31 Freaking Years

Today is my parents 31st anniversary.

Damn.

Thats a really long time.

My parents got married very young. They were told by many MANY people, that they wouldn't last. Well middle fingers in the air ( not really..my interpretation ) here they are 31 years, 2 daughters, 1 granddaughter, 1 son-in-law, many pets, many moves and many hurdles later -- still married and going strong.

Their marriage is something I truly admire. I learned so much from them and it's what I base my marriage off of...

What I learned about love and marriage from my parents:

* It's okay to fight. If you don't fight, you'll have bigger problems later.

* Your spouse should be your best friend.

* Time spent together, regardless of what you are doing is still quality time.

* The wedding it self doesn't make the marriage.

* As long as you have each other, the tough times will pass and you can and will bounce back.

* If you can't be yourself, its not going to work. Be comfortable doing anything and everything no matter if your spouse is there or not.

* It doesn't matter who cooks, who cleans, whose paychecks are bigger, everything is shared and Irons from Sears do last 31+ years so no need to buy a warranty.

* Don't settle for anything or anyone that is below your standards or what you deserve.

* If they don't treat you right, they aren't right for you.

* Never stop the romance. Keep the surprises, keep up with random flowers, gifts, trips etc.

* If you work your ass off for over 25 years, you can afford a condo in Hawaii and trips there each year.

* An eagles cassette tape and a pecan pie, is a true gesture of love.

I learned a lot. My parents are wonderful. I still get happy seeing them doing cute little things together. It gives me hope and makes me want a marriage like theirs even more. Like last year my mom had surgery on nerves in one of her arms and she couldn't sleep in bed, instead she had to sleep in a chair in the living room, my dad at 54 years old, 6 foot something, slept in the living room with her on the tiny little couch where his feet hung off.  

That is love right there.

Enough gushing, now to end this tribute with their song:

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

 Love you!

-J

Random Monday Mashup and Recap

Hanging out down the street, the same old thing, we did last week......

Hello Wisconsin!

or where ever you are..

I freaking love That 70's Show..

Anywhose its Monday, and another miracle in the middle of no where, I've got the day off.

What to do what to do...

I guess I'll just see what the day has in store for me!

This weekend was GREAAT!

The hubby and I went out and got him some new work boots, he was in major need and I like when he gets excited over something small like that! 

I took a step in confidence and tried on some small shorts and holy hell they did fit. I also tried on a medium fitted athletic shirt and again, holy hell it fit! I was shocked. It felt so good though. Rewarding!!! Good way to feel after a cheat meal of some rockin' salted carmel fro yo. Oh laaawwwdy it was delicious.

We also decided to start the new car hunt. We are in the market to get a new car and we decided to go to a lot and check out the vehicles and feel out prices and see what we really want. We know we want a Subaru but what model etc we haven't decided...its tough being an adult. 

wah wah wah.

Anyone out there drive a Subaru? What kind?

I'm SUPER excited because well A- Thursdays my birfday and I'll be feeling 22, everything will be alright..

Woah sorry to go all T Swift on ya! 

and B- My first OFFICIAL 5K is this weekend. It's going to be my first actual timed one not fun one. I'm excited nervous ball of fluff this week. I'm trying really hard to focus on my training and not overdue it and to really keep my eating in check. Not just for the race but so I can REALLY enjoy some Olive Garden this weekend. My thighs are growing just thinking about pasta and breadsticks. Were staying in a suite Friday night, I'm going to get up go run meet up with an old friend I haven't seen for a few years then head back to the hotel. There I'm gonna get all dolled up ;) and the hubbs and I will be going out for a nice lunch and then a day filled with birthday shopping.

I love shopping...and picking out my own gifts :D

Whats your favorite part of your birthday??

Any training advice?

If you follow me on instagram keep an eye out I'm going to have a Birthday Giveaway! :D 

I tried Portabela mushrooms for the first time and uh YUMMM!!!!

But I don't know really any recipes for them..

Anyone got some great recipes they wanna share?!

This is my final week of the Alpha Phase of Focus T25. I'm a little intimidated by Beta... but I know I can do it. I've been sticking to my guns so far and I can't wait to see my results. I'm still amazed how absolutely drenched and dripping in sweat I am after 25 minutes with Shaun T. Him and Jillian Michaels should create like a super program.

Imagine those results!!

Anyone got awesome plans for the day today? I seriously can't believe its the last day of september, where the hell did this month go??

I'll leave you with a little Motivation for this Monday!

-J

Froyo Friday! {{5onFriday}}

OH thank baby Jesus.

Its Friday...and Payday.

BOOM!

I like money. 

I'm feeling some Five On Friday lovin' so I'm going to link up with the wonderful Darci From The Good Life Blog.

I wish she'd come decorate my house...no lie

{{one}}

I have a lame sense of humor I guess. I laugh at just about anything...

(I laughed WAAAY to long at this...)

{{two}}

I do hair a lot. I don't always like doing my own. Hell somedays I don't even like combing it. BUT I'm a master at making my uncombed hair look like I put effort into it..

This took me a whopping 10 minutes tops to throw together and I got complimented on it by ERRRRYONE.

{{three}}

My dogs a creeper.

 

She makes this face when hubs is petting her and I sit down beside them. She likes her "daddy" time. And she likes it uninterrupted. Shes a giant baby. I felt like she was staring into my soul.

She is also in the running for extremely lazy. We can home from a walk and she literally collapsed onto her grass mat and didn't move I gave her a treat and she acted like it would take to much effort to eat it.

She laid there for an hour.

Pathetic.

{{four}}

I may or may not be obsessed with my legs right now. I'm going to do some pants shopping today also. Well athletic shorts at least. Love me some nike tempos...

{{five}}

You guessed it its Friday. It's the hubs and I's grocery shopping day, which means a cheat for me. That cheat of choice is some frozen yogurt and a pumpkin spice latte from starbucks while I power shop.

Boom. I'm excited.

I like yogurt.

Like a lot.

If you want to be my BFF in the whole world and want me in-debuted to you....buy me frozen yogurt or something from starbucks. You will own my soul from that point forward.

I promise.

Whats your Friday plans???

TGIF MOTHER LICKERS!

:D

-J

Work(out) Smarter, Not Harder {{W.O.W Linkup}}

I don't know about you but i'm feeling 22 but this week is draaaaagggggginnnnnngggggg on.

Maybe its because I've had to work extra extra hours or because Fridays payday and my grocery shopping date with the hubs. 

Is it sad I look forward to grocery shopping to spend extra quality time with my hubby?

But I'm over this week for sure

I have a class I have to go to in Council Bluffs IA in October with a co-worker and we'll be sharing a hotel room and I was warning her that I work out when I wakeup, in the evening and yoga it up before bed. She wants to join in with me and she is going to be in for it. Haha.

I'll give her booty a bustin'! 

But as we were talking about this class and trip and so on, other coworkers including her kept throwing up excuses as to why they don't workout and CANT workout.

PSSSSH!

They're all like Ain't nobody got time fo dat

and I'm all like Aint nobody got time fo excuses.

Thus inspiring todays Workout Wednesday Post for the Link up with Skinny Meg!

In a business training program I took, they stressed work smarter, not harder. Basically just think how to maximize your potential in a shorter time to maximize profit. Now I've taken that concept and applied it to my workout regimen.

 What are two things that almost EVERYONE has?

A computer and a smartphone.

We all have breaks, downtime, lunches, dead space in our days. We all have ten minutes here and there. Thats what I've maximized to maximize my metabolism and workouts.

Fit Sugar has TONS of ten minute workouts that will kick your ass. I sweat just as much if not way more after doing a couple of these than after a long run or anything else. The instructors maximized the workouts to fit fat burning booty sculpting moves into ten minutes.

I start each day after I roll out of bed with 1 or 2 of their videos. If I have extra downtime at workout, I break one of these babies out in the back on my phone. I do a 2-4 a night after my Focus T25 workouts. I'll even do one after my shower if I still got a hankering for a workout. You can do them anywhere that there is a computer or a cell phone.

There are 7 videos I LOVE.

I have them in my favorites on my mac and on my phone.

They range from beginner to advance and work all parts of the body.

I also like the variety and I like to mix and match to keep up with muscle confusion. Thats where you change up workouts so your body doesn't get too used to a certain workout and then it doesn't give you the results you want.

Here they are:

Basic Strength Building Workout

Victoria's Secret Model's Full Body Workout

Flat Belly Workout

Beginner Cardio Workout

Fat Blasting Strength Training Workout

Full Bikini Body Workout

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Workout

There are TONS more 10 minute workouts and longer videos as well on this site and it offers great fitness articles too. These videos are just some of my current favorites.

I challenge each of you to do at least ONE of these videos today.

go on now and work it out, work it out now, all by yo'self

How do you workout when your pinched for time?

A little bit random, but am I the only one out there who takes random after workout pictures and makes cray cray faces??

Heres some of mine from the last few days...

Now for some self bragging. When I began my journey this year, my big ass was squeezed into size large Nike shorts. When I was down 50lbs for my first 5K back in June, I went down to mediums. Now I'm down almost 20 more pounds and have super toned and gained muscle and I'm pretty sure I'm ready for smalls. These will be the first pair of small shorts I have ever owned. 

EVER.

I'm a little excited.

Can ya tell?

I really just wanna get rid of the soggy wet diaper butt I got going on here..

Whats your self bragging moment today??

TGIW...

...now hurry up Friday! 

No one likes Thursday anyways...

As always

-J

What? It's Monday Again?! Massage Monday anyone?

So as I'm sitting down to write this one of those lame infomercials about some at home hair removal laser blah blah is on and the lady just said "Hair Free and Care Free is the BEST place to be". 

No.

She is sadly mistaken.

The best place to be is the beach. Hairy legs or not, aint no body got a sad face at the beach!

But while we are talking about hairless legs...best feeling in the world- freshly shaved legs on clean bedding? 

Anyone? Anyone?

crickets

Maybe I'm alone on this one.

Eh anyway back to this post..

So yeah, where was I....

OH

Yeah, It's Monday again! And I'm freaking ecstatic!

Because I have the day off after working this weekend and being icky sicky all weekend and the last part of the week! 

And even better?? 

I have nothing to do today!!

This NEVER happens to me. Well not often enough...

This girls got a threesome planned with the couch and netflix..

BOOM!

And well more like me, I've got like a gazillion new quick-y workout videos I wanna give a try! And If the weather is still pleasant, I'm breaking out the hot pink mountain bike my former chubby girl bought to "ride to work" to "loose weight" with a whopping year and a half a go. FYI the bike never got rode, it's been in storage and well I stumbled upon it a few days ago when I was looking for something else and was like SCORE!

It's officially fall now, so that means pumpkin spice lattes, sweaters, and scentsy fall catalog. I have a whole knapsack full of scentsy testers my dealer dropped off for me to browse through..Yeah I said dealer, scentsy is a drug to me. So what!

What are you looking forward to about fall??

So with my new found free time today, I'm going to TRY my hardest to get into one of the two places here in town that does massages. This girl is desperate and wants some stranger to rub her down for an hour to some weird ocean sounds and relax these tight muscles and then pay for it...

It is what it is.

fingers crossed

Whats your Monday plans?

Yesterday I woke up feeling back to normal instead of like I needed to vomit, so naturally I slept in a little because well it was nice. As I was getting ready to run into work, I decided that well I didn't feel like combing my hair.

Yeah I have those days. 

I've just mastered hiding my laziness.

So I threw my hair up thinking, eh. Get to work and every gal I work with complimented me on my hair! I'm all over here like waaahhhtttt???

Like this is two day hair that I barely picked through, threw some dry shampoo on it and some bobby pins and up this bitch went and you like it??

Hmph, whatever, I'm not rude, I'll take a hair compliment!

In between puke sessions this weekend, I downloaded iOS7, its growing on me. I wasn't a fan at first but slowly and surely its making me like it. The hubby upgraded to a iPhone5C and he is sooo happy! I'm rocking the 5 still and thats fine with me. I'm a little nicer to my phones than he is...he had a 5, it went swimming. He had a 4S, it was crushed by a forklift. He had a 4 its home button bit the dust. He had another 4S, it took a nice sailing trip down an isle at WalMart and sailed right into a wall. Oh yeah this was all this year. Thank god we had all these old phones and had insurance. Luckily hes got a lifeproof case coming for this phone and he is so in love that this phone will be babied no questions asked. 

What new Iphone do you like?

How do you like iOS7?

Back to puking. 

Haha.

I was so sick this weekend and I had that feeling like I just needed to throw up ONE more time and I would feel a million bajillon times better. I couldn't for the life of me get it out.

So what do I do?

I felt like an uber fatty for this too, I sent my husband out for a cheeseburger and fries from McDonalds, a greasy Caseys doughnut and a Dr Pepper. 

It worked.

this is how I felt..

I shoveled that shit down. And I say shit, because damnit it didn't taste good! I knew it would make me sick, and I was counting on it to make me sick. As my husband sat there and stared, mouth wide open I finished off that crap meal and kid you not with in a half hour, I was praying to the porcelain gods. Thank GOD! But the hubs got a taste of what I'll be like preggo, being sent to three places for one meal.

 He'll survive I'm sure.

How was all ya'lls weekend??

As always

-J

How Weight Loss Changed Me

Let's state the obvious here...

My body looks a bajillion times better.

Clothes fit better.

My health is no longer something that could kill me.

Now that those are out of the way.. the more non-obvious changes.

Always being the chubby girl, the "big" friend or the bottom-of-the-pyramid-at-sleepovers girl, I was used to those feelings. I was used to the stereo typical places in society that I fit in. I knew what section of clothes to go to at stores. I knew what clothes would help hide my body. I knew how to stand in pictures to camouflage my chub. I had it down to an art. I knew how to "make up" for my weight, being a pushover, cooking super dooper meals, taking a back seat to my life.

All of that changed.

When I started loosing weight and sticking with my lifestyle change, this thing inside me started hatching.

It was the new me.

I found my self in awe of the new me.

I had self confidence, I liked what the mirror showed. I had never experienced this before.

When it came to posing for pictures, I wasn't consumed with the idea of figuring out how to stand to hide my gut and sucking it in right before the flash snapped. I just smiled.

And for real.

It was a real smile.

I didn't have to force it.

I smiled because I knew the pictures were going to show me as I wanted to be shown.

Happy.

I have seriously found a new level of happiness through my weight loss. I have a sparkle to my eyes, I smile more and damn it I'm in a better mood 90% of the time.

Mother nature has control of the other 10% unfortunately  for real though a "your not pregnant" text each month would be good enough for me.

In my life that I can remember, I don't ever recall such a genuine happiness and upbeat-ness in my attitude upon waking up each day. I also sleep sooooo welll!

I'm having to relearn everything though.

I'm having to learn how to be the new me.

When I walk into stores, I bounce around like "I'm all jacked up on mountain dew!"

I don't know where to begin. My fashions changing, I'm not scared of clothes because they "weren't meant for my body type". Being a little more daring doesn't scare me. I like having help from sales associates because I'm not scared of them judging me.

Most importantly, I stopped judging myself.

My self confidence is through the rooof!

I just feel good, I feel accomplished and proud because DAMNIT I worked my ASS off and then squatted to put it back on! I have put blood sweat and tears into this new body. 

My relationship with my husband has improved, there isn't an underlying tension anymore. And no my husband wasn't a jerk to me, but I was bitter. Not just to him, to a lot of people and it put a strain on relationships. I'd pick fights for no reason just because I was miserable and unhappy with myself. I was so pathetic that I had to stoop to taking it out on other people. It wasn't right and it wasn't fair.

I don't resent others anymore.

The ugliness of my soul is gone.

Weight loss has changed me inside and out.

Being more positive has came so easily too.

Its easier to find the upside of things in life when your happier with where you sit.

"Only those who turn their face from the sun will truly ever see darkness"

 - Helen Keller

When I don't wanna go on, when I want to stop. I remind myself why I started, why I never want to turn back, just how far I have really come. I smile after workouts because I'm proud. I'm happy that I am the new me. Looking back it makes me sad that I didn't have the self respect that I have now. That I let myself go and worst of all I let others walk over me because I didn't respect me so why should they?

That should never be the case.

Now, I'm feisty, opinionated and I probably come on strong, but trust me. I may be a lot to handle but I'm so worth it. I'm a big ball of fun now. Well a smaller ball of fun, but still fun!

I respect myself and from that I have more respect for others because I'm not bitter. I'm not resenting others for things I could change and chose not to change because I changed it.

I have found myself, the self I was meant to be, the self I always wanted to see.

Finally, I'm me and proud of every inch, pound and curve that make me up.

What changes do you see in yourself/want to see?

Happy day ya'll!

-J

Workout Gear and Rest Day Life Hacks {{W.O.W}}

Aaaahhh, finally it's

HUUUMPP DAAAAAAYY.

My week starts on Sundays sooo I'm over the half way mark.. I'm doing the Shaun T Focus T25 and that just makes me think that in EVERY video after the "halfway mark" he let's you know:

"You are WAY more than Half way DONE" 

and everyone cheers.

Thats the feeling I get on Wednesday's when I wake up.

This last week has been tough..I have been putting in lots of extra hours at work and I have been feeling it! Friday was my first day off in a week and then Saturday and Monday were my "days off" too... PSH! I worked 6 hours Saturday and 5 hours on Monday. I can't say no. I like working with other people so everyone is happy. Upside is my paycheck definitely shows off the hard work :D!

Do you enjoy working extra or less?

Of course I'm joining in on the link up at Skinny Meg's for Workout Wednesday.

I get asked a lot about some of my favorite fitness gear and what I use etc. 

Well...

 

 

Boom.

These are my favorites.

Garmin Forerunner 10 - Simple, it doesn't track heart rate, it just does distance, calories, pace and time. Thats all I want to know so that's all I needed and it being the simpler model was on the lower end of the Garmin GPS watches pricing.

Nike Revolution 2- These are my new daily drivers. I got tired of wearing down my Asics so much on other activities besides running and just wearing them as everyday shoes. So I went out while most shoe stores where having their sales and picked up these babies. They are super dooper comfy and they are great for everyday wear, crossfit workouts and just walking the dog. They even look good with jeans!!

Underarmour Spandex- The jacket I love for chilly runs because it wicks sweat, is fitted and has the hand warmers :D! The bottoms I love. I never ever wore spandex and now I'm in loooveeee. I like working out in the house in them especially on leg days cause they don't restrict at aaaaalllll.

Asics Gel Noosa Tri 8's - These are my running shoes. I love them!! When I first started my journey to running I went to a specialty store and had my feet scanned and all that fancy dancy jazz and they showed me a section of shoes that would be best for my foot type and running style. I choose these and haven't regretted it once! I have two pairs (for now!) and the hubs has a pair.

Nike Tempo Dri Fit running Shorts- I live in these. I have them in so many colors and If you were to randomly walk into my house, you would more than likely find me in a pair of these...I'm wearing some now even. They are so freaking comfy and great for working out it or just wearing in general.

Whats your favorite fitness gear?

Now for part twooo of the day.

(HUMP DAY)

If your like me, rest day sucks.

I hate rest days.

They make me feel lazy. 

I can't just not workout.

I'm obsessed now. Like I take the stairs at work after leg days.

Every painful step up the staircase.

Sue me

So rest days for me are now "Find ways to workout with out working out days"

Whats that mean?

Lifehacks.

I find errrry day activities to do that help bump up the heart rate and keep me distracted so I don't snack attack my way to a heart attack.

These are just some actives and the calories they burn. I also do stuff like park further away from work that day so I have to walk a little extra, Take stairs vs elevator, do a little extra cleaning, walk to do my errands vs driving and enjoy some yoga for good stretching.

I don't actually track all these calories It just makes me feel better about my "rest day".

How do you rest up?

What do you do to get in a little extra physical activity?

Today's gonna be a good day, well I'm sure gonna make it one! So I'm going to leave ya on a positive note!

As always

- J