall.. well, here ya go!

 

 

I found this idea on Pinterest and was intrigued that I could decorate a wall in the nursery without having to repaint the wall when we move out (we are currently in a rent house). I decided to test this out in a closet just in case it was a Pinterest fail. It ended up not being a fail at all... so it was time to get to work!!

 

The Pinterest post said to purchase fabric stiffener in spray form at Michaels. Well, I am a Hobby Lobby kind of girl and couldn't find it in spray form, but I did find it in paste form. I also purchased foam paint brushes to apply it.

 

The fabric was the next step... I went ahead and bought 2 yards of each color of fabric (yellow, gray and turquoise) and started cutting out circles. I measured the wall and kind of drew out a pattern on the wall with a pencil so I knew how many of each color I needed. Rough estimate... 23 gray and turquoise and 46 yellow. Lets start the cutting!!!

 

After I cut them out, I flipped them over so that the back of the fabric was facing up. I laid down wax paper for easy clean up. Then I applied the fabric stiffener to the back side of the fabric and let them dry for a couple of hours.

 

 

The next step was to heat up the iron... easy as pie! (Yummy, pie!!)

Then it is very simple from here on out... you just put the fabric on the wall and iron it on. And BAM... it sticks to the wall!!!

 

 

To take it off, you just pull it off and the wall is back to normal!!!

 

Don't like polka dots? You can cut any shape out of the fabric... The Pinterest post I found was for a fabric picture frame. The opportunities are endless, so get creative!!

 

Guest Blogger - Recipe Included!!!

Today I am letting my guest blogger take over and boy does she have a GREAT recipe for you!!!

 

 

Hi y'all! Alesha Haley from Made with Love here! Would love to share one of my new favorite Pancake recipes!

I discovered Clean Eating a little over a year ago, and fell in love! During the week its lots of veggies and lean meat, but Protein Pancake Saturday has become a weekend ritual in my house!

Who said eating healthy had to be boring?! Clean Eating helped me lose 30 pounds, Get pregnant, gain 30 pounds HAHA, and now Im on my fitness journey once again to get my body by baby even stronger than ever! 

 

 

Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes {Clean Eating}

Pancake Ingredients:

-2 egg whites

-1 TB of baking powder

-1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce

-3 TB of oat flour

-1 scoop of Jamie Eason Peanut Protein Powder 

Topping Ingredients:

-Half scoop of Jamie Eason Protein Powder

-2 TB of water

-1 TB greek yogurt {plain}

-1 TB of natural unsweetened cocoa powder

-dash of natural honey

{Can substitute protein powder for an all natural peanut butter instead}

 

Steps:

1.Mix all the pancake ingredients in bowl, until all lumps are out.

2. On low heat, spoon batter onto pan, cook each pancake 2 minutes per side.

While pancakes are cooking, make your toppings.

3. In one small bowl, mix Peanut Protein Powder + water for peanut butter topping {OR} Use an all natural peanut butter.

4. In second small bowl mix cocoa powder, greek yogurt, honey.

5. Pile your pancakes on plate, top with BOTH cocoa & peanut butter & sliced bananas.

6.Devour in seconds! 

Enjoy y'all!

*Makes 1 serving, {5 small 2" pancakes}

For two servings double recipe.

 

 

 

Don't forget to stop by Alesha's blog (http://www.aleshahaley.com/) and check out all she has to offer! She truly is an amazing woman who I respect and look up too. She is one of the mom's who has encouraged me to try and make my pregnancy the healthiest I can and to get back into shape after Dax is born. Alesha is hands down one of my favorite people to follow for inspiration! Thank you, Alesha!!

 

Bragging on my child

I want to just take a minute (okay, maybe more than 1 minute) and BRAG about my little boy, Caleb.

 

 

I take SO much pride in this kid and I mostly chalk it up to the fact that I was a single mom from the time I was 3 months pregnant until Casey came into the picture when Caleb was almost 3. I believe the 1st couple years of a kids life are very curial. They see and do everything you are doing and pick up habits and start to really form their personality. When he was younger (and even now) I always made sure to tell him I love him every couple hours, to hug hello and goodbye no matter how long I would be gone, and to always have fun and to laugh. These are all things Caleb has picked up along the way. Sure, I yelled and I lost my temper (probably more than most) and he picked up some of these traits too (oops) but when he says something clever or tells me he loves you out of the blue, I forget all about the "bad" traits he learned from me.

 

 

Caleb is one of the funniest little people I have ever met in my life. He constantly has me laughing and also kind of jealous of his wittiness. At 1st I thought, maybe I am the only one that thinks he is funny... but to see how he makes his grandparents laugh, my nieces, my friends and even random strangers just goes to prove that he really is a funny little kid! He might never be class president but I could totally see him being the class clown, I mean just look at this face!!!

 

 

Besides being a riot, he is one of the sweetest little boys you will ever meet. My sister (well everyone) says he is a BIG Momma's boy and I am totally okay with that. Case in point, last night he spent the night with my sister and after 10 minutes of being away from me, he sent me the video below from my nieces phone. He is always making sure that everyone around him knows that he loves them, that they are pretty (or handsome), and that he cares about them. The compliments this little boy gives, makes me not worry about the type of man he will turn out to be. One day he will make some lady very lucky just because he is able to tell her how beautiful she is without skipping a beat... This is, if he ever decides to move out and changes his mind about wanting to marry me!

 

 

I love that he has a great sense of humor and that he LOVES to love people... but my favorite thing about Caleb would have to be that he has a giving heart. I have always said that when I die I want people to remember me for being a person who is giving, someone who would give you the shirt off my back if you needed it, someone who would bend over backwards to help a friend out, someone who cares about other peoples needs. After I found out I was pregnant back in 2009, I prayed that my child would have a giving heart... God answered that prayer times ten! Caleb is always looking to help people out, mostly me (letting me sleep during my pregnancy, carrying stuff in from the car, working on my many projects, holding the door open for me, etc.). He ask me each morning if we can pray for his friends at school and for his family (all of them) by name. He is also always wanting to buy/make stuff for other people... he received a gift card the other day and the 1st thing he said he wanted to buy was some pink flowers for him Mimi's grave. Seriously, how sweet is that!! The picture below is him working in the garage making his favorite cousins (Maddy and Audy) pictures for their room to make them smile when they are sad. I told him he was a good kid and he replied "tell me something I don't already know!" Haha!! I could go on and on about how caring he is, I am so proud of him!!

 

Caleb Scott Lassiter, I know you cant read this (because I wont let you on the computer and because you don't know how to read yet, lol) but I love you more than you will ever know. You saved my life when I didn't even know I needed to be saved. You made me a Momma and that is something I will always be grateful for. I cherish our loving, fun, sweet relationship and promise to never take it for granted. You are my sunshine and my baby boy. I love you to the moon and back!!!

 

Gaining weight... it's a good thing, right?

Today I am 17 weeks pregnant!! Each Friday, I try to remember to weigh myself to see where I am on gaining weight for this pregnancy.

It is funny to me because I am use to weighing myself on Friday's to see that I have either maintained or lost weight... not checking on weight gains! Haha

Two weeks ago, week 15, I was still down 2 pounds from what I weighed on week 3. I had lost 9-10 pounds my 1st trimester due to my morning sickness and not being able to really eat anything at all. I knew this couldn't last forever, I knew eventually I would HAVE to gain weight.... I was just hoping it would be later on, like week 40! Just kidding.

Well, today was that day... I gained weight! I gained the 2 pounds I was down, plus another pound on top of that! So now I have officially gained 1 pound this pregnancy (even though I look like I have gained 30)!!

I have started to be able to eat again, which is a good and bad thing. I have been very picky (which I usually am not) and only been wanting to eat hotdogs. I do crave a salad here and there with ranch, kind of good, kind of bad, but it is mostly hotdogs 24/7. I have been eating them for morning snacks, lunch, afternoon snacks and dinner. The only time I don't eat them is for breakfast when I am craving honey nut cheerios.

Hotdogs are not the best thing for you, so I am going to start buying turkey dogs and wheat buns and see how Dax likes that!

My doctor and I sat down at the start of this pregnancy and decided that 15-25 pounds would be my goal. Still, it cracks me up that I am making goals with my doctor to gain weight! Haha!!! I am going to really focus on staying on track with our plan because with Caleb, I gained 60+ pounds and after giving birth to him, I was at my heaviest weight ever (see picture below, that was me 36 weeks pregnant with Caleb, ouch). This time around, I want it to be different and it will be. I am more aware of nutritional facts and I actually own a gym membership (just need to use it now) and I have a plan for after Dax arrives to get back into shape.

How much weight did you gain in your pregnancy?

Guest Blogger?

I would like to extend an offer to a few of my fellow readers to be guest bloggers on my blog next week!!!

 

If you are a blogger (have your own page) and enjoy inspiring other people, please leave a comment below, contact me via Facebook, or shoot me an email at fitbyjordan@hotmail.com.

 

The reason I want to have a few guest bloggers is because I started this page to inspire people around me in regards to fitness and life in general. Like I said the other day, I haven't felt very inspirational lately... it is starting to come back though. Having a few guest bloggers might just help re-inspire us!!

 

Heaven knows I can use some inspiration!!!

 

Dax update - Nursery talk!!

Today I am blogging all about B-A-B-Y!!!

 

We started the nursery back when we were pregnant with our last baby this past summer. So, when we got pregnant again we really just had add some details and final touches. The theme has been yellow and gray with some elephants. After we found out it was a boy, I decided to add some pops of turquoise here and there.

 

I am a Pinterest whore and have SO many ideas and I am trying to put them all together!! So if y'all have any opinions, just let me know!!! I have posted pictures of the room below and comments on things we are planning on tweaking/changing/adding... etc.

 

 

The peg board behind the crib will be taken down, cut and framed and placed above the dresser to hold pictures and baskets of diapers and wipes. The bumper in the crib will be recovered in a turquoise fabric. I know I know, people now days don't use bumpers... but I still like them and want to use one. To each their own! The high chair in the corner will be re-painted and moved into the kitchen. The corner shelves may or may not stay... not sure yet.

 

 

This will go above the crib, of course it will say DAX and be painted turquoise!

 

 

The "sunshine" canvas will not be staying there, instead we will be hanging an antique window with a saying on it (pictures to come soon). The yellow mason jars will be hung on the peg board above the dresser. The desk will be cleaned off, most of that "crap" will go in the dresser. Do you like the black rocking chair that sticks out like a sore thumb?! Yeah, that was Caleb's when he was a infant... his nursery was black and blue. I am looking for another chair to replace that but if I don't find one for a reasonable price, I will stick with that and just change the cushion. The curtains... well see below, they get their own spurt!

 

 

The shelves will be taken down and most likely taken out of the room all together, all of the "crap" on the shelves will be hung on the peg board. The peg board will be put above this dresser and the dresser will also be used as a changing table. The gray circle basket next to the dresser is a dirty clothes hamper. 

 

 

That door is Dax's closet.. it is a mess, see next picture! I am in the process of adding polka dots to this wall. The yellow are all different patterns and then I am going back and filling the rest of the wall with gray and turquoise polka dots. Need to go buy more yellow fabric and find some gray and turquoise. I will post a photo of the finished product later!

 

The closet... eek! It scares me to go in there! Right now there is a sit and stand stroller, 2 car seats, 2 bases, a bounce chair, a bathtub, a exersaucer, and tons of other "crap" shoved in here. It is something that probably wont be organized until very last... once we can put the stroller and car seats in the cars and move the bigger toys to the living room and playroom. And yes, that is a red dress in the closet... that was mine when I was a newborn. Maybe one day I can play dress up with a granddaughter!!

 

 

Now on to the curtains I talked about earlier... I found the ones I wanted at Target but they were white and they were cheap. I decided to buy some dye and just change the color myself. To be honest, it kind of scared me to do it. I am very crafty but I didn't want to turn out to be a smurf... I just followed the bottle.

 

 

The bottle said "agitate the fabric" so I asked the 5 year old to show me how to agitate it... He picked up the yard stick and started poking me with it! I swear he cracks me up!!

 

 

Casey works nights and I really wanted the curtains hung up tonight (I am the kind of person who wants things done right then and there... true story) so I pulled out MY drill (yes, it is mine. Casey gave it to me for Mother's Day one year) and went to work. I am proud of myself for being handy!! See the picture above to see the final product of the curtains again. Dang the color, cant wait to change it.

 

That is all for now... cant wait to buy a saw this weekend so we can cut the peg board!! What do you think? Any ideas you want to share with me?