Biker Chicks (and Today) Rules/ed!

I'm pretty sleepy right now, but I had such a great day with the husband today, I want to get it down before I hit the sack.  Started out the morning catching up with one of Brian's best friends Darin since he stayed over last night while he was in town for a wedding the night before.   Another old good friend Steve was also in town for said wedding (Brian's ex girlfriend, I wasn't invited...sad face...)  so before the 2 had to check in at the airport we all met up and had  a nice lunch at J Alexanders.  I had a grilled boneless chicken breast and broccoli.  I forgot to order it without butter but when it came out I decided to go with it and just eat it anyway, after all - I've been doing very good on the diet and I am going to work it off today for sure.  It was SCRUMPTIOUS!  The full bright spears of broccoli were also really beautiful but since I was with the hubs and 3 of his guy friends I didn't want to embarrass him by being the crazy wife taking pictures of her broccoli at lunch :) 
The pastor who married Brian and I, Pastor Jon, also moonlights as a bartender at J's (for the past 11 years) so it was so great to see him again also!  When he asked how married life is for Brian and I we could honestly say we are happier now in our second year than we were the first year, it just keeps getting better! 
After lunch we said goodbye to Darin and Steve as they both had separate flights to catch and we headed home to load up the bikes. 
Here is a map of the trails, then I will talk about our awesome ride.

The first few times we went there prior to today we started off at marker 4 of the main trail.  We'd then go to 20 and then explore different trails on our way back.  Today we started at 44.  I wanted to take the main trail for an hour, then turn around and do an hour back.  So we worked our way backwards to 28, then turned around and went back to our car at 44.  An hour there, 40 minutes back.  I'm faster once I'm backtracking and know kind of what's ahead.  Then we did a cool down through the nature trail to get the odometer to an even 15 miles.  It was such an awesome day!  It was so fun to spend some time with Brian not talking about work.  Like, awesome!  Next trip we are going to do the entire main trail!  I imagine we will probably take from 3-5 hours doing it, so we will pack snacks.  Our camelback mule things for water will be here on Wednesday, yay!!  We have been trying to support our local bike shops by getting all our needs locally, but he found such a great deal on the camelbacks that we couldn't help it.  Since we over spent so much by buying the helmets locally, I felt much less guilty doing the online thing in this case.
One of my most excited moments was when we pedaled through a wild orange grove at mile 6 on our way out, so after we turned around I had to stop for a pic on the way back!  Here you go, FYE :)

On the drive home we stopped at the bike store on Fletcher (I can't remember what it is called?) so Brian could get some gloves, and I picked up the most delicious Cliff bar ever for some post workout protein.  And I took a picture of it!!

Since you can't see the small print below the name "Peanut Toffee Buzz", it says "contains green tea, a natural source of caffeine.  Score!!!  I also picked up a different flavor, "Maple Nut" for another day.  It will remind me of home because I hail from the maple syrup capitol of the world, yes that's right, the world. 

One more picture!!  On the way there we stopped at CVS because I needed some girl stuff, and I found a deal on this new zero calorie Powerade.  It was 4 for 5, with $1 off with purchase of 3, so they were $1 ea.  They are delish!  All the electrolytes with no sugar.  I usually have no problem loving  my water, but this sure was a nice treat ;)

SO when I got home I finally switched the night stands in my bedroom to make more function.  Hopefully now putting away folded clothes will possibly happen more.  I am so accomplished now!  I would probably have taken a pic of them but Brian snuck in and fell asleep in the bed so I'm letting him sleep, he got up much earlier than I did today and he let me sleep in. :)  but now I must join him!  Thanks for reading!! 

Working on the weekends

The worst part of being a bartender is that in order to make the most income it makes the most sense to work on the weekend.  I have worked at my current job long enough, (will be celebrating my 8 year anniversary on the 28 of this month!) and hard enough, to earn the privilege of writing the schedule for our small work group of 7 bartenders.  Because of this I can take off a weekend if I need to, but realistically that is where you make your skills most useful and that is where you bring home the most bacon, in the form of hard, green cash.  I get through the weekends I work by reminding myself that you have to work to earn your time off.  So Friday Saturday and Sunday night I will be doing just that. 

I don't really get in a work out session (training session) during these types of weekends because my job is pretty physically demanding.  I'm not a roofer or construction worker by any means, but standing in one place making ohhhh say 750 drinks (??) and smiling and serving the entire time is hard work.  Every night there is a 3 hour period where I literally do not get to have a sip of water, which is not the end of the world, because there is certainly no time to pee so it's probably better off.  Then when everything calms down, the cleaning and stocking and lifting comes, and exhaustion sets in.   The lights turn on and the eyes struggle to close and the hair gets messy.  The shoes and socks are soaked because I've been standing in water the entire night and the shirt comes untucked.  It's not pretty.  Then we count and divide the money and decide whether it was worth it or not. 

I traditionally haven't eaten very well on these days.  The old 15 lb overweight me... I wake up not hungry.  I drink a few cups of black coffee for breakfast.  Then a few hours later I eat a filling lunch to sustain me through the 9 hour night shift.  Normally this is something like a whole wheat wrap with roast beef and veggies with mustard.  I skip the mayo and cheese because I think I was eating light, but I needed the crunchy chips to go with it, and a giant diet soda.   Or I have Chinese food with white rice instead of friend rice, thinking that was a "good food choice".  After that at work, once or twice I get a terrible hunger pang and run off to the back to stuff bread and butter in my mouth as fast as possible and chewchewchewswallow, so I could walk back through the dining room smiling instead of chewing, then I would get back to work.  After the shift is over at 2 am I sometimes have 2 taco bell tacos because I was starving and justified it by thinking I didn't eat enough calories that day (oh and I chose grilled chicken instead of ground beef, that's so super healthy right?...blech!).  This worked OK for me for a long time, but once I turned 30 it stopped working and started making me fat, bloated and tired.

New me!  Today for breakfast I had 2 scrambled eggs, a quarter of a cantaloupe, an ounce of 1% fat jalapeno cheese and an ounce of turkey breast.  And 32 ounces of water.  The lean protein will give me the energy I needed to fuel me and hold back the pangs that caused me to crave the bread and butter.  I will not have time to eat a good lunch and dinner proportionately because of my schedule, but I have some good protein bars to eat on the go instead of the bread.  They provide 12 grams of protein, 12 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of sugar, 6 grams of fat, and 150 calories, and they taste just like a Snickers bar.  Not a bad snack if you ask me!  After work I will need to eat but it will be very late so I will have 4 ounces of chilled herbed salmon, 4 spears of steamed asparagus, plain mixed baby greens and as much water as I can possibly drink, in order to hydrate from my earlier period of slavery.  

Once I lose a few more pounds and am at my goal weight I will be able to start adding more elements to my diet, and this blog will help me to stay honest.  Also, I will consciously start to try and take more pictures in my daily life and then figure out how to put them here so it won't be so dreadfully boring.  Now I have a few precious moments of sweeping dog hair and folding laundry before I put on the ole uniform and smile :)

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I did it real good tonight.

I really wanted to take a nap around my favorite nap time today, right in the middle of Oprah's hour.  Instead I motivated and went to the gym at 5:30 for Just Pump.  Agnes was subbing today.  She used high tempo music and she led us through very fast reps so I stuck to 8 lbs until the very end when I moved to 5 so I could keep good form.  She is crazy.  She's extremely positive though so you really want to keep up.  She's been teaching these classes over 20 years so that's just wow!  Impressive.  But she loves pain.  I know because I've seen her walk into the gym in her work clothes and her heels are about 5 inches high.  So after class, I walked out to my car to head home.  There I realized I had my yoga mat and an extra water in my car so I grabbed them and hopped back in, into the 6:30 yoga/ pilates class.  I stuck to level 1 & 2 and didn't push myself too hard.  I just wanted to stretch out mostly, and stop sweating.  It was good!  Rush home and eat 1/2 c low fat cottage cheese for protein and HYDRATE and now I'm feeling like a shower, 3 ounces of protein, and night night.  Today starts week 4 (my final week) of my medical weight loss program and I'm down 11 lbs, and 8% body fat.  I.Feel.Good.  Life is good.  Good is the word of the day.  Maybe tomorrow I will be more creative with my words.  I'm satisfied for today.

Here Goes Nothing!

Now is as good a time as ever, right?  I am finally going to start a blog!  I have just today finally lost the dreaded 10th lb that I put on over the course of my first year of being a newlywed, and I feel absolutely amazing.  I want to feel like this forever, so I am going to keep myself honest here to make sure I don't cheat and go back to my former drive-the-car-to-get-ice-cream-cone-every-single-night-after-dinner ways.   Now, the new me!  I will still have the occasional ice cream cone from the cone shaped Twistee Treat near my  house, but now I know it is only 1.5 miles away, and I won't die if I walk there.  Wow, liberating!  I've also started mountain biking (MTB) and I am loving it, so I will blog about new trails and adventures.  I am also terribly unorganized so here will be a place where I will keep healthy recipes I've successfully enjoyed, in order to revisit and also share.  So that was it.  My first post.  The ice is broken.