Dotzour Family.com

Here’s a few images of our home and yard in late March 2011.

I love watching the buds of the silver maple get bigger and bigger.  I especially like their reddish tint against the blue of a spring day.

My Swedish geraniums made it through the winter.  They are leggy and starving for light, but they all made it!  (I’ve got six pots surrounding the sink.)  Soon, soon, they can spend their days outside where their leaves will get thick and dark and healthy.

When Andrew comes home from school, he eats a lot – often a couple English muffins and some fruit.  Sylv is happy to have her playmate back.

Here are the kids sitting down to watch a show.  They’re watching Diego for the first time.  Andrew loves it and replies loudly to the TV when instructed.  I’ve avoided Dora and Diego because of all the commercial stuff associated with them, but I think the kids are pretty aware that we don’t buy things that have characters on them, so hopefully any Dora/Diego infatuation that ensues won’t result in struggles at the store:)

Sylv’s pacifier and poodle use is limited to the car, her bed, and the sofa.  It’s going really well.  And at some point, I think we’ll trim it down to just in her room.  Sweet girl loves her p&p.

❤

Our friend Tom has been with Terry and Jack on vacation to Death Valley for the last couple weeks.  While he’s been gone, I’ve been stopping over at his place to feed his fish.  This last time I was over, I couldn’t help but take some pictures.  Lesson learned…fish are kinda hard to photograph!

Sylvia loves to help sprinkle the food in the tanks.  But then it takes about 1 hour to convince her to leave.

Meanwhile, Terry, Tom, and Jack are enjoying scenes like this:

Amazing!  More stunning photos on Terry’s blog here.

Yesterday I wrote a long post about my exercising/weight loss journey.  In that post, I mentioned how important I thought that food journaling was to my weight loss success.  Here, I thought I’d show how I used the iPhone/web program Loseit to track my food and exercise.

After creating an account, I inputted my current weight and height, my goal weight, and the date I wanted to reach that weight.  Loseit calculated how many calories I could consume per day based on the theory that losing one pound requires that you burn approximately 3,500 more calories than you consume.  So without any specific exercise, I was limited to a little under 1,500 calories per day.  The screenshot below is a summary of a week in September.

My bootcamp trainer, Dustin Maher, suggested that we try to eat well 80% of the time.  I liked this a lot, as it gave me permission to “cheat” every once in a while while staying on-plan.  In general, I tried to keep an eye on my weekly calorie budget rather than on the daily budget. (Click on any of the images below to see a larger version.)

After each meal, I’d key in the food I ate to Loseit.  I set it up with recipes for foods I made regularly, so entering my meals was pretty straight-forward.  A couple times while eating out, I’d discretely check the Loseit database to compare menu items.  Sometimes I was amazed at the difference in calories between items.  It really opened my eyes to how many calories I consume if I let my stomach do the ordering!

I also entered any exercising that I did (I coded bootcamp as “circuit training”), and I came to rely on the extra calories that a workout or two allowed.  Some days when I’d over-indulged, I’d go for a run at night to make it balance out a little better.

In addition to the overall calories consumed, I kept a close watch on the percent of fat, carbs, and protein I ate.  I aimed to get 100g of protein each day.  That took some very conscious planning as I think I eat about 20g per day if left to my own devices.  I tried to keep my fat consumption at around 40% of the total and carbs and protein close to 30%.  Rarely did I succeed, but having that target really helped shape my food choices.

I found that my weight loss didn’t seem highly correlated to my food consumption for the week.  Sometimes after a weekend of overdoing it, I’d lose a couple pounds.  Other weeks, I’d eat nearly perfectly but lose almost nothing.  However, as I kept working consistently week after week, it all seemed to workout over all.

In general, I think we eat pretty healthfully in our house.  We don’t have lots of processed food (does mac & cheese count?), we eat as much local, organic produce and meats as we can afford, and we aim for yummy, wholesome meals.  However, when not making a point to eat healthfully, those wholesome meals are more likely than not to contain lots of cheese or butter or pasta.  Mmmm.

<side note…look!  this day I ate marshmallows for a snack!>

Last fall, Bryan and I attended a nutrition seminar by Tracie Hittman.  She’s a nutritionist who works with my bootcamp trainer, Dustin.  She really recommended limiting gluten and suggested taking gelatin supplement, which we did.   We also whole-heartedly jumped on the Greek yogurt band wagon.  They recommended eating whole or 2% dairy (yay!), and eating a bowl of greek yogurt and honey for breakfast is fantastic.

Sometimes I think that what was as important as any one piece of inspiring advice was just surrounding myself with healthful messages from all angles.  My bootcamp friends were motivating, and we started running 5Ks together.  I enjoyed Dustin’s blog, and found great content in his daily blog that filled my mind and heart with positive, healthful ideas that kept me motivated to keep working on my own story.  For example, check out this man’s amazing 120lb journey.

 

Hope this is helpful!  I’ve been pleased that even after stopping tracking food, I was able to lose weight for another couple months.  And now that I’m in “maintenance mode,” the insights I gained into eating from my food journaling seem to have stuck.  If you’re in the process of trying to lose weight, I know you can do it!

❤

I started this blog post last fall, but I felt a little weird about publishing it.  I think that when I’m in the middle of doing something well, I hesitate to post about it because it feels a little self-aggrandizing.  And then when I’m not doing something any more, it feels a little odd to write about because I’m not even doing it any more.

However, for the last eight plus months, I’ve put a lot of energy into exercise and food awareness, and I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned.

Last summer, I was feeling a little fed-up with my body.  Sylvia was over two-years-old; I’d been done nursing for a year; and I was feeling unhappy with the fact that my body wasn’t “bouncing” back into its pre-baby shape.  I’d tried integrating more exercise into life (biking places more) eating a little less (no seconds, thanks), but that wasn’t working.  For one thing, my kids weren’t doing well in the bike trailer, and I really like seconds.

After hearing about Dustin Maher and his Fit Fun Bootcamps from several friends, I decided to accept the invitation of a friend (thanks Deb!) to do a 21-day rapid fat loss bootcamp challenge.  It was a kinda spur of the moment, “Sure, I can get up at 5am for three weeks to jump-start my motivation” thing.  I remember feeling a little dizzy when I hit the registration button…what had I done?!

Well, it turned out that I loved it.  Sure the first week was kinda hellish.  But the friends I started making were wonderful.  Starting the day with all that positive energy.  I love the feeling of working harder before 6:30am than most people (at least me) work on their own all year.  I love working out to a sky full of stars (summer bootcamps are held outdoors) and then watching the sun rise.  And I love, love, love the “you can do it!” energy that flows through the group.

As the 21 day challenge ended, I realized how sad I would be to stop.  I also had shifted my understanding of the way that exercising unlocks inner potential.  I wasn’t exercising to get skinny or even to just to get in shape.  I was exercising because I wanted to be the best I could be.  I didn’t want to let life happen to me, I wanted to take charge of my life and my body.  I had a feeling that taking charge of my body would lead to dreaming bigger and acting more decisively in other aspects of my life.  So I continued my membership through the summer then through the fall and winter.  And I feel so lucky to know the community of trainers and fellow-bootcampers that I do.

Around Christmas, I met my goal of losing 20 lbs.  I didn’t start out with a weight goal…I mostly wanted to feel better about my body and to be stronger and more fit.  But as the pounds came off, it became kind of exciting to see what I could accomplish with hard work and focus.  I can’t say that I’ve ever really tried to lose weight before, but what I learned this last summer and fall is that reshaping your body is completely within reach.  It takes hard work and continued commitment, but it’s not rocket science.  Burn more calories than you consume.

Here…for myself in the future and for anyone who wants to know…are five things that I think were central to my success.

1.  Write it down I find that the relatively simple step of writing down everything I eat makes a big difference in the eating choices I make.  A little notebook in my purse works fine, but I’ve really enjoyed using the iPhone app Loseit.  I don’t think I can overstate the importance of this.  From July-October, I wrote down every single thing I put in my mouth.  If I licked the jelly off the butter knife after making my kids toast, I entered 1/2 teaspoon jelly into my journal.  I was amazed at how quickly the calories add up.  It was often helpful in the afternoon to see how many calories I had left for the day so I could adjust my dinner eating to meet my goals.

2.  Have fitness buddies. It was thanks to my friend Deb that I started going to Bootcamp in the first place.  Then within the first few weeks, I got to know a group of great girls.  There’s something special about getting together each morning while the rest of the world is still sleeping, and then working our butts off together that creates a special bond.   More than anything else, my fitness buddies are my motivation to get moving!  And they hold me accountable.  It helps so much to know that if I turn off that alarm without getting up that I’m going to hear about it from my friends!

3. High intensity workouts.  I imagine that lower-intensity workouts are a good match for some people.  But for me, if I’m going to make the effort to work out, I want it to count.  I like the feeling of pushing myself to the limit, of working as hard as I can.  Bootcamp workouts are so diverse and fun, and with everyone else sweating and grunting together, it feels like a team.  We do exercises for pretty short periods of time (20-40 seconds is common), break for 10  seconds, and then on to the next thing.  There’s a mix of cardio, weights, and core exercises, and I’m amazed that even after months of working out, I’m still often sore.  Especially when we’ve tried pull-ups!

4. Calories/nutrition balance.  So my favorite foods contain lots of sugar and fat.  mmmm  sugar and fat  mmmm.  While I was in weight-loss mode, I had to retrain my mind to think of food as fuel.  I stopped spending as much time reading my favorite food blogs (I read fitness blogs instead), and I didn’t check out cookbooks from the library for evening reading (I went to bed early instead).  To be successful in losing weight, I cut sugar way down.  For about three months, I also mostly cut out wheat.  I wasn’t trying to go gluten free, I was just trying to eat high protein, low carbs.  We switched to sprouted wheat bread, and I’d have either that or oatmeal.  No pasta for me (sniff).  Instead, I got hooked on Greek yogurt (mmm).  I’ll do another post on what kind of foods composed my meals.  The good thing: I didn’t feel deprived.

5. Water and sleep.  When new people start at Bootcamp, my primary advice is to drink lots of water, get enough sleep, (and take plenty of Advil that first week!).  Throughout July and August, I was exhausted all the time.  I was reducing my calories and waking up early, and I remember feeling a little narcoleptic.  If I sat down, I’d drift off.  It helped to go to bed by 9pm so I’d get seven hours of sleep.  Drinking plenty of water also helped a lot (and made it easier to cut calories).  After a few months of bootcamp, either my body was used to waking up early and getting less calories or I’d gotten better about consistently going to bed early, because my energy levels popped back up.

OK, so those are the tips I’d like to remember if I ever want to undertake a get-in-shape period again.

Here’s a graph of my weight loss from mid-July through October.

And here’s a graph of my weight loss from July-March (highest to lowest point is 20 lbs).

I’m happy with where I’m at now.  In October, I stopped journaling my food.  It seemed like I’d developed an intuitive sense for what I could eat, and I continued to lose weight for another couple months.  My goal for 2011 is to maintain my current weight and to stay active with workouts and regular running and 5/10K races.

I tried to find before and after pictures, but it was a little hard.  While my weight and measurements have changed, and while I feel tons better in my skin, I’ve got to say that I don’t think I look that much different!  But as a photographer, I feel like a blog post would be incomplete without some images.

Here’s a few before (May and June 2010):

And here are some afters (December 2010 and February 2011):

Hope this is helpful to someone out there.  If all this taught me anything it’s that we have the power within ourselves to change.  And that taking control of my physical self let to me feeling all the more powerful about taking control of other parts of my business and life.

There’s something about March that makes spring bulbs necessary.  While the tips of the daffodil plants are just peeping out of the frozen garden, my kitchen table has a pot of yellow blooms that make my heart glad.  To download a high-resolution version for your desktop, click here for picture one and here for picture two!

 

Oh, and Grace, you know that daffodils always make me think of you:)

My sweet guy Bryan has been looking to get out on the water.  These last years with small kiddos haven’t afforded us ample opportunities for hiking and canoeing, and I think we’re both ready to pick up those wonderful activities again.  Last summer, Bryan joined up with some friends for a weekend on the Kickapoo River.  Here’s a photo of him that a friend took of him…

He loved being out on the river, and later in the summer, he and I took an intro kayaking class at Rutabega Paddlesports.  It was so fun!

After mulling it over for months, Bryan went to Canoecopia a few weeks ago and got himself a beautiful kayak.  I’m so excited for him!!!

It came home yesterday.  Here’s some photos:

 

The weather hasn’t been going much above 39 degrees this last week, but hopefully soon the air will warm, Bryan’s paddle will arrive, and he can get out on the water!  If you’re in Madison and like to paddle, give him a call:)

If you find yourself in Chicago on a Sunday morning with some extra cash to spend, I recommend, nay, beseech you to try brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel.  It’s an incredible experience.

Last weekend, our crew of 10 went to the brunch.  It was the first time we’ve gone to brunch without any adults.  Kinda felt odd.  I think all of us particularly missed Mom.

Before we left, we took some photos. Here’s my kids being cute siblings.

Look at this little girl’s long, long legs!

A quick pic of me and Bryan.

And me with Joe, Michael, and Maretta.

Here’s a quick picture of one of our tables at brunch.

And after brunch, here’s an iPhone pic of our group in the hotel lobby (Bryan’s the photographer).

Michael and Lisa, feeling glad.

I love these next two.  Bryan pulled out the camera to snap a couple pictures of me and Joe and Maretta and Michael hugging goodbye.

 

Thanks to Joe and Maretta for making the trip so we could all be together:)

I absolutely love Katrina Kennison.

It seems that growing up, even at my age, is all about making the commitment, again and again and again, to bring my outer persona into alignment with my inner truth, my words into alignment with my deeds, my thoughts into alignment with my actions, my deepest values into alignment with my smallest choices, my heart into alignment with my mind, until what I do and how I live is a reflection of who I truly am.

Hope that quote from her blog today brings as much centering peace to you as it did to me:)

In other news, spring is really and truly here.  It’s been raining for the last couple days.  Today started out in the low 30s with rain.  There’s a light layer of slushy snow.  All this wet will help green up the earth soon.  And before we know it, the soft, flowery version of spring will be upon us.  The robins are singing their spring songs.  The red wing black birds and sandhill cranes have returned.  For weeks, we’ve been hearing lovely sound of running water as the snow has melted and runoff moves through puddles on the street and down into the storm drain.  I stand near the storm drain and smile to hear the sound of liquid water again.  Here’s a clip (made with my phone) so you can hear it too –> ripples

I’ve taken the last couple days off bootcamp again because my cough, while much improved, is still giving me trouble.  Seems like a couple hours extra sleep and a break from the physically strenuous activity might help.  Instead, Jessica and I went to a lovely yoga class last night.  I haven’t practiced yoga for years and years.  It felt so good.  Maureen Hebl was a wonderful instructor, and I’m hoping to regularly attend the Wednesday night class.

Bryan starts up the spring ultimate frisbee league next week, with games on Tuesday and Thursdays.  Between that and his new (soon-to-be-picked-up) kayak, he’s sure to have some great outdoor experiences this spring and summer.

I’ll leave you with a pic of Sylvie pulling out of our (newly cleaned out) garage with her trike.  Sure do love that girl!