Wedding Bells

This is about a week late... What a fun weekend! My brother Steve got married last weekend! Friday morning Steve and my sister Kerri came over to put together the little party favors for everyone's seats at the wedding. We started putting a few pieces of candy corn in these little things and tying them up. We had gotten a good amount done when Steve realized he never checked the label on the candy corn for nuts. My cousin Robin has a couple of kids who are deathly allergic to peanuts so if we had that sitting out at all of the tables, they may have had to leave. So We put all of that aside and just used Hershey kisses instead. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. We were not able to go to Pollen Farms, where the wedding was, to rehearse so they had the dinner at Marion's Pizza.I love Marion's! It was so yummy. At rehearsal we went over pretty quickly how the day of the wedding was going to go and they passed out the gifts they had gotten for the bridesmaids and groomsmen.  They got us earrings to wear the day of the wedding, a really cute makeup bag, and some facial stuff. That night I think everyone was too excited to sleep. I ended up talking with Ciara and my sister in law Erika until after midnight. I eventually fell asleep and ended up way over sleeping. Yikes! I didn't set my alarm because I figured I always wake up around 5:30 or 6:00 every morning no matter what. And there were going to be a bunch of people loading up the cars to take everything to the venue. Well I woke up and was kind of out of it for a few minutes. Then it felt like someone was looking at me. Well I looked up and there was my niece, Abbie looking at me lol! It was already 8:00. I jumped up and hopped in the shower real quick. I was so glad I packed everything I needed the night before. I still had plenty of time, we didn't have to be at the hair salon until 10, but I planned on helping everyone load up the stuff in the cars.

The bride and bridesmaids (Ciara is in the light blue)

I drove Abbie and I to get our hair done and we got there with plenty of time to spare. I wasn't really feeling to excited or sappy until they started getting Ciara's hair done. It all started to feel so real lol. After our hair we headed to Ciara's to get our makeup done. We were having it professionally done so I was interested to see how it turned out. I wasn't thrilled having to pay $55 for it but Ciara wanted us to get it done. The lady doing our makeup looked like she lived in her tanning bed. She had bleached her hair and had so much make up on. I didn't have high hopes but the make up did turn out really nice.

My oldest brother Matt and I.

 After everyone had their makeup done it was just about time to head to the venue and get ready for the wedding. It was so hot and humid outside! When we got to Pollen Farms we had to go upstairs to a room to get ready in and I don't think there was any air conditioning in the room. All of us were sweating like crazy.Which is not good when we are trying not to mess up our hair and makeup. The photographer had been taking pictures of the boys while we were getting ready. When it was our turn we headed outside, to sweat some more.The pictures were done in the front and it was getting close to wedding time so we got to see a few guest pulling in while our pictures were being done. The wedding was adorable. It was a very quick ceremony.  I don't think it even lasted 10 minutes. After the wedding we had a few more pictures to taken, the bride and groom didn't see each other before the wedding so we had to get the group shots. When we headed over to the barn where the reception was, everyone kept warning us how hot it was in there. And they were not kidding!!! I think everyone was sweating in there.

Mr. and Mrs. Bayne

After introductions we all got drinks. I grabbed a water first, because I hadn't had any all day and with the heat I know I needed it. Once everyone got settled in they announced it was time to eat. They had catered the food in from a local restaurant that I had never had. They had a really good salad but that was about all I ate of the food. I think with all of the excitement I just wasn't hungry. After everyone was about done eating they started with the dancing. They had the first dance, father daughter, and mother son dance. After those dances the dance floor was open and I sure did take advantage of it, the alcohol helped lol. Everyone at the wedding really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I ended up making friends with the guys serving the alcohol lol. They were friends of Steve, they all worked together. My friends Lisa and Michelle were there, they are also friends with Ciara (Ciara, Lisa, and I lived together). We all had fun dancing all night. I spent the entire night up dancing and talking to everyone. My feet hurt so bad after that! But I can honestly say, I had so much fun! Here are just some random pictures that I took.

Michelle, Abbie, Me, and the DJ
(It's an inside joke thanks to my brother Tony, "free pictures with the DJ")

Lisa, Me, and Michelle. They are amazing!

My oldest brother Matt, and his girlfriend Liz! She did my moms make up and Erika's hair. She is awesome!

Me and my niece Abbie

My aunt Cindy. I love this lady!

Me and Lisa

Michelle and I.

Morgan, she is practically family

This is my favorite picture of the whole night. My brother Tony, and his wife Erika.
These two have lost a ton of weight the past year or so.

Week 1 WW weigh-in!

Week 1 weigh-in!

 Well I can say week 1 at Weight Watchers was a success. I lost 8.6 lbs this week. I worked hard the past week. I had many temptations that I was able to resist. This week has completely re-motivated me. I feel like I can do this, and I will. I do have to say, I am thinking about finding a different WW meeting to attend. The lady who does the one I go to is really nice, but it is a little boring. And there is no participation from the other members. The last time I did WW the leader was a really funny guy and the members at the meeting were really into it. The meeting I go to now seems like a lot of people are their with friends or whatever and talk like crazy to each other, but once the meeting starts it's silent. I am worried I will get too bored. So I will give it another week or so and decide. I could go to one one Saturday mornings or maybe find one during the week another time. We shall see how it goes. I do have to say, when I weighed in, the leader (she was weighing everyone in) was really excited for my weight loss this week and that made me fell really good.

Other than work and Zumba, this week is about to get really busy. My baby brother is getting married this weekend! I am excited for Saturday but nervous at the same time. I hope I can just let myself be comfortable and not worry about how I look. On my lunch break today, I ran to the store to see if I could find a pair of shoes my mom was wanting for the wedding. She had gotten the wrong size. They didn't have them at the store by my work but I did find a pair of shoes for me. I can't wear heels because of my heel spurs so I have been having a hard time trying to find a pair of brown flats. My mom had gotten me a pair but I really don't feel like they are dressy enough but I was going to wear them anyway. My dress is long so you really shouldn't be able to see them. But today I found a light brown flat that might work. I am going to try them on with the dress and see. 

Veggie Cauliflower Crust Pizza

On my way back to work I really wanted to stop at Subway to get a salad. I had one yesterday and it was so good. I love the buffalo chicken as a salad. I had packed left over veggie pizza that I made over the weekend. I brought it yesterday for lunch but ended up getting the salad instead. So I decided I needed to just eat the pizza. I am terrible at sticking with what I packed. And it's not like it was a frozen dinner or anything. After I started eating I was glad I was having the pizza. I swear, it gets better each day it's left over. The pizza crust is actually made from cauliflower, cheese, an egg, and a few seasonings.and it is topped with a little sauce then tons and tons of veggies. I can have a really large serving for only 8 WW points. Regular pizza would probably be 8 WW points for just 1 piece and wouldn't fill me up at all. I can eat this and be full for the rest of the day.  And I get in a serving or 2 of veggies. Bonus!

After work I have Zumba. I have an hour and half to kill before Zumba starts, It's on my way home and I hate to drive home to turn around and drive another 15-20 minutes back so I usually find something to do, or just sit outside of the church and listen to music. Tonight I think I am going to run and get a few things for the wedding. I want to try the gel nail polish they have out now for the wedding. I am hoping it is worth the money. I also need to get hair dye, which is way over due, and maybe something cute for my hair for the wedding. I think I have figured out how I want it styled but I want a back up plan in case I get to the salon and they say it won't work out. I am so ready for Saturday to be here.

                                                     

Introductions

Where to begin? My name is Connie, I am 29 (YIKES!), and I am on a journey to find health and happiness. For the past 9 months I have been focused on losing weight. I am about 45 lbs down. I wish I could say it was more, but as I am typing this up I realize 45 lbs is a lot of weight and 9 months doesn't seem to be a terribly long time to take to lose that weight. I am not on a diet. I am learning to live a healthy lifestyle. I started the year out with Weight Watchers. I stayed with them for the first 2 months but I just couldn't afford it so I went on to counting calories. I joined MyFitnessPal and tracked calories and activity there. I really like MFP. I have several friends and family on the site and the more people that are around to support me the better I seem to do. One thing that has helped me lose the weight so far is working out on a regular basis. I attempted to complete the c25k program. Unfortunately, because of an issue I have with my heels, I was not able to move on past week 5 or 6. I was able to work up to running for 8 minutes. I remember week 1 was something like run for 30 seconds or a minute, something around there. I couldn't do it. I took my time and worked my way up to being able to run for 8 mins. I wanted to cry, I was so happy. Once I get a good amount of weight off, I am hoping to get back into the program. I have also started doing Zumba. I love it! One of my friends had casually mentioned that her church did Zumba and I suggested we try it. Not expecting to like it at all. I thought for sure I'd walk out of there laughing at myself for even trying it. But was I wrong?! I have been doing it twice a week for a few months solid and I can't get enough. I have also done 2 Zumba-thons. 3 hours of zumba! I was so nervous for the first one. At that point I had only been doing Zumba for maybe a month, and had no idea if I could actually do it for 3 hours. When I completed the whole 3 hours I was on cloud 9! I couldn't have been anymore proud of myself. The past month I have lost motivation and was struggling with some depression. I had gained a few pounds and was worried I was going to stay on that path and end up where I started. So, while driving to work a week ago I decided I needed to do something about it, that day. I decided to go back to Weight Watchers. So I have been back on the WW program for a  week. My first weigh-in is tonight. I of course have been weighing myself at home so I know where I am at but I will update on my weekly weight loss after my official weigh-in. This week has been a complete turn around. I am re-motivated and feeling much much more positive. So that about sums it up.

This past week has been a really good week. No matter how well I do during the week with healthy eating and exercise I have always struggled on the weekends. I am guilty of laying around all day vegging out while watching tv. After starting WW last week I told myself I was not going to let that happen over the past weekend, and I didn't. I got up and started laundry on Saturday. I made a healthy breakfast and decided that I had to take advantage of the beautiful weather we were having. So I invited my friend Leslie to go on a hike. Then I thought about Lisa, who I had just had a conversation about hiking with. That made me think about who else I should invite. Being at this weight, and having such low self esteem I have really pushed people away from me, which is something I have been working on. So I decided to invite all of my friends. I sent out a mass text asking who was in for a hike. I didn't expect much since it was so last minute. I was so excited when I heard back from a few saying they were in! So that afternoon we met up at the Sugarcreek Metro Park. It was absolutely beautiful out! We headed out on the 3.1 mile trail. I had so much fun! I have such awesome friends. We talked about a million things while we were out there, but they all talked about how proud they are of me and how they want to keep supporting me anyway possible. When I got home that night I knew I was on the right track.

Katie and Molly on our hike

I am off to my meeting!