I am (Still) Your Nosy Neighbor

y'all it's getting worse....

I had mentioned in THIS POST that I am incredibly nosy.  I love knowing everyone's business.  Well since we moved it has definitely not gotten any better....if anything it's worse.  Now that we live in such a large complex, I feel like I have the "in's" on so much more dirt......like the guy who drove the Navigator and used to go down to the garage to hot box his car practically every hour with the trail of weed following him.  Or the weirdo guy who lives on the 4th floor of our building and left his upstairs neighbor a real nasty note asking them if they had "elephant feet" (true story).  Or the douche who ends up at the gym the same time as me and likes to hoard ALL THE MACHINES (dude, seriously we have like 4 machines and 2 benches at the apartment gym - you can't have them all).  Or the couple who lives next door to us and goes from screaming at each other to screaming loudly while they have sex (hint: paper thin walls).  And then there is the story of the used condom found in the lobby by the mailboxes one morning.

Anyways....

What I am trying to say is that I certainly have not changed and now I feel like my vigilante mentality has now morphed.  Take the ongoing battle I have been secretly ensuing with my apartment complex.  LOL yeah secretive....why?  how?  Because I decided to become BFF's with the fire marshal of Arlington County and with his help I have been getting my way but with the county's backing.  It all started when the daycare in our building decided to build this monstrosity of a playground in the back space of our building (where the dogs played).  When the construction crew showed up, they built a temporary fence.....that ended up blocking the exit of our building!  Um hello...fire hazard.  Through my sleuthing, I found out that the Arlington County Fire Department is quite active on twitter so off to twitter I went.  I was able to get in touch with the FD and they passed along my email to one of their fire marshals and now the rest is history.  Some other issues have since popped up (like our elevators like to keep breaking WTF) such as our garage door broke and was held up by what looked to be dental floss for about 3 weeks.  After a week of praying the door didn't come crashing down on me, I asked my fire marshal friend if his expertise extended to garage doors, security issues, and potential liability risks.  Lucky for me, he responded a resounding YES.  With his gentle nudge (and the threat of some fine$) the garage door was fixed in the guaranteed 2 weeks instead of oh I dunno 2 months.

Here is what the door looked like:

Is that rope or dental floss?

So safe.  

You can barely see the rope/dental floss here.

Basically my car barely fit in and out of the door but now it's neither here nor there.  The shitty thing about it all is that I requested a discount on our rent for the month of March since we pay PER MONTH for our cars to stay in this safe and secure underground garage and yeah we were declined.  BASTARDS.  Oh well - my husband and I are counting down until our lease is up and we can move out.  

To end this vigilante post, I have to show one more picture....of Arlo's little neighbor dog-friend who is also a creeper.  When I see him peering out of the window at us, I imagine this is what I would look like if I had a window where I could sit and get the scoop on the neighborhood.  

Arlo's creeper friend in the window staring at us.

Photo Dump

Hello friends.  Sorry for the delay in posting.  Things (such as snow) got in the way of coming up with compelling things to talk about.  I hope you all had a nice weekend.  We got about 7-8 inches of snow on Thursday but then it slowly warmed up over the weekend, breaking into the 50s on Sunday.  Arlo and I like to go on walks so we took advantage of daylight savings and also the warm weather and decided to take a walk down to Freedom Park and the Netherlands Carillon.  You end up at the edge of Arlington but are sitting up high enough that you have a beautiful view of the monuments and of DC.

With the Netherlands Carillon - we make similar faces

The view from Freedom Park overlooking the monuments

Unfortunately, because of all the snow, melted snow, mud, muck, etc., Arlo's and I's adventure to walk to Freedom Park did not transpire.  Parts of the bike trail from our apartment to the park were still very iced over and made it difficult to walk.  We finally crossed over to the other side of Hwy 50 but as we neared Rosslyn, the sidewalks were still a mess.  Arlo and I decided to turn around and head back home but the first stop once we got in was to put Arlo in the bathtub so we could wash his paws which were now covered in mud and dirt.  

The snow on Thursday was kind of insane.  It snowed from early Thursday morning until pretty late at night.  Once the snow started to slow down, my husband and I took Arlo for a walk around the neighborhood.  My husband would throw snowballs at Arlo and he would try to catch them with his mouth but instead the snow would explode all over his face.  It was hysterical. 

Because of the storm, Barre class was cancelled so I dragged my Ugi ball and my jump rope to the apartment gym and did 2 different HIIT work outs totaling in 34 minutes.  The first HIIT workout was different variations of burpees, 50 seconds of work/10 seconds of rest.  The second HIIT was alternating different total body moves with the Ugi and doing low jacks with the jump rope.  I worked my calves so hard that they were sore until Sunday morning!  I found both workouts HERE.  

I love my Ugi...my jump rope is questionable.

I am going to end this post with one of my recent favorite pictures of Arlo.  It is what I would like to call "the creeper."  When I am watching tv in bed, I will hear the pitter patter of little paws come into the room and he will put his face on the edge of the bed and wait for me to give him the "OK" to come get in and join me.  

My creeper dog. 

When Things Don't Go as Planned

Well we're halfway through the week which is super exciting...I don't know about where you are but it's colder than a witch's titty here.  We're expected to get rain today which will turn into sleet which is supposed to then "snow buckets" from what the meteorologists are saying through Thursday afternoon.  In short - I will more than likely be stuck at home for the next few days.

Speaking of freak snowstorms in March, have you ever had things not go as planned?  I would venture everyone can say 'yes' a million times over.  I think it's a commonality to life - you can plan away to what you would like your life to be and more than likely it doesn't always go that way.....or you eventually get to your finish line but you ended up taking an alternate route.  I feel like our lives have been like this for the last 2 years.  Most of my 'constants' in life have remained the same (my husband, family, friends) but obviously a different path is what my husband and I decided to choose (i.e. moving to a new city).  Overall, I think it's been a good experience and it's helped my husband and I to grow but along the way we have come across new road blocks and detours.

Case in point, after nearly two years of trying to get pregnant (which obviously has been unsuccessful because I am neither pregnant nor have I had a child), we have had to move forward with finding a RE (reproductive endocrinologist aka a fertility specialist) to figure out our next steps.  Based on a number of tests that my OBGYN had done, the RE decided that doing IUI (aka a form of artificial insemination) would be our next best option in trying to have a baby.  I could go into details on what IUI is, but instead I'll link it HERE and you can read all up on it if you desire.  Basically, I'll have blood work, doctor's visits, some ultrasounds, injections, a procedure, and lots of drugs all mixed in.

We started in a couple of weeks and the hard part is that things start off kind of firm but then a lot can change based on how my body reacts to the drugs and when the doctor feels it is best to have the procedure done.  From there, it's 2 weeks of waiting to see what happens.  I am hopeful we will be successful the first time around but I also worry I will be heartbroken if it doesn't.  It's a good feeling to actually feel like things are moving forward but even with increased chances there's no guarantee (don't worry, we had to sign forms where we actually said we understood that this was not a guarantee).  If we have 3 unsuccessful rounds of IUI, then the doctor wants to move forward with IVF.  IVF is similar to IUI but more invasive.  It also allows me the opportunity to design my baby (kidding....well kind of).

So that is where we are with the process.  Who would have thought?  Deciding to have a baby should be an exciting time but ours for the last few years has been a lot of disappointment and fielding questions of "so when are you going to have kids?" (Is it bad for a while I wanted to say, "well probably never since my doctor said our chances are at 1%.") I do plan on updating things on the blog as they develop - apparently I'm going to be a real peach once I start to get going on the fertility drugs (I apologize in advance) but again I am hopeful this will be a short-lived detour in our long-term plan.

My Recent Work Outs and Favorite Songs

Happy Tuesday!  I hope you had a fantastic Monday.  Mine wasn't too shabby - work wasn't too crazy but there was enough to do to make the day go by quickly.  We're coming into our slow quarter and I am anxiously awaiting that time!  I can't wait for evenings where I am not glued to my work phone checking emails like this:

I end up doing a lot of this:

The only time I enjoy emails in the evenings is when one of my coworkers puts on their sassy pants and then forwards me the chain of emails:

That just makes my night.

Now that I have exhausted some of my favorite gifs, I can move on to the topic at hand....my recent work outs and some favorite songs I am currently digging when I am getting my sweat on. 

Right now my work out schedule is as such:

Monday: HIIT (high intensity interval training)

Tuesday: Barre class

Wednesday: HIIT

Thursday: Barre class

Friday: whatever I feel like (usually HIIT, sometimes it's running)

Saturday/Sunday: Rest days

I get my HIIT work outs from a variety of places as I like to switch it up regularly.  I sometimes visit Zuzka Light's old Bodyrock workouts which you can find HERE, sometimes I find workouts on Pinterest which I save to my Pinterest Board.  Today I am bringing you a mix of 3 work outs, 2 are pure HIIT where all you need is a set of weights, and a treadmill routine I like to do occasionally to finish off my work outs. 

HIIT #1 (from Emily Schromm's Superhero's Unleashed 21 Day Challenge)

Complete 5 rounds of the following:

• 10 weighted squats (I used 2 10lb dumbbells)
• 8 push ups
• 6 burpees

I completed the work out in 6:10.83.

HIIT #2 (also from Emily Schromm's Superhero's Unleashed 21 Day Challenge)

Set a timer for 12 minutes.  In those 12 minutes complete this pyramid work out starting with 1 rep for each exercise and increasing the reps by 1 every round. (For example, do 1 row each side, 1 lunge each side, 1 v-up, then 2 rows each side, 2 lunges each side, 2 v-ups, etc.)

Plank row (1 each side!)

Step back lunge (1 each side)

V-up crunch

I completed 10 rounds.  

Treadmill Routine - this one is simple because I let the machine do the work for me.  I set it for 10 minutes to the "hills" interval around a level 5-6.  The machine will increase and decrease the incline about every 30 seconds.  I set my pace to 5.5 (which is about 10:30 minute/mile) since the hills add a lot of resistance to the run....plus I am pretty tired from the HIIT work outs when I start.  

What definitely helps is the music I listen to.  I love music - I listen to it all the time.  I bop along at my desk like:

Some of the newer songs I am really liking are: 

 - Sledgehammer by Fifth Harmony

 - Top Down by Fifth Harmony

 - Reflection by Fifth Harmony

 - Going Nowhere by Fifth Harmony

 - Body Rock by Fifth Harmony (yes sorry I have been on a FH kick lately)

 - anything by Trey Songz (especially Na Na and Bottoms Up)

 - the new Maroon 5 album

 - the new Jessie J album

 - anything Nicki Minaj and/or Lil' Kim (I'm a gangsta at heart)

 - Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson

 - Somebody Loves You by Betty Who

 - anything Katy Perry

 - Lips are Movin by Meghan Trainor (I hate the song about big butts she sings but I love this one, go figure)

 - some of the newer Ariana Grande songs.  

What are your favorite work outs?  What kind of music do you listen to when you work out? 

Why a Low Carb Diet is Working For Me and my Sulfite Sensitivity

Happy Monday! I hope you enjoyed a much warmer weekend than we did here in DC.

This weekend was more low key since we had been traveling overseas the last two weekends before.  It's always nice to have a weekend where there aren't many plans set and we can do what we feel like (or not feel like).

As I had mentioned in my post on Friday, I started a low carb (or as some like to call it, keto) diet last week to try to get my metabolism working and start to get some of this weight moving in the right direction (as in, get out of here!).  Things have actually gone really well so far - the weekends I usually struggle but since I am eating a higher fat diet and limiting the number of carbs/sugar I consume, it doesn't give me the option to have one thing which spirals into two things which spirals into three things....I think you get what I'm saying.

I had my cheat meal Saturday night and in keeping up with the spirit of keeping things higher fat, I did a chocolate avocado mousse with chocolate chips.  It was really great and satisfied my craving for sweets.  I was so full when I was done that I didn't feel the need to continue counter surfing for more goodies.

Chocolate Avocado Mousse (Sulfite-Free)
Ingredients:
1/2 Ripe avocado
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the Hershey's brand as it was just cocoa)
3 tablespoons organic coconut milk (I used low fat as I had an open can of this already)
2 tablespoons pure honey
1/4 cup of Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

Mash avocado until smooth.  Add in unsweetened cocoa powder and mix until all of the cocoa powder is incorporated.  The color of the mousse should be a dark chocolate color.  Add the coconut milk one tablespoon at a time and mix well until incorporated.  Add the honey and continue mixing until smooth.  Feel free to taste and add in 1 additional tablespoon of honey if needed.  Add in chocolate chips.  Place in freezer for 30-60 minutes and enjoy!

Sunday, I was right back into the swing of things again.  I find that going higher fat means I am far less hungry given it's a weird feeling that I have noticed.  I am not hungry but I am also not "stuffed" like I am when I eat a higher carb meal.  I have been eating most of my carbs in the evening with dinner and then doing a 12-13 hour fast through the night into the next morning.

My current macros - the goal is to hit them every day and stay in my caloric range

Doing this sulfite-free has been easy so far - I have been avoiding whole eggs (I seem to be okay with egg whites), broccoli and anything pork.  Instead I have been having spinach/mixed greens, sweet potatoes, avocados, Rao's Homemade sensitive formula tomato sauce (no garlic and onions!), and zucchini.  I have found a smoked salmon that I can tolerate and have been eating 85/15 ground beef, top sirloin steaks, lots of coconut oil, egg whites, baked chicken, and lamb.  I'm interested to see how my body adapts to this through the month and what the final result would be.  Usually by day 3 or 4, I get tired of the restriction and binge but so far I haven't had any desires to eat carbs.  I have also been pinning recipes for things I would like to try - low carb pizza crusts, almond flour pancakes, truffles, etc.

Have you tried low carb and/or keto before?  Were you successful?

You Ain't Going Nowhere (from this blog)

Um hi? Welcome back to me?  A blog I had completely forgotten about 2.5 years ago bounced back into my mind when I woke up to a comment from someone who found my little corner of the internet (thank you Sana for the comment!).  So, a quick recap of what has happened to me in the last 2.5 years:

• When I was last blogging we were living in Raleigh, NC.  Well about 4 months after I stopped blogging, my husband was approached with an opportunity to relocate to Washington, DC....so off to DC we went where we have lived now for the last 2 years.  
• I have changed companies twice but still in the same line of business.  
• We unexpectedly lost our 4 year old lab right after we moved to DC.  The vets couldn't determine what happened but basically his heart stopped in the middle of the night.  It was a very traumatic event that still upsets me but a few months after Max passed, we adopted a lab/hound mix from the local shelter.  High energy is an understatement but Arlo is one of the best dogs ever.  
• I regained all the weight I lost.  Yes, all of it.  FML. It started the minute we moved to DC and after going to 3 allergists, an endocrinologist, 3 OBGYN's, a gastroenterologist, a GP for a year, and a holistic doctor, the third allergist has found out that I am highly allergic to the environment we live in (AWESOME!) and now I am on four prescription antihistamines.  
• I became negligent about remaining sulfite-free.  I have learned that my reactions have either lessened OR are being masked again like they were when my cortisol levels were high.  I'm going with the latter.  

So with all that said, I didn't realized I had blogged this little blog for a few months in 2012 and it was kind of a fun morning when I didn't feel like working to instead read what I had previously wrote.  Also noted, damn I was so skinny back then!  I have been working with a health coach the last month or so and she really wants me journaling.  Also my husband learned that bloggers can make fairly good money by blogging (obviously the successful ones that have sponsors, ads, etc) and his response when I told him about how much some of the bloggers I read make was, "why aren't you blogging?"  Good question (my answer to myself - because I am fairly boring).  So why not mesh my blogging and my journaling together?  Efficiency at it's finest. 

Here is where I am at diet wise: I have been playing around with different macros/diet plans with my health coach.  Last night we determined to move me over to a high fat, low carb diet to see if it could somehow jump-start my body...again.  Seriously - I am right back to where I was 4 years ago....this is the worst case of deja vu ever.  Interestingly, I found my post where I listed all the foods I avoided because it gave me issues (I have enough of those already).  While I feel like I have made leaps and bounds with being able to tolerate certain sulfited foods again (like garlic, onions, broccoli, eggs, etc) I am wondering if all my environmental allergies are masking the reactions and I just think my sensitivity is lessening but the reality is that it's not.  whomp whomp.  

To re-hash what I had previously wrote HERE, I noted a lovely list of foods that bothered me and that I avoided like the plague (or to keep this up to current times - Ebola).  Because I need to see this now, I am hitting good ole copy/paste on that list (you can just scroll through if you are like OMG Cassie NO1CURR).

My Sulfite No-No's
Wine and Beer
Colored liquor
Soda (except for plain carbonated water)
Soy
Malted anything (which is found in most breads and flours)
Canned foods
Jarred foods
Cured Meats (especially all pork products)
Grapes
Shrimp
Lobster
Corn anything (this is on the newer scale - I know I cannot have corn syrup and corn starch but I am almost finding I cannot have polenta and corn chips FML)
Pre-made stuff (like frozen meals, pre-made biscuits or pizza dough)
Eggs (if I have 1 once a week I seem to be okay)
Kale
Broccoli
Asparagus
Chips, cookies, crackers, pretzels (unless homemade)
Caregeenan (which is found in heavy cream, almond milk, and protein powder)
Pre-packaged meat (the pads they put underneath the meat helps keep it fresh and is soaked in sulfites)
Bottled juices
Onion and garlic
Bottled lemon or lime juice
Molasses
Salad Dressing
Ketchup/Mustard/Condiments
Pre-shredded cheeses
Deli Meat
Chocolate
Cortisol steroids
Ice Cream

The sad truth?  I eat a LOT of these things again.  I don't know what changed about my attitude toward my sensitivities with food - maybe I stopped giving any fucks, maybe I thought I was okay, maybe I was depressed and love to torture myself by re-gaining 30+ pounds.....honestly, I couldn't really tell you why I allowed this to all happen.  So I am putting it nicely in e-writing - starting today no more of this crud in my system.  Yes, I will cry some crocodile tears over eggs and broccoli (which have become staples in my diet) but I have done this before and I lived through it and I know I can do that again.

Now my fitness plans.....when we moved, I attempted to find a new place to get my boot camp on but holy hell doing anything fitness-related in the NOVA/DC area is 3 times as much as it was back in NC.  I was still doing HIIT when we first moved here but I could no longer do it in my living room (hello neighbors) so I would walk to the apartment gym but I felt like walking 5 minutes over there to do a 12-20 minute work out to walk back home for 5 minutes seemed kind of...silly? So I moved away from HIIT (big mistake) and started weight lifting, running outside as much as I could tolerate, and eventually moved to incorporating yoga and barre into my weekly routine.  My current plan includes barre twice a week, HIIT 2 times a week, and then 1 day where I can do whatever my little heart desires (I can lift, I can run, I can do another HIIT....or shit all three if I feel like being a beast).

I think I talked enough for a day....or maybe to fill in the 2.5 year gap.  

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?