The Way I Am...

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

What I've been up to in March...

March was a good month. I can't believe it's already over and we are already four days into April. Time is flying! This may come across like a journal entry, but I was looking through pictures on my phone and wanted to make sure I remembered what I was up to this month.

March 15 was my nephew Logan's 3rd birthday! He chose to have eclairs instead of cake for the big day. It's so fun to live with his family and get to spend so much time with this cute boy!

On March 16 my sister Heidi and I ran a 5k sponsored by our local gym. There was a woman who went to our gym religiously who passed away tragically. Lots of people knew her and wanted to help out so all of the proceeds of this race went to her children to help pay for college, missions, etc. It was good to be back into running after a LONG winter.

On March 23 I spent the morning with my cute nephew Porter. He has some anxiety when it comes to leaving his parents, so I just planned on taking him outside to dig in the dirt for a few hours. Well, with my luck, it was cold and rainy that day. Luckily we found an old Thomas the Tank Engine VHS to watch and he was good to go! He is so cute.

Later that day my aunt Paula (in town for her Spring break) decided to go with my dad and brothers to the NCAA March Madness games downtown. So that left the rest of us girls with a free afternoon... so of course we went shopping! My mom, sister-in-law Emilee, and I headed to Gardner Village and I came away with this cute purse and Emilee got some cute sunglasses.

On March 26 I went with Heidi and Paula to get pedicures. Man, that salon had some good massage chairs! And it was perfect timing to show off our toes now that the weather's warming up.

I guess that was the week of pampering! On March 28 I went in to get my hair done. I decided to go even darker, with random blonde sections peeking through. That probably sounds crazy, but I love it. It's a slight ombre look, but it's kind of hard to see that in the picture.

To finish off the month on a good note, my family had our Easter lunch and egg hunt at my parents' house on the 30th. We had a delicious meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and all the sides... so good! The kids all searched for eggs while us adults just stood back and watched (or in my case laid in the sun and watched). That's my kind of hunt!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

3-Day Detox Cleanse

I found Dr. Oz's 3-day cleanse online and decided to give it a try. I've never done any sort of cleanse before, and have actually always thought people were a little crazy for trying them. But I'd been so frustrated with myself for eating so badly during the last few weeks that I thought I'd try it out. This was a good one for me, because it only lasted 3 days, it was simple, and all of the ingredients were found at the local grocery store. I went to a Smith's Marketplace and it even had a machine to make fresh almond butter! Dr. Oz said it would cost $48, but mine was more like $70... more than I wanted to pay, but I do think it was worth it. I did this with my sister-in-law Emilee, and it was nice to have a partner to keep me accountable and on track!

Breakfast Drink:
This drink was very good! It was fruity and tasted similar to the protein shakes I've made in the past. It was also VERY filling... I wasn't ever hungry until lunch time.
Lunch Drink:
I forgot to buy kale, so I used spinach instead. This shake took me a little over an hour to drink on day 1. It was very thick, and a little bitter with a strong lime flavor coming through. I didn't peel the lime or the cucumber, which is probably why the shake was so hard to get down (I used a BlendTec to make my shakes, so I knew it could blend anything up!). I didn't mind it at first, but after an hour of drinking it, I was on the verge of gagging... I didn't like this one. After the first day, I just squeezed the lime juice out instead of putting the whole lime in. That made a HUGE difference! I still didn't love it, but it was much better. Like the breakfast drink, this was also very filling.
Dinner Drink:
HOLY COW, this drink was SPICY!!! I obviously knew the cayenne pepper would add a kick to the drink, but it was way more intense than I would have ever imagined. I'm a wimp though when it comes to spicy food. But even Emilee agreed that it was too powerful. For days 2 and 3, I only put in a pinch of cayenne pepper to lessen the spiciness. I still dreaded drinking it! Like the other drinks, it was always very filling.
Bath:
I only took the bath 2 of the 3 nights. I'm just not a 'bath' person. Dr. Oz recommended that the baths should be 30 minutes... that is so long for me! But the Epsom salt and lavender oil made them super relaxing and I slept great those nights!

PROS:
-I slept better each night and woke up easier each morning
-My skin cleared up
-I was full the whole time
-I never had cravings for sweets or junk food
-I log all my food into MyFitnessPal and I've always noticed I am never even CLOSE to getting enough potassium each day (I usually get around 25% of what I need). During the cleanse I got 99-105% of my daily needed potassium. No more charlie-horse cramps for me!
-This wasn't meant for weight loss, but I did lose 5.6 pounds
-I just felt better overall

CONS:
-The lunch and dinner drinks were pretty hard to get down
-By the end of the 2nd day, I had major cravings for a meal of substance that I could actually chew.
-Many trips to the bathroom... not very convenient at work :)
-Those 5.6 pounds that I lost? I gained most back within 2 days of finishing the cleanse!

I don't think I'll probably do this cleanse again, but I was glad that I tried it and finished! I wanted to cheat a few times, but then I reminded myself I wanted to see what results would come of it and that motivated me to keep going. It did give me the kick I needed to get back into making healthy food choices again. And solid food never tasted so good after those three days!

Monday, February 25, 2013

St. George Getaway

Last weekend I went to St. George on a girls' trip with some of my sisters... Lori and my two sisters-in-law Emilee and Chloe. It was so fun to get away for a weekend to warmer weather and to just relax! We left Friday after work and escaped the cold weather. Apparently we left at the just right time... there was a big snowstorm in northern Utah the weekend we were gone! Anyway, we were lucky to stay at Emilee's parents' house in St. George, so we didn't have to pay for a hotel.

Our whole purpose for going was Parade of Homes. Emilee's mom had some leftover tickets from the previous weekend, so we didn't have to pay for those either. I didn't keep track, but on Saturday we went to probably 10 or 15 houses. We literally spent 8 hours looking at houses, with a break in between to have a delicious lunch at Chili's, but it was surprisingly really fun! Well, except for the fact that I was sick and completely lost my voice, but that's okay. I took lots of pictures (hooray for finally finding my camera charger!), but here are just a few pictures of some of my favorites from Parade of Homes.

{How awesome is this?? A hanging bed out on the back porch! The land behind the house is protected so nothing will ever be built back there... so cool.}

{We saw lots of yellow and gray color schemes in the houses}

{Loved this bedroom and ceiling}

{This house was one Emilee's parents are maybe interested in buying!}

It was a really quick trip... we drove back Sunday morning. We were a little nervous for the drive between St. George and Beaver... I think some of us debated turning around at some points because we were basically driving through blizzard conditions and couldn't even see the road. But we made it and had a great weekend!

Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 is seriously already over? It was a good year...

-I traveled to lots of fun places this year, including San Francisco, Monterey, San Jose, Yosemite National Park, Fresno, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Ensenada, Rexburg, and Yellowstone National Park.

-I went from not running at all to being able to run 3.1 miles. On that note, I participated in six 5k races (2 of which I ran completely). I have found that being registered for a race keeps me motivated to exercise and the atmosphere on race day is so fun and energizing!

-Also on that note, because I've been running, exercising more (I took up some awesome classes at my local gym), and watching what I eat, I'm proud to say I lost 42.2 pounds in 2012! Although, I do have to say that the last time I weighed myself was on December 17, which was 16 days ago. And 16 days (during the holidays, mind you) can make a big difference (and not in a good way)... so I'm expecting that final number to definitely be less than 42.2 lbs. But I'm hoping to get to the gym tomorrow to find out for sure.

-I moved back from California to Utah to be closer to family again and started a new job here, which is stressful, fun, hard, and rewarding all at the same time.

-I continued to fuel my love for musicals. This year I saw Sweeney Todd, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, and 9 to 5 all for the first time. I've already seen the movie version of Les Mis twice, but I'm not sure if that counts (LOVED it, by the way). I also was lucky to see Wicked again for the 3rd time... it continues to be my favorite!

-This was an interesting year for dating. I "resorted" to online dating, which in my mind has a stigma associated with it, but I guess that didn't stop me from trying it out. I had some... let me just say "unique" experiences, including attending a video game concert (ahem, not my thing), trying geocaching (unsuccessfully), stupidly going on a really hard hike completely unprepared with no water or food (I was under the impression we were going on a super-easy hike). All of the guys I met were good guys, but they did leave behind some not-so-good impressions. Like the one with the Lloyd Christmas hair-do (think Jim Carrey in "Dumb and Dumber"), the one with pet rats, the pizza delivery guy, the gum-chewer. All-in-all very entertaining. I will say, however, that I did recently meet a really good guy and we have been having a great time together for the past few months... but for now I will just leave it at that!

2012 was a good year to me. After watching this video, I was reminded of the fact that we shouldn't look back, but look forward to see what the future brings, because we have the power to change and to become better. I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

I'm back!

Wow, I can't believe it's been three and half months since I last blogged. I'm pretty sure I thought about it almost every day, but obviously never got around to it... the main reason being that I really hate my laptop. I feel like every time I turn it on I get frustrated with something or another, so I just rely on my phone or iPad when I need to get on the internet. But that doesn't help with blogging! So I'm using my sister's computer tonight so I can catch up.

Here we go. Since I last posted in August, here are a few things I've been up to... some with pictures (Instagram is my camera these days), some without:

-I've slowly kept on truckin' with my running. I've been doing other workouts, so running isn't my main focus, but I've slowly but surely been adding to my yearly total. August: 8.31 miles, September: 16.4 miles, October: 3.1 miles.

- I moved in with my sister and started my new job at Davis School District

- Aug. 23 - I went to Wicked with some family at the Capitol Theater. Even after seeing it 3 times, I still love this show!

- Sept.1 - I went to Swiss Days in Midway with my good friend Gina. We got completely rained out, but it was still fun.

- Sept. 3 - I went to Onion Days with my parents and Aunt Joy and Uncle Alan. I loved the small town parade, but sadly there were no onions to be found... not sure why the event is called "Onion Days!"

- Sept. 8 - I went to the BYU vs Weber State football game. I think this was the most hot/sweaty/miserable I have been in a long time.

- Sept. 10 - My sister and I started a class called X-Fit at my local gym. I am still going five days a week at 6 am... it's basically my second home. I get ready in the locker room every morning and leave straight to work. Sometimes the workouts are torture but I can definitely tell I'm a lot stronger and can do a lot more of the exercises than I used to be able to do. Case in point: in our class on Saturday I did over 400 push-ups! Granted, most of them were girly push-ups, but STILL! I could not have done that 2 months ago.

- Sept. 14 - My family went camping at the Spruces up Big Cottonwood canyon. It was fun but REALLY cold at night! I think I had on 5 layers of clothing, plus a sleeping bag and a blanket and I still couldn't sleep because I was so cold. But besides that, I feel like camping always makes for good memories.

- Sept. 15 - My sister Heidi and I ran The Color Run 5k. It was so fun! To make it even better, I won our two entries in a drawing from one of my favorite blogs, Mormon in Manhattan. And I was very proud of myself because I ran it all without stopping. I definitely wanted to stop, but made it to the end!

- Sept. 17 - I saw the musical "Little Women" for the first time at Centerpointe Theater.

- Sept. 18 - I turned 27! I went out with some of my siblings to Mikado for sushi that night, but my whole family celebrated my birthday and my brothers' 24th birthdays the following weekend with dinner at my parents' house.

- Sept. 24 - I went to "9 to 5" at Hale Theater with my brother and parents.

- Sept. 29 - I went with my ward to the General Relief Society broadcast at the Conference Center. I always love going there!

- Oct. 1 - I went to Scary Hill to celebrate my cute nephew's 5th birthday! He is in a ninja/pirate phase right now so he loved his swords and costumes he got.

- Oct. 10 - My sister Heidi and I went to the Carrie Underwood concert. There was CRAZY traffic getting there so we were about 25 minutes late, but at least we only missed the opening act. It was an awesome show!

- Oct. 13 - I colored my hair brown! The color didn't come out too much darker than my hair before, but I love it! Next time I go in to touch it up I'll probably even go a little darker.

- Oct. 15 - I went to "The Scarlet Pimpernel" at Centerpointe Theater. A friend was in the cast so we went to support her and she did great!

- Oct. 17 - I went with a bunch of people in my ward to Nightmare on 13th. I was really nervous about it since I haven't been to a haunted house in 10+ years, but it was actually really fun!

- Oct. 20 - I ran the Haunted Half 5k... almost my entire family either participated in the half marathon or the 5k. The 5k wasn't bad, but I heard the half was torture with lots of hills.

- Nov. 3 - I went with my brother Jon and sister-in-law Emilee to Diamond Lil's steakhouse in SLC for dinner and a show. Dinner wasn't too exciting, but the show was "Sweeney Todd" and I loved it! It was a very small production, but so much fun. I think this could be a Halloween tradition in years to come if the show is put on again in the future.

- Nov. 4 - My siblings and I were bored one Sunday night so our solution to our boredom was to drop eggs off the balcony and try to not let them crack. The only materials allowed were 10 straws, 12 napkins, and a yard of scotch tape. We played two rounds and I lost both times, but it was so much fun!

- Nov. 10 - I went to a "Dig a Little Deeper" conference with my stake relief society and it was SO great. I am excited to work on improving the spiritual, physical, social, and educational parts of my life in the next 4 months.

Well there you have it, if you are still reading at this point. I love that I have such great friends and family that I can share such fun experiences with. I am so glad to finally be caught up again. Here's to keeping this blog up to date from here on out!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

August Resolutions

I feel like I'm not getting very creative with these goals each month... I'm doing a lot of the same things each month. But I guess that's ok, right? So for those who may be reading this, sorry if you are bored!

1. Lose weight. My birthday is in 48 days from today... so I made up a calendar to try and do these things each day until then: (1) No sweets/soda, (2) exercise 30+ minutes, (3) drink 64 ounces of water, (4) No food after 8:30 pm, (5) keep a food journal.

2. Charge-Up Challenge. I heard about this at church on Sunday and decided to join in. The point is that we are all so focused on keeping in touch with our friends and family through our phones that we forget to do some of most important things. The challenge is to charge your phone 1 minute for each minute of the following you do: attend church, attend temple, read scriptures, pray, etc. Here is the tracking sheet I made up if you want to join!

3. Attend the temple.

4. Read one book.

July Resolutions - Update

1. Lose weight.
This month I only lost 0.2 pounds, but 2.3 inches from my neck, hips, and waist.

2. Read the whole Book of Mormon.
Wow, this was really hard to keep up with. I was pretty good at the beginning of the month but then got behind schedule and it was hard to catch up. So I did not finish the Book of Mormon but I am okay with that! I read much more this month than I have been doing lately and I hope I can continue. I had a lesson at church last Sunday and the teacher said if our goal is to just get through the scriptures, we will not get much out of them. But if we really study them (and maybe not read as much straight through), that's when we will get the best benefit. I needed to hear those words!

3. Attend the temple.

I realized on the 31st that the whole month had gone by and I didn't go to the temple. Next month!

4. Run my first 5k.

Speaking of running, I have to fit in my miles somewhere in here... this month I ran 20.93 miles. And I actually ran 3 races this month! The first one was slightly under a 5k and was pretty informal, but it was a good one to get me started. I'm still not up to running without stopping, but my times have gotten faster each time, and that's what matters most to me.

(1) Kanab Fun Run - July 4, 2012 - Kanab, UT
2.87 miles, 36:21, 12:40ish average pace

(2) Hobbler 5k - July 7, 2012 - Springville, UT
41:28, 13:23 average pace, 15th in 25-29 age group

(3) Handcart Days - July 21, 2012 - Bountiful, UT
38:02, 12:16 average pace, 26th place in 25-29 age group

5. Sign up for tennis lessons.
This is another one I didn't do. I played a few time with my sister-in-law Emilee and she is a pretty good coach! She is always correcting me on my swing and is very patient with me... I will be the first to admit I am really bad at tennis.

6. Go on a hike.
I went on 3 separate hikes of varying lengths and difficulty and I enjoyed them all!

(1) Squaw Trail - Kanab, UT

(2) Rocky Mouth - Sandy, UT

(3) Adams Canyon - Layton, UT

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Trip #2 continued... Yellowstone

On the Friday we were in Rexburg (June 22), we decided to go up to Yellowstone National Park for the day. To be honest, I was not really looking forward to this trip. I had been to Yellowstone once before when I was little, and my only memories from that trip were how gross the Park smelled and a resulting constant feeling of carsickness/upset stomach. Not good memories! But we all loaded up into the car and we were on our way.

After driving only about an hour and a half, we stopped off at a river where we saw a bunch of bison. I was fine as long as they were on the other side of the river!

Next we stopped off at some hot springs and mud pots. The smell hasn't changed since I was a child! But even with the smell, I couldn't get over how pretty and amazing all the scenery was.

We got back in the car, and on our way to see Old Faithful, a bunch of bison decided to cross the street right in front of our car! We had the best view possible, although I'm pretty sure all the cars behind us were not happy that they were stuck on the road. We got an up-close view of the animals for a good 15 minutes!

We finally made our way to Old Faithful. As we were pulling into the parking lot, we could see it erupting and knew we couldn't make it in time. Since we had 90 minutes to kill, we went to the lodge, the gift shop, and got some ice cream.

As we found our seats to watch Old Faithful, everyone around us was loving my niece Brooklyn. She was soaking it all in! The entire time she was watching Old Faithful erupt, all she could say was "wow..." over and over again. After it was over, my sister jokingly asked Brooklyn if we should wait another 90 minutes to see it again. We were all surprised when she said yes! (We didn't stay). Oh, and the video below of my niece Savannah just cracks me up. She was being SO goofy but once I turned on the camera she turned silent. She has such a funny personality for only being 3 years old!

I'm so glad we went to Yellowstone. This trip totally redeemed my impression and memories of the Park. The weather was perfect, it was not busy with tourists, and I think I'd even want to go back now!

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