speak more of joy than of darkness

Do you like that title? It's another one of the mid-year goals that I made. They are slowly being revealed on here.. they aren't all to share but most are.

This is a hard goal for me. So, instead of b*tching, I'm going to do something simple. I'm going to talk about recent things that have made me very happy.

Free coupons from Starbucks. Because when I ordered an orange spiced coffee and they were out of the orange slices to put in it, they wanted to make it up to me. 

Let's just say I'll be stashing this bad boy away until the pumpkin spice lattes hit the shelves.

Grocery Shopping. Especially in the mornings, when the store isn’t crowded. It's simple, and I love it.

Free boxes in the mail:

This came about two weeks ago if I recall. LOVE what Kona Kase does, they've never let me down. I tried a couple of these delightful treats pre-sugar detox, and can’t wait to dive back in afterwards. I can say that I LOVED the Garuka Bar – check out their badass website here. Honey at its finest.

 Mr. Luke Bryan ladies and gentleman. In case you live in a hole, he released a new album today, and hot damn is it sexy. Listen and weep - I know I did.

In other news, my lovely roommates are slowly and brilliantly decorating our house. Look at the masterpiece gallery they created on Sunday night. I take zero credit, I literally stood there agreeing with everything said until I was excused to my room to go to bed at 8 PM. 

(this was post-triathlon + 5 miles, sue me)

My far away lover who I currently miss like no other sent me an awesome quote today. I'm a quote girl - particularly on Pinterest - but this one definitely hit me today. It's beautiful. I can't expect other people to be as enticed with sugar detoxes, running miles upon miles, etc., for the same exact reason that I have zero interest in interior decorating.

To each their own grind.
I like it.

I hope this post made you happy, if nothing else. I'm going to stretch, ice, and pass out. It's been real.

Cheers!

Kases & Races

 Where should I even start?

Let's start with something cool. The other day I got this in the mail:

A Kona Kase! The mindset behind the 'kase'  is that you pay $15 a month and then receive a different kase each month with an awesome variety of nutrition samples, of all different brands and flavors.

SO GOOD

I had the opportunity to hook up with Taylor over at Kona Kase who sent me a complimentary kase to try out. I LOVED it, especially because there were certain products in there that I have been wanting to try out for awhile, like that Picky Bar pictured above... which blew my mind.

All in all, I was really impressed with the variety and excited for the opportunity to try out new things. If you're interested in trying them out, here's their website:

http://www.konakase.com/

Switching gears...

Physical Therapy (PT) has been a real bitch. And when I say that, I mean it's been HARD, which is awesome because it means I'm working towards getting better. But it's still been a bitch. 

For one, my physical therapist (Sean) beats the crap out of me:

see those pretty bruises?

In seriousness, he does the Graston technique on me which supposedly is breaking up scar tissue and inflammation and helping me to heal more quickly. Which I'm all for. I've been through my fair share of physical therapy in the past when I fractured my L5 vertebrae and am well aware that this is going to take some sweat and probably even tears to get back to where I need to be. And I'm OK with that.

So in the meantime, I'm still doing a lot of spin class, pool running, weight lifting, all that jazz. All that jazz also includes taking pics of myself at the gym in my colorful outfits...

Making breakfast sushi at work...

Banana & PB rolled in rice krispies

Drinking my all-time favorite beer that has finally made its way out to MD...

Buying brightly colored sports bras to match my running shoes that are currently not being run in...

And finding fall around every corner.

I even ventured out to Baltimore this weekend to cheer on some of my coworkers who ran in the Baltimore Marathon Team Relay. I was a little sad because I was suppose to be running in it with them, but I decided to suck it up and force myself to learn how to be a fan as well as an athlete.

it was FREEZING

I didn't like it ... I may have even cried a little while I stood and watched the runners... but I'm still so glad I went and watched. Baltimore is a fun city, and the streets were electric with the thousands of runners and spectators.

Since I paid for the race and all of that, I still kept my race shirt/bag. My favorite goody from the bag was a SICK NASTY Under Armour sticker that I immediately stuck to my phone.

How was your weekend? What was the MOST fun thing you did?

Cheers to a great week!

Oh, and in case you didn't hear...

damn right.