1/31/2011

Vroom Vroom

Joe & I had been planning on spending the day together on Sunday but then we were invited to go to the Philly car show with my dad, Judy, Shana & Bill.  Now cars aren't really my thing, I just don't get excited about all the horse power & whatever but Joe really enjoys it.  So I excepted the invitation and looked at it as a good workout, lots of steps to be had.  I ended up having a much better time then I thought I would.

My morning began with Ian annoying the crap out of me.  I'm thinking maybe it was payback for the shower the day before.  Seriously, he slept between my legs all night and as soon as I started to stir he was up in my face like staring at me or something.  Finally, I grabbed my phone and took a picture of him, imagine that like 6" from your face.
We got up and out the door by about 8:30.  The plan was to meet Shana & Bill in Mays Landing then drive to Cherry Hill where we'd meet my dad & Judy for breakfast and take one car into the city.  I was pleasantly surprised when everything was right on schedule (Bill is notoriously late for everything).  We went to Ponzio's diner and I had french toast with sugar free syrup = 427 calories.  I'm not usually a french toast or pancake person, I tend to stick with eggs in the morning, but for some reason I really wanted the french toast.  I'm glad I got it too, it was very good and because it was only 2 slices I wasn't stuffed.
We got to the show around noon & I started documenting the day.  Here is everyone coming down the escalator. 
My dad has a bad back, he's had surgery on it and does the best he can to keep in good shape so that he can walk as much as possible but he finally caved and got a walker with a seat to use for events like this.  I really think it's the best thing he could have done because now when he gets tired he can sit down and rest without missing out on anything.  But just because I think it's a good idea didn't stop up from teasing him about it, as you can see from Shana pretending to kick him downstairs.  
Here's Shana in one of the first cars we came across.  Not sure what it is...
I was upset to learn that Honda isn't making the Element after April 2011.  I love my tangerine Element and this sea foam colored one is super cute too.
Since I may not be able to get another Element I decided to hop in anything else I thought was cute & could maybe earn my love.  Like this Ford Flex with the white roof.
The Toyota FJ Cruiser may be able to replace my beloved Element (but definitely not in white).  I wanted to look at these when I got my Element but they were still too new & expensive.  Plus it was hard to find used options, I don't really see the point in getting a brand new car if I can get a slightly used one much cheaper.
They had the actual car used as Bumble Bee to film Transformers.  I made sure to get a picture of Joe taking a picture of it.  It's so hard to get shots of him at these things because he's always taking pictures.
In fact, while I was taking that picture of him he was taking one of me with my dad & Judy.
We had a lot of fun playing in this mini cooper.


That is until we came across the conversion van...it was so fancy & comfortable and only $73,000.
I'm so happy we got to the show as early as we did, it just got more & more packed as the day went on.  We only spent about 15 minutes in the final room because it was hard to see anything through all the people.  One we finished up there we went over to Tony Luke's for dinner.  We try to eat there pretty much any time we're in Philly, it's right by Ikea,  we didn't have time to get there though, another time I guess.  Anyway, Tony Luke's has the most delicious cheese fries with bacon & ranch dressing = 314 calories (split with Shana, Bill & Joe).
Then I had 1/2 of this roast pork & sharp provolone sandwich = 352 calories.
Once we were all sufficiently stuffed it was time to head back to south Jersey.  We were back at Shana's car by about 7pm.  She mentioned she had been having trouble with her windshield washer fluid so Joe took a look under the hood.  I'm not sure what the resolution was because I refused to get out of the car, it was just too cold out there.
When we got home it was still early enough to visit with Nicole, Lou & Jack.  I felt terrible because I hadn't seen them all week and now Jack's walking!  I totally should have taken a picture!  I visited for about an hour until Jack got cranky and had to go to bed.  I left Joe there with Lou & headed home to edit & upload pictures from the car show.  My calories were still pretty low so I had another ice cream cone while I worked on them = 140 calories.
I also had a serving of peanut butter filled pretzels throughout the day.  I grabbed a couple before we left in the morning and then a few more before running next door = 140 calories.
I tried to get to bed early since I'd be going back to work in the morning but I must have been too amped up from all the excitement, Joe was snoring away next to me but I didn't fall asleep until almost 11.

How did I do on my January goals?
1. drink 64oz of water every day: check, 1 day missed
2. track all my food & burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days: 2258 burned (YAY for 16,000 steps walked) - 1373 eaten = 885 total burned, 24 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 0 minutes today, 957 total for month
4. run 20 miles: 0 today, 32.6 total
5. 15 spend free days - I bought a bottle of water at the show, only 8 days total

Chicken wings have how many calories!?!?!

This was my first Saturday off with nothing planned in a really long time; how late do you think I slept?  10? 11?  Yeah, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8am.  I'd actually prefer it that way though, whenever I do manage to sleep that late I feel like I've wasted half my day.  Joe had plans to help John move some furniture before he went to work so we headed out for breakfast right away.  We met John there so he and Joe could leave straight from the restaurant.  Rob & Angela were up and about too so they joined us all at Towne & Country.  Here's my ham & swiss omelet with tomato & rye toast.  I didn't eat anywhere close to the whole thing which is odd for me, I can usually put away some breakfast food = 520 calories.
After breakfast, Angela & I made plans to meet up around 11 to do our 5 mile run.  This would be my furthest distance so far...  I went home for a few hours to digest, watched some of my "crap shows" as Joe calls them (wedding reality & teen drama) on the DVR and messed around on the computer.
I know the map & stats above are probably a little hard to see but it was the best way I could find to upload the information from sportypal.  We headed out a little closer to noon then 11 but the weather wasn't too bad.  I would have liked a little more sun and a little less wind but I guess that's what happens when you choose to run outside.  We did the 5 miles in just under an hour.  We planned on keeping our pace around or under 12 minutes per mile and we ended up at 11.28!  I'm not going to lie, it was hard; we stopped and walked a little bit on 3 separate occasions.  But we also burned almost 600 calories, so awesome!  We're doing 6 miles this coming weekend...wish me luck.  As a treat we stopped at Starbucks on the way home, shocker I know, Angela & I at Starbucks...  We split a chicken salad sandwich = 205 calories.
They were giving away samples of their Starbucks VIA Cinnamon Spice ready brew, my god it was so good.  A whole cup of it is 60 calories so I've decided not to count the little mini cup I tried because I didn't eat the crusts of bread on the sandwich, I figure it evens out...
Of course I had my favorite tall skinny cinnamon dolce latte = 90 calories.
We hung out at Starbucks for probably an hour eating, drinking & chatting before heading home to clean up.  Joe & I had both recently noticed that the cats weren't smelling their freshest.  It makes sense because I hadn't bathed them since...I don't even remember...maybe October...  Anyway, I decided now was as good a time as any & in the shower they went.  Now my cats smell clean & they're so nice and soft.

After we were all dried off & beautiful I went over to see Shana's new appliances.  They had just been delivered that morning and she was excited to show them off.  Since we are such good little jewish girls we were extremely happy to see her refrigerator's sabbath mode.  I'm not positive of all the details I think it maybe shuts down to very low power for sabbath and alerts you if things are getting too warm so you can make arrangements...
I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the house when I got there and it was too dark when I left.  But at least I remembered to take a picture of Shana "working."  She made sure to put on all of her protective gear before helping Bill put the heater cover back on.
We were all starting to get hungry around 7 so we made plans to meet Joe at the Hi Point for some wings & beer.  I had a small tossed salad with ranch dressing first so that I wouldn't go too crazy on the wings = 123 calories. 
I ended up eating 6 of the dry chicken wings with scampi sauce = 863 calories.  I was shocked!  The Hi Point's wings are really big but seriously 144 calories each?!?!
The plan was to head back to Shana & Bill's new house after dinner so Joe could finally see it but it was close to 9:30 when we finished eating and we were all too tired, he'll have to visit another time.  I'm pretty sure we just went home & straight to bed after that, Sunday was shaping up to be a pretty long day.

How did I do on my January goals?
1. drink 64oz of water every day: I'm so bummed, I missed it today :-(
2. track all my food & burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days: 2397 burned -1801 eaten = 596 total burned, 23 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 957 total for month
4. run 20 miles: 5 today, 32.6 total
5. 15 spend free days - I didn't buy anything (John bought us breakfast, Angela bought me lunch & Joe got dinner), only 8 days total though

You would think with 63 hours off of work I could manage 1 blog post...

but apparently that's not the case.  I swear I sat down to write at least twice, I even uploaded the pictures and saved everything as a draft.  I just couldn't manage type it all out though.  And of course, now it's been a few days so I can't even remember a lot of what happened on Friday.  Lucky for you I have the pictures!  Looks like I started off breakfast with cocoa pebbles & some trop 50 = 221 calories.  This was my first time having cocoa pebbles and I'm not really a fan.  It was just too much sugar and not enough substance.  Maybe I'll try again with a banana added this week.
Apparently I got hungry before lunch and had this clementine = 35 calories.
My lunch break was kind of a strange one.  I had my delicious left over chinese = 244 calories.  But one of my coworkers was in a weird mood and it kind of made the room less fun.  She headed back to her desk a little earlier & the rest of us compared notes about the upcoming construction.  No one really knows where their final destination will be so there's all this conjecture about who, where, why...
After work I met Angela at the gym to crank out 3 miles on the dreadmill.  It was crazy hot & humid in the gym so we were really struggling.  I also turned the speed up to 5.5 so that may have had something to do with my exhaustion as well.  It's so much easier to take a class as a workout but I was home by 6:15, gotta love that!  For dinner I decided to heat up one of the leftover pieces of chicken cordon bleu = 479 calories.
I still had a lot of calories left for the day so I grabbed one of the weight watchers ice cream cones from the fridge = 140 calories.
I have to say these are not nearly as tasty as the skinny cow brand.  The ice cream is just really obviously "healthy."  It's almost hard to tell the skinny cow brand is "diet" it's nice and creamy.
Joe came home from work a little later with some new treats, peanut butter filled pretzels.  I was still under 1200 calories for the day so I had 1 serving (10 pieces) = 140 calories.
We hung out and watched some tv for a little while, I think an episode of American Idol, we're still at least 2 behind though.  It was pretty funny because I was in no rush to get to sleep since I didn't have to work in the morning but we still ended up in bed by 10.

Oh, and Groupon got me again.  They have 1/2 price tickets to Longwood Gardens in PA.  Joe & I have never been and I know he'd enjoy taking pictures there so I got us 2 tickets.  I think we're going to try to go on 2/27 since that's the next weekend day Joe is scheduled off.
How did I do on my January goals?
1. drink 64oz of water every day: check, every day total
2. track all my food & burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days: 2289 burned -1259 eaten = 1030 total burned, 22 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 40 minutes today, 897 total for month
4. run 20 miles: 3 today, 27.6 total
5. 15 spend free days - Groupon got me again, only 7 days total

1/28/2011

Mean Girls

No not the movie.  Although that is one of my top 5, along with The Princess Bride, 50 First Dates, Robin Hood: Men in Tights & A Knight's Tale (The Emperor's New Groove is #6).  Anyway, what I'm really talking about it how catty we females are to one another.  I have a lot of female friends and I will openly admit that when one of them does something that offends me I immediately go bitch to another of them about it.  Well, I'm going to attempt to stop this vicious cycle, it doesn't solve anything and only creates division amongst my friends.  How can I expect them to like each other if I tell them all of each others worst moments?  For example, a friend of mine said something the other day that I was offended by and instead of internalizing it and bitching to someone else, I sent her a quick email letting her know I was hurt by what she said but I valued our friendship and wanted to clear the air instead of creating a bigger issue.  She wrote back that she was sorry and knew at the time she had said something but wasn't sure what exactly or how to fix it.  I let her know she didn't have to do anything to fix it but I needed it out in the open so I could move past it.  Now everything is back to normal.  I'm pretty proud of myself!

Thursday was a pretty good day, let's talk about it.  We woke up bright and early because Joe was supposed to go to training in PA for work.  After watching a few minutes of Philadelphia news coverage of the snow storm it was obvious he would not be driving up there.  I got ready for work as usual since our beach adjacent town only had about 2" of snow.  I wasn't extremely hungry so I had a glass of Trop 50 with my medicine & a container of yogurt = 150 calories.
Because my breakfast was so light I decided to indulge in another Chai Latte when I got to work = 70 calories. 
Around 10 I got a message from Joe asking if I'd like to go to lunch with him.  I was more then willing to forgo my leftover chinese food & spend some time with him in the middle of the day.  We went to Gary's in Pleasantville which is pretty much the only restaurant close to my office.  It's a little breakfast & lunch place similar to where I work on the weekends.  Plus I know the owner, our paths have crossed a few times over the years and we have very similar last names so we've been mistaken for father/daughter numerous times.  They had a special featuring grilled cheese with tomato & bacon a side of macaroni & cheese plus a cup of soup.  That was too much deliciousness for me to pass up although I did pass on the bacon & Joe ate my soup.  I ended up eating the grilled cheese with tomato & less then half the macaroni = 464 calories.
I returned to work full of cheesy goodness and ready to tackle my afternoon paperwork.  A little while later the doorbell rang and a delivery man from a florist was there.  It wasn't anyone's birthday or anniversary so we were all excited to see who they were for.  Imagine my surprise when my boss called me out of my cube to sign for them!  I had just eaten lunch with Joe, why would he be sending me flowers?  I opened the card to read "Hi Lady" as the only message.  My extremely thoughtful boyfriend had sent me flowers just to say hi :-)
Needless to say I was in a very good mood the rest of the afternoon!  After work I went over to the gym to take my last cardio class with Angela (the instructor) as Mary Jo will be returning next week to teach kickboxing again (I'm beyond excited).  The class definitely kicked my butt, I was plenty tired and sweaty by the time the hour was up.  I was also starving and interested to see what Joe was making for dinner.  When I asked him what was on the menu he only said "food" when I asked what kind he said "dinner food."  I was pleasantly surprised to discover he had made chicken cordon bleu with asparagus = 587 calories.  It was sooooo good!
After dinner we watched some American Idol, we're about 4 episodes behind at this point.  I was still a little hungry after dinner and I had a decent number of calories left after having my butt kicked at the gym so I decided to have my cream cheese pie from The Library = 380 calories (and worth every single one).
I was feeling pretty good about myself because I thought I had a spend free day.  Then I remembered Groupon...if you're not familiar with it let me explain.  Basically, the website advertises great deals on just about anything, but a certain number of people have to sign up to buy it before the deal goes live. Once they’ve reached their tipping point, the deal is for real and people can keep on buying the coupon until the deal expires. All that technical stuff (how many people is the tipping point, what the deal is, how long it is available) is agreed on by the vendor and the website.  So you create an account and sign up for the city nearest you (I use Philly) then each day you get an email (or alert on your phone) letting you know what the deals are.  Well, yesterday I made 2 Groupon purchases, dammit!  The first is for $15, I get $30 worth of products Bath & Body Work products.  Really, this is just a good deal so I went for it, not even sure what I'll buy.  The second is for $35, I get $115 worth of custom-designed photo books from Photobook America.  I've almost completely stopped printing pictures on our at home printer so I'm trying to start creating these albums instead for big events.  I have another Groupon from Shutterfly that I'm going to use to make an album of our trip to Mexico and I'm thinking about using this Photobook one to make an album of Shana's wedding, if she'll let me steal some professional pictures...(she hasn't commented on her gift yet, let's see how long it takes her to read both posts now).

How did I do on my January goals?
1. drink 64oz of water every day: check, every day total
2. track all my food & burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days: 2428 burned -1651 eaten = 777 total burned, 21 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 857 total for month
4. run 20 miles: 0 today, 24.6 total
5. 15 spend free days - see above, only 7 days total

Five For Friday - 1/28/11

1. You got me my favorite candy bar & dessert all in the same day...even though it's no good for my diet...

2. You are literally “my better half,” you are a kind, patient, decent, even-tempered man.  I, on the other hand, am impatient; my emotions are all over the board, and I am very direct, blunt, and some may say inconsiderate.  You bring out the better qualities in me and make me want to be more like you.

3. We are now the owners of a Little Tikes basketball hoop because you wanted Jack & Luke to have something to play with when they come over (not sure what you were thinking getting the toy with a bat though).

4.  You always pick up Trop 50 for me when it's on sale, even if it's not on the grocery list.

5.  You sent me flowers at work for no other reason then to say hi.

Xmas 2004

1/27/2011

the power of positive thinking

Well, we've got more snow here in south Jersey.  They were calling for anywhere from a dusting to 10" depending on which news channel you watched at what time of day.  We woke up this morning to...maybe 1.5".  It's funny how things change though, 2 years ago I would have been thrilled to have any snow and now unless it's a foot I can't be bothered.  It did make for a pretty drive into work though.  I thought about pulling over and taking a picture on my way in but that just seemed like a lot of work, lol.

If you remember, Wednesday didn't start out so great but I'm pretty proud that I managed to turn my gloomy mood around.  I was somehow able to fight off my migraine with caffeine, food & water.  I still can't find the missing $40, pretty bummed about that but at least it wasn't more.  By the time I left work it was raining so I didn't have to worry about too much slush and as long as I held my pants up I stayed clean.  I decided to put the bills away, I might go through them today but we'll see.  Go me!  Unfortunately, when I'm in a bad mood it always makes me feel better to buy new things.  This is definitely something I need to work on overcoming, but not today.  I started the shopping spree before I even got out of bed.  The woot application on my phone alerted me that they we're selling these lovely electric fleece blankets for $18.  How could I pass that up?  I don't have a electric blanket but I would love to curl up under one when I'm freezing to death downstairs watching tv.  I got the brown & red pattern on top for us and the blue & cream one for Shana.  Let's see how long it takes her to read this post and see that she's getting a present...
I eventually managed to pry myself off the computer and into the shower.  I have finally been able to get some good relaxing down time in the evenings and it's really made getting up in the morning a lot easier.  I went downstairs to pack my lunch & eat of breakfast.  Then I realized I still had leftover lunch at work and I was out of bacon and sandwich thins, so I had a lot less to do.  I decided on a glass of Trop 50 and bowl of Lucky Charms = 211 calories.  I don't I've had Lucky Charms since middle school and let me tell you, I didn't miss them, not a fan.
Since my breakfast was so low in calories I decided to indulge in a Chai Latte when I got to work = 70 calories.   
Around 11am my stomach actually growled, that NEVER happens.  I decided it would be smarter to feed the beast then to attempt to hold off for lunch.  Clementine = 35 calories. 
Obviously I was ready to eat when lunch time finally rolled around.  I had a variation of my standard = 260 calories. 
When I checked my email a little later in the afternoon I was excited to see that the gym had sent out the new group fitness class schedules!  I had been a little annoyed because they were promising them for 1/31 but that was also the day the new schedule started, how's a girl to plan with so little notice?  Well, I got my panties in a bunch for nothing, the classes I take haven't changed at all, well, that's not true, the instructors have switched around a little bit but all the actual classes are the same.  (side note: I was hungry around 2pm so I had a mini blondie I had been hiding in my desk = 92 calories, no picture because I ate it too damn fast)
I was whining to Joe that I was miserable and hadn't seen him in 2 days so I just wanted a quiet night at home.  He offered to pick up dinner on the way home and watch a movie, YAY!  I was excited to get through group power with Angela and go home for yummy food & quality time.  I used the same higher weights in hopes of staying a little sore, lol.  I sent Joe a text half way through class that I was starving and he responded "italian or seafood?"  That's a tough call, it was so nasty out some delicious pasta might be just the ticket but then seafood is usually healthier...of course I went italian!  He ended up stopping at Giovanni's in Northfield, they have my favorite gnocchi with rosa sauce.  I ate about 2/3 of the dinner and dipped a little bread in the sauce = 809 calories.
We didn't end up watching a movie but did knock out a few hours of DVR shows before heading to bed.  Oh right, I also bought this grey sweater because I noticed I somehow managed to not own one previously.  Ann Taylor Loft was having a 50% off clearance sale, I love when stores start getting rid of clothes and it's still the appropriate season to wear them!
I also ordered this fleece lined running shirt.  I have a pair of plum colored winter running pants that look funny with my pink or purple fleece running shirts.  I think this white one will work nicely plus it was on sale!
I was just telling Nicole how I love that this blog keeps me honest with not only my eating but my shopping as well.  I always think twice before ordering something because I know I have to tell everyone about it (like a pair of red pumps on sale at naturalizer today for $23.70).

How did I do on my January goals?
1. drink 64oz of water every day: check, every day total
2. track all my food & burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days: 2287 burned -1477 eaten = 810 total burned, 20 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 797 total for month
4. run 20 miles: 0 today, 24.6 total
5. 15 spend free days - I bought blankets & tops, only 7 days total