Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Yes, it's a new year. Yes, I have a good bit that's gone on that I could and should blog about. But for now I thought I would share a few things that I'm doing differently as of yesterday, New Year's Day. I'm not calling them resolutions because they're just things I'm doing differently. And a new year is always a nice time to start something fresh.

•As of yesterday, we are in the midst of potty training Cooper. This is definitely something that should (and hopefully will!) stick and do so soon. As of this evening, he has not had one wet accident. Though I will say that he's worn a pull-up a couple of times when we had to leave the house and both times, it was wet when we got back home. But so far, when he's wearing his big boy underwear (yes, my apologies to any men or women out there who didn't want to read about this! The whole post isn't about bodily functions, just skip to the next bullet point.) he has not been wet. "#2" is a whole 'nother subject. Let's just hope we figure that one out soon before I go crazy.

•I have started doing some basic meal planning. I've never really done this before, but so far, I'm really liking it. I think this will help me to do a better job of cooking on the days that I work. That along with Garrett's basketball practice one night a week and Wednesday night activities, I'm afraid we'll be eating sandwiches alot if I don't start doing something like this consistently.

•Another bonus to the meal planning is that I'm back to an attempt to lose weight (again). Yes, this is a constant battle for me if you've known me any amount of time. However, pictures of myself that have been taken recently are a big motivator behind this attempt so hopefully I'll stick with it better than I have in the past. One new thing that I'm doing this time is using the website My Fitness Pal. It's basically an online food journal that counts calories. So far I like it!

•I'm also adding in regular exercise to my routine. A few months ago I bought a Jillian Michaels Wii game/exercise. It's similar to The Shred, but since you do it with either the Wii remote in hand or on the Wii balance board, she tells you whether or not you're doing it right. So you either hear "Stop wasting my time! I didn't ask you here!" or "Great job! Keep it up!" Keith enjoys reminding me to stop wasting her time. Thankfully he's limited his witty banter to mimicking Jillian. I'm not a huge fan of exercising in front of my family, but the boys view it as me playing Wii with them, so they love it. That will help me to make it consistent since I don't have to do it when they're in bed or otherwise occupied. My favorite part is when Cooper laughs at me while I'm doing crunches and when Garrett says I look just like Jillian. One's a mocker, the other's a flatterer.