A Lady and her Dog

I know this video has pretty much gone viral on facebook and youtube but I couldn't not share it....

Y'all know my love for animals so this really hit me. I heard the audio of it driving to work this morning and I just cried on my way to work in my car. Then my step dad posted the link to the video on my facebook page this afternoon and of course I cried again watching it. 

I know that so many people lost everything in Moore, Oklahoma, including family members. But something about this story just really hit my heart. This lady lost everything but at least she has her dog now to help her get through these next months of trying to rebuild her life. 

Keep Moore, Oklahoma, Grandbury, Texas and the other cities that have been hit by these devastating storms in your prayers. Grandbury is so close to my hometown and has a special meaning to me. We grew up going to Grandbury Lake every year. I spent ALOT of time in that city. I really can't imagine what these families are going through, but all we can do is send our thoughts and prayers and of course donations if we are financially able. 

You can text REDCROSS 90999 to automatically donate $10 to help ou with the disaster relief. 

StoryMix Giveaway Winner and My Favorite Posts

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to WeddingMix for hosting the amazing giveaway on my blog. $300 is a big prize and I know the person who won is in for a huge treat to be working with this great company!

So....

Congratulations to Lindsay! I can not wait to see your video after your wedding! It's SO close!!

And, WeddingMix and I would love to continue the wedding conversation on Pinterest! WeddingMix set up several group boards to which we can all pin and invite friends. Feel free to share your best tips or inspiration for:

Wedding Planning Tips and Tricks

Destination Weddings

Wedding DIY

Bridal Fashion

To join the boards, just follow WeddingMix and myself on Pinterest. And leave a comment here with a link to your pinterest profile.

Thank you again Ariane and everyone else at WeddingMix!!

And for todays topic on Jenni's blog... links to my favorite posts in my archive!

I've got a lot of new readers around here so I definitely wanted to take this opportunity to link back to my favorite posts and the posts where you can learn alot more about me!

I started blogging back in January of 2010 and it was a 'Project 365 blog.' In June of 2010 I decided to change it to just a regular lifestyle blog and changed my blog name to 'What Makes Savanah Smile...'

This was my first blog post with the "new blog"

I wrote 2 really great posts about why I blog. #1 and #2.

And here are some posts where you can find some random facts about me:
The Facts of Me
If You Really Knew Me
Blogger 411

I had a breast reduction last August and feel like I really impacted a lot of people with those posts. Read about it here, here, and here

I wrote about our Mr. Cotton and how we lost him last March due to Congestive Heart Failure.

And of course ALLLLLL of our wedding posts are on the top of my list :)

Struggles

Today's topic on Jenni's blog was something your struggling with... I was going to write about this anyway, so I thought I would share it today. 

My biggest internal struggle right now is my weight. I hate the way I feel and look lately. I've always been a "bigger" girl, but right now I'm at the heaviest I've ever been. I've never had a problem with my waist being big. I've always just had big legs and I've been ok with it. Lately all my weight has been going to my stomach and I'm literally disgusted looking at myself in the mirror. I've started buying bigger shirts so it covers up my stomach and find myself "sucking in" all the time.

I love food and I hate working out. Not a good combo right?! But I know I HAVE to do something. So, I've started working out. John bought me the Polar FT4 and I will say that has helped me get motivated. We have a treadmill at our house so I have no excuse. I've started just fast walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes and I've gradually added in 30 seconds to 1 minute of jogging. If you can even call it jogging - it's more like waddling. But, hey, it's something and it's getting easier every day. The 1 minute long stretches are getting easier and I can do them more often without feeling like my heart is going to beat out of my chest. My mom also added me on their family membership at L.A. Fitness because they could have 4 people on it. Have I been? NOPE! Once I feel more confident on the treadmill and not like I'm going to pass out, I think I will feel more comfortable going to a gym. I want to incorporate classes in, but right now I'm scared.

We have tennis courts in our townhome complex too and we have taken advantage of that on a few occasions. I'd like to do it more to change things up and have some fun while working out. I also have a nice bike I got a few years ago and a bike trail that's very close to our house. John and I need to take advantage of that as well. 

{after playing tennis on an unusually cold night a few weeks ago}

As far as working out goes, my goal as of right now is to use our treadmill at least 4 times a week for at least 30 minutes - walking and jogging. Gradually adding in more jogging than walking. And adding in tennis and bike riding on days when the treadmill is just not what I want to do. 

And then there's the diet... it's gotta change. No if's, and's or but's. Sweets and carbs are my weakness and I have to change that. I just bought a meal planner notebook from Maybooks so we can start meal planning and finding healthy recipes before going to the grocery store. Hopefully this will get us on track with our diet and help with our grocery budget. 

Have any of you struggled with the same thing? How did you get through it? What are some of your motivations to go work out? Any tips you have are greatly appreciated!