I Think I've gone Insane!

       So, as the title says, I'm pretty sure I've gone insane! I've started the workouts titled "INSANITY" and I love it! The workouts are insane, but I've had amazing results so far.
       I started the workout three weeks ago knowing that I'd be doing these workouts through the holidays. I planned it that way. I know insane right?
       I started out the exercise plan by weighing myself and taking measurements. After one week of doing the "Insanity" workout videos I was shocked with my results. I lost 5 lbs, lost 2 inches off my waist, 2 in. off of my hips, 1/2 in off each of my upper arms, and a 1/4 in off each thigh and calf. What amazing results! I was super amazed at how well my body responded to these workouts. I've never lost inches and pounds like that doing any other type of exercise before.
       I love these workouts because each day is a different workout video. These videos are typically 30-45 min. long. It lasts for 60 days. The program came along with a nutrition guide. They promote their recovery drinks, meal replacement shakes, and protein powder. I decided to just use my common sense to eat nutritiously dense foods. I’m happy with my results so far!
      I’ve been doing these workouts for three weeks now, and plan on posting my stats at the month mark. The thing that I love the most about these workouts is that I feel better physically and fit better into my clothes. I have more energy and go to bed at a decent hour. I actually fall asleep fairly quickly compared to many years of staying up late because my brain wouldn’t stop going a million miles a minute.
      I’m happy that I’ve gone insane with the “Insanity” workouts! I still run every now and then, but running has become boring. I’m thankful that I found a workout program that works for me and look forward to keeping you up to date with my results.

It's Been A While...

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. So here's a little recap of the past couple of months:

Anthony and I had our 4th year anniversary in June. We went to Catalina Island and had a blast! We went hiking (sort of), got massages which were heavenly, ate some fabulous seafood, went kayaking and snorkeling (where we slammed into a rock...well I slammed into a rock because of a boat causing a wave), and got a lovely sunburn! Funny story: Anthony and I went back to our room and found a bottle of chilled champagne and two glasses sitting on our table. We both thought that whoever delivered it, put it in the wrong room. So we went down to talk to someone at the front desk. They told us that it was part of the package deal we got. We had no idea. It never said anything about a bottle of champagne! haha! We asked if they could change it for a bottle of Martinelli's and they did. We still laugh about that one!  All in all it was a lot of fun and we want to go back sometime soon.  Maybe for Anthony's birthday. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Catalina:

 The Catalina Flyer

 On our way to Catalina! It was chilly so we were bundled up. We saw some dolphins (well porpoises) on the way to Catalina!

 A view from a walk we went on. Plus my handsome!

 A picture of us on our walk.

After Catalina, I headed to girl's camp with my stake. Girl's camp is a camp for young women ages 12-18 where they learn about first aid, bond, learn about themselves, and God as well as form awesome friendships. I was asked to go up as a cook for camp. I totally loved being a cook! There were a total of 4 women and 4 men in the kitchen. The most awesome thing was that the women prepared and cooked the food while the men cleaned up all of our mess! Talk about nice! One of my least favorite chores is to scrub/wash dishes. I can't wait until we get a dishwasher. I know, I know...suck it up, but honestly I can't! : ) I enjoyed learning new techniques and recipes.

Anthony and I went camping with his family in Mammoth over the week of the Fourth of July. It was so nice to get away from the craziness of life and slow down a little. We went on a hike to Arrowhead Lake and had a picnic lunch. We also went to a hot creek and enjoyed a little spa time. (haha...it was kinda gross with a squishy floor, but relaxing none the less). We also got to see some fireworks which was fun. What's sad is that I didn't take any pictures. I'm horrible at remembering to take pictures. It was such a relaxing few days, I was sad to get back to the hustle and bustle of our normal schedules.

My parents flew out to California while I was camping to fix up their house here in Cali. They needed to repair a few things, clean it up, replace some appliances and repaint the house. I got to help them clean up a little bit before we headed back to Upland. The next day we went to the Corona del Mar beach with some of our friends. It was an awesome day that ended with some awesome steak at an awesome restaurant. Sadly, my parents had to leave the next day, so we didn't get to spend much time together, but I was so happy for what time I did have to spend with them. I love my parents so much and it's so hard having them be so far away in Ohio. My parents put their house on the market and less than a week later had an offer on the house. I'm going to miss that house because it's the one I grew up in, the one that holds lots of memories of my brother James, the one that is where I fell in love with Anthony, the one that has so much meaning that I will have to hold dear to my heart as I already do. Now it'll be someone's new home to make memories in and I'm happy for that.

My brother Nate, will be visiting me in a few days and I'm super pumped! He's going to be looking into different optometry schools out here to attend once he's finished with his degree at BYU-I. I really hope he ends up moving out here, because he'll be so close by we could get together more often.

I'm super excited because not only will my brother be here, but my sister & brother -in-law will be here to visit this weekend as well. We'll be driving up together to Anthony's family reunion in Vernal, Utah (a super duper long drive), but we'll have good company which always makes it more fun. We love Brittany and Matt! : )

So that's a recap of the main exciting events that have past and what's to come. Hopefully I'll be better at writing my blog posts!

Summer So Far

     We've been enjoying our summer so far. Anthony is a huge baseball fan and I'm becoming one! I've been driving Anthony crazy with questions so I know everything there is to know about baseball. I thought I knew all about baseball before, but I didn't realize there was so much that I never paid attention to before. Since Anthony is a huge fan, we've been to many baseball games. We've also played a couple softball games that Anthony has put on through his work. Here are some pictures from the games we've been to.

I'm catching on to all the little things about baseball and I'm starting to love it too!

     I also had my first piano recital of the year. I have 11 students and 8 of them performed at the recital. It went so well and I'm so proud of all of my students. They are amazing kids and I have some very talented students. 

  

     One of my students wrote this last year at school about her most inspirational teacher. It brought tears to my eyes.

http://www.studentjourneys.com/student-journeys-us-national-parks-trips/catalina-island-wonders/

     Next week is Anthony and my 4 year anniversary! I can't believe that it's been 4 years already! We are looking forward to actually getting away this year. We are going to Catalina Island! I'm so excited! I've never been there before and can't wait for all the adventures Anthony has planned. He's kept some parts a secret and I can't wait to find out about it all when we get there! The picture above looks heavenly! Can't wait!

I hope you all have a great weekend! : )

My Favorite Bread Recipe

                Another way Anthony and I have been trying to save money is to make our own bread. I make bread at the beginning of the week so that Anthony can have his favorite sandwiches for lunch during the week. (Those being turkey and avocado & peanut butter and jelly!)

                One thing that I’ve found is that homemade bread dries out so quickly. I read up about ways to avoid our bread from drying out. I found out that you can just replace ¼ c of the flour you use for ¼ c. of potato flour.

                The potato flour makes the bread softer and last longer. The bread never dries out during the week! It’s a miracle! Here is the recipe I use:

Homemade Bread

½ C.  Butter

½ Tb  Salt

½ C. Sugar (or you can use a substitute like honey)

1 C. Milk (I sometimes substitute with almond milk. Shh…don’t tell Anthony!)

2 C. Cold Water

1 ½ Tb. Active Dry Yeast

½ C. Warm Water

10 ½ C. of flour (whole wheat, white, whatever you want works)

¼ - ½ C. Potato Flour

2 Eggs

 Directions:

In a saucepan combine butter, salt, sugar and milk. Stir until butter melts and the mixture boils a little. Stir in 2 cups of cold water. Combine yeast with warm water (add a tsp. of sugar on top to make sure the yeast is still active). Beat 2 eggs in a bowl. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl along with 3-4 cups of flour (This is when I add the potato flour). Add the yeast and eggs. Add in the rest of the flour a little at a time. Knead in extra flour. Put into a bowl that is greased (with spray, butter, coconut oil or whatever else you use). Place the dough in greased bowl and spray the top of the dough (this help is to not dry out). Let the dough rise. Once is doubles in size, punch the dough and let rise again. Then separate the dough into three sections. It makes 3 loaves of bread. Bake at 375 degrees F.

I cut this recipe in half. When I do it creates one loaf and 12 rolls or cinnamon rolls. Delicious! Enjoy!

A Money Saving Tip!

I’m so overwhelmed with all the love and support I’ve received since my last post. I have amazing friends and family and I wanted to thank you for being there for me throughout my struggles. It’s my hope that through sharing my life’s ups and downs, I can inspire and encourage others to push through their own struggles and succeed. Thank you all so much!

One thing that my husband and I have been trying to do is save money. We’ve been very good about budgeting since we got married. We have looked at our budget and have come up with a few places we could trim some of our spending so we can save up faster for our future house.

We found that we could definitely save on the amount we spend each month on groceries. One thing I started at the beginning of the year was meal planning. In January and February we saved $100 on average. That’s a lot of money when you are saving up for a house! (That would be a savings of $1,200 a year!) One month I didn’t create a meal plan and ended up spending almost $200 over budget because I didn’t know what to cook, so we ate out more. That is not good, health and budget wise! So I thought I’d share with you the way that I plan out meals.

First, I make a list at the end of the month of what we have left over in our fridge, freezer and pantry. Then I go through the weekly ads for our local stores. One of my favorite places to shop is the local farmers markets. I always get great deals, delicious produce and I get to support our local farmers!

After going through the ads and what we have left in our kitchen, I look at recipes in cookbooks and on Pinterest. I look for recipes that will help me to use up the food that we have left in our kitchen as well as the food that is on sale in the ads.  This past month I decided to make it a “Pinterest recipe” month. Every night except for a select few (like Taco Tuesdays) I’m going to make a new recipe from Pinterest.

Next, I make a list of what each recipe requires. I look at what we have in the kitchen and write down the things we don’t have and need to complete each recipe. Most of the time I cut the recipes in half because there are only two of us, that was I avoid dealing with tons of leftovers (which we usually don’t eat) and have just enough for the two of us. That also saves a lot of money. You can also make the full recipe and freeze the leftovers for another dinner in the future.

After I write down the items we need I make a list for each store I will shop out. Sometimes I shop at three or four different stores in order to get the best deals. I used to use coupons, but it is really hard to coupon well with all the restrictions here in Southern California! I find that I save a good chunk of money if I shop at different stores for specific foods. I know that this could be inconvenient for many people, but I’m lucky to live within 5 miles of each store I shop at.

 I buy everything we need at the beginning of the month, except for produce. I buy produce bi-weekly. By buying the produce bi-weekly we use it all up before it goes bad and then we’ll have fresh produce for the next weeks.

After I go shopping, I cut up the produce, meat, and other products up and put them into bags with the amount that I will need for each recipe. I also write which recipe they go with on the bag. This allows me to avoid wasting food. It also helps to cut the amount of time that I spend in the kitchen cooking. Sometimes I get home late and it helps to have everything all cut up and measured out so I can just throw it all together and have a meal prepared in no time. The left over veggies or fruit I have from prepping, I either put them on our salads or I’ll freeze them and use them in smoothies.

I’ve found many recipes that I have tested from Pinterest in past months that are delicious. I plan on listing the recipes that I’ve enjoyed here on my blog for others to try. Once I have everything ready I create a calendar with what we are having each night for dinner. This has helped us out so much by saving money as well as time. If you have any questions or need help with meal planning I would love to help you out!