What Motivates YOU?

Since it's now a New Year & people all over Facebook are talking about their New Year's Resolutions. That along with my own personal things going on here got me to thinking.

The majority of people tend to make Resolutions every year though at least half expect to break them. Even those that resolve to lose weight & get healthy & start out determined tend to fail. Why do people break or fail their resolutions? I think it's a lack of motivation. Sure they may start out motivated & determined but then things happen & slowly the motivation fades.

I never made a New Year's Resolution to lose weight but there were times in the past when I told myself I was going to lose weight. I'd start trying to watch what I ate & go out of my way to start exercising hoping for some change. I fully admit that I lost my motivation after a week or two. The reason being is that the scale never went down. I never started feeling better.

The funny thing is that every time that I have actually tried to lose weight I never have. I have lost weight several times when I haven't really been trying. I've had weight issues (or at least thought I did because of things other people have said to me) since I was in junior high.

The 1st time I indirectly lost weight was when I spent a week on Catalina island when I was 14. I spent most of that week eating nothing but peanut butter toast, Taco Bell & ice cream BUT since I had to walk to get anywhere I got more exercise than I had before. I started every morning with a walk a few blocks down to the water to go snorkeling & then back up to the house. The rest of the day varied but I usually went to & from the house another 3 or 4 times. Needless to say my Mom was shocked when I came home at the end of the week with a TAN & weighing 15lbs less.

About a year before I got pregnant with my 1st son I started going through a lot of stuff. I was dealing with anxiety, depression, stress & just a lot of crap. My therapist got me to start taking walks when I was just feeling overwhelmed. I'd plug in my headphones & just go walk, listen to the music & it helped amazingly well. I'm not sure when I actually started losing weight but after a while I realized that I'd lost 20lbs & then after 3yrs of trying I suddenly got pregnant.

I lost weight after he was born as well, though the biggest portion of it was the weight that I had gained during the pregnancy. I had gained 30lbs with him which put me at the highest I'd ever been. I was so scared that I wouldn't lose it, but amazingly within the 1st month of him being born I lost the 30lbs without doing anything. I lost another 15lbs before I broke my foot off & ended up in a wheelchair for 6 months & gained most of that back.

Then came the Gluten Free discovery & I lost 20lbs, got pregnant again & lost 15 more pounds before I finally started gaining. I started both pregnancies at 220lbs and ended the 1st at 250 & the 2nd at 225. Once again I amazingly lost 30lbs within the 1st month of him being born & then an additional 15lbs.

As I started losing the 2nd time & got closer & closer to 200 I got so excited! I'm not exactly sure how much I weighed in 2005 when Jon & I got married but it was somewhere from 190-200lbs. I hadn't weighed less than 200lbs in years & I got all the way down to 180lbs without really trying. I was loving it. Since I wasn't actively dieting or exercising I wasn't sure if it would just keep going down but I figured it'd at least maintain.

Turns out the main contributing factor to my weight loss after the kids were born has been because I pumped/nursed for 6 months at least. I think when I stopped nursing is when the loss stopped. Then over time gradually it started coming back. I kept creeping closer & closer to 200lbs again. The fact that I did NOT want to hit 200 again & seeing how much weight a friend of mine had been losing since January taking ACE made me finally decide to take a chance.

I started taking ACE in April 2013 at 195lbs. At first I thought it would just help me lose weight by not needing to eat much & not changing anything else. Once I realized that I actually HAD to eat & more frequently & drink a TON of water I did my best working on getting it done. I had a countless amount of energy & I started feeling better & better. I was very happy that I stopped gaining weight but I was kind of disappointed that I wasn't actually losing any weight.

That was the 1st time in my life that I didn't actually lose my motivation. In fact it only made me more determined & motivated. I kept seeing pictures & other people posting about how much they had lost & I wasn't actually doing much more than just trying to eat a bit healthier, up my snacks, protein & water intake. I started with dancing while I cleaned the house & did various chores. I was cleaning all the floors in the house every week, sometimes twice a week if something severely messy happened. Next I added an additional 30min or more of dancing almost every day thanks to my Just Dance for Wii.

The scale still wasn't budging but I was feeling AMAZING! I was still a little frustrated but I was really loving being so active. After so many years of being 25-30lbs heavier & one medical issue after another I was thinner & actually FEELING healthy.

Then the most unexpected & surprising thing happened....I got pregnant AGAIN! No active trying, no fertility drugs, just ACE lol. Turns out ACE babies are fairly common. As you start to lose weight you feel sexier, more attractive, you feel better & are more active & well....things happen....A LOT! LOL

Here comes my current motivation. Since I could no longer take ACE I got to thinking about it & remembered that Jon gains weight every time that I'm pregnant. I convinced him to start taking ACE. I am determined to keep him from gaining weight this pregnancy. So far it's actually been going pretty well too even with all the bad food I've been craving for the past 10 wks.

I spent the first 16wks of this pregnancy hating the thought of most food & feeling sick most of the time so I lost weight again but only 5lbs this time. I finally started gaining weight about a month or two ago. I got mad Christmas Eve morning because the scale said I weighed 200lbs exactly. The next day & since then it's been back to 198, it just had a lying day apparently :p

I am still very upset & not wanting to see 200 on the scale but I have a goal for myself of not going past 210 before she's born. My hope is that things will go the same after she's born as it has with both of the boys & I'll lose my 30lbs within about a month & another 15lbs over the next several months as I'm nursing. That will put me down to 165lbs!! Then whenever she & I decide to stop nursing I'll start up on the New ACE. Since it's a different formula from what I was taking before I got pregnant I'm hoping that I might actually lose on this one & not just maintain but even if I don't lose any weight even if I just maintain I'll be happy with that.

Honestly I don't see myself maintaining though because I can't wait until after she's born & I'm recovered & able to be on my feet & more mobile again. I am wishing right now that I could go on walks with Jon but my heart & the rest of my body is keeping that from happening. I am excited to get him losing even more weight & inches than he has already! It's actually funny but right now it seems I am more motivated to see & help HIM lose weight than I am myself but then again it's not like there's much I can do about my own weight while I'm pregnant and there's just no fighting the cravings lol.

It seems for everyone you just have to find that thing that keeps you motivated & keeps you going. Don't give up because you can change things. It may be VERY slow going, like my 20lbs from walking for almost a year but it did happen. I may not have seen any weight loss during my 4 months on ACE but so many other aspects in my life definitely improved, I think my health improved, I felt like I was finally becoming the mother & wife that I always wanted to be AND Jon actually lost 10lbs because not only was I finally cooking more but I was cooking more healthy meals.

Girls...

I know they say that girls are more difficult than boys. I just didn't realize that the difficulties started before they were even born. There are so many decisions to make that seem like they are so much harder than they were with the boys!

Of course I had made things super easy with Keegan by already having his name picked out in elementary school lol. Then there was the fact I love frogs & had been collecting frog things already in advance for whenever we FINALLY got pregnant & my happening to see the frog bedding set at Babies R Us & just knowing it was the one!

With Kaden, I'm honestly not sure why I chose monkeys. Perhaps because the day we found out he was in fact a he maybe that was the only animal at the place I liked to put the recording of his heart beat in. Apparently monkeys were popular that year too because Babies R Us had several bedding sets with monkeys & I found the perfect one. His name also just fell into place almost immediately. We didn't decide 100% on it right away but it was the 1st name I think that came out of my mouth, even though I was only joking at the time. It went onto the name list & kept hovering at the top.

This time around things just seem so hard to decide on. We kind of figured we'd go with another K name but now we're not sure. Heck one of these blog posts from last year talk about the name "Kiara" and how Keegan kept going on about wanting to name his sister that (though his 1st name suggestions this time were "Puss-in-Boots" and "Baby Minion"). I am working on a list of names that start with a K that I do like but I'm just not sure if I'm "in love" with any of them yet. Even names that I used to think were good candidates.

We've talked about skipping the K thing completely but neither of us really have any ideas for other names. As with the boys I prefer to try to skip the more common names is possible & since names hold so much meaning for me I'd prefer to pick one that actually has a good meaning.

Then again we've talked about not even deciding on a name until she's born. That perhaps we won't actually give her a name until we get to see her. This idea is something I have never considered before & I almost can't believe that I'm even thinking about it. It's also blowing the minds of our family members it seems lol. We've been asked recently if we've decided on her name yet or what her name is going to be & they seem a bit shocked by the answer that we don't know & when/if we do decide we might not tell anyone because it might not be final til she's actually born lol.

Bedding is another issue! If you know me then you know that I am not a Pink person. I am all about the PURPLE! A friend posting that she was selling a bedding set led me to looking at bedding sets available from Babies R Us & I was very disappointed. I remember seeing a gorgeous purple set there when I was pregnant with one of the boys. So I did some poking around on Amazon & I found it!


Isn't it gorgeous? This has kind of been falling in place since then. I looked at some other purple sets on Amazon but this is definitely my favorite. It also just so happens that a friend of mine that also makes jewelry recently made a "purse jewelry" piece that happens to match in color & have a butterfly on it! I don't carry a purse but I figured it'd work on a diaper bag. I had to finally make a decision this weekend & we actually traded jewelry items haha.

The thing that got me thinking about all this is actually the fact that Jon went straight to Costco last night after work & I think one of the first things he must have seen was a bunch of 3 piece sets for babies. He sent me a picture of a set that was in purples & pinks. It was a plush rabbit with a rabbit security blanket (aka Wooby) & fleece blanket. It got me thinking "Oh my gosh! I have to pick an animal for her!" Since he was there I did some quick searching on Amazon, Etsy, Babies R Us & Land of Nod. Thanks to Amazon once again I think I've got it!


Babies R Us also appears to have this one as well so I can check it out in person too which is helpful.

So I "think" the bedding/animal theme has been solved. The problem now will be figuring out her name. Plus of course hoping she doesn't get too much disgusting pink clothing etc lol. I'll have to do my best to make sure everyone knows how much I dislike pink lol. I've already said the only way pink is acceptable is if it's an accent color. Preferably purple & pink or black & pink and I really prefer hot pink with the black instead of a pale pink. Mom did by her first girl item this weekend though & it's lavender & light pink. That's ok though cause I really like it!

Sooo now to working on the name list....

Catch Up!

I've been in a mood to write lately just haven't made the time yet. Part of the problem has been the fact that it's now been a little over a year since I wrote anything! So there's lots of catching up to do...ugh.

So lets see if I can somehow manage to summarize quickly.

The jewelry business has been booming for most of the year. It seems that I just kept getting busier & busier so the decision to focus more on big/gun shows this year was a good call. We redesigned my entire display between shows from April to May & I'm really loving the way it all looks now.

 This was our 1st show with the new design. I've condensed a little down to two boards because I've added more things. 

Things have been going good. The boys have been getting bigger. About mid July Keegan stopped going to preschool which was good & bad. He drives me crazy half the time but Kaden was really starting to miss him & now they have lots of fun playing (and fighting) together. 

In April I started something that has definitely changed my life for the better haha. I started taking a pill called A.C.E. which stands for Appetite Control & Energy. An online business friend of mine started taking it around December or January & had lost a ton of weight. Since losing my 45lbs after Kaden was born I had been gradually gaining back & had gained back 15lbs so I had to at least stop that! 

Oh my goodness it was so amazing! I had so much energy & felt better than I had in years!! I was functioning perfectly well on about 5hrs of sleep because I was up late almost every night working on orders, plus there were no more naps for me because I was working as much as possible while the kids were napping. I was cleaning house every week doing the whole thing, floors & all AND I was dancing while doing it!! Half the rest of the time I was dancing to the Wii at some point during the day as well!

Things were going so great & I had so many friends asking me about it that I decided to sign up to sell it in July. Well...it just so happens that a month later I found out that I also got pregnant in July! LOL I may not have really noticed the scale move but apparently I was doing something right. If you've read past posts you know that I have fertility issues. It took 3yrs to get pregnant with Keegan & I had lost 20lbs right before it finally happened. I went on fertility drugs & went GF at the same time in 2010, lost 20lbs & got pregnant with Kaden. This time no fertility drugs needed lol!

I was actually pretty upset for the first few weeks because we were not planning on this at all. We were leaning more & more towards not trying for a 3rd. What with my heart history & there being no guarantee that I wouldn't have problems the 3rd time around we were thinking it might not be the best idea. With my jewelry business as busy as it was & already two kids to deal with if I ended up with heart problems like last time there's no way that I could handle it. Plus I had been feeling so great on ACE & doing so much & right about the time I found out I was pregnant I started "feeling" pregnant. I not only had to stop taking ACE so lost that extra energy but the 1st trimester exhaustion hit me. I wasn't too thrilled. 

BUT as I always say & my past has shown, EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON! I am 20 weeks today & exactly 4 weeks ago we were told that we're finally having a girl! With Keegan & Kaden their gender was just about the first thing that they could see at 16 weeks but not this one. I flipped from side to side about 10 times before the lady finally got a look & said it looks like a girl. She checked a few more locations & said she was sure it's a girl. 

Since it was so hard to find out though & I just knew for sure I'd end up with another boy I wasn't jumping into the idea of a girl just yet. I decided to wait until my next ultrasound at my doctor's office before I got too excited. Even though everything this pregnancy had been different. From morning sickness, to no appetite, not being able to eat most of the things I usually did or did when I was pregnant with the boys to finally becoming the pregnant pickle lady lol. Last Wednesday was the ultrasound though & we got the confirmation that it's a girl!!

This brings up a whole other set of problems though but we'll save that for another post because I'm sure this is too long as it is!

Nobody Seems To Care....

I stopped posting anything maybe close to a month ago now. I even stopped doing Wordless Wednesday posts a few weeks ago. When I check my stats I usually have quite a few views on each new post & even a few on older posts but generally nobody comments on any of the posts. When nobody comments on anything it's hard to tell if anyone seems to really care at all.

I generally started writing on the blog mostly for myself, to get some of the jumbled thoughts out of my head. The fact that it seemed like some people were actually reading it was a bonus.

 Now I really just don't have the time to try & force posts unless it's something I really need to get out & off my mind. I've been getting lots of orders for jewelry & stuff plus the fact that I've been doing all these vendor events. This coming Saturday is my last event for the month but then I have 2 the first 2 weeks of December. All 3 of these events are rather large so I want/need to make sure I have plenty of stock for both. I have nearly been selling out on some of the different items I have so I'm trying to get busy.

If you are reading this & haven't seen any of my stuff before & are curious you can see most of the stuff I do on our business facebook page Jon's Guns 

I opened an Etsy shop a while back & listed a few items to see what might happen there & if anyone wanted to buy anything until we got our web store up & running. Our web store is mostly functional, we're just waiting to get our postal scale so we can do accurate shipping costs. Until then if you want to check out the Etsy shop you'll find it here

I'm not sure when I'll make another post but December 8th is my last show for the year & so far I'm not really wanting to book myself for anything next year yet. I'd like to only do 1 show a month maybe or stick to mostly gun shows next year. But we'll just have to see what happens.

Foam Playmat

For Christmas last year I really wanted to make sure that Keegan got a little foam playmat. We have these awesome little chairs. They're like high chairs but just a little chair. You can set them on the floor or strap them to a big chair for the table.

He grew up over at Granny's house sitting in his little chair watching TV & eating his food. We have a really hard time getting him to eat most of the time & unfortunately he tends to eat better when he's actually watching TV. On the weekends we generally have breakfast at the table & we almost always have dinner at the table but during the week breakfast & lunch are often in the little chair.

Granny bought him a mat for Christmas from the store but there was a serious problem with it. It had the alphabet in it, which seemed great, but the letters all came out. It didn't take too long at all before half the letters were missing at various times or the edges just poked up so we were constantly stumbling over it. Not good, especially with my falling history.

I did some looking around online & managed to find this thing on Amazon.


It's AWESOME! Exactly what I needed & it's the perfect size to cover the area around his chair for little mishaps.

His chair is a little askew in this pic but usually it goes right in the center & close to the couch.

Now the new problem started once Kaden started eating finger foods. Our kitten LOVES people food & if he doesn't throw food on the floor for her, she comes over & eats off his tray. I'm always chasing her away & even though she does usually eat the food off the floor she's not quite as efficient as a dog. There's still usually a mess around.

If I didn't get the vacuum out right away days like this when he was eating Cheerios I'd find squished pieces of Cheerios all over the floor because the cat would play with them as well as eat them so they'd get dragged all over.

I've been meaning to buy him a mat for a while & about a month ago I got some more Amazon gift cards from Superpoints & Swagbucks (check out this link if you're interested on how I got the gift cards) so I finally got him his mat. BEST THING EVER!!

When he throws his food on the floor it's no big mess on the carpet. I can pick up the pieces easily & then if the mat is gooey or sticky etc some quick sprays with Clorox Cleanup & some paper towels & it's all clean.

So if you have little ones that have these little chairs or something similar where they eat or have snacks then you should totally consider getting this mat. It will make your life so much easier.

If you don't have the chairs but are interested in them here's a link to it on Amazon. We got ours at Target before both the kids were born. I think they're both space savers but for some reason Keegan's is a bit bigger than Kaden's. We couldn't find the bigger one in the stores this time, just the smaller one.