January 7, 2015 by Stephanie

Fit for Me Week 1

Week 1 out of 52: done.

A year doesn’t look so ridiculous when you count down by week.

What I did last week:

Saturday-Ran for 30 minutes on treadmill [My legs are still sore from this. I don’t even remember the last time I ran like that. It was a good run but awful at the same time.]

Sunday-45 minutes of yoga

Monday-30 minutes of cardio on the Wii [I have a video game-Fit Coach-that you can personalize your workout. It keeps up with your progress too. It doesn’t have the best weight/strength training, but it has really decent cardio and yoga. I don’t think I have had the same workout twice in the 5 years I have used it.]

Tuesday-30 minutes of yoga

Impressed by:

I am impressed with myself for actually getting up at 4:45 this week to make a workout happen. I am also impressed that I ran as much as I did for that 30 minutes considering it has been close to a year since I have gone on a good run.

Struggled with:

Getting up at 4:45am. I DO NOT wake up quickly. I know I am not a morning workout person, but it really seems like the only time I am able to get some time in besides the weekend. I know my workouts aren’t the best when I work out this early because I usually am still waking up when I am driving to work. It is all a process for me and one where I prefer not to be carrying weights or doing jumping jacks. I was cranky pants every morning.

Did I meet my goal from last week?

Since my goal was to workout at least 3 times, I would say I hit that one out of the park.

What is my goal for next week?

I want to figure out a better schedule. I know it takes time to get used to new things, but I have tried soooo many times to make morning workouts work. THEY NEVER WORK. For me at least. Half the time, I use the plank/cobra/anything-that-is-remotely-close-to-lying position as an excuse to lay my head on the floor and fall back asleep…So since I am being self-aware, I need to find a way to make working out after work do. Tom and I are figuring out a new schedule so that both of us can get what we need and not have to wake up before 5.

Fitness Thoughts:

It is hard to make this [working out] a priority with schedules of today. Work and family take precedence, and there is little or no time to exercise. Tom and I talked the other night that if both of us worked out for an hour in the evenings (assuming it is not at the same time since one of us needs to be with George), we would not see each other until 7, but really closer to 8 if you include travel time, which is when we are gearing up to put little one down for the night. I think this is why often it seems like a chore to people. I need to remember to make it fun. Hence why having it at 4:45 am is not a good idea for me. That is not fun.

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Or getting out of my sweet sweet bed.

Do you do early morning workouts? How do you get motivated to get to a workout?

January 6, 2015 by Stephanie

Crochet Wavy Baby Blanket

My niece wanted to model off the blanket. She also insisted on taking my scrap yarn for a necklace.

I recently made this blanket for my cousin who is due any day now with her baby boy. There have been three babies (hers included) in the last year on my dad’s side. So many great-grandbabies for my grandparents!

I had been avoiding chevron patterns for a long time because every one that I had seen seemed really complicated. This one is more wavy than chevron but it is pretty close.

I used Vanna White yarn. Did you know that Vanna had her own yarn line? It is not traditional baby yarn, but it was hard to find these colors in traditional baby style. It is still soft in my opinion. I used two skeins of each color.

I used this video as my guide. I am really loving using Youtube for patterns!

I really loved how it turned out, and it was really easy unlike many other chevron patterns I have attempted.

I have another blanket I need to make for another bundle of joy maybe arriving on my birthday. I also have some other blanket projects up my sleeve. Time to put to use that gallon trash bag of yarn we moved. (Yes this is true life.)

Any good patterns you would like to see me try?

January 2, 2015 by Stephanie

Hitting Thirty

There is something about 30 that seems so adult.

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It is appropriate that the year that we (Tom and I) turn thirty is when every thing came together for us as adults.

Today is Tom’s birthday.

My Tough Guy

He has the job of his dreams.

He has a miracle baby.

I am a pretty good catch if I may say so.

Yep his adult life is pretty good.

I think that his 30th year is going to be his best yet!

Tom, here are some things to consider now that you are in your thirties.

I am so proud of my hubster and all that he has been through to get him to where he is today.

I hope that he has the best day. (He will say it is pretty awesome. They are at the gun range all day at his job, and we will end it at a Mexican restaurant tonight.)

Our family pitched in to give him an Xbox one for Christmas and birthday, but I wanted to do something from just me too.

And who doesn’t love celebrating birthdays but also extending it into a birthday week (or in this case 10 days)? I saw a lot of people do 12 days of Christmas with their families, and I thought it would be easy to do something similar for his birthday.

I have 10 days worth of gifts. If you want to see what he gets, I will post the goods once he opens them on Instagram.

Here is today’s gift.

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Because nothing says your thirty like an early Taylor Swift.

Here are birthday posts from the last two years here and here. So much has changed since those posts!

Happy Birthday Tom! Here is to many more together!

December 31, 2014 by Stephanie

Fit For Me

It’s almost a new year, and with that comes all the hype about working out and getting fit.

This is the first year that I am going to jump in on that New Year’s resolution hype.

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I have always been thin and seemingly in shape. But the thing about being thin is that everyone assumes that you are in shape and fit.

Y’all, I can’t even go up stairs without breathing heavy at the end. I want to crawl on the floor in the fetal position sometimes the burn is so overwhelming. Drag me to my next location please.

I have lived a fairly active lifestyle. I played basketball from elementary school up to high school. I ran track for most of high school. Then I played intramurals in college. Once I had my first professional job, I signed up for a gym membership and that is when my relationship with racing began.

Then I got pregnant. My habits of running and doing general exercise went out the window because of all the bedrest notices I received. I still can’t believe that I walked a half marathon 19 weeks pregnant due to all the issues I had from the morning sickness, hormone therapy, and blood pressure/pre-eclampsia.

All that aside, I feel really fortunate that after giving birth it was not even days after that I was back at my pre-pregnancy weight. I know I am lucky in that, but that doesn’t mean that things haven’t shifted. I still have a cuople pairs of pants that refuse to get back on these new hips.

To be honest after a year of not really working out much, I just don’t feel good. I feel like mush and sluggish most days. I don’t feel like I know my own body. There are parts that I don’t even recognize as my own.This has caused a whole host of issues that I won’t begin to delve into here. Just know I have been on the struggle bus.

For the past year, I have felt that my body belonged to someone else. I was George’s incubator for 9ish months, and now I am his food bank.I have really been feeling that my body is no longer mine.

Yes it has done great things, and I can acknowledge that. I mean I pushed a human out after growing said human, and now I am feeding that human with this body. However, I want it to be mine again too. I want to feel good about myself and not feel like I am at the mercy of George. Although I will do anything for that kid, and I feel absolutely blessed that I am his mom and could carry him. However, I don’t want to forget about my health just because I am a mom.

It is just time that I start focusing on my body for me. I know I feel better (mood and energy wise) when I work out. I want that me time again, and I just haven’t been able to put the time in as much as I had in the past consistently with everything that has gone on in the last 4 months. It seemed like I would have a few good days where I could get a workout in then something would change, and I had to rethink my approach. Such is life right?

Now is as good a time as ever to refocus and make this a priority.

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So here is my goal. I am going to do a workout journal for the first time ever. (Ok maybe not the first, but every other dozen times I have done it, the entries stop happening after 1 or 2 workouts.) I want to document for the next year (yes the next 52 weeks) how I am doing with my goals. I am hoping by sharing with you here on the blog, I can be more accountable to those goals and keep a checklist (because I know myself and a checklist is the key to my success) of what I need to do. I thought about whether to recap once a week or a month, but a month gives me time to stray from the commitment. I need a more structured approach, and a week keeps me thinking short term. I don’t have a weight or a measurement in mind of where I want to be in a year. I am just hoping to see improvements in my stamina and flexibility. (However, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I didn’t want to fit into those pairs of pants.) My goals are going to be in small weekly or month increments. S.M.A.R.T. goals people. In reality though, I just want to be fit.

I want to be fit for me.

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So I am jumping in big with a commitment to log weekly about my workout adventures.

While I am doing this to focus on my own fitness and be accountable to my personal goals, I hope that this opens up a community of support for finding your own definition of fit too. We could all use the encouragement!

My goal for this next week is to work out at least 3 times.

What does fit mean to you? Do you have workout goals for 2015?

December 29, 2014 by Stephanie

George Does Christmas…Because We Made Him

We survived George’s first Christmas. We are all holidayed out.

We actually didn’t do anything crazy for him, besides putting him in a different “holiday” outfit each time we had a family gathering. Anyone surprised that my kid will have matching outfits to coordinate with the day’s events?

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Being only four months old combined with lots of traveling gave us the excuse of not going all crazy about baby’s first Christmas. Which is fine, there were other things to stress about. Other people bought us baby’s first Christmas ornaments– is this a mommy fail or a mommy win?

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Next Christmas though, thoughts are already brewing on how to share the Christmas spirit and start traditions with Georgie Man. It will also be the first Christmas that Tom and I will be able to start our traditions as a family and not have to travel way far (now it is a 3 hour drive max to family) or have some momentous event happening (like leaving the Army). So hopefully big things will happen to our Christmas cheer next year.

George seemed uninterested this year anyway…

He took sitting on a stranger’s lap like a boss. Not even phased…

We took pictures and opened his gifts.

Still not phased.

He just wanted to sleep, eat and poop. So by his accounts he really did this Christmas up! Check, check and check. (And can I get in on this kind of holiday?)