Diet Bet Results

Whoo hoo! I won my diet bet challenge... just waiting to see how much money I won! I don't even care at this point. I'm just happy with what I accomplished in 4 weeks. This is just the beginning. :) So, we were challenged to post our before and after pictures.......... Oh goodness, mine are horrific. I am only sharing to keep myself motivated and maybe motivate others that might need it.

 

NEVER in a million years would I have thought I'd ever share pictures like this for anyone to see... blah. BUT, I'm proud of myself for beginning this health journey. Like I said before, this means so much more to me than just losing weight.  I feel like I can tell a difference. I can definitely tell a difference in my mood and energy and just the way I feel overall.  Happy, happy!! :)

We had to take a picture of ourselves standing on the scale with the same outfit on each time and we also had to take a picture of the number on the scale. I will just be honest with everyone, (what do I have to lose now that I've shared these pictures... haha!) my before weight was 136 and my final weigh in was 127. I have a lot more work to do but I'm ecstatic with those results and looking forward to continually working on being a better me. :)

New Adventures

It's almost midnight and I should be sleeping..... but instead I just finished waxing the floors and I'm wide awake. Our house is showing tomorrow and I'm so anxious. I realize we could go through many potential buyers before selling, but I can't help but have these anxious feelings. We had put our house on the market for a short time last year. We didn't really have a plan at the time, so we weren't very motivated. This time is different. We have the perfect plan. However, I can't help but wonder if it's God's perfect plan for us. We prayed a lot about this decision and felt completely at peace with it. We decided we want to build and found exactly where we want to build almost immediately. We actually had our offer accepted last week and we are really excited about it. My prayer is that our house sells in God's timing and not ours. I know this is silly but I even pray for the people who will buy our home. This was our first home and where we brought our babies home to. It's special and as much as I want it to sell, I pray that our future buyers will love the Lord and make him the center of this home.

We may not know God's timing for our future, but we do trust in Him completely. So instead of being anxious, I need to find peace in knowing God has this all figured out. We will continue to pray about these big, new adventures for our family and would love the prayers from our family and friends. 

 

I just happened to snap this picture the day we took the boys out to show them the land. Little did I know, this would be it. I am very much looking forward to these great times ahead with my sweet family. Corey is actually standing right where our house will be... I'm glad I have this special picture now. :)

 

Diet Bet & Training by Corey ;)

I signed up for a diet bet and I just finished week 1. I lost 2 lbs. I would say that's pretty good since for the first time ever, I'm doing it the healthy way. No fad diet, no eliminating all carbs, no super low calorie counting... Just clean eating and working my booty off! I already feel so much better. I also survived week 1 of training with Corey. He's is rough, whew! I've had quite a few people ask me what he has me do each day since I'm not having to go to a gym.... so I'll kind of share what a day looks like of "training by Corey"... lol

Basically, I work out every day... but different muscle groups each day. There aren't any "rest" days unless I feel like I need one. However, one of the days each week is just cardio. I do T-25, which is a Beachbody program, 6 days a week so that is part of this plan also... It only takes 25 minutes each day. I highly recommend it!!

Sunday: T-25 Cardio & cardio with Corey.... which I feel like is probably what he remembers from out on the football field and it just about kills me.
Monday: T-25 Speed & back and chest with Corey... mostly with free weights and a couple of things using body weight.
Tuesday: T-25 Total Body Circuit & arms with Corey... I think this is where he kills me the most. His arm work outs are hard and I want to die halfway through them. I scream, throw minor childlike fits, and my arms shake like crazy, but I always get through it and feel majorly accomplished afterwards. I just can't blow dry my hair the next day.....
Wednesday: T-25 Ab Intervals (killer) & more abs with Corey.... Ugh, I hate this day.
Thursday: T-25 Lower Focus & arms with Corey... Pretty much the same as Tuesday but we focus more on triceps than anything else this day.
Friday: T-25 Cardio & legs with Corey... My legs are sooo sore from doing T-25 all week because you do hundreds of squats and lunges, that I'm actually kind of dreading this day.
Saturday: T-25 STRETCH :) and I guess this would be my "rest" day but I still have to get my cardio in.
*I have to get 5-10 miles of running in a week... doesn't matter what days.*

As far as eating goes.......
Breakfast - 8 oz of Naked juice every morning
Snack - apple/banana/strawberries/blueberries (one of these sliced up)
Lunch - Usually salad but some days whatever is left over from the previous night's dinner. As far as salad dressing goes, I don't go all crazy... It has to taste good or I'm not going to eat it every day. My favorites right now are Olive Garden's Italian dressing (light version), Catalina fat free, and light thousand island.
Snack - carrots/cucumber/celery and I try to eat whichever one I have that day without dipping, which is a challenge with celery.. haha If I'm having celery I usually use a tiny bit of ranch dressing.
Dinner - Different versions of chicken and fish with veggies/salad. I also found a lot of great recipes on Pinterest recently that I've loved. I just try to stay away from carbs as much as possible at dinner but I'm not super strict either. I eat what I want at dinner, while trying to be mindful of how healthy it is.
Snack - I usually don't eat after dinner unless I'm super hungry. If so, greek yogurt, fruit, or a couple of peanut butter crackers.

I also TRY my best to drink one gallon of water a day. This has been the biggest challenge for me.
So there it is... Hope this helps those of you that wanted to know what each day looked like. If you want more details of the work outs, I don't mind at all to help ya out there. :) This is all about encouragement and getting through one day at a time! I am definitely NO expert but this just happens to be what works best for me.

 *As of right now, I'm trying not to have cheat meals until I reach 10 lbs. At that point, I'll ease up a little but still try to stay as healthy as possible for the most part. Honestly, this has been much more about the health aspect than the weight-loss for me. I want the boys to have a good example in me.. not just their dad. And I want to be around as long as possible to enjoy this amazing life God has blessed me with.

**Highlight of my week: I am FINALLY off of caffeine. It took 5 days of drinking half a coke a day to get through the awful headaches, but I'm on day 2 of nothing and NO headache. Praise the Lord, He has been my strength!

NYE 2014

"I'm going to take a picture so you can see the sass you are giving me right now."

So, for New Year's Eve I got a personal trainer. I've wanted one since I had the boys and I've begged my husband to just do it. He is amazingly smart when it comes to anything health/fitness but he has always said nooooo way. He's afraid to hurt my feelings or make me mad.... and most of all, he knows how easily I say, "I don't want to do it anymore" and throw a big hissy fit when it gets too hard. He also says how perfect my body is already and I don't need it.... WHATEV. That's why I love the man so much, but this body needs some bootcamp. So, knowing how much of a tight wad he is.... I strategically told him the other day that I'm getting a personal trainer and what did he say.... "I'LL DO IT!" Win. Worked like a charm. I've already had training sesh #1 and I think he's trying to kill me. I brought out my cute little weights and he laughed and traded me out. This is not going to be fun by any means.

I know, I know.... EVERYONE and their dog makes the resolution to lose weight. It's true... and it's also true that I may fail. But I'm not trying to "get skinny." I want to be fit and most of all, healthy. I want to be a role model for my boys and I would like to not feel like a fatty next to my stud of a husband. haha! I think this is my year... We are taking an anniversary trip to somewhere tropical in July (6 months) and I WILL wear whatever swimsuit and cute summery clothes I want, confidently by gosh! I also turn the big 3-0 next year and I would really like to be living a healthier life style by then. I think I'll try to blog more, maybe to keep me on track.. but let's be honest, that might not happen. I always have great intentions on keeping the blog up to date and it gets worse and worse by the year.

Most importantly......... 

I can say one thing I accomplished in 2014 was building a better relationship with the Lord. I feel much closer to Him now than I did at the beginning of the year, or ever, and I'll continue to work on myself daily to serve Him better. Corey has become such an amazing God-fearing man that leads our little family with such grace. Our boys are absolutely precious and Christian already has so many great questions and comments about Jesus and heaven. I have an amazing best friend that always points me in the right direction when I need it. My family and church family are so wonderful and so supportive. For all of that, I am truly grateful and blessed.

"The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though they may stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord upholds them with His hand." Psalm 37:23-24

Catch UP!

Well, I'm way behind because so much has went on that I would have LOVED to document every moment of. I've decided to spend at least one lunch a week eating at my computer and catching up on here. I don't want to forget all of these precious memories that go by so quickly. So, this is going to be a little long recap. :)

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Biggest News lately - Christian started Pre-School on August 19th. He LOVES it!!!!! We are beyond thrilled with our decision to put him in First Place Academy. Corey and I prayed about finding the right place for over a year and we can't believe it's already time for him to start. We both teared up a little on our way to his open house just talking about it. He goes two days a week until noon and he has had a wonderful first few weeks. He wakes up SO excited to get ready for school in the mornings. :) I love our conversations we have on our way to school in the mornings - they seriously make my day and are one of the most enjoyable moments with him right now. We talk about everything. I pray every night for this to be an amazing year for him and that his little light shines bright for Jesus!!

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8-21-14 His first Show & Tell at school and he chose to take his firetruck of course. He said he wanted to tell all of his friends about his daddy being a firefighter.

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This next few weeks are color weeks and I'm having way too much fun dressing him for the color of the day!! He helps me pick out his shirt at night and I think he loves it too... haha!

BLUE DAY!

GREEN DAY!

He got to be the special helper yesterday & he was super excited about that!

Which means he also got to dress the weather bear! :)

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I also started back to school & grad school. I adore my kiddos this year... They really are awesome!! My classes are a lot of fun and we are off to a great start. I'm SOOOO happy that I'm done with Research & Statistics, the nightmarish class I took this summer. It drained every bit of life right out of me at times. I'm taking Practicum this semester so I get to start doing some real counseling and I'm nervous/excited about that. I redid the look of my classroom over the summer and I'm just in love with it. It was so time consuming but well worth it. The kids really love it and that's all that matters. I'll post pics of that soon as soon as I get some time.

There are major perks to working with your best friend! :)

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Harrison lives a pretty easy life that still consists only of eating, playing, sleeping, and staying with his Nana while we are at work and bubby is at school. He is about the most chill, easy going child I've ever met... He may look just like me but he totally got his daddy's laid back personality. He's starting to talk so much and saying new words each day. I can't even imagine him having a conversation with me but I know that day will be here before we know it. He thinks his big brother hung the moon and he's daddy's buddy! He's rough, rowdy, and always smiling! :)

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Bad news: I've been having gallbladder attacks again... BOO! I thought I had magically escaped the problems but after two years of being attack-free, it hit me hard a few nights ago. :( Worst. Pain. EVER.  I have an appointment with a surgeon on Monday and the plan is to have surgery on Wednesday. I'm a nervous wreck so prayers are greatly appreciated. 

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I feel like I shouldn't end this wonderful post on a bad note, so let me not leave out my wonderful hubby. He's almost done with our first flip house... It should be finished by the end of the week or next week. Super excited to get it on the market and hopeful it will sell quickly. What a blessing that would be! He's been hard at work loving his job at the fire department and taking night classes twice a week so every moment we get together, I cherish greatly! I'm so proud of what an amazing husband and daddy he is and just feel super lucky. <3