Journey Chapter 1

The title of this post is bothering me.  I have renamed it at least 5 different times.  I wanted to say "The End of the Journey"  But it's not really.  Just because the workout program I was doing is over doesn't mean my journey is over.   I thought about calling it "The Journey Results" but again, it's not the end results, it's just the results I got from finishing this workout program and changing my eating habits.  So I tried to title it like a book.  This was chapter 1 and it has ended but a new chapter of fitness and health is beginning. 

I'm not sure if I'm ready to share before and after pictures yet as they are of me in a bikini.  SCARY!!  But I will give you the stats so that you can see my progress.  I started this journey here where I said Mr. J and I were having a contest to lose weight.  Well that turned into me starting the workout program T25 (although I must not have posted about it cause I can't seem to find it).  I did find this update from January so that gives you a little update.  T25 is a 25 min a day, 5 days a week program with an option for Friday to be Double Day Friday where you do two workouts to double the benefit.  I am PROUD to say I did ALL 60 workouts. Every Friday was Double Day Friday for me!  I never slacked or skipped (if I had to missed I made it up). I felt good about myself and am proud that I was able to accomplish this goal.  I am going to need to start new fitness goals because I want to keep going.  I have big things planned and I want to make sure I can achieve all I set my mind to.  So here are my beginning stats. . . 

November 2013

Weight:140

Chest:36"

Waist:35"

Hips:40"

Arms -

Left:11"

Right:11"

Legs-

Left:23"

Right:24"

And here are my current stats!!
February 2014

Weight:136

Chest:34.5"

Waist:30"

Hips:39"

Arms -

Left:11"

Right:11"

Legs-

Left:22"

Right:22"

As you can see I didn't lose a lot of weight or really a ton of inches but I shrank!!  My waist is the most impressive.  In November I was eating lots of junk, and gluten and anything I wanted. I decided in October to go gluten free and it changed my life.  I'm not saying that is the why I lost weight or inches.  NOT AT ALL!  I worked my booty off every day to tone up and get these results.  Do I think going gf helped me?  YES!  My stomach is much flatter, I don't get bloated, and I don't feel sick and sluggish like I used to.  I did a lot of research and talked to my dr several times before making the decision to go gf.  So if you are thinking about it please consult your dr first. 

And while this chapter is coming to a close I don't plan on it being my last.  Running season is coming up quickly and I need to start getting some miles in.  So moving forward I will probably focus more on running and cross training.  But you can be sure I will update you with stats and running info.  

Thanks for joining me in Chapter 1 of the Journey.  I hope you stick around and see what happens next!!

Love, Lacey 

Refrigerator Oatmeal

I have seen this recipe on 100 different sites! I thought I would try it.  So I found it on Pinterest and gave it a go!  Here is the one that I use.  But I changed it just a little to meet my tastes and needs.

Our cast of characters includes almond milk.  You could use water, regular milk, soy, coconut, pretty much any milk or liquid you want. 

Next we have some jam.  You can pick any jam you want.  This is going to be your flavor of your oatmeal so make sure it's one you love. 

And last but not least, you need old fashioned oats.  DO NOT use quick cooking oats.  You must look for old fashioned oats.  I bought this right at my regular grocery store.  It was right beside the other oat meals. 

You will also need a dish of some sort.  I like to use these small ball jars.  I think it looks pretty and then it becomes an easy portable breakfast! But you could use a regular bowl, a plastic Tupperware, whatever the ingredients fit in and can expand just slightly. 

Now you want to put everything into your jar.  I use this canning funnel because although I can get the milk and jam in pretty easily, the oats seem to fly all over the kitchen.  So I just got out the funnel and used it.  Makes it very easy!

Here is the jar with all the ingredients in.  It looks like a parfait! 

Then I simply stir it all together. Make sure it is all mixed very well.  The jam tends to get stuck in chunks and then I feel like it's not flavoring the whole thing.  Or really I just don't want to bite into a chunk of jam.  So give it a good mix with a spoon!  I then put plastic wrap on the top because we didn't have any jar lids.  Then screwed on the rim and put it in the fridge!  In the morning I grab it on my way out the door for church or work or where ever I was going. Don't forget your spoon!! Just a small warning.  The oats will be a little chewy. That is how they are supposed to be.  If you don't like chewy oats this may not be for you.  I like it.  It reminds me of a cereal if that makes sense. But try it out!  I wasn't sure about it at first and now it's an easy go to for busy mornings!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

2/3 cup old fashion oats

1/2 cup almond milk

1-2 TBSP jam

Mix all together and put in the fridge overnight, or at least 6 hrs. This also keeps well! I have made up 3 at a time and used them during that week.  

What other recipes are you interested in? What's your favorite breakfast?

Love, Lacey

Breaking up is hard to do

Dear Bathroom Scale,

We have been together for so long I'm not even sure where to start.  I guess I should first start by saying it's not me, it's YOU!  For many years I have trusted you to tell me how to feel about myself.  It didn't matter if I felt healthy, strong, and thin, if you told me the wrong number I felt fat, weak, and worthless.  But guess what?  NO MORE!!  You will not control my life.  I'm tired of being told that the number on you defines who I am.  Or worse how I feel! If I put on a pair of shorts and feel good in them, I refuse to let you tell me that I shouldn't wear them.  If I put on a pair of jeans that make me feel beautiful who are you to tell me I'm not?!

So here is the deal.  After today we are through!  I may ask you ever now and then (maybe once or twice a year) how I'm doing but otherwise I'm going to trust myself and my clothes to let me know if I'm slacking.  I can't believe I let you made me feel bad about myself for so long.  So go hide in the closet and sulk if you must.  But get out of my sight!  I'm over being told who I am based on a number.  I am SO much more than a number! And I have so many more important things to worry about than what you say! 

Never to worry about you again,

Love, Lacey

Chambray Outfit Remake

I love looking through Pinterest and trying to find new outfits to make with the clothes I already have. Recently I bought a this  chambray (jean) shirt from Forever 21. I have seen them on other girls and they looked so cute so I thought I would grab one with a gift card Mr. J got me for Christmas.  It came in the mail and when I tried it on I loved it!  But then I thought What do I wear this with?!?!? So I went to my trusty Pinterest account and started to look around!


So I found THIS picture . . .

http://imgur.com/a/s76bE

I have black leggings, brown boots, a scarf and a tank for under the shirt.  Well I had all the pieces and I was going shopping with my mom and Miss V so I put it all together!  Here they are side by side.  What do you think?

My picture is a little blurry but I suppose that is what I get for trying to take a full length selfie in the shoe department of Kohls.  So I decided that since I didn't used a patterned scarf I needed the tank to have some color and pattern so I went with a cheapy owl cami from Walmart. I also didn't need the sweater she is wearing as we were shopping inside so I left that off.  I was pretty happy with this outfit!  I felt good and thought I looked pretty good!  

Is there a look you want me to recreate? Have you ever done the look for less?  

Love, Lacey

Valentine's Dinner Recap - 2014

As I mentioned in Friday's post, I  made a special Valentine's Day dinner for our family.  What you may not know is that I am NOT a good cook.  I can bake pretty much anything but cooking is beyond me.  I think it's the measurements.  In baking the measurements are exact.  Add 1/4 cup of this to 1/2 cup of that and stir until mixed.  But with cooking it may SAY 1/4 cup but it really means around 1/4 cup or whatever tastes good or looks right.  And that does NOT fly with my OCD/Type A personality.  So I usually stick to the basics while cooking but I thought you know it's Valentine's day and I'd like to do something special for my family so I decided to get a little crazy and roast a chicken.  Kroger (our local grocery store) had a great sale on whole chickens so I bought one, and then promptly had a little panic attack.  But thankfully YouTube came to my rescue when I searched for "how to roast a chicken" and a video came up with a "fool proof roast chicken".  If you want to watch the video click here. And although he made it look very easy, I have been known to burn water, so I wasn't too confident. So let's go over the other things I made first and then we will get on to what happened with the chicken.  

So first I decided to cook some veggies in the crock pot!  I cut the potatoes in to eights? I don't know? Pieces!, about half the onion and that whole bag of carrots (cut into chunks).  I put a little olive oil in the bottom so they wouldn't stick. 

Then I topped it with salt, pepper, and butter.  Cause butter makes everything BETTER!!

Then this happened!  I stuffed and trussed the chicken.  I stuffed it with garlic, onion, lemon, & thyme. And can I just say that I did set the laptop on the counter while I was doing this so that I could kind of cook along with the video.  Can I also say that I'm pretty sure everything in our kitchen, including the laptop, got salmonella from me touching it.  But I will say I did disinfect everything once I was done!  Thank goodness for Lysol and Clorox wipes!

And while our chicken was cooking I decorated our delicious gf (gluten free) chocolate cake! I just frosted it with pink vanilla frosting and threw some raspberries on the top for looks! Sorry the picture is sideways, I tried to fix it but it just won't fix! And I'm not computer smart.  SORRY! Turn your head to the side and imagine how amazing it looks.  I want to give a huge shout out to Betty Crocker for rocking the gf mixes at a price that isn't outrageous!  Us gf people love cookies, cake, & brownies too! 

I also made a loaf of bread not shown in this post.  It was just a basic 2lb white loaf from our bread machine.  If you want the recipe (not gf by the way) I can make a post about that just let me know!

So then came the moment of truth! It was time to take the chicken out of the oven.  And this is what I found!

WHAT? A perfectly browned, perfectly done, and wonderfully smelling chicken.  The video even showed how to make a pan sauce from the dripping which I did and it was AMAZING!  We un-stuffed the bird, cut him up and ate him!  And it was delicious!!  We have been having left overs all weekend and it just as good the day after and even two days after!  I would HIGHLY recommend this roasting recipe!  It was delicious!  

In fact here is a picture of some left over meat with the pan sauce.  Yum!  I'm hungry just looking at the picture.  Well my Valentine's Day was complete with a new stick roller from my Valentine and lots of love from the kids!  Valentine's Day 2014 was a HUGE success!  Maybe I'm not such a bad cook after all.  Maybe I just need some better recipes and a little more practice!

What did you do for Valentine's Day?  Did you get or give something special?

Love, Lacey

Valentines Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Sorry this is late!  My week has just been crazy!!  I got some exciting news this week that I will share with you soon, (NO I'm not pregnant!) and I have been just generally trying to get life on track.  My exercising is going well and I will have an update on that for you maybe next week? 

I will also let you know what I did for Valentine's Day with pictures soon!  I actually cooked!  Like I had to truss a chicken!  If you know anything about me it should be that I can't cook.  I'm not good at it.  I can bake!  I can bake ANYTHING but cooking?  NOPE!  So this is a mega big deal! Whether or not it turns out has yet to be seen!

So the picture above is what I was going to get my hubby for Valentine's day!  I always tell him what a turn on it is when he talks nerdy.  Mr. J is a mechanical engineer so he's a super smarty!! And when he starts talking equations and whatnot I just melt! I know that's dumb but hey!  That's me!  

So enough rambling.  I'm sorry I have been MIA.  I promise to do better next week!  I love you all!!

Love, Lacey

Random Fact Time

Welcome to random fact time!  I don't know that I will make this a regular thing but I found this picture and thought it would be fun to share a little more about myself so you can get to know me. 

So the random fact for this week?  I have an obsession LOVE England. Not just England really but basically the entire UK.  I have a serious case of wanderlust and often think that if I wasn't married and didn't have kids I would just travel the world. There are so many amazing things to see out there that it's a shame that we have to spend our lives stuck in one place. Or at least that is how I feel.  SO I do love the UK.  I was lucky enough to visit Scotland 3 years ago and it was one of the most amazing vacations I have EVER had!  Any time I see anything with the Union Jack I almost have to buy it!  I found these socks at Forever 21 for something like $3 a piece.  You KNOW I had to have them. I also bought a shirt that says London.  They had a really cute sweater that I may go back and get because I just feel like it would go with my socks so well!

What is a random fact about you? 

Love, Lacey

Leading by Example and Accountability

Before I became a mother, I never worried too much or thought too much about my sphere of influence.  I worked full time and was married but who was really going to look up to me? Who would want my advice? Then we had kids! We all know that our kids watch us.  They watch exactly how we do EVERYTHING!  When Miss V was about 2 or 3 Mr. J watched her pretend to put on my makeup.  And she knew exactly what she was doing.  She watches me every day put on my makeup and even has her own brush to pretend with.

Well, a few days ago I was sitting at the island reading the bible and doing my devotions.  It's not something out of the ordinary, I do it almost every day.  But the kids just happened to wake up and come down while I was in the middle of it instead of after I was done.  So each one asked me what I was doing.  "Reading the bible and doing my devotions".  Then the questions of what are devotions and what was I reading in the bible came.  So we talked for a few minutes about what I was doing.  It felt good for them to see me reading God's word because that is a habit I want them to pick up.

Later in the day I told them I was going to workout and that they needed to head upstairs. This too was not unusual, I workout 5 days a week and often do it while the kids are home so they know they need to go upstairs and leave me alone.  So I went to put on my workout clothes and when I came back they were all upstairs. I sat down to put in the video I was doing that day and it was already in the DVD player. I looked at it several times to make sure it was the correct one because I thought it was so strange that it was already in the DVD player.  But I went ahead and did my workout and when I was done I told the kids to come down and get a snack.  Mr. D said "Did you see your video was already in the player for you?"  I said "I did!  Did you put it there?"  He told me he did and then I began to wonder how he knew which one to put in?  You see a rotate through 5 different videos during the week but they aren't in a daily order, they are different every day, so I wasn't sure how he possibly got the correct disc.  He then told me "I looked at your calender!"  It took me a minute to realize that he had looked at my workout schedule and read what I was supposed to do and put the disc in for me. I didn't ever tell him where my schedule was or show him my calendar.  But he has watched me workout and check the schedule and get excited about working out and just knew what needed done.

My friend Chandra from sparkyourmotivation.com/ and I were talking a few weeks ago about being accountable and how to fit a workout in. She is currently doing an exercise streak and is currently on day 69 and hasn't missed a workout yet!  We were talking about how nice it was to just know you were going to workout.  It wasn't a question of IF you were but WHEN.  And somehow that makes it easier to do and more relaxing. I know it sounds dumb but honestly just knowing I'm going to workout and making sure my schedule accommodates that makes it so much easier.  Chandra and I also text each other about our workouts.  When I finish I always text her just to say it's done.  On Monday I just wasn't feeling it.  I could barely get out of bed for no other reason than I was just feeling sorry for myself cause it's winter. LOL  It sounds so stupid now but I was really down on Monday.  And you know what?  I got a text Tuesday morning that said "Did you workout yesterday?  I didn't get a text!".  That text meant so much to me that she really was keeping tabs on me.  But it also fueled my fire to get my double day in to make up for my lazy day!

So all of this say, if you want something bad enough you will find a way!  If you want to workout and be healthier you will find a way!  You will give up that show on tv that you JUST CAN'T MISS to do a workout instead.  You will get up 15 min early just to spend some time with God in His word reading and praying.  You will find someone that will keep you accountable. Someone who will speak truth and love to you when you miss a day.  Find that person.  Let ME be that person! But find someone you can talk to and will keep you going.  Set a schedule, write it down!  Mine is posted right on the fridge!  Everyone can see what I'm supposed to do and if I did it! Make a plan and stick to it!  When you fail to plan, you plan to fail! So plan to succeed with your goals and make that plan!!

Love, Lacey

Grandma's Sign

Recently my mom received a box of things that were my grandmothers.  My grandma passed away 12 years ago (13 yrs in July) but somewhere my uncle had found this box.  It was full of pictures, letters, journals, all sorts of random things. So when I was at my parents house last week my mom told me to go through this box and take anything I wanted. I found a few pictures I wanted and then I ran across this little sign. 

I don't know why this sign made me laugh so hard?!  I probably giggled at this sign for 5 min.  I could hardly read it to my mom I was laughing so hard. My grandfather passed away when my grandmother was 30 years old.  She was pregnant and had 2 other children at home.  My grandfather died of DDT poisoning.  They were farmers and obviously this is before they knew how dangerous DDT was.  ANYWAYS!!! I said all that to say my grandmother was a widow for over 50 years.  She never remarried and lead an amazing life!  I will share some pictures I found of her later to show you the gorgeous person (inside and out) that she was. And although she was single I never thought of her that way? So when I found this I just laughed! It doesn't strike me as something my grandma would say.  I have no idea where she got it or if someone bought it for her.  But I love it and will continue to chuckle about it for a long time!!

Love, Lacey

Some Light Reading

I was never a big reader when I was a kid. I found it hard to find books that could keep my interest. Even as an adult I struggle to find content that keeps my attention.  I've tried romance novels and for the most part I don't like them. I've tried true life stories and unless it's something that interests me I just can't finish the book.  I can't tell you how many times someone have told me, "You HAVE to read this book.  It's so amazing!" and I read it and it's either boring or sad or just plain HORRIBLE! I do have a few favorite authors but in general I just kind of go off other people's suggestions.  But recently I decided to try finding a few books for myself.  So I picked a few subjects that I'm passionate about and went for it.  The four (yes four) that I am currently reading are "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire", "Run Less Run Faster", "Mile Markers", & "Just Give Me Jesus". 

I am just over half way through with "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" and I have to say I really like it.  It's a short book but it has a lot of good nuggets in it.  The basic overview is as Christians we need to be constantly seeking God, His will, His leading, and calling upon His power. We are weak and powerless without Him and we need to quit relying on our own strength and wishing things were different.  We need to seek Him!  It talks about the power of prayer and how important it is to be praying constantly.  It really is a good book.  I would recommend it! It also has a study guide in the back to help you reflect on your own life. 

I am only a few pages into "Run Less Run Faster" but I have heard good things about this book.  It's written by Runners World Magazine so you can trust their training! I'm excited to read this and see what I can tweak in my training to make me a better/faster runner. 

The book "Mile Markers" I have not started.  A running page I follow on Facebook mentioned this book.  She was talking about praying her way through a marathon.  Her basic premise was that she would pray for a different person for each mile of her marathon.  That's 26 different people if you didn't know!  I thought this was such an amazing idea.  It keeps your mind off yourself and any pain you might be in and focused on God and the needs of others.  Anyways!  She mentioned this book in that post.  So I'm curious to see what it has to say. 

"Just Give Me Jesus" I have read just one chapter but I love it!  It has such great wisdom and insight!  I'm excited to read this book. This one also has a study guide in the back and I'm excited to continue filling that in and seeing what God has to teach me through this book.  

So as you can see I am obviously passionate about Christ (which I hope you knew before this!) and running.  I am excited to see where God is going to lead me this year with my running and my relationship with Him.  I plan to fill you in as I finish these books and let you know if they are worth your time or not.  But so far "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" should DEFINITELY be on your reading list! 

What kind of books do you like to read?  What was the last book you read that you LOVED?

Love, Lacey