New Orleans!

This past Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, Daniel and I went to New Orleans. I'm sure we would have had a great trip no matter what but I'm so glad we got to go on St. Patrick's Day because the city was extra festive and there were lots of parades to watch.

Here are some pictures as we were driving in.

A cool bridge on the way in.

I believe this is part of the Metairie Cemetary. These make me think of the movie Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd.

A pic of the downtown skyline.

The first thing we did was go to the National WWII Museum. I was thinking that there was no way the museum would be able to live up to my expectations after going to the museums in Europe but it was pretty good. We had to go through it pretty quickly since we wanted to make it to a parade that afternoon. That's always hard for me because I like to read everything, hehe.

The front of the museum. There is a 45 minute video you can see that is supposed to be really good but we didn't have enough time for it. 

A tank. I imagine this is one used in the war but it could be a replica too.

We couldn't use flash in the museum so most of the photos came out really blurry. I decided to put this one up anyways because it shows the amount of troops the United States and Germany had before the war. There are tiny little soldiers in each box. It's crazy to think how many more they had than us. We did have much more than this by the time we went over there but it just goes to show how much more prepared for war they were than us.

Stars that women would put in the window to show that their husbands or sons were in the war.

Copper was really important for the phone lines that soldiers used in the war so they had to start making pennies out of a different metal.

Also blurry but these are a lot of posters trying to convince men to enlist.

This is a model of what the water and air would have looked like for the Normandy invasion. So many ships and planes.

Propaganda from the war in the Pacific. It's kind of sad how demeaning a lot of the posters are that were displayed in the states. There was also hardly a mention of the Internment Camps that Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants were forced into.

After finishing up at the museum we started walking towards the parade route. It was about a mile away from the museum so we figured it would just be easier to walk than look for parking again. We stopped for a quick lunch at Subway since we were running out of time. It was starting to get pretty sunny and hot outside so we were lucky to find a spot to watch the parade under a tree. It was really crowded but we still had a pretty good view. The floats were huge and pretty elaborate. There were also lots of parade walkers that were very boisterous. It was a family friendly parade but there was still lots of drinking going on, even by the people in the parade!

Some cool houses on the way to the parade.

Parade Walkers. It seemed like all the parade walkers were men's groups. 

They were all carrying these sticks with flowers on them to hand out to spectators.

All the floats were really big and painted up all nice.

A band of police officers.

I wonder how they make these "hood ornaments."

Not sure what group this was for but they had an interesting figure on their float.

You can see the cabbage in this photo. Occasionally they would throw the cabbages instead of beads. They also threw out random things like cups, candy, frisbees, and even packets of chips and carrots lol.

A frog float. You can see all the people on the balcony in the background too.

Watch out for the cabbage! Most of the people throwing them were good at making sure someone was looking. It's a good thing too because those are heavy!

I wonder how many hours go into putting these floats together.

I love the way they marked the streets. They had regular street signs too but this was a nice touch.

There was so much trash everywhere! 

More houses on the way back to the car.

Around 2:30 we decided to walk back to the car and head to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. It was pretty interesting finding parking since we didn't want to be too close to all the action but we found a parking garage that was pretty close to everything we wanted to see. We walked along Bourbon Street for awhile before heading to the St. Louis Cathedral. It was about 3:45 and there was an event going on at the church and it wouldn't be available for sight seeing until 4. We were really close to Cafe Du Monde so we decided to head over there for Beignets. The line was really long and after some investigation I discovered they only took cash and we didn't have any. We decided to go back to church since it would probably be time to go in. The special event in the church was a wedding. They were just coming out when we walked up. I don't know that I would want to have my wedding at such a famous church because so many people outside were gawking and messing up their pictures. It was really pretty inside but we didn't stay very long. I think we had already met our church quota while we were in Europe.

Bourbon Street!

Balconies and shops along Bourbon Street.

The balconies are so pretty!

The back of St. Louis Cathedral.

Artists and entertainers (fortune tellers, etc.) in front of St. Louis Cathedral. They were basically around all of Jackson Square.

 Close up of the cathedral. It is the oldest operating cathedral in the United States. A church was first built here in 1718 and there have been rebuilds and reconstructions about 3 times. The church as it is now was started in 1850.

One of the sites that makes you automatically think of New Orleans.

The ceiling inside the church. 

The altar and mural.

The pulpit in the shape of a seashell.

The organ. I think this part was probably the prettiest with the painting all around the organ.

After finishing up at the church we decided to find an ATM so we could get some beignets from Cafe Du Monde. We had to wait in a quite a line but it was worth it. We went back and sat on some benches in Jackson Square to eat. After devouring our beignets (they were delicious!) we wandered around for awhile looking at all the restaurants and shops. We decided to sit down and the best place to do it was near Jackson Square where they had street performers entertaining crowds. They were mostly acrobatic/break dancing kind of performers but they did some pretty cool stuff. Here are some pictures and videos of the street performers.

This guy did like 40 or 50 push ups like that! Crazy!

The church and Jackson Square from where we were sitting.

The same guy who did the crazy push ups jumps over lots of people. Even though they were crouching down it was still pretty cool.

This guy does a crazy moving headstand.

It was getting pretty close to dinner time so we found a restaurant and met up with my friend Lynn and her husband Tony. I met Lynn through RSC in college and loved hanging out with her. Since then I've done a terrible job of keeping in touch but knew since she lives near New Orleans and we would be here it was the perfect time to contact her. We had a good time catching up at dinner and then we headed outside to watch another parade. At first it was just some small cars coming along with people throwing out beads and it we even thought it was over for awhile. We decided to walk further down the street and were happy to see that the parade was still going it just had a large gap. There were plenty of large floats and parade walkers so we got a lot more beads and goodies.

Lynn and I watching the parade after dinner. Loved getting to hear her laugh again :)

When we went out to watch all that was going by were these little fancy cars.

Another car with a fancy paint job.

Really hard to see but these all are old people watching the parade. It was so cute to see all the "Q-tips" hollering for beads.

We were thinking the parade was going to be a dud but when we walked a little further down the street we saw more floats. This one was like a street car.

This lady was getting beads from every single person that walked by. There's no way wearing all that was comfortable. What's she going to do with all of them anyways? Daniel and I didn't get that many but I already know I'm going to end up throwing most of them away.

 A float with live music. Most of them just had speakers.

By the time the parade finished it was almost 10 and we still had to drive back to Patterson. We said our goodbyes and started walking back to the car. We ended up walking back along Bourbon Street and it was crazy how crowded it was. We actually ended up seeing parts of the parade again because it was supposed to end on Bourbon Street. I don't think Daniel liked all the crowds walking back but I'm a big people watcher so it was interesting to me to see how everyone was acting. It was still early too so there weren't that many crazy drunk people. 

We were exhausted from all the walking around when we got home but we had a wonderful day so it was worth it. There's a lot more to do in New Orleans that we didn't get a chance to see but I'm sure we'll get a chance to go back someday. 

If it was this crowded and crazy for St. Patrick's Day, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like during Mardi Gras! Does anyone have any crazy New Orleans stories?

Only 2 more days until we go back to Houston!!!

Confused, Frustrated, and Still Overweight

I've been a yo-yo on the scale pretty much my whole adult life. I haven't really done any structured diet plans, most times I just focused on measuring portions, keeping a food log, and choosing healthier foods. I've also relied a lot on exercise to help me lose weight because I love food, especially sweets, and it's hard for me to give up eating what I love. Every time I lose weight it lasts for 6 months at the most and then I gradually gain it (and then some) back. I lost about 20 pounds before our wedding and then I gained it all back during and after the honeymoon. I lost about 15 to 20 pounds again during summer and fall of 2011 but once Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our move to Houston came, I gained it all back and hit my heaviest ever. Every time I lose the weight, I tell myself I'm never going back to that because I hate how it feels, how I look, and what it does to my confidence. But, every time, I manage to gain it all back.

I was hoping that I would be able to lose weight while we were in Europe since I wouldn't have much to do during the day and we would be walking around a lot during our trips. I think I did maintain my weight while we were there, but I definitely didn't lose anything. It wasn't as easy to eat healthy and workout as I thought it would be. So far in Louisiana I have lost about 4-5 pounds but it's very frustrating that the weight comes off so slowly. I know that what I eat has a much bigger influence on my weight than exercise, so I've been focusing really hard on eating healthier. I'm still trying to exercise for at least 30 minutes 5 days a week to help speed up the process.

Here is where the confusion comes in. What is "eating healthy" and what are "effective exercises?" There is so much different advice on what to do to eat healthy and exercise to lose weight that I don't even know if I'm doing what's right. Some people say "eat fat to lose fat," "stay away from carbs and sugar," etc, etc. There's so many different opinions on what healthy eating really is. The only thing I'm certain is healthy is eating more fruits and vegetables. For some reason this is the hardest thing for me to do. I don't really like that many vegetables and have to force myself to eat them. I like a lot of fruit but I'm just not motivated to eat it. Sweet fruits just make me wish I was eating cake or cookies or ice cream. Even if I was getting 5 to 7 fruit and vegetable servings a day, what else do I eat? What type of bread is ok? What's the best meat?

When I get tired of thinking about what I need to eat to lose weight, I decide to focus on working out better. I like running (even though I'm not that fast) but then I read or see stuff saying that long bouts of cardio exercises aren't that beneficial for weight loss. I have a couple indoor exercise routines I've done (that include push ups, lunges, squats, jumping jacks, etc.) but if I'm to believe the people that say you need 60 to 90 minutes of exercise 5 days a week then those won't cut it. They're so hard I can usually only do 15 to 20 minutes.

Overall, I'm just really frustrated by slow progress. There probably isn't one right way to eat healthier and exercise effectively. I think I'm doing everything I need to be; eating more fruits and vegetables, less sweets, measuring portion sizes, drinking more water, and working out 30 minutes 5 days a week, but the fact that the weight is coming off so slowly is making me doubt whether what I'm doing is actually working or not. It's so hard to remind myself that I don't need to be "on a diet." That was one of my biggest problems before; I had the mind set that I once I got to a certain weight I could go back to my previous lifestyle and my body would just magically stay the same. But of course, when I did that, I gained it all back. I need to create a healthier lifestyle that I can keep up forever. I suppose since I'm going about it a different way, the weight will come off a little more slowly than I would like. Hopefully that means it will be a lasting change this time.

The hardest part is just sticking with it. I read this on Pinterest:

I've also seen a quote that says something similar to this: "Tired of starting over? Don't quit in the first place." I saw that on Pinterest also, but I couldn't find it to post the actual quote. I think this one describes me perfectly. Instead of having to start all over from an even heavier weight, I need to keep up the healthy habits I've created to maintain or even lose more. Easier said than done, but every day's a new day!

One of the reasons for this post is to help give myself more acccountability with eating healthier and working out. I've been posting my runs on Facebook with iMapMyRun as well. Hopefully, if I know my friends know that I'm eating healthier and working out more I'll think that they'll be expecting me to lose weight and look better so I'll be a little more motivated. You might have to read that sentence really slowly once or twice because it's kind of confusing, lol.

So, to help keep me motivated and give me that accountability, I'm going to do a very scary thing. I'm going to share some personal information that I wouldn't usually want people to know. Hopefully that will help me stick to a healthier lifestyle so I won't have to be ashamed of those numbers in the future. For now, I'm just going to post my measurements and a before picture. When we get back to Houston I'll start including my weight and BMI. I prefer to use only one scale for consistency.

Measurements
Bust: 37"
Waist: 33"
L Arm: 13"
R Arm: 12.5"
Hips: 43.5"
L Leg: 26"
R Leg: 26.5"

Now for the super scary part, here's a picture of me now:

I'm so embarrassed by this photo, but that is one of the reasons I'm posting it. I don't want to live my life being embarrassed by how I look. I want to be able to take pictures like this and like my body and know that I'm healthy. I know I'll never be super stick thin, but I also know I can look and feel better than this.

My goal is to reach and maintain 140 pounds. I know that you're supposed to make SMART goals and one of the main components is giving yourself a time frame. However, since I'm not "on a diet," there isn't really an end date. I'm hoping that if I just stick to these healthier habits that I'll slowly lose the weight and then be able to maintain it. Right now I'm barely losing a pound a week and I'm trying really really hard to make myself okay with that. Slow and steady wins the race, right? Anyways, when I reach and maintain my 140 goal weight for a year, I get to go on a $500 shopping spree! I know a year seems like a really long time, but this time I want to make sure I really do stick with my new lifestyle and not end up going back to eating unhealthy and barely working out and gain it all back, especially if I just spent $500 on new clothes.

If anyone else is interested in getting healthier let me know and we can help motivate each other and keep each other accountable.

Bye!