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What’s up, Wednesday?

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This week feels simultaneously really long, and really short. How is that even possible, right? Here’s a few things I’m diggin’ as of late:

1) My friends at Diet-to-Go occasionally let me ramble over at their official blog. This week I shared ten of my favorite health and fitness people to follow on Instagram. There’s no way I could ever list everyone amazing I follow on Instagram, but this is a good start. Check it out and let me know who else I need to follow! #1 is my buddy Alan, who I’ll get to see at Fitbloggin’ in a few weeks!

2) Thanks to a lovely reader of the DCD, Carrie, I checked out my first ever TOPS meeting! TOPS stands for Taking Off Pounds Sensibly, and is a community supported weight loss group with a $28 annual membership fee. (Yeah – annual! Cheaper than one month of Weight Watchers!) I really liked the group I went to, as there was singing; cute weight loss related songs to the tune of pop culture songs like “You are my sunshine”, and a chance to win some money, as there were several weight related bidding games. You follow whatever eating plan your doctor gives to you, and the weekly weigh ins and meetings are for support. I’m still trying to find the right day of the week and time for me to go to meetings as I’ll be traveling often the next six months, but you should definitely check out a meeting. It’s a refreshing twist on group weight loss.

3) I’m finally back on track with healthy eating. Grief does strange things to you; in my case, making me want to eat chocolate cake all day every day. I had a few weeks to project my emotions through food, but the buck stops here. For the past few days I’ve been good about sticking to a low-carb eating plan. Here’s what I had for lunch today; turkey breast slices, broccoli, and some sparkling orange seltzer. It’s definitely less exciting than chocolate cake, but I don’t feel crummy, and it will help me reach my goals.

4) This week officially marked 24 weeks to go until the Double Chin Divas and I walk 60 miles!!! I’ve got to get on a solid training plan, and thankfully, the 3-Day provides several ways to stay on track. I’ll be seeing April this weekend, and I know we’ve got a nice long walk planned to help us log some miles. I am surprised at the way my gratitude strikes me when people make a donation — I cry. It’s so incredibly special to be able to do something like this to show my support for the millions of people in America who have been affected by cancer. I’m carrying the names of loved ones lost with me on my journey, or names of survivors to honor. Please help me make a difference in the fight against cancer. Just one $10 donation can help change somebody’s life.

5) I’m currently binge watching Orange is the New Black. Who else watches? I kind of love all of the characters, and I think they did a really good job capturing the complexities of females. Now, some of the stories are a little bit too far out, like, have you ever heard of a prison without security cameras? But, it’s a great, entertaining watch for vegging at night. Now, I just need to remember that enjoyable TV shouldn’t mean I sacrifice sleep, cuz I’ve been tiiiiired this week. Anyone else do this and regret it the next morning?

That’s all I got. Tell me whats up with you!

xo

Hollywood Wax Museum: Kitsch in my own backyard

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Two days after Halloween, I was lucky enough to get to go to the Hollywood Wax Museum with my husband and my two close friends. Can we just say – AWESOME? Y’all know I love kitsch, and being able to step into crazy realistic wax photo scenes was so much fun, especially with my love of Instagram.

Here’s a couple facts about the Hollywood Wax Museum: Hollywood Wax Museum is the longest-running wax museum in the United States. It has been the most visited indoor attraction in Hollywood since 1965. It was recognized last year as a “Hero of Hollywood”. The Hollywood Wax Museum is a unique American success story—from one man’s vision comes an icon of Hollywood and tribute to entertainment. The company now has three generations of the founder’s family working in it. The neon sign on Hollywood Blvd that appears in many Hollywood montages has 17 stars, representing each of his children and grandchildren.

We started in the totally awesome and season-appropriate (2 days after Halloween!) horror/haunted house part of the Wax Museum. I loved posing next to Hannibal Lecter in his cell – I have to admit, I had some childish fear that he was “Real” and would grab me through the bars!

I also enjoyed sitting next to Forrest Gump on his bench, waiting for the bus. This is the best part of the Wax Museum – it’s all completely interactive and guests are encouraged to get in the scenes and pose with the stars. I mean – I got to crawl into “bed” with Hefner! Most museums are so weird about not being too close to the exhibit, and this was fantastic to really get in there and express yourself with Hollywood’s finest. It’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to being a Playboy Bunny, right?

The first plus size Play Boy bunny!

The first plus size Play Boy bunny!

The Wax Museum isn’t an all day type experience. We went through it in about an hour and a half, taking plenty of time to read the signs and pose for lots of pictures. I think what’s incredible is the amount of detail in the figures. I had to take an up close shot of Colin Farrell’s mug. Do you see the detail in the hair? So amazing!

Look at the incredible detail on this Colin Farrell.

Look at the incredible detail on this Colin Farrell.

The Hollywood Wax Museum is open almost every day of the year, and even better, it’s open LATE. My friends and I went at 10:00 p.m. on a Friday night, which made for an excellent out-of-the-ordinary Friday night experience. Adults can get tickets for $15.99 online, children’s tickets are $7.99, and kids under five are ALWAYS FREE! I’ll definitely be taking my kids when I have them; I can imagine as a child this experience would be even cooler. Don’t miss the Ninja Turtles and the Titanic “King of the World” photo opp! If you want more information and a “behind the scenes” look at Hollywood Wax, give them a “like” on Facebook.

Have you been to the Hollywood Wax Museum?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

A relaxing weekend in SLO

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Good morning, Chinners! I hope you had an awesome weekend. I sure did! This weekend, Matt and I drove up the coast of California about three hours to get to San Luis Obispo. We had been to San Luis Obispo once before for a weekend away, and had an amazing time. Since then we kept saying we needed to go back, but hadn’t made any commitments. I surprised Matt with a quick one-night get away to our favorite tacky hotel, the Madonna Inn. The Madonna Inn was created by a construction foreman, Alex Madonna, who got sick of having to stay in lackluster hotels off the side of the highway when he traveled. He began to build his own hotel to make up for it – putting imagination and quirky, whimsical touches into each room. Last night, we stayed in the Currier and Ives room, named after the first people who made famous art and photographs into low-cost prints for the mass public.  Here are some photos of our room! Note the details, like the elaborate gold printed wallpaper or the angel light fixtures. The toilet seat was even heated! Now THAT is classy!

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After we checked in, we relaxed by the pool for a bit, soaking up sunshine. Then we headed to Trader Joes to fill up our cooler with snacks for the drive in movie! The Sunset Drive in Theater is a cheap $7 for two movies, and you listen to the movie on your radio, no clunky metal speakers required. I splurged and had a delicious peach Lambic to drink and some movie popcorn. We also had bread with salami, olive tapenade and cheese. I really didn’t overdo it, but apparently, eating squeaky clean for two weeks and then having a little night of indulgence can rip apart one’s stomach. I learned that the hard way this morning, but I had a grand old time in the process…

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I couldn’t resist taking this shot of the vintage coke cup, but it’s a little lost on me since I’m no longer drinking soda. I had my lambic and water and that’s it… but I was just fine! The two movies playing were After Earth and the Fast and the Furious 6. I made it through After Earth with only minimal disruptions (aka me blurting out “That doesn’t make sense! This is stupid!”), but within the first ten minutes of Fast and Furious, I had flipped to my side with my car pillow and started snoozing. Matt made it through both movies and then we were back to our hotel for a night of slumber.

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We woke up this morning and had a yummy breakfast at the Copper Cafe, where I ordered a veggie omelette with egg beaters and fruit on the side. I also drank looooots of water to make up for my little boozy indiscretion the night before. The Madonna Inn is known for their famous pink cakes with white chocolate ribbons on top, called the Barbie Cake. See ’em? Looks sooo pretty. Then, we were headed down the coast to get back to home.

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It was an awesome, low-key weekend, and it was nice to get away from the ever-growing pile of laundry and stack of invoices I need to send out on my desk. I’m a big fan of quick little getaways – it’s great to refresh the mind and body with a change of scenery. What’s the last little road trip you’ve done? Do you like one-night get aways or would you rather save up for one longer vacation? In our case, it’s more budget friendly and we don’t need to take time off work, so little weekend trips are great for us. I hope you have an amazing day today!

 

Picture Post!

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If you follow me on instagram, you probably know that I’m a little bit obsessed with it – it’s like my favorite social media site, Twitter, combined with cool -looking photos. Here’s what I’ve been up to this week!

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I saw this wall-sit challenge on instagram and was intrigued. I am beginning to master my most dreaded fitness move, the Plank, so I decided to throw another hard one into the mix. My husband is doing this with me and today, 30 seconds was just enough to make my sore legs burrrrrn.

wallsit

I’ve been really enjoying bootcamp! It’s hard to get out of bed at 6:45 in the morning, but in general, I’m feeling fitter, more sore and happier. The teacher really PUSHES me each time I’m there, and I end up coming home covered in sweat, beet-red, and tired – but feeling GOOD.

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Our new kitten is a lot of fun, but at that wonderful biting phase where he’ll be nuzzling up against your leg and then suddenly goes CHOMP! This picture just about sums up daily life with our two funny little felines – one grumpy gray cat scowling as she tries to nap and one wild kitten laughing with evilness.

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OK, that’s all for today – I know it was a quick one! We may miss a post on Friday as  this weekend I’ll be in San Francisco celebrating April’s 30th birthday! I’ll take lots of pictures and would love it if you write her a happy birthday comment here on the blog. Have a wonderful day!