Great weekend- salon, friends, sushi, motivation and running!

Happy Monday folks!

While I could spend the next week down in the dumps because my boyfriend is working in Shanghai til next Tuesday, I've been focusing on the positive and how great my weekend was!

Salon
First off, after being bummed dropping off Ryan at the airport on Saturday morning, I quickly got a smile on my face for the rest of the day after visiting my favorite stylist Crystal at the Ulta in Woodbury (MN).  Even though I live 35 minutes away now, I still go back to her every 6 weeks!

I got red foils on top of my red and blonde foils from six weeks ago, I love it!!!

Friends and Sushi
I got together with one of my best friends on Saturday night so we could catch up, enjoy some sushi and have fun!  We went to Sushi Tango in Uptown, sat on the patio and enjoyed funky drinks, I loved my pomegranate tangojito, and yummy sushi rolls!  My friend tried this cool roll called "flame" and it was seared on the outside, just a little bit, I recommend it!

After dinner we headed over to the Pizza Luce block party.  The party was super crowded and it was kinda difficult to get our food/drink tickets and obtaining a beer/slice of pizza took a bit over a half hour, I wish that was better organized. But, we had a good time listening to the last band and being outside on a nice summer night!

Motivation
Whoo boy, did I get a big kick in the butt of motivation from my friend Mariah this weekend!  Mariah races in triathalons! A few friends and I went to Lake Nokomis to cheer her on in the YWCA Women's Triathalon on Sunday. 

A few things I did not realize about triathalons:
1. People of all ages, shapes, sizes and athletic ability participate
2. Pretty much every participant I saw, while exhausted, was elated to be participating
3. People are there pretty much every leg of the way cheering on EVERYONE
4. I can ride a bike, I can run, I can practice my swimming...I can do one with some training!

Hmm, something to think about :)

Running
I did my first ever run all the way around a lake this weekend for my Couch to 5K, Week 8, day 1 run!!! Thank you to Corryn for commiting with me to a run on a hot (over 80!) Sunday afternoon run with me!  I wasn't prepared for all the people and the heat, I got through all my water and my pace was a bit slower than usual, had to walk for a minute a couple times.  I did it though! I went around a lake like a big girl! Lake Harriet to be exact, yay! I plan to do it again in cooler weather and see if that improves my time, I'm sure it will.

Oh! I also got a new running accessory this weekend a Nathan's Quickdraw Thermal Water Bottle. The bottle had a spot where I could attach my car key inside a zip in pouch, which I could definitely fit an ID or some money, etc in along with it.  My water stayed cold, it had a nice handle to slip my hand through, easy to use, loved it! Yay, now I think I can go on longer runs!

I hope everyone had a fun, fulfilling and active weekend!
<3 Merbear

Hot Fun Food Run

Hello from the hottest/highest dewpoint in the world for the last for days! Minnesota! Can you believe it?

Today our heat index is 110 and the temp is 95, both are higher than the Amazon rainforest...yup, lovely.


I spent most of my weekend indoors packing up my apartment or just staying cool in AC..except for Saturday evening, whoo even after 5pm it was hotty boombalotty!


I was going to try and do my run on Friday, but I was still sore in the calfs and hips from getting my butt kicked in a leg workout on Thursday morning, Plus, I fell asleep after dinner for a few hours and slept a full night after that. Yup exhausted, probably from staying up super late on Thursday night seeing Harry Potter!


Saturday was my busy day this weekend! Lots of errands in prep for two parties I was attending!


I first popped over to Muddy Paws Cheesecake and picked up a "hand selected slices" cheesecake made up of Nutella, Raspberry Swirl, Chocolate Decadence and Key Lime for my friends. I also picked up a "toffee sampler" cheesecake to be delivered to the birthday party I was going to! Oh man, it was so hard not to eat them in the car!!


Then it was vet time, Shorty was great, only disliked the thermometer in the "bum" but Isis hissed, batted and growled, she didn't hurt anyone, but we did a very quick exam so she wouldn't stress out. Poor girl, she hates being anywhere but home.


Got my nails done, aaah its nice to have a little bit of a mini vacation at an inexpensive nail salon while they soak your feet and you get to sit in a massage chair, its the little things people!


Finally, I popped on a sundress and headed over to Tiger Sushi 2 in uptown for a birthday party, yes it was still 90 degrees outside, but we were on a covered patio so we enjoyed the hot temp and the breeze, but no beating down sun.  It was nice to enjoy sushi and cool drinks in the warm weather.


I had a custom roll here it is!

Does that look yummy? I love sushi, its my favorite food. When I have a craving for a specialty type of roll I will only get one because they always have some extra caloric treats in there like tempura, spicy sauce and probably extra rice.  I'll then round my meal out with some edamame or seaweed salad.

If I'm feeling like I need more than "one" at a sushi restaurant, I will get a combo of sashimi (which is just fish), some nigiri (which is fish on rice), and some basic maki (fish, rice, wrapped in seaweed).  My favorites are yellowtail and super white tuna!

After fun times at the sushi restaurant, my boyfriend and I headed to a suburb in the NW corner of the cities to gather with old friends. There was beer (I only had one!), ribs that were smoked all day, a freshly made kale salad (so good! I've never had one before!), and lots of catching up.  Once the sun started to set, the temp outside was *only* in the low 80s so it was a lot more tolerable, so we actually sat on the patio until us girls decided to go inside and get away from the mosquitoes, the boys were roughing it, haha. 

On Sunday I did my first 20 minute, non-stop run on the treadmill! It was week 5 day 3 of C25K and I did it! I ran a little bit slow with an average of about 4.1 mph total (4.3 mph running, but also a 5 minute cool down and warm up during the 30 minutes).  I'm so happy!! I've never ever run more than 8 minutes all in a row so this is such an awesome milestone for
me!

Yay 20 minutes!

Thanks for reading my weekend wrap up, I hope you all had awesome weekends, too!

Favorite things weekend

This weekend I got to do some of my most favorite things!

I went to my favorite hairstylist and friend Crystal at the Ulta in Woodbury, MN, its a 40 minute drive for me these days and totally worth it!  She always chooses the perfect foil combos and an added bonus this weekend is she curled my hair for me!  Also awesome is that Smashbox was doing free makeup and I got mine done with first time ever "smokey eyes." I was so impressed I posted pics and bought the eye shadows!

Yes, their ploy worked, but it made me feel great! I also won the drawing for a free Smashbox gift basket, how cool is that? I still have to go pick it up.

Saturday night I went to the local casino with my boyfriend and we heard Bill Maher from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher do his thing. Hilarious! I also got to show of my glam look at the casino, hubba hubba!

You'd think that'd be enough excitement! But, then on Sunday I attended the "Red Shoes and Sushi" event hosted by Fabuliss and @PrincessSushi of Twitter fame!  I did try on quite a few pairs of red shoes, but I ended up buying some much needed black summery shoes, some shoes for a wedding...and these babies:



Shoes that make me think of summer, picnics and blue skies

 Thank you Nordstrom's Shoe Department at the Mall of America for the fabulous service! Two hours and probably 30-40 pairs of shoes if you count what all the girls tried on!

After shoes, we dined together at Tiger Sushi in the Mall of America.  I love sushi, and normally I totally go overboard and have 2 or 3 rolls, plus some edamame and gyoza.  But, with my new focus on cutting calories and getting fit, I need to revise this!  What did I find? Well, along with a super yummy seaweed salad I had "The Volcano" which is SO PERFECT! It had 3 kinds of fish (octopus, tuna and salmon), plus mango slices, strawberry slices, and cucumber, and a very light japanese mayo/chili lime garlic dressing.and no rice, thus reducing the carby/calorie intake..check this baby out:

Volcano

After running around all day, going to the casino and eating at the buffet, and even an event that involved eating, I was able to stick to my calorie intake goals for the weekend.  This just shows me that as long as I think before I eat, I can enjoy myself and not freak out with food.  YAY!