Monday, October 18, 2010

New York City!

Our weekend was amazing! I'm so tired. We did so much walking and saw so much. Friday we woke up earlyish and walked around until we found "real New York Jew bagels" that were up to Corey's standards. We passed like 10 bagel places until we found this one, and then we wound up going back to the same place Saturday and Sunday because they were so good. We were close to Times Square so we walked there to see it in the morning/day light, then took the subway up to the Upper West Side and walked through Central Park to the Met. We spent a few hours in the Met, then wandered around the Upper East Side. We got hot dogs at this famous hot dog place, Papaya King. Took the subway back down to Grand Central and walked around the market and the great hall there. Then walked to the Empire State building (didn’t go up b/c of time and money). Then we took the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across the bridge, which was pretty cool. The views from the middle of it were amazing. We walked around Brooklyn for a little bit, then took the subway to Ground Zero. I was kind of disappointed because the last time I was there we were able to walk right up to the edge of the "hole" and look down, but now you're not even allowed to cross the street to the hole. We went back and rested for a bit after that, and then walked to an Italian place that a coworker recommended for dinner, which was amazing, and then walked back through Times Square so Corey could see it at night. I woke up at like 4 am and wound up throwing up, but I don’t know why or what made me sick. I think I just ate too much. We really ate like pigs all weekend, but Friday was bad.

Saturday we went to the Guggenheim (I just wanted to see the outside because I had never been), walked around Upper East Side again. Then walked around the Highline and Chelsea Market. We were on our way to the Skinny Building and took a detour through the market at Union Station. Then got coffee near the building, and went to Eataly. Walked around there for a while, looked for Corey's special spaghetti, but no luck. We went up to the IBM building and went to Abika, the mozzarella bar that Corey went to in Rome. We wound up near the park again and went into FAO Schwartz. We were exhausted after that, so we got a free movie from the front desk, watched that, then walked around our neighborhood and got dinner from a street vendor- spicy Italian sausage gyro thing. It was yummy. I know we did more Saturday but I can't remember anything. Ha.

Yesterday we slept in a little more, got bagels, walked around Times Square, and then went down to South Street Seaport. We were going to take the ferry to the Empire State building but it was an hour plus wait, so we just walked up to the Sea Port. There's a really good market with people from all over New England selling fresh cheese, meat, wines, etc. Then we went up to Carnegie Deli and stuffed ourselves. Then got a cheesecake to go and sat and ate it on a big rock in Central Park. Then wandered down to Rockefeller Center, watched ice skating, went to the NBC store because we were out of things to do, then just sat outside for awhile because it was a beautiful day. By about 4 we were ready to go but our train wasn’t until 9. We went and got a beer at a brewery, then wanted to find pizza (well, I did. I can't leave NYC without eating street pizza, but Corey was still stuffed). Then got our bags from the hotel and went to the train station, where we got another beer and waited for the train. We didn’t get in until after midnight, didn’t get home until almost 1 after the sketchiest cab ride ever. He stuffed 5 people in the cab, told us it would be $20, and then when he dropped us off told us he said $25. We were like, um, no, you said $20, and walked away. He was so sketchy. All in all, it was a great weekend. I needed it. My legs/feet are tired and sore, but it was so worth it.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Almost a Year Soda Free!

I gave up diet soda sometime around this time last year. Since then, I've lost close to 20 pounds (which is a lot considering that I started around 125). Not to say that its too much, or unhealthy, because I'm only 4'-11" and I'm pretty thin framed. This just put me back to my high school weight, and I look and feel so much better.

Anyway, since I've quit and started losing the weight, I've always been convinced that it's because I also don't crave sweets mid-afternoon like I always used to. I had a routine- diet-coke with lunch, and then I'd crave chocolate or sweets by 2 or 3. When I stopped drinking the diet soda (soda at all actually, I hate the taste of regular soda), I stopped wanting an afternoon snack. The combination of non consuming soda and not consuming the few hundred extra calories mid-afternoon had made a WORLD of difference.

Just today, I saw the first article on it, that supports what I believed the reasons were: