I'm a bad blogger (in a sari)

I'm a bad blogger, I admit it.

I can't believe I've already been back from France for an ENTIRE MONTH and have only blogged… twice?  I think I've also only run maybe three times…. 

That said I've been very busy jetting off every weekend to distant (Ohio-y) places for weddings or Alabama for grilling ribs and celebrating our country's independence.

Last week was the wedding of one of my absolute best friends from college, Katy and her man Jay.  The whole weekend was AMAZING and I had a blast seeing all my college friends (who I haven't seen in 1-2 years) and celebrating Katy and Jay's wonderful day.  

Since Jay is 1/4 Indian, the rehearsal dinner was Indian-themed and we all wore saris and got mehendi (henna) on our hands.  Such an awesome idea!  Here are some photos from the weekend.  :)

Tonight starts my little sister's wedding weekend!  After this, I hope to relax and get back into the swing of healthy things.  Like Christina dared me, I'm going to get out there at least 1x this weekend and run a mile.  Maybe more.  Then we'll go from there.  Only 11 weeks until the Columbus Half Marathon.  Need to see what I can do… Hope I can handle it!

Blogging from the Bus

So, I now have a smartphone. My sister and her fiance got a plan together so I got to upgrade to her old HTC evo until Jon and I end up on a plan together.  It's pretty nice having internet wherever.

Clearly, though, I'm not used to this or I would have hunted down the nutritional info for work's catered lunch today while I was in the meeting, you know, before I ate it. I thought I did ok: chicken sandwich, salad, and some cookie. Felt bad about the cookie, but still. Went back.to my desk to calculate... 43 points (or ponies if my autocorrect is true)... almost the same overall feeling.

I'm so disappointed in myself and I'm going to have to make myself actually run like I've been meaning to to make up for it. I've not been doing my activity like i should and I've not wanted to blog about it.  Too mahy lame excuses and I'm feeling really gross. Here's to me dragging my ass out the door and to hopefully picking up some weights. Need to get back on track... especially if that half in October is going to happen.

And now, time to get off the bus.

Back on Plan and Bridesmaid Dress

One of the first things I did when I got home was sign back up for WeightWatchers.  It took being in France to realize just how much I love (and need) my meetings.  Not always for the topics discussed, but definitely for the weekly weigh-in.  I’m now on my second consecutive week of tracking and it feels really good.  I don’t know when the last time was that I actually tracked EVERYTHING I put in my mouth for 7 days in a row and, right now, I’m on Day 11.  I’m proud of that AND I’m feeling really good.  I’m so happy to be home and everything is just going really well, barring my cellphone woes in France. 

That said, I do really need to get back into my running and my activity.  I haven’t run in two weeks and haven’t lifted or cross trained in goodness knows how long and I’m feeling really… blah.  I look okay, but I just feel really weak.  All of my arm tone?  Gone.  Not ok.

Anyway, another thing I’m realizing that I REALLY missed about America is the online menus and nutrition information.  Yes, French cuisine at restaurants is exquisite, BUT because they’re virtually all small, individually-owned restaurants, there’s no way to really know what’s going into your food or how many calories it is.  Plus, there are not as many options and French chefs don’t take too kindly to modifications of their “cuisine.”  When I was there, that really stressed me out because here I always pre-order in my head. 

For example, I’m going to Joe’s Crab Shack tonight and I meticulously deciphered the menu and calculated PP values before settling on a shrimp appetizer (4 PP) and either the crab bucket, Malibu shrimp, or a lobster bucket (both buckets sans the 400-calorie dipping butter) for 11-14 PP.  Way more points than I’d eat at home (esp if I get a beer), but SOOO much better than choosing blindly.  Plus, it keeps me near my daily points, so I’ll still have plenty for the first wedding this weekend! 

Speaking of weddings, I forgot to show a photo of my sis’s bridesmaids dress.  Here’s me in it pre-tailoring, but pinned for the tailor:

Which earrings do you guys prefer?

Option A:

Option B:

I think I might be leaning more towards A myself.  I’m not usually into this shade of blue, but I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I just hope after the tailoring (and 3 weeks from now) that it’ll still fit well. 

Anyway, lunch break is almost over here at work, so I better get back to it!  Hopefully I’ll get lots of cute photos from this weekend!  I can’t believe Care and Tim’s wedding is already here!  In many ways, it feels like it was just yesterday that I called her on the phone on my work break to tell her I’d gotten a letter saying she was going to be roommate in Room 201 in Read Hall.  Oh, how time flies!!! 

I fell off the earth when crossing the Atlantic

Wow.  First post back in America... Three weeks after I get back.  I feel like my head is still spinning and I'm trying just to get back to normal and really believe I get to stay here at home!  I really do need to recap a lot and there are things I've been wanting to talk about, but here are the top ten things I've been up to lately:

1. I'm still fighting with my French phone company to not make me pay a penalty for ending my contract (my friend with the SAME CONTRACT and the SAME LETTER got off scott free... I don't get it).
2. I joined WW again and am so far down -1.4lbs and weighed in at 166.something.  Feeling REALLY good!
3. I've been spending tons of time with my favorite girl:

I even got her daddy to let me take her to Cincinnati for two weeks.  

He loves me (and it may or may not have worked out better for our weekend schedules).  

I'm not complaining.

4. I went back to work at the best internship ever and in the same desk I was last September... I think our office should be getting our yellow accent wall as we speak!  Fingers crossed!
5. My manic month of weddings begins this weekend.  I actually had to get my sister's bridesmaids dress altered--the 10 was too big!
6. (I don't know how I possibly waited to #6 for this) I've been spending as much time as humanly possible with ze man.  After an epic weekend of home renovation-y fun last weekend, we're almost ready to put our place on the market so we can move into our new apartment Sept. 10th!  Fingers crossed (again) that it goes quickly. :)
7. Went down to AUBURN for the Fourth and it was AU-some.  It was fantastic seeing everyone after so long.  Oh, and drinking chocolate wine.  Yum.
8. Read Racing in the Rain and The Help.  I love taking the bus to work since it gives me pleasure reading time!
9. Sorting all my belongings that've been stored in my mom's garage so I can start getting ready for the Big Move... Lots of things have to go!  2 people + 1 bedroom apartment + 1 closet = Not a ton of space.
10. Eating and drinking American things: hotdogs (O'Betty's... yum), Yuengling (it's coming to Ohio too!), smoked ribs, black beans, margaritas, and Fiber One bars... YUM.

Sorry I've been so absent--I hope you're all doing well and I'm going to try and be back into blogging too!  Hope you're still reading! :)