It’s the freakin’ weekend!

No workout for me today. If am having fun doing laundry and getting prepped for the weekend. Heading out-of-town for the night, I have to pick up our race day packets so we used it as an excuse to spend the night in Ann Arbor. I think dinner at Pacific Rim may be in order, and cocktails, Mm-mm drinks. I will get plenty of walking in down there so I won’t feel bad about not walking at home today. The weather is kind of strange today (as well as yesterday) so I had to figure out how to dress and not have to change in the evening. So I am thinking a light dress, belt, tall boots and a jean jacket. That way I can just add or remove the jacket as it gets chilly tonight. The low is in the 60′s brr but is in the 80′s right now. The upper 90′s suits me better, even with the humidity. Cold turns me into a big baby. Why am I in Michigan?

Outfit for tonight, Just bought this dress yesterday, tried on the Large and had to ask for a Medium!! Even the sales girls were shocked. They were used to me going in for XL and L earlier this year.

Saturday I will return home and have Schmitty’s wedding reception. Can’t wait! Get to bed at a semi decent hour then head back out-of-town before the sun rises for The Color Run. I have my race day outfit prepared and ready to go! I am sure that even though I will not be running that it will be a ton of fun and I will get to spend time with a friend I do not see often.

Everything is ready for The Color Run, Ann Arbor!

The knee is feeling even better today, the stairs at home are easier to climb and that is a good sign. I am itching to get back to my workouts. I am not looking forward to seeing where this hiatus has left my fitness level. Getting back to where I was shouldn’t be too much of a problem or take long , well lets hope so.

After the weekend I have 2 nominations/awards to blog about. Vacay, injury and laziness has kept me from keeping up with my blogging duties. :p I have not forgotten and will get it done! Promise!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Happy Friday!

Today, Today

So, I was Debbie Downer on here yesterday, and everywhere else. I don’t like to air my dirty laundry on the internet so I will just say life sucked yesterday but all is good now. Sometimes things just come to head and explode and dealing can be hard. Everything is taken care of now and I am hoping the issue  does not pop back up.  I really felt guilty for not getting my workout in and I didn’t eat all day or really drink anything either, then later binged on a Culver’s burger, fries and a root beer. Yikes!

To change the pace of the day we went and did some clothing shopping for our upcoming vacation, Emma needed an entire new summer wardrobe due to her last growth spurt. We have to buy her a new wardrobe 4 times a year. Why do kid jeans cost as much as adult jeans? We are going broke Anyhow I bought a bunch of bottoms, a top and a dress without trying on because I just didn’t feel like it at the store. So today I need to try it all on and see if anything has to go back and be exchanged. I still need to find a pair of neutral sandals that I like and a jacket. And another pair of sandals for Emma. Fun, fun.

Today the plan is to do a double workout to make up for yesterday (or as much as I can do without killing myself), do the billion loads of laundry that needs to be done to catch up on what we normally wear and the piles and piles of stuff that I need to rewash to donate. I probably have 5 or 6 trash bags of stuff to donate once again. Try on those clothes, eat food and hope to get some time in outside. The wash won’t get completely done today but it needs to be done by Thursday so I can concentrate on getting everything ready for vacation. I’d rather take up the invitation to go sit pool side but I guess being an adult is what I have to do today. Boo-hoo!

On the workout agenda I have: Hard Core Abs, Pump Challenge, Step and a Run. Oh my! I better go get my Pump on.

Fluffy Runner’s Tutu a No-Sew Tutorial

So I am a day late on this. Keeping track of time/dates/ anything has not been for forte’ lately. Life has been crazy, thanks to allowing myself to get dragged into other people’s issues. I like to help and it can kick me in the rear sometimes. At least my workouts were charted out for me so I didn’t mess those up!

Anyhow the other night I finished my second tutu for The Color Run in Ann Arbor, MI. Pictures of each step were taken so I can do a tutorial. I based this on Idiot Runner Girl’s tutorial. You can check it out here.. click me

First thing first you need supplies. I am sure you already knew that though!

Supplies:

• Tulle (125 yards were used to make this tutu)
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Measuring Tape
• Plenty of Time
• You!

First things first gather up your supplies. I used five colors of 6 inch tulle they came in 25 yard spools. You can buy the wider bolts of tulle also and just cut the strips to make them 6 inches wide. Tulle can be purchased in fabric and crafting supply stores or even online. You can use less for a not so full tutu or more for an insanely full tutu I will assure you that 125 yards will make a pretty fluffy and full tutu.

Supplies.. Measuring tape as well as the pink and orange tulle not shown.

Now that you have your supplies together it is time to turn those rolls of tulle into strips of tulle. I wanted my tutu to be a little bit on the longer side so the tulle was measured and cut into 30 inch strips. This will give you a tutu that is about 14 inches long. This also takes forever. While I measured and cut I watched (well more listened to) a movie. I don’t even recall what it was so it must have not been that good.

The white sheet of paper was to help me see the tulle better while cutting.

Now you need something to put the tulle on, this is where the ribbon comes into play. I cut a 7 foot length of ribbon. It will be too long but it best to cut it longer then trim after you are finished and tie the bow in the ribbon.

Yay ribbon!

It is time to get this tutu going! I used two of the 30 inch strips of tulle and folded them in half. One on top of the other, then made an upside down “U” shape with it, this is the beginning of our loop.

easy peasy

Take your tulle and place it under the ribbon with the top of our loop above the ribbon line.

This is about to get exciting

Fold the top of your loop over the ribbon like so making a closed loop with the ribbon being the top and the tulle being the bottom you should have a “U” shaped hole (loop):

You still with me?

Here is the trickiest part. It is actually pretty simple. Take the two tails (loose ends of tulle on your loop) and pull then through the loop.

There you go!

Now grab the ends and pull into your loop turns into a knot.

Pull!!

And there you go, you have your first knot finished!

1 down, 1 billion to go

Just continue this process in whatever pattern you would like for your tutu. You can even just do it in a solid color. But what fun would that be?

I think you get the point here. Just keep going, and going, and going!

I did not pull my knots tight I left them loose (well, just not super tight)so I could push them together easier to get my proper size for me. I wanted to be sure I used the entire lot of tulle. So as I am looping and knotting away the teasing started. “That is a lot of tutu I thought you were trying to get thinner not fatter.” “How much weight do you plan to gain by July?” ‘Are you and your friend doing a three-legged race and you both need to fit into the same on?” Ahh men, can’t kill them……….. Don’t worry they got it right back. I can be a bit sassy at times. HA!

It was HUGE! Tico also wanted to be included in this post too. Look how cute he is hanging out with mom and supervising the tutu making process.

Next I grabbed the ribbon ends and started to push the tulle knots together pulling any of the knots tighter that looked to big. After it started to shrink in size I put it around my waist and continued to pull until it was the appropriate size for me.

Pull!

All you have to do now is tie your ribbon in a bow, trim the ends of the ribbon to make them the length you like and get out there and run.  Can’t wait to wear mine at the color run. I have two more after that so I am going to start planning colors and kick out some tutus!

It is full enough to stand on its own!

This was my first tutorial post so I hope that everything was explained well and coherent. These are easy to do and just consume quite a bit of time. So be sure you plan to have an evening free or do it in intervals. Have fun making your tutus!

Me in the latest tutu. it is too full to fit in the mirror. I think I need someone around to be a personal photographer for when I blog.

My dress is too big

I just bought this dress two weeks ago? It is too big on me now. I found this out 1.5 hours before a wedding. To late to shop. So I will wear it as it is.

Happy Saturday peeps!

Weigh In and Shopping for Cardio

Is it possible to consider five hours of walking around shopping as cardio? After returning home I was pooped, and broke. But, I need clothes to wear that fit. No one works hard to lose weight just to keep wearing the clothes they wore when they were larger. Also I prefer the term “get rid of weight” over “lost weight” when something is lost you tend to look for it. I really don’t want any of my size back. so whoever finds it can keep it! So yeah, I shopped ’till I dropped once again. For quite some time I have been saying I want to wear shorts again, and I ending up braving trying a pair on, I wasn’t too turned off by them but didn’t like the style, so I loaded up the dressing room and left the shop with two pairs of shorts!! I have not worn shorts in three years or more so this is a big deal. I also bought two dresses that are wait for it… wait.. MEDIUMS! So exciting.  It has been a long time since I have fit into a medium dress. No more clothing shopping for a while I will wait until this set is too big, I now have enough pieces to get me through some time mixing and matching. Well, I do need some jean Capri’s but that is it. So here were my finds from yesterdays shopping extravaganza:

Oh and I think I have my scale back in order and went across the street to my lovely neighbor Janis’ and tried her two scales. This is where I ended up for week 12:

• Chest: 32 inches  (- 1.5 inches)
• R Arm: 12 inches  (- 0 inches)
• L  Arm: 12 inches (+ .5 inches)
• Waist: 32 inches (- 0 inches)
• Hips: 41 inches (- 0 inches)
• R Thigh: 23.5 inches (- 1 inches)
• L Thigh: 23.5 inches (- 1 inches)
• Weight: 168 pounds (-3 pounds)
• Pant Size: 12
• BMI: 29.5

For a total of 3 inches and 3 pounds lost. This is day 86 of 90 of Les Mills Pump so on Day 90 I will have my last official weigh and measure in documents my 90 pump results. My Les Mills Pump Ultimate Cross Training Upgrade was dropped off by FedEx yesterday. I will blog about that later, promise So, that will begin the day after Round 1 of Les Mills Pump is done. It is a 30 day schedule, I will continue my blogs and keep counting weeks as they are now.

Does my ass make my ass look big?

Yesterday was rough for me. It seemed that everything I put on make me look like a heifer, even all the new size 12′s I bought last week. How is that there was no weight gain and even a bit of inches lost and I saw myself as fat as I was when I stated all this? Anyhow, everything I tried on I hated. I liked the clothes, but they didn’t look right to me. Being that discouraged made me want to throw in the towel, I had this feeling that all this hard work has been for nothing. Why did I do that to myself? it is not like I wanted to feel that was, self sabotage was not my plan at all. Some of the unhappiness I have been feeling over other things must be wearing me down. Not to worry though nothing is permanent.

So today is Wednesday, it is day 79 of Les Mills Pump, I still love it on day 79 just as much as I did on day one. I am still grateful that I gave it a go. If there were live classes around here I would get a gym membership in a second. I think that I am finally to the point where I don’t feel too fat for group fitness. Shyness is something that really came with weight gain. I am getting back to my more open outgoing, who give a damn what you think self again, I know it sounds strange after the first part of this blog. Yesterday was a rough day for some reason, that’s all.

The carpet people are coming to measure today! I went and confirmed what color and pile I wanted, sugar cookie.  Why is it that I always like the most expensive of everything. Even before I have a clue what the price is I always find that I gravitate to items of a higher cost? I must have good taste I did find a new chair I really liked. I need to find a couple more I like so there are choices. And no luck on a TV/media stand. I think we need to make the two-hour trek to Ikea maybe. Haven’t even started looking for shelving for the archway wall.  The house is a huge mess. Furniture all over, the stuff from the walls strewn about which leads to making more clutter. How does that happen? Things will be in order soon enough. I can’t wait for the living room, Purple room (sitting and treadmill room right now but soon to be an office), steps and hallway to have it’s pretty new floor coverings!

Time to get going with my day. The kiddo is off to school, time for me to get going on part one of my workouts. I am super starving today, I can’t wait to eat breakfast. I don’t think I got me calories in to calories out ratio right. I had a major calorie burn yesterday, just about 1000 cals! That must be why I am starving.

Just one more random thought. I really, REALLY want a sashimi lunch from Hello Sushi. If they were open right now that would be my breakfast. I have been craving sashimi for a week now at least!

Have a great day everyone!

 

The Best Kind of Cardio

IS SHOPPING!

It is getting warmer out and I of course had nothing to wear. Everything from last spring is too big and most of it has found its way into the consignment shop. So my dear husband gave me some mad money to get some things for spring. I think he got tired of me complaining about only having two pairs of pants and no tops that I like that are weather appropriate. I got some great outfits and it is always more fun to shop when you are looking for SMALLER sizes! I could have used some shorts but I am not ready to brave shorts yet. My thighs are still pretty big and lumpy. I would rather have a gut than huge legs (is that weird?). I did find a great dress for an upcoming wedding too. Anyhow here are some pictures of my finds. I wish I could have gotten better pics but I am still stuck using my cell. Canon’s customer service still sucks. Over $300 for a camera that randomly stops working in 3 months. Ugh. I’d like to take my camera and shove it up their butt!

Funny Fitness

A few weeks ago a group of my friends got together for a birthday celebration. if you have seen us together, ever you would know that we basically revert to children and do not have the capability of having an adult conversation or know how to act appropriately in public. That’s probably why we are so awesome. Who cares if we make asses of ourselves? It’s fun! More people should try it.

The evening started with out usual favorite topics, booze, merkins (everyone loves a merkin, Awww Yeah!), mustaches and needing to get in shape. Then the conversation turned to dinosaurs. How would they work out? Could certain dinosaurs do certain exercises better than others? Eventually we got the T-Rex. Poor T-Rex, How could he do a push up? his face would hit the ground before his arms ever could. What would happen if he tried to do a cart-wheel? Then we got up and did demonstrations of what T-Rex would look like exercising charades style. Hilarious if I do say so myself. I think we burned at least 1,000 calories laughing. I swear I felt like i got an entire ab routine in that night for all the laughing and giggling.

Ah the memories!

so I just found this shirt online, as soon as I saw it that night came to mind and I sat here and laughed at myself while my child and husband looked at me like I was a crazy person. I must buy!

Well, time to eat some dinner, head to the kiddo’s school for the ice cream social and them home for some Flow, yoga sounds good right about now.  Happy Thursday Friends!

Time to get back on it..

Yesterday I ended up taking the day off of my workouts, I do not feel guilty about it either. There was just too much to fit into one day and my body could barely handle was already on my plate. And sometimes things are just more important than my workouts. I have two hours before I have two hours before I have to head Bridgeport for the funeral of a wonderful man and my friend’s Father. I have to stop on the way and buy something to wear. I shopped for yesterday’s showings but didn’t think to get something for the actual funeral. I have slacks but no funeral appropriate tops, I wore my only nicely fitting appropriate top yesterday. I am loving getting smaller but today I am annoyed that I have 2 closets and a walk in with clothes in them and nothing to wear that is dressy. Usually I love shopping but I don’t like rushing. also, it is time to take some more of my clothes to the consignment shop.

This puts it in perspective for you guys. Except your games still work and my clothes don't

I am going to squeeze in a workout this morning. I don’t want to take too much time off. But today’s workout that was scheduled wasn’t a hard-core one so I should be good. I need to keep moving and just adapt my exercise until this flare up passes. Even my doctor says to workout just take it easy because it is actually good for the fybro. Well I better quit wasting time and get moving, lots to do today. We have field clean up and practice for the kid tonight after school too. Busy, busy day. Time to go see what Les Mills has in store for me today.

Tuesday Weigh in Week 9 *sigh*

It is that time again. I’ve got my scale and tape measure handy and I am ready to go. I am not sure how accurate anything will be this week. I have some MAJOR bloating issues and still have a pot belly going on, swollen from my stomach to thighs (I can feel the fluid, yuck). My Fibromyalgia is flared up pretty badly. I feel foggy and things that should be easy are getting more and more confusing. I went to Zumba last night and wow, did I have a really hard time catching on. I did 100 times better last time, and that was my first go at it. Oh well, I did my best and worked up a really good sweat. That is all that matters. Right now I am hoping this fog, the bloat and the elevated pain passes quick. I am definitely going to have to tone down the weights for now. I really hope it doesn’t set me back to far. Ah, the life of a cripple.

I had to go pant shopping yesterday, needed some dress slacks for a Showing this afternoon. I hate shopping when bloated, makes finding things harder. I was still able to buy a size 12 though. So I was happy.

Let me hop on the scale and get this done and over with:

• Chest: 36 inches  (- 0 inches)
• R Arm: 12 inches  (- 0 inches)
• L  Arm: 12 inches (- 0 inches)
• Waist: 32 inches (- 0 inches)
• Hips: 41 inches (- 0 inches)
• R Thigh: 24.5 inches (- 0 inches)
• L Thigh: 24.5 inches (- 0 inches)
• Weight: 171 pounds (-0 pounds)
• Pant Size: 12
• BMI: 29.9

Well, that wasn’t as bad as I though it would be, all the bloat sits above and below where I measure. How convenient! So no change this week. Not exactly pleased but I will accept it and move on. I think I need to step up the cardio or go a little stricter with the diet so I can get some sure changes for next week. Hoping it will clear out this water weight I am carrying around right now. I really dislike weeks with no change they feel like set backs and are disappointing. It is the beginning of a new fitness week for me so time to change that!

Have a great Tuesday everyone.