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P90X3: Block One Results

It's a little hard to believe block 1 is already over and 4 weeks have flown by. My results aren't quite what I was hoping for, but I met one of the goals I established for myself (4 pound overall weight loss) and am not sure why I didn't hit the other (2 inches lost from waist) as I feel like I had some good overall inches lost. To be fair, these weren't overly ambitious goals, but I needed something I knew I would hit so I could start this off with a success. Block 2 and 3 are much more aggressive in terms of goals for me.

Results

Total weight loss: 4 pounds

Total inches lost:

	Block 1 Change
Arms	-.25(R) / 0(L) inches
Chest	-1 inches
Waist	-1.5 inches
Hip	-.75 inches
Thighs	0 inches
Calves	-1(R) / -1.25(L) inches
Total change	-5.75 inches

Lessons learned

Diet is important. I was so, so good with my diet during the week, but then the weekend would arrive and with it came lots of alcohol and overindulgence. I feel like I lost and gained the same 4 pounds over the past four weeks. I'm disappointed in me and know that this weekly battle with the weekend is part of the reason I've not only gained weight, but also failed at losing it. I recently saw a great post from a gal I blog stalk who had amazing results with the Whole30. I don't think I'm there yet, but there is certainly A LOT more I can do around diet to help with my P90X3 journey. Who knows, maybe in 90 days I'll be ready for some massive food changes.

Even without substantial weight loss, I saw changes. So I only lost 4 pounds, but I saw a lot of change in my body even without the discipline I should have had on diet. I saw my stomach shrink, arms slim down, thighs start to take shape and collar bones appear. It's these changes that motivate me everyday to complete my workout (and they should be motivation enough to follow a stricter diet).

It feels good to be working toward something. There are definitely days I have to drag myself to do a workout, but I always, always feel good once I'm done. It feels SO good to look forward to the changes I hope come from finishing my 90-days. This feeling, more than anything, is what I need to hold on to when I'm desperately craving green curry and a ~~bottle~~ glass of wine.

It really is a journey. And, yes, I felt cheesy typing that. There's no quick-fix for losing weight and getting in shape. Part of the reason I'm not ready to fully embrace something like the Whole30 is because I know it's not a sustainable change for me. I live to eat and I need to figure out a good, healthy balance of discipline and enjoyment. This isn't something I can change in its entirety today, but it's something I need to work toward every single day.

What's next? My focus areas for block 2 are to really focus on my diet and to amp up additional cardio outside of the program (walking/hiking with Evan). I also have a week-long business trip to Croatia smack in the middle of block 2, so I need to focus on not blowing my diet and finding ways to work exercise into what promises to be a very, very busy week.

Grow little plants, grow!

Two posts in one day? Gasp!!

I'm on vacation today (awesomeness), so I get to actually spend some time out in our yard. I'm happy to say that it's coming along slowly but surely. Watching our little baby plants grow has certainly been an effort in patience, which we know I'm short on.

Our landscaper was over yesterday to talk about putting the rest of the landscaping in. He said that everything is coming in great with the exception of a couple plants on the east side of our front lawn that we're going to just sit back and see if they bloom. If not, we'll figure something else out.

We also decided, with his advice, to move our purple ash in the front yard this fall once it goes dormant. When we moved in and had our landscaping installed we didn't have any neighbors, and we didn't know they'd end up staggering the houses (and we're glad they did). So our neighbors house sits closer to the curb than ours. As it turns out, our tree, once it starts growing, will end up messing with their gutters and that's not very neighborly of us to mess with their house. So we're keeping our fingers crossed we can successfully move it to the berm by our sidewalk and move the globe spruce that currently lives there to where the tree currently is.

We also decided to put some boxwood in the front of our house and move our moon shadow euonymus in front of it to create more "heft" in front of our office window.

But getting back to current state. It's been exciting and rewarding watching the yard come in and even though everything is still small and vulnerable, it's wonderful to see green in the backyard. Hopefully by the end of the summer, our neighbors will get their landscaping completed and it will transform our little land of dirt and hay.

While we're still waiting for everything to fully bloom, here's some photos of our yard slowly taking shape.

Looking out onto the yard from our patio

One of our lilacs -- can't wait until these babies produce bigger blooms

One of our ivory halo dogwood bushes

One of our forsythia bushes. We got to see a little yellow in early spring this year, but it quickly changed to green.

Our knockout rose bushes and butterfly bush have grown so well in this back corner. It's by far where the most growth has happened this spring.

P90X3: Week One Review

I have to confess, I actually did week 1 twice. The first time I completed it, I wasn't able to start week 2 because of business travel, so when I got home I decided to start week 1 over again so I wouldn't miss the benefit of any initial progress.

In terms of working out, week 1 went well. My favorite workouts are definitely The Challenge and Yoga (no shock there). I could do without The Warrior (thank God I only have to do it 3 times during the program). Evan and I have also been taking walks around the neighborhood each night to spend time together and throw in a little more cardio. My muscles were definitely sore, but in that oh-so-good post-workout way.

As far as diet, I don't think I mentioned that I'm following Weight Watchers vs. P90X3's nutrition guide. In the past, Weight Watchers has worked for me and I don't think I can cut ~~wine~~ Thai food out of my diet and still survive. So Weight Watchers it is. I did ok on diet. I stayed on or under my points each day and increased my water intake (and subsequent trips to the restroom).

Weight loss was ok. In some ways it was better than anticipated and in others a big disappointment -- don't we always want to drop 10 pounds the first week of working out? I lost 4.8 pounds, which I attribute largely to water weight. I know that when starting a new workout program your body likes to do all sorts of funky stuff, so I'm hoping the losing trend continues. Outside of weight loss, I feel really energized (despite some long hours and very early mornings at work) and motivated. On to week 2!

A new journey

Oh man, it’s been a while. April was quite the crazy month. I had two trips for work and have been packing in the hours in the office when I’m not traveling. It hasn’t left a lot of time to work on much with the house, but I did get my dream pendant light for our office for my birthday (thanks, Dad!) and the yard is starting to come in with only minor issues. But those are more posts for another day.

Here to Home started out as a blog for me to share our journey in building our new house and then turning it into a home … and it still is. But if it’s really about the “journey,” there are other things I want to talk about and share, even if I’m just posting to me.

If I step back in time to about 16 months ago, Evan and I were packing up our old house and getting ready to sell. Stupidly, we packed up everything that was cluttering our house, which meant all (and I mean all) of our pots and pans got packed up. Looking back, I think we thought the selling process would be much quicker, and it was … once our house got on the market. Not having anything to cook with started a downward spiral on a super unhealthy path that, if I’m being honest, still continues today.

I’ve easily gained 20 pounds … yep 20 pounds in just over a year. That’s pretty much the equivalent of my best friend’s two-year-old. I KNOW I’ve gained weight and I hate how I look, but I haven’t proactively done anything to change it.

That stops today and this journey of getting healthy is something else I’d like to share on Here to Home. This week, I started P90X3 and am committed to eating healthy. It’s my hope that by posting this publically, I’ll hold myself accountable to meeting my goals, which are: getting back in shape, losing weight and feeling better about myself.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey whether it’s providing encouragement, holding me accountable or using my journey as motivation for your own. Wish me luck.

Curtains make all the difference

I've been wanting to add curtains (and a pendant light) to the office for quite some time. I fell in love with these from West Elm as they're a great match for the limey green color I'm doing for spring and summer. I also got my bonus around the same time I found these (coincidence? I think not). So I used a little chunk of my bonus to move one step closer to a fully finished room.

The hubby just put them up today and I'm amazed at the difference they make in the room. It really does feel more ... finished. And I love them so much, I grabbed a quick snapshot via Instagram to share.

Now, onto getting the pendant light!

Before & After: Powder Room

It's Friday and I'm kicking off the weekend with a short before and after of our main floor powder room. If you check out our floor plans you can see that the powder room doesn't have any windows, which means no natural light. It made for some interesting photos, because in case you haven't noticed at this point, I'm not winning any awards with my photography skillz.

So please excuse my sub-par photos (at some point I'll figure out lighting and levels) and enjoy the reveal!

Powder Room Before

As you can see in the photo, the color was the same as the rest of the house ... beige. We also had a builder-grade mirror over our pedestal sink.

Powder Room After

We painted the walls and ceiling (although it's really hard to tell in this photo) the same color as the office, Benjamin Moore Cape Hatteras Sands AC 34.

We also switched out the mirror with a sweet Restoration Hardware Outlet find, which I think fits the pedestal sink much better. Eventually, I'd love to see use switch out the sink and toilet for something more square, but it's pretty low on our priority list for now. I'm also debating if I need to put any artwork/decor above the toilet as I don't want it to compete with the large painting on the main wall, but this picture does make it look a little bland.

Yep, I took a picture of my trash can because I love it that much. It's also a great shot of our floors.

Speaking of things I love, I also adore the art we put up in here. It's from Z Gallerie and I'd had my eye on it for a while, but didn't know where to put it. The colors went well with the paint and we had a wall that needed some artwork, so voila.

Like most powder rooms, ours is pretty small and doesn't have any built-in storage. I wanted something that followed the somewhat industrial look we had going on in the great room (our coffee table and bar stools), and found this gorgeous cabinet during the same Restoration Hardware Outlet trip for our mirror. It's the perfect size and gives us enough space to store necessities.

I'll finish up the reveal with a shot of the top of the cabinet. The metal 'D' (for our last name) was found during the same RH Outlet trip. I also display matches (cool, yet practical ... right?) from all of our trips/dinners around the world. It's a fun way to show where we've been. I'm also a HUGE hand towel gal, so I'm glad to have a place we can easily place those.

So the powder room isn't much, but there you have it. I have to confess that during my blog stalking, I'll see other powder rooms that are light and airy with white paint, and I wonder if we should have gone down that route instead of painting the walls a darker greige. I think given the lighter beige color of the rest of our house, the white would have looked a little washed out, but it doesn't mean I'm not envious of those lovely, airy powder rooms of my blog/design heroes. The indecision never ends ...

Before & After: Great Room

Our great room is my favorite room of our house. It's the room I spent the most time ~~freaking out over~~ designing, it's the room we spend the most time in and it's the first room that really made our house feel like home. It's also the room that's probably the most "done." Aside from some curtains, which will really complete the room, we probably won't be adding/changing much to the room and I'm so excited to show it off. And I shockingly have a pretty good before photo.

Great Room Before

This photo was taken on move-in day (apparently we needed a fire while moving in ... with the windows open). This was before any new accent paint. It's also photographic evidence of my husband's first attempt to show me that our old TV was too small and bulky for the new house. Sneaky.

Great Room After

Ta da! The colors are a little off -- I've taken the photos about three times and can't find a time of day where the lighting looks accurate. So the oranges are a little orange-er, but you get the picture. We painted the tall fireplace wall an accent color to help make it pop (Benjamin Moore Shenandoah Taupe AC 36, which is the same as the accent color in our entryway).

Photos from each side of the fireplace. We chose to not add the optional windows to both sides of the fireplace as we wanted a place to hang up some art. Given how close the houses are and how awesome the art looks, I think we made the right decision.

Our great room is two-stories. We had a couple options when it came to what we could have done with the stone and mantel around the fireplace (stone to ceiling, hearth vs. mantel). We've seen a couple options in our neighbors homes and they all look great. We're really happy with what we've chosen for our style. However, I think if we would have chosen stone to the ceiling, we would have gone with the hearth option.

Probably the best before and after photo.

These side tables were another atypical purchase for me and ended up being one of my most favorite things in the room. They don't take up a ton of space, but they're substantial -- most importantly they have a ton of character. Love them!

The table the started it all. Out of the room, in the room - I absolutely adore it. We receive a ton of compliments on it and truly is the statement piece we were looking for.

Another look (and even a glimpse into the dining room and kitchen).

How about some detail photos. My plan is to rotate out the orange accents with some green ones for the spring and summer.

Looking up the stairs and back toward the front door.

These are the bar stools that we chose. This was another really long debate as we wanted a stool that complimented the great room, but we weren't sure if we wanted something that swiveled or something with a back. In the end, we chose these tractor stools from Restoration Hardware. The seat is amazingly comfortable and while they do tend to get hidden behind the couch as you'll see in the photo below, look amazing when you can see them.