I joined a gym!

Well it’s been six months and the “appeal” of our gym in our building has gone with the birds, SOUTH.  Although the treadmill got me through about 60% of my marathon training, I’ve made the leap back into social working out. At the gym I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and 15 uphill walking.  It was a little weird to have people around me also working out! Even though the gym had its fair share of muscle men, I was pleasantly surprised by the area for agility/cross-training/core work.  It was kind of cool, I must say.

So I didn’t make any new townie friends while I was there.  Kind of disappointing.  I did realize, however, that in my gym bag I packed the t-shirt I wore for Chicago with a subtle “KAITLIN” written across my chest.  You know some may say that this was an act of desperation to make new friends, or maybe an act of confidence like “you better know me”.  I’m happy to report that the results were inconclusive as to just how un-cool my t-shirt was.

Moral of the story: new gyms are good, friends might be there waiting…but next time I will leave the eponym shirt at home.

 

 

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it’s getting real: garmin purchase

I bought a Garmin 110 yesterday!  It’s a watch that allows you to track all sorts of information about your runs…speed, splits, distance, time (duh), elevation, heart rate, etc.  After an exciting day at work yesterday (oddly that’s not sarcastic), I stopped in at R.E.I.  – which is a co-op and has some sweet offers for members (super cheap tent rentals and ski tune ups) – and was browsing the watches.  The 110 was on sale from $199 to $179, and it includes a Heart Rate Monitor strap.  The HRM was KEY for me recieving a 50% return courtesy of the j-o-b!

I charged the watch all last night and today, during my lunch break at home, went for a quick little run.  It was 3.2 down a new area that was mostly flat.  The major challenge was that it was about 90 degrees outside! I felt good and barely felt the HRM around my chest.

Here is my summary:

Overall

Time:	00:27:04
Distance:	3.20 mi
Elevation Gain:	120 ft
Calories:	77 C

Does anything shock you about that??  To me it was the 77 calories burned, WHAT?! 77 CALORIES??!  holy crap.  I’m not going to take this as total word…yet… because I was always under the impression that it was roughly 100 calories per mile.  Well that makes sense if I’ve been grossly overestimating my burn compared to my intake!  Will be interesting to see what it says tomorrow.

Can’t wait to use this thing again, and super happy that my company really promotes wellness and fitness (they actually produce a 270 pg marathon training diary)!

Happy Weekend-ing!

You can cook too?!

I like to cook, and have been looking forward to having a kitchen of my own that I could really get creative and healthy in for a long time.  I’ve got my cook books here and even transcribed some of my sister in laws greatest hits.  And I’ve made a few good things:

Stuffed peppers with brown rice, black beans, onions and feta.

Oven fried pork chop with fennel, cucumber and lemon salad.  The pork is in there I swear!

Enchiladas!  Missy do you miss these crazy plates?

Well these are three meals I’ve made and they were good, truth is –  Bill LOVES cooking and he’s really really good.  Better than I thought!  Right now I’m trying to find the balance between offering to cook to even out the work and then just totally sitting back and letting him Tyler Florence it up.  I know I will have plenty of time to cook once the season starts, so right now I’m going to enjoy and try not feeling guilty.

Hope you had a nice day!

fresh start – sorry 4HB

Starting a post after the “4HB all or nothing” is not exactly ….easy.  Have I followed the 4HB since that post? I’ll go with maybe a few days.  It’s not that I don’t think it’s do-able, but I started with force and then fizzled out.  So to all you other 4 hour body followers, I have seen other’s results that are promising, but um commitment to it is the *key* word. Well officially starting on June 6th – Em and I (and hopefully my sister) will begin training for the Chicago Marathon!

The past month has been filled with a lot of exciting changes and I really don’t think I could be happier.

First dinner – eating on plastic bins, these were taco lettuce wraps.

Aniela came to see our place — we have since switched the layout so now the tv is in front of the windows.  It’s from a practical, sport viewing perspective, if we have it the way pictured above – the glare is awful.  It took a while for me to get used to, but I don’t mind it now, it’s nice and cozy.

HC Alumni Hockey game — it wouldn’t be football without cold rainy weather :-)

New j-o-b!

Not pictured:  Greek Easter at Bill’s YiaYia’s with my parents!  First wedding at Holy Cross – St. Joseph’s Memorial Chapel.  First Marlborough neighborly dinner – more details to follow. Ella’s First Communion. Lots of firsts and lots more to come.

4 hour body: all or nothing?

Last night was hard.  First off this week is c.r.a.w.l.i.n.g. by – and I had to tell the owner of my company why I was leaving.  It was a very pleasant conversation and he wished me well, but at the end it went something like this:

Me: “Yes I’m excited, lots of things going on — planning a wedding, moving in with my fiance and starting a new job” (with beaming smile)

President of el trabajo: “That is exciting, but you know some may say you shouldn’t do all of those things in the same year.”

Enter — crazy over analyzing and becoming upset on the train ride home!!  Although I didn’t point out that the wedding is actually NEXT year, so maybe I’m okay?

So how does this all translate to my 4HB and all or nothing mentality?  Well when I got off the train I decided to do some browsing at HomeGoods to make everything a bit more real, like it was actually going to happen.  Nothing particularly caught my eye.  Leaving there I was hungry and cranky — I think Hangry is the word used on the blog world?  I stopped at Market Basket for some trail mix.  (mistake #1).  Tim Ferris warns of “domino foods”, foods that once you begin to eat you probably can’t just have one serving- domino foods can be different for different people but come on who can have one serving of trail mix? Righttt.  So there was some snackage.  And then I got home and all I could think to make for dinner was, eggs, cereal, or heat up some pizza.  The pizza won.  (mistake #2).  The snowball grew…and I had a pumpkin muffin for dessert and maybe some frosted miniwheats? (mistake 3 & 4).  Ugh. 

Going to bed I was frustrated.  I was frustrated with myself for on the night of day 3 (DAY 3!) of the 4 hour body lifestyle, I lost my willpower.  I was feeling so good, I convinced myself that I could actually feel the proteins and the veggies and the beans working their magic.  Then thoughts about the April Challenge came into mind.  I have one more day (today) before militant lifestyle begins, and my sister and I are notorious for treating this as your last day to eat day.  I explained this to Bill and he suggested I had Crystal Light (on my last day)…more angry….or a donut if I really felt that way…gross I don’t like those.  When he put it that way I felt even more ridiculous that I have created this “need” for something sweet and bad for me.

So how has this actually played out?  I did grab some trail mix for the drive into work.  And then I began dreaming of having my last “bagelville” bagel — because obviously once I leave my job bagels will cease to exist– I began justifying me getting one.  Well I’m happy to say I did NOT get the bagel.  I had my 2 hardboiled eggs.  I’m going to treat this like any other day living 4HB – not my last day to eat food.  Yesterday will become my “re-feed” day. 

This was long, whiny and annoying, but you’re not going to find any apologies here.  I’m going to do this thing!

town travels: good day cafe

Two weeks ago it was Life Alive in Lowell, this week it was  Good Day Cafe in North Andover.  Maybe it is my current obsession with loft apartments, old mills and old stuff, and this place fit right in!  Set in an old textile mill (as is the whole Merrimack Valley) the Good Day Cafe is bright and airy and really really tasty. 

Regret: limited pictures

Not a regret: having a bite of Bill’s donut muffin.  yum. (that thing evaporated, no chance to even take a picture!)

Menu: baked goods, breakfast sandwiches, bagels, soups, baked goods, teas, coffee, baked goods!

Bill and I both ordered breakfast bagels.

Whole wheat with an egg and cheddar cheese.  Yum!  There is just something so good about an egg on a bagel on a saturday morning.  Especially when accompanied by a big cup of coffee.

I can’t wait to go back to get a sandwich.  Also – if they need some extra help, I’ve made a latte before!

an adventure in texture

food textures that is!  On a recent trip home to visit wedding sites, my sister and her family and I started the discussion of foods that are a weird combination that we like because they are usually together.

• pasta with red sauce + salad (okay actually this is where their ideas stopped…the rest are mine and mine alone)
• rice + peas
• ice cream + crunchy things (anything crunchy) or chewy (raisins)
• sausage + maple syrup
• eggs + maple syrup

Breakfast: (not pictured – slice of raisin/pecan bread on the way to the train)

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 apple sliced up
• mix of raisins, craisins and raw cashew pieces
• cinnamon

Lunch:

Terrible picture of LEFTOVERS!  pasta and sausage with spinach.  I swear I’m not hiding all of the pasta/sausage with spinach…it was more like a 3:1 ratio of spinach to the other good stuff.

Snack: left over granola from yesterday and raisins and craisins

Dinner:Well it appears that my picture taking is representing my thoughtfulness of my eating (or lack thereof).  Molly made a really good mustardy green bean/spinach mix, and I think that this pork chop had a mustard sauce on it to hold on the crumb mixture.  I loved the mustard part!  Side of corn bread.

Also not pictured: apple w/ chocolate almond butter for snack, small plum and 2 dove chocolates.

Wedding Wednesday update:  THIS close to securing location and a date!