DietBet

Hola! How the heck are ya? It's been a while since I've written. I started back to work and that has kept me pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but now things are starting to settle down a bit. Including the extreme heat! We've had such nice days here lately. I love it! In fact I love Fall all together. It is my favorite season and I'm so glad it's finally here! A friend posted this on Facebook the other day and I couldn't agree more. Except for the football part. ;)

With this nice weather, you also get more people running/jogging/walking outside and this past week I have been insanely jealous of every one of them. I miss running so bad. On the up side, I don't think I'm too far away from running again. The doctor said I could, but I'm being VERY cautious with this foot. Probably too cautious, but that's okay! :) I gotta tell ya though, two months of not working out at all has made me a bit grumpy. I felt sooo good when I was running and now I feel sooo not good! No bueno!

In steps my great friend, Jillian Michaels. Yes, we are best buds. She may not know it, but we are. LOL. I follow her on facebook, and one day she posts about her DietBet that was starting soon. I had never heard of DietBet so I researched it. You bet a certain amount of money that you'll lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. All the players that succeed split the pot. I needed some motivation, so I went for it, but not before pigging out on pizza, green tea frappucino's, cookies and of course chocolate. Here is a picture of my last piece of chocolate before my weigh in:

 Note: I was being good too, updating my IPod with new songs for my workouts. :)

The DietBet started this past Tuesday, but you can do your official weigh in up to 48 hours earlier. I did my weigh in on Sunday night, so I officially started my diet/exercise regimen on Monday. My goal is to eat clean (veggies, fruits, lean meats and water) and work out for at least one hour, four days a week. My focus is on calories in vs. calories out. Here is a summary of my first three days:

Day 1 - Awesome! Came in under my calories for food and went to kickboxing!!! I love kickboxing and I missed it very much! FYI: I have tried to do this healthy thing before and I always did well the first day. By the second day I was pretty much over it...

Day 2 - Actually wasn't half bad. :) Hubby and I walked for over 30 mins and I went to yoga. I love yoga and I missed it very much! LOL. Also, did well on the eating portion, which I am SUPER proud of. Food is my weak spot.

Day 3 - Sucked big time!!!!!! I had a bad day and I have found I'm an emotional eater. When I eat, the world is a better place. It was very, very, very hard not to just go on a binge. I have a horrible sweet tooth too. Sugar is heaven on earth. I am so very proud to say, I refrained and I came in under calories on the day! Woohoo!!!!!!!!! This was a HUGE success for me.

I know the next few weeks are going to be so hard, but they will also be so rewarding at the same time. I plan to share more throughout this journey and I might even be brave enough to post the before photo. It is NOT pretty! I know many of you are on your own journeys too, so feel free to share any helpful tips you have! Now, go out and enjoy this gorgeous weather! :)

SMART Planning

Hey guys! How are ya? Things here are improving. Since breaking my toe about two weeks ago, I am now able to walk again! I am slow and have a bit of a limp, but I am mobile! Can I tell you how stinkin' happy that makes me? It is true what they say, you really don't appreciate something until it's gone. Right now I appreciate the ability to walk WITHOUT crutches.

Anyway, enough about my toe. LOL. So the past few days I've been drawing a blank on what to write about next and I had to remember what is my main goal: to focus on reaching my dreams. The first step for me was writing them down, but if you write them down and then forget about them, they're pretty much as good as the paper they're written on. So what do I do next? Plan! Remember the saying "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

For me, I make plans all the time, but I struggle with sticking to them. Part of the issue is I don't write them down, so I usually end up forgetting the plan and even the goal I was striving towards. Another issue is I don't make SMART goals as I plan. Many of you, have probably heard of this before, but so few of us actually use it, especially me! I'm hoping by writing down my plans and using the SMART method, I will get closer to my dreams!

Specific- I use the 5 W's to help me get a specific goal: Who? What? When? Where? Why? 

Measurable- Your goal needs to be able to be measured. Can you answer the questions how much or how many?

Attainable- Is your goal realistic? Sometimes you may not have to change the goal, just how you will get there or how long it will take.

Relevant- Does this goal match up with the overall mission?

Time Bound- What is the time frame? What is your target date? What can you do today?

That last question is the one I think I forget about the most. I get so overwhelmed by everything that has to be done, that I don't do anything. So what can I do today? I'm going to make SMART goals towards reaching my dreams and actually write them down this time. Wish me luck!

Broken Toe Dreams

Hey guys! So as you can see it's been a while since I've posted. I originally wanted this blog to be about decorating on a budget, but I've found I'm not all that passionate about that particular subject. I like to read alllllllll about it, but actually doing it and then blogging about it... not so much. So I'm turning this blog into a blog about me, my dreams and making them come true! :) Here is where the broken toe comes in. I know what you're thinking, how can a broken toe and my life dreams possibly be connected. Do I sit around dreaming of broken toes? Or dream of breaking a toe? No. I promise I'm not THAT crazy.

Exactly a week ago, I broke my toe. My first broken bone ever and I've been forced to sit and rest while it heals. I am on crutches and they slow me waaaaaaaay down. If you know me personally, you must know how very hard this is on me. I don't just sit. Maybe I'll take a break for a day every now and then, but not much longer than that. I'm very goal oriented. I always need to be striving towards something. With a broken toe, that has halted all my striving. It's hard to sit. I've had A LOT of time to sit... and think.

With all this thinking, I realized I needed to do something. I can't walk, so any physical activity is not really an option, but I can put my mind to good use. Right before all this happened, I started a dream book. My own little notebook where I write down my dreams and at least a start of a plan to get to them. Some of them I'm not quite ready to share with the world, but there is one in particular... writing. Oddly enough, writing was not one of the dreams I wrote in my Dream Book. But in my many thoughts over the past week, I started thinking about what I was passionate about, what I enjoyed doing, what was really important to me. Writing is one of those things. I haven't written much lately, so my skills are a little rusty, but when I was younger it was something I would do for fun. I wrote short stories, attempted long novels, and even dabbled in poetry. I have a folder tucked away somewhere with a collection of my writings. Someday I may pull it out and share some of it with you, but for now I want to focus on writing in my blog.

I have to admit, just this one entry is freeing. Even if no one reads this, it feels good to get my thoughts out. It feels real good. And to end on a totally random tangent... What is the big freaking deal about shark week? In the past I've never been able to watch it and was always jealous because people would go on and on about how awesome it was. With the broken toe I've been able to catch ALL of it and it gets old really fast. It's the same story, shark attacks human, human narrowly survives to tell the tale and the only difference from one show to the next is the type of shark and the name of the human. ARGH!!!! Sorry to all you out there that just lurve shark week, but I personally can't wait for it to be over. :)

We've Moved!

Hey guys! It's been a while, but I'm back! One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more active on my blog, so here I am! Since my last post A LOT has happened. The biggest thing is... we moved!!!! In fact it was just this last week! Crazy! I'm not sure if you're like me, but I like the thoughts of moving. It motivates me to clean, organize and get rid of a bunch of crap. However, when it comes to physically moving all the STUFF, I hate it! My husband and I did all the moving ourselves to save money. Yes, we saved a ton of money, but I'm pretty sure it cost us our sanity! Argh!

We have unpacked all of the absolutely necessary items, but there are still boxes upon boxes! It's all a bit overwhelming and I am really not motivated. So I'm going back to what I've been told many times... start small. I thought the best place to start small would be the front entry. It's a place we travel frequently and having all those boxes, bags, STUFF everywhere is a bit of a tripping hazard. Also, it's the first thing we see when we walk in the door and to see all of that STUFF is a real downer. It does not make me love my new home. It's all about love people!

Here is a picture from the front door looking in:

And here is a picture from the other side:

Those pictures make me think of those "how many objects can you find" games. How many can you find? Haha, I kid. Okay, time to stop playing games and get to work! I set my timer for 5 minutes and off I went! I had to reset the timer a few times, but I managed to get all the stuff put away AND take out the trash (it was sitting by the front door and I managed to leave it out of all the pictures - you're welcome! lol). Grand total time: 20 minutes! Not too shabby! I even put the stuff that was in boxes away. I didn't just move it to a different spot. :)


Here are the after pics:

Ahh! Doesn't that look so much better? And now you can see one of my favorite parts of our new home: the bookshelf/vignette! Eeeeek! So excited! I can't wait to decorate it and make it all purty, but we'll save that for another post. For now, my couch is calling my name!