Fancy Seeing You Here

Happy Friday y'all! I feel like I blinked and POOF February and March just disappeared. They certainly didn't show up here on this blog.


Where have we been? Living life I guess!


Like I mentioned in our New Years post, last year was rough. But 2013 has been a surprisingly happy and joyous time. I've been M.I.A. from blogging about it because I did work tax season (thank Bob that's over!) and when I wasn't working we were busy with our California bucket list! But I will have a little more time to spend around here now.


Here's what you probably didn't miss...
January

We went to my first NBA game and instantly became Clippers fans. (I know everyone is a Lakers fan but we have too much purple and gold in our lives!) I know nothing about basketball except that it was created by James Naismith and I only know that because I went to a middle school that believed in grading you in P.E. including the history of sports. Despite my lack of knowledge we had a BLAST!!!

We hiked to the top of the Hollywood sign. Man does that make you feel small! It was such a great, moderate hike and only took 1.5 hours up and back. Plus it was dog friendly... we can't leave our darling Juju at home!

February

We celebrated Valentines day even though we aren't big fans since we act lovey dovey all year long much to the chagrin of those around us. Husband never sends flowers, mostly because I'm not a big flower fan since they die so fast and cost so much. But he sent TULIPS! They are my absolute favorite and remind me of my Grandma. Don't worry there weren't any chocolates. just a heart shaped veggie pizza ;)

We FINALLY got our California licenses. Thankfully we both passed the tests the first time because it was rough! 

I turned 28! We spend the day in Pasadena. It was delightful and perfect. Such a great birthday.

March

We went on a "whale" watching cruise. It was three hours of cold, windy sailing and not one whale. But we did see dolphins and I am now obsessed with sea lions which I lovingly call seals with puppy faces.

On St. Patty's we finally tried Sprinkles Cupcakes and yes, it is everything you dream for a cupcake to be. (My favorite is the black and white!)


For Easter we went to San Diego and spent the day at the beautiful San Diego Zoo. I am a huge animal lover and could not have had a better time. I'd never been to a zoo that took an entire day to truly experience.

April

In April we worked almost every day until my cousins, Jennifer and Emily, came to visit. We basically crammed all the Los Angeles highlights into one 5 day trip. I am still exhausted just thinking about everything we did. 

Word to the wise: if you ever need to find a needle in a haystack you can call my cousin because she spotted celebrities EVERYWHERE! 








WHAT CAN YOU LOOK FORWARD TO?
I've got some posts in the works and I'll give you a little low-cal taste of what is to come:

• Sharing our challenges and surprising thoughts on going "Pescatarian" for 40 days. I would say vegetarian, but to be truthful we did eat seafood.
• Los Angeles hits and misses (you know in case you want to come visit us: hint hint!)
• Workout reviews for arms and an at-home barre circuit (both legit!)
• Recipes & reviews for a homemade frappuchinos & jack-o-lantern muffins

So I guess I'll have a little more time to spend around here and I'm really excited. I missed blogging about being healthy and working out. It certainly kept me on the straight and narrow. I hope you're excited too!

Treat Yo Self!

If you don't watch Parks and Recreation you probably don't understand the amazingness of "Treat Yo Self" but you should! Treat yo self is a way of life and it's what I am about to hit you with...

Since it is the start of a new year I know you are all kicking off your resolutions. And this is an addendum to my previous post about resolutions that delves into the "health" aspect of my goals. Here we go...

I claim to be an expert on nothing except one thing: being chubby. :)

I have lofty health goals and at times the mountain seems pretty daunting despite how many times I sing Miley Cyrus' "The Climb." 

To combat the inevitable bad days, weeks, months... I try to set myself up for success by acting as though every little thing matters. It does matter. You can't lose 50 lbs until you lose the 1st lb. This means I am a firm believer in rewarding yourself every step of the way.

HOW CAN YOU DO THIS?

1) SET YOUR GOAL.
My personal goals are to lose 17.5% of my body weight by our anniversary (Which we will be celebrating in Vegas! Holla!) and to exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. Those are two very manageable goals. They are also challenging. Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean it will be EASY. 

2) IDENTIFY WHAT MOTIVATES YOU
I am motivated by treats...clothes, shoes, certain activities... I'll delve more into that later. What motivates me about these things is that I don't always spend money on these things. I would suggest picking things that are actual rewards and not things you'd just go out and buy anyway.

3) GET IN IT TO WIN IT!
No seriously...

I keep my "rewards" list on my phone in a note. I delete things from it as I go along. I have two sets of rewards- a treat for every pound lost and a treat for every 10 days that I don't miss a workout. It looks something like this:

REWARDS FOR LOSING ONE LB EVERY TEN DAYS (Very very doable)
January 10- Pair of Shoes
January 20- New Book
February 1- Nail Polish/Lipstick
February 10- Movie Date
February 20- Dress
March 1- Manicure
March 10- Bowling
March 20- Spa Day

REWARDS FOR NOT MISSING A WORKOUT FOR PREVIOUS 10 DAYS

January 10- Donut

January 20- Cake

February 1- Frozen Yogurt

etc.

***Yes I know people say don't reward yourself with food BUT I don't believe in depriving myself. Believe me, if I knew the only way I could have a slice of cake from Cheesecake Factory was to workout every day...I'll be sweating forever! I would never reward myself for losing weight with food, but I will reward myself for working hard. Even if it is counterproductive. 

So yeah, some people might think it's a bit overkill to reward yourself for every measly pound. Maybe that's true. But consider this my blessing and encouragement that you would do the same thing with whatever your goal is. I know that if I only reward myself every 5 or 10 lbs I would certainly become discouraged. So set your goal, hang in there, and TREAT YO SELF!

Resolutions and Solutions

Happy New Year!

Admittedly 2012 wasn't the greatest year. It took from me both of my grandmothers and I'd be lying if I said that moving to sunny California has been anything other than a challenge. Somedays Husband looks at me and says, "let's just go home." 

But there are silver linings to every dark cloud.

Like most new years eves, Husband had to work. We decided to have dinner at a little Greek restaurant to celebrate since a year would come and go and that's something to celebrate.

At dinner we talked about our resolutions for next year.

It took Husband all night to decide that his resolution was to feel less emotional about his sports teams. I'm sure it won't be easy but I think his poor heart deserves a break.

My resolution is to finish 2013 feeling healthier than I feel today. I do believe in and have measurable goals (get moving 30 minutes a day, lose x amount of lbs, etc.). I just felt like this was the most important. 

I DO feel healthier than I did a year ago and that's not something to scoff at even if the scale doesn't make me smile as much as I'd like.

Together we agreed that we would start focusing on the positives of being out here in Los Angeles. More emphasis on the reasons we came here in the first place.

We came for a two year adventure. To see places we'd never go otherwise. We didn't come here to settle roots and we both agreed that when we try to make California our "home" it just fails to meet our expectations. I'd hate to think that we'd move home in a year and a half and not have seized this great opportunity. I saw somewhere the saying that, "Comparison is the Thief of Joy," and in my experience that's been 100% true. 

Today at lunch we are finally going to make an actual "California Bucket List" and I suspect it will be amazing. 

So I hope you all have real resolutions that will make you happier, healthier and maybe a little bit more grateful. Good luck with your resolutions and share them here if you'd like. :) Happy New Year!

How to Pretend You Aren't Poor

This post may seem silly, but in these hard economic times this is a very real thing happening in our little casa! After all, I always say Los Angeles is Spanish for "expensive." That and one of the goals of this blog from the very beginning was getting healthy without breaking the bank.

We aren't really poor and we certainly aren't wealthy, but we are really good at budgeting and are trying to be better at saving. All this adds up to times where we are trying to build our savings and not spend frivolously. Right now we are saving every penny in hopes of going on a big trip to the Philippines in the Spring.

The real tragedy of saving is not being able to just buy something unnecessary without thinking about it first. To me, that feeling of indiscriminate shopping is what makes me feel very, very rich. (Imagine I said that in Nene Leakes voice)

Gift Cards = Magic Currency

Anytime Husband or I get a gift card for anything birthday, Christmas, whatever, we always ALWAYS put it aside for a rainy day. If we need to buy something and it's in our budget we just buy it, even if we have a gift card. 

When those budget crunching times come along, as they often do, and we are in a funk we just pull out those gift cards and go wild. Almost literally.

I know it seems silly but it actually helps a lot. Using gift cards during budget crunches is a lot more satisfying than using them in times when we have the extra cash to burn. If you can hold on to them long enough the reward is awesome.

Example: last week we were in a mega crunch. We had just received our first electricity bill after living here for 3 months because of a glitch and it was a lot higher than we planned for. How can you guesstimate a 3 month bill you've never seen? We could have broken it into installments but we decided to tough it out and pay it off all at once. Once that happened all of our "fun money" was gone. After about a week we were getting cabin fever. We took our gift cards out and bought a much needed wifi signal extender at Target and both got shoes on sale at Macy's. 

It was a little trip that felt fantastic. Shopping really is a therapeutic experience.

So that's my money tip. Do you do anything kind of strange like this?

Workout Reboot: Ease into 5K

Last week and the subsequent weekend was amazing. One night in Vegas was just enough time to see my sister, bro-in-law, and friends. It was wonderful, exciting and glittery. We will definitely be going back.

Yet, as I return back to my efforts at a lifestyle change I can't help but feel...uninspired. And here comes a little dose of too much talk:

I need a workout REBOOT!

I don't know what will work. What I do know is that I'm not going to sit on this blog all day every day and pretend to the four of you that read this (hi mom!) that it's all sunshine and roses. I feel bored, like a little hamster on a treadmill. 

App Screen Shot (via Ease into 5k)

In the interest of honesty I think it's important to note that being surrounded in a city of health nuts doesn't a health nut make. 

SO...This morning I am restarting Ease into 5K, a workout I've attempted a few times and completed at least once. 

I wish I loved working out.

I wish I enjoyed changing my clothes into workout clothes.

I wish I enjoyed sweating.

I wish I personally understood what the hell Elle Woods was talking about in "Legally Blonde" about the euphoria of endorphins. 

But I don't. And maybe you don't either.

Just because you don't LOVE to workout doesn't mean you can't ever meet your personal fitness goals OR that you won't ever love working out. 

I stopped running because my 27 year old knees started to sound like they belonged to an old lady. 

But I can JOG into a 5K, can't I?

Of course. Who cares how fast I'm moving. All I care about is MOVING!

Easy Peasy Ease into 5K

I believe in Ease into 5K (the artist formerly known as Couch to 5K). I watched it turn many a friend into a LEGIT runner. Like signing up for 5Ks legit. 

If you don't know how it works then you've missed a big memo on interval training.

Ease into 5K is a program/app/way of life that takes people who have never run before and "eases" them into it with an 8 week program. You run 3x a week with a plan of run-walk-run-walk where each week the running time gets a little bit longer. 

It works. 

It doesn't matter what you think. 

If you are huffing and puffing one week while running for only 90 seconds you will still be able to make it a whole 8 minutes and then eventually 30.

So today I take the first step, again, out the door and down the road. Blasting Kanye, who I know writes all his songs in the gym, and hopefully beating the midday socal heat. Wish me luck. Reboot and restart is always, ALWAYS better than REGRETS.

Happy Monday!

Andrea

Weekend Weigh In 4

So we are currently in Vegas and heading home later today. I wasn't joking about the one night only. But I still have a recap from this week:

First, what you may have missed:

Bethenny's Booze & Butts

Building Plans for a Rainbow Masterpiece

The Horror of Treadmill Runners

Adorable Picture of Husband Eating a Burger

Star Wars Neighbors and Religious Experiences




The last one is my favorite. Onto the goals I set when I began this blog:

LIVE AN ACTIVE LIFE  
One thing I've started doing is tricking myself into thinking I'm living an active life. How am I doing this? By wearing workout clothes every second of the day. Seriously, on Wednesday I looked down and thought, "have I taken these tennis shoes off?" Maybe I'm on to something...

EAT DELICIOUSLY
Done and done. Had some great low calorie dinners this week but we also splurged and went to one of our favorites: a revolving sushi restaurant. I guess I'll get into Vegas food at a later date...


READ FOOD LABELS   
Did I mention I had icing for "brunch" this week? Oy...Some things should not be brought into the house. I question how I continue to meet my fitness goals with these grenades hidden everywhere. 'Tis a miracle!


NOT BLOW OUR RENT AT THE GROCERY STORE 
Jokes on you grocery store...we didn't have to go this week! Shout out to expert meal planning. :)

Week 4 of Cajun in California...let's hope what happens here stays here!

A Tale of Two Treadmills

This story could happen in any town. In fact, if you're a gym novice you've probably encountered this. I'm not going to label this as a horror story but my internal monologue was just that dramatic when it happened.

It all happened a couple days ago in our building's gym.

Husband and I showed up and after a little go on the elliptical machine I decided to hop on the treadmill. Here's something you need to know:

I am terrified of running on the treadmill.

I can get it up to 3.5 mph before I feel like I'm going to miss a step and fly into the stationary bikes behind me. My goal is to learn how to run on a treadmill which is apparently the easiest thing to do because everyone in our gym seems to be able to do it. 

Joyful treadmill runners. WTH? (allposters.com)

Treadmill running happens on the regular so it wasn't a big surprise. What DID happen was this...

I hop on the treadmill and see the machine next to me is covered in stuff. So much stuff that one might think the person using the machine is living there. This person had arm and leg weights, a water bottle, an iPod with headphones, towels, and etc small items I couldn't see. This individual was nowhere to be found.

I start going my usual 3.5 mph on a slight incline and I'm watching tv when all of the sudden, GYM BRUNETTE BARBIE comes strolling out of the sauna and gets on the machine next to me.

WHAT. THE. HECK. 

Not only did her outfit look perfect like she was dressed by the editors of Shape Magazine there was not a hair out of place. She just got out of the sauna barely sweating with perfect makeup. She looked like she was in her mid-to-late 40s but had definitely had work done on her face and maracas. I can't fault her for that because who in this town hasn't had work done? That's like pointing out she had arms. But more importantly, WHO IS THIS ALIEN?

I looked down at my ensemble.

I was wearing one of four pairs of yoga pants I own and one of Husband's oversized shirts. My hair had the just electrocuted and thrown in a rubber band look and no, I was not wearing any makeup and I was not "glistening."

To make matters worse, this older lady dressed to perfection puts on the arm and leg weights and starts RUNNING on the treadmill at a ridiculous incline.

If someone had taken a picture of that moment it would have been the most amazingly hilarious compare and contrast picture of all times.

The point of this whole post is that somewhere between the feelings I had of utter confusion and total embarrassment I realized something: 

This lady works hard.

Maybe she could run on the treadmill the day she started at the gym. Maybe she wears a wig and that's why her hair is so perfect. Maybe she is just naturally athletic and this is second nature to her. But she is working at it. I don't think I could ever be where that woman is, but I got up and walked down the hall to the gym after going through the effort of picking the perfect oversized t-shirt out of Husband's drawer. Truth be told, when she started sprinting uphill next to me I felt a little braver and I pushed the button and went up to 3.6 mph.

Maybe one day I will run on the treadmill. I mean I guess it should be on a goal list somewhere. 

That and "never sweating."  How did she do that?!!?!

Weekend Weigh In 2 & 3

Well I anticipated having a busy weekend life and it has finally happened...kind of. My mother-in-law was in town visiting on a stop between the Philippines and Louisiana. As husband said, "we are eating like it's Thanksgiving!" Which is half true. I didn't want to waste any precious time we had with her here hanging out in our gym, BUT I did make an effort to not overindulge which was moderately successful. In any event, I'm back in the game!


LIVE AN ACTIVE LIFE
I didn't feel great two weeks ago and this past week was a mad dash to get back on schedule so I did a lot of working out at home. We are still doing our nightly walks with the pup. This week will be so busy I definitely need to plan ahead to get my workouts in. Priorities! I've already put in my planner some time with ye olde elliptical! 


EAT DELICIOUSLY
I feel like this was a hit. Obviously we ate out a great deal these past few weeks so we were eating amazing food. My brother-in-law actually marinated the BEST MUSHROOMS I've ever had. I say this hoping that I can accurately convey how much I used to hate mushrooms. I'm also pleased to report that we had dinner with friends on Monday and it took moving all the way to California for me to eat Louisiana boiled crabs! How I missed this all these years we may never know. Why didn't anyone tell me how much work it was to eat one of those things?



READ FOOD LABELS  
Once again I rely heavily on my good friend MyFitnessPal and this week I kind of ignored her. It's so hard to log what you're eating when you are at not chain restaurants. I tried to make good choices and go for veggies and whatnot, but I made a cake (which I'll be detailing Monday) with my niece and the food labels were...well, shocking to say the least. I wouldn't suggest making it and eating it alone. Oy.



NOT BLOW OUR RENT AT THE GROCERY STORE 
Since we have been so good saving our pennies for a BIG BIG BIG trip next Spring, we decided we'd indulge juuuuust a little bit and spend $20 at Trader Joe's on things not on our shopping list. I make a grocery list every two weeks and we hardly ever veer off that path so it was nice to just play, "Omg doesn't that look delicious!" And I have to tell you...it was! The soy creamy bars in my freezer are lucky they haven't been inhaled. So, so good.


So onto recipes, workouts, and another week of living amongst the beautiful people!

Weeks 2 & 3 of Cajun in California...I declare you a hit and miss!!

Dogs Pounds

I read a lot of health magazines, blogs, news articles, scribbles on bathroom walls, etc.


I read somewhere once before that you can tell if you're out of shape easily if you have a pet. I doubt a hamster will do, but if you have a dog hypothetically you should be able to see if you're packing a little extra poundage if your dog has also gained weight. I guess the idea is that if your dog isn't working out you probably aren't either.

I don't know where I read this or what kind of science is behind it but of course I had to test it out.

This is my dog Julia Sugarbaker (aliases include Julie, Julie Girl, Juju, Lulu, Louis, Louie, Little Girl and "are you kidding me?!")

I talk about my dog a lot. Since I don't know many people here in California she is now my best friend as well as child. When we adopted her last January she weighed about 35 lbs and was just 9 months old.

We don't know really what she is but everyone has an opinion about it. This makes it hard to know what an ideal weight should be.

Here she is in her physical prime:

What an angel and admittedly she does photograph slim. 


Well I decided to see how much she's weighing these days. I weighed myself and then lifted her up and weighed us together. I should have known when I picked her up that she is not as light as she used to be!

At a little over a year and a half Julia weighs SIXTY ONE pounds.

Immediately my brain started spinning. WE ARE UNHEALTHY AND THE DOG KNOWS IT!


Not to mention yesterday we reordered some medicine for her and got judged for her being over 60 lbs. Hellllloooo! Muscle weighs more than fat! She might be big boned! She's retaining water!


My brain jumped to the first logical connection: Those massive overweight toddlers on Jenny Jones (tell me you remember her show. I hope she won an emmy or something for that because it was art!). 

Basically in my mind dog = child. Child = chunk-a-monk. Chunk-a-monk = Jenny Jones massive toddler mother. 


Is there a greater guilt? And don't worry about me fat shaming my dog on the internet. We talked about it. She's cool.


Needless to say, Julia is having longer walks these days. She's so lazy she immediately sits next to her water to drink it. You know, standing is hard y'all!

I would say this is a wake-up call but we already knew that we needed to change our habits. Now we know we really are in this together. Dog and all! I guess I'll start keeping track of her weight progress too. Sigh. 

If you do decide to go home and weigh your dog let me know how it goes. 

XO Andrea

Weekend Weigh In

Since I anticipate being busy on the weekends (in this magical fantasy life I lead that as of yet does not exist) I figured the weekends would be a good time to recap where I am in my efforts.


LIVE AN ACTIVE LIFE
I must say I didn't spend as much time in the gym this week as I normally do. Instead I started doing nightly walks with our dog. I am going to consider this a win because normally we go to the dog park every now and then and Juju enjoys naps the rest of the day. She has inherited her mother's gene when it comes to not wanting to exercise! I did meet the weekly weight loss goal I set for myself but overall I wish I had been more active. I could have done more.

EAT DELICIOUSLY
I feel like this was a hit and miss this week. We did have the delicious Low Cal Bacon, Egg & Cheese Ring for breakfast this week but the Frozen Banana Failure is still lingering in my mind. We did eat one of our favorite dishes last night- the easiest tilapia recipe in the world. I'll be sharing that next week because it is so low on the calories I was able to enjoy some wine after dinner. That my friends is a dream come true!

READ FOOD LABELS
I feel like I do this pretty often since I am a faithful MyFitnessPal user, but this week I really tried to pay attention to the amount of sodium. To be honest, I know a lot of it is bad and I don't know why. Blame it on my upbringing but salt is like air in most of the dishes I enjoy, I don't necessarily have to acknowledge its presence but I can feel the effects. So I think in the upcoming week I will be learning about why everyone here hates salt so much.

NOT BLOW OUR RENT AT THE GROCERY STORE
I made my first trip to Walmart in two months. Despite it being my least favorite of my least favorite stores you can get some really sweet deals. (How does rotel get cheaper than ROTEL? It does at the W.) Because I saved so much at the W by sticking to my list and not turning my nose up to Great Value I went a head and splurged JUST a little and bought some tasty things at a fancier grocery store. So win-win.


Week 1 of Cajun in California...I declare you a success!