Tuesday, thunder, sports, bar, Brian on the radio!

A Tuesday night chez LeBlanc...

...Brian is chillaxin on his Mac, recovering from his walk with the puppy.

...Laura is chillaxin on her PC, recovering from her run.

...Puppy is licking all the rest of the applesauce out of the container from my post-dinner snack.

I didn't have to tutor tonight and Brian left work right on time, so we were both home by 6 p.m. Because it was still pretty humid and there was a threat of thunderstorms, we decided to eat early and then go exercise afterward (typically, we prefer it the other way around...).

So I had pizza (NS Flatbread with cheese, added mushrooms, and a 4 slices of turkey pepperoni) and some steamed veggies.

Brian also had pizza (Lean Cuisine Deep Dish Three Meat Pizza) and some Mixed Berry Teeter yogurt.

(Gatsby had Purina One Healthy Puppy [not to be confused with his breakfast, or yesterday's dinner & breakfast, or pretty much every other meal he's had since late September] and a slice of turkey pepperoni.)

A lovely dinner for all!

Après dîner, we watched the radar until it was clear that the storms were not going to come to our house* and headed out to exercise.

* This is a lie.

At approximately 13:00 into my run, I began to feel big, splotty raindrops (the kind that indicate that it's fixin' to pour).

At approximately 13:45 of the run, the rain drops became more intense.

At approximately 14:00 of the run, I saw Gatsby and Brian rounding the corner at the top of the hill as it started pouring.

At exactly 14:33 of the run, we all took shelter in the garage of one of the unfinished houses on the other side of the neighborhood for about 15 minutes until the thunderstorm passed. (We saw some AWESOME lightning!!!) It was all very exciting.

After 15 minutes, we all set back out on respective paths to finish up our exercise and it was so nice now that it was so much cooler and we were all wet!! (Gatsby...not so happy with the wetness.)

So we all made it home safely and had something fun to laugh about! I completed my 2.03 miles in 22 minutes flat (10:49/mile), but I'm not considering that competitive since I took a 15 minute siesta 2/3 of the way through. However, previously, I had improved on last Thursday's time, so my best time right now is 22:59 (11:19/mile). Pretty cool stuff.

I think I've figured out why I like running so much. I am INCREDIBLY competitive and running is pretty much one of the only things you can do to compete against yourself without signing up to be on a sports team. It's so much fun to try and beat my best time!

My next step is to increase my distance, so I think I'm going to up my run to 2.25 miles. I'm trying to decide if I'm ready to start that August 1, or if I want to wait a bit longer. I don't want to do too much too quickly, but I don't want to slack off either...

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Speaking of sports teams! Brian and I are going to play kickball with the Town of Knightdale!! They have a co-ed adult league and we've signed up to play. We have a couple of friends who are also going to play with us and it should be great fun. I can't wait!!! I'm sure there will be many exciting tales from our games...

I wonder if I should point out to my team, that I'm pretty much the crappiest athlete ever? I played basketball for 4 years in elementary school and my career scoring total was -2.

Yes, -2.

I only made it into the basket one time, the last game of my 6th grade season...unfortunately, it was the wrong basket! They were nice enough to count if for my team...I wonder if that's because my dad ran the basketball program? Surely not.

I also played soccer for 7 years in elementary school. I don't remember specifics, only that I was the shortest kid on the team, not very good, and got mowed down by this really tall boy one year. But, at least I enjoyed all the orange slices at half time.

I actually was sorta decent at cheerleading. Imagine...me being good at something that involves a lot of jumping and screaming?

OK, actually, I really wasn't that great, but I made the squad each year that I tried out and my squads got a lot of first places at the competitions. I was "Most Versatile" (aka, I didn't cry when they moved me to the back row) and "Most Energetic" (aka, loudest).

A *few* of the mementos from my illustrious athletic career:

Perhaps, I'll be more successful at kickball.

If I'm not, I'll always have my Most Valuable Ringer award from handbells my senior year of high school.

Too bad the jerks misspelled my name:

I wonder if we'll get kickball trophies?

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In other news, I had an awesome weekend with Shannon and at Mandy's wedding. Shannon, her sister Jenny, and I went out to a dessert bar in uptown called Crave. It had phenomenal martinis and delicious food. We ate appetizers there for dinner. I had grilled chicken sliders with a mango chutney (delish!) and my dessert was cupcakes! A dark chocolate one and a ginger spice one with lemon icing. Of course, I was so full that I could only eat about three bites of each cupcake, but they were AWESOME.

Afterward, we went to bar called Blackfinn and danced for about 4 hours. It was SOOO much fun. The DJ was playing AWESOME music--recent stuff and great stuff from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The only sucky thing is that some chick stepped on my toe in her stiletto and my toe is now all bruised and nasty looking. :-( At the bar, we actually ran into a kid that we went to high school with (come to think of it...I think he may have been on some of my elementary school soccer and basketball teams....)

Jenny, me, and Shannon @ Blackfinn:

Mandy was GORGEOUS at her wedding and came riding in on a horse drawn carriage. It was very lovely. It was SO great to see her. Everything was absolutely beautiful!

Harry Potter was good, but not the best one ever. Can't wait for the final two movies!

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FINALLY, Brian is going to be on AM 680 (WPTF) Wednesday night (7/29) at 10 p.m. on the Tom Kearney Show answering caller questions about roads! Wake County and otherwise...if you have any burning ROAD! questions, be sure to call in!

BEST DAY EVER!!

Brian and I have a running joke with Gatsby that whenever something good happens to him we say, "BEST DAY EVER!" with a nod to the fact that dogs are always so happy and excited. A few examples:

Gatsby gets up and has breakfast. BEST DAY EVER!
Gatsby goes back to bed beside dad. BEST DAY EVER!
Mom works at home all day. BEST DAY EVER!
Gatsby goes potty outside and gets a doggie biscuit. BEST DAY EVER!
Gatsby goes for a ride in the car and sticks his head out the window the whole time. BEST DAY EVER!
Gatsby goes on a walk. BEST DAY EVER!
Gatsby eats dinner. BEST DAY EVER!
Gatsby crawls under all the sheets and curls up into a little ball. BEST DAY EVER.

(I think you get the idea.)

So, in that spirit, this afternoon, I had the BEST DAY EVER!

After I left work, I had a very lovely phone call with my mom and hit no traffic. I was on my way out the door to go to the nail place and stopped by the mail box and had my August issue of Shape. Perfect reading during my pedicure.

I ended up with an awesome nail girl (who also did my eyebrows really well) and she did a really fantastic job with my toe nails. (I didn't even squirm too too bad during all the ticklish moments!) AND the color that I picked looked even better on my toes than in the bottle.

When I made it home, I went for a run and Brian walked Gatsby. I was kinda bummed after my run because my time was slower than it had been on Monday, but I felt like I had exerted a lot of energy. I decided to just chalk it up to the fact that it was a lot more humid today.

I was, however, quite pleased that my run didn't mess up my pedicure.

We all made it home before a storm rolled through and my dinner was awesome. Yesterday at the Teeter, I bought a Kashi Turkey Fiesta Sandwich Pocket that has the exact same stats as a NutriSystem dinner entree (http://www.kashi.com/products/kashi_pocket_bread_sandwiches_turkey_fiesta). This thing was freaking awesome! I couldn't believe how good it was. I had it with some bell peppers and tomatoes sauteed in balsamic vinegar. DELISH!

Then, after dinner, my dad called to tell me how well P90X was going for him and while we were talking I was logging my run on my little exercise tracking Web site (www.mapmyrun.com). As I was logging it, I realized that I had remembered the wrong time from Monday and my run was actually 12 seconds FASTER than Monday's (23:17 or 11:28/mile). It was quite fantastic!

So, basically, BEST DAY EVER!!

And tomorrow I'm going to Charlotte!!

Weight Loss Update | Annoying Motivational Laura-ish-ness

Because we've been travelling so much, I've been really slack on taking weight-loss progress pictures and measurements! :-( Not so good.

But I haven't been slack at weight loss and exercise! So good!

I haven't ordered any new NS food lately because I had a huge backlog of dinners left over from past deliveries and I've found really good substitutes at the grocery store for breakfast and lunch items. Once I get through most of my dinner food, I'll definitely be ordering some more dinners to keep handy!

So far, I've lost 42 lbs. And I'm incredibly pleased with that. It comes out to about 7 lbs./month, which is right along a "safe" weight loss rate.

In the past month or so, I've really ramped up my exercise. I'm doing some form of cardio 6 days per week and strength training 3-4 days per week. I've also discovered that I REALLY like running. Yes, perhaps, I'm insane. I'm definitely a SLOW runner, but I'm pleased with what I can do. I had been doing a run/walk combo and I just decided on July 4th that I was going to go out for a complete run--and I did it!

When I run, I go 2.03 miles (because that's the course I've mapped out!) and I run it completely without stopping or walking. When I get done, I walk for another 1-2 miles (usually with Brian and Gatsby--a family that walks together, lives longer together!). I usually do that 3-4 days/week and the other 2-3 days, I do different cardio (exercise video, elliptical, walking, etc.).
In the past few weeks, it's taken me 26-28 minutes to run my 2.03 miles--I told y'all I was slow, but I don't care! Today, however, I was really feeling good and I ran it in 23:29--or, 11:34/mile.

This was SUPER exciting.

When I finished and looked at my watch, I said (out loud, to myself--I'm not kidding):

Holy crap. I can do anything.

And, that's how I feel. It's incredible.

(However, the little girls playing in their front yard looked at me kinda weird when I said that. I guess people don't usually give themselves pep talks on the sidewalk. Though, let's be honest, everyone should!)

I'm definitely into this exercise/healthy diet thing for life. It's completely changed my life. I don't even have to think about what to eat now or the correct portion size. I just do it. And it's not hard to motivate myself to exercise. I love getting all sweaty and feeling like I've accomplished something. It's AWESOME.

Twice while I was at the beach, I cyclejacked my mom's bicycle and went riding with my dad. Which was a ton of fun!! (I foresee some bikes in mine and Brian's futures!)

My current goal is to run a 5K. I've walked plenty of them and I'll be ready to run one in a few months. I'm not sure when and where, but I'm going to do it and totally rock it. Afterwards, who knows? Probably some more 5Ks; maybe a 10K; half-marathon; marathon; triathlon; Iditarod?

My other goal is to do a pullup. I try pretty much every day on the pullup bars by our walking trail. So far, I've gone from 1/10th of a pullup to 1/8th of a pullup. I figure I'll have the pullup accomplished when I finish my 2nd Iditarod.

I've also decided that in the mid-fall, I am going to start P90X (http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/p90x.do). I think that will be a good time to start because it will be a good in-the-house thing to do when it starts getting cold (and dark earlier!) and I'll be in better shape by then... If you don't know, P90X is a fitness-cult-thing that's really popular right now. It's marketed in people in generally good fitness condition who want to get "absolutely ripped." It's a series of workout DVDs that you do for 90 days. It actually has a "fit test" (http://www.beachbody.com/text/products/programs/p90x/p90xFitTest.pdf) that they want you to pass before you start. I can actually pass it now, but I'll be less likely to die if I wait a few months. It mainly concentrates on building muscle and strength, but also incorporates lots of cardio and other good-for-you things. I did one of the workouts this past weekend with dad (plyometrics, aka jumping) and it was a lot of fun, but definitely hard.

*****

So, now I have to dole out some kudos! I am incredibly proud of my family!

Brian has been stepping up his exercise like it's going out of style! He and Gatsby are best walking buds and they walk for about an hour about 4 days each week. A few weeks ago he did a workout video with me and (probably wanted to kill me) but did incredibly well. He's also beginning to pay a lot more attention to nutrition labels and is trying new things (AND eating breakfast!!!) I am so proud of him.

My momma is a total hottie. She's had her bike for more than a month and she rides it about an hour and 15 minutes most days of the week (she walks the other days). She looks INCREDIBLE. I think she's pretty much ridden all over Oak Island in the past month that she's been there. We think she'll be ready for the 2011 Tour de France, but she has to figure out how to stand up and pedal first!

My dad is also kicking butt. Even though he's traveling all the time, he gets up at 5 a.m. to go run during the week! When we did a 5K over the 4th in Southport, he ran his in
25:49 (8:19/mile). He was 4th in his age group! Of course, he's still cycling when he's at the beach or at home. He also started P90X on Saturday and I can't wait to see how he looks in 90 days! Right now, he also looks awesome, so in 90 days there is no telling...

Callie and Clay are also doing P90X together (see a trend?). They started last week. Frankly, I'm a little scared to see them. They're pretty much rocking married life so far. Evidently their kitties look at them like they're crazy when they do plyometrics together. I can't imagine why.

Even Brian's parents are getting in on the action with some workout videos. They're toning and doing some walking videos.

It's all very exciting. I am so proud of everyone.

*****

So, I've been on my quest for almost 6 months and, like I said, I've lost 42 lbs. so far. My goal is to lose another 38 lbs. to put me at a total weight loss of 80 lbs. or at 124.4 lbs. (Yes, I know you're doing the math--I'll save you pulling up the Windows calculator--I started at 204.4.) I'll be honest. I have no idea what I'll look like at 124.4 lbs. That will put me squarely at a healthy BMI of 21.4, which is right within the recommendations. I think it will be about right. If it's not, I'll reevaluate. I'm not as concerned about the number as I am what looks and feels best. Because I like running so much, I know that the lighter I am the easier that will be. I'm also working hard to be as toned as possible.

I've gone from size 16/18 (XL-1X) to 10/12 (M-L) and I love, love, love going to the mall now. It is incredibly fun to be able to go in to any store and be able to find something that fits. Last weekend, I went to the mall in search of a dress for Mandy's wedding and found quite a few things that I liked (though I only bought a dress--go team self-restraint!). However, I did try on two pairs of jeans at Express. I was SO excited when the 12s were too big and the 10s were perfect.

So, I don't have any progress pictures, but I do have two pictures that I sent to Callie last night, as I'm trying to figure out how I want to accessorize my dress for the wedding this weekend.

(No, I don't purposely just have Brian take pictures of me posing by the fireplace!)

I send them to my fashonista sister for her advice. FYI, we still haven't decided, but I have a few other things that Callie wants me to try--I just want to be able wear my shoes from Callie's wedding again...

Have a super week, y'all!!

Where in the world does the time go?

I really don't know.

But Brian, Laura, and Gatsby pretty much just go to the beach! :-) We've been down to my grandmother's house on Oak Island every weekend except one in July and before that we spent some time in Ocean with my parents.

I'm not going to lie. It's been pretty awesome.

This weekend, I'm heading to Charlotte to see my best friend Shannon and then Saturday night we're heading to Shelby to my good friend Mandy's wedding. It should be a lot of fun. On Sunday we're going to see the new Harry Potter movie. I am so super excited about the trip.

The last weekend in August we're going to OKI with Brian's parents, grandma, and brother. This is the third year in a row that we've spent a weekend down there in August and I'm really looking forward to it! Brian and I are planning to take Monday off so that we don't have to rush back. That's our one complaint about beach weekends--they're wayyyyyy too short!!

And the weekend after that--you guessed it--FOOTBALL SEASON, BABY!!!! App. is starting out the season at ECU! So, Brian, Gatsby, and I are going to go to my parents for Labor Day, so that I can ride directly with them to the game. I am SO ready for football. Y'all can't possibly imagine how ready I am.

I am so ready that I tried on "my" football game-day jersey a few weeks ago at my parents' house:



The jersey is at my parents' house because it's Callie's (and it hasn't quite yet made it to her and Clay's apartment yet...). But I'm claiming it for the start of football season because none of my App. stuff fits anymore. Here's the cool thing about that shirt--it's a boy's XL. (Not men's!) It's still a little tight in that picture, but it will be ready for some football action come Labor Day!

I'm pretty sure that between weekend trips to visit my parents in Ocean and OKI during the spring, summer, and winter, and trips to Boone in the fall, I definitely spend the majority of weekends in a year away from home. I love our house, but I LOVE spending time travelling and Brian and I are so incredibly fortunate to have such fun places to visit...and wonderful people to see when we get there.

That much driving has definitely taken a toll on our cars. In fact, poor Brian's car had a rough time coming back from OKI over the Fourth. It broke down on him in beautiful Pender County and needed a new distributor-thingie-mc-jig and then the mechanics told us that it really needed considerable more work (his car was a 2000 Civic with 150K+ miles). So when we got back to Raleigh, we took it to the Honda place and they told us that it needed about $1700 in additional work to have any more of a lengthy existence. Considering the car was worth pretty much $1700, we decided to say our goodbyes and purchase a shiny new Civic.

We're quite excited about it and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having a new car. We're definitely the people who will drive a car for as long as humanly possible before buying a new one, so it's super exciting to see what Honda has come up with in 10 years of new models! (Our favorite is the USB hookup for our ipod that interfaces with the car's stereo.) It's very nifty.

It made its maiden voyage to OKI last weekend and performed without flaw--we were so thankful to be in a good car with super tires when we drove through a rainstorm second only to Noah's flood!

That's pretty much it for now...though I'm going to post a weight loss update in a few minutes...

I'll separate them out, so that you can ignore that one if you don't care ;-) (And, so that I'll have 2 posts in one night!)

Oh yeah, and if you want to...you can follow me on Twitter now...

http://twitter.com/SushiBeach

If you're friends with me on Facebook, it's the same status updates...