Hello July!

Can you believe half the year is over already?  These first 6 months seem to have flown by!

July - December

I keep adding to what I have left to do this year.  July and October appear to be my busiest months.

• July
• Wellness Coach Certification Exam
• FitBloggin' (so many are backing out lately)
• Austin starting high school
• August
• Nothing YET
• September 
• 37th Birthday
• October
• The Great Pumpkin Run
• Launch of Fit Indy Parties at the Costa Rica Wellness Retreat
• November
• 8th Anniversary
• Thanksgiving
• Austin's 15th Birthday
• December
• Holidays in Ohio

What's in store for you the rest of 2016?

Week in Review

SATURDAY I melted in my garden for about 2 hours. Staked the rest of the tomatoes. Created a structure for the zucchini to climb.

MONDAY I worked my back, chest, and shoulders with Kelly Coffey-Meyer's Muscle UP 2B Fit.

TUESDAY I worked my legs and arms. In the afternoon I purchased a subscription to Precision Nutrition's ProCoach. I will be using this both as the nutrition portion of my coaching programs as well as a standalone option.

WEDNESDAY I walked almost 3 miles during lunch. At the farmer's market I picked up blueberries, zucchini, and a fruit roll up.

A photo posted by Cassandra Schmigotzki (@longandwindingroadtowellness) on Jun 29, 2016 at 1:05pm PDT

YESTERDAY I had a busy mental day. I started with yoga before work.

I created the sign up page for a 30 day free trial of the Nutritional Guidelines. Those in the Brand New Me Healthy Living Community will have first dibs on the trial.

My Wellness Coach Certification exam is now scheduled for the 14th. I'm trying to decide if I'll work beforehand or take the whole day like the last time.  It'll probably depend upon the weather LOL

Linking up with

Jill for Fitness Health & Happiness

MississippiPiddlin & HoHo Runs

#MotivateMe Monday with Fitness Cheerleader, Running Rachel, & Run Mommy Run

Sunday Fitness & Food Linkup with Marathons & Motivation & IlkasBlog

Farmer's Market Season Begins

Well, I'm up again this week.  I've just been SOO hungry lately.  Not sure if it's stress or weightlifting; I've heard you're hungrier when you lift.  But I don't know if my lighter weights would make that much of a difference.

At this week's Weight Watchers meeting we finally received our Spring Promo charms this week for attending 5 weeks (I think it was).  Isn't it a cute little thing!

Week of Workouts

I'm rocking ChaLEAN Extreme (at least I think I am).  Whomever's monitoring their Facebook page has been liking and commenting on my posts!

THURSDAY:  Burn Circuit 1
FRIDAY:  Yoga
SATURDAY:  Burn Intervals & Ab Burner

Austin and I lay outside on a blanket Saturday and Sunday afternoon reading.  I'm loving this weather!

SUNDAY:  Burn It Off! & Recharge
MONDAY:  You would've thought with all that relaxing over the weekend I would've popped right up and been ready to workout.  I just was too tired so I swapped Monday and Tuesday, making this a rest day.
TUESDAY:  Burn Circuit 2
WEDNESDAY:  Burn Circuit 3 in the morning and walking during lunch.  I went a little overboard in how long I took.

THURSDAY:  Burn Circuit 1.  I realized this morning that I'd switched from using the 5 lb to the 8 lb dumbbells doing the flyes (or flies or however it's spelled...seen it more than one way by different trainers).  IMPROVEMENT!

Farmer's Market Season Begins

This was the first week of the farmer's market downtown.  I was kinda bummed at first because there weren't many fresh veggies out there but I guess it's a lil too early for the farmers.  My favorite one wasn't there yet either; I hope they'll show up later in the season.  Instead there were a ton of starter plants you could buy for your own garden.  I had to pick one to try....something completely new to me.  I'm hoping that this will be fruitful and multiply LOL

I stopped inside the market and bought a PB & Awesome Smoothie (peanut butter, banana, almond milk, & nutella) from Twenty Two.  It was OK...I'll just say it wasn't worth the $6 they charge.  The ones I make at home taste better.

What do you like to pick up in the early part of farmer's market season?

Linking up with

10 Things for Which I am Thankful

Today's writing prompt from The SITS Girls' Back to Blogging Challenge it to list 10 things we're thankful for.  Here are 10 random things for me.

1. Cuddles with Austin.  He is becoming a teenager this year so I know I don't have many of these left.
2. My house.  We HAD to get out of that bad neighborhood in 2012.  We couldn't stay there any longer because of the nasty comments, noise, and threats from the criminal neighbors that had moved in across the street.
3. My job.  Even though I hate it a lot I am thankful that I have a job.
4. Weight Watchers.  Without their partnership with researchers to do the diabetes prevention study I probably would've never lost weight or found my passion.
5. My readers.  Your support and encouragement throughout this journey has been such a tremendous help.
6. My new car.  Yes, the accident was a godsend.  My old car wasn't really safe to drive anymore but I didn't have much of a choice.  There was no heat or air, only knew when to fill up the tank when the car hesitated turning right, most of the time the turn signals and probably brake lights didn't work, the radio was possessed (turning on and going full blast all on its own), etc.
7. Benny.  Yes, he may annoy me or frustrate me a lot of time but he has helped me pick myself back up many times.
8. My FitFam.  All the other health and fitness bloggers out there are great inspirations and resources for when you get stuck somewhere or you may find yourself helping them too.
9. The Internet.  Without it...well I don't know where I'd be.  I wouldn't have met Benny.  I wouldn't be able to communicate with most people.  What can't you do online?
10. The Farmer's Market.  It's an inexpensive way for me to explore new veggies (I don't really see much fruit at the downtown one I go to).  I've discovered my newfound love of zucchini and Swiss chard there.

For what are you thankful?

I Can See 90 lbs

Image Courtesy of Idea go | Freedigitalphotos.net

Weighed in last night down another .8 lbs....puts a 90 lb total loss just over the horizon!

I've still been sticking to Jillian Michaels workouts.  This morning I did the 30 Day Shred Level 1 workout.  I could still feel it in my shoulders when I left for my walk!  I've tried others at the library but just can't get into them like I can with Jillian.  Have you tried any new workouts?

You've probably heard that Beachbody released a new program last week from Chalene Johnson - PiYo.  I wanted to get it right away but with our medical expenses up in the air Benny said it wasn't a good time.  Maybe with my birthday money or Christmas at the latest I'll be able to pick up one for myself.  In the mean time I'm running a challenge group starting next month...on Facebook or G+ depending on participants' preferences.  Here's the link for the event page on G+ https://plus.google.com/events/c4iel1889j03r2h8c26685lrmg4.  If you're on Facebook look for the event "PiYo Challenge" with this cover image

It's been too crazy at work so I haven't had a chance to schedule an appointment to see the doctor about the exercise induced neurocardiogenic syncope.  Kind of want Benny to come with me in case there are warning signs to look out for (and I might not necessarily notice) so he can hear it straight from the doctor.

We received the EOB from Benny's salivary endoscopy already....well at least some of them.  Our responsibility of the doctor's portion is $928, the surgery center's portion is $1182, and the pathology lab's portion is $23.  Not sure if we'll have a separate bill from the anesthesiologist or if that was included in the surgery center's costs.  Either way it didn't cost us nearly as much as we thought; we didn't max out his deductible.  The next challenge will be figuring out how we'll pay for it all.

As of Saturday my garden still looks critter free.  With this changing weather I haven't had to water much.  Looking out the window every day it appears the tomatoes are growing more but I can't tell much else from that distance.  How is your garden doing?

Last week I only walked to the farmer's market.  I picked up more broccoli and some Kickapoo cheese (inspired by the German Butterkäse Benny likes) from the Ludwig Farmstead Creamery.  Benny hasn't tried it though so I'm unsure if he likes this one.  On the way back I stopped at the tea shop that's closing and picked up a strainer to go with the loose leaf teas I purchased last time.  This afternoon I picked up some bell peppers and two different varieties of lettuce.

Linking up with

88.8 lbs Lost!

I weighed in last night down another 2.4 lbs, bringing my total loss to date to 88.8 lbs!  I thought that was a funny number so I wanted that to be the focus.  Last night I also set my next goal.  I'd like to reach the 40% loss by Labor Day.  That's 2.5 months to lose 11.2 lbs.  I think that's reasonable...we'll see if my body agrees.

Is anyone familiar with exercise induced neurocardiogenic syncope?  Most of what I find online about it is more geared to those in the medical field so I don't really understand all the details.  Someone had posted in one of my Facebook groups about their client that passes out and throws up with their workouts.  A cardiac RN mentioned this condition as a possibility.  From what I understand it sounds pretty darn close to what I've been experiencing with my lightheadedness and nausea during workouts and showering during TOM.  I messaged the Doctor's office and they want to see me to evaluate my condition.

I finally received the bills from the ultrasound.  My EOB still shows the $1600-something amount but the bill from the doctor is only $100 and the hospital is $386.  I'm really hoping there won't be anything else popping up from this.  Since I had both bills I finally broke down and told Benny, using the good news bad news method (he wanted the bad news first LOL).  Of course he was upset and I told him he'd be upset no matter whether I told him about it before or not.  He must've agreed with me because he wasn't in his mad mood/voice/etc.

I checked on my garden Saturday. It's doing pretty well two weeks in. Spinach, pole beans, cucumber, broccoli (2 varieties), radish, kale, tomatoes (2 varieties), basil, oregano, bell peppers, and carrots are what I planted this year.  The six shown in the picture I thought had the best growth.  It doesn't look like any critters are eating anything this year; I hope it stays that way LOL.

At the farmer's market last week I picked up some giant kale (well, giant to me LOL) and a head of broccoli.  I've used the broccoli but not the kale yet.  Despite the heat and humidity this week I am walking to the market again today (will be my only walk).  I brought my XL shorts that I don't wear working out anymore (probably would fall off with all that movement) but I think should be OK to wear walking.  I put my 50 oz water bottle in the freezer so it'll keep me cool while walking.  I'll drink out of the small one until it's gone.

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