Busy Weekend Ahead!

So I'm moving in 15 days and how many boxes do I have packed? Umm, about 10....BUT..my apartment isn't that big, most of my stuff lives in storage types of drawers or containers anyway (which I just tape up to move).  Still..I'm feeling guilty, cuz I have kinda a busy Saturday ahead, and then on Wednesday I'm leaving for 5 days of  vacation, hehe..oh well, it'll all get packed up, I did this a year ago though and I'm way more organized and have a lot less stuff this year. So I'm not sweatin' it :)

On Saturday I'm bringing my cats to the vet. Shorty loves it, he just likes being touched, paid attention to, whatever so the vet is like dreamland to him.  Isis on the other hand, she gets hissy and snippy (doesn't bite) and the vet tells me every year that she has a heart problem goes her heart rate is so high, no, its not high, she just hates the vet and gets all hyper.

After the vet I'm going to get my girlie mani-pedi on at the local shop in prep for vacation! I want my pretty little tosies and fingers to look amazing for grandma you know!

Then I'm so excited for my night!  First, its sushi dinner for my friend Amanda's 40th birthday! Woohoo for Amanda and for sushi!!! Then, after dinner I'm heading up to Andover to a BBQ and Bonfire with lots of long time good friends, even a couple that now live in Denver (I'm in MN for those that don't know!) I'm so excited to see everyone!!!

Oh oh, okay yes there will be exercise this weekend, either tonight after work or on Sunday I will do my 20 minute run! I'll report back on Monday how that goes!

I hope everyone is going to have an awesome weekend!!!!

Thursday - Things I Eat

All I really want to talk about today is this awesome salad that I made for my lunch today and I've been thinking about it all morning. My personal trainer asked me to cut out as many processed things as I could, and she agrees I can do it slowly as I run out of stuff in the kitchen. So, I officially ran out of sandwich deli meat last week,  this weekend I baked 6 chicken breasts. I then prepped them for lunches this week, two I left whole, two I cut into strips, and two I diced up! 

I used the diced up chicken to make a sweet salad for today...mmmm!

Yum, right?

This is 4 ozs of chopped up chicken breast
20 g of Craisins
1/4 of cucumber diced
1 diced up Braeburn apple
1 TBS Miracle Whip Light

According to MyFitnessPal this is approx 293 calories! Whee!

I was also thinking I could have used cottage cheese or mandarin organges and the juice to bind it together, but I didn't have those in the kitchen today.

Does anyone have any comments about my prepping to run 20 minutes this weeked in my post about running?

Tell me a salad you like! Especially if I can prep it the night before work and perhaps I can avoid dressing by using juicy ingredients!

Recovered from vacation, running, treats?

Yay! I weighed myself this morning and its not an official weigh day yet (Fridays) and I'm back to my pre-vacation weight! w00t!  I still have two days to get to *this weeks* weight loss, so I'm pretty sure I'll post a loss of new weight..(well new within the last few years, hehe). I'm so glad I can make up for a vacation gain in about a week, that makes me feel more confident going forward about maintaining and vacations.

The app/website I use for food tracking is My Fitness Pal and according to the program's predictions I will be down another 5 lbs within the next 5 weeks if I keep eating the same, so I'm happy with that! That means in about 9 weeks I should be in a new decade, which makes me feel even better!

As I've mentioned before I do the Couch 2 5K program...but I'm actually using the ipod version that was done a few years ago. I do the one from http://www.ullreys.com/robert/Podcasts/ on my ipod. I'm on week 5, which started with three 5 minute runs, then two 8 minute runs, and then Friday or Saturday I will do my first continuous 20 minute run. I'm really nervous.

Does anyone have any tips about this? I think I can make it 10 minutes as I can do 8 and still have a bit of oomph left in my legs, but 8 minutes bumped up to 20....how much should I slow down? Or should I not? Hoo boy, I'm nervous!

Treats treats treats, I like treats!

I would NOT be able to keep on my healthiness journey if I didn't have treats, I would fail within days, I can go a couple days without a treat, but if I don't have something sweet, most likely chocoately after a few days I want to eat everything on the planet until I get it!

Yesterday I succumbed to a Snickers bar, but I actually had the calories for it and it was a workout day so I lifted weights and ran on the treadmill shortly after eating it.  I wish I was more prepared though, I bet a Dove dark chocolate square or a mini candy bar would have sufficed, but I didn't have time to leave my floor at work and I had nothing in my desk! 

What should I keep at my desk? (I don't have a lot of cravings, so I wouldn't just mindlessly eat stuff, so don't worry about that!)

I won the Kris gets healthy birthday contest on her blog, I am gonna get a bunch of sweet stuff, I'll tell you all about it when I get it from her, I'm sure we'll just meet up since I'm lucky enough to live in the same town! :) Thanks again Kris!

Celebrating a Year With My Love

Today I have been dating my boyfriend for a year. We dated on and off and were friends before that, we've know each other about 3 years. But a year ago, we decided to commit and there have been lots of ups and downs, learning more about how we push and then to not push each others buttons.  He is a huge source of love and support for me. He's helped me be an advocate for myself in the realms of mental and physical health, I've helped him expand his horizons when it comes to trying new foods and living a healthy lifestyle. We are good for each other and I'm so happy to have him in my life, love you baby!

Okay on to the non-mushy stuff!  We are lucky that its Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine Restaurant Week:Summer 2011 here in the twin cities and we were able to celebrate at a yummy restaurant Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for a nice prix fixe evening!

We were greeted warmly by the host stand, our waitress Lynn was off the charts with descriptions, recommendations and banter, if you go, ask for her section!

We chose filet mignon, shrimp, garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans for our dinner. We both also got our choice of salad, Ryan and Caesar I had steakhouse, and we also purchased a bottle of wine (not part of the restaurant week, but we were celebrating!)    When Ryan received the bill for dinner, our waitress had written "Happy Anniversary!" on the bill and she didn't charge for the wine! What a nice thing for Ruth's Chris to do to help us celebrate!

Here is a little photo review of dinner:

 

How to define successes and setbacks

I go on vacation for 5 days, I wipe out my 3 lb loss and put on an extra pound by the end of that vacation - setback?

During my vacation I log my food, try to make smart choices, limit my alcohol, and I ran on the treadmill, getting up earlier than anyone else, TWICE - success?

3 days after I get back from vacation, I'm back to one lb down, but not my pre-vacation weight - sucess? setback?

Now, I was thinking my vacation was a "fail" because I gained weight, didn't even maintain....but look what I did on vacation, I limited my intake of crap, I drank way less than everyone else, and I exercised!! Sounds like a success to me, even if it wasn't a scale success, yes?

In the past vacation would have been a free for all, and I probably would have come home feeling even more bloated and my clothes probably would feel tight by the end of the trip.  I'm working off my vacation and trying to plan for my next trip next week for how I will keep on track.

I'm thinking that my most recent vacation, while it had a weight gain, it had a lot of learning opportunities and I was pretty successful. I learned that I can be my own advocate, I can ask for what I want and I don't have to do what everyone else is doing.  My friends and my family support me, and voila, so does my new found "family" that I met in Cleveland (aka my boyfriend's family).

I also learned that its not *THAT* bad to relax a little on vacation, yeah I put on a few lbs, but I'm taking them back off and it could have been worse if I didn't exercise, and that exercise made me feel good! I wish my vacation wasn't so close to the beginning of my commitment to myself, but life happens, I just have to learn to roll with it and keep moving forward.

I think going down the line, if I learn something, use that knowledge in the future and be an advocate for myself, I will always be successful!

Okay and lets end this post with my adorable little buddies that I've had in my life for about 10 years now and what I'm going to be doing every night for the next 3 weeks, packing!



Isis giving you the "huggy purry" eyes



Shorty, looking for trouble

Tomorrow I want to talk more about Couch to 5k!

Lesson Learned or The Story of Too Many Workouts?

Ooooh boy today was a doozy. I thought I'd be okay, I got in my two Couch 2 5K runs on Sunday and Tuesday while I was on vacation, I did an upper body/core workout yesterday morning, then this morning I did a legs workout...

I dunno if its that I'm a few hours behind on sleep from vacay, the fact that I lifted weights two days a row and then tried to run, or that it was a leg day and I shouldn't try to run on a leg day (this was the first time I tried that), or most likely a combination of all three....but I made it into 16 minutes of my Week 5, Day 1 run...just a few 5 minute runs, not that big of a deal, I was doing 5 minutes and 3 minutes through Tuesday already. Anyway, I could hardly catch my breath, moving my arms hurt (sore from lifting yesterday), my legs were starting to get tired from my leg workout...I just couldn't cut it...I had to slow down, so I let myself walk for 3 minutes to see if that was all I needed, I tried to run again, could only make it a minute...yup...DONE.

So I did not count this as Day 1 of Week 5, I just chalked it us as "a run" and I tried....we'll try again Saturday....this was the first time I couldn't finish a C25K workout...I wont' be doing them on leg days anymore.

Has something like this happened to anyone else?

Roadtrip Recap!

Hi folks!
I went on a roadtrip for 5 days!! Not much time to sit in front of a computer and I'm not super happy with blogging on my phone, but I took a bunch of pictures and so I wanted you all to see what I was up to!

I was able to stick to my Couch to 5K running while I was out of town, two days on the treadmill!  I limited myself to no more than two drinks a day besides on the wedding night, but I only had 3 then water and coffee the rest of the night!  I brought my own food on our driving part of the road trip and while the boys ate McDonalds and some other treats, I had my sandwiches and salads! Yay me!  I did particupate in family meals but they were serve yourself homemade food so I stuck to less carbs. more salad. 

I did indulge in a couple treats not available in MN (a slurpee that I couldn't even finish, too sweet) and one specificially adored in Clevelend (corned beef sandwich!)...

What did YOU do for 4th of July? Did you stay on your healthy living plan, if you didn't, did you make a plan to splurge a little (that's okay, too!)




Cool Monument in Cleveland

Enjoy the pics!



Slurpee!!



Ryan and I at Great Lakes Brewery

Edmund Fitzgerald and Lake Erie Monster

Cleveland style grilled brat



Cleveland Skyline





Ryan, the groom, and another cousin celebrating!

Famous Cleveland Corned Beef!