weekend

Weekend Happenings: #diningin update, Swift-level 10, and Sweat Chicago

Well I officially went a full week without going out to eat! I technically did pay for a slice of pizza in the wee hours of the morning after last night, but that doesn’t really count, right? Because of this challenge I was able to force myself to be more creative in the kitchen and be better about prepping food the night before. When your veggies are chopped and your snacks are all in Ziploc bags in your purse, it makes #diningin so much easier. It didn’t even feel like a challenge, to be honest. That being said, OF COURSE I decided to do this challenge during RESTAURANT WEEK in Chicago haha. OF COURSE I did.

The best thing I ate all week (3 times, actually)?

Sweet Potato Nachos. Susie, I will forever be indebted to you for this inspiration.

I’m also back on a Vitatop craze. Have you ever had them? They’re 100 calories (chocolate chips not included haha) and they taste like a piece of chocolate cake. They aren’t the cheapest things in the world but they were on sale at Jewel so I stocked up on a few boxes to satisfy my ever-present chocolate cravings.

And instead of going out to brunch on Sunday, Megan and I had the brilliant idea of inviting friends over and making our own. It was the best idea we’ve had in awhile and for approximately $0 we had an incredible two hour meal full of eggs, potatoes, banana muffins, mimosas, and country music.

Don’t look at me like that. I worked up quite the appetite the night before dancing until dawn. My friend Kelsey was housesitting for a verrrrry wealthy family in Lincoln Park so we had a few drinks there before going out. We spent a few hours drinking nice wine, eating nice cheese, and taking “fancy lady” photos in their living room. And next to their elevator (that was IN the house). I honestly didn’t know places like this existed in Chicago.

Afterwards we met up with some friends for a girls night out in the River North neighborhood. We danced until the wee hours of the morning. Those are the best kind of nights — you start off at a Swift-level 2, just bopping around in a general fashion.

By midnight you start throwing some random arm motions in there, taking it to a Swift-level 5…

And then by 2am it’s a full-blown Swift-level 10, and you think you’re the hottest thing in the fifteen-mile radius.

So true.

On the workout front it was a pretty successful week. I’ve stuck to my goal of working out 5x/week in 2015, but haven’t been able to make it 6x, like I said I was trying to do lately. Oh well — 5 feels like a great balance, where I can still manage to work, write, have a social life, and workout consistently. I’m just going to go with it.

Weekly Workouts

Monday: Sweat Chicago (bootcamp #1)
Tuesday: 25 min HIIT
Wednesday: 5 mile run
Thursday: Yoga Sculpt (60 min)
Friday: Sweat Chicago (bootcamp #2)
Saturday: REST
Sunday: REST

Bootcamp #1

6 Rounds of :45 Work/:15 Rest at Each Station of:

Rowing
Box Jumps
5% Incline Walk (4.5 Speed) w/ DB Presses
Double Crunches
KB Goblet Squats
Plank Row to T Rotation w/ DB

Bootcamp #2

3 Rounds w/ 1min Rest Between of:

4min Incline Run (Increase Incline 1% EMOTM)
1min Rest
4min AMRAP of:
8 Push Ups
8 Tricep Box Dips
8 DB Bent Over Tricep Ext (Together)
8 DB Curl & Presses
1min Rest
4min AMRAP of:
8 Russian Twists (Per Side)
8 Sit Ups
8 DB Toe Touches

I’ve been attending Sweat a lot more lately, as I’ve grown close to the owner and a lot of the people who workout there. I love that it’s always a variety of high intensity exercises that last approximately an hour, but it doesn’t include Olympic-size weights. Now that I’ve officially lived in the city for just over two months, I’m going to calm down on the “try all the workouts in Chicago” approach and start being more consistent at Sweat. I’ve settled on what I love and what I don’t care for, and I know that at the end of the day, consistency is key to me being in the best shape. So Sweat it is!

Phew. Is it Friday yet? I want to do it all over again.

Questions:

What was the best thing you ate all weekend?
Vitatops: yay or nay?
Dancing: do you follow my Swift-levels theory or are you just an all-out amazing/terrible dancer?

Friday Favorites: Saved By the XXL

I’m actually cracking up at this creative title I came up with. You’ll see how it all ties together below but just know in the mean time that I’m super proud of myself.

It’s been a good week. So that calls for some Friday Favorites, aka the best things I’ve come across the past few days. I’m still 5/5 with my #diningin challenge so that’s reason enough to celebrate. Seeing my bank account stay relatively the same for a full five days is pretty inspiring and it makes me excited to take control of my spending habits in the future.

Jimmy Fallon Saved By The Bell

Did you guys see this? How great is Jimmy Fallon??

This is the greatest thing to happen on TV since, well, ever. I may have teared up a little. Sidenote: it’s scary how people these days look the same, if not better, than they did 20 years ago. I see it all the time and it just freaks me out!

Skinny Buffalo Chicken Dip

I mentioned on Monday that my favorite part about the Super Bowl (besides Katy Perry and the avocado commercial) was all the buffalo chicken dip I got to eat. Now, this isn’t even the worst in the world of dips. After all, it’s chicken-based, right? But I wondered, why can’t I eat this more often than once a year? I love it so much! My coworker and I were talking about it the next day and she shared this recipe with me, so I’m really excited to give it a try! Maybe buffalo chicken dip will become a new weekend staple? 😀

The Definitive Guide to Healthy Eating

I was dying reading this. It pretty much encompasses everything that’s frustrating about mainstream “dieting” knowledge. Read it and weep, ya know-it-alls!

A snippet from the post:

Gluten is the devil. The actual devil. Unless you test negative for gluten sensitivity in which case it’s perfectly healthy and should be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet and eaten on the reg.

If you test negative for gluten sensitivity IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT GLUTEN IS NOT DESTROYING YOUR GUT AT THIS VERY MOMENT, IT’S MOST LIKELY CAUSING IRREPARABLE DAMAGE THAT WILL EVENTUALLY KILL YOU.

Grains are the true devil and should be avoided at all costs, they will cause your gut to leak, destroy your relationships and they will make you fat and quite probably cause diabetes. Unless you soak them overnight before cooking in which case they are slightly less toxic.

Grains are the best and only way to receive enough carbohydrates for your body to function properly, one should make whole grains a regular part of one’s diet without fail. Without them you will become a shadow of yourself and die.

Free Massages

We had the folks from Exhale Spa come in the store yesterday and give complimentary chair massages. I took a bullet for the team and went first so that the guests would be intrigued and hopefully want to do it too. I’m selfless.

Holy crap mother of god. I always forget how amazing massages are. It was less than ten minutes but I felt like a new woman (not to mention the masseuse said she was surprised I was functioning with how tight my shoulders were — apparently there was a “boulder” in my shoulder. — so I’m extra glad I got some work done on it). But what kind of person could possibly have a bad week when it included a free massage?

And last, but certainly not least:

Magic Mike XXL Trailer

No explanation necessary. I only love this movie for my all-time celebrity crush Channing Tatum. So the first 50 seconds of this had me giggling at my computer, alone, like I was 15 and just got my first kiss. Straight up giggling.

He is such an incredible dancer. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Questions:

Any fun plans this weekend? Share!
Who is your celebrity crush?
Did you watch Saved By The Bell?

Weekend Writer’s Block — Adventures in Chiberia

**Disclaimer: massive amounts of writer’s block going on over here. Please excuse what can only be described as a random explosion of my thoughts**

Don’t you hate days when you want to write, but you just can’t come up with the right words? I guess we’ll just have to do what anyone would do in an awkward situation: talk about the weather.

I have never seen such a drastic change in weather conditions.

24 hours ago I was casually running along the Lake Shore path in crops and a vest. And today? This is what we woke up to:

Over a foot of snow. And the one thing I learned about living in the neighborhoods now instead of directly downtown? No one shovels anything. The sidewalks were a disaster. But let’s backtrack…

Friday night I went bowling with my college friends. I always go into bowling thinking I’m really good and then I’m lucky if I break 100. It’s that lefty curse, I’ll tell ya.

Saturday was “date day” with my mom to round out her birthday week. We spent the afternoon baking cookies and went to our favorite suburban sandwich shop for the best tuna melt in the continental US. This will always be “our spot.”

I got back to the city around 5pm, but since it was almost spring-like on Saturday and I knew a blizzard was coming, I threw on my running shoes the second I walked into my apartment, turned right around, and knocked out a beautiful 6 miler along the lake.

I really went for it, outfit-wise: camo running pants, purple shoes, black vest, orange top. Ridiculous.

Saturday night was spent celebrating Spencer’s birthday. I’m so lucky to have that guy in my life. We’ve been friends since we met on the first day of high school and it really is awesome that we’ve managed to stay close ever since. We went to Headquarters in Lincoln Park, a bar completely dedicated to arcade games, so it was a fun night filled with singing Blink182 in cabs and playing pinball.

Aaaaand then the Great Blizzard of 2015 hit. Okay, New York, you’ve got nothing on us. It started snowing last night around 8pm and hasn’t stopped since. We were able to catch a cab to our Superbowl shindig but ended up having to walk home afterwards…a not so pleasant experience. It took us an hour to go one mile, most of it spent walking in the street because at least those were semi-plowed. Luckily we were able to laugh about it so we stopped a lot to take silly photos and eat the leftover cookies I brought to the party.

Oh, and just because it wouldn’t be Superbowl Weekend without some commercial-talk, here is my favorite ad of the night. I lose it every time the polar bear pops up.

Thank goodness there were still some funny ads — too many of them made me want to either a) call my dad and tell him I love him or b) never have kids because apparently he or she might get into the chemicals under the sink. I’m all for the emotional but I’m not looking to cry when I’m elbows-deep in some buffalo chicken dip.

Sometimes weekends are a blur, and this was the case the past two days. But one thing I do know is I laughed non-stop. As I’m writing this up my cheeks hurt from all the laughter and smiling the past two days have brought me. I got to do all the things I love: run, eat buffalo chicken dip, watch football AND Katy Perry, celebrate a friend’s birthday, spend time with my family, and bake. Perfect.

And just because this is the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile:

Questions:

When you have writer’s block, what do you do? Write, or skip a day?
Favorite kind of cookie? I made monster cookies for the Superbowl: m&ms, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, oatmeal and rice krispies! They were killer.
Best thing you ate at your Superbowl Party? BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP

balancing the weekend: jumping jacks and jello shots

I don’t even know where to begin describing the shenanigans that went down this weekend.

Friday night we celebrated my Dad’s birthday with our annual trip to a German restaurant. We eat German food once a year because it’s my Dad’s favorite — that shows how much we love him because I don’t think anyone in the world besides Germans love German food. I was lucky because my mom brought me a piece of his German chocolate cake that they had the night before — sensing a theme here?

We went to Mirabell and it ended up being FANTASTIC. I never love German food but this was actually delicious! They took their time with the dishes but it was worth it — everything came out piping hot and flavorful.

I had salmon with garlic-cream sauce and fried potatoes with a salad to start. My brother got the famous Wiener Schnitzel and we all sampled some potato pancakes — everything was great. Plus I got to eat cake in bed later that night and I’m not sure what’s better than eating cake in bed…

Saturday was when most of the shenanigans ensued. It was Chicago’s annual “12 Bars of Christmas” Event, otherwise known as TBOX. We started the day at 7am with coffee/Bailey’s, mimosas, egg sandwiches and cinnamon rolls.

Oh and did I mention the jello shot tower? Yeah, there was a jello shot tower.

Needless to say it was a fun morning.

Now, in the name of balance let’s talk weekly workouts.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: Sweat on State (400m warmup run + main workout shared below)
Thursday: Kick-ass spin class at Flywheel
Friday: 60 minute Sculpt class at CorePower Yoga
Saturday: Jello shots burn calories right?
Sunday: Rest

Even though I only worked out four days last week, I feel like I pushed myself 100% for those four workouts so I don’t feel like I skimped on the sweat at all. Plus I’m finally starting to notice a significant difference in my upper body strength which is so exciting! I love that I now measure my success on what I can accomplish with my body, not on how it looks or how “skinny” I can get.

A workout that centers on running – my kinda day!

The blue pants always make an appearance at sculpt

Moral of the story? With great food/drinks comes great responsibility…to sweat! And when you make working out as much fun as I do, it all balances out. The jumping jacks AND the jello shots 😀

Questions:

Any fun holiday parties this past weekend?
Is there a type of food you aren’t fond of, like I am with German food?
How do you keep a balance between food/drinks and fitness?

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend

Happy Friday! If you need me I’ll be laughing hysterically at this video for the next three days.

night at the museum

Sometimes I worry that eventually you’re all going to get sick of my weekend updates which end up usually like “look how much food I ate!!!!”. In this particular nightmare of mine I show off all the glorious snapshots of my meals and snacks and I come back to check the post and it’s crickets (well, besides my family commenting that I’m taking good care of myself and “looks like you’re having lots of laughs”).

So thank goooooodness I have something to else to share this time around. I had a wonderful weekend full of winter-running, body-sculpting, and museum-exploring. Classy, right?

I had my first bout of winter running which luckily I was able to make happen before the snow fell today. Yes, it’s currently snowing in the Windy City. But while it wasn’t snowing this particular day, it was in the 20s and I started out FREEZING. Thankfully, as usually happens with winter runs, I warmed up after the first mile or so, but those first ten minutes of freezing fingers is no fun at all.

Yep, winter is here. Which means my bed and I are about to become even better friends.

I was a good little runner and stretched/iced my knees and shins before hopping on a train downtown for a night at the museum. I enjoyed a little pre-museum cocktail on the train because it doesn’t get any classier than mini bottles of wine on the train.

Thursday nights in November are free at the Art Institute of Chicago (recently rated #1 museum in the world!) and there’s a local bar nearby with 1/2 off bottles of wine so my night was basically decided for me. I mean, you don’t stumble upon deals like that very often in the city.

The one time in the history of mankind that being an Illinois resident SAVED people money.

My beautiful, beautiful city in the background. With a side of smirk. That is the face that still gets carded for R-rated movies so I’m not sure what I was trying to do here.Megan learning about our favorite piece in the museum (that we saw. That place is HUGE and we’ll have to go back).
The folks at the Art Institute mean serious business. There were at least five security guards in every room of the place, and if you got too close to the art (ahem, my bad!) a quiet but noticeable alarm went off. I mean, if you’re going to be #1 in the world I suppose you should preserve the art. Understood.

The rest of the weekend wasn’t nearly as exciting, but I did learn a few valuable lessons that I thought I’d share:

1) Don’t sit next to the heater in hot yoga sculpt.

So. much. sweat. I could SEE the heat blowing into the room above me. Oh, don’t forget your water bottle. Oh, and wait until everyone is out of the room before you take a mirror selfie. I wanted to turn around and say IT’S OKAY I HAVE A BLOG DON’T WORRY! I JUST HAD TO DOCUMENT THE SWEAT!

2) Don’t show up at a pizza place ten minutes before it closes because they’ll be almost out of deep dish and instead of two slices of the good stuff you’ll be forced to have one slice of thin crust. Thieves.

Thin crust being smothered by its deep dish counterpart. Crushing the competition since 1943.

3) Don’t assume no one can hear what music you’re listening to. Because you’ll end up listening to this song on repeat and then realize everyone around you can hear and is actually getting pretty sick of the song. I have so many new friends on the train!

I learned some valuable lessons this weekend, scored a great deal on a classy evening, and even worked out a bit. All the best things in life! Also, lucky you, you got to see my face FOUR times in one post – I’ve definitely hit my quota for the week.

Questions:

How was your weekend?
What’s a life lesson you recently learned?

NASM update, metta success, and college-town cavorting

It’s been awhile since we’ve talked, hasn’t it?

I was on a serious roll the past few months, but I have to be honest: the next two months I’m going to be just a bit less consistent. I’m in the home stretch of NASM studying and really need to focus on that. It’s tough to work, blog, and study, not to mention be committed to fitness and having a semblance of a social life while doing those three things. Writing is my outlet, though, so I’ll still be around. But that NASM textbook is my new #1 priority until the second week of January.

The metta movement on Friday was a HUGE success! Dave DID run the full 100 miles and raised more than his $25,000 goal – last time I checked he was at $28,950! That means even MORE kids are going to have that life-altering surgery. I’m not going to lie–the whole experience moved me. We surprised Dave by holding up photos of the kids he was running for and he broke down in tears every time. Needless to say we all broke down as well. I had a moment later in the weekend where I realized just how crazy it is that $250, something I would spend on clothes, shoes or food in a few weeks, can completely transform a child’s life. It is the difference between living as a leper and living in a world of possibility. I thought about those 100 kids that Dave’s feat is going to help. That’s 100 people who will now be able to thrive in society – they may go to college and discover the cure for cancer or become a global diplomat and solve world hunger. It’s just a mind-blowing thought and extremely, extremely humbling.

I spent the remainder of my weekend in Ann Arbor on a road trip with my girlfriends from college. Martina (think hipster-architect and probably the actual inventor of Pinterest) is going to the University of Michigan for grad school (Go Blue!) so we drove up to spend the weekend with her. We ate bagels and pizza like it was going out of style, laughed constantly, and danced until the early hours of the morning, losing complete track of time.

See this is what I hate about not blogging for a few days – I start to remember a million random things I want to share with you all and there’s just no ebb and flow to the post anymore. Maybe I should rename my blog to “I Had A Big Lunch – Now Read My Word Vomit.” But anyway, did I tell you that I tried barre finally? I’ll share my review of the studio another day but it totally kicked my butt in a way that my butt has never been kicked. It wasn’t a “holy crap look how much I’m sweating” -type workout. More of a “holy crap how long can I hold my leg up like this before getting a debilitating charlie horse” and “holy crap there are a lot of mirrors in this room so I should probably actually hold a firm core for the first time in the history of a group fitness class.” Stellar.

Just another new fitness routine to add to the mix. Can we add another day to the week so I can fit in all the workouts I want to do every week? That would be perfect.

So tell me…

Questions:

When was the last time you stayed in a college town? Did you have a blast or feel like an old prune in a sea of young, prime grapes?
What’s your opinion on barre workouts?
What was something funny, embarrassing or crazy about your weekend? Did you finally go for it and spend $15 on that jar of nut butter or spend six consecutive hours watching cat videos on YouTube?

Halloween 2020

In a surprising twist of events, Halloween 2020 ended up happening six years early.

Apparently if you have an open day and a whole lot of friends whose plans are cancelled last minute, you can throw an adorable ALMOST Pinterest-esque Halloween party. No, there weren’t donuts hanging from trees or apple bobbing, but there was Catch Phrase, spiked cider and squash so I’d say it was a success.

I started off the day in pure pumpkin bliss: pumpkin pancakes (my favorite Kodiak cakes + pure canned pumpkin + spices) and coffee filled to the brim with Bailey’s pumpkin spice creamer.

Once I heard that people were going to come over after all, I got to the prep. We ended up with quite the feast, thanks to some easy recipes and family brainstorming.

The final spread:

Shrimp cocktail
Tortilla chips and homemade guacamole
Grapes
Clementine Jack-o-Lanterns
Greek yogurt Spinach dip and pita crisps
Candy corn and peanuts
Spiked cider
Dirt cups (vanilla pudding + orange food coloring and crumbled oreos)
Delicata squash roasted with coconut oil, stevia and cinnamon

We spent the night listening to the monster mash, handing out candy to a dozen characters from Frozen, playing Catch Phrase, and watching “Zodiac.” It was everything I imagined my Halloween 2020 party to be and more.

And just when I thought the weekend couldn’t get any better, I totally kicked butt in the breakfast department on Saturday. I was running early for work so I decided to take myself on a little date to my favorite bagel shop downtown, NYC Bagel Deli. This place rocks my world. I had an everything bagel with two eggs, cheddar cheese, tomatoes and green peppers.

Please let there be bagel sandwiches in heaven.

Questions:

How did you spend your Halloween?
What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
Have you ever played board games at a party? What’s your favorite?

weekend in rhymes + workout accountability

Having a schedule like mine is super weird. Not sure if I’ve mentioned that before (sarcasm).

Sundays used to feel odd – like the “end” of something. Now it’s just another day, and knowing that this morning is a Monday ain’t no thang. That being said, the one thing I do appreciate about the weekends is I get to spend a lot more time with loved ones (because, sadly, most everyone else has a normal life and they use the weekends to do activities. how rude).

Lot’s happened this weekend. so let’s be obnoxious and rhyme about it.

There was spinning, painting, applesauce-making and Red-Robin-shaking (those bottomless fries, yo):

There was running at sunset down Lake Shore Drive (with donuts on donuts for my running to thrive):

There were babies in costumes I creeped on online, and Hawks game raffles where I won a prize:

Popcorn and sweet potatoes, surprise surprise. You fools dominate my taste buds, despite all other tries:

Okay end rhymes. My “Sunday night glass of wine” brain thought that was a good idea five minutes ago but now it’s clear I’m running out of juice (both figuratively and literally).

Finally, a few funnies to start your week:

Just kidding that wasn’t last – I have to keep making sure that I’m holding myself accountable for my workouts. I did pretty well this past week!

Workout Accountability 10/20-10/26

Monday: 4 mile run
Tuesday: Body by Jake full-body video (free on Hulu!)
Wednesday: Yoga Sculpt
Thursday: Flywheel
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 5.25 mile run

HECK YES!

Questions:

What was your favorite workout this week?
Do weekends seem like a big deal to you or do you have a wacko schedule too?
Ever been to Red Robin? What’s your favorite thing there? (bottomless fries are a given).

slurping turtle meets pumpkin patch

I’m beginning to think I have a little bit of an addictive personality.

I’m either waaaaay on “this” end of the spectrum or waaaaay on “that” end.

Case in point, my weekend. Remember two weeks ago when I could barely recollect all the beer I drank? This weekend I spent both Friday and Saturday nights watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory and eating microwave popcorn. Big things happening over here.

I did have two highlights though, which can’t be forgotten amidst the bliss that was my laid back weekend.

One, I tried a new restaurant in Chicago: Slurping Turtle!

I’ve wanted to try this place for awhile now but to be honest I rarely crave Asian food. If I do it’s usually just a pad thai craving (a very specific pad thai craving which can only be fulfilled by a little hole-in-the-wall place in my hometown. Picky picky). But I was getting dinner with Spencer who is always up for trying new spots so we decided Slurping Turtle would be the perfect meeting spot since it’s one of “those” places you have to try once in the city.

Do you have one of those friends who you know will be in your life forever, even if you only see each other every few months? Spencer is that friend.

First of all, I love dining with people who a) want to get a drink and b) will split an adventurous appetizer with me. Spencer and I decided to try a light Japanese beer (when in Rome, right?) and split an out-of-this world starter special. I wish I could remember the name of the sauce but basically it was crab legs covered in butter on top of some stir fried bok choy. I could have eaten a mountain of that stuff.

The star of the show was, of course, the ramen. Sidenote: I’ve never had ramen before. I was determined when I went off to college that I would always be “that person” who never tried ramen. Pretentious much?

Well this wasn’t exactly dorm room fare: We both had the Tan Tan Men Ramen (spicy) — homemade ramen noodles, pork meatball, pork chashu, pork miso, bok choy, and bean sprouts.

My thoughts ranged from: “Wow this is the spiciest thing I’ve had in my life” to “Thank god this isn’t a first date this is the messiest thing I’ve ever eaten” to “How in god’s name am I supposed to break up this meatball with my chopsticks?” Overall it was freaking delicious. I’m so glad I took the plunge and went pork-crazy (sometimes I can be a little weird about meat) because it was everything I’d heard about and more. The reviews were correct: Slurping Turtle has the best ramen in Chicago.

The other highlight of the weekend was a trip to a pumpkin patch with a few friends on Saturday. I, along with every other human being on the planet, apparently decided that this Saturday was THE day to go to a pumpkin patch so it was crowded (almost as crowded as my Facebook newsfeed with girls in their boots, flannel shirts and apple cider. No judgment. I am one of you).

The nice thing about this trip was that we went to an actual farm. It was run by a family who converts their home and farm into a fall afternoon getaway for all the other suburbanites to take their kids on an October afternoon. Not only did we see lots of farm animals (including a llama and a miniature horse – Little Sebastian, anyone?) and get our pumpkin fix in, but we enjoyed a hay ride and learned all about different gourds. You learn something new everyday, I tell ya.

So from Asian delicacy delights to fall-mania, I was perfectly happy to have spent my nights relaxing and catching up on some sleep. Okay that’s not true but I did catch up on some shows (equally important) and I didn’t poison my body with Natty Light.

“Wherever you are, be all there.”

Questions:

What cultural cuisine do you crave most often? I always crave Mexican food
Favorite Asian cuisine: Chinese, Thai, sushi, Vietnamese….go!
Have you been to a pumpkin patch yet this year? Are you planning on it?

i had a big lunch

Because dreaming about food and fitness was no longer enough

weekend

Weekend Happenings: #diningin update, Swift-level 10, and Sweat Chicago

Friday Favorites: Saved By the XXL

Weekend Writer’s Block — Adventures in Chiberia

balancing the weekend: jumping jacks and jello shots

It’s the Freakin’ Weekend

night at the museum

NASM update, metta success, and college-town cavorting

Halloween 2020

weekend in rhymes + workout accountability

slurping turtle meets pumpkin patch