Inkedupmommas getting married y'all! A WPJ & Disneyfamilymoon PTR!OMG, TR link is UP!

[starann]

Ok...I was super jealous when you got Roots to do the wedding....

But NOW CArrie and PArtick?!?!?!?!?!!? I offically hate you right now...like really (ok, not really, not even a little bit, but I AM UBER jealous now!)

I may have to pull a Carrie and crash your wedding (liek she did to some DIS brides) and wear a big hat to do it!


STINKY about the BM...but I can tell you that my MOH and I don't speak anymore (and she is my middle son's godmother). I am sad about it, but try to focus on what is good in my life and not those who are no longer in it. Maybe things will work out for you and your friend, maybe not, but you have sooooooo many great things going on in your life right now, I would not let that take away from those fab things (like Roots and Catrick and marrying your best friend).


Maybe over the summer we can meet up...I would love you meet you IRL and those great kids of yours!

 

[missx0xdelaney]

LOVE the invites and rsvps. Even the bf thought they were neat! That's really too bad about your bridesmaid. I'm so sorry to hear about that, it seems like she must have been overwhelmed or something. I hate to say it, but at least this happened now instead of in crunch time when you'd be more stressed out. :/ The pics from the farm are so adorable. You guys looked like you had a ball! I'm so jealous of those yummy looking cider donuts - only $1 each too! I NEED some of those in my life.

 

[Lucille1963]

Sorry I found this so late! I'm looking forward to catching up with the whole journey!

 

[eandesmom]

Oh my goodness! I love love love the cards and invites. So much personality! How very cool that Carrie will make the wedding. Heck between Roots and Carrie I think you guys are mini royalty

I am so sorry amount your BM. Sound likes she's got her own issues that hopefully will become clear at some point.

I am a huge fan of my fitness pal, lost about 20 using it. It's as good as you make it, for me it's made me accountable which was a good thing. Bottom line is just getting more healthy is wonderful.

 

[inkedupmomma]

AWESOME Updates...

have to write/type fast so as not to forget anything...

LOVE your Invites/Reception Cards... really attractive...tie in your whole rustic feeling with your centerpieces and sign...
thank you, I rather like seeing it all start to come together... I'm still nervous about the end result!
I'm so happy for you that Carrie and Patrick can be at your wedding...
me too!

Sorry about BM... For better or worse (no pun intended) weddings are emotional intense times and they bring out the well, better and worst in people...

The thing is, she was the one who was all I saved since you asked me, Ive been waiting my whole friendship to do this for you... shes been ina million weddings too! Surely this cvan't be the first that shes not loved the whole party??

Love the farm photos ... hmmm I recognize that... it isn't solebury... hmmm it has an interesting name...don't tell me... ok tell me
It is none such farms! Not far from my house, past Peddlers village about 10 minutes!
(love the cows and chickens and roosters...well you know... don't LOVE them...but think they're really cool...)
same sentiments!
oh just wait Kayla's schedule is just going to get crazier... hehehehehe....
ugh. It's intense! I'm trying to keep her well rounded, but the poor kid is busy!

Oh right.... Yeah you and Bob go with Fitnesspal... (I'm planning on doing the couch to 5k...) You know that within 3 weeks of working out... It does start to make a difference to your health and a healthier you is a happier you and its all just holistic...

Your wedding is about 3 months time... def time to make changes... and you don't want to do any crazy extreme stuff anyway... you want it to be an ongoing lifestyle change... no slash and burn... nurture and care for... (kk time for some lunch-low blood sugar... that sounded a little strange even for me...but you get the point...

Good stuff

we did MFP last year around this same time. While we jumped off after January, we kept many of the changes, and I only gained 5 lbs back! Normally, I gain it all back PLUS more! So it has def been a lifestyle change, now I just have to get back to the grind with it. Don't need to be skinny, but I have a glow about me when I'm healthier! Wouldn't hurt to see it in wedding/disneymoon pics!

Jen, I LOVE the wedding invitations, but those response cards are absolutely THE BEST EVER! I love them...what a great job.
Thank you! We had a lot of fun making them!

As for the diet, I'm not the one to ask (I lose, then I gain, etc.). Nicki has been on the no carb diet since May and has lost 30 pounds. You might want to look into it!

oh no.. I don't do no carb diets. I lessen my intake, but your body NEEDS carbs! Especially if you are working out! PLUS, I could never. ever.

Love, love, love the response cards!!! I love mad libs. How nice that Bob's mom is throwing a send off breakfast for you!
Thank you, and isn't that sweet of her! She didn't want us to leave late for Disney, so she thought this would help us say bye to everyone and then just go!

I'm so sorry about the Bridesmaid. Seems like wedding duties really bring out the worst in some people. How strange, sad, and disappointing for you.
shes wedding OBSESSED, so this is REALLY shocking for me, and very unexpected.

For what it's worth- I think Mel's right. If you were at the same park all day long you'd be expecting to run into them, ride with them, etc. That's great, but not what those 2 days are about. I'm having a hard time planning our next trip's ADRs because I find myself wanting to try new places without giving up our old faves. For what it's worth-we did Cali and CRT for dinner last trip and loved them both. For a romantic couples evening, Cali Grill would win for me. It's really more of a grown up place, and that view is just stunning. And after dinner you two could watch the fireworks from the observation deck without the crowds.

We were going to do CRT for breakfast then CR for dinner... CRT is the one in question for sure now... Im thinking we could start at DHS then do MK then CR for dinner.... but then i have to give up CRT.. so torn!

Sorry you are feeling overwhelmed and having BM troubles. I had some too, and it sucks.
It is NOT COOL!
I think I've already done enough damage, so I won't suggest anything more in terms of your kids free day. Sorry! I will say though that I think the idea of doing a split day at two different parks might be the best way for you to get a taste of everything you want.
No damage! But you def gave me something to think about and Im happy about that!
I like you invitations, but I LOVE the RSVP cards! Awesome! You guys are gonna have so much fun reading everyone's responses.

I almost want to add to the invites, please only answer cards while tired, intoxicated, or feeling goofy lol! I'll post the funniest replies on here for yall to enjoy as well!

Lurkyloo is coming to your wedding AND the Roots are shooting it?!! It's like a celebrity wedding!!
I mean, honestly, not to be a geek, but that is totally how I felt! lol

And I totally love, love, love the RSVPs!

Thank you!!

Great update!!

Love the wording on the invites, about what was always meant to be
Thank you, wasn't sure if people would pick up on that, but we chose the wording, and well, its true!

Those RSPV cards are awesome. Love mad libs
can't wait to share replies with you guys!

That is nice Bob's parents are doing a send off breakfast
mmhmm.. makes my life SO MUCH easier!

That is a shame about your former bridesmaid. But people are right, weddings bring out the worst and best in people sometimes

All the pumpkin pics are great

The one where Jack is pushing a barrel, I had to do a double take. There are two kids standing near the hay stack on the right corner and the one in dark outfit, looks like he could be Jack's twin
Now I'll have to go back and look!
Those animals are great, especially the one with baby goat

The one where he looks like he has a cig in his mouth lolol or am I the only one that sees that

Ooh..forgot..So cool Lurkyloo coming to your wedding. Loved her wedding pics on the dis
Great update

I know, I am so excited! I haven't seen her in years! It will be so nice to have some real time with them!

Ok...I was super jealous when you got Roots to do the wedding....

But NOW CArrie and PArtick?!?!?!?!?!!? I offically hate you right now...like really (ok, not really, not even a little bit, but I AM UBER jealous now!)
don't hate me, please! I promise I'll share every pic!

I may have to pull a Carrie and crash your wedding (liek she did to some DIS brides) and wear a big hat to do it!
I wouldn't mind every Diser I know crashing... just sayin

STINKY about the BM...but I can tell you that my MOH and I don't speak anymore (and she is my middle son's godmother). I am sad about it, but try to focus on what is good in my life and not those who are no longer in it. Maybe things will work out for you and your friend, maybe not, but you have sooooooo many great things going on in your life right now, I would not let that take away from those fab things (like Roots and Catrick and marrying your best friend).
oh, that is crappy! I just never expected it from her! But honestly, I'm over it mostly. It is what it is! I have so many great girls in my party, and I'm just so excited to have all the people I love in one place at the same time, as that is such a rarity for us! It's going to be great! Her loss!

Maybe over the summer we can meet up...I would love you meet you IRL and those great kids of yours!

YES PLEASE! Lord knows that there is enough fun ongoings in our areas that we should most def meet up! I've really made some of my best friends here on the Dis!

LOVE the invites and rsvps. Even the bf thought they were neat! That's really too bad about your bridesmaid. I'm so sorry to hear about that, it seems like she must have been overwhelmed or something. I hate to say it, but at least this happened now instead of in crunch time when you'd be more stressed out. :/ The pics from the farm are so adorable. You guys looked like you had a ball! I'm so jealous of those yummy looking cider donuts - only $1 each too! I NEED some of those in my life.

Thank you kindly BF! and you too! We had a ton of fun making them! and yeah, again, her loss! I thought $1 was pricey for a donut! I thought everything there was pricey.. then again, I thought that last year as well! BUT, they WERE good, and we had fun...so it all evens out??

Sorry I found this so late! I'm looking forward to catching up with the whole journey!

Thanks! and welcome! Hope you enjoy and stay around! I'm sure things can only get nuttier!

Oh my goodness! I love love love the cards and invites. So much personality! How very cool that Carrie will make the wedding. Heck between Roots and Carrie I think you guys are mini royalty

I am so sorry amount your BM. Sound likes she's got her own issues that hopefully will become clear at some point.

I am a huge fan of my fitness pal, lost about 20 using it. It's as good as you make it, for me it's made me accountable which was a good thing. Bottom line is just getting more healthy is wonderful.

Someone else just said that and I wont lie, I feel pretty royal! and spoiled lol! I'm honored to have both sets of awesome people there! Can you say dreams come true!?

and yes, I DO hope for some clarity from her one day.... but won't hold my breath either :/

I agree 100% about MFP! REALLY makes you think more than anything! and that has been a great lesson! We dropped it for a while, but were able to jump back on pretty easily! I found more than anything I snacked in between out of boredom, so now I am timing meals a bit better, and snack planning! Even if I just tone up a bit I'll be happy! My dress is a perfect fit, so now it's just a matter of looking my best in what I have! Kudos to your 20lbs! That is a huge accomplishment!

 

[WDWaddictt]

Love your invites and RSVP cards! Very inventive and funny, can't wait to hear some of the responses.

Awesome of your MIL to hold a breakfast for you guys! Nice touch!

Sorry bout your BM. Hopefully everything works out for you the way you want them too.

Loved all the pics from the pumpkin patch/farm. Very cute family! I know Bob isn't their father (Bob is their dad) but Kayla looks like him and Jack looks like you. No one would know any different. Meant to be!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Catching up!

Love the invites, although I did get to see them before they were posted here.

Excited about the PP too. Just hope we can figure out how to use this new one if we are not together.

Getting closer now. Double digits til the wedding!

 

[Millie12591]

Hey Jenn, you don't know me from Adam but I have been reading along with your life a bit over the last couple of years. Your such a cutie.

I wanted to congratulate you on your up and coming wedding to your BFF, he's a doll and you deserve someone as amazing as he is.
I've been reading about your weight loss and I totally understand stress weight loss like you had back when the break-up happened. Been there done that. It's amazing what stress will do to one's body, I think I lost about 50 lbs. that way once, not fun. And soooo not healthy.

I too have been on a weight loss journey here over the last year and half and I've lost 66 lb. so far.
There is no easy way to do it, working hard and consistantly pays off bigger than anything I've ever watched others or myself do. The one thing I know for sure is if you cut out eating any one thing completely and it's not realistic to continue not eating that one thing once you're done losing weight, guess what? When you start eating it again you'll gain everything you've lost and then some over a very short amount of time. I've watched my friends do it over and over and over again.
Losing weight is a tough road to haul at times, but it can be done!! I know because I'm doing it!!
Little by little and inch by inch I'm making my way to being at a healthy weight again and being healthy too. Something else I've come to realize by researching heavily and watching friends....you can lose weight but it doesn't mean you are losing it in a healthy way or even losing the fat you want off your body. Most people are losing muscle and they don't even know it.

I was well over 200 lb.s when I started and I'm proud to say I'm in regular women's sizes (size 14-she says beaming) and finding that I'm finally able to wear clothes I'd never thought I'd see again. My goal is to lose a total of 100 by end of April next year, just in time to go to my trip to WDW!!
It's my reward for my losing the weight. My ultimate goal would be 110-115 but with lifting weights (which I've never done when I've lost weight in the past) so I'm not sure what I'll look like at a decided weight, I may like what I look like at 150 lb. but look like I weigh 125-130. The trainer that helped a friend of mine looks every bit of 120-130 lbs. but weighs closer to 160 because of all the muscle she has on. And no she doesn't look all bulked out like a guy. I think that's a bit much. So we'll see what I look like as I go to determine where I'll stop losing.

You asked for advice on what to do to lose, and I am all about sharing what I do, but I will warn you.....what I do is what I've developed over a stretch of time and I certainly didn't do it all over night. So please, please, please don't read what I'm doing and get over whelmed and think you can't do it because it's too much. It is too much for anyone, but that's only because it takes time to develope this sort of regimen. I know you can do it, and this doesn't have to be just for the wedding, it can be for a life time. You will sooooo love your body even just a couple of months into doing what I do alone for exercise.

I work out at home, I've done my entire weight loss without weight machines. So if I can do it, so can you!!
I do have an elliptical and a recumbent bike, but if you can walk, jog or run you can do the cardio you need to do without those machines. I have several dumb bell's I use, I have a 20 lb., 2-15's, 2-12's, 2-8's, 2-5's, and 2-3 pounders. I also have a 10 and 20 lb. bar, and weight resistant rubber tubs that have handles to attatch to them, an exercise ball and that's it. I know it may sound like a lot but when you think about how I can get a full body weight workout with all that, it's really not that much. The one thing I wish I had was a weight bench, but there is a lack of room for it and for one exercise (fly's for the chest) I use my exercise ball instead.

I do three days a week weights, and three days a week cardio. And I do each every other day so I don't get burned out too quickly, but more importantly so my body has a days rest between lifting weights-which is essential to building muscle and to not hurt yourself. I'll give you the run down of every exercise I do in a full body weight workout so you have an idea of what it is I do.

Since it's you and your honey working out at home I highly suggest you watch some videos on how to do form properly and then you can watch one another to see if y'all are doing the weight exercise right and correct one's form if you aren't, other wise you could hurt yourself or wind up not doing it right and then you won't get the results you want. I used a trainer for a couple of months who worked out of her home, I did this to learn what I needed to do for a full body workout and also to do form properly. Form is the one thing she made sure I had in my head, she said I'd rather you do 5 reps. of the right form than 10 wrong one's.

I first warm up, I hop on one of my machines for 10 mins., it is really important to warm up, so walking in place for 10 mins. in a crazy way is also good. I mean crazy as in you have your knees coming up higher than a normal walk and swinging your arms a bit to get the blood pumping to your muscles. Once done, do a little simple stretching (we'll save the serious stretching until after you're done with your workout), arms, shoulders, bend down into a squat to stretch the legs a little, neck from side to side, you get the idea.

Then I start out doing squats, (I promise not to go into this much detail for everything )legs shoulder width apart, weight dist. evenly, and never allowing your knees to extend past the ends of your toes. EVER. You'll have your knees killing you if you do. Throw your hiney waaaay back (probably further back than you think) and squat, girl! I do 50 (took me a long time to get to this point) but I would say start out doing 15-20 or as many as you can do, it shouldn't hurt like crazy to do this exercise, if it does don't do them. I will tell you this about this one exercise, it's probably the best over all exercise you can ever do, it targets several muscles in your body at one time, it will strengthen your largest muscle groups (which you want when you want to burn fat even when you aren't moving) legs and butt and make this part of your body transform faster than anything else you can do (which is the case with weight resistance training anyway ). I've been told you are using over 100 different muscles (body has about 640) in your body at one time to do this one exercise. Crazy!

Legs:Squats, or lunges

Chest: Fly's, lay on bench with a bar and push straight up or do fly's with 5-8 lb. weights to start-for you. You can also do push ups, yes girl push-ups are fine. A weight may feel too light at first but make sure you can get through a full set (8-10 reps-should be doing 10-15 for a full set of reps once you've been at it for a couple of months) before you go up in weight. I think I started with 8's on fly's but moved up pretty quickly to 12's and then 15's after a couple of months working out, I've stayed with the 15's since then, I just do more reps since I don't really want to get any bigger, just more defined. When you get close to the end of doing 10 reps of an exercise and it's starting to get where you almost can't hold proper form, that's how you know you are using the right amount of weight. Or if you still feel challenged. But be sure to go up in weight as the exercise becomes too easy or when you no longer are progressing, it's always good to throw a higher weight in there every once and a while, just dont expect to get a full 10 reps in. Muscles have memory, they will stay where they are until they are challenged.

Arms: Dumb bell lifts, hammer lifts, V lifts,-lifting up for a count of three, coming down for a count of four. May want to start out doing 8's or 10's. I use 15's and do 10-15 reps. I can explain these if you need me to.


Squats for me again. I split up my squats into to two sets of 25 per each body set I do (I do 4 body sets now-meaning all of these exercises 4 times through-I recommend only 3 for you)


Shoulders: This one is tricky-Shoulders sneak up on you, I wouldn't start out doing shoulder exercises with much more than 1-3lb. weights probably 2's for you. It's easy to injure shoulders, so becareful. Look up sholder exercises, there are few and it's always best to see what someone does, rather than explain.

Back: This is where I use my weight resistant cord/band, I put it around a post while I'm standing and pull back (the cord should be high enough that your hands should be aside of your "girls" when you pull back all the way) and hold for a sec. while pinching my shoulders together like I'm trying to crack a walnut between my shoulder blades, I do 20 reps. Look up others, there are just a few. But your back will look great in a dress even if you just do the one I explained here.

Abs: There are all kinds of exercise for this, do what you like and what you know you won't hurt yourself doing. I have lower back issues so I do them very differently than most others do. If you do too, then I'll share what I do with you later. The best one is the plank, but it takes some time to build up to doing a full minute.



And that's a full body set! Now...start all over and go through all of these again, and then again and then that's a full body workout! It should take about an hour to do all of this, even with a few breaks in between exercises, but don't take breaks for too long, remember the goal is to exhaust the muscle in order to build it. But certainly go at a pace you can stand.
Drink lots of water and just know you will hurt like crazy for a week or two, but don't stop just because it hurts, the best thing to do when you hurt after a workout is to rest a day and then go back and do the same exercise the following day, going back to the same exercise will help with the pain. You'll still hurt but not near as bad, and if you hurt more than you can handle, tylenol and a hot shower is always good. But once you get past the first two weeks you'll be good. Promise. One of the most important things when doing weight resistance training...you work the opposite muscle of the one you worked, if you do quads you must do hamstrings (if your doing squats you don't have to worry about this) if you do biceps then you have to do triceps. Other wise you can really injure yourself. If you follow the full body workout I gave you you won't have an issue.

I know I've written a ton here, but one thing I want you to walk away with from all that I typed out about weight resistance training....When you lift weights you condense everything into a much smaller package. I didn't realize this until I tried on clothes as I was losing weight. I had several things I thought I couldn't get into until I saw a certain number on the scale, but one day I accidentially tried on a pair of pants that were much smaller than I thought I could get into at the moment. When I realized I was in a smaller pair of pants I started crying and laughing all at the same time!! They were not only on me but they were too big!! That's when I realized how much the weight resistance made my body MUCH smaller than just losing weight by what I'm eating. I had an outfit I wore to my SIL wedding (back in 2001) and I could get into it 30 lbs. heavier than when I originally wore it. I'm now the weight I was when I originally wore it and it literally falls to my ankles when I put it on.

There is tons more to write about for what I do for eating, well not really, I mostly eat lean meats and lots of fruits and veggies. And almost all organic, which is really important too. Pesticides put extra layers of fat on the body. And I also stay away from processed foods as much as possible, and nothing white, no white flour, sugar, rice, I don't eat much pasta (only when I need a plateau breaker) including whole wheat since it process in the body close to the same as the white flour pasta's do. When I do eat carbs they are always in veggie or fruit form or whole wheat. Sugar is the number one killer to any weight loss success, which means any white foods as well.
I do a protein shake in the morning, I can tell you about that later if you want, it's yummy-lots of fruit! The goal if weight lifting is to get at least an oz. of protein for every pound you are. Which means you'll have to eat protein at every meal or added into your snacks to get enough in, you'll need it to build muscle. But add it over time if you need to. I started out doing my all over body workout and then started changing things here and there as I could handle it and or researched it, trust me you'll change what you need to once you realize how hard you are working.

Hope I didn't over whelm you.
If you ever want to talk about this in person I'd be happy to call you or you can call me. Just PM me.

 

[danielle79]

Hi Jenn, I am all caught up and so excited for your future with your BF! So jealous of all the wedding plans and Disneymoon!!!! Kayla is so very grown up and a total fashionista! Wait until she turns 15 and you are remembering her being born. My 15 year old is an amazing young woman!! Jack, what an adorable boy!!!! I have no boys but my cousin (is really more like my sister) has 3 and her oldest son Jake reminds me of Jack, great little boy! I would like to say that 3 kids seems to be the new 2 kids! I have 3, my cousin has 3, my BFF has 3, we know many families with 3! I totally understand the not wanting to start over with baby stuff though. Good luck with everything!

 

[inkedupmomma]

Love your invites and RSVP cards! Very inventive and funny, can't wait to hear some of the responses.

Awesome of your MIL to hold a breakfast for you guys! Nice touch!

Sorry bout your BM. Hopefully everything works out for you the way you want them too.

Loved all the pics from the pumpkin patch/farm. Very cute family! I know Bob isn't their father (Bob is their dad) but Kayla looks like him and Jack looks like you. No one would know any different. Meant to be!!

Catching up!

Love the invites, although I did get to see them before they were posted here.

Excited about the PP too. Just hope we can figure out how to use this new one if we are not together.

Getting closer now. Double digits til the wedding!

Hey Jenn, you don't know me from Adam but I have been reading along with your life a bit over the last couple of years. Your such a cutie.

I wanted to congratulate you on your up and coming wedding to your BFF, he's a doll and you deserve someone as amazing as he is.
I've been reading about your weight loss and I totally understand stress weight loss like you had back when the break-up happened. Been there done that. It's amazing what stress will do to one's body, I think I lost about 50 lbs. that way once, not fun. And soooo not healthy.
I too have been on a weight loss journey here over the last year and half and I've lost 66 lb. so far.
There is no easy way to do it, working hard and consistantly pays off bigger than anything I've ever watched others or myself do. The one thing I know for sure is if you cut out eating any one thing completely and it's not realistic to continue not eating that one thing once you're done losing weight, guess what? When you start eating it again you'll gain everything you've lost and then some over a very short amount of time. I've watched my friends do it over and over and over again.
Losing weight is a tough road to haul at times, but it can be done!! I know because I'm doing it!!
Little by little and inch by inch I'm making my way to being at a healthy weight again and being healthy too. Something else I've come to realize by researching heavily and watching friends....you can lose weight but it doesn't mean you are losing it in a healthy way or even losing the fat you want off your body. Most people are losing muscle and they don't even know it.

I was well over 200 lb.s when I started and I'm proud to say I'm in regular women's sizes (size 14-she says beaming) and finding that I'm finally able to wear clothes I'd never thought I'd see again. My goal is to lose a total of 100 by end of April next year, just in time to go to my trip to WDW!!
It's my reward for my losing the weight. My ultimate goal would be 110-115 but with lifting weights (which I've never done when I've lost weight in the past) so I'm not sure what I'll look like at a decided weight, I may like what I look like at 150 lb. but look like I weigh 125-130. The trainer that helped a friend of mine looks every bit of 120-130 lbs. but weighs closer to 160 because of all the muscle she has on. And no she doesn't look all bulked out like a guy. I think that's a bit much. So we'll see what I look like as I go to determine where I'll stop losing.

You asked for advice on what to do to lose, and I am all about sharing what I do, but I will warn you.....what I do is what I've developed over a stretch of time and I certainly didn't do it all over night. So please, please, please don't read what I'm doing and get over whelmed and think you can't do it because it's too much. It is too much for anyone, but that's only because it takes time to develope this sort of regimen. I know you can do it, and this doesn't have to be just for the wedding, it can be for a life time. You will sooooo love your body even just a couple of months into doing what I do alone for exercise.

I work out at home, I've done my entire weight loss without weight machines. So if I can do it, so can you!!
I do have an elliptical and a recumbent bike, but if you can walk, jog or run you can do the cardio you need to do without those machines. I have several dumb bell's I use, I have a 20 lb., 2-15's, 2-12's, 2-8's, 2-5's, and 2-3 pounders. I also have a 10 and 20 lb. bar, and weight resistant rubber tubs that have handles to attatch to them, an exercise ball and that's it. I know it may sound like a lot but when you think about how I can get a full body weight workout with all that, it's really not that much. The one thing I wish I had was a weight bench, but there is a lack of room for it and for one exercise (fly's for the chest) I use my exercise ball instead.

I do three days a week weights, and three days a week cardio. And I do each every other day so I don't get burned out too quickly, but more importantly so my body has a days rest between lifting weights-which is essential to building muscle and to not hurt yourself. I'll give you the run down of every exercise I do in a full body weight workout so you have an idea of what it is I do.

Since it's you and your honey working out at home I highly suggest you watch some videos on how to do form properly and then you can watch one another to see if y'all are doing the weight exercise right and correct one's form if you aren't, other wise you could hurt yourself or wind up not doing it right and then you won't get the results you want. I used a trainer for a couple of months who worked out of her home, I did this to learn what I needed to do for a full body workout and also to do form properly. Form is the one thing she made sure I had in my head, she said I'd rather you do 5 reps. of the right form than 10 wrong one's.

I first warm up, I hop on one of my machines for 10 mins., it is really important to warm up, so walking in place for 10 mins. in a crazy way is also good. I mean crazy as in you have your knees coming up higher than a normal walk and swinging your arms a bit to get the blood pumping to your muscles. Once done, do a little simple stretching (we'll save the serious stretching until after you're done with your workout), arms, shoulders, bend down into a squat to stretch the legs a little, neck from side to side, you get the idea.

Then I start out doing squats, (I promise not to go into this much detail for everything )legs shoulder width apart, weight dist. evenly, and never allowing your knees to extend past the ends of your toes. EVER. You'll have your knees killing you if you do. Throw your hiney waaaay back (probably further back than you think) and squat, girl! I do 50 (took me a long time to get to this point) but I would say start out doing 15-20 or as many as you can do, it shouldn't hurt like crazy to do this exercise, if it does don't do them. I will tell you this about this one exercise, it's probably the best over all exercise you can ever do, it targets several muscles in your body at one time, it will strengthen your largest muscle groups (which you want when you want to burn fat even when you aren't moving) legs and butt and make this part of your body transform faster than anything else you can do (which is the case with weight resistance training anyway ). I've been told you are using over 100 different muscles (body has about 640) in your body at one time to do this one exercise. Crazy!

Legs:Squats, or lunges

Chest: Fly's, lay on bench with a bar and push straight up or do fly's with 5-8 lb. weights to start-for you. You can also do push ups, yes girl push-ups are fine. A weight may feel too light at first but make sure you can get through a full set (8-10 reps-should be doing 10-15 for a full set of reps once you've been at it for a couple of months) before you go up in weight. I think I started with 8's on fly's but moved up pretty quickly to 12's and then 15's after a couple of months working out, I've stayed with the 15's since then, I just do more reps since I don't really want to get any bigger, just more defined. When you get close to the end of doing 10 reps of an exercise and it's starting to get where you almost can't hold proper form, that's how you know you are using the right amount of weight. Or if you still feel challenged. But be sure to go up in weight as the exercise becomes too easy or when you no longer are progressing, it's always good to throw a higher weight in there every once and a while, just dont expect to get a full 10 reps in. Muscles have memory, they will stay where they are until they are challenged.

Arms: Dumb bell lifts, hammer lifts, V lifts,-lifting up for a count of three, coming down for a count of four. May want to start out doing 8's or 10's. I use 15's and do 10-15 reps. I can explain these if you need me to.


Squats for me again. I split up my squats into to two sets of 25 per each body set I do (I do 4 body sets now-meaning all of these exercises 4 times through-I recommend only 3 for you)


Shoulders: This one is tricky-Shoulders sneak up on you, I wouldn't start out doing shoulder exercises with much more than 1-3lb. weights probably 2's for you. It's easy to injure shoulders, so becareful. Look up sholder exercises, there are few and it's always best to see what someone does, rather than explain.

Back: This is where I use my weight resistant cord/band, I put it around a post while I'm standing and pull back (the cord should be high enough that your hands should be aside of your "girls" when you pull back all the way) and hold for a sec. while pinching my shoulders together like I'm trying to crack a walnut between my shoulder blades, I do 20 reps. Look up others, there are just a few. But your back will look great in a dress even if you just do the one I explained here.

Abs: There are all kinds of exercise for this, do what you like and what you know you won't hurt yourself doing. I have lower back issues so I do them very differently than most others do. If you do too, then I'll share what I do with you later. The best one is the plank, but it takes some time to build up to doing a full minute.



And that's a full body set! Now...start all over and go through all of these again, and then again and then that's a full body workout! It should take about an hour to do all of this, even with a few breaks in between exercises, but don't take breaks for too long, remember the goal is to exhaust the muscle in order to build it. But certainly go at a pace you can stand.
Drink lots of water and just know you will hurt like crazy for a week or two, but don't stop just because it hurts, the best thing to do when you hurt after a workout is to rest a day and then go back and do the same exercise the following day, going back to the same exercise will help with the pain. You'll still hurt but not near as bad, and if you hurt more than you can handle, tylenol and a hot shower is always good. But once you get past the first two weeks you'll be good. Promise. One of the most important things when doing weight resistance training...you work the opposite muscle of the one you worked, if you do quads you must do hamstrings (if your doing squats you don't have to worry about this) if you do biceps then you have to do triceps. Other wise you can really injure yourself. If you follow the full body workout I gave you you won't have an issue.

I know I've written a ton here, but one thing I want you to walk away with from all that I typed out about weight resistance training....When you lift weights you condense everything into a much smaller package. I didn't realize this until I tried on clothes as I was losing weight. I had several things I thought I couldn't get into until I saw a certain number on the scale, but one day I accidentially tried on a pair of pants that were much smaller than I thought I could get into at the moment. When I realized I was in a smaller pair of pants I started crying and laughing all at the same time!! They were not only on me but they were too big!! That's when I realized how much the weight resistance made my body MUCH smaller than just losing weight by what I'm eating. I had an outfit I wore to my SIL wedding (back in 2001) and I could get into it 30 lbs. heavier than when I originally wore it. I'm now the weight I was when I originally wore it and it literally falls to my ankles when I put it on.

There is tons more to write about for what I do for eating, well not really, I mostly eat lean meats and lots of fruits and veggies. And almost all organic, which is really important too. Pesticides put extra layers of fat on the body. And I also stay away from processed foods as much as possible, and nothing white, no white flour, sugar, rice, I don't eat much pasta (only when I need a plateau breaker) including whole wheat since it process in the body close to the same as the white flour pasta's do. When I do eat carbs they are always in veggie or fruit form or whole wheat. Sugar is the number one killer to any weight loss success, which means any white foods as well.
I do a protein shake in the morning, I can tell you about that later if you want, it's yummy-lots of fruit! The goal if weight lifting is to get at least an oz. of protein for every pound you are. Which means you'll have to eat protein at every meal or added into your snacks to get enough in, you'll need it to build muscle. But add it over time if you need to. I started out doing my all over body workout and then started changing things here and there as I could handle it and or researched it, trust me you'll change what you need to once you realize how hard you are working.

Hope I didn't over whelm you.
If you ever want to talk about this in person I'd be happy to call you or you can call me. Just PM me.

Hi Jenn, I am all caught up and so excited for your future with your BF! So jealous of all the wedding plans and Disneymoon!!!! Kayla is so very grown up and a total fashionista! Wait until she turns 15 and you are remembering her being born. My 15 year old is an amazing young woman!! Jack, what an adorable boy!!!! I have no boys but my cousin (is really more like my sister) has 3 and her oldest son Jake reminds me of Jack, great little boy! I would like to say that 3 kids seems to be the new 2 kids! I have 3, my cousin has 3, my BFF has 3, we know many families with 3! I totally understand the not wanting to start over with baby stuff though. Good luck with everything!

well yall, I replied to each and every one of you last night , and as I was about to fix typos and send, BAM the power went out.

We were out of power from about 3-5pm and then again from 7pm-11am this morning. Thankfully, Sandy didn't ruin our home or cars, but our neighborhood took a beating. Trees are uprooted everywhere! Some parts of our town got hit really bad tree wise and wont have power for upwards of two weeks I know after just a few hours I was hating life!

Luckily though, we are all safe and sound, and life is back to normal after lots of clean up!

I have nothing else to post right now, Sandy made me tired!

Thank you all for posting though! When I have more energy I will post individually!

 

[KatMark]

Trees can be replaced, people cannot. I am glad you are all okay.

 

[inkedupmomma]

Trees can be replaced, people cannot. I am glad you are all okay.

Thanks Kat!! I appreciated your well wishes on FB too!~!!! It's been a long couple of days, and honestly, I hate that my schedule is thrown off... I'm not good with change.at.all. lol

 

[Trentmom]

I am glad that you all are okay

We did well too

Go get some sleep

Nite Jenn

 

[WDWaddictt]

I was thinking of you... Glad to hear everyone is okay. There is a lot of damage where we are too, but everyone is okay.

 

[starann]

We lost power for 24 hours, which is nothing. I have a friend in NJ who lost her HOUSE and everyhting in it due to flooding.

And my mom still owns her house on SI...she as of yesterday ahd 6 FEET of water in her basement. She lives in Vegas now and the house is supposed to go to settlement at the end of the month, but now who knows. DH is going down there this weekend to get the water out of the basement and make any other repairs. I hope you family still there faired ok!

 

[ronnmel]

I'm glad you guys are okay. It's so sad about everyone who lost houses and stuff.

 

[tlenzendorf]

I'm glad you all are all right!!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hey Jenn,

Well PA really took it on the chin with this one didn't we? I'm glad to hear that you're all safe and sound... I hope your power stayed on...

I know what you mean about being tired... this whole storm took it out of me too... and we still don't have any power... supposedly tomorrow- Saturday night...

I will never take light, heat or a freshly brewed cup of coffee for granted again...

I hope that your planning is going well...

How did Kayla's play go?

 

[inkedupmomma]

I am glad that you all are okay

We did well too

Go get some sleep

Nite Jenn

I was thinking of you... Glad to hear everyone is okay. There is a lot of damage where we are too, but everyone is okay.

We lost power for 24 hours, which is nothing. I have a friend in NJ who lost her HOUSE and everyhting in it due to flooding.

And my mom still owns her house on SI...she as of yesterday ahd 6 FEET of water in her basement. She lives in Vegas now and the house is supposed to go to settlement at the end of the month, but now who knows. DH is going down there this weekend to get the water out of the basement and make any other repairs. I hope you family still there faired ok!

I'm glad you guys are okay. It's so sad about everyone who lost houses and stuff.

I'm glad you all are all right!!

Hey Jenn,

Well PA really took it on the chin with this one didn't we? I'm glad to hear that you're all safe and sound... I hope your power stayed on...

I know what you mean about being tired... this whole storm took it out of me too... and we still don't have any power... supposedly tomorrow- Saturday night...

I will never take light, heat or a freshly brewed cup of coffee for granted again...

I hope that your planning is going well...

How did Kayla's play go?

Hey guys, thank you for all your well wishes! What a crazy week it has been! I have been a little busy with work, and hosting my mom, sister, nephew and baby niece!! Staten Island got hit pretty hard in certain areas and they were without power for a while..not a great situation for an infant!

some comments on what you have all said!


Agreed, will appreciate every ounce of coffee, hot water and light that comes my way!

Kaylas play went well! It was over 2 hours long though, and she was only in about 15 mins of it lololol! Being in the "ensemble" means youre chop liver! But bravo to her for doing it even though she was nervous! It was a great play with a great story line!

Our power was only out about 20 hours total, which is insane, as we normally lose power for days! We were lucky, the rest of town/surrounding areas JUST got power yesterday, or still have not! Feeling pretty bad for them!

I know of one family that the kids go to school with that were rushed to hospital with Carbon Monoxide poising! PLEASE read your generator labels people! They can NOT be put in your home

Star, any news on your moms house? Maybe if it did well, it can be a selling feature? "I survived Hurricane sandy"? Hope hubs had safe travels there!

All in all everyone I know personally is fine, and the worse that happened to them was no power for an extended period of time! Although, pray for my sisters friend, he lost EVERYTHING! House in Staten Island was totaled!

Oh, how are yall doing gas wise? I got lucky while driving to a job yesterday! Found a gas station with NO line! I was able to get in, fill up and get out in 5 mins!

I unrelated Sandy news, today is my "surprise" bridal shower! SO I will have a fun update for you!

I say surprise as idk how anyone thought they would surprise me.. but my 85 year old grammy asked me about it the other day lol! She really blew it up!

Oh well!

All my love to you guys! I hope you are all safe and those without power, I hope it returns SOONER than later!

 

[inkedupmomma]

Oh, and not sure I posted it, but thank you all for your well wishes and concern! I love my Dis family and friends!