Running + Chocolate = FUN

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This past Sunday, I participated in the Hot Chocolate 5K in Columbus, Ohio. Never heard of it? Check it out here. They combine the best of both world (Hannah Montana reference anyone?).

Chocolate

+

Running

If you were every considering running and wasn’t sure WHY or HOW you would do it I think this run could get you off your couch and into the streets for some fun. My running buddy Ashley told me about this run months ago and it was a no-brainer for me. I told more friends and we ended up with a group of 8 girls who were ready to run and eat chocolate.

Only 4 of us showed up.

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It was still awesome!

This is a “tree” of marshmallows. It may not make paper and may be a blown up thing but who cares… it’s awesome!

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Unfortunately, it wasn’t great timing for the chocolate part for me but the running part was a must. I have been SLACKING on my running since the Akron Halfathon (remember that’s a half marathon) so I was in desperate need of a good race to get my mojo going again. It did. No doubt about it I love the race. I don’t love it for the competition or the prizes (because to be frank I rarely win any of those) but I love it because it is just good old fashion fun with friends who like to enjoy some fitness and have fun along the way. So my halfathon partner Ann, her friend Kaitlyn, and my running buddy Robyn and I set off at 7:30am into the very brisk air on the streets of Columbus and completed 3.1 miles.

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Afterward we hit up the chocolate tent to get our fancy mugs and lots of tasty treats.

The Advocare challenge made it pretty difficult for me to enjoy but I don’t think Tim was disappointed about that.

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But at least he came to support in the cold!

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And I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I did eat my chocolate dipped marshmallow. I deserved a little cheat after a race right? If not, too bad. Too late. It was delicious. I’m not sorry. Yummy.

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In terms of my body and the run something pretty awesome happened. Since I hadn’t trained in what 2 months I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it comfortable as I was almost certain I would be able to at least finish. Turns out this “wannabe runner” may have actually accomplished some serious goals over the last almost 2 years because 3 miles was nothing. I mean sure I was tired… and that last hill was a real killer… but I felt great. I started with Ann- she and Kaitlynn stopped to hug some friends so I ran the other 1.5 miles with Robyn and we chatted and enjoyed ourselves. Ann and I even reflected back on how we couldn’t even run 1 mile 2 years ago and now we were just off to run 3 without a worry in the world.

Well I was a little worried. SHH don’t tell.

So I was pretty proud that I was able to just get up in the morning and run 3.1 miles. Maybe I am a runner after all?

I also realized how awesome running is because you meet new friends! I know both Ann and Robyn through mutual friends getting married but our friendship has just continued on after that. We have running in common and as it turns out we have similar personalities and just enjoy being around each other. Both these girls have gone from a mutual acquaintance to a true friend who I care about and look forward to being with. I don’t know what you think but I think that is pretty darn cool. You start out dancing at a wedding together, you end up having sleepovers for bachelorette parties, running halfathons, and eating chocolate together. Running has not only brought me confidence in myself but also friendship.

So what should you do today? Go for a run. Meet a new friend =) and well, eat some chocolate!!!

Lyrics to my soul and food in my belly

Or at least to my vocal cords.

I am a H.U.G.E. fan of singing in the car. I do it on the way to work, on the way home from work, on the way to the grocery store that is 2 minutes away. I am always a huge fan of eating something I just purchased on the car ride home from the grocery store (another one of Tim’s pet peeves- that’s two in a row). Usually it is something like a container of blueberries- sometimes those poor things never even make it into the house but other times I’ll get myself a treat like some animal cookies crackers. In any case I sing in the car. I eat too. The point here is that I sing.

Right now, I am OBSESSED with the song “What makes you beautiful” by One Direction. First off, there is a great message to the song that is really all about confidence but not being full of yourself and how sometimes the girl that doesn’t always try to stand out is the most beautiful one in the room. While I have come to love the lyrics it was really the sick beat that that made my feet wanna move that captured my love. Yep. I said “sick” beat and I’m not even ashamed.

I was a little ashamed when I played this song for my mom’s friend and client Kim who then told me it was her girl’s favorite song at that moment as well. They are significantly younger than I am- like elementary school and middle school but honestly I think it just goes to show how cool those kids are- not how weird I am.

So here is my current play-list to sing to in the car (not all work-out appropriate, most of the songs I mentioned last time we talked music still apply with some additions)

  1. What Makes you Beautiful- One Direction
  2. Drive By- Train
  3. TTYLXOX- Bella Thorn (yes from Disney channel- download it now you won’t be sorry)
  4. Words- Train
  5. Save Me, San Francisco- Train (so I have a new thing for Train I see)

And now I just realized for the first time that I sing 5 songs in the car on repeat for 30 minutes on my way to work. That’s only a few of them repeating – that’s not too bad right?

Well I may be a little pathetic but that is no reason to let you all down so I just found out that Fitness Magazine has a pretty extensive play list on their website with the 100 best workout songs. But then I read the reviews and well they sucked so it seemed like a waste of time to go through them all- feel free though haha! So I still go back to my running list quite frequently but my car list seems to vary. My car list has songs that have some potential of me sounding less like a dead bird and more like a beautiful hummingbird (or a MOCKINGJAY if you are a Hunger Games fan) while my running list doesn’t not ever need to be sung because I am usually far too out of breath to mumble anything.

As I mentioned a few post ago my food has been well less than impressive. To someone that loves sugar and doesn’t mind gaining an extra few pounds it has been fabulous. But for someone that is getting married in a little over 4 months, would like to lose a little bit, and start running more, well it was depressing. BUT I am getting back on track and trying to make some healthier but satisfying choices (which is so freaking hard sometimes)!

But my sister is great about finding recipes that are healthier versions of food you would love to eat and she passed along this recipe for a hamburger quesadilla similar to the one that Applebees serves. Well I couldn’t really make it to the recipe because apparently it is extremely difficult to find pico de gallo in anything that resembles a grocery store so I justh made up my own version.

Pretty simply. We grilled 2 fairly large burgers and while those were cookies we put one large tortillas in a pan with oil to warm it up. Then I put the cheese, onions, and peppers on the tortilla (just half of it) and melted it all together. I slapped the burgers on top the cheesy goodness and folded the tortilla over. Cooked it on each side for a few minutes and VOILA. Delicious. Served with corn and rice on the side.

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What I was most surprised by was how well this heated up for lunch the next day! The tortilla wasn’t crunchy but it was really tasty still!

My breakfast I have been either drinking a smoothie with strawberries, almond coconut milk, bananas, and fat free yogurt or just throwing a bunch of berries in a to-go container and eating it when I get to the office! I may very well get all of my fruit servings in one sitting. A spoonful of natural peanut butter makes the medicine go down (you heard that here first so if it becomes famous- I’ll find you)

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I also made artichokes for the first time! Maybe I should embarrassed to say this but I had to call my sister to find out how the heck to cook these things! Turns out that she is an artichoke genius AND that they are easy if you have a steamer! I chopped off the nasty part of the and and put them in the steamer for about 20 minutes since they were baby ones. After I got them cooked I wondered how to eat them but I remembered seeing my sister eat them once and she just pretty much took all the tastyness off the leaf with her teeth and swallowed. So I followed that method and I REALLY enjoyed them! I’ll be making them again soon (because I enjoy them and because I have more in the fridge). I served them with some carrot, rice, and peas steam bag and some tilapia!

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We also made one killer breakfast this weekend since Rose was there visiting! Usually we end up having cinnamon rolls but since I knew our dear friends would be getting in late and chances weren’t great we would have had too much um milk to drink and be feeling sick the next morning we went for the ultimate breakfast! French toast topped with berries and whipped cream. Oh and an egg on the side for added protein. Oh and the bacon. Yea we had bacon too. Waffle House and Ihop don’t even compare to the Laney/Stiller household breakfast!

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But no food post would be complete without some mention of SUSHI! My favorite food of course! So last week I took a quick trip to Cincinatti with 2 co-workers and when we got in we just wanted to find a casual but delicious Sushi place and Ross (who loves Sushi like I do) had done his HW and had the name of a place not too far from our hotel. It was called Budina Pan Asian. It was more like a Panera where you order your food at the counter and then go take your seat. It looked a little sketchy not gonna lie but I’ll tell you what… hands down (and Allison agreed) the best Won Ton Soup I have never had! And I eat sushi a lot which means I eat that soup a lot. It was just normal soup but the flavor in that little cup was really impressive. I actually wish I would have had more!

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We certainly didn’t hesitate to order a variety of items! The rolls ranged from the normal Rainbow roll to the spicy rolls to some we had never heard of but sounded delicious! And since we all agreed that the best part of PF Changs is the lettuce wraps we decided to try an order of those too!

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The wraps were pretty much no where near comparison to PF Changs but it is hard to replicate pure perfection. It was really good though- no complaints from me!

I need a recipe for lettuce wraps.. ANYONE?!

Then after Sushi (my favorite food) we drove 10 minutes to find my favorite dessert… ladies and gentleman that’s right.. FRO-YO!

As I’m sure I have mentioned before I typically feel like I am cheating on Menchies when I hit up a few Fro-Yo place but there was no Menchies in site so we tried Orange Leaf and well I loved it!

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First off, their décor was really cute! They had these orange swivel chairs that you could tell the kids loved. They had a bunch of flavors and toppings and had a squeeze bottle of marshmallow topping which I happily used. Honestly, I wish I could even remember what I got right now haha. I believe it was peanut butter, cookies and cream, and twist. With ; my usual candy toppings!

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I was in L.O.V.E.

Additionally, sometimes I like to take advantage of the fact that I write a blog and even though I don’t have thousands of followers it makes me feel better to announce fun and happy news that happens to my friends. So special shout out to Erin and Mike who recently got engaged! This is now the second set of amazing friends that got engaged- special congrats to Jency and Mike (not the same Mike in case you were wondering) and we just couldn’t be happier for our friends! They are all seriously amazing people who I am so grateful for! They deserve the best and they all deserve each other because well… they are the best! So to my newly engaged friends… CONGRATULATIONS on the internet. I think it’s a big deal!

;

What foods are you obsessed with?

What is your favorite flavor of Fro-Yo… I promise to try it!

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A true Christmas miracle

As Tim and I ran some errands the other day I came up with the bright idea that I needed new shoes. We were heading to a wedding that evening and I had purchased a new blue dress that would not have been complete without a stellar pair of pumps. I had red pumps in mind but was willing to be flexible if the right opportunity presented itself. Tim agreed- miracle #1.

Before starting our shoe shopping journey we stopped in on Katie and the twins to get our baby fix in for the day. Katie is so great about us letting cuddle and hug those babies up and I really appreciate that! (We are even babysitting in a few days which will be fun!) So I mentioned to Katie and Karla (who was there visiting as well) that we were headed to DSW and TADA, Karla whipped out a $20 off coupon and handed it to me. Expiration date- THAT DAY so it just HAD to be spent! Miracle #2.

So Tim dropped me at DSW and headed over to TJ Maxx (to return some pants I had picked out for him.. didn’t realize I picked out skinny pants for men and well needless to say while you all would have loved that photo Tim, he was not into me snapping a picture of that). As I walked into the store it wasn’t even 2 minutes later when I noticed a small brighter than the other light over in the right hand corner.

Now usually I don’t go toward the light but in this case something was drawing me in. I’m not sure if it was the light or the angels high pitch singing that it seemed only I could hear but I made my way over the most beautiful pair of red pumps. They smiled at me and practically asked me to slip them onto my cold and lonely feet. Being the truly good person I am I agreed to let them in and slipped them on to receive the most wonderful foot hug one could ever ask for. Wearing these red angels made me feel taller (no really they are huge heels), they made me smile brighter, and they someone made me feel like no matter what the world threw at me, I was going to be ok. I scooped them up, gave them a little squeeze, and politely offered them a few home.

Ok so all of that may have been a slight exaggeration of the entire red high heel experience. I may have already known exactly where the heel section is, there may not have been weird lighting or angels singing, but all that detail sure made you feel like I had an out of body experience with my new shoes right? Guess Shoes helped to create miracle #3 for the day.

I think going into DSW and not going to check out the clearance section should be illegal. One should literally get arrested for skipping such a wonderful aspect of a shoe store but who am I judge? I don’t want to be called stupid, so I am always certain to find my way to the clearance section of any store. There, I did some browsing. Telling myself that if the right pair jumped out at me I would consider buying my new red pumps a friend. Afterall, you don’t want your shoes to be lonely.

As I turned the corner something shiny was pointing right at me (and this time I mean it because they are shiny shoes) and I noticed they were the Nine West flats I have been drooling over for months. I remember the first time I saw these gold flats with a buckle on the top. $60 for a pair of flats… yea not in the wedding budget so I smiled politely at the shoes and moved on.

But NOT TODAY!

Today, I noticed that these beautiful shoes had a yellow sticker on them. Yellow, I thought to myself? The clearance section is made up of purple, blue, green, and red but not yellow. What could yellow me? Initial thought- what? 10% off you have got to be kidding, get back on the regular shelf you tease but after a closer look I saw the most beautiful writing in the world. 80% off was yellow! Yellow- you were never my favorite color but you have certainly moved up in the rankings.

I slipped the shoes on my feet and instantly felt like it was going to be a great day. Now my red shoes didn’t have to be scared of going into my closet all alone and being the new kid on the black. Now the red and gold shoes could be together, bond in the car ride home, and then meet all of their new friends as a team.

See, I’m a really good person. 

The gold shoes have since then made their way to Miami, FL and back. The red pumps enjoyed a truly magical night alongside the new blue dress. We said congrats to Adie and Nic who just got married and enjoyed a night out with Robin and Gary. Gary loved my new red pumps and so did the man who was part of the valet service. I guess they do have a way of smiling at everyone they meet and not just me. Except this time they were smiling because they found a nice new home not because they were looking for someone to love them!

Below are a few highlights from the wedding we attended!

Congrats Adie!

Wedding Dress Shopping #2

So last Saturday I was determined to head out for wedding dress shopping adventure #2 but before I did I made certain to have a very tasty treat to keep myself going for the day!

Yummmy! A few egg whites mixed in with some egg beaters (gotta watch that Cholesterol you know) with 2 pieces of bacon on the side! Nothing like started your morning out right. I even splurged a little and add some cheese on those eggs… just a bit but it was just enough! I sort of L.O.V.E cheese but I know it puts weight on me pretty easily so I try to stay away!

When my mom got there to pick me up I was getting a cup of coffee and was ready to go!

Then we headed off to pick up Tim’s mom, Robin. The three of us headed off to this place called Images in North Royalton. The woman who owns the shop is ready to retire so they are going out of business and had beautiful dresses for even prettier prices! As always, I started off with an open mind and tried on quite a few. Robin and I spent some time looking around and talking about what I liked and didn’t like about the dresses.

I tried on a few styles I hadn’t tried on before but at the end of the day I still hadn’t found “the one”. I mean for those of you that have been married answer me the question below…

I just haven’t had that “OOOO” feeling yet. Like they do on say yes to the dress when they start crying uncontrollably? Yea, I haven’t done that yet but I know which one has been my favorite of all of the ones I have tried on. But after this trip I was still debating between the big ball gown look (which of course would mean I would sweat my butt off) and the more a-line/drop waist look.

So I came home and just showed Tim a few styles. Turns out he is not a fan, at all actually, of the ball gown look so at least that helped me narrow it down! I’ll be wearing the dress but the point is to make sure he likes looking at it right?

So sorry to report- I don’t have “the dress” yet. However I am getting closer I think and have sent a few more pictures over to my mom so we are going to have another date very soon! YAY!