What's been going on this summer?!

Hey y'all!

It's been a very busy few weeks for me and my family and we aren't done yet.

June I was cleared for workout. We've had a handful of doctor appointments for all of us; 

most for Jensen, Emma earned her Yellow belt and moved up to level 2 class in gymnastics, 

Kaelyn has gotten so accurate with her drawing skills, 

Jensen rolled over last weekend and is babbling so much,  

and we are about to go on vacation in two days to 

Destin to visit my family and friends from high school. 

(WOO HOO!)

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So I suppose I should start from the beginning.

June was busy. I did maybe 3 weeks of insanity and then stopped.

If you kept up with me last summer when I first started it, I gained....

yes GAINED weight while doing these workouts. At my 2 weeks in I was at 199, but not too long after it crept back up to 205 and I was so frustrated. My diet sucked. I wasn't drinking enough water. Hell... I wasn't doing much else except for that one workout a day and boy was that hurting me.

For those of you who don't live in TX, or the south for that matter -- Houston (and the south) gets very very HOT. Oh, and HUMID. Like, walk outside and you're feeling heavy and sticky kinda thing. Yuck. I did begin to run more though. And eat cleaner -- cutting down low on grains and sugars. My 1 mile run went from 14 minutes down to 10. I have a few times been able to get between 9:45-9:50 on my time.

(Not too bad after 3 kids, 2 months post baby right? :) )

I have a really good friend, who pretty much is my brother, and he was the first person who ever taught me taekwondo back in 2000. My first class y'all. I was like... 11-12?

( and all I did was high blocks haha)

ANYWAYS -- He's a personal trainer out in Vegas and I'm pretty sure since last summer, and throughout my last pregnancy, I whined enough where he decided to snap me to attention and get my ass into gear.  Starting in July I got a lovely little care package in the mail and inside was a BodyMedia band that would get me started into what I felt was impossible.

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On July 11th ( 9 year anniversary for me and my hubby!) I started to wear this little device. Some of y'all use the heart rate monitor and that's awesome. I need to use that too to find my target HR... but this thing is a little more in-depth. 

See, I'm a natural at being lazy; a procrastinator. I work well under stress and can get things done pretty fast BUT, I end up stressing out hard core and that's never good. Remember that vacation I mentioned we were going to in 2 days? Well THIS Sunday we have family photos. I've been dreaming about these photos since I got preg with Jensen. Actually, when we discovered that he was a boy in December 12'. Outfits, colors, location in Destin. I can't wait to replace the photo above our fireplace! *school girl scream!* Well when I got this armband from my bro in July (haha, my "bro". Word.)

I never thought it'd work as fast as it did. 

{Pause} Do any of y'all use the 'my fitness pal' app? Well, if you do, this armband's app works and syncs with myfitnesspal. :) 

So, since it syncs and the armband is magic, I'll tell you what it does: 

(and you have goals to meet for all these categories daily.)

This nifty device tracks the number of hours you sleep.

How many calories you've burned in 24 hours 

(even when you sleep, or are just sitting, or working out!)

How your activity is, moderate? vigorous? 

How many steps you take daily. 

(before this I was only taking 3-5k a day. 

You need at least 10k to meet your calorie burning goals,

 and that equal to walking 5 miles a day, or more!)

Today I haven't hit my steps yet, but I'm planning on going on a walk. I was even running in place like a foot ball drill some days to hit this goal. Or walk in circles around my living room.  Or around my neighborhood just to get the numbers in. You actually will become obsessed checking on it all day.  

100 steps really isn't a lot.

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So from July 11th till this past weekend I went walking everywhere. I was tracking my food and linking it with myfitnesspal while wearing this armband day and night, only taking it off to bathe, or charge into the laptop for a couple of hours which you do every 4-5 days. I did little things like squats and lunges, and even went on more vigorous sprints or long distance runs here and there. Also, entertaining and chasing 3 kids, well two, and the third just carrying him everywhere....

Every few days I saw numbers going down. A pound here, a couple there. 

I got excited. So I pushed more. More weight went down. It's been almost an entire month and I'm now 

15 lbs down. 

I'm 190 today. 

5'10 and 190 isn't great, but having been stuck in the 200's for what seemed like FOREVER... 15 lbs down in a month was thrilling! I still can't believe it that it happened that fast, in ONE MONTH. 

Now I don't want to get too excited yet, BUT! I met a goal before vacation!

 (and bought me a cute top at forever 21 that fits!) #bigboobieproblems

School starts a week after we get back and I want to more than anything reach the 170's by Halloween. 11 lbs isn't too big but if I reach 179 I'll be over the moon. By Christmas, I want to hit 169. And by my birthday...or even Jensen's since we are only 6 days apart... I want to be 145-150. 

So 40 lbs by April. That's 9 months from now. The exact length of when I was pregnant with Jensen. Actually... now that I think of it... we had just announced around this time last year that I was pregnant with him. I've already lost 35 lbs. Here's to 40 more! :)

Oh, and if I reach my goals by next year, I plan on training for my first fitness competition in 2014. Maybe 2015 (after the boy is a year old)

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In other news, my big girl Emma starts school on the 26th and that will be another new challenge and schedule to work with and adapt to. 

Annnnd! I'm going to be doing photos and working with a local boutique here in 

Kingwood and Humble called BeYOUtiful Boutique! 

(Here's the link.... BeYOUtiful Boutique's website. )

They are also on FB! ( BeYOUtiful-Boutique's FB!)

As some of you know I'm a local photographer here in Kingwood/Humble/Houston and I'll be shooting photos of their product for online display :) Super looking forward to this! Come check this boutique out! Their clothes are ADORABLE and very trendy for you ladies out there. :)

So there you have it! This summer in a nutshell. Wish us luck! Lots of things going on over the next several months. I will post more on here too since we are getting the hang of things!

Happy August y'all!