fall

September Vibes

This is it this is it this is it! If you can, imagine me prancing around my apartment right now singing “It’s the most wonderful tiiiiiiime, of the yearrr” because that is absolutely what I’m doing.

I specifically remember the post I wrote on the first of September last year…I was just emerging from a difficult time in my life and it felt like I was living every day in a constant cycle of pain with no end in sight. I remember I decided to use the new month/new season to start over, mentally, physically, emotionally.

There are so many reasons why I love the beginning of the fall season: chilly weather, hot drinks, oversized sweaters and crockpot cooking galore. But I love the feeling of revival that comes with the change in seasons. It’s a chance to hit reset, to reevaluate your goals and priorities, and really stick with them.

So today, while I undoubtedly start browsing the pumpkin bread recipes, I’ll also be writing some new goals for the month. Nothing crazy, but just some accountability to be the best version of myself. Once I get a hard copy of my goals I’ll definitely share, but for now the wheels are turning in my mind. It’s the beginning of an exciting season, and I hope everyone takes advantage of the new month to make those changes they’ve been putting off. Because, after all, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Questions:

What are some changes you’re hoping to implement this month/season?
What’s your favorite part of September?
Favorite pumpkin indulgence: baked goods, candles, home decor, coffee creamer?

almost wordless week(end)

What’s new, crew! Sorry I disappeared for a few days – the rest of the week was a bit of a blur thanks to some unforeseen family stuff and I usually don’t have time to write on the weekends (too busy eating to write about eating, yaknowwhatimean?)

But while it’s been eventful to say the least, I did manage to have some great moments of fun out and about. If I took the time to explain each and every moment this post would be a decade long so let’s do an (almost) wordless weekend.

Just a little pumpkin-crazy

Early morning run in my favorite tech top from lululemon.

…Followed by a heavy dose of veggie icing and the Today show

Got some Skoop in the mail! So excited to review this next week for you guys!

And just like that it’s fall in Chicago! On the walk to work

Avocado-tomato grilled cheese + pumpkin beer.

Slowly (but surely) building up the muscles again. Yoga Sculpt

Homeslice Wheelhouse patio – my new favorite happy hour spot. I didn’t take my own pic because the travel channel was filming there!

Eating allll the pizza

Moscow Mule + pizza with olive oil, garlic (so much!), basil, feta and tomatoes. I died.

Been listening to a lot of John Mayer lately. It’s the perfect writing music! You either love him or you hate him…

BYOO – Bring Your Own Oatmeal to Starbucks. 9 out of 10 times the baristas will help a sister out 🙂

Bad mood killer. Best snack in the history of snacks. Candy corn + super salty peanuts

I’m also trying to create a pumpkin chili recipe today so I’ll be sharing that as soon as I’m sure it tastes great 😉

Can’t wait to read all about your weekends! Have a fabulous Monday!

Questions:

What’s your favorite day of the week and why?
Love or hate John Mayer?
Best part of your weekend…go!

october lover

Happy October, everyone! I hope you’re all ready for the best month of the year!

In honor of this month, I’m thinking the following activities are in order:

Pumpkin carving/decorating. Thanks to Pinterest, I think I’m going to paint mine this year. I’m thinking a chevron design!
Run through a forest preserve while the leaves change

Scary movie nights…complete with candy corn and peanut binges

Visit an apple orchard (don’t be fooled again…apple butter is not good)

Homecoming celebration back on campus

Picking out the best Halloween costume (last year I went as a “cereal” killer. This foodie title ain’t no joke)

Haunted boat tour along the Chicago River or a Gangster City Tour throughout downtown (both seem fun for Fall)

Haunted house. Just kidding. You couldn’t pay me to go in one of those.

What’s YOUR favorite thing to do in October?

Weekend Happenings

Hi, all! How was your weekend? Did you know it was the first weekend of FALL? Crazy!

While I still didn’t manage to do anything too autumn-ish, I know the next month will be filled with apple-picking, pumpkin-carving, candy corn-eating fun, so I’m not too worried.

This weekend I stayed in the suburbs for the first time in awhile. I had two shifts at the restaurant so it just made sense to stay home. Luckily that meant I got to spend a lot of time with my family and make some great food!

Saturday was a rest day minus a casual walk with my dad through our neighborhood.

Isn’t this apple tree gorgeous??

Sunday was a little different, however. I dragged myself out of bed at 9 and headed to the gym. I spent a lot more time there than usual because I wanted to do both cardio (elliptical) and take a yoga class. My lower back has been kiiiiillllling thanks to the intensity of bootcamp lately so I knew I needed to force myself to stretch!

Needless to say I walked through the door after almost two hours at the gym ravenous and quickly made myself an egg sandwich before church.

Ezekiel whole grain english muffin, two eggs with spinach and parmesean cheese, and a Morningstar sausage patty. Coffee on the side, of course.

The afternoon was spent watching football before heading to the restaurant for work. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m paying more attention this year, but all the games have been so good! Most of the games I tune into have ended up being close which makes it so entertaining.

Grilled cheese with tomato and an apple on the side before work

I got home late last night thanks to the Bears game (wooooo we won!) so I grabbed the first thing I could find for dinner.

Cherry walnut pancakes that my dad made in the morning alongside a cup of plain greek yogurt (with truvia). I passed out watching reruns of Parks and Recreation before I ate the banana, so there’s that.

This morning before work I’ve already been busy with a KILLER workout at bootcamp.

AMRAPs are nuts (as many rounds as possible). I, along with a few other people around me, were close to throwing up. At the moment you feel like death, but now I just feel like a badass 😉 I’ll spare you the picture of my tomato face afterwards, and instead leave you with a few hilarious posts from “Thug Kitchen”. Is it weird that I find food humor funny?

I hope you all have a great Monday! Happy Fall!

Question: what was the best part of YOUR weekend?

girls night in

I spent yesterday applying for some more full-time jobs in the city, so by the time late afternoon rolled around I was definitely in need of a sweat session. Luckily my bootcamp has a night class, so I headed there to get a good workout in.

Not fun. (But such a blast). yaknowwhatimean?

This workout kicked my but. Knee raises (reverse crunches hanging from a pull up bar) AND burpees? Cray cray.

((Sidenote, since I started doing Crossfit-like workouts I’ve noticed that my core is becoming incredibly strong. I love it!))

I ran home and showered really quickly because I had a girls night to get to.

Since we all graduated from college four months ago, my group of girlfriends has worked really hard to still stay close. One of my friends Monica put together a video montage of pictures from freshman-senior year and invited us all over to have dinner and watch it! How sweet!

We all brought over some food (my contribution was the cake batter rice krispie treats in the right corner) and snacked until everyone arrived.

My plate (plus more chips and carrots)

After we all got to Monica’s we settled in and watched the video. It was so sweet and well put-together. Seeing all those pictures was crazy because I can’t believe I was ever that young (but at the same time it feels like I was JUST that young–definitely one of the most bizarre parts about growing up.

After the movie we sat around a reminisced for awhile. It was so nice just to spend a night with my best girlfriends!

The gang minus a few!

This morning I hit the snooze button and missed BOTH workout classes that I was considering going to. Oh well 🙂 I need sleep! The best part about this morning was that my family was unanimous in wanting bagels for breakfast, so another pumpkin season craving has been satisfied!

Pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese and coffee with pumpkin coffeemate (not pictured). A little overboard? Not possible.

Now I’m planning on watching college football all day, maybe doing some yoga, and going to work at the restaurant tonight. It’s a beautiful September weekend–fall is finally here!

Question: what’s your favorite kind of bagel? Do you have an Einstein’s Bagel near you or is another place your favorite?

currently: friday the 13th

Just a few things that I’m loving this week! TGIF 🙂

Current Music:

Fall is the time of year I start to gravitate towards more indie/alternative music instead of the country tunes that take up 100% of my time throughout the summer. Autumn and indie just seem to go together beautifully

But there is always room for a guilty pleasure, bubblegum pop song obsession

Current Eats:

In breaking news, this cereal is heaven. Also, it only has 8 grams of sugar per serving? How is that even possible? That’s less than the twigs and branches cereal from Kashi that I usually eat. Actually I take that question back. Not gonna question it.

Current Shows

god I am LOVING DC-related shows. First “House of Cards” and now “Scandal”. I know I’m a few years late to the party (what else is new) but this show is great!

Current Read:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/11-life-hacks-for-the-emotionally-struggling-20-something/

“11 Life Hacks for the Emotionally Struggling 20-something”

“If you can’t enjoy what you have now, you are not in the right mindset to enjoy anything else”

It’s VERY hard to enjoy your day to day life when you feel like you aren’t moving in a certain direction. For me, I have always been used to moving forward–going to high school, making varsity basketball, taking the ACT, getting into college, picking a major, getting my degree. There’s always been something new to achieve, fairly easily too as long as I wanted it to happen.

Nowadays, life is more of a mystery. I have no idea where I’ll be one year from now. Many people my age have the same problem. But I’d be a fool to not enjoy what I have now because I feel like “less of a person” without a plan. I have parents who love me and give me a place to live, a boyfriend who would support me no matter what I chose to do or where I chose to go, and a genuine group of friends who I can always have a good time with. That’s enough for now. Even though I occasionally have to have an awkward minute-long conversation with people who ask “what are you doing with your life?”, that’s okay.

Current Style:

I just made some pre-Fall purchases that I couldn’t be happier with.

Fall fashion is the best.

Current Happenings

The U of I game this weekend!

My alum mater is playing football tomorrow at Soldier Field in Chicago! I’ll be heading downtown after getting a quick workout in so I can enjoy the first brisk day of fall tailgating and watching the game. I’m so excited!

In other news, happy Friday the 13th! Can you believe we’re basically halfway to October?!

Question: what are you loving currently?

i had a big lunch

Because dreaming about food and fitness was no longer enough