TGIF mofo’s…

My 5 mile run is DONE!!!  And it’s FRIDAY!!!

Laugh it off…

Since I was at work on my computer for 13+ hours today the last thing I want to do is think let alone blog….. so instead I will humor you with cards that made me LOL today!  Enjoy:)!

On a final note did anyone else watch Modern Family tonight?  Lilly went from straight baby…

Too 3 years-old and talking… in one season!!!  C’mon guys WTF?!?!

Vlog for my blog… UPDATED!!!

Enjoy;)!!!

Gotta spend your whole life trying…

Did anybody have a bad case of the Mondays like I did?!?!

To put it frank it was a BIOTCH coming back to work today.  This weekend was SO beautiful and SO short!!!  Friday night we hung out at Mike’s brothers and played a fun game called, “Telestrations”.  Its kind of like playing telephone with a group of people but you draw pictures.  I’m a sucker for board games and it’s hilarious (I promise we’re not an old married couple).

Saturday night we had a few people over, grilled out and made a bonfire.  It was the perfect night for one!
Mike and I are doing something pretty cool this year!  Summit County metro parks has this thing called a “Fall Hiking Spree”.  You can get a form to join off there website:

Hike at least eight of the designated trails. After completing each hike, date your form. Hikes must be completed September through November 30. Parks are open daily, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., unless otherwise noted.  First-year hikers earn a hiking staff and shield. Veteran hikers earn the hiking shield.   Since the program is funded by Summit County tax dollars, out-of-county residents pay to receive their hiking rewards ($10 for first-year hikers, $5 for veteran hikers).

It’s fun and something I really wanted to do last year but we heard about it too late!  We already had two hikes completed and then yesterday we did two more because it was so beautiful out!  So we’re half way there!  I know its kinda dorky but oh well it’s fun.

Another awesome thing that happened this weekend is I am down a total 9 pounds from the 17 day diet:).  I’m going to talk about this ALOT more tomorrow in my blog but YEA!  Which also means I am down 30 pounds since I returned from my honeymoon last year 9.12.10!  Woo hoo:)!!!

Even though today was a LONG rough day! I finished on a high with a 5 mile run on the treadmill:)

How was your day?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heaven

What a beautiful Monday this has been!  I did a cheat weigh in this morning and was down two more pounds BOO-YAH!!!  And then tonight Mike and I did a difficult, MUDDY, but pretty 2 mile hike.  It wasn’t super long but its alot of climbing…  Did I mention how beautiful it was?!?

Hopefully you guys all had a great weekend.  I sure did and was sad to see it end but then again I always am! Friday night Mike and I went to Cleveland to hang out with friends and I got to see my bff Jill’s new place with her boyfriend Lou.  We just laid low and hung out there but shared a lot of good laughs.  This picture pretty much sums up the night!

Saturday I woke up and was feeling a little home sick so I decided to fly solo and head to my parents in Tiffin for the rest of the weekend!  I got there around 1pm and my mom and I ran some errands which included stopping at a farmers market where I got a TON of delicious fruits and veggies for $14!!!  I need to start hitting up the farmers markets in my area it’s seriously SO much cheaper.  After the market we headed over to visit my Grandma and my Aunt Kim ended up stopping by as well so it was nice to chit chat with them.  My favorite part was my grandpa walking in and saying, “What have you lost 50 pounds?!?”.  It was only 5 pds. but thanks for noticing grandpa… I think?!?

The best part of going to stay with my parents was the delicious dinner we had Saturday night!  I made a salad…

And my mom made crab legs!!!

Lots of them!!!  And they were SO good and everything that was served I could eat on my diet!

Sunday I headed back home and hung out with my hubby, did some yard work and relaxed!  I also should note that LOTS of amazing 9/11 stories were watched and read throughout the weekend and it reminded me how blessed I am to have such amazing friends and family in my life and it was a good reminder to never take a day for granted.  I heard this song on my drive home and literally cried for 20 minutes…

I was really proud of myself this weekend for sticking on my diet plan it really did pay off.  Instead of having that lethargic feeling I tend to get Sunday nights from all the crap I ate and alcohol I drank I felt great.  I was actually looking forward to weighing this morning.  Like I said I was down two more pounds and its that time of the month, so I will take it!!!

Half full…

Hola ya’ll!  Continuing on with the “17 Day Diet” talk…  First I will start with alittle update:

So far so good!  I am already down 2 pds. since Tuesday morning’s weigh in and I am feeling great.  I haven’t cheated at all except for a half a glass of Pinot Noir last night that I had while celebrating my friends engagement.  I was proud of myself considering everyone else had MUCH more wine while nibbling on appetizers.  I’ve read alot of others opinions of this diet and many have complained its too much meat.  I however disagree… every meal or snack should really consist of some sort of protein so I already basically practiced that before this diet.  You can have an array of lean meats as well fish so I have been switching it up a lot to avoid boredom.   I am only going into day four though so we’ll see if I keep this “glass half full” attitude by day 17!

Now moving on to the exercise portion of this diet…  In the book it recommends a 17-minute exercise routine that should be performed twice a day six days a week.  He recommends 17 minutes in the morning and then again in the evening.  This can be from a brisk walk to dancing around your house.  For me this is extremely easy since I already workout quite a bit.  But I also like the approach because it’s nice for a beginner and doesn’t seem overwhelming.  So for example, yesterday I ran 30 minutes on the treadmill and then did an arm strength routine.  Today I did a brisk walk in the morning and then again after lunch.  Like I said this approach is very manageable.  This has been good for me because I am totally one of those kind of girls who focuses much more on exercise then my diet and I know this is an issue and I feel like this is a HEALTHY approach focusing on both!

I’m really proud of myself so far and honestly am feeling great!

Have you ever tried “clean eating”?  How did you feel? 

Love birds

Normal blogging will continue tomorrow! I just got in late after meeting a few of my girlfriends to celebrate my dear friends Amanda and Jeff’s engagement:)! I’m so happy for them and wish them all the best in the future!!!

Mildly interested…

Today felt like a Monday but was really Tuesday which means one day closer to the weekend so it was a WIN WIN!  Going back to work after a long weekend is always brutal but getting back on schedule was nice after all the crap I ate this weekend, the alcohol I drank and the late late nights!

Last night I started reading a new ebook called, “The 17 day diet”.  It’s gotten a lot of hype because the doctor that created it was on the Dr. Oz show.  I know a couple people who have done the diet, so I wanted to read and learn more about it.

Wikipedia explains the diet as:

The 17 Day Diet is a diet created in 2010 by Mike Moreno.^[1]

The diet is centered around the idea of metabolic confusion and was originally made to be a weight loss plan to get rid of or avoid typical holiday weight gain. The diet has four cycles that the dieter must follow:

1. Accelerate: Encourages rapid weight loss, cleansing and fat burning. Discourages fat storage in the dieter.
2. Activate: Resets the metabolism of the dieter.
3. Achieve: Develops good eating habits and helps the dieter to learn how to eat carbohydrates.
4. Arrive: A combination of the first three cycles.

Now please don’t get it twisted I am NOT into fad diets or anything in general that is even called a diet.  I am looking at this as more of a good detox for my body and a good back to basics platform as the weather starts getting colder.  It’s always good to check yourself and how you eat.  Also anybody can eat extra healthy for only 17 days… right?!?!  We’ll see!

I started with Cycle One today… so I went to the grocery store on my lunch break to STOCK up!

Cycle One is:

1.  Drink 8 ounces of hot lemon water first thing in the AM

2.  Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner consist of:

• Unlimited amounts of vegetables (excluding: beans, potatoes, corn, avocado)
• Unlimited amounts of lean protein
• Chicken and Turkey
• Eggs ( two yolks= a serving, four egg whites= a serving)
• Fish

Other Key Elements of the Diet:

• Drink 3 glasses of green tea throughout the day
• Drink 8 glasses of water a day- 64 ounces total
• Eat 2 probiotics a day (yogurt & etc.)
• Eat 2 pieces of fruit a day (last fruit must be consumed before 2pm)
• Low sugar fruits only – such as peaches, apples, grapes and other selected

I am only going to do a one time through cycle one and then evaluate where I am and how I feel.  I also have chosen Wednesday’s as my weigh in day!  I will be done on Sept. 22nd.

Tomorrow I will explain more about the exercise portion of the diet and what my plan is there!  Hope everyone had a good Tuesday back to the grind!

End of summer, beginning of year two:)

Is anyone as sad as me that this LONG weekend is over???:(   I am SO not ready to head back to work already tomorrow!  This weekend was so great and special in so many ways so let me start from the beginning…

Friday…

Friday, Mike and I both took the day off of work so we slept in and ate a good breakfast and then I dragged him on a run with me.  You may forget but Friday was hot as BALLS… like 95 degrees here in Ohio.  Our workout drained us both so when we got home we both crashed.  That night for dinner we checked out a new restaurant/bar nearby and then headed to see one of Mike’s friends play in his band.  Friday night was a boy’s night for sure but I always have a good time and lots of laughs with Mike’s crew so it was all good.

Saturday…

Saturday we decided to get all of our typical Sunday “chores” completed so Sunday we could just completely relax since Sunday was our 1 year wedding anniversary:)!!!  Saturday was just as unbearably hot and humid as Friday but we worked out in the yard and did a ton of stuff around the house before we headed to Cleveland for my wedding anniversary gift from the hubby.

Mike got us tickets to see the Tedeschi and Trucks band at the Jacobs pavilion in Cleveland.  He kept telling me he just got us general admission tickets however when we got there he pleasantly surprised me and we actually had THIRD ROW seats:)!!!!

The show was absolutely amazing and the Cleveland sky line in the background just made the show that much better.  If your not familiar with Susan Tedeschi def check her out!  Derek Trucks is her husband and renown guitar player and the album they are promoting now called, “Revelator” is a collaboration between the two.   Here is one of my favorite songs from the album…

Sunday…

Sunday marked our one year wedding anniversary:)!!!!  And I woke up to this…

Mike and I both reflected how quickly this past year had gone by and although it had its ups and downs like most years do we both agreed what a happy blessed place we are both in right now.   Since we had gone to the show the night before, we kept the day pretty low key .  Mike planned an early dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants.  We both got dressed up and headed to the restaurant for our 4pm reservation.  We celebrated with a bottle of wine and had a wonderful time eating TONS of delicious food and chit chatting the evening away:)!

And then folks that brings us to today!

Labor Day…

Today we had a cook out at our home with Mike’s family.  We grilled out and had a ton of delicious food!  The best part was I got to see this little girl…

And we found out she is going to be a big sister and Mike and I will be an auntie and uncle again in April 2012:)!!! Mike’s sister is prego again and only announced it to us so far and since no one from his family reads my blog I can share it with you guys:)!!!  I’m excited, I love babies!

So all in all I had a fantastic weekend and want to give my husband major props for making our first anniversary SOOOO special.  I love you Mr. Socrates;)!!!

But for reals my AZZZ needs to get back on the wagon tomorrow because all of this delicious food I ate this past weekend isn’t going to work itself off…  Sadly my bootcamp class ended last week so I need to revamp my workout routine schedule for the fall (tear, summer is over).  With the cool temps this week I see a lot of running in my near future!

What was the best part of your long Labor Day weekend?