Forgotten Treat

A tasty sweet treat I often forget about is meringue cookies. The ones we happened to have in the office were (4) for 110 calories, fat free and had a gram of protein. Truly not the worst caloric damage for something I find pretty delicious. It definitely curbed my sweet craving, kept me from having a sugar coffee, that's what you have to call it when you are masquerading dessert as coffee. It's called honesty Anna, honesty and sugar coffee. Meringues though are not only a good quick dessert, but they are super pretty which appeals to my inner 5 year old.

I just sort of liked them next to my beaded life pouch for snack photo composition. 

Sweet Sleep

I have struggled with sleep forever. When I was a toddler my Dad came home from a business trip and I greeted him the kitchen and then went back to me baby night roaming. They started locking me into my bedroom which to this day my mom insists the doctor ordered. I have my doubts. I sleep better these days and I think it has a lot to do with exercise, overall improved health and managed anxiety.

I still do not like going to bed. I still feel like I am going to miss out on something, and hate the process of quieting my mind. Whenever I am with a group of people I have to be the last to bed otherwise I have a really hard time relaxing and falling asleep. I have no idea why I feel the need to remain on high alert, maybe I was a watch dog in a former life. For a little while I was journaling before bed and that was not helping the sleep issue. It was like lighting a match to a pool of gasoline. My mind would start racing. I would think of other things to write down, sometimes feel upset having poked the emotional beast, but it did stop the night eating. I was having crazy wackadoo dreams and just wanted off the ride so I had to figure something else out.


 I read somewhere that reading something funny or humor before bed helps sleep. This is hugely helping me!  I modified my routine now I watch my stories with dinner, have a little journal time and then it's time for my favorite part of the evening. I curl up in bed with my ipad and laugh.  I have been reading more humor slanted books before bed and it has greatly improved my falling asleep and staying asleep. I also really like yogi kava kava stress relief tea. It makes me feel pleasantly loopy and relaxed.

What are you reading? Anything good? Is everyone reading The Help? Am I literally the last person to that party? What about some sort of book related giveaway?




My summer reading list:

I have no idea why I resisted Chelsea Handler's books for so long. Genuinely funny and charming. 

LOVE Laurie Notaro I was so excited when this was finally available.  There are some great essays but I prefer some of her other books. I could have also been too excited for this to finally be released. Regardless she is damn funny. 

I wanna be besties with Sloane. 

Seriously Sloane, you're in NYC, I'm in NYC brunch? 

Loved Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's books. A mix of funny and bittersweet. 

Not humor but very good, a touch dark at times but really captivating. 

Really loved this. Took me back to early 20's. 

Giveaway Winner the Remix

Sorry peeps, I am late on doing this. I did not hear from Brynn so I had to pick someone new for the Anthropologie Gift Certificate, and the winner is..... Amie!

Amie writes a really fantastic blog at http://running-on-healthy.blogspot.com/. If you have not checked it out before I highly recommend it. She was just featured on fitblogger not that long ago and I am so happy for her. She writes with humor, honesty, talking about the ins and outs of what she has faced losing 70 pounds.

Hints of Fall

It's been chilly the past few mornings and it is getting me excited for fall. It's a little soon to flip over my closet from summer, but I did have hot coffee instead of iced this morning and made sure I had a scarf in my bag.

It might be too early to put away and sort through my summer clothes but it's not too early to lust after fall clothes. I looooove, love, love fall clothes. I love welcoming layers back into my life, and jackets and the crispness in the air. I love every little bit of it. Below is what I am lusting after currently.

I made the screen shot big enough to hide my messy desktop. 

Storm's a Comin'

Well the hurricane has come and left. It went out less as a bang and more as a whimper. Sort of bound to happen that way. The city was on lockdown, certain areas evacuated, lines outside Trader Joe's a block long, and everyone wishing one another godspeed as they went about their preparations. Had none of the prep happened we would have been walloped. Sunday I went foraging for coffee it was an odd vibe outside with people wondering around bewildered, but returning to their routines and wind gusts would remind us what all the fuss was about to begin with.

I canceled my travel plans and Friday as I made my way home it occurred to me I might need a thing or two since I was not planning to be here. I wondered the store and felt this weird deja vu I could not place at first. Then it hit me, prepping for a hurricane felt a lot like prepping for a binge. How much did I need, how long would it go on? I kept having to remind myself that was not what I was doing. I was not planning to stay home and eat all weekend I was preparing for a hurricane. It was an odd clash of my present and past. I was doing what I was supposed to for the present but it was definitely bringing up my past.

 I decided to skip the hurricane parties and stay at home. I was not interested in drinking the storm away, changing out of my jammies, or putting my public face on. I just wanted to be alone. It was a conscious choice, not a I am going to hide and eat one. I watched a lot of television, chatted on the phone, fashioned a papoose if I had to escape with my dog, and then got really bored. When the storm moved in Saturday night I sat on my fire escape just listening. The city was so quiet and still. It was eerie and really calming at the same time. There are few places I would rather be then my home if ish was going to go down and sitting on my fire escape I felt that really profoundly. It felt good to be on my own but not lonely, to be dealing with the ghosts of binges past and not melting down, but most of all it was nice to not be afraid of what the next few hours might bring. It would be okay because I had what I needed where I was, pop chips and all.

luckily this was the only real damage on my block. 

There Will Be Boobs

Warning there are pictures of naked ladies at the bottom of this post. I went out last night to dinner with friends and then afterwards to support a friend. She was doing make up for a fashion show. The event was brought together all kinds of artists, and one of the things I first noticed walking in was the naked body painting.

Part of me wanted to do a very exaggerated eye roll to this. Really? Realllllllly?! We need naked ladies up on here to bring attention to the arts and to help artists, designers, illustrators, photographers, and more gain attention? I guess so.

What was really interesting was observing the ladies. They went in and out of feeling comfortable. What was even more interesting was when they had breaks and could mingle in the crowd, say hello to their friends, and so on they remained naked. I could neg on them because I do not know how it makes me feel but I won't. I will just say standing in a thong on a platform and letting someone paint me is not something I would ever do and struggle to understand. I do not find nudity shocking. I grew up going topless at the beach, frequently hang out naked in my own home, have no issue changing at the gym, I am far from a never nude. What I find interesting is that when you are naked and everyone is dressed that's a little different. There's been a shift and you are infinitely more vulnerable. These women were not so painted that there bodies were obscured. Their bodies were also all different and unique, they did all have amazing bums in common. It was interesting, shocking no, but thought provoking.


On a non boob related note, a hurricane's a comin'! I thought I was going to be heading to Raleigh to see an old friend and meet her bebe, but alas hurricane Irene had other plans. So this week I will have learned that earthquake tremors make me feel queasy and how to get through a hurricane. My main issue is how to fashion some sort of papoose for the dog if I have to evacuate. Wish me luck and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

I love that this woman is not struggling to breathe sucking her stomach in. 

naked lady line up

Just chillin' with no top on...in a thong. 

Heart Racing

I recently redid my measurements and pretty much across the board they were bigger. Egon believes some of this is because of what I was wearing and building muscle mass. I say it's because I have not been totally on track and that will lead me to being bigger not smaller but appreciate him being kind. For the record I was measured work out clothes, which would be spandex pants and a tee not the parka he was sort of trying to credit me for. 

The real thing that bugged me was my hips being bigger. They do not need any additional width or help. At all. I was even more annoyed to find out that my cardio had directly been contributing to building my hips! I have been doing the wave machine, and elliptical. These are hip building and conditioning. My hips are conditioned just fine. Truthfully I had suspected they were growing, but I thought it had more to do with late nights filled with burgers and vodka then my cardio routine. Egon and I re-evaluated my cardio. I realized that I do not take advantage of him enough when it comes to my routine. I tend to keep him in a strength training bubble only. It's hard for me to get out of my cardio ruts. I get very this is what I know helps me lose weight so it's what I am going to do. I know intellectually Egon runs like a gazelle and has pretty much every muscle developed, is a trainer, and knows more then me but I am seriously hard headed about listening to him. Getting to this last stage of weight loss though I have to be less hard headed and more open. What worked before does not always work now. I have had to makeover my whole work out routine and shockingly I like it! It's help me really re-engage with exercise. I have found new things to do, new things I like and it's building my confidence. 

My new routine includes:

Lots and lots of kettle bell routines:

Turkish get ups, figure eights, squats, dead lifts, windmills, swings. I looooove kettle bells, I like the choreography of it. It feels really fun and I do not realize until later how much it kicked my azz until I wake up the next morning and everything hurts pleasantly. 

Sprint intervals: 

I run with no incline at about 6.2-7.0 mph depending on how rested and hydrated I am for at least 90 seconds if not more. Then walk with incline at least 4.0 mph for 2-3 minutes to recover. Run, walk, rinse, repeat. This will make you sweat profusely and slightly euphoric and because you have to pay attention to going between the two the time flies. 

Rowing:

Row 2000 meters and you'll be shocked the muscles you feel in your arms and back. I focus on keeping my core strong, sitting up straight and really squeezing my back muscles to do the work. I am always pleasantly surprised by how hard my heart is pounding. 

Jacob's Ladder:

It's climbing a ladder...yet it is so hard! I do 5-7 minutes of this just to see how much sweat I can make pour off of me and how much I can pray for something to end. It starts out all innocent and then it's like HOW IS THIS SO HARD? I do not understand the people who do it for what from my vantage point looks like a lifetime. 

Obstacle course:

This is something new Egon and I have been doing. It definitely makes my heart pound, but it's also making me less self conscious. I still am self conscious sometimes about moving in public. I can run no problems, but ask me to do side shuffles, or inch worms and I feel like I am 14 and in gym again. It's been a good thing to be forced to get over.