October 17, 2010: Hot 4 Halloween Countdown: TWO Weeks Left

I found my thigh high boots and I made my black tulle bustle. I'm so excited because both are uber cute and I'm happy to say my costume is FINISHED!!

 Photo by ChuChulainn - my new thigh high boots from Guess

And, as an early birthday present to myself, I met my goal weight. I'm beyond excited right now for next weekend. Let the Birthday Celebrations begin!!!

Photo from Google images

October 11, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Weeks 7 through 9

So I'm a little behind on posting my progress from the last few weeks.  If I had kept up with it, here's what I would have posted.


Week 7 Progress (September 12 - September 18):
Only one more week until our Nags Head, VA vacation! I ran 3 miles this week and then laid on the couch for 4 days after having 2 of my wisdom teeth pulled. It was awful and wonderful at the same time.

Week 8 Progress (September 19 - September 25):
Sunday I was still on the couch; Monday I flew to Oakland to work up there for the day; Tuesday and Wednesday I was absolutely exhausted and started to get a cold; Thursday I did jack shit; Friday I finally forced myself to pack an hour before we left for the airport; Saturday we were in Nags Head, NC on vacation.

Week 9 Progress (September 26 - October 2):
After 3 or 4 nights of cold medicine not working and getting not much sleep, I finally realized it wasn't a cold but severe allergies. So I started taking benedryl every two hours around the clock. Which meant no alcohol for me, which I was okay with. Once I started feeling better it started raining so hard we couldn't go outside. For days. Needless to say my running clothes went untouched the entire 5 days in NC and 3 days in VA visiting my loverface's family.

BUT guess what...I didn't gain an ounce on this vacation!

Photos by ChuChulainn

October 11, 2010: Hot 4 Halloween Countdown: THREE Weeks Left

I'm keeping up with my food plan and log, and still running as much as possible. What I'm most excited about this week is that my costume is coming together! My corset was delivered and I love it. I've tried it on a couple times and it's going to work out famously. I also purchased my black fishnets and my black opera length gloves. My blue hair and blue eyelashes were also purchased, so now I just need to find me some thigh length boots. 

I LOVE Halloween! 

 my new corset from eBay - electric blue & lavender

October 5, 2010: Hot 4 Halloween Countdown: FOUR Weeks Left

Last year me and my girls jumped on the "Hot 4 Halloween" or "H4H" bandwagon to get super fit for our sexy Halloween costumes. It was so much fun working out together, changing up our happy hour routine, and keeping each other accountable for our own personal goals.  This year half my crew has moved away and the other half is going to a different Halloween party then myself, soooo I'm kinda on my own. Actually, I guess not so much on my own, but more with a whole new set of girls.

It's a little strange, but I'm still excited.  This week is officially Week 4 on the countdown to Halloween.  That means I've got 4 weeks to do whatever I need to my body to make sure I'm okay with millions of pictures being taken. Oh, have I mentioned my costume?? MOULIN ROUGE!!!!! If you haven't seen the movie, it's a MUST.  We're doing a group costume theme, so the girls will be in corsets and huge hair, a la the movie and the music video for Lady Marmalade.  The boys will be wearing tuxes, top hats, canes, and the like from the movie. Soooo much fun.

My new corset was delivered so I'll have to post pix on my costume progress as I have them. Anyone else getting Hot 4 Halloween?

 Photo from Google images

September 15, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5 Progress (August 29 - September 4):

I LOST ONE POUND!!! I've got 2 more lbs to go to my ultimate goal weight and I can't believe I've come this far. I'm so so so excited. I also ran a little over 5 and a half miles this week.

Week 6 Progress (September 5 - September 11):

So this week I unexpectedly had to travel for work. I flew from the west coast to the east coast for 4 days in the DC area. It was absolutely exhausting, but besides working my ass off and getting up at 3am my Cali time, I was able to have some fun while there. 

Tuesday night I was able to meet boyfriend's new nephew (only 6 weeks old!) who is absolutely adorable. I call him "Bean" because he's about that big. We had dinner in DC, not far from the White House I'm told, at a place called Birch and Barley.  It was great to catch up with boyfriend's brother and his wife; they're on our Top Besties list for sure, and we started planning our vacation to Turkey next year.

The Bean

On Wednesday the future-in-laws had dance class, so my co-worker and I had a drink at the rooftop bar in the W Hotel, DC. It has views of the White House, the Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial all from one spot, which was seriously amazing. The pix didn't come out well since I was staring into the sun, but maybe you get the idea. These very drunk but very polite older men bought us our drinks as we chatted about lobbying in DC and health care reform. Very sexy. So we hurried with our drinks and popped over to Georgetown for dinner. Of course, before dinner, we had dessert at Georgetown Cupcakes (which is apparently famous and has tv show or something? I'm so under a rock).

Thursday night after work the future-in-laws, the Bean, and my girlfriend who lives in Georgetown all met up for a drink at Lima. I loved that she had "a baby in a bar" and couldn't resist the Sweet Home Alabama line. Then we had dinner reservations at Georgia Brown's down the street from Lima (and my hotel) which was super yummy, except for the part where my crawdad thingy still had its eyeballs in. Yuck! After dinner they took the Bean home and us girls went to play in Georgetown. It was so fun meeting all her "DC friends" at the college bar and watching the Saints/Vikings game. Love, love, love those girls; we definitely became fast friends and I can't wait to go back.

Saturday was back home with my loverface and off to celebrate the 7th wedding anniversary of our friends with a huge party on the bay. I also took a moment to pray for the families who lost someone on September 11th; my heart definitely hurts for the friends and family affected by that terrible day. 
 

September 2, 2010: HOW TO: Be Happy On A Random Night Alone

In bed, with fresh coats of OPI's Melon of Troy on my fingers, catching up on my Vanity Fair reading, whilst being bathed in the honey drips that is Zooey Deschanel's voice from She&Him on Pandora radio.

I've got my peppermint foot lotion from The Body Shop on underneath my argyle knee high socks from JCrew.

Now if some invisible fairy could just bring me a crispy glass of Pinot Grigio...

 Cover of the September 2010 Issue

MAJOR shoe lust! (Photo from September 2010 Issue) 

I've a newly found girl crush on Zoe Saldana (should have got on the bandwagon a while ago, I know), but am especially loving this outfit. The pic is a bit blurry, but she absolutely rocks this ensemble. (Photo from September 2010 Issue)

August 31, 2010: Today's iPod Playlist for The Gym

Here's what I listened to today on the treadmill (on shuffle from my "FitBitch" playlist which means we may start to see/hear some repeats down the line).

Lada Gaga, Poker Face

Hurricane Chris, Halle Berry

This is where I paused the music because I was sidetracked with the Barefoot Contessa making a super yummy BLT sandwich (I'm a sucker for avocados)

Katy Perry, I Kissed A Girl

Total of 25 minutes / 2 miles

Here's her California BLT recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/california-blts-recipe/index.html

Since I'm watching my food intake, I would leave out the bacon or substitute with turkey bacon or something like that,  I would have whole wheat bread instead of white and I would use my light lemonnaise instead of mayonnaise.

I wish the nutrition information was included in her recipe, but when I make one for myself, I'll be adding it into the MyFitnessPal app to figure it out for myself.

Photo from WeHeartIt

August 31, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Week 4

Week 4 Progress (August 22 - August 28):

This week I traveled for work 3 days, which makes it quite difficult to stick to my food plan. There isn't a lot of fresh food available in downtown Oakland, but I tried my best.  For the most part I was actually able to keep to my calorie and water goals, and I even ran 2 miles in the hotel gym.

Part of the reason this trip was better for me was that we had dinner at this restaurant called Bocanova, in Jack London Square in Oakland. Pan-American Kitchen, great vibe and seriously professional staff. It's actually just now having it's one year anniversary and I would definitely recommend it if you're in the area.

http://bocanova.com/

Overall I ran just under 4 miles this week, so that's a little more than last week, but not quite up to my goal of 8 miles. I dropped some pounds by the end of the week, but my week's average is still the same as last week, so technically I didn't lose any this week.  Next week I'll be able to get back to my regular food ingredients and will run more than 4 miles.

photo from SFGate.com

August 31, 2010: Today's iPod Playlist for The Gym

Just about the only thing that keeps me focused while running is music.  If I don't have music blasting in my ears, I start thinking about other things I need to do and get bored or antsy to start something else. 

So here's what I listened to today on the treadmill (on shuffle from my "FitBitch" playlist).

The Rolling Stones, Paint It Black

Metallica, For Whom the Bell Tolls

The Pussycat Dolls, When I Grow Up

50 Cent, In da Club

Fat Joe, Ha Ha Slow Down

Pitbull, Go Girl

Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze

Kelis, Bossy

Total of 36 minutes / 4.1 kilometers

Now to just find out how to convert km into miles...I do know that One Mile = 1.609 kilometers. ...2.55 miles!

from Google images

August 29, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Week 3

I'm seriously slacking on my running goal, but I am keeping to my food and water goals, so that's something. I only ran 3 miles this week, out of my planned 8 miles, but work has been busy so I'm glad I at least got that in.

And it turns out that sticking to my food goals is the most important, because I still LOST 2 POUNDS this week! Which actually means that I'm at the top of my goal weight variance. To be at the bottom of my goal weight variance, I just need to lose 3 more pounds. Pretty sure I can make that happen if I keep disciplined. It's hard, but totally worth it. 

Now to find the motivation to actually run 8 miles per week...

photo from Google images

August 25, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Week 2

Week 2 Progress (August 8 - August 14):

This week I am absolutely exhausted, but I think that's normal for week 2.

I'm still eating 1200 calories a day, but I was only able to run 5 miles this week. My actual goal is to run 8 miles per week, so I'm a little short, but I'm okay with that considering I ran 10 miles last week. And did I mention how tired I am? All I want is sleep.

The good news is that I LOST ONE POUND this week!

photo from Google images

August 23, 2010: Dream a little dream

There are a million things on my To Do list. I should be doing chores. I should be packing for my work trip. I should be showering off the sweat from my run. Shoulda, shoulda, shoulda...

Instead, I'm staring at this and dreaming of next year's vacations:

 

 

from Google images

August 23, 2010: Mission: FitBitch: Week 1

Week 1 Progress (July 27 - August 7):

In the new regime for the next 8 weeks there is no eating of the cheese (I'm addicted), no drinking of the wine or beer (I quit mixed cocktails already a couple years ago), and no eating out. I'm also monitoring my water intake to make sure I drink at least 8 cups of water per day. I should mention that I don't drink soda or juices either, I've always just stuck to water. 

Not only will these changes help with my fitness goals, it will also help prevent my chronic kidney stone episodes. There isn't a lot of research on what causes kidney stones and how to prevent them, but one recommendation is a fresh balanced diet, so I started making those changes a couple years ago and I've been stone free for at least a year! So I figure it can't hurt.

Each day my calorie intake goal is 1100-1200. This is based on my age, gender, current weight, height, and my desk job - with the intent to lose weight (I used a few calorie calculators online to make sure they each told me the same thing). Now since I plan to incorporate cardio into my routine, I can of course add an extra 100-200 calories a day depending on how much I run. Let's not kid ourselves here, I just wasn't made to starve myself.

So in my first week (plus 3 days from the previous week, since I started in the middle and want to track Sunday through Saturday) I LOST FIVE POUNDS!!!  I ate my 1200 calories a day and drank all my water.  I also ran 10 miles this week (which is insane considering how long its been!)

I feel amazing, I'm beyond motivated for next week. I know I won't be losing that much again next week since I'm not on the Biggest Loser show or anything, but I know I'm already making progress so I'm quite pleased.

from Google images

August 23, 2010: Skinny Little Bitch

I am by no means a "Skinny Little Bitch", but I love this song by Hole.

"Skinny Little Bitch
Starin' at the mirror
In your desperation to disappear...

Skinny Little Bitch
Prayin' to the lord
Praying for some salvation
Cause she's just so bored..."

Listening to these lyrics got me thinking...no matter our height, weight, gender, body shape, etc, we all have things about ourselves we'd like to improved, physically speaking.  Everyone's definition of improvement is different, depending on the individual. For me, I just want to be fit. Like, double take, super fit. Mostly because I know I can do it. I really know I can.

So here's my plan:
Month 1 & 2: Lose the extra weight I don't need by changing my diet and running
Month 3 & 4: Then begin to build muscle tone head to toe with yoga and pilates
Month 5 & after: Maintain my weight, cardio, and long lean muscles forever and ever amen

If I'm working my ass off in the beginning to obtain my goals, I don't want to ever have to work that hard again. So my plan is to only have this be a one time thing.

Cheers to Mission: FitBitch!

from Google images

The Chu is back

Life had gotten to be quite hectic around our home in San Diego and so one thing I gave up was blogging. After a few months I have decided that I want my blog back. I am the Chu and its healthy for me to keep it up. Simply put, I love it, so why deprive myself.

About ChuChulainn: Over time boyfriend gave me the nickname "Chu" and after a while he decided to google it. Turns out that there's an old folklore tale about an Irish Warrior they called Chulainn. Boyfriend also says I must have Viking blood running through my veins, and so the fact that Chulainn was a warrior made the nickname stick even more. That, and I'm a little part Irish. 
Its true though, there's no getting around it, I am a perfect match for my loving nickname bestowed by the love of my life. I am The Chu, ChuChu, ChuChulainn and I have taken back my blog.