North Carolina, burnt kale chips, and getting back at it.

It's been a while, but I'm back!  We had almost a week off so I took the oppotunity to drive down to North Carolina to visit my extremely (and overdue) pregnant sister and her husband.  I was hoping that I would be there for the arrival for my niece, however that was not the case.  As of today, my poor sister is now 4 days overdue.  Little girl is proving just to be as stubborn as her mama!

While we were there, to say I "splurged" a little in the food department would be a vast understatement.  My sister and her husband know all these great restaurants around town that they took us to.  Even though we only ate out a few times, I definitely took advantage of all the different food.  When we didn't eat out, we ate well at home with food on the grill and homemade pizza.  I slacked on the exercise as well, using their elliptical only once while I was there.  I did get a lot of walking in, as we took M to the museum and park.

 

Coming home, I was faced with Easter and a plethora of candy, wine, and other delectable goodies.  All in all, I gained about 4 pounds in the past week.  I vowed to get back on track starting Monday.

Yesterday started my food tracking and exercising again.  Running, I definitely could tell I had taken some time off, but should be able to regain that endurance rather quickly.  I also made a double batch of my favorite Peanut Butter Banana Protein Cookie.  Following the healthy food trend, I decided to try to make some kale chips.  My sister has talked about them in the past, and I've heard good things.  Looking at good ol' Pinterest, I got some ideas of how to do it. Unfortunately, I baked the chips a little too long and burnt the kale.  I can tell you now that burnt kale is absolutely awful!  I didn't use the whole bunch of kale that I had bought, so I'm going to try again later this week and hopefully get a better result.

I've also gotten back on the gym train and now have been back for two days in a row.  Yesterday was too crowded to do much of anything; I went earlier than usual and was reminded why I normally go later.  I got a quick run in and then focused on abs and arms.  Today I ran for a good 45 minutes and got over 4 miles in.  I had the gym to myself tonight, so I was able to finish the arm workout that I didn't get to finish yesterday.

So I'm desperately trying to get back on track, despite the ridiculous amount of candy in the house right now.  Hopefully I can regain my focus and keep trucking along!