Gotta Love Me Some Country

Wow...it's been ages since I've blogged. Most of the time I've been crazy busy, other times just pure laziness. Sorry!

This past weekend starting Thursday night has been pure nuts. B, Jenny, her boyfriend Matt, and I went to the Lee Brice concert at Mill City Nights in Minneapolis. What a fantastic concert! It was a small venue so the accoustics were awesome, the closeness to the band was great! Here's a couple pics:

 

 Me and B                                        Matt and Jenny

 

 

 Lee Brice! One of my favorites!

 

 Then after a long night at this concert (didn't get home until 12:45am) I had to get up for work bright and early and had bowling the next night.

Saturday I was brave and woke up at 6:00am to go and workout! I was so proud of myself. I wished I could have slept in because I was so tired, but the feeling I had after leaving RVAC was so wonderful! I felt energetic, I felt happy, I felt GOOOOOOD. I'm hoping I can do that more often. I then headed to work then immediately leave for Grand Casino Mille Lacs with Jenny to meet up with my family for an early Easter and Easton Corbin concert.

My Mom's good friend Penny basically "paid" for everything with all of those frequent gamblers points :) Thanks Penny! Concert ticket, hotel stay, Grand Buffet... FREE!!! Yay! All I had to do was pay for gas and gambling money. Here are some pics from that awesome concert!

This is my beautiful family! I'm a splitting image of my Mom, Nick is a giant like my Grandpa, and Jenny...I think the milkman... :)

 

This is how flippin' close we were! The seats were great, but we got to stand by the stage!

He is such a cutie!

Did I mention this year was full of concerts? I went to George Strait's final tour earlier this year with Martina McBride. AWESOME. These 2 concerts.  I have Florida Georgia Line in a couple weeks. Lastly, WEFEST!!!! My all time favorite concert/summer/drinking fest/camping in a mud puddle of a good time. Plus, this is where I met the love of my life, B, and this year will be our 5 year anniversary!!! "I be so excited" (thanks Lillie :))

Well, my coworkers should be trickling in any minute, so I gotta go. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Craziness!!!

Today is a new day!

We got about 5 inches of snow today in the Twin Cities that was supposed to only be a "light dusting"....damn weathermen. They truly never get the forecast right for the St. Croix valley area. But now the sun is out shining and it's a beautiful day! Minus the glaring white snow outside of my teller window at work. It's hard on these eyes!

I actually feel really good today. People always say that exercise really makes people happier, and I think it really does. I did cardio on the elliptical for 30 minutes and then lifted weights for another 30. I feel energized despite the fact that we are crazy slow at work (that's why I get to write in my blog!)

I sat down for breakfast today when B told me he only has 1 pair of work socks left. This is my usual sign that I need to do laundry...like bad. So I thought ahead and was like....well tonight I'm working out until about 8, then have to run a couple errands to Michael's and Walmart. Tomorrow night I bowl right after work, Saturday I'm going to downtown St. Paul for St. Patrick's Day, so B, could you wait until Sunday for laundry??? Thank goodness it works out that he only works M-F, but that means my Sunday is going to be shot doing load after load of laundry until I pass out from the scent of Tide.

So then it hit me, holy crap the month of March is half way through! Glancing at my calendar, I have so much stuff to do and get ready for!

• 15th: Bowl
• 16th: St. Patrick's Day celebration
• 18th: Bowl
• 19th: Band practice
• 21st: Lee Brice concert at Mill City Nights
• 22nd: Bowl
• 23rd: Grand Casino Mille Lacs for Easton Corbin concert and overnight stay
• 24th: Bartend at the Legion
• 26th: Band
• 28th: Haircut (finally!!!: my girlfriend is supposed to color my hair sometime in the middle of all this mess, HOPEFULLY! My roots are starting to look frickin' ridic)
• 29th: Bowl
• 31st: Easter

When I add in working out at the gym 3 times per week, it leaves me with hardly any wiggle room to just relax and enjoy time with B. I hope he doesn't mind. But I feel bad! We haven't gone on a "REAL DATE" for who knows how long. I don't even have kids!!! Thank God!!!

I wanted to start getting up at 5 everyday during the work week. Mon and Tues I get up that early for work, so Wed, Thurs, and Fri would be to work out so that I can have more time after work to enjoy life or do the piles of laundry at home. I'm just a weenie when it comes to getting up early to work out. IDK...

I tried the shower out at the RVAC yesterday and it wasn't half bad! This will save a lot of time for me if I can shower right away after workout rather than getting home and doing it, or not... I'm bad like that. SORRY! This will get me in the right direction to hopefully workout in the morning and get ready for work at the gym, but that takes a lot of planning too. I'll make it work...eventually.

On another note, I decided I'm going to make my blog public on facebook once I lose 10 pounds. Yes, I know I don't have any followers now, but that's ok. It's just nice to type out my frustrations.

Oh by the way, Happy Pi Day!!

Art & Elixer

Hello! Sorry it's been a few days since I've last posted, but It's been very busy around here.

I've been bowling like a maniac. 3 games Friday, 3 games Saturday, 3 games Monday, and 3 games this next Friday. OOMPH. So glad that league season is almost over! I am happy to say that I got my first 500 series on Friday night with 2 games over 200. I was so excited!!! The league said that with that kind of score, for women plus my handicap, should place my name on the wall. YAY ME!!!

Last night my sister Jenny and I went to an instructed painting class by Art and Elixir at Joseph's Grill in downtown St. Paul. It was a great Groupon deal, just $30 for 2 to create their own painting to bring home and a night to socialize with beverage in hand.

 

 The future Bob Rosses...."Happy Trees!" Well, actually birds in this case.

 

 

Our fancy paint palettes..hehe

 

 

Deep in thought

 

 

The finished product of Love Birds!

 

 The talented sisters!

I would highly recommend going to one of these classes. It's really fun, easy (you don't have to have art skills because they teach you EVERYTHING!) As for me and Jen, we're just GOOD. :)

As for my diet...ugh...

It's been going sssssssllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwwww. I was doing so good and all gun-ho about it, really watching what I was eating. Then the bittersweet weekend comes. It's Friday, you want to have fun with friends, have a few too many beers, then you get the drinking munchies. You can't pass up deep fried anything with cheese piled high, can you? I tried and I tried the best that I could. I didn't go all out like I used to and not give a crap in the world, but yes I had full bodied beer (Blue Moon), yes I had buffalo chicken wings with fries on the side, yes I had 2 hot dogs and a pop for $3 at frickin' Holiday Gas Station at 2:00am because that's what drunk people do. I'm not happy with myself, but I don't know how I can control it without feeling deprived. I've never liked being the one on the diet and it shows because everyone else orders whatever the hell I want while I order the turkey burger with no bun and sauce on the side. WHO THE HELL DOES THAT????

I guess I just have to accept that I am trying a new lifestyle and that's what's gotta change in my life and then not give a shit what other people are thinking. I wish I could tell B's mom to stop making the delicious, peanut butter filled, gravy covered, and cheese piled high foods, but I can't. There are other people living in the household that don't care what they eat, so they're going to continue eating that yummy stuff while I suffer trying to down my 7th salad for the week on a Friday.

I just hope that I can get over this hard stage of converting my food habits for good ones. It's so hard. But will that time come when I can completely pass up the chocolate chip cookies without even thinking about it? I HOPE SO!  When.... I hope pretty damn soon.

That's all folks.

The Help

Now I know diets are not easy. I've been on a roller coaster of diets ever since I can remember. Thank goodness there are so many things out there that can make starting a lifestyle change a heck of a lot easier than it used to be.

Let's start with my smartphone. THANK FRICKIN' GOODNESS THAT THEY CAME INTO EXISTANCE!! I don't know how I'd live without mine anymore. I do everything on that damn device.

A lot of people have downloaded the app for My Fitness Pal. It's wonderful! A person has no friggin' clue how much that they are eating on a daily basis until you start tracking. It even projected how many calories I should be taking in in order to lose 1-3 pounds per week by a certain date. It's so cool!

Second, I have a version of Couch to 5K that's an imitator, it's C25K FREE. It has a daily running routine to get you ready for a 5K. I'd really like to do one sometime, maybe this summer, but I'm a TERRIBLE runner. Hopefully with this helpful doo-dad I'll be able to fulfill that item on my bucket list.

Third, I'm actually still looking for them, but I want to find an app for a spin class type of program. I just started Spin and I love it! Only thing is, is that I haven't quite dedicated myself to getting up at 5:00am for the class. The gym I belong to does have a couple of spin bikes in the regular cardio area, so I'd like to jump on them for a while with a program on my phone. I'd have to imagine something like this exists right????

Enough on the electronics, I feel it really helps when you tell people what your plan is. I've told my boyfriend, B, that I'm really in it this time. I'm sick of being fat. He understands and he's trying to make it easier for me. The other day he sent me a text to pick up something for supper, but I got to choose since he knew I'm trying to watch what I ate. Weirdly enough that text was so sweet! There have been times when B doesn't give a shit what I do for a diet because he knew that I wouldn't stick with it. For some reason though, I feel like he thinks I'm going to do it this time. WHICH I AM!!!

Well that's it for now. I'll come back soon to recap the last weekend.

Peas.

The Game Plan

Ok. I'm ready to go. The only problem??? This weekend. Of course something has to be going on to make the beginning of a lifestyle change problematic.

First off, I have to bowl tonight on league. Yes...when you're from a small town, like the one I live in, you belong on a league, or in my case 2. Go ahead. LAUGH. I get it all the time from friends. But it's fun! You get to be with friends, enjoy a classic sport, and drink....and that's the problem tonight.

Drinking is fun, but the damn nutritional value of a beer or cocktail. I drink Mich Golden Light and a standard bottle is 110 calories. I've been trying to drink rum and water then bring in my Mio or Crystal Light liquid water enhancers. They're pretty slick. If you've never had them they're awesome to carry in your purse or keep at your desk. One squirt and you're done. Making a drink like this is only about 70 calories for the rum and zero for the liquid mix. Only problem is some bars don't like this, but luckily my small town is fine with it and I can get by.

Then this weekend I get to see my sister and mom! I love when we all get to hang out together. We're actually going to the Minneapolis Home & Garden Show! I've always had a love of home renovation (even though I don't have my own house yet...sad sad day) and I'd love to get ideas for when the day comes to finally being a homeowner!

But there's always a price to pay when going out of town. Eating out. Ugh...I LOVE to eat, don't get me wrong, but it's so hard to watch what you're eating when you're at a restaurant and don't know what they're putting in your meal. I love salads, but I really can't justify spending $8-12 on a frickin' salad. REALLY? It costs less than $2 at home. I'll try to order a sandwich and skip the bun or something. Luckily I don't like condiments on things other than ranch or BBQ sauce, but I can get by without those too.

So wish me luck this weekend! I can't wait for the hot tub at the hotel. My muscles have been killing me lately.