On the porch…

Another one that I really like.  The bride likes the souped-up photoshopped look and I’m more of a naturalist (WYSIWYG with just a few tweaks).  I must say the souped up actions do take quite a bit of time to adjust.

Wedding day…

This is one of my fav pics from the wedding I shot this past weekend.  There were lots of little shots that I can’t wait to touch but this one is my fav.

Well, I had to stop running… for now…

My knees couldn’t handle the weight, so its back to walking for me for now until I lose a little more weight.  I’ve walking with my family and playing a little dodgeball. 

I’ve got to get this weight down because my knees just can’t take it anymore.    My 40th is fast approaching and it doesn’t look like I’m gonna be fit by then but it’s all good. I an spend my 40th year getting fitter!

Week 2, Day 1

Today went pretty quickly.  Today the run was bumped up to 90 seconds and the walk was bumped up to 2 minutes.  I lost my earphones so I had to use my speaker.  I can’t run without some type of distraction in my ear.  I had some calf muscle pain and some knee pain but the cal muscle pain was not as bad as last week when I had to take a break while walking. 

The Best Lemon Cake I Ever Made!

I only walked one day over the weekend for about 40 minutes and that was all the real exercise I got.  I was very active on Saturday with a photo shoot and a lot of running around.  It was a very hot day and I didn’t get much time to eat and I drank a ton of water.  Saturday was a good day… Sunday on the other hand was not!

Yesterday I ate a fried drumstick and a fried wing from my mom.  Then I grilled some steaks and made twice baked stuffed potatoes with lots of butter, sour cream, and cheddar cheese.  They were huge, too!  I ate steamed broccoli with it and then I baked the best lemon pound cake ever!  It was soooooo good!  I had one huge slice of it.  After I eat a slice today and one this evening (if there’s any left) I will be back on the wagon with healthy eating.

Week 1, Day 3

I finished my 1st week today –YAY ME!  Don’t have much time today because I’m back at work now.  The first two days I was on break from work.  STILL GOTTA GET MY JOG ON! 

No more jogging til Monday.  Tomorrow morning I’m going to get up and go ride my bike on the trail.  Gonna try to do the whole 14 miles, but if not, I will at least try.  I’m gonna take lil mama with me and afterwards a photoshoot, a talk at a baptism, and another photoshoot (maybe). 

Today is muh sweetie’s birthday.  I love that man!  He loves me through all the stress, all the all-nighters of studying, all the weeks without home-cooked meals, all the mood swings, all the ups and downs with my weight, and all of my imperfections.  He’s the best and I’m glad I’m taking this journey with him.  Have a great day!

I love this man

Week 1, Day 2

So today I met my friend Connie at the track.  Not the normal track I like to run on — I usually run on the college track.  I don’t know if it’s the bright color or the lack of the traffic noise or the fact that I just love my school but I like to run on that track better.  I’d rather just walk on the high school track. 

Today, my breathing was a bit more labored but I think that is because the humidity was just hangin’ in the air this morning.  My left knee was pained when I first got there, but when I warmed up the pain was gone.  I’m starting to want to do this every day again, but I believe that I can hold it off to every other day til I drop at least 30 pounds.  Don’t wanna go back to the knee surgeon! 

I’m gonna wait to weigh myself not this weekend but next weekend.  I don’t want to make this about weight, I want to make this about being fit. 

I’m really enjoying being off work.  I’m so not gonna want to go back tomorrow.  Well at least the weekend will be coming a lot quicker!  I got lots of photos completed on my time off — well over 1,000 photos were processed.  There were many favorites in the batch, but I’ve included my most favorite pic in this blog… cya later!

This elder had such unique features I just had to work some magic!

Week 1, Day 1

Some new friends I made at my 1st 5k

I went to run my 1st day of the C25k program… again! The last time I started C25k was August of last year. Instead of doing it the right way (every other day) I did it the wrong way (every day). I became addicted to running. Unfortunately, at the size I was, that was not the best thing to do.

At the end of the 12 week period I had run all but 1 day and that was the day before the 5k I had signed up to run. Some days I’d run twice because I was so in to it. Then on race day, I plugged along like I normally do and halfway through I hear/felt my left knee kinda snap. No kidding, it was at the halfway point. There was an uncomfortable feeling but no real pain so I kept on plugging along. Out of the 98 women in my age group, I finished 48. I was so proud of me. I never stopped once. Once the race was over, however, I could not take another step without a sharp pain that emanated from my knee and seemed to travel up my leg to my spine. I could barely walk once I cooled off.

Turns out that I tore my meniscus and I was in surgery within 2 weeks (such a blessing!). I’ve been walking for the past 2 or 3 weeks but once you’ve been a jogger, you don’t want to just walk. So now I’m going to try the C25k again but this time I’m going to do it the right way. Hopefully I won’t have any more injuries… I’m still quite a bit on the heavy side (last I weighed I was 257). We shall see… as it stands right now, this is DAY 1.

So I’m getting used to the new do…

It was a bit drastic to do the big chop myself, but now that I am over the initial shock I’m really diggin’ the new do!

I’ve got about 1.5 inches at the shortest and 3 at the longest.  As long as my daughter keeps setting my hair for me every weekend I can exist in this world without a wig.

I think its even starting to grow on my sweetie.  Soon enough I’ll have the big, curly fro I’ve always wanted.  All natural!  Here I come!

Removed the bandages…

My pic of the week...

And my knee doesn’t really look all that bad.  To little slits with stitches and some swelling and since I have fat knees anyway, I really don’t see much difference.   Lots of highs and one major low today but it’s all good.  I’m very grateful to Heavenly Father for my talents and for his blessings upon me and my family at all times.  I’m so grateful for my family.  No bum knee is gonna bring me down to low to appreciate these things…

Oh well… back to the grind tomorrow!

So I’ve been laying here all day…

Reflecting on all of the work I’ve got to get done.  I have a fellowship application to turn in by Friday, I have some pics to fill two orders for, I have to finish some photo collages for my internship, I need to finish reading some chapters for two classes, I have to make some posters for a salon down in NC, and I need to bake some brownies for both of my children’s schools for tomorrow.  No sweat right!?

Just had knee surgery yesterday.  I tore my meniscus either while I was training for or while I was running my first 5k — which I finished by the way!  I am on my quest to be fit by 40.  I’d been running for 12 weeks (doing the couch to 5k) training for my first run and I’d been in pain the whole time I just thought I needed to stretch more.  But the day of the race I got to the halfway point and felt a clicking begin.  I just kept on going til I got to the end and pushed it as hard as I could.  Beat my own personal best time by nearly a minute (finished with a 36:09).  But after the race I could barely walk another step.  I limped to the car and suffered most of the night and went to the doc the next day.  In 2 weeks time, I was diagnosed, referred and operated on!  THANK THEE HEAVENLY FATHER! 

Now I’m laying here in bed ready to get up and get to work on all that I have to do before I go back to work… but I gotta keep this leg elevated and iced up.  This is the most rest I’ve gotten in months and I should be grateful for it, but one can only watch so many episodes of Law and Order before one has the urge to get up and get moving.