You don't have to cook it all yourself.

Last night Julie and I went out to celebrate her birthday; to do this, we went to the Sanford near downtown, the menu was the same as they have online (listed as a sample menu). I had the Scottish salmon, and Julie had the scallops & lobster. Incredible food, absolutely remarkable. And while perhaps a tad pricey, it was really nice for a special occasion; just the thing really. And the nice thing was that the food we got wasn't horrible for us. I guess my point is that we often get into this routine where we feel like we always have to eat at home, but there are responsible choices that you can make even away from the house. It's easy to get caught up in the routines and forget that.

Have a nice weekend.

mmmm, salmon.

So here we sit at 192 and Julie and I sampled one of Tom Douglas' rubs last night; this particular rub is specific to salmon and we have tried it before, just not with the fresh salmon we used last night. It's great, a little sweet and a little savory, we simple coated the salmon filets and pan fried them; served with steamed rice and steamed asparagus.
I'm telling you, you need to get a steamer. Julie and I got one last year and it's been one of the greatest aides to making nearly any meal. It handles both rice and veggies with ease, and it's nearly impossible to mess up. Last night it did the Asparagus perfectly as well as the rice. Sticky and perfect. Yum.

192 and still training

So, not that I get asked about all this a lot, but I think it's always good to be accountable for both failures and successes. The purple line shows my weight progress since I started this little experiments, and the green line shows my net caloric intake (apprx).

The thing I take away from this chart is that progress will ebb and flow, and I can't speak for anyone else but for me at least, success is not a straight line. It takes constant work and the ability to deal with setbacks handily and keep driving for your goal. I'm nowhere near finished running, but I do believe that due to muscle weight, I may not hit the 195 mark (which is my goal). I'm ok with that, but I still want to keep driving for it, keep eating healthy because I believe that there are additional benefits (which I won't detail here) that come with the increased health.

Heyoo - 197 to go.

So, maybe this fits in nicely with my other blog (bjgreviews) but I'm trying to come up with an appropriate song for our first dance; and to me this is a big deal right because I love music. What sends the right message? What's meaningful? What's going to make people go "awe"? So we've probably had a list of a dozen of them that we've just suggested, but eventually we want to narrow that down and maybe even set up a poll. Who knows. Anyhow; the training is coming along. We both did three miles yesterday which wasn't too bad, but I do feel like I need to get faster. What's more, Julie made a good point last night that treadmill training doesn't exactly allow you to understand how to set your own pace, so now we're on a hunt for ways to do that.

any suggestions out there?

~Brian

200 Days Kids!

So yeah, I guess 200 days out is more symbolism than anything, but I figured it warranted a blog post; I've been a little lazy. The 1/2 marathon training is coming along, but I think now that I have Julie as a running partner (she's running the 1/2 pig too) we're going to switch up to her training schedule even though I did 6 miles yesterday on the old schedule. That was tough, but I did it.


We did get a ton more stuff on our registry this weekend and I've seen some ambitious people out there already picking things up, so I want to thank everyone ahead of time.

That's all for now!
~Bri

Registries and Marathons

Last evening Jules and I went on the first of what I suppose will be many trips to add items to our registry. I guess they make this as painless as possible, but I have a few ideas about how to transform this process into one that would be a little more ubiquitous and a more positive experience for all involved.

First I'm thinking that there should be an item purgatory. Let me tell you what I mean by that. I should be able to walk into the store and put items I know I'm going to want on a "hold" list, so that I can remember to go research the difference between say this wine fridge and another brand that I might want, or this juicer and other models that might be available. I realize there is no money in doing this for the stores, but I believe it would be insanely helpful to the process for couples. Really, it's the "I think I want this, but I want to do more research on this category of items" phase, and frankly, there is so much going on that I can't remember every little thing I wanted to research.

I'll leave the rest of that gripe for another time, but suffice to say it is a process that could be improved upon, greatly.

And now, with regards to the marathon. Well the 1/2 marathon; today I'm to run three miles according to Nike Plus, and I want to try and train for the Cincinnati Flying Pig 1/2. I'm going to start today and we'll see how it goes, with any luck, in May I will be 13 miles closer to my ultimate goal. Below is a picture that I actually took that inspired me. Julie's cousins running the New York Marathon in October. I'd like to think that if those guys can do a full, I can surely do a 1/2. Time will tell. Send good vibes my way.

~Brian

12 inches of snow, and 207 to go

No, I don't mean the "rapper" from the mid 90's, snow

Wisconsin is experiencing the snow equivalent of a renaissance today. It is estimated that we'll see between 10 and 14 inches between now and 3am tomorrow morning. You get a slight sense of the progression from my photos here:

The good thing is that it means I have a workout partner at lunch today; Julie is home for the day. 

so on to other topics; the Superbowl. I would say that the other day on livestrong I read an article that talked 

7 months to the wedding

7 months, or 212 days to go.
So far I'm feeling pretty good about this diet change and all the work we've been doing. Official count seems to be 22 days at it, so I would say though that two of those weeks have really been a concerted effort on our parts.

The weight loss is there and I may be on a plateau as my weight has been steady-ish for the last two days or so. I feel like the exercise could begin to yield some muscle definition if I keep at it, which would be really cool. My run results yesterday seem to have resulted in showing a little bit quicker pace, a little bit more stamina; so that's encouraging.

oh well, back to the grind.

214 and change

So you get a double topic today. Special.

Last night we made Stir Fried Honey Ginger Chicken with Peppers, and yum! It was very good, but I was thinking you could really use anything, don't have to just do chicken. It really was very easy to put together, but in my experience just prepping everything took a little longer than 20 minutes (as indicated on the recipe).

Very very good though. Check that out.

Also, I'm posting about workout tracks:

This is my workout #6, I can't seem to get enough of "Mr. Brightside" when I want to run, it's just the perfect speed for when my feet hit the treadmill. Do you have any suggestions for tracks that you use? Hit me up in the comments section. 

215 Days and going strong

Julie and I continue to work out on the weekends, and this weekend was no exception. Got in my longest run in months this weekend with 2.25 and I felt really good! (surprisingly). I would have gone for 2.5 but there was someone hovering in the gym for the treadmill. Will be interesting to see how the exercise regimen changes once the weather gets warm here again (you know, in may). Anyhow, we try to continue to eat well whenever we can on the weekends, even if we do ease off the rules just a bit. Last night we actually had red meat (can't remember the last time we made this at home) in the form of "Superstuffed Steak Tacos".

Wow.

All I can say is that they are awesome, and as Julie was quick to point out, we could fill these guys with shrimp or turkey or whatever and they would probably still be awesome. We were able to find the low carb wraps which I think were like 70 cals apiece. Delicious....so actually there were no leftovers. I'm ok with this though.

More as the week progresses.