Finally Finished

Finals are finally over!

The day began with waking up at 7 and then, of course, studying. I took a little break between studying so I could pack to go home. I always feel like I over pack when I go home for just a weekend because when I compare my weekend trips to my 3 week vacation, I have the same amount of bags, just more clothes stuffed in them!

 

Yes, I know I have a lot of Vera Bradley bags. I just can't help it. They are so cute and functional! I even have my eye on some of the new colors, like Ribbons, which is one of their breast cancer awareness colors.

After my final, which I feel pretty good about, I waited on my sister and her boyfriend to finish up so we could pack up the car and head on home. But before we could leave they had to grab some lunch. While they did that, I grabbed a Pomegranate Pick-Me Up with a boost of energy from Jamba Juice.

 

And then we were off! Let's just say that on the ride home my passengers weren't very enthusiastic..

 By the time we got home and unpacked the car we were starving. Mom suggested we go to a local Mexican restaurant called Mi Pueblo. We found it a few months ago and it is definitely one of our new favorites. It was nice being able to go out to dinner with the whole family as it is hard to schedule things around all of our work and school schedules.

I feel like I am a salsa-expert and this salsa definitely surpasses my expectations!

For my meal I ordered the Chicken Quesadilla Suprema. It had chicken, cheese, green peppers, beans, and tomatoes and was served with guacamole, sour cream, and lettuce on the side. It was really good!

 Overall, this was a great way to celebrate the end of a long and stressful week!

How do you celebrate after a long week?

I Found Some Free Time

Sorry I've been away the past few days. Finals week has been hectic but I have managed to get a few workouts in and relax a little bit. I still have one more final to take on Friday and then I am out of here and headed home for a long, relaxing, much needed, three week break. Can you believe that this is seriously the first time all week that I've had a chance to actually sit down and write a post for you guys?

Here's what's been going on these past few days:

On Monday between studying and finals, I wrapped up all of the Christmas presents that I have bought so far. I still have to buy gifts for my brothers and a secret Santa gift but other than that I am done with Christmas shopping.

I wanted to do something fun for Alex this year when it came to presents so I decided to get him 11 little presents and 1 big present and call it the 12 Days of Christmas. I love this idea but I know that it is going to drive him nuts not being able to open them all at once. He already keeps begging me to let him open 1 present early or jokes that he is going to open them all at once and not tell me. (Which I would never know if he did that or not because I won't see him too often over break as we live over an hour away from each other) but I really hope that he sticks to the plan!

I also came back to my dorm room and found this envelope taped on my door. I had no idea who it was from but my first guess was that it was from our RA.

But I was wrong! It was a Christmas card from our custodian! She is one of those sweet old ladies, the kind that you want to be when you're older, the type who always has a friendly smile and would always have a plate of fresh cookies on the table for when guests stopped by. She always says hi to us when we pass her in the halls and all week has been telling us good luck on our finals! I just love good-hearted people like her who give to people she barely knows.

 

Elf 4 Health

As you can see on the sidebar of my blog, there is an Elf4Health button. You can go read more about what Elf4Health is and sign-up by clicking here. Every week there are different challenges. This week began Round 2 and Week 3. Each week there are different daily challenges for you to do.

This week's challenges are:
Monday - Track your water intake and drink more!
Tuesday - Clean out your fridge and pantry of unhealthy things
Wednesday - Eat as many veggies as possibly by 2pm instead of saving them all for dinner
Thursday - Buy coffee for the person behind you in line
Friday - Workout with a buddy - or even your dog!
Saturday - Donate to a holiday charity in your area

As for Monday's challenge, I drank more water. I had been working on this goal for awhile now so this challenge was right up my alley. Because I live in the dorms, I wasn't really able to do Tuesday's challenge. I did throw out some candy that I had stashed up in my room, but as for my fridge, the only things in there are water, yogurt, and hummus.

Today's challenge was a yummy one! I started out my day with a wrap that was loaded with chicken, scrambled eggs, and lots of veggies. I also had a strawberry smoothie to wash it down.

After my workout, I stopped by Quiznos and chose to do the Choose 2 option. I opted for a salad and a grilled flatbread.

I got the Harvest Chicken Salad. It was made up of Honey-Dijon Chicken Salad, Granny Smith Apples, Grapes, Dried Cranberries, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Pumpkin Seeds and I topped it off with a drizzle of Acai Vinaigrette. This was my first time having this salad and I loved the sweetness of flavors and the crunch of the cucumbers. The dressing was pretty sweet so I didn't overload with it.

For my grilled flatbread, I ordered the Sonoma Turkey. This has turkey breast, all-natural cheddar, tomatoes, seasonal lettuce blend and chipotle mayo. The chipotle mayo is probably one of my favorite dressings there even though it isn't that healthy for you. But hey, it's finals week and I'm stressing out over tests so I can eat what I want, right? 

Also, notice the book in the background? Yep, no time to even sit down and eat without studying.

Workout

Monday was a rest day since I did my long run the night before.

Tuesday I attended one of the free fitness classes that school offers during finals week. At the end of each semester they have a Fit-Free Week so students can attend any fitness class they like in order to try it out and relieve some stress! Last semester I did the Pi-loxing class and it was a good workout. On Tuesday I couldn't remember which class I had attended last year but when I saw Pi-yo on the schedule, I was sure that it was the same class due to the "Pi" in the name. I was wrong though and the class was pure balance and stretching. I was a little upset but I needed a good stretch.

Today I attended another free class called Croxxtraining. I was so glad I did because I got a great all over body workout that left me super sweaty. Here's a sample of two of the circuits we did. I am going to call the first one: Calf Burner. Because that's exactly what it did. It made my calves burn but it also made my heart rate skyrocket.

 

After that workout, we did this circuit.. 

It was just as bad as it sounds.. And yes we did it for 15 minutes straight. If you complete this circuit you can change the time period to make it longer or shorter depending on your level of fitness. We were told to take breaks and get water as needed. I didn't completely stop but I had to take a short pause between workouts. This may have been one of the hardest workouts I have done lately but I loved it. I always love how I feel after a good workout and after sitting and studying for so many hours this week this workout is just what I needed.

Sorry for the long post but I had a lot to say since I've been away from the blog!

When you don't have a lot of free time, how do you fit in a workout?

Weekend Recap

Hey everyone! How was your weekend?

Friday was such an enjoyable day for me as all I did was relax and stretch! There was no workout on the schedule for me that day so it was nice having a day off. After a long day of classes I headed off to do a little holiday shopping. I did half of my shopping online but needed to go to the stores to actually pick things out for a few other people. I still have a little bit more to do but as of right now a good portion of it is complete.

Later that night Alex came over and we went and played ping-pong. At first we were playing for fun and then we started playing to keep score. An hour later we had a cracked ball and a score of 17-21 (I think). He won of course. Compared to him, I am not that good. He took it easy on me though when we were actually playing for points and didn't power hit the ball too often, which I am very thankful for :) It was a fun night together doing something different.

  

(Source)

On Saturday I had planned to do a long run but it didn't happen. Finals begin on Tuesday so I went to the library to finish a paper and a presentation for Monday. I was there for about 6 hours working on the paper and doing some other studying along with some internet browsing of course. By the time I left it was dark and rainy outside and I didn't want to complete a long run on the treadmill. The rest of the night consisted of relaxing and hanging out with friends.

Today Alex and I were at the library once again. I have finals on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday so I am going to be more focused on studying than blogging this week. I will still try and write some short posts for you all to enjoy so the blog won't be completely bare all week. I was at the library for 9 HOURS today. Alex keeps joking that the library will probably start charging us rent because of how often we are there! I am just ready for finals week to be over so I can head home for a nice three week break.

My cousin, Waseam, (seen here) and his girlfriend, Carling, were heading home from a Colts game and made a pit stop to come and visit Jancee and I! I haven't seen Carling in almost a year and I love spending time with her so seeing her was nice.

(photos courtesy of Carling)

Workout

After my long day of studying and sitting, I decided a long run was much needed since I couldn't get it in yesterday. I completed 5 miles on the treadmill in my new shoes! Around mile 4.5 I felt dead and just wanted to stop but I pushed through it and finished the 5 miles. The only thing I don't like about running on a treadmill is the boredom I get if I am running more than 2 or 3 miles. Luckily for me, I was able to get a treadmill that had a TV built in and watched some of the ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas. I don't have any complaints about the shoes except after a few miles they started feeling really snug, so I think I might see if I can return them for the next size up.

 Did you do anything fun this weekend? How do you beat treadmill boredom?