2.5 Miles, Ice and a Wedding

It was a busy morning before work started at 9:00, er I mean 9:10....oops.

There was a 2.5 mile run with my new shoes.

I still had a little ankle pain, but I definently would agree that new shoes made a huge difference. Fingers are still crossed that I will be good for next weekend's half marathon....!

I continued to enjoy the rest of my morning free time (before spending 8 hours in perfumed hell) by icing my foot and eating a yogurt bowl:

and of course watching the royal wedding....which took place all morning. Starting at 5:30. With a little half hour interruption for my run.

Kate is so beautiful. I loved her dress. I loved the traditions. I just loved it all.

Now if only I could find my Prince Charming,

2 Month Challenge

I decided this past weekend (after my chocolate binge) that I was going to give myself until the end of June to clean out my closet. (no, there is no correlation between chocolate and clothes, I just thought I'd reference it again). Now, I would never go as far to label it as unorganized, but it is definently reaching a max-capacity that is subconsciously stressing me out. So, I've set aside a part on my hanging rod for clothes that I consistently wear. I'm hoping that over the course of 2 months, I will have a decent section of clothes that I never wore, which of course will be donated... unless I find some size 0 Abercrombie and Fitch jeans that no longer fit around 1 leg, let alone my hips - those will be going to Plato's Closet, ha!

I decided being late for work this morning was a good idea, and managed to snap a quick photo of the current state of my closet:

And in other life news, I'm growing my hair out. I took a before picture... I thought about replacing my face with Jessica Alba's, but that was too much work... so you'll have to deal with my face and my fastly growing Jones' double chin...

I'm making it a daily practice of taking a B-Complex vitamin every morning with my breakfast... for the sake of a healthy body.... aaand for longer hair! I've heard that pre-natal vitamins are acutally the best for growing hair.... but the idea of taking a pre-natal vitamin freaks me out.... I'm sure you understand :)

It's lunchtime - which means I won't be bored for 15 minutes!

Run-of-the-Mill

It was a pretty basic, boring, run-of-the-mill Tuesday and Wednesday for this chica here.
For example, I saw a crow yesterday... 

...to which I immediately started looking around for fog and for Damon to appear, oh, and for him to compel me into marrying him, but let's be real for a hot sec... no compelling would be needed. (Vampire Diaries reference if you actually have a life) ha!
Good new is I've been on track with my workouts so far this week... lots of spinning the past 3 days because of my poor little grossly enlarged, swollen ankle situation... speculations are that it's peroneal tendonitis. The last long run I did was 2.5 weeks ago, and I'm supposed to run a half marathon next weekend...fingers are still crossed that my crow is a sign that Damon is going to bite my ankle and make it all better.


So back to reality... 
I cut asked permission to leave work a tad 2 hours early since I had been staring at my chipped nail polish for over an hour and literally had nothing to do. I was actually productive, and used my extra 2 hours to get an oil change.... which suddenly turned into an additional $120 fluid transmission flush. But on a cooler note - I felt like a professional blogger when I secretly snapped this photo:

Such a bad-ass, right?!

But moving on....after I emptied my bank account to the unruly mechanics, I head down the street and proceeded to entirely empty my back account with the purchase of new shoes. (If you saw a 24 year old girl running in downtown Westerville, OH this afternoon with 2 different pairs of shoes on, while wearing jeans... that was me testing out shoes.) And since you guys are all just dying to know, I ended up going with the ADIDAS hot pink ugly ones:

I reluctantly decided to go for ankle stability rather than appearance. My shoe guy told me that we have the ability to buy flip flops in multiple colors for appearance, haha, hmm..

So now it's Wednesday night, I'm blogging, watching a repeat of Modern Family and hoping that a tornado doesn't come to my apartment complex overnight and ruin my new shoes.

Random thought...does anyone else notice that when there is a "Breaking Severe Weather News" the meteorologist is on tv with the suit coat off, suspenders exposed, and sleeves rolled up..... haha, it makes me laugh!

Don't blow away and stay dry!

Crazy-Insane, Insane-Crazy

 I finally got back on track last night and went to a spinning class at my gym.

I came straight from work in order to secure a spot in the 6:00 class, which put me dressed and ready to go at 5:40. So like any Urban Active fitness enthusiast, I decided to get some serious dead lifts and bench presses in before class started. Just kidding. I went into the spinning room, got on my bike, set it to a moderate resistance and started spinning (it may not have been as bad-ass as pumping iron with all the meatheads, but at least I did some sort of activity, right!?)


Anyway, since I started my workout 20 minutes early, I covered a lot of miles from then until the end of class. Infact, during my cool down, I noticed that I hit the 26.2 mile mark. I instantly felt good inside that I just biked 26.2 miles.....



 But then I realized that it just took me 57 minutes to bike a marathon. A marathon.

A year ago it took me 4 hours and 8 minutes to run a marathon.

If any of you have friends that run marathons, or even if you run them yourselves, let me be the one of many to call you crazy-insane and insane-crazy....

http://zerotoboston.com/

Isn't it great though?!

My Un-Easter weekend

 My Easter weekend was nothing remotely close to exciting, or even all that fun. Sure, it was fun to hang out with my family, espcially my brother and sister, but it was nothing like our Easters have been in the past.  I guess it's just what happens when you get older and grow up... now only if I actually felt like an adult.... hmmmm, but moving on to my weekend.

The following picture can basically sum up my weekend: driving. My first leg was from Columbus to Cincinnati on Friday evening.

My second leg was Cincinnati to Napolean, OH. Population 200 (or so I like to say).

My brother Matt and I grabbed some iced coffees for the trip up:

My sister skipped out on the iced coffees, mostly because she isn't a coffee drinker, yet, and she didn't want any mind-altering substances interfering with her task of informing my brother about any unforseen traffic obstacles, as well as radio-ing in anything she may see affecting the highways and byways of Ohio

I made it my job to sit in the backseat and enjoy the rest of Vampire Diaries Season 1...

...while lunching on an Arby's roastbeef and Snyders pretzels.

Our trip up to Napoleon consisted of visiting my Grandma Jones in the hospice nursing home, seeing my Aunt, Uncle and cousins, and of course getting the ever-so famous, Napoleon Grandma Berneke cookies:

I'm usually one to mostly enjoy desserts that consists of chocolate... but these are, no doubt, the best sugar cookies!

From Napoleon, we headed over to Toledo to visit my other Grandma. It was a short, boring trip that didn't include the usual jellybean hunt around her apartmen - I was mildly upset. So after a bunch of updating chitchat, and talks of losing weight... (gag) we bolted out and ate dinner at a local chain called Ralphie's. It was a nice pitstop before our trip BACK down to Cincinnati.

We woke up Easter morning, to find that the Easter Bunny did stop by! Sure it would have been cool to get several splinters from digging into our ancient Easter baskets, but I'll take anything, anyway, that is wrapped in pretty pastel foil....

The rest of the Easter day consisted of church (where we got skipped in the holy water blessing - which isn't the best of things when you routinely face the consequences of having bad luck on a daily basis), an oatmeal breakfast by myself (I was stubborn and refused to attend a brunch with my family for fear of seeing my married, parent, happy-with-their-jobs, gradeschool classmates), laundry and a short walk with my mom, sister and new dog.

While making my final trip of the weekend, I did like any other food-troubled 24-year old girl who loves chocolate way too much would do, and I ate all my Easter candy. Between my fresca and candy-binge, I did manage to safely snap a photo of the Columbus skyline... don't worry (mom), I most likely will not do this again... you know, considering my bad luck and all....

Once I got home I denied my urges for dinner of a pizza hot pocket and salty tortilla chips (to balance out the crazy amounts of sugar I consumed earlier) and opted for a healthy, fresh salad with tomatoes, cucumber, hummus, avocado and a sprinkle of blue cheese

After my salad I told myself that no more eats for the rest of the evening was the goal. And I was doing quite well actually, until my roommate walked in from her family Easter with 11 vanilla cupcakes... and with it being Easter and all.... I had one. And it was great.

 

The Cone

I grew up in West Chester, OH (20 miles north of Cincinnati). West Chester is known for Ikea, the largest Kroger east of the Mississippi and The Cone.

The Cone also has the best Wizards.... not to be confused with Dairy Queen's Blizzards.
As you made have read in my previous post, I was going to indulge this weekend when I wanted to... well, that time came last night when I got a Reese Cup Wizard:

Yep. That is a real picture. My sister and I finally agreed that there had to be at least 6 reese cups in this small cup. I wish I could tell you I ate this whole thing, but once I had no ice cream left, my throat could no longer take large amounts of sugar.


I figured that because I no longer live in West Chester, and do not have The Cone readily available for my daily dose of delicious soft serve, I had to go all out, so I did. And I have no regret!


Stay Dry,

Getting Back on Track

Starting on a random note... I was told last night that I look like a Bratz Doll...

....Obviously referring to my skinny stomach and curvey hips... right?!

HA! I wish.... but moving away from my open secret of wanting to be a size 2 and moving forward....

I got home from my mini vacation (and mini quite large sugar splurge) late Monday afternoon. It is now Friday morning, and I still feel like I'm in vacation mode. Despite two 6 miles runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, I have done nothing in the form of exercise. I've slept through my alarm everyday this week, which means missing my morning workouts, and missing my opportunity to get back on track.


While I've done some tweaking with my days (in order to get at least some form of exercise in) I realize that with it being Easter weekend and spending time with my family - rearranging my days in order to workout will not be a concern of mine, and definitely not a concern of my family.


So. Instead of totally forgetting about anything healthy, I am going to indulge when I feel like it, exercise when I have the time and still stick to a balanced diet. I am shoving my usual All or Nothing frame of mind in the corner, and enjoying myself.
I have a half marathon in a few weeks, so my exercise will have to get back on a more regular schedule...but I can get back on track come Monday morning, that is, if my ankle is cooperating (but that is a whole separate issue I'm sure I will address at a later date)

On that note, I'm off to work then to Cincinnati for Easter... I was good this morning and had a healthy and filling bowl of oatmeal, bananas, and strawberries, and of course my coveted peanut butter...LOVE!

Have a great Friday!

Schedules

I realized before I started to write this post, that it may sound like I'm tooting my own horn, and while I probably am, this is nothing that any of you should be jealous of - well, that is of course if you aren't struggling with control issues....

Back in the day, while living at home, I had a terrible control problem with schedules. I loved them and I did everything I could to successfully complete them. I avoided friends, family and everything social just so I could be in bed by 9pm, exericising by 5am, and sticking to my pre-determined caloric intake for the day. It was exhausting, but I had to do it in order to be perfect (in my mind at least).

Overtime, I finally was convinced or highly encouraged, to seek some help. In doing so, I basically had to say goodbye to my obsessive, controlling and anxious ways. It took time (and medication) to finally get over my need to be perfect and my need to follow a strict schedule. I would even be bold enough to say that I'm still dealing with all the issues I had before... but not on such an intense level as before.

But okay, I've done far too much emotional thoughts for one day...so I am going to continue on with the original topic of this post....I bring you to my day yesterday. A day in which I did everything opposite of following a schedule!

Ideal Wednesday Schedule:
   -5:00 wake up time
   -5:30 spin class
   -9:00 work
   -5:00 leave work
   -6:00 dinner

Revised Wednesday Schedule:
   -3:00 woken up by storms
   -5:00 alarm goes off
   -5:30 finally wake up
   -5:31 shoot I missed spinning class
   -5:32 reset alarm and go for small run
   -7:07 wake up later and panic
   -8:10 walk out door with hat on and no shower
   -6:00 rescheduled spin class
   -5:35 - spin class is full
   -6:10 last minute decision to go running
   -7:45 dinner

So excited! I did absolutely nothing to my pre-planned schedule and I didn't get worked up, I didn't get mad at myself and I didn't mentally quit... I just took what the day gave me and I adapted with it.

Now if only I could do that today... I slept in AGAIN, and I have 2 things I want to do tonight PLUS workout.... help!

Go with the Flow,

Current Obsession

No words necessary.

Gee Whippers! I was in Minnesota!

Hi again! I got back from Minnesota and it's 10,000 lakes a little after 4:00 yesterday afternoon. I was there for 4 days visiting my best friend from college, Jamie Lee Woods, and celebrating her 25th birthday. 
I figured after my blogging hiatus the past few days, a huge Minnesota trip recap would be the best way to re-enter my struggle at consistent blogging, but before I even started writing this post, I knew that it would be pretty much impossible to put into words just how much fun I had with my best friend. Keeping this in mind, I'm going to power off the ramble feature in my brain and give you a start to finish recap of my trip....! 
Here we go...
The last time I was on an airplane was in 8th grade... so I was a tad amazed at the view from my window:

 This next picture is an aerial view of the "Twin Cities." Allow me to inform you that there is only 1 skyline; please don't be like me and look for Minneapolis and then proceed to try to find St. Paul...because you won't find it.... and if you ask where it is, the locals will just laugh at you, trust me, I've been there.

So for future reference... Minneapolis and St. Paul are basically 1 city. Apparently they used to be 2 separate cities, but grew overtime and sort of merged.

My early morning plane rides were followed by lots of shopping at the Mall of America. We were going to ride roller coasters.... (since we hate them and wanted to do something that we normally wouldn't do)... but our lower backs hurt... and my ankle was swollen... perfect excuses to NOT ride this indoor roller coaster. Fact of the day: the Mall of America is too big.

My friend lives kind of close to nothing.... so we spent lots of time in the car....

.... while taking pictures of all things Minnesota.... 

 ...and crashing into parked cars outside of Cub Foods....oops?

But moving on to better things... like food!

 We drank wine...

...we ate cheese...

 ...and said cheers to best friends!

 Lots of fun and lots of laughing took place... that is, until we walked outside later that evening and saw this:

And now I'm 100% positive that it snows everyday in Minnesota.

We were kind of disappointed at the turn in weather, but once we got back to the Woods' house (which happens to be in the woods) the moose made us smile and forget about the April snow and hurricane force winds. 

It was good we ran into them in the family room because they not only made us smile, but they also told us where to find their Easter friends!

 These guys also told us to forget about the weather and reminded us that we had a fun filled Saturday ahead of us - chock full of Birthday celebrations to get ready for!

During our trip into the city cities for the Birthday Girl...I manned the backseat and protected our hotel party-bag - full of some popchips, cinnamon bunnies, beer and melon vodka....

 while Minn (my best friend's real name) manned the GPS:

the GPS took us to get Birthday cupcakes...

 ...took us passed a cathedral (?) which was taken from my backseat... and yes, the car was moving...I'm on the verge of a photography career... obviously.

 Once into the CITIES... (remember from earlier, that it looks like 1 city, but yet still referred to as 2 cities....yeah, it's tricky up there, don't ya know) we got ready at the Ramada Raddison in downtown Minneapolis, then hopped on down a few blocks to our dinner destination, Solera. The restaurant's menu is Spanish influenced, with tapa style servings. We jumped on board and decided to go all out and get sangrias:

 We then blindly ordered several different tapas that we shared throughout the evening. I didn't get any pictures of the actual entrees, but did manage to score a cool picture of our free bread and a glowing candle.

My large head, Jamie, Lizzie at dinner

Our evening continued back at the hotel, where we got ready, enjoyed a few drinks (the mature phrase for 'pregaming') and met up with 2 of Minn's work buddies. 

We eventually took our party out to the bars, where we continued to indulge enjoy alcoholic beverages and take close up, off-centered pictures of ourselves.

I do have to say, I am very proud (and surprised) that none of our pictures had the ever-so-famous "kissy face" that seemed to pop up in at least 3/4 of all pictures taken back in our glory days of college. 

We ended the evening back in the hotel room, eating oreos and potato chips. I'm sad to say this is where the picture documentation of my trip ends. Turns out that being hungover is a very large obstacle when it comes to finding motivation to take pictures for a blog. I apologize.
As hangovers were nursed, our Sunday consisted of a lazy afternoon of watching Vampire Diaries (new obsession thanks to Jamie), and eating cute little birthday bunnies made out of cake. After both agreeing that drinking more than 2 drinks is just not doable anymore, we slowly got ready and headed to the casino on the Indian Reservation with her parents for some BINGO!


If you know anything about me and Minn and our genuine bad luck... you probably were right in guessing that we didn't win. BUT, after a small dinner, we wandered the casino, playing a few slot machines - which turned out to be a good idea because Minn won $80! I think she wanted to continue to play, but her mom and I basically forced her into stopping... reminding her of her impending car repair payment. 


The night ended back at the Woods' where we had birthday cake, get regular tea (ha!) and watched vampire diaries. There was one pictures taken of us 2 and the birthday cake, however it is not on my camera, and I'm pretty sure we both agree that it should never be seen... so just imagine 2 hungover, tired girls and a really pretty spring birthday cake!


Now that I've just reread the last few paragraphs and realized that my ramble switch is back on, I think it's an appropriate time to wrap this post up. 


Before this trip, the last time I saw Jamie was a year ago for her 24th birthday. You can really tell who your best friend is when you can pick up like normal, despite not seeing them for a long time. It hasn't even been 24 hours and I already miss her like crazy. I miss not having someone who has the some crazy brain as me.... so please move back to Ohio Jamie.