Girl Look at Those Muscles...by Zay

One week down...73 more days to go until Summer...and 2 months, 2 weeks and 5 days until I say, "I Do!"...so thank goodness I am seeing some mega changes in my body. Bootcamp weigh-ins are Friday, so I'm not sure where I am in any loss or gain of inches, but my body is definitely morphing. I was running the other day on the treadmill, and couldn't help but stare at my reflection in the TV. The muscles in my arms and chest are becoming more and more pronounced by the day. My legs are really starting to get more and more definition as well; I'm even noticing a change in my stomach.

I'm so excited to get my 21 Day Fix Extreme on Friday, so that by my 28th Birthday in April, I'll be looking extremely fly ;-). I'll be starting the fix either Saturday or Sunday, and it's so extremely hard for me to not just go all out this week and eat whatever I want; I know if I do though, I'll just have more to work on to get off. My body will hold on to ever donut sprinkle I put into it. Plus I'm still a recovering binge eater, and will always suffer from this illness, so I don't want to go back to old ways.

Another exciting thing going on, is Seth and I have decided to go ahead and start working on Baby Riddle. I know we aren't married yet, but I have PCOS and know we most likely have a long road ahead of us. We want to start now, because the doctor wants us to try on our own for three months before he is able to help out. I am using essential oils, to help in this process, and hopefully I'll be fertile and ovulating by the time we are married. I'm also hoping the 21 Day Fix will also be super helpful, as I am insulin resistant, and I need structure in my life when it comes to eating.

...Gotta Get Down On Friday...by: Zayle

So much for the hiking plans the other day. Seth and I had decided on a hike and a picnic for dinner...and then it started to rain. This week has been pretty gloomy with all the rain, and we haven't been able to get out of the house to do much outdoorsy workouts. I have gone to bootcamp everyday this week--and she seriously kicked our butts! My body is killing me and I feel absolutely exhausted. Hurray today is Friday!

Monday and Tuesday, I ate like a pig...I hate when Aunt Flo visits and my body thinks it needs all the junk food it can fit in. However, since Tuesday I have been back to being incredibly devoted to Herbalife. It's amazing how much better you feel when you treat your body with healthiness. I love Herbalife, but I like to try out different things and switch things up so as not to get bored. So when Cortney mentioned the 21 Day Fix the other day, I was all in. I've already seen great results from one of my good teacher friends, so it has been something I've been interested in.

Since I've been working out and eating decently, I decided to go for the 21 Day Fix Extreme. I ordered it this morning and can't wait for it to get here!!! I'll be sticking with my Herbalife until then. Speaking of, I've created some yummy shakes this week. Two of my favorites have been with blueberries. Blueberry Cheesecake Shake and then a Blueberry, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Shake. I was nervous how peanut butter and blueberry would taste together...but YUM! It was delicious. That will most definitely be my dinner tonight.

Blueberry Cheesecake Shake Recipe:

2 Scoops Vanilla Herbalife Formula 1
1 cup almond milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar free, fat free cheesecake pudding mix
1 tablespoon graham cracker crumbs

Blueberry, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Shake

2 Scoops Vanilla Herbalife Formula 1
1 cup almond milk
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar free, fat free chocolate pudding mix
1 tablespoon graham cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon peanut butter

...I know no pictures of any of this!...so to make things a little more livelier, here's an adorable picture of Sophia and Lucy sleeping together.

And the Fit Break Comes to an End...by: Zay

Spring Break is over...and it's back to work. However, I enjoyed all the hiking, and trails we took over Spring Break, I want to continue doing it. To end Spring Break we took an extra long hike. Friday, we hit up the 'Rails to Trails' here in town. Seth and I parked behind a store here in town, we ended up walking around 4 miles to get to the State Park. The trail was pretty neat, it went behind old factories, a Vietnam Memorial, over the interstate and then up a hill into the State Park. We ended up walking another mile back to the Vietnam Memorial to meet my mom, she had to pick us up because we had plans with the parents to head out to the lease. (That doesn't sound country at all ;-)). By 1:30 I was well over my 10,000 steps. We had a great time and it's definitely a trail I want to take again, maybe today perhaps?

After our hike, we headed out to the lease with my parents. We spent the afternoon riding around in the ranger, checking the deer feeders (yep I'm from Texas y'all ;-)), and just enjoying the beautiful day.

Saturday, we had a birthday party to attend. It was fun and I got a lot of steps in--we spent all afternoon and then that night venturing around Sundance Square...but the next day wasn't so grand. I spent Sunday in bed :-/. Now it's back to work and back to being busy, but that only means Summer Break and our Wedding Day are getting closer. Now for the real challenge, of cleaning my diet up even more!

A New Trail and Engagement Photos, by Zayle

Let's start with the engagement photos, then back track to the new trail, because I'm so completely obsessed with the pictures. Seth and I just had our engagement pictures taken yesterday, but the photographer (Danielle Jones, Snapshots of a Memory By Danielle) went ahead and posted some sneak peeks. We took the pictures in downtown Fort Worth, in Sundance Square. I was so torn over what outfit to wear, but am so glad with the outfit I chose. The colors worked perfectly for the picture. Both the tulle skirt and the black crop top are from Windsor, the shoes are Jessica Simpson--which are the most comfortable shoes ever--thank goodness, because we did a lot of walking to find just the right locations for the shots. Here are the two sneak peeks, I'll share more once I get them all in!

Wednesday morning I woke up early, at 6:30, and did a 30 minute walk/jog on the treadmill and had breakfast before heading off to bootcamp. We did arms, and man was the workout a killer. I'm still incredibly sore. As for the new trail, we opted for a free trail on Wednesday, but the area isn't the best (as far as crime goes). We were a little worried, I've heard that a lot of 'drug deals' go down on this trail, but it was 9:30 in the morning so I figured we would be ok. The trail was short, but beautiful, and had a great steep grade on the way up. We didn't run into any drug dealers either, just another couple out and about getting in their exercise. To make the trail longer we took a couple of extra trips and then finished by running back to the car. We think that we could get to the trail from our apartment, we're going to try and figure it out at some point.

Yesterday my alarm went off for bootcamp and my body hurt so bad, that I knew I needed to listen to it. I took the day off, it was a much needed rest. This morning I went to bootcamp where we did a lot of Tabata exercises, if you haven't done this type of workout you should! It is fast paced and makes the time go by so quickly. Now that bootcamp is done, we are ready for our hike. Today we are walking on 'Rails to Trails', it's a trailway that hooks our town, Mineral Wells, to the next town over, Weatherford. There's over 20 miles on this trail, we're going to hopefully do around 5 miles this morning. The trail we'll be taking, cuts through the State Park (where we hiked the other day), I've heard that it's beautiful--I will definitely take pictures, and let you guys know.

A Very "Fit" Spring Break with Zay

It's Spring Break! The nice thing about working in education is that you get all the breaks, which is always much needed for the students and the teachers. The sad thing is, I'm still having to do my grad school work this week, my college Spring Break is next week. So since Seth and I are stuck in town, we decided to have a "Fit Break". If you read Taralynn McNitt's blog, Simply Taralynn, you know that she had a Fit Trip to the Dominican Republic--this is what inspired me to make my Spring Break, all about fitness. Saturday started off the Fit Break, because all of the snow/ice days we've had, we had a makeup day at Bootcamp, Saturday morning. The work out was called a 'hat trick'. We drew out our workouts from a cap. The workouts I pulled were: 50 ab rollers, 75 sit-ups touching toes, 100 reading the newspapers, 4 sets ballerina lunges with a 5 lb. weight, running 4 minutes and 50 burpees, 100 donkey kicks each leg, and 75 Mary Katherine's. After Bootcamp I headed to my parent's house for a little Tracy Anderson and cardio on the treadmill. My dog, Isabella, wanted to workout too (but obviously didn't feel like posing for the camera). I ended up getting in a little over 12,000 steps before lunch time. That never happens on the weekends!

On Sunday, we had my little niece, I was worried it would put a damper on our Fit Break, but this little girl was a trooper. We started off Sunday with church and lunch with my parents, afterwards we decided to go for a hike at the state park. After finishing the first trail, my niece was ready to keep going, so we found another trail and ended up hiking for three hours. Needless to say, girlfriend was exhausted and fell asleep immediately once we got into the car. It was another weekend day of getting over 10,000 steps...I think my fitbit is probably wondering what's going on.

The last two days, Monday & Tuesday, I've gone to bootcamp and have walked on the treadmill. They haven't been as "fittastic" as the weekend was. I blame it on the endless appointments I've had, from passport appointments to doctor's appointments. Today however, is another bootcamp, treadmill, and hiking day. We're trying out a trail I've never been on that's really close to my apartment. Wish us luck!!!

Pounding Head, Runny Nose, and Fever...Feeling BLAH, by Zayle

It's official, I'm sick! I went to boot camp yesterday morning, in hopes of making it to my fitbit goal of burning 2,184 calories. I got soooo close on Monday! However, by the end of the day my entire body was aching...from being incredibly sore from pull ups, skull crushers...and every other thing we did in bootcamp, but also from being sick. I took my temperature and I had a low grade fever, so I decided to lay off my afternoon workouts. When I woke up this morning, I felt worse. My temperature had risen to 100.1. So no bootcamp for me today. Getting sick couldn't come at a worse time, with Spring Break lurking just around the corner :-/...and my engagement pics coming up. Which means my nutrition has to be spot on...and it hasn't! I don't know about you, but when I'm sick all I want is junk...and I have been splurging on animal crackers...OOPS! So it's time to clean that up and get some rest so I'll be in tip top shape ASAP! I've added in my fitbit data for the last few days. I had my goal set to lose 1 lb. a week, but moved it to 2 lbs. just for these next two weeks. I realize the calorie count is low and isn't something to continue to stay healthy.

Monday:

My workouts consisted of zumba exhilarate and insanity cardio power & resistance

Tuesday:

Over target in the food category yesterday, but since I was under target on Monday, maybe that equals out? My workout for today was one hour of bootcamp! Arms and suicides, talk about sore city. 

Now for today, I'm going to have to be easy on my body, but hoping to get my steps in by walking at a slower pace on the treadmill, if and only if I feel like I can manage!

Hello I'm Zayle, and I'm addicted to Netflix

Last week, I totally failed at life. I let my addiction to Netflix get completely out of control. I finished my Substance Abuse class for my masters program--so this past week, I had a week off from college work--AND it was a snowy/icy mess here in Texas. We worked for 2 days last week...you think I would have been blogging...but NO, i was netflixing...and eating. I gained 5 lbs on Monday and Tuesday, from boredom eating, and not moving at all. Of course my fiance stayed as skinny as ever...boys and their amazing metabolisms :-/. 

When school was called off at 10 on Friday, I knew I could not do what I did Monday and Tuesday, I had to get moving and watch what I was eating. I didn't want to feel as sick as I did Wednesday morning. Seth wasn't feeling good at all last week, so we skipped out on Insanity, but I still went to bootcamp Wednesday-Friday and pulled out some of my old workout DVDs to make sure I got my steps in early in the day, so that I could spend the rest of my day in bed watching Netflix. The fiance's and my new addiction is, Scandal. LOVE! 

This morning I woke up not feeling well, so I'm oiling myself up with thieves and lavender (yup I'm into essential oils), drinking lemon water, and will be diffusing thieves and purification as soon as I get home. I have absolutely zero time to get sick! This week is all about reaching my fitbit's goal of burning 2,184 calories; I have yet to be able to accomplish this goal, but have gotten pretty close. It's all about the herbalife shakes this week, bootcamp, insanity and maybe a little zumba thrown in the mix. Time to get ready for Spring Break and engagement pictures next week! Thank goodness for my newest addiction, TruVision, it gives me lots of energy and helps out with all my sweet cravings. 

Mission get this "snow weight" off begins today.