Change Up

I'm sure you've heard this quote before - and if you hadn't, well now you have and I'm glad to have shared it with you!  I've been thinking about this quote a lot lately and it's been resonating in my brain when it came to my workouts.  

If you read this post last week, I shared that I felt like I was in a big ol' running funk.  They were feeling super hard and my workouts were just stale.  So, so.  Same ol' same ol'.  

And while I wasn't gaining any weight, I certainly wasn't losing any or looking any more toned for that matter.  My enthusiasm for working out was running low & Brandon could see my frustration with my mediocre sessions as the gym.  So Sunday night, he suggested I change it up!  As soon as he suggested a change up, the above quote came to mind.

I go to the gym and do the same runs and the same weight routines week after week.  So obviously I'm insane, because I was baffled as to why I wasn't seeing different results!!  A change up is just what I need!

So Monday, I started P90X.....again!!

That's correct, I'm doing P90X again!  Ha...I've done P90X once before. I started back in April 2010 when I lived with my old roommate, Lisa.  She and I did the workouts together each night and we lasted about 10 out of the 12 weeks of the full program.  We took before pictures and were super pumped!  But we didn't implement with exact fidelity and we didn't really change our diet.

This round I won't exactly be implementing with complete fidelity, either.  Whoops!  I just can't unfortunately.  I want and need to keep my running up & don't want to abandon it.  I'm an extrovert and that goes for my workouts, too. I tend to be extrinsically motivated with my workouts, also.  Aka - if I'm running at the gym and stop everyone can see me, but if I fast forward through a work out I don't like at home, no one knows!!  :)

Haha, so I have to keep going to the gym some and I have to keep running!  Plus, I can't STAND yoga!  I've tried, I've reeeally tried to like yoga, but I just can't.  And the P90X yoga workout is 90 minutes!!  No thanks!

I do the lean version of P90X, so the way I'm implementing this time around - 3 days a week are more cardio heavy workouts so I won't plan to run those days.  2 days a week are weight workout days so I'll plan to run before hand.  What would be yoga day will be my off day and I'll still do a longer run once a week.

The big difference this time around is my diet.  I haven't exactly changed my diet a whole lot, but I'm back to tracking my calories using an app on my iPhone!  I first started using it when I got my iPhone, but then stopped after a while.

I feel so much better when I'm using it, though!  It basically keeps me from unnecessary amounts of mindless eating throughout the day!  When I'm journaling everything I eat, I know if it goes in my mouth, it's going in the calorie tracker.  And let's be honest, I could snack all day long - but it is not fun to watch my calorie count go up!!

This time, I'm going for results!  I'm only 4 days in and I'm looking forward to my workouts again!  I can definitely tell that I'm stronger this time around than the last round (which at least means my old workouts weren't in vain!!  Just stale as of late I guess.).  I even bought some 10 lb today weights to add to my 5 & 8 pounders that I already have, I could tell yesterday they were just to easy and weren't gonna cut it.  My little home gym is growing :)  

So February's here & I'm changing it up y'all!!  Here goes round 2!

Case of the Mondays...

Oh Monday....no one likes you!  You come far too quickly (and often) in my opinion.  But alas, you are now pretty much over, so we're moving in the right direction!

I had a big ol' case of the Mondays today.  Y.U.C.K.  The weekends are just so wonderful and don't last nearly long enough!  :(  This waking up early for a job thing sure gets in the way....I think I need to reread this post, re-find my attitude of gratitude, and adopt this mantra....

So while I work on that, in the mean time let's do a little weekend recap....

Friday night was typical - a work out, dinner, and lounging on the couch.  Can't complain :)

Saturday we slept in (ahhh glorious!) then woke up and did some good deep cleanin'!  Our 2 bedroom apartment doesn't take that long to clean, especially between the two of us, and it's always so nice when it's all clean!  I sure will miss that one day when we have a house.  (Yes, you read that correctly, B helps clean!! And he's darn good at it - probably better than me!  Not 50/50 baby, but 100/100 in this marriage!  Thanks to the wisdom of my parents!)

After cleaning we relaxed a bit and watched Ghostbusters 2 on Netflix.  It was my first time watching a Ghostbuster movie as Brandon seemed slightly appalled that I had never seen the movies (1 or 2 for that matter, but 1 wasn't available to stream).  And I must say, now after watching it in all it's 80s glory, my life seems so much more fulfilled! <insert sarcasm>

After my life changing Ghostbuster experience, I met my SIL for a little mid-afternoon mani :)

Gale found a great living social deal for the Noda Nail Salon so we both bought it last week and met up for a shellac manicure!  Love :)

Saturday night we made waffles and had mimosas before heading downtown to meet up with a lot of our long lost friends!!!  Of course I didn't take a single pic, cause I'm really good at that, but it was so fun to see friends we don't get to see that often!

Sunday, we attempted a workout, did some laundry, and got one of our favs, Crisp, for dinner!

We snuggled with this guy....

....and I, also, finally tried out a stocking stuffer from B....

No shame, y'all

Tryin' to get myself Monday morning ready.....not sure if it worked?!  Haha, but it sure felt nice!  This might become a regular!

Brandon found out today he unfortunately will not be home until Friday this week instead of Thursday night like normal.  :(  We're bummed, but there's some good things on the horizon....

Like this weather!?  In winter?  Umm, yes please!

Tomorrow I have a fun Amalie's date with some wonderful friends, and this weekend, we celebrate the 6th birthday of my sweet niece!!  How will she already be 6!?

Ok friends, I think I've shed my case of the Mondays.... :)  better late than never, right?  Happy almost Tuesday!

Midweek Randomocity

I have an overflow of randomocity going on in this brain of mine lately....so be warned...I'm about to dump it all out!!  :)

1 - I've come to the realization that I'm in a big running funk right now.  I just can't seem to shake it!  Every run, whether it's 2 miles or 6 miles, feels like I'm running up hill both ways, in the snow, with weights around my ankles (ok now I'm exaggerating!), but for real every run seems hard lately!  Like way harder than normal!  I don't know what it is....but this seems to happen every few months and my work outs had been going really well lately so I guess I was over due!?

I get pretty discouraged during these funks, but what can ya do!?  Just like anything else, this too shall pass and I'm gonna keep on keepin' on...

....and I'm gonna keep telling that lying sl*t to shut it!! ;)

2 - Speaking of my running funk, any time Turn Me On by David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj came blaring through my headphones these past few days I found myself running a little faster and a littler harder!  It's pretty much the perfect running song and will get your rear in gear!  Fo' reals (yep, I just said that!)

3 - Speaking of perfect running songs (look at all these great segues going on in my brain!?), I'm currently developing a new bumping 5K playlist!  We'll be running a 5K 2 weeks from this Saturday (this will be my 5th year to run this same race, so now it's tradition!) and I need some bumping, upbeat, popping music to run to. I've brought down my time each year in this race, so this year is no exception!  Mas rapido!!  I'll post the playlist once it's finished.

4 - Obviously, I'm a woman of many talents, I speak un poquito of Spanish!!  Actually, I don't, at all.....I just googled how to say "a little bit" in Spanish :)

5 - I've run out of good segues.....so anyways....I drove to the gym today with my windows down!  Did ya catch that!?  On January 25th I had my windows down, sunglasses on, enjoying the breeze on my drive!!  This is winter right!?

6 - I am not complaining though at all!  If it's not going to snow, then I see no need for cold weather.  I'm over winter....let's just move onto spring!!  All in favor?

7 - Work is overly stressful lately.  I know, everyone's job is stressful, but I just need to whine for 3.5 seconds. Sometimes I feel like I'm just treading water in order to have all of my plans together for even just the next day, let alone next week or the week after.  Sometimes it seems I just can't get ahead.  And that is this week.

8 - So I've been drinking regular shots of this....

....and taking lots of deep breaths.  It's all I can do.  My 3.5 seconds is up - pity party ova!

9 - Aside from work stress, life is pretty good so I shall not complain :)  I am thankful tomorrow's Thursday! That means my man comes home & we're taking his colleague who's been traveling with him this week out for some Mexican and showing him a bit of downtown Charlotte!  Thursdays also bring good Thursday night TV (Grey's & Private Practice!) and Friday - so who doesn't love that!?

10 - Friday night, we'll be putting a wedding gift to use - we finally seasoned our steel wok that we received as a wedding gift (yes, 14 months later!) and I'll be trying out Classic Annie's Pad Thai recipe!!  I'm super excited cause I love me some thai food :)  Hopefully, I can make it taste just like Basil!

We're over the hump y'all....it's all down here from here :)

Pizza Love!

I love pizza.  I could probably marry it!  But alas, I am already married, so I guess pizza and I will have to continue our thing on the side ;)

We don't actually eat pizza too often....if I did I'd most definitely weigh 358lbs....but every now and again we'll get some Brixx to go or we'll make a pizza at home!  (Some of my other favorite pizza restaurants include California Pizza Kitchen, Hawthorne's, Fuel, & Mellow Mushroom - to name a few.  I told you, I'm in love!)

I'd been craving pizza ALL weekend so we decided to make one for dinner last night!  Rarely do we make a typical pepperoni or cheese pizza, and last night was no different.  Buffalo Chicken Pizza was on the menu!! I kind of just made the recipe up (I mean, let's be real, it's pizza so it's pretty hard to ruin!) and man did I do a great job!! ;)  Haha...so below is the recipe....duplicate or tweak to your liking, and enjoy!

The pie right before going in the oven!

Disclaimer - I am no Pioneer Woman or proper food blogger, so this is the only picture ya get ;)

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Crust

8-12 oz chicken

buffalo sauce

blue cheese crumbles

1 c mozzarella cheese

scallions

cilantro

Choose a pizza crust of your liking.  You can go the dough route or pre made and thick or thin (we usually go thin to save some calories!).  Last night we bought a pre made Boboli thin crust.  Usually we buy the whole wheat dough from our grocery store's deli, but lately we feel like it hasn't been cooking all the way.  I think the trick is to pre-cook your dough for about 5 or so minutes before topping and cooking.  And now that I've typed a whole paragraph on the pizza dough, I'll get back to how I made the pizza!  (Holy tangent!)

Anyways....boil the chicken, slice it pretty thin & toss it in the buffalo sauce of your choosing.  We used Moore's Buffalo Wing Sauce.  Depending on how much buffaloness you like, spread some sauce over your crust, top with chicken, blue cheese crumbles (as much as you like, it's a rather strong cheese, but I'm a fan!), and mozzarella.  (Pretty sure I used more than a cup of mozzarella last night so I think I'll cut back to just a cup next time!)  Chop some scallions and cilantro (again as much as you like) and sprinkle on top.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

VOILA!  Buffalo Chicken Pizza love!

Rainy Weekend

Its been a rainy, cloudy, overcast weekend in our neck of the woods!  But that's quit alright with this gal because...

Friday night started Restaurant Week here in Charlotte!  Lots of delicious restaurants participate and offer a special menu of 3 courses for only 30 bucks!  If you're in the area - definitely check out all the restaurants participating and try some place new!!

For our Queen's Feast restaurant choice, we decided to splurge and try out BLT Steak in the Ritz Carlton.

Our reservation wasn't until 9, so our friends Andrea and Justin met us at our place for a drink before we headed out into the rainy evening!  

Dinner was amazing!!!  And still expensive even though we were eating off a fixed price menu!  We've been wanting to try BLT Steak for a while though, so it was all well worth it!  We'll have to head back there sometime when we maybe have something to celebrate or some money to blow!!  :)

After dinner, we came back to our place and just hung out for a while.  That rainy weather makes you just want to curl up under a blanket and relax.  So that's pretty much how the rest of our weekend went!

We woke up to more rain Saturday morning and decided to stay in bed for quite a while....and it was pure heaven!  I made coffee, we ate breakfast in bed, watched TV and I got caught up on some magazine reading. Seriously, is that not the perfect Saturday morning!?

We dragged ourselves out of bed for a workout and then came right back to the couch :)  We watched movies and looked at houses online (ugh....never ending I swear!) and ate delicious leftovers!  Thursday night, thanks to Michelle's recommendation over at Life of a Virginia Wife, I made Spicy Chicken Rigatoni!!

I knew I could trust another Michelle's opinion ;)  This recipe was so good & definitely a keeper!  It was just as good when we chowed down on it again Saturday night!  I did add more chicken so therefore I added a little more of each sauce and a little more peas when I made it.  It's name did not lie or disappoint....it was spicy & delish!

Today we woke up and the rain was finally gone, but oh my good gracious is was COLD!!  This winter weather here in the south (or lack there of) has been so funky this year!  One day it's 60-some degrees, the next it's 30-some.  And that continues to stay true since tomorrow it will be back to above 60 again.  I won't complain though, I'll take a mild winter any day.

We got in a difficult run today as well as some grocery shopping, a little bit of laundry, and a nap :)  Right now the chicken is cooking for the buffalo chicken pizza I'm going to make for dinner!  I'm very excited....I could eat pizza every day, but then I'd be as big as a house ;)  I'm just kind of making this recipe up, so if it's a keeper I'll try to post it!

Tomorrow's a teacher workday and for that I am thankful!!  It means an hour more of sleep in the morning and that I don't have to be "on" at school tomorrow....so I'll take it!

Rain or no rain, I hope your weekend was just as wonderful!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, well I lied!  Not completely wordless.  You know me (or maybe you don't! - but if you did, you'd know), I'm hardly ever without any words!  This might quite possibly be the silliest post I've ever done/will ever do (well, never say never), but I couldn't resist!

This past Friday night while out (at a bar) with friends, my friend Kelly mentioned an app called CamWow on her iPhone.  I, of course, immediately downloaded it.  Literally, playing with this app was pretty much all we did the rest of the night.  We were the weirdos at the bar playing on my phone :)  The boys kept taking it from me!  

The fun with this app continued all weekend!  If you have an iPhone - go download this app RIGHT NOW!!

If you have to pee...please do so before viewing these pictures :)  You've been warned!!

Enjoy!!

The inbred Brady Bunch ;)

Did you pee your pants laughing!?!  Cause I almost do every time I look at these again!!

Happy hump day friends!!

Playing Catch-Up

Well hello there sweet little blog of mine!  I've somewhat neglected you this past week :(  But that's life right!?  Busy, busy!

Thankfully, my stomach monster only lasted about 24 hours and I was feeling MUCH better by Tuesday night. I went to school Wednesday, still just feeling a little weak, and by Thursday I felt 100% again!  And good thing cause we had fun weekend plans for a night out and then some football!!

via

Our friends, Justin & Andrea are doing the whole long distance thing at the moment, so Justin wanted to surprise Andrea by coming in to town this weekend!  I called her last weekend and mentioned having a "girls night" this Friday to make sure she'd be in for a Friday night surprise!!

By the time she got to our place, Justin was already here and he went down to let her in the building!  She was very surprised to say the least!!  We had 8 o'clock reservations at Aria, an amazing Tuscan Grill we stumbled upon one Saturday Night in November, for the 4 of us and 2 other couple friends!

After dinner we walked over to Carolina Ale House, a great sports bar that just opened for a few after dinner drinks.  It was definitely a fun night out!!  Our camera has been sent off to be fixed, so the only pics I got were via my iPhone.

Andrea & I 

All the ladies - Andrea, Kelly
Ashley, Me
The boys were there, just no pics of them.  Haha

Saturday morning consisted of a lot of laying around, and then we headed over to Andrea's place for a kitty play date, football & some homemade Mexican - yum!!  How can you go wrong with any of that!?

I was pulling for the Saints simply because I'm a fan of Drew Brees and I was pulling for Tebow - because how could you not want him to win?!  Sadly, neither of those boys could pull out the W....but I'm not near as invested in their teams as if it were my own.  I just hope the Patriots don't make it to the Super Bowl - yuck!!

Sunday was lazy, aside from our workout, and that was just perfect!  We ate left overs, laid on the couch, and watched the tube.  Another reason Sunday was so perfect is because I didn't have to prepare for school the next day!  Thank you MLK Jr day!!  B was definitely jealous as his alarm went off at 6:50 this am, but he'll be in Daytona Beach by tomorrow night, so his week won't be too rough!

I was rather productive today - completed some errands, worked on some party planning details, worked out, & got coffee with Ashley & Rachel.

No hate for Monday this week!!

If you had today off - happy 4 day work week to us!!  And if you didn't - congrats, you survived Monday!