Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Haha hi guys!


Between the new job and starting up my OWN nutrition program... things have been, well, crazy. I mean sort of. I still have plenty of time to stalk strangers on facebook, and peruse pinterest, ya know... the typical....  


Oh yeah, I also started a cleanse 6 days ago... THAT will get it's own entire post... just wait. 


But for now, haha, here are all the photos I snapped from Christmas.... 


Downtown Christmas Dinner:
(p.s. this is not anything fancy. My family just uses the excuse that everyone is home and that we have to see the downtown Cincinnati fountain square Christmas tree and get burgers and beers at RockBottom Brewery)

The expert and boss taking 30 minutes to choose the right spot.

 (insert imaginary burger... apparently I was too busy inhaling it to take a picture....)

Christmas Cookie Decorating Marathon Slave Labor:

True statement. My mom went lazy on the cookies this year and bought PRE cut-out cookie doughs from GFS.... sure it's easy on her... but she didn't take into account that there were 72 of them....

I suggested we donate them, as the little child of God that I am... but she said they would get eaten.... my bets on them going in the freezer until next Christmas. 

typical baking antics

Oh, yeah, we made like 50 pounds of fudge too...

Christmas Eve:

yep, my brother put my gift in an empty cereal box. opened it up, looked inside, found a giftcard. 

haha, the rents. I had to... they never read this anyways

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning monkey bread

Better late than never, right??!

I'm Alive

I'm alive guys. I know ya'll are worried...

major update coming soon... maybe a new blog I'm switching to for work...

enough gibberish.

Have an AWESOME day :)

Wednesday = Wine Night?

I had an impromptu night out last night. 

I met up with some friends for some really cheap sushi. 
Cheap meaning not expensive.
Every Wednesday, a local sushi joint has this thing called "Tsunami Night," which means you get select sushi and sushi rolls at half price IF you buy an alcoholic beverage.... which is where the whole wine night comes into play, obviously.
Per usual, I failed as a good blogger and didn't take any pictures of my food.... but if you can picture a glass of pinot noir, a spicy tuna roll and avocado salmon roll... you're golden. 


And since wine night doesn't mean just 1 glass... we decided to end the night at a neat little neighborhood bar for just 1 more drink....well, we stopped because one of my friends had a second date later in the evening and needed to blow some time ... details, schmetails.
AnyWHO... the bar we stopped at just happened to have half off all wine, which is perfect, you know, considering it was wine night and all....

At this point I would love to say that I went home, made some hot tea, crawled into my pajamas and read a book... but somehow I ended up at a Mexican restaurant with a pitcher of house margarita sitting in front of me....

Don't worry.... I spent more time interrogating my friend's mystery man and his 3 friends than I did sucking down tequila... and while I did end up crawling into my pajamas shortly later, it was peppermint ice cream, not hot tea that I had... and the whole reading a book concept turned into a late night session of Facebook stalking.... which actually looks like a lot of my nights....

But on that note, time to enjoy my morning coffee and figure out what's for breakfast :)

Be Spontaneous,

Monday Evening

Mondays are those days that everyone hates, well, for the most part. They mean back to work, back to waking up early and back to the weekly grind. Blech!

For the majority of my adult life, I've liked to use Mondays as my day to jumpstart a healthy and positive way of living... getting a good workout in, eating lots of vegetables and fruits, only eating 5 hershey kisses and not worrying about "that boy" who obviously isn't into you, but you still think he'll come around.... 

While I didn't get in that good workout yesterday, I did managed to sneak in lots of healthy eating....and kitchen experimenting...

I made KALE CHIPS!

 And healthy "fried chicken":

 And some cinnamon deliciousness in the form of sweet potato:

 All together now!

My roommate gave me a weird look when I told her I made kale chips... I hate to admit that I've become "that girl" who eats the weird health food..... but err, yeah... oh well! :) 

Oh, and I'm happy to report that I only had 3 hershey kisses.... or 4... and I didn't think much of  that one boy who obviously doesn't see how amazing of a girl he's missing out on :)

Let's hope Tuesday is just as great,

Love Affair

Dear Mizuno running shoes, 

Why is it that we are just now meeting? 

Our 9 mile rendez-vous this morning went above and beyond my picky expectations. 

I see many more dates in our future.

Love,

Erin

Morning Workout Fail

I finished up my ochem class on Tuesday.... perfect opportunity to start routinely blogging, right?!

hehe...

Eh, in a perfect world.... but since my roommate, who is in recovery from a nice little stomach bug, has blogged... I think I better get on it. 

I got up this morning for a 5:30 spinning class. Wait. Scratch that.

I got up this morning and contemplated not getting up for a solid 3 minutes.

After those 3 minutes, I finally got up, threw on some clothes and sprinted out the door.

I gracefully powerwalked into the gym, signed in and looked at the spinning sign in sheet...

Me: "Oh shoot. Spinning is full, isn't it?"Cute Blonde Nerd: "Yeah, you just missed it by, like a minute."Me: "Ooookay, thanks." ....

while secretly wanting to turn around and go back home, but that would look silly, right? 

Yeah. It would. I had no music so I decided to do some "strength" training. It took about 20 minutes, but it's better than nothing, right? 

Right! Now it's time to go chug some airbone frizzle and pray. 

Happy Friday!!!

Workout Times?

So, the new job. 
My hours are a little crazy and a little sporadic. 


From what I understand, it is pretty typical for chiropractor's office to be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday and have limited hours Tuesday and Thursday. Until I get the nutrition/weight loss program off and running, my hours are going to be very unpredictable. 
Mondays and Fridays will be full days - usually 7:45 until about 6:30... with Wednesday being until about 7:30. 
Those are long days... especially coming from a 9-5 job where about 6 hours of those hours were spent goofing around on pinterest. 
Tuesdays are going to be days where I come in for a few hours and help with any insurance and/or cleaning of the office. And, for the next couple weeks, I'll spend about 5 hours at a training center, learning about the specific weight loss and nutrition program I am going to be running.... eventually, hopefully soon. 


Now, the question and main concern I have with this schedule, as would any crazed, type A marathon runner would have, is when the heck do I work out??


Tuesdays and Thursdays are no-brainers. 
It's the MWF that has me in a bundled mess of nerves. 
Especially when I can't get into a steady sleeping groove.... 


I could get up super early and attend a 5:30am spinning class at my gym on those long days... which I would LOVE to do..... however, I've yet to wake up at 5:00am and not fall back asleep..... hmmm


Or, I could wait until after work...... which is just totally not my style.... at all..... BUT, I pulled one out from left field on Wednesday and got in a run after work.....

Don't worry mom.... and roommate.... I had reflective gear, cell phone in hand and no music... perfect late night running.
I did a nice little 5 mile run and returned home to eat a quick dinner at 9:00.
Again, no worries... I salvaged my 85 year old woman tendencies and was in bed by 10:00.


Between all the holidays, it will probably take some time to get into a good exercise/workout schedule.... but, I have a job I'm in love with and I don't spend 40 hours a week plotting to eradicate all things related to jeggings and plaids... so I can deal with the after work workouts :)


Be Happy... it's Friday!