froyo

picture this: weekend

First things first: listen to this song during your next workout. I played it on repeat for hours during my workouts this weekend and my commute to/from the city. It’s so joyful, catchy, upbeat, and motivating. Obsessed is too casual a word for what I feel for this song.

Well it was a busy weekend full of work, great food, and workouts. So not much different from a typical weekend, but worth a share. Sometimes the best way to share is through nothing but pictures, so without further ado….my weekend. Happy Monday!

I just started including bosu balls into my workouts…. it adds a whole other dimension to workouts

Friday I worked 13 hours aka it was a Venti kind of day

It’s just a wee bit cold in Chicago…

Saw this Samoa cupcake on Instagram, immediately left work to get one from Crumbs

A little improvisation when I couldn’t find any weights…

Catch-up time with these girls 🙂

Greek yogurt fro-yo…actually pretty great!

Okay I lied I have a few words for the end of this post…Happy birthday, Maja! You’re a wonderful mom, the best in the world, and you always look out for me and want what’s best. Thanks for always supporting me and being the passionate, beautiful person you are. I love you so much….have a fabulous day full of cake and dancing!

writer’s block

so, i took a little hiatus from blogging. five days to be exact. I’ve been blogging for almost six months and even though sometimes when I sat down to the computer I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about, the words usually began to flow.

last week, however, I faced an incurable case of writer’s block. no new workout tips, no exciting recipes, no fun lunches to put together, nothing. so instead of force it, I took a few days off, hoping to come back this week revved up and ready to write!

Not much has happened in the past five days. I’ve worked doubles every day (internship and serving) so even if I wanted to write, finding the time was a challenge. A couple first-world middle-class suburban 20-something things that have happened to me lately include the following:

I channeled my inner 12 year old and got a ringtone. Yep, a ringtone. Does anyone with an iPhone even do that anymore? I just needed to hear my favorite song more often, so I decided to fork over the $1.99.

I also went shopping for new jeans. I decided it was time to stop wearing leggings and pretending that they were a step up from sweatpants and actually squeeze myself into some real material that will withstand Chicago winter.

I forgot how awful jeans are. Hence the sourpuss expression.

I got my first Starbucks holiday beverage. Newsworthy.

I had a coupon so I decided to get a massage. In other news, the woman asked me why I was skipping school. As in, high school. Yes, mam, I’m skipping third period geometry to go get a professional massage.

I got new running shoes because I’m itching to start running again and my old ones had a hole in the side that was only getting bigger.

These were $50 compared to their neon twins at $130. I tried and tried but just couldn’t justify almost tripling the price just for color. Does this mean I’m finally a grown up?

I celebrated my friend Jordan’s 23rd birthday! The year of Michael Jordan is already being good to her 🙂

I ate fro yo. Because I’m a blogger and that’s just the kind of thing we do.

And I worked out to balance out the sprinkles

So yeah. Big things happening over here. 🙂

I’ll be back tomorrow with regularly scheduled programming to share a new recipe with you all. Have a beautiful Monday! It’s snowing here!

Frozen yogurt + the flower dilemma

Yesterday was a busy day!

You know how sometimes work just creeps up on you and all of a sudden **bam** you’re overwhelmed? Luckily I have coffee, snacks, and an insatiable need to sweat to keep me sane during busy times.

Breakfast today was so good! I’ve been over hot foods lately thanks to the heat wave taking over the midwest, so a big bowl of cereal with fresh fruit and cold almond milk sounded perfect.

Look I even got all artsy! You know you’re a foodie when you take the time to arrange your food so it looks good. I had 1 cup of vanilla graham kashi cereal + half a banana and a handful of Michigan blueberries. I drowned it all in almond milk while I went over my work for the day.

I did hit up the farmers market this morning after a visit to the gym (strength workout + 8 minute abs + 30 min elliptical workout). There were some cool new finds there that I just had to snap some pictures of.

Crazy colored tomatoes…how fun would it be to include these in some recipes? I feel like they would throw people off!

Radishes chilling (literally) in ice.

Peppers on peppers on peppers. Anyone watch “Orange is the New Black”? That scene where Piper has to eat poblano peppers (or were they jalapenos?) was the craziest thing ever! I mean at the very least I’m sure she didn’t have any sinus problems for awhile.

White eggplant?! Weird!

And of course some beautiful flowers! Flowers are such a dilemma. They’re gorgeous and brighten up my day (and any room I put them in!) but they’re always expensive. Plus, they just die three days after you buy them. Believe me, I’ve had this argument with Zman many a time…they seem like a pointless gift. But there’s just something about flowers that makes everything better 🙂 They make what otherwise would be a monotonous day, special!

Wait–back to the title of this post.

I went to Lincoln Park last night to visit Megan for an outdoor yoga class. Well, long story short, we walked right past the class and marched into a frozen yogurt shop instead. Oh well, it was a long walk, right? 😉

Breaking news: I may have found the best frozen yogurt in Chicagoland.

Forever Yogurt was exactly what a froyo place is supposed to be: over a dozen flavors, tonnnnns of toppings, and SAMPLE CUPS. There is nothing I hate more than places without sample cups. Look, I get it, high schoolers come into your store, eat their body weight in samples and then walk out. But I’m a 22 year old woman with a serious decision-making problem so if you’re going to ask me to pick a flavor without sampling them all first, you’re nuts.

After my sampling, I settled on pistachio cream with praline almonds. I went simple (which never happens) and it was less than $4 (which NEVER happens) and I left feeling satisfied, not sick with oreo/cookie dough/sprinkle overload.

Yum!

Megan and I spent the rest of the night drinking Pinot Grigio and talking. It was so refreshing to just sit and talk with a good friend. A wonderful night!

Questions:

What’s your usual/favorite frozen yogurt combination?

What to do when you’re having a bad day

Here’s the world’s best advice to getting over a day that just isn’t going your way. This is totally fool-proof, I promise. No gimmicks here. Just follow my guide step-by-step and everything will turn around!

(Disclaimer: I in no way can actually guarantee a total overhaul of a bad day. I just happen to respond very well to lots of jumping around and sugar).

1. Go for a run

4 miles before work. My knees were achy all day! Must. foam. roll.

2. Drink lots of caffeine

Ps I know red bull is bad…it gave me a terrible stomachache and I only made it thru about 1/3 of the can

3. Text your friends and talk about how you wish you lived in a different time. Then laugh about how silly your college-educated best friend can be (love you, Meg!)

4. Restock your fridge with tons of staples so you feel organized and ready to take on the week in a health-conscious way.

5. Take time to create a nutritious, hearty, delicious meal. Cooking is a form of meditation and relaxation for me.

Grilled bbq chicken, spring mix salad with homemade dressing (dijon, balsamic, olive oil and garlic), and sauteed zucchini

6. ………to make room for FROYO!

Too much in that cup to even describe. The most important part was that they had puppy chow as a topping.

7. Jump around for an hour until your head is pounding and your hair is all in knots.

Karate chop the blues away

Zman had the brilliant plan of going to Extreme Trampoline and bouncing around until they closed. It was fantastic. Endorphins are real, people.

Life is crazy. Sometimes people let you down–sometimes you let yourself down. Trying to get started in a career is one of the most challenging things in the world. But the more time I take to complain and dwell on it I might be missing out on more opportunities that could be just right for me. So tonight I ate chocolate and bounced around like an 8-year-old, and tomorrow I’ll wake up and try this whole grown-up thing again. I’ll be testing out a new recipe soon so keep an eye out for that!

Happy Monday!

i had a big lunch

Because dreaming about food and fitness was no longer enough