Meet Me in St. Louis

Chicago will always be my favorite city but over the years St. Louis has come a close second. Minus the fact that St. Louis is home to the Cards it's a pretty cool town ;) For Kris' birthday we spent some time in St. Louis and visited some of our favorite places and one place that was new to us called Pi...

1. Forest Park: Home to the The Muny (which I still haven't experienced yet but it's on the list), the zoo, the boat house where you can eat or paddle boat, art museum, botanical gardens, and my favorite The Jewel Box, to name a few.  I really wanted to have our reception there but unfortunately it wasn't big enough. With so much to see biking or a run through the park is a great way to enjoy a Saturday morning. On our way out we stopped by The Jewel Box so I could take some photos. 

2. Soulard Farmer's Market: Great place to get some spinach basil homemade pasta, buffalo meat or of course produce. 

My first visit to the market as a kid was of course a sweet treat..

3. The Loop: Home to Blueberry Hill (Chuck Berry's restaurant), Vintage Vinyl, The Pageant, Tivoli Theatre and my new favorite pizza place, Pi. They serve delicious specialty and deep dish pizzas as well as some tasty sangria! 

4. Last stop was to watch fireworks on the river. We done this several times before in a few different spots. My favorite was watching them from the Arch. 

Change your thoughts, change your life

I've always been a huge believer in the power of positive thought and what it can do and what you are trying to accomplish in your life. Although it seems recently that I've somehow managed to forget that.

Without going into too many details, certain aspects of my life have recently become stressful. I've always felt like I'm a relatively positive person, and I feel like I've gone to the "dark side" as some might call it. Today was my hitting "rock bottom" of sorts or maybe it wasn't actually today but it felt like it. In any case, I'm determined to try and turn this situation around. It has always frustrated me to hear the same people complain day in and day out about this and that, and whine about things that they don't care to do anything about. I don't consider myself to be one of these people. If I have a problem I try if figure out a way to resolve it or if something is out of my control I have two options 1. find a way to deal with the status quo or 2. change the status quo. For instance, if your boss is a jerk (which is not my situation at all this is just an example) you can either learn how to deal with him or her or quit.

Back to the whole point of this blog and that is - change your thoughts change your life! Easier said than done. It's always much easier to complain and become stressed out about things and why is that? Most of us have complete control over our feelings, thoughts, and how we choose to react to situations. Yet some of us deal with stress so much better than others. I could go off on a tangent about biology, conditioning, etc. but I won't. The point is that I believe that we can train ourselves to change our thoughts thereby changing our lives. I'm sure I'm not the first person who you've heard this from and there is tons of research, books, dvd's, etc on this topic which brings me to my motivation for writing this blog...TEDTalks. I LOVE TEDTALKS (TT)! I mean I've watched/listened to TT on and off over the years but since TT came to Netflix (which I discovered this past week) I've become a energized again...ok well maybe just today. This past weekend I started watching TEDTalks: Life Hack. A M A Z I N G. What's so amazing about TT is that they can fit so much valuable and inspiring information into less than 20 minutes.

Here is the deal, I decided this evening that I refuse to go down this slipper slope of negativity. I am trying out this experiment which was referred to in TEDTalks: Life Hack, Episode 3: The Happy Secret to Better Work. To give a quick synopsis of the episode...Shawn Achor discusses reversing the principle that "success will bring you happiness" to "happiness will bring you success."  You are actually much more productive and successful when you are happy, and by making small changes for a 2 minutes a  day for 21 days you can create lasting positive change.

What is the next step? Rewiring my brain in 21 days by doing the following each day:

• 3 Gratitudes - Write down 3 new things each day that you are grateful for. This rewires brain to start scanning the world for the positive first instead of the negative.
• Journaling - 1 positive experience over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it.
• Exercise - Teaches your brain that your behavior matters
• Meditation - Allows our brains to get over the cultural ADHD that we've create by multitasking
• Random Acts of Kindness - 1 positive email to someone in your social network

Hopefully I can report back some positive results. Don't be expecting any qualitative data in these results just my overall mental state!

Adventures with Alex

Alex has come to Columbia several times to visit us and when he does we always have a great time exploring. Here are some photos from one of his weekends here...

Devil's Icebox: This has become of our favorite places to go exercise, hike and spelunk.It's about 15 mins. from our place and almost every time Alex comes into town we visit. The last time we decided to go out and get some head lamps and flashlights so we could really explore the caves better.

After our day of hiking, spelunking and working off some calories we decided to make a post workout snack - homemade protein dots. We actually saw these at the gym cafe. Most of the ones I've seen in the local stores or the cafe have coconut on them which I'm not a big fan of so we made our own.

Chocolate PB Protein Dot Recipe

Ingredients:

• 5 servings (scoops) of whey chocolate protein powder
• 2.5 servings instant oats (1/2 cup per serving)
• 1 bottle of PB2 - which by the way I've recently become a huge fan of
• Few tbsp's of unsweetened vanilla almond milk 

We mixed all the ingredients together and then put them in the freezer for a few hours. This recipe makes 15 dots. If I was to make them again I would use a minimal amount of almond milk because the PB2 already makes it pretty moist. It was a bit messy trying to shape into the "dot" but we managed and had some fun in the process. The freezing helped to make them easier to handle when you want to eat them. I'd like to make them again and try experimenting with pumpkin and other ingredients. They were pretty tasty and a nice change from protein bars/shakes. Nutritional breakdown below.

Thanks Alex for an always active and health inspired weekend! xo

Saying goodbye to my twenties!

It's the Sunday before I turn 30 and I'm at the Naperville train station waiting for my train to take me back to Columbia - I came in for the weekend for my cousin's bridal shower. Nick and Kate dropped me off and wished me off with an early happy birthday. As we sat and talked about turning 30 it hit me that I'm not said about turning 30 but that it's a bittersweet milestone for me.

I think for most people your 20's is a time of  learning, finding yourself, and developing/cementing  lifelong friendships. For me it's about all these things as well. As I look back over my 20's, I am baffled by how much I have learned and experienced. During my time in my 20's I attended 3 colleges, graduated college with a degree in marketing, worked for 10 different employers, got a real estate license, managed a shoe store, managed approx 130,000 sq ft of commercial property, was laid off once, participated in 4 weddings, bought a car, invested in real estate, met the love of my life, got married, moved to schaumburg, moved to Missouri, traveled to at least nine places including 2 abroad, met countless people who have changed me,  gained weight, lost weight, learned a lot about food and exercise, developed an appreciation for wine, ran 7 races that I can think of, lost 2 grandparents, developed quite a shoe collection, developed an interest in DIYing and crafting, got to see the Bears go to a superbowl, watched the Cubbies beat the Cardinals on numerous occasions, Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, and started this blog...just to name a few.

I'm sure there are countless other memorable and significant events that happened that have changed me and molded me into the person I am today. My 20's will always be a time that I look back on and smile. I have been blessed with a loving and supportive husband, a truly caring and wonderful family, amazing friends and experiences that I will treasure forever.

Weeks like this remind me how blessed I truly am, and to live each day to the fullest. I am looking forward to the next 30 years!

for the love of the run

as many of you know running is one of my hobbies and favorite forms of exercise. my love of running began many years ago when i ran started running track in middle school where i ran the 800m and 1600m. after all these years, it's still a passion of mine.

i've never taken running all that seriously. by that i mean, completing a run with a set time in mind. while i do love surprising myself from time to time in being able to complete a run in less time than i anticipated, i mostly focus on distance and ability to complete that distance. within the last few years participating in races have become a fun and motivational tool for me. in my opinion, it is extremely exhilarating running amongst thousands of people with the same goal in mind.signing up for these races helps me to stay motivated and gives me something to works towards. i've contemplated running a half marathon but mentally and physically i'm not prepared for that quite yet but it's a definitely goal!

to date, the longest distance race i have run has been 5 miles which kris and i have done for the past 3 years - the st. patrick's day run in st. louis. this year we ran the race with good friends, steve and liz letsky! i have to admit i was bit nervous about running side by side with liz because i know she's much more of an avid runner than i am. in the end, she turned out to a be a great running partner! it's always nice to run with someone who you are able to keep pace with but who also challenges and motivates you. i think we were able to keep each other motivated during those times when each of us got those surges of energy. we finished in 49:30 min and i was really happy with this result. we had a great time celebrating st. pat's day with steve and liz and hope to do it again next year!

this past weekend. a group of friends particpated in the glow run - a 5k race at night through downtown columbia. it was a first for me, that is running a race a night. it's more of a fun run/walk (it's not timed) where you adorn yourself with a glow gear and run through a course that includes black lights and dj's along the way. all in all the race was fun and we had a good time hanging out with friends during and after!

Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose

No this is not an environmental blog, but I suppose it could be an indirect outcome of this repurposing project. This is a bit of a follow-up from my last post. If you read my last post you probably know that within the past year I discovered an interest in DIYing. My favorite DIY this past year was making this Christmas gift for my bestie Molly. We exchange Christmas presents every year and this past year I really wanted to make her a unique gift. After searching some of my favorite sites - Pinterest,  Etsy, and a few other random DIY blogs, I came across an antique printer's tray repurposed into a jewelry organizer...it was the perfect gift for Mols.

To do this project, you first need to find you a printer's tray. This may not be easy. Some great places to search for these are local antique stores, Craigslist, Etsy or Ebay.  I was luck enough to get one from my boss, and I also found one on Craigslist. Most of the one's I've seen range from $35 - $75 depending on the condition. After tracking down the tray, I got to work! This is the fun part but the most challenging - REPURPOSING your tray! I did get some help from my husband and father-in-law towards the end, and I'm so grateful for their help. In addition, to loving the color combo I used for this project, I also love using the crackle to get the antique look.

DIY Project 2: Christmas gift for Molly - Printer's tray repurposed into a jewelry organizer

Materials:

• Printer's Tray
• Ceramcoat All Purpose Sealer
• Two acrylic paint colors (your base coat and your top coat) - I used brown for my base coat and a turquoise shade for my top coat. The base coat is your color that will show through the crackle so it's best to use colors that contrast well together. Some other combinations I like are brown/pink, black/white and black/lime.
• Ceramcoat Crackle
• Ceramcoat Varnish
• Paint brushes
• Eye hooks 
• Cup hooks

Instructions:

• Seal the tray. Let dry.
• Apply base coat. Dry again. Apply more coats as needed to cover your piece. This is probably the most time consuming portion because you have to cover all the small boxes, nooks and crannies.
• Apply crackle. Don't let it completely dry. Dry till it's tacky. Then immediately apply top coat. Let dry completely. This is second most time consuming portion. I found it easiest to do this in sections because the crackle dries so quickly and it does take some time to apply it in all the boxes.
• Apply varnish. Let dry completely.
• Twist in the eye hooks and cup hooks into the boxes. These boxes will mainly be for your earrings and bracelets. I found it best to use eye hooks for the small boxes and cup hooks for the larger boxes. You might need some help with this step. I would advise using a pair of work gloves as twisting these does take some finesse. You might even want to try drilling out the holes first with a small drill bit to make that process a little easier.
• Twist in your cup hooks on the bottom of the frame for hanging your long necklaces. 

Finally, Molly sent me the final product with some jewelry on it. I'm such a fan of this organizer that I plan on making one for myself! Woot! I feel that I'll be more likely to wear my jewelry every day if I'm actually able to see it. Promise to post some more upclose photos of the one I make for myself. Happy DIYing!!!

Happy Holi-DIY!!

Yes, it's not the holidays anymore but this snow day reminds me of the holidays and all the DIYing I did. I discovered this past year that I really enjoy crafting, repurposing and DIYing. I'm really excited to share some of the presents that I made for close family and friends this holiday season!!! Luckily, I had the help of my husband and father-in-law because I got sick as I was finishing up my projects! Ahhh! Mental note to start early next year!

DIY 1
Christmas gift for Kate - Framed Jewelry Organizer

This was a fun gift to make! It was actually pretty easy to make assuming you have the right tools and the time! Please note that I don't claim to be a DIY expert but this is the process that worked for me!

Materials:

• Unfinished open back frame (purchased this one from Michael's)
• Ceramcoat All Purpose Sealer
• Two acrylic paint colors (your base coat and your top coat) - I used brown for my base coat and a turquoise shade for my top coat. The base coat is your color that will show through the crackle so it's best to use colors that contrast well together. Some other combinations I like are brown/pink, black/white and black/lime.
• Ceramcoat Crackle
• Ceramcoat Varnish
• Paint brushes
• Screen material
• Staples
• Cup hooks

 Instructions:

• Seal the frame. Let dry.
• Apply base coat. Dry again. Apply more coats as needed to cover your piece.
• Apply crackle. Don't let it completely dry. Dry till it's tacky. Then immediately apply top coat. Let dry completely.
• Apply varnish. Let dry completely.
• Cut your screen material to fit your frame. You can either tack it in or staple it in depending on how thick your frame is. 
• Twist in your cup hooks on the bottom of the frame

 

Thank you to Kate for the photos!!! Stay tuned for DIY 2...

Kris’ Wall of Fame

This Valentine’s Day was a little different than past years…Kris and I spent Valentine’s Day apart. Not by choice of course. As most of you know, Kris is in the DPT program at Mizzou and right now he is doing his second clinical in Lexington, MO. Lexington is about an hour and half from us. Luckily, he’s close enough where he can come home on the weekends but he’s gone pretty much the whole week. With that being said, we didn’t get to celebrate Valentine’s Day together. We did get to see each other the day before for a short bit and were still able to surprise each other this past Valentine’s week with some touching gestures.

 

Kris stayed up Wednesday evening after I went to bed and surprised me Thursday morning with a trip down memory lane. Even though Kris had already left for his clinical very early that morning, he still managed to make my v-day special. When I woke up, I was greeted by a few Post-its on the bedroom door guiding me to my next location. Each location was a photo displayed somewhere in our house and a Post-it on it with an explanation on why that photo was special or how he felt about me when that photo was taken. Here are just a few...

from the first photo of coutney and i...

 

to a photo of our first trip to gatlinburg...

 

 

to a photo of one of our engagement photos in Chicago…

to the last location where there was the final 3 Post-its on our bathroom mirror…

 

 

 

Kris had managed to take me on a journey of our relationship through our house. It was so sweet and I feel so fortunate that after almost 7 years of being together that we still put so much effort into our relationship.

 

Now onto my gift for Kris…it actually worked out well that Kris and I weren’t together on Valentine’s Day because it gave me the opportunity to execute my plan. My idea stemmed from that the thought that while Kris has quite a few friends that he loves and love him, he hasn’t had many opportunities over the years to get great photos with these people. Many of these special peeps live all over the country, and getting married allowed for the opportunity to get some pretty spectacular photos with them. Plus, we had an amazing photographer, Cassandra Eldridge, who made that happen! All that being said, my vision was to create a “Kris’ Wall of Fame” of sorts in his office where it would be a wall of all things that Kris loves – family, friends, St. Louis and of course me!! I decided to go with a black & white theme that included all black & white photos and black frames with white mats. I was also going to ask the very talented cartographer, Daniel Morey to create an STL map for Kris but didn’t have enough time to ask by the time I thought of the map idea. I ended up adding this sweet vintage, black & white STL map that I found compliments of recyclebyjmgdesign.blogspot.com. Lastly, I created a framed page that included a wedding photo surrounded by our wedding song lyrics. Amazed that I was able to track down a hammer and nails, I went to town. Here is the final product…

 

 

 

 

 

 

The unveiling was on Friday night when Kris got home and he loved it! He wasn’t even upset that I took down his Cardinal Pennants!!! However, I’m pretty certain that they will find a new home on one of his other walls.

 

Overall it was a really nice valentine’s day! I almost forgot to tell you about a very simple, not necessarily healthy, cookie recipe I tried out! They probably won’t break the bank if you have one or two. By my calculations each cookie was about 90 calories. I made these for Kris on Wednesday and then brought the rest to work. No leftovers which makes me happy. I don’t like having temptation around!

 

No Flour PB Cookies (Gluten Free)

 

Ingredients:  1 cup peanut butter (I used natural PB), 1 cup sugar, 1 egg

 

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the ingredients together and roll dough into one inch balls. Put a few inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 9 minutes. My recipe made about 28 cookies – this number will depend on how big you want your cookies to be. Happy eating!

 

 

This recipe can be found at recipes.sparkpeople.com.

The Evolution of Exercise

After another hiatus from blogging, I'm back!! 2012 was a whirlwind and I have so much to tell you about in the coming months. Now that I'm getting back into a normal routine in life that includes regular workouts, I've decided to write this blog to help me get back into my routine, but for others who have asked me for advice. 

 

There is so much out there regarding exercise - how to exercise, how much to exercise, cardio vs. strength training, muscle confusion, interval training, plyo, yoga, pilates, crossfit. Geez! How do you sort through it all! I'm no fitness expert or health professional but I have learned some things along the way (maybe I might take my own advice too). Here are some tips that I've gathered through my ups and downs with exercise and weight loss:

1. Change up your workouts aka muscle confusion - There is something to be said about muscle confusion.The point is to keep your muscle's guessing! When you do the same workout every day your body and muscles will adapt. Plus, I personally get bored!
2. Cardio vs. strength training - Yes, cardio typically burns more calories in say an hour than does weight lifting. However, when you weight lift you burn more calories for a longer period afterward than doing cardio. In addition, muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you're burning all day. So start lifting them weights!!! I should also note that I'm not saying don't do any cardio but you should be doing both!
3. Interval Training - Love it or hate?? Well start to love it! In short, interval training is periods of alternating high-intensity exercise with low-intensity recovery. There are quite a few benefits to interval training including increasing cardio endurance, burning more calories in a shorter time frame, increasing speed, and reaching new exercise levels. Are you trying to break a weight loss plateau? The answer is interval training. 
4. Try a new workout - I've recently come to enjoy Crossfit! It's crazy intense and kicks my ass but it's short, fun and great to through into the mix. 
   
5. Give yourself days off -  Your body needs time to rest and rebuild muscle. You also don't want to burn yourself out. If you must - do yoga, stretching or take a walk!
6. Prepare for your workout - If you are like me and workout after work because you can't seem to get up early enough to workout in the morning, then prepare! Bring your gym bag to work with you so you can go straight to the gym after work! After a long hard day at the office, going back home might end in a workout postponement. Don't take a chance and bring it with you!Or if you are traveling, find out if your hotel has a gym or print out an exercise routine that doesn't require equipment.
7. Excuses: Don't make them. Excuses are like...well you know the saying! Lame excuse #1: I don't have time - We both know that's a lie! Even if you only have 15 minutes you can get a quick workout in. A short workout is better than no workout. Lame excuse #2: I'm traveling - See #6 "Prepare for our workout." My husband and I travel quite often and even though I don't always follow my own advice sometimes I do. Luckily, when I visit my parents there is a gym in their basement thanks to my health nut younger brother, Alex! He's quite arguably the healthiest person I know. There is also an indoor track by their house that I frequent. If you don't have options available to you, print out a workout to bring with you. I've listed some suggestions towards the bottom of this blog.
8. Make your workout fun! I've found that the key to exercise is to try and incorporate types of exercise that are enjoyable to you. For me that includes running outside, hiking and exercise classes like kickboxing! If you enjoy doing it, then you are obviously more likely to do it again. I know some people that love playing Dance Central! Whatever it is that tickles your fancy - do it!

In summary, exercise and how to exercise all seems to be changing and evolving. As we try to improve our health and meet new goals the key is to have fun - join a workout group, find a workout buddy, run a race or make a game out of it. The one tip I try to remind myself when exercising is that it's not a competition with anyone, it's not about being the skinniest, it's about feeling energetic, healthy and being a better you.

Quick Workouts + Anywhere Workouts

~ If you're anything like me, some days you don't have much time for a workout or your traveling like my husband and I do quite a bit.  Don't have access to a gym or your normal workout equipment? No worries!! Here are some sites that are perfect for those times!

• http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/crossfit-workout
• http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/express/
• DVD: Jackie Warner - Personal Training With Jackie: 30 Day Fast Start 
• DVD: Jackie Warner - Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training