9 Days to Go!

The ten-day forecast says….

In other words…perfect.  Let’s hope it stays that way!  I specifically wanted to get married in May because it’s not hot, but not chilly either, and really, I can’t ask for more than mid-sixties. 

So, also, I bought this dress in Napa and I think it’s super cute.  So I took a picture.

It has some cute pleating on the shoulders.  V-neck wrap dresses are my absolute favorite clothing item ever—I’m pretty sure they flatter EVERYONE, and they’re so comfortable.

Anyway, work was kind of crazy today.  I had to be at an event from 12-1 (my normal lunchtime) BUT I still wanted to go to the gym at lunch.  So, in the morning, I had some Chobani with strawberries and GoLean Crunch before I left.  Then, I went to the gym and did some lifting.  I WANTED to run today, but, strangely, I woke up this morning with shin splints (mostly in my left leg).  Uhh…okay.  After a rest day?  That makes sense.  So, weights it was.  In no particular order…

• Squats: 3 X 12 @ 115 lbs.
• Overhead shoulder press: 3 X 12 @ 30 lbs. 
• Deadlifts: 3 X 12 @ 70 lbs.
• Upright row: 3 X 12 @ 40 lbs.  (an increase!)
• Underhand grip pulldowns: 3 X 12 @ 48 lbs.
• Wide grip lat pulldowns: 3 X 12 @ 48 lbs.
• Chest press: 3 X 12 @ 50 lbs.

This was kind of a quickie because I was short on time—I had to rush off to a 2 o’clock meeting! 

Luckily, it was a phone meeting.  So had some delicious, delicious spinach with this:

I really love Newman’s Own salad dressings!  They are super yummy and the ingredients aren’t scary.  I have to say, I think this one is my favorite.  I also had a multigrain bagel with the salad.  (And yes, I keep a whole bottle in the work fridge now.  It’s easier.)

And, for an afternoon snack, name that bar:

 

Came home to some fun wedding presents!

A roasting pan!  I predict many, many chickens going in this one.

And the ice cream maker attachment for our KitchenAid Mixer.  Oh yes.  With summer coming, I will make my own ice cream at least once SO HELP ME GOD before it gets cold again.

 

No box is safe in our house, though.

We’re down to the last two delinquent RSVPers and Tim is going to call them tonight.  It’s been a nice, calm day wedding wise, thank goodness.  I’m really excited to see everyone coming into town for it!  I made mani/pedi appointments (and I’m REALLY nervous about getting a pedicure, what with my black nail and the like), and that’s about it.  We’re getting close, folks!

What’s your favorite salad dressing?

Lunchtime workout

So, lately…I’ve kind of been resenting the gym a little bit.  I have STUFF to do at home, what with, y’know, the wedding and all.  I also admit that the combination of our upcoming nuptials and being so busy/traveling so much have me feeling like a clingy koala bear and I want to spend as much time with Tim as possible.   If I go to the gym…I don’t get home until 6:30, have to shower, and basically make the quickest dinner possible.  Normally I don’t mind, but I just haven’t been feeling it lately.

But, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to work out.  Au contraire!  I’ve been craving a good workout all weekend.  So, today, I randomly decided to work out over my lunch hour!  My gym is only 0.4 miles away (according to Google) from my office, and the weather was nice. 

So, I had a little snack around 11:30:

And at noon, I changed in my office, ran to the gym, and worked out!

I ran the 0.4 miles to the gym, then 1.5 miles on the treadmill.  (I decided to keep the run short to see how my knee/leg felt.  It felt awesome!  I’m going to try longer tomorrow.)  Then, I hit the weights and did…

• 3 sets of 12 squats at 95 lbs.
• 3 sets of 12 shoulder presses at 30 lbs.
• 3 sets of 10 overhead lat pulldowns at 60 lbs
• 3 sets of 10 underhand grip pulldowns at 60 lbs
• 3 sets of 12 upright rows at 30 lbs.
• 3 sets of 10 deadlifts at 40 lbs.

And sprinted the 0.4 mile back to my office.  All in all, it was quite a good workout—I think I’m going to keep this up, at least for the foreseeable future!  Obviously it won’t work for longer runs, but it’s definitely do-able, especially while the weather is nice.

I do need to make sure to bring some kind of powder for my face, some kind of body spray, and a change of undies for next time, though!  (I already keep deodorant and face wipes in my desk.)

I promptly devoured the rest of my lunch. 

Spinach with balsamic…

A multigrain bagel…

 

And Greek yogurt with strawberries and a little GoLean crunch.

 

Around 4:00 I snacked on a Chocolate Raspberry Luna Bar.  Is it just me, or are they getting smaller?

All in all, I was home and showered by 5:45.  Love the new routine!  I felt nice and cozy and worn out all afternoon, too, rather than antsy and eager to get up and move.

In wedding news, my mom sent me a picture of the flower girl basket she’s devised:

And we are still waiting on six RSVPs.  Yaaargh.  This is seriously driving me nuts!  DUDE.   

What time of day do you prefer to work out?

There’s never enough time

I feel like Jessie Spano in that episode of Saved by the Bell lately.  You know, the one with the caffeine pills, where she freaks out because she has to simultaneously study for geometry and perform with Hot Sundae (was that their name?) and whatnot.

I’m not pill popping.  But I’m-a stressed.  Being gone for a week this close to the wedding was probably not the best plan.

My lunch was the opposite of local.  I got this salad at the San Francisco airport last night before my flight, but didn’t feel like eating it (or anything, really), so it became today’s lunch.  It was delish.

I jetted home from work and immediately hit the grocery store.  I was thinking about the gym, but getting SOME food in the house seemed like a more immediate priority.  Tomorrow. 

Anyway.  Generally speaking, I drink a cup of coffee a day and a Diet Coke a day.  But, I’m broadcasting here (and Tim, hold me to this)—no more of that until after the wedding.   It stains my teeth and I always see an improvement when I stop.  I don’t drink enough of either to have caffeine withdrawal, so it won’t be an issue, but I’m sure I’ll be craving them here and there.

I bought Crest Whitestrips and whitening toothpaste.  I’ve done them before with good results, so hopefully they’ll come through for me this time!  I took a “before” picture tonight and will hopefully do a “before” and “after” later on.

Our fridge is finally happy again.  It was literally bare today. We also got a wedding gift—four of our place settings!  We now have all 12.  Hooray!

Anyway, I have to go do laundry, and write thank you notes, and make breakfast/lunch for tomorrow, and our house is a mess, and…..ack.  A million other things. 

Also, why don’t people send back their RSVPs?  Our RSVP date is Saturday and we still haven’t heard from 50 people.  Come on now.  It’s not that hard. 

How do you prioritize your to-do list when everything seems incredibly pressing?

Vegas, Day Two!

Hello again from Vegas!  I”m blogging a bit earlier than usual so I can do some more ‘splorin’. 

Conference breffist:

The eggs and taters were pretty meh, so I left them and ate all the fruit, yogurt, and granola, as well as an unpictured small banana nut muffin. 

Went to meetings all morning, then conquered lunch!

I seem to be doing a good job with the “fill half your plate with fruit/veggies” rule.  I had a giant salad with a balsamic dressing, plus some roasted chicken on the side.  I got some beef and cheese, too, but…it was kind of like eating lunchmeat/cheese without bread, so I left most of it.  I also had a wee bit of tomato basil soup and a PRETZEL ROLL.  (OBSESSED.)

We had an hour and a half for lunch, so I went exploring!  Mostly to the pool area of Caesar’s Palace.  Can you blame me?

There was some sort of photo shoot going on.  You can see the photographer up on the balcony.

Basically, there was a model floating on her back, and some guy had to keep throwing those red balls at her.  Weird.

Everything here is so massive!  I can hardly believe it.

I finally settled down in a beach chair in the shade (don’t want to get tan lines before the wedding/didn’t have sunscreen!) and relaxed and people watched for the remainder of my break.

After the afternoon sessions were over, I ventured out onto the strip for a very special task given to me by Leah: 

The Flamingo!  She’s getting married there a few weeks after our wedding. 

I did a little more wandering on the Strip, BUT I had a lot of strange men coming up to me offering their sexual services.  Like, at least 2 or 3.  It creeped me out, so I headed back to Caesar’s.

There’s more than enough to entertain me here for a long, long time, and I am completely paranoid when traveling alone, so…yeah.  Also, with all the events I have to pop into here and there, I don’t have a whole lot of time to stray too far anyway!

The plan for tonight?  We have a dinner/reception thingy, then I plan to gamble a bit more (NOT blowing $15 in one bet this time).  I’m also debating splurging on a pair of running shorts from the Nike Store for my “souvenir”—I only have capris, and I’d love to find a pair that doesn’t chafe my thighs.  Oh, and who am I kidding, probably another television bubble-cuzzi!

Re: exercise.  I wanted to exercise here, but they charge $25 a day!  My sister has been pestering me about running with her in Napa, so we might wind up doing that.  If not, I won’t stress about it—I’ll be back at the gym next week!

Question of the day: Are the mixed nuts and chocolates next to the “Welcome” note on the minibar free or not?  They are not in the “lift the chips up for 20 seconds and get charged” weighted looking thing, and not listed on the minibar menu.  Discuss.

First fitting!

Today a hot gentleman propositioned me for a lunch date.  I couldn’t turn him down.

Tim and I ended up at The Mixx, a place that is kind of like the Coldstone of salads—you pick a base and mix-ins.  (They also have sandwiches and pastas.)

 

I was way excited about this.  I got a spinach base, balsamic vinaigrette (full fat, thankyouverymuch), and mixed in roasted turkey, roasted yams, balsamic mushrooms, dried cranberries, goat cheese and pecans.  

It was awesome.

 

I am ashamed to admit that the salad defeated me.  This thing was HUGE.  I barely made a dent in it!  It was super good, but next time I’ll get half the dressing.  It was super filling.

 

Around 4 o’clock before my dress fitting, I snacked on a Clif Mojo Mountain Mix bar.  Love these!

 

Then the time came—the first time I tried on my dress since September, when it was awful and I hated it.

 

I made two big changes this time—I wore a crinoline underneath so the skirt was fuller and I pulled my hair back so my Yeti fro didn’t distract from the dress.  I also brought my veil to try!

AND I LOVED IT AGAIN!

This is the bustle I’m getting—a French bustle.

My other option was a one-point, which I don’t think looked as good.

The seamstress had to go answer a few questions, so I played MySpace teen for awhile.

 

I wanted to get a picture of the earrings with the dress—I like them!

You know what?  My body ain’t perfect.  But I am still beautiful.  I love that this dress shows my curves, and I don’t care that I’m not 10 pounds lighter.  I feel great. 

Anyway, Tim left for Vegas and said “there’s three packages in the wedding room.”  Yes, our spare room is now the wedding room.  Behold.

(Is this shameful?  I probably shouldn’t put this on the internets.)

Anyway, two wedding gifts!  Fancy hampers!  We plan to use one for clothes, and one for punishing Buckley.

 

And our new shower curtain and trash can!

 

And my shower dress came.  Guess what?  Another FAIL.  I LOVE the dress, but there is an under-boob seam that does not jive with my boobies.  It sits waaay too low and I wouldn’t be comfortable.  Back to the drawing board.  Anyone want to find me a shower dress?

 

Also, 11 yes RSVPs in the mail!

Anyway, it’s 8 o’clock and I just got home, so I need to shower and, you know, do stuff. 

What do you think?  Do we have a winner?

Busy Bee

I had lots of work to do today that kept me busy at work.  It was nice!  My work comes in waves, usually, so some days are really busy and others are much slower.  The day goes by faster when I have more to do!

Today’s lunch was a lesson in volumetrics (eating a whole lot of really low calorie foods instead of a small amount of calorie-dense foods).

Check out that spread!

I don’t usually do calorie breakdowns, but this was pretty magnificent.

• Spinach: about 20 calories
• Carrots: about 15 calories
• 1 T. Lighthouse dressing: 20 calories
• 2 clementines: 70 calories
• Chicken noodle soup: 150 calories
• Chobani Greek yogurt: 120 calories
• Strawberries: 35 calories
• Homemade corn muffin: 100 calories

530 calories for a huge, healthy, filling lunch that took FOREVER to eat.

After work I went for a run.  It wasn’t my best run, but not my worst either.  I did 4.5 miles in about 45:30.  I slowed my pace down a bit because my asthma was bugging me a bit.  My allergies have been bad lately, and I’ve had an off-and-on sinus headache for the last few days, so it’s not totally out of the blue.  But I got it done, anyway. 

Then, on the way home, I had to stop at the store.  I tried the Western Bagel brand of bagels, but I find the “sweet wheat” flavor a little weird.  Since they’re high in fiber and low in calories and have good ingredient list, I picked up the country white to try.

I’ll report back!

Anyway, I’m super tired and still have a million things to do before bed.  Sigh.

Are you a volume eater or a calorie-dense eater?

Snowy Sunday

SO, I have to say I’m a little peeved.  Today in the blog world, people went on long outdoor bike rides, went on long runs in the sunshine, dined outdoors, and even went to the dog park!  Here in Kansas City, though, we got this:

I’d estimate we have probably 6 inches of snow on the ground, and it’s still going and going and going.  WTF?  It’s February 21st.  Get with it, weather.

Anyway, complaining aside, I made a most excellent breakfast for Tim and I this morning.

French toast (mine with an Arnold’s Thin!) made with a little beaten egg, milk, and vanilla, topped with peanut butter, caramelized bananas (bananas cooked with a little bit of butter and brown sugar), and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.  Ohhh so good.  We always make nice breakfasts on the weekends, and Tim’s usually in charge because of his pancake and waffle skills, but I’m the French toast girl.  This was awesome! 

I braved the snow and ice to go grocery shopping this afternoon. It was slushy and annoying, but we REALLY needed food.  Okay, though, confession time now: I’m terrible about eating vegetables.  I buy them and they go bad and then I feel bad for wasting money and stop buying them.  It’s a vicious cycle.  I do eat a lot of fruit, but I just am not a veggie girl.  I do love spinach salads, though, and baby spinach was buy one, get one free, so I have a fridge full of spinach I’m determined to eat this week.  I made Tim and I side salads to have with our dinners:

Baby spinach, clementine segments, and Lighthouse Organic Raspberry and Lime dressing.  So good!  I’m much more amenable to veggies when they taste like fruit, so I usually put fruit in my salads.   I’m going to pack salads in my lunch this week—volume-wise, this whole big bowl was probably under 70 calories!  (Note: I will also eat more stuff with the salads.)  Bug me about this, friends.  Remind me to eat my spinach this week.

Anyway, other than snow and ice, I bought gifts for our flower girl and ring bearer!  Our flower girl, Maddie, is a big princess fan.  I saw this bracelet on Etsy and knew she’d love it.  (The charm is a little tiara.)

I also wanted to get both kids a gift that would keep them busy if they got bored at the rehearsal dinner and reception.  So, I ordered these bags (again, on Etsy—love it) and we are going to fill them with small toys and things for them to play with.

This is Maddie’s:

(Of course, it will say “Maddie” on it.)  Purple is her favorite color, too!  Hers will contain princess-related stuff—my mom’s on the hunt, but we’re thinking wand, tiara, feather boa, princess coloring book and crayons, et cetera.

And this is Liam’s.  He’s still little but loves animals and bugs:

For him, we’re thinking an animal book, maybe a magnifying glass and a lightning bug collector, some plastic bugs/animals to play with, and again, coloring book and crayons. 

I just think these bags are adorable!  I can’t wait to see them in person.  Oh, and little miss Maddie’s dress came in and I got a picture.  (She’s practicing her petal throwing!)  It needs to be shortened quite a bit, but thankfully her grandma (or Bubbie, as she calls her) is a great seamstress.

And finally, a cuddly picture of Milhouse for a snowy day.

Any other ideas for the kiddie bags?  I know I’ve got mom readers out there!

Homebodies

Hi, guys.  Sorry no post last night–we just needed some unplugged couple time together.  (And red wine, and dark chocolate.)

Anyway, early yesterday I decreed it pajama day–all pajamas, all day long.  We played a lot of video games (Super Mario Galaxy on Wii for me, Assassin’s Creed on XBox for Tim), watched TV (the Soup, West Wing on DVD, Tivoed Gilmore Girls reruns), and I spent a particularly glorious hour reading in bed with a mug of hot chocolate with Milhouse and Buckley.  We made homemade pizza and a salad for dinner and it was yummy.

Today started out in perhaps the best possible way–Tim woke me up with homemade waffles!  He is really the expert on non-egg breakfasts around here, as his pancakes and waffles are really, really good, and mine always wind up awkward and half raw.  I had two, with a little maple syrup (way more than I intended because the spout was fast!) and almond butter.  And coffee.

I was planning on a run today, buuut my iPhone indicated that the temperature was a frosty -1 degree outside today.   I am hardcore, but negative digits are not my friend.  I’m taking the weekend off so I can be fresh for half mary training, which starts officially on Monday!  Whee.

Today’s plan involved a few random errands.  I had some checks to deposit, and we decided to get the wedding tuxes all squared away.  We ended up going to Men’s Wearhouse and picking out a simple, classic, two-button black tux with a white tuxedo shirt.  They only rent out clip-on bowties, which make me gag, so we are going to buy black silk bowties for the guys to wear.

We also got some groceries and had a late lunch at Panera.  We didn’t get much–oranges, bananas, pears, an onion, some potatoes, whole wheat flour, red wine (we’re cabernet junkies now), and soup (I’ve been on the I love soup train lately).

Plus, a few random protein bars I found on sale.

They were $.88 each, and at 280 calories and 20 grams of protein each, will be split in two, so $.44/serving.  For a protein bar, that’s practically unheard of!  Unfortunately I let my bargain hunter side take over and forgot to check for HFCS, and they do contain it.  Boo, hiss.  I’ll eat them, but I won’t re-buy.

Also, on New Year’s Eve, I went to Costco and stocked up on a few basics.  Tons of Chobani, a massive bag of dried cherries, 40 slices of cheese (oh yeah), shampoo, chicken breasts, and lean beef.  I also purchased the world’s largest box of oats.  (Are you in shock?  Me too.  I’m definitely a breakfast cookie junkie now, but you still won’t catch me eating hot oats in the morning!)

For scale, I needed a volunteer:

Oats > cat.

Anyway, after shopping, we went to a second mall so Tim could get one of his favorite dress shirts, then we went home.  Now we are planning on another chill night at home with the animals–I’m making a simple whole wheat pasta with chicken, olive oil, garlic, and parmesan for dinner, along with a green salad.  I’m attempting to master my mom’s perfect non-salad dressing vinegar and oil combo!  It’s heavenly and so good for you–it’s just olive oil, apple cider vinegar, oregano, fresh garlic, salt, and garlic powder, but it’s so hard to do it just like my mom does.  I’ll report back if I get it right tonight!

Have a great Saturday.  Don’t forget to enter my RoadID Giveaway!

The lunch of my dreams

Today has been infinitely better than  yesterday.  This is largely the reason why:

A nice, well balanced, healthy lunch.  It never ceases to amaze me how eating well and eating poorly impacts my mood, my productivity, and my general state of being.  Also, I have an addiction to Gladware.  Can you tell?  These containers contain, from top left to bottom right: salad dressing, Chobani blueberry yogurt, spinach, granola, and formerly frozen strawberries.  (For some reason my slice of pretzel bread didn’t make it in the shot.)

I always shy away from taking salads for lunch because I have this weird mental block against them.  Like, my brain thinks, “You will  be hungry if you eat a salad.”  Not true, if I supplement it with the right things!  This lunch kept me full for a long, long time.  The contents?

• Spinach (I always use spinach as a base.  It’s packed with healthy stuff and I like it better than lettuce anyway.)
• Carrots
• Dried cherries (I always add fruit to my salad.  I like a little sweet.)
• Goat cheese
• Newman’s Own Light Raspberry & Walnut dressing

I keep the dressing in a separate container and shake shake shake it up with the salad for a nice, uniform coating.

(Goal for next week: bring camera to work daily.  Use camera and not iPhone for pictures.)

And then I had my favorite!  A yogurt monstrosity.  Blueberry Chobani, Bear Naked Fruit & Nut granola, and formerly frozen strawberries.  (I eat exclusively Bear Naked granola.  I enthusiastically recommend Fruit & Nut, Banana Nut, Heavenly Chocolate and Triple Berry Crunch!)

I finished it all off with a slice of my beloved pretzel bread and a Hershey’s kiss!

Now, last week at this time I freaked out a little about weight and promised to weigh in on the blog every Friday.  This Friday, I weigh exactly the same as I did last Friday, which I’m happy with considering my lack of exercise time this week and, erm, other factors.

In other news, my sexy new glasses are in!  I’m leaving work at 4 today to go pick them up.  T and I have an evening of homemade pizza, Scrabble, West Wing DVDs and puppy cuddling on the schedule and I couldn’t be happier.  Tomorrow I’m so excited to be heading to an early lunch with one of my best friends from college who I haven’t seen in a year and a half (she lives in Cincinnati) and her fiance, who I’ve never met! I am excited to badger them about their February 2011 wedding like I’ve been badgered by everyone and their mother since we got engaged.

What are your weekend plans?  And, also, what is your favorite salad combo?

FOOD.

When T and I got engaged, we talked priorities.  “Awesome food” was number one.  Honestly, neither of us cared at all about how pretty our reception location was, as long as it wasn’t heinously tacky, if the food was good.

Anyway, our reception location is pretty cool-looking anyway (kind of reminds me of a 1940s lounge or something) and we like it.  But now, we are dealing with picking a menu.  Our dinner will be served family style, so large dishes will be brought to each table and passed around and refilled as needed.  We get two appetizers, two salads, two pastas, two entrees, and two desserts (plus wedding cake).  Since we are doing our tasting on Saturday and are limited in the amount of stuff we can take, this is what we roughly have listed as definite selections or contenders for each course.

Appetizers

• Stuffed mushrooms: Jumbo mushroom caps stuffed with spinach and topped with our seasoned breadcrumbs and house cheese; served in a white wine chicken broth. (definite.  These are to die for.)
• Bruschetta: Italian garlic bread toasted and topped with a tomato bruschetta relish made of diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and roasted garlic. (definite.  We both love it and it’s a crowd pleaser.)

Salads

• Spinach: Tender leaf spinach tossed with roasted red peppers, sweet roasted onions, gorgonzola cheese, apple cider vinigrette and topped with smoked bacon and toasted pine nuts. (Definite.  We love spinach and spinach salads.  Lettuce doesn’t often find it’s way into our house.)
• Italian tossed salad: Iceberg, Arugula, Kalamata Olives, Red Onions, Pepperoncini & Italian Vinaigrette (Contender.  We’re sampling it on Saturday.)
• Tomato and mozzarella caprese:(Contender.  Sampling on Saturday, and oddly there is no menu description of this)
• Italian antipasti (Contender.  Ditto above.)

Pastas

• Rigatoni “D”: Rigatoni pasta, herb roasted boneless chicken, mushrooms and onions, tossed in a light Marsala cream sauce. (Definite.  We love this and want to have one cream-based and one tomato-based pasta)
• Baked ziti and sausage: (Contender.  No menu description.  Sampling this on Saturday.)

Entrees

• Chicken marsala: Chicken breasts sauteed with marsala wine, veal sauce, mushrooms, onions and basil. (Contender.  Sampling on Saturday.)
• Beef braciole: (Contender.  Sampling on Saturday.  No description.)
• Oven roasted pork loin with a balsamic glaze: (Ditto above.)

Desserts

• Wedding cake!  We’re sampling this on Sunday, yum, but that will probably involve chocolate.
• Profiteroles and vanilla ice cream: Pastry shell filled with vanilla bean ice cream and topped with our own hot fudge and fresh whipped cream; dusted with cocoa powder and powdered sugar. (Contender. Sampling this on Saturday.
• New York style cheesecake: New York style ricotta cheesecake topped with fresh berries and whipped cream. (Contender.  We’ve had this before and it’s fantastic, even though I’m not really a cheesecake person.)
• Tiramisu: Ladyfinger cookies soaked in espresso and coffee liquer layered with mascarpone cheese;dusted with cocoa powder and served with chocolate (Contender.  We’ve had it before, and it’s T’s favorite, but I’m not a big fan.)

So, what do you think?  What do you like/don’t you like?  We are not sure if we have to build a veggie option in or if they will have something, but don’t worry–we have a few vegetarian guests and will definitely accommodate them.

Because this post has no illustrations…here’s a picture of Southpaw showing off her latest interest–drinking out of the toilet.  Classy.