Week 2: Bodyfit by Amy

I found a link to my weighted vest!

Sunday: I didn’t go for my morning run like I intended instead I slept in until almost 10AM! I was STILL tired when I woke up. Tonight, I did the 25 Minute Dumbbell & Bodyweight Tabata Workout for Strength & Cardio. I added my weighted vest and 5lb weights for the circuit; however, I took off my vest during the core portion because the spine of the vest interferes with floor core moves. I was running out of steam half way through.

Monday: No work out today. I passed out fairly early, woke up a couple hours later to load/start the dishwasher, then passed out again.

Tuesday: My hamstrings are killing me. I did Amy’s Insanity Plyometric Cardio and Strength Workout but didn’t put in 100% effort. I’m thinking about recording when I do workouts to check my form and keep a log of my transformation on Youtube. I wanted to mention I don’t do the actual jumping of the exercise because my house shakes when my 35lb toddler runs across the house.

Wednesday: I WENT FOR A RUN TODAY! I used the Couch to 5k app. I think my excitement got the best of me because the running portion, I felt like I was sprinting LOL. My legs are so sore and I woke up hangry.

Thursday: Definitely going to take it easier today. My legs are so sore it hurt walking from the parking garage to work. Progress report: I tried on a pair of my old pants and IT FITS! Not as well as it did before, but I was able to button it up without sucking it. Before, the pants were super loose like I can comfortable fit my fist between my stomach and the waist band. I did the 22 Minute Active Recovery Cardio & Stretch Workout to Restore, Reset and Recharge (No Equipment). This hit all the areas I was tight in and afterwards, I did another 30 minutes of static stretching.

Friday-Saturday: Oooh y’all, I did something I wanted to do for a LONG time. I’m still tender but the swelling has gone down so I will be back at the workouts this week. I will write about what I did on Friday in another blog post.

Review: Old Navy and Groupon purchase

I bought some clothes that are supposed to fit me but not really. I bought clothes from Old Navy a couple months ago when the weather was started getting warmer and wearing my joggers were no longer an option and new sandals bought from Groupon! I realized the only summer shoes I have are flip flops.

For refence:

Weight: 165.8lb

Height: 5’6.25

Measurement: 39-33-43

Old Navy:

1. High-Waisted Pixie Full-Length Pants for Women
   1. I bought 2 of these in Navy and Upper Crust (what?). I bought a size M (8-10) and they fit true to size. It’ll be a perfect for a size 8 but for a size 10, it may be a smidge smug like 2mm smidge. These are incredibly comfortable, versatile pants with plenty of stretch around the waistline and pant leg area so your not uncomfortable during the work day in or out of the office. The waistband stops mid-navel for me. I wear the pants with Converses, sandals, t-shirts, button downs, blouses. The front pockets are deep where one pocket can fit your phone and lipgloss with still room to spare. The back pockets are non functional which I forget sometimes.
2. Mid-Rise Built-In Sculpt Rockstar Jeggings for Women
   1. I WILL be buying a couple more of these because they are so damn comfortable and versatile. you can dress these up or down, pair them with heels, etc. I would say this is a staple jean in my closet. It fits true to size and a smidge snug similar to the pixie pants I’ve mentioned above. Plus, it makes my ass look juicy. Unlike the pixie pants, the back pockets are functional and the front pockets are not. The back pockets are the standard depth to regular jeans.

Groupon:

1. Haute Edition Women’s Summer Slip-on Comfort Sandals
   1. The title says it all. These are incredibly comfortable sandals I have worn so far. The soles are cushioned all throughout the sandal without compromising the style of it. The slingback is a nice touch because even if you wear these puppies in the rain, it keeps it on your feet. The only con about these is you can hear them squish air out when you take a step so if you are sensitive to the sound or the idea of constantly hearing a slight squish with every step being bothersome, you may not like these. I bought 2 styles- the white sandal with a large stone on the thong part and accent beading around the ankle and a simpler gray snakeskin pattern. Both styles come in a variety of colors. Currently they are 62% off so I’m going to buy myself another couple of them.

Update: These were good while it lasted. I’ve been wearing the white sandals exclusively since I received them and the cushion is separating from the rest of the sandal. These seem to be best suited for less frequent wear to maintain integrity. Bummer.

Week 1: Bodyfit by Amy

I’ve started exercising again! I’m tired of my pants fitting like leggings and the damn FUPA. I am using Bodyfit by Amy beginner/low impact playlist to ease myself back into it.

Current weight: 165.8lb. Next weigh in is next month.

Current Measurements: 39-33-43. Exactly 3″ increase.

Sunday: 25 Minute Low Impact Cardio HIIT Workout— Quiet At Home Workout for Fat Burn This was a nice low impact work out. I added my 10lb weighted vest for additional oomph. I can’t find the exact one I have then again I bought it almost 10 years ago. The cardio was intense with the vest and definitely feel slight soreness in my legs but nothing where I can’t sit on my chair.

Monday: I did no work out. I needed a day off after solo parenting for 16 days and still going for another 5 days.

Tuesday: 25 Minute Quiet Cardio Tabata HIIT: Low Impact HIIT No Equipment At Home Workout for Cardio & Toning This was a DOPE work out. I haven’t sweat like this in a minute. I used my weighted vest again for added oomph. I’ve realized for this workout you really need to give 100% effort for maximized feeling. I’ve paused the video for so many water breaks, I’m going to regret it tonight. This is definitely going in my workout playlist for those rainy days.

Wednesday: I passed out while putting my oldest to bed with my contacts in, dishes still in the sink, unlocked doors. I was pretty exhausted. In terms of soreness, I haven’t been that so sore although I do struggle standing up when I’m in sitting down. OH! I’ve also had a sudden sore left thumb joint. Is it an early sign of arthritis?!

Thursday: Day #3 Option 2 // 36-Minute Full Body Kettlebell Power HIIT Workout for Strength & Cardio I wanted something little more intense than the low impact workouts could give me. Y’all… she killed me on this one. I was too eager. I had my weighted vest on initially but took it off not a minute into the video. I’m a sweaty mess and all my muscles are crying. I don’t have a kettlebell so I used a 10lb dumbbell. My (ex)husband is coming back from his trip tomorrow so I’m hoping to go for a 3-mile walk/jog after I put the kids to bed so I can take a break from weights and do some outside exercising.

Friday: I decided to wear one of my Chico Old Navy pants and its loose around my waist! Although I’ve noticed my appetite isn’t as voracious as it was before beginning the workout. It’s probably all the stress from working full time and solo parenting. I didn’t work out today. I passed out early with my kids.

Saturday: Y’all, my undies* I bought prior to my second delivery didn’t dig into my hips like they use to AND my shorts don’t accentuate my muffin top as much. Could be the massive shit I had in the day or it’s the toning up happening, lol. I did 10 Minute Kettlebell Workout for an efficient Total Body Workout. My (ex)husband arrived mid-afternoon so I did a quick workout before bed. I didn’t wear my vest but used the 10lb dumbbell I used on Thursday. My legs are definitely sore from this week so tomorrow morning I’m going to do a light jog as my recovery day.

(*) after a hyperlink is an affiliate link

Traveling with 2 young children solo

My kids and I visited my grandfather/their great grandfather in Pennsylvania the week of July 4th. I’ve travelled with my oldest a few times before which was a struggle in itself but with 2 children?! Golly! I wasn’t thinking of the logistics when I booked the airline tickets and rental car until a week after the purchase, I started panicking about it. So, for those parents solo travelling with any number of children, this is what I did that worked because this will not be the only time I will travel with my two youngsters. For reference, I have an almost 3.5 year old who is toilet trained and a 1 year old who loves to crawl. At the end, I’ll add my complete packing list with links to what I used specifically (not affiliated). It’s important to use a soft suitcase* with spinner wheels and front pockets because you’ll want a luggage strap and car seat travel belt* packed. It makes transporting everything so much easier.

When we prepared for the airport, my children and I were dressed for warmth. Think about it, the airport and airplane are COLD. I’ve needed a sweatshirt during the summer because it was freezing in the airplane. My oldest was in a long sleeve, pull-up (in case of accidents), and sweat pants. I was in a shirt and overalls and my baby was in long sleeves and overalls as well. My husband dropped us off at the airport and he let me out first to look for a cart while he took care of unloading our luggage on the curb. I know those damn airport carts are expensive ($6 at Logan Airport!), but it made all the difference in transporting all the luggage (portable crib, 2 car seats, suitcase, stroller) while tending to a toddler and a baby to and from the check-in kiosk to the baggage drop off location. I checked in all of the luggage except the stroller. Keeping the stroller even though I had the baby in a baby carrier gave us the option of additional comfort. In all, I carried a diaper bag*, baby carrier, stroller and my oldest had his little book bag. I wanted my oldest to have his own carry on because it made room in the diaper for my and baby’s essentials.

When going through security, keep the baby in the carrier. Place the diaper bag on the assembly first, stroller next, then the toddler bag. Surprisingly, the TSA officers are understanding with travelling families and will accommodate as much as they can. After going through the security point, place the baby in the stroller and grab all items off the line. When it nears boarding time, I made sure my oldest peed, my little ones diaper changed, and I also used the bathroom. When approaching your gate, don’t forget to ask the desk attendant for a stroller tag. Now, you can either board the plane when the attendant calls for families with small children or your boarding group. Before you board the aircraft, leave the stroller out front.

When you land, wait for your stroller and place the baby in there then head to baggage claim. Since I rented a vehicle, I learned from my last trip to go through the rental line first before grabbing my luggage. It’s a whole lot easier to maneuver in a line without all the baggage. After you grabbed your keys or not, keep the baby in the stroller. Place the portable crib on top of the suitcase and strap it in with a luggage strap, then strap one car seat to the front of the suitcase by feeding the car seat travel belt through the car seat holes and slip the top car seat anchor to the ring on the travel belt. Make sure the side car seat anchors are clipped to each other. If you have a second car seat, you can hang the car seat off the stroller handles through the hooked side anchors. With the spinner wheels (360 movement), it’s easy to push the stroller with one hand and the suitcase in the other. I used the same technique for travelling back to New England.

1. Large Baby Gear
   1. Portable Crib: Seeing how my grandfather had a guest bedroom, I needed to take a portable crib* for my 1YO and would have my 3YO sleep with me in the bed. I took our handy Graco Pack-N-Play with a bassinet attachment. Now, the best part of travelling with a portable crib is that some airlines (Delta Airlines won’t charge you. Jet Blue will charge you.) will consider the crib an assistive device so they won’t charge you for it and because my 1YO is too old for the bassinet, I left the attachment at home and used the additional space for items I can’t fit into my suitcase like a float vest, baby swim floaty, and swim diapers for both kids.
   2. Car Seats: I chose not to use the rental car child seats because I didn’t know if the car seats were expired, been in accidents, or cleaned after every use especially now with COVID. I took our travel car seats* that was in my husbands car after he dropped us off at the airport. Car seats are also considered assistive devices in most airlines so they won’t charge you; however, some airlines will require you to check the car seats in the oversize baggage area. Initially, I was going carry one of the car seats into the airplane for my 3 YO when I found out children who are no longer lap infant age, can sit solo in a seat. Yay!
   3. Stroller: This was a necessary gear not only at the airport but the duration of the trip. I used a single light stroller* for my 1YO. Initially, I was going to take a tandem double stroller; however, When my 1YO would get uncomfortable in the baby carrier, I would pop him in the stroller or when we were delayed at the airport, my baby would play with the stroller and use it as a walker. I decided against a double stroller because of how much it weighs.
   4. Baby Carrier: The baby carrier* was only used in the airport. When my hands were too full, I would pop my baby in the carrier to free up hands and a place for a warm nap.

1. Smaller baby gear
   1. Table Chair: We were graciously gifted this awesome table high chair*. It attaches to any sturdy table with enough overhang. This high chair has a small pocket to place a bib and utensil, and under the seat cushion is an attached sack so you can cover it when you’re travelling. This can easily fit into a suitcase. Plus it’s washable!
   2. Swim floaties: I purchased a floatie vest* for my oldest and a baby floatie with a canopy* for my baby. These were packed in the portable crib.
2. In the suitcase
   1. Children’s clothes: I packed probably 10 of each different clothing for my kids- socks, shorts, under pants, shirts, swim suits, sun hats, and hanboks; however, due to the limited space I had in my suitcase, I used a small space saver bag* to compress the clothing and offer more space to the other packed items. This particular brand of vacuum bags is it includes a handpump.
   2. My clothes: Honestly, I rotated between 3 different outfits- 2 dresses, and shirt and shorts, sandals, and swimsuit. Luckily my grandfather has his own washer and dryer so I did laundry every 3 days.
   3. Skin and hair products (These were in separate toiletry bags)
      1. For children:
         1. Travel size body wash/shampoo
         2. Toothbrush for both
         3. Travel size toothpaste
         4. Sunscreen with a blender for face application
         5. Aloe with lidocaine
      2. For me:
         1. Face and body sunscreen
         2. Face wash with face brush
         3. Toner, Vitamin C ampoule, eye cream, moisturizer for morning and night
         4. Toothbrush
         5. Shower: bar soap, travel size shampoo and conditioner, leave-in conditioner, heat protectant spray, exfoliating towel
   4. Bath toys!
   5. Formula*
   6. Eating utensils and bib
   7. Handheld fan*
3. Diaper bag
   1. Pull-ups and diapers, diaper changing pad, wipes, and diaper trash bags
   2. 2 baby bottles and 1 powder bottle
      1. With this, I only put in powder for 8oz. You can add the water after so you don’t have to carry around a formula container
      2. The powder bottle (used an 4oz Medela bottle) had formula to make another 8oz bottle.
   3. Wallet, Keys, and passport
   4. Infant toys
   5. Toddler and Infant snacks

The hyperlinks with * beside it are Amazon affiliate links.

Realizing dumb financial mistakes I’ve made and remediating them

I would grab a snack and liter of water for this read cause it’s going to be a long one.

Lately, I’ve been looking hard at my finances (investments, salary, budget, etc.) and realized with my divorce, I will need more streams of income to A) provide for my family and B) provide a comfortable retirement for myself and inheritance for my children. In noticing my lack of income streams, I’ve thought of some ways of increasing my income stream with my limited knowledge and knew I needed help so I’ve looked for wisdom in the good ole YouTube and stumbled upon two personal finance channels: Graham Stephan, a Millennial Millionaire who started his humble beginnings as a LA real estate agent during the 2008 housing crash straight out of high school, and Erika Kullberg, a lawyer who quit her 6-figure job to pursue her financial freedom. I’ve binged on both channel videos for a couple days and got to say, the advice they have shared has been enlightening. I’m going to highlight the mistakes I’ve made and how I’m implementing their advice in correcting those mistakes:

1. Not investing in real estate when I had the opportunity
   1. Man, I was reflecting how I was looking at a 2 Bed 1 Bath apartment property above a pizza shop on a main road near the university in Pittsburgh selling for $1,000 and the day after looking at the listing, a man I was dating suggested investing in real estate as an opportunity to make income. The apartment needed a lot of work and I didn’t know how/if I could afford the renovation. I wish I remembered the address so I can see what the cost is today. Now though, I am looking at buying a duplex within the next year or two after my divorce is finalized. I’m not looking for a huge fixer upper because of cost and time, but something I can easily remodel and rent fairly quickly while living on the other side. I spoke with a real estate acquaintance and the banks want a 25% down payment for an investment property whereas if you buy a duplex or triplex as a primary residence, you can do an FHA loan with 3% down payment or a traditional mortgage with as little as 5% down. Currently, the market is a bit too hot for my taste and I’m going to wait until later in the year or next year to make the investment. If you want to hear a couple opinions about the housing market now, I recommend watching these two videos: Real Estate Housing Crash Q4 and The Housing Market is about to Flip
2. Not putting majority or all of savings in a CD account
   1. I am a fucking dumb ass. In my 20’s, I had about 6K in my savings bank just sitting there accruing the teeny bit of interest my bank offered and, one day, I received a call from my bank about possibly moving my savings into a CD back in 2010. I don’t remember what the interest rate was like but I didn’t bother with it because A)I didn’t understand what the difference was and B) the concept of my money being tied up for a few months made me nervous. What if I was in a bind and needed access to that cash? Now, I finally put most of my savings in a CD. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to find one, but I googled “High Yield Savings Account” and the first choice was Marcus from Goldman Marcus is offering a 0.7% rate for 18-months. Every month I plan on putting in $50-$100 if I can spare it and if it’s within the terms. I have a referral code if you wish to use it: https://www.marcus.com/share/ELI-J8W-TLRR. If you sign up with the referral code, you and I will have an additional 0.2% added to the 0.7% interest rate for 3 months. This code is good up until August 1, 2021. I’ve also heard about a CD Ladder, so I’ll have to look into that.
3. Not investing my rolled over IRA cash into stocks
   1. When I was switching jobs until I settled into my current one, I had 3 rollovers into my Fidelity account as cash totaling to almost 5K for 4 YEARS. YEARS! If I can figure out how to increase the font, it would take up the entire screen. Seriously. It wasn’t until after I watched a few stock investing videos that I’ve actively started “spending” the money and creating my portfolio as much as possible. The fuck? I remember my husband constantly telling me to invest the cash because it’s wasted sitting in my account. I’ll probably make a post about how much and what kind of stocks I’ve invested in.
4. Not contributing to my investment accounts
   1. This could probably be added to point 3, but for a long time, I haven’t been actively depositing money into my investment account. You can contribute up to 6K into your account without penalty. After putting my rolled over cash into stocks, I was hoping to see my total account to just increase at least a couple dollars but there wasn’t much movement. It was stagnant! So a couple months ago, I started putting in $200 per month into my accounts and it’s increased almost 4K in those 2 months. I plan on splitting the $200 amongst my other portfolios and see if that makes a difference.
5. Not starting a side hustle
   1. This is a little harder for me to act upon. It’s not as easy as just throwing money into an account and watching the numbers increase. This requires more time and effort on my end. I’ve started kicking around ideas and settled on a couple I think I can manage; however, I’m hesitant in doing anything with it because I don’t know how to start it and the fear of failing. I know after a few months if I’m not seeing the sow from my reap, I’ll get discouraged and convince myself it’s not worth continuing. I’ll still try it, I just don’t know if I’ll keep up with it.
6. Not signing up for cash back services
   1. This is pretty straight forward. I’m aware of the cash back incentive with credit cards but I wasn’t taking advantage of the cash back services online and I’m only aware of 1, Rakuten. I’ve started taking a hard look at what Rakuten has to offer and it’s decent. Currently, E.L.F cosmetics is offering a 15% cash back from 6%. I use it for Target, flowers, travel, Groupon, Walmart, You can use the services online or in-store which is great. Even though I’ve used this for a little under a year, I’ve managed to get $100 cash back from my purchases. I also have a referral code for them. If you spend $30, we each get an additional $30.
7. Not making and keeping track of a budget
   1. This is a big one. I never really made a budget before until now. In my 20’s I had a good idea of where my money was going because I constantly looked at my bank account like 3x a day and twice at night. During my marriage, we didn’t really have a budget because we didn’t spend much money except for baby stuff even then many of our baby stuff were coming from our local Everything is Free and Buy Nothing Group on Facebook. Now though, I have to look at my personal spending then my half of the children’s expenses (daycare, gear, activities, etc.). I’ll probably add my budget

That’s all I can think of but if I remember anymore, I’ll add to the list with a comment before the long post. Hopefully this will help some people learn from my mistakes.