This I Know Is True

…There is nothing better than a glass of chocolate milk after a long run. Amanda and I completed a 7-miler on Sunday then immediately chugged a glass of chocolately protein. We then proceeded to lie on the floor and die a little.

…Random acts of kindness feel really good, even if you don’t see the recipient’s reaction. I noticed someone had printed out a parking pass for the Kiawah Marathon, so I left them some love.

…Boys are weirded out by girls with books on self-help, dating, or anything too feminine.  A while back I loaned a friend my copy of Why Men Love Bitches and picked it up from her on Sunday, so it was sitting in my car. I drove this boy to work yesterday morning and when he got in my car and saw it, he was like “Oh, god. No.”

I was definitely mortified and swore that it was not a self-help book. I might have been stretching the truth, but that book is fantastic! In case you’ve never heard of it, it’s about why men love a b.i.t.c.h. – babe in total control of herself. The book really teaches you how to keep your shit together while you’re single, dating, or in a relationship.

I told my friend Ashley, another huge fan of the book, about what happened and to make me feel better, she sent me her collection of womanly books.

…The Seasonal Salad from Crave is really, really good. It’s a bowl of Baby tatsoi, bright lights Swiss chard, and purple kale served with honey champagne vinaigrette, toasted pumpkin seeds, roasted beets, sweet potato croutons and St. Andre cheese. I had it for dinner so I added sea bass to it. Delicious.

…You cannot judge a bottle of wine by its label. Every time I saw this Project Happiness Syrah at Trader Joe’s, I snubbed it, thinking it looked so stupid. I randomly told one of the employees I wanted a good Syrah, and what do you know, he walks me over to this bottle. The verdict: it’s really good. It’s smooth and zesty with notes of blueberry and cassis and a blackberry jam finish.

…I am determined to win The NYE Challenge. After this weekend, things aren’t looking good for Boding and Kaye. My strikes have been from accidentally eating 2 foods I didn’t realize were fried (coconut shrimp and fried chickpeas) and a night of 4 drinks.

Oh, and apparently some of us are playing dirty. I asked Carter for a glass of water the other night and while he was in the kitchen, I heard him giggling like a 5 year old. He brings me a glass of water and is like “Here you go…drink up!” Totally skeptical, I looked in my glass and noticed that he has added a dab of butter to my water. GROSS!

What do you know to be true today?!

2012 Pajama 5K Recap

The Pajama Run  has is my favorite race in Charleston, and this year was my third year to run. The race fundraises for cancers below the waist: colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, etc. It starts at The Joe Riley stadium, loops around Hampton Park, and then ends with a pajama party.

This year we were sponsored by The Charleston Pickle Company! Amanda, Nikki, Kaye, Ashley, and Nikki’s baby Liam all donned CPC shirts for the run:

So many pickles and pickle juice shots for recovery.

This year’s race was special not only because of our awesome sponsorship, but because I really wanted to beat my PR. Last year I PR’d and got 2nd place in my age group with a time of 24:54. Since I have been running so much more lately, I was absolutely determined to shave off at least a minute.

Amanda and I started off pretty fast – much faster than I anticipated to run my first mile, but the energy of the crowd really helped. We both use the Nike + app that lets us know as we pass each mile. When we hit mile 1, we both looked at each other, smiled, and then suddenly our mouths just dropped. We had run it in 7:36, which is pretty damn fast for us. We sped up a tiny bit for the next 2.1 miles and BOTH finished with a new PR – 22:52 for me and 22:55 for her. We were psyched.

Even better, we won 2nd and 3rd place in our age group. Yay for medals!

DJ Natty Heavy also made his 3rd appearance at the Pajama Run after party. Look at that smile!

After the race, we were glowing with pride…and starving. To refuel, Amanda and I went to Sesame for lunch. Of course we started our meal with a celebratory drink. I had a Mandrin Mule: absolut mandrin, goslings ginger beer and fresh squeezed lime.

We split The Napa Valley chicken sandwich (fig & bacon jam, blue cheese, red wine reduction) and the Southwestern black bean burger (guacamole and chipotle sour cream). Sesame has a really great black bean burger and it’s huge!

The race was a lot of fun, I got to run with my best friends, and I’m so excited about my new PR. Great day all around!

**Huge thanks to Nathan/The Charleston Pickle Company for sponsoring us. We love your pickles and your support!!**

What’s your favorite race that you’ve run?

Are you signed up for any upcoming races? I’m currently signed up to for the Charleston 1/2 Marathon in January, the Color Me Rad Run in March, and will soon sign up for the Cooper River Bridge Run in April.

The Friday Five 12.6.12

1. What I’m Reading: The Conscious Cook. My sweet coworker let me borrow this cookbook that’s full of  delicious meatless recipes.

2. What I’m Eating: I’m on Day 5 of no candy/sweets. I still can’t believe I haven’t freaked out. At work yesterday, someone kept talking about cake and I wanted to shush her so badly. Thankfully, the one thing my mother taught me was manners. A new purchase for me is these Lightlife Kick'n Black Bean Burgers.

They’re a lot heftier than Morningstar’s and have good flavor, but are pretty dry. What’s your favorite black bean burger?

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking: Kale and Roasted Beet Salad with Maple Balsamic Dressing. 

4. What I’m Listening to: Oh, you want a little love song? This is fun but not too sappy.

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

WHEN I MIX VODKA AND HIGH HEELS

WHEN I BREAK OUT THE TEQUILA

WHEN I GET OLD

 

. . .  

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

Food, Fitness, Fashion

Since we started The NYE Challenge, I have not touched any sweets. I thought I’d be freaking out by now. The last time I gave up candy, the first two weeks were the worst. In exchange, I’ve had these three foods every day:

Much healthier options. By the way, that Oikos key lime Greek yogurt is fantastic. If I put it in a pie crust, you’d be just as satisfied as eating key lime pie.

PS: The current score is Boding: 0,  Kaye: 2, Christina: 1, Carter: 2.

In addition to running and strength training, I’ve been planking like a crazy woman.

Forearm planks. (2 min each, 8-10x a day)

Side planks.

Kissing planks.

Flying planks. Just kidding, I look like an idiot.

While I’ve not been baking, I’ve been shopping. Great for my stomach, horrible for my budget. In hopes that at least one will fit me, I bought four potential NYE dresses today.

What’s your favorite replacement for sweets?

Do you like doing planks? Anything’s better than burpees, I suppose.

Which NYE dress do you like the most?

What I’m Loving Wednesday 12.5.12

1. Danielle and I eat lunch together every Monday. For the past month, we’ve gone to Mi Xao each week, at least once. This week, we went back for our favorite items on the menu. Mine is the Tom Yum Kung, extra spicy.

See the coconut shrimp? The owner was being nice and brought us some samples. Naturally, I threw one back and then bam! It hit me. They were fried and I just got a damn strike for The NYE Challenge.

Boding said it counts. I say it doesn’t because it wasn’t a conscious decision. Ugh!! I immediately confessed when I got home, so he then asked Kaye how she was doing.

Pizza. Really, Kaye?!? That evening, Carter admitted to eating chips and I had to explain to Boding that chips are fried. Hahahah. WE SUCK!

2. To me, this is heaven.

(The cookbook section of The Coastal Cupboard)

3. Rachel found a tutorial on how to make monogram Iphone wallpapers here. Pretty, pretty.

4. I finally got my hair colored last Friday. It’s my natural color in the back, with gold lowlights…

…then gold & blonde in the front.

Don’t ask me how I am standing in that picture, or how the tree didn’t get knocked over. Christmas miracles!

5. Low-key arm parties. This is one of my bracelets from Peppermint Lollipops.

6. On Saturday, I went to a food truck rodeo at Whole Foods. Of course I had Roti Rolls.

Here’s the Funky Farmer: curried local butternut squash, carrots, red potatoes, and totsoi, pickled local beets, and an egg.

The Roti Roll kids are opening a restaurant downtown called The Green Door. It’ll focus on local goodies and have a similar concept to Roti Rolls. We’re going to the Friends & Family Dinner on Thursday and I’m so excited! I will tell you all about it. : )

Fiber One 90 Calorie Brownies Giveaway

As a sucker for any baked good, especially those with chocolate, the Fiber One Chocolate Chip Cookies caught my eye as soon as they came out. My friend Rachel and I immediately tried them. They’re convenient, perfectly portioned, and packed with 5 grams of fiber.

The 90 calorie brownies come in three different flavors:

• Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Chocolate Peanut Butter
• Chocolate Fudge

Fiber One’s marketing team recently contacted me to host a giveaway for boxes of the Chocolate Chip cookie flavor. Of course I agreed!

5 of you will win a box of the 90 Calorie Chocolate Chip Cookie bars.

To Enter

• Mandatory: Please leave a comment telling me how you get your required fiber.
• Optional: Tweet about this giveaway (tag @christinaorso)
• Optional: Blog about this giveaway and leave me a link
• Leave a separate comment for each!

Giveaway ends Sunday, December 9, 2012.

The NYE Challenge. It's on.

So I’m sitting on the couch with Boding last night (shocker), and he’s reading The Abs Diet. He mentions something about reducing his saturated fat intake, and my ditzy behind asks,  “Wait, so no butter?”

“Uh, yeah, Christina. No butter.”

About 400 things I ate this weekend contained butter. You heard me. Since Friday I’ve consumed three kinds of bread, three different cookies, a croissant, and birthday cake. I realize this does not add up to 400; I tend to exaggerate.

Then Boding mentions how hot he’s going to look for New Years Eve. Excuse me, what? I want to look hot for New Years Eve too!

And then we created the challenge.

We are allowed to break the rules, but for each one, we receive a strike. We’ll have a winner and a prize (to be determined). Later that night we recruited two more kids.

The Competitors

Boding  -  “Boding runs the gym and is the king of all men. He can also be found in the wild running shirtless downtown. Despite his Adonis-like looks and physique, he is a tech geek.” (he wrote that! hahahah!) He loves the carbs.

Kaye – This New Yorker brings her city smarts and style to the challenge. She lives her life unfiltered, especially with food and words. She attends the occasional fitness class at Equinox, but gets the majority of her exercise done being sassy with men. Kaye really likes a big beer.

Christina – Currently training for a half marathon, this girl still plays at the gym when she has time. She enjoys burning calories downtown – running around The Battery or tearing up the dance floor. She has little to no self control around sweets of any kind.

Carter – This good looking individual is an active crossfitter, shameless dancer, and thinks he can beat Boding at ping pong. He claims to eat “very few carbs other than vegetables.” When not running through Christina’s mind, he may be found sprinting over the bridge and back. And here he is eating a lot of carbs.

Who do you think will win?