Changes

So my whole department at work moved floors.  We used to be on the 5th floor, and I was very lucky to have a window seat.  This was my desk:

This was the only photo I could find of my old desk, besides a lot of bottles needing to be recycled, you can see I have tons of pictures up and crochet garland that a swap partner made me.  The window was behind me while taking this photo.

Now, this is my new desk on the first floor:

It is a little messy because I took this photo while I was unpacking.  You can see that the walls of my desk are much shorter than the old ones.  No one was looking forward to going to this new furniture.  Plus, you didn't have a square, you had half a hexagon.

This is the view behind me.  You can see how the pods are hexagonal.  My one big plus to the move is I have even more windows!

I really thought I was going to hate the move, but it isn't bad.  I liked that I got a fresh start and got to throw a ton a stuff away.  I like the new person who sits behind me, Hi Becky!  It does get a little loud sometimes with the low walls, but it really isn't THAT bad.

Earlier in the summer, I told you about making the decision to get healthier.  My sister and I were makign weekly goals.  I did really well over the summer.  I've lost about 12lbs.  I've gone down a pants size, it probably would have been two sizes, but the size I was in when I started was really tight.

While I was making these new and better health decisions I found a website to follow called The Shrinking Kitchen.  I've tried a few of the recipes already. 

The Berry-licious Muffins are amazing, I made them 4 times in a row.  They recipe says that they are 147 calories per muffin, but I got more muffins out of each batch.  My muffin were about 125 calories a piece.

My dad made the next recipe, but it also from The Shrinking Kitchen.  We made Easy Weeknight Lo Mein and it was healthy and delicious!

It was only 286 calories a serving!  Ours might have been a little different, we added more of the veggies.  I would definitely make this again, my only problem is that Dave is picky!  So, I'd be cooking for one.

The last new recipe we tried was Lightened Up Spinach Lasagna.  I thought it was really good, but my dad said he could taste that we used skim ricotta cheese and skim mozzarella cheese.  He still said it was good though.  I didn't get a picture of it.

Do you have any good healthy recipes?  Do you have weird furniture at work? :-)

Sam :-)

Fitness

On Monday June 16th my sister and I decided to make some small goals for one week.  We had already not finished 2 different 30 day challenges.  On the first week our goals were:

• No pop
• No candy
• No fast food
• Exercise 2 times no including our soccer games
• Log food/exercise

It felt great to finally try and do something whole heartedly about the weight I gained since Dave first got sick.  I didn't gain quickly, it happened so slow over the past 2 1/2 years that it was hard to notice.  At my highest, when I weighed in on that Monday I had almost gained 30lbs!  So my starting weight that day was 177 and my goal where I felt good and happy is at about 150.

The app my sister and I have been using is LoseIt.  I have been logging everything I eat and all of the exercise that I do.  There are a lot of similar apps and they are all very comparable.  We really chose LoseIt because my family has used it before.

After 3 weeks of short term goals each week I'm down 9lbs.  I'm just excited to see progress.  It makes me so happy and determined to keep going.

I've added yoga a few nights a week to my 1-2 days of soccer.  My sister, my friend Candice and I have decided to try a couple challenges.  We are keeping each other motivated.  The ones we chose are a squat challenge and an Ab challenge.

The ab challenge is from back in February, hence the cupid and hearts and such.

It feels good to be getting back to my active self.  Dave and I went to hit golf balls at a local driving range.  Dave wanted to see if it would hurt his stomach (5 surgeries in 2 1/2 years leaves some tummy pain) to swing a golf club.  He took it easy and did very well.  I think we can go golfing on vacation!  He said he thinks he hit it straighter because he wasn't trying to hit the ball super hard.  The day was beautiful and hot!  I got sunburn from 1 hour there.

The view wasn't too shabby either!  You can see the city in the distance.

Last week, my boss set it up so that my group volunteered in the morning on the 3rd.  That way we could eat lunch together and then get out early for the 4th of July holiday.  We were cleaning up the road near our corporate office.  If I've never mentioned it before, I work with Heather from Amarylis Musings.

We walked a whole bunch that morning and it was hot.  I was a sweaty mess.  Our company has a big partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.  So the Pirate Parrot came to visit, help, and film a video.

Heather and I helped him put on a safety vest.  He was a good sport!

Just to keep myself accountable, here's a photo of myself today that Heather just took.

It's not quite where I want to be, but I'll get there!

I don't know if I'll ever get back to this, but this is me rock climbing back right around when Dave and I first met 6 years ago.

Notice how fast I pass up the small child to my right haha

Sam :-)