I missed national coffee day! Well, not completely. I still indulged in my daily kick start but had no time to blog about it between Logan's birthday party, family coming into town and just being thouroughly exhausted. I start every. single. day with at least a homemade cup of coffee and every once in awhile I'll splurge on my favorite Skinny Hazelnut Latte and of course it's always in my favorite size, venti. Is there even another size that is logical when you know you're going to TJMAXX where the carts are too small for your babies car seat so you have to put things in the cart just so it'll fit? Really, TJMAXX, get your crap together.

I'm not ashamed to admit there are days I bribe Lo with a "cup'o'jo" aka her not so hot hot cocoa. I'm not sure what Starbucks does to make their drinks so delicious but if I could physically live on their drinks I totally would. Ok, so there's the issue of $4.55 a cup but let's be honest here, this is all hypothetical. 

So here's to you, you caffeinated dark beauty. To all the days you've started and the cookies you've accompanied. To all the days of work and children you've helped us get through. The endless nights of studying and the butt crack of dawn classes. We owe it all to you. 

Real talk ladies. If you've worked at a Starbucks or even know a delicious Skinny Vanilla Latte recipe and you disclose this info to me my poor wallet will thank you! 

Lovin The Gym Life

Last week at the gym Bryson asked if I would do the treadmill with him for my warm up. The first thing that ran through my head was, "Ugh. Not the treadmill. I can't run more than 10-15 seconds and I always feel so pathetic." Seriously ladies, I get so down on myself about running. I could never go over a 4.5 and if I did I could only do it for a minute and I'd be so done. But for the sake of fairness, Bryson did a mile on the stairclimber with me the day before (ok so he did two and I did one but he gave me some pre workout that hurt my heart!) I told him I'd do it with him but I'd need him to push me. 

We got on the devil machines and surprisingly my knees, hips and feet weren't hurting! I've had previous surgeries and running is miserable on them. So I immediately pushed it up to 5 to get my heart rate up and it felt amazing! I had always heard you could enjoy running but I never ever believed it. After Bryson almost falling off the machine and me getting my arm stuck my headphones and yanking them out of my ears I looked down and it'd been 6 minutes! At a 5! I was on an automatic setting so the incline was going up at down and while it was lower I felt the urge to go to a 6! BOOM! A 6 at an incline 6! I felt crazy good about myself only to look at the heart rate and see it was at 190! Yes, I was panting like a dog but I felt so good I didn't even care! The last minute I sprinted at a 6.5 and by the end my legs were starting to go all crazy so that was it for my "crazy" running for the day and I honestly, don't think me feeling so amazing had anything to do with being able to run. It more was a assurance that even though I haven't been feeling any progress or haven't been able to see it I'm more in shape now than I was in high school. 

Ladies, I'm here to tell you as an anti runner that it's the little things that make it all worth it. Yes, those squats suck, no, you don't want to go to the gym and yea, ok, that second cookie looks like it would be the bomb.com (and I'm sure it would be) but that feeling I had the other day and the confidence I have felt since makes almost puking at the gym every time totally worth it. 

A lot of people have been asking for my routine so I did my best to take pictures and I'll do my best to explain but if you have a question feel free to ask and I'll be back to you asap :) On the top of the picture I'll explain what I do and on the bottom I'll explain how to get situated on the machine.

I always, always, always start out with cardio. It gets my heart rate up and it's easier for me to keep it up the rest of the time.

I either do the stairclimber on the Fat Burner setting at a level 10 for 10 minutes (it ends up being 50 floors and 1 mile) OR I do the treadmill for 10 minutes starting at a 5 and working my way up to a 6.5.

 

OOTD: Wedding Bells

I love weddings. No joke, I could go to a wedding every single weekend and be perfectly happy. I love getting dressed up, the dancing, the food, but, most of all, I love the love! It's always so amazing to see two people, two strangers really, joining together and committing to each other through the thick and thin, the good and bad....you get the picture, that they  will always be there. My husband is my best friend and I love him more today then I did three years ago when we got engaged. Weddings are a good reminder of the promises we made to each other. I just love them. 

{L's Dress-  Dillards last year}

No look of mine is complete without my 2-3 week old nails 

Remembering Sweet Dreams

My little man went into his 2 month appointment as a smiley carefree little ball of happiness and came out a screaming, untrusting ball of fury. This was at 10...it's now 5 and the only place this poor little guy will sleep is in my arms in his room with the hot sun beating down on us. So as I'm sitting here in the sweltering heat I thought it'd be nice to look back on that one time he slept in until 9 after a long night and looked so peaceful....

L is 4!

I cannot believe my sweet girl turned 4 on Sunday. She has grown up into the sweetest most caring girl I have ever met. She is so respectful and loves everyone she meets. She is the smartest little girl and always wants to learn (and tell everyone what she learned ;) ) We were watching old videos the other day and I feel like they weren't long ago at all but she has grown up SO much. It does make me a little sad but at the same time I am so excited for her future 

Halloween Favorites + Chicken Pot Pie

Are we all getting so excited for the holiday season?! I personally cannot even wait to decorate my house (I am making myself wait until October 1) so I have been shopping for cute holiday clothes! Logan and Foster are so stocked up on seasonal prints that for Fosters whole 3rd month of life he's only going to be in them! Of course I had to throw in a couple things for myself in there, Bryson said there was no way he was going to wear seasonal prints....we'll see. 

One | Two | Three | Four | Five 

Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten

7 Week Nutrition Check-in

Pre Pregnancy Weight: 158 lbs 

End of Pregnancy Weight: 156 lbs, -2 lbs 

Last Weigh In: 137.6, 0 lbs 

Current Weight: 135.6, -2 lbs

Total Weight Loss: 22.4 lbs

How are you feeling? Awesome! I haven't been to the gym a ton lately but I have been eating extremely clean so it's nice to see the weight still is coming off and I feel so close to my goal! I've officially lost 20 lbs since having Foster and that feels amazing. I did restart my "girl time" so that sucks...I thought that didn't happen while you were breastfeeding! Oh well, my milk supply was also getting low so I have been taking my placenta pills and pumping every hour and a half but besides that everything has been great. 

Stats: 

Calf: 13, -0

Thigh: 20 ,-0

Hips: 38.5, -1

Waist: 35, -0

Abs: 28.5, -0

Torso: 33.5, -.5

Arms: 10, -0

Neck: 12.5, -0

Here are a couple phone snapshots from the week.

Austin + Tegan

Aren't they lovely?

Meal Planning Calendar and Shopping List

I love writing things out....probably because I love checking them off. Here are a couple little calendars and shopping list's I made that I can print out and fill in. It's awesome being able to sit down and figure out exactly what you're going to have for the next month. Here is Septembers Meal Plan Calendar and Shopping List Print outs.

*To print out right click on the image and click save as. Once the picture is saved to your computer you can print any size you want

7 Weeks Postpartum

Age: 7 Weeks

Height: 23 1/4 inches

Weight: 10 lbs 6 oz

Milestones: Smiling more, especially at dad and sleeping longer periods at night! Sometimes up to 7 hours! Other times it's his typical 3 hours 

Best Moment: As always this week has been great. We enjoy Foster so much and it still is incredible to me how there really was no "adjustment phase". He just fit perfectly and all of our personalities mesh so well. 

Health: He's still doing perfect and I think we really take this for granted. Bryson and I are both so thankful that we are ALL so healthy, we really took some time this week to just appreciate the fact that we can all literally do anything without restraints. 

Eating: He's eating awesome but this momma has kinda felt like a pacifier lately! He went through a growth spurt and was eating a lot more last week and this week I felt like my milk supply was down so I whipped out the placenta pills and started pumping an hour and a half after every feeding and it's coming back up to where I need it to be. 

Extra comments: We are all getting so excited to see family! This weekend is Brysons birthday, next weekend is my aunts wedding and L's birthday and the weekend after is L's party and mine and Bryson's anniversary! Bryson's mom and sister are coming down from WY for L's birthday and it'll be the first time Bryson's mom will meet Foster so I know he is really excited for that. 

We love swimming! and I hope that Logan + Foster will be master swimmers next summer. L and I were doing classes but after I had Foster I couldn't swim for awhile so we had to postpone and she's been using a life jacket and floaties for now

Welcome football season! We started to watch football and Bryson loves that there is another boy in the house to bond with because I cannot sit for 4 hours and watch football. I recently started washing my hair with the "No Poo" method (baking soda and vinegar) and my hair was in the adjustment phase for a week and so it was always up. Now it's never felt healthier! I'm thinking I'll do a post in a month or so about it. 

Look at those gorgeous eyes! 

Foster wasn't feeling good the other day so we had a "lax day" as L calls it and just tried to make him comfortable 

We had to get L's invites done for her party! So this is how that happened haha Little stinker didn't want to me to put him down! 

We added the Bumbo a couple minutes a day to work on sitting up and he actually loves it! He can look around and play with his sister easier  

On days L has school I get up around 5 to feed him and then hop in the shower. L has always gotten up early so when she hears me up she wanders into my room. I lay Foster with Logan and they watch a movie together while I shower and then he goes with me while I get ready :) 

Before school she loves to draw! 

It's been POURING here so we bundle up to go out! No joke it's been flooding. Our our little town in the desert isn't made for rain. There was water up to the windows on cars.

While we were moving things to the shed our dogs made it game to try to escape. Lunchbox (the shitzu) was running under the grill cover to try to surprise me. 

I just love sunny mornings. It's perfect family bonding time

Who's excited for Pumpkin Spice Lattes?! To cut back on fat and sugar ask for low fat milk instead of cream and no whip. I promise it's still good 

This is a typical day of my caloric breakdown for macros 

If anyone is interested in a breakdown of my daily foods let me know! 

I also found out this week that if you are on a phone you can't comment on my blog, anyone have any ideas why? google was not helpful 

If you're interested in my updates from now on they will be in the nutrition tab along with all my recipes and workouts :) 

Grocery Cart Staples

This is a "typical" grocery store staples cart for us. Some things I buy in bulk like spinach, kale, coconut oil, chia seed, flaxseed meal, granola and almond milk and some of these I wouldn't buy but the hubby and L came with me so some things magically ended up in the cart ;) This whole cart was under $120 and is 95% organic. Organic shopping doesn't have to be expensive. Skip Whole Foods and try a local store. Our Safeway is PACKED with organic options and costs way less than Whole Foods for the exact same thing. 

I never buy pasta. The last time I bought it was maybe 6 months ago but I decided to go out on a limb when I saw a yummy looking recipe for spinach lasagna when I came across these! Quinoa pasta....What?!?! I didn't even know they made that. I'll give you a review of it after we try it out :)

Healthy Snacks! Healthy snacks are so important in achieving your weight-loss goals. They help keep you from over eating when meals come around and indulging on bad options. The Lime chips are super good and they don't have that nasty synthetic lime taste. Apple straws should be called cinnamon sugar goodness. Nuff said. The vegetable chips are actually something my hubby found and they are so good and so pretty! We love to dip them in our favorite Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. (We also like the dill and cucumber hummus made with greek yogurt.) The bunny chocolate grahams are my daughters and they taste just like teddy grahams 

It took me awhile to get into the greek yogurt faze because I never really liked the taste but I learned to love it! You can definitely train your body to like certain things but with all the flavors they have they are delicious! 

We use about an onion a week but I don't like to buy more than one at a time or I feel like they go bad. We got broccoli and cauliflower for roasting to dip in Hummus and bananas for protein pancakes, breads, smoothies and lots more. I normally buy two and let one get brown because then it's better in things like breads and pancakes. The pumpkin is another thing that just ended up in the cart. There's also bell peppers to stuff with quinoa and other veggies! 

A couple things we didn't need and probably shouldn't get but ended up in the cart 

The ricotta and parmesan is for the skinny lasagna I am making tomorrow, the mozzarella is for the hubby and the feta we share :) That's another thing I've grown to love as I've gotten older. I used to hate strong cheeses and now I love them! I put feta in salads, on chicken, in frittatas and whatever else! 

 Bacon is L's favorite breakfast and I love it in my salads. This is the best turkey bacon I have ever had, When you cook it there isn't even any grease in the pan so you know that there's going to be no grease coating your insides haha The chicken apple sausage I haven't tried yet but again it's all natural and it sounds deliciously fall.

Hubby loves orange juice while I, on the other hand, am not a fan. So that's all him haha Balsamic Vinaigrette is yummy on chicken and salads. 

There was no ezekial bread at Safeway and we didn't want to go to Whole Foods for just one thing so Bryson picked this out to give it a try! 

I'm the only one in my family that likes sushi so I normally just get my fix when we go out but I decided to give Safeway made sushi a try and I have to say it wasn't bad! It actually was pretty dang good and I will be getting it again (probably a couple times a week)! They didn't have any spring rolls or I would've gone out on a limb with those as well. 

*Remember to look at serving sizes. This box is 3 servings

Isn't this cup cute?! It was on sale for 50% off! I also got a few cute plates! EEEK I love sales almost as much as I love straws! 

I toss a little under a tbs of chia seeds in with my yogurt, mix and let sit for 10 minutes or so. The seeds will get soft and it's almost like a healthy tapioca pudding ;) ok, not really but it's still super delicious!