peanut butter makes everything better

I've decided that after yesterday's post I sort of like changing the format a little.  I'm not making any promises that things are changing for good but it was easier writing about my goals as they happened instead of having to jump all over the day to meet each point.

I didn't really eat anything extremely interesting all day.  For breakfast I had a french toast bagel left over from the day before with low fat cream cheese (448 calories).  It was a little higher calorie then my breakfast tends to be but it was so delicious and kept me full until almost 2pm!  I pretty much only ate lunch because Brittany & Shannon told me it was time to!  I had 2 cups of diced cantaloupe, a gala apple and a container of peach chobani greek yogurt (301 calories). 

After work I decided to give the gym a shot.  My foot hadn't been bothering me all day even though I was running all over the place in heels so I started with a 2 mile run on the treadmill (21 minutes).  I had a couple of sharp pains but nothing that made me stop in my tracks.

I had talked to Christina earlier in the afternoon and she assured me she was coming to group power so I set up our spot before my run.  I don't know about the rest of you but we really love our spot in the back!  Thankfully the class didn't bother my foot much either, I had a twinge or two of pain during the lunge track but again, not enough to stop me from continuing (60 minutes).

I didn't bother cooking anything new for dinner.  We had plenty of leftovers from the end of last week so it didn't make sense to start something new.  Plus I get another farm basket on Wednesday so we really need to knock out everything in the fridge to make room.  I just heated up a piece of eggplant lasagna after the gym (395 calories).

When Joe came home from work he wasn't in a great mood because he found out that he didn't get one of the management positions he had interview for.  I was bummed for him but he's applied for a few others so we're keeping our fingers crossed one of them comes through.  I tried to bolster his mood by heating up some left over stuffed peppers for his dinner and just tried to stay out of the way mostly.  So when Nicole asked if I needed steps I jumped at the chance to get out of the house and let him have some space.  We wandered over to Rita's and I had a kid's key lime ice (80 calories).  It wasn't as good as I had hoped so I tossed it after only eating half.

We got Jack his own bubble gum flavored water ice but most of it ended up on him instead of in him.

Next we stopped at ShopRite and I picked up some eggs and a special treat for Joe (money spent).  I went a little crazy with a chocolate peanut butter theme but it seemed to work (I may have also snacked on a few of those reese's pieces (110 calories)); we had a nice conversation about life, careers and so on before going to bed around 11.

1. 15 Spend Free Days:  4 days total. 

2. At least 20 days with a 750+ calorie burn:  Breakfast: 448 calories + Lunch: 301 calories + Dinner: 395 calories + Snacks: 190 calories = 2574 burned - 1344 eaten = -1240 total burned, 6 days total.

3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes: 238 total.

4. Walk at least 11,000 steps for 25 days:  11042 steps.  8 days total.  Bad news is by the time we got back from walking around the plaza my foot was killing me!  I was practically limping.  I'm guessing it's because I was wearing flip flops instead of more supportive shoes like I had been the rest of the day.  I took a couple of aleve before bed and crossed my fingers it's not something serious.

5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  In hopes of cheering Joe up I wiped down the kitchen counters and picked up whatever I could.  4 days total.

4th annual tubing trip

So I've decided to post my goals a little out of order for Sunday because the story of my day just wouldn't flow right with how I've been listing them :-) 

We have been tubing from Palace Outfitters in Mays Landing every August for the last 4 years.  It's always a great day and usually once someone joins us they come back every year following.  It's really great to have an event everyone looks forward to!  We usually try to go towards the end of the month as a goodbye to summer but between our vacation and other responsibilities this month there wasn't any other time to fit it in.  Of course the weather report was saying 60% then 85% then 95% chance of thunderstorms!  I called the company and they stated that everyone signs a waiver before getting on the river and they didn't have any intentions of closing for the day so Joe and I decided to give it a shot.

3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes:  After our realization on Saturday night that the Custard Hut wasn't quite as far away as we thought we now knew of a lot more places within reach.  We started our day with a run over to the bagel shop.  It was just under 2.5 miles round trip but it was a tough run.  It was so hot and humid outside!  I was absolutely dripping by the time we got home.

Joe was once again the pack mule and ran home carrying our bag of 8 bagels (we had a coupon for 2 free when you bought a 1/2 dozen...just what we need in the house!).  I told him to jog ahead so I could take a picture...he thinks he's so funny...

5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  I didn't do any cleaning because we spent the entire afternoon on the river.  3 days total.  I'm so happy I didn't decide to cancel the trip because we didn't see one raindrop or hear one crack on thunder the entire day!  Although the forecast did scare off a few of our attendees.  Going into the weekend I had 22 people coming but by the time we hit the river we were down to 15.

There were water gun fights...

friendly conversations...

lots of goofing around...

and plenty of drinks...

On last years trip I drank almost 1200 calories worth of twisted tea so this year I came prepared.  I made myself a cocktail consisting of 3 parts whipped cream vodka, 3 parts Trop 50 & 6 parts club soda = 218 calories for the whole thing!

About half way down the river we came across a rope swing and of course Joe & Sean had to give it a shot.  I took a lot of pictures but they all came out blurry, these are the best I've got.

We even ran into my sister's summer camp staff on their end of the year party.  I worked at the camp about 7 years ago and it was nice to see some familiar faces.  We had a really great time and we'll be back again next year I'm sure!

1. 15 Spend Free Days:  Once we got out of the river & dried off a little we headed to the chinese buffet for dinner.  I took care of the tab for Joe and myself, all $26 of it!  4 days total. 

I would like to preface this by saying that I did not eat everything on these plates.  I did eat more then my fair share but I usually left about 1/3 of what I had taken because it wasn't as tasty as I'd hoped.

The sushi was mediocre but then what do I expect for $10 a person.  I'm always a fan of crab meat & cream cheese wontons though.  There's also a little chicken with broccoli and salt & pepper shrimp mixed in there.

The pizza was actually very good as was the macaroni & cheese but I guess that's not too hard to mess up.  And for dessert the only items worth eating were the fried dough (shocker), vanilla cake, banana pudding, chocolate cake and a little bit of mint chip ice cream.  That means I passed on 4 whole items on that plate!

 

2. At least 20 days with a 750+ calorie burn:

     Breakfast: whole wheat everything bagel w/low fat lox cream cheese = 390 calories

     Lunch: 0 calories

     Dinner: all that buffet food = 1405 calories

     Snacks: vodka, club & Trop 50 = 218 calories

     Totals: 2240 burned - 2013 eaten = -227 total burned, 5 days total.

4. Walk at least 11,000 steps for 25 days:  I was surprised I didn't have a hard time getting my steps.  I thought for sure the couple of hours on the river was going to do me in.  On top of that my foot had started to bother me on the way to dinner.  I'm not sure what I did to it because I barely left my tube the whole time and it's not bruised or swollen but it just feels sore.  Anyway, I just dealt with it, I was about 1500 from my goal when we got home and Nicole & I knocked those out quickly with a little hobble walk around the plaza.  We hadn't seen each other all weekend so there was plenty to catch up on.  12867 steps.  7 days total.

No more wire hangers!

1. 15 Spend Free Days:  I broke the streak on Saturday.  I decided to make some Chicken Stuffed Cubanelle Peppers from my farm basket & needed a few ingredients from ShopRite.  I changed the recipe up a little; I used ground chicken instead of pulled & subbed some cheddar cheese in because everything is better with cheese.  I was a little worried I wasn't going to like them because the peppers smelled spicy but it ended up being very tasty and super easy to make!  4 days total.

2. At least 20 days with a 750+ calorie burn:
     Breakfast: egg white, ham, tomato & cheese on rye toast = 463 calories

     Lunch: 0 calories

     Dinner: chicken stuff cubanelle pepper = 297 calories

     Snacks: cantaloupe, mini wheats & coffee ice cream = 426 calories

     Totals: 2109 burned - 1186 eaten = -923 total burned, 5 days total.

3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes:  Joe and I toyed with going for a run on Saturday morning but going out to breakfast just seemed more appealing.  Then we toyed with going for a run when he got home from work but by the time we ate dinner is was getting dark and for some reason running after dark hasn't appealed to me lately.  131 minutes total.

4. Walk at least 11,000 steps for 25 days:  I needed a lot of steps, like more then 7000 at 8pm because I spent the majority of my day sitting on my butt.  I just wasn't motivated to do anything.  I think if someone would have invited somewhere I would have gone but I was just severely lacking the oomph to leave the house on my own.  Since dinner was extremely low calorie we decided to get my steps by walking for ice cream.  Normally we would have gone to Rita's or Dairy Queen on foot but we decided to map out the distance to Custard Hut and it was only about 1.4 miles each way, much shorter then we anticipated, so off we went.

I had the coffee crunch ice cream this time and it was dare I say better then the chocolate peanut butter!  And lower in calories!  I still stayed with a small which doesn't look all that small until you compare it to Joe's large chocolate peanut butter malt!  I really don't understand how that boy doesn't make himself sick!  I would love to have his metabolism for just 1 day!  We had a nice time walking a nice route and I'm sure we'll be making the trip more often now that we know it's not actually that far from the house.

 11947 steps.  6 days total.

5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  Wahoo!  I cleaned on Saturday!  Since I didn't have the motivation to leave the house I figured the least I could do was cook & clean it.  This is why I could never be a stay-at-home-mom, I hate cooking & cleaning but would feel like it was my responsibility.  Anyway, I took it upon myself to clean out my dresser & cabinet.  I was tired of pulling things out every morning and not loving the fit.  I pulled out any pants larger then a 10P or medium (even though I'm almost a 6) and all tops sized large or bigger.  I kept some of the nicer pieces in case I get back up to that size again but packed the rest up for a yard sale in the fall or ebay.  Here's a shot of everything I'm ready to sell or donate.

I wish I had taken a before picture because this cabinet was almost bursting and now it's down to one row on each shelf!  I also worked on the kitchen and picked up downstairs but the bedroom was really where I spent most of my time.  If only my closet light wasn't burnt out I could have gone through winter clothes too!  3 days total.

Welcome to Al's Toy Barn. We've got the lowest prices in town. Everything for a buck-buck-buck.

1. 15 Spend Free Days:  I didn't spend any money again on Friday!  We did go out for drinks to visit our bartender friend but Joe picked up the tab.  I want to explain a little of our financial breakdown without going into too much detail because I'm concerned I'm going to get accused of making Joe spend $$ so that I achieve my goals.  I own the townhouse that Joe & I live in.  When I bought it we made an arrangement where I would pay the mortgage and condo fees because it is technically my house.  However, to keep things the bills even, Joe pays for our utilities and food.  It's actually a pretty even split when we sit down and do the math.  Basically what it means is that I try not to push for meals out or nights on the town because Joe pays 99% of the time, I like to let it be his suggestion whenever possible.  I'm hoping this makes it a little clearer why it looks like we run to the store all the time but I manage to not spend money.  4 days total.

Yummy vodka & club overlooking the golf course (because the bugs started attacking us).

2. At least 20 days with a 750+ calorie burn:
     Breakfast: smoothie = 213 calories

     Lunch: peanut butter & jelly sandwich, mini babybel & apple = 395 calories

     Dinner: eggplant lasagna = 395 calories

     Snacks: vodka & mini wheats = 238 calories

     Totals: 2598 burned - 1241 eaten = -1357 total burned, 4 days total.

3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes:  It's so crazy what taking a few days off from working out does to my motivation!  I had a really tough time getting myself to the gym on Friday afternoon.  I didn't have a bad day at work or anything exciting to do at home, I just didn't want to go.  But I did.  I think it helped that I knew we were going out for drinks so I'd need the extra calories.  I ran 2 miles on the treadmill at a 6+ then took group power.  131 minutes total.

4. Walk at least 11,000 steps for 25 days:  Our evening out didn't last as long as we anticipated and we were home before 10pm.  I still needed about 2000 steps to get to my goal so we headed out on a walk.  We weren't sure if the "soft opening" was going to have food so we had just eaten some leftover lasagna (plenty dinner for me but not nearly enough for Joe) so we stopped to grab him a slice of pizza.

Then we wandered around a little more before deciding to stop at Wendy's on the way home.  Unfortunately it was close to 11pm at this point and their dining room was closed.  We attempted to walk through the drive thru but either the workers inside were ignoring us or we didn't weigh enough to activate the censors that a car was waiting.  Just picture us jumping in unison like on Toy Story 2 at Al's Toy Barn.

Since that didn't pan out we headed for home where Joe worked on heating up a bag of vegetable potstickers we had in the freezer.  And I swear he barely had 3 beers the whole night!  11535 steps.  5 days total. 

5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  I didn't spend a lot of time at home to do any cleaning.  I suppose I could have tried to get something done after our walk but the couch was just too inviting.  2 days total.

Outfits of the Week ~ August 1-5

Happy Friday!  I'm pretty excited about this weekend!  Tonight I'm planning to run & take group power at the gym and then we're heading over to Mangia by the Greene to see our favorite Library III bartender in his new digs.   He's still working at the Library but that owner bought Mangia so now we can visit him a little closer to home!  I don't have any plans for Saturday, Nicole has a craft show so she doesn't need me to watch Jack; I hoping for some kind of run with Joe before or after his shift at work but that's about it.  Then Sunday is our annual tubing trip!  About 20 of us head down the river with coolers of beer then grab dinner somewhere fun; last year was the chinese buffet.  They're calling for thunderstorms on Saturday night into Sunday but I'm hoping they'll clear before 1pm.

I was nervous getting on the scale this morning!  Between the prednisone and the lack of workouts I was prepared to go up a little.  Thankfully I didn't!  Holding strong at 134! 

Monday ~ This was day one of the super itch so I was more concerned about keeping fabric from touching my skin then anything else.  Patterned top & grey pants from The Limited & black peep toe sling backs from Naturalizer.

Tuesday ~ aka the itchiest day on record.  I literally pulled anything out of my closet that was 100% cotton and then made it work together.  Blue sweater (that has seen it's day & should be tossed after seeing it in this picture) from Old Navy, blue/grey tank from Ann Taylor Loft, brown pants from New York & Co and taupe ballet flats with silver buckle from Naturalizer.

Wednesday ~ finally feeling a little better!  New patterned top (that I realized has a hole in it when I got to work) & brown pants from The Limited, nude patent leather peep toes from Macy's.

Thursday ~ black & brown dress from The Limited and black patent leather peep toes from Macy's.  I bought this dress on my shopping trip with Tammy last weekend because it's a 4!  I picked it up because I thought it was a cute dress that could be used a few different ways but mostly because it's a 4!  Well I guess I chose well because my boss came into my office on 2 separate occasions to tell me how much she loved this dress.  She said it's the best thing she's seen me in over all these months of weight loss and I should move it to the front of the closet and wear it anytime I want to impress anyone, WOW!

Friday ~ Yay for dress down!  Orange v-neck from The Limited, necklace from Premier, light grey pants from New York & Co, flat back sandals from Naturalizer.

back in the saddle

1. 15 Spend Free Days:  Another spend free day under my belt!  I don't think Joe even purchased anything for me, lol.  On the downside, I paid the bills because it was payday and that always stresses me out.  I hate seeing my paycheck go in & then back out so quickly.  I even emailed Mike at the restaurant to remind him I'm available if he ever needs a shift or private party covered.  3 days total.

2. At least 20 days with a 750+ calorie burn:
     Breakfast: smoothie = 199 calories

     Lunch: peanut butter & jelly sandwich, mini babybel & apple = 395 calories

     Dinner: eggplant lasagna = 395 calories

     Snacks: mini wheats & an oatmeal cookie blueberry ice cream sandwich = 222 calories

     Totals: 2387 burned - 1211 eaten = -1176 total burned, 3 days total.

Joe started prepping the ingredients for Kat's eggplant lasagna before I got home and it was super easy to throw together!  It was fun hanging out in the kitchen discussing what worked better in which layer.  The recipe only called for a few ingredients; eggplant, tomato, no cook lasagna noodles, mozzarella cheese & sauce.  We improvised and added some ricotta because I LOVE ricotta, seriously I would eat it with a spoon if that was acceptable.  The instructions were to cook on 350 for an hour and a half so we decided to go for a run while it cooked.

3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes:  Oh yeah!  That's right!  I worked out on Thursday!  I was feeling 100x better and had barely scratched an itch all day so what did I do?  4.5 mile run, nothing like jumping full throttle back into training!  It was a great run!  The weather was absolutely beautiful, blue sky, a few clouds & super low humidity.  I had a few minor aches but nothing bad enough to stop.  I probably could have kept going but dinner was almost ready and I was starving.  50 minutes total.

I was also super excited to see that my new toy had been delivered!  P90X!  It's been on my wish list for a long time but at $140 I just couldn't pull the trigger.  Well Brittany has started doing it & is raving about it, when I asked where she got it she said ebay.  Never one to miss a great deal, I checked around a bit and found a copy for $70 and decided to give it a shot.  I asked Joe if he wants to join me in this torture and he wasn't overly enthused so I may be on my own.  Really I'm not even sure when I'm going to find time to do it.  It's supposed to be a 90 day straight workout regimen but I have a 5 mile race this month & a 10K in October so I'm going to have to train for those plus my normal classes...I guess it will be more of a sporadic routine...maybe I'll bring it to Utah and convince Shana to do a few with me.

4. Walk at least 11,000 steps for 25 days:  Our run knocked out all but about 1000 of my steps so I didn't have to beg anyone to wander the streets with me.  The weather was so nice that Joe immediately headed outside to do some gardening after dinner.  I am far from a green thumb but wanted to enjoy the fresh air so I brought the laptop out and did my daily facebooking & blog reading out back for a little bit until the bugs started biting and I was forced back inside.

11166 steps.  3 days total.  I'm also happy to report that my sleep efficiency increased almost 10%!  My guess is because I'm getting less itchy by the moment so I can sleep more soundly.

5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  Yeah I didn't clean.  Whenever Joe's off he does a lot of straightening up so it doesn't leave much for me.  I'm sure I could have figured out some little project but I was too busy just enjoying my day.  2 days total.

Five for Friday ~ 8/5/11

1. You're working on it.

2. You didn't freak out too much when we noticed someone had hit my car.

3. You used a cotton ball to dab calamine lotion all over my mid section because I wasn't doing it thick enough.

4. You pushed me to take one more day off to heal.

5. You noticed I was wearing a new running shirt.

Playa del Carmen - November 2010