Fourth Day! Doin' Good So Far....

A couple of weeks ago I made a VERY important life decision. To change my eating habits. I know! It's a big one! ;) Since... I'm not too impressed with my body image right now, like seriously from the hips up I've got the body of a sixteen year old! But... hips down... could use some improvement. Getting married does this to ya! I didn't realize it but soon after we tied the eternal knot I kinda stop being aware of what I ate and let myself just eat whatever I wanted. I figured I deserved a "break" from healthy eating. Bad decision, no one ever think that! That "break" turned into a good year and a half break! And that's plenty of time for things to start losing height (like in my bum!).
My aunt Judy has this really awesome book called "Crack the Fat-Loss Code" by Wendy Chant, MPT, SPN. Here's a pic:

I tried it for like three days and I did notice a difference in my thighs, or at least I thought I did... You know how people can see things that aren't really there?? ;) And she did it and really lost a lot of weight, and it's been... 3 or 4 years and she still looks great. So I believe this book really works... It's just... hard! I couldn't handle the diet. I was too much of nothing for me.
I've been looking around for alternatives and I found this website on Pinterest called BodyRock.Tv. I think it's Brittish and all the trainers on there are totally AWESOME. Basically this site has a ton of really good home workouts you can do, and most of them are about 10-20 minutes long and really make you sweat. I love it because I feel like I got a good workout in less than a half hour. Good for busy schedules.  Here's a link: www.bodyrock.tv. Since it's also part blog she has some pretty neat info on there, like her diet plan (not that she really needs it!). I like it because it's pretty similar to the first week diet in the Fat-Loss Code but has some flexibility. This is straight from her blog:

My plan is very simple:

1) I will eat veggies 5 times a day with every meal (bright coloured veggies, green salads, fresh veggies, steamed veggies, and grilled veggies) and the portion size is about 2 hands cupped together.

2) I will eat complete lean protein 5 tmes a day with every meal (chicken breast, turkey breast, egg whites, fish, low fat dairy like cottage cheese, whey protein, lean red meat) and the portion size is as big as the palm of my hand.

3) I will eat every 3 hours. This will require some pre-planing and logistics, but it is possible.

4) I will eat carbs other than veggies (oats, potatoes, pasta, whole wheat bread,legumes, desserts, etc.) for breakfast and or within 2 hours after my workout.

5) I will drink hot green tea with every meal and I will also drink at least 2 litres of water a day. I don’t really drink coffee anymore but if I have a coffee, it will be only 1 cup a day (black). No pops, sugary drinks, fancy flavored coffees etc. I might have a glass of wine on special occssions. (This part I totally ignored, since I don't drink).

These rules are pretty straight forward and you can be as creative as possible. My concerns are always dinners at restaurants. What if we go to some amazing restaurant and I will want to have a favourite dessert? Let’s say that I did my workout in the morning which means that the 2 hour post-workout window for carbs and desserts is already closed. In this case if I really want to have a desert with my meal I will quickly do the 4 minute workout - boosting my metabolism enough so that I can enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie. I always have a shower before we go out anyways, so why not to take the 4 minutes to do a short workout just before I get ready?  That’s just one example of how to make things work for you.

 *comment: And if I'm in a hurry then a protein shake it always a good "go-to" meal.

I've been eating like this, or at least close since Monday and so far I'm doing pretty dang good! In addition to this I'm working out every day for at least 20 minutes. Being sore sucks but at the same time isn't it kinda gratifying??? I feel more confident and lets be honest, sexier(!), when I workout. And I've noticed that after a few days I kinda stop craving bad food. There's still my "must-haves" like brownies, but I don't gorge like I would before! Oh! And the Six Sister's have an AMAZING recipe for Skinny Chunky Monkey Cookies that are delicious! And make the transition easier. This recipe calls for peanut butter, but being a Nutella fan... well all I can say it I tried both and definitely love the Nutella version!

There hasn't been any noticeable changes, but its a start. Maybe I'll try the Fat-Loss Code thing again. Healthy lifestyle = happier life ;)

Busy Life? Yes, Please

To tell the truth, I'm procrastinating homework right now. Meh... homework. We're finally getting into the swing of things with school and all... it's only taken us like a month! I'm just counting down the days to the end of the semester. But then I'm conflicted! When the semester ends we'll have a break from school... only to pack up and move to Provo, UT for some more awesome (and vastly more expensive) school. Yay. In case it's not evident, this whole move to another state thing is constantly on my mind, or at least near the back of it! I'm a planner and I have to have every piece of the puzzle in place before I can breathe, unfortunately life says 'ohhh yeah? Well guess what? NO!' and things become not-so-organized. My greatest anxiety is finding somewhere to live! Not only that but that somewhere is hopefully going to be our home for the next 6 years while there, b/c we love moving! :/ So I'm feeling some pressure. In our price range I've realized that swamp coolers or an actual AC might have to be necessary (which I wasn't even aware that people even used swamp coolers any more...), and that not having a W/D nearby might have to happen... meaning I will most likely hand wash everything. I REFUSE to PAY to use a washer and dryer! Like come on. No. I'll do it myself.
Anywhose... We submitted our applications to BYU this past week, and we'll know November 1st if we get in. I don't really think I'll get in, which is why I applied to LDSBC, but I'm confident that Chance will. He's not so sure because he kinda feels like he's like every other returned missionary trying to get into BYU, but he's not. We're hoping since it's winter semester we'll have better odds... but   we wont know till next month! I'll let everyone know the verdict.
Tuesdays are rough days. Chance has tons of class plus work, and I have 6 hours of classes with a 2 hour break in between. Luckily my Psych teacher let us out at the half way mark so I got to go home and work out, do homework and eat! But I have another 3 hour class tonight that I need to leave for. It's my favorite, except the teacher is... monotonous and very repetitive... but I love Geology so I sorta power through that.

Too Long its Been...

Umm... I feel like 9 months is far too long of a gap since my last blog! Some of you may or may not know... We're moving to Utah at the end of this year! Yay. I'm so ecstatic I can't contain myself. I mean three words: moving, middle of winter, and Utah. What could be more AMAZING! I checked Provo, UT's weather track record and... it's not doin' it for me. I feel like... 25degrees is not an acceptable average temperature. Like, at all. For me. Because I hate the cold, I feel like it's sooo inconvenient! If you want to go outside you've got to put on layers upon layers upon layers of clothes! And then once you get back inside, you're basically stripping off everything you just put on! Ehhh... not worth it to me. One thing is for sure, I'm going to miss CA every time I go outside. Aside from the whole "uber cold" thing that I'm slowing coming to accept, it's a whole new world out there. Really. All I'll say on this is the Church is true, but the people may not be. In reality, people there may not be all that insane. Chance's fam-bam in southern Utah are all awesome people! The kind that are amazing in all they do. However, Provo UT isn't Richfield or Joseph UT. Provoites are probably pretty normal (but I've heard mixed reviews), and probably really good people. However someone could be sugar, and spice and everything nice - with a dash of crazy, real easy. I figure that if I set myself up to expect some crazy culture, then when we get there I'll be pleasantly surprised! What do you guys think? I'd love some opinions on this. I have a countdown widget on my phone, and with out move-out date being December 27th (which is up for changing ), we've got like 109 days left here in Cali. 109! That actually kinda sounds like a lot, so we'll go with about 3.5 months, which sounds less. I feel like time has flown by this year. I remember at the start of the year we were all excited and gung-ho about this big adventure we had coming at the end of the year, but now.. it's almost here! And... We're leaning closer to the "holy crap, holy crap we're gonna be big kids now" side of the spectrum. Neither of us have ever lived out of state before, Chance lived out of country... but that's different... and we're scared. A bit. At this point we're thinking ok... applications for Winter semester due in a few weeks, umm... we're moving in a few months but have no jobs and no where to live... This is definitely a "leap of faith" situation. We both know it's what we're supposed to do, so we're doing it. Last night we had a wonderful family home evening over at Rich & Steph Hodges' home, where Steph talked about Amy's (her twin sisters) decision to go on a mission. She kept going back and forth, yes and no, when finally she realized she had to make the decision and take that leap of faith. Now she's at the MTC learning whatever language they speak in the Philipines. She did it. So that got me thinking about out decision. They asked us if we've recieved confirmation. Chance struggles to get answers sometimes, so he sorta leans on me for those things. But I struggle with scripture study, it balances out. My point, is that sometimes when we're faced with a hard decision, we just have to weigh out the facts and make it ourselves. We always want that dramatic confirmation that we're on the right track, but if that always happened then how would we learn? Heavenly Father lets us make our own decisions. (I started writing this a week ago... so it may not be uber up to date!)