BFF: Better Food and Fitness: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Whine About the Wine Results

This weekend was nice and easy! Saturday morning we ran the Will Run for Wine 5k except that it turned out not to be a 5k and was instead 2.6 miles!! It was a little deflating knowing we didn't run the full 3.1 but it felt great to run fast. The ankle took about .75 of a mile to warm up and was a little sore during Monday's jog/walk. I did finally pick up my new orthotics- they are a bit awkward in my shoe but I'm told this is normal and they'll be comfy with time.

I'm trying to be more creative when it comes to doing cardio. So far I've tried bootcamp and zumba, today I worked up a sweat swimming laps! I'm not new to swimming but I don't rely on it in my usual cardio routine. I swam for about an hour and really did feel my heart rate rise. It was also a great way to spend some much needed time with the ol' fiance- we shared a lane and he totally kicks my butt swimming but with his triathlon training and my competition training we are so busy and have learned to appreciate even a few seconds in between laps to catch up and share a laugh.

Guess who, for the third week in a row, was able to curl 20 pound dumbbells all on her own??

Accomplishing this has really motivated me- I didn't think I could possibly curl more than 10 pounds and now I'm able to do so much more! I still have a long way to go before I'm ready for the competition but these steps along the way are good reminders to keep going!!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

100th Post!

HAPPY 100TH POST! Between the BFF and me, we've managed to get 100 posts into the last couple months! Pretty awesome, if you ask me!

I am quite happily enjoying the long weekend. I got to jet out of work a little early yesterday afternoon, and had a surprisingly traffic-free ride. It was a GORGEOUS day. I didn't get out during lunch, but when I got to the car, the thermometer told me just how wonderful the day had been.

(yes I was driving when I took this, and yes I have a lot of thousands of miles on my car. Oh well).

I got home just in time to change and head out for a double date. We went with Johnny's bff Dave (although he tells me boys don't have bffs...so maybe his bromantic friend?) and Dave's girlfriend. We met up for a fancy drink at The Liberty Hotel. I used to work right by this hotel and have been a few times for drinks and I love it. It used to be a jail, so the architecture of the building is awesome. It's a little pricey, so I've never eaten here, but I love going!

After a drink, we walked over to the Museum of Science.

Like MY bff, I enjoy going to Museums sans children. We weren't there for the exhibits though, we were there to FINALLY see the tornado movie at the Omni Theatre! It was SO cool. It seems to be a little too real these days, with the many tornadoes touching down around the country, but it was really neat to see things from that perspective. We luckily don't deal with them here in New England, but it was fascinating all the same!

After the movie (which was only about 45 minutes long), we walked back to have dinner near the hotel. We settled on Antonio's, an Italian place with an extremely reasonably priced menu. I don't generally like going out for Italian for two reasons:

1. I can make Italian food. I know it's not nearly as good as resturant stuff, but I can make pasta and meatballs, so why spend so much money on it?
2. It's not very healthy. It's high in ww points and the portions are HUGE. I'd generally go for a lighter, healthier options, but every once and while, it's a good treat!

Dinner was amazing. I ended up getting the mussels and they did not disappoint. And the place itself was so cute and homey. There are only about 15 tables and it feels like Italy (I can say that because I lived there). It was worth the extra calories!

Today was another gorgeous day. After my carbo loading last night, I was pleased to get out for a bike ride! It was my first ride since I got my bike 2 weeks ago (bad weather caused that delay) and it was great. Unfortunately, it being a nice day, there were SO many people out and very much in the way, preventing me from ever really picking up much speed. I ended up covering 7 miles in about 50 minutes. It made me realize just how different real biking is from spin class! I'm going to need a lot of work on that for the tri!

I took my bike back to Johnny's office (that's where it lives since our apartment is small and up three flights of stairs), and headed home for a quick shower before an afternoon of errands! I have ZERO in terms of summer clothes, so my sister and I went shopping. I ended up with a few things, but I sill need a lot more! I did also buy 14 new pairs of underwear (Victoria Secret awesome sale!). This may be TMI, but in the 2+ years of losing weight, I've gone through SO many clothes. I frequently get rid of pants and shirts that are just not working any more. The one thing that I've kept the whole time? My underwear. I guess it continued to fit for quite some time, so I never needed to replace it. Lately, I've noticed that it really no longer fits. I bought a few new pairs a couple months ago, but now it's out of control. Tomorrow the underwear drawer will be purged and my buns will be happy!!

I hope everyone is having an awesome long weekend! I'm SO happy to have a day off!!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Are You Some Kind of Hippie Girl or What?

My sister is on summer break and was able to take a few days off work to come up and visit this past weekend. I always enjoy having her around. I made us a couple of appointments to get feather highlights- she chose a hot pink and green (so cute on her!) and I opted for a blue and blackish/white one. I am totally loving this look because I've always wanted blue highlights but have been too nervous about how it'd look and this is a perfect way to just have 1 blue strand. Which of course prompted the question from one of the guys at work "are you some kind of hippie girl or what??". Aren't guys funny? Speaking of my sister, she is an amazing zumba-er and convinced me to try a class- oh my awkward! Unlike my sister, I have two left feet (anyone seen that movie Dog Show- you can totally picture what I'm thinking, right?) and no rhythm. While my sis was able to step out of the room to take a sip of water and jump right back in without missing a beat, I had to study every move and tried to follow it exactly and looked goofy. I did work up a good sweat!

Explora is a local museum that teaches children about science through hands on experiments and once a month they host an event that we just couldn't miss out on!

That's right, no kids allowed!! We had so much fun playing and learning without having to be patient and wait in line with a ton of kids.

Can we discuss this photo below?

Yes, I took a creepy picture of strangers' behinds, but more importantly do you see their cartoon like tails? There were a ton of people wearing tails and ears and we just had to ask why. We were told that they are part of a club of furry fanatics and one can choose their furry character and join... Yeah, I still don't get it. There was also a group of ladies with fake mustaches and we also had to ask them. Now their answer I understood- it was a 21st birthday and the b-day girl wanted to have a fun, mustache 21st birthday bash. Cute!

Explora has an amazing craft section- there are buckets and cabinets of recycled materials, glue and kid-friendly scissors. I love this section! Jay made me a coconut bra- you can't see the straps of ribbon and the paper clip clasp he created.

My sis made a cute flower in a ribbon filled flower pot.

Using a graham cracker box, a stencil and a piece of material I made Jay an awesome hat...

The weather here has been so much nicer! We took advantage of it by taking a walk through the aquarium and the botanical gardens. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be inside of a pumpkin??

They have such beautiful flowers there!

It was a great weekend full of trips to the gym, walking around sight-seeing and shopping and visiting. I'll try to not wait as long to update you on the upcoming weekend!

Why Today Sucked

Right now, I am not loving today. Yesterday evening I felt similarly. You see, traffic seems to have ruined my life. Much like last week, the Wednesday and Thursday traffic was horrible, and yesterday I missed seeing Bridesmaids with my friends, and tonight I missed spin class. I'm really really really OVER the traffic. Yes, I knew I was getting into this when I took my job, but I never knew it could take me nearly two hours to get home on a regular basis.

One of the redeeming factors about today is that our James Taylor tickets came in the mail! We're going to see JT at Tanglewood over Fourth of July weekend. This will be our fourth time seeing him there. The first time we went we were in high school. Then we went in 2009...when we got engaged. And it rained and rained all night long.

Then we went July 4th weekend last year. And it was HOT and sunny! But we had the same handy-dandy umbrella that kept us dry the year before.

Both concerts were AMAZING and I'm really excited to again. And this year, my Dad and his wife are coming too! It should be another amazing concert, and hopefully we'll get to use the umbrella for sun again instead of rain! It's much better that way!

As frustrating as the traffic is, I'm doing my best to focus on the positive. The tickets came, tomorrow is Friday, and we have a long weekend!

Mini Update

Just a mini update with some random thoughts (sans photos unfortunately):

1. I do not enjoy egg whites. I know that they are a great source of protein but they are so rubbery. I've tried adding flavorful, fresh pico de gallo but I cannot get over that texture. Is there something healthy I can add to help me eat them??

2. I should have taken a photo of me after eating another batch of those pumpkin-oatmeal pancakes. I'm sure the miserable feeling I was experiencing would have been very apparent in the photo and then serve as an excellent reminder that oatmeal does not like me.

3. My trainer is amazing. She put me through a tough, full-body, circuit work out and was nothing but encouraging and helpful.

4. I have my first post-ankle injury race this weekend- the "Will Run for Wine" 5k. It won't be my fastest race and I probably won't run every step of it but that's okay.

5. I have to drink 3 glasses of water at each meal. After my 12 pm meal I filled a 24 oz water bottle and sipped on it on my way to my work. I ended up having 3 meetings back to back with not a minute left to use the restroom. I thought I was going to pee in the car (that was not mine).

I'll blog more later, hope you're having a great Thursday!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Back to the Grind

I am not a huge fan on Mondays. I think it's because I sleep in on Sundays and then can't fall asleep on Sunday night, making Monday far less fun.

That being said, today was actually a pretty good day. I was busy at work, which made the day go by quickly, I did some shopping on the way home, and busted my butt at spin class. Dinner was pretty sad though. As I've said many times, I am not the cook in the house, and with Johnny still in New Mexico, I could only manage an Egg Beater omlete and an english muffin for dinner.

Oh well! We can't all be Julia Child, now can we?

I shopped this afternoon for baby stuff, and oh my gosh is it cute. I was in VT this weekend for the hubs' cousin's wife baby shower, and you'd think I'd be baby-ed out, but oh no, I'm totally in love with their unborn baby (I know I'm a freak, don't worry). AL is the first friend of mine to have a baby, so I got totally into it. For the shower we gave them Red Sox onesies (of course), and a travel high chair. It was a fun weekend and a fun shower, but AL was slightly upset about the lack of "I love Mommy" stuff. They got SO many things that said "Daddy's Girl" or "I love my Daddy" that AL was feeling left out. We were told by a shower goer that Target was full of Mommy stuff, but since VT doesn't have Target, I took it upon myself to go this afternoon. And let me tell you...it was a GOLD MINE.

The giraffes are from Old Navy, but that was the ONLY one there. I was glad to snag it to add it to the pile. I may also have purchased a few (read: several) other things that were too cute to resist. Like these guys:

I LOVE that the cousins are having a baby who I will love oh so much and can buy clothes for. Because now I don't have to have one :)

Enough about babies! This weekend I did do some things that fit into the realm of healthy living. On Friday, before I started my day working from home, I busted out a pretty sweet three mile run. Mile two was about a minute slower than mile one or three, but some days that just happens. It was SO humid and nasty at 7am though, that I came home looking like a hot pink sweaty beast.

It doesn't help that the hat I wear running most days is the same color pink as my face.

And yes, that's my ID in the hat. My favorite pair of capris doesn't have a pocket in them, and I don't want to run without some form of ID (just in case) so into the hat it goes! Good thing those bad boys are plastic!

And yesterday I went to yoga! It was wonderful again, and although I am SORE today (especially in my shoulders) it felt amazing to get such a good stretch in! I also purchased some new shoes! As I mentioned before, I've been in the market for something to wear day-to-day instead of my running shoes. I love my Asics, but I wanted something a little cuter and lighter for walking to and from yoga, to spin in, and just kind of everyday stuff. After the BFF helped me with some online research last week, I stopped in the Puma store on Newbury street last night and walked out with these puppies.

These are the Puma Faas 300. They're SO light it's insane, and they PINK! I love pink! They felt great walking around last night and this evening, but I have to say, they weren't great for spin. I have an achy arch in my right foot to begin with, and because this shoe lacks a thick sole, I felt the petal pushing into my arch all class. It wasn't really painful, but it wasn't really pleasant either. I have 30 days to return them if I want to, so we'll see, but I may just have to get real spin shoes too. I'm sure Johnny would be SO happy if he came home from vacation and I had purchased a couple hundred dollars worth of shoes :)

Now it's off to bed...I should do the dishes in the sink that have been gather since Johnny left on Thursday, but I'd rather sleep. They can wait until tomorrow when I have to stay up past 10:30pm to pick Johnny up from the airport!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Jay has travelled to Taos, NM for business and firefighting but never had the chance to explore the town, he's mentioned that this was something he wanted to do with me one day. So for his birthday this year I bought him a 2 nights stay at the Dreamcatcher Bed and Breakfast in Taos, NM. I was a bit nervous because I've never been to Taos and booked the trip online. Thankfully, the B&B was so cute!!

Our room was so quaint and cozy- the fireplace was used because it was so cold!

Yep that's Jay's butt sneaking into my photo.

On our first morning at the B&B, after a delicious, homemade b-fast, we enjoyed a quick mile run around the area. I love to run when I travel because it allows me to take a longer, better look at the scenery that I might miss driving in a car. Later that day we decided to walk the short distance (~.75-1 mile) into the plaza area and check out some local shops and a brewery.

Alright so we may not have turned into dainty and mean giants but we did enjoy a taster tray to start. It was clearly the weekend for BFFs enjoying tasters in baking trays, right??

On Sunday we took a trip out to the gorge, it was incredible! I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to visit the Grand Canyon.

Afterwards we stopped by an Earthship community for a quick tour. I must admit, when I first heard about these from a trainer, I thought he was talking about a spaceship. Glad I asked for a clarification because these things are amazing!! Can you imagine living in a place that you build yourself from recycled materials and having no utility bills? Love it!

After our 2.5-3 hour drive, we picked up our pup from the kennel and headed home to tend to our garden.

Like I mentioned, it has been really cold here - our garden is having a hard time growing! This year we are planting tomatoes, squash, jalapenos, green chilie, bell peppers and mint! The mint plant seems to be loving this cold weather. Oh, and guess who was groomed at the kennel during her vacation?

Yeah, those are hot pink zebra striped bows in her hair!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Thursday Fail

Yesterday, I got my butt to the community center gym and busted out a quick couple miles on the treadmill. I was happy that I got there and got my sweat on before heading home.

Today was NOT successful. I planned on taking spin class, but I stayed at work late learning about a new project, and I had a killer stomach ache, and I was stuck in traffic...AGAIN. This week has been BRUTAL traffic wise.

Don't worry, I was dead stopped when I took this picture. You can get fined for texting in driving in MA, and I'm pretty sure taking pictures is right up there with a bone-head idea...except when you're not actually moving. The traffic was bad that the barely 1 hour commute has taken me over an hour and a half the last two days. It's a huge buzz kill.

So instead of working out, I sat on the couch and watched other people working out in the form of two weeks worth of The Biggest Loser. It was slightly motivating, but I'm just not feeling it today.

I am exhausted, and I blame it on having to get up at 4:30am to take Johnny to the airport. He's having fun in New Mexico with his family, and I'm here on the couch (not watching old episodes of True Life). Since Johnny's not here I didn't even eat real dinner...Junior Mints and Pop Chips. Really? Yeah, not healthy or impressive. :(

Oh well...tomorrow is another day. AND I will be working from home so I'll be able to squeeze in some gym time in the morning or a run. Hopefully I can pull myself together by then.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wordy Wednesday

Some people have "worless Wednesdays" and just post pictures or something like that. But no not me. I'm going to blog your ear off today!

Well, maybe not that crazy, but I don't have any pictures right now and I am actually blogging from my iPod touch. It's just one of those kind of days I guess.

Today I will be returning to the community center gym across from work. I don't actually like the gym but I need to be able to go there. The weather has been gross in MA and there has been almost no running happening because of it. And while it will be getting better, it will eventually get too hot and I'll need a cool place to go and get in a quick run before heading home for the day. In addition to this, I need a place to swim. I have only done a hand full of swims since I signed up for my tri and even though I feel most comfortable with the swim portion, I still want to feel ready and have practiced the distance more than a few times. I'm kind of on a roll fitness-wise (i.e. Getting to spin classes and yoga) and I want to be able to keep that going. A craptastic gym is still better than no gym (when you're like me and know working out at home is not an option). I'll let you know how it goes tonight.

On an unrelated note, Johnny is going to New Mexico tomorrow to celebrate his brother's graduation and I'm already sad. We've had a busy few weeks and have not had too much time to just hang out, so to now have him gone until Tuesday stinks. I'm glad it works out for him to see his family (and yes I'm super jealous since I'm not going And he'llbe in the same city as MY bff) but it will be lonely without him. I am going to VT again, this time for a baby shower, which will also be weird because I'll be staying with/seeing his side of the family without him. I'm totally comfortable going on my own, I just never have before.

Back to work I go. I'm researching car shows today. Super fun. I'm also researching sneakers to wear that are not my running shoes. Maybe something light? Any ideas?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Pants on Fire

Ok, so I lied. I am not blogging from VT. The weekend got away from me, and before I knew it I was driving back home. So this post if from Boston, but will recap my weekend.

Friday started off complicated. As I mentioned, my brother was not allowed to graduate. There was question about whether or not he'd be able to participate in the graduation ceremonies, but by Friday afternoon we knew it was not happening. Because of this, most of my family chose not to spend the weekend in VT. Their loss if you ask me! I still planned to go up, because brother's graduation or not, my mom lives there and I haven't seen her in over a month, and I don't know when I'll have the chance again. No big deal, except that I was planning on leaving from work, and the hubs and my sister were to ride from Boston to VT with my uncle. But my uncle was no longer coming. SO I had to drive the hour back to Boston, and then three hours up to my mom's. It was a traffic-free ride (so unheard of) and having the company was much better than driving alone and we crashed very soon after we got up there.

Saturday we woke to clouds, but the rain was holing off. We took the time to hit the farmers market and pick out some stuff for lunch. There were tons of yummy samples, and flowers, and I bought myself a deliciously fresh-brewed ice tea. Only the sun could have made it better!

The hubs bought his parents one of those mondo bottles of syrup, and a huge block of cheddar cheese. He's going out to visit them on Thursday (for my brother-in-law's graduation), so it was perfecting timing to get some gifts. After successful shopping, we heading home for lunch. I LOVE love love eating at my mom's. She's a natural food nut, and the stuff in her house is always so healthy and fresh. Lunch was green salad, topped with a black bean and corn salad, and fresh bread with hummus.

After lunch I set out with my sister for a four mile run. I really want to up my mileage this week, even if it mean I ran slowly. My mom even joined us for the run, which made me super happy because I've never run with my mom before, and she doesn't ever really run, so it was a super special girls run (I am a cheese ball, I know). Well let me just tell you that 4 miles did not happen. 2 miles barely happened. I don't know if I ate something bad or if I ran too soon after eating, but I ended up having to sprint home to the bathroom. Probably TMI, so sorry about that, but it totally ruined my run. My aunt had a similar issue while out taking a walk after lunch, but everyone else seemed fine, so we decided it was the timing in which we started getting moving after lunch.

I spent the rest of the day lazing around and reading my new issue of Triathlete Magazine (thanks, BFF!). This morning started early since my aunt wanted to head out, and my mom was on call for work starting at 10am. We packed up the car, including a special package...my new bike! Well, it's not new...it's old...and it's my mom's, but it's new to me! I didn't think to take a picture of it stuffed in the back of my car, but I'm so happy to have it!

We took a rainy drive home, but stopped at the Longtrail Brewery on our way home. Unfortunately, they didn't have a real tour, but we had lunch and sampled some beers.

I love that the samples come in a muffin tin. So very creative. The sampler included their Blackbeary Wheat, which the hubs doesn't like, so I enjoyed that with my meal. Seeing as I was the one driving, I stuck to just the little sample.

Once we made it home, I had a great Sunday night, summed up in this picture:

A trip to Trader Joes for this week's groceries (and flowers bc the hubs thought I deserved them), yoga class (which was SO hard and further proof that I need to do it more often) and fro-yo for dinner. A perfect ending to the weekend. Even though it didn't really go as planned, it all worked out in the end.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Present and Accounted For

I know you’re probably wondering if I fell off the face of the earth or something, since I haven’t showed up here since Sunday, but not to worry. I’m alive and well. It’s been a week of ups and downs, and I’ve had a hard time processing it all. I think I’ve sorted myself out though, and I’m feeling much better.

The first up of the week was most definitely the race. Starting out Sunday with a PR like that was awesome. On Monday, it was kind of down. I missed one of my favorite spin classes to go check out the open house at BU’s gym. I was expecting to be wowed by it, and want to stay there and work out and never leave. That was NOT the case. It was a gym. It was set up weird and there was cardio equipment in some hallways. It was overrun with students (to be expected) and the locker rooms were tiinnyyyy. All I kept thinking was that those rooms must make for some SERIOUSLY awkward naked moments. The one awesome thing about the gym was their pool. And at $19 a month it seems like a steal, but I would also have to pay for classes putting it close to what I already spend now on a gym a like better. Bust.

Tuesday was also a downer because I had the worst run ever. I managed to get my booty out of bed at 4:55am to go for a run, but it was horrible. I know it’s good that I was up and moving and even just walking it great, but it was sucky. I ran the first mile hard and then just fizzled. I guess I was too sleepy and with tired legs from Sunday I was not happening.

Wednesday was up because I found an awesome dress for my brother’s graduation/the baby shower I have to go to next weekend. It was on sale at Old Navy, and the size I got is much smaller than all my dresses last summer. It’s a little tight in the brestal area, but it had to be that was for the rest of it to look as awesome as it does. Definitely a confidence boosting kind of shopping experience. That does not always happen, so I was riding pretty high in my seat after that.

Today was the ultimate up and down. First, it was down. I’m listening to a book on CDs from the library and I thought I was on the last disc of the book. I was so interested to see how it ended, but it was not the end! Turns out, I was ripped off and only got 6 of the 10 CDs. The not so nice man at the library told me there was nothing he could do and I’d need to return it. GEE THANKS. Not like I want to hear the end of the story or anything. Then it was up because I had an ok day at work and I made it to the awesome 60 minute spin class and sweat my behind off.

And I came up with the most delicious dinner. Veggie burger with salsa, topped with a fried egg and shredded cheese of the Mexican blend variety. SO delicious. I was quite please with my dinner makings.

But as I sat down to eat I heard a crash outside. I live on a busy street, so accidents are not completely out of the ordinary, so I looked to see what had happened. Turns out, a person on a bike had been hit! I’m too far up to see if he had on a helmet, but the police, ambulance and fire truck all came. It was quite the scene and I hope everyone is alright. Even more reason why helmets and bike safety are important!

And then I cut my finger. Yeah. It HURTS. I was washing dishes and I reached into the deep water to unclog the green bean filled drain and took a knife right into the tip of my finger. I wasn’t sure how bad it was at first, so I wasn’t sure how to react. The hubs is out with the boys tonight, so all alone in my apartment I repeated some profanities for a while. Eventually it stopped bleeding, and I’m pretty sure it’s not a stitches kind of cut, but it’s right on the tip of my finger, so typing is pretty painful. I put band-aids on, but they wouldn’t stay well, so I added some masking tape to the mix. Hopefully I haven’t lost too much blood by morning.

This has turning into quite the long post. I’m sorry about that! I’ll make sure to check in more often. Although that should be an up to end the week, it’s looking pretty down. My brother won’t actually be graduating on Saturday due to his final grades and my parents are none to pleased. I’m not sure how it will all work out, but no matter what I’ll be blogging from VT next!

(I wrote this post last night but Blogger crashed apparently. annoying)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Straps Win!

I packed my gym bag at lunch. I was in a bit of a rush because I spent more time watching True Life: My Boyfriend Is Too Old For Me then I did planning my afternoon workout's attire. Being distracted led me to forget a key ingredient in my outfit...my sports bra! And of course, I packed my racer back tank top. Thankfully, I have some great, non-judgy friends so I took a poll: what is less trashier, working out in a racer back tank without a bra or showing my bra straps? Straps won!

I can justify that oily shine on my face- I started out with 10 minutes of light cardio (walking/jogging), then I worked out my triceps and shoulders and then I tagged along on the 2nd half of Jay's brick (between the BFF, my dad and Jay I am surrounded by amazing triathletes!!) and went on my first outdoor run! Yahoo!! We did about 15 minutes of easy jogging and then did 8 hill repeats (Jay sprinted, I timed and jogged behind halfway up the long, slow hill) and then we ran back- in total 36 minutes of running. The ligaments and muscles around my ankle were tender but it felt so good to be running in the just-rained-and-it's-still-cloudy outdoors.

I know I should not be eating oatmeal but I had to try a tasty breakfast item- oatmeal pumpkin pancakes! They were amazing. The recipe (I don't remember which blog we found it on, sorry!!) was super easy- egg whites, pumpkin (it called for cottage cheese and we don't have any so we substituted), oats, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice.

The result was a batch (for two) of fluffy, moist pancakes.

Even though I was going to pack these in Tupperware for the next day, I had to use my favorite plate.

I LOVE Halloween. We were at Whole Foods in October and I saw the coolest, zig-zag, black and orange birthday candles. That awesome fiance of mine bought them, hid them for 6 months and surprised me with them on my birthday cupcake- Halloween + Birthday = Excitement Beyond Words.

I'm exhausted and as you can see in my post-gym photo, in need of a major shower. Hang in there, tomorrow is Thursday!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Kick Yer Bootycamp

The spin teacher has been playing some ah-mazing jams!! Last Monday we did "Around the World"- her playlist consisted of songs that mention different countries (Toto's Africa, Men at Work's Down Under, even a little Lord of the Dance). Every song had a different workout, one song was a sprint during the chorus, another was adding resistance during each chorus and we had little to no rest in between. I loved the variety and my mind didn't wonder. Last Wednesday she did a Cinco de Mayo theme and today was a Mother's Day theme (Ozzy Osbourne's Momma I'm Coming Home, Momma Mia, etc.) all while we worked on different types of intervals- I loved it!! It was funny because right before the class, which is just after I finished working my biceps and back, I was tired and so not in the mood to take an hour class. Halfway through the class I was so happy I was there and enjoying it so much. Sometimes you really do have to push past being tired and in my case, grumpy, and just do it!!

And I forgot to tell you about Saturday's boot camp! It was amazing!! We worked out with weights, did a few rounds of sprints and I did my first set (err make that sets of 14, 12, 10, 8, 6 and 4!) of burpees with push-ups following immediately after. Whoa talk about a workout. Every part of my body was workedand my heart rate was up. It was a great way to start a Saturday morning.

Just about every time I eat oatmeal (which is 3-4 days out of the week) I have terrible stomach pains, bloating and nausea. I thought this was totally normal. It wasn't until last week that I was enduring another round of pain (see: hunched over and about ready to hurl) that I began to wonder if everyone felt this way after oatmeal. I did a little research and nope, I don't think everyone feels that bad. Whoops. After reading a few forums and articles, I think I'll be staying away from oatmeal for a little while. It most definitely was a funny/embarrassing/great realization.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Oh My Gosh Moments

I'd like to share with you a few "Oh My Gosh" moments that I experienced over the past few days.

1) I am a HUGE fan of Maroon 5- love, love, love them. While I was pulling into the parking lot at work, the radio announced that M5 is coming to Albuquerque. I think I said... actually yelled "ohmygosh ohmygosh" 20 times and squealed. I don't even care if anybody saw me- I love them!! With this reaction, you'd think this would've been my first time ever seeing them perform. Nope, it would be #3.

2) Than came "oh my goooosh, I'm not even going to be here!" moment. I was too busy expressing my joy for the M5 concert to realize their concert date falls on the same day that I will be out of town. Drats. I guess I'll just have to buy the concert DVD. That's totally not weird, right??

3) Umm randomly spotting this amazing actor out and about Saturday night at a local Abq tavern.

Thankfully, Mark Ruffalo was super nice about my friend and I getting photos with him. Can you believe the bartender actually turned him away?? He came in with 2 friends and the bartender told them "sorry we're closed" and it was only maybe 12 am! After our quick photos the bartender came out and asked what the big fuss was about- even after explaining it I still don't think he knows who Mark Ruffalo is- maybe I should lend him my extra copy of 13 Going on 30.

4) While picking up a few necessities at Target this weekend I found a cute bikini. I really don't buy bathing suits all that often because once I find one that fits, it's all that I want to wear. I decided to try on a bright, patterned swimsuit and since going on this new workout challenge, had my first "oh my gosh my body looks so different" moment. Different in a good way. I still have a long ways to go with the training but I couldn't believe how much muscle I can actually see in my back and shoulders- two places I have never carried much muscle. It has given me motivation to keep going! Even if they were to tell me that I'm not in the shape necessary to compete- I'm still walking away from this feeling so much more confident about my body.

On tonight's dinner menu: grilled bbq chicken (Jay is letting it bake for a while before it goes on the grill- our house smells ah-mazing) served with grilled mushrooms (which I've just basted in balsamic vinegar...yumm) and grilled pineapple. If the winds would taper, I'd say it's just about summer time here.

The Weekend and The Race

It has been such an awesome weekend here in the city. Weather -wise, and life-wise. Right now I'm laying in bed after a busy morning, and when I finish this post I'm going to read my book and maybe even nap. I don't see how it can get much better!

Yesterday morning really started the beautiful weekend. I didn't set an alarm, eventually got up, had some coffee, read blogs, and got out the door to the gym. No rush, just a nice relaxing morning. I did 25 minutes on the elliptical and a quick mile on the treadmill. If I'm in the city on a Saturday morning, I usually try to do weight lifting class followed by a 60 minute spin class, but since I had a race today I wanted yesterday's work out to be pretty light. When I finished I walked around the city for a while doing a bunch of errands. I refuled with some ice coffee. I absolutely love ice coffee in the summer, I even have a koozie!

We love our Dunkin' here in Massachusetts!

One of the errands I had to do was to stop at the Lindt chocolate store. Tough life, huh? Two of our friends are moving to Switzerland in a few weeks, and we had a going away party for them last night. I bought a bunch of assorted truffles and chocolate to have at that party (we also had candy watches, since the Swiss are known for their watches, Swiss and American cheese for sandwiches, and we gave them Swiss Francs as a going away present). I had a good time wandering around the store and picking things out. The sales person kept offering me free samples, but I limited myself to one, which was DELICIOUS and an awesome post-work out treat. I'm not sure I'd be able to work in a place like that!

After the rest of my errands, the clouds started rolling in. I headed home as a few sprinkles came down, and minutes after I walked in the door it started pouring! It was perfect timing! I settled in a made myself a seriously good salad. I'm sure you're not all that interested in what my salad looked like, but I took a pictures, so you get to see.

The party last night was fun, but I had to jet early to see David Sedaris read! I LOVE him as an author and I've had these tickets for months. It was unfortunate that it all fell on the same night, but the show was good! He's such a hilarious man, and I love hearing him read his own stuff. It's so much better than when I read it to myself.

This morning I was up bright and early to run a 5k in my home town. Unfortunately, I work with some hip pain. I'm not sure what it was all about because I didn't do anything crazy this week, so I think maybe I slept on it funny. I was concerned that it was ruin the race for me, but once I started running, the pain was unnoticeable. On my way to the race I picked up my gma. She came out to cheer me on!

The race itself sucked. The course was a nice challenge, but the organization was HORRIBLE. One site said it started at 9, then active.com (where we registered) said 9:30. Turns out 9:30 was right, so we were more than a little early. The race shirts were not pink, and we didn't even get one! Only the first 100 runners were given shirt, which was not information posted on the race site, and they were BLUE. We could buy them, but since I already payed for the race and it wasn't pink I didn't bother. When we started running at 9:30, we were stopped a little ways down the street where the starting line was actually located. It was bazaar, but it also threw off the mileage. According to my Garmin, the race was only 2.98 miles. That aside, I ran a GREAT race. The first mile of the race (Garmin measured, not race markers) was the fastest mile I've ever run. The second mile was a bit slower, but still rocking for me. The last .98 was HARD. It had a big uphill that made me want to cry a little. But I powered through because I knew a huge downhill was on the other side. We finished the race in 34:14, which put us on pace to finish the whole 5k at 35:44-ish (the hubs likes math and was "crunching the numbers" for me). Now, to most people out there, this probably doesn't seem that great, but for me? THIS IS AMAZING! The finished a 5k in May last year (with the BFF!) in 43 minutes. This summer, my 5k time was 40 minutes. I am improving by minutes each time, and I RAN MY FASTEST MILE EVER. Needless to say, I'm SUPER excited about this. I would have liked to have my finishing time be more accurate, but I'll take it! I have my friend Emma to thank for this awesome feeling though. Running with her really pushed me to keep my pace up, and now I know I can do it. I felt badly holding her back, but she didn't care one bit. She kept giving me pep talks and helped me finish strong. Luckily, she's running the 5 miler with me in June too!

(Please note how she looks like she barely broke a sweat and I look like I might pass out haha).

It was an awesome weekend and I feel ready to take on the week. Happy Mother's Day to all the awesome moms out there. I don't get to see mine, but I'll see her on Friday when I head to VT with the whole family! My brother is graduating and we're going to party hard. Hopefully the work week goes by quickly!