Mugs

I can always count on my mom to throw a new healthy recipe at me when I'm home. This morning before I woke up she left me this recipe on the counter:

Grainless Banana Bread in a Mug

I substituted almond butter into my mug, and made peanut butter for my dad. That paired with a warm cup of black coffee started off my morning swimmingly. I believe she found the original recipe here.

I've been back in the Chi now since Thursday night. Before boarding my flight, I found myself a real treat at the BWI airport:

Who knew Jamba offers Pumpkin smoothies? I opted for a small, and got it 'light' which I believe cuts out some of the sugar, shaving it down to closer to 200 cals. Still considered a treat in my book, but a tasty way to start off my trip.

Also, a big obligatory thanks to the sis and her pal Manda who braved the Chicago rush hour traffic on Thursday and picked myself and my 80 lbs of luggage up from Midway airport so that I wouldn't have to take the L. Can we just talk about how my big suitcase weighed exactly 50 lbs? 50.0. The Southwest lady at the check-in desk literally congratulated me.

Had to blur out some of Bri's offensive language.

Last night I decided to try to create my own version of a pumpkin smoothie. I threw in:

- 1/2 ripe banana 

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-3 TB honey

-1/3 cup cottage cheese (to thicken it up)

-A few ice cubes

-1/2 - 1 cup vanilla almond milk

-1 TB almond butter

-1 TB flaxseed

As you can see,  I paired that with some leftover green bean casserole and called it a dinner. I'm weird,  I know. I enjoyed the smoothie, and may throw some vanilla extract in there next time.

The weekend, in short, was a whole lot of Christmas, a whole lot of Jane, and a whole lot of snoozin'.

Grams & Santa

I stumbled upon this on Pinterest the other day and loved it. It may very well me my 2014 mantra.

I have some last minute Christmas shopping to knock out today, along with a basement workout on our elliptical/bike. Yes, I'm one of those people who waits to buy presents. It makes it easier to buy it here versus Baltimore and then have to pack them all.

Enjoy your second to last Monday of 2014 - I hope it treats you well.

Cheers -
K

Spirit

The Christmas spirit hit me pretty hard last night, thanks to a visit up to Baltimore’s 34^th street with a group o' pals.

Baltimore has really, really grown on me the past few months. You would have thought that would steal summer my heart, but it’s really been fall and the beginning of winter that I’ve fallen in love with living in the city. The option to walk pretty much everywhere, and having friends just a few short blocks away is incredibly attractive to me.

I've also been lucky enough to avoid those horrific city traffic back-ups due to an accidents for the past five months… until today. I made the poor choice of not checking my maps app (I have two interstate options when driving to work) and chose the wrong one, which was at a standstill.

Luckily, I had made the correct choice of swinging by Panera on my way out of the city and grabbing a coffee.

That, and Luke Bryan kept me occupied as we crawled through the tunnel at a pace that I could have ran at.

Speaking of running, I’m at a bit of a standstill when it comes to my workouts. I feel bored (still) not being able to run very much, and to top it off haven’t been eating very awesomely with the holiday festivities starting to pile up.  For instance, today I dragged myself down to the gym after work with literally no workout in mind.

I put in a half-assed half hour of cardio on the elliptical, plodded along on the stairmaster for awhile, and then threw weights around until I felt somewhat sweaty. I’ve found that when it comes to training/working out, I do a lot better when I have a schedule/some kind of plan to follow.

Any suggestions out there? I’m open to it all.

Following work tomorrow, Andrew and I are headed west to Snowshoe Ski Resort in West Virginia.  He surprised me with the trip about a month ago when he was still gone so that we had something to look forward to. Man did he pick the perfect weekend, as it’s been snowing there almost all week.

I’m ready to spend the weekend tearing up some trails and getting some quality Andrew time. (Gag, I know)

Cheers my friends - 

K

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

The Value of Consistency

Many of you have heard me reference my boyfriend Andrew many times on here. Recently I reached out to his middle brother Brian, asking if he would be interested in writing a guest post over the holidays. Brian is 

1. Hilarious

2. Awesome 

and has one of the more serving-oriented jobs that I know of. In the spirit of Christmas, I present to you a well-word, simple post on the concept of consistency, and giving back.

The 3 brothers, in age order.

Kait asked me to do a “guest blog post” for her blog this season for which I immediately had two reactions. The first was that Kait must have mixed me up with another friend and the second was that I should go online and copy someone else’s blog for some good content so she doesn’t laugh at me.

However, if you’re reading this, apparently Kait did have the right person and if you can find anyone else on the internet who wrote this exact blog please let me know because they obviously copied me and I will not hesitate to seek litigation.

For the past four years I have worked with the homeless at a Rescue Mission in the Pacific Northwest. I have learned a lot over the years and felt this would be a good topic to write on. Specifically, one of the most basic, profound things I have learned working with the poor has to do with consistency.

Every day at our Rescue Mission facilities we have over 100 kids and over 300 men/women staying with us and utilizing our services. We also get thousands of volunteers that want to support what we do from providing meals, tutoring in GED, creating memories for families, and working with the youth.

Throughout all this, I have met some truly amazing people in the community who give above and beyond their resources for others in need and have been a huge factor in facilitating life transformation. Contrarily, I have come across others, volunteering or wanting to get involved, who are detrimental to life transformation. The difference, I believe, between these two different groups is consistency.

Sometimes, and especially with the homeless or other vulnerable populations, not being consistent with good intentions can be very detrimental. You end up being just another person in someone’s life that has walked out on them. You end up being another person whom they will never see again. You must be careful to not use others in need as a way to fill some need in yourself.

With consistency, relationships can form which are the foundation for life transformation. Through consistency you can gain trust. Through consistency you can gain clarity and begin to see others for who they really are and how they truly were created. Through consistency I think you will learn a lot about other people as well as yourself. Being consistent is one way I view love.

There are various ways to give back from supporting an organization financially, being on a board, or simply volunteering your time. Whatever you do, thank you for what you are doing, and remember to do your best to be consistent with what you do.

Cheers to a very Merry Christmas!

If you're interested in giving to Brian's Rescue Mission in a quick and simple way, simply... 

Text GIVEBACK to 85944 & reply YES to confirm your gift of $10.

The average cost to serve one meal is $2.42, by generously donating as little as $5, you can provide dinners for community members in need.