Food Baby

You know those days when you eat like you just ran 10 miles but really you only ran two?  Usually they end something like this...

But in all honesty, I'd pay money to look like this pregnant

Turns out when I posted an ad for "Running Partner" I should have specified LONG DISTANCE running partner.  After driving 30 minutes I ran for less than 20 for 2 measly, slow miles. 

Boooo - if it had just been me I would have done 6 and wouldn't have even had any travelling time.  Back to the drawing board.  Now how to let this guy down easily... without saying "Uh, you suck at running so I want to run by myself."  Okay, I don't mean that.  You'd think when I mentioned in the ad that I'm running 1000 miles this year that people would get that I run a lot and far. 

Oh well.

I had a much better time later at the park with my good friend "C"... he really does know how to smile I promise.  That juice must have tasted delicious, I couldn't get him to take a break to give me a good smile.

And after stuffing myself silly all day I finally decided I needed to do some damage control.  Arms and shoulders?  Yes. 

Still feel like I'm carrying food baby though.  If only cutting salt out of my diet was easy but it is the hardest thing I have ever tried to do (IE: It's so hard that I'm not really even trying).  When I was younger Playdoh was on my food pyramid.  A little embarrassing to admit, yes, but it explains why I have a salt addiction.

I had a cup of regular coffee about an hour ago in hopes of getting super crazy tonight and going out way past my bedtime for a girls night with some good friends of mine.  Now it's storming like crazy and all I want to do is go to sleep. 

I wonder how much they'll care if I go in above outfit and don't fix my hair or makeup...

The Top

I used to complain all the time about how boring my town was and how there was nothing unique at all that I could show out-of-towners.  Well, apparently I'm dead wrong - at least when it comes to cool restaurants.  I thought chain restaurants were our only options but I've been finding out recently that there are really a lot of cool places to eat. 

This morning I went to church

For the first time in... well a really long time, I actually wore the first thing I put on.  Am I the only one who needs to try on like 5 outfits before deciding on one?

Believe it or not I DID actually just vacuum this carpet - obviously I should never make a career out of vacuuming

New funky tribal looking earrings.

Crazy eyebrows. 

After church I had lunch with my friends Kristen and Alexis and Kristen's best friend Amy

Kristen, me and Alexis (not from today)

We went to The Top - OH MY GOSH most amazing place EVER!!!!

To be honest, this review is based off of me rarely ever going to a place that caters to vegans/vegetarians.  Usually I have to get salad everywhere I go, it gets super boring.  I can usually only find one or two items that I can have.  It was so overwhelming to have a whole menu to choose from.  Now I know how normal people feel ;)

It pretty much encompasses everything I love

It has great atmosphere, is super kitchsy and mismatched in a non-tacky way

According to yelp.com The Top's ambiance is: Hipster, Romantic, Trendy, Touristy, Casual

And has some pretty unique wait staff - sadly they weren't wearing the beards today ;)

I had a hard time choosing what to get but ended up with a falafel burger, fresh fruit and sweet potato fries that I shared with the table.  Everything was DELICIOUS!  I am in love.

After today's adventure I'm really excited to go back but also to try out some other places around town. 

Currently I'm trying to resist the Sunday Afternoon Nap

Never ends well...

I'm always left feeling really groggy all day.  It's so hard though, I'm really draggy after babysitting until 12:30 last night. 

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Adventures in Tampa

I spent this past weekend in Tampa and I had an absolutely wonderful time

I decided kind of last minute on Wednesday that I wanted to go.  A really good friend of mine was going to be the speaker for my sorority's retreat and I thought I couldn't pass up this chance to hang out with her.

I'm so glad that I went.  Nothing quite compares to spending time with old friends who you don't get the chance to see very often.

This is me and my wonderful friend, Angel :)

On Friday we left Gainesville around 2:30 and arrived in Tampa approximately 2 hours later.  We checked into the hotel and the excitement started immediately.  As we were stepping onto the elevator to go upstairs to our room a familiar face stepped out of the elevator. 

I've never seen a celebrity before up close and personal and I was completely unprepared.  Angel is usually very talkative and not shy at all but she was totally unprepared as well.  We acted like total idiots.  First we looked at eachother and then we turned around and stared at him as he walked toward the coffee.  Then we both started giggling uncontrollably.  You would never know we're both graduated college 20 somethings with real jobs... well, Angel has a real job anyways.  She's a newspaper reporter and interviews people all the time - you'd think she would have been a little bit more "normal" ;).

Angel's sister Autumn saved the day for us.  Autumn is usually shy and quiet but she amazingly walked right up to him and asked him politely if he was an actor.  She then introduced herself to him and they talked for a few minutes.  Larry Miller was in Tampa for a few comedy shows.  He was very down to earth and even said hi to Angel and I who were still being super awkward.

We were staying in a fairly nice hotel but honestly I have no idea why Larry Miller was staying at a Best Western.  It was pretty cool that he was though.

After our awkward encounter I thought about what I might say to him if I happened to see him again.  I'm glad I spent some time figuring everything out because sure enough I saw him again by the coffee Saturday night.  I asked him how it had gone at the comedy club the previous night and he replied "They laughed in my face, can you believe it?" I said something along the lines of how horrible that was and then we discussed how long eachother were staying at the hotel and I wished him a nice stay.  Larry Miller and I are basically best friends now ;).

The second most amazing thing that happened while I was in Tampa:

WHOLE FOODS!!!!

I am a total nerd but here's the thing, Gainesville is lame and does not have a Whole Foods.  I spotted it from the highway on Friday night and decided that I would have to make a stop there at some point.

Angel, Autumn and I went to Whole Foods on Saturday and I was in heaven.  Oh my gosh, Gainesville, why do you suck? 

I spent way more than I'd like to admit.

The bathroom at whole foods: even their bathroom is super cool and trendy.  There wasn't really a sink, it was just a slab of rock that drained in the back. 

All of my purchases:  In my defense, I was trying to buy stuff that I could eat over the weekend since there weren't really any good food choices offered at the retreat.  Pizza?  Um, no thank you.

Starting in the top left to top right: Millet & yam...thing, quinoa cake, millet and flax crackers, maca powder, sweet cacao nibs, cacao powder

Bottom row, left to right: Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter, carob fudgy brownie, Justin's chocolate almond butter, sundried tomato flax seed crackers, cucumber and avocado multi-grain sushi roll and some organic pure maple syrup

Ingredients: Organic dates, organic almond butter, organic dried coconut, organic walnuts, organic almonds, organic raw carob powder, organic raisins

I also got this from the deli.  Everything was SOOO good.  On the top left is cabbage and silvered almonds.  I don't remember what all was in it other than that.  Flax seeds maybe?  I don't know, they were black looking but they don't look like chia seeds at all to me.  Then there was cranberry cous-cous - oh my gosh, soooooo good.  Beside the cous cous is lentil tabouli salad which was decent.  On the bottom is a big pile of hummus which was delicious.

Here is a shot of the quinoa, yam, millet ball... things.  I forget which is which and which has what in it but they were both so delicious.  I think I'm going to attempt to recreate something similar to them today for lunch.

We took our traditional photos on Saturday night out by the ocean.  It was so gorgeous this time of night

This is me and Rachel (my sister).

Angel, my good friend Kaitlin and me

All of my favorite people from Theta Alpha: Alicia, Angel, Kaitlin, me and my little, Kelly

I have a half spring break this week.  The dance studio is on spring break so no teaching for me.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing but productive week.  Sadly, it looks like it's going to be rainy almost all week.  I was hoping to get ahead on running.  I guess we'll see what happens and if I suck it up and run in the rain anyways or if I just end up being lazy all day. 

Did you do anything fun this weekend?  Have you ever been to Whole Foods?  If so, what's your favorite item to buy at Whole Foods?

Party Machine

If you read my blog at all you know that my life pretty much consists of a lot of babysitting, ballet teaching and fitness... and that's about it.  In essence, I really have no life.  I have a big sob story about how all of my friends graduated and moved but it really all boils down to the fact that I am not a go getter.  I am a homebody to the max and I really need friends who will call me and make me feel guilty for not spending time with them.  I guess that means I will eventually need a needy husband to force me to spend time with him. 

Once my friends convince me to leave the house I always have a great time but I never seem to remember this when it comes time to leave the house.  Re-writing goals for 2011 right now - BE MORE SOCIAL - I promise you will love it (speaking to myself)!

What is a little disappointing to me is that suddenly several social activities all pile up on one night or one weekend.  I'm not great with analogies but to me this feels sort of like I've just been given 5 cakes and instead of being able to eat them slowly over time I just have to smash them all in during one day. 

This past weekend I was given "5 cakes" or rather, several social activities.

On Friday I had not one but two parties to attend!  I know, it's unbelievable!

The first party was for Evie, the little girl that I used to babysit almost everyday a few months ago before they moved.

I love and miss this little girl more than words can express so I could not be happier when her mom told me they would be coming back for her 2 year birthday party.

I LOVED seeing her and her mom.  I had a great time playing with her and hugging her and talking to her.  I was a big crying mess when I had to say goodbye to her.

She got to sit in this huge princess chair and was so distracted by everything that was going on that I couldn't get her to look at me for more than a second at the time - hence the pictures that look like she could care less about me :)

After the party I stopped at the health food store and spent a fortune

I didn't eat anything at the party - oh wait, I did have a tiny bit of ice cream.  The foods offered were pizza, ice cream and birthday cake.  I'm not really into any of these.  Pizza, okay maybe, but birthday cake is just disgusting to me and ice cream... eh.  I have a hard time getting away with not eating at parties though.  I get pestered and pestered and I hate to make a big deal out of it and offend someone with explaining exactly why I don't want to fill my body with that crap so sometimes I just cave.  It would be nice if caving meant eating something delicious...

I was so hungry on the way home from the health food store that I opened some of my groceries right there in the car.

Slightly inappropriate image of my eats ;)

Unsweetened carob chips and 85% cacao chips.  I LOVE the carob.  Cacao chips just taste like semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Later that night I attended a housewarming party for a friend of mine.  Everyone who came was supposed to bring a side or dessert.  The main meal consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs and mac n cheese.  Vegetarian heaven?  I think not...

I ate before I went and since I didn't have too much time I picked out an easy dessert and threw it together.  I made Angela's Two Bite Double Down Brownies 

Sooo good.  First of all, I don't think they should be called brownies.  They were not super sweet or moist and that's kind of what I think of when I think of brownies.  They were more like something you would eat with coffee.  I really enjoyed them.  I'm a huge fan of dark chocolate and I loved that they weren't overpoweringly sweet. 

I carried them in my left hand the whole way there - thankfully, they only live about 10 minutes away :)

Unfortunately... none of my friends liked them.  At all.  The girls were very polite about it.  I watched a few of them take a bit and kind of put it aside.  However, some of the guys arrived at the party a little tipsy (to say the least) and they had no problem telling me exactly how horrible these things tasted.  One guy talked for about 5 minutes about how he had tasted dog biscuits that tasted better.  Um... yeah, thank you so much.  How rude can you get?  I will obviously never be friends with that guy. 

I brought them home and made my mom taste them the next day.  She loved them!  Rachel tried some later in the day and also loved them.  So why did my friends dislike them SO much?  I came to the conclusion that these individuals are so used to eating food that is super processed, very unnatural with tons of added sugars and bad fats that they didn't know good healthy food when they tasted it.  I was very bothered by the whole situation.  I already get laughed at enough that I'm vegetarian and people are sort of convinced that I eat food that tastes like cardboard and that I don't enjoy my food.  This is ridiculous.  I love my food and I think it's delicious - I don't feel like I'm depriving myself.  What I really wanted to do was make something that they really enjoyed and then surprise them by telling them it was vegan... FAIL.  Oh well - next time! 

What's there to complain about when I got to take them home and eat the majority of them the next day? ;)