Skinny Fox Detox!

 Back in June I made the decision to work towards my ultimate goal of competing in a fitness competition.  My friend who used to be a personal trainer but is now a big shot at a gym here in Columbus was also training for a show and offered to have me come workout with him and see what it was going to take to do this.  So we dove straight in to heavy lifting and building mass and carrying around a gallon of water and eating ridiculesly clean!  I couldn't believe how after a few weeks I felt amazing and I was watching my body transform and I was officially addicted.  After a month and a half of hardcore training I went on vacation and fell in love! Go figure haha.  Even though I was still in the gym, I went from working out 6 days a week to 3 and clean eating was replaced with date food and beer and needless to say my body went right back to where it was comfortable.  Then I remembered that I was sized for my bridesmaid dress during my peak workout performance and lo and behold my dress is now a little tighter in the midsection.  So I decided that I'm not going to let love mean putting aside my original goal and journey so I officially began training again two weeks ago.  To jump start my diet and just rid myself of the nastiness I've been consuming I am jump starting my diet with the skinny fox detox!  All it is, is tea.  One glass every morning and one every other night.  I am only trying the 14 day detox and then if I really like it I may try the 28 day!  No dairy, alcohol, sugar or processed food for 24 days!  I'll post before and afters soon!

Busy busy bee!

I have been a very busy bee these last few weeks!  I always vow to keep up with this thing and then I let life get crazy and I fall off the wagon a little bit.  However, it is my goal to keep track of all the exciting things happening through the year because I don't want to look back like I did last year and say, "what did I even do all year?"  So this is what I've been up to the last few weeks!

The weekend after my birthday we had a fabulous birthday party in Cleveland for my friend Katie and I!  All I wanted was to finally have all of my bestfriends together in one place and I finally got my birthday wish!  It was an amazing night!

This past weekend I made another trip up to Cleveland for bachelorette activities.  Activity number one was completing a 5k with the bride!  I have to say I was very hesitant at first on doing the 5k.  If given the choice between running in the cold rain versus being able to wake up in a warm bed with my gorgeous hubby and having a cup of coffee, I'm always going to choose the latter.  But we did it!  My sister and I successfully ran it, even though we are not runners and we had a lot of fun and everyone loved our tutus!  Go team bride!

After we got warmed up and showered it was on to a wine tasting at the beautiful battery park wine bar and then to an amazing dinner at pier W restaurant, all right on the water!  And then the night ended with a wonderful evening of laughing and some drinks with my hubby!

Because we have been so busy the last few weekends and haven't had much alone time, the hubby and I decided to spend the day just him and I enjoying an absolutely noteworthy fall day!  After a trip to the apple orchard to pick 20lbs of apples and me making him take me to get my weekly Menchies fix, we picked up some of our favorite pumpkin beer, dinner and pumpkins and vowed to not leave the house for the rest of the day.  And we did just that!  

It has been a great few weeks!  Now we just have a diaper party, baby shower and this wedding to get through and then some super exciting things are happening for us!  I'll keep you posted!!

Wedding Shower Weekend!

Last weekend was my soon to be sister's wedding shower and I must say it couldn't have turned out better.  Her maid of honor is amazingly organized which is so appreciated when you live a few hundred miles away from everyone.  And brides need to take a lesson from my SIL (sister in law).  Know what you want!  It does not make you a bridezilla because you can say what you want without being a bitch about it.  And she does just that.  She told us exactly what she wanted, what she didn't, what she likes and what she doesn't like.  For one thing it takes out all the guess work.  It makes planning so much easier!  You're job is easier, the bride is happy and things just run so smoothly like this shower!

Now I cannot take credit for any of this except for planning and icing a few cupcakes, which as always I end up using way too much glitter, right mom?  and licking way too many beaters.  But I did put the cupcake dress together!  And I helped in the planning!  Nonetheless the shower turned out great!  I cannot wait until the wedding and I'll be sharing more photos!

DIY Coffee Mugs

So I have a lot to catch you up on which I will do later tonight when it's acceptable to do so with a bottle of wine.  But right now it's 10 am and I don't think work would appreciate me drinking a bottle of wine before I come in, even if it is my birthday!

A few months ago I met my amazing boyfriend and he started bringing out feelings of domesticity (perhaps that is my own word), that I have never felt before.  He had me wanting to be all responsible and shit, like cleaning out my fridge and making room in my closet by getting rid of things I haven't worn in a year (that was hard)!  I actually always had a back up paper towel roll on hand and even toilet paper (jk, er kinda).

This was when I realized that here I was actually thinking that this might be the one and I didn't even have a matching coffee mug to my name.  So that was when I decided that it was time to change a few things and I went out and bought some matching monogram coasters and four matching coffee mugs.  But c'mon, who am I kidding, I can't entirely grow up.  Hence my brand new DIY mustache coffee mugs.  Yes, I have a secret obsession with mustaches!

And these were super easy to make too!  I went and bought some dollar store coffee mugs ($1.00 each at dollar general).  Then I came home and drew on some mustaches.  I baked them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in the oven.  Let them sit in the oven with it cracked and turned off to let them cool slowly so they don't crack.  And then hello beautiful DIY mugs.  I loved these so much I think I'm going to play around with more mugs soon.  Just a tip, they are microwave and dishwasher safe, but if you put them in the dishwasher the sharpie will come off slightly so wash them by hand.  I just want to point out that this was my amazing boyfriend's mistake and so now he gets to drink out of the cup that looks as if the mustache is just getting a few gray hairs.  This is his punishment.  A reminder every morning that despite how old I'm getting, he'll always be older :)

I'M BACK! (again)...

Ok I am back and committed yet again to blogging.  I spent some time reviewing some other blogging platforms but I have decided to stick with blogger so bare with me while I figure out some configurations and how to add links to my social media sites and what not.  It's a process.  I don't have time to do it today, but I will eventually (hopefully), and most likely since I will be taking time off from working here shortly (big news to come soon)!!

Anyway hello again!

Red Lipstick and Wine

There is a saying that there are two tragedies in life; one is to lose your heart's desire and the other is to gain it.  I feel that people spend an awfully lot of time wishing.  We wish for more money, more clothes, more shoes, a better car, a better life.  Whatever your vice is, we tend to always want more of it.  Sometimes we wish more organic things and what could be more organic than raw love?

I find it funny how single people complain about being lonely until they are in a relationship and then they complain about being in a relationship.  I have been completely guilty of this as well.  The grass is always greener right?  But often times I have found that we have complaints about relationships most often when we don't have particular standards for ourselves in those relationships.

As women we are always being told to follow rules.  Don't go out with him if doesn't solidify plans by Wednesday, but don't go out with him if he calls the next day because he's too eager then and who wants a stage five clinger?  Always let him pay, but you should offer so you don't look like a gold digger, and if he agrees to go dutch then you should just high tail it out of there because he only wants one thing.

All of these "rules" are frankly quite dizzying and I'll be honest, I have been following and NOT following these rules for about the last five years and none of it has done me any good.  I am no dating expert but can we please just take men out of the equation for a minute.

Bottom line, plain and simple, up front and honest; you are never going to get what you want if you don't know what YOU want and if you don't know what you want then you can't communicate that to a significant other and it's NEVER going to work out.  NEVER.  Not under any circumstance.  I'm sorry but men will jump through only so many hoops and as much as you want to think that you're shit don't stink, everybody's does when they eat the wrong lunch that day so get over yourself.

I need to get over myself.  In the movie...something, "the wallflower" they say that every women has the love life that she thinks she deserves (and actually that was first seen in the Wedding Date, but I think the book came first and they stole it from there).   There is a profound truth in that.  In your mind, you may think that you deserve a lot more than you portray that you do.  Hence the not knowing what you want.

So do yourself and your dating life a favor.  Pour yourself a bottle (oops I mean glass), of wine.  Put on some red lipstick so you feel sexy and get to writing.  Write down what you want.  Write down what you don't want.  Write down your personal deal breakers.  Write down what you are willing and NOT willing to put up with in what is supposed to be titled "your better half."  At the end of the day, that is what a relationship should be.  The person that you give your energy too, that you sacrifice for, should be your better half and do the same for you.  If you're in a relationship and they don't, STOP.  If they step their game up and earn your love and respect then they deserve a place in your life.  If they don't, it may hurt, it may suck, you may cry and find strength in that bottle of wine but soon you will be over it. I would much rather be heartbroken for two weeks or two months than live two years of being treated how I do not deserve to be treated.  People who deserve to be in your life will rise to meet your expectations or they will move on and you should do the same.

The looking glass; a five year reflection

One of my favorite fairy tales growing up was Snow White.  Don't get me wrong, it held no comparison to Cinderella, but it was still a fairy tale that I grew up watching multiple variations of.  As a child fairy tales meant something completely different to me than they do now as an adult who has studied her fair share of literature and has had the idea of a "deeper meaning" engrained into my mind by professors.  As a child they were just princesses.  Beautiful women who were hated for their beauty but in the end true love, decent humanity and beauty always dominated over evil queens and step mothers.

Today I find myself contemplating the deeper meaning of the looking glass in my own fairy tale.  After having a brief conversation with my mother the other day and thinking as I got off the phone with her how her oppinnions can be so cold and relentless sometimes, she made a very good point.  Her question to me was "where do you see yourself in five years?"  To be quite honest, I had no answer.  I didn't see myself in five years.  I hardly saw myself today.  If you asked me five years ago if where I was standing at that moment had been part of my plan, I would have said no.  Did I think it was a possibility?  Of course, but did I see it happening?  Did I take calculated measures to ensure it?  No.  It just happened.

Like the many years behind me in life, I have not made a concrete plan for anything.  Part of that has to do with my faith in fate and destiny.  I believe that I am where I am for a reason whether known or unknown and I trust that the people and things placed in my path are to strengthen my faith, test my patience and guide me to the ultimate end of my life.  I just trust that things will work out and be ok.  If I need something, I throw that need into the universe and somehow things workout for the best.  I know that seems like a silly way to live life but it's worked.

Looking back at previous blogs I have accomplished a lot of short term goals I set out for myself.  Five years ago to this day I was miserable.  Horrible boyfriend, bartending, broke, living at home with my parents, no credit,  and I had an old rusty car (that I was thankful for).

Today I am working my dream job (maybe not ideal job but a job with a gym I had only dreamed of ever working at).  I own my new car (well in 21 more payments).  I have a beautiful apartment BY MYSELF in Columbus and I get to wake up to coffee in bed and sunshine every morning.  I have wonderful friends and my relationship with my family couldn't be better.  If you would have asked me five years ago if this was where I saw myself, I couldn't have answered yes.

Because often times that question lies within the looking glass.  Sometimes what we see when we look in the mirror is beautiful.  And then sometimes those that we love the most points out of the features reflected in that mirror that aren't so beautiful.  It angers us, and we do whatever we can to change that reflection.  For me, as much as I hate my mother always being right, it's making a plan.

So I sat down today to truly ask myself what I want in the next five years.  I'm going to write it down and throw it out in the universe and work hard on my own merit to get it.  My birthday is coming up in two weeks and I always feel that the year starts on your birthday and not on the new year.  I celebrate a "new year" on the day I was born.  And indicative to that, I always make a list on my blog about what I am going to try and accomplish in the next year.  Sometimes I succeed at a few things and sometimes I don't at all.  My reflection is of a girl who is now going into her late twenties, with grace and style but not two pennies to rub together and a lot of "I will's, I wants, one days, and maybes."  I'm tired of seeing that reflection and it's time to change that this year."

So for the goals.

In the next year.  I want to have a majority of my debt paid off.  If this means I'm going to have to spend less time coming home for visits and more time doing private lessons and working a second job, it's time to put my money where my savings account is.  I want to continue on this healthy path and lose all this extra weight.  As my previous post stated I have been doing Insanity and I plan on sticking to it. No more working out for a few days and then losing track.  I want to finish my book.  I'm tired of talking about it and it's time to just DO IT.  I want to cross more things off my leap list.  Spice things up, add some adventure, meet new friends, as I haven't really solidified a life here and I need to because this works into my five year plan...

In five years, I want to still be at my company.  I want to coach through the next Olympics.  I want to see one of our very own make it and I want to travel to Brazil to cheer her on and be apart of something people only dream of.  And since I know I am where I want to be for at least the next four years.  I want to slowly finish school and find a career I am passionate about so that I can reduce myself to being a part time coach working because it's my passion and not because I need it to pay my rent.  I want all my student loans paid off.  I want my car paid off and I want an upgrade, to a beamer, more like a mercedes (white).  I want a house.  Or at least something with two bedrooms and a huge walk in closet.    I want to get married.  But I don't want children at least for another five years.  I want to be married by 30.  I want to enjoy some time with my husband and then I want to start having children around 32.  Hopefully my five year goals will be accomplished and the time will be right.  I want a boston terrior.  I want to travel more.  I want to spend more time with people I love and keep experiencing great things in life.  Because when I am old and gray, I highly doubt I will look back and wish I had made more money or say I wish I worked more.  I don't want my response to be that I wish I had spent more time with friends and family and more time learning and growing and loving.  I want to live life to the fullest.

The mental list is bigger, but I want to keep evolving and one day I hope that the only reflection I see in my looking glass is a good one.  I will be twenty seven this year.  I no longer consider that old or like I don't have enough time.  I look at it as the age of opportunity.  The age where I am young enough to still make mistakes but old enough to have the wisdom to change what it is I don't like about my life.

Here's to 2012!  The year starts again in two weeks!  Cheers to a good one!