You're So Hypnotizing - Could You Be The Devil - Could You Be An Angel?: Clean Eating Challenge Day 12

- Katy Perry, E.T.

And now I have the Kanye rap stuck in my head.  Awesomesauce.

Speaking of awesomesauce, my friend Carrie and I signed up to do the Color Me Rad 5K at the end of October and our team name is Team Awesomesauce!  Yes, with the exclamation point.  It should be fun and I hope the weather cooperates.  I read Young House Love daily (ps - I am SUPER excited about their book coming out) and John did a color run not that long ago.  After the race, him and his wife Sherry framed his newly colorful t-shirt and hung it up.  Since I like to show off my race bibs, I thought this could be something cool to add to my race bib wall.

My race bib "wall" over the guest bed.  The map in the center is of downtown Raleigh where I do most of my races.

I used to have a TON of bibs but when I moved a few years ago, I got tired of packing so I just threw everything away.  Whomp whomp.  The bibs displayed are from the last year alone so I am excited to add to them.  I am doing this race in October, then the Turkey Trot again in November, then the Jingle Bell run in December, then the Krispy Kreme Challenge in February, and finally a half marathon in March.

Crazy, right?  I love to torture myself.

Boot camp was good today - it was a mix of HIIT and tabatas so naturally it kicked my butt.  My back is finally starting to feel better and loosen up.  I am not kidding when I say I brought my heating pad to work with me today and used it for the better part of the day.

Foodwise I am doing better - I had a small weakness and had some soy-free all natural butter (gross I know but seriously this ish is so good).  I just have to get back on the train.  My challenge is supposed to last until mid-September and I know I can make it.

One of my coworkers took me out for lunch today as a thank you for referring her to a position in our company (that she has now formally accepted) and we hit up a local cafe that is in the business park we work at.  They are a catering company that is open for lunch and they have the BEST food.  Everything is made from scratch and healthy.  You can get salads, sandwiches, and hot dishes.  They always have chicken, salmon, spanikopita, and vegetarian quiche, and then rotate through specials of the day.  When you pick a meal you get the option of 2 sides - today I got double fruit and had the mango salsa chicken (grilled chicken with homemade mango salsa on top).  Eating out isn't hard if you look for the right kind of options.  And a lot of times restaurants can answer questions (like if anything is jarred or canned in my case) and help me out or make it to my liking.

Here is what I wore to work today:

Don't you love my geek badge?

Or how about the bags of clothes/shoes for Tiff?

OH YEAH and my hair - I cut 6 inches off last Friday!

Halter Tank: H&M

Cardigan: Banana Republic

Belt: Tart

Jeans: Paige Jeans

Shoes: Navy Blue Tory Burch Flats

And here are some items I bought online.  What do you think?  

New black fitted skinny jeans from Victoria Secret

Size 2 - They're the Sexy Siren I believe

Here is my concern - they sit LOW and it gives me unnecessary muffin top.

So the jeans feel great and fit well everywhere but OMMG they sit so low on my waist that I get a little spillage if they get too low.  So I am worried what I should do.  I think if they stretch just a bit (they're not tight around my stomach but I wish they sat a tad higher) they can sit higher and then I'll be fine.  I might do a trial run and wear them during the day when I am home on Friday and see how they feel after a while.  If they feel comfy then I'll keep them but if not then I'll return them.

ASOS Gray Tulip Dress - US Size 4

Holy wrinkleness!

More wrinkles in the back.

Close up

I am seriously in love with this dress.  The last photo does it some justice but I think the wrinkles distract the eye from seeing how it fits on my body.  It's not too snug or tight (or short!) and the color is more of a periwinkle/blue-gray than a true gray which is fine because I feel like the color suits me well. I am going to plan to wear the dress on Saturday when we hit up some birthday parties and hopefully can stop downtown to say hi to some girl friends from boot camp who are going out.  

What do you think?  Do you think I should keep the jeans?  

The Forever Looming Food Guilt: Clean Eating Challenge Day 11

I almost didn't write a blog post today but then I had dinner and went for a walk and I got to thinking.  Mind you, the walk wasn't because it was nice out (it's not super hot but boy it's super humid) or because I enjoy judging snooping on my neighbors, but because I felt guilty about something I ate with dinner and figured this could at least help process it along faster.

I keep preaching how eating clean is the way to go and I stand by that firmly because the minute that something sweet or sugary hits my lips, it's all downhill from there.  Case in point - tonight's dinner.  I had one of my stuffed peppers (recipe HERE), some roasted eggplant, and then I made a little pumpkin/oatmeal cake thing so I could have some healthy carbs.

Pumpkin/Oatmeal Cake Thing
1 teaspoon pumpkin
1/4 cup oats
1/8 cup water
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
cinnamon to taste

Mix together and cook on medium heat on a non-stick pan until cooked through.

I decided I wanted something to dip in the pumpkin/oatmeal cake thing so I found some almond butter and then thought that a little raw honey would be good too.  BIG MISTAKE.  Argh - sometimes I wish my better judgement would kick in and tell me to stay away from these things.  I used conservative portions but then after, I wanted more - more almond butter mixed with honey.  So I sat there, for another 15 minutes or so taking small scoops of both, mixing together, and then eating.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???

Instantly, I felt guilty.  I'm sure you all (Tiff and my 3 lurkers - hi!) can agree with me here because who hasn't been in this position before.  And why do we beat ourselves up for it so much?  My first instinct was to go for a walk so I threw the leash on the dog and off we went for 25 minutes.  Y'all, it is GROSS outside.  But I came back feeling a little better but still not resolved.  I often wonder at what point I will stop tormenting myself over every single little pound here and there.  This morning is another example - I went up a pound from Monday.  I weighed myself Monday to see how I was doing (121.7 pounds wohoo) and then noticed i went up exactly one pound between yesterday and this morning.  I start running all the things I ate through my head wondering how that could be.  I started to beat myself up and nit pick.  But the thing is, I ate really good yesterday and had a TOUGH boot camp work out (seriously toughest ever).  But then hours later I remembered it was probably from the dentist - I went yesterday and whenever I go, I gain a pound or so, normally from the crap in the toothpaste and flourided water/filtered water they use.  For serious, I'm allergic to that shit.

Do you beat yourself up like this?  When do we draw the line and just enjoy ourselves?

Today's work out was good - 12 minutes of HIIT and then the 25 minute walk.  Here is what I did:

30 bicep curls
10 cross touch push ups (push up and then touch your left hand with your right toe, crossing to work the obliques)
20 squat overhead press
10 weighted get ups (I used a 8lb ball - hold while laying down to getting up and lift over head, then lay back down, repeat)
5 V arm squats (hold arms overhead in V position while squatting)
10 side V crunches
5 front V abs
10 tricep kick backs

Repeat 3 times.

The squat overhead press really did me in - mostly because my lower back is KILLING me after yesterday's ridiculous work out.  I couldn't even describe it if I wanted to but it was something along the lines of - 50 push ups, 30 burpees, 100 mountain climbers, 20 1-legged oblique twists, 20 cross touch push ups (full twist with butt hitting the floor), 20 1-legged donkey kicks on each leg, 50 squat overhead press with 25 pound plate, 30 tuck jumps, 20 on the toes hip thrusts, and 40 1-leg raised hip thrusts (20 each leg).  And then repeat.

Seriously.  I died.

So yeah my back hates me today.  I'm hoping it'll stretch out some for tomorrow's boot camp work out. Otherwise, I'm going to be in a lot of pain.

If You're Strong Female You Don't Need Permission - Clean Eating Challenge Day 10

- Lady Gaga

And now I'm bopping my head to the song as it plays on my iPhone. 

Did you all have a good weekend?  I did - we didn't do jack.  Friday, we stopped by my in-laws house for a little while to say hello.  Saturday, we checked out a model home in a new neighborhood.  Saturday night we met my dad out for some sushi as a belated birthday celebrating for my husband.  Sunday, I literally laid around in my pajamas and read the third Hunger Games book.  This is the second time reading the second and third book.  I think the second book is my favorite but I enjoy the end of the third book because Katniss ends up with the person I think she should end up with.  The only reason I don't like the third is because there is just SO much going on, the first time I read it I found I had a hard time keeping track and trying to visualize as I read. 

I got my hair cut Friday and I lurve it - I need to snap a picture and post it.  My hair dresser took 6 inches off!  My hair was long and now it feels SO much better. 

I have been dealing with my insurance company again since Saturday - I swear they think it's some sort of sick joke to mess with me and my health benefits.  I went to pay for a prescription (that I have paid for many times with this insurance without any issues) and suddenly the medication is $23.52 more than it was last month.  Uh, excuse me? So I do what any sane person would do, I fire off about 20 twitter rants to my insurance company.  They finally respond and send me an email.  I think they like to draw straws and unfortunately for this one girl, she's the same one I dealt with last month when I had issues.  I mean really - it's a BIRTH CONTROL PILL, how hard is this?  It's been on the market for like 12 years too so it's not like it's brand new and people are trying to figure out how much to price it out or what tier it needs to be in (and it's name brand, which my insurance accepts, and should be in the top tier k thanks).  So the rep at my insurance company said that she's following up with the pharmacy management team to see what the deal is.  I pointed out to her about 10 times how this is illegal and the insurance company can't just go in and change the cost of the medication halfway through the contracted year and that I will be following up with my health benefits group. 

Something else to mention - so Friday I made some clean pumpkin pancakes and they were delish.  Recipe is HERE and if you read my post (I know I have lurkers, please say hello) I mentioned I had a little agave nectar.  Well apparently that agave nectar threw my whole life into a tailspin and all I did Friday was eat.  I think I had about 8-9 servings of whole grains (oatmeal and/or quinoa) and possibly more because I freaked and was like, okay it's a lot I'm just going to admit defeat and call it a day.  I was casually chatting with one of my boot camp frands on Saturday and he was telling me that when a recipe he was using called for agave nectar he did some research and found that basically the body turns the agave nectar into fructose once it's in your body.  So nutritionists chalk this stuff up to be better than granulated sugar, which to an extent I'm sure it is but I started thinking that this was probably why I was hungry all day and just couldn't get content.  Because every other day I was fine.  He said I should use the raw honey instead since there's nothing in it to turn it into fructose and believe it or not, I used a very small amount of raw honey and have had no problems.  Very interesting, thought I would share.

Also, wanting to share a new recipe for when I want something sweet. 

Basically it's just 1/4 cup white quinoa, 1/4 cup red quinoa, 1 small handful of raw plain unsalted cashews, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and salt to taste.  I don't know what it is but it makes me feel like I am indulging on a small piece of pound cake.  It has to be the vanilla but I have been thoroughly enjoying this treat when I want something sweet but I don't want any sugar. 

Another thing I do that has been buzzing around the internet is banana ice cream.  I went to the dentist today and my teeth are now sore from them scraping.  I can't really take any over the counter pain stuff anymore because they're cornstarch in it (and I can't have cornstarch) so I have been sitting here suffering but I threw some chopped bananas in the freezer and I will be eating those soon.  I figure the cold bananas will help some with the pain. 

I think that is it for me - I have boot camp tonight yay!  It's only 79 out today so I'm hoping the rain will hold off and we'll be outside. 

Rock That Body - Clean Eating Challenge Day 7

It's Friday, Friday, getting down on Friday!

Wohoo - made it to the end of the week.  Today, I am home "sick."  Honestly, I needed a mental health day and it feels so good.  But just because I gave myself an extra long weekend doesn't mean there's room to slack off.  I started my day by getting up at 6:30 and immediately putting on my work out clothes.  I headed out around 6:45am to go over to the Lochmere neighborhood near us to go run.  It's a beautiful, older neighborhood that is very popular for all sorts of active people.  Plus I knew going out there at 7:00am would be safer than going to Lake Johnson at that time (hello woods for Balt Salt Creepers to lurk!) and I had to go to Whole Foods anyways which is right down the street from Lochmere so you know, win-win, go me.

My run felt SO good.  It was gorgeous out this morning.  The sun was just coming up and it was a crisp 66 degrees (and not too humid).  Could I even dare to say it felt a slight chilly when I started running? But it was such a welcome change to the heat and humidity that we have been experiencing this summer.  Blah is an understatement.  I completed a 3.76 mile run in 34 minutes.  I ran my first mile in 8:04!  Holy cheeseballs that's amazing!

I hit up Whole Foods on my way home to pick up the rest of my groceries and came home to make PANCAKES!  I tweaked my clean pancake recipe and OMG it was perfect.  Here is the recipe:

Clean Eating Pumpkin Pancakes
1 1/4 old fashioned oats
1/2 cup ground oats (I took my old fashioned oats and ground them up in my ninja chop!)
1 TSP of baking soda
1/2 TSP of salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup organic pureed pumpkin
Cinnamon to taste (I love cinnamon so I use a lot)

Mix and make you some pancakes.

This yielded 8 pretty big pancakes and I ended up eating 6 of them.  Well I started with 4 pancakes, waited 30 minutes, and I was still hungry so I had 2 more and it was just enough.  I only used 1 tablespoon (which is a serving) of agave nectar.  I poured the exact amount on my spoon and then drizzled it all over my pancakes.  It was a very nice treat.

I jumped a quick team call for 30 minutes and then took a nice relaxing bath (I'm getting my hair did later today so I didn't want to wash it.  Lazy alert!).

My husband was then nice enough to pay for me to get a pedicure so I hit up the local nail salon.  It felt so nice especially after the run this morning.

I came home and made some lunch.  Today I had 1/4 cup quinoa, some sweet potatoes, and my tilapia avocado salad.

Tilapia Avocado Salad
Grill tilapia with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste.  I have one of those flat griddles that goes on the stove and it's awesome - I recommend it.

While the tilapia is grilling, I cut and scoop out an avocado and mash it up.  Once the tilapia is cooked, chop it up and then mix it with the avocado.  Add salt to taste as needed.  Scoop mixture back into empty avocado shells if you like.  You end up with 2 servings which is perfect for 2 lunches or a lunch and a dinner or whatever!

I'm going to head out and relax some more (in bed!!) before I head to my hair appointment.  Pictures to follow.

Happy Friday friends!

The Organization of My Life

I've been thinking about writing up this post for a while.  I have learned over the years that I am a tad on the OCD side, as you can see from my post HERE that I can be a bit manic over organization and cleanliness.  I have perfected what works for me.  You see, I can get up, get ready, and be out the door in 15 minutes (with breakfast and lunch along for the ride) when I have to go into the office.  I plan out my cleaning schedule so I'm not doing anything crazy on the weekends but relaxing and whatever fun stuff my husband and I decide to do.

Getting Ready in 15 Minutes
This took me a while.  I work from 7:00am to 3:00pm everyday which in reality means I am in work around 6:30-6:40am every morning.  I have a 20 minute commute from Raleigh to Durham to take into consideration as well.  I get up at 6:00am.  Uh yeah, you read that right.  I love my beauty sleep.  I get up, pop my contacts in, wash my face, and brush my teeth (usually I brush my teeth and go to the bathroom at the same time).  While I am doing all of this, I start thinking about what I want to wear today.  I usually check the weather but during this time of the year I know it's just going to suck and be stupid hot out so I go with more summery stuff even though my company likes to keep the office colder than the Arctic in the middle of winter.  From there, I put on a little make up (curl my eyelashes, mascara, some under eye concealer and pimple concealer if needed, bronzer and a little blush) and depending on what I did or didn't do to my hair the night before then can vary my morning from doing nothing to it or running my flat iron through some pieces (no more than 2 minutes, I'm over my hair being perfect all the time).  Then I change into my work clothes, throw on my wedding rings, kiss my husband goodbye, feed the cat, grab my purse, pack my food for the day, and head to my car to hit the road.

Just some things to know - I work in a really casual office atmosphere so we can wear jeans and t-shirts if we like.  I usually opt for jeans, a nice top, a cardigan if needed, and a pair of nice flats/low wedges/comfy heels.

Concerning my food - I pack everything up the night before so all I have to do is grab and go.  I pack my vitamin, my banana, put together my breakfast, and pack up my lunch and stack it neatly in the fridge so it's all in one place.  I also fill up my water tumbler the night before and stick it in the fridge so it's nice and cold for when I leave in the morning (I love cold water).

Keeping the House Clean
We currently live in a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom townhouse. It's pretty big for it's size which is nice because we have lots of space.  It also means that it's more for me to clean FML.  I used to waste my Sundays bitching up a storm while I cleaned.  I hated doing it.  I would start fights with my husband about cleaning and how I was sick of doing it.  Problem was - I don't really hate cleaning, I just hated doing it on Sundays.  So then I scaled back to doing it on Saturdays and that was fine except that if we were out of town or I had stuff going on all day with friends, it kind of threw a wrench in things.  Then I started cleaning on Fridays, which worked out really well.  I would grocery shop on my way home from work and then come home and clean.  After, if the weather was nice I would go for a run.  But I found that my husband would either work from home on Fridays and complain about me cleaning while he was playing video games working or he would come home early and beg me to stop cleaning so we could hang out that I ended up starting to clean on Wednesdays.  Since I do boot camp on Wednesdays, this gives me plenty of time from when I get home from work until I have to leave to go to boot camp to clean the house in piece and quiet.

So now every Wednesday, I vacuum at a minimum but every other Wednesday I also clean the bathrooms and wipe everything down.  Having a dog, a cat, me and my husband, I realize that we all shed a lot and the floors need to be cleaned frequently.  When the dog is shedding, I will vacuum almost every other day because I swear I will vacuum and a day later there will be black fur all over the place.  GRRRRR.

Things to know - I HATE cleaning the bathrooms.  GROSS.  So I start there first.  I will clean our bathroom usually first since it's the biggest and takes the longest amount of time and then make my way into the other bathrooms before cleaning the kitchen, dusting the rooms, and then vacuuming (including the stairs!!!).

Laundry
A lot of my friends complain about laundry, I don't seem to mind it.  I am now doing laundry twice a week (because you know I like to create more work for myself than I need to).  Actually, I work out so much and only have so many work out clothes that I enjoy wearing that I need to do laundry twice a week if I want to be able to have stuff to wear.  Thursdays I do laundry and it's normally just clothes and/or whatever is in the laundry basket.  I will do my second load of laundry on Sundays and it's normally whatever is in the laundry basket plus towels and sheets (if I remember - sometimes I am like, eff this the sheets can wait).

Things to know - whenever guests come and stay in our guest room, as soon as they leave, I strip the bed and wash all the linens and towels.  Then I put a clean set on the bed and put all the towels away when they're done. This way, I don't have to remember when a guest comes if everything is clean for them.  Or if a guest comes last minute, then we're already prepared.

Grocery Shopping
Ah grocery shopping, I loathe you so much.  I love saving money but I hate spending time in the grocery store.  I love cooking, but I hate going and trying to hunt down everything I need.  I usually do my grocery shopping on Thursdays as soon as I get off work.  I have a system down with compiling my grocery list that you can read HERE and I figure out a plan of which store to visit first based on A) how hot it is outside and B) if anything could possibly go bad sitting in the car for 20 minutes while I run into the other store.  Putting together my grocery list ahead of time ensures I am not wasting time wandering up and down the aisles or possibly forgetting something I might need.  It also helps me keep track of what I need to get from each store because certain items are only sold at certain stores (yes I like to make things difficult).

Things to know - Most people can get all their grocery shopping done at 1 store.  With my food allergy, it's not that simple.  Plus, my husband loves certain foods that I know are only sold at a particular store. What can I say, I love my husband so I make the extra stop.  Today is a good example - I really need to go to 3 stores but only stopped at 2.  I realized the items I need to get from Whole Foods can wait until Friday since I'll be on that side of town.  Whole Foods isn't terribly far from the house (maybe 4 miles) but with the way gas prices are right now, I try to knock out a round of errands when I am in one area that allows for it.  Plus, all I need to get from Whole Foods is meat (they don't put those nasty diaper looking pads under their fresh meat - which is soaked in sulfites!!) and some almond butter and I don't need those things until Saturday so I'm better off waiting.

Moving on.....

Okay so now that I have spilled my OCD organization ways and you can now properly stalk me (oh who am I kidding, I still think Tiff is the only person who reads this blog - hey girl), let's talk about today's work out.  Since I did boot camp yesterday, today was a quick HIIT time challenge from the 2009 Bodyrock.tv days.  I did Guns and Buns - 2009 and completed it in a little over 10 minutes!  Man,  I was pooped when I was done.  I was looking for something that focused on my legs but wasn't too long because boot camp last night kicked my tail.  This work out was perfect and I was drenched in sweat (sorry no pictures this time) afterwards.

What kind of organizational plans do you have to help get chores done during the week?  Do you try to get all your weekly tasks done during the week so you can enjoy the weekend or do you do them all on the weekend?

Get In Line and Settle Down - Clean Eating Challenge Day 6

I love the new No Doubt Song "Settle Down."  I hated it at first and then I realized when I walk around the house, I sing the chorus to myself.  Then I found myself getting excited when I heard it on the radio or it came on my spotify playlist.  Now, I might be obsessed and I might sing the chorus to the dog to get him to get the eff out of my kitchen when he's begging for his 5000th meal for the day.  Seriously.  Does your dog do this?  We feed him twice a day and sometimes he tries to pull a fast one on me and give me the sad look like, ughhhhhhh I am wasting away from the inside, please feed me and then I realize, um hell no I was the one who fed you twice today, no bueno kid get out of my kitchen!

Moving on.

Almost a week down on the challenge and I am feeling great.  No major cravings or weird headaches from lack of sugar/processed stuff I shouldn't eat but I do anyways.  My hands are a little swollen today and I can't seem to figure out why - maybe it's the humidity.  It's definitely not my allergy.

Last night's boot camp was killer!  We did mini circuits within a big circuit.  Each mini circuit had 3 stations and you buddied up with someone and went through the mini circuit twice.  The mini circuits focused on one muscle group (biceps, triceps, abs, back, shoulders, etc) and when you and your partner were done with the mini circuit, you move onto the next one until you have completed all of them.  Once my buddy and I got into the groove, we really started knocking out the exercises but I swear I can barely feel my arms today.  It's kind of difficult to type and I feel like I am banging on the keyboard just to get sentences out.

I came home last night and had a stuffed green pepper (seriously addicted!), a small homemade hamburger patty with some mashed avocado (I needed the extra protein from the intense work out), and some left over sweet potatoes.  By the time I finished it was close to 8:00pm so I headed upstairs and far away from the kitchen.  I really don't like eating dinner that late but boot camp starts at 6:15 and I don't really like to eat before boot camp because I don't want to see what I ate for dinner so I try to keep my dinners when I do boot camp on the light side and low in carbs.

In other news, I am cutting my hair tomorrow!  Can I get a resounding WOHOO!!!!!!! It's been almost a year since I have been able to cut my hair.  Normally my hairdresser cuts it to my shoulders in the fall but because we got engaged last fall and my hair was already long, my hairdresser refused to cut it until after the wedding! I might or might have not offered her $100 a week before the wedding to cut it.  She still said no!  This is the cut I am looking to get.

Oh Miley you're so smiley

Cute, right?  My hair isn't blonde (and won't ever be again, although it has been this color blonde before - see picture below) but I think it will look nice.

 

Me on the left with my best frand Lindsey

My hair currently comes down to about my boobs - I really can't remember the last time it was this long.

Italy was playing - this was the Sunday before the wedding so June 24? These are my in-laws!  They're wonderful! I'm on the far left.

Yeah so see - this was in June and look at how long it was then.  Too long for me.  My hair gets to the point where I can style it and it just kind of lays flat because it's so long and heavy.  I had the anti-frizz treatment done to it in July and I love it!  I really recommend it if you have wavy and/or frizzy hair.  It doesn't get rid of the curl but it helps it from frizzing up so damn much.  And if you're like me and live in the South, then you understand what I'm getting at.

I am hoping work goes fast (but don't we all?) and then I need to go grocery shopping on my way home from work.  I normally hit up a few stores.  I use the Awesome Notes app and I love it because I can create different folders for each grocery store and then create a grocery list of what I need from that specific store.  If one store doesn't have what I am looking for, I can move the item over to another folder!  Genius.  I used to use just one list but I found I wasted time going back and forth through my list to see what else I needed from that particular store.  This makes it a lot easier for me so I can pop in and get what I need without spending a lot of time.  I try to plan my grocery list earlier in the day or even the night before.  I ask my husband if there is anything he would like or need for the week.  My goal is to get enough stuff so that I don't have to make 8 million more trips.  But that usually never happens.  Sometimes, I realize I have forgotten something a day later or sometimes I stumble upon a recipe I want to try and I need to get a few more things.  It happens.  I try to only spend $125 a week max on our food.  It seems like a lot for two people but you have to remember that I have a severe food allergy and have to buy specific foods/brands that usually cost more money.  I also have to buy everything fresh and that usually costs us a little more too.  But it's worth it in the long haul for my health and for my husband's.

Do you have any tricks for grocery store shopping?  Do you coupon?  I have a hard time couponing because again of my allergy but I find the whole thing kind of thrilling.  How often do you grocery shop? 

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me - Day 5 Clean Eating Challenge

Hi!  I see I have some lurkers.  Don't think I don't stalk notice that I have had a handful (okay, 3) views.  Please feel free to say hello, ask questions, tell me I'm dumb, whatever.  It's cool.  I might block ya but only maybe.

Day 5 - kicking ass and taking names.  I worked from home today and I swear, working from home makes me eat more!! What the frack??? My home office is upstairs far away from the kitchen and I'll be sitting at my desk working away and I'll be thinking about all the food that is downstairs that I can eat.

SERIOUSLY???

I even made a conscience effort to eat around the same times as I normally do so I can stay on schedule.  This could be a problem if I start working from home more often.

How has your Wednesday been?

For a work day, it was okay.  I still want to scream at our business development people.  I might or might have not started World War III with them the other day.  But you know what - they freaking deserved it.  And I'll keep pushing and fighting mostly because I know I am right.  So there's that.

I met with some realtors again about my condo. I own a place downtown that I rent out and my husband and I are thinking it will be best to sell it.  The meeting went really well.  The realtors gave me some really great suggestions on small things I can upgrade so when I do put my condo on the market next year, we can (hopefully) sell it quickly and maximize the profit as much as possible.  Because of this, I am now back with dealing with my bank about getting my place re-financed.  Last month they put a hold on re-financing rental properties but the mortgage specialist I have been working with thinks the hold will be lifted in the next few days.  Hooray!

I am going to head to boot camp in a little bit and I'm interested to see what tonight brings.  It looks like it's going to rain so we'll be indoors today.  I just hope it's not death by cardio or the abs class where we do nothing but ab exercises for an hour straight.  The last 2 times I did the abs class, I had to roll myself out of bed and then waddled like a preggo Jessica Simpson for 2 days.

I am so ready for the weather to cool off so I can start running more.  I keep toying with the idea of running a half marathon but I think I am just too much of a wuss.  I actually trained for one a couple of years ago and got my mileage up to 12 miles.  Problem with trying to train right now is that A) it's hot as balls outside and it makes it nearly impossible to run, B) we live in a hilly area and I need to dedicate some time to finding a good running route where I am not running up and down hills all day long, and C) I'm going to be honest - I am pretty ADD and I get bored so easily.  A lot of times when I run, I stop because I am bored.  I listen to great music and try to focus on other things (my favorite activity is running at the lake near my house and judging people) and sometimes I can run forever but when it's above 80 degrees, it's a lot tougher for me to run outside for very long.

What is your favorite time of the year to run?  Have you ever done a half marathon before? Am I crazy for even thinking of wanting to do one?