Nails of the week: Sonia Kashuk & GAP

I finally decided to switch it up. Up until yesterday I was still wearing Tauped by Sonia Kashuk. Well today's a new day! I'm still into the more 'normal' colors right now and I really liked the wearing power of Tauped so I went with the only other Sonia Kashuk polish that I have. This one is called Blank Slate. It's a deep grayish-blue. As an accent color I chose Gold Rush from GAP. I've used this color before and it is gorgeous. It has a great wide brush on it but it looks a lot better in the bottle than it does on the nail. Only because in the bottle you can see a lot of the blue's and purple's in the color, but instead on the nail its more of yellow and light green.  Nonetheless it's still a great color. Again I used Sally Hansen's Double duty as a top coat. It worked out great for me last time. 

The one complaint against Blank slate is that it's a lot more streaky than Tauped. It's almost as if going over the nail polish again with the brush less coated makes it streak and take away polish that was already there--does that make sense?. So the brush had to almost be completely soaked in polish for it to get a good coverage. But it's easy to work through and other than that no issues. I'll edit the post later to tell you how long they lasted on the nails. 

Do not aim to be a skinny you, aim to be the best you.

Image source

Why would you want to be just skinny? When you are losing weight your goal should be to be healthy. Healthy is not the same as skinny. Before someone jumps down my throat here, if you are losing weight you would not be naturally skinny. Naturally skinny people should--in my opinion--also lift weights, gain muscle mass, and eat healthy. If you're naturally skinny, good for you! I was you at one point. Up until the age of 19, I weighed 125-130 pounds on my 5'10'' frame. I had that nice thigh gap that everyone wanted and frankly, I don't want to go back. Now I weigh 160 pounds, no thigh gap, and I want to be healthier. Hell, if I get healthy and I don't lose any weight, or get my thigh gap back, great! I just want to have healthy habits. 

Image Source

So why should you join me in my goal to become healthy instead of skinny? Well, why not? Why would you want to do all this work and not have anything to show for it--except the weight loss. Healthy also doesn't mean big and bulky muscles. Everyone has their own version of healthy. My healthy may not be healthy for you. Everyone's body is different. The fact that people even say " I want to be skinny " makes me mad because you shouldn't. Skinny isn't always healthy. Root for your health, not just being skinny.

Maybe I should tell you guys my definition of healthy for myself. Reading this post back it may be a little confusing for someone. My vision of healthy for myself is to have a good amount of muscle on my body. I want to tone my body. I'm not overweight. I do not have a goal weight frankly because I am not overweight. I want to be healthier and if I lose weight in the process, well that's okay, and if I gain weight cool. Being healthy is eating better and introducing workouts into your daily routine. 

Bottom line here, is aim to be the best you, that you can be. Not just a skinny you.

What's your version of healthy? Is it quitting smoking? (good for you if it is, cause that is a 100% healthy decision) Is it laying back on the alcohol? Working out three days a week? What? Tell meeee! I want to knoooowww! :)

Puzzling

Today I want to talk about puzzles. That's right puzzles. First lets talk about how when the word is italicized it looks like the word shouldn't exist. Second, how come people don't do these more often? I saw a post on Facebook this morning, about a brand that makes puzzles with no edges and 5 extra pieces--it had a caption of "Satan, is that you?"or something along those lines-- and that made me want to get a puzzle. So I headed on down to my local Kmart this morning--it's like 3 minutes from my house-- and it took me 10 minutes to decide on a puzzle, there was a lot of choices. It was 8.99, and I feel like I got my 8.99 out of it just today. At the point in the picture I had worked on it about 4 hours. Not very much work done is there? That's because you gotta separate all the edge pieces from the non-edge pieces, then I separated by color scheme and that takes a long time. It's a 1000 piece puzzle, but it takes a long time to get through all those pieces, plus I missed some of the edge pieces during the first sort and so I had to sort through them again gosh darnit. All in all I spent about 6 hours on the puzzle today, and it only looks a tad bit different than in the picture above.

I'm not going to lie, trying to find the pieces that go together gets overwhelming after a while; but it's a little exciting each time I find one that matches. I was listening to music, the whole time so I wasn't just sitting there in silence--that would be boring. The main goal of it was to get off the couch and away from the TV. I haven't started work yet and each day besides my daily workout, cleaning the house, and going outside to play with the dogs, I basically just sit on the couch and watch TV. It's annoying, really. I wish that my neighborhood would be more walk friendly. There is basically no sidewalks, and a million cars parked on both sides of the road. So your basically walking in the road if a car were to choose to be going down the road and I don't like the idea of driving somewhere to take a walk.

I got off on a little tangent there. Back to the puzzle. It was really entertaining, I feel like it could be something I could do with my husband if he wanted. I'm exited to finish it--pray there are no missing pieces-- glue it together and then hang it on the wall. The image is just beautiful and I love when I've seen puzzles as art in other places it's nifty. Besides, I get art for 8.99. Who can beat that? I guess I could if I got a cheaper puzzle--were you thinking that too? 

So anyway, puzzles. Do them. :D


When was the last time you did a puzzle? Do you enjoy them? or think they're boring?

Nails of the week: Sonia Kashuk's Tauped

 

Cue awkward hand holding of the nail polish. I haven't actually painted my nails in months, and I mean months. I kept getting the worst nail polish that would chip almost instantly and that turned me off nail polish. I've had this one for a while--it got packed in Hawaii, and I love the color. When I went to paint my nails I wanted a pure nude color and this is the only neutral shade that I had so I settled. Well, settling was the best decision I've made this week because I love the color. The staying color is great as well. I used Sally Hansen's double duty for a top coat. I have been wearing it for 4 days now and I only have minimal chipping. A lot of it happens in the shower or while I am washing dishes--we have no dishwasher, yuck I know-- but if I compare it to a lot of my other nail polishes this one takes the cake. 

I have used instadri but that one creates a lot of bubbles on the nails and that just irritates me so I stopped using it near the end of the bottle, just threw it away. I won't be buying another one either. I'd say the picture is pretty close to the real thing. I love the color. It's suitable for everyday wear, pretty professional, and not off putting or too in your face. 

The one complaint I do have is the bottle is a defective one. The brush is crooked, it comes out of the lid at about a 45 degree angle. I have to force it into the bottle. I easily could of returned it to the Target I bought it from and got another, but it's not that big of a deal. It makes applying it a little awkward at times but I can still apply it pretty well.

EDIT: 1/27/2014 

I applied the polish on the 17th, and I took it off on the 26th. There were two chipped nails, and most had the top rubbed away with little teeny chip marks. So overall I'd say it did amazing. Almost 10 days without any huge chips.

What color is on your nails right now?

Tuesday Workout;

Have you ever woke up, jumped out of bed, and just been really excited to get sweaty? No? Me neither. This morning I woke up, spent about an hour in bed checking Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, THEN I got up and told myself I wasn't working out today because I just didn't feel like it. Hah. Since when do I listen to myself nowadays? So I turned on the ps3 switched DVD's and hit start. You would think at this point I would be working out right? Nope, I had to search my house for my workout watch and the chest strap. It took me about 15 minutes to find both and I thought that it was actually quite funny.

Anyways, I did level one of Killer Buns & Thighs today. Let me start off by saying Eff that workout. Holy crap. 6 minutes in, my legs are screaming and begging me to stop. There was a few moves that are also in Extreme Shed & Shred so those I was relieved by because I knew how to do them and could do them pretty confidently. I took quite a few breaks and had some interruptions through today's workout. At around 12 minutes I sat down because I felt like I was going to pass out. I rested for about 3 minutes--that time is not included in the picture. My mom called at around 20 minutes. I paused the video and grabbed water about 5 times.

My legs are my number one problem area that I have. Number two would be obliques. This video is of course targeted with the legs and with some cardio intervals. I like this DVD very much, it's difficult, it takes a lot of effort, and it hurts. All things that I like when I workout.

I didn't want to workout this morning as I mentioned earlier, I didn't feel like it. I did though. This is me becoming a better me. Not listening to my head, listening to my body and what it wants. Listening to my body is the whole thing. So work through those road blocks, I'm doing it, you can too.

Stats: 
Heart rate(Beats per minute):
Average: 164
Maximum: 190

Total time: 42:15
Fat Burn: 03:59
Fitness: 38:11

Calories Burned: 461

After workout meal:
I ate oatmeal and raspberries after the workout this morning. I like my oatmeal on the runnier side I'm not sure why, but I think the texture of pure oatmeal grosses me out.


Did you workout this morning?

Oh, and I'm not sure why I cannot directly reply to comments on my blog. It's not giving me a reply option, so if you comment on my blog, I will reply to you. You just have to check back cause I'll just add another comment onto the post. 

Photo of the day.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday workout and a Thursday story;

Today I did part 2 of the Jillian Michaels extreme shed and shred DVD. Just like the first time it was insanely hard for me. I'll be honest with you, I haven't worked out in the last 3 days. I've been worried about getting the job and having to drive out there everyday at about noon so that I can do all the requirements. Then when I got home I just rested. I'm going to go on a little tangent here. If you aren't interested in my crazy day I had yesterday go ahead and skip the next long paragraph. :) 

Yesterday in itself was a day that I had planned on working out, BUT it ended up being an emotion filled few hours that turned my whole day. On my way to sign all the official paperwork and get the drug test paperwork, a rock came up and hit my windshield, cracking it. It's not too bad it's about a quarter size in the middle of the windshield. When I say middle, I mean middle. Smack dab in the middle of it. Perfectly in center. My car is less than a year old and it's already been in an accident( I was not involved in that accident ) and now I cracked the damn windshield. I handled myself pretty well I think, I didn't let it upset me too much since there was nothing that I could do about it except now I have to get it fixed. So I get to where I need to go, sign all the paperwork, and leave. In the parking lot, I decide to call my insurance to see if they'll cover it getting fixed. I find out that maybe it'll be covered--he didn't even give me a real answer-- but since we moved states our insurance is going to go up. Basically it's going to double, and I mean double, not nearly double, and not almost double.  I wanted to scream. I was thinking to myself, thank god that I just got a job or we would NOT be able to afford that. So I get over that heartbreak, shed about two tears and get back on the road to go home for a few to figure everything out before I have to go find the place for the drug test. On my way home, I run over a piece of someone else's car. It was a little metal rod and of course I didn't even see it, all I do is hear it hit the car. My heart drops, I start cursing to myself and gosh darn it, now I'm dragging it down on the road. So, of course I pull over, look around my car and find it punctured the plastic under my car, right in the front. It's lodged in there pretty good and it took quite a bit of effort to get it out. I finally get it out, get back into my car and I'm just done, completely wiped out, I break down right there in the car on the side of the road. I start thinking to myself, don't do this. Everything is okay. Everything will be okay. The car is okay ( even though I was worried something would start leaking, it didn't. ) It's just a car--I personify my car so hard, hate leaving her places, love my car, it's my baby so saying that didn't help-- and I finally get myself home. Thankfully the rest of the day was pretty much uneventful, as I couldn't even handle anything else. It may not seem like much, but all of this happened within an hour on the first day of my husbands short underway. 

Okay, so onto my workout. 

I felt like I let myself down a little with the workout, I feel like I didn't push myself hard enough during the workout. I kept telling myself "you can do this, work harder, don't give up" and I got through it but it was really hard. Part two has a lot of squats and my knees were not liking it, I've had knee problems before so I always watch it. I wasn't going to let it get in the way of my workout though so I pushed myself but I made sure that they weren't hurting, they were just uncomfortable. The first time I did part two I burned 548 calories in the same amount of time--around 52 minutes-- so I'm taking that as I didn't push myself as hard as I did the first time. You know what? I shouldn't think about it like that, I got up there and did almost an hour and I pushed myself damn hard, I wanted to give up after 17 minutes, my head said just do 20 then you can stop. Obviously I didn't listen. I worked through it, and it hurt. I did a great job for my recent struggle and I won't think about it again like that. Every workout is a good one. 

I am happy to say that I finally felt something when I did the russian twists, which mean that I've been doing them wrong every single time I've ever done them. I had a feeling I was doing them wrong because I didn't feel it, but I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Now I know, and now I will do them correctly and finally reap the benefits from them. 

I feel good. When I was in the shower after the workout, I was shaving my legs and man it was hard to stand there and lift a leg and lean down to shave. Everything has been hard to do, my legs hurt. 

Oh, and this may be a TMI for some people, but I looked at my butt this morning and at all the little dibbits there and then after the workout, I looked at it again. It looked a lot better. Of course it's not going to be an immediate thing and if I look at it now, I'm sure it'll look like it did this morning. But I have noticed that if I do this workout or any workout that has a lot of leg action or on leg day I can see the change in my butt rather fast, but it won't last if I stop doing it, does that make sense? For example, the last day I worked out my butt was more round than it was today. So I think that that in itself is motivation for me to keep working it, cause it looked nice. hah. I'm loving it. 

I hope you enjoyed this quite random, but still got to the point workout post. Did you workout today? Do you have a story you would like to tell?