Workout? oy.

  It's been a while, huh? I have been busy over the summer getting together my business, Simply Smitten Events & Beauty Bar and, you know, doing "summer" things.


   The week before July 4th, I had a major flare up with my Crohn's Disease, which in turn caused me to have to go back on the dreaded Prednisone (a steroid).  While it does work for me, you can't be on it for long and the long term side effects are way worse than the short term results (can you say, hip replacement by the time I'm 40?). It also makes you gain weight and feel "puffy".  Now I'm on a different medicine that can take up to 3 months to get into my system and start working.  In the meantime, the Dr. says to stay away from fruits & veggies because the high fiber can cause pain.  What do I eat?!?!

   Which leads me to my new adventure... reForm School.  I signed up for a 12-week personal training program at reForm Studio.  I work out with my awesome personal trainer, Tina, for 3 times a week and  then I am on my own the rest of the week fitting in cardio 5 times a week. Plus on top of this, I have been doing Pilates since March with a personal trainer. And hopefully, after the 12 weeks, I will meet my goal of looking super amazing in my bikini while we're on holiday somewhere in the Caribbean.



    For those of you that know me, you know that I am not necessarily a "sporty" girl.  Adam actually thinks it is funny that I'm working out more than once a week.  I'm not overweight, but I am out of shape. I am deceptively skinny, blessed with good genes and not-so blessed to have an irritable bowel disease that removes most of the food I eat before my body can absorb it's nutrients.  Adam and I eat pretty healthy for the most part, except y'all know I love my dessert!  I have to work out and keep track of what I eat - daily. It's actually not a bad thing because I'm supposed to do that for my dr anyway. 

 
    So, Thursday I met Tina for an assessment of how out of shape I really am.  We did a pt like test that you'd do in school where they time you and see how many different exercises you can do in a minute, and she measured me to see what my progress will be later on.  My goal is to tone up all over, I'm not really focused on weight because my weight is normal.

   Squats? No problem!!  One-legged squats?  alright.  Push ups? Son-of-a-biscuit, those are hard! My bird arms could barely lift myself.  Then I had to hold a plank for a minute, I lasted about 44 seconds before collapsing onto the  mat.  I surprisingly did alright holding myself up on the wall for a minute and we did these ab things where you lay on the floor with your arms behind you and bring your knees up to your middle, then back down.

   Needless to say, I am feeling it today.  I went and worked out again today for the first official workout.  I surprisingly had fun!  Tina had me put on boxing gloves (they were pink!!!), and I boxed, kicked and boxed some more! I really enjoyed it, I had a little Pacquiao going!  haha  I really hate sweating, but it wasn't so bad today. haha I know it's necessary if I want to meet my goal.


     My food choices today were not fantastic, apparently peanut butter crackers for lunch = FAIL.  haha  I got back on track tonight with baked salmon and sauteed zucchini (I know it's a veggie, but I can't help myself!). 
 

   Anyway, I work tomorrow and am not having my personal training work out so I might walk the dogs after work to get in my cardio.


 Wish my luck!! I have to take my before photos soon!

 xoxo, B

Who is signing me up for this?

    OK, I admit, I like to play scrabble, I enjoy doing crossword puzzles, I'm a "cautious" driver and I take my medications in a MTWTF pill box.  According to Adam, these habits are things that "old people" do. I defend these things because I am not old, nor should enjoying scrabble, reading, and crossword puzzles be labeled as such.

  Unfortunately, others must be fully aware of my hobbies as well because I'm receiving things in the mail about being a senior now. 

  I received this in the mail today:

   While it's nice someone is thinking of me for benefits, I am NOT a senior.  And you can cancel the AARP magazine while you're at it! 

Waterbeds and such

   When two people merge into a marriage, you also merge all of your belongings into one space.  While Adam and I quickly got rid of his sloping black leather couch and nasty, decrepit, covered in salsa stains 80's recliner that came apart in two pieces (that he amazingly got $75 for on Craigslist!), we have somehow hung on to his "this end up" furniture from when he was 3 years old and my bedroom dressers from when I was 13. 

   Coincidentally, my old bed was ruined in a tragic loss at a storage unit several years ago when I moved from college back to my hometown.  There had been a small hurricane which sprung a leak in the roof, creating moving day morning at 6am a fun treat and surprise for me and my dad, who was helping me move at the time.  Moldy mattress anyone?  ugh.  So I ended up getting a new bed and mattress and box springs that day!  Well, I ordered it anyway, my beautiful sleigh bed didn't show up for 14 weeks!!!!! I guess now we know why Rhodes Furniture went bankrupt and out of business. 

   Unfortunately, the storage unit disaster didn't even touch my 17-year-old dresser, chest of drawers, mirror and night stand.  I remember picking this furniture out like it was yesterday!  Being the youngest in the family, I had all hand me down furniture and nothing matched.  Apparently, I was OCD even back then, because the non-matching furniture really REALLY bothered me.  So I ended up getting a beautiful, Charleston gate like, iron cast, hunter green daybed, with matching pop-up trundle of course.  The furniture that matched was briefly used and returned to the furniture store because whomever bought it had a dog that chewed a few of the edges of the drawers. I remember my Dad negotiating a special price and then the furniture was all mine! I remember the pieces had a matching queen sized bed, but we didn't get that, as I already had my daybed.  

  There is a reason that our tastes change from when we are teenagers into adulthood. There are no words to describe the hideousness that is this furniture to me now.  Adam despises it; as he should, considering he's a grown man stuffing his socks and t-shirts into a 13 year old girl's dresser.  The furniture isn't white, but rather a creamy, off-white shabby chic, if you will.  It has a beautiful stenciling of a floral design and scrolls on each outer edge.  Wait.   I'll just take a picture and show you.  Before I show you though, in my defense, I once babysat for a family who had this EXACT SAME FURNITURE (including the fancy queen sized bed to match) in their master bedroom.

Behold... the dresser in all it's glory!!

Notice the fancy scroll, ribbon and rose motif. 

Adam really can't stand these ribbon details on the side.  I think its a wee bit too feminine for him. 

Where the previous owner had some bite issues, or perhaps it was some s&m party into biting? Or misplaced vampire?  I guess we'll never know. 

    Needless to say, Adam and I are looking for new bedroom furniture.  Did you know Paula Deen has furniture?  It's at Infinger Furniture in Goose Creek.  It's actually really pretty, but also a bit pricey. Also, I'll never be able to go back in that store again because after I told Adam my parents had a king sized water bed back in the 80s/90s, he found it to be hilarious to ask, "Where are your waterbeds?" to the sales lady when we walked in.  He acted dead serious too, I had to tell her we were kidding.  I'm sure my face was bright red.  I live in the Creek, so I feel comfortable saying this, but I'm actually quite shocked that they DIDN'T have waterbeds. HAHAHA

   Of course, he was just kidding, we've found our perfect bedroom furniture and now we're patiently waiting for it all to go on sale soon. 

  Until then, I guess we'll have to just keep living in the a teenage girl's room.  At least I don't have a WHAM! or Madonna poster taped to the wall. 












 

Weekend things

  I haven't written since November?  Well, either nothing interesting has happened since then or I have been majorly slack on writing.  I'm going to go with the latter. Especially because over that time I've been busy working, holidays, I turned 30, had a surprise vacation to Grand Cayman and did I mention work?

  I just read an article on Yahoo! that is titled, "Things you should never buy used", it's number one "thing" was a used mattress. I certainly hope that no one in their right mind would think it would be clean to grab a used mattress out by the road to take home and "clean up" for their own use.  YUCK! I am pretty sure no one has yelled out while driving near a dumpster, "OHH!! I mattress!!". 

  I don't know about you, but whenever the time changes it messes me up for at least a week, sometimes two.  I am a morning person, and while I love the longer, sunnier days, I absolutely hate that it's darker in the morning when I wake up. 

   Saturday night, Adam and I went out with my sister and brother-in-law to Wild Wings in North Charleston. I'll be the first to admit that I am not the drinking partying college kid I once was; taking naps at 3pm so I could pre-game at 10pm and go out with my girls by 11:30pm to Klondike or a house party.   These days I'm perfectly happy watching a Dateline segment on a Friday or Saturday night or wonder if the 48 Hour Mystery really is a  "mystery" because the guy they are interviewing is already in an orange jumpsuit.   So when my sister told me we'd be going to see one of our favorite local bands, Soul Fish, but they didn't go on stage until 11pm, I knew I was going to have to rally!

    I don't normally like hanging out at the Wild Wings in North Charleston because it's usually filled with smoke.  Thanks North Charleston for not joining the rest of the state in the smoking ban.  We started the night with some beer and sitting at the bar, waiting on the band to get started.  After a beer, I headed to the bathroom.  The scenario in there was that there were 3 stalls:  1 where the lock didn't work (WHY!?), 1 where the door was so close to the toilet no one over 90 pounds could ever get in and out because the door opened inwards, so I chose door number 3, it seemed normal until I shut it.  The back of the door had a sign that said, "TO OPEN DOOR, PULL HANDLE UP".  It was then that I noticed the door handle on this side was just kind of hanging there.  I semi-panicked, pulled the handle up trying to get it to open and sure enough it just kept swinging around and around.  The stall was "bricked in" from door to ceiling and the bottom of the door was almost to the floor, so there was no way out. Needless to say, after a 10 minute battle with the door, I finally made it out safely, vowing next time to use the bigger stall that doesn't lock.

     - On a side note, why don't the doors lock!?  It is my biggest pet peeve in a public bathroom that doors don't lock! The door handle had a lock on it, which apparently stopped working in 1993, so they decided to put one of those latch locks on, where you slide the lock over to fit into the loop and click down.  They NEVER match up to lock in the loop.  NEVER!   Who is putting these locks on the door that they can't match it up properly!? I wouldn't think it would be THAT difficult!  And don't get me started on the automatic flushers that don't automatically flush.


     Once the band got started, Adam and I were doing a great job of staying awake and lively. That's when a group of women sat next to my sister and ordered the largest order of garlic wings I've ever seen.  An entire plate of garlic wings!  The smell was so strong that I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping vampires away for a few days and I didn't eat any garlic wings. 

  We made it home at 1am (or 2am if you've already set your clocks forward like we had!). I only had one beer, but the staying out late and getting up early (I can't sleep past 7:30am ever), made me feel slightly hung over and my voice was hoarse.  Adam and I agreed that we'd stay out late again sometime next year.   haha  I don't blame it on being 30, but I do enjoy being home hanging with my husband and dogs way more than a smoky bar.

  OK, time to get up and get moving! Hope you're having a great week!