The Alarm Ghost

Oof. It's been one of those days.

It all started at 4:56 am when my cell phone rang. I thought it was just my alarm going off early (wouldn't surprise me, the thing didn't even go off 3 days last week!), but no. It was our security alarm company calling to let me know that a "medical emergency" had been reported from our house and they had dispatched the fire department and paramedics. WHAT!?

A quick glance around and I see that Zach is sound asleep right next to me and both dogs are on the floor. So unless George The Cat has figured out how to press and hold the medical alert button on our alarm system (4 ft off the ground) it was some sort of mistake (or our lovely alarm ghost is back). He asked if I wanted the paramedics to be called off and I think my response was "Oh God, YES!" all the while I'm elbowing Zach to wake up. He PUTS ME ON HOLD and then comes back to tell me he can't call them off, they are on their way. I finally get Zach out of bed and he has no clue what's going on. It's like waking the dead when I try to tell him things in the middle of the night. I think he finally got it when I said "THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IS AT OUR HOUSE" I was afraid they'd start tearing down our door! Finally he makes it out to the front of the house just as the fire trucks and ambulance are rolling down our street, lights blazing!

I stay holed up in our room with the dogs. Ted is going bananas trying to get out and barking his head off (good dog!) but Missy just takes the opportunity to steal Zach's warm spot on the bed and curls up to go back to sleep! Ha! After Zach assures the paramedics that nobody is indeed dying, he comes back to bed. Since I normally get up at 5:10, I just got up anyway. I go to let the dogs out and then I hear a knock, knock, knock on our door and see lights flashing in. Awesome. The police are here! I think the officer was more confused than I was. Oh, the joys of small town living. He said 'sorry for the mis-communication' and went on his way. What a fun way to wake up! Ugh! It messed up my whole day! I just felt off all day. Zach called the alarm company and apparently they did some test a WEEK or so ago and it just now fired the alarm. What?! This has happened before too (a few times!!!). We are giving them yet another shot, but if we get a false alarm ONE MORE TIME, it's over. Ted will just have to be our alarm system, and I think he'd do a fine job. The only reason we have it right now is if there's a fire or something while we are gone. Ted's a good watch dog, but I don't think he can put out fires. We love our animals too much to risk that kind of thing.

So then, of course, work was a total headache.

And now, as I was talking to Zach on my cell phone it just up and shuts off. Goes black. Nothing. Nada. It won't turn back on. I tried a million times then plugged it in the charger. Still nothing. Not even the charging light. It's done for. GREAT! I have no idea what I'm going to do without my phone. It is basically my right arm! It's even my alarm clock! UGH!!! What crap!

Today was stupid!

Fitness Challenge - Week 3

Well, I'm halfway through the challenge! I lost another 2 pounds this week bringing my total to 8 pounds lost so far! I'm super excited!

I was expecting to only lose a couple pounds this past week. I've been fighting a weird cold thing and It's been hard a couple days to really kick up the cardio intensity as much as I would have liked. I'm still feeling a bit "off" but hopefully whatever it is goes away soon and doesn't get any worse! Still, 2 pounds is good with me!

I got bit by the baking bug this week. As most readers know, I love to bake (I even dream about having my very own bakery some day!) For quite a while now, Sunday has been baking day. I'd been avoiding it since I knew I was doing this challenge, but it just doesn't seem fair for me to have to give up something I love so much. I figure I can bake all I want, as long as I give away the treats instead of eating them all! Of course, I will let myself have a tiny bit! Today I made Fall Harvest Bars! They are super sinful, but very delicious! Zach took them to work tonight for his pot luck, so I know they won't be making a return trip home, so that's good. I guess all our friends, family and co-workers will just have to deal with more sweet treats from Stephanie with this new life style. I'm sure they are all just totally broken up about it too ;)

Zach and I also celebrated our anniversary at The Hereford House on Friday night. Our anniversary was actually October 13, but our schedules were too crazy to fit it in last weekend. We were going to go to Accurso's (it's "our place") and have some super yummy Italian food, but since I'm in the middle of the challenge I don't want to set myself back too far since my trainers say I'm in "transition", so I thought steak would be a good option instead. People, FILET MIGNON is on my diet plan! So I just had to get it :) I won't lie, I had some mashed potatoes and a little bit of chocolate cake too!! BUT I did way more cardio the next day than normal to help offset it. I'm still losing weight so I think it was ok. It was our anniversary!! :)
Happy 2 years Zach! Loves you!

*Imagine me 8lbs lighter here, this was taken a few weeks ago :)

Other than that, I've been sticking to the plan! It's not so hard any more. The workouts are fun and I love switching it up and trying new things to keep it interesting. The diet isn't so bad anymore either. It's just what I eat now, I've realized that my meals don't have to be "exciting" all the time. They just have to fill me up and keep me going. So, it's all good! Here's to my new lifestyle!!!

They grow so fast...

I've been lacking on the pooch pictures lately! Ted kind of ate through my camera cable so the only way to upload pictures is with Zach's laptop, which he always takes to school and work with him, so most of my pictures are cruddy camera phone images. What can ya do?

Let's start off with the Queen Bee. Missy. She's become quite the cuddle bug as of late. Follows me everywhere, they both do, but she is constantly wanting to be by my side every second I'm home. She's practically turning into another house cat. She even lays on me when I watch tv on the couch (BAD Stephanie!) . But it's just so dang cute. This picture was right before I took her to "Doggy Overnight Camp" when we went to Chicago. She totally knew something was up, but she had a blast. Miss Social Butterfly!



Ted got to stay at my parents house. They said he was happy as a clam, but he sure didn't like the car for a few rides after we got back! He decided that jumping in the front seat was the thing to do. The first time he did it I was in the front seat. Ooof! You try riding with a 70 pound Great Dane puppy freaking out on your lap! Luckily my parents live close! AND lucky for us he has forgotten he is afraid of car rides and loves them again. This picture just cracks me up though. What a baby!

Snoozing on our bed is his most favorite activity. I have about 10,000 of these pictures.

Ahem. We are going through what they call "The Teenage Years". It's not pretty. First he out grew his XL Kennel that we spent nearly $200 on. So we decided to start putting him in the kitchen with a metal baby gate with a clever little hinged handle lock a ma boo. He figured out how to OPEN IT within 2 weeks. Smart little cookie! He'd be sitting down by the garage door everyday for a week just happy as a clam! So we figured, what the heck, we'll leave him out! What's the worst that could happen?!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "The Worst".

The carpet. All the way to the floorboards. Now, I don't think he was alone in this, Missy started a teeny hole when SHE was his age, but I think they both had a hand in this one. I blamed Missy, since she had a hurt paw and was acting out a bit already. So I sprayed the crap out of it with Bitter Apple spray and gave Ted a second chance:


Seriously. This was the Very. Next. Day. Needless to say, I was an unhappy Mommy. Doesn't he just look SO proud though!!! Needless to say, we now block him in the kitchen with the metal gate and chairs in front of it so he can't swing the door open. Sometimes he still knocks it down though. I forsee another kennel purchase in our near future.

But look what happens when he doesn't get his way, or when Missy gets one more treat than him. This. Pouty McPouterson


He's 7 months old now. I took these two pictures this weekend. What a horse! He's just so lovey dovey though. We can't imagine our lives without our furry monsters.

"Technically" he's still on the floor....

Fitness Challenge - 2 Week Check In

Success!

I have lost 6 pounds and 4% body fat (I think it was 4% anyway, whatever it was put me back in the 20's)

I'm feeling much more comfortable with my new lifestyle now. The food really isn't all that bad once you get creative with it and the working out is really addicting! I feel like a total bump on a log on the days that I don't work out(and there's only been 2 this month).

I'm very happy about my progress and it just excites me even more to keep pushing myself to get even more fit! Even Zach is jumping on the bandwagon! Tonight he substituted his beloved Regular Jif Peanut Butter for Reduced Fat Jif Peanut Butter AND he liked it! :)

Onward and upward!

Fitness Challenge - The First Issue

Well, it's out on newsstands. Everywhere. Me. Looking.... well, let's just say, it's not my best shot. I actually got chest pains when I first saw the pictures. I cannot believe thousands upon thousands of people are going to see this. WHAT WAS I THINKING!?

Luckily, the tidbit about me, including the ginormous half page picture isn't too terribly horrible. They do throw out the "skinny fat" terminology and give my body fat percentage, but I guess things could be worse. One poor girl has a picture of her actual scale reading (yeowsh!)

I do hate, hate, hate the way I look. It's horrible. I mean really? I look like that? Oh crap. I have a ton of work to do (including investing in some brow pencils).

I at least *feel* like I'm making progress. I've been to the gym every single day this month except for one. I've even been fighting a cold for the past few days, but I've still gone. I wish I could move into the gym and work out for hours straight, but I still try to at least get an hour in each day. I alternate between weights one day then hard core cardio the next. When I have extra time I'll run after weights too.

I'm still struggling with figuring out the diet thing. I got in trouble for not eating enough (I can't win people) so I'm trying to figure out how to balance getting in enough calories without blowing my allotted carbs and fat grams out of the water. It's a challenge.

I made the mistake of getting on the scale today. It hasn't budged since Sunday. I literally cried and then cussed it out and then went on about my day. The bottom line is that I feel like I LOOK better and my clothes already fit better, so something has to be working here.

I meet with the trainers again on Sunday for my "official" 2 week weigh in. I'm so nervous. It's time to kick it up a few more notches!

Fitness Challenge - Week 1

I am not amused.

I have stuck to the plan. In the past week and a half I have given up all sweets, fried food, junk food, basically all GOOD food. I am literally living on plain chicken breast, egg beaters, broccoli and rice cakes. I worked out (HARD) 6 days this week and what have I lost? 3 pounds. Three measly pounds. THREE.

I'm pissed.

Fitness Challenge - Official Start

Today is the "official" start day for the fitness challenge. However, I gave myself a head start. I got the list of foods I could eat last week, so I've been trying to only eat those foods. I can already tell I'm going to get really, really bored eating the same things over and over again, but I'm going to do my best.

I got my personalized meal plan a couple days ago and quite frankly it's really hard to understand. I'm going to have to ask the trainer what she means on a few things. I have to eat 6 meals a day, which sounds great, but it's a lot of work trying to get stuff ready for 6 meals and make sure that I'm eating the right amount of protien, carbs and fat at each meal. There is MATH involved! Ugh! I'm going to be doing a lot of cooking ahead I think.

The working out part seems pretty alright. Nothing really different from what I already do, just much more cardo and some more intense weight lifting. She wants me to do cardio at least 5 times a week and burn 500-1000 calories during each workout. You typically burn about 100 calories per 10 minutes of cardio so, you do the math. That's a lot of treadmill action right there. PLUS 30-45 minutes of weights 3 times a week and I'll be spending a good chunk of me evenings at the gym. Whatever works I guess.

So far I'm not feeling too hungry, so that's good. I'm eating better foods and definitely feel a lot better already. I just need to remember how good I feel whenever I really crave something bad. I'm watching the Chiefs game right now and I could REALLY go for some pizza, but I guess cottage cheese will have to do (that stuff is not my favorite, that's for sure).

Zach's been really supportive so far too. He went grocery shopping with me Friday and ate dinner with me both Friday and Saturday. We even ate VEGETABLES!! Go us! Oh and by the way Ezekial Bread is REALLY good!!! Too bad it's crazy expensive! We are still on the hunt for Quinoa though. That's not easy to find!

So, here I "officially" go! Wish me luck.

In the past week I've already lost 3 pounds and I'm just getting started!!!