Before & After: My weight loss story

On November 1st, 2009 I finally bought a membership to 24 hour fitness in order to obtain a healthier lifestyle and my overall goal to lose weight. I tried to at home but it was easy to find excuses the machine broke or the most common one, I can't get a good workout with Lana at home and "trying" to work out with me. So I joined the gym who had free child care and began my  journey. I started this journey while working full-time, taking care of a child, and completing graduate school. If I can do it you can to! just take the time to put yourself first.

The pictures below are my before nad after photos. Went from 184lbs down 134lbs. From a 14/16 size in clothes to a size 6.

I now go to the gym 4-5 days a week. Or at least at try to. It took me from November 2009 to July of 2010 to lose the weight. I have kept it off for about a year now. I have increased my intensity of my cardio by now doing 2-4 spin classes a week in order to try and lose those last 10-15 lbs. I started spin classes back in January and have since become addicted to them. I absolutely love the feeling of a good sweat after a hard spin class. Along my initial weight loss journey I hired a personal trainer at 24 hour fitness who has since become a good friend, Shana Savitz. The picture below is of the two of us.

To stay motivated I love watching the biggest loser (one of my favorite tv shows) this helps me to keep motivated to go to the gym and to stay on track with eating. Shana also has a page on facebook called Chai Fitness where she posts challenges, pictures of clients training, healthy lifestyle tips, among other things, so be sure to check it out and like it on facebook.

Princess In Progress

After swimming for a little while yesterday afternoon. Lana came in and wanted to take a bath with a new bath set she picked up with Grandma, when Grandma had come down to watch her after her birthday. They ended up having to take back about 5 duplicate gifts and this is one of the items she came back with.

Its a little mermaid bath set. Including:: mirror that attaches to the tub, bath foam, a headband for her hair, and a door tag that says: do not disturb: princess in progress.

First things first Lana put on the headband.

Then she put the door knocker on the door

Got out the bath foam.

And, of course wouldnt be final until she got out her Little Mermaid boat and her 3 little mermaids to play with in the bath tub. She then got in and told me to close the door. When I came back in a few minutes later she said in her "princess" voice. "leave the princess in progress, I am not ready yet!" LOL.

 

Mint Tea and Bedazzled Wine Glasses

Before I begin my post I apoligize for the numerous pictures in this post there were simply too many not to share and I still had about 20 I didn't post on here. I can get a little picture crazy sometimes.

Thursday after work I headed to pick up Lana from daycare then head over to Linda's house where I met my sister Mary and her daughter Summer. We decided to have an evening of crafting. This evening we decided to try making bedazzled wine glasses that were inspired from Linda's other daughters Amber's Blog.

First, to find some wine glasses. Linda found her some at the local goodwill while Mary got both of us some glasses at Ikea (6 for $4.99) and some larger ones for $1.99 that worked out perfectly.

Before getting started we  had dinner, Linda made a simple but wonderful garden salad that was especially delicious with the garlic cheese i brought over that I had picked up at a little german grocery store in Muenster and froze.(FYI-cheese does freeze but will not be creamy to slice for crackers after frozen, however the frozen cheesse crumbled great for our salad). I left the remaining log of cheese at Linda's where I think Linda and Summer may had to fight over for the leftovers, haha.

Linda also made some wonderful mint tea. (see picture below).







The picture above of the 4 of us turned out pretty good. We wanted to take a picture of all of us but Louis Dean was out and about so the only person left  to take our picture was Lana. She did a pretty good job. I was laughing so hard in the picture because right before the Lana took the picture Linda said I don't know how this will turn out with a 5 year old taking the picture and I started laughing because I knew she was a pretty  good little photographer.

In this picture Summer was getting her glue out ready to start her glass.

Here Linda was working on her wine glass.




This is the before picture of one of my glasses where I put liquid nails on the bottom and spread it out with a gloved finger.


Here Mary is posing with her 1st glass she made where the rest of us then started cheering because the rest of us had completed 2 glasses to her one! LOL! Nice job Mary!




This glass turned out to be my personal favorite. I just decided to use random colored jewels in all different sizes.

Here are some of our completed wine glasses. I think they turned out great! We had a great evening full of fun and many, many laughs!

 

Cheers, or as Summer would say in her british accent Cherrio! (not sure if that is spelled correctly).

 

 

Spin shoes

Yes. I am writing a post about my spin shoes I just received in the mail yesterday. Of course I loved the color because they have pink on them.

I tried them out this evening. It was a little bit of a challenge getting them to lock into place but the instructor helped me and she said it gets alot easier once you get used to it.

At first I didn't notice a difference between my normal shoes and the spin shoes but about 20 min in I could definitely tell that may calves were getting a good workout. I know they are going to be sore tomorrow.

Overall, the spin shoes are awesome and gives your legs a better workout.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Shopping and Planting Flowers

On Sunday, I decided to take a trip to Home Depot to get some colorful flowers to plant in the pots that I have around the pool that current only had green potato plants in them. I decided the pots needed more colors in them. So Lana and I headed off in search of some pretty flowers, but first Lana had to wear her hat and told me to wear my hat too, so we did!


We took the above photo in the parking lot of home depot! People walking by probably thought I was crazy taking a picture in the middle of   the parking lot.




Lana and I found all sorts of beatiful flowers, Lana offered to stand by a flat of flowers for her picture to be taken and I was ready with my camera! (iphone comes in handy to take pictures on the fly-perfect for  blogging).

When we got home we planted the flowers in all of the pots. Or shall I say, I planted the flowers in the all the pots while Lana put on her swimsuit and jumped into the pool.


I loved mixing all the different types of plants into all of the pots to add a variety of types and colors to each pot.










I just had to take a picture of this pink hisbiscus it was so pretty ( and in my favorite color-PINK ).



 These stones I made during the course of a couple years with Mom down on Lake Murray where a friend of hers lets people come into her home and create these wonderful works of art. I placed them on the path that leads to the pool equipment and they add a splash of color to the grass.

Blue Tongued Beauty!

When mom came down the other week we went out to Chili's for dinner where Lana ordered a frozen blue raspberry drink. She thought it tasted good but I know her favorite part was how it made her tongue turn blue. She couldn't stop looking in my mirror I keep in my purse.


  

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Strawberries, Chocolate, & Bread, oh my!

I got up early this moring to get to the grocery store before anyone else woke up. This way I can shop in peace without Lana trying to put everything into the shopping cart. While shopping I got hungry for breakfast and thought of my friend Amber's Blog and the delicious and nutritious breakfast/snack she had on one of her blogs and decided to try it out. I tweaked her recipe a little by  using a couple different ingredients:

Ingredient List:

1 - Toasted Dark Rye Bread, 70 Calories
1t- Nutella, 50 Calories
1t-Fresh Whip Cream, 6 calories
1 lg fresh strawberry cut into slices, 5 calories

Grand Total: 131 calories
Not too bad for my Breakfast that includes almost all food groups.

I had this along with a tall, cold glass of water for Breakfast. YUMMY!!







  

-

4 Wheelin' Fun!

Back in October we bought a pair of 4 wheelers. While Kent grew up riding 3 wheelers and snow mobiles, I did not but  am quickly catching up but not without a few flips, scrapes, and bruises along the way (nothing major). We have been having a blast most every weekend since finding new places to ride.

We have tried several riding locations including: Bulcher (in Muenster) here we found a german grocery store that  makes their own cheese and found that we love their garlic cheese, onion cheese, horseradish cheese, and cranberry cheese). Rocky Ridge (in decatur), Hidden Falls Adventure Park in Marble Falls, TX and my personal favorite River Run in Jacksonville, TX (home of Muddy Gras and Mudjam).

My first flip occured in Red River (Muesnter, TX). I was trying to catch up to Kent and took a corner too fast. Luckily I had my helmet on and was able to get out of the way of the 4 wheeler.

We have had so much fun we got Kents sisters to go with us, and got them hooked too. A couple weeks ago Kents 2 brothers from Wisconsin came down where we visited a couple parks including going to MudJam in Jacksonville, TX.

Prior to Kent's 2 brothers coming down to ride they gave me a hard time about having flipped my 4 wheeler a few times. After riding with us at Muenster and Jacksonville they told me they can now see how I flipped and they ended up flipping more than me this time!!. They were used to riding in Wisconsin where  the trails are mostly flat and can ride at 40-50mph where down here in TEXAS there are rocks and all sorts of terrain where we rarely ride over 15mph.

The park in Decatur, Rocky Ridge has some difficult terrain. The pictures below are of the park and some of the rocks and terrain we ride there.

The first time we went to River Run in Jacksonville we met up with some people I knew from my old job at Saia and that Kent still works with. Here we met a new couple Ryan and Joella we met up with again a couple weeks ago at Mud Jam.

At Muddy Gras, Aaron and Jen lost one tire and Aaron had to ride it back to camp on three wheels. Its always and adventure.

When we go to Jacksonville that park is normally pretty muddy so of course can't go 4 wheeling without  my cool, awesome, leopard rain boots!

Now 4 wheeling season is winding down now that it is getting too hot to ride. I am looking forward to the end of the summer season when we are going to try some new parks including: Mena Arkansas, and maybe going to ride some Wisconsin Trails.

While 4 wheeling season is winding down, Pool season is getting ready to go!!


Happy Trails,

Marie



Test

I just downloaded the blogging app to my phone and iPad testing to see how it works.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone