5 Last-Minute Holiday Hosting Must Haves

With the holidays comes lots of parties and lots of guests. I find that people are travelling, events are happening, and everyone wants to get together. Sometimes you will find out you are having people over a day before or a minute before! Here's a list of 5 things I keep on hand so I'm always prepared to have a party!

1. Wine. duh.
Not that I ever seem to run out, but I always keep a bottle of cheaper wine on hand for spur-of-the-moment guests to drink. People usually bring wine and whatever they are drinking over too so there ends up being plenty to go around. 

2.  A full supply of paper products. 
My apartment only has one bathroom so if guests are over, it's getting some heavy traffic. During the holidays I try to keep it extra clean and stock it with a festive air freshener, extra hand towels, and extra toilet paper. Having a sink full of dishes the next day is the worst part of hosting. I try to have some colored paper plates and napkins on hand for guests to reduce some of the dirty dishes. 

5 Gifs that Describe How it Feels to Apply to Graduate School {Friday Five 12/12/2014}

Right now, I'm in the midst of applying to graduate school programs for occupational therapy because like many, I need to go back to school for the career I want. I just want to help people!  Sadly, the graduate program application process is  torturous-especially during the holiday season. It's been consuming all my time and brainpower! And it's ridiculously stressful.  

Here's 5 gifs this Friday that perfectly describe the process of applying to graduate school: 

1. You usually have to take the GRE.

It's a 4 hour admissions test with verbal, quantitative (a.k.a math you learned in high school and don't use like figuring out the degrees of an unknown angle in a triangle), and writing sections. I took it after work one evening (WHY), and I hope I don't have to take it again. It's long, tiring, hard, and stressful. 

 4 hours in a testing room with nothing but the test on a computer made me want to ask: 

Seriously, I couldn't bring snacks or a drink inside. 

2. Why do I have to take out a loan just to apply to graduate school?

Seriously it costs around $75-100 to apply to each school.  After I already spent money to take the GRE, take pre-requisite classes at a community college, and now I need to pay a bunch more? On top of still paying off my undergraduate student loans? 

LUNA bars are now gluten-free!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by LUNA Bar. I was sent a sampler pack to review for a paid campaign.  As always all opinions and thoughts are my own!

Many thanks to LUNA Bar for sponsoring today's post and creating delicious gluten-free snacks. 

I've always been a fan of LUNA Bars because they are delicious, snack-sized, and found everywhere these days!

Now that gluten-free is a huge trend, you see brands just slapping the gluten-free label on foods, which makes some people think they are healthy. Gluten is just a mixture of two proteins that some people are allergic or sensitive to (source). Now I see junk food that happens to not contain gluten advertising that they are gluten-free as a marketing strategy. I try to limit gluten in my diet because it seems to help with my digestive issues, but even I know eating Cocoa Pebbles for breakfast isn't healthy (even though it's yummy!).

(Source)

LUNA bars have made all of their regular line gluten-free. You can recognize these bars by the pink gluten free label on their new packaging which is just arriving in stores.  Check out all of their flavors here-my favorites are the caramel nut brownie and chocolate peppermint stick bars.  LUNA also sent me one of their newer flavors, chocolate cupcake, and it was tasty!

Why I'm Doing the Runner's World Winter 2014 Run Streak {Take 10 Minutes}

I did the Runner's World Run Streak (#RWRunStreak) during the summer and never got around to talking about it afterwards. It was the first time I actually stuck to a daily challenge. Even though there were days I thought for sure it would be over, I managed to sneak in at least a mile every day.  

I'm in the midst of one of the busiest months of the year for me and already have a couple other fun holiday challenges on my plate so on Thanksgiving, the day the annual RW 2014 Winter Run Streak started, I figured I wouldn't be participating in winter run streak. However I've changed my mind.  

Why force myself to run at least 1 mile a day for 36 days from Thanksgiving until New Year's Day? 

Because I realized the busiest time of the year is exactly when I need to most. 

Getting myself back on a running schedule is a bonus.  I am doing the Run Streak because I need to give myself at least 10 minutes of day where I can sweat it out, force myself to breathe, and clear my head. (I convince myself to get a mile in by telling myself it'll only take ten minutes, by the way. )

 At least 10 minutes of watching Netflix on the treadmill. At least 10 minutes to center myself and focus on nothing else (but running at least a mile of course). At least 10  minutes without email, cell-phone, social media, or work. It's like my meditation time. 

A #kindawesome Thanksgiving {YMD Towson Turkey Trot Recap}

This Thanksgiving I ran my first organized Turkey Trot. It seems everybody and their mom (literally) runs these races Thanksgiving morning so it's about time, right?  I was offered to run the annual Y of Central Maryland Towson Turkey Trot Charity 5K by KIND Snacks, who were one of the sponsors of the race.  

I had such a great time running the Fiesta 5K with KIND Snacks in the spring and had wanted to run a Turkey Trot this year so it was a no brainer. 

It was quite a chilly morning in Towson on Thanksgiving Day.  I woke up, ate a banana with peanut butter, had some Nuun Energy Lemon-Lime, and got ready to go. I bundled up with my favorite Under Armour ColdGear tights and longsleeve shirt under my KIND shirt. 

Pre-Thanksgiving Gratitude

I've been having a rough week in my personal life, and my anxiety levels have been high.   It's already Thanksgiving tomorrow and now less than a month until Christmas.  Life's bumps, work, grad school applications, and a to-do list that only seems to grow longer instead of shorter are constantly on my  mind. I haven't even gotten to planning my 2015 race schedule!

 This morning in my inbox I received this email from Runner's World motivation, giving me just the reminder I need not only for running, but for life.

It's funny how sometimes the universe gives you what you need, even if it's in the form of a silly email subscription.  So as I try to re-center myself, breathe, and focus on the positive, I offer you some words of wisdom as we go into a holiday weekend.

Things happen but guess what? After that it's over, just like the RW quote says. There are consequences, but you can't go back and change a moment in the past. Dwelling on it and worrying it does nothing but make you more upset.  This is really hard for me and is definitely a work in progress.

Christmas Almond Roll {Favorite Family Recipes Virtual Swap}

This year I am joining the 2nd Favorite Family Recipe Virtual Recipe Swap co-hosted by one of my Fitbloggin' roommates from this past year, Susan of The Foodette.  I love holiday recipes and especially love trying recipes that are holiday traditions for other people.  

I received a lovely holiday family favorite from Susan at Love from the Kitchen.  She said they have this Almond Roll Christmas morning, but it's made with a sweet roll dough so I think it could also be great as a dessert. Her mom and her both customize it different ways-she tops with almonds and her mom tops with red and green candied maraschino cherries. I decided to top with some festive silver and green sprinkles! 

Five Friday Favorites featuring my New Fave Nut Butter

I'm back with my Friday Favorites because it's so fun to share things I'm loving lately.  I am so glad it's Friday. This week has been rough for me but thankfully it's gone by semi-quickly.  I'm looking forward to a nice weekend and only a 3-day work week next week followed by Thanksgiving-a.k.a. all the yummy food. 

Five Friday Favorites

1. Favorite Foodie Find: Trader Joe's Peanut Butter with Flax and Chia seeds

My boyfriend and both agree that this peanut butter I recently found at Trader Joe's rocks. It is crunchy and gets even more texture from the flax & chia seeds. I think the chia seeds help soak up some of the natural oils so even though it's natural and not loaded with crap, I don't have to stir it every time I open the jar. Definitely my new favorite stand-by peanut butter.