11/19

Nothing like going to a concert to make you feel OLD

I love going out, but I have to be in the mood and just because I have plans, doesn’t mean I’m going to be in the mood.

We were kidless Saturday and as the day passed, I was excited to be getting dressed to go somewhere, but at the same time just wanted to curl up on the couch in my sweats and watch a movie with my hunny.

Nevertheless, we got dressed and headed to St. Augustine for the O.A.R + Cris Cab concert.  I didn’t get a photo of my outfit.  Why, I don’t know.  #fashionbloggerfail

This is what I wore though…

Going to a concert

It doesn’t look all that grand laid out like this, but just take my word for it, I looked cute.  😉

Once we got to the amphitheater, I was feeling the concert vibes and ready to have some fun.  We got there with 20 min to spare before the opening act took the stage.  It’s a small venue so getting to our seats didn’t take long.

We passed all kinds of people tailgating before the show and I thought it was odd.  I don’t go to a ton of concerts, but I didn’t remember tailgating to be commonplace.  Turns out, the tour is called the O.A.R. Tailgate Tour 2013.  Ha!  NOW it all makes sense.  lol.  And, although I think we were in the median age range of the concert goers, for the most part, it felt a little like we were at a frat party.

We usually like aisle seats (easy entry/exit), but it wasn’t necessarily the best choice for this concert.  Aren’t people supposed to just sit/stand and enjoy concerts?  Apparently you need to refill your beer every 5 min.  The aisle way was constantly full of people going up & down the stairs. Honestly, it was a little distracting and I took a mental note to NOT sit on the aisle next time.

Anywho, we were enjoying ourselves anyways.  Cris Cab was the opening act and he was awesome. He’s a young guy from Miami, FL and his music has a very chill, reggae, pop, hip-hop sound.

IMG_5806

Then it was time for O.A.R to come on stage.  The crowd was going nuts!  I knew a few of their songs, but my hubs was pretty well acquainted with their latest album.  They were super awesome live.  They interact with the crowd and have fun with their songs.

Awesome concert last night! #oartailgatetour #ofarevolution #staugustine

IMG_5808

Unfortunately the hubs had a massive headache so we dipped out early.  Which honestly, was okay by me.  I was definitely enjoying myself, but grabbing dinner and then going home, washing my face and crashing on the couch sounded just as good.

And that, my friends, is how you know you’re getting old. 😛

posted by Leave a Comment
Filed Under: #whatiwore, My life Tagged: , , , , , ,
11/18

Workouts at Home…GIT-R-DONE!

Let’s be honest.  I straight-up loathe home workouts.

It’s hard to get motivated to do a workout when I’m surrounded by things that seem more pressing…laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc

But, it takes a lot longer to go to the gym (factoring in drive time & workout). Especially when all I want (or have time for) is a quick 30 min.

So, while I’d rather sweat it out with weights in the gym, sometimes an at-home workout is all I can fit it.

tumblr_lnhagbBxIE1qiea48o1_500 2

Whether you have 5 min, 10 min or 20 min, these no-treadmill, mini workouts from Fitness Mag will suit your needs perfectly!

Yoga + Crossfit?  Sounds awesome!

Indoor Cardio Crusher – intervals

Full-Body Circuit workout from PopSugar

7 min HIIT – the link is for a pretty printable version, but this workout was originally posted by ACSM and there’s actually an iphone app for it!

Pressed for time?  This 4 min cardio workout will get your heart rate up quick.

These hotel workouts are kinda intense (I can tell b/c she’s in insane shape and she is huffing & puffing, which means I’d be practically dying), but it’s nice that they’re short.

posted by Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Monday Motivation Tagged: , , ,
11/15

Five on Friday

Feelin’ random today.

My sister told me a couple months ago about a blog she followed called, Not Your Average Mom.  It’s a lady with 7 kids (yep, SEVEN!) and she’s not your typical mom blogger.  She’s real, she’s funny and she’s got a mouth like a sailor (which I love her for).  Recently she’s been on a de-clutter/organizing mission throughout her house.  We always see perfectly decorated, organized, clean living spaces online and it’s refreshing to see that everyone doesn’t live in an immaculate house.  Even though she is straightening her messes now, it makes me feel a little bit better about my clutter piles that I need to do something about.  I have been admiring her photos all week and this morning, I was inspired to do a little de-cluttering myself!  I started with my desk and that’s as far as I got.  But something is better than nothing, right?!

desk_organized

Can you believe Thanksgiving is right around the corner?!  Cranberry sauce was never really on my radar until my daughter took a liking to it a few years ago. Since then, I’ve experimented with a few recipes here and there and they’ve all been delicious, but this past week, I ran across another cranberry sauce recipe that I really want to try.  I’m thinking of having a little pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner next week just so we can test it out!  Click here for the recipe.

apple-cranberry-sauce-recipe-from-sunny-vegan-and-mywestelm(pp_w699_h873)photo & recipe via Sunny Vegan

I mentioned on Monday that there was some tile demolition going on in the house.  It started with a teeny tiny crack in the fiberglass bottom of our master bath shower stall, which turned into ripping out the whole bottom part of the shower, which then turned into a shower remodel of sorts so that the repair doesn’t look like a hack job. Every day this week (except for today thank goodness!) we’ve had a worker in here doing something.  It’s seriously bringing me down and giving me anxiety. Things never go as planned, but I’m trying to hope for the best!

shower

Fashion trends come and go all the time.  Sometimes I love them right away, sometimes they have to grow on me before I fall madly in love with them and then there are the ones that I hope go away very, very soon.  This is one that falls in the latter category.  They say “never say never”, but I can 100% say that I will never fall prey to this trend!  Blech!

Whitney-Port-Socks-And-Heels-Trend-850x850 2(photo source) 

On the flip side, I am loving the blush pink trend!  Then, you go and put it with olive and black…winner, winner, chicken dinner!

For those of you keeping up with my 30 day challenge, you know that I’ve had a few hiccups.

I’m doing great with my water intake, exercising almost every day (missed 2 out of the last 18 days), but not doing so hot with my eating at home more and logging my food.  For one, I tend to get distracted with other more pressing issues than planning my meals, but for two, I learned that sometimes eating at home and logging your calories don’t necessarily play well together.  When I make something from scratch I have to enter ALL of the ingredients into a recipe calculator and then figure out how much I’m eating of it.  It’s a PITA!  My Fitness Pal is great, but sometimes it’s too specific. Sometimes I just want to say that I ate 1 bowl of chili for dinner, but not calculate the calories.  Sometimes I want to say that I ate 5 french fries.

SO…I’m feeling the need for simplicity.  I’m going back to the good old fashioned pencil & paper food diary.  While I will still likely be on & off of myfitnesspal, I will be mainly using this little gem to keep track of what I’m putting in my mouth.

IMG_5789

I used to have this super cool food/fitness log, but I’ve apparently misplaced it so the journal above will have to do for now.

Hubs & I are headed to an O.A.R concert on Saturday and I’m very much looking forward to a kid free night out.  Anyone else have plans this weekend?

posted by Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Five things Tagged: , , ,
11/11

Week 2, complete…sorta :: checking in

Soooo,

my week two wasn’t so awesome.

someecards.com - Giving up on your goal because of one setback is like slashing your other three tires because you got a flat

I didn’t give up on my goal, but I sure as heck slashed the other 3 tires this weekend.

Things were going pretty poorly throughout the week because I hadn’t planned my meals/workouts, but over the weekend, I really fell apart.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!  ~ Benjamin Franklin

The only thing I consistently did was to get my water in.  I drank at least 48oz of water a day.

I was following through on my exercise daily, but on Saturday I spent over half the day out of the house, the place was a mess, I ate horribly, we were all a tad on the cranky side and all I wanted to do was curl up in my sweats and be a couch potato for the rest of the night.  Sunday was better feeling wise, but we were again, out of the house for a better part of the day and I just didn’t have the energy to work out when we got back.  I should have done it earlier in the day, but I was in a groove of getting dishes & laundry done and I didn’t want to lose my momentum.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way.  I’m getting up and brushing myself off!  On to week 3!

I am not off to a good start…tile demolition this morning in the master bath, no water this morning due to the tile demo, hubby with a headache and kids home from school…but I’m determined to do better this week!  I’m going to get some kind of plan together tonight hopefully so that I’m not winging it every day.

My exercise totals for last week were 5 days, 226 min and 1514 calories burned.

IMG_5714

Upside, I burned 1500 calories…downside, I probably ate a surplus of 1500 calories!

*sigh* C’est la vie, I suppose.

*Cheers* to a better week!

posted by 3 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Monday Motivation Tagged: , ,
11/08

Gettin’ mah groove on

Happy Friday my party peoples!

I haven’t been doing so hot with my 30 day challenge this week (check in update on Monday) and after working out late in the day 2 days in a row, I decided I needed to get my workout in early today.

I was dreading it.  I’ve had a case of the “I don’t wanna’s” lately so today…

I should have run…

but treadmill dancing just sounded like so much more fun…

Treadmill dancing for my exercise today. Way more fun than running! ;)

posted by 1 Comment
Filed Under: Fitness, Inspiration, My life Tagged: , , , , ,
11/06

Pre-Opening at Nordstrom Rack!

1000365_3593131923328_1345872678_nphoto via Erin

Tomorrow, Jacksonville gets it’s first taste of Nordstrom via Nordstrom Rack.  The outlet version of the popular department store carries all the big name brands, but at a significant discount!  It’s a bargain shoppers dream!

Last night was the pre-opening party and while I didn’t get a direct invite, my awesome friend Erin invited me as her +1!  To say I was excited was an understatement!  I like to browse in person rather than buy online…try things on, move in them a bit, hem haw over them.  While I’ve had okay luck online shopping, shoes & jeans are two things that rarely work out, so I was uber pumped to be able to touch and feel and try on all the brands I have been drooling over online.

Kate Spade, Tory Burch, Paige Denim…just to name a few

I knew the pre-opening would be busy, but it was beyond crazy.  So busy in fact that it was hard for me to concentrate on what I wanted to look at! There were people everywhere, delicious snacks & drinks, a line 10+ people long waiting for the dressing rooms, several registers busy checking people out as well as employees walking around with handheld check out machines!

I did, however, manage to come away with a few purchases so apparently I wasn’t THAT distracted.  😉

nordstromracklootMy loot!  A plaid flannel shirt (super comfy with just the right amount of drape), a cute gold ring (only 8 bucks!) and the most epic purchase of the night…Tory Burch booties!

I know there is a ton more good stuff there that I missed so I can’t wait until it officially opens tomorrow!  There is going to be a big opening day party starting at 8am.  I want to go back, but I’m probably better off waiting a couple of weeks until the craziness dies down.

posted by 2 Comments
Filed Under: dressing room tales, Fashion, Personal Tagged: , , , ,
11/04

7 days and counting…

monday-lets-do-this

Woot!  We made it through week 1!

Giving myself a virtual pat on the back because I…

  • drank 48-72oz of pure water per day
  • kept track of what I was putting in my mouth with the exception of Sunday (my free day).  They weren’t always good choices and I had several days this week that made me want to throw healthy eating out the window, but I did practice a little self control
  • made 3 dinners at home, only had breakfast out once (Sunday) and ate lunch at home several days
  • did some form of exercise every.single.day giving me a weekly total of 309 min of physical activity and 2,067 calories burned

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar

Need to do better…

  • cleaning up my messes in the kitchen.  When it’s a mess already, it’s hard to get motivated to make it a bigger mess.
  • planning and sticking to it.  I plan out my days, but then I don’t follow the schedule and I end up cramming exercise in where I can and many daily chores fall through the cracks.

2013-11-04_0001homemade chicken salad with greek yogurt :: easy way to keep track of my water intake :: cauliflower pizza crust with a bottle of hard cider :: Polar Beat history log

A few observations from the week…

going from not enough water to a good amount, flushed mucho toxins out via my pores.  On day 3 I started breaking out like crazy on my face and considering I had eaten pretty well at that point I was sure that it was all the water I was drinking.  People online say they’ve had the same reaction.

cooking dinner (and breakfast/lunch) creates a huge mess that seems to be never ending.  As soon as I make a dent, I create more mess and my sink is even fuller than it was!

Not eating out or pre-packaged foods makes it hard to count calories.  I’m not too focused on a specific caloric goal per day, but I am trying to be more cognizant of what is going in my mouth and making your own meals from scratch makes it take even longer to input your calories.  Thankfully myfitnesspal has a nifty little recipe calculator that helps ease my pain slightly.

Remember in my first post about the challenge, I mentioned I was going to use the Lift app.  Well, not having used it before and only hearing about it from my hubby, I mistakenly thought it was just a workout app.  It’s actually an app to help you create good, healthy/productive habits, break unhealthy habits or just anything you want to remember to do on a daily basis.  There are a tone of different goals you can “check-in” with every day such as, taking a vitamin, brushing your teeth (not sure who needs an app to remember that one, but whatevs), getting up on time, inbox zero, spend time with my kids, etc.  Other people can “like” your check-in’s and the app will tell you how long of a streak you have going each day.  If checking in and getting “props” for your check-in’s isn’t enough motivation, you could even promise yourself a reward when you hit a 30 day streak or if it’s something really challenging, a 7 day streak.  My hubs is currently on his 89th day of exercising every day.  On day 100, he’s going to celebrate with a work friend by going out to lunch!  How fun is that?!

________________________________________

Your turn!  Feel free to check in with your weekly accomplishments and what (if anything) you’d like to improve on.  You can comment, message me or just make a note to yourself.

Don’t be too hard on yourself, but be real.  Give yourself props for doing the things you did well and acknowledge what you fell short on, but then brush yourself off and get ready for week 2!

posted by 1 Comment
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Inspiration, Monday Motivation, My life Tagged: , , ,
11/01

Friday Randoms

Woot!  So happy for the weekend to be here!  Last weekend was filled with birthday parties to attend, pumpkin patches to visit and pumpkins to carve.

This weekend however, is…completely, utterly, blissfully, FREE!

On to some randoms for your weekend enjoyment…

  • I just started using WEN shampoo and so far, I like it!  I was hesitant because my hair is fine & gets oily very easily, but it feels clean after I wash it, it’s not weighed down and it doesn’t get oilier any faster than before.  Seems like most of the reviews of people who don’t like it are because of price or they’re not using it correctly.  The more product you use, the better and you have to put some muscle into scrubbing your head.

s1501568-main-Lhero

  • We had these two recipes for dinner the other night and they were DELICIOUS!!  I hate trying new recipes because you never know when you are going to waste your time and effort to end up with a crappy end result, but luckily these two weren’t too much trouble and they were yummy.

2013-11-01_0003*photos via their original recipe source below*
Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken (left)
Quinoa Fried Rice (right)

  • Remember when I went and got my little eye exam and was told I have a slight astigmatism?  Well, I found this cool place, called Warby Parker and they have super affordable eyewear.  I decided to go ahead and buy a pair to see if they really helped at all with my vision.  I don’t feel like my vision is bad (obviously since I’m technically 20/20), but there are a few select instances where I feel like it could be better.  The verdict…my astigmatism is so slight that I couldn’t really tell a big difference and wearing them in normal situations gives me a bit of a headache.  I don’t regret my purchase though!  The shopping experience was super easy & smooth and when you buy a pair of glasses from Warby Parker, they send a pair to someone in need.  A win-win!  Plus, they’re pretty cute and I’ll have them if I need them.

IMG_5524

  • If you’re a perpetual procrastinator like me, you might want to check out this article.  Btw, I decided if I had a pet monkey that insisted on sticking around, he needed a name.  I call him George.
  • I hadn’t really noticed the duffel coat trend until I saw it on Capitol Hill Style and now I am in love with this type of coat!  Not that I need another coat.  Living in FL, my pea coat from 13 yrs ago still works just fine and I bought a longer coat early this year in preparation for my trip to France.  Even still though, a girl can dream, right?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbIsG4DCpt0&w=560&h=315]

 

Linking up with Style Elixir

posted by Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Randoms Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
10/31

Edgar Allan Poe, Link & a maggot…

Ah, the night kiddos look forward to all month!  Dressing up and getting loads of candy…what’s not to like?

I never carved pumpkins as a kid so when we had kids, I thought that was a good time to start.  I was all about creating traditions that my kids could look back on.  We carved our first pumpkins in 2000 and we’ve done it every year since.  It’s evolved slightly and some years we’re not that in to it, but we’ve done it without fail for the last 13 yrs.  As well as trekking to the pumpkin patch and taking photos.  It’s a little harder as the kids have gotten older, but we manage to get ‘er done.  It’s so cool to think about how the kids have grown and gotten better at carving.  In the beginning they would just help clean out the guts, then they would do a few easy pokes, then they got their own pumpkin to clean, poke & cut (even though mommy & daddy ended up doing most of the work), and each year they would do more and more on their own.  This year we only helped scrape the pumpkins slightly to thin the wall out, but other than that, they both did 99% of the cleaning out and all of the poking and cutting!  They both went online to pick out their design and printed it out too!  So in the end, I helped tape it on and thin the wall a little, but other than that, I could focus on my own carving.  My girl chose Edgar Allan Poe and seriously nailed it!  I gotta step it up next year.  😉

2013-10-31_0002 2013-10-31_0001 2013-10-31_0003

Oh yeah, and remember the zombie flashmob I was doing a couple of weeks ago?  I did end up getting my contacts in time and even though they were a pain in the butt to wear (slightly agitating if you aren’t used to contacts), they were SOOOO worth it!  They totally completed the look.

DSC_9707-Edit

posted by Leave a Comment
Filed Under: My life Tagged: , , , , , , ,
10/30

Day 3 of 30 :: Checking in

Not gonna lie.  It’s day 3 and I already wanna tell this 30 day challenge to SUCK IT!

I’m tired of thinking about my calories/what’s going in my mouth…I just want an unsweet tea (I remedied this one, but I’ll get to that later)…I don’t want to exercise…I don’t want to care about what’s for dinner and make sure it’s healthy/calorie countable…

I have other crap to do!

I’m a horrible multi-tasker apparently.  When I’m thinking about family dinners and exercising, everything else goes to the crapper.  My laundry is taking over and I don’t want to think about how I’m going to sweat today.

Wah..wah…wah!

IMG_5534

I wrote out 5 days of workouts & meals (one off day b/c of Halloween), but I’ve already skipped a dinner and while I’ve been active for at least 30 min for the past two days, it wasn’t what I planned on doing.

Blaaahhhhhhh!

Okay, I’m done whining for now…I think.  Sometimes you just gotta vent (or how my husband lovingly refers to it..whine ;)).  Regardless of my less than stellar execution so far, I’ve stuck to the guidelines I set for myself.

More water…check!
72 oz Monday & Tuesday

2013-10-30_0001

At least 30 min of exercise…check!
Walking on Monday, C25K training & a 7-min workout on Tuesday

2013-10-30_0002

Tracking food intake…check!
you can see my log on myfitnesspal.com (username: katiehigg)

2013-10-30_0003(clockwise) water, almond dream yogurt, smoothie, spaghetti squash alfredo

Remember in the beginning I told you I remedied my unsweet tea problem?  Well, see, there’s a school of thought that says if it’s unsweet, it counts towards your fluid intake for the day and you just need to be concerned with how much caffeine you’re taking in.  And while all of my water logged has been straight water, yesterday I decided I needed an amendment to my rules pertaining unsweet tea.

Amendment: As long as 48oz of pure water is drank per day, I’m allowed unsweet tea.  Preferably decaf, but not a must.

What I wanted to accomplish in these 30 days was to drink more water and less caffeine.  I had gotten into a habit of nursing a large unsweet tea in the morning with breakfast and then not drinking anything else until dinnertime.  Hence probably only getting in about 24oz of un-caffeinated beverage a day.  With my new amendment, I will have to drink 48oz before rewarding myself with some tea.  😉

Moving forward I need to…

plan my day better
plan breakfast better
get at least one load of laundry done per day
not be so hard on myself

How about you?  How’s your 30 days going so far?

posted by 2 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Inspiration Tagged: , , , , ,