2012

Happy New Year everyone!

What better time than the start of a new year to set some New Years Resolutions for 2012?! What are your goals? Did you accomplish anything in 2011?

One thing I accomplished in 2011 was to read 50 books. FIFTY! I have a good 30 minute commute each way on the subway and always feel agitated and annoyed when I don't have a book with me! In  years past I've always read about 20 books but last year I wanted to push myself and go for 50. I'm proud of myself for actually completing a goal, but happy the challenge is over. The time crunch of this goal prevented me from picking up any super long books. Books I've read in the past such as Pillars of the Earth or I Know This Much Is True would've been too time consuming. I'm looking forward to not having any pressure in regards to reading and diving into some LONG ASS BOOKS. Clearly, my language has improved from reading so much. Here is the link to all the titles I've read. These are my top 5 favorites. It's really hard to choose!

Top 5 Favorites:

1. The Help -  Kathryn Stockett 
2. Left Neglected - Lisa Genova
3. What Remains - Carole Radziwill
4. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
5. American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld

Special mention to the Hunger Games series and What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.


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Here are my resolutions for 2012. I'm feeling pretty optimistic at the moment! Only 363 days left!! Make them count! ;)

1. Run a mile.
2. Run a 5k.
3. Create a working budget and stick. to. it.
4. Eliminate 1/3 of my debt.
5. Eliminate 25 percent of my body weight
6. Get off blood pressure medicine :P :P :P
7. Get a passport.
8. Blog 10x a month.

That is all for now. I'm sorta terrified at my list LOL. No, no... These are all achievable. Most are for health & stress and 2012 is the year I turn 30 which is even more incentive for me. What are your resolutions?

This week, my mother and I were invited to take a set tour of One Life To Live! Now, this was a big deal for us as my mother has been watching for forty plus years and I grew up with the show. I would always watch on and off, follow story lines for a while and then not at all. However, for the last three years, I've been a daily watcher. Thanks DVR! :)

A lovely young production assistant took time out of his day to show us around town.

Now, I do realize it's a television show and not real, but it was still jarring to see the "homes" as sets! When we first came in, we were lucky enough to see Starr & James filming a scene on the steps in Starr's home... its just steps! LOL Like I said...I realize it's a fictional show. It's just odd!

At Bo & Nora's

Outside Victor & Tea's home

Visiting Asa's mansion

My mom & I had a blast and were excited to see & meet some of the actors. We watched a few scenes be properly filmed, and a few be rehearsed.

Afterwards we went up to hair  & makeup & then wardrobe. I was itchin' to be made up and wardrobed, but surprisingly, no one offered. ;) *just kidding, not totally delusional yet*

It was such a fun time! A great big thank you & hug to Karl for hooking us up!!

I feel like lately all I do is soap related stuff. Unchartered Soaps. LOL (Watch out for January when I get tickets for the One Life To Live event like they had for AMC!)

I should really be focusing on what I originally wanted for this blog. Yes, a place to share my life & thoughts, but also, a motivating place where I can talk about goals (and um, hello.. meet some of them maybe? Before I turn 30!.. or ever!)

Soooo lets set some goals for this week!

1. Blog 3x.
2. Yoga 2x
3. Gym 3x
4. Eat smaller meals
5. Throw a kick ass brunch for Mom's bday Sunday :)

I need to keep myself on track.

After our trip to Llanview, Mom & I went out for a late lunch. When I arrived home, Pete was cooking up a storm, making the meals for the week. By the time it was all done, I only had a mini appetite so I had a mini plate of meat loaf, mashed sweet potatoes, corn &  broccoli.

Playing with the focus of the camera

Look at all those colors!! Pete's been focusing lately on making more colorful items - veggies etc, to get more nutrients in. Yay! He's also hooked on chia seeds!!

I couldn't resist playing with my food. I am five. I planted broccoli trees and planted corn.

One last note, Peach is getting more used to Lucy, and hissing at her about 33% less! She's still very territorial and angry though, but she'll come around. Lucy is busy exploring her new home, but very skiddish. Any noise and she'll run and hide. Last night however, I was playing with a laser pointer thing that Peach LOVES. So I'm moving the laser around for Peach, who is getting ready to pounce, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, LUCY pounces! LOL Both cats loved it and played together! I hope it was a glimpse of cat love to come!

In the same room! ...Vince don't judge my dishes. You either reader!

The sight of both girls together is hysterical to me as Peach is an over sized lump of 19lbs and Lucy is an undersized *apparently* 2 year old who is 6lbs. She's super tiny. The two look comical together.

OK ill stop babbling about cats! See ya later!

Getting Back Into It

Hey everybody! I apologize for the long break. It was my birthday & anniversary week! There was a ton of celebrating, meals out with friends & family and drinks :) I feel like I have a lot to cover!

29x29

So back in July I wrote a post about a goal I set for myself - to lose 29lbs by the time I turned 29 (last Friday). Well folks... the verdict is in and I am down 13 pounds. It's not 29 but it is about half way there. I am refocusing and getting back into healthy eating & exercising. You only get one body and one life and I need to take care of me!

I literally woke up on Friday in pain LOL. I mean, my lower back has been aching, I had that weird pain in my side from Thursday, & I've felt out of shape this week after not really doing much to keep fit. I really FELT 29! GOD I'm getting old!! But I know I can turn it around and am ready.

I started yesterday by enjoying a Thomas' Bagel Thin with peanut butter, apple, Craisins and a sprinkling of cinnamon. It was wonderfully fally :)

Pete & I recently joined BJ's Wholesale Club and I could not resist a 4 pound bag of Craisins. I love to put them into salads and thought, "We'll fly through these!" and then laughed out loud in my kitchen since I wound up using like 15 craisins (AND FORGOT TO PUT THEM IN MY LUNCH SALAD FOR TODAY) #fail. hahaha. At least I'm entertaining myself :)


First Anniversary

Pete and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Monday, September 19th. I cant believe it's been a whole year already!!

Our wedding day was amazing and intimate, filled with friends and family.  We had an amazing day.

The year flew by and I am happier than ever. I can't believe I am lucky enough to have someone like Pete. I am thankful every single day!


Goal Check In


I'm not gonna lie... last week was spent mainly spending time with family and friends and going out and celebrating! It went a little like this: two family dinners, a dinner with Pete, Brandon & Patrick, drinks, & another family lunch, my brother Michael coming to visit from Boston with his two children on Saturday, and a mild at home Emmy party with the only guest being Emily. This included dinner & snacks as well. So I was hella busy & super tired at the end of it.

too much partyin'

1. Mop. If I don't put it on a list, I will not do it.
2. Blog 4x! I did this three times....
3. Yoga 3x!  I did this once...
4. Utilize gym membership!  I went once...
5. Stop using so many parenthesis and !!!! in blog!!!!!!!! (Meh)
6. Reconnect with someone. Either an old friend, or family member I haven't spoken to in a while. This I did! I reconnected with my friend James who is currently living in England (Hi James!) and my sister Dianna.

So there you have my week! It was not a normal week. Here's my goals for this week!

1. Gym 3x. One time should include strength training
2. Yoga 2x.
3. Create a budget and stick with it.
4. Eat healthfully consistently.
5. Pick wedding photos for album. (JK 1 year later!)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Autumn

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. After days and days of being busy with social plans and other obligations, I was excited to finally have NO PLANS! (Well, actually 2 things fell through... but I was still happy for the down time!) I spent a giant chunk of Saturday cleaning my apartment. I mean, I was scrubbing walls. Every molding we have is now super clean!

Saturday evening me & Pete went to A.C. Moore to buy some autumn decorations! We had maybe 3 pieces that were cute but I wanted more! Autumn is my favorite season and I'm so glad it's back!

Obsessed with Autumn candles!

Fred

Check out all our fun new stuff!

Hi!

Who is this?

You smell good. Lets be friends.

I love all this stuff so much I may not even decorate for Christmas. HA. No...I have two huge tubs of Christmas decorations and a 7 foot tree... that will be occurring around December 1st :)

It felt good to get my home in order and ready for fall. I spent the rest of the weekend spending time with my parents, Pete, Peach & my father in law. It was great spending time with family!

Goal check in -

No, I haven't forgotten! Last (last) Friday I made 5 goals for the week, and I did pretty good this time around!

1. Get to the god damn gym 3x. Made it!! (once.) (sigh.) (parenthesis.)
2. Do yoga 2x. Check!
3. Clean up and organize the kitchen table. (It's an endless struggle.) Check! That bitch is CLEAN and even has a nice bowl o' fruit on it now.
4. Make all needed doctor's appointments. I'm due for some checkups and have been putting them off! Check! (Joy. Can't wait! :p)
5. Blog 4x. Check! Oops, I totally thought I did this!! I blogged 3x. Whoops.

So there ya have it! At the end of this week I will be aging into my last year in my 20s (EEEK). It's all good. I took off this Friday & the following Monday as it is my 1 year wedding anniversary! I'm excited for a four day weekend.

This week's goals:

1. Mop. If I don't put it on a list, I will not do it.
2. Blog 4x!
3. Yoga 3x!
4. Utilize gym membership!
5. Stop using so many parenthesis and !!!! in blog!!!!!!!!
6. Reconnect with someone. Either an old friend, or family member I haven't spoken to in a while.

Facebook and texting ruins the world LOL. I mean, it's great, but I often forget to call people to see how they are doing. Maybe I'll write someone a letter. Or send a telegram. I don't know. I'll see how I feel.

Have a great week everyone!

I Pinky Swear

It's Friday! And I have a 3 day weekend!! And I have fun plans all weekend!!! :D

Back in February as Pete and I had yet another meal at the Cheesecake Factory and my meal came out slightly disappointing, I thought to myself - we should take a break from chain restaurants. Now normally we enjoy meals from Cheesecake Factory, & Outback. We'll get some stuff from Chili's and be thirsty for two days from all the salt. Once in a while we'll head to Applebee's and leave wondering why we just did that to ourselves. So I thought enough's enough and came up with a little pact. Pete and I pinky swore to not eat at any chain restaurants for six months. This thought was sparked because we live and work in New York City!! There are 20 restaurants on each block and it's ridiculous that we haven't tried that many of them.

At the end of the 6 months, we had made progress but not enough. I have now enforced a new 3 month rule - only restaurants we haven't been to before! So now we're really gettin started! In the past 2 weeks I've bought about four Groupons. They're a great way to try new places for a discount price!

So far we've tried about three new restaurants. I'm so excited! (It's the little things.) Earlier this week we tried out a new diner in Queens that had been bought by new owners and revamped. I know diners aren't that exciting but the place was pretty nice!

I ordered a grilled chicken wrap with lettuce, tomato and avocado and Pete had a Cesar salad wrap.

It was pretty good! They have a large menu and we plan to return! Afterwards we went to the movies and saw The Debt which was actually pretty good. I got distracted in the lobby though by this:

Squee!! I can't wait :D If you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy, I highly recommend it!


Goal Check In

So last Friday I had made five goals for myself for the week. While I was a little bit distracted by hurricane Irene, I did ok. Here are the results!

1. Work out 4x (2x at the gym). Why on Earth am I paying for this gym!?! I did yoga once and 2 long walks. Um.. still not sure why I'm paying for the gym.
2. Bring lunch every day next week. (I'm normally pretty good at this but today I spent $9 on lunch :p) This I totally did!! Even when it was hard.
3. Get at least 5 servings of fruits/veggies in each day. (Easy peasy!) I did this 6/7 days.
4. Spend 15 minutes each day keeping my home neat & clean. I did this 1/7 days LOL fail.
5. Blog at least 3x this week. Check!

So there ya have it! My slightly underwhelming week.

Here's what's up for this week:

1. Get to the god damn gym 3x.
2. Do yoga 2x.
3. Clean up and organize the kitchen table. (It's an endless struggle.)
4. Make all needed doctor's appointments. I'm due for some checkups and have been putting them off!
5. Blog 4x.

There ya have it!

Enjoy your weekend! See you no less than four times next week! :D

Watch out NY!

Holla!! Did all you east coasters survive the earthquake on Tuesday?? Are y'all ready to be blown over in hurricane Irene this weekend? Whew! I'm sure you all know this is happening because the world is ending in 2012. You didn't think it'd just end did you? It has to come to an end over time, clearly starting with eastern N America.

Anydelusions, I'm not giving up! I'm still going to set goals and be the best Laura I can! I started out this week with a wonderful smoothie.

Nom nom.
I don't really understand.... I've made tons of smoothies all summer long and while they're always similar, I have a hard time recreating ones I loved. It's so frustrating. Sometimes the texture is really thick  and what I want (that's what she said) and sometimes it need to drink it with a straw (no bueno). Well.. sorta bueno. I think I really just want some ice cream.

In the bowl:

• 1 & 1/2 frozen 'naners (small)
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup frozen blackberries
• 1 cup dark chocolate almond milk
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder

Great breakfast!

So this week has been pretty decent but I wanted to make some tangible, bloggable goals for the week. I read a bunch of blogs of girls who attended the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend and when I left comments on blogs about what MY blog was about, I realized I'm still trying to find that out myself! I started it with the intention of keeping me on track and helping me reach goals before I hit 30 in about a year. I also wanted to get back into writing and just have a space where I could be free and say what I wanted. But as much as I love what I've done here so far (sort of an internet scrapbook with some meals mixed in) I'd like to have accountable Fridays. Sooo here's my list for this week!

1. Work out 4x (2x at the gym). Why on Earth am I paying for this gym!?!
2. Bring lunch every day next week. (I'm normally pretty good at this but today I spent $9 on lunch :p)
3. Get at least 5 servings of fruits/veggies in each day. (Easy peasy!)
4. Spend 15 minutes each day keeping my home neat & clean.
5. Blog at least 3x this week.

Sooo let's see how I do!  This past week I've done yoga 2x and Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred Level 3 (!!) so I am proud of that. These goals are a little easy/nothing life changing...but a million steps brings you a long way! Or some other cliche.
  
   6. Use less cliches.

Since you endured that long ass paragraph about myself and my vague life goals, here are some pictures of Peach cleaning her toes.  Happy Weekend! Be safe in the hurricane! Drink a hurricane instead!

Not my most flattering angle

29 x 29

I started this blog for a number of reasons. One being to have a creative outlet, hobby and place to dust off my writing skills. Another was to keep myself on track towards some goals I want to hit before I turn 30. Thirty is a definitive number & deadline, but really I'm just looking to work towards the person I want to be - fit & healthy, out of debt, and happy! (I'm pretty happy, but it's good to keep working at it, no?)

So I'm setting an official bloggy goal of 29 x 29: To lose 29 pounds by the time I turn 29 on September 16th. I'm already down 8.9 pounds so I'm nearly a third there, however, I've often gotten to this place and stopped. I've been riding a HUGE  motivation wave lately and am loving it! I need a solid goal to look forwards to - not something so broad as "I wanna be healthy n stuff" LOL. So that is my first goal! I have about 9 weeks to get there and will be doing it the healthy way with lots of exercise, fresh fruits & veggies & lean proteins. (And probably a bunch of Sugar Free Jell-o.)

This morning I started out with an awesome smoothie!

In the mix:

• 1 frozen 'naner
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberry
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 1/2 a container of plain Greek yogurt
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• handful of spinach

This smoothie was tasty and filling. I don't normally add Greek yogurt in the mix but it made it really creamy and added an extra flavor I don't usually have in my morning smoothies. It was a win! I need to experiment with different combinations and mix it up a bit. Any suggestions?

Ya know what's a great motivator to get some exercise? A whiny dog!!  LOL Like I mentioned before, I've never had a dog in my life until Friday when we agreed to watch Pete's sister's dog Duke. GOD HE IS SO CUTE.

I don't know if you're supposed to let them tough it out to train them to hold their pee or what (he's only a puppy and not really trained - his sister has a yard that they just let him out in). I wound up taking him out once early in the morning, then again mid morning (both for 30 minute walks) and again in the early afternoon for a quick walk around the block. I had already walked an hour by noon! After the 800 walks, I came home and did Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, Level 2. That is no joke, but I was able to complete the whole thing! 29 x 29 baby!!

On a final random note- look at Peach's rediculous forepaws.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!