twenty-three

so my birthday weekend has finally come to an end! wahh - i enjoyed being the center of attention :)... i've pretty much been in celebration mode since thursday night!

saturday morning i decided to see if there was a baylor basketball game the weekend of the 5k. well, there wasn't, but i did notice that there was one that same evening at 8pm. AND it was against a&m, aka: our biggest rival! so i jokingly mentioned to my dad that we should go to waco for the game, and he said it was up to me. well, i went to spin, came home, and decided it definitely needed to happen! so my family ordered tickets online and an hour later we were making the 2.5 hour trip to waco!

it was so fun being back - especially since i hadn't been to waco since homecoming! we went shopping, tried the awesome new froyo place, made the obligatory bookstore stop (and i bought yet another pair of the men's sweats: best.thing.ever), walked around campus with berlian, saw cecilia for 2.5 seconds, grabbed chipotle to go, and went to the game!!!

the game was AWESOME despite the most obnoxious aggie fan ever sitting in front of me. everytime we were attempting a free-throw, she made this indescribable noise. we finally realized she was saying "miss it" - but she stretched it out for like 3 minutes. talk about a human airhorn.

anyway, we WON 58-51. aggies losing = best birthday present EVER. so happy! after 7 hours of playing in waco, it was back to houston. i'm excited to be back in 3 weeks!

sunday was just a chill day...

then today i had to work... my boss brought me flowers, the office sang me happy birthday (in english + spanish) & i had a cake complete with candles!

have you ever wondered how to transport flowers?! well, strapping them in worked pretty well. p.s. - my favorite thing about my new car is the fact that it has black seat belts. i love the contrast with the tan. super dork.

i also got some wonderful mail today! leigh anne so thoughtfully surprised me with starbucks! i LOVE birthday mail!

starbucks + sonic also remembered my birthday, ha. hey, i won't say no to free drinks!

anyway, i just had a nice birthday dinner with the fam. good way to wind down after the birthday celebrations! thanks to everyone for the wonderful cards + calls + texts + gifts + wallposts + etc!

first 5k!

so today i bit the bullet and registered for my first 5k! it feels so real now! as planned, i'll be running the bearathon's 5k in waco on march 19th (3 weeks away: EEK!) -- super cheesy, but i LOVE campus and am very excited to be running my first race there! i even saw on the race course that you trot past the science building, ha ((http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=281432))

anyway, i'm currently wrapping up week 7 of couch-2-5k... which means i warmup for 5 minutes & then run for 25! i'm starting week 8 on sunday: 5 minute warmup, then 28 minutes of jogging. slowly but surely getting there!

i've been adding in spin classes to try and work on my endurance. my goal this week is to spin 3 days and run 3 days. and force myself to drink more water. i'm SO bad at that.

anyway, that's about it for my running recap. today i had the day off work! it was SO glorious having a weekday off. i woke up, ran, went to the doctor, took my mom to an appt, went shopping, went out to lunch, stopped off at sprinkles for free red velvet cupcakes (it pays to follow their twitter!), made homemade pizza with the fam, and went to a soccer game with my sister. AND IT'S ONLY FRIDAY NIGHT. i still have 2 more days off! hooray!

sidenote: i may or may not be scheming a trip to turkey this summer... i have got to find a cheaper hobby.

good morning - literally!

i woke up ridiculously early for a saturday, as usual: 7:15 am... i used to be annoyed by this, but now i'm actually annoyed if i wake up late! anyway, i had a cup of coffee then set out for a run -- which spontaneously turned into my best ever: TWO MILES STRAIGHT!!! - i originally intended on taking a break between mile 1 and 2, but then i was just so energized that i kept going and ended up running all the way home! SUPER HAPPY because i've never run that much in my entire 22.95 years of existence! i think the spin classes are helping with my cardio endurance: yes! major good sign since the bearthon 5K is in ONE MONTH!

followed up the run with pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast... looks gross because i didn't think to take a picture until halfway through eating it, but whatevs. in the bowl: oatmeal, water, splash of almond milk, half a banana, pumpkin, & cinnamon sugar.... it was super creamy - just needs a little more tweeking, and i think this will become a fav!

green monster!!!

so my friend Diana over at http://mylittlepart.wordpress.com/ had a wonderful blog entry about green monsters -- she also recommended a number of health blogs to me which i have been obsessively reading for the past week -- it is amazing how nutriciously (is that a word?) people eat! very inspiring and probably better for my waistline than my other obsession: pioneerwoman...

anyway, since i've been trying really hard to incorporate more raw vegetables into my diet, i thought i would give green monsters a spin - if you haven't heard of green monsters, they are basically smoothies to which you add a cup or two of raw spinach... sound strange? well, believe it or not, you actually CAN'T taste the spinach once it is blended up! i was skeptical, but it turns out, it's true!

i would highly recommend trying it out! all you need is:

1) milk or soy milk or almond milk (i've used vanilla almond milk because it is sweeter)

2) fruit: frozen or fresh

3) spinach

4) ice

blend it up and enjoy :) -- i just finished mine and am now off to a spin class!

jogging

so let's be real - i've never been an athlete, and i'll never be an athlete - my parents signed me up for soccer in 5th grade and i HATED it. the anticipation of not knowing when the ball was going to come my way, and the fear of failing my team was entirely too stressful on my little 10 year old self. 2 seasons of that nonsense, and i was DONE. next came a few seasons of volleyball - while i was no all-star, i was marginally better at it. but let's be honest - i'm 5'2"... the ymca team was as far as i was going to go... which was fine with me because i still had terrible anxiety... so my foray into sports ended about as quickly as it started

which leads me to the topic of this post: jogging. and why i love (hate) it.

LOVE:
- it's totally independent and anxiety-free because no one is depending on me.
- it's amazing how fast your endurance builds - i'm on week 6 of the training program and have gone from struggling to run 1.5 minutes to running 8 minutes with no problem... all in a matter of a month!
- anytime, anywhere: treadmill, outdoors, morning/evening - i really have no excuse not to go
- it makes me feel hardcore. which i'm not - i'm just a fluffernutter, but jogging on the treadmill totally beats walking. even if it's only intervals.

HATE:
- it is SO mental: your mind wants to stop even when your body can keep going. and you have to fight your mind all along. or maybe that's just me.
- intimidating: i'm in awe of marathoners who can run 26.2 miles nonstop whenever i'm stilling struggling to do 2 miles. but i'm sure they've trained more than a month :)

anyway, i would encourage anyone reading to try out jogging! i've loved the couch-2-5k program so far! the hardest part is definitely starting - but i think the program breaks it down into managable steps - and it only requires 3 workouts/week!

happy

so i pretty much get asked on a daily basis about how anxious i am to get back to school. and i get the best reactions when i say "meh, not really" -- it's not that i don't want to be a doctor, but i am particularly enjoying this "season of life" as Leigh Anne would say... it definitely wasn't like that from the start, but i've FINALLY come to enjoy the whole pretend grown-up life. especially since it comes with virtually no responsibilities, all the benefits, and no bills (minus my car). i work, spend my paychecks as i please, come home to amazing meals, work-out, and spend my free-time as i please. what's not to love?

that being said, i am a complete realist and accept that i have to go back to school because i can't have the life i want where i currently stand. so while i'll eventually suck it up come august, i'm totally milking the benefits of my current state. not sure why people find this so shocking -- haven't they ever heard "live in the moment?!"

so back to my original blog-topic, things that have made me happy this weekend:

1) revamped my iPod for the first time in like 6 months. yep, i'm one of THOSE people...


2) black nail polish is making a comeback! i bought into the trend when i was in psycho mcat study mode. it was my way of being "emo" because i seriously had no life. well, now it's just back for fun - hallelujah.


3) i did my taxes this week & already spent my refund :) -- new jogging shoes! updated version of their predecessor... sans holes


4) i love my cat. and it just so happens to be cloe's 10th birthday month! we don't know the specific date since she was adopted, so she gets to celebrate a whole month, haha

5) grapefruit = my recent obsession. SO YUM.

anyway, hope you enjoyed your weekend!

day 20

so today is healthier living day #20... so far, so good! i can't say that i've been perfect, but that's the whole idea. instead of a strict 30 day diet, i'm going for the lifelong healthier lifestyle... and besides, old habits die hard... especially 23 year old bad habits

shortcomings (because i have to keep it real):
- too often falling victim to lame workout excuses: it's too cold, i'm too tired, it's grey's night, etc
- i slipped up on my no coke rule and had one at the VW dealership & one at subway...
- NOT drinking enough water - bad.
- not doing any weights/strength training - i've been "too busy" with cardio

progress:
- i'm on to week 4 of my couch-2-5k program!
- i FINALLY tried a spin class this morning! and LOVED it!
- i've WAY increased my fruit/vegetable intake & WAY decreased my processed food intake
- i've steered clear of fatty food at work: i.e. - cinnamon rolls, bday cake, etc - and i've realized that those store bought things don't even taste that good - they are SO oily compared to homemade
- i've only eaten out twice, and both times i made healthy decisions
- i've eaten things i enjoy, but i have learned to be better about portion control
- my energy level has skyrocketed - my dad asks me on the daily why i'm so hyper... kind of crazy considering a lot of those days i've worked 10 hours

so for those of you curious as to what i've been munching on these past few weeks, here is a typical day:

breakfast:
*plain oatmeal - and then i add some kind of mix-in.... either banana/honey, raisins/cinnamon sugar, or a package of flavored yogurt
*coffee with almond or soy milk + splenda

lunch:
* sandwich (as described in previous post)
* cut-up veggies with ranch (made using a ranch packet + light sour cream)
* fruit

snack:
* fruit: current obsession = grapefruit
* popcorn on occasion

dinner:
* a reasonable-sized portion of whatever my mom makes
* a side of vegetables

so there you have it! if you have any tips, please feel free to share! any help would be greatly appreciated :)

ice day!!!

my boss got caught up in the winter storm hype & cancelled work today :) - i think the newspaper headline this morning said it best: "Snow Day, Weather or Not" -- there was definitely NO snow, though it's rumored there were a few ice patches here and there...

snow or not, all i cared about was A DAY OFF WORK! - it isn't very often that i get to sit around during the week, so i was pretty excited :)

anyway, nothing extraordinary went down because we were afraid to stray too far from the house due to those rumored ice patches... so my day went a little something like this:

- woke up and enjoyed TWO cups of coffee. it is AWESOME having an unrushed morning. something i'm already looking forward to come retirement. in like 50 years.

- made a batch of pudding (and no, i'm not smart enough to figure out how to rotate pics on the blog)

- got ready, de-iced the jetta (it was so cute with the little icicles!), & went to walmart. was pretty much the only one there NOT wearing pajamas

- made paninis for lunch

- had a great convo over twitter with mark + cecilia about prunes/dried fruit - i'm still laughing. apparently my friends and i are equally weird: WIN.

- decided to bake HOMEMADE honey wheat + cinnamon raisin bread. yes, real bread. with yeast. reminded me of my pre-employment days when i actually had the time/energy to bake... sigh - ignore the fact that i'm not wearing make-up, but do take note of my desperate housewives-esque apron i got for $4 in dubai!

- fit in a wonderful afternoon nap. another of life's pleasures work has robbed me of.

- whipped up a batch of colorful orzo pasta salad for tomorrow

- had homemade pizza with the fam

now i fully intend on laying in bed & lazily catching up on internet tv. what a happy snow day.

snow(less) day

so there is absolutely zero snow or ice in houston. however, it is VERY cold. like a high of 32. and i know that is nothing for northerners, but let's be honest, we southerners don't know what to do when it gets below 60.

anyway, i woke up this morning to shower, flicked on the bathroom lights, and 30 seconds later, the power went out. so i got to shower by candlelight, which i'm sure is some sort of safety hazard. luckily, by the time i was finished, the power was back.

so i thought that was the end of the day's excitement: FALSE. it took me 55 minutes to get to work (versus the usual 30) - thanks to one flashing traffic light + 3 which were completely out.

then i walk into work only to find out that the pipes are frozen. and that we have to pour water into the toilet's tank everytime we want to flush. but we can't use the sink water because the pipes are frozen. so we have to take 5-gallon jugs outside to the spicket, fill them, drag them inside, fill up the tank, and then flush. which would be fine and dandy if you didn't have to explain to a client every 5 minutes why it might be a few minutes before they could use the bathroom...

eventually i got fed up with the whole situation and volunteered to pick-up lunch for the office so i'd have an excuse to use subway's bathroom. hallelujah for running water!

of course this didn't keep me from having to go in after a client and flush the toilet for them. i have a pretty strong stomach (aka: i've handled smelling gangrene in surgery & not fainted), but even so, i'm not the world's biggest fan of coming face-to-face with unflushed toilets. anyway, i manually flushed it + ran + survived.

HOWEVER, the good news in this whole day is that my boss decided to call a precautionary SNOW DAY (!!!) on friday! so we cancelled all of friday's clients, and i get to stay homeeee! totally worth the toilet flushing.