Oregon/Washington Road Trip: Day 1

Who says you get to sleep in on vacation??  Our alarm went off at 4:30 this morning...yikes!  


We got up, grabbed a cup {or 6} of coffee, had breakfast and did all sort of last minute things, so we could leave by 7am.


Then we realized that our car is tiny and may not hold all of our luggage.  After some strategic planning, we packed the car {even the back seat}.

Yeah, we didn't actually hit the road until closer to 8.


But I was on vacation, so NO STRESSING {hubby told me that was a new rule...I never agreed to it, but I am playing along for now}.

About 2 hours in we stopped at Starbucks to get some caffeine in our systems.  Since I am determined to be healthy, even on vacation, I opted for an passion iced tea, and added my own Stevia.  


Yes.....


I am now one of those people that carry around their own sweetener.  Thanks for still being my friend!


It was delicious.  It had a spicy kick to it that I LOVED!!  


After another hour we were halfway there but Gary needed some more caffeine, so we stopped off at an AM/PM to buy him "cheapy" coffee.  Ummm...it was freaking yummy!  He got an XL cookies 'n' cream cappuccino for under $2.00.  We know where we are going when we want flavored coffee now.  It has the same crap in it that Starbucks has, and for half the price!!


We stopped at a rest area a little after noon and had the lunch I had packed for us - tri tip wraps.  I also made homemade mayo the day before for us to enjoy with the wraps....I'm such a domestic goddess...I know!  ;-)

See what happens when I take the wheel??  Gangsta Gary comes out!

After that, we made one more rest stop before heading to our hotel in Medford, Or. We stayed at Rodeway Inn, which is a smaller hotel chain for the frugal traveler {such as myself}, and the last time we stayed at one, it was horrible!  But, if you check it out on Trip Advisor it's rated #2 out of 30 hotels in Medford and gets 4.5 stars out of 169 reviews.  The room is somewhat small, but we are only staying here one night, and it is clean and quiet.


We checked into the hotel after 4 and wanted to have an early dinner, so I check out Yelp for some ideas.  We decided on Jaspers Cafe, where they make these gourmet burgers....yum!  I had the Hotel California with blue cheese in a lettuce wrap and split an order of sweet potato fries with Gary.

It's time to change into my sweats and go relax with my hubby a bit while it rains outside!

~~What's the best burger you ever had?~~

All My Bags Are Packed....

...I'm ready to go!  


{Anyone else having flashback to Armageddon?  Ben Affleck in his prime....yum!} 


Tomorrow morning, Gary & I leave for our 2 week long road trip along the Pacific Northwest!  Can you believe it was in January that I started talking about this trip?

Well, it's here!  I'm excited and nervous at the same time...I look forward to our time away together {we really need this getaway} but I'm such a homebody that sometimes 2 weeks seems like ages.


I am so excited about the adventures that await us {fingers crossed they are mostly good}!


As for Organically Mo, I might stop in here and there to post some pictures and update you on our trip...or I may not....I really don't have a plan {my husband would be THRILLED to hear this}.


Hopefully you'll check in with me on Twitter, where I know I'll be tweeting and posting lots of pictures!

Keeping It In Check On The Road

Gary & I leave for our road trip this Saturday!  While I want to enjoy myself tremendously {especially when it comes to food - Oregon has soooo many cheese shops & wineries} I do NOT want to undo all the hard work I've put toward my health the past 7 weeks!

To accomplish this, I've come up with some guidelines for me to follow while on vacation.

• Stay active.  Sightseeing can burn lots of calories when you are doing a majority of it on foot!  On the days we will be doing more driving than exploring I will either hit up the hotel gym or do some cardio in our hotel room {I am bringing my workout clothes and some easy workout equipment}.  Even 20-30 minutes is better than nothing!
• Eat a hearty breakfast.  Personally, I do better throughout the day once I've eaten a good breakfast.  All the hotels we're staying at offer a free breakfast, hopefully offering more than just waffles & pastries.  Which leads to.....
• Bring our own food. All our hotels offer mini fridges & microwaves, so we are loading up a cooler full of healthy snacks to bring with us.  If all else fails and the breakfast sucks, we can enjoy a waffle with our own boiled eggs and kale chips.
• Limit Indulgences.  Yes, I want to try VooDoo Doughnut.  But I don't need to load the cooler full of them, so I can enjoy one for breakfast, lunch AND dinner!
• At times, just IGNORE my guidelines. I think this is the one I will struggle with the most because I tend to have a "do or die" attitude.  I need to remember that we are on vacation for 2 weeks.  I don't need to have a salad or a side of steamed broccoli for every meal {even though these are 2 things I truly love}.  I can stick to my food rules 100% of the time when I get back from vacation.  

***How do you handle eating when on vacation?  Do you stick to normal eating or have the belief "I'm on vacation; I deserve to eat what I want?"***

Oh, Vacation!

I know I normally get a post out first thing Monday morning, but guess what??  I completely forgot to get something together this weekend. I guess my brain is on vacation already!


I don't have any pictures from this weekend, but it was a GREAT one nonetheless! 


On Saturday my Aunt in Jackson hosted family BBQ so everyone could meet the family visiting from Holland.  It was so nice to get together with everyone that I haven't seen in ages.  We all keep up on Facebook, so that's nice, but there is nothing like seeing family face to face!  


BBQ + Family = 2 of my favorite things!


Yesterday morning I woke up before 5:30 with a very upset stomach {I think I enjoyed the BBQ a little too much - I seriously had 4-5 ribs and 2 chicken drumsticks}.  By 10:30 my stomach calmed down enough for me to run some errands.  Once I came home, I was in full cleaning mode!


I did a few loads of laundry, then I finally went through my wall closet, where I house all my pants and tried on EVERY SINGLE PAIR!  Now it is super organized by shorts, capris, jeans & dress pants.  I also have 2 shelves of pants to try on in a month or two.  They were just a bit snug to wear right now, but if I keep my weight loss up, I can fit into them soon!


This morning I woke up at 7, had breakfast, then headed for the GYM!!!  It's been a long time since I went there.  All my exercise lately has been walking and jogging on my own, but I want to get back into the habit of switching up my outside runs with some inside workouts.

Oh, fancy action shot!

 I was a bit excited and tried to do too many different things in one workout...walk/run, hills, sprints.  By 30 minutes in I was pooped, but I just kept walking.  Next time I am going to stick to one workout plan!

Not bad for my first time back!

 I packed small container of the following for a post workout snack:
1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup frozen organic blueberries
1/2 packet of stevia

REFUEL!

It was the perfect snack since I had to head down the street to Costco.


I LOVE shopping at Costco when it is empty...I can just explore every aisle that I want to!


So now I am home, doing more laundry and about to get my lunch ready {leftover chicken wraps} - YUM!


**What's your favorite machine at the gym?**


**Do you have a go to post workout snack?**

Top 5 Friday {Summer Loving}

Top 5 {+1} Things I LOVE about Summer:

1. Flip Flops - for home, the pool, the store....it's prefectly acceptable to wear flip flops all day long!  {Just have a cute #2 to show off}

2. Pedicures - I rarely get pedicures during the cold months, but once I start showing my piggies off to the public, you KNOW I'm going to keep them looking cute!

3. BBQ - Whether we're BBQing with friend, family or just the 2 of us, BBQing is an event for Gary & I. 

4. LIGHT - Gone are the dreary winter months.  We're enjoying the sun from 5:30am - 9:30pm for the next month!

5. Vacation - Doesn't matter if it's a day trip, a weekend trip, or a 2 week road trip {yay!}, this is THE time to hit the road and enjoy the scenery outside of your city.

6. Adult Beverages- A mo-garita at noon?  Sure!  Some wine with dinner?  Okay.  Even though we've pushed pause with alcohol recently {which I KNOW helped us lose weight}, it's still fun to indulge in a few drinks over the summer months.  Anyway, the heat burns off all alcohol calories - Mo Law.

***What's on your Summer Loving list??***

2012 Goals {Check In #4}

Back in January {which seems like a lifetime ago} I set 4 goals for the year.


For the fourth time this year, I am checking in to evaluate how I have done.


1. Take more time for me.  Not so good, but not horrible.  Honestly, I just didn't have time this past month to take time for myself.  Even the fun things I did included other people, which is not a bad thing, but it did not give me much time to focus on myself and MY inner peace.


2. Get back on track health wise - eating.  As in March, this was not stellar.  But I did up my game a little bit, so some improvement is better than none.


3. Get back on track health wise - exercise. Ah.Mazing!!  I've been religious about getting workouts in at least 3 times a week.  I've even added a few 20 minute walks in at work, which has helped me reach my personal goal of 10,000 steps a day.  Signing up for a 5k was the best thing I could do to motivate myself!


4. GO ON VACATION!!  We're going on a road trip!!!  Oregon, Washington, the coast....I am in heaven!  And the BEST part is that we've saved enough money to do this vacation and not stress!  :)


My grade this month - A-.  I really need to get back on track with eating well 90% of the time, so I can indulge that 10%.  One thing I'm doing is making my own iced coffees to take to work.  Basic ingredients, no extra crap that Sbux put in and waaaay less calories!  My 5k is one month from tomorrow and I'm pretty confident that by then I'll be able to jog 1.5-2miles of it.

So Much To Say

These past 2 days {Wednesday & Thursday} have been so busy, so fun and so full of exciting news!

Thanks to budget cuts, I have had this whole week off of work due to furlough days.  Mostly I've been sleeping in {when I can even get to sleep}, catching up on Hulu shows and reading from my stack of magazines I have laying around.

Wednesday I had plans to drive down to the Bay Area to get together with a longtime friend who I have not seen in about 4 years {pretty sad since we live only 2 hours away}.  We got together and had a BLAST!  I love that with true friends you can go for.ev.er without seeing them, and the minute you're back together it's like no time has passed at all.  I had so much fun that I stayed much later than planned and didn't get home until after 8pm, giving me just enough time to watch Glee and get to bed {driving long distances really wears me out}!

Bay Area Bound!

Thursday, I did my grocery shopping for the next few days, stopped by Sbux for a treat and spent close to 2 hours at Michael's.  I can be pretty crafty when I want to be, so I found some supplies for a Pinterest project I will be working on and posting about in a few days.

I have spent a lot of time this week creating some new recipes and tweaking old ones.  I will be posting all about them soon.

The MOST exciting thing I did this week was.....SIGN UP FOR A 5K!!!!!!!!  Best part?  My BFF is doing it with me!!  We live about an hour and a half away, so most training will have to be on our own, but we did talk briefly about meeting midway and training together a few times.  I cannot tell you how proud I am of the both of us.  We have a long way to go before the 5k is here {June 3rd} so I know we will be kill it!

Here is the 5k we signed up for:

Wish me luck as I start my training!

One thing I am LOVING right now is the weather {high 60's, low 70's all week long}.  Warm weather:

~Makes my hydrangeas grow

Hello, Beautiful, I have missed you!

~Gives me a chance to wear flip flops ALL DAY!

Ignore my need for a pedicure!

Sasha, however, says that sunny {and cold} weather makes her want to cuddle in her bed.

Happy Friday!

**Any big plans this weekend?**

**Any runners who can give me advice on my 1st 5k?**

Almost There!!

I am 2 work days away from 3 blissful weeks off of work!  One of the perks of working for a school district.

But first, I will spend a weekend with 30 teenagers on a Leadership Retreat...wish me luck.  I will need that and LOTS of coffee!