5 on Friday

I missed this fun link up last week, so I'm happy to be back sharing 5 randoms this Friday!

ONE.  I got these pants (in black) from Old Navy the other day and I LOVE them.  They are super comfy and flattering.  I wore them to work yesterday and got lots of compliments.  I'm thinking about going back and getting a couple more in different colors!

TWO.  Tonight I'm going to a jewelry party my mom is having and I'm looking forward to purchasing some cute new jewelry pieces!  Tomorrow we are going to a birthday party for my friend's little boy and Sunday we have no set plans except for watching football. All day.  I'm pretty excited about this weekend!

THREE.  I'm going grocery shopping this weekend and stocking up on some healthier foods.  Starting Monday I'm trying Steph's plan for healthy living.  I haven't blogged much about this, but I haven't been happy with my body for a while now, and I'm making a change!  I debating a full post dedicated to this topic, but haven't decided yet.

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FOUR.  Along with eating healthier, I also bought a Groupon for 30 exercise classes at a local gym for only $29!  I plan to start going a couple times a week starting next week.  Hopefully after a few months, I'll be where I want to be and can continue to maintain a healthier lifestyle!

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FIVE.  I won my first giveaway this week from Kait's blog CommuniKait!  I won a pillow from Dog City & Co and I decided on this one.  I can't wait to get it!

find it here

Happy Friday!  What are you up to this weekend?

It's Crunch Time...Literally

Only 1.5 months until the wedding.  WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!?  It seems like we just got engaged, but that was 15 months ago!  Since I only have a short amount of time until the wedding, I really need to get moving on my fitness.  

I had a dress fitting about a week ago and I feel great in my dress.  I feel confident and beautiful.  I think the dress fits perfectly.  Do I feel the same confidence in a bikini?  Nope!  And since we are going to Atlantic City for our honeymoon and I plan on spending some time each day on the beach or at the pool, I need to get in bikini shape.

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I don't think I'm fat and I'm not trying to loose weight.  I just want to feel confident when I see myself in a bikini.  I'm just not there yet.  I want to tone and tighten some specific areas, so I'm going to work hard these next 6 weeks to do that.  I'm hoping that putting this on my blog will help hold me accountable.  

Exercise:

Kevin and I usually go for at least a mile long walk with the dog every night.  I know these walks are better than nothing, but it's just not enough for me.  I need some more cardio.  So I started following the Beginner 5K Training Plan on RunKeeper.  I have the app on iphone, so every time we go for a walk or do any other type of activity, I track it through RunKeeper.  The training plans are great, and I plan to continue to follow the 5K plan to help me get back in to running.

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I also need to start doing some toning exercises.  There are some great workouts on the ToneItUp site that I'll be using, along with some I've found on Pinterest.  I think incorporating one cardio workout and one toning workout each day will make a big difference in these next 6 weeks.

Food:

This is another place I need to make some major improvements.  I just need to make some smarter choices. I need to snack on healthier foods instead of junk food.  That will be a huge helper for me.  I don't think I eat terrible, but hopefully just some simple changes (especially in my snacking) will make a difference.

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So like I said, it's crunch time...literally...gotta get those abs toned and ready for Atlantic City!

-Ericka

Get Healthy, Not Skinny: Meals

I'm linking up again with Cherish for the Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up series.  You can read my fitness story and workout posts if you want to catch up.  This week we are talking about meals.

I've mentioned that all through high school, I didn't worry about what I ate, because I was burning so many calories through exercise that what I ate didn't really matter to me.  However, now that I'm not exercising as much as I used to, I try to be a little better about what I eat.  I like food, so it's hard for me to cut things completely out.  And I do have a bit of a sweet tooth sometimes (Did I tell you I once at 9 oreo balls in one night?  Not my proudest moment...)

My biggest problem is probably carbs.  I love carbs!  I could eat pasta every day!  My fiance and I used to eat pasta and/or bread several nights a week as part of our dinner.  We have been doing better and only eating it once or twice a week for dinner.  I now only buy whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, whole wheat english muffins, etc.  I also try not to buy sweets, so we usually only have them in the house if it's a special occasion (birthdays, holidays, etc.).  Then we are less tempted to eat them if they aren't around.  I also try to eat a salad as part of my lunch or dinner.  I love salad, but it doesn't seem to fill me up, so I usually eat something else with it.

My breakfast is usually a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter on it and a glass of 1/2% milk.  I love milk and always have it with breakfast.  Sometimes I'll have scrambled eggs with spinach, maybe some lunch meat, and shredded cheese in them.  Or once in a while I'll have a bowl of cereal.  I found a great recipe for Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal from Eat Yourself Skinny.  I don't really like oatmeal, but this was delicious!  I made a double batch and would just heat some up in the morning for my breakfast.

For lunch, I usually take leftovers of food we've had during the week.  I rarely go out to eat for lunch, which saves me money and probably some calories, because I don't eat as healthy when I go out to eat.

Dinner is usually cooked at home.  We have been trying to go out to eat less, because we know we eat healthier at home, and it also saves us some money.  We've been eating a lot of chicken and vegetables, and less pasta.  In the summer (or pretty much any time when there isn't a foot of snow on our deck), Kevin likes to grill.  We'll have steak, shrimp, burgers, anything on the grill in the summer.

Kevin grilling at his mom's, before we bought our house.

We do like to snack.  Kevin's go-to snack is popcorn that he pops in his air popper.  I usually want something chocolate, so I try to just grab a little handful of m&ms or something to satisfy my craving.  I try to keep some healthier foods around for snacking such as nuts, raisins, bananas, or other types of fruit.

I use Pinterest to try and find healthier recipes, or ways to make current favorites a little healthier.  I know that our eating habits have gotten better over the past couple of months, but I'm always looking for ways to improve and new healthy foods and recipes to try.  If you have healthy recipes or healthy eating tips, I'd love to hear them!

-Ericka

Get Healthy, Not Skinny: Workouts

This is post #2 for the Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up I'm participating in.  My first post explained my story and my goals for this link up.  Today, I'm talking about my current and future workout plans.

My fiance and I had been really good about going for walks (with the dog) once and sometimes twice a day for about 2-3 weeks, and then winter hit.  I live in Michigan, and our winters can be pretty unpredictable sometimes.  We had two days of rain and 50 degree weather, and now it has been snowing for several days, and is supposed to continue for another day or two.


Kevin and Admiral playing in the snow this weekend.

Admiral loves playing in the snow :)

The cold weather and snow makes it hard for us to go out and walk, so my cardio hasn't been what I want it to be.  I don't have a gym membership (don't really want to pay the big $$ for one right now) and we don't have any cardio equipment at home.  So right now, my cardio is pretty much non-existent.

I have been doing the workouts I find on toneitup.com every once in a while.  They are super easy and don't require any gym equipment, except maybe a couple light weights.  My goal is to do at least one of these workouts every day.  They aren't time consuming and only take maybe 20 minutes to complete.  I'd love to do one before work and one after work, especially on days we don't go for walks.

Once the snow starts going away, I want to get back to walking at least once a day.  My ultimate goal is that my walks turn in to runs.  Even though I hate running, I love how I feel after a run.  I hope that by putting these goals in writing, I'll hold myself more accountable.  Head over to Cherish's blog to read about other bloggers who want to get get healthy.

I'll leave you with some more pictures of Admiral playing in the snow this weekend.

Get Healthy, Not Skinny

You might remember one of my New Year's Resolutions was to get healthier.  With my wedding coming up in just 5 months, I want to look and feel great!  Not to mention, I'd love to feel more confident in my bathing suit on the beach this summer.  I found this really great Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up that I think will help hold me accountable for getting healthy.

I've been a little nervous to share my "story" on here, but for the sake of getting healthy, I thought I'd do it.  And maybe there are others out there who can relate.  So here it goes...

First of all, I don't think I'm fat and I'm not intentionally trying to loose weight.  My goal is to get healthier, get in better shape, and get toned.  If I loose a few pounds in the process, great.  If not, that's fine too.  For me, it's more about how I feel, not about what the scale says.

A little background:  Not to sound conceited, but I've always been pretty thin (except when I was a baby...man, did I have some rolls!).  It's just my body type.  I've always been involved in sports and have been playing them since I was in first grade: basketball, softball, cheerleading, volleyball, and track.  When I got to high school, I could only do one sport per season, so I did basketball, cheerleading, and softball (all four years of high school).  I also took a "fitness & wellness" class my junior & senior year of high school, where we got to work out in the gym for the class hour.  All during high school I was working out anywhere from 5-7 days a week and sometimes more than once a day (fitness&wellness class, practices, games, conditioning, etc.).  Since I was working out so much, I didn't pay attention to what I was eating, and I would just eat whatever I wanted.  It didn't matter so much then because I was burning so many calories with my work outs every day.  My senior year of high school I was in the best shape of life.

Cheerleading in the early days. (I'm in the back, first one from the left...I'm a "base")

Varsity Softball Team (I'm sitting on the ground with my hands on my head)

After high school, I went to a local college (no sports teams) and worked.  I played some church basketball during the winter for a couple of years, and some slow-pitch softball during the summers.  However, my exercising was no where near what it was in high school.  And my bad eating habits continued.

Playing slow-pitch softball

After I finished college and moved out on my own, I really started noticing how out of shape I was.  It wasn't  what the scale said, it was how I felt.  I wasn't as fast (running in softball) as I used to be.  And I wasn't as confident with my body like I used to be.  My body wasn't "toned" like before.  The first apartment I lived in provided a gym membership, so I tried to go to the gym once or twice a week.  I did that for a while, but didn't keep up on it like I should have.

Really need to get back to snowboarding as a winter exercise activity!

Fast forward to today.  I'm getting married on June 29.  I want to look and feel great on my wedding.  I have become more aware of what I have been eating.  My fiance and I don't go out to eat as often as we used to.  We are better about cooking meals at home and eating healthier snacks.  We've been going on walks more often (although this cold and snowy winter weather is not helping our outdoor activities).  I joined the Love Your Body Challenge on ToneItUp.com.  I won't lie, I haven't been doing the challenges as I should, but I have found some great, quick, easy, and fun workout routines that I've been trying, and hope to incorporate them more in to my every day routine.

I'm hoping this Get Healthy, Not Skinny link up that Cherish is doing will help motivate me and keep me accountable for getting healthy in time for my wedding day.

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year everyone!  I had a lot going on during the New Year...Christmas parties, cleaning the house, and watching my cousins (can't call it babysitting, they aren't babies anymore!).  We played Headbandz, watched a movie, and ate popcorn.

As for New Years resolutions, I suppose I made a couple.  I made the typical eat healthier/exercise more resolution that I make every year, but this year I'm getting married and really want to look and feel great in my wedding dress and in a bathing suit on the beach on our honeymoon (just booked our hotel in Atlantic City!!!).  So I joined the LoveYourBody series on ToneItUp.com.  It's great and I love it!  They post printable workouts and videos of them, calendars, meal plans, recipes, etc.  It's a fun motivating tool for me to get serious about getting in shape.

My other resolution is to be more organized this year.  We moved in to our house at the end of August and there are still boxes that have yet to be unpacked.  I want to get everything put away and organized in our house so that I can start tackling some other projects I have in mind...such as painting, moving the "laundry room," and some other DIY projects.  I have so many ideas of things I want to do, but I feel like I need to everything put away and organized before I start making more of a mess doing projects.  I found a great site to help with getting organized called Home Storage Solutions.  They are doing something called The 52 Week Organized Home Challenge that I am going to try to keep up on.  They give you weekly things to clean/organize in your home.  It doesn't seem too overwhelming and I think it will be a good way to stay on task.

Of course, I'll end with some adorable pictures of The Admiral and Nera over the past week:

 

This is how I can tell they are related....they both like to sleep on their backs.