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:

Girls Weekend in San Diego!

Getting away with the girls is always nice. Wemo, Claire and KP have all done a great job of blogging the weekend events, so I'll try to make my commentary brief.

Hotel Solamar in the Gaslamp - thanks MBOC for suggesting the hotel! It was so cute and in a great location. Thanks wemo, claire and KP for supplying the pictures - I stole them all. hee hee.







I'll start by saying I was sick as a dog all weekend, and even though I tried my best to hang, I was not the warrior that I usually am. :-/ Unfortunately I think I got my roomies sick too. Sorry guys.

From this....


To this....


Room 422!


Room 420!


LA Contingent & MBOC!




Friday night we went to Club Envy at the Ivy hotel - the theme was "Hookers". Eek. Someone didn't wear panties - guess who? (Hint - it wasn't me)


Saturday night group after an Irish dinner (my first time!) and on our way to the Marriott bar (hooray for Jess!) as the first stop.


Food, wemo and mboc - a great combo for me:


Awkward Crow and Awkward turtle - if you don't know, you better ask sombodddy



Kim and I saluting our heritage - Kamusta!


One of my favorite pictures from the trip - Jess and her tall stalker, who had a short friend, who then pulled Yahpee into the pic - I want to frame this:


To make my trip complete - we DID in fact hit up the taco shop - carne asada fries, yummy in my tummy....


All in all, even though I was sick it was a great time by all! Of course I can't discuss some of the things publicly that made it as great a trip it was. But I do know this isn't the last trip we'll be taking as a group!

Fine, back on the wagon, ugh

Enough is enough. I am not even going to lie, since the marathon, I have fallen off. Eating out, drinking, not really exercising at all. Drinking soda, no water, eating french fries and reese's pieces.

I looked at pictures from a little over a year ago, about 35 pounds ago. And nevermind how I looked, at least IMO, it was all about how I FELT about myself. I hated being a glutton, a slob. It made me sad to make up lies about why I couldn't go to certain parties, bars or see old friends - but I did it to avoid people seeing me bc I hated the way I looked and felt.

Anyway, I will get back on the workout wagon tomorrow - 3/12/08. I had 10 days off. I will eat right and start exercising again. Turbo kick box, yoga, lifting weights, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Seeing so many friends blog about how they are starting to work out has been inspiring to me so here goes.

Goodbye 10yearstogether circa January 2007 my current weight + 35 pounds:

My last marathon post, I promise

My mom and friends keep asking me what the marathon was like. I think I've been in partial denial mode so it's taken me a while to write about what it was truly like for me. I'll try to do that now.

The morning of the race, I was high on anxiety. I think if I were running the race for fun, it would have been different. Instead, I had in my head that I wanted a kickass finishing time, somewhere around 5 hours, give or take 15 minutes. Looking back, I really shouldn't have focused on this and instead should have just enjoyed the experience and had a goal to finish - much like Aline and Jessica. They seemed so low stress to me. I figured my body had been resting for almost a month. I was doing stretching and lifting weights, yoga, and my speed drills, etc. I was eating right.

Once we got through the long shuttle bus wait and finally arrived at the start location, I swear I was internally shaking. So nervous! There were tons of people. I was so happy that I had my girls Kim, Cat, Jessica, Aline and Andrea there. I get super needy in desperate situations.

We get to the starting crowds and all of us are getting emotional, wishing each other luck, hugging, telling each other I love you, all that mushy stuff. I guess nerves will do that even to cold hearted people like me. I felt so grateful to be there with them.

I knew in my head what I needed to do to finish this race strong:

- miles 1-10, run with my head - be careful not to let the adrenaline push me to go faster than my normal pace is, so as to avoid hitting the wall or burning out later on in the race when I would really need my conserved energy to carry me to the end.

- miles 10-20, run with my body. I knew from experience that this is the hardest leg of a long run. You aren't thinking of anything but the pain.

- miles 20-26.2, run with my heart. I knew at this point that it would just be by the grace of God that I'd finish the race, bc I had never gone that far in my life.

So, BOOM the gun goes off and we shuffle towards the start line. Again we're telling each other good luck and see you at the finish line!

Miles 1-15.
Easy peasy. Me and Andrea were cruising. It really helped to see our husbands at mile 10. We felt strong. We were actually on pace to finish a 4:30 marathon time. Holler.

It felt so good to have neighborhood people cheering us on. It was very humbling to see people clapping and screaming, offering us oranges, water, gatorade, pretzels. I was discriminating at this point and didn't want to take food from unauthorized station stops. I saw a sign that said "I'm alive because of YOU" by someone wearing a shirt for Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and I knew that what I was doing that day was bigger than just a race. Every time I saw a purple jersey for Team in Training, I'd pump my fist and yell "GO TEAM!"

Miles 16-19.
Ouch. Seriously. We knew at this point that it was not going to be easy anymore, and we also knew we wouldn't be having a sub-5 hour marathon time. That was fine with me because I was irritable as a mofo. It was hot and I was chafing for the first time all season. It really sucked and I could feel the friction under my arms and in my pants with every step I took. I looked over at my running partner Andrea and for the first time all season, she didn't look very happy either. Usually she'd be whistling at this point.

We saw 2 of our nesties around mile 18, insomniac and nessdog, YES! That really gave us a boost of energy and I almost cried that they came out to support us and even with fabbo signs! We also saw our husbands and I got so emotional that for the first time all season, my husband was actually displaying how proud he was of me.

Miles 20-25.
I just wanted to die. The length of time and distance between each mile banner seemed like forever. I couldn't remember the last time I felt so miserable. The only thing going through my head was how desperate I felt. Desperate to finish. Frustrated that my body couldn't move much faster than a turtle. Seriously. I started getting internally hostile at this point. Wishing ill on Kim for ever making me sign up for this marathon. Cursing myself for not training harder during the season. Just bummed. Andrea was struggling at this point too and we both just kind of stopped talking.

It seemed like almost 3 miles of this leg was on a bridge over what I think was the LA River. When I looked around everyone looked disgruntled, limping, at the side of the road laid out. I kept trying to play it off like I had to stretch every few minutes so I'd pull over, but really I felt like my body couldn't move forward anymore. There were points where I actually thought I would not finish this race, and it was breaking my heart.

My ankles felt like they were breaking with every step I took. I was pumping my arms 3x faster than my feet were moving. I felt like I weighed 500 pounds.

I kept trying to tell myself "this is NOTHING like the pain of chemotherapy or cancer treatment" and "this pain is nowhere near the pain of dying from cancer" - I can do this. I started thinking of WHY we even bothered to do this marathon - to raise money for Leukemia and blood cancers. I started picturing the children on our team fighting cancer, of Aline's dad, my BFF's dad, my uncle who died at 53, my aunt with brain cancer at 58, my other uncle who now has cancer. I was getting extremely emotional. And as I was thinking of them, my running became my personal tribute to the people that were battling a much harder race than I was. This lifted my spirits a little, and I started whispering to myself "I'm doing this for you" and "please God let me finish for them".

At this point, my warrior cheer of "GO TEAM!" turned into a faint chin nod and a pathetic "go tihh"

I cranked up the volume on the 3 songs I had been listening to since about mile 16 or so: Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time and 2 different versions of My Redeemer Lives. Hey, it works for me.

Mile 25 to the finish line.
I saw the 25 mile banner and I wanted to celebrate already! It was all downhill from here. I looked over at Andrea and she too was still chugging along. The energy around us was insane, people screaming, cheering. Looking around, people were getting their second, third, fourth wind. I was too.

At mile 26 I just started crying and breathing really hard and I crunched it! I wanted to finish strong and not walk to the finish line. I heard "DIAAAAAANE!!!" and looked to my left and saw my OC Nestie girls Kate, Claire, Kim, Ashley, Jen, Mboc, and even hubbos Tim and Jon! They were going crazy and it was infectious! The signs and the screaming, I was just crying at this point but I don't think I had the strength to even release any tears. Or, it could have been dehydration too. Oy. They gave me the energy to run even faster!

Then I go a few more yards what the hell, I see the LA Nesties Wan, Amber, Wemo, Randie and they had these cheesy smiles on their faces and went nuts screaming my name again and shaking their signs. I could have collapsed right there bc I was so exhausted but seeing them drove me even faster!

Here we go, home stretch. I can SEE the finish line and I am just praying that I don't have a freak accident before I reach it. I look over and Andrea looked so determined too. Literally 0.1 miles from the finish, I look over and see my husband and Chris and from there, it was a blur.

I did it. I crossed the finish line. I couldn't believe it. It was a high like you wouldn't believe. My body was tired and drained, but my heart was smiling. This was the most physically enduring thing I had ever done in my life, and I was done. I wanted to lay down, but we had to go through swarms of people just to get to a cleared area. Andrea and I still couldn't really talk and we found our way to massage tables and literally hijacked 2 beds to lie in. I didn't care that the blankets were damp and gross, I just needed to lie down.

I finally made it back to our friends to watch for our other teammates. I saw Kim, smiling and chugging along - weeee! Cat came in a little while later and I was getting excited to see our other 2 girls finish. And there they were! Aline was crying at this point and I was screaming Jessssss and Aliiiiiine!!! Crying and smiling, they were almost done! It felt so good to know that we all finished without injuries!

I am so proud of myself, of my girls. I am so touched that people, like my friend Jamie, came out to support us for something that was, at least for us, a very big deal. I know that what we experienced that day was a trying ordeal, but that we should be grateful that we had the good strength of body and spirit to finish it out. That our hearts carried us to the finish line. That we will never doubt what our bodies can do as long as we set our minds to it.

I don't see another marathon in my future, and I'm okay with that. But I do know that the memories I have from training and from this race will be something that I will never forget. I'm so grateful that I did it with a group of girls that I absolutely adore and love, and that we had the support of our friends and our families all the way to the end.

Congratulations girls, we did it! Goooo team!!

LA Marathon - CHECK!

A little late, but there's no way in hell I wasn't going to post about this.

I DID IT! I cannot believe it but I did it! I finished the Los Angeles Marathon! I finished in 5:22:44!!

I couldn't have asked for a better experience and I wouldn't have done anything different. To my girls who ran it with me, congratulations ladies! I will always always hold these memories in my heart and will be forever grateful to you for inspiring me to go the distance.

Thank you to all the husbands, including Mr10yt who is usually very anti everything. To our families and friends that came out, and to our supportive nestie mofos. It was all I could do to keep from crying my ass off as I crossed the 26 mile banner and see and hear you all shouting me to the finish line.

Hopefully, my little drop in the bucket effort to find a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma won't be in vain.

GO TEAM!!

My finishing photo


Weeeee!!



My warriors: USCgirl, Yeahimcat, AsianPrincessKim, YoungLove, Mrs50%, and yours truly


Mile 26.1 - run strong!!


Our GOODIE BAGS from the Nesties!! I made perfect use of mine!!


My BM Jamie came to see me fimish!


The boys (MrUSC was probably blowing the foghorn from an upstairs window)


My boy


GO NESTIES! NESTIES nesties nesties!!!


My pacing partner uscgirl!


Mile 19 - we look fine but we were dying inside, I promise


Thank you GOD for giving me the good health and strength to earn this:

20 miles - CHECK!

I won't say much except for that I look forward to the 26.2 mile marathon on March 2, 2008 if only to put these long runs behind me.

I'm worn out, sore, grumpy, and I've been eating like a pig since I finished yesterday.

Notable moment during the run was at about 17.5 mile mark - I WANTED TO DIE. I mean, I'm serious as hell I wanted to die. For some reason we continued on though.

20 miles in 3:48 with an average 11:27minute pace. Not happy about it but glad we're done.

20+ miles tomorrow @6am - oyyyy...

I won't say much, because I think the post title says it all. I am excited and nervous. Mainly I'm hoping that Jessica, Cat, Aline, Andrea, Kim and I have an injury-free run. None of us have gone longer than 17.2 miles before, so this will be a first.

I'll say it again, I'm so glad we are doing this together, otherwise I would have given up a long time ago.