Vacation, All I Ever Wanted!

(If interested, click to make large enough to read.)

Anyone who has the pleasure to speak with me on a regular basis is fully aware that in less than a week I will be in Hawaii! This has been a trip 3 years in the making, so needless to say I am pretty pumped. My sister-in-law suggested that we all go to Hawaii for my in-law's 40th wedding anniversary. A big thank you to her for that AMAZING idea!  

As you can image, a trip that includes 10 adults and 2 kids has a potential for chaos and stress. All parties involved have worked really well together in the planning and we enlisted the help of a Googledoc to organize ourselves. That has been such a wonderful thing - we are all able to contribute to this spreadsheet even though we are in 3 different states.

My purpose for this post is mostly to document our trip plans thus far. We have many adventures planned that include kayaking, snorkeling, zip lining, sky diving, etc. (Some with family, some just Ben and me.) 

The countdown has commenced!

One Step at a Time

It takes a lot for me at times to not allow my fear of failure to cripple me. The fact that I also struggle with feeling unintelligent and less than others is a struggle as well.

In spite of these fears, I want to go to law school. I have been blessed to have many wonderful people in my life who are incredibly supportive of this decision. They offer encouragement and support on a regular basis and listen to me rant and rave about how I'm going to apply to University of Hawaii. :) (as unrealistic a dream as it may be. . . )

Then there are the people who are not encouraging, but are destructive. I think that some people underestimate me and put me into a box and expect me to stay there.  I'm fairly girly - not stupid. It does not make me an idiot or less capable than anyone else.

Unfortunately, it is the haters whose opinions stick the most. My goal: to prove them wrong.

Mother's Day Surprise!

My brother and I were blessed with an amazing mother. Seriously. When I think about how she spent 8 hours a day at work to come home and run me to my practices for piano, dance, show choir, jazz  band, volleyball, girl scouts, etc., it exhausts me. I honestly do not know how she had the energy to do it. Not to mention she cooked all of the meals (including different variations of some dishes because I don't like taco seasoning, or meat loaf, etc.), cleaned the entire house every week, managed the finances, did the grocery shopping, etc. I have always appreciated my mother, but as I have matured and have my own 8-5 p.m. job, I am amazed by her. 

In honor of her amazingness, Shane and I decided to get her a very special Mother's Day gift and to make her a feast fit for a queen - which turned out to be brats/hot dogs, pasta salad, baked beans and deviled eggs. :)  Before we sat down to eat, we gave her her gift:

Can't wait to take her out!

Never ending struggle.

You know that thing called metabolism? Well mine sucks. It has since I was like 12 years old. So it is seriously a never ending struggle to remain at a weight I am comfortable with and unfortunately, I am not perfect. I fall off the wagon and gain weight and hate it. I inherited the Watznauer genes and am doomed to deal with this the rest of my life. Since I have been dealing with it for so long, though, I joke that when I'm 40+ and my metabolism dips even lower, I'll already know how to control my weight because I've been doing it for SO long.

In January I made the decision to join Farrell's because I was absolutely not happy with my weight and appearance and wanted to get fit and healthy again. It was also a motivating factor (but not the main factor) that we are going to Hawaii in June and I didn't want to feel like a beached whale while lounging in a two piece swim suit. It is now May and while the scale has not moved substantially, I have lost inches and can actually fit into clothes that I haven't been able to squeeze into in almost a year and a half. That feels fantastic!

I am still a ways away from where I want to be. I am about 3-4 dress sizes (depending on the day) away from where I want to be, but I am working hard to get there!

Another motivating factor in all of this was finding out that I am fructose intolerant.  I had to change my eating habits if I didn't want to feel like junk anymore. That means cutting out sweets (which I struggle with a lot - and pay for a lot when I give into cravings), processed foods, fast food, etc. I also have dairy sensitivities (common among those who are fructose intolerant) and so regular trips to DQ are a no-no. These eliminations from my diet have had an impact on my size as well. I am still trying to figure out what I can and cannot eat since it is different for everyone, but I'm proud of my progress.

To document my progress, here are a couple photos from late August of 2014:

And here is a photo from April 27, 2015:

Look at how much thinner my face is?! Part of the body slimness in that photo is due to the fact that that mirror is AWESOME. A $10 Wal-Mart purchase that always makes you look thin. :) BUT most of that is due to my hard work. I purchased that dress in November of 2014 thinking that when I lost weight I could wear it. It was too cute to pass up at the 2nd hand store! I couldn't come close to buttoning it when I purchased it. Basically from the T-cross up was open and the arms were so tight that if I flexed (or pretended to flex [non-existent muscles]), it would rip Hulk style.

Honesty I struggle to see any difference and don't feel as though I have made progress, but that dress proves that I am strides ahead of where I was previously. I plan to continue in Farrell's as a fit member and also have the 21 Day Fit Extreme that I follow sporadically. I am determined to get to where I am comfortable and feel good in my own skin!