Spring Chores

It seems the weekends have been nice the past couple of weeks, but a day or two of non rainy, cold weather is all we get.  I hope it shapes up soon and stops raining; we have landscaping projects to get taken care of!  We have been working around the house the past couple of weeks to get some things checked off our to do list. 

First on our list of outdoor projects was to take out the pine tree in the front of our yard.  The tree was far too close to the house, and was blocking a lot of sunlight to the front yard.  A few weeks ago, the tree came down.  Taking that tree down was my first experience with an axe and a hatchet; it felt pretty good to cut something down!  Now, if only it would stop raining so we could get someone out to remove the stump that was left behind. 

The pine tree on the far left of this picture is the 

one that got cut down

The day after we took the tree out was too rainy to do anything outside, so we moved inside to replace the fan in our living room. The only light that we had in the living room was a small track light above the fire place and the two lamps we had on the end tables.  The living room had a total lack of light, so we bought a new fan with four lights in it.  The fan previously in the living room was dated and didn't have a light kit.  Installing the new fan was pretty easy, and we are thrilled with the amount of light the fan provides in the living room. 

Once we can get outside, we have some landscaping plans in the front yard.  For now, I am left planning which flowers to plant out front and what I am going to plant in my flower pots this year.  I know I have previously shared my rule about no plant in outdoor pots until Mother's Day.  We are two weeks out, so I'm getting pretty anxious.  I did plant my herb pots last weekend, but I'm concerned they might have been washed out this week with all the rain we have had.  I have a couple of new pot ideas this year.  I will share the start of one of them with you.


I bought a couple of plastic white urn style pots from Menards.  They were on sale last week for $9.00 per pot.  I bought a can of Rust-Oleum Metallic paint and spray painted them a nice amber color.  They look great in the sun and will look good on either side of the garage door this summer.  I currently have a couple of geraniums in the containers, but they have been staying in the garage to keep safe from all the rain this week. 

That is it for house projects for now.  Stay tuned, we have a lot more to come.  Landscaping season is just kicking off! 

Another Workout Update

I have been working with a personal trainer for about a month now, so I thought it was probably time to give an update for anyone who is curious how things are going.  I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it has been easy and tons of fun.  Don't get me wrong, my trainer has been great and my workouts with him have been awesome.  The "other stuff", has been frustrating.  For the most part, I have found it easy to stick to watching what I eat.  You would think working at home that I would be tempted to graze on unhealthy food all day, but I'm honestly not.  I keep some raw almonds or fruit nearby when I need a quick snack.  With the warmer temps lately, I have been craving ice cream more and more, which is really a weakness for me.  I love ice cream more than should be normal.  Luckily, I also love most frozen yogurt options, so it isn't as bad.  Don't worry, I do not sit down and eat a pint of ice cream in one night or anything like that. 

I think I wrote before about how weigh-in is every Tuesday and then every other Tuesday is weigh-in with measurements.  Weigh-ins have been the most frustrating part of my weeks.  I will go into a weigh-in feeling good and come out wanting to throw something at the wall.  My weight has stayed pretty much right at the same point for the last month.  Needless to say, it is beyond frustrating.  Bless my trainer and his attempts to cheer me up.  I also have to give props to Andrew for trying to keep my spirits up about the whole thing and reminding me that I am building muscle.  I also would like to point out that I seriously do not blame my trainer for my body's inability to cooperate with what I am trying to get it to do. 

No, I didn't think the pounds would just come pouring off, but I really thought I wouldn't still be at the same weight.  My saving grace in all this is that over the past month I have lost 12 total inches overall.  It adds up to a few inches here and there.  I think I am most excited about the inches coming off around my thighs and hips.  Those are inches that always seem to creep on the fastest.  Overall I feel better, I feel like I have more energy and stamina. 

I'm still not convinced that there isn't a larger issue going on health wise.  Four years ago when I lost weight before our wedding, I didn't have to try this hard.  I have never had to try this hard to drop the pounds.  I know I am a few years older, but I really don't feel like that counts as much of an excuse.  I will continue to give it my all and hope that my body catches on to what I am trying to get it to do.  In the mean time, I'm going to cross my fingers that the inches keep coming off each  week.  Has anyone else had similar struggles when trying to get the pounds to come off?  

 

Weight Loss Update

I'm heading into my third week of working with my personal trainer, so I thought I would share an update.  Every Tuesday I do a weigh in and every other week we also do measurements.  From my intro session with my trainer to my first week weigh in, I actually went up 2 lbs... not cool.  Last week at weigh in, I was down those two pounds.  In addition to the two pounds, I was down at least a part of an inch at my neck, chest, waist, thighs and abs.  I actually lost a couple of inches in my abs, which I was SUPER excited about!  My arms actually increased in inches, but that is muscle.  We have been busting it hard on my arms; need those sculpted arms for tank top season.  Overall, I feel like I'm finally making progress.  I will weigh in again tomorrow when I go in for training, so we will see if I keep knocking the pounds off.  

I have been tracking my food also as part of my training.  The fact that I have to track my food and share it with my trainer makes me think twice before I eat something.  Before I eat something, I find myself thinking about what kind of fuel it is going to be for my body.  I'm hungry when I get home from working out, but rather than eating a couple of cookies, I grab a handful of raw almonds.  The protein tides me over until dinner.  I have switched from eating cereal in the morning to eating a whole wheat bagel or waffle with peanut butter.  I don't think I have ever had so much peanut butter in my life; good thing I like peanut butter.  We have started to go through a ton of peanut butter now, so we had to pick some more up at the store this weekend.  I was happy to find that Jif Natural actually has half the amount of sodium as regular Jif peanut butter and doesn't cost any extra either.  My life saver with watching what I eat has been that coffee doesn't have any calories in it; who knew!

As for my workouts, I have been hitting the gym a bit more lately.  I have training twice per week for an hour.  During training, we are mostly working with weights.  Once I am done with training, I try to hit the elliptical for twenty minutes to finish off my workout.  Monday's I try and hit the elliptical for thirty to forty minutes.  Wednesday's are rest days.  I try to do something such as play with the dogs outside or take them for a walk.  Friday's I try to hit the elliptical for 30-40 minutes again.  I feel like the mix of weight work and cardio work is really what was missing in my workout.  I will finish with personal training in June.  My goal from now until then is to continue dropping two pounds per week.  If I can continue with that goal, I will be well on my way to my overall goal!