A confession.

Once upon a time, just a few months ago, I was blogging about running a 5K, working out at the crack of dawn and sticking to a healthy diet. Somewhere between then and now, the workouts became less frequent and ice cream, big Sunday breakfasts and candy became more frequent. Don't get me wrong...I still go to the gym, but it's become more of a 1-2 times/week occurrence and my runs don't go much further than 3 miles or so.

I have fallen off the wagon. It's been a slow fall, but it's been a tragic fall. I have fallen in love and off the treadmill, so to speak.

It kills me that just a few months ago I was effortlessly sticking to a relatively healthy diet and I was working out like crazy and loving every minute. I could probably come up with a few excuses, but that isn't gonna get this girl back on track.

The good news is that the beginning is always hardest. Waking up tomorrow at 5 a.m. tomorrow to work out is probably going to be a little sad, but it must be done. I can't use the excuse of Tuesday night being date night with Jonathan anymore. If I can't work out Tuesday nights, I must work out Tuesday mornings. When Jonathan gets up for a bowl of ice cream before bed and asks if I want one, it will be a little hard to say no, but I can say no. I don't need a bowl of ice cream before bed.

No more excuses. No more french toast on Sunday mornings. No more eating out for lunch because I didn't plan anything.

I'm confessing all of this on my blog to help hold myself accountable. There's something about putting it "on paper" that makes me more motivated to stick with my plan. 

It felt great to be where I was at a few months ago. I was healthy, in great shape, I was happy and I had a ton of energy. I need to get back there before I really lose all the progress I made.

This starts now...as soon as I finish the bag of Skittles sitting on my desk.

I'm wondering...

How do you get yourself back on track when you fall off the wagon? Tell me what works for you!

Choosing joy.

It's been a long week. I'm not crazy about talking about sad topics on this blog, but sometimes it's necessary.

On Monday I went to visit my grandmother for what is probably the last time. After battling cancer on and off for several years, she decided to stop receiving treatment and doesn't have much longer. 

I woke up the next day with a cold and found myself being a major Debbie Downer as Jonathan and I talked later that night. He jokingly called me out on it and I'm glad he did. I have every right to be upset sometimes, but being upset doesn't make it okay to be negative.

I guess I tend to let a lot of little things get to me, then something big comes along and sends me over the edge. Lately, I've been letting things have control over me; things like medical bills, roommate issues, work concerns. Then I have to say goodbye to my Nana and all those little things I've been stressing about come to the surface along with it.

I need to stop getting upset about things beyond my control. I need to be content with the fact that I'm doing the best I can and let it go. If it is in my control, I need to stop complaining about it and do something to change it.

I need to choose joy. I need to practice what I preach and "count my rainbows, not my thunderstorms."

I need to dance it out when I feel stressed, I need to pray for strength when I don't feel strong enough, I need to rise above the negativity.

I've been given this beautiful life to live and I am so blessed. I need to focus on the blessings.

A dream about forgetting to plan my own wedding.

I have to throw in a quick disclaimer: Now that I opened this blog up to everyone I know on Facebook and their mother, you all need to know that I am still going to blog about things as if you weren't reading. So to my sweet, dear boyfriend, please don't lose your shit when you learn I am having dreams about weddings and whatnot.

Okay, now moving on...

Just the other day Jonathan and I were talking about dreams and how it seems like we only have dreams about totally off-the-wall things that would never happen in a million years. I was saying that just once, I would love to have a dream about something normal like going on vacation or something in the future like having kids. Instead, I typically dream about random, unexplainable things like alligators crawling up my house and in the windows while I'm sleeping. I don't even know where this stuff comes from...it's so random.

Ironically enough, that very night we dozed off to sleep and I had a dream about my wedding. That's pretty normal to dream about, right? It was great...for a minute. I remember getting ready, talking and giggling with my mother and my bridesmaids when suddenly, I realized that I forgot to write my vows. Next thing you know, I'm in a complete panic and at a loss for words as I try to write them in the car on the way to my own wedding.

To make matters worse, when I get to the ceremony site, I arrive to find out that I never even booked the venue. So far, we've got a bride and a groom, a whole wedding party with guests, but no vows and nowhere for them to get married. I wish I could say everything worked out, but I must've woken up before anything else could happen.

If you know me at all, you know that I am pretty organized and a little obsessive compulsive. I could totally see myself getting to my wedding day and realizing at worst, that I forgot to take my vitamin that morning, not completely forgetting to write my vows or book the venue! Apparently in my dream life, I expect to just arrive and have a wedding magically appear in front of me without actually planning any of it.

I'm not really into researching the meaning of dreams and whatnot, so who knows where this dream came from. It could mean I am not going to enjoy planning my wedding, whenever that day comes. I doubt it. Maybe it's an overall message to stop worrying about little details in life and focus on the big stuff. Who knows. What I do know, however, is that when the day comes, I'll be sure to book the venue and write my vows before I do anything else!

You are more beautiful than you think.

If you haven't seen the video, 'Dove Real Beauty Sketches,' the latest addition to Dove's Real Beauty campaign, take a few minutes and watch it.

All the videos in Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty have really made an impact on me. In a world where cosmetic companies basically shame us into buying their products, it's refreshing to see these videos by Dove, even if they have the same intentions as all those other companies.

Why does it take another person, even a stranger, complimenting us or describing our looks in a positive way to make us feel beautiful? Why do we think the worst of ourselves?

I'm a pretty self-confident person, but even I am guilty of describing myself in a negative way. I can't tell you how many times Jonathan has given me a compliment and I immediately follow it up with something negative about myself. It doesn't happen all the time, but it shouldn't happen at all.

We all need to start seeing ourselves in a better light. We need to not only speak good things about our looks, but we need to believe them, too...with our whole hearts. We are so much more beautiful than we think we are. It's time to start recognizing that.

Like most things in life, I am reminded of an important lesson from the movie Bridesmaids. When in doubt, repeat this to yourself:

Find the good.

I certainly don't need to fill you in on the events that took place yesterday in Boston. You've likely seen the footage, the photos, the Twitter posts. My reaction to acts of violence like this, which happen much too often, is always the same. I sit here speechless, in shock, feeling helpless and trying to wrap my head around how in this world such awful things can happen.

It's so easy to say we've lost faith in humanity, to say the world is going to hell in a hand basket and to feel bitterness in general toward society, but I've seen so many posts and heard so many conversations talking about the good in an awful situation like this. Even if it's just a little bit of good, people are talking about it. Yes, something horrible happened and our hearts are breaking for the victims and anyone impacted by this. But just when you think you've lost all faith in humanity, you hear about the runners who continued running straight to the hospital to give blood after the blast, the people running toward the explosion to help in any way they could, and you are reminded that there is always going to be good in this world, no matter what we are up against.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and anyone 

who has been affected by this.

The Best is Yet to Be

Hello and happy Monday! You might notice quite a few changes around here. I've been so very excited to debut the new blog name, design, layout...basically everything! I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks to make these changes, from brainstorming a new name to teaching myself how to add social media buttons to the blog. I'm so happy with the final product and I hope you all enjoy following along!

Why 'The Best is Yet to Be'?

I absolutely love my life. I'm blessed beyond belief. Adding to that, I've recently fallen in love with an absolutely wonderful man. In moments of overwhelming joy, it's hard to believe that things could be any better. It's true though. There are still so many wonderful things to look forward to...things I can't even imagine right now. I feel like 'The Best is Yet to Be' really represents where I am in my life right now. I'm soaking in the joy of the moment, but I'm also looking forward to all the wonderful things down the road.

With all these changes, here are a few things you should know about:

If you've been following for a while, you know I bake a lot and that lately I've even started cooking. I added a tab for recipes so that anytime I mention a recipe I've tried, I'll be sure to post a link to the recipe I used in case you are interested in trying any of them.

If you are new here, please feel free to check out the 'Best of the Best' tab. Here, I've chosen some of my favorite posts over the last 3 years. Instead of going through the years of archives, save time and check out my favorites here.

Since I'm no longer blogging under my nickname, Millie, I'll be closing the Twitter account (@MillieBlogs), I previously used for this blog and switching over to my personal account, @AmandaLTucker. I love keeping up with blog friends on Twitter, so please follow me on my personal account using the link above or use my fancy new social media buttons on my sidebar to get there.

In addition to switching Twitter accounts, I finally created a Facebook page. I'm excited to start following some of my favorite bloggers on Facebook, so please visit me there too!

If Facebook and Twitter aren't enough for you, follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Bloglovin.

As always, thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts!

Under Construction & Impromptu Photo Shoots.

Happy Monday everyone! I have things I want to blog about, but I am trying to hold off until I make some big changes this week. I've got a new name for this blog of mine and I'm really excited to debut it later this week (hopefully)!

In the meantime, please enjoy a few photos of me pretending to be photogenic.

While driving to my parents' house on Easter with my friend/roomie Laura, I told her about this awesome spot I had always wanted to take pictures at and next thing I knew, we were headed there for an impromptu photo shoot. I feel like the photos actually turned out pretty good considering neither one of us are experts in photography or modeling and we took all the pictures on our iPhones. Here are a few of my favorites:





 

 

 

We had so much fun snapping pictures of each other and I love that Laura is the kind of friend who loves to do spontaneous and silly things like this with me.

Hopefully I'll be back later this week with a new blog name and design. I hope you all enjoy your week!

Why you shouldn't try to dump someone on April Fools' Day

Yesterday was just another day in my book. I'm glad to say no attempted to play any April Fools' Day jokes on me. I love a good prank, but didn't play or hear of any good ones. I did, however, have a part in a very unfortunate misunderstanding. This my friends, is a true story:

After going out on a few dates with a really nice guy, my roomie decided she just wasn't that into him. While at the gym last night, we talked about how she decided to break things off with him rather than dragging it out any longer when she wasn't interested. When he texted later in the night asking her out again, I told her to get it over with and respond by telling him she just wasn't feeling it. She joked about how she'd rather just phase him out but I insisted she be up front and honest. I even took over her phone and wrote out the text for her. It basically said that she just wasn't feeling a connection and didn't want to waste his time.

A little nervous about how he would respond, she asked me to hang on to her phone and read his response and let me tell you...it was a doozy. In all the time we took brainstorming a nice way to let him down, we failed to realize it was April Fools' Day. He thought she was playing a joke on him. 

 

We never saw this response coming and it had us in a fit of laughter trying to figure out how to respond. How did she respond? She just said, "Oh gosh. I didn't even realize it was April Fools' Day." It's the truth. The thought never crossed our minds as we talked about how to break it off with him. He took it well and told her he wishes her the best. Good guy. We did feel bad for him and he was right, it was just the weirdest coincidence ever.

 

And that, my friends, is why you shouldn't try to dump someone on April Fools' Day.

 

Tell me...

 

Were you part of any good pranks yesterday? Has this awkward scenario ever happened to you?