Weekend update + new bangs! 9.6.13-9.8.13

9.6.13  9.7.13

 

9.6.13                                    9.7.13                                   9.8.13

 

I really let myself indulge on the weekends.  Now that I started documenting it, I Kind of feel embarrassed about how much food I ate and that so much of it was sooo rich and bad for you.  I don’t believe in cutting out all of your favorite foods, so I’m going to work on balancing it, like I do on the weekdays.  For example, if I know we’re going out to eat for dinner, I’ll have a salad for lunch.  Or I’ll go for a walk to offset the calories.

On Friday, I did a 20 minute walk and a 40 minute walk around Laurel Heights because I knew I was having pizza that night.  My fiance whipped it up using the Trader Joe’s garlic and herb pizza dough with spicy italian sausage and it was sooooo delicious!  Better than delivery.

On Saturday,  I got my haircut at the Cinta Aveda School and Salon.  I got a trim and decided to go with the blunt bangs this time.  I go here because they always do an amazing job and I just can’t shell out $100 everytime I need a trim.  I have really thick, long hair and that seems to be the standard.  Cinta Aveda School and Salon is a teaching school, so it takes almost 2 hours for the cut and the teachers check and ensure your hair is cut perfectly.  The best part?  They charge you only $21 for a long haircut!  Simply amazing!

I met up with my friend after and we split a burger and fries at Split Burger by the Metreon.  I knew that I’d be walking A LOT all over downtown, so I could eat whatever I wanted.  This was no ordinary burger- it had braised short ribs and jalapenos.  I really had high hopes for this place because I’m always looking for yummy places to eat while I’m downtown, but this place was ok.  I think that the fries were underseasoned despite being very crisp, which I liked.  The burger was good and the braised short ribs were rich, but I have to say that I probably wouldn’t order it again.  It was kind of like a pulled pork sandwich, which I was not expecting in a braised short rib.  Don’t get me wrong, I love pulled pork- I just don’t want to pay $10 for it + $3 extra for fries.  Maybe next time I’ll try the house burger: the Split burger.  Also, I have to mention that I saw most people eating salads, so maybe this place has better salads than burgers?

For dinner, I met up with my fiance and we patiently waited at the Cheesecake Factory at the top of Macy’s.  We go here only once a year for the fried mac and cheese balls (not pictured).  YUM!  I ordered the chicken and biscuit, but I have to say that I was pretty disappointed in it.  It just lacked depth of flavor and I guess I was expecting more herbs- it was just very flat.  I knew I shouldn’t have deviated from my favorite Bistro Shrimp pasta!  I was so full and only ate about 1/3 of the plate.  Also, the two Japanese girls who sat next to us were completely shocked at the size of our plates! haha

On Sunday, we went for a 3 mile run to Ocean beach.  I’m pretty excited because it was the fastest I’ve run yet- 29 minutes!  Sweet!!!  We were meeting with our wedding coordinator, caterer and DJ for lunch, so I grabbed a croissant to go.  The lunch ended up being moved to the end of our meeting, so my fiance and I split the rest of my chicken and biscuit dinner from the Cheesecake Factory. I also have to mention that we were a 1/2 hour early to the meeting, so I suggested on grabbing some ice cream in the hot hot weather.  What a brilliant idea I thought!  Then when we met with my caterer, she said that the coordinator and DJ were running late because they closed the bridge, so we were going to do the tasting first.  What a terrible idea to eat the ice cream- I was soooo stuffed.

For dinner, I wasn’t really hungry but I knew that we had to finish the rest of my salt and pepper pork and brown rice, so my fiance whipped up a yummy stir fry with zuccini, carrots, onions and spicy, garlic paste.  Yum!

Overall, I think it was a bad decision to go to the Cheesecake Factory on Saturday.  Mostly because the portions are so huge and I don’t really want to keep that kind of food at home during the week.  Luckily, we finished it off on Sunday! haha

Pizza Friday! 8.30.13

So today is Pizza Friday!  Yes!  We’ve been pretty busy the past few weekends, so we’ve been skipping Pizza Friday for parties, dinner, movies, etc.  This Friday, I’m totally excited to finally have some pizza!  It’s probably going to be around 1200 calories for 4 slices of a medium sausage pizza, which is exactly my daily allowance for calories.  =/  However, to make up for this, I’m going to walk for my two 15 minute breaks as well as 40 minutes during my 1 hour lunch.  Not to mention the 20 minutes of walking to/from the shuttle for work.  This will give me 443 calories extra to play with.

I love my Friday walks because I have a chance to walk up the Laurel Height’s hills and take in the stunning views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge as well as the gorgeous million dollar homes of the area.  I swear the gardeners are out there every single day!  Also, if I’m not too tired from all that walking, I’m going to try to make it to the gym and do a 20 minute run.  It’s ok if I don’t make it to the run because I think 443 calories extra is plenty.

Tomorrow we’re going to a goodbye BBQ in the Mission for our friends who are moving to New York.  I know there will definitely be some delicious, fatty food going on and I will probably try all of it.  I’m thinking of making a blueberry and peach pie with a streusel topping or maybe a dessert pizza or maybe even just a fruit salad.  It depends on how much time I have and if I can get it together after my big Saturday run.

On Saturdays, my fiance and I like to run through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach.  It’s about 3 miles from our house or 4 miles if we take the long way.  This will possibly be the third day in a row running, so we’ll see how I feel.  Wish me luck!

What I ate on 8.29.13

1.  Blueberries with Greek yogurt

2.  Blueberry salad with almonds and Trader Joe’s champagne vinaigrette + Trader Joe’s mini bag popcorn

3.  Beef brisket pho

4.  Peach (Actually, I ate two because they were soooo delicious!)

Total calorie estimate:  1290

I’m pretty good during the work week, but I have to say that I go pretty nuts on the weekend.  We call Friday, “Pizza Friday” because my fiance and I order a medium sausage pizza from our favorite pizza place, Irving Pizza.  We use the phone app “EAT 24” to order it because they make it so easy to order.  It keeps track of what you ordered last and it gives you cash coupons to use towards your next order with them!  The best part?  They give you a weekend coupon every weekend, so you end up getting around $4 off.  Sweet!

Also, I wasn’t able to do the whole 40 minute run.  I ran two miles on level 6 mph, which is a 10 minute mile and then I walked at 4 and ran at 6 again for the next 20 minutes.  I blame it on taking a whole week off exercise because I made poor decisions like having the intent to run in the morning, getting all set up the night before only to wake up and realize it is too dark and dangerous to run through Golden Gate Park that early in the morning or staying at my sister’s house for my niece’s 1st birthday party and getting bad sleep because I have a hard time sleeping on an air mattress and so I just couldn’t bare to go on a run in the hot hot weather… Excuses and run on sentences, I know.  At least I finished the night with a good BodyCombat class, 55 minutes of karate, boxing, taekwondo, tai chi and muay thai.  It always kicks my but and pushes me harder than I would on my own.

Mini Victory:  I will say that running at 6 mph is pretty new to me.  I used to run at 6-6.5 on incline 4 in my glory days, but when I rejoined the gym last June, I started at 4.0.  Yes, 4.0!  That’s probably a fast paced walk, but everyone has to start somewhere.  My goal is to be able to run at 7 for a prolonged amount of time, which is about 8:34 minute mile.  After that, I’d like to start adding inclines.