Dude, Get on that Already: The List (Part 1)

When I first started this blog, I challenged myself to complete a small task weekly - wrapping up some loose end or doing a quick project I'd been meaning to do forever. Inspired by Sherry over at Young House Love, I called it my "Dude, Get on that Already" challenge. But, it was all easier said that done! So like I mentioned yesterday, my new goals is to accomplish at least one item on the list per month - one each week was probably a bit ambitious!!

And since I have no shame, I figured I'd share the list with all of you. Hopefully you can relate and won't judge me for my inability to finish projects haha. So without further ado, here is the current list (in no particular order):


1) Paint bathroom trim in Sam's bathroom. Earlier this year I painted the walls, but not the trim. I went on a painting spree for one weekend earlier this year and ran out of time to finish all the details (this carries on to items 2 & 3 too, eek!). It's hard to tell from the picture, but the trim is a very lame off-white color, and I'll be painting it a brighter white color to give the walls a bit more pop and make it look cleaner/fresher overall.

And yes, you read right, Sam & I basically do not share a bathroom. One of the our many secrets to avoiding conflict when moving in together after only dating three months (maybe we should write a book? haha).

Beige walls + off-white trim = a bit dingy, needs some white!

2. Paint the hallway doors. I seriously HATE painting doors. Hence why it didn't get done during the same weekend painting spree mentioned above. I did manage to paint the trim in the hallway, but the doors are still that same off-white color. And there's FOUR doors, not cool. But it must be done! I'm used to it by now but I'm sure people who come to my house think I am crazy.

Yes, it actually is this terrible in real life.

3. Finish painting the trim in the entryway and master bathroom. Sadly, these areas are the epitome of unfinished. I painted all the trim in the master bathroom except the baseboards, because I was too lazy to wipe them down after a whole two days of painting. And now it has stayed that way. In the entryway, all the trim is painted except for the crown molding, and I think that was just because I honestly forgot. But have I done anything about it? Of course not!

4. Hang a window treatment in the master bath. First of all, can we just say how hard it is to take a picture of a window? The lighting is crazytown. But anyway, I bought a bamboo shade to hang over this window and test out how I liked it so I could potentially do the same in the kitchen. Haven't hung it yet... it's been at least 6 months.

Poor little naked window...

5. Hang window treatments in the kitchen. See the little valence rods I bought and put up over the windows at least 2 years ago? Yep, never used them because I could never find curtains that I liked. So I'm thinking bamboo shades here too, we'll see how it looks in the bathroom first.  

More naked windows, poor things.

I'm thinking something like this, except with the shade hung outside/over the window rather that inside since my windows aren't framed with trim. 

(Image from here)

6. Add shoe molding to the kitchen, laundry room & master bathroom. This never got done when the tile was laid a few years ago, and it's a simple enough fix if I get a nail gun. Might wait and have this done as a part of the kitchen remodel though?

See how tile awkwardly meets baseboard and you can see some extra
caulk, etc.  ... there's also a crack there you can't see in the picture. 

Should look like this - nice pretty shoe molding
in the living room polishes everything off :)

I need to get to cooking dinner & running, so no more time for the rest.... but I'll post them soon. There's at least 6 more projects, and the more I think about it the more I come up with!! I guess that can keep me busy for a whole year if I only do one each month. It's funny how you can get totally used to things (like those crazy off color doors in the hallway) when you see them every day, and only when you think about it do you realize how ridiculous it is!

New Goals for Oct-Dec

I can't believe September is almost over! This month has really disappeared. So, after missing the third quarter of this year, it's time to set some concrete goals for the last three months of 2012!

To recap, here were my New Year's resolutions for 2012, which I've broken up into more maneageable pieces throughout the year, and added to as I've gone along:

Concrete Goals:

1. Lose 40 pounds (complete as of today!!!)
2. Complete a half marathon (complete - 3/11)
3. "Year of the Yard" - front yard landscaping (complete), improve general upkeep (in progress...)

Habits to Build:

1. Keep the car clean - part of my 2Q goals, I am doing so-so at keeping this up
2. Floss more - also part of 2Q goals, definitely not doing good at keeping this up as of now
3. Get to work earlier - not much progress here, but not really needed in my new job, so that's okay

Basically, I have completed my goals for the year, although some of those habits need a little help to keep on track! So for 4th quarter, I can kind of start from scratch and here's what I am thinking:

1. Maintain my weight loss: I'm still determining exactly what this looks like - my current 'panic weight' is 135lbs, I might lower that a bit to make sure I can kick into action when needed. Depends on what my normal weight fluctuation looks like. But I definitely want to stay below 135, at 130 if possible. And, like I mentioned below, today's weigh-in was my first below 130!!! Finally!

Terrible quality picture - but it's official!!

2. Run a half marathon in under 2 hours: December 9th in Dallas is the plan! Just need to keep up the training and hopefully stay injury free!

3. Consider refinancing my mortgage: I don't usually blog about financial stuff, but interest rates are so low, I figure it's a least worth a look!

4. Plan the kitchen remodel: I have been talking about redoing my kitchen ever since I bought this house 3 years ago. Even though I am pretty sure what I want the end product to look like, most of the steps to getting there are up in the air, and several things I probably need to consult a professional on (relocating appliance, etc.) to even have an idea of what is feasible and how much it will cost. And speaking of cost, I need to determine how much I want to do myself vs. hiring out. Although I really enjoy home improvement projects, I've also been saving for this for awhile and I value my free time a lot! And of course it will probably be a better quality job if someone else does the work! So anyway, I just want to plan out what that process will look like so hopefully I can get it going at the beginning of next year!

Can't wait to get rid of that light, and the ugly cabinet color,
old appliances and the countertops... the list goes on!

5. Complete at least one "Dude, Get on that Already" project per month: There are SO MANY loose ends in my house. I think I'll do a whole separate post on this one because it really is hilarious how many little projects I have started but not finished.

6. Try to make those habits listed above stick (namely flossing, keeping the car clean). I think that's pretty self explanatory. Maybe I'll go back to keeping score on the bathroom mirror again :)

7. Remember birthdays. This is not my strong suit. I would love to be a person that sends thoughtful, on time cards. At least my immediate family is starting to get them before, not after, their birthdays (or maybe only one day after... haha), but I know I always love getting mail, and I'm sure my extended family and friends would appreciate it too! First I need to compile a list, and then I have a cute craft in mind to keep track of them all...

Image from Here

Okay well, more details to come. It seems like a long list, especially with the holidays just around the corner but I'm optimistic I guess! Anybody else setting goals to help motivate yourself?

Monday Weigh-In + Weekend Recap

Good news on the Monday weigh-in! Back down to 130.6 today. So I guess it was a false alarm? Although I definitely ate much better last week. I started tracking my calories again to discourage me from sneaking extra snacks at work and a home, and I planned out all of my snacks like I talked about last week, which helped keep my occupied and away from the candy jars!

This weekend I was soooo lazy, which is definitely nice every once in awhile. I did manage to get in a bike ride with Sam on Saturday and a 6 mile run yesterday morning (set a new best time for 10k distance!), but other than that I basically sat in my bed and watched football or napped. Not even on the couch haha, straight up in the bed. Sam was catching up on work for most of the weekend and then left yesterday to go to Baton Rouge for a few days for work, so I guess that just made me feel extra lazy!!

Saturday afternoon I did go to a baby shower for my friends Jeff & Sara, so that was fun! I'm very excited for them - it is their first baby, due at the end of October. Of course I slacked off and didn't take any pictures, but here's a few I stole from facebook:

Beautiful Mom-to-be - all smiles!
...and me messing with my hair in the background not
realizing I would be in every single one of these pictures...

Amazing cake that Sara's friend made & decorated!!

Despite all the laziness, my Sunday run was really good, maybe because I was so well rested! I tried something new with my route - typically I either run in my neighborhood or go to the hike & bike trail. The problem is that my neighborhood is tiny, so there is really only a 0.4mi loop I can run without having to get out on a main road with no shoulder/sidewalks. I have run 6 miles on the loop before (15 laps!) but every time you come around again, its just another chance to quit early. And it gets a little boring. The hike & bike is a 2mi loop, but there is no shade at all, and nothing to really look at so it can definitely be boring too. So yesterday I drove to a different (larger) neighborhood, that also connects to other neighborhoods by just crossing semi-busy streets. I parked at an elementary school and the 6 miles seemed a lot shorter when it was one big route rather than repeating a loop! I mapped out courses up to 8 miles, so that might be my new spot for weekend runs. Plus it connects to the one of the only main streets in Beaumont with legitimate bike lanes and sidewalks, so I can hop on to that too when I get to even longer runs...

Okay enough about that, but I'm excited to be trying new things with my running - next weekend I'm testing out Sam's heart rate monitor strap thing. Now if only I could get something done around the house rather than just exercising and sleeping all weekend :)

Low-Cal Recipes: Sesame Soy Meatballs

It's been forever since I've shared a recipe, so here's one I made Sunday night. Overall, it was pretty tasty - the meatballs were flavorful but a bit dry, so I'd recommend making a bit of extra sauce to put on top at the end.

Couscous gets bright when mixed with curry paste - yum!

Sesame Soy Meatballs

Recipe via Cooking Light

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp brown sugar

3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp chili paste (I actually used curry paste)

1/4 tsp salt

6 garlic cloves (minced)

1 lb lean ground beef

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl, mix well. Add beef, mix  gently to combine. (I'd advise making a little extra sauce and set some aside for later). Shape beef mixture into 1 1/2" meatballs (mine made about 20).

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat (to be honest you could just use a frying pan probably... I used the case iron skillet and it created a lot of smoke, so depends how good your vent hood is!). Add half of the meatballs to the pan, cook 4 minutes, turning to brown all sides. Repeat with remaining meatballs. Arrange browned meatballs into a single layer on a pan coated with cooking spray (preferrably something with sides higher than a cookie sheet so that the grease doesn't overflow - I was surprised how much grease came out of mine even though I bought 96/4 ground beef. And actually, if you have one of those meatloaf pans that automatically drains/collects the grease, use that!). Bake the meatballs for 7 minutes or until done.

Serve over rice or couscous and top with the extra sauce to keep it from being too dry. I used couscous and mixed in a tbsp of curry paste & tiny bit of sriracha sauce to spice it up and also served with sugar snap peas (bought frozen).

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 6-7 meatballs, 1c peas, ~1c couscous (1/4c uncooked)
Calories: 550
Carbs: 45g
Fat: 23g
Protein: 18g
Sugar: 5g
Sodium: 500mg

This is slightly higher calorie than the other recipes I've posted, but not too bad. And now that I look at it, thats a lot of fat! Most of it comes from the sesame oil so I suppose it is "good fat" but you could always cut back on the oil if you wanted to reduce the fat & calories a bit.

Hope you enjoy this recipe, it was fun to try something different, and also gave me the idea to add some flavoring to couscous my mixing in a bit of sauce to spice up an otherwise boring side. And it is much easier than making a whole couscous or quinoa salad with multiple ingredients. Would work for rice too!

Running Update: 5K Time Trial

So like I mentioned in my last running post, I'm in the middle of an 8-week 10k training plan. So this past weekend my long run was a 5k (3.1 miles), and was supposed to be a "race pace" aka as fast as possible. My goal for the run was to beat my current best 5k time (24:15) and also break 24 minutes.

Sam came with me out to the "Hike & Bike Trail" which is about 5 minutes from our house. I don't normally run here since it's more convenient to just leave from the house, but it's nice for a change of pace every once in awhile. Since I was banking on a successful attempt, and I figured I needed more pictures on this blog, I made him take a picture of me before we started. Notice my sweet new shoes with neon green laces! And the gigantic watch haha :)

I didn't want to go too fast at the beginning, so I tried to keep near my target pace (7:44) for the first two miles, and then pick it up at the end if I had any energy left. I was so excited when I was able to finish in 23:34! It's nice to see the hard work paying off (and the slightly cooler weather didn't hurt either).

Now my mileage starts to ramp up a bit, 6, then 7, then 8 miles on my long runs over the next few weeks before the 10k time trail on Week 8. I've run 6 miles several times over the past few months, but nothing longer than that so we'll see how it goes.

Sweaty but satisfied :)

Sam ran the rest of the way home from the Hike & Bike, making me look like a wimp, but whatever. Hope you guys are also enjoying the (somewhat) cooler weather by getting outside a bit!

Monday Weigh In: Heading the Wrong Direction

Hi all! I had such good intentions of writing up several blog posts over the weekend so I'd have plenty to share this week and of course I didn't. I think the fall allergy season is upon us because I spent most of yesterday feeling pretty groggy! So we'll see how it goes with blogging this week :)

Anyway, the main subject of this post is the Monday weigh-in, which I am not thrilled about. My weight this morning was 134.6 - thats 4lbs heavier than my lowest! In my mind I had kind of established 135 as my "panic weight" since of course there are normal fluctuations during the week, but this time its been persisting up near 134 so I guess it is real.

Although disappointing, I'm not really surprised because I haven't been eating well recently at all. It's kind of funny, I've always heard people say that once you stop eating sweets (or just reduce them by a lot), you don't really crave them anymore, and I've always said that definitely wasn't true for me. Turns out I think it was, and I just didn't realize it. I mean, I never got to the point where I didn't crave sweets at all, but now that I've been eating them more again recently, I crave them allllll the time. I didn't know how good I had it! So this week's focus will be on making sure I have healthy low cal snacks available. Recently I've been planning my meals but not my snacks, which I am now realizing was a big part of my success earlier this year! We're going grocery shopping tonight so hopefully I can get things back on track this week...

85 Days In - Running Update

So first things first, I really want to start shopping for new fall clothes. Unfortunately the weather forecast is still showing high 80s for the next 7 days... at least the evenings are cooling off a bit and today is the only day above 90F. And the humidity has been lower.... so I guess I can't really complain. But definitely not fall weather anytime soon...

Anyway, way back in June I mentioned some new running goals for the year, starting on my birthday. My ultimate goal was to run 1200 miles in a year, which comes out to 100 miles/month. So far, I'm almost 3 full months in - officially Day 85, and I have run 198 miles. So all in all, I'm a little behind:

Day 85 = 23% of the year finished
Mile 198 = 17% of miles complete

But, that has been by design, so I'm not really to worried. My mileage will pick up when I start training for the longer races in the winter. My short term goal for the summer has been to work on my speed at short distances.

I used Hal Higdon's Intermediate 5k Training Plan for the first 10 weeks (his plan is 8 weeks, but I think I repeated Week 1 three times to get started), and right now I just finished Week 3 of the 8-week Intermediate 10k Plan.

I didn't really keep track of my times before I started these training plans, but I do know that I typically ran 10 minute mile or slower (hence my previous goal of finally running 3 miles at a 9:00 pace - took me forever to get there!). So for all intensive purposes, we can assume my starting times were ~32 mins (5k) and ~62 mins (10k). So far, I've taken off almost 8 mins on the 5k time and almost 10 mins on the 10k time, so I'm really pleased. Here's what the Garmin Connect website says are my current "personal records" thanks to my hand new GPS watch:

I uploaded the half-marathon manually since I didn't have the watch back then. Overall, I'm really pleased with my progress. I think most of it was a mental battle to break out of my 10 min/mile rut, but I also know that being almost 40lbs lighter was a huge advantage! These times aren't official races, just training runs, but I think my watch is pretty accurate and either way it shows improvement!

My next goals are to break 24mins on my 5k time at the end of Week 4 (next weekend) and then to break 51 mins on my 10k time by the end of the 8 week schedule (Oct 14th). After that, the half marathon training starts in prep for Dallas on Dec 9th. Per the McMillan Running Calculator, if I can hit the times above, I should be able to go under 1:55 for my half marathon time, which would take 25 minutes off my time from last March. Who knows how accurate that thing is, but a lot of this is a mental battle so if I can convince myself 1:55 is achievable then that will definitely help!!

Also, in terms on training plans, I really recommend using one. But I also really recommend modifying whatever plan you choose to better fit your life. If the plan has 4 runs/week and you only have time for 3, either drop one or look for another plan online that meets you schedule - there are plenty out there. I usually take a training plan from online and then type it into a spreadsheet so I can easily keep track of what I've completed and change anything I want to from the base training plan. I originally used this half marathon training plan from Running In the Family, which comes in an excel template. I still use that template by just typing in a new training plan from online, like the Hal Higdon ones I mentioned above.

I know a lot of people are fans of the Couch to 5k plan for beginners. I have never used it specifically, but it it basically the same as what I did when I first started running - rather than trying to run until you drop, it breaks it down into manageable intervals alternating running/jogging and walking. That way you can gradually build up the distance you can run without totally burning out in the process.

Sorry for all the running chatter, but I am pretty excited about it recently! Weight is still around 132 - it came up a bit after Sam and I were out of town for Labor Day but those extra pounds came off through the week. As much as I really want to get below 130, I have also been eating like crap recently so I can't really blame anyone but myself for not meeting that goal yet. I'm finally settling into my job and I don't have too much travel coming up in the next few weeks, so hopefully we can get out of our bad eating slump. Case and point, yesterday I had three doughnut holes at work, even though I had already had breakfast. And probably about 20 tootsie rolls from Lori's candy jar. Last night we went out to eat and we were totally stuffed, so naturally, we went by Dairy Queen for blizzards afterwards. Why are sweets so addicting?!? Here's to eating a little cleaner next week....

2Q Goals Update - Better Late Than Never?

Okay so somehow I missed publishing goals for the third quarter... and recap-ing what happened with my goals from the second. So here's a long overdue update! For my original goal setting post and one month update, see here and here.

1) Reach Goal Weight of 130lbs by May 12 -  Got pretty close, but no cigar. I'm currently hanging out around 132, so hopefully I can cross this one off soon (if I could stop going out of town maybe?).

2) Learn to Love the Treadmill & Run 3 miles at a 9 min pace - Definite success on the second part - I finally ran 3 miles in 27 minutes on June 27th - right at the end of my three-month time period! That was so satisfying and since then I've gotten even faster!

3) Floss & Take a Vitamin Daily - I did great with this one through April/May/June. But I think I kind of missed the point because I have not done well with it in July/August! So much for building lasting habits. It takes such a short time (like a week of vacation? that was me) to break a habit and so long to build it back.

4) Keep the Car Clean -  I think I did decent with this one - I got the car washed once a month (haven't done it since though!) and overall I'm doing better with keeping it clean. So although I wouldn't say I made a complete turnaround from my car cluttering ways, the slight improvement seems like it is going to stick! I also took this one a step further and had some proactive car maintenance done before our road trip to NC, so hopefully the Civic will serve me well for many years to come!

5) Buy a Paint Sprayer & Test it Out-  Didn't do this, oh well. I think the kitchen remodel is getting pushed back until the beginning of next year - I am always so productive around the house for the first three months of the year, and without fail things get busy and the house projects start dragging in the summer and fall. I have been thinking about the kitchen remodel a lot though - hopefully will start getting quotes and figure out what I want to DIY versus have a professional do.... we shall see!

How are you guys doing on your goals? It definitely helps me to keep a list and break it down into manageable pieces. But I also try not to beat myself up too much if I don't succeed on all of them - I know I had a busy summer and I feel good about what I've accomplished. And I also feel good about all the time I've spent being lazy and relaxing rather than working on my goals. It's all about balance haha :)

Since I've already missed July/August, I think I'll just set one set of goals for the next 4 months rather than trying to make some just for September... stay tuned!