Yes, I didn't blog last week. Or the week before.....

I started this post last Sunday after a week of not blogging. I had most of it done and thought I'd finish the last little bit at work before things got busy. Then -ish got crazy and my computer was down most of the morning while I was giving my hard drive put back in my laptop that just came back from being repaired. Then it needed 8000 updates and my day was shot.

So, what happened the weekend before last?

Well, it was sorority recruitment at NC State and I was at the house Saturday, Sunday. Tuesday and Wednesday. I knew I'd be there for a few hours every day, on top of all of my regular work things. It was all worth it though, the chapter welcomed 54 brand new members on Weds!

They get younger and younger every year...

The theme was "Welcome to the Jungle" and every thing was animal print and super adorable. When I was in school, Welcome to the Jungle had a completely different meaning... I'm really kinda bummed that they don't play any GnR. I'm really not sure they'd know what I was talking about if  I asked them to.

They had some adorable cookies though.

Yea, All weekend and almost every day that week put a bit of a kink in my blogging plans. And now my internet connection is being wonky. This is super annoying. OK, on to the desktop where all the internets work.

Oh please Google Fiber. Please be soon, and thank you for the shirt. Everyone here is super excited to have you. Really, it's like waiting for Santa. 

OK, that weekend I went out with Fleet Feet and ran 9 miles. Except it wasn't 9 miles, it was closer to 8.67 which made me a little ragey. I mean really, I was mentally prepared to run 9 miles and I didn't and it was an odd number and by the time we finished I was so annoyed with the people in the group, I just wanted to leave.

I have never been so annoyed with a run club before. There were women in the group who were raging bi***es. I was so annoyed I wrote an email to the coordinator. It started with one of the ladies yelling at the mentors because she didn't cross the street soon enough. (They were getting their routes coordinated) then they were running much faster than the rest and kept catching up to the 12-13 min group and passing them. Then we'd walk and they passed us. When they passed us they complained because we were downtown Raleigh and the sidewalks are narrow. Then further into the run, a different lady yelled at the mentor for not crossing the street fast enough. Ugh, I thought run clubs were supposed to be places were everyone builds each other up instead of being ass hats. 

For me it was a really crappy run. The people in the groups started out really fast and I was trying to keep up. By 5 miles I was dead and still had 4 to go. 

Since I was downtown I knew that there were some delicious carbs in by future. I'd been following Boulted Bread on Instagram for a while and knew it had to stop.

I got this amazing bialy that had ham and cheese and awesome inside. I also got a morning bun that didn't get a a picture taken because I ate it too quickly. I swear to you, it was one of the top 5 best things I've ever eaten in my life. Sweet heaven it was good. I got Kev a croissant and a loaf of some sourdough bread. I cried happy carby tears, so good. If you're local, you MUST go. 

The rest of the day was spent on the couch, after I got a mani and pedi. Word of advice from Lara, when your feet are battered from running 9 miles, a pedicure seems like a great idea but it really isn't. I think the lady got a little freaked put when grimaced and screamed a little every time she touched my feet. 

Oh, Saturday night Kev and I headed to Raleigh Little Theatre and saw Spamalot. I've seen the Holy Grail movie several times and was pretty excited to see the show.

Hysterical. It was awesome and the cast did a great job. I definite must see.

And that was my weekend before last. Phew. At least I finished this blog post, so yay me!

Alright folks, have a great week!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!AND

I ate ALLLL the Carbs. Part 1

Who missed me? I know you did. It's more like my mom and 7 other followers are wondering when I'm going to start posting again.

So, Kev and I are back from our tour-de-North, also known as "I ate all the carbs and now I have to detox for a week". They keep some dang tasty carbs up there and let me tell you, I tried them all. I also had a stomach ache most of the time because most delicious things have shortening and soy in them. I'll be honest and you know this if you follow me on Instagram, there are a LOT of pictures of food. And I'm going to show you all of them. You're welcome.

We took off Monday morning and headed to Long Island. It's far. There are a lot of tolls. Remind me not to complain about the .37 cent toll that I occasionally have to pay when I go to Cary. It's like $20 to have the privilege of going through Delaware. Seriously Delaware? I know you don't have much to offer in the way of tourist attractions (Rehoboth is nice though) but taking my $20 makes me far less likely to spend longer than an hour in you.

Kev was in charge of looking for road food and he discovered a cute farm stand / chicken / corn store in Maryland.

 Don't ask me the name because I forgot but LOOOOOOKKK at the pumpkins!!

I ordered a ham, cheese and fried onion sandwich which was hot and pressed on a pretzel bun. I don't really get the recent obsession with pretzel buns, they're nice but haven't changed my life. Foreshadow - I DID eat a food on this trip that changed my life.

It came with mustard dippy sauce.

Then we drove and drove and drove in the drizzling rain through Delaware (damn you Delaware), Jersey and New York until we finally got to out friend's house. By the time we got there we were starving and ended up ordering pizza.

It was pretty tasty and at that point I wanted to eat my face. The thing about Northern pizza vs Southern is the sauce (and bread and cheese) but there's something really special and different about the sauce. This is the right sauce. I can get the right sauce in Pittsburgh too.

The next morning we took the train into the city but of course before heading in, we needed to stop at the bagel store for some breakfast.

This is what I think heaven looks like.

I went with the bacon egg and cheese on a sesame bagel. I was able to make it through about half of the sandwich. Then I was sad because I was full and had to stop eating.

 Mmmmm fluffy bagel carbs.

That day we were pretty tired as we walked though the city. 13 hours in the car and several looooong weeks makes for some pretty sleepy people. We stumbled around for a few hours and decided to hit up one of the places on our bucket list, Katz's Deli. Katz's is known for their pastrami, we had a debate over roast beef vs pastrami and went with the pastrami. It's made in house and is unbelievable.

Those pickles? I die.

After a little rest, it was time to meet back up with our friends and headed to Peter Luger. It's seriously one of the best steak houses in the country and as you can see, one of Kev's very most favorite places.

Peter Luger is an old school steak house, complete with wood paneling and grumpy waiters. You pay cash, don't look at the menu and for the love of all that's holy, don't order a well done steak. They'll sneer at you and grumble. Besides, if you want well done steak it means you don't like steak and that's OK. Just get some chicken, at another restaurant.

We started with a round of bacon. Because that's what you do at Luger's, have a meat appetizer before the rest of the meat comes out.

There were five of us and we ordered steak for five, rare. God bless rare meat eating friends. 

That's steak for 3, there was a steak for 2 in front of me. Porterhouse deliciousness covered in butter. They bring out the steak, serve your pieces and spoon butter juices over it. Sweet heaven. I can really only eat about 3 of those pieces but that just means more for Kev and our friends and not a morsel remained.

We were thinking about dessert and saw there were "seasonal pies" on the menu. We asked fantastically old grumpy waiter which pies they had and he said, "NONE, you have the cheesecake." Yes sir.

Cheesecake and schlag. Schlag is their homemade whipped cream which they bring out in a 14 inch bowl and slap on your cake.

At the end of the meal he thew down some gold chocolate coins because that's what you do there.

Everything was amazing and the company was fantastic and it's ridiculously expensive and worth every penny. When you don't get there that often, you do it up right. Surprisingly for us, that was the only big dinner we had the entire trip, might as well make it a good one.

Weds morning we woke up and headed to a real diner for breakfast. I always tend to get eggs, a meat and dry toast. This was the size of a small child. 

This time we drove into the city and I let Kev show off his city driving skills. I was pretty pleased to see that neither of us had lost our moderately aggressive northern-driving abilities. 

The one place I wanted to stop this trip was the Diamond District. It's my happy place. Let me tell you, I love the Diamond District. As a sales person, I love a good haggle and great deal. If I can haggle my way to a better price, sign me up. Kev is the king of the hagglers, it's really one of his favorite things.

I was in the market for a larger pearl earring. Just a single pearl, no diamonds or accents. It had been a few years since we'd been to the district and I was really surprised at how much the feel had changed. There were a lot of shops that had closed and several of the kiosks weren't nearly as aggressive as they used to be. I expect to have someone try and hard sell me and they really didn't. Some people barely even looked up when we stopped by. Strange....

We ended up at Golda Jewelry and they did something no one else did. They built rapport. I was really impressed with their techniques. We came in, told them what we were looking for and sat down. The owner sent his guy to another location where he kept the pearls. While we waited, the owner chatted with us, gave us liquor and told us a story.

He came back with the pearls and we asked for a price to drill and set 14k gold posts. He quoted us something very reasonable and we said yes. I asked Kev why he didn't haggle and he said "I liked that guy, he told me a story and gave me booze." It's actually a really good sales lesson. Those 12 minutes of rapport was the difference between the sale and no sale.

We had to have them shipped because they wouldn't be ready before we had to leave. So pretty and I can't wait for them to get here!

All too soon it was time to leave the city and head to Jersey!

Bye Times Square! Next time we won't wait as long before coming back!

Have you been to New York City? What do you think?

Ever ben to the Diamond District?

Linky Linky with these awesome ladies!

Starting Over

As you know, three years ago, I lost 50 pounds following the Jenny Craig diet. It worked well for me and I saw results that I hadn't been able to achieve with other programs in the past. I've been able to maintain it (for the most part) since then.

In February of 2013, I was laid off from my job, thankfully I was able to find a new position in 4 months, but unfortunately, my eating suffered. The next thing I knew, I gained back about 12 pounds. I tried a few different things over the last year but those 12 pounds have stubbornly held on.

I do want to put out a disclaimer that I don't weigh myself anymore. The scale makes me crazy and I refuse to let a piece of metal dictate how I feel about myself. Instead I evaluate how my clothes fit. I know how they fit at my lowest and I know the weight I was when I bought most of them.

I've decided to change things up and try a new approach. I've read a lot about people counting their macros and using the IIFYM method (If it fits your macros). The idea is that there are 3 macro nutrients, carbs, protein and fat. Based on your activity level, age, and body fat you calculate the number of calories and the macro break down you need to lose weight.

I went to IIFYM.com to calculate what I need to eat.

I entered my age, height and weight, my level of exercise and my body fat. I guessed on my body fat the first time I did the calculation, then on Saturday when I went to the gym I asked to use their body fat calculator machine. Annnnd it was 32%. According to the site, I need to eat 1708 calories today to lose weight, 2135 to maintain and 2349 and up will cause me to gain weight.

I chose the IIFYM plan and opted for one of the highest protein and fat options. Reason being, I know that I have pretty results when I keep the carbs a little lower. You could go with less fat and get more carbs, it just depends on what works for you, as long as you meet your macro distribution.

It then spits out your results. Based on what I chose, I need to eat 87.4 grams of carbs, 144.5 protein and 86.7 fats while keeping my fiber between 34 - 43 grams.

A few key points to remember, you can't eat any calorie you've burned through exercise. The calculation already accounts for that. Also, if you're familiar with a low carb diet, you know that many people subtract the fiber from the carb counts. That doesn't work here. A carb is a carb. When Kev was helping me set my guidelines, he was used to to low carb rules, so we needed to up it a little.

I also went out and bought a new food scale and a measuring tape and I'm using myfitnesspal app to track my food. There's a a code that you can run on your PC that adapts the website to allow you to customize the macro percentages on the page and when you save the updates, it translates to the food app.

Here are my measurements as of 7/12/14:
Waist - 35
Hips - 42.2
Arm - 13
Thigh - 24.25
Body Fat - 32%

Me after a sweaty Body Pump class for the starting pictures.

Time to get started!

Have you ever counted macros?

How do you track your food?


Monday Link up!