NASCAR, Baby!

It is currently 8:03 P.M. and I am just now getting home from when I left my house 6:00 A.M. to go work at the races. Wow! I am exhausted, but it was a great experience to add to my folder of "firsts". And since so many of you requested... I decided to take each and every one of you with me, and do a picture documentation, just for you! Seriously, the whole time I was like "I have to take a picture of this to put on my blog!"

Anways, like I said the NASCAR race around is HUGE, people come out by the millions with their trailers and coolers of beer and park it here for a weekend full of sunglass tan lines, beer at 9 in the morning, and loud cars driving around a track an obscene amount of times.

We arrived just as the sun was rising on the trailer park:

They didnt get us parking passes in time, so we had to park SO far away and walk down the highway!

Theres the race track in the deep, dark distance:

Arriving at the track, notice the difference in the lighting? Yeah, thats because by the time we walked all the way there the sun was fully up!

My beautiful friend and bartending partner for the day, Jess:

We got to go into the track while all the race car drivers were setting up in the morning. And we got to watch the qualifying laps.

Here are the cars getting all ready to go in the pit:

Jess and me inside the track waiting for them to set up our booth. We were "Jack Daniel's Girls" and got to stand in a booth looking pretty and handing out drinks. haha

More of the stadium in the morning, before it was FULL:

AHH! There was a crash!

Jess sitting in the stand while we waited for our booth to be set up. It seriously took them until 12 to get it all set up. But hey, that whole time we were sitting there waiting we were getting paid! oh yeah. :)

One of the camp grounds for the race:

The view from the back of our booth, we were set up in one of the tower of the stadium:

Me bartending. Yes, we were serving mixed drinks in mason jars. It was THAT redneck.

It was such a fun experience and I am really glad that I did it! Thanks to everyone who gave me confidence to do it, by your encouraging comments. I can't tell you all how great it has been for me to step out of that confront zone that I talked about before. Lately I have done so many things that I didnt think I could do, just because I pushed myself out of that "safe zone", and for that I have added so many experiences to my life. And its doing things like that that build you into an individual person with unique experiences. There have been so many things that I have done lately that I DID NOT want to do, because they were out of my "routine" (this modeling thing, running a 10k, substitute teaching, the interview in charlotte). And even though everyone of these things took pushing and alot of effort, I am always so happy when I can say "yeah, I did that". It makes me so much stronger in my fight with ED, because he does not define me anymore, all of these new experiences are defining me now. And I am happy with that, I'll take it. I want to encourage everyone to step outside of their routine, and do something crazy that might pop up that you never thought you would do. I promise, you will not regret it. And what doesn't kill you just makes you stronger, right?! :)

I hope everyone tries something new to add to your list of firsts this weekend! Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

First Day of Spring!

Heres a little Spring Trivia to start off the season:

What are the two most popular spring activities?

Go ahead take a guess!

So I woke up bright and early this morning in preparation for the "Hooray Spring Six Miler" that the Miss RunningLaur was putting on. I wanted to run outside on my favorite trail since it was so nice outside. I went a little camera happy documenting this monuments day (WINTER IS GONE!).

Driving to the trial. Do you see any clouds? Good. I dont either, thats because its SPRING!

Wait, I think I may see one...oh nope, its spring.

Stopped at a red light, I get behind THIS guy who drives surprisingly slow considering he is "z boss"

Here is my reaction to this:

Finally i get to my trial. Just look how perfect of a day it was!

As you can see on the right there is a small skate park that I run by. Well, today I was running by and there were two little kids on bikes. They were MAYBE 14, so I didnt really think anything of it as I ran by. I noticed that they were watching me as I ran by though so I paused my IPOD, but kept it in my ears so they didnt think I could here. One of the boys said to the other "wait a second, she has a nice butt and I'm trying to enjoy it". hahahaha. I turned around and waved as I kept running by.

More of the gorgeous spring day.

Done with my run, getting a refresher with my lovely water bottle courtesy of Emily.

I used the stopwatch on my ipod and clocked the 6 miles in 1:05:43. I walked some it because there are some ROUGH hills on the trial.

When I got home I fixed up a nice lunch complete with peanut butter, bananas, blueberries, and apples. WOAH! fruit overload. For some reason I always eat all my fruits for lunch and all my veggies for dinner. I dont know why I have that stereotype.

All grilled up and gooey and melty. YUM!

Ok now its time to watch some college basketball. GO BUCS!

Hope everyone is having a great start to spring and the weekend! Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Looong Day at Work

Whew! Nine hours later I am finally back home from my killer all day shift at the mall. The thing that makes it sooo bad is that NO ONE want to shop these days, so the day goes by sooo slow. We did get some excitement towards the end of the night by catching a couple of shoplifters. It is so surprising to me how often this happens. At least once a day someone steals from us, we only occasionally catch them. I just was so unaware of how much this occurred until after I worked in retail.

So this morning I woke up bright and early so I could get ready and have breakfast before work. If I dont eat at home my only options are greasy biscuits from the food court! So I had my usual wheat toast with two kinds of preserves and cottage cheese. I always put the cottage cheese on top of the toast and eat it like that, I promise its good. Just another weird food thing that I like. :)

• Two Slices of Wheat Toast with Apricot Preserves and Blackberry Preserves
• 1/2 Cup Fat Free Cottage Cheese with Blueberries and a Sprinkle of Cinnamon

I packed up my lunch for work in an attempt to eat healthier/save money, but I did not get a pic! It was the usual Mighty Maple and Banana Sandwich with some Okios (for dipping). haha

When I finally got home I was completely exhausted and pretty hungry, so I made some spaghetti with some leftover roasted zucchini and squash that they had on sale at the grocery store yesterday.

• 1 cup Whole Wheat Spaghetti Noodles
• Hunt's Basil and Mushroom Pasta Sauce
• Chopped Zucchini and Squash
• Broccoli
• LOADS of Pepper and Basil

Now I am ready to take a nice hot bath and hit the bed! But first let me just tell you what I am doing this Saturday, that I am kinda excited/scared shitless about. Im working as a model for Jack Daniels at the NASCAR race this weekend!! haha. My friend called me the other day and asked me if I wanted to do it with her and I said yes! I dont know how many of you are familiar with NASCAR, but it is HUGE around here. I personally do not follow it and have never even seen a race. But I live about 30 minutes from Bristol, where they have the Bristol Motor Speedway and the Food City 500. My city is always PACKED with people during race weekend. Im talking bumper to bumper all weekend long. Anyways, they always hire tons of girls to work at the sponsor booths and I'm gonna do it this year! I have no idea what to expect and I will be working there from 630 in the morning until 7 that night! It should be good money, but I am SCARED! Everyone cross your fingers that it goes well and that I do not die!

ALSO, everyone needs to tune into the ETSU/PITT basketball game tomorrow at 245. Its the first round of the NCAA tournament and it just so happens to be MY school against the lovely SAM"S school. And we may or may not have a small bet going on for the game ;). Personally, I have a feeling I am gonna lose, BIG. But I still think we win when it comes to cutest players. Just look at these our boys!

Hope everyone has a good start to their weekend tomorrow! Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Asheville!

Well, I just got home from the Asheville trip with the fam. It was fun, but slightly annoying because my mom refuses to go walk around to all the cute little shops downtown, and instead sticks to the mall. Now, I am all for shopping in any type of setting, but I just LOVE downtown Asheville, and I only got to wave at it as we sped past on our way to the mall. Oh well. Heres a pic recap.

My sister and her friend, Anothney.They look excited huh?!

My littlest sis Tatum (I call her Taber)

I think someone mentioned on another post how I look nothing like my sister, and its true. I actually have three sisters, all with curly black hair, dark skin, and blue eyes. Me? Blonde, straight hair, pale as a ghost, and brown eyes. I MAY be the milk mans baby.

Back to the pics:

Beautiful scenery on the drive up

Gorgeous mountains of Tennessee/North Carolina

Arriving in Downtown Asheville

Apparently someone is REALLY proud of their name, and sub-par graffiti skillzz.

Pilot + Co-pilot

Going through the infamous tunnel. Its like 5 miles long, but we always try to hold our breath all the way through. If my mom feels like being a jerk, she'll drive about 10MPH through it.

Old lady jammies make me jump for joy!

In other news, I was completely exhausted when I got home. Shopping does it to me everytime! But I really wanna to stick with my training schedule, and I knew tomorrow would be my rest day because I have to work 9 hours tomorrow! So, right when I got home I threw on my running gear and went for DAY #3 of training. Today called for a tempo run for 35 minutes. Since I just had a time to stick to and not a milage, I decided to run on one of my fave trails today. I have no way to track milage yet, so I have to stick to the treadmill if I have a milage goal. Anyways, usually it takes me about 30 minutes to get around the trail once, but today I was struggling to get in 30 minutes after TWICE around! I really surprised myself, because it is VERY hilly too. I walked the last 5 minutes and made it twice around in 35 minutes. I was so curious as to what the milage was, so I decided to drive it in my car for a rough estimate. Roughly, it was about 1.5 miles around...and I did twice, in 35 minutes, AND it was hilly!! I even took a pretty easy run since I was so tired. So I was pretty happy with this!

Ok...I was planning on taking a shower and getting in bed. But I just received a text from my friend saying I better come play a game of pool ASAP. And who would I be to disappoint?! So I'm off!

Hope everyone had a great day today! Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Checkin' Off the To-Dos

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I hope everyone is having a good one, and celebrating with lots of green and maybe beer?! Or not...whatever floats ya boat ;) Today has been pretty busy and successful! I started out just NOT motivated to do anything, but I turned off that negative voice and started about my day.

FIRST something new, I went to the college that I graduated from in December and met with the head of the Nutrition Program there to possibly re-enroll and get a second degree in dietetics. Not 100% sure yet, but it is an option that has come up and I was just looking into more info about it. It is definitely something that interests me, and I think that I would have more success in the career path if I had more of a range (and having two degrees is a good range). The lady was super nice and super encouraging. The next step is to talk to admissions and finical aid and see what my options there are. Its something to consider at the very least.

SECOND, I got day two of training for a faster 10K out of the way. My training schedule had me at running an easy 3 miles today, so I ran it in about 35 minutes, and then cooled down for 5 minutes. After that I did 20 minutes on the eliptical. I kept the eliptical very low paced though, because I dont want to wear out my legs. Tomorrow I am just scheduled to run for 30 mintues. Its supposed to be a nice day, so I'll probably be doing that one on the running trial that I like.

THIRD, I came home and made lunch. For the first time since fall started I was not in the mood for a warm sammie, I wanted a cold one. So that is what I had. With the last apple on the side. MAN it is time for a grocery trip. guess I didnt get everything done!

Close-Up/Break-Down:

• Wheat Bread
• Turkey
• Spinach
• Greek Style Hummus
• Cucumber
• Sprouts
• Salsa
• Spicy Mustard

After I gobbled up my lunch I went BACK to the gym for a yoga class that I noticed they were having at my gym tonight. It said it was a beginners class, so I thought it would be nice to just go and get all stretched out from my running. It was a pretty good class...but it was TOTALLY for beginners, people were not taking it too seriously and they were laughing and falling all over the place, so it was sort of distracting. I liked the teacher though, so Im going to see if she has a more advanced class that she teaches. At the end of the practice she said something SO good. It was a story and it went something like this:

"One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of theanimal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!"

MORAL: Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can either let those troubles bury us alive or use them to get ahead, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

I really took this to heart. I think that a lot of times I let things get to me and I get angry or upset when troubles come my way. But instead, I need to see those troubles as stepping stones and shake it off and use the experience to get ahead!

I just got home from yoga and now I am gonna shower and get ready to go an irish pub downtown with Britt to celebrate the holiday. Nothing too crazy tonight though, she has class tomorrow at 9 and I'm taking an Asheville trip tomorrow morning with the fam. Pics to follow!!

Everyone be safe and have fun tonight if you are celebrating!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Rain, Rants, and Running...

In honor of the first day of spring break (not that I am still in school...but I do sub, so that counts right?) I made up a wonderful breakfast, worthy of a saturday morning, except it was monday...and there is nothing wrong with that in my book. ;)

French Toast with Blueberries and Maple Syrup

After breakfast I hit up the gym. There is a story behind this girlies. I have FALLEN in love with running, ok I have always loved running, but after running my first 10K and seeing that I could do it, I have gained confidence to really get serious about running! SO, I am starting a training program to help me run a faster 10K. I ran the first in just over an hour, so I want to aim for less than an hour next time. Anywho, today I started day one of the eight week training. I was scheduled to run 3 miles today and add some strength training as well. My workout today included:

• 3 miles at a 10 minute mile pace, then a 5 minute cool down.
• Series of arm workouts on the machines, 3 sets of 10 reps each.
• 30 minutes of yoga (to stretch and cool down)

Ok, I have a question for all you runners out there. I know that it is important to not overtrain and to start out slow, but I am used to getting in more of a workout than this. Can I add another form of cardio, as long as its low impact on my legs? Or is it important to only stick with the running schedule when your training? I know when I do long runs I will only do that, and I do have days on the schedule for cross training, but when I only run 3 miles, I feel like I could still do more of a workout. So what is the protocol on that?

When I got home from the gym I fixed up a quick lunch:

I was craving peanut butter BIG TIME today! This sammie includes:

• Mighty Maple PB (as seen hangin' in the back)
• Whole Wheat Bread
• Strawberry Preserves
• Sliced Granny Smith Apple
• Blueberries

And some fat free pineapple yogurt on the side:

Weird food confession: I think it is DE-LISH to dip my PB & J in my yogurt. Think its crazy?! try it!

After lunch I met the mom and little sissy to see a movie starring these boys that you may or may not be familiar with:

I must admit that I have never really been a big fan (I think I'm a little old) haha. The movie did remind me of the Beatles movies, but that kind of pissed me off. haha. I DO think the youngest one is a cutie, though. And that creeped me out a little, when I learned that he is only 17.

I came home and have been taking it easy all day! It is soooo rainy and gloomy outside that all I wanna do is stay inside with some hot tea! The only thing about staying home is that the roommate situation is growing more and more annoying with every second! All she does is pace the floor and pop a strawberry or something like that every time she gets hungry! I want to yell at her "JUST EAT SOMETHING STUPID!!". Some of you asked me if it was triggering, and it is not, just annoying. Actually it is almost the opposite of triggering, because I love coming home from the gym and eating a nice big PB & J and feeling HEALTHY and GOOD about my body, while she paces around waiting for her scheduled time to eat an apple, or like 5 shrimp. GEEZ! Also, some of you asked if she knew about my struggles and she does. actually I remained silent for a while, the whole time she made little jokes such as "Im glad im bulemic" while eating a big piece of cake, or after eating a big meal out saying "after this im going anorexic", until I finally could not take it anymore and I told her what I had gone through and that jokes like that made me very uncomfortable and offended. She stopped joking about it, but now its this! And it wouldnt be SO bad, if she would just shut the hell up about it! She wants to talk to me about it everytime Im home, and it makes me just want to leave! Right now, Im in my room with the door closed. haha. I have told her that I do not think it is healthy, but I dont think it helps. I guess I'll just have to ignore it and go about my healthy, happy lifestyle.

Sorry for the rant, I promise thats all I am going to say about it! Im off the make dinner, take a shower, and watch The City.

Tomorrow is St. Patricks Day!! I hope I have something green to wear! Anyone have plans?!

Lettin' Loose

So after the run yesterday I was def. ready for a fun Saturday night out on the town. My dancin partner in crime Britt came over and we got ready to go out.

Usual "bathroom mirror shot" No, she did NOT wear that t-shirt out. Its a t-shirt from my highschool that she had on while her shirt was in the dryer. haha

It was definitely a fun night. We ended up going out to our favorite dance spot and danced all night. By the time we got home I was exhausted and I crashed BIG TIME! I got up this morning and went to work, tanned, and now I am home again. WHEW! What a weekend. But I loved every minute of it :)

Random food shots from the last two days:

I tried the honey flavored Oikos yesterday and I liked it better than the vanilla. I still have the plain in my fridge and I have yet to find a blueberry. I think I would like the blueberry the best though, so that a total bummer!

They had Annie's Hunny Bunnies cereal on sale at the grogery store, so I picked it up and thought I would give it a try. I used it to make a new Breakfast this morning:

• 1 Cup of Hunny Bunnies
• 6 oz. nonfat vanilla yogurt
• Naner
• Handfull of Blueberries
• Cinnamon!

This combo was SUPER good and nice for a change of pace. Sometimes you just gotta mix it up a little! I really like this cereal too and I recommend it if you havent tried it.

It says right on the box "No icky additives or pesky preservatives"

Lunch:

Made up a wrap for lunch today before work. With all the usual ingredients.

Currently I just finished up the weekly viewing of Running with Heels with my roommate:

Its a reality show about three girls that are interning for Marie Claire Magazine, and it is one of my new "shows". It comes on Sundays at 8 on Style. WATCH IT!

Ok, so I have something that I just need to rant about. I really really hate to do it, but I just have to let it out. I can not be the only one who thinks this is wrong, so I need input! My roommate who is all ready at a perfectly healthy weight just started on this EXTREME diet and it is really bothering me. It makes me so uncomfortable when she talks about, and she talks about it all the time! Basically it is some sort of pill that makes it possible for her to live off of 500 calories a day!! And she is doing this for three weeks! I just wanna scream at her when she starts talking about it, because it is NOT healthy and I think she is crazy for doing it. I tried to look up info about it online, but I cant find anything that says its dangerous. But surely it is, right?! And I would think that it would only be used on people that were extremely overweight, which is she is not! I have told her before about some of the things that I have gone through, and that it makes me uncomfortable when people practice unhealthy habits. But, she continues to rub this in my face. Am I wrong for being totally annoyed by her right now?!

When I did some googling on whether or not this diet was safe I found an article from The Morning Show that really hit home for me. It talks about weight lose, but I think that it can be related to the feelings of ED as well.

"The only way to let-go of unwanted weight is to let-go of unwanted emotional baggage, let-go of fears and worries, let-go of guilt and shame, let-go of self-hatred and self-loathing, and let-go of the crazy beliefs about food, fat, weight, and dieting, that the “establishment” has fed you all your life. Look in the mirror. Look around you. What you’ve been told simply isn’t an accurate perspective of reality; it simply doesn’t work the way they say it does. It isn’t what you eat that’s making you fat; it’s what’s eating you. Most people say, “I’ll be happy when I lose this extra weight;” but, the truth is, this kind of “happiness” will last only as long as you keep the weight off. Finding true happiness, however, can be the greatest weight-reduction plan ever"

I just found that really inspiring, because I think that its so true, as long as you are happy with yourself and your life, weight will matter less and less. There is SO MUCH more to life than that and a lot of time and energy is wasted by worrying about external things. I am guilty of this myself, and it is something that I am working on everyday.

Ok, enough of that. Its just been on my mind all week! Now Im off to shower and have dinner and hit the hay...im EXHAUSTED!

Hope everyone is revved up for the week! Lots of Love,

<3 Ems.