Yay for successful diets!

Okay, so one of my New Year's resolutions was to get in better shape and lose weight. My mom and I decided to do it together. We both bought copies of You: On a Diet and started reading. They give you an exercise plan as well as a dietary plan. It's super flexible and the food is really good! The goal of the book is to help you eat and live healthy for life, not just to lose pounds. In fact, they focus on slimming your waist size instead of pounds, and they educate you about why your body stores fat and all the physiological aspects behind weight loss too.

Now, I know that I'm not overweight or anything. I just want to feel and look my best. So I started the diet and exercise plan two weeks ago. I didn't stick perfectly to the diet because I don't want to miss out on the fun stuff my friends are doing - which often involves food - and I love ice cream far too much :) And I didn't do the exercise plan perfectly either. I walk a lot for school so I don't feel entirely guilty about missing a day of running. Anyways....I started at a 34 inch waist and I lost an entire inch! In two weeks! And I've learned to cook! I cook different kinds of chicken and salmon and I make chili and pizzas and wonderful foods now! And it's all healthy stuff! And the plan actually works! I am so excited to keep going. I feel great. I'm getting some muscle to beat up my flab and kick it out, and I'm never hungry or in pain or anything. In fact, I went from a 15 minute mile to an almost 10 minute mile in the past two weeks without much difficulty! I highly recommend the book. It is so good! And it actually works. I work out every day, and I read my homework while I do it. It's been successful so far. In fact, blogging about how I'm doing with my diet is actually one of the things I'm supposed to do as part of the program. Anyways, I just wanted to celebrate a little bit and let everyone know that the book actually works and it's really not that hard. My goal is to get down to a 32 inch waist at least (since that's what doctor's recommend) and then continue to eat my healthy foods because they're actually way better tasting than the microwave/canned stuff I used to eat. Operation LGN is well on its way ;)

What an awesome semester!

I have had some of the most fun of my college career in the past few weeks - holy cow! And it's all due to my awesome friends and family. They come up with some of the most fun things to do. Here's the list - each activity is highly recommended:

• snowmobiling
• jeeping/4-wheeling which included a mud fight
• been to the hot springs twice with a party after at my place which included parachute men off the loft sadly with a few casualties, a huge foam disk war, awesome treats provided by Mom, and watching the torch lit in the Olympics Opening Ceremonies
• watched Newsies with boys who came dressed as actual Newsies and tried to do the dances
• went Skittle Bowling where each skittle color is a different crazy task, like spin around 5 times or bowl on one leg
• study parties in the library where, let's be honest, not as much studying as possible happens
• super fun group dates
• dance parties in our kitchen, which sometimes include making music videos
• Super Bowl party at my parents' house with Grandpa and Grandma Hardy and Aunt Jorji and Uncle Keith
• hot chocolate party
• gave my first hair cut ever - thank you Trevor for trusting me :)
• went to The Importance of Being Earnest, the first of our season tickets at Hale Center Theater in West Valley
• and many more are yet to come!

And now, and ode to my mother: Mom, you are the best mom I could ever ask for. You drop everything to help me out, even at a moments notice. You teach me, you laugh with me. We are best friends. You adopt all of my friends as your own children and make them always feel so welcome. They absolutely love you, but not as much as I do! Thanks for being my mummy! I love you!