Scenes from the Weekend

Yes, yes it really is Monday already. Oy. I think I need more 3 day weekends. More and more and more. I'm just trying to stay focused until the end of August when Kev and I have our anniversary trip planned. Just gotta stay focused....

On to the weekend! for weeks I've wanted to see the new Ghostbusters movie. Yes, I'm a child of the 80s and as a kid when the first one came out and like many, I was a little miffed to hear that they were making a new one. But I saw the trailer and it didn't look bad. Kev was absolutely against it. He had NO desire to go. But I wore him down when I saw that it had gotten a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. We went on Friday and you know what???

IT WAS GOOD! I'm picky about movies and if it was crap, even a little crap, I'd tell you. But it wasn't. It was really good and it made me happy. I don't know why, but it just made me happy and that gives it a thumbs up in my book.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and I headed off for my weigh in (it went well). A little grocery shopping for fruit and veggies then home for breakfast. After breakfast I went to Body Pump class.

I've mentioned it before that there's a really annoying guy in class who likes to yell at people and talk over the instructor and today, the instructor finally got fed up and totally called him out. 

Annoying Guy - Yelling something at someone across the room while the instructor is talking

Instructor -  You want me to get you a microphone so you won't have to shout over me? 

Annoying Guy - Yea, I need a microphone

Instructor - If we go head to head to see who can be heard, you won't win, believe me, you won't win.

I was DYING and might have laughed out loud. Every week that guy is annoying AF and I'm glad someone called him out.

After I got home and showered, I went for a much needed pedicure. I'd brought my iPad to read a book while I had my toes done but instead this happened.

Sitting in the pedi chair, there were 5 Poke stops, 3 with attractors (apparently my terminology is wrong, these were "lures" but you get the picture) . I sat there and caught pokemon the entire time. #noshamehere.

I was pretty hungry afterwards and I still needed to run to Trader Joe's and the grocery store. I was in Lafayette Village and there's a hot dog shop that opened not that long ago. I have a secret love for hit dogs and all things considered, they aren't that bad of an option.

I knew JoCa's Gourmet Dogs was going to be good when they asked how I wanted my dog cooked. Boiled in water, grilled with a little char or split and grilled with butter on the flat top. 

Char please! With chipped onions, relish and a little bit of mustard (I took off most of the relish). For lunch, it's not that bad of an option. No fires or chips and it kept me full for a while. No veggies with lunch but it was still tasty. 

After I got home from my errands, I sat for a bit before we headed off to dinner. Our reservations were at 715 but we left early and went to Best Buy to look at TVs. We've had ours for a while and it was starting to get these little white spots on the screen. We found out the TV was recalled for this issue several years ago and we didn't know. Since it was WAY too late, we started pricing some newer models and yea, we ended up getting a new one that was bigger, better quality, and a lot less expensive than what we spent on the old one 7 years ago. 

Dinner was at Buku and they;re known for "Global Street Food" it had been a while since we'd been there and I'd been wanting to go back for a while. It was just as good as I remembered. They have a lot of Small Plates, Big Plates and Bowls. 

Kev had a bunch of small plates and I took a few bites. We had the Indian Naan, the Chinese Steamed Buns, which kinda looked like bun tacos with seasoned pork belly inside and they were stupid good, and the Buku Roll

Spicy Tuna on top, avacodo and crab inside.

Kev ate most of the Small plates and I had the Korean Bibimap

Grilled hangar steak, bok choy. roasted carrots, spicy pickled cucumber, kimchi, steamed rice, egg and a spicy BBQ sauce.

The waiter told mt that it was meant to be all mixed up in one big pile. I looked at him in horror. DO YOU SEE THE PERFECTLY SEPARATED PILES OF FOOD??? Mix it all up, have you lost your mind?!?! I finished probably about 1/3 of it and it was fantastic. Really, so good. 

Kev ate some of mine and then he went with the Apple Tart.

Nom.

It was raining like CRAZY the entire time we were there and it just kept getting worse. When we drove though Downtown Raleigh it wasn't too bad.

Even though Krispy Kreme only had Doug for sale.

When we got off out exit, the flooding by the mall was insane! The stretch we had to drive until we started going uphill was really bad. I'm glad we had Kev's CRV instead of my car.

That's the parking lot at the mall! (Not my picture)

Sunday was a late morning. Sleeping in is glorious. I finally got up and made myself some JC Breakfast Scramble.

Sunday is the usual. Laundry, then I went to the gym and ran 2 miles on the treadmill before going to Body Flow.

On my way home from the gym I stopped at the movie theater to pre-buy our Star Trek tickets. Kev is a huge Trekkie and we were going to the Thursday night advanced screening at 730pm. 

Now a little blogging and more damn laundry. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!, Still Being Molly   AND

Five on Friday - Nordstrom Anniversary Sale!

OMG Lara, really, you too? Every last Blogger on the planet just posted their Nordstrom Anniversary Sales picks. It's the only thing on my feed for the last day and a half. 

Yep, me too.

Here's why. I never really understood/cared about Nordstrom until I saw everyone start posting about the sale last year. I came in late to the game and even though a lot of it was picked over, there were still some amazing deals to be had. Each year Nordstrom opens their sale early to their card holders and what makes them different is that the anniversary sale isn't full of crap that didn't sell all year. .

Nope, there's plenty of items perfect for summer but even more that will be great for cooler weather. AND they discount designers that never go on sale. Hunter Boots, Tory Burch bags and shoes, Rag and Bone booties, there's some great deals if you were saving for something special. 

So, remember when this blog used to have a fashion component? Well, let's bring a little of that back today. I haven't really been shopping because shopping while losing weight isn't the brightest idea. I have a lot of pounds to go and I have plenty of sizes in my closet. (I say this as I post about the sale) Instead I was looking for items that were right on the edge of fitting and would still look good as I lost weight or even be a little oversized when I get to my goal. 

Let's be honest, it's almost time for fall. I "know" it's only the middle of July, but PSL will be here at the end of August, school supplies are out, college starts back up in like 4 weeks. Yes, the sorority I advise comes back on the 8th of August for spirit week, classes start the week after, recruitment is around the corner, football is starting back up. Shit, we all need a jacket.

So, here are 5 of my top picks for the Anniversary Sale. Some of these may or may not already be on their way to me.... 

Caslon Draped Utility Jacket

When I saw this in the catalog, I knew it was something I "had" to try on. It comes in olive, black and this one which they're calling Grey Ebony. I searched all last fall for a nice draped front jacket and never found one I loved. Honestly, for the fall, I love me a nice jacket. They're great for layering, especially for cold offices. I swear, every day at 4pm the winds of the tundra start blowing in my office.

Zella High Waisted Crop Leggings 

I love a good pair of crop leggings for the gym, it's all I ever wear. I can't do full length or ankle pants unless I'm running outside in the cold. Give me a crop any day and these have a little mesh, which I'm totally in to right now. I ordered the large which fits a 10-12. Even at goal I expect to be a pretty solid 8 and maybe a 6 here or there, and these will be fine, I'll never lose enough booty for gym pants to fall off. 

Barefoot Dreams Drape Front Cardigan

AKA, the Blardigan. 

WTF is a Blardigan Lara? Well folks, it's a cardigan that feels like a ridiculously soft blanket. It's warm and cozy and you'll want to wear it all the time. These sold out like crazy last year and I see that the all grey one is already sold out. Which amazes me because THIS ONE IS GORGEOUS. Oh my pretty, that Nordstrom gift card I have is going towards you. I got the small/Medium which fits a 2-10.

BP Stripe Long Sleeve Tunic Tee

It's a striped shirt and like a fat kid in a candy shop, I'm unable to control myself around one. I did order the large, and depending on the fit, it might go back for the medium. It's junior sized though, so we'll see. 

I also love Nordstrom for their free shipping. Order off the website, free shipping and if I don't like it or want a different size, I just return it to the store. If  the replacement is in the store, great, if not, get it online.

Kendra Scott Rae Necklace

I have a slight obsession with Kendra Scott and might spend more time than I should at their store in Durham, but this, this necklace I love. I have a deep love of the Rayne necklace with the tassel but the Rae is just as pretty. The color combos they have on sale are perfect for the summer and fall. This gunmetal and abalone are amazing together and the gold and pyrite? 

I die. 

Happy Shopping folks!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

Weekend Recap!

Hey everyone, I'm still trying to figure out the weigh-in posts vs the weekend ones. If I did my weigh-ins on Wednesdays or something that rhymed, it would make this all a lot easier.

Friday night, me and all the cool kids went to the gym. I needed to get a run in to help combat the Thursday's indiscretions and the pie tastings of day. For the pie-bake off I made a blueberry sour cream pie and and a cream pie with meringue on top. I'd never made a cream pie before so I had to cut in and make sure it set properly. (It did)

I called Kevin before I left and asked him if he'd heard of the new Pokemon Go game. He had not, I explained it, and a few minutes later, I got this picture.

Apparently the other variations of Poke Your Mom were already taken.

Everyone at work was playing and I downloaded the game and yea, a lot of Pokemon searching happened this weekend. 

I got up Saturday morning and went to my 8am Jenny Craig appointment. Every week Kev asks me why I don't let myself sleep in, and every week I figure that it's better to get up and get it over with before the day starts. I wake up, get ready, they to go to the bathroom as many times as possible (you know you do too), don't eat or drink anything and drive to the center. 

I texted Kevin the results of my weigh-in and he asked me to get a bagel sandwich.

I found this bat thing in there. And so it began...

Just like most Saturdays, I headed to 1010 Body Pump class after having my breakfast. Thankfully this week I didn't hurt myself. Don't ask how, but last week I dropped a weight on my right boob. Just don't ask...

It was a good class, the really, really annoying old dude wasn't there this week. He always complains that people don't say hi to him and he argues with the instructor. A pure gem that fellow is.

I went home and showered, had my afternoon snack and soon it was time for Kev and I to head to pool. It wasn't oppressively hot Saturday, which was nice.

But first, we stopped, well, I stopped to get lunch and bring it to the pool. 

I'm really not a big fan of the pool, but Kev wanted to go and we had a lovely time. I got a little bit of sun and got sweaty again. I listened to a podcast and it was lovely. 

After the pool, we sat around a while before heading to dinner. We again went to Vin Rouge in Durham. Vin Roue is always a favorite of mine, but we don't make it to Durham all that often. But for some reason, over the last 11 weeks of weigh-ins, we've been there 3 times. I mean, I'm not complaining, I eat the same thing every time and I love it.

Steak Tartare, Frites and a Cosmo. Note Kev's dish of cheesy potatoes.

It was a really nice night and Kev wanted to go take a walk down 9th street in Durham and look for dessert. Let me tell you, there are all sorts of Pokestops on 9th Street. We might have caught a few Pokemon after dinner.

Kev wasn't thrilled with any of the choices, so we headed downtown Durham to Revolution instead. I haven't been there in a few years and I seem to recall there being a lot more people there on a Saturday night. This night, not so much. It was kinda sad. At least Kev's apple tart was good.

I had a tea and caught a Weedle on the table.

After dessert, we wandered around looking for more Pokemon. Before you laugh, we saw at least 7 other people doing the same thing. 

Sunday morning dawned bright and early, and I did my usual thing of laundry, cleaning the kitchen, eating my JC Breakfast Scramble and getting groceries. 

After I got back from getting groceries, I went to the gym. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill and then I went to Body Flow for some yoga.

I got home, showered and now it's time to do some blogging. A pretty uneventful Sunday. Nice and peaceful.

Kevin is watching Ocean's 12 and they keep talking about the master thief, Lamarque I've been singing along Les Mis style for the last 30 minutes. Thankfully Kev loves me.

Lamarque is ill and fading fast

won't leas the week out, so they say

with all the anger in the land, how long before the judgement day?

He finished the lyrics.

Have you downloaded the Pokemon Go app yet??

Weekly Weigh-In Recap #11

For real, this is week 11. I counted and double counted and counted again and this, yes, this is week #11. Here's what happens. I Weigh-in, have my consultation and while she's getting the food, I make the image on an the VanillaPen App. But she's fast and I get distracted and then I f-up my images. I should just wait until I get into the car, but nooooo, I have to do it right then, because I'm impatient.

Anywho, after losing 1 pound in 2 weeks, I was super excited to see -2.4 on the scale! Hooooray! And, since I can't add, that's -18.4. OR just -4.1 to halfway of my original goal but really, it's -10.6 to my revised goal. I was a little nervous because I did some baking (and tasting) for a poker game Kev had at the house and a pie bake-off at work Friday. I can't control myself around a batter bowl. 

 My consultant was really happy for me, and she said she wanted to bottle my attitude and give it to some of her other people. That I almost make it look easy.
Damn
Losing weight and being on a plan is never easy. But neither is being overweight and unhappy with yourself. I've tried and tried a multitude of plans over the years and Jenny is the one thing that consistently works for me. If I were to quit before reaching my goal, what would I do? Really, what would I do? Go on my own? Obviously that doesn't work for me, so the only option I have is to stay focused on the Jenny plan and let it work. When you have exactly one option, it's not that hard make the right choice.

Workouts
Saturday - Body Pump
Sunday - Body Flow
Monday-  4th of July - 4 on the Fourth Run in Carborro
Tuesday - Rest
Wednesday - Body Combat
Thursday - Rest and bake all the things
Friday - 3.3 mile treadmill run

It's taken a while but I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting some of my fitness back. I think a big reason is that I'm just moving almost 20lbs less of myself around. I'm getting into deeper stretches in Body Flow, I'm almost back to my old weights in Body Pump, I'm only like 5lbs away in each track, and I;m running faster and longer before I want to die. Progress yo.

What I'm eating this Week

 Have you seen this stuff? When you buy it, there's a powder in the top and you smoosh it down and mix it with the water. There's a bunch of different flavors with different benefits but this one is my favorite.

I've seen them in several places, I got my first one at Whole Foods where it's the most expensive. Harris Teeter had them on sale for 2 for $3 last week which is the best I've seen. When I'm super sweaty after a workout and never re-hydrate, I have this and it makes me feel immediately better, 20 calories for the entire bottle isn't shabby.

Picture 

I didn't have a great one this week, but I did wear this for 'Murica Day at work (and the pie contest). You were encouraged to dress in your best "America" themed outfit. I ordered this Reagan shirt off Amazon and it was perfect. Sneering Reagan, "I smell hippies". And my super-fly Lularoe leggings.

I'll try and get a better one this week

Cheats
I had quite a bit of non-jenny food this week and I was a little nervous, especially with the baking treats.
Saturday - Dinner at Mothers and Sons in Durham - amazing. I recapped it in my last blog post.
Sunday -

Kev made yummy steak and I had veggies. Not really off plan, since it was 4-ish ounces and no starch.

Thursday - Omg, I made 2 pies, chocolate chip meringue bars, bacon yummy nuts and blueberry muffins (I burnt them but put my finger in the batter before I did). While I was making food, I knew I had to do something to salvage my weigh-in in 2 days. Instead of having Jenny dinner, I had 3.5 oz of plain chicken breast and some zucchini noodles and no dessert. I guess it paid off!

Ugh, off to a full week of work, can't they all be 4 day weeks??

Here's to another week of losses!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!, Still Being Molly   AND

Three-Day Weekend Recap!

Back to work Tuesday for most of us. At least it's a short week and that's nice. I haven't been doing a lot of weekend recaps recently, I just can't figure out how to get them to flow. The weekly weigh-in posts are doing well on Monday and I just feel that if I push a weekend recap to Tuesday, it's just dumb. Eh... Maybe I'll do 2 Monday posts if something exciting happened.

Saturday morning started off bright and early with my 8am Jenny appointment. Before I move on, I want to comment on something I see every week. There's a Burn Boot camp right next door to Jenny and they have an 8am class that's PACKED. I mean every.damn.Saturday there are a ton of people in there. I swear I've never seen so many people at a class before, especially every week. I looked online at their prices and I can't believe all 50+ people are paying in excess of $150 per month to go. Maybe Saturday morning is a free class or something?? 

Anywho, after jenny, I came home, ate, and went to Body Pump and my perfectly nice $20 a month gym. Before I left, Kev and I were watching Fit to Fat to Fit on A&E, which I'm obsessed with. Trainers gain 40, 50, 60 pounds over 4 months and then work it off over the next 4 with the person they're training. I can't stop watching it. When Kev does, he feels immediately compelled to go to the gym. He's down 30+ pounds since his birthday in March and is doing amazing. 

After we got home, we needed to go to Best Buy and look at a new printer, but first, someone had to get a bath.

She pouted the rest of the day after we washed the stink off her.

We go to Unleashed, which is a local pet store. They have really nice self-washing / grooming facilities for dogs. You use their supplies and they clean up the mess. Works for us.

This was one of the available shampoos. Because boy dogs need sport / performance shampoo?

We went to Best Buy, looked at a bunch of printers, picked out a really nice one, looked it up on Amazon after the sales person went away, saw it was $25 cheaper for the same one, plus free shipping... We ordered it from my phone in the store and left and went home. Sorry Best Buy.

We hung out until it was time to leave for dinner. We had reservations at Mothers and Sons in Durham, which recently opened. Disclaimer, it was AMAZING.

I started with a glass of Lambrusco, because bubbly red wine is my thing. Then I ordered the panzanella salad special to start.

Homemade ciabatta bread, local mozzarella, local heirloom tomatoes. omg.

Kev started with a primi of gnocchi alla romana, with prosciutto and some stupidly good cheese.

It wasn't heavy and potato-y like most gnocchi. It was just right.

Then he got the porchetta with roasted potatoes. They have this crazy wood hearth that they cook stuff on and the potatoes had this amazing roasted char.

I had the hearth roasted chicken with charred broccoli and cauliflower.

I really can't even begin to tell you how good this place is. 

To end the evening, Kev had the zeppole with some caramel sauce. I had a bite because fried food = pain for Lara, and it was unlike anything I'd ever eaten. I've had zeppole, but this was next level awesome.

Just go there and eat all the things. The come back and let me know what you ate.

Sunday morning dawned bright and early. Kev went to work and I started the laundry. But first, I needed to find an outfit for work next Friday. It's 'Murica day, and we're encouraged to wear 'Murica themed clothes. There's a pie eating contest and a pie bake-off. I needed something good.

I found this shirt on Amazon. Yep, that's a picture of a sneering Reagan, "I smell hippies". 

I'm so not a conservative but this, this shirt is perfect. Then I was lucky enough to find these leggings to go with. 

Oh yeah...

Groceries, laundry, then off to Body Flow. I got home, and eventually Kev made dinner.

Oh yes. Lovely rate strip steak. 

We needed to hurry up and eat because at 7pm we were going to see the new Independence Day movie!

I was so disappointed when I saw that it didn't get good reviews. Well, you know what? Those people are WRONG. JUST WRONG. It was over the top and plenty of Goldblum being Goldblum-y, which was all I wanted. I'm really glad we went, it totally didn't suck.

Monday morning I was up early to run the Four on the Fourth. Four mile race in Carborro, it's part of the Tour de Carborro, and one of 3 races. The others are October 1st and Thanksgiving morning. I've never ran it before, but I thought I should.

I posted this on Instagram, but when I registered for the race, it asked me if I wanted to compete in my age group or by weight.

Really.

I've never seen such a thing before. Don't get me wrong, I have a faaaar better chance of going against 160+ pound ladies than the 105 waifs. But really??? Who came up with this???

I got there at 730am, to not much parking and rain. I got my bib, made my way to the track and it really started to rain harder. I'm glad I brought a ziplock bag for my phone, because it definitely would have gotten wet. We made it to the starting line for the 8am race and stood there. In the rain. For 15 minutes. Finally the rain slacked off and the race started, I get it. They started late so the rain would let up. But you know, maybe you tell people what's going on instead of standing confused in the rain.

I did OK for me. Considering I've only bee running again for the last few weeks, I'll take it. 

The course was reasonably flat, a few hills, but fine. I felt much better at this one than I did at the Komen race and definitely saw some progress in just a few short weeks.

I got home, dried off, had breakfast and took a nap. Big 4th over here.

Kev and I headed to the mall for a bit and checked out the sales. Nothing really thrilled us though.

Now we're watching TV/blogging.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Weigh-In - Apparently Week #10

I realized that I've somehow completely mis-numbered my weigh-ins. I looked back over my posts and weigh-in #7 was 6/14, #9 was 6/20, #10 was 6/27 and for some unknown reason, I called this picture week 12. WTF Lara? Really, 10 weeks and I messed up my my counting TWICE. Actually it makes my average loss per week waaaay better.
Remember when I said that I knew the point something losses were coming? Yep, here they are. I've only lost a pound in the last 2 weeks. Definitely disappointing, but times like these, it's important to keep my goals in sight. My consultant flipped into 'consultant mode' and I could tell she was trying to encourage me to keep going. I interrupted her and asked "If I were to leave this program, what would I do? It's the only thing that's ever helped me to lose a significant amount of weight." It works. I know it works and will continue to work. I just have to stay the course.

I did have a few Non Scale Victories this week that helped off set not seeing a decent number on the scale. I had someone at work ask if my face was getting smaller, I was finally able to wear a dress I bought 3 months ago that was not flattering at all and I had to re-tie some of my shorts to make the waistband smaller. To make that much progress in 10 weigh-ins? I'm OK with that.

Workouts
Saturday - Body Pump and walk all over the outlet mall
Sunday - Run 30ish min then Body Flow. I'll be honest, I felt like crap on Sunday with a stomach and headache. The only time I didn't have a headache was when I was running, which is just dumb.
Monday - Chiropractor
Tuesday - Run 3m miles
Wednesday - Body Combat (kickboxing). I used to go to Combat all the time and I loved it, then I stopped but every time I go, I remember how much I like it. I'm going to add this class into the rotation on Weds.
Thursday - Nada
Friday - Nada
What I'm eating this week
This was a really odd week food-wise. There wasn't anything new or out of the ordinary that I tried this week,

Picture
I'm really liking being able to compare pictures each week and track progress.

Last week of June

First week of June

There are only about 5 pounds between these 2 pictures. The first week of June vs the last week of June. The outfits are kinds different, but essentially the same.. Medium Lularoe Azure skirt, Target t-shirt (the pink is a med and the white a large) and both cardigans are Merona Mediums from Target. I can see a difference in the hips and you can't tell from these pictures but I thought the skirts were less clingy in the belly. 

Cheats
I didn't take any pictures, but my brother and I had sushi and let me tell you, it was a LOT of sushi. I totally over indulged and nearly made myself sick. I was sick most of the next day and honestly, I had some sort of intestinal distress all week. Gross.
Monday Kev was back from his trip and we went out to a steak house. I had a salad, about 2-3 oz of meat, 1/2 a roll with some butter, a few bites of Kev's cheesy potato and a salad. Not terrible, but I still didn't feel right. I really think my stomach issues affected my weigh-in. You know how you just 'feel' like you should have lost more. That's what happened this week.

Goals
Another month in the books!
For the month of June, my goals were ;
1. Lose 8 pounds
2. Run at least 1x per week
3. Don't get injured.

How'd I do? I ran the Komen race on 6/11 and I've ran at least 2x per week ever since then. I wanted to not get injured and I was kinda a little hurt at the beginning of the month. When I go to spin class a lot, I hurt myself. Every fricking time. I'm grounded from spin and I have to run instead. Because running, which is supposed to be harder on the body... doesn't hurt me, which is stupid. I didn't lose 8 pounds, I lost 5.8.

For July?

Keep running! Let this be the first year where I actually get better over the summer than worse before the fall races start. I need to limit my cheats to only 1x per week. I can eat non-Jenny food, but I need to keep it calorically in-line. If i indulge, it has to be within reason, not a sushi binge.

Hope everyone has a great Fourth! I'm off to run  the 4 on the Fourth this morning, wish me luck!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!, Still Being Molly   AND