Parties, Pools, and Arm Fat

Happy Monday!  Kind of a contradiction in terms, isn't it?  Oh well.  For me, this Monday follows a very busy, yet fun weekend.  This weekend, we took the 3 hour drive up to northern Indiana to visit Tim's family.  Our nephew, Kaleb, recently graduated from high school and we went up for his graduation party.  I am not even gonna talk about how old this makes me feel.  He is one of the little ring bearers in one of the wedding pictures I posted last week.  Now he is all tall and an adult and stuff.  Time sure does fly.

All in all, I had a really good week.  I was active -- I did my morning runs and some Zumba.  I kept myself accountable as far as my food went.  Everything was going fine, until the weekend hit. I have been doing pretty well when my weekends are spent at home.  It is when I travel for the weekend that I really unravel.  It is literally like I have the little angel Courtney on one shoulder supporting good food decisions and the little devil Courtney on the other doing the opposite.  Devil Courtney tends to win the battle.  It ticks me off, but I have no one to blame but myself.  I went to the party and ate cake.  I went to dinner that night and told myself I would only eat salad, but ended up eating 2 pieces of pan pizza with extra cheese along with it.  Thank God, no one decided to go to Dairy Queen, because I know I would have eaten that too if given the chance.

I am going to make a conscious effort to enjoy the people in social situations and make the food an afterthought.  It is, in fact, the people at these gatherings that are most important.  I have 2 BBQs to go to over 4th of July, and I am already looking up some recipes for things to bring along that I can eat and not feel guilty about.  It is time to give myself the tools I need to be successful.  I am denying myself that, so it really is much harder than necessary.

Besides the food issues, everything was great!  We went to my brother and sister-in-law's house to take a swim in their pool.  It felt awesome on such a hot day.  I have been getting better about just putting on my suit and enjoying pool time.  I used to sit on the side, sweating to death, and watching everyone have fun -- all the while wishing I could join them.  I could have joined them.  I was just too uptight about being seen in a bathing suit.  The reality is that I look more conspicuous sitting on the side not taking part in the fun.  I still have several moments of insecurity, but I am getting better at it.

Saturday evening, my mother-in-law took me shopping to get my birthday gift (my birthday is this coming Thursday).  She works at Meijer and has a employee discount.  There was also a mPerks coupon deal going on. I asked her if, for my birthday, she could take me there and use her discount to buy me new clothes to exercise in.

I was able to get all this stuff for only about $30!!  Nothing gets me more excited than a good deal. I also made the move to tank tops.  I HATE MY ARMS.  They are horrible.  I have arms that define bat wings.  They are almost hypnotizing.  I bought tank tops though because I am outside running and it is freaking hot!  If I lose all the weight I want to, I can honestly say that I would consider surgery on my arms to get rid of this issue.  I am a big girl and it isn't my butt or stomach that make me insecure.  It is my damn arms.   You know in the old cartoons where a character would flex and get the big muscle only to have it fall and dangle under his arm instead?  Yeah, that would be me.  We all have our body issues that we struggle with...this one just happens to be the most dominate one with me.

Me.  I cannot wait to watch this body shrink.  Hopefully this hard work will start to show soon.  :)

Let's follow that up with a sweet picture...

Darcy and her grandma having story time.  She loves her grandmothers so much.  It really is so sweet.  I love capturing these little moments.  

Now, it is time for....

1. I started my week off right with a run! It is getting so hard...not gonna lie.  I know running is supposed to be a mind over matter sort of thing, but I am not sure how to get that under control.  A shirtless Ryan Gosling could be at the finish line waiting for me with magic calorie-free peanut butter cups, and I STILL would be in agony as I tried to get through it.  The reality is that it HURTS.  Me thinking happy thoughts isn't going to keep it from hurting.  I just have to get to the point where I push through the hurt.  I did pretty well this morning.  I kid of pooped out during my last running interval though.  I am not going to let it get to me though.  Tomorrow is another day, and I shall try again.
   
   
   
   
   
2. We went to the movies today.  I brought our own snacks because I am not going to take out a 2nd mortgage on our house to buy snacks and drinks for a family of 4.   This was my snack --- even though I REALLY wanted chocolate. 
   
   I know that dry fruit is not as healthy as the real deal, but it was still a sweet treat with a fraction of the calories.
   
   
3. I have a good meal plan for this week.  I even plan to make a knock off of the Chipotle burrito bowl -- one that is lighter on calories and with more veggies than carbs.  I will update with how that turned out later.  I plan to make it tomorrow night. 

To end today's post, a picture of my cute children awaiting their screening of Monsters University. Darcy was so excited to see Mike "Kowsky".