This time last year, Phil asked me to marry him and between then and March 24, 2012 my life was pretty busy preparing for the wedding and our life together. Naturally this blog and my training was put on hold.

No, I didn’t stop working out, but my goals changed. I just wanted to be as healthy as possible so I could look my best on my wedding day. I came very close to my goals and I was ultimately, very …

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Thought you might enjoy laughing at a recent picture of me. Ever since I was a little kid, whenever I bake, I get flour all over myself. Pizza, homemade noodles, cookies, and bread, doesn’t matter, there is more flour on me than anywhere else.

Who cares if you make a mess in the kitchen… it’s how much you enjoy playing in the kitchen that matters!

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Let me start this post with a big heartfelt congratulations to my parents. They survived 40 years of marriage to each other ! Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!
On their anniversary, October 17th, we went downtown to Grill 225 to celebrate. How cool are my parents to involve us in their dinner celebration? Especially how cool when you consider they took us to a restaurant we had been eager to try. Grill 225 is one of (if not the) premier …

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A month ago this weekend, Phil and I were honored to travel to Buffalo for his best friend’s wedding. We love Doug & Vicki and it was my first trip to the state of New York. September is a perfect time of year in Buffalo. I loved almost everything about the trip except the early wake up call the day after the wedding to head back to Charleston.
The temperatures were so much cooler than Charleston, it felt like fall. I …

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I’m not one to shy away from the truth especially when it comes to being honest about living a healthy lifestyle. It’s not easy. Or well, it’s not easy when you’re not genetically gifted and really enjoy cooking and baking. So therefore, it hasn’t been easy for me.
But after all I’ve been through and learned trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, I’ve come to appreciate one thing.
If I’m going to live a healthy life and when needed, lose weight, I …

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Today, I’d very much like to wish both my grandmothers a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am lucky to have two very sweet, wonderful grandmas who have been a very important part of my life. These two ladies are amongst my favorite people ever! And, it’s always been fun that they share a birthday!
Nadine Austin Robbins is my dad’s mother. She was born in 1919 and grew up on a farm near Mulliken, MI. She married Roland Robbins and had two …

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Yup, as you can see I took a short break from blogging. Not on purpose though. Since I last posted, I’ve taken pictures of meals we’ve had, went to a few new restaurants, and been working out pretty regularly (except for a few days in there). I just never got around to the actual writing about what we we’ve done. But, I’m back with a few new ideas I’ll be debuting over the next couple weeks.
In the meantime, here’s a …

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I’ve been gone for a little while. It’s because I went on vacation, a real vacation, to a beach, where I enjoyed a care-free non-work lifestyle for a week.
View from the top deck of our beach house.
I had good intentions. I even went for a great 3.7 mile run around the neighborhood before we left.
Check out the new (dorky) wrist band I use
We arrived on a Saturday. The location was tremendous. Beach Front. Two decks. Walkway to the …

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Well, it’s Friday, only a week to go until vacation. I’m over the moon – in excitement and lack of mental acuity. Which is probably why I forgot to think about a swimsuit for vacation until yesterday. I stopped at a store nearby who were having a sale and cursed the prices and my bad memory for not remembering that it’s almost impossible to shop in stores for a bathing suit. Because while I’m only 5’2″, I have an oddly …

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Somewhere along the way I changed how I vacation. Instead of just searching for the best sites to see or best places to eat, I also try to schedule an activity or workout. Some way to get a little sweat in but also see a city or place in a new way.

When my parents and I visited Arizona (and my cousins) a few years ago, I signed up for mountain bike ride tour in Sedona. It was so freakin’ hard! …

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