Insanity: Weeks 7, 8, 9?

So I haven't really been keeping up with posting my progress lately so I thought I would do an update. Technically I should be on my final week of Insanity but I'm not really going to call it that because Week 7 was a lazy week for me... I only like 3 days of workouts and I don't really want to count it. As of right now, I am doing either 4 or 5 days of the workouts and although many Insanity graduates would say that I'm not doing it 100%, it's working for me and I plan to continue with it after the 2 month mark.

Before Month 2 started, I was seriously worried about how hard it would be. Yes, it is very very hard but month 1 definitely does a good job in preparing you for the hardest workouts of your life (or mine, at least). Nowadays, I struggle the most with starting the workout, now that I don't have my workout partner, my motivation levels are lower and every single day their is a min battle in my head to get myself to workout. But once I start, I feel really good and I get better and better every day at doing the exercises correctly and efficiently.

Compared to Day 1, I feel so much stronger, especially in my upper body and core (the areas that were the weakest to begin with). I can hold a squat lower and for so much longer that before. I can now to a REAL push up, in fact I can almost do 10 in a row... no more girl push ups! (This has also allowed me to do more of the push-up based exercises accurately)

Looking in the mirror, my stomach feels and looks tighter and my #1 favorite thing is that my love handles are still shrinking! Overall though, I feel like the changes in my strength and endurance is still the nest outcome of this whole thing...

Moving forward, like I said, I plan to do a few more weeks of just Insanity and then start going back to the gym, and working with weight again. I also think I am going to mix in a few days of "Jillian Michael's 6 week 6 pack" for variety. Hopefully a combination of all of that will help break up the monotony of Insanity and encourage me to workout 5 days a week, every week!

As for my the whole "shedding for the wedding" aspect, my first dress fitting is on July 30th, so I basically have 7 weeks to loose a little more tummy... I plan on toning my arms a bit up too, but my strapless dress fitting wont affect that!

DIY: Wooden Road Sign (Part 1)

So after building the planters for my centerpieces we still had quite a bit of the old fence wood left over so I decided to use it for an old style road sign... inspiration below...

 

 

Here is my "mock up" I drew on CAD... I originally wanted to paint the wooden arrows with chalkboard paint so that the "signage" could be erased and changed, but after some common sense thinking, I realized the texture of the wood would most likely be horrible for chalkboard base. (DUH!)

 

I ended up changing most of the arrows "signage" as well...

 

My dad cut the angles into the wood for me and we will eventually nail them to a post and cement the post into a galvanized bucket, so that I can place it anywhere at the wedding venue. (no need to worry about finding a spot to hammer the post into the ground) We also cut a few more board for a few other wooden signs I needed...

pieces for the arrow sign, our "directions" sign and a sign for the guestbook table

For the most part, I free handed the  words with plain 'ole white acrylic paint... I did print out the cursive words so that I could refer to the font that I am using throughout the wedding (and on our invitations)...

 

Overall, the arrows themselves turned out cuter than I expected so I am really excited to see what it all looks like standing up on the post!

 

These pieces will be on a shorter post up at the top of the road, near the entrance to the winery to let people know where to turn in...

It's hard to tell, but this one is about 12" by 6" and will sit at the table where our guestbook will be, maybe leaning up against a flower arrangement or something...