Art history lesson

You may have noticed a new feature on here. Look to the right, no, you're other right. There...where it says the art of Gustav Klimt. I love Klimt. If you don't like or appreciate his art, than ignore that cool little gadget. If you like him or are drawn to his art, by all means watch away!

The first time I fell in love with a Klimt painting was in the movie "Dying Young" with Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott (total tearjerker chick flick). Scott's character has cancer and is working on his doctoral thesis in art history. He shows Robert's character a slide show of different works of art. Klimt's The Kiss pops up on the screen and I fall in love. I didn't care much about his other art at the time. I was in love with The Kiss. Hubby even bought it for me for Christmas one year. It's one of my most cherished gifts from him (even though my dad looked at it and thought it was a bullfighter, ummmmm, ok then). Hubby also bought me "Mother and Child" which is actually a portion of a larger painting titled "Three Ages of Women." It's difficult to find the latter. I'm guessing since the old lady is oh-so-not-attractive but the mother and child are beautiful, artsy people decided to crop it. I hope to one day obtain the full painting (reproduction, of course).

Before you Google Klimt, let me tell you about a paper I did on him while studying art history. I think we had the internet then. Wow, I suddenly feel really old. Anyway, I Google or whatever the equivalent was before Google and was shocked at what came up. I'll just say that many of his sketches are not for eyes under the age of 18. If you are offended by nude art, well there goes many of his paintings as well. His models are not like the models of today. They are more like the real women of today, and throughout history. He does have landscapes as well and he used real gold in many of his paintings which I thought was cool.

Well, there's your art history lesson for the day.

Snaps (Legally Blond 2 moment) to my sister-in-law, for not only starting to exercise and eat healthier, but also for helping re-name The Dreaded Meal Plan. You're still kicking my butt on the elliptical! I'm proud of you.

Slacker Fattie Tip – if you don't have time to do a long workout, break it up. Take a 15 minute walk in the morning and one in the afternoon. And no, breaking 5 minutes in half doesn't count!

Sexy Meal Plan Tip – 1 cup grilled veggies with Mrs. Dash sprinkled on top. I use my George Foreman grill. Broccoli, thinly sliced carrots, broccoli, onion, and asparagus are my favs.

To diet or not to diet?

I must be on a Shakespeare kick! To answer the question, don't diet.

I love fate. I wrote this and decided to save it. My creative juices have exploded the last couple of days and I have spare posts hanging around in "drafts." I get updates from yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com in my emails. This article (click on "article" to read it, Aunt Bee!) popped up and I thought it was perfect to stick in here. It says pretty much what I wrote below but, well, they're experts and I'm not so I thought I'd let them have their 2 cents.

Actually you already are dieting. Your diet is simply what you eat every day. Most fad diets don't work because you either get bored or once you lose the weight you go back to how you ate before. I am not a nutritionist nor am I licensed to dish out nutritional advice. Ok, there's my legal disclaimer. Now you can't come back and blame me if things don't work out for you, haha.

My first step in trying to lose weight was to limit the amount of food I consumed. I switched from the standard dinner size plate to a salad plate. And NO you may not go back for seconds. This defeats the purpose of using a smaller plate. Google serving sizes or actually pay attention to what the serving size is on your favorite foods and drinks. A 20 oz bottle of soda is actually 2.5 servings. When you look on the label and see 100 calories you think, "That’s pretty good." Multiply that times 2.5. Uh huh, not so good anymore is it. Next Google calories burned ____insert favorite exercise. Find a site where you can enter your weight since it varies greatly. Now you'll see how much you'll have to exercise to work off that yummy soda you just gulped down. I quickly switched to water.

Next I started writing down everything I ate. EVERYTHING! If you don't write it down, you're only cheating yourself. Boy was I eating a lot! And it was all very yummy! And very unhealthy. Most of it anyway.

By making these small changes, I lost 4 pounds in a month. I walked every once in a while too, but not on a regular basis.

In making baby steps I knew I would be less likely to go back to my bad habits.

Then I met Douglas......

Slacker Fattie Tip – if you have a Wii, use it. You don't need all the extra games. You can burn calories with the fitness game it comes with. In my opinion, playing tennis is about, but a little more active, than playing ping pong. There are lots of sites you can go to and enter your weight and exercise to see how many calories you're burning.

Sexy Meal Plan Tip – I hate oatmeal. Other than egg whites, it's the only "breakfast" item on my meal plan. I top it with a 1/2 cup fresh fruit to mask the taste. For me, it's a very doable way to eat oatmeal.

Back on track

I suppose since this started out as a journal for my weight loss, I should pay a little more attention to posting more about losing weight.

Well, I would if I were losing weight. In order to not get frustrated, I've shied away from posting about it. That's not helpful for me or those of you who read this looking for hints or tips about weight loss. Although I will still wander occasionally, there will always be something in every post either with an update or a tip I'd like to share that I use or that has helped me. If I forget, don't hesitate to send me a comment and let me know!

I've been going to the gym 3 times a week. I've taken a break from training and trying things on my own. It's not going well. I'm stuck at 127/8 pounds. I've been there for over a week. I've decided to make smaller goals inside of my big goals (winning Waist Watchers and Sexy by Summer). I have a long piece of paper on the wall behind my desk with a countdown to May 6th which is the end of WW's. Each day I write which exercises I do. Why? Because I'm a visual person. I look at it every day and my goal is to do at least three 30 minute cardio sessions a day. Sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't. Occasionally, life with 4 kids gets in the way of "me" time. I DON'T want to see a single blank day. I'd rather see 3 entries for each day, but I can only do my best and sometimes that means only getting in 1 or 2 workouts.

I have 3 important dates coming up in a few weeks. The first is March 25th when Channel 10 is supposed to bring the Waist Watchers contestants back on the show to see everyone's progress. This is big deal for me being the smallest contestant. The weekend after that is the one year anniversary of meeting my biological parents after searching for them for 17 years. I don't know what's planned for the anniversary but whatever it is, there will be lots of pictures taken and I definitely don't want to look how I look now! The 3rd is a slumber party with my girls who I've named the 9-5 Ladies (because we entertain each other during their work days). Again, lots of pictures and LOTS of food. Douglas isn't going to want to read this part, ha ha. I'm not going to go crazy on junk food but I am going to enjoy some good-tasting-as-healthy-as-possible-but- probably-not-yummy food. We'll probably be dancing around like fools burning off whatever we ate anyway!

So, there's your Slacker Fattie Tip for the day. Set small goals for yourself. You're less likely to give up if you do.

Sexy Meal Plan Tip – wash and peel carrots and put them in water in your fridge, same with celery (well, you don't have to peel celery, though). All you have to do is grab and eat for a quick, healthy, fiber-filled snack.

I'll stick with my desk top, thank you.

I have to share my desk top with the kids. Yesterday when I got up to do my first cardio exercise, Carson wanted to play nickjr.com. He was still on after I finished so I decided to use Reyna's laptop. I'm new at these things. I don't really like them other than the fact they are easily moved.

I spent 10 minutes untangling 2 mouse's from several other computer related cords because this is my biggest issue with laptops. I like my roll all over the desk mouse. After struggling to get them separated, I turn the laptop over and over, around and around looking for the place to plug in a mouse. I can't find one. Maybe there's some secret hatch that opens up so I can plug one in. (I later am told by Hubby that it takes a certain mouse, like the one he used to have before I ran it over with the vacuum cleaner.)

I saw a switch on the front of the computer for the sound so I turned it off because I didn’t need the sound on. I turned the laptop on and double clicked on the internet symbol. It said yahoo couldn't be found. Hmmm. I tried again. I thought maybe I was in a bad spot for the wireless thing to work. A few minutes later I turned it off. I figured I would try again later. Oh, well, I needed to do another cardio anyway. (I burned 150 calories dancing around while folding laundry. Who knew it could be so much fun and such a good workout?)

When Reyna got home from school, I told her I tried to use her laptop but the internet didn't work. She asked if I turned it on. I said, "Of course I turned the computer on, I'm not an idiot!" She said, "No the internet." I told her I didn't know you had to turn it on.

So she goes and gets her laptop. She points to the "volume" switch and asked me if I moved it. I said, "Yes because I didn't need the sound." She looks at me like I AM an idiot and rolls her eyes. Then she says "That's the switch to turn the internet on and off. I can't wait to tell Daddy!"

It's become a family joke how completely computer illiterate Mommy is.

I'll stick to my desk top, thank you. I have enough trouble figuring that out as it is.