Over the weekend.....

This weekend was BUSY - crazy busy with stuff for my internship!

Friday: I worked at our booth at 4th Fridays, which is basically where the shops in Westerville (town where I go to school) stay open late and businesses can set up booths. It was dog night apparently and adorable puppies were EVERYWHERE - I even saw an adorable Basset Hound named BoJangles, sooooo cute! Afterward Andrew and I along with his parents, went to dinner at Roosters.

Saturday: We spent the morning at an auction, where Andrew got a lot of nice tools for pennies on the dollar. Everything I wanted went too high but it was okay. Afterward we came home and relaxed and then headed to my Intern Appreciation Cookout! It was a great night, lots of good food, laughs and story telling. Here are the girls I work with on a lot of projects, the tall chic standing next to me is the one I work the closest with.
After the cookout, we met my brother and his girlfriend downtown for some drinks. I really don't ever go downtown anymore, mostly because its expensive (not just the drinks but paying to park and get into the bar) and because I'm old, but we had a lot of fun. The people watching seemed to be at a premium that night!
Oh goodness, its a good picture of us! We've both lost around 5lbs since we started the diet, I can tell a little with my clothes and I'm finally adjusting to no carbs (although we cheated a little at the cookout).
Me and my brothers girlfriend, who I adore and always have fun with!

Sunday: Spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry. Then we were off to the Columbus Clippers Baseball game (farm team for the Cleveland Indians) for my internship as well. It was a fun night and although the sun was beating down on us for the first four innings we enjoyed ourselves and found our fave wing place Roosters there to eat!
This is probably the busiest weekend we've had all summer but also the most fun. Labor Day is looking calm for us and I have a pretty quiet week to catch up on some things around here.

So what did everyone else do this weekend?

Changes are coming

I'm finally done with my summer classes, as most of you know and I managed to pull off an A- and B. I've been really busy with my internship and most recently this diet and workout plan. I think I've lost about 5lbs so far but its been really hard to resist the temptation of carbs.

I have three months of school left, which is really hard to believe and my graduation date is set for December 1st. Finals will be done in the days before Thanksgiving.

I'm anxious for everything that is about to take place and I'm nervous about finding a job.

I'm hopeful that I'll loose this weight and be able to keep it off. There is a good possibility that in the next two years I'll be getting married so that's more incentive to loose weight!

Hope that everyone has a great weekend, I've got a busy one but I'll be sure to post a weekend wrap up to fill you all in!!!

Summer beauty

Andrews parents have a beautiful farm. In the summer, in front of their Ohio Bicentennial Barn they plant sunflowers, which were 14ft tall this year. I could take pictures of the barn and the farm all day but here are a few of my favorites that were edited slightly with photoshop.

My inner struggle

I've been thinking a lot about babies, more so than I normally do (not sure what is "normal" when it comes to thinking about babies). I go back and forth in my head, and in conversations with Andrew about whether or not I/we want to have kids. I feel like if I don't, I will regret that decision, but that if I do I may feel the same way. I know that sounds horrible to the mothers I know, but really a part of me doesn't want to have kids.

I love that its just me and Andrew, our dog is kind of like a kid. I like that we can go places and do things without dragging along a baby and all of its necessary stuff. I like the thought of having extra money when I start working to go on nice vacations, buy a little sports car and to save for our next house. But then I see our niece, with her curls and blue eyes, playing so sweetly and I want to just snatch her and take her home. She makes me want to have a baby. Maybe I'm too selfish, maybe I think of myself too much, but its hard to think about having a kid.

I see pictures of my friends pregnant bellies and cute maternity clothes, then their sweet newborns so tiny and soft and my heart turns to mush. But then I read about people having postpartum depression, babies with colic and horrible labor stories and then I don't have a mushy heart anymore.

Andrews dad told us about an awesome acronym, DINK - Double Income, No Kids - and to me that sounds great! I have so much student debt and we'd love to pay off the house and just pay our taxes every 6 months. In order to do both of these things, we both need to be working. I didn't go to college for all this time to just not use my degree, I don't think there is anything wrong with being a working mom. My mom was home with us for the first five years or so, then she started teaching preschool. She was there after school and on weekends and in the summer we got to be with her at the summer camp her work hosted. I never thought my life was bad because my mom worked.

I know I still have time to decide about babies, but for now, I'm not going to think about it too much. I want to enjoy this time with Andrew, our pre-marriage, living in sin days will last a little longer I'm sure.

South Beach Diet Part 1

So as of tomorrow, Andrew and I will be starting the South Beach Diet. Tonight to celebrate we are going out for Mexican food and beers - I am calling this the last horrah! I've done this one in college with my old boyfriend and its pretty effective. After the first two weeks of total carb and sweets withdrawal, you slowly get back into eating normal foods but cut out a lot of "bad carbs" as well as sugar-rich foods.

I'm really nervous about the next two weeks, but this week at the store I bought the following for meals this week:

• Pork chops
• Chicken
• Shrimp
• Catfish and Cod fillets
  
• Salad stuff such as green leaf lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes (from my garden)
• Leeks and Onions
• Low fat, plain yogurt
• Berries to put in the yogurt
• Eggs (yup you can still have those!)
• Low fat string cheese
• Hummus for veggie dipping
• Laughing Cow garlic and herb cheese
• Ground turkey
• No salt added trail mix

I'm a total bread and pasta lover. We have already cut out "white carbs" like regular pasta and white bread a long time ago. But for these first two weeks, I can't even have those. No wine either (AHHHHHH) but this will slowly be reintroduced in the second phase. I got the South Beach book today as well as the cookbook that stresses easy meals in 30 minutes or less. I'm going to continue with my workouts and try to up the miles I do on the elliptical and lift more weights.

I researched this diet a lot and a few magazines, including Forbes, listed it as one of the Top 10 diets. I thought about the Vegan thing, but I just don't think I could deprive myself of all of that stuff plus most people I know who do it cheat all the time anyways. You loose weight at first, but then get sick of all that stuff and start eating bad again. I think this is true for most diets, but it seems that South Beach is something you really can do for a long time!

I'll be updating as the week goes on with how its working! Supposedly you can loose 8-13lbs in the first two weeks :)