Arielle's Journey to Health & Fitness

January Update!

2012-01-31T22:54:00.002-06:00

Weight loss -

Week 1 - 0 lb

Week 2 - 0 lb

Week 3 - 0 lb

Week 4 - 1.5 lbs

Week 5(ish) - no weigh-in

Total: 1.5 lbs in 4 weeks

(Let this not reflect my hard work. For some reason, I was eating a lot less fat in the month of January, and a friend of mine suggested I adjust my macronutrients settings and eat more fat. Once I did this, I lost weight!)

Calories burned through exercise -

Week 1 - 2,912

Week 2 - 3,016

Week 3 - 1,638

Week 4 - 3,416

Week 5(ish) - 953

Along with SHATTERING my goal of burning 10,000 calories this month (I burned 11,452!), I also lost 1/2" everywhere on my body, e.g.: waist, hips, each thigh, stomach, chest. Next month, I want to set a goal of burning 3,500 calories EVERY week. I'm learning to push myself more, especially now that my body has to work harder to burn more calories. I want to get the MOST out of my work outs, and to do that, I have to set a calorie goal. To burn 3,500 calories per week, with an average of 6 work outs per week, my daily burn goal will be almost 600 calories.

Let's do this!

I've discovered the cure!

2012-01-20T09:08:00.004-06:00

So, every winter, I get super dry hands, and they crack and bleed, and it's obviously painful. Last winter was REALLY bad, because I was waiting tables, and washing my hands a LOT! You're not allowed to use lotion while waiting tables because bacteria breeds faster in lotion, so it's strongly discouraged. As a result, my hands were a MESS. I'm talking super red, cracked, bleeding, burning: not fun.

This winter, it hasn't gotten to the point where I want to cut off my hands - just yet. For some reason, I always forget to put unscented lotion in my purse in the winter time. Until the other day. Finally did it! Well, the other day I got a great idea!

I got a new tattoo in November, so I still had my bottle of Aquaphor that I used. This stuff is specifically for dry, cracking skin. It works wonders.

I've heard the Vaseline trick ... smother your hands, wear gloves to bed .... well, if you read on the bottle, it actually says NOT to put it on an open wound. That's a no-no. So I used the aquaphor!

Add a few food prep gloves (for some reason, we have a whole box in the kitchen that we never use - lol)

And then go to sleep! I wore regular winter gloves over top to make sure the polyethelene gloves didn't slide off. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures ... but I promise you, it did wonders!

My hands were freshly cut. I could barely bend my fingers because I had several cuts on each knuckle. I smothered this stuff all over the back of my hand, my fingers, my thumb, all of it. Slid the gloves on, slept for a good 8 hours... when I woke up, my cuts were closed and healing, and my skin was soft.

Of course, I made sure to put some unscented lotion on throughout the day yesterday, and if I keep this up, I could be rid of my cracks for the rest of winter! :]

My first show of the year!

2012-01-16T20:09:00.002-06:00

First monthly update!

2011-12-30T12:24:00.005-06:00

December 1-30

Weight loss -

Week 1: 1 lb

Week 2: 1 lb

Week 3: none

Week 4: 1 lb

Week 5: none

Total: 3 lbs in 5 weeks

Calories burned through exercise -

Week 1: 1,186

Week 2: 1,898

Week 3: 1,002

Week 4: 1,605

Week 5: 340 (obviously not counting today or tomorrow because I haven't worked out today yet, and won't have time to update this tomorrow)

I started at 173 on December 1st, and today am 170. My total calorie burn for the month is 6,031. Next month, I want to aim for 10,000 calories. There were at least 2 days in each week I didn't work out, so it's totally doable to get to 10k for the month if I make sure to work out everyday with only one rest day per week.

Over all, I'm VERY happy with my progress. The average American gains 5 lbs between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and I managed to LOSE weight! :] Hooray for not being a statistic!

Two days 'til Christmas!

2011-12-23T12:58:00.003-06:00

I'm SO excited!! :] I just have to get some candy to stuff the boys' stockings today when I go grocery shopping, and I'm done. And I'm only technically 3 movies behind on my Christmas movies goal! I'm on #20 right now and will hopefully be watching a couple more today.

And as far as my weight loss progress, I've now lost 3 lbs in the last 4 weeks. I really should get a new scale. I've had the same one for the last 2 1/2 years, and I have to add 2 lbs to whatever the scale says 'cause the calibration is off, haha.

I'm going to be starting monthly progress reports to keep myself accountable and on track. So, on New Year's, I will post my first progress report - and hopefully it says 4-5 lbs lost in 5 weeks. :D I plan on being good over the next week! I have no reason not to, but am not sure what we're doing for Christmas dinner yet.

I know I'll probably make something fabulous, though! :]

Christmas Treats!

2011-12-11T22:08:00.002-06:00

I have been very productive, making sweets! lol I made the Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites:

They were great. Everyone at work (and in my house) loved them! I got many compliments from my co-workers. The chocolate was a bit harder to melt than the recipe made it seem, hence the messy dipping, haha. But they were still yummy!

I also made Pumpkin Spice Cake Balls, but forgot to take a picture. :[ I was so excited to put the melted white chocolate in my icing bag and decorate the little balls. They looked so legit! Everyone loved those, as well. One of my bosses put about 5 in his mouth as soon as I set the pyrex dish down! haha! Definitely an ego boost.

I also made puppy chow - one of my FAVORITE Christmas treats!

Then, tonight I made some white chocolate popcorn with sprinkles! Yum!

And by the way, my goal to watch 25 Christmas movies by Christmas is going great. I'm a couple behind, but I have a couple days off this week to catch up!

Christmas break!

2011-12-04T15:16:00.002-06:00

I am on day one of a three-day sort of "vacation" from work. All my days that got scheduled this week ended up being Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It is now 3pm and I've yet to get out of bed... lol. I've been adding new music to iTunes, and listening to Christmas music. Don't worry. I'm at least out of my PJs! Today is also the fourth day back onto my "diet" and exercise routine. Today is actually my rest day, but the last three days I have worked out, and I am SO sore. I plan on spending the next three days baking - but I will be bringing most of it to work to get eaten. I love to bake, but sweet treats aren't appreciated much around my house, and I don't need them! I might bring some to school on Tuesday, as well. My last class is Tuesday (English), and we're just doing an in-class essay. Our last in-class essay, I felt went well, and I got a 92 on it. I'm not too worried about this one. Just need to brush up on a powerpoint tomorrow sometime, and I'll be good to go.

Here is one of the recipes I plan on trying today! I need to run out and get a jar of PB and a small bag of pretzels. I don't have enough PB to make these... but I'm excited to try them out!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites!

You can get the recipe here! Let me know how it goes if y'all make 'em. I'll try to remember to take pictures today when I crank these suckers out while watching ELF!

I'm also making a goal to watch a Christmas movie everyday until Christmas (or at least 25 total). I'm 2 behind, so I'm starting today! Elf and possibly Trapped in Paradise, another favorite of mine. I found this list of the Top 25 Christmas Movies, and I want to watch some of the ones I haven't seen - with the exception of Gremlins and a couple other not-really-Christmas movies.

Best Christmas Movies: The Top 25 Holiday Films Ever

Results results results!

2011-08-10T14:28:00.002-05:00

The last couple days, I've really felt happy about the routine I've gotten into the last week or so. I was going to be alternating videos but decided to ixnay that and just do my own strength routine (that I posted about last blog) and then do all my cardio at the gym - since 105+ degree days kind of puts a damper on outside exercise! What a shame. Well, I weighed in on Sunday and was up a few lbs... either due to sodium or who knows what. Then I weighed yesterday, still up a little but not much... I was sore and decided it was due to that and starting a new routine. Today I weighed...a little under 167 (which is what I weighed last time I lost weight - right before I was weighing "up"). YAY! I also managed to lose 1/2" off my waist and my stomach. Yay! A lot can change in one day, I guess.

Yesterday I also managed to shave off a little more than a minute from my mile. I've decided to just work on my mile time instead of a full 5k 'cause I think that will help me conserve more energy...and once I can get my time down a couple minutes, I'll work on increasing my time until I can run the full 5k. I'm SUPER excited. I feel like this time, it'll actually work. Anyway, right now I'm at 10:07 for a mile. Not bad considering before last week, my fastest was 11:30 and that was running the whole thing. I ran it at 6.0mph.

The August Challenge I'm participating in on MyFitnessPal is really pushing me. I LOVE it. I really need that. Today our exercise challenge is to do 50 mountain climbers and 50 crunches. I've already showered (and totally forgot about the challenge stuff) so I'll be doing that later tonight sometime. We're also supposed to do a 100 mile walk, jog, run, bike, swim, whatever as a team...so I said I would do 12 miles. This week I've only done 2. Yikes. So tomorrow through Saturday I'll have to do about 3.3 miles each day. That'll be fun! I may end up splitting it up between running and the CrossRamp since I can knock those out easily and not be bored. I did 2 miles on the treadmill after my run yesterday just walking at an incline and I was prettttty bored.

Humility & Community

2011-08-05T21:50:00.004-05:00

So people say that humility isn't necessarily taking a compliment well but knowing and being able to acknowledge that your success is because other people contributed and helped you get to the point where you are. I have a good story about this! Last night, I went to an event called 1 House: 1 Night - Ten Thousand Homes. Some friends from my old church, Brett & Josh Tilford got everything together, with a goal of raising $5,000 to build one house with Ten Thousand Homes, which my friend Jen and her husband Jeremy first started! Well, I got to talking with Brett & Josh's dad and he told me something funny! "I heard someone compliment somebody on something they did and the person replied, 'It wasn't me. It was Jesus working through me.' and I thought, 'No... 'cause if JESUS had done that, it would have been a LOT better. I'm going to say that one was YOU.'"

Today, I was thinking a lot about my success with weight loss and learning how to properly lift weights and actually gain strength and allll that good stuff. I realize that I would not be as knowledgeable about everything that I am if it weren't for certain people or really just MyFitnessPal as a whole! I have learned so much in the last year about nutrition, strength training, cardio, heart rate zones, myths that have been busted, complex carbs vs. simple carbs, refined sugar vs. natural sugar and whole grains and multigrain just from reading. Honestly, I love learning, especially when it's something that directly affects me, something that relates to my life 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week.

What got me thinking about all of this is the fact that I've been nursing an injury for the last 2 months... around the middle of July I started 30DS to start my journey to rebuilding the strength I lost in the 1-2 months I wasn't working out. I went from side bends with 25 lbs and hammer curls with 12.5 lbs to little workout DVD exercises with 3 lbs. I felt weak and defeated and so discouraged. I attempted a few bicep curls with some 5 lb-ers to see if I could do the 30DS with them and although I could do it, that twinge in my shoulder came back so I put them away. :[

Well, a couple days ago my neck started really seriously hurting. I ended a lovely day hanging out with a friend by the pool, talking nonstop for about oh, 4 hours, by crawling into bed and crying a good deal because my neck hurt so bad. I couldn't figure it out but I think now I just shouldn't be in any one position for a long time because it's not good for my spine. :[ Well, Joe said it's probably my workouts causing stress on my neck. Since I started working out again, my neck had given my problems but not as bad the last couple days. So yesterday I decided no more on the 30DS. Having to stop with only 6 days left SUCKED but I wasn't really seeing results with it anyway. Not being able to use heavier weights wasn't giving my arms much of a workout and all the squatting was putting too much strain on my neck.

Yesterday I did my first "let's-wing-it" routines in about a year. I used to work out like that all the time last summer. Just grab weights, some resistance bands, play my workout playlist on my iPod and just get to work. This time I know from doing Jillian Michaels' DVDs that working both legs & arms at the same time burns more calories so I made sure to do that, I did some ab work, and I also did some cardio/strength moves in between to keep my heart rate up. I used to work out like this in my room when I lived with my parents. I figure I will start working out this way again! I can do mountain climbers, up-downs, running place, high knees, etc. in between strength sets to keep my heart rate up. And SUPER exciting news for me!... I lifted weights heavier than 3 lbs yesterday. I busted out my 10 lb for some overhead presses, plie squats, used my 8 lbs for overhead extensions for triceps, 5 lbs for concentrated curls with a deep squat (I learn so much from the lovely JM! lol), etc.

I figured out which exercises my neck doesn't like and I eliminated them. Today I was wayyy too sore from yesterday so I just did an hour of cardio. I started with a 3 minute warmup walk on the treadmill, then ran my fastest mile (11:00 - I'll get faster!), cooled down for a bit, then did my 25 pushups required of me from the August challenge I'm participating in on MFP, then I did 40 minutes on the CrossRamp. That is seriously my new favorite cardio machine. It's like an elliptical but not. I don't know how to explain it but it rocks. I love it. :]

Allll this to say, I am so thankful I have my MFP family because I've learned so much about my body and how it works and what works to get certain results and what to do when what I'm doing to it isn't getting me results. That was a bit wordy, sorry! :]

Let's talk about a certain hair fiasco

2011-07-28T20:03:00.007-05:00

Shall we? A long, long time ago (2 1/2-ish years ago), I had the desire to go blonde. And so I did.

Theeeen I grew it out... got highlights, more highlights, then dyed my hair red... and then decided I'd try blonde again. This time with MUCH longer hair.

I went to my usual stylist at Fantastic Sam's in Plano. I'd been using her since September of 2009 ... I was using my friend, Shelby but then I moved and it was too much of a hassle to drive an hour for a $15 haircut when I could drive 15 minutes for an $18 one. This girl has cut my hair, highlighted, dyed, you name it. She even cut my roommate & boyfriend's hair. The day I told her I wanted to go blonde, she was reluctant. That should have been my first red flag. I persisted and told her I wanted an ashy blonde that would go well with my skin tone.

We decided on last Thursday and I was all excited, a little nervous (with good reason considering what followed). I got up there bright and early because I knew it would take a couple hours. Well, she suggested I get a heavy highlight and leave my "natural" (faded red/natural brown) color for lowlights. I agreed, obviously misunderstanding what she intended to do. This is the only picture I have of that:

Not blonde like I asked for. She said "it was a process, you won't be blonde in one day" so I went back the next day and I can't remember exactly but I think she bleached it all again and then put the ash blond dye I wanted over it but didn't tone it. It looked awful.

Let's refer to the picture I brought in as a color reference so you don't all just think I'm a high-maintenance super whiny baby.

The lovely Hannah Curlee from last season of Biggest Loser :] Nowhere close to what she gave me.

I told myself when I left the salon the 2nd time that I would just purple shampoo the hell out of it and the color would be fine. But for two days, I kept crying about how much I hated my hair and my girls on My Fitness Pal convinced me to go back and have her fix it. Knowing it would damage my hair even more, I figured having it fixed for free would be better than paying $92 again for her to fix it after the 7-day window was closed. So I went back. I told her I wanted her to tone it just to get the orange and yellows out and she did. And it looked a LOT better but still not what I envisioned it from the beginning. It looked like this:

After looking at it (at this point: two blow dries, about 3 washes, 1 soft cap bleach, and toner in one day), we decided the dark pieces were still too dark and orange. So she said she was going to bleach just those so they would be lighter...THEN we could do the ash blonde and it would be the color of the swatch in the book. I was EXCITED. FINALLY my hair was going to be how I wanted it...four days previously. Not to ruin the story but... no.

Once she got done, it looked like this:

I know the coloring is off on this picture, but look how that piece in front of my eye is just a LITTLE darker than the white of my eye? Yeah. No girl with an Italian skintone should have hair that light. EVERRRRR. Yes, there are the "Northern" Italians who are lighter...but their hair ain't this light and their skin is lighter than mine! :[ The girl had the nerve to be like "Well Iiiii like it" when I told her I didn't know if I liked it (I was refraining from BLOWING up which I kind of regret doing. An instance where being mad might have helped me out) and even took pictures on her cell phone to show "everybody" how good it looked. Ugh.

I came home and cried some more on the phone to Joe and he came home and was like, "Aw, I like it!" Ever since then, he's been calling me Marilyn. As in Monroe. *eyeroll* THAT makes me feel good. This is a better picture of the color:

And yes, that big chunk in my bangs... is white. :[ I also bleached my eyebrows two nights ago to get it to look a little more natural but I still don't think it looks good on my skin tone.

So, Tuesday I went to LUSH and talked to the lovely Kat and the other girl (don't remember her name! Oops!) and they advised I get the repair kit. It has a block shampoo, liquid shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask all for repairing my poor damaged locks. I used it all (save for the mask) yesterday and today and tomorrow will probably do the mask or whip out some avocado from the crisper! lol But yeah... I'm anxious to get my hair fixed. Washing my hair is awful. It tangles and clumps up and literally feels like I'm holding a big pile of wet hay. It's disgusting and not to mention REALLY difficult to comb. :[ I'm trying to be patient but it's so hard for me - I've never developed patience.

Kat suggested I go to REGIS & have them actually do the ash blonde and cut off a bit of my ends since they're damaged...she said services are half price Monday-Wednesday so if my hair is feeling decent, and depending on how much my paycheck is tomorrow, may go get it done. I talked to a guy the other day, the same day I went to Lush, and I had to describe to him 3 times how I wanted my hair AFTER showing him the picture of Hannah. He wasn't getting it so I have to figure out what day he's off and go then and ask for someone else who knows what they're doing. I will NOT get stuck with an amateur again. Grr.

And that's the end of my story. Enjoy and never go to Jennifer Blackburn/Lacey at Fantastic Sam's on Independence/Legacy in Plano.

A wonderful day for me at Tommy Hilfiger

2011-07-26T22:01:00.002-05:00

I'm working retail...and you girls know what that means: DISCOUNT! I've been in desperate need of "nicer" clothes. I had to go to an interview in skinny jeans because that was the nicest thing I had to wear - I wore a cute ruffled polo with a lacey cami underneath and a black flowy vest with my Jessica Simpson gray heels. I was presentable but I'm used to going to interviews in a cute dress or a sexy pencil skirt. So today I finally used some of my unemployment check to stock my interview wardrobe.

I got a gray pencil skirt (that rang up $3.89 BEFORE my discount), a khaki flowy skirt with a cute bow on the waist (so I'll wear it with shirts tucked into it), a new bikini top two thin polos for current work, two tank tops that fit me SO nice and comfortably that I'll probably layer under the polos or just for around town (running out of tank tops that fit me - eek!), and a cuuuute outfit for Melinda's new baby, Quinn. I got some sweet deals. I don't buy anything unless it's on the clearance rack and then I get my discount, so I paid about $40 for everything.

All this to say...today was a good day for me because all the shirts I bought today are mediums. Two years ago, before I gained the weight I'm currently trying to lose, I was wearing a size large at Tommy. I was wearing 12s but now I'm wearing SOME 12s as well as some 10s. The pencil skirt is a 12, but the flowy skirt (it doesn't have a stretchy waist) is a 10. The bikini top is a large (vs. the large I'm busting out of now). I also got a cotton cardigan type thing at Rue 21.

I love consistency! :]

2011-07-24T20:16:00.003-05:00

(Not that kind - gross! Though it does help with weight loss ;]) This last Friday, I lost another half-ish pound - I say ish, because I have an analog scale and it's hard to tell but all I know is the little red thingy was in between the #s!. I had a bad night last night. I got home from work and the boys wanted to go to Applebee's and I was STARVING so of course I went. I ended up getting boneless honey BBQ wings and spinach artichoke dip since the apps were 1/2-price. I also got the strawberry Perfect margarita. Went over my calories by a full days' worth. Whoops! Today I worked AND worked out (started Level 3) so if I stick to what I've logged, including my all natural strawberry fruit bar (a healthified popsicle), I'll have a nice big deficit to make up for yesterday and make me feel better about my little overindulgence. :]

Work has been good... so many youngsters, *eyeroll* but they're fun in all their limited knowledge of the world. Reminds me of myself a few years ago, haha. So two of my facebook friends, Rach and Melinda both had babies in the last couple days ... I was in charge of keeping the kids' section of the store clean... of course all day, folding all those little baby onesies and t-shirts and shorts and leggings, all I could think about were these new mommies! Mayyyy have to get them a few Tommy gifts. :]

So good news on the "grown up" job front. I ended up getting an email from the owner of Keystone Pediatric Therapy in McKinney. My friend Alba has a friend, Kris, who hosted a denim party about a month ago and told me about Keystone and that they needed a front desk person. I immediately called the owner, Kathy, and asked how I should apply. She told me to send my resumé, which I did and I waited. I left her a voicemail a couple weeks later with no response. This last week she finally emailed and said she wanted to set up a phone interview. The other day, we did just that, talked with her & her husband, co-owner of Keystone. It went well, I think they liked me (yay!) and asked me to fax them an application so they could call my references and run a background check. I faxed it Friday and now I'm waiting. Anxiously. :] It would be such a fun job, I think. I need more experience with children before I have my own and I think it would be a GREAT way for me to become more comfortable around them especially considering I'd like to do counseling with them later in life. We shall see!

Like clockwork!!

2011-07-15T23:04:00.005-05:00

Exactly 7 days later and I lost another pound. HOORAY! :] I've been eating really well, I've only skipped doing 30DS one day and I picked it up the next day. Tomorrow will be day 5 of Level 2 and I already feel a difference in my body. I can see some ab definition comin' in (wahh wahhhh!!) and it makes me SUPER excited to see what I look like on Day 30! Starting a new level this week has left me sore but I think tomorrow I should be able to get back into the gym for some cardio after I do 30DS.

Also having car problems prohibited me in the beginning. I went to get my car inspected and they told me my front tires were bald so Joe & I went and bought used tires in Princeton. Well, the next day, I finished my workout and went outside to go to the gym for cardio and my new tire was FLAT. I got Justin & Chris to put my spare tire on (thankfully Justin was home and Chris pulled up right as Justin & I got outside to look at it) but Justin was having trouble getting one of the lug nuts off. Joe came home a few hours later. He inspected my flat tire and we figured out it was the one the guy sold us with a patch on it (Joe was originally worried about it but the guy assured us it'd be fine - HA!). My spare tire also needed air so Joe took it off so Chris could air it up so I could drive on it. Well, he broke a lug stud in the process. So we went to Auto Zone and bought a new lug stud and a socket wrench. Then we got home & the socket we bought for the wrench was too small. Uhhh. So we went to Walmart and bought a new kit with what we figured would be the right size. Got home and the thing wouldn't budge.

broken lug stud

donut!

So we went to Goodyear the next day to have them fix the lug stud. Cost $50. Total cost at this point was about $150 with tools, tires, and service...which is what new tires would have been. :[ Ugh. So we went back to the tire place and got a new tire. The guy we bought them from wasn't there and the other guy tried to just air it up and give it back. NUH-UH, SIR! But we got a new (used) one and it's been fine. *crossing fingers* So... not having a car to drive for 2 days put a damper in my going anywhere skills. lol

Anyway! Wednesday I started back at my old job Tommy Hilfiger just to make money 'til I find my "grown up job". It's nice to start a new job where I know how everything goes instead of learning a bunch of new stuff. And this week I should be getting my unemployment... just in time for my car insurance. Oie!

My first pound!

2011-07-08T16:28:00.002-05:00

In awhile, at least. I'm not sure when it started, but I ended up gaining about 12 lbs... so I'm 1 lb heavier than I was when I first joined MFP last March. I'm tired of yo-yoing up and down, losing my motivation, gaining my motivation. I've come to the decision that I've just got to keep changing everything about my lifestyle... diet, work outs, etc. and am trying to do that. For the next 25 days I'll be doing 30 Day Shred. After that, I'm going to rotate TaeBo, Pilates & Yoga with running. After that, I may get a new JM video or try something else. My ultimate dream is to get ChaLEAN Extreme but I don't have the $$ right now.

Well, after 4 days of being consistent with my work out and fine tuning my diet, today I finally lost 1 lb! Yay! :] Thank you, Jillian! ;]

30 Day Shred, anyone?

2011-07-04T18:25:00.007-05:00

I just got back last night from visiting my grandma in Ohio with my sister. (She's having a contest, by the way, and you could win some sweet photo prizes! Check out her blog to enter!) My grandma just had CyberKnife treatment a few weeks ago to treat a lung tumor. She's in great shape, though, so I'm very optimistic.

Her new puppy, Katie is adorable. She's a poodle mixed with (we think) some kind of terrier. She's super quirky and adorable but a little a.d.d. when it comes to training, ha!

Lately I've gotten really bored with just going to the gym and lifting weights and working out so I figured I'd try workout videos again... but then I started having really bad shoulder pain. I went to the chiropractor and apparently I have Phase I Bone Degeneration in my neck. :[ From popping my neck multiple times a day for at least a decade. I couldn't even lift my right arm over my head... washing my hair was difficult, scooping queso at work was difficult. I couldn't carry trays anymore, nor rock climb even though I had just figured out how fun and challenging it was. No more swimming laps. No summer volleyball. 3 days per week chiropractor appointments, no more popping my neck, and ice on my shoulder as much as possible. Grr.

So... today was the first day I worked out my arms in about a month!!! I chose...

So far, I love it! I'm really going to try to stick to the 30 days and see what kind of results I can get. I've been running and I'm going to keep that up and probably will do a little bit of my leg workout at the gym along with the DVD. Can't wait to post my before & after pictures. Going to take my before tomorrow when I first wake up and weigh.

It's only Wednesday? Oh well!

2011-05-25T22:51:00.003-05:00

This week I feel SO good about myself. I keep looking at pictures of me in my sexy dresses and telling myself even if I screw up, I still look like THAT and I look HOT. 20 lbs left to lose or not, I look hot NOW. Anyway, this week has been really good so far. I worked a double Monday (didn't work out) and was under my calories, yesterday I worked last night and worked my whole body with weights, went over a little because of chips & salsa - oh well. Today I worked a double (didn't work out) and have yet to eat dinner (ohmygosh, it's 11??) but I will be under today. I'm off tomorrow so I'm going to do some cross training (multiple cardio exercises). Maybe I'll go swimming if it's nice, maybe I'll take a class, maybe I'll run or go rollerblading...or do all of it! lol Who cares?! I'm ready to get serious about my cardio and get some DIFFERENT cardio into my schedule. It's gonna be great.

This iiiiiis a good liiiiife!

I'm back with fierceness!

2011-05-14T19:51:00.003-05:00

This year has been a struggle (already) for me with school, changing schedules at work, juggling bf and just being downright lazy. I'm not anywhere close to where I wanted to be after 5 months of perfectly planned out dedication that didn't really happen. But that's okay. I'm starting over - yet again - and this time I want to focus more on losing body fat. I'm not pressuring myself to lose a lb a week, though that would be nice, nor am I pressuring myself to lose 1% of body fat per month (not that I was before but that's been a past goal because it was easily attainable) because that may not be realistic for my body right now. I'm going to focus on eating cleaner, less eating out, more strength workouts, more cardio, and more protein. Today I'm failing. I got a craving and had 3 challah rolls - 300 calories, lol. I cut out the carbs I planned for my dinner and will have tilapia and spinach or broccoli and hopefully that'll keep me full 'til bedtime. If not, I'll be going over a little more due to my own lack of willpower.

It's all a process and I realize that. Monday night I am officially starting to serve tables at a new restaurant, Blue Goose. I finished my training on Thursday and I am NERVOUS. It's much faster paced than my last job and it's a fairly large menu that I am still trying to memorize because I'm a perfectionist and I have to know it to a tee. We'll see how that goes. I've got all my flashcards laid out and it's just a matter of repetition, repetition, repetition.

My plan is to get a new tire for my bike and start biking, get the pool pass for our subdivision's community pool and start swimming, and start running more than just once a week - and maybe not a 5k everytime, maybe I'll limit myself to 2 miles so it's an "easier" run to do more frequently. I hope to do full body strength workouts twice a week, once at the beginning and once at the end or near the middle so as to give my body plenty of time to rest in between. Maybe Tuesday and Saturday? I don't know yet.

If I can get enough variety into my workouts and start something completely different, I should see results. I'm also doing a baby version of zig-zagging calories. On days I don't work, my base will be 1400, versus 1600 when I do work so as to make up for the activity I'm not getting while at work. Hopefully this helps me out!

I've been doing better about watching my calories and telling myself NO when I get cravings but sometimes it's hard, obviously. I'm retraining my brain after a month of letting myself have almost anything & everything I wanted. I'm up a few lbs but slowly I'm watching it go down. Drinking enough water at my new job is hard because it's a new city and I HATEHATEHATE their water. A lot of the girls use Mio water mix-in stuff to make it taste better and I may try it too. Supposedly it's natural? I don't know. *shrug* Either way, I have to find something because I get there and I usually get in about 2 glasses, give up and drink Barq's. I still have been counting it in my day but I need to get off soda again if I'm going to be serious and get fit for summer. It's not even about summer...it's about treating my body how it deserves. Lots of sugar and salt is not what my body deserves!!!

New hair color!!

2011-04-09T22:42:00.003-05:00

So I dyed my hair red once when I was 15 on a total whim while in Indiana on a mission trip. We used a L'Oreal foam dye that was supposed to last 5-7 days. It rinsed out pretty easily so next time I tried it about a month later and used 2 bottles. It lasted about 2 months!!! I've always wanted to go back to that red...and today I did, but permanently (as far as dye is concerned).

Before - natural brown hair with blonde highlights & red lowlights:

After - all over red!

Weight loss "tricks" I'm incorporating!!

2011-03-28T00:36:00.003-06:00

For awhile, I was drinking 16 oz. of water with lemon juice first thing in the morning before breakfast. This seemed to help a lot and I'm going to pick this up again. Also, I'm not going to be eating all my exercise calories if I'm not hungry! Tonight, I had about 600 calories left after my protein bar and wasn't too hungry so I had a bowl of cereal and now I'm ready for bed (lol at 2am!!) with a couple hundred calories left. And that's just fine because I went over by about 300 yesterday (technically the day before now that it's early Monday morning).

DIFFERENT foods into my diet. I bought 4 cans of tuna today because I haven't had tuna in a LONG time. I also bought some pomegranate blueberry juice because the stuff is AWESOME and I think it'll be tasty with some vodka! :] I also got some green onions that I plan on adding to future paninis... on the menu tomorrow: a tuna melt with some mozzarella, green onions and possibly a tomato if I can remember to get one at the store!

More rest days. This week I only worked out twice and I'm not feeling guilty at all! Most of the days I didn't work out was because I just didn't have time. Monday I was going to work out after class but ended up getting home with just enough time to shower and get to work. Tuesday I had to pick up my car and since it's an hour away, it was an all afternoon thing!!! Then I spent time with my best friend and I ate healthy for the most part, so I didn't feel the need to "earn calories" even though I went over because I ate corn! Wednesday I ran for 30 minutes. A 5k just wasn't happening but it felt good to run after a 5 day or so rest. Friday I worked out my arms and it felt great. I was sore for a couple days. Saturday I worked a double so I definitely got my cardio in!! Today I had a lunch date with my friend Alex and then had to grocery shop and fill a prescription. I got home with 5 minutes to spare before having to leave for work! :]

This week I'm hoping to be better about working out since I missed so much last week. I love it too much and missed it this week! I'm happy to have my 2 lb loss but I really think those rest days were what helped me!

21 lbs lost!

2011-03-26T22:09:00.003-06:00

Is what my ticker would say if I hadn't reset my ticker on MFP. Technically, I've lost 22 lbs but only kept off 21 but still, I'll take it! This week, my body's finally settled into the groove. I lost 2 lbs. I've been so motivated to eat right this week; eat more veggies, REALLY watch my sodium, drink more water. I'm still up about 1/2 a lb (from water weight I'm assuming) in a couple of my measurements but for the most part, I'm down from last week! :]

This is the first weight loss since the first of the year! If I can stay motivated, I know I can get the rest off. I'm actually having fun finding new things to eat! Today I had some chickpeas and chicken for lunch and for dinner, I had carne asada at work. Steak covered in queso in a tortilla with some bell peppers & sour cream. Yum! I only had two and stopped when I was full. :] Yea me!

Guns!

2011-03-21T10:57:00.002-06:00

I gots 'em! Since doing Will's arm routine, I feel stronger already! I was able to crank out my girl pushups easier the next time I did my arm work out after he gave me my new routine... I can lift more plates at work, and my arms just feel harder when I flex. :D Now to just get this fat melted off them so they're tiny and sexy!

I should be able to get my car back in a couple days! Mike called today to ask me about my car door lock. It hasn't worked since I bought it. The guy who sold it to me told me about it and I told him it wasn't a big deal. It's basically just that I have to lock all the other doors from the inside and when locking the doors from the outside, only the driver's side door locks. And it won't go down while driving, I have to push on the lock versus the lock button. Not a big deal! And not worth paying $200 to fix. :] Well, he said he was going to give me a call later when he gets "it" all put back together. Justin said he'd drive out there with me Wednesday morning to get my car. It's going to be a trick to get the car back to my parents though, need to call my mom today to figure that all out.

This week is going to be awesome as far as work is concerned. I work everyday except tomorrow night and I'm hanging out with my bestie, Matthew! Saturday I open and work a double, and I close Sunday night. I closed last night and made some decent cash so I'm feeling optimistic as far as bills are concerned! Once I get my car back, I have to get it aligned, change the oil, and get it inspected. I also still owe Joe a detail for his car for his birthday... probably won't happen 'til next week because he has to work on both of his days off this week. :[ Poor guy! He's been so tired.

This is all I've seen of baby so far:

New parts but I haven't seen it painted yet. *anxious*

BABY, COME BACK!

2011-03-12T23:59:00.002-06:00

We've never been apart this long... the longest I've been without my baby is probably just a couple days when I got my master cylinder fixed. :[ And y'all know that was an emotional time for me.

It's now been 3 whole days that I haven't driven my car. I've driven two different cars in that time; the rental and my parents' escort they brought me this morning. I love the way my car drives. I always have. The first few moments I drove it during the test drive back in November of 2009, I knew this was my perfect match. The clutch grabs high so it's easy to shift without hurting my knees... it drives smoothly, especially for a car that's only 6 years younger than me! But... I think I've underappreciated my car. Today I truly started to appreciate my baby. I drove my parents' escort around, definitely feels different than my car and different than I remember it feeling last time I drove it - what, 2 1/2 years ago? It jerks no matter how smoothly you shift and you have to get into 2nd gear after only getting up to 10mph or else it will seriously give you issues. I'm used to shifting at like, 20, 30, 45, not 10, 25, 40. It's really weird. And it stays at like 3000RPMs while you're shifting...mine goes back down to like 1500-2000RPMs.

Ugh. I JUST MISS MY BABY. :[ I swear, it's like I'm in a long distance relationship again. I remember what it looked like when I left it in Anna on Wednesday afternoon and I daydream about what it'll look like when I finally get it back. I think about the butterflies I'll get when I sit back in that seat and feel my shift and my clutch again. See how beautiful the new paint will be. I'm excited. I don't have a timeframe yet. I'm going to call Monday and see what the progress is. Hopefully the adjustor was able to get out there Friday and he's been able to start fixing SOMETHING.

Sigh. I miss my baby. :[

I'm not happy to admit this...

2011-03-09T14:16:00.006-06:00

but I've gotten in a few wrecks. All in a short amount of time. I rear-ended somebody at a light a few weeks ago coming home from the gym. We were starting to go so I was probably going no more than 2mph but my whole front is pretty smashed in. :[

Then yesterday as I was getting onto the highway leaving my drawing class, I got side swiped. By my classmate. Ha! Of all people. I think it's better that way, I can keep tabs on her. ;) So now I have some bendage above my wheel, lots of scratching & loss of paint and my whole turn signal light came out.

I was referred to a shop by my friend, Matt. His father-in-law does all the work so Joe & I drove out there today since it's his day off. I got my estimate from State Farm and right away, he said he could see a few things they didn't include in the esimate so he wanted to get an adjustor to come out so he could rip it up and show them the damage they missed on the estimate. I also got Brianna (from class) to call the claim in and he said just to give him the claim # when I get it so he can get the damage covered for that too.

I feel relieved to have finally gotten the process started. It took a good 2 or 3 weeks just to find some time to get the estimate from the first accident and then this happens. :[ I work everyday the rest of the week (and don't have my schedule for next week) so I left my baby there and got a rental. I have to pay $50/day for today through Friday, then my parents are letting me borrow their extra car (the one that was supposed to be mine before I moved out) until my car is done. :] Thank God, I can't afford $50/day!! I thought I had rental reimbursement on my insurance policy but apparently I don't. I'm going to wait until all this stuff is over, see if my premium goes up and then decide whether I can afford the rental reimbursement from there. *crossing fingers*

When this is all said and done, I hope to see this...

Smaller numbers! Hooray!

2011-03-06T17:20:00.001-06:00

I've really been struggling with my eating the last few weeks because my social life has increased a little bit. I've had a few days off and have used those days off to go out to dinner with friends and I've been drinking more than I usually do. Everytime I realize how poor my diet has become, I vow to clean it up. I limited my alcohol a lot more this week and I tried to make smarter choices. Wellll, we don't always succeed. ;) I haven't been losing weight but my manager friend at the gym, Philip, keeps telling me he can tell I'm getting smaller (along with other people as well). I keep measuring, hoping for smaller numbers...and I'm getting them!

I know if my diet were just a BIT cleaner, a LOT less alcohol, a LOT more veggies, a little less carbs and a little more protein, I can get the scale moving again. Right now I'm happy with the smaller numbers on the measuring tape but it'd be nice to see an old number's face again (158 would be awesome - pre-Florida weight!).

S.k.i.n.n.y!

2011-02-28T00:30:00.008-06:00

I know a lot of "lifestyle-changers" who hate the word skinny, but I can't help using it! I love feeling skinny... and let me clarify WHY I don't mind using this word. I'm not JUST aiming to be skinny. I am aiming to be healthy and in that aspect, I've achieved that. As of October when I had my physical, I was in perfect health - aside from the cold I went in for along with the physical! lol But other than that, I'm aiming for a healthy BMI which I have not achieved. And...yes... I am trying to lose weight a little bit for vanity. I've always been overweight and it'd be nice to be considered "normal" in that aspect (though I don't claim to be normal in any other instance! ha!) and it will be nice to see some smooth lines instead of rolls and lumps all over, haha.

Let's start off with my new shoes. I got these puppies on the clearance rack at Nike Factory Outlet. I paid $62.99 before tax... got 3 pairs of socks and only went over my $75 shoe budget by $1.

I love my new shoes! I've never had such fancy ones before, haha. They're pretty comfortable running in but they're going to take a little getting used to since the bottom is pretty different from my last ones so the balance feels a little weird right now.

This weekend was so much fun! I got to dress up twice (woo hoo!) and I felt very beautiful and thin in my dresses. Last night, my friend Anna had her 23rd birthday party and this is what I wore :

Her party was Ke$ha and Jeffree Star themed so we were supposed to dress crazy... I didn't particularly want to go all out because I don't really like either person, ha... but I did crimp my hair and do crazy makeup and wear my stud necklace :D I got lots of compliments on my dress. $11 at Rue21!! I love that place.

Tonight I went with my sister, Alisha to the 3rd Gordon & the Whale OSCARS watching party at the Texas Theatre in Dallas. It was a lot of fun. The theater is pretty old school & they have these awesome paintings of old movies on the walls and a cute little popcorn stand ... and all the popcorn sizes are named after camera lenses. I got the 8mm since it was the smallest. :] So Alisha's friend Cole has a business, POParazzi for Hire, and he takes papparazzi-type pictures of people in front of this cool background and you can get all dressed up in crazy wigs and glasses. I took everyone's name and emails before they got photographed and sort of helped with the props and stuff. It was great. I got to meet a lot of cool people and I watched maybe a total of 30 minutes of the Oscars. haha! Once I got in there to watch it, I wasn't as excited about them as I had been all week...mreh. I'll find out who won on Twitter anyway! :]

Here's everybody right before. Cole, the main man, Alisha, me, and Kevin, a friend of Alisha and Cole's who came to help & who helped a lot with props and getting everybody ready right before.

Oh, forgot to mention I FINALLY found some cute gray jeans the other day! I don't think I ever mentioned I was looking but I have been. $7! So exciting. Here's me today on the lookout for a nice lounge chair for my "study zone" in my room.

My shirt is a picture of 2 pieces of toast and it says "HA HA You got burned!" :] I love it.

I am suuuper worn out so I'm goin' to bed, goodnight! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Happy Academy Awards day!

I used to hate this dress...

2011-02-16T16:00:00.004-06:00

I bought this dress for my friends, Andy & Roni's wedding in November of 2008. I wore it proudly...then saw the pictures. I knew I'd gained weight but I hadn't hit my highest weight (or knew what I weighed) yet, but as soon as I saw this picture, I felt fat.

Last week I had planned on buying a new dress for Valentine's Day but my tax refund is late so I decided to wear the silver dress. I tried it on and felt frustrated. I saw my belly hanging out and felt stuck, like I was still that girl in the picture from 2 years ago. :\ But then last night, I put it on... did my hair, did my makeup, took some pictures... and felt beautiful.

I know I'm smaller than I was back then by the smaller sizes I'm wearing and the way I looked and felt in that dress last night. Oh, did I mention I finally fit into those 10s I've been storing in my drawer for the last few months?

I love today!

2011-02-10T16:46:00.003-06:00

Today has been pretty nice despite a meltdown in class, lol. (Drawing I is seriously testing my patience!) I woke up, went to class, turned in my work, then started something that I don't think needs much more to finish (thank God) and even then, I have the whole weekend to work on it (with minimal "job work" - woo hoo!). I had a yummy chicken salad sandwich from Chick-fil-A (with fries - need to cut that out!) and came home to watch 15 minutes of How I Met Your Mother with my lovely man. I got dressed for the gym and then pumped out 30 minutes of arms, back and chest work outs, then did 30 minutes on the stationary bike. I got up and my hips felt tight and my thighs were feelin' it! The whole work out, I was feeling like I could be pushing more but I always feel it afterwards - plus, I've tried more resistance and I can never last more than 1 minute so I guess I'll just stay where I am and work my way up!

After that, I went and got some new soap from Lush and talked to the girl who works there, Dani, about some options for body scrubs and shampoos. I'm almost out of the for-colored-hair shampoo & conditioner my stylist gave me when she did my red highlights. I want to use more natural products so once I'm out, I'll get the "Rehab" from Lush. :] I'm thinking I want to dye my hair the red of my highlights for summer. *excited* I haven't had red hair since I was 16 and everybody loved it, including me, so I'm excited to try it out again and this time with better color, instead of Loreal foam stuff, haha Then I went to Hobby Lobby and got a measuring tape (I don't know why it took this long for me to own one!) and measured myself before I got in the shower. I feel like I'm starting over... I've gained at least 1 inch everywhere because I "let myself" go since summer. Boo. I'm working on it and that's all that matters!! :]

Tomorrow is an all-cardio day and a girl from work, Heather, and I are hoping to work out together. She has an 18-month old and is really wanting to get back into pre-baby shape and keeps saying she wants to work out so here's her chance! I've told her all about Express & how cheap and great it is (not to mention $10/month child care whenever you want to work out! Nice) so I hope she takes me up on the offer & prints the 7-day trial and works out with me. She says she works out better when someone is there to push her, and baby...I can do just that! So we'll see. :]

Now I'm off to make a quick dinner before work. I wasn't scheduled for tonight but one of the servers asked me to cover his shift and I'm all for extra money! Tomorrow is a completely free day. I'm going to try to get "my" room in the house a bit more organized (I did a LOT of throwing away in there today & it feels good!) and then I'm getting drinks with my friend, Anna, who I haven't seen in a LOOONG time!!!! Miss herr. :[

It feels good to be back on the wagon!

2011-02-09T13:54:00.002-06:00

So last week was the Snowpocalypse of North Texas... I started getting sick Monday morning, worked Monday night, it sleeted with a little bit of snow that night and I woke up Tuesday morning super sick. I started medicine but felt miserable until about Saturday. My boss didn't need me Tuesday night, Wednesday it snowed even more and they wanted me to come in but I told them I really couldn't... Thursday I was off, Friday I called in because I tried driving to work and couldn't even make a turn because the ice took me in a completely different direction. I'd only driven on ice once and ended up fishtailing and was not up for that "adventure" again. Saturday, the sun came out and melted everything so I went to work for the first time. Monday it was supposed to snow again and it didn't... but then early this morning, it did again. Mooooore ice and a tiny bit of snow. Urg.

I'm feeling a bit better...Monday I felt good enough to go work out. I wasn't up for my usual full hour of cardio so I toughed out 30 minutes on the elliptical despite a cough attack throughout the whole thing. Yesterday I did my legs and abs routine Will gave me in anticipation that today's personal training session with him would result in something new. I spent all last week sitting on the couch watching the first 3 seasons of "Greek" on Netflix, chugging water and eating crap food because that's all we could afford (and most of the only places OPEN). I spent most of my money on medicine so the money I WAS going to use on groceries Tuesday went to that so I opted for Taco Bell most days (because that's where the boys went and would bring me stuff home). Well, I ended up gaining some weight back - probably not fat, I was over on sodium everyday last week).

This week, I vow to not let the weather dictate whether I eat healthy or work out. Monday I started back eating healthy and working out. I've done fairly well. Last night I had a burger & onion rings at work and pretty sure I went over on calories... but that won't stop me from trying again!

I feel like I really let last week get me down. I want to be a persistent person, not someone who quits at the first sign of trouble like I have a reputation for doing. I'm going to continue to work hard, work on eating healthy and revise my goals for this year.

I started this year with these goals:

- WORK OUT AT LEAST 1 HOUR EACH WORK OUT SESSION

- BURN AT LEAST 500 CALORIES PER WORK OUT SESSION

... Each time I've worked out in the last week, I've struggled to maintain a 10 calorie per minute burn and it's getting tough to burn 500 calories. Now that I've increased my strength routines - I was aiming for 1 hour but the last couple times I've been able to consistently get to about 45 minutes - I haven't been able to burn 500 on those days, nor do I feel like I need 1 hour of cardio every other day... I read somewhere that you should do MORE strength training than cardio...and I already have cardio by waiting tables. So I think for now, I'm going to do 30-45 minutes of cardio every other day, 15 on strength days, and then the 45 minutes of strength training with Sunday as my rest day.

I'm still going to work out hard and push myself but I think at the beginning, I set some unrealistic goals for myself... I worked out hard and as soon as I took a break, I lost weight! So it's time to take a more realistic approach to things. :]

An interesting way to lose a pound

2011-02-01T14:53:00.002-06:00

After a full month of being on 1471 base calories and not losing weight, I finally decided it was time to back up to 1600 calories. I changed it yesterday morning after I weighed and was up a few lbs thanks to a certain visitor. I drank a ton of water yesterday and felt compelled to weigh today so I did. DOWN ONE POUND! I don't know how that works and I don't think it's because I increased my calories... I just think it's because I've been allowing my body to rest. I wasn't able to work out yesterday because of a full, stressful day of class and homework and then work. Today I can't work out either because I'm iced in. There was a sleet storm last night and since I'm parked on an inclined driveway, there's no way I'd get back up. I don't know if I'm going to work tonight but if I am, I don't want to work out because I'd have too many calories to eat and I already can't finish what I have left for today!

I WAS going to get groceries today but seeing as I'm iced in, I'm limited to peanut butter, pretzels, shrimp, and some peas. lol

I think the rest I've been able to give my body the last couple days has done wonders for me. I didn't work out Sunday either, so this is now 2-ish days of rest. I think that's really why my body finally let go of the fat. I keep reading how to lose the last 10 lbs is to sometimes rest after working yourself really hard -- and I've been doing just that; working myself REALLY hard. I think it's time for a full day of real rest. Maybe on Saturdays I'll just do the pilates, and then Sunday not work out at all.

I'm so excited. I'm finally 1 lb away from halfway again. I was stuck at 161 for a couple months last year and I've finally made my way back down again. This is probably my 4th time in the last year I've been 161, ha.

My first PT session!!

2011-01-25T23:26:00.003-06:00

I had my very first personal training session today with my new personal trainer, Will. :] He didn't work me TOO hard which was good, but I think he worked me hard enough for me to realize that the new moves he showed me will definitely fit well into my strength routine and how beneficial going back to one-hour strength routines is going to be on my muscles!! I did wall squats, sit ups, the leg press, a BEASTLY hamstring curl machine (like, it felt like I'd been killing my hamstrings the previous day and then did this exercise...but I don't think I have been killing them! So strange. Maybe I haven't been stretching them enough?), and some crunches, leg lifts on the ab thingy...

I think it's going to be a good fit. He's kind of quiet but he's encouraging during the workout. He would count my reps and tell me I was doing good and that I could do it and yada yada. On the leg lift ab thing (reverse crunch I guess but standing?), I told him I usually do 2 sets of 10 'cause that's all I can do. He had me do 15. Once I finished my first set, he was like "See? You can do more than 10!" I started my 2nd set too soon 'cause I wore out pretty quickly but I felt good that I did more than I usually do!

I got measured... nothing really different as far as I could tell except my hips went down 2 inches and I think my waist is a couple inches bigger but it's okay. I'm going to have a session with Will every 3 weeks until my birthday for sure (3rd one will be on my birthday - yea! Extra incentive!) and then after that, probably will still keep to the every-3 weeks schedule to get me in tip top shape for summer. Hopefully by then, I can afford 5 more sessions because I'm sure I'll be addicted! :] Ha.

I just saw Jen's post...

2011-01-24T21:34:00.002-06:00

about Hipstamatic. I'm such a miser when it comes to apps. I think I've only paid for maybe 3 apps... this one I wasn't up for it. I read the reviews and one person said Retro Camera was better, so I found it and lo and behold, IT'S FREE! So I downloaded it and already love it. :] Here are just the few pictures I took just now. It took me awhile to get a couple good ones of me since it only uses the one camera on the iPhone 4 - hopefully there's an update soon to use both!

Until I can figure out where to get the film for a real Holga, I'll just play with this app. :]

Patience. I needs it.

2011-01-23T18:17:00.002-06:00

For the last couple weeks I have been yo-yoing for various reasons. Excess sodium, retaining water because of increased stress on my muscles (harder work outs vs. no work outs) and not drinking enough water to help with either of those issues. A couple of my MFPs brought up the problem to me and basically told me to just wait it out and soon I'll see a loss. I sure hope so! Last week I weighed closer to 165 due to several days of excess sodium in my diet. By Monday I was back to my "normal" weight. This last Friday I weighed above again and was told to weigh myself the day after a rest day so my muscles can recooperate so I'm going to start only weighing on Monday again - I have switched so many times, I know!

Today I realized something too... I was telling a girl at work how I drink 13-15 glasses of water a day but I also work out an hour a day... that's definitely not enough!! Back when I was working out an hour a day, I was drinking closer to 15-17 glasses a day and I was losing. I've definitely gotta step up my water intake again. I've gotta work harder! I want to lose weight. I don't want to hold water and I don't want to get discouraged by a larger number when really it's just water masquerading as fat!

Right now I'm at 8 glasses and still have a good 3 1/2 hours before bed so I can definitely double my current water intake and I had a "light" work out this morning before work, so hopefully I'll see a loss in the morning. I've been good all week! This week's work outs will look something like this:

Monday - sometime in the afternoon; cardio (running and elliptical probably)

Tuesday - strength training with Will at the gym after Drawing I

Wednesday - cardio; if not a class (I haven't looked at the schedule yet), then running and stationary bike

Thursday - an hour of strength training which will be my normal routine and then 30 minutes dedicated to abs, then 30 minutes cardio before Humanities

Friday - cardio; probably running and some time on the arc trainer as well as the elliptical

Saturday - there are a couple {{EARLY}} strength classes at the gym, one I may try out!

Sunday - I have a double at work but I'm going to try to get up before like I did today and do Pilates, some slimming exercises I found in my new issue of Self, and some stretches

So, I cooked tofu for the first time yesterday. I definitely should have chosen a meat with a stronger flavor to cook it with. I cooked it in crabmeat, garlic, cream cheese, butter and parmesan, then mixed it in with some steamed white rice. It was okay but by the last 1/4 I couldn't finish it because it was so bland. I haven't made quite a stinker like that in awhile! haha :] Next time I'm going to take a suggestion and make it with some taco seasoning and make tacos with it, see how they turn out. Maybe mix it with some ground turkey.

January 20th

2011-01-20T22:15:00.002-06:00

I feel really good about the last couple days. I've had some GREAT workouts this week and I've been eating healthy - although I've been struggling to want to eat veggies so those have been left out this week quite a bit. Today I had a great cardio work out! Destiny met me a little while after I got there and I did my intervals on the treadmill. It was a rough work out but it felt great to knock out and I burned more than 10 calories per minute - woo! (I'm such a fitness nerd, lol!) and then we did 30 minutes on the elliptical. My feet started falling asleep halfway through (which I've heard means you need new shoes - and I definitely do, sigh. I don't have $40-60 for new sneakers, boo, but I really need 'em since I'm running more and doing cardio everyday again) but I kept thinking about how amazing the elliptical made my ass look the last time I was faithful on it so that kept me going, haha!

I came home and watched an episode and a half of Undercover Boss and then went to work. It was another slooooow night. I made a whole $13! WOO! :] But, I'm going to empty out my piggy bank, take the rest of my savings and take back my sketch pad and pencils and I should have enough to get the whole kit of art supplies for my drawing class which is a relief...but then come all my other bills that are due in about 2 weeks. *sigh* I hate not having money and I hate not being able to control it. I'm going to persevere because I know all the restaurants are slow and it's not a direct representation of me soooo I'm going to press on!

January 17th

2011-01-17T17:22:00.002-06:00

Today, I finally succumbed. I went to the gym and did 37 minutes of strength training, focusing mainly on my arms (most of it is triceps) and my thighs, then did 30 minutes on the elliptical. I forgot my HRM watch so I had to go by the elliptical's estimate and what I burned during strength training last time. The gym has 2 days next week, the 25th & 26th where you can choose a trainer for a free one hour session. I was curious so I asked about it and Philip, the guy who signed me up for the gym (who I found out is a manager), told me that he thinks Daniel would be a good person for me to work with. I've never met any of the trainers so he somehow convinced me to sign up for 5 personal training sessions and then introduced me to two of the trainers, Ryan and Will. They both seem nice; Ryan was working with a heavy guy & said all of his work outs he likes to incorporate core training (which would be great for me...) but Will just seemed more outgoing and will be more communicative so I think I'm going to go with him. I'm going to see what times he has available for the 25th because that's when I think I could work it into my schedule (SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!!!) and see how I like him, then go from there whether I use him for the PT sessions I paid for.

I definitely think having a personal trainer (at least just every couple weeks or even once a month) will help me push myself harder in the gym to reach my birthday goals! And just because I haven't written them down on my blog, here they are.

- I am currently 162 and would like to get to 150 by April 12. That's 12 pounds in 12 weeks or 1 lb a week (or otherwise - depending on the kind of weeks I have leading up to my birthday!)

- I am about 29.2% body fat right now and would love to get to an even 25%. That's roughly 4% in 3 months. Back when I was doing about an hour of strength 3x/week along with 30 minutes of cardio after that and at least 45 minutes of cardio on cardio-only days, I was losing 1% per month, so this is definitely doable!

- I'm fitting loosely into my 12s and would LOVE to fit into my 10s finally... 3 months is definitely enough time to lose a few inches off my thighs, butt, and waist to make that happen.

Right now, I'm doing great with 30 minutes strength, 30 minutes cardio, and an hour cardio on cardio-only days but I think I need to go back to hour-and-a-half workouts on strength days because that's when I was seeing dramatic results in my measurements. I'm going to have to really schedule everything because of school and allowing myself that 2 hour time slot (15 minute drive to and from the gym makes it 2 hours) with enough time to get ready for work or whatever else I'm doing.

I feel like now is the time to seriously get committed. I'm already committed. I'm eating a LOT better than I have been the last 6 months and I can already tell my stomach is shrinking again, hooray! I'm finding better ways to get my sweet craving - hello, lemon flavored protein bars! - and it's becoming easier to not snack while at work or order food after work. Yes, we have healthy food where I work but I don't know the nutritional facts (and of the things I do know the nutritional facts, they're boring) and I can't season it how I like so it doesn't taste how I like...therefore, I cook at home!

I'm seriously looking forward to a brand new me come year 22!

January 16th

2011-01-16T16:13:00.004-06:00

I feel really good about this week as far as my eating and working out. Today, I slipped up after work just because I got comfortable and didn't think it through... but I'm not going to deprive myself and be starving all day just because I made a bad choice. I have 233 calories left and know it's going to take more than that to go to bed full and last the next about 4-5 hours. I ended up working out 4x this week... didn't quite make it to 5 but I might if I can get away tonight and do a work out - though I most likely won't, haha! This is how I stacked up!

I changed my goals on MFP to a calorie burn of 2,000 weekly, 300 minutes (60 each day, 5x/week). I ended up with 1,985 calories and 242 minutes. Not bad. I would have easily made it, if I'd been able to fit in a work out on Friday (or today), but it's okay. I'm okay with missing my calorie goal by 15!!! I ended up doing:

Tuesday - 30 minutes of weights and then 30 minutes on the elliptical

Wednesday - A good 30 minutes of running intervals then I TRIED the stair climber but only lasted about 4 minutes, lol! I ended up finishing with 30 minutes on the stationary bike.

Thursday - This was supposed to be a strength day but I really wanted to try Zumba again and it's a good muscle work out but this day I just wasn't feeling it. The steps were hard and my calorie burn wasn't as high but I'm going to keep at it and just go to the night class with the instructor I had originally & liked.

Saturday - I did running intervals for 30 minutes (I did 2 minutes at 5.8-6.0mph, 1 minute walking until I got to 20 minutes and was TUCKERED OUT!! But it felt great) and then 30 minutes on the stationary bike.

I didn't get my 2 veggies in everyday so I'm going to work harder at doing that this week. I'm already almost through my bag of green beans and strangely, I've been craving those everytime I go to make my dinners!

I finally bought some tofu to experiment with and I'm excited to see what I can come up with :] A bunch of girls on MFP gave me ideas from how they make theirs, so I'll definitely be able to glean some inspiration! I also got some crabmeat & need to just pick up some wonton wrappers 'cause I forgot I have my mom's recipe for crab rangoon in a little family recipe book so, YESSS! Joe looooves crab rangoon so I've gotta spoil my man. :D

This week I'm off Monday & Friday and those are the only 2 days I won't have school since school starts Tuesday so I'll definitely be working out then as well as Saturday and hopefully I can fit my work outs in nicely around school since I planned it to work that way! Once I can get into the groove of work, school & working out...I'll be golden!

OH! More exciting news. I finally got my Christmas presents from my mom. I got a necklace from Zales, a big frosted cranberry candle from B&BW (allllllmost bought it - so happy I didn't, I love how it smells!), and a Rachael Ray cookbook. WOO! I'm super excited. I lined up my cookbook, first issue of Food Network magazine & my little family recipe book in the kitchen so it's easily reached when I need some inspiration!

January 11

2011-01-11T13:38:00.005-06:00

I didn't start off the week as strong as I'd like... I had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning & had every intention of going to the gym right afterwards and having a healthy breakfast, but instead I got a fruit cup and a spicy chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-A (not horrible calorie-wise but could have been better) and then came home and slept for 2 hours! lol I didn't work out at all yesterday and ended up going to bed hungry because I was determined to stay within my calories and that I did. I wasn't starving so don't feel sorry for me, I just could have done better at choosing foods higher in protein & fiber to stay full longer, but I still think I did okay.

Today I woke up fairly early and felt rested so I hit the gym at 10 and worked my whole body with free weights and the weight machines and then did 30 minutes on the elliptical. According to my HRM, 27 of those minutes I was in the "fat burning zone". So yea me!

I have the rest of my meals (except for dinner) planned out for today... and I will make good choices! I'm going to pick up a few things from the grocery store in a little while, once my hair dries (it's 19 degrees outside!!!) so I can continue eating healthy. :]

FOR THIS WEEK'S GOALS:

- Burn at least 500 calories; today - CHECK!

- Exercise for at least 60 minutes; today - CHECK!

- Eat at least 2 vegetables a day; today - CHECK!

This week's plan!

2011-01-09T19:31:00.002-06:00

I only work a few nights this week so I'll have plenty of time to spend in the gym and I'm EXCITED. I made some decent money Friday & last night at work so I can buy some more groceries and will have enough food to work out harder this week. Here are some of my goals for this week:

- Run at least 3x

- Try out the kettlebells in my strength sessions {{I saw somebody use one the other day!}}

- Burn 500 calories everyday

- Eat more veggies {{I've been good about eating at least one veggie per day but I need to at least step it up to two... I can incorporate baby carrots into my snacks again but this week I should be able to have a real lunch & dinner at least a couple days this week so I could have a veggie at each and my carrots for snack, vs. veggie at lunch, protein bar for dinner and say, pretzels, for a snack}}

- Work out every free day I have!

This week I wanted to work out at least 5x which would have been Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday but that didn't happen. I ended up going to Fort Worth with my best friend yesterday and not having time to work out and then today's been a lazy, snowy day and I wasn't about to brave the roads to get to the gym... ... I'm just not feeling at-home work outs lately so that's my excuse for not working out at home either. :]

It snowed today!!!

I'm now addicted to Biggest Loser!

2011-01-07T14:07:00.004-06:00

I found season 10 (all episodes!) on Hulu and so I started watching last season since I have to wait another week for episode 2 of this season (I did start season 11 as well!) and I love it. It's so motivating. If these people, who are 3x my size can work out hard and lose weight, SO CAN I!!!!

This week I've done great so far. I went over a little bit on Monday because I didn't think about it and ate Joe's leftover mashed potatoes but it would have only been about 100 calories so I'm not beating myself up about it. Tuesday through last night, I've had calories left & I'll have calories left today as well. I've been resisting all the temptations and I've been doing really well! Last night I chose healthy cereal over fried buffalo wings! WOO HOO! {{And I've been craving buffalo wings a LOT lately!!}}

My work outs have been great. I'm trying to do something different everyday so the variety gives me an advantage. Here's what I've done so far:

Monday -- I didn't work out because I got a mysterious stomach pain RIGHT as I was about to go to the gym. I decided to listen to my body and rest.

Tuesday -- I thought I worked out but can't find it in my diary -- so I guess I didn't, lol!

Wednesday -- I saw Destiny, a girl from work, at the gym, and I worked my thighs, arms, abs, sides all with weights, and then did 30 minutes on the stationary bike.

Thursday -- I walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill while waiting for Destiny to get out of Zumba (I messed up the times and missed it :[ ) and then we got on the elliptical for about 30 minutes, and then I got back on the treadmill and ran for 20 minutes to complete my hour of cardio/workout for the day.

Today I'm going to do weights again and then try out the Arc trainer! :]

I weighed today for the first time since 2010 and I'm 162 still. I shouldn't be surprised. This week I went down from 1600 base calories to 1,471 (as per dietitian.com) just to see what happens and I've only worked out twice this week ... so I shouldn't be surprised, but I was still sad. It just makes me want to work HARDER to get at least a 1 lb loss next week!!!

I counted the weeks until my birthday... 13 1/2. That means I could potentially lose 13 lbs by then. But, I'm going to make a goal of getting to 25% body fat by my birthday and to lose 10 lbs by my birthday. So, by my 22nd birthday, I want to be 152. I CAN do it. I just have to REALLY push myself.

A good start to my day!

2011-01-05T16:54:00.002-06:00

I was supposed to meet my friend Amanda at the gym at 8:30 today but I just could not get myself in bed early enough. I went to bed around 2 just because I was excited to play my new game {{Rainbow Six Vegas 2!!}} and I just wasn't sleepy, so I woke up today and texted her, I was nooot coming. I got myself to the gym at around 1 and surprise, surprise! My friend, Destiny, from work was there on the elliptical! I knew she worked out but never knew where! Ha! :] We chatted for a little while, then I got to the weights and she joined me. We worked our legs, arms, abs, and then hit the stationary bike! I ended up working my minimum of an hour, PLUS 8 minutes! I had quite the burn and tried to exhaust my muscles the best I could and I definitely achieved that. :]

I've been super low on cash the last couple weeks since business has seriously slowed at work. I have no closing (longer - better money) shifts this week and I'm really starting to worry. :[ One of the normal morning openers called me today, though, and I'm covering her shift tomorrow, so hopefully I'll make a little $. I owe the gym about $30 and my phone bill is due in a couple weeks, along with my very empty fridge. Business better pick up or I'm going to have to look for another job!

Tonight I'm bringing back into rotation...popcorn as a snack. I still have a ton of my unpopped popcorn in the pantry! Sadly, I don't have anymore parmesan so I'll probably end up using my spray butter & super processed fake cheese just to give it some flavor. :]

All around, this is shaping up to be a good day. I have clean clothes, clean towels, a clean toilet, jeans that fit me (for now!), I've worked out and showered, am about to have a chicken/hummus sandwich and then off to work in 30 minutes!

Happy 2011, everybody!

2011-01-04T14:18:00.002-06:00

We're now four days into the "new year", 2011... and I feel great about all this year has in store for me! I'm excited to continue my journey of eating healthy & working out. I'm halfway to my goal "size/weight" and hopefully only about 6 months' worth of work to get there. I joined a new gym since my old once closed and it's big, has lots of machines, and a lot of new classes for me to try including Zumba and Yoga! :]

I've only been able to work out once this year so far because I've been sick and have been going back and forth between getting better and getting worse. I finally went to the doctor & got some antibiotics, different cold medicine and am now feeling like I'm actually getting better for real this time! (I really should stop this pattern of waiting 2 weeks to go to the doctor.) Anyway, I feel like this is a great fresh start for me! I'm halfway and I have the whole year to get to where I want to be, but I really want to be there by summer (Girls, really? You knew that was coming. lol) and this time I intend to actually do it! Last year I let some obstacles get in my way of achieving my goal and this year I'm disgusted and disappointed with myself for letting that happen...just enough to not let it happen again!

I've metaphorically pushed the "reset" button. My MFP ticker now says "0 lbs lost" because I'm starting over. I reconfigured my daily macronutrients & calories. I'm starting with a whole different way of working out. I intend to work out at least 1 hour anytime I work out. I'd like to say everyday, but with my work schedule, that's not realistic and I don't want to do anything that's too drastic or hard for me to handle. On Saturday, I did 32 minutes of running intervals on the treadmill and then finished up with 28 minutes on the elliptical. I remember how amazing just running & doing the elliptical made my legs and butt look and how great I felt so I'm definitely incorporating the elliptical again. I also remember that while I got to running 2 straight miles on the treadmill 2 summers ago, it was because I was also using the stationary bike in the gym and lifting weights everyday, so I've started back with the stationary bike. I love that thing. :]

Now that I'm living day-to-day instead of paycheck-to-paycheck, it's harder to prioritize money for groceries and I've got to figure out a way to do that. Once I figure that out, getting in all my calories for the day will be a snap!

This year I want to run at least three 5K races. The first will be the one I'm currently training for in which I want to run it in at the most 30 minutes and that will occur in April or May (depending on which one I decide to do). The next will be late summer (so I'll be motivated to keep running and not get lazy over the summer, and also keep me hot in my bikini throughout the summer months - ooh la la!) and this time I'll be working to increase my speed & time. The third will be the same one I participated in for my FIRST 5k, and that's the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network 5K in November. I want to be in tip top shape by the end of the year and I believe having a goal set BEFOREHAND, having that race that I'll need to be in optimal shape for, will keep me motivated to BE in optimal shape.

This year, I really want to challenge myself & try new things and not do the same workout every other day like I did last year... that's why I stopped working out so many times & it was harder to get back into it once I got going again. I did the same boring thing and I'm not doing that again. Here are some things I want to do, workout-wise this year!

- Zumba

- Yoga

- Kettlebell work out (I will get one!)

- Possibly a body sculpting class at the gym

- Switch up my cardio between the elliptical, running, stationary bike and possibly the stairmaster

- Possibly get a few personal training sessions (right now they're WAY too expensive but hopefully a special will come along when I have the $ and can get a few just to really push myself!)

Happy New Year, guys! I know we'll have a GREAT 2011 and a healthy one at that!

I am starting the new year off right!

2010-12-22T22:27:00.003-06:00

As my fitness pals know, I've had a tough time staying 100% committed to my healthy lifestyle since Joe & I returned from Florida early August. When we left, I was 158 which I had worked really hard to get to... then I got back and was jet lagged and then started school and had to wake up early 5 days/week so I abandoned my morning runs and got used to eating whatever I wanted. I quickly gained 7 lbs and struggled to get it off... I went up and down between 160 and 165. Finally in October, I changed jobs and had more time to work out. Then I visited my grandma - when I left I was even at 160 - where I consumed a lot of dessert and sweets. I came home with a good 4 lbs on me. :[ Since then I've gone back and forth between eating right and working out and not eating right and not working out. I'm done with yo-yoing... I'm done with not wanting to weigh every week because I know it'll be a disappointment.

Monday, I was dying to run. My friend Amanda told me about Express Fitness, which is right around the corner from her apartment and happens to be two exits up the highway from my house & one exit up from where I work... she told me she pays $10 a month for unlimited use, classes, everything! I was definitely interested! I went to the library and printed off a one-week free trial coupon (I seriously need a printer! *sigh*) and went in for a run. They ended up taking up a lot of my time so I only got to run for 20 minutes but it still felt amazing. I know treadmill running is so different from outside running but I still felt accomplished when I was able to run for 5 minutes straight! I haven't been able to do that since at least before summer! :] I ended up signing up for a plan that was $18 per month. The guy who signed me up, Phillip, told me he'd be willing to work with me a few times to help me better my running! I had to pay for two months and some dues, but I don't have to pay anything again until March and it's only $18! It's almost $10 cheaper than my old gym, they have a TON more machines (and bigger variety of machines) for me to use, a lot more weights, an AB room, and a lot of different classes, INCLUDING ZUMBA, which I tried last night with Amanda.

All this to say, I ran again today and it felt great. I'm planning on working out at 8 in the morning tomorrow with Amanda... I need to do weights and she has to do both. I'll probably just bring in my newest Self & Shape magazines and try some of their weight routines. I'm ready for something new... even though I kind of miss Jillian, I don't miss the hour-long work out.

Soon I'm going to try yoga. This girl needs some muscle stretches and flexibilityyy! :]

Ah, the feeling of being loved...

2010-12-19T16:47:00.003-06:00

My boyfriend said something the other day that made me want to cry... well, I was already crying and I was telling him how the last couple weeks' tips have not been as good as they once were and I was worried about my bills that are so fastly approaching. He told me, "take my presents back. I only need one." I told him no and he said he didn't need presents, that I should pay my bills and only give him one of his presents. Of course he doesn't know what I bought him and doesn't realize how unrealistic it would be for him to get ONE present... lol, but once he said that, I thought, "Gee. What a swell guy!" I'm such a lucky girl to have a man who's willing to give up his Christmas presents just so I can pay my phone bill and buy groceries...

Christmas plans!

2010-12-14T19:58:00.004-06:00

So, this Christmas... I'm carrying on a family tradition my mom started before I can even remember! My mom makes lasagna and manicotti every Christmas for dinner and since I'm spending Christmas with Joe and his brother, I figured I'd make dinner and what better than what I've eaten the last (at least) decade of my life? :] I think I'm going to make stuffed shells and lasagna because the stuffed shells have always been my favorite of the 3.

{courtesy of ginnerobot on Flickr}

I've been thinking about what I want to make for dessert... no-bake cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pistachio walnut swirl cake (my great-grandma's recipe, I believe)... today I think I settled on m&m chocolate chip cookies. I want to make my own egg nog but I just realized today I don't even own a handheld beater! :[ So, I think I'll just pick some up for the store. I've got rum to spike it! haha

Man, the thing I do miss not living at my parents' is the access to all the kitchen tools. One year, I made divinity and it was really good -- super sweet but it was fun to make my own candy!! - I don't even have a kitchen thermometer, ha!

Today I finished my Christmas shopping for certain. The last of it was just candy for the boys' stockings. I got some cute Christmas ones, I'm quite pleased. I love the little containers Christmas candy comes in - even if you just throw it away once the candy is gone, lol! I was going to just get a big bag of candy and split it between a couple of us but it was cheaper and the containers were too cute to pass up. :P

We've never had anyone over for dinner so I'm excited to have the table all set up and the kitchen clean & sparkly and get to sit down to dinner without the TV on, and just sit and talk and enjoy everyone's company.

What is your favorite Christmas food or drink? Egg nog, cookies? Do you cook the traditional ham or turkey dinner for Christmas or something a little more non-traditional like my family?

I love Christmas.

2010-12-06T15:33:00.004-06:00

This whole month (yeah, all 5 days of it - haha!) has felt like a new beginning for me. I've been living with Joe officially since March and he's been telling me I can decorate the house however I want it for sometime now, but has been putting it off because it's his first house (his baby) and he's paranoid about holes in the walls. This last week I was on the phone with my mom complaining about this fact so when he got home that night, I told him I really wanted to put some stuff up ... the house just felt cold to me before. He finally said yes, I could hang up my art. SO I DID! :] And now the house is finally starting to feel a little warmer.

On Black Friday, I bought a 4 ft. artificial tree (pre-lit, 'cause I thought "hey, already has lights? EASY!" No. I had to de-light the whole thing and re-light it... it was a hassle because it wasn't a string, it was a CIRCLE of lights. Oie), threw some bright turquoise and purple ornaments on it, along with some little clear ones, and a flower-shaped star on top, plugged that puppy in... and it felt like Christmas. I also bought stockings & ironed on all the house-mates' names on them, along with the dog (lol), hung those up on the adorable stocking holders I got half price at Hobby Lobby, threw some garland behind it and lit up the mantle. It's gorgeous. I even bought some lights and wrapped one of the pillars in the front of the house! ALL BY MYSELF. 'Cause I'm a grown up and I don't need help decorating for Christmas! :]

Anyway...yesterday, we made even more home progress. I've needed a DVD rack and bookshelf for awhile since I moved out and wasn't able to bring my bookshelf (it wasn't able to be unassembled and I didn't feel like throwing it in a truckbed where it could get broken. So Joe suggested we go to IKEA for the bookshelf and stop by Fry's so he could ask off for his sister's birthday dinner & I could get a DVD rack. We did and it was great! I found a great DVD rack for $30 and ended up paying $23 with Joe's employee discount. Then we went to IKEA. We ate first. He had the buffalo chicken wrap and I had the swedish meatball pasta and a princess torte (wow, was it sweet! I've never had marzipan so I thought it'd be fun and adventurous. I had to have bites in between the pasta just because it was sooo incredibly rich) and we shared a bowl of cream of broccoli soup. Then we were on our way around the giant blue store! :] I found the shelf I wanted pretty quickly, wrote down the # and kept looking for anything else we may need. I got some placemats for Christmas dinner, a new scrub brush for the dishes, and some magazine holders for the shelf. We got to where you pick up the shelf and it was soo long. I started freaking out, thinking it wouldn't fit in my car. Then I remembered how I've tried to lay down my backseats and haven't been able to. We decided to risk it and got out to the car. Joe got my manual out & figured out that you have to use the key to open the latch, then pull this little do-hickey in the trunk, then push the seats. We got it to fit just barely! Got it home, got it assembled, and put my books on and it looks gorgeous!

This is my Christmas tree!

My mantle! Joe, Chris, Duke, Justin, and me! :] And my little advent tree!

This is the office & an art print my sister gave me :]

This is by the dining room table.

This is in the bedroom; my sister's friend painted these and I always liked them. They look crooked but I promise it's just my iPhone! :]

Putting this up made me realize how few books I own. I haven't bought any new books, though, because I haven't had anywhere to display them. That's changed now. ^_^ I'm thinking of putting all my CD cases on the bookshelf just to fill it in until I get some more books. Thoughts?

All my DVDs! :] I didn't know I had so many, ha. This thing is supposed to hold 72. Last time I counted, I had 38...I haven't counted in awhile and I just bought 6 new ones on Black Friday! YEA!

My first 5k - COMPLETED!

2010-11-15T13:26:00.005-06:00

I'm halfway to my ultimate fitness goal - run a 5k. I half-ran it, so that means I've half completed my goal! haha I didn't train for this 5k because I only found out about it 2 weeks ago and haven't really wanted to run... but one day, I went to the gym intending on doing the elliptical & just FELT like running. I did 20 minutes of running intervals with 5 minute warm up and cool down walks. It felt amazing to run again... it's crazy how now that I'm eating healthier & working out, running feels like ME. I start running and I just feel like I'm where I belong, y'know? I'm sure you runners understand that.

I woke up yesterday morning at 6:30, bummed around a bit, drank my water mixed with lemon juice, got dressed, put my hair in a ponytail, walked around in my nice fuzzy robe 'cause it was FREEZING!!!! I put some purple eyeliner on but I had my sunglasses on the whole time so it didn't really get showcased, haha. :] I painted my nails purple the night before (because purple is pancreatic cancer's ribbon color and this event was the Purple Stride) so I was rockin' those too! I got my cereal ready to eat 1 hour before the race. I chugged water because I was really hungry.

We ended up leaving a little after 7, stopped for coffee and I got an apple fritter and ate it, then half my cereal when we got to the race site in Dallas. They had bananas and I almost ate one but wasn't in the mood and it was too close to the race. I felt I had enough fuel. :] We used the port-a-potties. My first time...in my whole life. It was okay, not as disgusting as they say, but still pretty bad. I am so thankful for electricity & running water. I don't think I'd survive in an era where a hole in the ground is the bathroom. Ick.

I never found the team I ended up joining, my dentist's office. I never saw them, they didn't have a booth or anything so I'm not sure if they were even there. They said there were 900 people registered for this event sponsored by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, which is the only organization for pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer's survival rate is 5.1%, the lowest of all cancers. The highest survival rate is prostate cancer and then breast cancer is in the top 3 somewhere. They had survivors come up and say how long they'd been cancer-free. The longest was 15 years, the shortest just a few months (so far!). They had a wall where you could write something to your loved ones, so I wrote on the wall. The pens sucked but you should be able to make out what it says.

I think I got his birthyear wrong. :\

I was number #2560 (I would have a picture of me but we didn't realize there was no memory card in the camera when we took it and I didn't think to look until today - I'll probably re-take it just to show how thin I look in my SMALL t-shirt! haha) and they also had these you could use so I got one.

I really wish I'd brought my camera or at least taken more pictures with my iPhone. I was too cold to really think about anything except the race. I'm bummed I don't have more documentation from the event. :(

Anyway...the actual race was really good. It went by a LOT faster than I thought it would. They told us the race was starting in 5 minutes so I turned on my HRM and started walking. We didn't end up starting until 11 minutes after I started my HRM. I ended up finishing the race in about 43 and a half minutes. I tried to run every other minute but it was cold so I ended up switching it up quite a bit. I ended up with almost a 10 calorie per minute burn anyway so I was happy about that. And I'm really happy with my time, considering I did intervals and hadn't ever even walked or done intervals for up to 3 miles! EVER! :] I know I could do a lot better for the next one with training. Right before the finish line, there was a group of about 4 or 5 people, 2 or 3 adults and 2 little boys (about 12 years old?) that had been running and walking pretty much the same pace as me and there was a big gap between me and the group and then the group & the finish line. I got motivated enough and wanted to run my fastest, pass the group and have this triumphant finish! haha So, I DID! I ran as fast as I could. My quads hurt so bad, I couldn't even FEEL them. I felt like I was floating to the finish line. One of the kids started running faster with me and ended up finishing before me maybe by about 5 inches. I kept running and honestly could have run a lot longer but felt it wouldn't have been very smart so I slowed down and ventured off to find Joe.

I got some cotton candy, breakfast burritos, fruit snacks and more water. I had to seriously ration my water. Only half of the race was actually on Katy Trail. We started at Reverchon Park and made our way through Uptown to Katy Trail. They gave us water when we got there & said we were halfway. It definitely didn't feel like it. I WAS SO RELIEVED!! Toward the end of the trail, we started seeing people who'd finished & they said the finish line was close. SO CLOSE! :] I was excited. I kept up my pace but tried to run more frequently and ended up with a decent time, I think.

Now I'm super achy & exhausted! I woke up and my arms are sore, my abs are sore, my sides, especially my feet and quads. My left calf got really sore after my last sprint to the finish line. I had to work last night and my feet were killing me by the time I got home. I could have run more during the race but my right arch started hurting and my left ankle was not feelin' it, so I tried not to injure myself.

All I can say is... definitely doing another 5k sometime soon but not 'til it warms up! I definitely want to try running outside more because it honestly wasn't bad! I usually can't run outside when it's cold but I was dressed in a t-shirt and sweatpants when last time I tried running out in the cold, I was wearing a tank top and shorts (it wasn't THAT cold and I get really hot when I run so I thought it'd be okay) so I think I'll try to get more closer-fitting t-shirts and get some more sweatpants or running leggings to run in because I think I could do it. Then once Spring comes, I could do a 5k then and really be able to run it all!

My first 5k!

2010-11-09T21:53:00.004-06:00

I'm sad that I wasn't able to run either of the 5Ks I had planned for October -- the Susan G. Komen on the 16th (ended up going to visit my grandma as a VERY last-minute thing and so glad I did because no other time would have been right as I switched jobs just that week) and then was NOT in shape on Halloween... working out and getting my stamina up ever since I got back from Florida has been hard but I'm trying!

So when I went in for my routine twice-yearly dentist appointment a couple weeks ago and my dentist said "5k", I said "YES!" It's this Sunday & I'd love some financial sponsors - it's benefiting the Pancreatic Cancer Network & that's the whole reason I said yes. My favorite uncle died of pancreatic cancer when I was 9. He was only 44. The doctors told us 6 months and he only was with us for a few short weeks. My cousin, Sara and I, who are 16 days apart, went into his room July 12, 1998 to say hi. I hadn't seen him in a little while as I'd been staying with Sara's family while Mom and my sister stayed at my grandma's, where Uncle Ricky was. He didn't respond well to us and didn't know who we were. It was rough.

We ate dinner and left late that night and went back to Uncle Bob's house. The next morning, we were all sitting around the table in the kitchen eating breakfast. The phone rang...it was one of those old rotary phones so it had that old classic phone ring to it. Uncle Bob answered the phone and I don't remember him saying anything. All I remember was him throwing the phone against the wall and it shattering into a thousand pieces. No one said anything. We just knew. I felt numb as my aunt hugged me and my cousin, Ryan. Neither of us knew what to say or think. We just sat there in her embrace as she told us she was so sorry.

When we were packing to leave for the trip, my mom told me to pack a black dress. I told her no, because he was going to get better. She told me "just in case". She knew he was going to die, but I wouldn't accept it. He was my favorite. He and I had a connection none of my other cousins had with him. He called me "Peanut" because I was small. No one else was allowed to call me that. It was our "thing".

The funeral was a couple days later and I hadn't cried until I actually saw him there. Confirmation. Ever since that day, I still can't understand why people think it's a good idea to see their loved one, dead, in a casket, "embalmed". Their face looks fake and blue, covered in makeup. I don't like the idea. I understand people need to see it as part of the grieving process. I think I did. I've never cried so hard in my life, even since then. I don't remember crying like that before then, either. Because I hadn't packed my dress, I had to wear this hideous bright pink prom-y dress of Sara's. I, of course, put up a big fuss. Back then (okay, before say, 2007), I was completely opposed to pink. It just wasn't me. I got in a lot of fights with my mother about the color pink.

I remember seeing my cousin, Rick, Uncle Ricky's oldest son, and his wife Debby carry their 3 kids up to the casket to see "Poppy" and seeing my little cousins brush his arm with their chubby little hands. I thought it was cruel of them to show their young kids their dead grandpa -- but then, I'd never had a dead grandpa so how would I know what that felt like? Well, mom's dad died but before I was ever born. Uncle Ricky was the closest person to me who had ever died. Sure, old people at church had died, but this was different. He was mine. We didn't go to a grave because my uncle was cremated. They just set him up in a room and we saw him. I didn't want to go in the room. I just sat outside and cried my 9-year old eyes out. We walked out of the funeral home and walked down the sidewalk. I don't remember anything else of that day. I don't remember dinner. I don't remember the drive home. I don't even remember the rest of the trip. I just remember going home to my church and my crush and feeling like the world should feel sorry for me. I'm sure it did, but no one ever said it. I felt alone.

I look at everyday items that remind me of my uncle... things he made, or things he gave me... he made all of my cousins and myself walking sticks from wood for when we explored my grandmother's woods. He burned our names into them. Mine is straight and curves a bit at the tip and has "ARIELLE" burned vertically in the top. The smell of Marlboro cigarettes comforts me and I think of my uncle anytime the Yankees play or I hear someone talk about Busch beer. I remember the time he asked me to get him a beer and I remarked it was his 6th one and he'd had enough. My mom snapped at me to get him one anyway and I obliged. I went outside to tell Scotty, Uncle Rick's younger son, the Yankees' game score.

There was drama surrounding my uncle's death...siblings fighting over possessions but it's petty. I remember the good times and I remember his laugh. His hard belly and the way he let me put frilly hair bows in his coarse red beard. Eating red pistachios with him and his wife, my grandma, mom, and siblings in his house and falling asleep in their guest bedroom to the laughter of my relatives in the living room.

Even today I have a comforter my grandma gave me and told me was his. I feel close to him when it's on my bed.

It's been too long!

2010-10-30T10:44:00.002-05:00

Wow, I have not been on Blogger for about a month and haven't read any blogger posts in about a month. I feel so behind!!! :(

Since my last post...I've left the bank I worked at, got a job waiting tables, went to visit my grandma in Ohio and have since started that job waiting tables. :] I love it so far. Tonight will only be my 2nd shift serving on my own but I love it. It's fast-paced, I get to stand on my feet the whole time so I know I'm getting some kind of small work out - versus sitting 8+ hours a day at the bank - and the hours are a lot more flexible, which are all reasons I was looking to leave. :] I'll be able to take 2 courses in the spring semester & am hoping to take one during wintermester but we'll see how that pans out.

I've never really done anything for Halloween so tonight, Joe and I are going to Zombie Manor, a haunted house in Arlington. Should be scary and I'm sure I'll be a wreck afterwards but I have to be able to say I did it, ha. Tomorrow I work both lunch & dinner and I was hoping to wear my old soccer uniform but I can't seem to find the shorts I was going to wear. Last time I remember having them was I packed them when we went to Florida but I never wore them. They're not in my dresser, in any of the hampers, in the closet, in the laundry room or in the piles of clothes I have in baskets by the wall in my bedroom. UGH. I'm really frustrated. I may just end up wearing my White Sox t-shirt with jeans. :\ I'll be a White Sox fan, haha. HOW LAME!!!

I'm frustrated that yet another year as an adult and I can't have a real costume. I wasn't allowed to dress up as a kid because of my parents' Christian views - which I respect - and the last 3 years I've always been broke the whole month of October. I was planning on putting $$ aside for my costume this year but things popped up - I got a red light citation in the mail which I KNOW I didn't run, a $20 bill for lab fees that I wasn't informed I'd be sent - and now I'm stuck witha lame costume, but oh well. I'll get over it. Maybe I should go through the sale Halloween items once I have money and put together something for next year.

This weekend I've finally started working out after about a 2 week dry spell. It feels good to be active again - granted, I've been running around at least 5 nights/week for my job the last couple weeks, it's a different kind of exercise - it's not "on purpose". I did about 20 minutes of No More Trouble Zones the other day, then the elliptical the next, and today I'll try to do the full NMTZ work out since I know I need to keep up my strength training. I don't want to lose my hard earned muscle!

Reassurance

2010-10-05T10:30:00.002-05:00

So, lately, I've been discouraged with some things so I want to just sort out my thoughts and encourage my readers to do the same. I'm a big fan of taking a negative thought that either came from within or from an outside source and combating it with a positive thought from within or from outside. I did this after my most recent break up and it really helped me open my mind and heart to thoughts I was pushing aside in order to host a pity party and it helped me feel SO much better. I took thoughts like "You make me feel worthless" and combated it with "But I know I have skills and talents that others have found useful and in God's eyes, I am priceless" and so on. I didn't just write down thoughts in regards to my relationship either. I was currently jobless so I also wrote thoughts out for that... anyway, I'm not doing exactly that right now but something similar.

As for money -- my savings has been severely lacking and sad lately. I got a speeding ticket when I had a good chunk in my savings that was supposed to go toward my Florida trip. About 80% of that got wiped out and given to the great state of Texas and I had to start over for my Florida trip when I should have had close to $1000 in my savings by the time we left, leaving me with what I saved up beforehand (the amount that went to my speeding ticket). This greatly discouraged me as I had just started saving again and I had to start all over. When we left for Florida, I had no savings because other things popped up and I had to pay those other things I wasn't counting on. So this last month I finally got some money put away to savings but not as much as I'd like because I've also started paying on my previous apartment which has an outstanding balance on it, hooray.

- I look at my savings & it looks sad with only a little over $100 but I feel encouraged because I know I'm paying off debt and that's very important to me.

- I haven't really "lost weight" in awhile, half due to starting a new work out, half due to my own laziness and constant inconsistency with eating... BUT, I know I'm getting smaller and my clothes are getting bigger so that's still a good thing. I'm still healthier than I was at this point last year and that's something to be proud of!

In other news, I'm going to visit my grandma next Friday, the 15th through Tuesday, the 19th! I can't wait! :] I haven't seen her since last February and I haven't seen any of my cousins in 4 years. I'll definitely be taking lottttttts of pictures. Her property is beautiful and it especially is in the Fall. Hope I can get some good pictures of deer!

So the weekend is coming!

2010-10-01T16:52:00.003-05:00

And I'm so, like, totally prepared, mann! Tonight, I'm just going to work out, watch some Gilmore Girls and RELAX in the fact that I just did my first exam for my History class and don't have to study the next chapter just yet -- though I should but I'll probably start on it tomorrow night. Even in Bible Quizzing when I was a teenager, once I did a quiz, I knew I had to study for the next but I always liked taking a day off to both reward myself and rest my brain. My brain has seriously been in overdrive for this test!!! I feel like I did well but I won't know at least until tomorrow, we'll see! :]

I've had two pretty bad eating days this week. Wednesday I just went crazy. We got donuts at work and I had...well, more than you can count on one hand, and I'm ashamed of that. The most donuts I've ever eaten in one day (before Wednesday) was 4 and back then I would feel bad. Imagine what I felt Wednesday, ugh. It's not even "Oh, I ate so many calories, I feel bad. I won't lose weight this week." It's the fact that I wasn't hungry for those donuts... I already had breakfast, and I continued to eat them despite my non-existant hunger (reminds me of Katie's post here), and then I got home, was planning on having a healthy dinner, but instead I didn't drink my protein shake after I worked out and ate a whole box of macaroni & cheese with chicken. Yeah, real healthy.

Because I don't want to be a slave to my "diet"... I don't believe in, "I'm not allowed to eat that" or "I'm going to overcompensate to get rid of my guilt", I told myself Thursday was a new day! I would do my best to eat healthy and I wasn't going to overexercise to make up for Wednesday or undereat so my numbers evened out so I could lose weight this week -- which is what I wanted to do so badly. I've learned so much reading Katie's blog and I really feel like those are things I shouldn't be doing anymore. I need to forgive myself when I binge and I can't do that if I exercise and then don't eat 700 calories to make up for my overeating. It's not fair to my body because even though I overate Wednesday, if I had underate Thursday, I would have been sooo hungry. So, I worked out like normal, drank my protein shake and had some calories leftover but only because I couldn't eat anything else. :]

Today was a different story. We had a food day at work and most everything was carb-related... pasta salad, potato salad, buns, cake, cupcakes and we also had a cheeseball with (more carbs) crackers, and then pulled chicken for the sandwiches. I had a taste of everything and kept my portions small but I still ate sooo many calories. Those carbs will get ya!! :] I'm going over by about 300 calories today but I'm not going to do a damn thing about it because really, it wasn't my fault. I could have estimated before, but it's just that: an estimate. What I have logged now is just a guess. I logged approximate servings of the things I knew exact calories for (the packaged stuff - crackers, buns, cupcake, cake) along with what I made, and then just guessed on the chicken, cheeseball and pasta salad. I think I did well in not overeating because I was comfortably full when I got done eating and didn't touch anything else for about 3 hours. I'm going to work out like normal tonight, take a 10 minute longer walk (just because my cardio has been seriously lacking the last few weeks since I quit running) and then call it a night!

Tomorrow, I'll be checking out the McKinney Farmers Market to get some lamb and beef breakfast sausage from some family friends who run the Rehoboth Ranch, which is a co-op. They raise sheep, pigs, chicken, cows... their steaks are THE best I've ever had. May get a steak too depending on their prices. It's either the lamb or steak... ahhh, I don't know. :] Then I'm going to do the rest of my grocery shopping and try to find a little something something (shoes or a top) with my $15 Target gift card I got from my rewards checking account, woo hoo! :] Annnnd then I'll work out, shower and get ready for.... my friend Shelby's "bachelorette" party. We're just going to eat at Posado's and then going bowling. I may not bowl ... I get really into it and end up feeling like I'm going to dislocate my arm, soo I might have to refrain! haha But I'm looking forward to Posado's! I haven't been there in several months.

Next weekend Joe & I are going to the Great State Fair of Texas (did you know we have the largest ferris wheel in the WORLD?? Hell yeah. And Big Tex used to be "the world's biggest Santa Claus" - haha )... you could say I'm excited.

New happenings...

2010-09-28T08:59:00.003-05:00

I'm just going to make a list because that keeps me organized and then I won't babble...as much.

1. I have my first college test on Friday & I'm seriously cramming -- but I do best cramming so I'm trying to find comfort in that fact.
2. I've been eating fairly clean the last couple weeks and as a result, my body feels amazing.
3. I also started Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones workout and it's seriously kicking my arse; I love it. Doing it tonight, actually, whoop!
4. I'm planning a trip to visit my last living grandparent, my grandma on my mom's side. I haven't seen her since she moved back to Ohio February of last year. Can't wait to see my cousins too, whom I haven't seen since I was 17! :]
5. Grocery shopping this week is going to be super exciting... I'm going to try out a few casseroles my mom made when I was a kid and try to find SOMETHING to make with pumpkin that I will like.
6. October is going to be so busy!! I have a bachelorette party to go to on Saturday, I'm photographing a first birthday party next Saturday, then going out of town the next, and then the 23rd is said bachelorette's wedding, then the next week is Halloween. PHEW!
7. Fall has FINALLY arrived in North Texas and I, nor my co-workers, could be happier!! It's supposed to be high of low-80s all this week, except today which will be 74! I have on a sweater I bought a couple weeks ago and I'm ready to pull out my gray calf boots, WOO!
8. ^ Previous statement leads me to clothes shopping... I own maybe 3 articles of clothing that are long sleeved that still fit me. The one that's on my person, another that's on my dresser waiting to be worn, and another that I can't find at the moment. SIGH! So I'll be clothes shopping later this month to try again to find some more long sleeve tees and possibly a new hoodie, as mine is about 2 sizes too big. Thank you, weight loss! :]
9. My hair is seriously growing, it's ridiculous! It looked super long yesterday when I straightened it. I'm getting lots of compliments on it, which just reaffirms my decision to grow it out! :] Hopefully by Christmas it'll be where I want it and can go back to regular "trims". :)
10. I need to get my highlights retouched up so I can stop looking so un-classy.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-09-21T08:39:00.003-05:00

We've made it a year! :] 9.19.09 was the night we had our first date. Everyone with me now, "Awwwww!"

Joe took me to the Dallas World Aquarium (pictures are here) and then we went to Craft Dallas for dinner. For those who know what Craft Dallas is, you can imagine my excitement. I have been in love with Top Chef ever since it came out. I've seen all but the last 2 seasons (only because I haven't had TV since I lived at home w/ my parents) and have wanted to go to Tom Colicchio's restaurant ever since I found out the name. Then Lisa from My Fitness Pal told me he had a Craft HERE, I knew where we had to go for our anniversary!! The food was everything I imagined and we had a great time just being cozy and stuffing our faces. :] We were there for a good two hours but honestly, I loved the slow pace... not so much having to wait for the food, but I liked just sitting there with my honey and talking and just having our time. Happy Anniversary, honey!

Productive night!

2010-09-16T22:23:00.005-05:00

I love when this happens! I got off at 3:45, I rushed to the doctor 'cause I forgot to get a note for work. They had just pulled the blinds down on the doors as I pulled up and locked it as I walked to the door. Thankfully, they let me in and I got my note! Hooray! :] Got home and changed real quick into something more comfortable (just a cotton dress) and headed to the grocery store to tackle the shopping!! I did pretty good. I spent $6 under what I budgeted and got everything I planned on getting save for two things.

I came home, put the food away and then made dinner (chicken, shrimp, peppers and onions, and spinach stir-fry with some chicken dumplings from the sushi stand) for Joe's brother and I. Then I watched an episode of Shark Week on Netflix, cleaned the kitchen ...

... did a load of towels... painted my toes :D

You can't really tell but it's a pretty plum color. Ulta $2 nail polish, whoop!

Then I drove to CVS real quick-like and got my babe some cold medicine. Sooo, his brother got me sick... I went to the doctor Tuesday & got anti-biotics and I feel much better but am still nasally and have a cough. Joe felt like he was getting sick the same day it started for me but then he felt better. BUT, then he got bit by an ant and he's very allergic. His foot swelled up and now he's sick 'cause his body went from fighting his cold to fighting the ant bite (or both and is just utterly failing at both 'cause that foot is still swollen!) soo, poor guy. :( Ha.

I'm so excited, our anniversary is Sunday! My longest non-long distance relationship and his longest relationship also. :] We're going to spend Sunday in Dallas at the aquarium and then we're going to a fancy steak dinner, but shh, Joe doesn't know where. It's a surprise. :D It's so fancy, they have valet parking! Yeah, you can tell the kind of world I grew up in, haha.

Back to grocery shopping, SO excited about some of the stuff I got. I got pizza crusts, tons of chicken, buffalo sauce, and blue cheese so we can make blue cheese buffalo chicken pizza! YUM! I can't wait. :D And now I'm getting off so I can finish the last 10 or so pages of my history book before class tomorrow. Skipping monday (the day I got sick) really set me back. :\

So far I've liked this week!

2010-09-10T12:33:00.003-05:00

Tuesday night I worked out, showered quickly, made my dinner (chicken and spinach) and protein shake... ate and drank both on my way to the school where I watched V for Vendetta as part of the film department's series on Criminal Injustice. It was really good, better than I remembered, probably because I understand it a bit better as I've grown and changed a lot since I saw it last in about 2007. My friend Shelby (who also goes to my college) was there so she sat with me.

Wednesday, Joe had the day off since he worked Labor Day (he usually has Mondays off) so I tried a Betty Crocker recipe I found on my iPhone app...wasn't blown away by it but it was edible. Joe and his brother really liked it so I was glad for that but if I ever make the recipe again, I'll probably try a different veggie in the pasta an definitely season it more than they suggested. I'm sure the celery that I didn't have that the recipe called for would have added a little something to it but oh well.

Last night I did my Ab Ripper X, Pilates, and 200 Sit Up Challenge. I felt I was more productive with the crunches last night than Tuesday. Each day you have 5 sets and the last set is the max you can do and they give you a number you HAVE to at least do. Tuesday it was 30 so I did 35. Last night the max was 32 and I did 65!!!!

Then I went to the gym to walk my mile as fast as I could to finish up my fitness assessment. I did it in a little over 16 minutes, burned about 178 or so calories and my heart rate was 140 when I finished, which put me in the "good" category -- I'll totally take it! :] I walked for 11 more minutes to get up to the 25 minutes of walking/running I logged into MFP. I was planning on doing my light jog at home, then the walk at the gym, but Alba suggested I do it afterward, so I just decided I'd make it even at 25 instead of doing more. Plus, walking fast tires me out more than if I were running intervals or just light jogging. Strange! Plus, I don't like the treadmill so I did not want to be on it more than I had to!! :] Ha.

Today my times for work got confused... I had my History class today at 7 which means I usually come into work at 10:15 but for some reason, I guess my boss forgot about my class and she scheduled me to open. Oops! So I get to go home at 3:45 today! Yea! I had to use some paid time off and the girl I was supposed to open with had to open alone (so sorry! I did apologize - it wasn't my fault, really! I couldn't be there!) but it still ends up okay. I'm only here for a little under 3 hours left and I'm going on lunch now, so woo hoo!

Tonight is Fashion's Night Out and it's happening all around the world. Plano (only one store), Houston, Ft. Worth, San Antonio (I believe) and best for last: Dallas! are participating. Most of the stores in Dallas are at North Park or in the neighboring vicinities. Supposedly there are sales, giveaways, free food & drinks and just allover a good time. Some stores are having fashion shows...it sounds super fun and I'm going to go if I can find someone to take with me or meet up with. I never have anything to do on Friday nights now that Joe works 'til 10. :\ Everyone's always already got plans for Friday night so I always end up by myself at home...probably just watching Gilmore Girls. I did get 2 new discs yesterday if I can't muster up the courage to go alone!

Sunday we're celebrating Joe's brother, Chris' 22nd birthday! We're just going to grab Korean food somewhere 'cause that's what he's craving! Should be fun to have the whoel "gang" together (Sarah, their sister, her boyfriend Chris, Chris the birthday boy, Joe and me. :] Have a good weekend, y'all!

Back with a vengeance!

2010-09-07T08:12:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was my first day back at exercising since last week. I did some cleaning and then went for a 45-minute walk after dinner. It felt great. I don't really like walking when it's dark 'cause it creeps me out (even though I live in a nice area), but I loved the route I ended up taking. I went completely around our neighborhood, as in, up to the street and down a side road, then finally back into the neighborhood, back out, and then home. I need to get a new water bottle to take with me on longer walks. My 24 oz. bottle is caput so I've been using my 16 oz. bottle I got from the 1k I did back in July. It's working for now, though. It's easier to keep track of my water now that it's even numbers - instead of 3 at a time, it's 2.

Today I plan on doing Ab Ripper X, Pilates, and day 2 of the Sit Up Challenge. As I (might have) mentioned before, I'm not going to be lifting weights until I can find a new routine 'cause I'm bored of mine - specifically, my arm routine. I'm sure I should just keep doing my routine with heavier weights and see if I see results in a few weeks but I'm too impatient. My arms have gone up 2 inches from where I started 8 months ago and I know it's not muscle 'cause they still are flabby and don't look any different to me, smaller or bigger.

I'm planning on getting a real swimsuit in the next couple weeks so I can start doing laps at the Rec Center by the college. I can do that after class instead of running and do my Couch to 5k runs on other days. I also need to start taking another class at my gym (why am I paying $26 for a gym I don't use again? Oh yeah, 'cause I'm stuck in a contract). Colleen has a Turbo Kick class at 8:30 on Friday that I could take after class until I get my swimsuit and I may just do that this week. She was the first Turbo Kick instructor I took from and she is FIERCE and super intimidating. She made me work, though. Hopefully I can handle her class after not having been to Turbo Kick in a good 2 months. Fadwa (my usual Turbo Kick instructor) won't be back from summer vacation 'til end of this month - WAS supposed to be end of August but I don't know what happened. Someone was supposed to sub her class but they ended up just changing which class was at that time so I wouldn't have been able to take it anyway. It's been nice to have a rest. *shrug*

Anyway, back to the title. I ended up losing this week, much to my surprise! I planned on at least maintaining and HOPED to lose weight, but didn't know if I would without exercise. I think my body just needed a break as it does every now and then. I think I'll make a week break part of my routine every couple months 'cause my body seems to like it every time I do it!! :] I've been drinking 16 oz. water with lemon juice in the morning before I eat anything as Miranda's been doing and I think that's helped quite a bit. My liver likes it. :) I like it too. It's an interesting, different way to start my day out! I've done it for at least a week now and I'm going to keep doing it 'til I run out of lemon juice!

Oh! Tonight the college is showing V for Vendetta tonight at 7 and I think I'll go. I thought it was last week but I went on the college website to be sure and it was this week! I love having my early day on Tuesday and Thursday - changed it for school. Working out won't take too long, then I can make my protein shake and possibly dinner and go. I should do homework... mreh, maybe I won't go. :\

I won an award! :]

2010-09-06T13:51:00.006-05:00

Here's how it works... The Rules for this Award:

1) Post who gave you this award:
Sabrina at Life Is Not Always Black & White. I know you just joined MFP and your blog, you're not focusing on the scale and I think that's so brave for just starting out!! You're doing so well eating healthy & working out and I love reading your blog and seeing your progress. Thanks so much for this award, hon!!

2) State 10 things you like:

Omgosh...JUST ten?? lol

Productive days - like today, I have to clean out & detail my car, take a walk, study for my HIST 1301 class, clean the bathroom, run another load of dishes and possibly paint my nails, hehe. :P
Being really sore after a great work out - knowing I've used muscles I haven't been using a lot is encouraging because it reminds me that we can always make progress on anything. We can always get better in some area. :)
Music - melancholy, upbeat, aggressive, emo, love & romance, anything. I love it all. Some country, mostly rock, a lot of pop, alternative, some screamo. I always have a "mood" in which I need certain music...but mostly, I just need music always.
My boyfriend - we're going on a year in 2 weeks and aside from my family, has put up with me better than anyone, lol! I'm lucky to have someone who loves me through my temper tantrums, PMS crying outbursts, and very particular movie requirements.
Travelling - whether it's just to a new place an hour away or flying to the Sunshine State for the first time. I just love seeing and going to new places, old places, undiscovered places. It's always an adventure!
Pasta - C'mon, does this need an explanation? You can do so much with it. Throw some sauce and chicken in it or make it into a casserole... I love adding a meat, onions, cheese, and something unexpected in it and seeing how well it turns out. I've never had a pasta dish come out badly. What can I say? It must be the Italian genes. I just know what to do with pasta. :P
Cooking in general - I just have a knack for it and such a love for it. The few nights I get to eat dinner with my boyfriend is always the best cooking excursions because I love making something new to delight his tastebuds. :) The man hasn't had a woman cook (well) for him in about 3 years and I'm so glad I get to be the one to feed his belly. :) And not only that, I just get such a joy from creating new dishes (even if they're just new to me and someone else came up with it first). I love trying new recipes and finding out what other people are making so I can try it. My grandparents (not on the Italian side) were chefs so I guess it's just a gene in my body!
Alphabetizing - I know this is a little weird, but I love it. If it weren't for screwing up the numbered bullets, I would alphabetize this list... oh, that's another thing I like.
Lists - I love making a good list whether it's a to-do list, a grocery list, a list of just whatever!! I love them. It's some sort of OCD tendency, I think.
Being truly healthy - Yeah, yeah, you had to know this would be here. Seriously, it's not a cliche or a lie or some trick people are playing on you; I really do FEEL better when I'm healthy. I feel so much better EMOTIONALLY the last 8 months than I did before, just because I'm getting the nutrition I know I should be getting. I'm using muscles in work outs I didn't even know I HAD, much less ever used. I have more energy and yet am so exhausted and being so exhausted you fall asleep within 5 minutes of laying in bed is such a great feeling. I love it.

3) Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment:

Katie at Health For the Whole Self. I'm not going to lie, I play favorites. I HAVE to read her blog everyday. She always has something profound to say, great pictures, and something for me to think about later on.
Lindsay at Eat, Knit, Grow. *Just started reading this blog. AMAZING meals. I've definitely been inspired!*
Definitely Miranda at MirandasJeans.com. This girl is amazing and I love seeing what she eats and what her new work out endeavors will be!
Heather at The Lazy Girl Loses Weight. I love the organization and goals she sets every week for her weight loss.
Nykkie at Nykkie's New Perspective. She just started her blog so show her some love! She's been through a lot but keeps coming back to get healthy, I love her persistence.
Alli at You've Gotta Have Goals! She's making awesome progress in losing weight and I love it.
Rachel at Heart of Light. Rachel is my ultimate DIY idol. I've printed of so many of her recipes I've been "meaning to try" and haven't. I wish I had her dedication to projects, seriously.
Jen from I Believe In Love - I've known her since I was a very little girl, we went to the same church. She's an amazing mother and another DIY-er I completely idolize!!! :]
Cupcakes & Combat Boots - Girl has serious balls. Her husband has been deployed, I think, twice, and she still manages to keep it together (as far as we can tell just by reading her blog). She always has yummy pictures of her dinners and blogs that don't just talk about health and food. I seriously look up to this girl and her strength.
Courtney at Hello, You've Reached the Horvaths - another one I've known since I was little. I actually lived in the house she lives in with her family when I was about 7. She always has pictures of her adorable little boys and that makes me happy. :] I love reading what they're up to!

I just made the best dinner ever.

2010-09-03T19:47:00.004-05:00

Like... of all the random things I've ever put together without a recipe...just something I knew I had a couple different things I thought would go well together... this is the best of them all.

Multigrain spaghetti (I used Barilla plus spaghetti) with sauteed boneless skinless chicken breast, frozen spinach (yeah. I bought some and told myself I'd learn to love it - and I HAVE in one meal!!!), green onion, and garlic, topped with a little big of mozzarella cheese (was going to mix it in but I knew once I made the sauteed mix, it didn't need that much cheese - this dish has sooo much flavor). Check out this perfection.

I think the hiatus is working...

2010-09-03T12:02:00.002-05:00

I still feel really apathetic in the fact that I don't want to do anything remotely productive (well, only with some things - such as the dishes or any real cooking -- I haven't actually cooked a dinner in a few days, oie.) but I feel like by the beginning of this coming week, I'll be ready to exercise again. I always see people running or walking or biking on my way to class and work which makes me want to exercise. This morning, there were 3 middle-aged men all jogging together at 6:30 this morning and that was encouraging. Ridiculously early to go running but with it being 75 degrees outside, I don't blame 'em!

It's been nice coming home from class and crashing in bed for an hour before going to work but I know I'd have a ton more energy if I was using that time to run like I was last week. It's also nice coming home from work and not having any obligations... Tuesday I had to do my grocery shopping and it was so nice to be able to go immediately after work and not have to do it at 10 o'clock because I had to make dinner and work out. I just bought some sushi, grocery shopped, came home, put away the food while I grabbed a piece of my sushi here and there in between trips from the car to the kitchen and from the countertops to the fridge. :] Last night I got to have dinner with Joe at Subway and just spend some time together, then I went and bought a mortar and pestle and a package of poppy seeds. I came home, made some pesto, tried it, then just got on the internet and played around until he got home and I fell asleep.

Tonight I'm going to try my hand at a new pasta dish. Spaghetti with chicken, spinach, green onions, some cheese, and possibly a little bit of heavy whipping cream just to give it a little bit of thickness. I love trying new things in the kitchen. :) I need to get better at doing it. I keep telling myself when I get more time, I'll be more devoted to it...but the truth is, if we love something, don't we make time? I made time for healthier eating and exercise. I can make more time for baking. I WILL make more time for baking. I miss it too much to keep putting it off! This weekend I'm going to try my hand at a spinach dip recipe I found on my Betty Crocker app and possibly a cream-based soup. Maybe potato soup! Yum. I love that stuff.

Back to the title of this blog... Friday I saw a 1 lb loss on the scale but I knew it was because I didn't eat all the calories I was supposed to last week. I didn't think it was permanent so I didn't count it. Then on Monday, I saw an increase of 4 lbs (including the 1 lb I lost) on the scale. Everyone told me it was probably water weight. I had a tiny bit of alcohol over the weekend so I knew that wasn't going to help those 4 lbs... but I did what I could to drink my water and eat healthy this week without exercise. Today I weighed and I'm what I was before the 1 lb loss. Still in the 150s... no more water weight and now I can get to working on actually losing fat now. :)

Seeing that on the scale this morning made me believe in this system again. Even though I still feel horribly apathetic and don't want to exercise, I know that I should at least continue eating healthy because it WORKS. I have a few checks I'm expecting in the mail this week and I think I'll finally sign up for the 10 yoga classes for $10 at the studio close to home ... I got the coupon in July and it has no expiration date so I think I'll use it. I'm getting tired of lifting weights so I think I need to just do some toning stuff that's DIFFERENT and then I'll be able to go back to lifting weights without feeling so bored with it. Plus, it won't take up a lot of time and it's something I could go straight to from work and I think that's a good advantage.

I need to start swimming since I have better access to a pool because of school now. I just need to get a swimming suit. A bikini doesn't count. I can't do good laps in a bikini. I think I'll check some of the discount stores this weekend or next. Hopefully I can find one cheaper than like $50. :\ *crossing fingers* I just need to do anything out of my routine 'cause I'm seriously getting bored and I don't think I'm seeing the results I should. I'm going to keep doing my Ab Ripper X and Pilates videos and I'll start back up with the 200 Sit Up Challenge next week when I resume my work outs but I don't think I'll start lifting weights again...just need a break, and seriously need a new routine. I'll be researching those until then.

If any of you has a great arm strength/weight routine, please share!!

I might just start doing push ups since I did the fitness test and I couldn't do that many...that's probably a good place to start but that's only one thing.

A bit of a hiatus...

2010-09-01T11:29:00.004-05:00

yeah, I'm takin' one from exercise. Ever since I got back from Florida, I have not had the mojo I normally do to exercise. I did it because I knew I had to and sometimes because I wanted to, but most of the time not. I don't want that to be the case, so I'm taking this week off to sort of re-evaluate why I'm doing this and to kick myself in the pants to get back into it with the fervor I had before! It's going to be a struggle to eat within my calories without the extras I get from exercise but I think it will be a good time to fine tune my self control. I had great self control and will when I started this thing and slowly, it's started to wane. I want to enjoy being healthy and I want to enjoy getting healthy and right now I don't.

I'm going grocery shopping tonight and I plan on getting a few things so I can start baking again ... I want to bake my own bread and have really good, hearty sandwiches, and I also want to make my own protein bars. They won't be so high in protein that they could replace meals but if at the end of the day I feel like I could use more protein, a yummy little protein brownie would do the trick! I got the recipe I'll be using from AskGeorgie.com and it looks fantastic so I'm going to give it a try and let you guys know what I think!

Class is okay... I feel like after a week and a half of classes though, we should be past Chapter 1. Oh well. Only one more day of class this week and then I get Monday off 'cause it's Labor Day, YEA! :]

I went shopping last night. Serious shopping. I needed some underthings (it's amazing how much the girls shrink when you lose weight - it shouldn't be shocking considering they're mostly fat, but alas. It always amazes me, haha - and is exciting! Big boobs are a burden, haha) and I got a really good deal on them! I went to my usual place, it's an outlet store and they had buy 2, get 1 free, so I got 3 bras for about $50! I was excited. :] And still am. I don't know why I always get so excited over brasierres but I do, haha!

Anyway... I also found my dress for Joe & my 1-year anniversary dinner in 3 weeks!! WOOOO!!!! I tried on a $200 dress (without knowing it) and it's fun to be able to say I did that but I ended up finding my dress for muuuuch much cheaper, which made me happy. I was then able to get a new top for work and some earrings to go with my dress and 3 other pairs just for fun. :]

Overall, the shopping experience was great, as all of the ones I've had since losing weight have been, but last night especially so. I've been able to fit into some mediums (mostly medium tops) - and that was a big milestone 'cause I haven't worn a medium since I was 15... in pants I'm still in a 12 just because my thighs won't budge...also, I've been in a 12 dress since I was at least 12 but last night, all the dresses I tried on were 10s, and they fit me!!! The one I bought was a 10. :] The first I tried on, the $200 one, I didn't choose to try on but it was a 10 and I honestly didn't know if I could squeeze into it. The salesgirl even told me Nicole Miller's 10 is more like a 6/8. I voiced my concern but tried it on anyway and it fit me beautifully. It was a bit too flowy for my taste though. I wanted something more formfitting that would show the curves I've worked so hard to get back! :] Just for fun, here's the $200 dress:

If I weren't already on this new health kick...

2010-08-27T10:09:00.005-05:00

I'd be on one as of today. I'm aware of the size of every one of my body parts. Those with dirty minds, I'm not about to talk about my boobs. Exit quietly. I had a customer come in for a deposit about 10 minutes ago and ask me... her exact words, "Are you expecting a baby?" Actually, I think she said "any babies" like my belly is so big, I'm having more than one!? Really? Just for reference, here's my belly as of last week... it looks FAT not PREGNANT.

No baby in there, promise! lol So... referring back to the title, if I hadn't already decided to get healthy and lose weight, I definitely would have decided today. Down 21 lbs (22 as of today but I'm not officially counting it yet) and somebody asks me NOW if I'm having a kid? Geez. lol Okay...rant over, I'm gonna blabber about some stuff I'm excited about!!

Tonight I get to hang out with Matthew and a bunch of his buds. I'm going to wear my white shorts and a white punk-style t-shirt I got that says "Melbourne Beach". It's big black block letters with neon paint splattered on it. I love it. Joe says it's not my style but I think it is. Tomorrow I'll wear my black skinny jeans (that are fitting much better these days, I may add!) with a light blue babydoll top I got 3 years ago and that also is fitting better today than the day I bought it! Ha.

I'm off Monday so I'll have two whole days back-to-back to hang out with Joe. We're going to have a cheap-ish breakfast at IHOP Monday morning and then get a giant pizza from Angelo & Vito's for lunch. I need to get a physical done that afternoon and then we'll probably just watch a bunch of movies. Same thing Sunday. I want to look for some home-y stuff... solar lights for the "garden" in front of the house and maybe some kind of sign to put out so it looks more welcoming, ha. I've seen a lot of people in our neighborhood who have a nice flag with their initial on it. I think that would be awesome. A big "R" in front of the house, haha. It might be too girly for Joe but I'll see if I can get away with it, hehe. Maybe we can even pick up some flowers to plant. The front beds are just so sad looking. Everyone else has pretty flowerbeds and we don't! I'm sick of it. Just 'cause two guys own this house doesn't mean it can't look nice! Hmph.

I went to the gym yesterday to get re-measured (good things, mostly!) and I also did a mini-fitness assessment since Maria never did a real one for me - don't know why! Alba tested my flexibility and my dynamic strength doing push ups (girly ones - but I finally know how to do them and they BURNED. My sides and under my arms are SO sore today!!) and sit ups (I haven't done that many since I was in PE...I was doing 1 or 2 sets of 10 a couple years ago but I didn't keep it up that long). I did more of each than I thought I would... 24 sit ups in a minute and 22 push ups in a minute. For both strength categories, I placed in "very poor" compared to girls my age. For flexibility, I was in the "good" category. Overall, though, I was still placed in the "very poor" category and that was kind of discouraging but encouraging at the same time because I know I need to work harder. I think the Sit Up Challenge will help with my actual sit ups. I can't do regular sit ups because I don't have anyone to hold my feet and nothing stable I can use to hold my feet down. I'm going to start doing the girly push ups 'cause I seriously need it. Might do the 200 push up challenge too!

The first time Alba measured me (after switching from Maria) last month, my body fat % went up, so she changed the setting on the little gadget and it went down to what I think it really is. She had me set up as "normal" and then changed it to "athletic" (which is technically someone who works out a lot and intensely, which is me!), so I lost about 1% since last month, I think. I can't find my post-it note, I'll have to find it and record the actual number. I updated it on MFP, though, along with the ones I remembered...

She measures my arms and thighs differently than Maria so last month I saw bigger numbers than the previous month. Yesterday, measuring the same way as she did before, I lost 2" off each of my thighs! My arms got bigger so I'm hoping that just means the heavier weights I'm using are WORKING and with the cardio, they'll slim down a bit.

Alright, alright, I'm done! haha

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for meee!

2010-08-23T11:37:00.005-05:00

Sort of. :D I had my first real college class today. History 1301. The professor just went over how to find the study guide, syllabus, etc. online. It's a 50 minute class 3x/week so it'll just fly by, I know it and that'll be great! I ran on the track in the basketball gym afterwards, COMPLETELY overestimating how much time I'd have left. I showered in the girl's locker room (my first locker room experience - I was alone, thank God. Oh well, I'm finally confident enough that had someone walked in and showered with me, I think I would have felt a teensy bit anxious but would have gotten over it. 20 lbs ago? Hell no.) and then came home to cuddle with Joe for 20 minutes before grabbing my lunch and heading to work. I may see if someone (or Joe even if he can wake up :D) wants to grab breakfast after I work out since I ended up with a whole hour to kill. My job is only about 10 minutes from the school so it would be fun. Maybe I can get a study partner and we can go over the lesson, or just chill. :) We'll see.

My weekend was good. Saturday night Joe & I went to Dave & Buster's to celebrate one of his bosses birthday. We had some credits on our Power Card from last time we went (last year when we first started dating, we met Joe's sister, Sarah and her bf Chris for dinner and then played some games). We had fun just wasting our credits, trying to see how many tickets we could get. We ended up with 1,064. We got a stuffed monkey with velcro hands for Matt (lol), 2 huge pixie sticks (blue and orange - we still have orange left, yum, pure sugar!), a Nerds rope, a tiny yo-yo, and a Dallas Stars deck of cards (for me - mwahaha!).

This is Joe showing how many tickets we had.

We were hoping Matt would like the monkey...I think he did. ;)

Yesterday Joe just lazed around with Madden '11 while I cleaned the house. I did 2 loads in the dishwasher, about 3 loads in the washer, I cleaned up the living room and FINALLY got everything off the floor in the bedroom and vacuumed it, de-cluttered and swept the laundry room... and I think that's it. Justin's vacuum is amazing. It picked up all Duke's gross black hair!! The bedroom looks SO clean now. He's been sleeping with half his body under the bed the last few weeks so we've gotta move the bed and vacuum under there somehow...haha It's disgusting. :]

I made a new dinner last night. We were going to do kabobs but I couldn't find the skewers :( so I just made it into stir-fry. I made a box of Rice-a-Roni Whole grain blends rice (the Roasted Garlic Italiano one? So good) and grilled boneless skinless chicken chunks, crab chunks, and big slices of green & red bell pepper and onion. It was sooo yummy. I have half the crab package left so I may repeat the meal tonight or do something similar since we both liked it. Here's a pic!

It looks gross but I promise, it was so good! I'm really excited about this weekend. My best friend, Matthew is having his birthday/apartment warming party Friday & Saturday. His birthday is Wednesday and he just moved into his first apartment so I'm really excited for him. :] I'm going to drive to Keller straight from work and we're going to get dinner before the shindig starts! Last time I saw him was June or July, can't remember which, when he came down and I did some Florida clothes shopping! :) We didn't get enough time together so hopefully dinner will allow us to catch up! Gotta figure out what to wear. His friends are a stylish bunch (because he rubs off - lol) so I've gotta look my best!

My wardrobe is getting to be quite small... I have at least 4 things I realize I need to give away 'cause they're too big. :( I'm giving 3 of my dress pants to a girl on MFP, Heidi and I'll be mailing those out this week. They're still in good condition so why should I keep 'em!? I can't wait to go Fall clothes shopping...wish I'd had money this past weekend as it was Tax-Free weekend. I didn't get to shop last year either 'cause I was broke and WORKING it. Blah! Next year for sure. :) haha! Oh well. I realized today from a post on MFP that my motorcycle/bomber jacket I bought last winter will probably fit now! I'm excited to wear it. I'll need a new sweater...the one I have is way too big and makes me look thick. I want to get some cute cardigans too, I only have one that's okay... my black one is too baggy and my white one is short-sleeved and getting baggy too (and it's a small!! Grr). Okay, I'm rambling... ciao!

Muss-skulls!

2010-08-20T13:25:00.006-05:00

My work outs have severely been lacking and I'm sick of it! I've realized that it's because I'm bored. When I think of my work outs, I usually try to envision how it will affect me physically. Will it be painful? Will it feel like my muscles are progressing? Will I burn fat later as a result? And lately, the answers have been... likely, no. The two things I know that keep challenging me are Ab Ripper X and my Pilates DVD. I usually think about them ahead of time and I think "Ah, I'm getting tired of it..." then I do it and realize how much my abs and core are still adapting and I can indeed keep doing it because I'm feeling sore in areas I wasn't before so my form is getting better! But, there's always room for improvement...

Last night I lifted weights for the first time in about a week. Yeah, lame. I worked my arms and made some changes based on realizations I had earlier in the day. I realized... the reason I figure my work outs won't be painful and my muscles won't progress or help me burn fat later is because my muscles have gotten used to the weights I've been using and I've been doing the same thing over and over. Last night, I switched it up! I ditched my 5 lb dumbbells and have decided I'll do all my weight lifting with the 8 lb or 10 lb weights. I couldn't do as many reps (obviously) as with the 5s, but I could really feel like my muscles were fatigued when I got done...and THAT is what builds muscle to burn fat! So I'm really excited about that...

I realized this morning that my arms haven't shrank any since I went to weight lifting at home instead of the gym... and that's about to change. I'm tired of having flabby arms and not seeing any difference in them. It's time to get serious!

I also used a thicker resistance band instead of the "medium" I've been using and I could really feel a difference in my arms!!! :] I plan on using the thicker one for Pilates as well and I think that will really help. I probably won't be able to use it for every move but it will definitely come in handy for moves that need some boosting!

I'm also trying to get stricter with my diet... I've been slacking and it's showing on the scale and in the way I feel. I've been eating too many processed foods and as a result, I feel sluggish and bloated. I'm still up 2 lbs from vacation (even though last week I lost one of them -- *groan*) and I'm really anxious to get those off. None of this sluggish crap!!

Also... I want to change my work out routine by incorporating new cardio sessions!! Now that I'm enrolled in college, I have access to the swimming pool, gym, basketball court (with padded track - Couch to 5k on that thing will be SWEET!!!) and racquetball courts. I want to see about starting to do laps at least once a week and would love to find a racquetball/squash partner... I can easily do my C25K on the track after my morning class MWF and get to work on time. That will be nice. Maybe the track will be easier on my knees than the concrete (even though I haven't had too many problems with it so far).

So here's to a new routine!! I'm pumped.

This week represents more change

2010-08-17T14:38:00.003-05:00

It seems this whole year has been about change... we're a good 2/3 done with the year now and I think it's been pretty good so far. I've done a lot of changing in myself - obviously, the reason for this blog. Tomorrow I have orientation at Collin College for my first semester as a college student. That's right. I'm a 21-year old freshman! And I'm not ashamed of it. I used to be, but I'm okay with it now. I realize that if I were to have gone to a 4-year college, I never would have had the experience of moving out on my own (albeit for a short amount of time), buying my own car, met Joe, or learned what I've learned at my current job of 1-year. I feel like I might not have grown up in certain areas...although I'm sure I would have had incredible experiences, or I would have found out it wasn't for me.

Sunday afternoon I started my online defensive driving course. I got a speeding ticket in June and have just now signed up for this thing. There are 8 units of about 3-4 related topics and I'm finishing up #5 right now, so I'm almost 3/4 done! :] Yeah, for someone who's bad at fractions, I sure like using them when I talk, haha.

I've finally lost 1 of my 2 lbs that I gained from vacation. The last 2 weeks were just awful for me... I couldn't manage to stay within my calories although I worked out - though not as hard as I normally do or as hard as I wanted/intended. On Monday, I decided it was time to cut it out! I stayed within my calories yesterday and went for my Couch to 5K run (though I had to start over on week 2 AGAIN today... this will be the 4th time. I know I'm just not ready for week 3 and I need to get over my pride with that) in the morning and then got to enjoy watching a Korean movie with Joe & Justin during dinner and then playing a game of Words with Friends with Joe before bed.

Today I plan to stay within my calories, have already done my Couch to 5K run this morning and plan on doing my arm strength routine and then run in place for 25-30 minutes afterwards when I get home tonight. Then I'll have some chicken, chickpeas, and some watermelon lemonade. Yum! (Yeah, I haven't done it yet - in my defense, the cutting board has been dirty, lol!)

My next cooking adventure I've decided...will be cordon bleu. I haven't decided what kind of cheese I want to use and I'll have to get some ham...but I've never pounded a chicken and I've never stuffed anything inside a chicken...so I think it'll be fun. It's supposed to be easy... pound the chicken, cut a slice in it, throw some cheese in it, bread it, bake it. We'll see. I may or may not use a recipe...and I may or may not succeed, lol! I'll try to take step-by-step pictures so I can post it. I have a really good feeling it's going to be very interesting!

Can't be too hard, right? ;)

You know you've got a problem...

2010-08-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

when you get really excited to go grocery shopping, lol! I can't help it, though. I love it! I love to plan out the next 2 week's meals and figure out what I'll have for my snacks and what new thing I'll make for Joe & myself for dinner.

This week I'm going to do my best to recreate our experience at Mustard's Last Stand in FL! I bought beef franks and red bell peppers were on sale and I still have some green left from last shopping trip so I'm going to recreate the hot dog I had but with a blue cheese wedge instead of cheddar cheese. I can't wait, yum! Also, I bought a full watermelon and some lemon juice so I can try Miranda's watermelon lemonade - yum!

Tonight we're having a different version of chicken parmesan (different being I don't ever bread the chicken first, and I don't have cheese to put on top and I'm using vodka sauce instead of spaghetti/marinara sauce). I'm going to see how I like sauteed spinach with a little kosher salt. Joe will have pasta on the side.

I also bought some ready-to-eat soups since I've been craving soup and I got some chicken broth so I can experiment with making my own soup from scratch! And I got a turkey, broccoli, cheese lean pocket to try. It's not too high protein-wise so I would probably eat it for a snack or just to eat up calories...not necessarily as a meal. It looks yummy, though!

"You hear that? It's the winds of chaaaange"...

2010-08-10T11:49:00.004-05:00

Name that movie quote! On to the post, now...

Well, I'm registering for classes tomorrow and finally starting college. I feel like a grown-up - again! haha I'm taking just English & History this semester since I work full-time. I figured I'd get the easy stuff out of the way first to see how I handle it. I'm probably going with a once per week class for History and twice per week class for English. I know I won't be done with either class until December but I don't think I can manage that much time in a classroom just starting out...especially considering I've never been in a formal classroom before. I was homeschooled my entire life! I'm definitely in for a big change. I'm really excited.

I get paid this week which means I have the joy of buying books - but my boss suggested I wait 'til the first day of class to see which books I actually need, instead of buying the recommended book when I won't use it. Smart lady! ;) So I'm just going to set aside the $ and wait to see which ones I'll really need. I also have to take care of my defensive driving class from my speeding ticket, grr. That'll be fun!!

I'm excited to be back into my work out routine. I've done my Couch to 5k running both yesterday and this morning... I'll definitely run again Thursday and might run on Saturday also since I don't know if I'll be ready for Week 3 yet. I should be on Week 5 this week but I repeated week 2 when I should have been on week 3, then skipped week 4 because I was SO tired last week from the vacation. I finally feel like I'm catching up on sleep (though I've been tossing and turning a few hours per night the last couple nights) so I decided to jump back in. Week 2 for the 3rd time. I WILL push through week 3 the best I can. Today I still wasn't able to do the full 20 minutes of intervals. I did intervals from minute 5-16:30 when it should be 5-25 but I just couldn't handle it. I might have to wake up earlier 'cause I think the sun is truly what's killing my mojo. Ughhhh. I don't want to wake up any earlier 'cause I've already got a lot of time between showering/getting ready and leaving for work... hmph.

On a lighter note, I made parmesan encrusted chicken last night for the first time (and totally "wung" it - how do you say past tense of wing? Winged?) along with multi-grain pasta, vodka sauce, and I had about 1/2 cup of stir-fry veggies along with a piece of whole wheat bread w/ butter. Yum!

Weekend plans! :]

2010-08-06T10:12:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I worked out for the first time since we left for Florida - a whole WEEK! Oie. I just did Ab Ripper X, Pilates, and then ran in place for 20 minutes (as part of the next phase in easing my way into barefoot running - per runnersworld.com's instructions! First 2 weeks were walking barefoot as much as possible, next 2 weeks are running in place on carpet, then the next 2 weeks I can slowly incorporate a LITTLE bit of running outside barefoot - at that point, I think I should be ready to just buy some minimalist shoes). It felt good to actually work out again. I haven't gotten back on track with Couch to 5k yet. I'm still not caught up on sleep from the trip. I didn't get good sleep while we were there because of the paper thin walls & kids yelling all the time, hearing people walk around, etc. Now I just need to rest...so I haven't gotten up early to go run even though I want to, my body doesn't and I'd rather let it rest than overexert it. :]

Tonight I'll do my strength routine after meeting Joe for dinner at Chipotle on his lunch break at work... then I want to see if I can conjure up some creativity and make some homemade cards. I used to make fancy shmancy cards for my family's birthdays, mother's day, whatever, before I had a job...and I miss it! And I'm thinking I could possibly make money doing it, so if I have enough ideas, I think I'll open up an etsy shop! :)

Tomorrow night Joe & I are going to see my friend's band, American Mantra, play in the Battle of the Bands at Trees in Dallas! I'm really excited! I've seen them play twice, first time was last summer when I first met Austin and his family and then the second time in November for my friend Jared's clothing line, Jumbuck Attire's launch party! Both awesome guys, awesome band, and awesome clothes. I have 2 of their shirts and am always itching for his new designs! :]

Alex Balash (guitarist) and Austin Radford (vocalist). Really awesome guys. :]

Sunday afternoon, the church I frequent is having a college students & family luncheon after the service, so I'm going to go. I might check out the youth group's bible quizzing practice later in the afternoon but I haven't decided yet. I did bible quizzing for a solid 6 years so it definitely had a big part in my teenage years! I met a lot of awesome people doing it - Jared being one of them! I owe a lot to the quizzing world, actually, but I won't get into that right now. That's a looooong post. ;) Anyway... my brother is helping coach the team this year so I may go just to say hi to him but I'm not sure yet. I wanted to help out with quizzing last year and the year before but had jobs that required I work saturdays or I didn't have a car or who knows what the excuse was. I sometimes work saturdays now but might be taking a weekend class so I don't know if I'll be able to be very involved this year either but I'm hoping to at least go to some of the closer meets, such as the opening and the one in Richardson and maybe there will be others that won't be too far to drive.

Update - I just realized I have $11 I didn't know I had! WOO HOO! :]

Back from Florida!!!

2010-08-03T14:53:00.004-05:00

Ah, what a time we had. I'm not brown but I'm certainly a little tanner than when I left! Joe even got a little color. :] I haven't weighed and frankly, I don't really feel like it! haha Here are some pictures of things I ate, the beach, places we ate, and of course, my love and me!

This pizza was the first thing we ate in Florida at the original Bizzarro by the beach. This sucker is a foot and a half in circumference! I could only eat 2 slices but it was delicious. :] We got 2 meals out of this baby.

This was the 2nd time we got pizza. Well, he got pizza 'cause he was starving. lol :]

This was my dancing eel roll at Thai Village. SO yummy and pretty filling!

Saw this mural in downtown Melbourne and we both really liked it! :]

We ate here Saturday night. I had a mahi sandwich on a roll with lettuce & tomato, served with a side of potato fries. Definitely 2 thumbs up! The flavors were amazing. :]

This is the "Philly dog" at Mustard's Last Stand. 1/4 lb beef dog topped with grilled onions and peppers and cheddar cheese. This plus the soda & fries rounded up to about 1,200 calories!!! LOL It was delicious though and sooo worth it. :] It was vacation, afterall!

Now for some scenery shots...

Along HWY 192 on the way to Indialantic beach, where we spent Saturday.

Indialantic beach :] It was a calm beach. Not too crazy of waves so it was more "relaxing" than "fun" but we enjoyed it.

The other side of Indialantic - as in, I turned to my right to take this versus left! haha

We didn't get any pics of Cocoa Beach, which is where we went on Sunday. It was overcast so they wouldn't have come out and I left my camera in the car. :( The waves at Cocoa Beach were pretty high (for being closer to shore) and we had sooo much fun playing in them...'til it started raining. Boo. We visited Ron Jon surf shop and got Joe a t-shirt, I got a shot glass for my collection and a reusable canvas bag (99 cents, whoop!) as well as a souvenir wooden frog for Justin. We ate a yummy place called Jersey Girl deli. I had a buffalo chicken blue cheese sandwich, YUM! Not the best service but reeeally good food. We didn't eat anywhere we didn't like the food. Some places didn't have great service but the food was always delicious!

I LOVE palm trees!!!

We went back to Indialantic beach to get better pics of the horizon and whatnot...Joe got this one of me. :D

Us at the beach!

The boardwalk leading to the beach. Why do they call it a boardwalk? *shrug*

We weren't able to reserve specific seats for our flight home so we ended up in separate rows... I asked the girl later if she could do anything. She ended up upgrading us to Business Class no charge! We wrote her a VERY good review & gave it to her supervisor :D And then enjoyed free drinks and LOTS of snacks!! lol

Mission ACCOMPLISHED.

2010-07-30T09:05:00.002-05:00

Well, not quite...but a mini-mission! For those who regularly read my blog, you probably already know this (or if you follow my statuses on MFP, you know)... I wanted to lose 3 lbs in a month so I would be down to 159 today for Florida. No more 160s. That was my goal. I lost 1 lb the first weekend of July and then didn't lose the next 3 weeks due to water retention and sometimes just general bad eating... but then I weighed yesterday (I cheated - *gasp*) and saw 160. I recorded it on My Fitness Pal (with my iPhone!!) and then when I got up today and realized, "It's official weigh day!" I figured I wouldn't see anything different than I did yesterday (you know where I'm going with this...right?) but you know what. My scale showed favor to me. I saw 159!!! So I'm officially out of the 160s FOREVER (until I gain water weight, lol) and can continue on my merry way to Florida.

I'm going to do my best to eat healthfully and I'll still be working out and burning lots of calories in the ocean... but will probably be drinking a little just 'cause it's my first vacation! So I'm breakin' some rules, k!? :] I'm reeeeeeeeally excited. We're leaving the house at about 5 so we can be there in plenty of time for our 7:23pm flight. We have a layover around 10:20 or so in Georgia (been there, it's boring - nothing to see but airport, haha!) then we'll be in Florida a little before 1. Then we have to pick up the rental car, drive an hour to our hotel, and crash.

I may or may not wake up early to run...I might just do that during the day 'cause our hotel isn't on the beach, we'll have to drive there. But we'll see. I may suck it up and run on the hotel's gym treadmill - *groan*.

I got measured this morning but had to use a different girl so my lower body measurements are different because she measured me in a different place. Sigh. But! I did lose in my waist, abs, and hips! :]

One more day...

2010-07-29T14:44:00.002-05:00

until I'm in the sunshine state! Tonight I'll do my laundry so I can pack the last bit of stuff... I threw a couple things in/on my bag last night. I'll still have last minute stuff to add tomorrow such as my heart rate monitor, toothbrush, moisturizer, deodorant, etc. :)

I got my iPhone 4 yesterday afternoon and I loooooooooove it. I've got all the apps I already downloaded, as well as all my music (excluding some stuff I didn't really want on there), and I got an app today that will allow me to make ringtones for my main people which excites me! :] I don't think I charged it enough last night 'cause my battery is almost dead already. :( haha! Joe was like "It's done, unplug it!" JERK! Why'd I listen? haha It should be okay if I just plug it in and charge it overnight when I sleep, right? Hmmm. I'll have to look that up. I know Apple says not to charge the Macbooks past when it turns green but I don't care much about the battery life on that thing 'cause I can just plug it in. I use my phone all day so I'd like for it to stay charged as long as possible. It probably just needs more charging since it's just been shipped.

I FaceTimed my friend Joe (not my bf) last night and that was fun. I'm supposed to call my cousin Peter for a FaceTime chat soon but I don't want to drain the battery so I'm not sure if I will...mreh.

So, I peeked at the scale today. I wanted to see how I was doing since I've been stuck at 161 the last few weeks ... and it said 160!!!! So, I thought about not counting it since my official weigh in isn't until tomorrow...but I counted it anyway! 20 lbs lost! :] I feel GREAT. I'm officially halfway to my goal! Sweet beans. So exciting.

I made a note on my iPhone of breakfast/snack stuff to buy when we get there, along with the hotel's address and where the Hertz is located in the airport. I need to make a note to make sure I buy a shot glass while I'm there! When I was 15, I started a shot glass collection of places I've been...it's literally the cheapest souvenir you can get so now I have quite a few. I have some that a friend gave me when he went travelling... kind of defeats the purpose of the collection, BUT, now I for sure have to visit those states! haha Florida will be the 11th state I've visited. Out of 50. Yeah, I need to get crackin' on this travelling stuff! haha

I guess that's all I want to say for now... I need to eat my black plum... and call my cousin. :]

Another "For Florida" to-do list

2010-07-27T13:47:00.005-05:00

- Pack q-tips, books, loofa, flat iron, cleanser scrubby and Joe's shower gel (Lord knows the man would forget it.)
- Wash and pack exercise clothes (Thursday)
- Pack sneakers and socks (at least 2 pairs)
- Buy at least one 3-oz. bottle
- Buy travel toothpaste and hair mousse (for beachy waves!)
- Get my hair cut (Thursday morning or Friday afternoon after work)

More will probably be added later as I think of it...

Don't worry, sweet baby. You'll be in my hands soon enough. :] *swoon*

It's Monday!! YEEEEA! Er...

2010-07-26T11:58:00.002-05:00

I feel really good about how this weekend went, health-wise. I worked out Saturday as normal, ran in the morning, and then swam in the afternoon instead of my strength routine (which I kind of feel bad about but I felt really good about my laps! I'm definitely getting better.) and then I swam again yesterday afternoon and I did fairly well eating, too! I went over yesterday only by about 7 though.

I'm super excited for Florida. Only 4 1/2 more workdays until we leave!! :] I'm mostly packed save for last-minute stuff so it's safe to say I'm prepared!

For those interested in a giveaway, check out Katie's blog here!

So far, this weekend has been good! :]

2010-07-24T19:50:00.003-05:00

So I weighed yesterday and I'm still up a pound (same as last week - was retaining water) but I had a visitor right before I weighed myself so I won't know until Monday or Friday (probably more like Friday) if I lost anything. I've been chugging water like crazy so hopefully I can get this bloating crap done with!! I ran the last interval for Couch to 5k this week ... this morning. I only skipped out on one interval and that was because I ran out of water. My calorie burn was pretty sweet. 10 calories per minute! I was really proud of myself. So, after that I ate some breakfast and watched Julie & Julia: REALLY good. I'm just emo because of TOM but I cried a couple times.

After that, I just killed time online and then went swimming for 25 minutes. I ended up tanning/drying off for a total of probably about 50 minutes to an hour so I got some nice color. My tan is definitely Florida-ready! haha Came home, showered, watched some Say Yes to the Dress with Justin (he just had gotten home from work) and then made my protein shake, and waited for Joe to get home. :] Now the boys are playing Splinter Cell while I wait for the pasta to get done and then I can nuke the veggies and we can eat dinner! Cod, veggies and elbow macaroni/veggie mac spirals. Yum!

Tomorrow we're going to the Fort Worth Zoo to celebrate our 10 months which was last Monday, the 19th. Neither of us has been so we're excited. I hope I can get some sweet shots with my camera! I haven't been to a zoo since I was probably 5 years old and that was the Dallas Zoo. I remember a lady in her mid-50s had a heat stroke as we were getting off the tram and Mom always stressing after that how important it is to drink water in the heat. Scary!

This is the face of intensity.

2010-07-22T11:47:00.002-05:00

So, when I picked up my packet for the 1k I ran on the 4th, it had lots of goodies. A CK Sports (the store where I picked up the packet) 16 oz. or so sports bottle with easy sport top - much easier to run with than my normal 24 oz. bottle, as well as a Snickers Marathon energy bar (yeah, like I'ma just eat pure sugar. No thanks. It's still in my fridge for a day when I REALLY need it or have 4,000 extra calories to eat, lol!), a $1 off coupon for Jamba Juice, and a little card saying there was a website where the official race pictures would be posted. I was excited! Official race pictures!!! Of me actually running, not just starting or finishing like I would have from my camera in Joe's hands! :D

So... I get almost to the finish line and see it. The lady sitting at a corner, with her camera. I'm huffin' and puffin', feeling amazing, running toward her, LOOKING at her as she looks at me. I decide to look away for a second because she obviously isn't getting a picture. And then she does it. SHE TAKES IT. I was kind of bummed because I was looking right at her and she just totally missed her best shot. This is what I get. The face of intensity. If intensity needed one, I would be its spokesmodel. But that's the thing about intensity. IT is the spokesmodel.

Got my mojo back!!

2010-07-21T15:38:00.003-05:00

I feel like I'm really back on track. I worked out twice yesterday - ran in the morning, strength training for legs and a walk at night. Tonight is Ab Ripper X, Pilates, and another walk after I go feed my man some shrimp & rice! I'm eating the same just with veggies. :)

I've been eating pretty well...afraid I'll run out of food before the next shopping trip (again) but I have my protein shake this time and I might just have to get some bananas and do the shakes for meals if I run out of food. Oie!

So I'm googling distances from where we're staying in Florida to other places I want to go. An hour from the airport, an hour and a half to Daytona, half an hour to Cocoa Beach. Not bad! :) We're going to try to go to a jazz club in Cocoa Beach while we're there! Doesn't that sound swanky and so classy and cool? I'm excited!!! Short post for now 'cause I'm off work. Gotta go home and cook, meet my man, exercise, and then hopefully make the hummus tonight (I'm such a procrastinator) and watch something on Instant Play on Netflix! We got the PS3 disc so now we can watch Instant Play stuff on the big tv. YEA!! I just added a bunch of movies to my queue. 4th season of Say Yes to the Dress. YES PLEASE!

My iPhone hasn't shipped yet...

2010-07-19T20:08:00.004-05:00

but that doesn't mean I can't get started on compiling all the apps I want for it!!!! :D I've already got 25, hehe. Here's my list so far:

Amazon Mobile

Bible

IMDb movies

The Betty Crocker Cookbook (SUPER excited bout this one!)

MFP!

Dictionary.com

ESPN Score Center

Facebook

Fandango Movie times & tickets

Flashlight

FML Official

Howcast

iheart radio

Mill Colour (supposedly the best Photoshop-ish app for iPhone)

Mixology

Redbox

Red laser

Shazam

SnapTell

Sudoku

Twitter

Urbanspoon

Wikipedia Mobile

Words with Friends

Zombie Duck Hunt

:D I'M SO EXCITED! Those are it for now. Still perusing... I have a feeling I'll be one of those like, 10 pages of apps kind of person... but honestly, I see several occasions where I would use every one. I'm always looking for a new recipe and wish I had a cook book but don't want to pay for one... a lot of times we want to know what's at Redbox but don't want to go and what if at one point we're driving around and can't get to internet? Same thing with movie times. Before iPhone, we just call Movies 14 and ask for showtimes. This way, I can avoid human contact altogether! lol Just kidding on that last part. Flashlight? It's obvious. I drop things. In the dark. lol

Finally: Pictures from the 1K I ran on Independence Day!

2010-07-16T20:24:00.007-05:00

The internet connection has been pretty slow so I haven't been able to upload pictures anywhere but finally, it's better so now I can just directly link from Facebook! YEA! Joe got some pretty good shots of me. Justin didn't end up going and it ended up alright because the start & finish line were the same! :) Hover over the pictures for descriptions!

Did I mention they just happened to be playing "Eye of the Tiger" as I crossed the finish? It was destiny.

Melbourne, Florida...

2010-07-15T13:19:00.014-05:00

I can't wait to be on your beaches...

Gettin' things crossed off my list!!

2010-07-15T12:23:00.006-05:00

So I've gotten most of the stuff I need for Florida... I got my duffel bag last night. A sweet Levi's bag that's black and lime green so if I ever have to check it, it'll be easy to find! :) I also got a new wallet since mine melted in my car, haha. Guess I won't leave it in there anymore!! The glue melted right off and the old one is in 2 parts. I'm throwin' it out! It was good, this one was on sale for $4 at Ross (also got the bag there) whereas the old one I paid $11 at Payless. Anyway...I asked my mom if she had any 3-oz. bottles laying around that I could use for my trip and she said she'd look. That was a couple nights ago and I haven't heard from her so I need to check back in before I go buy some.

I think I'm giving up on the jewelry... I'll just wear what I have now. I need to exchange the shorts I bought the other day because they have a hole (groan) and then just grab some cheap waterproof mascara, hoping I can at least afford one more bikini (so I'll have 2) and then I can finish up my packing. I started last night!! I threw my new pair of sandals and a couple little skirt cover ups in. I need to wash my new clothes, then I can pack those. :] I love packing! It's fun.

This is the Ramsay Studded Sandal I got at Payless. :)

^ My white skirt from Old Navy. :)

Ah, payday. It's today. Half my paycheck's already gone because I had to cash checks for groceries and to book the flight. If I added everything up right, I should be able to order my iPhone today, upgrade my line, and then next week or so, Joe can add me to his plan once he figures out what his brother is doing so he can get him off. Otherwise, I'd be stuck on my parents' plan for another 2 years or pay $500 for the credit deposit which I do not have. I still have repairs on my car I need to take care of!!! The guy at the AT&T store said since Joe's plan isn't under a contract, I'd be the only one under contract so that works out in Joe's favor. He never wanted to sign a contract so it works out for everybody. :) I'm excited. I should have my iPhone 4 by the time we leave for Florida!!

So, I've been taking a break from exercise since Sunday because I ran out food and protein shake. I'm starting my exercise back up tonight. I'll just be taking a 30 minute brisk walk and then I'm going to make a delicious chocolate raspberry protein shake. Yum. I may put a little banana in as well if I can get it thawed out.

I'm really hoping I see another 1 lb loss this week since I've been eating fairly well but we'll just have to wait 'til Friday!! I hope the few days of not drinking enough doesn't come back to bite me. :( I want to lose 2 more lbs by the time we leave and the day we leave happens to be a weigh day so hopefully even if I don't lose this week, I can work my tail off the next 2 weeks and see a 1 lb drop each week. *CROSSES FINGERS*

What a weekend!!!

2010-07-12T12:56:00.004-05:00

This weekend was awesome. Not for my change in eating, but for social activities! Saturday I spent with my best friend of 4 years, Matthew. We went shopping for stuff for Florida!! We also had lunch at Fadi's Mediterranean Grill, which is what I was introduced to by my friends, the Tates, when I went to their 2nd oldest son's wedding in Houston this past November. I didn't know we had one until a month later, got lost driving around with my friend Jacyn (who's in the Army and had just gotten back from a tour in Iraq) looking for Fry's, lol. Anyway...there's one close to Joe's house (and right by the mall and Sam Moon I was planning on going to!) so I thought we'd go. I took Joe several months ago and he loved it and Matthew did as well. I looove their hummus. Yum. SO GOOD. This is the loot I ended up with:

- Khaki shorts
- Blue&white tie-dye/bleached-looking flowy strappy tank
- Same tank as previous but in an olive color with a marigold pattern (Kohl's)
- An aqua strappy tank
- White cardigan (Old Navy)
- Yellow gem "fancy" necklace
- 3 pairs of earrings all dangly: red flowers, white chandelier shaped, and black leaves ($1 Jewelry Galore store?)
- Surgical steel nose studs (not cheap ones from Claire's, yea!)
- Nose spacers (Hot Topic)
- Hot pink studded gladiator sandals (Payless Shoesource)

I've been trying to work my way down Glamour's list of must-have items for summer...I've now knocked off a few! White cardigan and white shorts. I have new jewelry now so it'll be fun to have those in my rotation! :)

Then, on Sunday...I went to my friend Freddy's church 'cause he asked me to last week (I'm rotating between "my" 2 churches and he suggested his since it's closer than either, so I dropped in). It was awesome seeing him play in the band. He's a beast on the electric guitar. Afterwards, I came home, ate my leftover Fadi's after making Joe some scrambled eggs because he'd just woken up. I watched him play some Heavy Rain, then I worked out, showered, and then we went to see Predators celebrate Justin's "40th" birthday. I say 40 because we joked all day that he was 40, though he's only 34. It was really good... I'd only seen Alien Vs. Predator (which I liked) but haven't seen the original Predator 1 or 2. I really liked this one especially because the cast was so good. Couldn't figure out who the girl was 'til I looked it up this morning. She was in I Am Legend as the woman who saves him from the dark seekers! Yea!

Anyway... then we went to Applebee's. I ordered the Grilled Dijon Chicken with Portabellos. It was this amazing grilled chicken topped with red peppers, purple onions (swoon!), portabello mushroms and melted asiago cheese. It came with a side of roasted red potatoes and their spring veggie mix (which had all veggies I hated, so I got a side of corn). I also got the perfect margarita because it was cheaper than the 100 calorie one. Meh. I was celebrating so whatever. :)

Then Joe got a text from his brother, Chris, saying their family was having their annual bowing ceremony. They're half Korean and it's tradition to honor your passed ancestors. Their grandpa died in the late 70s so they go and bow out of respect and eat lots of food! I was definitely game for that. I love their food. :] So I had a second dinner, haha. It was cool hanging out with all the cousins. There seriously is one girl cousin. No, two, but only one in attendance last night, so 2 girls total including Joe's sister, Sarah. We basically hung out with all the boys, talking about iPhones and school and whatnot. I didn't eat a lot of food (not as much as at Christmas!!) but seeing as I had already eaten...wow. I had white rice, probably 10-15 sheets of seaweed (YUM!!!), one or two whole ?octopi?, half a chicken nugget (bleh), a little bit of steak, some mini kabobs that had some sort of egg (I can never remember what it's called but it's soo good) with red peppers and green onions, some tubu (tofu - I didn't realize I've had it before... I think at Thanksgiving, and I like it!! I don't think they cook it with anything, but I ate mine plain and also in a makeshift roll with rice and the seaweed. Very tasty. I might start buying tofu!), banana milk, coke, some Heineken, and I think that's it. haha

I got to meet more uncles last night that weren't at Thanksgiving or Christmas and more cousins so that was fun. It was more lively than the last two times we've hung out with his family and I really enjoyed seeing another part of their culture since my family's basically cultureless! Ha. I'm so fascinated by it all so I was really excited to go and I'm glad we went.

Prep for my trip to Florida! updated

2010-07-08T16:46:00.016-05:00

I've had Florida on the brain all day. I checked flights. The one we want is cheaper than it was last time!!! $100 one way per person and $110 the other way per person, so it'll be about $480 for both of us. I'm hoping it'll be a liiiiiittle cheaper once we book it (no later than next Wednesday when I get paid). I also checked hotels and I found 3 that are cheaper than when I last looked...one only by $10 but still.

Friday afternoon: I booked the cheapest hotel that has the gym and no free breakfast. I'll just bring my own breakfast! :)

I want to compile a list of things I know I need to do before Florida, so here we go. I'll probably edit this as I go along:

- Buy another bikini ($40)
√ Book flight
√ Reserve hotel
√ Re-check prices & reserve rental car
√ Buy a duffel bag ($20)
√ Buy some cute faux jewelry... long pearls or something
√ Buy travel-sized empty bottles for cleanser, shampoo, conditioner, and body scrub (mreh) <-- found 2 of my own, borrowed 2 from mom, need 1 more.
√ Make sure beach towels are clean
√ Get measured on 7.30 @ 8am.
√ Lose 3 lbs by the time I leave. 3 lbs down!
√ Buy waterproof mascara

There was one big thing I needed to do, the WHOLE reason for writing this blog and I don't remember. :(

I'm in love with my Polar F6!

2010-07-07T11:17:00.002-05:00

This puppy has done me wonders over the weekend! It came Saturday morning while I was sitting on the couch, playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I fiddled with it, added my personal information and immediately strapped it to my wrist. I was SO happy it's more of a baby pink than a "coral" as it's described. I was anxious to work out but I still had to wait because I was due for lunch any minute. So, I ate, allowed an hour for my belly to settle and then I took it for a test run. It was a strength day so I started with skipping rope. I used Self.com's calculator to figure out how much I would burn jumping rope and they estimated for my weight, about 50 calories. According to my Polar F6, I burned 111 calories!!! Of course, I subtracted what I would have burned not exercising (which I've been doing for a few weeks now, thanks to a suggestion one of my MFP friend's, rjadams suggested) so as to get a more accurate estimate. Another MFP user (who is very knowledgable and may have some kind of fitness/nutrition certificate/degree - can't remember) said that HRMs don't calculate accurately for strength training, so I left it off for that, then went for a walk. I was surprised to see how much effort it took to get into my "own zone" that it set for me. I ended up burning 273, which left me with 233 after necessary subtracting. I had aimed for 230 in my MFP diary. SCORE!

Sunday, I ran my 1k (separate post on that later when I can get all the pictures uploaded, promise!) and forgot to turn it on 'cause I was so excited to just get running! I remembered probably a minute and a half in. Either way...it said I burned in 9 minutes what I usually burn in 10-11 minutes so that was nice!! :] I used it again when I went swimming later that afternoon. I was worn out from my run and I was planning on skipping my leg strength routine Saturday night but had forgotten and did it anyway so my thighs were sore once I got kicking in the water. I spent about 20 minutes and burned 174 after subtracting. Not bad!

Monday, I did some more swimming while the boys watched a Chinese war movie (I was excited to watch it but I couldn't follow it - the beginning was weird, even Joe said so). I was even more tired this day but I figured out that doing a proper backstroke kept my heart elevated quite a bit and burned more calories! I did that for awhile then just did my comfortable backstroke (not sure what it's called, I'm sure it has a name - I just don't know what it is!) and I decided to let my heart rate cool down in between laps to see if I could burn more but I didn't. I ended up with almost 300 in 45 minutes. Still not bad. :)

I ended up overeating both Sunday & Monday... Sunday because I had planned to make burgers & corn on the cob and then I got this strange, AWFUL, excruciating pain in my left thigh when we were just laying in bed, talking. I took some Advil and felt a little better. When it first started, I tried to stand up and it hurt so bad, I was afraid to walk around. I laid in bed and Joe went and got us Taco Bell. I was STARVING and ate a Grilled Stuft Burrito with nachos. I didn't feel stuffed afterwards so I know my body needed the volume...I'm just sad it was crap I put in my body. It sure was delicious though! ;) Monday I went over because I made the burgers & corn on the cob and forgot I was only supposed to eat half the burger and bun, hehe. Oops!

I used my HRM for jumping rope last night again and I didn't burn as much as I did on Saturday...mainly 'cause swimming wore. me. out. I'm so out of shape, it's ridiculous. I could easily swim laps for an hour last summer and I could barely do 10 minutes at a time. But, I was on the elliptical for at least an hour everyday last summer as well and could run 2 miles at a time on the treadmill...so my endurance was a lot better. I'd say I'm stronger today, though. Last summer I would lift a 12 lb dumbbell over my head, holding it with both hands. I do that now with a 10 lb just 'cause it's the highest we have before I get to 25 lb (can't handle those yet)... and I use the 10 lbs separately as well with just one hand, and I don't think I could do that last year. :)

Feeling accomplished

2010-07-01T15:28:00.002-05:00

I run my 1k on Sunday and since I used Monday as a rest day and skipped Tuesday because I was tired... I have 3 run days this week but they're back-to-back today through Saturday...really 4 if you count the race. I count Sunday as the start of the week though, so I don't. Well, today I ran for the first time this week. My strategy for the 3 days was to run as much as I could today and tomorrow and then run my normal intervals as sort of an "easier" run on Saturday and then I'll run as much as I can of the 1k. I think it's turning out beautifully!!

I worked my thighs pretty hard two nights ago and was worried it would impact my run because I'm still sore today but it really didn't. I did my 5-minute warm up and then started at a fairly slow jog (slower than I normally run) and it hurt my shins pretty badly. My shins don't normally hurt when I run my normal speed/pace. I toughed it out and was able to run one more street than I did last time I "ran as much as I could". I called it a success. I walked one street (meaning from 1 cross-section to the next) and then ran as much as I could again. This time I didn't get very far, but I repeated just walking 1 street and then running again. I ended up running a total of 0.44 miles. The 1k is 0.62. I'm SO proud of myself! :] I was pretty worn out by the time I got back into a walk but was really proud that I stuck with it and kept running instead of giving up after the 1st time like I did last week. So, tomorrow I'm hoping I can make it to at least half a mile and maybe in 2 times rather than 3. Now that I know the slow jog doesn't work for me, I'll make sure to stick with my normal pace... I think I need a better water bottle for running. Maybe one of those Camelbacks, lol! It is so hard for me to drink out of a water bottle while running but it really helps.

I'll be sure to post whatever pics I can convince Justin & Joe to take of me. Joe doesn't think he'd be able to be at the start & finish in time so I'm planning to have Justin at the start with my point & shoot and Joe at the finish with my DSLR. I really want to be able to hug Joe when I finish and celebrate with him and it'll be nice to have Justin at the start to cheer me on when I'm just getting going. They're both awesome supporters and I'm lucky to have them. :) Afterwards, I'm treating Joe & I to a wonderful IHOP breakfast. I haven't decided what I'm eating yet but he's going out of town for most of the day so I might hit up the pool so I may load up on food since I'll be burning quite a few calories. Wish I would have my hrm for the race and swimming. :(

Perfect timing for trying something "new"!

2010-07-01T15:04:00.005-05:00

So it's July - let me rant about July for a minute. The summer is 1/3 over and I feel like I've wasted it. Last Summer I spent time swimming everyday, thus, getting tan and also burning calories (I was pretty slim last summer and I attribute it to my hour gym days and constant lap swimming). This summer, I've gone swimming a total of 2 times. Neither count because they weren't real swimming. The first was with Joe at his old apartment pool... we did a couple race laps and then he got cold and wanted to sit in the hot tub. We were probably there a total of 15 minutes. The other time was with my parents on Father's Day. I laid on the floaty for awhile to tan my stomach and then spent the rest of the time on a noodle, SITTING. Ugh.

Anyway... so now that it's July, today marks the start of another month I can fine tune my lifestyle. I've been counting calories, working out really hard, running intervals in an attempt to burn more fat, lifting weights to build muscle (so I can burn more fat) and I started Ab Ripper X and Pilates to flatten my stomach and strengthen my core because God knows my core SUCKS. I've been losing inches consistently the last 2 months but have only lost 1 lb since April... it wasn't a fluke because I've been maintaining at that weight since a couple weeks ago when I lost it.

I bought a food scale last night and weighed out 3 4-oz portions of chicken and I was definitely underestimating portion size for chicken. I'm sure that has to do with the not losing weight issue. I also ordered a heart rate monitor watch off Amazon yesterday (along with my miracle Adovia Dead Sea Mud Soap, which is amazing for my eczema - clearing my skin right up!!!!). I'm excited to see a difference in my calorie burn estimation because I'm sure that's also a factor. My pedometer is what I've been using to estimate my calories and it was never calibrated...I'm hoping it's off but not too far off.

So, here's to hoping by the end of July when Joe & I go to Florida, I will be in the 150s and seriously ready to rock a bikini.

I'm exercise-obsessed. That's a good thing though...right?

2010-06-25T12:12:00.003-05:00

This week's exercises have been great. I've been consistent, pushed hard, really tried to work on my form as far as Ab Ripper X, lifting weights, and now, Pilates. I've run 3x this week (all in the morning), I worked my arms and legs both once (wish I could increase this but there's really no way unless I do my whole body in about 40 minutes - which I don't want to do - every other day. And I tend to forget certain toning exercises when I do it all at once. Not as productive.) I've done Ab Ripper X twice and today will be my 3rd time. I started Pilates on Wednesday and am doing it again today (I have a DVD) and have taken one walk and might possibly take one tonight.

I think it's been a very productive week. I've been pushing hard in my weight lifting sessions and really trying to work my muscles to fatigue with each exercise. I've been retaining water for a few days so it could be because of that.

I've decided to make Wednesdays a little busier. Ab Ripper X, Pilates, and some form of all over cardio (such as elliptical, walking, running, biking if I can get a new tire, etc.) I feel like since I had such a high calorie burn doing Turbo Kick and now that I've stopped, that's probably effected my metabolism a little bit and I need to be doing more on Wednesdays.

I'm Yours...

2010-06-25T10:45:00.001-05:00

Can I just vent about how much I hate that Jason Mraz made like 50,000 versions of "I'm Yours"? The Jamaican-ish version is all over the place... and also, did he really have to make an acoustic version? The song is pretty acoustic on its own. It's WAY too slow for the upbeat lovey-dovey song that it is. Is the man that much of a money whore that he has to have 3 versions of his hit hippie song? I love the original but everytime I hear the other 2 versions, I cringe and almost want to stop liking the song altogether. *Grunt*

It's beginning to happen...

2010-06-22T11:50:00.000-05:00

the notice of clothes not fitting. There have been a couple items of clothes that have gotten too big - such as the tanks I run in and now are seriously affecting my tan line :P, all of my "nice" work shirts, bras (that I've now stopped wearing), and finally... my 2nd tightest pair of dress pants I wear to work. I put them on yesterday and they fit perfect in the waist (this always changes throughout the day) but later on, I realized... I have saggy bottom!!! I pulled the fabric from the widest part of my thigh out and there was probably a good 2 inches of fabric FROM my body. I showed Joe and he was like, "Babe! We need to get you new pants!" I was like, "NOT YET!" I want to enjoy this for just a litttttle longer. :D I'm not sure if I can fit into a bonafide 12 yet but I'm hoping I can in a few weeks!! I can't wait to see my exact measurements on Thursday. SO anxious to see them!!!

So... I got a speeding ticket last week that I need to go in and pay tomorrow and then I'll know how much I have left to make one last repair on my car before I start saving for our trip to FLO RIDA!!!!! :D I'm SO excited. I went swimming w/ my parents in their pool on Father's Day and I felt so confident in my bikini. I can't wait to see what I look like when we get there because I still have a good month of work outs and eating right and hopefully getting down to the high 150s.

One of my friends on MFP, Angi, lives a little ways from me and she needs to get new shoes so we're hoping to go shopping together and hang out mid-July. I want to get a few sundresses for Florida (all mine are too big as well!! AH!) and maybe a few work tops and possibly by then new dress pants...but it all depends on how much I have set aside for Florida. We should be able to take care of the flight by next paycheck and switch to AT&T and get our iPhone 4s!!! :D

Guess what...

2010-06-18T15:25:00.000-05:00

I LOST WEIGHT! I LOST WEIGHT! I LOST WEIGHT! I thought it would be more once my body decided to give up some poundage, but alas...not even a whole pound. BUT! It's still a lower number than before. Almost a pound, so I'm guessing 0.8 (my scale is analog). Anyway, I'm super excited! A couple of my MFPs think my body just really needed the 2 day rest I gave it and now it's back to losing weight. I'm going to keep doing my "hardcore" work outs because I can tell it's helping me to lose inches. Now just to get measured next week and see lower numbers...I'll be GOLDEN!!!

I'm wearing a brown strappy dress I bought December 16 2008 and have never fit into. I was about to embark on a weight loss journey (I did but I didn't lose much) and fit into it...but I never did. Now that I've lost inches and my lovehandles are shrinking, I finally fit into it this morning!!! I've tried it on a couple times since losing weight but still had that belly pudge poking out (it's a very thin cotton jersey-type fabric so it's not forgiving). But today I decided to pair it with a bright teal button down shirt I bought a couple months ago at a resale shop I used to work for. It has a cute flower on the lapel and a tie right around the waist to make me look slimmer! I feel so skinny today. :) I took a couple pics in the bathroom but my phone is being a butthead & won't send it to my email so I can post them. Grrr.

Hopeful for next week, even despite some things...

2010-06-17T13:54:00.000-05:00

I seriously have only worked out twice this week and it's THURSDAY. I feel so lazy. Sunday was supposed to be a cardio only day and we were going to hit up the HEARD Museum (a Natural Science place with a lot of trails and stuff) so I figured I'd get a lot of walking in there and could skip a traditional work out. We didn't go and I didn't end up making it up. We were supposed to have a Jackie Chan marathon instead and I figured I'd take a walk afterwards but I don't remember what happened. We played some video games, I made some pasta...I don't know. So, I thought, I'm off Monday morning, I MIGHT work out then. Then I thought, No, we're going to the RoughRiders game and I'll get some walking in there and I'll be fine. It's a rest day! Um, so I ended up burning 300 calories walking which is great, but not for the amount of calories I ate, but it's fine because I had a lot of fun and it wasn't about the food. For the options, I think I chose wisely.

Tuesday, I got up in the morning and ran my intervals but felt laggy and didn't feel like it was as productive or effective as it could have been. I took off that night (which should have been a strength day) because I had to do major grocery shopping. Yesterday, I did the elliptical for 30 minutes and tonight is the first strength day of the week. AND IT'S THURSDAY. I'm kind of freaking out but I know I'll have 2 for this week counting Saturday, but I normally get 3 so I'm a little bummed and disappointed with myself.

Smuehlbauer from MFP sent me a copy of the Ab Ripper X workout from P90x and I'm going to start doing that on my cardio only days 'cause I need some ab help...just a little push 'cause I'm not getting that much of an ab work out as I thought I'd be with the Ab Solution routine, but I'm going to keep doing that on arms/abs strength days.

Next week I should be getting re-measured and I'll definitely post my results. I want to compare the last couple months' results to see if what I'm doing is actually more beneficial to me or if the machines were so I can see if I need to kick things up or what. I feel significantly smaller...I can tell my lovehandles are disappearing, my underwear is started to get looser and I can see almost straight lines when I look at my sides. It's so exciting! Now just to get rid of these damn thighs!!!

I signed up for a 1k in McKinney for July 4th. It's at 8am so that'll be fun waking up for! haha Joe said he'd come and watch and I might see if any of my siblings would come as well. 1k converts to 0.62 miles. I can only run really for 1 minute right now so I really need to kick up my interval runs 'cause I really want to run the whole thing. That's another reason I'm bummed I've only ran once this week and only worked out twice. Ugh.

The yogi at my gym will be on vacation until middle of July so I think I'm going to just start doing my Pilates DVD at home... that way I can continue to have dinner with Joe on Wednesdays. I can come home, do my 20 minute video, throw on a cute outfit (I don't sweat doing Pilates) and go meet him, then maybe hang out with a girl friend or clean or do something therapeutic for myself. I love all the extra time I have on Wednesdays. Hooray for early days!

No change yet...

2010-06-11T08:11:00.000-05:00

but I haven't been measured so I really can't say that officially. Another weigh-in and no loss. Stupidly the scale is still reading 161 (even though I figured out it's weighing me 2 lbs. less so I'm really 163 - which is why my MFP ticker changed to 17 from 21 but before that it was 19).

I know I'm getting smaller because of how everything is fitting me but I'd like to see the actual numbers. I only got to run once this week (so far - I'll run again tomorrow and possibly Sunday) and it felt great. I had a really good strength session last night. I sculpted the guns last night. I tried to do each set to fatigue...until I couldn't do anymore with correct form. I'm not sore today, surprisingly.

Today, I'm going to just get on the elliptical for 45 minutes and then meet Joe for dinner at 5:30. I get off at 2:15 so I have a lot of freedom before dinner! I'll probably just go home, throw in a load of laundry, run to the gym for an hour, shower and get pretty there, then head over to Fry's.

So, with the way things are going...I'm measuring EVERYTHING as best I can and realizing I've been way off on a lot of things - namely, cereal and milk... meat. I mentioned this already - and am really hoping that since starting to measure everything and am actually eating the 1400 + exercise calories I record that I'm eating...that my body will give me a loss soon. PLEASE be next week! This has been the 4th week officially I haven't lost weight, but I can't say it's a plateau because I know I'm getting smaller. We'll see on the 22nd when I get re-measured.

I'm wearing a shirt today that I bought October of 2007 and it fits me better today than it ever has...in fact, I think I may have to retire it because it's quite baggy. The top fits me fine and still flattering there but it's not doing my belly any favors. I might just hem it and wear it as an over-another-t-shirt type shirt. It's not a jacket if it doesn't open and close, right? It's a shirt? *shrug* Oh well.

I'm looking forward to this coming week...monday night, Joe, Justin (a guy we worked at Tommy Hilfiger with many moons ago) and I are going to a RoughRiders game! We got free tickets from the Census guy. *shrug* Then the next day is payday! WOO! And then that Saturday night, I'm going to a fundraiser for my friend Anna. She's going to New Zealand next summer so we're just all hanging out at a sushi bar and gonna have drinking and dancing. There's going to be a DJ and I suggested games. It should be fine. I'm sure there will be a lot of people I know, so it'll be interesting. Anything involving Anna is usually fun so I'm looking forward to it.

Happily maintaining...

2010-06-04T10:29:00.001-05:00

well, sort of happily. I'd rather be happily losing but I'm just grateful I'm not gaining! :) I started 2-a-day cardio sessions this week... I've been running intervals in the mornings and then doing my strength routines every other day at night, followed by cardio whether it be walking or like last night - riding my bike! (which now has a flat tire and unrideable. I have to go buy a new tire. Wah wah wah!) I'm just DYING to see my body fat % when I get measured again. I really hope this extra cardio is paying off!!! I really do. I feel like I'm working so hard, and sleeping SO well (other than getting up to pee 2x/night - I'd rather this than have the water weight!!) so I really hope it's working because it should be, right?

I don't remember if I wrote about this yet, but I was doing my strength routine every other day and trying to fit in enough weight lifting for all my muscles but it was just taking too long. So to cut down on time but be more efficient, I've started alternating muscle groups. I was warming up 4-5 minutes of jumping rope, then doing some weights with arms, then Ab Solution, then 8 Minutes to Slim, followed by 30 minutes of cardio. So now, I've been doing 5 minutes of jumping rope, LOTS of weights with arms and then Ab Solution, and 30 minutes of cardio. Then 2 days later, I do 5 minutes of jumping rope, plie squats (with dumbbells), a little bit of weights for my arms, Ab Solution, then 8 Minutes to Slim, and 30 minutes of cardio. I can definitely fit my whole routine into 30 minutes now and feel like I'm targeting the muscles really well and doing enough to get my muscles growing! I need to find some more strength moves for my thighs but right now 8 Minutes to Slim is still kicking my butt!!!

Intervals are going great...I wanted to go out for 30 minutes today since I only did 15 yesterday, buuut I kind of just layed in bed and did not want to get up. I got up within 5 minutes but I miscalculated the time so I only stayed out for 20 minutes. I still feel like it was really beneficial. I tried to do walk 2 minutes, run 1 minute intervals but sometimes I ran a little longer or a little shorter. I'm sure it all rounded out. On my way home, I saw a hot air balloon!! That was fun to watch as I cooled down.

Anyway, back to maintaining... I actually measured how much milk I've been using in my protein shakes last night. 16 oz.!!!! I've been counting it as 8 oz. so I'm definitely going to be measuring that from now on and I'm sure that's part of the reason I'm maintaining... I need to make sure my portions are correct. I've been eating too much chicken and thinking it was 4 ounces...I always measure my pasta and I usually just eye the butter when I cook my eggs but I'm thinking I need to bring out the tablespoon for that one too. The hardest for me is meat. I really need a food scale now... I was hoping to stay away from them but I'm definitely pondering it. I may pick one up next paycheck. Someone on MFP said they got one at Bed, Bath & Beyond for like, $10! I have a 20% off coupon so that would give me an excuse to look for some other homey things I could get. haha! :)

Here's to hoping that reigning in my portions and keeping up my 2-a-days and intense strength routines will give me a loss!! Have a great weekend! On Sunday, Joe & I are going to Six Flags after we pick up my parents from the airport and have lunch. Woot! They don't close 'til 10 so we should get a good 7 hours at the park. I'm STOKED! We didn't get to go on Memorial Day because he got scheduled since one of the other camera salesmen at Fry's was on vacay. Dirty old man. Grr.

The first GOOD healthful weekend in awhile...

2010-05-31T10:59:00.001-05:00

This weekend has probably been the best in the last month. I ate within my calories (save for one day when I HAD to add some fiber before bed and was pretty starving) and worked out everyday... and here I am today, on a Monday (when I weigh for the first time of the week) and I'm maintaining! Now, this is good news. But it's also bad news. It's good because I had some water weight when I weighed on Friday, so this means I got rid of it! It's bad because it means I'm maintaining and not losing. YET! So, all weekend I've been making sure I measure everything. Cereal and milk, pasta, popcorn, veggies, etc. I think I've seriously been underestimating. I may have to get a food scale soon. Mreh. I didn't want to be one of those people but it may not actually be that bad. (No offense to anyone reading who is one of those people) I'm of the mindset that whatever works for you works for you, as long as it's healthy...so I really can't judge those who have food scales, especially if I have to get one myself. Ha. That would look hypocritical, much! :)

I rode my bike for a little bit the other day and I'm still sore. Pretty sore. I've went for a walk and ran some of it twice this weekend. Friday and yesterday. AMAZING. I think I'm getting better! Yesterday I was lucky enough that a maintenance man was watering the preschool's lawn and I got to run through the sprinklers. AHHH. I definitely ran further because of it. :)

I've been alternating arms and legs when I do my strength routines so I can focus more on one or the other and spend more time on it, versus rushing one or both or having to set aside more time to get in both in one session. I like doing it this way better. So, today is a rest day (thank God - I'm so sore from this weekend's work outs!) and tomorrow I focus on arms. And I get to run, yea!!

Measurements!

2010-05-25T10:30:00.000-05:00

For having a whole month of a plateau, I think I did pretty well on measurements in May!! I'm excited to report them. Here are today's compared to end of March, before my plateau when everything went up:

March 23, '10 -
Body Fat 30.5%
BMI 29.1
Chest 39"
Waist 33"
Abs 38 1/2"
Hips 45 1/2"
Thighs 25" each
Calves L 15 1/2" R 16"
Arms 13" each

Today! -
Body Fat 29.3%
BMI 27.9
Chest 39" (same)
Waist 32"
Abs 37 1/2"
Hips 45"
Thighs 24 1/2" each
Calves L 15 1/4" R 15 1/2"
Arms 13 1/2" each (not sure why they got flabbier! It's not muscle, promise)

The body fat and the thighs are what excite me the most. When I first got measured in February, my thighs were 26 1/2 and 27"!!! Now they're almost 3 inches smaller. Hooray! Granted, they could be getting smaller faster but it's okay. I'm working on revamping my strength routine since it's been a whole month now... I want to start doing more cardio too, so I'm going to try to do some intervals on the treadmill at the gym in the morning on strength days to get some more fat burning (I attribute my bigger losses in the beginning to that and I miss running) in and then I'll get back to taking walks after my strength routine. I haven't done cardio after my strength routine the past week just 'cause my sessions were intense, but I've gotta get back into it. I really need a push since I'm coming off a plateau! :)

So, I'm going to try to do cardio twice a day totaling an hour instead of just half an hour since I'm halfway done with my weight loss and I know it's going to be harder to get the last 20 off. So... some intervals in the morning, walks at night, and then probably just elliptical morning and night on cardio only days. God, my thighs are gonna HURT, but hopefully that will help slim them out. Need these puppies gone! Oh, and Maria (the personal trainer who measures me at my gym) showed me what to do for my inner thighs. SO excited, can't wait to try it out tonight!

8 monthiversary = water weight

2010-05-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

So last Wednesday marked 8 months Joe & I have been together. The only "anniversary" so far we've actually celebrated by you know, going out, doing something, really celebrating, was 6 months 'cause c'mon: half a year! I figured 8 months is two-thirds of a year, so we should celebrate again!! :) All my relationships have been long distance where I only saw the guy once a week or every couple of months so to be in this relationship, where we see each other almost everyday, and for this long, is a big deal to me!! So we went out for STEAK.

Joe took me to the Keg Steakhouse & Bar in Plano after he got off work and it was sooo good. We were the only customers so it was real quiet and calm. The service was great, our waiter was real fun and very attentive. I got to the Keg before Joe so he and I just made chit-chat about drinking water and his 2nd job at 24 Hr Fitness. We ended up ordering the Top Sirloin & Dungeness Crab which came with a twiced baked potato, a slice of tomato topped with melted parmesan, and we also got some amazing bread. I had told the hostess it was our anniversary and she ended up telling our waiter 'cause after Joe got his beer, he was like, "You're 21?" I was like "Why? Yeah..." He said he was bringing us a champagne toast to celebrate!! So we did. :) It was very nice. Can't say I'll be a big champagne drinker but I definitely felt buzzed since I only had bread in my belly at that point, lol!

The steak was by far the best I've ever had - and I was prepared for that because of Joe's reviews of the Keg - and the crab was sooo good. I'd never had dungeness, only snow crab. Anyway... for our anniversary, after lunch and afternoon snacks, I kind of threw my "diet" away. I had a turnover and shake at Arby's that I didn't plan for (and didn't need) and ended up eating a whole potato at the Keg by myself (he brought us 2 instead of 1! Aw!) and had 4 oz. of steak, along with 4 or 5 oz. of crab, 2 bread rolls, and both tomatoes (Joe doesn't really care for tomatoes but is warming up to them!). So... I'm sure it was a lot of sodium, because early this week, I was at 161 and yesterday I was up a little and again today.

I'll be back down shortly, though. I drank probably 250 oz. of water Wednesday 'cause I went out with some co-workers and didn't want to spend money and had just eaten and was about to eat again after I left, ha. Their cups were at least 16 oz. and I had probably 6 or 7 refills. :) I drank 120 oz. yesterday and am working on my 120 oz. for today.

Joe is going to eat lunch with me today. I have a buy one lunch sandwich, get one free coupon for Einstein Bros. Bagels and there's one in the bank parking lot where I work. :) He works at 2 so he's going to come at 1 and then he should have ample time to get to work from here since I'm close to the highway.

I know I'm just rambling and none of this has to do with weight loss, but they're things that make me happy. SO! More good news on the weight loss front. I had tried on a swimsuit I knew I had pictures of myself in from last year... and took an update picture to show the difference. I could barely fill out either piece so, knowing it's getting hotter and I'll want to start swimming soon, I checked out the swim suit sale rack at Target last night and found a cute top that fit (a size smaller!!!) for $5! I also got a new bra in my normal size, this time black so I have at least 2 bras that fit me well now. :) I also tried on a medium stretchy shirt (whch usually are clingy and I have to buy a size bigger) at Target and it fit me but was doing this weird bunchy thing because of my newly smaller boobies! :) Yea!

Enough about my boobs...I gotta get drinkin' mah water! Btw, here are the bikini pics:

- My stomach was tighter last summer but my sides are about the same, workin' on mah belly!

1200 to 1400.

2010-05-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

After a whole month of not losing weight, I'm finally on my way back down. A couple people on My Fitness Pal told me I needed to increase my daily calorie intake due to the extremity of my weekly exercise, as well as how little weight I have left to lose. I knew this was the case with most other people... I'd heard that for the last 10, but figured since I had 20, it didn't apply. So, hesitantly I increased my calorie intake by 200 and have been on that for about 4 days now. It's been hard trying to find foods that are HIGHER calorie and healthy, whereas before, the challenge was finding lower calorie foods that are healthy. But it's been fun!! I'm now one pound away from the weight I was on my birthday. Due to water weight and this short plateau I was on, I had been holding water and had gone up a few lbs. So I'm a very happy camper. :D

Justin let Joe borrow the XBox360 another week so I'm gonna scamper over there after I meet Joe for lunch and practice my Rainbow Six skills so I can school Joe tonight. Mwahaha! Justin is coming over so hopefully I'll get some play time. :P

I've been running errands today... I ate pretty early so once it hit 3 hours after breakfast, I stopped in at Whole Foods to get some more cod liver oil and they had the cutest little fruit cups for only $1.75! I grabbed one with pineapple & grapes and it was delightful and easy to eat while driving! ;) Now I need to run home and throw some makeup on before lunch with Joe and then I'm going to Dick's Sporting Goods to get some rollerblades and a new Under Armour sports bra!!! I can't wait. I haven't had a new sports bra since last summer and none of mine fit anymore since I've lost weight. I wish the weather wasn't so dreary so I could use my rollerblades. Hoping for some sunshine later, *crossing fingers*. Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!! :) I'm off to beautify!!

Baby, come back!!

2010-05-10T16:39:00.000-05:00

So, I got my sweet baby Accord back Friday afternoon. My savings account now has $2.46 in it. :( Sad day! But, I should be getting my reward for something at work this week and getting paid on the 15th, so I'll be back on track with my savings... which will probably go toward another car repair as that's my priority right now. I have to get my front engine stop something or other fixed next 'cause I think it's #2 on the Ridiculously Long List of Necessary and Not-As-Necessary Repairs. Bleh.

I'm still retaining water... I haven't hit my "mini goal" weight, which is really frustrating. I was supposed to be at this on my birthday, 4.12. It is now 5.10, a whole month later. GRRR!!!! But, I've reset my goals to where I want to be 10 lbs. lighter by June - ANY DAY, and 20 lbs lighter by August any day. This way I've made myself believe I'll have one more day to hit that last lb, or whatever. Now I'm really thinking 10 lbs in one month is unrealistic and getting VERY fed up with these goals. I just want the 2nd half of my weight to be gone already. I've worked too hard to be stuck. Grr. This next paycheck I'm getting rollerblades and that will significantly increase my cardio and hopefully encourage more weight loss. *crossing fingers*

Iron Man 2 was pretty good...Joe & I both agreed it wasn't as good as they made it out to be so we had gotten our hopes up and it didn't really meet our expectations. We both definitely liked the original better but it was still entertaining and ... I mean, Robert Downey Jr. C'mon. :D

I took my Mom out for Mother's Day on Friday to Olive Garden (her choice). We split the Steak Froduta (or something) ...and although I planned on only eating 1/4, it was way too good. I had 2 plates of salad with no croutons and I asked for dressing on the side so I could control the portion and because of this, I think I really saved myself some calories & fat!! Go me!

Joe & I ended up spending Mother's Day playing our friend's XBox360 he let Joe borrow. We're addicted to Rainbow Six Vegas 2. It's a first-person shooting game where the object is to kill terrorists. Works for me!! I've gotten AMAZING. I'm blowing his mind. He played all day last week on realistic (one shot kills you and you have to start over - versus having a set # of lives that you can "respawn") to get up to Lance Corporal. He's on level 8 or 9 as far as skills such as Marksman, Assault (accuracy/# of kills w/ grenades) and CQB (no idea what it is?). Guess where I'm at... with only maybe an hour playing by myself (and on casual/easy). Lance Corporal, level 4. YEAH. I'm only 4 levels away from him and he had to play ALL day to get there. You could say I'm getting a little cocky but it's hard not to when he kept telling me how GOOD I'm getting and how FAST I'm moving up and how he's never dated a girl he could play video games with. *Sigh* I'm just too amazing for words.

Picture: DAMN YOU, FLASH BANG!

My baby is going in for a repair...

2010-05-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

Repair #1 on the Ridiculously Long List of Necessary and Not-As-Necessary Repairs... is finally getting done. I got the oil changed, got the tires aligned, and replaced the wiper blades...so technically it's "repair #4" but this is PRIORITY #1 getting done. It took awhile to save up the ridiculous amount (probably the most expensive on the Ridiculously Long List of Necessary and Not-As-Necessary Repairs) tonight. I don't know how I'm going to sleep without her. We haven't been apart at all during the 6 months I've owned her. But, Joseph has agreed to take me to work and pick me up and then get my car tomorrow so I'll have her in about 24 hours. Sigh.

So the repair... I'm sure you're dying to know what it is. The Master Cylinder. Before I bought the car, I had never even heard the phrase. My mom explained it to me. Being the car expert she is, I believed her when she said I should definitely get it done and Honda Cars of McKinney was not just trying to rip me off. I called Christian Brothers Automotive to get a quote on the repair and they wanted $10 less than Honda Cars and it was an after market part, so I just went with Honda.

Now...I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with weight loss or my journey to health. Well, let me explain. Nothing. It has nothing to do with it. I just am pondering the whole idea of dropping my quote and spare key in an envelope marked "ATTN: WOODY" into Honda's drop box and leaving my baby there. It would be like dropping Joe off at the hospital and LEAVING. IN HIS TIME OF NEED. AM I CRAZY?! I'm not. People do it all the time, I'm sure.

It's a good thing I'm at the end of my tank of gas because any time I get something done on my car, it seems my gas just trickles away. Seriously, you have to use that much gas to TEST DRIVE my car??? Oh well. I'm a little overly possessive. It's my first car, you can't blame me. Blah. Next up, trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with my radio! It cuts in and out... it's been better lately. My radio antenna doesn't move up and down, so it's stuck in one place...but the speakers cut in and out when I use the adapter for my iPod too, so I don't know if it's the speakers or a connection or what.

I didn't make it...

2010-05-03T11:31:00.000-05:00

and honestly, I'm a bit frustrated - with myself, with my tactics, and with just my body in general - because I should have made it. I did pretty well over the weekend staying within my calories...but I had some sweets I probably shouldn't have. Dippin' Dots on Friday, then ice cream/sherbet Saturday night plus a glass of wine on Saturday. Since I stayed within my calories, worked out pretty hard both Saturday & Sunday, I know the 3-4 lbs. I "gained" is water from the alcohol. It has to be, right? Ugh. Stupid wine!!!

I'm not giving up... I just know I have to drink a lot more water than I did this weekend. I aimed for at least 100 oz. and although I made it, I should have drank a lot more. I even put lemon in my water both days for 24 oz. Yesterday was pretty pasta-laden, even though I didn't go over my carbs.

On the bright side, since starting a new strength routine, I can already tell my body is tighter. I can tell a difference in my stomach and my thighs for sure. I've been suffering from a very sore left calve and I finally figured out what it was. When I jump rope, I lift my left leg higher than my right leg and it makes me land harder, thus causing the sore calve - I'm working it harder than the right and that's why it's ONLY the left that hurts. So, we didn't go ice skating Friday because of it. I was afraid of spending the money and being in too much pain to skate. The only way I could relieve the pain is by wearing wedges. When my feet are flat, my calves hurt and I have to limp just so it doesn't hurt. Today it's not as bad...but tonight is a strength night. Oie. I'm going to try to lift my legs the same amount so I don't have to deal with this but it's hard... it's so strange my left side is dominant but I write with my right hand. Urgh.

Ready for the weekend!!

2010-04-30T13:02:00.001-05:00

This weekend is going to be awesome. I just got paid today so I'm going grocery shopping and I can't use the excuse of "I don't have anything to eat" for eating bad this weekend! Tonight for our date night, Joe is taking me to Genghis Grill for the first time (I've got my meal and calories figured out and I'm excited!!) and then we're going ice skating afterwards so I'll definitely be burning enough calories even though it's a rest day. I might rest tomorrow or Sunday... ice skating usually leaves me sore and I'm still sore from strength 3 nights ago and last night.

I got through the routine I started the other night and added the "Ab Solution" booklet I got from Shape magazine. It's not so much cutting & toning as it is strengthening the abs and lower back (which I really need). Starting with 5 minutes of cardio definitely steps up the strenght training and leaves me dripping once I finally get out for my walk. I love it!!

Today I tried Quiznos for the first time and I did very well for figuring out how much/what I could eat on-the-spot! I stayed within my calories for the day and the only thing I'm going to be over today (unless I fit in more exercise - which is possible since we'll be walking at the mall and whatnot) is fat...but I credit that to the avocado I had for my snack. :P

I'm still not to 160 but the deadline is tomorrow... and I won't know 'til Sunday 'cause I really want to push it, haha! So, I'll weigh Sunday and if I have to, push my deadline back another week, but I think I should be able to make it!!! Wish me luck.

Success!!!! This thing works!!

2010-04-26T09:59:00.000-05:00

If you've been reading my blog, you know I've been working my tail off and it's paid off!! I've lost 2 of the 3 lbs. gained from my birthday and I plan to lose the last 2 pounds to get back to my mini-goal by this Saturday. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'll just be happy to be where I was on my birthday, so one ::less:: lb will make me so happy!!

Joe & I finally went to the new Aldi in Plano...and let me just explain WHY I'm so excited about this. My grandma lives in Ohio and they have Aldi there and as long as my family's been visiting her (we usually went for at least a month during the summer), we've been shopping there...we didn't have them here so my mom would stock up on Aldi groceries to bring home. I loved Aldi. Everything was so cheap and I was captivated by returning the grocery cart to get our quarter back!! So, when Joe's brother told us one was opening in Frisco, I was sooo excited. Joe didn't understand why, so I explained. I didn't realize they were putting one in Plano too, but my mom told me where it was, so I picked Joe up from work on Saturday, we went downtown and had dinner at Urban Crust (crappy service... the waitress shook her head, walking away, because I asked her for lemon for my water - what?? SLOW service... it took me asking 3x for the lemon to actually get it. It took forever to get our food and then it definitely wasn't a 16" pizza... and the price for the 16" wasn't on the menu so we ended up spending about $8 more than we thought it was) and then went over to Aldi.

Joe wanted to get some snacks and overall we spent $10. We got the equivalent of Doritos...for 99c/bag - for the same size as a big Doritos bag... avocados for 39c each!!! Cereal was $1.89 (and organic!!!), we got french bread pizzas (like, the frozen kind - he loves them but we never get them 'cause they're usually about $4) for $2! It was a productive trip. I'm definitely going back to buy my produce Friday when I go grocery shopping. I called my grandma when I first got in the store just to tell her how excited I was.

I spent the rest of the weekend watching movies because Joe was working all weekend. I did well eating and working out. I didn't really work out that hard Saturday - just lifted some weights and I knew I'd do some walking downtown so I didn't do anything else. Friday & Sunday I rested... I was so sore from all the hard work outs last week and I woke up sore again today. Boo. :(

I'm determined to bounce back!!

2010-04-19T15:47:00.000-05:00

I had another off "week"... I gained a couple pounds back from my birthday and then had some unforeseen events in my week and ended up going over my calories and barely exercising all weekend. I have a good excuse though, but I can't share it here. I ended up going for a walk/run last night in the drizzle and it felt great. I burned more calories than I thought I would and felt great once I finished!! I had a nice hot shower and today I'm pretty sore - but it could be from sleeping wrong or falling asleep on Joe's couch in a weird position the other night. Oh well.

I'm trying very hard to be good today and eat better but twice I've remembered something I ate and didn't log...like I mindlessly ate it and I DON'T want to get back into those habits again!! I've worked my A$$ off the last 4 months and I'm not going to regress. I refuse to. So my quest this week is to drink WAY more water than I normally do to try to balance out all the sodium I'm sure I've consumed as well as other dehydrating...things... and really eat better. I have a few extra bucks from this last pay period so I'm going to pick up a few veggies and fruits (that I didn't buy when I went grocery shopping) and maybe a slice of pizza for dinner 'cause I'm seriously craving - even though I REEEEALLY really shouldn't.

I'm going to go for another run after work and I am GREATLY looking forward to it. I wish Joe's dog wasn't such a wimp and could run with me but I'm not up for trying again. Lazy dog. I'm going to aim for at least 200 calories burned and really try to break how much I burned last night and make it to 300 and stay out for 3 minutes longer than last night. I was way too tired last night to pack my gym bag so I'm just going to do my strength routine at home tonight and I'll probably be back in the gym tomorrow. Or I may just keep running outside.

So this is how I did...

2010-04-13T14:16:00.000-05:00

My first mini goal was to be be at -20 lbs. by my birthday (yesterday! I turned 21!) and guess where I was on the scale yesterday morning: -19!!!! So I see that as a major success. 20 lbs. in 4 1/2 months is NOT bad in my opinion. I love how I feel, I love how I'm looking... and best of all: I'm healthy. I don't have to worry about a lot of health issues anymore mostly because I'm eating better and treating my body well!

My birthday was awesome... I spent it with some pretty sweet people at Applebee's, talking and eating the night away (okay we left at like, 10:30... lol) and just laughing a lot. I hoped it would be a good time and I believe it was! Everybody made a new friend and our waitress, Emma, was AWESOME! Anyone who goes to Applebee's in Frisco, definitely ask for her 'cause she will rock your dinner. :D

So my next goal - I obviously have to lose this last pound before I will reward myself (highlights for summer!!) and then I hope to lose 10 more by June 1st. That's roughly a month & a half... so I'm going to have to really get my bum in gear! I've been focusing on burning more calories during my cardio time and kind of staying away from the treadmill for a little bit just so I can increase my calorie burn on strength days as well. The treadmill is great and rewarding...I can run faster and I have better endurance than when I started but I can't burn that many calories and it wears me out to the point where I can't burn too much more if I were to jump on the elliptical afterwards. So right now, I want to focus on losing weight and just burning calories... at least for a little bit.

I'm still working on getting more veggies into my diet... I'm really bad about that but I'm working on it! Hopefully I can find the blade to my blender and start making some shakes to sneak in some veggies in snacks or something. Either way, it's a must for me to lose weight - getting more veggies.

I'm really excited to see where my life is going with this whole journey... I went shopping with an old friend, Shelby Romano (probably my oldest friend) on Sunday and I got some cute tops. I'm wearing one today and I feel so confident in it! It's breezy and summery and fun and it's not black. :) I'm really trying to wear more color to add more pizazz to my life, haha!

I'm going to stop rambling now... good day all! Happy April 13th. :)