Thursday, January 29, 2015

this thing called a fitbit.

you've heard about it, you've seen it, i'm sure.

the other day when brainstorming what would get me going with a healthier lifestyle, i thought organization. now i know most people probably don't think organization when they think of "dieting." i'm just weird like that. i will find ways to not to go to the gym. 

oh crap, it's raining.
i need to go thaw dinner.
lee told me he wanted to watch that movie tonight.
dang. i missed the turn for the gym. can't turn around now. 
i washed my hair this morning.

seriously, it's sort of a sad thing. but the countdown to august 29th is approaching faster than my excuses are popping into my head. 

so enter what i needed - organization with the fitbit. 

i track everything i eat. and i'm trying to only do whole foods; nothing processed. and before you ask, no this doesn't count on the super bowl. i may not even wear the fitbit that day because it would yell at me for not getting off the couch and indulging in wings and cowboy crack. 

yes, it vibrates basically to tell you to get up and get moving. 


so i bought a bunch of food and have been eating 5 times a day; smaller portions. breakfast usually looks something like half a whole grain english muffin (not totally whole i know. i said i was trying) with a turkey sausage patty with a little mustard. am snack is fruit such as strawberries or a banana. lunch is usually zoodles (for no other reason than me just being obsessed) with ground turkey or lean chicken with a evoo and lemon juice dressing. pm snack is usually raw carrots or green peppers. dinner is usually a small portion of meat (fish, salmon, chicken) with lots of veggies on the side. 

trust me, staying between 1200-1400 calories is no freakin' joke. i'm usually towards the 1400 side of things. 

but back to organization. i track everything. and i mean everything. how much water i drink, the ounces of the meat & veggies i eat, and even the glasses of wine i drink. did you know wine has about 122 calories per glass! yeah, i freaked too. see those puppies pile up and you think twice about the second (or third) glass. 

since i wear it on my wrist it also tracks my daily steps, calories burned from regular activity and working out, the total distance i have walked that particular day and other odds and ends. 


my goal is 10,000 steps a day, at least 5 miles total and to burn over 2100 calories. how in the heck this thing calculates this is beyond me - take it up with the fitbit peeps. and of course, this is in an entire 24 hours; not just a workout. but it does include my workout in the totals.

oh, and don't judge me by my mile time the other night.  i know it sucks. it's actually pretty freakin' bad. almost 14 mins a mile? sheesh, i'm almost embarrassed to post that. ok fine, i totally am embarrassed to post that. but i'm going a hell of a lot faster than those people sitting on the couch and a lot more faster than me a month ago when wasn't running at all.  and that's what counts. #keepitreal

last night i had about 900 steps to go to reach 10,000 and i seriously paced all around our house through the kitchen to the living room to the office to upstairs in the bedroom to the other bedrooms and so on until i reached it. this thing is motivating me and i love it. i love a goal.

i actually used to run a lot. moving to charlotte, all the cool places to eat, and people to meet kind of got in the way of my everyday run. but don't you worry, i'm coming back for ya. and one of my goals after the wedding is do to a half marathon. 

y'all here me? a half marathon. hold me to it okay? 

ok, now onto sleep. 

i knew my sleep patterns suck. to my knowledge, i know i wake up about 6-8 times a night tossing and turning. our new bedroom furniture has helped a crazy amount, but i still suffer from being uncomfortable due to my joint problems. but i had no idea it was this bad.


so you're basically telling me that i get a solid 4 hours of sleep a night. that is terrible. and puts me in even worse of a mood than i am when i wake up from the lack of sleep! 

i took a melatonin the other night to see if it was a difference and actually was "restless" MORE times that not taking it. it seems i get decent sleep when i fall asleep and then it's spotty anywhere from 1am-7am or so when i wake up. and i totally believe it. sometimes at night i see 3am, 4am, and toss and turn from 5:30a on. this just proves i'm being serious when i throw around "talk to me before coffee and you die." 

anybody else have trouble sleeping? anybody else use a fitbit? i'm loving it so far and can't wait to see the progress. for now, i have about 500 steps to go for the rest of the evening so stomping around the house i must...

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

my 300th post is about weddings and a winery. shocker.


i can't believe i'm at my 300th post on the blog. it's so insane to see where this used to be to now what it's become! and the "blog friends" i have made because of it. 

isn't that view gorgeous? i'll get to that later, but this view below is just as pretty. i had a rough day last friday. i worked late & my iphone 5 died. that's another story for another day. so lee took the reins in the kitchen and made a taco bar. 

and yes i'm obsessed with sour cream, but ahha! no. that's not sour cream. that's greek yogurt baby. yup. on my freakin' taco. i will never eat sour cream again.


saturday was jam packed for me. i woke up and headed uptown to hayden olivia bridal to share a special moment with allyson as she tried on wedding gowns for the first time! 

hayden olivia is like a dream. from the chandeliers, to private rooms to dress - you totally feel like a princess. allyson looked stunning in anything she tried on and i can't wait to see when she finally says yes to the dress.


i told you that place was a dream.

after that, i scooped up lee and we headed out to treehouse vineyards! this is my third time at treehouse, except this time was to celebrate a birthday of a dear friend of mine, danielle. 



they have wine-o-ritas. also known as wine slushies. and it's the coolest thing ever.

danielle rented out the treehouse for us to hang around for the afternoon catching some rays  because i'm still extremely pale and downing some wine. out of all the times i've been to this vineyard, this is the first time i've actually went in the treehouse. it's so tiny, yet so cool! the steps to get up there are terrifying though.


and saturday evening, we had another birthday to celebrate. one of lee's groomsmen, sean! we grabbed dinner at all american pub then took the light rail to the hornets game. they won at the very end. i'm not really a huge nba fan, but give me a beer and great friends and i'll watch it all day. 


and finally to end the weekend of all weekends, we headed up to durham, nc on sunday to catch the wicked play with my family. it was part of our christmas present and was amazing. for those who don't know, it's a spin off of the wizard of oz which tells the true story of the 'wicked witch of the west.' such talent. 


phew! if you made it to here, you're probably as exhausted as i am from last weekend; hence why this post is coming at ya like two days late. eh, life. 

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Friday, January 23, 2015

we got swoozied.


so i don't know if i've mentioned it yet, but over the holiday one of my bridesmaids, allyson, got engaged to her love, chris! they are getting married on 10/17 and i was ecstatic when she let me know i will be a bridesmaid in hers! 


so what happens when you have two bride/bridesmaid combos enter into wedding planning mode at the same time? you attack & conquer. and basically go to any and every wedding event you can because you only get to do this once.  so when swoozies of charlotte hosted a bridal event, we knew we had to go.

and then we fell in love.


swoozies had vendors ranging from stationary to cupcakes to photo booths to spray tans to waxing. and gigi's champagne cupcake was the best cupcake i have ever had in my life. 

and of course, enter their kate spade collection.


we never wanted to leave the store! 

the vendors were raffling off prizes and i didn't win one... i won two! i won an amazing pound cake from takes the cake & $50 towards personalized napkins for the wedding from swoozies! 

for those who don't know, my future last name is walker, so i'm thinking that will be a good place to throw in our wedding hashtag - #walkertothealter. what do y'all think?


we also got to take home a selfie stick and i don't know why, but i am just as excited about that. 

i am so glad that allyson and i get to experience this together. as an amazing friend of mine for many years, this has been so fun so far and it always helps to have someone who understands the crazy side of wedding planning. 

a few months after we got engaged, i had nailed down all the big stuff, and then had nothing to do. i kept thinking man, wedding planning is a breeze. uh, no. here we are around 7 months out (as of next thursday!), and i'm definitely seeing that is not the case! although it's super fun and i plan on not being a bridezilla, there is definitely a vision in my head and i can't wait to see it come to life.

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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

zoodles of fun.



100% credit given to lee for the title of this post. to say i am zoodle obsessed is an understatement! we went to bed, bath, and beyond for bedding, couldn't find a thing, and left with this spirooli spiral slicer. best $24.99 i have ever spent so far this year.

i had been dying to try this food trend mainly because i love pasta dishes, but i always feel like i've over eaten after. this one comes with three different blades for thinner or thicker cuts - think zucchini noodles up to curly sweet potato fries. 


you just have to place the zucchini on the machine, and turn the knob while moving the zucchini closer on the slider. here's how i made my zoodles last night.

1. use the spirooli tool to spiralize half of a zucchini. be mindful that this does cook down some. next time i make these, i will cut the zucchini noodles in half for easier twirling. 
2. i roasted some broccoli in garlic salt & siracha for about 20 minutes on 400 degrees & also baked some chicken for protein.
3. to cook the zoodles: place them in a pan with a table spoon of evoo and using tongs, stir them around for about 3-4 minutes on medium high heat. do not overcook as these will become mushy. 
4. toss in a light alfredo!

i am so anxious to try out new recipes and even have a hand at making an avocado pesto as a sauce! although i love zucchini so much, i probably could eat these plain. i kid you not, i'm making this for lunch today. 


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Monday, January 19, 2015

a mosh posh of the weekend.

a long three day weekend was much needed today and especially after last night's packers loss. but more on that later. to kick off charlotte restaurant week, lee and i hate date night on friday night at blue in uptown charlotte. 

the appetizers, entree, and dessert was fantastic. we had lamb sliders, risotto balls, short rib, steak, & greens. their sticky toffee pudding actually won over the creme brulee, but there's a whole other reason why this date was one to remember. 


lee and i were enjoying the last bit of our meal as a bus boy walked by our table with a ton of dishes. his upper thigh snagged the corner of our table catapulting lee's long island iced tea and water all into his lap. he was drenched! he reacted a lot better than i would have! he shook it off, wiped off his jeans and sweater from what was not already soaked up.

our waiter was a complete class act with the accident. another long island iced tea was placed in front of lee as well as another glass of my sauvignon blanc. my wine didn't even spill! so thanks for the freebies. lee joked that he should get spilled on more often.

saturday we woke up around 8 am and did a nice clean of the house. we still don't have a vacuum so thankfully the whole downstairs of our home is hardwood. i swept and lee scrubbed.  


speaking of scrubbing, i noticed when we moved in that there were some scuffs on the walls. these quick erasers are seriously magic! i took to the walls and just about all of the scuffs are gone. the erasers basically disintegrate when you use them, but i am in love! you know you're getting old when you love cleaning products. 

on sunday, we celebrated miss katie! her bridal shower was located at the beautiful charlotte country club where she got tons of amazing gifts! the bride to be looked gorgeous and it got all of us girls even more excited to head to NOLA for katie's bachelorette at the beginning of march! 


isn't that room to die for? between the ceilings and fireplace - it was a beautiful shower. 

and sunday night this extra grain-y picture happened.


the packers fell short to the seahawks. honestly, i couldn't believe it. their defense really showed up for the game and i sat with a blanket over my head for ten minutes after the game. lee was heartbroken and i may have cried. 

ok i did cry.

but i cry over everything. so that excuses it right?

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

save the date ideas.

the wedding guest list is finalized. 

i repeat.

the wedding guest list is finalized.

it's a tough thing. there are so many factors that went into our wedding guest list. the venue capacity, the number of total people (obviously), price per head, and of course having the most near and dear people to us present. with that being established comes ordering the save the dates.

i know the picture from our engagements that will be the save the date, but i'm keeping that secret for now. 

i'm big on simplicity. i want the picture of us we have chosen, our first names only written like amanda + lee, and our date written like 8.29.15. that's really it. no wedding website details. no city, state. no other words like 'we're gettin' hitched!' or "we're tying the knot!" nothing like that. so anyway,  here are some design inspiration i'm pulling from and what i like about each one.

Framed Wedding Save The Date Photo Idea. See more here: 27 Cute Save the Date Photo Ideas | Confetti Daydreams ♥  ♥  ♥ LIKE US ON FB: www.facebook.com/confettidaydreams  ♥  ♥  ♥ #Wedding #SaveTheDate #PhotoIdeas
(via)
just the date. people know what we look like. they know it's us and people know we're engaged. the look i'm going for is not an elaborate one. i don't even want the words "save the date" at all on our save the date's. am i weird for that?

This engagement announcement is simplicity at its best.
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now i know this technically isn't a save the date - seems to me like more of an engagement announcement, but i love simplicity of it. like boom - we love each other; we're getting married. we are engaged.

As a save the date or an invite - it doesnt get any more personal than your finger print xx  I'm loving this!
(via)

see the names and just the date? that's what i'm going for. i don't necessarily care for the thumbprints into a heart because i feel like that's been overdone. plus we had engagement pictures taken and i totally want to use them. as far as not listing the city... our lives are planted in charlotte so that's where we're getting married. plus half the people who read this are coming to the wedding so... hey guys! the wedding is in charlotte! 

so basically i need to combine all three elements into our picture and i think i know what we've talked about in my head. 

now my big question for you is.... where can i get these printed? what is your favorite online site that does wedding save the dates on magnets? good quality/good price? please let me in on that!


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