More vacationy things

Fed Up, We went on vacation to Cape Hatteras off the coast of North Carolina, and I would highly recommend it! It's not over crowded like Hilton Head Island or the Jersey shore or anything so it is sooo relaxing.

This is a satellite image of the island thing where we were staying. The red box is where out beach house was, and the image below is a zoomed in image of the red box area. If they look as small on your screen as they do on mine, click on them for a better view :)






The red circle is around the house we were staying in. The red arrow is pointing to the boardwalk from the previous post. As you can see, we pretty much had ocean on either side of us.

And here is a link to the beach house we all stayed in. The hot tub was right in the middle of that middle deck in the photo and it looked out over the water (which you can tell if you scroll through the pictures).

http://www.surforsound.com/properties/property/506

And now, I leave you with some photo inspiration :)

Back from Vacation!

Well, I only gained half a pound, the whole ten days I was gone.

Ordinarily, I would consider this some kind of major victory, but there is no reason I couldn't have lost weight while I was there.
But there was an endless supply of food and we were always eating. I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert every single day, which I never do.

But we were VERY active. Sunday and Monday not so much because on Saturday Husband and I got very badly sunburned. We didn't want to stay out in the sun ALL day on Saturday because we had no base tan whatsoever and it was scorching hot out. But long story short, we were pretty much stuck on the beach all day waiting to get into the beach house that we all rented for the vacation. No real shade or shelter around.

So a week later, we are both still recovering from the sunburn.

But we made the most of the trip. We went to the beach every day. The house we were in was right on the beach so we could come and go as we pleased.
We went kayaking, swimming, surfing, running, went in the hot tub, dug for clams, watched the sun set, watched the sun rise, got a couple of six-packs and went out on the beach to watch thunderstorms over the ocean at night. It was awesome. We got up in the morning when we felt like it, and went to bed when we felt like it. It was everything a vacation should be.

Husband's brother brought his truck down. It is an old Toyota 4runner with a removable cap. It was legal to ride around in the back of the truck so a bunch of us were piled into that pretty frequently and we drove around on the beach.

The whole trip was awesome. It was great to see some friends and family who we hadn't seen in a while.

Now, back to the old grind though.
Fortunately, I don't have a lot of damage control to do like I normally do when I go on vacation. I can pretty much pick right up where I left off.

I only ran three times because I did some sprints in the sand and my calves were KILLING me after that. I could barely make it up the stairs the next day.
Here is a picture from one of my runs. I took it with my phone (which takes the crappiest pictures) so it doesn't look that great but the weather was PERFECT.



This was one of the many beautiful sunsets over the sound. The cool part about this island is that it is super narrow (you could pretty much throw a rock from one side to the other) so you can easily watch the sun rise and set over the water depending on which side of the island you are on.



All right, on that note, I am off to catch up on some of your blogs.

Good morning!

I wonder if Daily Mile does take into account the weather? Because I mapped the exact same route (except 5 minutes faster, yay!) but logged it for yesterday when the air had cooled about 20 degrees and it said I had burned 548 calories rather than 650. Which kinda sucks cause I really like to see anything over 600. Hmm.

Thanks for your comments girls!
Jenn, I'll be sure to write about it. I'll consider that to be holding me accountable. Then I will have to do it.

Cierra and Thin or Not, it's a great website. It has so many stats and is well organized to help you track your goals. Also, knowing I have somewhere to log my progress helps motivate me to go out and run.

4 days til vacation!

Daily Mile

I have been running pretty much every day. I really want to improve my running (I was a great runner in high school) so I signed up at dailymile.com. I love it! I can map my route (so I don't have to worry about "runtastic" freezing up my phone) and I can add notes to the run which is nice to keep track of how I run in which shoes and in the high humidity and heat versus the cool of spring or fall.

According to the route I mapped and my time, I burn about 650 calories on my run, which is really nice. It's more than I had anticipated (I always guesstimate low, just in case) but I also wonder if I am burning a little more because it has been so hot and humid lately.
Also it tracks each weeks progress and gives me overall numbers per week which is great.
I am looking forward to running on the beach while we are on vacation. It's on the east coast and I can't think of anything better than running during the sunrise.

I hope you all are having a great day! Let's have a great week together!

Quick and painless

I hate trying on clothes. But dresses aren't so bad because my waist is the only part of my body that isn't disgusting so as long as I don't look at my arms or legs, I'm good.
I found a bridesmaid dress for my friend's wedding coming up next month and I only had to try on a few dresses before I found one that was perfect. AND it was on sale so it was only 50 bucks which was also exciting. I spent about $200 on the dress for the last wedding I was in, so this was a nice treat.

My run yesterday was probably the worst of my life. I always listen to music on my phone when I run. But I was trying out this run keeper type of app and it wouldn't let me listen to Slacker Radio while the run keeper was going. So I went to shut it down and my phone froze! So I pulled the battery to reset it, it then waited about an hour to boot up (because it's a Blackberry; worst phone EVER) and once it "fully" booted, it froze again! So I kept running with no music while I waited for it to boot again. It wasn't until I was about 2.5 miles into my run that it started working again. I listen to a hits station when I run because it's usually upbeat music, but no. Not this time. It was all Boys Like Girls and Mariah Carey. Ugh.
Then, since I had a mack daddy of a blister on one of my toes, I wore my Nike's (rather than my Vibram's) running and once I FINALLY decided to just deal with whatever music came on I started getting the sharpest pain in my right knee and left shin. CURSES.

By that point I had had enough. I turned around and sprinted home through the pain just to get my run over with. I was done with that nonsense.

So tumblr.

It's funny, Gianna, that you would mention the not dark and depressing look of my blog. I was about to post about how I just started a tumblr account and I love it because there seem to be a lot more diet blogs on there with a positive outlook. I know personally that's why I keep the bright colors on my blog and my tumblr because I find I have the best weight loss and am the most active when I am happy (and not the other way around). That's actually why there are fewer and fewer blogs that I have been reading because they tend to start off positive and then slowly become depressing.
Don't get me wrong, I have my negative posts and I have times that I rant and complain. It's nice to have a place to let that out. And a few depressing blog posts won't make me stop reading a blog altogether. But I try to also keep a positive outlook because I know if I don't, I won't get anywhere, I will just make myself miserable.

If any one else has a tumblr, please feel free to share! Even if it's not "upbeat", I still find there are nice pictures and quotes and things even on the less positive blogs.

Mine is:

http://stillworking.tumblr.com

Do something today that you LOVE! :)

All I do is win

In preparation for our week at the beach that is coming up in a week from today, I have been pushing myself even harder.
My run yesterday was comfortable but my run the day before, I clearly pushed myself too far. Near the end of my run my stomach started hurting but I really wanted to run the entire length of a particular hill. Well, I did. Also, there was a stop light at a busy intersection at the top of the hill. So I stopped to wait for the light to change so I could cross. And I vomited. Probably 20 people saw. As soon as I was done puking, the light changed and I continued running 'til I got home.
So classy.
My hard work hasn't paid off on the scale yet though. I'm hoping for even a small loss, but really I just don't want to be flabby. One of our old friends from where we used to live is going with all of us and he is a fitness fanatic! He used to be a gymnast but now he just works out all the time. With the ripped body and gorgeous face he should be an asshole, right? Nope. He's one of the nicest most positive people I have ever met. And he's smart. Which got me thinking about this picture I stole from this lovely girl's tumblr.



Because let's be honest, 99% of the population just can't be all three. God knows I haven't found the right balance.

But anyway. As a bit of motivation, I was looking through old pictures of myself from before I started college when I was SUPER thin. My husband saw what I was looking at and I explained how I wish I hadn't gained so much weight.
He responded by explaining to me how when he first met me (around the start of college) he wasn't attracted to me because I looked too tomboyish. Which I knew, because he has told me that before. But he said once I gained a few pounds I got a little "fuller" and sexier and I look much prettier now and he doesn't want me to be that thin again.
I told him I probably just look more feminine because my hair is longer and I dress more femininely.
He claims it's because now I have boobs and a butt.

I know he means well, and I shouldn't feel so down about it. My BMI is in the "normal" range, I have some muscle and I am in good physical condition. But when he says the word "fuller", the only thing that comes to my mind is pre-hollywood-influence America Ferrera.



I'm never eating again.

Good enough

So I slept in a little yesterday but was still able to get in a very short jog around the "block" where I live. It's not really like a city block it's just some roads that connect to make kind of a square-ish route. It was just under 2 miles so at least it was something.
When I got out of work I went for another short run up to a park near my place which was another 3 miles so almost 5 miles total. Which isn't great, but it's something. Then last night I started to do some yoga, but I wasn't really feeling it so I wound up putting on some music and dancing around my apartment like a fool. Haha. it was ridiculous but it's what I felt like doing and I worked up a sweat doing it so it was good!

Today I am getting my hair cut (it is LONG overdue, it looks AWFUL) which I needed to make a priority because we are going on vacation in less than two weeks and it really needs to be done before then. Especially because we are going to the beach and when I am at the beach I never do anything with my hair so it needs to be cut well.

Speaking of the beach, I also need a new swimsuit. I have three of them, two of which are ancient and all worn out, the third I bought last summer when I had lost a bunch of weight, but guess what! I am waaayyyy fatter now and it looks disgusting on me.
Also, my husband's cousins will be on vacation with us (it's kind of a family thing, but his family is AWESOME so it will be fun) and his cousin's whole family are quite possibly the thinnest people I have ever met. So I really need to find a good flattering suit because even if I drop a few more pounds before the trip I will not look nearly as good as any of them.
And we all know people will be taking pictures the whole time :-/

MOTIVATION

And thanks girls for your comments.
Fed Up, I bought a very small candy bar (about 100 cals) and put it in the back of my cupboard last night. Hopefully I won't feel a need to eat it, but it will be there as back-up for when I really want something sweet. That way I don't keep wasting time trying to satisfy what I really want.

And Gianna, it's always nice to see you posting again! I have missed reading your blog, but I understand that life gets busy and it's hard to get to it or when just nothing of interest happens that is worth posting. I hope you are doing well though and good luck with your competition!

Sleeeeep

Husband is gone for the week and it is so hard to sleep without him next to me. *sigh* :(

So I have been up looking up blogs. I need to find some new ones to follow. People tend to phase in and out of these blogs and a lot of the ones I used to follow haven't posted in years. (Yeah, I've had this blog that long, but a couple of times now I have gone back and deleted everything. Or I have been that person who stops posting for a long time.)

Tonight I wanted soooo badly to go get Dairy Queen. But I resisted. I kept opening things up to eat them and then putting them away. The problem was that I wanted something sweet and we don't have anything sweet in this place. The closest I came was making oatmeal and adding some vanilla syrup (that I put in my iced coffee) and some unsweetened cocoa powder. It was disgusting. So I threw it out. Just as well.

Today was very busy so I didn't get much of a workout in, but planning to wake extra early to work out tomorrow morning and then go for a run when I get out of work. Then maybe some yoga before bed? We shall see.