Monday, July 30, 2012

Yogurt Obsession

So I'm loving this frozen yogurt craze that's going on this summer. I was super excited when I found out that they put a Pinkberry in Leesburg which is really not far from our house. Whenever we had a frozen yogurt craving we would go there. This past weekend while we were out at Sweet Water having dinner we found out from our waiter that they put a Sweet Frog about 5 miles from our house. Now I thought Pinkberry was good, but then I had Sweet Frog. I love that they let you make your own & add your own topping where Pinkberry is much more restricted. Sweet Frog also posts the calories/fat of each of their yogurt choices which I also like. Not to mention that Sweet Frog has a lot more chocolate toppings choices & since I'm a huge chocolate lover that's a big positive check mark in my book. My favorite at the moment is the original tart flavor &loading it up with fruit & chocolate toppings. Mmmmmm....(singing) "yummy, yummy, yummy I got love in my tummy...."

So maybe this summer instead of taking a drive over to DQ & having a blizzard, you stop at one of these frozen yogurt places & have something that's a little healthier for you. Trust me, you'll love it.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Insanity - Week #1

So after my boot camp ended with Li, I talked Dan into starting the Insanity DVDs with me. He wasn’t too thrilled about the idea because he’d done Insanity for a few weeks with some of the coaches at the high school; every day he complained that it was “so freakin’ hard.” Since both of us have done P90X I wanted something else to get into since I was still on my workout high from the boot camp. Dan finally caved in & our first day was Wednesday, July 11th. Day 1 was the Plyometric Cardio Circuit DVD & for the warm up I was feeling pretty good – by the way, the warm up is pure torture; if I hadn’t done the boot camp I would’ve died much sooner. Dan was making some pretty funny comments about the people on the DVD, i.e. the videographer zoomed in on the whitest girl I have ever seen & Dan said, “Whoa, sun is free!” I couldn’t stop laughing. About mid-way through the exercise, during our 30 second water break, I looked at Dan & said, “Whose bright idea was this anyway??” He gave me that I’m going to kill you look & said, “You! This was your bright idea!” Again, couldn’t stop laughing. =) Out of the videos that we’ve done, so far, I’ve realized that the Pure Cardio & the Plyometric Cardio Circuit DVDs are the hardest – I get to that point where my body is so drained/fatigued that even though my mind is telling me that I can do it & not to stop, my body just doesn’t cooperate; I then get pissed.


Since football started earlier this week, Dan hasn’t been able to meet me after work to do the DVDs together; instead, he does them in the morning/early afternoon & then I do them after work. Most days I have my friend, Kateri, as my workout partner – it’s so much more fun to workout with a buddy. The last Insanity workout that Dan & I did together did get fun towards the end. We were doing plank runs & since it was the last circuit, we decided to face each other so we would have more motivation to not stop. Both of us were dying, sweating profusely & just all around pissy (OK well that was just me). We said things like, “Keep it up – don’t stop; you can do it; feel the burn.” Thankfully, we made it through & collapsed on the weight room floor. After the workouts I usually feel energized & proud of myself for completing one more DVD in the 60 day program. Most days after I leave work & I’m on my way to workout I get excited to do Insanity – I’m hoping that doesn’t go away but it’s still relatively new. I’m working my way towards that free t-shirt that beachbody.com gives out on their website here. I’ve already taken my before picture & once the 60 days are up I’ll take my results photo & send both of them into beachbody.com & they'll send me the t-shirt. We're now at the end of week #2 & I'm seeing some improvements in my cardio; I can't wait to see what 30 days will be like.


If you didn't know, now you know:
   

"Come on ya'll.....scgoooooooo!" - Sean T.




Sunday, July 15, 2012

24 Hr. Observation

A few weeks ago our little Lexi was under the weather with a pretty bad upset tummy. I can tell when she's not feeling well because she has no interest in playing with her toys & she gets very snuggly; hence the photo to the left. I took it one morning after I took her potty - she ran right back upstairs & got on our bed to go back asleep; I laid with her to rub her tummy & she snuggled right in my armpit. After a weekend of her not eating/drinking, having diarrhea & vomiting in our bed I took her to the emergency room at our vets office. After a workup they came to the conclusion that she had severe gastritis & pretty high liver values which was concerning them. The vet told me that they had to keep her for 24 hour observation so they could get fluids in her by IV, giving her some anti-nausea medicine & taking some blood samples. When the vet told that I had to leave her I wasn't too thrilled. I even tried to negotiate them keeping her for about 5/6 hours & then me coming back to get her; they didn't like my suggestion. They basically told me that there wasn't any other option & that she had to stay. Dan wasn't home during this trip to the ER because he was at Congressional watching Tiger Woods play. I had been texting him throughout the appointment so he knew what was going on. I called him as I was leaving & after some worried crying on my end I made my way home. My afternoon that day consisted of me sitting at home & doing absolutely nothing but worry about Lex. When Dan got home he told me that I needed to find something to do in order to get my mind off of Lexi not being there; I have to say I was depressed & the house didn't feel the same. Thankfully, we got a call on late Monday morning telling us that Lexi was doing much better & that we could pick her up that afternoon, any time after 3:00 p.m. Since I was at work Dan went to pick her up; I had plans to go to the gym & workout after I got off work but once I found out that she was home those plans went right out the window; I drove right home so I could see her.

Now that she's back home with us our routine is normal again - she also has a "battle scar" that Dan likes to call her chicken leg:  
It looks like she's wearing a furry bootie. =) One of our neighbor's little boys even went up to Dan the other day & said, "What happened to Lexi? Is she alright?" It was nice to see that he was so worried about her. We're so thankful that she's healthy & back at home with us. We love you little sweets.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Boot Camp Courtesy of IMP

Afew months ago my friend Lisa brought to my attention a coupon that she found on groupon.com for an unlimited 4-week boot camp class at IMP Fitness in Fairfax, VA. We decided to use it starting the month of June not realizing that the startup gym was not equipped with air conditioning(!!). Yes, we did 2 of the hottest months of the year. On our first night of class I showed up in my work clothes, like I normally do when I go to the gym after work, thinking that I would be able to change in their locker room before class started. When I pulled into the parking lot after circling the office buildings around it for 5 minutes because I couldn’t find it, I realized that the gym was located in an old warehouse that had all of the doors opened with huge fans circulating the air. My first impression was not a great one; I’ve been spoiled with Gold’s Gym for years now so anything less then what I'm used to I tend to get a little bit snobby.
When I walked inside the gym was divided into 2 sections: (1) treadmills & free weights on one side; and (2) an indoor turf type field on the other which apparently was for sports training, i.e. baseball hitting/pitching lessons; volleyball lessons, softball, football, etc. I was then informed that they “didn’t have locker rooms yet” but that I could change in one of their co-ed bathrooms. =/

Our first day of boot camp was a good workout; I was kind of hoping for our instructor to be a little more...well, mean, I guess. I was definitely disappointed that he was so soft spoken & telling us to “go at your own pace.” When I had initially read the words “boot camp” I imagined someone yelling/screaming at me throughout the class; our instructor, John, was not like that. As the weeks went on John grew on me & I really enjoyed going to class every Tuesday night, Thursday night & Sunday morning. Li & I did get some great workouts in when we went there; some stuff I had never even done before & it’s always nice to change it up. I especially liked jumping rope, using the medicine balls, wearing the weighted vests & using the large yoga balls. Before our last class last Tuesday, Li & I gave John a little gift to remember us by – a whistle. =) All of the other trainers had them, except for John; he was pretty excited about it.

I’m totally going to miss having John work us out, but on our last night of class he secretly told us that another coupon would be posted on the groupon website after the month of October. I think Li & I are going to jump on that one too & possibly get our Sandra Lue to join us!

Some of my favorite memories from class:

1. Li: “Do you have a modified version of that because we fat people can’t do that one.”
2. Another trainer filled in for John one day while he was on vacation – his nickname was then “Suicide John” because he totally kicked our asses.
3. Li: “You should turn the AC on because it’s really hot outside.” Front Desk: “Well I would but we don’t actually have AC - we’re getting it though!”
4. High fives in-between sprints.
5. Our manly type sweating that burns our eyes & requires us to bring a bathroom size towel while everyone else in the class is barely sweating.
6. Good job butt smacks.

To quote Lisa - "On to our next adventure!" :D

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Pinterest Inspired

A few months ago I was surfing through some boards on Pinterest & even though I only wanted to look for a few minutes my surfing lasted almost an hour...totally addicting! Anyway, I came across a pin that someone had made their own makeup brush holder:  
They actually used coffee beans which would also be a good freshener for a bathroom & for all of you coffee lovers, but since I'm not a big coffee fan I decided to go my own way:
Here's mine! I went with the crushed shells look for a little bit of shimmer. I absolutely love it. I bought the glass container at Michaels for $2.99 (I think it was in the candle section); the bag of crushed shells were $3.99. Not too shabby if you ask me! I had wanted to create this a lot sooner but just never took the time to do it. I finally got fed up with having to search for my brushes in my makeup bag one morning before work so I went on Sunday after boot camp class this weekend & purchased the materials. I don't own/use a lot of makeup brushes, but I figure that when my collection increases I'll just buy a larger glass container. It actually fits in my bathroom well & doesn't really draw too much attention:
Dan saw it after it was completed & he thought it was "pretty nifty." :P 

Monday, July 9, 2012

Current Favorite

Have any of you heard of Andy Grammer?? I'm sure you've heard this song playing on the radio just like I have, but I never knew his name:



I absolutely love his voice & this song is just so catchy - I find myself singing it at work when I'm in a really good mood. =)  I also like these 2 songs that he sings: Keep Your Head Up and Miss Me.

If you want to learn more about him, check out his website here.  

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Lawyers Have Heart 10k

Back on June 9th, the DLF crew ran in the Lawyers Have Heart 10k race. One of our associates brought the idea to the table & several of us thought it would be a lot of fun, including me. We also had the idea to get our spouses involved which made it even more fun. To the left is a photo of a few of us sporting the shirt that we all designed for the race. It says "Born to Run - Forced to Work - The DLF June 2012" In the middle is a picture of a heart wearing tennis shoes & a headband. =) The front was very simple with just a small heart on the left breast with our Firm name around it. There were a lot of firms that designed their own shirts & some of them were pretty good. Here are the ones that I really liked: "I may be slow but I'm ahead of you;" "The run is brief but internet results last forever;" "(insert firm name) has heart - do you?"   The race was pretty packed & even though we all tried to stay together at the start line it didn't actually happen. Here are some photos that our office manager & Dan took throughout the race:

Pre-race potty break.
  Pre-race announcements & pep talk.
And we're off! Love this picture!
Sandra, Santiago & their cute nephew, Jacob, participating in the 2 mile walk.

Unfortunately I was still recovering from the flu when I ran this race - I didn't do well at all. I had to stop 4 times to throw up & I felt so weak & fatigued - quite disappointing. Thankfully, our team had quite a few good runners, i.e., 3 avid marathoners & a high school student that runs track/cross-country. Our Firm placed 8th out of 34 "small firms" that participated. As you can see from above, Dan wasn't able to run because he hurt his knee a few days before the race. =/ It was a fun experience & I'm glad we were able to compete as a Firm; we've already talked about signing up again next year. Hopefully then everyone will be able to go & maybe then I'll be able to get a decent time.

Shoe of the Month ~ July

Yes, I am a week late with this post but better late than never, right?!?! Things have been super busy at our house this past month & more posts will be coming soon. I actually got caught up mid-June only to fall behind again... wasn't summer supposed to be a somewhat relaxing time?? Anyway.....on to the reason I'm here....
I decided to go with a wedge this month because this past Thursday when I was trying to kill time at work before my boot camp class started (post coming soon), I spotted these little beauties from a new website that I was told about by one of my very stylish friends [Hi, Kateri!]. I hope you like them as much as I do:

Finder T-Strap Wedge Sandals. For more photos & info click [here]. I like the woven fabric look that these wedges have as well as the square buckle around the ankle & don't even get me started on the pop of orange! Can you say super cute!? These do sport a 5 inch heel but the 1.5 platform will take a little bit of that pain away; they're also easy on the wallet ringing in at $48. I've always thought that wedges are much more comfortable to wear than stilettos which is a plus. These are definitely going on my purchase list - I'm about 4 shoes deep right now on that list because I keep buying from DSW & depleting my shoe fund before I have a chance to buy online; I then have to wait until next month to purchase another pair. =/ I guess I should look on the bright side - I'm saving myself the cost of shipping.

If you're looking for a fun website for all things fashion be sure to check out tobi.com.

Happy Shopping!!

Related Posts with Thumbnails