2019 Goals: February Update

February sure did fly by! I'm not sure if it's due to the fact that February is only 28 days long or if it's because I was busy for about 26 of those days... Looking back, it was a wonderful month full of spending time with friends and also working towards some of my goals! I even crossed a few things off my 2019 to do list. Today I'm sharing with you the progress I've made on my six 2019 goals.

Goal 1: Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

I was surprised at how many quality runs I got in this month with the crazy weather we've had! In the beginning of the month I ran my first double digit run since November. I added some faster pace runs in. I also managed to start adding some strength and HIIT workouts into my schedule. My upper body strength has really declined in the past couple months so I am working on building that back up.

Goal 2: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

I am so proud of myself that I remembered my reusable bags almost every time time I went to the store this month! One of my favorite bloggers, Carlee McDot, shared in one of her recent Friday Favorite posts about a program called Re-Spun by Marine Layer. The basis of the program is you donate your old, unwanted t-shirts and then Marine Layer "re-spins" them into new shirts. You also get a $5 credit per shirt donated {up to $25 but they don't cap how many shirts you can donate}. I requested a donate kit so I can mail in some of the t-shirts I am ready to donate. I'll keep you updated on my process as I just received the kit in the mail. To go along with the re-use theme, I started to find ways to re-use items such as turning an empty Lysol container into a trash bag dispenser.

Goal 3: Reduce Phone Usage

This is definitely something I am becoming more aware of. I have gotten better at not going on my phone first thing in the morning. Instead, I quickly check my messages for any urgent texts and then throw it in my bag. Once I get to work, I take a few minutes to check any notifications before putting it back in my bag. At home I have been trying to pick up a book or magazine {bridal magazines have been my go-to at this point in time} more than my phone.

Goal 4: Try New Recipes

I definitely failed on this goal this month. I did start making my lunches a bit more creative, but none of the recipes were anything new. More so just a hodge podge of food I had in. The only "new" recipe I would say I tried is pumpkin spice overnight oats which uses oats, nonfat plain Greek yogurt, real pumpkin puree, and pumpkin spice.

Goal 5: Give Back

One of my best friends works for a non-profit that recently opened up a food & toiletry pantry. I raided my cabinets and put together a bag of items to donate!.

Goal 6: Save Money

In a way, I did do really good with saving money this month. I didn't purchase any "extras" and only ate at places we had gift cards/free coupons for {besides during our weekend trip to Washington, D.C.}. We had a couple house emergencies in the beginning of the month that required us to put out a good bit of money. I think these issues really put us in the "money saving" mindset, though, which is good in a way. A majority of my grocery shopping trips were couponing trips with my mom. I only spent .61 cents on an order that was originally over $50!!

Question of the Day: How are you doing with any of your 2019 goals or resolutions?

My Week in Pictures X

I'm not sure how it's already Monday but here it is! My weekend was a mix of fun and relaxation, which I'm happy about. It really did fly by, though. Honestly, all of this past week seemed to fly by yet drag on at the same time. Hopefully I can get through this first full work week since a few weeks ago! Now onto the pictures of what I did all week :)


I had off Monday for President's Day. I spent a majority of my morning at Target, shopping for some bridesmaids gifts. John and I met up for lunch at a pizza place near his work, which is in our hometown. Since I was in the area, I went for a run at a park I used to always go to before we moved. They have a nice workout area so I did some upper body strength workouts!

Snow on Wednesday called for an early dismissal. This allowed me to get some snow miles in {my fav}!

Dexter wanted to help me stretch!

I had some free time so I made some two-ingredient dough bagels! Two with Everything But The Bagel seasoning and two with cinnamon sugar.

Thursday night I had a much night girl's night with my best friend, Cassie, at Panera. I was so pumped that the baguette they gave me was huge!

I tried taking a nap on Saturday but somebody wanted to stare at me the whole time... Good thing he's cute!

On Saturday night, John and I went to Cold Stone with my sister, her husband, my brother, and my nephew. I tried the new cookie dough ice cream and man, it was tasty!

After Cold Stone, we all came back to our house. Tommy had a blast playing with Dexter!

After awhile he just snuggled up and watched TV. So cute!

Sunday morning was all sorts of lazy! Dexter snuggled up with us all morning.

John and I signed up for the Phillies Charities 5K! I'm so excited to run a race together :)

I finally got out of bed and went on a nice 7 mile run. I was so impressed with my pace!

John and I went to Pancheros for lunch and started looking at honeymoon destinations. We were there for over an hour!

Question of the Day: What is something fun you did this past weekend?

Friday Five: 5 Things I’m Loving This Week

Happy Friday! With a day off on Monday and an early dismissal due to weather on Wednesday, this sure was a crazy week! Luckily, my weekend holds barely any plans which is A-okay in my book. I'm hoping to get things done around my house and get some much-needed rest. Enjoy your weekend!

1. Oikos Oh! Yogurt 

My mom had coupons for these yogurts the past few weeks so I've had a couple hanging around in my fridge. I was a little hesitant to try them since they're higher in calories than most yogurts I eat, but I finally decided to try them for breakfast this week. I almost wish I didn't because they are SO good! It is made with double the cream so it has the creamiest, dreamiest texture ever! They have 4 flavors as of now which are salt-dusted caramel creme, magnificent mixed berry rhubarb, lemon sweet cream delight, and honey-drizzled blueberry. So far I have tried the salt-dusted caramel creme and honey-drizzled blueberry and I am looking forward to the other two!

2. Santa Clarita Diet

Since we were out of Netflix shows to binge, John and I decided to start Santa Clarita Diet. We are only about a season in but so far it's good! It took me a bit to warm up to it so be warned. The show focuses on a married couple, Sheila and Joel, who work as realtors together and have a high school-aged daughter, Abby. In the first episode the Sheila gets terribly sick and once she feels better, they discover she is "undead." The show follows the adventures of this family who is trying to figure out Sheila's new "undead" life and the things she must do to maintain it. It's not one of my favorites but it definitely keeps me interested. It's a bit gory sometimes so I don't suggest it if you get squeamish.

3. Achievement App

My sister found out about this app that somehow pays YOU to be healthy and active so of course I had to sign up. I'm still pretty new to it but the gist of it is you download the app, connect any of your health tracking apps {Garmin Connect, Strava, Apple Health, etc.} and the app gives you points for any activity you do. You also can earn points for completing offers which can be as simple as answering a survey question or reading a quick article. The app says I will get $10 once I get to 10,000 points. I've had the app since February 9th and I already have 1,409 points. I'll keep you updated as I get closer to the 10,000 mark and figure out how to get my money.

4. Marine Layer Re-Spun Program 

One of my favorite bloggers, Carlee McDot, posted about this program in her Friday Favorites two weeks ago. I jumped on the train real quick because as you know, one of my 2019 goals is to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Marine Layer takes your old tees and re-spins them into new, one-of-a-kind shirts! How it works is you send Marine Layer your old tees {you can either bring them to a store if you have one local or request a envelope to mail them in. I received my envelope about a week after I requested on through their website} and then Marine Layer gives you a $5 credit for every tee. They cap the credit at $25 but do not cap your donation! The new Re-Spun tee line will be coming out in April and I am super pumped to see what they look like!

5. Two Ingredient Bagels

I'm sure if you've been around Pinterest, or any other corner of the internet, you've heard of two ingredient bagels. If not, let me educate you on the greatest recipe ever invented. All you need to make these bagels are self-rising flour (or regular flour mixed with baking soda + salt) and plain greek yogurt. Mix these two ingredients up, knead the dough, roll them into rings {or any other shape you want!}, and bake. I use the air fryer to make mine, but you can make them in the oven as well. Check out the full recipe here for more details!

Question of the Day: What is something you're loving this week?

One Year Blogiversary

One year ago today I finally got up the courage to create this blog. I remember how excited I was to publish my first post and start this adventure in the blogging world. To be honest, I didn't expect it to last very long, let alone make it to it's first blogiversary! But here we are, one year later and I have somehow managed to maintain coming up with new content and posting regularly. 

For the past couple weeks, I've been racking my brain on what to post on my one year blogiversary. I've come up with a couple different ideas, and rather than choose between them, I figured I'd just compile them all into one post.

First, I want to start off by recapping the last year of my life that I've been able to share through blogging. I published my first official post on February 19, 2018, although I didn't publicly share it with the world {aka Instagram} until the 20th. I made a decision to register and run my third marathon. Through my blog, I was able to share all 18 weeks of my training. This helped me stay focused and motivated throughout those 18 weeks. I started my Friday Five series just a week or so after launching my blog. The first post focuses on my 5 running essentials. I made the decision to pick the broad title of "Friday Five" so that I wasn't always limited to picking the 5 things I was loving that week.

In March, I ran my first race of the year {The Lucky Run} and shared my first ever race recap. April was the month I stopped drinking coffee. I shared my thoughts on this in May, after it had been a whole month coffee-free. In July, I shared BIG news regarding my new full-time job and then in September I shared more big news about our new home! So much excitement over those few months.

October and November brought a ton of marathon related posts. A few of my favorites were Lessons I Learned During Marathon Training, Marathon Day Essentials, 5 Thoughts Going Into Marathon Weekend, and How to Beat Post-Marathon Blues. On November 18th, I ran my third Philadelphia Marathon {and third marathon overall}! I wrote a recap on that because man, was it a great day!

To start of 2019, I shared my goals for the year. I made the decision to post a monthly update of my goals which I've done at the end of January so far. My favorite post so far of the year is part one of How to Annoy a Runner. I have a part two scheduled in a couple weeks and I may already being compiling a list for a part three after getting some responses to my part one.

Blogging has become such a part of my life throughout this past year. I truly enjoy coming up with content and sharing my opinions and life with anyone who reads my posts. I also look forward to reading other blogs and making friendships with those who share the same passions as me. 

Before I wrap this up, I wanted to share with you that I did a little updating on my blog. I rewrote a couple parts in my About Me tab and added some more products to my Products I Love Tab. I plan on doing a bit more updating in the next few weeks so stay tuned!

I really want to end this post by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone who takes the time to visit my little corner of the internet and read whatever I have to say! You truly are AWESOME and make this journey so much more rewarding!

My Weekend in Washington D.C.

Instead of my routine week in pictures post, I figured I'd share my weekend in pictures seeing as it was much more exciting than the rest of my week. John and I went down to Washington, D.C to meet up with three of his friends from college {Carissa, Kristina, & Meetal} and one of their husbands {Marko}. It was only my second time in D.C. with my first time being for a band trip in high school so it was a bit more structured. Continue on to see what adventures we went on {and food I ate, of course}!


We arrived in D.C. later on Friday night, so after some crepes and a bit of rest {I had a migraine that I was trying to get rid of}, we ventured out to explore. We were staying at an apartment in Foggy Bottom, which is just a few blocks from all of the sights. It was enjoyable to see all the monuments at night {it was after midnight} because it wasn't crowded and all the lighting was nice.

We didn't get back to the apartment until sometime after 1 am. I crashed hard because it had already been a long day of work, driving, and then walking around. Luckily I woke up feeling refreshed so I convinced Kristina to go on a run with me around the monuments after we had our tea & coffee!

Kristina knows her way around the D.C. area so I followed her lead and took a running tour of the area. This would be one of many on-foot tours we took!

Everyone was mostly ready by time we got back from our run, so we quickly got ready before heading to brunch at Le Pain Quotidien.

Everything on the menu looked delicious but I chose the Belgian waffle with berries and chocolate sauce! I am still dreaming about the sweetness of the waffle!

From there we headed to Sprinkles Cupcakes, one of the famous cupcake places I had been dying to try out!

I ordered the one on the left!

I finally decided on the "Isn't It Romantic" which was a passion fruit cake with a lemon frosting. Yummm! John chose red velvet and a cookie, both of which he said were great!

Once we were well rested with tummies full of sweets, we headed back towards the monuments to see everything in the daylight.

John and Marko insisted on renting the electric scooters you could find throughout the area. They had a blast! Carissa, Kristina, Meetal, and I decided to just walk. Though I did take a quick spin on John's scooter. Man, I could see why he wanted to ride one!

Kristina had bought us tickets to the Newseum and it was totally worth it! The only photo I took was of the piece of the Berlin wall which was due to me being mesmerized by everything we saw. We got there a bit late so we only got through a few exhibits. My favorites were the FBI exhibit and the Pulitzer Prize exhibit.

I saw the White House for the first time! I know that sounds crazy considering I grew up less than 3 hours from there...

The lobby of our apartment building was super cute!

We chose Mexican food for dinner and what a good choice it was! I ordered what was referred to in the menu as a "mega burrito." It was stuffed with beef tips, cheese, rice, and beans and then was topped with cheese and a sauce.

We decided to go back out and walk around more. Once again, the lighting made places look cool, such as the White House.

Even though it was cold, we somehow managed to get ice cream! I got cookie dough which was homemade with chunks of homemade cookie dough in it and a few cookies! Soo tasty! Can you tell I have a MAJOR sweet tooth?!

 We started our Sunday morning later than planned so we went right to lunch. Thanks to a suggestion from a fellow blogger, we ended up at Good Stuff Eatery. I ordered a burger with a fried egg on it, which was delicious! I loved the selection of unique sauces they had. I dipped a couple of John's fries in the horseradish sauce. Thanks, Maureen, for the awesome suggestion!

 We sucked it up and waited in the line at Georgetown Cupcakes. It was so worth it! Gosh, I felt like I just ate sugar this whole trip!

I ordered one of the strawberry ones on the right!

On the way out we stopped in Paper Source, which I had never been in before. I loved all of the cute stationary and cards. I had to stop myself from buying everything!

After a bit more walking, we all went our separate ways to head home. John and I switched off driving because we were both exhausted from a very long weekend filled with lots of walking, food, and fun!

Question of the Day: What is something fun you did this weekend?