Pink and Grey

I woke up super sore from Wayne's ass kicking last night at TBC (total body conditioning) but so excited about the weather today!  It's warmer than a witches titty out there.  Perfect running weather.  So I hit the pavement on two fluffy little clouds called "my brand new sneakers".  Asics of course.  ALWAYS Asics.

I'm a total brand whore when it comes to my workout gear.  I learned from an old friend and marathon runner that Asics are the best, and she was oh so right.   I even (usually) love their ad campaigns.  I also wore these amazing running gloves that I got from Santa for christmas.  They are pink and grey too!

Let it be known I am only speaking about brand preference for myself here.   Everyone has different needs.  Take Izzy (formerly known as Hubs) for example.  He is a Nike whore.  He has amazingly strong and sexy tree trunk legs that can't be weighted down by heavy sneaks.  Izzy needs those feather light Nikes and I fully support that.  I don't want anything to happen to those amazing legs of his.  They are the second reason that I married him.  The first (obviously) being his money.

And for PMils...you only get one photo from AC so enjoy it.  You'd better be a follower after this.

Caption: Among other things Brad enjoys cake.

Ode To The Woman On My Fridge

There is a woman taking over my fridge.  She's gorgeous and funny and has great taste in paper products.

Her name is Elise.  I currently have 5 items on my fridge for her.  Four of them are for her upcoming wedding and a postcard she designed herself as a holiday card for her future husband's business.
They are all gorgeous!

Shout out to the amazing groom...Donny D!

Fruitful Day

This past weekend was E's bachelorette party.  We stayed at the Borgata in AC for 2 nights of total chaos and latina craziness.  As planned, it will definitely take the bride a good 2 weeks to recover.   Hopefully she submits her application for liver transplant asap.

 After a crazy weekend filled with booze and piggy foods, I was craving some colorful healthiness.  A little detox never hurt anyone.  Plus I'm so effing bloated, FUPA won't fit in my pants, let alone in the bridesmaid dress for the upcoming wedding.  Goal is a 5 mile run tonight.

Looks good to me

While at Starbucks this morning, I spent a lot of time researching companies.  Mostly design shops.

There are 2 sites that I follow religiously for one single reason.  They inspire me.  The first one being a fabulous packaging design blog.  Take a peek here: thedieline.com

The second one is a beautiful daily tribute to all things cool, gorgeous, clean, white, it goes on and on.
It's called Splendid Willow.  She has such amazing style.  Check out the cool metro station she found, and how about a bar in a closet?!  Very cool.   splendidwillow.com

Enjoy!

Crazy Chicks

The exterminator is coming this morning so I'm comin at ya live from Starbucks.

 The Stroller Brigade has been and gone and now I'm left with the retired and the students. Last night I made it to the gym for a 5 mile treadmill run! Then did the Hubs arm workout of chest and triceps followed by abs. FUPA and batwings be gone! Then I made us dinner. Turkey burger for him and veggie burger for me with baked crinkle cut fries and a salad.

We both slopped our food down while watching the crazy chicks on the bachelor. This is by far the best batch of crazy ones. We had a blast. Here's a snippet of convo from during the show.

Hubs: he loves to sucky face with these chicks
Me: you would too if you were him
Hubs: yes but they would also have to touch my privates
Me: only seems fair

Followed by a lengthy laughing fit. So far this art director has been having a good go at the healthy part. Now I just need to pick up the art director part.

Smooth Morning

After challenging workouts this weekend (3.5 mile run and 2 advanced yoga classes) I woke up starving!

A smoothie totally hit the spot.  It has frozen mixed berries (Trader Joe's) with soy milk and a touch of soy protein powder.  So bright and cheery on this dreary day.  Now that I have extra time on my hands I have officially become a gym rat.  The reception guy knows my name now.   The extravert in me loves this because it gives me more human contact.  The introvert and paranoid private gal screams NOOOOOOO!

I'm cooking dinner for Hubs tonight and it can't be my default Tilapia and asparagus.  I've been fully notified that Tilapia every night is unacceptable.   Off to research how to cook Halibut...

Friday Fixings

Since I have the free time and I love him dearly I drove the Hubs to the ferry this morning.  He was oh so lovely.  His breath was about a hundred proof and all I could hear were mumblings and groanings about the sad condition of his body and head.  Somehow it made me want to be the opposite and be happy and healthy today.  So that's what I did.   Today is my day off from the gym so I can rest the bat wings from flapping around.  But I did good food wise.  I had peanut butter (organic and natural cause I'm a snob like that) on a flax and wheat sandwich thin along with an apple for breakfast.  Then I had some of the Hubs colorful leftover salad for lunch.  Yum.

Then while I caught up on the nonsense that is The Young and the Restless I snacked on a veggie dog.  The organic ketchup I dipped it in came flowing from my nose when Victor came home from jail and face raped Nikki.  Great way to end the week Vic!

After that I got my brother's invitations to the printer.  It got me so excited I went back and visited my own invitations.  I miss my wedding!!!

Good Thursday

I feel like a real blogger today. I am a BIG old dork and am posting this from starbucks. Hubs took the ipad today so I'm attempting this from my phone.
I have no idea what I'm doing and am too distracted by the mexican nanny who is ignoring her squealing child to promise these photos will be posted properly.

I was good and got my fat ass to the gym for a 5 mile treadmill run yesterday. I also managed to finish my brothers wedding invitations! Posting soon!. Such high production levels deserve rewards so I finished the night by polishing off a bottle of white by myself. Delightful.

Cracking Up

Hubs is genius and got me a gift card to Devotion Yoga, so I took advantage and popped into a class yesterday afternoon.

   *swiped from google

It was fantastic.  My favorite parts are that the instructor is hysterical but still challenging and that the sweaty guy who loves to remove his shirt was absent.  The gods were with me.  Relaxing and strengthening at the same time seems work really well for me because I am VERY sore today.  I hope I can motivate to run later on.

Since I've been practicing yoga for many years I can be a part of the advanced classes except when it comes to inversions.  I have so much neck and shoulder pain that I end up looking like a big pussy as I scrunch my face and sadly flop my legs around as I attempt either a head stand or neck stand.   It's almost as embarrassing as accidentally farting in class.  Hahahaha!  The problem with the fart is that I would crack up!  I'm cackling as I type this just thinking about it...sigh.

                                                                                                   *swiped from google
                                                 
On the bright side I've never let one slip while attempting an arm stand.  I'll take that to the bank.

Red Coat

Yesterday I was able to squeeze in a 3 mile run at the gym.  I was worried my legs were going to fall off at first as a result of my death wish to Wayne the night before.  But I prevailed!  Then popped into the city to meet the Hubs for dinner and the NY Rangers game.  Dinner was at Stout which was surprisingly healthy and delicious.  Which is good news for my FUPA.  I then reversed all of that healthiness by drinking 2 Skinny Puertoricans, many of Hubs' beers (bud light) and of course scarfed down a giant pretzel.

FUPA  1,  DIET  0.

While gorging myself at the game, Hubs decided our nosebleed seats were no good.  Using his eagle eyes that don't see the empty TP roll, he managed to scout out some pretty sick empty seats.  The man with the red coat was our point of reference and had 2 empties next to him. We love you red coat.

before

                                                                 

                                                                                                    after

Incase you're wondering the Rangers played the Nashville Predators.  Rangers 3, Nashville 0.  I had never even heard of them before last night.  How does Nashville have an effing hockey team?  Who's next,  Mexico City?

Rock my socks

Last night I was able to make it to one of my favorite conditioning classes at NYSC.  Total Body Conditioning with Wayne.  He totally kicked my ass.  It was nonstop cardio and weights at the same time.
I am a total masochist and loved every sweaty minute of it.  Then he turned me on even more by announcing that he's bringing CrossFit to the club!!!  OMG Wayne rocks my socks.

What is CrossFit you ask?  Well I found out that there already is a CrossFit location in Hoboken http://www.crossfithoboken.com/.   It's taken from Police and Military training programs, blending weightlifting with sprinting and many other cardio exercises.  It is extremely challenging and extremely rewarding.  Each day has a different work out to follow called "WOD" or "Workout of the Day".  It lists a set of exercises to do and you time yourself so that you try to do it as quickly as possible.  Here's an example I found from the Hoboken site.

CROSSFIT

Bench Press 5,3,1,5,3,1,5,3,1
Increase in each wave

3×30 sec kb superband bench press iso -holds

Weighted situps 3×15 reps rest 2 min

BOOTCAMP

3 Rounds
one minute each station
one minute rest between rounds
-Box Jumps
- ring Rows
- mountain climbers (2 count)
- 10m Suicide Run (1 point for every 10 m)
for total reps

This program is not for pussies.

Branding wise, what I don't like is that there isn't one main site for it.  There are tons of CrossFit sites and the first one that pops up on google is badly designed and hard to read.  It also doesn't seem related to any location sites.  So each location has it's own site.  Talk about confusing!  I'm a simple gal and get easily confused so it would be nice if they had one main site where you can click on your location.  Sigh, everything would be so much easier if everyone just listened to me.

Shamelessness

I love my father.  He's sweet and supportive and pretty funny sometimes.  On the other hand his obliviousness has yet to be beaten.  I've been a designer and had a portfolio site for over 6 years now.
The URL has changed a few times along with my work but I've definitely sent him a link to the site multiple times over the years.  Which is why I laughed so hard a little pee came out when he asked me yesterday if I have any of my work up on the internet.  Love him.

So that reminded me to use him to shamelessly promote myself on this blog.

Dear Dad,
Please visit www.pierceportfolio.com to view my work on the internet.  Thanks!!

Day 6 and Day 2

It's Day 6 of unemployment and Day 2 of this blog.  I don't count weekends in my unemployment, sneaky right? Ha!

Woke up with lots of energy today.  I want to follow up on job apps, go to the doctor, run errands and squeeze in a run.  Sadly it doesn't leave much time for design work but the day is young.
Breakfast of champions is needed!  This photo is guaranteed to make my husband gag.  And the fact that I put the banana peel under his pillow is guaranteed to make him divorce me.

And yes I am a HUGE dork and had my coffee in a cat mug.

Day 5

Well it's Day 5 of my unemployment and so far so good.  I've reached out to many contacts looking for my next big break, started a blog AND will be going to the gym to hit up one of my favorite classes.  Ultimate Conditioning!  It's with Irena this amazing German instructor.  It's THE hardest class on the planet.  Lots of weights and lunges, lots of screaming (mostly from Irena) and lots of loud european techno.  Amazing.  And to get my design fix I worked on the rsvp cards for my brother's wedding invitations.  They're looking really good if I do say so myself.

When it comes to eating healthy I find it so much easier to eat healthy and keep the calories down when I'm working at home.  I'm so much less hungry than when I work in an office so naturally I consume less.  But I also make better choices because I'm not tempted to run to the deli and get a bag of pretzels or my favorite mid day treat...Ferrero Rocher.  Sooooo tasty yet soooo bad for my fupa and bat wings.

If Irena doesn't kill me I plan on going to pilates tomorrow morning.  I'll let you know how that works out.