6.18.13

One thing I love to do in my free time is search for new blogs to read and follow. I recently stumbled across the blog of an author that I've come to really enjoy because it offers daily food for thought. The post I'm going to share today is from earlier in the month, but it really hits home for me as I prepare to go to graduate school.

It addresses the issue of money and how much people (including myself) worry about it. 

The most eye opening part for me was this statement: "If you worry about money when you don't have it, then you'll worry about it when you have it." 

Totally true.

I just want to share this because it made me feel a little more at peace.

You can find the blog entry here!

6.16.13

Sorry I've been sort of MIA this past week. Between babysitting, moving, and preparing for a concerto competition life sort of got away from me. I do however have some fun things to share! (Excuse the poor picture quality as I am uploading from my phone lol)

So last weekend I was in Brehnam, TX for a friend's wedding and I had some downtime to go shopping! I found these marquee letters at a local antique shop for about a dollar a piece! I decided to use them to spell out a quote about running (surprise, surprise) in my new apartment this fall. Since living in Boston is extremely expensive, I'm looking for cheap, creative ways to decorate.

  

The next thing I found was actually at the Michaels here in Waco. I've always wanted to decorate using fun, shabby chic frames but never actually bought any because you can spend over $100 getting enough of them for what I wanted to do. I came across these on sale at Michaels and only spent $13 for all of them (you can't tell here, but some of them are even two packs).

I've also come to the conclusion that you can never have too many Nike shorts ;) 

They were on sale this week at Academy and I'm exited to say that I bought my very first pair of size smalls! A year ago at this time, my size large shorts were tight! Running has been so rewarding (despite the occasional injury lol) and I'm so excited to keep working so I can drop the last few pounds to my goal weight. I've lost a total of 17 pounds and went from a size 10/12 to a size 2/4. :)

J

6.7.13

     So I've been off of blogger for a few days because I have been working as a nanny for 8 hours a day to a 5 year old. Needless to say, I'm usually super tired by the time I get home. However, I have a few new things to post about!

    So most people don't realize it, but I'm a vegan. I try to eat only plant based foods, and most of the time I don't even use oils (sometimes you can't avoid them in restaurants, and the Lord knows I love popcorn). I eat vegan because it makes me feel really great. I have more energy and my running has improved drastically. A lot of people worry that on a plant based diet, you will have some kind of protein deficiency, but plant based foods provide more than enough proteins and other nutrients for a perfectly balanced diet. Because of my diet, I spend a lot of time cooking new foods from all kinds of different cultures and finding new recipes. This week I branched out to some middle eastern food! It's a dish called mujaddara (or mujadara..not sure on the spelling) and it basically consists of rice and lentils blended together and garnished with sauteed onions. Before adding the onions, you add both cinnamon and allspice to the lentils and rice. I was skeptical while I made it, but pleasantly surprised by the depth and richness of the flavor. From a health perspective, lentils are high in protein yet low in calories and are a great source of fiber.

I've also been experimenting on new foods I can snack on to create a healthier diet. (As much as I love popcorn, it's not the best option because of all the oil and salt) This week I bought some sweet twister peppers from HEB, and they were pretty good! I just chopped them up and ate them plain because these peppers are not spicy. They are great because they are a good source of nutrients such as vitamin A and C and are very low calorie. 

__

I have to say my favorite part of this week so far has been picking up my brand new pair of running shoes! For a runner, I'm pretty sure it's the equivalent of Christmas morning...(literally...I got running shoes last Christmas). I'm so excited because I pre-ordered this about a month ago because a brand new color came out this past weekend. These are Asics GEL- Kayano 19's, and I LOVE them. These shoes come with a pretty hefty price tag of $150, but it is worth it to invest in good running shoes that fit your foot well.

The Kayano series are a great stability shoe with good cushioning. I got these to replace my Kayano 18's for my birthday, but I had to wait because there was no way I would pass up these colors. Stability shoes are generally really boring to look at (although they have improved recently), so I had to snatch these once I knew they were coming. 

These will be the shoes I run my first marathon in, and I couldn't be more excited.

Sincerely,

6.2.13

One of my favorite parts of summer is finally having time to play sand volleyball. Sand volleyball is my second favorite sport (next to running, of course) and today I got to play my first few games of the summer :)

Second, I totally found a great new workout tank top! Work out clothes don't have to be grungy or dull,  they can be full of color and fun!

Oh, and sports bras can be awesome too! I highly recommend the nike pro series, they come in so many crazy colors and patterns.

I'm hoping to happen upon this one soon...


Happy workouts y'all!

6.1.13

Hey bloggers!

I spent the day with my mom exploring and shopping, and found some awesome things!

We started out at a place called Homestead Heritage where we got to walk around through the gardens and ate a delicious lunch :)

We both got the same thing, which is a veggie focaccia sandwich. Seriously, if you are ever out there, the bread is amazing...

Here are a few photos from walking around, it was really pretty :)


After Homestead, we went shopping at a few local antique style stores.
My first find was a ring that I absolutely adore.

Super cool right? Best part is that it was only $8.

The second, and more exciting thing I came across was a dresser that I am going to put in my apartment (more like efficiency) in Boston this fall!

Someone has painted over the original wood to make it white, so I figured why not paint it again? I want to make it a teal/turquoise color with some white or clear knobs (Hobby Lobby here I come!). Why turquoise? The whole theme of my room/future apartment revolves around the pictures, fabrics, and souvenirs that I have picked up in my travels, especially from Africa. I am also going to make a headboard for my bed using a canvas panel and stapling some fabric from both Kenya and Ghana. The turquoise will really help bring all the different colors from the headboard and pillows on my bed and pictures from Kenya together.

Cost of this gem? $150. Not too bad for an actual wood dresser :)

I want it to look somewhat similar to this, but obviously without the extra detailing on the front of the drawers.

Onto clothing! My mom and I went to Kohls and a few other places and found some stuff.

First, this fun tank top!

And at Marshalls, I found a striped shirt that I really liked. I'm a huge fan of the 3/4 sleeve shirts and like I said yesterday, stripes are in right now ;)

(By the way, this cute shirt was only $13 - Marshall's y'all)

Sincerely,

5.31.13 pt. 2

I've been looking over some photos from the last few years and I came across pictures I took in Kenya in 2011. I loved Africa and I'm determined to go back as soon as an opportunity presents itself, but for now I can just post some of what I saw on safari! I'll add more photos of Nairobi in the coming weeks.

 This is my all time favorite place on the face of this earth-the Maasai Mara. The Mara is essentially the northern tip of the Serengeti plains and gets its name from the Maasai tribe of Kenya. I'm pretty sure I could retire here and be completely content. 

We were really lucky to come across a group of cheetahs (who were not in a very good mood, might I add). My guess is that they are all siblings, because I don't think they generally live in groups otherwise. The picture seems really close right? A lot of the animals in the Mara are used to cars being around, so that allows us to get pretty close! 

This was probably my favorite moment on safari because we got to witness a pride of lionesses hunting for zebra. As gruesome as it is, 1) it's the circle of life (gotta love the lion king) and 2) you could spend months on safari and not get to witness this so the fact that it happened on the first ride out is unbelievable. The grass is blurry because we were literally driving alongside the lioness as she was running after the zebra. It was need to see them working as a team and using our cars as cover so that they could sneak up on their prey.

And the result of the hunt ended in this:

And the adults were soon to be joined by the cubs.

Later we came across a herd of elephants (this was only a few of them) and as happy as I was to see them, I don't think they reciprocated my excitement... ;)

There is nothing like a sunset in the Mara, I miss those.

And on the way back, we came across this interesting cargo...who knew you could strap live goats down to the top of your car to transport it?

Okay...so technically this place isn't the Maasai Mara, but I thought it was appropriate to add it to the bunch :) 

Love,

5.31.13

Hey bloggers!

I went on an amazing 8.5 mile run this morning with one of my best friends, Rebekah. It'll be our last run together for a while because she is going to have an amazing summer in Michigan working at the Blue Lake Fine Arts camp, and I will be in Tennessee at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. She will come back from Blue Lake just in time for me to pack up and move northeast to Boston.

Here are a couple photos from our run! We started on campus at the garage-mahal, and ran down through the river trail at Cameron Park.

The quality isn't great, so I'm still working out a way to upload photo with a higher quality picture...but none the less, it was a beautiful run in some extremely humid weather.

I haven't been on very many long runs since I ran the Bearathon in March, but I got some new running gear that I really loved using this morning!

First, I have to give some major credit to my socks (sounds lame I know, but stick with me). I came across a brand of socks called Feetures! (cute, right?) I use the Elite line, and they have never failed me. Because my right foot is a 7 and a half and my left foot is an 8, I always get blisters on my right foot, which is a problem in running long distances. When I bought my first pair of real running shoes (asics gel-kayano 18's), I picked up a pair and have now acquired three more since. In the 250 miles run in my shoes with these socks, I haven't had a single blister.

Now, these socks don't come cheap at $15 a pair, but they are 100% worth it. I know the company makes a few more styles that are less expensive, but I haven't tried them. You can find them at some local running stores (although I haven't found them in Waco, they sell them at The Runner in Arlington) and online here on their website :)

My second fun gadget I got to use today for the first time is my new Nathan Hydration Belt! I originally had a belt with two water bottles, but since I've lost weight it is too big for me. I found this one on clearance at The Runner in Arlington for only $25! I didn't think I would like having four bottles instead of two because they can get heavy, but I was pleasantly surprised by it this morning. The belts with two bottles make make you feel like you have some extra junk in the trunk ;) but having four bottles makes you feel so much more balanced. 

This will come in handy because having the extra water on me will be helpful with the summer heat in Texas and Tennessee. It will also be helpful as my long runs will get even longer as I train for my very first marathon, which leads me to my next point!

I'm so excited to share that I've decided that I am going to run the Allen Marathon on New Years Eve, and hopefully my friend Rebekah will join me :) 

                                                    Until tomorrow,