Merry Christmas?

Happy Monday!  And Merry Frickin' Christmas!  It snowed this weekend.  Like 3 inches snowed.  It melted, but it's May for goodness sakes!

Friday night I got in my miles!  I was proud of myself because I almost decided to go home without going to the gym first...I talked myself into it, though, and got in 3.5 miles!

I had a pretty productive Saturday and Sunday, but not in the way of exercising.  On Saturday, my mom and I went to the greenhouse that my in-laws run and worked on planting my wedding flowers.  It went well, but because the weather is so crappy, the greenhouse is much more full than it normally is this time of year.  We had to really work hard to find a spot for all of my flowers!

After a day of planting, Dustin and I went out to dinner with my parents and aunt and uncle at our local Mexican restaurant.  Good food and great conversation was had, and a Negra Modelo might have been consumed.  It was totally worth it!  We then went to our friend's house for more beer and conversation, then travelled home (I stopped at my first beer, so I was DD) around ten.  After a few miles, I drove through the WORST snow storm I have EVER been in.  It only lasted about 4 miles, but when you're driving about 15 mph, searching for reflectors on the side of the road, it seems like forever!  Needless to say, I'm ready for summer to get here!  NOW!

Yesterday we woke up to snow, but it quickly melted off and actually turned out to be a pretty nice day!  I got the house cleaned in the morning and in the afternoon we set out to work on trimming the trees in the orchard...again.  We started this project a few weeks ago, but there are so many trees (all of which are 100+ years old and haven't been trimmed in at least 40+ years) that it is taking us forever!  We enlisted the help of our friends and got most of it done!

I was supposed to get in my long run yesterday, but it didn't happen.  I'm swapping it today since today's workout is stretch & strengthen.  I'm using yesterday's tree trimming project as my strengthen because I hauled heavy limbs all day!  After work I'll get in my mileage and be caught up again.  I have a feeling my whole training plan is going to work this way...trading days so I can get in the right mileage.  I hope it works out for me!

Wish me luck on my 4 miles tonight!  It doesn't sound long but my motivation is lagging today.  If all goes well I'm going to add in another half mile or mile...

Big News!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The most exciting news of all!  I'm engaged!  Dustin proposed to me on Christmas morning, and it was so incredibly perfect, I can't even describe it!  It wasn't a total surprise, as I knew he had talked to my parents (another story in itself), but I had no clue he had already got a ring.  So needless to say it was unexpected and PERFECT!

So I spent my entire Christmas showing off my ring and grinning from ear to ear (what Dustin and I would like to call a shit-eating grin).  It was fantastic.  To top it off, we both got some amazing gifts from our family, and got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with both our families.

Now I have some extreme wedding planning and wedding workouts to plan!  I think we might have a date--July 24--and I have about a month before I'm going to search for my wedding dress.  I know I don't have to be perfect for finding my dress, but I want to lose a little before I go shopping so I can feel better about myself.  It is a perfect opportunity for me to GET ON IT with my workouts and eating habits! 

I'm not going to get a workout in today, because we STILL have family functions going on tonight, so all I can do today is eat healthy and prepare for tomorrow and get my ass in gear.  I have 15 pounds to lose, and I want to lose 7 pounds by January 31.  I can do this!  I just have to focus on my goal and work hard.  I can't let the stress of any wedding details make me overeat or do anything extreme.  This is especially because I do not want my wedding to be stressful (of course, easier said than done).

I weighed myself this morning and I was 166...up one but not bad, and I still have two days before my weigh-in, so I'm going to work on getting down to 165 again.  The next week I want a two-pound loss.  By January 31 I want to be 158.  Maybe a lofty goal, but one I'm going to work my ass off for.

After that, I'm going to buy myself a new scale.  The one I have I think isn't so accurate as to what my actual weight is, but it's the one I use to track my weight loss because I know that scale.  I think it says I'm about five pounds less than what I really am, so after I get my seven pound loss I'm going to get a new scale and reevaluate everything.  I'll still base my 15 pounds off of my old scale, but I'm going to switch it all to the new scale later.*

*Note that while I typed that last paragraph I even confused myself.  Sorry!

Anyway, have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve!  I'm pretty excited, I love Christmas and everything about it.  My someday-to-be-mother-in-law was stressing out about everything last night, and I just sat there hoping that I don't ever get like that.  Now, I don't have to cook for many people (although I secretly would love to take that on--I love that kind of cooking pressure) or have people over at my house, so really I have nothing to stress about.  But I hope that even when I get older I will be organized enough to get stuff done so I don't have to stress over what needs to be done.

Dustin and I made two batches of fudge last night (his idea) and also made some candy covered pretzels, which are awesome.  I also sampled the fudge this morning, because I've never made it on my own and wanted to see if it turned out...DELIGHTFUL!  I'm pretty proud of our efforts and I'm looking forward to some more baking when I get off work (ok, so I'm blogging at work, but there is seriously nothing happening here) at noon.  I've for sure got to make some french bread or rolls tonight for dinner with Dustin's side of the family.

Tomorrow will prove to be a busy and fun day!  We're going to start it off by opening gifts at our house, just the two of us.  Then we shall make the long trek to his parents house (about 30 yards away from our house) and have Christmas breakfast with his family.  Then more presents and stockings.  This year we drew names and only had to get gifts for one person (besides his parents) and then we had to get everybody a stocking stuffer.  We wanted to be a little more cost effective instead of getting everybody (me, Dustin, his sisters and his sister's bf) a gift.  Thank goodness, because the bank account is already lacking funds.

After all that funness, we're going to head into town to my parents house to do gifts and stockings yet again.  Then we'll all trek to my grandma's house for Christmas dinner and our famous family gift exchange.  I just got the exciting news that Aunt N will be joining in for the exchange, so that will make for a fun *evil smile* and interesting time!

The only thing I'm a little worried about is how dinner and everything is going to go at my grandma's house.  It will be our first Christmas without my grandpa, and I'm already stressing (ok, so I'm stressing a little) about that, because we haven't really had a family event there since everyone was there during his funeral and the events leading up to it.  *By the way, in terms of New Years Resolutions, I need to visit both of my grandma's more often, like once a week at least.  They are special people!

As far as eating during the holidays, maintaining is what my plan is.  I really haven't been losing much weight, not because I can't, but mostly because I haven't been trying that hard.  I'm ok with that, mainly because I pretty much weigh what I did before college, with the exception of a few pounds.  I want to lose weight, but I'm not fat, and I don't intend on gaining any weight this Christmas.  Just eat in moderation, have fun, and be merry!  I'll get to the transformation phase again after Christmas!

In closing (since I've pretty much written a novel), I hope everybody has a great Christmas and Christmas Eve!  Have fun!

Christmas Eve Eve!

Yay for Christmas!  I think in all my "busy-ness" I kind of didn't give myself a chance to take a step back and look at things until last night and this morning.  It has finally actually snowed, and instead of just looking at the snow-packed roads on the way to work this morning, I actually looked out the window at the awesome scenery before me.  I live in a beautiful place!  That may sound corny, and maybe it is, but it for sure is the complete truth.  The snow-covered mountains of Abert Rim looked so cool today!

Ok, that aside, I actually did get a workout in yesterday when I got off work.  I got on the stairstepper for 20 minutes and then hopped on the treadmill for another 15 minutes, totalling 35 minutes of workout time.  This is good, but I'm a little mad at myself for just stopping all of a sudden on the treadmill, just because I wanted to.  I had full intentions of going longer, but I just stopped.  The S is for Sucks (come on, I hope someone has watced homestarrunner.com!)

After, I ran to the store to get stuff for dinner and hurried home (ok, hurried meant a nice slow pace of about 50 mph because of the roads).  I made tacos for dinner, using ground turkey for myself and ground beef for Dustin.  I have to say, this is the first time I've ever used ground turkey, and I LOVE IT.  For some reason I've been afraid to try it because I have grown up in a RED meat and potatoes family.  Ground turkey seemed like a sin in my world, but I bought some the other day, telling myself I needed to try it.  It was great, especially if you go into it knowing that it isn't going to taste exactly like ground beef.

We ate dinner in front of the TV because OSU was playing in their last game of the season, the Las Vegas Bowl (it was horrible, by the way).  Then we moved everything off of the coffee table and finished wrapping presents, which took about 2 hours and made me cranky by the time it was over.

So today I'm determined to get another workout in, especially in light of the fact that I'll more than likely make some poor food choices this weekend.  I'm also committing myself to count my calories from now on, even through Christmas dinner!  Scary thought, but even if I overindulge, I will at least be aware of what I'm eating.

Oh, I almost forgot...I weighed in this morning at 165.  No change.  Not horrible, but I'd like to see that scale move down!  It is my fault though, because I haven't been good this past week, and I can't expect one workout to make it all better!

Good Start

Chalk one up for me.  I started the week off great, getting workouts in both last night and during lunch today.  Last night I got on the treadmill for 23 minutes (let me explain).  I ran 2.25 miles in those 23 minutes, but I struggled, not with the actual running, but with my stomach.  You know when you get that gut-wrenching pain (not a side ache) that pretty much makes you jump off the treadmill and run for the closest bathroom?  I had that issue last night, so it was a short workout, but still a hard one.

Today I walked for 30 minutes on the treadmill during my lunch.  I walked 2.06 miles on an incline, also short and sweet, but still a workout.  I'd say I've been successful today, because if I didn't walk at lunch, I wouldn't have worked out at all tonight because Dustin and I have dinner plans with friends.

I still need to work on my eating habits, and for some reason I keep forgetting to take my vitamins every morning.  I get the night ones in fine, but I cannot seem to get the morning ones in.  So it looks like I'll be packing my pill container around with me everywhere so I won't forget.  Don't forget your vitamins people!  If you need any help choosing a supplement, feel free to email me (caitlinsimms1@gmail.com) and I'll get you information to help you decide!

Let's see if I can get a good interval workout in tomorrow, but it might not happen, because once again I have plans after work.  Miss popular!  Ha, not really, I'm just busy getting ready for Christmas.  Wreath making, here I come!

Oh, by the way, my weight today was 165, down one pound!  So worth it!