5 on Friday

{ONE}  Two day work week!  

I was off of work for the holidays from 12/24 through 1/1.  Yesterday was my first day back, and today is already Friday!  It has just felt like another normal week though, so I thought today was Tuesday.  Yippy for it actually being Friday already!

{TWO} Diet Bet

Not only is is Friday, but I officially start my Diet Bet today.  I have done one other Diet Bet before, and I did nothing during the entire four weeks.  Guess what, I lost that one.  This time, I'm going to work hard because I NEED to lose some weight.  The Diet Bet is just an extra motivator.  

{THREE}  Green Smooth Challenge

Via Rachel's blog, I heard about this 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge.  I am hoping this challenge will help me jump-start clean eating habits.  This challenge started on the first, but I haven't made it to the grocery store yet.  I will be starting the challenge tomorrow. 

{FOUR}  FREEZING

Can we talk for a second about how ridiculously cold it is here in Wisconsin!  

This is the forecast for the next 5 days...

Area schools are already talking about being closed on Monday because the high is -11... negative 11...for the HIGH!  The Green Bay Packers are currently facing a television black-out for their play-off game on Sunday because ticket sales are so low.  Can you blame the people for not wanting to sit outside in -1 - -22 temperatures to watch a football game?  I sure hope they win, but I will definitely not be participating in any tailgating.   

Even though it's super cold, I'm glad we're not getting the crazy amounts of snow that the east coast is!

{FIVE} Costco

For Christmas, Nick and I got a membership to Costco.  I CANNOT wait to start buying stuff in bulk!  Nick has never been to a Costco so I am pumped to see him get his mind blown!  Costco has everything.  I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.  Did you know you can buy a motherfuckin' casket from Costco's website...whaaaat?!

A'ight, hooligans, have a fantastic weekend!

New Year, New Me

Hello, friends.  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!

To jump start my New Year, I decided to join a Diet Bet.  I joined Blogilates January DietBet, which officially kicks off tomorrow.  If you are looking for a little extra motivator to help lose some post-holiday weight, you can still join this Diet Bet for $30.   

This, unfortunately, was my official weigh-in from this morning...

Waaaaahhhh-waaaaahhhh-waaaaaaaaaaaa

I need to lose at least 7.1 lbs and get down to 170.1 to win.  Imma kick this DietBet's booty, and make some mad cash!  I'm excited for this challenge, and to start working on my bikini bod ;)

As many other people are doing, I would also like to share a few long-term goals I have for 2014.  Some are health related, others are just for fun.

Run a marathon.

Run a sub 2:00 half marathon.

Read 40 books.

Blog at least once a week, at the VERY minimum.

Complete a 30-day Green Smoothie Challenge.

Get into the 150s.

Log my food and activity on MFP, every day.

Go on 1 date with Nick every month.

I still have my on-going 30 before 30 list and 101 in 1001 which a few of these tie into.

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

Hey.  Remember me?  

That girl who used to blog about running.  

That girl who fell of the face of the Earth for quite some time, again... 

Well, I'm back, again.  Hopefully for a while this time.  

To reintroduce myself to the blogging world again, for the millionth time, I'm going to sum things up by using the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good.

I have had a GREAT holiday season.  Most of my time was spent with family, or just relaxing at home.  It has been heavenly, and I am already dreading going back to work on Thursday.  (Nick and) I got a lot of awesome gifts for Christmas including a king-sized bed, fleece Badger blanket, signs for our bar, Dyson vacuum, Just Dance 2014, and a beautiful charm bracelet my mom made for me.  

I have amazing friends, and an awesome family, not only because of their thoughtful gifts, but because they are great people.  Just being with my peeps gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, and I am SO grateful to have such wonderful people in my life.  The holiday season gives me an extra reminder of how truly blessed I am.

The Bad.

Working out and eating healthy are distant memories.  To say I have overeaten, and have been a lazy ass, is a huge understatement.  I have worked out zero times since my last post, and have gorged myself with delicious food.  Do I regret it? Absolutely not.  Do I feel guilty?  Yes.  Am I going to wallow in sorrow for being a bit of fatty over the holidays?  Hell no. Am I over it, and ready to kick 2014's ass?  Fuck. Yes.

The Ugly.

After avoiding the scale for weeks, I stepped onto that bitch this morning. 

176.4

Less than 10 lbs from my highest weight ever.

2014 is upon us.  I am ready to start a new chapter in my life.  I will no longer make excuses.  The time is now.  I vow to start working my ass off, literally, to have the healthy lifestyle I have been lusting after for years.

Happy Holidays, my friends.  I cannot wait to see what 2014 brings all of us!   

Blogmopolitan Quiz

I still suck at blogging, but I found this fun quiz/questionnaire link-up I wanted to share!  

Poet?  Yes, yes I am. 

Anywho, this is a fun link-up to join to get to know your fellow bloggers.  The hostess is Erin over at 

Two Thirds Hazel.  You can find a link to the quiz here. 

Enjoy!

Update

I have come to the conclusion that I suck at blogging.  I post regularly for a couple weeks, then I fall of the face of the earth for a few more...oops.  I will make it a pre-New Year resolution to blog more regularly.  

Now, I'll catch you up on my life quickly.

I have not run in 2 weeks.  I have barely worked out.

After not weighing myself for most of November, I finally stepped on the scale this morning.  Not pretty...174.7.  I am going to go ahead and blame Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, all of my celebrations were great!  Since both my parents, and Nick's parents, are divorced, we had 4 different family events to attend.  Each one was great, and I am SO thankful for both of our families.

Another note on T-Day.  I had the below tights on with a jean skirt and sweater, all set to head to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving lunch, when Nick informed me that I looked like a hooker wearing fish nets.

 Actually, this is how the convo went down:
N: Why the hell do you own tights like that.
A: Why?! What's wrong with them?
N:  Are you being serious right now?
A:  Yes.  I don't understand what you mean.  These tights are cute.
N:  "laughing" Yeah, right.
A:  What?!  Do they look like fishnets.
N:  How do I put this nicely...you look like hooker.

Men!  He unfortunately made me feel self-conscious that other people would make fun of me, damn brothers, that I ended up swapping them for solid magenta tights instead.

Nick and I put up our X-mas tree and decorations this weekend.  They look fabulous, and I surprisingly have not taken any pictures yet. 

I have no idea where I am with my 150 in 15 mileage because I haven't kept track lately.  Therefore, I am just going to start adding from where I left off on my last post. 

I went wedding dress & bridesmaid dress shopping with my future sister-in-law yesterday.  She found her dress, and looks sooooooooo beautiful.  Totes teared up, which then made Jen tear up, which made our consultant tear up...I really want to post a picture, but I'm not going to.  My brother doesn't know about my blog, but you just never know, he may stumble across the picture if I put it out there is cyber-space.

These are the bridesmaid dresses.  The maid of honor will wear the red one, and myself and the other girls will wear brown.  It is a country themed wedding so we will be rocking cowboy boots.  The dresses are so cute, comfortable, and fit so well they will hardly need alternations.  Score!

I've chiseled away a few more items from my 101 in 1001 list:

#5 - Meet with a TIAA-CREF financial adviser about my retirement fund.

I met with an adviser a couple weeks ago just to get more information about my account.  Through my job, I have been putting money away for almost 3 years already, but I never really understood where that money was going, or what it was doing.  The adviser explained everything to me, and I found out I am currently on track to retire at age 63.  Not too shabby, but I wold like to retire younger.  That just means I need to up the amount flowing into my account.  Easy peasy.

#47 - Make X-mas cookies with Nick's mom & grandma.  

Cindy and Vera make some bad-ass X-mas cookies.  They are frosted sugar cookies that are delicious, and look like professionals frosted them.  For the first time, I helped out this year.  Since I actually helped out, I got a share of the entire batch that was made instead of a portion of Cindy's.  Whoever helps make them, splits the entire batch, and then can distribute their portion to whomever they want.  There were 5 of us baking and frosting for 8 hours, and we ended with just over 700 cookies!!!  This means Nick & I took home around 150!  Luckily we have a bunch of events coming up that we can take them to so I am not tempted to eat them all!

Just a tiny sample of what we made.

  #57 - Write a letter to myself to read in 1001 days.

I cried like a baby while writing this...  It will be very interesting to read it again in a few years.

#91 - Buy a king sized bed.

Our X-mas present from Nick's mom is a king sized bed.  The 3 of us went shopping on Saturday to pick one out.  After about an hour and a half of laying on, and bouncing around on, Nick and I finally chose one.  It is already being delivered to our house this Friday, and I cannot wait!

That makes 6 total completed items on my list so I transferred $60 from my checking account into my savings this morning.  (See #4).

Alrighty, I think you're all caught up.  Hopefully I will get my lazy ass to the gym tonight so I can actually start blogging about fitness again...