Embarking on Whole30

Remember back in May when I said I wasn't quite ready for a Whole30 despite the amazing success I'd seen during my frequent blog stalks? Yeah, I may not have been ready then, but after finishing my #100happydays challenge and truly seeing how unhappy I was with the way I looked and felt, I was ready to fully embrace change in 2015.

Why now? I've read A LOT about Whole30, trying to understand how people have success and what it truly entails. On all the blogs I've surfed and books I read, it all starts out the same. "I felt blah. We were eating poorly. I couldn't lose weight (or put down that bottle of wine)." Reading these blogs was like reading my own diary. So I thought, why not? If these people can do it and change their lives, maybe I can too.

So after much research, reading, planning (and quite honestly, a lot of pre-Whole30 gluttony), Evan and I embarked on our Whole30 challenge on Jan. 20 (I needed to get past a huge and stressful work event in Miami first). We're on Day 5 and so far so good. I'll post a Whole30 wrap-up when I'm done. But in the meantime, check out these awesome blogs and bask in their amazing success.

a peachtree city life
two twenty one

Wrapping Up 2014

A couple friend of mine has a great tradition of posting their Top 5 on their holiday card and I'm graciously stealing their brilliance for my blog. 

5. Our annual holiday party 

I can't believe we just wrapped up our 13th annual party. It's insane that we've kept something going for so long ... and how old having a 13th annual anything makes me feel. Every year, I treasure seeing everyone we love in our house, basking in that fabulous holiday glow (ok, the glow may come from the Moscow Mules). But the warm feeling that comes from throwing a kickass party to thank our friends for being so damn awesome ... nothing beats that.

The brave souls, closing out the party at 1:30 am.

4. Hosting summer parties

For years, YEARS, I have wanted to host more often and we'd been so limited in terms of space and lack of A/C (nothing like sweating through an indoor summer dinner party). This year, we were able to host a couple shindigs and I loved being able to celebrate a fabulous season with our favorites.

The first summer party of the year ...

 

3. Being an honorary auntie

Truth be told, we have some awesome kids in our life. Tristan, Hayden, Jack, Owen, Lily, Sophia and the many others we don't get to see as often, THANK YOU for letting Evan and I be a part of your lives. Thank you for smiling at us, playing with us, loving us ... and letting your crazy Aunt Bre take so many damn photos of you. You help us remain young at heart and we cherish watching you grow up. And I can't wait to become an official aunty in 2015!

Hayden, Owen, Tristan and Jack ready to open their Christmas presents

2. Our neighborhood

We live in an amazing place. Not only is it beautiful, but we have AH-MAZING neighbors. Moving from a town home community to Solterra was a big change for us, and if anyone asked we were quick to say that our biggest fear with moving were "the neighbors." And, being pretty anti-social, neither Evan nor I relished the idea of having to make small talk. Well damn if we weren't wrong. Our neighbors are one of my favorite things about where we live. From summer parties to random nights of drinking, I feel blessed to truly adore the people in our community.

Summer celebrations

1. Traveling

I know this shouldn't be one bucket category, but there were two trips this year (outside of my business adventures) that really meant a lot to me. The first was spending the 4th of July in Grand Lake with my family. It's the first family trip we've done since I was 13 and it was so nice to spend time with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. Times like these remind me how important family is and how fun it really can be spending time together.

The second was Evan's and my anniversary trip to Jackson Hole. Aside from getting some much needed 1:1 time with the hubby, we both needed some desperate R-N-R and I can't think of a more perfect spot to go. Instead of boring you with the details, I'll just share some amazing photos from the trip.

Hope you all had a fabulous year and cheers to a bright, shiny and brilliant 2015.

Excuses, excuses

So, yeah, that whole posting every week during my #100happydays challenge ... pretty much dropped the ball on that one. I swear I do have good excuses, but I won't bore you with how insane work and the holiday season has been ... or how lazy I've been. Instead, since I'm a couple days out from wrapping up the challenge, I'll share my thoughts. Good? Good.

The challenge itself was just that, challenging. It really made me look at the simple things in life and challenge myself to find a smile everyday. I truly enjoyed spending the last few months focusing on finding happiness. Did it get me out of my funk? A little. Did it help clarify what makes me happy? Absolutely.

So what does make me happy? That's easy. Flip through my Instagram feed and you'll quickly see lots of food and drink posts. Some of these were much needed glasses of wine at the end of a busy day or a special meal made by a special hubby. But a lot of them were centered around being out -- either with friends or on a date night. It made me realize as much as I enjoying being at home (and trust me, I like it a lot), I'm happier out than sitting on the couch being a bum.

I also realized that I'm not happy with how I look right now (queue the head slap). I know. I know. How long ago did I post about that and how many times have I not done something about it?  But going 100 days and only posting 2 photos of myself made me realize some serious change is needed in my life. I can't play at this anymore.

More than anything, my takeaway from this challenge is to not let life pass me by. I need to cherish the small moments in life and make sure to do something every day for myself that counts. It's too easy to fall into the trap of every day looking the same and following the same routine. This challenge reminded me that change really is good and finding small moments of happiness every day can do a wonder on your mood and outlook.

100 happy days: days 1-10

It's been a fun 10 days trying to identify something each day that makes me happy. It really does remind me to pay attention to the small things and challenges me to find something that makes me happy or feel good when I don't have something obvious staring me in the face (brunch, cocktails, dinner plans). There's a couple things I've noticed over the past 10 days about myself:

• A lot of my happy moments involve food and alcohol. I guess I've always known this -- I wholeheartedly embrace a "live to eat" mentality. It's just interesting to see that half of my posts through day 10 involved food and/or drinks. 
• It's A LOT harder to find something to post when I don't have an event planned ... and it's a really good challenge to look for things in every day life. I think this is really what the challenge is about. It's easy to be happy when you're out with friends and family or enjoying your favorite things, but what truly makes you happy the rest of the time? I don't have that answer yet as my other 5 posts have been a hodgepodge of activities. 
• It's hard to post every day. So far, there have been 2 days where I haven't posted and I think it's because there wasn't an obviously happy moment staring me in the face. For those two days I didn't post and it took some reflection the next morning to really come up with a happy moment. 
• I'm embarrassed to take photos. Yep, the constantly-has-her-camera-ready-at-every-moment girl has been shy to whip out my phone and take pictures -- especially of myself. The lesson I take from this is that it's important to live in the moment and I need to stop caring what every one else thinks.
• It's been a lot of fun. My sister decided to join in on the challenge with me after seeing my first post and I have to say that I look forward to seeing what makes her happy every day. It's also a lot of fun trying to challenge myself to create happy moments every day, which lately have translated into some selfish moments for me (hello bubble baths!). I think that's ok and it reminds me that taking care of me and making sure that I'm happy and healthy only improves my relationship with my husband, friends and family. 

100 Happy Days

Down, frustrated, bitter, sad, moody. Call it what you will, I've been in a funk lately. Little things bother me more than they should. I get disappointed too easily. I've been unfocused both at work and at home. I'm temperamental and bitchy. Basically, a real joy to be around. Something needs to change.

I've noticed a couple friends who have posted #100happydays photos and I thought I'd check it out to see if it could help shift my attitude and remind me how good life truly is.

What do I hope to accomplish? I hope to get out of this funk, and appreciate what I have and the little moments in life. I really want to find out what makes me happy. I'll be posting daily photos to Instagram and do a weekly recap here. Wish me luck!

Do we have black thumbs?

It's safe to say that watching our yard grow (and fail) has been one of the most exciting, most frustrating experiences of buying our new house. Some areas are thriving and others ... well, they're a big fat fail.

Let's talk about those fails. Our yard has a pretty steep grade, which our landscaper accommodated for by building some berms, which have been helpful where water gathers and pools (not great for new shrub's roots). We actually had to build a couple of the berms higher due to standing water, which killed two of our forsythias -- and possibly the third.

We ended up replacing two of our forsythias with some beautiful Ninebark Center Glow. We have our fingers crossed they do well, but right now we're not sure if the leaves have leaf scorch or are just drying up because we had a week of pretty cool temps.

We also added a new tall lilac bush, replaced some plants that weren't doing well with some dwarf burning bushes, added a new mulch area in the back for additional perennials, moved a couple of native grasses, added some new boxwood and had our landscaper finish up his work by adding 36 perennials -- mainly to our front yard.

So our game plan for the rest of this year and into next summer: wait it out. We'll make sure to water the shrubs well during the winter months when our drip system is off, and keep our fingers crossed that they come back strong in the spring. I also have a pretty lengthy list of things I want to complete next year to fill some gaps in the yard, move around a couple plants and replace anything that continues to do poorly (already have two on our watch list)

Exciting news -- all of our neighbors (except for the still empty lot next us) completed their landscaping and it truly makes such a difference, as you'll be able to see by the photos (as a reminder, here's the last look at the yard).

You can really see the difference our neighbors' landscaping makes. That back corner is also on our list for improvements next year, including building up a berm to deal with standing water and adding some feather reed grasses.

WIN! This area of our backyard grows like a weed. You can really see the difference between May and now, and can see where we removed some rock and added a new mulch bed for perennials.

WIN! We moved the three maiden grasses we had in various places throughout the backyard together and I love the way it looks.

Right behind the rock in the corner, you can just barely see our new lilac bush.

FAIL! These are two of the same plants and you can see how one has grown and one hasn't. We're looking to move the thriving plant to a new location, build up some tiny berms and add two new plants.

The red plants on either side of the tree are the new Ninebark shrubs we added. Keep your fingers crossed they thrive next year!

The new boxwood we added in front of our front window. Can't wait to see everything grow!! Hopefully, when mature, the tops will be at the white trim of the window.

FAIL! We originally had 3 Blue Mist Spireas here that did not do well. We're thinking of trying some irises that are supposed to do well in wet soil, or possibly just extend the grass. One of the spireas was re-located to a new home and is doing ok(ish). We'll see what happens next year (I feel like a broken record).

Catching up

Wow. It's been quite a while and it's crazy how much has changed in the two months since I last blogged. Let's catch up and then keep those fingers crossed I can follow up soon with some posts about our landscaping and finishing our office.

In May, I committed (through my blog) to a focus on getting back in shape. It started with a well-intentioned dedication to P90X3. It worked ... for a while. In late June, I began to realize that the workouts just weren't cutting it for me. I wasn't seeing any change. My diet was as far from disciplined as I could get. Bottom line, I wasn't losing weight, I didn't look different and, while I was REALLY committed to wanting to change, wasn't committed to doing the work.

All that changed with a photo taken in mid-July with friends in a cabin in the woods. Sound ominous? It should. That photo scared the crap out of me. It's the first picture I've seen where I've noticed my weight has really caught up to me. All of sudden all that weight I gained wasn't just a number on it a scale; it had found permanence in my arms, my stomach, my hips, my thighs ... hell, even my forearms. It was a wake up call and I can say I'm now REALLY committed to doing the work.

I've changed up my approach to something that worked well for me in the past. It's taken a while to set-up and I'm in the first week of it, so I'd like to keep it my little secret for now. That just means the blog will be diverting back to posts about the transformation of our home. Stay tuned.