Happy Birthday to Me! And 18 Things I'm Thankful For

I'm 18 today. What a serious number-I can almost feel the cynicism and wrinkles creeping in. But before I get too old, I'd like to recognize 18 things for which I am thankful in this part of my life.

1. A supportive family-though they drive me crazy, I would not be the person I am today without them.
2. Wonderful friends-they fill my life with energy and laughter and I could not wish for anything better.
3. Musical abilities-playing clarinet had done so many great things for me and I hope I never give it up.
4. My perseverance throughout my weight struggles. At my heaviest, I weighed 150lbs at a height of a mere 5'2". The summer before my freshman year in high school I started running, and the pounds came off and have stayed off (aside from the occasional PMS bloat and emotional ice cream consumption).  Now I'm content at a weight of 125lbs and still work everyday on my fitness and well-being.
5. All the teachers who supported me throughout school and who inspired me to achieve my best.
6. Crest Whitestrips and braces. A little smile goes a long way! But of course, more is more.
7. The ability to tell myself "Rachel, don't be a weenie" (doesn't work if others say it lol) and then somehow magically it gets me to try amazing new things!
8. Books.
9. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, Charlie McDonnell, the unusually large percentage of good-looking young men in Washington DC, Adam Levine, etc
10. Bride Day on TLC.
11. The opportunity to receive my undergraduate education through Cal Poly.
12. People who make a point to include others and make them feel welcome/accepted.
13. Table manners.
14. Maternal instincts and the ability to really listen to people so that they feel valued.
15. Chocolate.
16. Wisdom gathered from random places.
17. DOGS DOGS DOGS-their fuzzy butts, soft ears, soulful eyes-everything about them.
18. Lastly, I'm thankful to have this blog so that I can capture the positive moments of my life to look back upon in a few years (or when I need some cheering up). As Gretchen Rubin says, the days are long but the years are long.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

This week has been hectic-and I'm not even in school! There's been some ups and downs and "life intervening" moments so it certainly kept me on my toes.

But let's stay positive and focus on the highlights!

I painted my toenails hot pink-what a departure from my normal teal! It was a "YOLO I'm gonna be fabulous" moment. The color is Miami Nice by Essie-it has a lavender tinge in some lights and it looks so pretty!

My little sister's first day of 7th grade. It's tradition to have chocolate chip pancakes on the first day of school so woohoo!

Another early morning long run. I feel like its against the teenage code to get up at 5:20 to run but then I feel incredible for the rest of the day.  And thank goodness for chocolate Gu! That stuff keeps me going.  I really want to try to do 9 miles next weekend-this was my second 7 miler and I was still exhausted when I finished (so naturally I treated myself to a Jamba protein berry workout smoothie). And yeah I'm super slow, I know.

I got a twitter! You can follow me at @rosyrachelmarie. I'm trying to limit the time I spend tweeting though, not quite sure how I feel about it.  If it's called 'tweeting' does that make me as a user a 'twit'? Funny funny.

Food and friends! I had an end-of-the-summer get-together for a group of friends and OF COURSE had to make food including ribs, pasta salad, fruit salad, cherry cheesecake cupcakes, lemon bars, and cookie/reeses/brownie bars.  Aaaaaand now what to do with all the leftovers. Hm.

Cupcakes!

I don't even know what's happening in this picture.

One of my favorite people, Bridget. What you see here is her trying to eat kettle corn around a tower of flameless candles. 

This morning's workout-part of my 'Strength Sunday' routine.
All with 8lb weights:
10 step back lunge rows on each side
15 side bends on each side
10 forward bends
10 squats to shoulder presses
10 lunges to arm lift
10 pushups

Repeated 3 times, ended third set with 10 squat jumps and 10 burpees. I'm so bad at lifting weights it's ridiculous hahaha.

Today is really exciting-washing my new clothes, practicing my clarinet (college wind ensemble audition coming up soon), and catching up on some reading.  Tomorrow I'm going to watch the NCIS marathon with my sister-maybe I'll try to do some exercises in front of the TV.

Plans for Labor Day? Best way to power through a weights workout and/or long run?

Weekend Updates

Well hi there!

My week calmed down after the little Sephora adventure, thank goodness. My electric kettle, popcorn maker and personal blender came in the mail! That was exciting. I'm gonna wear the heck out of the blender-I love it already. My first smoothie in it was fantastic: I threw some silken tofu, soy milk, frozen berries, banana and ice in aaand it make the perfect afternoon snack!

It was a good lookin' smoothie too :)

I also finalized my class schedule-had to add a class and drop another one, but I'm still happy with it. No friday classes, and plenty of time in the morning to train for my first half marathon!

Yesterday was amazing. My family and I went to the Academy of Sciences in SF-definitely my dream job to work there. They were featuring an earthquake exhibit but the animals were my favorite part :)

Baby ostrich! :D

Isn't it adorable how they make themselves into suction cups?

I AM A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY LOOK AT MY WINGS

Eel with *electric* colors!

And last night I had some friends over for what was SUPPOSED to be a Joseph Gordon Levitt movie marathon but we watched maybe 20 minutes of 50/50 and then turned it off and played Apples to Apples. It was so fun-all these girls are like sisters to me and I won't get to see them for a solid couple of months after I leave. Plus I got to make apple nachos for the first time! You take 3-4 large Granny Smith apples, slice em and lay em out all pretty and cover them with marshmallow sauce (made by melting a bag of large marshmallows + 1/4 cup butter in a pan), chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, mini chocolate chips, and sliced almonds. 

It was a hit! I think I'll use a sweeter apple next time though. It was super easy to make-perfect dessert/snack.

This morning was the best-I got up and made pancakes for everyone! I used the Krusteaz plain buttermilk mix and made three variations of it: pumpkin, peanut butter chocolate chip, and lemon blueberry (naturally I had one of each). All three were absolutely delicious and sooo fluffy! And we had bacon. Can't forget the bacon.

So today I have a shift at the library bookstore but after that I'm just chilling because I definitely did not sleep much last night.

All in all, the last 24 hours were one big party and now I'm happy but incredibly tired. Adios!

Favorite party snacks?

Mixin' it up Monday

Some things I tried today on my quest to be more adventurous:

1. First Ever Fartlek Run.
I set my alarm for 5:30 and got out of the house around 6:30-started on my standard 3 mile loop. I am so tired of doing the same thing over and over and not getting particularly good at it, so today I tried to make it a little different than normal. I jogged the first mile to warm up, but for the rest of the run I alternated running fast (not quite a sprint) and jogging slow between each lamp post. It didn't feel too hard but it definitely had me huffing and puffing! It was a very satisfying workout---and I came home, showered, and ate breakfast all before 8am!

2. Sephora Makeup Consultation
I went in for some help with a simple, everyday look to wear in college. The actual consultation was a wonderful experience-it was very personal, lots of collaboration on what works best for my needs, she walked me through application techniques and now I look all pretty for the rest of the day! I should go be social or something before I have to take it all off. But oh my lordie-I didn't even purchase all the items she used on me (who really needs eyebrow color anyway) and just chose what I really wanted and she rang me up and all of a sudden I had just spent $185! So basically I left for a good 20 minutes, met up with my mom, told her the damage, and then marched right back in to return $95 worth of what I had just purchased. Lesson learned. I'm fine with splurging at Sephora for things like BB cream (which is a miracle in a tube) and eye shadow primer but I'll stick to Target for things like mascara and concealer. I feel a little dirty on the inside (some quality buyer's remorse right there) but the products I that I did end up with are worth it. So here's a couple pics of what I look like all done up, and what products I purchased!

I can't seem to smile straight or open both my eyes the same amount. And one cheek is pinker than the other. But man, do I feel good!

Samples on the left, purchases on the right. 

3. Vitality Bowls.

There's a place at the mall that sells Acai bowls, paninis, and smoothies. Here's their website: http://www.vitalitybowls.com. I had a 'Nutty Bowl' and it was delicious! It contained "Açaí, Banana, Strawberries, Peanut Butter, Soy Milk, & Apple Juice topped with Granola, Bananas, Almonds, & Honey". Little pricey-$10 for a small bowl (which actually filled me up for lunch) but then again, "healthy" food tends to sell for more. I would totally recommend this place-totally refreshing on a hot day!

My Nutty Bowl. Now we know why they're not called 'Pretty Bowls'.

Tonight I'm making paella! I'm really excited about that-last time I made some it was fantastic. And gone rather quickly. 

What are your favorite makeup routines/looks/products? Ever tried a Vitality Bowl? Ideas for other ways to make running more exciting? Does anyone even read my blog? 

It's About Time

I've gotten really unmotivated about my running lately. My main reason for running is simply to feel good and stay happy. Well, since school got out I've had nothing to stress about and have been rather content doing really wimpy runs. So what do I naturally plan to do to get back into running?

Yep, I think I'm going to train for a half marathon.  There's a really lovely one down in Palo Alto during my month-long winter break and it's small (250 people). No hills. Great views of the Bay Area. Lots of open space. I figured it might be a nice first half marathon. In 2010 it was an absolute mess due to torrential downpour but last year it was crisp and clear. So we'll see how the weather is this year. But I'm really excited about it!

Training: the make/break-it factor of this whole thing. I've never had a gym membership before, so I've never made an effort to check my pacing or do speedwork or any technical running stuff. But having access to a treadmill at college opens up a world of possibilities! Like maybe actually doing real mile repeats at a 8:25 pace. There's a 10-week plan in one of my old Runners World magazines so I know EXACTLY what I should be doing each day! And it still leaves me time for spinning and yoga classes and swimming (which I don't do now but might try).

Isn't it beautiful? And completely doable too!

So that means thaaaaat I gotta get better at fueling my body. I've finally found my ideal pre-run snack (spoon of peanut butter and half a banana) and post-run breakfast (overnight oats are my new best friend) but my energy levels crash around 4pm on days I run. So my challenge will be finding food that will keep me going later in the day. I'm going to experiment with smoothies because they're ideal for eating in the middle of my afternoon classes without being completely obnoxious and I can make them super duper yummy. Plus, they'll help me incorporate fruits (and some veggies) into my diet continuously. 

I can't wait for mine to arrive sometime next week:

Favorite smoothie? Ever ran a half marathon? 

Ermergerd Bernerner Bread!

One of the holy trinities of flavors: chocolate, peanut butter and banana-now combined in bread form!

The official recipe will going up on my recipe page (whenever I figure out how to set it up :P) but here's just the basics:

Started with a standard banana bread recipe and its respective ingredients (plus reeses minis and chocolate chips)

Discovered that mashed 'nana looks an awful like scrambled eggs

And added the reeses minis and chocolate chips until there were borderline too many (but really. "there's too much chocolate in this banana bread" said no one ever).

And tah-dah! The finished product. It's absolutely delicious and quickly disappearing in this household!

So that was Monday's culinary adventure. Yesterday's technological adventure was downloading Mountain Lion for my MacBook. What a pain in the butt. I'm sure it was a good thing for the computer but my goodness the only change I've noticed is that there are more wallpapers. Cool, but not entirely worth the 11 hours trying to download and install. 

Today's erm....retail adventure was a crazy dorm room shopping trip at Bed Bath and Beyond. I got SO MUCH STUFF- highlights include Mickey Mouse bandaids, a cute over-door-hook thing (each hook comes off a mini wire dress!), a clip-on fan, and literally 40 hangers. My 'college pile' has now taken over the living room. But I love it. And I have yet to purchase a printer, popcorn popper (cinnamon popcorn is my kryptonite), personal blender (smoothies so I can refuel in class without being obnoxious!) and electric kettle (tea er'ry night)-looking forward to those. 

Tomorrow's adventure will be attempting to get up for a sunrise run. The sun rises around 6:15am (means I gotta get up at 5:30am if I want to be conscious enough not to trip over my own feet) and it's such a serene time to run so I figured I'd give it a shot. I have a few concerns about the run-is it safe? I always run with my RoadID and my keys in hand but it's still way earlier and I don't want to encounter any shenanigans. Or hooligans. But really, the hardest thing for me to get over will be getting my butt out of bed! No worries, I have some incentive this time-a lovely jar of chocolate banana overnight oats for when I get back from my run. 

What's the earliest y'all have gone for a run?

New Foodstuffs: Edamame Hummus, Oatmeal Medleys, and Chia Seeds, Oh my!

Hi again!

I've gotten particularly bad about spontaneous food purchases lately, so here are my latest (delicious) spoils :)

Edamame Hummus!

I've always loved edamame-plain or otherwise, and this hummus did not disappoint! The taste was definitely different than normal hummus at first, but I nearly finished off the whole thing in one sitting because it was so addictive (the bag of pita chips didn't help either).

Quaker Oatmeal Medleys!

I know, I know.  Oatmeal isn't exactly the most exotic breakfast food, but I haven't had any in a REALLY long time.  My dad makes a batch every Saturday morning and it's more solid than liquid and he puts in.....raisins (not my favorite).  So when we were shopping at Target and they had some Quaker Real Medley cups on sale, peach and almond oatmeal sounded like it would hit the spot.  And it did! It made a fantastic post-run snack and the almond and peach bits made the perfect additions.  You can bet that I'm now looking for ways to incorporate oatmeal into my breakfast repertoire.  Anyone have any ideas? I won't have easy access to a stove in my dorm at Cal Poly, and we're not allowed to have a microwave in our room.

Chia Seeds!

These little beauties are wonderful for adding some extra omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and protein to whatever you're already eating! I didn't really know what to expect with them and they're funny things-if they sit in anything with moisture, they gel up on the outside.  Bizarre, but I've been enjoying them in greek yogurt and plan to try them in other foods like in peanut butter on toast or maybe in a smoothie. The seeds don't have any flavor so they can be added to almost anything-there are SO MANY recipes on the internet for inspiration.  They can even be made into pudding for dessert! Soon... ;)