Welcome to 2012!

Adios 2011- make room for 2012!!

2011 was an awesome year!  I got to go lots of places- Jamaica and Cozumel on a cruise, Austin(here, here and here), Philly(here, here, and here), New York(here and here), and San Francisco(here, here and here) and had a blast in all those destinations!  I got to make lots of new blogger friends (now real life friends!) at HLS and Foodbuzz fest!  I got really good grades in school (hello 4.0!), and I also got to quit my job working in retail to focus on school.  I also ran a 10K AND a half marathon!!  And I only got sick once this year (Bronchitis- I get it every year!)- shout out to all the fresh fruits and veggies(and vegetarian living) for giving me an amazing immune system!  All in all I have to say that 2011 was a pretty great year!!!!

But 2012…. it’s going to be even better!!!  I’m not going to get to travel as much (hubby is about to start a new job. It’s a promotion in title, but the money will be a lot less. Yikes.).  But traveling is not the end all to be all.  Getting to travel a lot does not determine my happiness even though it is fun.  So I’m okay with it! 

I’ve decided that I’m pretty much going to kick ass in 2012!  I’m not really into resolutions(they’re kind of lame honestly).  I’m not really much into goals and numbers either(I feel like some people spend their whole lives making all these goals for themselves that have all these specific numbers and deadlines that they don’t spend any time actually living their lives!!) 

But I do have a few things that I would love to do this year…

  • Learn to juggle (I know it sounds silly, but I’ve always wanted to learn!)
  • Get to my goal weight (I’m not really that far from my goal weight, but I honestly didn’t lose ANY weight this year.  I would lose a couple of pounds and then gain them back.  Up and down all year.  So. Freaking. Frustrating!  This is the year that I’m going to get it done!!)
  • Go skydiving (another thing I’ve always wanted to do- which will probably be my present to myself when I finally get to my goal weight!)
  • Keep being awesome in school (keep getting good grades and focus on doing some volunteering for some RDs)
  • Do better at balancing life (I was so focused on school this semester that I literally did laundry maybe twice all semester and my house constantly looked like a tornado blew through it.  I need to work on balancing my work better so that I don’t have to go through this again!  It’s really stressful!!)
  • Save more money (things are going to be really tight this year. I need to make priorities on my spending and we need to start doing a better job of saving.  If you ask me to go out with you I will probably have to say no unless I’m able to plan far in advance.  Please don’t be insulted.  I need to start doing what’s best for our future and not so much having fun in the moment. It would also do me well to remember when I spend money that I don’t have a job and I’m technically spending my husband’s money)

Hmmm… I think that’s all!!  Bring it on 2012!!!  Hope everyone has a great New Year- don’t forget to eat your black eyed peas (and maybe listen to them too for a little extra good luck- ya never know! Winking smile )

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Fit Fab Friday: Back to School Edition!

Hi friends!!  It’s been a while since my last Fit Fab Friday- it’s been a little crazy around here with all the trips I’ve been taking lately!

But I had a fabulous time and I’m back to a normal schedule (well, I will be next week when school starts!). 

Last week was very interesting workout-wise.  I only had one scheduled workout.  The roomies and I went to the gym at the hotel and I hopped on the treadmill and did 3 miles.  Other than that we did an incredible amount of walking!  We walked miles and miles every day- especially in New York. (I actually lost 3 lbs on this trip- that’s how much we walked!)

But now that I’m back to a normal-ish schedule I need to get back to my normal workouts!  So I planned my workouts ahead of time this week.  Doing this is sometimes hit or miss for me since I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal, but since I just got a new planner I’m kind of excited about planning stuff out ahead of time.

Something new I’m doing this week is adding strength training!  I know, I know…  I say I’m going to do this all the time, but I got a new book and I’m excited to try some of the workouts and I really really do need to start doing some strength training since I’m not working a job anymore that requires heavy lifting!

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Anyone used this book?  I figure if I have a plan of attack for strength training when I go into the gym I will actually get something done instead of wandering around to random machines.

So here’s what this week looks like…

Today (Friday): 2 mile run

Saturday: Kickboxing (my favorite thing ever!)

Sunday: Walk at the park with the hubby and the pups

Monday: Kickboxing

Tuesday: Strength training at the gym (I don’t have my actual workout planned out yet- that’s my project for this afternoon!)

Wednesday: 3 mile run

Thursday: Strength training at the gym

 

What do we think about my plan of attack?  What kind of workouts are you doing this week(I’m always looking for ideas!)?

 

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WIAW: New York Edition

 

It’s time for another What I Ate Wednesday friends!!  This week’s is a New York edition!
I think my favorite meal of the NYC trip was the Indian food that we had the first day we were here.  I’m totally going to be re-creating it when I get home!
This isn’t all of the food we ate over the last few days, but it’s quite a bit of it!  Here are a few of the highlights…

 

We stopped at Ess-A-Bagel twice for breakfast on our trip!  OMG so good!

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They had a tofu cream cheese that was fabulous- so much better than the tofu cream cheese that I usually get at home.  This first day I got an everything bagel with 1/2 vegetable cream cheese and 1/2 herbed cream cheese.  The second time we went I got a pumpernickel bagel with 1/2 vegetable cream cheese and 1/2 walnut raisin cream cheese (I forgot to take a picture of this one- I was starving!).  And I am now in love with pumpernickel!

 

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Lena.  It was kind of chipotle-esque.  I got a wrap with black beans, avocado, grilled corn, lettuce, and pico de gallo.  I just thought it was ehh.  The wrap wasn’t great so I ended up dumping it out on my plate and eating it like a salad.  The rest of the girls really seemed to enjoy their salads though, so maybe it was just my food?

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Sooooo much coffee was consumed on this trip!!!!

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You’ve heard of PB&Co, yes??  Did you know that they have a café in NYC?  Did you know that they make amazing PBJs??  Yes, we totally ate PBJs while in NYC!!

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Before we left we had to visit Babycakes!

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I really really wish I could say that it was amazing.  It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t as amazing as I expected it to be.  I got a carrot cupcake and a cookie sandwich.  I haven’t had the cookie sandwich yet so I will reserve my judgment until I’ve tried it.  The cake in the cupcake was super moist and delicious- I think I just wasn’t in love with the frosting.

 

And the last stop of the Sarah Snacks NYC food adventure is Chickpea.  This was my favorite stop!!!  Their falafels were baked, not fried.  And they stuff it in a whole wheat pita, you get your choice of hummus and toppings and a little tahini on top.  DELICIOUS!!!  We really need one of these in TX!

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Well, our trip to NYC has come to an end! Sad smile

Michelle and Rachel headed home for Philly and Boston, respectively and we miss them so much!  Laura and I are stuck at the airport still- our flight is delayed.

We’re about to start clicking our heels together and saying “there’s no place like home…”

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WIAW: Austin Edition

Hey friends!  Our internet has been down since we’ve been back from our trip so I haven’t been able to post this until today, so I thought I’d incorporate it into my WIAW post!

Not only has the internet been down (and just got repaired about an hour ago), but my car died and has been in the shop!  The power steering pump went out and it’s costing some mega bucks to get it fixed!  I have all the luck, huh?!  Sigh.

Our last day in Austin was filled with amazing food!

Starting with some Biscuits and Groovy for breakfast!  These biscuits were indeed groovy!

Biscuits + veggie sausage + french press coffee = one happy girl!

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Lunch was at the MOTHER of all whole foods!  Seriously I don’t think I can go back to my normal whole foods after going to that one!  It was ginormous!!

Salad with a little of this and a little of that and with tahini dressing!

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Lime sparkling mineral water that I’m now obsessed with.  Thanks Laura!

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An amaaaazing samosa!  Potatoes + peas + curry= can’t go wrong with that!

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Snack= juice from Daily Juice!  I got beet/orange/apple/ginger- mmmmmm!!!!

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Dinner was pizza at Conan’s! (thanks to my friend Schuyler for the suggestion!)  Whole wheat deep dish pizza with veggies and dairy free (Daiya) cheese!  The crust was seriously phenomenal!

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Dessert!!!  Another shake from the ice cream shop in Toy Joy!  This time I went for the chocolate mint- oh em gee!!!!

 

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Shopping trip to SoCo (South Congress)!  Very cool area with some great funky shops!

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We rounded out the evening with a trip to the South Congress Avenue bridge to see the bats come out!  I think we got there a little late because we only saw a few.  Oh well.  It was still pretty cool seeing all the people out there kayaking and checking out the bats!

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Whew!  What a whirl-wind trip!  And I head out to Philly tomorrow morning for HLS!  Can’t wait!!!!

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