my tax return hard at work.

I'm usually very, very careful about how I spend or use my tax return each year. This year was no exception. As some of you may know I've been harping about trying to save money and pay off debt and what not - and this year a large chunk of my return went to just that. The rest I was determined to spend wisely and on something I would not only enjoy for a long time, but also something that would benefit me in the long run.

My first purchase was one I had been putting off for a while. I'm a very skeptical person. I always hope for the best and expect the worst. I know it isn't the best way to go about looking at life but it's helped me out a lot in the past and I am pretty bullheaded and stuck in my ways so I doubt that will change anytime soon. Life isn't all sunshine and roses people - I don't care what Walt Disney wants you to believe. That being said I will be the first to admit I've sat and watched a lot of infomercials in my day. They suck me in. It could be for the most ridiculous items on earth like say The Slap Chop aka "Your Gonna Love My Nuts" or even something as awesome as Bare Minerals. I think I've watched the Bare Minerals commercial a total of at least 6 times. Granted it's usually when I'm suffering from a case of the 'can't fall asleeps' but still, 6 times? Kelly come ON! And yet every time I watch it I say to myself, I need to get some of that. Do I? No, never.

The other night was laying in bed with a case of the 'can't fall asleeps" it was probably the Red Bull I had earlier in the evening while hanging with friends. Here it is 2:00 a.m. and I'm channel flipping like a speed demon trying to make it into an Olympic Event and I stopped on an infomercial for P90X. This wouldn't be the first time I stopped to watch this, it's actually like the third. Want to hear what is really sick? I then found the Insanity informercial on at the same damn time. And I watched them both back and forth for what felt like an hour. Yes, I wasted an hour of my life watching these informercials again for the 2nd/3rd time. *SHAME*

That night I decided I would give it ago. Oddly enough even though I'd watched the infomercial a few times that wasn't what convinced me it was the right thing for me. Like I said I'm skeptical. I don't believe diet pill ads, even though I've consumed many pills in my past hoping they would make me think ASAP. I also don't always believe all the fitness equipment commercials either. Bottom line you can't get thin or healthy just sitting on your butt so if a product claims you can it probably won't work, and if it does, well, it probably won't last forever. That being said I wasn't fully convinced by the people in the commercials for P90X and even more so not convinced by the people in the Insanity commercials. Yes I know it shows them working out but how do I know for a fact those bodies came from these programs, I don't. What I do know is that I have proof from a few real women who have had great results with these programs.

After reading Shandal, Hutch and Keira's progress and results with the P90X systems I knew there had to be some weight to these claims. Even after going to the beachbody.com website and reading success stories I was skeptical.  But I wasn't when I read my fellow bloggers results. None of them are being paid to discuss this (are you ladies?!?!) and they all seem genuinely pleased with the progress they've made so far. I've spoken with each of them and they've all given me their honest options of what has worked for them and what hasn't. Where they may have slacked and hurt their progress and where they truly excelled. This is what convinced me I should give it a shot. I mean have you seen Shan's before and after pictures? They are freaking amazing!

Truth be told between their posts and the money back guarantee I knew I had nothing to loose, minus my beer gut, thigh flab and bingo arms. WIN/WIN RIGHT?

I was never really and athletic person in school. I gave up on organized sports in third grade when I got hit in the face with a basketball an sneezed for 20 minutes straight. I also had a horrible run in with field hockey in middle school during gym class when they made us play and didn't give us shin guards. SMART RIGHT? Needless to say the only form of exercise I got growing up was dance. I took ballet for a few years and other forms of dance and then in my sophomore year of high school I joined the Pom Squad (dance squad). I was even captain my senior year. Which was great - all that running and cardio caused me to have a wicked case of the skinnies and mega awesome leg muscles. Shortly after graduated that dancing after school was replaced by clubbing so I managed to stay fit for quite a few years well into my mid to late 20's. After all that though fitness fell by the way side and my ass has fallen by the wide side.

So here I am, letting you all know (so you can hold me accountable) that I have officially jumped on the P90X bandwagon. I ordered my program and it should be here in a few days. I'm really excited to be able to spend my last weekend before summer as a free woman. No I'm not thinking of P90X as a prison but I'm using this weekend as my last chance effort to get all the "bad food desires" out of my system. Mike and I have started our quest to use less and less prepackaged food in our diet, I hope that will help me in this food struggle I know I'm bound to have. Half of the progress will be cleaning up my way of eating a long with the exercise program so I want to give it 100%, having this final holiday weekend to do that seems like a good idea to me.

Speaking of holiday weekends - Memorial Day weekend plans for Mike and me leads me to my second purchase with my tax return - another thing that will not only help in the fitness department but also the long standing fun department.

Five years ago when I moved here Mike and I purchased our first "summer fun machine". We went in together and purchased a canoe. Our first big purchase together other than Angus, our cat. We have used that canoe faithfully for 5 years, this summer will be my 6th summer in Alabama and we decided to step it up a notch.

On our lunch break yesterday we finished eating early and we decided to head over to the sporting good store to check out all the canoes and kayaks they had on sale. Little did I know just how much that lunch break would cost me. Upon arriving we eyed up all the options outside. They had tons of great deals and the sales girl informed us the sale was only until Saturday. We went inside just to see what else they may have in there and BAM - there they were. 2 Kayaks with our names on them. One in yellow and one in gray. These two fun floaters were on sale for less than $200.00 a piece that is unheard of usually. It was all sort of a blur but I remember Mike saying "I have enough to get one for myself right now, do you?" I said yes and before I knew it the sales girl was asking someone to put our new kayaks in the back room for us to pick-up after work!!!

2 Kayaks, 2 sets of paddles, 2 life jackets and some Sport SPF later here we are rip roaring and ready to take on the creek this Memorial Day Weekend!

My new baby: Potomac Kayak

AKA: LEMON

Yes, as in Liz Lemon...

 

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Mike saw the yellow kayak first and was less than excited. He loved the price, hated the color. Upon walking down the line further on the wall he found a gray one just like it and I swear he got as giddy as a little kid who just met Batman for the first time. Coincidentally if that happened I think Mike would have crapped his pants with excitement and the thought of meeting Batman. Anyhero - I originally thought about going with a name of one of the Beatles for my new Yellow Submarine but then I remembered subs sink... I wanted this puppy to float and what makes you float more on cloud 9 then laughter, right? So there you have it, one woman that makes me laugh is Tina Fey and her character is Liz Lemon, Lemons are Yellow, and I'm obsessed with them and... you get the point! It was either Lemon or Bananas, but Mayra already has the lock down on bananas!

So here is to a summer full of getting healthy, enjoying the great outdoors and eventually fitting into the two, count them TWO... full storage containers of clothing that I have stored in my closet. Items I can't part with and really want to fit into! {Note: I have jeans ranging from sizes 14-10 how sad is that all are in like new condition. I can't wait to save money and go shopping in my own closet! And yes, I'm totally guilty of having items that still have tags on them, items like pants that were too small - thankfully I have less guilt because I do regularly donate to Goodwill like I said these are items I refuse to get rid of.}

If you're still with me thanks for listening/following. And I hope you can deal with me yapping about my P90X journey because it's bound to come up a few times over my course of 90 days and beyond.

"I'm the one that's gonna be on TV, 
lookin' all buff. Beefcake, BEEEEEEFFFCAKKKKE!

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Now I just have to wait for the darn DVDs to get here so I can start. Wish me luck!

What are your plans for Memorial Day Weekend?!