Category: daily

For the first time in forevvvvver, I dressed up today! We had a festive time at the office with a costume contest and a potluck (I made a layered bean dip – let it never be said I can’t rock an appetizer, as that seems to be my forte, hmmm).

I dressed up as Aphrodite, Goddess of Looooove, but only because I A) couldn’t find a Medusa costume and B) one of my co-workers was already Athena, haha. I rocked a gold crown of leaves, huge gold chandelier earrings, etc. Most of my coworkers dressed up too! Since I have this costume now, next year I might dye it a green color and turn it into a Medusa costume if I can figure out a snake hat/wig. That would be rad.

(I had to ask one of my coworkers: “Are you a witch or a wench?” She laughed. She was a wench of the pirate variety.)

I even bought candy to hand out to the three trick or treaters that may or may not come to my door… some years I’ve had zero.

The above picture is from Hocus Pocus, my all time favorite Halloween movie. (My other favorites include the Disney Channel Halloweentown movies.)

Gosh, October was full of a lot of stuff. I was sick for two weeks with a head cold (I had a sore throat for like ten days straight, it sucked). I went on vacation to LA and visited with friends – we also went to Disneyland and ate at Carthay Circle and Steakhouse 55.

CARTHAY CIRCLE: The Story

So, Carthay Circle is a fancy restaurant in California Disney that is apparently a replica of the original Carthay Circle in Hollywood where Snow White and the Seven Dwarves premiered. It’s quite nice; the attention to detail is impressive. So, we got seated and were waiting for our food when the following thing happened:

Picture, if you will, the golden interior of the restaurant, a luxe forties theme with beautiful wood and painted ceilings. Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, a quiet ambiance.

The ambiance was broken by a woman rushing by our table with a young blond girl who was about eight. I saw it, as if in slow motion, the vomit spewing forth from the child’s mouth. Spewing all along the carpet next to our table. The woman and child turned the corner towards the exit of the restaurant, presumably to the bathrooms.

A pause. I caught S’s eye. “Did I just see what I think I saw?” I asked, hoping that I had not just witnessed VOMIT, but knowing that the truth was hidden on the other side of the table where, thankfully, I could not view it in its chunky glory. He glanced over at the floor, briefly. “Yes,” he replied.

And then the waiters started walking past our table, not seeing the vomit. S flagged one down to let them know so they would stop TRACKING IT ALL OVER THE RESTAURANT. And so, Miss Julie Ann stood by our table to direct traffic. She stood there for a good twenty minutes, guarding the napkin covered vomit. Our food arrived, vomit still on the floor.

The hazmat team (a guy in a white jumpsuit with a bucket) arrived and finally cleaned and disinfected the rug.

There is no telling what happened to the mom and her kid.

It was pretty funny.

All in all, our experience at Carthay Circle was one for the books! I would give the food a solid B. The pumpkin soup was delicious, as was the apple cake with apple sorbet for dessert. My Angus steak was just okay; I’ve had better (actually the filet the following evening at Steakhouse 55 inside the DL Hotel was pretty awesome). I don’t know that I would go back but it was fun to go once. I would like to work through trying out the other restaurants in the parks.

Anyway, we had a good time and now I’ve gotten Disneyland out of my system for the next few years.

So! Goodbye October, you were real. Hello November, with gravy anticipation and colder temps. One of my favorite months!

So, MyFitnessPal tells me I’ve logged in for 30 days straight. In that time, in addition to working on the 30-Day Shred, I’ve lost 9 pounds. WHOOP WHOOP!!

I actually haven’t been at this weight in several years, and while 9 lbs doesn’t seem a lot, it’s the most I’ve ever managed to lose. And I did it in one month. I’m looking forward to future progress!

I got sick last week with kind of a brutal head cold and have had a sore throat for like ten days, it sucks! Not gonna lie, I think was exacerbated by visiting friends who have a short hair cat. I am still allergic to cats, so that was sad. I went into the office Monday morning with no voice to merge a spreadsheet into labels and then was like, “I’m out!” and went home and pretty much slept all day. I’ve spent the rest of the week in zombie mode.

Today I managed to put some makeup on so I guess I’m feeling a little better. I have a work event tomorrow where I have to get up at the crack of dawn and be “on” all day on a Saturday, so here’s hoping there’s copious coffee! There is definitely copious overtime, so that’s cool. The event should be fun and we put a lot of work into it so I hope it goes well!

This week since I feel like roadkill I haven’t kept up with The Shred. I’m disappointed about this, as I only have 6 days to go before I complete it! Hopefully I’ll feel more up to it soon because I want to finish it before I head off on vacation on the 13th. For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed this workout and will definitely be repeating it in the future. But this week is definitely a wash as I feel more like lying down and sleeping. I don’t want to overdo it and be sick for 32 days again like I was in January.

Not that I was counting. :/

I really need a nap.

A few weeks ago I ran with a whim to complete the Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred workout video.

It’s circuit training and it’s tough! There are three different levels and you’re supposed to do 10 days at each level, moving up to the next level when you feel ready. Level 1 I thought was pretty challenging but definitely saw improvement in my ability to do the moves by the time I was done with my ten days.

Now I’m on Level 2 and there is planking and it makes me sad. Or rather, it makes my shoulders sad. I couldn’t even barely do the planking moves on Day 2 (I kind of stood there and watched and LOLed), my shoulders were so sore from the first day. Now though, not only can I plank but I can do the advanced moves. Plank twists are still really hard though.

I actually like Jillian Michaels, I like her no-nonsense approach to working out. When I finish the Shred, I’ve got her Ripped in 30 video waiting, and when I’m done with that, I’ll do the Shred again, possibly with heavier weights, depending on how RI30 goes. That should take me into the end of the year, and we’ll see how my body changes, which is actually (finally?) of interest to me. I may ask for her Body Revolution video series for Christmas as it’s kind of expensive.

At the beginning of September, I signed up for My Fitness Pal (MFP) which is an app/website that helps you track your calories and exercise. I’m finding it interesting. They have you log your starting weight and how much you want to lose per week (I picked 1 lb per week) and calculate what your daily calorie allotment should be in order to lose that weight. You get additional calories for however much exercise you do, which for me has ranged from 110-350 extra. I know that that can be an overestimation so I probably won’t eat back all those. But I shoot for eating around half or so.

I didn’t know that you were supposed to eat back the calories you burned from exercising, but it makes sense. So I’m starting to think that I probably wasn’t eating enough. Which seems sort of counter productive but I’m going to roll with it. I’ve been tracking my food and exercise since Labor Day and have lost four pounds so far! I think I also reached the point of the Shred where I had built up muscle and finally am losing weight, also it was helping to know how much I should be eating.

I find it much more sensible than Weight Watchers, though it’s pretty much the same thing. I just never really got into the groove with Points Plus, but I feel like I could stick with MFP. It’s really easy, which I appreciate. With Points Plus I just had a hell of a time making the right sorts of food decisions because you got hardly any points. Just frustrating. I like with MFP it tracks all your nutrition and you can track yourself. I don’t know why this is working for me, but it is, so I’m happy.

Anyway, so that’s what I’ve been up to lately: smoothies, Jillian Michaels, MFP.

I’m pretty much having an identity crisis, lol. My friend said to me today how different I’ve been lately, since I’m not so scheduled with everything I do and I’m much more adventurous / spontaneous, etc. For someone who has seen me every day for the last five years, I bet it does seem like I’m making a lot of changes, and I think I have been all this year, starting with the stepping. I’m just now upping my game and it’s happening all at once, kind of. First it was the smoothies at the beginning of August, then it was the Shred, and now it’s tracking my food.

I’m really serious about this now, you guys. So I don’t think I’ll be much fun to go out to restaurants with for the next few months. Because I’m not going to do it. I have a couple of fun places to look forward to (my LA vacation will definitely have some eating out) but for the most part, I’m in it to win it.

I set MFP to help me lose 75 pounds. Only 71 to go. :O