Breaking Point

Last night I hit my breaking point. After a long month of deadlines, tasks, and being stretched to the max I finally exploded. 

We were getting into bed when Dan noticed a puddle of water on the sheets by our pillows. One of the dogs had knocked down a glass of water from our headboard. We got up and changed the fitted sheet. I soaked up what I could with some paper towels, and went back to trying to send one last email to a co-worker. As I am trying to fight with autocorrect (a minimum of 5 times) on my phone over "FYI" and it kept correcting to "Fri" Dan said. "You didn't soak this up very well, it's leaking through the sheet."  I looked down and hysterically yelled. "I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING!!!!"

This sums it up.

It has been a really long month. Work has been eating up ALL of my free time. With one company I am prepping taxes and getting out hundreds of 1099s, with another company I am pricing thousands of catalog items, and Dan pimped me out to his boss to help with their ever growing admin tasks that haven't been getting done.

I am working 50+ hours a week this month, trying to get in my workouts, cooking dinner, keeping the house clean, and trying not to neglect my two surprisingly patient children.

It's a good time of year, my bread and butter, but it's demanding and this is the first time I have tried to do it with 2 kids. I would say I have been keeping it together pretty good, you know, stuffing my emotions deep down, real healthy like.

So when I yelled at Dan his look of shock made me start laughing. Like a crazy hysterical laugh/cry. I was laughing but tears were coming out of my eyes, and not in a this-is-super-funny-so-I'm-crying kind of way. He just sat there thinking I was losing it for good.

If only...

I tried to explain, but there was really nothing he could understand. Since I work from home, it appears I do nothing all day except play with the kids and sing and dance, like a Disney movie. We have woodland creatures come and clean the house for us, and fairy god mothers to cook our meals. After the kids are in bed and I log into work for the next 3 hours, I really must be blogging and facebooking, not actually doing anything productive.

The reality is I am pretty much always logged into work. Either on my laptop or checking my emails from my phone. There are times I force myself to step away and hang with the kids, or workout. The workouts are certainly for my sanity as well as my health.

Only 1 more month of this grueling work schedule and things will be back on track. January is the worst of it. February will get better. At least that's what I tell myself.

After I wiped the tears off my face, I jumped up and ran to get a towel, because apparently I can do everything.

Epic Travel Mistakes that Ruined our Vacation

This list is a public service announcement so no one makes the same mistakes as we did, on our vacation to visit family in NC.

We made some serious mistakes - one after another - that resulted in a botched vacation.

It appeared that we had planned everything perfectly. We were flying direct. We packed tons of toys and downloaded enough movies to keep us all occupied for a week. How wrong we were...

Epic travel mistakes that ruined our vacation:

Note: We traveled from Colorado to North Carolina to visit Dan's family over New Years (6 day trip). Remember that we were traveling with a 7 month old and a 2 year old (that just turned 2 on December 1st.) Also that there is a 2 hour time difference from here to there.

Mistake #1: Flying during winter. Chancing a connecting flight is suicide this time of year. No flight leaves on time from December to March unless you are on the first one in the morning. There was only one flight from Denver to Raleigh that flew direct. The departing time: 5:45pm. Inevitably we were delayed. After a delay and de-icing, we didn't actually depart until 7:00pm both kids' bedtime.

We were thinking this time would be great. The kids are used to going to bed so they would drift happily to sleep on the plane. NOPE! The toddler was awake the whole 3.5 hour flight and was NOT interested in watching a movie. She wanted to sleep but couldn't so instead she cried and squirmed and screamed the whole flight. The baby? He slept on and off, but the second half of the flight he had a terrible time trying to fall back asleep and instead decided to cry extremely loud so we could feel his pain.

Make no mistake, it wasn't just our kids. Every kid on that plane from rows 20 on back took their turn wailing from exhaustion.

Mistake #2: Flying too late. Even if we had left on time - 5:45pm (mountain time) - that still would have put us in NC at about 11pm (eastern time) and at our hosts house at 12:00am. Sleep deprivation in children, proves to be torture for parents.

Mistake #3: Rental car. We booked a rental car, not knowing some rental car companies actually close. So by the time our delayed flight made it to NC, the rental car company had closed and we had to seek another option at 1 o'clock in the morning.  The toddler was STILL awake at this time. The rental car we had booked was non-refundable.

Mistake #4: Testing the bedroom situation. We never had both kids sleep in the same room before. They each have their own rooms at our house and we usually don't stay overnight anywhere because of the dogs. We had no idea what we were in for... 

We arrive at our accommodations at 2:00am. I hurry up and feed the baby a bottle to get him to sleep. The toddler is up walking around the room talking in her not-so-quiet voice. The baby wants to sleep but keeps waking up from her. We finally got her settled into her bed and she spent another 30-45 minutes singing. We eventually all fell asleep around 3am eastern time on Tuesday morning.

The baby was up at 9:00am eastern time (or his usual 7am mountain time). Naturally the toddler woke up too and the day began, after only 6 hours of sleep. This is a stark contrast from their normal 12 hours of sleep every night.

Mistake #5: Figuring out how the kids will fall asleep. After that shit show, we needed these kids to nap. The baby napped with no issues, but the toddler isn't much of a napper. At home we put her in her room and sometimes she naps, but mostly she just plays quietly for an hour while her brother sleeps.

I brought the video monitor with us, so we set it up and put her down for a nap. Which resulted in her walking around the room, crying, banging on the door, and touching things she shouldn't. On Tuesday we had her nap in the car as we drove to visit family, but there had to be another way.

The real test was getting both kids to sleep that second night. After an hour of both kids crying and keeping each other up, I decided we would let the toddler fall asleep first and then put the baby down. Again, she wouldn't fall asleep in a new location. We ended up putting her in the infant car seat with her blanket and bear. At some point she fell asleep and we could put the baby down much later than normal.
 

Yup... that's about it.

 Mistake #6: Bringing too much stuff. I thought we were traveling light. I had formula and diapers sent to our destination. However, as usual I packed too many toys, too many pieces of clothing, and we are drowning in bags at the airport. We checked 2 car seats, 2 giant bags, and 1 carry-on.  We gate checked a stroller, and carried on 3 back packs... one for me, Kenzie and Dan. P90X had nothing on that arm workout. I should have assumed that relatives would be giving our children gifts of toys and clothing, especially since Christmas was only 1 week ago.


Mistake #7: Thinking the toddler would eat normally away from home. The second day we went grocery shopping so we could have all of her normal eats. Naturally, in true toddler fashion, she didn't want any of it. I think she ate a meal or two collectively over the 5 days we were away.

Mistake #8: Not taking enough with us on an outing. I am very controlling with my kids schedule when we are home. I call the shots, and that's it. I had no idea that we would be going on, what I thought to be a short trip to say good-bye, that turned into dinner and socializing for several hours. My kids were starving, I didn't pack any meals, bottles, or pouches, and we were again, approaching bedtime. Sigh...

Mistake #9: Flying too early. There was only one direct flight from Raleigh to Denver and it left EARLY in the morning. As we got up at 4am mountain time (6am eastern) we quietly tried packing up while the kids slept. Which lasted a whole 10 seconds before both kids were up and crying because they were still tired and cranky from 6 days of massive sleep deprivation. They whined and cried for the next 6 hours, until we were back in our car driving home from the airport. That was probably the best part of the trip. The 120 minutes of silence from the airport to home.

Hmm... I'll have to remember this for next time.

Mistake #10: Misplacing the parking ticket. Let's just top this crap cake with an icing of stupidity. Dan couldn't remember where he put the parking ticket, so we spent another 20 minutes scouring the car for the tiny stub hidden in the back of the console. Yes we found it, but not without a healthy dose of fear and anger.

So for those of you with tiny tots that have enough time to print up little poems and make up treat bags with ear plugs for the random strangers on your flight, you will probably just shake your heads at me... and please tell me about how wonderful your life is...

If you or someone you know is traveling with children, particularly a toddler and baby, please send them a link so they can better prepare themselves for the coming storm.

The Mandy Project: Details

I have been getting A LOT of questions about details on my workout, food, etc. So this post is for anyone looking for more information about what I have done so far.

A little back ground info for those who don't know me:



For those of you that haven't started your Project's yet,
know this: A strategically placed baby,
can make you look decent in any photo.
This was before I started.

I am 34 years old with a 2 year old and a 7 month old. I work from home doing small business accounting - with my kids home all the time. I manage to juggle the kids, work and working out pretty well on most days.


Other posts about the progress:
The Mandy Project - How it came about
The Mandy Project - 30 Day before and afters
The Mandy Project - 60 Day before and afters




Here are the most frequently asked questions:

You sound like an infomercial, do you sell beachbody stuff?
I am not selling P90X or any of the beach body workouts. If you want to buy a workout I can put you in touch with a coach, but I am not a coach and currently stand to make no money from promoting P90X. So the information located in this blog is only my opinion and the results have no reason to be "doctored" up.

When do you find time to workout with 2 kids and work?
I workout when the baby goes down for his morning nap at 9:00am most days. My toddler usually watches TV during this time, or plays around the room I am working out in. Occasionally I will workout after the kids are in bed at 7pm, or before they wake up. Depends on what we have planned for the day and my work load.

How long are the workouts?
P90X workouts are 60-90 mins long, 6 days a week. Sometimes I will skip the warm up and cool down to knock off 10 minutes. If you want shorter workouts, I recommend the P90X3 which are only 30 minutes.


Yoga - Day 45

Why P90X?
I read reviews on hundreds of home workout programs and this one seemed to yield the best overall results. Even compared with P90X3 they said that with P90X you don't really need to watch your nutrition because working out for 60-90 minutes a day, WILL provide results. That sealed the deal.

What equipment do you need?
They recommend a mat, weights, and pull up bar. Our trim is too big for a pull up bar so we have bands and before I received the bands I made do with free weights. I don't use a mat because we have carpet. I started with 5 & 8 lb weights, but now I am up to 15 lbs and sometimes 20 lbs. You can buy bands from amazon for pretty cheap and start with a low weight and buy up as you go. It will be a nice reward for your hard efforts.

How is the trainer on the video?
He is pretty good. As you get further into the program you can pick on things to laugh about, like when he sounds like Casey Kasem "I like fancy hands on this one" or Pauly Shore (he doesn't mean to) "scissors, get it". Sometimes he also yells the next exercise which makes me laugh every time. You just have to approach any workout video with a sense of humor, since you will hear the same stuff over and over and over again.

Explain the program.
I have been doing their "classic" plan which is 3 days of weights + abs, 2 cardio days, 1 day of yoga. You do 3 weeks of this, then 1 week of cardio and the weight routines change but you are still doing 3 days of weights + abs, 2 cardio days, 1 day of yoga. That last month you alternate the weight routines by week and then one last week of cardio. They also have a "lean" plan which is more cardio.  I hate cardio so 2-3 days a week is a stretch for me.

What have you been eating?
Aside from the occasional cheese stick, I stay away from dairy for the most part.

Breakfast: Greek yogurt protein bar or kashi toasted berry crumble with soy milk
Lunch: leftovers from dinner, or amy's non-dairy burrito, or other fast frozen meal. Most weeks we do grab lunch out 3 times a week. It would be one of these: Jimmy Johns beach club or Arby's beef n cheddar. No fries, no chips, no soda. Well... sometimes a cherry coke if I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before.
Snacks: greek yogurt protein bars, cheese stick, or nut mix pouches (like energy mix from planters)
Dinners:
We have a set menu almost every week which includes: Taco night, chili, pasta with Italian sausage, chicken pitas, fajitas, pot roast or corned beef & cabbage, rotisserie chicken & stuffing or rice.
We rarely eat dinner out. RARELY.  Like maybe twice a month, if that.

Do you get hungry?
Yes. Especially if I am weight training that day, I am hungry. I have one rule... nothing after dinner.

Have you cheated on your meals?
Totally. I have eaten ramon noodles, rice-a-roni, and other processed meals that aren't good for me and hold zero nutritional value. I have eaten cookies and brownies and other sugary treats during the holidays. I told myself no more soda, and continue to have 3-4 sodas a week. If it's taco night, you can bet that I am gorging myself on taco's.

Do you ever drink alcohol?
Yup. Hard cider is my drink of choice, but it's loaded with calories and sugar. I will have 1-2 ciders 2x per week. Once in a while I will really tie one on if I am out with friends. This never ends well and I don't recommend it.

Do you take any supplements?
I do not. I used to take a multivitamin and I have gotten lazy and don't even do that any more. I did add a "recovery drink" after my weight workouts. It is just a powder you add to water and it makes it taste like fruit punch. I love it. Is it really doing anything for me? I have no idea.

The first month I did use Designer Protein shakes, you can buy at Target, for snacks. They are only 100 calories, low sugar and lots of protein, but I gave that up because they really don't taste that good, especially if you let them get a little warm because you are doing other things... like changing diapers, folding laundry, making food for kids... you get the idea.

When I did a beach body workout, they pushed shakeology. Did you use shakeology?
I did receive some samples from a friend and I tried it. It wasn't bad if you are looking for an easy way to replace meals, but currently it just didn't fit into my plan. I needed to solely focus on workouts and nutrition is a journey on it's own. I also tried Isogenix shakes and they weren't bad either. Both shake systems have great results if you are looking for something to get your results faster than just working out. I am considering doing a cleanse and a shake system in the future, just not right now.

After you started P90X, how long did it take before you could move again?
That first week hurts. After about 10 days the hurt went away and didn't come back. The plan is 3 weeks doing workout A, 1 week of cardio, 3 weeks doing workout B, 1 week cardio... so after those cardio weeks, switching up the weight training always makes for sore muscles but it's nothing like that first week.

How long before you saw results?
I saw results after 2 weeks, not necessarily in the mirror, but my energy level went way up and I just felt better. At 30 days I could see results in the mirror, at 45 days I felt like Robin Thicke's song "Blurred lines" was playing in the room when I walked in. Now (after 60 days) I look and feel the best I have ever felt in my life. I can't believe I achieved this after only 2 months. My self esteem is healthy again and I am back to my old happy self.

What will you do after P90X?
I am not sure, but I do know that I will not stop. Ever. I have learned that I do have time to workout if I make it a priority.  I am probably going to do another DVD series that focuses more on weights since that is what I enjoy. 90 days after I finish P90X I will probably do it all over again.






The Mandy Project: Day 60 Before and Afters

You thought I bailed on The Mandy Project, didn't you? Oh ye of little faith...

I made it though the holidays, parties, and a week long vacation.  I never skipped a workout, until the vacation where I took 5 days off. This will extend my project into February, so the final 90 day pics won't be taken until around Feburary 8th.

Workouts: I am still following the P90X classic plan. The only changes I have made are to skip the 90 minutes Yoga session and do one of the other harder cardio workouts.  I have also gotten sick of push ups so I added some chest presses and flys in lieu of push ups.

When I started this I was using mostly 8 lb weights with all the exercises, now I am up to 15 lbs and occasionally 20 lbs.

Nutrition: December is a tough month to stick to anything. So I didn't do much. In fact, with all the festivities I probably had enough alcohol to hinder my results.  I also went through a week of sleep deprivation while on vacation, so I was drinking WAY more caffeinated soda than I would ever normally drink.

I added a recovery drink right after my workouts. I am not sure what it does exactly. Dan had bought it months ago, so figured it couldn't hurt. I also tried a few packets of shakeology, but other than that, I ate and drank normally with the addition of more soda and alcohol. Not a great month, but the project isn't over...

The Results

	10/31/2014	11/30/2014	12/31/2014	Difference
Right Bicep	9 3/4"	10"	10"	+1/4"
Left Bicep	9 3/4"	10"	10"	+1/4"
Right Forearm	9"	9"	8 1/2"	-1/2"
Left Forearm	9"	9"	8 1/2"	-1/2"
Bust	34"	34"	34"	0
Chest	32"	31"	28"	-4"
Waist	31"	27 1/2"	26 1/2"	-4 1/2"
Hips	37 1/2"	34 1/2"	33 3/4"	-3 3/4"
Right Thigh	20 1/2"	19 3/4"	19"	-1 1/2"
Left Thigh	20 1/2"	19 3/4"	19"	-1 1/2"
Right Calf	13 1/2"	13"	13"	-1/2"
Left Calf	13 1/2"	13"	13"	-1/2"

Starting weight: 114.0 lbs on 10/31/2014
30 Day weight: 111.8 lbs on 11/30/2014
60 Day weight: 110 lbs on 1/4/2015

Now for the pictures... 

Yup, I could kick some ass now.

Ew! I still can't get over the change in 2 months.
Especially to my face.

It's hard not to smile now.

Doesn't look like much has changed, but it has.

Much better...



Bye-bye saggy post baby belly!

I am also getting taller... or I couldn't figure out how to shrink
this picture to match the others.

Some other accomplishments these past 30 days:

• I managed to not catch the cold that both my kids had!
• My hair is now back to blond, even at the roots.
• Dan and I had this conversation a few days ago:
• Dan: "You are dressing sophisticated these days."
• Me: "What does that mean?"
• Dan: "You don't dress like you are 18 any more, but you don't dress like a Mom either. You dress really nice, like a professional."
• Me - recalling in October when he said I dressed like a Mom. New style: Nailed it!

I am really enjoying taking before and afters. There will be more in the next 30 days and I am also figuring out a few more before and after projects I can blog about.

How are you doing on your project? Did you start one yet? Quit bitching about it, and do it! Report back and as always, thank you so much for reading!!