2 Weeks In and an Artful Adventure

Well I've been meaning to blog but I haven't plain and simple. I'm sorry you've missed a few Throwback Thursday's but I promise to have one up this week, I'll have to dig deep in the archives and find a good one for ya.

As of yesterday I have officially completed week 2 of my Fat to Fit program. Week 2 wasn't the easiest, more mentally than physically though. I do notice myself getting stronger and having more energy, but I'm still waiting for the big payoff. It's very hard to wrap your mind around working so hard and not "seeing" the results. Yeah, yeah, "you didn't put it all on at once, it's not going to come off all at once" yeah I get it, but I need to see it happening. So week 2 was working through that. I also had the feelings that I don't want to go tonight, I need a rest... but I always went and always survived, I'm totally in the whole mind game part of weight loss at the moment. Onward to Week 3! 

Today in an effort to get out of the house and do something entertaining, NiBo and I headed north to Chicago to check out the Art Institute. Both of us had been there long ago on a quick school field trip and since the other Bo's were busy we waited to hit up the other museums until they could join. 

The other adventure on our agenda had been the Skydeck, which is a clear box that sticks out 103 floors above the ground of The Sears Willis Tower, but once we got in line and heard 2 hour wait, we decided against it and just hoofed it around Chi, but first, here is our adventures in art.

The front of the Art Institute

I liked this painting because the sun looked so real and I loved the shadows

This was just kinda creepy cool looking

Even Armor is art!

Good ol' Van Gough

NiBo was intrigued by this "art" piece

Yes this is art apparently, literally just throw random crap on the floor

NiBo was confused by this as well, if this is art, his room is a masterpiece he said

American Gothic

We weren't quite ready for our adventure to be over after our artful adventure so we walked and walked and walked around. We went to take a look at the river and all the happenings on Michigan Ave, and we went and took a look at the bean in Millennium Park.

I'm so glad the weather was perfect for walking around up there today, what a lovely way to spend a Sunday.

Missing In Action

I promise this time I have been MIA for a legit reason. You see my friend MB has been working hard to lose weight and has been doing an amazing job. She talked me into signing up for a gym in the big work city and then took it another step further when she talked me into the personal trainer program at the gym, she got a week head start. 

The program "Fat to Fit in 84 days" promises to kick our butts into smokin hot shape by time fall rolls around. It's 6 days a week for an hour- hour and a half working with a trainer and food program. We alternate weight days and cardio days and increase the intensity. Our weights are mostly done with kettlebells so far, and I'm kinda loving it. 

Monday- Weights light day
Tuesday- Cardio light day
Wednesday- Weights medium day
Thursday- Cardio Medium day
Friday- Weights heavy day
Saturday- 8:30 am cardio heavy day
Sunday- Rest

I survived my first week. It wasn't exactly easy and dare I say kinda fun. It's been great having someone to workout with and to help me push and motivate myself. The food part of this consists of 80g carbs per day/20g fat per day/24g of protien per meal and eating six small meals every 3 hours. We meet at either 6 or 6:30pm with the trainer so I've been working some overtime hanging out in work city to pass the time, then getting done at the gym around 7/7:30 with a 45 minute drive home, you can see where I haven't had enough time to blog; but I promise in the coming weeks I will work harder to get some blogging in. Be prepared though it may become a slightly more exercise/healthy food zone and me venting/sharing my struggles as this time goes on.

Our trainer Annette is amazeballs. She is so nice and encouraging that you can't help but love her and want to do everything she says, I really do feel that she believes in me more than I do myself right now, but hopefully I'll get there.

My biggest struggle this week has been the food. During the week I didn't even notice, but these past two days have been a little rough. I want pizza and I want McDonalds. Ugh how awful, it's just the knowing you can't have something that makes you crave it I think. But don't fret I didn't give into temptation, I just kept thinking how bad I want this and it's only up to me to screw it up, and I'm not going to. During our 84 days we need to follow the plan to the T. Once the 84 days, in moderation, there will be room for those kinds of things, hopefully I won't want them, but there will be a place.

84 days in the gym will conclude on October 19th. By then, Annette is bound and determined that I will be smokin hot. So we shall see. Six days down, 78 to go. Monday is a new day and a new week, let's get this!

PS
If you have any good recipe that will fit into my plan please share. I'm already getting blah'd out on salads.

Ferris Wheel and a Sweet Treat

What a weekend and then just like that it's over.

Friday night was spent at the fair riding the Ferris wheel, bumper cars and the tilt-a-whirl. I was 10 points away from winning a price at skeeball, oh so close. We finished off the evening listening to the band rockin. It was a fantastic night!

Then Saturday after a little OT at work, I hit the road and traveled to Page Turners town! She left the farm to follow her dreams of owning a candy shop in her small town and Saturday was the grand opening! Here are pictures from her adorable little candy shop on main street. I almost didn't recognize her when I walked in with that giant smile on her face.

She has all kinds of candy to choose from, the banana salt water taffy was excellent, I got a taste test of the Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly's (delish) and some rock candy on request from mom, which she reported back was also very delish. I'm so glad that her little dream has turned into reality that everyone else can enjoy too. Although I miss her at work, I'm glad she's in a better place ;) 

And today I headed to the big city to catch a movie with NiBo. We went all fancy today and saw it in IMAX. Pacific Rim is a movie about mosters from under the pacific ocean and the machines we built to kick there butt. Probably not most people's cup of tea but I actually really liked it, and add the fact that Charlie Hunnam (aka Jax Teller) was the lead role in the movie didn't hurt one bit.

Hope everyone had a great weekend... back to the grind tomorrow :(

I'm a Cool Dude

Today at work we had system issues for pretty much the whole day which makes for a really really long day. We actually missed being able to work. It's kind of hard to keep yourself entertained while still trying to be Re3markable. I'm glad the day finally ended though, tomorrow could be interesting with all the work we didn't get to do today, but at least it will be FRIDAY!

This should be a fairly busy weekend, tomorrow night we are hitting up the fair for the lawnmower demolition derby and to a tailgate party with the Feudin Hillbilly's and Saturday A.drama and I are going to venture up to Page Turner's town for the grand opening of her candy shop!

Pinterest Find: Summer Salad

We had this for dinner and it was amazing! I had to share. The pin on pinterest links you back to the blog 'What I ate' (click the link to go to the original recipe)

We paired it with chicken but it's a meal in itself. It makes quite a bit so it's perfect for a summer party of food day at work! I have the ingredients list below so you can take a quick look. It was delish! I don't like feta cheese so we substituted with Parmesan. This meal has been gpa approved!

SUMMER SALAD - CORN, AVOCADO, TOMATO, FETA, CUCUMBER & RED ONION WITH A CILANTRO VINAIGRETTE (serves 6-8)  

- 4 ears corn, cooked

- 2 avocados, diced

- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved (I use orange & red for a little color) 

- 1/2 an english cucumber, finely diced, skin on

- 1/3  C. crumbled feta

- 1/2 red onion, finely diced

Cilantro Vinaigrette

- 1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar

- 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar

- 1/2 tsp. salt or Herbamare

- 1 tsp. garlic powder

- 1/2 freshly ground black pepper

- 2 tbsp. cilantro, chopped

- 6 tbsp. EVOO

Keep It in the Zoo!

Summer Bucket List Item: Go to a Zoo... .check!

I've never been to a big zoo in my adult memory, so I decided to take a day of vacation and head out of town with my friend MB and hit up the St. Louis Zoo! It was hotter than Hades I won't even lie. I wore a tank top and got a bit of sun. The St. Louis Zoo is free to get in... um plus! It's $15 to park close or park free and hoof it with off street parking. The only things we paid extra for was $4 to pet the sharks and stingray... more on that later, and $4 to see the sea lion show. Here's some of the highlights of the day...

Anteater and a large rodent animal

Rhino

Hippopotamus, hip hop, hip hop anonymous? (get it? Big Daddy, Adam Sandler?)

Mama elephant and 2 mo old baby elephant

These elephants were doing all they could to keep cool

using their trunks as a hose and spraying off

The sea lion show

Gorilla pickin it's nose

Chimp backside.. he wouldn't turn around :/

Grizzly bear.. just paced in a circle

Camels and a baby camel

Kangaroo and baby kangaroo

Small Giraffe and larger Giraffe

Flamingos

This guy was a total GQ Model, totally posin

This turtle may or may not be dead...

Zebra family

I was bummed all the big cats were no where to be seen. I mean really, you live in Africa, can't you handle a little Midwest humidity!? But other than that we got to see almost all the animals! We forewent the birds, who cares about birds. My favorite part was getting to pet the stingray, who knew they actually like being petted? They would line up like a little stingray parade and actually come up to your hand to get a pat. The sharks were a little less enthusiastic but still would come up to you. They felt not like I expected them too, they were slimy feeling but at the same time not slimy and kinda velvety. It's hard to describe, I highly recommend trying it out! Oh and don't worry, they had their barbs removed so no chance of a Steve Erwin encounter (still too soon?)

I was also very very glad that there was lots of shade around, that helped a lot! They even had the mister fans set up around the park to help cool you off. It was very very humid and sweaty hot, but the sun was shining and the rain stayed away, can't ask for much more!

Throwback Thursday: Americana Style

Here's a little throw back Thursday Americana for ya in honor of Independence Day! I hope everyone had a lovely day and gets to enjoy some lovely fireworks this evening! Happy 4th! 

The Watermelon Oreo Quest

I don't know if you know that there are Watermelon flavored Oreo's floating around out in the world right this moment or not but you should know... and well I guess now you do! 

This story starts several weeks ago. I had heard them talking about watermelon Oreo's on the radio. Most people think they are an abomination to the Oreo world and shouldn't exist. I won't lie to you I was one of them. Discussing this abomination at work I vowed if I found them I would bring them in so we could all put this to rest, either yay or nay. Searching high and low I was finally able to find some of these rare Oreo's at Target. I took them to work and with each hesitant bite from my co-workers it was 10-3 in favor! They were a hit!

When I got home gpa and A.Drama asked if they could try one. Oops! I told them I was fresh out but vowed to find more...

Mom and gma were going to the big city and were on the search, they tried Wal-Mart and the Target there... no luck. Now the quest was really on.

Last night we headed to the big city on the other side of us, also making an appearance at bike night at the Harley dealer. They had a drawing for a basket full of Harley things that was eligible for active and retired military... well Dad won!!! He was very excited!

... but back to the Oreo's. So the original Oreo's I had purchased at this particular Target store. So I walk back to where I had located them the first time, which was in their seasonal area. THEY WERE GONE! NOOOOooooooo! I stood there looking at the shelf that was now full of glasses. What, huh, wah?! I just stood there staring, I walked around to the other aisles in the area. But they were just here! After a moment I realized defeat and slowly exited the aisle. Then as I was walking past the food aisles I thought I'd check there. FOUND THEM!!! There they were next to their Oreo siblings. So I grabbed three bags, they weren't all for me! I promise!

So long story short, I couldn't find them, then I found them. They are delicious, you should try them! :)

Podcasts and Sirius

I go back and forth between music and podcasts to keep my from losing my mind at work. I've tried other podcasts but keep coming back to these four as my main go-to's. With an hour drive each way I can go through them pretty quick when I'm in podcast mode. So here's a little about my podcast listening.

Rooster Teeth- my brother got me hooked on this one. No particular reason I listen to this one, it's entertaining and the guys are funny. It's mostly about gaming, but even though I don't even own a game console it's still funny to listen too.

The Talking Dead Podcast- I LOVE this podcast. Two Canadian guys Chris and Jason talk about all things 'Talking Dead' you know, the zombie show on AMC. The thing I love about this podcast is it takes your perception of the show and completely changes it into something else. I like most people I imagine, watch the show on a purely entertainment based scale. After each episode they break it down and really make you think about it on a whole different scale, not only in entertainment speaking but as well as cinematic integrity as well. While the show is on summer break they update less often and talk about news and rumors for the set of filming for the next season.

Nerdist- The host Chris Hardwick interviews different people in the entertainment/music industry and basically just really famous people. It's not scripted and it's just friends talking and it's always funny. I don't listen to this one as much, but I just kinda go through the episodes and look for people I know and listen to those first then go back and fill in the spaces.

Off the Air- Chick McGee from Bob & Tom. This is the podcast I listen to least of all, mostly because the others keep me pretty busy. This podcast is more of a causal conversation with Chick and the guests of the show. Most of the guests you'll know from the Bob & Tom show.

Those are the main podcasts that I can listen to. I'm kinda picky about them, I don't like amateur sounding ones because it's too annoying, and if the people have weird voices that I don't like I can't listen to it either. I know... weird.

That brings us to Sirius Satellite Radio. I got a 6 month free trial when I bought Edgar. So far I'm not impressed. I would much rather stream Pandora radio (which I heart) I do enjoy the 90's on 9, but it's just not intuitive enough for me. My Pandora knows what I like and what I don't and I can give a song a thumbs down and never have to hear it again! I just feel like my Pandora has a much better variety than what I can find on Sirius. Maybe I just haven't given it enough of a change, but I'm trying. I just can't find a station that I love and HAVE to listen to. Any suggestions for a favorite station if you have Sirius? I don't think I will be renewing when the time comes.