No obstacles to becoming a certified teacher now :)

I thought that life couldn't get any better, a great student teaching experience, Jeremiah and I making it 7 months with only 1 income (pastor's income haha), having an amazing year of marriage coming up and excited for summer, but....

seeing my test scores with the word: PASSED: next to them- beat it all. I have worked SOOO hard for 4 years, pushing through hard classes, tough teachers, struggling and succeeding in voice lessons (hardest part), working for the school, and growing as a woman and it all came down to these 2 tests...

It didn't matter how hard I worked, if I graduated without passing these tests, I didn't have much of a chance of landing a job next year.

I wanted to go into this job market with all odds my favor (not the excuse of not being qualified enough) and I am excited for whatever God has for me, even if that is subbing for the next several months. I am going to dive into serving and volunteer work, spending time with my family, doing everything I can to get as much time with J as possible and many more things. This summer is going to be bliss. Summer camp, week vacation with J, and many new adventures.

God is so good. He is always good. At the Catalyst conference I had many thoughts in my head of how to apply everything and step up as a leader. God's HUGE, resounding take-away point was.... Prayer. Prayer for Jeremiah, for our ministry, for those around me. It has been transforming. I am reading 'Power of the Praying Wife" and it is just incredible to be able to serve Jeremiah in that way that I never thought about, honestly. It has opened up a new season of our marriage (yes yes, only been married less than a year but so great to have "seasons" already haha).

I am so blessed. This week is filled with family for Jeremiah's birthday, work outs and a fun surprise date I have planned for J on Sunday :)
Next week...

GRADUATION!!!!!!

Week 3 weigh in!

This week was hard- less workouts and harder with food

but...

I lost about 2.5 pounds!


J lost...

3.5 pounds!! :)


Cali this week with the church so we are bringing good snacks and gonna work hard to stick with our new food types :)


Stay tuned for next week :)

Weigh in week 2

Well we got our butts kicked in our workout class tonight. I like the lady that runs the class, very positive and calls us out when we are wimping out :)

We did one cheat night this week and that made me nervous but after today's weigh in, I walked out to meet Jeremiah and his face was just as glowing as mine was..

I lost...

4.5 pounds this week!!!!!!!!!!

My total- 8 pounds in 2 weeks! (my short term goal is 20 pounds by graduation- May 9th- I CAN DO IT!)


Jeremiah lost...

5 pounds this week!!!!!!!

His total- 9 pounds!!!!!


we can't tell a different in the mirror but man it feels SO good. We wanted to run and tell everyone haha.


Thanks for the all the support- check in next week for #3!!

Recipes

Here is the recipe for the protein bars (you can make one batch and cut them into 2"x2" bars. They don't taste like a candy bar but they are a great snack substitute with a tiny hint of chocolate to give ya a smile :)

Ingredients:

6 eggs (egg whites only are better)
2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
4 scoops protein powder (chocolate flavor if you have it)
1 tsp olive oil
4 tbs peanut butter (or as much or little as you want/like)
1/2 package Carob Chips (look like chocolate chips) or 1/2 package of peanut butter chips (I use dark chocolate chips)

Steps:

Preheat oven to 325
Mix all ingredients together in the order listed above
spray 9x13 baking dish with non stick spray (very important!)
back for 23 minutes

After they cool, cut and refrigerate!

ENJOY! :)


I also answered a few questions in the previous blog comments if you want to check it out :) I have lived this life for forever (cuz my parents are health/work out freaks- so I know all the answers, I just got lazy and let myself go, so it's nice to know how to put all this into good use :)


I always eat a protein bar before we work out, gives me a little boost and doesn't make me feel dizzy or full when we're working out :)


Tomorrow is weigh in #2 after our group workout session. I'm nervous and excited. I'll reveal the results tomorrow! :)

Our New Life

Well several people have asked "what are you guys changing that you saw several pounds in the first 5 days??" Well I figured I would share what we are doing now and I'm so excited/nervous to weigh in on Tuesday again. I cheated and weighed myself on Thursday and I had already lost another pound so it was an exciting motivation. I have to stop myself from checking everyday.
Here is our routine on a normal day

Breakfast- 2 choices: protein shake (2c. water, 1 tbs fat free vanilla yogurt, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, half a banana, handful of frozen, sliced strawberries- blend)- IT IS AMAZING, OR- 2 eggs only 1 yolk) and 1-2 pieces of turkey bacon

snack- apple & 1 tbs peanut butter or string cheese or 8-10 almonds or orange

lunch- few slices of deli meat, string cheese (only if you didn't have string cheese for snack), piece of fruit, carrots

snack- protein bar (homemade- my mom and dad found a recipe for healthy, GOOD protein bars because most packaged protein bars are either really high in sugar and fat, or they are just SO expensive. If you want the recipe, lemme know- they are so cheap and one batch makes enough for both of us for 2 weeks!)

dinner- meat and veges (either grilled/baked chicken with seasoning or fat free marinade- no fried or with oil), turkey meat either for taco salads, meatloaf (1 pound ground turkey, 1 cup bread crumbs, 8 oz fat free sour cream, salt and pepper- mix all together and put in a pan- bake for 50 minutes, top with little bit of brown sugar and ketchup), pork- grilled or baked, you can do fish but Jeremiah doesnt like fish haha so that is out- or VERY lean beef- we don't eat much beef.
veges are always steamed or baked. Broccoli, green beans, corn (rarely), or a salad with meat on top and fat free dressing.

dessert- we have 2 choices that we like- Skinny Cow ice cream pops (we get skinny dippers- 80 calories in one) or sugar free, fat free fruit/yogurt bars from Sams Club). It is a great little treat

We work out 5 days a week for an hour to hour and a half or we do group workout classes on Tuesdays. Cardio for 75% of the time- in our target heart rate, and then we do a cycle of stations that work upper and lower body and then we always do core (crunches, planks, etc).


It was SUPER hard the first week and this week it is fairly easy. It is more hard to resist when people offer stuff that we can't have. We have both been good and stuck to it. For easter my mom got us a basket full of orange and apples haha. :) so nice :)



So that is basically what we are doing for right now. High protein, almost no sugar, very little carbs (no complex carbs like breads, pastas, potatoes, etc.)

We had our first "cheat" meal on Friday and we went to Pei Wei and got lettuce wraps and chicken teriyaki with brown rice- ha so we didn't cheat too much but it hit the spot :)

I'm hope for 5 pounds this week which will make it almost 10 in 2 weeks and then about 20 pounds by graduation :)

Any questions or comments- feel free to!! :)

Weight Update!

Well we got our butts kicked at cardio class today and then we weighed ourselves-

with 3 big work outs this week (we had a lot of orientation nights at the gym so less work outs then we hope) and doing REALLY good with food--

I lost....

3.5 pounds!!!!!!!!!

Jeremiah lost close to....

4 pounds!!!!!!!!!

HOW EXCITING! Now that we have the motivation that this is working, we are going to be very diligent from now on and get the most out of our work outs!! :)


I will update each week, so keep us accountable so it's like our "weigh in" haha.

thanks for the support guys! It's just the beginning!

a new lifestyle

Well lately I just have been really convicted of our health and the "honeymoon" weight that we have put on. I have never been a "small" girl by anymeans but I was always athletic and I never worried about fitness or food because in high school I was at softball 6 days a week and my parents were health freaks so I always ate healthy. College hit and ramen noodles and microwave foods were cheap and easy with a busy schedule. I carried that into a marriage (not so much ramen noodles but just cheaper, easy foods) and I have been looking at pictures of us lately and even comparing to our wedding and how in 10 months we have let ourselves go.
So last week we decided not to make excuses anymore and we just went full force into a new lifestyle and while it has been somewhat of a challenge, we feel so good about the decision!

My dad is a fitness guru (as in he has like 6% body fat or something ridiculous and my mom has always had a good handle on personal health and so I know all the correct answers, ways to eat, work out routines- so I had no excuses at all! :)

So on Monday we went to Lifetime Fitness to get a tour and set up our plan with them. let me say-- Lifetime is AMAZING! It is a little more pricy than the other gyms but they offer so many different things, open all the time, and they really have given us many tools for success. Granted Lifetime is basically the closest gym to our house but it has been great so far. Everyday day this week we hit up the gym together- I love spending that purposeful time with Jeremiah. We did a group cardio class on Thursday and MAN it kicked our butts- can't wait to see how much easier it gets with time.

We have changed our eating habits DRASTICALLY- very few carbs and almost all protein, fresh/steamed veges and fruits. Ha when I look back at what we used to eat, one of our dinners before would have been the amount of calories we eat all day now. We have our mid morning and mid afternoon snacks as well- everything high protein and fresh produce. It is challenging to find varieties that we really enjoy but that was an excuse I used before-

I can't wait to step on the scale on Tuesday to see how far a week has come- as long as I loose something, it will be worth it!