Hello From Kansas City!

We made it, we made it! After a 4AM wake up call we have arrived in Kansas City for a layover.

I thought I would have trouble getting up, but I think since I was so excited I could barely sleep. So pumped to have some vacation and to see friends. And of course, to see this:

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Of course we saw ole Larry.

Or who we thought was Larry! Frontier has different animals on all their different aircraft carriers. Once I looked them up it might actually be Charlie the cougar. Or Larry Jr.

Tomato juice! I don’t know why, but I always get tomato juice when I fly on a plane. I don’t drink a lot of it outside of flying…so it’s a weird habit. Have had good luck so far with flying so I’m not changing it!

Early morning reads. Gotta keep up with my health coaching, ya know!

It took us 7 tries for me to get a good picture without me having a lazy eye. Super cool.

So of course we took one like this so I could keep my eyes open.

Snacks from the airport. Pretty healthy option, right? Semi- impressed with the Kansas City airport. I say semi because the bathroom was terrible. I’ll leave it at that. Oh, and the carpet on the ceilings….no comment.

See you in Colorado!

2012 New Year’s Resolutions

Yep, it’s that time. People either love ‘em or hate ‘em. There are a million reasons why you should make New Year’s resolutions & a million more on why you shouldn’t. My thoughts are, everyone works differently. Some need very distinct goals, other do not. Do what is best for you and you’ll be golden.

People seem to think New Year’s resolutions are so restricting and will just lead you to failure. I beg to differ. It’s the pressure that you put on yourself is what leads to the feeling of failing. I see making resolutions as an overall goal. I also understand that life happens and it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t achieve every single resolution I make. To think that life will  go perfectly like you plan it is absurd and I refuse to put that pressure on myself.

Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point brings up a great point about New Year’s resolutions, check it out!

As you can tell, I LOVE New Year’s resolutions. I think the start of the New Year is a great time to re-evaluate what you want in life, whether it be professionally, financially, physically, mentally, etc. I’ve broken mine down into professionally, health/fitness & personal.

Professional

• Goal: Begin seeing clients for Health Coach Training: 5 months into the program, you get a pre-certification so you can begin seeing clients. I definitely want to promote myself as soon as I can to start changing the world!
• Goal: Reach out to locals in the area to work/collaborate with: I think this is sort of a professional & personal goal. I’d really love to get more connected with the Milwaukee area (especially since I’ve already been here for a whole year!)
• Goal: Research freelance writing opportunities: I really enjoy my job, but I don’t get to write as much, hence why I started a blog. I’d love to research freelancing opportunities to write for fun (and it doesn’t hurt to get paid).

Health/Fitness

• Goal: Lose 20 pounds. Yep, I’m saying it. Outloud. My overall goal is 30 and I’ve already lost 11 since the beginning of October so I’m right on track. I plan to do this by NOT dieting & just by changing and tweaking my eating habits & working out.
• Goal: Attend the gym 5-6 times a week. I’m slowly getting there already, but sometimes I still get lazy and don’t go just because I don’t want to. Now this resolution I will be more lenient on because , well there will be some weeks when I know that isn’t attainable. I plan to just go with the flow and do my best.

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Goal: Take a complimentary yoga class at different studios. I am always up for trying new classes. The yoga class at my gym isn’t very good though, so I’d like to try an actual studio.

 

• Goal: Walk Murphy 3 times a week. So…I should probably already be doing this. But it gets cooold here in Milwaukee! And especially since it’s dark when I wake up and dark when I get home…it makes it a little more difficult. But I love him and he deserves more exercise than just playing in the backyard.
• Goal: Run in a race. Uh, yeah. I didn’t see this one coming. My good friend Katie, and bridesmaid!, is trying to convince me to run a half marathon with her in May. Ryan is in, but…I don’t think I could run a half. But! I think I will attempt a 10K. I hope I don’t regret this.

Personal

• Goal: Take a photography class/join a group.I’ve always loved photography and since I can steal borrow Ryan’s nice camera I’d love to get better at it. We’re already joining a group thru church and I got some books for Christmas!
• Goal: Read 1 book a month. Isn’t this like, a must for a New Year’s resolution list?
• Goal: Make church a priority. Not that it hasn’t been, but we have yet to join any groups. This is also already in progress because the photography group is thru church and we are joining a bible study in January.

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• Goal: Volunteer for an organization. Preferably one I am truly passionate about, rather than just a random group to say I volunteered.
• Goal: Improve my blog. This is a very general one…but there are so many components I want to improve that it would be a sub category list for goals…
• Goal: GET MARRIED. Not necessarily a “goal” because…well it’s gonna happen but I figured I needed at least one thing I can for sure check off my list!

Here’s to a New Year!

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Question: What are your 2012 resolutions/goals? Do tell!

My Big Announcement

Remember when I had posted about having a big announcement and then said nothing after? Well I didn’t forget! I’ve just been waiting for the right time to make the announcement.

And tonight is that night!

…

I have officially enrolled with Integrative Nutrition to become a Certified Health Coach!

 

 

I cannot describe how extremely excited I am to start this journey to become a health coach. It is a new sort of passion for me and I am ready to give it my all.

Lucky for me, they started offering the iPad to all of their students starting in January 2012!

I figured I’d do this post in a Q & A format, so here it goes!

When do you start? January 2012

How long is the program? 1 year

How did you find out about Integrative? Clare from Fitting It All In & Brittany from Eating Bird Food both are enrolled in the program and mentioned it on their blogs a few times. This blogging world can really make waves!

Does this mean you’re leaving your full time job?! Nope, I’ll still be workin’ it full time along with getting the certification. I’m viewing my certification as an additional source of income, not a replacement.

Why now? Why not now? When Ryan & I discussed when/how/if I should do this we kept coming the conclusion that the more I put it off, the more I would come up with excuses to not enroll. Though I have limited free time, I have the most free time now without kids and such.

 I really feel a strong pull towards becoming a Health Coach and if I can make a difference in just one person’s life then I will feel like I’ve conquered the world

I officially start on January 17th. So far I have been listening to the pre-courses and reading the book they mailed. I get so excited when I think about what’s to come!

Christmas: A Couple Days Late

 

Ah, it’s good to be back to a somewhat routine. Though, I had Monday off of work and will have this Friday off too, so it’s only a 3 day work week which does complicate some things. I’m not complaining though, because Friday we’ll be in Colorado!

 

It won’t look quite like that, but who cares it’s the mountains!

We leave bright and early Friday morning and will be hanging out in the Boulder/Denver area until the 1st and then heading up to Vail to finish out the trip. I don’t really do the whole skiing/snowboarding thing (I have tried. I am terrible) but there are other peeps who don’t as well so we will all hang out together and not be sore

It will be so nice to be out there again. Both Ryan & I love it (along with anyone who ever visits the area…ever) and we can’t wait to see friends we haven’t seen since we got engaged!

Christmas: A Couple Days Late

With all of the traveling we have done in the past 4 days, we never had time to have our own little Christmas. We decided to have our Christmas tonight so we can start our own traditions. Though starting traditions is harder than one would think…I think it will be easier when we have our own kids (a long, long time from now). We don’t even have ole Murph man with us because he’s staying at Ryan’s parents while we are gone to Colorado. I already miss him

Anywho! Here are some of the delicious treats we had for our very first Christmas together in Wisconsin!

Here we have some jalapeno popper dip, chips, buffalo chorizo dip, bbq weinies, hidden valley ranch dip & a beef house roll with cinnamon dip (omgz).

Soooo yummy. Ryan made everything since he had off work today, all I did was the eating

Question: How was your Christmas/holiday?

Disappearing Act

Hello! Looks like I’ve disappeared on ya. Well, the holidays do that to you. I haven’t even touched a computer in 5 days so it has been a nice little break.

No pictures because I’m too lazy to upload them right now. Only 3 days of work this week and it’s off to Colorado! I should be back on the blogging train though

Hope everyone had a great time with family & friends!

Off Week

With Christmas on the horizon, my week/weekends are all messed up. I have a million (and two) things to still get done, fitting in my workouts (not completely happening), fitting in 5 days of work into 4 days of work (yeah, load of fun), blogging and everything else. Not complaining…just stating…I got a lot going on (who doesn’t?).

I missed my usual Monday Body Pump class, but actually on purpose. I just really wasn’t feeling it and I think the main reason is because the usual instructor we have left our gym to work in Chicago. Apparently her last class was Saturday, which we were emailed about on Sunday. I was so upset. More upset than I probably should have been. Granted, I was watching Up at the same time so…that counts for something, right?

I really enjoyed the instructor because she was so motivating and just an all around good person. She also teaches the one Body Step class so now that class will be a partial freestyle class…uh…no. I think I kept coming to the class because she was the instructor but now I don’t know if I’ll go back. I know I shouldn’t judge the class until I take it again but I don’t think I’m ready to go back.

Other than that just prepping for our road trip of 16 hours total on the road in 4 days. Awesome.

Question: How’s your week going? Anyone have a short week like me?

Sunday = No Funday

Oh boy. It has been a day.

Let’s rewind.

We got back yesterday around 5:30pm from our short, but fun, trip to Indy. It was so nice to see old friends and just hang out. So much fun, that I didn’t take a single picture! Whoops.

Saturday morning my maid of honor and I went to two bridal stores to look at bridesmaid dresses. I swear, this is literally the hardest thing about the wedding so far. I cannot find what I want! I did notice that Target.com apparently sells bridesmaid dresses (who knew?!) and they actually have something I like…that’s inexpensive…and offers 4 different cuts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, the catch is the color isn’t offered in all of the dresses that I want. Ugh. I don’t know if I should wait it out and see if they add more colors or if I should look elsewhere. I didn’t find much at the stores we looked at Saturday so…here’s to hoping Target adds more!

This morning I woke up and found Ryan feeling sick. He’s been pretty horizontal all day and I feel so bad . We stocked up on goods to hopefully kick the sickness.

Tonight’s dinner…

Sweet Potato Chili from Can You Stay For Dinner!

This was sooo delicious. Ryan has a chili recipe that we love but I wanted to try something else. This wasn’t necessarily better than his recipe but a sweeter chili that was so good I had two bowls! Yum!

Question: Do you like chili? Spicy, sweet, in between?

You Got Me Again, Body Step

Happy Thursday! It’s definitely been a long day for me, but tomorrow is Friday and I am ready! We’re going down to Indianapolis for a fun Christmas party with friends from college. And on Saturday me and my maid of honor are going to look for bridesmaid dresses. Ah!

Anyways, I skipped all sorts of working out yesterday in favor of rest. Maybe I should make Wednesdays my typical rest day? I always feel so worn down on Wednesdays…weird.

Tonight I was back at it with Body Step. Guys, this class is so hard for me! I’m definitely getting better at knowing the steps since we’re using the same exact tracks for 3 weeks in a row, but I am always completely worn out by the end (let’s get real…after the first 20 minutes). It was twice as packed tonight as it usually is (there’s only one time it’s offered right now) which made me feel a little better since some people were completely new. I’m going to keep trying (I think) because it is truly an athletic workout. Completely insane.

Tonight for dinner we had fish, kale chips – a la Clean Eating Chelsey (love these by the way!) and mushroom and brown rice casserole.

Yum-o! Except I didn’t realize the casserole was going to take an hour to bake so I was starving by the time it was done. Still delicious.

Question: What’s everyone up to this weekend? Fun plans? Christmas parties?

Zumba Tuesdays

Hiya folks! Hope this Tuesday went well for you. Mine wasn’t too bad. Though I did wake up with a swollen eye for no apparent reason. Weird. It better not be swollen shut tomorrow…

Tonight’s workout consisted of 20 minutes on the elliptical & a Zumba class. I quickly realized once I started going to all of these classes that I couldn’t do Body Pump on Mondays, Cycling on Tuesdays and be able to have energy to go to the gym on Wednesday. I tried it for a few weeks and it never failed, every Wednesday I was exhausted and couldn’t muster up the energy to head to the gym. Once I changed up my routine and added Zumba to Tuesday I’ve been successful with getting my booty to the gym on Wednesdays.

The only thing that stinks is that Zumba doesn’t start until 7pm on Tuesdays. I don’t really enjoy going home and waiting around, but I typically have a meal that night that will need a little prep, so I use the time I wait to prep.

Speaking of Zumba, can I just say that I think the main reason why I love it is that they use Pitbull for a number of songs?! Love me some Pitbull.

One of my favs…

 

Any other Pitbull fans out there?

Dinner tonight was straight outta the freezer. French Onion Soup w/ a cheese & avocado sandwich. Avocados were 49 cents at Aldi…uhh yeah I jumped on that!

Off to watch some Teen Mom 2!

Question: Pitbull and Teen Mom 2 fans? Anyone?

Monday, Monday

I did not want to get up today.

Like, at all.

For some reason I did not sleep very well at all last night. It was miserable. maybe it had to do with taking a 2 1/5 hour nap yesterday afternoon…whoops.

So back to it, today did not start out well. I was groggy, fumbling around, ate too small of a breakfast and was just all around out of it.

 

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Me, passed out. (kidding…)

Being out of it on a Monday is not an option so I grabbed some coffee from the break room. Low and behold…IT WAS FLAVORED COFFEE!! Now usually I’m okay with flavored coffee, but this particular flavor was absolutely disgusting and I was not prepared.

No coffee made for a long day and I was really debating on going to the gym all day. I really love getting back into the gym on Mondays (especially for my beloved Body Pump!) but I was still feelin’ tired.

By 5:oo pm I decided doing a workout wouldn’t make me feel worse so I packed up and headed to the gym

So glad I did! You’ll never regret a workout (at least that’s what the blogland says!). We used an old track tonight (58, I think?) so it was nice to hear some new tunes. The squat track was killer!

Off to watch last nights Dexter! Second to last episode

Question: How was your Monday? Anything to look forward to this week/weekend?