Challenge Week 2

Lunch break post!

I forgot to post yesterday but it was kind of a busy day.

First - I've definitely kicked my exercise routine up a notch. My good friend Sarah is now my gym partner and has been great at encouraging me over the past two weeks. We have been going to the gym almost every day and working out at minimum of an hour and a half each time. Yay muscle strength!

Second - 1 more pound off the scale this week. That makes a total of 2.4 pounds in 2 weeks. Of course I would love to see it rapidly fall off but I've been reminded that this is a healthy weightloss.

Third - Yesterday Drew and I did the 1st walk-thru of our house with the builder. Friday will be our final walk-thru and then we close on Monday of next week! But there will be a separate post on that later.

Got to get back to lunch. Hope you're having a happy Tuesday!

Challenge…Accepted!

I’ve joined a fitness challenge and I’m doing my best to not let my competitive spirit destroy my running shoes. We are two weeks in to a 10 week challenge where participants compete to lose the greatest percentage of weight healthily. There are prizes weekly and an overall monetary prize at the end.

This competition couldn’t come at a better time. Today marks 96 days until our wedding and I want to be in tip-top shape for my walk down the aisle. I also know that I have the tendency to be lazy not very active and think this competition could really help me start making healthier plans for my life.

Each week we are challenged to exercise at least 150 minutes and keep track of our food consumption on MyFitness Pal. If you want to join in on the fun, you can join the website for free. My username is selawrence – feel free to add me as a friend! Having to be responsible to log my progress in each day makes me accountable to the other people I have added on the site. Peer pressure can be a good thing!

I was on vacation for the first week of the challenge so am a week behind the others competing. I have cut my calorie intake to 1200 per day and have started exercising three days (or more) a week. My friend Sarah is helping out by coming with me to the gym and encouraging me to keep going. I have also cut out all sodas and coffee and am drinking at least 8 cups of water a day. I plan each meal of the day and break it into smaller portions that I section out into sandwich bags.

Let’s talk about no caffeine…really? What was I thinking! This was my own decision for the dieting portion of this challenge. You have to understand how hard of a sacrifice that is for me. I was raised on Diet Coke. My future husband works for Buffalo Rock. Sodas are everywhere and I don’t even have to ask. At work, I had been thriving on at least three cups of coffee a day with lots of sugar. Under periods of high stress, I’m known to roam with soda in each hand. Needless to say, I did regret my decision for the first three days of the challenge - I had headaches nonstop. That has passed and I have even taken my coffee pot off of the counter.

One Week Results:

1.4 pounds down! 

Portioning and water consumption was the most difficult part of this past week. I learned that its better to eat with others around, especially when they know the challenge you’ve accepted. I exercised for 120 minutes total last week and did about three hours of outdoor work on Thursday (raking and bagging leaves, etc). Each Monday I will log my progress on my blog so that I feel even more accountable.

Questions – Have you ever gone through a fitness challenge before or decided to suddenly up your game in dieting/exercising? How did it go? For you caffeine lovers out there…ever given up the sodas for a period of time? Were you able to survive? I will definitely need encouragement for this!

Thanks for reading!

Canton Fall 2012

Every year on the second Thursday in October, the city of Canton, MS shuts down for a gigantic flea market. I'm talking streets upon streets of vendors. It always draws a large crowd of 100,000+ people. Businesses close down; school is cancelled; this is where it's at. This was Drew's first year and he has been found saying he definitely wants to go back! Score! We found a lot of cute things for our house (and I found a couple of things for my wardrobe too)



Canton Adventures

And so the yearly trek to Canton, MS begins. We are now in Jackson and will be waking in 6 hours to venture towards the Canton Flea Market - a one day shopping spree from 5 am to 5 pm. I will post pics tomorrow. For now, I must get my beauty sleep!

House Update! Everything and the Kitchen Sink...

Closing is still set for October 29th...just 21 days from today. Drew walked in to meet with the builder about an issue with one of our closets and he was shocked to see this:

The builder said they have installed the wrong floors in 3 homes in the past 5 weeks. BUT they can fix it and we can still close by the 29th. Our floors should be a similar color to our cabinets. I'm so glad Drew set the meeting with the builder in time!

In other news, there is progress! We have a kitchen sink, light fixtures, mirrors, toilets, and counter tops. Everything is slowly but surely being put into place.

Day trip to Helena

First day of vacation started with an unexpected trip to Helena, AL! It's a beautiful town.

Adventures in Ice Cream