I'm Back!!

Sorry for not posting in awhile! I gave myself the time away from the computer while I was on "staycation", so this is my first time checking the blogger in awhile! My time off was everything I wanted out of a vacation. Good food, relaxing nights, lots of activity, and some quality time with my sisters, boyfriend, and the sunshine 8-)

Some highlights (and lowlights)
-I had really good mexican food on Thursday (and subpar mexican last night. Picture boiled chicken with zero seasoning, wrapped into a tortilla, covered in salsa, sprinkled with cheese and called an enchilada. I was starving, but at one point just stopped eating it, it was so plain and boring, and they put way too much chicken in it)

-I went hiking with my sisters on Saturday, got lost, and ended up burning over 1000 calories because we were gone for so long. And it was beautiful and peaceful to be lost off the beaten track (we were only 10-15 minutes away,so it wasn't scary!)

-I went kayaking with M on Sunday. Gorgeous day, the pond it was on is beautiful, and a lot larger than it initially appeared. We brought a healthy lunch, ate on the boat, and spent 2.5 hours out there. My arms/upper body wanted to kill me by the end of it, but I loved it :-)

-I drank, a lot. But it was so worth it. And it was casual drinking, so I didn't get trashed everynight or anything like that :-)

-The sisters and I went biking on the Cape Cod Rail Trail yesterday. It took us 3 hours and 20 minutes, with a 30 minute break for lunch in between, and we completed a total of 23 miles. Not too shabby for my first time biking in 10 years :-) It was so much fun!

-I tracked everything Thurs-Today. Truthfully. No fibbing. And I only went over (significantly) One day. See here for proof:



I don't know what happened to 818, I assure you I ate and tracked food. My numbers might seem high, but most of those days including working out, so my eating was a bit higher as well.

 -I cashed in on Old Navy's sales on Monday as part of my day of relaxing. for 60 bucks I got:

•  2 Pairs of Jeans (one bootcut, one skinny)
• 1 dress shirt
• an oxford style shirt
• 2 tanks

and I got a work out tank at marshalls for 7 bucks! It's tight, but I figure it'll be nice for outside workouts. Now on paper, you may say, ok great Marie, but what is so exciting about these purchases?

I'll tell you what. For reference, at the start of my weight loss journey I was a tight size 18 (realistically more of a 20, I was squeezing into my jeans), and an XL all around. The jeans I bought were both a perfect 14. Not tight, even sort of loose! The tops I bought vary between a M-L, and the large fits comfortably, not tight. I seriously almost cried when I put the 14s on with no problem. I even tried on a 12, just to see, and while it was tight, I could button it! I'm so close! I remember way back when, I would think to myself that getting to a 14 would be ok with me, and I would be totally happy with that achievement. To me, 14 is the size they start selling in regular stores, it makes you no longer actually "plus sized". I can go to H&M and buy things in a large, and not have it fit awkwardly (or not at all). It's a great feeling :-)

I sneaked a peek at the scale today (I didn't WI on Friday due to a lack of scale, and drinking and mexican occuring the night before), and I was up, but giving the activity of the last few days, I'm not surprised. I was going to work out tonight, but I think I'm going to take it easy and take a nice long walk with the puppy. I also have a zillion pictures to upload to my computer from the past few weeks, so I think tomorrow I will do a Picture update. I'll try and do it every Thursday, give you guys some visuals, I'll come up with a cute name and everything, hehehe

Why is the Weather so Confusing?

And why is it always questionable when I take time off work?

As of right now, it is "a couple of thunderstorms" in the forcast for tomorrow. But the hourly forcast has it as sunny until 6-7, which would be AWESOME, but confusing where it is telling me thunderstorms for the daytime. If it does thunderstorm tomorrow, we'll just go kayaking on Sunday, but it's just so frustrating! Every time I'm off work, it's rainy, or cloudy, or something is up. But when I'm stuck in the office, it's always goddamn beautiful outside.

I'm bitter.

The Red Sox game was fun. I mean, they lost, which sucked, but our seats were right next to the foul pole, which was cool because you could tell which we're home runs and which were foul. And we saw a triple play, which I thought M was going to pee himself with excitement, because "that happens maybe once a season, and never at a game you actually watch". I love when he's happy at Sox games. Our record is not good though guys (2-5) , so they really need to step it up and win next month when we go.

In other news I'm a new and improved woman, in case you don't know :-) Last night I hit the gym, and had a great 850 calorie burning workout. It was just one of those workouts that exhausted me, but made me feel great. While I was working out I felt empowered, and not wanting it to end like I have been lately. It was an awesome feeling :-)

But I was exhausted by the end, and am sore today. M and I have plans to grab mexican and drink some beer tonight, which I'm pumped for. Sadly, both those activities aren't exactly weight loss friendly. I've planned ahead, and know the damage I'm going to do (complete with chips and salsa), and it made me realize that just taking a walk won't be enough tonight. So I'm going to attempt to run outside near my house. My initial plan was for tonight to be a high cardio night, but that was before we walked to the red line on Tuesday night, because it was gorgeous outside, and M hates crowds. It was lovely, but I was sweaty afterwards

a solid 2 miles, and we didn't stop at all. So I counted that as some quality cardio to work off the Beer Works beers :-)

But, I'll only have 20 calories left for the day after my food/drink tonight, and I have a feeling I'm not calculating my meal fully (I did the best I could but with restaurants you can never tell), so I'd rather burn some extras to give me a buffer room.

I'm kind of nervous to run outside, it'll be the first time in awhile I've attempted it. But hey, no time like the present, right? Plus if I fail, I can just walk home and I'm still burning calories :-) It's a win win!

I'm so ready for it to be 5pm today. I desperately need this time off. I'm exhausted, need to catch up on sleep and relax for a bit. Plus my sisters leave for school in 2 weeks, so I would like to spend some quality time (not just after work) with them before we move them in. So I'm looking forward to Monday/Tuesday being off work with them, and going biking/hanging out. It's going to be so much fun :-)