no complaining allowed!

saw this graphic on pinterest the other day and it brought me back down to earth REAL fast. chances are there are MILLIONS of people who would kill to be waking up in your shoes this morning.

contrary to what you may believe, I AM still alive...

Please accept my apologies for lack of blogging. After our engagement in June, we bought and moved into our first home in September. Needless to say, with those big milestones and on top of the holidays, I haven't had a ton of free time.

Now that things have cooled down, I PROMISE to get back into the food, recipes and blogging. I've kept track of a few things and taken some food photos during my hiatus and will post as soon as I have something worthy.

Good luck to those participating in the Whole 30!!

"We gain the strength of the temptation we resist." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

i don't deal with temptation too often. for the most part, i do all of the grocery shopping and all of the cooking. i don't buy dairy, anything with wheat or added sugar or irresponsibly raised protein. it's not in the house, so it's not an issue.

george has wednesday's off and usually his time is spent on the golf course. he called on the way home from golf and offered to stop at the market if i needed anything. i had forgotten to take a protein out of the freezer for dinner so i asked him if he could pick up a couple chicken breasts.

i get home and he had the chicken breasts on the counter along with 2 pieces of red meat. i figured i would roast some veggies and grill the chicken and steak. there would be plenty for supper and lunch the next day. we talked about our days as i busied myself in the kitchen.

out of nowhere, george blurts out that he got a "couple other things" at the market along with the chicken and steak. he proceeds to open the freezer door and sitting there, in all their glory, 2 pints of ben & jerry's ice cream.

ice cream is a huge weakness for me, especially ben & jerry's. i swear i get stuck behind the same ben & jerry's truck everyday when i leave work. i haven't had any in months, but when i do, i go big. i've been know to polish off a pint of phish food and not even blink.

i quickly shut the freezer door and tried to burn the images from my brain. he said that "we haven't had ice cream in a long time" and that he "got the 2 new flavors!" oh boy. for the record: i was by no means mad at george, i had no reason to be! i quickly texted my coach to get some reassurance and he reminded me of my goals and that stuff like this would only be getting in my way.

at this point my friend had arrived and we were headed out to do a little shopping. i stuffed a chicken breast down the hatch and we were off. i thought about ice cream the whole time we were out. it was sitting in the freezer waiting for me to get home. one of those pints had my name on it! trying on clothes and seeing my stomach (the leanest i've been in probably a year) helped me forget about it.

when i got home, i had more chicken and vegetables as george was finishing up some "red velvet cake" ice cream. i was not resentful of him eating the ice cream or bitter that he was having it. he chose to eat it and i didn't. the end. this is about me, not him.

i was very proud of myself for not caving. it would have been so easy (and delicious) to partake. the way i look, feel and perform outweighed how the ice cream would have tasted. i know i would have woke up and felt guilty but instead i woke up this morning ready to grab life by the balls.

am i ever going to eat ben & jerry's again in my life? of course. will it been anytime soon? probably not.

holiday woes...

first off, happy 2011! it's a new year, a clean slate, a revitalizing start.... i was never much of a resolution person, but i always loved the feeling of a new beginning.

i hit a bit of a rough patch (to put it mildly) with food over the holidays and am finally back on track. boy, did my body hate me for not making good choices. it started off with a couple desserts here and a glass of champagne there and then the flood gates opened. i was eating things that i NEVER desire, and in the moment, i felt that i couldn't live without them. i couldn't stop myself. i felt like a drug addict who was on a week long binge. i couldn't escape it. at work, food packages were delivered everyday and some new confection was right under my nose. i'm not sure what changed in me, because normally i wouldn't even BLINK at those things, but i think once my body got a taste, i craved it. i wasn't myself mentally. my workouts were still consistent, but i dreaded them. then the affects set in. i was sick, bloated and couldn't stand to look at myself.



for the record, i ate nothing pictured here... but it only seemed appropriate



shockingly i did manage to get a couple PR's in the beginning of my downfall. 33 unbroken double unders and a 185 back squat for 2 reps. i can thank george and Again Faster for my new jump rope and that new PR. on the other hand, towards the end of this food driven madness, i practically struggled with everything in the gym.

but i'm back and i'm grabbing life by the balls in 2011... i'm not calling it resolution, but more like a "future self improvement."

#1 i'm going to try to be less judgmental and critical to those that are close to me.

#2 call me shallow, superficial or self absorbed, but by spring/summer 2011 i want to be able to work out in just a sports bra (and shorts OBVIOUSLY) and be confident.




i'm still feeling strong after a minor holiday snafu



look for a couple new recipes this week and hopefully some workout videos in the near future. i also have yet to post about my first experience at a power lifting meet, so look for that in the coming week. thanks to all of my readers. you help me stay on track and hold me accountable every single day.

air conditioning

believe it or not george and i have survived an entire new england summer without even a minute of air conditioning. granted our condo is only about 800 square feet, we still did it!

why? well besides the fact that i'm cheap and our air conditioner isn't the most ecomonical thing in the world... we are home for maybe 12 hours a day and 9 of those hours we're sleeping! what's the point?

we bought a window fan for the bedroom and turned it on at night... that's it.

i wonder how much money we saved? i'm tempted to ask al gore about my carbon footprint. our monthly electric bill topped out at around $35 bucks. his? $1,300....

no shit sherlock...

here is an article from the american council on exercise study that found that those "toning" sneakers don't actually work. really? you needed a study to tell you that?

a wise mark rippetoe once said: "There is no such thing as 'firming and toning'. There is only stronger and weaker."

so not only do they look absurd, they don't work. the end.