Weekend Adventures, Virginia Creeper Virgins

Today's workout:  20 minutes stair climber, 20 minutes Cybex, 15 minutes elliptical

Today was my first day back to work and I'm already ready for a day off! Not because I don't like work but because I feel like I have so much to do!!

On Saturday, Brad and I loaded up our bikes and drove over to Abingdon, Virgina to check out the Creeper Trail.

It was so beautiful!  If you're anywhere near it you should definitely check it out! We rode out 10 miles then turned around. Our butts were beyond sore. Gotta invest in either some better padded shorts or a new padded seat. Key word being PADDED. Ouch.

Sunday we got up early for church then went to Tupelo Honey for Easter brunch, YUM. After brunch we came home and napped for 2 glorious hours!!!! GREAT DAY.

Then mom and granny came to visit on Sunday and stayed til this morning. We had so much fun shopping, eating, and we may or may not have seen the Hunger Games. Yes that's three times for me if you're counting. Issues.

Pink Elephant In the Room... Or that's what it feels like at least.

After I finished work on Friday, Brad and I packed up to go to Kentucky. One of his cousins was getting married so it was kind of a like a mini family reunion for his side of the family. It was a really nice wedding and great to see everyone.

He cleans up nice doesn't he?

I've been in a crap mood since Friday. I'm not sure what's up with that. I think a huge part of it (no pun intended) is my current weight situation. I've been trying to figure out how to attack it, and as I mentioned here I plan on resuming weekly weigh ins.

But even during last week I found myself making poor food decisions. I wasn't committed yet.

I have this horrible mentality when it comes to dieting... All or nothing. I know how problematic this mentality can be. Trust me. But I've never had successful weight loss without hitting rock bottom (or an all time high on the scale), then making a conscious decision to make hard core changes.

I (like most everyone else) like to see results quickly and those results are what motivate me to continue. But then I look back over the past 10 years of my life (dang, really 10 years?!?) and I see how I've yo-yo dieted throughout. Honestly, it pisses me off. A lot.

I'm sick of being self conscious.
I'm sick of not being able to wear the clothes I want to wear and be confident in them.
I'm tired of being embarrassed to walk into a running store (seriously I am).

I hesitate to say these things, because once I hit publish it's out there for good. I'm afraid to fail. But I cannot keep doing this to myself over and over. I feel like I've missed out on so much because I've been too worried about my weight.

I hope that I can work on this over the next few months as racing winds down. Then hopefully come spring my running will reap the rewards of me being at least 20-25 pounds lighter. I hope that I can conquer this nagging problem that I have let beat me so many times.

And trust me I know that it doesn't stop once you get to where you want. I've lost the weight twice and gained it back. (Once right before pharmacy school started and again before the wedding, although I didn't get back as low as I'd have liked for the wedding). So here I am again, hoping that the third time really is a charm.

Sorry for the rambling, woe is me post. I try not to be Debbie Downer, especially about situations that I've brought upon myself. I just felt like I needed to get it off my chest. So no more excuses, it's on like Donkey Kong :)

What's your best healthy eating tip?

Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch, What a Great Combination!

We live about 20 minutes from Hendersonville, which is known for its apple orchards. I'd really been wanting to go check one out, and Brad was fighting tooth and nail. I don't know what it is about guys and stuff like this. Even today at church our pastor was talking about feeling like he has to check his man card when his wife drags him there.

Too bad for Brad, his parents were here this weekend and his mom also loves stuff like this. We didn't have anything else to do and I can't stand just sitting around watching TV when we have company, so off we went. We went to Grandad's Apples.

What a great place! It had everything all in one place:  apples (u pick or they pick), pumpkins, corn maze, country store (apple everything imaginable), and farm animals. We got a lot of pumpkins and apples. Brad also got an apple slush and I had a carmel apple (don't tell my dentist!).

 We are forever trying to get a good family picture. Riley is forever making that impossible :)

Pretty much an awesome Saturday! We all went to church this morning then Brad's parents had to hit the road. Third Day and Tenth Avenue North are having a concert at our church tonight and we were planning to go, but I have to go to a meeting, so Brad's going with one of the guys he works with. Stoopid work.

What did you do this weekend??

Lazy Weekend + Jack's Mannequin at the Orange Peel

This weekend has been just what the doctor ordered(Minus the fact that B-rad worked).

I had big plans to get up and run then catch the 930am spin class at the Rush then have the rest of the day free... Well I woke up at 932. Dangit. I knew how hot it would be outside, so what's a few more minutes to make a pre-run smoothie?

Because call me crazy but I don't think this is what Runner's World had in mind when they said to have a slushee type drink before your run:

And I may or may not have had these Friday night.

I trudged through my 5 miler. Literally. It felt like I was thigh high in mud or quicksand or something. I wasn't sure if I needed to do five since I did the 10K on Monday, but I get all finicky if I don't do my long runs (OCD much?).

Then I came home and did a whole lot of nothing. And it was AMAZING. I read US Weekly (I know it's trash but I love it) and some of my book. Then I started getting ready to go see Jack's Mannequin!!

Asheville has this great music club downtown called The Orange Peel and long story short, I always hoped that JM would make a stop there. Unfortunately it was super hot in there and the acoustics weren't that great either. But I had fun nonetheless. They played all my favorites plus a couple of new songs.

Sorry for the craptastic photos. You'd never know by my blog pics that I actually enjoy photography as a hobby! It's just so much easier to use my iPhone that lugging around my "real" camera. I'll try to do better, I promise.

This morning B-rad took me to get my car that I left downtown, ahem, then I came home and the bear and I had a movie day (are you noticing a trend?). We watched the third Twilight movie and Temple Grandin (so good and made me disgusted to think about eating cow anytime soon).

Best cuddle buddy ever. And yes that is half a Fathead on our wall. This is Brad's 'mancave' and that used to be Bengals QB Carson Palmer... well he used to be their QB anyways. His torso fell off the wall a few months ago and we have never gotten around to putting it back :)

Do you ever have lazy days weekends? As often as I can!

What are your go-to movies that you can watch over and over? Juno, the Notebook, Wedding Crashers, Van Wilder