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:

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

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

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

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!)

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

a week or so ago, i took jeremy on a little date night. it’d been a while since we’d been on an “official” date…probably about a year! and  by official, i mean planned in advance instead of simply going out to dinner on a whim.  something about the anticipation leading up to the date makes it more enjoyable (TWSS)

we started off at a peach orchard-Chiles Peach Orchard to be exact!

we arrived soon after work was over and got to pickin some peaches.  they give you a plastic bag and set you free in the orchard to pick all the peaches your heart desires!

most of the trees were picked over and we had to reach realllllly high to get the best of what was left over!

unfortunately, a lot of people had been through the orchard already, so lots of rotten peaches on the ground = lots of bugs + squishyness under the feet!

i convinced jeremy to imitate some twilight TEAM EDWARD! lol

we ended up picking about 12-15 peaches…all for about $5.42.  talk about a deal  after tromping through the orchard in the heat for an hour, we went into the main store and ordered the best peach ice cream ever!  talk about good-it was happily enjoyed standing in front of the huge wind fan (seen below).

SO GOOD!

next on our date night itinerary was dinner!  a hop, a skip and a jump later we pulled in to Crozet Pizza.  let me put a disclaimer out there now-ever since i moved to charlottesville over two years ago, i’ve been hearing about the awesomeness that is Crozet Pizza.

the menu looked appetizing and we ended up splitting the vegetarian pizza with garlic.

since the pizza is baked from scratch, it took quite a bit of time between ordering our food to getting anything to eat.  not to worry though, we had plenty of business cards to admire.  everyone who’s visited puts up their business card-quite a sight to see!

in the end the pizza wasn’t that great-waaaaaaay too much garlic…..as in, i could smell the garlic as soon as it came out of the oven!  i love my garlic, but this was a bit too much….for a bit too much money.

by the time dinner was finished, it was getting pretty late and we’d been on a date for about two hours…..what? it was a school night!

we still made sure to enjoy the sunset on our way out to the third and final stop for the date.

we drove back to c-ville and set up shop with some drinks while waiting for the band to start at maya.  every thursday, maya has free salsa/latin music which equals awesome entertainment for date night!

unfortunately, we waited til about 9:45PM and when the band still hadn’t gotten set up for the 9PM show, we decided to call it quits.  we were able to catch the first song, but peaced out and gave our table to a couple who’d been waiting for a seat.

i wish we could have ended the night with some live music-there’s nothing i love more!- but we were tired and just wanted to head home to relax after “dating” for 4 hours.  thank goodness i’ve got jeremy cause i don’t think i’d have the energy to go on dates all the time….assuming i’d have dates that is lol!

alrighty, i’m off to get ready for bed (question: why does getting ready for bed take so long?? all i want to do is crawl under the warm covers, but i gotta spend 20 minutes taking off my face, brushing my teeth, etc.! sheesh!)

hopefully, i’ll be posting a new workout soon, but seeing as how my back spazzed out on saturday, i haven’t been able to do much lifting/moving with my left arm.  i’m hopeful though…..plus, i need some endorphins!!!

what are some date night ideas? we want to keep doing date nights, but we’re gonna have to get creative to keep the budget on lock.

peace and love-

crystal

just wanted to pop in real quick and give an update of the recent workouts!

lately, i’ve been inspired by these two little ladies-they’ve got some great workouts for lifting that i always turn to when i need to up the ante in the weights department.

here’s a quick recap (in reverse!):

tuesday, august 17th:

• run 1.75 miles (part of my 5k “training”…check it out here.)
• lower body weights

sunday, august 15th:

• run 1.25 miles
• upper body weights

aaaaand that’s it for this week folks!  i’m thinking i’ll take tonight off and then do some more running & cardio on thursday

ps: last week, jeremy and i went on our first “date night” in a long time  and it was quite the adventure-think peaches, pizza and latin music!  gotta run but be on the lookout for a recap soon!

i know it’s been a while since i posted, so what new workouts has everyone been up to???

peace and love,

crystal

just wanted to let my lovely readers know that i added a new page to the blog-it’s called fave things!

it’s basically a space for me to share the products i adore with my readers and highlight a few special things i’m currently in love with.  feel free to click on over and check it out!

i hope you enjoy this new feature and please know that i’m not trying to sell you anything   i really love the products i showcase and simply love to spread the word about products i believe in!

and just for good measure-here’s the little disclaimer i put at the bottom of the fave things page:

in no way, shape, or form have i been paid or am being paid to endorse on my blog the products mentioned above.  my thoughts and opinions are mine alone and do not represent the companies with which the product is produced.  the information i have provided above is not meant to sell you a certain product; it is meant to serve as a review of a product i happen to love and would gladly tell my friends about.  again, not being paid here folks, just spreading the word about some great products

ENJOY!

ps: i also added another page to the blog a few weeks ago-it’s called my fuel! feel free to check that out as well if you’d like

can i just say how awesome it is to start the workweek on a “technically” tuesday instead of monday?  (amy-i agree with you that tuesday’s are wretched, but for the month of june, they’re pretty fabulous in my book!)  let me explain-i’ve got friday’s off for the next 3 weeks (holler!!!!!), so every start of the workweek is pretty much like tuesday anyways.  you should try 4 day workweeks- they’re pretty awesome

so after my ditsy error in the last post of hitting publish 2 days late, i’m sad to inform you that i don’t have many pictures of the weekend.  it seems like a strange weekend looking back on things, but it wasn’t that different from any other weekend.

the cookout/b-day party we went to on friday was fun-glad to be making more friends in the area

saturday involved a waaaaay to early wake-up call to proctor a test along with the b/f.  there at 7am, out by noon.  afterward the tests (and 30 degrees hotter) the stars were aligned and we finally hit up the c-ville city market.  i must remark that i’ve been afraid to go to the market cause everyone who goes hypes it up.  i was worried i’d walk in & wouldn’t recognize any produce being offered, or that the goods would be ridiculously overpriced, or that it would just be too overwhelming and crowded to walk around and admire the produce before purchasing.

but I WAS WRONG!

i loved the whole experience   while i wish we had gotten there earlier (it was hott and i was in jeans!), i really enjoyed being able to easily walk up to each vendor, grab what i wanted, and pay for it.  note to self: bring cash-preferably in $1′s!

the main thing that was worrying me was that i wouldn’t be able to identify any of the produce since i knew it was going to look different than the store-bought produce.  i really don’t know what i was expecting, lol, cause let’s be honest-i’m pretty sure i know a little more about food than the average person.

and the makes me sound conceited…..which i’m not, so please don’t take it that way

anywho, the market was great and has only spurred my interest in checking out other local markets around the area – there’s one pretty much every night of the week here in c-ville!

back at home, a nap was in order due to the 6am wake-up call earlier that morning. napp-age, browse-age, and eat-age were concluded and then sunday rolled around.

plans to hit up some yoga on sunday were averted when i spent 5 hours cleaning (dusting, magic erasering, swiffering, laundering, and fooding all happened).  i like to clean…..but dang, 5 hours was just too much.

finally got out of the house for dinner w/ friends where i sent back my first dish ever-it was a house salad and had bacon on it.  i wasn’t going to send it back at first cause i thought i could pick the bacon off, but it was a lost cause.  so i sent it back (totally my fault-didn’t look at the menu close enough) and proceeded to get the stare of death from mr. “off-color remarks” waitor man.  whatevs. the veggie burger was good.

then my friends, it was time for TRUE BLOOD…… and some wine!

all i can say is, i’m so glad you’re back in my life true blood

and now it’s monday/tuesday for me.  i wanted to take some time to list a few areas i’d like to work on improving this week (hey, you’ve got to better yourself  before you can help better others!):

• eat breakfast at home, not a pb&j sandwich upon arriving at work
• put on makeup at home, not in the car (i know, i know! please don’t yell at me)
• amp up the workouts = more cardio, more strength training, more meditation
• drink more water, which can always use improving
• eat out once this week -already used that one up!
• get 8 hours of sleep/night – this would make me very, very happy!

do you set weekly goals?

right now i’m just trying to get back on track, so maybe next week i’ll pick something new to improve on.

peace and love,

Crys

i’m baaaaaaaaack!

i just couldn’t stay away for long

obviously i’ve been off the bloggy bandwagon for about a month now, and unfortunately i’ve also been off the exercise/healthy living bandwagon too.

maybe they go hand-in-hand, like two peas in a pod?

regardless, i’m back and ready to rumble.

let’s talk running.

i think we might be on the verge of a breakup, me and running. (i just typed rumming——-never fear, “rumming” and i will never breakup!)

i’m gonna be a little blunt here…..running sucks! it’s hard, painful, slow, torturous at times, and not instantly rewarding.

i mean, how many runs do i have to go on before i’m not sore the next day? and i’m not talking marathons here people, just a 2 miler here and there.

but you know what?

i secretly love running as well.

it’s the only activity that i feel like i can get a great workout with.  the kind of workout where you’re exhausted, delirious, sweaty and a complete hott mess ( i mean really, who looks good running?).

i crave running when i’m running (weird-i know).

i crave it when i’m sitting at my desk hour after hour and the sun is shining outside.

actually, maybe i just crave the outdoors.

sidenote: i went for a run once during my lunchbreak.  it was spring-ish weather, so more cold than warm.  obviously i got pretty sweaty, but being able to lace up my shoes and spend some quality time outside was well worth the raggedy ponytail the rest of the workday.

anyways, back to running.  it gives me a great workout that i can’t seem to find anywhere else.

spinning doesn’t really do it for me.   yes, i’m out of breath for most of the class, but my muscles never really get a workout (OR maybe i’m just weak).

kickboxing is great, but i need more plyometric moves, not just kicking….. and boxing.

i need to take a bootcamp or athletic conditioning class i guess.

i want my butt kicked! please don’t literally kick my butt…..that would hurt.

i was going to post a pic of a “butt kicking”, but they all looked inappropriate. go see for yourself.

so that’s on my to-do list next week: boot camp class

+ some meditation thrown in there

+ lots more yoga

+ even more home cooked meals (the pile of dishes from those home cooked meals is quite daunting tho….)

+ whatever else i can ramble about.

okay, i’m out like sauerkraut.  it’s lunchtime.  and i’ve been hungry for an hour already.

be back soon with more weekend adventures (cookout, kayaking, yoga)-you know, the usual.

peace and love,

Crys