Lazy Day

Well, it was inevitable. Sometimes you just need a lazy day at home before charging full speed ahead for the remainder of the week, as I plan to do. I have lots of little things to get done before heading back to Austin for good. But amidst all these errands and such, I plan on spending some quality time with my family, and I got a good start on that goal today.

Banana, peanut butter, and cinnamon on raisin bread

After waking up around 8, scrounging for something to eat for breakfast, and finishing Misty May-Treanor's biography, my little brother and I headed up the street to enjoy a delicious lunch at a relatively new-to-Houston restaurant: Zoe's Kitchen. I actually first had Zoe's in Austin, after a long day of shopping with Sarah, and I loved it, bringing my mom back when she came up to Austin a few weeks later. Daniel texted me telling me he had tried it (and liked it!) while hanging with some of his friends, so we decided that we would go once I returned to Houston.

We're an attractive pair, huh?

It was hoppin' today around 12:45 when we went, and after much indecisiveness from the both of us, we both ended up going with the kabobs, salmon for me and steak for him. I had some of his steak kabob and I know what I am getting next time! The steak was grilled to perfection, and the roasted veggies added a nice touch; however, my salmon kabobs were nothing to frown about. They came with a side of hummus and pita bread, which are two of my favorite things, so I was a happy camper. I have a feeling I will be visiting Zoe's once or twice more before I head back to Austin. I know what you're thinking, I have one in Austin, so why not visit Houston-specific restaurants? The Zoe's in Austin is kind of far from the UT campus, so I only really go there if I am in the area, which really isn't often. I really should keep it in mind, though, because not only is it tasty, it's healthy to boot!

Salmon kebabs

Steak kebabs

After returning home and doing a bit more lounging, I was once again hungry and after finding moldy strawberries and an empty container of cantaloupe, decided to pop a small bag of kettle corn, which I ate with a handful of oven roasted almonds.

I finally decided to be somewhat productive so I made a grocery list, mostly full of ingredients needed to create new recipes, and moseyed on up to the grocery store. I was unsuccessful in finding all of the ingredients I needed, but I did have what I needed to make two-ingredient cookies with some added mix-ins. These are super easy to make, so I feel as though they will be making quite a few appearances on the blog this next year. I mixed together one cup of oats, two mashed bananas, and added in some raisins, walnuts, and a little bit of cinnamon. I put the concoction in a glass pan and slid it into the stove, preheated to 350 degrees, for about 14 minutes. They smelled heavenly, and I will be having one (or two or three) with breakfast tomorrow morning.

Not the most beautiful recipe I've ever tried! 

After declaring today a rest day, as I was still pretty sore and just genuinely tired from all the back and forth I have been doing lately, I decided it was the perfect night for an evening walk around my neighborhood. I grabbed my headphones, and power walked my way through the streets of my 'hood. I was also greeted with this unbelievable sight, reminding me just how big my God is. 

He makes beautiful things

My hour-long walk was absolutely perfect, and now I am ready to hit the ground running tomorrow morning. Lots to do and not a lot of time to do it!

Tall Socks

Happy Sunday morning! It's overcast here in Austin, which makes for a nice last shift at my beloved SRD. I really can't believe that this is my final farewell to a place that has treated me so well for the past two years. I am so excited for the new RA's who are currently going through training - they will be wonderful - but that truly means we are SRD alumni, and I will certainly miss having all of my friends under one roof.

Can't believe this was a year ago - so much love for these girls!

Yep.

Before I arrived at the desk this morning, I hit the gym for an easy workout - again because I knew I would be sitting for a while today, so I would want to get my blood flowing. I am pretty sore from yesterday's workout, so some light cardio while reading Misty May-Treanor's book was perfect. I started off with 20 minutes on the stair master and finished it up with 30 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill and a few good stretches to ease some of the soreness.

I was getting my workout gear together last night as I packed up my bags so I would be ready to drive back to Houston after work, and I didn't feel like digging through my duffel bag to find regular socks, so I pulled out the first pair of socks I could find: mid-calf socks from my volleyball days. They are meant to be worn under ankle braces, and I am not quite sure why they were even in my duffel bag in the first place, but I proudly sported them at the gym this morning. I must say, I was lookin' good.

Now it's time for my new Sunday tradition:

1. What did you eat for breakfast?

I know I said last Sunday that it was my last SRD yogurt, but today was for real my last SRD yogurt. I wasn't sure if meals would be available this week since it's the awkward break between summer school and fall semester move-in, but they were! So I savored my final SRD yogurt this morning, and it was delicious!

2. How much water do you drink a day?

Well, ever since the start of Tina's Best Body Bootcamp, I have set a goal of drinking at least 64 oz of water a day, and for the most part, I have achieved and/or surpassed that. Surprisingly, I have found that it is much easier to accomplish this goal when I am in Austin rather than in Houston, but since water is pretty much the only thing I drink, I have to stay hydrated!

This $.89 water bottle from Whole Foods makes drinking a lot of water easy!

3. What is your current  favorite workout?

I am loving swimming (must be the summer weather), but I also love treadmill interval workouts as well.

4. How many calories do you eat a day?

I honestly have NO idea. I have never been a calorie-counter at all, but I would assume I eat a relatively healthy amount. I don't think I always follow serving sizes very well (can anyone stop at one serving of nuts?), but if I just stop when I'm full, I am good to go!

5. What are your favorite healthy snacks?

Apples or bananas with peanut butter, fruit salad, eggs, yogurt, homemade protein squares, Triscuits, nuts - I'll pretty much eat anything and everything that sounds appealing to me for a snack! I am a pro snacker!

Can't go wrong with this combination

One of my recent addictions

6. What do you usually eat for lunch?

It depends - I used to just have whatever SRD had on the menu, but this year I will be responsible for my own meals - eek! I am a huge sandwich fan - quick, easy, and delicious - but I usually have some sort of meat with fruits or vegetables on the side. I am trying to get better about eating more salads, though!

7. What is your favorite body part to strength train?

Legs. I have always had pretty strong legs, so squats and lunges don't phase me! :)

8. What is your least favorite body part to strength train?

Arms, for sure. My legs definitely have most of the strength, and working my arms wears me out much quicker than working out my legs.

9. What are your “bad” food cravings?

I don't really consider anything to be too "bad," but I can snack on popcorn or Triscuits like they are going out of style. Truly, I could probably finish off an entire bag / box in one sitting.

10. Do you take vitamins or supplements?

I take Gummy Omega-3 supplements - hey, don't laugh - at least I recently upgraded from the kids version to the adult version. My doctor tells me pretty much every year that I need to take calcium supplements since I don't drink much milk, but I haven't really gone through with that quite yet!

11. How often do you eat out?

I eat out more often when I am home in Houston, just because there are so many of my favorite restaurants to go to and so little time to do it! But I try to go out to dinner with friends at least once a week here in Austin.

Dinner with some friends on our last night in Austin

12. Do you eat fast food?

Nope, well, except for Chick-Fil-A every once in a while! They do have the best chicken around town. And okay, McDonald's has some darn good breakfast food!

13. Who is your biggest supporter?

My family, for sure!

14. Do you have a gym membership?

Of course! I am a total gym rat - and I think one of the only strikes against Austin is that it doesn't have a gym quite as homey-feeling as my gym in Houston. Or maybe it does and I just haven't found it yet!

My friends call this my second home

15. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

I usually get between seven and eight. I love sleep, and my friends often make fun of me for how early I go to bed - I'm the grandma of the group! - but I am definitely more of a morning person than a night owl.

16. Do you have a “cheat” day?

No. I don't restrict my food, so if I want something, I eat it, even if it's not necessarily the healthiest choice. Obviously I can't eat sweets at every meal, but I generally let myself eat what my body craves.

I won't ever deny myself frozen yogurt!

17. Do you drink alcohol?

Nope!

18. Do you have a workout buddy?

No. I usually prefer to workout alone so I can get into the zone, get in a great workout, and get out of there. I do like going to the gym with people, but since everyone has different exercise needs, rarely will I do the same workout as another person. Exercising is good "me time," and it allows me to think about things - as random as they may be sometimes!

19. What is the best thing that has changed about your life since committing to a Healthy Lifestyle?

I love the way a good workout can make me feel - I can be having a less-than-stellar day, and after a great workout, I feel as though I can conquer the world. I also love it when people tell me that I inspired them to start running or just working out in general. Elle Woods said it best when she said, "Exercise makes you happy!"

20. What was the last healthy thing you did?

I got in some steady recovery cardio this morning before work, and ate my delicious (last) yogurt breakfast.

See you guys from Houston!

Moving On and In

Sorry for my two-day absence! Just when I thought I was getting good about updating the blog every day. But, I do have a good excuse! These past few days have consisted of (finally) moving everything from SRD over to my new house. My mom came up to Austin yesterday to bring some other stuff from home and to help me unpack, set up, and organize it all. I'm thankful for the fact that we plan to have this house for two years so I won't have to go through this moving process again next year, but I will say that my mom and I had an absolute blast yesterday. We ran some errands, put together some furniture, washed some dishes and just had a great time making something that could be very stressful a lot of fun. I always love having family members in Austin - it's so much fun showing them around one of my favorite cities!

I put together my own chair - just call me Ms. Fix-It!

We took a break around 1:00 to get some lunch, and my mom wanted to go somewhere she had never been, so I took her right across the street to Food Heads, one of my favorite restaurants in Austin. Not only is the food good, but the atmosphere is just precious. It is a cozy little house-turned-restaurant with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating and tons of antique decorations. I took my dad here a few months back, and my mom was anxious to see if it lived up to the hype! I opted for the apple and pork tenderloin sandwich and I think it became my new favorite. It had the perfect amount of spicy to it without going overboard, and the bread was toasted to perfection. I foresee many trips here in the next year, seeing as it is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from my new house!

My mom left sometime in the late afternoon, so I biked on over to Gregory for a swim before deciding what to do about dinner. I decided on Central Market, and though it was about 100 degrees outside, the chili just looked so appetizing, so I filled up a bowl and grabbed a container of fresh berries to cool me down and headed to the outdoor patio to enjoy some live music while literally sweating as I ate my chili. After running a few errands, I headed back to my house (which I promise I will show you once it is all decorated - it is still in the "moving in" phase, but I am already loving it so much) to read and relax from a long day. Moving will take it out of you!

Vegeterian black bean chili 

This morning was an early one as I headed over to the gym to complete a circuit workout provided to me by the bootcamp program in which I am participating. It was tough and had me sweating like I haven't in a while. I'll highlight a few of my favorite moves for you:

Standing Leg Extension with Shoulder Press (Source) 

Squat with wood chop (Source)

I love moves that work my arms without my having to focus on working my arms - I feel the burn, but I don't get bored or feel total fatigue in my arms. These were winners!

Now I am working my penultimate desk shift. I can't believe my time at SRD is really and truly coming to an end. I have said it before and I will continue to say it, but I am so thankful for my time at SRD. I will also say that the minute I know I am having a daughter I will be sending in an application for her to live at SRD. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! 

Enjoy your Saturday!

P.S. I am trying to become more blog-savvy, so I created a Facebook page and Twitter account for the blog - I can't promise super frequent updates as I have my own Facebook and Twitter account to keep up with, but I will do my best! Check them out!

And I'm Back

.. in Austin for the next four days, finishing up work at SRD, and officially making the move into my new house. My seven other roommates have all moved in, though not all are currently living there, and I am the last one to make the move! I have transferred quite a bit of stuff from both SRD and my house in Houston to my new house, but it still doesn't quite feel like a home, at least to me, because my room currently has two beds and about 5983497 boxes scattered around the room. Our room will look precious once it is all done - I will feature a little room tour on the blog in a few weeks - but for now, it feels somewhat like a guest room. That will quickly change, as Sarah and I have some cute ideas up our sleeves!

Sarah's bed (left) and my bed (right)

I made myself get up this morning around 7:15am so that I could finish packing, load up my car, get in a quick workout, and head on down the road back to Austin. I went to bed last night with intentions of going to my favorite 9am spin class taught by Felipe. I get excited every time I am in town on a Wednesday morning because his spin class is by far the toughest exercise class I have ever taken, and though I silently curse Felipe during the class, I walk away (with much shakier legs) glad he caused me to push myself harder than I would have on my own. However, his class is always very crowded and you have to get there pretty early in order to get a spot in the class, and I just wasn't feeling it this morning. Though I am sure I would have been glad I went, I opted for a nice 40-minute swim instead. I hadn't been swimming since last Friday, so it felt great to get in a low-impact total-body workout.

I also put myself through a pretty intense cardio-session yesterday, so a grueling spin session was not really what I had in mind. I almost skipped my workout altogether, but since I am going to be sitting for almost 10 hours today, I knew I would have regretted it, so I dragged myself to the gym and ended up swimming for longer than I originally anticipated. It's true, you never regret a workout.

I took the idea from PBFingers, but added my own special flare!

After a pleasant drive to Austin, I stopped by SRD for a delicious shrimp and broccoli lunch before popping on over to my house (which is looking so cute, by the way) to drop some things off. I can't wait to be officially living there with all of my roomies, they are the best. Case in point: I walked into the study room and saw my desk already set up and ready to be used. I am so thankful for them!

I'm going to miss this!

Now I am holding down the SRD front office until 10pm before spending my first night in my new house! Can't wait!

Sweet Thing

One of my absolute favorite parts about being home is the fact that I have a kitchen in which to work. Granted, I have a kitchen in my house in Austin, but I haven't officially moved in yet, and for the past two school years, as well as these past three months, I have had zero access to a kitchen, which means zero baking. And baking is one of my favorite things to do. I have come to the conclusion that baking for other people is one of my special gifts. It brings me so much joy to make others smile with something as simple as a baked good! Since I am only home for two days, I haven't been able to take a whack at some of the more bizarre (yet still delicious-sounding) recipes, but I did manage to whip up a simple batch of made-from-scratch homemade chocolate chip cookies. I made four dozen of them yesterday and currently only seven cookies remain. I'll let you be the judge of that!

Anyway, between yesterday and today, and three separate grocery store runs, I came up with four different creations: peanut butter banana oatmeal squares, chocolate chip cookies, Dr. Pepper cupcakes, and cake batter cookies.

All of these recipes (minus the chocolate chip cookies) were found on Pinterest, duh, and another duh, didn't turn out quite like the picture. How do they make them look so pretty? Luckily, as long as they taste good, no one really cares what they look like!

The first recipe I tried was the peanut butter banana oatmeal squares recipe, and since I have made something very similar to these bars in the past, I was fairly certain they would turn out well. I needed something easy to get my baking mojo back. I really like them, and since I am not a huge fan of oatmeal, baked oatmeal bars are a way of tricking me into eating it. They are delicious, and go great with breakfast, or pre- or post-workout. I had two with my breakfast this morning and I am looking forward to making them next year in the house!

Looks appetizing, no?

Next up was about as simple as it gets. Chocolate chip cookies following the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. I was in Spain for my brother's birthday this year, so I owed him a baked good of his choice. Chocolate chip cookies hit the spot after his first day of two-a-days!

This morning I woke up and enjoyed a delicious waffle and peanut butter banana oatmeal squares breakfast with a little bit of reading before getting to work in the kitchen. 

Tomorrow is one of my friends birthdays, and since I am heading back to Austin to finish up a little bit of work at SRD, I decided to try a new recipe that includes one of her favorite things thrown in: Dr. Pepper. Sounds weird, right? Well, commenters claim the end result tastes amazing, so I decided to give it a try. The original recipe was actually for Dr. Pepper cookies, but the batter turned out more cake-like, so I took out my cupcake tins and set to work. It was very easy (if not a bit strange), and I even managed to make the glaze to go with them! I had to add a bit more Dr. Pepper than the recipe called for, but I don't think my friend will mind. I also hope she doesn't read this before she receives the cupcakes!

Last up was something I made mostly because I found a box of yellow cake mix stashed in the pantry. This recipe was super simple, and called for the cake mix, a few eggs, some vegetable oil, and of course, chocolate chips (or whatever add-in you desire). I know, using the cake mix is cheating, but quite frankly, I have never heard anyone turn down cake batter cookies.

I am heading back to Austin tomorrow, but I will be returning home on Sunday for about a week or so. I plan on testing more fun baking recipes, but more importantly, my dad is going to teach me how to cook some of my favorite things, so you can be ready for some actual food recipes appearing on the blog very soon.

I'm off to the gym for a good cardio-filled workout before trying to organize all of my belongings for yet another trip back to Austin. I feel as though my life lately has consisted of too much packing and unpacking, so settling into my new house in Austin will feel wonderful. Can't wait to fill you guys in on that! Enjoy the rest of your afternoon - and come on over if you want a few sweet treats!

Southpaw

I had mixed feelings upon waking up this morning - there is truly no greater feeling than waking up in your own home, but knowing that I couldn't turn on NBC and watch whatever Olympic sport happened to be on was a sad realization. I l-o-v-e the Olympics (as I am sure you all have gathered), and I am already looking forward to Rio. It makes me sad knowing that we saw the end of Michael Phelps and the May/Walsh duo. They have given us twelve years of incredible moments and they will forever hold a place in my Olympic-lovin' heart. 

(Source)

(Source)

I drove home from Austin last night, getting home around 6:45 due to quite a bit of traffic on I-10 - a fitting welcome back to Houston - stopping home to say hi to my family, and immediately heading out to meet a friend at, you guessed it, Berripop! We ended up staying there until closing time, just talking and catching up on our respective summers. Gotta love seeing those high-school friends!

A fitting welcome back to Houston

This morning was filled with my final essay, unloading my car, and of course, a trip to the gym. Today began Week 4 of Tina's Best Body Bootcamp, and it was very similar to last Monday's workout, the only change being that I held the actual moves for four seconds, which most definitely added to the fatigue. I have been slacking lately on doing the actual bootcamp workouts, so I am excited to get back in my groove. After a filling smoothie from Smoothie King, I headed home to shower, unpack from this summer session, and repack for the big move into my new house. Life of a college student - constantly moving! The amount of stuff I have just seems to keep growing.

Loving my Angel Food after a sweaty morning at the gym!

My packed car

Moving on, today is a very special day, as it is a day dedicated to celebrating lefties nationwide: National Left-handed Day. Being a lefty myself, I am a huge proponent of this day, because we lefties are a special breed. While I love being left-handed now, I used to hate it. I was always singled out at sports camps, and I was always told to "just do what I do backwards." Because that's easy to do. One time I got sassy and told them that if they want me to do what they do backwards, they need to provide me with a mirror. Yes, I actually said that. Oops! I eventually got over my aversion to being a lefty and grew to love it, throwing people off while playing various sports with a left-handed spin on things. Though I still struggle with smearing things every once in a while, and have a hard time finding left-handed scissors, I think being a lefty is the coolest, so happy lefties day to all my fellow southpaws out there!

I was once told that I had a "wicked left-handed serve" 

My friends found a lefties store in Spain!