Quick weekend update!

I am definitely a creature of habit, which is exactly why traveling (especially work trips) can derail any attempt at a regimented meal schedule or set of foods to eat!

Just got back from a weekend at the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers National Conference in Anaheim, CA, where our SHPE Boston Professional chapter got 2nd place for the Business Plan Proposal and brought back $2000 for our chapter!

Me, Clara, and Jeizel after our presentation to the National Board of SHPE Directors and BOEING 

As exciting as it’s been to visit New York, Texas, and California over the course of the last 3 weekends,
it’s nice having all of the travel behind me. I warded off airport munchies temptations by bringing along books to read, but failed at portion-sizes when it came to meals: I think I was so excited to not have to be paying for the food that I would grab as much as I could fit on my plate! Haha, whoops.

Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed some delicious food over the past 3 weeks: from copious seafood appetizers
and a huge bowl of Red Mango frozen yogurt in Texas to Rainbow & Spicy Tuna rolls (see above!) with Tutti Fruti frozen yogurt and Coldstone Creamery Coffee Ice Cream in California. I've certainly enjoyed it!

Fortunately, my majority of travel is over for 2011. I have my trip home in 3 weeks for Thanksgiving,
which I couldn’t be more excited for (and of course I will be allowing myself to splurge because it’s a holiday and Pumpkin Pie & stuffing are DELICIOUS), then Las Vegas in December for my half marathon, and then finally home again for Christmas.

On a better note, I still managed to make my required runs for training for the half marathon. In New York, while visiting Jade in Brooklyn, I did a 7.5 mile long run around Prospect Park, while in Texas, I did a 4 mile Plano run (super-hot 80 degree weather!) and did an 11-mile run (in an hour and 40 minutes!!!!!!!!) in Boston the day after getting back from the trip. To finish it off, while in California, I did two 5 mile runs on
Thursday and Friday morning, around Disneyland park, and then yesterday morning I did a 10 mile loop by
doubling the 5-mile run. This was especially difficult because after one loop, I was already feeling it on my legs and it was a mental challenge to push myself to start a second loop when the left turn back into my hotel and to the Starbucks was a million times more tempting... but I did it! What worked for me was putting the thought of stopping my run early out of my mind for just long enough to distract myself and before I knew it, I was back in the zone.

Sunny Anaheim, California (on my long run!)

Now I'm back to a busy week at work - catching up on things from the past few weeks, getting ready for the end of the semester with school (can't believe it's almost over!) and trying to stay on top of SHPE and fundraising! Speaking of, I'm still a little ways away from my goal and have about $1000 left to raise (though I am waiting for some matching gifts from my company to come in so I'm not sure of the exact number) so if you haven't donated, pleaseeeee consider giving to: http://www.active.com/donate/NE11TCVEGAS/MFowler33

I'll try to update more frequently! It'll probably just be less detailed than ones like this!!