This Week in Fitness/Boston Trip

Sorry I'm late this week! I don't know if anyone actually cares about these fitness posts, but I feel accountable for sharing my workouts (or lack there of, as the case may be this week)! The reason for my late post this week is because I was traveling back from a fabulous trip to Boston on Monday!

And things are only going to get crazier from here....the big move officially starts next week! Ahhhh! Bear with me through my potential lack of posting over the next few weeks. I'll try to pop in from time to time!

Monday 7/11: 45 minutes walking on the treadmill at alternating inclines between 5.0-10.0

Tuesday 7/12: 30 Day Shred Level 3 + 15 minutes walking on the treadmill (10 min. @ 8.0, 5 min. @ 2.0)

Wednesday 7/13: 25 minutes of intervals (1 min. run & 1 min. walk) plus a 5 minute warm-up and a 10 minute cool-down (40 minutes total)

Thursday-Monday: Rest Days....On vacation in Boston with my friends! We walked (and danced) a TON though so I still got some good movement in. :)

Just for kicks, here are some of my favorite pics from Boston...

Me at the ocean!

The whole group at Cheers....where everybody knows your name!

Connie, Lori & Me dancing the night away!

We're Army wives....but we support all branches of the miltary!! :)

This random guy photo-bombed this picture of Lindsey and it makes me laugh.

Ice cream!! My vacations always revolve around food! (That's me, Lindsey & Lori)


More dancing/singing. (Lindsey, Kate & Emma)

Walking the streets of Beantown. (Me, Emma & Connie)

This Week in Fitness

Monday 6/6: Rest Day

Tuesday 6/7: 3 hour hike in the Sedona Red Rocks (AMAZING!! See photos below)

Wednesday 6/8: Rest/Travel Day (end of vacation...sad face)

Thursday 6/9: Jackie's X-Treme Timesaver Training + 5-4-3-2-1 Treadmill Workout (5 minute warmup walk--5 min jog/run--2 min walk--4 min jog/run--2 min walk--3 min jog/run--2 min walk--2 min jog/run--2 min walk--1 min jog/run--3 min cooldown walk)

Friday 6/10: 1 mile jog + 4 mile walk

Saturday 6/11: 20 Minute Sweat + Jackie's 1-on-1 Core (both from Exercise OnDemand)

Sunday 6/12: Treadmill Workout that went like this: 5 minute warm-up walk, 8 minute jog, 4 minute walk, 6 minute jog, 3 minute walk, 4 minute jog, 2 minute walk, 2 minute jog, 5 minute cool-down walk

I'm feeling a bit down about my fitness this week because it appears as though my running endurance has suffered a LOT from my 2 week hiatus. Between the sickness and the vacation, I just kind of let things slide for a while and it is totally coming back to bite me.

On Friday, as you can see, I attempted a jog but was seriously suffering after 1 mile. ONE MILE! Are you kidding me?! So I stopped and walked it out the rest of the way, getting angrier with every step.

Needless to say, 10K training has been put on the back burner until I can get my endurance up to 5K standards again. I'm hoping it'll come back quickly, because I feel like I worked way too hard to get to this point for it to all disappear after only 2 weeks.

On a totally different note, my favorite part of this week was definitely the amazing hike we took in Sedona, AZ. Sedona is known for having beautiful red rock formations and mild weather. It is seriously God's Country and there are breathtaking views everywhere you look. We had the BEST time and would definitely recommend Sedona as a vacation spot to anyone. It will be well worth it!

Here are some photos of our hike for your viewing pleasure!

Eating my Way Through Seattle

That's right, I said SEATTLE!

I kind of disappeared from Blogland before the trip so I didn't have a chance to let my readers know that I'd be traveling but...well I did! :)


Three of my college girlfriends/sorority sisters and I decided a while back to have a little reunion trip in Seattle, where one of the girls currently lives. Needless to say I was SO excited for a vacation and for a chance to catch up with the girls.


Instead of going over all the details of trip on the blog (which, I admit, I'm too lazy to do) I figured I would just focus on the one area that I typically gravitate towards: FOOD!


Because, vacations are all about the food anyway, right?!


THURSDAY:


We all arrived in Seattle late on Wednesday night so our first real Seattle meal was breakfast the following morning. For that we walked down to Pike's Place Market for a local Russian Bakery called Piroshky, Piroshky for....well, piroshkys!



A piroshky is a handheld, stuffed pie that can be filled with any variety of fillings. My piroshky was stuffed with "Smoked Salmon Pate" or basically a smoked salmon and cream cheese mixture. It was a really tasty filling but my favorite part was definitely the doughy bread...I'm a carbaholic! It was also great that the piroshky was portable so we could continue our exploring while eating.


For lunch later that day we found the food truck called Maximus Minimus, which is shaped like a metal pig!



They're known for their pulled pork sandwiches which are either spicy ("maximus") or mild ("minimus"). I ordered the "maximus" pork sandwich but was disappointed at how non-spicy it was. I'm a Texan, darnit...if you say it's gonna be spicy then it should at LEAST make my tongue burn a little. :) But other than the disappointing spiciness, it was a delicious sandwich!



Chomp!!


They also have cool drink options: Ginger Lemonade or Hibiscus Juice.

I had half of each combined, which was a sweet and tasty combo!


That night we decided to save a little money and cook our own meal! We went to Megan's apartment and cooked Seafood Risotto for dinner.




Yum!! I don't have the exact recipe that we used for this but this one looks really similar. It was actually really easy!


To finish off the night, Megan and her boyfriend Scott took us to their favorite ice cream shop, Molly Moon's.






FRIDAY:


Friday morning we just made breakfast at the apartment (scrambled eggs & toast), which is totally unexciting.


But we made up for it with lunch!



Caribbean Grilled Pork Sandwiches from Paseo, which is simply an open-air food booth located close to the Seattle beach. It doesn't look like much from the outside....





But OH.MY.GOD. do they ever know how to make a good sandwich!!

The pork was sooooo tender and juicy and the toppings made it all come together...grilled onions, avocado, lettuce, cilantro & garlic aioli. Holy crap this was good! I want another one now!


And well just look at this view that we had as we ate:



Yum on two counts: sandwich + view of ocean.


The only downside to this sandwich was that it was SO messy to eat! They totally fell apart on us but we didn't mind....we were too busy scarfing to care about the method of eating.


Friday night we went out to a restaurant called Eva, which specializes in fresh, local and seasonal cuisine.


We started out with an order of the mussels steamed with golden tomato, lime leaves, lemongrass and ginger. I forgot to get a picture of them before we devoured them so this is all you get.

The buttery leftover sauce was perfect for bread dipping!


For my main course, I ordered the Roast Pork which was served with southern green beans and grits.

This was SO YUMMY! The pork was soooooooo tender and juicy. The only thing I disliked was that I wished they had given me more grits. It looks like a lot in the photo but it wasn't nearly enough in real life. :)


Megan ordered the Roasted Quail with Chorizo Bread Pudding Stuffing and Sherry Jus.



Courtney ordered the Filet Mignon with Salsa Verde and a Saute of Roasted Potato, Red Onion and Autumn Vegetables.



And Lindsey ordered the Washington Salmon with Summer Squash Moussaka and an Eggplant Yogurt Sauce.

This was probably the only slightly disappointing dish from the bunch. It was just "eh".


We finished the night with an order of the Warm Apple Crisp with Cinnamon Ice Cream.
There's a pic of all of us with our delicious dessert!


SATURDAY:


Saturday was our "outdoorsy" day. We drove out to the Cascade Mountains and did a little hiking.

It was BEAUTIFUL!


Since we were hiking we kept lunch simple by packing Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches.


On our way back to Seattle we stopped into the Red Hook Brewery for a few brews and a snack.



We ordered a couple "flights" of brews for tasting purposes.



And a MASSIVE pile of nachos to share.

Totally hit the spot and canceled out all the calories that we had burned during our hiking excursion! :)


Saturday night we went out to a restaurant called Etta's, which is a Tom Douglas seafood restaurant.


We started out each ordering one of their DELICIOUS specialty cocktails.
These were so fun! I ordered the Vanilla Lime Martini but we all tasted each other's drinks and I think the overall winner was the Blood Orange Margarita!

For food we decided to just order a bunch of dishes and split them between the four of us. We started out with an order of the raw oysters.

And Mini Dungeness Crab Cakes.

Then we had the Cioppino (crab, mussels, clams, halibut, shrimp & calamari in a spicy tomato sauce).
The Ciopinno was flavorful and delicious and PERFECT for sharing, since there was a little of everything inside!

We also had the Halibut, which was served with crispy potatoes.
This one was good, but nothing too memorable.

We were too full after all that food so we passed on dessert.

Well that about covers all the food that we ate while in Seattle, but I just have to share some of these photos from our trip before I wrap it up.

Seattle was a foodie's heaven because everywhere you looked there was fresh, local, organic food!

Fresh flowers everywhere you looked...

And one of my favorite pictures from the trip....

Proper British Bacon! For some reason this just cracked me up. I mean, what is UNproper British Bacon??


So have YOU ever been to Seattle?? If not, I highly recommend you visit sometime! It's a beautiful and unique city. And if you visit in September or early October like us, you may get lucky and have perfect weather too!

Worry Not!

I promise I am working on a couple of posts to catch up!

I was out of town for 5 days over the past week and I've been trying to get caught up and unpacked since then.

I should have something "real" up by tomorrow, but until then here are a few teaser photos from my trip....

Any guesses on where I was?!?

P.S. My dad is having another major surgery tomorrow to remove his thyroid and his lymph nodes. If you have a spare moment, please send up a prayer for his surgery to go smoothly and as pain-free as possible. Thank you!

Lake Bound with the Girls

Today after work I'm headed to the lake to spend 4 glorious days playing on the lake with seven of these wonderful ladies:

On the Agenda:

-LOTS of gossip! Especially about a certain scumbag, soon-to-be ex-husband. {Not mine...don't worry. I'm still keeping my scumbag husband. haha just kidding, Alex!}

-LOTS of eating! We're loaded down with plenty of munchies! I have a feeling I'm gonna need to work out extra hard next week.

-Maybe a little adult beverage consuming. Or maybe a lot. Only time will tell. {Except for the two pregNERDS coming on the trip who will only be enjoying their fake beer and wine.}

-Hopefully not too much sunburning. I am extremly fair-skinned so I'm loaded up with plenty of SPF 70, yes 70, sunblock. Inevitably, I will still get burned at least once. It's Murphy's Law.

-No primping and/or looking cute. This is a tshirt & shorts only zone. No blow dryers and/or straighteners. Minimal makeup {some of us fair-skinned types need at least a touch of makeup to keep us from looking like a ghost}.

-Oh yeah and some fun on the boat and jet skis. I guess that is the point of going to a lake right? I will attempt to waterski again, although I have failed the last two times I tried. Hopefully I won't wipe out too hard. I don't like water up my nose. :)

So that sounds like a pretty good list. I'll be out of touch through Tuesday so everyone enjoy your weekend!

{P.S. In case you were wondering, I didn't post a "What's for Dinner?" last night because I went out to dinner at Boston's with the girls. I got an individual whole wheat Florentine pizza...my favorite! Oh and a margarita.}