Paint-Splattered 5K Finisher

YOU GUYS!!! I ran my first 5K last weekend!! I've been training for this for the past nine weeks of the summer, by running "longer" distances three times a week, and just one mile two times a week, meaning I ran at least five days a week. I got up at 6 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday in order to follow Hal Higdon's 5K novice training plan, and ran before work three times a week. It was not always fun, and sometimes I hated it - but obviously I'm so glad I did it, and completed a huge accomplishment for me!!

For my 25th birthday, I created a 30 Before 30 list, and I had included "Complete a 5K." I had every intention of doing that, I just didn't know that it would get done before my next birthday! So now I get to cross that off my list! Oh, and for my summer bucket list, I get to cross off "train for a 5K," now that I completed my training plan and the actual race itself!

I had only run the actual 5K distance about two or maybe three times before the race, but I knew all along that I wanted my goal to be under 40 minutes for the race. My couple of training runs had come in under that time, so I was pretty sure I could do it on race day as well...

My wonderful fiance, amazing parents, and sweet Granddaddy all came to support me in my first race. And then my awesome aunt and uncle surprised me and showed up too! I had such a fantastic cheering section! They were at the starting line, then they walked up to one of the color stations, and then found a new spot at the finish line, so I saw all of them three times on my run. It was such a great feeling running past them, while they screamed and cheered and clapped, and of course took pictures. It was like my own little fan club and paparazzi! 

What I didn't take into consideration in my training though, was that it was going to much hotter from 9-10 a.m. during the race, as opposed to 6-7 a.m. when I usually ran. And it. was. super. hot. So hot in fact, that at one point, I had pretty much given up on thinking I could finish in under 40 minutes. My goal changed to "Just finish, Halez - just finish." 

The other tricky thing was that I didn't have my phone with me, mapping my distance. I was afraid it might get messed up, so I didn't keep it on me like usual. So I had no idea how far I had gone, since there were no mile-markers on the course. (At least none that I saw...) I did however wear my Polar heart rate monitor and watch though, so I could time myself. So I was burning up, and had no idea how much was left, but I kept on trucking. And when I hit that last color station around 35 or 36 minutes, I kicked it up a notch, and ran the rest of the way, just hoping it wasn't too much further.

Once I realized how close I actually was, I picked up my speed just a little bit more, and as I crossed under the finish banner, I stopped the timer on my watch as fast as I could. And to my astonishment, I then looked down, and saw I had made it in 38:45!!!!

I finished the race with a fair amount of color on me. Not really much at all. But then I went over to the stage for one of the celebratory color parties, and that's when things got crazy. We all counted down, then we each threw a color packet up in the air, and danced and jumped around in a colorful powdered haze for a few minutes. And it was so much freaking fun! When I returned back to where my family was waiting for me, my Mama kinda shrieked and laughed a little, and immediately got the camera back out. Because after this awesomeness below, I came back looking like this.....

Check out the sweat-concentrated areas around my lips. That's just lovely, right?!

Then I had Jeff follow me around for a little bit, being my personal race-day-photographer, snapping all kinds of pictures here and there. What a great future husband I have :) He got an awesome one of me jumping up in the air with the color party happening behind me, but some large woman decided to get all up in my way, so she ruined it. Jeff's going to Photoshop her right on outta there though, and then I'll share that awesomeness with y'all. 

This was something that even just a year ago I wouldn't have thought I would even try, nonetheless actually finish. And hello - not only did I finish, but I actually had fun too! I am honestly just so stinking proud of myself. I've always hated running, but crazy something happened in February, and I just gave it a try one day. Now, just a little over six months later, I ran my first 5K, and I would actually call myself a bit of a runner. What kind of craziness is this?!

This was a great first race for me to do, because it's kind of given me a little bit of a taste to try out more now. I think if I do find other races to run, they'll need to be sometime fun or different or unique - not just a boring, serious race. I've heard rumors that The Color Run will be back in Tally in March, and if that's true, I'm signing up faster than you can imagine. It was a blast, and I would love to do it again!

Much Colorful Love,
Halie

Oh, and P.S. - I also painted my nails kinda cool for The Color Run. I tried out a new tutorial for paint-splatter nails, and it turned out pretty decent. It's not my favorite mani I've ever done, but I didn't hate it. And it started growing on me even more as I wore it. I think I might try it again, but just with only two colors, instead of six. But for this super colorful event, six colors was absolutely necessary.

P.P.S. - I'm linking up with Glitter & Gloss for Mani Monday, and Sami's Shenanigans for Weekend Shenanigans!

Preparing to Run a 5K

Despite how exhausted I'm feeling right now (a 2.5-mile early morning run will do that to ya...), I'm still so freaking excited this morning! Why you ask? Well......I'm excited because I finally broke 180, and I'm now into a new weight decade!

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, July 31 = 181.6

Today, August 7 = 179.4

Sheesh. It feels like it took close to forever to finally break out of the 180's, but honestly, I don't even care right now because I'm just so happy to have done it. Of course it wasn't near as quickly as I would have liked (considering my goal was 180 by my sister's wedding on May 18th....), but I didn't give up and I finally made it. It really feels quite strange actually, to know that my weight is in the 170's. Anyone know what I mean by that?  I mean, to be well over 200 for so long, and now to say I weigh 170-something -- it's just a bit of a strange feeling! But don't you get me wrong, it's definitely a good kind of strange, if that makes any sense!

Anyways, workouts are going great still, even though I wasn't able to make it to zumba at all last week. I was still able to exercise at least a tiny bit almost every day during the week, and I typically rest both weekend days, although I'm trying to change that...

Wednesday: lunch-time ab class & a quick 1/2-mile run before it started storming like crazy (524 cals)
Friday: 2.27-mile run before work (392 calories)
Monday: 2.5-mile run before work and 40-minute lunch-time walk with my aunt (602 calories)
Tuesday: 1.2-mile run and an hour of zumba (898 calories)
Wednesday: 2.5-mile run before work (352 calories) and I'm going back to the ab class again at lunch

Rocking my mismatched socks. Life's too short to waste time trying to match socks, am I right?!

So here's a running update for y'all now, and a bit of a non-scale victory. I first started this running journey back in mid-February. When I began, I felt like I could barely run one lap on the track without hyperventilating and having to take a quick walk break. I eventually pushed until I could run half a mile without walking, and then got my mile time down from 16:30ish to right at 12 minutes, with some walking still. Well now, I can somewhat easily run right around 1.25 miles without walking at all, and I do it in about 11:30. Hello improvement!

My 5K training is going great, and I really do feel like each week I can feel myself getting stronger and becoming a better runner. This week, I'm at 2.5 miles, three days a week, and it feels pretty good. I'm doing it right around 30 minutes, which I think is pretty good for me. And speaking of 5K training, my friends and I finally all decided on a cute name for our team for The Color Run - the Painted Pixies! So cute right!? And it fits my P-theme perfectly for my blog :) We are exactly one month away from race day, and I am just so stinking excited about it!!

I officially registered, created our team, and paid my fee last night, so there's no turning back now! I'll be running in my very first 5K race in just 31 days. I think my goal will be to finish the whole thing in 40ish minutes, but if it takes longer, I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much, because we'll be having so much fun going through each of the color stations! Here's the map of where we'll be running here in town. It's down on FSU's campus, so it will at least be a fun route through the gorgeous campus!

All-in-all, things are going great on the weight loss front, and on the running front. I'm Preparing to Run a 5K, and I'm feeling really anxious and excited for it. I'm glad the first one I do is going to be the Color Run, because I just think it will be so much fun - especially with awesome girlfriends running with me! Who knew that I would one day be excited about running? I sure never would have guessed that. But I'm honestly so proud of myself for doing it, and sticking to it even when I don't feel like it. Becoming a runner is a weird thing for me, but it's been a good journey so far!

Thanks for all y'all's love and support on this journey with me! It truly does mean so much and make me so happy and give me warm fuzzy feelings inside this little heart of mine :)

Much Love,
Halie

Picking A Team Name & Friday's Letters

Dear Friday: Always nice to see you.

Dear Fiance: I just want you to know how freaking excited I am to marry you! We are just over two months away, and I'm more than ready :) I mean, the wedding-planning-part is fun and all, but I think the actual being-married-part is going to be wayyy more awesome. Can hardly wait!

Dear 5K Training: I'm now officially halfway done, and I'm feeling great. This morning's run was scheduled for 2.25, and the first mile ended up being my fastest one yet, at 10:40. That's such a crazy huge improvement y'all! Remember when I first started running in February, my mile was around 15 minutes? So I've now been able to shave off 5 minutes from when I first began - that's crazy!






Dear Color Run Team: Seriously, we have got to pick ourselves a name so we can get registered for the race! I don't want us to miss the early registration discount, and I certainly don't want it to get full before we sign-up. So let's get a move on here, shall we?!

Dear Angie: The wedding invitations are looking sooo good so far! You really have grasped our ideas and vision so well, and you're doing an awesome job. Every time you text me to say you've emailed updates or another draft, I just about pee my pants trying to check my email fast enough. I can't wait to see how they turn out once you're all done in a few more days! Eeeek!

Dear Shutterfly: You rock. I ordered my book last Wednesday night, around 11 pm, and then got an email on Friday saying it was shipped. Well then I got it already this Wednesday - and it's perfect! I love it so so very much, and it's going to make the perfect guest book for our wedding. (Below is the front cover, which came out so amazing.)

Dear Twins: I'm excited for y'all's birthday party tomorrow morning! I just really super hope it doesn't rain and ruin the whole thing, since we're planning on having it outdoors at the park! So weather? I'm gonna need you to cooperate with us again this weekend, mmmkay? Thanks.

Dear Blog Friends & Real-Life Friends: Thank you all so so much for so many kind words of encouragement on Tuesday during my little pity-party/whiny day. Seriously, it wasn't even that big of a deal, but you guys were all so sweet and it made me feel so much better! I'm back to feeling more like myself again now, and things are feeling great :)

Looking forward to another fun, summer weekend with family and friends, and Jeff and the twins! (I honestly love it when I kinda rhyme on accident.) And hopefully we can get some more wedding planning and/or wedding shopping done, so I can cross some more things off my list! Happy Friday y'all, and happy weekend!

Much Love,
Halie

Push Harder, I Must

Welp, I had some issues with my alarm again this morning - the issue being that I turned them off in a semi-sleep state, and then proceeded to go back to sleep for far too long. Thus resulting in missing another regularly scheduled day of running before work. Sooo, I'll attempt to do today's run tonight after work, and hopefully I don't pass out from the heat. But let's get to the reason we're all here today - it's weigh-in Wednesday!

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, July 24 = 181.4

Today, July 31 = 181.6

I think we're just gonna act like this week is a 'maintain' week, because I mean the 'gain' is only 2 ounces, and that's really nothing at all. So this week is basically the same as last week. Womp, womp. I'd rather it be the same than a couple of pounds gained though, so I'm not complaining. I am however a little upset, because I really wanted to officially hit 180 by the end of July, and that didn't quite happen.

Why did I want to hit 180 by the end of the month, you ask? This time last year was when I first set my first goal weight of 180, when I made my 25 Before 25 list last July. At the time, I was doing OK with losing weight and was probably around 197 or so. But then I stopped caring for a few months, and by December I had hit 217. So I was determined to make that 180 mark by this July, to round out the year. And I came so stinking close! But I still missed it by just around a pound and a half. Dumb. 

That also means I didn't meet my goal to lose four more pounds this month. I should have made it to 179 in order to meet that goal, but still, I was just a couple pounds off from that. (My original goal was set at the beginning of June, to lose four pounds a month, for the next four months, in order to reach my wedding day goal of 170.) I lost four in June, and just two in July. I'm ready to keep going though, and get back on track and lose four more in August. 

Even though I've missed my morning runs both Monday and today, I'm still officially training for my 5K. I ran yesterday morning to make up for Monday, and I'll run tonight to make up for this morning. Then Friday morning I'll get back to my regular running schedule. I've also started doing stuff before bed every night, to work out my arms, shoulders and back. I have little 5-pound hand weights, and I go through a circuit of about five different moves to target those areas, then I do some push-ups as well. (Oh, and some squats are mixed in there in combination with some arm stuff.) 

Google made all my silly selfies into a GIF! Awesome.

I think starting tomorrow, I'm going to attempt two full weeks of being as carb-free as possible. This is always such a huge challenge for me, considering how much I like things such as bread, pasta, potatoes and just carbs in general. But I think it'll be a great way to kick-start the month of August, and get my eating habits back on track a bit more. I've gotten pretty lax with it lately, so I really need to reign it in a bit, in order to make the most out of all the exercise I'm putting in, rather than wasting it by eating so unhealthy. 

So here's to a new month, new goals, and another four pounds off this body. In order to do that, I must push myself harder. I just need to find a new way to motivate myself a little more, in order to light a new fire of determination and focus. What are some of y'all's little tips and tricks for staying motivated? Do you make yourself some sort of reminder? Do you spend hours looking at 'fitspiration' quotes? Do you have certain music that gets you in the mood to workout? Please tell me! I love hearing new suggestions and ideas, and I could really use some right now. So help me keep myself on track with some fresh motivation!

Much Love,

Halie

Plan for Success

No beating around the bush today, because I'm kinda in a hurry here before work starts. Plus y'all know what Wednesday's are all about around this part of the internets...

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, July 17 = 182.2

Today, July 24 = 181.4

And that puts me at a loss of .8 for the past week. Small, but still gladly welcomed. Total, that means I'm still sitting around a 45-pound loss total, and hello? That's obviously nothing to be upset about. Now some more exciting news for the week, I found a 4th girl to run The Color Run with myself, Jenni and Lacey, so we can make a 4-person team! (And get a bit of a discount on registration fees!) My blog-friend turned real-life-friend Angie agreed this weekend to join us, so now we just get to come up with a fun team name, then make something cute we can all wear to the race! I'm so pumped to have these awesome girls run my first 5K with me! Training for the 5K is still going good, and as of this morning, I just completed week 3, day 2. I ran 2.14 miles in 25:11 minutes, or there about... 

It seems I'll forever be obsessed with the Fast & Furious franchise. But this song is pretty awesome y'all!

I say that because I seem to be having serious issues with the GPS in my phone, because my running apps can't seem to get it quite right. I've historically always used RunKeeper for biking, running and hiking (and I've always loved it!), but then it's been messing up every run for the last four times in a row. So I downloaded MapMyRun and NikeRunning to test out. This morning I used MapMyRun, and things were still a bit off - not as bad as with RunKeeper, but the map still needed to be edited from the computer once I was done. So I guess next I'll try NikeRunning and see how it does, and hopefully it will be more accurate that the first two. What apps do y'all use to track your runs? Are there better ones out there? Or is it just issues with my Verizone iPhone 4 and it's GPS signals...?

Anyways, my workouts are going good, and since I've started running in the morning, I'm now consistently working out five days a week. And I'm feeling great!

Thursday: 1/2-mile run, and an hour of zumba (700 calories)

Friday: 1.66-mile run (281 calories)

Monday: 1.84-mile run before work, and 40-minutes walking the stairs at lunch with my aunt (634 calories)

Tuesday: .39-mile test run (of MapMyRun) and an hour of zumba (641 calories)

Wednesday: 2.14-mile run (318 calories)

And that's about all I've got to share with y'all today! I'm still doing my ViSalus shakes for breakfast and lunch, and lately my snacks have been a small red apple around 10 am, and a reduced-fat string cheese around 3:30 pm. I know I've been eating too many carbs though for dinner time, so I'm going to start focusing on that again more closely for a while. And then I might want to try something a bit extreme again, food-wise, for a little while, in order to kick my weight loss up a notch as we get closer and closer to wedding day! Maybe I should go carb-free again? Or do something similar to the Daniel Fast where I basically ate vegan? I don't know - I'll have to plan and think about all that for a bit before I rush into any decisions.

My plan is still to reach 170 by the wedding, which means I have about 11 pounds to lose in 73 days. Seems like quite a challenge, but I'm still up for it. I just need to make myself a more concrete Plan for Success, and I know I can succeed.

For now though, I'll just keep doing what I can, and keep on trucking. I'm slowly, oh-so-slowly, starting to reach my goals, and I'm honestly so proud of myself. So #SorryImNotSorry for posting my updates and workouts on Instagram all the time...I've come a long way, and honestly I just want to brag on myself sometimes. And plus, I know that it can help motivate others as well, and I love hearing from other girls that I've helped inspire them! Such a huge inspiration for me actually to hear that, so please feel free to share that with me anytime ;)

Happy Hump Day!

Much Love,

Halie

Packed It On During the Holiday Weekend

Ladies, you know what really stinks? Having to learn a lesson the hard way - multiple times. I've learned this particular one many times in this weight loss journey, but for some stupid reason, it's the one I struggle the most with. FOOD MATTERS. I've preached before about not eating back all the calories you exercise away, and not eating the stuff that you know is super bad for you - and yet, I just keep doing it myself, all too often. Let's see the damage from this past holiday weekend....

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, July 3 = 182.8

Today, July 10 = 184.2

So today, I have the 'fun' of reporting a gain of 1.5 pounds. It seems that unfortunately, I Packed It On During the Holiday Weekend. Oh, and I took my measurements last night, and I actually have gained back another inch as well. Gross. I knew this was coming though - I weighed myself on Sunday morning, and it wasn't pretty. In fact, it was a bit higher than today even. So for the past three days I've been much more careful than I was from last Wednesday - Sunday, and luckily, I've been able to see the scale go down a bit even in just the last couple of days. The goal for now is to be back down to 182 by next Wednesday, so I'll be pushing myself pretty hard to get there...

However, even though the scale went up, I've been doing pretty good this week with exercising, because I officially started my 5K training this week! On Monday morning, I got up super early and ran 1.5 miles before work. And let me tell you, it really wasn't bad! The weather was pretty nice, and it felt good to get that done first thing in the morning. And as a great bonus, I got to see a beautiful sunrise while I ran too.

 I'm using Hal Higdon's novice 5K plan, so I'll be gradually working my way to more and more miles each week. Then hopefully I'll be ready to run my first 5K in September, and be able to complete The Color Run!! I'm super excited about it, and I think it'll be tons of fun, especially since two of my closest girl friends and bridesmaids will be running it with me! Hooray!

At lunch time on Monday, I also walked for about 40 minutes with my aunt, and burned another 320 calories. Then last night I ran a mile, went to zumba, then played tag with kids while leading games at VBS, and burned a whopping total of 1,411 calories total!!

I got up again this morning and ran the 1.5 miles for today, and I am going to see if I can squeeze in just one more mile right before VBS tonight too. I'm trying to just do as much as possible, so I can keep improving my stamina, pace and endurance. Oh, and of course I want to get rid of this jiggle I got goin' on too. #OperationNoMoreJiggle is definitely still taking place and I'm more fired up about it now after a bit of a holiday binge as well. So come join me on this journey too! 

You can follow along with me and all my updates through Instagram, MyFitnessPal, and RunKeeper.

I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible for the next week so that I can lose this extra pound and a half I packed on during all the July 4th festivities. And I'm also trying to work out 5-6 days this week as well. So far I'm 3 for 3, with plans to go to zumba tomorrow, and run before work again on Friday. So as if I can make myself get up and do something on Saturday, that will be day six! So here's to healthy eating and six workouts in a week. I won't let this little gain get the best of me, but instead I'll use it to push myself harder again. Let's do this!

Peppers & Tacos: 2-for-1 Recipe

Good morning lovely blog friends! Hopefully we've all recovered by now from our long weekends. I know yesterday was still kinda rough for me, being that it was a Monday, and the first day back from a long holiday. But I feel a little better today and I'm ready to get this thing going! Yesterday, I shared a picture of the stuffed peppers we made last week, and today I'm sharing the simple and yummy recipe! Well actually, this is a double-feature recipe post, so make sure you see the super simple twist for using the leftovers as well the next day :)

Ingredients
4 green or red bell peppers
1 pound lean ground turkey
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
2 cloves of garlic, diced pretty small (or minced if you want)
1/2 medium sized onion, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can whole kernel corn, rinsed and drained
diced tomatoes (quantity depends on how much you like them!)
generous shakes of taco seasoning (sorry folks, I didn't actually measure this, but maybe 1 or 2 tbsp.)
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper
Cheese and sour cream for later...

Directions
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat, add turkey, garlic, onion, cumin, taco seasoning and salt and pepper - cook until the meat is all brown with no pink. Turkey is usually not greasy, so you should not need to drain it. (It's OK if there is a little bit of liquid, because it will be absorbed later.) Once it's completely cooked, add in corn and black beans, and let simmer for about five minutes, then add diced tomatoes and simmer a few more minutes.

Since there were two of us cooking, I did this next part while Jeff was cooking the meat, but you can do it whenever you can fit it in, or before or after you've made the meat mixture. Cut the tops off of the peppers, and scrape out the stem and seeds. Then cut each pepper in half, to create two equal sides. Line them all in a baking dish, open sides facing up. Scoop as much of the mixture into each half pepper as you can fit. Put a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the dish, so that they're juuuust barely sitting in water. Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil, and bake for 30 minutes, or until peppers are soft.

Remove the foil, sprinkle cheese on top of each one, and bake for an additional 5 minutes uncovered to melt the cheese. We used the mixed shredded colby and jack cheese, and it was delish. Serve with a dollop of fat free sour cream on top, and some Spanish rice on the side, and you're all ready to go!

These were sooo super yummy, and we both liked them a lot. Jeff was actually a little skeptical of the idea of stuffed peppers at first, but even he loved them! This made a lot of the meat mixture, so we had tons leftover, even after us both eating a little scoop of just the mix as well. So the next day, we heated it back up in the skillet (add in a tiny bit of water and some more seasoning to re-flavor and keep from drying up too much), and then scooped the mixture onto lettuce leaves, to make Santa Fe Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps. Soooo good as well. Again, add cheese and sour cream on top, and I added more fresh tomato on mine. Yum! Then just roll the lettuce up like a taco.

Both ways, this meat mixture is really good - in both the baked peppers, and wrapped up like healthy tacos. If you like spicy food, feel free to add in some jalapeno peppers or a little bit of red pepper flakes into the meat mixture while it's simmering, and that would be really good too. (Jeff can't handle super spicy stuff, or else I would have spiced ours up a bit because we both love the taste of spicy stuff - it's just too hard on his stomach sometimes.) I definitely recommend you try this out though, and let me know how it turns out for you!

Much Love,
Halie

Personalized Weight Loss Hashtag

As some of you know, whenever I run or workout or something, I always make a little collage of photos to post on my Instagram. (SorryI'mNotSorry I do that pretty much every time...) Well yesterday, I decided I wanted to throw in a little motivational quote in there as well. So I searched "fitspiration quotes" on Pinterest for about ten minutes, and ended up saving about 20 pictures to my phone for future use. The one I liked the most, I decided to use first last night, and then an idea was born... "I'm gonna create my own unique, personalized weight loss hashtag!" And so that's just what I did, and thus #OperationNoMoreJiggle was born last night.

So from now on, I'll be hashtagging all of my workout posts and stuff with this new hashtag of mine, and I wan't y'all to use it with me! (I'm almost the only one who's ever used this. There seems to be one other girl who used it for like, 10 pictures, but she quit that about 30-something weeks ago, so I'm still considering it my very own personalized hashtag.) I think it'll be fun to all use this unique new hashtag to motivate and encourage each other. So use it on Instagram and Twitter, then explore the hashtag to make new friends, find inspiration, and motivate all the others! You can also use the little graphic I made above to spread the word and get others to join in this with us. The more the merrier, of course!

I can't wait to see how many of y'all use this with me! I really do think it'll be fun and I'm sure I'll be motivated by all of y'all, and hopefully y'all can find motivation as well. On Instagram, you can use it on workout pics, or fitspiration quotes, or healthy food and meal pics, or really just anything healthy-related. And on Twitter, share Tweets before and/or after you workout, or use it when you need some encouraging words. There's no rules or anything, so get creative in order to spread the inspiration around all over the place! Here's my first picture I used it on last night...

This is my, "I'm-tired-of-jiggling" face. 

Looking forward to this fun new adventure. Can't wait to see all the posts and get inspired from y'all! 

#OperationNoMoreJiggle is now in full effect. 

Much Love,

Halie

Pistachio Shake: Weigh-In Day

I for one am glad it's Wednesday. Anyone seen that Geico commercial with the camel walking around the office asking everyone what day it is? Jeff's brother first told us about it a month or so ago, and then we finally saw it last night, and it is actually pretty funny! Well then this morning, some of my co-workers were going around reenacting it, and it was quite an entertaining way to start off the work day actually. It's hump day!!! And hump day  means a weigh-in day, so here we go!

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, June 19 = 185.6

Today, June 26 = 184.2

Woohoo! That's another loss this week, at 1.4 pounds down from last week. In the first week of June, I was at 187.4 with a goal to lose four pounds this month. So as long as I make it to 183.4 by next week's weigh-in, I will have succeeded! I know I can do it. I just have to be careful over the weekend, because that's always such a huge struggle for me. 

Last weekend in fact, I ate like nobody's business, and it wasn't pretty. I consumed carbs, fat and calories like I didn't have a care in the world. Which makes me think if I wouldn't have done that, what would the scale say today? I'm not beating myself up over it or anything - we were having too much fun to care - but I know that I can't do that every weekend. Even my girl Elle Noel wrote on Monday about struggling with the weekends. So she made a commitment to be much more careful this coming weekend, and I decided I was going to join her, and make a much more conscious effort to stay on track. So here's to eating healthier over the weekend, and seeing 183 on the scale!

I'm still not completely back on track with working out four to five times a week (nearly impossible while the boys are here), but I've been doing what I can, and getting in some good workouts still.

Thursday: 1-mile run and an hour of Zumba (775 calories)

Monday: 2-mile run (425 calories)

Tuesday: 1-mile run and an hour of Zumba (811 calories)

If you look closely at the big picture on the right, you can see sweat on my forehead and chest. Yummy....

For Monday's 2-mile run, I once again ran the entire first mile, without walking one single step. Again, it was kinda slow (slower than when I walk a tiny bit of it), but I think it's more of an accomplishment to run for 12 and a half straight minutes anyways, so I'm OK with a slower time if that means no walking. My goal over the next few weeks is to hopefully be able to run the whole mile in about 12 minutes flat (give or take five or so seconds), and run two miles in 25 minutes. Seems very reasonable to me right now, so I think that's a solid goal. 

{Side note - it was so so humid outside on Monday while I was running, that I was seriously sweating buckets. So when I got to Jeff's house afterwards, one of the boys asked if I had been running in the rain, and why I was so wet. I was like, "Uh no honey, unfortunately that's just my nasty sweat everywhere..."}

I'm still doing good with my ViSalus shakes for breakfast and lunch every day, and trying to stay as low-carb as possible for snacks and dinners. (Although last night I enjoyed a few too many chips and salsa while waiting on our meal at our weekly Taco Tuesday dinner with friends. Oopsie.) And actually, I'm just now "officially" starting with ViSalus. Before, I had been drinking what Jeff ordered, but now I got my own order, and am signed up to be a part of their challenge. Actually, Jeff and I are both doing it, so we'll be recording some little videos of us to kick that off, and then once we lose 10 pounds, we get put in a running to win $1,000! Sounds great to me!

Pistachio shake was pretty decent, but didn't love it. Prob won't buy that mix again though...

All-in-all, still doing good and still motivated to keep going. I'm nowhere near where I want to be, or should be, and I'm certainly not giving up. I'm determined to keep on going and to reach my goals for the short term, for the year, and for very long term! I know I can do this. 

Also, I'm so, so thankful to have the support system that I do here from my blog. You ladies (whether friends, strangers or somewhere in between) really do encourage me so much, and I am so truly appreciative of that! Y'all's comments really do mean a lot to me each and every week, and are a huge part of my motivation. So thank you! And feel free to keep 'em comin' ;) 

If you want to follow along with any or all of this stuff throughout the week, you can find me logging, tracking and photgraphing this through MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper and Instagram. Come join me :)

Much Love, 

Halie

Pushing Myself Harder

Another Wednesday, another weigh-in. No beating around the bush today, let's get straight to it...

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, June 12 = 185.4

Today, June 19 = 185.6

The exact same, basically. I'm not considering those 2 ounces a gain, because that just seems silly to me. So I'm still sitting at the same spot on the scale this week. I'm attributing that to the two cheat meals I had over the weekend - one of which included mac-n-cheese, and the other was a Whopper Jr...oopsie. At least I skipped the fries, right?! But oh well. Both were delicious, so I'm not too torn up about it ;)

The rest of the past week however, I did great with having my ViSalus shakes every day for breakfast and lunch, and staying as low-carb as possible overall. I also continued working on getting back into my regular exercise routine, although I'm still not there quite yet. But each time, I'm Pushing Myself Harder at zumba, in order to burn even more calories, and that's going good. I'm consistently burning over 800 each time, which is great. Here's the couple of times I've worked out since last Wednesday:

Thursday: 1-mile run and 60 minutes of zumba (908 calories)
Monday: 2.03-mile run (521 calories)
Tuesday: 1-mile run and 60 minutes of zumba (846 calories)

Tuesday - 1-mile run and zumba.

Here's a quick, funny story about last Thursday's run - I didn't realize that I needed to go to the bathroom until I was already too far away. And running was only making it feel worse. I kept going the whole time, but I could barely "run" too much of it, without feeling like I was going to explode...and I'm not talking about 'number one' here folks... It was not a pleasant run.

Last Thursday - 1-mile run and zumba. And a crazy-face.

And the exciting news from Monday's run - I actually RAN the entire first mile! I didn't walk even one single step of it, and I was so proud of myself. That's the first time I've done that since I started running in February, and so that was obviously a huge accomplishment for me! It wasn't as fast as my PR from when I do the run/walk intervals (around 12:03 is my fastest), but that's not what matters. What matters is that I now know for certain I can indeed run an entire mile. Hello non-scale victory!!

Monday - first mile I ran all of, followed by a second, pretty slow mile.

And now onto how I've been eating for the past week... for the most part, I've done really well. I stayed with my Vi-Shakes for breakfast and lunch, with fruits, veggies, light cheese sticks and 100-calorie yogurt for my snacks. Then for dinner I tried to stay away from carbs as much as possible - and I did pretty good with that. I even made sure to pack myself a low-carb lunch for our day at the Springs on Saturday. Instead of a turkey sandwich, I made myself turkey, cheese and lettuce roll-ups (with a bit of mayo and mustard) and they were actually delicious. And then I made myself caprese to eat with it, instead of the cheese puffs that Jeff and the boys were eating.

I've actually run out of my ViShape mix right now, and my next order hasn't come in yet, so this is what my lunches look like this week. Since I liked the roll-ups so much on Saturday, I bought more of it all to make it for lunch this week as well. All this deliciousness for a mere 486 calories. Not too shabby. And definitely super delicious and filling. And I'm kinda obsessing like crazy over little cherry tomatoes right now. I'm poppin' 'em like they're candy, so it's a good thing they're healthy!

So that's that people. The goal this week is to work out four or five times in order to get back into the habit again. Maybe I'll even get ambitious and run or something on Saturday morning before we head to the pool again? Who knows though... I do know however, that I'd still like to lose two more pounds before the month is over in 11 days, to make it four pounds lost this month. That would put me on track to make it to my goal of 170 by our wedding day in October, if I lose four pounds a month. So here's hoping I can work off two more pounds in the next week and a half!

Oh, and quite a few of you added me on MyFitnessPal last week, and that made me so happy! I'd love for even more of you to come over and friend me there, because it's so much better with friends :) My username is HalieRenee.

Much love,
Halie

Pudding Mix, Games & Randomness

And thankfully, another Friday rolls around again to grace us with it's presence. This week has been fun, but exhausting, and that makes me so glad it's the weekend, where I can rest and play and recharge myself a little bit. And since this week has been a bit crazy, I have no specific topic for today's post, so I'm just gonna wing it. But these random thoughts posts always end up being really popular for me, so I guess wingin' it is A-OK with me!

First of all, let me tell y'all about my breakfast. I mentioned in my weigh-in post from Wednesday that I'm drinking ViSalus shakes every day for breakfast and lunch. This isn't my first time doing this (I did it for a while back in April), but it is the first time I've jazzed them up a bit with some fancy recipes. And y'all, this morning's was de-lish-us. It's called the Butterfinger shake, but even as much as I love me a Butterfinger, I was skeptical this would actually taste like one. I figured it would be good, but not actually match the flavor of the candy bar. But boy was I surprised when I took the first sip. It tasted exactly like you would expect a Butterfinger milkshake to taste like! Soooo yummy. I'll definitely repeat this one.

For those interested, the recipe is: 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 2 scoops of Vi-Shape mix, 1 tablespoon sugar-free Butterscotch pudding mix, 1 tablespoon PB2, 1 cup of ice cubes. Blend until smooth and creamy! And then enjoy your super yummy breakfast shake, for only 163 calories. Yup, 163.

A while back, I got super excited for my first ever 5K race. I pre-registered for the Run or Dye race here in Tally, and got super pumped about it. But that was back in April and then my excitement kind of fizzled out. But this past week, it's ramped back up again. First, I confirmed with my friend Jenni (who has already done like 4 marathons!) that she is planning to come up from Orlando to run the race with me. Second, because I actually figured out a "training schedule" of sorts for myself, that I'll start the first week in July. It's gonna be pretty rough (with it being about a bajillion degrees and all), but I'm pretty determined. And then third, my friend Lacey also pre-registered to do it with me as well!

Last night after dinner, Jeff and I and his mom took the boys to Nuberri for some frozen yogurt for dessert. Mmmm yummy. I was good though and only got a little, and only topped it with fresh fruit and a tiny bit of sliced almonds. Still so yum. And those boys are just so dang cute :)

Sunday I'll be seeing my sister for the first time in two weeks, and I'm really excited! It's still so strange adjusting to not living with her, and I miss that girl. So glad that we get to all have lunch together for Father's Day, so that forces us to have some time together.

I just started reading "The Hobbit," and even though I'm only about 20 pages in so far, it's still really good already. It probably helps that I've seen the movie a couple of times, so I'm picturing that as I read, but I'm still really into it so far. Hopefully I can find the time to read some more, so I can add another book to my read list for the year!

Since Sunday night, Jeff and I have been playing a running game of Rummy after the boys go to sleep every night. Normally, we would be watching a movie or catching up on some of our favorite TV sitcoms, but it's been really nice to have some time to just be together and talk and laugh. Last night, the boys actually went to sleep super early, so we sat next to each on the couch and just read our own books for a while, and that was really nice too. I just love spending time with this man, no matter what we're doing :) But back to the card game - I'm whooping his tail...

And now for a little preview of the weekend: tonight I'm having dinner with my parents, because I haven't seen them since Sunday basically; tomorrow we're going with some of our friends and taking the kids to go swimming at Wakulla Springs; Sunday is family lunch and Father's Day and fun time; and hopefully I'll be able to find some time to straighten up my room a bit and do a load or two of laundry. Gonna be a good weekend! I'll get a good mix of family time, sunshine, time with Jeff and the boys, friends, cleaning and rest. Love those weekends. 

What are your weekend plans? Will you be doing anything crazy fun, or are you keeping it low-key and just relaxing? Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy it! Happy Friday, friends!

Picking A Wedding Venue, Part 2

I feel like I start off every single post with a "Good Morning blah blah," or a "Welcome to ___day" and everything always sounds the same. So today, we're skipping right over that. (But are we really since I still mentioned it?) Anyways, I'm having a tough time getting back into my exercise routine after Meg's wedding craziness, but yesterday I finally made it back to zumba, and I ran a mile before hand as well. Slowly but surely, I'll get my groove back! But despite taking some time off and probably not eating as well as I should, I got super lucky on the scale this morning....

Highest Weight = 227

January Starting Weight = 217

Last Week, May 29 = 189.2

Today, June 5 = 187.4

And this now means I have officially hit the 30 pounds lost mark since January!! THIRTY pounds lost! People, that deserves a celebration - am I right?! But even more exciting than that, is that total, I've lost FORTY POUNDS on my entire weight loss journey. 40. That's four 10-pound bowling balls. That's a 5-gallon water jug. That's a 15-foot canoe. Or that's a 3-year-old child. And that's incredible to me. I am honestly so proud of myself for coming this far. But I'm not giving up yet. My goal for my wedding is still 170 - and I have about four months to lose 17 more pounds. So I'm gonna have to kick it into high gear in order to hit that goal. But I know I can do this!!!!

Yesterday = 1-mile run & zumba with friend & bridesmaid, Lacey. It was sooo hot, but obviously we killed those calories!

But now we're gonna move from my weigh in, onto wedding stuff again like we did last week. Because we still haven't actually finalized our venue. A quick catch-up to all my new readers that have joined in the past week (Holla! Glad y'all are here now!), we originally wanted a beach wedding, but it was going to cost an arm and a leg. Then our first option here was already booked on October 12, and the whole month for that matter, then we saw another venue last week, so let me tell you about that. It's called The Dogwood House here in town. Here's a little collage of the venue:

The ceremony would be over in front of that white trellis, with white chairs set up in rows facing it. Then the reception would set up with the food inside the house (not pictured), and the majority of it would take place on the little back porch and concrete patio and yard next to it. There's strands of white lights already hung out all over the place, and there are nails under the porch to hang up more decorations. There's also a little bar out there we could set up our sweet tea and lemonade station with the mason jars. It's a great price, and a pretty great venue option. But we're still looking around....

Today after work, we're going to check out the last option we could think of. Well, actually we thought of it a while ago, but it was booked for October 12. However, pretty much every other weekend date in October was available, so we're considering changing our date to the 5th if we like this place enough. We'll be visiting the Wakulla Spring Lodge tonight, and I'm pretty super excited about it. We could have our ceremony by the outdoor gazebo that overlooks the springs, and our reception on the glass-enclosed terrace. Both of which are so pretty! And the price is great for the location rental. They do require you to use their catering services, but those prices aren't too bad really either. 

Then after we go there tonight, hopefully we can make a decision this week. That's my goal at least. Decide by Friday and get a deposit in somewhere to hold our date! Because holy crap - we're just a little over four months away if we keep it on the 12th. But if we move it to the 5th, that means we're exactly four months from the wedding!! And that's exciting, don't get me wrong, but it's also stressful because there's still so much more to do!

Oh, and in other wedding-related news - we'll be having cake for lunch today, because we're going to Publix for a cake tasting. Yum! That's going to be delicious and I'm excited to be able to get that done, and mark something else off the list! So wish us luck with all of this stuff, because we certainly need it. Location, cake, registry, guest list, and save-the-date e-vites all need to happen in the next week or two. Gracious.