Brain Dump: My Week

Workouts

Monday: The plan was to go running, but it was pouring so I did a whole heck of a lot of lunges inspired by Fitnessista’s 10 Ways to Lunge. I also did 3 minutes of a forearms and toes plank (10 seconds of holding the plank, 5 seconds relaxing).

Tuesday: I went for a 3 mile run (alternating 5 mins. running and 1 min. walking) and did another 3 minute plank. The best part about the run was that my Garmin magically started working. It stopped charging about a year ago so it just died. Granted I haven’t really tried to use it in a year, but the other day I randomly decided to see if it would charge…and it did!

I had been using RunKeeper and and I never felt like it was accurate (which I don’t necessarily blame on RunKeeper, the GPS on my phone isn’t the best). Compared to my Garmin RunKeeper was about .16 off (it was done faster than it should have been).

Wednesday: Plank day! I used another Fitnessista page as a guide. I did 10 seconds of holding a plank and 5 seconds off for the following planks: regular plank, hip twist plank, lifting right leg plank, lifting left leg plank, supermans. I did it once, then I did it again. I also did 50 leg lifts and 50 scissor lifts.

Thursday: All I wanted to do was go for a run. It was supposed to be sunny all day, but it ended up being overcast and rainy all day. It looked like it was clearing up when I left work, but when I got to Brooklyn it was lightly raining. I don’t mind running in light rain (I kind of like it) so I said I’d still go. Then it started down pouring, and kept down pouring until around 8pm. Bye, bye run.

Friday: Tons of walking, but no time for a real workout.

Saturday: I ran 3 miles at my parents’ house (again, 5 mins. running alternated with 1 min. walking). It’s so nice to run somewhere less hilly. But it was humid and I finished a sweaty mess.

What else I’ve been up to

I went to NJ for work on Wednesday.

The work part of my trip went really well and then I did some shopping.

New capris (yay or nay with the coral jacket?)

New wedges. Super comfy.

New espadrilles. I actually need to exchange them. I only tried on the right one in the store and when I got home and put the left one on the left one was smaller. I tried to exchange them Friday afternoon but the Michael Kors store by my office (which has super snooty employees, FWIW) didn’t have an 8.5. I’ll try some of their other stores next week.

I actually have these in gold from last year.

I LOVE them and wore them everywhere last summer. However, after a month the sole fell off, luckily it wasn’t anything crazy glue couldn’t solve.

Then, this year, the whole bottom started falling off.

Again, crazy glue is a miracle worker 🙂 Now I’m probably crazy for buying the same shoes that fell apart on me, but whatever, I love them, I don’t care.

I took the train out to my parents’ house yesterday afternoon. That picture shows the crush of people on the platform with the reflection of the train. The confusion pretty much sums up my trip.

I went to the bank to cash in all my change. When my parents came in for my wrist surgery I had them take the change back with them since it’s so heavy. My bank here has a change machine, but the one in the city doesn’t. The change is actually from the piggy bank I talked about in this old post. I had $61.03!

After the bank I went to Target and the beer distributor.

Then I came home and cooked.

Green Chili Chicken Turkey Burgers from How Sweet Eats.

Triple Double Chocolate Puppy Chow from Food, Fitness and Family (couldn’t find chocolate Chex)

Sweet Corn and Roasted Jalapeno Hummus from How Sweet Eats

I snacked on all my food sitting on my parents patio all afternoon. I also had an Ithaca Flower Power beer (I think it might be my favorite beer). I finished two books. I highly recommend them both.

And after dinner my mom made strawberry shortcake for dessert! And then my dad and I took the dogs for a walk.

Whew! That was a big brain dump. Busy week!

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Random Trip and Weekend

I thought I’d do a mostly random recap of my weekend with a few pictures from my trip to Oregon included.

First, my randoms from my trip…

That’s the room I stay in in the condo my grandparents rent. Well, where I stayed before I got sent to the couch so my mom and aunt could sleep up there. It’s a nice room, that door goes out to a big balcony that over looks a stream…

And there’s a full bathroom right behind where I was standing when I took the picture.

That’s the large lake that’s pretty much right outside the condo’s door. There are a ton of restaurants and stores around the lake. And there’s a town square-like place where they have a farmer’s market, show movies, and hold other events.

Just don’t feed the water fowl.

Who are these fetching people? That’s my uncle, aunt, and mother. This picture has been hanging in my grandparents’ house for as long as I can remember. I always thought it was so funny growing up.

I arrived back in NY bright and early Friday morning after a fairly bumpy red eye flight where I got elbowed by the video game-playing guy next to me for the whole flight. After some squeezing onto the Long Island Railroad I was greeted by this shining face.

The great greyhound hole digger!

It’s something he’s started since it’s gotten so hot outside. I guess it’s cooler in the hole? Needless to say my parents aren’t pleased.

Here’s a zucchini and cucumber from my parents’ organic vegetable garden. I’m very proud of them. Too bad I don’t like zucchini or cucumber.

This was my gorgeous view at the beach this morning. Unfortunately it was hot as hell at the beach. There was no breeze and it was so sticky.

I also got attacked by flies the entire time. I lasted a little less than 3 hours before I threw in the towel (haha…).

This is the clear coat nail polish, Seche Vite, that my aunt told me to buy to fix my nail polish absorbing dirt problem. She said it was only available online, but then I found it at Target today. Score.

And finally here’s my latest attempt at applying the OPI Shatter nail polish. It’s really hard! I love how my thumb looks but my index finger looks awful. There has to be a trick to it.

I’m using my parents free laundry facilities and then packing up to head back to NYC tomorrow. It’s been a real vacation, but I’m actually excited about heading back to work and a normal routine tomorrow.

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Wine and Relax

Another day in Oregon, another day of consuming alcohol. Today’s alcohol of choice? Wine.

Rather than the main drag places we went last year, we decided to try two smaller vineyards this year.

First up was Aramenta. The setting is absolutely gorgeous.

Since it was so small the owner just walked out of her house when she saw us coming and took us into the tasting room.

We got to try 6 wines in all, but overall I liked the 2008, both the reserve and the normal (I’m sure that’s not the technical term). I ended up buying two bottles of the normal 2008, one for me and one for a friend.

The reason I wanted to go to Aramenta was because my friends went there about a year and a half ago and brought me back a delicious bottle of wine. That wine was actually what I drank after my first half marathon.

Seriously how pretty was this place though?

The owner offered me a job and I told her not to tempt me.

After that we were off to Vidon, which is even higher up in the mountains. It involved driving up a very long dirt road.

The scenery at Vidon was even more gorgeous.

I think I actually liked the wines at Vidon a bit better than the Aramenta wines.

And I really, really, really liked the scenery.

After that we headed out to lunch at the Yamhill Grill. I would have liked to visit more wineries but with two older people who tire easily and don’t drink and a 15 year-old and a 10 year-old more vineyards weren’t in the cards.

When we got back to my aunt and uncle’s house I went with my aunt and her friend to see Larry Crowne. It was ok, I didn’t really understand what the point was to the movie and all the characters’ stories seemed underdeveloped and their decisions just strange.

But it was $5 for the ticket and my aunt paid. So no harm.

Then I came back to the condo and ate dinner and did some stuff online. I really wish there was an internet connection in the condo. I’ve spent so many hours staring at my iPhone screen I think I’ve gone blind!

BTW, I really liked the outfit I wore Tuesday.

Black jeggings from J. Crew (on sale after Christmas for $19.99!), tee shirt from Lands End Canvas (just bought on sale for $11.99!), and denim blazer from the Gap from 2004.

And now onto Wednesday. It’s actually good I didn’t get to post yesterday because I wouldn’t have had much to say about yesterday. My mom and my aunt came in on Tuesday night and my aunt wanted a quiet day to acclimate to the other side of the country. I ended up going for a run in the AM, then we went over to the mall, back to the apartment for lunch, over to the mall again, followed by a visit to my grandparents’ new apartment.

Then it was back to the condo where we’re staying for dinner and then out for a three-quarter of a mile or so walk. I was just planning on staying in but then my aunt asked if I wanted to do something and I thought she really wanted to get out so I said I’d grab so dessert.

We ended up also stopping at Ulta so I could buy OPI shatter nail polish.

Ignore my messy job, I always scrap the extra off in the shower 🙂

I also really liked the outfit I wore yesterday.

Romper from Lands End Canvas this year, belt from J. Crew this year, and cardigan from J. Crew 2007.

We’re off to Fort Vancouver today and then I fly back to NY tonight!

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Shopping!

With spring kind of sort of upon us (come on nicer weather!) it’s become clear that I am in desperate need of new clothing. Perhaps you remember when I had my big closet purge last fall?

As cathartic as that was I also gave away a lot of stuff and at some point I need replace (some of) it.

Enter Land’s End Canvas. I own one thing from the regular Land’s End, their infamous tote bag. I always thought of Land’s End as the place where my grandmother shops, but Land’s End Canvas is their cooler, J. Crew-like line. And I love, love, love it.

Thank you to the Blue-Eyed Bride for posting about it.

I found out about Land’s End Canvas a while ago, but I was reluctant to order online since I didn’t know how the stuff fit and I wanted to make sure the quality was good.

Luckily there’s a Sears (seriously, who would have thought?) in NJ that sells the Land’s End Canvas line and my wonderful friend Elisa, who lives in NJ, agreed to take me.

Elisa actually did better than I did, but I found some great stuff. I can’t say enough about the quality (far better than J. Crew which IMO has really taken a major downturn) and the value. Plus when we went last week everything was 25% off.

Just a warning: the sizes are a bit wonky. I was in extra-small in one sweater I tried on. While I admit that did feel nice, I am certainly not an extra-small. And the two dresses I bought (see below) are two different sizes.

I got this charming shirt.

What? You can’t tell what it looks like? That picture was actually a mistake but I thought it was kind of cool.

Better? The shirt was $19.95 but I paid $14.99 since it was 25% off. Unfortunately I don’t see it on their website so I can’t actually show you want it looks like.

I also got two dresses.

It was after this picture that I stopped trying to take phots of myself.

A better picture:

Cute, no? For some reason boxy-shaped dresses like this are really flattering on me.

I also got this dress

I really love this one. I can’t wait to wear it. Maybe for my birthday?

After we left Sears we headed to the Garden State Plaza, a very nice mall just down the road from the less-nice mall that’s home to Sears.

I did quite well at J. Crew. I got the jeans I’m wearing above with the gray shirt for $40 (down from $98). I never would I thought I would look good in skinny, cropped jeans with a zipper at the ankle, but somehow they work.

I also got this lovely white sleeveless shirt.

Also worn with my new jeans. However when I wear it for real I probably won’t wear it with my teal sports bra.

No idea why I’m standing with my legs so far apart.

Finally, because I haven’t embarassed myself enough, I bought a shirt from Banana Republic.

That’s my model face.

Moving on. I also did some shopping on Saturday at the Brooklyn Flea.

Seeing as I did enough budgetery damage this weekend I kept it simple and bought one thing.

Pretty crazy, right?

The stand had a bunch of really crazy rings. I loved them all. I have a thing for rings. They have a website, but it doesn’t really accurately portray the coolness of the stuff they had at the Flea.

And now no spending for the next few months!

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One of My Least Favorite Days of the Year

I apologize in advance if this is really boring or makes no sense. I have a pounding headache, like a little migraine, and I’m having trouble focusing.

Monday was one of my least favorite days of the year. As you may or may not have noticed I try to eat seasonally as much as possible. For me that means buying the large majority of my produce at the Greenmarkets in Union Square and Grand Army Plaza. This is pretty much do-able from April-January. For vegetables I go through asparagus, green beans, wax beans, sugar snap peas, corn, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others.

For fruit there are always apples, but I try to only eat those in the fall. I get blueberries, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries all summer.

But then comes winter, and, because I live in NYC and things from the Greenmarket can only be grown locally and it’s winter here now, the Greenmarket suddenly goes bare. There are still the apples, still the eggs, still the cheese, still the jellies and jams, but that’s it.

And it all happens so suddenly. Before Christmas there were still plenty of brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower around. But when I came back to work I only found one person who had brussel sprouts and broccoli and, although I bought them, they weren’t very good.

When I went to buy vegetables this week there weren’t any left. I find this to be an especially depressing time of year. I love buying local, mostly organic, produce at relatively cheap prices. It’s fun to wander around and try new things that you just can’t find or don’t notice at the grocery store.

But don’t worry, I still manage to get in my fruits and vegetables. And I still try to eat seasonally. I bought broccoli and brussel sprouts from the store yesterday and I’ve been buying oranges for the past few weeks. Pretty soon grapes will be in-season and I’ll start buying those. And, because it is the right season for these things, oranges are $1/each and grapes, I think, are $1/lb.

Basically this just is another sign of winter that I hate. I’m so ready for winter to be over.

I had a great elliptical workout last night. The gym was still full of the New Year’s Resolutioners but somehow I managed to just walk up to an elliptical and get right on. I kept looking around to make sure I hadn’t cut anyone off who was waiting, but no one appeared to be waiting and no one came up and said anything to me.

Sorry for all the picture-less posts lately. I haven’t seen too many picture-worthy things lately. Hopefully that will change this weekend. But I do have a picture today!

As I’ve mentioned I’ve been wearing my sneakers around to try to get my ankle to stop swelling. It’s worked really well, even though I look like a total idiot. Well, today I’m wearing a skirt to work, I have a dinner with buyers tonight so I have to look nice, and I really was going to wear my sneakers to work

But I couldn’t do it. Not only because I look like I’m over 50, but because I would freeze. It was 25* when I left my apartment this morning and that much leg exposed would have been unbearable.

So I went with my boots

And hopefully enough stretching and Advil will keep the swelling to a minimum.

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My Day

Let’s catch up on my day today, shall we?

It was pretty uneventful until the afternoon. That’s when my boss’s boss’s (a VP) daughter came in to visit me. She’s 13 years old and comes into the office a lot after school and on days off so I know her pretty well. She’s always hungry so when she saw some Environkidz rice crispy-esque things sitting on my desk she asked if she could have one. I had brought them in with the intention of putting them in the giveaway pile in the kitchen since I wasn’t a fan.

Well, she opened it up, took a few small bites, and then noticed that there were maggots all over it! Yep, I fed my boss’s boss’s daughter a contaminated rice crispy treat. She handled it pretty well for a 13 year old girl, there was lots of spitting and rinsing her mouth, but no real panic. Honestly, she probably handled it better than I would have. After she recovered she went and told everyone. Her mother came in and all she said, in what I’m pretty sure was a joking tone, “Bad career move, Maggie.”

We took a picture of the maggots and then my old boss called the company that makes them. We sent them the bar, the wrapper, a maggot, an unopened bar from the same box, and a strongly worded letter. God willing they do not send more bars. Perhaps a nice cash settlement? I told the daughter I would give her the money. I obviously felt awful.

Next I went to Trader Joe’s on my way home from work. I spent more than $40. My spending on food this week isn’t good. But I bought an $8 box of Emergen-C, a $6 thing of Olive Oil, and a $5 thing of maple syrup. So it would have been $30 without that stuff, all of which will last me for a while.

I had originally planned on going to the gym tonight and doing something non-impact, but that sounded boring so I instead decided that I would do the run I didn’t get to do last night because my ankle was swollen. Now my ankle is still swollen, but it hasn’t been bothering me at all today. So I went running (temperatures in the high-20s, wind chills in the single digits, it was FREEZING) and it was a great run. Here are my splits:

• Mile 1: 9:51
• Mile 2: 9:24
• Mile 3: 9:17
• And the .1: 0:54

Not my fasted, but considering the weather conditions and the swollen ankle I was pretty happy. And my ankle doesn’t hurt and it’s no more or no less swollen.

I’m heating it now and I’m about to go stretch. Then it’s off to bed for me. Certainly not an exciting night but I have a busy rest of the weekend so I thought I’d take it easy tonight.

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Final Day Away

Early tomorrow I head back to NYC. I’ve been trying to make the best of my last day in the suburbs.

I had planned to wake up, watch tennis, workout, have a Green Monster, run some errands, pick up lunch , relax, make my family dinner, and then pack.

Unfortunately when I woke up it was snowing.

Yet again! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much snow in such a short period in the NY area.

I woke up, watched tennis, and then things started to go astray. I kind of procrastinated for a while after the tennis was over so I didn’t start my workout, the No More Trouble Zones DVD, until almost noon.

This was the first time I ever did the full No More Trouble Zones DVD, I had only done the first four circuits before. The first four are so easy compared to the later core ones! I feel like I got a real workout! I think my legs and arms and glutes and everything else are going to be screaming tomorrow!

By the time I finished the workout around 1pm it was really snowing. I didn’t want to drive to do my errands in all the snow, but I did want to go to Subway for lunch.

So I conquered my fear of driving in the snow!

It was so worth it.

I hung around the house for a while and then the snow stopped! I headed to Target and the Grocery Store (I wanted to buy heavier stuff here so I didn’t have to worry about carrying it in the city tomorrow).

The roads weren’t bad, but of course none of the parking lots were plowed.

I bought a plate at Target to keep at work so I can stop wasting paper plates to warm up my food. And it’s nicer to eat my lunch on a real plate.

I made my family dinner tonight. I usually refuse to cook for them because they’re so picky (ironic, right?) and pretty unhealthy. But I thought I should do it at least once since I’ve been home for so long.

I wanted the Buffalo Chicken Pizza recipe from Carrots ‘n’ Cake. But my parents don’t eat spicy food. So I made two!

Just tomato sauce and cheese for my parents and Buffalo Chicken for me and my brother. I changed the recipe up a little. I used blue cheese dressing instead of ranch, I didn’t have Frank’s buffalo sauce so I just used regular Frank’s hot sauce, and I put a few blue cheese crumbles on top.

It was DELICIOUS! So totally unhealthy and decadent, but amazingly delicious. And I ate half of the pizza above and I have another half to eat for lunch tomorrow.

Now I should be packing, but of course I’m procrastinating online. 🙂

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Things I’ve Been Meaning to Say

There have been a few things I keep forgetting to post about in other posts so I thought I’d assemble them all together here.

First, the night splint I got from the orthopedist is an amazing miracle. Since I started sleeping in it I’ve had virtually no ankle pain! My ankle has still be swelling, but not nearly as much as it had been. I love the night splint.

And bonus, I don’t even notice it while I’m sleeping! Take that PA who told me it would be so uncomfortable and I would hate it.

Second, I bought really fun Christmas nail polish that I’m really enjoying wearing. OPI by Sephora And a Cherry On Top, if you’re interested.

(It looked better about a week ago.)

Third, I tried this amazing frozen yogurt place at the mall the other day. It’s called 16 Handles (funny, right?). It’s self-serve and you pick from an extensive selection of frozen yogurts (I got the cheesecake) and then put your own toppings on (I got brownie, chocolate chips, and white chocolate sauce). The best part is that you give yourself however much you want so, since I had just eaten dinner, I didn’t have much. And then you weigh it and it’s charged based on weight. Loved it.

Fourth, and this is maybe TMI, but I have super, super dry skin on my hands and wrists and I don’t know what to do. I’ve never had this before! I exfloliate, I moisturize, I dry my hands after washing them, I wear gloves when I’m outside! And still they’re gross. It looks like I have a rash. Plus it’s painful and itchy.

Fifth, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but I get off from work for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Not because I took vacation time, but because my company shuts down! It’s one of the best parts about working in publishing. Technically we’re open on Christmas Eve but I took off since that’s the only day my family is celebrating. So after December 23, 2009 my next day back in the office is January 4, 2010!!

Sixth, I really, really love my new haircut!

Bad picture (look, you can see the dry skin on my wrist!). Like my pose? I always try to smile and look stupid so I thought I’d just try to look stupid 🙂

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I’m Back!

Sorry for the time in between posts. As I said the other day the World Series went so late on Wednesday that I didn’t have time to post and then things just got wacky. So, here’s the recap…

WEDNESDAY

My roommates went to Urban Rebounding, but I didn’t want to go again because I wasn’t impressed after last week’s class. I didn’t want to run again because I had run two days in a row so I thought I’d do the elliptical. I HATE the elliptical, but then Wednesday morning I found a workout from Carrots ‘n’ Cake for the elliptical. A sign.

I went to the gym to do the workout and I was so disappointed. My heartrate never got over the 140’s and I just didn’t feel satisfied. I did it for 45 minutes and wasn’t happy. I did abs, stretched, and went home. Yesterday, when I was talking to my friend, she asked why I didn’t adjust the resistance. Apparently there are ellipticals where you can adjust the resistance. But, not being an elliptical user, I didn’t realize this. However, the elliptical I used at the gym definitely didn’t have resistance buttons (I pressed a lot of things in trying to figure it out) so I guess I have to investigate.

I had a broccoli pizza for dinner Wednesday night

For some reason it was all soggy 😦 But it still tasted good.

THURSDAY

I wanted to run on Thursday, but I remembered I had told my roommate Amy I’d go to a Punk Rope class with her. Punk Roping is, or I thought it was, jump roping it punk music, but it turned out to be so much more. It was kind of like gym class for adults. We stretched, we did some practice jump rope steps, we jump roped, we played catch, we jumped rope, we did laps around the gym, we jumped rope, we had relay raced, we jumped rope, we did abs, we stretched.

It was really fun! I can’t wait to go back. And it was a great workout without feeling like I wanted to die. I tweaked something in my foot, but I managed to run today so I think it’s ok.

I got a falafel wrap from a takeout place for dinner. It was delicious.

FRIDAY

I had planned to do my Bikini Ready Fast DVD Friday night. But I ended up going shopping with a friend after work and didn’t get home until well after 9pm so I just had some white chocolate peanut butter (I bought more!) on an Arnold Sandwich Thin (not a huge fan of that combo) and went to bed.

SATURDAY

I went to bed so early because I knew I wanted to wake up and run this morning. I didn’t end up getting up until 9am and even then I didn’t leave until 10:30 (it was 40* outside and I was waiting for it to warm up a little). But eventually I put on my winter running clothes

(plus shoes, hat, and contacts instead of glasses) and headed out.

My goal was to do a 10k, only I forgot to see where a 10k ended in the park so then I thought I’d estimate and run at a comfortable place for as far as I could.

I ENDED UP RUNNING 6.7 MILES!!!! WOOOO!!!!!

And I did it in 1:05:39!!

That’s about 9:45 minute miles. I think I rocked it. I couldn’t have been happier. 10k here I come!

I’m a bit sore now, but not like last week. I had the same breakfast I had last week after my long run. Except they actually made my bagel correctly and gave me an everything and not a plain. And I had a quarter of a red Gatorade instead of an OJ.  And a banana.

I’m killing time now before I meet my friend for a burger, fries, and a beer at the Dram Shop. My favorite burger ever. I’ve been waiting for this all week. I couldn’t be more excited.

I’m wearing the new shirt I bought at Banana on Thursday

It took me several tries to get a good picture of my outfit

Plus the other boot, and makeup, and contacts rather than glasses.

I also bought a grey skirt that I think might be too short for me

And I bought this great brown skirt

The best part is that it zippers all the way up (or down ;)) the back

After dinner I’m meeting a different friend for drinks. I haven’t seen him in a while so I’m excited. And my social life has been kind of lame lately so two things in one night is exciting!

Happy Saturday Night!

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