IKEW: A NEW BLOG?

“Weight loss” is a huge part of my life, which I feel like you, as a reader of my blog already knows and so i want to ask your opinion …

I am thinking about staring a blog dedicated to the end of my weight loss journey and the whole enduring to the end part of it. I have 10lbs to go .. well today it is 13LBS to go but I am rounding …. after those LBS I will have lost 100 LBS .. I am SO ready to get there but motivation is slim after doing it for almost 2 years … I need some special type of motivation … and the thought came to me … a new blog … a blog where i tell you my weight every.single.morning. recipes, tips, rants .. oh lots of rants … inspiration, photos .. well maybe photos, fun exercises, the works … I am not the best blogger but maybe with your encouragement a new blog could be the motivation I need to desperately …

What do YOU think??

HOLY LOVE GAME, BATMAN

It seems that a lot of ladies think that Valentines Day is all about US. We get the gifts and the flowers and the fancy dinners but what about our gentlemen friends? Let’s be honest ladies we can be a hand full! Our men deserve a special day just as much as we do! Jake even more so since I am a hand full but like the hands are that of giants! Of course, men are simple we all know what they really want come February 14TH!! But how to spice that up Valentines Day style …

I saw THIS idea and had to do it! Her’s is super cute but I wanted to put my own spin on it and you guessed it … that spin is BATMAN! Lord help me the day Jake is sick of Batman!

If you are attempting this which I hope you are cause … well … All the world needs now is love sweet love! You’ll need a fitted sheet (I just used an old one I had) some markers and the shape of your choice … the hardest part for me was finding time when Jake wasn’t home!

If you are OCD like me you can use some tape to help with your spacing. It also helped because I had to do it on two different days, like I said Jake was always home!!

Now start tracing your template. I printed out the Batman logo on some card stock which worked fine, you can use any ol’ shape you can find!

A few things to note: Be sure to have something UNDER the sheet to protect your mattress! If you see the original post you might notice that she has SO MANY squares! Like 60 or something! I was a little intimated trying to come up with that many ideas so fast so I was very liberal with my spacing. I only ended up having like 18 which was NOT enough! I guess I had more ideas then I thought … when we get a bigger bed in the future I’ll make this again and it will be even more awesome! I also I ran out of room for the game title … maybe more planning was in order!

I did get him a legit gift and planned to give it to him if he landed on the right “bat” but then I thought .. what if he passes it?!? I can’t give it to him for no reason! Trying to be sneaky I added some bats that said “back 1 bat” and “forward 2 bats” making sure he would land on it!

Here is how it went down! I used a Valentines heart box as the game piece and just stole a die from another game. In order to make the game last if he rolled an odd number he got to move one space and an even number two spaces … Jake didn’t like this because he kept rolling odd numbers! Each bat has a 90 second time limit so we didn’t get carried away! The rest you can figure out for yourself!

I love the skyline with the bat signal! Not only was this totally FREE, I can throw this bad boy on the bed WHENEVER I want to add a little somethin’ somethin’ to our night!

Here are a few of the Bats up close!

If your husband is really into sports I think doing a football field would be so cute!! I also like the original one with the red! Good luck ladies! Try not to be such a handful this week!

HAPPY WEEZER DAY

This morning I had a Pinterest WIN! I made these for Jake – his favorite!

I just need to tell the blogging world how much I love my husband! He is amazing for so many reasons but today I love him because he makes me laugh!

I came home to find him studying like this!

HE.IS.AWESOME!

It was on this day many years ago that Weezer had their first practice so happy Weezer Day to you!

IKEW : STILL AT IT

Doing The Biggest Loser with my family last year was SO great! I felt so motivated and am so happy that the infamous “wedding weight” was only around for a few months! It was such a good experience that I decided to do it again! But this time the stakes would be higher … much higher!

Here are the rules.

1. Eat healthy, exercise, and have fun times!
2. One time $50.00 fee which MUST be paid during the first weigh in.
3. The first weigh in will be on JANUARY 1st/2nd.
4. Weigh-in’s will occur SUNDAY morning.
5. You must enter your weight BEFORE Sunday at 8:00pm!
6. There will be a penalty fee of $1 applied if you do not weigh in.
7. The final weigh in will be on MARCH 10th (SATURDAY) we will make a party of it. MUST attend to win 1st or 2nd place. (10 WEEKS)
8. We will NOT weigh in the last 2 weeks (for suspense)
9. There will be a penalty fee of $1 added for each pound gained. (i.e. Gain 3 pounds, owe $3)
10. No liposuction or laser fat removal.
11. No dietary supplements (i.e. healthy trim)
12. The 2nd place winner will receive all “penalty” cash.

So far I have lost 2.91% Not anywhere close to being the winner but there is still a chance! I hope that after this 10 weeks I will less then 10lbs from my goal weight which is … 156. That’s a weird number Jennifer, why 156? If I can get to 156 it will mean that I lost 40% of my body weight! 40%! When that happens I am having a giant party … or a skinny party …

I am doing a few other things differently this time around and pretty pumped about it! Everyone is on MyFitnessPal tracking their calories like crazy! It has a “wall” feature to post your workouts, how much weight you have lost, as well as statuses. Everyone can comment on these things and the banter has been super fun! Their tag line “diet with your friends and lose up to 3 times more” Agree!

I also put together a newsletter! I have help of course but it is fun to share what I have learned with everyone. It also prevents my snacking Sunday night!!

Here is week 2!

Sorry this is so fuzzy … I need to figure out how to make my Indesign files more attractive in the web. Open it in a new window if you like or click HERE to download the pdf!

EXCUSE ME RESOLUTIONS

It would seem that I have only kept one New Years resolution in my entire life. In 2006 I was sitting around a table with a bunch of totally awesome people and I thought “Everyone one here is just a little TO comfortable”. From that moment on I knew what I had to do. My New Years resolution was to make people feel  “UN”comfortable! It was so easy! Unlike most of my New Years resolutions…

It was all in good fun and not to go all Psych 101 on you but I never took these resolutions seriously because I spent every New Years Eve making resolution about my weight and clearly that never worked out! Year after year I wondered what it would be like to be skinny, wishing and praying for it to be so (with a Dr. Pepper in hand) I made some outrageous deals with Heavenly Father that’s for sure! I never achieved one single goal. In hindsight I never really truly tried, my excuses kept getting in the way.

anonymous

I always wonder what excuse I would give Bob Harper from The Biggest Loser if he asked me how I let my self get this way, that question is usually followed by tears and hugs but when I put myself in those shoes I got nothin’. Nobody died, I wasn’t in a car crash, and my childhood was pretty comfy so what real excuses do I have for weighing almost 300lbs?

First I want to be clear – I blame only myself.

My parents owned an Arby’s when I was growing up. I was maybe 13 when that happened and worked there for … forever. Endless soda and curly fries at my fingertips didn’t do me any favors. Oh, then they bought a DQ. I was overweight way before that though.

I’m the middle child or 6 and when your mom opens a bag of chips you best be grabbin’ as much as you can as fast as you can or no chips for you! I know a lot of you might not get it but I don’t care, that’s how it is. Even now I have to tell myself to slow down. Science says it takes about 15 minutes for your stomach to tell your mind that your full, basically slower eaters are not fatties. I don’t realize that I’m full until I have eaten way to much. That’s all I really got for becoming over weight but staying that way… laziness.

Like I said I wanted to be skinny, I wished it so. Every shooting star, every 11:11, every single birthday, the same wish. But that is all I did, I wished. I never DID anything. I was lazy. I was also scared. I spent my whole life telling myself that I could be awesome AND fat, that I could be happy AND fat, that I could find love AND be fat. I never thought about happiness or love outside of being fat. In my mind everything I ever wanted and my weight were fused together. I would stand in front of the mirror thanking my fat for making me the person I was, cause I was awesome. Being fat was as much a part of my identity as anything and losing it was scary.

I was also scared of failing. I tricked myself into thinking my dozens of halfhearted attempts to lose weight were failures. That feeling sucks. That’s why all of my past New Years resolutions were jokes, I was trying to avoid that sucky feeling. Things are a little different this year. I got my weight under control and that attitude has spread to every facet of my life.

{itsmoh}

Here is to 2012!

The year we follow through. The year we do more then wish. The year without excuses. The year we believe in ourselves!

2011

I know, I know its already the middle of January who do I think I am posting about last year?! Listen up you! I can reminisce whenever the heck I feel like it!

I don’t know if the collective “we” spends enough time thinking about the past. How we changed, who inspired us to make that change, what we would change if we could. It was more thinking then I could get done between Christmas and New Years Eve so from hence forth January will be a month to remember and reminisce. It will also be a month in which I will not rush my resolutions! It will be a good month indeed!

My life has been turned upside down this past year! Single to engaged to married. And all the growing pains that comes with that!

2011 – during your glorious reign I …

SINGLE TO ENGAGED

TO MARRIED!

Other stuff happened too but I already posted about most of them and since you read ALL my blog posts religiosity why tell you again 🙂 To everyone that helped me through 2011 THANK YOU!

SILENT DEADLY DELICIOUS

A good friend got Jake and I these as a wedding gift! They are my first cookie cutters as a married women and I can’t think of a more appropriate shape! Six months later it was Christmas, the perfect time to deliver gingerbread treats!

I tired to use a gingerbread box mix but it was way to sticky so I used t to make regular gingerbread cookies. Luckily the cookie cutters came with a recipe on the back that worked much better AND we got a big kick on the wording. For example “Moving like the wind, preheat the oven to 375° F”!

Since the Ninjabread Men are so awesome I needed to present them in an equally awesome way! I got some black takeout boxes and the bright red “tissue” paper to create a nice bloody ambiance!

Next we needed to decide if we should”doorbell ditch” these cookies or write a fun note … I was for being sneaky seeing as how they are NINJAbread men! Then I remembered a conversation I had with my coworkers about doorbell ditching treats and they couldn’t believe what they heard. Apparently outside the LDS community eating treats left outside your house by strangers isn’t very wise! After all the Law and Order I watch maybe they have a point … Note it is!

Ok – how much do you love that note!?! We did have an edited version thanks to Jake, he is the best! Thanks James for the gift and I hope everyone out there did in fact have a kick-ass Christmas!

A GIFT FOR MOM

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would make a great gift for my mama!

Each of her kids live in one of these States! It was super easy to make too!

Here is what you need!

•  A frame with the right number of openings
• Cardstock
• Embroidery thread
• Tapestry needle
• Little hearts

First I printed out an outline of each state on some cardstock making sure they would fit in my frame openings. Then using this nifty book making tool poked holes along the outline. I made each hole about half a cm apart, it can get tricky with smaller states like Hawaii! That one was tricky!

Using a tapestry needle (they have large ‘eyes’), “embroider” through your already-poked holes. It was easiest for me to go around the perimeter twice (the first time, I covered every other space and then filled in the gaps on the second round).

Then I placed the hearts in the right place and woo-la!

This would also be super cute for a mom who has a son on a mission or a couple who both served missions! If your feeling really ambitious you could thread the names of the places too! I think I might make one for my brother who served a mission in Chili …

25 DAYS OF LOVE

It’s no secret that Christmas time is the best of times! Fun traditions, family getting together, and yummy treats – a good time indeed! As Thanksgiving came to a close I started thinking about how this would be our first as a married couple! Translation – it needed to be CRAZY awesome since Jake makes me CRAZY happy all day everyday! But if I wanted CRAZY awesome I needed to do more then a few rockin’ gifts on the 25th! Thus began the 25 days of Christmas!

Each day I surprised Jake with a “gift” and a cute hand drawn note.

On December 1st Jake walked into our bedroom to find a bag of Hersey kisses on the bed with this note!

Jake didn’t realize that he had 24 more days to look forward too and the next morning he woke up to two Dr. Peppers in the fridge “For December 2nd – Here are 2 of your favorite!” I was watching him when he opened the fridge and he looked so confused! It was adorable! I had to explain what I was up to after that!

Thinking of 25 things can be very overwhelming but they don’t have to be gifts at all! For December 4th I gave him this!

They can be silly, romantic, or even”Christmasy” like these! With this Christmas note I got him a $20 gift card. I tried to match the gift with the date I.E. December 20th – 20 dollars.

December 22nd was my favorite!

On December 18th I gave him 18 Reindeer peeps! Lucky for me that he likes peeps – I sure don’t!

The “date” thing didn’t always work out though. It is tough enough to think of 25 “gifts” and there are not as many examples online as you might think! I ended up giving him A LOT of treats!

• His favorite bag of chips – “You’re all that and a bag of chips”
• Some mint candy – “Our hearts are “mint” to be together”
• December 15th – 15 oz of Milk duds – “Life was such a “dud” till I found you!”

Jake loves Milk Duds so that last one as perfect. If you can’t think of anything just think about what he likes. Jake LOVES Batman so on December 8th I got him this Batman bobble head!

On the 3rd I surprised him with three uninterrupted hours of Batman! He is so busy with school and work and hardly finds time to play but this Saturday night he got to play as much as he wanted!

I was kinda proud that I made the Batman logo look like the controller!

Other times the “gifts” had nothing to do with the notes likes these – With this note I got him some new PJ’s.

Sometimes the gifts matched the notes but not in the “date” way. With this note I got him a new case for his computer!

The night before I gave Jake this he made a comment about how fat he was going to get with all the candy so it was perfect timing! I left the note on the table surrounded by the five fruits!

On December 12th I had the very talented Whipple Scrumptiousb Cakes make these cupcakes! Cookies and cream flavored and they were the best cupcakes I have ever had!!

I got Jake some Circus Animal cookies with this note! It didn’t have anything to do with Christmas or the date – its just fun!

Some others –

• Some Santa candies – “Let’s be naughty this Christmas and save Santa the trip”
• Christmas tree cakes – “The only gift I want under the tree this year is you!”
• December 9th – 9 pairs of socks – “To keep your feet warm when we’re not cuddling!”
• December 10th – 10 minute back-rub – “The closer I am to you the happier I am”
• December 24th – 24 of his favorite cookie – “You’re pretty much my most favorite of all time in the history or ever!”