Those 60 days sure went by fast!

It's been a week...this past weekend our dishwasher broke so we ran over to Sears to get a new one then my husband informs me yesterday that he needs a new computer now that school is starting so he can work on lesson plans. Our computer died last month but I just kept putting it off (guess I was waiting for the dishwasher to break so we could replace everything at once lol). Luckily Best Buy has 18 months interest free financing so we were able to get a nice computer for $40 a month. Now that we're broke we are happy to report nothing else in the house is!!

Monday was day 60 of our juice fast. I was down to 232.00 on Tuesday morning and then we started incorporating food again. We expected the scale to go up, which it did. This morning I was at 237. It has slowly started going back down again now that our body is adjusting to food (all healthy). We have started walking an hour and half at night so make up for our food consumption. We feel wonderful.

As for the plank challenge...that was an epic FAIL for me. The longest plank I am able to do is 1 minute and 20 seconds. That is TOUGH!! I will work on that challenge again in August because I can only get better but it's going to take me a long time to get to a 5 minute plank. Wish me luck, I need it!

Yesterday I had my follow up visit with Dr. Egan from the blood work drawn two weeks ago. All of my cholesterol, triglycerides, good fats, bad fats, blood pressure you name it was PERFECT! I was so excited! She then got the last page of my blood word where we discuss my hormone levels and they are AWFUL! I have so many hormone deficiencies that I've never been aware of, which causes a lot of my tiredness, weight gain, moodiness, you name it. She called in a prescription for me and put me on many different vitamins to correct everything. In a few months I should be getting much better...I'm looking forward to that.

It's Saturday and I'm at work, I actually started this post yesterday and then we got busy here at work and I forgot to go back to it. It's a nasty, rainy day today so I'm sure it will be a slow one...

Have a great weekend!!

The 411...The Scoop...

Well, Im back to reality, vacay is offically over :( 
We had a GREAT time! It did rain on our parade, a few morning showers, but we have lots of time to relax and we all really enjoyed ourselves. 

So what's been up??? Well...Not a whole lot of working out...So this will probally be a pretty short blog post lol...Last week (vacay week, 15-21) I didn't get any workouts in. Although, walking in sand...up a trillion stairs at the battle ship tour..rode bikes a little...carrying Bell around, but yea nothing "official".

I am this week trying to get back on track w the workouts.  Ive got to get this under control (mainly the "diet").  So far, So good, Update on that next week...

House Update: We are kind of in that in bw stage, the waiting period.  To my knowledge closing is still set for July 31st.  We have had the inspections done and the sellers have agreed to fix everything we asked that they fix.  I guess that's being done now but I really have no clue??  Also the home appraisal has been ordered and a request as been put in with the VA to go do their inspections.  I believe they have a 10 day window to get that done and we haven't heard anything on it yet. So we wait....

We do have another garage sale planned for this weekend! :D 
I can not wait to purge some more and get rid of even more STUFF!!! Steph will be coming to sell her and her MILs stuff. So much fun sitting out there w company!!! And my mom has been going through some of her clutter and some of my dads clothes to sell. So it should be another TON of stuff to spread out. 

Hopefully I have more to report on next week...

I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Hello, Goodbye, and Keep In Touch!

Happy Monday y'all!  I'm posting this Sunday evening because for whatever reason I can no longer access this blog at work.  I can access it to the point of viewing a post that I've created but I can't edit the post, make changes to it, add photos, or even publish it.  I had to e-mail Courtney a big block of text last week and ask her to post it for me!  That's why I'm posting this Sunday evening..

Things have been hectic, to say the least.  Work has gotten busier than it ever has, and I am so incredibly thankful for that.  Sitting at my desk, day after day, many times with very little to do, was really starting to get to me!  Do you know how long a work day seems when you have nothing to do?  Well, I can tell you it's very boring, very long, and it's hard to feel productive or accomplished!  I was going stir crazy!  But case after case has started pouring in and that leaves my work days pretty busy, and it's a great change!  I am now writing full on reports that my boss would previously do on his own.  These reports include legal research and legal analysis and I really feel like I'm using my brain...finally!  On top of the work load, I'm now in charge of the new hearing officer orientation and, no pressure, there are 11 new hearing officers!  The orientation will be on August 2nd and I have a big presentation to put together.  I, like the big nerd I am, love this sorta stuff....so don't take this as me complaining!  =D

I've been keeping up with my workouts like a champ.  I joined CrossFit and even though I'm only 3 classes in, I already have a love/hate relationship with it.  I am currently on a punch card which limits me to only doing 3 classes a week (in order to make the card last me until August 8th).  In between CrossFit workout days I hit MAC.  On August 8th Adam has to renew his contract with CrossFit at which point we'll join the family plan.  Once we are on the family plan, I will be able to go every day.  I love the CrossFit workouts, but the soreness I feel and the intense nature of the workouts make it difficult to look forward to the next workout, but somehow I manage to muster the drive to go.  The way I feel AFTER a workout is enough to keep me going back.  So far the most intense workout has been:

Warmup:  400 meter run (we run through the neighborhood behind the building), then 2 rounds of 10 air squats, 10 good mornings, 10 scorpions, and 10 shoulder dislocates (all of which are stretching exercises)

Then came the timed workout:

500 meter row
Followed by:  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of:
  Kettlebell Swings
  Walking Lunges
  Power Snatches
  Wall Balls

The 10, 9, 8, 7, etc. meant I did 10 of each (Kettlebell Swings, Walking Lunges, Power Snatches, and Wall Balls), and then I did 9 of each, then 8 of each, all the way down through 1.

The workout finished up with a 400 meter run.

It took EVERYTHING I had to finish that last set.  My legs were on fire for days after!  Sitting on the toilet was fun... once I finally sat down, I didn't want to have to stand back up!  Katie, a fellow CrossFitter (lol..is that a thing?) and also one of my partners at the Fiesta Field Day, came by when I was on my last set of that workout and asked what I had left.  She stayed right in front of me, watching me workout, and pushing me to finish.  She was yelling "FINISH THIS SHANNON!!!  YOU'VE GOT THIS.....GET THIS DONE"  She even did the 400 meter run with me to finish it off.  Halfway through the run, my friend Melissa came running up and met up with us to finish the run, even though she had just finished the workout just minutes before and was trying to catch her breath.  It's about teamwork and pushing one another.  When I wanted to quit, they pushed me.  I was soaking wet at the end of that workout and the sense of accomplishment I felt was undeniable.  I slept amazing that night...I was wiped out! 

I'm still a member at Manhattan Athletic Club (MAC).  My membership ends November 2nd and I have the option to renew or go month-to-month.  I've decided that I'm cancelling when the contract ends and switching to Planet Fitness for $10/month.  I currently pay $48/month at MAC and that's with a student discount. Since I'm now doing CrossFit I won't need access to the classes, so having a membership at Planet Fitness would be low cost and would allow me access to the cardio equipment that I like (treadmill, elliptical, stair climber, rower).  I will definitley miss my time at MAC though! I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of members from the classes I was going to, and it's been fun seeing these people and hearing their reaction to the changes I've made week to week.  It has definitley motivated me!  It also motivated me to see the changes that a lot of the members made as well....they had some seriously motivated people in there and seeing their changes pushed me even harder!

Speaking of changes, I had lunch with Courtney on Friday.. I parked across the street, put money in the meter, and headed into the restaurant.  As soon as I walked in, Courtney was seated to the left in front of the window and she said that from afar I don't even look like the same person.  This made me laugh but it's true...I see the changes, feel the changes, and even though the scale went up a few pounds after my trip to Charlotte (vacation gain... is there a more fun way to gain weight?), my clothes continue to fit differently!  I spent this evening going through my closet and dresser drawers, putting aside everything that's too big.  It's A LOT to say the least.  I'm shipping these clothes off to my mom for a co-worker of hers that could really use them.  I was tired of flipping through hanger after hanger of clothes I never wear to get to the things I do wear!  If they don't fit anymore, get rid of them right?  Why was I hanging on to them?

So what else, Shannon?  Well...I've done some thinking and I've decided that I will no longer be posting to this blog after this post.  I enjoy the blog, I love having a place to put down my thoughts, but it has become more of a chore, and that's not what it was intended to be.  I've missed posts, I can no longer update from work, and I find it hard to think of things to say (this post isn't hard because I haven't really updated lately).  I update FB with what I'm up to pretty regularly, I e-mail my friends (when I can these days) about what I'm up to, and I invite anyone that reads this blog who isn't already a FB friend to feel free to add me to follow along with what I'm doing.  Here's my page:  Shannon.

I'll continue to read this blog if my 4 fit friends continue to post, and I'll continue to read blogs that I frequent daily. 

Have a great week everyone!  

Picture below was taken yesterday before my Sunday workout at MAC...

Enjoying Life...

 

Hi Guys!! I didn't post last week, 7/9. I had off work on Tuesday and had to go to the scheduled home inspection of the new house. I didn't want to have to post from home, due to the fact that the afternoons last week were filled with going room by room organizing/packing/throwing away and gathering stuff to sell.

We decided while cleaning up over the weekend to throw a "garage sale" before just throwing away everything in the house we didn't need anymore. I just refuse to pack un-used crap to the new house!! Once we got started I loved the feeling of the house being so cleaned and organized that I started to pitch more and more and more, felt great! 

With the help and realization of my husband and great friends...I have come to realize I am in fact a "HOARDER".  This became apparent as I emptied my house on to my front lawn for the garage sale and the stuff covered every available sq inch.  Not only did we have a great time just sitting around talking, laughing, bbq'n and having a great time w awesome friends BUT We did great on the sale and we made right at $2k!!!! 

YES, ON STUFF WE TOTALLY NEEDED TO JUST GET RID OF ANYWAY!!! 

On Sunday, we emptied everything back on on the lawn and I began going through more cabinets, purging even more.  We decided then, we defiantly have to do this another weekend.  So we decided to hold on to whatever didn't sell, we will continue to purge over the next 2 weeks and we will have another garage sale at the end of July.  Whatever doesn't sell at that point will be donated or gotten rid of some how.  Chad may just jump off a cliff if I try to push that back a second longer..lol

With all that's been going on, I haven't been a total slacker on the workouts although its not as many as I'd like.

Workouts from the last 2 wks:
7/1 Mon:None
7/2 Tues: Gym-> Spin Class+ Chest & Tri
7/3 Wed: Gym-> Bk & Bi's

7/4 Thurs: Gym-> Spin Class

7/5 Fri: Gym->Ran .5 +Leg Day

*Increased weight on 2 "birthing machines" 100# (from 80#)=OUCH! 

7/6 Sat & 7/7 Sun:None

7/8 Mon: Gym->Chest & Tri

7/9 Tues: None-Hm Inspections

7/10 Wed: Gym-> Bk & Bi

7/11 Thurs: Gym-> Spin Class + Walk/Jog/Bike w Bell

7/12 Fri: None

7/13 Sat & 7/14 Sun: Garage Sale SWEATIN!!

I took a little garage salin' $$$ and treated myself...

I decided "Its SUMMA... SUMMA...SUMMA TYME!" So I took a leap and went for it...I cut my long hair that I have been holding on to for EVER! Its very much my security blanket but I have to admit it was never "pretty" long hair like I wanted it to be. My hair is very thin and dry and straggly, just flat and U.G.L.Y. 

So I thought...Short hair that I have always been afraid of, Can't be any worst that how it looks now.  I have to say...I LOVE IT! Its right at my shoulders.  Its bleach blonde (LOVE) and its just short and FUN! I love playing with it!

Also decided to put some BRIGHT color (hot pink) on the nails/toes in preparation for seeing them in the SAND! :D  

Tomorrow morning,  7/17 we will be beach bound!!! We are headed w The Johnson family to Orange Beach, AL. I'm very excited to get away, relax and soak up some sun. CAN. NOT. WAIT!!!

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!!

Long Time No See

SO, I haven't blogged in a while..my bad!  Things have been busy to say the least.  Very busy, actually.  So here's a rundown of what I've been up to starting with my work trip...

Work Trip:

We left Wednesday around noon for Monroe and checked into our hotel...the Clarion Inn & Suites.  Yeah, about that...FUNKY NASTY HOTEL...I had bedbugs in my first room, changed to a new room, inspected it, no bugs, and woke up to my boss' text saying he had bedbugs that went undiscovered until that morning.  EW!  We grabbed breakfast, headed to Home Depot for bedbug spray, itched throughout the entire hearing (just thinking about bed bugs) and got the hell out of Monroe.  I made it home late Thursday evening, sprayed everything down before bringing it into my house, and went directly to the washing machine with everything. 

Friday I got up early and went to work where I finished up a case filing, dropped it off at Royal Street, then went home to clean house, pack suitcases, and get ready for my vacation!

Did I get a workout in while on work trip?  HELL NO...the "gym" consisted of an old ass elliptical, a MANUAL treadmill, and and some rusted out weights.  Not to mention the room was the size of a closet and it was about 90 degrees in there!  The entire hotel was like that!  The halls were hot and muggy...luckily the rooms had a/c units and they worked.  I didn't feel comfortable exercising around the hotel because the area was sketchy... if I had my own vehicle I would've looked for a local walking track or something, but my boss drove us in his car.  So Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday = No workouts!

Vacation:

Vacation was AWESOME!  We drove Friday evening and arrived early Saturday morning.  The drive was long but didn't feel as long as I thought it would.  That could be because my husband drove the entire 700+ miles doing about 90!  We arrived in Charlotte around 5 a.m. on Saturday and we unpacked the truck and all crashed.  You'd think after staying awake for 12 hours driving that I'd crash too....well, I did, til 9 a.m.  SO I slept about 4 hours!  I woke up and hung out with my step dad, and then my mom and I went to the Farmer's Market.  Once everyone was awake we headed to my mom and step dad's favorite pizza place and then we headed back home after that and hung out together.  We crashed early because we (me, Brock, Adam, my step dad, my sister's now ex-boyfriend) got up and at 'em for 3:30 a.m. fishing! The fishing trip was a success...everyone caught at least 3 fish each...including yours truly. 

Monday - We went to the local theme park, Carowinds.  We rode a bunch of rides, mostly roller coasters.  Adam and I had a caricature drawing done but the girl sucked at it and the two people she drew looked NOTHING like me or Adam.  We didn't pay for it...  Instead we did the old time photo...Adam was a cowboy and I was some chick in a dress.  It came out alright except that I had zero makeup, my hair was in a bun all day and when I took it down I didn't have a hairbrush to make my hair look decent..

We left Carowinds around 7 that night and went home and grilled hamburgers and watched the lightning bugs on the back deck.  The weather was perfect the entire trip!  It never got out of the 70's and it was overcast so the clouds kept it nice and shady!

Tuesday - We went to a local arcade place that has batting cages, and go-karts.  We raced the go-karts and had a blast.  There's a big "no bumping" rule but the guy working it was awesome and he didn't care that we were running into one another like crazy people.  He even let us ride extra longer because there was no one in line waiting to ride.  It was neck and neck between me, my step dad, and Drey....I side swiped the shit out of them and came out victorious in the end.  Booyah boys!

Tuesday was also Adam and I's 2nd wedding anniversary so we celebrated by going to dinner together at a sushi restaurant we found online.  It was nice spending time with him but we both agree that Charlotte sushi has nothing on the sushi we are accustomed to here in New Orleans!  They didn't even use snow crab!!  They used crabstick!  Not cool!

After dinner we headed back home and went fishing again.  This fishing trip was not as successful..everyone did catch 1 fish though!  It started lightning and we headed home at 1.

Wednesday - This was probably my most favorite day!  We spent the entire day at the U.S. National Whitewater Center.  We did family rafting first...which was the "easy" more family friendly rapids.  Then we did the adventure rafting which was big rafting fun!  I won't lie, rafting is kinda scary because of the possibility of falling out...but it was awesome. Each rafting trip took an hour and a half, so it wasn't a quick trip through the rapids or anything.  Very intense exercise too!  We also zip lined across the river on the mega zip...which is a 1,123 foot zip line that starts off 46 feet in the air.  I was scared at first but the guy said "sit back and just pick your feet up and let gravity do the rest.."  And I did, and I'm glad I did because it was amazing!  We did that twice!  We also did the adventure course which was SCARY AS SHIT!  You think to yourself "30+ feet in the air, held on by a harness, no worries...."  yeah, it's not as easy as you think.  Lots of worries!  It's terrifying to look down and see how high up you are, but I manned up and got past the fear and did it.  It wasn't easy...but it was SO FUN!  Even my nephew did it and he loved it!

The whitewater park was great but after spending the entire day there we headed to the store, got some beer, and headed home and grilled chicken and enjoyed each other's company.

Thursday - Thursday was the 4th of July and we spent it on the boat, skiing, ski-bobbing, swimming, and cruising around the lake.  It was perfect, minus the very bad storm that we had to escape under a bridge to avoid.  It was lightning all around us....scary, but once it passed we resumed our awesome time until the firework show later that evening.  Fireworks were great...got lots of pics!

Friday was a relaxing day before our drive back home, so we headed to Concord Mills Mall, which is a HUGE and beautiful mall...we walked around, scoped out the stores, and then had lunch.  After the mall we headed to a local bowling alley and I got hustled by Adam!  We had a wager going and we had a "warmup" game.  Everything was fine...Adam was okay at bowling but not great.  After the warmup game it was on and Adam pulls out his "ginger snap" he calls it.....like you see on the pro bowling where they curve the ball all crazy and shit.  Yeah, I lost our wager, got hustled, and he still let me win the wager because he hustled me.  Now that's love!

Saturday morning we rolled out around 7 and drove all dang day back to New Orleans.  We made it in around 6 and as soon as we got home and unpacked we went straight to our favorite sushi restaurant, Daiwa, and then went home where we both crashed! 

Great trip, I ate too much, I didn't exercise enough, and I'm sad about it now...but I'm back at it...going grocery shopping for healthy foods and getting my butt to the gym today!!!

Well guys, my computer at work is crap and is not allowing me to post pictures or edit what I’ve written.  I will need to start doing posts from home on my spare time rather than from work when I have the time.  My browser is not updated and whenever I try to update it, it gives me an error message and tells me to login as the Administrator.  Well, the Administrator logs in and attempts to update it and…nothing.  Won’t do it.  ANNOYING!

 

This past week was CRAZY at work.  New cases are rolling in, case filings are going out, and I’m trying to reorganize my office.  Luckily with my boss out this week I have some free time to work on it, but not much as I’m now putting together a New Hearing Officer Orientation and that means I’m creating a manual for all 11 of these judges so that they know exactly what being a Hearing Officer is all about.  ::Sarcastic Yay::  And since my boss is out of town, he delegated this task to me…no biggie, I did the last one with 3 hearing officers, surely I can handle 11 of them. 

 

I’m not sure what’s up with work lately but I’m hearing chit chat about e-mails which has me less likely to respond to e-mails.  But I’m reading them, so keep me in the loop. 

 

What’s Happening This Week? (BOLD AND CENTER THIS)

 

Well, like I said, boss is out of town, office is clean, but it’s time to get it better ORGANIZED!  Love that.  I’m an organizing fool!  I start Crossfit this week.  I have a punch card which allows me like 12 classes and on August 8^th Adam is signing us up on the family plan (that’s when his membership needs to be renewed) which means I will be able to go every day.  I need to make the punch card last till Aug. 8^th and for that reason I skipped last week, which worked great because I was SWAMPED last week after being out of the office on vacation the week before.  I’m going to the 4:30 class this afternoon and meeting up with my friend Melissa.  She and her husband are on a family plan with Crossfit and she has been a big help and motivator. 

 

Last week I was in a funk… it’s tough coming home from vacation!  I was tired, I had to unpack, wash clothes, and all I wanted to do was sleep.  The lawn needed mowing, and the work was piled up in my office.  It’s frustrating to go on vacation and come home to all of that!  But it’s all taken care of and I can move on from it. 

 

I go NEXT Monday for my 6 month checkup with Pennington and I’m excited and looking forward to it.  I can’t believe it’s been 6 months.  I was doing AWESOME up until vacation when I packed on some pounds, expected, but then I came home and things were rolling right along and the scale kept going up….MONTHLY FRIEND, but it’s going down again and that’s great!   

 

I have lots of pictures to post and I hope I can get to that today!  If not, you guys see it on FB page so check it out from there! 

~Shannon "Awesome" Shedd

37 pounds a counting!

Good morning everyone!! I hope everyone had a happy and safe independence day!!

My Friday weigh in went awesome!! It's 237.4 yay!!

Sorry the picture is upside down when I saved it to my computer is was perfect then I tried uploading it and now it's upside down...Makes no sense...

Today is day 43 of my juice fast and I feel awesome! One of the guys I work with and his wife keep telling I'm going to pass out one day but i'm good! Joe Cross can do this, then I can do this! :)

Tomorrow I'll be at a BBQ watching everyone handle up on ribs, baked beans, potato salad, boston butt, cole slaw, cookies, cakes, booze while I'll be enjoying my mean green, unbeetable, and carrot apple! This won't be the first time I've had to watch people eat though so I've got this!!

As far as the plank challenge. It's TOUGH!! I'm on 30 seconds which sounds easy but it's NOT!! I'm not sure how the rest of the month will go with that. I'll keep y'all posted.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!!!

Sweet Summertime...

  JULY IS HERE...The countdown has begun!

Im so ready for vacation & some beach action!!! I got a small taste of it this past weekend. I booked a girls overnight trip for my mamma and I to the Beau Rivage  in Biloxi, MS. Only we decided to bring along the kids. We drove up on Sunday morning and spent the day poolside. Then we went see the Bello Nock show "Funambula" Sunday night. The show was awesome. I thought for sure Bella would fall asleep. She was worn out and kept saying how tired she was but to my surprise she stayed fully awake and entertained the whole show. CJ also loved it! His favorite part was the contortionist, she was amazing.  The whole show I just kept saying..."WOW" "NO WAY". If you get a chance go see it this summer! 

Its been a busy week...

Out with the Old and in with the NEW...Rings true this week! 

The New Car

I traded in my car on Friday. One might say a "downgrade".  Its not as big.  Its not the top of the line. Its not all decked out w dvd player and leather like my Denali was...BUT I got a brand new 2014 Mazda Cx5 Sky Active.  I had to put the Sky Active part, not that I knew what it meant...but that's the WOW factor..from what I hear. lol Sky Active is basically just the brand new 2014 technology.  They re-did the entire car, engine, etc to make it the most fuel efficient car on the market.  Its so fun to drive. I love it! and getting 25-32 mpg is Super Awesome!!! Especially with my next BIG news....

The New House...Yes we put our offer in and it was accepted!!!! Now, Im still nervous because we have to have all the paperwork finalized and inspections done.  So Im not spreading the news to far just yet...(blog post is not quite the same as spreading it on FB lol) but Im excited to think that I could be in a new house and my kids in new great schools this school year!!! Which starts in just a few weeks...EEK! So the next few weeks we will be super busy, stressful, nerve racking, etc. But hopefully all very worth it in the end. 

With everything that went on this past week I managed to get in a few workouts but I do feel BLAH about myself. I need to get on track with my diet. Its been way out of control!! Luckily I haven't seen much of a gain, Im still in my range but it won't get better at this rate...


Last Weeks Workouts: 
6/24 Mon: Gym-> Chest & Tri's
6/25 Tues: Gym-> Spin Class:1 hr
6/26 Wed: Gym-> Bk & Bi's

6/27 Thurs: Gym-> Spin Class:1 hr (no collage)

 

This coming weekend is the July 4th weekend...Thursday, July 4th We  are going to the  Zephyr's baseball game. Im sure we will BBQ/Fireworks at some point this weekend.  I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!