Run Fat Girl, Run!

Sweets,

I think I will start by telling you a funny little story. Last week, I was working out at BifG. Part of the routine was to sprint down the block to a certain marker and then sprint back. There were many rounds of this. There was a lady who was unloading things from her car and carrying the items into one of the store fronts. I had passed her a few times and on one of my sprints she gave me a cheer. Cool right? Well sort of. Her cheer was:

"Run! Get Those Pounds Off!"

Excuse me? Here I was thinking I looked like a warrior, yet this lady thought she was a counselor at fat camp! She was an older lady and was just trying to be sweet so I had no choice but to get a chuckle out of it. It did make me wonder what I look like when I ran....this weekend, HM took a photo that made me feel like a warrior again.

Careful lady or I will slap you with my defined guns!

I wish my arms always looked this defined! One of the ways I plan to get more defined is to cut down on my alcohol consumption. This is turning out to be a lot harder than I expected. Last night HM and I went to a house warming party at our friends house. They just renovated their house and added a grass roof top to their house. It was amazing to lay up there and watch the sun set with good friends and a drink in hand.....except I had no drink. Well, I had water but that is boring.

This is the roof of their house!

And this is the view!

I was pretty proud of myself for not drinking anything and I sure felt happy about it Sunday morning when HM and I woke up early and went to the gym. At this rate, I will be skinny before I know it (except for my gelato addiction!). I found this silly website, which I am not endorsing as accurate, that will show you what you look like at your current weight and what you will look like at your goal weight. I could not tell a difference, so I will show you what I look like now....at 250lbs......and what I will look like at my goal weight of 100 pounds.

Run! Get those pounds off!

If you want to try it for fun, here is the website. So I have a question for you Sweets. What low calorie/low calorie beverages do you enjoy? I am getting sick of water.....

There Is No Crying At BifG

Sweets,

Walk down memory lane with me, will you sweets? Twenty years ago, there was a little movie called League Of Their Own. Heard of it? Yeah, haven't we all. I remember loving this movie when it came out. Are you old enough to remember it?

Do you remember the most famous line from that movie? It is one I repeat to myself often during BifG workouts......There's No Crying in Baseball!!! Take a trip down memory lane with me will you?

Do you remember Ms. Saucy pants from that movie? No not Rosie O'Donnell. No, not Madonna. This lady:

That's right, Ms. Geena Davis herself. I have loved this lady since Beatles Juice. Thelma and Louis anyone? Well, on the 20th Anniversary of one of my favorite movies, I went to a fundraising luncheon for women in film. I went with my friend Tessa.

The setting was beautiful, the food pretty good, and the guest speakers intriguing. Including Ms. Geena Davis herself!!!

The best part of the luncheon was when my BFF and I grabbed a picture together:

Tessa sucks at focus!

Oh, poor Tessa, I was referring to my BFF Genna. Being reminded of this film, and of Tom Hanks famous line, I was reminded of how often I have to "man up" and get the job done. Just the other day, we had to do the Chelsea workout. Every minute, on the minute, we had to do the following: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats....for 30 minutes. By the end, I wanted to cry, but then it popped into my head....there is no crying at BifG!!!!

So I have a question for you Sweets. What is your favorite movie? What is an oldie but a goodie? I am looking for something to stream while pluggin away on the stair climber.

Weekend Eats

Sweets,

I had an amazing weekend in general, but the food quality put me weekend over the top! HM and I started the weekend off at a modern Asian restaurant called Plum Alley. They offer really amazing and unique dishes. The pork buns were consumed so quickly I couldn't even snap a picture. I was able to snag you sweets a picture of our favorite dish though- the pickled veggies.

I capped the meal off with my favorite Gelato. It was Cookies and Mint flavor.

I remember when I went to Dubrovnik, Croatia there was a Gelato place on every corner. At the time I remember thinking how over-rated I thought Gelato was. Maybe this is the only Gelato I like?!?!

Croatia 2008

Saturday morning, HM and I tried a new brunch place by our house. It was amazing!!! It is called Roots. Even their water is magic. It tastes like cucumbers. The coffee is really good, said as the coffee snobs that we are. I ordered a eggs benedict type meal, but don't worry. I ordered the hollidase sauce on the side and used it very sparingly.

The weekend culminated in another amazing meal. We were on a roll and decided to try another new restaurant. It was Sunday and after driving around downtown looking for a place that was open Sundays (Thanks a lot SLC), we decided to try this new Ethiopian place. HM and have only had Ethiopian food once during a vacation to Chicago. We loved it! We have been looking for a place here in SLC, but there was only one in a sketchy part of town. With this new one close to home, we will DEFINITELY be back!!!

I know for many of you, this may look very scary. Trust me when I say that it is delicious will you? If you have never been, let me explain. We ordered the combo platter. It had spicy beef stew, non-spicy beef, split peas, hummus (or what I call hummus), spicy lentils, home made feta, green beans, cabbage, collard greens, and tomato salad. It is served on a platter and you are given fermented bread (taste like sourdough) with which you rip off small pieces to scoop up food with.

Again, it was amazing. Now I just need to find excuses to go back. HM and tried to think which of our friends would be brave enough to go back with us. We think we know who we can convince. One of you sweets will be hearing from us soon!

A lot more happened this weekend, including the Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale, a Grace Potter concert, and some hikes with dog, The food was the most exciting though!

Have you Sweets ever had Ethiopian food?

8 Miles In The Mountains

Sweets,

Ever since the rattle snake incident, Buckley has been getting a bum deal when it comes to hikes. I love my little doodle so much and I don't want him to get bitten, so he has been a city dog lately. That is why we decided to use a rainy overcast day (in my mind, the snakes would be sleeping) to hike all the way up to dog lake.

Buckley was soooo excited to get out on the trail and be off leash. We were not the only ones with the idea to hike dog lake. The canyon was VERY crowded. We ended up having to park down the road about a mile from the trail head.

Once we reached the trail head, it was a three mile hike up the mountain to dog lake. The trail is really pretty and it had the perfect amount of hikers. It felt like we had the mountain to ourselves most of the time, but we passed enough people to feel safe - as in the snakes, lions, moose, and bears had looked for quieter pastures. This is in my uninformed opinion anyway.

Buckley was having a great time, but started to look a little tired 3 miles in.....luckily, unknown to him, the lake was right around the corner.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of uphill climbing, we reached the top. I had to explain to Buckley that we had not in fact reached the ocean- just a little mountain lake.

We tried to get him to swim, but the little doodle wouldn't have it. The best we could get was having him retrieve a stick.....unless we threw it too far, in which case we had to find a new stick!

Our brief rest at the lake must have revived us all because Buckley had more pep in his step and HM and I decided to run back down the trail. I was so tired at the end of the hike that I just wanted to sit down. Unfortunately, that was when I remembered we had a mile walk back to the car. Bummer. Adding it all up, we hiked uphill for 3 miles, ran down hill for 3 miles, and walked 2 miles to and from the car. Count it Sweets, that's 8 miles in the mountains. Not too shabby!

Party At The Gym

Sweets,

I am sad to see this weekend come to an end, but I sure did have enough fun to last me until the next weekend. The fun started Friday morning as I was doing my overhead squats:

Pretty huh?

While I was at BifG, I was reminded by my trainer that there was going to be a party later that evening at the gym. When they said there would be food and drinks, I assumed it would be raw almonds and protein shakes.....turns out it was a full fledged party! I dragged HM with me and it was blast!

There was DJ, good food, and a bar. They had drinks with hilarious names. The only name I can remember was the non-alcholic option called Six Pack Abs. It was really fun to see everybody all dressed up, in regular clothes, and not sweaty profusely.
 

I regret not wearing wedges with this dress. Note to self.

HM has a great time too. He got to meet a lot of the people I talk about and workout with every week. It was also really fun to show him around the gym and brag a little about what I have been doing. The weather was a bit of a jerk that night, but the wind eventually died down and the DJ turned the music up and people started dancing. You know it is a good party when the cops show up!

 
I think those cops took one look and Eliza's muscles and decided to turn right around because they left and the party went on. HM and I decided to call it an evening and walked down to Barnes and Noble to let the gym cocktails wear off a bit.

I love HM, but I also love Bob Harper. He has a new book out and I am tempted to get it. Has anybody read it or heard good things?

Alright sweets, it's time for me to call it a night and get some sleep. I have a BifG workout tomorrow at 6am and something tells me it will not be a party!

The Best Fruit Salad EVER

Sweets,

I made the best fruit salad ever the other day. Like seriously, it was the best ever! I cut up strawberries, cherries, and pineapple. I made HM cut of the honey dew (because I find the seed removal process gag inducing) and added it all to a big container with mint from my garden. You heard me, my garden. Who am I?

DISCLAIMER: My garden consists of mint and mint alone. Don't be too wow'd.

honeydew to be added

I learned a few things. One, cutting and pitting cherries is lame and time consuming.....but worth it. Two, there are lots of funny puns to be made for your husband's benefit when you are in the possession of two melons:

Most of the comments were variations of, "you like what you see?" and "you can't afford this". How I scored a patient husband like HM I will never know. Good man.....and I even conveniently forgot to add his cantaloupe (I hate cantaloupe).

In my enthusiastic efforts to pit the cherries and mix all the fruit together, I ended up staining my white lulu skirt. Whoops. Not to worry though sweets. The stain came out with no problem thanks to the help of a generic tide stick stain remover!

Like what you see? You can't afford this!

It was amazing how flavorful the fruit salad was. It reminds me that you don't have to add a bunch of sugar and junk to something in order for it to be delicious. On the off chance that you are sick of hearing about my fruit salad now, I will stop.

Base It On Intensity!

Dear Sweets,

Where should I start? Well let me start by bragging a little. I passed my CAPM test!! I am so happy to have this exam behind me because it had been consuming a lot of my time and mental energy. Although I would normally have felt confident going into a test like this, 12 people have taken it at my work and 8 have failed. This was not a confidence booster. But it is done. And won. HM took me out to a nice dinner to celebrate. It was the type of place where taking photos of you food is frowned upon so an exterior shot will have to do:

We sat on the patio....and I a pretty sure that guy is judging me for taking a photo

Now that the test is behind me, I need to work on that workplace Activity Challenge, because apparently I am failing that test. At last update, I was not even in the top four! The injustice!!! Need I remind you how tough I am?

Okay, I may not be that tough when compared to some of you sweets, but compared to a bunch of software company office workers? Yeah, way tough- so how they are beating me remains a mystery. I know the contest is based on minutes spent working out, but I wish it was based on something else, like intensity.................

Or who has the hardest working poodle:

That's foreman Buckley at your service!

Or who had the best brunch EVER over the weekend:

 Or who had the most fun had with a spouse at the Park City Food and Wine Festival this weekend:

Moment of sunlight between massive downpours

See what I did there sweets? I gave you an update on the Activity Challenge while at the same time, filling you in on my weekend. You are welcome. This could have been a very long post!

I hope everybody had a great weekend!