Happenings

Olivia is growing very fast. Her 2 year molars are coming in and she has been chewing anything and everything for the past week. The corner of her board books, my ipod nano. I suggested to Mike that he just give her whole carrots for her to gnaw on and that seem to help a ton. She talks a ton know and in whole sentences. I don't always understand her but atleast the communication factor has increased. I don't know if it is the teething or coming back from a vacation but Olivia's sleeping schedule is way off. She is struggling going to bed and staying in her bed all night. My goal right now is to get her to go to bed without fighting us and slowly move her bedtime to 8 o'clock at the latest.

I have been reading Parenting with Love and Logic and it is really great. Thanks Brooke for recommending it. So Olivia can climb in and out of the crib like a pro but I am pretty hesitant to take off the railing because she still falls out of the bed. So I decided to leave the railing down so it is easier for her to climb out and I think Mike might take the railing off later this week. Then we do our nightly ritual and I told her she can sleep in her bed or she can climb out but she will have to sleep on the floor. I sucks listening to her cry but it sucks even worse when no one gets enough sleep and we are all grumpy the next day.

As soon as I put her in the crib, she climbed out and sat at the door and knocked and yelled out mommy, daddy, mike, open it, knock. She pulled out all the stops. But 15 minutes later she was out. And she was nestled right up to the door. It was like Ferberizing her all over again. The first 3 days are the hardest but hopefully it will work out. And she always has the choice to sleep in the bed or on the floor but she has to be in her room.

Really Olivia is awesome and we go through all these trials but I am grateful that she is such a good eater and is so polite. She is an awesome observer and loves to imitate everyone. She really is a free spirit like Mike and wants to do everything herself.

Tablerock hike

I have been meaning to blog about this a long time ago but life happens. Ever since I have been married to Mike, I have wanted to do this hike. The huge tablerock hike in Teton canyon. I always heard about how hard and treacherous it is but how absolutely amazing the views are. For awhile I wasn't in shape or I was pregnant. Probably the biggest thing was finding the time to actually do it. But we did it on a whim on our family vacation.

There are two ways up. The hard way which is about 4 miles of intense uphill most of the way. Or the long way which is about 7 miles. It is uphill but more gradual with switchbacks. We decided to go the hard way up and the long way back.

We woke up at 6 AM and there were some threatening rain clouds. In my mind I was doing the hike because I might not be able to do it for another year or so. We got ready and ate breakfast and headed up the canyon in hopes that it would clear up and lucky for us it surely did.

At this point I had done Insanity for 3 weeks and I was in pretty good shape and I took off like a bullet. I was with Mike, his brother Andy and Andy's wife Chrissy. They weren't doing so great. Insanity workouts are killer from the beginning to the end. You jump right into the warmups and kill it for about 40 minutes straight so my body was accustomed to this.

I think the elevation change had some factor on our pace too. Andy and Chrissy live in Portland which is almost sea level. In Logan it is about 4500 feet elevation. At the trailhead it was about 7000 feet elevation. And it climbs intensely. If I remember correctly we climbed about 2000 feet within the first mile.

Maybe I had unrealistic expectations because I didn't know what shape everyone was in. I was hoping we could go for a good record time. I was thinking 2.5 hours up and 3 hours back. Boy was I way off.

Chrissy got sick on the way up and she thew up multiple times. I think she had altitude sickness and she probably was out of shape. So we took a lot of breaks. Mike and I didn't get to the top until 1 PM. I am not sure what time Andy and Chrissy made it. I think they were about 45-60 minutes behind us. So basically we averaged 1 mile an hour. Mike and I hiked to Inspiration point which takes us to a ledge that goes straight done and slopes up to the Grand Teton. It was amazing.

Mike and I headed back and we met up with Andy and Chrissy and we didn't get to the trailhead until 7 pm. On a side note I was so looking forward to eating my sandwich at the top of the mountain. When we got to the top, Mike opened his pack and no sandwiches. They were left in the car. Needless to say I was pissed. I got over it but I was really hungry and I had worked really hard and no reward.

In a nutshell it was a freaking awesome hike. The views were amazing, the weather was perfect and the flowers were awesome. I love hiking with Mike. On the downside I was ultra grumpy at the end because I had been on my feet for 10 hours with not enough food. I would definitely do the hike again but next time I am going for my best time and not just completion. This hike was a huge accomplishment.

Feeling results

I am feeling and seeing results. I know I shouldn't weigh daily but I have been and I know females fluctuate between a range depending on their cycle but I am super stoked. I should be at my heaviest weight right now due to water retention but I am actually lower than my lowest weight range. I got to celebrate the small victories. And it is nice to fit into my pants and not feel constricted.



Here is my activity chart from my bodybugg. I thought it was interesting. My activity is high in the morning because that is when I usually work out between 6-7. Then it peaks when I have to walk from my car to my office. I work at the university and no one gets a close parking spot. I walked up and down the flight of stairs in my building in the morning then I took a walk through campus right before lunch, walked another flight of stairs and took another walk on the other side of campus in the afternoon. When I am at my computer it is barely higher than when I am sleeping. Then it is home and it is basically nonstop activity. I have to cook dinner and play with Olivia. I check my bodybugg and see how many more calories I need to burn before bedtime and it is always a lot. This always motivates me to take a walk with Olivia, run around, clean, dance or take her to the park instead of plopping myself down to watch tv or surf the web.

I haven't been able to reach my 2500 calorie burn yet. Missed it by 10 calories on Wednesday and 65 yesterday. I was thinking of changing it to 2400 so I can actually reach my goal but I might leave it just so I have something to push towards. I read somewhere online that the Biggest Loser contestants shoot for 6000 calorie burn each day. The first thing that came into my head was "Damn that is a lot." Here I am complaining about 100.

My plan is to take a run sometime to see the calorie burn. I can't wait to do an Insanity workout so I can really see how much I burn. I haven't ever taken a zumba class but I will post my results if and when I do them. I also started a blog about my p90X experience because I know it helps me stay motivated. Just in case anyone is interested: http://p90xdurtschi.blogspot.com/

Bodybugg

I am really on a fitness kick lately and instead of being resistant, I have totally thrown myself into it. I did the Insanity workouts for only 3 weeks and it was awesome and I noticed a difference. Mike wanted to do P90X so I stopped Insanity so we could do it together. I will be the first to admit that I haven't finished a complete Beachbody program but I do feel great. And I have found some great information, people to follow on FB and Twitter on my fitness quest which could be a post in itself. But here is my latest obsession: the Bodybugg

The first time I heard about the bodybugg was on the tv show The Biggest Loser. The first time I saw it was at the local gym where I have a membership at. They also do a Biggest Loser contest at the beginning of the year. The first person I knew that owned a Bodybugg was Julie. I started following Chalene Johnson the creator of Turbo Jam, Turbo Kick, Turbo Fire and Chalean Extreme for Beachbody. I read her review which can be found here: http://www.turbokick.com/wblog/?p=162. I really wanted one but boy are they pricey.

Lucky for me Mike said he would be willing to buy one for me for our wedding anniversary. Brand new that would have been a whopping $280 atleast but that includes a 6 month membership to the online program. I found one used on KSL for $200 but I was able to negotiate and get it for $170. I still had to buy an online membership which may have evened out the price but I don't mind.

It was quite the headache to get it registered since it was a used one but I finally figured it out and I have used it for almost 2 days now. There is a saying that knowledge is power. I have also heard that how you use the knowledge is the real power. And I am hopeful that how I use the data will help me achieve the results I want.

Things I have learned/realized thus far:

1. If I am going to go through the effort to wear the bodybugg, it doesn't take much effort to track my food and check my data regularly.
2. I was totally underestimating how much food I was consuming. No wonder I could gain weight so easily or not lose weight while exercising.
3. My goal is to get 10000 steps a day which is actually pretty easy. It is also pretty easy to rack up 2000 steps in a 10 minute walk. But boy oh boy is it hard to peel myself away from the computer twice a day to do it but the payoff is worth it. 4000 steps but just imagine if I didn't get up and take a break. I would have to make it up somehow.
4. I burn practically nothing while sitting at my computer. It is almost as low as sleeping. Which is a real bummer because I spend 8-10 hours on that sucker a day.
5. My goal is to reach a daily burn of 2500 calories. If I did nothing in terms of exercise my body would supposedly burn about 2000 calories. I will tell you that getting that 500 extra calories has been brutal.
6. I was totally overestimating how many calories I was burning during some exercises. When I did 60 minutes of weight training, I only burned 250. When I did 90 minutes of yoga, I only burned 300 calories. Hopefully the burn is substantial when I do a plyometric workout or an insanity workout. I will find out next week.
7. Since I have been keeping a log of my food intake it really helps me be selective about what I consume. And I realize how easy it is to consume 300 calories in junk food.
8. It is not easy to burn 100 calories unless I want to go run/walk a mile.


In a nutshell, I have all this awesome data. What I do with it can help me meet my health goals. Now that I have the facts I can't make up excuses of I didn't eat that much, I burned like 500 calories on that workout, etc, etc. I am glad that I invested in the bodybugg because it makes me more realistic/accountable to myself.

Island Park

Ava, Adie and Olivia on the pony at Grandma Kunz's house. Maybe there is a little cowgirl inside of Olivia.


Olivia and Ava asleep on the way to Cave Falls.


Olivia and her walking stick. I am glad Olivia loves the outdoors and camping. I can't wait until she is old enough to actually to do the hikes.


Olivia and Adie enjoying the camp fire.


Mike and the awesome fire he built.

I have a lot of posts to catch up on but I think I am going to do the most recent first this time. We went on a family vacation to Island Park. We camped in our sweet tent and Olivia even slept on her own camping pad and sleeping bag. The weather was nice and we got to see a lot of things. Friday - set up camp. Saturday - drove to the top of Sawtelle Mountain. It was about 9800 feet in elevation. The highest point I had been to until the following Tuesday. Sunday - Drove to Quake Lake and drove up to Sawtelle again and saw a moose with her calves. Monday - Drove to Cave Fall, let the girls play in the river naked. Tuesday - Hiked to Table Rock to see the Tetons. Wednesday - Olivia got to ride a pony and headed home.