100 Days

In 100 days, hubby and I are going on vacation! Oh thank heavens! It's been over a year since we got away and I cannot wait!

But, I'm not happy with what I look like. I had a doctor appointment Tuesday night to update the primary with all the ankle stuff from the summer. And of course, the dreaded weigh-in. Apparently the ankle caused a 9 pound weight gain.

I suppose that's not too bad, but I am not happy in general with my weight and I really don't want to go on vacation looking like this.

So, I want to spend the next 100 days working hard on my food and my exercise. At this point I need to get my butt back to the gym and work out, even though I know it will be less than it was before the ankle break. I need to start eating better, stop buying dinners out and making food at home that's healthy.

So, here's to a healthy 100 days!





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Vacation! Day 1

Last week hubby and I headed to San Antonio for 5 days. A friend from college was getting married and we were in for his wedding. We chose to extend our trip since this would be our vacation this year. I have to say it is hot in TX. I don't care if it's a dry heat or not!

Our first day we got in about 9:30 a.m. and arrived at our hotel about 10:30 a.m. I give the Courtyard Marriot at the River Walk props because when we checked in, they had our room ready. I was impressed by that. We dropped our stuff off, freshened up a bit, then headed to the River Walk for lunch. When you're up at 3:15 a.m. and eat breakfast at 6:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. is perfect for lunch!

River Walk from above. We walked to the Alamo and I took this image from ground level

These maps were placed all around the River Walk to help you know where you were and where to go.

 

There were several of these water falls located along the River Walk. They help aerate the water for the fish.

From the River Walk we decided to go to the Alamo. It was a must see for us and since we didn't know what others wanted to do, I wanted to make sure we got there. I'll be honest, it was about noon when we arrived and it was hot. The Alamo does not have air conditioning, in case you were wondering. LOL! You can check out my favorite pictures from the Alamo here.

After the Alamo we started hearing from friends arriving at the hotel. We headed back to meet up with our friend George. At this point we decided to head to a bar to watch the USA soccer match. We initially tried the Mad Dog British pub, but it was packed! And we were yelled at for blocking a table's view of the tv while standing at the bar. I don't think they understand how a bar works... We ended up at the same place we had lunch, which worked out well for the happy hour specials and free chips.

While at the bar, our other friend Matt arrived, so we headed back to the hotel to grab him. He and George needed to try on their tuxes for the wedding, so we waited while they did that, then headed to dinner. They boys wanted meat, so we hit up The County Line on the recommendation of the bar tender at our hotel. The portions for their food were huge! I had veggie kebobs and could have used the same portions! LOL!

We decided to check out a bar near the Alamo called The Menger Bar. The reason? Because it was the location Teddy Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders for the Spanish-American War. How cool is that??? Since we are all history people, it was almost impossible not to go.

Est. 1859! How incredible is that? The bar is an exact replica of a bar in London. To the left, across the street is the Alamo.

History from 1916-1917, during World War 1. Not that these items are from WWI, but that's the time frame.

The bar. The was incredible! I'm a sucker for a dark wood bar.

Apparently, a big thing in San Antonio is the light-up carriages. They were everywhere at night. It was strange...

That stone building in the background? Yea. That's the Alamo. These carriages were everywhere!

After Menger's, we were all exhausted since we all had early flights in. We headed back to hotel about 11:00 p.m. to get some sleep. We had the rehearsal dinner for the wedding the next night.


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Fun weekend!

As you know, I headed to Milwukee, WI on Friday to visit my friend for her birthday. My flight out was a bit late (30 minutes), but wasn't too bad. I always find traveling alone odd. I have to remember that I must bring all my stuff with me at all times because I have no one to leave it with. I had no troubles thanks to an Information Desk employee who gave me a plastic bag to put my liquids in and helped determine which of my liquids needed to go in the bag so I could take my suitcase through security rather than having to check it. Thanks Baltimore!

Going through the airport, I needed to stop for lunch. Everywhere I thought to eat I realized would have had meat and being a Friday in Lent that was a no-no. Kinda crazy. I ended up with cinnamon sugar pretzel nuggets from Auntie Anne's. Always yummy!

My flight was totally uneventful and I arrive in Milwaukee a tad late, but nothing major. My lovely friend Kim met me at the airport and we quickly headed home. We already had dinner reservations, but we were waiting for her husband to head out. We made our 6:30 p.m. reservation at Bucco de Beppo. I had never eaten there before. Wow. It's kinda crazy. Servings are family-style and huge! We ordered garlic bread as an appetizer, which was yummy. Then we ordered two plates for three people. We ate half of each. Seriously! We all were carb loading and we only got half of those plates eaten. We packed the rest up and headed home.

Saturday morning we were up and ready to run at The Pettit National Ice Arena. My first visit and it reminded me of college. Not that my college had an ice rink or that I ran in college, but you put your bags on the large bleachers around the rinks and trusted that no one would take your stuff. My college was just like that. We all had different mileages to go and run at different speeds, so we did our things and ran. I had 5 miles, which equaled 18 laps. It went well, though all the turns did make it hard on the hips. We all were walking kinda funny at the end of our runs!

After our runs, we headed home to shower. It was much needed. LOL! We all basically lazed around most of the afternoon, then got ourselves ready to head out for Kim's birthday at Screaming Tuna. It's a sushi place, which is not my thing but Kim is a good friend and checked for other options making it perfectly fine for me.

I had a very yummy Reisling and dinner was tasty. Dinner was also tasty. I was very impressed and it was HUGE!

Blackened Tilapia

blackened tilapia topped with an edamame succotash 

served with garlic mashed potatoes & seasonal vegetables

Totally recommend this place honestly. What I appreciated about it was the acceptance that not everyone is a sushi person. There were many options that were not sushi, even non fish options. 

After Screaming Tuna, we headed to Cuvee the Champaigne bar. 

See those two tables in the bottom right of the photo? That's ours. LOL! There were six of us and we just sat around trying different drinks and having lots of fun. It was lovely that Kim's friends were so inclusive and made me feel like they were my friends too. Here's a pic of Kim and I.

From Cuvee we called it a night. Kim had run 18 miles in the morning and we were all getting a tad bit sleepy. 

Sunday morning we got up and hit Trocadaro for brunch. It is one of their favorites and oh, it was yummy!

We started out with doughnuts covered in cinnamon and sugar.

Breakfast consisted of stuffed French Toast. Oh yum! I was even surprised and happy that it came with potatoes. Gotta get those carbs in! LOL!

After brunch, we decided to hit up Great Lakes Distillery for a tour. Milwukee and Wisonsin in general is known for it's breweries, so Kim thought a distillery tour would be different. And who doesn't like different? We had a blast! We had a pre-tour cocktail, then headed downstairs for the tour. It was short, but free so it was all good. Then we did the tasting where we had a chance to taste all the liquors they make. We had a really fun time with the tasting, then went back upstairs for a drink. We had no where to go, so why not?

And in typical Milwaukee fashion, we headed across the street for some Mexican! 

It was very tasty and we had a good time playing with the little boy at the table behind us. The food was good, the prices were really great, and it was right across the street from the distillery!

We headed home after finishing up our quick meal to crash. It had been a busy day and we decided to chill out and watch the Oscars and eat pizza.

Monday we relaxed at the house and watched tv in the morning before heading out to lunch at The Melthouse Bistro. Grilled cheese! I had a yummy thick grilled cheese made with Cheddar, apples, candied apples and chips. It was delicious!

The rest of the day had us just chilling at home watching tv. I sadly headed to the airport to come home about 5:00 p.m. My flight was at 6:50 p.m. and the Milwaukee airport was quick. I got my boarding pass at the airport, then went through security. My carry-on got searched, but I got to keep everything and I went off to my gate. Turns out we had a small flight (55/110 seats) and we would have our choice of seats. Yup. It was nice!

We arrived in Baltimore on time and I met up with hubby in baggage claim. We grabbed my bag and headed back home. With no dinner, we stopped at the diner for a bite, then we got back about 1:00 a.m.

I had a really fun time in Milwaukee with two great friends! It's always sad to have a good time end and to leave friends. But, I would rather have the memories than not.

How was your weekend? Have any fun adventures?

      

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Heading West

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

 

I'm heading west today to visit my friend Kim for her birthday. Well...it was yesterday, but I'm going today to help celebrate with her. I joke that I'm going from cold to frozen temperature wise. My boss even told me to tell her to move somewhere warmer. LOL!

 

There is just something about seeing a good friend to put you in a better mood! 

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Vacation!

 

Yea, I took this.

Just back from vacation.  Had a blast with the hubby and two friends in Las Vegas!  While some go with the whole "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" I'm a little ambivalent towards that saying.  I think it's a fun place and I'm more than happy to share my adventures!  There will be some pictures and stories, because that's what vacation is all about. 

Weekly Round Up

What a week!  I knew I should have taken shop in high school, it would have made making that ark so much easier!  The rain has been cra-zy this week.  It seems every day we have storms.  I read that we are already above 19" of rain for my neck of the woods, which is 3 and some inches above normal.  I better not hear of any drought conditions this summer!  And apparently Accuweather is calling for more rain next week - that is if we're all still here.  You know, with the Rapture and all coming this weekend.

Anywho...This was a great week in some aspects, not so great in others.  I finally started volunteering at the State Archives.  I started inquiring about volunteering up with the State Museum/Archives on Feb. 4th and I started with the Archives on May 16th.  Can we say slow?  Ugh.  Anyway, the positive thing is I'm there and it's AWESOME!  I've spent my week researching what the state of PA did for the 1918 Influenza Epidemic and I learned how to clean an historic document.  Two exciting and fun things for me.  :-)  What's even better is every Thursday afternoon I get to work on cleaning the documents.  Eeeeee!  Yes, I'm a dork.  What's it to ya?

Diet went ok, exercise not so much.  This week was supposed to be the first week of bricks (run/bike or bike run workouts).  I was going to do three days of 1 mile run/5 mile ride, but with the rain the way it's been I did none of them.  Zilch.  Nada.  Nothing.  Bah!  I did a couple indoor bike rides at home, but not what I was hoping to do.  And as stated above Accuweather is not helping me out next week with better weather.  I will be trying a brick tomorrow morning for my Sat. morning exercise (normally I run) to try and get one in.  It'll be a simple 1 mile run with a 5 mile bike.  Wish me luck!  Oh!  I am down .4 (decimal point 4) pounds this week.  Apparently, I wasn't completely insane without my exercise this week.  Hoping for a better week next.

One year ago this week, hubby and I were in Italy.  So bittersweet thinking back on it.  It really was the trip of a lifetime.  It was such an amazing trip that we actually realized how fantastic a trip it was while we were on it.  It wasn't just one of those trips when you get home and thing, wow!  That was a fun vacation.  Nope, throughout the trip we kept saying how lucky we were to be there and tried to soak in as much as possible.  We did our best, but I know I could find more to do if we went back.  ;-)  The good thing is we're planning two trips this year - one to Montreal with our friend and one to Jamaica to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  That's what's getting me through my pining for Europe, these two trips.  Montreal needs to hurry up and get here!  :-)

Some photo eye candy for you.  Enjoy!

 The Colosseum in Rome, truly one of the most amazing sites in the world.

 The ceiling of the alter at St. Peter's Basilica

 Carousel in the Piazza de Republica in Florence.  I swore day 1 in Florence I would ride it.  This was as close as I got.  LOL!

 Grape fields in Tuscany at the winery we did a tasting at.  The wine was delicious.  So wish we brought a bottle or two home.

 The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  How leaning could one tower be?  It really does lean.  If we had more time we would have gone to the top, but alas we did not. 

A canal in Venice.  It was incredible to ride on the canals and see Venice from the water.

I'm back!

Hello my friends!  I am back from vacation.  It was an amazing experience and one I doubt I will ever top and I'm ok with that.  We spent two weeks in Europe, a week in Italy (Rome, Florence, and Venice) then headed to Paris for four days and London for four days.  There are no words to describe it really. 

And I was true to my word and didn't care what I ate.  I didn't think about it over all, just enjoyed the trip and the food, as Italy is well-known for good food.  :-)  I had lots of pasta and pizza and believe it or not, lots of fruits and veggies.  See, I'm a picky food eater and there were lots of meals that I wouldn't eat, so I was able to secure vegetable meals.  And oh my, were they good!  I had a delicious eggplant parmesan, lovely salads, and good plates of cooked vegetables.  In France, I tended to order entree salads (which were really good!) and in London, I had several vegetarian meals.  And all were yummy!

I also got WAY more exercise in than I thought I would.  We walked basically everywhere.  No lie.  I wish my Garmin worked in Europe (yes, I brought it).  I bet we walked a good 4-5 miles each day, if not more.  We walked up steps, we walked down steps, we walked into town, we walked out of town, we walked over bridges, we walked over canals.  It was crazy!  But, in the end, there was lots of exercise.  I even ran twice - once in Paris and once in London.  I am very proud of myself for packing running gear and actually using it!  My run in London was lovely.  I ran about 2 miles in Hyde Park and it was just a wonderful experience.  The temperature was cool and it hadn't started raining yet.  I had my shuffle and I just wandered the park running along seeing things I hadn't before - like cute little baby ducks.  So cute!

And when I came home, I weighed myself.  I wanted to see how much I had gained.  And, to my surprise, I had lost.  The day we left I had two different numbers on the scale, about 5 pounds apart.  I was keeping the higher number in my head the whole time rather than the lesser.  And if we continue using that number, I lost about 5.2 pounds on vacation without watching a darn thing I ate or drank.  I was amazing!

But, it is now June 1 and I said I was back on plan.  It has not been an easy day of it.  Breakfast was fine and lunch was fine.  It was dinner and the evening that didn't go so well.  But, you know what?  For being completely off track for two weeks, being on track 2/3 of the day is a good start.  I'm going to weigh-in on Friday, which will say I'm up and that's ok.  I'm going to do my best to eat healthy the rest of the week and get some exercise in.  It will be light exercise as I sprained my ankle badly in Paris and it still hurts a bit.  I'm not going to make it worse when I have three races I want to run this month.

So, here it is my friends, my committment to healthier eating.  Today I was 2/3 on track.  For how long it's been since I've even THOUGHT about eating healthy, that's not bad.  If I can keep that up the rest of the week, I will consider week one successful. 

Deadline

I have been having a real hard time getting back on track.  The first week after New Year's was good.  Back to eating healthy, back to eating less, back to exercising.  But since?  No idea, but just can't seem to get motivated.  I don't know why.  It's really weird.  This is the time of year I do really well.  Holidays are over, I'm motivated.  What's going on here?

Well, I'm hoping this little bit of news helps.  We may finally have figured out when we're going on vacation, where and for how long.  We have a tentative date to depart, which means I know how long I have until we leave.  And I have plenty of time to lose about 10-12 pounds.  And I really want to.  And I'm hoping that the time I have before we leave is the impetuous I need to get my butt in gear.

And, yes, I will be going to weigh-in this week.  I have no delusions it will be a good one, but I will go and face the music.  I may have wasted the month of January, but that doesn't mean I have to waste the month of February.

October = Distaster

It really did. Let it go down in weight loss history that October 2009 was a disaster. Yes, I finally hit 30 pounds lost. That was a great moment in October 2009 history. But it will soon be forgotten after the Vacation of 2009 and the melt-down that came after wards.

You see, I went to the land of beer and cheese on vacation. It was not pretty. Well, let me re-phrase that. It was pretty. Pretty for my pre-WW days. It was heaven. I had beer, fried foods, candy, you name it, I probably had it. It was a junk food culinary delight. It's almost impolite to go to WI and not drink or eat cheese. I think you can be forcibly removed from the state if you refuse. So, I complied. Probably a little too much. And I gained. A lot. I believe the final tally when I got on the scale when we returned was 10 pounds. Yes. 10 pounds. Amazing how one 10 day trip can be do devestating. It's like a pound a day while away. Lovely.

One bit of positiveness was I ran in my very first 8k. It was early in the trip, so as to not get in the way of all that eating and drinking I did. My hubby, two lovely friends in Milwaukee and I all ran Al's Run to benefit the Children's Hospital there in Milwaukee. It was a freezing cold day. Really, the temperature was 32 degrees when we left the car for the start line. There were about 1,800 people running/walking it. I had my Phillies sweatshirt on, gotta represent, they played that night! It was a fun course, winding it's way around the city and ending up near the Summerfest Grounds. I finished in 1 hour 7 minutes and 48 seconds. It was about 5 minutes faster than I thought I would finish. I was amazed! And it was lovely having my hubby, his cousins, and my wonderful friend Kim who believed I could actually run 4.97 miles cheering on the sidelines when I got to the end. It was a wonderful race and I'm thrilled I did it. And it was the only day I earned the right to eat what I want. Unfortunately, I kinda didn't keep that in mind throughout the rest of the trip...

The first week back, I scaled back. I got back into WW mode and lost 4 of the 10 pounds. I was happy about that, but not prepared to go to WW and see the 6 pound gain on the scale, so I skipped. I promised myself that I would lose another 2-3 pounds and go this Friday and see a smaller gain and be ok with it. The problem is, I didn't stick to the plan this week. I failed. I ate candy. I ate junk. I did not exercise. In a word, I failed. I am going to WW tomorrow with what I am going to assume is a 7 pound gain. Yes, 7 pounds. All that freaking hard work from August through October gone. Poof. Just like that. I have to start over.

And I am. That is how I am looking at Friday's weigh-in. It is going to be my first WW weigh-in ever. I am going to ignore the weight I have lost all year and start from scratch on Friday. Whatever I weigh, is my starting weight. I am not going to acknowledge the weight gain from Oct. I will move on. And in moving on, I will mentally allow myself the ability to start fresh. So, the plan is Chris's November Boot-Camp. I am on track in November. I will focus on all the little things and I will succeed. I am even now putting together my plan for the month. I will of course post my horrific October number tomorrow, like always. But come Sunday, Nov. 1, in the words of Southwest Airlines, it's on. The Chris's November Boot-Camp plan is posted and will be enforced. And as my friends, I ask that you keep me accountable. I will need it because Chris's November Boot-Camp will not be easy. I will need all the encouragement, gentle prodding, and beratement I can get.

Until tomorrow...

Vacation + Cold = Really bad eating habits

Ugh. I had a FANTABULOUSACIOUS time in Las Vegas! I already miss my friends and wish we all lived closer or that the United States was smaller. Either way, I would get to be with them more often. It was a great time, the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and Las Vegas...well, was Las Vegas!

The problem was I ate like crap. I don't think I ate all that much actually. We generally missed one meal a day based on what time we got up and what we were doing. The big problem? The drinking. Even with Miller Lites, I drank too much every day. It was the biggest drinking trip I've been on, including the last trip with these ladies to NOLA. LOL! I think that's what killed me. :-( So sad.

Then, after returning home, I came down with a cold. And it just was not pretty. Initially, I didn't want to eat much, my throat hurt. Then I realized eating/drinking actually allowed me to swallow without pain and I was done for. Especially when I realized we had ice cream. And what goes better with a sore throat than ice cream? It has not been pretty.

I still have the remenants of my cold. I've eaten better today, but I can't guartenee that's going to stay for the day. My goal is to go back to the WW plan tomorrow. Maybe knock off a point more than I should to compensate. I have a ton to undo over the next couple of weeks. I am hoping to loose what I gained over vacation and then 10-15 by October 8th. We leave on our next big outing that day. Hopefully I can do it!