Things I'm Excited About Right Now

Eating here today:

The Rockfish in Annapolis

What a great way to spend a diet cheat day!

The Week 2 diet including Greek yogurt and dessert.

There are sugar free Jello puddings in my fridge right now.

I'm freakishly excited about this, you guys.

The fact that Spring is trying so hard to show up here.

It was actually beautiful outside yesterday afternoon!

Styling this new skirt Mike got me the other day (come on skirt weather!).

Going to this outlet mall today before lunch.

You know how we feel about outlet malls.

Ohhhh yeah.

That's it.

I don't have much going on in my life, guys.

:)

Unemployment Rant

Alright, this whole unemployed applying for jobs business is getting rough.

I've had a fun time with it.

I'm so lucky to be getting unemployment to help with our expenses and I've made the most of my lazy time at home.

But constantly being rejected for jobs is starting to wear on me.

I get rejected for jobs I REALLY want.

I get rejected for jobs I kind of want.

I get rejected for jobs I feel are beneath me.

And every rejection letter is the same.

You were qualified, but others were more qualified.

What applicant beat me out for a secretary position?

I have a Master's Degree.

I'm young, I'm cheap, I'm awesome.

But nope, you can't be our secretary and get paid super low and commute for hours just to get there.

I'm starting to get to that point every unemployed person gets to where you want to reply to the rejection email and just say WHY.  

Enough with the form rejection letter, just tell me why.  Tell me what to do differently; how to be better.

__

My husband called in the middle of me writing this blog post in response to my having emailed him that I lost out on a job that I thought was a sure thing.

And as I hung up the phone, I started bawling.

Pathetic, chin quivering bawling.

Ladies and gentleman, my first official unemployment melt down.

I made it 118 days without crying over this stress.

So as awful and pathetic as I look right now sobbing into my keyboard, I'm gonna give myself this one.

This rejection just hit me harder than the others.

It wasn't a dream job by any means, but it was solid and had potential.

And the recruiter and interviewer did that thing they tend to do where they made it seem like I had the job already.

Yesterday I was e-mailing back and forth with them about training for me to do at home for the job.

I spent hours getting my computer to work with their training program.

And today, out of nowhere, they've hired someone else.

Didn't they know that yesterday? 

Couldn't you not have made it seem like I was the only one interviewing?

It just hurts.

And it's hard.

And I feel rejected and like a loser and like my master's degree was a waste of money and time.

AND I'M ON A DIET AND CAN'T GO BINGE ON PITY CHEESE AND BOOZE.

Dammit.

/rant

My Revolt Diary - Week 1

I'm counting this as my week 1 because even though I did the workouts last week, I wasn't on the diet so it was easy peasy.

I mean...the workouts kicked my ass, but it was nothing like this damn diet so...easy peasy.

Let's start by saying, I hate diets.

Hate them.

For many reasons.

Because I'm a control freak, because I don't like being told what to do, because I love food, and because I don't want to start something that when I stray from it or stop it, I blow up in weight.

So I didn't have the best attitude starting this diet. 

I was actually pretty pissy whilst walking through BJ's picking up our chicken and 8 million eggs.

Thankfully, the hardest part of the diet only lasts 6 days and my saint of a husband was doing it along with me even though he's the fittest, thinnest person I know.

That first week's diet is a sugar and carb detox which means you are basically eating meat and veggies all week.

A bowl full of weeds.  Now, I love salads, but 3 cups of spinach twice a day is a lot (also I miss feta cheese).

Mike has basically taken to shotgunning the entire salad because he's sick of the spinach.

I watched him grab a handful of undressed spinach leaves the other day and shove them in his mouth.

It's pretty funny.

My favorite meal of the day:  sirloin and salad.  Yummers.

Here are my thoughts during the 6 days on the Revolt sugar detox:

Day 1:

 Oh holy hell these egg whites are DISGUSTING.

I'm full and don't feel bloated...score!

 Mike:  "Wait, we can have sugar free cookies right?" (poor guy)

Didn't drink any damn water, whoops.

Day 2: 

Egg whites/banana pancakes are much improved from nasty scrambled egg whites.

 I'm no longer full and I'm pissy about it.

I miss fruit.

I cheated and ate an apple while Mike ate a banana.

I basically made love to that apple.

Still didn't drink any water.

I'm tired and fussy.

Day 3:

I'M HUNGRY!

I finally started drinking my water.

Holy crap, people who drink water pee a lot.

These chicken/brussel sprout/sweet potato bowls are delicious.
Mike is sick of them.

Mike ate another banana (cheater).
We cannot stop talking about where we're going to eat on our cheat day.

I don't crave sweets at all, just fruit...oh God, I want an orange.
We realized that next week we can actually substitute foods like cucumbers for carrots.  This was mind blowing and made our day.

Day 4:
Worst day so far, I couldn't finish my eggs and I feel really deflated and sad and hungry
I look like this:

Not cute.

And I am TIRED, my body misses carbs.
Normal Val would quit at this point.
But, instead, I whined a bunch, laid on the floor while Gizmo licked my face for like 20 minutes and then went to the gym.
The gym perked me up and I added abs to my arm workout for the day as punishment for my whining.
Then we went to Target and bought some supplies for our cheat day and ended up with yogurt and strawberries.

I think clean eating has gone to our heads, but holy balls we can't wait to eat that yogurt!

Day 5:
We decided since I was having such a bad time yesterday to move up cheat day and have it today.
It started with fat free Greek yogurt, Bear Naked Fit granola, strawberries and bananas (seriously, once you've cut out sugar, this meal is TO DIE FOR).
Then lunch at Ruddy Duck Brewery where we had gluten free beers and a Greek pizza with a side of hummus.
Oh feta cheese...how I've missed you.
Then Panera bread for dinner (sandwich and soup my fave) and a cookie for dessert.
Oh and wine.
We missed wine a lot.
We really enjoyed what we ate and we didn't overdo it.  It was like a special treat so that was fun.
We had a big talk at lunch about changing how we eat and how much we are loving this program...we were pretty pumped.
Also had an amazing workout that day (pre-beer and wine of course)

Day 6:
Energy finally!
Over the detox hump, this feels great!

Day 7:
So excited that this is almost over.
Not tired, not hungry, feeling great.
So excited to eat sugar free pudding and yogurt tomorrow!!

Moral of the story:
Sugar detoxes are not for sissies.
Thankfully, Nichole's diet has 4 out of the 5 meals of the day that are tasty and filling and great.
Egg whites will always suck.
The Revolt program rocks because there is an amazing group of women supporting each other through the hell of sugar detox week.
Doing this will help you get ready for the diet (anything is better than this!) and change your cravings.

I'll post some of my results next week since I measured/weighed on a weird day.
And don't forget to check out Revolt!

Disclaimer: I was chosen as a Revolt Fitness Program blogger and received free membership to try the fitness program out. All opinions expressed are my own.

Firmoo

Meet my new glasses.

I named them Oliver.

Oliver and I will be doing a lot of things together.

Watching tv.

Playing tetris on my phone while Mike is asleep.

Walking the dogs in the morning.

Saving the day when my contacts fail me.

And I feel I should apologize to Oliver ahead of time for my greasy morning face.

(Overshare?)

Oliver and I were brought together by this awesome company Firmoo.

They have cute glasses, fast shipping, and a great virtual try-on tool, but the best thing is their free glasses giveaway shenanigans otherwise known as The First Pair Free Program.

You seriously get your first pair of glasses free from them; all you pay is shipping.

It sounds too good to be true, but it's not!

I have always had great experiences with Firmoo.  Easy ordering, fast shipping, perfect quality!

Check them out here and go get some cute glasses like Oliver!

The pair I got is #SD2383 found here!

No One But Me Is Going To Find This Blog Post Interesting

So one of my favorite movies when I was younger was Camp.

{via}

It's really cheesy and I love Broadway and I'm a goober.

I had the soundtrack guys, this shit was real.

I literally JUST figured something out about this movie two days ago.

The girl singing my favorite song is..

Who is also...

Anna Kendrick

Mind blown.

Giveaway!!

Hey Guys!

Today I'm doing a giveaway from the awesome Etsy shop SimplySophiaMaria!

She sells the cutest stuff including workout tanks, jewelry holders, and vintage wood frames.

Since I've started working with Revolt, I've been wanting some more cute workout clothes because let's face it, it's more fun to work out if you look cute, right?

Today, SimplySophiaMaria is giving one of my followers her most popular workout tank, this Train Like a Beast, Look Like a Beauty tank!

Cute, comfy, and inspirational...who wouldn't want to work out in this?

To win, enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Life Lately

Lots of dog snuggles on cold and rainy days

Getting the guest room ready and figuring out how to make that damn couch into a bed. Gizmo liked the finished product.

Taking every sunny moment we can to get the pups to the dog park.  Look how happy it makes Gizmo.

We started a diet.  More about that later.  Ugh, spinach all day.

Our first visitor!!  Such a fun couple of days with my sister.

Side Note:  anyone in the Annpolis area, eat here:

Vin 909

Holy crapoli, delicious!

I got cute new glasses from Firmoo.  Blog post on them soon.

I'm finally sick of top knots and have been rocking random, messy low buns all week.  I feel very cute and my head hurts less haha.

My Sunday mornings look like this now and I like it.  Who is this person?!