Versatile Blogger Award

a few days ago, Katie at Peace Love & Oats (pssst.. go check out her blog! she's awesome!) tagged me in the Versatile Blogger Award. I love these kind of things so of course I had to partake!

I'm supposed to give you guys seven random facts about myself, so here we go!

1. I am a really impulsive decision maker. I make big decisions in small periods of time, which is a good thing (most of the time) because then I don't agonize over it. Once I've made up my mind, there's no changing it!

Just an example.. yesterday afternoon I decided I wanted to get my hair cut. Today? 6 inches shorter!! I'm super happy with how it turned out - and it will be SO much easier to manage, not to mention in its natural state it will be nice and curly instead of the meh waves I had before because of all the weight of my hair.

2. I have an obsession with bags and purses. I cannot keep myself from buying them! These are just the few that I use regularly....

3. I also wear an insane amount of bracelets.. all the color makes me happy! (: 

4. Sometimes, I wish I could be a cat..

seriously, though. just eat, sleep, and get petted. what more could you want?

5. I think I'm more proud of my muscles than your average teenage guy. #noshame

6. I polish off at least a jar of nut butter all by myself each week. Yeah, you can bet there's never not going to be a jar in my dorm room next year!

(okay, you probably could have figured that one out judging by the crazy amount of nut butter you see in my posts..)

7. I can never wait to eat when I get home from the gym - I always make food before showering and sit there in my sweaty stinky clothes enjoying it. Good thing I usually eat breakfast alone..! ;)

[part of today's breakfast - 1 cup of greek yogurt with apple butter and fresh blueberries]

do you take a long time to make decisions or are you impulsive?

tell me a random fact about yourself!! 

a day in the summer life {half marathon training plan!}

so, I thought it would be fun to show you guys a day in the life now that I'm on summer vacation! that is, until I realized that I don't actually... do that much. hah. but I figured I'd show you guys what I've been up to anyway!

this morning I woke up early with a cramp in my neck and couldn't go back to sleep... so what's a girl to do? Starbucks, of course!

I also treated the lovelies working at Starbucks to some quality bedhead and sweatpant action before 7am. Sorry I'm not sorry..

had breakfast once I got home: vanilla Chobani with almond meal and some ever-present rainbow sprinkles, with a piece of toast and almond butter. This breakfast has been my favorite as of late!

I then proceeded to park my butt on the couch for a solid hour listening to country music, snuggling with my kitties, and dozing in and out of sleep. I got up a little while later and finally updated my about page and made a blog header that I finally think is going to stick around! The other one I made earlier was just a little too big with a little too much stuff going on, so I like this one much better.

And then I got to work making my half marathon training plan!! I went through the archives of some of my favorite blogs and looked at a couple of different plans before discovering the amazingness that is the Runner's World Smart Coach training plan creator! You get to customize it which definitely is what made me fall in love.

I knew that I wanted a couple of days a week to go to BodyPump and cross train, because my hips tend to start acting up when I run more than four days a week. I also knew that I didn't want too long of a plan overall, because I don't want to burn out. I also picked a day to run the half marathon (read this post to find out why I'm not running an actual race!), which happens to be the day before my family leaves for Maui! Perfect timing, no? :)

I also love that the plan automatically included specific tempo and speed work workouts because I am horrible at coming up with those! I know that I'm not going to be able to follow everything to a T (I'm going to be gone for a couple of days in the middle for UCLA orientation) but I'm going to do my best!

Here's the finalized plan!

{also, if you're wondering why I didn't do the scheduled 8-mile long run today, I ran 7.1 miles just the other day and decided that that was sufficient for my long run of the week - but other than that, I'm sticking with the plan!}

When I finished all that up I decided I should probably get my greasy bedhead in the shower! So I showered up and then headed out to meet a friend of mine for lunch at Panera.

I got the 1/2 Asian Sesame Salad and 1/2 Turkey Avocado BLT on sourdough.

The BLT was to DIE for and I definitely wish that I'd just gotten the full sandwich because the salad was just okay. Next time!

When I got home I got on the phone with a car insurance guy because someone rear ended me yesterday. Not fun! I got the crap scared out of me because the guy was going pretty fast when he hit me (I was stopped at a stoplight and he hit my car so hard it went a good couple feet forward to hit the person in front of me). Needless to say I was a panicky shaky mess for quite awhile! And both the front and back of my car are pretty banged up! :(

Aaaannd a full hour later I've only just gotten off the phone - going to take my car in to go get an estimate tomorrow.. Fingers crossed it gets fixed soon!

After all that I needed some happy thoughts - just looking at this little collage I made the other day makes me smile! "it's funny how it's the little things in life that mean the most" <-- anyone else love that song? it's my current favorite!! i <3 zac brown band!

I'm off to make a snack and then head to work!

happy {official} summer everyone!

have you ever been in a car accident?
favorite summer activity?

clean eating.

a lot of people have very different definitions of clean eating. but my definition is eating nutritious, healthy food the majority of the time - food that makes me feel good inside and out. 

to say the past few weeks have been filled with treats and sugar is quite the understatement! with graduation and all, it was expected. however, once i start eating lots of sugar - that's what i crave. frozen yogurt, cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, and the like have been every day occurrences around here. i'm not saying that it's not a good idea to have these every once in awhile, but every day is a bit excessive. 

 the past couple of days i've been really trying to focus on eating lots of nutrient-dense foods that are yummy and filling to kick these sugar cravings in the butt! (there was that froyo yesterday, but hey, we're still making progress!) i've also noticed that since i've been focusing on cutting out the crap food and eating {my definition of} clean, my workouts have been SO much better! higher quality fuel = higher quality workouts. 

some of the latest eats:

{salad with hummus, a dr praegers california burger, and an egg}

{whole wheat toast with crunchy almond butter}

{roasted cauliflower, zucchini, and mushrooms, topped with feta cheese and sesame ginger vinaigrette}

{fresh strawberries - so good right now!}

{wholewheat pasta with steamed spinach, TJ's steamed lentils, and goat cheese}

{carrots with white bean and basil hummus}

{more TJ's steamed lentils with goat cheese, roasted broccoli} 

{more toast with almond butter and apple butter, coffee with almond milk}

{a big green smoothie with a side of granola}

{protein pancakes: 2T oat bran, 2T protein powder, 2T kodiak cakes mix, 1/4 cup egg substitute. topped with almond butter and apple butter}

{kashi golean original and golean cinnamon crisp with strawberries and blueberries}

{romaine, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, deli turkey, slivered almonds, and sesame ginger dressing}

i'd say that the eating clean (or at least my definition of it) has been going quite well!! :) 

what's your definition of clean eating? 

best {healthy} meal you've had recently?

I'm Going to Run a Half Marathon!

one of the things on my summer bucket list: run a half marathon.

now, i've been looking for half marathons that are fairly close to where i live for months now (it's always been a goal of mine to do one before i leave for college) but i haven't found any that fit what i want. i don't want to have to travel far, i want it to be a fairly large race that's gotten good reviews in the past, and it has to fit into my schedule. i almost found one that fit exactly what i wanted (and went across the Golden Gate bridge - how sweet is that?!?) but then realized that it was on the day after my family leaves for vacation.

so, as of right now, i'm still not signed up for a race. but i woke up this morning and decided that even if i'm not going to be able to run in a legitimate race, that doesn't mean that i can't run a half marathon this summer. heck, i could do a marathon if i really wanted to!

with that thought in mind, i decided to go for a long run this morning! ever since track ended the longest run i've done has been four miles - i definitely burned myself out running every single day and lately the shorter distances have been really appealing to me.

but, i want to get my stamina back up and start training for this half marathon! i decided that anything above 5 miles i'd be happy with, but in the back of my mind i really wanted to hit seven.

so i fueled up with two pieces of toast with almond butter (one smooth, one crunchy), a cup of water, a mug of hazelnut coffee, and sat making a playlist while i let it digest.

i knew that i was definitely going to be struggling at the end of my run so i bought a few new songs to add to give me a little burst of energy. here's the playlist i came up with!

{click HERE to pin it!}

i also brought some sport beans with me - i know that i don't really need them when i'm only running 7 miles, but i also knew that i haven't run this far in a LONG time and was going to need a little extra energy!

i filled up my water bottle, laced up my shoes, and headed out the door!

in the beginning, i had to consciously tell myself to slow down and hold back, because i knew i was going to hate myself later if i went out too fast. i've been running 8-minute miles lately, but on 5ks and not much longer - so my goal for this run was to stay sub 10-minute miles.

when i hit mile 3, it started to get really hot, so i told myself once i got to mile 3.5 i could stop, take my shirt off, eat a few beans, and drink some of the water i brought (i can't actually drink while i'm running - just sip and spit it out). once i got there, i did just that! i wasn't sure how the sport beans were going to go down since i'm not used to fueling in the middle of the run, but these tasted SO good! i have no idea why since normally i'm not a huge candy person, but these definitely gave me that little bit of extra energy for the second half of my run.

i felt great from miles 4-6, and then my legs and my hip joints started to complain a little (i've had minimal problems with them, but every once in awhile the hip pain flares up, especially on longer runs). right then i really appreciated the playlist i took the time to make! i actually considered running 8 miles since i wanted to hear all the songs on it, but decided not to push it too far today.

 i finished 7.14 miles in 1:05:58 (average pace 9:14/mile!!) 

i'm going to work on creating an actual half marathon training plan this week so that i can set a date of when i'm actually going to run it - since chances are, i probably won't be able to find a race that works for me. i'm going to share my plan once i finish making it, so stay tuned!

have you ever run a half marathon before? any tips for someone who's never run one? 

favorite fuel for long runs?

summer lovin'

this post is really random.. you've been forewarned! ;) 

{current favorite breakfast: greek yogurt with cocoa powder, topped with love grown cocoa goodness and melty peanut butter}

{my new UCLA shirt my brother brought back for me!}

{multigrain bagel with walnut raisin cream cheese (LOVE!) and a vanilla coconut yogurt}

{finally got my bulletin boards updated with more recent pictures!}

{she is THE laziest cat ever. also, the cutest. ;)}

{spending lotsa time outside in the sun!}

{break from sleeping in the hammock: smoothie time! 1 cup frozen pineapple, 1/2 cup frozen berries, 1/2 cup frozen spinach, 1 container plain greek yogurt, almond milk}

{back outside!}

{dinner eaten outside- whole foods salad with mushrooms, cucumbers, carrots, red onion, chickpeas, and feta cheese, topped with some steak my dad barbecued, and a few alexia fries on the side!}

i've also had fun hanging out with my brother (who just came home a few days ago - we watched star trek this afternoon and it's so nice just having him around!!), shopping with my momma, going to a few friends'  graduation parties, and being a complete couch potato. seriously laziest girl ever over here! 

i also started writing out my summer bucket list! it's still growing but it makes me happy just looking at it and knowing that this summer's going to be amazing!

toldya it was a random post! ;)

what's on your summer bucket list? 

current favorite breakfast?