Photography

Lately I have been quite obsessed with taking pictures.  It's reaking havoc on my hard drive.  I'm currently going through all of my pictures and deleting copy's or images I don't need.  It's addicting to press that button a million times and the picture only changes slightly.

I'm trying to learn how to use my 50 mm.  I want stunning pictures.  I mostly understand aperture and all that jazz.  Well, I just understand how to make the picture lighter or darker.  I don't use flash anymore.  That is quite wonderful.  I want to understand it all better, though.

I'm also learning how to edit pictures with my photoshop program.  I use Photoshop Elements.  I know there is a lot that it can do that I don't know about.  It didn't come with an instruction manual, so I'm on the hunt for one.

I took my sisters engagements because her photographer is MIA in California somewhere.  I don't think I did too bad of a job for not knowing what I was doing.  I don't plan on starting a photography business because I don't know what the heck I'm doing.  I just want to take good pictures for myself.

I take a million of my daughter.  I can't wait until we can go outside because I think my photos will be so much better.  Something about the outdoors....

I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on books or anything where I can make better sense of everything.  I'm posting a picture of every day on my Project 365 blog.  It's a place for me to display what I'm currently capable of.  Hopefully we'll see some good progress over the year.

Here are a few of her engagements (remember I am an amateur):

 

I had fun playing with the colors in the photos.  

  

 

a little blurry, but I like the pose

 

 

 

Suggestions? Tips? Advice?

40 lbs Down, 6 to Go

These pictures were taken on Monday.  I had 6 pounds to loose!  But as of this morning I'm down to 5 :)  I'm very excited about this.  Monday I put on a pair of pre pregnancy jeans that used to fit me a teeny bit big, but were still something I wore on a regular basis.  And they fit!  No muffin top; they even became baggy.  Then yesterday I put on another pair and same thing!  I'm waiting till I'm 2 pounds away to try on my smallest jeans.  I don't want to be dissapointed when they don't fit.

VERY EXCITED.  So as of now I'm 105 lbs(again, fake number).  Running 4 miles 3-6 days out of the week.  Fitting into size 4 and size 27 jeans.  Wearing my size small shirts, some are tighter than others. 

I'm wondering when I'll hit where my body was before pregnancy.  I don't think the number on the scale will be the same.  I can't decide if it will be before my goal weight or after.  Because the way my jeans are fitting is very similar to how it used to be, but my legs still need to shrink a bit.  As does my stomach. 

I can't believe how fast it is all coming off.  I lost 3 pounds in the last week.  And no, I'm not dieting or cutting calories.  Just running and breast feeding!  The sad thing is that all the weight loss and running has brought down my milk production to the point that I need to supplement.  Not with each feeding, just 2 or 3 out of the 5 in a 24 hour period.  But, I started taking more of these "Fen-Gre" pills at each meal and am now pumping three times a day instead of 1 and I can already tell it's coming back up.  When I realized this I didn't quite know what to do.  Do I stop running?  Do I eat even more?  Stopping the running would make me sad.  Not even necessarily because of the weight loss but because I am getting into such good shape!  I can run and run and run without getting tired.  It feels good.  I feel so good througout the rest of the day when I run in the morning.  I've only given Naomi about 4 ounces of formula a day for the last 4 days and she hasn't pooped!  Does it make babies constipated??  I'm working on not needing to do any formula. 

Anyway... here are the pictures!  Scroll down a few posts to where I was 10 pounds heavier... it's kind of crazy.

18 Weeks Postpartum

I just posted the post I wrote 2 weeks ago.  I just want to give a quick update on my training.

I have 7 pounds to loose.  It seemed like it was just flying right off (it kind of was), but I think it's slowed in the last few days.

I started running 4 miles each time and worked on getting it close to 40 minutes.  My record is 4 miles in 43 minutes and 10 seconds. 

I'm working really hard and I'm feeling like the results are slowing.  I want to diet quite badly but can't.  I've cut just about all dairy out of my diet in the hopes it will help my daughter not be so colicy.  But I've just replaced that with more grains.  I've cut out a lot of the vegetables I was starting to enjoy eating.  Peppers and onions.. you know, the stuff that gives food flavor.  Hopefully I wont have to do it for much longer since we will start her on solids soon.

I'm starting to really want to chop my hair and give myself a dramatic change.  The only reason I'm hesitating is because I want to give it to locks of love and I need another inch.  So I'm trying to wait until mid March.  But I feel like my face is finally mine again.  Still has some chub to loose, but I am looking so much more like myself.

I'm running 4-6 days a week.  I was going to try to run every day this week but I didn't feel well so I couldn't.  Dang.  So I'll run tomorrow and Saturday and it will be 5 times this week.  To total 20 miles.  Not so bad.

It's amazing though.  The change my body has undergone.  I can run at a 5.5 for ever without getting out of breath.  It's my body that get's tired.  I go at a 6 for 15 minutes and then slow down to a 5.8 for a few minutes then a 5.5 and I stay at that till my body decides it needs a break.  So I walk for 2-3 minutes and then run at a 5.5 for 10 minutes or more and I keep that up until I hit 4 miles.  Then I walk on an incline to cool down and give my legs more of a workout. 

Right now I'm just trying to stay motivated and not get down because  I'm not magically my pre pregnancy self again.  It's only been 4 months, I need to chill.  I know.  

16 Weeks Postpartum

I wrote this on February 5th.  I just forgot to post it and got busy.  Keep that in mind!  It was 2 weeks ago.

It has been 4 weeks since I last did a "loose the baby weight progress report".  Things are going well and I'm feeling very motivated to run.  The habit has been established and I run every day unless I have to be somewhere in the morning.

I run at the same time every day.  The second Naomi goes down for her first nap I change and get on the treadmill.  She sleeps for 21/2 to 3 hours without making a peep every day so I have to take advantage.  The second nap isn't as restful and is only about 2 to 2 1/2 hours (I know... "only"  :)

I'm a lucky mommy.  She also takes a third 30 minute nap.

I have been going at least 3 miles for the last two weeks.  I haven't hit my 3 miles in 30 minutes yet, but today I ran 3 miles in 33 minutes so I'm getting close.

A month ago I could only go about 2 minutes and then I needed to stop and walk.  Today I ran 15 minutes at 5.8 mph before I needed to walk and even then I only walked for 2 minutes then started running again.

It's getting so much easier to push myself and I'm feeling confident about being able to run a half marathon.  I'm still so far away.  I could do one tomorrow but it would be more walking than running.  The snow needs to go away (currently it's been snowing since the middle of last night) so I can do longer runs outside.  I think my patience is waning even with just the 3 miles.

Starting Monday I'm bumping it up to 4 miles a day.

As for my weight.

I am 10 pounds away (almost 9) from my pre pregnancy weight.  I've lost 5 pounds in the last month which is pretty good.

It took 2 weeks to start loosing because of water retention.

I'm so nervous it's going to start getting hard to loose and it's going to taper.  I'm assuming that the last 5 is going to take a lot of work, but I'm hoping it doesn't.

I am still eating chocolate everyday (Cadbury eggs... they are around only once a year).  I'm sure once I quit that I'll loose faster since it adds about 200 calories a day.

Thank heavens for breastfeeding because I'm sure it is another reason it's coming off so fast.

I'm into size 28's now and 29's are fitting loose.  I haven't even tried a 27 yet.  I wont until I'm 5 pounds away.

I'm feeling so much better about myself.  I can wear my wedding ring (it's still really tight).  My stomach is basically flat except for the tire still remaining.  I didn't think it could do that again!  But I have been doing sit ups like crazy.  It kind of hurts and I can't figure out if it's because of the stretched abdominals or the C-Section, but my guess is stretched tummy.

I also do push ups and lift weights and do squats each day.  Jaren says he can see a huge difference.  I think I can too, but when I put clothes on (since I'm normally in t shirts and stretchy/sweats/PJ pants) I get down because there are still lumps where there used to not be.

Taken on February 6th.  (Almost 2 weeks ago)

 

  

Maybe I'll try to take some current ones tomorrow since I've lost about another 2 pounds.