Snowpocalypse Now

Good evening/morning/2 AM on Monday night and therefore technically Tuesday morning. In my mind, it's still Monday because I haven't gone to sleep and woken up on Tuesday yet. Anyway, I'm blogging so late because I have a snow day tomorrow AND Wednesday. I basically have another weekend inside my week. We're getting hit with a Blizzard of '78 level snowstorm (which, if you don't know what that is, is basically a huge effing snowstorm) that's supposed to last into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. According to what I've heard and the weather maps I've seen, my area is expected to get anywhere from 18-36 inches of snow. The weather report even said something about "thunder snow," which I find to be a slightly hilarious term. Luckily, I parked my car in a garage on campus and won't have to deal with any shoveling. There is a god.

The snow started tonight. One of the perks of living in a school-owned apartment is that a lot of my friends live in the same building, so we don't have to step foot outside to hang out. It's only been snowing for a few hours, and already the plows are out and we have some accumulation.

View from my window. Not a soul in the parking lot (I think the Christmas lights in the reflection are a nice touch, right?).

Backing up to this morning, I ended up waking up at my parents' house. I have an internship at my old high school's guidance department on Monday, and I figured since I was already there and had all my clean laundry, I might as well stay over and have a shorter commute to my internship (this is the best part about my hometown being 20 minutes away from school). Of course, I was going to utilize those delicious fresh berries they had in the fridge. Thus, my breakfast was a blueberry Chobani topped with banana, strawberries, and blueberries.

I hoped using a yellow bowl would somehow make me feel awake (it didn't).

While my day got off to a healthy start, it ended with wine and homemade cookies. My friend Maddie and I made white chocolate plus caramel chocolate chip cookies. Not surprisingly, neither of us remembered to get baking powder at the grocery store. We consulted Google, and found that we could substitute in baking powder. While we were a little worried about how our substitution would affect the cookies, we took the dough tasting delicious (I may or may not have eaten like 3 cookies-worth of dough) as a good sign. Thankfully, the cookies came out tasting just perfect. I think the baking powder actually made the texture better. They weren't super doughy or heavy, they were light and moist, but crisp.

Starting off Snowmageddon right.

The rest of my night was spent drinking wine and chatting with friends. It was the epitome of a girls' night in. I have a feeling tomorrow will be more of the same. I plan on hitting the gym in the morning (yet another perk of living in a school-owned apartment building: there's a gym in the building, no going outside necessary), being productive and getting homework done in the afternoon, and baking and wine-ing at night.

Good luck to everyone else dealing with the snow! Stay safe peepz.

What's your ideal snow day?

Kulie Julie

Gettin' on schedule

Hello there! Long time, no blog. BUT I've been super busy. I moved back to school, classes started, I'm actually working at my new job and not training anymore. I know, excuses, excuses. I'm sucking at my own resolution just like the damn resoultioners at the gym that I have such ire towards (speaking of, the gym at school is super crowded right now and I'm not okay with it). SO in order to not be one of those people, I'm back and ready for action. I've decided the best way for me to stay motivated is to make a little blogging schedule for myself (it would also be cool if I had a readership, but I suppose that comes with time and effort). I'm going to try and stick to a different theme each day (a la Daily Grace when she was Daily Grace, only probably not as funny and amazing, I'm going to try), and here's what I'm thinking:

Monday: Miscellaneous! I feel like the at start of the week I won't want to feel constrained to a certain topic (I don't want the man holding me down on my blog every day). Also (and more importantly), I like alliteration so Miscellaneous Monday it is.
Tuesday: Cool recipe/new workout day! I'll share any recipes or workouts I've discovered lately that I think are worth mentioning.
Wednesday: What I Ate Wednesday! This is a thing bloggers do, right?
Thursday: Real talk day! I'm probably just going to ramble about my anxiety. I already see a therapist, but why not consult the Internet as well.
Friday: OOTW and more random musings! I'll share my outfits of the week (prepare for mirror pics), and then just chat it up with y'all about whatever.
Saturday/Sunday: Long run recaps! I usually do my long run on Saturday or Sunday depending on my work schedule and weekend plans, so I'll share with you all how it went and how my weekend is going. On the day I don't have my long run, I'm going to take a rest day (this is a healthy living-ish blog, so I can call my off-day a rest day, right?)

Of course, I'll probably share with you my daily workouts and interesting meals whenever I feel like it, but I think these themes will keep my blog interesting, and help me when finding out what direction I want to head in with my blog post.

Right now, I'm at my parents' house. We had Sunday dinner of homemade chicken pot pie, which was absolutely scrumptious.

 I feel like this is the epitome of a home-cooked Sunday meal.

I also ate some berries and watermelon a little later. I never get that when I go grocery shopping (because I'm cheap and buy frozen berries), so it was a nice treat!

Looks like summer, I'm going to pretend we're not getting 2 feet of snow on Tuesday.

Finally, I weighed myself for the first time in a couple weeks. I've been keeping up with my calories on My Fitness Pal, and my goal is set to gaining 0.5 pounds a week. Most days, I don't hit my suggested calories because it still freaks me out to be eating so much. But I doing better, and apparently I'm doing something right because I'm up to 127, and I have three more to go until I reach my goal. In some ways I'm proud of myself for actually doing this, but I can't deny the fact that it is weird to want to gain weight. I feel like society tells me I need to be skinny, skinny, skinny, and even though I know 1. I'm still skinny and 2. this is to be healthy, it's still weird for me. I also worry that I will keep gaining even once I hit the 130. Obviously, as long as I set my goal to maintain instead of gain on My Fitness Pal I'll be fine, but I can't help this weird anxiety.

Well, on that note, I'm heading off to bed! I have my internship bright and early tomorrow morning, and don't want to be completely reliant on coffee to get me through (I mean, of course I'll be someone reliant. I'm very much addicted to that sweet, sweet caffeine).

Please give me any feedback on my new schedule, and let me know if you've had any experience having to gain weight!

Kulie Julie

Yoga pancakes

Hi friends! What have you guys been up to? I've been sort of absent this week because I've been super busy with my new job (I just started as a host at a local restaurant, sadly my blissful days of being unemployed are behind me, until retirement, that is) and asking people to take surveys about their attitudes towards climate change at the bus/train station near my school (it's for my research assistant-type job at school, yes, I'm that annoying person asking you to take a "quick three minute survey," I apologize). I've been keeping up with my workouts (and the cold weather/weird schedule has kept me on the treadmill at the gym with the resolutioners), but obviously not so much with this blog.

Today was yoga day. I went to my typical hot, power yoga studio to sweat, stretch, and strengthen. It was crowded AF today. Usually 9 am classes are pretty empty because most people have to work then. Once again, I'm going to blame the full class on the resolutioners. I also brought my friends Elizabeth and Allee with me because they wanted to try  hot yoga. I was really worried they wouldn't enjoy it, though they both are active and do pilates pretty often (which this studio definitely incorporates a lot of). My anxiety about them not enjoying it definitely took me out of the moment occasionally, and I did not feel as connected to my breath/body as I usually do. The worrying was so unnecessary, once we were in class there is nothing I could have done to change their experience. Still. I had a good time, and apparently Elizabeth and Allee did too because they said they really liked the class and planned on coming back! All that worrying for nothing.

Once I got back, it was time for breakfast. As an avid healthy living blog reader, I see recipes for protein pancakes everywhere. I've been meaning to try making some for quite a while now, and I finally had the time and motivation to whip them up today. I feel like a lot of the recipes I've seen online are overly complicated. I used a very simple recipe from Sarah Fit's (my favorite fitness blogger/YouTuber) book Get Skinny Again. I doubled the recipe because the one in the book was only 145 calories, and used one whole egg instead of egg whites (I would post the whole recipe but, like, I think it might be copywritten? Not trying to plagiarize). I also added some cinnamon into the batter because cinnamon is awesome. As far as the results...they were great!

Do you think they have protein pancakes at IHOP?

I couldn't resist satisfying my addiction, and I topped the pancakes peanut butter. I also sprinkled on a little bit of cinnamon as some sort of garnish (I watch too much Food Network, I'm trying to get points for presentation). The two ingredients I plan to add to the batter next time I make these babies are a splash of vanilla and a packet of stevia. Overall, they were really quite delicious. Obviously, they're not light, fluffy buttermilk pancakes you'd find at a diner. They were much more dense, but still pretty soft. They definitely were not dry, which was what I was most worried about. They're also quite filling. I'm always hungry, and I felt satisfied after finishing my plate. This recipe passed the initial test, and I'll report back with how my little tweaks affect the flavor.

So my questions for you lovely readers are: do you ever get anxious bringing your friends to a fitness class you love? Does it affect your workout at all? Also, what are some protein pancake recipes you enjoy? Do you have any ideas for toppings that I should try?

In true yoga spirit, Namaste peepz.

Kulie Julie

Rest day guilt

This speaks to me.

Ah yes, rest day. I've turned Mondays into my new rest days because Mondays are going to be my busiest days during the semester and I won't have time to work out. However, every rest day I find myself feeling a little...guilty for not working out, which is so stupid. Anxiety, man. So I figured as I sip on my Morning coffee, I'd chat with you guys a little about this weird rest day guilt.

Ready for some crazy-eyed coffee chattin'

I work out 6 days a week. I deserve a rest day. My body literally needs a rest day. Yet I can't help feeling like I should work out. At least, like, do a Blogilates ab video or something. The normal, rational side of my brain is saying "you should not work out today, it's a rest day, your muscles are in need of rest." Yet the annoying, anxious side of my brain is telling me "you're lazy, at least do some yoga or something, it's not like you're eating any less today than you are when you work out." Oh, food. That is probably a part of it too. I know I need to gain 10 pounds, but for some reason on rest days I feel bad that I eat pretty much the same amount of food as if it was a work out day. Why do I care?! I eat pretty healthy, and just because I'm not working out today doesn't mean my body doesn't need fuel. I'm burning calories just from sitting at the table, typing these words (woah, meta), and, like, breathing. Not to mention, fueling my body today means that my workout will be better tomorrow. 

Perhaps part of the reason why I'm feeling exceptionally guilty today (as in, guilty enough to write a little blog post about it) is because it's my mom's birthday (happy birthday Momita!). We're going out for Mexican food tonight and then having cake when we get home, neither of which I would consider healthy (especially because my parents are paying, which means I'm prooooobably gonna get a margarita). I know I'm going to be feeling guilty for eating so much when I did not work out.

I should probz look at rest day like this.

It's almost harder for me to force myself to not work out. However, I am not going to let myself work out. I refuse to roll out my yoga mat for an ab video. My muscles need to recover, and I need to be less crazy. Maybe once school starts up again and I have more things to distract me on Mondays (like I said, they're going to be my busiest days), I'll feel less guilty. From a quick Google search of "rest day guilt," I know I'm not the only one who feels like this, but that doesn't stop me from feeling annoyed about feeling guilty (I just have a lot of feelings).

Me.

Does anyone else get rest day guilt? What are some coping strategies you use to deal with it? Let me know in the comments!

Kulie Julie

I hate iceberg lettuce

I hate iceberg lettuce. It's the worst. It has no taste, no real nutritional value, and there are so many better lettuce-type options for salad (romaine, baby spinach, arugula, spring mix, kale, other leafy greens I can't think of right now) WHY would someone actively choose iceberg lettuce? It's freaking crunchy water. My friends all make fun of my passionate hatred towards iceberg, but I can't help feeling so vehemently opposed to it. Honestly, it's my mortal enemy. With that being said, I will eat iceberg lettuce if it's my only option.

Enter: ordering salad. I love salad. I know that sounds lame, but salads are bomb. Unfortunately, quite often the lettuce that comes with bomb salads at restaurants and take out places is the dreaded iceberg. I usually just pick around the iceberg and eat all of the good stuff slathered in dressing. However, I'm typically still hungry after eating around the iceberg, and end up dejectedly eating some of it to fill the void left in my stomach. A couple nights ago, my parents ordered from a local sub shop that makes amazing (and giant) Greek salads...on a hearty bed of iceberg lettuce (of course). I wasn't home when my family ate, so my salad was left in the fridge for me. As I grabbed it out of the fridge, I saw some baby spinach in the corner of my eye and got a bright little idea. I grabbed a plate and took all of the toppings (tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, feta, carrots, and approximately 5 pounds of chicken) out of the salad container, leaving only the sad, sad bed of iceberg lettuce.

You disgust me.

Next, I grabbed a couple handfuls of baby spinach, tossed it with the good parts of the salad and the dressing, and had myself a freaking fantastic salad. Like, this salad was good with the iceberg lettuce, but taking matters into my own hands made it a million times better.

You are so beautiful to meeeeee.

The day after my super innovative (not actually innovative at all) salad night was Saturday, aka my long run day. As per usual, my morning started with a venti-iced-coffee-with-skim-milk-only from Starbucks/mecca and peanut butter toast WITH banana. Finally, the great banana shortage is over! Huzzah!

I'm never taking bananas for granted again.

I was seriously debating doing my long run outside or going to the gym. It was 21 degrees out, and I decided to be a wuss and attempt it on the treadmill. Never again. I do not have the mental strength to run 5 miles on a treadmill. I mean, I did it, but it was the slowest, most mind-numbing almost-50 minutes of my life. Next time, I'm going to tough it out outside. I can deal with intervals on the treadmill, but 50 minutes of going about the same speed at a 2.0 incline (because apparently this mimics the resistance one encounters running outside?) is not my cup of tea. If it's this cold next week, I'm just going to put on an extra pair of tights and another layer up top and deal with it. I am a determined woman.

As for today, so far it's been somewhat exciting. I started my first day at my new job (a semester of being unemployed was super fun, until I realized how broke I am). I'm working as a host at a local restaurant. My friend Colleen works there, and she got me the job (thanks broseph). It was a little overwhelming, but everyone was super nice, and I am super in need of some cash, so really this is the perfect situation for me.

I'm about to head to the gym now and get my strength training on (ew, did I really just say that?). Did anything exciting happen during your weekend? And, more importantly, am I alone in my iceberg lettuce stance? Let's all start a revolution against iceberg lettuce! Viva La Revolucion!

Kulie Julie

Getting experimental

Hello! How is everyone dealing with the seriously cold weather lately? If you don't have cold weather where you are right now, I envy you. I'm definitely going to have to stay indoors for all of my workouts this week. As much as I hate the treadmill, I've been using more interval workouts lately, and they really do make time go by faster. Yesterday, I actually ran longer on the treadmill than I originally planned. That never happens.

The cold has also made me try some new things in the kitchen (actually, I don't think it has anything to do with the cold, I just needed a good segue). A few days ago, I made an apple pie protein smoothie, which was a combination of a few recipes I've found online. It tasted really good, but it wasn't creamy enough. I like really thick smoothies, and I needed to find a good thickening agent. Usually, I use frozen banana, but 1. I didn't want the flavor of the banana to mess with the apple pie-ness of the original smoothie, and (more importantly) 2. the bananas I got on Saturday still aren't ripe (it's been 5 days since my last banana and I'm having banana withdrawals). So I decided to try using avocado. While avocado isn't a new food to me (avocado + adobo seasoning = meaning of life), I've never utilized it in a smoothie before. I figured since it's pretty creamy but doesn't really have much of a taste, it would be the perfect thickening agent while not messing with the balance of flavor in the smoothie. I made the avocado + apple pie smoothie test run today after coming home from the gym, and the results were...(drum roll please) an overwhelming success! It actually was so thick I ate it as a smoothie bowl (my favorite way to consume smoothies, btw), rather than drinking it as a traditional smoothie (though this could easily be made into a traditional smoothie with a little more milk). Here's the recipe:

This actually tastes pretty apple pie-like (and I eat apple pie instead of cake on my birthday, so I know apple pie)

Apple pie smoothie bowl:

-1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (more if you want a more liquidy, drinkable smoothie)

-1 apple, cut into small cubes (I used gala and left the skin on because I'm lazy, but use whatever apple suits your fancy)

-1/4 of an avocado

-1 scoop vanilla protein powder

-1 packet Truvia/other stevia sweetener

-cinnamon to taste (I used a lot of cinnamon, not gonna lie)

Blend everything together and live your life.

While the avocado experiment was successful, my second new-to-me ingredient endeavor did not yield such positive results. Enter: cottage cheese. I've been intrigued by this weird substance for a while, and picked up a 6 oz container during my last trip to the grocery store. I've seen my dad eat it mixed with jam, and my roommate's boyfriend actually eats it plain, so I decided I'd be creative with it. I mixed it with 2 tbsp of PB2 and 1/2 a packet of Truvia. It was...weird. I didn't hate it, but it felt like a chore to eat. The texture turned me off a little, and the mixture of the cottage cheese with PB2 tasted really salty. I'm not giving up on cottage cheese just yet (I'm no quitter), but I think next time I'll have to mix it with something sweeter, like jam or frozen berries, and add a little crunch to the texture with nuts or chia seeds.

At least I ate a lot of protein?

What are some other smoothie thickening agents I should try? Also, what can I mix with cottage cheese to make it not so...weird?

Hope everyone has a great day and keeps warm (I'm currently keeping warm with a cup of coffee...shocking)!

Kulie Julie

Get to know me: 21 questions, yo

Hi there! How is everyone's Monday going? Last night, I went to bed with a migraine, and I woke up this morning still feeling it a little. I really did plan on hitting the gym as soon as I got up, but since I was feeling kinda crappy, I figured breakfast and coffee would be a better way to start my day. Last night, I made some of my favorite, PBFingers's Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookie Dough Overnight Oats. This morning I nuked them in the microwave and topped them with honey roasted peanuts.

Curing the residual effects of migraines.

I'm going to the gym with my sister later (it's too cold and windy to run outside, so I'm forced to face the dreadmill), but I figured now would be a good time to do one of those "get to know me" tags that bloggers do. Obviously, I wasn't tagged by anyone because, quite frankly, I'm not sure if anyone even reads this blog (if you do, comment, make yourself known!). Buuuuuut I want to do one anyway, so here we go!

Shameless selfie, just so you know who this get to know me thing is about.

Get to Know Me Tag: 21 Questions

1. Are you named after anyone? Yes! My mom's crazy great aunt Julie. She died before I was born, but the stories about her are ridiculous.

2. When was the last time you cried? I'm pretty sure it was a couple months ago when I had an anxiety attack in class. Ah, memories!

3. Do you have kids? No.

4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Probably?

5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yerp.

6. Will you ever bungee-jump? NO. I would rather skydive or swim with sharks than bungee jump. Like, what if the rope snaps? Boom. You're dead AF.

7. What’s your favorite cereal? I love cereal. I usually buy Kashi Go Lean crunch in vanilla or cinnamon, but I think my favorite will always be honey bunches of oats.

8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their sense of humor and how tall they are.

9. What is your eye color? Blue.

10. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy endings. I hate scary movies. I have way too much anxiety for them.

11. Favorite smells? I like citrus smells, vanilla, and like fall scents.

12. Summer or winter? SUMMER. I love the heat, the long days, having fires at night, the beach, swimming, and, of course, not having school. I despise winter, but I can't see myself living anywhere except New England, so I have to learn to deal with it.

13. Computer or television? Computer. I can watch TV on the computer.

14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? Paris. I would go back just for the banana nutella crepes.

15. Do you have any special talents? I don't think so.

16. Where were you born? Massachusetts.

17. What are your hobbies? Hanging out with friends, cooking, running, listening to podcasts, watching Food Network, reading, online shopping.

18. Do you have any pets? Nope.

19. Favorite movie? School of Rock.

20. Do you have any siblings? Yes, a younger sister. She's 17.

21. What do you want to be when you grow up? A school counselor. Also happy and successful.

So there you go, a little bit about me you may not have known. If you have any other questions about me, or want to answer these questions yourself, go for it in the comments (or, like, if you read my blog, let me know)!

Kulie Julie

Little victories

Hello, hello, hello! I hope everyone is having a lovely Saturday. I'm not doing much of anything (which seems to be a running theme of this winter break), but it's still been a pretty good day. 

Yesterday, I said I wasn't feeling a workout in the morning. I did eventually get my ass to the gym. I went around 8:45 (craaaazy Friday, right?). There were more people than one would expect to be at the gym on a Friday night (once again, damn resolutioners), but I pretty much had the gym to myself. After a 10 minute cardio warm up, I did PBFinger's Total Body Circuit Workout, followed by Blogilates's Victoria's Secret Model Ab Workout video (which I think is my favorite ab workout video, it's not unbearably hard, but it is challenging). After coming home from the gym, I made a nice little protein smoothie, because I'm worth it.

Only looks slightly radioactive.

Here's what I used:

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (give or take)

1 handful baby spinach

1/2 frozen banana

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Before my nighttime workout, I went to the movies and had a late lunch/early dinner with my dad and grampy (once again, craaaaaazy Friday, right?). We saw The Imitation Game, which was about breaking the Enigma Code during WWII. I would have never picked this movie myself, but it was actually really good. It was entertaining and engaging. I knew very little about Alan Turing and the Enigma Code going in and I still found it pretty easy to follow. Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightly were the two leads, and they were fantastic. Benedict Cumberbatch's fandom on Tumblr annoys me, but he's a great actor, so I suppose I get the hype (though I don't see the sex god in him that some people see, but to each their own I guess).

Seeing the greatness but not the sexiness.

After the movie, we went out for a 4:00 meal (which was kind of lunch for me) at a nearby resturant, the Sylvan Street Grille. I got a salmon salad with chipotle lime dressing. I was worried the dressing would be too spicy, but it wasn't at all (and I am the biggest spicy wimp). The salad was delicious, and the dressing gave it a nice smoky flavor. I also had a couple of pieces of the bread with parmesean and red pepper oil dip. I think that may have actually been my favorite part of the meal. If you've ever been to Not Your Average Joes, the oil dip tasted exactly the same, but the bread was a little softer and more dense. Again, I would have avoided the bread a few months ago, but now that I am being less restrictive I'm really trying to enjoy little treats like that (little victories).

Today started like any Saturday for me does. I had two slices of Ezeikal bread with peanut butter (once again, no bananas in the O'Neil household, so I added some honey instead), and, even though it was about 25 degrees out, my usual venti-iced-coffee-with-skim-only from Starbucks. The 25 degree weather also did not hold me back from going for a run (though I'm not going to lie, it was a bit of a struggle to motivate myself). I bundled up and actually ran the furthest/longest I've ever run before! 5.43 miles in 50ish minutes according to RunKeeper. I realize this probably isn't super impressive to a lot of avid runners, but this is p freaking cool for me (once again, little victories).

Post-run, I foam rolled, made some oatmeal for lunch (basically the same thing as what I had yesterday for breakfast), and went grocery shopping. Sadly, it's starting to snow here, so tonight will be filled with doing nothing and loving it. I see some hot chocolate in my future.

Having a vision of hot chocolate, I'm so Raven.

Wow! A long post, but I can't tell a short story to save my life. Lovely readers, have a fun Saturday night! If you're getting snowed on like me, I see hot chocolate in your future too!

What's you favorite snowed-in thing to do or treat to eat (I sound like a kindergarten teacher)? Also, how do you motivate yourself to get your ass to the gym or out for a run when it's cold as balls (professional term) outside?

Kulie Julie

2015: Mildly spicy?

Hello 2015! I hope everyone had a fantastic time ringing in the new year! My friend Heather had a little party with us theater people, which was exactly how I wanted to celebrate the beginning of 2015.

A few of us at the party. Coming to a Christmas card near you in 2015.

If my first couple of hours of the New Year are indicative of things to come in 2015, then I am certainly happy about that. Nothing too remarkable happened, I just had a fun time with fun people. I would like to note the the food at this party was delicious. There was this spinach dip that I probably was responsible for eating most of. I made The Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies, which are always a crowd pleaser. One batch made 57 cookies. Everyone ate a couple of those (including myself). Someone else brought peanut butter cookies, and as I can't resist anything with peanut butter, I had to sample one of those as well. They were amazing.

New Years morning really wasn't bad. I didn't get much sleep (I slept on the floor at Heather's. not necessarily the most comfortable spot), but since I didn't overdo it with the alcohol the night prior, I wasn't hung-over. I spent January 1st hanging out at home and napping. Thursdays are always my rest days, so I did just that!

 

This was my first cup of coffee of 2015. Obviously worth capturing.

I also decided that I wanted to make one of those jars where you put in a slip of paper with something good that happened that day every day for a year. Mine isn't very spectacular or well decorated, but it works for now. We didn't have any mason jars at my house, so I cleaned out a salsa jar that was in the recycling. I'm nothing if not resourceful!

Maybe 2015 will be mildly spicy too.

I'm typing now from my kitchen table, munching on oatmeal and (what else is new) drinking coffee.

 

 

BOTD (breakfast of the day, let's make that a thing): oatmeal with 1/2 packet of truvia, cinnamon, frozen mixed berries, and chopped-up almonds. YUM.

This morning, I woke up with the intention of working out, but really just was not feeling it. I even put on my gym clothes and drove to the gym. After seeing just how many people were parked outside, I decided it was way too crowded and turned around (damn New Years Resolutioners). I started doing a bodyweight workout at home, but was still not feeling it. So, I stopped. I have no doubt in my mind I'm going to work out at some point today. I'm not one to skip a workout. I just couldn't motivate myself this morning, even with my favorite little mantra "you'll never regret a workout." I'm sure if I only had the morning free to work out, I would have completed it, but I have the whole day, so why not work out when I'm feeling energized. I'll probably get a much better workout that way. 

What do you do when you're not in the mood to work out? What are some mantras or self-talk you have that get you in the workout zone?

Kulie Julie