NOLA and a 6 miler!

Welp, I returned from New Orleans late Sunday night and I am still recovering. First let me say - it was an amazing time! Phil grew up down there and his two friends got married over the weekend. This is his same group of friends from high school and college, so they go way back and are a super tight group. However, they welcomed me right in when I first met them about a year ago. You never know how it will be when you come into a new group of people (especially with the females) but everyone is so great and just NICE....nice nice nice people. So let me lay this one out there already: I had every intention of running 7 miles on Saturday. The plan was to party Thursday, go easy Friday, and wake up early to run on Saturday. Well who could have seen this coming.....Friday night we went to a balcony party on Bourbon Street and I saw all kinds of things I wish I could un-see.  This was my first time experiencing all of that insanity and suffice it to say I was a little uncomfortable at first- at one point I told Phil "I don't know what to do with my hands right now". Enter unlimited bourbon & diet cokes for the next few hours, then we headed to the casino where we drank even MORE beverages. It was a total blast, but the running did not happen. I felt like death that whole next morning. Soo I disappoint myself but I'm just living mah life! I did have ONE nsv (over the course of the whole trip) and that was walking laps around the airport in Chicago during our layover...."old me" would have sat at the gate and stuffed my face for 2 hours!

Jackson Square on a gorgeous day - one of my "happy places"

And the food down there - OH EM GEE the food. How in the world do Kassie and Elle Noel stay so skinny and fit with all that deliciousness around? I just wanted to motorboat some etouffee and poboys the entire time, and I pretty much did.  Let's just consider the whole trip completely ORB un-friendly (food-wise....we did walk a lot)

Shrimp Poboy - to die for!!

 

Took a trolley to the Daiquari store, which is one of my fav NOLA activities!!

So since I missed the 6 mile re-cap last week (and didn't even attempt 7 miles last weekend), I'll describe it in two words for you: cold, and jiggly. It was a cool 25 degrees but I didn't think I could pull off that long on a treadmill (while watching cartoons, I'm sure) Also, I felt gross during most of it cause my belly was boppin right along with me, and I know I really need to clean up my diet once and for all, especially during the week! Especially now that NOLA is behind me, and the next big event in life is the HALF MARATHON!!! But, I ran it in under an hour so that was a big deal!!

 

Did I mention I failed Dietbet? I'm not excited that I basically threw 35 dolla dolla bills away, BUT I did lose about 4 pounds so it wasn't a total lost cause. No more of these, as I find it a bit too challenging to lose 4% in 4 weeks..but it was definitely a good kick start to dropping some poundage.

Okay blogger friends, I am back on the horse for the forseeable future. I wish vacays didn't throw me off so much, but it is realllllly hard for me to find a balance in NOLA in particular - such amazing and unique food that I can't get in Indy, and the party atmosphere - it gets me everytime!!