Your Shape Challenge Week 6 Update*

I am at week 6 in the Your Shape Challenge. Using the Your Shape fitness program from Ubisoft on the Wii to lose weight and get healthier.

This challenge has been tough for me. As you probably already know, losing weight is not just all about exercise. It is a lifestyle change complete with an all new way of eating. Which brings us to the week 6 Challenge that we were given : Finding Healthy Snacks.

Here is the exact challenge we were confronted with :

We were all sent a gift card to cover the cost of this week’s challenge.

Your mission: Find and/or create a healthy snack for yourself each day. Use your giftcard to shop for yourself at Walmart and find some great, healthy food to snack on.

Here are the Healthy Snacks I bought :

Banana’s – which I love, and I learned as I was in agonizing pain with pulled muscles, that these help to alleviate some of that.

Craisins – I bought the regular ones. These are dried Cranberries. They were al great tasting snack (as you can tell, since my bag is empty). I also was able to use them as toppings for yogurt.

Fiber One bars – I bought the peanut butter kind. These are delish. And eating just one, was able to curb my appetite till the next mealtime. They are very fulfilling.

True Delights Blueberry rice cakes- These are so good, they have a texture of a potato chip almost and taste very blueberryish, which I love. I had a coupon for these so I picked this to try, and I was very happy with this purchase.

Nature Valley Nut Clusters – Can you tell yet, that I LOVE peanut butter? These nut clusters are very good. I love the crunchiness and they are very satisfying after just a few.

Planter’s Peanuts with Sea Salt – Again, I love nuts, and I was watching Dr. Oz the one day and he was telling how great nuts are for you, and that ones with sea salt are very much better for you than regular salt.  I was able to eat these plain or use as toppings.

I think I am much more a salt eater than sweets. I am not that into chocolate, which is amazing to most people. Every once in a while I will crave a piece of chocolate or a candy bar. Chips and pretzels and anything salty is my downfall though. So that is why I tried to chose healthier snacks that had a lot of good things such as fiber, and iron in them, that were able to satisfy my “salt- tooth” at the same time.

I also bought some bottled water with my snacks and this :

A new addition to my exercise equipment that I can use with the Your Shape. A Body Ball. I haven’t tried it yet, because to tell the truth, I am feeling a bit nervous, that I will blow it us and get on it, and it will pop and I will fall to the floor on my face! But I am going to blow it up for Week 7 and get to using it. I am also excited to see what new exercises Jenny McCarthy will have for me to do on/with it. So this is my motivation.

As far as the weigh in goes for this week, I lost nothing this week  But I didn’t gain either. I must say, I was less active this week due to having to stay in because of the yucky weather here in Pittsburgh. I still did my 30 min. with the Yourshape 4 days this past week but I am thinking I need to switch it up a bit. By using the Body Ball this week, I should be able to accomplish this, plus I am hoping for better weather so I can get out and get moving more.

I think I may have done a little too much snacking this week and not enough exercising. We shall see what Week 7 has in store for me

How is your weight loss, fitness, get healthy goal going? Comment and tell me about it. How was your past week, and what are you going to change this week?

The Plus Size Mommy

* I am participating in the Your Shape Challenge through Collective Bias , I received the game for free and I am also receicing fun prizes and perks. Your Shape is from Ubisoft.The weight loss and any idea’s are my own. I received a gift card for this weeks challenge.

A Girl’s Gotta Laugh

Hallmark is asking YOU to create a funny or encouraging card to make woman laugh. Life is hard and a good laugh can sometimes make the worst of days turn better just by a little note of pick me up.

All you have to do is submit a design, photo, or illustration. Write a funny or encouraging message for any woman. Finally, Submit it to the Hallmark site here :

Your card could then be sold online and also at thousands of stores! (if chosen)

The contest launched on Feb 8th and the deadline for submissions is Feb 22nd.  24 winners will be selected to have their greeting card creation sold in stores and one lucky winner will have their card broadcast on Ovation TV – reaching more than 38 million homes!

To learn more about the contest, you can visit Ovation TV which offers step by step instructions on how you can create an award-winning greeting card plus there’s a direct link on the Ovation site where you can visit Hallmark and enter your work.

Good luck !!

The Plus Size Mommy
*This post is written on behalf of my relationship as a member of the Role Mommy Writers Network. I have been compensated to write this post.

Unofficial Experiment on Skin Color

So, a few weeks ago I was watching the news and they had a, disturbing to me, segment on race and skin color and how children can perceive others by just their skin color.

I was so upset by this I wanted to see if my children reacted the same way. My children are bi-racial (I am white, my husband is black). We never speak down upon ANY race in my immediate family (cannot speak for Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and so on). I have ALWAYS taught my children to like everyone and be nice to everyone. And not just for race, for people who are physically challenged, mentally challenged, and so on. for NONE of us are perfect and everyone deserves equal treatment in my book.

I try VERY hard not to judge people, in my house, we serve the Lord, and being a Christian means that God is the ultimate judge and ONLY judge that matters.

I try to instill all of these morals into my children in every way I can. I know how it is to be judged, I know how it feels to be judged, even before people know anything about me. And lemme tell you, it isn’t a nice feeling AT ALL.

To me, if you have  green hair, polka dotted skin, and your 2 ft. tall, with 1 leg and no arms, I will love you just the same as anyone else.

What I look for in friends is character. Honesty, Caring, Integrity, and Loving people. I try really hard to surround myself with people like this.

I also know that people DO and WILL make mistakes. I am a forgiving and patient person. I may be upset, but I will come around.

I never hold grudges, and again Life is just TOO short to worry myself with this mess, and to be upset over things I cannot control, and things that I don’t agree with.  But we are ALL Human and we all say and do things that others may not agree with, but we may not walk in those shoes. We may never walk in those shoes.

Example- I would never steal. But If I was in Haiti right now fending for my family and my life, and I had no water, no food, your damn right I would steal so I could live. So, we can really never say never. A lot of people in Haiti I am sure never thought they would go to these extremes either. But things and situations change in the blink of an eye, and those who once said the same, I would never steal, are now theives.  And some may say it isn’t really stealing, to justify the actions, but taking anything that isn’t yours, is stealing. Even if it is a $1 off of the ground in the supermarket parking lot with no one around. You didn’t earn that dollar, and finding it doesn’t magically make it yours.

So, anyways, lol, I am sorry, I got onto a tangent here.

SO, this segment on the news really got me so upset, I decided to try it unofficially at home with my daughter who is 4 as my test subject.

What they did on the news was ask children about her age which baby doll was the good one and then what baby doll was the bad one.

Here is how our unofficial test turned out :

I was so proud as a mother of how she reacted and at her responses. Although she said the black baby was the “good” baby is not why I am happy with the results, it was because her REASON why the black baby was the “good” baby, she said it is because it is her sisters favorite doll. Disturbingly on the news some of the black children said the black baby doll was “the bad one” and the white baby doll was “the good one”. I do not understand other than the people who we surround ourselves with how this can be a child’s answer to this? Based all on skin color alone?
It terrifies me that these are their answers. It terrifies me to think people are STILL judged to be good or bad based on color or race.
It saddens me to no end.

I think I will pray on it. Pray for people to get to know others and see how much alike we are. How our hopes and dreams are so much alike. How much more love could be in the world if we weren’t wasting our time judging others who we don’t even know, instead of taking the time to get to know them.

So while I pray, I ask 1 question of you…. what would YOUR child’s answers be?

I love you,

The Plus Size Mommy

Week 3 update-#Yourshape Challenge*

This week was bitter sweet for me. I was able to drink my water (looking into my food journal, I actually took in about 96 oz. of water per day), I did my workouts everyday, and I upped them to 30 min. from 15.  I have been doing very well staying on my 1500 calorie diet too. The only thing is, I think I overdid it a bit. I hurt my left knee doing exercises at the gym and also my back. I had a whole day where I was laid up in bed with a moist heat pad on my knee and the pain was unbearable, only comparing to that of childbirth!

I think I strained some muscles. And lemme tell you, this hurts BAD. I am doing MUCH better now, but this week, although I am still going to keep everything going as usual, I am not going to push myself so hard.

One of my teammates in the challenge has told me  not to go too fast at this, cause if I am hurting, I am going to want to quit soon. And that is the truth. I have to remember getting to be obese didn’t happen overnight, and even though I want to be healthy and skinny overnight….unless a miracle happens, it too will take time to get my weight off

Amongst the pain, however, I have had a TON of joy this week. I lost 4 pants sizes! And now today when I weighed in I lost another 4.2 pounds !!!! YIPPEEE

I do not understand though, how I lost only 8.2 pounds so far (total) and I lost the 4 pants sizes ? This is confusing to me. But I am thinking maybe my weight redistributed. Also my leader Stacie says I will get muscle by working out, and that can actually cause gain.

Although I haven’t gained weight, I am still kinda sad I didn’t lose more, but again, slow and steady,,,right?!

I have gotten so SO many supportive comments from everyone and even stirred up some people by motivating them to try the #yourshape  program, and also get back into the getting fit groove.

I THANK YOU to everyone who has been cheering me on, I need this, it motivates me so much.  I think part of getting fit and being on this journey IS the support. Without it, I may have already given up. So, please feel free to keep your virtual pom pom’s going for me  and for everyone in the group.

• Toni from A Daily Dose of Toni. @totally_toni
• Kim from Crafty Mama of 4. @craftymamaof4
• Amy From Selfish Mom. @SelfishMom
• Lori from A Cowboy’s Wife. @ACowboysWife
• Claire from The Mom Claire. @TheMomClaire
• Elizabeth from Busy Mom. @BusyMom
• Kelli from The Centsible Life. @CentsibleLife
• Stephanie from Mommy Musings. @MommyMusings
• Jodi from Multitasking Mommy. @JodiGrundig

Sometimes your motivation, and me knowing in my mind that I have to report to everyone online is the difference between buying and eating that candy bar….or NOT.  I have been VERY good on my diet this week, no straying, and I am proud of this.

Here was this past week’s Challenge :

Add 10 Challenge: This week add ten minutes to your exercise routine. Challenge yourself to complete those extra ten minutes each day that you exercise.

Not only did I add 10, I actually added 15, going from 15 min. workouts with Jenny to 30 minutes. And some days I did over an hour. So I met this challenge

In the beginning I thought for sure Jenny was going to “kill me” with upping the time, but I survived, and actually it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I think my stamina and strength has been building up.

You can follow the #Yourshape challenge here : YourShapeChallenge.com

Have you met your weight loss goals this week ? What were your goals ? What shape are YOU in today ? #yourshape

The Plus Size Mommy

* I am participating in the Your Shape Challenge through Collective Bias , I received the game for free
and I am also receicing fun prizes and perks. Your Shape is from Ubisoft.The weight loss and any idea’s are my own.

Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger = #Yourshape*

So, I couldn’t wait to do this blog post tonight. It is going to have to be a quick one because I promised a few giveaways over at twitter.

Anyways,

I made a huge announcement over on Facebook and Twitter today. So, I decided to make sure I shared it here as well.

As most of you know already, I have been in a 12 week challenge using the Your Shape fitness “game” for the Wii. This is the end of week 3, and we weigh in tomorrow night/Monday morning. And if you have been following my challenge, you may see the sidebar of my blog and following how much weight I have lost so far. In the first week of the challenge, I was thrilled because I lost 4 pounds !!! Well, then week 2 came and I was in a slump, I had no change in my weight.

But Still I persevered after all,  potentially the  whole world can be following me, and I cannot let everyone down and make a fool of myself. So I decided to step it up this week.  Not only have I added an extra 15 minutes to my #yourshape regime, I also have been working out at the gym for 1 1/2 hours a day, and also counting my calories much better ad closer.  I am doing 1500 calories. So, needless to say, this week was HARDER. My muscles have ached, my knee killed me, at times I feel like I have spaghetti legs, and I have ever cried, yes cried.

But today, TODAY, I felt a ton BETTER… today I was going shopping with the hubby and kids. And i decided to try a pair of jeans on that JUST MY SIZE sent me that I was bummed because when I got them, they didn’t fit. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t even get a leg in them. They were 4 sizes smaller than the size I am currently in. I am now wearing !!!

YES, you read it right, I got on jeans today that are 4 sizes smaller than what I started the challenge wearing !

I was so excited, still am. This is so amazing to me. Only 3 weeks and already smaller clothes!

I am feeling so much BETTER and have so much more energy.  I can also tell that my arms and legs are STRONGER too.

This feeling I am having of such accomplishment makes me want to run a marathon. I know, I am not quite THAT ready yet, but I feel as if I could.

This week (week 4) I have vowed to go at it a bit slower since I did hurt my knee and was in bed practically 1 whole day this week in severe pain. As one of my fitness partner’s told me, don’t start too hard and then get hurt and want to stop quickly. So I am going to take her advice and take it a bit easier this coming  week.  It just feels SOOOO good.

I cannot wait to weigh in, I am so tempted to do it now, but I won’t cause I want to be surprised. Besides it doesn’t count for the challenge till Monday

I hope that you will continue following my weight loss journey with me. I have some wonderful “cheerleaders” who have been following me and encouraging me on twitter and facebook. I love giving updates and hearing them say WTG Beth, or even when I fail (or feel like a failure) they grab me by the hand and raise me back up.

Thank you to everyone, and I am feeling so Blessed to have so many people having my back. It is a wonderful feeling

The Proof is in the pudding

Old Jeans :

NEW JEANS :

You can follow everyone participating in the challenge by visiting this site : YourShapeChallenge.com

The Plus Size Mommy  (cannot wait for the day to sign this, Plus Size No More Mommy )

* I am participating in the Your Shape Challenge through Collective Bias , I received the game for free
and I am also receicing fun prizes and perks. Your Shape is from Ubisoft.The weight loss and any idea’s are my own.

Spin and Win with Frigidare and Help the Children Too

Host Jennifer Garner and Frigidaire are teaming up for a new cause. It is called the Children CHANGE Program. They are dedicated and working hard to helping children who are living in poverty in the United States.

One in six children lives in poverty in America. They don’t need to. Save the Children works in impoverished rural communities in Appalachia, the Southeast, the Mississippi River Delta, the Gulf Coast, the Southwest and California’s Central Valley – where conditions resemble parts of the developing world. We provide early childhood development, literacy, physical activity, and nutrition programming as well as emergency relief.

HERE IS WHERE YOUR HELP COMES IN :

Frigidaire has a new spin and win game, where you have the chance to win a prize every day, or the grand prize of a brand new Frigidaire Affinity washer and dryer!  The best part?  Every single time you play, Frigidaire will donate $1.00 to Save the Children, as part of their $250,000 commitment to support Save the Children’s CHANGE program.  This is such an easy way to help, and it will help to provide nutritious snacks and food, and promote a healthy lifestyle for children living in poverty in the U.S.

With a click of your mouse to spin the wheel, you are not only helping the children and making changes in their lives. You also will have the chance at winning some great prizes.

Now click over to the Frigidaire Spin to Win Game and try your luck today, but more importantly you will be helping to make a difference for so many children!  Don’t forget you can play every day, and each time you play $1.00 will be donated!  Please tell your family, friends, tweet, blog, post on Facebook – there are so many ways to help get the word out there.

The Plus Size Mommy

Thank you to Frigidare for supporting this program and also to Mom Select and BSM Media for helping me to share it with all of you.

Please Pray for my Haitian Friends

I have some friends who are from and live in Haiti. I have been friends with Sorel Mondesir for over 7 years. We have never met in real life. We met actually playing online games over yahoo. We became penpals and the rest is history. We exchange Holiday cards, emails, and Instant Messages. He is also on facebook and  we keep in touch there as well.

Although we have never met irl, he and I became great friends. He has family here in the USA in Florida, and also in Canada. He got married to a beautiful woman named Ruth about 5 years ago, and they also now have a son named Ruud.

Sorel wanted to learn English (he speaks French) and he went to school to learn it. He was able to take classes through his work. I would sit on the computer countless nights and help him learn and do his work. I also was able to “test” my French skills on him. I am not very good.

When he got married he was so happy. I remember how nervous he was to ask Ruth. She is intimidating, as she is beautiful. He was worried he would not have enough money to “keep” a family. I encouraged him and said, if you love her, money won’t matter. (my bright way of thinkin as an American).

Sorel taught me so many things about humanity. How his views of the world are, and how much different things are here than there. I couldn’t understand or fathom what he would say to me. How they all turned electric off every night. How he ate out every day cause there wasn’t any refrigeration to keep food to cook at home. How he would come to America to work with his company, but couldn’t get to stay here, and had to stay on a compound while here most of the time.

How he had longed to come to America and bring his family. How Blessed I am to live here. And how hard he worked to try and earn a citizenship.

He told me of the struggles with governmentt. How horrible things would get down there. How he was worried to goto work at times.

He worked with something to do with cell phones and cables. He used his work computer to communicate a lot. He would tell me how poor the people were there. How the children would not have shoes. How some wouldn’t have food. These things are very easy to “blow off”, especially if you aren’t right there facing it. I know Haiti was like this, but felt this was way to big a problem for me, as I am sure many people think.

I sometimes would send them money. Especially when they had their son and at Holidays. Sorel and Ruth are very religious people. To me, it wasn’t a lot $20 sometimes, but to them, they were very appreciative.

We would talk a lot about the world and everything in it. I love to learn about all the cultures of the world and the people, so this to me was such a wonderful friendship.

The pictures they have been showing on the news the past 2 days are horrific. People lying dead in the streets. Children dead at school. Buildings collapsed. It is all so surreal.

How can this be. I cannot even fathom how in 2010 there can be any ANY place on Earth like this? HOW?

How can people here in USA make millions of dollars (and yes, I know they do help) but life still barely exists like this?

Anderson Cooper said mothers had to feed their children mud pies, REAL MUD PIES to eat, so the children has something. We are here squimishly disgusted when our babies eat dirt.

I yell at my children to get socks on, ones that match, and these poor babies over in Haiti, dont even own a pair of socks or shoes, or even a pair of sandles that we can buy at the dollar store!

How WRONG IS THIS? We are Humans for God’s sake. How can we live a life of luxury knowing that a few hours away there are people who live like this? I just do not understand it.

Wyclef Jean had tweeted that the people there need some clothing. I am going to start a local collection and send it via the red cross to them. I am going to continue to pray and I am going to continue to reach my friends. I am going to donate through the red cross as well. I wish there was more I could do. I feel so helpless.

I am going to do as much as I can for Sorel, Ruth, and Rudd. And if this was their time to go, I will do it all in their names.  For they were on this Earth for a reason. It may have been to teach me. To help me learn more about them. It may have been because God needed a few more wonderful people on the Earth. I don’t know the reason, but I know it was for the good.

This is RUTH MONDESIR – if you know her, and you know any status on her, please email me, comment through my blog, whatever, please let me know if you know how she is?

SOREL MONDESIR. They also have a 4yr. old son named Ruud. I know he has sisters in Florida. Please if you know any status on him, please contact me and let me know.

THANK YOU and God Bless.

The Plus Size Mommy

Please PRAY for ALL of HAITI tonight and as long as you can through this awful disaster.

Constant Prayers

I have a lot of prayer requests that I have been fulfilling lately. I thought I would do a post about them and pass it along so you all can pray along with me. The more Prayers sent up the better I say.

I went to church tonight to pray and also I have lit Prayer candles in everyone’s names. I will lite these candles and say a Prayer every day and night for these people and their families. God can work wonders. I am a testament to this.

Haiti – Pretty self explanatory, if you have heard anywhere about the Earthquake that hit there, you will know that these people of this tiny country need all the Prayers and God Speed to them as much as possible.

Sorel – A friend of mine, he lives in Haiti, he is a friend for about 7 years now, at least. He lives and works in Port Au Prince, in Petionville.  Right where the most damage is. I haven’t been able to reach him through facebook, twitter, messages, or pager, or cell phone. I am worried for him, and Pray he is okay.

Ruth – She is Sorels beloved wife.

Ruud – Sorel and Ruth’s son , he was 4 in November.

Jennae – Jennae is a fellow blogger who recently had found out that her 4 yr. old daughter has Leukemia. Prayers to them for healing and strength.

Audrey – Prayers needed for her father and her family.

Shellie – her son was in a tragic accident where he drowned and passed away. He was a toddler. Keeping her in Prayers. She is another fellow blogger.

Anissa – she has suffered a major stroke and was in a coma, she is healing and pulling through. I am continuing my prayers for her and her family for strength to endure the road ahead of them. Anissa is also a beloved fellow blogger.

All I can do is Pray the rest is up to God for his will. But I will do my part. Won’t you all chime in with Prayers too. These people all mean a lot to me and this is the least I can do for them all.

If you have a Prayer Request, whether large or small. please leave it in the comments. You can be anonymous, or u can say, Prayers Personal, if you like. God will understand and will know the reason. All we need to Pray is for God to hear you and us.

Thank you all. Your Sister In Christ, and God Bless,

The Plus Size Mommy

Be a part of the Guiness Book #Wispkiss challenge!

Winners of DOVE make a difference in a girls life Prize Pack

Congrats to the 2 winners of the DOVE Prize packs for making a difference in a girl’s life. KUDO’S to you both!!!

• Patti Bright
• Figaro1

Please email me within 48 hours with your home address’s and Subject Line “DOVE WINNER” to claim your prize pack! You are gonna love this prize pack!!

ENJOY and again thank you for being an influencer!

The Plus Size Mommy

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