Spoiled

I am spoiled rotten.  The good news is that I'm the one doing the spoiling.  The bad news is that 2 out of 3 people agree I don't deserve it (and I'm one of the peeps).

I decided I needed a pedicure...and a manicure BADLY.  I really can't even say for sure when my last pedi was.  All I know is that my toes (pre-pedi) look like this:

UGH!

My nails...well that's another horror story.  I decided to stop getting refills a long time ago...I took the acrylic off myself.  Awful!  They went through their ridiculously flimsy/splitting cycle...and now they are stronger, but still ugly.  I knew that I should totally get a mani so that other people wouldn't have to suffer at the sight of them, BUT...that would mean one of two things.  Either I would have to let one ladybug work on my toes while another worked on my nails leaving me no hands to read a book OR I would have to be at the salon twice as long.  No thanks to either...or um that was my thought process when I walked into the establishment.  Upon completion of my pedi, I just knew I couldn't leave the premises until my nails looked presentable.

Onto the massage.  I just develop such tension in my body - primarily my upper back, shoulders, and neck.  I have a membership at Massage Envy - one that provides me with a massage a month for a very reasonable cost.  More often than not, I go twice a month.  I wonder how people go without...are they secretly suffering and don't know it?  Do they have someone to provide this service free of charge (husband, boyfriend, etc)?  Are they stress/tension free?  Do tell!  I decided I should get one before I go embarrass myself at yet another race ... you know ... to relaxi taxi my body before it goes through (deserved) hell.

I also stalk Groupon and Living Social deals for spa-type services in the Houston area on a daily basis.  So far, I've purchased a hot stone massage (haven't used YET) and a facial.

So, yes...I'm spoiled and yes, I don't deserve it, but that's how my cookie crumbles.

Oh and here are my toes post-pedi:

MUCH better, eh?!  =)

*sigh* ... another "Kim"

I pulled another "Kim" today.  What is a "Kim"?  Well...usually it's when I do dumb things seemingly for other people's amusement, an Aggie moment kinda thing.  In this case, my "Kim" made my dudes at work sad.  I feel a little guilty about that, I really do.

Work decided this year that they wanted all of our service centers to provide a breakfast or lunch or ice-cream kinda shindig once a month or so in appreciation of our employees.  This is relatively easy for most of our service centers as their head counts are significantly lower than mine.  So, I am faced with the challenge of coming up with a shindig that will benefit as many of my dudes as possible without being too pricey.

My father and I decided to do a lunch this go-around.  At first I thought about ordering a honey baked ham and then making baked beans, buying some potato salad, bread, and condiments.  Then I saw the cost of a 1 1/2 hams and freaked out!  For the same amount of money, I could go to Rudy's BBQ and get 15 lbs of meat, potato salad, beans, bread, pickles, onions, jalapenos, and iced tea.  Oh...and the best part - no work on my behalf.

I ordered up the goods on Monday for pick-up today.  My father and one of my dudes went to get the grub.  I decided to serve it since the dudes have little to no control when it comes to food and I needed to make sure there were enough leftovers for those out on jobs today.  They asked about the onions and jalapenos and I looked at everything we had and surmised Rudy's forgot to send it.  Silly Rudy's.  The guys were sooo disappointed.  Poor dudes!

After everyone ate, I went to put away the leftovers and couldn't believe I had a whole pan left of potato salad.  Those on jobs will be so excited.  I decided to put the little bit of remnants from the other pan of potato salad into the full one to consolidate and imagine my shock when this:

turned out to be this:

Instead of more of this:

My "Kim" was that I assumed POJ was really POT and meant "potato salad" instead of "pickles, onions, jalapenos". 

Poor dudes indeed.

The ones out on jobs will have a plethora of POJ, but hardly any POT.  =/

*sigh*  I need to keep my "Kims" in check.

Where in the World is KIMpossible?

I know, I know...I've pulled a disappearing act.  I'm back, though.  So that's what matters, right?

This is gonna be a hodgepodge of stuff.  Bear with me.

I know I owe y'all (and me) a checkpoint, but well...big shocker here...I haven't been quite as dedicated and diligent as I planned.  Back on the wagon, though, so I guess it can be said that at least I don't give up.  =/

My brother and sister-in-law planned a vacation to Jamaica.  A flight from Los Angeles (where they live) means a necessary lay-over.  They were able to manage an overnight one on Friday, 9/30, which allowed for my entire family to celebrate older sister Cathy's birthday.  We went to Perry's Steakhouse and had a most wonderful meal followed by this:

and maybe a little bit of:

Afterwards, Cathy opened up her presents.  My siblings went in on the gift thing with me, so we were able to get her some Brighton jewelry that she wanted and perfume.  Here is my cute packaging:

Oh and in other news, I chopped off all my hair.

I decided this hairstyle looks better straight than curly, so I've been straightening it daily.  There is the fast way - round brush - and then there is the slow way - Chi.  Nine times out of 10, I do it the fast way.

Oh...and I'm embarrassed to say I blew off my first race.  I did not end up doing the Beach Palooza 5K obstacle course on 9/24.  I woke up that morning and was just not feeling it....the drive all the way to Galveston by myself...the fact that the only friend I knew who was racing it had a time slot a couple of hours before mine...and finally that I want to be able to run a 5K outright again before I sign up for another. 

I have my See Jane Run half coming up on Sunday.  My training has, of course, not been as I had hoped for, but I am still excited.  I will be leaving on Friday after work to enjoy a nice leisurely Saturday meeting up with friends from days gone by (college) and perhaps even a blogger meet-up later that day.  My father's birthday is also on Sunday, so I will high tail it home after my race to celebrate with my family.

I had some Chinese food at family lunch and this was my fortune:

Can I substitute "dogs" in place of "children" since I don't have kiddos yet?  No?  That's okay cuz I don't think I would ever call my dogs the most wonderful - haha!  I do love them dearly, though.

This past Saturday, we all ended up hanging out at my parent's house - swimming, eating, and watching the dogs play.  On Sunday, my dogs were both dead to the world.  Besides breakfast at 6am and a prompt return to bed, Penelope didn't join the world of the living until 3:30pm.  Yikes! 

I have a slight obessesion with Tai Pei's wonton soup.  I eat it almost every day for lunch and I buy it in the frozen section at Walmart.  Don't judge me.

Another slight obsession I have is with dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic novels.  I just can't get enough!

We are planning young sister Linda's baby shower.  It's going to be so fun.  My mom has made a motorcycle "diaper cake".  Wait until you see it!  I've been commissioned to make a watermelon carriage like I did for Melissa's baby shower and I'm also making fruit salsa to be eaten with cinnamon & sugar pita chips.  I love party planning/preparation!  So fun!

I've been watching Medium on my Netflix.  Oh my goodness, it's so very good.  I'm half way thru with season 6 (out of 7 seasons).  I've picked out my next show once I finish.  It's gonna be Friday Night Lights cuz my parent's swear by it.  Have you seen it?

Okay, that's all I have for you for now.  I better start catching up on reading all the blogs I've been neglecting!

Good golly, Ollie

(good thing my parents don't read my blog...)

My parentals are quite convinced they have the perfect "child" in Oliver.  He can do no wrong in their eyes.  He is the child they always wanted.

In my father's office, there is a picture of the 4 of us kids hanging on the wall.  Beside this picture is a picture of just Oliver.  There appears to be an imbalance in the world...

OLD picture...we all look much better now!

We all know that whenever the parentals go out of town, I stay at their house.  We like to keep Oliver in his environment, after all (and he is way too much dog to reside in my home with me and my own two monsters).

This past weekend, Oliver demonstrated just how far he would take his only-child mentality/status. 
Older sister Cathy and brother-in-law Jay brought home two cutie patootie puppies about 6 weeks ago.  Oliver was the first dog to meet the new additions and my mother thought he was so great with them.  She said he was gentle.  She said when they were sparring he would get in there and break it up.  All this changed when toys were introduced into the picture.  Oliver is a toy-hoarder.  He has many, many toys and they are all his.  Even when my precious blind Penelope is over and goes to retrieve the one toy she fondly remembers and still loves - a little blue football (she doesn't too much care for the red one and how she tells them apart is beyond me considering her...um...blindness), he will steal it from her.  Even when all the dogs are given brand new bones to chew, Oliver will want one that someone else is chewing on.  When we are outside with the dogs, he will want only the toy being tossed for another dog.

My mom is in the process of making some decorative items for younger sister Linda's baby shower.  She bought a cute baby toy - a stuffed giraffe that sings his A-B-Cs.  Somehow, one afternoon, when my mom left Oliver free to roam the house while she went for a walk, Oliver ended up discovering this toy up on the table and stole it (she claims it must have fallen on the floor and that he was confused).  She had to buy a second toy to hide for later.  Um...me thinks later Ollie will discover this hidden treasure and once again claim it as his own.

Cathy came up with a brilliant idea of buying a puppy mini monkey toy and then a grown-up matching monkey guy for Ollie.  She thought this would break him of the habit of having to have what anyone else had so that her puppies could enjoy their toys and so that baby-to-be Ethan (Linda's little bun in the oven) would be able to enjoy his toys in the future.  This plan didn't work.  Ollie only wanted the mini monkey toy.

Jay captured Ollie hoarding mini monkey.

Later, Ollie would put toys and/or bones into one of the puppy's beds to tempt them...and then, when they got curious as to what new and exciting item awaited them, he would attack (by way of growling/barking at them meanly and lunging forward).

Ollie tauning a sweet innocent puppy.

About the only time Ollie was sweet was when he was sleeping.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but Oliver likes to rest his chin high up on some body part of mine (or my mom's when she is home with him).  Usually he chooses my hip or my leg.  Well, on Sunday during our scheduled nap (yes, it was me and 3 dogs in a bed - yikes), Ollie rested his chin upon Penelope.  I couldn't resist taking this picture.

that's a pretty hefty head to have on top of you!

And just for good measure, here's another cute picture...this one of how my Penelli and Delilah sometime sleep - side by side - so sweet!

of course this is at the foot of the side of the bed where I sleep...

So yeah...Oliver was a bad boy this weekend.  We texted my parents pictures of him being a bully (no pun intended) and they accused us of posing him and/or setting him up (or even being jealous of him).  *Sigh*  how come I didn't get this whole "benefit of the doubt" thing when I was growing up???

One Week Check Point

As I stated previously in my Goals - Short Term/Long Term post, I'm going to maintain accountability by posting my goals and then following up on my progress on the ol' blog.

1 week = 8 lbs lost; work-out 6 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes/day; track all calories, water, sleep, and exercise


Let's evaluate the week, shall we?

Diet
By "diet", I mean counting my calories.  For the most part, I'm still following South Beach principles as far as food choices go, but I'm upping the ante by paying attention to specifically how much I'm putting in my body.  The biggest struggle I encountered was recognizing I needed to establish a "NET" calorie goal because the more I work out, the more I'm going to need to fuel.  I set a 1200 NET calories per day target and with the exception of eating too few calories the first two days, I did well.  I also became VERY lax over the weekend which is something I don't want to make a habit.

Exercise
I set a target of working out 6 days of the week for a minimum of 30 minutes per day.  That didn't quite happen, BUT considering I went from VERY minimal exercise to a 4-day workout, I feel pretty good about the week.  I spent 2 days walking (with incorporating a bit of running at the end of each walk) and I spent 2 days riding my exercise bike.  I managed to burn a total of 1366 calories with an average of over 40 minutes per workout.

Hydration
This is an on-going struggle.  I hit over 100 oz of water each day, BUT my target is 144 oz, so I have a lot to work out in this category.

Sleep
My goal is to hit 7 hours of sleep per night.  Out of 7 days, I hit this goal 5 nights.  Still a work in progress, but I'm getting there.

Weight loss goal = 8 pounds
Actual weight loss = 7 pounds


Thoughts:  I am pleased with the results, but I do see where improvement can be made.  As I mentioned above, I became a bit too lax over the weekend.  Even though I went to restaurants with a plan, it was easy to stick to the ordering plan, but difficult to pass up table freebies - bread, etc.

Next check point (1 month) will be on September 26th!


Off to a great start!

(Chocolate) PB2 Review

Have you heard of PB2?  I hadn't until recently and when I did, well you bet your bottom dollar I had to get me some.

We all know how amazing peanut butter tastes (or any nut butter, for that matter).  We love it, but we don't love the calories and fat that comes with it.

I typically eat Simply Jif.  It has 190 calories and 16 grams of fat per every 2 TBSPs.  Yikes!

Now let's look at PB2:

Yes, that's only 45 calories and 1 gram of fat per 2 TBSPs.  Wowsers!!!  Now a warning, though...it only has about 1/2 of the protein.  My Simply Jif has 8 grams and as you can see PB2 has only 4 grams.

How do they make this happen?

Bell Plantation removes 85% of the fat calories by a special process without the use of chemicals.  There are also no preservatives/additives in this baby!  PB2 comes in a jar and is powdered in appearance.  You mix 2 TBSPs of the powder with 1 TBSP of water and VOILA!  Instant PB!

I tried the chocolate PB2 on a Sara Lee 90 calorie English muffin and combined it with Sugar Free Polaner Blackberry Preserves (yes, raspberry or strawberry would have been better, but I didn't either of these with me).

I purchased my PB2 via Amazon.com because I only wanted to try it - as opposed to committing to a 4-jar pack on the Bell Plantation website without knowing whether or not I would like it.  The price does come out to be cheaper per jar (even with shipping charges) if you want to buy it in bulk through Bell Plantation.  It comes in chocolate and regular.

I thought it tasted delicious and I, for one, am thankful to have a less caloric PB on hand since I'm counting my calories and every one is precious to me.

Has anyone else tried this?  Thoughts?

It's all starting to come together!

I know I've had the RunGirl 13.1 half mary on my sidebar for quite some time now, but I officially registered for it this morning.

I remember being super excited last year when I found out about this race.  It would have been my 3rd half and it was especially exciting because it was a female-only run AND in December.  This practicially guaranteed decent (read:  coolish) weather.

I was so bummed when my pelvic stress fracture kept me from racing.  I vowed to register for the race again this year...AND...to actually participate in it.

I let life conquer me for a bit...hence the weight gain and the lack of training as evident in my Hottest Half race, BUT it's not going to conquer me any longer.

As discussed in my GOALS - SHORT TERM/LONG TERM post, I'm back on the wagon and feeling fierce!

I can already see the fruits of my labor.  I have decided to ease back into running by incorporating small (increasing) runs at the end of my walks.  I tested this out on Monday night...walked 2 miles and then ran 0.23.  My average pace was 16:27.  This was not great, BUT I was out there doing it and that is what matters.  Tuesday was a cross-training day, so I hit up my stationary bike for 50 minutes.  Wednesday was another walk/run.  I managed 3 miles in total and I ran the last 0.4 mile.  I lowered my average pace to 15:43.  What does that tell me?  With dedication and determination...I'm gonna hit my goals!

I would love to run my last three half marathons for the year, but realistically I'm just not going to be able to accomplish that.  What I can do, however, is establish goals for each one based on my current (at the time of the race) fitness level.

For now, I will focus on See Jane Run (another all female half).  This half is in Austin on October 9th.  I have no way of knowing what to expect temperature wise (please God let it be cooler outside).  The elevation chart hasn't been posted yet either, so I don't know what to expect regarding hills.  We all know Austin has them.  =/  So, I'm just going to focus on hitting all my training walks/runs and lowering my average pace to allow me to finish my race with a 15:45 pace.  This means 3:26:19 will be my goal. 

On a side note...I just booked my hotel for See Jane Run using Hotwire.com.  My dad swears by this website as he uses it for all of his business travel (and even some personal trips).  I went "pot luck" instead of choosing the specific hotel and I got the La Quinta Inn hotel downtown for $78.00 per night (which includes breakfast each morning).  I looked up the published price per night and it's $99.00.  Yay for saving $42.00 in total!  =)

Ahhhh....it's all starting to come together and that makes me happy!