Yeah, I've Been Bad

I haven't written in forever. MLG Nashville came and went and I sometimes think I had never decided to go. It messed up my schedule royally. The only good thing that came from it was Eric's visit. That was a blast and I can't wait to journey to Virginia and repay the favor. ;)

Working out has been slow, but good. Matt and I have been venturing beyond our backyard a bit. We've been hiking with some friends out at Pocket Wilderness. This past weekend we dared an 8 mile hike. Though there were times I would have given anything to just let it be over - I still fared better than the 8 mile hike Matt and I took with his family in GA. THAT was an experience... and not in a good way.

I've still been on my personal push to try new/get better at old things. I've been cooking more and trying to finish my quilt. I've been thinking about trekking into the world of embroidery again. I haven't picked that up since I was 11 or 12. I thought about creating something for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's Day. We'll see I guess.

But here are some happenings lately:

My Julia Child's Omelet!









Spring at my house. I adore trees. And these are a couple of my beauties!









The waterfall we hiked to this past weekend:









Me playing at MLG Nashville:

Yard Work

For the past week I've been busy outside in my yard working on getting it cleaned up. I've done a lot of bending over picking up brush, lifting heavy fallen branches, and squeezing clippers over and over and over. And doing all that for at least 4 hours a day has left me exhausted by the end. So I skipped my workouts because I had worked out so much already. And there's nothing wrong with that!
The problem is I've gotten out of routine already. I finally had my evenings back; and I loved it. Last night was the first trip back to the gym in a week. And almost didn't even go! I did 20 minutes on the elliptical with no weightlifting (I'll talk about this a little later). But it took so much energy just to get my butt down there. :( I'm not giving up. I'm just afraid going to the gym is going to be as hard as it was that first month!
So yeah, no weight lifting. I have arm muscles. I have lots of arm muscles!! It was great when my weight loss was slowing down and not giving as many results; I had weightlifting to give me something to focus on. But now I have these semi-well defined upper arm muscles. And I haven't lost too much fat in my arms. Well I take that back - I've lost a LOT of the jiggly hang down arm-y stuff. :p But these huge upper arm muscles just make my arms look fat again. I don't like it! I guess my next course of action is to pay attention to the machines that work that muscle and don't do as many. I shouldn't fore-go all of them because of one muscle. Duh. Thanks for helping me work that out! :p
Anyways, I'm starving. Time for breakfast. Oh btw - I snacked on grapes last night and they were DELICIOUS! (I've never been a huge fan of grapes - mostly because of the pulp)

See-ya!

P.S. I had a dream last night that I was walking with my dad and brother. At one point towards the end we started jogging and I did too! I didn't even notice that much and it didn't kill me in a few feet, lol. We ended up jogging a mile. I was so happy and told my mom all about it. Nice dream.... totally my goal. It felt so good! It was like a little sneak-preview to my future. hahaha.

New Pants!

Welcome March!
Not a whole lot to report lately. I've been working out regularly and adding more weight training and slightly less cardio. I've also been stretching my legs every night before I go to bed - trying to focus on my hip movement.
I've been getting arm muscles! YAY! My brother actually noticed without me saying anything! I've been doing the circuit machines; going arms, legs, arms, legs, etc; anywhere from 40-100 reps per machine depending on the muscle worked. I do the most on my quads (I think it's them). I chose to focus on that one because it not only works my legs but specifically my knees. And I hadn't really noticed till today that I've almost eliminated my knee soreness. And my range of motion is greatly improved as well!! You have no idea how big a deal that is for me!!
And I saved the best news for last - I've gotten into a new jean size!! :o I mean, I really had to squeeze into it, haha - but it's on! I've got them on right now! A new size! Hallelujah! One down - 2 more to go. ;)
So I'm so excited right now and wanted to share with the world. So now that that's done I think I'm going to go look in the mirror and check out my new pants!! And my new arms!! And knees!!! And butt... did I mention that it's lookin' fly lately? ;)

Updates, Challenges, and Changes

Hello strangers. I've been too busy to think straight lately. But I've still pushed myself not to slack on my gym time - which is an awesome accomplishment in itself!! I don't have any more weight loss lately - but I'm not that concerned about it. My mind set has been shifting from "results, results, results" to "I'm healthier today because I worked out like I should." This has also led me to not being as diligent with my logging of workouts and of this blog. Every now and then I find the time to catch up my logging, but it's not as it was before - where I was so excited to log each and every little thing I did. I'm thinking this is a good thing. Going from 'diet' mode to 'lifestyle' mode as my friend Melody would say. ;)
Random thought - I'm so excited for it to get warmer so I can switch up my workout routine with a little swimming. Plus get a good tan while I'm at it. ;) (not too dark - lots of sun is bad for you. :p)
I knew for this new challenge (the MLG one) I wanted to step it up a little, but wasn't sure how. I read an article today about how to keep moving throughout the day. It could burn as much as 350 extra calories! I was like, "hot dog! I can do that!" So my little mini-challenge to myself is to not be sedentary. To be constantly moving in one way or another. Right now I'm simply tapping my feet or swinging my legs. And it's not that hard at all. Once I get used to it it may not be that hard at all to remember. But I can feel my muscles getting slightly tired as if I were were working out, granted it takes longer. Imagine if we were capable of working out constantly all day! Oh the benefits, lol.
So I'm out - keep it up!

MLG Challenge

I'm getting started slowly on this new challenge. We've been so busy this week, on top of which I've been sick. I've worked out one day so far this week. :(
I have started a new challenge. It's 36 days and ends the day before MLG Nashville. I call it my MLG Challenge, lol. No specific goals, the same as before, just to stick with it, get more "fit."
I've started a small group Bible Study with Matt and our Sunday School class. It's focused on 'passing the baton' to the next generation and holding leadership roles with Godly intentions. Very interesting and I've learned so much in only the first class. Can't wait to go to more.
Not much to write about lately! Hopefully I'll have more news to share later on.

I DID IT! I WON!

My Challenge is Over! I WON!!

So this will be a post dedicated to my success and progress!

1. I beat my referee "challenger" 136 points to 130 points. (Facebook App)
2. I've lost 15 pounds (averaging in fluctuating water weight)
3. I've lost 2 inches in my waist.
4. I've lost 3 inches in my hips.
5. I've lost 2 inches in my thighs.
6. And most of all - I STUCK WITH IT FOR 28 DAYS!

My dad has told me he is proud of me. My brother beams when I talk about my progress. My mom is so happy for my results. And my husband is loving everything about this. Remember my first post? I wanted to surprise everyone and make my family proud of me? I think I did!! ^.^

My first post.

I am so glad I decided to keep a record of all this. It makes everything so much more fulfilling; to be able to look back and see my triumphs, my hard work. This makes it all sink in a little more.

**************

So I'll be hammering out the details of my next 28 day challenge. (you didn't think I was stopping here did you?) I'll start tomorrow. I'm still so excited!

So Busy!

I haven't had time lately to blog anything. Yesterday was my "peak" of busy-ness. So today should calm back down.
I've been working on stuff for DSO from sun-up till sun-down practically. Along with meetings, practices, etc. I don't even get to play for fun anymore! O.o
MLG Nashville is coming up next month and I want to go one way or another! But I'm so concerned about money. Hopefully Matt gets promoted this month (we hear at the end of Feb.) so we can have some extra cash. Won't be much more, but anything will help.
For some reason Matt's pay check was shorter than what it was supposed to be this month. I don't know if it was an accident or what. Lots of people's were. Seemingly innocent but guess what? NOW we can't spend hardly any money for Valentine's Day without possibly putting us in a bind. Whoop-a-dee-do. Thanks Bryan. 'Preciate it. Happy friggin' Valentine's Day to you.
My mom's birthday was yesterday too. I had to ask her stop by my house so I could give her her gift. I was too busy to go to her. [fail]
I had to skip out early from my Bible Study last night because of a DSO meeting. I felt so bad. I haven't seen everyone in forever. And the one time I do - I've got to leave.
And because of all that stuff I didn't get to workout yesterday. Sucks so bad. :(
AND to top it all off I'm getting sick. All this drama and stress is catching up to me and I'm sick... [sigh]

To end this on a happier note - I weighed myself two days ago and saw a number 20 pounds lighter. Haven't seen that number in ages. WOOHOO!

Ok, I'm going back to bed. Wake me up when it's warm outside....

Bright New Day!

So last week sucked big, fat, old eggs. I hated last week. I only worked out 3 days last week. And they were horrible days. This week not so much. ;)
Yesterday I worked the treadmill for 40 minutes. I did a pre-set workout thing. The "Variety" Button. Oooo. I love that thing now. Now that I'm used to incline changes and such, I can let the machine take me on a magical adventure of calorie burning. It pushed me to limits I'd never attempted before - and I overcame! WOOT! And I also ended up burning twice as many calories as normal. "Sweeeeeet."
Note to self - had a banana smoothie (real banana) about 45 minutes before working out. DO THAT AGAIN!!
I'm seeing changes all over my body now... feel better too. And (again, counting on the fact no one reads this!) a better sex life too. Rawr. ;) Confidence does funny things, lol.
I'm on my last week, and it's been a good week so far. I'm having fond memories of when I first started - the pain, the inconvenience,.... the pain. Now it's second nature. I couldn't imagine life being different. I don't want it to be different. I like it. I love it.
I think I can safely say - this is the start of something big in my life.

Almost There!

So this week has definitely been the hardest. I've skipped two days this week! And Tuesday's workout was an EXTREMELY rough one - leaving me feeling horrible and fatigued for days. Today was my first day back since, and it wasn't bad. Though I didn't push very hard either.
I changed my music up today and decided it made a big difference. 2 weeks must be my playlist music limit. After that I need CHANGE. Today I cruised on the treadmill with the Barenaked Ladies. Most of their songs aren't very fast at all but the treadmill kept my pace steady so I didn't slack. With the slower music and a fast pace, I had the sensation of flying. LOL. I know it sounds funny, but that's what it felt like.
I weighed myself again today. I seem to be fluctuating around (well I'll just go ahead and say it O.O) 250. I started at 260, so I'm very happy with that number! 20 more pounds and I'm my wedding weight. 30 more pounds and I'm my beginning college weight. And another 20 pounds will be my high school weight. Wow, have I really put on that much! This is so embarrassing to admit, but I'm betting on the fact that only about 2 people actually read this. Me... and my husband. :p (might I add that I AM over 6 feet tall and my highest 'healthy' weight is around 185, so yeah. I'm not some petite girl the size of a bus. O.o)
PANTS - I am able to pull them down my legs without even unbuttoning them. COOL! I'm having the WORST time keeping them up without a belt. Results? Well I sure hope so! My mini-goal is the pair of khakis hanging up in my bedroom. They were too small for me when I ordered them online. I refuse to try them till the end of next week. I'm hoping for a nice fit! I also plan to get my hair done for Valentine's Day as my reward for my 28 day challenge. I can't believe I've stuck with it! One more week!

Jeans Jeans Jeans

I decorated my bedroom, finally. I'm still not finished; it's an on-going project. But it looks so much better, so much more relaxing. One of the things I did was clean out my closet of all the jeans I have (past and present). I have about 20 pairs of jeans that I can't wear. I've been saving them because I *knew* I would get into them again one day. And that day is coming soon! I took a few minutes and arranged them in size order. Not by the size on the tag (us girls know how they vary). But by actual size. I held each one up to the others and judged them that way. I stacked them neatly with the different sizes easy to see. I found an old quilt rack, set it up in the corner of my bedroom, and displayed the jeans on top. I took my closest sized pair and hung it up on the wall behind. So every morning and night I see my inspiration - all those jeans. Some have never been warn. There are Gap, Victoria's Secret, American Eagle, random Walmart brands, Old Navy, you name it. A few even have tags. :p
Yesterday was the first day of week number 3. Every day I get more and more excited to go and work out. Now that I've gotten this far, I want to see how far I can go. I can feel it becoming routine, which is so good. And the little differences I see now, I know they'll grow to be big differences soon.
My motivations have come from the little changes I've seen, the jeans I've displayed in my room, and my little image in my head of every little fat cell popping and disappearing the longer I work out. Pop, pop... pop, pop, pop. Off and off they go. Buh Bye... don't come back.

Week three - welcome! Week four - get ready cause here I come!!

Thank You Fitness Magazine

I had to give a quick shout-out to fitnessmagazine.com for doing something I've never seen before. A fitness company actually showing normal people in pictures! Today I got an email with my daily tip. Included was this picture (shown left). It looked perfectly normal at first, until I noticed the slight belly shadow, and the little pudge on the arm, and the slightly larger thighs. And then I realized - this is no model, no professional athlete, no "perfect-weight-all-my-life" person. She was NORMAL! She's like me! Working on getting fit... not the embodiment of what I'm not: the perfectly tan, perfectly toned, perfectly thin people that I envy automatically. She was normal. Thank you....
And since they blessed my morning I'm going to bless them right back. Go to fitnessmagazine.com and get a full year for only 5.99 plus a free gift. I just did!

Seeing Results

I've noticed a few changes lately. YaY! I've got a couple muscle bulges in my arms that weren't there before. I've noticed my calves getting slightly thinner and leaner looking. And just this morning I noticed my upper thigh-line on up to my waist looked a little smaller. Very exciting! Although I haven't seen much progress on the scale... my weight has been fluctuating a lot.
On the flip side - I haven't gotten to workout in about 3 days and probably won't tomorrow either. Thursday I felt bad so I decided to take a break. Then Friday it started snowing and I didn't want to dare the roads. Today was the same - more snow, ice, and sleet. Tonight it's supposed to drop below freezing again and harden all the sludge that melted this afternoon. So Monday will be my best bet. But I guess it's for the better.
I took a half for fun, half serious quiz yesterday on self.com. It was supposed to determine if your workout is too hard or too lax. I can't remember the questions exactly but the gist was: yes, I am having trouble falling asleep; yes, I have been more cranky than usual; yes, my appetite has dwindled even though I'm working hard; and yes, .... well I can't remember that one. But it all came back to I was working my body too hard. But it's so hard to slow down! I know if I slow down a little... I'll want to slow down A LOT. It's my cycle. I skip a day, a day turns into two, then three, and before you know it I'm back to my old self again. Not this time! Plus I'm having so much fun while I'm at it... why stop? I have tried to include a few "fun" days for working out. For example Tuesday I went and just walked on the treadmill. Didn't incline or speed up, just walked at a steady-moderate pace - about 3.2 mph. And yesterday I played in the snow for about an hour, and counted that as my workout, lol. So I'm getting a little break without "stopping."
I have yet to start those ankle/knee/hip exercises I talked about earlier. But I still plan to.
And I think I've run out of things to talk about, so I'm going to go!

Readin' Up

Spent a few hours last night meandering over runnersworld.com. I found it linked on a friend's blog and thought it worth my few evening hours to read a couple articles. I am so glad I did! I learned so much about myself, how proper running/walking shoes are VERY important, and a few tips on keeping my ankles, knees, and hips healthy (all body parts I have issues with).
One thing I learned is that I underpronate. You can watch a short explanation video here. In short - my ankles don't have the ideal curve when I land on my foot. Instead, I land more on the outside of my foot and roll heal to outside toes instead of to my big toe area. Unluckily for me, I also have weak ankles from so many injuries, which means even when I'm walking slowly, I have a tendency to roll my ankle. I do it all the time! Sometimes if I don't catch myself, I also hurt my knee in the process.
Luckily, mine is not an uncommon problem. It's not a common pronate, but enough people suffer from it that they make shoes specifically for it! Yay! Running shoes with extra cushioning are on the menu for me. Without it I have too much shock going through my legs leading to joint problems... (sound familiar??)
I also found some videos showing special moves to keep your ankles, knees, and hips in proper working order. They improve their strength and flexibility to prevent injuries. You KNOW I'm all over that. I'm starting today! Many of them remind me a lot of the Pilates moves I used to do; so I think I could chalk it up as exercises in my workout log. :) Woot!

Check it out! www.runnersworld.com

I Can Do It!!

Found a cute blog this morning called Feel Good Eating: ~Link~ I haven't read too many of the posts, but the ones I did were inspiring. :) His latest post is about a half-marathon he did recently. It got me so pumped since one of my personal goals is to be able to run like that one day. To feel that runner's high... I can do it!
Last night Matt and I got Chinese for dinner. Not the healthiest of things at all, but I did try to focus my plate on broccoli and seafood. I'd like to think it helped, though I know the seafood had tons of butter in it and the veggies were in sugar/salt sauce. Kinda makes it unappetizing when I say it that way... But a couple things I've started doing to at least move in the right direction are: 1. Always get to-go boxes. I always eat too much at a buffet trying to "get my money's worth." Lasting side-effect from poor college days I guess. 2. Spread my to-go box into two or more meals. I know this makes the biggest difference. Think of how many calories I'm saving per meal! Practically cutting in half - or more! And 3. I get way more veggies and seafood than I used to. Still not as much as I should, I'm sure... but like I said, I'm going "in the direction." I'm not there yet. ;)
While walking out of the Chinese place I had my first look in a full length mirror and actually 'liked' it. Haven't done that in a while! I know this has more to do with my mental self-image than actually losing weight (because I haven't lost that much yet), but who cares! I'm feeling better about myself! I can't tell you how many times I just think in my head, "way to go me!" It's many times a day now... I just can't get over it. Unbelievable. For a girl that has always had self-esteem issues, this is huge. Yay!

Spring Projects

Today was rainy, cold, and generally nasty. But my mind was far far away; thinking of warmer temperatures and green leaves. So I took some time to research a few of my Spring projects.
Project one is a French drain in the front yard. Unfortunately, during the rain storms we've had the past few weeks, our front yard has the added bonus of a water pond! Well, it's not that deep, but it does get too close to the house foundation; a little too close for comfort. So Matt and I want to install a French drain to transport the water to the back of our land. I was worried about the complexity of it all, but I found a good video that explains it well. ~Link~
Project two is a raised vegetable bed. The benefits of raised beds for vegetables makes it such a no-brainer for us: the ease of mowing, the ease of weeding, the ease of soil care, etc, etc, etc. Eventually we want to have a few beds with a planned layout, but for now we want to build one. I found a cute video series from a girl who uses raised beds in an urban setting. ~Link~
Project three is a shed. Our house that we bought has absolutely no outdoor storage. I have plenty of storage indoors for clothes, linens, etc. But nothing outside! We still have yet to buy most of our yard maintenance tools; it's been nothing but winter so far! But when we do, we gotta have somewhere to put them. The shed I want is FAR too expensive, but hopefully we can build something similar ourselves for much much less. ~Link~
And project four is my patio. Even though it's the last one on the list, it's the one I'm most excited about. Because it's something that's not as needed it's ended up farther down the list. I haven't decided what I want it to look like, but I'm leaning towards a natural-looking concrete stone. I want my patio to flow right off our deck and rest in between my dogwood and small maple trees. I also want a pathway leading from the front porch, around the house, leading back to the patio. Halfway through I plan to place our arbor from our wedding. It's going to look awesome, I can't wait.

Feelin' Good

So I never did make up that workout, but I'm doing good not beating myself up about it. I needed to skip it anyway to let my calf muscle heal. It was bothering me all weekend, but today - perfect! I was able to jump right back. I laid off the elliptical and stuck to the treadmill today. But I did 45 minutes and tossed in 15 minutes of weightlifting. Woot! A very productive workout if I may say so. :)
I was reading some articles at fitnessmagazine.com and ran across a workout plan to lose a pant size in 28 days. Funny, that's how long my Valentine's Day Challenge is! They recommended 2 days of weightlifting and 3 days of cardio. Funny, I'm doing 3 days of weightlifting and 5 days of cardio! Big difference is they have a diet plan along with it, and I'm not watching too much, but still! Maybe I can shed off a pant size by the end of this month! ;)
By the way, I had a sneaking suspicion that some of that 10 pounds I lost was missing water weight (I'm bad about drinking all my water). So I weighed myself again, and sure enough, I had gained 5 pounds. But DUDE! I still lost 5 pounds!! WOOOOOO!
I'm so proud of myself for sticking this long! Yeah, I missed a day on my first week... but I've started back up and plan on going so much further!

Favorite song on my Workout Playlist right now: "I've Got A Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. It's the very first song I listen to, and it pumps me up so much! It gets me in the mood to workout, ya know? Plus it gets stuck in my head all day - which makes me so excited to workout at the end of the day!

Toodles.

New Baby!

So I got a call Thursday, just after I got back from the gym, that my aunt was in labor and my uncle wanted to know if I wanted to see the birth! I was so excited, exhausted from working out, but excited. I won't get into many of the details, but everything went beautifully.
I got to the hospital around 8pm and the baby wasn't born until 8:45 the next morning. So I was up all night waiting. I managed to get a few hours sleep, maybe 3. So needless to say I was so friggin' tired. I came home the next day and slept 6 hours - until around 6pm. Then I went back to sleep at 2am and then up at 10:30. And here I am. :)
I told you all that to tell you this: I have found out my amounts of sleep effect my willingness to be healthy a LOT. Yesterday was definitely my "bad eating day." Good to know, good to avoid. I also didn't go to the gym either, which I'm glad I didn't. No need to push myself that much. O.O But I do plan on making it up today.
In other news I think I've hurt my right calf a little. :( That darn elliptical pushed me to the max! And my poor calf muscle is really taking it hard. It's been two days since I've been to the gym and my leg is still very much sore - but not just "sore," it's "hard to walk without limping" sore. I've been stretching it as much as I can and massaging too. I think I'll skip out on the elliptical for the next few days and just do the treadmill.
Did I tell you I lost 10 pounds so far? Well, I did! Thursday night I showered before leaving and thought I'd weigh myself for kicks. (I'm not watching my weight very closely, I'm focusing on just being healthy and not pushing "results" down my own throat) So the scale said I've lost 10 pounds. I felt like on cloud 9 after that. Now, those 10 pounds definitely aren't from this week alone. I've been working up to this point and I haven't weighed myself in a good while... but still very happy news!

Hurry Up Spring!

Oh I can't wait for Spring to be here!
Since buying our first house I've written down so many projects I want to do when the weather gets warm again. I have all my landscaping to do, flower beds to make, a garden to fix-up, furniture to paint, stones to lay out... the list goes on and on. And when it's rainy out, like it is today, it makes me miss it that much more; the warm sunshine, the green grass, the flowers...
I have so many fond memories of Spring. One of my favorites would be the Easter Egg Hunts my church would have when I was a kid. One year I found the Prize Egg - that was friggin awesome. I got a huge chocolate bunny all to myself. I don't think I ever finished it actually...
One awesome Spring moment is the first day you get to roll the windows down in the car. To me, THAT is the first day of SPRING. And taking the car down to give it its first wash in months. Then letting it dry in the warm rays...
Another personal favorite of mine is when Matt and I first got married. Around April we had gone to his little cousin's birthday party. I got a bubble party favor - oh yeah. I took that sucker home and played with it, nevermind I'm not 12 but more like 22. I sat on the hill behind our very first apartment and blew bubbles onto the cars passing on the road down below. Then we got out a huge tent we got for Christmas and tried it out. We slept and played in that thing all afternoon; trying out all the little gizmoes. That was a great day.
Oh I can't wait for Spring to be here...

Working Out

Going to the gym has always been one of those "oh, the cool people who live in big cities do that... not me" kind of thing for me. But since we've moved much closer to a local gym, I figured a try-out was in order. I was very surprised to find out that I LOVE it. I find myself wanting to go back a couple hours after I've already gone.
The only problem I'm having is I have the typical "I'm trespassing on beautiful people turf" feelings. And you can't very well help it. There are practically no other people there trying to get in shape - they already are in shape. And when I'm fumbling with machinery, doing things wrong and generally making a fool of myself, you get paranoid of little eyes looking your way and judging. But I guess it's just something I'll get over. The feeling I have after I'm finish - of accomplishment, confidence, and general pride in myself - overpowers any little fears I have of other people's thoughts. It's well worth it.
My solution to this was to go to victoriassecret.com today and put a few cute workout clothes in my wishlist. When I've lost a pant size or finish my current 28 day goal, I can buy myself one piece. :) Not only am I rewarding and motivating myself but I'm getting something useful in overcoming those little fears above. If I look cute doing it, I'm not so worrisome. :p
I've also NOT been dieting. Well, maybe a little bit, just general smarter choices and eating less fast food, but that's hardly a strict "diet." My brother agreed with me on this - but letting myself still "indulge" on foods I like will help me overcome the mental battle of simply COMMITTING to an exercise routine. I'm a classic quitter when it comes to exercise. But I'm confident THIS time will be when I surprise my family, friends and myself - I CAN do this.