Welcome to my second ever WIAW post!

After a week of eating way too much food and way too many treats, my body is definitely in need of some moderation and some nutrients.

I’m trying to get back into a normal, healthy eating pattern for the next few weeks so that I can feel good about indulging a bit during Christmas. So I figured doing a What I Ate Wednesday post would help me stay accountable!

Breakfast (3rd day in a row):

Protein Smoothie!

Blueberries, vanilla protein powder, 1/2 banana, and blackberries. Icy, cold and delicious.

Offset by a hot, foamy almond milk latte.

(Can you tell our Christmas decorations have made an appearance?! I will take pictures and share soon!)

After my first class, I snacked on a Chewy Granola Bar with one of the Jonas Brothers’ faces on it.

And then I went to ChewySuperstar.com.
Ha. Kidding.

Despite the fact that I still eat little kid snacks and pack my lunch in a polka dot lunch box, I really am in college!

Lunch:

Apparently I was still in the mood for breakfast food when I packed my lunch this morning.

Chobani Lemon (aka the best Chobani flavor everrr), 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean, and more blackberries.

Between the protein in the yogurt and the cereal, this kept me full for forever. I didn’t even bust into my midafternoon snack till around 4:30! It consisted of…

Some sugar snap peas and a Laughing Cow cheese wedge.

Since I had a day full of class followed by an entire evening at work, I had to pack up all of my meals and snacks so that I could eat on the go.

Dinner (eaten at work): leftovers.

Pulled chicken with bbq sauce, shredded cabbage w/ lite Asian Sesame dressing, and baked beans.

Looks gross, tasted delicious.

Somehow, I managed to fit all of that food into my awesome lunchbox:

Don’t act like you’re not impressed.

And as exciting as THAT was, I want to share with you the best part of this post: an awesome new workout!

Ryan taught me this workout last week while we were in Tennessee. I immediately loved the fact that you could vary it as much as you want, and make it as hard or as easy as you’re in the mood for.

First, you need one of these.

Ryan does this workout by simply alternating two moves: push ups and crunches. I decided to shake it up a bit and add in a couple more exercises.

For this workout, I decided to target upper body and abdominals.

I designated upper body to black cards, and abdominals to red cards.

Then, I picked the exercises that would target each muscle group: bicep curls and burpees for upper body, and crunches and v-ups for abdominals.

After you pick your exercises, your goal is to work through the entire deck of cards as quickly as possible. Flip a card, and do an exercise specified to the muscle group color for as many reps as are represented by the face value. Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces all represent 10 reps.

For example, let’s say I draw this card:

I would do 10 crunches. The next time I draw a red card, I would do v-ups.

The goal is to make it through all 52 cards as quickly as possible.

After flipping over 52 cards and doing your 4 exercises nonstop, I can pretty much guarantee that you will work up a sweat!!

I finished the entire deck in under 30 minutes and rounded out my workout with 30 minutes of treadmill intervals. It was a great way to switch up my routine a bit.

It feels good to be back on the wagon of healthy eating and exercise! Anyone else with me?!

Happy Wednesday, my friends!!

Hiiiiiii!!!!!

How was your Thanksgiving?!

Mine was absolutely wonderful. I was definitely not excited to get back to the reality of school and work and responsibilities (finals are in 2 weeks…yikes!!)

I arrived in Chicago last Monday night and was met at the airport by my handsome, handsome boyfriend.

he's special

And after spending two nights in the city, we were off to Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with his beautiful sister and her hubby.

I absolutely love Ryan’s family and could not be more comfortable with them. Even the 9 hour car ride to Tennessee didn’t seem too bad Of course, travel Scrabble definitely helped!

The week was filled with lots of fun, laughing, a couple of good workouts, and of course a TON of good food!

The day before Thanksgiving, Ryan and I used a guest pass to his sister’s gym and did a lower body lift. I did all of the same lifts as Ryan but with modified weights, and I have never been so sore in my life!!  We were registered for a 5k Turkey Trot for the next morning, and we definitely kept the pace a little bit slower because of our sore legs. His awesome dad ran it with us! (Sorry about the blurry phone pic!)

After the Turkey Trot, we came back and enjoyed some wonderful food.

Thanksgiving!!!

It was all absolutely to die for!!

The menu included turkey, chestnut stuffing (OMGosh so good), broccoli, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, broccoli rice casserole and crescent rolls.

Above is a picture of my first plate, and I definitely had seconds of turkey and cranberry sauce. Sooo good. Dessert was an unpictured pumpkin chiffon pie and an apple crumble pie.

Needless to say, I have never been so full in my life.

But it was definitely worth it

me, Ryan's mom Laura and his sister Sammy

I miss him already!!

Ryan’s sister is a photographer, and she did a little photoshoot of Ryan and I while we were there. I absolutely can’t wait to see the pictures, and I’ll be sure to share them as soon as she sends them to me!

 The week went way too fast, and before I knew it I was already in the airport Sunday morning waiting for my flight to leave.

Starbucks oatmeal was the perfect Sunday morning breakfast to ease my uneasy stomach. Although all of the food was delicious, I definitely was ready to get back into a normal, healthy eating schedule again! I am once again in need of a good detox!

So this morning after a much needed workout (elliptical followed by total body weights), I made myself a nutrient packed smoothie.

like my robe?

The good news is that there is only another 18 days until Ryan gets here for Christmas break. He’s spending 2 weeks here and we will be together for Christmas day and New Years Eve. I absolutely cannot wait!

Anyways…tell me about YOUR Thanksgiving!!

Favorite Thanksgiving food?

Are you in need of a little detoxing too? We have to get ready for Christmas!!

 I will be back soon with an AWESOME new workout for you! Love you guys!! xoxo

Hi!!

Thanks for all of the congratulations and sweet comments on my blogiversary post! You guys are so great.

Well I just wanted to let you know that I am heading out to Chicago today to spend Thanksgiving with this guy…

I will still be keeping up on reading all of your blogs, but I most likely won’t be posting until I get back.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, and lots of this…

(source)

Oh, and some of this:

(source)

Love you friends!!!

Guess what happened yesterday?!

My little blog turned one!

On November 17th, 2010 I decided to stop just stalking  reading my favorite health and fitness blogs, but to start one of my own in hopes that somewhere a few other healthy college girls, fellow runners or passionate foodies may benefit along the way.

I am so happy to have found such a great community of bloggers! I love catching up with you guys every day through your blogs and comments, and hope you know what your virtual friendship means to me

A lot has changed in a year! Since the start of my blog, I have…

Moved home to Colorado!

(source)

Completed my first half-marathon

Declared my major!

(source)

Received my first F on a test :-/

Started a long-distance relationship

Taken a lot of pictures of my food

Discovered and tried tons of great new recipes, like these awesome no bake granola bars I made today.

Courtesy of Food Doodles

Conquered lots of new and awesome workouts, like this one I stole from Tessa the other day

It was awesome!! Definitely had me sweating and out of breath.

Truth be told, I feel like so much about me has changed in the past year. And a huge part of it is because of this blog and the community I have found because of it. I love my growing passion for fitness and food and being able to share that with others. I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to “meet” all of you, and can’t wait for more years to come

Although, there may be a blog name change coming your way soon…stay tuned!

What’s your favorite thing about blogging/blog reading?

What’s the biggest thing about you that has changed in the past year?

Favorite workout/new recipe as of late?

Love you friends!

While I was stalking browsing Pinterest the other day [yup, I'm obsessed, too], I came across this photo:

I have to admit…I feel like I eat every meal like a king.

Now that the weather has gotten colder, my appetite has definitely increased and I just feel hungry all.the.time.

But it definitely got me thinking. I always hear about the wonderful benefits of eating a big breakfast (which I nearly ALWAYS do).

For example:

Old fashioned oats, greek yogurt, and bloobs.

(Bowl courtesy of Quaker )

But typically, I don’t pay much attention to the size of my lunches or dinner. I would consider both to be fairly moderate.

The “eat dinner like a pauper” part also made me think about the common “diet” rule of no eating after 8PM…which I rarely follow either.

Definitely just something to think about!

Happy Monday, my friends!

Thoughts?

What’s your largest meal of the day? Your smallest?

Do you think it matters?

Hi there!

Have you had a good Saturday?

I hope so. Mine has been awesome!

Good news: I feel like my motivation is back with a bang on the working out front. I’m back to looking forward to my workouts and thoroughly enjoying them! I love that feeling.

This morning I went for a quick 3 mile run to warm up my legs (Colorado decided to be sunny and gorgeous today) and then I returned home to complete a 45 minute session of total body weights and abs.

On a not so happy note, I noticed during my workout that I am an absolute baby when it comes to push ups. I do the girly kind every time.

I’m gonna make a conscious effort to change that.

After my super sweaty and awesome workout, I made something that I have been thinking about and craving all. week. long.

I made these pancakes.

And they were just as good the second time!

I don’t think I shared the recipe with you before, so here it is:

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes (courtesy of EatingWell)

• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
• 3/4 cup fresh or frozen (not thawed) blueberries

I ended up using nearly all whole wheat flour, and I replaced the buttermilk with skim milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice. I liked the extra lemony flavor!

Alongside a big, foamy almond milk latte, this breakfast was the jam.

My last post generated a lot of talk about two things: how I get my lattes so foamy and where I got my tie-dyed purple running leggings

I actually got both my espresso machine and my running leggings for Christmas last year much to my delight.

The leggings are Nike, and I believe my parents got them at Dick’s. They’re a little crazy, but I definitely won’t ever get hit by a car!

The secret to my ridiculously foamy lattes is this bad boy:

This milk frother is seriously one of my favorite possessions. [don't judge. I like lattes]

My parents got it for me last Christmas along with my Nespresso machine.

This machine is definitely a little pricey for a college student, so I feel totally spoiled to have gotten it as a gift. My parents obviously know how dedicated I am to coffee. And really, I save money in the long run since I used to spend $3.50 on Starbucks lattes all too often!

Before I had this great machine, I used a little Mr. Coffee cappuccino maker that I loved too!

This guy is only around $30 at Target and works great! Ryan has it at his apartment now. So he’s still getting some lovin!

Do you have an espresso machine?

Do you do girly style push-ups or are you a beastly manly man?

Favorite kind of pancakes??

One of the things that I love most about blogging is the opportunity to meet new friends.

Do you guys know Katie?

I’ve been following her blog for quite some time and love her creative ways to make delicious recipes a little healthier.

This week, I made friends with her Mini Pumpkin Pies.

I actually adapted her recipe a bit, because I was making these for a group of people and didn’t want them to be too freaked out by a super healthified recipe

I used wonton wrappers like she did, but my filling was a little more like traditional pumpkin pie. Note: if you do a more traditional pumpkin pie filling like I did, I recommend baking them for about 10 minutes and then covering them with aluminum foil and baking for another 5.

They were heavenly.

You know how chai lattes kind of taste like Christmas in your mouth?

These, my friends, are Thanksgiving in your mouth.

 I also met a new HUMAN friend this week too!

Adorable blog reader Alex reached out to me a few weeks ago about meeting up sometime and we finally did this past Sunday.

We chatted for over an hour about family, friends, fitness and everything in between.

I love that blogging has given me the opportunity to not only “meet” amazing women around the country who share my interests and beliefs, but also that it allows me to connect with people who live in my own state that I may not have met otherwise.

Alex shot me a text yesterday wishing me good luck on my big Cost Accounting exam today. Remember the last one?

Yikes :-/ I’m nervous!

I started out the morning with a great run…

[in perhaps the most obnoxious running outfit ever]

And am fueling up my body and brain with my favorite simple breakfast as of late.

oatmeal + blueberries and a delicious, foamy almond milk latte

Wish me luck!! Talk to you soon!

What’s your favorite fall recipe?

Have you had any blogger/reader meet ups lately?

Best pre-test breakfast?!

Well hi there!!

I’ve missed you!

(story of my life lately, right?)

I’m so sorry that I have been MIA once again! Thankfully, recruiting for internships is finally over for all of the accounting firms, so that is one less stress in my life! School hasn’t calmed down much, but that is to be expected. They say that junior year is the “weed out” year for accounting majors. It’s tough!

I know that I am a few days late, but I just wanted to update you guys on what I did over Halloween weekend!

I’ll give you a clue…

It involved this guy!!!

I flew out to Chicago last Thursday night to spend the weekend with my adorable boyfriend. It was such an awesome trip! We spent a day at his apartment in Chicago before heading back to his parents house in the suburbs on Friday night.

The weekend was filled with lots of fun and, of course, LOTS of good food!! And of course, the whole weekend basically revolved around pumpkins

We had pumpkin bagels [with pumpkin cream cheese, obvs]

Made a pumpkin chiffon pie

And by we I definitely mean Ryan’s mom. She’s an insanely amazing cook and I always LOVE eating at their house. (This isn’t a picture of the real pie…I was way too busy eating to snap a picture, duh. So this one was found here.)

And we carved pumpkins!!!

My pumpkin was insanely abnormally hard and it took me like 4 times longer to carve than Ryan’s did!!

Seriously! Look at all of the utensils that bad boy broke!! I literally ended up using a steak knife most of the time haha.

They turned out great!! (Sorry for the fuzzy bathroom picture )

It was a blast!

Obviously, lots of candy was also consumed.

Very few things in life are better than frozen mini snickers bars. SO legit.

Very successful Halloween weekend!

Miss him already!!

I was so glad to hear that some of you have been feeling similar to me lately as far as craving comfort food. Obviously, this weekend wasn’t all about eating healthy or getting awesome workouts in. It was about enjoying my boyfriend and his wonderful family.  And I think that’s okay! I have been eating healthy during the week and then if I want to splurge on the weekend (like I did this weekend with Ry) then I can! Especially this time of year, I think it’s silly to try to deprive ourselves of holiday treats. I just end up miserable and bummed out! It’s all about moderation, right?

And the good news is that since my schedule has calmed down a little bit I have had more time and energy to dedicate to great workouts. My parents recently bought a treadmill (!!!) so I have been running more frequently on that since winter has officially started to hit Colorado. I am so stoked to start half-marathon training!

I actually am considering signing up for the Colorado Marathon in May! Any Coloradoans out there that have done it or are doing it in 2012?!

Anyways! Obviously I am VERY far behind on blog reading, so I can’t wait to read about what some of you guys have been up to. Love and miss you LOTS! Happy Wednesday, friends!

Tell me what the best part of your halloween weekend was!!

Did you carve pumpkins this year??

Favorite halloween candy? Anyone else agree with me that frozen candy bars are the jam?!

Okay…I’m not gonna lie.

I feel like a bit of a healthy living blogger failure.

I have been seriously, seriously lacking in motivation lately, both when it comes to working out and eating healthy.

I think that being so busy and stressed out has really taken a toll on my energy levels and desire to workout. It could have something to do with the change of seasons too, because all I want lately is comfort food.

The other night, after I got home from an all day recruiting event, I stood in front of the pantry with no creative inspiration or desire to cook. So instead, I rented some movies and decided to go for some take out.

Nothing but good old barbecue sounded good to me, so I did it up big.

BBQ chicken with onions and pickles, baked beans, potato salad and a huge piece of cornbread with honey butter.

If that isn’t comfort food, I don’t know what is.

I definitely enjoy eating like this sometimes, and I think that it’s important to treat ourselves once in a while. I’m a firm believer in the fact that no one should deprive themself!

That being said, I really do feel better and look better when I am more committed to healthy eating and exercising. I think that life calming down a little should help (recruiting is finally over, thank God!) and hopefully I have will more energy to workout.

So to kick off a week of sticking closer to my exercise routine, I went on an awesome run. And as I was running toward the beautiful Rocky Mountains, it occurred to me that I have never showed you guys where I fell in love with running!

So I’m going to take you on a virtual run with me. Ready?

First, we need to head out of the neighborhood down this huge hill. Trust me…running down it is way more enjoyable than running up on the way back. So enjoy this part!

Make sure to take some looks around as you run down the hill and toward the dirt road.

It’s pretty around here

Pretty soon, we’ll get to the dirt road, which is off limits to cars. I love that.

Pause when you get to the top of this next little hill to take a look at this view…

Then take a right!

Feel free to keep admiring the mountains. Just make sure you’re good at multitasking. I don’t want to have to cut our run short because you tripped and hurt yourself.

Good job! We’ve made it to the final stretch of the dirt road.

Feel free to say “what’s up” to the cows.

And before ya know it, we’ve made it to the fence!

If we turn around now, we will complete about 3 miles. But we can add 2-4 more by turning to the right…

…or to the left. But whatever we do, we’ve got to touch the fence! It’s bad luck if you don’t.

No wonder I love to run, huh?!

I am so spoiled by this gorgeous scenery.

And this awesome 5.5 mile run (I decided to turn to the right ) gave me the energy and motivation I needed to be a healthy college girl this week.

Tell me about your favorite run/workout spot! 

Is anyone else craving comfort food this time of year?! (ALL I WANT IS PUMPKIN BREAD AND COOKIES!!!)

Love you guys! xoxo

My dear, dear friends!!

Oh how I have missed you. I have not read (and obviously have not written) any blog posts in such a long time!

Life has not slowed down one bit, believe it or not. Between school, recruiting with accounting firms, and working, I am up to my nose in stress!!

Being stressed and busy like this makes me so nostalgic for summertime. I had tons of time to do anything I wanted. Like…

Laying out by the pool!

Planning and cooking delicious, healthy meals and trying new recipes.

Having the time to exercise at any time of the day (and do anything I wanted!)

Being with family.

Being with this boy that I miss terribly!!!

Sigh.

Isn’t summer glorious?!

But as much as I miss all of this stuff, I have to remind myself to adjust my attitude and look around at all of the stuff that I am thankful for right now.

I absolutely adore fall in Colorado! I’m loving…

All things pumpkin!

Pumpkin black bean soup!

 Courtesy of Courtney’s blog!

pumpkin bread the "naughty way"...no healthy substitutions here, people!

pumpkin pie for breakfast

pumpkin spice lattes

The gorgeous, changing leaves.

The cool, crisp air and bright sun.

Fun fall decorations.

Warm, comforting meals.

Another picture of the pumpkin black bean soup…you guys MUST make this meal. This soup was amazing and we made grilled cheese with rye bread and jarslberg cheese to go with. To. Die. For.

The drawing near of the holidays!

(source, source and source)

Sometimes, I just need to adjust my attitude and get a little perspective. I think too often I spend my time wishing I was in a different place or a different time of life. I end up missing out on all of the wonderful things that I should be enjoying right now!

That being said…there is one thing that I miss about summer that I forgot to mention…

I MISS YOU GUYS!!!!!! All of my wonderful blogger friends, readers, commenters…I miss talking with you and reading your blogs and comments more than you know. I miss reading about your lives and getting new tips for meals and workouts. I hate that blogging has had to take backseat to school and work and internship hunting. I hope that in the next few weeks, life will slow down and I will be able to catch up with you all once again. Just know that I am still here and thinking about you daily! I hope you are doing well!

Love you guys!!

Tell me something you miss about summer…and something you’re LOVING about fall!