Weekly Recap: Food + Fitness

Let's just say last week's food and fitness wasn't recapped because it was my husband's birthday and...well, birthday cake. And birthday french fries. And birthday cheesecake. And birthday macarons. And birthday Cheesecake Factory. And well, you get the picture. Suffice it to say there was an overwhelming amount of food and an underwhelming amount of fitness.

Luckily, this week was better. Sort of. If  you count getting back on the wagon Wednesday night as being back on the wagon. Oh well. I was out and about most of the week because one of my cases started trial and the partner I work for was handling that so I handled the other appearances throughout the week. That being said, there some tasty eats this week!

FOOD
For example, this parmesan garlic chicken with brussels sprouts:

It was a new recipe I tried from Delish.com, one of my go-to websites for food inspiration, and it was very "delish" indeed!

Other food throughout the week included a really delicious yogurt drink from Lush. I had never had it before but I figured you can't go wrong with strawberry and raspberry. It was so tasty and its also made from a dairy in Georgia that uses only grass-fed cows for the milk. It tasted just like my favorite Strawberry & Creme Frap that I used to get from Starbucks so it was really satisfying but only had 230 calories in it.

I also enjoyed Fawen Cauliflower & Broccoli soup with turmeric. I stumbled across it when I was in the soup aisle a few weeks ago and was intrigued by their bottled hot or cold "grab and go" capability. Naturally, I brought one with me on a court day and drank it cold. It was really tasty and the perfect lunch while I was driving down the turnpike. Then I used the second one to try warmed up in a proper bowl. It was also good--although--it's not the most beautiful soup you'll ever eat. Maybe that's why it comes in a non-see-through package! Lol.

FITNESS
Three days of workouts is not so bad, right?? Lol. I did some sprint splits on the treadmill on Wednesday night, which resulted in both my arms and legs being sore yesterday...and today. Am I the only freak who loves the feeling of soreness? Probably. Anyway, Husband joined me on Wednesday and I sneakily took this stunning photo of him on the stair climber machine. He would kill me if he knew I took it...oh well, #bloggergonnablog!

I did a little (emphasis on little) rowing too. My gym just recently got this machine and I'm slowly becoming obsessed with it. It reminds me of when I saw The Notebook and decided I wanted a house on a lake so that I could row every morning. Lol at that dream. Maybe one day! I like rowing because I CAN REALLY FEEL IT.

Thursday was gorgeous out--it made it past 60 degrees! Husband and I took advantage of the fantastic weather and took a brisk walk outside. Can I just say how nice it was to be able to open the windows and screen door again? I can't wait for it to be nice like that all the time. But of course, today is Friday, Good Friday in fact, and alas it is rainy. As I type this I'm watching the rain fall. Tonight feels like a 50 minute cycle kind of night.

So, how was your week? Did you have any good food? How about good fitness?

5 Ways to Stay Healthy (and Sane) in Law School

I was going through my "drafts" folder here on the blog recently and I found a whole bunch of posts that apparently I wrote during law school but never finished/never posted! Whaaat? How does that even happen? I went back and looked at my law school years and seriously? I pretty much didn't share ANYTHING while I was in law school! Whyyy?! No clue. Anyway, rather than waste these posts, let's pretend I'm back in law school, shall we? After all, someone is always out there who wants to know more about the ins and outs of law school.

Here are 10 ways you can stay healthy in law school, brought to you by me....from 4(?) years ago! I was a 2L I guess at that point. So I knew more about law school than I did when I was a 1L but I wasn't yet a bored (or overworked) 3L.

1. "Study time" is not 100% of the time. Look, I get it. Between classes, reading cases, law review, honor societies, clinics, and possibly even a job or internship, you don't have much time.  And the time you do have you probably want to commit to getting ahead on your workload. I have spent many a Friday and Saturday in the library trying getting a jump on my coursework. However, take time for yourself.You won't regret it. Take a walk, go to the gym, cook yourself a healthy dinner, or just sit and stretch for a few minutes. You won't regret it. Escaping for a little while will help rejuvenate you for when you (inevitably) slog back to the books and work. And seriously, if the professor cold calls you and asks an off the wall question that isn't in the case you wouldn't have had a chance even if you spent more time reading the cases. Trust me. It's happened to me multiple times.

2. Drink water. You probably don't relish the idea of schlepping case books to class. And if you're like me and you don't live on campus, schlepping books can mean lugging (almost) all of your casebooks from your apartment, to your car, to class, to the library, back to your car, back to your apartment on the daily. I know the last thing you want to do is add YET ANOTHER THING to your bag to juggle throughout the day. But seriously, when I started bringing a water bottle with me everyday it was a game changer. Not only is staying hydrated good for your skin and all that jazz but it also can help stave off hunger. Did you know that sometimes when you feel hungry you are in fact just thirsty?? That's why they say to drink a glass of water before you eat. And there are so many adorable water bottles out there. Plus, then you can be THAT girl who always has a water bottle with her and is super healthy! Lol.

3. Get involved in extracurricular clubs. You probably have a lot on your plate with classes and work and all but consider joining an extracurricular club. It's a great way to be active (I know one club that has pick up basketball or flag football games at least once a week) and you can meet fellow classmates. Law students notoriously live in a bubble of home, school, work, sleep. So if you join clubs you get your nose out of the books and some "people time" that will do wonders for your sanity!

4. Don't buy snacks/food at school. Or at least try your best not to. Too many times I have been hustling between classes and stopped into our cafe for a quick bite to eat. I'll admit that I never chose the salad options. But meal prepping and planning is NOT hard and packing a healthy lunch and however many snacks you need to get through a busy day does not take much effort. I like to pack my bag (yes, yet another bag to carry around) with some healthy options to eat throughout the day so I can control things like calorie intake, portions, and general awareness of where my food came from. It keeps me out of the caf (and  therefore their pizza!) and away from the vending machines. Plus, having a protein ball or tiny snack that I could sneak during class keeps me focused and engaged in class because I wasn't thinking about how hungry I was. Plus, on the meager law student budget I have, preparing my own snacks is a much better economic choice than buying lunch/dinner every day.

5. Get enough sleep. Don't fool yourself, pulling an all-nighter is never a good idea. Not getting enough sleep not only impairs your mental stamina and acuity but it also can seriously damage your health. Someone deprived of sleep is way more likely to get sick. I know law school is a mental marathon, but be sure to rest your brain each night.

Above all, the best advice is just to listen to your body and be kind to yourself. Sure there will be weeks you're slammed with work and can barely shower or eat let alone try to workout. And that's okay. Just do your best to eat well, stay active as best you can (maybe take the stairs!), and sleep a good amount each day. You'll feel better and you'll be better able to tackle the insane schedule that makes you wonder aloud to yourself what the hell am I doing here? at about 11:23 p.m. in the law school library. Not that I've done that or anything...

Happy 28th to My Husband!

Today's nails are a super special celebration of my husband's 28th birthday! Can you believe I posted birthday nails back for his 23rd birthday?! Sheesh, where does the time go? I decided I would do a variation on balloons ago because...why not?

And if that's not enough...

I love celebrating my sweets' birthday!

First Day of Spring + Ritas

I don't know about you but I thought spring meant warmer weather? You know, running outside, denim jackets, short sleeves, eating on the patio, etc. But no, as it turns out the first day of spring brought us...more snow. Regardless I painted these -- let's just call them "abstract" springs flowers.

Whatever, I still got my First Day of Spring Rita's Water Ice. Of course I was wearing full on snow gear but it was still delicious.

Mmmm, grape...

Toetally Tuesday: Tropical Hawaiian Nails + FOMO

My sister and brother-in-law just returned from a recent trip to Hawaii with her in-laws and I had serious FOMO the whole time they were there. Can you get any better than calming palm tree breezes, sandy beaches, crisp blue oceans, delicious seafood, the freshest of pineapples, ukulele music, and overall gorgeous flora and fauna?? I don't think so. There's a reason that's called paradise! In order to reduce some of my FOMO I painted these Hawaiian-inspired sunset palm tree manicure and pedicure:

I used OPI Flashbulb Fuschia for the base and then sponged Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow toward the tip and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed in the middle. It took me a few tries before I got the gradient I wanted. Then on the ring finger I free-handed a black palm tree. I am obsessed with these nails. They make me want a little umbrella drink on a beach.

Hawaii is on my vacation "to do" list fo sho. So many places to go so little time (off from work, lol)! Do you have any "must see" locations on your travel bucket list? 

Weekly Round Up: Food and Fitness

So let's get into the first Weekly Round Up. Some food highlights for the week:

Monday. I made a point to actually wake up early on Monday and fix myself a proper breakfast. It ended up being too much food (I ate less for lunch because I wasn't that hungry) so the southwestern style egg with avocado and yogurt was a filling and delicious start to my week.

Tuesday's dinner was something new. I learned that cinnamon and chicken is best left...in separate dishes. We tried a sheet pan dinner with cinnamon-seasoned chicken, sweet potato, apple, red onion, and brussels sprouts. It reminded me of fall so maybe the dish would have been better if I was eating it September, October, or November. I did learn one thing though--brussels sprouts are delicious! I have been missing out!

Mmmm brussels sprouts..

Wednesday's lunch was a tuna salad stuffed avocado. It was delicious! I LOVE avocado and I would eat it with literally anything but the tuna salad stuffing was scrumptious.

Thursday I made some delicious peanut butter granola bites. They were made with only 5 ingredients (Quaker Oats, prepackaged granola, peanut butter, honey, and a bit of chocolate chips) and required literally no baking/cooking...so they were so easy to whip up in no time at all. These make the perfect breakfast, pre- or post-workout treat, or on-the-go bite and I plan on keeping these on hand constantly to fuel my snacking addiction.

Friday was some pork, red potatoes, and green bean dish. Pretty standard and a good go to.

Workouts were a little less exciting this week...I only did three. On Tuesday I did a 30 minute vinyasa yoga flow followed by the Cha Cha Slide plank challenge. That was much harder than you'd anticipate! On Thursday I did a quick 30 minute run. This morning I did an hour's worth of yoga and now I'm sitting here thinking to myself girrrl you're going to have to do better than that! No excuses but I hate going to the gym this time of year because then I don't get home until late and all the parking spaces are taken at my apartment complex. I literally cannot wait for the weather get nice again so I can just run outside.

St. Patty's Day Nails

Break out the green and grab a pint of Guinness because it's St. Patrick's Day!

We didn't really do anything overly special. I of course painted my nails with these super easy stamped shamrocks because a nail design is the easiest way to be festive. I used Zoya Ireland for the base and then stamped my BundleMonster shamrocks with Zoya Shawn. Then I added some white dots to add some pizzazz.

We made some Irish dinner: Bangers and Mash (with mashed peas):

And Andrew had some Guinness. 

I hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's Day. What did you do?

3.14 - Pie Day!

Today is March 14th....or 3.14. And if you're a nerd like me you might think of this day as...Pie Day! Upside? No oven needed for these pie nails. Downside? You can't eat them. They're inspired by the lattice crust on pie and the ring finger are cheeries. Who doesn't like cherry pie? Although to be honest I think this might be a nail fail...

What's your favorite kind of pie? My favorite is either French Silk Pie or the ever-popular-super-traditional apple pie. Mmmmmm. Now I want pie!

Toetally Tuesday - Marble + Pink

Can you believe it? More snow this morning! Not as much as the last two weeks but this makes snowfall #3 in March. Sheesh!And I was even going to go for a morning run this morning. I saw the snow and yeahhhh no. Maybe tomorrow. I painted these nails yesterday while I was watching Love it or List it on HGTV. The bathroom in one of the houses had b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l marble counters in the master bathroom and I since I love the look of marble I decided to make it a nail design. Clearly I'm in a marble mood these days because I just did another marble manicure on the blog.

I used Sally Hansen Get Mod, Zoya Nikki, and mixtures of white and black to make the marble grains. I absolutely love the look of marble. It's timeless, gorgeous, and simply stunning.

Trying Something New - Weekly Round Up: Food + Fitness

Hooray! Something new here on the blog! I'm thinking of starting a new weekly post series here on the blog called Food and Fitness.

Why keep track of food and fitness?
If you follow my Instagram at all then you know that my time is pretty much split between the office, driving, eating, working out, nail polish, and my cross-stitch project of the moment. I spend so much time with food (I do all the cooking at our place) and I would love to start sharing some meals that we try. I would also love to have posts where I could get tips, inspiration, recipes, and feedback from visitors here on the blog. After all, everybody eats! Plus, I think blogging about the meals and workouts will help hold me accountable throughout the week so that I keep motivated to make healthier choices.

What kind of food will these posts have?
I'm not a picky eater. So these posts will likely feature the variety of lunches, dinners, snacks, desserts, and maybe a few breakfasts from throughout the week. I don't have any food allergies and I really do eat ALMOST anything (except cilantro, ick!) so there should be a variety of food choices and meals. If you're looking for some food inspo, perhaps these posts can help!

What workouts do you do?
As far as working out goes....I'm not a pro. But I do like trying new workouts to keep things from getting stale. I switch it up all the time but I like to run, do yoga, row, cycle, HIIT, and do exercise DVDs. So we'll see which workouts I do throughout a week. I think these posts will definitely motivate me to complete some workout.

When will these posts go up?
Once a week. I'm thinking on a weekend day. Perhaps Saturday morning? I'm not sure. But I'm excited to start incorporating more lifestyle stuff to this blog and I hope you all find it interesting in one way or another!

I also think I might add in some bits throughout the week of whatever happened so maybe this series won't be just food and fitness. Who knows. We'll see!
As always, if you have any feedback, tips, advice, etc, I would love to hear it! Just leave it in the comments below or send me an email.

Nails of the Day: Springtime Sparkle

I love the weekend. It's time to kick back, relax...and then run all the errands you didn't do during the week. This week we had some exciting things to do (can't share quite yet) and then of course the normal boring things we do every weekend such as food shopping, laundry, and meal prepping for the week ahead. At least I have time to paint my nails so they look nice while I'm running around, right?

For these nails I used Zoya Jo, Essie Lots of Luxe, and a turquoise striper polish from my collection. This morning was the beginning (end?) of daylight savings time so I officially feel like it's springtime. I know we still have a few more weeks of winter but I'm so excited for springtime that I wanted to do a nail design with a bit of pizzazz and sparkle.

How is your weekend going?

Snowy Day Mani + Working From Home

Aaaaand more snow for the northeast. Every year I think that January/February are the snowy months and then the calendar hits March and, wham, SNOW. This March has not been a let down because we're only one week in and we've already had two snowstorms that resulted in closing schools, courts, and, most importantly, my office! And, of course, inspiring these nails of the day:

For this design I used Sally Hansen Miracle Gel in Get Mod for the white base. Then I sponged OPI No Room for the Blues, Zoya Kristen, and China Glaze First Mate for the background sky. I stamped the trees in Orly Liquid Vinyl and the snow in Sally Hansen Get Mod using the UberChic Holiday Jingle plate.

Despite the snowstorm and my office being closed today, the work of a lawyer is never finished (haha) so I have my laptop on, my files spread out, fuzzy socks on, and some tea to keep me motivated to actually DO work today. Anyone else have serious difficulty "working from home"?? I just can't concentrate! And I find that I just paint my nails instead...but I'm sure no one here would think that's a problem...

To(e)tally Tuesday - Black and White Flowers

Let's resurrect the Toetally Tuesday posts, yes? So caution, if you don't like feet, go read a different post until next time.

I really love the black and white color combination. It's crisp and clean and you can wear anything you want with it.

Nor'easter Day in Court

Guys, have you ever had that moment where something happens and you just pause and think to yourself really?? It's story time.

I had to go to court this morning for an oral argument in one of my cases. We were supposed to be getting rain and the coastal areas were getting snow. I prepared my papers, grabbed my notes, and put them in my bag. Since it was supposed to rain I grabbed my rain coat but decided to just leave my pumps on rather than switch to rain boots. As I was driving to the courthouse (about an hour north) the rain had switched to straight up blizzard snow. By the time I got to the courthouse the parking situation looked like this:

So much for rain, right? Ugh! And I didn't have rain boots or snow boots. Just a flimsy rain coat. I walk toward the building, trampling through the slush and snow in my not-at-all-weather-appropriate pumps. My feet are getting soaked, I'm holding my hood up because the wind gusts were massive, and I make it to the entrance of the court where there is an overhang. Phew I thought to myself I made it. As I pass under the overhang I hear *thump* and I feel snow hit my back.Thank goodness my hood was up right? Wrong. The snow not only hit my back....it FELL IN MY PURSE. Literally, right into my purse and, of course, right onto my papers:

Since I was still outside I couldn't really do anything about it so I hustle the rest of the way into the building, go through security, and then briskly walk to the closest surface so I can whip everything out of my bag. Thank god this particular bag (and the wallet and make up pouch inside it) is all made of water resistant saffiano leather so at least the bag was fine...but those were my notes and papers for the argument! I panic. What if the ink blurs because it got wet and I can't read it anymore?! Not too mention I'm going to look so stupid in front of the judge with water splotches all over my papers! I hurriedly rip out all the wet pages and re-scribble my notes onto dryer sheets of paper. Crisis averted.

But seriously though? It was one of those moments where had I been two seconds faster OR two seconds slower I would have had no issue. But nope, that's just my luck! I text my husband about my run in with the snow and he's too good to me because he surprised me with my favorite cookie. I was so glad to get home. The court ended up closing at 3 due to the weather conditions so luckily we were able to complete our arguments but driving home in the snow was not fun.

Anyone else have funny snow stories?? Or these "seriously?" moments?