Drumroll Please...... The winner is......

Crispy! Congrats.... Here's Crispy's comment... "I have not read it but I look forward to reading it...as we are looking forward to adopting, I think it would be a great addition if we get to start the baby years off again (it has been awhile)." Please email me your mailing information (there is a link on my profile) and I will mail it out to you in the next few days! Your going to love it!

I have got to get this off my chest

As some of you know, weight loss is a very important topic in my life. Thus I enjoy watching the biggest loser and seeing the amazing transformations of people gaining confidence and ability in themselves. So when I was watching last night, for the first time in all the years BL has been on the air, I was utterly disappointed in what I saw.

If you saw it please bear with me, and if not, I will explain. Each week the contestants are given a challenge, and the first one came in the form of a big advertisement for a book. The book Eat This Not That, and it's author was 'advertised' on the show. Then the contestants played a little game, blue team against black team. The host and author showed two plates of food and then the contestant had to decide if they should eat this or that. (the book just shows photos and says eath this not that) I was crawling out of my skin looking at the options. One choice was between Chicken enchiladas with the works or 18 light beers! Each had just about a whole days calories and NO absolutely NO nutrition. I was appalled.

This book is a best seller, in the matter of fact he has two Eat This Not That books now. I have looked at them in the stores to see what the hypen was about and never even considered purchasing it. I am completely disappointed in the fact that NONE of the options put on the table were nutritionally sound, there was barely a vegetable on the table (with exception of a green salad and a Caesar salad) nor fruit. Shouldn't' these people be promoting something else, like NOT eating in fast food joints. One 1100 calorie meal is not what one should eat EVER! imagine how much fresh produce, even beans and nuts, you would have to eat in one meal to equal that amount of calories!

Would love to hear anyone Else's thoughts on the matter. I hope not to offend, however to get healthy and lose weight one much decide to give up these foods completely unless they want to lose the weight and gain it right back. Permant changes to fresh foods is imperative for successful weight loss/balance.

Giveaway-Blog Candy!!!!

Hey Everyone! It's that time, as promised, I am going to give-away a copy of Permission To Mother to some lucky recipient!! Hurray for someone! As you all know I am Dr Punger's sister and so blessed to have her as my sister and my friend! The only unfortunate thing is that we don't live closer together.

Denise has always had a drive to be a doctor and it's amazing that from 2ND grade when she wrote a paper about it she never looked back! That is total dedication, I have so enjoyed getting to see the medical side of her through her book and her blog posts.

So now for the good stuff. I am going to pick one random person to win a copy of her book. All you have to do is either: Leave a comment stating... if you have read it-Your favorite part in the book Permission To Mother or What you hope to get out of reading it! Oh and feel free to write any other tidbits.....

I will draw a winner to be announced Thursday evening. Check back for the winner and be sure that if you are the winner you send me your shipping info so I can mail your prize to you... Stay tuned!

Believe in Yourself

I was sitting here watching the Biggest Loser. The doctor said something to one of the girls, that the reason people have such a hard time starting to lose weight is because people don't believe in them. I think that it helps to have support; however in my own experience I had to take that support from others and turn it in time into support for myself. I have to say it was hard, really hard, to learn how to completely change the way that I feel about myself and the world around me.

I wish I could say that I know how it works. I think it's mostly momentum, like an avalanche, once you gain confidence or the ability to do something that you couldn't do before I had to celebrate. I can't even express the excitement I felt when I could cross my legs again. Then there was the goal to climb a climbing wall (despite my fear of heights I did it). There was the half marathon and many short races. Each time I did something I couldn't do before, it was a chance to celebrate. I kept a journal, and still have it to look at. There are still goals I would like to accomplish.

For the most part, I face my fears and do my best to put them to rest. (OK still dealing with the heights thing) Each step is toward a new day and a better me. It is the only way. It was not only about calories, food and exercise (although its a big part) but dealing with the reason I hid behind my size and my emotions.

For everyone out there trying to lose weight, You can do it. If I did it, so can you. So take my belief in you and use it until you have it in yourself. Share you victories!

Just Catching Up!

Here's my new 'Do.... I needed to get something done. Nothing is worse than moving and not having a hairdresser. I finally found one! Hurray... it's not the best photo, but you know, if you don't get it when the hairdresser does it it never looks the same! Ariana posing with a pyramid of 16 pound cannon balls! This was in front of a museum in Middleburg, NY. The building that houses the museum is the church that was in the fort walls. The artifacts were amazing. Swords, household tools, kitchen tools etc. There was a pair if knitted socks and I was amazed with it because they must have knitted them with toothpicks! I wish I could have taken photos but it was not allowed inside. They had the oldest 'firetruck' in the country and what a long way technology has brought us! Nikolas posing on the cannon.... What is it with boys and big guns??? We don't even have any at home. It's not our thing. This bridge was rebuilt in the early 80's however, is a duplicate of the original bridge. It was remarkable. I took this photo from that wooden bridge, I zoomed in quite a lot. That house was so beautiful. I have really loved learning about all the history in NY. Where we lived there are historical markers all over the place. Many people have them in their yards, it's hard to read as you drive by, but all history is so interesting. My kids are loving it too. It was great to get out as a family and do something together. We actually found this museum because we drove to this town last weekend when we picked potatoes. (the post is here)After visiting the museum we went back to the farm and gratefully filled a flat bed cart with produce. Lots of different squashes (I have never had) lots of onions and apples and more apples, and pears. Yummy!!!! I figured you all would rather see the photos of what my family is doing rather then hearing about my classwork right now. Transit times (digestion) is not really the exciting thing to discuss on my blog (especially my own). It's definitely been an eye opener for sure!

Oh you runners out there.....

I have a question for you all. When I run outside I just go, I have increasingly taken time off my average run (maybe cause I am hauling almost 9 less pounds) and have now decreased my average mile/minute by 2 minutes! Yeah! I am SOOO very excited about that.

The dilemma for me is what happens when I run on the treadmill. I just can't seem to set the speed to match the pace I run outside and if I do, I feel like I am sprinting and I get winded so easily. I am being really conscious of my posture and keeping my chest open etc.... Is it just because I find treadmill running boring that I feel like I don't have the conditioning to do it? What do you do in the winter for running when the snow hits and the streets are icy? (if you have that problem) Anyone ever ran with yaktrax (I think that's what they are called).

I am finally back to running without knee pain (after 3 years of barely running at all) and I really don't want to lose it due to the snow and crappy weather that I know is coming. Do any of you have running gear that's made for cold/freezing temperatures? Is it worth the expense? I really want to train for another half marathon this spring?

Thanks!!!

Oh I have been busy!

My Mother in Law came to visit bringing her back seat full of these wonderful veggies! We have been cooking like crazy! I have never seen brussel sprouts on their stalk before. They were good! We cooked up the acorn squash with a blueberries, apple and a bit of succant. It was delicious! The large Hubbard squash I had to THROW onto the driveway to crack it open and we are still working on getting it cut up to cook! Then off to pick potatoes, lots of them, with my oldest son Zach's boy scout troop. Here's Brian at the beginning of the day. In total the group bagged 800 bags of spuds. It was an enormous success of a fundraiser. The farm was beautiful and I loved getting in the dirt it was very relaxing. Here's Zach working on filling up his buckets. Others came through and bagged them up and loaded the bags into trucks to be brought back to town. Here I am with Zach and my prized spud! Click on this photo and see how enormous it really is. And it looks like a submarine! That's the tater field behind us. The farm was amazing and so relaxing to be out there working! Then it was off to Tiger Scout Harvest Fun day. Nikolas runs in a relay race. Ariana does pumpkin bowling. She loved it. Zach also helped the younger kids with bowling here he is encouraging his brother! Here's two of my 'boys' Comet and Dasher. It was a great photo so I had to share! Homemade applesauce. NO sugar or preservatives! Made with fresh NY apples! Here's dinner a few nights ago. Eggplant, zucchini, onion, garlic, red pepper and a bit of pine nuts and feta in a home made whole wheat crust. I have been busy with the kids, sewing costumes, doing my schoolwork, helping the kids with schoolwork and generally just never stop going. I hope that next week I can get back to more regular blogging. I have managed to fit in a few runs this week, and a few exercise classes and lose a few more pounds too. Yeah!

Birthday Wishes!

This photo is of my Grandma Pauline, my sister Denise (Permission to Mother in the blog world) and Myself on the left. Today is both Grandma's birthday and Denise's. Sending love and wishes to you both, you are both people that I love very much.

Grandma Pauline, known as easy Grandma or Gramsey by our kids. I still remember her coming to visit on the big black train from Brooklyn out to Long Island. She always made scrambled eggs, and had peanut brittle in the bottom of her purse. This past Saturday she fell and fractured her hip, and had surgery the next morning. I was happy that she got to see Denise because it was always special that they share the same birthday together.

Denise and I have seemed to be always going through the same things, just on the other side of the country. I hope that you have a good birthday, at least the start of a new year for you! You have been a great support for me in all I have gone through. (especially in the past few years) Thank you for being my friend (and accomplice at times too) I am so happy that we got to see each other this summer. I hope that you know how glad I am to have you as a sister.

Despite it all, I hope you have had a great day.

With love to you both, Carrie

The proof is in The Pudding...(No Pudding Necessary)

As you have all read, I have been busy working out and being careful what I eat. I have been running more as well, and trying to motivate myself to add more mileage on to my runs. In the past few weeks I have lost 6 pounds which is great. I attribute it to pushing harder with exercise and the careful documentation of every bite I eat.

I have been analyzing my eating habits and nutrition daily through my great nutrition program I have for school. It takes a lot of time and effort to do, but obviously it is paying off in the end! YEAH.. I have been cutting out most dairy, especially high fat cheeses. I honestly do not miss it much. I have been generally happy with the Skinny B!tch cookbook and all the recipes I have made are delicious! If any of you have other ideas for great and healthy vegan cookbooks I would love to hear them!!! Please?

On another great note, I have had great success with my running speed! I was so thrilled to know that I dropped almost a minute off my mile per hour speed. Trust me it's still really slow, but was great to know that my speed it picking up some. Really just on the road. I have the hardest time at the gym on the treadmill. I just don't challenge myself enough to pick up the speed. I get bored really easily too. I am concerned that I will build up my distance and lose it when the snow comes as I wont be able to run outside. UGH! I dread the snow for that reason. It's so pretty but it really limits what I can do... Any ideas? Anyone else struggle with that in the winter? I really would like to run some races, and it seems that if I can build up now that would be great and then add more distance when the spring comes to be ready to add some races to my summer schedule.

All in all I am seeing how my weight (which is still WAY less than it was) nutrition and exercise go hand in hand. Without one in balance the other is not. I had a friend that used to say that with each 10 lbs I lost I would see about one minute per mile of speed time come off. I am seeing now that he was right (with only 6 lbs.). Its so exciting to realize I am doing it, I can do it and I will succeed at running again(I also had a knee injury for a year PFS and it prevented me from doing much running, it was really hard). Funny I ran a half marathon about 3 years ago, I still play with my shiny finishers medal and still get choked up over how I felt crossing the finish line... I want to be there again!

Fort Ticonderoga... Cub Scout Trip

We went to Ft Ticonderoga today. It was amazing on the cliff at the edge of the fort. The cannons went on forever. It was almost unbelievable. The only wildlife we saw all day! He looked like a chenille stem (aka pipe cleaner) Some of the flags flying over the fort walls... Inside the fort, there was a lot of memorabilia inside each of the buildings. Nikolas LOVED climbing on all the canons.

Zach and Nikolas are helping to make a mud mortar with hay to help build a chimney for the bunk house. It was a replica of authentic buildings used during the revolutionary war. Called soldiers huts, 6 men, 4 beds, 2 soldiers were always on watch through the night. Here Ariana learns about dipping bees wax candles over an open fire. Nikolas loved the forge. We were there for a LONG time. The men were very helpful and the kids really enjoyed watching them mold bullets and lead balls for the bullets. Plus some tools. Here's some beautiful fall scenery, this is off the cliff/wall of the fort. It's hard to believe that so many battles were fought here and that it was ever a war ground. Some more fall scenery, it was just beautiful today. I had a really hard time deciding which photos to upload. It was great to have a trip for Nikolas as he has waited SO long for the trip/function to be for him and his troop!

Small Paws

Just a request for you all to help out Small Paws, a dog rescue that my Mom volunteers with. She wrote a blog post about it here. So please click over and read her post and vote for the small paws shelter. Thanks so much the pups will appreciate it!