Post Christmas Detox

Don't forget to enter my Barney Butter giveaway, it ends tomorrow night and I will post the winner on Monday :)

This morning, at an absurdly early hour, I was at spinning class finishing up my last miles of 200 Miles by 2010 Challenge! When I established this goal at the beginning of November I thought it would keep me on track, but not require any serious dedication. However, after a 2 week break from spinning due to swine flu, it became much more of a challenge. In the end, it encouraged me to go to spinning class 2-3 times a week for the month of December, and forced me to push myself at each class to get the mileage up.

There were a lot of times I considered giving up on this goal, but that's why I love the blog- you guys hold me accountable :)

The great news of the day though is that Eric and I are officially on vacation. We have relocated our lives temporarily to my parents house at the Cape. It's hard to explain exactly why Eric and I love being down here so much. There is not a ton to do in the winter, but I think that's why we like it. It's really just the ultimate in relaxation. We love social events as much as the next couple, but we have been overloaded lately so it's nice to just come down here and be able to relax for several days in a row. With Eric's full time job + football coaching schedule this year so far, he needs it even more than usual.

Usually Cape Cod gets less snow than the Boston area, but last weekend the huge blizzard dumped more snow here than up North...

Tonight we hit up the Olive Garden. I know, not too fancy, but I absolutely love this place and there is not one near my house at home...

We ordered our favorite drinks. Eric loves the Italian Margarita...

I love the Cavit Pino Grigio...

Like my new Sacred Heart sweatshirt that my brother got me for Christmas? You may be seeing that a lot in pictures this week, I love the softness of new sweatshirts and the color of this one cannot be beat.

I love Olive Garden's minestrone soup, though it's probably loaded with way too much sodium...

I try to keep things slightly healthier by ordering my breadsticks plain with no salt and oil/butter. They are still amazing dipped into the soup...

For my meal I ordered Capellini Pomodoro which is actually one of the healthiest things on the menu (I know this because Olive Garden so nicely posts all their nutrition information online...say what you want about chain restaurants, I love that!). It's a lot of calories if you eat all of it, but I barely put a dent in this meal...

Yum.

I can just feel any stress and tiredness escaping out of my body right now. I literally left my kindergarten plan book on my desk at work this vacation and all my plans involve relaxation, fun and a tiny bit of wedding planning. February vacation is always spent frantically writing report cards, so I am taking this one off.

Peek at this Week's Blog Posts:

1. Best Food & Exercise Discoveries of 2009
2. Progress Update on December Goals
3. Goals for January, and all of 2010

I hope everyone is enjoying some relaxation time this weekend.

PS. I thought it might be fun to do some Question and Answers this week since I have a little bit of extra time, so if you have any burning questions for me- ask in the comments :)