Brie Fit

So!  We spent five days with family and it was kind of hectic.  It was good seeing everyone, but honestly, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that this trip is over.  I was very freaked out about facing the holidays this year and I’m glad it’s over.

We took precious family photos.

…in which Tim is invisible, and everyone’s a little blurry.

We got excellent gifts.  Like amazing LL Bean slippers to keep my feet (and uterus? Yes?) warm.

And the most genius invention known to man.

(Interlocking corn holders!  So YOU ALWAYS HAVE A PAIR.)

And, most importantly…

Seriously, if you like Star Wars at all, you must purchase The Star Wars Holiday Special, and a large bottle of alcohol.  It is the most awesomely bad thing I’ve ever watched.  The plot makes almost no sense, there are random musical numbers featuring the likes of Bea Arthur and Jefferson Starship, and…just…trust me on this one, guys.   

We spent the 23rd through the morning of the 26th with my family in the Chicagoland area, and then flew out to DC to see Timbo’s family.  Most importantly, our not-so-teeny-anymore, walking-all-over-the-place-but-still-totally-squeezable nephew, Henry.

(Henry loves blogging!  And dancing!)

Tim also got a chance to catch up on his reading.

Anyway, it feels amazing to be home, and I can’t wait to get back to CrossFit and reasonably healthy eating. 

Speaking of which, we are having friends over for New Year’s Eve dinner (one is gluten-free), and I need help with my menu.  What do you guys think of…

Apps:

Parmesan crusted goat cheese in basil oil (with GF crackers)
Raw veggies and hummus

Main:

Alton Brown’s salt-crusted beef tenderloin
Roasted red potatoes in a Vesuvio seasoning
Harvest apple and spinach salad
Something else—suggestions?  Stuffed mushrooms?

Dessert:

Peanut butter mousse tart

Considering I have entertained all of…once? I’m a little nervous.  Help!

How was your holiday?  What do you think of my proposed menu?

So.  I’m not normally a scrooge.  And when I was a kid, I actually slept through the fourth of July fireworks on more than one occasion.

But last night, our neighbors were setting fireworks off in front of our house until 2 am.  And my alarm goes off at 6 am for work.  I wish I was kidding. 

So…I was kind of a grumpus this morning.

It didn’t help that I randomly felt like hurling for most of my drive to work.

Suffice it to say—this was not exactly the best day of my life.  Certainly not the worst, but all day I just had that generally annoyed, “are we there yet?” feeling.

Oh, and I remembered that today marks 19 years since my dad died.  While I’m not at a point where I just want to go home and cry anymore, it is kind of a little kick in the gut and brings back a whole lot of memories.

Lunch was a spinach salad,  cantaloupe, carrots n’ hummus, and a slice of challah.

I definitely hit a mid-afternoon slump and had some trail mix.  It did not revitalize me.

After work, I hit the pool for 1000m.  It sounded more relaxing and less taxing than running, but it was still kind of a miserable slog today where I was counting the laps until I was done.  It really is amazing how much sleep impacts the quality of my workouts!

At least I didn’t really have to make dinner, since I did it yesterday.

We had crockpot pulled pork (this recipe is amazing, healthy, easy, and freezes well—seriously a favorite) and corn on the cob.  I will be really sad when sweet corn goes away for the winter.

Now, I am finally relaxing on the couch, looking forward to the new season of Teen Mom and reading The Pillars of the Earth, which I just started but am already obsessed with.   (And cuddling Southie, who was away at the vet all weekend being boarded!  I missed my baby girl.)

Hopefully tonight will be quieter than last!

What is your favorite seasonal summer food?

Easter services are my favorite because you get to exclaim things.  I am a big fan of cheering in unison, and Easter is like one big cheering for Jesus day.  He is risen indeed!

We are regular churchgoers, but there’s just something about Easter services that get me all atwitter.  We’ve found a new church recently that I’m really enjoying.  I wasn’t raised with any kind of church, really, and I feel like lately I’m kind of coming into my own faith lately.  Not, like, literally, but I feel like my relationship with God is growing in a good way.  It’s kind of like running—the more I pray and put my trust in God, the more natural and restorative it feels.

Sorry.  End religious tangent.

We went to 8 am services, then met Tim’s uncle for brunch and some gambling. 

Church to the casino.  That’s how we roll.

The other good news of today was the awesome dinner for two I made.

We started with strawberry spinach salads using this recipe from Annie’s Eats.  You must make this dressing, now.  It’s addictive and about 15 calories/serving!

(I know what I’ll be eating for lunch this week!)

I also brined and roasted a ten pound turkey.  For two people.

It turned out nice and juicy!  I am looking forward to turkey sandwiches for lunch all week long.  Mmmm.

(Yeah, I know ham on Easter is more traditional, but we prefer turkey.  Suck it, tradition!)

I also made mashed potatoes with roasted garlic:

And homemade damn gravy that took for-freaking-ever to thicken:

Plus formerly frozen rolls and steamed asparagus with lemon:

And because we are childless free spirits, a bottle of wine:

(Blurry photo because I was hungry and ready to eat.)

Riesling is really the only sweet wine I like.  I tend to prefer very dry reds, but for some reason, this sounded like it would be nice and refreshing with turkey, and it was.

Dessert tonight will be courtesy of Mr. Cadbury.

I was going to run today, but I tweaked a tendon in my left foot during the Oz Half last weekend and running on it yesterday irritated it a bit again.  So, I rested!  I’m looking forward to getting back in the pool tomorrow.  I spent some time adjusting my new goggles last night (including a new, smaller nosepiece) and I’m excited.  Maybe I’ll test them in the shower tonight.

What is your favorite holiday meal?

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

This was my Valentine from Tim.  We are in money saving mode so there are no roses, chocolates, or cards this year.  And my poor Valentine is in bed with a migraine right now.  Sigh.

Breakfast:

There is no picture of lunch because instead of catching up on Google Reader during my lunch hour, I had to go to a work luncheon thing.  There was the standard sandwich in a box, which I hate with a passion.  Nothing skeeves me out more than deli meat that’s been left out for godknowshowlong in a box.  It was slimy looking and the bread was so stale it disintegrated in my mouth.

I ate half of a turkey sandwich on “artisan” bread (it was puny—seriously, just slimy turkey and a little bit of bread), a small bag of Baked Lay’s (hey, at least they went with baked chips) and maybe a third of a small chocolate chunk cookie (yum).  I’m fairly certain these calorie estimates are way off, because I was still starving, but these things are always an inexact science, right?

Part of the reason I know I was off was because I crashed at about 3 pm and shoved every morsel of food I could find in my face.  That doesn’t happen when I eat lunches that are big enough, calorie-wise.

I ate a banana with PB…

…and a giant navel orange and a tiny Mr. Goodbar.   Hey, if I’m gonna go crazy shoving food in my face, at least it’s (mostly) fruit, right?

I felt kind of sick afterwards.

But…it led to a really good run!  So there’s that.

It was a beautiful 50-ish degrees out after work, so I decided to get in a quick run (had lots to do tonight!) outside on the track.  It was so nice to get outside—even though I do a lot of treadmill running, I suspect the cold winter air and snow and ice have impacted my runs anyway.  I just haven’t been really feeling it lately.

Until tonight!  I KILLED it, if I do say so myself.  I warmed up my first mile at a 9:50 pace.  My second mile clocked in at a 9:30, and my final mile was a speedy 9:09!  For the last mile and a half, I jogged the curves of the track and sprinted the straightaways.  It was fun and really helped break things up nicely.

Also?  You know what I realized tonight, guys?  And this is probably dumb.  But if you pump your arms when you run, like, with purpose, you go faster.  And it propels you forward.  And that discovery alone shaved probably :20 off my mile time alone.  (hangs head in shame.)

Total, including .22 mile cooldown walk.

Our romantic Valentine’s dinner included steak and leftover mac and cheese.

In other V-Day news, I got this from my boss:

Truffle+fudge+brownie?  Yes please.   

And more brownies from my sister.  I love her card.

I’m off to tend to my sick Valentine and pack for my business trip tomorrow.  Fun!

Do you have the winter blues?  How do you shake them?

…from the pets.

Thank you all for your support regarding my non-resolution resolutions!  I feel really good about them and have already worked on a few of them (started a cross-stitch ornament, yelled “shake!” repeatedly at Milhouse, shuffled some cards awkwardly).

We spent New Year’s Eve in indulging in pizza, ice cream, The Wire, and a few games of Gin.  I think when midnight struck, I was upstairs deep-conditioning my hair and scrubbing our bathroom vanity.  Exciting, no, but I love staying home. 

On New Year’s Day, we tackled another project—replacing our old Target bookcase that collapsed.  We ended up at Nebraska Furniture Mart and purchased this bad boy. 

Our old bookcase was solid DVD cases and books and didn’t look very grown-up to me.  For Christmas, I got Tim a zipper case to transfer all the DVDs into, and it looks a million times better.  On the bottom, we have our Wii, XBox, DVD books, and my cookbooks:

And on top, we have the awesome “H” my mom got us for Christmas, a framed engagement photo, our wedding album, a new decorative basket for odds and ends, my recipe chest, and our stereo.

I really think that getting rid of the DVD cases has transformed our living room!  I love it.

Okay, so what I’m about to write is really hard, so bear with me.

Yesterday, my best friend posted this picture of me with little Isabel on Facebook from December 27th:

And…I died a little inside.

Not really.  But I recoiled and went “ewww,” and that is not something I usually do.  I’m not one of those girls that sits around and looks at pictures complaining about how ugly I am.  I have a healthy self-esteem, and I know I am not dangerously obese or horribly ugly.  I loved our engagement and wedding photos.  (Yes, I know I desperately need a haircut and eyebrow wax—I’m going next weekend.)

But I’m obviously heavier than I used to be, and I can’t really hide it anymore.   I don’t want to be holding my own baby in a photo someday soon and grimacing at the pictures.  We can’t try for a baby yet, but I can try to get myself in a better position physically to get pregnant someday right now.

I haven’t weighed myself since last fall, maybe September, when I was up about 17 pounds from my lowest weight ever.  I hated that.  So I stopped getting on the scale.  I ignored my tighter pants and bought a bigger size.  God, how could I have been so naive?  I cringe just thinking about it.

I’ve obviously been exercising all that time, and I’m definitely not out of shape.  I’ve just been eating too much—it’s as simple as that.  I haven’t tracked calories in a long time, and I haven’t weighed or measured, either.’

So, this week I’m setting a goal: track calorie intake every day (and remain in my healthy, target range) and measure my food.  I have a food scale, I know how to use it, I’m just being lazy. 

I’ve pre-measured cereal servings for the morning already:

And various lunch foods as well, so I can grab n’ go (along with other stuff, of course) for my lunch bag.

I’m not going to lie, I haven’t been brave enough to face the scale yet.  Maybe in the morning.  I’m still in denial. 

I know how to lose weight; I’ve done it before.  The last two days haven’t been perfect, but they have been better—I’ve weighed servings, chosen egg whites over leftover pizza, grabbed a clementine instead of a cookie.   I’ve entered what I’ve eaten into Sparkpeople.  I’ve talked about this with Tim, because lord knows I’ll need his support.

Anyway, it is what it is.  I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you, but I’ve never claimed to be perfect here.  Even though I’ve got to lose weight again, I don’t consider myself a failure—I’m a million times more in shape than I was back in 2008, and I’ve changed a lot of other things for the better. 

So, here we go again.

But…I’m not really sure how to handle this on the blog. What do you want to see?  Pictures of everything I eat?  Calorie breakdowns?  Weekly weigh-ins?  What I used to do?  Let me know.

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had lovely Christmases.  We definitely did.

We both worked all day on Wednesday, and then flew out to Chicago late that night.  We stayed at my lovely mom’s house, and then drove three hours to my aunt’s house.

She lives next door to my cousin, so we had about twenty people (and five dogs) staying in two houses!  It’s crazy, but I’d never want to do Christmas any other way.  As you can tell, there was no shortage of gifts!

We spent most of Christmas Eve lounging around the house, wrapping last minute gifts, and shopping for stocking stuffers.  I gave a few piggyback rides, too.

On Christmas Eve night, we open one present.  I was gifted a beautiful tiara to wear during the Disney Princess half marathon from our flower girl, Maddie!  (And my aunt is making a tutu to match, too!)
We stayed up quite late on Christmas Eve drinking various cocktails (both homes have full stocked bars, as you can see in the background!)  I’m not usually a big drinker, but I probably had 4 or so drinks that night and was definitely feeling it. 

My uncle’s basement also hosts a collection of 800+ Christmas candles.  He’s going for the Guinness record when he gets over 1,000!  You can read about it here. 

Anyway, stockings were stuffed, and we woke up on Christmas morning, opened stockings, had breakfast tacos, and got started on gifts.

I got lots of great gifts that were total surprises, including this awesome framed print from my dear alma mater.  (Tim got one to match!)

I cleaned up quite well this year…I can’t think of everything, but I got an iPhone charger for my car, really nice new earbuds, spatulas, silicone baking mats, a microplane grater, a few cookbooks, and lots of giftcards for Ulta and Sephora.

And, most importantly, blog readers, thank Tim for replacing my camera that broke in June, thus necessitating photo-less or iPhone photo posts the last six months.  Hooray!

Another fun surprise was this giant iron H from my mom.  I really love it and kind of want to start collecting Hs around the house now!

And, of course, Tim got me another ridiculous calendar for my office.  I had one last year and it makes me smile whenever I look at it, so I don’t really care if I look like kind of a nitwit.

We drove back to my mom’s house on the 26th, and on the 27th we were lucky enough to meet my best friend’s new baby Isabel.  She’s an absolute angel…slept the whole time we were there, let us hold her without making a peep, and has perfect little peach fuzz hair.  She even farted while I was holding  her and it was still cute! 

We flew out from Midway this morning, which was quite eventful.  Alarm was set for 3:30, we were at the airport by 4:45 for a 6:00 flight and were stuck in such long lines only made our flights by sprinting across the terminal in stocking feet.  (I gave myself an asthma attack.  It was intense.)

Now we’re home, mostly unpacked, and I’m playing with my new camera.

(Milhouse got a new Mizzou collar for Christmas.)

   I love it!

Anyway, it’s back to work (and the gym—I’ve been a total slug the last week) tomorrow.  I work Wednesday and Thursday, and have Friday off.  Tim and I are planning on spending a quiet night in for New Year’s Eve—just us, a fun dinner (taking suggestions!), and The Wire on DVD.  We’re getting old!

What was your favorite holiday gift this year?

(Not really our actual Christmas card.)

(Also, we were pretty drunk at this point.)

(Recap later.)

How about a vintage holiday photo to get the week started out right?

Me and Alf.  I loved that show.

So, I was MIA all weekend, as usual, doing all kinds of holiday things.  Highlights include…

Friday: Ran a strong 4.5 miles after work, then baked the most incredible chocolate bundt cake ever for a holiday party.  (Throw some crushed peppermints on it to make it EXTRA festive!)  Run and bake, yo.  That’s how I roll.

Saturday: Grocery store, last minute Christmas shopping, Christmas party with Tim’s family where I bring said bundt cake.  Holiday merriment ensues, including discovering a wonderful Christmas song that involves Toto’s Africa.  Win.

Sunday: Clean house, watch The Wire (seriously, fantastic show, Netflix it NOW.  And pay attention!), chill.

Today it was back to work.  It’s absolutely dead.  And that’s okay with me!

After work, I ran a reasonably-paced, strong 5 miles.

I keep kind of forgetting I’m running a half marathon at the end of February, and I’m okay with that.  I keep going, “Yeaaaah, I’ll make a training plan one of these days” and then I don’t.  I’ve done the serious training plan thing, and they kind of make me hate running.  So, I’m going to do a loose training thing for this race.  Here’s my “this is not a training plan” training plan:

• Run 2-3 times a week.
• Make my long run longer each week.   I did 5 miles this week, will do 6 next week.
• Cross-train once a week.  Elliptical, rowing, biking, my friend’s fun Crossfit workouts.
• Weight train twice a week.  I feel infinitely stronger and better about my body when I’m lifting. 
• Stretch.  Like, for real.  Don’t skip.

The name of the game is “well-rounded.”  I’ve done the “run 4 times a week and do nothing else” thing, so now we’ll see how this goes.  Should be fun!

Anyway, Shelby tagged me today, so here goes.

1. Vacation: beach or mountains?

Beach.  I don’t have the constitution for camping.  Being allergic to trees and grass tends to be a problem.  I’m not actually a giant beach fan, either, as I tend to burn easily and don’t like getting sand in my crotch, so my ideal vacation is probably something like Napa…lots of delicious food and wine and shopping, relaxed pace, et cetera.

2. Luggage: check it or carry it on?

You guys, I feel very emphatic about this.  CHECK THAT SHIT.  I exclusively fly Southwest, which has a wonderful “check two bags free” policy.  I loathe hauling bags around the airport into the frigging bathroom stall with me, and shoving them into tiny crevasses on crowded planes.  Check it and forget about it.  Even if I’m flying on a quickie overnight trip with a tiny bag, I check it.  Seriously, it doesn’t wind up taking all that long, and makes airport wandering much more fun.

3. Bed: make it or leave it a rumpled comfy mess?

Somewhere in between.  In our house, we tend to pull the comforter up enough so the cats don’t get hair all over the sheets every morning, and that’s about it.

4. Races: smaller or bigger?

Bigger.  I like nice t-shirts, swag, tons of aid stations and fans.

5. Toilet paper roll: over or under?

I’m fine with either.

6. Pancakes: thick and fluffy or thin and crepe-like?

Thick and fluffy!  With chocolate chips.

7. Alarm: get up or hit snooze?

This is the #1 worst habit Tim has gotten me into.  I used to hop out of bed as soon as the alarm went off, but he’s a snoozer.  And now I’m a snoozer.  Our alarm goes off at 6:05 am every day…and I don’t  get out of bed until at least 6:30.  It’s bad news.

Please leave your responses to 1-7 in the comments!

I’m back from a country Thanksgiving!

We left right after work on Wednesday and made it home earlier today.  We went to stay with Tim’s parents for the holiday, just the four of us.  I didn’t take any pictures, but it was a lovely few days.  They live in the middle of nowhere (by my standards, anyway) and it’s always so peaceful and quiet to go visit them and unplug for a few days.

We ate copious amounts of turkey, various casseroles, and pie, saw the new Harry Potter movie together, and watched lots of football.

And we became an aunt and uncle again (sort of).

My best friend’s baby, Isabel Lynn, was born on Black Friday evening.  (I guess she was kind of in our wedding, in utero!)  I’ve already shopped like crazy for adorable baby girl things on Etsy, and trust me, the ovaries are aching.  Bad.  We are so, so happy she’s here! 

Now we’re back at home, and our very first Christmas tree is up, and I’ve already addressed most of our cards. 

And Milhouse is excited to be reunited with his lover.

I’m looking forward to getting back to the gym regularly starting this week—with all the travel and holiday hustle and bustle, I’ve missed regular sweating.

I hope you all had a good one!

Do you decorate for the holidays?  Any special traditions you’re getting ready for??

Happy Halloween, everyone!

We started the day with church.  As much as I loathe getting up early on Sundays, I usually enjoy church once we’re there.   (Subtext: thank you, Tim, for dragging my ass out of bed.)

Since I work Saturday this week and next (and then get one full weekend, and then another half-weekend), I decided to do a little shopping to bolster my fall/winter work wardrobe.  When I first got a job last fall, I raided the Ann Taylor outlet and got tons of stuff for dirt cheap…but now it’s all falling apart.  Sad.

I wound up with 2 cardigans ($15 each, and they seem pretty substantial!) from Old Navy, and a camisole and necklace from Loft.  Hooray!

Then I spent the rest of the morning running various errands (and NOT cleaning my house, like I told myself I would.  Ugh).

Around 3:30, I got home and thought, “Man, I wish I’d had time for a run today.”  And then I realized I was being an idiot, because 3:30 is perfectly acceptable running time.

And then I performed the greatest multitask of my life.

I really, really hate getting my oil changed.  I know it’s necessary, but it always feels like I’m flushing my money down the toilet because I don’t GET anything out of it!   The waiting rooms are always boring and dirty and smell like gas (both human and car varieties).

So, I dropped my car off.

And then I investigated the brand new trail (okay, paved path, but whatever) that runs right by the oil change place.

Literally, this trail came out of nowhere…conveniently, AFTER my marathon.  It’s not exactly scenic, but it’s safe, paved, well-lit, and in an area where I don’t feel isolated.  Score!  It’s super hilly, but fun.  I’ll definitely go back in the future.

I ran a mile and a half out and then back again.   My goal today was to run for fun.  Honestly, the idea of running hasn’t appealed to me much in the last few weeks.  I’ve been enjoying other forms of exercise and focusing on work, which has been nice.  I think I achieved my goal—I saw lots of fall leaves, enjoyed the cool weather, and generally had a great time!

And by the time I was finished, my car was ready and all I had to do was pay.  Perfect!

Unfortunately, the tendon in my foot that was bothering me post-marathon is a bit achy tonight.  Boo.  Also, I took off my toenail polish to realize that my right big toenail (which felt bruised after the marathon, but looked normal) is dangerously purpley-black and will probably continue to blacken and fall off again.  Double boo.

We’ve had a steady stream of trick-or treaters all night and about half of our candy is gone—and all the kids were polite, said thank you, and were in costume!

Anyway, I’m off.  I’m baking a French Silk Pie from scratch in honor of Hangry Pants Macaron Monday!

Do you believe in giving out healthy treats on Thanksgiving or do you espouse the “it’s a holiday, enjoy it” view?