Mama Wants Her Body Back Review - Company Founder Listens!

I'm so excited about a comment I got on an old blog post! Just thrilled! Lisa Druxman commented on my "Mama Wants Her Body Back Review" post! Do you know who that is? She's the woman who designed the diet and exercise program. She's the head of the company, this is her product! And she read my blog! Not only did she read what I wrote, but she took the time to type out a reply and muck through the secret word security thing to post the comment. I've been heard!

This is what she had to say:
I do hope you post this comment. This is Lisa Druxman, the founder of Mama Wants Her Body Back. Because you were part of a University Study, I cannot know if they gave you the actual program. But if they did, the real calories are much higher than that. The nutritionist's analysis was 1238 kcal/day for A choices, 1562 kcal/day for B choices and 2003 kcal/day for C choices. Since people will most likely eat a mixture of the choices, then their nutritional intake will fall somewhere between the A and the C (i.e. 1238 kcal/day to 2003 kcal/day). Our clients are having phenomenal results. My goal is to help moms get their bodies back but also to realize their unbelievable strength. I thank you for sharing this with your readers.

"Mama Wants Her Body Back" must be out on the market now because my blog has been hit hard with Google searchers looking for reviews on the product. There have been a few comments left behind, but not many at all compared to how many hits that one post has been getting. It has been hit multiple times a day for the last month or so.

I left out one important piece of information on my review that Lisa and other Google searchers who stumble upon my blog won't know from reading that single post. My usual audience of readers know me well, and so I don't mention it all the time. The fact is, I'm a breastfeeding mama. This made a huge difference in the way the diet worked, or rather didn't work, for me.

My baby is 20 months old now and I'm still nursing her every three to four hours, all day and night. At the time that I did the diet study, my baby was 13 months old. I didn't feel that the diet made any allowance for breastfeeding, especially since the people running the study never asked me if I was nursing. They asked a ton of other questions, but that was never one of them. And there wasn't any information in the materials provided that addressed breastfeeding. So, I was left to guess how to compensate for the extra calories I needed to maintain a milk supply. I am not a nutritionist nor am I a lactation consultant nor any other type of credentialed diet or lactation specialist. I'm just a 44 yr old breastfeeding mom carrying around too much weight around my middle. Breastfeeding doesn't bode well with dieting; however, breastfeeding and making healthy eating choices do go well together. I wouldn't say that eating a pan of brownies is a healthy choice. Guilty!

To those of you purchasing the program, best of luck to you and stay away from the brownies! I'll join you after I quit nursing and I can better focus on just me.

Diet and exercise aside, there's just something amazing knowing that my opinion was heard. My little nonsensical blog that I just write mostly for myself stood on top of the Google search engine and said "Hey!" My voice via blog post is resonating and Lisa Druxman listened! Amazing and Exciting!

Bribery Works!

I'm bribing my 4 yr old. It's working great! I love it! That's how I potty trained her too, she has a price. She can be bought! Whenever I hear that "He can be bought!" phrase, I hear it in Robin Williams voice as the Genie in Disney's Aladdin movie. And now you know what the voices in my head sound like.

Anyway, Gracie has been getting in my bed in the middle of the night and then I'm squished and sweating between two little girls and a dog and a pile of unnecessary blankets. The hubby usually looks pretty comfy clinging the edge of his side of the bed, but this is just too much for me! The dog will usually figure out that she doesn't have enough room to sprawl out, so she'll go get in Libby's toddler bed which is just the right size.

Bribery is giving me a bit of breathing room lately. I told Gracie if she will stay in her own bed in her own room all night long and sleep all night until morning, I'll take her to the park. It's working! She loves going to the park. What 4 year old wouldn't fall for that? And, she just figured out how to pedal her tricycle, so we have been taking that with us to the parks and she's putting on some miles, then playing on the playground equipment too. This is wearing her out every day, helping with the sleep issue and earning the reward.

And, it's been fun! Tomorrow I'm taking the little girls to the zoo. If she doesn't stay in her own bed, I'll tell her that her little sis did! Aren't I devious?

Earth Day Rebel: The Planet is in Peril!

This is a picture of my neighbor's house and my house, it is behind the tree on the right. This photo was taken a few years ago and aside from the toilet paper, it hasn't changed much. We've trimmed it and it grew right back, over and over again. Because I'm an Earth Day Rebel, it sure looks different now!

My pictures might be too big in your browser window, just click a pic to see the full view then use the back button to return.

Bzzzzzzz Bzzzzzz Bzzzzzzz Big ugly sap spitting tree, this is my friend Mr. Chainsaw. This actually happened the other day, but since it was during the week of Earth Day, I'll tell you today. We rebelled a couple of days early.

We had a great big huge tree in our front yard. And the front yard is about the same size as an average bathroom, very small! We park under the tree and so do our next door neighbors; it hangs over their driveway too. The thing grows so fast, it was hard to keep up with trimming the branches and they get so long that they hang down and get in your face. The tree was constantly raining sap, leaves, bird poop... you name it, tree gunk! Yuck!

I have to say, it did provide some nice shade. But, on a cool day in April, the shade didn't seem so important. Now that the tree is gone, my daughter warned me against third degree burns if I touch my steering wheel this summer. Eh, I will just wear mittens. Maybe I'll start keeping my mitts in the freezer.

Yes, I said it: the tree is gone! We hired a couple of guys to cut it down and they hauled it off to the dump. Back to the earth - hey, maybe I'm not such an Earth Day Rebel after all! Killed a tree but gave it back. The landfill is a mountain in the making, right?

The girls and I watched all the excitement from the safety of the upstairs window. Might be killing a tree, but I didn't want to get konked on the head and become a victim of my own curiosity.

I don't know much about logging, except what I've seen on Ax Men (the reality tv show about loggers), but it seemed to me our hired loggers went about cutting the tree all wrong. First, they flung a rope up into the top branches and then tied the chainsaw to it. Then one guy scampered up there like a squirrel and used the chainsaw on a rope to cut off branches. This is not how they do it on TV! Once all the branches were on the ground, they cut the trunk down to a tall stump, then a shorter stump, then a stump that was nearly flush with the ground.


Why didn't they just chop it down at the ground level first and then instead of climbing the tree, they could have cut off the branches with their feet on the ground. Eh, what do I know. Maybe it's just more fun to use a chainsaw on a rope.

The guys made a couple of runs to the dump and that's that! We are the proud new owners of a stump! And we killed a tree. This is the 4th tree to be sacrificed for my happiness. Three of them in the back yard met Mr. Chainsaw in years past. The planet is in peril!

Thankful for No Job

I don't have to be out of town on business today. I don't have any board meetings. I don't have any pressing deadlines. I don't have to sit in a cubicle. I don't have to carry a briefcase. I don't have to wear a dress and panty-hose. I don't have to clock-in or watch the clock.

I don't have to carpool. I don't have to make my kids get up and dressed and out the door at 7am. I don't have to worry all day about my kids in daycare. I don't have to worry about my job during the night when my daughter spikes a spontaneous fever. I don't have to mask her sniffles with cold medicine and "forget" to tell the sitter. I don't have to put my career pressures on my little kids.

I don't get a paycheck. That's ok. I don't feel underpaid. I work 24 hours a day without a day off, ever. I work when I'm sick. I work when I'm tired. But I don't mind too much and I don't call it work. I don't have a boss; I have two. I love them very much! And, they won't fire me.

I am so very grateful that my husband works two jobs so that I can stay home with our two little daughters. I don't have anything against daycare or babysitters or working mothers, I am just happy to be free from adding all of that to our lives. I don't take these days at home for granted. I love not having a job!

Noddy is not Naughty

We were watching a little preschool program on PBS called "Noddy". He's a little wooden boy who lives in Toyland. I think he might be British, not sure, but the next cartoon is Kipper and he's a British dog. No mistaking Kipper as anything but British!

Noddy drives a taxi around Toytown along with his sidekick, Bumpy the dog. The mutt barks incessantly! The other characters are pretty cute. Noddy is adorable.

Anyway, we were watching Noddy and his yapping tail wagger when my 4 yr old says, "He's a bad boy."

I said, "Who?"

"The naughty boy"

"Naughty? Noddy? Oh, Noddy isn't naughty!"

Wait, that sounded confusing. Why on earth did they name the wooden kid Noddy anyway? Wonder whose idea that was? The more I try to tell her that Noddy is not naughty, the more she looks at me like I'm nuts.

"They said he's naughty"

Oh, she's got me there. They call him Noddy countless times in the 15 - 20 minutes cartoon. PBS, what is going on with you people? Why did you call the kid Noddy? That was just naughty!

Wonder what Kipper is up to today?

Disneyland or Taxes

The girls and I escaped to Disneyland on Tax Day. Keith stayed home to do our taxes and we didn't want any part of that! We gave him a nice quiet house so he could argue with Uncle Sam without interruption. He also had papers to grade, lesson plans to write and other work. Good thing he took the day off!

We were approaching Disneyland on Ball Road, about a mile to go when Libby pointed to the road in front of us, gasped, squealed, clapped and said "Yay!" She was bouncing and smiling in her carseat, waving her little arms! She knows! How does a 19 month old know the road to Disneyland? This makes me feel good knowing her days at Disneyland are wonderful enough for her to take notice of the route.

Honestly, Disneyland smells great! The parking structure, eh, smells like exhaust. Cough. Cough. But then you get into the Happiest Place on Earth and the wonderful scents are everywhere! Breathing deep at Disneyland makes my heart and soul very happy! Main Street smells like candy and cookies and wonderful unimaginable sweets. Do not arrive hungry! The rides have smells in them too. In the Caterpillar ride you can smell watermelon and cookies. Sweet! And the best: Disneyland flowers! Oh the landscaping is not only beautiful but very fragrant. It is so nice to walk around and breathe deep. So good for the heart and soul when you fill your lungs with the best perfumes in Southern California!

The girls wore their Princess Jasmine outfits again. I let a friend borrow Libby's Snow White and Sleeping Beauty dresses and we don't have them back yet, so Libby only had one costume. Gracie wanted to wear it anyway, so it worked out very nicely.

In fact, the Jasmine costumes were perfect for the day! We saw Princess Jasmine three times! First we saw her at the Princess Faire along with Belle and Tiana. Then while we were in the Tiki Room, she must have gone to get Aladdin and we saw them both just outside of the Tiki Room. Two Jasmine hugs! Twice the fun! (Shhh, don't tell the girls there were two different Jasmines) Then we went to California Adventure to see the Aladdin show and guess what - Aladdin and Jasmine were there too! They had to be there, they were in the show.


The Aladdin Show was amazing! And because the girls were so adorable in their costumes, the gate attendant said to me, "If you take them out of the stroller we'll park it for you and you can follow me. Little Jasmine, would you please carry the lamp? Be careful, the Genie is inside!" So we followed her to the VIP seating line which was very short. We should have been in the mile long line for the door like everyone else. Gracie gave up the lamp and we got to go right into the theater and choose any seat we wanted. After about 20 minutes, the handicapped people came in and then the mob. The show was awesome! They are ending this show in August, so if you haven't seen it, hurry!


As always, we left happy and exhausted. When we got home, the taxes were filed, Domino's Pizza on the table and my husband poured me a cold beer. What a magical day!

365 Birthdays per year!

"It's my birfday aday. I'm turning 4." This is what I hear Gracie telling everyone, everyday. Anyone and everyone. Nobody escapes the announcement. Just one little problem... aside from talking to strangers... it's not quite true. A wee bit misleading. Yes, she had a birthday. Yes, she turned four. But, not today.

Most of the time, I just let her tell people that it's her birthday. They usually respond with "Happy Birthday!" and that's that. No harm done.

Today I took my three daughters out to lunch at Red Robin. Oh, so good! And Gracie announced to the waiter that it's her birfday with her usual flair. He just said that was nice, no big deal. When we finished eating, I asked for a to-go box and next thing you know our table is surrounded by clapping waiters singing Happy Birthday to Gracie! She got a free birthday sundae too!

Apparently, every birthday needs a celebration. Even today's unofficial birfday.