new in november

Guess what, guys! We’re back and better than ever. Expect less bowls of oatmeal and more Courtney/Jamie squabbling about life in lists because lists are much more fun.

Things you might have missed:

1. Courtney got bangs! Huge step in life.

2. Jamie lost half her shirt for Halloween.

3. We’ve been drinking way too much wine. (Is that anything new?!)

4. Entire bags of mini Reese’s should not be given to anyone except maybe Cely because she is awesome.  Unfortunately, Courtney was the victim of this crime and will have to strictly follow the serving size of 5.

what's a girl to do?

5. It’s hard to be nice sometimes. Why are we so mean lately? Is because our rent has increased… our old age is catching up to us… too much separation…the grind got us down..?

you mean we can't dance every day?!

6. Jamie did 36 pull ups.

It's totally the new Lululemon. Photo Cred: Alyssa

7. Treat Yo Self. Take a page out of Tom Haveford’s book (Parks & Recreation) and treat. yo. self. You’ll feel better in the morning.

8. Last, but certainly not least: The icons on iPhone are the only way to have conversations.

xoxo, Courtney

burnout (and a habit kicked)

Hello pumpkins! I hope y’all had a super fantastic weekend. I spent mine at the first UVA football game of the season+kept up with my usual habit of partying at the beach. Amazing, fun, and sleepless as usual.

tailgating fun

One thing I gave up from Thursday-Sunday? THE GYM. Last Thursday I hit the gym and felt completely fatigued. After 10 minutes on the elliptical I felt hot and weird (almost feverish) and left the gym. I was so bummed on my walk home about my less than stellar workout and decided I’d give myself a scheduled break.

Four days in a row, no gym, no running, just living like (…the majority of Americans?..) do- without exercise. It felt GOOD. Monday morning I HIIT 😉 the gym for some intervals and heavy upper body weights with way more energy than I’ve had in AWHILE. I was proud of myself for really listening to my body and resting. Lately I’ve been working out M-F with weekends off from fitness but I really think four days seems to treat me better…Wednesday rest days it is..?

old rest day with courtney, captured on film.

Burnout sucks and I’d really like to prevent it. While I’m not one to compare myself to others much, I think that reading blogs has warped my idea of what an efficient exercise schedule can be. Some can hard every day- but I need more rest than that.

Something else I’ve officially given up? Counting calories.

As per conclusion to my kick the habit experiment:

I quit counting calories, and nothing awful happened (unless you count a hurricane and an earthquake..). My jeans still fit, I’m still a happy girl. I didn’t weight myself prior to quitting vs. now because I didn’t want it to be about that. I eat BETTER, more wholesome foods rather than junk to help me fill up an appropriate “number”. I (ALMOST) don’t think about food before my stomach does and I eat accordingly. (Unless you count a 2AM taco bell run..) All in -all, success feels good.

i am [not] a scientist

I’ve never, ever liked science. Cutting open a squid in tenth grade made me barf, and senior year of high school my health teacher sent me into the hallway when she had to discuss something that would make me “woozy”. Somehow I managed to take just once science class in college about Wildlife and my partner told me he’d do all the work and research on our semester long project if I presented it alone. (He hated public speaking, and I’m not shy.)

bio-whhhhat?

In contrast to my science-less past- I feel like a serious scientist right now. With this whole Kick the Habit thing (QUITTING the calorie counting) and the new addition of my ever-feared strength training I feel like I’m conducting some sort of experiment on my body…and I like it. 😉

Quitting The Counting And Adding Weight Lifting: Take One

1. Abstract: Prior to July 25th, 2011 I ran. Cardio queen (okay, princess) with a knack for counting calories, yet never knowing exactly how many I needed and frequently eating more calories than I desired. Objective- to quit the counting, listen to my stomach (hungry eat, full stop) and add in strength training while keeping up with the HIIT I enjoy and cutting out the long cardio sessions that I really never liked anyway.

2. Problem: Will doing this make me gain weight?

3. Hypothesis: Original hypothesis from the start of it all? I’ll “puff up”, hate the way I feel- and revert to my old calorie counting ways.

4. Hypothesis where I cheat and write a hypothesis towards the very end of my experiment: I will love the freedom that comes with NOT counting. I’ll eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with one or two snacks and feel truly full off whole grains, low sugar, and high protein. I’ll start to love the way my stomach looks and kiss my new biceps on the regular. 😉

5. Materials: weights, treadmill (HIIT), ipod, protein, Alyssa, white wine..

moral support, photo stealing, gym partner in crime, of course

6. Procedures: Hiit, lift, make it fun. Smile and RELAX! Don’t be so SERIOUS.

7. Conclusion: TBA on September 1st. 😉

rewind

While I’d love to rewind to $2 Create your own Mojito Monday with my BFF

and eating lunch across from this face

or, our family dinners

lil j made me dinner after my plane drama 🙂

jamie's roommate and boyfran

along with one of the many photo shoots..

oh… and of course the beach.

…it was still lovely to finally come home to a few of my favorite things about New York City.. like random free things on the street and hilarious Starbucks trips.

free hummus, free pita chips (!!!)

everything I could ever need seconds away at Duane Reade

gigantic

and what I’ve been looking forward to all day:

it's been a long few days on the couch

things change!

I’ve found that in this life, things are always changing and almost nothing ever goes as planned. A few funny little reminders (for you & me!) that change isn’t always bad.

I’ve mentioned Bagel Wednesday before, but just as a refresher, on Wednesday’s where I work there are bagels. What I didn’t tell you is – every day there is cereal. Yep, an entire room dedicated to cereal. Almost any kind you could imagine – sugary or healthy. This was extremely exciting the first few months, but how much cereal can a girl eat? While all of you bloggers are eating your protein packed overnight oats, breakfast cookies, and whatever else – I’m here, still eating cereal. I know, I know, this may sound glamorous and fun, but once you’ve tried it all…. sugary (but made with whole grains… ;)?), healthy, and everything in the middle, you really do want to call it quits; however, you proceed on because well, this city is expensive, and cereal is free.

A few weeks ago, I tried to battle my breakfast woes with bagel thins… three days later, I was done with that and back to cereal. Once you go NY bagel, you never go back.

This week, while at Trader Joe’s, I decided to dig back into my own breakfast funds and give another type of breakfast a good ol’ college try. Enter: frozen whole grain waffles.

Monday & Tuesday I had these with TJ’s honey apple butter and frozen raspberries.

Sososo good. In fact, I had an admirer of my honey apple butter in the kitchen. “but does it taste more like apple, or more like honey?”

Enter: Bagel Wednesday. My usual favorite day of the week. (Next to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday that is.) I’ve gotten obsessed with bagels, ask Jamie – I’m always gushing over them. Well, not today. I looked at my bagel (you have to grab the one you want EARLY – whole wheat everything = hot item.) and all I wanted was my sweet, sweet waffles.

Things really, really do change. (Except I ate it anyway… Duh.)

Changes also come in the form of a meat-loving-veggie-hating-boyfriend who I never thought could turn into even a semi-foodie like those other blog legends I’ve heard.

He even bought some kind of special TJ’s dressing for this said salad. A few months ago, Danny didn’t even know what I was referring to when I said I wanted to go to TJ’s.

Last week, I received a few surprising texts leading to this, too. Pictures of his food, a picture on a menu of some risotto I would like, and best of all:

Now that’s change I’d like to stick around. 😀

Last and certainly not least, things do change in the cupcake world, as well. I used to wonder why people would ever stand in a line so long at Baked By Melissa when there are Crumbs around.

And then, it hit me last week – Baked By Melissa cupcakes are tiny. The perfect treat size that you don’t feel guilty about. Now that I’ve tried them, I absolutely cannot wait for the one by my job to open soon. Crumbs and Baked By Melissa are just different.

Birthday Cake, Smores, and PB

See, changes can be teeny tiny, too. 😉 Any of you experience positive changes lately? It’s nice to have these little reminders that change can actually be a good thing sometimes! Happy hump day! 😀