Blue Freckles

  I've been posting these double pictures on Facebook lately, showing what I ate for one of my meals that day, along with what I wore to get my exercise. I thought it would be cool to look back and remember "the times when I did 20 laps a day" around the school or the neighborhood block just slightly to the North. According to Google Maps saying that each lap is a distance of 0.4 miles, 20 laps equals eight miles. But that quickly got boring. The following day I struggled to do 15, and stuck with 5 interval laps- a mix of power walking and jogging- the next days after that. But the "Blue Freckles" title has to do with how I would bring a Sharpie pen with me and each lap, put a dot on the top of my hand, to keep track of how many laps I had done. I am more likely to keep going if I take breaks at least between every five laps/ two miles.

  In the first picture I made scrambled eggs and enjoyed some pears. I set off for my 20 laps on a morning after work. I think it was only 59 degrees, but with the wind, it feels much colder. I've been wrapping scarves around my neck lately- even inside! The next day I made a "skinny" version of McDonald's sausage, egg and cheese bagel! To make it "skinny", I did not add cheese or whatever kind of mayo stuff they use. I only used the bottom half of the Everything bagel, and cut that in half. The meat is lean turkey sausage. It tasted really good (and guilt free!), especially with the regular mustard drizzled on top. The oranges are from our orange tree. I don't think they are in season though. They didn't taste as orange-y as I thought they should.

   I have been going back to doing the 30 Day Shred again (Level One), hence the above pictured hot bod. I definitely noticed that it does feel different doing those exercises now at my current weight, or what I often refer to as "my wedding weight" (which I have happily maintained for the past month). Probably because when I started in the second week of August, I was mainly burning the fat off, and now I'm building muscles. That's most likely why my thighs and glutes felt so sore the past few days- in a good, strong way!

  The meal above is left overs from our Chili's date on Friday- its the Bacon Jack Grilled Chicken, with mushrooms and avocado. I wanted to go to that Chili's in Encino again before we move (in 22 days!!) since it was the first place we ate at when we flew out here to Los Angeles, in November of last year. But also because it's yummy. They have added a lot of new menu items over the past year and Michael loves their Classic Nachos. But the meal with steamed broccoli is definitely something I would want to try making myself. It's on my Birmingham To-Cook list! Along with spinach lasagna. ;) The turkey wraps (below) were brought in to work by Amber. Those were very tasty too.

  Fridays have been my favorite days for the past few months- and Michael's least favorite days (financially speaking). I tend to go shopping on the day I get paid, before Michael has a chance to "steal" my alarm company paycheck money for bills. This time my splurge was on athletic shoes. I only had two pairs, and I will admit that two is enough, but I wanted pretty, colorful ones. Target didn't have any good ones, but there was a rainbow over the Payless in the same parking lot and I was able to score four pairs of shoes for a total of $50, with their BOGO deal, on top of their sales. So the blue and green shoes were the "high" price of $20, but then the orange ones I got for $7.50! There was also a white pair of running shoes I got for $15, making the sequined boat shoes (just for cuteness, not exercise) only $4!! It would have seemed like a waste not to buy them. ;)