The less it feels like Christmas. Anyone know what I mean? Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye this year and I hardly had time to muster up any holiday spirit. That being said, I still had a wonderful holiday weekend. I hope all you did as well! Although I’ve been majorly slacking on taking pictures of food, I’ve taken LOTS of pictures of my Christmas gifts (!!) and the wonderful people I have been surrounded by the past few days.

I have to say, the thing that I was most excited to discover on Christmas morning was this baby…

Nespresso!

A new espresso machine!! My parents got one of these a few years ago, and every time I come home I tell them how much I wish I had one. Apparently they got the hint As most of you know, I am an insane coffee lover, so this should come in quite handy. And it should help me save some money from my favorite $4 lattes at Starbucks!

I also got spoiled with some awesome new running gear, including these awesome tights!

Nike tie dyed running tights

I tested them out for the first time yesterday and am absolutely in love with them! Between those, my new running watch, and a few new running shirts and half zips, I am set for lots of amazing runs in the future! Can’t wait.

Christmas consisted of an awesome run, a delicious breakfast and lots of latte making!

:)

I’m totally obsessed.

The rest of the day (along with the past few days) was filled with delicious food. Way too much of it! My wonderful boyfriend flies in on Friday to spend New Years with me, so I need to seriously buckle down this week! It’s so hard with all of the Christmasy treats still tempting me…we’ll see if I can actually practice any self control

Today started out with an awesome interval run and a protein shake. I’m currently watching one of my favorite movies, It’s Complicated, and drinking a yummy latte courtesy of my new machine! I will have more pictures for all of you as the week progresses.

Happy Tuesday!

Bob Harper's Yoga

Thanks for kicking my BUTT tonight!!! Holy hard yoga…if you’re looking for an intense yoga workout, Bob Harper is your man! This 60 minute workout had me sweating and shaking like crazy by the end. I also did about half of the 15 minute ab workout that is also on this DVD, but my legs and abs were way too shaky to finish it. Maybe I’ll attempt it tomorrow!

Is anyone else having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit? I can’t decide whether it’s the lack of snow here in Colorado or the fact that this will be my first Christmas in 20 years without my sister…but it just does not feel like Christmas around here! My mom and I went out today to do a bit of holiday shopping and it just felt weird. Hopefully it will magically hit me tomorrow

OK! I have to fill you in on two things:

1. I’ve been wanting a pedometer/calorie counter watch for a long time now, but haven’t wanted to spend the money on a good one. But a few days ago, my dad got a Nike+ watch from one of his clients and so he gave it to me. Um….awesome!

my lovely new watch!

I am SO excited to try it. I think that I’ll take it to a track in the next couple of days to calibrate it. Anyone have one of these that can give me some pointers?

I also don’t have the Nike+ shoes, so I’m gonna have to try to make it work with my good old Mizunos…

I’m sure I’ll figure something out!

Okay, important item #2…Dinner! It was absolutely epic tonight. My mom and I tried a new recipe: Sundried tomato spinach stuffed chicken breasts. Right?! How delicious does that sound? We stuffed the chicken breasts with a mixture of goat cheese, plain greek yogurt, garlic, thyme, sundried tomatoes, thawed spinach, and a bit of olive oil. They were absolutely glorious. And beautiful!

yummm!!

They were huge, so mom and I split one, and dad demolished a whole one.

So I’m finishing off my evening with a cup of this glorious gingerbread tea…

….some fuzzy slippers, and the food network. Mmm…I love winter break!!

Merry Christmas, blogger friends!

Hi all! I hope your week of preparing for Christmas is going wonderfully! Mine has been crazy so far, but very fun. A few exciting things to fill you in on:

A couple weeks ago, I won a prize on Heather’s blog (dietitianontherun.com) and it finally arrived Monday night! A box filled with goodies was waiting on my porch when I returned from the movies! (We saw Tangled, which was ADORABLE, btw.) Anyways, I was absolutely thrilled.

so excited!!

The contents consisted of a new yoga mat, Bob Harper’s new yoga DVD, 4 boxes of Quaker’s new fruit and nut oatmeal, a breakfast bowl, a spoon, and a notepad and pen. I’m so psyched to try all of it! I had planned on workin out with Bob this morning, but after the intense workout my mom and I did yesterday, my body was just not up for it! I went on a 5 mile run this morning at a pretty slow pace to just loosen up my muscles. I’m gonna give it a whirl tomorrow.

Well I don’t know about you guys, but the last few days (especially today) have been absolutely filled with treats and baking! The holidays are infamous for putting me into a sugar coma. I’m having some of my girlfriends from high school over tonight so I started out my morning by whipping up a festive little pie courtesy of Dashing Dish! (dashingdish.com) I love all of her recipes! I made the white chocolate peppermint pie…

I started with this stuff...

and ended with this guy!

I still need to add the whipped cream when my friends get here. I’m hoping it’s good! I stole a few licks during preparation, so I’m pretty sure it will be

The rest of the day consisted of even more baking. My mom and I went over to our good friends’ house to knock out some holiday cookie making! We made homemade sugar cookies and frosting, Mexican wedding cookies, gingerbread molasses cookies, and pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. So it’s safe to say that I ate way too much cookie dough and have felt a little sick all day as a result :-/ Here’s some snap shots of the day!

hard at work!

Paige and I

frosting frosting frosting!

showing off our masterpieces

our share of the fabulous cookies

Our counter top is now covered in the treats that we baked along with another plate of cookies that a friend dropped by last night. I’ve seriously eaten a cookie nearly every time I’ve walked into the kitchen. Oops!! Oh well…that’s what new years resolutions are for

Well, I’m off to clean up the kitchen and get a few presents wrapped. I hope you all are doing well and having a great week!!

xoxo

I’m home for Christmas! It’s always hard for me to continue blogging when I come home because life away from school is much less scheduled. Home so far has consisted of lots of hanging out with my parents, working out with my mom, relaxing, and cooking and eating delicious food!

Here are some highlights…

Nutcracker Ballet with my parents. So fun!

my daddy and I

mom and I!

decorating the Christmas tree

finished product!

The star’s a little crooked but oh well! Being home has been so wonderful so far. My mom has been feeding me delicious home-cooked food nonstop since I’ve been home and I’m loving it! Any others out there whose moms spoil the heck out of you when you come home from college?! It’s so great! I haven’t photographed any food yet (and the ones I have haven’t turned out well) so stay tuned! We’re having a baking day on Tuesday with some famous family recipes…so check back for some delicious treats!

I hope your holiday season is wonderful…filled with family, fun and delicious food!

Furry Hood #1

Any other Chicago girls absolutely freeze their butts off today?! It was a chilly one for sure! When I got back from my 9:15 class this morning, I looked at my computer to check the temp because my face felt like it might fall off. Weather.com informed me that it was about 9 degrees but felt like -5. NEGATIVE FIVE DEGREES!!! In light of the freezing cold temps, I sported my awesome Sorel snowboots and the furry hooded puffy vest pictured above. I also wore my snowboarding coat that has a furry hood. I probably looked a little silly with my double fur goin’ on…but I was definitely warm!

It has been such an insane Monday…just about nothing went as planned! Breakfast started out good at least! I made some yummy, cheesy scrambled eggs and ate a side of fruit salad.I was really craving some oatmeal, seeing as I have an empty peanut butter and am dying to use it for OIAJ, but I have a bunch of eggs that need to get used up before I head home Thursday night! So I forced myself to partake in some protein. It was actually really delicious. After my first class, I attempted to make some coffee, but it just was not a good cup so I dumped it out and decided that what I really wanted was a latte.

So I made myself this baby…

Courtesy of my Mr. Coffee Espresso machine

I made a latte with a splash of eggnog creamer and it definitely hit the spot! It was nice and foamy, and I topped with a bit of cinnamon. Mmm…it was just what I needed to warm me up!!

I packed myself a lunch to take to work. I made a turkey wrap stuffed with lots of turkey, some provolone and tons of hummus. Simple, but filling! I’m seriously running low on food since I’m leaving Thursday, so I threw in some other random snacky items to add to my wrap.

I brought a little snack to eat this afternoon because my plan was to head right to the gym when I got off at five. I ate my miniature braeburn apple with some almonds this afternoon at around 3 and thought it’d be the perfect fuel for my evening run. BUT my boss ended up asking me to stay at work late…and long story short, I didn’t make it to the gym until a little after 6. I had planned on doing a 60 minute interval run, but had to cut it short at about 48 minutes (a little over 5 miles). A classmate texted me and reminded me that we had to do a group problem for accounting. Frustrated and dissatisfied with my mediocre workout, I headed back and scarfed down tuna salad, lots more baby carrots, and a bowl of blueberries left me feeling dissatisfied yet again. I ended up snacking on a few yogurt covered raisins, PB pretzels, and dark chocolate m&m’s. Too many sweet treats are sitting around tempting me! I can’t wait to go home and eat really delicious healthy food with my parents.

So I am now attempting to do some accounting homework and then I am going to try to unwind and get to bed early. Tomorrow is a new day and I am going to make it go my way!! I am getting up bright and early to work out to make up for the past 2 days of crappy workouts (slash no workout yesterday)! Dissatisfaction is definitely the word of the day.

I hope your Monday was much more relaxed and much more satisfying than mine!

JORDAN.

Holy insane lack of motivation!! I have two finals this coming week and I cannot for the life of me find a speck of interest in studying for them. I opened my Financial Accounting book tonight, stared at the pages blankly for approximately 5 minutes…and then gave up.

Epic fail at an attempt to be productive!

Not much studying is getting done tonight! Oh well. I’ll just cram later on in the week. Usually works for me.

I hope your weekend has been fabulous! Mine has been very fun…very, very cold and snowy! Chicago was hit with quite the storm last night through today. Here’s a little recap on the events of the past few days!

Friday night the roomies and I went to a local cafe called Uncommon Ground to enjoy some coffee and live music.

My roommate Michelle (on the right) and I

We all ordered some EXCEPTIONAL drinks…

my drink of choice: nonfat almond latte

Michelle's: House Chai Latte

Chelsea's: Peanut Butter Mocha

Sydney's: frosty's mint chocolate mocha

This place gives the option of ordering your drink in a cup or a bowl. I opted for the smaller cup, not wanting to be bouncing off the walls all night long! But all of my roomies decided they wanted to try out the bowl. I sampled each one and they were all definitely tasty! But I liked mine best, which is always great! The music was good and the night was an all around success!

Saturday morning, I got up around 9 and headed to the gym for an interval run and some lower body lifting. I finished up with some abs and headed back to my place to pack up! Ryan and I decided to spend Saturday and Sunday with his family in Wheaton so I scarfed a pumpkin yogurt (1 vanilla Chobani, a couple spoonfuls of pumpkin, lots of pumpkin pie spice, and a handful of honey nut cheerios) and we hit the road! His mom had a yummy selection of deli meats and cheeses waiting for us and we made sandwiches for lunch. I had a turkey sandwich with provolone and some Dijon topped with tomatoes. Hit the spot! The rest of the days eats consisted of a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks (mmmm!), and some pork tenderloin for dinner with a little rice and green beans. Since it was Saturday, I figured I could afford a little ice cream with m&m’s for dessert.

Today we helped his family decorate their Christmas tree!

I'm an idiot

Haha excuse the picture quality! Ryan took this on his iPhone. A day of not showering and lying around on the couch equals one very grungy looking Jordan!

Today has consisted of lots of snack foods, no real meals with the exception of the delicious eggs Ryan’s mom made us for breakfast.

Another bit of news…I took today OFF off all exercising. I’m not sure if I’ve ever told you…but I rarely do this. Even my “off” days generally consist of a light run, exercise video, or some ab work. I haven’t taken a legitimate day off in ages, and I figured it was time.  My legs are sore and I was very tired today, so I’m giving my body a rest. As someone who has struggled endlessly with exercise guilt, this is hard. I’m not going to pretend that I haven’t thought about it a million times today. I’ve had to talk myself out of just doing some form of quick exercise several times during the day. But I know that in order to live a life in which exercise and my body don’t consume absolutely 100% of my thoughts, I need to do this occasionally. I need to let go of the need to constantly be in control of that. I need to let go of the overly high expectations that I constantly hold myself to. I need to let my body recover and reward myself for the hard work I have done all throughout the week.

I’m working on it…slowly but surely!

Sleep tight, all!

Last night, Ryan and I went on a Christmas present date to the Goodman Theatre to see their performance of “A Christmas Carol.”

We both spent a lot on each other last year for Christmas and we did presents for our year anniversary in September…so we decided we’d do something together instead of doing gifts. It was so much fun! I always love having an excuse to get dressed up and go downtown

me and my handsome man!

Before the show, we made dinner at my place. Ryan grilled a chicken breast for himself on the George Foreman and I baked a tilapia filet in the oven with a little olive oil, some Mrs. Dash fiesta lime and some lemon pepper. We also steamed a bag of archer’s farms veggies. It was quite a delicious dinner! We also stopped at Dunkin Donuts for coffee on the way there. Have you guys ever tried their pumpkin coffee??

PUMPKIN!!

Well, I love absolutely ANYTHING pumpkin….I seriously crave it around this time of year…but this coffee was fantastic! I just ordered a small lite-latte (espresso, steamed skim milk and Splenda), but Ryan got a cup of pumpkin coffee and I definitely stole a few sips. Absolutely glorious.

Great night with a great guy

It was all around a very very fun night. Being downtown and seeing all the lights and Christmas decorations made me really feel like it is Christmas! I can’t wait to go home! (6 days and counting!)

My Friday has been pretty mellow! Ry made me breakfast this morning, scrambled eggs with ham and a piece of toast, and after class I headed to the gym for a run. I did a variation of the interval run I did a few days ago and then jogged at various speeds until I hit an hour. I finished it up with a little ab work and had to rush back to get ready for work!

I’ve been snacking NONSTOP on the treats my mom sent me, especially the dark chocolate m&m’s and the yogurt raisins she knows my weaknesses too well! Treats are EVERYWHERE….I need to start practicing a bit more self control!

Tonight the roommates and I are going to a local coffee shop to watch some live music, so hopefully I’ll have some great pictures to share tomorrow. I’m also heading back to Ryan’s house with him this weekend to do some Christmas shopping. I’ll fill ya in later

Have a great weekend, friends!!

Okay….who else’s week has been absolutely NUTS?! Ah I’m so crazy stressed with all of the finals, projects and other tests that I have in the next couple of days and next week! After today, I will have two down and two to go, so I’m on the right track!

Now I have to tell you about my absolutely fabulous Wednesday. There was lots of studying, class and work involved, but lets talk about the fun stuff! The day started out great…with a great cup of coffeeeeee…

Any day that starts out with a good cup of coffee is wonderful in my book. But the day only continued to get better when I checked my mail box and got a packaged filled to the brim of delicious goodies from my wonderful mother! Check it out:

She sent me a bunch of treats to help me make it through my busy week of finals my mom is too cool. It included: dark chocolate m&m’s (my FAVORITE), extra peppermint gum, snyders peanut butter sandwich pretzels (as you can see, it didn’t take long for me to dive into those!), wasabi flavored edamame, yogurt covered raisins, a couple cliff z-bars, a couple kashi pumpkin pecan bars, a package of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix, and some lipton caramel truffle black tea. HOLY MOST AMAZING PACKAGE EVER! I’m seriously still in awe of all of the deliciousness that was in this one box of treats. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to eat it all in one week! I think I’ll manage somehow

Next order of business….cupcakes. But not just any cupcakes. Molly’s Cupcakes. I had heard from several people at school that Molly’s Cupcakes was absolutely to die for and have been wanted to try it for ages. Finally, my friend Jessica and I decided to make a little trip down there yesterday to get a cupcake and study for our marketing test.

The experience changed my life. You may think I’m being dramatic…

I’m really not! They have tons of amazing flavors that allow you to either design your own cupcake (select the cake, the frosting and the toppings) or select one of their own amazing creations. Their red velvet cupcake was voted Chicago’s best red velvet cupcake…

Doesn’t that look fantastic? They also have tons of specialty cupcakes that are center filled. Jessica and I both ordered the boston creme pie cupcake, which is vanilla cake filled with delicious custard and topped with chocolate ganache. We also each got a cookie monster cupcake, which is vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with vanilla frosting and a mini cookie to bring home to our roommates Next time I visit, I’m going to either try the tiramisu cupcake or the chocolate raspberry…it’s filled with real raspberry puree. Um…YES PLEASE! They also had pumpkin spice which looked delicious. I think I have discovered my new vice…

Thank you for being fantastic, Molly’s Cupcakes! I may have to order a box just so I have a reason to try them all. Anyone have birthday comin up?

I’m pretty sure they’ve been featured on the Food Network, and Jessica said every time she’s been they’ve been absolutely packed. Apparently they’re catching one!

Check out their website, http://www.mollyscupcakes.com , to look at a full list of their treats. I promise it will be worth your time

Well I am currently enjoying a cup of the delicious tea my mom sent me with a bowl of pumpkin oats and my marketing study guide. I think I need to do less thinking about cupcakes and more studying. We’ll see if that actually happens!

Good luck on finals, everyone! Happy happy Thursday!

Hi friends!

My Monday was actually quite mundane…so I’m sorry to disappoint! I know I promised some more exciting posts coming up this week…I promise they are still to come! Ryan and I are going downtown Thursday night to see “A Christmas Carol” so hopefully there will be some good pictures to post Friday I am also having a girls night with the roomies on Saturday which will be preluded with a Christmas party at one of my professor’s houses. She’s serving chili and black bean soup along with various Christmas goodies so I’m VERY excited.

One more week till finals!! Ah I’m SO ready to be done with this semester. This week and next week promise to be crazy so I’m sorry if the posts are few and far between. I will try to stay on top of it!

Here’s a little bit about my Monday:

My alarm went off at 6:40AM and….I turned it off. Ha, ha! No AM workout for Jordan this! I seriously COULD NOT get myself out of bed today! I don’t know what the deal was, but it felt good to get an extra hour of sleep. I decided to postpone my workout till I got off work at 5. Breakfast was fairly exciting though! It consisted of low sugar cinnamon swirl oatmeal topped with 1/2 a slice of banana. But instead of eating it from a bowl, I tried OIAJ for the first time ever this morning! I was quite excited. I buy huge jars of reduced fat jiff, so it takes me a while to get through them. But my roomie finished her jar of PB a few days ago so I snagged it. It was just what the doctor ordered to get my day started.

I enjoyed 2 cups of coffee mid morning and was off to work. Lunch consisted of a salad a lot like the other day (romaine hearts, sliced deli turkey, 1 slice provolone and red wine vinegar.) Simple but great! I also had some carrots with a little Sabra, an apple and a trailmix Kashi TLC granola bar. At around 4, I ate a vanilla Chobani to make sure I had enough fuel to get through my workout this evening. It was a tough one!!

My interval run was as follows:

2 minutes warm up: 6MPH

4 minutes run: 6.5MPH

3 minutes run: 7.5MPH

2 minutes run: 8.5MPH

1 minute run: 9.5MPH

I repeated this three times and then slowed to about a 6.5MPH pace (I inched up to 7.0MPH by the end) until I hit 5 miles. It was a great change up! Definitely got my heart rate going. I finished with some abs and headed back for some dinner.

My good friend George Foreman and I had a little date for dinner. We grilled a chicken breast with a tiny bit of EVOO, some Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime (my new favorite seasoning) and lemon pepper. I had some leftover veggies from last night on the side and dipped my chicken in some hummus. Dessert was a carbsmart tortilla wrapped up with some PB Mmmm.

I am currently sipping on some Decaf coffee and needing to start on my homework so that is all for today! I hope your Monday was MUCH more exciting than mine!

lovelovelove

Okay, that title is FAR too dramatic seeing as I have no pictures to document my accomplishment of the weekend. (Which I will tell you about in just a little bit!) It has been such a low key weekend for me…which is kind of nice since my weeks are pretty much full speed nonstop. Yesterday we woke up to beautiful powdery snow which was made me absolutely thrilled because it meant I got to wear my awesome new Sorel snow boots! Saturday consisted of a pancake breakfast to support my roommate’s boyfriend’s mission trip to Mexico. I had blueberry pancakes for the first time ever (believe it or not) and thoroughly enjoyed them. I seriously think that the last time I enjoyed a real pancake with syrup was probably almost a year ago. GASP! It was time.

mmmmmmm!!!

Ryan had some banana pancakes so we swapped bites. However, after a few hours, I realized why I don’t eat pancakes very often…I had a MAJOR sugar low. I rarely eat things with that much sugar or white flour anymore and my body was not very happy with me. I think I’ve had my pancake fix for the next few weeks, thank you very much! I do have to share one quick recipe with you guys though! They’re called PROTEIN pancakes. If you have blood sugar issues like me and my family, you will love them. They’re a healthy, delicious, guilt free way to enjoy pancakes without suffering the after effects.

1/2  cup egg whites (liquid or real)
1/2  cup oatmeal
1/2 banana
1 scoop choclate whey protein
tbsp cottage cheese (optional)
cinnamon

ta da!

I drizzle a tiny bit of Agave nectar or maple syrup on mine, but my sister and mom prefer to load theirs up with PB. Can’t go wrong either way! These keep me full and ready for a busy and active day! (got this from http://www.thebikinibible.com)

The rest of yesterday’s meals were fairly uneventful: turkey wrap on whole wheat carb smart tortilla with snyders sourdough nibblers and carrots with hummus for lunch and a garden burger patty with a side of broccoli for dinner. I ended up eating a bowl of honey nut cheerios before bed because I was still hungry. Cereal is the best bedtime snack.

Okay…now for the news of the night! (Don’t get too excited…it’s seriously not exciting at all) I made tilapia for the first time EVER tonight! Ha, ha. Only exciting for me, I guess This whole college girl thing means that I really don’t cook much, since I have limited space and money. I usually save my experimenting for my mom’s kitchen and resources, but I had a few frozen tilapia filets so I decided to give it a whirl. I simply used a tiny bit of EVOO, about 1/4 of a lemon, some Mrs. Dash fiesta lime and lemon pepper. 18 minutes in 350 degrees and that was it! I enjoyed it with some Archer’s Farms asparagus stirfry from Target and had a Pumpkin Pie yogurt (also compliments of Archer’s Farms) for dessert.

Today’s workouts: The Firm’s “Hard Core Fusion” DVD – I felt kind of sluggish while I did this so I decided to go to the gym and do an interval run later this evening. It was a productive day.

Well…this was quite a mundane post so I apologize. I will try to have something a little more buzz worthy for you as the week progresses. I really want to bake something this week…maybe I’ll see if the roomies are in the mood for some Christmas cookie baking

I hope your weekend was lovely!