Adios 2010!

2010 was a big year for me, and while I did a lot of great things I'm not too sad to say goodbye to this year.

Some 2010 highlights:

1. I spent five months in South Africa!

2. I bungee jumped off the highest bungee jump in the world! 710 feet!!

3. I survived 10 days of camping in the Okavango Delta

4. I went to Chicago

5. I started my senior year of college :(

6. I lost 25 pounds!

7. I made so many new friends from all over the country (and world!)

8. I cage dove into "Shark Alley" with giant great white sharks

9. I went hiking in Vermont
10. I climbed mountains!
11. I ran five 5ks (and PRed at 30.05) and a 10k!

12. I spent my second Halloween as a ninja turtle :)


I LOVE opportunities for new "beginnings" so new years are something I've always looked fondly upon. I am happy to say that this year I have only 1 resolution: Continue doing what I've been doing. I've learned so much about myself this year and am starting on the path to becoming the person I want to be. I hope that I'm able to continue improving my self and my health throughout the next year. I lost a lot in 2010, including 1 person who I always expected would be a huge part of my life, but I'm excited at what 2011 holds. The year is already looking good: Florida in February, Half marathon in March (ahhh!!), GRADUATION in May. I have a lot to look forward to. Anyway, it's time to get ready! Happy New Year!!

Blizzard!

I'm happy to report that my time at home is going pretty well so far! I'm nervous to even write this, but surprisingly I've been pretty happy here. There have of course been a couple of Jonas-induced bouts of sadness but overall, I'm feeling content at being home and with my family. Sounds like someone's making some progress... :)

Christmas was wonderful. Unfortunately my camera battery died so I didn't get a chance to take some photos of the 7 fish my Italian family cooked and consumed, plus endless amounts of pasta dishes, Italian meats and Christmas desserts. The food was all amazing, and I stuffed myself full both days. Today my Mom and I cleaned out the house and I attempted to have a somewhat "back on track" healthy day. I just finished dinner, which included leftover boiled shrimp and calamari, about a cup of whole wheat pasta with mussels in an amazing crab sauce my Grandma made. I wish these leftover could last forever!

As for working out, I'm already 3/4 through my goal of working out 4 times over winter break! Looks like I'm going to crush it :) So far I've ran twice (both 3.5 mile runs) with some strength training. And before dinner I completed my first workout of Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. I'm sooo excited I received this on Christmas, and I'm hoping I'm able to complete a 30 day run with this dvd. 20 minutes is so short compared to my normal 90 minute workouts! This should be a piece of cake!!

In addition to my new favorite DVD, I received lots of other fun fitness related gifts:

Some new winter workout shirts and pants from Champion. As I've expressed I'm pretty worried about training for this half marathon in the Boston winter. Hopefully these new shirts will help out a bit.
Another Jillian DVD. Who doesn't want a 6 pack in 6 weeks? Ha. Not sure if I believe that but something is better than nothing right! Anyway, I'm going to Florida in exactly two months and I want to at least be slightly more bikini ready than I am now by then.A Garmin Forerunner 305! I am beyond excited to try this baby out! I know for a fact that this is going to be such a motivating tool in my runs and because I'm such a math nerd I can't wait to play with all the charts and numbers afterward. Yay!!

Other gifts were regular clothes, some comfy shoes, pretty earrings, adorable and beautiful new bowls <3,>

It was a great Christmas and I loved getting to just lay around in my snuggie all day watching Modern Family. Here in New York we're supposed to be getting about 14 inches of snow! I know I'll be doing some shoveling (can that count as workout #4?) I hope the next few days go as well as today because I'm back to Boston on Thursday for New Years. So happy I settled on that decision.

Hope any readers (!?) had a great holiday! :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year?

The good news is that writing that last post on running was a real motivator! The next day I went to the gym, sucked it up an ran 4.5 miles on the track. Sure, it was a very slow 4.5 miles, but I did it!

The bad news is that I didn't get into the NYC half marathon that I applied for months ago. I was really hoping to but I'm going to try to be positive and happily sign up for a 1/2 on the same day in Massachusetts that a few of my friends are doing. Everything happens for a reason?

So it's holiday time again. It's been a weird couple of weeks. I haven't been sticking to my normal eating/food shopping/cooking/working out schedule and I do NOT like it. The combo of endless holiday treats and parties has been too much to handle and my routine has really gotten out of whack. I hate to say it, but I'm ready for the holidays to be over! It's been a rough year and I'm looking forward to a new one. More good news is that since Thanksgiving my weight has stayed exactly the same. I can definitely feel myself getting a little "softer" though, probably due to my lack of strength training as of late. Because I haven't been eating so healthy I had convinced myself that I gained back all of the weight I lost. It wasn't until I saw pictures of myself yesterday that I realized I was being crazy. It's strange (and pretty depressing) that we (I think especially women) have such distorted images of ourselves.

In other news...I'm heading home for the holidays tomorrow and the Jonas anxiety is back and in full force. I'm not as anxious as I was before Thanksgiving but I'm definitely feeling it creepin' up on me. I am coming back to Boston for New Years and am so happy I made that decision. One less thing to be worried about.

It's always helpful to make goals so here we gooo:

Goals for the end of 2010!
1. Control the eating as much as possible while at home
2. Eats lots of yummy seafood on Christmas Eve
3. Treat Xmas Eve and Xmas as holiDAYs
4. Work out at least 4 times from 12/22-12/30
5. Use the free ingredients in my house to cook something new
6. If a Jonas run-in happens, try to stay under control

These goals sound good to me.

This post is extremely ramble-y. Woops!

Brrr

The weather here in Boston is getting quite unbearable. Last night I had to walk for TWO minutes from the train to my apartment and I was crying once I was inside. I don't know when I became such a baby to the cold weather - maybe it was spending a few months in the absolutely beautiful South African weather? And to think...last year at this time I was getting ready to skip winter and head straight into 80 degree Cape Town days :(

The point of this post is that I need some accountability and/or motivation. I have not run (more than a mile here and there) for 2 weeks now. This is very discouraging. I have tried my hardest to get away from making excuses but I just can't help it now. It's just too cold! I am NOT a morning person...I've tried again and again but I truly enjoy working out at night. So my days have gone...wake up for work, work from 9-6, come home to literal 10 degree windy nights, think about running, then chicken out and go to the gym. I've definitely been keeping up with my gym workouts but it is just too damn cold to run outside. How do people do it?! This is making me slightly nervous as I'm running a half marathon in 3 months and I know how quickly I lose my running stamina and how long it takes me to work it back up. I don't know what to do. I have come to hate running more than 2 or 3 miles on a treadmill, and the indoor track in my gym is equally as unbearable (1 mile=12 laps). Any advice on how to kick my running back into gear before it's too late?

Food from the Motherland Part 1 - Seafood!

In honor of tonight being so awesome, I am going to get all nostalgic on yo asses and post some of my favorite food highlights from South Africa! Why was tonight so great you ask? Let me just list the reasons:

1. I just made amazing and exciting plans for Saturday afternoon!
2. Awesome zumba class +upped my chest press weight!
3. Last night's episode of top chef all stars left me wiggling with excitement in bed as I fell asleep.
4. Tonight for dinner I made a wonderful caesar salad (I've been craving this all week) with, wait for it...homemade garlic and parmesan croutons! These babies were so good that after I tasted one out of the oven I actually said out loud, "I love tonight."
5. I watched the Glee Christmas episode while eating said awesome caeser salad.
6. I just got an e-mail from my Mom with my Grandma's secret sauce and meatball recipe. I think I woke up my roommate with my squeals.

Now that everyone is adequately jealous, on to the food porn!

South Africans eat a TON of seafood. Lucky for me being a tourist, I was able to dine on some seriously good seafood while I was there for a pretty low price. I probably ate mussels once a week:

"Green mussels" w/ spaghetti in a pesto sauce

Mussels in a garlic cream sauce w/ cheese bread

One of the best meals I've ever had - mussels, fried calamari, prawns over a huge bed of rice

Another amazing dinner - mussels, grilled calamari, prawns, line fish,
french fries, cream of spinach and butternut squash!

One of many plates from a buffet at Moyo in Stellenbosch - mussels, sesame calamari,
sausage, oilives, cous cous, lots of other random things!

Raw tuna from a bucket! JK...I did a lot of crazy shiz in Africa but
no way I was eating this. Instead I fed it to... dun dun dun

this guy! Yes, that is a great white shark aka JAWS and I did go shark diving in a huge cave!

Well that's about it for South Africa food memories Part 1! Can't wait to go through all my pictures and post the next parts! Happy Friday (in 1 hour wooo!)

Mini Complaints

My wonderful mother always tells me that I need to just feel my emotions, whatever they may be. Like the equally wonderful daughter I am, I always respond with some sort of whiny, "But I don't want to feeeeel, I just want it to go away!" Today I am going to feel these little frustrations, get 'em down on paper (or blog post), and move on! Here we go...

1. I have been dropping everything. As I mentioned in my last post I dropped my delicious homemade pizza face down on the dirty ground. Just now (what inspired me to write this post), I dropped the yummiest, juiciest Gala apple I've ever ate after taking just one bite! The apple playfully rolled out of my hand, left some juice on my pants, and hit the carpet under my desk. When I picked it up there was hair all over it. Ew. Into the trash.

2. Zumba sucked last night and I hurt my back. I was sooo excited for zumba after a week away. Like giddy schoolgirl excited. Last night I showed up and we had a substitute teacher. The woman was perfectly nice and in great shape, but a little older (which made me feel a little raunchy and weird dirty dancing to Sexy Bitch by David Guetta...) and just different from my normal instructor. She also would yell out bizarre unfitting phrases like "Go Huskies." Yes, my school mascot is the Husky, but do you see a sports team? I spent most of the 45 minute class trying to follow her lead and barely broke a sweat. Afterward, I went on the stairclimber (ahhh!) for an intense 30 minute workout aaaand this morning my back hurt. I'm guessing there is a connection. I have personal training tonight which I am NOT canceling. I might suggest doing a little foam roller massaging to start off, but if this back becomes a problem I'm gonna flip out!

3. My room was infested with spiders for not the first, but second time in the last 5 months. Why does this keep happening to me? Last night my roommate and I decided to move the big TV in our living room into my room. While attempting to put the plugs and wires together, I noticed a little spider crawling along the side of the TV. I held my breath and calmly squished it with a tissue. Next thing I know there are 20+ spiders (of all sizes) crawling out of the TV. I started screaming and crying (no exaggeration), closed my eyes, and carried the very heavy TV out of my room. I proceeded to spray toxic amounts of raid on the TV (in our kitchen...not safe) and executed the shit out of those spiders. It took me about 3 hours, 2 men carrying the TV out to the trash, and a 45 minute shower to get that itchy bug crawly feeling away. Ew. I'm squirming in my chair.

So now I complained. Feeling better already!

Top Chef All Stars tonight makes everything better, and finding out that Anthony Bourdain will be a judge again makes me happier than it should...