Planning, Dresses & Purple Pens: Some Favorites

I got up this morning (even when I really super didn't want to), and did my early morning run of 2.5 miles. And it felt rough. But at the end, I felt good because I have now completed week 5 of my 5K training, and we're just under a month away from race day! Holy crap that's crazy! But I'm excited and ready and I can't wait to have a blast actually running a race...weird!

Today, in honor of completing week 5, I'm sharing five of my current favorite things for "5 Fave Friday."

ONE - Cute, snuggly little boys. Every night for the past two weeks, I've been reading a book to them out loud, and every night they come and snuggle up next to me, and sometimes fight about who's turn it is to sit closer to me. And it's just so stinking sweet. It kinda makes my heart almost burst it's just so sweet. I really do love them, and I'm incredibly blessed to be able to inherit these these precious boys as my step-sons!

TWO - Gems with Friends. It's one of those Zynga games for your phone (like Words with Friends and all those others), but this one is definitely my favorite of all of those. And I'm more than a little obsessed. The problem is, almost no one I know actually plays it, so all of the 'friends' I play with, are just anonymous opponents. So some of you lovelies should get it and then we can play together :) My username is Halez88...

THREE - Buying new dresses, in smaller sizes. It seems like almost all of my clothes are now at a point where they're just getting too big to still be worn. And hello - obviously that's exciting! But my favorite is buying new dresses for work at Target, and instead of buying an XXL (I have a couple of those from a few  years ago), I'm now buying just an L. Definitely a favorite.

FOUR - Wedding planning. Duh. I was going to try not to talk about wedding planning on this list since I talk about it in just about every other post it seems like...but I've got serious "Bride Brain" right now. Soooo #SorryImNotSorry, but planning my wedding is definitely a favorite.

FIVE - Writing in cursive. I know that's a really weird one, but I'm just trying to share 'the real me' with you guys, as nerdy as that real me might be sometimes...But seriously. I started doing it a couple of months ago, in order to practice my cursive handwriting, so that it would look pretty when I hand address our wedding invites. Well now, I just do it all the time! And I really have gotten better, so at least I accomplished my goal of improving. I'll be addressing the envelopes next week, so hopefully I make each one look so pretty!

This awesome purple pen is also my favorite....

And that wraps up five of my most random favorite things right now! Hope you guys liked this little glimpse into some of my weirdness ;) Sometimes I try to keep the weird stuff to myself, but sometimes I just gotta let it out and share it. Today was obviously one of the sharing days. Don't hold it against me though, mmkay?

Tomorrow we take the boys back to their mom, and we won't see them again until our wedding. (Whoa that sounded weird and crazy.) It's been a great six weeks with them this summer, and we've had so much fun together! We have to wake up super early in the morning to hit the road, then drive five hours to North Georgia. Then Jeff and I will head over to Atlanta, to spend one night at his best friend/best man Adam's house. Tomorrow is also our two-year anniversary! But we're putting the celebration on hold for a few days, and we'll go out one night next week. Sunday my whole family will get together for lunch to celebrate our two August birthdays, and then I'm hoping to get some wedding planing or wedding crafting done in the afternoon/evening.

Definitely going to be a busy weekend, but I'm still of course looking forward to it! Hope y'all have good Friday's, and fun weekends as well!

Much Love,
Halie

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

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

Prints, Twins, Paychecks & Jeans

Here comes another random blog post of some of my ramblings and musings on this pretty Thursday morning... :)

I get to wear jeans to work today for special "disaster relief" recognition, and that makes me happy. Here's the thing though - I'm down to one pair of jeans that "fit" and actually they don't really fit at all, because their to BIG! I need to go grab a new pair in a smaller size that will look a whole lot less baggy and saggy and droopy. Not a bad problem to have, huh?

Tonight at midnight my paycheck will be direct deposited into my account. And that's normal. The exciting part is, this will be my first paycheck of my new position! So it should be a niiiiiice little upgrade from that old crappy position :) Yay for a new big girl job and new big girl paycheck to go with it!

Yesterday, Jeff's twins Ryan and Gabe, turned seven years old! Their Nana (Jeff's mom) always let's them pick their own presents from Toys-R-Us, so we went there first, then Chick-fil-A (where they were given huge ice cream cones instead of the kid-sized ones since they told the worker girl it was their birthday), and then we even had some cake at the house! Love these cute little guys :)

Yesterday I got an email from Shutterfly for 50% of any of their products - the catch was that it expired last night at midnight... So when we got back to Jeff's house last, I planted my bootay at the kitchen table with my laptop, and I made it happen! I made a super cute photo book of all of our favorite pictures of Jeff and I from our whole relationship, and we're going to use it as our guest book for our wedding! I'm sooo excited to see it in real life, so I hope it ships super fast!

Also last night, we were talking about our wedding invitations, and blah, blah, blah... Well my blog-friend turned real-life-friend Angie (who has a degree in graphic design) has so so so graciously offered to design our invites for us, for free! We will just have to get them printed ourselves. So we started talking about VistaPrint, and that I've occasionally seen deals for them online, so we checked, and lo and behold we found a LivingSocial deal for pay $10 and get to spend $50! There was only 5 hours left on the deal before it expired, so we each bought one. It won't cover the entire cost of printing them, but it will certainly help out quite a bit. Thank goodness for that - budget bride over here!

I realized I never shared our save-the-date card or our engagement pictures last week like I said I would - oopise! Well, here's our save-the-date card, and I still plan on sharing all the rest of the pictures, but I'll save that for it's own post, since there are so many photos I love and want to include!

Let me just brag on my future husband for a bit here really quick too... When we originally picked our wedding date, it was October 12th. So we made a cute little banner in our wedding colors to take pictures with, with the intention of using it on our save-the-dates. Well then we had to change our date to the 5th, but our banner and picture still said the 12th. I didn't want to not use it, so my dear fiance came up with a great plan - we just painted a new square with the 5 on it, took a picture, and then he used his fancy computer skills and PhotoShopped that baby in there! And you can't even tell! I watched him do it and I was just amazing at how efficient he was with it, and how easy he made it look! And I'm 100% happy with the final project and how it turned out. Thanks honey :)

Florida is still basically experiencing monsoon season, and my tan is practically non-existent anymore at this point. My powder is almost too dark for my face (seeing as how I'm using my "summer color" now), and that is unacceptable. The plan is to head to the beach on Saturday with the boys for a little while, but if it ends up raining and spoiling our plans, I'm going to be one sad girl over here. I need sunshine in my life!! Get it together Florida.

Well, I think I've rambled on and on for long enough now. (Is it ever really long enough for me though considering how much I just love to talk? I don't think so...) But anyways, I'll just go ahead and wrap up now, before I overstay my welcome. Hope y'all have a great day, and I'll "see" you again tomorrow!

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

Peanut Butter Cup Shake: Weigh-In Day

Good morning friends and bloggers! Again, I'm immediately drawn back to remembering that silly commercial with the camel who's so dang excited it's hump day - and I guess I'm pretty excited myself actually! We've gotten two days down so far this week, and by lunch time today, we'll be on the downhill slide towards the weekend. And who doesn't love the weekend?! And since it's hump day, that means let's talk about my lady lumps... that was too weird, wasn't it...?

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, July 10 = 184.2

Today, July 17 = 182.2

Hooray! I'm very happy to report that I was not only able to shed all my weight gain from last week (the result of too much food and fun over a long holiday weekend...), but I am just slightly below where I was from two weeks ago, at 182.8. I was able to lose all my holiday weight, plus a tiny bit more, and now I'm honestly feeling really good about myself :)

I've been killin' my workouts the past couple of weeks, and I think I can actually feel my endurance increasing as I run more and more. As of this morning, I've now completed week 2, day 2 of my 5K training plan.(Although I didn't run quite enough this morning because I slept in too late, so I cut my run a bit short.) Last week, I worked out five days in a row, Monday-Friday. That's probably the first time I've ever done that. And most of those days, I burned an insane amount of calories because I was playing games with kids all night while leading games and rec for VBS with Jeff's church. So let's start with where we left off last week...

Wednesday: 1.52-mile run early in the morning before work (262 calories) 

Thursday: 1-mile run, 1 hour of zumba & lots of VBS games (1224 calories)

Friday: 1.53-mile run in the morning, & 1.16-mile run after work, & lots of VBS games (1018 calories)

Monday: 1.94-mile run in the morning, & 40-minute lunchtime walk with my aunt (665 calories)

Tuesday: .5-mile run & 1 hour of zumba (837 calories)

Wednesday: 1.05-mile run (204 calories)

See? I've bee killin' the workouts this past week! Hallelujer. And I've been eating pretty healthy too. Doing my ViSalus shakes for breakfast and lunch, eating apples and reduced-fat cheese sticks for my snacks, and making healthy choices for dinner. Go me! I'm pumped with my progress these past few weeks, and I feel like I'm in a very good place to keep up the hard work. Before I end this though today, I want to share my measurements again, because it's been quite a while since I've done that.

Peanut-Butter-Cup ViSalus shake. Soooo yummy, and only like 255 calories!

January                             April 24                       July 17

Shoulders - 43.5                 Shoulders - 39.5            Shoulders - 39

Chest (Boobs) - 45           Chest (Boobs) - 42.5     Chest (Boobs) - 42

Upper Arm - 16.5          Upper Arm - 15          Upper Arm - 14

Hips - 52                         Hips - 46.5                    Hips - 45

Upper Waist/Ribs - 40       Upper Waist/Ribs - 36      Upper Waist/Ribs - 35.5

Upper Thigh - 28               Upper Thigh - 24.5          Upper Thigh - 24.25

Neck - 15                          Neck - 14                     Neck - 14

Calf - 17.5                     Calf - 17.5                     Calf - 17.5

Around Chin/Head - 25      Around Chin/Head - 22.5     Around Chin/Head - 22.5

So, I don't have time right now to do all the math and see how many inches I've lost, but you can obviously tell that there are some huge differences in some of those areas! Like hello?! Hips, 7 inches! Ribs, 5 inches! Thighs, almost 4 inches! I mean I know I'm not yet where I'm supposed to be, or where I want to be - but I'm CERTAINLY making huge progress, even if it's taking me forever to get there. I'm just focusing on One Pound at a Time!

Much love to y'all,
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!

Progress - One Pound at a Time

It's been pretty rainy, sticky and gross here in Florida for the past few days, and I for one am done with it. Especially since tomorrow is the 4th of July, and anything but bright, beautiful sunshine is just unacceptable for holiday festivities. So I'm going to need the rain clouds to empty themselves quickly and then move on outta here, so tomorrow can be spent soaking up the sun, and sporting as much red, white and blue as possible - not including my blue and white umbrella...

But for today, let's have a little chat about my weight loss progress, mmmkay?

Highest starting weight = 227

January starting weight = 217

Last week, June 26 = 184.2

Today, July 3 = 182.8

And with today's weigh-in, that's another 1.4 pound loss. Y'all remember how I'm trying to lose four pounds, for four months, in order to reach 170 by the wedding? Well with today's weigh-in, that means I successfully lost four pounds in June for month one! And that also means I'm well on my way to losing four more in July, and reaching my goal of 179 by July 31st. Totally gonna make it - I can feel it.

Really, I've been kinda lazy for the past week, and hardly exercised at all. So that just goes to show how much my eating habits can definitely have a huge impact on this whole losing weight extravaganza. I mean, I actually only worked out once in the past week, so it's not like I burned a ton of calories in order to lose that weight. Last Wednesday after work I ran two miles, and burned 450 calories. But that's it y'all, that's the only time I've exercised in a week.

I know I used this already last week, but it's all I've got since I only exercised once, OK?!

A big difference though this weekend however, was that I didn't go buck wild and eat whatever the heck I wanted to. Sure, I definitely had some "unhealthy" things, but for the most part, I stuck to my ViSalus shakes for breakfast and lunch, and just made a few healthier decisions at dinner time. And I think that's also a pretty great example of how well the shakes are working for me! One workout a week, lots of Vi-Shakes, and healthy foods - and I managed a 1.4 loss. Sounds great to me!

I'm still working on #OperationNoMoreJiggle, and next week I plan to get back into my routine again like normal. I'll be back to zumba and running, and some random bike rides and stuff thrown in there as well. Oh, and I'm also officially going to start training for my very first 5K, which is coming up in September. I'll be using Hal Higdon's novice plan for beginners, and my plan is to get up and run in the morning before getting ready for work. So we'll see how that goes... 

And I'd still love for you to use this fun hashtag with me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. I want us to encourage and motivate each other, and of course just show off each and every workout we complete cuz y'all know that's what I do. Anyways, hashtag any workouts or healthy food, or anything you please that might motivate us to work on getting rid of that jiggle we all hate!

So what are y'all doing to improve your health and fitness? Are you also on this crazy weight loss journey as well? I always love finding new friends that are also working on stuff like this, in order to motivate and inspire us both! So come find me on MyFitnessPal, RunKeeper and Instagram to keep up with all this, and we can be friends :)

Overall, and despite of my laziness this past week, things are still going great on this weight loss journey. It's still never easy (and sometimes it feels like it's never ending), but I know it's not only necessary, but it's also worth it. In the end, I'll be so much more healthy, and that's what's really important anyways! So I'm still pushing forward and making progress, one pound at a time.

Pounding the Pavement

Yesterday was the first of the month, and I missed a prime opportunity to share some of my goals for the month of July. But that's alright, because today is still a great day to talk about some upcoming goals. June was a crazy busy month because Jeff's twin boys were here for most of the month. And while I was able to accomplish a small number of things, mostly my time was spent enjoying our time with them. For July however, they won't be joining us until the 20th, so that gives me three full weeks of time to focus on some things for me and for the wedding.

And I plan to be in crazy focused mode, doing some of the following fun and productive things....

1. Weigh 179. As of last weigh-in Wednesday, I was at 184, and my goal was to reach 183 by the end of the month. And I did! Now I want to lose 4 more pounds again this month, to reach 179.
2. Clean out under my bathroom sink
3. Do some serious house hunting for our future home!
4. Do at least one thing from my summer bucket list (Tubing at Bear Paw? Antiquing or flea market?)
5. Start training for my first 5K, which is in September, using Hal Higdon's novice training plan below

I seriously cleaned my room out a couple of weeks ago, but now I want to make sure my bathroom is super clean too, and the only way that happens is dealing with the tornado that must have come through under my sink... I am hoping to move into our new place sometime in August, but for that to happen, we have to find a place first! We plan to take a day and just drive around the area we want to live in, looking for 'For Rent' signs, and then we'll go from there. Can't wait to find our future first home together!

And of course I gotta keep up my healthy eating and exercising for the month in order to continue losing four pounds a month every month before the wedding. I have confidence in myself that I can totally make it to 179 by the end of the month....And I'm sure running at least three times a week will be great for that as I start training for the 5K. My plan is to start next week, getting up early and running before work each day. I'd much rather be out there Pounding the Pavement at 6 a.m. in 75 degrees, rather than 6 p.m. in 95 degrees. So here's to attempting early-morning runs for the next two months!

And now for all the wedding-related goals for the month:

1. Figure out flowers
2. Begin working on invitations
3. Decide and pick out grooms wear, and groomsmen wear
4. Set up hotel block for out-of-town guests
5. Figure out honeymoon stuff! I'd looooove to be somewhere like this...

There are actually a LOT more wedding things that we will be working on, but I think those are probably the biggest. And the other things are more boring details, so no one really wants to read about those things anyways. Just know that we will be in crazy wedding planning mode over the next few weeks, trying to get as much done as possible. As of today, we are only 95 days away from the wedding, and it still feels like we have soooo much stuff to do! Ahh! This is where girls go crazy trying to plan a wedding... But I'm attempting not to let that happen.

Looking forward to getting stuff done for me, and for getting as much wedding stuff checked off the list as possible! I love lists and goals and checklists and stuff (obviously,  y'all should know this by now), so I'm really hoping to be able to cross off all of these things by the last day of the month. I'll update you along the way, and then do a recap post on August 1, and hopefully everything will have gotten accomplished. Here's to a productive month ahead! What are some of your goals for the month of July?

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

Pumped For the Weekend

And on this gorgeous Friday morning, we will have yet again another random blog post day. I actually just really like writing whatever happens to come to my little noggin' and then calling it "blog-worthy." I mean, it's nothing that's winning me any writing awards or anything like that, but it'll do for this little space of mine on the internets, right?!

So first of all, how awesome is it that Instagram now has video? I mean, I just recently jumped on the Vine wagon, but by that point, everyone else seemed to have already jumped off of it. So it felt kind of like a sad ghost town, even though I was mildly obsessed with it. But now - now! We can make even better videos on Instagram! They're about twice as long, and you can view and edit your clips before the final posting, which rocks. I of course had to test it out last night, so you can check that out here. And if you wanna follow along with my randomness, my username is HalieRenee88.

Tonight around 6, Jeff and I are going to look at a cute little duplex to see about renting it! (I will be moving in wherever we find first, then he'll move in after we get married.) It's in a great part of town (exactly where I want to live), at a great price. I am so stoked about it. Can't wait to have a look-see at it!

I grabbed some new snacks at target the other night to try, and they've both been delicious. I got two different kinds of Chobani yogurt - the little 'Bites' and one of the 'Flips.' I got coffee with dark chocolate chip Bite, and peach with pistachio and chocolate Flip. And I really enjoyed both of them! Will definitely be grabbing more of these next time I'm grocery shopping.

This morning I stepped on my scale to see a surprising 183.6! Just Wednesday I was at 185.6. I stepped off, waited for it to reset, and then stepped on again to see the same thing. So I don't know if this will last, or if it was just some fluke this morning, but I'm really hoping that it's real and that I only go down from here, not back up to 185 again.

Jeff is taking the boys to the beach today, and he's trying to convince me to make it half day at work and go with them. And I'm reallllyyyy torn about that. Because of course I want to go so bad, but I also feel bad about just skipping work for no 'real' reason at the last minute. I don't know though - if my boss get's here soon I'll ask her and see. And then maybe I'll get to spend the afternoon soaking up some sun and play time, rather than planting my but in front of my work computer. I'd much prefer the sunshine.

(*Update: before I even finished writing this, my boss got here, I nervously went in to ask her, and she said it was fine! So now I'll be headed to the Gulf Coast for a bit this afternoon! Hooray!)

I got a new Influenster VoxBox earlier this week, and so I've started trying out one of the products - a new whitening toothpaste! I'll be writing a full review on this and all the other products later once I test them all, but for now, I'm just giving a little teaser.

Well, now I'm just too excited about officially going to the beach this afternoon to really write anything else. So this blog post turned out to be kinda lame. Can y'all let it slide this time, and I promise next time I'm here trying to write something, I'll come more prepared, or try to keep my head on straight the whole time. And then maybe I'll end up being able to produce some better content. For now though, I gotta get scootin' on some actual work-work, so that I can have things done and ready by noon! Because then I'll be tryin' to run outta here so fast there might be a whirlwind of papers in my wake.

So this afternoon is the beach, then checking out a potential house for Jeff and I. Tomorrow will be spent pool-side with friends and other little ones for the boys to play with - followed by a cookout and a sleepover for them. Then Sunday is Wild Adventures day! (Jeff & I have season passes, and it's bring-a-friend day, so the boys get in for free! Score!) So much fun going on over the next few days I can hardly stand it. Obviously I'm just super Pumped For the Weekend!

Happy Friday to y'all! Hope you have a good day, a great Friday, and an awesome weekend!

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

Pie for Breakfast

Yesterday afternoon, I posted this as my status on Facebook, "I'm hoping for an awesome weigh-in tomorrow, so I'm planning to kill it tonight at Zumba!" And that's just what I did folks. My friend Lacey met me there early, and we did our usual mile. We walked a little bit too much and so I didn't set a new PR or anything, but we still did good. And then at Zumba, we continued to push ourselves hard, and it seems like it was worth it for today's weigh-in...

Highest Weight = 227

January Starting Weight = 217

Last Week, June 5 = 187.4

Today, June 12 = 185.4

And that brings me to 31.6 pounds lost since the beginning of the year, and 41.6 pounds lost total. And I am so proud of myself! A while back, I set a goal weight for my wedding day of 170 pounds. Last week, I realized if I was going to make it to that, I'd have to lose four pounds every month for the next four months. So I made the decision to look for my motivation and determination again, and miraculously, I found it pretty quickly. Monday I started eating healthy again and making great food choices, and I'm getting back to my exercise routine. 

Mainly though, I want to share how/what I'm eating for at least the next few weeks. First of all, I'm drinking a ViSalus shake every day for breakfast and lunch. Normally, I don't have great luck with things like this (I've tried lots of other products that I won't mention, in order not to bash them - but none of them worked like this stuff.) Jeff and I first tried ViSalus because his co-worker sells it, and she got him a tester to try out. And then he ended up ordering a few bags of the shake mix, and so I tried it out for much of April, with good results. And now I'm back at it and doing it again for two meals a day. This time around though, I'm trying out new recipes and jazzing it up a bit, rather than just drinking it plain, with no yummy add-ins. This morning I had an Apple Pie Vi Shake. So basically, it was like I had Pie for Breakfast. And it was awesome.

Only 185 calories for a sweet, yummy and super filling breakfast shake. That's my kinda meal.

My snacks are all fruits, veggies, hummus and some fat free yogurt occasionally. And then for dinner, I'm eating as low/no-carb as possible. I'm avoiding all bread, pasta, snacky-junk foods, fried food, potatoes and the like. For dinner Monday night, I had a chicken breast, with broccoli and green beans. Every Tuesday, we go out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant with our group of friends for Taco Tuesday - but instead of tacos, I got chicken fajitas. But I only ate the chicken and veggies with a tiny bit of guacamole, and didn't eat the tortilla, rice and beans. Maybe not super healthy, but I did what I could...

Also, I'm drinking Ms. Jillian Michaels' detox water drink every day for the next seven days. Today is day two, and so far so good. It's really simple, tastes pretty plain, and isn't much different than drinking regular water. If you want to try it, it's 60 ounces of water, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of sugar free cranberry juice, and 1 dandelion root tea bag. (I couldn't find this exact thing at Publix, but I did find a box of tea labeled "detox" with a special herb blend - dandelion was one of them, so that's what I'm using.) Leave in the fridge over night, and then drink the whole thing the next day. 

And my favorite dessert obsession right now is fresh strawberries cut up, with a glob of fat free cool whip. This stuff is sooo delicious, and only has 20 calories in 2 tablespoons. Definitely a great option for a healthier dessert. I've had it two nights in a row now (shared with Jeff last night while we played some cards), and I'm pretty positive I'll have it again tonight as well!

Oh, and I'm back to counting calories and logging everything into MyFitnessPal. So if you want to come over and find me on there, that would be just swell ;)  My user name is HalieRenee, so feel free to add me. So - that was a lot of stuff to share today, but I'm glad I did. I want to be completely open and honest about my weight loss journey and efforts, no matter what. So to recap, two Vi-shakes a day, no/low carb for snacks and dinner, and getting back into my exercise routine. I've lost two pounds so far this month, and now I just need to lose two more to stay on track to get to 170 by October 5th. I know I can do this!!!

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.