friday favorites: all things scary edition

In honor of tomorrow being Halloween and all, let's get spooky today!

And by spooky I mean not spooky at all, because spooky is scary, and scary is not fun. 

Let's get Halloween-y today!

There we go. That's better.

Favorite Halloween Jam

This Is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas

I mean, does it get any more non-spooky, but kind of spooky than I am the one hiding under your bed. Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red. PSA: the monster under your bed is real. Just for tonight, though. 

Favorite Halloween Food

Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

I mentioned this soup in my Whole30 resources post, but obviously it is just as important in a Halloween post. At first glance this soup is in no way Halloween related, but there is the very important fact that it is orange and orange is a Halloween color. Therefore, this soup is 100% Halloween related. It also happens to be 100% delicious. I am not lying when I say 100% delicious as I have eaten it for dinner two nights this week and lunch two days this week. Hashtag I'm turning orange. For the sake of Halloween. How not spooky of me. 

Favorite Halloween Purchase 

This answer will be short and sweet...

Any and every dang thing from the Target dollar section. They have got cheap Halloween on lock-down. Kudos, Target, for always winning in the game of Who Has The Best Dollar Section? 

Favorite Halloween Pilates Move

Spoiler alert: there is no such thing as a Halloween Pilates move. There are such things as Pilates moves done on the day of Halloween, so I guess whatever Pilates move(s) you do tomorrow will count. Since today is Halloween Eve, my Pilates move has some added help from a not spooky overlay, thanks to PicMonkey.

The Saw 

(^^ooooh, total spooky horror movie weapon moment right there)

pro tips: Hinge at the hip to twist, reaching through the crown of your head. Keep your opposite hip heavy and pushing down into the floor because you should be reaching with your arms. Not with your hips. 

Favorite Halloween Costume from A Halloween Past

I wrote about many a past Halloween costume here, but this one takes the cake. Literally, Hershey kisses take the cake, amiright or am I right? My vote is that Hershey Kisses are better than cake. Hashtag not a cake fan. Double hashtag not at all. My mother made this costume which officially makes her the sweetest mom ever. Get it? Sweetest? Yeah? I'll never be the sweetest mom because I can't sew.

Sigh.
Anyways...

Happy Not Spooky, Halloween Eve Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda! 

all the Halloween feels

It's the Wednesday before Halloween. Two important things of which to take note: 

1) We have not gone to a pumpkin patch yet

2) ^^This means we have not carved a pumpkin yet
although I did cut and scoop a butternut squash last night so I think I've filled my food guts quota for the year. 

Excuse me, three important things:

3) ^^This means that we have not wasted precious pre-Halloween candy eating time with carving pumpkins. More candy = mo' winning at life.

I would say it doesn't feel like Halloween yet, and that's 99% entirely true, and it's not just because of our Jack O' Lantern-less selves. It's because I'm still sweating when I go outside. Remember the terrible, horrible, and sad, depressing story of when I was forced to wear a white turtleneck under my Snow White costume because of the lower temperatures? Yeah well, living in Texas makes me realize that "slutty" versions of Halloween costumes weren't created for the sex appeal as much as they were created by people who live in Texas, and therefore need less clothing coverage on Halloween.

Totally logical, go with me on that. Moving on. 

The reason I say the whole it not feeling like Halloween is only 99% entirely true is because there is that tiny, minuscule, almost invisible 1% of a Halloween feeling lingering around. 

It's lingering in the tiny, minuscule, almost invisible pumpkins on our dining room table.

It's lingering in the burlap-is-where-it's-at Hobby Lobby pumpkin. 

It's lingering around the $1 candy corn banner I snatched up from the Target dollar bins. 

Side bar: snatched definitely equals bought in this and all instance(s). Glad we got that cleared up.

It's lingering with the Fabulous (with a capital F for added important, mmhmm) pumpkins my mom and I glitterified when I was home a couple weeks ago.

And finally, it's definitely lingering in the giant bowl of Reese's Halloween mix. Speaking of, I haven't had my daily fifth serving of Reese's today. The Halloween Horror!

What makes it feel like Halloween to you?

things i learned about life from playing tetris

Patricia stopped by Houston this past weekend for a visit, and boy oh boy did she pack in some rain. Thanks, Patty. Really. It's super fun staying indoors for 48+ hours. ::insert eleven side eyes emojis::

Freddie and I were super productive during this Patric-ation. We did a little of this (sitting on our butts), a little of that (sitting on our butts), and we even squeezed in some dog cuddles. Some major dog cuddles.

One thing we actually did accomplish was pulling out the good ol' Nintendo 64 to play some Tetris. You see, we're 130,000 lines away from building the Egyptian Wonder so we had no choice but to play and get some lines.

It was in these dark, stormy, intricately-fitting-blocks-together days of the weekend when I had an a-ha moment (read: I was going stir crazy).
Playing Tetris is like playing life.
Important side note: By life, I mean life life and not the game, Life. Of course.

Without further ado,
Three Things I Learned About Life From Playing Tetris

It's okay when things (pieces) don't work out (fit together). 

You see, the point of Tetris is to fit the pieces together perfectly--one hundred percent perfectly so that no space is left open. Let me give you a guess at how often I fit everything together perfectly because it's about as often as I do anything perfectly in my life (again, my life life, not the game, Life). Hint: it rhymes with schemever. That's right, NEVER. I never freaking remember to grab Freddie's dry cleaning when I'm over on that side of town. I never remember people's names when I first meet them. I never mail people's birthday cards on time. On that note, I never get the yellow Tetris piece to fit in the space where the blue Tetris piece needs to go. <<<I KNOW, RIGHT?!

It's not about how many lines you get or your score, it's about the wonders you uncover along the way. 

Are you gagging yourself and/or rolling your eyes yet? Sometimes we (read: I) get so caught up in getting things done that we (I) kind of forget to notice all the little things that are accomplished along the way. Life is a journey, not a destination. But really, nine times of ten when we go grocery shopping I get annoyed that Freddie is taking ten hours picking out produce. Literally, it feels like ten hours. <<that is me not exaggerating. I always think of all the other things we need to be doing, and how now they'll all take longer because we've wasted almost half of our day in the produce section of the grocery store. Then Freddie finds crazy new fruits and vegetables to try, and then he cooks me delicious meals, and then we laugh and tell work stories over dinner, and then I realize how ridiculous I was being, and then I write a run-on sentence about it all in my blog post. 

Enjoy the journey, people. Oh yeah, and play Tetris so you can make some pretty cool wonders. 

Freddie is always better than me. 

What?! How did this life lesson get in here? I asked Freds for his input and this is what he came up with. Obviously. It is true that Freddie will always, without a doubt, score higher than me in Tetris, but I wouldn't necessarily say he is better than me. Because remember, people---it is not about your score! Otherwise I would be screwed... Let's just say we both have our own particular skills when it comes to life and to Tetris. I help people find their neutral pelvis so that they can get a deeper abdominal connection so that they can improve their overall posture, and he gets more lines than me in Tetris. We both win at life. The End. 

Here's hoping that the coming weekend is rain-free so that I can go outside...and not compare life to a video game ever again! 

Happy Monday!

friday favorites: the would you rather...? edition

Favorite Jam

Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin...but I'll listen/dance to any version. I'm not picky. 

There's something about this song that makes me want to live in a world where we all just grab the nearest person to be our dance partner and start dancing away. I mean, doesn't it make you want to do that?? Why don't we live in a world like that? Is that world somewhere beyond the sea? Har har har. Okay, listen, grab a dance partner, and dance!

Favorite Food

Does froyo count as food? Because it is my post-Whole30 jam. Here's how froyo goes down with us...

Me: combines every chocolate flavor with every chocolate and gummy topping

Freds: gets one fruit flavor with one or two fruit toppings

My creation = dessert

Freddie's creation = disgrace to the froyo gods

The End. 

Favorite Workout Article of Clothing I Need
that may or may not be expensive...

via

I know I've said this before, and about fifty times at that, but this should really read Favorite Workout Article of Clothing I Think I Need For These Next Five Minutes Until I Find Another Article I Need Even More. But is that a mouthful or is that a mouthful?! It's a mouthful. These high waisted Glyder leggings are what I'm choosing to love for the next five-ish minutes. I think high waisted things were made not to be made fun of, but for me to embrace and love as I go to workout after eating a handful of chocolate. High waisted pants, granny me loves you long time.

Favorite Pilates Move 

Mermaid.

My brain/body is still recovering after learning a thousand-gajillion-mazillion new Pilates moves this past training weekend. That's code for two hundred forty six. Nothing like some Pilates to help you recover from a lot of Pilates. Mermaid helps you feel lengthened and stretched. Pro-tip: Keep hips and shoulders square. Pretend you are in a toaster and go up and over to the side. If you go front/back and over then you will get burned in the toaster and it will hurt. Use you top obliques to pull you back to the top.

Favorite Halloween Candy

I wrote this category and then sat here typing nothing for the past two minutes. This is an impossible category. How can you pick just one Halloween candy?! You can't. But you know how you play that Would You Rather...? game as kids and you HAVE TO PICK an answer NO MATTER WHAT? Okay, so if I had to pick an answer, no matter what, I would say...that it's too hard so I'll pick a mix.

This mixlooks puh-retty delicious.

Happy Friday!
Linking up with Karli and Amanda. 

whole30: resources

After writing about my first Whole30 experience last week I had a lot of questions about what I ate, where I got my information, how anyone could survive thirty whole days without chocolate, etc., etc. Today is as good a day as any to share all my Whole30 deep, dark secrets! A.K.A. to share all my resources with you. Because I have no secrets after writing out that novel post last week.

Also because I blog promised to share my resources and what kind of blogger would I be if I went back on a blog promise? A bad blogger. Yay, alliteration!

Books and Blogs

• Whole30 cookbook - So many good recipes, so many good tidbits, so many good Whole30 life hacks. I flipped through this book weekly like it was my job.
• It Starts With Food - Everyone suggested reading this before starting Whole30. It explains every who, what, when, where, and why of the program. Spoiler alert: I never read it (insert hands over face monkey emoji) and I survived; however, most people I know that have read it have had nothing but positive oh-my-gosh-this-blew-my-mind things to say. 
• Inspiralized blog - I fell in love with noodles and I'm never looking back. 
• Anne's Whole30 resources post from Anne in Residence - You'll notice I have a lot of the same recipes and what not from Anne's post. That is because I went back to her post at least once a week to get ideas slash affirmation that I could make it through the 30 days. 
• The Whole30 website - Thank the whole food gods for this website. They have a blog, a forum (where you can go and ask: wait, why can't I have corn again?!), and my personal favorite was the Can I have...? guide. I wish I was exaggerating when I say I was on this guide's page at least once a day. And my once I mean thrice. Ish.

Recipes

Breakfast:

• Baked Sweet Potato Hash With Eggs
• Zucchini and Sweet Potato Latkes 
• Onion Cup Eggs - with Whole30 compliant bacon, of course. 
• Eggs Baked in Avocado
• Egg Muffins
• Frittatas. Omeletes. Fried eggs. Poached eggs. Scrambled eggs. Veggie scrambled eggs. And for when you just can't stand the thought of one more bleeping' egg...
• Egg-Free Paleo Breakfast Bowls 

Lunch/Dinner:

• Pesto meatballs - I ate so many meatballs in thirty days that I am currently waiting for my meatball trophy. 
• Zoodles Shrimp Scampi
• Zoodles with Scallops and Bacon
• Oven Fajitas
• Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup - important notice***-SO GOOD
• Chicken Thighs with Peppery Pesto
• Moroccan-Spiced Spaghetti Squash
• Broccoli slaw (we threw in broccoli, carrots, almonds, cashews, onions, raisins and made this mayo for it).

Sides:

• Cauliflower Rice
• Cauliflower Mash - we used coconut milk instead of butter
• Cauliflower Hummus
• Spiralized Sweet Potato Fries

Other recipe-less things of which we ate a lot:

• Frittatas. Omeletes. Fried eggs. Poached eggs. Scrambled eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs.
• Burrito bowls - throw in a ton of veggies and meat and voila!
• Zoodles with just about any no-added sugar sauce and any and all veggies and meat
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Eggplant
• More Meatballs - using chopped mushrooms instead of breadcrumbs 

Anne has a great list of pre-made products that you should check out.

 Some of my favorites include:

• Tessamae's dressings and sauces - Balsamic is/was my jam. I still pour it on all of the food. 
• Almond butter - I was not a fan of Trader Joe's creamy almond butter. Justin's worked better for my snobby taste buds. 
• Sparkling Water - flavored (like La Croix) or not (like any regular soda water), delicious. 
• Larabars - Compliant flavors found here
• Nut mixes - I actually found making my own cashew and raisin mix was my favorite, but Trader Joe's has some good mixes. 
• Jicama tortillas - found at our HEB and uh-mazing for Taco Tuesdays. 

And there ya have it. Everything (ish) that went into my belly the month of September. Now, who else is way too hungry at 8am after reading this? Time for food! How about eggs...? ;)