Checked Out

I just can't seem to be here this week. My head is already at the beach... which makes for an interesting work week for sure. I was off work yesterday for a Dr. appointment and I had to run a few errands. Now I just have to get through the rest of today, Wednesday, and Thursday and I am home free until next Wednesday. Yes, you heard that right... 5 whole days off work. Sigh. Pure bliss I tell ya'.

So excuse me if I don't have much to say until I get back. I have lotsta do... lists to make, shopping to do, packing, and snuggling with the hubs before I leave him to hold down the fort while I am gone (heres hoping the dishes don't overflow and the laundry basket doesn't explode). I'll be sure to tell you all about it when I get back! Until then my brain is officially on the beach with my toes in the sand and a drink in my hand!

Let the Countdown Begin!

In exactly one week my friends and I will be in the car headed down to here

Celebrating this girls Bachlorette Party with about 15 other girls

We will spend our memorial weekend laying in the sun and drinking pina coladas and it will be a much needed vacation! I can't wait! I'll be sure to post some pictures when we get back!



Getting Healty Continued....

Sorry it has taken me so long in between posts! Between blogger hiatus and me forgetting to take pictures of my grocery cart this past Sunday, I was kind of putting of the posts. Blogger fail, I know!
If you read Stephanie's original post about the eating rules please don't think you can't do it. If I can do it, then you most certainly can do it. If you want some answers to some really good questions then you can find some answers in this Live It questions post that she did where she answers questions about fruit, exercise, and even what her typical meals look like.

My biggest advice for starting this is PLAN PLAN PLAN! Each weekend I sat down and jotted down what we were going to eat for dinner and lunches each week and then built my grocery list from there. It was pretty simple especially since I was doing this already each week, I was just shifting the focus. Each meal typically had a lean meat and a side of veggies. Growing up with a great cook for a mom (and living in the south probably has something to do with it) I had to get away from the thinking that you have to have 3 sides with every meal. You totally don't. D'uh on my part.

This is where I really wish I had that picture of my grocery cart. My hubs and I are kind of  grocery snobs with our cart full of fresh vegetables and meat. That's it. No boxed dinners or frozen prepared meals. Stay away from those! Not only are they not healthy for you as far as calories and fat, they are also full of perservatives. And don't worry about the time you save by buying those boxed meals. Really, are you more worried about having an extra 10 minutes to sit on your butt or your health? It's a no brainer for me.

I will admit the first two weeks of eating this way is the hardest because in those 2 weeks you can only have meat and veggies. But once you can add the fruit back in, it really is a piece of cake. Once you go without sweets, eating the fruit again tastes so sweet and completely satisfies those cravings.

I promise to do better next Sunday and actually take a picture of our shopping cart. Hmmm I may even have to set a reminder on my phone! :)

Getting Healthy

I mentioned in the previous post that hubs and I have CHANGED the way we eat. I say it that way because what started off as "just a diet" has lead to just changing our life styles, how we shop, and how I cook. I am, by no means, any type of expert at nutrition or exercise but I did want to put out there what worked for us!

Last year, hubs and I were married in July (right in the middle of bathing suit season, yikes) and I didn't really do a pre-wedding fitness plan. I don't really care that I didn't because it's not like I was wearing a thong walking up the aisle, but around December (you know, the holidays) that I really started noticing a change in my body. As I have said before, I love love LOVE to cook. I love to scour the internet for new recipes and would often surprise hubs when we got home with braised short ribs with goat cheese polenta or some other really decadent dinner. My stomach was getting happy but the fact that I could no longer fit into my jeans was becoming a problem!

I was blog surfing one day and found this post at a BEAUtiful Mess and got really interested! It seemed really hard to do but possible. Plus her success spoke for itself. I can give that stuff up to lose 15 pounds. It really helped that my husband was in on it too. That meant only one grocery list and someone to be accountable with... SCORE! 

So far (since January) I have lost 15 pounds and the hubs has lost around 20. The best part is we are indulging when we want and still keeping it off.

I won't go into all the details in this post, but I will post some about how we started and what our typical week looks like with food and exercise. Stay tuned!

Run Nick Run

This past Saturday we ventured to downtown Louisville, at 6 in the morning mind you, so that the hubs could run in this years Derby mini-marathon. Yes, that would be 13.1 miles of running goodness (or torture if you're talking to me). Fortunately for my hubs, he loves to run which makes this the perfect little tradition for him. I tried to train for it last year but soon found out I love to lay on the couch and cook dinner more. I digress.

Anyway, my hubs and I have been getting back into shape since the beginning of the year. We have CHANGED our eating habits and exercise at least 3 days a week. This has helped him get in such great shape for this years race... and it paid off! His time from last year was around an hour and 45 minutes and this year he ran it in 1:33:51 which is awesome. I was such the proud wifey cheering from the sidelines!

This next picture is a bit distorted because I took it from my phone while he was running. You wouldn't believe how many people run in this mini marathon/full marathon. I'm talking 15,000+. Nick was in group B (based on your running times the faster you are the closer to the front you get) and I promise you it took 20 minutes for people to just get through the starting line because they were in group F or more.

The finish line was a street over. Basically the whole race was a big loop around downtown Louisville.

I snapped this right as he was getting ready to cross the finish line. He was checking his watch to see if his time matched the finish line time. Every runners bib has a chip on it so it automatically starts when you cross the starting line and finish line. Therefore, the finish line clock might be off by a couple of minutes. Your official time is your bib time.

After the race and after getting his medal (which all runners get) he was exhausted but we treated ourselves to breakfast at Toast on Market when we left. It was extremely hard work watching people run 13.1 miles. He He.



Distance	HALF MAR
Clock Time	1:36:55
Chip Time	1:33:51
Overall Place	257 / 11383
Gender Place	222 / 4952
Division Place	37 / 630
Age Grade	63.1%
10K	44:18
Pace	7:10

I am so proud of him! And doesn't he look cute in his outfit? He likes to coordinate :)