The Green Family

Today is a tough day for me, but I know this will help me. I am publicly coming out about my weight and I will be blogging weekly about my weight, exercise, diet, and the whole journey. It is embarrassing posting pictures and being honest about my weight, but it is another reason to stay on track and stay motivated.

I want to be healthy. Yes, I want to fit into “cute” clothes and look better, but my biggest motivation is my health. I am 100 pounds overweight. I am classified as obese. Wow. Those words sting and scare me more then you could imagine. I don’t want to die. I want to watch my kids grow up and watch my future grandchildren grow up. I want to live and fully enjoy life. I want to have more energy and be able to do the things I want to do but I am not physically able to do right now (like kayaking and multi-day hiking trips). I am ready to take control of myself and my body and get healthy and strong.

Naturally, I am tall and thin. In high school I ranged from 120-140 lbs at 5’9. I wore a size 5. I had my oldest daughter when I was 18 and everything went downhill with my eating and weight. I gained 120 lbs that pregnancy! With my second pregnancy, I gained 80 lbs! I would lose some weight then gain it back. I have been yo-yoing for 10 years now with my weight. Each time my weight climbs, I get depressed and give up. When I got pregnant with Juliet, I weighed 275 lbs. That pregnancy changed me. I ate better and started taking care of myself. I gained 5 lbs during the pregnancy until the last 2 days when I put on another 5 lbs of swelling for a total of 10 lbs. So, my weight when I delivered was 285. This was 5 months ago. I started working out and eating better after I had her but then I hurt my back again. I quit working out but still ate pretty well. I was losing weight and got down to 235 but then stress and a new learned skill of baking caused me to jump back up again. The last 2 months, my weight has been increasing from way too many cookies and crumb cakes.

So here I am…I weigh 248.5 pounds. Yikes. I am below my pre-pregnancy weight but it doesn’t matter to me. I am still hugely obese. I am still unhealthy and it is dangerous. I currently wear a size 20. My goal weight range is 140-150 lbs. My first goal is to get under 200 though.

My Plan – I will be tracking all my exercise and food on Spark People. I will eat between 1700-2150 calories a day. I will no longer be baking! I will exercise at least 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. For exercise, I will be using Exercise TV on Demand (I love the variety), hiking, walking, workout videos, and I will be starting a slow but steady running program. I am in PE this quarter and I will be doing some of the classes she offers as well as learning more about diet and exercise. I do have some things that will add some challenges to my plan but it will not stop me. I am nursing Juliet so my calories can’t go too low. I also have an umbilical hernia and will be having surgery shortly to fix that. This will stop me from working out for a few weeks (but I will be watching my diet very closely!). I also have some back pain and I have to be careful of hurting myself.

So that is me. This is hard to talk about for me but I know it will be extra motivation. Please be kind! I will be blogging every Thursday with my weight and how my week went diet and exercise wise. Come join me!

**Pictures are of me today and my weight/BMI from Wii fit today. Please don't mind my terrible skin, I break out terribly from the hormone changes after having a baby.

Yesterday was my oldest daughter, Ashlee’s birthday. She turned 10 years old! Wow, where has the time gone? I can’t believe my precious baby is getting so old. Before my eyes she is turning into a beautiful young lady.

She had a great birthday and we had a lot of fun. My stepdad came over for the weekend (he lives hours away) which was great. We have not seen him since Thanksgiving. We first opened gifts at home. Ashlee was spoiled, like always! She got a new camera, Scentsy buddy, Scentsy warmer and scents (she wanted her own scentsy), and cards with money from family. We then went to Chuck E Cheese’s for lunch and fun. The kids had a lot of fun winning tickets and playing games. It was loud and crowded but still fun. After Chuck E Cheese’s, we went shopping so she could buy her presents with the money. She loves to shop! She picked out a very nice bike which she needed, her other bike was literally falling apart. Then, we headed to a great shop in Spokane, Wonders of the World. This is one of our favorite stores and if you are ever in the area, check it out! They have full fossils (one is $25,000), dinosaur bones, lots of gems and rocks, jewelry, statues, gifts, Native American artwork, and items literally from around the world. This is Ashlee’s favorite store and she wants it all. She ended up spending $120 at the store! She got a meteorite, fossil fish, dinosaur tooth, quartz mining kit, amethyst, gold flacks in a jar, Oregon opal, a small piece of amber with little bugs in it, 2 gem bracelets and 2 mini glass figurines (a panda and a raccoon). We ended the day with cake and ice cream.

It was a fun day and Ashlee felt so special and loved. She had a lot of fun and got some amazing gifts. She has a new camera that is wonderful (she loves photography), new girly bike, scentsy stuff, and more science stuff to keep her happy. My girl LOVES science, it is her favorite thing. She loves studying dinosaurs, fossils, rocks, gems, and anything else science related. I really think she will go into a science field. What other 10 year old girl wants all science stuff? I love my geeky little girl!

Wow, we finally got outside and did something! It only took us over a month to get the motivation, and to start feeling better, to finally be able to get out and do something together as a family. We decided to go to Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. This place is a favorite with the kids and our family. It is a huge park with playgrounds, river and even some very impressive waterfalls. The kids love it down there because of the rides, miniature golf, IMAX, gondola ride and Katie’s personal favorite the antique carousel ride!

We are frugal, sometimes it gets rather annoying to be so frugal, but I am sure there are plenty of folks out there that beat us on frugality. Anyhow, we try not to allow our frugalness to ruin the kid’s fun; so we got them season passes for only a total of $80 for Ashlee and Katie! This is a great price because last year we literally went to the park about 4 times a week until September. The carousel alone is $2.00 a ride and Katie will ride it at least 4 times in one day, and not to mention the price of tickets to get on all the rides. I know one year we went and dropped close to $100 in one day (yes I know not very frugal)! So, as I said the $80 for the kids to be able to enjoy themselves until September is well worth it.

We just love seeing the excitement on the kid’s face when we tell them we are going downtown for the day. Once the weather gets better, we like to pack a picnic and make a day of it. Oh and this year we even have our season passes to Mobius science center which is a 5 minute walk from Riverfront park! This excites me because we can do so much with the kids, only pay $1 for parking (for the whole day), and we don’t have to drive all over town wasting gas because it is all in one spot.

So, as I said we finally got the kid’s passes but it was pretty cold yesterday, and we really didn’t do much. The kids played miniature golf, went on the rollercoaster 2 times, they both went on some tug boat ride, Ashlee went on the ferris wheel, Katie went on the airplane ride while Ashlee was on the ferris wheel, and of course they had to go on the carousel. More fun times to come and I cannot wait for the weather to get nice!

-Written by Garrett-

Today was a busy day that included doctor appointments for all three girls! The doctor appointments all went great. This was the first visit for the kids with this doctor and I really liked her. She cared, listened and is very active on getting everything done.

Ashlee’s Appointment

- Went really good and no concerns, she will be 10 years old on Saturday
- She is in the 90th percentile on height and 50th percentile on weight.
- The doctor said she is now 4’9” and can get out of a booster seat if we are ready (I am still not so sure though)

Katie’s Appointment

- Went well and we will be getting the help we need, Katie is 6 years and 2 months old
- She is in the 50th percentile for height and weight
- Her vision test was 20/30 with both eyes by 20/70 on her left eye. The doctor said it isn’t too concerning since we haven’t noticed any vision issues or concerns but she will monitor it.
- The doctor is sending in a referral to get Katie seen with a specialist to get a diagnosis! She is contacting the hospital and then will let me know when the appointment is.

Juliet’s Appointment

- Went really well and no concerns, she is 4 months and 3 weeks old
- She is a BIG baby at 16 lbs 4.5 oz and 26 inches long!
- She said breastfeeding has done this baby good and she is very healthy

The appointments were a success! Healthy kids, no medical problems, and best of all, we are finally progressing towards a diagnosis and real treatment for Katie. It is what I have been praying for a long time. The doctor said that Katie needs therapy and she is determined to help her get the therapy and assistance she needs. I am thankful for that. We are officially one step closer to real help for my Katie!

While looking through our hundreds and hundreds of pictures we found this great extremely short video! It is short but sweet. Ashlee was 7 years old at the time and Katie was 3 years old.

The pictures are old as well and I am not sure how old everyone was at the time of the pictures. The zoo picture was taken at our favorite zoo, Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

Did you know that April 2nd is declared Autism Awareness day? The month of April is now declared Autism Awareness month. The current facts relating to autism are astonishing: 1 in 110 children are affected by autism and 1 in 70 boys are affected.

We have been told by multiple, credible sources that our daughter Katie is on the autism spectrum. She is high functioning and is thought to have aspergers. Unfortunately, we cannot find a doctor who seems to care. The only diagnosis we could get out of a doctor is that she has a cognitive disorder, sensory disorder and a developmental delay. This tells us nothing, nor does it benefit her in any way. A different pediatrician has told us that she doesn’t care to label kids and that it would do us no good anyway. Sometimes I wonder if it really wouldn’t do any good to get a diagnosis. I mean I know that I wouldn’t look at my Katie any differently, nor would I treat her any different. But when I really sit down and think about it I am reminded that if we get a diagnosis it would be for Katie’s benefit and not my own. She would then have an understanding as to why she is different compared to her peers, she would have access to support groups which allow her to know she is not alone and she would have access to therapy that would benefit her tremendously. All of these things are not available to her now because we cannot get a doctor to give us a diagnosis and without a diagnosis our insurance obviously will not pay for these benefits. This is our story and there are many more out there. If you have a success story or any story related to autism we would love to hear about it. Just leave us a comment with a link to the story or feel free to share the story as a comment.

Are you one of the many who has a child or knows a child with autism? Or do you just want to find a way to support those who have autism? There are plenty of ways out there and you are not alone on wanting to find a cure, or wanting to bring awareness to autism.

Autism speaks is a wonderful organization! It began in 2005 and has grown to be the nation’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research for the causes, prevention, treatments and eventually a cure for autism. They are increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.

How you can help:

You can “Light it up Blue!” simply click the light it up blue banner below and learn how you can bring autism awareness to everyone with one simple action.

Scentsy is having a fundraiser for Autism Speaks! When you buy the “Piece by Piece” warmer from Scentsy 100% of the net proceeds goes directly to Autism Speaks! Just click the warmer banner and it will take you directly to the warmer on my website.

To learn more about Autism visit: Autism Speaks

**Update - 5 ways to Support Autism - Brought to you by Self.com

What do you do all week? I am sure most of us wake up, get ready for work, sit in the car while dreading going to work, sit at work and dread being there, go back to your car and sit in traffic on the way home, and you guessed it dread that as well, sit and watch TV, eat dinner and then go to bed. We do all this just to wake up and do it all over again day after mind-numbing day. Like I said most do this and if we don’t do exactly this we do something similar to it. As you may know Amber and I are students so our routine is similar to this without the “driving to and from work.”

When was the last time you found yourself wondering around in nature enjoying what the Lord has created for us? I know for us it has been almost a month, 26 days to be exact! I didn’t realize this until I was sitting down looking through our camera pictures and found a great little adventure we had almost a month ago. This is horrible, what have we been doing for 26 days!? I know we have been sick for a week (Amber longer) but the rest of the time I just don’t know.

I think we all need to take a step back from the daily grind and find some time to spend with our families. Our family really loves to get out and take in nature; really experiencing what God has done for us. For us this seems to be the time when Amber and I have our great discussions and contemplations about what we want to do and achieve in life. This is the moment, for us, when all of life’s distractions are gone and we can focus on things far more important than homework, budgets and the what if’s. The kids run and play and allow all their worries melt away and they just enjoy being kids.

Life is beautiful but it is easy to forget to take time to enjoy it. I urge anyone who is reading this to take some time and go for a walk, turn off the TV, phone, radio and anything that is a distraction and just enjoy what the Lord has given you. I know that we are planning a family outing before school starts back up and we hope to continue to do something as a family (besides church) at least one time each week.

- Written by: Garrett -