Where did November go?!

Wow, it has been a looooong time! What can I say, LIFE HAPPENS. As oddly as it sounds, I am entirely okay with that.  I started this blog not just to talk about our journey to being healthier, but just to talk about our life! Our wonderful, happy, completely imperfect lives. :)

Over the past month I've been working, dealing with school, working, dealing with school and figuring out what in the world to do with my life! I've mentioned before that I'm a little over half way through with an Early Childhood Education degree.  I sort of took a mini-break this semester because I was doubting myself and my career choice.  After much thought and consideration, I've decided to finish my degree! woohoo. At the end of the day I truly feel that my doubt was stemming from my current stressful work situation. I have to remember that working with 3 and 4 year olds is completely different than actually teaching in an elementary school. So next semester is going to be quite lovely taking 18 hours to play catch up! I haven't broken it to my boss yet that I want to cut my hours back at work in January.  I better get on that asap!

I defiinitely need to update ya'll with a picture post and it will come soon! It's 11:06 right now, I am extremely sleepy and have to work in the morning.  I hope all of you are doing well, am looking forward to catching up on your blogs!!

A- Z of me!

This has been floating around in blogland so I had to steal borrow it. I found it over at One Girl One Goal!




A - Z of ME...

A. Age - 23

B. Bed size - King!

C. Chore you dislike - Cleaning anything in the bathroom.  Hate it!

D. Dogs - My two babies, Snoopy and Charlie!

E. Essential start to your day - Hit snooze. Cuddle up to hubby. Hit snooze again.  Hit snooze again.

F. Favorite color - Green

G. Gold or silver - Silver

H. Height - 5'8

I. Instruments you play(ed) - I started out playing clarinet and played a little bit on the french horn

J. Job title - Preschool Teacher

K. Kids - None YET! But in the next few years, definitely! Already have the names picked out lol

L. Live - Fort Smith! Have also lived in Sacramento, Oklahoma City, and Orlando.

M. Mom's name - Vicki

N. Nicknames - Nothing really? My brothers used to call me Amanda Panda. lol

O. Overnight hospital stays - Just a knee surgery

P. Pet peeves - Liars and FAKE PEOPLE.

Q.Quote from a movie - "What the heck was that?!" -Yogi Bear. ((You have to see it to laugh!))

R. Righty or Lefty - Righty

S. Siblings - 4. Older sister. Two older brothers. Younger brother.

T. Time you wake up - 6:30

U. Underwear - Is this a question lol I love buying new underwear! I have wayyy too many.

V. Vegetables you don't like - Onions, Squash, Sweet Potatoes. lol there are many!

W. What makes you run late - Sleeping.

X. X-rays you've had - My knee and my arm.

Y. Yummy food you make - I LOVE my lasagna. I made some last night. So yummmmy!

Z. Zoo animal favorites - Panda!!

Second Training Session

......kicked my ass.

....and I LOVED it.

I've never really done strength workouts outside of the fitness class I took at school.  I don't really count that because it was a part of a circuit and I never felt a burn like I did today.  We worked on back, shoulders, abs, and legs.  By the end of the workout I was literally drenched and my muscles were shaking.  It felt amazing! I can't wait to show my hubby some of the workouts.  I came home and made a big protein shake.  I'm new at the whole shake thing and definitely need some recipes. If you have any good ones, send them my way!

This is a short post, I'm about to have to go to work for a couple of hours. Tonight I'm going to my nephews football game and then we are picking up my wonderful sister in law! She is flying in from D.C. and staying with us for the weekend. Tomorrow I am definitely going to get some cardio in on my lunch break.  Saturday we are taking my nieces and nephew to the state fair. How in the world am I going to resist the fair food?!

First Personal Training Session

So I met with my new trainer, Mandy, last night. It went really well and we pretty much just discussed nutrition and how it's really 80% of losing and maintaining weight loss. Of course that is the part that I struggle with most! She stressed how no one plan can work for everyone and that we need to try several different things until we find something that fits.

First, she wants to put me on a plan where I eat 5 small meals a day. She did stress the fact that she is not a nutritionist, working out is her real forte, but over the years she has gotten a lot of information. The calorie range she told me to stay in was definitely off and I'm going by what a dietician told me before. She was saying about 1500 calories a day, but that's not enough at my weight, working out 5 days a week. I'm going to try to keep it between 2000-2300 to start out. All of the online resources actually say 2650 for my weight, but I'll tweak it as needed.

I bought 8 workout sessions to start out.  We're going to workout twice a week. I was pleasantly surprised that it's only 25.00/session. That's one good thing about living in Arkansas, everything's cheap! :)

Today was my first work. One word BRUTAL. It was the most intense 25 minutes on a treadmill....ever.  If she wasn't standing there next to me, I probably would have quit. haha I feel great that I did it now, and my endurance will get better and better.  We did intervals, increasing speed every minute for 5 minutes. Recover. Increase incline every minute for 5 minutes. Recover. Over and over. She then showed me a couple of other machines she wants me to do on Friday's.  The two times a week we are going to meet are going to be strength workouts.

I'm excited, and committed.  A trip to the grocery store is a must this evening!!

Happy Monday!

This weekend went entirely TOO fast!

On Friday night after I got off of work, the hubby and I decided to try some Indian food.  There's a place in town with amazing reviews so we gave it shot,
and I have come to the conclusion that either:

1.I don't like Indian food.
2.I just ordered the wrong thing

My husbands food was pretty good. (I wish I had taken pictures! I've GOTTA get better about that lol) I ordered a rice plate with beef. It was horrible. Even my husband wouldn't eat it, and that says something! lol Not to mention that the chickpea battered cheese we ordered tasted exactly like McDonalds chicken nuggets!

I'll probably try it again someday, but not anytime soon!

On Saturday night this little guy came to spend the night:

My nephew Vance!

He had never spent the night at my house before and he was sooo good! And yes he is standing in an ottoman in the living room.  He thought it was funny when I put my toy poodle in there and closed the lid. :)

Today is my first meeting with my personal trainer and being nervous is a definite understatement. I know I probably shouldn't be, but I can't help it.  It's not until 7 tonight, but I am so ready to get it over with and get started!

I ordered some goodies that i will hopefully get by the end of the week:

I ordered this shoe in black/pink. I tried them on in the store and it was AMAZING. Sadly that run SUPER small and they didn't have very many sizes so I had to order it.

 

These workout pants had great reviews and I had a coupon from Lane Bryant so I decided to try them out.

I also ordered a few new bras from cacique and a new sports bra! ((ahhh I LOVE shopping!))

I will definitely be reviewing these items later on when I get them and try them out!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Monday!

Not so Wordless Wednesday!

Hey everybody!! It's mid week and I hope everyone is doing well!  Today I don't work until 3:00.  I SHOULD be cleaning up the house and folding laundry, but blogging just seems like so much more fun :)

This past weekend I bought a book at Lifeway:

I'm not usually big on the whole "diet book" scene and this book isn't your typical weight loss book.  I haven't finished it yet and will definitely have a full review after I do, but so far the book has been very interesting.  The book talks about how in order to lose weight and be healthy, you can't just focus on the physical weight loss, because you are so much more than the weight loss.  You have to take into account your emotional, spiritual, and physical health.  If one part of your health is out of sync, your life will feel out of sync. I find this to be completely true in my case!

I other exciting news I have decided to take a leap of faith and get a personal trainer.  I feel at this point, I not only need the extra push and accountability, but I also need the guidance.  I am in this for the long run and I don't know how to make all of the lifestyle changes on my own.  I have my first meeting/consultation with her on Monday night.  I have to admit I am probably way more nervous than I should be. ((This may or may not be linked to the fact that I looked at her facebook page, and people were commenting about how they were too scared to work out with her or be in her bootcamp class.  Did I mention these were mostly FIT people??))  On Monday we are just going to go over goals and nutrition and start to figure out a plan.  I will meet with her twice a week in the beginning and eventually only once when I get the hang of things.

Have any of you ever worked with a personal trainer before?? What were your experiences like??