Guess Who Got A Summer JOB?!

Yeaaaah.. Good morning sweet ones!! It's Wednesday! Happy Hump Day!! (snicker... Giggidy)..

I'm in an inappropriate mood this morning.. And inappropriate is a good thing! I GOT A SUMMER JOB!! Is it the ideal job? Hell no.. I was offered a job as a waitress at Denny's. Do I care that it's not an ideal job? Nope. RED HAIR DON'T CARE!! IT'S A JOB!! I'm actually really excited! (Couldn't tell huh?) I've never actually been a waitress before.. Could be an adventure? Maybe! Who cares... I'm employed and I don't have to worry about losing my car or paying my bills!

I'm working on a blog entry that I will probably schedule to post later... So a quick poll..

What does love mean to you?

What is love?

How do you know when you are in love?

If you would, PLEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEE answer in the comments or shoot me an email at peppersandonionsblog@gmail.com. Please! Do know that if you answer, I will not attach your name to your answers, but I will use direct quotes. This research is completely not sciencetific in the least and all opinons are welcome.. Some of them I've gotten so far have made me laugh my bum off. I take everything from cynical to sappy. Please let me know!!


-Sammie

Giveaway Swag, Weigh In and Worries

GOOOOOOOOOOOD MONDAY MORNING!!! Ok.. That was just a tad too peppy for me.. Oops.. Sorry about that. I'm just SO EFFIN EXCITED about today's post! WOOT!

So, if you've read my last few posts, you've seen that I promised some additional awesomeness in addition to that BEAUTIFUL journal I'm giving away here. Well.. In my P.S. I promised some additional swag in the package. When I originally wrote that comment, I had no idea what I was going to toss in the box. No.Effing.Clue. So I was browsing around my local dollar store and this caught my eye.

They are around 77 cals a ball. A bit high, but a tasty treat!

LOVE THIS TUMBLER!! OMG

The only sad part is that the tumbler doesn't have a lid. Oh well. It's so cute!! I knew I had to give it away. So along with the journal, I will throw in the tumbler and the truffles. Nom nom. 

So.... Time for a weigh in.. I think I may re-weigh tomorrow, because this was actually done after my work out this morning. Oops. Yes my loves, that says I AM UNDER 270 POUNDS!!!!! That brings me to a grand total of 20.8 pounds lost for this part of my journey. It's not a whole lot, but dammit it's progress! I'm so insanely proud of myself.

-20.8 pounds total!!

Which brings me to my worries... I am 7.6 pounds down in a week. ONE WEEK. That really scares me. I'm happy with the loss,don't get me wrong... I'm just so scared of effin up my body. I'm not trying to lose fast. I eat about 2000 cals a day or a tad under. (I never have less than about 1200). I'm drinking lots of water and I stepped up my workout game last week with tiny bit of running and my elliptical time. Could the workouts be making that much of a difference? I really don't want to screw my body up.  I track EVERYTHING I eat, drink more water, and I started taking a multivitamin this morning with breakfast. 

Most everyone I've talked to says the weight comes off fast in the beginning and the workouts kicked my metabolism in the arse. I've decided to wait another week and see what happens. Here's hoping...

Happy Monday my dears!! Don't forget to enter to win the journal!! :) 

Until next time blogosphere. Stay sane!

-Sammie

Music to Workout

One of the things that is an absolute must when I am working out is music. I have to have something coming through my headphones to keep me entertained and motivated. Without music, I'm very likely to get bored and quit very quickly.

I've mentioned a couple times here that I'm a fan of Hip-Hop. I listen in my car and while I work out when no one else is around. It's not that I'm embarrassed, I just tend to want to avoid the cross-eyed looks of people when I'm in public.

Since I'm short on things to blog about today, I leave you with my workout playlist.

Artist-Song Title

Sean Paul- Give It Up To Me
Maroon 5- Moves Like Jagger
Jeremih & 50 Cent- Down On Me
Destiny's Child- Bootylicious
Linkin Park- What I've Done
Big & Rich- Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy
Warrant- Cherry Pie
Kanye West & Jamie Foxx- Gold Digger
Nicki Minaj- Super Bass
Lupe Fiasco- The Show Goes On
DJ Kahled- All I Do Is Win
Prince- Little Red Corvette (Usually a cool down song)
Nickelback- Animals
Macklemore- Thrift Shop
T-Pain & Yung Joc- Buy U A Drank
Aerosmith- Rag Doll
Fall Out Boy- Thnks Fr Th Mmrs
T-Pain- Bartender (Cool Down)
Down- Lean Like A Cholo
Shop Boyz- Party Like A Rock Star
Trey Songz- Bottoms Up
Juvenile & Soulja Slim- Slow Motion (Cool Down)
Ludacris- Get Back
Soulja Boy- Crank That
Justin Timberlake- Summer Love
Rhianna- We Found Love
Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa- Young, Wild & Free
LMFAO- Shots
Van Halen- Why Can't This Be Love
Kanye West & Jay-Z- Ni**as in Paris
Justin Timberlake- Rock You Body
The Outhere Brothers- Boom Boom Boom
Outkast- The Way You Move
Billy Idol- Rebel Yell
T.I.- Whatever You Like
Fall Out Boy- Sugar We're Goin Down
Lady Gaga- You and I
LMFAO- Sexy and I Know It
Chris Brown- Look At Me Now
Jamie Foxx- Blame It
Drake- Headlines
Ke$ha- Sleazy

If you've made it this far... Congratulations. See? There's a little something for everyone. I like to keep the variety changed up. This playlist is always on shuffle, so I have no idea what's next. I know the lyrics to nearly all of the songs. I have no life sometimes :)

Until next time blogosphere... Stay sane!

-Sammie

What did the five fingers say to the temptation?

That's right Chick Fil A... Your delicious, warm chicken minis called my name this morning like a siren's song. We even had an extra order in the bag. Oops. You wanted me to eat you. I know you did. Your minis and your hashbrowns too... Well guess what Chick Fil A... SLAP!

Jimmy Dean sends his best regards...

In all seriousness... This is a big deal for me. Chick Fil A is like my own personal brand of crack. I freakin love Chick Fil A. In college, one of my favorite things to eat for lunch was a Chick Fil A sammich, waffle fries and a smoothie (looking back, is it any wonder that I gained 100+ pounds?). 

This morning I made my yummy Jimmy Dean turkey sausage sammich (yes that spelling is on purpose!) and I was craving a little sweet. In the interest of time, I had some vanilla yogurt. Of course I also had my bottle of water (along with my antibiotic). My carrots, granola bars, and Special K meal bar were packed and ready. On the way to work, Mom pulls into Chick Fil A and says, "I'm starving.. What do you want?" Crap on toast. What do I want?? Well, I really want an order of those minis and a spicy chicken biscut and some hashbrowns. BUT I DIDN'T ORDER THAT!!! Instead I asked for my normal lg Coke Zero and nothing else!

Yes Mr. Murray... I'm awesome!

How have you dodged temptation recently? (Remember, celebrate the small.. Every small step leads to a big step!)

-Sammie

Ouchie Dammit

James and I started a Boot Camp program last night. It's a combination of everything (cardio, abs, upper body, and lower body) crammed into 1 30-minute sweat fest. Of course I offer my thanks to the wonderful people at Hulu plus for putting some awesome stuff under their fitness category.

I have muscles sore that I didn't think were possible to be sore. I can feel the burn in my thighs, back and shoulders. Thighs and shoulders, not so bad... Back?! Holy moly it hurts like a MFer. I digress, it's not pain.. It's soreness. Delicious, excruciating, groaning in pain soreness. Of course the masochist in me is ready to go with round 2 tonight! No pain, no gain.

We also had a night cap with our favorite candlelight yoga class. I'm sad to sat that it will not be available on Netflix after August 1 :( Sad panda.

On the menu for dinner tonight is baked chicken nuggets and some kind of veggies. During our next grocery trip I'm going to invest in some of the quinoa stuff I've heard so much about. I've also read tips on how to have your fresh veggies last for a month (yay freeer bags!). I'm excited to finally get back off my arse and get things done.

Me miss you long time?

Howdy howdy...

Long time no update.. Been a tad busy.. Work is royally kicking me square in the arse, and I barely have time to eat. Much less blog or workout. Yes, working out relieves stress. When you work until 2am and have to be up again at 0730, the time to workout flies directly out the window.

With school FINALLY coming to a close, I'm going to have some free time on my hands which means more workouts. Plus I'm going to re-do my living room and work on finding different work. I love my job, I really do.. But for reasons I refuse to post on the internet, I think it may be time to move on.

I have another reason for getting my lard butt back into workout mode too. I'm planning a cruise!! Fiance, me and one of my BFFs (best f*&%ing friends) are taking a cruise next August! We've gotten our savings plan in place and we're all motivated to work our asses off to look sexier than we already are. I haven't said anything about the cruise on Facebook and I probably won't. Come next August, I will be lounging in the Caribbean Sea with my 2 favorite men... CAN'T WAIT!!!

Weekly Wednesday Pictures

It is my goal to post pictures once a week... This is primarily for me to track progress (I'm a very visual person), but hopefully it can help my readers out as well. My wonderful fiancé is helping me out with this task. Here are the first set of snapshots:

Setbacks

The title of today's post is setbacks... I draw the inspiration from a near injury I got from walking tonight. For those that know (and sometimes love) me, know that I have the worst knees of any mid-20 something that you know.

Tonight during my walk, one of my knees decided it wanted to pop, crack and generally hurt like biz-atch. My friend that I walk with was really worried and offered to stop for the night. I refused to stop and we walked one last lap around the school.

No matter what you perceive as a set back, you shouldn't let it stop you. Setbacks are minor, however they lead to something worse... Quitting. And along with quitting, there are excuses. Don't let a small amount of pain, a tv show, or emotional drainage set you back from a goal. Keep pushing ahead. Things will improve.

There's something to be said for that catchy phrase...

What was that phrase again? Oh yeah... Just do it.. Thank you Nike.

Today was a day of complete and total ridiculousness.. Between having a kid disappear at work to STAAR tests, I was beyond ready to come home and pass out. Like hardcore ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (with the drool and everything). Thanks to James and his awesomeness, instead of a hardcore sleep I had a tasty (not very healthy, but tasty all the same) dinner and did an hour of workouts. 26ish minutes of walking followed by 42ish minutes of candlelight yoga. It wasn't as much cardio as I should have done, but there's something to be said for increasing flexibility and improving muscle tone.

Short post tonight... Yoga got me all relaxed, now its time for a nice warm shower and ZZZZZZZZZZZZs..

G'night all!

OMG 2 Posts in a day?!

Yeah... I'm that awesome. The TEA website that I need to access to catch up on my job is not working at the moment, so I'm stuck.. Yay?

I wanted to review this awesome new app I'm using called Nexercise. It's an app for the iPhone (I think it's coming to Android soon) and I am completely in love. I can use it to track all my workouts and I earn free rewards as I earn points. When I complete a workout it automatically b̶r̶a̶g̶s̶ posts to Facebook. So far I've earned a free Shape workout and meal plan. The fiance (who gets to play sports at work, the bum) has earned several awesome rewards, including a VIP membership to Zappos.com. (The shoe hound in me died a little right there).

My only complaint is that it is a MAJOR battery killer. My 3GS has crap for battery life anyway, but the motion tracking part of Nexercise sucks it down completely.

Overall, awesome app. It's a great motivator and it lets you compete against your Facebook friends for a little healthy competition. Gotta love it...

I give it 4/5 Chunks :-)

Zumba Addict? Yeah, that's me,,,

Dear Lord I love Zumba...

For those of you that know me, know that me saying that I love anything at all having to do with exercise is bizarre. Zumba doesn't really feel like exercise though. It's fun, and I'm working on my sweet dance moves.

Other than my new found love for Zumba, I wanted to mention how much easier this attempt seems to be than any of my previous attempts. I am chalking up the ease of the transition to a healthier me to several different factors.

#1 I have a completely amazing support team. My parents, fiance, coworkers and everyone in my Zumba class.
#2 The support I have at home is amazing. James is doing everything he can to support everything I'm doing and is participating in some things with me (eating healthier, yoga, etc..).
#3 The power of Pinterest.. Yes radies and gentlemen, Pinterest. If I am feeling down or unmotivated, all I have to do is pop over to the fitness boards and I'm hit with tons of get-your-lard-ass-in-gear motivation.

If I have my way, this blog will become a source of motivation as well.. Now that I can blog from my iPhone, I will be unstoppable!!