I’m off on vacation. We just made it to Maryland, Brian’s parents house, on what we both agreed was our fastest, least stressful, best trip ever. It was over so quickly! Which is great since we have another 7ish hours to go tomorrow to South Carolina - Myrtle Beach.

Talk to you all soon…

A wedding I photographed at our church on Saturday, June 21. I was really happy with it - only a few hiccups. I’m starting to really enjoy the power that my HUGE flash offers, even though its a bit unwieldy. I still have so much to learn. But I have two more weddings booked for the summer!!! I never thought I’d go here, but I’m really excited about it.

all of my life
in every season
You are still God

i have a reason to sing
i have a reason to worship

*thanks kristin, via erica.

I have the specifics written down for myself, but overall I will definitely say it was a successful little crash diet to get myself moving again. If I can stay healthy, motivated and conservative with my meals I hope to keep up the trend.

Overall weight loss: 6 lbs

Overall inches lost: 7 inches

(Now before you flip, that means all around, so some of the waist, belly, chest, thighs, etc) I did NOT lose 7 inches around only my waist
Thanks for following along if you did, or if you didn’t. Should resume regular less frequent posting and photos next week

I never posted this because I’ve been so insanely busy, and truthfully I didn’t/couldn’t follow this last day hardly at all because of time and money. We have no fresh foods left from the diet, (no eggs, no fruit, no turkey, no veggies, no nothin!) I’d already spent upwards of $70 on the specific items, and at the end of the month it just couldn’t be done anymore. Money/frugality had to come first at this point. I did ok except I had an oatmeal cream pie. ughghg.

Day 10 Meals

Breakfast: Eggwhite, broccoli and feta omelet

Snack: Celery and Peanut Butter

Lunch: Turkey Burger with… um. no bun, and veggies

Snack: Plain yogurt with kiwi and flaxseeds

Dinner: Broiled chicken with onion, swiss and tomato sauce on whole wheat pita (chicken parm pita?)

Results to come next post.

I would like to take a break from my regularly scheduled fitness update to talk about design and websites. Huh, remember when I used to do that? Talk about my profession instead of my personal life? Oh well.

Kristin informed me about the iheart revolution months ago and I downloaded half the songs, but I had, for some unknown reason, never actually visited and explored the site. I did it today and I was struck by how unique it was, and I really liked it. All of the main content is on the first page, and instead of switching pages when you click main navs (aside from the obvious myspace and facebook links), it smoothly slides you down to the next section using anchoring and bookmarks, where the same nav is present again so you don’t get lost. I thought this was so cool and although an old technique, used in a new and efficient way. Not to mention how the main “i heart” graphic is created, layered gifs over a really cool background, this being the first stop on the navigation journey - all the links are sort of hidden inside. The site loads quickly, smoothly and is all there - so no waiting for new pages to load.

I like how they’ve broken the typical “link-must-click-to-new-page” preset and done something easy and simply unique.

Thoughts?

Take some time to check out the site and read how the album was created. It is beautiful stuff! I praise God for people who can use these talents in music and media for Him.

This just made my day. Any time I see people rescuing animals or other people it breaks and mends my heart all at once. Look at those poor kitties - they just don’t know what to do

Today I am tired, a little embarrassed (for reasons I wont disclose here), feeling kind of sickish, and overwhelmed by the workload - hardly any of which I can pass on to anyone else. It would be ok but everyone is on the same schedule and want things NOW rather than a week from now or two weeks.

I’ll tell you what, I’m really starting to look forward to Myrtle Beach.

Fitness wise, I’m going to be fighting temptation all day as my boss brought in a huge and beautiful strawberry pie, one of my big weaknesses. But then the payoff happened as I was drinking my protein smoothie when a coworker said “you need to tell me how you are losing weight, you are looking very thin today.” So, keeping that in mind, I’m going to keep doing this for today and tomorrow, then gradually start bringing some of my favorite foods I’ve been denying back into my diet again!

Today’s Meals:

Breakfast: Cottage Cheese and Raspberries (doing yesterday’s tomato omelet)

Snack: Mango Yogurt Protein Smoothie (had a banana/peanut butter instead)

Lunch: Chicken Curry -Broiled chicken breast with long-grain brown rice, veggies (cauliflower, garlic, tomato paste, curry)

Ok seriously no one has time to cook like that on their lunch break. gah!!

Snack: Celery with Peanut Butter

Dinner: Hawaiian Chicken Kebabs — this is sort of what I made with turkey last week… too bad no pineapple left and our grocery budget is TOTALLY GONE for June. NO more food allowed to be bought so I’ll have to make do with what I need.  (chicken, onion, yellow pepper, pineapple,  cherry tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil)

Today was day 8, and I didn’t have a chance to post, so I’ll just give it in past tense. I did ok with my eating, although I fudged what I ate for dinner - I just didn’t want any more meat, and I had to stop at my parents to take care of the cats, and all I could think about was the grape nuts and fresh strawberries they had - so that’s what I ate. Not too bad, very healthy, just not what was recommended. I also had the morning snack for my afternoon snack so had no protein smoothy which was sort of a bummer.

Today’s Meals

Breakfast: Egg White and Tomato Omelet (although I actually had multigrain waffle with cottage cheese and fruit)

Snack: 20 almonds (had later with some dried cranberries)

Lunch: Salmon and arugula/romaine salad with light italian (Instead Meghan and I went to Marketplace grill and I had an amazing salad with grilled chicken, light italian, and some parmasan cheese & croutons - I know - i’m bad)

Snack: Strawberry protein smoothie

Dinner: Baked or Broiled Chicken Breast with, frozen peas and carrots (ooooor grape nuts with fresh strawberries and a bit of sugar)

Workout: Cardio Party (I did Cardio Party Remix - 30 min + some weights)

So… how am I? I am really stressed at the agency - things are kind of crazy for me. It’s a good problem, but we keep getting new projects!!! I barely have time to quote them all and get it together, plus work on existing projects that are dragging on.

Physically, I was down another pound and a half this morning which was great. Today, the lower back is a bit achy, but I’m planning on asking for a massage from the hubby. There was so much to do when I got home, so that was a bit overwhelming, and it’s done now (dishes, laundry, cat feedings, litter, etc., blech).

Today I spent the ENTIRE morning at Panera. from 9-10:30 at 12th street for a client meeting and from 10:45-1:15 pm at the Peach street location for a meeting with the girls. It was really weird but kind of fun. I like Panera - I wish I could spend time there more often. Except eating choices? Well almost all are high-calorie. For breakfast I did an egg souffle, spinach and artichoke- 490 calories, but at least I had protein from the eggs. I drank a lot of water and had nothing else till lunch when I made a wheat bread, grilled chicken, fat-free ranch, avacado, light cheddar cheese and tomato sandwich. It was AWESOME. (fyi)

Today’s Meals:

Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito, tortilla, pinto/black beans, salsa

Snack: Strawberry Protein Smoothie

Lunch: Chicken Salad (I was pretty close on this except I did have bread)

Snack: Cottage Cheese & Tomatoes (mmm…. um…. I really only like the cottage cheese with sweet stuff)

Dinner: Pork Chop and Apple (this sounds really small, lean, and weird)

————————————————————-

Last night was a hard night… Brian and I were both very stressed and emotional due to family issues, priorities and finances, but you know what? We got through it and in the end ended up hugging in the middle of the living room floor laughing. I had a long talk about it with my friends today too, and it felt good to be able to open with them and just talk it all out. It’s amazing how you have people, and we all have lives, and everyone’s is so full of these complicated little messes, victories, triumphs, sadnesses, fears . . . etc. and sometimes just getting them out in the open is the most valuable thing you can do for each other, and tell that person “i understand, i get you, and i’m praying for you.” And when your friends problems are bigger and more major, it helps you get perspective too.

relationships are cool.

Total bust. Cheated, ate fried chinese sesame chicken, ate cake, went about 600 calories over. Haven’t worked out. Going to go back and try to do Day 7 again tomorrow… so now I’m doing this till Thursday!!

Sundays are my hardest day.

we’ll see if I messed up too much by slacking today!