Wednesday, June 6, 2012

13. Outfit of the Day

Today it seems like I wore all of the clothes in my closet that I've been neglecting. I don't think I've worn any of these things in almost a year. 

We had a few special guests in the office this afternoon, so I got a little extra dressed up. 

Pencil Skirt (The Limited): similar / Belt (Nine West): similar / Lace Top (The Limited): similar / Necklace (Loft): similar / Earrings (Stella & Dot): here

Of course, I woke up late and my second-day hair wasn't working out. I was out of dry shampoo so I knew my mane was going up.

I started by parting my hair to the side and pulling the fuller side to the back of my head. I took the top half into my hand as if I were going to put it half up and teased it with a round brush. I pinned that portion back with a few bobby pins and twisted the rest into a bun off to the right side of my head. 

Shoes (Nine West): similar 

These shoes are admittedly way too small for me, but they went well with the outfit and in the back of my mind I thought I could stretch them out. 

I was wrong. 

-axoxo,
A

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

12. S'mores "brownies" and a Solid Workout

This post is so contradictory it hurts. Maybe it's the fact that I have to be in a bathing suit in a few weeks or maybe it's that I ate my body weight in s'mores "brownies" (recipe to follow) last night/this morning (yes, before I got to work. So sue me.), but I had a KILLER work out this morning.

Let me start by saying that I wouldn't be motivated to workout with my workout partner, Elise. Elise and I have been the best of friends since our sophomore year in high school. We were debate partners - do you understand how that bonds two people!?

Here's a little picture of us back in our high school glory days... 
...and this is us now! 

I got lucky last year when Elise left a job in Chicago to start a new career here in DC. I got even luckier when she moved about 6 blocks from my house and right down the street from our gym. 

On the night of the super bowl, I had a bunch of people over at my house and between myself and my roommates we made the best bad-for-you food you can imagine. Half way to my cardiac arrest, I declared that the following day I was starting a new work out program, and Elise jumped on board. We send each other texts in the morning at 5:30am making sure we're up. This is something we need to get better at, but it still helps to have someone remind you that you ate like a man trying to increase his weight class last weekend and could use an hour of spin class. 

Anyway, that's  Elise. My workout partner. 

This morning Elise was sick so I was a lone wolf at the gym, but I did a HARD 30 minutes (2 miles on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the stair machine at max speed) and did my normal ab routine TWICE. I also did some lunges but I lost steam near the end. I walked out of the gym at 7:15 absolutely dripping in sweat. There's no better way to start the day!

And LORD, did I need it. 

Last night I made an insane amount of THESE:

Golden grahams s'mores "brownies".

Super simple. Super amazing. A guy who works in my building just tried one and he called them "nectar from the Gods". I usually reserve this term for bloody marys with extra mary...but these are well deserving. 

RECIPE:
10.5 ounce bag of mini marshmellows (plus 2 cups!)
1 standard box of Golden Graham cereal
1/4 cup of butter
1 standard package of milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
1. Melt butter in a large pot on the stove at a low heat
2. Add 1 bag of marshmellows and mix until melted
3. Once melted, remove from heat and add cereal
4. Once this is stirred up, put back on a low heat and mix in chocolate chips until they are half-way melted
5. Add two more cups of marshellows
6. Stir until you feel like you just did a 3 hour upper body workout
7. Place into a large baking pan of your choice, let cool
8. Wait 20 minutes, cut into squares, serve, enjoy, die of happiness.

Happy Tuesday!

-axoxo,
A

Monday, June 4, 2012

11. Mission Mondays

As much as I loathe Mondays (cough:: notnowthattheBacheloretteison ::cough), I like that they are for restarting. Everything that happened over the last week suddenly doesn't matter as much and there's something calming in that fresh start. Because of this, Monday is a perfect day for a weekly mission.

MONDAY MISSION



Today I spent a lot of time planning the week ahead. It is going to be bus-y. Like, crazy busy. But in less than 4 weeks I need to be in a swimsuit, so I need to stop letting my busy days get in the way of my work out schedule. I have busy weeks a lot. I work a busy job and have lots of people that I don't see enough, but my health cannot keep taking the back seat. 

This week my Monday Mission is to plan better in order to get at least 4 workouts in before next Monday. I got my butt to the gym this morning and I'm planning on going again tomorrow - so that's two down, 2 to go! 

I'll report back next week about my progress and then have a new mission for next Monday ;-)

-axoxo,
A