So much happier today!

Yesterday was not my best day. I'm normally a pretty happy person. Even if I get down and depressed, I usually get over it pretty fast. Yesterday was not normal.<br /><br />Today I woke up in a happy mood. Even after finding the still undecorated tree, with the exception of lights and the angel topper, laying on it's side on the floor. The angel was pulled off the top and being used as a kitten chew toy. Have I mentioned we have two six-month old kittens and the world is their oyster? If it's not nailed down (well, even it it is), it's their play thing. One of them even had some of the feathers from the angel's wings stuck in her whiskers. I couldn't help but laugh. This certainly isn't a Martha Stewart home. <br /><br />I'm also thrilled I got my hair back to it's original state today. After three hours with my colorist and hair stylist, I look normal again. In the downer post that I deleted yesterday I mentioned I went to my best friend's niece, a hair stylist, to get a very cheap color and cut (huge mistake). It turned out to be the worst color and cut of my life. <br /><br />I'm just not a totally bleached blond kind of gal. Every time I looked in the mirror I was horrified by my hair. The color was so bright and so blond that I felt like I needed sunglasses to even look at it. That was in front, the back was even a worse mess with white blond streaks against my natural dark blond hair.<br /><br />After a lot of "corrective" coloring work which included low-lights, high-lights and some all over color, I don't look like a bleached blond bimbo anymore. My stylist took off an inch of length and it feels so much healthier. The layers, well,  there wasn't much she could do about them other than trim them up, but at least they look like the layers were professionally added and I didn't take the scissors to my hair myself. My bangs are back to normal too.<br /><br />I'm so much happier with my hair now. It's a little sad that so much of my identity is wrapped up in my hair. It seems rather shallow. I can't help it, that's just how I am about my hair. I sort of wish I had this same sort of obsession about my body. Maybe I'd be thin and totally in shape if I did (and even more shallow than I am now).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">**********</div>The gym<br />I also attribute my much happier mood today to the gym. I didn't go yesterday until 8pm, then when I got there my iPod was dead so I didn't even stay. When I got home and told my husband, his response was, well, you could have worked out anyway, without the iPod. Ummm, no, I can't. I've tried that before when the iPod was dead and it was pure torture without my music.<br /><br />This morning was a great workout with an hour of hard cardio. 25 minutes of it was on the treadmill, with an incline of 15 at 4mph, or an incline 15 at 5mph. 35 minutes on the crossramp. It set my mood for the entire day...happy!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">**********</div><div style="text-align: left;">The food</div>I was actually too busy to eat today until about 6 p.m. Even after my workout this morning I only had a banana, then I had to rush to my hair appointment, then I shopped until I dropped (I'm almost done!). I know this isn't healthy, and it's not my normal. <br /><br />Dinner was a piece of flank steak and a big green salad with some yummy low-cal yogurt dressing I discovered. It's Marie's Yogurt Dressing, in the cooler by the produce, half the fat and half the calories of regular dressing. I bought the blue cheese (although there weren't any blue cheese chunks in it...of course not). It was actually really good for store bought dressing.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7AgBVY93ErJOgXsPa1ofNm7395Lbzoxc3gAfVRqNskiBY1MyYKl7kprcotN4hAcOpdbhSlnmshyphenhyphen83Jv9oBxeWkFNhc9P0Hj7zpcVqf-hNSR__JjV8a0s4J9Z6Fdb5uiW4Qs8gyxCMKauV/s1600/blue+cheese.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7AgBVY93ErJOgXsPa1ofNm7395Lbzoxc3gAfVRqNskiBY1MyYKl7kprcotN4hAcOpdbhSlnmshyphenhyphen83Jv9oBxeWkFNhc9P0Hj7zpcVqf-hNSR__JjV8a0s4J9Z6Fdb5uiW4Qs8gyxCMKauV/s320/blue+cheese.png" width="215" /></a></div>Tomorrow is an early Weight Watchers meeting. My normal day is Saturday, but that's Christmas, so I'm going to my regular leader tomorrow for my weighin and meeting. Then more shopping.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">**********</div><br />Oh my gosh...on Dr. Phil they just said that a one-pound box of candy is about 10,000 calories. I use to eat a one-pound box of Sees candy at Christmas, when I was on my binges (and yes, in one day!). Dr. Phil has a couple on the show that always gains about 35-50 pounds each, each year during the holidays. Dr. Phil is pushing a book, something about losing 15 pounds in 17 days (<a href="http://17daydiet.com/">17daydiet.com</a>). And no, I'm not buying the book. :)<br /><br />Oh - you'll love this - they (Dr. Phil and the author of the 17 day diet book) both just said that new scientific evidence proves that taking off weight fast doesn't mean you'll regain the weight fast. It's contrary to what everyone has thought all these years. Interesting.

So much happier today!

Yesterday was not my best day. I'm normally a pretty happy person. Even if I get down and depressed, I usually get over it pretty fast. Yesterday was not normal.Today I woke up in a happy mood. Even after finding the still undecorated tree, with the …

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Sharing the news…

<p>In case you’ve been MIA lately, click <a href="http://weightloss-stories.blogspot.com/2010/12/wordless-wednesday_15.html">here</a> & <a href="http://weightloss-stories.blogspot.com/2010/12/101610.html">here</a> for a quick update on what’s going on in the Bangert household!</p> <p>So we waited a few weeks to share the news with our family. Initially we were going to wait until after we heard the heartbeat, but that would have meant I would have had to spend a week on the cruise ship with my sisters. No way could that happen! ;)</p> <p align="left">The first weekend in November we got my family together, which wasn’t the easiest task! ;) Everyone is so busy these days! We had everyone there except my Dad & 1 sister. We sat down at the supper table and I volunteered Kyle to bless the meal. So he did like he would any other prayer “Thank you Lord for this food and the hands that prepared it, etc….” but he ended it with:</p> <p align="center"><strong><em>“And thank you for the addition to our family coming in June, amen</em></strong>!!”</p> <p align="left">Everyone shrieked and was so excited!! My sister, Mindi, said she knew it because I was so adamant about getting everyone together for supper and I’ve been “SO TIRED” lately! Well, she was right! We spent the rest of the evening talking all things pregnancy & baby!</p> <p align="left">The next weekend we were in Chicago with Kyle’s parents, his sister, & her husband for the Iowa vs Northwestern game. The day after the game we went out for breakfast. I had been wearing a zip up hoodie, went to the bathroom, got rid of the hoodie, and came back to the table wearing this shirt:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0RbcxqmDzMySWCR5esW-K24Ot2ja606LApB8Rwg2zd8QkjAv-uWH-8ZHW2dD8gWAoDHRFn0aHgiOYYq6IiqUQwP3AiqnvKk47XWfFJeN6oxCp28npfcZXWoA2GlTDQigSfT0IY-7KX5pj/s1600-h/11.14.103.jpg"><img alt="11.14.10" border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WFHq5KKK_sLpQKskSUf0fsaCT6n7xVXCJao62p2jNlhBGRhe5R5R2NXlweEorKkTT3myHtCaUm05QmX-QZlmz7ZTChGl4NB1bcgpHrzEnyIgSuYZBV_slWJEAxJZ6qfLxlB3wuNndLsP/?imgmax=800" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: block; border-left-width: 0px; float: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-right-width: 0px" title="11.14.10" width="404"></a></p> <p align="left">Needless to say everyone was surprised! When we got home that night we shared the news with Kyle’s brother and skyped his sister in Omaha! Sharing our exciting news is SO fun!!</p> <p align="left">The week of the Thanksgiving we spent 5 days on a cruise ship! The only reason I was excited to come home was because Monday, November 29th we had an appointment to hear our baby’s heartbeat! I was so anxious/nervous for this appointment! Hearing that beating inside me was a completely indescribable feeling! Of course I cried and Kyle said it was the proudest moment of his life!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGu8Id_m0BzYwSD4q-sP3Crq7rmXDHyX7r8-EYiCk855A0SAKsX_WeOwUXWq_jCMhg-txoZlXqYAe4aXqIOoyUf42glT9Dpv-QT7A5Rs-JjLG6dXufy9C_eh2kfPy2yyj4YrETKPZ8us-/s1600-h/_DSC23503.jpg"><img alt="_DSC2350" border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPg59e7a0DhxieVqlmxcJNLlQwBcPWR6uwavd2wEhp-i_Pt1CRXyhaTkDE400jhAcLhpGW1rZN-rsEKeA-F0lS_-ApTVoN8WmsjfhyCZlK9PfWepUk-MQOVV5yoUFtktHImGAJFGvoyZTy/?imgmax=800" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: block; border-left-width: 0px; float: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-right-width: 0px" title="_DSC2350" width="404"></a></p> <p align="left">He also said he thought he heard 2 heartbeats! But the doctor reassured him that one was mine the other was baby’s! He thought it would be perfect to have twins, 1 boy, 1 girl! Good thing he doesn’t get to choose! ;)</p> <p></p> <p>My Dr. ordered an ultrasound for a few days later so we got to see little Baby Bangert! It was so crazy to see how much that little baby was wiggling around inside me! So now we even have pictures to show off of our little one! ;)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKa_iM2bXVl9a17pgqJbbQvcG7IJH5T91e4MeG3Xlh0d8wD5fjam_OAB7rVu2xVOlV2Hf6erYBBFcwW89v_dpFt0MIOg4A45_f1omsQdgDJkwniorni7S3fy3ooJGwHnj2RssT8mbkU7AE/s1600-h/ultrasound1%5B4%5D.jpg"><img alt="ultrasound1" border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCMnz9k89bnocjBF15DsMsrntDXW0D29xfWyL9HsdcuIoLJmHASMLdeg1sf_HNcmUNdImf8w9x6O_L0qDLp1QxY9tYHhoUSuCBu-orKRxH5imRUDkBwu_inNKzgCtuKnuVG-bI4zDgBQJK/?imgmax=800" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-bottom: 0px" title="ultrasound1" width="405"></a><em></em></p> <p align="center"><em>These are when I was 12 weeks. Look at those long legs all stretched out!</em><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NUMLgDdRrKUjTtpD7HYjLeN6w30D8UK3TxeYJlsX-iiKhd1dLaGLQ1NH_rfTcUmRyrWpoOCYBehcJdyulp8QFMAEMNocoju_zaHeADgEIcGLwPFW9DMHLidL1cmDrxBCKrdfipYizRSM/s1600-h/ultrasound%5B4%5D.jpg"><em><img alt="ultrasound" border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCt9BSkSCxKQShVABVMgoEV1cWp_EAS-UOynfmla-31NqLFQlEQuuInELPzrYxMEsSwYI3RhEeTG8hgD8CKngGDJN8lNmrw2F65TGGQ18LNh9uwqV7M44xJQZNjE7ko5o-5XjaV-2piIp/?imgmax=800" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-bottom: 0px" title="ultrasound" width="404"></em></a></p> <p align="left">Hope everyone is all ready for Christmas, only 4 more days! </p>

Sharing the news…

In case you’ve been MIA lately, click here & here for a quick update on what’s going on in the Bangert household! So we waited a few weeks to share the news with our family. Initially we were going to wait until after we heard the heartbeat, but that…

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