Plummeting

Today is Weigh-In Wednesday again friends, and of course that means I'm linking up with Alex and Erin! And today I've finally got some good news to share with y'all after a blah weigh-in last week...

Initial starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, February 6 = 204

Today, February 13 = 201

Holy awesomeness! That's three pounds down from last week people! My weight has started Plummeting again!! Honestly, I had already pre-written this post yesterday with what I assumed my weight would be. I thought I would be around 203, meaning only one pound lost in a week. But I got to come in here this morning and erase that whole paragraph about how 'I won't get discouraged with only a one pound loss, and blah blah blah.' And now I get to write about how excited I was to see 201 pop up on the scale this morning! I weighed myself three different times today just to make sure, and then I did a happy dance as I was getting in the shower. For realz. 

Also, I've decided to start sharing the inches lost as well, because that's actually been huge for me the last couple of weeks! So huge in fact, that I have a hard time believing it's accurate. But I'm pretty sure it is, since I've measured multiple times just to make sure. The last time I measured was last Thursday night, so I may have lost even more since then, but as of now, I've lost 17 total inches so far this year!! (I was going to share actual numbers, but left my notebook where it's all written down, and I don't remember all those details.)

And I've been doing pretty good with my eating too. Most days I stay under my total calorie goal (with the exception of a few cookies after family dinner, or a cheat meal I don't even bother counting), but for the most part, I'm making healthy food choices and logging everything into MyFitnessPal!

Now, here's how I did with my exercising this past week, since last Wednesday, including calories burned:

Wednesday: 1 mile run/walk (140 cals) and Fab Ab February

Thursday: 1.01 mile run/walk (136 cals), 60 minutes of Zumba (600 cals) and Fab Ab February

Friday: slacked off quite a bit, but still did Fab Ab February

Saturday: ran errands and walked all over town, but not much more than that...

Sunday: 2.08 mile run/walk (300 cals) and Fab Ab February

Monday: lunch-time walk with my Aunt (177 cals) and Fab Ab February

Tuesday: 1 mile run/walk (140 cals), 60 minutes of Zumba (600 cals) and Fab Ab February

I was pretty excited for Zumba yesterday. It's just so dang fun!

GUYS! Did you see that 2-miler I did up there on Sunday?! I won't even lie about this a little bit, but I was sooo impressed with myself for that one. And I really did run about half of it. And you know what? I felt great afterwards! I pushed pretty hard during that run, and once again surprised myself with how much I was actually able to run. I might be starting to like this running thing a little bit more...but Shhhh! Don't tell too many people yet until I completely make up my mind.

Tonight I'm going back to the local high school to run on their track and I'm going to attempt to do another 2-miler. Of course it will be pretty slow, but that's OK. Because I'm getting better with each and every run! Back in August when I first started running a little bit, my mile took about 16:05. Sunday's first mile was 14:37, and then last night I did it in 13:56!! See? I'm getting better and faster with each mile I run. I can feel it.

It feels great to have been able to push past my Plateau from the last few weeks, and finally start seeing more results from all my hard work! I can't wait to keep up my new workout habits, and continue pushing forward on this workout journey! Oh, and check out all these sweet new workout gear one of my bestest friends Dani sent me yesterday! I was so surprised when I opened it, and I just sat there going through the package with the biggest smile on my face the whole time. And of course she wrote me the sweetest card to go along with it. It made me super happy :) I'll be wearing to that on my run today, as well as some of the socks and one of the new headbands!! Thanks again Dani-Pants! You are so stinking awesome and I love you girl!

New shirt, little jacket, no-slip headbands, fun socks and a meal planning notepad. Such awesome goodies!

This was a great start to my day today, and definitely keeps me motivated to continue to push hard. I'm so determined and focused and motivated right now, and I can't wait to see how far I can keep pushing myself!! How are y'all doing on your weight loss journeys? I know I'm not the only one working on this! Feel free to share your stories, tips and yummy healthy food ideas, because it's so much better to do this with friends!

Prom, Mornings & Heart Break - First Things First

Good morning my friends! Today is week 6 of our First Things First link-up with myself and Hallie from Life: Oceanside! Here's the deal - we give  you the topics every week, you write your post, put our button on your post, link-up with us, and spread the word! Then of course visit the other links to see their posts as well!

First, we have some exciting news -- we'd like some of you lovely ladies to co-host this with us each week! If you would like to get in on this action, just fill out the form! CO-HOST First Things First

And now moving on to our regularly scheduled post -- this week, we're talking about:

First thing I do when I wake up in the morning

First heart break

First prom or school dance

First thing I do when I wake up in the morning

Empty my tiny, child-sized bladder. Anyone who knows me in real life knows how true this is...I get made fun of all the time for this small issue of mine. Whatever, there's really nothing I can do about it! Moving on though...after that, I check Instagram and play Words with Friends. Duh. And I might also browse Facebook for a few minutes, and catch up on some emails. But I'd say mostly I'm just scrolling Instagram... (here's some of my recents)

First heart break

Well, since Jeff is the only real boyfriend I've had, I haven't had the typical 'boyfriend-broke-my-heart' experience. (And I'm really hoping to keep it that way...) However, I was super best friends with a boy in high school, who ended up breaking my heart even though we weren't even dating. We were really close from 10th-12th grades, and did soo much together - church, games, dinners, movies, concerts.... We also lived close to each other, so he even picked me up every morning for school for a while, because he turned 16 before I did. Then in the last month or so of high school, we got into a big dumb argument, and yelled and fought and things weren't pretty. We kind of moved on, but avoided each other for a month or so. Then I tried to fix things with him at youth summer camp, and he was a butt head and wouldn't accept my apology or even talk to me. And that seriously broke my heart. He left to go away for college about a month later, and I have only spoken to him probably twice since then in the past seven years...

First high school dance or prom

Since I went to a tiny Christian school from kindergarten through 12th grade, we didn't really have many dances and such. Really, all we did was the junior and senior prom that our parents put on for us. My junior year, myself and 4 or 5 of my girlfriends all skipped prom and went to see Relient K in concert instead! And it was totally worth it. So then my first high school dance was my senior year, when I went to a public high school's homecoming dance, with one of my friends from church! It worked out good too, because my friend Crystal (who had also gone to the Relient K concert with me before) was also asked by a friend from our church, and we could go together! 

And the only other time I went to a high school dance was for my senior prom! My date was one of my best friends, and we went with a giant group of girls and guys all together. We all met first to take pictures, then we ate at Outback (I think?!), and headed to the prom all together! My date-friend didn't want to dance too much, but I went out on the dance floor without him! It's more fun to dance with your best girl friends anyways :) Afterwards, we all went back to the house we took pictures at, to enjoy some midnight snacks, watch "Heavyweights," (we were obsessed with it that year), and then we had a giant sleepover! We woke up to pancakes and OJ from her parents, and made fun of the still-snoring boys :) So many fun memories!

I know the quality is terrible - they're crappy scans of printed pictures, so it's the best I could do today...

So ladies, go write your own posts about these three firsts, and join in the fun! The 'rules' are simple: write your post, include our button, link up with us, spread the word, and visit others! Easy right? And while you're at it, you can prepare for next week's post with these topics:

1. First thing you do at the gym
2. First date with your current significant other
3. First email address

Spread the word about our link-up by tweeting about it! And then link up with us below!
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Peter Pan, Post Office & Po'Boys

Not to brag or anything, but I had a great weekend! It's not that anything super terrific or crazy happened, it was just one of those weekends, ya know? I was able to get a few things done, ran lots of errands, ran 2 miles, spent time with family, friends and boyfriend, went to church and just had a good time. I love weekends like this that are somewhat busy and full, but also full of relaxation as well.

Friday:

Hung at Jeff's right after work waiting to meet some friends for a semi-late dinner

Walked outside the house, and immediately realized we were locked out of the house and my car

Tried to take a good picture of us while waiting, and it wasn't working out

Thankfully, they came to pick us up!

Super yummy dinner at Bonefish Grill with Josh and Lacey

Saturday:

Luckily, I got to sleep in a little bit

Laundry, cleaning, errands, and bought Valentine's presents

Lunch with parents at Jersey Mike's

Jeff and I ran more errands all over the place: Target, Post Office, his work, Harbor Freight & Costco

Jeff stuck his head out the car window, and got crazy hair

Milled around Target for about an hour

Had dinner at Chick-fil-A

Went back to Jeff's and watched 'Peter Pan' on Blu-Ray :)

Started working on a tissue paper garland for Valentine's Day!

Sunday:

Took pictures all day long for Ten on Ten, to link up with Bits of Sunshine

Taught 3rd grade Sunday school with my parents, and made a cool craft for the lesson

Had lunch with my parents at Po'Boys

Went to my high school alma mater again to run/walk - and I did 2.07 miles!! It felt great.

Headed to Jeff's house, to chill and relax for the rest of the day

Painted my nails, worked more on my tissue paper garland

Downloaded a ton of new music and also made an awesome running playlist

Watched a couple episodes of 'Fringe'

So you see, it's not like any of that was out of the ordinary or super spectacular. But it was just the kind of weekend that I like. Productive with some time to also be lazy. Those really are the best kinds of weekends for me! What is the perfect kind of weekend for you? And what did y'all do this past weekend?

And as usual, I'm linking up with these lovelies: Covered in Grace, Sami's Shenanigans & Synfully Delicious.

Pink All Over the Place

Ten on Ten. With Bits of Sunshine.

Ten pictures, on the tenth of the month, capturing the little, every day moments of our lives.

8-9 am: Shower time before church

9-10 am: Bananas I wanted for breakfast, but weren't quite ripe enough for my liking

10-11 am: Teaching 3rd grade Sunday school, and making crafts for the lesson

11-noon: 'Big church' Bible stories

12-1 pm: Lunch with my parents at Po'Boys

1-2 pm: Running with lots of pink (Watch, shoes, shirt, earrings, iPhone case...)

2-3 pm: Fab Ab February challenge

3-4 pm: Attempted painting my nails special for Valentine's Day

4-5 pm: Redeeming iTunes gift cards to make an awesome running playlist

6 pm: Turkey sandwich and grapes for dinner

This was so fun to do, and to take so many pictures of random things all day long. I definitely want to make sure I remember to do this again, hopefully every month! Easy, fun, great way to remember little things that we often forget about or even take for granted. Can't wait to do this again on March 10th!

Pulse, Plans, Pinterest & Pink

Dear Blog Friends: There are still more and more of you here each day, and it makes me wanna turn in circles and squeal a little bit. I'm resisting though, and trying to act mature about it. But really, it makes me so super excited when new people come and join me here! So, Welcome!!

Dear Edgar Sawtelle: You are a seriously giant book. In fact, you are 562 pages long! Now I've read big books before so it's not uncommon or anything, but you just seem gigantic. I'm only about 65 pages in, so I still have a long way to go. You're interesting enough so far, but I'm gonna need you to pick it up in order to make through almost 500 more pages... I've got faith though, because you were an Oprah's book club selection, so that's a good sign. The last one I read from her book club turned out really great, so I'm sure you've got great potential too! (I just recently joined Goodreads, so come check it out with me if you're a fellow bookworm like myself!)

Dear Running: Things are still going great between us this week! I've done a mile each day on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. And I hope to be able to do it again today! It may not be very long runs yet, but I'm doing it, and I'm sticking to it. And besides, I've noticed that my average pace is getting quicker, and I'm shaving off time with each run! I think that's a great sign :)

Dear Fingernails: I want to do something really cute and pink and red and girly and glittery for Valentine's Day, but I'm not sure what to do exactly. I'm thinking a dive into Pinterest is in order so I can do some 'research' and get some ideas! Are any of you painting something cute and exciting on your nails for next week?

Dear Mother Nature: Have you lost your mind? I had an at-the-wrong-time, unexpected visit from you just a week and a half ago, and now you're back again today. Unacceptable. I'll go back to my regular once-a-month visit please and thank you. 

Dear Boyfriend: I'm sorry I've been forgetting to wear the new heart-rate monitor watch you got me for my birthday! I don't even know why, because I was so excited about it in the first place! Not to worry though, I've got it with me today, and I plan on using it for my short run after work this afternoon! Can't wait to start tracking another element of my fitness journey! And thanks for such a good birthday present!

Fitness Guru's: From what I've read really quickly about heart-rate, this is a pretty good at-rest number, right?!

Dear Weekend: I'm so excited you're almost here! I really don't even have anything specific planned yet, but it doesn't matter. As long as I'm away from my desk and not staring at a computer for two straight days, it will make me a happy camper! I'm thinking I'll get in a run and/or a trail hike, do some grocery shopping, some movie watching, and spend some time with family, friends and boyfriend. And then Sunday is our 1 year and 6 month anniversary, so I think I have a Living Social deal to an Italian restaurant that would be perfect for Sunday night :)

Dear Boyfriend: Is it kind of crazy that it's been a year and a half already?! Yes, it is kind of crazy. But it's also really awesome. We've had some great times in the past year and a half! You are an amazing boyfriend and I love you so so much! So glad OkCupid brought us together two summers ago!

I hope y'all have a good Friday today, and even even better weekend! What are y'all's plans? Anything fun and exciting to share? I'd love to hear about it! Oh and also, I got some good suggestions yesterday for my running playlist, but I still need some more - so feel free to leave song ideas again today!

And I'm linking up as usual with Ashley at The Sweet Season, so go check her out, and see some other letters too!