Good morning and Happy Monday!

I have wanted to eat this little baby up all morning long!

It’s tough to take a picture of a baby while you’re holding him, BTW!  Oh, and that little tuft of hair poking out on the right side of his head???  Well, I think it’s just the cutest thing!  Yes, I’m weird.

He is so much fun right now.  He’s been a BIG fan of food lately.  It cracks me up.  Whenever I eat anything, he gets so excited!  His eyes follow my food or drink from the plate/cup to my mouth and he stares at me and leans forward with a wide open mouth.  It’s the cutest thing ever.  Then, when I do feed him, he immediately starts talking and humming while he’s eating.  It’s hard to convey how darn cute this is in writing!  I’ll have to take a video and share it.

I’m just loving every single second with him and all of his cuteness!

Oh, and my almost 5 year old told me this morning, “The baby is the my favorite person in our family…..and you’re next!”  Ha ha.  I see how I rate. 😉

Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  We had a fun one.  On Friday night, Kev and I went on a date with some of our friends.  We went out to dinner at Los Cucos Mexican Restuaruant and HOLY COW, it was awesome!

I’m not even a huge fan of Mexican food, but I loved it!  They had some healthy options on the menu, but I decided not to go that route (ha ha.)  Actually Kev and I each ordered something different and then we shared both of them (we do that a lot.)

We ordered the Stuffed Avocado and it was AH-Mazing!  It was deep fried (boo), but it was WOW….just wow.

How does that fit into my “3 Months, No Crap plan” you ask?  Well, I will talk about that more in a sec.

We also ordered the beef/chicken Fajitas and they were out of this world!  FYI, I just ate the meat and veggies from that dish, not the tortillas and all the extras….so it wasn’t too bad.

After dinner, we went to a very cool place called The Escape Key.  It’s basically a “real life” mystery solving activity where you are locked in a room for 60 minutes with up to 10 people and you have to find clues and solve riddles to unlock more clues and eventually “break out” of the locked room.

The room we were in was themed like Sherlock Holmes and it was a lot of fun.  We were told there was about a 40% success rate in that room.  We ended up breaking out of the room about 10 seconds after the timer was up!  It was crazy.

Oh, and there were 6 of us in our group, but then we combined with 4 other random people when we got there.  It was a lot of fun.  We had our picture taken afterward (I cropped the random people out of the picture though since I don’t know if they want to show up on my blog!)

It was a fun and very memorable night.

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I was also sent some Mini Babybel cheese recently, which is always nice!

My whole family loves Babybel, but my husband and two oldest sons are the biggest fans!  It cracks me up because whenever Babybel sends me cheese and/or fun packages, my boys are like vultures.  However, they all know that I like to take pictures of the cheese before they can eat it AND it sometimes takes me a few days before I get around to taking the pictures!

I feel like I’m constantly saying, “Don’t eat the cheese!”  “I haven’t taken any pictures yet!”  THEN, when I finally do take the pics, the cheese is gone in 2 days!

It’s hilarious.

Anyway, this time Babybel challenged me to come up with a fun and different lunch box idea.  SO, here’s the lunch box I packed for my son the other day…

He’s a big fan of guacamole AND olives, but I rarely put things like that into his lunch box.  So, I thought I would make it fun and change it up a bit.  He always loves Babybel cheese in his lunches and likes to play with the red wax covering at recess afterward too.  Cheap entertainment, right?

I also included chocolate milk in his lunch this time instead of regular milk or water.  He thought that was pretty cool.

Ya know, I often pack a lot of the same things into my kids lunches.  I’m usually in a hurry and just pack the things that are quick and easy.  It’s fun to “think outside the box” sometimes and come up with new and exciting things.  It keeps it fresh (pun intended, ha ha.)

Oh, and when my son came home from school that day, he told me it was the “perfect lunch!”

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Well, I thought I would update y’all on my progress with my “3 Months, No Crap” plan.  It’s going well and I’m grateful for it because it’s keeping me on track.  The main “rules” of my plan are to stay away from refined sugar, refined flour and artificial sweeteners.

And just so ya know, I’m not being super ultra crazy about it; if something has sugar listed in the ingredients I may still eat it, I’m just staying away from obvious refined sugar products like candy, cake, cookies….all the good stuff.  Artificial sweeteners are a little more black and white.  If I see them listed in the ingredients, I don’t eat it.  Simple as that.

NOW, refined flour has been a little more tricky.  In a perfect world, I would just eat things like whole oats, brown rice, etc.  But, I’ve come across a few “gray areas” lately.  I’m totally staying away from bread and haven’t had it at all, but I did have a bowl of cereal (Wheat Chex mixed with Special K) the other day.  Yes, it’s probably refined, but I still had it!

I also had that Stuffed Avocado on our date night, which had some sort of breading on it, which I’m sure was refined…ha ha.  But, I ate it!  I’m trying to remember my “plan” at all times and use it as a guideline, but there’s been a few times I’ve just not been 100% compliant.

Overall, I’m happy with my commitment though and I KNOW I’ve made better food choices many times because of my plan.  I won’t give up, but I may have a few “iffy things” here and there.

Just keepin’ it real folks!

I HAVE been killin’ it on my exercise plan though!  It’s been a little bit strange, however.  I technically haven’t missed a workout, but it’s been a little unorthodox.  My plan is to run three times a week (preparing for a half marathon in May) and to attend classes at the gym the other three days.  I always take Sunday off.

Last week, I didn’t work out at all on Monday, Wednesday or Friday, but I doubled up my workouts on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday!  So I ran on the treadmill Tuesday morning (3 miles) and then went to my HIIT class at the gym Tuesday night (I did the same thing on Thursday too.)

I just have to say that I really really really DO NOT love the treadmill!  I’m grateful to have one and I’m grateful for the options it gives me, but I think it’s a cruel form of torture.

It’s also tough to run on the treadmill while I have a baby kickin’ around.  He’s a sweetie and is usually content to play with a few toys while I run, but I had to employ the help of my 4 year old the other day while I finished running…

He was a sweet brother and kept him entertained while I finished my last mile.  I was grateful.

I will also say that exercising regularly while being a busy mom is a MAJOR accomplishment!  It is NOT easy…..so PROPS to all of you busy moms out there who manage to still fit in workouts.  Seriously, we should all pat ourselves on the back…..constantly.  Ha ha.

It really does take a lot of commitment, sacrifice, planning and hard work.  It’s so worth it and I love it though!  I consider exercise my therapy and know that it helps me to be a happier, better mom.

I’m also happy to say that I ran OUTSIDE for the first time in a LONG time on Saturday!  I was so excited!  I took a quick, cheesy picture as I headed out the door.

I LOVE running outside!  I felt so carefree, motivated and could feel the stress melting off of my body.  It was wonderful!  I ran 4.2 miles and it was just perfect.  It also started snowing when I was almost home.  I was grateful I got my run in while the weather was decent.

After my run, my daughter and I headed over to the gym together.  The gym let me bring a friend for free on the weekends in February, so I brought her.   She loved it and we got a killer workout in!  We worked every upper body muscle group (bicep, triceps, shoulders, back and chest), did 80 pushups (most on my knees, gah!) and ended with some killer abs and planks.

We also managed to take a blurry selfie “us-ie” before we went home.

And ya, we didn’t intend to be twins in our black and pink….my daughter doesn’t own too many workout clothes and I don’t FIT into too many of mine….so we don’t have a lot of options.  And I felt like a giant next to her…hee hee.  That’s okay though because she is 13 and I am…….NOT.

I also want to say that I am about 12 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight.  It is FREAKING hard to lose weight!

There are some ladies out there who seem to hardly gain any weight while pregnant and then are back into their “skinny jeans” within weeks after giving birth.

I am NOT one of those ladies.

I think pregnancy weight gain and the weight loss afterward has a lot to do with genetics and hormones.  It also has a LOT to do with donuts and laying on the couch too.  Ha ha.

But, I have felt the effects of those pregnancy hormones on my body many, many, many times!  This past pregnancy was my healthiest pregnancy!  I watched what I ate the entire time and exercised as much as I could.  I still gained almost 40 pounds.  Crazy.

I have also worked my BUTT off to get back into shape and lose all of this weight since having the baby.  It’s come off VERY, VERY slowly.  It’s discouraging, but I try to remind myself that even though the weight isn’t coming off as fast as I would like, I’m still making my body stronger and healthier in the process.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again.  I have a good body image and self esteem no matter what I weigh or how I look.  I also know that healthy living and achieving/maintaining a healthy weight and body is 100% my responsibility and my choice.  However, I will never be one of those people who starve themselves, exercise for hours and hours, go on a crazy diet, “juice fast” or whatever to lose weight.  My health is WAY more important to me than that.

I also want to mention that I am a nursing mom and in my experience, nursing has not been my friend in regards to weight loss!  A lot of people out there say that nursing is one of the best ways to lose weight.

This is NOT true for me!

I KNOW my body is hormonal and it feels like it’s clinging onto weight and extra fat so I will have enough to feed the baby.  I’ve felt it time and time again with each one of my babies.  When I start to ween my babies, the weight finally falls off of me!  Soooo, to all of you nursing mothers out there who are frustrated with weight loss….I feel your pain!

Okay, I didn’t mean to go on and on, so I will end my rant now.

Actually, I will end this post now too!  I hope you all have a fantastic Monday! xoxo

**I received cheese and a gift card from Mini Babybel, but the text and opinions are entirely my own, as always!**