Couch to 5k

One of the things that really helps to keep me motivated, and returning to the gym day after day, is to have a goal other than a number on the scale.

With that in mind, I've decided to give the Couch to 5K program a(nother) try! C25K is great. It is a 9 week training program to turn a non-runner (ooh, that's me!) into someone who can run a 5K (oh, I'd love to be able to do that!). For each of the 9 weeks, you are supposed to run 3 days each week, and there are different workouts, that get progressively harder as you continue. I completed week 3, day 2 yesterday.

One of the great parts about the couch to 5k program is that as it's gained in popularity, people have made podcasts to go along with it. They're great free downloads with music in all different styles that tell you when to run and when to walk for all of the 9 weeks of workouts. They make the program a snap to follow. You can find a bunch of them at www.c25k.com

If you're looking for a new source of motivation in the gym, I definitely recommend giving this program a try. It's definitely more interesting than just getting on the treadmill for half an hour, because I actually feel like I'm achieving something while I'm on there!

Dine Out in Atlanta Tomorrow!

Atlantans Together Against Crime ATAC) is working with restaurants all across the city tomorrow night to sponsor a Dine Out event in honor of John Henderson, the bartender who was murdered earlier this month, during a Robbery at The Standard in East Atlanta.

More than 65 restaurants are participating in the event, and all proceeds will be donated to Crime Stoppers Atlanta, and will go towards a reward for information leading to an arrest in Johns case. All you need to do is go eat either lunch or dinner at any participating restaurant! Restaurants will then donate 20% of their profits to the cause.

Check out www.atlantanstogether.org for a full list of restaurants participating in the event. I suggest Fritti, El Taco, or Vickery's if you're interested in the best Mac n Cheese you've ever experienced!

The Ultimate Budget Bride Purchase

As some of you might have heard, weddings are expensive. In fact, they're stupid expensive. I think when you tell someone that you're buying something for a wedding, they just automatically double the price. So in an attempt to not spend a small fortune on what, in the end, is just a big party to tell people "Yay, Jake and I are going to...keep hanging out", I've been doing my best to negotiate with vendors, and hunt for bargains. I've been doing lots of research and one thing I've found is that if you buy your wedding dress online, instead of from a traditional bridal shop, you can save a LOT of money. Like 50%. For the exact. same. dress. You just have to be brave enough to order the most important dress of your life from a very seedy looking website, knowing that if it arrives at your door (or doesn't) looking totally different than how you expected, that there will be no store for you to go to, and no salesperson for you to complain to. Scary.

When I first ran across the idea, I wrote it off. But the more I've looked into it, the better it sounds. I've found a website, Pearls Place, that has a fantastic deal on my dress. Now, their website is not exactly a thing of beauty, but it is tied to an actual brick and mortar store in New Orleans, and if you call the number, you talk to actual people, who are very helpful. The store has been in business for over 20 years, it has a favorable rating with the BBB, and it's an authorized dealer of the designer that makes my dress. And I've talked to several brides who have ordered both their gowns and their bridesmaids gowns from Pearl with fantastic results.

So, I think I'm going to take the ultimate budget bride plunge, and order my dress off the internet!! Please think good thoughts for me!

And in case you think this is a terrible idea: my sister got married five years ago in an absolutely gorgeous dress, which just happens to be my size. Should the worst happen, I have backup!!

Social Training

I am a social media junkie. I freely admit it. I even watched the inauguration yesterday at cnn.com and made full use of their Facebook feed. It was great.

Well, my friend Carmen over at Pecan Flan clued me in to a great new site this morning called dailymile.com It combines two of my favorite things, Social Media and Exercise! OK, well it combines one of my favorite things with one thing that I begrudgingly do everyday...even if I don't love it. And while I may not love exercise (although I'm working on it!), sites like dailymile.com definitely help to make it more fun, at least for techie nerds like me. Dailymile lets you log all of your workouts, but it also lets you make friends like your typical myspace or facebook site. And they can see how much you've been exercising. Talk about accountability! They can even send you little messages to help motivate you in your efforts. The site also helps to connect you with people in your area who are interested in similar types of training, and lets you know about races and events in your neighborhood. Pretty cool!

One extra perk is that you can sync Dailymile to work with Twitter, so it will post your workout summaries to your twitter feed. How nice for a twitter addict like myself!

Happy Inauguration Day

Happy Inauguration Day! I am so excited for our new president. I am proud to say that I voted for Obama (after waiting in line for a grueling four and a half hours!), and I really hope that today marks the beginning of a new direction for our country.

Today is exciting for many of us on a political level, but it should be exciting for everyone on a historical level. Today is definitely history in the making, and I'm happy to know that as a voter I helped to make this all happen.

I have a planning bio!

I'm completely addicted to the wedding planning forums on theknot.com. They're a great resource for anyone planning a wedding, as well as a fun way to waste time when things get slow at work...not that I ever participate in non-work activities while I'm at work!

A lot of the regular posters on the forums there make planning bios, or websites that show all of the details of your wedding. I finally decided to go ahead and make one today. There's not much to it yet, because we still have most of our planning ahead of us, but feel free to take a look at what we have so far.

http://ericaandjacob.weebly.com