Today I Learned How To...

Today has been a pretty awesome day, I think things are finally starting to look up!

OHH, I want to thank Jen over at New Mommy Confessions for featuring my blog as her Blog of the Month! First of all, I am so flattered that people actually read my blog and secondly, I am excited that Jen is sharing my blog with her followers :) If you haven't checked out her blog, she is a fellow milispouse and SAHM. She is so funny, does lots of giveaways, and puts out great military information as well!

So 3 days ago I managed to pull my quadricep muscle so I have been icing it, wrapping it, and staying away from the gym. Which really sucks because 1. I am a gym junkee and 2. I enjoy the hour or so each day that Little Miss and I can spend apart. Distance makes the heart grow fonder folks (even if its only a few walls separating myself from my daughter!)! 

However, this was the perfect excuse for Operation: Potty Training. Little Miss has been running around for 3 days without a diaper and she has been doing very well, no accidents! But wow I have gone through an entire container of Lysol wipes. And everytime she makes her business in the potty, she gets up and dances! Which is super cute until there are droplets of pee on the floor, she is just air drying right? The only time she wears a pull-up is when she is sleeping or when we leave the house. We haven't made the transition to "big girl panties" yet, that is going to happen tomorrow wish us luck...

Since we have been cooped up in the house, I have started doing educational activities disguised as crafts and games *insert evil laugh* Yesterday we did painting and worked on our colors. Today we did an "Alphabet Bugs" game. I taped all the letters on our big glass doors and we sang our ABC's, identified the letter, and tried to put them in order. We made it all the way to "J" before Little Miss had enough. I can't force her to learn everything I want her to, things need to be fun at this age or else she may not enjoy learning later on! Keep it light, have fun with it.

The weather was cooperating so I decided to finally wash my car. Last July when we bought the RAV we paid extra $$ for Car Armor on the inside & out, and it has been so worth the money. Little Miss's messes wipe up with ease and all those nasty bugs and scratches come right off the exterior! After we bought the car, I diligently washed it every week. Well, then winter came and it was too cold for me to do that anymore so today was the first day this year I busted out the sponges and bucket. 

Then I did something new: I WAXED THE CAR! That is just one of those things Hubs always has done. Gotta love being a military wife, you learn how to do all sorts of handy things while your SO is deployed! Last month I learned how to restring the weed-eater, this month I wax the car, next month I may just possibly conquer the world! Everyone will get a million dollars and their own house and will be happy all the time...because I said so  :)

After being so impressed with my car waxing skills, I decided it was time to test out my strained quadricep. Good news, I made it through spin class with only minor modifications. Yippee!

Alright guys, I have a small confession to make: Even though I work out regularly and I eat right, I still feel guilty when I eat anything not considered "healthy". I want to conquer this love/hate relationship I have with food, so during my self-inflicted lock down I came across this weight loss app called Lose It! I have never kept a food diary and I want to have a better understanding of the balance between the amount of calories I consume and the amount of calories I burn. This app is amazing and very user friendly. You just put in your information (current weight, height, goal weight) and it comes up with what you caloric intake should be each day. You simply enter in what food you eat, your exercises, and it crunches all the numbers for you!

So today I warmed up on the treadmill then did spin class, I came home, entered the numbers online, and realized I burned off all the calories I consumed! Holy cow. This means that I can eat a few of Little Miss's seasoned potato wedges (with my turkey burger wrapped in romaine) and not feel guilty. For me, that is a huge break through. Bye Bye Guilt! Not that I am going to go out and eat a carton of chocolate ice cream now. But the numbers show me that with a healthy diet & a good workout, I can indulge a little bit and still be okay.
 

Its a challenge to look at my before & after pictures and not be terrified that I will put back on all the weight. I am at a healthy weight that I am happy with, now I want to be stronger. Like I want to look GI Jane-ish, minus the shaved head. Not scary muscly like Madonna though. I want to look as strong as I feel! Life has thrown quite a bit at me in the last 2 years and it have forced me to learn & grow. 

Overall, one of the best days I have had since deployment began! One month down folks :)