it’s time for an update!

it’s been quite a while hasn’t it?!

things got busy over here and quite frankly, i got lazy!

BUT, it’s time for an update since there have been many changes that have gone undocumented thus far.

1.  i completed a week of body for life. my thoughts after only one week: this whole planning out every meal and workout thing takes a lot of energy.  and like i said earlier, i’ve become lazy.  plus, the holidays suddenly showed up at my door along with all the delicious holiday food…. so (for now), i’ve put the BFL challenge on hold until the new year.

2.  i’m eating meat again. my stint with vegetarianism lasted for about a year, but sometimes a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.  i was hard core craving some chili a few weeks ago and lowandbehold, a friend was hosting a chili dinner party.  i ate the chili.  it was delicious.  and now many friends and family members have welcomed me back to the “dark side”.

3.  jeremy and i are getting married ya’ll

it’s been about a week since the proposal, which happened on 12/11/10!  i’d offer up more pictures, but most of them didn’t turn out, so here’s a quick rundown of last weekend:

the days leading up to last saturday were filled with lots of anticipation on my part.  jeremy had mentioned that he wanted to take me on a weekend getaway and since we had been looking at rings and had begun to plan a wedding (okay…i’ll admit i was the only one doing that!), i had a sneaking suspicion that something was going to go down this that weekend.  saturday finally rolled around and after sleeping in for a bit, i started to frantically try to pack cute clothes while jeremy wouldn’t tell me what we were doing (seriously, how’s a girl supposed to pack in that situation?!).

we hit the road around mid-day, but ended up stopping in a small town to get some gas. we continued on our way and checked into a historic hotel to rest for a bit since i’d been quite a bit under the weather.  we ended up walking around the downtown area a bit and got some food at a pizza shop before heading back to the hotel to change for our dinner plans.

after we got dressed up and looking cute, we headed out to dinner, which was eaten right before a bluegrass concert (called mountain heart..i think).  so we got seated for dinner at a table with 8 other people in the concert hall.  at one point, jeremy asked another couple who had been to see the band a few times if there was typically an intermission.  the couple answered yes, so at this point i’m thinking jeremy’s concoting some sort of plan to get me up on stage during intermission.

the intermission didn’t happen and after the concert, we headed back to the hotel and jeremy led the way to the fire where we sat and warmed up a bit.  after many sweet words and a few tears shed, jeremy slid out of his chair, down on to one knee, and asked me to marry him.  i think i remember nodding my head yes, but didn’t actually say anything at the time!  eventually i said yes and after that i think there were lots of hugs and lots of laughs.

jeremy and i would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s already offered us congrats and well wishes!  we truly appreciate all the love everyone has sent our way   i’m sure i’m forgetting something, but i plan to keep the blog updated as we plan the wedding

<3

aaaaaaaand, my free time has come to an end!

peace and love,

crystal

ooey, gooey, grilled cheese

since my last post was oh….about two weeks ago, let me update you in as few words as possible

worked late.

every day.

ate food.

no exercise.

slept a little.

one work event down.

one to go.

life back to normal.

yay!

♥

plus,  the rain’s finally gone away & the sun’s got me in a giddy mood!  it was a little warm & windy outside today and i just couldn’t resist eating lunch in the sun

i had leftover baked ziti that i made using danica‘s recipe.  i’m not going to post the recipe here, so go ahead and click on over to her site!  two things to note about this recipe:

1. holy cow! this recipe makes A LOT of ziti!  the 9″ X 13″ dish i put the ziti in was practically overflowing.  for my and jeremy’s appetites, i definitely need to cut this recipe in half next time.
2. i used fake meat (i think it was gimme lean-ground beef style) instead of turkey.  as i was putting the fake meat in the pan to “cook”, i realized i don’t actually like the flavor of this specific brand.  maybe next time i’ll take out the meat altogether or try using those meat crumble things, which jeremy said he likes better.

now i just need to figure out a way to freeze some of the ziti or else it’s gonna be ziti for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  any suggestions?

last weekend my grad school friend visited c-ville and we got to hang out a bit friday night!  we grabbed a late dinner at mono loco, where appartently their margaritas are legendary…..so i ordered one!  for $8, i got a decent margarita with a lot of punch but not a lot of flavor.   jeremy and i weren’t too hungry, so we split the enchilada with truffled mushrooms.  the dish ended up being huge (HUGE, i tell ya!). jeremy and i couldn’t even finish it!  but back to my grad school friend…here she is with her b/f duking it out at dinner.

looks like she got him good

J/K ya’ll.

anyways, i managed to sneak in a pic of jeremy and i, but we just ended up looking like fuzzy lobsters.

grrrr…my camera does not do well in the dark!

after that weekend, work got a little crazy and the days started to blur together (wake up, breakfast, work, lunch, work, go home, dinner, watch tv, go to bed).  luckily, i snapped out of my daze with a little help from jeremy and a killer grilled cheese sandwich.  since he was in charge of dinner the day before and the day of my work event, i requested grilled cheese and tomato soup one evening.   let’s just say he delivered….he delivered something REAL GOOD.

i’m about to reveal his secret to you (i don’ t think he’ll mind!) for a perfectly, ooey, gooey, cheesy grilled cheese.  are you seriously ready for this? lol

jeremy’s ooey, gooey grilled cheese:

• melt your butter in the skillet
• add in diced garlic (he probably used the stuff from the jar)
• throw in some basil (i’m pretty sure it was basil..)
• combine four different types of cheese on your sandwich.  he used provolone, edam, cheddar, and havarti i think.
• cook to crispy perfection.

OH.

MY.

GOODNESS!

oh, that freakin sandwich was so good…you don’t even know.

i even asked him to cook it again the next night, but we didn’t have any more tomato soup….and i think i heard the sound of an evil cackle from my closet  who knew i’d have to wear a specific pair of fitted (note: not elastic waist band) pants the next day.

whatever, i’m gonna ask him to make me another one sometime soon

moving on…..

so today i got an e-mail from one of my favorite online stores: ruche.

look, i’m just gonna apologize to your wallet now…..sorry, i’m not sorry.  i’m not gonna lie and say i love every item, but i do love a good 70% of their items.  but don’t take my word for it; click on over and see all the vintage modern stuff they have.   side note: if you’re gonna shop there, they run out of things quickly, but you can sign-up to get an e-mail notice when the item is back in stock!

now this may not be everyone’s style, but i’m drooling over this necklace.  i just LOVE elephants

i was kind of inspired and feeling creative this morning, so i put together an outfit solely from ruche.  i used polyvore to put everything together.

you can also click here to see the full ensemble and prices of items.  i created my polyvore profile today, so i’ll probably be posting more outfits in the future!

what do ya’ll think of the outfit?  i probably wouldn’t go out and buy each item individually, but if i saw the entire outfit, i might invest in a few items above

alright, i’ve gotta run (literally!)  i’m super excited to enjoy the sunshine and maybe run some laps around the track!

peace and love,

crystal

a concert & a mountain

alright kiddo’s. this is gonna be a rather quick post seeing as how i’m trying to hydrate with water today and thus getting up to use the restroom every hour….which takes about 2 minutes by itself.  not the restroom part, but the getting up off the couch part.  let me recap though so you don’t think i’m a complete weirdo for talking about my restroom habits within the first two sentences of this post.

the weekend began friday night with dinner at boylan heights, the gourmet burger bar in charlottesville.   here’s my friend doug and the b/f jeremy.

and here’s me and my cousin nicole.

please don’t hate on the unstyled hair and comfy t-shirt….after all, perfect ain’t pretty (check out my header above!).  i certainly wasn’t feeling perfect, but as usual, the veggie burger i ordered for dinner & the $2 pints were pretty much perfection!  there are mixed feelings out there about the veggie burger from boylan heights, but i am definitely a fan of it…..crispy, buttery bun and all!

after dinner, we headed to the sugarland concert.  i gave my cousin concert tickets for her b-day a few weeks ago so it was good to see her and my other friends that came along for the concert.

i LOVE sugarland  i think i’ve blared every one of their songs while driving down the country roads to my house.  the concert was great and i think even the non-country lovers enjoyed themselves!  and let me just say this: jennifer nettles is a POWERHOUSE!  that girl can SING

saturday morning rolled around waaaaay too early!  we packed up our bags and headed out to hike a mountain (Old Rag for you locals).  Old Rag is a popular spot and is known on a national level (i think) for it’s views.  i live less than an hour away, so it’s just crazy that i hadn’t been yet!

on the hike, there’s a one mile rock “scramble” that you have to go through before you can start the descent.  but to get to the top, you’ve gotta climb up the mountain for 3 straight miles.  did i mention that the total mileage for the hike is 8.8 miles? yea….about that….

so here are a few pictures for your enjoyment!

yep, that’s a snake…..that i almost tripped over!  might need to focus more next time around

hahaha…i am SO over the hike at this point!

this was the start of the rock scramble…..i’ll admit that i felt like spiderman while crawling and squeezing between all the rocks, but boy, was it tough!  talk about an upper body workout too!

and that was the last picture of the hike i managed to take.  my legs and butt were screaming at this point and i was just plain tired!  i would’ve thought that going down would be easier, but it definitely wasn’t….hiking up is easier than hiking down.  even though my bootay is all kinds of sore right now, i did not enjoy that 1.5 mile descent down jagged rocks.  the last 3 miles were spent speed walking on a gravel path and then another mile was walked down the road to get to the parking lot.  we couldn’t get there fast enough!

and that brings us to today, where i have been positioned on the couch since 10am, eating my way through the fridge!  hey, i burned roughly 2500 calories yesterday!  plus, i didn’t eat enough during the hike (i blame the heat & exhaustion), so i’ve gotta refuel today.  and if you think i’m joking, i’m literally hungry every two hours….and that never happens on a regular day.

my sanity might suffer from the laziness today, but at least i’ve got some good company in jinx (my other cat).

and my FAVORITE show on HGTV-income property

well, it’s time for my hourly restroom trip.  maybe i can make it up off the couch in only 1 minute this time around!

peace and love,

crystal

intense incline intervals

okay ya’ll.

i just got my butt kicked by an interval workout.  i’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but i feel AWESOME right now, so it was worth it…side stitch and all!

this particular workout is actually day 3 of the 30 day lose 8 pounds in the gym plan from self magazine.  head on over to my fitness page to get a run down of the workout!  basically, for the one minute running intervals, you start off at 6.5 mph at a 5% incline and work up to 4.5 mph at a 15% incline.  can i just say that i usually walk vigorously at 4.0 mph with a 15% incline, yet somehow i managed to run at 4.5 mph at the same incline.   it sounds easy, but don’t knock it til you try it!

honestly, that’s what i usually say about these workout plans.  it all looks easy, but then you actually go and do the darn thing, and it ends up being a killer workout! anyways, try it if you’d like, you won’t be disappointed!

now, let me make clear my intentions with this plan.  since i come from the belief that weight is just a number, i’m not looking to lose 8 pounds through this plan.  i’m sure that i will based off the intensity of the workouts and the meal suggestions (they have that too over at self.com!).  i’m doing this plan because it requires very little thought on my part.

of course i’m going to make sure i’m not overdoing it and am physically fit to do the workouts (yada yada yada), but the next 1.5 months are gonna be just a little bit crazy for me.  i don’t want or need to spend tons of energy planning challenging workouts and making sure i get to the gym, because let’s be honest, i tried this last go round when i got super busy at work….ie: i planned the workouts, but never went to the gym or stopped halfway through cause i was too tired (twss).

{{enter a quick break for some jersey shore….”smoosh time”????}}

just keepin it real.

so i’m not doing the plan for weight loss but for maintaining some endurance for the 5k at the end of october.

that actually gets me on a tangent…..i’ve been reading a few blogs of people who’ve been struggling/have struggled with eating disorders, and while i don’t have any knowledge of what that entails, i’m trying to be more aware of what i say and how it affects other people (in life in general). so, while the plan i’m following predicts me to lose 8 pounds, i’m not going to discuss what my weight currently is or if i lose any weight after 30 days.  it’s kind of ironic actually… i would have discussed my weight willingly just a few weeks ago!   regardless, i want my readers to use the workouts i post as motivation and inspiration for their own healthy habits, NOT as any sort of comparison.

heck, that’s the point of this whole blog!  i’m not perfect (nor do i claim to be) and i’m more than willing to point out my flaws and insecurities since i believe that’s what makes a person unique.  thus, even though i inevitably have “chipped nails” 1o minutes after a fresh coat of paint, that’s just one part of what makes me “me”.  sure, the chipped nails are what people might see when they look at me, but that’s not what defines me.  just like my weight doesn’t define me or my bmi number doesn’t prove how healthy i really am.

okay, now that i’ve got my “i am woman, hear me roar” rant off my chest, i want to remind you to go to self’s website and bookmark this interval workout.  seriously!  you’ll thank me later

what do you think about all the weight chatter around the blog world? if you have a blog (& even if you don’t!) do you feel any responsibility to discuss your weight in relation to your eating & exercising habits?

peace and love,

crystal (aka c-$, crys, c-money…spell it out yo!)

tooth pain woes

yesterday, i thought i’d be able to hit up the gym after my dental work was done…..how foolish of me!

how very, very foolish of me

instead of being all “woe is me” for missing the gym, i settled for simply updating my fitness page with my most recent “training” run!  it was done in conjunction with two sets of susan‘s weight routine, which i linked to on my fitness page.  hopefully, i’ll be getting another run/weights sesh in tonight!

lounging around and watching tv last night was actually a welcome distraction….work’s been a little busy lately!  plus, jeremy and i tuned in to watch two new (to us!) shows: wipeout & shaq vs. i have to say, i’m quite impressed with shaq-he’s a great competitor!

to console myself further, i took the luxury of enjoying some of my favorite things.

the super comfy VS pants…..which may or may not be a few seasons old

cuddle time with one of the fur baby’s.  she’s called “biggie” for a reason! 

and CHOCOLATE!!!!! yumm…muffins

call me cured after those indulgences!

and hallelujah for no more tooth (teeth?) pain!

happy hUMp day everyone

peace and love,

Crystal