Friday Shenanigans

Another week has come and gone...and guess what folks, it's Easter weekend which means it's nearly April which means we are just inches over a month away from our wedding!!! Holy smokes!

I. CANNOT. BELIEVE. IT.

This post is gonna be a bit of ramblings, once again, so I apologize if I'm jumping all over the place like the Easter bunny. ;) haha

Pictures -

The girls with their Easter baskets from my mom and sister. Their soon to be Aunt Jenna sure had a blast filling those buckets with lots of sugar and chocolate! The girls LOVED it. You can't tell from the picture, but Jen found the cutest Easter eggs (here is a link to similar ones - she got them at Wal-Mart)! And...Jordan's "favorite" part as she munched on no less than 4 different varieties of candy was the plush little ducky that was included. Jenna LOVES ducks and I would have been shocked to not see one in the baskets! ha

Weight -

I feel like this week went pretty well. I was able to deny the junk food and candy laying everywhere in the house. I still got my workouts in, albeit a bit rushed sometimes. I feel good about my 1 pound weight loss, but had really hoped for more! That means I am at 274.4. Getting closer to my wedding goal!

Inspiration -
Saw this posted in a Wellness Group for Scentsy consultants and it rang loud and clear with me!

30 Days: Final Update

Here's how my mileage has gone this month....

Week 1 - 0, zilch, nada
Week 2 - 12.5 miles
Week 3 - 10 miles

Week 4:

Thursday - day of rest, but did do the Slim in 6 - 6pack Abs workout

Friday - 1.25 miles with Leslie Sansone's Walkaerobics

Saturday - walked 1.25 miles on the treadmill

Sunday - 2 miles with Leslie Sansone's Walkaerobics

Monday - 2 miles with Leslie Sansone's Walkaerobics

Tuesday - walked 1 mile on the treadmill (also did Slim in 6 - Start It Up)

Wednesday - walked 1 mile on the treadmill

Total this week = 8.5 miles


Total for March Challenge = 31 miles

This has been quite the journey and I am sooooo very thankful to Nikki for starting this challenge. It is just what I needed to kick my butt into gear! I am considering giving myself the challenge again next month (April) with the linkup, but I really need to focus on varying my workout routine to try to lose another 10 pounds before May 4 (wedding day!!).

Looking back over the mileage, you can tell when the weather was nice! ha During Week 2 I was able to get in lots of outdoor walking with the family, but unfortunately Mother Nature is a fickle witch and decided to shower us with more cold temps and....SNOW! Ugh. While the snow is a dreaded thing for me, it did luckily force me indoors to spice up my workout routine more, which has helped me feel more energetic and hopefully, lose a few pounds!

Random Thoughts

Just a mish mosh morning...

missing Eric while he works nights & sleeps all day - gives us less than an hour together a day

inspirational

sooooooo ready for Playa Del Carmen! hate this winter weather

 haven't read a book since Thanksgiving...need to get on it!

ready for some down time on our honeymoon

need to tan a little before our honeymoon so I don't fry in the Mexican sun

TGIF

Thank Goodness It's Friday!!

Ahhhh...seriously long week. But now some pictures to catch up on the past week.

the picture I mentioned that Jordan drew me last week for when I am on the treadmill

one of my chilly, but sunny walks outside

curled my hair & got dolled up for our date day

Toby thinks pressing his nose to the door helps him get closer to the outside...ha

snuggle time with my lil Tobers (he's only innocent when he's sleeping!)

Toby likes to hop up on mom's bed & wait while I am on the treadmill

And last, but certainly not least...I weighed in this morning at 275.4 pounds. I was hoping for better results, but I can't complain too much since it's actually a 3 pound loss for the week, but finally 1 pound under my detox results (2 weeks ago). I stuck to my calories all week. I exercised.

As I mentioned in Thursday's post, I really just need to start varying my workouts. I slimmed down quite a bit when I was doing the Slim in 6 dvds before, with running and walking mixed in. I have a Jillian Michaels dvd as well that I really need to crack open, but she kinda scares me. haha I also feel like I must look COMPLETELY ridiculous while trying to do the moves in all these dvd workouts, so I prefer to do them when no one is around. This will be a problem for me this upcoming week because Eric's girls are spending the week with us due to Spring Break. hmmm...not sure how I'm gonna adjust, but I will find a way to fit in my workouts AND not let temptations get the better of me with their junk food in the house!

30 Miles: Week 3 Update

Here's how my mileage has gone so far....

Week 1 - 0, zilch, nada

Week 2 - 12.5 miles

Week 3:
Thursday - walked 2.1 miles outside
Friday - walked 2.1 miles outside
Saturday - walked 1.3 miles on the treadmill
Sunday - walked 2 miles on the treadmill
Monday - walked .6 miles on the treadmill
Tuesday - walked .9 miles on the treadmill (also did a Slim in 6 - Start It Up dvd workout)
Wednesday - walked 1 mile on the treadmill (also did a Slim in 6 - Start It Up dvd workout)

Total this week = 10 miles

Total so far = 22.5 miles
only 7.5 more miles to go and I've got 11 more days, including today...easy peasy! woohoo!

 

I am still loving my HRM watch. I feel soooo much better from all the walking and movement. I forgot how great I felt about 1-1.5 years ago when I was in the prime of my exercising/eating healthy. Feels so good to be back in the groove. Nikki's challenge has been so motivating for me. Now I just need to find another challenge in order to help stay motivated. ;) I have started adding in some of my old favorites, the Beach Body Slim in 6 workout dvd. I forgot how difficult these are at first, despite all the walking, and it really makes you feel out of shape! I think I can safely say that I need some new workout shoes. I have a special pair of Puma running shoes I wear on the treadmill, but for the aerobic workout with the dvds, my knees and feet were killing me when I wore my regular tennis shoes. Guess the dvd may have been the knee pain culprit last year and earlier this year. Ugh. Creaky joints right after the dvd, but thankfully not too sore the next day.

In other news, I will be weighing in tomorrow morning to see where I'm at in my weight loss. We are down to 44 days until the wedding and I DEFINITELY need to lose some more pounds (and inches) before I squeeze myself into my wedding dress! Ahhhh. I can do this. I will do this. It's not easy eating right and exercising and not giving in to temptation, but if I want to feel great in my dress on our special day, it's what I need to do.

Here's to another great week of workouts and eating right...and wishing the same for you, friends!

Happy Friday!

Are you dancing around cause it's Friday? I know I am!!

This has been THE. LONGEST. WEEK. EVER. Ugh! I woke up thinking every day was Thursday. So not only was it a long and exasperating work week, but Eric is on night shift rotation and I do not like it. I don't sleep well at all. I really must have been naive in thinking that it would be a minor thing to get used to...boy was I wrong! I wake up and get ready for work, as I'm preparing to leave the house, he gets home from work. He sleeps all day = no texting. I get home from work and he's just waking up/getting ready for work, we have anywhere from 30-60 minutes together before he leaves for work. Then he spends the evening at work = no texting. So we are getting up to an hour of talking, hugs and kisses in before one of us leaves. Not fun.

So as I've mentioned...I lost 7 pounds in 4 days on the detox diet. I immediately gained back 4 pounds (which is funny because mom gained that back the first few days after her detox period was over as well). This week I started counting calories again using MyFitnessPal and managed to shake 2 of those pounds back off. So, I am still down 5 pounds from the initial "jump back on the wellness bandwagon" and would have liked to have knocked all 4 pounds back off, but I am going to be happy with it!

In the past week, I have walked 14.1 miles. Pretty exciting stuff. :) I am hoping to get ahead this weekend on my miles for the #30daysin30miles challenge, but so far so good. Jordan wondered why I didn't like walking on the treadmill and I told her it's because all I have to look at is the same surroundings (door, lamp, dresser) whereas when I'm outside - there's cows, birds, cats, dogs, cars, etc. So she drew me a picture to put on the treadmill that had a cow, a dog, a cat and sunshine. haha Love her! It was too cute.

Also, if you haven't heard...Google Reader is going away, which means your GFC blog follower button is going away too. I made the leap this morning to Bloglovin' thanks to the recommendation of some of my favorite bloggers and so far, I really like it. If you want to check it out, scroll down the left hand side of my blog and find the Bloglovin' button and follow it to sign up for your own account. It's easy peasy!

And one last thing - I haven't shared anything about my Scentsy Family businesses lately, but don't want you to miss out on some of the awesome deals and products!!

Scentsy - Forget-me-not is this catalog's Charitable cause warmer. Scentsy donates $8 from every one of these warmers sold to the Fisher Center (which does Alzheimer's research). I'm not sure about you, but most people have been affected by Alzheimer's in some way. My paternal grandfather graduated top of his class in college and in the end, he didn't know his children's names or what Christmas presents were. That was a hard thing to watch as a little kid who loved her grandpa fiercely. I'm placing a Scentsy order today if you want to get in on the action - you can order under the party called "Bobbie Davis" if you want to help one of my good friends out on her party today. There are lots of beautiful new warmers and lovely scents if you're wanting something spring-like for your home!

Velata - This month Velata is on sale! Woohoo! 10% off nearly the entire catalog. It's a great time to order your warmer (on sale) in preparation for the CHEESE DIPS coming out next month!! My family loves the chocolate and begs for it all the time. We even took it to our family reunion last fall and everyone stood around it and chowed down!

Grace Adele - And last, but certainly not least...spring is nearly here which for most of us ladies means a new purse! Time to put the winter blahs at bay and update our accessories! :) GA brought out new colors (pink & orange), plus a few new styles, including a tablet tote! I have the new Shelby bag in Stone...love it! Easter's coming...wouldn't you love to have this instead of an Easter basket?!

Mileage Update

I've been busy...cause playing catch up is HARD work, folks! Yowza. So glad that I'm no longer behind. ha

So here's what I've been up to since last Thursday when I started the #30milesin30days challenge with ZERO miles. Not one of my brighter moments. I was determined not to give up though and I am so thankful for Nikki and company for being the silent motivation I needed to get my butt in gear and start working out again!





Friday night after an absolutely mentally exhausting afternoon/evening, I decided I needed to burn off some steam and hopped on the treadmill for 1 mile. I also wanted to test my new HRM watch. It's not as fancy as some, but it seems to be on target thus far. It amazes me how much higher your heart rate gets and the percentage of your target range is depending on how active you've been throughout the day. Makes me wanna get up and move!

Saturday morning I got up before the rest of the house was awake and got 2 miles in on the treadmill. Then that evening (after going to see Oz with the family), the girls and I decided to go for a 2.1 mile walk outside (my usual outdoor route).

Sunday morning, Emma and I went for another 2.1 mile walk outside. That evening after Eric left for work and took the girls home, I decided it was too nice of a night (still 60 degrees outside) to be cooped up inside on the treadmill, so out the door I went again for another 2.1 mile walk! It's no wonder that Sunday night I had a blister on my heel and my hips were sore...I had walked a total of 9.3 miles in 3 days!

Monday night after Eric left for work (can I say that I HATE him working night shift?!? ugh. I only see him about a total of 45 minutes a day! *sad face*) I jumped back on the trusty treadmill since it was raining outside and walked 1.2 miles so I would be up to 10.5 miles total.

Tuesday...I was a bum. No lie. I wish I had been wearing my HRM at work because I know I walked a bunch, probably at least 3 laps weaving around the bigger plant (I am HR for 2 sister companies) and walked back and forth from the outdoor mobile hearing test truck to the office (opposite ends of the property). I got home from work and it was Eric's night off, the first one since Friday night. He talked me into going out to eat at one of our fave places in town...and coincidentally the site of our wedding. It was soooooo nice having a date night and being able to spend time together. I only feel slightly guilty for not hopping on the treadmill for the 1.5 miles that I needed to do in order to be completely caught up and on track for the challenge. Oh well, this weekend is supposed to be nice and hopefully I will get outside for some longer walks!

Wednesday night after work I stopped to grab dinner at the new Pizza Hut in town. We had the girls for the evening and Eric was off work, plus pizza is one of the few things both girls agree on to eat. After everyone was settled into their own stuff, I hopped on the treadmill for a 1.5 mile walk. Now I am only 1 mile behind.

And now I'm ready to tackle some extra workouts. Eric has to work tonight and tomorrow night, but then we luckily have the weekend together! :) Looking forward to posting my results next week!

In another note, Friday I plan to officially weigh in...I did good this week and have been tracking my weight fluctuations just to see how my body would respond from doing the cleanse to jumping back to calorie counting. It hasn't been easy. Without all the exercise, I would have surely gained! Although I gained back half of what I lost within the first 2 days of counting calories, I steadily have worked it back off this week...stay tuned for that post tomorrow!

Detox Diet Recap

Okay, so I am keeping this as a daily log, but you will all be reading it at once. Enjoy :)

Day 1 (Monday, 3/4) - Fasting Day
     I weighed in at 283.6 when I woke up. I drank only lemon water ALL day long. Yep, for more than 24 hours I was food-free. I expected it to be hard and for my stomach to be growling at me all day long, but it was surprisingly easy. I had about a half hour in the late afternoon where I was hungry, but I had been in a training class all afternoon and hadn't drank as much lemon water (aka water with lemon squeezed in it) as I had up to that point. I quickly got the hunger under control with more water. I was VERY sleepy that evening and actually ended up napping on the couch. while Eric & the girls watched tv and played games, exciting person am I not? ha I felt much better when I woke up and we assumed my lack of energy was from not having consumed any calories all day.

Day 2 (Tuesday, 3/5) - Veggie/Fruit Day
    I weighed in at 279.2 when I woke up, which is a 4.4 pound loss in 1 day. INSANE! I had my banana-strawberry smoothie in the morning. I was way too full after drinking the smoothie (it makes what feels like a monstrous cup of goodness!) to eat anything and honestly hadn't felt hungry even before drinking the smoothie. I had a small 1/2 cup snack of cantaloupe after having been at work for a few hours. My lunch consisted of watermelon and grapes. Oh...and MORE water. ha Good thing I love water and normally drink a lot anyway because this detox requires only water! For dinner, I enjoyed some steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Yum! Seriously, I have steamed broccoli a lot with chicken, so this was no hardship. ha Then the evening finished with another smoothie.


Day 3 (Wednesday, 3/6) - Veggie/Fruit Day
     I weighed in at 277.4 when I woke up, which is a 6.2 pound loss in 2 days! I had my banana-strawberry smoothie in the morning. I had cantaloupe and an apple as my snacks today at work. For lunch, I had more watermelon and grapes. Yum! Dinner consisted of grilled mushrooms and squash. mmmmmmmmm...good! I finished the evening with another smoothie. Those things will be the death of me...although I have learned they are slightly better COLD if you blend a few ice cubes in with it. Not a bad flavor, just SOOOO much to drink. 

Day 4 (Thursday, 3/7) - Veggie/Fruit Day
     I weighed in at 277.2 when I woke up, which is a 6.4 pound loss in 3 days! I had my banana-strawberry smoothie in the morning. I had cantaloupe as my snack at work today. For lunch, I once again had watermelon and grapes. I cheated for dinner and added baked whiting fish (with only salt & pepper) to the grilled squash. Fish should not be added until Days 5-7. I finished the evening with another smoothie.


Recap:
     I weighed in at 276.6 when I woke up this morning, which is a total of 7 pounds over the 4 day detox period. I have decided to end my detox at this point. Some advantages and disadvantages:

PRO - (1) curbed my caffeine addiction, (2) quieted my recent sweets overload, (3) jump started my weight loss, (4) it teaches you about willpower - something I've always struggled with, but feel more confident about now
CON - (1) very limited food choices, (2) most likely all water weight lost - I believe that for someone like my mom who only drank pop and coffee with cream that the water flushed her system clean and continues to do so, but for someone like me that regularly drinks oodles of water the initial flush of toxins from my body was great, but slowed tremendously - - and to note, she is the one who's lost the most in the detox week from everyone who's tried the program over the past year or two, (3) it's expensive because fruits & veggies are not cheap, (4) if everyone in your household is not doing the detox, it's even more of a temptation because of preparing food for someone else not part of the plan or just having "junk" around the house that you can't eat

Have had lots of conversations with people about this plan over the week long period. I even found out that one of my bosses has been doing it and has lost 12 pounds so far, but he's gained muscle due to exercise. I may do another detox the week or two before the wedding depending how things go, but I definitely want to look good in my dress!

I am going back to counting calories today. I kept trying to decide whether or not I wanted to count points for WW+ again or try the calories again. For now, I am going to count calories and see how that works for me. Most everything can be found online or on the item itself, plus MyFitnessPal makes it easy to track. I need to still lose another 10-15 pounds from this point until the wedding in order for my dress to fit comfortably! haha I know it's not going to be easy, but I'm hoping everyone will help me stay accountable. ;)

Also - I am taking part in Nikki's #30milesin30days challenge, but have failed miserably thus far. Really had planned to get on the treadmill and get some miles cranked out the 2 nights that Eric worked this week, but I honestly didn't have the energy. It wasn't that I felt bad, it was that I had consumed barely any calories and just functioning was draining me. I also may have been in bed at 9:30pm 2 nights in a row this week...yowza. I was TIRED. So my goal this weekend is to kick it into high gear and do 2-a-days!

 

A Snowy Night

Ugh - March came roaring in like a lion! I hope that means it will go out like a lamb and that April and May will be lovely weather (especially May 4th!). ha :)

Last night the snow hit us here in southeastern Indiana. We had about 1/2-1" and the power decided to flicker. My Facebook feed was full of people reporting the same thing. After about 20-30 minutes at half power (seriously, our lamps and Scentsy warmers were on, but nothing else had power), the electricity went out. Took 3 hours for it to come back on, I decided to go to bed since my phone could finally charge (it was about dead, plus it's my alarm!). Little did I know after falling asleep in the next 20 minutes, electricity went back out and was off for another 4 hours! Yikes. This morning we woke up to a good 3" of heavy snow covering everything.

Eric worked last night (they just switched the rotation to 8 weeks of nights) and they were without power for several hours as well. It took him over an hour to make the usual 40 minute drive. Yuck!

snow right as power started flickering

kept warm with my propane heater - thank goodness!

had to light candles when electric was doing half power thing

snowy roads this morning - all local schools are closed

Bridal Shower

My sister survived planning & throwing my bridal shower on Sunday! Woohoo! ;) haha She claims she isn't much of a planner-type, but she did a great job. The game winners didn't want to open their little prize boxes because they looked so cute. Everyone munched on some veggies, fruit, cupcakes and sugar cookies. It was all delicious! Jenna made the cupcakes herself and I didn't get to try one until last night...it was a yummy way to finish my day (and a last sweet treat before starting my day of fasting for the Detox week today!). Eric & I got some awesome gifts and I can't wait to use them in our future home! It kinda stinks to get so many cool things and have to pack them away in a box until we're married and living in our own home to use them.

We found a really cool app for our friends and family to share their pictures of our special wedding occasions with us and my bridal shower was the test pilot event! ha I think everyone would agree that it is easy to use (much like Instagram, but easier to keep track of) and hopefully everyone will keep supplying us with their pics via WedPics as we celebrate our wedding! :)

If you want to see all of the Bridal Shower Pics - head over to WedPics and view the album entitled "ErinEric." That is where we will continue to post pictures in entirety.

Here are a few as a sneak peek of the fun day!

the Menchhofer women

Bride & MOH

with my dear friend Rajean & her adorable daughter, Reba (so glad you guys make the trek!)

We're down to 61 days! It's getting CLOSER!!!!

Detox

de·tox

noun, often attributive \ˈdē-ˌtäks, di-ˈtäks\

 

Definition of DETOX

1

: detoxification from an intoxicating or addictive substance detox

clinic>

2

: a detox program or facility detox

>

— detox verb

 

 

 

Whenever I have discussed an ionic detox or now this new diet detox, I always get asked questions about it - either in comments or via email. Since a few have asked about this new diet detox, I figured I would go ahead and share what I know.

 

 

Some family friends of ours know the man (he lives in KY) who created the Resolve2XL program. Several local friends have taken the plunge and are giving the program a try...even my mom is doing it! My mom attended the meeting and met the creator of the system. Remember, this is a woman who eat what she wants, drinks pop a lot, doesn't exercise, and lives a fairly sedentary life. She's also been overweight ever since she finished birthing 2 lovely daughters. ;)  

 

The initial detox period lasts for 7 days. It looks something like this:

 

Day 1 - 24 hour fast; drink only water, no food unless absolutely necessary and even though, just a peeled apple (for example)

 

Days 2-4 - R2XL smoothie morning & night; only fruits & veggies for meals (lettuce no dressing, steamed broccoli or cauliflower, strawberries, bananas, foods off the "approved" list)

 

Days 5-7 - R2XL smoothie morning & night; fruits & veggies as previous days stated, but may also now add in 3 oz of fish (whiting, tuna or salmon)

 

The smoothies are not bad at all. Mom had me try hers (she always does strawberries & bananas with the 2 powders and 1/2 bottle of water). There are other recipes out there for people who need more variety. 

 

My mom lost 16.5 pounds during the 7 day detox. The most lost out of our group of friends (of which several are listed on the website) is 18 pounds in the first week. Mom did gain a few pounds the next week (but she broke the rules and had dinner out with my sister for her birthday), but she is back down to her initial loss during the 3rd week. 

 

I do not intend to keep doing this program after the 7 day period is over. What I'm hoping to accomplish during this period is:

 

1. Jump start my weight loss

2. Detox my body from sugars (been drinking too much pop again lately!)

3. Set myself up for healthy eating with all the fruits & veggies

*I also plan to make it a priority to exercise 3x's a week from this point forward as I always feel better when I'm exercising and I've been really bad about doing anything other than our family walks when the weather is decent enough to be outside.

 

It does seem to be working for those who are faithful to the plan. You can see the inches that my mom has lost more so than the actual weight. Her clothes look to be getting baggy on her. Go Mom! She is fully committed and I am so proud of her. She hasn't had any pop since starting the R2XL program and that in itself is mind blowing. ha

 

So, I'm gonna give it a go and see what happens. I will be sure to post an update after my 7 days are over. I am going to start it next Monday (as Eric says - you probably want to avoid me that day since I can only have water all day). :p