I'm Tracking Food Again

So after a way too long from food tracking, I'm tracking again!  Starting tomorrow you can expect to see my food logs again.

We had a great weekend!  Friday we went to The Twin Hearts autism fundraiser.  We go to this every year and always have a great time.  We danced, hung out with family and drank.......a little too much, but in our defense we had already planned on taking a cab home so we could both have a bit of fun.  We lucked out though and my cousin Kara drove us home.  Thanks K :)  Saturday was spend nursing a bit of a hangover and then doing some running around and watching the Hawks game.  Bummed about the loss!  Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day with my dad/brother and Chris's dad.  In the morning we went to my nephew's lacrosse game and met up with my dad, brother, sis-in-law and nephews.  After the game we went out for a "quick" bite to eat.  That "quick" bite ended up taking almost 2 hours.  We got seated pretty quickly but the services was slooooooooooooooooow.  I was ok with that though because it meant more time with my 3 favorite little people.  :)  After that we drove the 1 hour 45 min drive up with McHenry to hang out with Chris's dad/family and went out to dinner.  One of my favorite kind of days, lots of family time!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

That was my life yesterday!  I was in NYC Mon - Wed this week.  I HAD to be back in Chicago today for a very important meeting with the CEO of our parent company.  If you live in Chicago you know that they were calling for a weather apocalypse!  When I checked on my flight out of NYC that was scheduled for 8:55 pm was already delayed by 2 hours so I called our corporate travel department and asked them to try to get me on an earlier flight, which they did!!  So I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, boarded my flight and then we sat there for almost 45 minutes before we took off.  We were 30 minutes outside of Chicago (I had a flight tracker on my iPad) and all of the sudden we made a left turn, and started heading south and an hour was added onto the travel time.  I thought "this can't be good".  Captain comes over the mic and says we're being diverted to Louisville.  I thought it was a mean joke, of all places Louisville!  I mean we were passing over Indy at the time, why didn't we go there!  So we landed.............and sat on the plane.  There were 10 other Southwest planes that had also been diverted from Midway to Louisville and only 3 Southwest gates.  When we finally got to the gate they told us that our flight was cancelled to Chicago and we needed to talk to a ticket person to try and get home.  Well that ticket person said it may be two days before we got home, so I did what a lot of others did and ran to the rental car place and got one of the last available cars.

I plugged my phone in, pulled up the GPS, called Chris and started the almost 5 hour drive home.  I got home just before 1.  Chris talked to me the whole way home and even acted as my weather tracker to let me know when I'd hit storms....or blobs (on the computer screen) as we call them.  He was a great co-pilot even though it was over the phone.  He kept me updated on not only the weather, but also the score of the Hawks game!  Go Hawks!  So I made it home, took a quick 6 hour nap and made it to the office in time for my meeting!  Thank you honey for being the best husband ever!

In other news, today would have been my Grandma Barry's 90th birthday.  This afternoon we're (my mom, aunts, cousin and Papa) carrying on a tradition of meeting at the cemetery to have champagne and appetizers with her before going to her favorite restaurant for dinner.  Happy Birthday Tone!  Have an extra splash today :)

New Food Love

Last month I mentioned the new oatmeal I found (http://thatsitnomoreexcuses.blogspot.com/2013/05/new-food-find.html) well I found this peanut butter and the combination of them together is AMAZING!!

I've read about powdered peanut butter on different blogs, but I've never seen it in a store.  When Chris and I went to the vitamin store the other day I saw it.  It's only 45 calories for 2 tbsp (which doesn't really make 2 tbsp when it's made.)  However it adds the perfect amount of peanut butter flavor to my oatmeal.  Score!

Herb Pot

Every year we usually try to grow something in our garden.  Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green onions, strawberries, etc.  Each year the strawberries take over more and more of the garden.  They used to be contained to a small area, but they've pretty much taken over 1/2 of the space now.  That coupled with the idea that we weren't going to be living at the house this summer we didn't plant anything.  Well, plans changed and I saw a really cute thing on Pinterest for a herb pot, so I decided to try it out.  It's working out really well!!  I planted basil, mint, chives, dill, parsley and rosemary in a big pot and as you can see below they are growing like crazy!

Last night we grilled up some salmon and corn.  The pot is right next to the grill so I grabbed some dill and chives and put them on top, it turned out great!

Oh My Achy Feet!

Here's a riddle, what do high arches, being over weight, getting older and a touch of genetics get you?  Foot problems!  I went to the podiatrist last night for the first time ever.  I've been having some foot issues on and off for about a year now, maybe even longer who knows.  Thanks to my Aunt Jeanne for recommending Dr. Moore, she was awesome!  So they took x-rays of my feet and turns out that I wasn't making up all the pain in my head.  I have the beginning stages of arthritis on the top of my left foot, heel spurs on both heels and Planter Fasciitis in my right foot.  I'm fairly familiar with Planter Fasciitis as one of my aunts and one of my friends has it, so I was pretty sure that's what was going on.  

So what's the remedy?  Cortisone shots, ouch!  I had one in the top of my left foot and one in the heel of my right.  Thankfully Chris was in the room and I squeezed the crud out of his hand as she did it.  She also gave me some inserts for my shoes and a "boot" to wear at night.  It's not bad, it looks like this:

I don't know if it was the shot, the boot or a combo of the two but my foot felt so much better this morning.  I was able to get out of bed without limping for the first few minutes.  I told her I've been working out more and she asked what kind of shoes I wore.  When I told her, she said those were very good ones, so I'm happy with that.  She also told me when I'm traveling to make sure I wear gym shoes in the airports/for walking around.  I was happy that she didn't restrict me from anything.  She gave me the inserts to start off with and she is going to check with insurance to see if they'll cover custom ones.  The inserts are crazy, I can stick a finger in between where the top of my arch is and where my shoe is!  Takes a bit to get used to but I'm sure they'll be great.  I'm sure a lot of this will either go away or I'll be able to not have to use all of it as I start to loose more weight!  So now the chant (from yesterday) will include, "I want to get pregnant and I don't want bad feet!"  :)  Just one more added motivation!

So to give anyone that reads this a chuckle (I know it worked for my Aunt Jeanne last night) picture me with that boot on in bed and Chris with his CPAP machine, we make one HOT couple don't we, LOL.  

 (picture included is not Chris although it somewhat looks like him)

Just the Right Time.........

Did you ever get an email, or a voice mail or a letter at just the right time?  Within the last few days I received each one of those from three separate aunts.  I feel their love and support and I am so grateful for it!  To say that this has been a struggle is an understatement.  I guess lifestyle changes are never easy!  I'm gearing up for an 8 city in three months with 3+ days per city kind of summer.  That is NOT going to be easy, but I can't put off my goal until after all of the travel is done.  I need to keep chanting "I want to get pregnant at a healthier weight" in the back of my head when I'm feeling tempted.  I will listen to what a very wise woman who used to do a lot of traveling told me............stay at hotels with a gym, make yourself a priority, stay healthy, remember some of your co-workers also want healthy choices, carve time into your travel schedule so you are not flying out late and/or early and allow yourself time to get a workout in and try to destress after each trip.  She's also the same woman who told me when I first started traveling for work at the age of 22 never to let the hotel put me on the first floor and always look to see where the emergency exits are when you get to your room :)  I still do that 15 years later, she's one smart cookie!  

In other news, there was a groupon the other day that Chris signed me up for (after talking to me about it of course!)  There is an all woman's fitness club in LaGrange that was offering 20 group classes at an extremely discounted rate.  I'm pretty excited, the classes include Zumba, so looks like I'll be getting my Zumba groove on again!  They also have Pilates, Body Pump, Cycling, Yoga, Piloxing, and more.  I'm excited to try out some new classes, especially knowing it's all women.  One of the things I get super conscious about at our gym is that the group class room is right by all of the weight machines and free weights where most of the guys are.  There is a huge floor to ceiling window that spans the entire room so anytime we turn around there are anywhere from 5 - 25 guys staring in the room.  That usually stops me from moving as much, silly I know, but true.  So that is my update, I'm still here!  Thank you for the thoughts, notes, prayers, encouragement, etc.  It means SO much.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

I'm very happy for the long weekend ahead!  We have some fun things planned.  Saturday I'm going to my nephews Lacrosse tournament, Sunday I'm working out with a friend, Monday we're going to the Cubs/Sox game.  3 years ago Chris and I met at the Cubs/Sox game.  The first picture below is a picture from the day we met.  I think it's pretty cool that we have pictures from the very first day.  I remember showing that picture to everyone who asked about "the new guy I met."  :)  The other two pictures are from the past two years of going, I love this tradition!  Happy Memorial Weekend!