Not the Biggest , But Still a Loser

So, I've lost about 25 pounds since September. Since people have asked, I thought I'd blog about how I did it. One of my co-workers lost 40 pounds on the Flat Belly Diet last year. Another friend of mine, a woman, lost 30 pounds. Both have kept it off, but basically changed their eating habits for life.
The photo above was from last August. I didn't start this Flat Bely thing thinking I was going to make a lifelong change, or I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere. But, I have to say it's not that bad and I will probably keep going in some fashion. Here's the deal:

Four meals of 400 calories.
Eat every 4 hours during the day.
Eat a monounsaturated fat (MUFA) with every meal
Most meals have a moderate amount of protein and starch and larger portion of vegetables or fruits

The diet also advocates exercise, but does not dictate what to do. I work out 3-5 times a week. I do a half hour of cardio each time and weights at least 3 of the days. I make sure I have a fun book with me that I only allow myself to read at the gym. Right now it's Can you Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. You can see why I feel I need to be in shape anyway... Hana never stops moving.


The diet has been harder than the exercise, especially in the beginning. I was really, really hungry the first couple of weeks. But, now I'm accustomed to eating smaller meals and more often. I try to drink a lot of tea or snack on veggies and fruit, when I just need something. The calorie count is designed for a woman who is about 5 foot 4, so my co-worker modified his portions. I'm not sure if I buy the book's theory that MUFA's fight belly fat, but I do like those foods (nuts, avocados, olives, peanut butter) and they help me feel more full.

The diet does take some pre-planning, but you get used to it. I carry snacks with me and make my lunch. That's a pretty big deal, since I loved going out to lunch during work. Cooking can be a pain, but I've tried to streamline it with my own frozen meal components. I freeze my small portions of ground turkey when I get home from the store. I also buy individually packaged chicken breasts and fish that I freeze as well. I throw my protein together with some frozen or fresh veggies and some rice, tortilla, or pasta. I keep half cup portions of cooked rice in the freezer too. There are a ton of recipes in the Flat Belly Diet book and cookbook. I used some of the ideas, but I really haven't tried the recipes. They do look tasty. So, that's my story. I've made to 129 pounds. I want to lose about ten more pounds and then I'll be the weight I was when I got married in 1998. Wish me luck.

Things I really like:

Crafty Givers: Here's a link to the etsy store of crafters donating to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti Relief. If you're on ravelry, there are a lot of designers there doing the same. Thanks to my friend vegancraftastic for sharing all this. She has more info on her blog.

Arc Value Village thrift stores. I like all thrift stores, but Arc is one of my favorite organizations as well. They recently opened a store on the east side of St. Paul and I don't think a lot of people know it's there. It's big and bright with a lot of room. There are always deals. At the Brooklyn Center store, my friend found a sweater she saw at Nieman Marcus a few years ago for about $300 for less than 10 bucks.

Podcasts: This is how I catch up with my favorite NPR shows like Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, This American Life, and Radio Lab. I also listen to a variety of knitting podcasts. Don't laugh, doesn't it make sense to listen while you're doing something with your hands? If you didn't know, one of my favorite radio stations the Current 89.3 has a free download of the day as well as a review show called Musicheads. Good way to keep up with the latest music.

I've heard people talking about:
Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets. Some parents I know are giving it a big thumbs up. They have products for adults too.

Things I've learned recently:
How to join a sweater as you knit. Pretty cool technique I found in Lily Chin's Knitting Tips and Tricks. I also darned some socks after watching a youtube video. They didnt' look so pretty, but I guess it did the job. I wasn't about to let my handknit socks go down without a fight. After all, I spent probably 16-20 hours making each pair.

Christmas in January

We celebrated Christmas with family a little late this year because a blizzard kept the Fargoans off the roads. But, we had the added bonus of Auntie Sherry and Cousin Hailey joining us from the Milwaukee area when we got together a week later.


As you can see, it was a Rock Band Christmas. The kids (big and little) had a great time jamming together.

Hana enjoyed all the attention, but didn't quite understand the present opening ritual. Next year should be much different. She received many wonderful books, clothes, and toys from relatives and a cool easel from Santa.

Hana is still more interested in walking and climbing, but at times she shows interest in scribbling. She's also starting to put objects inside of things. This is, however, unfortunate when when she hides her sippy cup of milk.

I'm going to try to blog more often this year (let's see) and discuss the various things I learn about and run across, which will probably be mostly parenting and craft related. If you're interested in WCCO-TV news stuff, you can follow me on twitter (mnishi) or on facebook (Maya Nishikawa Wcco) or go to this link.

Things I really like:
18 year-old balsamic vinegar. I found an olive oil store in Mendota Heights called the Olive Grove just before the holidays. You can taste all of their various olive oils and other specialty oils and vinegars. They will bottle what you choose. It's a lot of fun to try out all of the oils and the traditional balsamic (18 years-old) is awesome. I put it on everything from bread to chicken and broccoli. It tastes like a very sweet wine. I'd eat cardboard with this stuff.

Things I learned recently:
Norwegian Purling: I doubted my friend Jen when she said how fast this technique is, but once you get the hang of it, it's really speedy. Check out this youtube video.

If an adult tooth gets knocked out, rinse it with liquid (preferably saline or something with salt like gatorade) and put it back in as soon as possible. Leaving it out for half an hour will mean no chance of re-attaching it. This came from a dentist who visited our ECFE class.

If you sell stuff on amazon.com, they'll charge 15% commission plus a sale closing charge. Be careful you don't sign up for a merchant account without realizing they will charge you $40

Things I hear people talking about:
Nurtureshock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman Good advice or more hype?
A year's worth of slow cooker recipes at
Crockpot365.blogspot.com

What's off/on the needles:
Lots of gifts:

Just finished four doggie sweaters for Christmas from The Gift Knitter, various cat themed dishcloths, and fingerless mitts (Humanity pattern available for free on ravelry.com) for a cold co-worker.

Next up: more baby knitting and finishing the Central Park Hoodie I started two years ago.

Water Baby

I figured I had better blog something before we actually hit the holidays (not counting Thanksgiving). Life has been good and busy for all of us. Hana's class schedule has expanded to include "water babies" at the YWCA. This has turned out to be a private class for her.


She seems to be enjoying the water, though she's not wild about getting her face wet.

Hana is such an active girl, we thought this would suit her. She's continuing with music class at MacPhail in Minneapolis, Early Childhood Family Education, and baby ballroom dancing as well.

We want to expose Hana to other kids and these classes have been great. She is quite social and enjoys watching and sometimes chasing after the other toddlers. Occasionally, she tries to sit on another kid. We're working on that. Hana is a fast walker, though she's still a little unsteady sometimes. She also likes to climb. One of her favorite things is just grabbing as many objects as she can and walking around with them. She just started placing blocks (instead of just throwing them around) and holding crayons (eating them too). It's been fun to see her make so many changes.

Last Sunday, I attended the St. Paul chapter of Compassionate Friends' Candle Lighting Remembrance Service. This is an international group supporting families who've lost children. It was a nice way of honoring our children before the holidays. I've discovered a whole new set of friends on the grief journey, most I've met through the grief groups at Children's Hospital. Though we'd rather not be together for this reason, it has been encouraging to find each other. Our lives are forever changed in so many ways because of Mieko. She continues to bring wonderful people into our lives.

We hope you all have happy holidays filled with joy, laughter, and many warm memories. I promise to post with all the holiday happenings soon.

One-derful

Again, I've let too much time lapse between posts. Hana is one now! She's changing so much everyday. But, the biggest thing is she's now walking. She started walking across the livingroom on October 17th, the evening after her birthday party. Before that, it was just a couple of steps at a time. She's getting more confident everyday. Hana is also a climber. She loves to climb all over people and there's almost nothing that gets in her way.

Since, the last update, we had a fun visit to the pumpkin patch. The same one Mieko visited in fall of 2007. As always, Hana enjoyed the goats. It was a beautiful fall day and at that time still sunny and warm.


Hana's first birthday party was a blast. We celebrated at the Eagle's Nest indoor playground. As you can tell, Hana really enjoyed her cake. We were so happy to have many friends a family members with us. Hana also shared some of her birthday balloons with Mieko. We let them go at her tree.


Here are Hana's newest stats from her 12 month check-up. She weighs 20 pounds 7 ounces and is 29.3 inches long. Though she's only in the 34% for weight, she seems to be eating well. She really enjoys feeding herself and eats almost everything. She's not too excited about green vegetables, but she loves fruit, pasta, and pancakes.

She's also able to use her sippy cup now on her own. Hana is still babbling a lot, but we haven't heard any words yet. She's keeping very busy with music class, early childhood family ed., and this week she starts water babies. Hana is a very physical child and doesn't sit still for very long. It's really an adjustment for us, since we never had to worry about what Mieko was getting into or where she was going. At first, I thought all typical kids must be like Hana, but now that we're in group activities, I'm realizing she's more boisterous than a lot of other kids. She's also very curious, which is wonderful to see.

Last Summer Flings

Hana capped off her busy summer with our traditional trip to the State Fair. She had the chance to pet a few animals and check out the crowds. She had a taste of her first fair food... the chocolate from a fudge puppy (belgian waffle on a stick covered in Chocolate). She seemed to enjoy herself, but pooped out before too long.


The fair is always a big deal for us, since it was Mieko's first outing after her open heart surgery in 2004. It was a real victory for her to make it there after spending much of the summer in the hospital. She never missed the fair during her four years and we have many happy memories there with her.

Hana and I went on two last road trips as well. We spent a day in Rochester visiting our friend Kathy and her adorable kids. We also had the chance to spend some time with our friend Bianca, who also had a little girl with Trisomy 18. We met through the Support Organization for Trisomy 13, 18, and Related Disorders. Both our families hope to make it to the SOFT conference in South Dakota next summer.

Lastly, we traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to visit my college friend Gisele and her family. My friend and co-worker Carly came with us to explore the city. We really enjoyed Omaha, especially the pedestrian bridge and Old Market.


You can see, we left Hana in Iowa, but only for a little while. Omaha's Old Market is in downtown. We liked the shops and restaurants, but it all seemed very empty. Maybe because it was a weekday. We also checked out the Lauritzen Gardens. It was definitely worth the visit. There were traditional rose and Victorian gardens as well as a model railroad garden with replicas of historic buildings from Omaha and around the world. We also enjoyed a huge field of wildflowers. Too bad Hana slept through it all.

We were happy to spend a little time with Gisele and her family. Hopefully, we'll be back again soon for a longer visit. Or maybe they can check our our land o' lakes up here.


School is off to a good start for Shawn at Osseo Senior high. So far, he's not coaching advising any groups but he will have very full classrooms of Juniors.

Hana will be going back to ECFE soon and we'll also be volunteering during another class. Hana loves other kids and she'll be able to get extra interaction with them. We also signed up for a music exploration class at MacPhail. So far, it's great. No pics yet, I'll take them next time. I am a bit concerned, though, that she's decided to tackle other kids.


Last, but not least, Hana is getting very close to walking. For about the past week, she's gotten very comfortable standing up by herself for longer periods of time (see video below). If she could just stay in one position longer than a few seconds, I think she would walk. She's one busy body.

Little Angels

I really should update more often. So much has happened since my last post. Grandpa Mits came to visit for two weeks. We made sure he had plenty of activities...including two family events, the PGA championship, and lots of rounds of golf. When he walked in the door, Hana cried at first. But, it didn't take long for her to smile and giggle playing with Grandpa.



We had our tree dedication celebration for Mieko's tree in McQuillan Park. It was great to see her teachers and physical therapist from Rondo as well as family friends.

We let a few balloons go and shared some memories of Mieko. Despite how sad we are she's no longer with us, we are remain thankful for those four years we had with our special girl and that she still brings us together.



That weekend, we traveled to Fargo for Hana's baptism at First Lutheran Church. All of the Johnsons have been baptized in that church. Hana didn't want to sit for the service, so her godmother entertained her while we waited. She did pretty well during the ceremony.

She didn't like getting wet, but she only fussed a little. She also managed to kick her booties off during the event. Mieko was baptized along with her cousin Gabriel in 2005. But Hana's ceremony was a little different. The congregation sang "Jesus Loves Me" to her at the end, which was a very nice touch.
Shawn and Grandpa played golf almost everyday and I even played a couple of times. Their new favorite course is Purple Hawk in the Cambridge area. Grandpa also saw some of his favorite golfers on the first day of the PGA championship at Hazeltine. He packed a lot in during this trip. Maybe next time he'll make it to the State Fair too.

Shawn is enjoying his last couple of weeks before the school year begins. Hana goes on walks all the time soaking up what's left of our summer weather. She's also figured out how fun the kids playroom is at the YWCA. She really enjoys the other kids and, of course, all the toys.


Speaking of playing with toys... my Tuesday night knitting friends and I had our much anticipated Artfibers Yarntasting party. It was a blast. We had the opportunity to try out almost 200 different types of unique yarn made for this San Francisco bay area company. I had the chance to visit their store last year and became a fan. So far the "try before you buy" program is free. I highly recommend it for any group interested in Artfibers.

They have all sorts of fibers from unusual types of silk to wool, alpaca, mohair, yak, bamboo, and synthetics. There's even a yarn that has paper in it. It was a very cool experience.

On the Road

Hana did very well on our big summer road trip. We traveled about 3,500 miles in eight days. She slept quite a bit in the SUV or amused herself with toys. We are making it an annual tradition to attend the SOFT (Support Org. for Trisomy 18,13, and Related Disorders) Conference Picnic and Balloon Release. First, we drove to Toledo and had Hungarian food at Tony Packo's. It was the first restaurant we've ever seen with signed hot dog buns. Hundreds of celebrities have their "buns" on the walls.



We stopped at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, which was very cool. Next, we visited Gettsyburg, Pennsylvania. We toured the civil war battlefields and saw the huge cyclorama painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. We also had lunch in an historic tavern.

We kept going east all the way to Virginia Beach, Virginia. We enjoyed walking the beach, but Hana was scared of the water.

We headed west again for the conference in Roanoke, but made a few stops on the way. We went to Colonial Williamsburg, but didn't make it in time to tour the buildings. We strolled some of the streets, where we ran into a founding father.


We also toured the College of William and Mary, including the oldest college building still in use in the United States. When Hana looks back at these pictures, she's going to think we never took her out of that backpack. But, she really does love the view from up there and was so comfortable, she even fell asleep in it.


We stayed in Richmond one night and had the best barbecue sandwiches ever. It was actually Texas barbecue at a place called Alamo. We also tried North Carolina and Virginia style barbecues. We really liked the No. Carolina style, which had a lot of vinegar in the sauce. Next, we visited Thomas Jefferson's home Monticello in Charlottesville. We also hiked the area around the natural bridge not far from Roanoke. Everything in Virginia seems tied to history. We saw George Washington's initials carved into the rock when he surveyed the bridge.


Speaking of history... we also visited "Foamhenge". It's a life size replica of Stonehenge made out of foam. You never know what you may find along the road.

We had a wonderful time in Roanoke at the SOFT picnic. There are many families we know from contact online and it's great to see them in person. This was only our second year, so we're still getting to know people. It is always inspiring to see kids who are long term survivors with trisomy disorders, some in their teens and twenties. I really wish we would've been able to take Mieko to a conference. We were supposed to go a few years ago in Chicago, but a hospitalization kept us home. It is always touching for me to meet someone who remembers Mieko and followed her life online or watched her videos. The big event is the balloon release for all the children who've passed away.


This year, we released the balloons from beautiful spot on the mountainside overlooking Roanoke. This is always such a moving event. I put together this youtube video, if you'd like to see it, here's a link:

Baloon Release 2009

I hope that we can continue participating in the balloon release every year. We would like Hana to grow up with this tradition. We see other siblings who come every year and they have such a sensitivity towards children with disabilities. We would like Hana to get to know the special kids and maybe feel closer to her sister.

We had time for a couple more stops on the way home. We visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We enjoyed hiking and seeing several waterfalls. We even saw a bear, though it was in the brush several feet away. But, it was still exciting for us.

Lastly, we spent some time in St. Louis. We saw the gorgeous Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. It has one of the largest displays of mosaic art in the world. More than 40 million tiles were used and thousands of colors. Shawn thought it was more impressive than Notre Dame.

We also went to the St. Louis zoo, probably the best free zoo we've ever seen. Hana had her first carousel ride. She also really liked the goat yard.


Since we've been home, Hana has been in constant motion. She's either crawling, climbing, pulling herself up to stand, or walking along the furniture at all times. How do kids get so much energy? She had her 9 month check-up and weighs almost 19 pounds. She's also eating finger food now like Cheerios. She really has fun picking up the little o's when she's not tossing them from her high chair.

Hana loves being around other kids, especially older ones. She squeals and laughs a lot. I took her on a play date at the Como Zoo with the babies of some of my colleagues at WCCO-TV. All five of them were born in Sept. and Oct. of last year. It was a lot of fun to see them interact, though most of the time they did their own thing. I'm going to try to get Hana involved in more group activities, since at home it's just her and the kitties. I think her buddy Jordan needs a break from getting chased.