30 Day Body Forward Challenge : Prequel

So I needed to make some big lifestyle changes and realized it all of a sudden. I'm always tired. My clothes don't fit. I eat too much. I don't exercise enough. There's a whole host of reasons. And none of them are new. But I never do anything one second before I want to do it, so I committed to doing this 30 Day Body Forward Challenge.

It's a lot. It's expensive. It's intimidating.

But I need a change, a big one. So I went to the pros, literally. My friend Val is a figure competitor and "Busy Mom Gets Fit" of FB, IG and international fame. She's also a really cool, down-to-earth mom that I used to drink wine and eat delicious German food with. She had a goal, she met it, she's positive and uplifting and she has over 350k followers. She's partners with Erica, of Sisters in Shape and National Bikini Competition fame. Who might know more about fitness for women than the two of them? No one I know personally, which is why I chose this program. I needed something I could TRUST, something that WORKS, something I had to PAY for. I've started all kinds of "free fitness" challenges and you know what? I wasn't invested in them, financially or mentally so definitely not physically.

I needed it ALL. Up until now, I've been piecing together nutrition advice, meal plans, workout plans (I use that loosely), the Gallon Challenge (truth: I always fail), portion control, and a myriad of other bits and pieces of advice and plans. This plan gives me a PLAN. For every day of 30 days. It gives me SUPPORT for every day of 30 days. It gives me shakes and supplements and snacks for every day of 30 days. It gives me a way to plan my meals...yes...for every day of 30 days. It gives me an app to track my progress, a workout plan for every day, videos of the exercises so I understand proper form and technique.

Most importantly, it gives me a plan for AFTER the 30 days. This is meant to be a CHALLENGE, a jumpstart to fitness, wellness, good choices and a new body. Because this one? Is old. It's worn out. It needs a recharge and deserves to be better maintained. My favorite part (without having started!) is the Body Forward Habits, aka, what I should takeaway from this challenge. Not a certain # of pounds or inches lost, not a target number on the scale, but habits I can form over 30 days to take with me when the shakes and supplements and workout plan are exhausted.

*I schedule workouts into my calendar - this is so important. I need to make a date with myself to be better.

* I drink 3-4 L of water a day - hydration is ridiculously important and I need to embrace it without artificial sugars and sweeteners

* I limit my intake of juice and soda- see above

* I always eat breakfast - this I am already good at!

* I have tools to help me stay consistent even when I'm busy or "life happens"- I'm hoping I like the shakes enough to keep them on hand for times like travel season when eating healthy is almost impossible

* I rarely eat out more than 1x a week - I definitely need improvement here!

* My cupboard has few "red zone: foods (cookies, chips, ice cream) - this is hard with a family that loves treats but I can do it!

* I have tools for inevitable cravings - plan!!

* I strength train at least 3x per week - this is my ultimate goal

* I have a friend, spouse or family member who is active with me and supports my lifestyle - my cup runneth over here. I have a SLEW of friends cheering me on from the sidelines, by my side and at my dinner table

When this 30 days is over, I will not be the size I want to be. I will not eliminate from my real life the things I'm eliminating from my life for 30 days (wine, cake, coffee, french fries) but I hope to add them back moderately and see the difference it makes to NOT have them so frequently. I hope to learn to love new vegetables that I have previously dismissed. I hope to inspire myself. One day I may hope to inspire myself. But today, and for the next 30 days...it's all about me.

A Trip Down South

When we found out Megan and Jake were having a party, we jumped at the chance to head to Georgia to see our old Army family. We packed up the kids and Onyx (Oscar spent a relaxing weekend at home) and headed to 85 South. I was terrified of the trip, as Lila is not known for enjoying long car rides, and Hayden is a talker. I was pleasantly surprised when Lila slept for almost the entire trip, and Hayden of course, talked nonstop.

Meike was excited to finally meet Lila! And we finally had a baby for those pink socks ;-)

And *I* got to meet baby Blake! He is so sweet and adorable, and is a little mini-James. I adore this little guy!

And then there was this sweet girl, a nearly exact replica of her sister, and at the same age as I last saw her sister! She was a sweet baby and opted to sleep for much of the party.

Blake is soooo lucky we didn't get the picture of him trying to put his hand up Lila's dress!

Yeah nothing has changed since we left in 2010.

The kids had a blast helping Uncle Jake with the fire pit! Hayden said it was "too hot on my face" but he still had fun helping and sitting around the fire.

Jay obviously stands out as the "one who doesn't have to shave", and Gabe is nearly as tall as I am. Give it another year and he'll tower over me for sure!

Lila got a little bigger from the last time she saw her uncle Jake in May!

The next day we headed on post to see the Pollards, the Bakers and the Millers. I forgot what it was like to live on post, but then again I never lived on post in the states so it's definitely different.

Lila and Jade are about three weeks apart, and Jade was born on my birthday!

After we hung out a bit, we headed out to get something to eat. Our group of four families now numbers 17, with one on the way (Sam, not me!) and I laughed because normally when I go out to eat with 16 other people, there's a week of planning and an Evite involved! But on this lovely Sunday, it was just lunch with my family.

After lunch we headed back to 85, but northbound this time. We made pretty good time, and the kids were awesome on the way back. It was good to be home, but I missed my Army family so much. There are a lot of things I don't miss about the Army (field training, deployments, dirty boots) but I really do miss the people. Luckily, they're just a phone call, email or 8-hour car ride away!

Saying goodbye to summer

We headed down to Myrtle Beach for one last weekend in the sand and sun before we close the book on summer. This time, we took the car and the motorcycle, both kids and both dogs, and it was quite an adventure. On Friday, we arrived just in time for our family photo shoot on the beach with Brooke, and had a blast! Both kids did really great, but Hayden probably had the most fun out of all of us. He got to play in the water, show off his muscles and run in the sand. What's not to like?

On Saturday morning we woke up and packed up for the beach. We didn't know how much Lila would like the beach this time, since she's mobile. It was definitely a different experience from last time! She didn't like the sand at first , and can take or leave the ocean, so she was content napping in her little tent.

The big surprise this time was Hayden...he loved the water!! He went straight in with grandma and wasn't afraid of the waves this time. We couldn't believe it! Once he got really comfortable with the water and even getting his head wet, we got him a boogie board. He had the best time learning how to ride the waves alongside daddy. He came over to me a few times to help get the yucky taste out of his mouth, but we were so proud of him.

After our day on the beach, we let the kids nap a bit while we went shopping for them. When we got back, it was time for a quick dinner and a trip to Dinosaur Golf! Hayden and Jay played 18 holes while Lila and I supervised. Hayden loved all the dinosaurs and wanted to try to climb on them.

We had a great time, but we were definitely sad to leave after our mini-vacation!

Family time!

We took a weekend trip to Virginia to see Jay's family, and boy were they in for a treat. Lila Bean of course was new to them, and Hayden was only two the last time they saw him. We also brought our other new addition, Onyx, who loves new people (and chewing).

We got started on our drive WAY later than we expected, and that made for a very long drive. We arrived in Virginia around 1am, and let the kids give some quick hugs to their poppy. Shortly after, we proceeded to have the shortest and worst night's sleep ever, until we figured out to move Lila to another room. She is so loud when she sleeps!

We were supposed to go up for Jay's high school reunion, but that kind of flopped so instead we spent the whole weekend hanging out with family. Our nephew was at Poppy's for the weekend, so he and Hayden were excited to have a play buddy! They got in the pool just as soon as we would let them, and spent most of the day in it. Hayden loves the water, just not the ocean.

More family came over for a cook out and Lila didn't mind letting everyone hold her. She needed some momma time here and there, but overall did really well. Hayden had a blast with all his cousins/2nd cousins/family that we don't know how to classify. Even the dogs had fun, but they had to be kept separate from Jay's dad's dog, who isn't really used to new dogs.

Saturday night...we were all in bed by 8! Hayden fell asleep on me in his pajamas so I laid him in the floor with Shawny for his "sleepover". We wore him out all day, so he got some pretty good rest. Lila got some sleep as well, which meant Ifinally got some rest!

On Sunday we hung out and took a quick trip up the road to get oysters for my dad. We packed it up and headed home, another long 7 hour trip ahead of us. This seemed to go by a little faster, but we did have to stop a few times for the babies and the dogs. I hate it had to be such a short trip, but we're glad everyone got to meet Lila and see how much Hayden has grown!

Family

I hope Hayden and Lila are always so sweet to each other. Hayden absolutely adores "his baby" Lila and is a great helper.

He is extra silly, which makes Lila laugh. He sings her songs when she's crying, and is quick to let me know if she needs my help.

I have to leave the room now to nurse, because if Lila hears Jay or Hayden's voice, she's too distracted to eat. She might miss something! But she's such a sweet baby.

Family

My cousin Robyn was in town with her sweet baby boy Liam, so we headed to Aunt Carrie's to meet him! Liam is a big boy! He's five weeks younger than Lila, and a Leap Day baby. But he is so cuddly and squishy.

They had a great time playing and baby babbling, and us big people had a little time to catch up as well!

These are gonna be some long babies!

Family

Lila and Hayden are blessed with such a large family. They have four grandparents, three great-grandmothers (one passed away just a month before Lila was born), and even one great-great grandmother! They have three cousins, two uncles, an aunt and of course, each other! They have a whole host of extended family as well, but I was really excited to snap this picture the other day of Lila with her great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother. She actually bears a pretty strong resemblance to her great-great-grandmother Oakley sometimes!

Happy Mothers Day!

To celebrate Mother's Day, Jay, Hayden and I went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. It was actually Hayden's first zoo visit. Jay and I had been to one in Germany, and visited the NC Zoo just before we moved to Germany. We were so excited to take Hayden, and it was perfect weather for it!

Hayden was too excited about everything, and we had to stop for him to see absolutely every bit of it! He was very good about being quiet around the baby wolves, and the sleeping bear and gorilla. He loved the elephants and giraffes! From the website we had seen pictures of the animals and he couldn't wait to see the polar bear. He thought the polar bear looked a lot like Oscar, especially when he was chewing on a tire. His favorite part may have been the tram we took to get from one side to the other, and he loved running through the water misters.

He fell asleep as soon as we hit the car, and slept the whole way home. Good thing too, because our day wasn't over! We went over to my aunt's house for another family get-together. My aunt Pamela was in town, she had never met Hayden and we finally got to meet some other cousins. With such a big family it's really hard to get everyone in one place at one time, so a bunch of get-togethers seems like the best way to do it. It's always a ton of fun for everyone, and the kids leave tired and happy. What a great gift, to spend Mothers Day with so much of my wonderful family!

Family affair

Last weekend we had some family visiting from CA and SC and were so excited to see them! Aaran recently moved from CA to SC and has visited up here but every time she comes up we seem to be out of town! So we were lucky that this time we had a free day to visit. Ashley and Michael came in from CA, along with Michael's sweet new fiance, Sarah. I haven't seen Ashley or Michael in so many years and I couldn't wait to see them!

The fun thing about our mini-reunion was that so many of us have kids now and they finally got to play and run around like we did as kids. Ashley's son, Zach, is an absolute clone of his dad and I haven't seen him since he was about 4 or 5 and I was just shocked at tall he is! The last time I saw Aaran she was getting married, and now she has two adorable little boys.

We had brunch, family staples like chipped beef gravy, and took lots of pictures because who knows when we'll all get together like this again!

Happy Thanksgiving...twice!

After spending four Thanksgivings in Germany, we were fortunate enough to spend TWO here in the states, in the same year! The day after we got back, we had Thanksgiving with Jay’s grandmother and some of that side of his family. Hayden was more interested in other people and in the dogs than in eating, but that didn’t stop us! We ate way too much and had a great time catching up.


We spent what was left of the weekend accomplishing mission number one: cell phones! There are of course about a million more options here than there were in Germany. It was easy for Jay, who fell in love with the iPhone in 2008. So we went with AT&T and I got a Blackberry, which I’m now obsessed with! It’s so strange to have internet EVERYwhere. But it’s convenient. I’m still learning how to use it but it’s a ton of fun!

We made some quick visits to see my parents and to see my brother and his family. Ryan and Zoe have gotten so big! They had a great time playing with Hayden and showing them their playground, their rooms and the guinea pig! Hayden’s never seen one of those before so he was fascinated. He played with Oz a little, Eric’s dog, but mostly he just barked.

On Tuesday we headed up to Virginia to see Jay’s dad and family up there. Hayden and Oscar were already kind of rotten from all the attention; it seemed like everywhere we went there were new kids and dogs to play with! Jay’s dad’s was no exception, with more dogs and more cousins.

We spent actual Thanksgiving over at Jay’s Aunt Marcie’s house and there was SO much food! What a great way to reintroduce ourselves to America, too much food. We ate and watched football and then we had a small birthday party for Hayden. He’s had two birthdays in Germany so it was really nice to spend another one with family. He had a blast blowing out the candle and eating icing, and he got some fun stuff to play with. His favorite was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse marching band! He unloaded all the instruments and made everyone march with him. As we’ve learned over the past two years with Hayden, it’s pretty hard to say no to him!

This year we had so much to be thankful for. My happy, healthy family is safe and sound back in the states and ready to start our new chapter. We’ve gotten to see a lot of family and friends and have many more to go, but this time we don’t have a limited time frame to accomplish it. It’s so nice to plan trips and visits down the road without having to factor in a flight, a deployment, block leave or the farm for Oscar. We are truly lucky.