Looking Ahead

Recently, I got surprised by my hubby, sister, and future brother-in-law! Turns out these guys were secretly "plotting" behind my back and planning a mini vaca for us in the Dells! As an added bonus, my parents will be joining us. Seriously, with my dad's lame track schedule my mom would never think a trip with all of her children would be possible this time of year. My weekend is going to be full of fun activities... and I can't wait!

First, Rachel and I are having a sleepover with our "little sisters", Courtney and Jessica. Jason will be spending the night with Dan at our apartment while us girls take over his and Rachel's home. It'll be a night of sweatpants, junk food, pizza, baking, movies, and games. What a great way to start my weekend!

Saturday morning I will be traveling up to the Dells with Dan and my parents. Kathleen and Brad will be meeting us there. We are staying in a two bedroom condo at the Wilderness Hotel and Resort. We will be staying there until Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, playing at the water parks, relaxing on the lazy river, doing some shopping, and not having anything to worry about!

Workin' It

Lately, Dan and I have been on a bigger health-kick then usual. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is so much easier when you have a partner... especially someone that you live with.

I'm trying to keep my body from hitting a "wall" while I lose weight, so I've been changing things up pretty regularly. My reason for steady weight-loss? 1. Kathleen's wedding, 2. Summer is around the corner and 3. I'm going on a short vaca at an indoor water park in the Dells next weekend. Plus, I feel better from the inside out when I'm eating right, exercising, and drinking lots of water!

So what's my plan right now? This week I am NOT eating bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes. Instead, I'm eating chicken breast, fish, lots of veggies, and citrus fruits. I'm also cutting back on coffee and drinking lots of green tea in its place.

On top of my healthy eating I am also exercising more frequently. I don't have much time during the day, so I usually do some stepping on my Wii Fit while I watch TV and/or my basic Pilate's DVD.

My body is rapidly shaping up and I'm already getting my slender figure back! Dan is working on his six-pack and its certainly starting to come through!

If you really know me, then you know that I have a serious sweet tooth! So how am I surviving this lifestyle change? Easy! One day a week I can eat whatever I want... however much I want! I call it My Splurge Day. Usually it is on Saturday. Having a splurge day is important because it shocks your system. If your body gets used to you eating nothing but "diet" food, then it'll adjust to that lifestyle... but if you give your body a good shock and eat some junk food (or in my case, a lot of junk food), then your body will reset to accommodate the sudden change.

I'll admit, sometimes I can over do it when it comes to splurging... but I still manage to drop weight each and every week. Plus, if you cut back on your junk food that Oreo cookie will taste so much better when you haven't had one in a long time! I know it does to me.

World Vision's 30 Hour Famine

Saturday, February 27th to Sunday, February 28th, 2010, Dan and I helped with the 30 Hour Famine at our church. Both the junior and senior high participated in this special event. From 8:00 a.m. on Saturday to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday we went without food and without caffeine!

To get the day going we went over to MorningStar Mission to sort food for a couple of hours. I thought that I would be hungry working with food but it wasn't too bad. We had a nice juice break once we got back to church.

The students played some really fun Tribe games and had some great discussions. Oh... and of course there were the hyped up games of spoons! Dan didn't lose a single game!

Will [the youth pastor] ended up getting sick, so Dan and I were left to run the show. Everything went well and I actually got some sleep! The students weren't hard to wake up in the morning and they got the church all clean before others started arriving.

In between running A/V, Dan and I also taught Sunday School for the youth and got them ready for their Missions Moment presentation during the worship service. I studied the final two Tribe games while I ran A/V and had everything ready to go, on time!

I had to work at 2:00 p.m. so I had a quick bite to eat before I left the church... it was amazing! I was really ready to eat too. I had developed a bad headache and tried to drink lots and lots of water to make up for not eating. It helped, but once I ate I felt a lot better.

Work was very busy, so time went by fast! I was grateful.

It was a long and busy weekend, but it was a good one!