Day 78-90: Winding Down

12 days until the end of the challenge. It almost feels surreal. I stopped posting daily because I would just run out of time by the end of the day, but I did keep notes.

Day 78, Tuesday, 3/31:

Ugh, I feel terrible, but the show must go on. I have Q @ 6 and tanning to follow. Have I mentioned how much I love my tanning salon? I don't think I am going to let myself go this long without tanning again. I feel like me again.

Day 79, Wednesday, 4/1:

I have Q @ 12 today, I cant believe I only have 5 training sessions left.... am I going to be able to keep going without her? Damn... 11 days left, I am so nervous! Thankfully I have work to keep me busy. Off to pack for tomorrows staging.

Day 80, Thursday, 4/2:

I do love that my job is not sedentary. Today I staged a home and was on my feet 6 hours strait. I am not complaining. I love what I do. It feels good to work with your hands. There is something strangely calming about it. Also, the immediate gratification is certainly addictive. 

After the staging I went to see Amy, my tattoo artist, to finish up the piece on my arm. I love it so much.

 

Day 81, Friday, 4/3:

It is becoming increasingly hard not to drink. I think I will go shoot guns. I have Q this morning, need food, must go to Costco... then Pew Pew Pew. Joey and I will have to hit up Elite Shooting Sports this evening. I am in need of some Guntry Club time.

 

Day 82, Saturday, 4/4:

Well I had Q this morning, so I didn't exactly feel bad about that Bloody Mary I had with brunch, damn it was good. Today is the International Pillow Fight Day and we are going to the National Mall to whack strangers with pillows, don't worry, it's organized. We met up with some friends for brunch prior to heading over to the fight. It would seem I am incapable of brunching without booze. Worth it, my Bloody Mary paired perfectly with my smoked salmon and fruit. Nom nom nom. The pillow fight was epic. Such a good time.

After the fight, we wandered over to dinner. I had a salad... and a vodka soda. Am I sabotaging myself at this point?! I mean, I have 8 days left. Fuck Nicole, what is up? After dinner, we headed to Federal Triangle to catch a Capital Steps show. I think we were the youngest in there by 30 years, but whatever, it was hilarious. You can't go wrong with musical political satire in this beautiful city of ours.

Day 83, Sunday, 4/5, Hoppy Easter:

I hit up the sauna this morning to sweat out the alcohol, I guess in my head that would keep me from drinking again today as we are converging on Top Golf this afternoon to celebrate Easter and basically just being awesome. Again, apparently I am incapable of not drinking during certain events... driving ranges seem to be one of them. Joey and I split a bucket of delicious Heinekens. NO REGRETS! But now I am certain I am trying to sabotage myself. Get it together Canole. 7 days left.

Day 84-90, 4/5 - 4/12:

7 days. No more notes. Only zoned in on the finish line. This time I am a competitor before I am a wife or friend. Thank God those who love me understand that. I have worked too damn hard to give up now. I am running twice a day, sitting in the sauna every night, wrapping my stomach and arms with "those crazy wrap things" and weight training in-between. Every calorie is counted, every movement is tracked, every drop of water is measured. I had 7 days and tomorrow is the day. Monday I weigh in.

Days 65-70: Whirlwind of Events

'Tis the busy season for my job, as such I routinely run out of time by the end of the day and therefore have to condense my blogging to weekly for the time being. This will be an adventure, I can barely remember what happened yesterday, so it should be fun trying to remember what I do for an entire week. 

Day 65, Wednesday, 3/18: Q at 9 am, Restage a beautiful condo in Belmont Bay, go to warehouse and pack for tomorrows staging, head back to gym for second round of abs with Joey... pass out face first from exhaustion.

Day 66, Thursday, 3/19: Stage unoccupied home in Fairfax, head to the gym with Joey, fall asleep and drool on myself.

Day 67, Friday, 3/20:  Q at 9am, 2 Destagings, Dinner with Hubby's co-workers, adventure to Fredericksburg that ended in an internal battle over a drink.

We went to see Insurgent at my favorite movie theater which has a swanky bar and 21+ section. We had an hour to kill, so we sat in the bar chatting where I discovered they had drinks tailored to the faction you identify with... SO OF COURSE I ORDERED DAUNTLESS before it even registered that I wasn't supposed to be drinking. As the drink gets brought to the table, Joey gives me shit about the alchohol. I sat there, took a sip, set it down, stared at it for a while, and eventually gave up and passed it to my husband. Instead I got a water with lemon and headed into the movie. Will Power 1 - Booze 0. Thanks for the push Joey.

Day 68, Saturday, 3/21: This morning I had a consult, tanning, make-up tutorial sesh with Yaya and Sabrina, and TopGolf with Joey and Ryan. Fun stuff aside, today was particularly awesome because I decided to try on a pair of Martin and Osa skinny jeans from 5 years ago and they FIT! I EVEN NEEDED A BELT! 

Honestly, I thought this was a fluke, so I ran to my "skinny closet" with all of my non-fat girl clothes in it and start ripping through jeans, shorts, and skirts from Gap, Banana, Express, and Limited... and I FIT in EVERY SINGLE ONE! I am officially out of fat girl clothes and back into normal sizes. Granted, it is still a 14 and bigger than I want to be, but it is a hell of a lot better than a woman's size 18/20! The picture below is me in the same jeans 5 years ago. I find this pic particularly interesting because even though I am the same size, I appear to be more toned. So yay for weight lifting!

 

Day 69, Sunday, 3/22: Gym, Tan, SHOPPING!  Today was pretty rad. Joey and I went to the gym. I ran for 45 minutes, Joey did Abs, then we met up with Josh and did a virtual Body Flow class. Holy moly that class is hard! It is apparently a mix of Yoga, Pilates, and Tai-Chi. I was sweating like a pig about half way through. I didn't know my body was capable of bending all those ways. After that hour was over, we grabbed a shake, went grocery shopping, stopped by a friends house to say hey, and popped in for a quick tan.

We got home around 5, ate dinner, then I headed off to Nordstrom to see what I could fit my behind into. I was like a kid in a candy store. I picked up a couple of Free People skirts and shirts, a Couture maxi-dress, and a Ralph gown. I can't tell you how much fun it was trying on super cute, trendy clothes.

Listen when I tell you the struggle for fashionable fat girl clothes is real! I have always considered myself a bit of a Fashionista, but trying to remain cute while your fat is pretty damn hard. If it wasn't for ModCloth and Eloquii, I wouldn't have been able to do it. Now, I am SUPER excited because I don't have to worry about that. You best believe my behind will be waltzing right into my favorite store on the planet, Banana Republic, next week.

Day 70, Monday, 3/23: I had Q in the morning and I did Yoga in the evening, other than that, I have no on earthly idea what I did today.

We will see if I can remember what I do next week. Talk to you later, gator.

Day 61 & 62: Staging A Brighter Future

This weekend I was assisting with the Association of Property Scene Designer's Stager Pro class. It was a great time. I met a lot of great ladies who are going to do well in our field. I was the Gopher for the weekend which meant I was running around to the properties and setting up the furniture and accessories for the students to use and helping wrangle everyone during Sundays scene staging and shopping classes. Needless to say, I am exhausted, so I am going to take a nap. Later Gator.

Day 47: So Blessed to Love My Job

If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life. For me, I am so blessed to be able to say that is 100% true.

 

Today was a doozy. I had a 10 o'clock with Q where she whipped my arms into shape. Then I ran strait to the warehouse to grab some items for todays staging.  My assistant Kiana and I did an occupied staging in a beautiful home right around the corner from my house. The owner was so sweet with such southern charm. I felt right at home. The house looks fabulous when we were done, but boy was I exhausted by the end of it! I came strait home and I am now laying on this couch. I am not moving the rest of the night.

 

Here are a few shots of what it looked like after. In order to see the entire album of Before and After's, click here

 

 

Day 42: My Day Job... Which I LOVE!

I can honestly tell you I truly, truly, truly love what I do. I love every not to pretty, sweaty, physically exhausting detail of it. For those of you who don't know, I am a Lead Stager for The Staging Fashionista, one of the DC area's premier full service staging companies. We do a lot of properties ranging from super tiny condo to enormous McLean Mansion's. The smallest I have been in was a one bed DC condo and the largest a 5 story multi-million dollar monster outside of Tysons. 

Today was a pretty standard staging in Fairfax, VA. I did this baby by myself because my assistant couldn't make it due to it being rescheduled from the snow. One of the greatest things about my job is the fact it is extremely physical. We don't have a large team like some of the other companies. Most of the time we have one mover and one stager, so guess who is moving the furniture. We are.

This one we had 2 couches, 4 accent chairs, 2 tables, 6 dining chairs, 1 coffee table, 2 ottomans, 4 side tables, book shelf, countless pieces of art, accessories, lamps, rugs, kitchen and bath accessories. With no one else but us, Anthony and I hauled everything right up to the second and third floor where it all belonged. After everything was said and done, it took me a good 7 hours to do the house, we had the foyer, living room, dining room, eat in kitchen, den, master bed and bath, and office. I must have gone up 45 flights of stairs by the end of it. All this working out is really paying off. I wasn't huffing and puffing at all. It was the craziest thing!

Here is a couple of shots from the staging. In order to see the before and after's of the entire home, click here