Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, 9 out of 10 people couldn't start a conversation. ~ KH

This weather is just crazy!  On Friday I was able to do my 4 mile run in yoga pants and a long sleeve t-shirt then today (Tuesday) it snowed!  I mean it's wasn't like a blizzard or anything but we definitely got 2+ inches.  One thing that bothered me a little bit though was all of my teacher friends on Facebook.  Actually I'm not sure I'd even call them my friends, it's mostly just the people I "know."  Anyway, all last night there were status' like "hoping for a snow day" and then this morning it was all "yay, a snow day."  I'm sure it's partially that I'm bitter because I very rarely get a snow day but seriously, did teachers not just have a 3 or 4 day weekend for President's Day; is another day off really necessary?

Because of the wet weather I chose a more relaxed OOTD.  The sweater dress is from Express with a black tank underneath from New York & Company.  I got the leggings, watch and boots at Macy's.  That's the same necklace I've been wearing from Etsy, I tried to pick something different but nothing seemed to work...

I had zero desire to go to Zumba after work and was hoping Angela would let me off the hook.  But if that happened I wasn't sure what kind of workout Joe & I would get in at home.  I wanted to keep my calories super low just in case I needed to stay in the 1200 range for the day.  Instead of choosing a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch which tends to be one of my higher calorie weekday breakfasts I went with a greek yogurt and a sliced banana = 295 calories; I also had a glass of Trop 50 but drank it with my pills before I decided what to eat.

The drive to work was uneventful.  The main roads were totally clear and most of the side roads had packed snow but nothing dangerous.  Once I got to work is when the real issues started, the construction guys must be painting because the fumes are so strong we were all flying a little high.  Luckily I didn't get a migraine, that would have been such a waste of an imitrex.  I was happy to be able to get out of the office to run and grab lunch.  I went to Wawa again for another salad (= 315 calories), I should have just grabbed two yesterday.  Unfortunately, I also ran out of gift cards so I had to pay $2 out of pocket.

I was excited to learn that my coworker had purchased an entire case of smartfood popcorn for the office!  I got to have another 100 calorie bag as a snack!

I also grabbed peanut m&m's (= 124 calories) two at a time on and off all afternoon.  Luckily they're almost gone so I won't have to fight the urge much longer.

After reading Angela's blog and seeing that she wasn't in any mood to go to Zumba either I made plans to play wii sports with Joe after dinner.  He had a busy day off and wasn't home when I pulled up after work so I went to visit with Nicole & Jack for a little while.  Once the guys got home we all debated what to do for dinner, go out, order in, eat leftovers or cook something fresh.  We decided on a mixture of two, we brought over our leftovers and Nicole made some Chicken Piccata.  I had two pieces of chicken (super yummy, I really need to learn to cook more grown up foods) and a scoop of mashed sweet potato = 492 calories.

We invited them back to our house after dinner to play wii sports with us but it was getting close to Jack's bedtime and they're not really big video game players to begin with so they didn't end up coming over.  After playing around on our phones/laptop for a little while we decided to get off our butts and burn some calories.  We started with boxing, which I won, thanks in part to Thursday night's kickboxing classes!  It moved too quickly to take a picture of though so I have no photographic proof.  I almost broke a sweat punching like a wild woman and my shoulder was on fire.  We moved on to tennis were Joe handed me ass to me, as usual.

Next we decided to take it easy and do some bowling.  Apparently I'm good at bowling, I beat Joe both games!  Finally we switched to baseball, Joe's favorite, he always does very well and I was pleasantly surprised that I actually managed to hit 3 home runs!  That's a record for me!

We played for about an hour and had a really nice time.  It was great spending the evening just hanging out and being goofy.  We watched a couple of shows on the DVR (Smallville, No Ordinary Family & How I Met Your Mother) before heading up to bed.

How did I do on my February goals?

1. Read 2 books:  no reading for me...not looking good for this goal...

2. Burn at least 750 calories a day for at least 20 days: 2083 burned - 1326 eaten = 757 burned, 17 days total

3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 990 total for month

4. Eat 1 fruit or veggie with each meal for at least 20 days: banana w/breakfast, salad for lunch, nothing w/dinner, 9 days total

5. 10 spend free days - spent $2 at lunch, 10 days total (goal met)...on a related note I showed Joe some yoga pants on sale with free shipping & he shot me down, numerous times...I'm trying very hard not to be bitter...

Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays...

I don't tend to have any issue with Mondays, I get up at the same time pretty much every day so all that changes is what I get dressed in.  For today's OOTD I chose a sweater from The Gap with a tank from New York & Company.  My pants are from The Gap too (it's getting pretty obvious all my clothes are from the same 4 stores).  These grey shoes are from Naturalizer and that's the same Etsy necklace I've been wearing for a few days now.

We're starting to run a little low on some of my go to foods so I mixed it up for breakfast.  I had a banana with some peach greek yogurt and a glass of Trop 50 = 295 calories.  I have the best neighbor around by the way, Nicole was grocery shopping on Saturday and saw Trop 50 on sale 2 for $5 so she checked with Joe to make sure we didn't have any then picked some up for me!

My morning went by pretty quickly and without incident.  We had some issues with our copier and since my cube is closest I was up checking on it a lot which was annoying but I'm choosing to look at it as more steps walked.  I also let Joe know that I needed to buy lunch & gas today, but not to worry because I planned to use a Wawa gift card for my food.  I grabbed a turkey blt salad with raspberry vinaigrette dressing = 315 calories.

A generous coworker left bags of smartfood popcorn on all of our desks before we all came in.  It was such a nice surprise & I was thrilled to see that the bag is only 100 calories!  I love smartfood white cheddar popcorn but assumed it was high in calories.  Guess I should check labels more often.

Amanda was teaching group power at the gym and I planned on being there.  I haven't had a weighted workout in over 2 weeks.  I was hoping she wouldn't beat me up too badly though because Joe & Tim were going to The Library for dinner and I wanted to meet them instead of eating leftovers at home by myself.  I spent most of my afternoon running through the menu in my head trying to think of what would be low calorie.  With every pound I lose I get to eat a little less, so not fair! 

As soon as I walked into the gym Amanda demanded that I get new yoga pants, apparently mine are entirely too big.  Who am I to fight about needing new clothes?  I made a mental note to discuss this acquisition with Joe at dinner...  She did the new release of music/moves and boy was it was hard, my entire upper body hurts today!  Normally I would have gone home after a work out like that but I had already told Joe I would bring our gift card over to the restaurant and he & Tim were waiting on me to order so I changed out of my sweatiest clothes and headed over. 

I think Joe may be enjoying his new roll as "financial advisor" a little too much.  When I told/showed him my yoga pants he asked how much they would cost then told me he'd think about it, lol. 

We ordered pretty much as soon as I sat down since we were all starving, the boys had even had appetizers while they were waiting for me.  Bruce immediately got me a vodka & club soda then I decided on a cheeseburger with steak fries, I ate the whole burger & only about 5 fries (they were pretty bland & not worth the calories), total meal = 799 calories.  I forgot to take a picture until I was almost done eating.

I hung out for about a half hour after we finished eating but was getting pretty tired & sore (already) plus I felt bad crashing their "Monday Nitro" guys night so I was home before 9pm.  I was exhausted so I went straight upstairs and into bed.  I messed around on Facebook and watched a little Biggest Loser but soon had trouble keeping my eyes open so I gave up, turned everything off and went to sleep.

How did I do on my February goals?

1. Read 2 books:  killed about 15 minutes before power reading in the car

2. Burn at least 750 calories a day for at least 20 days: 2279 burned - 1508 eaten = 771 burned, 16 days total

3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 930 total for month

4. Eat 1 fruit or veggie with each meal for at least 20 days: banana w/breakfast, salad for lunch, lettuce & tomato w/dinner, 9 days total

5. 10 spend free days - had to get gas, 10 days total (goal met)

Life is short...running makes it seem longer. ~ BH

The first thing I did when I woke up on Sunday morning was check my phone.  I always check my email and woot but this morning I was also concerned about the weather.  I had a 7 mile run planned for after work and the forecast had been switching back and forth about how windy it would be and I hate windy running.  Unfortunately, it said the wind wasn't letting up anytime soon.  This really screwed with my head and I had a hard time moving past it all morning.  I was toying with trying to run it on the treadmill but wasn't sure if that would be too much torture.  I tried to forget about it & got ready for work. On the way out the door I grabbed a banana and a granola bar = 295 calories.

Work was slow early on but it picked up a little before noon.  I ended up making about $75 and got home just before 1pm.  I knew I needed to eat before my run so I used the rest of the pulled pork to make a sandwich = 430 calories.

Angela was totally against running on the treadmill so I gave in and agreed to give the outdoors a shot.  We decided to try Birch Grove Park and the surrounding neighborhoods this time.  I hoped the dirt would be better on my knee and that the trees might cut down the wind.

I think our run went really well, the weather wasn't nearly as bad as I built it up to be in my head.  As you can see, we did the 7 miles in 1 hour 22 minutes which I think is great since our 6 miles took 1 hour 16 minutes!  I'm still not loving the distance running but I figure once I get through Broad St I can go back to topping out at 5 miles if I want.  Plus I'd really like to start working with some of my friends on C25K, it's a really great program.  Anyway, I went straight home from the park and into a hot shower hoping it would cut down any soreness.  My body is pretty tired today but nothing hurts!  I also made sure to drink a bottle of water, I didn't want a replay of whatever happened to me on Friday.  While I was waiting for Joe to get home from work so we could decide on dinner I had a few peanut butter filled pretzels as a snack = 70 calories. 

Joe made it home around 7 we discussed what to have for dinner, pretty much deciding between leftovers or no.  I was all about eating something delicious since I burned 800 (!) calories running that 7 miles.  It didn't take too long to settle on Wendy's; I've been admiring their asiago chicken sandwich from afar for a few weeks now.  Within minutes we were enjoying our dinner (I guess that's why they call it fast food).  It wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped, I guess I'm just getting used to eating fresher, healthier food.  I kept thinking it would have been better on a different roll with romaine lettuce; and the fries were SO salty I gave up after eating half.  Dinner = 720 calories

We spent some time watching shows on the DVR (The Mentalist & Fringe) while I counted the minutes until I could dig into my Jr Frosty = 150 calories.  I don't like to eat it right after dinner, it ruins the specialness, it's nice to save it like a real dessert.

I didn't post an OOTD because I didn't get wear anything but gym clothes all day.  My running gear was the closest I came to "getting dressed" and I don't think anyone's particularly interested in seeing that get up.  But if I'm wrong let me know & I'll keep it in mind for next time :-)

How did I do on my February goals?

1. Read 2 books:  didn't get any reading done

2. Burn at least 750 calories a day for at least 20 days: 2867 burned - 1665 eaten = 1202 burned, 15 days total

3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 90 minutes today, 870 total for month

4. Eat 1 fruit or veggie with each meal for at least 20 days: banana w/breakfast, nothing w/lunch, lettuce & tomato w/dinner, 8 days total

5. 10 spend free days - didn't buy anything, 10 days total (goal met)

Everybody's working for the weekend...or is that just me?

My good mood from Friday carried over into Saturday.  I woke up easily & got ready for work quickly.  I'm trying something new with my hair, flipping it up instead of under, you can see a picture later when I post my OOTD from our dinner.  I wasn't hungry before I left to go to the restaurant so I didn't eat anything.  Luckily, Mike was in an equally good mood & made me 2 over medium eggs before we got too busy = 365 calories.

We were super slow, I only made $42 in the 5 hours I was there and barely walked 6000 steps.  I spent some time watching my "crap shows" on the DVR and checking my Facebook when I got home but was getting hungry.  I decided to make a sandwich with the pulled pork = 430 calories.

I finally made it upstairs to wash off the fryer smell and then spent some more time watching more "crap shows" on the upstairs DVR.  It was kind of nice to have absolutely nothing to do.  I caught up on blogs, uploaded pictures from my camera & phone and pretty much just wasted time.  We had plans to meet our friends Carol & Chris for dinner at Bonefish Grill.  I wanted to dress up more then my normal weekend uniform of fleece & yoga pants but not so much that I felt over dressed at the restaurant.  With that, here's my OOTD:  my sweater is from The Gap it was a zipper in the back, very cute.  The tank is another Broadway Bodyshaper Cami from New York & Company and the necklace is the same one I wore on Friday from Etsy.  I'm wearing my famous size 10 jeans from Express and my super cute pink ruffly flats are from Payless but a few seasons old.  You can also kind of see the new way I've been wearing my hair, I think it's a little funkier...

Unfortunately, our friends had to bail on dinner because of a sudden migraine.  We were bummed but I totally understand how debilitating migraines can be so we'll have to reschedule for another time.  Joe and I debated what we should do for dinner & decided to head over to Charlie's.  We used to be regulars there but haven't been spending much time out a bars lately so it was nice to see old friends.  I had 2 vodka with club soda drinks (= 120 calories) and a grilled eggplant sandwich = 670 calories.

The sandwich was a little hard to eat, that eggplant skin is hard to bite through, but it was so so so delicious.  Thankfully it didn't come with fries or I would have been way over in calories for the day.

After dinner we stopped to visit with Nicole & Lou.  Joe enjoyed a few white russians and I caught up with Nicole, I hadn't seen her all week!  After about 2 hours we headed home to watch a little tv.  Joe made me a cup of hot chocolate (= 90 calories) and we settled in for some American Idol.  We're all caught up again on the show now and we were pretty bummed there weren't any more episodes to watch, Joe's excited about the Beatles songs coming up.

We went to bed around 10:30 and I once again was out within minutes of crawling under the covers.  I'm not sure what'll happen when we have kids...Joe might have to be the one getting up in the middle of the night, lol.

How did I do on my February goals?

1. Read 2 books:  didn't get any reading done

2. Burn at least 750 calories a day for at least 20 days: 1954 burned - 1683 eaten = 271 burned, 14 days total

3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 0 minutes today, 780 total for month

4. Eat 1 fruit or veggie with each meal for at least 20 days: nothing w/breakfast, nothing w/lunch, eggplant & tomato w/dinner, 8 days total

5. 10 spend free days - didn't buy anything, 9 days total

146!!

I woke up on the right side of the bed Friday morning and super excited for my day!  I was in a good mood because there was a staff meeting scheduled at work and I was going to present a new program, it's the first step in asserting myself & advancing!  Plus I was excited to weigh myself after a comment Joe made the night before, he said I was definitely looking skinnier!  I jumped out of bed, got a load of laundry set up then went into the bathroom to weigh myself and shower...I was pleasantly surprised to have 146.2 lbs pop up!  WOOHOO, my plateau is over (I weighed myself 3 more times over the course of the next hour just to be sure)!

Friday OOTD: Let me preface this by letting you know that we're allowed to wear black jeans (not blue) to work on Fridays, that is the only reason I own this pair of black jeans (they remind me of working at TGI Fridays, not something I like to think about often)...anyway, they're from the Express and I usually wear them tucked into boots but because of the fantastic weather forecast I decided to try them with flats.  The flats are from Naturalizer, my tank is New York & Company, the necklace is an etsy buy and my sweater is from The Gap.

The staff meeting at work was awesome!  Everyone seemed receptive to my new program & our director introduced a lot of new ideas that I'm excited about.  I think it's going to be pretty awesome!  Plus they had breakfast brought in = 377 calories.

Because of our meeting the rest of the morning went by pretty quickly.  I wasn't hungry when lunch time rolled around so I stayed at my desk and kept working until just before 2pm.  When I went to refill my water cup my stomach growled so I decided to eat my lunch.  It was kind of nice to talk to a different crew while I ate = 360 calories.

The weather was absolutely beautiful.  I'm pretty sure my phone read 72 degrees when I left work.  There was no way I was going to a class at the gym or running inside when enjoying this random spring day in the middle of winter was an option.  Rob & Angela came over around 5:30 to do a quick 4 miles.  We had a pretty good run, it took about 45 minutes but the GPS on my phone wasn't working so I don't have the fancy map or anything.  Hopefully it's back up by Sunday for our 7 mile torture.

When we got back we just sat in the front yard for a little while just because we could.  I needed to shower & do some laundry for work the next morning so we said good night  soon thereafter.  My head had been hurting on and off during our run but I was hoping to power through it without taking an imitrex.  By the time Joe got home I was in absolute agony, I had finally taken an imitrex but it wasn't getting any better, in fact I was nauseous and that very rarely happens to me.  Joe did a great job taking care of me, he forced me to drink a bottle of water and then heated up some Valentine's Day leftovers which I didn't take a picture of because I was dying = 434 calories.  Thankfully I started to feel better pretty quickly.  We settled in for American Idol and made some popcorn = 100 calories.

How did I do on my February goals?

1. Read 2 books:  didn't get any reading done

2. Burn at least 750 calories a day for at least 20 days: 2632 burned - 1271 eaten = 1361 burned, 14 days total

3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 65 minutes today, 780 total for month

4. Eat 1 fruit or veggie with each meal for at least 20 days: fruit w/breakfast, fruit w/lunch, nothing w/dinner, 8 days total

5. 10 spend free days - didn't buy anything, 8 days total

To grow or not to grow...

I'm not loving my hair in these OOTD pictures.  It looks too round or something, not at all like what I see when I look in the mirror.  I'm toying with the idea of growing it out.  The problem is that I have a LOT of hair so when it gets long it's heavy and takes a long time to style so I end up always putting it in a ponytail and that's no fun.  Plus I hate that transition phase where it's hard to manage and what ends up happening is that I get fed up waiting so I cut off again.  This time I've enlisted my stylist, we're going to work on growing it out with a style so that I stay happy with it.  I'm not saying I'm going to grow it down to my butt or anything, maybe just a little past my shoulders, we'll see.

Thursday OOTD: my sweater is from Ann Taylor Loft, it has a twisted neckline that's hard to see in the picture.  Tank is from The Gap, no built in shelf bra with this one, my pants are from The Limited (some of those new size 10s) and the shoes are from last year's Naturalizer catalog.  Are you beginning to see a pattern?

I started my day with another bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch and a banana = 346 calories.  I know it's been pretty much the same all week but the bananas are starting to brown so I need to eat them quickly.

Bet you can't guess what I had for lunch?  I'll give you a hint it's 380 calories.

The gym was doing a promotion where friends & family could come for free on Thursday.  My friend Kat had mentioned that she'd love to take kickboxing with us sometime so I made sure to tell her about the promotion.  She was able to leave work on time and meet for the class!  I think I may have tried a little harder then usual since she there too because I was sweaty, tired & sore the rest of the night.  We also made tentative plans for her to come along on the 4 mile run I have planned for Friday.

Joe ended up getting out of work earlier then he was scheduled so he decided to make a fancy dinner!  I told him to save some of these new recipes for next month, lol!  Apparently there's a loop that plays on the tvs at BJs that shows a recipe for making these goat cheese & mushroom stuffed steaks so he decided to try it with some sauteed spinach.  It was SO delicious = 662 calories.

We spent the rest of the evening watching a few shows on the DVR while Joe polished off the last two Valentine's Day beers.  He asked how much they cost because they pack quite a punch, I'm guessing we may be seeing them in the fridge more often.  I'm also going to have to make an attempt to clean out the DVRs this weekend, I think they're both at close to 70%...it seems like more of my shows are on there too, I'm not sure if it's because I tape more or because I'm never home to watch anything without Joe...

How did I do on my February goals?

1. Read 2 books:  Killed about a 1/2 hour reading before kickboxing; I'm going to have to kick it up a notch to finish this book & another before the end of the month.
2. Burn at least 750 calories a day for at least 20 days: 2710 burned - 1388 eaten = 1322 burned, 13 days total
3. 1000 fitness minutes, not allowed to count walking at the restaurant: 60 minutes today, 715 total for month

4. Eat 1 fruit or veggie with each meal for at least 20 days: banana w/breakfast, fruit w/lunch, spinach w/dinner, 8 days total

5. 10 spend free days - didn't buy anything (see my plan is working), 7 days total

Five for Friday - 2/18/11

1. Valentine's Day...the whole day...

2. The sweet way you woke me up and got me to bed after I fell asleep watching Glee.

3. You really wanted to run with me and was actually bummed when you got stuck at work & couldn't.

4. I know you're happy about my plan to grow my hair out but you say I look beautiful no matter what my hairstyle.

5. You looked me up & down then said you were sure I lost at least 2 lbs this week.

Joe's 26th Birthday - September 2003