Audrey's Blog

Operation Abundance - March 23, 2011

From yesterday ...

5 Beauties

1. Clean sheet night!
2. Homemade, pre-cooked meals – especially on a busy weeknight.
3. A calendar full of appointments.
4. Naked babies in the bathtub.
5. Buds on the tree in my front yard.

5 Truths

1. I alone am responsible for my reactions.
2. We *should* be working to fund a perfect life.  (Corollary: You should work to live, not live to work.)
3. If I don’t check my teeth, there WILL be broccoli/pepper/etc in my teeth.
4. I very much dislike shaving every day, but I LOVE spring weather more!
5. Crystal Light makes water palatable.

5 Gratitudes

1. Grateful to be a part of a real estate office that’s like a family.
2. People answering the phone when I call.
3. Watching the light bulb go on in my son’s head when he figures something out.
4. Having an iPhone when I’m stuck somewhere for a day without wifi.
5. Having friends with little ones close to the ages of mine that I can call for parenting advise.

 

 

Operation Abundance - March 22, 2011

See I told you – I’m terrible at keeping up with journaling, but here’s me getting back on track.  The awesome part is that this exercise DOES stick with you as you go through your day so there’s no doubt it is working to help me see things from a place of ABUNDANCE.

5 Beauties

1. My son doing a somersault. 
2. Tegan giggling at and dancing along with her brother.
3. Z-Pac.
4. Hearing my best girlfriend’s ring tone – especially when we haven’t gotten to catch up for a while, and I know I have a few precious minutes to talk.
5. The sight of my weekly calendar that includes an entire day marked as "Date Day w/Chris."

5 Truths

1. Procrastination doesn’t make putting your taxes together any easier.
2. Change always equals opportunity.  You just have to look at it the right way.
3. To be an EARNER, you must be a LEARNER.  (From Gary Keller)
4. Good health is a blessing most realized when you no longer have it.
5. Having a window in your office literally and figuratively brightens your day.


5 Gratitudes

1. A smile from the guy who waived off my $0.86 for my morning Diet Coke fix at Race Trac is an awesome way to start the work day.
2. Having the opportunity & reasonable photography skills to take amazing photos of a newborn.
3. Having insurance to help offset the cost of my son’s annual MRIs (which include a crazy expensive pediatric anesthesiologist).
4. Knowing that my son LOVES the people he spends the day with.  It makes my life (and his) easier.
5. After almost 11 years of marriage and 17+ years of being together, my husband still makes me laugh so hard I cry.

 

Operation Abundance - March 16, 2011

5 Truths

1. I love Diet Coke, and I need to drink more water.
2. Change is inevitable.  Roll with it!
3. My dear hubby is coming home after 3 LONG days in Mexico.  I haven’t slept alone in our bed for YEARS and I’m very ready to end this little streak.
4. My office smells like baby powder (thanks Yankee Candle).
5. Hearing the word "love" from the lips of a two year old is magic.


5  Beauties

1. The Nemo Logan made out of purple play doh this morning.  (I love how artistically creative he is.  Definitely a gift from his Dada.)
2. An empty dishwasher.
3. A clean desk.
4. A quiet day.
5. Amazing photos of my family.  (Thanks Angie Key!)


5 Gratitudes

1. A baby that isn’t hurting as much and the full night of sleep I got because of it.
2. A new office closer to the agents & staff in my office.
3. The physical ability & technical know-how to move almost everything into my new office myself.
4. Finding out that I need 4 new tires hurts but doesn’t break my checkbook.
5. Getting to meet someone new that offices in my building.

 

                                

 

 

Operation Abundance

I'm terrible at taking the time to journal and yet I fully understand and appreicate it's power.  My coach (the awesome and amazing Allison Crow) started a project based on a combination of other projects called Operation Abundance and several of my coaching friends are participating so I thought I would play along, too.

It's very simple - 5 Truths, 5 Beauties, & 5 Gratitudes everyday.  Here goes ...

Truth

1. Growing hurts.
2. Sleep is necessary – eventually.
3. I need to lose weight, and I know how to do it.
4. Opportunity does always knock at a convenient time.
5. I am deeply blessed.


Beauty

1. Children’s eyes – Tegan’s beautiful blues & Logan’s charming chocolates.
2. A sky filled with cotton ball clouds.
3. Bradford Pears blooming.
4. The expectation of new life. (I get very excited about new babies!)
5. Curly hair.  (okay, I admit … that’s more of an affirmation to convince myself that I should like my hair.)


Gratitude

1. AAA.  Specifically, the money and foresight to pay for AAA.
2. Afrin & allergy medicine (for those blooming Bradford Pears).
3. My husband’s job (even when it takes him to Mexico).
4. An office that prays.
5. Payday!

It’s the little things that make you Logan

• Ketchup or Ranch?  Always Ketchup!
• You would live exclusively on yogurt, veggie straws, and juice if we would let you.
• TV Shows: Mickey Mouse with a little Dora thrown in now and then.
• Movies: How to Train Your Dragon, Toys Story 3, & Mator Tales (all Christmas gifts)
• Toys: Legos, Cars cars, & Toothless (Buzz, Woody, & Jessie if you’re watching Toy Story)
• Showers with Dad have replaced baths.
• Pull Ups are the norm during the day even if going pee pee in the potty is still hit-n-miss (no pun intended).
• You still love your sister and look for her when you get up in the mornings or from naps. 
• You are very willing to share your toys with T when it’s YOUR idea.
• You are way overdue for a haircut.  (It should happen every 4-5 weeks.)
• It doesn’t matter when we put you to bed, you’ll screw around in bed for almost an hour before you go to sleep. 
• It’s almost always Mama’s turn except when it’s time for a shower.

Goals & Rewards

When you set a lofty goal that you know will take you a while to achieve, it’s always best to set milestone goals to keep yourself motivated.  And, with every goal achieved, there should be some reward or celebration.  Some would say that achieving the goal is reward in and of itself, and, in theory, they would be right.  In reality, those milestone rewards can be hugely motivating and serve to refuel you along the path of a long journey.

In my case, that journey is 44 pounds long.  At a steady and reasonable 1-2 pounds a week, I’m looking at at least 22 weeks (5 ½ months) and more realistically about 30 weeks (7 ½ months) to reach my goal.  Along the way, the satisfaction of feeling my clothes fit a little better then feeling the thrill of getting to dig into the dusty parts of my closet that haven’t been touched in more than a year (and in some cases, longer than that) will be HUGE.  And still, being the reward driven girl that I am, those “little” incentives along the way don’t hurt either. 

So here are my Milestone Rewards to Self for this weight loss journey:

GOAL: Successful January - defined as remaining diligent in my vow to Move More & Eat Less resulting in at least a 5 pound loss.
REWARD: A Ninja because I love fruit smoothies and now they are almost FREE on the new PointsPlus system.  Woo hoo!

 

GOAL: 10% weight loss (18.5 pounds lost).
REWARD: Indulge my love of Oakley shades.

 
or

 

GOAL: 75% to my goal (33 pounds lost).
REWARD: iPad!!!  I know that’s a pretty big jump from 15 to 33 pounds, but it’s also a pretty big incentive, and being the gadget hound that I am, this is a d*mn motivating incentive!

 

GOAL: 44 pounds lost (I’m there!!!)
REWARD: Mexico!!!  Chris and I haven’t taken a real vacation since I got pregnant with Logan in the fall of 2007.  If I stay on track, I’ll hit my goal in late summer and will be Mexico & swim suit ready just in time to enjoy some much needed time AWAY & ALONE with my wonderful hubby.

 

Seeing all of those beautiful pictures already makes me a little less hungry! 

What does commitment look like?

For this ice-cream-lovin’ Weight Watcher, the sight of a carton of Blue Bell still in my freezer and untouched for a solid week is definitely a visual representation of a commitment that has paid off this week with a 2.4 pound loss.  I will however admit to knowing that a ½ cup serving is 3 points, but what self-respecting, Blue Bell savoring Texan can eat just a ½ cup??? 

PS – Any bets on how long it will survive?

Move More Eat Less - January 2011

Last year, I posted a couple of “Tales from the Scale” pages, and they were successful in one way – I didn’t do any more damage that what had already been done.  On the other hand, I couldn’t quite get into a groove with getting my eating under control in order to do much more than that. 

Now, along with a gazillion other flabby couch dwellers, I started off the new year with a new resolve (NOT resolution) to finally get rid of the baby weight plus a little more to get back to a healthy weight.  And, God bless Cathy Zielske for putting together the perfect scrapbook page templates for me to easily document my journey.  So here we go with Month 1 of Move More Eat Less – Audrey’s Journey.

 
*Sorry, I'm not up to publicly posting the "before" picture just yet. By the size of the blurr, you get the point ... it's not pretty.

Journaling reads:
They say 9 months on/9 months off.   In my case, it was YEARS + 9 months + another 9 months.  To be fair, I lost the weight from my 1st pregnancy plus a little, but this second one has been a doozy.  There are too many excuses to be made - “I’m so busy with the kids and the house” is the most popular one - and it’s true  ... to a point.  That point is when 90% of my closet doesn’t fit, and the 10% that does is stuff I’ve bought in the last month because I got tired of wearing maternity clothes.  So here I am.  Forty-freakin’-four (44!) pounds away from the TOP end of the “healthy” weight range for my height (which happens to be my GOAL).   

So what exactly does MOVE MORE, EAT LESS mean to me?

MOVE MORE - After years of mountain biking & spin classes, my level of activity plummeted when I got pregnant and has never been anything more than sedentary since.  Simply MOVING would be MORE.  In the spirit of taking it one step further, we have invested in an Xbox Kinect + several fitness/active games, and I LOVE it.  

EAT LESS - My Lifetime-Member-but-way-over-goal weight self is back on the Weight Watchers band wagon, and I’m pumped about the new PointsPlus program.  Of course, the program itself won’t solve my urgent desire to eat copious amounts of crap after dinner every night or quite the siren’s call of sinful treats left in my office’s kitchen on an almost daily basis.  For those kinds of things, I’ll be turning to some old fashion prayers for will power.  

It’s going to be a long road, and I WILL do this.  My husband deserves a healthy WIFE.  My kids deserve a healthy MOM.  And I deserve a healthy ME.

New Year, New Opportunities

This morning (the 1st work day of the year) brings more than a new year for me … it brings a new opportunity.  This morning I am starting a new phase of real estate career as the full time Productivity Coach for Keller Williams McKinney.  What exactly is a “Productivity Coach”?  So glad you asked!  My opportunity is to help any agent in our office to take their business to the next level.  That might be helping a new agent to launch their career from ground zero or helping an experienced agent take their production higher than it’s ever been.  Whatever their goals are, we work toward accomplishing them through a high accountability program of one-on-one and group coaching sessions EVERY week during which I help agents define and execute a business plan and achieve a work-life balance that places God and family before business.

365 days ago, I would have never conceived that I would be making a professional transition quite like the one I am making, but as we all know God often does chuckle at our plans.  Adding a new Reedlet to the mix was definitely a catalyst for this change, but looking back, I realize that it’s been inevitable since our first Reedlet made his appearance in 2008.  The production/sales side of real estate was a joy to me.  Helping individuals and families find the right place to call home was an incredibly satisfying way to earn a living.  The only drawback was the inevitable night and weekend work.  Before the Reedlets, that wasn’t such a big deal.  After the Reedlets, I realized that wanted to be spending that time with them and Chris.  When I expressed that frustration to my Team Leader, he threw out the idea that he wanted a Productivity Coach in the office and asked if I would be interested in interviewing for the job.  After a lot of soul searching and a month long interview process (he’s nothing if not thorough), we both decided that this was definitely a win-win situation.  So in October, I begin transitioning into the position and finishing up with the clients I had working at the time. 

What I’ve found over the last 3 months of building the program is that it appeals greatly to several aspects of my personality:

1. The OCD goal driven side of me finds incredible satisfaction in helping others achieve their goals which in turn helps me achieve my goals.
2. The highly compliant side of me LOVES helping agents implement proven systems to achieve those goals.
3. The nurturing, mommy side of me glows with joy when I see what these successes do for my agents – personally and professionally. 

As I start today able to focus 100% of my professional time on this new opportunity, I’m feeling on incredible amount of excitement and anticipation of what the year has to bring for me, my family, and my agents!

Super Simple Sides - Reed Style Green Beans

Inspired by Honey (Chris' grandmother), this is a less guilty version of the green beans she fixed for him as a kid.

Ingredients

• 2 cans cut green beans
• 1-2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1/2 package real bacon bits
  Honey used REALLY REAL bacon - grease and all!  Super yummy but not quite so health.
• black pepper, optional, to taste
• worcestershire sauce, optional, to taste

Instructions

• Drain liquid from the green beans.
• Boil liquid with bouillon cubes until mostly disolved. (I usually do about 3 minutes in the microwave.)
• Add green beans & bacon bits - cook another minute or two.

Logan eats these like crazy just like this.  I love to add the black pepper and worcestershire when I'm not feeling guilty about my sodium intake.