By now, your tummies should be settling from all of your Memorial Day BBQ fun, and you may be regretting all of those deviled eggs and bratwursts you stuffed your face with... 

Thank goodness tomorrow is a new day.

I happened to wake up this morning, eat a little something (tip #1) and go to O2 Fitness to visit with my new BFF, Adam Freeman.

Here's a great tip of the week, and one I had NEVER heard of.  I mean, yes, I know about reaching a target heart rate, but I've never taken the time to get to know mine.  I need to constantly be at 145ish to burn the calories I need to burn!

How do I do it?  Well, Adam will have me do an exercise, and then in between, I'll do about a minute on the bike.  I monitor my heart rate, and make sure it hits about 145.  Sometimes after squats or pushups, my heart rate jumps really high, and if that's the case, then I pedal slower.  

Adam says because I keep my heart rate up during our sessions, I burn about 500 calories in an hour.  I had no idea!  

SO, my homework for the week:
1) buy a basic heart monitor.  (am working on it...)  Nonetheless, I can monitor my HR on any cardio machine.
2) run/walk  at least 30 minutes.  I need to doublecheck with Adam, but I'm planning on doing it every day I'm not at the gym with him. 

WHAT WILL YOU TRY THIS WEEK?  Many of you have emailed me with questions or comments... I'll do the best to answer or have Adam answer!  You can do it!  

Forget finding your dream home.  What you need is a dream team! 

I've spent the last several months dealing with a tricky housing situation.  I knew I wanted to buy a home when I moved to Wilmington, but back in Missouri, I had a primary residence and a husband with a trailing income.  I wasn't sure that I could get a loan for what I wanted, but I was amazed at how hard these people worked to take care of my family.  We closed on our house this morning!

Realty World's Anna Clark set me up with John Russ from Coastline Mortgage Consultants... who then put me in touch with Robby Collins of Collins & Collins... and somewhere in the mix I met with Jim Sayre of George Chadwick Insurance.  And as they say, the rest is history.

So, I wanted to document this day.  I am the proud owner of two homes, though we actually sold our house in Missouri in 3 days.  My realtor in Missouri was stunned!  If things go as planned, the home will close by the end of May.

Which means, yes, my husband is on his way to moving here!  He still has to finish up some things with his job in Missouri before he can make the final move, but he will be here next weekend to help us get settled.  Life is starting to return to normal.  Thank goodness.

But, back to my realty dream team... these guys really were great.  And I can't wait to use them again when I buy my $5 million beach home!  LOL

The journey has begun... 

Taking a cue from one of Wilmington's most popular bloggers, Bo Dean, I decided to get in touch with Adam Freeman at O2 Fitness and begin my own journey of getting fit.  For those of you who don't know Bo's story, he's lost an incredible amount of weight and is now in the best shape of his life.  Seriously inspirational.

Today was my first session with Adam.  Hopefully, he'll be able to share some tips with us, and maybe you'll feel a little more motivated to get in the best shape of your life.  I already had one co-worker ask for Adam's info!  

Anyway... I digress.  Tip #1 is wake up an hour before your workout and eat something.  I can't tell you how important it is. Why?  Well, funny you should ask....

I woke up and headed to the gym (I once read somewhere to eat AFTER a workout)... but about midway through my workout, I started to feel light headed.  I distinctly remember it happening after the squats and modified push-ups.  I took a break and did a few more exercises, but after a couple more, I was starting to feel really weird.  

You know your trainer is GOOD when he tells you to STOP working out!

The last time I had eaten was 6 p.m. the evening before.  It was 10:30 a.m.  That is why I got so light headed!  So, needless to say, we finished a little early.  I'll be back at it again Friday with a granola bar in the tummy.  Or, as Adam suggested, maybe some natural peanut butter and a rice cake.

More pics on our family website!

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A love match may be just a wish of yours truly... but I do have a legit "Dear Abby" story of my own!  If you remember, a few weeks ago, a guy emailed me about an encounter he had with a beautiful stranger... that ended when she slapped him!  Apparently, she took his compliment as more of an insult.  Well, it turns out, there's a happy ending...at least for now.  Mark says he got the girl!  How cool is that?!  Mark and Ericka are now dating, and they're laughing about their first meeting. 

Here are my follow up questions, for you inquiring minds:

Michelle:  Are you seriously dating now?  

Mark:  Yes, it's gone beyond the polite, "get to know" phase and we've gotten more serious.

Michelle:  Do you laugh at what happened now?

Mark:  Yeah, its really quite comical looking back.  She thought I was a womanizer and I thought she was overly sensitive and full of herself.   Neither could be further from the truth.

Michelle:  How long has it been? Oh, and how much time went by from the first slap...to the first date?

Mark:  We've been dating for over a month.  It's been two months since we first met at the gallery.  The first date was about a month after the slap.

We had a great afternoon wrapping up our time at Coastal Uncorked!  We had a chance to visit with foodies Matt and Ted Lee, aka the Lee Bros.  They're known for their peanuts and awesome cookbooks...they even received a James Beard award for their cookbook in 2007!  They'll also be hosting a lunch at Croissants Sunday before heading back home. 

We had a great evening with Miss Paula Deen, too.

"Hey y'all!" was the first thing Paula said to us when she sashayed into the Alabama Theatre in Myrtle Beach.  Her bright blue eyes stood out against her even brighter pink shirt.

She looked and sounded about as Southern as you could imagine.  Her "character" as a Food Network superstar is no put-on.  Paula Deen is the real deal.  But, you probably already guessed as much.

I asked her what she thought was special about the Carolinas, especially North Carolina.  Can you guess her answer?  She said BBQ!   We'll tell you more about some of her latest projects on WECT and Fox 26 News Sunday!

We're in Myrtle Beach this weekend for Coastal Uncorked!  It's a huge event that's taken over the beach scene.

The thing to do right now is purchase trolley tickets and hop from place-to-place consuming all the wine, specialty beer and food you can muster.  I'm more into the food than anything!  Oh, and of course, Paula Deen.  She'll be putting on a cooking demonstration tonight.  Then, tomorrow, the Lee Brothers will be serving up brunch at a restaurant called Croissants. 

It's not too late to head to MYR!  I was on the trolley last night, and a Wilmington viewer shouted for me on the bus.  It's a great regional event!  Come see us!  

Also a big thank you to The Brandon Agency for putting on a spectacular event.  Pics of Paula to come!

Talk about a room full of incredible women--the YWCA Women of Achievement awards was held tonight at the Coastline Convention Center in downtown Wilmington.

Former award-recipient Frances Weller emceed the event.  I also had the chance to present an award on behalf of WECT.  I'm telling you... there are so many amazing women doing tremendous things for our community.  If I started writing about it, it would take me into the next decade. 

19 million people say this song can't be wrong... 

Kinda nerdy... BUT I am getting ready for Korean pop music's big breakthrough.  My friend Dave makes fun of me for loving K-Pop, but for real, it's coming to America, and it's going to be HUGE.  The big debut could be next month, but I've also heard August.

Will.I.AM from The Black Eyed Peas wants to make girl group 2NE1 a global sensation.  He's already worked on at least 8 songs with the group.

This is big, people.  2NE1 is uber popular in Asia, but K-Pop has yet to really go mainstream in the U.S.  There's no real good explanation why, but I think there walls are about to come down!  Check out a little preview of the song (taken from the group's reality show...)

Just wanted you to be prepared when this becomes the next big thing!  (LOL)

If you watched the news at 11 Tuesday night, you would have seen a story I wrote about a group called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  The organization is essentially run by volunteer photographers who take pictures of families when their babies pass away. 

The initial reaction I got from a majority of our newsroom was, "That seems kind of weird, " but when they saw the story, they 
"got" it.  Historically speaking, taking pictures of deceased family members used to be the norm.  Then, doctors and other professionals started telling parents to avoid bonding with their baby if a demise was likely.

These days that reasoning is thrown out the window.  And parents are saying, "Yes, we did have a baby, and this baby was part of our family."  And they're getting a little comfort from NILMDTS.  Volunteer photographers will get a call from the hospital... and then drive there to take pictures.

I didn't mention this in the TV story, but the photographers have to work in extreme conditions.  A baby's demise is evident very quickly, so the photographers must shoot almost immediately after the birth.  That's why you see pictures where the baby's fingernails are dark.  Skin color and extremities change so rapidly.  Also, the lighting is typically terrible in hospitals.  And, don't forget, you're working with extremely grief-stricken parents.  Can you imagine?

Anyway, the Wilmington group is looking for more photographers.  Bill Garmon is in charge of the local group, and he says right now, there are too many people getting turned down at the hospital because there aren't enough volunteers.  If you know someone, please talk to them about this special project. 

Also, I want to thank the Foster family for sharing their story.  I didn't share this on TV, but Heather's father passed away suddenly from a rare disease when she was 8 months pregnant.  Then, she lost the baby.

And, one more thing, I wanted to thank all the people on WECT's Facebook page for sharing their stories.  I think it shows that yes, mothers, fathers and entire families always carry with them the loss of a baby.