Happy 4th of July!

What a hot hot day!  Despite the crazy heat, our day was filled with lots of time outside with good friends and family.  We started the day with a trip to Lennox to spend some time with good friends Rob and Becky (and crew) and their son Carter.  We enjoyed your typical small-town 4th of July parade (think LOTS of fire trucks), where Leah was a SCAVENGER for all the candy they threw!  It was a blast to watch her having so much fun.  After the parade we enjoyed a nice lunch and let the kids play, both inside and out (with a sprinkler, of course!)  


After some nap time at home, we headed to my mom's house for our traditional family dinner on the 4th of July, as my oldest of my two little brothers (it's weird to call them "little" brothers, because they aren't very little anymore!) celebrates his birthday each year on July 4th.  Today he turned 21!  We did a few little fireworks before we took 2 exhausted, dirty, sweaty, and smelly kids home for bath and bedtime.  An all around good day!


Now, here is where the truth comes in.  I veered off the wagon today a bit.  But I don't feel bad about it.  Because I controlled myself and listened to what my body needed.  I didn't work out today, or even yesterday for that matter.  I've been feeling very tired and worn out, and my muscles are quite achy.  So I took two days to rest and relax.  It's what I needed, and I'm not beating myself up over it one bit.  I think it will make my workouts the next two days that much better, because I've been able to let my muscles rest up to push them back into the grind.  It actually felt really nice.  And I'm going to give myself a little credit - in the last 27 days, which is how long ago I started this blog, I have worked out 22 times.  I think that's pretty darn good.  (My brain immediately went to a percentage on this one:  22 out of 27 is about 82%.  I'm good with that!)


And as far as food goes - I feel like I am still doing great!  Did fine yesterday, stayed within my calorie goal, drank plenty of water, etc. etc.  Today was great until dinner with my family.  I had an awesome smoothie this morning, complete with berries, Greek yogurt, almond milk and spinach.  Lunch was some delicious homemade white chicken chili, some cold veggies, fruit, and a small turkey sandwich (I probably could have done without that, but I was still hungry).  I steered clear of the chips and chocolate chip bread even!  My snack this afternoon was 1/2 an avocado, kashi crackers, and cottage cheese.  So far so good.  Then dinner came.  Remember when I posted about my family's tradition on birthdays about having the birthday individual chose their birthday meal, and it's pretty typically always the same each year?  Well in my brother's case, the menu is this:  Bisquick taco bake, corn-on-the cob, watermelon, red white and blue (of course!) jello salad, and watermelon.  This year my mom threw in a new item as well - a taco salad made with beans, crushed Doritos, western dressing, and I don't even know what else.  I was only planning on having some corn and watermelon.  But, once again, I was VERY hungry and starting to get a headache.  Now mind you, I used to get a headache ALL THE TIME if I went to long without eating and let myself get super hungry.  Key words:  "used to."  That hasn't happened to me at all in the last 3 weeks.  But today it did.  So I took that as a sign that my body needed some more fuel that what I was planning.  So I had some corn and watermelon, but also had 1 piece of the taco bake (which my mom made with grass-fed beef and her own homemade taco seasoning) and some of her new taco salad.  Both were delicious and kept my headache at bay.  Now considering the other choices, I think those were ok foods to choose.  I did not have the jello dessert, nor did I have the homemade sugar cookies with homemade frosting or the homemade lemon bars.  So even though I ate a bit more than I planned today, and they may not have been the healthiest, I am ok with my choices and ready to conquer tomorrow in full force!


Hope you all had a great holiday and were able to relax and spend it with family and friends!