After looking through my vacation photos I decided to split them into 3 categories for this post. Kyle and I crammed a lot of good food, drinks, and sightseeing into our vacation but we were also able to relax and not rush through anything so it was a perfect combo of planned stuff and just going with the flow. Asheville was a neat town and pretty small. We were able to see most of the city in 2 days and then spent the rest of the time checking out the other sights outside of the downtown area. I doubt we'd vacation there again to see the city but I wouldn't mind stopping back to stay in a cabin in the mountains and grab a meal or two in town since the food was amazing. FOOD! DRINK! EXPLORATION! My favorite foods lately have been cheese and chocolate (well I always love chocolate) so Kyle and I decided to have a fun fondue night and celebrate a year of dating! We looked up lots of recipes and decided to do a cheese one with a beer base and then just find yummy cheese at a local shop based on suggestions. It turned out really yummy and we dipped some steak, tater tots, and veggies in it. Then we moved on to chocolate fondue next and kept with the alcohol theme mixing dark chocolate with cream and Kahlua. In this one we dipped strawberries, pineapples, and pound cake. We definitely fell into a food coma after all the food. We enjoyed all of it and now want to do more and experiment with different cheeses and chocolate! I found an ad in one of my fitness magazines for graze.com which is a subscription snack box with lots of different healthy snacks. I decided to give it a try and get one box to see what I thought and I have to say I was impressed. It's $6 a box (but I had a coupon for the first box free). There was no commitment but you can sign up for a box every 2 weeks or 4 weeks or cancel/start anytime. After you receive the box you can go online and rate the snacks so they know what to put in new boxes. So the more you rate and mark what you like and don't like the better chance you get ones you'll love! I actually loved everything I got in my first box and have already ate them all and can't wait for my next box! They also gave me a code to invite all my friends to try it out. So if anyone is interested here's the link graze box. You get the first and fifth box free! But if you don't like it you can always cancel after the first free one (but I'm guessing you'll get hooked, I already am). Below are the 4 snacks I had, all super yummy and besides the pistachios they were pretty unique and nothing I would've been able to put together myself. I had a super fun and full Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend in the middle of February. I roadtripped up to Pittsburgh to hang with Kyle on Friday the 14th and then we headed to Columbus for the rest of the weekend. We had tickets to the George Strait concert with my friends on Saturday and then spent part of Sunday meeting up with my family for food and then some exploring. It was such a fun weekend even with a few bumps (hotel room not ready) and it still being snowy and super cold. I could go on and on about the whole weekend but I think my photos will tell the story better! Phew I survived 21 days without sugar so now what?..... First off I really liked the 21dsd program and would reccomend it to anyone that wants a chanllenge and wants a break from sugar. Plus I will definitely be using the book for recipes from now on and I will probably buy the new cookbook that can accompany the challenge and has even more healthy sugar free recipes. I don't think it changed my body too much that I noticed, clothes definitely felt better from the holiday eating frenzy. I also had pretty good energy the whole time and no sugar crashes. I still had my daily caffeine so that always helped me start the day but usually one cup was good enough and then food fueled me well the rest of the day. Overall it was a good challenging program that made me feel good but not life changing or anything. Next I will defnitely be eating sugar again and not be sugar free forever (evident by a few splurges the first day off the challenge). I will try to eat sweets and treats in moderation though and not go back to "holiday" eating. As far as more carbs and stuff I feel like my body does better with them so I will add them back in and stick to healthy whole grains with a definite splurge here and there. On my first day off the challenge my splurges starting with a little dark chocolate which tasted sweet enough even being 85%. Then after a 75 minute 100 degree level 2 power yoga class I indulged at brunch. I had a bloody mary and the chicken and waffles. All of it was so worth it and sooooo good! Later that day I did my P90X3 warrior workout around 6 and I just felt like I had more energy and more umph during it and I have no other explanation except the food I ate fueled me better. So I definitely think having the carbs and protein and whatnot helped me out, so we'll see how my workouts feel the next few weeks when I add some foods I haven't been eating back in! So that wraps up my sugar challenge now I just have my P90X3 challenge going on which is good for me for now! Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was a fantastic year and I'm looking forward to this year even more. Here's a quick list of some of the fun things that happened this past year: * My 3rd nephew Henry was born January 31st and he is super cute and I love seeing our family grow! * Tried new things health wise by starting to run and ran my first races a 10k and 5k and hit goal times for both! * Met Kyle and had so many awesome adventures with him and lots more to look forward to! * Traveled to a couple new states/cities: New Jersey, Oregon, and Pittsburgh also traveled back to Delaware, Ocean City, MD, and of course Ohio for lots of family time and events. So those are the major points from last year and could go on and on on everything else but that would take forever, so probably easier just to look through old posts for more details if you want! I rang in the new year with Kyle and his friends in Pittsburgh. They had never been there before so we got to be "tourists" for a few days and do lots of exploring and trying fun new restaurants. Photos below! I can't believe the holidays have already come and gone! Wow time really does fly but I had lots of fun spending time with family and friends over the last month and a half. The holidays were a little different for me this year but still so good, I also overindulged A LOT but totally worth it! I'm getting back to the health kick now but more on that later... This year (well last year now since I'm a little late on this post) I spent Thanksgiving in Virginia since I had to work a little that week, but I did get to spend with Kyle's family and made my Grandma Metzger's famous noodles to make it feel more like home! It was really good and I had all the yummy foods that go along with that day, but the company was even better than the food, I am lucky that I was able to have someone else's family here in VA to spend the holiday with! I was also able to do some baking with Kyle in preparation for Christmas. We made buckeyes, chocolate covered cherries, and gingerbread men, along with some eggnog cocktails! Sooooo good and was my first taste of eggnog and I have to say I'm hooked for sure. For Christmas I celebrated with Kyle the week before and then headed back to NR for the week of and spent a lot of time with the family and catching up with friends. It was so much fun watching the twins dig into presents this year, they loved opening gifts and helped out everyone, especially opening Eric's presents hehe! And I know Henry is not far behind, next year will be even more fun with all 3 of them older! I hope everyone else had an amazing holiday season and enjoy the photos! |
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