tamcam10

Wake Up!

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Why is it that sometimes (ok most the time) your kids just know how to pull at your heartstrings….
Viv is on Spring Break and yesterday she spent the day with me at work aka Grandma’s house. She had been playing on the swing set and asked me to come watch her new trick. I said just give me a minute.  She responds with “Mom you are always busy. Why can’t you spend more time with us? Can’t you come out and play with us?”

MY. HEART. SANK.

I know that she is just a kid and that she doesn’t understand all the grown up stuff … like money doesn’t just appear in your piggy bank and the clothes don’t wash themselves, but she is right. After she called me out she went over the ways that I could be home earlier at night to play with them… Can’t you go to work before I get on the bus? But who will watch you and brother? We can go over to Grandma’s house. Or why don’t you and brother leave for daycare right after I get on the bus? Yup, that would work…
But that would mean I would have to Wake Up Early!!

Wake Up TamCam10

I am not a morning person! Like many others, I so foolishly thought that once you became an adult or parent you magically became a morning person, in reality its just the opposite. And I know that I really should get up earlier and that it would probably make my life easier, but who wants to crawl out of that nice, warm, comfy bed to be an adult! Fine kid you win, I will try and be a morning person. This morning was a test run, I was up early and out the door (yeah!) Except there was no school and dad was home to get the kids ready, next week is the real deal. But today, today I promised a little girl a bike ride and dinner at the park. So I’m leaving with plenty of daylight and sunshine left to spend some time with my kids.

Love Always … Tam

Just Keep Moving Forward…

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So it has been a few months since I was on here, New Year’s resolutions are still in the works…. my pop consumption has been cut in half, I did not complete my 200 miles in January- only got 3/4 of the way there- but I am still on the move to ONEderland. I’m actually losing weight! Which is what I want to talk about today, those pesky numbers on the scale. I know that the numbers on the scale don’t always matter, I get that, but when you have as much weight to lose as me- they have to move down.

Last year I adapted the motto of “If you just keep moving forward, you will amaze yourself” and it is something I try and tell myself everyday. Oh you ate an entire sleeve of cookies…just keep moving forward, you haven’t been on the treadmill for a week, just keep moving forward….and that is what I have been doing and guess what, I have been amazed! I have been documenting my weight and measurements oh for about 14 years (I just found an old tablet that I used to write them down in, eek!) Last March I saw the highest number ever on the scale (one day I will include that number here) now I’m not sure if that was my highest weight ever because I stopped stepping on the scale for quite sometime, but I wrote that number down.

I wish that I could tell you what all happened in the next few months but I really don’t remember.  I do remember I started using my Fitbit more, I paid attention to my steps and tried to reach 10,000 steps a day. I would make a point to park a little further away, not to sit in front of the TV as early and even just get up from my desk and walk in place for a min or two-just to get in some steps and quite frankly so I didn’t have to work out to get them. I started stepping on the scale again and kept writing my numbers down. Towards the end of the summer I noticed my pants were loose, but I just figured that they had worn out their stretch and it was time for a new pair. Not that I had actually lost weight because all I had lost was a pound or two here and there. Funny thing is, is when I looked back to that number I had written down back in March those pounds added up to 20 pounds lost! What!? I lost 20lbs and didn’t gain it…this was a new concept to me.

So here we are a year from when I recorded my highest weight of all times and the scale didn’t scare me when I stepped on it. Even though that number is high I can see that a year ago I weighed 39lbs more then I do now and I am ok with the number I see today because I know that number is me moving towards ONEderland!

I always had the mind set that to really lose weight I had to do it in a year, why I’m not sure and before I would look at a 39lb loss in a year as a failure because I could’ve lost so much more. Now I look at that number, give it a nod and just keep moving forward.

 

Love Always … Tam

Shower Organization

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About 5 years ago we decided to remodel our bathroom, best thing ever! We went from a tiny, tiny bathroom that you could litterly sit, shut the door & wash your hands all at the same time, to a very spacious bathroom with a large soaking tub!

Yes, there is a TV in the bathroom.

I did have to sacrifice moving the laundry room to the basement but that was ok. Also with getting this grand tub it meant the shower would be separate, we used to have the tub/shower combo. That was all fine and dandy until I realized that I had no room to put all my shower necessities! I tried to persuade my husband to get a fancy shower with a built in shelf, but all he needs is soap and a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner and he good, lets just say he didn’t see the need for the shelf.


He doesn’t undstand what all goes on when a women takes a shower, I need my shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, face wash, face mask, body wash, body lotion, shaving cream and a razor at the very least! I suffered for years with the two tiny shelves that each held one bottle, a suction cup basket that fell down every other day and vast array of products scattered around the floor of the shower.


Then I decided to do something about it. Like most projects I do, I did it on a whim. So I set out to good old Menards and Wal-Mart (the only stores within 30 miles of my house) to find what I needed- a shower pole and some baskets.


I couldn’t quite find the baskets that I envisioned, so shower curtain hooks were also needed. I chose these baskets for two reasons 1) they are cheap, $2 and 2) they have holes to drain the water, however they are a little bit wider then I would have liked. One tip before heading out to the store…measure what size shower rod you need. Argh off the the store I go again.


Minor set back, because the end result was so worth it.

Look at how organized everything is! Now that I have had my shower like this for a while I am overall happy with the end result, I could get away with just two baskets (sometimes I bump into them) and I am going to invest in a curved shower rod to give you just a little more room.

Love Always … Tam

What’s Up?

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What’s Up, besides my weight that is….How can you want something so bad, but yet you can’t control yourself to get it?  Yesterday as we were watching TV a commercial came on for one of those media-spas that “get rid of your body fat in just one day” Vivian turns and looks at me and says “mom why don’t you do that?” I told her because it doesn’t just work like that and it cost lots of money. Bless her heart that g12513857_10208527355720936_8188607754644347526_oirl looks at me and says in all seriousness “I know, I can give you all the money in my piggy bank for it” That right there should have broke my heart in two, made me hop up and get on that treadmill, instead I just sat in my chair and curled up in my blanket a little longer. I know that she is getting older and starting to notice more that mommy has a “big booty butt” (as we call it) and a big belly and I cringe at the day that she will be embarrassed by me because her mommy is fat. I mean I am going to embarrass through out the years, but I don’t want it to be because of my weight.

Last night my mom called me to come over to have a late night “business meeting” in the hot tub. I went over, we sat in that hut tub for 2 hours!! The night was perfect with a full moon, no wind and it was almost 30 degrees out! We talked about work and started getting excited for our upcoming season of senior pictures and our new class of spokesMODELS, we talked about all the new cool stuff coming into the Boutique for the next sale (all I can say is think Joanne Gaines!) and of course we talked about our weight. How we still haven’t lost anything over the winter, how 4th of July will be here before we know it and how this year was going it be different! Man I so want it to be different, I want to skinny (I am using this term loosely because I know it isn’t all about size), I want to go and pick out a cute outfit for the 4th and not just see what there is in my size and looks decent.

Rant over, thanks for listening.

Love Always … Tam

3 Day Refresh Review

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I know that this is long overdue and I apologize. I had it all written out and went to go save it and lost it all!!! I’m sorry to report that this post won’t be as witty as the first one I wrote, it was pretty good.

3DAY

My first thoughts that come to mind when I hear “3 Day Refresh (Cleanse)” is 1) I’m going to starve!!! and 2) I’m going to sh!t my pants. I am happy to report that neither of those happened during my 3 days.

You start out your day with your Shakeology, still get 2 snacks, lunch (Shake) and a meal for dinner. Oh and there is this digestive drink too…. I can’t say I loved it, but I did’t hate it, but I reccomend drinking it ice cold and really fast….. Same with you lunch time shake, ice cold.

For your snacks and dinner I just went with raw veggies most of the time, I  prefer my veggies raw and they are fast and easy. I will admit that I did have a moment of ” I can’t do this, I’m going to starve and ate a few 21 Day Fix approved items. Of course after my week moments I realized I wasn’t going to starve to death and regretted my decision.

Nevertheless the scale did move in the right direction at the end of my 3 days….drum roll please…. I lost a total of 4.8lbs is 3 days and I didn’t starve myself either! Funny all those years I thought not eating was the way to lose weight.

So would I do it again, Yes,  perhaps another after the new year.

Oh and Happy (Late)  Halloween from the Purple Minion! Yup thats my real hair!! Sad it only lasted the night, I was really digging the purple.

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Love Always … Tam

 

Non-Scale Goals: A Sweatshirt, Jeans and The Doctor

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I don’t know about you but most of the time I judge myself on having a successful or bad week based off the number on the scale. I tend to not pay attention to the other things that are improving with my body like having more energy or not waking up and feeling all bloated. This is why I have decided to dedicate the next 4 weeks to a couple non-scale goals.

NIU Shirt

For the past two years I have gone with my friend Debbie to see her son play football at Northern Illinois University. Last year I purchased the sweatshirt above, this year it is fitting a little tight. On October 24th we will be on our way to NIU for our annual trip, I would like wear this sweatshirt again and to have it fitting comfortably. I also dug out a pair of jeans from my closet that I haven’t had on in a while, they were a bit tight. My goal for the jeans is that when I wear them they don’t dig into my belly! So, deep breath, here is my before picture of my NIU outfit….

NSG NIU

To accomplish my goals I will be starting with a 3-Day Refresh on Wednesday (as long as it comes in the mail by then). Then I will follow that up with a round of 21-Day Fix and Shakeology. To track my progress I will be weighing myself and taking measurements on the first day of the 3-Day Refresh and the first 21 Day Fix. I will not re-weigh or measure until the day following, the last day of the 21 Day Fix. This will be hard for me, I will probably have to remove the scale from my house, but I don’t want the scale to define my progress. To hold myself accountable I will be giving day by day updates on my Facebook page. And if you really want to follow along I plan to overshare with pictures and quite possibly videos of my food and workouts on my Snapchat account @tamcam10. If I know that you are out there following along (and I’m hopefully inspiring you) it holds me accountable to do as I say.

My other non-scale goal has to do with that lovely yearly exam at the doctors. For the last 5 years the doctors has said to me “well it looks like you have put on some weight” My goal is to not hear that statement at my visit. I would like to hear “you have lost some weight” but I am good with being the same as last year.

So here is to goals and not letting the scale define them!

Love Always … Tam 
“If you just keep moving forward, you will amaze yourself”

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