Category Archives: Celebrations

1 Year Of Going Orange (or Anniversary Celebrations)

Posted on June 8, 2015 | Comments Off

I was headed to my Orangetheory workout on Monday when I got a notification of an email from Orangetheory. My first thought was that maybe class was cancelled due to some weird reason or the parking garage was closed and they were giving us a heads up.

But instead, this is what it said:

It’s true, June 1st marked 1 year since my very first Orangetheory workout! One year ago I did a workout that made it tough for me to walk for several days after! I wondered at the time if I would ever do the workout again or if I could even do it on a semi-regular basis. But I decided to take a chance and see what could happen.

One year and over 150 workouts later, I’m much stronger and healthier. When I started I was using mainly 8 or 10 pound weights. Now, I’m using 15 pounds weights for most things (and 20 pound weights for deadlifts and occasionally squats). When I started I was going 3.0 miles an hour. I remember when I started going 3.1 miles an hour and how proud I was of myself because that meant that I could do a 5K in an hour again. Now, I’m at 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill and I’m hoping that within a month I will start doing 3.5 miles an hour a little bit in my workout.

I can’t believe that a year has passed since that first workout. In one way, it seems like just a month or so ago that I struggled through that workout. But at the same time, it’s hard remembering what life was like where I didn’t spend almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday working out.

I was on a high for my Monday workout knowing that it was my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory. I really wanted to try getting my treadmill faster for that workout, but my body just wasn’t having it. But I was just happy to spend my 1 year anniversary at Orangetheory doing a workout there. That seemed right to me.

Not only was it my 1 year anniversary with Orangetheory, Friday marked 1 year since the grand opening of the location I go to (I started before the grand opening since I went to a pre-opening bloggers event)!

All day on Friday they had special things at the studio to celebrate.

Since I was working during the day, I missed out on the taco truck. But they did have snacks and drinks after my 4pm workout. And during my workout they had a live DJ doing the music for the class (the DJ classes are a pretty regular thing but they usually aren’t at the times that I go).

Everyone was in a very festive mood at the workout and that helped make the workout go by a little faster.

And since this week started off my second year at Orangetheory, I figured I should get 4 workouts in for the week instead of 3. I’m hoping that 4 workouts will soon be the norm and I’m working on finding exactly when in my schedule I can do them. But this past week it worked out well to go on Saturday after my box office shift was done.

The Saturday workout was a bit tough, but that was mainly because we didn’t rotate between the treadmill and the floor until the halfway point. Even though I’m more used to the extended treadmill time, I still don’t love having 24 minutes on the treadmill without a break on the floor doing weights (or when it’s a run/row and you break up the treadmill time with rowing).

I think that my 4 workout week was a great way to start my 2nd year at Orangetheory. I’m impressed that I got over 150 workouts in for my first year (especially since I wasn’t doing 4 workouts a week until a few months in). My goal for 2015 is to do 175 workouts, and I am on track for that. But maybe I can beat that goal for year 2 of Orangetheory!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged anniversary, celebration, fitness, goals, Orangetheory, workout

A Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding)

Posted on June 2, 2015 | 2 comments

A couple of weeks ago, I got a text message from my friend Rayshell that her boyfriend proposed! I was so excited to hear this news from her because she and her boyfriend (now fiancée) had been together for a while and I knew that they had been discussion marriage for a bit.

A little later I got a text with a picture of the ring.

It’s such a gorgeous ring and the photo doesn’t do it justice! Rayshell had shown me this ring in a photo before she got engaged and the moment I saw the picture I knew that this was the perfect ring for her. It’s really classic and unique at the same time. And I love that it’s in rose gold since most people have white gold rings nowadays. Even though I know Rayshell told Paul that this was the ring she loved, I think he did a great job following instructions and getting such a great ring (and I think he did it without any help).

So of course, Rayshell and I had to do a happy hour outing to celebrate her engagement. It took a few weeks to get together because I ordered engagement presents online and it took some time getting it to me. But we were finally able to meet up this past week.

Rayshell got to pick the happy hour place and she chose her favorite, El Torito Grill.

I got there first (I gave myself a ton of time in case there was horrible traffic) but Rayshell got there shortly after me and we got to have some really quality catch-up time.

It was so nice to be able to congratulate her on the engagement in person. And I love giving presents to my friends. I got her a wedding planning notebook and a personalized garter (I get those gifts for all my bride-to-be friends). And I think Rayshell really liked both gifts.

Our happy hour hangout was really fun. Technically, we didn’t order anything off the happy hour menu, but I always have fun with getting a dinner out.

Rayshell shared with me the details for the wedding that they have figured out already. They have a really amazing venue on the beach in Santa Barbara picked out and the wedding will be next year in the spring.

I’m super excited for this wedding. I know it will be fabulous and I’m so excited to celebrate Rayshell and Paul with all their friends and family.

I know that some single people dread weddings (I guess it reminds them that they are still single), but I’m not like that at all. I have so much fun at weddings and all the weddings I’ve been to have been so unique and perfect for the couple that is getting married. So I’m just excited to see how their wedding will reflect them as a couple.

And of course I’m already thinking about what I want to wear to the wedding and hoping I might be able to lose more weight before then. But I don’t want to set a really big weight loss goal again. I feel like when I don’t reach my goal it’s really tough on me and I don’t want to have to deal with that disappointment.

But I’m really going to work hard on my exercise and diet and see where I can be by next spring. No matter what, I’m excited to have another big event to look forward to.

2 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged engagement, happy hour, wedding

A Game Filled Party (or Being Competitive With My Friends)

Posted on May 26, 2015 | Comments Off

I’ve written before about the epic parties that Marie and Chris throw all the time. Honestly, their parties are probably my most favorite ones to go to. They are amazing hosts, everyone brings great food, there are wonderful friends, and I always leave wishing I could stay longer.

For Memorial Day weekend, they didn’t do a party on Memorial Day (because everyone would have to work the next morning), but instead did a party on Sunday. And this time the party theme was “Game Day”.

When I got there, the entire backyard was filled with every type of game out there.

Besides board games, there was ping-pong and other larger games set up as well.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to play games. I was there for the good company and good food. But of course Chris was a good host and wrangled me into a game quickly.

I’m not sure what the game was called, but it was a mix of Charades and Pictionary but we were all working on the same team against the clock. We played 2 rounds. The first round wasn’t so great, but we finally got it figured out and we won the second round.

There were so many people playing different games and I kind of just wandered around to watch everyone else play. It was fun, but since we are all so competitive the games were pretty intense.

Since Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, there was also some hot dogs and other BBQ style foods. And of course lots of good drinks (but I stuck to water since I knew I’d have a morning workout the next day).

After the sun went down, we decided to play an epic all group game. It was called Time’s Up and we played in 2 teams with half of the party in each team.

Time’s Up is similar to Charades. You have 30 seconds to get your team to guess what the word or title is on your card. After one is guessed, you keep going until the timer runs out. Then the other team goes. You keep the cards your team gets right until all the cards have been guessed.

Then the next round, you go through the same cards again but the clue givers can only say 1 word and your team can only give 1 guess before you move on to the next card. It was good that we had some of the previous answers memorized.

The last round you can’t use any words, just gestures, and your team still only has 1 guess per card.

It got pretty crazy. I chose to only guess and not be one of the clue givers, and I did ok with guessing the cards. I was able to get quite a few in the second and third round (not so much in the first round when I didn’t know what the answers already were).

My team ended up losing (we were 4 point behind in round 1, and tied in rounds 2 and 3), but it was a really great time.

After that game, it was time for me to head home so I could get a decent night sleep. It does suck sometimes that I don’t live that close to Marie and Chris so I have to leave earlier to drive home. And if I had planned things better I wouldn’t have scheduled an early workout the next morning so I could have stayed a bit longer. But for the time I was able to be there, it was a really amazing party and a great way to kick off summer (even though it was actually pretty chilly).

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged BBQ, friends, party

Ms. In The Biz Anniversary Party (or Having Fun In A Photo Booth)

Posted on May 8, 2015 | Comments Off

Ms. In The Biz is now 2 years old! I’m honored that I’ve been able to be a part of the blog since day 1 (technically before day 1 since I worked on the site before it launched)! I’ve been able to write a lot about my experience as an actress and because of the other writers on the site, I’ve learned so much! It’s also created such a wonderfully supportive community not just for women but for anyone passionate about the entertainment industry.

So of course there had to be a party to celebrate the 2nd anniversary!

The party was held at Fork in West Hollywood, which wasn’t too far of a drive for me. I knew that there wasn’t a red carpet, so I didn’t dress as nice as I have for other events. But I still wanted to look cute. I think I managed to put together a fun outfit for the night.

I wore heels for the first time in a while since I knew I could valet my car right in front of the door and since it was a restaurant there would be places for me to sit down. While it did feel weird to wear heels again, I have to admit that they do make an outfit look better. I just wish they didn’t hurt me as much.

I knew that I was only going to be able to be at the party for a little bit because I had a phone call I had to make at 9pm, so I got to the party on the early side. There weren’t a ton of people there when I got there, but it was ok because the upstairs space (where I hung out) wasn’t huge. So it didn’t feel packed or crowded (I prefer that).

The Headshot Truck was there doing photos. But they were more photo booth style photos with props. Much more relaxing than red carpet photos. I definitely took advantage of that and got some fun photos done.

It was a fun set up and they had a giant computer screen right next to the wall where we posed so we could see the photos right after they were taken (and could check out the photos that everyone else took).

Since Fork is a restaurant so many of the party guests were hanging out at tables and getting dinner and drinks. I had some dinner before going but I hung out with a friend while she had something to eat. It was nice to just spend time catching up with a friend on life, auditions, and other craziness going on in our worlds.

Before I knew it, I had to head out. I didn’t want to be at a loud party or in my car when I had to be on that phone call. I wish I was able to stay later, but I had a great time while I was there.

It’s such a great milestone that Ms. In The Biz has been going for 2 years. I think that the site has been gaining legitimacy since day one and I think that we have become a very trusted site for features about women in the entertainment industry. And I’m so honored that I’ve been allowed to be a part of it for the entire time.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, anniversary, blogging, Ms In The Biz, party

A Friend Filled Afternoon/Evening At Disneyland (or Missing Some Ride Pictures)

Posted on April 29, 2015 | 3 comments

I’m really happy that I have Mondays off from my main day job. This way I can go to Disneyland for the afternoon (after my Orangetheory workout).

I had been meaning to go to Disneyland for a couple of weeks now so I decided that this Monday I was going to go no matter what. I put it out on Facebook that I’d be going and a couple of friends said that they would be there and we could meet up.

I got to the parks around 2pm (there was lots of closures plus a bad accident on the freeway so the drive took forever for me) and as soon as I arrived I messaged my friend Justin. He was in the parks with some friends and we were all going to hang out as a group. We all met up and headed over to our first ride, which was going to be Star Tours.

After the ride (where sadly none of us in the group were chosen to be the rebel spy) a couple of Justin’s friends had to leave and our group was down to 3. Next, we rode Buzz Lightyear where I got one of my worst scores ever. But I guess I was lucky because for some reason our photo from that ride didn’t come out.

Next was a stop for a treat. Because it was warm out (and I thought it might make my sunburn hurt a little less), we got Dole Whips!

You can definitely see how bad the sunburn looks by the color difference between my face/chest and my arms (also, you can see the burn line on my chest).

The Dole Whip did revive me a bit and next we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. They will be adding a new animatronic in the ride soon that I’m very excited about so I wanted to make sure to ride the ride one more time before it gets busy with the crowds when the new character is installed.

After that, Justin and his friend had to head out (there was a private Annual Pass party that night and they needed their wristbands and wanted to get dinner). So I hopped on the Disneyland Railroad and texted my friend, June, who was on her way down to the parks.

I love riding on the railroad at Disneyland. First, it’s such a great way to see a lot of the park while relaxing.

And of course, I love the Grand Canyon/Primeval World dioramas between Tomorrowland and Main Street (I tried to get pictures of those, but they were all too blurry).

I had just enough time to do a lap on the railroad before June arrived and we were off to ride some more rides. We did ride Buzz Lightyear were I got a better score and our picture worked.

I look so serious!

Next, we rode Space Mountain. Fortunately, June is like me and likes to take silly pictures. So we decided to try to do the comedy/tragedy faces for Space Mountain.

I’m not sure if we succeeded in doing that, but the photo is pretty funny! After Space Mountain, we knew that we wanted to get some dinner. But before eating, we made a quick stop at the castle to get a picture in front of it now that it is all decorated for the 60th anniversary.

After dinner we headed over to California Adventure. Right near the entrance of the park we saw Goofy in his dapper outfit so we made a quick detour to get a picture with him.

Our first ride was Radiator Springs Racers (I’m unsure if our car won or not).

While in line for Radiator Springs Racers I was telling June how I was only in Cars Land once when they turned on the lights for the evening. I said how I wished that I could see that again because it was really cute.

And perfectly on cue, as we are exiting Radiator Springs Racers, all the lights in Cars Land turned on.

Seriously, we couldn’t have timed it out better.

California Adventure was closing early that night, so we wanted to make sure we got one more ride in for the evening.

I love Tower of Terror, but so many of my friends don’t want to ride it! So I was more than happy to go on. I wish I had taken a picture when we were at the top of the ride about to drop. It was so gorgeous with the sun setting and California Adventure and Disneyland all lit up.

After the ride, we went to look for out picture and sadly our elevator did not have a picture that came out. So that’s 2 of my ride photos that failed.

It was time to head back home after that last ride. I was in the parks for about 6 hours and got quite a bit done and hung out with a lot of people!

I’m going to try to make at least 1 more Monday visit before the craziness of the 60th anniversary starts. And of course, once the anniversary starts I’ll have to go see all the amazing things that they will be doing in the parks, but it will be insanely crowded then as well.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, friends, theme park

Being An LA Tourist (or A Fun Saturday Night Out)

Posted on April 22, 2015 | Comments Off

One of the reasons I missed the Festival Of Books was because I had plans on Saturday night.

I had dinner plans with some friends to celebrate a birthday. We had dinner reservations at Loteria Grill. I had never been there before, but I checked out them menu online and it looked quite yummy! And the location that we were going to was in Santa Monica, so it wasn’t too far for me to go (and there are parking structures all around that area so parking isn’t too horrible). It was actually located super close to my old day job, so I’m surprised that I had never been there before.

I ended up being the first one getting there (I knew that was going to happen), so I pursued the menu while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. After everyone else arrived (and doing some table moving), it was time to order and have fun.

I didn’t take any pictures of the food, but I had a burrito and it was delicious! It wasn’t a crazy sized burrito (like so many places serve) so I ate it all and it was perfect! We had also ordered chips and guacamole for the table. The guacamole was really good, but the serving size was a little small so that was disappointing.

After dinner, we decided to walk around Santa Monica for a bit. I love how they have the twinkle lights on the trees at 3rd Street Promenade up all year round! It makes it look festive all the time.

We then decided to walk down to the pier. It’s not too long of a walk and I was happy to add more steps to my steps for the day. The pier was pretty crowded and there were a lot of street performers there. But it’s still fun to get to be out by the ocean.

We thought about going on to the ferris wheel (I’ve never done it and have always wanted to), but the line for tickets was crazy long and the ride would have cost $8. So we settled on watching it light up over the water instead.

We headed back before it got too late. The crowds were a bit overwhelming and it was starting to get a bit cold. I actually had forgotten my jacket at home so while we were at dinner I went across the way to Old Navy to buy a new hoodie (which will now live in my car as an emergency hoodie).

I don’t do a ton of touristy things in LA. It’s usually very crowded, there are people trying to sell you things or get you to pay them for something, and many touristy things aren’t that interesting to me. But the pier is something that I still love and am willing to play tourist for.

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, dinner, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, tourist

I Can’t Believe My Race Time (or A 5K With My TIU Friends)

Posted on April 14, 2015 | 3 comments

This past Saturday was the Hollywood Half 5K. This was my third year doing this race, and you might remember that last year the race didn’t go so well for me.

Even though I’ve been doing lots of treadmill training (and it showed in my last 5K), I was still so nervous going into this race. I knew that the hills that were added last year would still be there and those hills were the worst part of the race for me last year.

But I tried to stay positive. Lots of my new friends from my Tone It Up group were doing the race as well and we had plans to meet up before and after the race.

The day before the race, I went to go pick up my race number and other race things. I did meet up with one TIU friend, so that make the craziness of the expo a bit more fun. And as I always do, I took a selfie in my car with my race number.

With an early wake up time in the morning (4am), I made sure I put together my race bag the night before. I don’t think I’ve shared what’s in my race bag in the past, so here it is.

I attach my race number to the hip pack. In one pocket, I have my sunglasses, house/car keys, chapstick, and ID/money/credit card. In the other pocket, I have my headphones and phone (the phone isn’t in the picture since I used it to take a picture). I’m looking into upgrading to a race belt, but right now they are all too small for me.

As soon as my alarm went off at 4am, I was up and ready to go. I carpooled to the race with a TIU friend and we met a bunch of our other TIU friends near the start line.

A few minutes before the race was supposed to start, we split up to go into our corrals. There was 1 friend in a corral with me, so I got her to take a quick pre-race photo for me.

Since the race starts in waves and we were in corral 10, we had about 20 minutes between when the race started and when we actually started. By the time we got up to the start line, the sun was coming out.

My friend in my corral with me had planned to stick with me during the race. It was her first 5K and she wasn’t sure how fast she would go. But she was really fast! We were only together for the first half of a block and then I didn’t see her again until we met up at the finish line!

The race started pretty ok for me. The first part of the race has a slight decline and then you turn around and go up a slight hill. My hips were feeling it right away, but I kept on going. And I noticed that while I was getting passed a lot, I was also doing some of the passing.

I had set my phone to track my race time and it gave me a little notification when it claimed I had gone a mile (it’s a bit off so I was about 40 feet from the first mile marker). But even with the app being a bit off, my mile time was a lot faster than I expected it to be. I tried to not get too excited and kept focusing on the race.

Toward the halfway point of the race, there was the big hill of the race. This hill was one that I was swearing under my breath during last year. But this year there was a distinct different. I’m guessing it’s because of my treadmill training at Orangetheory. I’m used to doing crazy inclines on the treadmill without being allowed to slow down. So on the big hill, most walkers around me were slowing down but I was maintaining my pace (and passing them!).

Before I knew it, I was getting ready to take the final turn before the finish line. I grabbed my phone out of my bag so I could stop the clock on my phone to see my unofficial time. And I glanced at the phone and all I remembered was that it was saying 53 minutes and some number of seconds.

I crossed the finish line, stopped my clock on my phone, and something happened because the time was erased from my phone!

I couldn’t do anything to bring the time back on the app, so I knew I’d have to wait until the official times were posted. So I walked to where my group was meeting so we could take a post race photo.

And of course I needed a photo with my new race bling!

After taking our photos and chatting about how our races went, we went over to the timing board to see the official times. Everyone in my group had a PR! And when I looked at my time, I thought I was imagining things.

My time was 53:52.8! My time at the Hard Rock Cafe 5K (my previous PR) was 56:52.9! I can’t believe that I had a 3 minute improvement over the past few months! Honestly, I still can’t believe I did that.

My ultimate 5K goal is to get below a 16 minute mile. That’s the requirement for races at Disneyland. And while I don’t know if I will ever do a 10K or a half marathon, I’d love to do a 5K at Disneyland one day.

After we all celebrated our PRs, the TIU ladies and I went out to breakfast. I figured such an awesome race meant that I could splurge a little on breakfast.

Over breakfast, I just kept thinking how grateful I am that I have these awesome ladies in my life. They are such great motivators and I know that they will help push me to my next 5K goal. I’m hoping a bunch of them will do the Hard Rock Cafe 5K with me this fall.

And as soon as I got home, I had to add my latest addition to my medal wall.

My wall is starting to look full now, but I bet I can fit at least 4 or 5 more medals on there before I need to build an extension (or more likely, have my dad build an extension).

Overall, I’m so glad that I didn’t let my nerves get in the way of me having an amazing race. And now that I have my new PR in my head, I can focus on the steps I need to take to get another PR in the fall!

3 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, Hollywood, medals, progress, race, walking

Baby Shower Saturday (or Celebrating Baby Allen)

Posted on March 24, 2015 | 1 comment

This past Saturday was the baby shower for my friends Jennifer and Andy. I met them through Marie and Chris, so I’ve known them for a while through all the parties that Marie and Chris throw. I don’t know them super well outside of the parties (and Facebook), so I was super honored to be invited to the baby shower!

They are having a baby boy in about a month, so the baby is almost here!

The party was held at Chris and Marie’s house, so that was easy enough for me to get to after work. The hostesses had set up a nice lunch table (which I totally forgot to get a picture of) and the present table was looking nice and full with all the gifts we brought for Baby Allen.

After we all ate and caught up, it was time for some baby shower games! The first game was a twist on The Price Is Right. There was a list of about 10 different baby items and we had to guess how much they cost (everything was priced at Target). Then, we had to add up how much our entire list cost. The person closest to the total without going over wins!

I was not good at guessing the prices. There were a few that I was only a dollar off of, but most of them I was 5 or 10 dollars off! While I know that babies are expensive, how cheap some of the things were really surprised me (I guessed high on diapers and baby food).

After getting the total of everything, I was less than a dollar away from the grand total! And mom-to-be Jennifer was a penny closer to the total than I was! I thought that was pretty awesome! So Jennifer and I both won a prize for that game.

Next was baby shower bingo.

All the squares related to Jennifer and Andy or were baby necessities. While we all had a great time playing bingo, it took forever for someone to win! It was funny in the end how many squares we all had filled in before there was even a winner! I ended up getting 3rd place in bingo and got another prize (I felt a little silly taking home so many present for a baby shower that was for someone else).

After bingo we had a game of a word scramble and trivia. I’ve done a bunch of these word scrambles at baby showers and I really should write down the answers! I know that some of the scrambles this time were in games I had played before. I only got half of them right (although that actually really impressed me).

After all the games, it was time for Jennifer and Andy to open up the presents. I got them a sleeper outfit (that was on their registry) along with a matching hat and some baby shoes and sunglasses. I have to say that baby boy stuff has gotten much cuter over the years! I remember when my cousin had her first son and so much of the baby boy stuff was just generic or not cute at all.

The baby shower wrapped up with some cake and one final game.

For the last game, we all wrote down name ideas for the baby since Jennifer and Andy haven’t picked out a name yet. There were several people who thought that Baby Allen should be named Alan Allen. I voted for Alf Allen. I guess we’ll have to see in about a month what they decide on!

As the evening set in, the fire pit in the backyard was lit and we all just got to hang out. It really was the perfect way to spend a Saturday after work!

And again, I am reminded how lucky I am to have this group of friends in my life!

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged baby, baby shower, friends, party, presents

Social Days Off (or Finally Seeing Some Friends)

Posted on March 17, 2015 | Comments Off

While I did try to be social while doing the cleanse, I spent most of my free time at home. It’s not a big deal to not go out and eat (or to eat nothing at a restaurant), but I just didn’t want to have to deal with temptations.

And while I’ve had some fun social events since the cleanse, I hadn’t just spent time with my friends in a casual and chill setting. I’ve been busy with going out-of-town and then with the film festival. So this past weekend was focused on seeing my friends.

I got to hang out with my friend Rayshell on Saturday night. We hadn’t seen each other in person in a while (we’ve been missing our monthly happy hour hangouts due to our crazy schedules), so it was great to just catch up. We both said that we needed to figure out when we would start our happy hour hangouts again, but I think we probably won’t be able to do that until at least next month (by then my life might get calm again).

And on Sunday, I got to see my friend Alex! This marks 3 times in a year that I have gotten to see her (since my trip to NYC was almost exactly a year ago now). Alex is in town for work but she had some free time on Sunday to get together for dinner.

We, along with our friend Meredith, met up at a restaurant in West Hollywood (kind of in between where I live and where Meredith lives and Alex was staying). It was just a fun random dinner, and that was perfect.

I’ve missed having these casual get togethers with friends. I didn’t realize how much I missed them until this weekend. But it reminded me that I do need to take time out for my friends every once in a while. Right now it’s tough with work, but my temp job can only last another week and a half max (the event I’m calling for happens next week). Once that is done, my Tuesday and Thursday evenings will be free for social events again.

And while working on my weight loss and fitness is a super high priority in my life right now, I need to remember to take time out for my friends. I have the most incredible, strong, awesome, and inspiring friends. I’m so lucky that they have all chosen me to be their friend. And while I know that time apart isn’t going to make them stop being my friends, being around them all gives me a boost.

And the more positivity boosts that I can get in my life, the better.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged busy, dinner, friends, hangout, scheduling

A Welcome Distraction At The Film Festival (or Loving Second Place)

Posted on March 11, 2015 | 1 comment

I spent most of the weekend busy stressing out about the film festival. There wasn’t much time to think about anything else or to do anything else over those days.

So when I found out that the party to announce the winners of the latest weight loss challenge was going to be announced on Saturday, I knew that it would be impossible for me to go. But I asked the leader of my team in the challenge, Bruce, to send me an email to let me know what happened at the party.

On Saturday, I was running around like crazy trying to get things done so I wasn’t even thinking about missing the party. So when I sat down during one of the screenings to check the dozens of emails and texts that I had missed, I got very excited when I saw that there was one from Bruce.

And here’s what it said:

While I had an idea that I might place in the local challenge, I was not expecting second place!

I got a follow-up email after that one that said that as the second place winner I will get a free month of membership. That’s pretty awesome!

The national challenge winners haven’t been announced yet, but I really doubt that I placed in it. Unless the winner of the local challenge at my location placed first or second and I got fourth. But that seems very unlikely.

I didn’t quite lose my goal of 10% of my body weight, but I was close, But if I did reach that goal, I still would have been in second place. The winner in the local challenge lost something like 15 or 16% of their starting body weight.

But even if I didn’t place at all, I still would be happy with the work that I did over the challenge. I worked out really hard, made sacrifices in my social life (and my sleep) to get in the required workouts each week, and I worked on my diet more than I have in the past. All of these are positive changes that won’t be ending because the challenge is over.

Considering that I didn’t place in the first weight loss challenge and I got second in this challenge, maybe the next challenge will be my turn to place first! And maybe I’ll be updating this post soon if I end up placing in the national challenge!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, Orangetheory, weight loss, winner

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