Meeting the Priest

                                                     This is where we will be married :)

As most of you know, my fiance and I are getting married in less than one year.  The paper chain countdown has begun! :)  We are getting married at the chapel at my college on October 6th, 2012.  Since it is on the university grounds we have many rules and restrictions about what we can and can't do, which is making the planning process a little more tricky.  In addition to the rules that are imposed we also have to find our own priest to marry us.  This may not sound like a huge issue, but it is kind of a big deal. 


Ron and I have an appointment tonight at a catholic church near our house that we plan to become members at.  We are hoping that Ron can be baptized there and that we can do our marriage preparation with the priest there.  I got a good vibe from the community when I visited a couple weeks ago and it is only four blocks from our house, so it seems perfect!  The only thing is that we need to try and see if the priest is willing to marry us at another church, which is what I am really nervous about.

I grew up catholic, it is important for me to get married in the catholic church and I intend to raise my children in the catholic faith.  However, having said that I am not a strict practicing catholic.  There are many things in the catholic faith that I do not agree with.  I don't want to get into what I do and do not agree with because I don't want to air that all out on my blog.  I am hoping that everything goes well tonight with the priest and that we can start to move forward with our marriage preparation.  It is sometimes crazy to think that at this time next year I will be married.

We have managed to book our church, reception venue and photographer, but we still need to book everything else.  I feel like having a 22 month engagement can really distort your wedding timeline.  I was really good at the beginning about planning things and then we bought the house, and had five weddings this summer and well you know... life gets busy!

On the weight loss front things are slow, but losing.  It was only about a pound a week during September, which was my own fault entirely.  I wasn't walking the walk at all.  I was giving it a really poor shot.  This month has been much better already.  Avoiding temptation, watching portion control and eating only when i'm hungry.  I have been upping my workouts too, which feels great.  I love being hot and sweaty at the gym and then walking outside into the crisp fall air.

Well, wish us luck tonight and cross your fingers that we find the right priest to marry us :) Hope everyone is having a happy, healthy fall day!

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!

Missing in Action

Hello fellow bloggers...  Did you miss me?  I missed you!!  I am sure many of you are thinking that I couldn't possibly have been sick for two weeks.  Well, you're right, I was not so sick that I couldn't blog for two weeks.  I was however sick off and on and just when I was getting better it would get worse and last weekend I spent four days on the couch with strep throat and I literally didn't move from my 1000 sgaure foot apartment.  So, after a long hiatus from the blog world and a terrible sick streak I am happy to be back blogging and catching up with all of you!

I must say that one of the best parts of being disconnected from the blogworld was the chance to just live a more simply life for awhile.  I think I spent more time away from the computer and TV than I have in years.  I spent time relaxing, reading, planning, finding new recipes and just spending some time with Ron.  I am happy that I took some time for myself to get healthy and prepare for the big challenges that are ahead of me.

The big challenges for me are losing weight, buying a house, planning a wedding and applying to grad school.  Yikes!  When I type that all out I get anxious just thinking about how much I have to do still.  I am beyond excited to be getting married to my best friend in 591 days, but I feel like that is coming so fast!  I know, most of you are probably laughing at this.  It is like 18 months away, what is the big deal?  The big deal is that I feel like it is crunch time.  I feel like I need to really chip away at this weight loss thing and record some successful weight loss numbers.  Sometimes I watch shows like, "I Used to be Fat" or other weight loss shows and I think... OMG, they lost 60 pounds in like 3 or 4 months, why can't I do that?  I know that I can do a lot more than I have been doing.  This isn't to say that I have been a complete failure by any means.  I am still down 40 pounds from last year at this time, so that is great, but it is only a small stepping stone.  It is not nearly where I wanted to be or where I know I could be at this point, so I really need to prioritize my weight loss and make it one of my main priorities right now.

So, what am I doing about it?  I have set aside $600 for a personal trainer to whip me into shape.  Ha, okay so maybe not whip me into shape, but get me started and motivated again.  I want someone to teach me new things to do and new ways to work out my body. I am really excited for my first session tomorrow and I am even more excited to start seeing major results again.  I requested a male trainer this time because the last female that I had try to call me, "hunny" and "sweetie" and I am not at all into that.  I want someone to push me in a productive way.  No, I don't want someone to be mean and hurtful, but I want someone to give me tough love and that extra push that I need sometimes.  I also am going to to meet with my nutritionist again starting in March through the spring season to get some more ideas from her as well.  She always introduces me to new food, new meal plans and ways to be healthy and mindful of my body and what I eat.

So, anyway, sorry for the long hiatus, I am alive and well and happy to report no gains.  I managed to maintain my weight for the past three weeks, which I am not completely thrilled about, but it is better than a gain and for being sick and pretty much not moving too much I am okay with it.  Three weeks until I board the plane for sunny Florida and I am hoping to be 50 pounds less than when I boarded the plane for Hawaii last year!  Yea! :)

I am

The Venue

So, we officially have a church, a venue and a wedding party.  Woo hoo!  We will be getting married on October 6th, 2012 (plenty of time to be wedding dress ready and lose weight).  We are thrilled that we got the church of our dreams and that everyone we asked to be a part of the wedding said yes!  

This is the front of our venue.

This is the entrance to the ballroom as seen from inside the ballroom.

I hate the carpet in this venue, but when all the tables are up you wont see it too much.

This is where the head table will be set up.  Outside the windows is a veranda

that people can go out on during the reception.

This is the whole length of the ballroom.

This is where we will set up our escort cards and welcome table.

Stairs leading up to the bridal suite.

Front door area.

Door area leaving the cocktail room going towards the main entrance.

Large cocktail area.  Through the doors is another cocktail area that has huge picture windows that overlook the beautiful golf course.

So, moving on from wedding stuff for now and onto the new and exciting things coming to my blog!!!  I decided to discontinue Saturday Sessions because it just seems like I am focusing too much on the short term and not enough on bigger goals.  I am going to start doing a monthly session on the first day of every month rather than something every Saturday.  My hope is that this will mean that I make bigger goals and have longer time to accomplish them. It seems like when I was making goals for SS before they were so short term and I was finding that it wasn't having the lasting impact that I hoped it would have.  So the new thing will be called Monthly Sessions and I am starting it today!  I am one day late, so I apologize for that!


Goals of the month are...


1. Lose 10 pounds. 
This may seem slightly aggressive and it might be.  I feel like I need to kick it in and really set a high goal.  I want to lose 10 pounds a month leading up to my wedding, which is a little over 2 pounds a week, so we will see how it goes!
2. Donate my over-sized clothes
I don't want to keep my fat clothes as a crutch.  When they don't fit they are going to be donated.  I just can't have them sitting around telling me that it is okay when my jeans don't fit and encouraging me to grab the fat jeans and then when they dont fit going a size up and a size up.  It is a slippery slope.  A slope that I have slipped on before and I WON'T do it again!
3. Take a group fitness class at Lifetime 20 of the 28 days of the month.

The group fitness classes really help me lose weight. I push myself harder and go for longer.  I sweat more and I actually enjoy it!  I am not saying that I am taking the other 8 days off, but I am going to go to the gym and take a group class 20 days this month and I am very excited about it!  I promise to post my sweat proof this time so that you don't think I am all talk! :)

I weighed in last Sunday and I was down 2.6 pounds.  A loss is a loss and I am not complaining about it.  I am just aware that I have a timeline that I would like to get to my goal and I can't wait to finally get there.  I am starting to be able to imagine what my thin and helthy life will be like!  This week I weighed in down 1.2 pounds only.  I know this is because I didn't make the best choices, but after grocery shopping today for all healthy items and getting everything cleaned and cut up I feel ready to tackle the week being healthy.

Donuts and Bridesmaids

Happy Friday everyone?  Was this the longest week on record?  I seriously felt like I was crawling to get to this point.  It could also be because I have a serious case of Spring fever.  The other day it was still semi light at 5:00 PM and I immediately started to daydream of rooftop patios, being at the lake, working out outside, etc.  I need this snow to melt already!  This is probably wishful thinking as I live in Minnesota and sometimes it snows in April, so I shouldn't get too ahead of myself.

Today was someone's last day at work and they brought in donuts.  Not just regular old donuts, but donuts the size of your head with sprinkles and even.... an apple fritter.  I went into the break room and filled my water bottle.  I sat at the opposite table and smelled the donuts.  Yum.  They smelled absolutely delicious.  I walked out of the room and sat down.  10 minutes later I was still thinking about donuts.  I walked back in to the break room.  Apple fritter was gone.  I decided sprinkles sounded good.  I cut the giant donut in half, so now probably only 400 calories instead of 800, haha.  I looked at it, was just about to pick it up and I RAN out of the room.  I walked to my desk, picked up my bowl, filled it will oatmeal and put it in the microwave.  I walked back and ate it.  After 10 minutes I was full, satisfied and not thinking about donuts.  WIN!

Anyway,  what does your weekend look like?  Playing workout games on your gaming system?  Hitting the gym hard?  Grocery shopping?  Okay, that is my weekend, but maybe some of you are doing similar things?  I have a happy hour after work (already looked at the menu to decide what to eat) and no alcohol.  I then have a birthday party at a bowling alley tonight.  Tomorrow is a big day of wedding stuff.  We are going to look at a couple more venues and we are also asking our bridesmaids and groomsmen to be in our wedding.    How did you guys ask people?  Just walk straight up and ask them?  Did you write them a nice card?  Give them something?  I have an idea of what I want to do, but I always welcome advice.  So tell me how you asked people to be in your wedding!?

Have a safe, healthy weekend.  Remember the next 180 days (6 months) will come quickly.  Will you be closer to your goal?  or maybe even at your goal?  Don't look in the mirror in July and say, "I wish I would have started sooner!"

101 Followers, My Ups and Downs, Photos

Hello everyone!  Hope you're all having a happy and healthy week so far. I just wanted to take a moment to say a HUGE Thank You to all of my followers who read my blog everyday and who always give me great feedbacks and comments.  I honestly think that this journey would be ten times harder without all of your support, so thanks for sticking with me!


If you read my blog and you want me to look at your blog leave a comment with a link to your blog on it, so that I can check it out and maybe follow you on your journey as well.  At the beginning of blogging I was always looking for new blogs, but I stopped and focused on my blog and catching up with other blogs that I read, but I am always looking for a few new reads to add to my dashboard. :)


I hope some of you enjoyed the wedding post earlier today!?  I am going to be updating you all on my wedding and my weight loss journey to get into my wedding dress.  I want this blog to be about losing weight and being healthy, but it is also about me and my life and right now my life consists of losing weight, finding a grad school, buying our first house and planning a wedding.  I hope you don't mind having some of my real life sprinkled in along with the weight loss.


So, today I was looking at my photos on my computer trying to find some new ones to post on my blog and I started to look at some older photos from 2007.  This is the year that I went to Italy.  I was at my thinnest weight as an adult while I was in Italy and I look at the pictures and I am green with envy.  I want to look like that again.  I honestly scrolled through all of the photos and thought, wow.  I look really good in these pictures.  I had so much energy and looked so happy!


I need to explain part of this because I am happy right now.  I am in love and have friends and family around me and a great job.  So, I am definitely not miserable or depressed.  I am however, as happy as I can be while I am overweight.  This may sound like a bold statement.  It is true though, I am generally a positive person and I look for the good in others and try to find the positive in most situations.  I would like to think that I seem very happy even though I really want to change my body.


In fact, my future mother in law told me at Christmas that after she read my blog she was shocked that I was unhappy being overweight.  She explained that she thought that I was confident and comfortable with my body and that she never guessed that I wanted to change my body.  I sure had her fooled.  In all honesty I think I wear fat well.  It is not to say that I look good at the weight I am in, but rather that I come off as being okay with being overweight.  She said that she thought I was extremely happy with my life and with my weight because of the way I carried myself and the fact that I would wear my swimsuit and short skirts and appear to love my body.


This is a problem for me.  I don't want to be comfortable being overweight.  I think being comfortable being fat or appearing to be comfortable with my weight is as harmful to my health as actually being overweight.  You see, if I am overweight and I look like I am okay with it and everyone else thinks that I am okay with it then I am more likely to stay that way or to fall back into that pattern.  I don't want fat to feel comfortable.  I don't want sweatpants to hide my bulge.  I don't want jeans in a range of sizes so if one pair is to tight I can just move up.  I don't want to be the highest number at the plus size store.  I don't want to be the fat girl who is okay with being fat.


I long to be the girl who left the U.S. and moved to Italy for 6 months.  To feel great in my body even if it wasn't my ideal weight.  I want people to think of me as more than just the bubbly, funny and entertaining overweight girl.  I want my personality to shine and my looks to match it.  I want to shop wherever I want to and have many options.  I want to look at a smiling picture of myself and know that I was happy and not just posing for the camera.  I want to be free of my fat once and for all.


I have added two new pages to my blog at the top.  One is called Heavy and one is called Light.  There are many pictures of me at both times in my life.  I really want to put them out there for me as a reminder, but also for all of you so you can see my ups and downs through photos and see what I am working towards.  The heavy section features me at the heaviest weight and they are difficult for me to look at.  They remind me of where I came from and where I never want to be again.  The light section features me at my thinnest and is a reminder of what I am striving for.


I also want to start sharing some music related stuff with you because music is a HUGE part of my life.  So, I will tell you my 5 favorite work out songs.  They are all ones that make me really push myself.  The music is a mix of pop, hip hop and rap.  The one in bold below features some foul language, so if you're not into that skip that one.


1. Mark Ronson & The Business International- Bang Bang Bang
2. Calabria 2006- Enur featuring Natasha
3. Major Tom-Shiny Toy Guns
4. Play Your Part (Part 2)- Girl Talk
5. Black Eyed Peas- The Time

Wedding Planning

So, as most of you know I got engaged on December 3rd and my fiance and I are now in the early phases of planning our wedding.  I have always wanted a fall wedding and after making some phone calls it looked like Fall 2011 was out of the picture.  That was more than okay with me because I want more time to lose weight and more time to plan, so we decided on October 6th, 2012.


We actually just booked our church last night!  It is the chapel at the University of St. Thomas where I went to college.  There is a long waiting list, but we finally booked it yesterday and we are thrilled!

Inside of the church.

I went to a weding fair with a friend a few weeks ago just to look around and get ideas mostly.  She is getting married in October of this year and needed to get some of her final things lined up.  As we were walking around and talking with people I started to realize that they are starting to book for Fall 2012 already.  Here I was thinking I have 20 months that is more than enough time.  Well, apparently it is not and I needed to really strat looking for a venue.


After looking online at like every venue in the area I made an appointment last Monday at two VERY different places.  The first one is in a historic building in downtown St. Paul and is very romantic and intimate.  It is kind of like a wine cellar with exposed limestone and wood.  The color palette is wine and gold, which goes fairly well with our theme.  It is lovely and romantic and went very well with my Tuscan Couture theme.  Some of the negatives were that there is not much parking, no bathrooms on the floor that the recpetion room is on and it is pretty pricey to reserve the space.

This was a nice little private sitting area.  I wanted to show the color palette. 

Bar area.  Original exposed limestone.

A look at the room.  I promise it isn't this dark.

Small sitting area in the reception room.

The second venue is located in Minneapolis in an area that is known as Uptown, which is where many of the trendy twenty-something's live.  So, this venue was more like a trendy bar, with booth style seating and bright vibrant colors.  They had two very cool built in bars, a hige dance floor and no need to decorate too much because it was already so unique.  This space also has limited parking, it is not exactly easy to get to, it is also pricey to reserve the spot and it feels like a night club.

Booths lining the outer walls.  Very fun and unique table arrangements.

Curved booth that most people use as the head table.

Huge dance floor and area for a band or DJ.

Staircase area.

The bar on the main floor.

So, after looking at the venues with our families we went out to dinner and had a very lovely time.  We were all able to express our concerns and lay everything out on the table.  It was really nice for us to all get on the same page.  After taking the night and the next day to think everything over I decided to pass on both of the venues.  Ultimately we want something that is easier for our guests to get to, with ample parking and for me something that is classic and elegant.  I don't want to have my wedding at either of these places, I want to go somewhere without the expensive rental fee and with more space and more elegance.


So, back to the drawing board.  I know that we will find somewhere that we love and it will fit our vision and plan perfectly, I just hate spending so much time looking for something.  Don't get me wrong, I love wedding planning, but I will feel better once we have some of the big items figured out.

Monday Session

Happy Monday Everyone!  Does anyone else have a hard time falling asleep on Sunday's?  I think I slept 30 minutes last night.  I don't like that.


I made healthy banana things this weekend.  I will post some pictures later, but I am at work and without my camera.  Thank you to Tim over at Fat Boy Thin for giving me a really great recipe!    

Goals

1. Take a picture of myself sweaty from working out every day this week.

Fail.  Mostly because I forgot my camera three days in a row and then when I finally remembered I tried to turn it on and it was dead.  So, guess what?  Back on the list.  I am about accomplishing things and making progress.  No sense in taking it off my list if I didn't do what I set out to do. 

1. Sign up for my first 5k.

Can I just say that I had NO IDEA there were so many races of all lengths in the Twin Cities.  How amazing?  I decided that I am going to sign up for the Challenge Obesity 5k that was recommended to me by Sarah over at the amazing blog Fat Little Legs.  I am very excited and nervous and I know that I really need to kick it into high gear until then.  The race is in April.

 

Newish Goals

 

1. Take a picture of myself sweaty from all of my work outs this week.

So, as I said before this one is making it on here again.  Not much explanation needed.  Not only do I want to have proof of my hard work at the gym, but I need to add some pictures to spice up life.

 

2. Try two new fruits and vegtables.

This is one of my old goals and I am bringing it back because certainly I can eat more than lettuce, apples, bananas and carrots in the fruit and vegetable department.

 

I am going to conclude this post as is, but I will be adding a post later on that is more of a wedding related post.  I know that this is a weight loss blog, but a huge part of my life right now is planning a wedding and getting in shape for a wedding.  I know that many of you have been down this road, so your advice in weight loss and weddings is important to me!  So, I hope you don't mind my occassional wedding post.  If you do, stick around for the next weight loss one! :)

Saturday Session... I know, I know it is Tuesday

I know.  I never seem to get this post on the right date.  Saturday is just always so busy.  I know that it is an excuse, but this weekend was wedding planning madness and we were just very overwhelmed and busy.  Ron and I looked at two venues that we are very interested in and are trying to make a decision between the two of them. 


Is anyone else planning a wedding?  If not, those of you who have planned wedding's what was the best part of the wedding planning?  What was the best part of the wedding?  What did you do that you could have skipped or what do you wish you would have done?  I need some ideas/suggestions from those of you who have been here before or are here now!


Okay, onto the purpose of the post.  Life is moving along quickly.  January used to be a month that I hated because it was so long and dreary.  It is still cold and dreary, but there is so much going on that to me it feels like it is flying by.  This week I did very well with my eating, and okay with my working out.  I need to get more activity in there.  I am down 3 pounds.   Woo hoo, going in the right direction!!


I am going to change the layout of the blog soon because I need a change.  I want something light and refreshing. Maybe this is because I already have Spring fever?  I am counting down the days to my trip to Florida in March with Ron's family.  So excited for another family trip and so thankful that they are being generous enough to take us on a trip!! :)   

Goals...

1. Take two new classes at the gym.

FAIL.  I did go to the gym a lot, but I took classes that I always took mostly because I am scared of change?  What am I so afraid of?  Looking foolish I suppose.  I know this doesn't make a ton of sense, but I just don't want to look like a dummy not knowing what I am doing.  This logic is really stupid because every class I have gone to before I have been new and I have loved it, so I think I need to just suck it up.  I am sure you will all tell me that.  You are all right!

2. Try 3 new healthy recipes.

Done, done and done.  I will be posting some of the pictures along with links to the cookbook sites this week.  They were all super delicious, fiance approved, healthy meals.  We loved them all and can't wait to try more!  I won't post the recipes for the ones in the cookbook, because you should buy the books because they are that good!!!

New Goals...

1. Take a picture of myself sweaty from working out every day this week.

I am using this as my motivation to go to the gym each day this week (hopefully to a new class) and posting it so that you can all see that I am re-committed to this weight loss thing.  I just really want to get back into my workout groove.  I want to commit to going everyday and soemtimes twice a day like I was in October and November.

1. Sign up for my first 5k.

I am very excited about this one, but also nervous!  I am going to sign up for a 5k this week that will be in a few months so that I have enough time to get ready to rock the 5k.  I know for some of you this may seem like no big deal, but for me it is stepping out of my comfort zone to do some new activity!