Life By Nadine Lynn - Page 214 of 339

Weekend Shenanigans – The One With a Bunny

Some weekends are so productive, you know….like last weekend. And some weekends are not. This is one that was not! Also, can we agree that the Monday after Easter should be a national day off? Please?

Our office closed early on Friday, and after being frustrated most of the day with people on the phone…I took advantage of the early outing and went to the outlet mall on my way home! I stopped by Loft, where I proceeded to try on every dress in the store and hated them all on me. I did find a great summer sweater, a cute floral tank top and some ankle jeans. And a necklace, because duh 50% off. I also peeked in to J Crew where they did not have the dress I was lusting at on Friday. They did have the shirt but I hated the material, and decided to go to Old Navy. I didn’t really see anything there that I loved either.

Friday night, Chris and I decided to order pizza from Fox’s and binge watch some TV shows. I also got some reading done 🙂

Saturday we started hitting up the thrift stores early! We did our big tour of them that we try to do about once a month. We found some games and I got three books for $2.75 total!

While we were in Oxford, we stopped at Cheaha Brewing Company. They are located in an old train station, and the building is just gorgeous!!! I took lots of pictures because I couldn’t get enough of the wood beams, exposed brick and old world character.

The outside, they did have a patio in the back, but I wanted to stare at the inside!

The entrance…

The coolest pictures were on the wall…

The main area…

The food…

We ordered chips, salsa and beer cheese for our appetizer. I had a sweet potato beer, which was amazing!!! Their burgers are grass fed cows from a local farm and everything was top notch. Those sweet potato fries. You guys…..those sweet potato fries!!! Those were the BEST sweet potato fries I have ever had. Ever. I loved all the details of high quality products, they even had organic sea salt and organic black pepper on the tables.

The staff was super friendly and they brought out several samples of beer for us to taste. Not only do they serve their own there, but they have other local breweries on tap as well! You can even buy local art off the walls!

I cannot brag on this place enough!!! I know that we will be back for sure!

Saturday night, we were exhausted after all that thrifting. We stopped by Chris’s parents for a few minutes then headed home.

On Easter, Chris and I have a tradition of going to Waffle House for breakfast in the morning because we know we are going to spend the rest of the day with his family so we take some us time.

Bacon egg and cheese Texas melt for the win! With cheese hash browns of course!

We headed to Chris’s parents house around 11:30 and had a delicious lunch and got to spend lots of time with his family. I think us adults had more fun hiding the Easter eggs than the kids did searching for them. 🙂

When we got back home last night, we decided to watch Walk Hard and SNL from this weekend…which was freaking hilarious. Their CNN skit was on point and I loved that Michael Keaton was the host. I’m Batman!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!!! I started out my morning right with a new record on how long I can run for, so that’s always good 🙂 Have a great week!

April 6, 2015 by Nadine

friday favorites

Friday Favorites

Favorite Song: Mike Posner’s Drug Dealer Girl. I just love how chill and fun this song is.

Favorite Coffee Creamer: After my beloved Christmas creamers went away, I started buying Coffee Mate’s Natural Bliss all natural Sweet Cream. No artificial crap, you can pronounce each of the few ingredients in it and I have yet to tire of it like I do the flavored ones. For the win!

Favorite Recipe: This Apple Pear Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette looks really good and I want to try it! via

Favorite Moment: My 10 year old nephew texted me last night from his iPod while he was at the beach. We probably had a 30 minute conversation back and forth and it was the sweetest thing. It is crazy how fast they grow up!!!

Favorite Lust: This Factory Sheer Striped dress and Linen Tee from J Crew would be super cute for this spring. I need to make it over to the outlets!

I hope that everyone has a fabulous Easter weekend!!! We plan on spending Sunday with Chris’s family and I hope to torture my dogs at some point this weekend by making them wear the bunny ears. They love the attention! I shall leave you with some funnies.

Favorite Funnies:

And in the spirit of Easter

April 3, 2015 by Nadine

confessions

Confessions

–Everyone has been posting about how excited they are for the Lily collection to hit Target. Confession? I never really cared for LP and actually made fun of people for paying ridiculous amounts of money for a dress that looks like the wallpaper of a 85 year old’s bathroom…until I saw the collection for Target. Some of the stuff is actually really cute! #cheaperismoreappealing

–I park towards the back of parking lot’s most days not because I necessarily try to get more steps in, but because I have no patience for the stupid and lazy that block up the entire aisle waiting so that they don’t have to walk an extra five feet. #nopatienceforstupid

–Am I the only one who is sick of seeing blogging rules posts? I get tips and stuff, but rules? Last time I checked this was my blog and I do what I want. If you don’t like it, then don’t read it! #IDoWhatIWant

–I got all warm and fuzzy yesterday when so many of you said that you were proud of me for getting further in my runs and/or being able to cut the entire yard in one session. Seriously, thanks for all the encouragement! It will go a long way on days that I am down. #bloglove

–I don’t get how some people get so excited over April Fool’s day? Like, I like the beginning of each new month and all but the pranks?! Maybe because I am an honest person and a terrible liar…but I just hate all the lame ass pranks that people try to pull. Oh you put salt in the sugar container? Congrats on ruining everyone’s coffee in the break room. #aprilfoolsisforfools

–Is it sad that I am actually going to make it a goal to take more baths? We have a beautiful garden tub in our master bathroom that is rarely ever used. I have scented epsom salts and face masks that I can use on top of the relaxation factor so why not?!

Confessions in ecards

April 1, 2015 by Nadine

fitness

Working On My Fitness

I joined Erin and Kristin for their #4weeksfit challenge last month and have also been working on my fitness.

My goals for the #4weeksfit challenge was to work on my training in the Couch to 5K program, as well as start IIFYM for eating. I am proud to say that I have been showing up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 4:45 am to say hello to my little friend the treadmill. There, I literally work my ass off and push myself harder than I ever have in my life with running. Each week I can run a few minutes longer, and each week I give myself self-fives.

I brought back leg day for Tuesdays. I just do the bulk leg work out from Body Beast because it works on all different parts of the legs. I also do the six minute arm work out from Pop Sugar Fitness either during the “rests” or after.

On Thursdays, I either do a chest/shoulders/back work out from Body Beast or a few different Pop Sugar Fitness work outs, either cardio or strength training.

Now that spring has sprung and the grass is growing, some Saturdays will be spent cutting the grass. Most would say, meh…no big deal. We have three sections of our yard; the front which is slightly rolling, the back which is all on a slant and then there is the beast of a hill we call the side yard. This is a picture of about 1/2 the side. It is hard to tell just how steep it really is towards the top…

That hill was my arch nemesis last year. It took everything I had in my legs and upper body to push our mower along. I tried a few different approaches and have found what works best for me. You can’t just go up and down or you will fall, you either have to take it at an angle or side ways. Last year I used to cut the front and half the side one day, and then the other side and the back another day. I would be drenched in sweat and completely breathless and worn out on that side yard when all was said and done.

This past Saturday I did it ALL. I did not break out in a sweat and I was breathing just fine. The only thing that sucked afterwards were the damn blisters on my feet from sliding around in my shoes on all the hills. And some blisters on my hands despite the gloves I wear. I was so damn proud of myself for being physically able to do it all! This year we are going to have a lawn to be proud of! HUGE non-scale victory for me.

Just because you aren’t seeing the results, doesn’t mean your work outs aren’t making you stronger each and every day. That was proven to me this Saturday.

Now on to the eating. The first week of the challenge I tracked all my food as I would normally eat to see where I am with protein, carbs, etc. Like most people in this country, my carb intake was a little high. Damn you carbs! I had blood work done just to make sure all of that is ok. My hormones, insulin, cholesterol, and all my vitamin levels checked out just fine. The only thing that was just a little higher than the normal were my triglycerides. Triglycerides are a type of fat lipid found in your blood that are normally released as energy between meals. In order to get the number down, you want to decrease your intake of carbs and fats.

I sat down to try to figure out the right numbers for IIFYM from a few different sites. Each site I came out different. I really don’t want to have to pay someone to figure this out for me, but if I am going all in…I may need to suck it up. Anyone out there good at figuring out their own? I feel like how many recommended calories I am getting with most of the formulas is way too high. Therefore, I haven’t started following it yet and failed the food portion of my challenge.

For the next month, I really want to continue pushing myself for C25K, and continue strength training the days I don’t run. I may start incorporating a 6th work out day each week on the weeks I don’t cut grass. I have been thinking about starting another program on the days I am not doing C25K, but I am not sure which one yet.

I also want to actually track my macros, so my goal will be to keep researching and figuring out the right numbers for me so that I can give it an honest go and see if it will work for me.

Linking up with my running cheerleaders Tracy and Alyssa as well!

March 31, 2015 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

It’s time for my Weekend Shenanigans!!! I am going to call this weekend hella productive! Let’s just jump in, shall we?

Friday evening, Chris and I headed to the Pell City thrift store and scored a good haul. We grabbed some food on the way home and watched some reruns of Big Bang. That is the perfect Friday night for me.

Saturday I cleaned the house, cut the grass…all of the grass, and finished cataloging the games upstairs and the ones we had just got. Cutting our entire yard is a huge deal, I was so proud of myself for getting it all done in one swoop. We got ready and we were going to go to World of Beer…but we were both tired. All that work takes a lot out of you! Even the dogs were tired!

Instead we stayed in and watched the Ultra Music Festival live from Miami on the projector and got caught up on some of our shows.

That”s right folks…that is Ursher, baby!!! Certainly the highlight of the night for me 🙂 There was also a dude that played the sax for awhile that was really cool…

I enjoy tuning in for awhile each year, but I could never handle a whole weekend of that in the Miami heat. Too old!

Sunday morning I got some blog stuff done and pinned some shit because you know how Pinterest goes once you are signed in. Then I decided it was time. It was time to be honest and clean out my closet for real.

The rules I set up for myself? If I don’t love it right now, it comes out of the closet. If I really still liked it, and I just wish it would fit a little better...you know if I lost like 5 to 10 pounds…. it would go into a storage tote and be re-evaluated. If I wasn’t thrilled to own it? Donation pile.

Before:

I literally tried on every single thing that was hanging, unless it is something I wore in the last week. I got rid of…wait for it….45 tops. Forty-five. And 3 skirts.

After:

Sure, it might not look that different in these pictures, but I had enough space that I was able to move my skirts that were on Chris’s top shelf down. Also, the hangers actually have space between them and I can see what I own.

I always have my closet organized by type of top (tank top, regular top, sweater) and then by color from lightest to darkest.

After all that organizing, it was time for lunch! We met up with Chris’s parents and headed to J Alexander’s. I ordered my usual when I am trying to be good, Thai Kai Salad. It was delicious as always.

After lunch, we walked around Bargain Hunt then headed to Target to get our grocery shopping done. I made a Pear and Gorgonzola Flat Bread for dinner.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Let’s bring it, Monday!

March 30, 2015 by Nadine

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