Reducing the Noise

So, I was messing around with my iPhone one day and playing with some photo apps and on Photoshop Express, I found a button that said "Reduce Noise" so I clicked on it and voila, my face in my picture was magically transformed into a smooth silky skinned face with very little imperfections..  that's my kind of photoshopping!!  So, I'm now obsessed with "Reducing the Noise" on my pictures as you'll see below!!  Here's my favorite "reduced noise" picture!  I mean, if I could trade in my age spots, freckles, sun spots for a permanently noise reduced face, I'll do it any day!! (even if it does look a little fake!! )

Anyways, I'll get back to the title of my blog and how it pertains to my life these days in a minute.  

I had a REALLY good weekend. The kind of weekend where you start out thinking you've over committed yourself and you are wishing you could stay home and in your pjs, but then you go and do the things you planned to do and are soo happy you did! 

Friday, after work, I went with some girlfriends to DryBar (we had a Groupon). This place does shampoo and blowouts.. that's it.  With my hair being shortish, I didn't think I'd really find anything they could do to my hair so I let the stylist choose what she wanted to do (they have a menu of like 10 or so styles) with it. So, she went "beachy curls".. when I turned around for the reveal, I was happy with what I say.. my bangs weren't what I liked, but they never are, but everything else was great and I loved how healthy my hair looked.  Here is a pic (this was after about 4 hours later when we got home - again, reduced noise face!!) 

After DryBar, Tim met me out and we went to see Batman at the iPic.  I have to admit, I was really bummed that I didn't like it that much..  thought it was about 45 minutes too long and the villain, Bain, scared the crap out of me!!! 

Saturday night, Michelle and I took Joy out for her birthday to a restaurant in Old Town called Citizen's Public House. I'd been there before and the food is amazing.  I didn't do too bad food wise but did have a couple Moscow Mules and a glass of the best Sangria I've ever had. Needless to say, my head was not happy with me yesterday morning.  But it was so fun! We laughed and laughed and just chatted and it was just nice to be out with friends and not have the normal every day stresses hanging over my head as they had been.  I did fall off the sugar wagon on Saturday night when Joy ordered some sort of donut bread pudding for dessert ( hey, it was her birthday, I had to try it!! ) but got back on the wagon yesterday and had no sugar at all again.  

So anyways, I know I had mentioned my stress levels rising over some things with Mac and I appreciate the feedback I got on that post! I'm working on Reducing the Noise in my life as well but sometimes my stress over raising Mac, $$, work and my general body issues/frustration with not losing weight as fast as I'd like, it gets to be too much. I had been seeing a physician regarding my hormone issues and she did some bloodwork. I met with her on Friday to review and while we were not surprised at some of the results (looks like I am pre-menopausal indeed!) she was really shocked at my cortisol levels which were triple what the normal ranges are.  She gave me a Cortisol Manager supplement to help reduce my stress or my ability to handle stress. Another side effect of the drug is that it'll help me sleep better, which is always a  bonus!! I'm also working on accepting that things just are the way they are and I can't control everything in my life. And my child will grow up to be just fine, even if I don't follow all the timelines that I read about.. 

I'm excited about the challenge weigh-in this week. I've not gotten on the scale since last week but I'm feeling good about choices I've been making and the exercise I've been getting. In the spirit of accountability that's going around, here is my workout plan for the week: 

Monday - Yoga

Tuesday - 30 minute Treadmill walk at Lunch & Pilates 

Wednesday - 30 minute Treadmill walk at Lunch 

Thursday - 30 minute Treadmill walk at Lunch & Pilates 

Saturday - Hydro Training or intro session at Dailey Method (barre class) 

Sunday - Hydro Training or Zumba 

Happy Monday!! 

xo,js