Eight weeks into Front Range Adventure Boot Camp, I have become bored with my food choices. A person can only eat so much chicken before they have an adverse reaction.

Cluck, cluck.

The only thing that has not caused ennui is incorporating one of my favorite foods – pumpkin – into my daily menu. In the past, I had always associated pumpkin with pies, cookies and rolls. Well, let’s face it – I still do. But now my indulgences of this low-calorie, potassium-rich food have evolved into Kashi’s Pumpkin Spice Flax Bars and pumpkin protein shakes.

I was recently at [where else?] Super Target and the woman in front of me noticed the conveyor belt full of pumpkin products.

“Do you like pumpkins?”
“What gave me away?”
“Ha ha. Have you heard of Hungry Girl?”
“What did you call me? Is it that obvious?” (In case you are wondering, I was a comedian in a former life.)
“No, not you. There is a Web site – Hungry Girl - that has a lot of healthy pumpkin-based recipes.”

It was then I knew it was love.

But before this Hungry Girl divulges too much, my weekly weight loss is 2 pounds with a 2% drop in body fat. My eight-week total is 20 pounds.

Most people would be happy with these totals but coupled with my struggle to switch things up, I had a glass-half-empty kind of week and felt defeated about how far I still have to go.

So I went out and bought The Hungry Girl cookbook. The author – Lisa Lillien – has been everywhere in the media lately. She proclaims that she is not a nutritionist, just hungry, and has struggled with weight issues for most of her life. Now, she is at the forefront of the latest trends in food and dieting, living the Hungry Girl lifestyle and loving what she eats.

I tried a couple of her recipes – the vegetable egg rolls and healthy strawberry scones – and loved what she eats as well.

However, my big challenges this week are not about mixing it up but having waaaaaay too many choices. My daughter’s birthday parties are on Saturday and Sunday, followed by a Memorial Day breakfast and BBQ. I am not too concerned about losing weight this week but certainly don’t want to gain any back. What tips do you have?

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

I recently waged a battle with the various remote controls for the new HDTV in our bedroom. Jamie and I had watched a movie the night prior and for the life of me, I could not switch the input back to TV. My life depended on it (or at least a shower while Bode watched Elmo). But much to my frustration, I could not get it to work.

It reminded of my first meltdown the day after I moved to Colorado. I had given up everything: friends, a career and city I loved, a cool house across from Sugar House park and my independence. All for a guy I had met on the Internet.

Internet Guy had gone to work and I was left alone in the condo we would share together after our wedding. I half-heartedly unpacked some boxes but feeling overwhelmed, I grabbed the remote to watch some television. I had never even heard of Dish Network, let alone taken the requisite Ph.D. course to navigate it.

For an hour, I battled that remote and lost. And so I did what any sane person would do who had just left her entire life behind:

I freaked out.

I called Jamie, sobbing about how I could not get the remote to work. Of course, the remote was just the straw for this camel. He wisely came right home, consoled his train-wreck-of-a-fiancee, set me up on the television with reruns of The Newlywed Game, and still chose to marry me. Even after full disclosure.

It has been five and a half years since that day. With a new home, two kids and great life together, we have come a long way.

Well, except that I still cannot work the stupid remote.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

I’ll admit it: I am a pain in the arse sometimes. Like when Jamie emailed me a few weeks ago and invited me on a date to Jill’s, a snazzy bistro in the St. Julien Hotel and Spa in Boulder. Problem is I hadn’t heard of it. Bigger problem is when I set my mind to something, I can become a bit difficult.

Turns out we didn’t need ‘em.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

II tried an experiment and allowed myself an indulgence last week.

Then again, to consider it an experiment perhaps I need to garner inspiration from my science fair days and write a solid hypothesis and carry out a detailed plan of action.

I suspect my spur-of-the-moment hypothesis, “Those ice cream sundaes and bacon asiago bread look tasty so I will eat them” does not really count.

This must be why I was a science-fair failure.

I know of many diets that give you a free day or free meal so I decided to apply this to my Mother’s Day dinner and lo, I did eat. After all, we were celebrating my motherhood with carbs and ice cream. How could I pass that up?

Did it work? My weekly weight loss is: 2.5 pounds, making my Week 7 weight loss total 18.5 pounds. One could conclude the experiment worked, though I may have possibly lost an additional 4 pounds had I not taken that extra scoop of chocolate fudge. Or two.

At this point in my journey, every day has a struggle of some kind. But after a month and a half of participating in The Front Range Adventure Boot Camp, I am learning what my body needs. That it is not about deprivation but moderation, an important life lesson for maintaining this lifestyle.

Every week, a few of us meet at someone’s house for a healthy dinner as inspirational life coach Robyn guides us on our path. And every week, I am touched in some way and leave feeling infallible, like no temptation is too great.

Until a certain someone’s husband returns home with the kids from Grandma’s with a plate of freshly-baked brownies moments after the meeting has been adjourned.

And then you realize that the source of the enticements, the one who is sent to lure you out of that paradisiacal garden? Some call him Satan.

Or Jamie.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

I am bored. I hate being bored. For so long, I was this crazy, stressed lunatic woman and you know what?

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

Monday’s post about being a good or bad mother had an overwhelming response. Some women felt validated that they are doing a great job. And others vented about how judgmental the world of moms can be.

Monday’s post about being a good or bad mother had an overwhelming response. Some women felt validated that they are doing a great job. And others vented about how judgmental the world of moms can be.

I took a different approach all together.

Since beginning my butt-kicking Front Range Adventure Boot Camp, my children have suffered. Not because I have submitted them to the same rigorous workouts but because they have had to [insert collective gasp] eat healthy food on a daily basis, something no child should ever have to endure.

At least that is what my daughter Hadley tries to convince me when we are at the grocery store.

And so I took a judgmental-mom-be-darned approach and bought my children Twinkies yesterday. Because HOLYCRAP – they are almost 2 and 4 and have never had a Twinkie in their lives.

And also because they do not tempt me in the least and I would not touch them with a ten-foot pole.

But before we launch into the ins and outs of what you are feeding your children, my weekly weight-loss total is: 3 pounds. This brings my six-week total to 16 pounds. I was rather shocked with this week’s loss, given my oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough and brownie indulgences on Saturday. And yes, indulgences is indeed plural. The only possible explanations are:

a) My body needs and thrives on cookie dough, just like the flower needs the rain (or however that song goes).
b) I overcompensated afterward by working my butt off.

I like the first explanation better.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

Hadley is a perfect angel at preschool.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

Last week was thankfully Jamie’s final week of church basketball and it is the first season he has survived unscathed. For so many years, he had heart problems. Last year, he cracked a rib the first game. This year, our friend Phil took the fall for the team and is going in for knee surgery in a few weeks.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog

WHY ARE YOU A GREAT MOTHER? Let’s give ourselves a serious shout-out today!

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Every year, mothers are celebrated on that one special May day (which is not to be confused with “mayday,” another word with which mamas are familiar).

And every year growing up, I remember my mother was consumed with guilt and inadequacy, the very antithesis of what Mother’s Day is supposed to be about. Was she the perfect mom? Of course not. None of us are. But she loved, sacrificed and cared for her children as best she could.

I was recently at a resale children’s clothing store. As I poked around, the shopkeeper asked the age of my son and she confided she had a boy his same age. At check-out, I grabbed both of my children a free sucker to reward them for their good behavior. She looked at me and distastefully commented,

“I just can’t imagine giving my 21-month-old child a sucker.”

I laughed her off but almost wished I had said something like, “Yeah, I feed him straight sugar via intravenous for breakfast.”

As I walked out of the store, I was irate. How dare she criticize me? At that same moment, I noticed Read on

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog