Ooooooooo emmmmmmmmm geeeeeeee…I missed you guys sooooo much!!!! Thank you to Jenny for holding down the blog and letting me decompress at the beach! So much happened while I was in paradise with the fam!  First off, Jenny mentioned the wedding that we both attended with my sister last week but I had a few more pics and stories to share!!!  This was one of those happy overlap occasions!  Try to keep up…this is a complicated web I’m going to weave…Jenny is the stylist to the bride Megan and mother of the bride, Susan.  My sister Kelly works for Barry the father of the bride (and my mom’s former boss) and with the mother of the groom Debbie whose son the groom Michael, also works which my Aunt (mom’s sister) Deb is also a part owner and she  brought her husband (my dad’s brother) Uncle Steve. #notincest  Confused yet!?  And we also ran into my childhood bff Amanda’s mom and step dad, Pam and John.  Because of the family connections, I babysat the bride and her brother Brian (a groomsman) once when I was a kid and we watched Mulan 1,000 times. Brian’s girlfriend Kali is also Jenny’s client and did a lovely speech at the wedding. Also the grooms brother Dustin (another groomsman) is married to one of our pals Kirsti….so this wedding was  literally FILLED with familiar and friendly faces!!!

The ceremony was gorgeous and the Megan was STUNNING!!!

 

The event was at Fearrington Village and after the I do’s there were apps and cocktails….AND A MAGICIAN!!!

I don’t know how he did what he did but we were obsessed…especially Kelly! #magiciansarecoolnotlame

The venue was gorgeous and no detail was missed…

The food was incredible and there were soooo many paleo friendly options!  This was perhaps the first wedding I attended since I was a kid where I didn’t drink…but I was triple fisting water bc it was sooooo hot that my uncle sweat ombre’d his shirt!

So to Megan and Michael…thank you sooo much for having us!  It was such a beautiful wedding!  And thanks for having me as your date Kel! #everythingisbettertogether #fisters

 

On to the Weally big Milestones:

We hit 400 likes on facebook…

Thennnnn…We hit 20,000 views on the blog…

Aaaaaaaand is if those two things weren’t enough… we got an awesome shout out on Mix 101.5 as well as a facebook blast from the radio personality who promoted us!  Thanks Patrick!!!  Click play below to hear it!!!

I was dead asleep Thursday morning in my comfy, cozy bed at the beach with my super best buddy nephew nugget Wyatt next to me when…

when my phone rang and it was my cousin Tim!!!  He said The Meatballs just got a huge shout out on Mix 101.5…did you know that they were going to do that?!?  In my fog of grizzly bear hibernation sleep my response was WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!? This guy Patrick who works for Mix was inundated by our mutual friends reposting the blog and finally read it and LOVED it…so much so that he said quite possibly the nicest things we could have dreamed of someeone saying about the blog!  So are we on cloud 11 yet!?!?  Big thank you to everyone who reads and reposts our blog and a huge thank you to my cousin Tim for alerting us of this huge, unexpected media plug and my cousin Kristina for sending us a link to hear it for ourselves! We appreciate you guys sooo much!

Now on to the countdown to the WEIGH IN and jumpin in WAVES!!!!

Vacay  with the Beards was a blasssssst!!!!  What idiot schedules their vacation RIGHT before they have to get into bra and panties and WEIGH IN!?!?!  This girl right here.  But you know what…this is a lifestyle change and I have to keep living life while losing weight.  Sooooo, I came to the beach prepared to relax, recharge, have fun, tan war it up aaaaand stay on track!  I brought a blender, food processor (I forgot to pack the blade #useless) and a cooler full of smoothie materials and super paleo friendly food!  I packed my trunk with weight, kettle bells, resistance bands and yoga mats for exercise! If you fail to plan, you plan to fail…am I right ladies?!

I even brought my scale!!!  Bc when you know better you do better…am I right Oprah!?

While at the beach with my favorite people on earth…my awesome family…we typically ate breakfast and lunch in and then dinner out!  There was lots of bacon and eggs happening, some smoothies and for lunch, lettuce boats with tuna or lunch meat.  Snacks usually consisted of fruit and you guyyyys are not even going to believe this but PISTACHIOS!!!! #ineedhelp #itsarealproblem and for drinks…LOTS of water, sparkling water and Kambucha!

The top two were homemade meals of turkey meatballs, tuna boats and squash and onion sautee and blt sweet potato sliders and fried eggs.  The bottom was the best of the worst choices at a typical fried seafood heaven at the beach and the hushpuppies that stared me down during dinner.   Then the kids were tempting me like crazy…the beach=ice cream…

…But I walked away victorious (sang like Biggie’s Notorious).  On one of our last nights together Aunt Debbie made Shrimp Alfredo with caeser salad and garlic bread #paleonightmare #yikesabeez…but she saved me some uncooked shrimp.  I sauteed them with coconut oil and old bay seasoning!  I also boiled some cauliflower and blended that with olive oil and salt and pepper and made my own little paleo shrimp and “grits” on the fly.  I got to really enjoy dinner with my family without straying from my new lifestyle or feeling deprived…bc it was fuggging delishballs!!!

My family as you know is suuuuper supportive and there was always someone around to exercise with and keep myself on track!  They also were soooo great about celebrating all of our good news mentioned above!

On our first morning at the beach mom, dad, Kelly and the kids and myself went down to the beach and did sprints, squats and push ups.  Then mom, Aunt Carole and Wyatt let me be their water aerobics instructor  which was the living funnest!  I’m so lucky to have all this support. My dad and I even had a midnight swim one night after a really big meal!

This was everyone being active together…Uncle Kelly wins big time!

The pool and beach proved to be  great exercise grounds.  We played volleyball and frisbee. We had handstand contests, did gymnastics, swam, ballet, mountain climbers, more aerobics…the list goes on! Chase and I had a game where he surfed on the boogie board…my arms are still burning!!!

The morning that I would have worked out with Sandra and Jenny…I set my alarm and my dad and i did circuits around the pool.  It was hot and one hell of a workout! We did circuits and then jogged around the pool in between each stations. My dad is the coolest!  He really kept me focused and is always such a fun person to work out with.  Love you soooo much!

And our finisher was running up stairs….wooooof!

I thought I was going to die!  These stairs provided lots of opportunities to exercise or at least feel better about the meal we ate out seeing as how we were on the 4th floor!  Thank you mom, dad, Kelly, Uncle Kelly, Aunt Carole, Aunt Deb, Uncle Steve, Wyatt and Chase for helping me get healthy and showering me with support.  I love you guys sooo much I want to shout it from the roof top!  As far as food and exercise go the beach was a huge success.  I ate more than I should but nothing that I shouldn’t have…baby steps?!  I also stayed strong with the no drinking thing!  #success #bigchanges #ilovemyfamily

 

So now that I am home, writing this I am about to hop into the shower and pick out a cute pair of undies bc I’m headed to Jenny’s later for our 4TH WEIGH IN!?!?!?!  Can you believe it?  Hopefully her killer workout from last week and my dedication at the beach pay off.  It will be interesting to see how we do when we both had vacation this month!!!  More to come about my super fun vacay and see you tomorrow morning bright and early for the weigh in!!!! Here is a little sneaky peeky boo… xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxox