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3 Things You Should Do Before Your First 5K

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser Sams Club. All opinions are mine alone. #SamsClubMag #CollectiveBias

Ever since hearing about the Color Run 5k a few years ago I have thought it would be a lot of fun–but I thought there was no way I’d be able to go 3 miles. It wasn’t after we moved to Texas and I started jogging on the treadmill that I realized that after awhile, 1 mile starts to hurt a lot less, and if you push through to 2 and 3 miles it actually gets better! Now–don’t get me wrong, it was just on the treadmill and I was still super slow. Sooo slow that one of my favorite pins says,

I Run. I’m slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter BUT I RUN!

Apparently I’m not alone, however, because that has just happened to be re-pinned over 650 times!

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How to get Rewarded with Things You Desire by Making Simple healthy choices

This shop and blog post about healthy choices, health goals, and overall wellness has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BalanceRewards #CollectiveBias

Two Years. Apparently that’s the length of time that we’re destined to stay in one home, at least up until this point in our marriage. You see, big changes are coming to the Elliott household once again as we prepare for yet another move!! This time, however, instead of moving thousands of miles we’ll be moving about 8 minutes away to the neighboring town of Lindale. This will be a much easier transition than normal since that’s actually already where Amber attends school, does ballet, our church is located, and all sorts of other day to day life activities take place!

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10 Painless Life Hacks for a Healthier, Happier You

I wrote this blog post as part of a movement by Weight Watchers to encourage people to remember that loving yourself starts with taking care of your health everyday. Though I was compensated for my time and commitment, all views, positive and negative, are my own. #lovehealthyme

10 Painless Life Hacks for a Healthier, Happier You #lovehealthyme

At 28 years old, with 2 kids, I’m 134 pounds and 5’5″. (yepp–getting real here folks!) This means that I’m smack dab in the middle of “healthy” on the BMI chart and couldn’t be considered overweight (well–if we’re talking real people wise, not Hollywood, airbrushed size 0 model-wise). So I know that sometimes when I talk about losing weight, being careful about what I eat, or needing to exercise I get some funny reactions.

But the truth is, even though I might be “just right” when it comes to by the book, I know that there are many areas in my life that need improvement when it comes to making healthy choices and getting to the weight and size that are most comfortable and beneficial for me–and I’m not there yet! Also I learned the hard way as a newlywed that a “few” poor choices here and there can escalate quickly and result in weight gain that will take years to get rid of. So I’ve determined to be intentional from now on about my lifestyle and my eating habits to take the initiative and help myself stay healthy throughout the rest of my life! Because when I eat well, exercise, and reach my goals, it not only makes me healthier, I find I’m a lot less stressed, tired, and a lot happier too!

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Three Fun Ways to Be Healthy

3 Fun Ways to Be Healthy
Legalese Disclosure Nonsense: Becoming healthy and “short shorts” worthy is hard work! That’s why I love it when awesome companies offer to let me “test run” their products to see if they’d fit in with my {trying to be} slim and trim lifestyle. All deep breaths, nighttime snacks, healthy claims, and relishing candy-like vitamins are my own.

As I near the end of Operation Short Shorts pretty much the only thing that I’ve accomplished is realizing how hard making these changes are going to be for me! However this whole process has been very good for me because it’s helped me to become so much more aware of exactly what I am doing, and what I’m not doing–and I think that is really the first step towards real and lasting changes for the better! (psst there’s a giveaway so keep scrolling down!)

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Time To Get Serious ~ OSS Week 6

Swimming
We kicked off the Pool Season today! Which means that I REALLY need to get down to business!

If you subscribe to my blog via email (which—you totally should! I make it super easy for you–see right there on the top on the right?!)  You probably noticed that I was a little MIA last week.

That was because hubby got a call letting him know that he got the summer internship we were all hoping for-great news Yey! The bad part? It means he’ll be living several hours away all summer (booo—thought we were done with that nonsense after he got out of the military) so since I was soon to be with no hubby I literally dropped all but my “absolutely HAVE to do” things for the rest of the week and we just hung out BBQing, going to movies (new Star Trek–yey!), and in general just having lots of fun! (oh and we snuck in a trip to LEGO Kids Fest too to give him some alone time to pack up).

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Operation Short Shorts Fail & My Ellie Pick Me Up Plan!

Save 20% on Ellie!

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and I’m happy that it was sooner, rather than later. Last week was a complete flop for Operation Short Shorts. Both the kids and I were half sick all week long and just through a bunch of different things I felt “off” all week so OSS went out the window.

I’m happy to report that we’re all back on track this week–and I even ran a mile at 10 minutes exactly last night–another personal best AND had lemon water with pizza instead of Pepsi last night! 🙂 So picking myself up and getting right back on the bandwagon–and hopefully next week I’ll finally be able to report some scale success for the first time since now is when I’m starting to cut into my food/sugar intake which will be the hardest, but most beneficial, part of OSS.

So the plan for this week:

Week 4 May 5-11th: 1 Pepsi every 2 Weeks (I never realized how often I do drink the sweet stuff until I tried to go without it for 40 days—which I totally failed miserably at by the way—the experience helped me to see that my “once or twice a month” was really more like “once or twice a week” and that needs to stop since I really don’t even love it all that much!)

Just Run
Legalese Disclosure Nonsense: In order to help motivate me I was sent these awesome Ellie pieces! All OSS fails, sweat, crazy blurry cool pictures and lumps are my own!

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OSS Week 2 & Kushyfoot Feet!

Operation Short Shorts continues plus super fun, cute Kushyfoot Feet pictures!
As a reminder:
last week was Week 2 April 21-27th: Write Down Sweets Eaten Daily (same mentality as before-I’m not going to be trying to cut back yet, but this will make me more aware of how many I’m consuming each day)
Week 2 went well, though not quite as well as Week 1. I did record but the whole week was a little off for one reason or another. I did record and payed more attention to what I was eating so that helped, and I continued with more fruits and veggies–yey and yum!
The scale: Since I’ve actually been eating more food lately I’m hanging out right around the same, expecting the number to start dipping after…….
This week:
Week 3 April 28-May 4th: Workout 3 times (these days it’s super hard for me to squeeze in even 2 workout a week, but as my friend reminded me, you do what you do not because it’s easy but because you’re determined!)
Fun stuff since how you look not only has to do with how you exercise, but how you dress—>
KushyFoot Mary Jane
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OSS Week 2 & A Brand New Blog Look!

 

smell the Azalea's
Here is me stopping to smell the Azalea’s!

So a couple of exciting things today! First off over the weekend I took a *huge* leap and moved this lovely blog from my beloved Blogger Platform to WordPress–this hopefully means a prettier, more professional, more user friendly experience for all of you! Please let me know what you think of my new look!

The second for today is my update on how Operation Short Shorts is going! This past week was Week 1 April 14-20th: Write Down Fruits and Veggies Eaten Daily

I did great with this, I just wrote it in the notes section of my planner and I was good to go–yey! 🙂 Here is my record:

  • Monday: Lettuce, Tomato, & Avocado (on a turkey wrap); Cutie; Strawberry Fields Salad <–recipe coming soon
  • Tuesday: Strawberries; Steamed Broccoli; Salad w/ red pepper; Carrots; Tomatoes & Avacado
  • Wednesday: Strawberries; Steamed Broccoli; Carrots; Strawberry Fields Salad
  • Thursday: Strawberries; Steamed Broccoli & Cauliflower; Carrots; Strawberry Fields Salad
  • Friday: Strawberries; Carrots, Strawberry Fields Salad
  • Saturday: Strawberries, Carrots
  • Sunday: Strawberries; Steamed Broccoli & Cauliflower; Carrots; Strawberry Fields Salad

The Scale: Was aaalll over the place this week one day down to 133.8 then bouncing up to 135.6 so I really have no idea! I’m not too worried about it at this point though!

This week’s plan: Week 2 April 21-27th: Write Down Sweets Eaten Daily (same mentality as before-I’m not going to be trying to cut back yet, but this will make me more aware of how many I’m consuming each day)  I’ll still be continuing to eat more fruits and veggies as well!

Let me know what you think of my new design and tell me how your weight loss or wellness journey is going this week!

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Operation 10 Weeks to Short Shorts

Here in Texas it’s about to get hot—really hot. And that means that soon my staple wardrobe of jeans and a loose, comfy t-shirt or blouse with boots isn’t really going to cut it any more. No in the 100 degree 100% humidity days of Texas a tank top and shorts are the only way to cut it. In fact we’re planning on going to a big pool & volleyball party at Bob’s uncles place in the middle of June (not to mention all the zoo trips, splash park adventures, etc that we’ll be doing/attending during the summer).

Hmmm…a volleyball and pool party. To me that says that everyone is going to be parading around in swimsuits and cover ups, and right now there’s no way I’d be comfortable parading around all day in short shorts let alone a swimming suit (even modest ones!!)
So—Operation Short Shorts has begun to get me into Texas apparel ready shape!
If you’ve been following my slim  & trim journey at all over the past 3 years you’ve picked up on the fact that I know what I need to do-I just have a hard time actually doing it. I’ve tried several different things: websites, apps, a reward jar, etc.—but none of it ever “sticks” and while my friends have gone on to get down past their goal weights I’m still stuck at “stuck”weight—only dipping below it when I fell super sick for several weeks in a row!
The party (and the thought of my flabby arms, Jiggly thighs, and love handles all on display) are great motivation though! I can look pretty hot right now because I know how to wear clothes that strategically hide my flaw areas so it’s hard to get motivated—there is no such luck in summer wear, however, so it really is time to get into gear!
I’ve decided to break it into bite-sized pieces and implement all the things I know I should be doing. I’m giving myself one little goal to focus on each week and then I’ll build upon them each week. This way I’m tackling it one baby step at a time. I’m not giving myself any “goal” weight to have as I know it’s going to be hard to lose weight—but I also know that once I get these good habits into place it will help me to get where I need to be and improve my health overall! So here is the break down of what I’m planning on doing—starting this week!
My “before” picture taken last week