Good Will Treasure

I'v been seeing these teal purses and clutches and pinterest and have been crushing on them hard!

This is one of the treasures I found at the Goodwill it was only $6, it's a textured leather clutch. But you could tell it used to be a purse it had little clips inside. So I bought some chain and made a purse out of it.

My Inspiration from Pinterest 

Ray Home

Today we moved into this beautiful brick home. The Ray's have four kids, the two little girls love me which is an added bonus! They are such a sweet family and we feel blessed that we have the chance to be a part of their home for the rest of the summer.

Another chapter in our crazy adventures of married life.

Also move #6 in under two years!

The Reina's Visit {Insta-style}

Ashley, Mike & Oliver came to visit and they went to this adorable B&B for their anniversary while Oliver and I enjoyed some quality time together. I absolutely loved it, Ashley and I had a blast together shopping and working out together. And Oliver was the funnest cuddle buddy! Having family come to visit was the perfect break for the summer.

{Sorry these are all phone pictures since blogger won't let me upload anything else at the moment}

We also played done Dance Central - I pulled out some awesome dance moves and you might be able to tell who won

National Zoo 

My Cuddle Buddy every morning - look at those big brown eyes

Oliver loved hiding under here

Sometime we just have to be proud of our accomplishments...

Four months ago I was unhappy, sat on the couch feeling sorry for myself and couldn't fit into any of my clothes. I literally had to go by new pants so that I could leave the house not in sweats or yoga pants. It was sad... When my sisters saw me on FaceTime they both said "Ohhhhhh" out-loud. Depressing to say the least.

Now: I have lost 15 lbs

I feel so much healthier, I am happier, my skin has calmed down, my body doesn't hate me, and my old jeans are almost too big to wear! Sometimes I want to cry because I am so overly grateful, and ecstatic that I was able to turn my health around. My Mother is really the one who made it happen, and my husband and sister Ashley have provided me with such an amazing support. This is a really big accomplishment for me. I feel like a new person; Taylor and I like her much more!!

Some things I did to make the change:
Eat 3 meals and two small protein snacks everyday
Cut out sugar 6 days of the week
Work out 5-6 days a week
Lunged my butt off, no literally I would do 100 lunges in one day and my butt really has shrunk
Set up incentives for myself - shoes, new lulu lemon, once I lose 20lbs I am going to buy some new jeans

It takes effort but let me tell you it is so worth it! I can't wait to be a personal trainer and help people make this kind of difference in their own lives.

Big Salad right? This is one of my favourites! 

I eat this for dinner 4x a week (everyday I run and sunday)

I pile up a ton of romaine hearts chopped up, 3 oz chicken, dash of turkey bacon bits, and low cal dressing. The dressing I make is thinner so it can spread over the whole salad, because I hate dry salads!

Ceaser Dressing:

1 tbsp low fat ceased dressing

1 tbsp parmesan cheese

1 tbsp lemon juice

A Wonderful Blessing

I heard a random alarm go off on my phone and this is what it was...

How did I get so lucky!?

He always knows how to put a smile on my face even when he is miles away

Eternity

My ring has always been a little bit too small then with the added heat of this summer I finally stopped wearing it because it was so uncomfortable. I got it resized last week and then finally wearing it around again I have fallen in love with it all over again. 

I just love everything that it means

All the memories that are attacked to it

... and the Sparkle

CPT - Certified Personal Trainer

Health is such a broad topic and there is so much "junk" or people that put out their own plans that are at super hard levels and unsafe for beginners to be taking anything from. So...

I am going to start a new little section on my blog. I know almost everyone out there strives to be more healthy and I would love to help teach you about the NASM model and help you incorporate some things into your own life. I am going to do this considering I am speaking to beginners since this is the target group that will essentially learn the most. I will promise to only preach what I am learning from my textbooks and classes and not be adding to any false ideas or my personal opinion.

There are three phases of training:

1. Stabilization

2. Strength and Endurance

3. Hypertrophy

(Most women will want to skip this phase 3+4 since it is bulking bulkier muscle)

4. Maximal Strength

5. Power

I want to talk a little about phase one of stability. This is a very important phase because it prepares your body, muscle and joints for the other phases. A lot of people skip this phase and this often ends in injury or over working the muscle. This phase helps you strengthen those stabilizing muscles, and increase difficulty by challenging your balance. You also want to do a low load and high repetition.

Things in the gym to help you do this: Stability disk (those half ball looking things), balls, foam rollers, bands, and my favourite TRX.

Example of a superset using this idea would be:

2x 10 reps of push-ups

then

2x 10 reps stability ball push-ups

This will work what is called your prime movers and then immediately after challenge the stability of the same area. This will help you body develop the balance and control needed to lift heavier weights and endurance later on in your journey in the gym!

If you have questions feel free to leave a comment with an email for me to reply

This information was taken from the

NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training Fourth Edition

Editors: Micheal A. Clark, Scott C. Lucett and Brian G. Sutton

Advice?

You know you post too many pictures when...

Blogger won't let you load a single picture because you have reached your limit. They want me to pay $4.99 a month to buy more space and deleting old posts doesn't seam to help any.

Luckily I have tricked them buy doing it off an app. on my phone but most pictures I'v taken with my camera

The Storm

Many of you may have heard about the storms in Virginia, and DC. Leaving 2.5 million without power for days and killing many. The numbers kept going up so we lost track, but it was sad to hear it go up a little high each day. Scariest storm of my life and my first natural disaster

This tree fell right outside out window we were blessing it went the opposite direction

This was on a good day, it said 82'F but felt like 110'F
Not to mention to smell of smoking neighbours and bad food

Living by Candle light is harder then it sounds

Sitting on the cool tile floor at the mall till late at night... simply because we have no where else to go.

Drum roll please...

When I was in high school I used to say I was going to be a personal trainer. But life took me in some different directions for the last three years. Now that I have finished with my associates {if anyone remember general classes there painfully uninteresting} I wanted to do something fun, something I wanted for myself. Then I remembered my dream of being a personal trainer...

I have knots in my tummy, and butterflies that make me a little queazy from all the excitement, nervousness, and not to mention hours of more studying ahead of me!

I am now an official student at the 

National Academy of Sport Medicine

I also started my internship today at Gold's Gym

Pit stop

Michelle and I made a pit stop and played with these puppy laberdoodles.

Taylor and I have talked about getting a laberdoodle and I will admit they were pretty adorable!

The Next Step

This is a teaser... a little tiny one and only if you really know me I guess.

I will probably hold it in for about a day before I can't help telling the world but this week I made a decision that is going to change the course of my life. I am really excited, thrilled, anxious and nervous about it. But after five years of thinking about it I am ready to dive into this new challenge that thrills me...

Virginia Adventures w/ Michelle

Michelle is my friend from Canada and high school. It had been a long time since really doing something together but we decided we both needed girl time and she flew to D.C. the next week to hang out! I would say the funnest thing we did was find some amazing deals at the good will store! And swimming in the ocean of course :)

On the boardwalk with Michelle

Virginia Beach

Fresh snack on the beach.. mmm little bit of paradise

Beach Street USA

Riding the Metro into D.C. it was 104 'F
We really did just about die from heat, I did anyways!

Washington Memorial

Lincoln

The White House

The Capital

Frozen Yogurt {Canadian Style}

NASCAR

I took Taylor on a Surprise Date - When we arrived it had a much more {in-the-stix} feel to it then I was expecting if you know what I mean. But we got free flags to wave around and some awful but oddly yummy food!

We ended up having blast and Taylor loved it!  It was a total success he had no clue where we were going and I earned myself some major wife points

These was also a kid racing who was eight years old - I don't think I could ever let me child get in a racing car at eight!

This was my weekly cheat meal where I rev up my metabolism and feed those unhealthy food cravings

This was someone car out front and I thought it was pretty cool

Waiting for the races to start waving out checkered flags 

These was a total stereotypical "All-American" Night

A Routine Lunch

This is my favourite thing to eat for lunch.

I have green and yellow squash with broccoli - Put in a fry pan with a little water then when they get soft enough shake some soy sauce and they are done, seriously so simple and delicious. I also had onion and garlic powder.

I find the inspiration for this wrap on Pinterest and I modified a lot it to be "clean"

Whole Wheat Wrap

Turkey cooked with spices and worscheshire sauce 

{I always have this pre-cooked so I just pull it out of the fridge when I'm ready}

Tomatoes

Spicy and yellow Mustard

Then stick in on the griddle for a minute on both sides

Mount Vernon

We went to Mount Vernon a while ago and if you don't know this is where Washington Lived. It was interesting to see where the slaves lived and think about how that was part of the life he lived. It was actually not a huge home, they had a couple bedrooms, a kitchen and two other rooms for entertaining.

The whole time we were there it was pouring rain and hot! Hence the reason I am wearing my scarf on my head to attempt to keep me hair dry.

This is George and Martha Washington's buggy

This is the tomb where both of them are today {Taylor things other wise} but as for the tourists thats what they tell us

We actually have a copy of this in our home, I always thought it was Moroni or Nephi - Funny yet embarrassing I had no clue it was Washington

** Although we had a great time together Taylor and I aren't big history people but for us personally we felt spending $30 here wouldn't be the best use of time or money if you are doing a shoer trip in DC  **