Sonja's Outdoor World: October 2006

VACATION!!!

We are off this afternoon on our vacation to NV/AZ/UT! Wish us luck!! I'll post when I get back. We are due back on the 29th.
Yippy!!

The Miniature Earth

Please check this out, it's eye opening. If you are reading this, you are blessed in so many ways.

Oh Me Oh My I have a Skinny Thigh!

So, due to the fact that up until several weeks ago I weighed the same weight as my two week post pardem visit in Dec 2005, I decided to start seeing a registered dietician. I have been hiking a ton, and everyone told me that the weight would "fly" off with nursing...well, not so with me. Apparently I was to be haunted by the number 164. Yes, i said it...my weight (eeek). So, several weeks ago I got on the ADA website and searched for some RD's in my area. There were a lot. I looked at each ones website (when I could find them), and I found a group of three women that sounded like they had a good philosophy. I gave them a call, had a long joyful talk with Prudence, and decided to make an appointment. She was enthusiastic about seeing the whole family, getting me going with gentle weight loss, talking to Troy about heart health, and letting Annie play in her slew of healthy food example boxes :). Two weeks later we met with her, and it was awesome. In my pre-baby life I had success with Weight Watchers, but I couldn't bear to drag myself back there. For some reason I didn't feel like playing the Weight Watcher game this time around. I wanted to know the facts about healthy nutrition, with no mask of "points". Prudence was just what I was looking for, and with Annie on her way to weaning (that in another post) it was time to get serious. Prudence tested Troy and I's body fat %, and our lean body mass, and our base caloric needs. She then used that to give me a calorie threshold to stick to and then broke those calories up into the four meals that Troy and I eat each day (Breakfast, Lunch, Heavy Snack, and Light Dinner), also further breaking our our calories into protein, fat, grains, veggies, fruit and dairy. I am in love!!
So this past Monday we had our two week checkup. I was able to implement the new diet, and I wasn't hungry at all. It was definitely enough food when I stuck to the whole grains and variety. It was nice to see her after two weeks rather than one week b/c we really had a chance to live our changes. I lost 5.5 pounds. Holy toledo. I was hoping for 1 pound. I attribute this to me sticking to the calories, and the breakouts, and exercising once to twice a day (always fun exercise, and always with Annabelle in tow). So now that Annie has fullly weaned, we have lowered my calories a bit more to really focus on weight loss, and I am jazzed to keep up the momentum. No more 164!!! I'm now 157.75...but that was on Monday...and it's Wednesday...so I'm probably even lighter!!! I'm giving myself a huge pat on the back!!

Annie WALKED!!

Wowzer! On September 30, 2006 miss Annabelle Grace Wieck took her first 5 steps...and then turned around and took 5 more...then 5 more...then 5 more...about 10 times!! She was 10.5 months old to the day. We were attending a wedding that day and inbetween the wedding and the reception we were at our friends Chris and Taylor's house. That's where she walked. Her fist steps were taken in a new pair of Pedipeds that we bought her (nice and stable). Yippy Annabelle!!

What to Eat

What to Eat, by Marion Nestle! Awesome, awesome book. Marion also wrote "Food Politics" and you can find her website here. This book travels aisle by aisle through the supermarket telling you how bad (and how good) everything is. It's a huge book! It spans produce, meat, dairy, fish, cereal, baby food, oil, you name it. Troy and I both read this book. It's the nitty gritty truth on why organics are better and why cereal boxes are allowed to call their cereal "Heart Healthy". The politics behind the supermarket, including why all the items you need are always so far from the front door, was hard to hear. We are all numbers, how much crap can they sell us??? That's the game. Troy and I have become much wiser shoppers and we now like to point out the advertising ploys. However, reading this book has made it pretty impossible for us to step into a Safeway or Kind Soopers, we get very frustrated (once you know their game, you don't want to play it anymore). This book and this book alone was the deciding factor for Troy and I to revamp our eating habits. We now realize that we can vote with our dollar when it comes to purchasing our food...we like that!

An Inconvenient Truth

The new book by Al Gore. I read this while up at the cabin and I was totally floored. This is one of the most beautiful, poignant, and important books that I have read. It has spurred me to action. We as a world need to make some changes in the way that we lead our daily lives if we have even the slightest hope of handing a sustainable world to our children. Global Warming is a reality, we are in the midst of it. The most compelling part of the book to me was the photos that he had of what certain cities would look like if our oceans raised by 20 feet. It's devastating, 120 million people would be displaced. There is a movie that Al created to go with his book which I would love to see (if I could ever get away to see a movie). Next time you are at the bookstore, pick up this book and at the very least leaf through it, if you are compelled...buy it. It's worth it.

September at the Cabin

My grandparents came out to Colorado for most of the month of September to visit and spend some time up at the cabin. I wish I could say that we did TONS of things while there, but we didn't. We spent about 3 weeks there, with Troy coming up on the weekends, and taking a few fridays/mondays off to extend his stay. We did most of our shopping before we left (at Costco...thank you grandparents), and then Troy would bring up groceries when he drove up. So, we really didn't have much need to leave the immediate area of the cabin. We were on constant Moose hunt and we saw many of them while we were there, including several families and a few babies (Awwwww). I did a lot of reading (I will post book reviews), and also did a lot of cooking. Most my time was spent being a mama to Annabelle and watching her grow in a slower, calmer atmosphere. We took many walks, around the property and the neighborhood. We got to know our neighbors (the Turners) a bit better...they are wonderful welcoming people. The last week my friend Michelle came to visit with her baby Sam, and it was awesome to watch the two kids interact daily. It made me realize that Annabelle is going to be a wonderful big sister...if things ever come to that. Here are a few pics of our stay (Michelle took these...i will post some that grandpa took as soon as I can find his email with them):