Pack up the car....its summer

After a wonderful holiday weekend celebrating the 4th of July with family and friends, I would like to be able to just pack up the car for a road trip and just start driving and see where the road takes us and enjoy the summer! When we lived in London I traveled to the Netherlands alot for work to one of the subsidiary companies. They owned campsites, no not the American version of campsites. They were chalet style campsites. The Dutch would literally pack up the Chandeleir's and head to the campsite for a month at a time, park the car, grab a beach cruiser and ride. I got to enjoy a weekend at one of the campsites in the middle of the Netherlands and get that bike and ride to town, through the forest and just relax. It was a great time!

This time of year makes me want to become a teacher and I know that life is not as glorious during the school year being a teacher, especially if you teach summer school or tutor it certaintly doesn't end, but for those whom are off I envy you this time of year. I know you pay your dues during the year but I want your life during the summer.

Scott and I are packing up the car this year in a few weeks and taking a mid-atlantic roadtrip. We are finalizing a few plans for a the trip down and then trip home. We have pulled out the map (well google maps) and are toying with some towns/cities in Virginia (Richmond, Fredericksburg), or the obvious stop in DC. We have some concrete plans in the middle of the stay that include riding some of those beach cruisers, sitting in some adirondack chairs, sipping a few local beers, pigging out on some yummy food and enjoying good company. In the meantime, it is back to the grind of working, working out to lose the weight before vacation and get our plans in motion for the roadtrip!

With lots of drinking and pigging out this past weekend due to my brother in-laws birthday on Thursday, dinner and drinks with my best friend on Friday, BBQ on Saturday and Sunday I still managed to fair ok on the scale this week for my check-in.

Weight-loss this week: 1.4lbs
Total weight-loss: 6.4lbs

Week 2

Week two has snuck up on me, maybe because I was dreading to see what would happen this morning when I weighed in?

This week I started the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. If you are unsure of what it is, she basically runs yells you through circuit training. There are three levels to the program and each session takes you 20 minutes. It is a quick painful 20 minutes since it is non-stop which is why it is supposed to help you lose 20 lbs. in 30 days (then you have been shredded as she likes to say). So I have finished off Day 4 of Level 1 in her program and moving on tonight to Day 5.

As for the running jogging, I have been doing ok with it. I had a few days off this week since I couldn’t quite possible not have a margarita or two at our Company picnic on Friday. I mean a girl can’t quite fathom passing up a margarita to think about coming home to go on a run, right? Glad you all agree with me! This weekend I was doing better with the jogging and did 4.2 miles on Saturday and 3 miles yesterday. I am hoping determined tonight to go out for 3 miles (need to be on the couch at 8pm for the Bachelorette….priorities) and then Day 5 of the 30 Day Shred.

Enough of the workup onto the actual results for the week:

Starting weight: 1_1.3
Weight loss this week: 2.2 lbs.
Total weight loss: 5.0 lbs

Moving on to Week Three with high hopes of that -4lbs!

Check-in week 1

Well since my posting a few weeks ago about getting myself out on the pavement running that has been sort of put on hold by a few weekend trips and of course other excuses. Well today was weigh-in Monday...YIKES. I have been watching a bit more of what I eat which is the only reason why I dropped 2.8lbs this past week!!! I have made some interim goals to help along my ultimate goal of 35-40lbs. My first goal is 15 lbs by July 23rd (trip to OBX), second goal is 25lbs. by the end of the August (trip to Bahamas for my birthday) and 35-40lbs. by Christmas (when we go to Hawaii). I am off to a slow start but at least a start in the right direction.


So with my semi-happy weigh-in this am, I scoped out three runs for Scott and I to partake in which will definetly get me off my fat arse and onto the pavement for sure. Two are next week and the best part about them is that they are both during the week! One is a 5k (3.2 miles) and the other one is a 5 mile run.....oh boy.


Off to start week 2!

Summer Getaways

We are in the midst of planning a few summer getaways and as I was doing a little looking yesterday at some plans, I received an email that definetly got me side tracked a bit. The email came from Louis Vuitton, below, with a nice picture of a lady walking near the beach in a coverup, scarf and my now coveted new beach bag, the new Ailleurs Collection.





So with my new beach bag in mind....not purchased, my summer getaways just might have a new bag to join the trip!

Procrastination

Over the past few years there is something that I procrastinate doing all the time.....exercise. I set the alarm to get up in the morning to go for a run or go to spin class or just to shut it off and go back to bed. The third one is more like the everyday routine these days.

Last year when Scott was training for the New York City marathon he had asked me to go on a few training runs with him. I was like I will go for 3 miles but that is not really helping him since I would run about a 10 minute mile and would last about 3-4 miles with him....behind him, slowing him down, when he would be out on a 18-20 mile run. So my 3-4 miles would not really suffice, from my perspective, so I wouldn't go as to not slow him down. You know why would I want to hurt his training program by him having to run slower. Procrastination? No...helping him!

Fast forward to a two weeks ago when Scott signed up for the New York City marathon again and to run for charity, Fred's team. I told him that if he signed up I would go on a few 8 mile runs with him. That was shaken on as a promise to keep. So with some time to start training, aka me, I should start to put off the procrastination and start getting out of bed in the am and going for a run. Maybe that will also help me with a little weight loss I would like to do too.

Here starts the training for my first ever 8 mile run(s) this coming summer with my dearest hubby!

Happy Mother's Day

Mom,

On the day when we are all reminded to wish you a Happy Mother's Day and to thank you for everything you have done for us, know that these thoughts are expressed daily just not always spoken.

You and dad brought me onto this earth almost 33 years ago and although there have been ups and downs in everyday life, we can always sit down as a family and enjoy a wonderful time together and it seems like everything else doesn't matter.

You are the best mom that I could ever have and more importantly a great friend! Thank you for everything you do for me and I look forward to many more fun adventures ahead of us!

Love,

Your adoring daughter

Adventures to Raleigh and back

About 2 months ago Scott and I were at the Devils vs. Hurricanes game in NJ at the Prudential Center. We met during the intermissions with some friends, whom we met in London who are living back in the states. We were chatting about the 'lack' of entertainment at the Devils games (i.e. contests, prizes, etc) compared to Hurricanes games. I guess they weren't impressed with our Nathan's hot dog eating contest or our Devils Dancers....I am not either but what can one say. After the end of the game we met up with them and wished them safe travels back to Philly that night and they said if we ever wanted to come down to give a shout!

A few weeks go by and Scott and I looked at the NHL schedule and saw that his Buffalo Sabres were playing in Raleigh at the beginning of April. We decided to take up the offer and go to Raleigh for the weekend!!

We got in on Friday night and the city of Raleigh was hoping with a concert (some teeny-bopper concert) and the Queen's Motorcycle Convention or something like that. There were people everywhere.

We were met at the hotel by our friends and headed out to Poole's Diner. http://www.poolesdowntowndiner.com/ The food was awesome. I had a baked mac and cheese for dinner and it was to die for. I can never turn down a mac and cheese and this is now on the top of the list. After dinner we headed out to have a few beverages at The Raleigh Times (the Old Newspaper Building). The place was packed but we scored a table after some patient waiting and plotting to move to a quitier table! After a few local brews it was time to head back to the hotel only now seeing it was 2am....where did the time go????

Saturday Scott and I had a fantastic breakfast at Big Ed's in downtown Raleigh and did a little sightseeing down to the Capital building and the North Carolina History Museum.

After a little sightseeing, we met for lunch and then headed to Fullsteam in Durham to test out a few of their brews. Scott tried his luck at a pinball machine and I think his luck as a child with that game ran out years ago....sorry hun! We took a tour of the Durham Bulls stadium and then walked down by the old Lucky Stripe plant which is a grogeous area with reastaurants and offices.

Love this old sign for an old lunch spot. "Home of the 15 cent lunch"

Check out what you could get!

After our tour of Durham we headed back to Raleigh to watch the Saturday night Hockey Games and also the Final Four games. We got to Tobacco Road Sports Cafe with everyone else in Raleigh. The place was busy for the same reasons we were there....go figure. We waited patiently with our name on the list for a table (45 min wait) but waited more patiently for 4 people to leave so we could sit our butt's in some plush leather reclining seats with our own personal TV's.....and we SCORED!!! 5 opened up and we were in. We all got to watch our respective teams and called it a night after the games were over.

Sunday was the big day.....Hurricanes vs. Buffalo at the RBC Center. We were greated by a white SUV with Hurricane flags waving in the air. Scott was sporting some Buffalo gear so the trash talking started.

We had an superb tailgate with Carolina ribs, coleslaw, pimento cheese dip (a new favorite) and some local Carolina beers! Scott and I were introduced to a new game, washers. Game faces on it was time for us Jerseyites vs. Caniacs in a game of washers! Scott and I were having what we were told was some "beginner's luck" I would like to call it skill. Same thing right? There was a 3rd period timeout called by the Caniacs in which they rallied to a nice win over the Jerseyites. Close game and a rematch is on sometime.

We went into the arena for a game of skill and watched some exciting periods of hockey. We will leave it at that.

After the game we headed out for some dinner and had a nice time sitting outside. We said out goodbyes and thank you's for a great weekend and invited them up to Jersey for a Yanks vs. Red Sox game. Looks like the game would be in Sept. 23-25th which is the next series that is played back in NYC. Invitation is open some come on up!