It's Vacation Time!

It's that time!! Whoot! I'm leaving on vacation tonight, y'all!

Me and my honey are Las Vegas bound and I couldn't be more excited!  With all that has been going on... and work... and stress... and kids... and diet... and ball... Yup, I need a break!

At this time tomorrow, I'll be waking up to the sights and sounds of Sin City and I won't have a care in the world! We've got the room booked, most meals already purchased or vouchers for free (thank you MyVegas) and the concert tickets are bought! I am so looking forward to this laid back trip.

We've done most things in Vegas since this will be our third trip together (my fourth), but don't get me wrong! Vegas is always changing and there is ALWAYS something new to do or see... For instance...

The Worlds Largest Ferris Wheel

It opened in March, and it's supposed to have some amazing views.  I'm NOT a fan of Ferris wheels, but I MAY attempt this one.  You see, my fear is falling, not heights. These "pods" are supposed to be fully enclosed and able to house 40 people at a time... SURELY I can't fall out of it.  However, at $30ish dollars a pop... It may or may not happen.

There is also the above referenced sign... all these years of going and I still haven't seen that damned thing! We're hoping that this is the year for it! Did you know that there is a WEB CAM you can view of the sign all day? It can get pretty interesting sometimes! lol

And speaking of web cams... Here's one where you can watch the exact view that I'll have from my room! It's not LIVE, but it refreshes every so often to a new view. Seriously. The camera is right above the room we stay in and you CAN NOT beat that view.  I can go to bed watching those every night this week and I will NOT get tired of it!

Fitness/Health wise this week... I'm kinda on vacation. But, I'll be doing ten times as much walking as I would EVER do at home.  I'm really hoping that offsets all the yummy goodness that I will be consuming! I plan on logging as much as I can, I plan on continuing my protein shakes and vitamins in the mornings, and I plan on keeping track of just how many miles I will walk in one short day. I also plan on weighing in when I get back, just to see how damaging a week of vacation can be to your diet, kinda like I did at Christmas, here and here.

If you'd like to read more about what we're planning for this trip, you can check out this post that I did back in March.  If you've got questions, I've probably got answers! I'm a Vegas fanatic and would love to go back time and time again... all in the same year.

Also! Don't forget about the AMAZING giveaway that Alicia over at BrewMama is doing right now! 18 wonderful women (myself included) have pitched in some awesome fitness gear to win and you seriously do not want to miss out on this. you can enter HERE on my original post, or HERE on Alicia's page! GOOD LUCK! She's featuring all of the bloggers that went in on this giveaway the past couple of days and my day happens to be today... Hop on over there and read all about it! 

AND- I've started a Facebook page for anyone that's interested... like me up! And a new Twitter account too... so you don't have to read all my personal complaints or gripes! LOL Still on MyFitnessPal as well- NickoleM123 and IG as NickoleM123- I haven't made an account for the blog as of yet... Check me out, subscribe, like, whatever ya wanna do... I appreciate each one of you!  You inspire me to keep going and to keep blogging!

I guess that's all I've got for now folks... I've got lots to do before we leave tonight, so I need to get my butt in gear!

Have a great week ya'll! I'll be landing back in good ol Oklahoma on next Monday night, so there may be a re-cap on Tuesday! :)

Take me out to the ball field....

It's baseball season y'all! My youngest, Remington is playing this year.

He's a Mustang... #54.  His daddy's old football number.

 

The kid is a little slugger.  His first game? He got a Grand Slam... you can bet he made some cash off of that one! His second game, he got two doubles that should have been home runs, IF the ball field would fix their fence.  The ball apparently rolled under the fence, and so they have to stop you at second. :-/ Oh well.  

He's doing so well this year, and seems to like it. Once he's there anyway.  Getting TO practice and games is a bit harder. LOL

We've got another game tonight. The late one.  I'm hoping that it doesn't make for a cranky kid in the morning! 

I get a semi-workout when we go to the games... I have two chairs, an ice chest, and usually a kid to carry from the car to the field and back.  And I'm THAT mom... the one that yells and screams.  And not just to cheer them on.  I WILL call you out on a bad call, I will tell my son to pay attention, and I WILL tell the coach to pull my kid if he ain't doing his job! LOL.  My kid may be good, but there are several other kids on the team that are good too.  And several others that don't get as much play time, but they need it too.  I am not above pulling my own kid. lol

I grew up on the baseball fields. I played, I bat-girled, I assisted, and I've cheered.  My step dad has almost always been involved with the little league in some way, and I've usually be right there behind him.  I know my baseball, and while I won't watch the games on TV... take me to a ball field and gimme some nachos or a ball field pickle, and this chick is in HEAVEN! 

Are you a ball mom? Who's your little slugger?

Don't forget to enter the great big #GetFitForSummerGiveaway hosted by the amazing Alicia over at Brew Mama. We've got a HUGE list of stuff to twin and even if you don't want it all, you can donate it to me! ;-) 

Weigh in Wednesday and a Giveaway!

Hello ladies and gents... It's that time again, and this week, we're also wrapping up my 30 day challenge with Adie. Here's today's number...

Here are also my measurement's from beginning to end

I know... Awesome editing here.

And my before and after photos

Of course, you know I had a bad week in there and gained... significantly. But thanks to Alicia (Brew Mama) and Candra (Camo & Lipstick) I got right back on track and had a 2# loss as of last Saturday! THANK YOU LADIES! I didn't do all that I had hoped for with the challenge, but sometimes it just doesn't go as planned.

Speaking of Brew Mama... She has an awesome giveaway going on!

She's contacted some amazing blogger ladies and we've all chipped in a little here and there for a fantastic giveaway! If you don't follow Alicia already, DO IT NOW! She's such an inspiring lady and she's done an amazing job eating right and losing weight! She even dropped two pant sizes recently (that's right, TWO) and is rocking some awesome new clothes! If I hadn't been contacted about helping out on the giveaway, I'd be the first person signed up! ;-) Make sure you head over and read all about her, and about the other wonderful women that are making this giveaway possible!

Alicia from Brew Mama

Nicki from Beautifully Awkward

Candra from Camo and Lipstick

Darci from Strongly Feminine

Trista from Life According to Trista

Aubrey Leigh from ALG Uninterrupted

Tia from Hands on. Pants off.

Adie from Four Fit Sisters

Desiree from Macke Monologues

Crystal from Crystal Michelle's Mess

Jasmine from Fleurty and Fit

Niki from Heavy Cupcake (HEY! THAT'S ME!)

Ang from Mean Ang

Sami from Simply Sami

Val from Fab Chick Gets Fit

Stacie from Stacie Rogers Training

Erin from Homemade Happenings

Analisa from Sunset 79

Get to ENTERING!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And as always, I'm linking up with Ashlee over here for Weigh in Wednesday!


Remember! There won't be one next week as I'll be in Vegas... and hopefully staying off of the scale! There will be lots of walking involved... but also lots of food and drinking.  Don't judge.  We all need a vacation every once and a while!

That's all for today folks... How did your weekly weigh in go?! Link up and let us know!

A Super 7th Birthday!

Hey y'all! I just wanted to drop in with an update on Remington's Super 7th Birthday party we did this past Sunday.  Geeze! I can't believe my baby is 7... Where has the time gone?!

This boy right here is super sweet and he loves all things Superman. I try to go all out for birthdays, just becuase every kid needs to feel like their birthdays are special.  My kids are lucky enough that their birthdays fall during the school year, so most of the time, they have school kids that get to attend. We invite all the family and I try to go all out... That being said, party prep started FRIDAY & Saturday night...

And then got finished up on Sunday!

Kitchen

Dining Room

Cake Table

Cake... thank God we didn't have the debacle like last time

Cake & Cupcakes

Chocolate covered, cheesecake stuffed strawberries

Kryptonite Krispies & Chocolate dipped pretzles

Living Room

More living room

Cupcake stand in Kitchen

I love doing big parties.. I'm a planner, and I love to constantly have a house full of people. Always.  I love to cook, bake, decorate.... so what better way than with a party!  One day I'll be able to do that full time... One day! :-)

The party got started, the boy opened his presents

 

And blew out the candles...

And a great time was had by all!

my nephew in his Clark Kent glasses

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REMINGTON!!!

Weigh in Wednesday

It's hump day again, and I'm back at it and feeling much better than last week.  THANK YOU to everyone that felt my pain and left words of encouragement, or that emailed and checked in on me.  I appreciate it all.  Seriously.  I've realized now, more than ever, that I DO have people supporting me, even thought they're people I don't see every day! THANK YOU!

So here's this week's number...

Sorry it's blurry... I only took one shot and was in a hurry. Also, I did NOT weigh in this Sunday for the challenge with Adie. I forgot all about it that morning, and by the time the birthday party was over (more on that later), I had had such a bad week, I knew my weight would be WAY off. So, here's today.

I have to give a shout out to my honey on here today.  He apologized for what he commented, and that took a lot.  I know he didn't mean it the way I took it, but apparently, when you're in a position like I am, every little thing can discourage you. He's a joker, and that's how his comments were meant. We're good.  I'm better, he's better.  I'm getting this ball rolling again.

I had two amazing ladies contact me yesterday to help me as well... I've learned so much over the past 24 hours and am so grateful to them for helping to pick me back up! Thanks to them, I'm now switched over to My Fitness Pal... Yeah, I know, I know. I'm behind on the times.  But, I've used LoseIt for so long, it was hard to make the change. But... it's done. Look me up if you want to "friend" me... NickoleM123

Speaking of names... Should I change my MFP to HeavyCupcake? Or my IG? or should I just get a second account? It's all so confusing! But, my concern is that I wonder if I put my IG as Heavy Cupcake if people will get tired of seeing me and my boys... ALONG with my healthy stuff too, of course. Thoughts?

Anyway... short post for now.  Know that I AM doing better eating this week and again, am grateful for each and every one of my supporters.  Chime in, say hello! I'd love to get to know you better!

Weigh in Wednesday Day 17 of 30

Hi Folks! It's weigh in Wednesday, again! I'm here with an update about the 30 day challenge that I'm doing with Adie.
Sunday's weigh in with her was this:

Which means I only lost .6# last week with the challenge.  I know that my workouts sucked due to the cold weather, but most of it was just because I was too damn lazy! I didn't do any flights of stairs at work, I didn't take any walks, I didn't do a stitch of yoga either.  I've had a lot going on, and while I know that isn't an excuse, my head just hasn't been in it.

Well, that all changed on Saturday.  After some morning shopping and a great lunch with my honey, I went home and worked in the yard for a couple of hours, then detailed out one of my cars for a couple of hours.  Even went and washed and vacuumed it! After, I may or may not have eaten a peep... or two.  But I earned it!

I also started party prep for my sons birthday.  Superman is his party theme this year and I've made the chocolate dipped pretzels and kryptonite krispies.  We're also going to do a black bean and corn salsa, and cheesecake stuffed chocolate dipped strawberries. MMMM...

I try to go all out for my kids birthdays.  Mostly because I remember what a bummer my birthdays were, and I don't want them to feel that way.  Then again, my birthday was always in the middle of the simmer, so kids were less likely to come. Oh well.  Until they say they don't want it, we'll just keep on partying! 

Sunday was SUPER nice (#seewhatididthere?) and I ended up taking the top off the front half of the jeep! 

 

It was so nice! I can't wait till I can leave if off all the time.  Right now, the mornings are chilly, and we're entering tornado season... so that means RAIN. All. The. Time. Speaking of chilly mornings... 

Monday morning, I forgot to put the top back on... so it was a very chilly ride to school! Oh well... I was def awake at work that morning! The top got put back on around noon since it was going to rain.  Still haven't taken it off since then. C'mon nice weather! I'm ready to go topless all the time! (HA!)

Monday night I came home and push mowed the back lawn. It was a workout that I swear lasted an hour... it was only 20 minutes. Blah... Oh well, I came home and moved. That's what's important. Right? 

Tuesday... SUCKED. Seriously.  I've had this kick ass attitude since Saturday and it all went to hell yesterday. I won't go into detail again, but know that it sucked all the way around. I ate so terribly. I felt terrible. I didn't workout. I just didn't.  But, I also DIDN'T have the big old greasy cheeseburger that I wanted either. I DID however eat tacos... with cheese, cheese sauce AND sour cream.  I also ate 15387654324 rice crispy treats.  Yup.  And they were so good.  I ain't even gonna lie. Unfortunately, neither does the scale.

This blows... and I don't even want to talk about it. Seriously. An unfortunately, this is my weigh in at the beginning of the month. Blah... 

Linking up with Heather and Ash over here...

And I also wanted to tell you about a Swag swap going on over with two of my favorite bloggers, Candra and Alicia!

These two ladies have put this group together for people that want to swap some swag that is for fitness or just plain old Diva-ness. All ya gotta do is send an email with your name, pick of category and your info for social medias.  They'll link you up, you swap info with the person you're paired with and then get to swapping! I can't wait to get this thing started!

Hope you all have a happy hump day and that you're doing MUCH better than I am on this whole thing! What do you do when you fall off the wagon? 

I don't want to...

So... isn't it amazing how your whole outlook on something can change dramatically, in just the snap of a finger?

Seriously... I've kinda been on a high since seeing my before photos in January compared to my photos I did on Sunday.  I felt so good about myself and even though my progress from 3/17 to 3/30 wasn't that awesome. I had a renewed sense of "I can do this!" It's really not the most amazing progress, but for me, after going a whole month of the scale not moving at all, I needed to see *something*. I hit the ground running this weekend... Major outside work on Saturday, two walks on Sunday, and last night, I PUSH MOWED my back lawn. Really.  Who does that? But, I hit my daily goal in steps, I got my mileage in, I got some active minutes (even though it felt like an hour!). I've seen other peoples progress (go Brew Mama!) and I've been psyched about that I can do...

Today, I had decided to start the Two Week Oz Diet that Holly had posted about here... she did yet another post on it yesterday, and I thought, "I could do that!" I mean, I could do this for the next three weeks before we leave for Vegas. Really.  I'm already gluten and dairy free. The only thing that I'll be cutting back on now, is the meat.  I normally have meat with lunch and dinner, but I can do just dinner for three weeks. So... I started my day with the warm lemon water, I made my protein smoothie (minus the flax seed cause I don't have any) and loaded up all my veggies to take to work with me. I even laid the chicken out to thaw for dinner.  I'm set for the day, right? So, I posted my nice little IG picture

and went on my merry little way. I had a couple "likes" and a couple of comments asking about the Oz diet. Then I get a comment that just shoots it all out of the barrel. "...MORE restrictions??? I see a grumpy honey in my future...ijs" After defending my decision, the next comment was "Yup....I see arguments a plenty ahead" Seriously? THIS is how you support me on my "quest" to lose 30 pounds by my birthday? To lose 50 pounds by the end of the year?

Ugh... so now, my get-up is gone.  Just like that.  I don't care what I have for lunch.  I haven't tracked a stitch of food that has gone into my mouth today. And if I wouldn't have found out that my bank is all of a sudden overdrawn this morning (icing on the cake) then I would probably be eating a great big ol' greasy bacon cheeseburger like I've been dreaming that these celery sticks were for the past two weeks! I've even deleted the IF and FB picture post.

Seriously... When you already don't have but one supporter in this endeavor you're on, the last thing you need is for that supporter to call you out on crankiness and such because I'm trying to go farther into healthy than  I already was. I thought I was taking a step in the right direction.  And quite frankly, I had no idea that I was cranky. Now, don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to mention that I miss cheese, or that I'd kill for pizza, or french fries, or a greasy cheeseburger (with the bun, please)... but I don't make people not eat in front of me.  I don't yell at them for being able to eat what I can't.  This is a choice I've made for myself, and I'll have my cheat meal when we go to Vegas. But c'mon.

Why are so many people AGAINST people like me that are trying to get healthy? I know I'm fat.  I know  I can't run.  My mile and a quarter WALK that I do a couple times a week isn't a RUN, but one day it'll turn into a WOG... Then one day a JOG.  Then, maybe I'll run.  I bitch about watching what I eat and having to work out, but then I also like to toot my horn (to my supporter) when I hit my daily goals too. Why do people NOT support? Sometimes, all that you need is someone to say "you've got this" or "get out of bed" or even ask "What can I do to help". SOMETHING.  But NEVER, EVER tell that person that what they're doing isn't good.  OR it's a bad choice. (unless of course, it's anorexia or something like bad that)

Basically, from now on... people like that can just keep your mouth shut.  You've brought this 11.6# loser to tears today because I don't think I can do it anymore.  Because after that, I don't WANT to do it anymore.  Because I've turned BACK to food for comfort.

I know I make my own way and I can't rely on anyone else to make me do it.  To make me feel like doing it. But right now, I don't want to. I don't want to make my way.