One Great Weekend!

Wow! What a weekend I had! For my birthday Jude got me tickets to a Vikings game and got us two nights at a hotel in Minneapolis! We had a blast!

We left Saturday at around 8 in the morning and got to the Mall of America at around 2 (traffic and construction SUCKED!!) We got lots of shopping in and bought a bunch of fun things we can't even come close to buying at home.

We got back to the hotel, and damn....seriously y'all it was the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. Jude said he didn't even really look at the pictures when he booked it so we were both shocked at how over the top this place was! I may have freaked out a little bit when I saw there was a TV by the bathtub...We stayed at The Grand Hotel Minneapolis, I definitely recommend it!

We quickly rushed to our reservations at The Melting Pot, which is my favorite restaurant :) Dinner was amazing! Jude even arranged for there to be pink roses at our table when we got there...such a sweetheart! 

PS the second picture down of Jude and I may be my new favorite picture of us :) We rarely take a good picture together! 

Then we went back to the hotel room, popped some champagne (which literally almost blinded Jude it was the scariest/funniest thing I've ever seen in my life) 

Sunday morning was obviously time for some football. We were a little worried we wouldn't get to see Adrian Peterson play, understandably of course, but he ended up playing. I can't even wrap my head around such an awful thing, there are obviously some pretty sick people in the world. Unfortunately it was the first Vikings game we ever saw a loss :( really disappointing but we still had fun! 

Ready for our three year pictures?!

 

 From top to bottom, 2011 2012 2013 :) I'm wearing the same jacket in the bottom two pictures, it fit me in 2012 but this year I was literally swimming in it...time to buy some new Vikings gear! Oh and I'm pretty sure Jude gained the 40 pounds I lost from 2011 to 2013..which is definitely a good thing for both of us! lol

Sunday we ended our trip with a visit to Ikea and the cheesecake factory! YUM! It was Jude's first cheesecake factory experience and he loved it! Then we headed back on our 5 hour journey home!

Hope you guys had a great weekend too!! Can't wait to catch up on all your posts throughout the week :)

Friday Fives!

Happy Friday everyone!! I hope you are all getting excited for this weekend :) You know the drill so here we go

1-

Jude and I are headed to Minnesota this weekend for our 3rd Vikings game! The top picture is from 2011, and the bottom is from 2012. I can't wait to get a way for a few days, shop, eat at my favorite restaurants, and of course watch the Vikings on Sunday! We've never seen them loose so lets hope our streak continues! 

2-

Brendyn and I after one of my runs this week! Im up to running 20 minutes, not very fast but I do it! When I started the Couch to 5k I was running for only 2 minutes, to think I am going 10 times longer just in 8 weeks is absolutely crazy to me! 2 weeks left guys!! 

3-

Tonight Jude and I are headed to his cousins house for family game night (yes we are lame) lol but I'm excited! If there is one thing I've learned through all my health issues it's that family is the most important thing. I don't mind spending a Friday night with family, not one bit :)

4-

Whenever fall comes around I get really obsessed with my Scentsy. My favorite for the fall is "mochadoodle" What are your favorite scents??

5-

Opi's fall nail polish is absolutely amazing. My favorite color is "Berlin There Done That". Actually I'm wearing it right now :) I've also been growing out my nails and they're longer than they've ever been in my whole life!! 

Have a great weekend y'all! 

Wanting to be better

We all have those days. The ones where we feel inadequate, not good enough, we just want to be better. It was that day for me today.

Nobody made me feel this way, it was just little things adding up.

My jeans didn't look as good on me as they did a few months ago (however I really do think I shrunk them), my run was really hard today, Tayte hated the lunch I made him, I got a C+ on my medical terminology test, my bedroom is an absolute disaster, I haven't blogged since Wednesday, and two big prayers went unanswered today.

These leave me asking myself, maybe if I was just better...
-Better at eating healthy
-Better at working out
-Better at being a nanny
-Better at being an aunt (sometimes it's hard to separate the aunt and nanny part...)
-Better at being a student
-Better at cleaning
-Better at blogging
-Better at trusting at God

If I could just be better then none of those things would happen. I do want to be better, I want to dedicate more time to my body, cleaning, school, God, my nephews, Jude, my parents. Everything.

I hate being negative. I hate it. Trust me I know it can be worse, and there is nothing worse than someone bitching about something little when you are dealing with much worse. I've dealt with it. After many of doctor appointments I have listened to people complain about their jobs, their weight, their boyfriend problems, whatever it is it makes me want to punch them. I just can't get out of my funk of feeling this way.

Maybe it's not a funk, maybe I should dedicate more time to those things....now I just have to find the time.

I'll leave you with this quote that I found significant today..

But How??

 



    How did I loose over 40 pounds over the last year?? Sometimes when people ask me this question, I really just sound stupid because truthfully there is so much more than just a simple answer. Loosing 40 pounds the healthy way isn't simple. It's not easy, so my answer isn't easy or simple. Here are my before and after pictures once again :)

   So way back in February of 2012 I started Weight Watchers. I was tired of being 180 pounds, and weighing the same as my boyfriend. Weight Watchers taught me sooo much! I learned about food, healthy eating, and exercise. A healthy balance. I started walking everyday so I could enjoy a bowl of ice cream after dinner ;) I stopped drinking pop and souly switched to water, tea, and crystal light. I didn't want to waste my points on drinks. I will tell you, Weight Watcher does work 100% if you are willing to do it. After about 2 months, I felt like I really had a handle on the whole idea of weight watcher. I lost about 9 pounds and I wanted to quit paying and take it on myself.

   Whoa! Was that the best idea of my life?! The pounds literally fell off me when I took it into my own hands! I no longer looked at food as my enemy, I no longer considered myself on a "diet", I wanted to walk and start and feeling better. I wanted to do this for me. Diets do not work, let me tell you why:

-Nobody is perfect, a diet expects you to be
- Nobody can eat healthy 100% of the time...how boring is that?
-Eating healthy and clean 100% of the time can really slow your metabolism down if you don't do it right
-Anything that restricts anything (carbs, fat, sugar) is NOT good for your body! You can reduce those things but should NEVER completely take them out of your diet. Your body needs those things, in moderation. ESPECIALLY carbs! Throw that Atkins diet out the window!
-A diet without exercise is like pizza without cheese...gross

So here are my rules:

-Food is not your enemy!
-Eat healthy during the weekdays (I do it Monday morning through Friday afternoon) Then eat what you really like on your off days, but don't binge eat. Still use your moderation. This way when your really craving a snickers on a Tuesday you can just tell yourself to wait until Friday. This also helps people stay on the "band wagon"
-Cut pop and coffee. Sorry guys, this is a must, even diet pop. Only water, and tea. I don't even splurge on weekends because it is just seriously awful for you.
-Try to cook at home often, it makes it fun and much healthier and cheaper
- Get out and move, it makes your feel so much better. This past summer I started walking everyday, and now I'm training for a 5K. It gives you tons of energy!
-Pack healthy snacks so you don't want to cheat on your "good days"
- If you break any of these rules you can't beat yourself up. Just forgive and forget. Move on and keep going!

My secret weapon:

-Ooh long tea. It speeds up your metabolism, burns fat, curves any hunger you may have, and is completely natural. I drink about 4 cups a day! You can buy these tea bags at any grocery store, or Chinese restaurant!


So remember:

I think I can, I think I can...

  Just keep chuggin' along, right? Well last Thursday I ran my very FIRST mile ever without stopping! Then, Monday I did it again but this time it was a little bit easier :) Maybe this whole 5K thing will work out in the next 4 weeks? CHOO CHOO! Here I come y'all ;)

    Seriously though, when I started this whole thing it was hard for me to run 4 minutes. Slow and steady might actually win the race this time...

So here's my plan as of right now... y'all know how I love to plan ;) This couch to 5K program is due to be finished on October 27th. I'm a total treadmill runner, because I'm allergic to every single thing under the sun right now and I swear my lungs collapse every time I somewhat jog outside. So running an actual 5K race is totally out the window. Jude is gonna make me a runner name tag thing and get me a fake medal and I'm running that b*tch on the treadmill! Then I'm going to try to improve my pace until I can run a 5K in 35 minutes or have an 11 minute mile. After that, onto my 10K training schedule.

I'm going to start on week 4 though. Jude thinks I'm seriously insane with this! He might have ran track all 4 years of high school but let me tell ya something, this kid hates running and he definitely hates anything that's over 100 meters! LOL He might commit me to the psych ward.

PS Don't miss tomorrow's post all about how I lost 40 pounds in one year, the healthy way!