Thankful For...

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving Y'all! 

"It's not happy people that are thankful, 

it's thankful people that are happy."

I love this quote and I got it off of Mama Laughlin's instagram, she's my new favorite blogger...go check her out if you haven't already! I am so thankful and happy for so many things. So for a quick moment, I want to remember these things..instead of pushing them aside for shopping (which seems to be the trend this year since every sale starts on Thanksgiving...sorry but that's messed up!!)

I am thankful for FAMILY

I am thankful for LOVE

I am thankful for BABIES

I am thankful for MEMORIES

I am thankful for CRAZY TIMES WITH GOOD PEOPLE

Most of all, I am thankful for a great year and can't wait to see what next year brings! 

Hiding my "fat" self

I know that the title may sound a little harsh, I mean is it really nice to call yourself

fat?

Well lets get real y'all on the the health charts, I used to be considered obese. 

Not just sorta obese, I mean like I was closer to morbidly obese than I was to overweight. 

Brittany's friend Nikki, Brittany, Me, and Jerica (read more about them on why blog)

I'm going to be honest, I carry my weight extremely well. I'm about 5' 6'' and at my 

heaviest I was 180. Nobody would have ever guessed I was that weight though. I think people would have put me at 160. But I knew. I was so unhealthy. I hated my body, I remember when that picture was taken perfectly. I was between my two skinny minny best friends (who I love to death, but I mean could I get any more perfect friends?) and I felt like a cow. That was it, I was done hiding my "fat" self. 

I was sick of seeing pictures like this

I was so beyond insecure. I hated my arms and my stomach the most. UGH. 

I would hide them by posing my arm out or putting a baby in front of my gut! LOL

I would wear the same clothes because I thought those were the only things that looked good on me. 

I was sooo done. One day I just changed. I was just done with this stupid roller coaster. 

Six months later and 30 pounds gone, I looked like this.

Another 6 months and 15 more pounds gone. 

This was no sucking in, after a week in Mexico at an all inclusive stuffing my face with daiquiris and nachos :)

Another 6 months and here I am. I did something I never in a million years thought I ever thought possible, ran a 5K. No more weight loss, but damn I am in so much better shape than I was 6 months ago.

My running buddy ;)


6 months at a time, 1.5 years, and here I am. What will I achieve in 6 more months? God only knows, but I can't wait to find out!!

Anything is possible y'all! 

Back on Track!

Time for some Work Out Wednesday/ Weigh In Wednesday! 

For some reason I can't get their buttons to work so go check them out at
Skinny Meg and Pretty Strong Medicine!

So last week I got pretty sick with the flu and it completely threw me off my workout schedule. Up until that point I was doing really well with running, my squat challenge, and the ab challenge. 

When I got sick I had to stop running and doing the ab challenge it was just too much for me. However, I did keep up with the squats, no matter how much I hated it, now finally yesterday I started to feel better. 

How I feel when I think about doing 250 squats...

Tomorrow is day 18 for the squat challenge, and I cannot wait until day 31 :) I am also doing 30 fire hydrants a day to work my gluteus minimus instead of just my gluteus maximus :) Today I also started back up with my running. I only did 1 mile but dang did that feel good. Friday, I'll do 2 and then Sunday hopefully 3. It feels so good to get back in my routine again and get healthy. 

Time to get "Book Smart"

Hey everyone! I had a very uneventful weekend, since I was flu stricken I have no fun pictures to show you :( But I do have a very exciting thing to share with y'all! 

Since 99% of people who go to college are scraping the barrel for money we all need to get smarter with how we spend and earn money! There is a really awesome company called CampusBookRentals.com and their new program called RentBack, where you can actually make money off of the books you had to buy for school!

The Details:

-Campus Book Rentals is 40-90% off bookstore prices

-Once you rent the book from Campus Book Rentals you can highlight and use the book as if it were your own

-You get free shipping both ways on all rentals

-You get a FULL refund if you return the book within 30 days, no questions asked

-RentBack allows you to rent out the textbooks you own to other students so that you can make money! PS this is amazing because then you can keep the books you want to use for future reference (like I keep my A&P books since I want to be a nurse) but you can still rent them out when you aren't using them for extra money! 

Finally, I quickly wanted to talk about Operation Smile, an amazing organization that 

provides necessary medical procedures to children who need need cleft lip and cleft palate surgery. 

If it wasn't for this organization millions of children around the world would suffer and even die from cleft lip and cleft palate. As a future nurse, I hope that some day I can be a part of something so amazing. 

Since it is the holiday season and paying it forward is the best way to get in true holiday spirit, I highly recommend everyone go check out Operation Smile and consider donating and helping out a child in need :) 

Happy Holiday's Everyone!! :) 

My Best Friend

Everyone needs their best friend. Last night I was laying in bed just wanting to vent. 

It was that kind of day that just really stressed me out and I needed someone to confide in. 

So I start thinking to myself. Who can I confide in? Who do I turn to? 

Simple, my best friend.

I have been blessed with some really great friends. But great friends aren't
necessarily best friends. A best friend is someone who basically puts up with all your shit and still finds a way to love you.

My sister is probably my first best friend. The funny thing is, we are total opposites. She is a self proclaimed negative nelly and I am so positive I make people want to vomit. She likes to bake, I like to cook. She is definitely not into decorating, while I could be considered obsessed. 

I usually am friends with people similar to me, so why is it that Katie and I are so close? 

Our secret, we are EXTREMELY brutally honest with each other. 

If she's being negative I will simply tell her to shut her face, if I get too caught up in material things she'll being me back to reality. We don't get offended when the other one is honest, it's just how we are. Some people may think we're mean, we simply call it honest ;) I mean I literally tried to punch her in the face once (and no I am not that girl) just trust me she had it coming. She'll even agree with that now :) 

We can tell each other anything and know it's between us, and we always know we'll 

get the honest opinion of the other. 

Obviously my second best friend is Jude, (insert eye roll,) but seriously I can tell him anything, including when he's annoying the crap out me;) 

Weekend Recap!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had an amazing weekend, and I hope your Monday flew by!

Friday kicked off with my mom, sister, and I leaving for Chicago for some holiday shopping! We had a great time and found some amazing things! My favorite purchase? This dress from my absolute favorite store, A'GACI! Seriously, I have never gone to this store and not made a great purchase. I may be obsessed! I'm planning on wearing this dress with some knee high boots for Thanksgiving :)

Saturday night we got home and I headed out to dinner with Jude and his family. We had a lot of fun but I was just sooo tired that the second my head hit the pillow I was out.

Sunday was a 5K kind of day with my sister, but this time we ended up doing a little over 3.3 miles, which is the farthest I have ever ran! And...it had hills!! Whoop Whoop! By the way I may or may not be itching for half marathon training...call me crazy? I love accomplishing things! Anybody know any good training schedules??

Today was the first real day up here where it snowed! Now, let me explain something. Living in Iowa I have grown to DESPISE snow. It's wet, it's cold, it's gross, did I mention cold? Anyways today was different. When it snowed I saw a 3 year old's face light up like I have never seen it before it. It made me fall in love with snow all over again! He even enjoyed playing in it for a little bit, and he might have freaked out from excitement when I told him he could eat the snow! My excitement quickly ended when I had to scrape off the ice and snow from my car (I have grown up with a garage, a great boyfriend, and an even better dad, so this was my first time ever doing it...yuck!)

Squat and Ab Challenge Update! Well let me tell you, it sucks. Big time. I hate it. But I'm still doing it. 100 squats tomorrow...prayers are welcome!!

Have a great week y'all!!

November Workout Challenge!

Hey y'all! Yesterday my mom, sister, and I all started a 30 day ab and squat challenge! I am so ready to tone up and look and feel fabulous for the holidays! Are any of you up for the challenge? Here it is!!

We are doing these challenges simultaneously and so far it is going very well! Sore, but good! I took some before pictures of myself, and I will post those on my last day along with after pictures, along with end weight. However, I'm not really expecting to loose much weight on this challenge since it's mostly toning. Along with this I will be running 2 miles twice a week, 3 miles once a week (just to keep up with my running), and we will all be trying to eat healthy (besides Thanksgiving of course!) Let me know if you plan on doing this challenge with me, I would love to swap recipes and ideas with you!!

Happy (almost) Hump Day!