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Hey there! I'm Holly. A 40+ year old insurance-nerd wife, mom, beauty lover, and about a million other things in between.
This is the place where I share about our lives, what I'm currently loving, books I'm reading, plus-size style, beauty recommendations, health + fitness endeavors and anything else I'm finding interesting at the moment.
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Monthly Archives: October 2012
It’s A Long Road To Wisdom
I am missing my morning coffee something fierce this morning and I mostly blame last night’s Prickly Pear Margaritas.
Ok, ok and the White Peach Margarita.
And the red wine.
Yes, definitely the red wine.
(Should I bust out the old school Wake Up Mix? Only time will tell.)
*****As an aside Roxy has such an awesomely delicious (and easy to make Paleo) Happy Hour if you are local. Also a pretty rad local meat share program that you can order from and then pick up at the restaurant or at the Farmer’s Market right by my house! Hmmmm…noted! Anyway, I digress.*****
We stepped out of our Wednesday night comfort zone last night to head downtown and see The Lumineers with some of our favorite CrossFit peeps. Christian + Kat own our CrossFit box, so obviously they rule, and Melissa and Brad, among other things, are really really really ridiculously good looking. 🙂
Here, let me show you a nice picture where we all look really cute and hip and downtown-ish:
Oh wait. I guess you’re just going to have to trust me on this one. (PS – it took about 27 tries to get that one blurry shot. Car Photos, for the win!)
The venue is a great one (small, intimate club that understands appropriate volume) and the band was ON POINT! I loved that at the beginning of the show they asked everyone to just put down the camera phones and enjoy the evening. So that is exactly what I did. And it was a blast!
Back in the day when Garrett and I were hip, young, whipper-snappers instead of old, routinized, suburban professionals we used to see A LOT of live shows. Heck, I remember when we used to head down to San Francisco mid-week and see live shows. (WE ARE WAAAAAAAAAY TOO OLD FOR THAT, NOW.) And there is part of me that misses that Saturday Night Lifestyle seven nights a week, but it is also so nice to regularly live a Tuesday Night Lifestyle and unleash that old version of yourself every once in a while.
Old life but with new awesome lens, you know?
I’ve been thinking about this so much lately because in many ways our lives are somewhat repetitive right now. We’re a well-oiled machine, our lives are very intentional, and we have simplified things a great deal in the past couple of years — less rock star living and more hitting the gym and cooking good meals at home. We rib each other a lot about our senior citizen habits, yet we wouldn’t have it any other way. But we’re also in the midst of a lot of changes: new jobs, new relationships with friends and family, new career opportunities, heck we have a new dog! And on top of that we are trying to usher in an entirely new phase of life (YAY for marriage and babies and all that domestic-ness!)
It’s an interesting place to be in your life when everything is very much the same, but also VERY MUCH ABOUT TO BE DIFFERENT. But I’m enjoying it. We’re enjoying it. And every once in a while a random Wednesday night with delicious cocktails, tasty food, good people and a great soundtrack reminds you of how good you have it. And those experiences are ALWAYS worth it, even it does make a caffeine-free Thursday morning a little rough. 🙂
Suggested Reading Material
By now I should have posted a September Book Update, but guess what?
I only read one book. And I already wrote about it so no need to beat a dead horse.
Loserville – Population: 1.
But. BUT! I am currently reading a very fun book: Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn. Have you read this? It is so much better than it’s cover. The cover is not AT ALL how I am imagining everything. I hate when that happens.
Anyway, it is taking me so long to read because I am doing that thing where I am only making time to read right when I get into bed at night, and that is never a productive idea to begin with because I have a special quasi-narcoleptic talent of being able to fall sleep basically the second my head even comes into the same room as my pillow. And as I mentioned yesterday, stopping caffeine isn’t exactly doing me any favors. I guess what I’m saying is I’m reading it about 5 pages at a time, but holy hell each night those 5 pages are so enjoyable!
It’s a bit of a satire about motherhood, celebrity and wealth in Park Slope, which I’m always sort of curious about because I read too much US Weekly. Here’s a thought, maybe I should put down the US Weekly and then I’d get more reading done, eh? That’s probably not going to happen. But anyway — Park Slope is sort of fascinating to me in the way that Los Angeles was fascinating to me as a Northern Californian when I lived there. And so is Amy Sohn. She’s one of those people I always catch myself reading about and thinking “Hmmm…I should check out one of her books.” So I finally did after reading this crazy piece on The Awl this summer.
I mean…SERIOUSLY??? WHAT???
Crazy article aside, so far this book is just the fun, trashy little novel that I think I need to get my reading groove back. that and (next up) the new Jonathan Tropper and I think I’ll be good to go!
On Caffeine (or lack thereof), Clarisonics + Cool Things
What can I tell you, I have a lot of things to chat about and no nice way to weave them all together. I’m still not drinking coffee, remember? I’m not convinced my brain is functioning at 100%.
My cup does not runneth over. Unless you count herbal tea. AND HERBAL TEA DOESN’T COUNT.
So. No caffeine. Wanna know how that is going? LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT IT WITH ALL OF MY EXTRA ENERGY…ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz. Actually all kidding aside, I am very happy to be doing it, because it is clear that I have been super dependent on caffeine. I’ve been bitching month over month here on this site about how hard it is for me to get 8-9 hours of sleep per night even though I knew that would be more ideal. Well guess what? Take away my coffee (even though I was only drinking it until noon) and now I’m sleeping like a baby! I’m also feeling a lot more rested in the morning, which is (not really that) surprising. It took 3 or 4 days to get there (and those mornings? Well, let us not speak of those mornings) but now that I’m here, I like it.
I have been drinking a ridiculous amount of herbal tea, but hey guess what is in herbal tea? Water. Aaaaaaaand it is water that doesn’t dehydrate you the way coffee does! Win! So I have been feeling exceptionally hydrated lately which has been different. Rather than get out of bed, go straight to the coffee pot and drink only caffeinated beverages until noon, and then panic about hydration and drink a metric ton of water until I work out — instead I’ve been coasting along feeling fabulous and hydrated all day. Well the fabulous part goes until I get sleepy. Decaffeinated Life would be so great if I could just sleep 9 hours per night and take a mid day nap. HA!
In the end though, all of these things are good things. Of course they are all also terrible things because I was hoping to quit coffee and see absolutely no positive effects so that I could just go back to drinking it whenever I wanted. But it seems that will not be the case. Groan! Not sure what I will do when the month is over, but I definitely can’t go back. I guess I will wait to see what my skin has to say since that was the point of this whole crazytown charade.
******
Speaking of skin, I’ve been using the Clarisonic for about two weeks now (only for one minute per day, as directed, with the sensitive skin brush), so while I am not ready to completely formulate my opinion, I do have some thoughts and they are as follows:
1. My life has not changed at all. Internet, you lied.
2. The parts of my skin that looked pretty good (cheeks, forehead, etc) definitely look better. I will definitely agree to this “glowy” thing that everyone keeps talking about.
3. BUT…the parts of my skin that looked bad? Well, they still look bad.
4. Also, my face does not “feel cleaner.” I am a person who suffers from adult acne. I was definitely already cleaning my face pretty damn well. The Clarisonic does not give me a “cleaner” feeling.
5. I do feel like my moisturizer soaks in better.
Unofficial review complete.
Overall Summary: THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON WHETHER YOU ARE WORTH $100, CLARISONIC.
Obviously, I will keep you posted!
****
Completely unrelated, yet still important, I need to tell you some cool things. Please understand that I am very uncool.
Cool thing # 1: I ran seven miles on Sunday. SEVEN. In a row. On purpose. For the record, I had never done that in my life before. And it felt pretty freaking awesome! The thing is, when I started CrossFit I could not run 100m comfortably. On Sunday I RAN SEVEN MILES COMFORTABLY. Well, let’s not split hairs about the word comfortable because there was a lot of huffing and puffing and thank god I did it with Sarah because OMG, she told me stories the whole time while I gasped for oxygen! But I did it. So it still counts as a check plus in the Rad Column!
Cool Thing # 2: I never have time to watch marathons of fun television shows because I don’t have that much free time in the evenings after work, working out and cooking dinner so if there is any tv watching at all it is usually something that both Garrett + I will watch which generally include: Monday Night Football, Real Housewives of Some Place, Iterations of Top Chef, Football on Thursday nights, or Other Sundry Reality Shows.
At the same time, the other morning I was sitting on the couching drinking my piping hot cup of Not Coffee thinking, man there is nothing good to watch on tv at 5am. (Garrett’s at work so I don’t watch our shared DVR programs.) Wish there was some great show to be engrossed in that came on at 5am.
And then it came to me: YOU LIVE IN THIS CENTURY AND CAN STREAM SHOWS FROM NETFLIX 24 HOURS A DAY. So, 5am to 6am is now the TV Power Hour while drinking my Not Coffee. I can catch up on all the silly marathons of television programs that I want MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAA. (What the hell took me so long to put that together???)
So far I’m getting caught up on Revenge, and last week I started Sons of Anarchy. The latter I had to check out because for last week’s Ass Whooping Wod A Thon at CrossFit we were put in teams and had to dress up as a characters from a TV Show or movie. Our team chose Sons of Anarchy, so I at least had to know a bit about what was up. I wore a neck tattoo that looked like a hickey. It was classy.
Anyway, the TV Hour has changed my life! Which is a lot more than I can say for the Clarisonic, but there is still hope.
September Progress + October Intentions
Well September came and went and now we are already a week into October. The end of year “Holiday Pace” is coming on (I can feel it!) and I’m dying to push the pause button on life! I’m going to start by quickly looking back on September. Living in the past totally stops time, right? Oh wait, nope. It just encourages wearing acid washed jeans and bad hair-dos. Hmmm… 🙂
Well, I’m doing it anyway.
I had four intentions for September, outside from my overall goal for it to be AWESOME-tember! (SPOILER ALERT: It kind of was!
*Dive head first into experimenting with your skin — I forged a plan for The Great Skin Care Experiment and I tried to ready myself to execute. I started mentally preparing to quit caffeine (sob!) and slowly but surely found some newer and more natural skin and body care products. This is still a work in progress since technically I’m going all in for October, but I think I’ll still give myself a check.
*Give a successful and honest presentation in Colorado – This went better than expected in a number of ways, but what I will say is that I definitely was honest. That part was the most scary! I’ve given a lot of presentations for work, but I’ve never had to get up in front of 150 people and talk about my life and my feelings. That was a little nerve-racking but in the end, it was an amazing experience!
*Run. Um, Some More – I got off my butt and did this, which was necessary since I’m running a half marathon on October 28. I still can’t really believe that is going to happen. YIKES. What did I sign up for?
*Eat Well – While I didn’t stay completely Whole 30 compliant, I ate pretty well during the month of September! What sticks out the most to me is that I really think I have kicked my dairy habit. I no longer by dairy at the store and we don’t have it in the house. That’s a major change from the month prior to the Whole 30. Also: my wine consumption? VASTLY DIFFERENT. It makes me a very cheap date now. 🙂
All in all, September was pretty successful and I mostly credit that to the fact that I aimed low and didn’t put too much on my plate. I’m doing the same for October!
October Intentions
*Successfully Go Without Caffeine For 30 Days– You will be hearing about this all month, I’m sure. Apologies in advance. This is a huge deal for me. 🙂
*Run A Half Marathon – My goal for this first time is just to get through it. I’m not worried about pace or time or athletic performance, I’m worried about survival. I think “Just Survive” is a great goal.
*Start Outlining Cookbook – So I’m definitely planning on writing a cookbook. End of Story. Cookbooks make me happy and I have lots of recipes to share. I’ve hinted at that for a while now, but I’m just going to start doing it. These things take awhile so I’m just going to put one foot in front of the other, and ultimately this little dream of mine will come to fruition.
*Keep Socializing To A Minimum – I realize this makes me sound like a total recluse, but I’m doing this during October for a bit of self-preservation. November and December are ALWAYS crazy months. I just want to spend October chilling out, enjoying fall, cooking, watching good television in a blanket fort on my couch and snuggling with Garrett and the dog. Seriously. THIS IS ALL I WANT! 🙂 And since October is my birthday month, I think I’m allowed, right? And you can’t do that if you fill up every weekend with something social. So that’s where this is coming from.
Only 3 and a half weeks left of the month — it’s time to get started!
The Colorado Adventure (Part Two)
When we last left off I believe I was eating at The Best Paleo Potluck Ever in The Best Backyard Ever. There were lots of bests on this trip as you can tell. In case I need to convince you again, this was the backyard.
STOP IT. THE BACKYARD. OHMAHGAWD.
It was pretty awesome. (And so was Mel’s other half Dave for sending me this pic to use or else I would have NONE. Thanks Dave!)
After admiring all of the beauty (and eating WAY too much!) it was early to bed and early to rise because on Saturday morning — IT WAS SHOWTIME! Our Paleo Conference started early and Melissa was our first speaker.
She gave an informative overview of Paleo, set the foundation for the day, spoke about ways to take your food from Boring! to Bada Bing! and generally entertained the crowd with her sparkling personality. Melissa is just like she comes across on her blog, AND THEN SOME! This is notable on the internet, because certainly you may have met a person or two who is hilarious and awesome on their website and sort of snooze-ville in real life, right? Well Mel’s website is a 10, but in real life, she’s AN ELEVEN. It was totally inspiring to watch.
Afterward we had a break for lunch and YMCA of the Rockies was cooking all sorts of delicious stuff from Well Fed. I would tell you how amazing it was, except I didn’t actually eat anything. I was TOO NERVOUS. I know, I’m kind of a spaz. But this was a big deal, and (surprisingly) enjoying a good meal was the last thing on my mind. Luckily Michelle hooked me up with some chicken jerky so I didn’t totally starve (ha!) What a gem, right?
Then it was my turn to present — eeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! Dave sent me a number of pictures of myself presenting and when I showed them to Garrett he got really excited about this one. “Look, this is the face you make when you are listening. I so rarely get to see this face!” 🙂 hehe
Trust me though, I also did plenty of talking! I told my story of finding Paleo and talked about some strategies I have used to take it from “A Diet” to “A Lifestyle.” I showed lots of embarrassing pictures of myself (natch) and tried to keep it entertaining. The crowd was amazing and responsive and friendly-faced which made the whole experience so meaningful. You could feel the love in the room and my nervousness dissipated shortly after I started.
Michelle took the stage in the afternoon and talked about her Carb-Addiction Recovery Plan and also showed some silly pics. She spoke about her journey to Paleo, and also how she has managed to transition her kids to this lifestyle — which was no small feat! I socked that information in my mind for any potential future battles. Michelle was so charming and honest and also came armed with some serious food knowledge (AND SAMPLES!) She did a cooking demo with her Magic Mushroom Powder (available as part of her iPad App), made some Spicy Pineapple Salsa with Julie from PaleOMG and had prepped some Slow Cooker Kalua Pig for the crowd to sample, which HOLY MOSES WAS DELICIOUS. So delicious that I went home and immediately made one for Garrett and I the day we got home. THAT GOOD, PEOPLE.
It was an action packed day, and when we were through I think we all exhaled and the only options were to completely collapse and go to bed at 6pm? Or rally and eat Mexican food. If you know anything about me at all, you know how I cast my vote. If you can believe it, we did end up closing down the entire downtown area! PARTY ANIMALS! Well, except that the entire downtown area closes down at about 9:30pm. But it was perfect! We felt like rockstars, but still got to crash into our beds at a decent hour after a job well done. Saturday night was a great mix of relief, accomplishment, and potential. And I slept the best I had all week.
To counteract all of the good feelings I was having, I headed out Sunday morning to do kettlebell work and burpees with the folks over at CrossFit Estes Park! ha! One must take the good with the bad. And burpees at elevation are VERY VERY BAD.
Cathy, I think your shirt is some very wishful thinking. 😉
So thus far the weekend had been great: Our presentation was a success, our workouts were fun, I had survived burpees at elevation, and all was going swimmingly until I took a kettlebell to the shin. What a clumsy dork, right? Of course I couldn’t get out of Colorado unscathed…
But it was nothing that ice and a little cheesy tourism couldn’t fix. After the wod I grabbed a plate full of bacon and eggs, met up with the group and then we headed over to do the Ghost & History Tour at The Stanley Hotel.
It was super fun (if not a little freaky) to hear all about how the hotel came to be, the hauntings, and of course how Stephen King used it for inspiration for The Shining. The mini-series is totally getting Netflix’d now!
Sadly, I had to go home and pack and head out to the airport after the tour, so I said my goodbyes and hit the road. It was hard to leave Estes Park. Partly because everywhere you turn there is some beautiful specimen of nature. This was the scene as I was exiting the YMCA to go to the airport:
I mean, really??????
But the other part was because as I was driving out of town I was acutely aware that this weekend had been a game-changer. I met some amazing and talented people and I had some unreal experiences. I got to do things that scare me and interact with people who were embarking on some pretty scary challenges too. There was such an energy about the weekend that I honestly can’t even put into words. It just felt like it was all meant to happen. And as I drove out of those beautiful mountains on Sunday afternoon, I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude that it actually had.
*****
Michelle and Melissa have also written some great recaps (with some seriously stellar photography) that you can check out here:
Colorado Dispatch: A Story in Photos
Feeling Grateful
Notes From the Rockies (Part One)
Notes From the Rockies (Part Two)
Do It Better (Our Paleo Seminar)
Final Day In The Rockies & Dinner At The Kitchen (Boulder, CO)
Playing Catch Up
Confession Time Y’all: I am still living out of a suitcase.
Yes I did get home from Colorado on Sunday night, but EXTREMELY late. And then on Monday I had to unpack the necessities, hit the grocery store, snuggle my dog, cook some food, do my laundry, and hang out with Garrett. And there are only 24 hours in a day.
Back to work Tuesday and then I decided to just quit coffee cold turkey which was a NIGHTMARE (especially on day one when I came home and went to bed at 7:30), but 3 days later I’m actually full of vim and vigor! This, quite possibly, has more to do with the fact that I have been in bed at a decent hour nightly, but whatever. I’ll take it.
Yesterday we took Buster to the vet to check up on his ears (they’re all good) and to get vaccinated (no rabies!) and to have a heartworm test (negative, ghost rider) and then we had him registered and microchipped. About a million dollars later we took him home and he crapped out early on the couch just like we did. It was a good night though. It felt monumental, like Hey — this doggie is OURS!
It’s been a good week, actually, but I am sort of moving slowly, and work is still happening, and dinner needs to get on the table and we haven’t even THOUGHT about the gym, and the garden needs to be pulled up and holy crap I am running seven miles on Sunday — SEVEN MILES — so mentally, I am spinning quite a few plates. So I just wanted to check in and say hello! I’ll be back tomorrow (my bi-monthly Friday off — WOOT!) with a few Colorado stories, but today I just need to play catch up.
This caffeine free life is making me prioritize instead of trying to push through and get everything done at once. I might be starting to love it already!
The Colorado Adventure (Part One)
I am just now realizing — in this very moment, actually — how flawed my logic was for coming back from a very awesome, action packed, emotional trip to Colorado, and then quitting coffee the very next day. Highest highs and lowest lows, people. If you also plan to go on a vacation, booking a private jet from companies like Jettly can make your trip go smoothly.
If you remember, I am quitting coffee as part of The Great Skincare Experiment, and I really want to slap myself in the face right now for even coming up with this idea, but I’m actually too tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired to lift my arm up and follow through. That said I do want to tell you about Colorado! But I have to break it up into chunks because I will probably need to take a nap in between.
When we last left off I was heading up to Estes Park to get settled at the Conference venue.
Can we talk for a second about the YMCA of the Rockies? I don’t know what the YMCAs look like in your neck of the woods, but in Estes Park, the place is like a full functioning resort + conference center. It was pretty amazing and I was immediately sort of overwhelmed!
I checked in to my room, dragged all 77lbs of my luggage up some stairs (stupid, stupid idea when you are a mile and a half above sea level) and opened the curtains in my room to find this view out on the balcony:
The drive up had been gorgeous, but I have to say I just wasn’t really prepared for all of the beauty that Colorado had to offer. I think we get a little spoiled here in California with pretty things to see, and I was just so struck by the vastness of it all.
Shortly thereafter I met up with Melissa and her other half Dave and we headed over to meet Cami + Cathy who were involved with organizing the event. We had some tasty wine and fun conversation and there were definitely a few times I wanted to pinch myself and say “How the heck did I get here in this beautiful place with these awesome people?” I would repeat that quite a bit to myself this entire weekend, let me tell you. We told stories and had some laughs and then later we grabbed some dinner and then it was off to bed because Friday morning, the menu included our first WOD with the folks over at CrossFit Estes Park.
Sure we were sort of on vacation, but you know the rules:
CrossFitting at this elevation is no joke, but no one even laughed at us 🙂 That’s Cami and Cathy with us below — they were the best hosts you could ask for!
Afterwards we headed out for some post workout grub and I piled my plate high with eggs and potatoes.
Yep, I said potatoes — did you catch that? Lots of new research showing the white potatoes are right up there (with respect to nutrient density) with sweet potatoes. I’m not telling you to go out and dive into a vat of mashed potatoes three meals per day, but what I am saying is that HASH BROWNS ARE GOOD and you should eat some.
Speaking of good eats, Cathy hosted a little party at her house on Friday night to welcome us all and because I’m a nut job I wore turquoise pants.
Are you on the fence about purchasing a crazy colored pair of pants for fall? Please do it! I beg you. They will make you ridiculously happy every time you put them on, I promise.
Turquoise pants aside, it was THE BEST PALEO POTLUCK I HAVE EVER BEEN TO. I would show you all the food I ate, but I was waaaaay too busy chowing on it. Luckily Michelle documented every delicious bite. It was hosted in basically the most beautiful backyard I have ever seen. You can even tell with only a crappy iphone photo, right?
Best Backyard!!!
I’ll be back tomorrow to give you the rest of the recap, you know assuming I survive the day without caffeine. Wish me luck?
