Goals...

I need some goals...I would like to put some together for the month of January and also for 2011 plus I'm still thinking about 30 before 30...seriously, I may have lost my mind...here's what I'm thinking...

January 2011 - starting 1/3/11 - 1/31/11
1. drink 64 oz of water every day
2. track all my food & make sure I burn at least 500 calories a day for at least 25 days
3. 1000 fitness minutes & I'm not allowed to count walking at the restaurant
4. run 20 miles
5. 15 spend-free days

2011 - in progress list
1. Complete the Broad St run = 10 miles
2. Complete some part of the 38th Annual American Cancer Society Bike-a-thon
3. Lose final 20 lbs = weigh in at 130
4. Pay off 1 major credit card
5. Make grad school plans
6. Spend more quality time alone with Joe
7. Wear a bikini in public
8. Use my sewing machine
9. ...to be continued...

Food Blog - 1/2/11

Sunday I had to go back to work :-( ...  Having a few whole days off always does me in.  I start doubting the whole having 2 jobs thing, but once I get to the restaurant I usually feel better.

I started the morning with a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch & a banana.  I love that you can see all the party remnants that I totally didn't bother cleaning up yet.

The restaurant wasn't super busy & Mike offered to feed me.  I never say no when Mike offers to cook so I had a 2 egg omelet with tomato & one piece of american cheese plus one slice of rye toast buttered.

 I grabbed a chocolate/m&m covered pretzel on the way out to run some errands with Joe.

After a visit with friends & quick trip to Lowe's we were starving so we attacked the leftovers taking over our fridge.  Ian is making sure no one messes with our food...

 I had a little bit of spinach dip on pumpernickel and I made myself roast beef & swiss with mustard on a sandwich thin plus some cut up baby carrots.

 I figured the weekend should go out with a bang so I shared my blueberry cream cheese pie with Joe.

I feel like my choices were a little better today.  2128 burned - 1669 eaten = 459 total burn.  I managed to get all my water, in fact 60oz of it was while I was at work and before noon.  I had 3 or 4 servings of fruits or veggies.  I didn't technically work out but my steps were over 8000.

30 before 30?

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately with posts about having a 30 before 30 list.  Basically it's just like it sounds, making a bucket list of things you'd like to accomplish before you turn 30.  I would really like to do one but my concern is that I'll be 30 in 3 months & 2 weeks which loosely translates to having to accomplish 1 goal every 3 days!  I don't know about you but that seems like a lot to me...

What do you think, should I do it?  If I do, what do I put on my list?

2011 - the year of 30!

Yep, it's here, the year I turn the big 3-0...  I haven't totally decided how I feel about it yet though.  In some ways I'm bummed because I thought I'd be married & have children by now but at the same time I'm not unhappy with my life as it is.  I love my family, my boyfriend (although I hate that title), my job, my house & my friends, my life is pretty damn good, I've lost 30 lbs and I'm planning to take off another 20 (fingers crossed).  I'm really feeling great!  I would like to set some goals for this month & year but I think I'm going to leave those to a post of their own...  For now I'll tell you about new years day.

Everyone was up & moving up about 9:30 so we went across the street to have some breakfast.  Joe was already at Robert's pregaming for the plunge so Bill & Jack were outnumbered.

I had 2 eggs over easy with home fries & turkey bacon plus rye toast.

After breakfast it was time to head to the plunge, Sarah decided to join me while everyone else went home to wake up :-).  I'm too smart for all that jumping in the freezing ocean stuff so I act as photographer.  There are so many people that they have to block off a full block around Essex Ave with fire trucks and the bar takes out all the chairs.  One year I attempted to go inside but after practically being crushed I know better now & stay outside.  It really is crazy how many people show up.

This is my favorite view every year; as you come up the stairs onto the beach there's just a sea of people.

Joe & his friends running into the ocean, they went twice this year.

I always try to get a shot of the 2 of us; it's funny because he's in a bathing suit & I'm suited up for a blizzard.  Don't you love my new hat?  You can't tell but it's pink & purple so it matched my outfit perfectly.  This year wasn't as bad though, it was about 45 degrees out, I think the water & air were close to the same temperature.

Joe's plunging pals...Sean was in, out & dried off before we even got on the beach.

After the plunge I took Sarah home and Joe went to have a few more drinks/get something to eat.  I stayed and visited with Sarah's parents for about an hour, they are really like my second set, I've known them since I was about 8 years old and I should stop & visit more often.  When I got home I was starting to get pretty hungry so what did I do...have a chocolate/m&m covered pretzel...not the greatest idea, I'm going to need to get this junk out of my house asap.

We spent the majority of the afternoon/evening laying around, Joe watching tv & napping, me blogging & catching up on my reader...not that I got very far I'm still up over 500 unread posts.  That pretzel didn't keep me full for long so we cooked a few of the french bread pizzas we had in the freezer. 

Then I splurged again on one for the cupcakes left over from the party...seriously someone come take this stuff out of my house...

Even though I misbehaved quite a bit I still managed to burn some calories for the day.  1862 burned - 1419 eaten = 443 total burn.  I managed to get all my water but only because I drank 3 bottles while sitting on the couch around 8pm...I didn't eat any fruits or veggies and I didn't work out...WOW what a start to 2011, lol.

12/31 - Day 40 - New Years Eve

Woo Hoo, what a great day this was!  I'm going to apologize now because this post is going to be crazy long...because...number 1 - I was off work (lots of time to do fun things), number 2 - it's the last day of the challenge (gotta wrap things up) & number 3 - new years eve party (lots of pictures)!

I was really hoping to work out on Friday because I knew there would be a lot of eating & drinking after 8pm.  Unfortunately, when I asked Angela, Shana & Christina if they could go for a run or take a class with me, none of them could.  Thankfully, Amanda, offered to take a class with me at the gym out in Ventnor after she finished with her trainer.  The bad news is that it was similar to the class we had taken the night before & I was already super sore.  The cardio class started at 9:30 so I had time to go get breakfast with Joe across the street before he left for work.  I wanted to keep my calories as low as possible during the day so I'd have plenty left for the party; I ordered scrambled eggs with onion & cheese on rye toast.

I seriously had my ass handed to me during at the gym, I'm not sure I've ever sweat that much in one hour before.  It was a good thing I brought another set of clothes because my afternoon was packed.  Our (Amanda & my) plan was to split up after class, she would go to her nail appointment & I would drive over to my sister's new house to check it out, then we would meet up out by the mall at Kohl's to do some shopping and grab some lunch.  


I totally didn't take pictures at Shana's new house, it didn't even occur to me while I was there, I'm the worst, but then again this post really doesn't need any more pictures...  Good news is she's thinking about starting a blog about their renovations so maybe you'll get to see it sooner rather then later?!?!  I hung out there for about an hour & caught up on what's new with her/Bill then went on my merry way to the mall.  While I was driving my dad called to see if I was around because we had a gift for me, since he lives out by the mall I said I would just stop at his house on my way.  

He got me (and Shana) a pair of bear paw shaped gloves from Colorado!  They're awesome, once I had them on I just couldn't fight the urge to talk with my hands, I must have looked ridiculous but Shana said she had the same urge, lol.  I visited with my dad for about 20 minutes then had to run to meet Amanda, she was already at Kohl's waiting!  We wandered around the store for a while looking for sparkly clothes to wear for new years & assorted other items we probably didn't need.  I came across this mirror which I think would look fantastic in our office but for $50 it was a lot, instead I picked up some mirrored circles we can stick to the wall for $20.

After Kohl's we stopped by BJs to visit Joe.  He was pretty busy so we didn't get to talk or anything but I did pick up Eclipse!  I didn't get to see it in the theater so I'm super excited to watch it soon!  Next we stopped off at Old Navy to look for a cardigan for Nicole, but they didn't have the one she was looking for anymore.  They did have these adorable piggy banks though!  I was close to picking one up because they were only about $2.50 but none of them really spoke to me.  Amanda said they were creepy...not totally sure I get why except that the silver one didn't have eyes...

By now it was after 2pm and we were pretty hungry.  Amanda said the pizza at Godfather's is her favorite so we stopped there.  I had a slice of plain & 1.5 breaksticks, the pizza was pretty good, nice and crispy.

After lunch we parted ways to get ready for NYE.  I had to stop at Shop Rite to pick up some snacks/drinks for our party.  My goal was to be home by 4 and I walked in the door at 4:15, not too bad.  I made sure to take a picture of all the food this time!

spinach dip with pumpernickel bread cubes

crab dip with triscuit crackers

assorted desserts

veggie tray with ranch dip

fruit tray with cream cheese dip

buffalo chicken dip

mozzarella sticks

I had a little bit of everything throughout the night along with 3 shots of vodka & a glass of champagne.

Our guests started to arrive around 8:30pm.  Everyone seemed to have a really good time & got along nicely. I added 40+ pictures from the party to facebook, I obviously couldn't put them all on here but I tried to get one of each person in attendance :-)

Jack all decked out in his awesome blazer & shoes

Jessica & Brandon

Angela & Rob

Shana & Bill

Amanda & Brian

Nicole, Jack & Lou

Joe & me

Janey & Bernie

My cat spent the majority of the evening perched on top of Joe's new ladder by the tree out of Jack's reach but when he started messing around in her water house she didn't let him out of her sight.  It was pretty funny how she watched his every move.

Lou was the second person to fall asleep...he's such a party animal...

Here's to 2011!  Hope your night was as good as mine.

Daily wrap up:

1. completed 60 fitness minutes...at 1585 for 40 days - goal met

2. 2 servings of fruits/veggies...goal failed, big time

3. 64 ounces of water...drank 64 oz every day for 40 days - goal met

4. Tracking: 2785 calories burned - 2369 calories eaten = total 416 calories burned... tracked everyday for 40 days - goal met

5. I had a pretty great day, totally counts...had lots of good/relaxing times - goal met

6. I got on the scale this morning (Saturday) and came in at 150...even though it's higher then a few days last week my goal is met...

Now that my challenge is over I needed to figure out where to go with all of this.  Should I keep blogging?  What should I blog about?  Should I keep following Angela's rules?  Here's what I decided...I'm going to keep blogging about my life but there won't be a wrap up anymore.  I like how accountable this makes me so I'm going to keep going...stay tuned :-)

Five for Friday - 12/31/10

I feel pretty terrible that I forgot my 5 for Friday post last week but it was Xmas Eve & I just totally forgot...

1. You got me a beautiful topaz ring for xmas that I can't stop staring at...
2. You shoveled out my car first...
3. You brought home my favorite cream cheese pie from your boys night out, again...
4. You made grilled cheese & soup for dinner because it's my favorite...
5. You're doing the majority of the shopping & cleaning for our NYE party even though I'm off the day of & could do it then...

brunch for my 29th Birthday at Seaview

12/30 - Day 39

Wow, these holiday weekends are really killing my blogging mojo!  Here I am just getting to blogging Thursday on Saturday...  

I don't even really remember Thursday morning except I was excited because it was the last day of work before the long weekend but apprehensive because it could prove to be a long day with everyone trying to get last minute orders in.  For breakfast I just had a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch no bananas yet though, they're not ripe yet :-(

My morning went by pretty quickly I only had a finish last minute rush orders to take care of.  I was starving at around 11 so I had one of the cookies I've been hoarding in my desk drawer.  It was so delicious!

Lunch came a little late as has been happening a lot lately, maybe I should just change my normal time...

Just before xmas a vendor had gifted our department a red velvet cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.  I looked up the calorie content & ruined it for pretty much everyone; 630 calories per slice!  Well, someone remembered it was in there & decided to pass it around.  I had 1/8 of slice, pretty much just cut off the tip which was about 3 small bites & it really was delicious.

The rest of my day went by pretty quickly, I met with a coworker I hadn't previously seen face to face so that was nice.  Then after work I met Amanda at the gym to take our most loved/hated cardio class.  I was actually really excited to get back to the gym, it had been over a week since my last workout!  Our instructor kicked our asses!  Only 3 people showed up so she changed things up and did a ball class instead of our normal cardio/boxing, it was a great workout!


Joe got out of work early & had dinner cooking when I got home.  We had plans to go to a 30th birthday party for a friend of ours so I jumped in the shower while he finished cooking.  We had some baked chicken with orzo & parmesan cheese, it was good but I would have liked a vegetable as well but beggars can't be choosers.

The party was fun, our friend's wife organized a small poker tournament & even though neither Joe or I played we did get to spend some time visiting with people we don't see often.  I don't actually know how to play poker so watching everyone helped me learn some of the rules.  I'm excited to maybe even host our own poker night sometime soon!  I didn't take any pictures at the party (bad blogger) but don't worry Friday's post is extremely picture heavy!  I'm also pretty proud of myself because I didn't drink anything but water and eat anything but a handful of pretzel sticks at the party!

I wanted to share this years holiday card today too!  People have finally received them so posting it here won't ruin the surprise anymore.  This time we went with snuggies on the cats.

Daily wrap up:

1. completed 60 fitness minutes - goal met, at 1525 now

2. 1 servings of fruits/veggies - goal failed

3. 64 ounces of water...check

4. Tracking: 2529 calories burned - 1356 calories eaten = total 1173 calories burned...

5. I had a pretty ok day, nothing stressful but nothing special... - goal met

6. I got on the scale this morning (Saturday) and came in at 150, so my goal is met...