Morgan, Mommy and Mileage, Oh My!

Again, it's been two weeks since my last blog, but I was determined to get a blog out before going to sleep tonight! Lots of events and activities to get you caught up!

We had a mini-vacation to the Panama City Beach last weekend. We met our best buds, The Haulards to spend a few days in the sun. The condo - Sunrise Beach Resort - was super nice. They are part of a group managed by Resort Quest. It was our second Resort Quest rental and it was just as successful as the first. This one was amidst more of the PCB action, so I highly recommend it for families. If you are looking for a quieter condo, I would check out Seychelles (where we stayed in 2010).

My cuties!

1st family pic in forever!

The Haulard Family

The view from our condo



We had an amazing trip! We're hoping to jump back over for a few days before the summer ends.

While we were away, I got an exciting text. If you remember, I was in the running to win an iPad 2 from Star Fitness for recruiting the most members in the month of April...well, I won! I was so excited! I've wanted one for almost a year, but didn't want to spend that $$ on myself. Hard work DOES pay off! More on that later...

This past weekend, my big girl Morgan celebrated her 5th birthday! I cannot believe where the time has gone. She will be graduating from PreK 4 in two weeks. Because her birthday was on Sunday, I brought her a cupcake cake to her class on Friday.

The kids loved the cake (and so did I!) It was from Albertson's in Mandeville. They did an amazing job and it was extremely affordable.

We then took her, along with our friend Dustin and his son, Boston to City Park on Saturday. We rode rides for hours and had a blast. I definitely see a repeat trip in our near future!

Sunday was Mother's Day (as well as Morgan's birthday). We had a great day, starting with church, lunch at Osaka 21 Hibachi (Morgan's choice, yay!), and then spent the afternoon with my parents and grandmother.

I also did a ton of mileage this past weekend. On Friday night, our family went for a 6 mile walk on the Tammany Trace. I got up Saturday morning for the St. Tammany Young Lawyers Assoc. 5K. Then on Sunday, I took my regular 6 mile walk. I was pretty beat this morning but all the hard work is worth it. I am now officially down 57 lbs. And...tonight was the last night of the 6-week Boot Camp. (I'm actually enrolled in 2, the other one ends in a few weeks). But, I am super proud to say that I won the challenge! I not only lost the most weight in 6 weeks out of anyone in the class, but I also lost 3% body fat (also the most in the class!) I won a whole list of prizes (including training sessions). Even though Monday night Boot Camp is over, the instructor offered to keep it going on Monday night (for fun, LOL) for those of us that want to continue to be challenged. Surprisingly, I am up for it!

Well, that's about it for now! I have 5Ks scheduled the next few weeks (Holy Ghost School in Hammond and Stone Creek in Covington), birthday pictures with our photographer Amber V, birthday party planning, PreK Graduation, and on and on and on... Stay tuned!!

Janel

When 50 is so nifty!

Again, time has slipped away without a weekly post, but as April rolls into May, we're only going to get busier! So let's catch up!

We had a wonderful Easter season full of egg hunts and activities. Here are a few pics from last weekend when we went to the Egg Hunt at Mandeville FBC.

Here are a few pics from yesterday, which was Easter Sunday. Because we are going to the beach this week, the Easter Bunny brought a few beach toys.

The last pic is of Maddie enjoying Easter lunch at Texas Roadhouse.

I ran my third 5K last weekend (Covington Spring Stomp). I actually did well and shaved 6 minutes off of my previous time. It was a nice 5K because it was held at 6pm and it was nice to run through the streets of downtown Covington on a cool spring evening. I have three scheduled in May (May 7, 14 and 21) and one on June 4th. It's going to be a busy month!

It's also going to be a busy month because Morgan turns 5 on May 8th. It's hard to believe that the time has flown by so fast. She also will graduate from Northlake Christian Preschool on May 24th. I'm already preparing myself for an emotional day as she has been singing the songs to me all month and she can't get through them without me shedding a tear or two.

The weight loss journey is going great. As of today, I am down 50.6 lbs since the end of January! My goal was to be down 50 lbs by our beach trip this weekend and I beat that by 4 days! I've really been working hard the past few weeks. I now take classes at the gym 4-5 times a week (2 boot camp, 1 spinning, 1 or 2 Zumba) and I walk 6 miles on Sundays. I really love my Sunday walk. The Tammany Trace is such a beautiful place to walk and I really have been getting my allotment of sun the past 4 Sundays (which is a nice change from sitting in the office all week!)

I wanted to share one more pic with you...I've had some different reactions to my weight loss. For instance, my boss came in my office last week and told me that he's really noticed a difference in my face since I've started working here. My Zumba instructor told me on Wednesday that whatever I am doing is really working. The gym manager has told me several times that I'm doing an awesome job. Some people have said nothing. Maybe they either haven't noticed or maybe some people feel awkward? Not sure. Anyway, I was at the bank last week cashing a check. I pulled out my driver's license and I had to look at it twice. Wow. I REALLY noticed a difference. The license pic was taken 1/12/2011...a few weeks before I started losing weight. So I decided to snap a pic for comparison and do a side by side. Here it is:

Well, that's all for now! We are off to the beach this weekend, so I am sure I will have more about that next time!

Have a great week!

Janel

The big 4-0

I know that it's been over a week since I've blogged. Is it just me, or does it sometimes seem like activities take over your life beginning in March and you really can't get your head above water (another pool reference) until mid-summer? Beginning in March, we have had activities every weekend. Many weekends (like this past one) have been STACKED with events where we would be out at 8am and back late in the evening. The good part about staying busy is that we are also staying active. It totally beats vegging out on the couch all weekend.

I started my first week of boot camp at the gym LAST week. I just completed my second week this past Monday. Wow. The first week was not very difficult, so I was kind of looking forward to the second week. FAIL. The second week kicked my tail. She had us running all over NE Covington - through the neighborhoods that surround the gym. After all the running, we did block-long sprints. UGH. I am not a runner. If anything, I am hardly a jogger. So needless to say, I was spent. We then went back inside and did push ups, squats, abs, step routines and some lifting. I was still able to move on Tuesday, which was a plus and even crawled to the gym before work at 5am because Jonathan was off. The payoff? I finally hit the big 4-0 of lbs lost. Actually, as of today I am down 44.4 lbs. My next mini-goal is 50 lbs before our beach weekend on April 29th, so I think I should be able to hit that.

Jonathan also joined the gym with me and actually took a spinning class with me last week. Although he may never spin again, he seems to enjoy going to workout before picking the kids up from school. I keep saying that going to the gym makes you happier - almost like you know deep down that you are going to do something better for yourself. I've been a member of gyms for years and have never been as addicted to it as I am now. I actually miss it if I can't go.

Speaking of addictions...I've really been intrigued by this whole new "extreme couponing" phenomena. I watched the series on TLC last week and I just cannot get over how (or why) these people spend 8 hours a day strategizing how they can save 99% of a grocery bill to stock up on 200 sticks of deoderant and 100 boxes of cereal. It has however made me take a look at how we do things in our household. I am not one to coupon. We do not (that I know of) have a grocer on the Northshore that will double or triple coupons. If you know of one, let me know! But I realized that there are coupons for things we definitely buy every month: cat and dog food, diapers, Fiber One bars, hair color (no comments necessary), toothpaste, etc. I can probably save at least $10.00 if I were to coupon. So I went to the dollar store and bought a little coupon organizer to keep in my purse. I now clip coupons for the items that we use. BUT- here is what I have been doing to save us money here and there: When you go to restaurants (fast food or otherwise), many times there is a survey on your receipt. Wendy's has one that is $2 off a sandwich, Chick-Fil-A has a random one that gives you a free sandwich, etc. Fill out the survey online. I promise it takes you no more than 2 minutes. I keep those receipts and then trade them in for $$ off or free food. I acutally use those to determine where I will be eating for lunch during the week. For example: I had a free Chick-Fil-A one and used it yesterday for lunch. Just my luck, when I purchased a drink to go with my free grilled chicken sandwich, another random survey receipt popped out! So now I can get ANOTHER free sandwich within the next 30 days. I currently have receipts in my coupon organizer for Wendy's, La Madeleine, Quizno's and McAlisters. They do vary: La Madeleine is a free cup of soup or petite salad, Quizno's is $2 off a large sub, etc. But still- every little bit helps. Free food or money for my opinion? Yes, please! Also, take advantage of local daily deals or Groupons on restaurants. Usually you can get 1/2 off ($20 of food for $10, etc) when you dine out. It's a great way to save money as well as try new places to eat in your area.

So, to recap the Evans Family weekend: On Friday night, we went to K-Gee's. It is a seafood restaurant in Mandeville by the same people that used to own Bozo's in Metairie. It was a Local Daily Deal ($40 of food for $20). It was delicious! We had boiled crawfish, I had a grilled shrimp salad and Jon had the broiled shrimp platter.

On Saturday morning, we went to the St. Jude's Trike-A-Thon at Northlake Christian. This was Morgan's second year to participate. Maddie even joined in for the ride in her super-trike.

We then went to the Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula. We met up with our friends, The Lindsey's, and enjoyed the day celebrating everything strawberry. It was an incredible day to be outside.

On Sunday, we went to church, quickly went to Slidell for a dash through Sam's Club, checked out an open house where Morgan will be attending Summer Art Camp, and then I went and walked/jogged 6 miles on the Tammany Trace. I came home, sent the girls to my mom and dad's for a few hours and then cleaned the house. Whew. What a weekend!!

This weekend, we expect more of the same: Pick up unsold items from that Children's Consignment Sale from last week, Easter Egg hunts in the community, Ladies Tea at the church, 5K run/walk Saturday evening in downtown Covington, church and more Easter Egg hunts on Sunday. I will update you next week! Have a great one!

Janel

Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming...

I know, right? ANOTHER Disney movie quote. I actually think that among the many, many, many Disney movies I've seen - especially over the past few years - Dory is one of my favorite characters and Finding Nemo is one of my favorite movies. In the swimming industry, we use "swimming" references all the time: "How do you like your new job?" Me: "It's going swimmingly, I'm diving right in!" "Have you completed that article yet?" Me: "No, I'm working on other projects - just trying to keep my head above water." We have to often laugh at ourselves because it happens naturally, but it can get rather corny and obnoxious. But this week, I found myself having to use the quote "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." often. I had SO many things to accomplish this week in addition to our normal crazy schedule. I had to get Easter cards created and in the mail. I had to finish pricing and organizing all of the clothes/baby stuff for the consignment sale. The kids had school pictures, etc. I wanted to get in 5 workouts before the Heart Walk. Morgan had been having a great week at school, so I wanted to build in time for rewards (playground, bookstore, movies). But around Thursday, I hit a plateau with the weight loss journey. Now I have done this before and I knew to expect plateaus and even an occasional gain. But I had worked SO hard. I had worked out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I had NEVER cheated (even passing up cheesecake at work for fruit for a co-worker's birthday). But Thursday, I GOT MAD. I got so mad because of all of the work and all of the sacrifice. Jon offered suggestions: drink more water, maybe your body is in storage mode, etc. I kept thinking that if I had cheated or had skipped the gym, I could understand. If I was going to gain 2 pounds, I was going to do it by eating a seafood platter. But then I realized how far I have come and being proud of that makes me want to push through it and keep going. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming... So, I did and now I am back on track. And here's a cool story to keep the motivation going...

Today was the Northshore Heart Walk at Fountainbleu State Park. Thanks again to everyone that supported me to reach my fundraising goal. The weather was PERFECT. There were between 800-1000 walkers from corporations and large companies throughout the Northshore. I walked with PoolCorp. We had a team of about 25 walkers and we were called "The Swim Team" - how appropriate. When I signed up to do the walk a few weeks ago, I wrote a little blurb on my fundraising homepage about why I wanted to do the walk. Heart disease not only runs in my family, but also in Jonathan's. I also wrote about the fact that I had joined a gym, had been dedicated to going to the gym 5-6 times a week and that I wanted to stay motivated in my weight loss by doing a few 5K races a month. So, fast-forward to today. I arrive at the Heart Walk and we take our group picture, etc. From the stage, they begin the welcome and introductions. They then say that they will award the "Lifestyle Change" awards before the walk, in case someone had to leave directly after the walk. They then announce the "Gym Rat" award. "This award is given to a person who, within the last 12 months, has joined a gym and goes to the gym at least three times a week for at least 30 minutes to workout. The winner of this award also encourages those around them to join a gym and have as much fun working out as they have. And this year's Lifestyle Change Award goes to Janel Evans from PoolCorp." WHOA!  I was beyond honored.

Here are some additional pictures from the event. 

Oh - that last picture was taken from the stage. I was invited by the people from Pelican Athletic Club to warm up the crowd from the stage with them after accepting my Lifestyle Change Award. That was fun!

I mentioned earlier that Morgan had a great week at school. Friday we decided to take her to see Hop. She enjoyed it!

One last thing! Last night, I downloaded The Biggest Loser Workout Mix to my iPhone. They have several different alboms to choose from on iTunes. I chose the Top 40 Mix vol 4. I felt like I moved much faster as I walked today. If you are looking for tunes as your iPod as you walk or jog, I highly suggest it!

Have a great week and remember...Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Upon reading that headline, you may think that I am referring to Maddie and the fact that she is growing closer by the day to taking her first steps. Well, though she is very close, and has been eating us out of house and home for the past three months and is growing like a weed (she's now in 12-18 month clothes at 9 months), I'm really referring to my own motivation.

A few days ago, my co-workers and I went out after work and we somehow began to talk about vices. We went around the table and shared what our vices were. There were smokers, purse and shoe shoppers, and another that claimed he didn't have one (upon which we quickly assigned one to him), and I realized that the only real vice that I have is buying cute kid clothes. I don't drink and I don't smoke, but I am somehow addicted to buying and dressing the girls in monogrammed or smocked clothing. Now if you see Morgan or Maddie on an average school day, you may not agree, but for pictures, parties and definitely Sundays I try to make them look as cute as possible. I know it drives Jon crazy: the bows, the shoes, are their faces clean?, etc. But then I started thinking that maybe a vice needed to be something that you indulge in for yourself - not for the kids. So, in thinking about it more, the only thing I really enjoy buying for myself is shoes. It doesn't matter if it's athletic shoes, shoes for work, church, going out, whatever, I just really like shoes. Actually, Jonathan and I both have an insane amount of shoes. At any given moment, we can have at least 6 pairs near the front door that we've worn over the course of a day with all of the different activites that we do in a day. Anyway, when I thought back to the beginning of my journey, I remembered thinking that the only way to keep going was to give myself motivation. One of the things that I decided to do was to sign up for a 5K Run/Walk at least 1-2 times a month so that I would keep training. The other thing I decided to do was to reward myself along the way. For instance, when I went to the gym 20 times in the first month, I bought a new pair of running shoes. 

I then started thinking that I maybe would buy a new pair of shoes for every 10lbs that I lost. Well, to date I have lost 38lbs. According to my calculations, I owe myself almost 4 pairs of shoes. ;) Maybe I will hold out for something bigger when I hit a much bigger number - like a new Coach purse. Now THAT'S motivation!

I am very happy to say that my first 5K this past Saturday was a success. The weather was beautiful.

I am definitely looking forward to the Northshore Heart Walk this weekend (5K) and the Covington Spring Stomp on April 16th.

We had an amazing weekend spending time with family and friends. Jon and our friend Dustin took the girls and Dustin's son Boston to the Splash Park on Saturday morning at the Abita Springs Trailhead. They had a blast!


Morgan and Boston play in Abita Springs



Maddie at the Abita Springs Splashpark

 On Sunday, we celebrated the 1st Birthday of my cousin's son Bryce. Here are some pics from his fireman party.

Dad and Mom with the girls at Bryce's party

Happy Birthday, Bryce!

After the party and a quick trip to the mall, I decided to spend the afternoon walking on the Tammany Trace. I walked from the Abita Trailhead to Boston Street in Covington and back. I didn't realize it at the time, but I calculated the distance when I got home as over 6 miles. If you've never been, it's really a beautiful place to walk, jog, bike or even horseback ride. All of the trailheads have activities like playgrounds or splashparks. It's definitely one of the reasons I love the northshore.

We have another busy week and weekend ahead. As I mentioned, I have the Northshore Heart Walk on Saturday morning at Fountainbleu Park. Thank you so much to all of you that have supported me. As of this past Friday afternoon, I reached my fundraising goal. I am also bringing a TON of items this weekend to be sold at a children's consignment sale. If you are in the area, be sure to check out Reruns for Little Ones in Folsom next week. It's bittersweet to be getting rid of all of the baby stuff, but I definitely will welcome the room back in my house that has been swallowed by swings, bouncy seats, Boppy Pillows, rubbermaid containers of infant clothes, etc for the past year.

One last thing - I have to share my new favorite phone app. It's called "CardStar" and it's amazing. You know all of those plastic cards that you carry around for discounts at Winn Dixie, CVS, KMart, ToysRUs, etc? Well, when you download the CardStar app, you can take a pic of your card, which scans the barcode, and it stores the number and barcode for you for all of those cards. I emptied my purse of 12 of those cards including my fitness center card, Hallmark, CVS, AutoZone, etc. When you visit the supermarket or drugstore, the associate just has to scan the barcode stored on your phone - no more digging through your wallet! It's the little things that make me happy!

Have a great week!
Janel

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for…wait! There’s HOW MUCH FAT IN THAT???”

Summertime…just that one word gives me flashbacks to high school and back to 1991 - when Will Smith belted out that famous hit. But it also reminds me of vacations, baseball, Louisiana heat and humidity and cold treats like ice cream. In fact, food can be associated with all of those things I mentioned above. As you all probably know, Jonathan and I LOVE college baseball: Tulane, UNO, Southern Miss…we follow them all. In fact, we took Maddie to her first college baseball game last night – UNO at Southeastern.

One of the greatest things about going to the ballpark is the food. Of course, there’s the all-American hot dog, but there’s also the burgers, chicken tenders, fries, popcorn and even at Tulane, the pulled-pork nachos…unbelievable. So needless to say, attending baseball games has been a bit tough to adjust to with the journey that I’m on. We’ve stayed strong: watching Morgan eat popcorn while we sipped on water, but the scent of a baseball park can be amazing.

On Sunday afternoon, we took Morgan to Cold Stone Creamery. I fully expected to sit back and watch Jon and Morgan eat ice cream, but I decided to ask the manager for nutritional information. She was so awesome…she grabbed the list and walked me through all of the low fat, no fat, low calorie items. It turns out that they have a fat free/low cal sweet cream made with Splenda. She gave me a taste and it was delicious. So this “Like It” size only had 170 calories and 0 grams of fat.

When I got home, I decided to look up what the regular sweet cream was. For the big size, it was 790 calories and 48 grams of fat. Wow. I can't believe there can be so much fat in something that's not even a meal. Here is the info from Cold Stone. And here is Morgan enjoying her strawberry ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.

One more thing to share about this week…I was DYING for seafood. I mean, it’s Lent in Southeast Louisiana and it’s EVERYWHERE. So I decided to go to lunch yesterday at New Orleans Food & Spirits in Downtown Covington. If you’ve never been, it’s AMAZING. So I decided to get the grilled shrimp salad. Now, if you have been to New Orleans Food & Spirits, you know that they give you enough food for 2 people. My advice is to ask for a to-go box as soon as they set your plate down and box up ½ of it…I guarantee you will NOT leave hungry. So here is what my salad looked like before I boxed up ½ for later. There were at least 3 dozen grilled shrimp on top of mixed greens. It was delicious. Just the pic makes my mouth water for it again.

Only 3 days left until my first 5K walk/run. I am excited about that as well as the very busy weekend we have planned with other family events, etc. Stay tuned and remember: don't forget to ask for nutritional info from the manager of a restaurant. You may be pleasantly surprised and it can be a whole lot better than sipping on water!

Janel

I lost a whole person!!!

I've often been amazed at the people on The Biggest Loser losing over a hundred pounds and proclaiming "I've lost an entire person!" This week was a great week. It was so great that I can actually say that I've lost a whole person! To explain: Morgan got on the scale in our bathroom last night before her bath and it read "32.4 lbs." I thought that was awesome because as of last night, that's exactly how much I've lost on my journey the past 7 weeks. So, even though the person I've lost is a 4-year-old, I can now say that I've lost a whole person!


I'm really proud of this week because there was the potential for MANY roadblocks. My sister and nieces were in town, and on Tuesday evening, I took Morgan and Emma to Chuck E. Cheese. Now for many people, Chuck E. Cheese may not be very appealing, but there's something about their pizza that's so great. BUT- Chuck E. Cheese also has an awesome salad bar. So as Emma and Morgan were chowing down on their 1/2 pepperoni, 1/2 beef pizza, I was dining on a delicious salad with fresh fruit.

This week was also very busy at work. I was constantly on the run for lunch and had to grab Roly Poly three times. Now I really love Roly Poly because they have many wraps to choose from, but the healthiest thing to do is to build your own. They have a ton of ingredients to choose from:

Now my personal favorite is a 1/2 size, wheat, hot pressed with grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapenos and fat-free ranch.

The last reason that this week was a challenge is because today was our 7th wedding anniversary. I knew that we had a PACKED day, so I got up at 6am (yes, on a Saturday) and went to the gym. After my workout, we took the girls to get their pictures taken with Baby Chicks. I CANNOT WAIT to get the pics back. Maddie was a doll and was smiling the whole time.

We then went to the Kids Expo to check out Summer Camp options. After about an hour and a half of extreme kid overstimulation, we headed to drop the kids off at my mom and dad's so that we could head across the lake for a Tulane/UNO baseball game. College Baseball is a fave pastime for us, and usually we try to head out of town to get away and catch a game the weekend of our anniversary. Heading to Turchin was the best we could do this year, but we still had a blast. PS- Tulane won 7-4.

We then grabbed a quick bite at Jazmine Cafe in Riverbend. We absolutely LOVE Vietnamese food and never get a chance to have it on the Northshore. Good thing that it's healthy!! We both had the Grilled Chicken Breast Vermicelli Lettuce Bowl.

I have one week left until my first 5K. I'm going to train pretty hard for it this week. Staying focused is going to be tough because we have a PACKED social calendar pretty much every day this week with appointments, family birthday events, work stuff, kid stuff, etc. I'm also gearing up to be part of a huge kids consignment sale in 2 weeks, so the house remains unorganized as I sort through and price all the baby stuff that we are getting rid of. No matter how crazy this week is, I'm determined to get 4-5 workouts in before Saturday.

I'll keep you posted!
Janel