I can’t believe it’s Friday already! Another week has flown by. It’s been a great week for me eating wise and exercising wise, so I’m very happy about that. I’ve survived the treats at work – gourmet popcorn, cookies as big as my face, homemade brittle, fudge, leftover sandwiches and chips. I just kept telling myself that it will be gone if I wait long enough and it also helped not walking by the food table...

Who watched the Biggest Loser last night? It’s always an episode I want to watch when they run the marathon. Last night after 5 months of training ALL the contestants came back to participate. Even if you were an eliminated player if you won the marathon not only were you guaranteed to be in the final three – you also won $25,000!!! The thing that always boggles my mind is that not only are these people able to finish the marathon...

Signed up for what? The Christi Clinic Marathon & Half Marathon, April 28th, 2011! Over the summer my husband had mentioned that there was going to be a marathon ON his 50th birthday April 28th, 2012 and that it was at U of I in Champaign (where he went to school as an undergrad & law school too). I knew he was going to want to do it. When he asked if I would do it with him – I immediately said YES – but just the...

It’s hard to get back into the swing of things after being off work for 5 days! My Mom is back home from the hospital after a routine surgery – my niece Hannah came in this weekend to help out – thanks Hannah! Yesterday I made a HUGE pot of turkey soup – it was so good and I’m pretty sure I’ll be bringing that to work for my lunches this week. And guess what? I actually started running this weekend! ...

I hope everyone got their fill of gravy, turkey and mashed potatoes! I sure did. I love this time of year, being off work and spending time with family. This years Thanksgiving will be a different kind of memory. My Mom is recovering in the hospital from a routine surgery (she’s going to be just fine!). So I spent about 7 hours with her on Wednesday and after my family and I had our Thanksgiving dinner, I packed up my laptop and headed...

I work at an architecture firm that designs restaurants (www.ariainc.com) so one of the perks I get sometimes is getting to go to a pre-opening tasting/practice before the restaurant actually opens to the public. Today I got to go to a local restaurant in my hometown called HUGTONG. What does Hutong mean? A hutong is a neighborhood—a common area filled with uncommon things. The hutongs of Beijing are filled with hundreds of small,...