It's been awhile..............

So what have I been up to?  This picture should pretty much explain it...

Let's just put it this way...I'm living, breathing, eating, and sleeping college and professional football this fall.  I always look forward to fall because it's a time of year that brings back, in my humble opinion, the most exciting sport on earth.  I'm highly competitive, so I love watching anything that involves 2 people or teams competing for victory.  When Jarrett and I met, I remember thinking to myself "please please PLEASE let him like the same team as I do".  And he did.  The rest is history.  4 years later, we are tailgating veterans and we live for this time of year. We don't love the same pro teams, and I actually grew up without any sort of professional football "team" in my house, but now my Saturdays and Sundays are full of the gridiron.  It's fun times.

One thing that I typically struggle with in the fall is gaining weight.  It's inevitable and the same cycle starts every single year.  I should totally know the warning signs by now. First, the time changes. It gets darker earlier. Then, I feel like laying under a blanket and binge-watching Netflix.  Before I know it, I find myself in the kitchen with cookies shoved in my face and I'm like....how did I get here? Where am I? I don't remember eating these things!

Here lately, I've taken some decent measures to ensure that I'm not buying new jeans in the winter because my butt blew up from all of the foods.  I also don't want to live in leggings every day because one, I don't want to have a camel toe all the time.  Two, elastic waistbands are completely bad for you and you know it's time to do something when your stretchy pants don't fit anymore.  Any of my nurses out there get this? Scrubs are great, but when you somehow find yourself want to wear scrub pants and not real pants, then you might want to back off the food intake. 

Or your underwear, if you underwear is down past your butt every day, time to hit the gym.  Unless your name is Kim Kardashian, then that's normal...

On the workout front, I'm doing great there.  Hitting the gym 3-4 times a week. I want to make it a solid 4-5 days. With a stressful job and all sorts of life things going on right now, I've loving my sweat sessions.  I'm been lifting heavy and my clothes are fitting better.  I love going at night, turning on a good playlist, and just getting down and dirty.  It's fun, I always feel better than when I started. I'm seeing some nice changes.  

But not as fast as I'd like to see them...which brings me to how I've been doing with food...

In the past few weeks, meal prepping has taken a backseat.  Work has been crazy and we've also been on the road so much for football that Sunday meal preps have been on a smaller scale. I've not been good about breakfast, but then again, the company I work for supplies an endless amount of fruit all the time, so that usually helps with a morning meal.  I have been prepping mostly all my lunches, so I typically take leftovers. There are some days though that I literally have been so busy that I've forgotten to eat.  I've gotten into this bad cycle of not eating, and them when I am hungry, I'm ravenous and want to eat 2 pans of lasagna.  That's a bit dramatic, but that's how I feel.  Just feed me and tell me I'm pretty, mmmk?

Seriously though, the one thing I notice about this not so great eating cycle is a difference in the gym.  I don't have enough endurance some days.  Other days, I feel like a complete crazy person and want to run full speed laps around the track, do 30 burpees, and then pass out.  All of that up and down points back to my food intake.  Even though I don't work out with a trainer any more, the ones that I had last year made a big impact on how I work out and eat.  I learned a ton about nutrition.  I remember one of my coaches at one point talking to me about food.  I was trying to drop weight before our wedding last year and even though I'm a fitness person and should know all this, it sometimes takes another person pointing out the obvious.  He was giving me advice after I told him what I was eating.  Same thing, I was eating healthy, but then would cheat on the weekends, but would be exhausted during a workout, hence no endurance and no big gains.  The truth was I wasn't eating enough and eating at the right times.  I would skimp on breakfast, but each a huge dinner and feel like a fat slug.  Tailgating ALWAYS messed me up because there's just too much temptation there.  And alcohol can be a bit of a pest.  I do try to not drink during the week, because when you're 32 and also trying to have a baby at some point, it's a better idea to hold off.  Plus nobody likes a Tuesday morning hangover. 

Getting back on track this week means a few changes.  I will meal prep all of the meals, not just some.  This is a lifestyle for me and husband, and when we get lazy, we see it in our waistlines. Food is fuel and that's how I need to begin treating it again. I'm packing a bag every day with gym clothes and will go each night for an hour.  Packing and having it ready to go just makes life easier.  Failing to plan is planning to fail.  And lastly, I'm taking the time to do what's best for me.  Moving into the busiest part of the year at work typically means longer hours.  It's bound to start happening October 1st, which is Wednesday.  This year, I'm approaching things differently than I've done in the past.  I'm going to walk away from my desk some days and go on a quick walk.  I'm going to actually take a lunch hour and get out.  I'm going to force myself to not be chained to my desk for 9 plus hours a day.  I think "resetting" falls right in line with this time of year.  Fall is exciting.  It's about change, new things, and I think we all start to feel invigorated when those temperatures drop some and the leaves turn.

Let's make it a great fall and reach our goals together.  May we all be the fittest ones at Thanksgiving this year and not like Joey from Friends...

Getting It Done!

I'm BACK! Welcome to the Thunderdome.  Did you guys miss me? Sorry for the weeklong hiatus.  J and I had a mini vacay last week with his family and then work was quite hectic for the 3 days after.  We had a blast! We mostly played with our sweet nephew, Brody.  He is SO SMART and learned to say Aunt Becca.  And Uncle JJ.  (insert melting heart and warm feelings in my ovaries here).

Isn't he adorable??!?!?!?!??!?!?!  We love him.  He's so sweet and funny.  Look at his teeny little bruise on his cheek! He's so tough.

Ok so I digress, like all vacations, I got slightly off track, so I'm back on the wagon this week.

This happened tonight...

Yes that is a redneck camoflage bookbag that I indeed own.  Yes, I use it to primarily go hunting.  No I have not shot anything ever, but I love to traipse around in the woods with my Daddy.  It's bonding time with nature.  I also have some matching boots.  

Inspiration for this came from going to the gym on Saturday and seeing this dude practically melting into the floor while running up a stairclimber...with a weighted backpack.  This was my reaction while climbing right next to him...

There was literally sweat running into his shoes.  So that sparked a little idea.  WHY NOT DO THAT MYSELF!?!?!?!?! He looks like he's about to pass out AND having a swell time...all at the same time.

I tried to do my own version of his workout tonight. I loaded up 35 pounds into said camo-pack and hopped on the stairclimber for 20 minutes tonight.  Ya know...just to warm up...NBD.

Here's a piece of advice if you are going to try this workout.  Maybe tell the gym staff that you're not stealing weights to take them home, you're just trying to get all crazy with your bookbag.  Got some weird looks tonight and had to be all like "OH these are my training tools, I'm not stealing them I promise!!!"

(Prince be like...what you doing with all those weights???)

Anywho, 20 minutes + 35 pounds = OMG MY LEGS ARE DYING.  Pouring sweat all down my cankles.  It felt great! Super hard, but really cool to have people stare at you while you're pounding up the "stairs" while sporting some weight on your back.  I felt this everywhere.  Core, back, arms, and definitely glutes, hanmmies and quads.  Not a bad full body workout. 

After I did my climb, I unloaded 10 pounds and them did 2 sets of lunges and squats around the track in the gym.  Lunged one straightaway, then jogged to the next, then squatted, then jogged.  Repeat. Finished up with some planks and pushups.

And now I can't walk!

I don't know what works for everybody, but I find that when I lift heavy and also do some cardio, usually with weights (body weight or real weights), I get the fastest results.  I posted this picture of myself (bathroom selfie) last Friday right before a wonderful girl's night with 2 of my best friends.  Yes I wore my shades, but I was in a hurry.  Don't judge me.  (And I'm sorry you can see my plunger).

Here is the one thing this picture says to me.  I am strong.  I look at my arms and am starting to see definition.  My waist is smaller.  I can tell that my face is thinner.  I also have a tan.  Hey, tan fat is way better than shiny white fat, just sayin. I feel powerful.  I definitely see change compared to say this picture...

This was taken back in March.  While Boone is SUPER cute in this photo, I definitely hid behind his cuteness because I felt so big that day.  I was kinda back to my old self and realized I had let myself go like leading up to our engagement back in January 2013. 

Progress is a slow process you guys, but it happens when you're serious about it.  It's so cool to look at old pictures and see how I've changed, both good and bad.  You have to want to get work done each and every day.  Even if that means you know you can't make it to the gym one night, but you go for a walk at lunch instead.  OR you trade your hamburger for a salad at Wendy's.  Or you put on a weighted backpack and look up the side of a mountain and try to talk yourself out of it.  But you do it, and you're really glad when you look back and say "I did that!".

It's time y'all.  Time to get it done.  Time to get serious.  Time to do the work!

Night night!