really boring title.

Please excuse the lack of creativity, I haven't had my coffee yet today.

This week I maintained at WI. I've been working out more, and eating more, and not trying to restrict myself so much during the week for the sake of the weekend. You see, I used to use lots of weekly points over the weekend and then none during the week. Buuuut that was when I wasn't really exercising, so I couldn't get away with eating extras so close to WI. Also, I probably could have, but that was my mentality. I was still treating WW as a diet, restricting myself for the sake of the number on the scale. The last few weeks have been different, though. I've *gasp* eaten over my daily points almost every day, including Thursdays. The horror! But then I step on the scale on Friday, and eureka! A loss! Incredible. I guess it doesn't matter when I eat, as long as I make good choices. Sure, the first week might result in a gain, but then everything evens out. I'm so much happier with this. I don't feel guilty for the midnight cookie that was well within my points the night before I step on the scale. Not even a little. Not even an ounce. I guess I'm learning.

Today also marked the start of the next cycle in my challenge. I've been thinking about what my new goal would be, and decided to stick with something activity-based. My eating is pretty good right now. I'm still planning ahead, and making the best choices possible (most of the time). Yesterday, I even went so far as to throw out chicken nuggets. Awesomely-nice-but-mildly-pushy-when-it-comes-to-food coworker brought me McNuggets when all I asked for was an iced coffee. This happens on the regular. Normally I eat the nuggets (at just 5PP for the 4pc box, I'm not too shaken up), take something out of my meal plan for the day, and move along. Yesterday, I ate two and then realized I wasn't hungry. And I had packed yummy food for lunch. Why was I eating the nuggets? The last two went into the trash. Progress!

Anyway. Back to the challenge. I thought back on the last 3 weeks and how my mileage happened. It took me 3 days each week to get the 5 miles in (more so because I was running before work and didn't feel like waking up earlier than because I couldn't do more mileage). So for this new cycle, I'm stepping it up a little. If I up the mileage to 6, which is a baby step, I can still get away with pushing everything into 2 or 3 days. I need to do more. SO this cycle's goal will be: workout 4 days every week. This will definitely be a little bit of a stretch, but should be just enough to get me exercising on the regular. Also, it helps with my foodie habit by giving me more wiggle room.

I love wiggle room.

things my camera sees, and then forgets to tell you about, part 2 (two).

SUNDAY.

I have recently become a fan of Pinterest, which is like a bulletin board / scrap-booking social network. Basically, you "pin" pictures you like to boards you set up on your profile, and share them with lots of people. You can also pin pictures that other people have on their boards. The concept is great because it allows you to find something you really like on the internetz, and revisit it at a later date without having to do a lengthy search or overloading your bookmarks bar. When you pin something, the picture has the source link embedded in it so you can always go back to the original website! Why is this relevant, you ask? Because one day while browsing through other boards, I came across a pin that led to a recipe for homemade Cheez-its. o.m.g. I immediately pinned the recipe to my "om nom nom" board, and told my friend L that we would be making them over the weekend when she was coming over to meet the pupster. She was equally excited. I'm not going to post the recipe, because if you click on the link above it'll take you to the original site. Let Katrina show you! I will, however, show you pictures of our adventure.

The dough. Super complicated - cheese, flour, butter and a teensy bit of water. We used whole wheat flour.

The dough, complete with little pin pricks in the middle

Putting the crackers on a baking sheet. Go me!

    

Aaahhhhh I'm sideways!!

Cheez-its love the outdoors...

I love ovens! And cheese!

These things were super delicious! I wish we had made more to have later. Except we totally would have eaten them right then and there. They only took like 25min from start to finish. Seriously guys, go make them now.

So that was the most exciting part of my Sunday. Monday was spent hanging out with Mr Chester, which was super fun! The weather wasn't great anyway, so I probably would have just complained the entire time had I gone outside somewhere. Win-win.

things my camera sees, and then forgets to tell you about, part 1 (one).

I'm great at taking pictures. Really. The hard part? Plugging my camera in, uploading all those photos, and then blogging about them. I'm exhausted just thinking about the whole process. Or maybe I'm exhausted from the workout I just finished. In my new running shoes. Oh yeah. 

Basically, I have pictures from like, a month ago, that I took specifically for the purpose of blogging, and then I forgot and blogged about other things. So let's just pretend like we just came off an amazing fourth of July weekend and I want to tell you all about it. K? K.

Saturday the boyfriend and I went to a double header Nationals vs Pirates game. It was roughly 95 500* (Celsius, duh) outside, and I complained like a baby until the shade found us. Which wasn't until 5:30. We arrived at 1. Awesome. 

This is my "zomg it's so hot out someone get me an ice pack STAT!" face

 

All in all, it was a really fun time! We sat next to a group of guys who hands down had to be the funniest hecklers ever, so we had non-stop entertainment during what otherwise would have been a very boring game. Seriously, there was no action out in left field (where our seats were - and before you make fun of me, we were in the front row and had a great view of everything! And we got the hecklers. Huge bonus) until about the last 2 innings of the second game. For reals. Both games were overall pretty low-scoring, and there were some really stupid fumbles by a few players that caused mucho disappointment. In the end, each team won one game. It was nice that the Nats at least won the second game, so we could end on a high note.

 

Woooooo

After the game, they set off fireworks! It was a pretty awesome display, and perfect because I was going to miss out on the actual day-of celebrations to have a hot date with puppy Chester.

Now I'm going to be all fancy and break up the post so it's not like, a billion pages long. Except everything shows up on one page. The beauty of the internetz.

puppy pictures of epic proportions. how's that for alliteration and awesomeness?

So, we're puppy-sitting this week (in case you haven't heard, which you probably have). I took 65 pictures on Sunday alone. I kid you not. This, combined with the fact that I've now figured out that uploading pictures to my Picasa account allows me to blog with photos from anywhere, means I'm going to now shower you with pictures of puppies of infinite cuteness and cuddleability (real word? Maybe...)

While we're here, I'd like to mention that I got my butt out of bed this morning and did the final 2 miles of my 5mi/wk goal! I decided that sleeping in tomorrow morning and allowing my legs to rest a little was far more important than spacing out the mileage, and really, 2 miles is nothing. It only feels like a lot because I have no interest in waking up earlier than I already do, leaving me with the problem of trying to cram 2 miles into a smaller amount of time than I'd normally take to walk/run 2 miles. Big life problems, I know. Anyhoo, the point is I finished my mileage, and tomorrow I get to sleep in. Until 7:45. Yeah, that's awesome.

And now, pictures!

Sasha, Chester and Swagger all exchange their hello's

Playtime has begun! Starting to get into it!

Puppies play by biting each other in the face. True story.

Chester grabbed hold of Swagger's tail and followed him around for a few minutes.

"Aahhhh let me go!!"

The closest to "laying still" I got all afternoon.

I may post more pictures later, since I just got a fancy new camera for my birthday from my parents. Yes, I know my birthday is in September. But, like my father, I have a habit of buying things that I want before others have the chance to get it for me. So this was a genius move on their part. The camera is awesome - I actually spent a good 20 minutes last night taking pictures of my ceiling fan in motion, and being super duper impressed by the camera's ability to make the shot look like the fan was off the whole time. It's amazing. I love it. 

Are you listening in, mom and dad? I'm appreciative!

monday, for lack of more creativity.

Today, for some reason, I felt compelled to post.

I don't have much to say, but I suppose I could do a weekend recap of some sort.

FOOD: relatively good choices, fully tracking each and every meal. Go me.

ACTIVITY: none, zip, zero. And you know what, I'm totally ok with that. I super-badly needed sleep Friday night (getting home at 2am from Harry Potter 7 part dos didn't help), and slept almost until noon on Saturday. Sunday I was up a little earlier, but had zero desire to workout.

FUN: 100%. Saturday consisted of hanging out with a few friends, and dinner with my parents that night. Sunday was chock full of family time, and the receiving of puppy Chester's brother! After watching the two of them play for hours non-stop last night, I'm exhausted. It was complete hilarity, and I have no idea how they have so much energy! They slept super well last night, which is good, because well, sleeping through the entire night is always a good thing.

I have pictures. I'll post them when they actually make it onto my computer.

This morning, I woke up bright and early and did 1.35 miles on the treadmill. Nothing major, just working on my habit of regularly running. I'm learning that 7am really doesn't deserve all the flack I give it for being so freaking early. The thing is, when I'm not working until midnight it's actually possible for me to get a decent night's sleep and wake up at 7am. Would I like to do this every day? No. But a few days a week is really no biggie. And even after only 15-20min of intervals, I feel way more awake than I ever do by snoozing the alarm an extra 15-20 minutes. Don't tell anyone this, but I don't even need my morning coffee when I work out in the morning. Revolutionary, I know.

Tonight I'm revisiting Graffiato, this time with dear friend B. Awesome-amazing-totally cool brother got us seats at the counter in his section, so we'll be dining while watching the chefs at work! Extreme awesomeness. Tonight I'm hoping to try the super trufflicious pizza on the menu (Countryman). It just sounds to.die.for.

Maybe I'll update once I'm out of my expected food coma.

Maybe.

updates and such.

Today marked the first day of the second week of the second challenge round of OP2OVERCOME. Mouthful? Maybe. I started my second challenge last Friday (well I started it earlier and then reset because I was failing hard), and made it through an entire week. The challenge? Run or walk 5 miles each week. 5 measly miles. Being the fantastic procrastinator I am, I waited until Wednesday to even start the mileage. That gave me a whopping 2 days to fit workouts somewhere into my schedule. Did I mention I hadn't been running in days weeks months? Awesome.

Wednesday I got my butt out of bed early and did 1.75 miles of running and walking intervals. I wanted to die. Yesterday, I did 2.25 miles before work and wanted to die less. Actually, I would venture to say it even felt good. On my lunch break, instead of being a lump and sitting in front of my computer on the internetz, I went for a walk. 1 mile. BAM! 5 miles done. This week, I have no intention of procrastinating. But then again, who ever does?

Last week I had a slight massive gain, which I attributed to copious amounts of sodium (bacon cheese fries. nommmm) the night before. Whatever, it'll come off by next WI. Right?

Kind of. This morning I was down .6lbs, which is like, 20% of what I gained last week (See? I told you it was massive). In the correct general downward direction? Yes. Leaving me slightly disappointed? Only slightly. Here's the thing - I did really well this week. Like, really well. I pre-tracked every day, I got in more activity than I have in a long time, and I've been drinking water like I'm a fish. I'll take the new weight and go from here. I know, I know. I say that almost every week. But really guys, I think I'm in a good place right now. 

And now, since we all know posts without pictures are lame, I'll leave you with some puppy Chester love. It's amazing how much he's grown the past few weeks! It's also amazing that he listens. Does he still chew on my hand like it's a bone? Sure. But he stays when I tell him to, he goes in his crate when I tell him to, and he comes when I call. That, my friends, is progress. Also, it's really stinkin' cute when I sit on the floor and he walks up to me with a toy, sits in my lap and goes to town on said toy. I love having puppy blanket.

Puppy Chester says "Why are you staring at me? I'm just trying to enjoy myself behind this here chair. I love wedging into small corners!"

pretty sure i was supposed to tell you about truckeroo, and then i forgot..

What the heck is truckaroo, you ask? 

Pure awesomeness, I tell you!

Food trucks, if you're been living under a rock, are this year's "it" thing. Sure, they've always been around (usually in the form of a little cart downtown that serves questionable-looking hot dogs, Polish (not polished) sausages, and the safer choices of bottled drinks and chips. Now you can find anything from barbeque to mac and cheese to lobster rolls (if you live in the DC area, just follow @foodtruckfiesta for daily maps of truck locations! It's fantastic). Lines tend to be a little on the long side, so plan accordingly. If you're like me, planning accordingly means purposely picking the truck with the longest line. That's usually where the best food is. True foodie right here.

On the first Friday of each month, 15-20 food trucks gather in one fenced off area just off the metro near Nationals stadium, and open their...windows...from 11am-9pm. The first Friday of June my brother, his girlfriend and I trekked down to the event to check it out. As much as I love trying new foods, my schedule doesn't necessarily allow for a lot of lunching downtown, which unfortunately cuts down on my number of food truck experiences. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that. (See how much I trust you?)

Entry is free, and you get a bracelet if you're 21+ because this party ain't for kids. Except kids are all over the place. Start 'em young! (On the food trucks, not the adult beverages. Clearly.) We walked around for a few minutes and decided to divide and concquer the lines. I chose this one (the one on the right):

It may not seem like much, but the line was literally a good 50ish people when I stepped in, and took about 20-30min to get through. The truck is TaKorean, which serves Korean barbeque tacos. They have 3 types on the menu at all times - bulgogi (marinated beef ribs), tofu and chicken. That day they also had a special marinated pork. You can get them either singly or in sets of 3, and it's totally kosher to mix and match. I picked up 6 of these bad boys and did a combo of the 4 proteins so we could try each. The beef was the winner among all three judges, with the pork coming in a close second. 

While I was waiting in line at TaKorean, my brother and his girlfriend went around to a pie truck, a barbeque truck, and a mac and cheese truck. The pie was decent but nothing to write home about. The barbeque was pretty tasty! The star of the show was definitely the mac and cheese though, from CapMac. We tried their classic, which has loads of cheddar cheese, some pimiento for a little kick, and crumbled cheez-its on top for crunch. The second kind we tried was a goat cheese mac with a *gasp* pea pesto! If you know anything about me, it's the fact that I hate peas. With a passion. So much so that I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this a bajillion times. Here's the kicker....I liked it. 

*Pause for effect*

I LIKED IT! My brother ordered it for me because all I saw was the name, which said everything about goat cheese and nothing about peas. Me finding out about the peas would have entailed one of the following: A) me reading the description of said mac, or B) my brother telling me about the peas, because he read the description. Neither happened. Halfway through I found a part of a pea shell, and realized what had happened. Of course my brother was laughing hysterically because this is exactly how we used to get him to eat things as a kid (I never had this issue, because I'd eat anything. Except peas). Yes, he found this hysterical. Somewhere, on that day, you may have seen a pig flying or possibly hell freezing over. That would be why.

To finish off our well-rounded meals, we stopped at the popsicle truck. As soon as I saw strawberry-rhubarb on the menu, I was sold. I checked to make sure there were no peas (har har) and went for it. Brother and girlfriend got chocolate, kind of like fudgsicles.

So excited for our pops!

The pop truck was even giving away leis! So Girlfriend and I each got one in colors that matched our dresses.

We then tied them in knots so they looked kind of like bow ties. We're so awesome.

All in all, it was a super fun afternoon, and something I would definitely go to again. And you should come, too.