Dieting is not as easy as 1-2-3. But I’m doing a little something that I hope will make this different then last time, and so far so good.  It truly does help being in this competition with so many people. I have someone with me CONSTANTLY that is in the competition.  I work with my best friend who I have at work all day so we work together on it, and I have my husband at home at night and on weekends to work with me.  We’ve been able to motivate ourselves so much.  But sometimes I just need that little push.

Since day 1 I have been writing a number on my wrist.  I keep a pen next to my toothbrush so I remember to do it every morning.  I write the following number every day so I know how far I’ve gone on this journey.

Today. Day Number 7.

I can’t just make this another diet.  I have said this before but I have to do things that aren’t so extreme to make it stick. This has to be a lifestyle this time. And that’s my goal. Something that is FOREVER. So I’m taking it one day at a time, for the rest of my life.  So why do I feel like I have to write it on my wrist? I see this number all of the time. I look at it constantly throughout the day.  So it’s always on my mind, always a reminder of what I’m trying to achieve.  I feel it’s that little push of motivation I need and it feels good.

No, I don’t plan on eventually having 3,428 written on my wrist.  I have set goals that will switch it up to be that constant reminder.  The highest number that will ever be on my wrist is 365. I plan on switching it up at either one year, or when I lose 100 lbs. Whatever comes first.

I’ve always loved the infinity symbol and what it represents.  I was also always attracted to the idea of even getting a tattoo of it to represent love, or my faith, numerous things that can be everlasting.  But I thought how perfect this is to go with my new lifestyle change.  This is something I want to do for the rest of my life! So when I hit that 100 pound weight loss or if I’ve stuck with this journey for 1 year I will stop writing the number and Brad said he would get me this bracelet from Tiffany.

I love the bracelet and I love what it will symbolize to me.  Just something else that I can wear everyday as that constant reminder.  Then once I get to what I like to call “ONEderland” — that glorious mark back into the 100s.  The day that I weigh 199 pounds or less I will finally get a tattoo.  I’ve wanted one for so long but have never made the jump because I have never had one that I felt was important enough to me for me to want on my body for the rest of my life.  So sticking with my infinity theme and this new look on my new life I will get a tattoo inspired by this.

It won’t be identical to this but I will have it designed off of this with the infinity symbol and the world life.  It’s also a great way to share my journey.  In just the 7 days I’ve been doing this I’ve had a couple people ask me what the “number tattoo” meant.  I love being able to share this and feel a sense of pride… especially after my weigh-in last night!

Although our first official weigh-in isn’t until this Wednesday I wanted to see how my progress was over the first six days…

Seven pounds baby!

It feels so good and I’m so proud of that seven! Brad lost a little over 10 and I couldn’t be happier for him! I’ll update you with my official weigh-in on Wednesday but that small victory made my whole weekend because we had a lot of parties (involving potlucks!) that we went to this past weekend and I worked really hard on making sure I made smart decisions and it showed!

What Would Wendy Williams Wear?

No.

Where Would Wacky Waldo Wander?

No.

Okay so these five letter ‘W’ alliteration phrases are kinda tough. So I’m going to stop there, because they really are just pretty lame.  So you might be wondering what the ‘WWWWW’ stands for.

Wonderful Womack Wedding Weight-loss War!

What the?! So when my friend first got engaged we started calling it the “Wonderful Womack Wedding” — thati s her future last name, and no she’s not marrying this guy…

So when we decided last week that we wanted to start getting ready to get fit for the wedding and lose some weight it ended up turning into an entire weight-loss competition.  Next thing you know we’ve recruited some other bridal party, family, grooms, and significant others.  And that’s how the WWWWW was born.

We start today, November 1, and the “weight-loss war” will end on May 31st.  It was a $25 buy-in and we check-in with our percentages lost every week.  The winner takes all… BUT if you gain weight you have to put in a dollar for any time you gain a lb.  That money will all go into the “Porker Pot” which the 2nd place will get all of that money! There’s nine of us in the competition so that’s $225 right there!

I know this isn’t the first time I’ve come to you saying I’m going to lose weight, but I’m hoping since my friend who is also the bride now works with me there will be tons of daily motivation not only at work, but then I have Brad at night — he’s part of the competition as well.  So I know I’ve cried the weight-loss wolf so many times but I hope you’ll take me back and stick around to encourage and motivate me — it’s what I always need most when hopping on the weight-loss train.  We turn in our weight-losses on Wednesdays (to stick with the W theme of course! LoL) so you should expect to hear from me most Wednesdays to hear how I’ve done.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the funds so I won’t be doing Weight Watchers this time. I do plan on using My Fitness Pal which is probably one of my favorite sites — their app that is synched with the site is fantastic and I have found that site to be great for tracking exercise, food, weight-loss, and motivation! Best free weight-loss plan in my opinion. I’ll be tracking things like my calorie, fat, sugar, etc. intake.  And for exercise I plan on visiting the gym a couple of times a week, doing some walking (Dakota’s favorite!), and taking Zumba classes.

The wedding is in June so I hope to be able to have a hot little bridesmaid dress in a size I haven’t been in for a long time!  There are a few goals I have that I’m excited about… first there is our annual Maui trip in February that I’d like to have a little bit of energy for.  The next is obviously the wedding in June so I should hopefully look even better by then.  Then in October is the “Run for Your Lives” 5K that I’m dying (pun intended) to participate in! A 5K where you are doing obstacles and running from Zombies to keep your health? Sounds like fun to me! That means it will be almost a year and the ultimate prize of all would be is if I feel like we are both healthy enough and at a time where we can start crossing the bridge of discussing starting a family — because ultimately I’m doing this for my health and to start a family.

The last time I did a weight-loss competition was at work and I actually won so I’m determined when money is involved! Have you ever done a weight-loss competition? What is one of your favorite weight-loss tips at the moment? I’ve been getting TONS of tips and ideas from Pinterest!

We always strive to be creative with our costumes and to not buy the typical costumes that you can find at all of the Halloween stores.  Last year was a huge success with our Double Dare costumes — people LOVED us!

“Physical Challenge!”

People loved the costume and we actually won an award at one of the Halloween events we attended — the people all around our age loved it, older people just didn’t get it.  This year we went with one that everyone got and from the response we have had so far it seems like we had a hit!

Publisher’s Clearing House!

Winner, Winner… Chicken Dinner!

It was a lot of fun, and people loved it – the only problem was if we weren’t together and I wasn’t holding my check and he didn’t have the balloons (or people didn’t read his Prize Patrol badge LOL) I basically just looked like I was in my PJs and he was a creeper in the office.

We only had this one party on Saturday and we have some more events coming up this weekend so there will be more pix to come after next week! What is your Halloween plans this year? What are you going to be?

TODAY ONLY! {FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14}

Quick request! My best friend is getting married next year and our favorite local cupcakery is doing a contest to win their cupcake truck to come to your event.  You just have to have the most ‘likes’ on your picture today!  The only rules was you had to see their truck and take a pic with it at their debut this last weekend so when we were at Food Truck Fest we took that pic and posted this afternoon for the contest… we aren’t far behind so your quick vote would be awesome.  Here’s what I need…

1. Go to the “My Delight Cupcakery” page HERE.

2. Find the photo shown below and “LIKE” the picture.  I posted it under my name, Laura Lewis.

3. Hope we win so I can gift this prize to my friend for her wedding! She wants cupcakes and is trying to find a great deal at the moment!

One day last week I won a couple of tickets to “I.E. Food Truck & Brew Fest 2011” on Facebook for a little contest and was pretty excited about it.  At one of our local sports arenas, Citizens Bank Arena, they set up around 55 food trucks and probably 10 local breweries or so.  It was from 11:00 – 6:00 pm unless you purchased a VIP ticket and then you got to get into the event at 10:00 am.  I remember hearing about long crowds in the past so Brad and I decided we would head over maybe around 1:00 or so, let the first round of people that showed up first thing kind of start heading out.

When poking around before the event on Facebook I heard a few complaints that the VIP tickets weren’t worth it, as most food trucks weren’t 100% ready to go right at 10:00.  Good to know for future food truck events!  We strolled on over shortly after 1:00 with cash and my iPhone in hand and we were ready to get truckin’.

Of the trucks, we visited about seven of them.  We easily could have stopped sooner, and we would just share one item from each truck – man did we get full, and didn’t finish many items!  But here are the trucks we visited in order as well as my thoughts on what they had to offer.

Nom Nom Truck

If any of you watched the first season of The Great Food Truck Race you should know the Nom Nom Truck very well since they won the season (update: I don’t obviously know very well because Nom Nom had to correct me *my bad* — they were one of my faves so I guess I overlooked it was actually Grill ‘Em All who won! LOL).  They are known for their delicious Banh Mi — a Vietnamese sandwich.  We tried a grilled pork Banh Mi and a lemongrass chicken taco.

Unfortunately, there was such a bad glare on my screen I thought I was taking better pictures then I was.  Seriously that sandwich was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted and was one of my top two favorite items we had at the event.  Here is the breakdown of the banh mi on the NomNom website:

I could seriously have this sandwich FREQUENTLY. The taco was also delicious, but just was a no-brainer!

Palazzolo’s Gelato

This was kind of an impulse buy.  In the moment we were hot and we thought we wanted something sweet.  We ended up paying $5 each for a pre-packed homemade gelato.  I just ended up going with a classic red raspberry and not finishing it because I quickly realized I wanted savory while Brad went with “what they were known for”.  It was called Mackinac Island Fudge which is a Pana gelato with a caramel swirl and Mackinac Island fudge chunks throughout.  Mackinac Island is apparently an island in Michigan I believe and they are known for this killer fudge and they add it with there gelato.  They were originally from Michigan so they said they were very proud of this gelato — it was killer!

Great Balls on Tires

Goodness, gracious… great balls on tires! I could eat these balls everday.  Okay maybe not every day, but this was the other fave up there with NomNom for the day!  I read the first thing on the menu and didn’t even read the rest – I told Brad we were getting the IncrediBall. And boy was it incredible. It was ground Kobe beef wrapped in applewood smoked bacon with Gruyere cheese, wild arugula, and garlic aioli on a fresh toasted brioche.

I’m seriously ashamed of these pictures.  But when you have this delicious food in front of you and a husband chompin’ at the bit it’s a little difficult to get the perfect “iphone photo”.  These balls melt. in. your. mouth. They also have some other great balls I would love to try in the future that sound AMAZING – you can check them out on their menu HERE.

MeSoHungry

MeSooLaLa & MeSoHungry were MFEO.  Although we had just tried a slider we decided to go for another and this one although wasn’t quite as good, it was still a fantastic slider on the same fresh, amazing bread.  At MeSoHungry we tried the KTM Sliders with Marinated Short Ribs, Pepper Jack Cheese, Crispy Onions and Spicy Crème Fraîche. Is your mouth watering yet? Writing this post was a bad decision right before dinner time.

This is where it all started to go down hill.  From here on out I was FULL and although we still wanted to try a couple of things I was just not having much sound appetizing so I can’t give a good valid review of the food but I will still show you the trucks, what we tried, and what they have to offer.

Don Chow Tacos – Chinese Mexican Fusion

I remember hearing about this truck from Diner, Drive-in, and Dives and Brad had wanted to get some tacos so this was our top choice.  We got a sampler that had three street tacos — one carne asada, one chicken, and one… pork maybe? I seriously can’t remember. Please remember, food coma was setting in and I wasn’t taking notes.

All I remember is that middle taco had some type of bacon on it and they were spicy! But they were freakin’ amazing… I don’t see what we got on the menu on their site so I can’t say for sure what any of it is though.

Baconmania

Did someone say Bacon? At this point I was realllllly feeling ill.  Unfortunately a lot of things were sold out on the truck by the time we got here.  There is a lot of crazy, delicious sounding stuff on their menu and you have to see it all HERE but we decided to go with the Jack Back Sammie.

It had thick-sliced egg bread, stuffed with melty Sharp Cheddar Cheese and a “chunk bacon blend”.  On their site it says that it comes with a shot of tomato soup for dippin’ but we didn’t get that.  Maybe they were out or what, but I also see on their site some add-ons which might have been good.  This was a classic, comfort food right here.  The bread was a LITTLE too thick for me but the cheese and bacon that I was stretching out of there was good.  Not overloaded with bacon, but enough and I really wish I would have had that shot of tomato soup – that might have made it have that perfect finish with it.  I will definitely hit up the truck again some time.

Paradise Cookies

Last but definitely not least, there was Paradise Cookies.  Brad wanted to end the day with something sweet so he wanted an ice cream sandwich.  The line was the longest one we waited in — still only around 20 minutes (which isn’t too bad for food trucks some times!) and during that time I walked up and looked at their cookie and ice cream selection and caved.  Of course, once again I couldn’t finish it and by that time I was DOWN. FOR. THE. COUNT.

We both went with their chocolate chip cookie — I did both but Brad did one of that and I think some type of double dark chocolate or something like that.  I went with just a classic mint chip ice cream and Brad tried this rich and delicious English Toffee ice cream.

And to finish it off… we did not try this truck but the name just killed me so I took a picture of it anyay.  Truck Norris.

Do you live somewhere where food trucks are popular? What are some of your favorite trucks you’ve had?  It is a huge craze here in Southern California and it can be lots of fun visiting different trucks!

If you are a blogger or a big follower of blogs you definitely have heard of the trolls.  They comment, typically behind anonymous names that link to nothing, only to bash the blogger or forum.  Many times it’s hilarious, but sometimes it can be pretty bad.  I have had some hurtful things said to me in the past, and have read things on other blogs that I just can’t believe are being said.  On that note… it’s fun to laugh at it as well, and who better to tackle the topic then SNL?  Although it doesn’t directly tackle exact blog bullying, it still focuses on people commenting anonymously just because they are behind a monitor.

This skit made me crack up — not to mention it stars Melissa McCarthy who I find to be one of the most hilarious new female actors out now… enjoy!

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Due to bad work lighting when I snapped this pic, it isn’t showing all of the red

in my highlights but I LOVE the cut and LOVE the color.  

Thanks to my fabulous stylist Christina!

Usually this is something I do at my June hair appointment but I thought I wanted to grow my hair out.  I get my hair done every three months.  My hair grows SO fast I really wish I could do it more frequently — especially now that there are beastly gray hairs sprouting out! Come on, I’m not even 27 yet!

With the blonde growing out to quickly and me not cutting my hair for 10 months I decided I needed a good cut.  Although my hair isn’t super long it’s pretty long where I could cut off a good five or so inches.  Of course I went to Twitter & Facebook to ask everyone their faves.  Wow, y’all care a lot about my hair color choices! Here were four random pictures I grabbed to showcase some pass colors:

I’ve had some blonde, I’ve done reds, different brunettes, and I’ve gone jet black.  Brad really likes the extremes… he likes when I go really blonde or really black.  Personally I actually love the way I look with black hair.  The problem is, since I change my mind so frequently once I want to go lighter it is SO HARD to get rid of that black.

Everyone’s favorite picture was the second picture.  Then I had a good handful of blonde and black after that.  I really love doing reds in my hair but red fades SO FAST.  Like after a few weeks it doesn’t look like that anymore! If I had a ton of money I would definitely keep it going, but since I’m not dying straight from the box it’s just not in my budget to keep it how I love it to look.

I think I’ve decided on going with a really rich dark chocolate brown, maybe as dark as I can get away with in my stylist’s eyes. With that I might decide to add in some red highlights or something, we’ll see.

So since it’s been 10 months since the cut that was something VERY important because my hair feels boooooty.  I hate it and it is so tangled every day, especially when I get out of the shower. It needs to be cut, not just trimmed.  So I typically hit up hair sites and Google Image searches but I get a lot of lame pictures and some of the same stuff floating around.  If you Google image search medium length cuts the Jennifer Aniston infamous Friends cut is still taking over the internet it seems.

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So where did I go? My new KING (or Queen?) of Google Image searches… Pinterest! If you don’t follow me yet, do so HERE. I found a lot of cute pictures but the one that was most popular was a girl Kate from a blog, It’s the Small Things.  I not only repinned a few of her pictures that I saw but I also checked out her blog.  She’s a hair stylist and has some great little hair tutorials for girls with some shorter cuts, I learned some great new tips and of course found my new haircut.

   

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I am going into this thinking I’m going to do some bangs again.  I haven’t loved having bangs in a really long time but I think it’s time to get something new into my life to spice up my hair do.  If I don’t want them I can always add them into a little french braid or a twist back – which I seem to be rockin’ all the time right now anyway.

Wish me luck, and I’ll have some pictures to upload hopefully tomorrow for y’all.  Wish me luck, my hair appointment is in a couple of hours and I hope I don’t chicken out on anything and just go “safe”.

Not sure what inspired me. But I started off Monday morning with a bang.  Maybe it was the chilly fall air (although 90s should be back tomorrow – boo) and the pumpkin spice latte, maybe it’s because I miss blogging.  But I got to work and opened up my Google Reader for the first time in a couple of months.  It obviously had 1000+ plastered on it so I decided to do some clean-up.

I spent a good 30+ minutes just cleaning house.  I deleted your wedding blogs that you don’t update anymore along with blogs that I probably followed for some selfish giveaway reasons but never really was too interested in the blogs.  I kept all of my friends and the blogs that update frequently and have topics I’m interested in.  It felt good and brought my blog count down to… 1000+ still. Ugh. I’m happy to report although I haven’t commented much I’ve been skimming and reading throughout the day off and on and am currently at 486.

While I was sitting there reading I realized I should probably check in with my dear readers and send on over a little update on my life.

Proud Moment: We saved up our $1000 emergency fund and are on week 5 of Dave Ramsey’s plan. I’m stoked.

Bummer Moment: Less then a week later we discover that our water heater has a leak.

Thankful Moment: When my parents say they will purchase a new water heater.

I seriously have killer parents.  They say it’s part of a Christmas present or whatever.  But whatever excuse it is, Brad and I are overly blessed because I’m not gonna lie. I was majorly bummed last night thinking about already losing most of our emergency fund the first week we had it completed.

Things are moving along on the kitchen. Slowly but surely.  The cabinets came in, a few weeks later the granite came in along with our appliances.  Do you know how hard it is to have gorgeous new appliances sitting in your garage?  Due to some tile work that needed to be done we’ve been waiting for some things to come in before that stuff can be completed.  We had quoted for all appliances to be hooked up but as part of our “trying to get rid of debt” thing, Brad and his dad decided to take on as much as they could this weekend before the guy came for a final quote this morning.  They were able to get the garbage disposal, faucets, stove/oven, and dishwasher complete.  We need a new waterline for the fridge so they didn’t want to mess with that and there were some issues with installing the over the range microwave.  By doing all of that ourselves this weekend we saved about $400!

Here are some pix that I’ve taken on my iPhone throughout the past couple of weeks…

This was the day our cabinets started getting installed. Love it!

Here is a small view of most of the cabinets along with the hardware we picked out.

You also get a view of our granite and new breakfast bar as well as our huge farmhouse sink, I’m in love with it!

We have a great new faucet that I love along with our dishwasher that has all the buttons hidden for a nice sleek look.

And here is a view of our new stove and oven.  It looks so amazing!

I already need to get some stainless steel cleaner!

Hopefully the next update will be the kitchen finally done! I can’t wait and then I’m getting the house professionally cleaned once I can get the kitchen put back together – everything is just such a mess and so dusty from the workers! The only things left are the microwave, fridge, some small tile work, and then we need to paint.  I also want to do my own glass tile back splash on the wall where the oven is but I might hold out on that project — at least if the hubs has anything to do with it.

Hope there is a few of you that have stuck around during my horrible blogging since I switched over to MeSooLaLa! Hope to get back into the swing of things at some point!  How have y’all been doing? In the comments please leave a link to your blog, especially if you may have gotten a new one in the past few months as I may have missed it! Thanks!

As I shared in my old blog, Happy Hour with a Housewife, Brad and I started really getting into Dave Ramsey and his different money programs.  Of our $60k + in debt we had to pay off within three months we already had around $5k of it paid off.  But I know we could be doing better – we finally signed up to take the Financial Peace University classes and have our third class this coming Wednesday!

I am obsessed. Me and Dave are like this ::crosses fingers::.  I watch his You Tube videos, I listen to Podcasts on my iPhone, and I listen to his radio show every day at work – I’ve never been so psyched about paying off debt and saving.  I’m a huge supporter of this program from what I’ve learned over the past three months and I know this can truly save your life if you are having trouble in finances.  Go HERE and find a Financial Peace University class near you. IT’S WORTH IT.  If you want just a preview of the class you can watch a small clip HERE.  It’s also available to do the program on your own online and although it isn’t any different then going to a class to watch the videos I feel it at least holds me accountable to make sure we do what we have to do every week.

On that note, in the beginning of July we made a BIG decision.  Something that might seem pretty dumb to some that know we are trying to pay off our debt…

We added over $10,000 more to our debt on fourth of July weekend.

But it’s okay, I feel good about our decision! What could we have spent $10,000 on? A new kitchen!!!! Now some may think “Well that’s dumb, a new kitchen is not a necessity.”  Yes, you are correct.  But we weighed out some options… when we are done paying off our debt in a couple of years we want to sell our townhome.  Our kitchen crap, the cupboards are made out of cheap material from 25 years ago and there were trashed laminate counter-tops.  We knew that it would not be very appealing for a new home buyer.  We’ve watched enough HGTV to know what people are looking for. So we knew that we were going to have to do updates to the kitchen when we are ready to sell… but it always makes me sad when people do these big projects only to sell their house and not enjoy it.  So we decided to make the investment NOW, enjoy it for a few years since I hate my tiny old kitchen, and then have a nice updated kitchen when we are ready to sell, or even rent out in the future.

Here are some pictures of our original kitchen…

So everything is cleaned out and that is what is left.  I’ll show you Home Depot’s sketches in a minute but a few things will be shifted and that small bar you see is getting cut down so we will just have one large slab of granite that will extend out and we are putting like a breakfast bar with a couple of bar stools.  We wanted to take out that whole wall and push our tiny kitchen out but we aren’t able to take down that wall so this was our second best option to get it to open it up a bit.

Here is an idea of what we are getting put in…

Darker cherry wood cabinets and granite counter tops with all new stainless steel appliances! I just can’t wait! I’ll give you some more details in my next update post coming up tomorrow!