Vegan Day #2, And the Leggings that Could

Guess what?

Yep! My second day as a vegan has been a success 😀 Today I learned an important lesson, and it is this: If you want something done right, you may as well do it yourself.

More on that later! Let’s get started with a less-than-mediocre breakfast:

(Attempted) Baked Apple Oatmeal. This. was. blahhhhhhhhh. It was so blah that I do not want to put the recipe on here. Just know that it was vegan. Next time, I need to add a little more flavor to the oatmeal itself and not focus so much on the topping <–because that’s the only part that was yummy tasting! Half of this was eaten and the rest was thrown in the trash. What a waste! Oh well, you live and you learn.

Surprisingly, my half-oatmeal breakfast kept me full for a good while. As promised, I was the first one at the library this morning! And looky-looky at what I got 😀

Can’t wait to crack these open! Oh and look what came in the mail toooodaayyy:

My very own copy of “Veganomicon”! There has been a lot of praise for this cookbook out in the bloggie world, and I’m so happy I have it as a resource. The pics in it look amazing. And delicious. And simple. <–Hello, I’m all about those three things 🙂

Sadly, I have yet to dive into any of these wonderful-sounding books. My day was totally busy! After heading to the library, I rushed back home for an early lunch of pb&j with an orange on the side.

Boring- I know. But this was before groceries and greens invaded my house.

Unlike yesterdays hurried lunch, I actually sat down and took my time eating this. It wasn’t fully satisfying but it did the trick of tieing me over.

Later on I met my friend, Ashley, at the mall for a little light shopping. What do you think of my new owl necklace? Isn’t it the cutest?!!!!! <–*she shrieks into her boyfriends ear* And it was over 50% off the original price! <–*again with the shrieking* Nice…

What wasn’t so nice? Cramming my butt into tighter-than-tight leggings at Forever21. Leggings and I really want to have a relationship, but I’m afraid it’s just not going to happen. (Nevermind the fact that Jason says I look like Peggy Bundy when I put them on…) I tried, I really did try. My thoughts on my sense of style have always been that I had none. Style? Style is being able to wear leggings, and look totally cute. Or being able to wear skinny jeans with boots on the outside…or having a scarf tied around your purse. But those things aren’t really my personality, and if I bought those items, it would only be me trying to be like someone else.

 

Who better to be like than myself? 😀 I love me! So even though my “style” isn’t up-and-coming, it’s still my very own 🙂 So what if I like striped sweaters and deep grays and blues? It’s my signature look, baby!

While getting my legs out of the vacuum-packed leggings, my tummy started to growl. “Oh no, Stacey! You didn’t bring a snack! What the heck are you going to eat out of the food court that is vegan?!”

Um, fries? 😉 And so it was. We strolled up to Chik-Fil-A and I got a small fry (after talking with the cashier to make sure what I was getting was vegan!) and a unsweet tea.

Not the healthiest snack, but I will be a much better snack planner for the rest of the week! Trust me (I’m a redhead).

Our mall adventure ended and  my friend and I headed our separate ways. Look out, grocery store! I’m coming for ya!

*This was one of the most stressful grocery shopping trips I’ve ever had*

My local grocer (not mentioning any names!) was really slacking this time. The produce selection wasn’t that great this time around. They were almost out of everything! I did manage to find “dairy-free” cheese slices 😀 But no tempeh 😦 I settled for tofu instead. (I will master the art of cooking tofu, I will.) I picked what I could out of the produce section, and headed over to the cereal aisle to try to find a vegan granola bar.

So. not. happening. I must have looked at every granola bar in the store! It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I will need to make my own snacks at home. This is totally fine with me! Actually, I would rather make my snacks at home..that way, I know what is going into them 🙂

Same for desserts. The only vegan desserts I found were ice cream sandwiches that cost $5 for 6 of them! No thank you!

Can you guess what I will spend my day doing tomorrow??

Baking! Desserts and snacks! Yippee 😀

With a full load of groceries (most of them veggies), I drove home to get started on dinner. The fries were wearing off (surprise, surprise) and this girl was getting hungry again!

I whipped up a homemade meatloaf for Jason before starting on my own dinner adventure. Why, yes. I am a nice girlfriend 🙂 What guy doesn’t want 2 pounds of ground meat to himself?? 😉

Meatloaf Recipe: (for those of you that want to cook your way into your man’s heart) 😀

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. lean ground meat
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 3 celery stalks, washed and chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tsp. dry Italian seasoning
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 Tsp. garlic powder
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce

Heat butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and celery, cook until lightly browned.

In a large bowl add: raw meat, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, 1/3 cup ketchup, 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, eggs and garlic powder, celery and onion. Stir until mixed.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place aluminum foil in bottom of a broiler pan, place rack on top. Lightly grease broiler rack with non-stick cooking spray. Shape meat into a loaf (not too thick in the middle) and put on top of broiler rack. Cook in oven for 45 minutes. For topping: mix together tomato sauce, 1Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tbsp. ketchup and the tomato paste. Pour over meatloaf evenly, and enjoy!

As for me: I almost went the dull route again! I was hungry and the leftovers from last night (yeah, Indian food!) were staring me in the face. But for the sake of the blog, I decided to whip up something quick. This is what I came up with:

Smashed potatoes with broccoli, tomato and “cheese” on top! I know what you are thinking: “You have all of those awesome vegan cookbooks by your side, and this is what you came up with?!” Never fear, my friends! Tomorrow night’s dinner is likely to blow your comfy socks right off of your feet! *Scouts honor* Oh and all of the baking I’m going to be doing! Tomorrow will definitely not be dull, I promise 😀

In other vegan news: I’ve been feeling a little weak these past couple of days. I think it may be that I’m not getting enough Calcium. My daily vitamin only provides 10% of my Recommended Daily Allowance! So I am also on the hunt for a calcium supplement 🙂 Other than that, I’m loving this change!

The books I checked out from the library are just begging to be opened and read! Can’t ignore them! See ya tomorrow for Vegan Day #3 🙂

PS. Thank you for all the support you guys have been giving me! Love you!

Vegan Day #1

I made it! 🙂

There have been a lot of emotional ups and downs today, but I made it and I think at the end of the day, I have a better understanding of myself and why I am making this change 😀 I’ll tell you about all of that later in the post! First-let’s get to breakfast!

A vegan breakfast was pretty easy for me to come up with. I scanned my cinnamon raisin toast ingredient list for egg or dairy product only to find that there is none of that in there, so viola! A breakfast was born. (You should also know that I take a multi-vitamin with breakfast everyday.)

Topped with natural chunky pb and raspberry jam, with two clementines on the side 😀 Cup O Joe fo’ sho’. I missed my morning banana 😦 I usually have a banana every day with breakfast, but we seriously running low on groceries (a trip is in store for tomorrow!).

The rest of the morning was spent walking Trixie and straightening up the house. My tummy started to growl after all of that moving, so I had a mid-morning snack of bran cereal with almond milk. (I heart almond milk).

After my snacky-snack,  I tried to go to the library but it was closed for the holiday until tomorrow 😦 Boo! Oh well, you better believe I will be the first one there in the morning when they open 😀

Instead of driving all the way back home, I called a friend to see if she wanted some company (plus, I wanted to see her cute newborn baby! He’s so precious and I just looooveeee him)

While chit-chatting in the kitchen, I realized that I was getting pretty hungry. I dug in my purse for some emergency blue corn tortilla chips (along with a unsweet tea from Dunkin’ Donuts’. Seriously Dunkin’ Donuts, why aren’t we working together yet?)

My friend-o offered up some salsa after the pic was taken 🙂

**The rest of the afternoon was poor planning on my part** Like always, I stayed at my friend’s house a lot longer than I anticipated (do you always lose track of time when you are having fun too?!) so when 2:30 rolled around without lunch anywhere in between, my tummy was pretty mad at me! Hunger hit me like a truck! After arriving back home around 3, shaky and feeling weak, I quickly looked for a vegan lunch to throw together while snacking on grapes to bring my blood sugar back up.

Veggie dogs! Of course!! Those have to be vegan. I threw a pot of water on the stove and set it to high so that the water would boil. While waiting, I grabbed the veggie dogs out of the freezer just to “make sure” that they were vegan. Guess what? They’re not! Surprise. Surprise.

Dang it! Keep in mind that we are almost grocery-less and other than a veggie dog, I hadn’t really thought of a back up plan for a vegan lunch. Oh, and the simple fact that I’m very close to eating the furniture at this point. I need FOOD and I need it NOW. The water was already boiling, so I threw some spaghetti in there and heated up some leftover broccoli in the microwave. In less than ten minutes, another vegan meal was born 🙂

There was some thinking that went into the pasta sauce. I almost grabbed one with parmesan cheese, but quickly noticed my mistake and chose a simple tomato/basil sauce instead 😉 Problem solved. I pretty much inhaled this plate. And like usual, my sweet tooth kicked in right after!

Our cabinets are full of sweets! We received a ton of candy and chocolate this Christmas, but none that is vegan…except Junior Mints.

*Jason later pointed out that these contain gelatin, which is made from animal parts that have been melted down to create a gel-like consistency* Oops. A minor mistake, I’m not going to beat myself up about it 🙂 I’m still new to this vegan thing 😉

Once Jason came home from work, we decided to hit up the gym together. Feeling as if lunch would probably be burned off, I reached for a last-minute snack before heading out of the door. Grapes and a handful of walnuts. (I promise more variety after the grocery shopping trip!)

At the gym:

• 100 crunches using exercise ball
• 40 side planks (each side)
• 3 sets of 15 incline push-ups
• 3 mile run (in under 30 minutes!!) <–Had terrible indigestion during this run. Blegh.

Besides the my tummy hurting during the run (I blame the fast eating at lunch time!), it ’twas a pretty good gym trip 🙂 Once home, I threw some lentils into a huge pot for our Indian-inspired dinner! Fragrant red lentils with rice (and naan for Jason 😉 ).  Recipe link: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000222715  — simply take out the butter to make it vegan, but even if you aren’t vegan this is a great, filling vegetarian recipe!

My plate (accompanied with veggies):

Side note: Your house will smell amazing after cooking this! All of the spices used are so warm and enticing!

Dessert: There was none. Unless you count a cup of sleepy-time tea – flavored with candy cane – as dessert 😉

So how was my first day as a vegan?

————————————————————————————

This morning I didn’t really know why I wanted to become a vegan. I knew that it would, in some way, be more humane to animals. I also knew that, in some way, it would be better for the environment. I just didn’t know why or how. I’ve done research since then and though this is going to be a learning process for me (until I get the hang of it), I do not feel regret for choosing to live this way. After reading numerous articles on the effects that factory farming has on animals and our planet, I have never been more sure of my decision.

I know that some people may see this as strange, extreme or ridiculously restrictive, but it isn’t to me. For me, it will be a lifestyle. Do I think veganism is for everyone? Absolutely not.

Do I think the world would be a better place if we consumed less meat than we do now? Yes, I do. But I will never, ever push my beliefs on another person. I think that if someone is interested in making a lifestyle change like this, the best thing they can do is research, research, RESEARCH. Make an educated decision.

This kind of reminds me of the talk I had with Jason while we were eating dinner. Though he supports me, he admits that he doesn’t really understand why I’m going vegan. That it seems like “torture” not to eat cheese. Or that it seems like a “pain” to have to check every ingredient in our everyday foods just to see if they contain animal products. But after sitting down with him on the couch and showing him some of the articles I read that explain veganism and why people go vegan, he understood a little better.

I don’t ask that you adopt my lifestyle. I ask that you have an open-mind and try not to judge me for the decisions I make. The fact that I am probably the only vegan in a 30 mile radius is kind of hard, especially in the city I live in. I know people won’t understand it and that I may have to do a lot of explaining and defending, but that is alright with me.

All in all, I’m happy that I’ve started this journey. It feels freeing, and  I feel like more wholesome person. And I can’t wait to share the rest of the week with you! Thanks for being so supportive guys! I need all of the support I can get right now!

If you’ve ever made a major lifestyle change, please share! How did it affect you and those around you?

No More Stinky Stacey

Hey 🙂

I haven’t written in forever! I should probably take that last post down, but I’m not gonna. It helps me to write about things and that’s how I was feeling at the time, so it shall stay posted 😉

Oh- I’m feeling a lot better about the whole situation (by the way). Jason and I had a long talk the other night, and afterward I felt truly lucky to have someone support me as much as he does. He supports everything I do without question, he is my personal cheerleader and believes in me 100%, that’s why I love him 😀 I know that there are opportunities out there that are just waiting for me, so I’m not going to give up!

And that’s that.

Last weekend, I took a much-needed vacation so that I could go see my best friend in GA! The drive down there was full of beautiful fall trees….

Yummy food and the best coffee on Earth..

*Seriously Dunkin Donuts- let’s get together and make some great things happen..mkay? Mkay!*

(So I stopped twice! What of it?? 😉 )

I spy with my little eye…

A giant butt-crack! Oh wait. It’s just the SC peach tower 😀

There were hugs to be had once I arrived!

Heather and I have been friends since we were 9 years old and now we’re all grown up! She is now married with 2 adorable little boys. It seems like it was just yesterday that we were playing out dramatic scenes with our Barbie dolls on her bedroom floor 🙂

The weekend away was just what I needed. Her little boy is such a charmer….

and her husband? Well he is certainly…interesting…to say the least 😉 Haha!

We went shopping, out to dinner and had some girl talk late in the night (just like old times!) and on Sunday it was time for me to go back home. I hit the road (passed the giant butt-crack once again) and arrived home 3.5 hours later to find a small package awaiting me in the mailbox!

I love surprise packages 😀

Remember my Deodorant 101 post? No? Well, I’ll do a small recap:

I have yet to find a deodorant that can hold up during a tough, sweaty workout. I’ve tried every women’s deodorant out there, none of them have been able to pass my no-stink, no-sweat test. In the post, I expressed my desire to find a deodorant that will not stain my shirt, will not leave me stinking and will not leave me with sweaty pit stains after an intense cardio session. Trips to the gym have been skipped because I’ve been so embarrassed about all of these things!

The folks over at Secret deodorant saw the post and offered me a chance to try one of their Clinical Strength products. This is one of the deodorants I have never tried, and I figure: What have I got to lose? What I’m using right now is not working, so why not give it a shot?

I opened up the package and not only found a sample of the deodorant but a ITunes gift card too! How nice 😀

Also with it was a nice letter that said: “….these two things used together, and we think you will have the perfect run!” Awww, they are so sweet. And yes, I am hoping to have a great run!

Jason and I have scheduled a trip to the gym once he comes home from work. Will Secret keep me sweat/stink-free during my 5 mile run tonight? We shall see! (I’ve already stuck my nose up to the top of the deodorant and it smells amazing! (It’s the “Marathon Fresh” scent <–love that name!)

As for right now – my insomnia has been a little bad this week ( 10 hours of sleep total for the past three days) so I think I may try to take a cat nap before Jason gets home in an hour! Check back Friday if you want to know whether Secret is a winner…or if I ran out of the gym because everyone was yelling “Stinky Stacey!” at me 😉

Hope you guys are having a great week, it’s almost the weekend! Hang in there! See ya later taters 🙂

This Morning

This morning:

I’ve had time to make muffins (from a packet) and a green smoothie (not from a packet)

I’ve had time to stalk a few celebrities on Twitter (ah hem….Kat Dennings and Stephen Colbert).

I’ve had time to sing commercial jingles while picking out my outfit for the day..

“The best part of waking up, is FOLGERS in youuurrrr cuppppp!”

I’ve also had time to study my little heart out, or brain, for that matter. Big Chemistry test today!

I’ve had time to take Trixie out so that she can go to the bathroom (trust me, you don’t want to see a pic of that)..

The point is: I’ve had time to make my day better than yesterday was! Yesterday was a serious crapfest. The skies looked like this:

(source)

I may or may not have spent all morning listening to sad ‘Bens Fold Five’ songs “Brick” is such a sad song!

I also may or may not have had insomnia the night before too 😉

And once I got to my internship, I may or may not have spilled boiling hot coffee onto myself within the first 15 minutes of being there.

I didn’t want to be in a bad mood so I tried to think of something that would make me forget my craptacular day…

Hot, sweaty yoga! Come and get it! <–Oh I will, thank you ever so much!

At 7:30 at night, I left my house for the hour drive to Y2Yoga in Charlotte 🙂 Not too crazy about how far away it is from me, but it’s something I really needed. Plus, at $5 for a class, it was a steal!

I settled on the floor with my mat and water and waited for the teacher to begin.

This class was full of new moves! LOVED IT ❤ The teacher was the same girl I’d had last time and she was really great. There wasn’t as much core work as I would’ve liked but there were also a lot of people that were new to yoga, so I think she left a lot of the difficult stuff out, but it was still a great class!

 

I wish I could remember all of the names of the poses! I’ve learned how to hold my side plank though!!!

(source)

I used to be able to hold it for about 5 seconds before my arms start shaking and I have to go out of the pose, but not anymore! Last night, I held the pose the entire time and no shaking! I think all of the strength training is finally helping 😀

I’ve also been working on my side crow’s pose:

(source)

I’m getting a little better at it…I still need to work on how I position myself, but I feel confident I can do it by December!

Yoga definitely made my sour mood go away. (And I stopped listening to sad music too) 😉

Oh! Today is my iced coffee day! Look out Dunkin’ Donuts!!!!! Nah. I’m pretty sure they know I’m coming, seeing as how I usually don’t even have to ask for what I want, cos they already know (this is a good thing, right?).

Old coffee pic from back in the day:

By the way: I may or may not have had the time to e-mail Dunkin Donuts this morning to tell them what a fan I am of their DDSmart menu. I also may or may not have suggested that they hire a Nutritionist (eh hem) to be their next spokesperson…..Just sayin’.

It’s time for me to ske-daddle! Uhh oh! Clouds outside, where’s my Bens Fold Five C.D.??!!! Haha, just kidding 😀

But I do have the movie “Precious” on Netflix, just in case 😉 Time to get some Tenacious D on Pandora and jump in the shower!

Love ya’s! 🙂

You’ve Got Some Blood on Your Face

Happy Halloween! 😀

I’m not usually a “Halloween” person. It’s not one of the holidays that I look forward to the most…not like Thanksgiving or July 4th! But this year, I was feeling the urge to dress up, go dancing and just have fun. I had no idea what I wanted to dress up as or where I wanted to go, but I know that I wanted to do something.

All of my initial costume ideas involved fruits or vegetables 😉 At first I wanted to be mashed potatoes and have Jason be gravy. Then he expressed concerns about looking like a turd, so that went out the window. My next idea? Peas and carrots. Then Jason said “How come everything you want to be has to do with food??”

Ummmm…. ? Because I love it?? I didn’t realise that I was only mentioning food items, so I asked him “What do YOU wanna be?” His answer: Zombies!

And so it was. 🙂

Whitney sent me an invite for a Halloween party at a restaurant/lounge in Charlotte that very same day! We now had costumes and somewhere to go! Hooray!

Jason got off of work and we set out to get makeup for our zombie faces…Party City was crazy yo. It was packed with kids and parents all over the place!

After that stressful trip, we headed home to get ready!

Zombie makeup is hard to do 😦 I watched two YouTube videos on how to do it, but the makeup kept caking up and drying too fast. I had to start over twice! (We don’t really have any pics before we got ready because we both had makeup all over our hands!) Jason was in charge of making our clothes bloody, so I gave him my white shirt and he took it out into the yard to work his magic on it.

Two hours later, and after a fast dinner (where I ate standing up at the kitchen counter) we were finally done! The end result:

Rawrrr…I wanna eat your flesh. (My makeup is done like I have a black eye, but oh well..maybe that’s how I died and became a zombie? :D)

Zombie pose:

Leave it to a guy to put blood on a shirt and he will always find the perfect spot 😉 (Hence the bloody handprints on my boobs)

Time to go! We made the 45 minute drive into Charlotte for a Halloween party at Andrew Blair’s. I was a little nervous when we got there because the people who were going into and coming out of the place weren’t in costume, but inside it was a different story 🙂

After getting through the door, we got a beer and looked around for Whitney. Found her!

Can you guess who she is? I’ll give you a hint:

“Blah, blah blah. Zazazaza talkin’bout.”

She did a pretty great job, no?! Can you believe that it didn’t cost her any money?! Cute, very cute. And I LOVED the braid. As the night went on it sort of became a weapon (she kept slinging it around HAHA) 😀

After my second beer (says the girl who can hardly finish one drink on a normal night) it was time to hit the dance flo’ fo’ sho’.

Jason and I danced for a good hour before taking a break. All of the costumes were amazing! It was fun to try to guess who people were. My two favs:

This guy was a one-night stand, haha! And this next one was just plain hilarious:

Tiger Woods! 🙂 Oh, and I also liked the Semi-Pro dudes…

Hehe 🙂

Jason and I were the only people there that were bloody/creepy looking! All of the girls were dressed sort of sexily (not sure if that’s even a word) and most of the guys picked a character to be. There were a surprising amount of Star Trek people there! I didn’t mind that I was the only bloody girl 🙂 I had fun doing the make up and ripping up an old shirt! 🙂

 There was a girl in the bathroom that said: “I can’t believe you wore blood. Blood is never sexy!”

Hmmmmm..my first reaction: HO-BAG! DID ASK YOU?! You won’t be sexy either once I shove your face in the toilet! But I just kind of let it roll off of me and went back to the dance floor where MY BOYFRIEND (that always thinks I’m sexy) was waiting for me 😉

Jason and I grooved on the dance floor some more, while I had my third beer and a mixed drink…I never ever go out drinking or dancing so instead of feeling guilty about all the calories (or money) that was being consumed, I just went along with it and had fun 🙂 We danced to “Teenage Dream” and “Push It” by Salt-n-Peppa 🙂 Have I mentioned how much I love music?? 😉

Around 1:30 a.m. we decided it would be smart of us to head back home…because after all, I DID have a 5k to be at at 7 in the morning!! Yikes!

And you guessed it: I was feeling totally unreal when my 6 a.m. alarm clock went off….

My head hurt, my body hurt, my mouth tasted disgusting, but there was no way I was going to miss the race! The director of Girls on the Run paid for my registration so that I could be a running buddy for my old team so I HAD to be there, and I wanted to be too! 😀 I couldn’t wait to see them!

I drove back to Charlotte, got stuck in traffic near the race and after 30 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic, I was finally told to park in a field. The sun was coming up and it was beautiful 🙂

The CLT runway 5k race was held at the Charlotte-Douglas airport. The course was mapped out along the runway and it was really neat because as you were running, you could watch planes land and take off on nearby runways!

 

But, I’m getting ahead of myself:

I felt like pooh:

No reason in wallowing in agony! I put my best attitude forward and proceeded to the registration pick-up table.

After putting on my number, I started to look around for my school.

Nothing.

I checked with the registration table and the woman said that no one from that school had shown up yet.

Okay, so maybe they are all stuck in traffic? The traffic was pretty bad, I heard that a lot of folks missed the race because they didn’t get to park until it was too late.

I waited and waited. I checked back at the table. Nothing.

Pretty soon it was time to line up at the starting line. I stayed toward the back so I could keep watch for my school’s sign, but it never showed. I decided to just run the race so the money wouldn’t go to waste, and as I ran, I encouraged any GOTR members that I thought might need it 🙂 I’d find someone with GOTR shirts and run up beside them and say “You’re doing great! Keep it up!” or if I found some girls that were struggling, I’d say “You can DO this! You’ve got this!”  😀 I’d like to think I encouraged them at least a little! 🙂

When the race was over, I tried to wait around so I could find out my finishing time. As soon as I saw how swarmed the results table was, I decided to leave. I needed a shower and my bed.

I drank some Gatorade and a bran muffin, but everything tasted disgusting! During the race I kept burping and acid would come up in my throat (gross!). There were a couple of times when I thought I’d puke up every drink I had the night before, but I managed to keep it down.

The drive back home was fast. I hopped in the shower, threw on some pj’s and went back to bed for 3 hours. Jason came in and woke me up for lunch. He was nice enough to treat me to a greasy, late breakfast (and much-needed coffee!!!!!) at Waffle House 🙂

Then we went to the store for milk and he surprised me with a pint of ice cream 😀 He sure knows the way to a girl’s heart 😉

It’s been a fun weekend! I think that I’m off of beer for at least a week though, haha. Today I woke up, did Chemistry homework while sitting in my pj’s and watching Spongebob (no judging!). It’s been a good morning, but I think I want to run! Or strength-train at the gym? Who knows!

I’ll post my results as soon as they are online!

See ya!

Did you see any cool costumes this weekend?? I thought the Tiger Woods one was great! Haha 😀

PS. I did end up getting my pumpkin iced coffee on Friday, in case you were wondering! Coffee and me photo:

Cheeeeseeeeee!

The Happy Body Philosophy

About a month ago, I woke up bright and early on a Saturday morning and decided to be different.  Maybe even a little weird? Yes. But in a good way 🙂

I put on some work out clothes, drove to the grocery store and bought a 24 pack of bottled water. I filled a cooler full of ice and shoved the bottled waters down in there so they would get nice and cold. I then proceeded to drive to the greenway, set up my cooler near the front and hand out waters to everyone that was exercising that morning. It was 8 a.m.

I could have stayed in bed. I had a million other things to do that day, but I wanted to give back in a small way. I wanted people to have a small reward for getting out of bed themselves and making the choice to exercise.

At first I got some really weird looks from runners and walkers. Like: Why is she just giving out water? A few people couldn’t believe it was free and offered to pay me for it! Others called me sweet and said “Thank you” many times over. And that made me happy 😀 One older lady was extremely nice and kept telling me what a sweet girl I was and I think she was about to start pinching my cheeks until her husband caught her attention, haha!

It took 45 minutes to give out all of the waters, which was a little shorter than I had planned (I had even brought a snack with me!). Once it was over I packed my cooler back in my car and drove home. With a smile on my face 😀 It made me feel so great to give to others. Even if it was only a bottle of water. I felt like, in some small way, that I had encouraged them to get up early and exercise again next weekend.

  

I got to thinking that day.

About how wonderful our bodies are, and I’m not talking about look-wise. I mean, I have imperfections everywhere. One huge birthmark on my leg, another on my stomach. A few pimples on my face every now and then. Stretch marks on my hips and maybe a little cellulite on my arse (:D). But inside, I think my body is beautiful.

I think I’m sounding pretty hippie-ish right now, but that’s okay 😉

My body carries me day in and day out. It allows me to place my feet on the floor in the morning when getting out of bed. It gives me the strength and flexibility to do a back bend during a yoga session. It allows me to chug uphill on a long run. And sometimes at the end of the day it tells me to relax and soak my muscles in a hot bubble bath.

And so….I try to do things that will make it happy.

Like staying active…

Feeding it ice cream when the craving hits…

or going the other way and loading it up with veggies…

My body loves that first sip of coffee in the morning..

(source)

and it also loves the many cups of water that follow throughout the day!

(source)

My body is happy when we take Trixie for a walk in the park…

or when I take it up the mountain for a hike..

It’s also happy to get the occasional beer or glass of wine 😉

And did I mention dark chocolate? It goes crazy for the stuff!

(source)

It’s happy when we complete 13.1 miles together 🙂

My body loves getting hugs from my fur-child…

…and from my not-so-furry boyfriend 😉

It’s happy to stand in the kitchen for long periods of time while I cook up a  nutritious meal to feed it..

..and it’s always happy to get some rest when it can…

I’d like to think my body is pretty happy with me and the way I’ve been treating it 🙂 It may even stick around for years to come if I keep up the good work!

My Philosophy?

Put good things in so that good things will come out. Challenge your body on a regular basis. Test your strength and go beyond what you think are your limits. Find new boundaries and discover a whole new comfort zone that you never thought could exist. Buy a new vegetable that you have never cooked with once a week. Experiment in the kitchen with healthy baking recipes. Find time to try something that you have always wanted to try. Explore. Discover. Experience.

What have YOU done to make your body happy today?

[I am getting glasses today! A happy body is one that can see where it’s going, right?? :D]

Security!

Hey there! It’s Monday. Time to roll out of my platform bed and put on my big girl clothes for the day!

Did you guys have a good weekend? Mine went by way too fast as usual but it was a fun weekend nonetheless.

Saturday morning I woke up craving MUFFINS. Sweet, savory muffins. And Emily’s Maple Cinnamon French Toast muffins were the first thing to come to mind!

Side note: I wish that I were coordinated enough to be able to take pics of ingredients while I’m mixing them, but I’m just not 😦 Sorry! You still get the before-the-oven and out-of-the-oven pics though! 😉

Jason walked into the kitchen all sleepy-eyed (it was 10 a.m. btw) and took alarm at the fact that I was cutting up half a loaf of bread into little cubes.

Him: “What are you DOING?!” (Bread is his life. The boy can eat a whole loaf of bread in about 4 days.)

Me: “It’s for our breakfast! You’ll like it, I promise.”

Him: *Grumble* “Mkay babe.” And then he proceeds to mourn the slaying of his bread on the couch.

Twenty minutes later the concoction was ready to go into the oven!

The end result:

Pure deliciousness 🙂 In the middle of eating our yummy breakfast, Jason mentioned that these muffins would be perfect for dipping in maple syrup. My reaction: “Go get it!” I poured a little pool of syrup on the side of my plate for dipping, and I have to admit: he was right! The syrup brings out the cinnamon-y flavor a lot more 🙂 We will definitely be making these again (and there are enough leftovers to last us for at least a few days!).

After breakfast it was on to Krewe. The YMCA – the one I intern for – was holding a fundraiser that allows children that can’t afford to attend summer camp, the chance to go. This was my first time attending Krewe and it was really fun!

There was oldies music (is it bad that I knew all of the songs?!):

Games and swings for the kids:

Tours through the old Woodside Plantation:

..and the best part: Desserts!

(and that was after everyone had been through once!) My pumpkin spice cake eaten up with none to spare! Yay! 🙂

I was holding down the ticket booth for the first part of the night…

..and then it was on to tea-pouring at the drink station!

(FYI: Jason and I did a quick 3 mile run before I had to leave for my volunteer job. Under my jeans are running shorts and KT Tape…no time to shower or fix my bed-head! :P) Also: Make sure to check out my Exercise Log to see what I’m doing! I may not write about it, but I have been updating it everyday!)

Pouring tea was my favorite part. Can you guess why? I’ll give you some hints:

The drink station was set up right next to a field that fenced miniature donkeys! There were about 3 babies and 2 grown ups running around 😀 I went up to pet one of them and he tried to eat the drawstring off of my jacket. Then he tried to eat my camera. Then the little bugger tried to eat an apron that was lying on the ground near the fence! HAHA! One of the cooks allowed me to feed him a hamburger bun 🙂

Munch. Munch. Munch. I almost lost a finger trying to feed this donkey, but it was worth it 🙂

Not too far from where the drink station was, there was an old barn that was just begging for a picture. (You guys know how much I love old, abandoned barns!)

 

Ahhhhhh 😀 I love a nice day in the countryside.

 

Needless to say, I was in desperate need of a shower when I returned home!

 

Jason and I had leftovers for dinner that night. I took a hot bubble bath while reading my book and then it was off to bed for me.

 

And Sunday? Sunday was such a fun day!

 

HOLY OW MOMENT.

 

We started our day with leftover muffins (even better the second time around!). I cleaned up a little bit while he finished homework and then we set out for the gym! A few days ago Paige shared an exercise routine on her blog that really caught my eye. You guys know that I love to run, but I also really, really love to strength train! Her sharing her exercise routine with us is almost like having a free session with a personal trainer, and that I cannot resist 😉

 

Here are the exercise sets that she posted:

1a. Behind Neck Press	3	10 w/ 20 lb. barbell
1b. Long Arm Pullover	3	10 w/ 15 lb. dumbbell
1c. Barbell side lunge	3 on each leg	10 w/ 20 lb. barbell

 

Exercise	Sets	Reps
2a. Single Arm Twisting Seated Row	3 on each arm	10
2b. Pushup	3	10
2c. Dumbbell Deadlift	3	10 w/ 15 lb. dumbbells

 

Exercise	Sets	Reps
3a. O/H tricep cable extension	3	10 w/ 20 lbs.
3b. Lat pulldown	3	10 w/25 lbs.
3c. Step ups	3 on each leg	10 w/ 15 lb. dumbbells

 

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Plank on medicine ball	3	60 seconds each
Back extension on ball	3	10 w/ 10 lb. plate

 

I did a quick ten minute warm up on the elliptical and then started the first set. Jason and I had to do a few modifications because we were taking turns on the machines. (Our gym does not have a 20 lb. barbell, so we had to work with what we had!) Here are the modifications:

• 1a. Military chest press, sitting upright. 3 sets of 10 with 20 lbs.
• 1b. Hammer curls. 3 sets of 10 with 10 lb. weights
• 1c. no modification
• 2a. Seated rowing machine, 3 sets of 10 using 40 lbs.
• 2b. No modification
• 2c. No modification <–first time doing these, and they were surprisingly harder than I thought they would be!
• 3a. Tricep extention machine, 3 sets of 10 with 30 lbs.
• 3b. Lat pulldown machine, 3 sets of 10 using 55 lbs.
• 3c. No modification <–these were hard too!
• Planks: no modification. <–doing them while trying to balance on the medicine ball works your core a lot more! Sometimes my feet would move and I’d have to give it all the concentration I had not to let them go off of it.
• Back extensions: the hardest move out of all of these exercises! I didn’t even know those muscles were back there!
• I also added on 50 finger-to-toe ab crunches on here while waiting for Jason to do his planks 😉

Wooo–weeee! This workout gave me so much energy! Go ahead and put me in the ring with a UFC fighter, I might just win 😀 Haha, just kidding! But that’s really how I felt afterwards 🙂

 Is there security at the door? Because these guns are loaded! Hehe 🙂

 Once we were home, I ran inside to smooth me up a smoothie 😉

2 handfuls of spinach, 1 banana, 1/3 cup of frozen mango and a 1/2 cup almond milk went into this yummy Green Monster. Slurp, slurp, slurp. Along with a peanut butter covered english muffin for some chew, chew, chewiness.

The rest of the day was spent lounging on the couch with my fur-babies and playing a game of Scrabble with Jason.

* I wonder if he is trying to tell me something??* Okay, I admit it. I am a total game nerd. I love games of all kinds, but especially the ones that make you use your noodle! Jason won (of course!). You know what his winning word was? Dragqueen. I realise that the two aren’t supposed to be put together as one word, but I let him slide by with it. So, there ya go folks.

There are other recipes that I tried this weekend – two, to be exact – but I’ve got to get off of here so that I can go finish up “Half-Broke Horses” by Jeanette Walls!

My next two reads:

annnddd…

I’m excited to start reading them! I’ve read ‘In Defense of Food’ and really liked it, so I thought I might like this one too! Have a happy Monday!

Have you read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma? What do you think of it?

Oh, It’s You Again?

Ahhhhhh fall 😀

The leaves are turning colors…

-okay, so our leaves are still green but whatever! They will look like the pic above soon enough 😉

..and there is a chill in the air! So much in fact, that I had to wear a hoodie and tube socks while eating breakfast outside! LOVE this weather 🙂

Jason and I slept with a few windows open last night and we both woke up with sore throats this morning Hope it doesn’t turn into anything serious! He decided to eat breakfast sitting in front of the tube, taking a bite only in between battles on Modern Warfare.

As for me: this girl is going outside to eat!

The only problem was that my hunger was nowhere to be found! I guess 4 slices of late-night pizza will do that to you 😉

I settled for some coffee and book reading until my tummy was ready for more. (Who else is excited about college hoodies, cute pajama pants and tube socks?! Me,me, me!)

In 20 minutes my stomach let out a little gurgle. No point in waiting around forever for it to get fully hungry! I trudged back into the house to scrounge the cabinets and fridge. Nothing seemed appealing. French toast? Too heavy. Waffles? Meh. Good old-fashioned bowl of cereal? Yes, please!  😀

Kashi Heart to Heart with banana, almond milk and cinnamon sprinkled on top. (And of course: more reading and coffee!)

Breakfast seemed to last a loooonngggg time. I know that I was outside for at least an hour! Jason came out of the house and informed me that it was 9 o’clock already. Gah! Better get moving! Before getting ready for school, I did a quickie strength training session in the office. Here is what I did:

• 60 push ups
• 3 sets of 1 minute plank holds
• 3 sets of 12 lateral arm raises
• 3 sets of 10 straight-arm raises
• 25 left leg crunches/25 right leg crunches
• 50 regular crunches (I may be obsessed with ab work)

Time to get ready! It was the type of morning that required me to sing Kelly Clarkson at the top of my lungs into my eyelash curler.

“You gotta piece of me/and honestly/my life (my life)/would suck (would suck)/ withouuuuttt youuuu”

Aside from scaring the dog half to death, I think I’ve got a pretty decent voice! Look out American Idol! 😉 Just kidding of course.

You know another thing about fall that gets me excited?

Unpacking my wide-leg pants!!!

I have three other pairs, all different colors 😀 I kept Old Navy in business last year, let me tell ya what. These are the most comfortable pants EVER! I love how they fit perfectly around my waist and then get wide towards the bottom 🙂

Okay! Enough of me gushing about my huge pants! The fashion show had to come to an end because Mr. Chemistry was waiting to give me a quiz.

Ughhh. Chemistry went by at a painfully slow pace. I did, however, make 100 on the quiz! Boo-ya! 😀 My stomach was pretty embarrassing during class: grumbling and what-not.

In order to avoid resorting to cannibalism-I knew I needed to make it home as quickly as possible! Once there, I threw two slices of leftover veggie pizza in the microwave and grabbed the bag of spinach out of the fridge. It was simple, but filling lunch 🙂

Pizza with a S.S.S. (simple spinach salad) on the side! And feta cheese added on top. But there’s already cheese on the pizza! I just like cheese, okay? No judging 🙂

Looks like someone smells food! Or my camera.

 My neighbors cat seems to like cheese as well (or at least the smell of it. If you think I’m giving up my lunch to a cat that gets fed 4 times a day, you’re crazy!)

I finally had to shoo him off after he tried swiping some cheese off my plate!

Homegirl don’t play. You can have my paper towel and maybe even a spinach leaf, but you betta keep yo paws offa my cheese! 🙂

On the side of all of this goodness, there was a little bubbly something going on 😉

I’ve been wanting to try La Croix for a long time now….but, there is no way I’m spending $5 on a 12 pack of these things if I’m not even sure I’ll like it! Last night while Jason and I were running into the store for cereal, we found that these were on sale: $2.50 for a 12 pack. Hmmmmmm. Ok! Let’s give it a try!

The verdict?

Blegh! (And if you think this face is ugly, you should’ve seen the face that Jason made when I asked him to take a sip!) Ewwwwww! This stuff is so nasty!

I get that its carbonated water and blah blah blah…but it seriously reminds me of the time when I accidentally drank pure carbonated water (I thought I was getting Sprite!). Too bad I have 11 more cans of it in there. After taking a few more sips, I came to realise it wasn’t too bad…but after the case is gone, I’m never buying it again. I think if I want some carbonation, I’ll just stick with my diet soda-thank you very much 🙂

And as for dessert from lunch-I’m saving some room for a special something a little later on 😉 Can’t tell you what it is! But I will give you a hint. Are you ready?

It rhymes with spice stream. 😀

Happy Friday!

What makes you excited about fall?

Who Is This Girl?

Hey you guys!  

It’s been a laid back weekend here in N.C.! I think Jason and I have left the house maybe twice the whole weekend?? 😀 That’s ok though. Sometimes I need a weekend like that, ya know what I mean?  

Saturday went by wayyyy to quickly! The only thing I remember about Saturday is that we went for a 4 mile run on the greenway and almost wound up losing our cookies in the heat! We started out just fine, but I think we may have underestimated the sun a bit. I (stupidly) did not wear sunscreen on my face and now I have a sunburn 😦  

We chose to run in 93 degree weather in the middle of the afternoon. The last mile left us feeling sick and dehydrated. Cold chills crept up and then the dizziness came, so that’s when our run ended. We spent the rest of the day recovering in the A.C. and watching the rest of LOST on Netflix 😀  

Sooooo, this morning we woke up to clouds and 70 degree weather!! Yay! It finally feels like fall! And looking at the weather for the rest of the week, I would say it is 🙂  

  

Jason and I wanted to take advantage of the cool weather by having breakfast and coffee on our new outdoor furniture! It was a $20 steal from a moving sale down the road. That’s not bad for a glass table and 3 iron chairs!! The chairs have a few spots of rust on them but they will do until we can afford newer items 🙂  

For breakfast:  

  

Smashed banana nut muffins with pb & j and a sliced naner on top! Nom nom nom.  

We sat out there for an hour or so just chatting and enjoying nature.. then rain drops started to fall so we hustled back inside.  

Once inside, I couldn’t figure out what to do with my day! Jason had homework (I didn’t have any), the house was spotless and there were no chores to  be done. Hmmmm…what to do? What to do?  

Oh! I know: Bake! 😉 And wouldn’t ya know that I had all of the ingredients on hand to make a pineapple upside down cake??  

  

It’s really easy to make and one of Jason’s favorites. He’s been requesting it for weeks so I finally gave in and made it. Good thing that I like all things chocolate or this sucker would already be gone! The recipe is the “healthy” version of course. I don’t like to keep full-fat desserts in the house (my sweet tooth is wayyyy to strong) but I don’t mind ordering them when out at restaurants or other places like that :D.  

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Recipe from Cooking Light magazine)  

Ingredients  

• 1  (20-ounce) can pineapple slices in juice, drained
• Cooking spray
• 1/3  cup  fat-free caramel topping
• 9  maraschino cherries, drained
• 5  tablespoons  butter
• 2/3  cup  sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 1/2  cup fat-free buttermilk
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1 1/4  cups  all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350°.  

Press 9 pineapple slices between paper towels until barely moist; set aside. Reserve the remaining pineapple for another use.  

Coat a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray; drizzle caramel topping over bottom of pan. Arrange prepared pineapple slices in a single layer over caramel; place 1 cherry in the center of each slice.  

Place the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave at high 1 minute or until the butter melts. Add sugar, stirring with a whisk. Add eggs, and stir well. Stir in low-fat buttermilk and next 4 ingredients (buttermilk through baking soda). Lightly spoon 1 1/4 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Add flour, stirring just until blended (do not over stir). Pour the batter into prepared pan.  

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 1 minute in pan on a wire rack. Place a plate upside down on top of the cake, and invert onto plate. Cool completely. Cut cake into squares.  

  

  

So purdy 🙂 I almost didn’t let Jason eat it!  

_______________________________________________________________________________________________  

Sadly, this only took up an hour of my morning. *I’m the type of person that always has to be doing something.* Even if there is nothing to do (like on this day!) I will find something to do!  

I finally decided on taking a trip down Memory Lane.  

While fumbling through old boxes of letters, pictures and newspaper clippings..I stumbled upon my very first food journal!   

  

I would’ve sworn that I threw that thing away after the pages were full, but apparently not. The first page dates back to January 26th, 2008!  

Out of curiosity, I opened it up and  skimmed through it. I had recorded everything I ate, every craving I had, every workout I accomplished and everything I hated about my imperfect body.   

Yep. The negative talk was just a’flowin back in those days 😦  

Page 8: “…feeling bloated and fat. Blegh”  

Page 12: “..my arms are so fat and jiggly. Hope this strength training is working!”  

Page 13: “..HATE MY BODY. Bloated and fat. UGhhhhhhh”  

Page 16: “…I really wanna lose 15 pounds. Gut is sticking out and is so disgusting. Never going to eat another carb again.”  

On page 24, I start to label my immense cravings for sweets and fast food as “The Everything”. As in: “The Everything is back again. All I want to do is eat and eat.” I know it’s sort of weird to do this, but personifying my cravings really helped me to say ‘No’ to them. It’s just like you would say ‘No’ to a person.  

And it goes on and on. Who is this girl?! This girl who thought she was fat and ugly. This girl who ate a granola bar for dinner and then felt guilty about it. This girl who thought being healthy meant being perfect? I’m so glad that I don’t know her anymore. I can’t believe I said those things about my body. My body that I cherish day in and day out. My body that carries me through 16 miles of running. My body that allows me to live and breathe in this world. 😦   

    

Having a food journal did help me with my eating habits. Immensely.   

If it wasn’t for that journal, I would have never recognized when I “emotionally eat”. Or I wouldn’t have recognized the fact that soda makes me crave sweet things. It was helpful in so many ways. On the last page, I write:  

“Looking back through this book , I realise at first that I didn’t really know how to balance a meal. I have learned a lot and now have a healthy relationship with food.” 😀   

Hooray for a happy ending! 😉 — And of course it took another year or so to get to where I am now, but this was a great starting point for me! —  

After reading all of that negative talk, I wanted to do something that would allow me to give thanks to my body. And what better way to do that than with an hour of power vinyasa yoga in the living room?? 😉  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Ahhh…that’s better. This felt really great, especially after that tough run we had on Saturday. Every muscle felt relaxed and charged at the same time. Just how I like it 😉  

Then it was dinner time! Guess what I found at the grocery store last week!  

  

Whole wheat gnocchi!! Woohoo!  

I knew just what to do with these guys 🙂  

Gnocchi with Spinach and Sweet Potatoes (this recipe is under the recipe tab at the top, but I altered it a bit this time!)  

• 1 package of gnocchi
• 1 tsp.salt 
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups raw spinach
• 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 8 oz. package sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 large sweet potatoes

  

Directions:  

Cut up potatoes into cubes, boil them in a pot of water until tender. Drain, set aside. Bring a second pot of salted water to boil. Drop 15-20 gnocchi into the pot at a time, turn the heat down to med-low. Stir every few minutes to prevent gnocchi from sticking together. Once they float to the top of water, they are finished. Remove from water with a slotted spoon, and add in second batch of gnocchi.   

Heat 2 Tbs. of olive oil in a large skillet. Add chopped onion, garlic and mushrooms to skillet. Cook until onions are fragrant and mushrooms are tender. Add gnocchi, spinach, salt, pepper, butter and vegetable broth to the skillet. Cook until spinach wilts. Add sweet potatoes to skillet and allow them to simmer in the vegetable broth mixture for about 5 minutes.   

[I decided to not get rid of the broth this time, Jason says it’s the best part and I have to agree! It definitely gives the other ingredients an added kick. Just remember to have breath mints nearby because it is quite garlic-y! 😉 ]  

Sometimes celebrating your body means having a small glass of wine with dinner 🙂 Am I right??  

  

  

My bowl with a sprinkle of parmesan on top. It was yummy and just what the body needed on this wet and rainy day 🙂  

I’d like to think I’ve made up for all of the wrong I’ve done to my body in the past. This has been my healthiest year yet and I still have so much to learn about health and the human body.  

So:  

Dear Body,  

I am very lucky to have you. I’m sorry that I’ve called you names and made you feel down in the past. That was the old me. The new me loves you very much and is so thankful that you are mine. You allow me to run 16 miles at one time without giving up. You tell me when you are hungry and when you need rest. You don’t get mad at me if I feed you onion rings every now and then and you don’t hate me for life if I give you a beer once or twice a week. And I love you for that. You let the good in with the bad. You tell me when enough is enough and I appreciate that fully. Thank you for carrying me around all these years 🙂 I know that I haven’t been that great to you in the past, but I vow to keep living a healthy lifestyle for both of us. You will be fed fruits and veggies on a daily basis, and given plenty of water to keep you hydrated. You will continue to be challenged physically and mentally. I hope that we can continue this great relationship we have. Until next time,  

Me  

What do you want to tell your body?

Gettin My Groove Back

Hey all 😀

Thank you so much for the suggestions and kindness involving my sleeping problems! You guys are so great 🙂

I’ve tried using my bed only for sleeping (doing my reading on the couch these days) and keeping a journal by the bedside so that I can write down all of my thoughts. Hopefully no one will open it up and look inside, because if they did, I’d probably be labeled a kook and sent to the nut house. 😉 

Instead of having 2 hours of sleep, I’ve been having 4..and last night I think I even had 5! I had a dream that my Chemistry teacher gave me a gift card to Target for getting an A in her class 😀 Ahhh, if only dreams were real!

Anywho, yesterday I decided to go for a run before my internship. The night before, Jason and I had planned a run but we got rained out :(. I didn’t want to waste my KT tape, so I slept with it on and went for a run first thing in the morning!

—I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the KT working again, but it did! The stuff is magic, I tell ya. Pure magic 🙂 —

What was not magic was my speed and endurance!! I’m not sure if it was because I hadn’t eaten anything or had any coffee…but oh man. I was totally lagging. Around mile 3 my mind started to wonder “When is this run going to be over??”. My brain was telling my legs to stop running and just walk, but nuh huh! I’m not having that!

I made it back to the car and found that it had taken me 50 minutes to do 4 miles!!!! That’s so embarrassing to admit!

My speed and endurance has greatly suffered during my time off of running, but no worries: I’ll be back into the running groove in no time 😉

The internship went well. I spent most of my day up on the fitness floor interacting with members and reading about personal training 🙂 Gosh, I love that place. A gym=my second home. The rest of the day went by uneventfully….and so that brings us to today!

This morning I woke up and fed my belly 😀

An english muffin, one half-smothered in apple butter and the other smothered in blackberry jam <–I had a hard time deciding, so I chose both!

And liquids:

Green Monster (oh how I have missed you!!):

• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 1 banana
• 1/3 cup frozen mango
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk

Along with coffee of course 🙂 My stomach was extremely full after guzzling down the green monster, so the coffee sort of went to waste. My neighbors could probably hear me sloshing around my house after all of that liquid, haha.

Slosh. Slosh. Slosh.

Once my food settled, I did a little strength training in the living room. Here is what I did (using 8 pound dumbbells):

• 3 sets of 10 lateral arm raises
• 3 sets of 12 tricep extensions
• 3 sets of 12 military chest press
• 3 sets of 10 forward arm raises
• 50 vertical crunches
• 100 bicycle crunches

Then it was off to Chemistry! I indulged in one of these during class:

Mmmmm..bubbly deliciousness 🙂

And now I’m home, chowing down on a bowl of leftover vegetable chili while I write this post!

*Sigh* My brain always feels like mush after chemistry class. Luckily it’s Friday and I don’t ever ever ever do homework on a Friday! My plans for the rest of the afternoon include painting my toenails, doing a yoga class and then watching Some Kind of Wonderful 😀

80’s movies are the best! I love the part at the end when he says “You look good wearing my future.” Ahhhhhhh! Swoon. <—Cheeseball!

Now that I’ve told you about my day, let me tell you about a Pet Peeve of mine. Most of you guys are pet owners, so hopefully you can relate when I display frustration about this!

Pet Peeve Moment

One night this week, it was about 5:30 in the morning and Trixie wanted out really, really badly.

I get out of bed and let her outside, only to go back to bed after I shut the door. I fall asleep and at 8:30 I notice that she isn’t inside, so I go outside looking for her.

 

I’m going all over the neighborhood (which isn’t very big, maybe about the size of 5 houses put together) calling “Trixiieeeeee! Trixieeeeeeee! Come on! Come home! Triiixxieeee” . I’m even making kissy noises and clapping my hands together, but nope…she doesn’t show.

My neighbor, who always keeps her door wide open (this is also the one that comes out in her underwear all the time) comes out of the house and says “She’s in here with me! She don’t want to come out..you gon’ hafta come in and get her.”

Uhhhh…okay. She then proceeds to tell me: “I’ve been giving her some steak. She loves steak. I give it to her a lot. You ever feed her steak?” NO! No wonder she doesn’t want to leave your house! I go into her house and Trixie wags her tail at the sight of me and she knows that I mean business because I don’t have to call her to come to me. She bounds out of the house and onto our front porch.

At this point, I am furious. Seething inside but trying not to show it. I tell my neighbor that Trixie is not allowed to have steak, and that I would appreciate it if she didn’t invite Trixie inside of her house because I don’t want her to get used to going over there and getting scraps (though it seems she already is used to it).

Now that’s not to say that Trixie doesn’t get the occasional tortilla chip that falls on the floor, or the crust from Jason’s sandwiches…but still. She’s OUR dog! My neighbor has her own dog that she never allows inside or even talks to! Invite your own dog in and feed it scraps, not mine!

Not only that, but this woman smokes like a chimney and her house wreaks! She doesn’t take care of the dog that she does have and I don’t want her touching mine! I know that sounds terrible..but you don’t mess with a mamma bears youngins’. Trixie is my fur child and I’m very protective of her.

And that’s my rant. How would you guys feel about something like that?