Wedding and Workouts

It's Tuesday, and I returned from Seattle early Friday (via a red-eye, ouch), so I have no excuse for why I haven't posted. So I will now write my synopsis of the wedding. It was beautiful and my brother looked so happy. And isn't that what is important? That he's happy? The ceremony was short, but it was nice because it included specific comments about why they loved each other.

The bride's dress was gorgeous and the bridesmaid dresses were very pretty, I loved the color - a purple called Lapis. And did you know that Men's Wearhouse is tied to David's Bridal? I didn't either, but the Groom's vests and ties were the exact same shade as the dresses. The reception took place in the lobby outside the chapel. The church is the one the bride has gone to her whole life and it is huge. Poor Nick. He was fine until Pigpen and I walked in to the chapel and then he started crying because he wanted one of us, rather than my mother, to hold him. I felt so bad, it had been a long few days for him. My mom's friend took him outside the chapel for the service and I felt really bad for her. He SCREAMED the entire time she had him. In his defense he had never met her before, but I know it must have been difficult for her, plus she missed the ceremony. It was really really sweet of her to do that.

I had a nice time at the reception. Three of my mom's siblings came (she's one of six, and two do not live in the area) and I was finally able to introduce them to Pigpen. I know, we've been together for five and half years and they had never met him. We spent much of the reception at our table playing this convoluted movie title game, which was fun. They cake was lovely, very simple - three tiers with purple flowers, white cake, butter cream frosting and I believe raspberry filling. The best man and the maid of honor were the only ones to toast. I really enjoyed the best man's toast - he and my brother have been best friends since 4th grade (they're 24 now) and it was both funny and sweet.

Moving on to other topics I started my Jillian Michaels workout routine last night. I did one of the 20-minute iFit routines on my treadmill (BTW, iFit cards only work with Nordic Track treadmills) and then I did Level 1 of her 30 Day Shred video, which was a good work out but not too hard for someone who is still a little out of shape. It did not feel as hard as her Biggest Winner videos. It took me a long time to decide to buy 30 Day Shred. I Googled it and read a lot of reviews, which were mostly positive, before I made the purchase and I'm glad I did. It's a nice solid work out, although I do agree with some of the negatives - the big ones for me are no triceps work and no ab stretching, but I can do that on my own.

My goal is to work out 5-6 days a week for about 40 minutes. I know I'm only supposed to do the iFit routines 3 days a week (each card has 24 work outs, so its an 8 week program if you do it 3 days per week), and I think I'm supposed to do the 30 Day Shred every day. So I'm not sure if I plan to do additional cardio on my non-iFit days or if I'm going to do some sort of stretching. The Slim in 6 series has a good 15 minute stretch segment on the videos and my Moms into Fitness has some nice yoga segments, so I might follow it up with one of those. I could also do pilates for extra ab work. So many options. I still have about 10 lbs of baby weight to lose and 3o lbs to be where I want to be, which may be unrealistic, but it can't hurt to try as long as I'm eating well and not overworking myself.

Speaking of Jillian Michaels - the new series of Biggest Loser starts tonight. I am hoping I like these contestants better than the ones from last season.