Starting January 2nd I resolved to start exercising again. Even though I’d exercised the majority of 2020 and 2021, I lost almost nothing. In 2020, I never ate out of the house, in 2021 I didn’t eat out that much. The only thing I have left to blame is drinking to much on the weekends and Friday night pizza.
I decided to try the newest “magic pill” Trim Life Labs Keto. Even though the good reviews online were questionable and there were several that call it a scam, I decided to try.
So this is the end of week one, exercising, suppressing my appetite, and not drinking. My first week, I still haven’t lost any weight. Despite the magic pills claim that I could lose up to 5 lbs, I haven’t lost anything. I have been feeling a lot hungrier than I have ever felt before, I don’t remember ever feeling so hungry all the time. However, cravings for carbs are gone and I’ve actually tried to convince myself just one drink with the hubby (habit I guess) but my body feels sick at the idea. So I am constantly munching on small portions of veggies or fruits. I can’t eat a-lot before I get full and I don’t eat after 5:30pm.
I guess they are doing something, because I feel different. Just not what I was expecting. The way these pills were advertised, IS VERY misleading and after purchasing them, I can see why people say it’s a scam. They lead you to believe if you pay for 3 bottles you get 2 free, not so. You pay for 5 at a “discounted” cost, then you go to checkout and a pop up asks if you want the cleansing bottle also, when you say continue to cart (thinking you are bypassing it) it actually adds it with out you knowing. I didn’t get an email with an invoice or confirmation, so, yeah. Scam-ish.
But I have them now so, I’m going to take them and record in detail how I feel about them and if I think they do any good. As of today, I’m not convinced. Hopefully next week I have a different opinion. As for exercising, I’ve been walking,jogging, and doing some light weights. I’ve been feeling a little sick, as have the boys, so I didn’t do as much as I would have liked. But! I did some and that’s better than none!!!
Have a wonderful week everyone!!Wishing y’all Happiness, Good Health, and Success!!!
People ask me, “are you a morning person?” when I tell them that I’ve been waking up at 5am to work out.
My response is “well, I’m telling myself that I am, and I seem to be buying into it”.
Before I start stretching and yawning and trying to come alive enough to hit that treadmill and follow along with my fitness app, I have to convince myself that I don’t want to stay in bed. Sometimes my husband gives me a strong nudge towards the edge of the bed to help make my decision. When it feels optional, I would rather stay in bed. Until I finally get started that is, then I’m super happy and feeling great that I started the morning building up a sweat.
The next question that usually follows is ” why don’t you just work out in the evening, after work?”.
My response (with a tone that says it should be obvious: “ummm, because I have kids and I work full time”
That’s what I think about that
I’ve been doing this new routine for about a month now, and it’s getting easier. The fact I can do it with no interruptions and without worrying about what my little people are doing and what they should be doing is a huge perk and motivation for keeping it up. It’s just me and Chase.
Me and Chase (find him @chase.theincredible on Instagram)
It’s a great feeling of accomplishment up until lunch time, then it’s a subtle feeling of exhaustion that creeps into me more and more as the rest of the day plays out. Sometimes I will go on walks during lunch time to try and wake myself up. Makes sense right, give more energy get more energy……..yeah, not so much at this point. But I’m killing my apple rings so “YAY!”
Seriously though, it’s great and I feel better. It would be even more fantastic if I lost weight though. I’ve changed my diet significantly, and still nothing at this point. Hardly a pound. WTH!
Regardless, I’ll keep at it. I am strong like Hulk!
I’ve also found that I really enjoy 10 minute Mindful Cool Downs after my work outs. I think it has had a really big impact on my mood, I don’t shriek at the boys all morning to get ready for school as much these day. I’m much more “Hakuna Matata”! Messy hair, mix-matched socks, both of them yelling at each other and fighting over the cereal box, what ever, no worries, HAKUNA MATATA!!
So, this is my most recent fitness journey. I take selfies and screenshots every morning before, during, and after my work outs and post them on Instagram, if anyone finds they inspiring or entertaining GREAT! BONUS SIDE EFFECT! but I do it for myself, because for some odd unexplainable reason it helps to keep me motivated. I guess that might be called “vanity”, I think someone wrote a song about me. Just kidding. About the song part. 🙂
This Saturday my family and I are joining several of my co-workers in Ft. Lauderdale for a Color Run. I am super excited that fun runs are starting back up. I will be sure to tell you all about it next week!
Until then, Wishing You and Yours a lot of Happiness, Good Health, Strength, & Success!!
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the virtual races last year, but I’m ready for a real Fun Run!
Last year before the world stopped, me and some gal pals purchased tickets to do the Muddy Princess run in West Palm Beach. One year later we finally got to get dirty.
We signup for the 11:45 run, none of us are really morning people, especially on the weekend. When we got there the parking was well set up, I’m not really sure why we had to pay $10 per car when it’s normally free to park; I guess to pay the people for keeping order and organization. Still, I think $10 is a little much. They didn’t have a DJ or any trucks, but that’s understandable in the days of COVID and it didn’t bother me. The registration and bag check process was seamless and we didn’t have to wait long.
The run itself wasn’t as muddy as we had hoped. It was more dirt trail than anything and not all the obstacles had mud, some of the ones that did, it was dried up and the water trucks had stopped coming by the time we got there. There were a few good ones holes where we could play in the dirty water but I wouldn’t say it was muddy. The amount of obstacles were decent and good for beginners, if you are a person who likes to do Spartan races I wouldn’t recommend this one. That wasn’t our case, we are all beginners and out to have fun and do something different. In the end, we met our goal and we all ended up dirty girls.
Something I really liked was that they had photographers at the best obstacles and plenty of water stations to rehydrate (very important in the FL sun). The pictures they took were awesome and very much appreciated. I had my waterproof camera with me, but the pics aren’t quite as good as what they took.
We are planning on signing up for this event again next year because we did have fun. Hopefully the covid restrictions will be gone and they can make it muddier and better. If you have a group of gal pals you want to spend some time with and get down and dirty I would recommend it, but just know it may not be all that you expected.
One week prior to the start of our vacation my husband says to me:
“There is supposed to be a cold front while we are at the beach, can we cancel it? It’s going to be freezing!”
Me: “Nope. Bring a jacket!”
After a year of canceling long weekends and vacations I didn’t care if it was going to be snowing on the beach, I wasn’t canceling again. We needed to get away from the house!
I made reservations at South Beach Inn on Cocoa Beach, we had stayed there once before and really liked it. It’s an older hotel and needs some TLC on the outside, but it’s small and away from the hustle and bustle around the pier down the road. All the rooms are very nice and clean, they have a kitchen, they allow pets, it has beach access and it’s affordable; it checks off all our boxes.
The evening before it was time to leave I started the process of packing and trying to anticipate everything. I went grocery shopping so we didn’t have to worry about it once we got there, packed up our kitchen, our bathroom, kid’s closets, beach gear, dog stuff, and I almost forgot my own bag. The morning of, my husband had scheduled to have our roof and patio pressure washed, so I finished packing the cooler, cleaning up the house, and trying to make sure I didn’t forget anything (which I did anyway). Finally around 1:00 we started our 2.5 hour drive and officially began our 5 day vacation at Cocoabeach.
When we got there the very nice man checking us in informed me that we would not have direct beach access because they just started pumping sand onto the beach so there was a lot of construction equipment. BUT, we could walk just a minute down the sidewalk and there was an access point there. This was annoying. But ok, What can I do, besides a little walking never hurt anyone. So we moved in changed and headed to the beach, well, me the kids and our puppy headed there. By this time we could already feel the cold air coming in, it was super windy and my husband just wasn’t feeling it.
The boys didn’t care, they hit the waves and Chase (our pup) loved digging and rolling in the sand. It was just us crazy’s on the beach. It was cold. It was really cold. For a moment I almost admitted my husband was right.
We were there long enough for the boys to get their fix and Chase to get used to ocean water and drink too much of it. Then we headed back, popped open a bottle of wine and some juice boxes, enjoyed the fab dinner my husband made, and got our relax on.
Saturday evening through Monday it was way to cold for me to get in the water, but I made sand castles and watched my little ones boogie board and get beat up by the waves. Monday we ventured to The Enchanted Forest Sanctuary and walked a few of their nature trails. We were hoping we would be able to grill, but it’s picnic baskets only. The trails were nice though. It’s hard for me to get excited about Florida nature trails because they all are very similar. But it was easy for the kids to do and very well signed so you can’t get lost. The trails are well kept and the length of the trails is perfect for young kids. We spent a couple morning hours there then headed back to the beach after lunch.
Tuesday the sun and the warmth started coming back but I wanted to do something different, we tried the Brevard Zoo. I love zoos, always have. This one is small, but it’s very well laid out and had animal exhibits that I haven’t seen before. It wasn’t crowded and all of us really enjoyed it! Great day out and recommended!
They had a small pool for smaller kids, a petting zoo, bird and giraffe feedings, kayak rentals, zip lines, and a train that went around a section of the zoo. Plenty of stuff to spend a full day out and at reasonable price for a family.
Wednesday was a perfect day for the beach. At this point however we had to walk about 5 minutes to get to the beach in a different direction because they had closed several beach access points and there was trucks driving back and forth every 5 minutes on the beach. There was also constant beeping and banging from the construction trucks and vehicles all night long. This was very disappointing.
We found a good spot with no beach traffic and even though the water was cold, I was able to handle it and play in the waves with the boys. We spent almost 8 hours on the beach and it was great! I will warn though, the waves are ROUGH! This is a place surfers like to go, so I had to take them just past the “crash” zone and before the drop off where the current really sucks you in and we were able to jump and bob in the waves.
Thursday we headed back home. Overall it was a really great trip and much needed time away. The beach construction was very annoying and disappointing but we made the best of it anyway. The important thing is we all had fun and time together.
I have been into emotional books lately and this one did not disappoint. This was a story that takes place in the 1950s and 60s; its about a young girl who is abandoned by her family at a very young age and forced to learn how to live in the Marsh all alone. She survives with the very few skills her parents and siblings taught her before they left. The towns people treated her very poorly as she was a “Marsh Girl” and most never tried to help. Those that did she was very skeptical of and afraid they too would leave. She befriended and became very close to a boy who was one of her brothers friends. He taught her how to read and opened her eyes to science. However, as everyone else in her life he too left her.
I don’t want to spoil the whole book. The story is very well written and the characters are very memorable. It’s a beautiful story of survival, determination, and finding happiness and peace in self acceptance. I would recommend taking the journey with Kya as she becomes the legendary “Marsh Girl”.
Reading, Running, & Adventures 