Fitness...

You know that feeling when you put on a pair of jeggings that you haven't worn in weeks, and they're a little loose? And then you decide to brave the cute black sweater that you got for Christmas that hasn't fit good enough to wear because it's a size smaller than you usually buy? And even THAT is feeling a little loose? Because that totally happened to me the other day. (as I'm sure you already know, since I posted it on facebook. ha) I was stressing SO bad that day because I slept through my alarm so I didn't get up to go running, which I've been doing every day for the last 2 weeks. I've only missed 2 days (aside from my "break" days) and the first time I felt like crap all day for it. And then I put those clothes on and realized that maybe it was okay that I didn't run that morning. (It was REALLY only justified by the fact that I'd be going running after work to make up for it. heh.)

I LOVE being able to see and feel the difference all of this working out has made! Zumba 4 times a week. Running at least a mile every day. Top it all off with FINALLY buckling down and eating healthy. I can't even remember the last time I felt this good about things. Most of all about myself. I love the feeling of looking in the mirror and seeing the difference in my waist, arms, legs, shoulders. (and I won't lie... getting a bit of a booty! haha) I've now lost a total of 20 lbs since my mom and I started doing Zumba. Which means I'm back to the weight I was when I moved in with my Grandma. But even then I wasn't in good shape by any means. This time around I'm actually somewhat toned. Don't get me wrong... there's still quite a ways for me to go, but for the first time in a long time I actually am feeling good about myself.

This new obsession with Running all started when my mom asked if I wanted to do the Run for Red 5k with her. She thought it'd be fun to do it together since it's for women's heart health, and heart disease runs with the ladies in our family. I was a little hesitant at first, and then decided, why not? If anything I could totally walk most of it. I started running every day. Started out slow, and started pushing myself a little harder every day. Then took it off the treadmill and started running outside. And now, if I don't start my day off with it, I just feel off for the rest of the day.

And then the big day finally came. (Yesterday. ha)

We ended up with quite a team! Me, my Mom, my beautiful cousin Alesia, my Aunt Jeri, my Aunt Tracie, and my brother. It was so good. I found out that morning that they had all decided to stick together and walk it. I was a little torn because I wanted to hang out with them, but I also wanted to push myself to run as much of it as I could. We got to the starting line, and all ran for a bit once the race started. My brother was long gone running up ahead of everyone. I ran alongside my mom for a bit, but then lost her after a while. Next thing I knew, there went the 1st mile marker. Kept going for a while, slowed my pace for a bit when I saw the water table. Walked for a bit while I drank my cup of water, dropped the cup and started up again. I don't remember seeing any other mile markers the rest of the race. I had planned out the perfect playlist, songs I love mixed with Zumba songs to come in right when I figured I'd be ready to take a break to pump me up so I would keep going. (Towards the point when I knew I'd be reaching another mile) I took another slower pace for the end of one song and then kept going. I was about to slow down again and realized how close I was, and the song I had purposely put at the end of my playlist to keep me going came on. By this point I could see the finish. I had ran pretty much the entire thing!

(I look so dumb, I hope I didn't look like that the entire time!)

All of us at the finish line.

Shad finished in 33 minutes. I came in 5 minutes later.

<3

I am so proud of myself. I never EVER thought in a million years that I would ever participate in anything like this, let alone run all of it. I got a little emotional after I crossed the finish line about it. It's been so long since I've felt good about the way I look and feel about myself. And the fact that I can see the difference all of this hard work is making makes it all the better. 

Hmm....

It's been so long! Yikes! I don't even know where to start. Even though there hasn't been too much that's happened.


A few updates maybe?

yeahyeah...  I KNOW it's Sunday, but it's been a while, so why not?

I've lost about 3 more pounds. FINALLY putting me over the hump I've been stuck at for quite some time. I'll be starting up again with mega fitness Shando type business this week. So hopefully that means I'll have motivation to post more. Haha.

I got a new Tattoo. :)

It's my "Dad" tattoo. I have a letter that he wrote me that I want to get part of tattooed around it in his writing. Although, my mom will flip out. But it just doesn't feel finished without it. But I do love it. Even if I was made to feel guilty for getting it. I love seeing it every day. :)

I went this weekend to hang out with the girl who gave me the tattoo. Her and her boyfriend just got the cutest little puppy

Not the best photo ever... so you'll just have to trust me. She's such a cutie!

Watching the boys swoon over her was pretty adorable too. Haha <3

We're going to Vegas at the end of the Month for Punk Rock Bowling. I'm so excited. A road trip with my best friend. Getting out of Utah for a really awesome concert. Getting out of Utah. It's gonna be so good! :D

I think that's about it. Enjoy?

Allllllllright!

Here goes!

I really do enjoy blogging a lot. But I've been SO bummed out and depressed lately I just can't get myself to do it. Simply because I don't want to be such a downer for everyone else to read. You know? :/ But I have thought of quite a few things I want to change/add to my bloggin routine to maybe make things a little more fun for me, and for you. :) So here's what I'm thinkin:

Weigh-in Wednesday-- I really enjoy this... But I'm gaining a lot of muscle so it's quite discouraging to be weighing myself every week and not seeing much of a difference at all. So I'm going to spice it up a little. I think I'll only weigh in every 2 weeks. And on the weeks of no weigh-in I'm going to start doing a THINNING-THURSDAY feature. :) To kind of track the inches that are goin down. I figure this would be a good thing to keep track of, also to help keep me motivated. Because even though the numbers on the scale are kind of at a stand-still... I can feel (and see) the difference in my body.

Also, I've been watching a lot of video blogs the last few weeks, and this morning decided I kind of wanted to try it out. I have NO idea what I'd talk about.. but I kept thinking it would be fun. And then I signed on to blogger and saw that Heidi had posted this, and figured what better way then to try it out!

Words: Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

Now answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

What do you call gym shoes?

What do you say to address a group of people?

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

What do you call your grandparents?

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

So that's that!

And I figured, maybe I'll test the waters on this and maybe do it a couple of Sundays. Make it a Sunday Vlog feature? What do you think? I'm still not sure. Mostly because I think I look like a doof when I'm talking.

....and I mumble a lot. What's that about Shandi? haha

Anyhow. I suppose that's all for today. Hope you all had a great weekend! :)

update needed.

I need to update the blog.
I apologise for being so absent, dear blog readers.

I just haven't been motivated to do much of anything at all.

However, stay tuned. I've been thinking of some changes that will be made to the blog schedule this starting this week. So perhaps tomorrow there will be a real post. (I'm not making any promises though..)

until then... here's a little picture breakdown of how I get ready. (spending way too much time alone this last week left me thinking this would be a really cool idea. haha)

 yikes

Magic's in the make-up. ♥

Woops!

I didn't get a chance to get on a computer yesterday, so no weigh-in Wednesday for me... but here I am to make up for that today!

This weeks loss: 0lbs (okay.. like .2 of a loss...)

Total Loss: 6lbs

Super Bowl Sunday destroyed my diet for the week! But whatevz. It was delicious... I was also pretty depressed and unmotivated this week, up until today, so unfortunately I ate out more than in and spent more time sleeping than up doing things. :/ Boo.

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I just need to say real quick... Tonight's Conan was pretty disappointing. And George Lopez is NOT funny. ughhh.

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I had to go to court today. Unfortunately, I was quite a pro at making poor decisions about 4 years ago, and I'm STILL paying for it. I thought it was all taken care of and I was done and over it, until about 3 weeks ago when I got a letter in the mail saying that I was being found guilty of my Plea in Abeyance (which means I didn't enter a plea, just promised to not get in any more trouble and do all of the court ordered counseling and pay my fine, and after 18 months the charge would be dropped and not show on my record) and needed to appear for sentencing. I was shocked. I finished my counseling. Haven't gotten in any trouble. And have paid such a ridiculous about of money to the Utah court system that if I had all of that money now, my car would almost be paid off. I called the next day first thing in the morning to find out what was going on. The clerk told me that I had missed a court date, then after I argued that this was the only letter I received, realized that the letter for that court date had been returned and had a post office sticker stating that it was unable to forward. She then told me that I had a balance left on my fine, so that might be why also. So I went and paid off the rest of that fine. Anyhow, at court the Judge brought both of those issues up, then saw that I had paid the balance on my fine. And after I explained that I never got the letter, he looked through my file and saw that the original letter was right there in front of him. He then looked through the reason for my Plea being revoked and said that I never finished my court ordered counseling. SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! Ugh... It's so frustrating. I was in counseling for over a year because of this! And the second I had that paid off, I went straight to the Clerk and gave them the papers of my completion. The judge told me to just bring in another copy and they'll close my case successfully. Which is good and all, but I was still upset that they LOST MY FREAKING PAPERS! Before I left the courthouse I went back into the Clerk to find out WTF happened. Turns out they had put it with the wrong case (this is all so embarrassing, but yes, as stated before... I wasn't making the smartest decisions there for a while..) so they have the proof-- just not where it's supposed to be. And since that case is closed, it would take a month for them to get it, so I couldn't just take it back into the judge and have it done with right then. It's all so frustrating!!! (just a note... If this judge wasn't the coolest Judge ever, and decided to revoke my plea as stated in my letter... I would have had to do SIX MONTHS in jail. All due to a stupid mistake that I had nothing to do with!)

At least now I can stop worrying, and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

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My computer freaked out last night, so here I am now to finish this post! :D

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My best friend ever, and Cousin Alesia went with me to hold my hand and be my moral support for court. I just love her. :) After all the heavy, we were going to pop by my parents house to get some sinus medicine (I've developed a bit of a cold. Booo!) So we called my Mom to see what she was up to and if we could come visit her for a minute. And have her read us a "stowee". We went to the school and hung out with my cute Librarian Mommy as she had story time with one of the classes. I love my Mama. :)

Then we went to Costa Vida for lunch her Alesia's man. DELISH! (the food, not her man. ha)

And then... (are you ready!?)

WE WENT TO HOBBY LOBBY!!!!

It was my very first Hobby Lobby experience! Oh it was so fantastic! Oh I wish we could have spent more time there! And that I had my own place to buy EVERYTHING there to decorate with! But we got feathers to make me some feather hair extensions! And I got a few things to make shirts a little easier. :) And I've been trying to come up with an excuse to go again!

On the drive home Alesia said she needed a bobby pin, I handed her two, and she proceeded to do her hair like this. (obviously, she found more than just my two in her purse to do the rest of her hair!)

The lighting in this picture is so awful... we look gray. But I love her. So it's goin up!

Hope everyone had a good week, and have good plans for the weekend!



Oh my

I'm torn between posting an actual post.. and just going to bed.

I've come to many unsettling realizations in the last few days. But I'm trying to stay positive.

But that is the reason for my uncertainty on whether I should actually delve into this post here. As it would certainly end most whiny-baby... And I already feel like there is WAY too much of that on this blog.

Random photo drop... Just a few pics that bring a smile to my face...

Don't worry about it.

Just some things :)

When I come home from Zumba, I shout into the back a "Hello!" to my Grandma.

She follows up with a "Hi! How was Zumby?"

I  LOVE that

I want a vacation to California.

Mostly for the beach.

Mostly for my cousins.

Mostly for the California smell.

Mostly for the Monteray Bay Aquarium.

Mostly because I want to stalk Conan O'Brian.

What a deliciously tall creepy ginger. :)

I am absolutely in love with the red in my hair. <3

I am getting SO excited for Glee to start!

3 more days!!!

I really am starting to miss snuggly sleepovers.

Mostly because he was a perfect space heater.

Green Olives stuffed with minced pimento are my FAVE.

I wish I could have a dog.

But when I think about it seriously, I decide it's best I don't.

I think my pup would get jealous.

does that make sense?

There's a boy at work.

He's in college.

He wants to go to med school.

He plays the piano.

He looks very similar to a certain single father I used to be all about.

I crochet him things during our shift.

He complimented my eyes today.

i think he should ask me on a date.

I'm pretty cold right now.

I LOVE that Jodi is hooked on Zumba now!


I need to stop looking at Blogs when I'm on my phone.
Because I ALWAYS want to comment.
But then my phone flips out and won't let me
And then I forget when I get back on the computer.

Jump up, let's get KRAZY!

That time of the week again!

This weeks loss: 1 lb

Total Loss: 6 lbs

Definitely not as much as I'd like... Especially after all that Zumba last week and this week! But I know what the problem is... and I'm going to be fixing that today.
What's the problem you ask? I don't eat very healthy. If at all. :/ So then when I DO eat, it's just crap food that I'm stopping to grab between jobs, or just a little handful of soy nuts here and there to hold me over. Or a black bottom chocolate chip cookie out of the vending machine at work. (oh man... I'm such a sucker for those, it's awful!) So today, I am going to go buy some groceries, make up a meal (totally just typed "metal"... I'm so hardcore.) plan, so that next week my total loss will be a whole TEN pounds! Wish me luck! (And Jeri, thanks for the website suggestion!)

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In other news, It's been another wonderful Zumba filled week! Starting bright and early on Monday morning with my Mom! Both times I've gone with her in the morning, she comes in to wake me up and I immediately say "NEVERMIND!!! I'm not going! It's waaaaaaayyyyy too early for that!!" But I get up anyways and once we get to the church and the music gets going, I'm so pumped! (Then I crash from my Zumba high halfway through the day and am a total ZOMBIE by the time I get home from work)

I love sleeping at my parents house though! And my pup loves it too. He follows me around all night, and once it's way past his bed time (since I can never get myself to go to sleep at a decent hour) he looks at me like "What are you doing still awake! I'm tired woman! Let's go to bed!" So I'll go pull down the covers and pillows, go take out my contacts, and when I go back in the room he's all snuggled up on the bed ready to go to sleep!

I just love him. And his cute grey beard that's coming in.

(even though it breaks my heart a little that he's already starting to grey :( )

I have just some random pictures that I was going to post... and I have no idea how to lead into them.. so I'm just going to go for it. Ha :)

 On Saturday when I was driving to work, it was SO FOGGY! It always gets super foggy at my house. But as I got closer to State St., and the fog started clearing a little, the sun looked AMAZING coming over the mountains through it all. I really wish I could have gotten a better picture. But I think these do it a little justice.

I slept under all of my blankets last night, which I don't normally do. I have so many blankets on my bed, I just go under the first few layers depending on how cold it is. And seeing as how last night was FREEZING!!! I decided it was definitely that kind of night. I woke up and found I had slept the whole night with this:

EEEEP! I'm just happy I didn't get jabbed! I don't even know how that got in there! :/

                               
                               That's all for today I suppose. :) Off to make the most of this chilly day!

Loca Loca Loca

This week has been great!
Seriously, I know I talk about Zumba a lot, and it probably gets super annoying... but I don't know what I would do without it! And being able to Zumba SO MUCH this week has not only completely distracted me from the stupid crap going on, but I feel SO amazing! There are not words to express how happy I am that my mom and I started Zumba. Most of all, that we found Cecy as our Zumba instructor!

 I've spent the majority of the night just sittin on facebook and looking at a million pictures, and started looking at pictures of my mom and I from a few months before we started Zumba.

We went from this:

To this:

 haha.. I couldn't pick just one, I had to do both!

I'm so proud of my Mama and how much she's lost! I wish that I had stayed as buckled and strict on a diet and she was when we started, but I was still eating pretty bad and kickin' back the hooch quite often (most times even AFTER zumba :/ ha) But serioulsy! Look at how good she looks! I love you mom!

I seriously feel so good right now after all of this "working out" I've done this week. And I can already feel a huge difference! I was watching a movie on TV with my grandma earlier. Holding the remote with one hand, and my other had just resting on my bicep. I went to change channels when a commercial came on, and just that small movement made me think "DAYUMMM!!! There's some nice feelin' muscle there Shandi!" haha. My arms feel toned. My legs feel toned. Even my middle is feeling better! (that's my most uncomfortable area, so that's AWESOME!) All I can think about is finding time to Zumba tomorrow. Which really would be quite easy seeing as I get off work at 2. Anyone down to Zumba with me? Let's find a place and come up with a time and let's do it! I've had a day to let my body rest and my muscles chill and stop aching so much! haha

This is my "I feel really good about myself so I'm going to take a picture with no make-up, hair not done, and no bra(tmi? haha)" picture. **also** note Gary the snail on my phone. haha. It makes me happy.

Anyhow, I hope everyone had an excellent week. And I'm sorry for yapping about Zumba non-stop every day of my life. I hope I'm not boring you to death!

Wednesday?

For reals on Wednesday even! Although, I was tempted to wait until tomorrow, as I will be doing TWO zumba classes tomorrow! haha.

I hopped on the scale today after Zumba and am down another 2lbs.
Total loss: 5lbs. ohhh yeah.
I'm pretty happy with that. :)


There's a lot to catch up on. Even though there's hardly anything to catch up on.

We came to an agreement that while we've been having a lot of fun, our once amazing friendship has disappeared. So we put an end to not being together and are going to focus on getting our friendship back to being awesome before one of us ends up getting hurt. It's so stupid. But it totally needed to happen. I'm just happy we both agree that we need to fix it now rather than wait until it's past the point of being fixed. I just love him.

and then i take blurry photos of myself.

Lots of Zumba this week. Tuesday night. Wednesday morning. I'm going to go help my mom teach at the church at 6:30am (yikes!) Thursday. And then Thursday night after work! (If I've survived!) I just love Zumba so much. And now that weekend snuggles are gone, it really is just about the only thing I look forward to. I can already feel the amazing difference just this week has made. And my legs feeling toned again. If Zumba were a man, I'd totally marry it.

I decided to start working on some shirts the other night to get myself out of my lonely funk. I've had back orders for my "Zumba" shirts I made a loooooong time ago for so long, I decided I might as well get on it. And update a little.

They're freakin' sweet. Once I get these done I need to start on making a variety of Shandi shirts also. I forget how popular they are. (haha, it sounds like I'm so vain, but really---they're in high demand)

I'm staying the night at my moms tonight so I can get up in the morning and go with her to teach her "Brazilian dance aerobics class" (can't call it the "Z" word haha) . I was originally going to finish making the shirts for Zumba tomorrow night, but I'm too tired. I'm surprised I've even blogged for this long! Haha. all I know is that there are not enough words to express how excited I am to go from sleeping in this bed:

to this bed:

ohhh I love big beds. And my parents guest bed is seriously soooooo comfortable. And the sheets are soooo cozy.

And I get the best snuggle buddy ever tonight too!

(sometimes when I ask for "puppy kisses" he gets confused and thinks I'm saying "bite my face off")

haha.

I just found this picture, it makes me miss being "skinny". It's from when I first moved in with my grandma, and I had gotten SO SICK right before then and couldn't eat or keep anything down for about 2 weeks and lost a whole bunch of weight. On top of already not really eating a whole lot because we were a bunch of bums and never had food at our apartment.   Anyhow... my goal is to be back to that! (I only have about 10 more pounds to go to the weight I was there... which certainly isn't my END goal... but for now that's what I'd like to focus on.)

That ending there was a bit random.

That is all for tonight. Hope every one's week is going swimmingly.

Wish me luck on waking up and working out at a most ungodly hour tomorrow! hehe