Friday, March 23, 2012

Another Lovely Mail Day

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but if you've been following me for a while, you're probably used to that! ; )  I'll try to do better though...

So I've decided that at the rate I'm going, I'll never get caught up on all my mail posts. Therefore, I'm going to post some of my favorites from my overdue pile and start afresh.

Here are some of my favorite incoming overdue missives:













And here are a few of my faves from my outgoing pile:







Alright, so I'm all caught up now... Yay! : )  Now I just have to not get behind again. Ha, ha!

I'm going to see Hunger Games tonight (FANGIRL SQUEAL) so I'll try to remember to post a review tomorrow. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Monday, March 19, 2012

30 Day Shred


Another week down... My cruise is in 40 days, so a little over 5 weeks to go! This past week wasn't the best. I stayed with Level 2 on the DVD and did well except for a few of the moves. There are 4 sets of "plank" moves on this level. If you're not familiar with "plank," it's where you get down like you're going to do a push-up, but you put your arms directly under you... Here, I'll find a picture:


Courtesy of Sparkpeople.com
Ok, so that's a plank. For the first round of planking, you start out standing up straight, then bend over and walk your hands out until you're in the plank position, then you walk your hands back up and stand up. For the second round, you start in plank position, then hop both feet in towards your head and back again, keeping your arms still. For the third round, you start in plank, then hop your feet out and in, like you're doing jumping jacks on the ground. Then for the final round, you start in plank, then bend one knee and twist it inward, then back to plank and do the other leg. That one works your abs... You're not doing all these plank moves back to back, but as I have spaghetti arms, that doesn't matter! I can only last a few seconds in a plank without my arms starting to shake, let alone maintaining a plank while doing all that other stuff! So once my arms give in, I switch to moves from Level 1...

Unfortunately, I ran into another issue this week. Tuesday night during my warm-up, I started doing jumping jacks and felt a very sharp pain in my right knee. I worked through it, but my knee was sore the whole next day. That got me a little worried, so I decided to take Wednesday off. (I also didn't feel well in general that day, so that helped my decision...) I think the knee issue may have been from A) working out with all this extra weight, putting more strain on my knees, B) not doing some of the moves correctly, C) being wobbly from poor balance, or D) a combination of all of those. So on some of the lunges, I've not been going down as far to take it a little easier on my knees. That's helped...

I'd like to say that was the only break I took last week, but I'd be lying. When I got home Friday, I was so exhausted that I could barely hold my eyes open, so I just went to bed. Then last night I didn't feel well again, so I was a punk and didn't work out. So I only worked out 4 days last week. I did play golf with Matt Saturday, so I got an extra workout in there... And I guess it helped some, because I lost 2.9 pounds. That basically just covers what I gained last week, but I'll take it! : )

# of Days: 21 
Weight Loss: 5.2 lbs

Inches Lost:
Waist - 1.5
Hips - 1
Thighs - .5

I was running late this morning, so I didn't take my measurements... I feel better today, so I'm definitely going to work out tonight when I get home! And hopefully there won't be any breaks this week! ; )

Monday, March 12, 2012

30 Day Shred

Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that when I weighed in this morning, I had gained 2.8 pounds. I think there are two reasons for this: #1 is although I've been staying under my calorie intake goal this week, the food I've been eating hasn't been the healthiest. And #2 is I'm probably gaining muscle due to the crazy strength moves I've been doing on this video. Gaining muscle is a good thing, but I'm definitely going to strive to make smarter food choices this week!

And now for the good news... Firstly, I moved up to Level 2 last night. While it's still only a 20-minute workout, the moves are more advanced on all three areas: strength, cardio, and abs. It totally kicked my butt, and I struggled with a few of the moves, but I got through it! : )

The other good news is that I also took my measurements this morning, and I've lost inches! Yay! So that makes me feel a little better about gaining this week. But I really hope next week there's a - instead of a + when I weigh in on my Wii Fit! Here are the numbers so far... They're totals for the whole 2 weeks, not just this week.


# of Days: 14
Weight Loss: 2.3 lbs

Inches Lost:
Waist - 1.5
Hips - 1
Thighs - .5

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Another Lovely Mail Day

Hey guys! I'm still playing catch up on these, so be prepared for lots of pictures with little commentary... ha, ha. ; )  I'm mostly behind on incoming, so I'll focus on those for this post.



Mail Art from a swap-bot swap


A festive envie from another swap


Pretty bookmark enclosed


And a homemade card! : )


Cute Wonderland postcard I received from Jasmine for Gracie's "A Special Postcard" swap from forever ago


The lovely quote she included : )


A pretty owl ATC I received in a swap


The awesome "Under the Sea" Mail Art envie I received. Loved it!


The back of it


A pretty postcard I got... can't remember if it was from swap-bot or postcrossing. Sorry! (I'm horrible)


Pretty stamp


I'm pretty sure this was a Postcrossing PC...


Loved this little kid doctor stamp : )


This cutie came from my girl Sarah : )


A lovely card included in a swap-bot swap. I believe she said it was a copy of a painting her brother did.

And I guess that's enough for now. Just a few more posts, and I'll be all caught up! Ha, ha...

Monday, March 5, 2012

30 Day Shred

A couple weeks ago Matt and I were on the phone (while both at work) discussing our lunch plans, and we started talking about how he wasn't going to be here for my birthday. He's going out of town for work that week, and he's scheduled to get back home the night of our anniversary (which is exactly one week after my birthday...).

Per our normal routine of late, Matt came to my office so we could have a nice, nutritional lunch together, but he brought me a present... Cruise tickets! : )  He said it was to make up for missing my birthday, but mostly it's for our anniversary. This will be the first trip we've taken where it's just the two of us in quite a while, so I'm really excited! Plus, we went on a cruise for our honeymoon, so it'll be nice to kind of "relive" that happy time. : )

We're taking a 5-day cruise to the Bahamas, so you know what that means... Bathing suits!!!! Talk about a motivation to work out! I decided to take my Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD and put it to the test.


My plan is to follow the workouts on this DVD for 30 straight days and see how much weight I lose. I'm also tracking my food intake with the MyFitnessPal app on my phone. I love this app! They also have a website that you can check out here. Here's a scan code for the app on Android phones:


So, last Monday I took my weight and all my measurements, and this morning I weighed again, and... I lost 5.1 pounds! Yay! I didn't have time to take all my measurements this morning, but I'll be sure and do that tonight.

It's only a 20-minute workout, but it's fairly intense. You do 3 rounds of 3-minute strength, 2-minute cardio, and 1-minute abs, plus a 1-minute warm up and 1-minute cool down. Since Day 1, my strength has gotten a little better, but my cardio and abs have gotten much better. I can't wait to see how far I am after the full 30 days! : )

I'm going to weigh-in once a week and keep up with my progress on here, so y'all be sure to hold me accountable! ; )  Have any of you done the 30 Day Shred before?


# of Days: 7
Weight Loss: 5.1 lbs

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Monthly Goals: March 2012



February Goals:
  • Finish unpacking the office
  • Hang at least 3 things on the walls
  • Lose 8 pounds (a healthy 2 pounds a week)    I lost 5, so I'm still happy! : )
  • Drink more water  I have been drinking more, but not as much as I'd like...
  • Catch up on my penpal replies
Sooo... I only accomplished one of my goals. I hung exactly 3 things up on the wall in the living room. Well, Matt did but that still counts. I almost reached my weight loss goal, so I'm pretty happy about that. And while I did drink more water, I didn't drink as much as I would have liked... So maybe next time I should be more specific about what "more" constitutes. 1 out of 5 totally sucks, but now it's time to focus on this months goals. ; )

March Goals:
  • Lose 8 pounds
  • Drink 8 cups of water a day
  • Catch up on my penpal replies
  • Unpack the office
  • Hang up 3 more things in the house
Yeah, so I'm keeping the same goals apparently. It's late, and I couldn't think of anything else... ha, ha.

So what are you goals for this month? If you link up over at My So-Called Chaos by 3/7, you'll be entered into a drawing she'll have at the beginning of next year. Each month you link up, you'll be entered again... So go check it out!