On Friday, I went across the river to Mr. Man’s side of town. I went to his house for the 1st time. I was a little concerned that in 2 months, he had been to my house numerous times, but I had never been to his. I had all these crazy ideas about what to expect, since I was traumatized by my younger days, when I dated this dude for like 3 months, that “forgot” to mention his wife and 2 kids that he lived with. Then, my Mama told me about this guy that dated this lady for years, only to find out that she was never allowed to visit his house because he lived with another man! To make it worse, Mr. Man kept saying stuff like, “I’ll pick you up” or “Let’s just meet at the restaurant” Oh no, I told him, I’m coming over, and I’m coming inside…. To my delight, there were no mystery wives, children or gay lovers living there. LOL! Later that evening, we ate way too much at Fast Eddie’s whose specialty is fresh grilled 99 cents half pound hamburgers. On Saturday Morning I got up before 8 AM to workout, because I knew there wouldn’t be enough time during the day. I popped in one of Chatty Cathie’s DVDs
. Okay, so I’m talking about the “Walk at Home” connoisseur Leslie Sansone. That lady talks so much. She talks during the entire workout, and doesn’t take a breath. I think that’s her specialty, you’re so busy listening to her that you don’t realize that you stood in front of the TV and walked 3 miles. That afternoon, I had errands to run and some business to handle. Before I realized it, Mr. Man was right on time, standing at my door in a suit, and I was dressed in track pants and a Michael Jackson T-Shirt
. Give, me 10 minutes, I lied, it’ll be the fastest transformation you’ll ever witness. It was longer than 10 minutes, but I certainly got “wedding ready” pretty quickly. My childhood friend was getting married, and I took Mr. Man as my date.
The outdoor wedding was soooo fabulous! She must have prayed all year for a sunny day with a cool breeze, because I wouldn’t be surprised if we had snow, rain and a heat advisory all in in the same day…. It was funny at work on Friday, one of the lawyers said, if you don’t like this thunderstorm, just wait an hour. And just like she said the sun was shining as if the mid-day storm never happened. Anyway, my friend looked flawless on her special day. Her dress was gorgeous. Everything was perfect. I was so surprised to see baby pics of me and the bride I’d never seen in the wedding slide show during the portion with her childhood pictures. That was so special. As things came to the close, we line danced to the cha-cha slide at the reception and had a blast.
Sunday, I hung out with my girls who missed hanging with me since they say I’m “always on dates.” We went to a “Day Party” with a great DJ that played instruments and sang with the music, on a restaurant patio on one the last few good weather days before winter rears it’s ugly head. After dinner with the girls, I picked up my little sister, who also complained about not getting enough sister time since I got a new man in my life. We watched Brooklyn’s Finest
, which was a flick about crooked New York cops. It was almost a little too graphic for me. I love scary movies and one of my favorite TV shows is the super bloody show about a serial killer named Dexter
. But, I was not huge fan of the watching this movie, because it’s the stuff that you unfortunately know happens every day in real life. We woke up bright and early today. It was a holiday, Labor Day. And I took full advantage of it, I said I was not leaving until my house was clean. The little sis fussed about dog hair everywhere, and I realized my true shop-aholicness when I put away clothes I didn’t remember buying or even wearing. But at the end of the day, the house was clean…This afternoon, I went over and met Mr. Man’s Mom, and the other siblings that I hadn’t met. They were all so nice and treated me like family. I had to throw in the good stuff like, I don’t have any kids, I work at law firm, I have a masters degree, etc etc…. “Did I pass?” I questioned him later, he said “Yes, baby with flying colors, you even earned 1001 brownie points” I told him, that was good and that he should expect that one day, I’m going cash them in, and see what they’re worth!
That’s exactly what I had to do. Commit to re-commit. I read an a article on Calorie Count about a woman who lost 95 lbs by making a commitment to re-commit to eating less and moving more, the only true way to lose and maintain healthy weight loss. Last night I went to my weight management program, as I do every week. I knew that I had gained a couple pounds during my eating extravaganza in New York, and didn’t want to face reality on the scale. When I stepped up, it was more like a slap in the face mixed with a strong burn-your-chest shot of reality.
The doctor, the nutritionist and the physical therapist were all on my case…big time. The doctor commented on how “nice” it was that I’ve maintained my weight and haven’t lost since YEAR. The nutritionist made me go through the calorie king book and count up the calories I eat at McDonalds, and how that’s half the calories, I should be eating in an entire day. Good thing I didn’t tell her about Nathan’s…well I guess the scale told even if I didn’t. And the physical therapist told me that contrary to my belief that all the walking in NY would “balance out” all the bad eating, it would not since I’m already an active person. She said I have to go longer and work harder if I want to see results. The team helped me realize what I already know, “if you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got!” So I’m ready to commit to something new, and hoping for new results.
I spent the last week in New York City. 
It was my first time in the Big Apple. If you know me, then you know that I can be a little “organized” when it comes to thing like trip itinerary’s. I had a detailed itinerary for every day in hope that we wouldn’t miss a thing. My itinerary took a huge hit when they canceled our flight, not once, but twice for bad weather. This set us back a whole day, but we were determined to make it happen and enjoy our stay. Initially I included family workouts, but my feet hurt so bad from all the walking everyday, that I could not work out. We walked miles and miles everyday, I literally limped to the hotel shuttle van each night. We literally walked more than we slept. Every train station and subway stop seemed to have 100 stairs to climb. And benches and chairs seemed to have been a figment of my imagination. One day we literally ate lunch on the steps in front of an office building on the Avenue of the Americas.
We would get up, and were out the door each day by about 8 AM. I have never seen anything like New York City, the closest thing to it was Las Vegas. So many people and so much to do. We walked all over Manhattan (or Man-Hat-In as they say) Nobody on the streets spoke English, and those who did were just as clueless as we were. We went to Staten Island, the Empire State Building, took a Boat Cruise tour past the Statute of Liberty, ate at BB King’s Restaurant and watched a blues show, got all dressed up and hailed a taxi, to see Westside Story on Broadway, were constantly amazed at the gigantic billboards in Times Square, Rode the subway, and even saw a giant rat crawling over the tracks, ate Nathans famous Hot dogs at Coney Island in Brooklyn, went to the boogie down Bronx and saw Yankee Stadium, spent hours Shopping on 5th Ave, Ate Juniors Famous cheesecake and some delicious New York bagels, Took pictures with celebs at Madame Tussauds wax museum, saw a 4D sponge bob movie, had the best soul food at Amy Ruth’s in Harlem and visited the Apollo, saw the clock at Grand Central Station, Watched the business men in suits on Wall Street at the NYSE, paused for a moment at the September 11th site, walked though he Village, Ate at Ray’s Little Italy, played Mary had a little lamb on the Giant Piano in FAO Schwartz just like the scene in the movie Big
, and I even was greeted with a Kiss 
at the Hershey store! Clearly you can see there was just as much eating as there was walking, but something was very different about the restaurants in NY. They post the calories on the menu board, can you believe it?! Did that stop me from eating 1,600 calories worth of a chili cheese dog, fries and a lemonade in one sitting? Hump..you figure it out! It’s time to get back to real life, real food, and running, I’m craving a healthy home cooked meal and definitely need to hit the gym.
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