(UN)Fit Friday

This week... Seriously has been chaos. It has tested me and although I've tried hard I feel like I failed.

Monday night we had dinner plans. I had all day class/meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday an hour from home. Which makes that 1:25 minutes from the gym. Thursday I don't know what happened. And this morning I was dog tired...

Nutrition: Aside from our dinner plans Monday we ate pretty well this week. I did go to Sunflower Market and pick up lots of fresh produce. Tuesday and Wednesday were challenging since lunch and snacks were provided at our meeting. I had a cookie in the afternoon on both days. Which isn't like me at all, I was just hungry and didn't have access to my normal healthy snacks.

Fitness: I got up early and ran outside on Monday morning. It was so nice. Quiet and peaceful that early.
I ran outside in the heat on Tuesday. Some of you may think that's crazy but let me tell you. I LOVE Summer and the heat. It doesn't bother me one bit. Just ask MrHoppy who pretty much thinks I'm crazy.
Wednesday was sans workout. I went straight from my meeting to get my hair done and didn't get home until 7:30. Long day and early to bed.
Yesterday I ran outside again in the evening. Heat!
We could not sleep last night. We both tossed and turned all night. When my alarm went off for my morning run I hit snooze and rolled over for more sleep!

The biggest thing I miss on weeks like this are my interval/speed runs and lifting. I need both of those things to keep me feeling my best and to keep my weight down.

Weight: 119 today. Up from last week. All things considered this week I'd say that's not too bad. :)

I am hoping next week will be more normal. Things are crazy busy at work which is both good and bad. I'm working an event tomorrow (planned kind of last minute) so I'm hoping things go smoothly.

Oh and in exciting news: I'm going to have a new niece in December! My sister found out Monday they are having a little girl. To say I'm SO excited would be an understatement...

The 4th - Better Late Than Never!

It's been tradition for the last 4 years to head to Nebraska for the 4th of July to visit some dear friends of ours. L moved to Colorado when her fiance landed a job here. They are both originally from Nebraska and L was lucky enough to grow up on a private lake there. To say that the set up is amazing would be an  understatement.

4 years ago they moved back to Nebraska for another job opportunity and to be close to their families. So the Hoppys made it tradition to visit them every year on the 4th! We miss them but each year it's like not a day has passed.

Now she and M are married, they have a daughter and another baby on the way. I miss her so much but am thankful we get to see each other even with our busy schedules.

It doesn't hurt that her parents are amazing, welcoming people. They let us stay at their house, provide us with food and drinks for as long as we can stay. She has a brother and sister that are both fun and amazing, and both married fun and amazing spouses! It's a big, loud, rowdy and fun loving group. We may or may not have sang the "America" song from Team America a time or two. Or 10. And we may have drank our weight in beer over the 3 nights we stayed. And then some!

The trip went way too fast.

The Beach

The View

L driving us on one of many booze cruises

Love this family

They pulled us around the lake on this raft. S, L's sister B and I

The "Island" in the middle of the lake. Note the Amierican flag that is always there. Love.

Look at this lil girl.

Let the party start!

L's Mom and me

The 3 crazy boys

M, L, and MrHoppy

The party always ends in the garage with karaoke (spelling??)

MrHoppy, B and S. We were getting a little wild...

We got home in time for fireworks on the actual 4th. MrHoppy had to be up at 4AM so he went to bed while I joined my sis, BIL and O for fireworks in our town.

All he wanted to do was snuggle with his "rah-rah" which is what he calls me. I love having a nickname!

So that's our 4th of July. I'm loving Summer so much!

Fit Friday

TGIF everyone!

I'm happy to report that I have another healthy week under my belt. Well, not counting dinner on Wednesday night but we already talked about that. :)

Nutrition: We are still consistently eating at home and eating whole and natural foods. I can't tell you how much better I feel eating this way. I have so much energy, I don't crash in the afternoon and my workouts feel easier. Not to mention that I don't feel bloated. I think you can see my muscle definition better when I'm eating well. No bloat to cover it up!

Fitness: This morning I finished my 5th workout of the week. Woo Hoo! It's nice to be in a good place with fitness and to still feel motivated. Are there days I would rather be home, relaxing with MrHoppy and drinking a beer? Absolutely. But I feel so great when I'm done. Plus it's "me" time, time to be alone in my thoughts and sweat out any frustrations I'm feeling. I know I'm doing good things for my body. Being healthy during the week makes me feel OK with a few indulgences over the weekend. I see a cocktail in my future tonight!

Weight: Holding steady around 117. I'm really comfortable here and don't mind some fluctuations around this weight. I think I'm continuing to tone up which is awesome.

I'm getting ready to head into a meeting I'm kind of nervous about. More on that later and if anything materializes.

So, any fun plans this weekend? We'll be cleaning the house tonight - Exciting Friday night!

Budgets, Restaurants and a Picture

This post is going to be a hodge-podge of updates and ramblings. But I have the cutest picture to share so at least scroll to the bottom of the post. :)

So. Since MrHoppy started his new job last month we've been on a strict budget. No extra spending, just necessities. I'm also tracking our spending and bills on an Excel spreadsheet. The budget allows for more spending but we kind of decided we want to live very frugally right now while we're adjusting.

The good news? We have way more money than we thought we would after his slight pay cut. It's not even affecting us. This is mostly due to the fact that we've curbed our spending. You know what else this tells us? That we were spending WAY more than we thought we were before. On what? We have no idea. Mostly going out to dinner, drinks, random crap, etc. I think MrHoppy was the spender to be honest. He used to blame me but he's slowly coming around to the realization that HE was the one spending! Love you babe. :)

In other good news we are 2 months from having zero car payments. Woo Hoo! I've been looking forward to this all year and the time has almost come. We don't have much credit card debt but not having any car payments is going to allow us to be rid of that in several months. Hell to the yeah!

Yesterday was a long day for both of us. We were dead tired when we got home and neither of us felt like cooking. I don't think we've gone out to dinner once since he started his job. Maybe once? That's crazy for us, MrHoppy LOVES to go out to eat. So we headed to our local Chili's for dinner and a beer.

You know what? It wasn't that great. It was expensive, the food was just OK and I felt too full afterwards. Not to mention that my body HATES eating all that sodium. Hates it. We discussed it before going to bed and I came to the conclusion that I would much rather cook and eat at home. We enjoy preparing our healthy meals and our bodies thank us for it. I felt lethargic after dinner and I never feel that way when we cook at home.

Moral of this (long) story is that this job has taught us so much about our life already. I appreciate having him home in the evening SO much after dealing with so many nights alone. I realize how difficult it was to stay on top of everyday things together when we only saw each other a few nights a week. I can't believe we didn't fight more! I underestimated how nice it would feel to be on the same page about spending and planning our financial future. All in all, this move has been a good one so far. I just hope our good luck continues.

And now for a cuteness overload. My sister in law texted me the cutest picture of our niece last night. It was taken with her iPhone so it doesn't even do her justice! I'm so thankful for my nieces and nephew!

It's Wednesday Already?

The weeks and days are flying by this Summer. I can't believe this week is coming to an end.

I'm sad that I haven't made taking photos and documenting them more of a priority lately. How is it that everything else gets in the way? I'll have a chance to take photos this weekend and  my plan is to organize and order prints next week.

Things have been stressful in our family the last couple weeks. My Mom was laid off from her job - again. This affects me because I work for my Dad and when their income is suffering it makes me feel incredibly guilty when I'm depositing my paycheck. I hope she finds something else soon. I feel hopeless about the state of our economy and our country. I feel nervous.

On a fantastic note - one of the reasons I have been so busy this week is because we are dog-sitting. 2 large dogs actually. They are sweet but having 4 around is quite a chore. The reason we have them is that my best friend from highschool had her first baby on Monday! A sweet baby girl. Welcome to the world H! We get to meet her tonight when we take the dogs back to meet their new little sister. :)

Only 2 more weeks until we find out if MY sister is having another boy or if we'll add a niece to our mix. I can't wait to find out! Her Dr is guessing boy because of the lower heart rate but who knows. I would love to spoil a little girl but a boy would be so fun too. O is going to be such a good big brother!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Fit Friday

Sans pictures I'm afraid. MrHoppy is already hard at work when I wake up so this is going to be tricky. Perhaps I should have him snap my photo on Saturdays? I don't have a full length mirror in the house that will work. Sad, I know. The one propped up in our bedroom is terrible. Believe me. It's better without photos!

Anyway...

The last month has gone AWESOME in the fitness and healthy eating department. I kind of just turned a corner and I'm so into it again. I don't know what that lull was about but I'm glad I'm over it!

MrHoppy's new schedule has been great too. I am going to the gym Monday and Tuesday after work, Wednesday mornings, Thursday evening and then doing a run outside on Friday mornings with B. It's been so easy to get 5 workouts done. I love it. Since it's Summer we've been pretty active on the weekends too which helps. I can see better definition in my stomach which is a huge thing for me. It's my problem area and I've never been able to get good muscle definition going. Progress people!

We made a budget when MrHoppy got his new job and we alotted plenty of moo-lah for healthy and fresh foods. Because it's important to us. We're grocery shopping together every week which I enjoy. I'm also going to Sunflower Market almost every week and shopping their organic sales. We're trying to buy things ONLY on sale, unless it's a necessity of course. Leftovers are making great lunches and we're really saving money by going out to eat less.

My weight has been right around 117 for the past couple weeks. Even after a sodium and booze filled weekend away for the 4th I was right back down to normal after a day of eating right and exercising.

Speaking of... I need to download and share those photos! We aren't busy this weekend so I hope to give the ol' blog some TLC. And order prints, edit my favorites and share some with family. Summer is keeping us busy but it's a good thing!

Fall will be here before we know it so soak up the sun while you can!

Wordless Wednesday