Back at it.

I am back at it. I am watching what I eat again.

I think I coped with the craziness of the house by reverting back to my old habits and eating whatever I wanted.

While I havent gained much weight back, I now have what SkinnyJeanDreams describes as a food belly. And I hate it. Jeans still fit, but I dont like what I see in the mirror.

So now that I have a bit of regularity back, here is my new exercise plan.

I cant go to the gym for classes because it is just too far right now. So I need to be inventive and make due with what I have.

Right now, I plan on running every night to every other night. I decided that I will be running the half marathon in June and so I need to start building up my distance running.

Also, I dont have access to my home weights. So instead, I will be doing the cardio portions of the P90X workouts along with Ab Ripper. Hopefully I will do these in the mornings before we need to leave to get Xavier to school. On the days that we need to leave really early for Landry's school, I will be running at night and then doing ab ripper.

Also I need to start reverting back to my diet I had before and stop the comfort eating. Last night we went to Olive Garden and I made a good food choice. The Venetian Apricot Chicken. Delicious. However, I did eat too many breadsticks. Carbs are my enemy.

And currently I dont have a scale. I weighed myself at the cabin and I weighed in at 171. Not horrible and I am finding that many of my neighbors have also gained the tornado 20. LOL. I know that a lot of this is from salt, alcohol and in general bloating. So now I need to decide whether to just exercise like crazy without a scale, or go and buy one even though I have one in storage at the cleaners. I am still within my comfort zone on the scale though I would really like to be down into the mid to low 160's again. Very doable. I just need to do it!

I did complete the 5k on April 15th with my father in law and brother in law. We had a lot of fun and ran together. We finished the race in 37 min, and about 45 sec. Very good for my father in laws first time.

And I did run this weekend one time while up north. I did my just shy of 4 mile run and it felt great. I didnt realize how much I missed running until the 5k and then the run this weekend. I guess that means that I am a runner for life huh? I ran 42 minutes and burned 468 calories.

Oh and I did get a new pair of running shoes. I had to. I wore my old running Asics while cleaning up after the tornado and they got totalled out. I have rips in the toes, mud all over, and they just arent suitable for running anymore. So they are now my gardening shoes and work shoes.

So off to Kohls I went. And I bought Adidas Liquid Running Shoes. In hot pink.

I love them! It was my first time running in them at the 5k and I was a bit worried because they werent broken in yet.

However I had no problems except one minor thing. The laces arent typical. They are more like a nylon and are a bit slippery. Even though I double knotted them, I found that after a while they started to come undone. So I stopped twice (once for each foot) and tightened them and triple knotted them. After that, no problems. And now I know when I run what I have to do.

That is the news for now. Time for me to get my munchkins around and get ready to get the big one off to school.

Hopefully I will be able to get back on here a bit more often now!!

Tip(s) of the day:
When you fall off the wagon, shake yourself off and hop back on. No one said maintenance is easy. Just keep your goal in mind and your eye on the prize. Bad stuff happens in life and how you deal with it is what matters. And life is all about learning from your mistakes.

Have a great day everyone!

Hanging in- and updates

Hi Everyone! I am just doing a quick check in to let you know I am still alive.

Work on the house is going at light speed. Lighting is done, drywall is up, cabinets are ordered and all selections (like carpet and granite) are done.

We are hoping to be back in the house by beginning of June which would then give me approx 2 months to start P90X all over to get into shape (again) for my sisters wedding. I can do it.

It has been quite a struggle but I am getting thru it. I can only say that I pray for those out west of us that have had to endure approx 120 tornados this past weekend.

On the downside, I know that I will have a whole new set of challenges when we move back in. We will literally have no neighbors around us for at least 4 more months so I know the reality and isolation will be taking its toll on us. Thankfully the neighbors have been great and I have met so many friends thru the Facebook board that they set up for our subdivision.

Anyways...just thought I would let you know how I am doing. Not staying so focused on dieting right now but I did do a 5k run this weekend (woo hoo) with my father in law and my brother in law. I ran at my father in laws pace and we finished under 40 minutes. Not bad for his first 5k ever.

June I will be signing up for my first half marathon. I figured, what the hell. So I will be hitting the streets to start training for that puppy and hopefully whip my body back into shape.

I can definitely tell you that by not eating clean, I have gained a pooch in my belly back. Bad, bad, bad but it is extreme in circumstance and I am really not fretting it.

Have a great day all! I am signing off for now!

Rebirth musings

With everything that has gone on this past month in my life...

Between the downs...

 in dieting (as in my weight going down)...

To the Debbie downer of our financial situation....

To the tornado (who could forget)...

To the missing of our cat after the tornado...

To my husband leaving for Alabama...

To the highs....

As in my weight going up a bit (lol..stress eating)

Our house is being rebuilt and now wont have a honey do list on it for many years...

To two cars getting totalled (that was a very good thing)...

To getting our cat back after the tornado...

To making many new friends in the community...

To the joys of seeing the community come together as a family...

To my husband working in Alabama...

I want to remind everyone the reason for the season. This is about rebirth. And this season has truly been a rebirth for me and my family.

So if you have struggled with your diet or any other goal for that matter...

Rebirth!!

Start over.

Clean slate.

Take things a day at a time.

Put everything into perspective...Remember, it could always be worse.

Keep moving forward (I love Meet the Robinsons)

You can conquer this.

You can meet your goal.

Good luck everyone! And have a very Happy Easter!

Picture of the front of the house. In the next picture, look up by the top of the picture by the round window.

That my friends, is not the moon. And there is nothing for it to reflect on. Nor was it still raining.

All the debris by the front door. Screen door is completely blown out

Landry's Room. The ceiling was open completely to the sky.

Yellow orbs are above the arm of the couch on the left. There was nothing to reflect on. You can see the white flash in the window, but they orbs are yellow.

One of the totalled cars the day after the tornado. It even ripped the license plate right off.

A picture of the front of the house the morning after. That is a shirt that was stuck in the wall above the garage door.

This picture doesnt show the damage to this vehicle very well. Notice the windows are out and the entire inside was soaked. The car was in fact totalled.

A close up of the tire on the car. See the pants? They are underneath of the tire.

Trees in the backyard that were knocked over. We have since up righted them. Hopefully they survive.

The house across the street. It has been demolished.

The home to the left of the house above. The white truck was in the driveway. The tornado leveled the house.

The night of. Glass all over the couches.

Somehow the glass top table didnt get a scratch on it.

The night of. This is the neighbors tub from across the street. You can barely make out Aarons car behind it.

Hi everyone-

I know you are wondering what the heck has happened to me. Did Red Robin kill me with their food or what? LOL

WELL...

Let me fill you in on the going on's in my life.

The last post that I put on here was about going to Red Robin for dinner.

That night my world took a very unexpected turn.

While we were eating, a storm rolled in. We were about 30 minutes away from our house and enjoying dinner watching the thunder and lightning roll in. The sky was looking a little odd in color but I didnt think much about it.

As we were leaving, it started to hail.

Aaron ran to his work truck, I ran to the Escape and we pulled up to the front of the restaurant for the kids and Aarons grandma to get into the Escape.

I jumped into the truck and headed off to the gym.

As I was headed there, I heard the tornado sirens going off. I called Aaron and told him to take cover at Aarons grandmas house. That I didnt know what the sirens were going off for- whether it was for severe storms or for a tornado- but I would head to the gym and take cover there.

Aaron said that it was for severe storms and that he was going home with the boys.

I got to the gym, changed into my gym clothes and started going on the ARC.

That was when my phone started blowing up with calls and texts.

"Are you ok?"

"We heard what happened"

I said we were fine and that we just had a bit of hail.

To which came the reply "Dexter had a tornado touch down. I think it was your subdivision".

My neighbor across the street (who thankfully wasnt in town) texted me.

I started to frantically call Aaron to see if the house was hit. He thought I was crazy. No way a tornado hit the house. The sky is blue. No clouds.

Then he pulled into the sub and it looked like a war zone.

I flew out of the gym trying to get home as quickly as I could.

And when I entered, I thank God that I was on the phone with my husbands cousin.

It did look like a war zone. First responders were there... people were wandering...police were guarding the entrance demanding ID to get into the sub...debris was everywhere. It looked like a zombie apocolypse movie set.

That night passed in a daze. I was in shock. I left Aaron behind at the house so I could get the kids to safety. I dropped them off with Aarons Uncle and switched cars with him.

It took me almost an hour to go about 5 miles because all of the trees down and power lines down. I was crying in frustration but trying to call family to let them know we were ok.

I called my parents. They wanted to know if they needed to come down that night...I was in such shock that I handed the phone over to Aaron.

I tried to pack up the house as best I could. There is no way to describe all the destruction that happened to the house. I will try to post pictures later but they dont do it justice.

I packed the kids clothes- my youngests roof was missing from his room.

Xaviers room was surprisingly unharmed but I grabbed his bedding because it cant be replaced.

The master was destroyed. The window frames ripped right off the walls.
Insulation from the attic was all over the clothes in the walk in closet.
Glass everywhere. I packed up our clothes, jewelry, camera, photo books, files, fire proof box and other things.

Water had come thru the ceiling, down thru the first floor, all the way into the basement.

Thankfully we still had electric. And someone shut off the gas for us.

Most of the windows in the house were blown out. Shingles from someones house were in the living room.

Aarons Ford 500 was totalled. It had been parked in the street and was now at a 90 degree angle from where it was. Debris was all around it and it looked like it had been in a roll over accident.

The extra Escape that we had been trying to sell was in better shape but looked like someone side swiped it on the passenger side. The windows on the passenger side had also been blown out. Underneath of the front passenger tire was a pair of pants from somewhere. The car had literally been picked up and slammed back down trapping the pants under the tire.

The house across the street (the person that texted me) was missing the entire second story. The house next to them was leveled down to the foundation.

Thankfully no deaths or hospitalizations occurred.

We were missing our cat Apricot for about a week. The police went out on horseback searching for him. The news station ran a story about him. The neighbors posted flyers for him with my phone number. And we got calls. And we got him back. And he is ok and has suffered no broken bones or major injuries- though he is a bit skiddish with storms now.

Aaron left for Alabama 3 days after the tornado. He had to. Times like these, you do what you have to do.

Aarons mom Andi came back from their trip in Arizona. We live with them in Dexter. It is their house and insurance work needed to be started. She has been an awesome help with the kids.

I cant say enough about the community, the news, and the positive attitude of the area. The day after my parents came down to help us. But they didnt really need to. We already had people on the job. It was just a lot of yard cleaning that we had to do. And we just wandered. Talking to neighbors. Meeting people. Hugging people. Listening to their stories.

Lucky for us, the night of the tornado a company came around wanting to know if we wanted them to board up and secure the house for us. They happened to be preferred by Andi and Bryces insurance company so with their permission, we signed with them.

The day after the tornado, they were already packing up our house and itemizing everything to be taken to be cleaned up, and either stored or totalled out.

Carpet and drywall started to be taken out the day after that. I found out that you have 3 days until things like carpet and drywall start to mold. Ours was out in 2 days.

The rebuilding has begun. Framing has been finished and the inspection completed. Electrical begins today with insulation to follow and drywall to start next Tuesday.

We have been displaced and are currently up at the cabin taking in some much needed rest and relaxation.

I have great faith in the builders and insurance company. They have been excellent thus far.

The house has been taken down in almost all areas to framing. A new kitchen will be put in. The bathrooms have been saved.

Some updates will be done that have been on the "honey do" list.

And with all this, my Aunt had the greatest words of wisdom with all that we have been going thru.

"They say that when God closes a door, he opens a window. Who would have known it would have been a doorwall?"

Everything is working out. We are now back down to two cars after the 500 and the Escape were totalled. The things that were going to have to be done to the house like a new roof, carpet, garage door, are going to be done. In fact, it will be a whole new house.

Yes it is stressful right now. Obviously I am not doing the veggie fast anymore. LOL. I have gained about 10 lbs back but I am not structured with my diet and have been eating things that are easy (like pizza). Schedules for the boys are crazy because we are still taking them back and forth to school BUT we should be back in the house by the end of May.

We dont have horror stories about our builder (some people do) or insurance company.

We have the family safe and sound.

The subdivision where we live is so close and are like family now. They even created a FB page for the people in the sub to talk about what we are going thru.

So besides for one breakdown as I was driving to the house the morning that Aaron left for Alabama, I have stayed pretty upbeat and positive. And that morning as I was having my breakdown, I knew it was going to be ok.

Why?
Because there was the biggest double rainbow I have ever seen over the town of Dexter.

It was then I knew that we would be ok. We would get Apricot (our cat) back. The cars would be totalled. That we would go on.

And finally.
I reviewed my pictures that I took the night of the tornado.

And on them, in three different pictures, I have what appear to be orbs. Angels.

In the one I took outside, in one picture there is nothing. In the next (same shot, same angle) at the top of the house by the gable is the biggest orb I have ever seen. It is as bright as the moon but is not the moon.

The angels definitely got a bit beat up that night. But they protected everyone when the storm came thru.

Dexter has been being called the Village of Angels now. Not from my pictures, but because of no injuries, and that the weather following the storm has been so perfect (it was about 80 degrees for over a week), and the rainbow. If you ever had any doubts, after this, most are believers.

Dexter is truly a great town and I am proud to live there.

I will try to post some pictures later today. Having some rest and relaxation today. Andi and I are getting our hair done. Tomorrow is a massage.

For now, the crisis has been averted but we are taking things a day at a time.

Please keep the Village of Dexter, MI in your prayers as well as the other cities that have recently been ravaged by tornados. I now know what it is to go thru one.

Thank God we werent home and that my boys didnt have to go thru that. And if you live in an area that has tornado sirens- LISTEN TO THEM WHEN THEY GO OFF!

Before I never would have gone into the basement. Instead, I would have gone out to the front porch to watch the storm roll in. Never again.

And thank God that the tornado hit at 5:30 instead of later like 9pm when children would have been asleep. It could have been catastrophic.

So that is my news for now...I will be able to access my blog until Easter. After that, I will probably be pretty scarce until we get back into the house (hopefully end of May). Periodically we will be coming to the cabin for more rest so I will put some updates on here.

Tip of the Day:
"what doesnt kill us makes us stronger"

It is true. Believe!

Day 3 of Reboot

Yesterday was a tad easier than the first day. I think because I stayed busy.

I started off with my fantastic smoothies that I mentioned in yesterdays blog.

I also went to the dealership and got my quote for my car. $10,000 buy out. We owe $11,894 on it.

So I called my dad to get his opinion if we should bite it and take the deal. He told me to look at a couple other things, plus call my aunt and then call him back last night.

So on a hunch from pricing I was seeing online, I stopped at another dealership. That ones initial price for my car was $11,000 to which I mentioned I had an aunt that works at a Ford dealership in Northern Michigan and that I didnt want to incur the costs of driving my car up there and that her price is $11,000 sight unseen. I got him to come up to $11,200 for the buy out. Getting close! Plus we would get back a bit of money from the extended warranty on the car because the dealership doesnt keep that.

Then when I am getting ready to drive home, I checked my email quick and saw that I had an email from someone that was interested in my car from the ad on Craigslist. I thought it was a scam because I have been getting a lot of them and the only message originally was "Are you the original owner" to which I simply replied "Yes I am the original owner". Two days had passed and I wrote the email off as a scam and was surprised to see another email from the person asking for my # and address to arrange an inspection.

I thought this was just a continuation of the scam BECAUSE it seemed weird with no name or anything attached to it. SO I responded with "Forgive me, but I have been receiving a lot of scams on Craigslist. I am wondering if you are local and where you live".

And he replied! He understood and told me where he lived. He is local to me and lives pretty close by. And he wanted to arrange an inspection for my vehicle. We have been going back and forth emailing and I get the impression that he is an older gentleman. I was forth rite and told him if he wanted the car the transaction would be done at Chase bank because their name is on the title and they need to sign off. He would not receive possession of the car until the check or money order cleared. At that time of possession, we would meet at secretary of state where he could have the title and apply for the license plate for it. I told him I didnt want to presume, but wanted to lay out the facts in order to protect my family from scam. He was perfectly fine with it. And now I have it in writing to prove it which is good. 

I did tell him that Aaron is going out of town on Saturday (didnt tell him for how long) and that I would like him to come over before that because it is his name on the title. We shall see what happens! Keep your fingers crossed!

If he buys the car for the full amount we are asking, we can actually make a bit of money on the car and pay for the 2 new tires the other Escape needs.

So with all my running around yesterday I didnt really have time to think about food. That was a good thing. When I got home last night from the second dealership, it was dinnertime. I had some dried fruit, kale chips and half a grapefruit.

Then we took the kids outside last night and played. I am trying to teach Xavier how to ride a bike and pedal. Who would have thought that would be so hard??? Then we cleaned out the garage a bit so I could get the Christmas decorations back into the storage attic above the garage. Then we cut down the dead flowers (mums and salvia) from the front yard to make room for the new ones already coming up. I made the kids help put the dead stuff into yard bags explaining to them that this is what chores are and that if they help good, they can earn a toy back. It worked and they got to pick out one of their toys I confiscated this morning.

So by the time we were all done with that, and the kids were in bed, and we got Aarons file cabinet moved in from the garage it was late. Too late to run on the elliptical. So I didn't and relaxed for a while last night.

I stepped on the scale this morning and I was down 2 lbs! to 156.0. Nice!

And my smoothie of the morning is one that I HAVE to share with you. It is excellent!

I have a bullet style blender so I have to accommodate the small "cup". This is the amounts I used:
1/2 comice pear
1/2 golden delicious apple
4-5 frozen strawberries
a handful of spinach
1 banana
Coconut water (I used coconut milk)

Blend til smooth. The pears and apple are so good! I took the remaining halves of the apple and pear and stuck them in the freezer so my smoothie will be colder next time.

So tonight I think we will be going to dinner at Red Robin. Last night I looked over the menu again and this is what I decided I will order:

This is Red Robins Southwest Grilled chicken salad. The description is: "This ancho ordinary salad. Ancho-grilled chicken breast, avocado slices and fresh-fried jalapeño coins dance on top of crisp greens tossed in salsa-ranch dressing. Diced red and green bell peppers and onions, chipotle black beans, Cheddar and Pepper-Jack cheeses and crunchy tortilla strips complete this extraordinary salad.'

This is how I will order it. Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad...hold the chicken, cheeses, tortilla strips and dressing. I would like regular jalepeno slices instead of the fried ones and some green onions and tomatoes on top. And an order of salsa and guacamole on the side.

I think this keeps in touch with my fast for the week. Dont you?

Tonight is RPM at 8pm. I am hoping that I make it if we are going to dinner at 5:30. It shouldnt be a problem but it all depends on Aarons grandma and if we will be going back to her house afterwards or not. Class fills up really quick so I would have to be there by about 7:00 to make sure I get a spot. This would be my last RPM for a while so I really want to go.

***EDITED**** I just made a good smoothie for lunch and wanted to pass it on. Very simple but sweet and delicious. I cut up the remaining halves of my apple and pear that I had stuck in the freezer and cut them up and threw them into my blender with some spinach and water. Oh so excellent and I will definitely be making this one again!!

Tip of the Day:

Day 2 of Reboot

All things considered, yesterday was a pretty good day for day 1 of a fast.

Yesterday afternoon I hit the gym. I did 30 minutes on the ARC, then CX, Flow, and finally RPM. In the interest of being fair with this whole Reboot, I will be honest. I was a bit tired at the beginning of my time at the gym and did not give it my all until RPM. I really wanted to make sure that I had energy left for the class. The energy loss could be because of the fast, or because my Aunt is visiting me...no way of really knowing why.

Funny too- Eric (my RPM instructor) knows that I am doing the fast and that yesterday was day one. He asked me how many classes I have done that day to which I replied that this was my third class. He kind of tisked but I told him that I didnt do P90X yesterday. LOL. I just really think it is excellent that he is watching out for me and making sure that I am not doing too much. It is exactly what I want in a personal trainer and I cannot wait to hire him!

Calories burned at the gym: 953

I didnt have a smoothie for dinner last night once I got home, but had quite a few carrots and dried fruit. I also had a small glass of coconut milk.

This morning I am down a half pound to 158.0. Nothing spectacular but I wasnt expecting a 5lb loss a day. LOL

This morning I had a fantastic smoothie that I mentioned in my tip of the day from yesterday.

It was:
1 orange- I sliced off the peel, then cut out the segments so there are no membranes attached
a handful of frozen pineapple
about 2 tsp of ginger grated
water
And I added spinach to mine.

It was excellent! A great wake me up for the day.

For lunch, I am having this:

It is a smoothie which has:

rainbow swiss chard leaves
Berries of choice (I used strawberries)
blueberries
coconut milk
frozen pomegranate seeds (my store didnt have pomegranate so I used a few blackberries)

It is good but the fruit is not super sweet yet so it isnt quite as good as if it would have had a banana in it for the extra sweet.

The veggies are baby carrots, broccoli and purple cauliflower. I also had some swiss chard stems and they are surprisingly pretty sweet! Very good!

I also am cheating (just a tad) and made some kale chips with garlic powder on them. They do have some olive oil and I guess olives are a veggie so it is up to you if you consider it cheating. It feels to me like I am a bit though it is way better than sneaking other food like jerky.

This fast is a little tougher than what I expected it to be. I would LOVE to have a hard boiled egg or an english muffin. Last night after the gym I walked in to the smell of pizza that Aaron made for dinner last night.
Yesterday Aaron asked if I could make him some beef jerky. I had a recipe from Clean Eat magazine for jerky that I had been dying to try so I pulled that out. Now my house smells of glorious wonderful scruptious beef jerky. How tempting is that??? AND to top it off, I had Aaron try it, and he said it was REALLY good and did I want a bite? How rude! Ugh!

My biggest worry about cheating will be towards the end of this week. Aarons grandma wants to go out to eat before he leaves for Alabama. Not a big deal, but I know it will be a place like Red Robin. And I really cant not eat when we all go out. So I need to come up with a game plan even if it means bending the rule a bit for one meal because Aaron wont let me NOT eat when we go out. So I will be studying the menus.

Dont worry folks..I will keep you apprised of my game plan.

Tonight I plan on running on the elliptical or outside. Not sure which yet.

On a personal note, please say some quick prayers.
After I dropped Xavier off at school I swung thru a local dealership to see if they would be interested in buying my Escape. Turns out they are because they are low on 4 cylinder Escapes and mine has really low mileage. Unfortunately, the boss man wasnt in because he was in a meeting in a different city. SO the salesman asked that I come back about three o'clock today.

So please say some prayers that they offer close to what we owe on it so we can be down one vehicle!

Tip of the Day:

For fresh herb storage in the fridge, wrap your herbs in damp papertowels and place in a ziploc bag. My herbs stay fresh for about a week doing it that way rather than having the money go down the drain when you only need a bit at a time.

AND an extra tip...

Just looked up Red Robin and they have a Gardenburger option that I can have wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun. Guess what I will be having? It is a bit processed and has soy so it isnt entirely veggie, but I will have it topped with guacamole, onions and a ton of veggies. There will probably be a bit of oil involved, but it allows me to eat and still stay pretty true to my fast...dont you think??? Chime in on your opinions on this one...I need some help here!