For the last few months I have regaled you all with my trials and tribulations of my workout plan. Maybe you haven't tired of reading about my lack of water consumption and sore muscles, but I want to move on to bigger and better things. Also, this is a trend blog, so let's get back to talking about trends. Or setting them. Whichever you prefer.

My new favorite trend and one that I have seen popping up everywhere is photography apps or photo editing websites that are user-friendly and don't make people like myself read a manual, which inevitably, I will stop reading halfway through. 

The best one I have found is an iphone app called Instagram. It allows the photographer to change filters as seen below or take pictures that make them look like professional photographers (see second image below).

For people like me who love photography but don't want to take the time to learn about different lens sizes, focuses and dark room habits, this is perfect. Not sure how professional photographers feel about this although I would love to hear about it. Maybe they feel the same way journalists feel about bloggers... (I can say that because I'm both. Tee-hee.)

While looking to see how many people have jumped on this trend, I stumbled upon this site:

http://www.iphoneography.com/journal/2010/12/19/app-update-instagram.htmllearn how to be a professional photog

So if you want to be a professional photographer, read up and if you are a professional photographer, I would love to hear your views on apps like this.

I'm back!

For those who noticed, I was on vacation and took a hiatus from my blog (and P90x) for a week. No worries though, I am back to working out and eating right once more. (How I miss those avocado cheeseburgers in California...) 

However, my regimen has changed a bit since I have a 5k race coming up in two short weeks. I am still incorporating my P90x ab workout into my running schedule every other day, but I am doing things like strenuous leg workouts and plyometrics less frequently. I am trying to do an arm workout on the days that I do not do that ab workout. 

My new schedule consists of running about three miles (give or take .2 miles) every day until my race. After my race, I will revert to my previous schedule, which was a blend of P90x and running. There will probably be more of an emphasis on P90x after the race.

If you are all wondering what it feels like to train absurdly hard then take about 10 days off to eat a bunch of unhealthy food and lay on a beach - it's rough. Ok, so I did a lot of walking on vacation and I didn't eat food that was all bad for me, but I felt it when I started working out again.

The first 3.5 miles was brutal and I thought for a minute or two that I wouldn't be able to get back into the groove of training but after 3.5 miles last night and another three this morning, I am ready to train hard again.

Improvements: better balanced diet- My daily diet looks a little like this: fish, broccoli, chicken, fat free cheese stick, fat free yogurt, 100 calorie granola bar, grapes, wheeties, 1 percent milk and orange juice.

Splurges: 1/2 a bacon cheeseburger. I plead guilty. (but it's protein!)

Still slacking: Especially now that it's hot outside, I need to drink more water. Anyone have tips on how to trick myself into this?

All the help I can get is appreciated. Good luck with your workouts! I'll write again all the week of my race.