Inactive is my new middle name

In high school, I was a year round runner. I participated in cross country in the fall, and track in the spring. During the winter months I ran with my schools running club and in the summer I ran with teammates.

Entering college I was still pretty active. My major was Exercise Science so if I wasn't working out on my own, I was teaching a group fitness class, training a client or working out in class.

So now I have reached the point in my life where I have become inactive. It's not even something I feel like I can talk about with friends or co-workers. I can't tell you how many times I have expressed my frustrations with needing to get in shape and I receive an eye roll.

Let me just set the record straight to all you hater-eye rollers, you don't have to be overweight to be insecure. AND I'm not wanting to workout to lose weight, I'm wanting to get back in shape.

So I've decided to get a gym membership. Which for those of you who know where I work, this usually produces another eye roll. I work at a recreation center with a really nice gym.

Reasons why I HATE working out at work:

#1 I've been there all day. Do I really want to stay another hour? Umm No.
#2 I know everyone there, so I usually end up talking to someone.
#3 I know everyone there, so I am insecure about them watching me workout.
#4 I live an hour away, so the only option for me is to workout before or after work. Weekends are out.

I just want a place close to home. That way, I can come home from work, relax, make dinner and then head to the gym for an evening workout. On the weekends I can head there whenever I want!

So now that I have clarified my reasons, I hope you won't judge me. After some convincing, John finally seems on board with the idea! I'm planning on getting us both a membership at club fitness this week. Hopefully this will help us get back into shape!

Healthy Choices and Weekend Projects

My first week as a blogger and I have to say- the response has been overwhelming! I was really hesitant to put myself out there but I have received such positive feedback! It makes a girl feel good!

So, week one my goal was to work on healthy eating habits. After posting, John and I sat down and planned our meals for the week. We do this every week so that wasn’t really anything new. What was new, was our food choices. A lot of our food choices involve casseroles with cream of ___ soup, pizza, fried chicken and PASTA.  I love pasta.  As a matter of fact, right as I was sitting down to blog John turned to me and said, “They are making your favorite thing on T.V.!!” I asked him what was that, and his response was “pasta.”

When I told John that we were going to try and eat healthier he gave me the “I don’t like that idea” look. I quickly explained what I meant by that. Because let’s be real. I weigh 105 pounds. I’m not looking to lose weight here- just looking to eat better. Here were my rules:

1.     No soda in the house. If we go out and want a soda, that’s fine. But I don’t want it in the house.

2.     I’d like to stay away from cream of ______ soups.

3.     I wanted to use more fresh ingredients in our meals

4.     I wanted to come up with a breakfast plan for myself.

We settled on these three meals:

            Chicken, Potato’s and fresh green beans

            Stuffed Peppers

            Light Alfredo Pasta with Fresh Steamed broccoli.

Now you are probably wondering why there are only three meals. Well, we are a family of two, so typically when we make a dish it produces a lot of leftovers. John is also a coach, so sometimes he does not get home until after 9pm. So I typically eat leftovers or something light on those nights.

The chicken, potato and fresh green beans was the only new recipe for us and boy was it a hit! For a very simple dish- it had a lot of great flavor! We will be making it again!

Week one was a success for healthy eating and comparing grocery bills- it was really just about the same as our bill always is. Roughly $60-$70. I was worried that with all of the fresh produce, our bill was going to be large.

Aside from our healthy eating- this weekend turned into a project weekend. I made a new wreath for the door, John raked leaves and cleaned out the garage and we hung a cabinet up in our laundry room that my dad bought at the habitat for humanity store. We also had to replace the light with an in-ground one so we could open the cabinet door :)

For next week- we are hoping to continue to eat healthy and use even more fresh ingredients!

I'm a blogger

This saturday started off like any other. John got up and went to practice (he's a coach for a boys high school basketball team) and I lounged in bed. I was thoroughly enjoying my morning of relaxation, not really wanting to do what I had planned for the day... cleaning.

Eventually I got up and started tackling the mess that our bedroom had become. Not really feeling motivated I decided to turn on the T.V. for background noise as I cleaned. I'll admit it..i'm a T.V. junkie. I love T.V. and will watch just about any show. Yes, I especially love those stupid reality shows like real housewives.

Today there was a show on the Food Network, Fitness: Impossible. The show features chef Robert Irvine who shows people how to eat/cook healthier and work out. It really got me thinking about my food and workout choices that I have made lately. As I type this I am eating chips with white queso cheese... YUMMY! :) Still listening to the show, I went into the bathroom and started cleaning the tub. And this is where it hit me:

I should start a blog. It was the perfect idea. I had so many goals for the year 2015- so what better way than to start documenting my experiences. This is not the first time I have thought about writing a blog. Maybe it is the first time I'm actually taking it serious. Just the other day my boss (here is your credit Alyssa) was telling me that I should start one. Her reasoning being that you get free products which you in turn try out and write about your experience- which I must admit is a cool perk. But I know for her, it is something she has enjoyed doing and I think for me it could become that to.

So my goal is to post at least once a week. What will I be writing about you ask? Well- hopefully a lot of things. I've come to realize 5 things over the course of the day:

1- I've been watching WAY too much T.V.
2- I need to start eating better
3- My anxiety has gotten worse over the past couple of weeks
4- I want to start doing more projects around the house
5- I want to start running again. Like when I was in high school. I miss it.

So hopefully this blog will help me to improve those 5 things.

My first goal to tackle...... eating better. After I finish writing my first official blog post, I am going to sit down with John and tackle a meal plan for the week. All meals hopefully will be healthier than the chips and queso I'm currently choosing to eat.

Wish me luck :)