Well, hello there!

It’s been a while.

As in, I haven’t posted at all in 2014.

I don’t really have a reason as to why I haven’t. I’ve missed it, but I’ve been keeping up with all of your blogs, which I love doing. 🙂 I guess I just haven’t had too much inspiration to write a post. It’s not that I’ve been crazy busy or that life isn’t great (because it is); more than anything, I don’t want to feel obligated to blog, and then have you all stuck with a post that doesn’t mean anything to you or me. Does that make sense?

But I hope you all forgive me. 🙂

Did you notice that I changed my site header? I’m still not entirely sure about it, but I do like how simple it is. I love the way clean, streamlined sites look, so I think it’ll probably grow on me the more I look at it. What do you think?

For my first post of 2014, I thought I’d go back to old habits and do a What I Ate Wednesday post. I love the link-up parties that Jenn hosts, and of course, I love food. Only for this week’s WIAW, I’m going to share a lot of different foods that I’ve snapped pictures of over the last couple of weeks but haven’t shared with you. Hopefully I’ll get back in the habit soon!

WIAW

Hosted by Jenn of Peas and Crayons.

Breakfasts

Honestly, my breakfasts are generally pretty darn boring. Greek yogurt, cereal, and fruit.

But a few days after Christmas, my mom wanted to give something she saw on Pinterest a go – cinnamon roll waffles. I’m sure you’ve seen them, too?

None of us were very impressed. They were cute little things, but we found that doing them in the waffle iron dried them out a bit too much. I didn’t even finish my second one because of this! Now that is saying something…

Lunches

My lunches haven’t been too exciting – lots of leftovers or the kind where I throw together random things and call it a meal. However, a few weeks ago I made a Mexican brown rice casserole (it’s a Weight Watchers recipe) and had that as leftovers for a few lunches.

(Sorry the picture quality isn’t so great.)

Recipe can be found HERE.

Snacks

Up until this last week, I have been doing very well with not snacking. Typically it’s my downfall, but for the longest time we didn’t have anything in the house to even tempt me. Plus, I’ve been using an app called Lose It that tracks my calories and exercise to help keep me on track. It’s been doing wonders, and I’ve already (as of 1/1/14) lost an inch off each my hips and waist, even though I haven’t changed my diet too much. Anyway, the snacks I have enjoyed have been things like fruit, gluten-free grain crackers, cheese, etc.

Dinners

A few weeks ago my mom made this really good vegetarian lasagna. I think she just kind of winged the recipe, but it was very good. I had that as leftovers, too, a few times.

I also made up a batch of Chocolate Covered Katie’s Quinoa Pizza Bites. I forgot to take a picture (seriously need to get back into this), but here is her’s. They’re seriously good! The only thing I did different was add a few tablespoons of Parmesan into the mix. 🙂 I had two or three of them for dinner a few times, and they really hit the spot!

Desserts

Recently I made a variation of black bean brownies from scratch. They were gluten free and tasted amazing, but  were ugly as sin. I didn’t take a picture for fear of scaring you all away when you’ve I’ve only just gotten back. 😉

I did find that they were amazing crumbled up in raspberry Greek yogurt (duh), so I snapped a picture of that. Someone else thought it looked pretty good, too…

Exercises Jan. 26-Feb. 1

Sun: Jillian Michael’s Yoga Meltdown – both levels
Mon: 20 minutes running + 30 minutes walking on treadmill
Tues: 20 minutes running + 25 minutes walking on treadmill
Wed: rest
Thurs: pf360 (a “bootcamp”-style room Planet Fitness has)
Fri: elliptical
Sat: treadmill

Last Sunday, my mom and I joined Planet Fitness. A massive new branch opened up relatively close to us, and they were running a great deal, so we decided to join. I have unlimited access to it for only $10 a month!

I was really pleased to find that, despite not having run since last August, I was able to run a couple miles on the treadmill two days in a row! I think the fact that I was doing much more strength training at home in the months off really helped me jump right back into it. Hopefully I’ll be all set to run another 5K in the spring!

If you recall (and I don’t blame you if you don’t), the last time I posted I’d been dealing with some pretty bad plantar fasciitis. Well, it still hasn’t gone away completely, but it has gotten better. I also found this awesome little gadget at Target. I use it often, particularly in the morning when my feet are really sore/tight.

It realllly helps, and if you have PF, I seriously recommend it!

In other news, we have had 80+ inches of snow in my area this season. And on Michigan’s terms, we still have about two months of winter left. I was just looking at a post of mine from last year at this time, and I was complaining about the snow then, too. Turns out, at this time last year, we had only gotten 17″. Oy. I didn’t know what was coming. We have snow piles that are about six feet tall….in our drive way. Never mind those in some parking lots. Plus, we’ve had record cold temperatures that are consistently 10* below average. It feels downright balmy when it hits 20*! Gosh. Ok, I’m done. Sorry.

Finally, a little update on my teaching. I have a long-term sub job starting in March! (I can’t remember if I made that announcement before…) One of my favorite high school teachers is going on maternity leave, and it just so happened that I was going to be ready to sub when she needed to leave. I contacted her and she gave me the job! It’ll go from March through the end of the school year, and the best part is that it’s for English! The exact thing I’m certified in. 🙂 Plus, it’s at the high school I attended, which is extremely convenient, if not a little weird. I went and shadowed on Monday, and I’ve got to tell you, it is bizarre going back to your old HS and calling your teachers by their first names. Obviously I don’t have the years of experience they do, but I’m essentially their colleagues! So weird. But I’m very excited for it. I’ll be teaching British Literature and Creative Writing. Awesome. 🙂

One last thing: a shout out to Nikki of The Road to Less Cake in regards to her recent engagement! Congrats, Nikki! I’m so happy for you!

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Well, that’s all for now, folks. I have to say, it’s good to be back at it. I’m not going to make any promises or commitments to blogging – I’m just going to do it when the topics come to me and the writing flows. For now, though, I’m going to hunker down under a blanket and try and get warm. Hopefully Ella will help.

Have a great day, everyone!