staying fit!

it's 2 days in a row here... could i be back in blogging?! yesterday i talked a bit about diet- but i wanted to hit a little on something i think is even more important than dieting- exercise. when i was pregnant, and even before... and sadly for a year or more after- i wasn't very active. dave & i would go on walks from time to time, but nothing major. when dave suggested we do a triathlon to celebrate our 30th birthdays, i thought he was crazy- but then i started working out, and you know what? it wasn't hard- it was actually kind of... fun. now working out isn't always an adventure, but it certainly feels good most of the time, and even better- it makes it a little more satisfying when you want to indulge every now and then. i've posted before on keeping your children active- but what better example can you set for them than the example of you yourself being active. i want ian to see that i tried, and that i worked hard. i love when we pick him up from the gym nursery and he says "momma's 'esser-sizin!'" i love being that example for him! i wanted to share this infographic because i think physical activity is so important, not only for children, but adults as well... just see what only a few minutes extra a day can do for you!!  lack of proper nutrition and activity is a serious deal for people everywhere- it's really scary stuff.  so please, take a look!

Infographic courtesy of here!

still strugglin' aka. worst diet ever.

i'm talkin' about mah fitness this week because that's pretty much all i thought about in august... and that's where i've skipped ahead to in my catch-ups...

if you have been reading my blog for a while, you might know that i ate myself to a 45 lb pregnancy weight gain.  not fun.  and, if you've been reading my blog for a little bit of time, you might know that i. can't. lose. that. weight.  ian is almost 3, and I still have 5-10 lbs of that weight depending on what day it is (and how much i pretended to weigh pre-baby).  here is me losing weight- i gain 5 lbs, i lose 5 lbs.  i never weight more than 143... i never weigh less than 137 (there, i said it).  frustrating.  i had been kicking ass in the gym, watching my calories consistently, and still... nothing.  i tried several different calorie intakes- 1200, 1600, 2000 (all recommended by the computer or people) and still... nothing. 

finally, i decided to have my blood work done.  maybe something crazy was going on there- i have been praying for a long time that i have a thyroid condition (not b\c i want one, b\c i want answers).  it showed up normal on the test too- and even a follow-up from my dr. with the 2nd thyroid test showed up ok as well.  boo. 

so i decided to go see a naturopath.  she is a friend of dave's parents, and they had been seeing her for a while, and i thought maybe it would work for me.  we went over my blood work, lifestyle, etc to see what i needed- and that was a whole bunch of vitamins.  low iron, low this, low that.  it's a wonder i was still alive... ;)  plus, i couldn't lose weight.  yikes.  so i got my recommendations and here is what it looked like...

welcome to vitamin world.  in  my kitchen.  5 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon.  plus my other recommendations:

breakfast- protein shake w\ water, enough orange juice to take vitamins.
lunch-  protein shake w\ water, afternoon vitamins, celery with peanut butter
dinner- meat (preferably red for the iron), veggies.

i was allowed to have 1 piece of dark chocolate a day and beef or turkey jerky as a snack.  no pasta, no rice, no beans, no fruit, no dairy.  i also needed to drink half my weight in water per day.

for 4-6 weeks.  yikes!

i actually stuck to this for the first 4 weeks easily.  my weight still went up and down, but it did get lower than before- and i even lost a couple of inches.  around the 5th or 6th week, we modified my diet to complete my triathlon... and once i got real food back into my system- it was all over.  I actually somewhat stuck to it for the next 2-3 weeks, but still not as good as I was doing before.  Just like usual though- I wasn't losing, but i wasn't gaining. 

plus, when you eat so much of the same thing over and over- you get a little sick of it... i can't even look at red meat these days... or protein shakes for that matter- just the smell makes me gag!  ugh!

so now it's been 3 months and i'm in the same exact spot.  looks like i'm doomed to carry an extra 10 lbs for the time being.  for now i'm going to just go back to my regular healthy eating patterns and working out...

have you ever tried an unusual diet, or had a recommended diet?  did it work? 

ombre, hombre

i totally stole that title from Heatha!  while i'm so behind on blogging and trying to reintegrate myself, i figure i'll catch up with my summer (which absolutely flew by).

around my birthday i decided i wanted my hair highlighted.  i have never highlighted my hair before- although I am no stranger to a box of hair dye (unforch) all over my hair- and not because i want to try something new either...  i deciding i was getting my hair done- professionally- and that was that.  I was a real good girl, and i saved my birthday money, and i got a couple of awesome gift certificates from dave & my bro- and it was off to the salon i went (nervously) for my consultation. 

i had never been to this salon before (only passed it, longingly), so i was matched with someone over the phone.  this girl was my soul mate- she loved my top- and we had the exact same idea of what we wanted to do- we went through a few magazines- found the right coloring and we were ready to schedule the appointment!  she loved the ombre and had just done one a couple weeks back and wanted to do another!  yay!

the appointment was a week out and i was on pins and needles with excitement.  all i had to do was color my roots and she'd do the rest.  during this time- my phone was acting a completely fool- first, i broke a piece on it- so i had to go all 2005 with the moto razr.  second- we renewed our contract and my new phone arrived- only to not work.  so i arrived at the salon to be greeted with a surprise- my stylist was sick- and they had someone in her place- didn't you get our voicemail?

no i did not, phone.  and sure enough, while i sat and waited (now anxiously), i checked my vm and i had 4 messages.  by this point, i felt like i had to let the new stylist do my hair- wouldn't she be insulted if i didn't?  and wouldn't my other stylist be insulted if i just let someone else do my hair?  so off with the other stylist i went (yes, i get i can say no- but i'm just too nice- i can't do it). 

things started bad- first i couldn't find the photos we used as a reference- then the girl didn't think that the number of the color i was giving her was right.  at this point we were both nervous, and probably a little edgy (i know i was).  we walked to the front in defeat- ready to reschedule with girl 1 when the receptionist pulled up my account.  girl 1 was so smart.  she put extensive notes on my account- we all felt relieved and i was ready to just get it over with. 

so, ombre highlights are different than regular highlights- first, they have to tease the ever loving mess out of your hair.  next- they put the foils in.  and finally- you sit forever looking like you're picking up a signal to mars...

ground control to major tom

but, if you thought sitting in one place for 45+ minutes was bad- no one even told me what was coming next- and that was COMBING all of my teased hair.  after the color was rinsed, the stylist had to comb through all of my hair, and i have a lot, and it was all teased bigger than a toddlers & tiaras episode.  that took another 45 minutes.  at one point in the combing- the poor stylist was treating my hair so gingerly b\c of all of my cries of pain- i asked her if I could comb it myself and save her the trouble.  she practically threw the comb in my face.  after that, it was just the dryer, some oohing and aahing from her fellow employees and i was on my way.  and in love.

this is definitely not this best picture, as the lighting isn't great- but you can definitely tell it's lighter.  i actually have some super blonde pieces underneath too.  i definitely spent the first week or so doing a double-take at my reflection- oh yeah, that's me!  

i wish i could say i have more photos of it... but... i don't ...   i will say that next time i won't waste so much time before getting pampered again- although i haven't had my hair or my eyebrows done since... so... 

through the years

i know it's been a few weeks since our anniversary, but when we took a photo that night, i was wondering (hoping) if we had taken a picture every year on our anniversary.  sadly, we have not.  i found a few from our anniversary, but the others i had to improvise.  it's definitely interesting to see how we've changed over the years!

1 - 2008

2 - 2009

3 - 2010

4 -2011

5 - 2012

5 years!

high fives all around for 5 years of marriage!

on september 1, dave & i celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  we decided not to go all out on anniversary gifts this year.  we were bummed out because my bff and her husband were going to mexico that week and invited us along- but we had no passports and most importantly no one to watch ian- so the trip was out of the question.  since we have not been on a real live vacation SINCE OUR HONEYMOON (so seriously stop talking about your 5th vacay of the summer everyone else), we decided that maybe we can save up for one...  but who are we kidding?  our priority is to get out of debt- and that means those student loans need to be paid off... so one day.  i also haven't seen aforementioned bff in, oh, 3.5 years.  we're not bitter...  ;)

so, of course, we say we aren't getting each other gifts and we do anyway...  i got dave a cd he wanted & he got me a new pepper grinder since the traditional 5 year anniversary gift is wood.  i told him his "wooden" gift would arrive on sept. 11 when the avett brothers' new album "the carpenter" come out... get it?

anyway, our friend offered to watch ian (which is perfect because they love each other dearly) so we could hit the town to celebrate our day.  we went to a local restaurant that we had never been to before that came highly recommended- and, man, was it good.  it was recommended because of it's crazy beer selection, but we fell in love with it because of the food/mission- everything is local- the meat, the bread, the veggies- heck, even the pickles.  all the food comes from farms located in various parts of illinois.  it's sustainable living at its best.  the food was amazing.  you could really tell everything was fresh.  yum.  if you live in this area- check it out!  dinner was amazing from start to finish & we were even feeling a little sentimental & split a piece of carrot cake for dessert (we had carrot cake as part of our wedding cake).  we then spent the rest of our evening at buy buy baby- so any cool points went out the window...

dress:  modcloth "good enough to premiere"

heels:  seychelles via amazon (can usually find a good deal there)!

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worst blogger ever. yes, that would be me.

i have been "trying" so hard to be a good blogger, but it's definitely hard.  ian is so active and so busy right now, sometimes it's hard to find my balance.  i'm going to keep trying and keep plugging on and maybe i'll get back into a regular schedule.  we'll see.

dave & i finished another triathlon.  i have been losing weight.  i have the craziest kid ever.  this is all coming up- i promise. 

catching up: then i got older

lots of big things going on during my blogcation... up next.  i turned 30... plus 1.  ugh.  i guess i shouldn't be freaking out about this, but for some reason, this seems worse than 30 did.  who knows why... maybe it's that 30 is a nice, even, round number, but 31 kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.  plus, i kinda do feel old, even if i'm not.  my birthday was on saturday this year, which is a real treat because dave is home and i get to spend the whole day with him!  for starters, i slept in.  yay!  dave got ian up and kept him busy for a little while, so i got some extra rest.  when i got up, he was baking me a cake- which he did last year too.  i'm pretty impressed with his baking skillz.  ian was watching tangled, so i watched with him, of course.  we had lunch and then decided to open gifts then- probably because dave couldn't wait.  i figured out why ian was so interested in tangled that morning- i got tangled on dvd & dave had picked out a tangled bday card.  ian was pretty excited about both.  i also got a gift card to get my hair done- yay.  i'm pretty sure i had not had a haircut since... december.  yikes.

for dinner we went to a place called the ram that i really like- mostly b\c it's family friendly.  dave & i have a list of restaurants we really want to go to- but we don't want to take ian to any of them.  date night material.  the ram passes the family test.  after dinner, we headed to krispy kreme- the lone one in our area, because people around here think dunkin is the donut king.  they are crazy. 

 smart husband

 creepy mommy

 mmm, cake!

dress:  cinema foyer dress- modcloth - via swap

shoes:  seychelles