day three and a half

The plan was to make it to the gym today, but John and I were having too much fun planting strawberries and picking out paint for the living room and kitchen (yay for no more mauve!!!). He also built a new shelf for our shoes, and I got to talk with Kelley for two hours. Definitely a day well spent, but we’ll have to hit the gym tomorrow to make my goal of 3 days each week. Wish me luck!

PS - Thanks Cassie for the Curried Spinach and Lentil recipe. I'm gonna give it a shot tomorrow.

Goal: 3 days a week

Today's workout was less fulfilling than Tuesday's. I forgot to charge my mp3 player, so it died before the end of the first song. I tried to stay positive and borrow John's music, but Third Day just doesn't get my feet moving. I thought I could distract myself from the fact that I was speed walking with less enthusiasm than a geriatric patient, but the Forensic File on T.V. was an old episode. John and I pushed thru to 2 miles, but neither of us was particularly enthused, so we called it quits and came home. Better luck this weekend.

Made it!

I tried to compete with the weenies running next to me tonight, but the guy on my left only ran a warm up mile before taking off, and I got bored waiting for the girl on my right to find the acceleration button. I had to take matters into my own hands. I turned up the tunes and started running. Made it about half a mile before my throat was too sore from the lingering bronchitis, so I only ran one of my three miles. Guess that's a decent enough start.

4 friends, 6 days, and 30 glorious miles

As with so many of my best intentioned plans, I started this blog and went on vacation…literally. Just days after my first post, John and I packed up and headed to Washington, D.C. where we spent 6 lovely days sightseeing, visiting old friends, and recovering from the hustle and bustle of every day life. We also walked… a lot. We had planned many trips from one end of the DC metropolitan area to the other, so John wore one of those cheesy pedometer things all week to clock our mileage. I'll get photos on Facebook soon, but I am proud to announce that we clocked 30 miles that week!!!

Surprisingly, John and I also ate pretty well on vacation. The hotel had a continental breakfast with fruit, yogurt, and eggs every morning, and we had a little kitchenette in our room, so we stocked up with a week’s worth of groceries and avoided eating out. Naturally, the time we spent with friends was another story…

On our first night in the city, Claire met us at the hotel, and we walked to Chinatown for fresh cut fries and one of the best hamburgers I have had in a VERY long time. While I broke my no fries rule within the first hour of landing in the city, the food and the company were well worth it, and I like to believe that our 2 mile walk back to the hotel at least worked off the spuds (which were from Idaho).

The next night was my birthday, and Claire introduced us to a cute little restaurant at the back of a bookstore called…Afterwords (get it?). We enjoyed fresh key lime pie, chocolate mousse cake with raspberry topping, and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It was heavenly!

In fact, Afterwords was so good, John and I went back the next night with Emma. After spending the day together, we ended up at the Darlington House for dinner. My garganelli with artichoke and shrimp was delicious, but the Death by Chocolate cake was calling my name from across the street! Of course, my fabulous husband contributed to my lack of self-control and ordered a second double chocolate dessert…they were both well worth the calories!

Inspired to greatness...nervous to fail

This blog is inspired by the following:

• 70 days into the Live Healthy America 100 day challenge, I "found" 5 lbs.
• I don't remember what "the regulars" look like at Fitness 19.
• If Julie Powell made it thru 536 recipes in 365 days and lived to write about it (http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/), I can manage to plan a two week menu with healthy alternatives to the crap I've been inhaling over the last year and a half (feel free to submit some of your favorite recipes).

So I'm putting my goals out there for all my friends to see - pass or fail, win or lose. Here goes nothing...

1. 3 trips to the gym each week (300 calories/workout)
2. 3 months to lose 25 lbs (end of June)
3. 3.1 miles to run by September for the Disneyland Family Fun Run 5k(http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/events/disneyland-half-marathon/)