Happy Belated 4th.

I had a wonderful weekend. Way too fast though, but that's what happens. Now I'm gonna get back to my routine, running, yoga, looking for a job. Mr. Skinny's grandma's financial advisor who called me a few weeks ago called me again while I was grocery shopping. He told me to call him back and that's exactly what I did once I got home, and he's not there. I still haven't heard from Wells Fargo. I'm going to call the store tomorrow and see if I can get anywhere with them. This is getting ridiculous.

It's also really hard because, like I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm trying to figure out what God wants me to do. I also mentioned that I was programmed to be a mom, that's what I've wanted to do my whole life. Mr. Skinny and I both felt like God was telling us to start our family back in February when Mr. Skinny's grandfather died. It's always on my mind, of course, but we really got talking about it. Now with him having a pretty good job, it's talked about even more. He wants to get our credit cards paid off, which I know is a smart idea, but is that really what we're supposed to do? I'm kind of feeling like me having this much trouble finding a job is God's way of saying to start our family now. Mr. Skinny is trying to deny it though, even though I know He feels the same thing. It's almost like we're hoping for an unplanned pregnancy (even though we're on the pill), so that we know for sure that God wants us to have a baby. Sorry about the serious topic, but with these two faces all weekend, my baby fever is on HIGH!

I seriously spoiled them both rotten. The baby was in my arms just about all weekend and I loved every minute of it. He's adorable, they're both adorable and I can't wait to have my cousin's life of a stay at home mom.

I ate too much, but not a excessive amount. I tracked everything to the best of my ability, though. I ate my oatmeal for breakfast and tried to fill up on fruits (with cream cheese fruit dip) and veggies (dipped in ranch) :) I tried though, right? I ran with my cousin on Saturday night, and we took a long walk on Sunday night, so even though I ate wayyy too much this weekend, I kind of counter-acted it with some exercise. I also went for a run this morning, but it was too hot to do a real run, and it's not my normal day anyways. I'm working on it. I'm planning on getting up tomorrow around 7am to run so I can beat the heat.

I'm off to cook some dinner! Hope you all have a fabulous night!

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What was your highlight of the weekend?

What's been on your mind lately?

WI Friday.

So ya know how I said a little bit ago I was going to do bi-weekly weigh ins? Yeah, I haven't been doing that. For right now though, weekly weigh ins work for me. I'm loosing, even though it's v e r y s l o w, it's going. I lost another 0.8 this week. This is really great for me, seriously. Slow and steady wins the race, and I know that, for sure!

I went for my run this morning, and it was another "eh" run, but it's done. I haven't had a good run in a while. I probably need to drink more water and eat more fruits and veggies. I'm slacking on veggies especially, big time. Another 2.81 finished. I only walked 3 times, and I timed the last 2 to make sure it wasn't over 1 minute. I think I held a pretty steady 11-12 minute pace for all of the running section, and my walks weren't too bad either.

Now for my plans this weekend. I'm going to my cousin's house, ya know the one who serves her kid toaster strudels for breakfast, and pizza rolls for dinner? Yeah, her. Now don't get me wrong, she's my favorite cousin in the world, and her and I are basically like sisters. Neither one of us has a sister, and even though we're 6 years apart, we've stayed close our whole lives. I want to come up with a plan. I've been tracking every day for 20 days (according to My Fitness Pal), and I want to keep that going. There is NO reason to give myself a free-for-all all weekend.

With my oatmeal discovery this week, I think I'm going to make my own prepackaged oatmeal for breakfast. I'm taking some fruit for fruit salad, but that's the only plan that I have. At least I'll have a filling breakfast? It's so hard to plan for stuff like this. As long as I track everything though, that's what really matters. I'll make smart choices and really watch my hunger signals, that's the most important.

I probably won't post until Tuesday, but have a nice long 4th weekend!!

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What are your plans for the 4th weekend?

Oatmeal, Part 2.

You guys are the best! Thank you for all the responses about oatmeal. I actually made some this morning after my run! Speaking of my run, it was an "eh" kind of run. I did it, but not without a good amount of walking. I was glad when it was over. I added a hill into my run. The hill I've been avoiding since we moved back up here. And I ran up it once and walked up it once. It. Was. Intense. I don't know if it was the hill that made me so tired and "eh", but it wasn't an awesome run. I'll be repeating W6D2 for sure. Not a bad pace for most of the run portion. 2.84 miles completed.

Okay, now onto the oats. I'd like to try Overnight Oats, but I wanted to just try straight up oats first. I was going to do a peanut butter/banana, but I think I tried that before and didn't like it, so I just stuck with a basic cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Gathering Ingredients.

Oats. Skim milk. Cinnamon Almonds. Bowl. Measuring cup. Sugar.

1/2 c. of oats in the bowl.

1/2 c. of milk in the bowl. I added a splash more.

Ready to be nuked!

... And go!

"Mmm, I'm hungry. Let's have a snack!"

Overflowed. Guess I need a bigger bowl next time.

Ready!

"Oooh! Another add-in!"

Cinnamon Almonds. Peanut Butter. Sugar.

Looks pretty good!

But is it going to be good?

Hmm.

... Um...

It's a winner!

I ate about half of it and was satisfied. I'm gonna head out and do some yoga, then probably finish it up depending on if I'm hungry or not. The oats weren't awesome, but there were eatable. I'll definitely be trying it a bunch more times!

On a side note, Wells Fargo called me back this morning while I was out for my run. I tried to call her back when I got in, but I got the answering machine. I left a message, but she hasn't called yet. It's been over an hour. I think I'm going to call once more now. She didn't say any news, just wanted me to call her back. I don't know what to think. I'll keep you posted!

Update: still haven't heard from Wells Fargo, but I am enjoying my cold, leftover oats better than the warm, fresh oats.

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Do you prefer your oats warm or cold?

Oatmeal.

First of all, thank you for all the kind comments on my last post! Each and every one of them made me smile!

Today has been a lazy day, other than my ravishing (is that the right word?) hunger. I feel like I eat something, I'm stuffed, then 20 minutes later, I'm hungry again! What the heck? I didn't have a chance to work out today, so I don't even have the excuse that I burned some extra calories and need to eat them. Sigh.

I was a nice big sister and took my brother's car to get the tires rotated, then I stopped at the store for the pizza crust for dinner. I really need to start making my own. Someday. Now I'm catching up on blogs and doing laundry. We were really overdue in the laundry department, it was pretty bad.

Anywho, today I need some advice from you dear readers. I want to make some oatmeal. A few months ago, I was adding some of the already packages Quaker oatmeal packets into my breakfast routine. They were okay, but didn't fill me. I see people like Kath eating oatmeal almost daily. I want to like oatmeal and make it in all kinds of cool ways, but I just don't know where to start. All different kinds of oats and how to make them. It's a big mess.

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Tell me about your experiences with oats. What kind do you use? How do you cook them? What kinds of add-ins do you add?

Thank you!

Being Comfortable in your Body.

Running. I'm starting to really love it. I enjoy my time alone, with, ya know, the iPhone and the music and the heart rate monitor, but alone. ;) I love focusing on what my body can do, and how strong my body is. I'm really starting to love my body, accepting my bigger thighs and hopefully, someday, child bearing hips. Accepting my cellulite and my dimpled thighs. It's who I am. Hopefully, I think, my body is shrinking. The scale says so anyways. There are days when I look in the mirror and really like what I see. Knowing that I am taking care of myself and making myself healthier is a wonderful feeling.

This past weekend wasn't as healthy as I would have liked, but a lot of it, I did the best with what I could. I went over my recommended calories both days, but I'm not gonna harp on it and bore you with what I ate. There was ice cream, burgers, not a ton of veggies and pasta. No big deal, moving on. It's a new start and I got up and went for a run this morning. My brother is at nerd camp, oh I mean engineering camp, for the week, so I'm running myself. It's kind of nice to not have to keep up with his pace, although I do miss having someone to talk to.

It was a do-over of Week 6, Day 1. With all the eh food I ate this weekend, I didn't want to have to stop halfway through my run, and I think it was a good plan. 2 miles completed.

Now I have some pictures. I want to be honest with my readers and I've never hid from telling anyone my weight, so now I have some progress pictures. Back in February, I bought some bikinis, hoping that they would motivate me to loose my weight so I could wear them this summer. Well they've been sitting in my closet since I bought them. I had them in the back of my mind, but I'm just so slow at loosing, I don't know that I can wear them this summer. Since I moved back home, though, and really got going on my weight loss, I'm a little more confident.

I haven't taken progress pictures regularly, but if Leah can put herself out there, I can too!

The following 2 pictures are from the beginning of December, roughly 10 pounds ago.

And these 2 are from this morning.

I think a little bit of the love handles/muffing top went away, but other than that, I don't thing the 10 pounds did a whole lot. I'm going to keep going though. And hopefully I'll take some more progress pictures. I'm almost confident to wear a bathing suit. Probably not a bikini, but I'm getting more comfortable in my skin every day!

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Are you comfortable in your skin? How did you get there, or why aren't you?

Scales and Trails.

Rhymes, huh? :)

I'm really bad with coming up with clever post titles, my days are pretty repetitive, so it's nothing new or exciting. Looking for jobs, running, yoga, blogging, reading. Boring life right now.

Anyway, I'm going to start doing Weekly Weigh Ins again. On Fridays. I'm really trying to focus more on how I feel than what the scale tells me, but it's really hard. Now that I've been actually working out and running regularly, I want the scale to show what a great job I'm doing. It's not always working like that, but it is on the right path at least. Since my last official blog WI, I've lost 6 pounds. It's not a ton, but I'm truly accepting the fact that I'm a slow loser. The upside to this is that I know I won't go back to the way I was eating. It's going to be hard to figure out exactly how to maintain, but I'll deal with that when I get there, and probably won't until the end of the year.

My current weight as of this morning is 153. I'm so close to the 140s, I can taste it. I've been in the 150s since January, but there was a TON of maintaining in there. Right now I'm aiming for a goal of 140. We'll evaluate when I get there and see if I want to go lower. I'm not worried about it. Sure, I'd love to be done loosing weight, but I'm just going to focus on being healthy, rather than being attractive. Healthy is what matters.

On the other side of things, my brother and I went for a run this morning. It was an okay run. I thought after my 2 mile run on Wednesday that todays run (run .5, walk .25, run .75, walk .25, run .5) would be cake. Boy was I wrong! I think the root of the problem was that I was running with my brother, who could probably run a 6 minute mile, so he's naturally faster than I am. I try to keep up with him as much as I can, but it's hard. I thought I was just having a bad run day, but when I looked at my pace once we were finished, I ran an 8:30 pace! That's crazy! And I actually kept it up for a little bit, too! So I blame that. Even my walking pace wasn't so bad. By the last 3/4 of a mile or so, I just told Brother to go ahead. I knew I wanted to go slow and he could have sped up.

I walked most of the way home the last little bit, but I'm not ashamed of it. My right arch was bothering me, so I didn't want to get a blister or anything, so I walked. I hope there's nothing wrong with my shoes, I just bought those shoes! All in all, I don't think I'll have to repeat the day, but it was a difficult outing.

Does anyone know how accurate Nike+ GPS is? My brother's said 2.9, and he did go a little farther than me, but I think it would have been more than that. I've been doing all my training runs off this app, and I don't know what I'll do if it's inaccurate...

Do we look alike? I'm not gonna lie, Brother is RIPPED!

When we went down to stick our feet in the water, last week we noticed there were some fish eggs around the steps on our dock. Today there was this...

Last time we saw them they were in a different spot and they were more string-like, so what the heck happened? Do I have any biology people reading my blog?

Have a great weekend!

Interviews & Keys.

On Wednesday, Wells Fargo called me to set up an interview, so we set it up for 9:30 on Thursday. This was hard because it required me to get up before 9am, and I am SO enjoying my summer vacation, or what I'm referring to as my summer vacation. I get up at 7, make my breakfast, get all gussied (is that a word anymore?) up and I'm ready to go. My resume is printed out, I have directions and I leave. Get there, no problem, but I'm a half hour early. I'm playing on my iPhone, it's raining, so I make sure all the windows are up. Before I get out of the car, I make sure all the doors are locked. Do you see where this is going?

I open the door, get out, and as I'm shutting the door... *ding, ding, ding*... Crap! I locked my keys in the car. Now I'm going to an interview, so I can't just let them know how scatter brained I can be and how I locked my keys in the car, although I don't think I've ever locked my keys in the car before. I send my brother a quick text "I locked my keys in the car, you'll have to bring me the spare, don't go anywhere" and head into the interview.

Fail.

In all honesty, I think the interview went well. They're only interviewing 2 other people for the teller position, and I like to think that I answered everything well, I'm personable and I'll get the job, but we'll see. I've never had a sales job before, but I'm not gonna lie, my job at McDonalds helped me more than I ever would have thought possible. I think every teenager should hold a part time job while in HS and/or college. Learn balance and responsibility, be a part of something, even if it is McDonalds. Yeah, it sucks, but it teaches you something.

My brother did come and drop off the spare, even though it was 30 minutes from home, so I took the poor kid (literally) to Panera for lunch as a thank you.

Anywho, I'll be back to my enjoying "summer vacation" and hope that I get a call at the beginning of next week.

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What's your opinion on students having jobs? Did you have one? Where?