vacation prep: crazy diet, check

With our vacation right around the corner and my baby belly still hanging around, it was time to take drastic measures....so after I received an overly excited facebook message from my sister, Kayla requesting that some of her friends complete the psychotic "GM diet" with her....I decided that I would be up for the challenge. 

If you don't know about the GM diet check out this website:  http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/~jajoo/gmdiet.html and then laugh hysterically at why anyone would do it.   The diet claims to have a 10-17 lb weight loss by the end of the 7 days...if you know me, I am all about immediate results, so this seemed like a quick way to become skinny again, hahha.  Of course, our scale has no battery left and I actually have no idea how much weight I have lost....but I do note a very obvious difference in the way my clothes fit.  Brandon also keeps saying I look skinnier - whether he's being a dutiful husband or honest is unclear.  For anyone contemplating this crazy thing,  I am going to account the week's side effects.

Day One:  all fruit except bananas
side effects:  slight headache, weakness, general crankiness, starvation (hah)
reactions:  if I wasn't so weak and annoyed..its not so bad.  plus Brandon bought chocolate this weekend, so that's staring me in the face.  mmmm, I think I'll go eat more grapes.

Day Two:  all veggies.  Begin the day with a baked potato
side effects: hunger
reactions:  today was actually easier than yesterday though.  lots of salads and popping grape tomatoes like grapes!

Day Three:  veggies & fruits
side effects:  still cravings, but actually pretty full!  totally feeling skinnier
reactions:  not kidding, I feel a lot skinnier!  yay...with the scale broken though, I don't know for sure.  Looking forward to some new tastes though!

Day Four:  8 bananas, 3 glasses of milk, & "wonder soup"
side effects:  weakness.  hah
reactions:  I feel really hungry for other tastes.  like chips.  still hanging in there.  a glass of milk never tasted so good.  thank goodness for the wonder soup.

Day Five:  10 oz. beef, 6 tomatoes & a quart of water
side effects:  full belly, filling kind of fat about it
reactions:  it wasn't too bad because I like both beef and tomatoes.  Glad to have a new taste back!

Day Six:  Beef & vegetables
side effects:  full belly
reactions:  much easier today.  full belly, a little weak but not craving anything really.  okay, maybe some of Sam's birthday cake and fruit

Day Seven:  brown rice, veggies, & fruit juice
side effects:  YUM.
reactions:  full belly and happy to get rice!  Really relieved that it is the last day...definitely looking forward to a celebratory piece of chocolate tomorrow!

My "wonder soup"
28 oz water, 1 lipton onion soup packet, brocolli, mushrooms, cauliflower, tomatoes, green peppers, onions

Overall:  By day seven, I was ready to give up...but I stuck in there and I think it did some good.  Without a scale, I can't be sure how much I lost, but it was enough to make my jeans fit better and make me at least feel skinnier.  It's only 7 days, so I say go for it:)

Boo boo & Bully

With the following combination:  Grey(sitting up + more aware) x Bully wants all of Grey's toys = funny interactions

I caught the two of them "playing" the other morning.  Bully wants Grey's toys, Grey wants Bully, Bully loves Greyson...commence photo progression:



September Kindness: Donor Choose

http://www.donorschoose.org/ is an organization that allows teachers to post their wishlists for their classrooms & then give donors (like you & me) the chance to browse wishlists and make donations!  This September, for our kindness, we made a donation to a Pittsburgh teacher wishing for a listening center in her classroom.  Coming from an ESL-teaching background, I know how important it is for students to be able to listen & follow along with books.   We chose this particular wishlist because we want to support PA kids & reading skills. 

Although I'm not in the classroom anymore, its nice to feel like we have a little hand in the classroom we've supported on donorschoose.  We want to send a big thank you to all teachers, everywhere!