official

Well after consecutive days of several forms of pizza, Chinese food, pasta, wine and champagne galore, Tuesday left me ready to clean up my eating habits a bit.

I've decided I'm going to try my best shot at tracking a What I Ate Wednesday for you guys today, and report back tomorrow. Wish me luck.

In other news, it’s December!! I’m officially listening to Christmas music, our house is decorated beautifully (no thanks to me), and my favorite boy is back.

Life is good.

I also pretty psyched that I snagged my last holiday flight yesterday for super cheap via Southwest – was able to use points on my Baltimore to Chicago flight as well as my New Years Chicago to Denver flight.

3 flights < $400 = success.

Let’s see what else… I found these, I love them.

Trader Joes

These too - these dude are at Walmart, and great on-the-go snacks.

I’m also trying to be more conscious of drinking water. When Andrew left in July I couldn’t get him to willingly drink a full water bottle if I begged – he was a Gatorade believer to the bones. Now upon his return he sucks down water like it’s his job – it makes me so happy, and simultaneously has been a good reminder of how good it is for the body. Trying to be more conscious of that.

shameless giraffe photo bomb

Last announcement: I officially committed to a gym!

It's just a small guy down the road from where I work, but the location and low monthly fees made it impossible to beat. I look forward to trying out a few of the classes that they offer, and possibly being able to throw in a few quick workouts over my lunch break.

Time to run off to work. Happy Hump Day, Happy December, make today great!

Cheers-

K

Crafty Kait

I have personal rules when it comes to the celebration of seasons. Fall begins in September, winter begins in December. I don't care what the official dates are, that's just how I operate.

Christmas music cannot start until Thanksgiving. However, my roommate is going to break the rules and start decorating our house for Christmas this coming week. So yesterday I broke my own rule and pulled out my snowman mug from hibernation. It had been a long week, and I needed some joy at work.

Wednesday was a particularly rough day for me, one of those a whole bunch of little things added up to a slight meltdown at my desk. So when Thursday rolled around our highschool intern strolled in and handed me two bags of these:

and offered apologies for my rough day yesterday. He sits kitty-corner from my desk for the few hours a day that he's in the office, and most likely thinks I'm a nut job. I am. Regardless, the gesture was precious and brightened my day.

seriously though.

Changing subjects, remember how I have been gym-less since moving to Baltimore in July, and have just been bouncing around on free trials like a sneaky little weasel? Well I scored a 30-day pass to Canton Club about two weeks ago, and have been LOVING the 5:30 AM Friday morning spin class.

The instructor has the potential to be my grandma's age, no exaggeration, and she kicks our asses. Repeatedly. Gets up there, plays some awesome jams, and screams motivation until my gluts are on fire.

Another awesome part of the class is that the studio overlooks the harbor, so we got to see a beautiful sunrise. I wasn't able to snap a picture of the sunrise itself as I was too busy sweating like a madwoman, but hopefully these help you get an idea...

My roommates and I are hosting a Bears/Ravens party tomorrow paired with a Friendsgiving (it's likely I will be the only Bears fan present) and therefore we felt the need to be domesticated and crafty last night with a few glasses of wine. Here's what we came up with:

Pinecone turkeys!

While I sat at the table tracing my hand I realized it had most likely been about 20 years since I had last made a turkey out of my hand. We all did it at some point in elementary school, and there was an odd level of joy that I found in the simplicity of doing it.

Or maybe it was the wine, I don't know.

I'm off to the gym. Today calls for the elliptical and a solid lifting session, I really haven't been giving my muscles enough attention lately. Hope your weekend is fabulous, Go Bears!

Cheers - 

K

Heating up

I have a small confession to make.

I’ve become slightly addicted to ABC’s TV series Revenge. My CO friend wolf has been riding me to check it out for about two months, so one night I finally caved and checked out the pilot. 
I was hooked.

Luckily there are currently only two seasons, so I don’t have toooo much to catch up on. It still peeves me a bit that I found a new series to love, as I would rather spend my time doing anything else in the world than have my face glued to a screen.

No more new series this summer, you have my word.

I discovered this guy at Safeway the other day:

I’m not sure if you’re a dried plum/prune fan or not, but I am. And listen to me when I say a handful of those chopped dried plums and a dollop of almond butter thrown into my overnight oats is one of my new favorite on-the-go breakfasts for summer. Throw some cinnamon and almond milk in there, let it soak overnight. It’s good stuff.

Have you heard the news? It’s summer, and it’s hot.

What my week has looked like

Moving on. I’ve only gone to my new trial gym, Canton Club a handful of times thus far but as of today I’m giving it a thumbs up. It’s smaller, much less crowded, and has a simple lay out. I tried a one hour spin class the other evening, and left sweaty and not angry – those are really my only two expectations when it comes to spin class.

Speaking of spinning, I did my first brick of the summer last night. I rode a couple of miles on my bike around Patterson Park, and then hopped off and ran a 5k along the harbor. It felt pretty good considering the heat and humidity. In the process I realized there are way too many bikers out there who aren’t wearing helmets. Listen, I don’t care if you’re biking for transportation or training competitively - strap that b*tch on. Don’t make me post that picture from I left half my face on a Colorado bike trail.

There’s your public service announcement of the week: Wear your freaking helmet. I don’t care how cool you think you are.

Sometimes I even wear it around the house for extra precaution. Am I kidding?
You can decide that.

Ummm let’s see… I went to see my orthopedic doctor today. I figured it’s been a few months since our last visit and she probably missed me.

In all seriousness, I had her check out my right knee. Going into the appoint I was lacking the correct medical term, so let’s just say that it’s being weird.

The diagnosis can be discussed tomorrow, but I'll leave you with the fact that I DON'T need to stop running, as long as things continue to get better.

WHAT!?! A doctor who supports running? I know, I found a keeper.

Alright, wrapping up… this girl has some miles to knock out. And (hopefully) a marathon to continue training for.

Cheers!

Fireworks

I have a serious question.

How in the crap is it already july?? Slow your roll summer, I still have gallons of precious memories to make with you. Like a few more of these:

Summer staple right there. Snagged one of those bad boys on Sunday after some Frisbee golfing.

There’s been an abundance of July goals and ambitions put out there on the blogosphere, and it caused me a bit of a panic attack at first. My orderly type-A life has been a bit upturned lately due to travel, moving, etc., and I hadn’t really thought ahead to July. AKA I don’t reallllyyyy have a July goal, except to begin bettering my life in a couple different ways. And to fulfill the below request:

But for real, WHY are there no firework emoticons for the iPhone??

I realize that 'bettering my life' is an incredibly loose, broad statement. Normally broad undefined statements stress me out a lot. This one doesn't... I kind of am looking at it as a challenge. I’m excited to define it with you guys a little further. Not today though. Today’s a Tuesday that’s basically my Thursday and that’s way too deep of a post for a Thursday, wouldn’t you agree?

I actually did define one small July goal…. Well that’s kind of a lie, I adopted another blog’s goal for her BodyLove July challenge – no weighing myself in the month of July. This actually shouldn’t be toooo difficult as I haven’t weighed myself for awhile anyways. Yet June was definitely a strange, off-track month for me when it came to eating and working out, and if I had to guess right now the scale would reflect that. And that’s ok, because life happens. And so on par with the whole ‘better my life’ challenge this month, eating and training better will definitely be part of this.

Speaking of training, I knocked out a sweat-tayyyyy 7 miles yesterday after work. I followed the path/piers all along the harbor, and am not even joking a little bit when I say that I passed AT LEAST 20 other girls in my age range, running solo

But seriously, I need to join a running group when I’m feeling 100% better. It’s on my better me list. I got home from the run extra drenched and man oh man it felt good.

I’ve been gym searching/hopping lately. It’s necessary for now, until I figure out what I like in Baltimore and what I’m willing to pay. And if we are being honest I kind of dislike gym hopping. I was going to a tiny little guy near my work two weeks ago, and it was fine, but let’s be real I’m kind of a gym brat and love my pool/hot tub/yoga classes etc.

I will keep you updated on my search. I’m trying out the Canton Merritt Gym starting this week….

Answer me this, before I go… what’s your favorite, go-to emoji? Mine is for sure the skull, followed by the lips.

Example. Skull is always applicable.

Cheers!

In the cards

Serious question: Is there any possible way to look attractive in a swim cap?

I pondered this for part of my swim this evening and decided that probably the only way to look attractive in a swim cap as a lady if one had an Olympic Medal hanging around their neck. Which isn't looking like it's in my cards, and that's OK.

What is in my cards is that sprint triathlon that I signed up for a couple months ago in the midst of my severe injury depression. Yet between my recent traveling and prepping for my big Baltimore move THIS WEEKEND, the tri had kind of slipped my mind...

That bad boy is now less than two months away, and today was the first time that I swam in probably a couple of weeks. I should probably get on it huh?

Side note: I still haven't found my gym to call home yet in salty Balty, and if I have any local readers, I would love suggestions!

We got rocked with some of those storms today, and at one point my phone looked like this:

Luckily, it doesn't seem like too much damage was done to the area, and life went on as usual. Brussel sprouts and all.

Can't stop won't stop. Love my sprouts.

In other food-related news, my next-door cube mate at work hooked me up with some of her homemade strawberry jam that she made after picking strawberries this past week. It would be a blatant lie if I denied sitting in my cube and eating it out of the jar with a spoon for awhile.

I'm extra pumped that tomorrow is Friday, let me tell you. Not only will the moving begin, but Andrew gets back from his week long hiatus tomorrow evening. Hollllaaaaa.

Alright, I've got some packing to take care of, and some sparkling water in the kitchen calling my name. Make your evening great peeps.

Cheers!

Chi-Town Bound

Sweet home, Chicago. Boy, do I need this trip. Seeing some familiar faces this weekend is going to be freaking fantastic.

Chicago Skyline oh hey thanks for the pic sis

First, a short story. On Wednesday evening due to some pretty severe storms rolling through the area I took my workout indoors to the gym. I’m really not the biggest fan of a solid 60 minutes of cardio on machines anymore, but sometimes it’s necessary....

For my last 20 minutes I journeyed over to the StairMaster, and hit that bitch hard did something I’ve never done. I turned it up to a pretty high level, and instead of just stepping… I did like a slow jog type thing. It may have even been comparable to a skipping-type wrestling move, I'm not sure but some of the looks I was getting left me with that impression.

sucking in air

It was WAY harder than your typical Stairmaster climb, and left me super sweaty. 

  

Afterwards, I did some lifting and weighted abs:

I also had my last softball game of the season (I think?) this week, and I got a solid single to end out the year! It isn’t necessarily the ‘making contact’ part that is difficult for me, but getting it past the short stop; where I literally hit it every.single.time.

'hey andrew take a pic of me with my glove!'

It's hard when you're boyfriend, Mr. Baseball, is hitting bombs every game and your team happens to love him, while meanwhile I struggle to get on base.

Anywho.

I’m sure at this point you’re dying to know why I’m jetting off to Chicago this afternoon.  Well, I’ll spare you the anxiety and give you the 4-1-1.

One of my best, longest-standing friends who I wrote about in one of my first ever blog posts when she got engaged back in February has her bachelorette party this weekend. In Chi-Town USA. 

And me, being one of her lowly bridesmaids, wouldn’t miss it for the world!

aww a highschool throwback pic how presh.

The weekend as a whole will be full of catching up with fantastic friends from both high school and college, probably a few too many beers and treats, and if I had to take a gander, zero miles.

That's actually the specific reason why I chose to start my marathon training on this coming Monday opposed to this past one. No need to set myself up for failure. No need at all.

I wouldn’t expect to hear from me again until Monday.  As much as I love you guys, Chicago has my full attention this weekend. I'll try my hardest to get some blog-appropriate pics, yet as we know, bachelorette parties aren’t necessarily your typical G-rated movie type evening. Just saying.

Cheers to the beautiful bachelorette I’m celebrating this weekend!