Monthly Archives: July 2012

Things that Make Me Happy

1. Stomach Tied in Knots – Sleeping with Sirens on repeat, all day long. Gives me good vibes and a reason to dance around. I also pretend I’m a drummer during this song. No shame.

 

2. Cooking from scratch

I have focaccia pizza dough in the fridge just rising for pizza tomorrow night. This pizza will be made.

pesto focaccia pizza

I made gnocchi from scratch

I also made whole wheat pancakes from scratch, topped with peanut butter and walnuts

3. Good looking boysssss *swoon*

4. Sheldon Cooper

Hahahahaha!

5. Holding on to hope and believing

Believe!

6. this shirt

YES

7. Humor. All the time.

Hell yeah!!

Short People Problems

Wait. Wait. Wait...mind blown.How Do I Put This Gently ?

Drunk Baby is Drunk.

Goodnight, as I have to wake up in 5 hours to run.

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Nashville Trip!

If you don’t follow me on twitter or instagram than you would not know that I was in Nashville over the weekend!

The boyfriend and I decided to get out of Cape for a little vacation. We had been to Nashville with our team but only ate downtown and wasn’t able to experience the actual nightlife.

We arrived around noon Friday and left around 2pm Saturday. We ran out of things we wanted to do which is why we left so early. Of course we could’ve stayed there forever to eat at all of the places and stay another night enjoying the night life but that would require paying for another hotel room.

We started our vacation off with the Pancake Pantry, which we were shocked we were seated right away! It is well known for having lines wrapping around the building.

pancakepantrypancakes

pancakepantry alex

Then we shopped up and down 21st ave and checked into our hotel.

starbucks

We enjoyed starbucks while walking around Vanderbilt’s gorgeous campus.

Then of course made it all the way to the Parthenon in Centennial Park, which was gorgeous.

parthenon

parthenonsam

Little Sam haha

parthenon alex

We walked back to the hotel and rested before heading downtown.

We hit up Broadway, demonbreun, commerce and church street.

A friend I work with told me I had to try the Bushwacker, which is a popular drink at Broadway Brewhouse & Mojo. It is pretty much a milkshake with a ton of alcohol. Or should I say, a ton of alcohol with a little bit of ice cream.

broadwaybrewhousebushwacker full

It tasted like straight rubbing alcohol haha, very strong and it may have been interesting standing up and walking for about 10 minutes after. Alex only had a few sips and was feeling it. So it was extremely strong.

There food was so delicious! I ordered the Fried Chicken Queso which was rice with fried chicken strips on top with a ton of queso!

fried chicken queso

Definitely will have to recreate this meal.

downtown street band

The best street band. The woman in the middle was playing the spoons and it was quite impressive, just like the others.

I was very tempted to buy these boots, but since I have no idea if I will get accepted to Florida State, I decided against it. Even though Alex really wanted me too.

florida state boots

I’ll definitely purchase those babies a year from now if it’s meant to be at FSU!

These Gameday Boots also come in Kansas Jayhawks on their website! Not as cute as the FSU ones though.

After a great night downtown we headed back to the hotel and caught some of opening ceremony! I planned a few places to go on Saturday and we went to bed.

Saturday was all about 12th Ave and East Nashville

We drove down 12th Ave and saw a cute bike shop that sold a few used bikes but mostly did repairs. Unfortunately Alex wasn’t in the mood for coffee because there was the cutest bungalow for coffee.

On our way to East Nashville we hit many detours but it was okay because we stumbled upon a bike race!

cycling road race

It was so exciting, especially when one guy started celebrating but they still had a lap left. It was hilarious and he definitely got swallowed up by the others after giving his all the lap before.

We even got free Smoothie King samples

free smoothie king

This was exciting because we had just finished watching the Olympic cycling and Alex has never seen a cycling race in person, so he loved it!

East Nashville had some whimsical shops on Woodland and Holly St. We visited some vintage thrift stores. We went to Goodbuy Girls on Woodland and then Fannie’s house of music on holly street. We also found Nashville Running Store and they were so pleasant! The store was really cool, they had a full chalkboard wall behind the register and they had drawn the olympic rings and had every running event and the date/time for each up on the wall. Alex got a Reckless running shirt of the Anthony Famiglietti track foot.

I had shown this track foot to Alex when we first started dating because I really wanted it as a tattoo if I was still running years down the line. He of course loves it as well and wants to get it as a tattoo. The shirt will do for now.

Then we found I Dream of Weenie! I was sad we had just had breakfast because it would’ve been a cute place to eat for lunch!

idreamofweenie

After shopping around East Nashville we headed back to downtown to check some stores we missed out on at night.

A homeless man set his target on us and walked right up and handed me a flower, I knew what was going to happen but he didn’t let me say no and he was standing it front of us so we couldn’t move, therefore I had to take it. Then of course he asked Alex for some money. Alex gave him $2 and sent him on his way. What a wonderful souvenir hahah.

Then we fell for the “$5 Philly Cheesesteak and fries” deal at McFadden’s Irish Pub.

We probably should’ve walked out when our shoes stuck to the floor with every step from the massive amounts of spilled alcohol the night before. We walked in and sat at the bar because that’s where most people were. After about 5 minutes sitting and not being acknowledged we got up and asked if we could sit at the booths because that would be more comfortable and to get his attention. He said, yeah sit wherever. We waited about 15 minutes before even getting menus and then were greeted by the only server working who was walking around with his shirt halfway tucked into his pants and not really caring about anything. It was a disappointing meal because the sandwich was tough and not very good at all. I did enjoy the fries, but you can’t mess up fries much.

mcfaddens

We won’t be going back.

After eating we headed home!

After about 2 hours of driving my phone was less than 20% and it was our map, so we were going to find a rest area to use the bathroom and get the ZaggSparq to charge my phone with. We saw a Wendy’s and thought Frosty’s sounded good but we missed the exit because Alex thought I wanted water. It was a misunderstanding, but we figured there would be another Wendy’s soon. We get to Paducah and see a Wendy’s. He asks if it was worth 3.4 miles from the highway to get a Frosty and I said yes because that sounds good and he agreed.

We get to Wendy’s and use the restroom then proceed to wait in line behind a family that is taking 10 minutes to order for their children and themselves. The lady at the register wasn’t making it any easier because she wanted to chit chat with everyone instead of letting them order.

We get up to the register and she says, “hold on I’ll be right with you.” An employee walks in and clocks in at the register and just passes us by, with three groups of people behind us waiting to order. She finally returns and takes our order of just a value frosty and a small frosty. While we are ordering the family that was in front of us lets the little girl take the tray of 4 waters and of course I knew she was going to drop it. It went all over the floor and after they finished picking up most of the ice, an employee was called to clean it up.

We are still waiting for our frosty’s which the machine is right behind the lady. We get to witness a worker come from the back with a mop, no bucket. He is mopping up this massive amount of water and then walks outside to wring the mop out with his hands! He does this at least three times. I was a bit disgusted already by the massive amount of flies in this place and then I saw that.

The register lady is continuously talking to this man and his child at the register and asking him if he can even read and is reading the menu to him asking him what he is in the mood for. After waiting for almost 20 minutes, a young girl pops her head around the kitchen to fill an order of food and asks if it was ours and we say no, we are waiting on our frosty’s and she goes “you still haven’t gotten those! Oh my goodness!” and makes them in under a minute. We were then on our way and very irritated.

So no, 3.4 miles was not worth the Frosty’s because our service was terrible.

We had a very fun trip though and just hit a few disappointments at the end.

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Lemon Waffles, Yes Please

So I go on and on about Honey Stingers, but honestly, they are amazing. I came home to a wonderful package yesterday!

photo

I’m pretty obsessed with the Lemon Waffles, because I love lemon sandwich cookies and these have a very similar taste to them. The chocolate ones are also new and are close competition to the lemon. I haven’t really decided which one I like more, but they are the top two.

I’m really excited to try the other flavors of energy chews that I haven’t had yet. Fruit smoothie sounds delicious. I might taste test them later today before I swim/run/bike. I haven’t quite figured out what form of physical activity I’m doing but something equivalent to 5 miles running.

I kind of have a collection going and it is dwindling fast, even though you might not be able to tell.

The Luna and Clif Z bars are what I used to eat and we bought those ourselves. Now I’m hooked on Honey Stingers and it’s no lie. I think because my stomach is extremely sensitive and I usually have to wait a long time before running if I just ate. But the waffles are very light on my stomach and perfect before a run. I also love the energy bars if I have hours before running but don’t want something heavy to eat, and sometimes I eat them after because they are just delicious.

So since HoneyStingers is partnered with Lance Armstrong, it reminded me of the Tour de France! This is big in our family and we are big Mark Cavendish fans. His incredible good looks and charming accent may help, but his speed on two wheels is quite amazing.

*swoon*

My father wrote a blog post about the Tour as it is now over, you should go check it out

After we watched Cav win the final stage of the tour, we carried on with our tradition of Pancake Sunday

I love pancakes with crunchy peanut butter and syrup on top. Very filling and delicious!

You should really follow me on instagram if you want full updates on my life, because I instagram like crazy.

instagram name = samthierry

*I received the products above for free but the opinions are my own

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Life is an Adventure

So I finally saw “We Bought a Zoo” last night and it just really changed my mood from “oh things aren’t awful but they are not wonderful,” to “All is right in the world. Stories like this make life so exciting.”

Even though I was not part of the movie, watching it just changed my life perspective.

  • 3 times I cried
  • 1003352 times I said “she is so stinking cute!” about the daughter.

 

Maggie Elizabeth Jones will be a heartbreaker for sure and a very talented actress as she is extremely good already!

Maggie Elizabeth Jones

 

Winning picture of the most “aw’s” I said:

Look at that little safari outfit!

I also loved her relationship with the peacocks.

  • 10 times my heart melted
  • 2353637 times I smiled

To sum it up, it is a feel good movie that will cheer you up and make you look forward to your own adventures.

So I don’t really have a bucket list, and maybe I should because it’ll make life more exciting. I pretty much added my first item that I won’t die without visiting the zoo this movie was based off of.

Real life family:

The real Benjamin Mee and his family at his zoo

Real Life Zoo:

Dartmoor Zoo located in

Sparkwell  Plymouth, Devon PL7 5DG, United Kingdom

So looks like I will be visiting the UK for the third time. But that wasn’t a surprise, because I love the UK.


So after the movie was over, I was just in a fantastic mood, and unfortunately it was 11:30 at night, but I just went to bed knowing life is so exciting and I have many adventures in store for me as well.

I don’t really know where life is taking me and nothing is set in stone. I will be going wherever I get accepted for my internship/grad school and I will then go wherever I get a job.

I’m chasing my dreams and that is quite exciting but scary at the same time. But that’s life right?

I’ve been trying to be positive with everything in my life and for the most part I’m doing well. Then we have running. I actually hate talking about it and try and avoid it all costs because it is a very sensitive subject. I love running so very much and hope I always have a relationship with it, but I am just having so many problems with it currently. It sucks because it’s my senior year of college and I would love to have a good last year and graduate as an athlete but I just really fear I’ll get the cut.

But like I said, I’m a dream chaser and will see where life takes me! But my number one priority is school and doing everything I possibly can to raise my GPA, get high GRE scores, get the best internship and master’s possible for Sports Dietetics and go from there.

I have firmly decided to get my master’s in Exercise Physiology and have plans to obtain these certifications:

CSSD – Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics

CSCS – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

and possibly

RCEP – Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist

as well as other certifications offered by ACSM such as personal training etc.

My main goal is to be a performance dietitian, therefore a lot of focus on the fitness and assessment part. And a part of me has been looking into Performance Dietitians working with the Special Forces. Maybe that is something I will do at some point in life because it would be a very fulfilling experience.

OH the glory of life!

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Nuun Review & Electrolytes

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I was sent two flavors of Nuun to try out and review. I chose lemon lime and strawberry lemonade.

Lemon Lime because I have had Gatorade and Powerade lemon lime flavors and Strawberry Lemonade because it sounded delicious.

At first I was skeptical because I’m not a big fan of carbonation since I gave up soda freshman year of high school. And these nuun tablets have a sparkling bubbly taste to them.

I instantly fell in love with both flavors though and love the convenience of them.

H20 + nuun tablet + 2 minutes = deliciousness

They were super convenient to take to the track meets because you can always find water available. Unlike powerade and gatorade that are heavy to carry around and you have to find a way to keep them cold, the nuun tablets are very convenient to carry and like stated above, cold water is found pretty much everywhere.

Just pop one of the tablets into water and let it dissolve and you have a great way to replace the lost electrolytes from working out and sweating.

From a nutrition standpoint:

Nuun is great for drinking after a large sweat loss. Don’t be confused with refueling; your body still needs carbs and protein post workout, so don’t use Nuun as a replacement for refueling.

Nuun helps replace lost electrolytes. It is great for preventing Hyponatremia which is a sodium deficiency that can occur during exercise sessions with large sweat losses.

Approximately 400-700mg of sodium is lost per pound of sweat loss and 80-100mg of potassium is lost per pound of sweat loss.

potassiumsodium1

Nuun has 50mg/8oz of potassium to help with potassium loss in sweat.

So if you lose 3 lbs of sweat during your workout you have lost approximately up to 2100mg of sodium. It is encouraged to consume a sodium containing drink >100mg/8oz to help with replacement of fluids. Nuun contains around 180mg/8oz in one tablet.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that people who are active for more than one hour consume 500–700 mg of sodium for every 32 oz (~1L) of water they consume.

So Nuun fits the American College of Sports Medicine recommendations because 180mg of sodium/8oz is 720mg for 32 oz.

You get 2 servings of nuun because 1 tab goes in 16oz of water. So two tabs would be needed for 32oz.

Obviously everyone’s sweat loss and requirements are different and these are estimations. But Nuun is a great drink form if you want convenience and help with replacing electrolytes. But you don’t have to worry about getting the exact amount of sodium replaced through products like nuun because us as American’s get tons of sodium in our diet. It is just great for right after you are done, especially if you don’t feel like sitting down to eat a cup of rice that contains 1600mg of sodium.

 

  • Taste: A, took a second to get used to because you weren’t expecting the “fizzy” taste but really good after!
  • Convenience: A, takes up little space and is in tablet form that will not melt or change shape based on weather conditions.
  • Appearance: A, the labels are a very fresh design and all the ingredients and nutrition facts are even on the label
  • Staff: A, great customer service and willing to reach out to their consumers

*I was provided the samples above for free but the opinions provided above are my own


Q: Have you tried nuun?

Q: What flavors did you like?

Q: Have you even thought about replacing electrolytes lost due to sweating?

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Big Brother UK–Luke S

People find my blog by some interesting Google Searches. For example:

  • 21st birthday drinks
  • It’s my birthday drink all the vodka
  • molly huddle abs
  • my feet are hunchbacked
  • peacock running
  • kara goucher running quotes
  • funny 21st birthday pictures tumblr
  • funny sciatica

many others but those were the most recent. Unfortunately my abs look nothing like Molly Huddles, we won’t be drinking all the vodka on my 21st, considering it has passed and I’m sorry your feet are hunchbacked, at least you aren’t hunchbacked. Lastly, there is nothing funny about sciatica’s. :)

So I’m a bit obsessed with Big Brother. I am an episode behind on Big Brother US and many behind on Big Brother UK. But I have now reached episode 32 on BBUK and will have to go home soon so I can retrieve the others. I absolutely LOVE BBUK. I would marry Luke S if I could.

I mean, I could look at that all day. Plus his voice, so charming.

 

Swooooooon.

 

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Recap in Pictures

This week was my first week back to actual training of my coach’s. Obviously I am about 8 weeks behind everyone and that is a huge damper to my training but I just have to keep my chin up and get back to it.

If you have been living under a rock then you might not know it’s been blazin’ hot lately, as in three digit weather. I’ve been running at the rec center trying to stay alive.

Monday – 4 miles

I try to wear my ink n burn outfit as much as possible. Obviously as long as it’s clean! Mainly because it is seriously the most comfortable and best fitting running clothes that I own.

Tuesday – off day

Wednesday – 4 miles

Fourth of July run! Made me realize I need a red sports bra, pronto. Will work on that.

Thursday – 4 miles

Friday – 5 miles!!!!

This day was the best day I have had in a long, long, long time. I was able to make it 5 miles without stopping. I can guarantee it helped that I was inside at the rec center on the indoor track so my breathing was more controlled. But around 20 minutes my back starts pulling/spasm-ing and so with every breath it just pulls. I decided to run through it today and it got a bit better! Hopefully we can keep it up and stay positive with everything.

Saturday – off day

I went to my teammate Monica’s wedding on Saturday! I caught the bouquet, but don’t get any funny ideas because engagement and marriage is a long way down the road, considering the grad school/internship future is hazy for everyone involved. Could be years that we are apart from each other.

Monica was such a beautiful bride and I was super impressed how timely everything went! It was a beautiful wedding and a lot of fun! I admit, I did tear up a few times.

Sunday – off day

I was supposed to run 5 miles today, but because my pal (below) was my step in date as Alex couldn’t attend the wedding, we decided to shop Saturday and Sunday and the rec center was closed by the time we got home. It also got darker earlier than it normally does and was still hot/expecting storms. So I am going to do my 5 miles tomorrow (monday)

total mileage for the week: 17 miles

As for an update, I see the chiropractor twice a week and he does stem on my back and adjusts my back, neck and hips. I see the physical therapist twice a week as well where we just focus on back strengthening but lightly since it’s so sensitive and ab strengthening.

Also, I haven’t really blogged much because I have been figuring out my life because a lot of things have happened recently and all at once. A big event was my best friend Tim was over in Afghanistan for his second deployment and he is a combat engineer. He was out on a mission and stepped on a bomb. Thank goodness it did not fully detonate and he is still with us today. He had shrapnel in one leg and then broken parts in his leg/ankle/foot areas. They keep putting off his surgery for his ankle because of various reasons, most recently because he is on blood thinners. His surgery is scheduled for Tuesday and I would just love if everyone could say a little prayer that he heals up quickly and surgery and recovery goes well for him. I hope and pray his pain and suffering lessens!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

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