New Inspiration and St. Louis

Hello everyone!  Its been a busy couple of weeks since I last blogged.  I went on a fabulous weekend trip to St. Louis, Missouri to see the Kansas City Royals play against the St. Louis Cardinals.  I also went to my first personal training session with my Boxing instructor, Franchesca Alcanter, got rear-ended while at a stop light after Jazzercise class and I have been fighting allergies and being sick. 

I went to St. Louis with a friend from work and we got to see the sights of St. Louis, go to the baseball game and see our beloved Royals WIN and do the Budweiser Beermaster Brewery Tour.  I drove out there in my awesome roadster Malibu :).  We stayed at the Hilton at the Ballpark less than one block from Busch Stadium.  Upon arrival there was live music playing, bratwurst cooking in carts along the street and massive people celebrating pre-game in the hotel.  We got ready for the game and had GREAT seats on the visitors side 12 rows from the dugout! The game was a good one, lots of back and forth.  The Royals fought hard then in the end Joakim Soria struck out the famous St. Louis Cardinal, Albert Pujols.  The fans around us were very nice and told us that a St. Louis tradition after going to a baseball game was to go to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard stand.  We decided to do that, I indulged, I mean hey, it was vacation!  I had a Strawberry Shortcake concrete that was to die for.  We met a St.Louis Detective doing security duty there named Strohmeyer who was comical and full of quirky jokes.  He was awesome.  We went back to our hotel, went to the hotel bar and had a couple of drinks to celebrate the big win then on to bed.  I hadn't slept in about 36 hours so I was ready.  We had left for St. Louis right after I had gotten off of work that morning and I had worked 10 hours already....

The Amazing Busch Stadium in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri



Me and Alicia enjoying the game

Saturday we went to hit the town.  We went to the Gateway Arch first and Alicia decided she wasn't up for going into the Arch but amazingly I was.  50-almost 100lbs ago I would never have considered such a thing but here I was getting ready to face my claustrophobia and get into this tiny pod and ride up 630 feet into the air to over look the city of St. Louis.  Once at the top my life literally changed.  I felt like if Eero Saarinen who designed the Arch could think big enough to see and create such a world wide recognized landmark, could overcome the scrutiny of its futuristic look and design back in the 1960's and ultimately for the arch to be the draw for millions of people that it has become I can do ANYTHING I desire in my life.  That includes this pesky 15 lbs that separates me from the beloved 199, or in my career to be the best dealer I can be, or just living an amazing, fun, rich life full of new experiences.  On the way to St. Louis we listened to the audio book by Jillian Michaels titled "Unlimited".  I highly suggest reading this book.  It isn't another fitness book.  This is a motivational and inspiring self discovery book.  Listening to Jillian Michaels narrate her own book to convey her awesome message of self acceptance, self discovery and positive thinking is even better.  The best thing for this long trip in the car and it is amazing how it fit in with my moment at the top of the world.  

Me at our hotel room before our Saturday adventure.  The pic quality is yuck because it was with my phone but look I have a waist!!!  Love it!  :)

Me and Alicia at the foot of the Arch- Don't we look AMAZING?!?



Me at the top of the world inside the Gateway Arch

My souvenir pic of me before entering the Arch- I feel like in this pic I look the best I have in my entire life!

  From the Arch and the Landing and seeing how swollen and high the Mississippi River is we went to the Budweiser Brewery for a great tour.  We got to taste 3 hour old Budweiser fresh from the finishing tank.  It was the best beer I have ever had and frankly I am not a beer drinker.  The tour was filled with history, the process of making Budweiser, we got a souvenir glass, a hat and during the tour we got to wear safety goggles and a radio to hear our tour guide, Kyle.  We saw the amazing and beautiful Clydesdales.  For those of you who don't know, I am a complete horse fanatic!  We walked so much on Saturday that Alicia's calves were sore the next day.  I have to admit, the rest of the week after my trip I got horribly sick with a nasty summer cold and my muscles ached.  So I don't feel too bad about my vacation eating since I got a lot of activity in.


Me and my fresh brewed Budweiser in a freezing 34 degree room!!!

  After the tour we hurried over to the St. Louis Zoo to check it out.  I got to pet stingrays!!! Never touched them before in my life!  They had an awesome exhibit and it was like I was a little kid all over again.  Walked and walked some more.  Went to see the big cats, penguins, zebras, to name a few.  We got ambushed on the way out by a HUGE wedding party getting off of a motorcoach and I am wondering if this has the same karma as catching a bouquet??? LOL!  Yeah RIGHT! 

Me at the end of our fast Zoo trip

Crazy but beautiful wedding party!

The final leg of our trip saw us going to check out the Little Italy section of town known as The Hill.  We had dinner at Zia's Italian Restaurant and then went on to walk around a small portion of the neighborhood before heading south of town to our hotel for the night.  We were hot, tired and ready for showers and ultimately bed so we could make the 4 hour trip home the next day.  All in all it was a fun time!  I can't wait to do it again.  I even have thoughts of a trip to Chicago for a ball game.... Alicia???

I did forget to mention that a couple of weeks ago I participated in a company contest walk/run for our annual Challenge event.  It was an awful 93 degrees out that day and I am SUPER sensitive to the heat but I decided I would do the mile and be timed.  Since I took it easy due to the heat it wasn't my very best time but I placed in my age division which I can't even believe!! I did the mile in 15.05 minutes which my best time is 14.49 but with the extreme heat, I was happy with my performance and that I placed, even better.  Which brings me to more work related news.  I got the call from our corporate office on the article that they wanted to do about my weight loss journey and I saw the draft this morning and it is awesome!!!  I am so excited about it.  I will post it here for all to see when it comes out!  WOO HOO!

I started last week with my boxing trainer for personal training sessions once a week.  I need that to push me over the two month plateau I have been on.  I am thinking that some adjustments also need to be made in my diet.  I think I am taking in too much fruit if you can believe that.  So we will see if these adjustments get the scale to moving again.

I am going to leave this blog with a little saying i have on a positive thinking card. 

KEEP BELIEVING IN YOURSELF

Every goal that has every been reached began with one step and the belief that it could be attained.  When the road becomes hard to travel and it feels as if you will never reach the end... look deep inside your heart and you will find strength you never knew you had.  Believe in yourself and remember that dreams really can come true!  BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE BELIEVE!  Have an awesome week and remember YOU GOT THIS!!!