Staying on plan

Yesterday was a bit of a bummer. I'll start at the beginning. Remember, I'm putting pictures of everything I eat up to keep myself accountable!

Breakfast was a Chobani mixed with bran flakes. After breakfast I went to work for a few hours. After the kids leave, I come straight home for lunch.

Before I ate, I did a fruit wash. You can find the recipe I use here. It is amazing. I could see the waxy film coming off the apples. Sick! 

After washing all my fruit, I made my lunch, which consisted of leftover turkey taco meat made into a big taco salad. Yum! I also ate some freshly picked strawberries that my mom gave me. You just cannot get any better than that. SO good!

For dinner I had prepared a crock pot meal in the morning, so it was done when my husband got home. I've been forgetting my crock pot lately, and I need to get back to using it more. It's so handy!

I just stuck some potatoes, pork butt roast, and a pepper seasoning packet in the crock pot on low for 8 hours. It was amazing. I ate it with the rest of the strawberries.

After eating and working on grad school work for awhile, I needed to go on a run. The plan was 3 miles. It was 84º out, which was the hottest I've ever tried to run, and SUPER muggy. Gotta love Indiana. So I went out, thinking I was going to die a half mile in.

 I was pretty surprised, I felt really good for the first mile and a half. Jeffrey was sucking air, so I took him home and went back out for the other half. That was when I started to feel bad. I got a huge headache, nauseous  and just wasn't feeling it. I wasn't even out of breath at all. I walked/ran the rest of the three miles, but I finished.

I ended up taking migraine meds and trying to go to sleep soon after I showered. Feeling much better today! I was just glad I got out there after over a week with no exercise. I had a moment on Sunday, when I realized I was killing myself slowly. I've been eating horribly, stuffing myself with fast food, desserts, anything I could get my hands on. I'm doing things a little differently now. I have a different mindset, and people to help me. I talk about this more in the future, but for now, just know I'm finally back on track. Weigh in Wednesday might be another gain, but at least I have the train moving in the right direction.

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Meal Planning

Hi all! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend celebrating father's day. We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Friday I watch my niece and then Drew and I went and had Mexican for dinner. He actually WANTED to take a picture with me! Ah! I set up the timer and it went. It was a horrible picture. I tried to take another but he was already done.

Beggars can't be choosers, right?

Then we came home and hung around the house. Saturday I woke up early and went to Whole Foods and to run some errands. I so wish WF was closer, but it's a 45 minute drive to the nearest one. Womp womp. I picked up some great things to try, though. I will just have to stock up every time I'm there!

After WF I went shopping to find an outfit for family pictures. The color theme my mom wants to stick with is Navy and yellow. I don't have anything she is happy with, so she asked me to send pictures until she liked something.

 I ended up buying like 4 shirts and to scarves to choose from since she couldn't make up her mind. Family photos in my family ends up being a lot more effort than you would think. I like the bottom right outfit best, but we'll see what happens.

I decided that in order to keep myself accountable, I am going to plan out my meals and post pictures as the week goes on. That way I can keep myself on track! The plan may change as the week progresses, but for now this is what I am planning.

Monday (run 4 miles)

• Lunch- Leftover turkey taco meat on a salad, strawberries 
• Dinner- Roast pork shoulder with potatoes

Tuesday (cross)

• Lunch-Mexican junk I made last week (corn, brown rice, black beans, chicken, cumin, chili powder), grapes 
• Dinner- Brats for Andrew, frozen burrito for me (whole foods)

Wednesday (2 mile run or cross)

• Lunch-Mexi stuff, apple 
• Dinner- Hobo dinners (chicken breasts, potatoes, cabbage)

Thursday (4 mile run + strength)

• Lunch-mexi stuff, grapes and strawberries 
• Dinner- Turkey meatballs, green beans, baked potatoes 

Friday (rest)

• Lunch- mexi stuff, apple 
• Dinner- out 

Saturday (40 minute cross)

• Lunch- leftover fruit, hard boiled egg
• Dinner- Cheesey chicken and broccoli 

Sunday (5 mile run)

??

Sunday is family picture day, so I'm not quite sure when/where we will be eating. Sometimes we eat with family, and other times we just eat leftovers. We'll see what happens. 

I'll leave you with a picture of my sad dog.

Happy Monday!

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To my daddy

Dad, 

You are the strongest person I know.  Growing up I thought of you like a superhero, and I still do. You are the hardest worker, always working until the work is done. Period. I got my work ethic from you. 

You say the greatest "gems" of anyone else I know. 

"Mango!"

"Worrying is giving an inordinate amount of time to something you have absolutely no control over." 

"Get 'er!"

I can always count on you. You are calm, and help me fix whatever it is that has gone wrong.


You constantly sacrificed for us kids to do all of our different sports and activities. I didn't always see/know that growing up, but now I do.

Thank you for being my father. I never had to wonder if you loved me or if you were proud of me, you always let me know.


Thank you for being my daddy. I love you!

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Flourish boutique

A few years ago, my mom and I stumbled upon Flourish Boutique, new store in the area we shop. We were amazed with the quality, selection, and prices! Since that time, we constantly go back and are never disappointed. One of my favorite aspects of flourish is their sizes. They have a wide range of sizes from xs to plus size. 

From their website: "Flourish Boutique, founded in 2008 by Vanessa Cooreman Smith, is a fashion forward and contemporary boutique. Our clothes, accessories, and jewelry are unique and often have embellishment or flare, as our name alludes to. Far from ordinary, Flourish fashions are special and are meant to help women feel like the beautiful special creations they are! We hope you will take delight in shopping at Flourish, whether browsing our web store or visiting our Granger, Indiana brick and mortar location. "

Flourish is having a birthday celebration, and has asked me to be involved. On Thursday, June 20th, they will be having open house from 4-8, and a fashion show from 6:30-7.  If you live in the area, I would love to see you there! You can expect unprecedented discounts, some serious swag bags, giveaways and much more. The event is totally free,  and there will be a live DJ, photographer, and food provided. 

If you cannot make the event, you can also order online! Check out their website or their facebook page for more details.

I hope to see you there!

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Bloggers helping bloggers

I read about a fun blogging opportunity, and I thought I would share for my blogging friends. I read about this on Sara's blog, and wanted to get in on the action.   I really liked this link up because the main focus is encouragement instead of spending money on expensive gifts for each other. Of course, you are welcome to send little gifts throughout the month but it is not required. The requirements are as follows:


You have until the 27th to sign up. You'll receive your partner on the 1st of every month. You have until the 4th to contact your partner. Ways to help your partner: Get to know them first, share any prayer requests, send encouraging notes & happies, guest post for each other, provide blogging tips/tricks, and any other great ideas you may have for your partner for the month. There won't be any link-up at the end of the month because I feel like there are plenty of link-ups in the blogging world, but that's why I encourage you to have them guest post, so you can still share who your partner is and use the button below to let other people know that you met them through Bloggers Helping Bloggers.  I hope this will grow into something powerful and encouraging and we'll see tons of prayer requests answered and bloggers being encouraged on a daily basis! It is required that you send at least one encouraging note throughout the month. It is NOT required to send a box or gift, but if you have the money and know of something that would brighten their day, then it's encouraged to do so!
If you would like to sign up click here. 

I can't wait to see who I'm paired with! 

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Wine & Canvas

Last night I took my mom to a wine & canvas. For those who don't know what that is- basically you go and an instructor teaches you how to make a painting, all while enjoying some wine if you want!

We went toMcCarthy's On The Riverwalk. They had a little separate room which was nice. McCarthy's hosts W&C a lot, so they had created a special menu with appetizers and sandwiches. 

  

  After looking over the menu, my mom ordered a Ruben and a glass of Riesling and I ordered a burger and Mascato. We figured sandwiches would be easy to eat! More on that later.

 We thought the 1 glass of wine might help us to relax and paint better. The ladies next to us thought a whole bottle per person would help them. They were hilarious, but definitely drunk.

This shows what we were supposed to be painting, a tree with a colorful sunset background.

Each person is set up with an easel and canvas.

 

Us while we waited to begin!

Neither of us are "artsy" at all, so we were both nervous. We started with the background, and DURING the background painting we got our food. Bad timing. Plus the instructor was going WAY too fast. We were sweating and felt like we couldn't keep up! The whole room was asking to slow down, so at least we know it wasn't just us.

 At last we had time for a break. We all finished up our backgrounds. This was mine when I thought I as finished, but I ended up doing a lot more to it.

My background

Mom working on her background

We waited for the first portion to dry and scarfed down some of our sandwiches. We had the rest boxed up to take home. If I do this again, I will defiantly eat beforehand. There is not time to eat.

After the background dried we painted on our moon, trees, and details. This part was more fun and relaxed. We were still stressed about it, thinking we were doing a terrible job, but at this point we just didn't care as much. By the end, we started to get the hang out the painting process. We ended up just laughing at our pictures and leaving. After looking at it today, I actually like it. Mom said the same thing. I would like to do it again, I feel like I would be less stressed about it.

My moon is more of an oval, and I would love to re-do many parts of this, but it's not terrible!

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Running has been at a halt since I tried on Saturday morning. I'm starting to feel better, but it has moved to my chest. I am going to attempt a run today when I get home from summer school. Hopefully the storms can hold off until then!

I weighed myself this morning and had a huge gain. I know I didn't eat very well this weekend, so I am chugging water and trying to stay within my calorie limit this week. When I eat junk, I crave junk. Vicious cycle. Time to get back to it!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Wednesday!

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Oakland Aaaaaachooo!

This weekend we planned on going to Chicago to watch the A's play the Soxs. Saturday morning I woke up early to get my file mile run in. As soon as my alarm went off, I knew I was sick. I freaked out a little bit- and posted a question asking if people had run before while sick. I also researched online. I decided to go ahead and try it and see how I felt. 

Not even 5 minutes later I had to turn around and come back. My body was telling me to STOP running. I walked most of the way home. The picture below shows just how sad it was. 

As soon as I got home I called the doctor and begged them to get me in for a strep test. I showered and went. No strep, but she said my tonsils were very swollen. So, that's good news and bad news. Good news is that it's not strep, bad news is that I can't get meds for it. 

Got back home and we were picked up almost immediately for Chicago! The car ride was okay. My body was achy but I wasn't going to let sickness ruin my time. Once we got to the stadium, we they tailgated until the stadium was  open.

 Around the third inning I was dying of boredom. Baseball just isn't my thing. My friend Allison was bored to, so we decided to walk around. A super nice guy let us into the lower deck, so we had a lot more options. She ended up buying a couple of shirts and we both bought some ice cream. Wasn't the healthiest but WOW did it feel amazing on my sore throat!

While we were exploring we saw the camera's taping the game...

 And the social media room. Super cool. They have two boxes full of phone chargers to charge your phone! Mine was dead so that was a plus.

 After finally venturing back to our seats, the game was almost over. Oops! After sitting down I realized how tired I was, and how walking around probably wasn't the best choice. It helped pass the time, though! After the game was over we drove to our hotel. I felt myself getting a fever, so I poped some tylenol. By the time we got to the hotel it was starting to come down. I think I overdid it with the walking.

That night, we went to dinner and had a blast with our friends, and ventured back home the next day.

 I am so glad I didn't chicken out of going! Too bad the A's lost, though. Sorry Drew! :) We also all got free SOX t-shirts. Win!

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