Yippee!!!!!

This has been a very good weekend!!
Friday I finished my first week of the 200 sit-up challenge.
Don't know what that is???
Check it out at www.twohundredsitups.com
My stomach was so sore the next day, but that didn't stop me from going to bootcamp at 8:00 am.
And that certainly didn't stop our instructor from making us do 45 situps with planks in between.
But I felt absolutely amazing after going, just like I always do. :)
When I got home, I shower then went grocery shopping with my parents so on our way home, I bought a puzzle.
I've been itching to cross something else off my day zero list.
So as soon as I got home, I got started and 3 hours later.....



I have to admit that my mom and dad helped a bit, but who could say no when all the pieces look the same?

In the middle of putting the puzzle together my dad went to check the mail and there was a surprise waiting for me!!
I've been checking the mail everyday for a week and half and of course the one day I don't check.....A POSTCARD ARRIVED FOR ME!!!
I was so excited, I started jumping up and down screaming.
It came all the way from Spain from a guy named Marcos.
It's really cool to realize that this is happening. :)
Here's a picture of my very first postcard :) (only 99 more to go)



Isn't it so super cool?
I can't wait to get more. Who knows where they'll come from.

On another note, I spent most of my day outside today, which is pretty rare for me.
I've never been an outdoorsy person but since I've lost some weight, I seem to have much more energy and am willing to do things I normally hate.
So I helped my mom clean out flower bed and move trees.
It was actually very relaxing and nice to get some fresh air.
AAANNNDDDDDDD
Mom pointed out that the tree Raleigh and I planted last summer is going to bloom this spring!!!!
I will make sure to post pictures when it does.
I've never actually had a plant that I planted stay alive.
Definitely a first! But hopefully not the last. :)

I hope you had a GREAT weekend!

Ramble, Ramble, Ramble

I have so much to say about so little. If that makes any sense....
Since my last post I have finished reading what there is of the Lorien Legacies.
Some of you may have heard of the movie I Am Number Four.
This is the books series that the movie was based on.
Now I've become an addict but unfortunately, the next book won't come out till August.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself until then....
Any good suggestions for books would be greatly appreciated.
I especially need a good beach book. :) I have 6 weeks till I'll be soaking up the sun on the beach and I simply CANNOT WAIT.

With the beach trip being that close, I'm trying to get back on the exercise wagon. I went to bootcamp last Saturday and let me tell you, it KICKED.MY.BUTT. But that's what happens when you decide not to go for 2 months and then think it will be a piece of cake getting back into it. Don't get me wrong, it felt great to get back to it, but I had trouble sitting down and getting back up for 3 days afterwards. That's exactly what 5 full minutes of squats, 5 minutes of waling planks, and 5 minutes of situps does to ya. So today on my day off, I decided that I wasn't going to be lazy (which is what I usually do). So I woke up, ate breakfast and started to clean out the pantry (it's been 2 weeks since I did it, so it was time to do it again per my day zero project list). The pantry was surprisingly clean so I decided to clean out the refrigerator instead. Tell me if you can see a difference.




Oh, but before that, I made these delicious caramel cookies!

I got the recipe from Weight Watchers, so they're not as bad for you as normal cookies are. And the recipe is super simple!
Cream together 1 stick of butter, 1 cup dark brown sugar, 1 large egg, and 1 tsp vanilla. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp baking soda. Then scrape the dough out of bowl and onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Roll dough into a log, about 2 1/2-inches wide; completely wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 20 minutes or up to overnight. One you take it out, cut the dough into 1/8-inch-thick slices and arrange on several large ungreased cookies sheets about 1- to 1 1/2-inches apart. Bake until lightly browned around edges, about 8 to 10 minutes in a 400° oven. And voila. Delicious cookies.

After I ate a couple :) I thought that maybe I should actually work out so Denise and I spent some quality time together.

She also kicked my butt, but not as bad as bootcamp did. I think I'll try doing my video more often. Maybe I'll get better results when I weigh in every week. Which brings me to an idea that I saw on Pinterest. I know that I have lost a significant amount of weight, but I'm having trouble visualizing how much it actually is, so hopefully this will help!


Maybe it will help motivate me to reach my goal so I can finally cross something else off my list. :) Well, that's all for now. Talk to you guys soon. :)

postcrossing.com

When I started making my 101 list, I didn't have too many ideas. I got to about number 30 before I got stuck. Around that time, Raleigh found a website called dayzeroproject.com. It's basically full of 101 in 1001 list that different people have. I started looking through other people's list and came across one that said "receive 100 postcards through postcrossing.com". I was curious to find out what that was so I got on the website and was very intrigued by it all. Basically how it works is, you sign up for the website and put your address in. Then you request an address and it gets e-mailed to you and that's the person that you have to send a postcard to. The cool part is that the address can be ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!! You can request 5 addresses at a time. Once the person receives it, they register your postcard and then your address is e-mailed to the next person that requests an address. It's super cool. Last week I sent out 5 postcards going to The Netherlands, Germany, China, Russia, and Finland. THis week, I got 3 confirmation emails that 3 of my postcards had arrived. I was completely ecstatic because I was almost positive that I hadn't put enough postage on them, but sure enough, they got there. So now comes the waiting game..... I should be receiving a postcard, or 3 in the next couple of weeks! This is so exciting. I'll post pictures of them once they arrive! Can't wait. :)

101 in 1001

This whole thing got started because my boyfriend, Raleigh, and I decided that we need to start saving money. He looked up fun, free things to do and ran across the day zero project. It's basically a bucket list but for a smaller period of time. You have 1001 days to complete 101 things. It can be anything that you want. So we took a few days to make our lists and now we've set out to do everything on them. One of the items on my list being to have a blog throughout my whole experience.

We officially started the 1001 on January 9, 2012. That was 9 days ago. And I'm just now starting my blog.... sooo..... that can't be a good sign, but hopefully I will commit to this more. I will be posting updates as I cross things off my list.

I've completed one item, which is to write myself a letter to be opened at the end of the 1001 days. It's currently sitting on my computer desk. Most of the rest of my things take longer to complete.

So far I have:
Gone 10 days without carbonated beverages (21 days to go)
Started a blog
Watched 2 new movies
Sent 5 postcards to people around the world (I should receive my first postcard in the next few weeks!!! SSOO EXCITED!)
Cleaned out the pantry
Sent Raleigh a package

I think that's pretty good for the first 9 days. :)

Here are a couple of pictures to prove I did some of this stuff.