15 Marbles

The pattern is available on Ravelry as a free download.
It works up very quickly, all up it took me 4 days. Can’t wait to use this now.

My stash of homemade Garam Masala- I was on the phone the other day whinging to dad that my stash is running out..So he sent a fresh batch out 😊 

Isn’t he  the best? 

I am talking about Ms.An. YES! She is officially Nappy/diaper-free, now!! And we are very excited about it. Toilet-training was slow this time around, for various reason, but the biggest being her lactose-intolerance. The age at which I started toilet-training Ms.A, was the same age,when we were just discovering and coming to terms with Ms.An’s lactose-intolerance.
We finally got over that and got down to the business of toilet training and failed 3 times, may be because
1) she wasn’t ready.
2) I wasn’t committed enough.
3) Too many distractions read the father, the sister, the grandparents, the TV and the iPad.
4) She is head-strong and I am a pushover.

In the mean-time, she was moved to the pre-kinder room at her childcare and was doing the right things there for her teachers. I think being part of a group, helped her.
Anyway, two weeks back, she got sick and I stayed home with her, just me and her and I tried it again. This time, I made it our little secret- Mumma & Nanya’s little secret and she loved it. Also, she is going through a mum-crazed phase and wants me to happy, so the timing was just perfect. We had two accidents on the first day, another one on the second day and that was all. But, two days later, the tummy bug came back. We gave it a break and tried again when she got better. This time, I got braver and we went to the shops and we made it back home, without any accidents. Its been over a week since we used any nappies and she is mighty proud of herself, as are we!
I leave you with a pic of my big girl, taken at a party this weekend, her first ever nappy-free social outing 🙂

Its been a while since I did one of these updates. I started writing this post, a couple of weeks back but just didn’t get around to finishing it. I have LOST a whopping 11 kgs in the last year, since April 28th,2014 to be precise.
No fad diets- just good old calorie counting. Its a bit tedious to start with but MFP rocks. And I have added some exercise, 2-3 times a week. Some weeks I can get to the gym on a 4th day too and on other weeks, I can barely fit in 1, but living in a house with stairs has its own advantages..so some extra trips up and down those stairs, help.
In the past, I always had a mission-a mission to lose X number of kilos by this date or 2 dress sizes by that date, and if that didn’t happen, it was enough for me to get disappointed and fall off the wagon.
In the past, I tried extreme diets- elimination diets- going off sugar, carbs and what-nots and then I would binge, like there was no tomorrow.
But, as I am getting older, I am getting wiser( or so I like to think!) I have come to realise that elimination or extreme dieting is not for me. Another reason why calorie counting works for me. If I want to really eat something, I can then adjust the rest of my calories, around it. And if I really, really want to eat something, I just eat it and work the rest of the day around it. It stops me from bingeing at the end of the day. Fortunately, the cravings are very rare. I can sit there, looking at a box of chocolate and not reach for it. Its all in the mind I guess( and I hope I haven’t jinxed it now!!!)
This time, I started with no goal in mind.. actually that’s wrong. I did have a goal and that goal was to get fit! But I didn’t have a deadline or goal weight- my only aim was to lose weight and lose weight for good. I reached the 10 kg mark, a week or 10 days before the 1 year anniversary of weight-loss(Thank you MFP for reminding me ) and decided to push more and ended up with 11 kgs loss.
I still have a long way to go till I reach my happiest number on the scale but that doesn’t take away from this milestone.
For my next goal, I have a set number. I am aiming to lose 7 kgs by Ms.An’s birthday. Losing the next 7 kgs will take me to my happy weight. I call it my happy weight, because it’s the lowest number I reached post-babies(both of them!)
This morning I told SP about my next magic number, 7 and he reminded me that every time I lose weight or get aggressive with my weight-loss mission, I face a setback and E.V.E.R.Y single time it is an Asthma attack.And you know what? He is right! What started as a sinus headache two days back has turned into a full blown wheeze now. My doctor had mentioned Exercise-induced asthma at one stage too..so I don’t know if its that. Anyway, I am sipping lots of hot-water, OD-ing on flu-meds and taking my preventer on time and generally staying warm and resting.
The other thing that I am hoping will help is working out in a warm gym as opposed to working out in the open, which I absolutely love. But, as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, that the biggest change for me this time has been accepting my limitations and working around it. I would’ve loved to lose 10 kgs in 3 months, B.U.T I don’t know think its possible realistically with my hormonal issues, time-limitations and busy life( life with two little kids is busy :D).
I’ll update here when I get to my next milestone 🙂
I’ll be back with updates about Ms.An, who has reached a milestone of her own in the last week.. Soon.. for now the bed beckons.
Love,
T