Anuli & Juma

Howdy ho, it’s Friday, we did it. Last day of the work week, last day of the shortest month of the year! 

First thing’s first, how did Fabruary go? If you followed along, let me know your thoughts below, I’m curious. I think I missed a day at some point, but overall was happy to have something to keep me on track.  I’m currently in the process of making up some March goals, hoping to have them pinned down by Sunday.

there i am, writing my goals!

Andrew’s awesome roommate & GF signed me up for a subscription to Baltimore Magazine for my birthday, and the first copy came yesterday. Don’t worry, I was immediately informed via page twenty-something that the Maryland Zoo has TWO NEW female giraffes – Anuli and Juma.

More amazing info. on them here. Must meet them.

I really like prunes. Is that weird? I feel like the word ‘prune’ normally makes people wrinkle up their nose and scream ‘gross!’ but I honestly like them. I keep this bag in my snack drawer and usually eat a couple per day. Pruney and Proud.

In case you are interested, the Crossfit Open started yesterday. I didn’t officially sign up through the website or anything like that, but each week for 5 weeks they will post the workout of the week, and you can try it out and compare your scores to others, if you’re interested and want a challenge. Andrew and I are going to use it as an opportunity to compete against each other. Neither of us are officially crossfit gym members, but will hopefully figure out ways to complete the workouts with the equipment at our normal gyms…. That’s the plan at least.

Crossfit is actually on the docket for 4:30 pm this evening, followed by a fun evening full of green. More details to come.

I leave you with another #backthatazzup jam – one of my favorite songs from the new Dierks Bentley album this week. Nothing screams Friday like ‘Drunk on a Plane’

 

Cheers –

Kait

Two Days

It’s snowing again today. I suppose I can’t really comment, as I’ve stated in the past that my personal rule is I can’t complain about snow until we hit March.

Two more days 'til March guys.

I realized that the combination of a beautiful weather weekend followed by three crappy cold snowy days of weather this week was been the perfect concoction for a bad attitude, and not feeling so hot. I have literally been a Debbie Downer to the point that I googled ‘things to do to make me happy’ … and super unmotivated to the point that I considered going to bed at 7:30 pm last night.

Instead, I went over to Andrew’s in full-fledged pout mode, and he did two things that I really needed.

• Got me a mini cheesecake from Whole Foods
• Told me to stop being a pansy

Fair enough. So I guess instead of sitting here being a crying pansy, I will do everything in my power to share positive things.

I’m feeling good about the workout balance that I’m finding over the course of this past month. Andrew and I recently bought a Bikram Hot Yoga Groupon, so that will now be implemented 1 – 2xs per week, on top of my twice(ish) a week spinning, running, and crossfitting. Pretty solid balance if you ask me.

source

Speaking of crossfit, here is my most recent WOD:

4 sets, for time

15 thrusters (45 lbs)

15 burpees over the bar

Total Time, 12:36. Shoulders are still feeling sore today.

I discovered a few challenging looking treadmill workouts on Ashley’s blog - I think I may try the one below out this week. I’ve been trying a little harder recently to find more blogger friends who I enjoy reading. Another is Becki over at Bites & Brews who is currently hosting a Craft Beer book giveaway if you’re interested!

original source

Last but not least, one of my favorite ways to stay positive is to find quotes on Pinterest and share them, set them as my phone background, write them down, etc. I find a lot of power in simple words, so I shall leave you with a few.

and my personal favorite - 

Cheers to being halfway –

Kait

Sunday Yumday

Winter decided to tease us this weekend - temps broke 60 both Saturday and Sunday, and it made me way too excited for Spring to officially get here.

Friday night myself, the boy and few friends made our way down the Fillmore in Silver Spring to check out a country concert. It turned out to be an entirely acoustic set with Joe Nichols, Chase Rice, Thompson Square, Craig Campbell and Eric Paslay and I think we would all agree it was a pretty stellar performance.

good times!

In other new, has anyone tried this coffee?

It's one of my new favorites.

Food prep has (nerdishly) become on of my favorite parts of Sunday. On top of my favorite crockpot sweet potato casserole, I also made my own healthy fruit snacks, and a spaghetti squash egg fritata bake for the week.

fruit snacks in the making

breakfast this week? yes please.

Dinner tonight was pizza from a local Baltimore restaurant, Verde. My pizza happened to be gluten-free, and we enjoyed it with some wine up on the deck before the sun went down and temps started dipping back down to cold.

YUM

I feel good about this week. Last week of February - March is on Saturday, can you believe it?? Let's make it great.

Cheers - 

Kait

Five Things Friday

BEFORE we go any further, I have an announcement. Last night, at my third Blue Crab Crossfit class ever, I did my first double unders! 45 total, strung together about 10 in a row. The coach, Ben, was awesome, and sorry I'm not sorry, I'm a little bit proud of myself.

Moving on.

For Five Things Friday, I’m going to name one thing under each of the five categories that I’ve selected. This has been done mainly to cover the random assortment of things that I want to discuss.

1 (one) thing I loved this week – My run on Wednesday after work. Temperatures were hovering right around 55, and I was able to pull on shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt. It was magical. I did a couple laps around Patterson Park and then a short jaunt down by the water, totaling just over seven miles for this girl.

1 (one) thing (I realized) I dislike this week – The fact that Starbucks doesn’t offer almond milk. Am I being outrageous here with this expectation? I guess I just figured that enough people across the country now drink almond milk almost exclusively… it would just be an awesome option to have. Is anyone else with me here? Hello Starbs, are you listening to me??

1 (one) thing I (oddly) miss – I never in a million years thought I would say this. But while I was in the office kitchen earlier this week, another dept. was setting up for their team breakfast, and a woman was setting up one of those electric griddle things. See below.

It flashed me back to my time working in the Sunflower Deli back in good ole’ Fort Collins, CO (which is now apparently a Sprouts). Once a month we had a senior breakfast, and would set up about five of those griddles at 6 AM to cook up a plethora of pancakes, sausages, etc. At the time one of my favorite hobbies was b*tching about that job, but looking back, it was a job that kept me incredibly active, I worked with very caring people, and got to interact with a ton of (mostly) happy customers on a daily basis. I mean we were in Colorado after all – everyone is pretty much always happy there.

me, in Colorado, being very happy.

1 (one) thing that makes me sad – My leg still hurts. My right hamstring to be exact, right up under my butt. The thing is, it isn’t sharp or jabbing or anything that is super restrictive (hence why I still allow two runs per week) but my sadness comes from the fact that it has been lingering since late September. If I had to wager (I’ve been doing some reading) it’s an obnoxious case of high hamstring tendon apathy – you can readthis post on it, or this article, and then shake your head and agree with me.

I’ve started implementing some of the mentioned exercises and should probably get a little more aggressive with them. Any other suggestions or comments on this matter is more than appreciated.

Last but not least –

1 (one) thing that makes me excited – USA men’s hockey vs. Canada, today at noon EST. A win puts us in the finals – fingers crossed!

Zach Parise

Linking up with #Backthatazzup Friday – enjoy the below jam!

Cheers to ‘Merica!!

And last, but not least - an extra Friday thing. This late V-day gift - a giraffe named Sphincter - showed up on my porch last night. I love him like he's my own son.

Tell me some things you love/hate/miss/are confused by/pumped for this week. Ready go-

Kait

Selfie Nation

 It seems Weird Wednesdays are slowly turning into random Wednesdays but hey, no harm no foul right?

I want to talk about three specific things, none of which are related.

1. Meryl Davis' arms. Holy. Ripped.  In case you didn't hear the amazing news, our U.S. superstar ice dancing pair - Meryl Davis and Charlie White - won Gold for the first time ever for the USA on Monday. Outside of the fact that the couple absolutely killed it, can we talk about Meryl's arms really quick?

Seriously, google image her. She's ripped. It's impressive.

2. Speaking of superstars (yet going down a completely different avenue) this song came on yesterday in my car on my drive home -

It made me realize that I miss the days when Miley was normal and sang nice normal songs and kept her tongue in her mouth. I'm not looking to open a 'let's bash Miley' forum - I would be lying if I said I didn't love Wrecking Ball when it first came out. But back in her 'Party in the USA' days, man did I have a girl crush on her.

Those days are gone now.

Long. Gone.

Last but most importantly, I got a badass box in the mail today.

For those of you who have never heard of Warby Parker, in short, you select 5 pairs of frames from their website that you think you may like. They ship them all to you, for free. You have five days to try them on/test them out (the lenses don't have a prescription in them) and then you ship them back. If you like a pair, you buy them. If not, then no hard feelings. And they come out pretty inexpensive, compared to normal eye docs.

Help me out, would ya? This girl snapped her glasses in half back in December, and is desperately in need of a new pair. Feedback appreciated.

#1

these may be my favorite...

 #2

                                                    #3

 #4

have some blue spots on the frames

#5

Jet Black is a little too intense for me.. it was still fun to try though.

Vote in the comments, pretty please?

Cheers to Wednesday - 

K

#BestFoot

Happy President’s Day! If you’re lucky (unlike myself) you’re still at home in bed, enjoying a warm cup of coffee. However I really can't complain, after two straight snow days (working from home in my PJ's) this past Thursday and Friday, I am ready to get back into the office.

This morning I’m linking up with #bestfoot forward 2014, and giving you a quick summary of what my past week of workouts looked like:

-Monday: Crossfit, 40 mins of spin, Fabruary

-Tuesday: Elliptical/row, weights, Fabrurary

-Wednesday: 60 mins spin, Fabruary 

(was supposed to go to the gym to run, forgot shoes at home. fail.)

-Thursday: Snowed in - 65 mins spin, Fabruary

-Friday: 60 min run around the park, weighted abs, Fabruary

-Saturday: SKI!!!

-Sunday: Spin 25 mins, Run 25 mins, Spin 25 mins, Faburary

Does skiing count as a workout? I want to know thoughts on this. We went up to Wisp near Deepcreek, MD, and the conditions were excellent. Like most mountains, they’ve gotten dumped on this winter, and it snowed the entire day we were there.

cold but happy, I swear.

I also decided this weekend that it's time to buy my own skis. Any advice on best time/places to find great ski discounts, please share!

In case you didn’t hear, this weekend is Restaurant Week in Baltimore. We are trying out Mezze in Fells Point tonight with some friends – it's Mediterranean food, and I’ve heard great things.

Enjoy your Monday, whether you have it off or not. Cheers to a great week –

K

White Stuff

Did you hear the news? Today is my two year anniversary of living in Maryland! Mother Nature decided to throw a celebration for me - it snowed all of last night - granting pretty much the entire East Coast/MidAtlantic a snow day!

The kind handsome man on the left shoveled me out this morning. The kind young lad on the right lent us his shovel for $3. What a bargain  ;)

Maryland actually declared a state of emergency yesterday morning - hours before the first flakes even began to fall. As for Andrew and me, we decided to celebrate our impending snow day with some Guinness Stew from a local Irish Pub.

Good stuff.

Apparently we are suppose to get some more white stuff tonight - we'll see what happens. Until March hits, I will always welcome snow with open arms; it makes me happy.

In other developments, tomorrow marks the halfway point for Fabruary. Have you been following along? 

SORRY I had to cut off Day 1 to make the calendar fit  :)

I find that as the numbers get higher, it's easier for me to break it up into sets. For example, today calls for 110 squats and 45 push-ups, so I will most likely do 35 squats, 15 push-ups, 35 squats, 15 push-ups, 40 squats, 15 push-ups. Makes it a little less intimidating in my opinion. Also quick note - knee push-ups are better than no push-ups. Tailor the workout to what works for you!

Running was suppose to happen today, but I'm really not looking to get sopping wet in the current piles of slush that have taken over B'more... so it looks like the bike trainer will happen instead. Weather changes out here more often than Taylor Swift changes boyfriends (sorry Tay, love you) - they are actually calling for a high of 60 one day next week. Until the meltage subsides, the workouts will remain indoors.

Hope you're staying dry and warm - wherever you are. Enjoy V-day tomorrow, and remember that it doesn't just have to be about your significant other. Love everyone and anyone - it's an instant mood booster.

Skiing is on the docket for Saturday, fingers crossed that all of this snow doesn't change those plans.

Cheers -

K

Monday Blues

If we are being dead honest, I had a serious case of the Monday blues this morning. So no better of a reason than to link up for a Marvelous in my Monday post to sum up my weekend, and announce the winner of my Blogiversary Giveaway!

Marvelous was going to our first ever REI garage sale. We had no idea what to expect when pulling into the parking lot at 8:30 AM – and were really surprised when we saw a line of about 50 people deep. They passed out tickets by color depending on what time we had arrived by – we were the third group to be called back.

For those of you have never been to an REI garage sale, it’s basically when they put out products that have been gently used/returned, marked down to an insanely low prices. We managed to snag a sleeping pad for our (hopeful) camping endeavors this summer, and I got an awesome pair of North Face workout capris that were marked down to almost nothing.

I also have a Marvelous recipe to share. Last night my roommate Megan showed me a delicious looking gluten-free pizza recipe on the blog inspiralized. It gave the option to use either sweet potato or regular potatoes, so we decided to have a cook-off. I made the version with sweet potatoes to make it (almost) paleo (minus the mozzarella cheese), and she made the version with regular potatoes...

Meg's

Mine

 We then had Andrew do a blind taste test. He claimed to liked them both, but could ‘tell that mine was healthier’ and liked Megan’s better because he ‘could house it a lot easier.’

Fair enough. Round one goes to Megan.

Last Marvelous the day? It's a little bitter sweet, because I have a confession to make...

I cheated on running... and spinning... and I liked it a lot.

Awhile ago my coworker showed me a LivingSocial deal for a new crossfit gym near our work - Blue Crab Crossfit. I purchased it (10 beginner classes) and then literally put off going for a solid two weeks. Monday morning kicked my ass hard, and I knew I needed a literal ass kicking workout to lift my spirits, so I nervously headed to the gym after work.

In short, it was great. We practiced overhead squats after a short warm-up, and then the modified beginner WOD consisted of:

12 mins, every minute on the minute:

-8 wall balls (14 lbs)

-6 burpees (no jump)

I managed to finish 11/12 sets. My lungs were screaming at me after the fact, and I left feeling pretty damn good.

  AND finally, the winner of my Larabar giveaway is....

Congrats to Nicole over at Not Before My Tea, who ironically moved from Baltimore to Chicago a year or two ago. Opposite life stories, both runners, but she has funnier jokes than I do.

Cheers my friends - 

Kait

Biased

I realized this morning while driving to work that I'm biased to other commuters, depending on what kind of car they're driving.

My BFF shannon, getting a bath

Oh, you're driving a Honda just like me? OK, you must be cool then, go ahead and pass me. 

A Civic eh?? Excellent choice, if I do say so myself. Go right ahead and cut me off, I'm sure you have somewhere important to be.

Pretty much any other brand of car maker? Zero grace. You're getting the horn at the first wrong move.
Kidding... kind of  :)

Anyways, I don't have much to share outside of linking up for #Backthatazzup Friday. Here's my new favorite that I've been listening to non-stop the past two weeks.



Also - reminder - I'm doing a Larabar Giveaway for my second blogiversary! Go comment on this post to enter.

Happy Friday, enjoy it my friends!

Cheers -

K