i'm baaaaaaaaaaack

and this time for good...

well at least for the rest of summer.

no more extended trips, no more airplanes, no more eating out every day for every meal (thank the lord!), no more living out of my suitcase.

it is SO GOOD to be home.

as some of you may already know, we were in Europe for a little while, then came home for about a week or so, then flew off to New York, Long Island and Connecticut for about two weeks. we flew back to LA on Thursday, but then David and I drove up to Lake Arrowhead for the weekend on Friday.

so that makes today our first day of being back home for good and I am so happy about it. 

don't get me wrong, I am so thankful for all of the opportunities we have to travel and see different parts of the country and the world, but after a while it gets to become too much and your own bed starts to feel like a luxury (which it really is, but we all take it for granted, of course).

I am so glad to be back to my routine of diet and exercise.

although, I did get in a lot of cardio on our most recent trip. I used the gyms at every hotel we stayed in every day except for two travel days that didn't allot me the time to do so. even when we went to Lake Arrowhead, I took my Zumba DVDs and danced up a sweat. I knew that with all of the food we'd be eating that if I didn't get some exercise in this trip, I'd gain another 5 lbs and that would have probably sent me over the edge.

as far as food went, I did a lot better on the east coast than I did in Europe. the only time I ate more than half of the portion I was given was at Shake Shack in Time's Square, and I already planned that. I knew ahead of time that I wouldn't have been able to resist devouring that entire mushroom burger and crinkle fries. I mean, could you?

I also ate my own breakfasts (yogurt and fruit or cereal) except for two mornings and I think that made quite a difference. at least I hope it did. 

Side note: by the time we got to Long Island and Connecticut and Dave and my mom were doing business a lot, I spent all of my time in the hotel room reading (I read two and half books and started another!) I ended up finishing The Maze Runner on the flight to NYC, then started The Scorch Trials, finished it in Long Island, read The War of Art (no, not The Art of War) and finished that, then I started on The Help which I'm about two thirds through now. All fabulous books, except I was a bit disappointed in The Maze Runner, but the sequel (The Scorch Trials) more than made up for it.

I haven't gone to WW since we got back, but I'll be facing the music on Sunday to see what the damage was. I did weigh myself at home today and according to my crappy, unreliable scale I only gained 0.5 lbs. I am PRAYING that that is the case. I honestly doubt that I was able to maintain, just because my history with traveling and dieting has never been good (except for last Christmas when we went to NY and I lost a lb, but we were trekking through SO MUCH snow that I think it made up for my indulgences), but who knows? I'll have to just wait and see. I want to hope for the best but expect the worst so that I don't end up getting so pissed off and discouraged this time around.

today David and I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and it was KILLER INTENSE. I've done some pretty hard work outs in my days what with the various trainers I've had over the years and the intense Tae-Bo videos I did in high school that helped me lose 70 lbs, but this 20 minute workout was brutal. Dave and I were drenched in sweat, there were times when we both had to stop for a tiny 5 second break here and there and by the end we were both walking funny, but we did it and we're gonna do it tomorrow and the next day and the next until it's done... and then we might do it again.

I also did an hour of Zumba this morning before my chores and I plan to combine the Shred with the Zumba as much as possible so I can finally get back to my goal weight. I predict Dave and I will be extremely sore tomorrow. I already am.

sometime soon I'm going to sit down and edit all of our photos from our travels and share what we saw, but for now I need to just get back in the swing of things.

I hope you all don't think I dropped blogging or that I'm not going to start reading my favorite blogs again. it's just that being away from it makes it hard to get back into it. I hope you all still follow! thanks for being followers <3

here are some iPhone shots from the trip:

mojito at the Bryant Park Back Porch bar

meyer lemon meringue tart I shared with my mom at Sarabeth's

sitting in Central Park, reading

Shake Shack mushroom burger. yes, that mushroom is oozing out delicious cheese.

6th Avenue street fair

hanging out with Derek Jeter at the Yankee game. NBD.

Connecticut

returning to the city to catch our flight home

driving up to Lake Arrowhead

and Bogart crying in the back seat

my mom's sense of decor humor

taking a walk

Queen cover band called Queen Nation at the Lake Arrowhead center.

by the second set, our fist pumping was out of control.

our family condo <3

so many memories