Creatures of Habit

May 18, 2013 by Christine Skari

Hello! It’s a beautiful and sunny day in Santa Barbara and my day so far has been so nice. As usual, I woke up pretty early at 6:30 a.m. I like being a morning person for the most part, but sometimes I wish I could just sleep in a bit. Good thing I love naps ;).

I was starving today but didn’t have many options for breakfast left. I ended up having half a bagel with cream cheese and some See’s Candy (super balanced, I know). Since I turn into a hangry monster, Kyle and I decided to grab an early lunch at 11. We decided to get Vietnamese food since we are creatures of habit and walk the 25 minutes there since it’s so nice out.

armpit hair is SO distracting

*swoon*

Kyle got a beef dish and I got my usual fried rice with pork, beef, shrimp, and pineapple. The give you a copious amount of food, which is obviously just a challenge. Pshh, 5 lbs of rice? No problem. (Okay, Kyle helped… a lot). Like always, it was delicious and went perfectly with a Thai Iced Tea. I swear it’s impossible to not guzzle that sweet thang down in one gulp. It takes some serious willpower!

It was nice to stretch out our legs. Yesterday’s lifting workout really kicked my ass and I’m a bundle of sore. A hot shower will definitely help, along with some yoga that I’m planning on doing later! If I’m in the mood, I’m also going to try to go for a short run when the weather cools down.

Other than that, my day is just going to involve writing a French essay, Chemistry homework, and going to my friend’s acapella concert, which should be fun!

I hope you’re having a brilliant day!

xoxo Christine

Self Love

May 17, 2013 by Christine Skari

For the past week or so, I’ve felt so run down.

I’ve been having a hard time finding that precarious balance between work and relaxation, and lately, my life has been pretty skewed towards endless amounts of studying, work, and little sleep. Everything has been so go-go-go! and I need to take a minute to breathe and to remind myself that I am more than a letter grade.

I am enough. I have enough. I do enough.

(Side note: Isn’t “enough” such a strange looking word? Maybe it just seems weird after typing it out 3 times…sorry, back on topic.)

After a long day yesterday involving rushing to finish a hellish lab report, studying for a math quiz, and then doing more lab pre-work to prepare for my 4 hour lab, I was absolutely drained. Getting up early at 6 in the morning and not finishing till 9 at night really pushed me. I hate the feeling of being so uninspired by life. I felt like I was just going through the motions when all I wanted to do was curl up in bed, read blogs, and sleep.

going crazy

I’m going to try my best to make more time for me and to give myself more self-love.

And that’s what I’ve been doing all day!

Today started off with an early wake-up at 6:30 a.m. I guess my body just doesn’t want to slow down! Instead of doing homework in my free time, I laid in bed and caught up with some blogs and Pinterest. I then took a long and relaxing shower before grabbing some breakfast before class.

Coffee, a banana, peanut butter, egg whites, and some potatoes.

Coffee makes me a happy girl.

After my classes, I hit up the gym and got in such a good workout. I started off with 30 minutes on the elliptical and then did an hour of weight lifting. Not to mention my favorite guy was there!

I then rushed back to eat a quick lunch and change before heading out to State Street with my sister and my friend Tiana. I didn’t end up getting anything other than some makeup and body wash, but it was so nice to just walk the streets and chat. Oh, and froyo was a must, of course!

I’m typing this in bed, eating some trail mix, and happy that I was able to do more things for myself today. I hope it becomes a trend!

Time to take a nap 😉

xoxo Christine

Wednesday Weights and the Turtle

May 16, 2013 by Christine Skari

Yesterday stated off with an 8:30 trip to the gym before my 10 o’ clock history class. I met up with my friend Hot Ryan and we got in an awesome hour long weight lifting session! It’s so much fun to go with him and he’s so helpful when it comes to pushing me to get in that extra rep or spotting me, especially with bench pressing. I have to say, I’m so sore right now. I LOVE THAT FEELING!

I went to my class straight from the gym and it was definitely an informative one.

I love history.

The rest of my day passed pretty quickly and I’m happy to say that the French test I had went very well.

After my last class I met up with Kyle for a coffee date!

D’awwwwww he’s so cute!

We got a ton of goodies. For drinks, I got a nonfat latte and he got the coffee shop’s “Turtle”. Probably the most delicious thing ever and I definitely stole a good amount by taking some sneaky sips ;). We also shared some coffee cake, but ended up only eating about a quarter of it even though it was delicious!

The rest of my day was pretty uneventful, just filled with tons and tons of work for school. I can’t wait for the summer!

Hope you had a wonderful Wednesday!

xoxo Christine

WIAW #2

May 14, 2013 by Christine Skari

First, a quick note on my workout for the day. I recently found a groupon for a Color Run near my house! It isn’t till mid June, but it’s been inspiring me to get more runs in. I signed up with Kyle, his little brother, and my cousin Davis. Davis and Kyle’s brother are best friends so it should be a blast! I honestly can’t wait

I started my day off with a quick 2 miler at an 8:30 pace. I have’t run in a long time so it really pushed me and got me sporting my tomato face by the end. I ended my workout with a fast 15 minutes on the elliptical before calling it a day.

Now on to the eats! My WIAW is actually from Sunday when I cooked up a storm for Mother’s Day.

Breakfast:

A yogurt bowl with tons of blackberries and topped with some Honey Bunches of Oats. A latte on the side.

Snack Attack!

Homemade guacamole made with avocados, cilantro, onions, cherry tomatoes, and grilled corn!

Lunch:

Tons and TONS of delicious homemade food! I did the cooking for our Mother’s Day Lunch and decided to go with fresh and light foods. On the menu: Lemon Shrimp Orzo, Homemade Whole Wheat Biscuits (with a dab of honey and butter of course!), Garlic Broccolini, and Panko Crusted Lemon Salmon. Kyle’s family was so nice and gave us the most delectable cheesecake for dessert!

Delicious and reasonably nutritious!

Whole wheat and whole yum!

*drool* (someone catch my saliva please)

I die.

We also had homemade paninis, salad, and pasta salad that were gobbled up before photographing!

Dinner

To say that I was stuffed from lunch would be an understatement. I kept myself busy for the rest of the day with shopping, napping, and packing to go back to college. By the time I was getting the car loaded up at 7:45, I realized that I hadn’t eaten dinner. I threw some leftovers into the car to eat on the way home so I wouldn’t get hangry and eat Kyle in my desperation.

Can’t you see the fear in his eyes?

My life.

He was nice enough (or scared enough for his life) to drive the two and a half hours back so I could get my nom on ;). Dinner was leftover salmon, broccolini, and yogurt with blackberries.

I was exhausted from a long day of cooking (I swear it can be a workout…), shopping, and the car ride home and barely managed to get back to my room before passing out. It’s a miracle that Kyle didn’t need to carry me back up 3 flights of stairs. He works out so I think he could have done it, but I also had eaten my weight in cheesecake so I guess he would probably need to warm-up beforehand. It would have been such a hassle. Anyways, I digress. The point is I got to my room and slept like a baby. Yay!

I hope ya’ll had some wonderful eats as well!

xoxo Christine

Burning Calves

May 13, 2013 by Christine Skari

This morning started off with a bang! I was able to get to the gym by 7:30 and pushed out a great and colorful 40 minutes of cardio.

I spend the first 25 minutes doing this crazy incline walking pyramid and the last 15 “cooling off” on the elliptical (I was actually sweating like a popsicle in July at this point). My calves were on fire by the end of it! It also kept my heart rate high and made the time pass quickly with the constant changes of incline. Let me know if you try it!

Breakfast

Breakfast was good but pretty standard. Oatmeal with raisins and a drizzle of honey for some sweetness. Iced water, coffee, and a banana for some extra yum!

After breakfast I headed straight to my classes, sweat and all. By the time I got back home, I was starving!

Lunch

My usual salad, grilled fish, and a corn tamale!

Right after lunch it was time to catch up on last night’s Game of Thrones episode! It was awesome, of course. Can’t believe we have to wait a whole week to see the next one :'(.

The rest of my day will be filled with homework, dinner with friends, and SLEEP!

Hope you’re having a wonderful day!

xoxo Christine