“Courage is the Best Career Move”

“You must have strength to say no to the wrong things and embrace the right ones, even if you are the only one who seems to know the difference, even if you find the difference hard to calculate.” – Anna Quindlen in “Courage is the Best Career Move”

So, it’s official. Ian and I are no longer living in New York City. We have ended that chapter of our lives, which in turn means that we had to leave both of our first jobs out of college. It was a necessary and yet scary step into a new beginning for us. From the first day Ian and I began dating we had long conversations about moving out of the city, about career goals and life aspirations and how we would achieve them. Unfortunately, most of what we wanted could not be provided or obtained within the big city. Thankfully, in New York the end of an apartment lease usually means a re-evaluation of life in general – and we took our latest meeting with the leasing department as a sign that our time had come. The time came for us to leave the life we had become so accustomed to and move on. Leaving friends and co-workers has proved to be the hardest part of this journey…Ian and I love our “New York family” more than we know how to say.

Ian and friends doing a farewell shot at Korean BBQ dinner

So thanks to the help of many home cooked meals, trips to Costco and strip mall heaven, we have been making the transition into normal life fairly smoothly. I’ve tried to capture some of our exciting lives…forgive me for the lack of non-food photos…my iphone stopped taking photos (I dropped it:( ) so i’ve been relying on Ian’s phone. I would post real camera photos…but I packed the camera in a box. Smart move right?

My parent's new dogs! Wally and Happy - both rescue dogs!

Me and Wally!

Ian playing "fetch" with Wally - (Wally is still confused by this game)

Spinach Turkey burger over arugula salad (recipe to come)

Spaghetti Squash with tomato sauce and ground turkey

Fun finds at Costco - Star Wars bath set...guess who found that one??

Ok, off to continue reading Tina Fey’s “Bossypants.” If you haven’t read it, you should because she’s awesome.

Favorite Friday is Here Again!

This week’s Favorite Friday edition was SUPER easy – because not only did I miss doing it last week 😦 but I now have myself a Pinterest Board.

I’m obsessed with that website. obsessed. Anywho, here are some of the things topping my list this week!

1. Earrings from Anthropologie. I don’t have a link this time because this picture was snapped in the store. They are so sparkly.

2. The Fitness magazine I received in the mail for free! I don’t know what I did to receive such good fortune, but I must have somehow clicked something online one day…now I get the magazine! Also in this picture is a clip from a magazine that Ian’s mom sent me (Thank you!!!) which is full of all the great things about Almonds! I wonder why she thought of me?? haha. I will have to share all the good info in a separate post.

3. The photo of this girl and her messy bun. It reminds me of my mornings. I also love the soft color from the sun coming through – and her pink flowers and mug.

4. Can I make this a poster? So true. So very true.

5. Healthy Tater Tots! Found a recipe that makes them with cauliflower instead of potato. I am going to try this as soon as I can get my hands on a food processor. But how good does that sound??

6. And last but not least – This outfit that I want to replicate. The white lacy look with long sleeves and boots with tousled hair. Lace and Boots, I love it.

I did it!

So the other day when as I was riding the subway to work, I read in my new Women\'s Health Magazine about way to pick up your pace in cardio workouts. I’m not one to really feel “the need for speed” if you know what I mean. But lately, I’ve found that the only way to really gain anything from my workouts is by really challenging myself. After running my third marathon in June, I began to get bored running at my usual pace for long periods of time. While slow and steady may win the race sometimes, it will not help zip up my skinny jeans.

Running the marathon

I’ve always known that the body is a master adapter. Once it gets used to a routine it becomes more efficient in “helping” you and using less energy. For the longest time I wondered why, if I ran for an hour at a 6.0 pace, I wasn’t seeing any changes in my body. Then, one day… like 2 years later…I decided to try interval training. This meant just switching it up and running quick sprints in between my even tempo pace. And I saw a difference right away!! Bottom line, it’s always good to change things up every now and then!

Anyway, today I tried what is called tempos. The magazine said, “if there’s one workout worth adding to your routine, most coaches would say it should be tempos (maintaining a comfortably hard pace for a sustained period of time).” They also called tempos “the little black dress of running,” meaning that they are classic and benefit everyone. Well, that’s all it took for me to be on board!

The workout goes as follows:
Run a 10 minute warm-up.
Increase your pace and hold it for 15-20 minutes.
Finish with a 10 minute cool down.

If 15-20 min. is too hard, do 5 min. at a time, repeating till you get to 20.
What you want to keep in mind with this when you pick up the pace for the 15-20 min. you want to be at your “happy pace.” So on a scale of 1-10 (1 easy, 10 hard) you want to be at about a 7 or 8.

For my workout tonight it looked liked this:
10 min – 6.5 pace
15 min – 8.0 pace
5 min. – incline walking at 15.0
5 min – 7.0 run

I was so happy that I did this!! Because last time I tried it didn’t go so well. I rounded out my workout with 15 min. on the elliptical, some weights, and my favorite ab workout.

This ab workout always kills me, I don’t know why…it’s fine the first time through, but they want you to do it 3 times through! By the 3rd time I could care less about a flat stomach and just want to roll into a little ball and cry like a baby. I guess that is exaggerating – but it’s rough. Don’t let their cuteness fool you.

Also! Before I sign off – I want to post a picture of my tofu and brussel sprout dinner last night. It ended up being SO tasty too! Ian actually wasn’t here for this dinner because he worked late, but he tried some cold tofu today and agreed that it wasn’t awful 🙂 mission accomplished! haha. Although I don’t see tofu in his near future.

Brussel Sprouts and Tofu

All I did with the tofu was pan fry it with a little olive oil, then cook it on medium low heat for about 20 min. I added garlic powder, salt and some teriyaki sauce. I had to keep flipping the pieces of tofu so they wouldn’t brown too much – but I wanted them to be a little crispy. Yum!

Ok, off to enjoy some dinner … and yes it is 10 o’clock already… welcome to life in New York! Well, mine and Ian’s life anyway 🙂

Falling Behind

Things have been quite busy around here…doing this:

packing boxes

Packing! Ian and I have spent as much of our free time trying to condense everything we own. Sorting out the things that are worth keeping and parting ways with some of the others. It is amazing to me the amount of items one can accumulate over a span of a year. I have only been in New York for 3 years, yet I’ve somehow managed to fill more than my fair share of the room with “things.” I have what I like to call an organized pile collected in the corner of the room. It holds old letters, documents, things I promised myself to sort through a long time ago.

a mess of things

Ian’s biggest task thus far has been sorting out his books. He brought boxes of them when we first moved into the new apartment and we had to donate some then because we simply had no space for them. Think he has a favorite genre?

Thankfully, many of these are going to other good nerd homes 🙂

It’s all part of the journey we are on…there is so much on my to-do list that I feel like my head might explode, but I need to remember that soon the mess of moving will all be over and we will be where we want to be.

In other news, Ian and I took a few pictures from the weekend that I thought I would share.

Part of our weekend was spent at a baby shower where we were surrounded by a great group of Ian’s co-workers.

And the other day (which happened to be 9/11) was spent at work for me, but on the way home we took a few snapshot of NYC…nothing much, but little things we encounter on a normal walk to the subway that are symbolic of the city and perhaps we take for granted.

I’m off to make dinner now. Attempting to cook Tofu with brussel sprouts and maybe some quinoa. It has been about 2 years since I’ve made Tofu so we will see how it goes. I’ll keep you all updated on how it turns out!!

Hiding Under my Umbrella

Today was one of your typical New York mornings. Things began nicely…I woke up to the sound of rain and drank a cup of coffee in bed as I attempted to wake up. I had to be at work an hour earlier today, so I wanted to be prepared. I woke up at 8 45am. This may seem pretty late to most people, but it is honestly SO early for me because of my schedule. Ian worked a double today so he had to be at work at 8am and is STILL there. I do not expect to see him until past midnight (I hate Wed. for this reason).

Now, for a normal person this allows plenty of time to get ready. For someone with curly hair like myself, I knew I needed to give myself an extra hour just to straighten my hair. I don’t mind curly hair, but at this point it is so unmanageable because I am in dire need of a haircut and thinning. I honestly think I have more hair than anyone I have ever met. This is definitely a blessing in disguise because I don’t really see the blessing. I would be content with half my head of hair.

Moving on, by the time I finally ran out the door it was a little after 10 30. I had to bring a change of clothes into work because I was going in early to help with a video shoot. My walk to the subway nearly ruined my straight hair because it was misting out. Not raining, misting. It’s impossible to avoid mist. The subway came a little late…and when I finally got to my connection I had to wait 10 minutes. At this point it was already 11 o clock! This is the time I was to be at work. Apparently the rain caused subway issues because I saw the men in hard hats working on the tracks of the train I was supposed to be catching – NEVER a good sign. So I ran out of the subway and hauled my butt in the rain 15 blocks in the middle of midtown and across Park, Madison and 5th ave. Tourists were like annoying mini hurdles as I made my way through the city. By this time, my hair was on it’s way to becoming Diana Ross hair and I was 20 min late for helping with the video.

I picked the scariest picture I could. Diva without makeup.

The only good thing about this was that I guess everyone was running late this morning because the cameramen got stuck underground too. Only in New York…

This is just a picture of what happens to umbrellas in New York....

umpa lumpa

I don’t know what it is, but things just never seem to slow down for me.  This is partially my fault I realize, trying to cram too many things into a day! I blame my work schedule for some of it…but I often feel my life involves working out, working, eating and sleeping. (I know life could be much worse).  Today was much the same… and so I will share it all, except the sleeping!

Working Girl Workout

I only had about 40 minutes to work out this morning, but I made the most of it. Ian woke up earlier than normal to get a root canal (fun wake up call huh?), so I got up a little earlier as well. When this happens I think I over-estimate my time and end up running behind to the gym! Anyway, I got a good sweat regardless.

Treadmill Interval Workout – Totaled just over 3 Miles.

Min. 1- 5: 6.5 run pace, 1 incline

Min 5 – 15: 6.5 and 8.0 alternating each minute, 1 incline

15 – 20: 4.0 walk, 15.0 incline (the highest the machine allows)

20-30: 6.5 and 8.o run, 1 incline

I followed the run with some Leg Lunges and sit-ups on the ball.

At this point i’m usually really pushing it with my time – I give myself about a half hour to get ready for work so I had to haul my butt back to the apartment!

Favorite New Lunch/Snack

I picked up some Lara Bars the other day and forgot how much I love them!

At one point in college I tried the Vegan diet and that is when I started to eat these.  They come is all sorts of yummy flavors, my favorite is Apple Pie – but I picked up this Carrot Cake for the first time and it’s also a winner! They are great because the list of ingredients usually is under 10 things and you know what they are!

No strange ingredients that you don’t understand!

I also want to share one of my favorite salads lately. I’ve been eating this for lunches and dinners sometimes…it’s got lots of crunch which I love!

It has mesclun salad mix (or just spinach somedays), chopped cucumber, tomato, sunflower seeds, a little brown rice and some feta.  You can add whatever meat protein you want – I believe we added chicken the night I took this photo.

Phobias

ok, maybe phobia isn’t the right word. BUT, Ian and I were talking the other day and SOMEHOW the wizard of oz came up…which led to talk of the little Munchkin kids. Which then got me thinking of Umpa Lumpas. (You get the connection).  Well, I really don’t like the Umpa Lumpas.

It’s actually quite hard for me to even post this picture on here. I really can’t look a them and I will never understand their entertainment value. For anyone that knows me, they know that I am not a fan.

Well, this got me thinking about all the other “figures” I don’t like. Or that just sort of rub me the wrong way. See if you start to notice a trend here….

The Blue Man Group

Mimes

 

Street Robots...or any Painted Person pretending to be fake

Last night, it clicked!! I do not like painted people!!! I blame the Umpa Lumpas on that.

Is there anything that YOU don’t like?? Please tell me I am not alone in my painted fear.  Any other odd “phobias” or things that you just will never understand.

 

Come on Irene!

…I know it’s Come on Eileen, but Irene seems more fitting 🙂 While the East Coast is preparing for the wrath of Hurricane Irene, I have been charging my computer (like i’m supposed to) and finding my favorite things.  I can’t let Friday go by without sharing some the things that have my interest.

Friday Favorites:

1. Pretty Pink and flowy dress from etsy.com – it was sold out of course, but i’m going to be checking back on this site for unique hand-made dresses!  The color and the femininity of this dress are right up my alley.

Pretty Pink Dress

2. Inspiration for a future outfit.  Jeans + striped tee + belt + long necklace = classic! I just realized I have a striped tee and jeans and a brown belt, so easy!

3. Big flowers in little jars. Empty jelly jars, old cups….this is one of my favorite ways to hold flowers.  Reminds me of my mom too!

4. I know I don’t have kids, YET! But, I found a future Halloween outfit for my poor child! Maybe my obsession with coffee and starbucks has gone too far….but look how cute! I had to document this so I don’t forget.

5. Liquor Rack – Ian and I don’t have an apartment to do this yet, but I love the antique and rustic feel of this liquor cabinet….we actually don’t even drink a lot of that stuff, but I could see this being nice for entertaining.

AND! A Bonus fav! Don’t you think they should add this button to Facebook???  haha

Wish me and Ian luck in surviving Hurricane Irene — we have stocked up on the essentials and made all necessary pre-cautions. So all that’s left is hoping for the best!

Weddings Galore!

Long time, no write. What a busy and fun weekend I had! Yesterday seemed to kind of fly by – so there is lots of catching up to do!

Wedding season continued this weekend with the ceremony of my good friend Diana and her now husband, Mario.  The festivities took place out in Long Island – on a perfectly beautiful day.

Here are a few highlights and re-caps of the day 🙂

Me and Ian along with some co-workers & significant others.  We are a pretty close crowd at work and so a good group of us went to the wedding.  I love seeing everyone all un-workified though!

Table 11. The Fun Group!

My dress was actually one I had ordered online from Lulus.com – I was so nervous about how it might fit or how the color would really look compared to the picture, but it was actually perfect! I was so happy with this purchase.

lulus navy blue dress

Ian decided to go with a power tie. (RED) We joked that we were very patriotic that night…or political if you think of it that way too 😉

power couple! haha

Now, important things, like the cake! I’m going way out of order here. But the cake is one of my favorite parts and it’s a good picture of the happy couple too. If you notice in the left corner are miss piggy and kermit. The Bride is probably the biggest miss piggy fan I have ever met and so she had to be included in the wedding. For someone who loves pigs, I loved the tribute!

Cutting the Cake

I kind of forgot to take pictures of a lot of the food – and I actually stole this photo from a friend. BUT, my favorite dish of the night was the 2nd course. Lasagna and lobster! Ian actually let me eat some of his lobster…how lucky am I??? All that cream you see around it…butter! Oh it was heavenly. I could eat buttered lobster all day.

I could eat this everyday

Here is another photo of the group of girls from work with the Bride 🙂

And my good friend Matt – who let us stay with him for the weekend at his parent’s place…Ian and I would not survive without him – what a good family. Can’t say enough good things about them.

Matty Matt Matt

Guess who caught the bouquet??? That’s right…ME! I was not even pushy about it – I actually didn’t catch it, it fell on the floor behind all of us and an older lady got to it first.  The announcer said I was closest though and I felt kind of bad taking it away from the lady…but I realized why a younger girl was picked…

Turns out this is wedding tradition! The guy who caught the garter puts it on my leg! It was supposed to be rigged for Ian to catch it…but things didn’t quite go as planned. This guy put on quite a show. I was nervous and in all the pictures my dress looks awfully short – oh my!!!

Moving on…the night concluded with MORE dessert! There was an ice cream sundae bar and a chocolate fountain to dip fruit and other goodies. It was like heaven.

Can I have this every night??

It was amazing.  Good food, good drinks, good company and one great new married couple who I wish the best for.  So lucky to have been apart of that wedding.

 

 

 

 

Favorite Friday Edition!

Before the day ends – I want to share my favorites! Enjoy!

1. Black Oak Monogram Cards – I love these as a set of cards to – they are handmade and have a nice personal touch.

2. Ceylon Pitcher – Perfect for brewing iced tea – or infusing water with with cucumber or fruit. The filter is removable which I think is pretty cool!

3. Lululemon Running Short – I really wish this brand wasn’t quite so pricey – because I am obsessed.  These shorts have a great shape to them, with lightweight fabric and a thick waistband. Plus! A zipper pocket in the back to hold Gu packs or whatever you may need on a long run!

4. Meyer Lemon Bracelet – Yellow might be one of my favorite colors to throw into an outfit.  I also love that this is one bracelet looks like multiple stacks.

5. Tone it Up workout DVD – You can only find their workout DVD at Target right now and you can also buy it online! But, I think this would be a great investment for a workout DVD because I am constantly watching their videos online anyway! This would be so much easier 🙂

Good Girl, Bad Girl

I’m beginning to realize that my habit of writing posts close to midnight each night might be confusing when I say “Happy Wednesday!” when in fact it is Thursday for most people already. SO, Happy Thursday! Or Happy Day of the Week closer to the weekend 🙂

Let me kick things off with a few words on Lunch today.

Lunch

Chopped Veggie Quinoa Salad

This salad has been my go-to for the past week or so, and I see it popping up much more in my future!  I usually avoid salads in the middle of the day because they tend to upset my stomach, but this one has been just right. I try to use a good portion sized container that helps me with my portion size for lunch.  This one is pretty small – I will have to figure out exactly the size. (don’t mind the work keyboard in back)

Into the Mix:

Quinoa

Chopped Tomato

unsalted sunflower seeds

ripped up lettuce

Veggie Turkey patty chopped up

Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar for dressing

I usually add cucumber too, but I ran out of that yesterday 😦 A little feta cheese is also a nice addition sometimes.

And Dinner

Stuffed Pita

Half a garlic pita with hummus, slice of Muenster cheese, 2 turkey slices, some lettuce and tomato.

Asparagus

And a side of Asparagus – Pan Fried.

Workout

Today’s workout was 20 min. of cardio split between the elliptical and treadmill machines.  I then did my leg strength training routine, which includes something I would like to call the “Good Girl, Bad Girl.” – dubbed by BF (best friend boyfriend) Denise 🙂 She called it that in college and it’s stuck every since!

It is the Hip Abductor Machine!

Can you tell which is which?

Good Girl – works your inner thighs

Bad Girl – works your outer thighs

🙂

The Good Girl, Bad Girl Machine is one of the most awkward things to do at the gym – but it works!

haha – I get a kick out of this every time.

Alright, it’s officially Thursday for me now too, off to bed …. or 30 Rock episodes with Ian since he just got home! (at midnight – wahhh!)