Great Memorial Day! Dinner with the homies and registered for Disney Half Marathon =)

Memorial Day ended nicely with Kim and Corey hosting dinner for me, the mister, Yahpee & Mr.Yahpee at their house. Kim has become such a good cook, I have to give credit where credit is due. Steaks and veggies, and CAKE! I even got birthday candles! I love my friends, I'm so grateful.

Kim is always cheesing for the camera:


Kim, me and Aline (more commonly known as Yahpee):


Our awesome hosts. Going to their place feels like being at home - I love that they moved 5 minutes away!


Aline and Matt are so cute and always fun company, without fail:


The Mister and I:


Sometimes I get sad that I can't be with my family on holidays, but times like tonight help me remember that I DO have family here in OC. Only difference is, we're just not blood related, and that's just a minor technicality. =)

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UPDATE ON DISNEY HALF MARATHON ("Halfie")

All that yappin and no action from me for the past few weeks regarding the Disney Half Marathon. But today I'm $107 poorer and one step closer to another road race - I am officially REGISTERED!
I linked my training calendar at the top of my blog if you need any guidance on training for it if you're doing the race too.

Finally a reason to get out of my fitness slump!

Day 14 of GET FIT PLAN - 20 minutes biking and 10 measly minutes of lower body resistance training. 186 calories burned. Weight = +3 pounds since Day 1. Cut me!

Here's to another road race! Kim is registered and Claire and Aline and Joy are in for it as well. Still waiting on word from Andrea/USCgirl and Cat but hopefully they'll bite. Jessica can't do it this time, it won't be the same without her but we'll always have our past races to remember.

Look at the goodies we get if we finish the race, of course 2008's would be modified (squealing):


Mickey and Minnie were always a little creepy looking to me, but hopefully they'll be there cheering the runners on:


The START line of any race is so exciting - adrenaline rush!


Me in training (wishful thinking):

Book exchange gtg & GET FIT PLAN Days 12-14

GET FIT PLAN progress:
Day 12 - break
Day 13 - run 28 minutes with Kim = 264 cals burned; walk dogs = 244 cals
Day 14 - ehhhh, break

SUNDAY BOOK GTG - Good times!

Another fun time with an OC Nestie Book gtg!

Everyone came with great books to trade. Someone even brought Glass Castle, one of my favorite books of all time. Excuse me if I don't make sense - it's 6pm and I'm been drinking mrgaritas since 1030am. Whoops.

Thank you girls for my nice birthday card and for being such great houseguests!

APK baked some yummy red velvet birthday cupcakes - thank you Kim!



MBOC made meatballs, surprisingly very good! No offense MBOC but I never thought you owere one to cook.


Books - yay! There were a ton more, but I didn't snap in time:


Kim, Brianna and Joanne (spkykitty)


All of us! (Aline had to leave before the photo was taken):

10yt, Doggie Caleb, Mboc, NorcalMrs, SNGilberts, Spykitty, APK, Doggie Sophie, ElleBlue, BriannaNichole, Ihearttim, Starlily & Melissa&Chris. Thanks for coming ladies!

Can't wait for the next one!

+2 pounds - wtf...& YOGA!!!

Downside - I gained 2 pounds since starting my GET FIT PLAN 11 days or so ago. Whatever. I go cut.

jk.

Upside - GET FIT PLAN DAY 11 - Jogged with the doggies for 40 minutes and burned 266 calories and did 1 hour of yoga with MBOC and burned 240 calories.

Want to join me for a yoga class at 24hour? I forgot how challenging it can be and what a great all body workout it is. I am sore ALL OVER today!

Benefits of Yoga
Improves strength, flexibility and balance
Improves concentration and memory
Helps with mild depression and anxiety reduces high blood pressure Improves sleep
Brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind
Improves digestion

Summer is looking goooood! (knock on wood)

So I have some fun things planned for June! Yay!

June 6th weekend - W Hotel in San Diego with the Mister and some friends! Pool day on June 7th (help me God) and then the Padres v. Mets at night. Maybe we'll go out after the game, which again means having to be body-ready. I hate this pressure.

June 20th weekend - Lake Havasu! Wooooooo!! I've never been to the river. Again, help me God bc this involves swimwear, I would think.

June 28th weekend - Possible Shutterbugs-Love-To-Eat weekend in Long Beach - weeeee!

So, more reason for me to get serious about the GET FIT PLAN.

Day 10 - 401 calories burned, 40 min on treadmil and 5 straight minutes of walking lunges. My ass and thighs are en fuego.

Weemee!

I'm officially part of Wemo, Potato, Wan, Cat, and LYB's club!

1 week into GET FIT PLAN - not so great results

How annoying. I'm on Day 9 of my GET FIT PLAN and I've GAINED a pound. Oh well. For this reason, I think I need something to really motivate me to be disciplined and train right.

So far:
Day 8 - break
Day 9 - 35 min of cardio, 266 calories burned.

Again - SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING! I WILL kill the muffin-top!

So I'll sign up for this half marathon (13.1 miles) for August 30, 2008. That gives me 3 full months. Doesn't this picture MAKE you want to do it too?! Join me!



I also did a few reviews on YELP! Thanks to Jessica and Claire for introducing me to the goodness of this site. It's so fun! If you want to see my reviews, my site is http://dianeh.yelp.com



Quick edit: the Mister made a fabbo dinner of red snapper made Brazilian style (not sure what that means but it involved coconut milk, some herbs and spices, and tomatoes, onion, and garlic) on white rice. So. F'ing. Good.

This is SO COOL!

73 words

Speed test

I did it a second time too
84 words

Speed test

How fast do YOU type?

Weekend recap in photos

It's only Sunday afternoon but it's been a packed weekend for me despite the heat. I recapped my exercise and diet so far this weekend in the post below, so here is what I've done for the rest of the weekend. It was nice to be able to spend time with the Mister, and we even got to see some good friends and take in some sightseeing and art!

I took a lot of pictures and realized that I'll never be a Boutwell, Lerit, or Marie (I like their photographs) but it's still a fun hobby.

SATURDAY

Started the day in Chinatown for acupuncture. If you're ever up for it, we recommend "Acupuncture East Meets West" on 709 S. Hill N. Hill St. in Chinatown - $40 gets you acupuncture with an "electrotherapy twist" - that's a bargain! It's just 2.5 blocks from Empress Pavillion where we caught the tail end of dim sum (thanks to Wemo for the rec!). We even took in a martial arts exhibition that was going on.









We headed over to Santa Monica afterwards - one of me and M's favorite places in California. It was fun playing tourist. These are our old friends G and L from NYC...

SUNDAY

The Mister and I went to a local art festival - "Fun With Chalk". It was hot out but worth it, there were some fantastic chalk drawings. These are some of my favorite ones.

The Bather...she looks like she's, uh, doing something special in that tub:


I thought this was simply pretty:


I enjoyed the way the artist of this drawing loved talking about his work:


A self-portrait of Freud's grandson:


Happy Indian family - so cute!:


How do you say, psychadelic?


Thanks for visiting!

Training/Dieting/Exercise Progress Report

I haven't been blogging but I'm still on my Get Fit Plan and still planning to do a half marathon in August 2008 (just 3.5 months away)!

Exercise report:
Food intake has been ok, nothing too horrendous with the exception of two margaritas on both Day 5 and Day 7.
Day 5- BREAK, Chili's happy hour with Jess, Claire, MBOC and Cat
Day 6 - Lift weights and run 1.5 miles = 37min, 237 cals burned
Day 7 - Ran for 1:05 and burned 567 cals! It had to be at least 4 miles.

Saturday early morning run with Claire - we ran on the boardwalk in Huntington Beach - what a way to appreciate the beautiful (but HOT!) weather and the fact that we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

This is where Claire and I ran:



This is me and Claire's running feet. I'd like to think I'm the slimmer one on the right:


Sooooo - I'll continue to try to cook decently healthy meals, do training runs, and lift weights.
A favorite dish I made this week with grilled chicken, orzo, black beans, corn and red bell peppers, onions, and fire roasted salsa. Served with some rice - thank you Trader Joe's! I loved it but Mr10yt thought it was just ok. :-/

10 things that made me happy today

10 things that made me happy today:

1. Getting in at 925am (a tad late) and seeing the boss come in 5 minutes after me.
2. A thank you card from a client with a box of sees candy (I put the candy in the office and I did NOT have a SINGLE piece!)
3. Talking to my old boss and getting some inside information on what the Senate Finance Committee will be doing with the current estate tax personal exemption.
4. Finishing a project that will save a very kind client an estimated 3.5mil in cash (no kidding).
5. Getting home in record time due to light ass traffic and getting to the gym to meet a friend.
6. Having a great workout - 30min of running/jogging and 30min of weights where my muscles were actually shaking. 455 calories total burned - DAY 4 of my GET FIT PLAN - SUCCESS!
   
7. Finding $37 in a gym jacket that I've had buried in my car.
8. Leftover gnocchi for dinner that tasted better than it did when I first made it.
9. Mark taking the initiative to make plans for us on Saturday (whoa)
10. Thoughts of Chili's happy hour after work tomorrow - muthereffingholler!

Who else is on a diet/"Get Fit" plan?

It's day 3 of my Get Fit plan amd I'm sore and hungrier than usual. But I did jog with the dogs for 31 minutes and burned 251 calories. Something is better than nothing, right?

If I can stay consistent until May 26, which would be 2 weeks, I know I'm on track to getting back into good shape. If you're in the same boat as far as diet and exercise, let's hear it! It's always nice to know others are doing the same thing.

I'm considering doing the Ladera Ranch 10k on 4th of July and/or the Disneyland Half Marathon on August 30th. Email me at 10yearstogether@gmail.com if you're interested in joining me.

My motto for now is "Something is better than nothing" when it comes to exercise.

Get Fit Plan Day 2 - Success!

Today was another good exercise day! I did 3 miles in 35 minutes and stretched for a total of 10 minutes. Slow and steady wins the race, so for a week I will only do cardio and perhaps abs and maybe pushups if I'm feeling ambitious.

Calories burned - 324; weight - 144.

I also made dinner 2 nights in a row as part of my plan to avoid eating out or eating fast food and to bring my lunch consisting of leftovers. Lunch was for business, but I stuck to eating just half of my rich caesar salad and just a few bites of my asparagus and mushroom risotto (both were not that good at all).

Water intake? Check!
No coffee? Check!
Eat smaller portions and chew slowly? Check!

No relevant pics but here is one of Sophie and Caleb. They truly hate taking pictures but I don't care because I heart them so.

For my Mommy!

I'm sad that she is in SF and I couldn't hang out with her today. She is the sweetest thing ever, even though she can be royally annoying sometimes =)


Unrelated news - I went to the gym today and did 2.2 miles in 30 minutes! Woooo I am back on track. I also took the dogs for a walk/jog and burned a total of 503 calories at the gym and with the dogs. I weighed in at 143 - 9 to 11 pounds heavier than I was at the marathon on 3/2/08.

Some pictures that made me smile so I had to share.

"Only in America"



Do you think he's really going pee?


"Fat Dog" - poor thing.

Getting it together

Thanks for the responses to my posts, and the really nice emails I've gotten from some of you. I had no idea there were so many lurkers!

For that reason, this blog will be kept public and I have created another blog which will be private.

So I titled this post "Getting it together" because oh man, I need to. I feel so sludgy. I've been drinking a lot and eating like a hogmolio, and it's so gross.

I'm going to be looking for a race to do either in June or July (maybe even August) so I can get back into the swing of exercising again. If anyone is interested, let me know. I'm thinking maybe the Disneyland Half Marathon in August but I imagine that that will be one hard muther in the heat.

For the first time in a while, I'm going to go to the gym today. I'll weigh myself and keep you all posted. I want to look like this again - sadly, this was back in like October(ish) 2007. Gimme Skinny dammit! Summer is close and mama wants to wear a bikini!

Update to "Updates On Me" post below

I take a lot of it back.

Some new developments with me that I don't want the whole world to really know about so....

I will soon be turning this into a private blog which will require me to send you an invite to read it. If you read my blog, please email me at 10yearstogether@gmail.com so I can add you to my invite list.

Updates on me

My days are usually uneventful, but sometimes that's a good thing because it means things are going ok.

A few notables:
- Work is great. I was out for about 2 weeks "working from home" and the boss hasn't sweat it one bit. I have a great staff that kept themselves busy while I was away, and a superstar sub who came out of retirement temporarily in my absence to keep things running smooth. I also brought in two clients this week so I am very happy!
- The family is doing ok after losing Grandpa and after getting the devastating news that my uncle has terminal cancer and that it is advancing faster than was expected. I sometimes feel guilty that my own husband, parents and brother are healthy, but I'm grateful that at least for now, we're ok, despite everything else.
- Homelife is peaceful and Mr.10yt has been extra supportive and loving lately. Sophie and Caleb, as always, are my little joys.
- Friends are great and there are some fun things lined up for the next few weeks that I'm looking forward to.

After a whirlwind few months with family matters and other personal things, it's nice to be back in a calm and happy place. Thanks to my friends for helping me along and for being there for me.

Please recommend a book/books

I am a sucker for trash tv and chic lit. Unfortunately, both can get pretty boring. My only thing is that I am not a fan of sci-fi and/or fantasy.

Please feel free to rec some of the best books you've read lately.

PS - I recently assembled some new bookshelves for myself, so my books aren't laying around on the floor anymore. =)

Early Birthday Present =)

I'm so excited! I got myself an early birthday present - a new camera! Just in time to get familiar with it before our vacation to Alaska at the end of May. I want to take some great photos while we're there.

It's the Nikon D40, thank you especially to Wemo and Kim for their input. I got a great package deal that included:

-18-55 lense (lens?) - I still don't know which lens I will use more but I'll figure it out hopefully
-4gb card
- camera bag
- extra battery pack
- extra 55-200 lense (lens?)
- instructional dvds

Weeee!

My favorite subjects - Mark, Sophie & Caleb


Before and after my editing: