She says tomato...

And so I creep (yeah)

2012-01-29T15:40:00.002-05:00

I think I came up with the MOST innovative of ideas yesterday. Fact is, my building is about 0.1 miles long, separated into 3 sections by double doors. It is also 6 stories high, and I live on the first floor.

My workout (after my run) was to run/walk/run (the three sections) down one floor, take the stairs to the next level, walk/run/walk down the next floor, stairs up again, run/walk/run, etc. Every other set of stairs I used as an opportunity to stretch my calves and hamstrings. If I hadn’t just come back from a run, I would have run the whole hallways.

Same thing on the way down. When all is said and done, it’s a little over a mile (not including the stairs).

The pros:

If the weather is crappy, it’s not like I have to wait for a hallway to open up like a treadmill.
If I hit a stinky patch of hallway, I sprint through (speedwork!)
It’s safe.
No hills.
It couldn’t be any closer, and I’m always less than 0.1 miles from my door (and water/bathroom/etc).
Stairs=crosstraining!
When the doors between the sections are open, it looks like The Shining, which scares me, which creates adrenaline and makes me run faster, thus increasing my heart rate.

The cons:

I feel like I’m creepin’
No fresh air and nothing to look at.
The Shining hallway concept FREAKS me out. Like…FREAKS ME OUT.
If people see me, I have to stop and walk because…well, it’s weird what I’m doing, right?
Those random smelly hallways are very smelly.

I feel like this is a good alternative to keep things fresh (well, maybe not so fresh in the hallways with my sweaty self running through) or when I just want to do a mile or so, but how long do you think I can keep this up before someone notices? And if they do, is it wrong? I mean, I don’t see any “no running” signs in the hallway…

2012-01-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

I went for a 2.5 mile run yesterday, and again I had wooden, numb feet after ~1.5 miles, which got progressively worse despite my stopping a few times to shake them out. Once they start falling asleep, I can’t get them fully awake again until I’ve stopped running.

Why does this happen? Why do they fall asleep right as I’m hitting my stride and no longer gasping for air? You are pissing me off, feet.

I have thoroughly searched Dr. Internet (my main source of medical information, obvi), and there does not seem to be a general answer for this problem. I’ve also gotten some advice from you lovely running folk. Some say shoes, many say lacing, some even say spinach (actually, no one said that but I’m kind of craving it).

I have tried the following (to no avail):

-Different shoes (2 different brands, totally different types of sneaks)
-A slower pace
-A different stride (smaller, faster steps rather than bounding steps)
-Treadmill, road and trail
-Inserts (blister festival after 1.5 miles, and when I took them out the sleeping started, but I don’t know if it’s because I took them out or because it had been 1.5 miles. Classic chicken/egg scenario.)
-Different walk/run patterns
-Stretching before
-Not stretching before
-Hills/no hills
-Lacing my shoes from the top down (so awkward-looking)

-Lacing my sneaks super tight
-Lacing my sneaks super loose

I really do get a lot of suggestions about the lacing, but I’m fairly sure it’s not a circulation problem. It seems to be more of a nerve that is getting pressed thing. I would like to find that nerve and get that nerve a cup of coffee.

Side note: I know I just said I don’t think it’s circulation and this may not have anything to do with anything, but I remembered that when I was little, my feet used to fall asleep when I would play outside in the winter with my friends, and then I would fall. Luckily it was winter in Massachusetts so I would usually fall onto a pile of snow. However, it got a little embarrassing (I was probably like having a narcoleptic friend…now you see me, now I’m laying down), so my mom took me to the doctor, who made the great rule that I had to come inside every 20 minutes for a foot rub and a sock change. That time interval is strangely similar to the current troublesome time interval. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled blog post…

I have a couple more options to try before I have to go visit the podiatrist (who has the huge fun purple chair):

1. Try inserts again, but with my shoes tied very tight so they don’t slip and cause blisters
2. Try the inserts after 1 mile
3. Try one more type of laces (Xtenex), which don’t tie and are stretchy.

Abrupt stop.

I found Ice Cube's 'Good Day'

2012-01-27T16:34:00.003-05:00

The fact that someone took the time to do this blows, stimulates and otherwise makes my brain happy.

CLUE 1:
   “went to short dogs house,
   they was watching Yo MTV
   RAPS”
Yo MTV RAPS first aired:
   Aug 6th 1988
CLUE 2:
Ice Cubes single “today was a good day” released on:
   Feb 23 1993
CLUE 3:
   ”The Lakers beat the Super
   Sonics”
Dates between Yo MTV Raps air date AUGUST 6 1988 and the release of the single FEBRUARY 23 1993 where the Lakers beat the Super Sonics:
   Nov 11 1988 114-103
   Nov 30 1988 110-106
   Apr 4 1989 115-97
   Apr 23 1989 121-117
   Jan 17 1990 100-90
   Feb 28 1990 112-107
   Mar 25 1990 116-94
   Apr 17 1990 102-101
   Jan 18 1991 105-96
   Mar 24 1991 113-96
   Apr 21  1991 103-100
   Jan 20 1992 116-110

CLUE 4:
Dates of those Laker wins over SuperSonics where it was a clear day with no Smog:
   Nov 30 1988
   Apr 4 1989
   Jan 18 1991
   Jan 20 1992
CLUE 5:
   “Got a beep from Kim, and
   she can fuck all night”
beepers weren’t adopted by mobile phone companies until the 1990s. Dates left where mobile beepers were availible to public:
   Jan 18 1991
   Jan 20 1992
CLUE 6:
Ice Cube starred in the film “Boyz in the hood” that released late Summer of 1991, but was being filmed mid-late 1990 early 1991 and Ice Cube was busy on set filming the movie Jan 18 1991 too busy to be lounging around the streets with no plans. Ladies and Gentlemen..
The ONLY day where:
Yo MTV Raps was on air
It was a clear and smogless day
Beepers were commercially sold
Lakers beat the SuperSonics
and Ice Cube had no events to attend was…

   JANUARY 20 1992
   National Good Day Day

Exactly

2012-01-27T11:11:00.002-05:00

Childhood memories (new series!)

2012-01-25T13:09:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I remember the most random shit about my childhood.

Today I remembered that my mom always used to say, “keep that up and I’ll put you in traction.”

Once I got to be a little bit older (and nerdier, and more of a pain in the ass), I researched what traction actually was (picture below) and went as far as to ask my mother to further clarify her threat.

“So Mom…when you say that, do you mean you will hurt me enough to make it so I need to be in traction, or do you mean you will physically restrain me by taking me to the hospital and literally putting me in traction yourself?”

Her response: “Ask me again and you’ll find out.”

(I never did find out…I was brave, but not stupid. My mother is bad ass.)

ALSO, while looking for a Google image of traction, I found this wonderful blue thing. It says “You wrap it around your neck and then go to town with the handheld pump until it’s inflated enough to relieve pressure caused by pinched nerves, tension headaches and osteoarthritis.” I NEED IT. I want to "go to town with the handheld pump"!

Fooooood

2012-01-25T12:23:00.000-05:00

I feel like I haven’t posted food pictures lately…very unlike me. It’s certainly not because I’m not eating any.

Breakfast today was a cherry smoothie: cherry yogurt, frozen cherries and pomegranate juice. It was simply delightful, and I didn’t take a picture because my phone is getting overrun with pictures of smoothie ingredients.

Lunch today is a Weight Watchers recipe for a cold tomato/mozzarella/basil/pasta salad that I found to be a zillion times better heated up, combined with a couple of ounces of lemon garlic pork tenderloin I had left over.

I have such conflicting feelings about hot cherry tomatoes (heated up hot, not spicy hot). My mouth is telling me I should eject it simply for the texture (so smushy and that hot, squirty juice…barf), but my taste buds overrule that decision because they are always delicious. Always!

Weekly Weigh-In

2012-01-24T10:08:00.002-05:00

Lost 0.8 lbs.

Considering the food and drink massacres that happened on Friday and Sunday…I’ll take it.

Also, ran 5.5 miles…not enough.

Meh.

My apologies (not really)

2012-01-23T14:41:00.001-05:00

To anyone who can’t find any food to eat today, it’s because I ate all of it yesterday. Yes, all of the food in the universe was consumed by me. And, no, I didn’t track a bite of it. Nor did I run…and for that one day in time, it was all good. It’s not the first “eat everything/track and do nothing” day I’ve ever had, and it won’t be the last. It was planned, it was necessary, and it was awesome.

In addition to the Patriots ~~playing in~~ winning their last game before yet another magnificent appearance at the Superbowl, I had my monthly Cards with Canucks…where, you guessed it, I play cards with my favorite Canucks (my mom, my aunt, my cousin) and a couple of my other friends thrown in for good measure (and more betting money).

I’m not going to go into full drawn out delicious detail about the menu options, but I will just leave you with this picture, from Round 1 of Operation Eat Everything. Feel free to focus on the bag of celery if it makes you feel better.

Other things that happened yesterday/this weekend:

-I took the biggest digger in my living room yesterday and was lucky enough to have two of my best friends witness it. We're talking fully horizontal, legs still running while they're in the air, absolute face plant into the back of the sofa followed by a slow melt down to the floor kind of doozy. I've busted into spontaneous laughter about 7 times today just imagining what it must have looked like.

-I went to a brewery on Friday night for a tasting and tour. Loved it.

-I then followed that up with dinner with my lovely friends followed by a superb hour of watching other people sing karaoke at the bar. Heavenly.

-On Saturday I learned that my super awesome new car is JUNK in the snow, but I took it as an okay to bench myself during snow storms going forward.

-On Saturday night I stayed in, made a lovely WW recipe of caprese pasta salad (seen above in the middle) and some pork tenderloin, and watched The Shining for the zillionth time. Still terrifying.

“Danny, come play with us. For ever and ever and ever………..”

(no more on this post…the author has run screaming from the room)

The little things

2012-01-19T16:03:00.002-05:00

Not only am I normally a ‘glass half full’ type of girl, but I’m also a “be thankful you have a glass at all and stop looking for things to complain about” person.

In truth, terrible shit happens to people all the time and you can absolutely take the time (it’s not hard to do) to find the reasons why something sucks. However, it’s just as easy to find the silver lining, for lack of a better phrase.

I’m not going to get all preachy on you, but I will show you some of my day-to-day silver linings.

1. Towel Warmer: Someone very awesome gave me this for Christmas and what a treat it is! Each morning, I step out of my shower and wrap myself up in warm snuggly goodness. I pretty much look like a fabric softener commercial, towel all up around my shoulders with a blissful smile on my face.

2. This is a double good thing: My new L.L. Bean hearth-side slippers in persimmon (fun color alert!!!) topped with my fat-ass lap warmer. Oh, and the Pats.

3. The view from my office window. (My birdseed brings all the squirrels to the yard.)

4. Finding and taking pictures of random vanity plates in parking lots that make me giggle, then walking into the restaurant of said parking lot and having my friend ask if I saw Ploopy. Mind melding.

5. Wearing fun jewelry, like my octopus!!! My friend Steph got this for me, and I was honored that someone would see this and think, “Tammy.Needs.This.”

There are many, many more things that make me stop and smile throughout the day…what are yours?

Reasons why I ruled last night

2012-01-19T11:04:00.001-05:00

I had FLARP (fantastic ladies’ awesome running practice) planned with my friend Tobey. Both she and I are competitive and would therefore never cancel FLARP for weather purposes, so I knew there would be no excuses.

Seeing as it was hovering around 23F and windy enough to blow your socks off, we discussed the possibility of only doing 2 miles, but secretly we both knew we’d do 3. And you know what? At the end of 3, when we had just run the final bit uphill with wind in our faces and I had a legit line of snot running from my nose to my ear (which was frozen), we got to our cars and at the same time both sighed, “awesome.” Because it really was.

My feet kept falling asleep while we were running (why does that happen? I don’t like it) and I had to stop a couple of times to wake them up. I’ve tried different shoes, tying them looser/tighter, different socks…what else? It happens after about 2 miles. At the end I ran the final 1/4 mile with both feet completely dead. It was scary (I kept thinking I was going to take the biggest digger because I couldn’t see or feel the little bumps on the sidewalk) but BOOM. Did it.

We did concede to skip the 5 minute cool-down walk in light of the weather, which made my feet wake up while I was driving. That was not awesome.

When I got home, somehow I didn’t feel tortured enough, so I found a 35 minute ballet barre workout to do. HARD, especially on just runned-on (ran-on?) legs, but awesome.

Hot shower, hot meal of mushrooms, onions and a black bean veggie burger and warm bed.

The end.

Cough...point..." hey look over there!!!" (weigh-in)

2012-01-18T12:05:00.002-05:00

Confession: I totally distracted you yesterday with my pretty purple smoothie and dark thoughts about solitary shoes and dead kittens, but if we’re being straight up here (which we are) I had my weigh-in yesterday.

I gained 4.4 pounds. Curses.

HOWEVER, I did track all of the foods I ate allllllll week long (I did not go over my allotted points) and I did go out to dinner the night before weigh-in where I consumed about 7 truckloads of sodium. So there’s that. I’m not going to get discouraged; I’m just going to keep going.

On the bright side…I ran a little over 6 miles, right on target.

Oh, scale. You can be such a dick sometimes (as illustrated below).

Is it just me? Yeah, I think it probably is.

2012-01-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

What do you see here?

I saw this in my parking garage the other night and had to wonder; am I the only one who thinks only bad things when I see a lone shoe abandoned somewhere? Sneaker on the side of the road? Oh, a runner must have gotten hit. Beat-up woman’s flat in the parking garage? OH, some poor girl was probably abducted while coming home late and was carried away kicking and screaming. Tennis shoes tied up and hanging on an electrical wire? Some cute little nerdy kid was probably getting bullied and the bad kids made him take his shoes off. (To add insult to injury, his mom was probably pissed at him because he lost his shoes and they were expensive).

Let’s just fully cross over the line then and get it all out, shall we? Truth: when I see an abandoned box or bag on the side of the highway or the woods I also assume it has (hopefully not) dead kittens in it. I don’t stop every time because my logical sense tells me it’s unlikely, but I do look for movement just in case.

My mind. It’s not always a swimming pool full of rainbows.

p.s. I spend the majority of my time on highways visually following the paths of skid marks to find the collision marks on the guardrails or in the soil. I also look for blood. Ok, it’s all out I think.

Today's smoothie brought to you by the color purple

2012-01-17T11:54:00.000-05:00

Blueberry yogurt, sweet cherries and blueberry pomegranate juice. Additionally, purple straw and purple underwear (not pictured).

Antioxidants like whoa.

Opposite Day

2012-01-15T17:01:00.004-05:00

Yesterday:

I woke up early and cleaned my house
I had four of my lovely lady friends over for a late breakfast of smoothies, mini bagels, muffins, fruit salad and laughter
I went to the gym and ran a 5K on the treadmill in 40 minutes (including 5 minute walking warm-up)
I came home and did squats post-run at my brother’s insistence that it would be better (as many as you can do for 20 seconds/rest 10 seconds for 4 minutes)
Learned that “better”=”rubber”
Took a long hot shower and got into my comfiest, coziest sweats
Cleared out my DVR and ate cous cous
Watched the Patriots make a complete mockery of Tim Tebow and the Broncos
Went to bed and slept for almost 12 hours. TWELVE HOURS.

Today:

I’ve been a complete

(loafer)

FLARP

2012-01-13T15:59:00.005-05:00

I first met Tobey last March, when my friend Mego (my usual race buddy) introduced me to her on the morning of the Ras na hEireann U.S.A. 5K last year…here are the three of us getting ready to race (Tobey is in the middle).

Tobey (who has the most endearing dimples way up high on her cheeks) almost immediately declared herself to be ‘the most unfun person in America’, but I charmed her with my absurdly inappropriate humor and decided she would be an excellent work-in-progress at the very least.

SO ANYWAY, cut to a year later and Tobey has become a friend. She’s also a great motivator and supporter of my running and fitness goals. When she read about my mileage goal this year of 350 miles (after she scoffed at the small number), she asked if I’d like to start meeting her one or two nights a week to run at the office park where she works to run a few miles. Anyone else who wanted to run would be invited as well.

I’ve always been a solitary runner for the most part, so I was curious to try out running with a partner. I see women running together and chatting, and I always think it looks awesome. However, I was worried that Tobey (who runs fast) would be miles ahead of me and I would be left behind, all

However, Tobey was a true gentlewoman and kept her pace to match mine (thank you again, Tobey) and it was fab.u.lous. We decided that our running group, even if it was just two people, obviously needed a name, and Tobey suggested FLARP*:

Fabulous Ladies’ Awesome Running Practice

Done.

First FLARP meeting in the books last night, 3 miles run in icy slush. It was a completely different experience than running alone, namely in that all of the little issues you seem to hone in on with your body/legs are much more muted with conversation. I’m also terrible about running or walking in a straight line (I typically use whoever is next to me like a bumper to keep me on track), so I felt like my core had a good workout trying to balance and not to knock poor Tobey off her feet with an unintentional shoulder check.

*FLARP was absolutely named after the goo in the plastic can that makes farty noises.

When I'm eating my salad at work and someone walks in with Chinese food...

2012-01-12T13:52:00.002-05:00

(that's me on the left)

Tea Time

2012-01-11T14:23:00.000-05:00

My brother’s girlfriend got me all sorts of goodies from Tea Forte for Christmas, and just in time to help with my new pledge to make more time for my mental peace. The original flavor names, fascinating tools, vibrant colors, fragrant scents…everything is so beautiful.

I find that having my own ‘tea time’ at work every afternoon using these things rather than the ol’ Lipton in a plastic cup routine is comparative to the feeling you get when you shop at a high end store where your clothing is individually wrapped in luxe tissue paper a beautiful bag with soft corded handles vs. shopping at Marshalls where all of your things are unceremoniously dumped into a plastic bag. Both put a shirt on your back, but one is surrounded by a special package that makes you feel kind of important.

Also…Apricot Amaretto tea is a bit of an improvement as an afternoon snack over a cup of Peanut M&Ms.

Silken Tea Infusers (it looks like you're growing tea!)

Ginger Lemongrass...delicious

Kati Tea Brewing System with Blueberry Merlot Single Steep

~~Cheers!~~ Namaste. (Ommmmmm.)

Weekly weigh-in...(drumroll please)

2012-01-10T11:25:00.000-05:00

As you know, last Tuesday was my new Day 1. My start date, my start weight, my start everything. I changed up my weigh-in day, my goals, my techniques, etc in an effort to get myself motivated and excited again.

And here are the results:

WEIGHT:

I tracked everything I ate (and drank), and opted for foods high in protein as well as lots of fruits and vegetables rather than just using my points for junk. I didn’t eliminate junk, but it definitely took a back burner. Weight Watchers puts a lot of emphasis on eating foods that are good for you, staying hydrated, and maintaining a balanced diet. I dig that.

The result? Weight loss: 3.6 POUNDS!!!!!!

FITNESS:

My goal in order to reach 350 miles for the year is to run an average of 6.7 miles per week. This week I did that by running 2 miles Tuesday, 1 mile Thursday, 2 miles Saturday and 2 miles yesterday.

The result? 7 miles in the books as planned. Hazzah! (I say that real ninja-like)

MIND/SOUL:

One of my new efforts is to make time in my life to relax not just my body but my mind. I feel like I’m constantly in overdrive, attempting to fill my every second with something to do or think about or want. Although loafing on the couch is indeed very relaxing, I also want to practice the act of clearing my mind without using TV/books/music/everything on my phone as distraction tools.

I’m going to do this by incorporating more yoga into my weekly routine, and I just received something I’m very excited about in the mail (literally as I was writing this), which I found after randomly clicking on several Buddhism links on StumbleUpon:

So there’s my week in a nutshell. I’m going to go finish brushing off my shoulders, and then I’m going to keep on keepin’ on.

Thank you for your support and your kind words as of late…you’re pretty awesome.

Oh dear.

2012-01-09T12:09:00.002-05:00

I just took my ‘before’ pictures. I could just puke.

This will make my after pictures that much more awesome, I guess.

Nesting

2012-01-08T21:33:00.001-05:00

Last night I went out to dinner (Japanese teppanyaki where they cook in front of you on the grill—YUM) and ordered calamari and chicken which was GOOD, but I went at 5pm (way too early) and I also had 2 glasses of wine along with the ice cream they give you for dessert.

THEN, I had a 2 1/2 hour phone conversation which ended at around 9:30pm and obviously required drinks and a celebration for us both making it through it. After a dirty martini, 2 beers and some whipped cream flavored vodka on ice (plus 2 small slices of margarita pizza and some seared tuna), I was at a whopping 60 points for the day, way too many of which were booze points. Luckily my weekly point allowance allowed for it, but still. No bueno.

This morning, I woke up with the sunrise and built a nest out of pillows and blankets on the sofa to watch as the beautiful colors decorated the sky above the reservoir across the street. I had this delicious (2 pt) lunch of stewed tomatoes, artichoke bottoms (have you ever heard of those? they’re amazing!) and a small can of tuna all mixed together and simmered on the stove. Delicious.

Then I went grocery shopping, ran some errands and returned to my nest. Is this not the coziest thing you’ve ever seen?! I can't believe I've never done this before on my couch.

Now I’m into a new day of WW points and waiting for my chicken breast to finish roasting, which I’m going to pair with garlic cauliflower, brussels sprouts and brown rice.

Here is my current view from the nest; watching the full white moon dancing with the clouds from a bed of warmth and comfort. Hope you’ve all had a lovely relaxing moment to yourself this weekend.

Winningest decisions all over this joint

2012-01-07T12:15:00.001-05:00

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I start my WW day at 5pm. Same amount of points, I just go from 5pm-5pm rather than midnight to midnight like most people. I do this because what used to happen was I would eat a lot of points during the day and then just go over at night because I didn’t have enough points for dinner but I certainly wasn’t going to skip it. Dinner is the meal I have the least control over because I’m often out or with other people, and it’s the meal I’m most likely to have alcohol with. Even if I’m home without the pressure of other people, I still have a cabinet, fridge and freezer staring at me. So by starting at 5pm, even if I eat/drink a lot of points at night I know going into the next day how many points I have left and I can just bring those points to work. If it’s not a lot, I bring extra fruit and veggies (no points). The moral of the story is: if the food isn’t there, I can not eat it.

Anyway, last night I got a last minute invite to meet some friends for dinner/drinks at Acapulcos, a Mexican restaurant.

Winning idea #1: Have them order my food (chicken and avocado salad) before I get there. That salad is literally just lettuce, grilled chicken and about 1/4 an avocado and is by far the healthiest thing there.

Unintentional win #2: I got stuck in traffic, so by the time I got there the tortilla chips were gone. Phew.

Winning idea #3: Declined invitation to join the boys for further drinking after dinner. Instead, I came home and chilled out. As a treat, I had a small glass of whipped cream flavored vodka on ice and an ounce of very sharp cheddar cheese while I caught up on my DVR stuff.

Unintentional win #4: I was supposed to go out to breakfast with my sister at 10am, so I got up at around 8:30 and showered. She wasn’t feeling well and canceled. Normally, seeing that I had already showered, I would have lounged for the next 2 hours until my next plans were supposed to happen, but instead I took advantage of the extra time and went for a run!

Winning idea #5: Did my 2 mile super-hill route. Only looked at my watch at the end of mile 1 and the end of mile 2. Just ran when I could and walked when I couldn’t. Mile 1 (all uphill) took ~ 13:30. Mile #2 (all downhill) took ~11:30 and I did not stop at all to walk. That felt awesome.

Winning idea #6: Rather than replace the delicious out-to-breakfast feast I would have consumed with my sister at a restaurant with bacon and eggs at home, I opted for a smoothie after my run. Today’s smoothie was the “Dark Pink One” (black cherries, strawberry banana yogurt, cran-grape flavored water=2 pts)

Winnah winnah chicken dinnahhhh!!! (Ooh…chicken for dinner actually sounds lovely…)

I’m starting to realize that losing weight requires a LOT of small positive decisions to be made, in addition to just choosing the right foods and choosing to exercise. Also, I can not just make one smart decision and then cancel it out with a bad one. I need to continue to make good choices and not see them as sacrifices or a lack of something. In fact, I feel about 300% better at this moment than I would have if I’d had some melty cheesy dinner with margaritas last night, a late night getting hammered, a big fatty breakfast and no exercise. Go figure.

Smooth(ie) Criminal

2012-01-06T15:21:00.001-05:00

Listen, if makin' sweet smoothie love is wrong, I don't wanna be right...or something like that.

Today I opened my new Ninja blender system. Somehow I pleased the Gods of the Yankee Swap and won it at my work Christmas party. This thing is like, the blender of all blenders...cookie dough paddle, ice demolisher, party pitcher attached, you name it. Legit sorcery. Look at it!!!

The thing I was MOST pumped about were the three travel smoothie cups, because I love me a smoothie in the morning. In fact, don't tell anyone else that makes smoothies, but I've kind of perfected it. You want in on my super simple, super delicious, super low point (2-3 WW points) but also very filling smoothie???? I will do this for you.

Here's what you need (no ice!!! no measuring cups!!! no rules!!! so many options and combinations!). Today's smoothie was peach-strawberry-banana-raspberry-lemon, or as I like to call it, The Pink Kind.

1 6oz yogurt (any flavor, any kind)
Frozen fruit (Dole makes some very delicious ones)
Juice, or flavored water (today I had light Raspberry Lemonade, but I also like to use Fruit2O)

Pick a yogurt flavor (any 6 oz yogurt will do, this one is 2 pts). Today's smoothie started with peach yogurt. Add your yogurt to the blender. Then fill the yogurt cup with frozen fruit (I heaped it over a bit).

Add the fruit to the blender. Then fill your yogurt cup again with juice/flavored water. All the way to the top if you like it more liquid, less if you like it thick (gutter, meet mind).

Blend that magic up like a boss.

If you have a Ninja like me, switch out the chopper top for the to-go top and have a photo session of you getting your DRANK ON.

You can even put a straw in it!!!

If I trip and fall today...

2012-01-06T14:53:00.003-05:00

…it’s because I was staring at my nails and not paying attention to where I was going.

Gunmetal gray topped with SPARKLES. Rainbow sparkles. Unicorn, magical, rainbow sparkles.

Party the fuck ON, dude.

P.S. Can someone please bring me some hand lotion? It looks like I dipped my hand in powder. Gross.

P.P.S. Oops. Painted my thumb skin a little bit. Look away, I’m ~~too lazy to take another picture~~ ashamed.

THIS is the most wonderful time of the year!!!

2012-01-06T10:51:00.004-05:00

New resolves! Resolutions! Fun commercials showing people having a blast at the gym and eating healthy foods! Even the E Network is showing Top 10 Celebrity Slimdowns like whoa this time of the year.

And you know what? I freaking LOVE IT.

I love every single motivational, inspirational second of it. Truth? When I see/know someone who is working out and losing weight, I become obsessed with them. I would rather look at pages of before and after pictures than pictures of my unborn children.

Does everyone feel this way? You must. Everyone loves a success story. Girls want to be friends with them, guys want to date them, parents want to brag about them. This is why we blog and read blogs! To glimpse into someone else’s everyday life and think, “hot damn, I can do that! She/he is just like me! I love burritos and dogs tooooo!!!”

So you know what, internet lovers? I’m going to do you a solid. I’m going to be YOUR inspiration! A little over a year ago, I became hooked on fitness blogging (I’d been regular blogging for a while) and focused on undergoing a real life change after reading chronicles of Ben at Ben Does Life and Liz at OneTwentyFive. Somewhere along the way I lost track and lost focus and my life got turned all upside down. Now I’m living single for the first time in 6 years, in a new home, with a new resolve to experience life and to take advantage of this time I have to do ME. To travel, to run, to eat whatever I want whenever I want, to make new friends, to read all the books, to do yoga in my skivvies in the living room at 10pm…yes, all of that.

I restarted my Weight Watchers plan with a starting date of Tuesday, January 3rd. The Body was weighed, measured, and will be photographed this weekend. In addition to WW, I have also set the following goal for myself, which will be included in my weekly check-ins:

I WILL RUN A MINIMUM OF 350 MILES THIS YEAR.

I know for you marathoners this is nada, but for me (who was running 0 miles), 6 or more miles per week is exactly where I need to be. If I get to July and see I’m going to blow my goal out of the water, I’ll increase it to 500. But for now, it’s reasonable. One mile a day, 2 miles three times a week, whatever it takes. (So far this week I did 2 miles on Tuesday and 1 mile last night because I was pressed for time…so I’m halfway through my WW week and halfway to my goal. Perfect.)

So there you have it. The breakdown. The plan. The goal. The inspiration.

Let’s play, bitches.

2011-12-29T14:32:00.002-05:00

I have so far been successful at avoiding the multitude of plague-ish illnesses that have been flying around thus far. A lot of it has been due to one of my coworkers, who throws a packet of Emergen-C at me at the slightest hint of what I like to call “snotty voice”.

Today, “snotty voice” started creeping in, and my lovely coworker again gave me a packet of Emergen-C. Then I learned a very valuable lesson:

plus

is the equivalent of:

On the plus side, I’m pretty sure my office will forever smell like a raspberry-lime rickey.