Daily Challenge

Check out my office "refreshment table"

Really its just the top of a short bookshelf, but I figured that since I'm challenging myself to drink at least 2 of those pitchers of water a day, I'd have fun with it.  Since I'm in the office the majority of the day, this makes it easier than running up and down two flights of stairs to the kitchen every time i need to fill up a glass (because who am I kidding? I'm not going to drink that much if it's not readily accessible.)  I'm also challenging myself to

•  work out at least 20 mins a day, with Yoga in the morning and evening - bring it Jillian Michaels and Tara Stiles
• reserve the wine drinking to the weekends.  I read an article titled "Does drinking more than 6 drinks a week make you an alcoholic?"  I'm teetering dangerously close to that, with 1 glass at least a night and more on weekends.  Talk about a wake-up call.  Time to step back and re-evaluate.

I'm realizing it's the little things that make a big impact, and I really don't want to have a year fly by with no changes having been made.  So let's go with baby steps!

What simple measures have you implemented in your life that you're hoping add up big?  

Bring it!

Wow, so things really have been crazy -- the end of May was filled with my two best friends from high school coming to visit, Memorial Day, designing up a plethora of wedding invites for Etsy (check out the link on the right!) and Mr Bama and I apparently going crazy and deciding to try our hand at the P90X fitness regime. Yes, its the program you see on the hokey 3-in-the-morning infomercials, but I've done a lot of research and it seems to be completely legit.  Also, my pretty athletic 60 year old dad has been doing the program for about a month now and just raves about. I'm stoked because this is the first time in a LONG while (since I coached/played at A&M) that I've worked out every single day for over an hour.  We finished week one on Sunday and 5 pounds later I feel awesome. In addition, yesterday on day 1 of week 2 I burned an amazing 700 calories and this morning i burned 500!  I'm exhausted beyond belief by 7am, but its good exhaustion.

what i feel like at the end of each workout.

On another note - next weekend is my bday.  Yay and boo at the same time.  But I've cleverly disguised the celebration of the event as just another ladies night out.  Where are we treating ourselves???  here.  Can you say YUM!? (their strawberry mojitos alone are divine). 

WooHOO for tiny little locally owned - food-will-blow-your-mind restaurants of New Orleans! Photo court of Humid Beings

And I'm also hoping to score one of these:

(picture court. trashy diva)

To go with my recently acquired pair of these:

The blue in the shoes matches the blue of the coat-dress perfectly.  Trust me.  Photo court of Poetic Licence

I was also invited by one of my best friends from Grad school to join her recipe blog -- So keep an eye out on the recipe stacker for some amazing global cuisine from all over (including some awesome Epicurean treats from New Orleans :-) )

So that's the run-down.  Hopefully more post-worthy things will happen this week and weekend!

What have I gotten myself into?

Now that Carnival season is over (pics to come soon-ish), the Lenten season has fallen across the city of New Orleans.  While I'm not Catholic, I was brought up in that faith for 16 years and actually do understand and embrace the Lenten season .  So this year I decided to take a huge leap and give up alcohol for 40 days & nights.  SHOCKING, I know, but I figured that since I did it for the 2 weeks before the wedding, I could stretch it out a few more weeks, no problem.  I did something similar with Coca-Cola during the summer before i started college.  Back in high school I had no problem downing 4-5 cokes a day, so giving it up was kind of a big jump at the time.  Since I'd be playing varsity sports once entering college that fall, I decided to stop drinking it the summer and fall of 2001 so I'd be in top physical shape -- and it turned into me abstaining from soda as a whole for 9 years (haven't had a soda since!).  Now, I have no intention of giving up alcohol entirely, I just want to see if I can do it until Easter.  It won't be easy, but thats not the point of Lent, right?

On top of abstaining from alchy, I've decided to jump in and finally take up Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred challenge. 

(photo from http://www.lionsgatepublicity.com)

Since I played sports at the collegiate and post-collegiate level, I figured this would be no sweat - just a way to get nice and toned.  I started off on Level 1 and I felt awesome - by Day 4 I had mastered that level and was feeling strong, motivated and in charge of my workouts.  Then I moved to Level 2 on Day 5 and the workout began.

Strong and motivated then changed to feeling tired, and out of shape.  I have learned that I despise squat thrusts, chair squats and V flies.  After day 8 of my 30 day challenge, instead of feeling like this:

(photo from http://theconditioningclassroom.com)

I still feel like this:

(actual picture of me when I was 6 months old.  My parents were always
 up for weird photos ops of us kids while were were little)

But every day is one step closer to feeling and looking great - every great journey begins with one little step.  What challenge have you put yourself up to lately?