Boggy Creek Farm

While you're sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for my next blog post (c'mon, I know you are!) take a gander on over to my Achieving Healthy Blog and see some fresh (no pun intended) new shots that the talented Angela Doran took of me my first few weeks in Austin as well as a roundup of my trip to a super sweet local farm, Boggy Creek!

The post can be seen HERE!

May Recap

Whooohooo! Probably my best month yet, in terms of actually doing what I mapped out for myself!   

• See how long I can make it without purchasing a loaf of bread/eating bread in general (hopefully the entire month!) – I still haven’t purchased a loaf of bread, but I did go to Subway, ate a bagel, pizza, etc. but I’m gonna keep going as long as I can without buying a loaf of bread!
• Continue to track my food on MyFitnessPal Monday through Friday – CHECK! I skipped a couple of week days when I was traveling, but I logged every day I was at work!
• Plan workouts for the coming week by Monday – I am so glad I started doing this. I’m the kind of person where once I've set a goal for myself, I have to do it or I’ll feel really guilty. Doing this was a great way to keep me accountable and I’ve already got the first 2 weeks of June planned out!
• Plan meals for the coming week by Monday – Woof. This probably the thing I failed at the most. With leaving town so much, it was hard to know how much groceries to keep in the house so I pretty much had to just make do with whatever I had. I think I still did a decent job of eating clean/healthy for the most part though, so that’s what’s important.
• Run at least 1-2 times per week – I definitely accomplished at least 2 runs/week, sometimes 3! Feels good to be running so much, but I’m not looking forward to it warming up :/ Thank goodness I run at 5am most days! 
   I had a bit of a high school reunion when I was in San Francisco when I can the Bay to Breakers with my friend Megan!
   The race finished on the Pacific Ocean.... such a gorgeous view! 
• Lift weights at least twice per week – This may have been closer to once/week, but definitely twice/week sometimes. And I was doing Insanity a couple of times per week, so I feel like that counts.
• Daily doubles at least twice per week – Especially towards the end of the month, this one gets a CHECK! I’m a homebody and hate going out, and I love working out, so this was not near as difficult as I thought it might be, even in the slightest.
• Eat out in NYC no more than once – What’s weird is that as stated above, I’m a homebody and hate going out. I didn't think this one would be hard to check off at all, but I ended up eating out like 4 times! Very unlike me. I have to remind myself though sometimes that spending quality time with friends is more important than saving a few dollars. Besides- I was well taken care of when I was in CA and Arizona, so I didn't end up over spending like I thought I might. 
   Cassie and I went to Blockheads to celebrate Cinco de Mayo!
   Tacolicious in San Francisco! 

Sorry I’m a little late! I’ll post goals for June some time later this week :D

My First Thanksgiving

This year was the first time I've ever cooked my own Thanksgiving!
Of course, after high school, there was a Thanksgiving or two that I didn't go home; but I would always just go over to someone else's house and eat all of their food... So this year was a pretty big deal for me.
Since all of my roommates and I are all from the west coast, it just made the most sense for us to all stay in Brooklyn for the holiday. As soon as we realized that we would all be home, we got to planning our menu:

• Turkey 
• stuffing
• mashed potatoes
• green bean casserole
• sweet potatoes
• sweet potato fries
• cranberry sauce
• gravy
• rolls
• pumpkin curry soup
• lemon meringue pie
• peanut butter chocolate pie
• yam pie
• And of course... beer, wine, mimosa's ;)

I have a long standing tradition in my family of always doing the mashed potatoes, so I was delighted when my roommates said they'd let me make them for us!

Every year, one of my favorite things to do is get up early, and watch the Macy's parade on TV. Now that I'm living here, I really wanted to take advantage of being able to finally going to watch the parade live in person. I had heard that the night before the parade, you can go walk the parade route and watch them blow up the balloons, so of course I immediately put that on my "must-do" list. 

As it has, many times in the past, NYC likes to put me in my place and laugh at me just a little bit...

I got off my subway stop around 7:15pm, it wasn't until almost 8pm that I finally made it out of the subway station, and onto the street. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought it would be fun to go check out the balloons.

Once I finally got out to the street, and just around the corner of the Museum of Natural History, I finally got my first glance of the balloons!

I finally made my way through the mass of people to 77th street and Central Park West to walk down the route to see the balloons up close and personal!

I started walking down Columbus towards 71st street but there were so many people, it literally took me 40 minutes to walk from 77th to 76th, and across Columbus, so I decided I had seen enough. It would probably be better if I just went home. I was originally planning on going back in the morning to catch the actual parade, but after that fiasco- I decided that maybe the parade was better left a TV tradition. 

As soon as I got home, I started making my pie, and rolls!

After cooking until 3am, it was time for bed. After all, we were planning on getting up at 7:30am to put the turkey in the oven! 

My roommates Lois, Alaina, and I all got up and got to cooking and last minute shopping right away!

Before we knew it, it was noon, and our house was filled with lovely people, and beautiful music!

I have the most talented friends and roommates!

Finally around 4pm we were finished cooking and got to eat our feast!

It was so fun collaborating with all of my roommates each cooking different dishes. 

Emily's pumpkin curry soup with roasted sunflower seeds:

 Allen's green bean casserole: 

We had a few minor setbacks including accidently turning off the oven at one point, burning the sweet potato fries, and blowing up a stick of butter in the microwave... oops. 

Our turkey was honestly one of the most delicious I've ever had- ever!

All in all, it was a really wonderful first Thanksgiving experience. I couldn't have asked for anything better. 

A huge thank you to all of my roommates, and Brian, Chris, Marcus, Cecil, and Cherie- without you guys, this day never would have been the same!