Monday Matters

1. I got to see my best friend - Katie - from UMASS this weekend.  While the boys went out and did Bachelor Party things, we got to hang out and chill.  And eat nachos at The Forge.  I loved it.
1. I got to go to a dress fitting with her - her Wedding Dress is AMAZING.  I love it.  Everything about it.  
2. We went to the outlets in Lee and I bought some clothes at Ann Taylor.  I love buying stuff for 40% and 60% off.  I felt guilty about buying myself clothes so I bought stuff for Scott, too.  
3. Katie introduced me to GrooveShark.  I love it.  It's amazing.  It's like Pandora, but you can pick your own music.  No more trying to listening to Queen and having to listen to Bon Jovi (sorry!!)


2. I went on my first Bike Ride of the season last week (I have been such a slacker this year).  My front tire is currently completely flat.  Like, no air at all.  Last year the problem was my back tire.  This year?  Front.  I think it's time for new tires.


3. I am in LOVE with having a grill at my disposal.  Since we're staying at my mom's house until our house is done, we have the luxury of taking advantage of all her stuff.  Including her gas grill.  We had a grill at the condo, but who honestly feels like going down 3 flights of stairs just to make a hot dog?  NOT ME!!  Having a grill right off the kitchen = amazing.


4. Friends who are teachers are getting ready to go back to school.  I've heard a lot of complaining.  No one wants to go back...  Guess what, people?  I don't get 2 1/2 months off in the summer.  I work right through.  So stop your complaining and get to work.  (NOTE:  I understand that teachers work hard and that some teachers use their summer break to prepare for the following year - this isn't a slight on the job that they do, it's just a statement).


5. I signed up for Groupon and have the Application send me "Push Notifications" on my phone.  I honestly find it super annoying.  But the deals are good.  I've bought pillows so far.  They're still in the box....


6. I recently bought myself a heart rate monitor with the capability to count calories as you exercise.  I've been doing really well counting calories and exercising since we got back from Martha's Vineyard (I'm down 6 lbs since coming home!!).  I am just really interested in seeing actual calores burned rather than what the machine says or what MFP says.  USPS says it left the sort facility in Providence this morning.  I hope that means it will be at the house when I get home today!!!


7. When I got home from visiting Katie yesterday, Scott and I sat on the couch and chatted about our weekends.  I told him about mine, he edited about his (I don't think I want to know all the gory details of a bachelor party, anyway).  In any case, while we chatted, we had the DIY network on tv, and Rehab Addict was on.  Good premise.  Annoying host lady.


8. It's interesting working out at the gym at work.  I find it convenient, but I really don't like working out with people I know (and have previously refused me jobs I've interviewed for).  Last week, one of those people was on a treadmill.  She always amuses me.  She walks at 4.0, and the whole time, she listens to her portable CD player and every 30 seconds or so, she puts her arms over her head and pumps her arms.  In any case, last week she got off the treadmill and walked into the locker room without shutting off the machine.  It just kept going.  I got off my machine and shut hers off.  


9. Completely obsessed with The Big Bang Theory.  September 27th can't come soon enough.


10. I like One Direction.  How embarrassing.


11. I got the idea of Monday Matters from Tuesday Things.  Sometime's it's just fun to have a post of ideas that don't have anything to do with each other.  

Bagels and Exercise

Exercise-wise, I've been having a really good week.  I have been exercising on and off for a while now, but made some decisions that somewhat force me to exercise daily.


I love bagels.  I mean, love them.  There's something about stopping on my way into work in the morning and getting myself a toasted bagel with cream cheese ON it that really just makes my day (You have to specify on, otherwise, Dunkin Donuts will just drop a container of cream cheese into a bag and call it a day).  As soon as I get in the car in the morning, my mind is already eating a bagel.  Well, for those of you who don't know, a sesame seed bagel is 350 calories and the cream cheese to go with it is 130 calories.  That's 480 calories on breakfast ALONE!  Never mind if you get a coffee to go with it!


Well, I made the decision on Sunday that I will allow myself to have a bagel ONLY if I exercise.  It's a reasonable trade-off, right?  It's been going well so far.  I have gone so far as to wear the gym clothes I would never normally wear just so that I can get to the gym.  All so that I can eat a bagel in the morning.


My workouts for this week have been boring so far.  I've been mainly concentrating on jogging and biking, so I'm either on the treadmill, the elliptical, or the bike.


Here we go:


Monday:
Elliptical Trainer        33 minutes  428 calories
Biking (12-14 mph)  12 minutes  165 calories
593 Total Calories Burned


Tuesday:
Jogging 5 mph           15 minutes  206 calories
Walking 3.5 mph       20 minutes  130 calories
Biking (14-16 mph)   10 minutes  171 calories
(I did run walk intervals)
507 Total Calories Burned


Wednesday:
Jogging 5 mph           15 minutes  206 calories
Walking 3.5 mph       20 minutes  130 calories
Biking (12-14 mph)   10 minutes  137 calories
(I did run walk intervals)
473 Total Calories Burned


Thursday:
Elliptical Training       33 minutes  430 calories
Biking (14-16 mph)  12 minutes  204 calories
634 Total Calories Burned


One of the other decisions I made (just today I made the decision), is to not eat ALL of the exercise calories like I originally have been doing.  I decided that I would put the total amount of calories Burned in the NOTES section of MFP and put a slightly reduced number in the actual area where it counts as calories earned.  This way I can account for some of the error in calculating any of the exercises.


What do you think?

25 Random Facts

Here are a number of facts about me, the first two (which I won't count to the 25) are that I stole this idea from that "25 Random Facts" of Facebook that went Viral in 2008/2009.  I'm going to try to state a number of things that I didn't say back then!

1. I have to go to Rochester on September 19-22 for Work.  I've never been to Rochester before.
2. I love baking.  I'm sure you've seen this from previous blog entries.
3. I'm not a fan of cleaning, but I can't stand my house to be dirty.  It always seems to be messy.....
4. My husband and I have gotten into bike riding.  I love it and wish I did it more often.
5. I live in a condo, and can't wait to move out.
6. I want to build a house on at least 1+ acres in Barrington.  I hope I'm able to do that one day.
7. I have a love-hate relationship with caffeine.  To little = headache, too much = headache.
8. I don't understand the fascination with the word "pasta."  Growing up, it was either macaroni or spaghetti.  Pasta was just if you made it by hand....
9. I watched "Inglourious Basterds" the other day for the first time.  I loved it, and will definitely watch it again.
10. I love all movies made by Mel Brooks.
11. I tore my PCL 5 months before my wedding (on Christmas Eve).  It still hurts when I try to run.
12. My sister is getting married in June and I am the MOH.  Techinically I'm the "Matron" of Honor.  I hate the word Matron...It sounds so old.
13. I am newly obsessed with the 2004 Movie "The Phantom of the Opera."  I saw it at PPAC in Middle School, and it scared the crap out of me.  I have a new found love for the music.
14. I love dirty Martinis.  With 3 olives. 
15. I went to the ENT because I've been having a lot of issues with my ears.  Apparently I have arthritis in my jaw and it affects my ears.  I can't eat bagels or chew gum.
16. I don't like being taken advantage of, and I don't like being lied to.  
17. Hockey is my favorite sport.  Football is my second favorite.
18. I am transitioning into a new job.  I will soon be an individual contributor again.  I can't wait.
19. I get frustrated very easily.  I need to remember to take more big breaths.
20. We had a huge hurricane (Hurricane Irene) over the weekend that a lot of people didn't take seriously.  They actually reclassified it to a "Tropical Storm" but there are still areas that don't have power.
21. It should usually take me 45 minutes to drive to work.  Lately it's been taking almost an hour because of construction on Rte 44.  They're supposed to be doing this construction until Spring 2012.  JOY.
22. I have been trying to lose weight.  I have thus far lost 14 lbs on Weight Watchers.  I need to exercise more in order to boost the weight loss.  I get distracted easily.
23. I have more cookbooks than I know what to do with.  I hardly use any of them.
24. I have a facebook account, but I'm very upset with the new privacy settings.  You can now tag people in your posts and pictures, even if they're not your friends.  That doesn't seem very private to me!
25. I love Mexican Food.  And I love drinking Margaritas and Sangria with my Mexican Food.

Martha's Vineyard....In more than a few words

So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about how I needed to write in my blog, and yet, I haven't done it.  Well, here is the long awaited post.

We recently got back from Martha's Vineyard, which I think was one of the best vacations we've been on since our Honeymoon.  Now that I say that, it is the first vacation we've been on since our Honeymoon.  Either way, we had a great time.  We rented a house with 3 other couples, and had a fabulous time! 

Noteworthy things from our trip I would like to share:

• Definitely bring your bike, as in your bicycle.  It's great exercise, and bringing my bike helped me lose almost 3 pounds on my vacation (I ate and drank what I wanted, but I tried to make decent decisions and count my points, but went over my daily quota almost every day...The exercise definitely helped!).  Although - I would research the directions before you try to go somewhere on the bike.  We wanted to ride to Aquinnah from Edgartown (which is a 20 mile ride), and after 19.5 miles, we were still only 2.5 miles away from home....So research would have been a good idea.
• I biked on 4 different occasions last week. 
• The first day, we went on a little adventure with 2 of our friends to find a beach, and rode about 4 miles. 
• The next day, we rode to Oak Bluffs from the house (in Edgartown), and while it should have been just 5 miles to get there, it took us 12 miles because we got lost.  Plus the 5 home, we totalled 17 miles. 
• The next day, we tried to ride to Aquinnah, and that was a lost cause, with 22 miles of going nowhere. 
• And finally, on Friday, we rode our bikes through Edgartown and into Chappaquiddick, for a total of 17 miles.  And since I calculate my weight-watcher activity points, and I get more points if I averge over 12-mph, I tried to keep my speed up so that I could get more points (and therefore not feel super guilty about my food/drink choices).
• Definitely go with friends.  I love my husband, but it's awesome to go on a trip with friends.  We knew everyone we were travelling with, but I really feel that we were able to make some strong friendships while we were on vacation, and that made me really happy. 
• Do everything you can.  We really had a ball.  We visited as much as we could, and we even jumped off a 15-20' bridge into the water - it was such a rush, and super fantastic!  I think next time, we'll be able to be more prepared, and have a specific list of things we want to do/see - things that we missed this time. 
• Don't kill yourself bringing food over.  So a lot of people had advice for us, where to go, places to check out - and these suggestions were awesome..  The only piece of advice that I didn't like (in hindsight) was to bring as much food as possible, instead of buying it on the island.  Why?  Well, we were told that the prices on the island were much higher, but they really weren't that different, except in the meats (and obviously if you were eating out 3 times a day)...I killed myself bringing food and carrying it on the ferry, etc.  Next time, I think the only thing we would bring would be the meats.  Everything else, I would buy there.  I was so frustrated with what I had to carry there, that I refused to bring anything home with me, and left everything (except the massive bottle of Kettle One that was on sale and a box of cookies I finished yesterday).

All in all, we had a great trip.  I m excited to plan another trip sometime soon...Although with all the weddings we have next year, I'm sure we'll be able to plan a vacation around then!