Back to Fitness

  My "baby" turns  2 in November, only 3 months away! So why do I still have the baby weight? Could it be my horrible eating habits, or lack of exercise? I used to have willpower, before I had kids. I went almost 2 years without any soda, and about a year staying under 40 carbs a day....I didin't really think of it, I just did it. Now I have ZERO willpower, I'm just to tired and I have two little guys who depend on me 24/7 so I've just not even cared about myself at all. Earlier this year I got more focused on getting healthy and in a little over a month I only dropped about 5lbs, but I lost almost 18 inches allover, and I got a lot stronger. Working out also healed my pelvis problems, I never felt like I recovered right after having Zach....it was agony to move certain directions or go from laying down to standing up. BUT I haven't had that pain since about April.

  Then around the end of May I got very sick, then the boys got sick, then naps started dropping off, Zach went from less of a baby to a crazy toddler....and it's now the middle of September and I've only worked out a handful of times since then. But I'm sick of wearing the same 5 articles of clothing because I refuse to buy clothes at this size, and sick of feeling so unhealthy. I'm 28 but I feel so...blah. I even have high blood pressure now....that's not ok.

  So I'm putting on my big girl panties and summoning that willpower back, I HAVE to. I'm not going to do super crazy intense workouts like I did earlier this year, I'm going to take it a little easier on myself so I'm not stressing about it. Starting tomorrow (yeah I know how that sounds, but I need to go grocery shopping today) I'll be doing the 3 day Shakeology cleanse which is basically 3 shakes a day with fruit for snacks and a salad with chicken for dinner. I already have no problem with that since Shakeology tastes amazing, and it's actually filling, no Slim Fast crap. I drink it for breakfast daily and I'm fine until lunch, although sometimes I do grab a banana or a cheese stick for a snack if I need to.

  You're not supposed to workout during those 3 days since your energy will probably be lower, so on Tuesday I'll start my workouts. Earlier this year when I lost all those inches I did Brazil Butt Lift, but this time I'm going to start out doing Yoga Booty Ballet 3 times a week, Turbo Fire twice a week and 1 day of High & Tight from Brazil Butt Lift. I think that will work out best because Yoga Booty Ballet is more of a beginners workout, even though I do work up a sweat. It's also FUN. It's the most fun I've ever had working out. I'm adding in Turbo Fire twice a week because it's waaay intense, I can barely make it through the 45 minute starter workout! But I've seen amazing results on other people, and it burns mega calories. Lastly, I just like the Brazil Butt Lift workouts, and I could use help in the "bum bum" area for sure :) Eventually I plan on following the workout calenders that came with Brazil Butt Lift and Turbo Fire, but I want to start off a little slower this time so I can build stamina.

  I went with Beach Body programs because they are fun and they really do work, just look on Youtube and type the name of the program you are interested in, there is nothing more motivating! The website is free, you can sign up here, their message boards are full of people who really do just want to help. You can also track your workouts and every time you do you are entered to win $500, it's pretty sweet. 

  My goal is to be down 20lbs by Zach's 2nd birthday on November 25th, which gives me plenty of time. If I actually follow the workouts and clean up my eating I should be down more then that....but 20lbs is a good first goal.

  Now for eating, I've always done better on a lower carb eating plan, my body just likes that. So I'll be doing South Beach Diet since it's not "really" low carb, but it's low glycemic and I feel like that is what my body needs. But I still will be drinking Shakeology, I had never felt better as I did when I was working out and drinking Shakeology. It's expensive, but as long as I can sell 3 beanies a month it would be fine. We'll see :)

  And so this post is not just all fitness talk, last night the boys and I made pumpkins! It was fun, we made Halloween cookies.....well we did the "break and bake" type, I was not in the mood to do a bunch of dishes lol. Ethan ended up burning his arm on the oven though, poor guy. While we were making the pumpkins we listed to the Halloween music from Super Simple Songs, Ethan was dancing and singing along. Zach really wasn't into it, he was playing with toys.

Ethan's Party!

It's only April and it's been quite the year so far! I have been severely lacking on my blogging....but with a 2 year old, a 4 month old and just moving to a new house it's been crazy. Our new house is wonderful though, Ethan is loving having a backyard to play in!

It was Ethan's 2nd birthday party on April 9th, and it was so much fun! It was a frog themed party, but I ran out of time to make those tissue paper poof balls, and I forgot to hang up the crepe paper! Oops. We just moved like a week and a half before the party, so I was a little frazzled lol.

The invitation was from Whirlibird on Etsy, she did such a cute job.

The cake was inspired by this cake at Cookies and Cups. It's a funfetti cake with a brownie filling! So the cake was layered funfetti, chocolate frosting, brownie, chocolate frosting then another layer of funfetti. I tinted the frosting blue and stuck some candy Wilton leaves I got at Walmart. The frogs are some plastic Easter eggs from Target that I only used the top half for.

Using the tutorial at Oopsy Daisy, I made a birthday subway art!

A felt happy birthday banner!

My balloon wreath!

To make the eyes I just cut a marshmallow in half and dotted them with black decorating gel.

 

The birthday boy :)

 

Most of the food was supplied by my Mom and my Aunt, that helped so much! I really appreciated it. 

Now on to Easter!

Cupcake wreath and cupcake beanie!

Here is another custom cupcake beanie! Chocolate cake, lavender frosting and multi colored sprinkles, although it was hard to capture the sprinkle colors in that light.

 

I'm also working on creating custom wreaths with custom appliques. Here is a cupcake one for my kitchen, but I think a felt cupcake applique would look better! You'd be able to pick the colors and whatever type of applique you'd want (cupcake, hearts, flowers etc). I think it's pretty fun :)

I made this monster wreath back in 2006, and I know it's a terrible picture...but it's Halloween decor! I'll have to see about getting a better picture :) All I did was cut 2 circles out of fun fur, cut slits in it for the eyes....and I hot glued it all together and stuffed it with plastic grocery bags.

Need Coffee!

That quesadilla casserole I made last night was sooooo good! Even Ethan liked it, and he's super picky! The only thing I did differently was I added a can of refried beans into the mashed bean mixture, added cheddar along with the jack cheese....and topped the servings with sour cream and salsa. Mmmm, I'm glad we have leftovers for lunch today.

I discovered a new craft that I want to make the boys....a quiet book! They are all over the internet, and I'm just discovering them this morning lol. They look incredibly time consuming, but I bet Ethan would love it. I was thinking I'd make him a Christmas themed one, but I'm not sure I'll have time with all the gifts I've planned to make them.

I'm really hoping that Kohls will still have this Halloween Cupcake Cookie Jar after Halloween! I wanted to wait until it was super cheap, but I might pick it up since there was only 2 left last time I was there. 

I need some coffee before I can continue life, brb.

Halloween Witch Amigurumi Cupcake

A freshly baked blushing cupcake ready for Halloween! Purple frosting with spooky green swirls and a sweet witch hat!

Cupcake measures a little over 5 inches high from bottom to tip of the hat.

Now I want to make a bunch more like pumpkins and mummies! We'll see what I have the time for lol :)

Coffee Cozies

I FOUND MY CAMERA CHARGER! And a few other things I was missing (thank you for keeping them safe for me Ethan) in a box that I would toss Craig's random computer parts in....Ethan must of saw me doing that and thought he would "help" lol. So I was able to take a few pictures of the coffee cup cozies I've been working on for my Etsy shop.

Because I love Battlestar Galactica, a show I never ever thought I'd watch. EVER.



A cute little ghost friend cozy that has a sparkly gray outline, I love this one :)



This Pumpkin Patch cozy has Jack 'o Lantern faces drawn in puffy paint all throughout!



I have a few more Halloween themed ones planned, but I really do need to finish Ethan's Brobee beanie!

But first it's time for breakfast.

Halloween Project Ideas

I hear Ethan snoring on the baby monitor lol. Yesterday I took Ethan downtown to the fountains to let him play in them, and we were there an hour! I didn't think he'd play that long and it was 105 degrees out but he was having so much fun splashing and following the other kids around. Then I took him to the mall to check out The Childrens Place for some gifts for his cousin and our friends who are having a baby. The mall took FOREVER because he had to touch everything and he was walking sooooo slooooooow lol. I also wanted to go to Bath and Body Works to check out there Halloween stuff but he was getting to tired/cranky so we left.

I've started to save pictures and ideas for Halloween decor since we don't have any! We'll see if I can actually get around to making any of it, but here are some things on my crafty wishlish:

(These had to be fast and easy so I could do it while Ethan naps)

- No sew felt pumpkin pillows
- Jack o Lantern Pom Poms: Could be cute in a glass jar or strung up as garland. But I'd rather buy already done orange pom poms.
- Vintage Halloween Banner: Or some sort of Halloween bunting
- Big Spooky Ornament: This would be cool just hanging in the living room or something. Needs more glitter!
- Halloween Lanterns: I always see these at Dollar Tree so this could make fun garland too!
- Felt Cat and Pumpkin Wall Hanging
- Jack the Hoop-o-Lantern: I am in LOVE with this! So creative!
- Spiderwebs: While I normally would never ever put any spider related paraphenalia in my house (hey, I even married a professional bug killer) this is such a cool technique that I am tempted to try it out.
- Birdie Witch: How cute would a mobile of these be?
- Boo Footprints: These would be really great Halloween cards.
- Halloween Art: A tutorial on how to paint a Halloween scene! I'd love to try this!
- Printable Skeleton Decoration

Craftster ideas (you might need to sign up to view):

Spooky Feathered Wreath : I already have a "monster wreath" but this one is waaaaaay cooler

I'll keep updating this post as I find new ideas so I have them all organized in one place. As you can see I like cutsey Halloween stuff, no gore allowed here :P

I'm not a fan of carving pumpkins, I HATE cleaning them out lol.....in years past I usually just glitter or paint them. While glitter is my favorite, I think that would be a bad idea with a 18 month old around....so we probably will just paint a few.

Ethan's awake, I'll finish later!