Who doesn't love a little shopping?

Especially when that shopping involves 2 new discoveries. This blog is all about honesty, so I'm just going to lay it on out there:

1. I went shopping for a dress for a party this weekend, and, though I subsequently went and bought some spanks to smooth things out a bit, I squeezed my happy toosh into a size 10! I haven't had that number label in my closet since high school - no doubt. Possibly junior high. You can find me wearing my new dress and a smile this weekend.

2. While making my previously referenced spanks purchase, I also decided to get measured for a bra because my bras don't fit anymore. Well friends, what I have lost in circumference, I have apparently made up for in cup size. I went down a size around the middle but went up an entire ( and so the sales lady tells me, possibly 2) cup sizes. I mean, for real? My chest is not that big! Oprah says that 70% of women wear the wrong size (my mother and sister would be proud of my Oprah reference). I was surprised so maybe you will be too. Check it out!

In honor of my roommate Cortney...

DEUCE!!!!

K

Rando

Ok so I've got lots of little things to talk about, some of which might have something to do with my weight loss journey. Let's just be honest here, there is not much to report on that vein. Due to vacation, work meetings and, this week, jury duty, I haven't weighed in a couple of weeks. I'll be weighing in this weekend, but until then, I will tell you about my rando observations of the day.

A. I went to the gym today (at 2:30 no less - thank you jury duty!) and so it was a different array of gym creatures. I love analyzing what people's stories/careers are to be at the gym at 2:30 on a Tuesday. Today I encountered what I assume to be a firefighter (understandable sighting), a girl with pink shorts and what looked to be water-shoes (an obvious gym novice) and, my favorite of the day, a tall, light haired, tattooed male 20-something with a tracking ankle bracelet ala Martha Stewart. I only wish I knew his real story!!!

B. Copy Cat- I also have a tendency to copy fellow gym creatures. Some times you get the best ideas from watching others. For example, I noticed another girl the other day pulling off a move that I had also seen on Biggest Loser. It basically is putting the treadmill on an incline (6 or so) and a good paced walk (I chose 3.5) and walking for 2 minutes and then doing the "crab shuffle" as Ryan an I dubbed it, sashaying up the incline of the treadmill - 1 minute facing the right side and 1 minute facing the left and then back to 2 minutes walking forward. My hips are sore today!

And no - those of you who know my cat, this is not a picture of him. Believe it or not, Bingley is not THAT fat and need I remind you that I have no babies.




C. Have you ever run across someone with your license plate save 1 digit? Mine is X62 WVL (the Weavil I lovingly call it). Today I saw another Discovery with X60 WVL!



D. I discovered the IDAHO license plate today. 5 to go!






I would also like to send a loving shout out to Amanda. She is a fellow license plate seeker and is down to 4 plates last I checked, even though she started weeks behind Ryan and myself. What I love is that Amanda even downloaded the app for her iPhone. Cheers to you Amanda!




E. Ryan where are you?!? The world needs more of your blogging! We are begging for your return!

It's just like MAGIC!!!

Just a quick follow up on my post from yesterday. No sooner than I post Vermont and Montana's plates on the blog, I saw BOTH today! A miracle I tell you! A miracle!

Let's try this again...

It's really difficult to find...ALASKA!

It's really difficult to find... RHODE ISLAND!

It's really difficult to find...a million dollars under your pillow!

Alright Blog - do your magic!

Fifty Nifty United States

I would like to digress briefly from the subject of Ryan and my weight losses and bring you all a little piece of nostalgia. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ryan and I went to New Mexico about 3 weeks ago. On this car ride, Ryan revealed to me that she had seen a license plate for Alaska a couple of days earlier and had the idea to start playing the license plate game.

You all know this roadtrip classic. Rules are simple:


(1) The game isn't over until you've seen all 50 license plates. The person who finds them first wins;


(2) Semi's and any other large shipping trucks do not count. Civilian vehicles only;



(3) You cannot intentionally go out of your way searching for plates i.e. I can't go driving an entire parking garage in search of plates. They must be discovered in your normal course of life.






There you have it. Ryan is down to 6 states left. I have about 13 (I got South Carolina and Maryland today). Ryan has the money plate of Alaska and I have Hawaii. It's going to be interesting to see who can get some of the other tough ones first - Montana, Vermont, Rhode Island. Ironically we both have Washington D.C. already so let's call it 50 states and 1 district. We have recruited other friends into our mix and the race is on. I encourage all of you to join it and play, but I will warn you, it can be an impairment to your driving, so please play with caution.

Enjoy!

ALABAMA * ALASKA * ARIZONA * ARKANSAS * CALIFORNIA * COLORADO * CONNECTICUT * DELAWARE * FLORIDA * GEORGIA * HAWAII * IDAHO * ILLINOIS * INDIANA * IOWA * KANSAS * KENTUCKY * LOUISIANA * MAINE * MARYLAND * MASSACHUSETTS * MICHIGAN * MINNESOTA * MISSISSIPPI * MISSOURI * MONTANA * NEBRASKA * NEVADA * NEW HAMPSHIRE * NEW JERSEY * NEW MEXICO * NEW YORK * NORTH CAROLINA * NORTH DAKOTA * OHIO * OKLAHOMA * OREGON * PENNSYLVANIA * RHODE ISLAND * SOUTH CAROLINA * SOUTH DAKOTA * TENNESSEE * TEXAS * UTAH * VERMONT * VIRGINIA * WASHINGTON * WEST VIRGINIA * WISCONSIN * WYOMING

Better Late than Never!

I weighed in this week at work, and while it is 20 days late, I have hit my 26 lbs. goal! Additionally, I'm only about 10 lbs away from my healthy height/weight range.

I know this is a short post, but I'm racing off to the horse races tonight. Much love my friends and I will be back soon!

And... I just couldn't resist this pic. You're welcome!

You will thank me!

Briefly, wanted to plug a new (delicious) discovery. I don't know about you guys, but I am a chocoholic. I have a serious sweet tooth and some times I just need some chocolately goodness. This whole diet bit has made that a little bit more difficult for me, but do not fret, for I have a new solution to share with you all. Drum roll please....

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-dat!

No Pudge Brownies!

These little guys are chocolate heaven and only 2 Weight Watchers points each! They come in a pink box and I found them at Kroger. You combine the mix with non-fat vanilla yogurt, follow the baking instructions on the box and voila! You have a perfect, moist, fudgy brownie. You can make them individually in the microwave or, like me, make the whole batch at one time. I made them in cupcake wrappers so they would be portioned out perfectly and stuck the majority of them in the freezer so I could just grab one at a time, pop it in the microwave and 30 seconds later I have tasty treat. Highly recommended to you all. I think they will even pass Courtney Scarborough Fowler's test! Let me know Scar!

I'm sorry...

So sorry blog family. I have been seriously neglectful and have a ton to catch you up on. It's been several weeks since I last blogged and I'll try to be as brief, yet thorough as I can be.

Since I last blogged I have stopped working out with JR. I felt it was time to go out on my own like a lamb leaving the shepherd. I needed to prove that I can change my life for real and do this with out something (or someone) else motivating me. I am on this journey for me and I need to be able to continue my new life practices without the motivation of not wanting to let people down. It's a time to be selfish and I need to allow myself to do that. Much love to JR for everything and if anyone needs a wonderful trainer, let me know because I've got his digits!

And I digress...after our last workout, my roommate and I moved out of our apartment of three years into a duplex. You don't think you have that much stuff, but it is amazing how things accumulate. I spent every night for a week in 90 degree weather moving a car load at a time into the new duplex and then had movers come on Friday for the big stuff. We got it all moved, cleaned and with a fair amount of the inherent problems that come with moving, we were situated. I wasn't really able to get to the gym that week, but, lo and behold, I lost 1.8 pounds anyway (that's what sweating your butt off hauling boxes will do to you. I don't think I will be making that my regular routine, no matter how effective it was).

First day at the gym by myself was a little bit scary. I'm in a new environment with machines I'm vaguely familiar with but they look way different than what I'm used to. There are also a WHOLE lot more people around to embarrass myself in front of. Awesome. Every day gets better as I get more familiar with the equipment and now I'm starting to be a 6 am regular. I even say "hello" to my buddies who are also there at the same time every day. My goal is to not only be a face recognition person, but also be on a first name basis with my gymmates. Besides, who doesn't love gym friends?!?

Subsequently, Ryan and I trekked on off to Ruidoso, NM on vacation over the 4th of July weekend and my birthday. It was a wonderful trip - great friends, good food, excellent shopping and some fun activities. Surprise surprise I came back 1.2 pounds heavier! Boo! My first gain of this process and boy was that depressing! Not only did I have to deal with gaining weight, but I also missed my 26 x 26 goal by 2 pounds. I'm sitting right at 24 pounds rights now and I'm just mad at myself for not hitting my goal. I know it was my birthday and everyone deserves a break here and there, but I wish I had at least just maintained. So now I have that much further to go.

To add insult to injury, an event I couldn't avoid participating in was the Bar Golf Invitational celebrating my roommate and my birthday's this past weekend. We had a blast and if you have never played bar golf, I highly recommend it. If you would like to know the rules, let me know and I will be happy to share the particulars with you. Short explanation is that it is a pub crawl in golf attire. Considering the copious amounts of alcohol you consume while playing, I'll just say this weekend was not my best, but I had a super time!!! Thanks to all my sweet friends who came out to play. You made my birthday celebration wonderful! I leave you all with this picture from the event. Take care friends and I'll be back soon!

Pardon Our (My) Mess...

Where have I been lately you ask? Everywhere it seems. Have I been cheating on you with another bloggy family? Of course not... we've established I'm loyal (please see: "Train-ultry"). To be honest, I've just been uber busy the last week or so. I'm on the home stretch of my content examinations for my teaching certification (my last test is Wednesday) so I hope it is only a matter of time until things return to normal...and of course by normal I mean more free time to blog. :)

Between studying, testing, and interviewing I just haven't had much free time to really sleep let alone blog, so I apologize for my poor showing this past week(-ish). I'll be back soon, but until then you must forgive me... my life seems to be a bit under construction at the moment!

I'll Drink to That

Hello my blogging friends. Today's message is brought to you by the Letter A.

And that Letter "A" is for Alcohol. That's right my friends. I'm here to discuss some easy ways to cut out the calories when partaking in a few adult beverages. It is, after all, patio season where nothing is better than sipping an alcoholic treat amongst friends. You will fine me and mine at Ozona's on most Wednesday nights. Here are some tasty tidbits for your summer consumption. I hope you enjoy.



Let's talk about alcohol itself - between the liquors, there is very little difference. Take your pick - vodka, gin, whiskey, rum. They are all fairly comparable to each other. In Weight Watchers world, these components of alcoholic beverages are worth about 2 points.

Believe it or not, the alcohol is not what makes a mixed drink calorie heavy, it's the mixer. Keep your mixers in check, and you'll be a lot better off.

JUICES — Juice is comparable to regular soda in most ways, but at least if you use 100% juice you can at least count on some extra vitamins in your cocktail. A Bloody Mary, which mixes vodka with vitamin-rich tomato juice, is an even better choice.

CARBONATION (my weakness. What is it about those bubbles?!?) — Non-diet carbonated beverages will, for the most part, all give you the same result. Coke, sweetened sodas, and tonic water all are comparable in a 4 oz. serving. By substituting with a diet soda/tonic or club soda you can wipe out the calorie value of the mixer. A personal favorite - flavored vodka with club soda and lime gives you the bubbles and flavor, but no caloric value above the liquor!



DAIRY — A lot of frozen drinks contain dairy-based mixers such as milk or, worse yet, concoctions like Irish cream or coconut cream. These can tack on quite a lot of unwanted calories, especially the processed ones, which have added sugar. They can pack an even heavier calorie punch than the liquor itself. Serious warning - lay off the Mudslides. Between the vodka, Irish Cream, and ice cream, one serving provides almost the entire caloric intake you should be having for the entire day. We are talking 1100 calories and 53g of fat. PUT THE MUDSLIDE DOWN!!!!



SOUR STUFF— Add-ins like powdered or liquid sour mix (found in a mai tai) and pure sugar or simple syrup (in the case of the daiquiri or the mojito) may seem like mere flavoring, but you have to consider they are adding in some serious sugar. Not as bad as the dairy mixers, but something to be aware of.


Better yet, beyond mixed drinks, you can always choose beer or wine. You know they don't change much in calories from brand to brand. Just make the choice to drink light beer or sip on your wine slowly so as to cut down on the number of drinks instead of worrying about the calories in the drink itself. Beer is one of the better choices (at least for us females) because it takes you longer to drink them. This, of course, is null and void when you are playing bar golf or championship flip cup - please stayed tuned for a post post-bar golf invitational July 11th.

That's all I have folks. And with that, I will leave you with this parting shot I found this week of my good friend Ryan as a child. Now I understand the genesis of her love of Jack on the rocks. Good news Ryan - it doesn't even have a mixer! Less calories! Well done!

Eye on the Prize

So one thing I am looking forward to wearing once I shave off a few more pounds is patterned shirts and dresses. I know, I know...I realize half of you have just momentarily paused reading this to ask yourself, "why can't she wear that now??" And the answer is actually pretty simple...it is an unfortunately reality that when a bold pattern covers a large surface area it quickly starts to look less like a snappy, fashionable 20-something and much more like your grandmother's wallpaper.

(I love you Diane von Furstenberg!)

vs.

See unattractive and a bit creepy...

Weeell maybe the creep factor has more to do with the undead twins and less to do with the heinous wallpaper, but I feel we're just splitting hairs here. The bottom line is my current wardrobe mainly consists of solid colors and I can't wait for the day that I can rock a wicked print and feel confident that I in fact look like a girl...and not like Gigi's wallpaper. :)

26 x 26

I do not have a nifty picture of my results to post here like Ryan ( I am planning on getting them by the end of the week) I do have an update. And the scale says.....21.5 pounds gone! Since that fateful doctor's visit (see Post #1) I have dropped almost 22 pounds. That in other words is...

a small dog (like my buddy Jake here)

Four, 5 lbs bags of sugar (and then a handful)

a 4 month old child

2,215 sheets of paper

Two 16" white marble Chinese lions

or the world's largest sweet potato.

There you have it folks!

And lets talk about how I'm 4.5 lbs and 17 days away from my first real milestone in this journey. I wanted to lose 26 lbs by my 26th birthday and that goal is in my reach! July 2nd is not that far away - let's be honest. It's going to be a tough couple of weeks, but I'm ready to make it happen and step up the cardio in the next 2 weeks.

Mucho amor familia del blog!

As Promised...

So here it is in all its glory...my stats! The scale is still a bit slow to drop which displeases me greatly, but I can't deny the fact that I'm toning up. So far I've dropped a total of 11.75" from my chest, waist, abs, hips and thighs. Now my guns seem to be all over the map (probably the roids) and my calves seem to be as defiant as the scale BUT I'm making progress!

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I will save you my ramblings for today because apparently we suddenly live in East Asia and it's monsoon season. The lights are flickering and I'd like to get this post out quickly in case we lose power (wouldn't be the first time...go SMU!)

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Ahh! They just did it again! Pray for me in my windowless little office! I won't even see the tornado coming! :\

Results Are Coming!

Hey guys!

I wanted to let you know that we DID do a weigh-in this morning so as soon as J.R. sends me my stats I will update yall!

I'm happy to report that Katie and I both dropped weight/inches on all fronts despite our socially busy month!! :)

Stay tuned...

Silly Katie...Trix are for Kids.

Ahhh Katie, your attempt at punishment is comparable to taking a competitive eater to an all you can eat buffet. Posting a wicked, awesome picture of me is not punishment at all milady...I LOVE it. That happens to be one of my favorite pictures EVER. In case you haven't known me for say...oh the last two decades of my life...taking weird pictures is what I do. Oh, you would like examples you say?? Well I'm happy to oblige:

Exhibit A: You KNOW I rocked .................Exhibit B: Cheers America!!

.............your Grandma's frames!.........................Happy 4th of July!

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....... ..... ..... ..

Exhibit C: Just a gathering of.................. Exhibit D: Standard Family Photo

...............friends......................................... Christmas Sweater anybody??

Exhibit E: My Mom says I'm................... ..Exhibit F: Say WHAT?!

.............special!

... ..........

I guess some of us are just born awesome...

That's All Folks!!

False Alarm

May day May day. I have lied to you all. Our weigh in did not happen today and we will (hopefully) weigh in tomorrow. Today it was not in the cards. I know all you Waist Not faithfuls were hanging on the edge of your seats so I wanted to allay your anxst. Ive got nothing to report. Ryan "Just call me Martha Stewart" Hawkins planted a garden on Sunday and even today, 2 days later, is moving about like a member of the Rolling Stones. As a result, Ryan did not join us this morning for the workout we have postponed the weigh in until tomorrow morning. As punishment, I am posting the following picture of Ryan. You're welcome =)

What?!? You don't do that?!?!

D-Day

Hello Blog Family! I know it has been eons since I have blogged, but I have been seriously lacking on the material or at least that is what I kept telling myself that every time I sit down to write. "I have a serious writer's block" I say.

But today I really looked at it and, being honest with myself for the first time in weeks, I have come to the realization that it is not writers block but unmitigated fear. FEAR!!!!!

Let me start off by saying that it has been a busy couple of weeks. I've managed to squeeze in a family stockholder's meeting, an engagement party, a real estate convention in Las Vegas, a wedding, a lake trip on Memorial Day Weekend and, what the heck, lets just throw in a happy hour or two for good measure. All of these events involved copious amounts of alcohol and delicious food and could not have done good things for my healthy pursuits. I have tried to workout in the interim and endeavored to eat well during the week to compensate, but I can't say that I have had one perfect week in about a month. The guilt has been weighing me down like crazy...all the little alcohol treats dancing around my head.

The reason I am telling you all this is that tomorrow is D-day. We are weighing in and measuring and I am paralyzed with apprehension. I can only hope that my other efforts have outweighed the bad (though I can say that I had a great time!). We shall see friends. We shall see. Think happy thoughts! Stay tuned for some post action tomorrow.

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Also - well done Ryan on the blog redesign! I am a fan!

Face Lift!!

Hello everyone!

After perusing friends' blogs, I decided it was time to give ours a face lift. I just discovered the beauty of third-party templates...genius. Let me know what yall think!!!

TLC

So the past week, I've been hobbling around the office like a 78 year old woman in desperate need of a hip replacement. And as I take each painful step, I keep simultaneously cursing JR and racking my brain to figure out what exercise we did that so thoroughly shredded my poor, defenseless hamstrings and I've come to this conclusion: there was no exercise.

Clearly the only valid explanation is that in an all out ambush on my unsuspecting legs JR snuck into my window as I slept at night and took a meat tenderizer to my legs. There really is no other logical explanation. In JR's world TLC doesn't mean the sweet tender loving care that we all expect, but more so tenderizing loving care. :\ So it is a sad state of affairs for my legs and the twinge of pain I feel every time I attempt to move them. I have learned a valid lesson in this though...always lock your windows.

Until tomorrow...

Kitten Haters...

Not ONE of you has commented on my post about the orphaned kittens at my brother's house! Have you no heart?!? How could you condemn sweet, little guys like these to a cold, violent, and lonely life on the streets?



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Now if that wasn't enough to convince you to reconsider thawing out your icy hearts, then perhaps this hilarious video will change your mind...

Treat of the Week!

One of the reasons we started this blog was, not only discuss our progress, but share with everyone different tricks, tools, and foods we've discovered along the way and well... we've done a pretty miserable job of that so far! So to keep the posts rollin' I'm going to (attempt) to start posting about different foods or recipes I come across each week!

This week I will be highlighting a recent find of mine, but an instant favorite. Drum roll please...

Ta-da!!!

For those of you that know me well, you know that I love Kashi. I have been a fan since my mom turned me on to it my freshman year of college. I'm not gonna lie though... I definitely caught a lot of flack for my love of sweet, sweet Kashi mainly because 1. no one had heard of it 2. it seemed a bit tree-huggerish and 3. well it just had a funny name. But now that Kashi is much more prominent on the healthy food scene I scoff at all of you who once made fun of me!! MUAHAHA! I win!! Aaaand, sorry about that little outburst... So I'm sure it will come to no surprise that my first treat of the week is indeed in the Kashi family.

I was recently browsing the (four) aisles in the SMU Market when I came across this delicious, little gem of a snack. Kashi's Crunchy! Chocolate Pretzel Bar is da-bomb. Yes, that was "da-bomb" and not "the bomb"...its so good the "the" morphed into a "da". I'm pretty positive there is some scientific reasoning behind the "the/da" phenomenon but it escapes me at the moment, you'll just have to take my word for it.

So if you are a fan of the salty/chocolate combo (which, for me, is one of the only forms I actually like chocolate in) then this is the snack for you! And as characteristic of most Kashi products, it's packed with protein, fiber, and some other good stuff your body likes to eat too. I've taken the liberty to also include the nutritional info just in case anyone needed a little more convincing. As you can see, this delectable snack has a few snafus like its sodium and sugar contents. So be sure you take that into account on days which you dine on this and be sure to compensate for its higher levels in your other meals throughout the day. Outside of that, this is a great midday snack that sticks with you and provides great energy for an afternoon workout.

So the next time you are at the grocery store and you are looking for a quick, on-the-go snack I would highly recommend this little guy! It is super delicious and nutritious to boot!

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Go Kashi! Until tomorrow...