Fifteen Minutes of Fame (and none for Holly Norris)

So on day two of my new fitness routine, I'm pretty much dying. My thighs, abs and back are killing me, but I feel...stronger. If that's possible, already. I noticed today that I could run a little longer, hold the wall squat on my new ab routine better, just a few small improvements that put a smile on my face.

Today was quite an important day for me, because the Travel Channel aired a episode of their new show, Fandemonium, hosted by Adam Richman from Man v. Food, titled "Midieval Madness." It was filmed at, you guessed it, Scarborough Renaissance Festival, my home away from home.

Shenanigans with fellow UNT girl and troupe member, Kristen.

I was - of course - out of town the weekend they filmed at faire, which was the weekend I left for ICDC in California (to read about that crazy week, click here). But in watching it, I could name at least one person in almost every frame/scene, and promptly did so, much to Le Boyfriend and his father's annoyance.



Celtic Troupe, my lovely, award winning group, is featured in the video above, and one of our two troupe directors, David, is featured in the episode, as well as the Pirate Crew I'm a part of and the reason I got involved in faire, the Seahawk Society. It was super surreal seeing all of my friends on TV, but it was such a great feeling knowing that this show would bring more tourism to the faire and hopefully more publicity to our troupe! (The faire website totally crashed after the episode aired, so you know it did it's job!)

One of the highlights of the season - the Scarborough Celtic Troupe Scavenger Hunt for children on Celtic Weekend. They had to find the 10 of us listed on the page and get our John Hancock - I mean Henry Tudor....

Welp, that's all for now, folks. Time to go get some shut eye before an early run to beat the heat tomorrow!

Love,
Holly

PS: Did you like my little Mean Girls reference in the title? I thought it was clever (:

A Fresh Start

When I lost weight freshman year, it wasn't because I was exercising or eating healthy, it was simply because I wasn't eating. I spent so much time running back and forth from Augora Hills to Burbank with a mother who could survive on Diet Coke and gum (and you wonder where my caffeine addiction comes from?) for days that I didn't even think about where my next stop for food was.

Four years later, and if I don't eat every 6 or so hours my stomach feels like it's going to eat itself. But despite my attempts to eat better the last few months or so, leading up to ICDC and after, I still managed to get a Kidney Infection following my recent trip to Galveston due to dehydration and poor nutrition.

So for me, it's time for a change. I mentioned in my "Summer Girl" post that I wanted to spend the time before school starts bettering myself, so here's my chance. I started Day 1 of my new adventure with a run (well...walk/run - I'm not that active!) from my house to our local water park, a good 40 minute workout, followed by a small ab-blaster routine I found on Pinterest.

I found so many pretty spots I've never seen before on the trails behind my neighborhood, including the bridge area to the left. And some of the houses I didn't even know existed!

Of course, the second part of a good weight loss plan is diet. Three balanced meals of cereal, a large salad, and chicken with veggies left me full and enough calories for some no sugar added Vanilla FroYo from Braums (100 calories a serving and my weakness!)

On the mention of food, for lunch we stopped at one of my new favorite places, Snappy Salads in Southlake. It's very similar to a Chipotle, but salads instead of burritos. You can do a half salad, which is still sizable and fills me up, and comes with your choice of lettuce 8 toppings like bacon, carrots, tomatoes, etc. The full salad is only a few dollars more, and comes with 16 toppings. I'm stuffed off a half salad, so I don't even want to know what I'll feel like after a full salad.

The first time I went I got steak with a lime chipotle dressing (pictured right) but today I filled up on less carbs and more white meat with a red pepper vinaigrette that is totally addicting. My favorite part? The $.69 warm, fresh baked bread. I split it today with my lunch companions, Le Best Friend and Le Boyfriend, but nomnomnom it's good.

So now I'm heading to sleep, ready to wake up tomorrow and tackle day two of this challenge. All I know is by the time I get to UNT, I want to be able to walk to my classes without dying. Time to finish this episode of Firefly and hit the hay!

Love,
Holly








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