Monday, August 26, 2013

The Haircut that Ruined my Life

Okay, so maybe the title of this post is a little bit dramatic.  Jason and I have been discussing getting Aria a haircut for the past few weeks.  We decided that Jason would be the one to cut her hair so that we didn't traumatize her by taking her to a salon.  I didn't realize that Jason would take this to mean that it would be okay to give her a haircut while I was out. 

I came home Sunday and couldn't believe it when I walked in to see that my baby girl's bangs had been chopped off.  I turned to Jason and said "WHAT DID YOU DO?!?"  He then began to try to validate what he had done.  "Aria's bangs were too long and kept bothering her when they got in her face.  It was really hard to cut them with only one person.  I only cut off this much (as he shows me approx. 1 inch).  I just cut them above her eye brows.  I didn't know they would shrink that much.  You told me I could do it!"

Putting aside the fact that he gave her the worst haircut ever, I became extremely upset when it sunk in that he had given her her first haircut and I had COMPLETELY missed it!  I started bawling and Aria kept asking "You okay mommy?  You okay?"  The upside is that Jason at least saved her hair instead of throwing it away.

As you can see from this picture, her bangs had gotten pretty long.


Here is the sad after picture.

 
My brother pointed out that she resembled a well known character.  So devastating!!
 
 
 
My sister-in-law made the statement that she couldn't believe how well I was handling the whole situation.  While I despise the hair cut, and am sad that I didn't get to witness my baby's first haircut, I also understand that Jason didn't have malicious intentions but rather was trying to help.  He wanted Aria to be more comfortable and it just didn't cross his mind that I would probably want to be present for this event.  Secondly, we can't go back in time and take back that first snip of the scissors so it's better just to move forward. 
 
Will I forever hold him accountable for his actions, of course.  Will I be angry with him, not at all.  He truly feels bad about the entire thing and I think it's important recognize that and cut him a little slack.  But if you feel like giving him a hard time, who am I to stand in your way? :)

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Days 72-84 and Beyond: Phase 3 Complete? Results

I have been a total slacker when it comes to updating my blog.  We are officially done with the Jamie Eason Live Fit program.  Can we really say that we completed it?  Probably not.  When my Granny passed away our schedule was thrown out of whack and I don't think we fully recovered.  We have both been so busy at work to the point of not being able to take our full lunch break to workout.  Also, because we didn't participate in carb cycling, I'm not sure that we could have successfully said that we completed the program even if we did stay on track with our working out.

Nonetheless, here are our final results.

Sarah's Results:
Weight at Start - 131
Weight after Phase 1 - 127.2
Weight after Phase 2 - 124.4
Weight after Phase 3 - 121.4

Last week I had my annual appointment with my girl doctor and he brought up the fact that I'm weighing less than I did before I got pregnant with Aria.  It really made me feel good to hear that!  Even though my weight is down to 121, I feel that part of that was me losing a bit of my muscle mass because we haven't made it to the gym every day.  I also don't think you can tell much of a difference in me physically from Phase 2 to the completion of the program.

Here are my progress pics from Day 1 and Day 84.  While I know they could have been better, I'm still very pleased with the results!
 
 
 
 
 

Jason's Results:
Weight at Start - 183
Weight after Phase 1 - 173
Weight after Phase 2 - 171
Weight after Phase 3 - 171
 

Jason has been traveling a lot for work so there wasn't any change in his weight from the end of Phase 2 to the end of the program.  But given how much he's been on the road, that is truly amazing!  I'm so proud of how far he has come and it looks like we are going to have to get his suit altered!  Sorry the picture quality isn't great!  I didn't fully think things through when I took his final pictures.
 



When the program came to an end I was left thinking "What's next?"  I am the type of person who likes goals and checklists so it became clear that it would be best for me to start another program.  I've looked around and decided I am going to start Lee Labrasa's 12 Week Lean Body Trainer which can also be found on Bodybuilding.com.

The nutrition requirements are not laid out quite as definitely as Jamie Eason's program, so I am going to take what I learned from Live Fit about clean eating and apply it to this program.  I am excited to start something new and to keep moving forward with improving my health and wellness.

I believe a big part of wellness is your mental well-being.  When stress levels are high it is easy to get off track with your eating and fitness goals, and in turn your mental well-being can be compromised.  We've had a few big (and unexpected) expenses come up recently.  If you know me, you know that I am BIG into budgeting!  Taking care of our family budget is a lot of fun for me, but it is frustrating when you see your savings take a dip because things come up.  Of course, that's what savings are for! 

I've decided that Jason and I are going to do a 30 day cash only challenge (not counting monthly bills) starting this Wednesday, August 14th.  I want us to be more aware of how much money we have and more cautious about spending it.  When I balanced our budget on Wednesday, I decided that we needed to not spend much more until we get paid next.  I had $12 in my wallet and decided that is what we would have to live on for 7 days.  As of today I still have $5 remaining and just knowing that I needed to stretch that money has really made me think twice before spending it.

We already live our lives in categories; my budget has a category for EVERYTHING!  I think we will be less likely to spend our money so freely and quickly if we have to look at what we're spending, so we're taking it back to the basics for a month to see what kind of effect it will have on our budget.  I think it will be fun, but I'm strange like that. :)

Transforming your life should never be complete!  You should always look for ways to continue to improve your situation.  I'm excited about these new challenges and can't wait to share our results!