[Sweat it out Saturday] without the gym!

Hey everyone! I know it's been like a month since my last post, life has just been crazy busy. Finally, things are settling down and I'm able to get back to taking care of myself and putting me before everything else. So here's just a quick recap of what's been going on, and then we'll get to the point of this post:

Alright, we moved to Virginia, spent 2 weeks in a hotel, 1 week at Brent's ssgt's house while he was away, spent another week at a friend's house, and then FINALLY got in to an apartment! I never thought we'd have a house again, and now I know, no matter what anyone says-- go with your gut. If we had listened to ourselves and got a base house from the beginning, this wouldn't have been such a hassle. Oh well, live and learn. :) Soon after we got into our new place, Brent deployed! So I had the pleasure of receiving our HHG and unpacking by myself. I am NO WHERE near finished unpacking, but it's hard to find motivation when you're the only one here and everything you NEED is already unpacked. lol But it's slowly happening. So far, I like Virginia. I can't really complain much :) It's a bummer not having friends around, but if that's my only complaint, then I guess I have it pretty good. lol

However, through all the moving and being without a home, I gained all the weight I lost PLUS some back.. So that was a huge disappointment.. and in an effort to do this the healthy way, I'm making changes and documenting them as best I can. I'm hoping that staying accountable will keep me from going on a binge or something. lol So part of my documentation is participating in Sweat it out Saturdays (recently renamed Sweat it out with Stefanie.. but seeing as how my name isn't Stefanie, I'll stick with Saturday :p lol). SioS is a celebration of all things sweaty! Posts will be about workouts I've found, quotes, songs that keep me pumped up, and ways I make myself sweat.

visit Stefanie's blog here.

Today, I'm gonna share my most recent form of workout. Since moving, I haven't really had motivation to leave the house much because I don't want to get lost! lol So most of my workouts have come from the computer and are performed in my living room. My favorite right now, is Zumba. And while I have the Zumba DVDs, I really prefer the YouTube method.



That link takes you to my YouTube Zumba playlist! All I do is hit Play All and follow the choreography on the screen. Take the time and make your own, follow mine, or search for others! There are several Zumba playlists and until recently, I just skipped around and followed random videos. Just keep in mind that it takes about 15-16 videos to make up an hour of Zumba. :) Don't make your playlist too short, or too long. I do this playlist at least every other day, but sometimes I can't wait and do it on my "rest" day. Another important thing to remember is to cool down after Zumba and STRETCH! I have a cool down/stretch song at the end of my playlist, but if you don't find any you like, just put on relaxing music and make your own stretch choreo. As long as you're staying active, working those muscles, and then properly caring for them after, you're golden.

Something else I like to do is TV workouts like this one!

This workout came from Tarlynn at this blog, but I know you can find these kinds of workouts everywhere! They're always on my Tumblr feed and all over Pinterest. Just look for a show you like, and I'm sure someone somewhere has a workout for it! And if not, make your own! :) These can be fun and not make you feel so bad about watching TV all evening on Tuesdays! 

Although I'm not super motivated by quotes, songs really do get me up and moving! Sometimes I just can't help but to start moving when certain songs come on! Some of my favorites include this one and this one. And I REALLY like this one! I have a playlist on my itunes that has all of these songs and when I'm feeling blah and don't want to move, I turn this playlist on. Sometimes it's for the gym, sometimes it's for "lifting weights" (which, don't get the wrong idea, I'm weak. I'm not benching 220 or anything. lol), but mostly its for calisthenics. :) 

So basically, my philosophy for working out is

-get a Tumblr

-get a Pinterest

-get a YouTube account

-and make good use of your itunes.

We don't ALWAYS have to hit the gym to get sweaty! It's all up to you! :) 

So tell me, how do you get sweaty outside of the gym?

Learning the hard way

You know those times when people try giving you advice, and you ignore it because you think you have everything under control? Then you find yourself in a really messed up situation and you wished you had listened all along?

That's me right now.

I read up on how to go through a PCS. I listened to TMO when they briefed us on how it would go. I had a plan. But, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, The Universe really hates us and likes to screw up our plans. We needed a trailer hitch for the truck. Easy enough, right? We'll find one used. Nope. FINALLY found one brand new. $250. Went to install the hitch, Brent couldn't find the bolts. Called all around, and finally found some that fit the next day. Went to pick them up, and ended up finding the original bolts. Got the hitch on, and went to pick up our uhaul trailer. The electrical harness wasn't compatible. We'll just get one from Auto Zone. Nope. Wrong year. We call all over the place. Find one the next morning (the morning we were leaving Texas), get it. $50. FINALLY we're on our way.

We get to Virginia. WOO HOO! But now, we have been in Virginia 16 days, and still don't have a place to live. I didn't listen when people told me I shouldn't wait until our move to find an apartment. I was like "Eh. Apartments are easy to come by. We'll find something." Wrong. SO WRONG. I guess I didn't realize how spread out things are here, how many people there are, how busy apartment leasing offices are this time of year...

We had an apartment all lined up. All we were waiting on was a little extra money from our move to come in, and we would be moving on in. Well ya know what? They gave away that apartment RIGHT out from under us. So we were homeless, and back to square one. We managed to find a place that we both liked, was close to work, pet friendly, and most importantly, in our price range! But they wouldn't be available for a couple weeks. Now we are going to be staying with a friend of Brent's until the 12th, which is when we can move in to our new apartment! Ughh. It was like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

The one thing I have learned, that no matter what life throws at us, Brent and I are strong! It makes me feel good that through this all, we're becoming stronger. We're relying on each other. Easing the stress for each other. I can't imagine enduring all this BS with anyone but my wonderful husband. We're living and learning. and doing it together. I am so very thankful to have him by my side through thick and thin. My best friend for life. <3