{It's a beautiful day, Colorado}

Time to catch up! :)

I woke-up in a fantastic mood this morning.

Part of me believe's it has a lot to do with taking Unisom for the first time ever.

Because of my work schedule, my sleep pattern is always off.

I tried the Unisom last night because I go back to work tomorrow and didn't want to experiment with something like that during a work week.

I felt amazeballs when  I woke-up.

It had a little bit to do with him also.

He makes me smile.

Today marks me getting back into working out on a regular basis again.

I think only having 3 weeks in between my last two 5K races had something to do with me not working out as much these last 3 weeks.

So, since I wrote last I've gone to a Bon Jovi concert, ran the Rave Run 5k, and bought smaller jeans.

The Bon Jovi concert was really last minute.

A girl I know texted me to see if I would like to go with her since her boyfriend had to go out of town for work.

Only an idiot would say no.

Of course I said yes!

It was a lot of fun.

I definitely paid for it the next day.

I didn't get drunk, I only had 3 beers, but I got to sleep at 1am and had to be at work at 5:30am.

This past Saturday was race number 4 of my One 5K Race a Month For 12 Months goal.

Two of my co-workers, and friends, ran the race with me.

It was so insanely packed with people it was ridiculous.

There were over 7,000 people there.

My friend, Cat, and I had to walk a few times because of the conjestion.

That part was annoying.

We also had to walk across the finish line because of all the people. 

That part was more than annoying!

Overall, it was a lot of fun!

Afterwards, we went to get burgers at this restaurant that yelled at me for drinking alcohol without having my I.D. card. Shame on me. If I were younger than 21, I'd feel bad. As it was, I finished my drink anyway.

I know, I'm such a rebel! ;)

After that, my friends dropped me back off at my car and I met the other runner friend of ours at a bar.

That was pretty fun as well.

The next day, I had dinner with my friends and previous co-workers.

It's always such a fun time getting together with them.

So, and finally, some of the delicious dishes I've made...

Baked Egg in an Avocado

Avocado Chicken Salad

Chocolate Banana Blueberry Muffins
The recipe calls to grill them but I do not own a grill so I baked them.

Photo Credit
Thai Turkey Meatballs

{Life Lately}

This past week has been full of emotional ups and downs. WTF.

I know why and all is good, it's just not stuff I want to throw out there for the entire world to read.

That kind of stuff goes into the physical, I have to write it all down, type of journal. :)

On to the good stuff!

I've slacked some on working out this week. 

Really, I've had more rest days than I normally would (like every other day) but I am still working out.

Yesterday's run.
Left is Runtastic. Right is Map My Run

My next race is the Rave Run on Saturday night!

This will be race #4 of 12.

I have been lazy with eating right.

Well, I'm still eating healthy'ish, but on my off days from work I'm back to hardly eating anything at all.

It's most definitely not on purpose.

I simply forget and then bam! I'm starving.

Like yesterday, I'm pretty sure I ate 1 solid meal.

The day before?

Two solid meals.

Not eating is just as bad as eating too much crap.

I still feel great though.

Yesterday, I had a great day.

Really, it was a "I must stay busy. I must stay busy. I must stay busy." type of day.

I went to my favorite coffee shop for coffee *duh* and to read.

This was the coffee shop my ex-boyfriend introduced me to and we went there All. The. Time.

It made me slightly nostalgic but not depressed haha, so that's good.

I'd say it's my #1 favorite place to be.

By myself now anyway. I'm not sure I could take someone else to this sacred place. :)

My second favorite place to be is the Denver Botanic Gardens.

I went there yesterday after coffee time and just walked around taking photographs.

I got some pretty good ones, I think.

Here are a few....

Beautiful, right?

One last thing...

I've made my own photo for my running goal.

You know, the Run One 5k Race A Month for 12 Months goal.

Tada...

I'm pretty happy with it. :)

{Bad Blogger}

I've been such a bad blogger lately!

There's so much I want to write about but I haven't and won't.

Some things you really do want to keep to yourself.

You see, I've been talking to a boy.

And that's about all you'll get.

For now anyway... maybe one day I'll give the details?

So, working out has been going well.

Eating right has been going well.

I know I said I would weigh myself only monthly for now but for some reason I decided to weigh myself today.

I've lost another 1.4 pounds since my last weigh-in. 

That makes so happy since I've eaten a lot of Peeps and Reese's Cups this last month.

{A Bad Run is better than no run...}

Since I had to skip out on yesterday's run due to body issues (aka upset tummy issues), 

I went for a run today.

It's nice and cloudy out but only 64 degrees.

That would be h.o.t. if the sun were out.

Anyway, so I went running.

It felt like a horrible run though.

The first mile was great.

The second mile...not so great.

I just wasn't feeling it, ya know?

This was my first run since my 5k race this past Saturday.

I was also dumb and had 3 beers last night when I met my friends at the brewery.

I was pretty dehydrated during this run.

My blah face?

So, speaking of last night at the brewery.

I had so much fun.

Those guys are seriously the best people.

I love them.

That's only a handful of the people there also.

It was good times.

{Porta who?!}

Hello, my name is Nicole and I have port-a-potty issues.

Or maybe I don't. 

Maybe... ugh gross. 

No way, they're disgusting.

So, why do I find myself talking about them again?

I went on a run not that long ago today.

As I was doing my warm-up walk, I noticed my stomach gurgling.

I thought to myself, "eh, you'll be ok. It will go away."

Funny.

It indeed did not go away.

I'd started running anyway.

Then I had to stop and walk.

Then I had to walk even slower.

Thank goodness they are working on the road right there by the park because there was a port-a-potty.

I'm so serious when I say I would not have made it home;

I was already too far away.

It's such a beautiful day too.

Hot.

But, oh so wanted.

So, last night at work I was a good girl and brought in all my healthy foods.

I'd forgotten we were having cake and pizza for a guys going away.

I figured, I've been good.

I'll have a small slice of cake and two slices of pizza.

Boy oh boy, it took that pizza like 5 minutes to upset my stomach.

Blech.

I think between eating the cake and pizza last night, workings nights (not sleeping right), and what I had for breakfast this morning just completely messed me up.

On a positive note, I'm meeting my friends and previous co-workers at a brewery for drinks.

Just one for me.

{Ya doing good, kid... Ya doing good}

I know, a whole day early but I know I may not get to this tomorrow.

I am oh so happy with myself.

I've been telling friends/co-workers about the 5k race I ran on Saturday.

It's finally dawned on me that the running app I used was correct with my time.

I ran 2.9 miles in less than  34:54.

Why less than 34:54 if that's what my app said?

Because I stopped in the middle of my race to pee.

I did not stop the app while I was peeing.

I mean seriously, you have no idea what an accomplishment this is to me.

Let me remind you of my first 5k race in January and 2nd race in February...

Over the course of a month and a half, I managed to shave 5 minutes off my run time.

While even stopping to pee!

*Mind blown*

I also weighed myself Sunday morning and guess what the scale said!

146.6 lbs

That's a 3.2 lb weight loss since I broke-up with my scale.

Anyway, I think I've been going through winter blues or PMS emotions or something.

Maybe the Easter holiday alone got to me?

Who knows.

What I do know is I've been in a funk.

Even the awesome race and weight loss hasn't been able to completely pull me out of it.