2019 Weight Loss Extravaganza | Week 1

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I officially finished my first official week of trying to lose weight. Overall, I’m crazy proud of myself (no need for a humble brag here). I lost 2.4 pounds between Monday and Friday, which feels really good. The 2019 weight loss extravaganza has begun!

What Went Well?

-Planned every workout and wrote it in my journal

-Set small, attainable “diet goals” for the week (no alcohol, set dinner plan with Jason)

–Jason stuck to his plan as well which helped me to feel supported

–Eating eggs for breakfast helped me feel satisfied in the morning and less open to cravings during the day

What Challenged Me?

–More than one workout in a day. I wanted to go to the gym twice in the evening to walk on the treadmill, but it only happened once.

-Cravings. Working through those sugar cravings is tough work. I did really good and was able to (mostly) maintain my goal of no desserts.

What’s Next?

I don’t plan on changing much for the upcoming week. I really like using my planner to write down my workouts and goals. The biggest change I’m going to make is to have a more intentional plan for lunch each day. If I won’t have leftovers, I need to have a healthy lunch to make so that I’m not tempted to make bad choices. That happened on Thursday this week, and it was the one day where I really veered off track.

I’d Rather Fail Than Quit

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Well, hello there. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve jumped into my little corner of the internet. I have such a love / ambivalent feeling about blogging. I’ve been feeling the urge to write again, so I figured why not log in and share a bit about where I’m at personally and my new motto of “I’d rather fail than quit.”

2017 and 2018 were overall a pretty big hot mess. I dealt with more personal crap than ever before. There were a lot of low lows, but also some highs. The biggest change (obvs) is that Jason, Hoss, and I are now living in Iowa. Definitely not part of our plan, but a good and unexpected change.

Here’s the thing. Because of those low lows, lots of things suffered. The biggest thing begin my health – and really my weight. Since Jason and I got married in 2015, I’ve gained about 50 pounds. It happened slowly and was a result of not being as vigilant and stress eating and drinking (hellllloooo beer and wine!) way too much. I’ve finally reached a point where I feel more content and settled than I have in a long time. Which means its time to focus on this pesky weight issue that is quite literally weighing me down mentally and physically.

I'd rather fail than quit.

I decided not to set resolutions because I think their dumb. No offense if you’re all about them, but they just don’t work for me. So instead I’ve set a few 2019 goals and created smaller January goals to help me make progress towards the big ones.

Kim Bocko Planner for Goal Setting
2019 Planner – January

January 2019 Goals:

  • Lose 5 pounds
  • No alcohol Monday-Thursday (unless it’s for a social occasion that has been pre-planned)
  • Workout a minimum of 4 times per week
  • Weigh myself Monday-Friday
  • Sew at least one time per week
  • Read 3 professional development articles OR one book
  • Renew Iowa drivers license

Kim Bocko Workout

Post-morning workout

Some of these goals relate to my weight loss and others are more related to work, fun, and being a grown up (I should have renewed my drivers license awhile ago…sigh). I’m keeping track of my goals in my new planner, and each week am creating a plan to help me meet my goals.

Here’s the thing. Trying is scary. Part of the reason I wanted to blog about losing weight and setting goals is because I want to be accountable. I’ve tried to lose weight over the past 3 years and have not been successful. But I also haven’t shared my goals or plan. This time, I want it to be different and feel like I have the focus and motivation to make some real change. So I’m going to try. I might fail or might not meet all of my goals, but that’s ok. This time I would rather fail than quit, because failing means that I tried. Quitting means I just didn’t want to do the work. The difference is important.

This time I would rather fail than quit, because failing means that I tried. Quitting means I just didn’t want to do the work. The difference is important.

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Setting Small Goals To Reach A Big Goal

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I’m finally admitting defeat. Okay, that sounds dramatic. But I’m admitting defeat that my haphazard attempts at losing weight – going to the gym, adding a vegetable to my lunch – isn’t really working. And to be honest, I really wasn’t working all that hard to make changes either. I wasn’t setting small goals.

So I’m changing up my approach.

Setting Small Goals

My overarching goal is to lose 50 pounds. That is a crazy huge, terrifying goal. I can’t deal with that goal right now, because it seems overwhelming. I can deal with 5 pounds.

So I’m challenging myself to lose 5 pounds. And then 5 more pounds. And then 5 more. It doesn’t need to be in a super quick amount of time. It’s probably better if it’s not. But I’m hoping that making little changes and meeting small goals will help me meet my big goal.

What I’ve Been Doing So Far:

  • Planning out every meal and entering it into MyFitnessPal at the beginning of the day. I hate counting calories and think its dumb. But if I enter it into MyFitnessPal in the morning, then I have my plan, I’m prepared, and I can see how my food is fitting my macros. It’s been working for the past week.
  • Making exercise a priority. I’ve been going to the gym regularly, but haven’t really been giving it my all. This week, I focused more on working hard and have a plan in place for the nights that I’m working late and can’t get to the gym. Something is better than nothing.
  • Staying positive. It seems silly, but it’s so common to get into the mindset of “I messed up, I did something bad” and I don’t like that. So I’m making a plan but also giving myself some grace when things don’t go perfectly.

So here’s to week 1 of really trying to meet small goal #1.

What I’m Reading Lately 9.17.18

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It’s been a hot minute since I shared some of the books I’ve read and loved. My book journal where I track my reads is currently packed somewhere (booo!) but I think I’ve read close to 40 books so far. Definitely not on track with my usual pace, but that’s ok! Here are some of my favorites I’ve been reading lately.

Fiction

Eleanor Oliphant Is Totally Fine

I listened to this audiobook, which I highly recommend. I enjoyed the story, centered on a woman, Eleanor, who has experienced a trauma in her past and is not entirely self-aware enough to fully understand the world around her. I enjoyed the story and watching the evolution of Eleanor as she learns about friendship, love, and taking ownership over her own life.

Little Fires Everywhere 

I hated (ok, really didn’t like) Celeste Ng’s first book, Everything I Never Told You. I loved Little Fires Everywhere. The story is centered in a community called Shaker Heights, and examines what happens when a poor girl and a rich boy become friends and how the difference in backgrounds impacts their friendship and their families. Plus, there’s a mystery fire and you need to figure out who set it.

The Things We Wish Were True

I listened to this book for free after accidentally buying a month of Kindle Unlimited (whoops!). I full on loved it. The story takes place in a southern town, and follows a handful of characters who are brought together after an almost-tragedy at the local pool. I love novels that have multiple perspectives and follow multiple characters, so this was right up my alley!

The Alice Network

I full-on resisted reading this book because it was everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Sometimes I don’t love reading books that everyone is reading. But, I gave in and got The Alice Network on Audible. I loved it. Historical fiction, told through two perspectives – Eve during World War I as a spy, and Charlie who is trying to find her cousin who disappeared during World War II. It’s a mix of mystery, suspense, and friendship. Loved it!

Into the Water

I just finished Into the Water yesterday. I was looking for an easy, suspense read after finishing Year of Yes. This wasn’t an easy read (lots of perspectives) but it was a mystery that kept me guessing until about 75% of the way through.

Non-Fiction

Educated

This book has gotten mad buzz this year and for good reason. In short, it’s the story of a family living in Idaho and how the father’s increasingly radical point of view pulls his children from going to school formally and instead keeps them at the family home, working and practicing Mormanism. Despite the odds (not having formal schooling, an abusive family member, a dangerous living situation), Tara ends up not only going to college, but earning her Ph.D. Must read.

The Sound of Gravel

This book was very similar to Educated. It’s a coming of age story about a girl growing up in an unstable family environment, consistently moving between Mexico and Texas, trying to make ends meet. Ruth is one of many siblings, and takes care of her siblings, her mother, and herself.

The Glass Castle

Book #3 in the dysfunctional family memoir. I would call this one of the original dysfunctional family memoirs. This is definitely a genre I love – I think its interesting to delve in to someone else’s reality and learn about what their life is like. I really enjoyed the book and want to watch the movie next.

The Year of Yes

I am a full-on, crazy Grey’s Anatomy fan. I liked Scandal, but I loved Grey’s. I wasn’t sure how I would like Shonda Rhime’s book, but it turned out I loved it. Shonda Rhimes talks all about how she had it all (on the outside) but actually, she was turning down every opportunity to get involved in her own life. She decided, after a conversation with her sister, to say yes to every opportunity that came her way. And what happened was she forced herself out of her comfort zone and grew

Bye, Bye Dorm

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I’m starting my fourth week in Iowa. I’m kind of shocked that I’ve been here close to a month already. In some ways, I feel like I’m starting to really get to know the area and have a routine and am part of the community. Other times, I don’t feel settled at all and wonder what the heck I was thinking moving here without Jason and Hoss.

The end is near though! Last week, I found out that the seller’s of our Iowa house would let me rent the house until we close at the end of September. It was something I talked to their realtor about before we put in an offer, but needed to get through the offer stage and inspection before it could become a real option. Luckily, they were willing to work with me since they knew my situation and the house is vacant and gave me a pretty sweet deal to move in. So, as of Monday, I am living in our house and am 100% out of the dorm. You have no idea how good it feels!


Sneak peek at our upstairs living room

This really has me feeling better about everything. The house is pretty bare because we aren’t doing our official move in for two weeks. Even though we have access to the house, we’re not crazy enough to ignore the fact that something could fall through on the sale here or the sale of our Minnesota house. We’re currently in the midst of appraisals at both houses, so fingers crossed they both go well. Part of me worries that everything has gone too well with this entire process that something is bound to fall through. Ah, the joys of anxiety.

So, fingers crossed that everything keeps going well. Knowing that Jason and Hoss will be living here in 2 weeks or so is really helping to keep my anxiety at bay and hopes up. The end of this crazy 1.5 months will hopefully be coming to an end soon and I’m so excited to have my family back together again.

Dorm Chronicles: The One With the Noise and a Half Naked Person

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It’s been awhile since my last update, so I thought I’d share what just happened this evening…

I’m getting more comfortable here in Iowa. I have a daily routine – work from 7:45-4:45ish each day, then off to the gym for a class or cardio workout. It’s good! I usually get back to my dorm sometime after 6, make dinner, and then settle in to watch Parenthood. It’s a good routine, though I can’t wait to move out of the dorm and make a routine in our own house.

Anyways, this evening around 8pm, I’m in bed, watching Parenthood season 5, doing my sudoku, and sipping on some Crystal Light (#lifegoals) when I hear my upstairs neighbors screaming, yelling, and jumping. Okay, whatever. It happens, I can be cool.

But then it doesn’t stop.

I’m sitting here, trying to be cool, but also keeping an eye on the time. After twenty minutes of continuous jumping and screaming, I give in. I know that I am living in a dorm with young kiddos and it’s only 8:20 and not quiet hours yet, but it’s also ridiculous to have to put up with this noise all night.

So, I put on more acceptable clothes, make sure I don’t mascara on my face because maybe Parenthood had made me cry, take a deep breath, and go upstairs to ask my neighbors to keep it down.

I walk down the hall and need to figure out which door to knock on. I go full on creepy and stand outside each of the doors and listen to figure out which door to knock on.

I figure out which door to knock on. I knock.

“What?????” I hear a yell from in the room. I do nothing, because I don’t know these people. I knock again.

“WHAT???????” comes a full-on scream from inside of the room.

I stare at the door and try to decide what to do. Obviously, they are not going to answer the door but they’ve acknowledged I’m there. So I take a deep breath and open the door.

Oh boy. There are two girls, obviously getting ready for a night out, drinking Franzia wine, in their underwear. We’re all shocked by the sight of each other.

I try not to laugh as I take in the ridiculousness of the entire situation. I smile and tell the girls I’m their downstairs neighbor and while I hate to do it, they are incredibly noisy and are shaking my room and making a rukus (did I say rukus?) and they need to keep it down. They look shocked, which is kind of hilarious. But after a moment, they tell me they’ll keep it down. I thank them, and tell them if it keeps up I’ll call the RA. Then I close the door, start laughing, and walk back to my room.

And now I wait to see if they stop making that damn rukus.

Luckily, I’ll probably living in the dorms for a few more days….but I’ll share that update for another day!

Living the Dorm Life

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It’s official, friends. I am living in a college dorm. I’m in a traditional student room (i.e. no bathroom or kitchen) with a twin size bed, and a mini-fridge that I bought from Target in the College Shop section yesterday. Since this is so ridiculous, I thought I’d give you a tour of my home for the next month and a half!

My hallway. It’s white and depressing. But I don’t have any students living on my floor, so it’s not so bad.

My door! Think I should hang something up on my bulletin board? Send your suggestions and I’ll do the best one!

My vanity / kitchen sink area. Please note the hideous blue stripe paper that is glued to this bad boy. It’s really cramping my style. And if you have a keen eye, you can spot my hot pink shower caddy.

My kitchen aka mini-fridge, microwave, and food.

Closet! It’s a two-fer, because it’s a closet with a dresser inside. Ignore the clothes hanging over the rod, as I don’t have enough hangers. Sigh.

Here’s my den / media center. TV (with a roku that is NOT compatible with the campus’s wi-fi, kill me now), books, and computer.

Finally, my bed. Twin size, extra long. I could do a bunk bed if I wanted, but I think I’ll pass for now!

So far, it hasn’t been terrible. The kiddos above me like to slam their door, so that has been driving me crazy. Not having counter space or my toaster oven is getting old quick (and I’ve only been here 24 hours). I definitely need to get a better blanket and would like new sheets, but I don’t want to waste money on twin-sized sheets for such a short stay. It’s not the worst in the world, but I’m definitely not living my dream life!

Good news is that we’re still on track to hopefully get all of our house selling and buying wrapped up by the end of September. Right now, that is what is keeping me going. My dorm life will be an adventure, but it has an end date, and that makes me happy.

Exciting News on the Homefront!

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I made it to Wednesday! Two days of work successfully completed and am on to day #3 today. I would be lying if I said it was easy – it’s tough having to learn an entirely new campus and meet new people – but it’s also fun and exciting. So I’m exhausted, but happy.

First day of work selfie


The office ducks who are checking out the news person…

Yesterday was an incredibly exciting day for Jason and I. Without sharing much detail, we accepted an offer on our house in Minnesota AND our offer on a house we love in Iowa was accepted! I’m so excited and it feels like a huge boulder of stress has been lifted off of my shoulders. I don’t want to share any details yet, because there are still lots of things that have to happen with both properties before it’s official, but it feels so good to have some good news here.

This is totally dorky, but Jason and I virtually celebrated our good news yesterday. We video chatted, and I had an amazing beer at SingleSpeed Brewery (Tip the Cow, a new fave!) and it was as perfect as we could make it.

Other than that, I’ve been getting to know Cedar Falls and hanging out at my Airbnb. Cedar Falls has an amazing Main Street, so I’ve been wandering around checking out the shops and seeing what is all around here. There are definitely some cute boutiques that I’ll be going back to once we actually have a house that have great home decor.

My nights have been spent reading or watching Parenthood. Luckily my Airbnb has dogs, and they are both super snuggly and adorable. I miss Hoss like crazy, but it’s nice to get some puppy snuggles where I can snag them!

Our First Weekend in Cedar Falls

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I’m officially in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I start my new job in about 12 hours, which is kind of unbelievable. The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind, with submitting my resignation, getting our house ready to sell and driving down to Iowa to start this new chapter of our lives. We’re moving to Iowa. What?!

I snapped this picture on my way to Cedar Falls on Friday. Our house was officially listed on Thursday and we’ve had some interest. No official offers yet, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll hear something soon. Getting our house ready to sell was way more work than I anticipated. Plus, it’s stressful to feel like we’re living in a museum. I know I’m getting a break for the next week, but it’s definitely having an impact on our family. Poor Hoss just doesn’t understand why all of his toys and doggie beds have been put away. I have my fingers crossed that we have an offer soon!

We hit the road on Friday around 10:15am. We had to drive to Iowa in separate cars because Jason needed to get back home to Minnesota on Sunday for work. It was a bit weird not to be in the same car, but I passed the time listening to the Up and Vanished podcast (so good!) and harassing Jason on our walkie-talkies.


When we got to town on Friday, we checked into our hotel then met with our realtor. We looked at five houses on Friday night. There were a couple that were horrible (can’t sugar coat it!), but two that were contenders. The housing market is definitely different in Iowa. The houses are older and definitely are not cookie-cutter layouts like in Minnesota. We saw two houses we liked on Friday night, but it was definitely a reality check for us to remember that our house search in Iowa is going to be much different than our house search in Minnesota was.

Saturday morning we woke up and had plenty of time to get breakfast and explore the area before meeting with our realtor. We had breakfast at the Village Inn (a throwback to my fave Milwaukee breakfast restaurant growing up), then drove to campus so I could show Jason where I would be working. We had fun walking around campus and exploring. Afterward, we drove to Waterloo to check out that side of town. They have a cute downtown and we ended up at Singlespeed Brewery. They have an amazing taproom and good beer. Definitely a good sign!

After our morning of exploring, Jason and I went to meet with our realtor for day 2 of house hunting. We looked at a few houses out of town, as well as more in Cedar Falls. Day 2 was more a bit more promising, with more houses that we felt excited about. We saw one with “ghost steps” (pic below). These steps were in a bedroom leading up to the attic. CREEPY!!!!!

We left day 2 of house hunting feeling really good about two houses and knew we had some serious discussing to do. We decided to head to Main Street to check out the other local brewery, Second State, and restaurants and chat about houses and such. We had a lot of fun doing more exploring.

This morning we spent time chatting with our realtor making some decisions about next steps with the houses we’re interested in. Jason left  to get back to Minnesota around 11:30am and then I was all alone in Iowa. That was a sobering moment – I definitely had a mini-freakout. I went to two open houses to get a better feel on two of the houses we looked at and do some more thinking.

This week, I’m staying at an Airbnb. It’s close to campus and gives me a chance to get to know the area a bit more. Plus, there are FOUR dogs here to keep me company while I’m so far away from Jason and Hoss.

So, this new adventure kicked off Friday and officially starts tomorrow morning. I’m excited and anxious, and can’t wait to get started.

Breezy Tee Sewing Project

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I am slowly, but surely, improving my sewing skills. Which is hilarious because a year ago I could barely set up my sewing machine, much less imagine making a shirt I’m proud to wear. But here we are! This week I made the Breezy Tee.

This weekend I made my second Breezy Tee from It’s Always Autumn. Her patterns are crazy easy to use, which I love. Sometimes it’s nice to sew something that doesn’t require much brain power.

Breezy Tee Sewing Project

Fabric

I am madly in love with the single and double brushed poly from Sly Fox Fabrics. I used these colors/designs:

Here is the finished Breezy Tee!

Front of the Breezy Tee:

Breezy Tee Front

Back of the Breezy Tee:

 

 

Breezy Tee Back

Neckband – I’m definitely getting better at these bad boys. I had to redo this one (and ripping serger seams is a b*tch) but I’m proud of the outcome!

Breezy Tee Neckband

Yay! Now to decide what to make next!