Half Way to 2014

And just like that in what seemed like a blink of the eye half of 2013 has already gone by. Time to check-in on my self-imposed goals for the year!

Looking into my awesome purple New Year’s resolutions book, it seems that I’m doing really well with some resolutions but I’m really slacking with others, too (hello total lack of crafting so far!). Let’s take a look at the health related ones:

Working out at least once a week: 17/26. Ehhhhh. Not too bad considering all the bad colds and the completely messed up neck I had but in honesty, LOTS OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. I think once we move I’ll be able to make more room for that AND I won’t have to worry about upsetting downstairs neighbors for doing jumping jacks etc. Am actually considering joining the gym again as we’ll live really close to not one, Peeps, but two! I do miss my pilates classes and treadmills just make for better cardio workouts on hot or rainy days. Good outlook for the second half I’d say!

Speaking of, Car-Di-Oh! I’ve had running a 5k on my bucket list for the longest time and there is really no good excuse as to why I haven’t done it yet. Other than it being too hot, too rainy, too thunderstormy (I mean who wants to be struck by lightning?!). Again, join-gym idea might be the key here.Car-Di-OhSo I am hoping 2013 will be the year. I’m up to running 4km, which knowing what a non-runner I am, that is HUGE! Next up, sign up for a race and manage to run 5km. It’d be soooo embarrassing to walk across the finish line!
I do have a cool running app on the iPhone that tells me time and distance and tracks my runs via GPS. Who doesn’t love seeing progress?!

LunchScrap the crap lunches!
That was my third health related resolution and I am absolutely rocking this one! I used to eat a “Barely-There Cuisine” frozen lunch almost every day at the office. It was convenient, cheaper than eating out and fast with a good variety of meal choices. But that nagging feeling that maybe chicken with rice and vegetables should really only have something along the lines of these ingredients: Chicken, Rice, Carrots, Peas, Oil, Spices and not a 10 line long list of sodium loaded non-pronouncable foods and chemicals drove me to set this goal: Only eat one frozen lunch a week.

And honestly, I’ve gotten so disgusted by the idea of eating all that processed crap that I’ve eaten a total of six (6!!!!) frozen lunches this entire first half of the year! Yessssss! When I do, it’s usually a Kashi vegan one that only consists of pronounceable ingredients. Super proud of this one and it should be fairly easy to continue the healthy lunches! *Fist pump*

Still have a few more resolutions for the year but all in all they are going well and I really enjoy checking off my check boxes and pat my own shoulder. Teeeheee. How about yours? Hope you haven’t given them all up just yet 🙂

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I Declare Pimento Cheeseypendence!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHappy Independence Day! One of my fondest Independence Day memories is a trip to Pawley’s Island with two of my girlfriends a few years back. It was the weekend  the bartender got fired for giving us too many free drinks. Wonderful beach time, fun shopping and frat boys asked us what year we’d graduate from college (thank you SPF for keeping us looking fine and young).

It was the weekend I was introduced to pimento cheese. I’d eat a sandwich for lunch, one for snack and maybe one for dinner. I was totes hooked! Later that year I discovered I was lactarded and the worst thing for any lactose intolerant person or people in their vicinity 😉 is soft cheese. Sayonara pimento cheese. 🙁

Untillllll I found a recipe in Rachael Ray magazine the other day that didn’t use any cream cheese at all. Hey hey, fancy that!! It asked for cheddar cubes, which I can easily get lactose free (thank you Cabot’s Cheese!!!) I added some jalapeños for good measure and always have some pickles as a side.

Pimento CheesePimento Cheese
● 3/4 of a block of cheddar, cubed
● 1/2 a glass of pimentos, drained & chopped (ca 4oz)
● 3 heaping table spoons of mayo
● ca 10 jalapeño slices, chopped (optional)

Throw cheddar into food processor and process until somewhat of a paste. Add rest of ingredients and pulse until everything is mixed well.
I like mine best on fresh bread but it should be awesome on burgers, too. Guten Appetit y’all!

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Brownie Points for You Atlanta

Y’all may or may not have noticed how good I was with keeping up with the daily photo challenge in the beginning of May. Then lots and lots happened and I became incredibly busy! Too busy to find a creative photo opp every day. No regrets though! I currently have all my engines running at full speed and am pulling strong – but more about the hustle bustle in a different post.

Before the whirlwind picked up and tossed me around we had a fantastic weekend in Atlanta. We both shamefully have had a bit of a bad opinion of Atlanta (The traffic! Gahhh! The weather! Blahhh! Lame town! Bleehhh!) The city gained tons of brownie points during this trip though and we both had a really fun time! What made it easy to go even though we felt so blah about Hotlanta was that the hotel didn’t cost a penny! The nice thing about having to travel for work are of course the frequent flyer miles and hotel points and so we used the latter and booked ourselves into a historical beauty right in the heart of downtown. High 5 to our foxiness!

We kicked off the weekend at an awesome Irish pub near by. Don’t think I had ever seen that large of a Guinness mix selection! Two of zee boyfriend’s friends joined us and we headed to the ballpark to see some Braves baseball. I hadn’t been in eight years and it was a blast. Love their signature tomahawk chop! Our friends treated us to a giant bratwurst and the Braves treated us to a win and some spectacular fireworks in the rain. Nothing like running back to the car in squelching shoes! Great fun! Brownie points Atlanta!

Saturday morning we checked out the Delta block party. Whoop whoop! Classic cars, airplanes, life music, free food and drinks. Not bad at all!!

Have to say, my personal favorites were probably the retro flight attendant uniforms. How fabulous!

 

After some relaxing at our hotel we met up for drinks with one my girlfriends and her husband at the swanky W hotel. Can I please hire the W’s interior designer for our home?!

Another high-light was checking out the original Ru Sans sushi restaurant. They have a branch in our town that I call “The Happy Place” and so I’d been dying to check out their first restaurant in Atlanta. Oh it was so much fun! (If you consider yelling waiters fun…) Had some great sushi and enjoyed cruising around MidTown. Brownie points Atlanta!

 

And finally, more brownie points on Sunday. We walked through the Olympic park (remember those games from, geez, 17 years ago now?! #FeelingOld) to the Georgia Aquarium. It was friggin’ amazing (aside from the Dolphin show, that was extremely corny). Huuuge sea creatures and we got to pet sting rays and anemones. Great fun!

So yeah, if you have a chance to go to Atlanta, do it! We enjoyed our weekend in the city tremendously and I think we’ll go back some time soon to check out some more hopefully brownie slam dunk point worthy sights. Sorry HOTlanta for totally underestimating you. Our bad.

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