30 Before 30

I realized earlier this week when reading a friend's 30 by 30 post that I have less than a year until I turn the big 3-0.  While I know that's not the end of my life or anything, I do also realize that I won't be young forever and have decided to put together a 30 by 30 list of my own.  It's performance goal time at work so it seemed only natural to put together my personal goal list at the same time.  We'll see how I do at my personal performance review in December. :)

Jamie's 30 by 30

1) Dance in at least one more musical - I've done 5 so far, and really would like to do several more before I "retire" but one step at a time!

2) Run in the MK5K (Or another 5K if timing doesn't work out).  And when I say run, I mean run.  None of this run walk stuff I've done at such races in the past.  I'll be happy with a moderate jog, but I'd like to move quickly the entire race. :)

3) Complete "Cindy" RX'd.  Basically this means get to a point where I can do pull up's and push up's without assistance in a workout.  I'm not putting a number of rounds on the goal, but I'd say it should be more than 3 since it is a 20 minute window...

4) Finish reading the bible.  I've read about 95% of it during my life, but never completely consecutively.  I started reading through it last year, but got sidetracked about halfway.  I'd like to finish it straight through this year.

5) Get us financially "on track".  This is actually a goal I share with the hubby.  We're doing OK, and not sliding backwards into debt, but it would be very nice and useful to actually get ahead of things, and save more for his retirement and the girls college.

6) Get good at swing dancing again.  I'm not picky about what kind of swing dancing (country, east coast, west coast), just want to dance with my hubby....on a regular basis.....

7) Write a book.  Probably just a children's book, but something I wouldn't mind sharing or selling.

8) Take the girls to the aquarium.  Parker's been to a zoo, and a wildlife park.  When she was younger her favorite part was the fish however, so I think both she and Juliet would LOVE the aquarium.  And I always want to do more things with my girls!!

9) Take professional family pictures.  The goal is basically to make the time and make it happen!!

10) Speak the word of God regularly to my girls.  We pray at night, but it's proven more difficult to actually read the bible to them so far.  The little bible stories they do get exposed to are paraphrased, or parts of songs like "Jesus loves me".  This goal is to find verses they can understand and work into our daily schedule an lives a time / way to speak God's truth to them, in his words.

11) Stop relying on "fast" food.  This includes restaurants.  A restaurant should be a special treat, not "Mommy doesn't feel like cooking tonight."  Prepare ahead.  (read: Suck it up lazy girl!!!)

12) Find a "girlfriend".  While I have several good friends I can call on in times of need, or chat with now and then, I really need to find a friend to meet with on a regular basis.  Really share life with.  Maybe have an accountability partner setup, or just share the joys and trials of motherhood and the wife life. :)

13) Sew one complete outfit for each of my girls.  Basically re-teach myself how to sew.

14) Re-stage Gene's choreography for National Tap Dance Day.

15) Lose 15 lbs.  Basically get back to where I was before I had kids.  Not too skinny, but healthy.

16) Write an app.

17) Prepare for the end.  Get a will together, organize important information, write letters to my girls.  Be prepared.

18) Get rid of STUFF.  Get rid of everything we don't really use.  Help the house stay cleaner by removing clutter.

19) Learn to make Sangria.

20) Buy land.  This one may take a little past 30 because we're going to wait for the right property, but we're at least starting the looking / saving process.

21) Take a gymnastics class.  It can be one day if that's all we can make happen, but I want to tumble again.

22) Go indoor rock climbing with Darren.

23) Learn to cut Darren's hair.  Save us some money in the long run.

24) Take a hoop or scarf class.  Hopefully with a living social deal or something to make it cheaper, but learn to do something fun and crazy.

25) Watch the sunset at Oasis with a delicious drink.

26) Climb the rope. To the top.  Stop being a scared-y cat.

27) See Steven LaBrie perform again.  Hopefully in Dallas.

28) Take a painting class.

29) Make my drive time productive.  Setup podcasts or download audio books to listen to on the road.

30) Enjoy my husband and girls.  Take time every day to thank God for all he has blessed me with and enjoy this time I have with them.  They are only little for so long and it goes so quickly.


Here we go!!!  Time to make stuff happen! :)

Day 12 - Breakdown

So my horomones have been a little out of whack lately.  Well, that's a lie.  They've been WAY out of whack lately.  Having a baby will do that to you.  I hit a breaking point today.  I've been wanting to clean the house for awhile now and it seemed like we just keep getting further behind.  If you're like me, the more work there is to do, the more impossible it seems and the longer you put it off.  Then you look at it one day and it completely overwhelms you.

Long story short, today was one of those days.  I managed to get stuff moving this morning and made bacon and eggs for breakfast.  I was almost at my breaking point by lunchtime so hubby made lunch while taking care of me and the baby (so thankful for such a wondeful man!).  For lunch we had leftover steak with stir fry veggies.  I tried to calm down and took a short nap this afternoon so I was able to make dinner, which was chicken and broccoli, carrots and onions steamed then tossed in butter.  No pictures today, which may be a good thing.  And no workout either.  Hopefully I can manage the 9am workout tomorrow...

Hubby tried to kill himself doing Barbara RX'd tonight so he cheated and got a milkshake thing on the way home (and just HAD to show me), so I had a banana.  Take that hubby. :P

Day 11 - The joys of Paleo Restaurant Visits

So this morning I woke up when Darren left for work at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Once I had everything ready to go for the girls, I decided I had time to make breakfast before waking them up!  Garlic and Red Pepper Chicken Sausage sauteed with bell peppers over eggs!  Pretty tasty. :)

Then, at work today my co-workers decided to go out to eat so of course I had to tag along.  It's the first time we'd gone out since I've been back and I really missed that.  We decided on Fridays since they should have plenty of paleo options.  Unfortunately when I looked at the menu when we got there, there really weren't many options at all.  I decided to get a small 6 oz steak with some veggies and sweet potato fries on the side.  It was kind of depressing being there and seeing that wonderful menu with all of those wonderful foods I'm not eating... Oh well, I was wearing a skirt that didn't fit me two weeks ago so HA! (Don't worry delicious foods, I'll be eating you in moderation again soon :))

On the way to the gym, Darren called and said he was taking the girls to Mooyah.  I just had to join.  So dinner was an iceburger with bacon.  Darren added cheese to his.  UGH!  Three more weeks... three more weeks....

Day 10 - Family Reunion

My Aunt Dorothy passed away last Friday night.  I barely knew her.  I think I saw her maybe 4-6 times in my life including my wedding and my first daughter's baby shower.  I knew she had a bunch of kids.  Turns out the exact number is 6.  6 kids, 13 grandkids, and 7 great grandkids.  Most of whom I've never met.  I met a lot of them today!  It's weird realizing you're related to a lot of people you never even knew existed.  It's nice meeting them though.  And finding out what a good person and a caring mother/grandmother your Aunt was.

Enough sadness though.  On to food!  Always a happy topic. :)

Breakfast is shown below.  For lunch I had barbecue pork with steamed broccoli, carrots and onions.  After the funeral we were hungry so we stopped at Mooyah and I had a double patty ice burger with bacon, tomatoes and pickles.  Would have been better with cheese but not today!  I also had a side of sweet potato fries.

I picked up a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken on the way home for dinner as well as a bag of baby carrots to steam.  When I got home however, I found Darren preparing the grill to cook STEAK!!!!

So dinner was a mixture of chicken and steak with baby carrots on the side, drowned in butter.  They were SOOOO GOOOD!!!!

While I didn't make it to the gym today, I did teach tap tonight, and tried to throw some very aerobic moves in there that I had to demonstrate.  That counts as a mini-workout, right?

Day 9 - A new PR!

So I am really bad at remembering to take food pictures.  I did however remember at lunch and it's a good thing I did.  This sage butternut stuffed chicken was possibly the best meal I've ever had out of the cafeteria at work.  And that is saying a lot because we have an awesome cafeteria.  I ended up going back for a second piece of chicken.  YUMMY!!

For breakfast I had two brats, and dinner was leftover paleo barbecue pork and sweet potato fries.

Workout again today!  Love getting to say that on a regular basis!

Shoulder Press - Test for 1RM

33kg - new PR by 3 kg!!!

3 rnds for time:

10 Power Clean (22.5 kg)

20 box jump (16")

I don't remember my exact time but I think it was around 7 min.  The box jumps are still hard.  They require more stomach muscles than I have left.  They're coming back though... slowly. :)

Day 8 - The energy fairy

Today I almost fell asleep on my drive home... NOT GOOD.  I think the sugar was more important than I thought.  I know my body will begin to burn fat and other fuel sources, but I have an hour's drive home.  I need something when I start to crash, so starting tomorrow I will have emergency fruit.  Hopefully I won't have to use it, but we'll see...

Stayed Paleo today.  Breakfast and lunch are shown below.  Dinner was leftover skewers.  Chicken, Steak, Bell Peppers and Onions.  I let Darren finish the rest of the pineapple :)

Got in a workout as well!!

8x1 Clean and Jerk at 27.5 kg

NANCY (L1) For Time:

200 m run

15 OHS (10kg)

15:40

Days 6&7 - The first weekend

I managed to stay paleo through my first weekend... Including a trip to outback!

We headed out of town saturday afternoon which meant there were a couple of meals up in the air. Saturday morning i thankfully had a few egg muffins left and snacked on those for breakfast. For lunch we took advantage of bottomless bowls at ghengis grill. Even though i only had two, it allowed for me to have a really good amount and variety of veggies. :)

We had planned to grill at the place we were headed to but when we got there the grill didn't really look that great so we opted to drive in to the outback steakhouse in Tyler instead. By far the best Outback we've ever been to! Since I couldn't have the dressing I love so much I decided to get mixed veggies and green beans with my steak.

In chatting with Darren at dinner about how much weight I need to lose and my crazy addiction to sugar, I decided that starting Monday I would try to do the rest of the challenge without fruit as well. Might be tricky but hopefully it will reset my brain.

Since that doesn't start until tomorrow however, and I'd already bought and brought it, we had some blueberry pomegranate juice with breakfast this morning.

It was delicious... and addicting!  We finished off the *small* bottle today so it wouldn't be there to tempt me tomorrow :P

So my meals for today were:

Breakfast: Eggs, Sausage, Bell Peppers & Onions, and Juice

We missed Lunch so I snacked on a banana and the rest of the juice

Dinner: Skewers - Chicken, Steak, Bell Peppers, Onions and Pineapple

Late night snack: Brat

I didn't get a workout in this weekend, but Darren did go over some of the running drills with me.  Hopefully the new movements will start to sink in soon!

On to week 2!