Wishing I Was the Wicked Witch of the West

In the past three weeks I've eaten better and worked out more than I have in the past three months. Guess how much weight I've lost? If you guessed none, you guessed right. Haven't lost any inches either. And my clothes aren't fitting any better. I've had my butt kicked at my boot camp class, lost all feeling in my arms for days after my Biggest Loser yoga session, and sweat enough to make me look like I'd been in a wet t-shirt competition in my first Bikram yoga class. All without the pleasures of eating chocolate, ice cream, or Krispy Kreme donuts.

And everything over the past month has just proved what I've been telling myself and everyone else for the past seven years - the only thing that helps me lose weight and feel better about myself is running. I hate it, but it's true. Boot camp and yoga might be toning me, but it sure doesn't have the same melting effect. And I need to melt. If nothing else, this past month has given me the motivation to start running regularly again because it's really not very fun to workout and skip out on dessert without seeing any of the benefits.

Tonight I put together my Marine Corps Marathon training plan, and I'm not sure I've ever been so nervous to start anything in my life. But that's why I have only two goals for the marathon. The first is to finish. And the second is to start. And to be consistent in my training, something I haven't done since Nashville in 2009. If for some reason I don't finish the race, it is not going to be because I didn't train and try my best.

And hopefully a month from now, I'll be telling you about my experiences melting, rather than wishing I was a Wicked Witch.

P.S. I put up a new widget in the sidebar so you can follow along with me on my training. By the time the race comes around, I should've logged around 500 miles. Wow.

Fast Five

It's May. Can someone please tell me where the year went? I was sitting here reading friends' blogs tonight for the first time in months and realized that I have no idea what's going on in anyone's lives. And because I get the worst blogger of the year award - people probably have no idea what's going on in ours either. I forget how much I use blogging to keep in touch with people and feel like by not blogging I've been missing out on a lot more than I first realized.

So since I know you're all dying to know, here's a quick update on our lives.

- Richie has officially been on "break" for nine months now. Luckily, there's an end in site and he'll be finally starting his full-time job at a law firm here in DC in October. I think we're both going to be in for a rude awakening when he goes to work and there's not someone home to cook, clean, and basically take care of us both all day. He's much better at it than I am.

- We've been and will be traveling quite a bit. We went out to see my family in Kansas in March, followed up by a quick trip for half-marathon #11 (which is a pretty depressing story actually) to Kansas in April. In the next two weeks, we're both going home again for our siblings' graduations.

- As soon as I get back from graduation, we're leaving again for our big trip (well excluding Hawaii of course) to Europe. We figured it would probably be our last big hurrah before Richie starts working in the fall and my family happens to be going at a time that works great for us. Richie and my family will do a week in London and Paris and I'll meet them for ten days in Switzerland and Italy. More details to come but so far I've been playing travel agent and I'm really excited about this one.

- I hurt my knee about six weeks ago so I took about that long off from doing much (other than playing on my weekly vball team) of anything active. I'm fighting my way back into shape with a boot camp class, which I kicked butt in today by the way, and slowly getting back into running. I am still running the marathon.

- Work is picking up again, but in a great way. I'm getting to introduce some new ideas to my position and am thoroughly enjoying the challenge. It might be a long summer, but I think it'll be worth it.

And that's it. Our life for the past three months wrapped up in five fast bullets.

My Month of May

I started to write about how we have holidays that celebrate other people but not one that celebrates us individually...then I remembered that we actually have birthdays for that reason.

In most of the magazines that I get, they have monthly themes - different foods to focus on, healthy habits, etc. I've decided to follow along with my magazines and give May a theme - me. I've been neglecting myself for one reason or another the past six months and need to get back on track. Making May all about me sounds like a good way to kick start me back on the path to feeling good about myself again. I've put together a calendar for the month that is full of things that I'm doing just for me, things I've neglected, things that make me feel good, and things that just plain make me smile. Beginning today.

• Sunday, May 1 - Begin a month of no sweets. I did this a year ago and felt awesome afterward.
• Monday, May 2 - First class in a month-long boot camp class. Three days a week of getting my butt kicked.
• Tuesday, May 3 - First of five Bikram yoga classes (have a Groupon I need to use).
• Wednesday, May 4 - Get my blood taken (was supposed to a month ago) to get healthy.
• Thursday, May 5 - Go to Aveda in the mall to replace my black eyeliner.
• Friday, May 6 - Go bowling with the great friends we've made in the Alexandria 1st ward in the past 3 years.
• Saturday, May 7 - Take a leisurely walk in DC to see Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.
• Sunday, May 8 - Get myself a present for Mother's Day.
• Monday, May 9 - Take ten minutes to get my eyebrows waxed on my way home from boot camp.
• Tuesday, May 10 - Watch old episodes of Gilmore Girls while running on the treadmill.
• Wednesday, May 11 - Play volleyball with my favorite team.
• Thursday, May 12 - Leave work early.
• Friday, May 13 - Go see a chick-flick with the girls while Richie is out of town.
• Saturday, May 14 - Enjoy a night of spiritual pampering at our Stake Women's Conference. 
• Sunday, May 15 - Go see The Garden Oratorio at the LDS Temple Visitor's Center.
• Monday, May 16 - Buy myself something small while picking out my sister's HS graduation present.
• Tuesday, May 17 - Go for a walk during lunch and eat outside.
• Wednesday, May 18 - Eat only fresh fruits and veggies all day to rebuild my love for fresh foods.
• Thursday, May 19 - Go to sleep early.
• Friday, May 20 - Go on a date with Richie. Hold hands while we walk and eat something delicious.
• Saturday, May 21 - Go to the Old Town Farmer's Market and make homemade crepes with fresh berries.
• Sunday, May 22 - Take a beautiful drive down to Mt. Vernon and take a nice long nap after 9AM church.
• Monday, May 23 - Give myself a home pedicure (perfected this during spa night).
• Tuesday, May 24 - Run five miles without stopping while watching Gilmore Girls.
• Wednesday, May 25 - Order takeout Thai food for dinner so we don't have to cook.
• Thursday, May 26 - Eat out for lunch.
• Friday, May 27 - Start a weekend reading marathon to keep my company while Richie's in London.
• Saturday, May 28 -  Eat breakfast in bed without worrying about crumbs.
• Sunday, May 29 - Call one of my best friends and catch up without worrying about how long we talk.
• Monday, May 30 -  Buy myself a new skirt.
• Tuesday, May 31 - Let myself get excited while packing for Europe.

Weekly Walk #1: 7th Street NW

One of the goals I set back in January for 2011 was to play tourist in DC. Inspired by my friend Jenny and all of my favorite Rick Steve guide book walks, I decided to buy a pack of cards that have 50 DC city walks including culture, food, and historical stops along the way. I bought the cardsd probably two months ago and finally decided to get them out yesterday. Our walk yesterday inspired me to start a weekly thing, going on the walk and then taking my readers along for the ride. So here goes the first of 50, a walk down 7th Street NW DC.



Borrowed from http://john15-11.blogspot.com/

 It all started at the colorful Friendship Arch, or the colorful mark of DC's Chinatown. We actually skipped the next two parts of the walk (we only had two hours of parking), which were Wok & Rol - the location of Mary Surratt's boardinghouse where the Lincoln assasination plot was hatched - and Full Kee, which apparently has a great shrimp dumpling soup.



Stolen from Darcee's blog since she never sent it to me

 The next stop on the walk was what the card called the MCI Center, know known as the Verizon Center, and home to the Washington Wizards, Caps, and numerous live concerts throughout the year. Oh and Monster Truck Ralies like the one we went to months ago with our good friends the Bowens and Besseys.

After the Verizon Center, we made a detour of our own and thanks to Groupon learned all about crime and punishment at the National Crime and Punishment Museum. We started by trying our hand at crime and found we weren't so successful as Richie got put in the stocks for kissing me on Sunday, apparently not allowed in colonial times.

We then tried out being part of the depression era gangs but after seeing the Bonnie and Clyde's death car, we thought better of it. So instead we tried out the punishment part of the deal. The photo shoot was pretty fun but the food wasn't up to par and you all know how Richie is about his

food.  So we worked together and built a tunnel through the wall and escaped. It's pretty amazing that we made it actually since only about .05% of all prisoners who try to escape ever do. Must be because we make such a great team. After all of our troubles with crime and punishment, we decided maybe we should join forces with the good guys and tried our hand out at being cops. And CSI investigators.

We thought we'd finally found our place in the world of crime when we saw our pictures on the America's Most Wanted Set. Oops.

We left the National Crime and Punishment Museum in a hurry and continued our walk down 7th street. After such a crazy day and some terrible prison food we were famished. Luckily the walk directed us to one of our favorite restaurants, Jaleo, for a couple of Spanish tapas. Specifically, my favorite - these bacon covered dates. Pretty much incredible. Added to the coliflor with dates and olives and free bread they give out to tables, yep, this was a great snack for two famished walkers.

 After we finished up our snack, we crossed the street to the home of Clara Barton, where the founder of the American Red Cross Society worked to find missing Civil War Soldiers. She was also the first female federal employee to receive equal pay.

Back on the other side of the street we visited the Shakespeare Theater Company, home of shows like All's Well that Ends Well, the Merchant of Venice, and the one I was dying to see but ended April 10, The Ideal Husband.

And finally, we ended our walk at the bottom of 7th Street at the National Archives, the home of a beautiful fountain, square, and of course the National Archives.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Walk Winner: Crime and Punishment Museum - a little pricey but still very fun. It has a lot of cool stories, interactive games/exhibits (which is a must for me) as well as beginner information on CSI type stuff.
 
My Must-See: Square/fountains in front of the national archives. Very European and beautiful. One of my favorite pictures and views from the site.
 
Best Bite: Bacon covered dates at Jaleo.
 
Join us again next week as we play tourist in a different part of DC.
 
**Sorry for all of the formatting issues, Blogger just did not like some of my photos.