Crazy Cool If...

For my 24th birthday, my sister Brynne got me one of the best books I have ever read called "Push" by Chalene Johnson - the creator of all things Turbo. It is a a "diet and exercise" book, but it is also a book about goals and working towards the things you want in life and how fitness plays into that. Seriously - AMAZING book. I highly recommend it! The book has 30 chapters, and is designed to read a chapter each day. It is the end of July and I am STILL not done with the book - but oh I love it.

One of the first things that she has you do is list 10 crazy cool things that you want to have happen this year. 10 things that are like crazy - out of this world - but would be SO awesome if they happened. Attainable but hard things. And you write them in the present tense, like they have already happened. I made my list back in January and have really been giving it a lot of thought lately and changed a few of them and thought I'd post them!

It'd be crazy cool if...

• I am a certified turbo instructor
• I weigh 160 pounds
• I am a size 8
• We have a fully funded emergency fund (can pay all bills and remain debt free for 6 months if Jake lost his job)
• I have performed an endowment session in every Utah temple
• I have attended Camp Do More
• I have run a half marathon
• I have been sky diving
• I am sealed to my husband

Some of those we are really close on - the turbo instructor should be happening before Halloween {hopefully!!}, I should be at my goal weight by Thanksgiving, goal pant size probably around my birthday  {which means I may end up weighing less than my goal weight}, sky diving hopefully for my 25th birthday and HOPEFULLY sealed by Christmas!!! That would make this the most EPIC year of my life - I will have lost over 90 pounds just this year and 130 pounds overall, and become sealed to my amazing Jake. I look at wedding dresses all the time, since we are going to have professional pictures taken and I am going to rent another wedding dress {it'll be like our second wedding day!!} and that REALLY motivates me to work out! I love our wedding pictures, don't get me wrong, but I have changed SO much since then and want the new pictures to really show all those changes - my weight, my attitude, my complexion, my hair, blah blah.

On our wedding day, I was SO stressed. Like it's unmeasurable how stressed I was. I hope I never, ever feel that way again. And it was my fault because I was a bridezilla and had to have everything perfect and because I was so stressed I was SO snappy and rude leading up to the wedding and at times on the day of the wedding and my skin was broken out and I just feel mad at myself that I acted that way towards other people on my wedding day. I am dang lucky Jake still married me haha. And that my sisters still talked to me afterwards. So I want to get a "do over" and have our sealing day be absolutely perfect, in all the ways a wedding day is perfect - with mistakes, and smiles over someone being a little late rather than coming unglued about absolutely everything. And more importantly, I can't wait to know that Jake is mine beyond this life. That death can't seperate us. That our kids will be born to parents who were married by the property authority so that we can be a forever family. And that is a goal worth working towards!

New bed!

So I mentioned a few months ago that I "earned" a new dresser from Ikea because I weigh less than Jake. It still hasn't happened, and I have been having a hard time figuring out which one I want. But then I put laundry away once or twice a week and nearly knock the TV off the top of the dresser because I have to be so tough on the drawers to get them to close. I'd really prefer that we not break the TV. And I am so frustrated that no clothes fit in there!

On Thursday, I went to get new garments and work out clothes. It helped me realize that I need to get rid of a lot of t shirts that I have, since they are too big and I don't need 12 shirts to sleep in. Putting away the new stuff was hard because our dresser is just awesome and yeah you know that already. I was thinking maybe I could start storing things underneath my bed in clear boxes and then it hit me - we should get a bed with drawers in it!!

Jake agreed that storing stuff under the bed would be an awesome idea so I text Kyle Brooks, one of our really good friends that is awesome at wood working stuff. I asked him if he could build one for us and he started asking about what we wanted right away - one with 3 or 4 drawers, that is black, that the bed sits on so it is raised off the floor but Max won't be able to get under the bed either. After a few questions, Kyle sent me a picture from Ikea of exactly what we wanted, on sale. For cheaper than he could build it, and we wouldn't have to wait months to get it!! I was SO excited!! Jake went to get it the yesterday while I was at work, and when I got home we put it together. Well I started helping, and then Kyle & his wife Calli came over and Kyle took over so I didn't have to help anymore! A few hours and 2 Little Caesar's pizzas later I have a new bed!!!  

Notice how lifted it is compared to the nightstands - it is SUPER high! Max can't get up by himself yet!

Side view of the bed!

View of one of the 4 drawers open - there are 2 on my side of the bed and 2 on Jake's side

I seriously love it! We got a black fitted sheet to put over the box spring so that the "polka dots" on the box spring are no longer visible, and I already have stuff in my drawers! One of my drawers is specifically for work out clothes, sorted into outfits so that I just pick up the stack and it has everything I will need for my workout! The drawers are SO roomy, wide, and deep. I LOVE it! And because this Ikea experiment went so well, I think I am getting my new dresser this next week :) YAY for more space and storage and improving our bedroom!!

2012 is halfway over - time for a weight loss update!

I need to start thinking of better titles for my weight loss posts. Anywho - June is over and it's time to post how awesome my month went! I lost 9 lbs and I am down another pant size. My measurements showed that I gained some but my clothes fit way different so I must have measured something wrong either this month or last month. Total weight loss for the year is at 48 pounds, and I have lost 87 since I started losing weight 2 years ago. Crazy huh?? That means I am 40 pounds from my goal weight. 40! That is like 4 or 5 months away! And I am 3 pant sizes from my goal pant size! I will be at my goal by Thanksgiving, just you wait and see.

Turbo is going amazing. I had a day this month where I didn't feel up to Turbo so I went to the gym and did the elliptical for 30 minutes and then lifted weights for 30 minutes and it was the longest hour of my life. Elliptical used to be something I really liked but not since I found turbo. It was SO boring! I haven't been able to do Zumba at all for the past month because I am working 6 days a week for a little while and wouldn't have time to shower before I would need to be at work. Hopefully next month I will be back to my normal 3 days a week and I can go back to Zumba at least once a week.

There is a fitness challenge that Beachbody.com does {the company that sells P90X, Insanity & Turbo Fire} each year where the 2 people {male and female} with the most amazing weight loss stories win $100,000 each. I'm just putting it out there right now that I am going to win that next year. By the time I reach my goal, I will have lost 130 pounds and who knows - maybe I'll keep going after that. Thinking about that helps me when I feel tired during a workout or when I don't want to wake up or when an ice cream shake sounds way better than a bowl of strawberries with cottage cheese. Getting it out there now, in writing, so I can prove that I knew this would happen - I am going to win that challenge next year.

Here are some pictures from this month - I feel vain that I take so many pictures of myself all the time but I am constantly shocked when I look in the mirror and see how small my waist is getting. I bought a new pair of capris the other day {in a smaller size - WOOT!} and looking at them on the hanger, the waist looked way too small. And they fit. That is an awesome feeling!

My hair is growing!! And my waist is shrinking! WOOT!

One of my new Maurices shirts!

Day of the rodeo!

Another of the Maurice's shirts

How I started out my 4th of July!

Yep, you guessed it - another new Maurices shirt

Progress picture - from January to now. And yes, the pink cardigan is a Maurices shirt haha

I feel like I am in the home stretch - almost done!! I am no longer doing weight watchers as of today. Because of how I have been eating so clean {TONS of fruits and vegetables}, my weight watchers points total shows I should be eating a lot more food {fruits and vegetables are 0 points} but they do have calories in them, so I am eating enough but my points doesn't reflect that. As a result, I am switching to counting calories so that it is a more accurate reflection of what I am eating. I discovered quinoa this month - holy smokes its yummy! It had brown rice and garlic in it and WOW it was something I could eat often! I started eating cottage cheese too, thanks to Brynne - I may have told you that last month but either way I am telling you now. And because it is summer, we have been having tons of fresh fruit and TONS of BBQ's - I am so in love with Turkey Burgers it's almost pathetic. Put that on a sandwich thin with either some spicy 3 pepper hummus or a 100 cal pack of guacamole and HMMMMMMM HMMMMMM HMMMMMM!!!!! Yeah I am going to start drooling over my keyboard just thinking about it.

Can't wait to post pics a month from now! I will have lost 100 pounds by then!

Retail Therapy

Two weekends ago I had the chance to go get some new clothes! I have been thinking for a little bit that my wardrobe needed to be updated. I have been slowly cleaning out my closet of stuff that doesn't fit anymore and as a result have very little to wear. Well I changed that on last Saturday! I went and bought 5 new shirts. I don't think I have ever bought that many shirts at once in my entire life.

I went to Maurices and found some SUPER cute stuff on the 30% off racks. They started a dressing room for me and by the time I got back there to try stuff on there was 9 shirts back there. I have never, ever, EVER been able to try on everything I brought back and have every single item fit. EVER. And I was able to shop for these items in the "regular" area of the store - not the plus size area. There was a few things I tried on that I didn't love and I didn't end up buying them because of the line from the movie "The Blind Side" - Sandra Bullock says that "if you don't love it in the store, you won't love it at home".

I love everything I got and when I got home, I "celebrated" the fact that I got some cute new clothes, on sale, that fit AWESOME by cleaning out MORE of the stuff from my closet that doesn't fit anymore! That feeling I get when I try something on and I actually like how it looks on me is becoming such a high. That, by itself, is motivation enough to get me to keep working out and watching how I eat. Add in the increased energy, clear skin, positive attitude {most of the time} and AWESOME people I have met and it makes it SO much more worth it. I am so glad I started making these changes to my life!

Independence day gratitude

So it's the 4th of July and I am watching Big Bang Theory on my couch while Jake is golfing with Dustin. And all I can think about is how grateful I am for so many things I have in my life. That is the way I normally feel around Thanksgiving, not on the 4th of July but hey I'll roll with it! Always love a chance to be grateful!

The biggest thing coming to mind is how different my life is from 2 years ago. Like I seriously can't believe how different everything is. 2 years ago, I was at my highest weight. We were $14,000 ish in debt, working towards paying off the Mazda but still owed a ton on the Jeep. I wasn't active in the church, still no where near having a temple recommend. I was on approximately 7 prescriptions, and met with a Psychologist twice a week. Every week. For 3 months. To say that I was at an all time low would be the serious understatement of the century.

We were on the Dave Ramsey plan and working towards getting out of debt, but we weren't there yet. We were a month away from paying off the Mazda and had no money at all because every single cent we made went to debt. We ended up having our first anniversary in August and ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse (with a gift card from Jake's work), went to a movie (with a gift card from my work) and then ate cherry cheesecake at home. Look out - we went ALL OUT on that one, not.

And now, here we are - 2 years later. We have a house. Our own house. That we own. Well we have a mortgage but we aren't renters. We love our house and our neighborhood. We have two pretty nice cars & they work. We have no credit card debt. We have pretty nice stuff - phones, computers, our furniture, etc. We have money in savings and are able to do fun stuff pretty regularly, like going to the movies or to dinner. We still do pretty cheap stuff since we are trying to save money, but we have more money to spend on fun things. And I work LESS than I did then! We are getting ready to celebrate our 3 year anniversary and I am so excited! Hoping we go somewhere fun overnight, like Park City but the plans are still up in the air.

I have a temple recommend now - and have been to the temple and received my endowments. I get to take the sacrament every week. I have not one but two callings - one as a visiting teaching supervisor and one as a nursery teacher. I LOVE my callings and my ward and the changes I have noticed in myself as I made the progress necessary to get me to this point. We are working towards going to the temple together as a family to be sealed and words can't express how excited I am about that!!!!!

And obviously, you know all about my weight loss. As of yesterday, I have lost 90 lbs from my highest point two years ago. The changes I have noticed in my body, my health, my attitude are so worth it that I would do it all over again in a second. The things I have learned about my body and the way that eating and exercise affect my body are so worth this! But the good news is, I never need to lose that much weight again. I am 40 pounds from my goal weight, and I will need to tone up and lose baby weight after we have each of our little kiddo's but I will never ever let myself get the way I was 2 years ago. In any aspect of my life. I am declaring Independence from the old me. Fully embracing the new me - and SO excited to see where I am next 4th of July!!

Happy Independence Day!

We're from Lehi, Ya'll!

This past Saturday we went to the Lehi Round-up rodeo! Jake & I have been to quite a few rodeo's but neither of us had been to Lehi's before. We went with a huge group of friends and had so much fun!!

Us with our sunglasses on - it was SO bright!

Me & my sexy hubby

Me & Suzie!

Kyle, Callie & me

Kyle, Callie, Jake & me

Callie & me

Our blinding view - we couldn't see for about an hour!

Pretty sunset

Some Rodeo action

Adobe brought in some motocross stunt riders - it was really cool!

They let all the horses & bulls into the arena afterwards and had them running - horses running are so pretty :)