Monday Mess Jumble

Morning!
I feel like Monday’s never get the love. We always dread it. Not saying I was hopping happily out of bed when my alarm woke me up, I’m just saying.

On my way to work this morning I saw this fantastic truck the burial vault, with two coffins on it. I’m hoping it’s not some sort of sign ha!

Anyways the weekend was a little chaotic, but restful. I made the decision for myself that working a Sunday double at the restaurant isn’t good for me. So I gave up the day shift and I’m just working the night, which is much easier to get covered if needed. Maybe other could balance it, but I made a promise to focus on myself for the time being and I just need more free time with this internship and putting around the restaurant as much as I love them all, isn’t it. I’ll be back there in the fall but for the summer just one shift

Weekend Recap
Friday: I had maybe the most relaxing night ever. I watched a trillion episodes of Mad Men and read and fell asleep way too early for a 21 year old on a Friday night, it was beauteous. Hey sometimes a girl just needs to recharge! Lots of tea and snuggle time with this cute munchkin,


which she was quite mad at me since she hadn’t seen me all week since I was running around like a crazy women.

Saturday: I also bummed around in the morning, got some cleaning done and more Mad Men. Went to a bridal shower long enough to drop my mother off and say hellos. Then Cam and I were off to spend some time together. He had maybe the biggest beer I’ve seen in a while.


And we had some fantastic Mexican food. Most of which I’m still eating, and for lunch today too Love getting a big meal and being able to take it home. They made the guac right there in front of us which was phenomenal. I must pat myself on the back for Cam enjoying the Mexican. You see, when I met him he ate two things, chicken parm or steak. We’re slowly but surely branching and trying new things. Like the salmon last week, and now Mexican, and he liked it! Babysteps. (Maybe I’ll get him to like green juice soon, probably not)

Today is actually a kind of big day. I officially start training for my half marathon. I’m a little nervous about the whole thing, but everyone keeps telling me that I’ll do fine and be alright. So my photo post on Saturday was / is my motivation motto for a while! The training starts out real easy with super low miles, which is reassuring! Apologies to my friends in advanced when “ Sorry I can’t, I need to run” is going to become the reason I can’t come out and play!

With my miles planned for the rest of my summer I’ve been starting to think of one of the most important parts of my runs, the sound in my ear buds J Lately I’ve been listening to Jillian Michaels’ podcast while I run. Which may sound weird to be able to run to people talking. But its so informative, motivating, and hilarious. I’m the crazy person laughing on my runs! However I think I’ll run out of these with the amount I’ll be running which means its time for a new playlist. What are your must have songs for a run/the gym? I need your help! Also, I have been thinking of investing in some good headphones. I was recommended the Ironman YurBuds and I’m intrigued by them They are a little pricey, which I don’t necessarily mind spending the money, as long as I’ll use them. Sometimes I find that headphones that go into my ears hurt a little. Does anyone know of a super good pair to recommend?

I’ve had a funky problem going on in the office, between 9-10:15 I’m starving. Which would make sense since I’m supposed to be eating a midmorning snack around that time. But when I say starving I mean sick to my stomach I feel like I’m going to throw up if I don’t eat anything starving. Its not like I don’t eat breakfast, but I just don’t get it. And sometimes the snack I bring just isn’t cutting it. But this only happens when I’m at the office, not at any other time. Weird right?

Well I’m off to do some interning, and researching I have a lot of big ideas and news for you all coming up real soon!

Do Big Things!

xox

Yummy yummy

Hi all!

Happy Tuesday!

I have a very special recipe to share with you all today! Brussel Sprouts!

Okay, you need to try them, they are honestly and truly amazing. The restaurant had them for so long, and I would literally dream about these. They’re super easy too! Clearly, because I’m a baby cook.

Start:
- Medium heat with a skillet
- Add a little oil of your choice, last night I used olive, but I’m thinking I might try coconut oil next time. Let it warm up.
- While the oil and pan is heating, take your Brussels and cut them in half. (Try to buy smaller Brussels if you can, they taste better, but they’re usually easier to find when in season)

- As soon as the oil is hot throw the halves in, try to get them face down so they brown easier.

- Sprinkle a little sage in, and add like a little bit of butter ( not much at all I did like a half a slice of butter )
- Let the Brussels cook, letting them get brown and moving them around once and a while
- Once the brussels have browned a bit, add some apple cider, I did about ¼-1/2 a cup, just eyeballed it
- Then let the cider reduce down

Super easy, and super yummy!

Last night I added half a veggie burger to the mix for a little bit of protein, best dinner ever!

Funny story, Today at the office is a rough morning, and I spilled my iced coffee, how am I supposed to survive without caffine?!

xox
Don’t let your morning be struggle city like mine

So I’ve been at my job a whole week and I’ve learned a few things…

1. Not knowing what you are doing is so frustrating- granted I work at a very complicated company and everyone says I’ll get it eventually

2. Being given work without online permissions to access what you need for is frustrating

3. the drive home is my favorite part of my day

4. Pack your food! I mean being a health nut as I am many people understand this… my typical day looks like..

Breakfast – smoothie, protein pancake, or banana and choboni

Morning snack: almonds, apple, choboni, happy melts ( okay okay they’re baby snacks but the yummy and easy to pack!)
Lunch- salad, or I’ve been loving the g-free turkey sandwiches lately ß judge me.

Afternoon snack : larabar, almonds, choboni , air popped popcorn! J

Diner pretty much depends what my mom cooks I’m usually too wiped by that time

I’ve learned the biggest lesson ever though. My boss is so miserable, grumpy gills mcgee. But I’ve learned I want to find a job that I love and I love coming to work, I mean as much as anyone can love work. I think its so important. I have been thinking about it a lot lately, going into senior year thinking about the BIG job hunt. Is it in business? Is it in health… I’m not sure.

But! Who wants to see the cookies I’m making later this week from over on Courtney’s blog

I just got back from Crossfit. Let’s just say my arms are going to be sore in the morning… death by pull-ups.

each minute on the minute you do pull ups starting with one the first minute, two the second, building each minute until you can’t do them anymore/ fit them within a minute. I got to 13! I could have gone further, I wish I pushed myself more but oh well I can already start to feel it.

I’ve been trying to keep a regular fitness schedule. It’s be a little off since I have hurt my back I’ve been doing what I can! I want it to be fully healed so I can kick it up a notch.

Monday- Run
Tuesday- Crossfit
Wednesday- Run
Thursday- Crossfit
Friday- Run
Saturday-  TeamCrossfit — beach run if it is nice out
Sunday – active rest, working my double at the restaurant, sometimes I train before work! J

busy busy I want to start making some recipes for you folks and sharing.. I’m sorry I’m so busy and jumpy!

Whats your summer looking like?

xox

PS. Everyone say happy birthday to the prettiest pup <3

Lets Get Insaine

Hi All!
How are all of you? I have fantastic news, Insanity Week 3 is Complete

This week schedule was
Monday- fit test
Tuesday- plyometric cardio
Wednesday – pure cardio/ cardio abs
Thursday- core recovery
Friday- cardio power and resistance
Saturday – plyometric cardio

But my week got a little jumbled and this is how it went

Monday- fit test
Tuesday- plyometric cardio
Wednesday- Hot Yoga, I started pure cardio after, but I chose to listen to my body and stop I was feeling too fuzzy from the heat I think
Thursday- Crossfit! it felt so good to be back in the box, can’t wait to go back for good in the summer!
Friday- Cardio power and resistance + Tone It Up’s new Beach Babe DVD the ab and booty workouts on there
Saturday- Plyometric Cardio

Not to shabby, not totally on schedule, but I didn’t skip a workout I just adjusted. I like to think thats alright!

Tip: don’t do Insanity post eating Tuna Fish for lunch, bad bad bad baaaaad idea.

Last night I made a delicious salad I thought I’d share with y’all

It was super easy to throw together:
aprox. 1 cup spinach
3 /4 strawberries thinly sliced
1 tbs shredded coconut
half handful slivered almonds
about 4 oz cooked tempeh

dressing
half cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
juice of half lemon
juice of half lime
pinch seasalt

drizzle the dressing over, toss and serve.

SO yummy, so easy. first time having tempeh and I liked it a lot!

Happy Weekending!
xox

Let’s Get a Little Insane

Happy Monday!

As the Tone It Up girls call it, Motivation Monday!

How’s this for a little more motivation…

I woke up this morning, did my run, had breakfast, let it settle, and did day one of Insanity

Nothing could be more true. It is a 60 day program of killer workouts between 30 and 45 mins long, with one day off. Shaun T encouraging you to dig deep each time to finish strong.

Now, I have to add my own disclaimer, now way do I think I’m fat and in need of losing a vast amount of weight. I do however look at my current situation of the daunting bathing suit season coming up oh so very soon. I want to be more toned and reduce my body fat % and gain more lean muscle. Also the spirit behind my oh so favorite Crossfit is to dig deep and has the same mental mentality. I look forward to going back to Crossfit when I’m officially home for the summer. However, I’d like to go back and make big progress rather than start back where I originally started. So this is in a way getting me back in shape for Crossfit.

So Insanity starts with a Fit Test that you are to repeat every two weeks. It consists of a warm up, and then a series of  8, one minute intervals where you complete a specified exercise as many times as you can in that one minute. Followed by a cool down and stretch. Here is a  my results. It also has you measure yourself and calculate your body fat each Fit Test day. I don’t think I’m going to show you that until there is something to compare too. But I will show you my numbers!

Hopefully I can continue to get better each time I do the test, it was no where near easy but my numbers aren’t too bad actually so I was proud of that. I hope to be updating every day for the first week and then maybe every other / one a week depending on what I feel is necessary. i know for the first month its 5 workouts so I think going on about the same 5 might get a little boring for you.

Along with Insanity, I have big news. I’m officially training for a half marathon! September 16th! How I am going about  training is doing the 5k Trainer on my phone, since I kind of got out of running shape. Then keeping up the mileage. 13 weeks out I’ll start the half training program. I’m still in search on ones I’ll love. Keeping my fingers crossed. And another way I plan to kick my butt into shape is the Tone It Up Bikini Series. They did one last spring and it was phenomenal. I plan to kick total booty and hopefully win some challenges as well! So Keep your eyes peeled for that as well! In the end I did take beginning pictures and will have be beginning stats as soon as I have something to compare it with, same goes for the pictures I might give you half way through, and then at the final end since it takes about 4 weeks to see results in any program you do

For Breakfast this morning I had a delicious protein pancake from the Tone It Up Diet plan.

And this little bugger was ready to catch any fallen droppings

And last night I finally got my plate of brussels! My restaurant makes phenomenal brussel sprouts! By the end of the night, however, the cook is so tired of making them he never wants to make me some. Last night I won my battle! Yum cider glazed brussels!

Thats all for now folks! Off to take the pup to the beach with Cam!

Do Big Things! xox

Food Fight!

So college student I am, I’m poor as all hell

But, the cafe doesn’t always offer a whole lot of gfree options that I’m not completely sick of, but to their credit, they are getting better. For real every time I’m in a semi bad mood and have to get a salad I almost break down in tears in frustration, yesI’m pathetic.

So Stop and Shoppy becomes a second home, I do like wholepaycheck, but see above, poor as all hell!

I wanted to share with all of you some of the eats I got!

I’m a big pretzel fan, and these are delicious an awesome replacement!

 My perfect afternoon snack, I snagged a few more flavors too, ginger snap, coconut, and something else I totally forgot I’ll let you guys know how they are… I’m still totally interested in making my own since they are kind of pricey, but I always have the best intentions and then totally find the time!

Another thing that has been recommended to me, and I did buy them once, and my mom ate them all! So these are stored safely in my dorm for me to try out

So I’ve tried the Teddy’s and while it was really good, I can’t get past the stirring/ doesn’t work well with only plastic spoons. So I’m trying the natural Skippy, if anyone else has a good PB recommendation let me know!

Great lunch to go with my nutty crackers I always need some spur of the moment quick lunches in my room incase I  don’t want to can’t make it to the cafe for the usual salad.

Perfect! with my PB and they aren’t preserved in sugar!

Honestly if you haven’t tried Roasted Red Pepper hummus, you haven’t lived, its the best. Sometimes I try venturing out and trying a new flavor, but I always regret it. Another great pair with my pretzels or crackers or carrots ( which i haven’t showed you yet? )

 ah there you go! my favorite veggie at school!

Okay, don’t laugh. This is such a paleo cross fit girl thing to have. But I love sweet potatoes, like l.o.v.e. and they’re prefect! and and 10 mins in the microwave, who knew! (Not this girl I never had a microwave at home .. judge me)

 mango, yumm yumm , not quite ripe yet!

Greek yogurt, the only dairy I can truly stomach. However sometimes I feel like the normal ones can be just too much to get through, so I found baby ones! Not as big as a flavor variety, but hey worth a shot

These I have never tried before, but they looked interesting enough to stock in my baby freezer for a dinner or something, slash I love anything butternut squash like

And the last item I have for you… this company came to my school with a thousand gfree soups. If you know me, soup on a cold day, yes please! A lot of them aren’t okay for me to eat though. The company rep brought a thousand flavors, and I happened to see them when I was at the store so I picked up a classic

So I guess you are all wondering why its called food fight? So I was checking out, and I happened to pick up a fitness magazine. (I tend to get sucked into them) Anyways the cover was of a female who was, for a lack of a better word, jacked. Honestly though it appeared she had taken some supplements, and cut her body fat percentage real low. I’m not trying to make accusations, but it wasn’t a normal look of a female who just simply used weights alone. They cashier made a comment, and the bagger who was an older man said “That’s why girls who lift weights aren’t attractive”

Um.. excuse me?

Part of me was keep your mouth shut, the other wanted to punch someone, but I just smiled and left. Ugh the ignorance.

Oh Well!

I escaped from school to snuggle with Soph all night, yes please!

xox