Holy Hiatus!!

Last post was November 21 - holy lazy!  I have been gone from my house pretty much since December 8th when I went on a cruise with some super-cool competitor peeps.  We had a blast and it was a much-needed getaway from work.  After the cruise, I went to Vegas with Jim for a week, and then flew up to Boston for Christmas.  After that, I went to the beach with Jim for New Years.  I really have not stayed inside my house for over 24 hours since 12/8.  Needless to say, my home and my life are a friggin' MESS right now!

I got 2 awesome cookbooks for Christmas: 1 by my future husband, Bobby Flay, and 1 by Giada de Laurentis.  I am very excited to clean up some of their recipes and incorporate them into my diet.  I will OBVIOUSLY be sharing those with you once I experiment a bit.  For Bobby's recipes, in particular, the flavors are so bold and outstanding, that I don't want to lose the impact of all of that deliciousness.  These recipes will be my hardest challenge yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.  Anyone that loves Southwestern food, you're in for a treat.

I actually went to Bobby's restaurant, Mesa Grill, while in Vegas, and it was amazeballs.  Jim and I split a breakfast quesadilla, which was orgasmic.  I had some sort of waffle that had something spicy in it, and I licked the plate.  I will propose marriage to any many that can cook like that.  Day-um.

I will be going to the Arnold this March, and am very excited about it.  I've always wanted to go, and now I'm finally getting the chance, thanks to the folks at Beast.  It will be hard work, but I am looking forward to doing a little networking and schmoozing, as well!  That, of course, means that I need to start prepping for the Arnold, so I talked to LA about what that will look like.  LA knows me so well, and because she knows how much I am enjoying my time in the kitchen, we're switching up my workouts to a more metabolic focus so that I don't have to even touch my diet yet.  It's a less extreme version of contest prep, basically.  We'll hit it hard with MET stuff, then take out cheats, if I need it - but my macros will stay the same.  But I'm STILL only 6lbs above dry out, and that's even after eating like a d-bag for the last 15 days.  So I really don't have much work to do.  It will be nice to look sexy at the Arnold while still eating doughnuts and cooking Bobby Flay magic, don't you think??  :)