NOTE: This was supposed to be posted yesterday but in my excitement I kind of...forgot to hit publish live. Oh well, it's FRIDAY!!!! Happy weekend all!
I am sure someone somewhere has created a link up for this but I am too wired to figure it out. Anywhoo I am in a delusionally (my own word? I apparently am all about creating stuff today) excited mood so here we goo:

1.) Kale...Oh let me count the ways...
I haven't had it all week and finally bought more and I am in love all over again. I could put that stuff with anything and grub on it all night.

2.) Coffee at work. It might not be strong (it is medium roast...yeah im a coffee snob in that I like to almost chew it as opposed to drink it) but it is FREE! and this girl loves her some free stuff
That cup is actually full...well kind of..it's a Keurig and all that fits in my cup is 8 oz at a time. I go back at least 3 times before lunch.
3.) Candy at work. I know my "good habit" was supposed to be not eating crap at work but they had dark chocolate covered kit kats this week! I can't turn that down. I didn't visit every dish in the whole firm this week though  (Not that I have every other week...cough cough...again, this girl loves her some free stuff).
4.) Casual Friday. I love not having to think about what I have to wear tomorrow and also being able to wear all the cute skinny bright color pants I compulsively buy from target. 

Example:
These are actually bright green but I have an iphone and poor lighting so they look teal...oh well I love em and for $20 I bought 3 pairs (different colors) so far..... it may be a growing issue.
What are you loving today??
 
Is this really my 5th already!?? WOW time sure flies! Thanks to Jenn for hosting and coming up with this great idea!

This week has been slllooowwww...but crazy at the same time. The weekend cannot come soon enough! Here are the eats:
Not the prettiest eat for sure but it's a kale and veggie chicken salad with tzatziki as the dressing. So.Freaking.Good. 
Snacky of carrots and more tzatziki...When I like something I kind of go on a bender...oops.
One of the many caffeinated loves of my life keeping me awake while I work.
I wanted to do a whole post just about these babies but held myself back. Corn Bread crackers though??! It's like the food gods heard by pleas and created this. I ate the whole box in 2 days and 2 sittings. So So good.
So we are missing dinner and to be honest I have no idea what it was. I think it was spaghetti but it could have been avocado pesto pasta. Either way it was delicious (as if I wouldn't eat it if it wasn't... ;))

Sorry this one feels a little lackluster...this week has put me in a funk so far...


How do you get outta a weird funk? Do you ever feel off and not know why?
 
The end of the work week and this weekend have been crazy. I wanted to do a recipe (finally) or a well thought out post but I work job #2 all weekend and am trying to keep up my social/workout life (workout life is failing). Here are a bunch of pictures of what I have been up to! Enjoy!

Longest plank yet! Plank-a-day is the one thing I have actually kept doing even through my absence from the gym.
Jello shots at a dive bar with one of my friends last night. You cannot take me into a dingy bar that offers jello shots and expect me not to buy one. I obviously was too excited to take a photo before shootin' up....sorry...
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The perks of working right by LAX! Saw the shuttle land and then the office bribed us to continue working that day with ice cream and pizza...ohhh another reason why my job is making me fat.
Going along with the idea of cute drink containers here is my new "green" water cup for work! I have a plain one but it was becoming a bitch to have to clean it everyday so I shelled out the $5 for a backup one.
And last but definitely not least is a picture of my adorable old lady and her new bed. Yeah I am kinda obsessed. 
How is everyone else's weekend going??
 
Wednesday already?? Just the realization to brighten my mood! Here we go....

Can't wait to see what Jenn has in store for October!

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Apparently my good habit of this month is not going to be learning how to take photos of just one days eats...but oh well more for you to admire I suppose ;)



To your left is my beverages of the weekend...fairly balanced?






It was Oktoberfest alright?? I did chug the water and Kombucha the rest of the weekend though..so not all bad.

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To your right is my snacks for the work week. 


Finally found granola without all the oil and stickyness most seem to have! 


Plus some corn chex and a Clif Z bar rice crispy treat thing (cause I'm 5).

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This was my yummy find of the week. I LOVE putting veggie "chicken" patties or veggie burgers over either a salad or steamed veggies at work and I finally ran out of the Chipotle Black Bean Burgers I found at Costco. These were pretty darn good and only 120 calories! 

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Perfect for my Kale (and edamame cause I had some frozen and it had no big future plans) salad! YUMMM 

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I also had this....which I need some help with...It's like "Who Wants to be a Millionare" and I'm polling the audience....



Anyone else think this tastes really weird and is strangely watery??


I love greek yogurt but this flavor just wasn't hitting any of the right spots.



Anywhooo....Hope everyone is having a great week! It's finally starting to cool off in LA!
 
Imma let you all in on a little secret of mine. 


I'm kind of an idiot.


Just kidding! Kind of. Basically I guess I can't seem to learn from my mistakes. On Wednesday it was my day off from the gym, sweet right? So after work and battling traffic I got home and realized it was also the day of my neighbor's party. Yeah I know, who has Wednesday night cocktail parties?? Oh right, my kind of people. So I head over there and it is great, fun and food and wine and good times....a bit too much good times for this little lightweight. I woke up on Thursday nursing a wine hangover that basically made work hell. I made it to the gym but there was no way I was doing more than biking and a plank. Fail.


Fast forward to last night. I somehow got Saturday off from my second job (an entire weekend of no work?! holla!) and Friday was my good friend's birthday. I knew I wanted to spend Saturday working out and running errands so I decided I wouldn't get too "festive". We went to Oktoberfest. I'll just save you the details but lets just say today isn't that much fun. All I have managed to do was walk to the post office to mail a package and do one load of laundry.

The moral of this story is DO NOT BE ME. Just say no to the 4th...or errr 8th.... shot. Since I can never learn from my mistakes I will rely on you to learn and be successful for me. Deal? 


Hope everyone is having a better time than me! Oh and did I mention we are having a serious (for So Cal) heat wave? And I have no AC? Just know your having a better time than me.

Happy Saturday!
 

Thanks Jenn for hosting!

This week was kind of a failure. Not on the healthy eating/good habits front but on the photo front. I kept forgetting to take more than one photo a day and days when I remembered I was usually surrounded by people at work and didn't want to come off as the new girl who has an odd photo taking habit (give me a month and i'll be all over it). Alas I did manage to take a few photos of my snacks this week:
Fromt top left: Carmel Crunch Chex mix (I really only ate the Chex pieces...I don't know why I don't just buy a box...), Target granola at my desk at work, Clif Kid Z Bar before the gym (perfect size and calorie count for my pre/post gym snack attack), vodka cranberry at a demolition derby in the desert ($8 for half a shot of Grey Goose and gallon jug cranberry juice...never again.).

Obviously I have been eating meals and my highlight lunch of the week was this baby right here:
Ahhhh sweet heavenly kale. Kale is basically my go to lunch, usually combined with either a veggie burger or some sort of beans (gotta get some protein in there). This week I splurged and bought some broccolini sprouts to add to the mix. YUM YUM. Pour on a little light honey mustard dressing and I am a happy camper. 

As far as "Fall into good habits" goes I am kicking ass. I already told you about my running and I am proud to say I am still keeping it up (3.5 miles today!). Tomorrow is my rest day and for the first time in a while I truly feel like I earned it. 


Well I am off to enjoy a little sweet potato/chili mess bowl and then crash out for the night. Have a great hump day everyone!
How is everyone doing with the theme? Almost halfway through September!
 
So since I began working mon-sat my fitness regime has seriously suffered. I haven't been a serious runner in quite some time but I would take classes or do other things to keep myself in some form of shape. Lately though? Barely anything. I go to the gym after work but am usually to tired to do more than do a walking workout or the stationary bike (no judgement here but I know with my eating habits I NEED to be doing more). So starting on Friday I finally sucked it up and did it, I ran. I had such a productive and busy day and work and figured what could it hurt trying to run a few miles on the treadmill? I could always stop if I wasn't feeling it or if my knee acted up anyway.

And obviously we all know how  this turned out...

It was great! It was 3 miles of jogging (with a few walks here and there while I found another good running song) and I was so proud of myself after. Saturday my legs were sore and it made me even happier that I pushed myself and could feel the results of that. I was back to the stationary bike yesterday but today I went another 3 miles and while it didn't feel as good as Friday it still was doable and I know it was good for me.

I guess before I used school or work or anything as an excuse to not "have" to push myself. I figured I was still going to the gym and still doing 60 minutes of some form of cardio and that was enough. I know this sounds so naive, especially since I was an athlete all through highschool and know better, but it really is the only reason I can think of. I can't wait to implement more challenging workouts into my work week and see how it improves my mind as well as my body. It obviously is never to late to make a change and the best time to start doesn't have to be anytime in particular! I just decided as I was driving to the gym that I was going to run and then bam, handled. 


Well that was my pseudo-inspirational post. I'm off to go run some errands before it's back to the office grind tomorrow!
How is everyone's weekend going? Anyone conquer any challenges?
 

New month and new theme! Let's get it going before my after after work/workout Riesling kicks in ;)
As always thanks to Jenn from Peas and Crayons for the party.
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Ohhh look at me trying to get fancy! It's a step. Kombucha craziness, yummu strawberries at work, Whole Foods hot bar goodness and the most expensive peanut butter cups I have ever tried. 



This wasn't all I had all day of course! Scroll below for my close encounters of the sweet potato kind from that same day!


This month's theme is "fall into good habits" and this is a theme I can TOTALLY get behind. Since getting my "grown up" job I have felt like the carefree fun of summer is long gone. Now the plus of this is that I have gotten into some pretty great eating habits. I make amazing salads of other veggie packed lunches and usually nosh on fruit mid morning when my stomach is growling during meetings. 

On the other hand....stuff like this:

Has also made its way into my life. I can't help it when it's sitting there in the kitchen at work looking sooo lonely and enticing! So with this theme in mind I will try to get in the habit of NOT TOUCHING THE BAKED GOODS in the kitchen. After all they aren't as good as I could make at home right? Right??! 


I can't wait to see what everyone else has in store for this month of WIAW! It literally makes my Wednesday night lazy sesh.

How do you say "no" to food at work? 
Seriously I need advice here!
 
So since it is September, and in my mind September is fall (don't mind the 90 degree temperatures) I have totally gone overboard with fall themed things this weekend.
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Let's start with the nails. All summer I have been OBSESSED with Essie's bright and pastel colors. I don't know if they were special editions or what the deal was but they were to die for and I was sucked in. Since it is fall September though I switched it up and went for this dark red. Love it! 

Onto the fall food. I have a confession to make. I have never roasted a sweet potato. I have an even worse confession to make. I DESPISED sweet potatoes until this summer. I always thought they had to be sweet and made with sugar and for some reason I just wasn't down with that. This summer I tried it with butter and salt and seasonings and it was AMAZING. So yummy. So I roasted my very first and covered it in butter, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Ahhhh fall heaven.

So anyway..hopefully the rest of the country and mother nature catches up with me and we can all celebrate together. Have a happy Labor Day!