Monday Morning Weigh In! And Spring Break Recap!

Good Monday morning lovlies!! I have to say that I have missed you all sosososososo much. Since I wasn't at work last week, I felt like I never had time to actually sit down in front of the computer and read, much less type a blog post. My SB2013 was NUTS! And in a totally amazing way!

The absolute highlights of my SB were definitely the weekends. The first weekend I got to go out dancing with a friend of mine for a bachelorette party. I danced my bum off. I was so insanely sore the next day! The entire lower half of my body was around the consistency of Jello. I felt like I looked pretty cute, but I think pictures tell a different story. I had my hair back most of the night, because it was too damn hot! Ugh. Sweaty messes alert below...

Left to Right: April (MOH), Michelle (Bride), my BFF Manda, and Me!

The week was spent catching up on Glee, yardwork, and cleaning. As a side job, I clean my great-grandmother's house on the weekends and I spot clean on a week night. It's not great money, but it makes the car payment!

This weekend I got to visit with one of my best girlfriends. Her mom was in Austin with her for SB2013, so I went up and spent Friday night with them. Her birthday is today, so I brought her cake and we watched Life of Pi. Then we stayed up until around 3:00am talking about books, movies, love and our lives. It may sound lame, but I honestly had a better time with her than I did dancing. We didn't really take any pictures, but I can say that we shut down a Barnes and Noble AND a Chipotle. Nom nom burrito bowl.

During the rest of the weekend, I went to church and had lunch with James. We messed around shopping for a while and I started buying stuff for the Birthday Edition of the My Favorite Things Giveaway! I'm really excited about that one :)

I did manage, during the insanity of SB to finish Week 1 of C25K!! Pretty exciting stuff! Only bad thing is that my knee is realllllly sore today. I'm pretty sure it's meniscus pain. It's a bit swollen and sore. Oh well. I'll be icing it and staying low impact.

1 week down!! WOOHOO!

Which brings me to my weigh in! I'm down another 3 pounds during my official weigh in this morning! Which brings me to a total of 23.8 pounds lost and never to be found again!

Yay for pretty toes! And a pretty number!

I've gotten to where I like to take sweaty/nasty ass/gross pictures after I get done working out. I personally think they are hilarious to look at. And quite attractive! (Please denote a high level of sarcasm). It's motivating to me to see how hard I worked during the previous 30-45 minutes. Love the red face, sweat, and panting :)

This is the face of hard work... And Death... And too much cake in a lifetime.

Until next time blogosphere! Stay sane! :)

-Sammie

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things!

I realized a couple days ago that I haven't really been open as to who I am exactly. My likes, dislikes, blah blah blah. Well.. Now it's time for a little get to know me session... And maybe a giveaway :)

Anywho... A random list of things that I am obsessed love.

• Oatmeal Cookies. Especially when my dad makes them. They are homemade bar cookies and to die for. Nom nom delicious.
• Owls. Anything with owls on it, in it, around it. Whatever. I.FREAKING.LOVE.OWLS. I would love an owl tattoo, but I doubt that will happen.
• Llamas. Freakin adorable little monsters.
• Hip Hop music. I'll never admit it in public (we're all family here) but I love me some Snoop Dog.
• The color maroon. Not only was it one of my colors in college, but it's so flattering!
• Books. Pretty books. Ugly books. Long books. Short books. Hard back. Paper back. Ebooks. Books. I love books. I'm a book whore bibliomaniac/bibliophile. Either way. Love books.
• Writing. It's a shocker, I know. I have a blog, so I must like writing. Not exactly. I'm sure not all bloggers write for the joy of writing. I actually have written a couple of fiction pieces. I'm not 100% sure I'm ready to share them with the world, yet. Maybe some day.
• Pretty journals. I'm a sucker for a pretty journal. The cover, the blank pages, so many possibilities. My set back is that I buy cute journals and I never use them, because I don't want to jack up the pages. Which brings me to the mention of free stuff!!

The beauty pictured above is currently up for grabs!! (Notice the maroon? My pillowcase.) It is a beautiful journal that caught my eye while browsing through my local Ross. There is where I came up with the my favorite things giveaway. Every once in a while, I'll host a giveaway featuring something I love. It may be small, or it could be big! You never know :) I can say, it won't be contained to the list above :)

Enter using the Rafflecopter below! Contest starts NOW! And will run until March 13th at 12:00am. Good luck! You must follow my blog for any of your entries to count! I WILL CHECK!! :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let Your Nerd Flag Fly!

I am absolutely the world's biggest nerd. Harry Pottter, Doctor Who, Sci-Fi, dystopian novels, wizards, zombies, etc... When I saw the picture below, water came out of my nose from laughter... (Also a HUGE, but closeted fan of hip-hop. I work out to some raunchy stuff.)  This was one of my favorite scenes from POA. I love Alan Rickman and thnk his Severus Snape was fantastical. For those of you confused, this is actually a boggart (it transforms into your worst fear). The way to defeat a boggart is with laughter. So Neville (who is scared of Snape) pictured him in his grandmother's normal attire in order to defeat the boggart. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some thrift shopping to do... Poppin' tags!

Damn, yous a sexy Snape

All joking aside... I woke up feeling amazing this morning. I had a little soreness in my muscles from my elliptical run and the killer cramps I got last night (on the front of my leg!! like my shin!!). I also felt lighter.. It was an odd feeling. Not like a "I'm floating/light headed" feeling... Like a "huh.. I think I've lost" feeling. It was awesome sauce. I may have a second post later with a updated picture.I'm very curious. I will weigh in tonight at my great grandma's house when I go to clean. I'm extremely nervous about what the scale is going to say... I just have to remember:

Have a good Wednesday blogosphere! Stay out of trouble :)

P.S. Any ideas on how to prevent leg cramps? I'm drinking a TON of water... Any other suggestions?

-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

But what does it all mean??

Good morning everyone! Thank you all for the well wishes this weekend :) With some rest, lots of fluids, and plenty of ZZZs I'm back and in good shape! The only thing I have left of the bronchitis is a little nagging cough, but everything else is long gone.

The title of the post might be a bit confusing at first.. So I will explain here. When I ask that question, I'm referring to the number on the scale. At my urgent care appointment this weekend, I was weighed and found that I was down another 1.3 pounds! Woot! This would bring my total weight to 286.2. Not too shabby, eh?

So yesterday, I went to check on my great-grandma (she has the same crud everyone else does). For S's and G's (sh!ts and giggles for the curious) I stepped on her scale (the one I normally weigh myself on) and 281.4 popped up. Say what, chicken butt? Are you serious? How in de hell did that happen??

I will say that I didn't eat much on Satuday after my appointment. In fact, I ate less than 1200 cals. Bad llama, I know! My Fitness Pal (add me! dramallamaduck) griped at me. I just don't think that would cause a 5 POUND LOSS. That just doesn't compute in my brain. Not to mention, I sat on my kiester all day. How does that happen? I was also VERY well hydrated, so I don't think it was a loss of water.

I'm not putting much stock in that weight. Call it a fluke, faulty scales, whatever. I'll reweigh on Wednesday and see what it says. But what does it all mean? What does that little number even mean anyway? That loss completely blew my mind.

I leave you today with a fantastic picture one of my Facebook friends shared this morning. Sums up the journey quite nicely, methinks.

Until nextime blogoshpere!

-Sammie

P.S. I'm linked up today with Alex from Operation Skinny Jeans!

Cheers!

Still hacking.. Still coughing.. Still a tad feverish.. I'm pretty sure that a piece of my lung just landed on my book... Thank God for cough drops, I would be miserable (more than I am already) wihtout them.. I would really like for this sickness to pass. I want to get back on my elliptical.

Oh well.. It's the weekend!

My plans include plenty of sleep, shenanigans and (hopefully) kicking this virus thing so I can hang out with the fiance on Sunday.

What do you have planned??

-P.S Shout out to all my new followers! How's it going ladies (and gentlemen)?

Sleep, water, and friends

Yes my lovelies... Sleep is muy importante.. So is a little H2O and some awesome friends...

I've been running around like a mad woman for the last few days and it's making my sleeping habits suffer. That and I sometimes suffer from a wicked case of insomnia. For me, the most recent issues are not falling asleep.. It's been taking me around 45 minutes to an hour to turn my brain off to sleep. I hate waking up tired and dragging my half zombie ass to work.

I haven't been drinking enough water lately and my body is busy telling me about it. I think this issue may be linked back to the lack of sleep problem. Water does not have any caffeine, but Coke Zero does! I'm desperate for something to wake me up..

Friend are the last topic of my (short) discussion tonight. I have some awesome friends. Natalie, Ellie, Andrea, James, Kelly, Joey, Manda and Peter are pretty much some of the greatest people ever. Nothing really to discuss here, just wanted to mention how awesome my people are :)

That's it for today, pretty brief. I'm way too tired to do anything more productive.

Frustrations

Today's topic is something that I'm sure we've all hit at one point or another. Frustration. My frustration stems from that stupid little machine that I step on every morning and the number it spits out at me. Yes my friends, I'm talking about the scale.

I've been exercises at least twice (typically 3-4 times) a week since the last week in February.  I've drastically cut down on soda (the diet kind) and drink one once every 2 days or so. I don't eat a ton of sugar anyway (I cut way back after my mom was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes a couple years ago), but Ive cut way back on what little I eat. I'm drinking more water, eating more fruits and veggies, less carbs, better protein and more whole grain... Then why in the heck does the number on that confounded scale NEVER MOVE?! Actually, wait... Let me say that again... THE DAMN THING SAYS I HAVE GAINED! Seriously? Seriously. Talk about a major frustration.

I will admit that my last couple dinners haven't exactly been the model of healthy living, but I do what I can with what I've got. I feel better, and I can tell that I've got more muscle tone than I have had in the last few years. Unfortunately everyone looks at the little number from that stupid machine. That number is used to calculate BMI and the doctors always lecture us about it, but when we try to change it the damn number doesn't move!

ARGH!