I’m 30, that’s not so bad.

 

Today is my birthday, I’m 30 and that’s not so bad.  29 was great. I accomplished things beyond my wildest dreams. Two 5k’s, lost almost 50lbs, started a blog, worked hard to better my marriage, made some amazing friends and if I accomplish half of that in the next year, 30 will be nothing short of fantastic. Speaking of amazing friends…

 

Savannah was AMAZING!  I ate poorly, drank a lot, but walked a lot and enjoyed myself. My friends had “tasks” for me to complete on Saturday. I had to do everything from kiss a bald guy on the top of the head to wear a hazmat suit and get people to sign. I had to belt out “Wind Beneath my Wings” and get two guys to slow dance and I had to collect 30 pennies from strangers. I was terrified when they told me that throughout the day I would be given certain tasks, but I completed them all. As I completed them I received charms for a Pandora Charm bracelet they gave me over lunch at Lady & Sons, each charm with a special meaning from each person. This was all a surprise to me, I had no idea what they were planning. There was so much planning and though involved, my heart is full. I have worn my new bracelet every day since. It gives me a feeling of happiness every time I look at it. I feel so grateful to have such amazing women in my life. Here are some pictures…the ones safe for viewing. :)

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So, here’s to 30! If it’s half as good as 29 was, bring it on! I’m ready.

Girls Weekend!

Today is the day! We are leaving shortly for Girls Weekend in Savannah, GA! I am so excited I can hardly sit still. I know I've been quiet this week, but getting ready to go out of town is always a rush against time between work and home. I apologize for my absence, but I promise you haven't missed much.

My weight as of today: 161.2lbs!
-.9lbs

I'll take it, especially this week! This doesn't give me the 50lb weight loss I wanted by this time, but I'm pretty darn close.

I want to go into a little bit of personal background about me. I've never had many girlfriends in my life. I've never had many real friends period. I'm good at being a loner. I actually enjoy it. However in the past year I have really started to come out of my shell more and appreciate the presence of other people in my life. The fact that I have 9 other amazing women in my life that want to go on an out of town trip with me to celebrate my 30th birthday is nothing short of amazing to me. I want to publicly thank them all for this weekend, in advance, they have no idea how special this truly is to me.

I know there will be a million pictures, some I'm sure will be hysterical. There are a ton of super secret plans that they have made and I have no clue what they have schemed up. I do know that my sister asked for very detailed measurements for what I can only assume is some sort of humiliating but hysterical costume.

I am giving myself permission to not track my points, have fun and enjoy my weekend. I am not giving myself permission to make this a total derailment. My whole goal is to find a balance that I am happy with.

Our plans include, lots of bars, lunch at Paula Deen's Lady & Sons restaurant and a haunted pub crawl! I have a 7 mile run scheduled on Sunday and I am going to try to do it before leaving Savannah, but if I don't, that's alright, I know I'll get it in later in the week.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I did get my work out (my sister joined me!) and a green monster in this morning so no matter what happens, I know I'll have started off the weekend the right way for me!

Happy Weekends to you all and I'll talk to you again on Monday! :)

SELF Magazine, what? That's nonsense!

I can finally tell you my super secret news!

On Saturday, I got a phone call from a friend shortly after getting home from work. "YOU'RE FAMOUS" she screamed into the phone. I wouldn't go that far, but it is pretty cool to finally be able to share my super secret news with you.



That's me, down at the very bottom, sharing a magazine page with Jessica Alba in SELF Magazine's April issue! I was asked and the pictures were taken back in November (well, except the running picture which had to be retaken...still not fond of that one) and I didn't want to tell anyone until the magazine was on the shelves. We all know how these things can fall through.

How did it happen? Well about 9 months ago SELF asked a question on Twitter (I don't remember the question or my answer) and I answered. They didn't use my answer for whatever it was but several months later I got an email from one of the editors telling me about their new "My SELFy Day" column. They thought I would be a good fit and they wanted me to submit some tweet-like updates about a day when I did SELFy things, healthy and balanced. I used a day when I was in Greensboro as an example. They liked my submission and therefore made me the first My SELFy Day in print form.

It's really surreal, but I have to say, it's a pretty awesome way to turn 30...which will happen on March 31st. :) Speaking of that, on Friday I leave for Savannah for Girls Weekend and I couldn't be more excited! My meal plan for the week is pretty lame because of it, but here it is:

Meatless Monday - Healthified Three-Chesse Manicotti from EatBetterAmerica.com
Tuesday - Boca Burger and French Un-Fried Potatoes
Wednesday - Butternut Squash Orzo
Thursday - Tuna Cakes and some vegetable side

Since I'm leaving Friday morning I have no idea what my Friday night will be like!

Oh and just in case you're interested, on Sunday I had a kick ass 6 mile run. Yes "Kick ass" is needed to describe it.



How was your weekend? Did you do anything active? Cook any crazy good healthy recipes?

Not into it.

I have nothing witty to say today. No marvels of wisdom, no recipes to share. I did start my day with a very green Green Monster....



I wanted to report my weight for the week, 162.1 (-2.1lbs). It's going to be beautiful here in Coastal NC on Saturday and I will be stuck in my office. I have a 6 mile run on Sunday and I think it's supposed to rain.

I was supposed to run yesterday, but my knee bothered me.

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache and went back to sleep.

Tonight I am going to try my best to at least do some yoga. My body just doesn't feel quite right. I don't know if it's allergies, stress or some type of bug. Whatever it is, I hope it's gone soon because 1 week from today, I leave for my Girls Weekend trip to Savannah!

Do you ever just feel, not into it? That's me today. I'm not into it.

Hopefully I'll rebound on Monday with some exciting super secret news that I will hopefully be able to share at that point and a meal plan for next week. Thank you guys for sticking with me, even during the boring stuff.

Happy Weekend!

Checking in from Greensboro

Just a quick check in from my blackberry!

I went for a run this morning and stopped at one of my favorite spots. If you look either way off this pedestrian bridge all you see is train tracks. I've always loved this spot and wanted to share it with you.

I ran 3.05 miles in 30 minutes and at weigh-in, I'm down to 161.9. Not much of a loss, but a little and I'll take it!

If I don't check in later, have a great weekend! Happy Friday!

Meatless Monday, I think I love you...

"I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of, I'm afraid that I'm not sure of, a love there is no cure for..."

Did anyone else watch the Today show this morning? I'm pretty sure that song is going to end up on a running mix soon. I can't stop singing it. I could sing this song to last night's dinner, that's for sure! It was YUMMY. Yes, capitalization is required on that one!

I made Gina's Spinach Lasagna Rolls. If you haven't checked out her website SkinnyTaste.com yet, you really should. She has amazing recipes!



I followed her recipe closely, except I used whole wheat lasagna noodles, fat free mozzarella, and I added some dehydrated minced onion, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper to the ricotta cheese mixture. I also used a Parmesan/Reggiano blend grated cheese. I also used some canned tomato sauce that I jazzed up with red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder. I probably only used 1/4 of the sauce the recipe calls for. I'm not huge into sauce and neither is Kelly (who joined me for dinner). We both thought this recipe was fantastic! I served it with a small Cesar salad on the side, light dressing of course.



You'll see this one again, you'll definitely be seeing variations of it again too! I love the rolls, it's simple and makes such a beautiful presentation. Ok, I'm stopping now. :) Thanks Gina for a great recipe!

This morning I had a run scheduled for 30-45 minutes. I ran for 40 slow minutes. I'm not feeling 100%, but I am proud that I did it. The Sleep Monster almost won.



I knew I needed to get up and run though, and I need to get a lot of exercise and healthy eating in this month because on the 27th, I have reservations to eat with 9 of my girlfriends at The Lady & Sons in Savannah! And later that day, a Haunted Pub Crawl! You can bet your heavily buttered buns I'm going off-plan that day! Will I feel bad? Not one bit. It's all about balance. There will be much walking involved too...from one bar, to the next. :) Half kidding...

So many of you are excited and amped up for March! Reading your comments yesterday gave me motivation! I can't wait to see where this month takes us! :)

Weekend Update of Love

I hope you all had wonderful Valentine's Days! :) My husband surprised me by leaving a dozen roses on the kitchen counter for me to find when I got home from work on Friday. We don't see each other on Friday due to our work schedules, and he has never bought me real flowers (he did buy me beautiful handmade paper roses for our 1 year wedding anniversary) before so I cried like a baby. They are beautiful! If you look closely you can see a picture from our wedding day in the background...I noticed it when I was picking pictures for this entry! :)

Friday night, my friend Kelly came over and we booked hotel rooms for a Girls Weekend trip to Savannah, GA for my 30th (ugh) birthday next month! I am so excited. We are staying in the super lovely Inn at Ellis Square and planning a Haunted Pub Crawl for Saturday night. 38 days to go and I am so excited!

If you remember, on Friday I was talking about how we were rumored to get a very rare beach snow on Friday night. Well, we got 3 inches, which is VERY rare for this area and it was beautiful!




Chaser The Wonder Schnauzer wasn't really sure how felt about it.



Jeff and I went out grocery shopping and the roads were completely clear. It was the perfect snow, beautiful to look at, clear roads and it melted quickly!


Saturday evening Jeff and I decided to stay in and watch movies. I had it in my head that I was going to order pizza. I was going to eat as much pizza as I could stuff in my mouth and enjoy every bite. I took a few minutes and thought about it and decided that I would make a pita-pizza at home. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but to me, it was a huge victory. You know what? It tasted just as good as delivery and was so much better for me!





Sunday, I had a great 4 mile run! This is my longest outdoor run yet! I felt great, took a few walking breaks when I needed to and still averaged a pretty decent pace...for me at least!



After my run I decided it was finally time to buy some new running shoes. I love my current Asics GT-2140s, but they are causing me blisters now and the support is all but gone. I have well over 300 miles on them and it's time to replace them. I found a GREAT deal on Asics GT-2110s at Amazon.com. I got them in the White/Periwinkle. I can't wait until they get here! I never thought I'd be so excited about running shoes!

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend! I hope you did too!

How was your weekend? :)