Back In Town

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and I wish I could say I’m going into it ready to enjoy myself, but I’m experiencing lots of hesitation about my plans for the evening. I don’t have super-high expectations of a special New Year’s Eve; I learned long ago not to hope for “that magical night”. But my plans involve dinner at Bricco Trattoria then celebrating at Rooftop120. I’m going to be with my siblings and some of my oldest friends. I need to be excited! But New Year’s Eve out after trips to NYC and Florida, which happened to fall around the food-and-drink-heavy Christmas season, just has me thinking about calories. And the poor workout I will have the next day if I feel even the slightest bit hungover.

I got in almost all of the restaurant trips I wanted to this vacation. I already mentioned Chick-fil-A and Duffy’s. I also got to have a healthy plant-based lunch at Christopher’s Kitchen, got my Quizno’s fix in the airport during the trip home, had a special dinner at Seasons 52 with my family, Kat, and her sister, and got to take my sister and good friend Greg to the Rum Bar for some tropical beverages. And though TooJay’s was out of black and white cookies on Christmas Day, I got one later!

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My Scale Story

I’ve been MIA because I just haven’t felt like blogging much while on vacation in Florida…but I head back to CT today. While I have some things to say/share about my trip, I’m about to head to the airport and don’t have time to write a post today. So here’s a post I wrote on the plane ride down here…

I’ve been meaning to write a post about my scale journey for awhile now, and recently Sarah did one discussing her current relationship with the scale. I wrote a novel comment in response (check out the rest of them…great discussions on this post!) That really made me realize I need to get on writing my post. So here I am, ready to share with you all my relationship with the scale from start to finish…and also what I think it would be like if the scale and I were friends (or frenemies) today.

My first scale wasn’t even mine…it was my junior year roomie’s. But that also happened to be the year I decided to change the way I ate and “tone up”, so it was convenient for me to have a roomie who was also into the same goals. I had a number in my head that I wanted to hit, and quickly it became easy for me to use the number the scale showed me to discount any hard work I’d done at the gym or any healthy meals I’d eaten that day. I could feel excellent about my healthy habits, step on the scale and see a “bad number”, and suddenly all I was thinking about was what I could have done differently to make the number go down.

Start of my junior year, ready to tone up...did I really need to?

Start of my junior year, ready to tone up…did I really need to?

Eventually I got to the point where I was stepping on the scale more than five times a day. I’d use it to purposefully feel bad about myself; stepping on the morning after a night of drinking was my way of punishing myself for the night before. Even right after I’d eaten dinner, I’d step on just because I knew the number would look higher and I’d feel shame. I wanted to associate eating with shame, so that it’d become easier to resist the urge to eat. And not just eat unhealthy food…I mean resist eating in general.

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On A Boat At Christmas

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I’m going to pick up from where I left off on my FL vacation recapping…Christmas Eve Eve aka my mom’s birthday aka December 23rd. My family headed south to Miami to see a Heat game (my grandma and mom are OBSESSED with the Heat…OK, and Lebron) but I had the most amazing evening with Kat, her husband Mike, and her sister Helen.

Come on, the title of this post was too easy. No I was not on THAT boat, but the photo above was taken from a boat I WAS on. One of Mike’s friends rented a boat for the evening so that we could cruise around, check out the Christmas lights on the boats and houses on the Intercoastal Waterway, and have a Cookie & Cocktail party. Oh. Yes. And I was invited!

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And I wore a Santa hat, because I’m a cheeseball!

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On The Up and Up in Florida!

I hope you guys enjoyed my recap of my father/daughter traditional trip to NYC! It was a great time but the food and drinks definitely got to me and my travel day to Florida this past Sunday was a bit rough in a mental sense. I just felt gross the entire day after getting up really early for my flight (I got around 6 or 7 hours of sleep but Sarah understands…I swear any less than 8 and I’m a mess). I was wearing a slobby travel outfit, had on my glasses, and my hair was in a not-so-chic rat’s nest bun. I felt ridiculously dehydrated, so much so that I couldn’t even finish a little bit of coffee. My pants felt tight (even pants of the yoga variety!) and all I felt like doing once we got to yoga was 40 minutes of P90X Yoga…not nearly “enough”, in my head. To be honest with you, I found myself restricting my intake all that day. I just wanted to feel better about myself. It didn’t really work…it often doesn’t. That’s the lesson I seem to still be learning.

A very Florida Christmas.

A very Florida Christmas.

What DID make me feel better was having a snack after yoga, taking a shower, and deciding to make myself look presentable for our dinner at Duffy’s. I always visit this local chain when I visit; my family consistently looks forward to our Duffy’s dinner. So that was a perfect destination for our first night in town. Putting in some extra effort to blow-dry and straighten my hair, and also putting on a cute breezy outfit, definitely had me feeling better upon our arrival at the restaurant.

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Father-Daughter NYC Christmas 2013

Cheers from Florida! As per usual I will be behind on my recapping but I first must share with you some pre-Florida festivities…I’ve been all over the place (again, as per usual).

After some effort my dad, sister, and I figured out that this was our seventh father/daughter NYC Christmas trip.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009

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My First Thinking Out Loud Thursday!

I definitely am feeling some of that pre-holiday and pre-vacation stress, and also trying to figure out where 2014 will take me. I need to make some big decisions about my career, my location, and just how much uncertainty I can handle. I have SO much on my mind that I figure it will help get it all off my chest to think out loud a bit.

Amanda's new link-up has already seen great success!

Amanda‘s new link-up has already seen great success!

1. I cannot stand the aforementioned uncertainty. I have no idea what I’ll be doing or where I’ll be this time next year. Okay, maybe I have some small idea of where I’ll be. But what I’m doing? I don’t even know. I keep wishing for something to come along that will be a huge “sign” and tell me exactly what to do with my life and what direction to go in and what decision to make and when to make it. I know, be careful what I wish for, because that something could end up being awful!

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Swanson 30-Day Healthier Holiday Giveaway

Remember there’s a more local giveaway going on right now too – I’m giving one lucky reader a pair of tickets to see CONNetic Dance‘s production of “The Nutcracker: Suite & Spicy” this Friday or Saturday night in Downtown Hartford! You have until tomorrow night to enter!

I’ve been fortunate enough to receive gift code for products from Swanson Vitamins in the past and have always been happy with the quality of what I received as well as the customer service. So when they asked me to be one of the 30 bloggers participating in their 30-Day Healthier Holiday Giveaway, I said yes without hesitation!

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I was given a $100 credit to Swanson Vitamins and managed to place a massive order because I sorted the products from lowest to highest price 😉 so I got tons of cheaper stuff as opposed to a few higher priced items.

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CONNetic Dance Nutcracker Ticket Giveaway!

Last holiday season I had the opportunity to see the Sunday matinee of CONNetic Dance‘s The Nutcracker: Suite & Spicy at Downtown Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum. You can see my review here. Director/founder Carolyn Paine is a friend of mine as well as a huge part of Hartford’s cultural scene. She is one of those awesome people like Chion Wolf who I see at almost every area event; she’s on a mission to show the state that Hartford Has It. Well it’s that time of year again…CONNetic Dance will be performing The Nutcracker: Suite & Spicy at the same venue this coming Friday 12/20 and Saturday 12/21 at 8PM, and Sunday 12/22 at 2PM. Tickets are $30 each and can be purchased here.

My favorite dance of the show.

This year CONNetic is literally mixing things up by adding an official cocktail sponsor – Tanduay Asian Rum! You may recall that I am a fan (may or may not have had some last night, ice cold with a splash of sweet vermouth, not bad for a Monday). Tanduay will be pouring in the lobby and the program will have special recipes developed just for the show. Here’s a preview!

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MIMM: Holiday Cheer!

The winner of my giveaway for a Blue Nile Sterling Silver Branch Necklace is actually the first person who submitted any entries – Shawna! I will be contacting you to get your shipping address. Congrats to all who entered and thank you for the enthusiastic participation!

I had plans this past weekend for not one but two holiday parties. Unfortunately Saturday’s snow resulted in one of them getting cancelled but I still managed to make my weekend full of plenty of marvelous holiday (and overall) cheer.

Be sure to link-up with Katie if you’re participating in Marvelous In My Monday today!

Marvelous is…visiting Kaitlin on Friday! She was kind enough to host me for the evening and showed me a wonderful time. We started with a gift exchange…she got me a set of champagne flutes and a bottle of Prosecco, not to be opened until I move out of my parents’ house and get my own place 😉 my kind of motivation! The booze theme proceeded to carry on throughout the evening.

We went to Total Wine in Norwalk (which only made me more pumped for FL this month because there’s one by our condo) and they were having not one but two wine tastings AND a vodka tasting. Thank you Friday night! I’m worse in liquor stores than most girls are in Target so I walked out with two bottles of late harvest dessert wines, a nip of coffee liqueur, and a really nice Cabernet to share with Kaitlin at the holiday party we planned to attend later. I also ran into a fantastic guy named Latif who overheard me asking an employee if Total Wine carried Cesca Vicent, my favorite red to order at Barcelona. We immediately bonded over our love for Cesca and Barcelona! It was classic.

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Five Things Friday: Half Day!

It’s the last day to enter my Blue Nile giveaway for a sterling silver necklace! Entries close tonight at 11:59PM EST.

It’s Friday and I’m taking a half day at work today (holla) and have a lot of random stuff to say. Perfect day to join Clare‘s Five Things Friday party so I can be ADD and talk about all the things!

If you participate, make sure you link-up!

1. Today I get to see two very special people!

The reason for my half-day at work today is because I’m the lucky duck who gets to pick up this lady from the airport.

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Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

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Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

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