The inner thoughts of a bus rider

Something awful happened on Friday, well two something awful's, but only one of them directly affected us.  Friday started off with my sister texting me that our apartment building that we used to live in had burned down.  We moved out 3 months ago when we bought our house, but we lived there for 2 years and loved our time there.  It was our first house together.  We had many, many "firsts" there and it is just so strange to think that it burned down.  Not only is our building gone, but the heaviest damage was done on our floor, on our wing and to be exact in the apartment directly next door to where we lived.  It was a surreal feeling to think that if we had not made the decision to buy a house this year we would have been homeless.  I got to thinking about our neighbors and how they must feel.  I decided that I would try to do what I can to help our old neighbors in their great time of need.  I made some calls and I felt better about it, at least for the interim.

The something awful that happened that directly affected us happened on Friday night.  My mom was coming down to the cities to stay with my two nephews, so I decided to go over there after work and have dinner and hang out.  Ron was coming by later on to play with the boys, but he was taking longer than usual.  The boys were looking out the windows for him and decided that when they saw him we would all hide and wait for him to find us.  He drove up to the house and we all hid in the pantry. After waiting for like 5 minutes we emerged and yelled, SURPRISE, but there was no one there.  I went outside and found him and he was inspecting his car.  He had just been in an accident and his car was leaking oil.  We knew that it wasn't good and we decided to have it towed.  The guy at the repair shop called and said, "I just want you to know that you were VERY, VERY lucky."  He went on to say, "if this piece of metal that flew off of a car and hit the underneath of your car would have hit 2 cm's away from where it hit the car would have likely imploded on impact and you would not be here right now."  Wow!  Scary stuff.  Two bad events in one day.  It felt like someone was really watching over us!

Oil leaking out of the car.

Hauling the car away!

We still have to pay to fix the car, we have been a one car househould instead of two and we know that we will be tight on money for a little while until we can put back from our savings what we have spent on repairs.  We are alive though and very thankful for that!  The rest of the struggles are managable compared to the alternative in either scenario.  It got me thinking this morning that life is so, so precious.  Make sure you tell someone you love them today and make sure you're doing what you can to make the best "you" that you can.  For me this meant starting to ride the bus (which saves money and means more walking) and saying "NO" to the cookies in the breakroom this morning.  It means going home and working out rather than plopping on the couch and making a dinner that Jillian Michaels would approve of! (I have started this new thing where I pretend that Jillian Michaels COULD potentially walk into my house at anytime and if she did would she be okay with what I was putting in my mouth?  If not then I just can't take the risk :)

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

This is not a post about falling off the wagon, so have no fear.  This IS a post about the success of planning.  As I have mentioned in many previous blog posts, I am a planner.  I am slightly type A, I like organization and I appreciate having a plan and sticking to it.  This weekend my goal was to simply plan ahead and try to stick to it as much as possible.

Friday: I stayed well within my calorie goals for the morning and night and I reduced my amount of carbs before dinner because I knew that I was going to a pizza place with friends.  I looked at the menu before I went and decided on their special which was called, "Fresh tomato pie" and it boasted, "local tomatoes, garlic, mozzarella, pecorino, basil and truffle honey."  The honey part threw me off, but I got it because she said it was drizzled and very subtle. 

I purposely chose this pizza over some other ones for a few reasons. The first one is because it didn't have a sauce base, which meant less sodium.  Tomato sauces can be really high in sodium and I try to watch that.  The second thing I did was choose a pizza without meat to keep the calories and fat down.  I am not a vegetarian at all, but forgoing the meat sometimes means I can eat more pizza.  The food was amazing and the company was even better.  After dinner we did some shopping and we stopped at McDonald's to go to the redbox.  Some of the girls went and ordered McFlurry's and I stayed by the redbox machine.  I knew that if I stood in line I would buy something that was not a good choice, so I stayed back.  When I got home I ate a 100 calorie pack of chocolate covered pretzels and was completely satisified.

Me and my 6 best friends.

Saturday:  I had a bridal shower on saturday in Stillwater, which is kind of a drive for me, but it was for a good friend and it was a lot of fun.  The decor was lovely and it was the perfect length of time at 2 hours.  I didn't eat breakfast because I knew I would eat a big lunch.  I tried to stick with mostly veggies, fruit and salad.  I did have a little of the cream cheese spread with crakers and a cupcake with half the frosting taken off.  It was a great afternoon and made me excited for my showers next year.

That night we went to dinner at a new noodle place in Uptown with some friends and I ordered the Spicy Udon noodles with lots of veggies and chicken.  It was awesome!  We went out with friends and I had a few drinks.  I wasn't planning on drinking at all, so that was a change, but I had a lot of fun and worked out extra hard on Sunday.

Gorgeous purple hued cupcakes

Sunday:  I went to visit my mom in St. Cloud and to meet with a potential "day of wedding coordinator".  We talked for 2.5 hours and it was a lot of fun.  I have most of my ideas already decided, but it was nice to talk them through with someone to see what their thoughts were.  My mom made a healthy and delicious flatbread pizza that we shared along with veggies and fruit and then we went on a very long walk.  I love spending time with my mom.  It always gets my week started out o the right foot.

My family dog Gabi.

So that is my weekend in a nutshell.  I think I did pretty well.  I got 2 full workouts in and a long walk.  I think the worst choices were maybe a cupcake and some cocktails.  So far this week everything has been trucking right along.  My close are starting to feel looser again, thank god!  I am on a roll and it feels good.  I have started to write down everything that I eat again and it is really helping.

This week's posts will feature... a post about fitness tips, what I hate about wedding's and a post about making your groceries stretch.

Shedding for the Wedding

We have all heard it before... Don't go shopping when you're hungry, don't go when it's really busy, avoid the middle aisles at all costs.

I must have learned my lesson because last night was a very successful trip to the grocery store.  We stocked up on produce and lean meats and only got one bag of chips eat (baked for me) which is honestly hard to do.  Letting me loose in the chip aisle is similar to letting a grizzly bear out in front of a grill of delicious meats.  Chips are my total weakness.  Truth be told- I once went to the grocery store and bought 6 bags of chips in one trip.  I am not proud about it.  It was not one of my finer moments. 

So, after we got $175 worth of deliciousness and healthy goodness we went home and made lunch, which was a simple sandwich, veggies and fruit spread.  Sometimes it is nice to just have a no-frills lunch.

After lunch I was off to the thrift store.  My new favorite place in the world.  In the past 2 months I have found many treasures at my local thrift store.  I was searching for some unique glassware to try a DIY project for the wedding.  I found a bunch of stuff that was 39 cents and some of it was even half off of that.  When I got home Ron had already mowed the lawn and we were ready to begin our first of MANY DIY wedding projects.

So our wedding is next October and our theme- if that is what you call it- is kind of an elegant Tuscan Romance.  We want it to overall feel elegant and glamorous with touches of tuscan old world charm.  Our colors are plum, gold and moss green.  The bridesmaid dress color shown below is our purple color. 

 

Okay, so moving on to our little prject.. I love the look of gold mercury glasses, but they are CRAZY expensive.  So I found a DIY mercury glass technique on a bridal blog, so I figured that I would give it a shot.  I have heard that it is kind of a long process and it definitely is.  The problem that I am having is that it ends up looking more silver than gold.  We are hoping for more of a silver look rather than gold, so I am not sure if we should just scrap the whole thing and use plain votives.  What do you think?

The first three are our votives that we DIY'd and the fourth one is actual mercury glass.

I think they look pretty good, I am just not sure that they are what we are looking for.  I need some guidance... good thing I am seeing my mom this weekend!

So how is the weight loss going?  This is a weight loss blog right!?  The weight loss is moving along.  I haven't had a gain since the beginning of June.  This last week the loss was smaller than I would like at around 1 pound, but it wasn't a gain.  The only thing that bugs me is that I know that I didn't do my best last week and I still lost 1 pound, so that makes me feel like, "C'MON Shannon! If you can give a mediocre effort and lose 1 pound, what can happen when you give it your all?  So, that is my plan.  I am really giving it my all this week and seeing what the payout is.  Hopefully that gives me the momentum I need to keep it going well into fall and winter!

Today is a perfect example of, "Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail."  I was running late this morning and I almost didn't take the time to pack my breakfast and lunch.  I threw some healthy stuff in a bag and headed to work.  On my way into work I remembered that it was a co-worker's birthday.  What does that mean?  FOOD.  Blah, temptation, don't you hate it!?  So, I made the decision before I even set foot in the door to stay on track and avoid the food.  I have seen it exactly three times this morning and I have walked away exactly three times.  Success is planning!

Brownies and sugar cookies don't taste as good as feeling great on my wedding day will!

Running on Empty

I am so thankful that I have so many friends and such great family that always want to get together, but I may have hit my limit of non-stop events for now.  In July and through this last weekend we had 3 cabin trips, 2 weddings and 2 birthday's.  I am exhausted. 

This last weekend we were at a cabin that we have been going to for almost 10 years now and it was just as fun as ever.  So good to get together with old and new friends and watch everyone get along so well and have such a good time.  We swam and we ate lots of food and sweets.  We played lawn games and drank a little too. 

It is a nice time to relax and catch up, but getting there is half the battle.  We have to drive 2 hours each way, buy food and drinks, take time off work and time away from home.  It is so worth it and I hope this doesn't come off as complaining, but does anyone else ever feel like they need a weekend of nothing?  This upcoming weekend we were invited to another cabin and I literally had to put my foot down and say, "NO".  It really is too much to be going non-stop every weekend.  This month we still have a lot going on so this weekend is really our only time to just relax and breathe.

We got out into our lawn yesterday and mowed and trimmed and picked weeds and I must say it felt good and long overdue.  Our poor lawn looked so unkempt and sad.  It was enough for both Ron and I to say that we need to take a step back from all of the activity and be homeowners.  We own this house now and we need to put in the work to maintain it and keep it looking nice.

Anyway, enough talk about that.  Is anyone else counting down the days to Friday besides me?  We need groceries in the worst way. but we are kind of tight on money right now with all of the recent events.  Wedding gifts, attire for weddings, food, drinks, gas, hotel rooms etc all add up.  So this week eating healthy has been a challenge because we don't have a lot of food to choose from.  Tonight Ron is whipping up some grilled chicken and I am thinking of making some frozen veggies and a side of the only fruit that we have left... grapes.  We have enough to get by until Friday, but it is requiring quite a bit of creativity.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my birthday.  I am 25 years old.  I am actually technically not born yet, not until 8:03. 

Fun fact I was born on 8-3 at 8:03 and I weighed... you guessed it 8lbs and 3 ounces.  Crazy.  Too bad I wasn't 83 inches long.  Wait, I retract that statement.

Last night Ron told me to be ready at 6:15 for a surprise.  I was unsure why we were celebrating something that wasn't on my actual birthday, but I went along with it.  He blindfolded me forced me to close my eyes the entire 20 minute trip and for some reason I actually listened.  When I got out of the car I was at a restaurant/bar called Psycho Suzi's.  We were weaving around tables and clearly on a mission.  I was very confused until we got to the back of the patio and I saw my best friends sitting at a table!  What a FABULOUS surprise.  So, Ron left me with my favorite ladies and we proceeded to talk until sun down and eat some delicious food.  My camera was dead, so I didn't get any pictures.  It is cheeky and kitschy and has great food.  It is in an area called NE Minneapolis that is really fun and right on the banks of the Mississippi.

Today I came to work to find my desk had been decorated in birthday decor.  How fun.  My friends are bringing me out to lunch and my wonderful fiance is surprising me with some more fun tonight.  It is going to be a good day.  25 might not be so bad afterall! :)

One of my bridesmaids Deutsch, Alyssa, Kevin the groom with cake on his face, Danielle the bride and me this past weekend.

A few Random Birthday facts

1. I am allergic to fish, coconut and cats.
2. I broke my arm right before my 8th birthday, but I had a water cast so I still got to have my pool party.
3. I like to waer normal shirts with pajama bottoms or sweat pants (for example I come home from work leave on my work shirt and put on sweats).
4. I am a little too excited for Jersey Shore to come back on tomorrow, it is my guilty pleasure.
5. I hope to have a dog by the time I am 26.

The Underdogs

My nephew was the 6th seed in a tournament of 8 teams and somehow last night they found themselves playing the championship game.  It is the ultimate comeback story that everyone loves to see.  I was sitting outside in the blistering heat and humidity yesterday watching these 8 year old boys play their hearts out on both teams and conducting themselves in a fashion that most adults don't even practice. 

My nephews team ultimately got second place, but they were ecstatic!  The parents, coaches and fans were all so excited to see how far this team had come.  It really was impressive considering at the beginning of the season we were lucky to have every 6th kid actually hit a ball.

When I was watching the end of the game I was astonished to see what great sportsmanship both teams had and how genuine their "good game" handshakes were.  There was no bitterness, no blaming others for mistakes and no pouting.  To say that I was impressed was an under statement.  These 8 year old boys had more respect and tact than I had ever seen before.  They played hard, they celebrated hard and they won or lost respectfully.

You may ask yourself what this has to do with weight loss.  Well, the answer for me is that sometimes I get so discouraged when I workout with others or see them progressing further than me.  I would say that at times I am even jealous or envious of them and their accomplishements.  I find myself discouraged, making excuses and finding reasons why weight loss must be easier for them. 

After the game yesterday my sister had us all over for a BBQ and I really started to think about the boys and their performances and how they were the underdogs and somehow they came back against all odds.  I want to be the person that overcomes my weight against all odds.  I want to keep pushing and keep learning and never give up.  I want to stop making excuses and start making choices.  I want to say more, "I can" and "I will" and less, "next time" and "someday".  I am only the underdog in this weight loss journey if I allow myself to be one.  I can be just as successful as anyone else trying to lose weight.  I can come back from this and I am working towards that goal.  One day, one work out and one smart choice at a time.