Falling off the wagon…

May has been a tough month for weight loss you guys!  Eek!  There have been weddings,

and graduation parties (no pic, but my friend Matt graduated from med school!  He is a doctor! Crazy!), and more weddings,

and homecoming at church, and it has been super hard to eat healthy with all the food and cake and sweet tea…oh, the sweet tea.

Fun story about the second wedding- it was outside in 90 degree heat with no shade and it was SO LONG.  Oh man.  However, the food was totally worth it and I got to hang out with Lily (the cute baby in the picture).  

Anyway, I’m hoping that I will be able to get back on track and meet my goal by the end of Biggest Loser.

Right now I’m off to do yoga so I can feel better about the obscene amounts of food I ate for lunch.  

Have a happy Memorial Day!

-r

Confession Time

This is a text message exchange I just had with a friend from college who was also a chem major:

Me:

I just met a girl with a phd in physics and she was super nice and normal…it was like meeting a unicorn

Friend:

More like meeting a unicorn riding leprechaun that sneezes rainbows.

…we may not think very highly of physicists.

Have a happy Friday! (and enjoy the mental image of a leprechaun riding a unicorn while sneezing rainbows)

-r

Quote of the Day

I believe all young people think about how they would like their lives to develop, when I did so I always arrived at the conclusion that life need not be easy provided only that it was not empty.

-Lise Meitner

Updates

Biggest Loser: I’ve lost 8.2 pounds! Woop woop! Only 13 more to go.

Elephant Blanket: After a couple of false starts (piece of advice: always read ALL the instructions before you start) I’ve finally finished one repeat of the pattern…and I love it!

Life: I bought a miniature lemon tree at the farmer’s market (it’s back! Woot!). Its name is Liz Lemon. I hope I don’t kill it :S

I hope everyone has a great week!

-r

New Faves

I just realized I haven’t shared any of my new faves with you lately…so here you go!

-The Biggest Loser Challenge at work.  I’ve lost 8.4 pounds woo hoo!  

-Running in races – there’s a lot more motivation when I’m running with a bunch of other people than when I’m running alone on the treadmill…and there’s always nice scenery!

Which, clearly, I am enjoying in this picture

-the band Slow Club…I LOVE them!  Listen to them, you guys!

-The French Market and Creperie in Knoxville.  So, so, so, so good.  So good. 

What are your new  favorites??

Happy Weekend!

-r

New Knitting Adventures

Last year I read a sweet book called Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini (who, side note, used to write for the Metro Pulse, my favorite local paper in Knoxville). It’s a fantastic book about her quest to knit an Alice Starmore (famous knitting designer) sweater.

After reading it I was inspired. I decided I NEEDED to make my own Alice Starmore. Alas, I couldn’t find a sweater pattern I liked-they’re all very boxy, and I have no desire to look like SpongeBob. So, after much searching, I found it…the perfect project- the Elephants Baby Blanket (I’ll post a link when I’m finished up).

I ordered the yarn kit and pattern book and when they arrived I thought “these colors make that blanket?”. But let’s face it-Alice Starmore is a color genius and I am not, so I dove right in and so far I love LOVE it.

I’ll be updating here on my own blanket quest every once in a while, but if you want to keep up with my twitter I’ll be posting pictures there frequently. Let me know what you think!

-r

I’m a Loser! (At least, I hope so)

So, I joined the Biggest Loser Team Challenge at work and I am SUPER EXCITED!  I’ve been trying to lose weight since last year, and after losing ~15 pounds, I kind of plateaued -due mostly to terrible eating habits, but also to not being consistent with working out.  So, since the beginning of this year, I’ve been increasing my running by 1/2 mile each month (running that month’s distance 3x/week, although I’ve recently started doing the distance 2x/week and a fast mile 1x/week to increase my speed) and doing yoga for strength training, but I’ve STILL been eating terribly.  So, when the opportunity to join the biggest loser team at work came up, I jumped at it!  I think this is just the motivation I need, because nobody wants to be the one who lets the team down!  So far, so good – although resisting the urge to eat lots of ice cream is difficult…you know how I love ice cream.  I’ve decided to have one day a week to eat the not-so-fabulous-for-you stuff I love (like doritos!) and I hope this will work.  Usually the thing about diets that brings me down is that I can’t eat what I want and then I end up bingeing, so I hope that letting myself have one day a week will be enough to keep that under control.  

I know this is probably super boring, but I’m telling you so you can keep asking me about it so I can’t slack off

And also, because blog posts without pictures are lame, here’s a little friend I found in the hall at work (he was still moving, ewwww):

Happy Weekend!

-r 

Books I love, Volume 10

I have been reading like crazy lately!  That is, when I’m not rewatching all of the seasons of One Tree Hill.  Anyway, my new favorite book is Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  I have been hearing about it for a while via one of the blogs I read and various running sources and finally decided to read it.  It is super interesting and fun to read – even though it’s non-fiction, it isn’t burdensome to read, just enjoyable.  You should pick it up!  It definitely makes me want to run more!  

Have a happy Saturday, friends!

-r

Nerdiness + Knitting

So, I recently stumbled upon a yarn company called String Theory Colorworks.  And I want to buy EVERYTHING.  Not only are the colors amazing but all they’re all named fun science-y things.  A few of my faves are plutonium, background radiation, particle accelerator, and Cherenkov radiation.  Seriously, so fun.

-r

In Case You Needed Proof that Knitters are Awesome

A mystery knitter in Englad knitted a large collection of Olympic-themed figures and attached them to a pier there.  It is pretty stinking awesome:  

Lots more pictures here. 

Enjoy!

-r