Steph Lloyd Bloggie Blog

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

Haha! Love it. Queen is one of my favorite bands, for shiz.

[via: Door Sixteen]

Learning to Shoot, Part Two

Henry let me tag along on another engagement session recently. I’m extremely grateful because I’ve learned so much just by watching him do what he does. That and being able to ask him questions after the shoot has taught me so much. Since I’m assisting, I try to stay in the background as much as possible, but I was able to snap a few shots. They were taken in Chinatown, on Olvera Street and some random place under a bridge downtown. :)

Alan Cohen

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

Tan Lines

Yesterday a grandma came up to me while I was sitting in the sun and asked if I was wearing sunblock. After I told her that I was, she asked how long I had been in the sun. She told me to reapply sunblock every 20 minutes because melanoma is no joke. Well, she didn’t say it quite like that but she did say we need to be aware of it. She was so sweet and I thought it was pretty cool that she wanted to help me out. She started to walk away, turned back around and told me to move the straps on my shirt. “Just a little bit, you don’t want tan lines!” True dat, grandma!

Growing up in Minnesota, we grabbed all the sun we could, when we could. Trust me, six months of being bundled up equals a pasty white Stephanie! California is an entirely different story. Nearly every day since we moved here has been sunny. It’s awesome! Sunblock is definitely my friend because the last thing I want is a burn to keep me out of the sun… but I think I had been start taking granny’s advice on reapplying.

I’ve heard sunblock is pretty crappy for our skin… so if anyone has any suggestions on a more natural method, let me know!

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If you are into food, photography and design, you should be following At Home At Home. I’ve been following Laure for awhile now and got the chance to meet her this week. I loved chatting with her and walked away feeling completely inspired! Thanks, Laure!

Life

Last week was tough. Really, really tough. All. week. long.

For starters, I decided a couple of weeks ago to start working out and to watch what I eat. This is not something I’m particular excited about, it’s just necessary and I’ve been forcing myself. Matt convinced me that I needed to get more involved in the food I consume and how it affects my diet. I started putting everything I eat into a program that lets me know the calories, carbs, protein and fat I’ve consumed. It gives me graphs and it’s been quite the eye opener. I was never a big eater and I thought I ate fairly well but it turns out that I wasn’t. It’s no wonder I became a blog. Ew! It’s been difficult balancing it out… but I stuck with it. And even though I was emotionally stressed and really wanted to have myself some comfort food, I didn’t!

Matt designed a fitness plan for me a couple of weeks ago. I felt like a big dummy at first because I was weak and uncoordinated but, amazingly enough, I felt myself getting stronger each time I worked out. He’s got me doing full body exercises, so I’m working multiple areas at once. I don’t really love working out. I never look forward to it and it’s really hard when I’m doing it. I’m having a heck of a time getting control over my mind in this area. I’ve only been working out three times a week but last week I broke down crying twice during my work out. Like right in the middle of some reps. It’s nuts, I’m definitely an emotional person but not one to cry easily.

I’m still crazy busy with work. I thought it would start to ease up once my teams started falling out of the playoffs, but it hasn’t a whole lot. My stress level has decreased significantly but there is still a high volume of work to be done. Bottom line is that I’m still learning how to balance my workload. The clients that I work with daily are on the West Coast but the teams travel to other regions, so I’ve got people contacting me from early in the morning until late at night. Working from home has it’s perks… getting woken up at 5am by someone calling three times in a row to ask a question that could have been emailed is not one of them. LOL. Emails stop coming in around 9pm at night. So really, if I let myself, I could be working from 6am to 9pm every day. I’m thinking it’s time for me to regroup and look for ways to work smarter so that I can get a bit of relief. The crazy messed up thing about all of this is that I still like my job. Haha. I need things to be change constantly and challenge me or I get bored. I’ve not been bored in 9 months… that’s pretty… awesome?? Haha.

Probably the most difficult thing was missing my younger brother’s wedding last weekend. We couldn’t afford to make the trip to Minnesota and I had convinced myself I was okay but when Saturday came along and my sister started texting me pictures, I lost it. Some of you know that there have been difficulties in recent years with my family and I and I haven’t seen them in a few years. Everyone looked so great! I cried because I was missing a monumental event in my brother’s life but also for everything that had been building over the last several years. I was also angry. Angry that I missed the wedding. Angry that I didn’t make a way to get there. Angry that I had talked myself into being okay with it. Angry that I’ve missed so much in my siblings lives. Angry that my dad is sick. Angry that I haven’t talked to him in so long. My tears were as torrential as the pain is deep. I love my family more than anything, even though they question this, and the worst thing for me is not knowing how to fix it. I’m not sure how everything will be repaired in my family but I have hope.

While there have been lessons learned and victories achieved in the past two weeks, I’m left feeling exhausted. This morning I woke up and weighed myself. I was really bummed to see that I had gained weight. Mostly bummed because I have been trying so hard to do well! Matt took my body fat measurements and calculated everything. It turns out that I lost five pounds of fat and gained six pounds of muscle! Can you believe that?!? That definitely made me feel better because it’s been soooo hard.

My focus in the next little while is stay consistent in the various areas of my life, no matter how hard it seems, and to continue to improve myself. I’m optimistic and excited… and looking forward to some rest this weekend!