YOGA BALL RULES!

When stimmies boil over, throw the chirruns on the yoga ball!!!!  Make them bounce their butts all over the house until they ask you for deodorant because they “STIIIINNNNNNKKKKK SOOOO BAAADDDD!!!”  (Ro quote).

Seriously, the yoga ball bounce does something for Ro that nothing else can…calms him in no time.  Get one at Target for around $15, and it comes with a fancy hand pump that has you mimicking a repetitive motion that kept me giggling for about 10 minutes, and I got a biceps/triceps workout in!  Sweet!

 

MAMA’S BOYS CAN HIKE!

New England has some incredible hiking to be discovered.  Hiking has always been Mama’s all-time favorite outdoor activity, and now I can enjoy it with my boys!!  They LOVE it!

It’s SO amazing to have them be at an age now where they can climb mountains and follow trails with me!!  I think this is my favorite time in parenting them so far.

They are crazy good at scaling rock faces and sliding down crevasses too! LOL   You can’t hike a flat trail with them – must be steep inclines and rough terrain!

And they even hold onto a beanie baby while they climb!!!

My boys are cool…

Ro and Lowie hike the Fells.

**THE MAMA OF THE DAY** TIME FOR CAVE(WO)MAN DIET. AGAIN.

Around last year’s holiday season, Mama hit an all-time poundage record for herself. I’ve always been really lucky to have inherited both of my parents’ insanely super metabolism, so this came as a Mama-slap to her face.

I was fat. There’s no other way to say it…except muy gorda…yes, that too.

Anyway, I’ve blogged about this before.  A lot.  But it’s food, and Mami likey!!!

So anyway, last summer, I lost 23 pounds! Whoo hoooooo!!!

I’ll tell you how I did it. It was SO easy! I was able to eat whatever I wanted, and I never exercised!!!!!!

No, not really.

I exercised 5 days a week, and I ate the caveman diet.

For those of you who don’t know what the caveman diet is…let me fill you in.

When Ronan was a baby, he ralphed like a spigot after every meal. Despite that, he was 30 lbs. at 10 months. Come to find out, he had reflux, so he kept wanting to eat, eat, eat and nurse, nurse, nurse, to soothe his upset tummy.

When we found out that he was so sensitive to food, we met with a Pediatric GI who recommended an exclusion diet. Hmm. Mama’s family is Italian and Puerto Rican, and we LOVE all food. Exclusion!? Wha-wha-wha-WHAT?

No gluten, casein, soy, nuts, or sugar. Oy. What’s left?

Lean meat. Some fish. Eggs with caution. Fruit. Veggies.

We dubbed it “The Caveman Diet”.

It has since been given a fancy name…The Paleolithic Diet, or Paleo Diet…um, it’s CAVEMAN DIET!

Anyway, after 3 weeks on the caveman diet with Ro, I lost about 25 pounds! Sweet!

So, I tried it again last summer. After a month, I lost 23 lbs!!!

Sadly, during the holidays, I gained back about 15 lbs.  Yeah.

Time for the caveman diet again.  And exercise – never my favorite, but I love how I feel when I’m done.

I try to walk/run 3 miles 3-5 times a week, and sometimes I do Pilates, Yoga or lift some little weights, but mostly it’s about not eating Dunkin Donuts and then having 2 servings of Carvel ice cream cake with Papa Gino’s pizza every day (hey – you know you’ve done this too!).

And it’s the caveman diet.

Hopefully, by July I will be able to fit into my cute clothes for my niece’s wedding in Malibu.  I hung my skinny jeans on the wall for inspiration.

No, this is not me, but she looks sort of like my mother, so I put that in to scare me into laying off Ma’s fudge.  It’s working – a little bit.