Recurring Series

On April

April was a fabulous month! I really, really enjoyed April. I felt really strong and in control. I started working out six times a week (the habit I wanted to change this month!), and it was a successful month of weight loss. Plus, it was just a good month. Nothing terribly exciting happened, just a bunch of little moments that, looking back on, make me smile.

The highlights from April were playing with sting rays at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (and seeing Winter the Dolphin in person!), participating in Amber’s DietBet and completely changing my healthy living mindset, and making my new favorite dish: Loaded Turkey Santa Fe Baked Potato Skins.

The low point of my month was when Dutch wasn’t feeling well. Having a sick pup is so hard, and even though I knew he wasn’t sick sick, just trying to rid his body of something, it was still a little nerve-wracking. Thankfully, he is all better and back to his old self.

The best thing I spent money on this month was a new pair of dress pants from Loft! They fit me like a glove, are the perfect size length-wise, and I feel really good in them. That’s always nice!

In April, I wrote about the different ways I feel like an adult and the different ways I still feel like a kid, and things I always do, sometimes do, and never do. This month, I also started writing weekly updates on my attempts with losing weight and eating healthily.

The progress I made toward my obsessive goal (losing 50 lbs!) was losing 6 lbs! I am hoping I can bring this momentum into May because April was a terrific month for weight loss and healthy living.

A habit I would like to change in May is getting to bed earlier. I’ve fallen into a pattern of staying up until 10:00 (I know, I’m such a wild party animal), and I really want to get back to my 9pm bedtimes. That means I need to close my laptop, turn off the TV, and be preparing for bed by 8pm so I can have time to read and slowly unwind before turning out the lights. I was doing really awesome with this before, but have fallen out of the habit.

I am looking forward to May because IT’S CRUISE MONTH! Five days, five days, five days! I can’t wait!

1. Get to a healthy BMI and lose at least 40 lbs.

So far in 2014, I’ve lost a little over 8 lbs. I need to lose around 4 lbs a month to meet this goal. Still doable!

2. Pay off my credit cards, start an emergency fund (have at least $1,500 saved), and pay off one school loan.

Credit cards are paid off; the emergency fund is at $360. My upcoming cruise has stalled some money-saving attempts, but I am hoping to add at least $400 to my savings account in May.

3. Read 75 books, including 10 off this list.

I read 8 books in March, putting me at 27 books read this year, and around 3 books ahead of schedule. Wahoo!

4. Get a tattoo.

No progress made yet.

5. Travel to Miami to attend a Miami Dolphins game.

No progress made yet. Waiting for tickets to go on sale! (But the schedule was released so I have a few games on my radar that would be fun to be in attendance for.)

What was the highlight of your April? What was the best thing you bought last month?

Categories: Recurring Series

Always… Sometimes… Never…

It’s Friday! Hooray! We are in the single-digit countdown for my cruise – 9 days to go! Next weekend is going to be busy, busy, busy but this weekend will be fairly low-key and I’m excited to spend some time reading, working on my fiction novel, and getting in solid workouts. For today, I thought it would be fun to do an “always, sometimes, never” post. (Idea stolen from Lisa!) The last time I did this type of post (almost a year ago to the day, actually!), I wrote it about cruising so today, I’ll keep things random and about my everyday life. Sound good? Let’s dive in!

Play with my hair. Allllllll the time. I am forever playing with my hair. I love twirling it around my fingers, running my hands through it and messing up my part, playing with my bangs. Sigh. It’s one of those habits I can’t seem to break!

Need to have my ceiling fan on when sleeping. I don’t know if I need it because it keeps my room cool (I like an ice-cold room when I sleep!), or because it makes a comforting hum that makes it easy to fall asleep to. Whatever it is, if I ever try to go to sleep without my ceiling fan on, everything just feels wrong.

Take off my shoes at work. I read a blog post the other day that implored women to never, ever take our shoes off at work. How unprofessional! Psht. Whatever. It’s not like I’m walking around the office shoeless, just when I’m at my desk. Being shoeless with my legs curled under me is my favorite way to work. If that’s unprofessional, then so be it!

Let my dog kiss my face. I know, I know, I knooooow. Some of you are totally grossed out by that. My mom doesn’t let Dutch kiss her face, but I honestly have never minded it! I’m just a dog person to my core and one of their ways of showing happiness and excitement and love is by slobbery kisses. Dutch would full-on make out with me if I let him (which I don’t!), but I don’t mind if he plasters me with some kisses when I come home. It’s not like anyone else is lining up to kiss me… 😉

Think about moving to an entirely new state and starting over. Often, I try to picture myself moving to an entirely new state and building a new life somewhere different. Taking the leap and doing something so completely out of my comfort zone. Something that would shake up my life, and cause me to grow in leaps and bounds. I don’t know if it’s something I even really want, or if it just sounds fun and exciting and crazy and I want people to think I am fun and exciting and crazy. Ah. It’s fun to imagine, but I honestly can’t imagine not living in Florida!

Wonder if I’ll ever find My Person. Sometimes, I get really dejected when I think about dating and how I’ve yet to find someone who affects me. Someone I could be myself around – in all my weird, awkward glory – and who I could see myself building a life with. The majority of guys I meet just don’t do it for me. Sure, they’re nice guys and fun to be with, but ultimately, I have a very specific idea of what I want, and I’m not willing to settle for anything less than radical, life-changing love. I want to believe My Person is out there, but it can be very lonesome and disheartening to realize you aren’t close at all to finding him.

Spend my lunch break reading snarky blogging forums. Oh, this is such a guilty pleasure. It’s entertaining and funny, and sometimes really, really enlightening.

Take Dutch on walks in my pajamas. To be fair, this only happens if it’s early in the morning (before 7am) or later at night (after 8pm) because I’m too lazy to put on real clothes. Nobody is usually out at this time and it’s usually a quick walk around our apartment. I don’t know why I feel like defending myself but… yeah. I do this.

Listen to music when I’m writing. It’s too distracting for me. Complete silence works much better. Sometimes, I’ll put on classical music if I need to drown out background noise (like this week, at work, when construction was happening in the office!), but mostly, I just like working in silence.

Knew how much protein I was getting daily, until I started tracking it in MFP. MFP gives me 73 grams a day for protein and I almost always eat more than that. I eat meat with almost every meal, so that’s mostly where it’s coming from. It’s just eye-opening to see how much protein I’m consuming and that a few meatless dishes probably wouldn’t hurt. (Now, if only I could find a dish that looked appetizing…)

Go a day without reading a book. Reading is just my thing, you know? I am always reading, whether I’m working out, getting ready for work, winding down for the night, taking a bubble bath, in the car, etc. Since I was a kid, there has never been a day that has gone by where I have not sat down for at least 15 minutes to read a book.

Use our fireplace. For some reason, our apartment came with a fireplace. I do not know why. We live in Florida. The coldest it got this winter was maybe 40 degrees. While it’s a nice addition to the apartment (that we didn’t have to pay extra for), it’s wholly unnecessary.

Your turn! What’s one of your “always,” “sometimes,” and “never?”

Categories: Recurring Series

Virtual Coffee Date

It’s Friday! How about we prepare for this holiday weekend with a virtual coffee date? I’m drinking a steaming hot cup of coffee, sweetened with creamer and a dash of sugar. Let’s dive right into our chat, yeah?

If we were having a coffee today… I would begin by talking about the DietBet I’m currently participating in. You guys! It is going so well. The biggest change I have made is with my exercise. After struggling for months and months and months with finding the motivation to exercise, I’ve been getting up early every day like it ain’t no thing. I don’t even struggle to get out of bed when my alarm goes off at 5am. I just get up! Like I’m some badass workout queen or something! I think committing myself to this DietBet and having accountability in our Facebook group has been instrumental. Plus! I’ve been tracking in MyFitnessPal every single day since the ‘Bet started. In the morning, I simply input all the food I’m going to eat for the day, so that way I have a plan for my eating & I don’t have to open the app every single time I eat something. I find this system works best for me. I have my second weigh-in tomorrow and I’m crossing my fingers I see a loss. (I’m so paranoid I’ve gained!)

If we were having coffee today… I would also mention how I’m thinking of buying a heart rate monitor – and probably ask if you have a good recommendation for one! I’ve wanted to get one for months, but I’ve kept putting it off, but now that I’m counting calories, I think it would be super useful. Not only would it give me a slightly more accurate number than what MFP tells me, but it would help me to see how hard (or not hard!) I am working out, to make sure I’m always getting the fullest potential of my workouts.

If we were having coffee today… I would tell you how excited I am to leave on my cruise two weeks from Sunday! I haven’t been on a proper vacation since around this time last year, so I am well overdue. Every time I think about being on a ship again, I get so excited. I’ve mentioned it so many times, but cruising is truly my favorite way to vacation and I just can’t wait to get away.

If we were having coffee today… I would probably discuss the fact that I’ve decided to disable my online dating profiles for the time being. There are multiple reasons why I decided on this, but the biggest reason is that I really want to take the time to focus on myself right now. My biggest priority currently is my health and losing weight, and I don’t want anything to take my focus or attention away from that. I’m just at a point in my life where I can be completely selfish with my time and energy, and dating is not something I feel like extending those to.

If we were having coffee today… we would most likely talk about Easter and I would admit that I have no idea what my family is doing! My mom’s fiance is coming back to town after being on the road since early January, so we may end up doing what we did last year – going to church & then grilling out. That sounds A-OK to me!

If we were meeting for a coffee date, what would you like to tell me? What are your plans for the Easter weekend?

Categories: Recurring Series

Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow

Happy Friday! This week has felt very long to me, for some reason. (I said many curse words when I woke up on Thursday morning and realized it wasn’t Friday.) But it’s been a good week and I’ve had a great start to the first few days of my DietBet. Yay! Let’s ease into the weekend with a fun “yesterday, today & tomorrow” post, yeah?

Yesterday, I…

Woke up early to work out. My plan was to do 30 minutes of cardio, followed by 15-20 minutes of strength training, but I didn’t get started early enough to do both, so just did this elliptical interval workout I found on Pinterest, which was killer.
Listened to the latest Joy the Baker podcast while getting ready for work. My new thing is listening to podcasts while I’m getting ready for the day and it is my favorite! (Joy and Tracy make me giggle so much!)
Had the worst time focusing at work. Sometimes, I can whip through my writing easy as pie, and other days, it’s a struggle to write even one page of content. I was aiming to write 10 pages and only managed 8.
Scheduled one of my cruise excursions! This is the first time my mom & I are trying an excursion that is not offered through the cruise line, but Carnival is lacking in fun, inexpensive excursions for the Bahamas. So, yesterday, I put down a deposit to spend the day at a resort! We’ll have free rein of their beach, pool, and bar area, use of kayaks and floats, as well as a $40 voucher each to spend on food and drinks. Spending the day laying by the pool and beach, sipping fruity drinks? Sign me up!
Had an unsatisfying meal at Panera (I had their smoked turkey sandwich with a side salad and kettle chips and it did not fill me up!), so I came home and made popcorn, which was intensely satisfying. And polished it off with a Paleo chocolate-covered cookie dough bite!

Today, I…

Woke up early (my fifth day in a row!) to exercise. Finding the motivation to exercise has been directly related to adding it to My Fitness Pal and gaining extra calories for the day. I try not to use them if I can, but it’s nice to have that buffer as staying at 1,200 calories a day is very hard for me. (Though to be honest, I am typically more concerned about staying within my limits for fat, carbs, sugar, and protein.)
Have an easy day of work ahead of me: writing two pages of content and proofing a coworker’s pages. Yay, Friday!
Will have taco leftovers for lunch. I am really, really excited about this. (Too excited?)
Will take a nap. Because Fridays are for napping, amiright?
Will meet with my writing friend at Starbucks to spend a few hours working on my WIP. Tonight, I plan on doing a lot of work on my plot, a character analysis, and my book blurb.

Tomorrow, I will…

Weigh in for the DietBet! All I need to lose this week is 1.7 lbs, but I’m hoping to lose more to build a buffer. (I’m a little afraid that I won’t be able to keep this motivation up for three more weeks!)
Try to catch up on DVR recordings. Oh, I am so behind on The Blacklist, Parenthood, Nashville, Scandal, The Mindy Project, etc. I am really looking forward to a day spent on the couch, snuggling with Dutch and watching TV. (My life. It is exciting.)
Attempt to find a wide-brimmed sun hat for my cruise. I know, I know. It’s a little dorky to have a sun hat but I don’t care. I want one because I think they’re cute and my scalp tends to burn really easily (and I always forget to apply sunscreen there!) and it’ll keep me cool (as in temperature-wise, not fashion-wise. I know that.).
Wash and vacuum my car. It is so dirty that it’s a little embarrassing. (Okay, a lot embarrassing!)
Enjoy my cheat meal! I have been looking forward to my cheat meal all week and I can barely handle myself. It’s the little things, sometimes. (Say what you want about cheat meals – I find they work for me!)

What is one thing you did yesterday, did today, and will do tomorrow?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in April

Feeling… worried about my poor sick pup! Over the weekend, my mom made him homemade dog treats (coconut oil cubes & “Beggin’ Strips”) because we’ve noticed he’s been having an issue with dry skin again. Currently, he gets regular oatmeal baths every 4-6 weeks and we started feeding him a grain-free pet food that’s good for dogs with sensitive skin, which has really helped. But the last time he was given a bath (we take him to PetSmart because it’s just easier and the girl who takes care of him loves him to bits and pieces), she mentioned he had dry skin again and sure enough, he’s been itching a ton lately! So we wanted to switch him over to all-natural, grain-free pet treats, too. (We currently feed him “junky” treats, like Beggin’ Strips and Snausages. It’s bad, I know!) Long story long, my mom made homemade pet treats and Dutch’s sensitive stomach did not handle it well. Let’s just say we had to get out the steam vacuum to clean up our carpets. Yep. Very fun. So! We’re going to try giving him actual dog treats (all natural) which I think his stomach will handle a bit better. We may try giving him the coconut oil cubes again, but in a smaller dosage, and after he’s feeling better. I think those would really help his dry skin!

Reading… The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I just started it yesterday and I’m less than 50 pages in, so I don’t have much of an opinion yet. It’s this month’s pick for book club and everyone on Goodreads has nothing but great things to say, so I just hope I love it as much as everyone else does!

Watching… Crisis! Is anyone else watching this show? I am hooked. The premise is that a bus full of high school students gets kidnapped and nearly every kid on the bus has an influential parent. (The President’s son, a senator’s daughter, etc.) And the kidnappers are forcing these parents to do something illegal to get their kids back. (There’s some sort of conspiracy plot, or something, related to these illegal incidents, I think, but that hasn’t been revealed yet.) The FBI is involved, but the kidnappers always seem to be one step ahead of them. It’s such a good show and I look forward to it every week!

Anticipating… starting my first sewing project! I am honestly the last person you would ever think to tackle a sewing project, but a good friend (my writing partner, in fact!) hosts a fun “Stitch & Bitch” sewing group every Thursday and invited me to come along and learn how to sew. I decided, why the hell not, it’s not like I have this super busy life and couldn’t handle another hobby/social group. So in a few weeks’ time, I’m going to attempt my first sewing project (I’m thinking of a pillow?) to see how I like it.

Planning… to start coloring my hair myself. The whole reason I went back to brunette in October was that being blonde was expensive. It was easily costing me upwards of $100 every 6-8 weeks to keep my roots fresh. Well. I went to my hair salon on Friday to get my color freshened up and it cost me $84! Eighty. Four. Freaking. Dollars. That’s ridiculous. So, it’s time I start coloring my hair myself. I’ve done it once and it turned out just fine, but I always worry I am going to royally screw the dye job up and wind up with awful-looking hair. (Any tips? Best brand to buy?)

Wishing… that these next few weeks would fly by! My cruise is 25 days away and this time four weeks from now, my mom and I will be relaxing poolside in the Bahamas, sipping fruity drinks and enjoying the island breeze on our skin. I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Wondering… if I should hit “check out” with the items currently sitting in my Loft.com shopping cart. I am in desperate need of new work clothes, but I keep putting off shopping because a) I have a little thing called debt I’m trying to take care of and b) I want to lose weight. Well, this mentality can serve me well in some cases, but it comes down to the fact that I have one nice pair of well-fitting dress pants (and I “get away” with wearing a pair of black Old Navy skinny jeans most days, but those are quickly getting worn out and faded) and a bunch of shirts that are losing shape. Right now, I have a pair of dress pants and a cute blouse sitting in my shopping cart and I think I’m going to bite the bullet and buy them because a) they are a necessity and b) they’re having a sale that is kinda too good to pass up!

Loving… sunshine, being more social, homemade egg sandwiches for breakfast, chocolate-covered espresso beans, getting back into an exercise routine, playing with sting rays at the marine aquarium, and having funny conversations with coworkers.

What are you reading, anticipating, and wishing for currently?