Nadine

This week has turned into a shit show trying to stay on top of work. I am glad to see things picking up, but also feeling a major strain having to get it all done on time while also entertaining Zoe. I feel bad that she is basically left to her own devices several hours every day. Her and Mac have been best buds and keeping each other company, but I know she gets bored and she has cried and begged for me to stop working a few times. The mom guilt is real.

We have had rain on and off all week. Zoe has discovered the power of a good puddle, and taken full advantage. It is funny watching the girliest girl ever splash all over the place.

We also made slime this week. Something I swore I was never going to do. Luckily, Zoe is pretty good about getting messes to a minimum. We used this recipe.

Favorite Purchases: I ordered a smores maker for a special treat for the 4th since we will be staying at home. I think this will be perfect year round!!! And with a little one running around, I like that we wont have to worry about an open flame. It was such a good deal, had great reviews and look how cute it is!

Favorite Recipe: I made these chicken stuffed avocados this week, and they are always delicious!

Favorite Workout: I tried a new to me Youtuber workout, Healthy Fit With Ty. I really enjoyed this HIIT workout. It is a full body workout, and this specific one…you don’t repeat any moves. It kept it moving quickly! I will definitely be doing more of hers.

Favorite Funnies:

We spent a lot of time outside this weekend. It was hot, but not unbearably so on Saturday. Chris and I made some strawberry margaritas (recipe to come) and hung out with Zoe in her new pool. It is a tiny little sad thing for a pool, but our larger one has some holes/leaks in it that we need to get sorted out.

We also took a ride in my car around town. Put gas in it for the first time in two months. (Crazy since I used to fill up every 4-5 days before quarantine.) I made up some sort of low carb mexican chicken skillet for lunch that turned out quite delicious! Very close to this recipe, but some ingredients swapped out based on what was on hand.

Saturday night, Chris and Zoe rode their bikes for a little while. Chris and I enjoyed some adult beverages after Zoe went to bed and hung out in our theater room listening to music. Our favorite thing to do.

Sunday, we celebrated Father’s Day with presents, breakfast, lunch ordered in from Full Moon BBQ (Zoe and I both ordered kid cheeseburger meals), and I made filet’s for dinner. I tried this Keto Crack Biscuit recipe that Laura told me about. Really freaking delicious!!!

I made the delicious low carb peanut butter pie for Chris for a special treat. Tasted like perfection, just like the first time I made it. Quite easy and so worth it!!!

On Saturday afternoon, Zoe and I had whipped up a batch of strawberry cream popsicles and we finally got to enjoy them Sunday. They were so creamy and yummy tasting. So easy to throw together. I will share a recipe for them soon too! This is the summer for homemade popsicles around here, obviously.

I got the cute little polar bear mold at Aldi for $2.99 within the last week. Run dont walk to scoop some up! They were sold out of the penguin and unicorn one at mine, but they had polar bears and dinosaurs. So cute!

We had one thunderstorm after another on Sunday, but had bouts of nice weather in between. Zoe wanted to be in the pool as much as possible, so we had to keep changing her in and out of swim suits and pooling her out of the pool quickly every time another storm rolled in. Funny enough, all these pictures in the different suits were taking the same afternoon!

We had an impromptu family movie night yesterday evening. We watched Finding Nemo and I made hot air popcorn in our machine. It is rare that Zoe will sit down and watch a movie with us. We got about 3/4 of the way through it before she got restless.

And just like that, the weekend was over! It is hard to believe that we are just cruising right through the month of June. Things are still just weird, right? I have anxiety about things going back to normal. I have anxiety about things not going back to normal. So basically, I just have a lot of anxiety. I have really enjoyed this time being at home with Zoe. We have gotten some things done around the house, and definitely gotten a lot more family time in, just the three of us. But I think it is starting to wear on Zoe. She misses her friends and being social so much. It is hard to know what the right thing to do is. The case numbers keep going up down here, it is like we are the new hot spot. I am honestly not surprised. Every time we take a ride around town, it seems like more and more people are just out and about like nothing ever happened. No masks, no social distancing, just going about like normal. What is it like in your area?

Happy Friday! We had a few days of absolutely gorgeous weather this week! It was in the upper 70s with low humidity, and that isn’t something we get too often down here. Zoe and I took full advantage, trying to do all the things outside!

We are excited to celebrate Father’s Day this weekend with Chris. We have a few things ordered and most everything has come, fingers crossed the rest comes today!!! We will be spending the weekend at home, but maybe we can order BBQ or have some steaks delivered to cook out. Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?

Favorite Purchase: I ordered a set of these pink pom pom baskets for Zoe’s room. For the price, you really cant beat them! They came with four, so I put three in Zoe’s room and I kept one for my office on the floor next to my chair with a blanket. They are a great size and can be used for so many different things. I like them so much, I might order another set in white.

I also finally decided on a nightstand for Zoe’s room. Now that she has a big girl bed, she needs a nightstand! Hopefully we can go to HomeGoods soon so I can get a little lamp or frame to decorate the top with. Oh how I miss HomeGoods!!!

Favorite Recipe: Each week, I have been trying to add in one or two new recipes to keep things interesting around here. I mean, over three months straight of cooking all the meals….you experience some burn out.

Anyways, I made these Feta Cheeseburgers in Tomato Cream Sauce. They were easy, low carb friendly and delicious and came together in under 30 minutes. I paired them with some roasted brussels. Even Zoe approved and asked for seconds.

I also made an oatmeal cookie protein shake for breakfast this week. This really is like an oatmeal cookie in a cup!

For this you simply blend a scoop of vanilla protein (my favorite), a cup of almond milk, a 1/2 cup of oats (I used old fashioned but you could use rolled too), 1 tsp of maple syrup and 1/2 cup of ice. I think this would be so delicious with a sprinkle of cinnamon or a handful of cocoa nibs if you want to get fancy.

Favorite Workout: I find that Madfit workouts are short and to the point. I am always sore afterwards! I really enjoyed this Thigh, Booty and Calves one that she released earlier this week.

Favorite Funnies:

I did it. I completed the Chloe Ting 2 Weeks Shred Challenge! There are so many YouTube videos out there with the Chloe Ting shred challenge. Some have crazy results!!! I wanted to share my experience if you were thinking about doing it.

What Is the Chloe Ting 2 Weeks Shred Challenge

Chloe Ting offers several free fitness programs on her website. This specific challenge is 14 days. There are 2 active rest days and 12 scheduled workout days. You can alter the rest days to fit your needs. Me personally, I work out Monday-Friday and so I stuck to that schedule. I did all the workouts for the day back to back first thing in the morning fasted.

Each day you will do the Do This Every Day to Lose Weight workout and the ABS in 2 Weeks Video. A few days, that is all you do. The rest of the days you will complete a second abs video, core and arms or lower body. Most days are 3 or 4 workouts in a row.

My Results

Over the course of the challenge, I lost 2 pounds and do see a difference in my abdominal area. Things are looking a little more toned. My measurements only changed 0.5 inches around the smallest part of my waist, all my other measurements remained the same since I took them over a month ago.

My Thoughts

While I don’t have crazy results showing off amazing defined abs, I am happy with the challenge. The thing is, I was already eating low carb and healthy. I was already working out five days a week. I feel like some of the people who saw crazy results had made a lot of changes in their diets. The fact that I was able to FINALLY break my plateau over the 2 weeks and lose 2 pounds is great!

Also, even though I do work out a lot….I don’t typically focus on my abs. My stomach is all kinds of stretched out from pregnancy and I will probably never have defined abs. I just wont. So I don’t usually focus on that area. I did this challenge to try and see what happens if I did focus on that area for awhile. Like I said, I did see some changes pretty quickly. I will continue to add in her workouts in my rotation, even though I pretty much hate every minute of it.

The workouts themselves go quickly. You usually do around 21 moves for 30 seconds each. Each workout had me sweating and huffing and puffing. You don’t need any equipment at all for them, just a mat for back support. Me personally, I prefer to do weighted workouts. I hate mat work and body weight exercises, and that is the majority of this workout. It forced me to do a lot of moves I usually don’t do.

I do feel like some moves are repeated several times in the same workout video, and over the few you do in a day. There was one day I did up and down planks like 5 times. It was a little repetitive and by the time I got to the last set, it was all modified because…just no.

Chloe Ting herself is energetic and motivating. I like the way the workouts are set up, and she has a timer going for each move, and lets you know what is coming up next in the bottom corner of the screen. She obviously knows her stuff, because look at her!!!

I like that she is in her 30’s. A lot of fitness youtubers are in their 20s and what works for their bodies, doesn’t necessarily work for someone who is older.

Overall, considering the fact that this is a free program, I highly recommend it. While I don’t have the abs pictured above, I didn’t expect them after only 2 weeks. I am happy with my results, and I definitely think that her workouts are effective.

I am not sure what my plan is going forwards. I usually do a variety of Popsugar, Walk at Home, Pamela Reif, Madfit, XHIT. Whatever I am feeling like that morning, trying to alternate what areas of the body I am focusing on or doing all over/cardio. I take daily walks (weather permitting) around the neighborhood, and often play Just Dance with Zoe. If you don’t think that is a workout, my apple watch will tell you otherwise. It always ends up eventually registering it as a workout based on my heart rate! I do like having a specific challenge/schedule to stick to because it forces me to work hard on days I really am not feeling it. Who knows, I may check out another Chloe Ting one!

We had the most gorgeous weather this weekend!!! It was hot (in the mid 80’s) but the humidity was low. That is something that we don’t get to experience much down here. Usually the humidity makes it unbearable even in the 70’s sometimes. So we took full advantage and hung outside most of the weekend.

I ordered a sprinkler on our Shipt order Saturday, and Zoe was so excited! It is her new favorite thing to do! Plus, our grass gets watered more evenly than say the slip n slide. I made some low carb strawberry margaritas for Chris and I to sip while we were out there. They were incredible, recipe to come!

Saturday night, Chris and I hung out in the game room after Zoe went to bed. We watched an old Tomorrowland and chatted. I love hanging out in that room so much. It has come together so nicely. All of our arcade games fit in there, and we have our old school consoles set up down there as well.

Sunday, we ordered burgers and BBQ from Full Moon to be delivered. Zoe and I ate our burgers for lunch, and had some BBQ turkey for dinner with some green beans that I made in the air fryer. So good. (I ordered the kids meal burger for myself because it is a better portion size for me, and I wont lie, their half moon cookie is FANTASTIC that comes with it.)

Zoe is really into playing games right now. We pretty much play Mario Kart every day when I am done working. And she whips out all the board games every chance she gets. This weekend we played several rounds of Cooties.

And just like that, the weekend was over. Back to the grind today. Thanks to all of you who gave me some plant suggestions on Instagram stories. I suck with plants, kill them all. Hopefully we can get something that will at least survive the summer. Our mailbox bed is looking sad, and so is our porch.