Haircuts and Hamsters

Before I get into this post, I want to have a quick tribute to the passing of July (aka my favorite month of the year).

I celebrated the 4th of July,

Went (accidentally) clubbing for the first time,

Baked cupcakes (and cookies)! 

Saw Harry Potter (and hardcore cried),

Ran the Mud Run,

Went to an LA vintage/antique flea market

And celebrated my (and my sister's) 19th birthday.

Plans for August:

- Going back to school (ah!) and all the shenanigans of that

- Trip to Mammoth with Ali, her family and boyfriend, and Scott!

- Trying to standup paddle board (hopefully!)

******

As my last birthday celebration came to an end, I realized something: I am so excited to eat healthy foods (or try to) again. After days (4 to be exact) of eating birthday cake, ice cream, and cupcakes, I can officially say I feel gross. 

And almost burned out on sweets. I give it a day until my sweet tooth will return with a burning passion for all things dessert. 

Starting tomorrow, I am going to officially make some healthy meals and snacks without venturing into the leftover cake for breakfast. Anyway, carrot cupcakes for breakfast was so yesterday. Literally. 

But until tomorrow morning, I can still share my beautiful lemon cake with lemon icing made by my grandmother.

I especially like the homemade cake decorations. Nothing says "Happy Birthday" quite like a hamster holding balloons ;)

Oh, and I got a haircut! I'm a big baby about change so even though it was just a trim, I'm still sulking about the house about how it's so short. Here's a before and after picture (I'm even wearing the same dress!). And I'm realizing now that you really can't see that much of a difference.

Oh well, I promised it looks different in person!

It's time for me to go to bed! I really need to start doing that earlier at night :)

6 Man and Birthday Cakes

On my actual birthday, I celebrated by going to 6 Man--a big beach volleyball tournament event that rivals the crowds from 4th of July. Scott came up for the weekend, and we met up with a bunch of my high school friends to head over together and celebrate.

Seriously this is only a fraction of the people there.

I was given birthday gear by my girlies:)

Hehe I'm loving my new shorts

That night Scott and I went to Sammy's Woodfired Pizza for dinner. We shared an appetizer of cheesy bread and I had a few slices of BBQ pizza. Oh, and a messy sundae the size of my face that Scott and I shared.

The next day, Scott and I had a beach day before heading to my grandparents house for dinner. We all went for a quick swim before digging into the food. My grandmother Wendy is the most amazing cook, and everything she served was absolutely delicious. After snacking on unpictured appetizers (shrimp! my favorite), we had my grandfather's grilled steak, Caesar salad, garlic bread, and potatoes.

Since my grandparents were out of town on my sister's birthday, we were celebrating both of ours...which meant double the dessert.

Enter her chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake...

And my carrot cupcakes!

I was clearly too excited to slow down and take a good picture

There was also lots of fruit thrown in for good measure: lots of watermelon, pineapples, and strawberries.

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I'll spare you pictures of what I ate today because 99% of it was leftovers. Eek I actually had a cupcake for breakfast. Whoops.

I finally attempted a run today. After the mud run, I used my lack of a goal to try new workout classes and slack off different things. But to be honest, I've missed running. Ok, not quite the actual running part, but I've missed feeling in shape and being the high that came from being able to run 3 miles. 

I ended up going for a quick 20 minute run (probably just a little under 2 miles) with my dog. The whole ordeal was a little more stressful than it should have been because after driving there I realized I forgot to bring a leash. I decided to just stick to a trail, and be thankful that my dog is well behaved. If I drove back home, I know I wouldn't have done anything.

The view from where I ran

On a happier note, I got to wear my new present from my parents: a Nike workout shirt! I felt very stylish while running.

It feels weird not recaping July and planning for August like I usually do at the beginning of the month, but I really wanted to get this post done:) Maybe I'll postpone it to (August 2nd I have one last birthday dinner with the other side of the family) August 3rd. There's so much to look forward to!

I'm 19!

Today's my birthday! It was absolutely amazing, and I'll be sure to do a recap/continuation (birthdays last days in my family) of it tomorrow!

Yum. See you later:)

Chocolate and Sprinkles

Posting pictures of my food is really an off and on occurrence for me. A lot of days I don't eat super healthy (I try to maintain some level of healthy eating on a daily basis) or I don't have a set meal that is interesting or photogenic. Other days, I'm really proud of how healthy I ate (I don't include all my snacks) and want to brag share it or I eat something especially delicious.

Today is one of the occasions where both reasons have inspired me to share my eats.

For breakfast I had a delicious Egg McBagel--aka an Everything bagel thin with an egg and slice of cheese. I'm a little bit obsessed with these breakfast sandwiches. They are so good!

I actually had a Egg McBagel for breakfast before the mud run to get ready for the race. Scott had an egg sandwich that included scrambled eggs and peanut butter. I consider myself pretty open with food, but I watched in awe as he ate (and enjoyed it?!). I think I'll stick to my breakfast, thank you very much!

I felt pretty creative during lunch so I decided to make a Caesar salad wrap. I just spread some Caesar salad dressing on a tortilla added some lettuce, leftover chicken, and a little bit of cheese. It was a pretty heathy lunch if I do say so myself.

The only problem is it didn't stay wrapped unless I held it, so here's this awkward picture.

Tonight we had my sister's birthday dinner with the grandparents, so of course we had a delicious hamburgers with home made french fries and a salad.

Have I mentioned I'm a ketchup fanatic? I used a very small portion for the picture so people wouldn't judge too much. A lot of people think it's gross, but haters gonna hate.

Of course the best part about birthdays is the birthday cake! My mom made a delicious, homemade 2 layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. She also used these pretty candied sprinkles to decorate it.

So delicious. And rich. And perfect. Which leaves me wondering what birthday cake I'm going to choose for my 19th. It's only 10 days away!

Just a reminder, I don't include any snacking/picking/activities that occur when I stare in my fridge.

Tomorrow, I'm going to make use of that 3 day gym pass, and try to get in a cycling class in the morning. I've never gone to one before, and I'm a little nervous especially since I'm going alone. I'm already pumping myself up to be the little cyclist who could! Has anyone gone to a cycling class before? Are they intense? 

The Conundrum

Happy birthday, Jessica!

Peas in a pod. D'awww

Love you!

You're the best little sister anyone could ever ask for! From giving me attention when I'm being annoying to eating/craving delicious foods with me at all hours of the day to getting hyper in the middle of the night, I'm so glad that we're best friends. I hope you have a great birthday week (that's right my family pulls the birthday card for a whole 7 days)!

***

So now that the mud run is over, I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself. In order to get my butt up enjoy working out, I need some sort of goal to keep me motivated.

So, I've decided that I want to run an actual 5k. While the mud run was a little longer--and I imagine harder--than a 5k race, I want to experience running a more typical running race. Plus, hopefully I will be running an average of 3 miles or more whenever I run until then. 

I know you're thinking "Oh no, not another one" too. Yes another one! Let's see some enthusiasm :)

Right now I'm deciding between two different races: LA's Cancer Challenge 5k/10k Halloween race or the Santa Monica 5000 5k/10k race.

Ideally I would love to do the Halloween race (it's on the 30th of October) with a friend, but I'm not sure how many people are going to want to get up early on the Sunday morning of Halloween weekend. Definitely not most college students (including me). The Santa Monica 5000 is on October 2, but then I don't get to wear a costume when I run. I'm not joking that is a major con in my book. I still want the run to actually be fun. Ugh, dilemmas. Any thoughts?

Until I set that goal in stone, my future workout schedule for the week is going to include my free 3 day pass to Spectrum gym that I won at a fair. Since I haven't been able to step inside a gym all summer, I'm super excited to go to some sort of workout classes. I'm feeling like trying out Zumba. That is if my legs recover tomorrow because I can barely walk today when my dad and I took the dog around the neighborhood.

I also want to try the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred workout video I got with my Border's gift card. Seeing as how I am in love with her and need want to work on strength training, I am pumped to try it out sometime soon. 

Oh hey, girl. Can I have your abs/arms/legs/smirk? Please?

PS I'm also hardcore craving watermelon and iced coffee. Even though I'm not a caffeine type of girl (an odd healthy trait I actually naturally possess), I feel like I might be making a rare trip to Starbucks soon. And an even more exciting expedition that will end with me a watermelon and a spoon. Nom. 

So there are all my goals for now! And of course my food desires (speaking of which check out these cupcakes from Connie...now that brings food desire to a whole new level).  Now, I'm off to bed!