Fast Forward.... 5 years later.

What has happened in the past 5 years and why did I wait so long to blog? 

In the past 5 years I ran two full marathons, got married, had a kid, moved to San Diego, made new friends, created new goals, found new interests and hobbies and now here I am.  let's catch up shall we?

Why did I wait so long?  Maybe the lack of motivation, lack of time, fear... Afraid I would be boring, uninspired, unhappy, afraid (again) that I am not as good of a write as most bloggers? etc... who knows, but I've recently realized the importance of getting things out of my head and on to a piece of paper (or just type my fingers away). Fear is the enemy.  It only took me about 5 years to figure that out!

This time around, my blog will be about my journey to health, exploring, family, happiness, passion and my journey to minimalism.

I have so many goals for this blog, even if noone ever reads it, which is OK, I have found the outlet i've needed to plug in all of my thoughts and dreams to share with anyone who is willing to listen and who is going through similar situations.  I will also be revamping the look and name of my blog.   Because now... I think I've finally found my calling.

One of the reasons I wanted to get back to blogging was so that I can document my journey of the Standard Process 21-Day Purification Program.  I've fallen off the wagon... HARD with my health and has affected my life in every way.  My weight is increasing, my stress and anxiety are through the roof, my energy is really low, I crave sugar, I find comfort in food, above all, my happiness isn't where it should be.

Stay tuned... I'm excited

Indian Wednesday

Happy Hump day! Can you believe it’s already Wednesday?!? Yikes. Hey I’m not complaining one bit  Last night was a night of bumming it. I guess the BF and I were so tired, we didn’t cook and just snacked around for dinner. This morning I had Waffles with Almond Butter and Strawberry jam, super yummy. It sure was a nice little change from my usually morning protein shake. BTW- I now have Vanilla flavor and can’t wait to make one tomorrow with lots of yummy fruit.

Work has been pretty slow and boring today, however, the highlight of my day has to be lunch! My department took me out to lunch to celebrate my bday since I was on vacation. I chose an Indian Restaurant! I am in love with Indian/Pakistani food. It just so happened that it was a buffet & that made it 10x more awesome! I had 2 plates :-/ and a little bit of dessert. This stuff was amazing, Mango Mousse and Kheer (sort of like rice pudding/arroz con leche).

I love trying out new types of food and spicy food is always a winner in my book, but this wasn’t too spicy at all and far from being bland. I’d say I had a perfect lunch.

I woke up this morning and ran 4 miles with hill intervals, man that was tough! I don’t know what’s been going on with my motivation lately, but it hasn’t been here all week. It feel like it’s starting to get a little old to me. Everyone talks about this block runners have in the beginning and I think I’ve reached it, hopefully I’ll be ever to get over it soon and wake up eager to run again early in the morning. Now I feel like I’m running because I have to rather than because I want to. Know what I mean, am I alone here? 5 training pace miles await me first thing in the morning, my act needs to get it together.

Tonight we are celebrating our friends bday out by the pool. On the menu tonight is steak and shrimp, I can honestly say I am not looking forward to the food because I’ve eaten enough for the day. I’m sure once 6:30 rolls along my mind won’t be the same. ;)

See ya next year!

My birthday weekend is now over- booo. It was awesome, the boyfriend and BFF made it memorable. On Friday, Me, Steph, the BF, 2 friends from work and 2 of my neighbors went to Maggiano’s. It was absolutely amazing! I had 8 miles to do on Saturday so I couldn’t do anything too wild. I did have 2 glasses of wine ;) and the chicken with mushroom lasagna it was perfect! When we were all done, the waited brought over the dozen Sprinkles cupcakes my friend ordered for me :) She’s awesome and I love her to death. I had a red Velvet & half of their new Dark Chocolate Almond. The red Velvet was heaven obviously and the Almond dark chocolate was great too. I sure did carb load that night (that was my excuse), the night ended early and I was in bed by 10pm just how it was planned. Carb loading must have worked because Saturday’s run was probably the best long run I’ve ever had. Not sure if it really was the carbs, lots of rest, or the unusual semi-cool breeze that was going on. My alarm didn’t go off that morning, but I did manage to wake myself up and meet at Memorial Park with my group on time. When I got there, I didn’t see anyone I usually run with. There’s a big group of people who run, we get split into miles and we split into pace amongst ourselves. I was the only one out of the 4 girls that run together. It was a little intimidating because I was by myself for about 4 miles and didn’t know if I should start chatting with the others or take it in and see where “I” really stand. Those first 4 miles were easy, average 10:20/30 per mile! My average pace on long runs are 11:10 MM! I didn’t know whether to slow it down, or continue on because it seemed easy. I knew if I kept running that pace I’d eventually get tired and possibly get injured. After the 1st water stop (mile 4) my running coach started talking to a girl who was running by me and he introduced us and said we should run together we are about the same pace. This wasn’t my pace, but I felt awesome! She was doing 9 that day, the next water stop I had decided I wanted to slow down and catch the 8 milers because I didn’t want to get lost, or else I would have stuk with her. 2 of the girls from the 8 mile group caught up and I stuck with them. The rest of the run felt great, but somehow I felt like I was still able to go a little faster. I have no idea what was going on with me, but that run felt great. We finished mile 8 and I still felt like I could keep going what the hell is going on with me?!?! All I kept thinking about was the half marathon and hoping it would be that easy and fast (fast for me at least). The rest of the day was great, I felt like a rock star and watched the LSU game at a local bar. That’s when I started to really celebrate my bday hehe. 


Steph had 2 things in mind to do all weekend (so did I)- shop & eat some good food! We shopped and shopped until we dropped, literally. I took her around and showed her a few restaurants. My eating was not great at all, but I still ran and worked out. I know I didn’t lose any & hopefully I didn’t really gain any, but we’ll see when I get on the scale tomorrow. I’m trying to get all the sodium out of me and de-puff a little hehe. I bought the coolest nail polishes from Sephora and super cute necklace from Juicy. We had left over cupcakes of course and took some pics. I still don’t have a USB cord and I’m waiting on her to email me the pics. The 2nd day after my best run, I had THEE WORST run of my life. I woke up when the sun was up, it was hot, humid and crowded. That’s why I run so early, dark, not as hot and humid, not as crowded. My bf bought me compression socks like his and I don’t think the’re for me. I wore them as a trial run and after the first mile I couldn’t handle it. I stopped so many times, walked and my legs were so heavy. It really brought me down from my running high I somehow received on Saturday. I kept thinking that every run isn’t going to be a great run, I’ll probably have more bad ones that good ones. This by far is the worst one!

This morning I had to do 4 miles and since I didn’t really do any speed work yesterday, today was the day and I was nervous. I didn’t know if I’d have the same run as yesterday and that was discouraging. To a surprise it was great! Challenging, but great! I finished and felt really good after. The gym was closed to I had to go to Memorial Park, hopefully tonight I’ll get a work out in. I’ve been slacking off with weights and I have to keep reminding myself as a runner how important it is. Maybe I’ll do some Yoga tonight, or at least try to? I wish I had a yoga buddy to keep my booty in check! Doing it alone is no fun and I always end up giving up within 10 minutes lol.

Lunch for today was a Turkey sandwich, it’ll probably be that way all week… boring! Sandwich thins, deli turkey, laughing cow tomato basil cheese, ½ an avocado and 2 egg whites and a nectarine on the side. It was a yummy protein filled lunch, let’s see how long it can hold me over. Back to reality, no more vacation until Thanksgiving when I go home to SD for a week. I need to really start staying home, not shop, grocery shop wisely and save money! I can’t wait for Fall, unfortunately fall doesn’t come until Oct/Nov in Houston. Making is my thing and I will be doing lots and lots of it, which means I need to start some other sort of cardio. There’s a tropical storm hitting us today and all this rain gets me sleepy and wish I was in bed eating ice cream and watching Keeping up with the Kardashians, or Save by the bell.

Happy Birthday

Hello 28!  I can't believe I'm almost 30!!  ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Plans for the day:
Lot's of shopping with Steph @ the Galleria
Nordstrom Rack
Ikea
Rice village
Dinner @ Maggiano's
*My bday cake is going to be Sprinkles Cupcakes! I'll take pics and post them up here.
It's going to be a very chill early night, I have 8 miles tomorrow early morning with my group.  Being hungover and sleep deprived is not an option.  The BF went to LSU so we'll be watching the game tomorrow, and maybe head out to some bars on Washington.  That's when the real celebration begins :)
I need to get some cross training in this morning, so I'm about to head to the gym.  My eating was a nightmare tomorrow and hopefully I can have a little more self control today.

Mental struggle

My weekend has started, I'm off work and it's my bday eve.  Sleeping in is all I thought about when my alarm went off @ 5am.  I kept thinking to myself, it's ok I'm off I can sleep just an extra hour I'll just run when I wake up.  Then I started thinking about how much worse it'll be when the sun is out!  That alone made me get out of my warm, soft, comfy bed.  The last time I ran outdoors was in DC on Sunday, I've been using the treadmill for speed work and the bike for cross training.  My schedule has me doing 4 miles at my training pace.  I headed out to Memorial Park around 5:30 and those 4 miles felt eternal and brutal!  At this point in my training I'm totally convinced that I'm struggling a lot mentally.  I felt fine, but my legs felt a little heavy and I may have been trying to go a little faster than I should have.  I worked my legs out yesterday so they're a little sore today.  The second half of the run was pretty bad, all I was thinking about was the run how I was feeling and how bad I wanted to stop.  I finished in 45 minutes, 5 minutes more than the 4 miles with rolling hills I did in DC.  Heat and humidity really make a difference and I can't wait until fall gets here so I can see where I am. 
Breakfast today was a Chocolate Cherry Bomb :) 
1 cup Almond Milk (Unsweetened)
1 scoop of V60 Chocolate protein powder
1 tsp of Maca powder
1 cup of frozen cherries
Was awesome-O!
I need to buy some Vanilla protein powder, but I can't spend a fortune.  I'm thinking of going to GNC and picking up some Muscle Milk light.  Has anyone tried it?  Steph arrives @ 11am so I need to finish up doing last minute things.  Our plan is to chill today, we have a lot of days to do things but we just plan on going to Lunch, take a quick detour to Sprinkles Cupcakes ;), organize my closet, and have the BF cook for us some Pakistani food. I can not wait!! Indian/paki has to be my favorite food. 
I found this pic on my phone I took yesterday that I meant to blog about it, but I'll need to get to that later.  Here's my daily baggage- not pictured is my lunch bag and of course that'll be a post next week. :) 


This is what's waiting for me in my room! I have lots of laundry going on right now and it's time to fold and put away my work out clothes.  I think that's all I want for my bday, a gift card from Academy hehe.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels...

... so I thought.

My weight issues...

About 2 Years ago I reached 191. 1 9 1!!! I’m 5’6 and about to be 28, so not healthy. My eating habits were HORRIBLE, I ate out almost every day. Every morning at work all my co-workers in my dept. in the same building would meet up @ 9am to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. My usual would be a breakfast sandwich, Sour dough bread, cheese, ham, and tons of mayo. It was no tiny sandwich either, they loaded up double everything. I used to be obsessed with Mayo, everything just tasted so much better with Mayo. If I had to estimate, the breakfast sandwich was around 800 delicious calories. Of course I’ll never have something like that again knowing what I know now, but I still crave it sometimes. For lunch I would have what they call in San Diego “California Fries”. The best thing ever!!! Seriously, til this day I will have half an order when I go back to SD, I don’t think I’ll ever give that up. California fries= French fries covered with carne asada (small pieces of steak), cheddar and Mexican cheese, sour cream, guacamole and tons of salsa. This was heaven in my mouth. For dinner when my mom wouldn’t cook (because I didn’t know how), I would run to In N out (best hamburgers on the planet- ask somebody). Or maybe get some chicken tenders from Wendy’s, jack in the box, Rubios, everything bad I had it all the time. Typing all of this out makes me sick and feel really bad about the way I used to treat my body.


One day I went to Forever 21 to find something to wear to the bar/club and boy did I get a reality check. NOTHING fit me and what did , did not look cute. I decided right then and there to lose weight, it was now or NEVER! I signed up to LA Fitness and it’s all history. Running wasn’t my thing at the time, I hated it with a passion like most non-runners do. My best friends became the Stair Master and spin class. It also helped having a lot of family going at the same time. My cousin who is super duper hot and hopefully I’ll have a body like hers one day, would go with me everyday and do some weights. After a few months it was just me doing the weights while she socialized with her other friends. The lbs started melting off fast! My energy went up and my clothes started to fit better. Of course I counted calories at the time and was really really strict with myself. I just kept telling myself the famous words by Kate moss “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. I started getting compliments and attention like I’ve never had before. The gym wasn’t so bad because most of my friends and family would go and they made it fun!

I think I wasn’t getting enough fuel at the time, but it was working so I kept eating the same thing. My typical day for breakfast was Special K cereal with skim milk, snack was about 3 egg whites or yogurt, lunch was tuna with lime and a side of carrots (I actually like it and still have it sometimes), snack was fruit and maybe toast with PB, dinner was chicken breast with veggies and rice. I lived on those Rotisserie chickens from the grocery stores, they would last 3 days! Instead of going out 3 nights a week and binge drinking on sugary drinks, I went out once a week and stuck to Vodka with sugar free red bull (I know I know), or Vodka soda with lime- gross stuff but it was the best thing with the lowest calories. I would dance it off anyway right?? ;) I was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life because I was about 145. Although I still had A LOT of work to do, I have never weighed that much in much in my 20’s. The first time I stepped on a scale and actually cared about the number was on my 21st bday and that was still over 150.

Well, when I left San Diego a year and a half ago, I was still under 150 and was ready to work hard at losing 15-20 pounds more. Of course I thought it would be easier because the endurance was already there, and figured I can up my work outs a little more. Boy was I wrong! I plateaued- Big time. I gained about 15 pounds back and today I still have about 4 pounds to go. What a nightmare. This time it’s a little different, I’m training for a Half marathon and have been eating a lot cleaner, counting calories and really cut down on diet stuff and my drinking. However, it is now a slower process! I guess these last 20 pounds are he hardest and slowest to lose. I lose a pound a week, so that means it’ll take me 20 weeks to get to my goal weight. That’s soooooo much and can be very very discouraging! I want to stop counting calories like many other bloggers have done and swear they’ve lost more weight like that, but it just does not work with me this way. My genes are different than theirs. My Latin culture is known to be overweight and stay overweight as we get older. I’m not going to let that happen, ever!!! I run a lot now, I eat healthy but I still have my cupcakes occasionally and drink my wine. Sweets are my weakness and I have to have them, I learned how not to deprive myself and be smart about my choices. This stuff is already natural to me and now I want to stop counting calories and enjoy food and life the way it’s meant to be.

Patience is not my virtue and consistency is not my key. I need support and that’s why I read these blogs every day religiously. So yeah, that’s the struggle I’ve had for a while now and this has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I feel so damn good and can’t wait to finally reach my goal. OH!!! To top it all off, How can I forget to mention this- I met my the love of my life at the gym!  So that was an extra bonus! I’d like to thank the Love bug for these extra 15 pounds! We are both working very hard to get to our healthy goal weight.



Stephanie get’s here tomorrow and I can’t wait!!! See you all later. I will be keeping track and take pics of everything I eat. I don’t know how to post using my iPhone, so twitter pics will have to do… follow me @simisd



Does anyone else struggle with slow weight loss? You do everything you can and it seems like you’re stuck?!

a little help over here

Bloggy peeps, where can I get a super cool layout for this blog?  Anyone anyone? :)
So my work sucks and one of the IT guys told me that they are now monitoring web browsing within the company.  They will pull up reports and a list of ppl who get on Facebook, twitter, blogs, any type of social media, etc... This is so so sad new.  Doing all those things is what helped me get through work hehe. 
I just got back from Target to buy things I don't need some stuff and came home to a super messy house.  This is so depressing, coming home with a dirty house and have not unpacked from our vacation.  Well, we better get our butts in gear because Steph is coming on Thursday!!!  I can't wait! I have so much stuff planned for us.  She's also going to help me organize this place, God knows I need it!!!

Tomorrow is going to be insane! I am scheduled to run 3 miles, or cross train and meet with my trainer to work on my legs.  We are meeting @ 4:50 am, that means I wake up at 4am to get my run in before she gets here.  It will be another early fun night for me.  Oh and we have some big wigs coming into work so I have to really dress up, do my hair and make up and smile all day :D  In the evening it's all about cleaning, laundry, cooking, etc...

Dinner was boring tonight- Flounder and Asparagus.  I live on the wild side in case you haven't noticed! hahaha