Five Thing Friday - Rando Edition

Yesterday was the first day of Fall and I am seriously so excited. I mean, it's still warm here, but you know what? Long sleeves, tights, booties and PSLs are here and I am embracing all of them right now.

So what's been going on? It's pointless to talk about my busy schedule, because it never gets and less busy, instead I'll talk about some other random things that are happening.

1. I haven't posted a weight loss update for weeks 20 and 21, not because I didn't lose anything, but because I couldn't get my blogging self together. BUT, I have lost more weight and I had a nice non-scale victory yesterday when my jeans officially became too big. I was able to pull them on and off without unbuttoning them, which was pretty nice. I guess I'll have to find a new pair. Shucks...

Really though, I have another post planned about this, but what do you do when you're not at goal, but you need clothes, but you don't want too much because you still have 30-ish pounds to go.

Anyways, here's a picture from last year, when I was apparently doing the GYPO work wear challenge and yesterday. I know I gained over the holidays after the picture on the left was taken, but I can definitely see a difference between last year and this year.

Glad I ended up keeping this shirt after I out grew it last year.

2. Some of my favorite artists are releasing albums this fall! Bon Jovi drops "This House is Not for Sale" in October (pre-order now available) AND Meatloaf released "Braver than We Are" on September 16th. Now, we all know that I love me some Meatloaf. 

 This kind

And this kind.

All of the songs on the album were written by Jim Steinman who wrote the whole Bat out of Hell Album, Bat out of Hell 2, he wrote "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "It's all Coming Back to Me Now", this list goes on and on. Basically, any sweeping epic 11 minute song, Steinman probably had a part in it. Needless to say I was pretty excited to listen to the new album.

Do yourself a favor. Don't.

It's not good. I'm sad, but it's not good....

Me - Kev, let's listen to the first song

Kev - OMG, you paid money for that? It's awful

Me - It really is bad

Kev - Spotify things first before buying them.

Me - Maybe $5 will make it to Meatloaf to help pay rent or something.

Kev - If you want to give Meatloaf $, just Paypal it to him.

3. Still eating my JC food... In my last post I showed how to use JC tacos to make "Nacho Mama's Fajita's". There's a JC contest where people who make-over their JC food can win prizes or free JC food, so fingers crossed the like my creation!

In the mean time, I ate this JC cheeseburger the other day with a drizzle of Salsa Ranch Dressing.

4. Last weekend I knocked an item off my bucket list and went to Drag Bingo. It was a fundraiser for the Alliance of  AIDS Services and such a blast. The girls looked amazing and I got to play some bingo.

Sadly we had to miss the cabaret show after the game, Kev and I both missed dinner and were hungry. If we waited until it was over, there would be no food, and no food is no bueno. 

5. Now that the weather is getting cooler, and mu ass is getting smaller, It's time to start resurrecting the fashion side of this blog. I've been in this weird place where some of my clothes fit, some don't and it seems like I'm missing a chunk of sizes. Like, what did I wear the last time I was this weight? According to my time hop. I'm tracking about the same weight to the day, that I did when I lost it all 6 years ago. I "should" have clothes from 6 years ago and probably from 2 years ago when I was about this size and I can't seem to find any. I guess I donate them? IDK. 

But what that does mean is that I might have to do a little shopping and I signed up for the GYPO Fall Style challenge. I figured a capsule wardrobe was just what I needed right now. Minimal pieces, 3 weeks of outfits, fewer things to buy as I get off the last 30 pounds. 

I've done these challenges before and I LOVE them. I took off the spring and summer since I didn't want to buy new clothes then, but I'm back. I highly recommend the challenge to anyone who loves fashion and shopping. It's totally worth it for your own "personal shopper" and the support from the rest of the community. Shopping with a purpose has really changed my shopping habits. I get to look for specific things instead of wandering around not knowing what I'm looking for. 

You can sign up using my affiliate link HERE and I get a few $ when you do. 

Really though, I LOVE this capsule so much and can't wait to find all of my pieces!

One of the items on the list is a black and white striped shirt. These are just the 3/4 sleeve and long sleeve ones.

I have a problem when it comes to stripes....

Have a great Friday everyone!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

"Nacho" Mama's Fajitas

Y'all know it's me and my Jenny Craig food for the foreseeable future. It's totally fine and I really like eating their food because 1. I can't really cook and 2. When left to my own devices I'll at the same thing for 4 days in a row. Jenny actually provides plenty of variety in my diet and if I really want something they don't offer, I'll figure out a way to fit it in. I even had 1/2 a bagel and some egg whites after my run Saturday with my consultant's blessing. But I'm not here to talk about that. Today it's all about the nacho.

Recently Jenny introduced the "Chicken Street Taco" and I cried tears of happiness, because tacos are life. The tacos are like traditional street tacos and each taco has 2 corn tortillas. I guess this is a thing, I always got flour tacos. But 4 corn tortillas and chicken taco filling opens up a whole new world of experimentation. One of my favorite JC foods was a Chicken Fajita that was discontinued and I decided to pay homage to it's greatness, but in nacho form.

JC also happens to be having a recipe contest and "Nacho" Mama's Fajitas was born. I didn't see a disclaimer that I shouldn't post it, so here you go!

1. Take the Chicken Street Tacos and heat them in the microwave for 1 minute. Scoop the filling out of the tortillas and put it in a separate container.

2. Cut each of the tortillas into 4 quadrants. Spray with a little cooking spray and sprinkle with some salt. Place in a single layer on a pan and put in the toaster oven on "toast" until lightly browned.

lightly browned

3. While the tortillas are crisping, chop the peppers and onions into small pieces and saute in a pan until cooked. I was lazy and steamed them in the microwave for 2 minutes, then put them in the pan. Otherwise, it's like 10 minutes to cook some peppers and onions on the stove. 

4. When that's all ready and the tortillas are crunchy, it's time to assemble that -ish! 

5. Move the tortillas to a heat resistant plate. Spread the warmed chicken over the nachos.

6. Top it with the peppers and onions

7. Add your cheese! OK, cheese is kinda not on the JC plan as an extra, BUT, there is a line in the JC book that says that if you're lactose intolerant, you can sub one of your milk servings for an ounce of cheese or some lean meat. I've never liked milk and I hate yogurt so I've been eating a light cheese stick every day for my milk. It's apparently just fine because I've lost 26 pounds. Because I knew I wanted cheese, I saved my milk serving and used 1/4 cup of FF Cheddar Cheese for dinner.

8. Sprinkle on top and put back in the toaster oven on "broil" until it's all melty and yum. My plates are oven safe, so I threw the whole thing in there.

9. Chop up some lettuce or buy a bag of the shredded stuff and put it on top of your nachos!

10. Serve with all the salsa you want, because it's a free food!

Nachos!

11. Enjoy!

Linking Up!

Anniversary Weekend pt. 1

I'm just gonna warn you now, there's a LOT of pictures in this post. Like a hella lot.

Kev and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on August 27th, (I can't believe it's been 10 years!) and we were trying to think of where to go to celebrate. We thought about the beach, but I don't do well just sitting somewhere for 3 days. I need to move around. I can do one full day at the beach and maybe another half, but I just don't care about the water. There, I said it. I don't care about the beach. Then we thought about Canada, but the flights were really expensive. I kept mentioning Williamsburg VA, but then I realized I'd just been listening to a lot of Hamilton and I wanted to see something historical. When we thought about what we wanted to do, a trip to Washington DC met all of our criteria! Endless stuff to look at, founding fathers, food and booze. Win!

I left Raleigh and flew into Reagan International where Kevin picked me up. It was odd, I've never had trouble finding where my baggage was being off-loaded but I wandered around for a while looking for it. Finally, I saw my bag off to the side, not on the conveyor belt, like it had been sitting there for hours. I landed, maybe 15 minutes prior. It was all very odd.

Anyways, Kev found me and we headed to our first hotel. Before he decided to go up before me and visit his family, we'd planned on driving up Friday and staying halfway, now we were in DC for an extra day and our "special" hotel was booked Saturday - Monday. We stayed at a Kimpton hotel, which is always fun and quirky and they allow pets, so there are dogs everywhere. We stayed in one in Pittsburgh last time and there was a giant dog bed in the room.

I was pretty hungry and we decided on sushi for dinner. I stink, and I don't remember the name of the place, but it was fancy AF sushi. I love me some bogo or discounted rolls, and this was not that, but it was some of the freshest and most delicious sushi I'd ever eaten.

I started with a saki-tini which was pineapple flavored and yum

I went with the an assortment platter and Kev got a similar one. It was plenty of food for me, but Kev though that he'd need to spend $100 before getting full. After we left, we went to Georgetown and stopped at Good Stuff Eatery where Kev got a burger and some fries. It was a progressive dinner. 

Across the street was Georgetown Cupcake which got mixed reviews from my Facebook friends. A lot of people said it wasn't worth the hype. The were good but not really line out the door around the block good. 

The were pretty

I had the butterscotch waffle cone cupcake and it was gooooood. 

The next morning I woke up ready for a day of sight seeing. Even though we said we weren't exchanging presents, Kev had a surprise waiting for me.

He'd gotten me a super cute bracelet. I actually wore it that day while walking around and it tarnished. This is not my first piece of Tiffany silver and it should not tarnish, especially in one day. We brought it back on the way home and they really concerned about it and I wasn't confident that it wouldn't happen again, when I was miles away from a Tiffany Store, so I opted to return it. (I ended up with a David Yurman bracelet instead). Tiffany fail. I have pieces for 10+ years without any tarnish. 

Anyways, on to the sightseeing!

Andrew Jackson on a horse!

The White House!

We tried to get tickets to the White House tour, which you need to request in advance and get a letter from your Congressman (I kid you not). We were denied because "there are too many kids having tours and they're more important". (I'm paraphrasing) Damn future leaders of the country wanting to see the White House. 

More White House

Everyone give it up for America's favorite fighting Frenchmen! #Lafayette

If you want to go on the tour of the Treasury, you have to request that in advance too. Which we didn't. Instead, I have to take a far away shot of the Hamilton statue.

He's there.

For the day we decided to get tickets for the hop on hop off tour buses and go see the major monuments, I'd never been to any of them before. 

The Capitol

Washington Monument was up first. Unfortunately the elevator was broken and you couldn't go up to the top.

The view to the Lincoln Memorial was AMAZING

The Jefferson Memorial from the bus.

Coming up the stairs.

Sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder. #Jefferson

Oh, hey, look at that. Founding Fathers say that you can come to this country and not be persecuted for their religious beliefs. Huh, it's still timely today, isn't it. 

Gorgeous view

Peace out Jefferson

A tour of all things Hamilton, but not actually seeing Hamilton wouldn't be complete without a little Arron Burr. But just a little Burr.

Yea, Hamilton just kept talking trash about Burr for years until he finally challenged him.

After we got our fill of Jefferson, it was back on the bus and over to the Lincoln Memorial

The outside

The view from the other side was pretty sweet too.

What Up Abe?

We still had some time, so we stopped at the Archives and saw the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Deceleration of Independence. You can't take pictures inside the archives, but it was pretty awesome to be able to see the documents in person.

Finally we got back to the hotel. We'd moved from the Kimpton to ... The Jefferson. Yep! A historical hotel full of nothing but Jefferson. The place was amazing and the service impeccable. When we got back from sightseeing, this was waiting for us.

They gave us non-chocolate strawberries because of my soy allergy. 

I took a nap and then it was time to get ready for our anniversary dinner. We had reservations at the Prime Rib which is a pretty schmancy, jacket-required restaurant. When I tell you it was full of nothing but old mobsters, I'm not exaggerating, and I'm known to exaggerate. I LOVE OLD MOBSTERS. Like, so much. It was perfect. 

The cocktail napkin

We sat at the bar for a bit and had a drink and listened to the live music, which was a pianist and a bass player, both old and awesome. The bartender (who you could tell had heard some stories in his day) made me what might be the strongest cosmo of my life. And he made extra in the shaker. When I was halfway through he topped me off. Soon the table was ready and I stumbled to the table.

Soon came cosmo #2 which was rimmed in crushed ice. 

Pretty

We were eating at the Prime Rib. We had Prime Rib. Kev had some sort of potato and I wanted corn, because I hadn't had corn in a while. I remember it being really good. Then I think we shared a piece of cheesecake. I'll be honest, I was pretty tipsy at that point. 

We soon made it back to the hotel. I think we took and Uber, it was a long day and everything was kind of a blur at the end. 

That was our official anniversary! It was a pretty awesome day and a great way to celebrate 10 years of marriage!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

Weekly Weigh-ins #18 and #19

Hi all! I hope you had a lovely Labor Day weekend! I don't know about you, but Labor Day is the official start of Fall for me. I know that it's going to be 90 degrees next week but I'M STILL TRANSITIONING TO FALL. DAMN YOU WEATHER.

On to the weight loss thing. For week #18 I weighed in a day early because I was flying to DC to meet Kev for our anniversary weekend. I was expecting a big loss and it delivered!

YASSSS -4.4! I knew I had a big one in there!

I really didn't do anything differently. I knew that I'd been putting in the work and not seeing results, but that it would show up eventually and it did! I also knew that I didn't really deserve the +.8 gain I'd had the week before. I'd been weighing myself at home so I knew it was coming, but I loved seeing it on the JC scale and the shock on my consultant's face!

After eating my way though DC and only eating JC the last 3 days? I'll take a +.2.

Workouts

Week #18

Saturday - Body Pump

Sunday - Body Flow no run

Monday - Combat

Tuesday - CAB meeting at NCSU

Wednesday - Combat

Thursday -  Hair and Nails

Friday - DC!

Week #19

Saturday - Walked 15,358 steps

Sunday - Walked 16,898 steps

Monday - Walked 19,951 steps

Tuesday - Drive home

Wednesday - Combat

Thursday - Body Pump

Friday - Nope

Leading up to my week 18 weigh-in, I was pretty much on point. Kev was out of town, so I ate my JC food and went to the gym. In DC I knew that I wasn't going to go to the hotel gym or anything like that, and I was hopeful the steps I walked throughout the day would make up for all the delicious food I was eating. 

Notice that there was 0 running the last 2 weeks. Le Sigh. I kinda forgot to run. Even though running every week is one of my August goals and I have a 5k coming up on the 10th. That's the 5k that's usually full of sadness after not running all summer. Thankfully I'm in a much better place running wise this year than last. I also discovered that while yes, I definitely lost some running fitness, a lot of it was from getting fat again. You'd be surprised how much quicker you get when you aren't hauling an extra 25 pounds around. 

What I'm eating this week

I've got 2 posts coming about all the food I ate in DC. Such food... Instead last week was a happy day because Jenny Craig released some new food! Sadly my beloved egg burrito seems to have left for a while. If I'd have known that, I would have stocked up. Now I'm burrito-less. 

But they did come though with a new Chicken Street Taco! OH HAPPY DAY! I LOVE TACOS.

The tacos are double wrapped, so you get 4 total corn tortillas, there's plenty of chicken mix in there and you can easily add more veggies, some salsa and make it into 4 tacos. So much food and they're really flipping good. And I love tacos. 

I get at least 2 packs each week. Hmmm.., I could probably make some kick-ass nachos too.

 Picture

Week 18

Week 19

This was my "tribute to Hamilton because I can't get tickets in NYC" shirt/trip. My shirt says "I am Inimitable I am an Original." if you get that reference, we can be besties.

Week 19 gets a hotel room selfie because I thought I looked smaller in my jorts and t-shirt. I realized on this trip that I have next to no decent summer clothes, just a bunch of t-shirts and maybe 2 pairs of shorts. 1. I didn't want to buy larger sizes that I wouldn't need next summer and 2. I don't really need to have more than 2 weekend outfits. Yea, I have dress up dinner clothes, but on the weekend, I'm generally in exercise clothes and after work, I'm in exercise clothes. Maybe I'll think about it for next year. In the mean time, I'm ready to transition to all things fall!!

Goals

Ummm... I met 0 of these goals. I lost 5.4 pounds, thanks to my massive -4.4 which saved me at the last minute. Then I forgot to run the last 2 weeks of the month. In my defense, the last goal was based off the Apple Watch and at that time my Active Calorie Goal was set at 590 calories per day, which I can't achieve if I don't go to the gym. After all day at work, even if  I walk the dog and run errands, I can't get there. As everything evened out over the last month, I adjusted the goal to 530 calories per day and sometimes I can get there if I don't make it to the gym. Generally I'll hit it 5 days a week, which isn't terrible. I can't physically go to the gym every day, and hitting that goal 90% of the time just isn't happening. 

What about September??

I'm going to keep my goals pretty much the same. I'd be thrilled if I lost 6 or more pounds this month. Losing 9 pounds puts me back into 90% of my clothes. Then the fun starts. :) Hopefully I can maintain this momentum and get to 1st goal by the end of the year. 

That's all for me! Here's to another great week!