Holiday Temptations

Unfortunately for me, baking is probably one of my favorite hobbies. I'm good at it, it relaxes me, and I like keeping my hands busy. The unfortunately part comes when I'm trying to lose weight during the holiday season. Right now I'm resisting, and have plans for it to all go to work with me on Monday, but we'll see if I can hold out.
I am however in the middle of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge though and am putting down my workouts for the week!

Saturday: 2 miles and then 15 minutes rowing machine (3)
Monday: At home leg weight workout. Lots of squats and leg lifts and some abs (1)
Wednesday: 1 hour of spinning during my lunch hour (6)
Thursday: 5 miles at the Drumstick Dash here in Indy with my mom (5)

I'd have liked to have more points this week, but my legs were hurting this week, so I took friday as a rest day. Today starts a new week though! Hoping to beat my points from last week though I've got a challenging week as I leave for St. Louis for a conference on Wednesday-Sunday. Favorite event of the year, but it is really early mornings and really late nights!

Links to what I baked yesterday...all of it delicious, please drool!
Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars (a family favorite!)
Cinnamon Bun Popcorn 
Peanut Butter Chocolate Bugles (amazing!! Wish I had thought of it first! Mom and just piped plain PB though, no extra sugar)
Salted Caramel Butter Bars 

All of it delicious. Trying to decide still what to make for a cookie exchange I have coming up. Not sure if any of these will make the cut!

Working on my Holiday Fitness!

I struggle with workout motivation like nobody's business. Every night I set the alarm. In the morning it goes off and I think to myself " oh no way, I can't do it" I then instead tell myself I'll workout after work. I spend all day planning this until it gets to be 5:30 and I want nothing more than my sweatpants and some OnDemand tv. Sound familiar?

I'm really at an unhappy place with my body lately and so started to the internet for some motivation and found two blogs I need to brag on.

1. So as I mentioned, getting my butt to the gym is an eternal issue for me. I feel good when I do it, but getting there is a challenge. Thanks to a twice a week spinning date with some ex-coworkers I've made some progress, but this blog has really helped. For some reason just reading her posts gets me motivated to get moving! I've also signed up for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge as a motivation keep my bootie going during the holidays. Running a 4.5 mile race on Thanksgiving with my mom with some motivation from HBBC! http://www.runtothefinish.com/

2. Just as I struggle with working out, I have the same nutritional issues. I ate whatever I wanted growing up thanks to years of dancing and have realized the health implications that it can cause. 100 Days of Real Food has really pushed me to rethink the way I eat in a no-nonsense way. I'm starting with small changes, and have gone from about 48 oz of diet soda a day to now only about 8 a day. My plan is to officially be weaned off next week! I've also started to revamp some of my recipes to include much less processed foods. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ 

I'm most definitely a work in progress, but stay tuned as I provide more updates for this side of my journey to 30 and journey to health!My first HBBC update will be posted on Friday!

Kentucky Beauty

So I was blessed to spend a long last weekend at the cutest little lake cottage in Taylorsville, KY. The manfriend and I discovered it on a Living Social deal while we were contemplating vacation and it was a perfect fit for what we were looking for. The scenery was perfect in late October and I got to spend a few days relaxing. Here is the top 5 best of the weekend!

5. I finally watched The Godfather. We had some rain on our trip so we watched it on his computer. Oddly enough I had a hard time watching the movie, the suspense was killing me, I just knew more people were going to keep dying. But glad I can say I've seen it.

4. Polishing off some good books. I read The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and finally finished Water for Elephants. I'm a reading machine and could have holed up all weekend with a book and a blankie that we like to call Big Red :)

3. We cooked some great meals together. I made us a homemade barbeque chicken pizza pictured below and we had some great pork loin and potatoes another night. So nice to have the time and energy to cook a delicious meal together.

2. The Makers Mark Tour! We took one of our days and ventured out and our first stop was Makers Mark. It helped that the day was gorgeous, but the grounds were beautiful, the tour informative, and we dipped our own bottles of bourbon. Just a great day spent with the one I love!

1. The view from our hot tub! We did spend a lot of time in this hot tub as it was perfect crisp and fall outside with a lovely view!

Manfriend was having some back issues or we would have done some hiking too. If anyone is looking for a super relaxing long weekend. I highly recommend Edgewater Resort !

My Current Obsession....Nail Polish!

So I've always been a fan of nail polish and thanks to my sisters ability to get OPI  nail polish at half off for about 5 years, I had amassed a collection of about 40 colors. Sadly after my discount ended, I have had a hard time spending that much and so replacing those that have dried out has gone slowly. Now I will admit, I still have a love for my OPI, but last week in a rut and wanting a new color I picked up a Sally Hansen one from the drugstore. I fell in love with it so much that I just went and bought my second color today. Enter a new nail polish obsession, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri .

The best thing about this polish, is the brush is a fat brush, making it much easier to apply an even coat. I'm not sure why everyone hasn't figured this out, but the brush alone is worth the purchase. Today's purchase was Slick Slate. I adore the color and its just as fashionable as the expensive brands. Can't wait to go buy a few more now :) I love finding a steal! (not sure why my fingers look like fat little stumps in this picture, but love this gray color!)

Easy Mini Frittata's

So in my attempt to reshape my life at age (almost) 30, weight and money are two big things I'm dealing with. Because I'd rather spend all my money on new clothing from the most recent JCrew catalog, I had to start taking control!

My biggest weakness is a fast food breakfast. And with fast food alley right in front of my office, it is a daily struggle. Because I'm starting on Dave Ramsey's cash envelope system for eating out, I thought breakfast was the first place to make some changes.

I took my mini frittata recipe from the blog below but tweaked a little bit for my taste and what I had on hand at home at the time. Here it is!

http://elizabethsedibleexperience.blogspot.com/2009/01/one-bite-wonders.html

My Version
3 large eggs
3 egg whites
2 slices ham
1/8 cup diced onion (I had some leftover from a soup, so this is a guess)
1/4 cup shredded colby jack cheese
a few shakes of pepper and salt


She used a mini muffin pan in her recipe, but I wanted to use a regular muffin pan so that I could throw 2-3 of these in a bag and eat with my banana at work. Preheat your oven to 350 and spray your muffin tin liberally with cooking spray (I had some sticking problems on some of them, so I'll probably use liners next time) In a skillet, cook up your onions and ham for a few minutes on medium heat. In a separate bowl scramble your eggs, cheese and seasonings and then add in your ham and onion mixture.

I managed to fill 11 of the cups with this mixture, but could've filled less and made them a little heartier.  Bake for 15 minutes or until set. Here are my little beauties below!

They turned out great! I brought 3 of them into the office with me for breakfast and don't feel like I missed my fast food breakfast sandwich. Next time I'll double the recipe and make more of them, or make them a little bigger, but for now here is your nutritional breakdown!

11 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		44.0
Total Fat		2.8 g
	Saturated Fat	1.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.4 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.0 g
Cholesterol		56.1 mg
Sodium		118.0 mg
Potassium		55.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		0.4 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.0 g
	Sugars	0.0 g
Protein		4.6 g

(calculated via Sparkpeople)

This week I want...

Project Runway Obsessed!

I've always loved Project Runway, but in Thursday night's episode there were two outfits I would steal immediately!

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway/season-9/rate-the-runway/episode-8#id=5

The first link is to Josh's LBD. I am on my third sorority preference party this week and wish more than anything I had that dress to take with me! I think the details are just amazing!

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway/season-9/rate-the-runway/episode-8#id=9

Victor's look is my other favorite. I will definitely say that while I would love to wear it, it is more daring color wise than I normally wear. Which is probably why I'm obsessing. She just looks so hip and cool!

Quick loves for the day, now off to see Lion King in 3D, because well even at 30 you have to indulge your childhood fantasies now and then :)

Some fall wish list items

Here are some of the items/things I'm coveting for Fall.
 1. This striped Ann Taylor silk tee
2. This jacket, but basically the entire J. Crew store!
3. Dresses that I can pair with tights all fall/winter
4. Leopard print, revas...leopard print reva's!