ch ch ch changes.....

I have stuff going on. We have decided to get really tough and cut all the extras out of our "life" to keep expenses down. I did this all before back when Mark started the Academy, and I thought I did pretty good. Well, after going through things again (because I'm so so sick of pay day panic attacks)I have just had it. The first round about 6 months ago I cut out getting my nails done, school lunches, and few other things that I can't remember right now (see how much I needed whatever it was??) But I decided to cut deeper. By cutting out water delivery, my dropshots account, consolidating the car insurance, getting a new phone plan, Wyatt's preschool, and the GYM (GASP!!!!) I am saving an additional $260 a month! WHEW. If feels like it should be more with those kind of sacrifices, huh?? LOL I really thingk it will help. I am also going to work. I'm taking on babysitting 2 girls (3 and 5) that are friends from church. The 5 yr old has cystic fibrosis and will require me to feed her thru a tube once a day, She will be at kinder most of the time. Right now its just 3 days a week and only from 9 to 1. Thats no biggie, really. In a month or 2 it will go from 9 to 5, which will be harder but still doable. for 130 bucks a week its doable! LOL It all seems like small amounts but between what I'm saving and what I'm earning Its not too bad for just these slight changes, except for the one.........NO GYM!!!!! GAAAAAAARRRRGGHHH!! OK OK its OK breathe in, breathe out.......ommmmmmmmmmmmm

Lets not panic, believe me I've been doing enough panicking. I was sick to my stomach over it when I made the decision. Its gonna be ok, I have a BIG plan B. Lets just look at gym PROS first:

I get a vaca from the kiddos daily. OK.
I have many many machines and various freeweights and classes at my disposal, including tanning. OK.
I have lots of gym friends that I like to see, its fun.
I like to tan, it relaxes me (and I look better)

Now the CONS
It costs me gas there and back each day, and about 20 minutes travel time daily
It costs me money, besides my membership I like to get things there occasionally like clothes, tanning gel,etc)
I like to tan, and I will be a leather bag in 10 years LOL

Alright, heres my rationalizing and why its gonna be OK. I called my dad. He has an entire gym just sitting in my grandma's garage that is basically unused (but too far for me to travel to daily)so he said I am welcome to come and get whatever dumbbels I need, mabye a bar and a couple other things. My MIL has a really nice bench that inclines that she is not using, I can borrow that too. I can definetly get what I need to do my weights, even heavy stuff. I have room in my office for it all. There is a place down the street I can tan at for 10 bucks a month unlimited(because yes, I'm addicted, adn I'm not gonna work this hard to be glowing white)It just won't be as convenient, which is really a good thing. Cardio will be my big challenge. However, AZ weather is awesome, so I'm gonna have to hit the streets. There is a soccer field right behind my house, it'd be fun( by "fun" you know what I mean, right?) to do intervals there as well. The boys can ride their bikes around the block with me while I do my runs. It won't be perfect, but it will work. Plus, Mark wants a heavy bag, and we can jumprope.
Ironically, I was just reminding myself the other day that my diet is 80% of my success. This may even be MORE true (like its about 90% at the stage I'm at) so UM HELLO I don't need a gym to eat clean, right?? yeah, ok. Thats what I thought. Not that I won't work out everyday, perfection is the goal here. When i get focused on my goals/challenges, I am super tenacious. This is just another dimension to my challenge, I feel like I know enough exercises to make it work, and work well.

One last thing. I am SO inspired and encouraged by Jen winning BFL, I can hardly stand it. I have GOT to do this and enter. I am DOING a BFL challenge, week by week, by the book, at home, every day for 12 weeks. My buddy Maricar is gonna weigh and measure me every week. I have done 2 challenges, I'm ready for another one and I'm ready to do it for reals. More on this later. I have to get going on my planning (after dinner,homework, errands and cleanup tonight) because tomorrow is D-DAY!!!!!Feb 1 is the day!!

Driving season

Yeppers, its officially driving season. Today I had one of those legendary mom of 5 saturdays from HELL! It was really only bad from 8 am till about 4 pm. What the heck am I gonna do in 5 years from now?? Its gonna be 10 times worse!! Right now I only have 3 kids old enogh to go different directions, what is 5 gonna do??? Alright, so thats one of my big reasons for getting in shape, I have to not only keep up with these kids but be the Big Cheese in Charge of the circus. At the rate I'm going, I will need 5 more years to be fitnesswise where I want to be, so I better get started! HAHA I hope I'm kidding!

So I'm still feeling OK, just fluffy from eating crap all week, so I guess I better get back on track, since it took a litle extra effort to stuff my booty into my skinny pants this morning. In all fairness, they were fresh out of the dryer, but I was slightly alarmed. I wanna be a HOT football mom, and I definetly don't want to be self-concious of my muffintop when I am sitting on the bleachers.Tomorrow, I am cooking and planning. I mean PLANning. Actual eating TIMES and I'm even thinking of setting my cellphone to ring at those times to remind me to eat. It sounds extreme, but that has ALWAYS been my sticking point. I spread my earlier meals out too far because I don't want to stop when I'm right in the middle of something, then in the evening I get too hungry. I can hang on for a few days then I crash.

I'm very positive that my metabolism is screwed up right now. Not royally screwed up, but a little. I think I can be burning at max capacity in 2-3 weeks. I am not going to add a second cardio session per day until I get my metabolism burning full fire and then plateau, so I'm thinking mabye mid-march????Then re-asses and add that plus some extra clean calories. Actually, back it up, lets just get thru the next week clean, why don't we??? LOL I just get so excited, I know I can do this and there are SO many cute clothes I want right now! I need a new summer wardrobe and I don't want to be pissed because I'm still buying sz 11jrs/8misses in fricken APRIL. It won't happen!!!! I'm a fighter!

Hey Peeps

My honeybuns is working graveyards the next couple days so I'm gonna have some time on my hands at night. *sigh* My only other distracton besides TV is housework. BO-ring. I think tomorrow night will be home spa night. That sounds pretty fun, actually. Now I'm watching reruns of the Office and procrastinating the housework. Aren't you so glad you clicked onto my blog?? Its a real par-tay.

Working out has been pretty good. I have been avoiding cardio a bit, just doing it kind of half-assed. Today my shoulder workout bonked. How does THAT happen?? I LOVE shoulder day. I was good on carbs (believe me) and pretty hydrated. What the heck?? Luckily my legs are sore from yesterday, so I feel like this week didnt totally tank. At least workout-wise. I have to get my eating pulled back together. I could get such great results if I could just pull the eating together. I know, that statement is SO unique. har har har The Buffmothers, Beka, and the other comp blogs I read are really inspiring, I still feel like I can do it, I have to have a better goal or something. I need Bekas do or die (literally) attitude. Oh well I'll figure it out and I'll let ya know when I do. Gotta do it.

I enrolled Cade in football ( tackle) and his first training camp is on saturday, its gonna be fun. OK, I better get to at least getting the dinner cleaned up and the room cleaned up so Mark can sleep in peace tomorrow. I guess I'll be getting my gym time in this weekend since its one of the few places I can think of to take the kiddos for free for 2 hours while Mark sleeps during the day.

All sorts of stuff

I'm kinda bored tonight. Well theres always something I could be doing besides sitting here reading blogs but my house is about 90% awesomely clean so I think I've earned it. I had to do haircuts tonight right after dinner tonight so it forced me to clean up the kitchen quick. Nice. It was like I got paid to clean my kitchen and talk to a friend of ours. Woo hoo! I'm stuck watching the Inside The UFC on spike because it is recording and I am waiting for Mark to get home before I watch the Office and My name is Earl.

I could always go out and rock the house and play some Guitar Hero II on the playstation. HAHAHA I bought it last weekend and I am an offical Guitar Hero now (for the medium level) That game is so super fun!!! My brother brought it over for the christmas party and I've wanted it ever since. The problem is if I go out and start playing I will be playing for hours and be tired tomorrow. I really need to work on my career at the hard level though..

Todays workout was really really good. I don't feel like typing it all out, I already did that on Buffmother today. The short version was I did 20 moderate intensity on the elliptical, then lifted Chest, shoulders and Tri's. I did about 3 excercises for each part, 4 sets per exercise. Then I tanned. My food has been really good today too. Skinny jeans (well, skinny for me anyways) are fitting good and quite comfy. So far 4 perfect days in a row. I already feel 1000% better. Now I'm gonna go have some cottage cheese and an apple.

Another thing, Have ya seen this great commercial where the hot surfer chick gets out of her car at the beach and all the dudes are just checking her out,she has a fab body, puts on a wetsuit, then her 3 teenage kids get out of the car and grab their boards to go surfing together. I LOVE IT! Very inspiring!!

Ya know it would help if Spike TV would quit with the Quizno's commercials!!

Ok heres a couple new pics that Cade took the other day when I was being a rock and roll chick the other night. HAHA had to cut off my head because I looked really hammered. I can't believe I was walking around looking like that all day! BLAH! I think I'm getting to a certain age where lipstick isn't an option for public places! LOL


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I just thought my arms were looking pretty good in this one


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My bicep is pretty puny here, but I actually wanted these as my before pics instead of being half nekkid all the time. Anyway, thats the starting point. Lets see what can develop in 4 weeks woo hooo!

This wagon is uncomfortable!

Well my program is going well this week. I'm back on fire, I love it. I am trying out a 4 day split on weights, and cardio intervals 4 days per week to see if that will get me some good results. And of course eating really good, a little more cals but high protein. I am starving right now but I realized that I am only on M4 and its 7:30 pm, so I better eat quick and then right before bed again. I'm going through withdrawls pretty bad, my head has been had splitting pain for 2 days. I think its the lack of sugar and caffeine. I'm gonna go to the chiro tomorrow anyway to make sure I'm all in alignment. Man, it hurts though. Hopefully tomorrow it will be gone, I've taken WAY too much ibuprofen this week so far, and I don't think its helping anyway.
I have to keep getting up from the computer to walk around because otherwise I stiffen up and can barely move from my LBWO yesterday. I squatted 200 Lbs on the smith machine yesterday plus added in to the mix some new old exercises so I'm in bad shape LOL

OK time to bribe Mark to massage my poor pounding head and watch American Idol, now that the kids are down (sort of) and I gotta EAT!! I'm thinking egg salad and an orange.

CONGRATULATIONS, HONEY!!!

Yep, my sweetie graduated from the academy last night!! I am so super proud of him!! He gave the class speech, which was such an honor!! He graduated 6th out of about 25 guys, which was also a great accomplishment. I took the kids over in the morning tot he final flag ceremony where the seargent presents the class to the Chief, and the kids got to take a tour of the facility and eat donuts (of course! LOL) Then the graduation ceremony was in the afternoon. I was so proud of everyone!!!! He has been working with some really good guys, the guys that are going to his department all made it through the academy and took 6 of the top 10 spots. There was 1 female and she took the #1 spot (of COURSE!)LOL It was fun because we have gone to a few different events and I have gotten to know the guys and some of the wives, so it was fun to see them graduate as well. Its just an all-around great group of people. Very cool! I'm planning a little party to celebrate with all our friends and family that couldn't come for this weekend. There is a cool DVD that they made of the class and all of the stuff they did, some of the funny mistakes and of them getting tazed and stuff. Hee hee. W'll show that at the party and have some yummy food. Good times.







This is us at the early morning flag ceremony. All the other pictures are on my moms camera, I will get them on tuesday. Hopefully there wil be some good ones. :D

Fitness underway

So far so good this week. I'm feeling really pretty good, I made it to all my workouts so far, and my eating is pretty good, calories are a little low but I'm working on it. I really don't want to stall out my metabolism. I'm doing nice effective heavy weight workouts 3 days per week, and 20-30 minute interval training 3 days per week. I'm giving 110% to that time I am there, trying to maximize it. Tonight I'm having a treat of hot chocolate. I am very sore from yesterdays UBWO. Its getting worse by the hour. I did my intervals today and it felt horribly good, if ya know what I mean. I'm a little afraid about what I might do to my legs tomorrow in the gym...Look out!! LOL Now I have to go help Mark study for a big test tomorrow...I mean 6 tests tomorrow! AACK!

Heres a pic a friend took of us a couple weeks ago, I thought it was cute of us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Its 2007!!!! WOO HOO! Actually, I'm not really that excited, it seems like every time I turn around its another freakin new year! LOL There will be another one in a couple months, right?? :D I actually made it to the gym today, how about that?? I'm pretty proud of myself. I am really on fire mentally with fitness right now. Its wierd thogh because I am having some denial about my body right now, I think. Everyone I am running into is commenting that I look thinner, and all that. I truly do not see any change, not even in pictures. I still just see all the same areas that need major improvement. I have been buying a few clothes and I keep getting them too big. I got a dress that I wish now I had gotten a small, and I picked up a t-shirt from Walmart and bought it in a medium, and it looks all big and baggy. I got some black slacks in Jr's sz 11, but they are a little long and all gappy around the waist, I think I needed a 9. The only place I really see change is in my face, my cheekbones are sticking out a little more. I'm not going to freak out or anything, I am going to bust into the 120's this coming weekend. Hopefully my brain will catch up soon and then I'll be on top of the WORLD!! LOL

As far as fitness goals, all I have for myself right now is to get into the 120's before Marks graduation, I'm just focusing on that. I will be at the gym every single day until then(except Sunday) and eating clean every day. I like the sprint-type mini challenge, its good, and hopefully not long enough to fizzle out. I have 10 days.

I'm gonna take the Christmas down and start getting the house ready for a visit from the landlord. We are gonna sign a new lease and I'm thinking he'll want to come over here to do some type of assesment. I gotta figure out how to get my carpets cleaned, since I'm too poor to pay a pro. I just hate how blank everything looks after all the fun decorations are put away. I have some cute new valentines things that can come out in a couple weeks, at least.

Hope you are all getting your plans and schemes in order.....