My Garden

It's that time of year when everyone goes gardening crazy. This year I joined in on the fun. This is the first time I've ever had my own garden. I've planted and weeded gardens before but never from inception. I also haven't had a back yard in a very long time. 

I sat down one day and planned out what I wanted to do in the back yard. Then I borrowed a friend's garden claw and started tilling. This was quite the feat as I came across some rather large rocks. One such rock took me about 45 minutes to dig up. Of course, after I'd been digging for a good 40 minutes my husband says "You know we have a crowbar that would probably work better at getting that rock out".      O_o      Really?! After 40 minutes NOW he tells me! Well, sure enough the crowbar worked and the rock was out in moments. 

Here is my rock still in the ground, right after my husband suggested the crowbar. Once I had that puppy in my hand I knew it would be out in a matter of moments so I took a snapshot of my hard work.  

Here is the rock all cleaned off with the addition of one of the kids dinosaurs that was left in the yard. (I couldn't resist.) This rock weighs a tonne! It now sits proudly in the corner of my veg garden for all the world to see.

And here are the actual garden pictures with before and after shots:

My grass...isn't it pretty? It even feels nice in bare feet! (Now that's NICE grass!) This patch used to be all weeds. 

Here's my veg garden. I tilled it. This is where the giant rock was dug out. Ben mixed the soil and peat moss and then planted the veg. We planted tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumber, zucchini and summer squash (but the picture looks like yellow zucchini so it's my mystery veg). If you look closely you'll see that I lined the edge of the gardens with rock. These rocks all came from my back yard and I think add character to my garden. Silly to some, but I absolutely adore it!

I wasn't going to put anything here, except new grass, but when I bought my veg the lilies were $2 and I couldn't resist. I'm a little worried about them because they're a little brown, but from what I understand lilies are pretty hearty so I'm hoping they'll perk up soon. If you look closely in the after picture I've got rocks bordering the lilies as well.

The next project for the back yard is to throw grass seed over the rest of the "lawn" which at the moment is only green because of the weeds. The other project for the yard is to put in patio stones which I'm  really excited about. This project will take longer than I'd originally hoped because it's more expensive than I'd first thought. I may just buy a couple of stones at a time until I have enough and then we'll do the installation. You can probably tell I'm super excited to have a real backyard and to be able to actually do something with it. The funny thing is we pretty much fight over who's going to do the watering! I can definitely say I've been getting a lot of sun this year and spending some REAL time outside! Most years I pretty much stay inside where it's cool. This year has been great so far - hot but not all that humid. It's been great and I hope it stays like this!

Time for a Change

Welcome to my new blog.

I decided it was time for a change. I really enjoyed writing my Fitness Rampage Blog but I felt compelled to only write about fitness/weight issues and who has time for 2 separate blogs?

Being eLLe is going to encompass more of my daily life, as it happens. I'll include my struggles with weight loss as well as updates on my family and life in general.

As many of you know from my previous blog I've struggled with trying to lose weight for years. I've had weight problems since high school when I started binge eating. Twice I've lost weight and kept it off for a number of years, but then I had children.

When pregnant I didn't care how much I weighed, I ate whatever I craved through all 3 of my pregnancies. It took about 2 years after Dale was born for me to lose weight, but I did it and was happy with my shape and the energy levels I had. After gaining all the weight back with Joey I help back losing because I knew I wanted another child. I thought after Riley it would be easy for me to get started and lose weight. What I failed to take account for was the fact that it is now 5 years later and I'm so used to giving in to cravings and eating whatever I want that I'm having a very hard time changing my eating habits.

I'm an emotional eater and my tendency to overeat has grown over the years. I have the knowledge on what I need to do to lose weight. I've had the motivation off and on as well, but continue to run into obstacles. At the first sign of stress I'm in my kitchen shoveling food into my mouth.

I've tried going it alone, Weight Watchers and the gym. All of these things have worked for me in the past. The biggest obstacle is myself. Life gets too hard so I just check out.

Well, I've had it. It's time to do something about my weight. I've said all of this before, but all I can do is keep trying. Having said that though you may be wondering what sparked the need for change this time around. The answer is simple and nothing I have never said before. I want to be healthy and be able to keep up with my kids. I have a great life, great family and great friends. I want to feel good about myself too!

I went to the doctor yesterday. I spoke with the doctor and asked to be prescribed with Meridia. The doctor agreed and wrote the prescription. I filled it right away. You're probably wondering what Meridia is. It is an orally administered agent for the treatment of obesity, as an appetite suppressant. The prescription itself is very expensive when you don't have a drug plan. My hope is that the pills combined with the knowledge of how much I'm paying for the prescription will give me that much needed kick in the pants. The hardest part is always starting a routine and sticking with it even when life gets stressful.

The pills are not a quick fix. I still have a long road ahead of me with a lot of work to do. I'm going to lay it all out there. As of this morning I weigh 241.4 lbs. I have four goals for the next month:

• Weigh ONLY once a week. My weigh day is going to be Sunday mornings.
• Eat more fruit and vegetables. I've already gone grocery shopping and pre-sliced the fruit and veg. I find it much easier to choose healthier food when it's already prepared for you.
• Walk at least 30 minutes everyday. I've been quite stagnant lately and need to get back into some sort of exercise routine. I will increase the intensity as time goes on.
  
• Stay encouraged even when progress is slow. If I slip up, I won't use it as an excuse to eat MORE food.
  

Thank you for reading and for your encouragement in the journey we call Life. I hope to write every day or every couple of days. Stay tuned for more updates and please feel free to leave comments. I enjoy hearing from all of you.

eLLe