Tag: Running

• Early Morning Confessions

  Posted at 5:23 AM by Brittany, on August 19, 2013

  1. Last week I started Insanity. I also started training for my next half marathon two weeks ago, this has made for some very sore days. Insanity has made my calves so sore they want to punch me in the face. I have to walk down the stairs like a pregnant woman.

  

  2. One of my coworkers has a YouTube channel. She vlogs, I blog..we are basically a match made in heaven. We also both love to get cracked out on coffee, best friends for life. Her videos seriously crack me up, I just adore her.

  3. My runs lately have felt like I’m eating a cloud. So fluffy amazing. I just want to cry they are going so well. I would like to thank good music and a good mindset. This song in particular gets me REALLY FREAKING JAZZED! I get chills and run fast..aka 9:00 miles.

  4. This past weekend I went to Seattle’s Hempfest for an hour. I felt like I needed an adult for 50 of those 60 minutes. So many characters…I might have been a bit scared.

  5. I inhaled the banana breads I baked last week. I shared half of the haul (thank God) but the other half was gone in just a couple days. They tasted better with each bite!

  

  6. Speaking of Insanity (and food), it has revved up my metabolism so much that it’s like everything I eat literally passes right through me. No stopping to pass go and collect $200. No complaints though, my intestines feel like a wrung out sponge. So fresh and clean.

  7. The other evening I spent a good hour sitting on my couch looking outside and listening to the rain. I had both my cats with me and it was the most relaxing evening. I cannot wait for fall. This was the first rainy day in a while, bring it on mother nature!

  

  I love this photo.

  8. One of my regular customers at work told me that she was texting her friend while running, and forgot that she was running. I don’t know what endurance gels she takes but I want some. I would pay serious money to zone out like that, until she said she fell…

  9. This finally happened after a three month separation..

  

  10.“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Q: What’s your confession?

  

  | 74 Comments Tagged Chipotle, Confessions, Half Marathon, Insanity, Random, Running

• Hanging On and Moving Forward

  Posted at 6:54 AM by Brittany, on August 14, 2013

  Last week I ran on my treadmill without wanting to blow up a building full of bunnies. Running inside on that hamster wheel makes me more angry than having to share my cupcakes. Usually I can’t stay on the treadmill for more than 3 miles, but I did and the run was actually very enjoyable. I was able to punch dance to some good music too.

  To celebrate this running success (because I will find a reason to celebrate anything) I decided to bake! I haven’t baked in two months. That’s two months too long. After seeing some bananas in my kitchen that were on their last days of life, I knew what to bake. I had enough bananas to bake TWO variations of banana bread. One to honor summer, and one to move forward into fall..aka the best season..aka pumpkin central..aka I CAN’T WAIT!

  “Hanging Onto Summer” Blueberry Banana Bread

  

  • 3 large overly ripe bananas
  • 2 tblsp lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup vanilla almond milk
  • 1/2 cup raspberry honey*
    
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries

  *I use honey in my baking, for a true vegan recipe use agave or molasses.

  

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray or wipe a 9×5-inch loaf pan with oil.
  2. Mix the almond milk with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and let sit until it curdles.
  3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the remaining lemon juice, almond milk, and honey. Stir well to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, and stir just until the mixture is well-combined. Fold in the blueberries.
  4. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

  

  “Moving Forward to Fall” Pumpkin Cinnamon Banana Bread

  

  • 2 overly ripe bananas
  • 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • chia seed “egg” (1 tbsp chia seeds + 1/8 cup water)
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup raw sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tblsp cinnamon

  

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mash banana and then add the melted coconut oil, pumpkin puree, vanilla, chia seed “egg” and mix together.
  3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
  4. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine. Then add the cinnamon and stir.
  5. Pour into 4 small loaf pans, and then sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg on top of each loaf. Bake for 50 minutes.

  

  The pumpkin cinnamon loaves made my entire house smell like fall! I will be making this version again very soon. It was hands down my favorite. If I could make some changes I would have baked the blueberry bread in the four loaf pan as well to help minimize chewiness. Overall this was a successful 3.5 hrs in the kitchen.

  Q: What’s your favorite version of banana bread?

  

  | 73 Comments Tagged Baking, Fall, Recipe, Running, Vegan

• Vega Sport Review

  Posted at 5:17 AM by Brittany, on August 12, 2013

  I love caffeine. Give me a pot of coffee with some espresso shots on the side and I will be bouncing off the walls for hours. While I love the high that I get from caffeine, I would rather get this energy boost from vitamins. I’m a huge believer of using vitamins for natural energy. With that said, you can understand my excitement when I received an e-mail from Vega asking me to try out their new sugar free energizer.

  

  A lot of endurance or energy products are super sketchy, so I was glad to see that the ingredients were legit. Aside from devils claw (which I promptly Googled) I knew what everything was, making it easy to confidently put this into my body.

  

  I hate when people share products without sharing the nutrition label!!

  I was shocked to find that they sent me an entire box, with THIRTY packets. This meant multiple reviews for multiple activities.

  

  First up was a packet before a morning spin class. Normally I feel a bit sluggish for this class, but this time I felt great. One packet 20 mins prior to spin and you’ll feel like you’ve got the Olympic torch, pedaling as fast as you can to get it home. Faster, FASTER!

  

  Next up was work. I wanted to see how this stuff stood up to regular activity vs higher endurance activities. I was pumped so full of vitamins that I was moving at lighting speed. I was pouring lattes and blending frappuccinos like the end of the world was coming. I almost had too much energy..almost. Seriously I felt cracked out, in a good way. Good thing I work with coffee and no one noticed, I’m sure they thought I slammed some shots.

  

  Last, but most certainly not least I tested these out while running. Let me just set this disclaimer out there, these energy packets DO NOT turn you into Kara Goucher. I had to test these twice because the first time I went for a run with the energizer, I set out of the gate like I was competing for a spot in a zombie shelter. NONONO! Once I depleted all my energy within 5minutes I knew I had to try them again..and run like I do normally.

  

  So I did just that, I tried them again before an early morning five mile run. It was amazing. I didn’t even need my morning coffee!! Well I didn’t need my coffee for energy, I still needed it for other morning rituals. I also lasted that entire day until after 10pm. Long story short I really, REALLY like this product! I will be purchasing more when I run out!

  Q: What’s your go to energy source for working out? These are now my favorite, along with SHOT BLOKS! 

  

  | 33 Comments Tagged Coffee, Review, Running, Spinning, Vega, Work

• Early Morning Confessions

  Posted at 5:21 AM by Brittany, on July 29, 2013

  1. Lately my life has been very textbook. I literally do the same thing everyday. I wake up, I coffee, I eat, I let coffee do its job, I run, I work, I run, I eat, I sleep, I work. My days are a bit numb, but I’m glad to be busy. I’m working 11 days in a row and I don’t even care.

  

  My own smoothie creation.

  2. If you dare me to do something I’ll most likely do it. Add money to the conversation and it’s a sure go. I made a dollar yesterday just to bite into a brown banana. Don’t people know that this is when bananas are best? I didn’t dare spill my secret, and my dollar is safe in my pocket. I imagined biting the banana skin is what it’s like to be a Tasmanian devil. 

  3. While taking awkward photos proving I occasionally wear girl clothes before the wedding I went to last weekend, I noticed my uneven scapula’s. When I was 13 I broke my collar bone, and clearly the broken size droops. I had no idea..haha.

  

  I was trying to show off my runners tan, and instead I have a pathetic tan and uneven shoulders. Please tell me you notice it… it’s on —> side.

  4. I don’t like telling people I’m a vegan. In fact I don’t really like calling myself a vegan. The title is too stereotypical these days and too many people judge me before they know me. Just because I don’t want to put dead animals or their teet milk in my body, doesn’t mean I run around with butterflies and rainbows. My blog is another story obviously.

  5. My meals have been completely unimaginative lately. I need to find my spark in the kitchen again because I miss it. All I eat are a lot of veggie bowls with some kind of protein base. I also still lather my face with peanut butter, I just can’t get enough. Oh and fruit. Basically I am pretending I am a survivalist in my kitchen and eating off the land.

  

  

  Lunch break with lady green.

  6. I am already craving fall. Crisp morning runs, crunchy leaves, pumpkin GALORE! Only a couple more months!! Just the thought makes me twitch with excitement. Twitch.

  7. My cat is a ninja. That is all.

  

  Climbing up jackets on the wall.

  

  Observing his prey (aka me while I am running..what a creep!) Also please don’t be jealous of my TV circa the 1700’s.

  

  Fangs of death.

  8. My confession posts are becoming more frequent. My topics to write about are too small for their own post, but just important enough to deserve being mentioned. It’s time I work on a new recipe. I haven’t had cake in weeks and my desire to shank is coming back.

  9. Somehow the Starbucks bag makes it into a lot of my pictures. The wannabe photographer in me thinks it’s artsy. Hanging out with my cat all day will do that.

  

  10. I used to wake up at 3:30 AM every morning for work. Today I woke up at 4:30 AM for work and felt like I was hobbling around like a drunk monkey. HOW did I do this every morning? Just another example of the wonder that is the human body. After an hour and an IV of coffee I was agile and glad to be up before the sun, and the world.

  Q: Who likes to wake up early? I do I do, but my ideal time is 6AM.
  

  

  | 84 Comments Tagged Cats, Coffee, Confessions, Random, Running, Starbucks, Vegan

• Early Morning Confessions

  Posted at 6:50 AM by Brittany, on July 19, 2013

  1. My dad once told me, “a sandwich is not a sandwich without some crunch.” I couldn’t agree more. Chips make for the ultimate crunch in a sandwich, but so does kale and chard.

  

  

  Perfect bread:greens ratio.

  2. I’ve consumed way too much coffee lately. Sigh.

  3. I won the most amazing giveaway a few days ago. I was lucky enough to finally try Lindsay’s healthy bites and OH MY GOSH. They have been taunting me for months, but after tasting them..I died and went to heaven. Please order yourself some, NOW!

  

  4. I was supposed to store my healthy bites in the freezer, but that was not necessary. I knew they would be gone within a few days…I was right…

  5. I got my first pair of compression socks in the mail. They are cozy.

  

  Black..to match my soul.

  6. I signed up for my third half marathon in October. Whoop whoop. I am super jazzed.

  7. The only reason I carry a bag while I’m away on day trips is to smuggle food with me.

  

  Food and a rubber-banded wad of cash…to buy more food.

  8. I’m almost ashamed at the amount of PB I have eaten in the last week. Almost, but not really. I will be getting more the moment I hit publish on this post.

  9. My cat has learned how to climb up jackets that are hanging on the wall. Such a ninja.

  

  Please notice the tongue slightly sticking out. Such a creep.

  10. This post is ridiculously sporadic and has little to no depth. For a more meaningful post go back and read my last post about my amazing running. I love running. YAY running.

  Q: What’s your confession?

  

  | 75 Comments Tagged Cats, Confessions, Half Marathon, Random, Running, Vegan

• Who’da Thunk

  Posted at 7:30 AM by Brittany, on July 17, 2013

  I’ve been running now for about two years. I started running solo, then I started to run with a buddy, now I am back to running solo and I am thriving more than ever before. The moment I let go of looking at my watch and obsessing over my pace, it was as if a brand new runner was born, a runner that I am starting to love!

  I’ve been working on my speed lately, and my goal is to get a sub 9:00/mile for at least      3 mi or more. I went for a 3 mi run last week and my pace was EXACTLY 9:00/mile! SO CLOSE! This is still the fastest 3mi I have run, so that is a success in itself. I hadn’t run over 5 miles in almost two months, and decided to see if I still had what it took to run 8 mi.

  

  NOT only did I still have the endurance, this was my fastest 8 miler ever. SUB 10:00/miles! My longer runs are naturally slower than my short runs, but not this one! Not only did I move quicker than normal, but this run FELT GOOD! I didn’t feel tired at all! Well my legs did, but that’s for many reasons. MY endurance is what I was focused on. The small speed work I have done is PAYING OFF for my longer runs!

  

   

  I’ve always loved running AFTER I am done, but lately I have been loving the run WHILE I am running. I still struggle getting out the door at times, but once I am moving I love it. I am finally starting to consider myself  “a runner” and it feels damn good. You know what else feels good? When big companies like your photos on Instagram….

  

  Bahaha to be fair they “liked” quite a few peoples photos, but I still felt special. Anyway, running is rocking my world right now and I am so thankful for my body’s performance.

  In non running related news, today is Disneyland’s 58th birthday! To infinity & beyond!

  

  I want to gooooo…

  Q: Have you had any amazing workouts lately that rocked your world??

  

  | 73 Comments Tagged Asics, Disneyland, Running

• The Power of Kale

  Posted at 5:17 AM by Brittany, on July 15, 2013

  Have you ever seen the show, “Monsters inside me” on TV? If you haven’t I will give you my cliff notes version of the plot. Basically it’s a show that reenacts true stories about people getting parasites inside their bodies either from eating something, swimming somewhere, laying somewhere filthy and so on. It’s quite frightening really.

  One episode in particular haunts me to this day. A group of people traveled to Mexico and went out to eat at a local restaurant. They were all infected with a type of parasite that came from rat poop. The real kicker is HOW they got contaminated. SLUGS ate the poop, and crawled their nasty way all over the lettuce in the restaurants garden. The restaurant didn’t see the slug(S) and they were CHOPPED up with the lettuce and fed to the travelers. OH MY LORD.. if you’re a regular to my blog you’ll know slugs are my biggest fear. Keep this story in your short term memory, I’ll come back to it.

  The other day I went for a hot, hilly, sweaty run. Upon my arrival home, my stomach had its mind set on one thing: A GIANT bowl of cold greens. (You know where this is going…)

  

  Now let me just say, I had a garden last year. This garden was very successful, and one of the most successful things I planted was my Swiss chard. I didn’t harvested the chard on my own because I was always fearful of what I would find lurking in the leaves. One day I felt brave and decided to go get some chard..all by myself. MISTAKE! SMACK dab on the middle of the leaf I grabbed was a slug the size of a quarter. Needless to say I flipped shit.

  I never harvested that chard again.

  OK back to the other day. I had just finished mixing my bowl of spinach, chard, kale, and regular lettuce, this bowl was huge. Like bigger than my head huge.

  

  Just as my broccoli was finished steaming I saw it. Right there on one of my kale leaves..was a slug the size of an uncooked grain of rice. Don’t ask me how I saw it, I have unbelievable slugdar (slug radar.) I froze. This bowl was too big to waste, I had to overcome this fear of mine, and eat the damn bowl of greens. I went through EVERY single leaf. Once I confirmed this was safe, I ate the entire bowl. Kale has some serious power.

  

  Topped with mustard and nooch.

  From watching that TV show, to finding slugs in my garden, I was bound to find one in the produce I purchased at the store. I never eat greens without the though crossing my mind, and the worst part is that I may have missed tiny slugs in the past because I didn’t see them. OHhhh the horror. I’m just glad I saw this one before my colon had to jump ship.

  So what’s the point of this story? Kale (and other greens) aren’t only powerful inside your body to keep you healthy, they also are powerful over your mind and can help you overcome the disgust and fear from seeing your biggest phobia slime its way across your lunch. There was no way I was going to let that bowl go to waste.

  

  20 minutes after my lunch I found this deserted snail shell. I thought it was cool..go figure.

  Q: What’s your phobia? If it’s some kind of creature, would you eat food that you saw it crawling on? I think the hot run I went on fried my reasoning skills because I don’t know how I talked myself into eating that bowl…HAHA! 

  

  | 53 Comments Tagged Hot, Kale, Running, Vegan, Veggies

• Bloggers

  Posted at 8:43 AM by Brittany, on July 12, 2013

  Can I just say how much I love blog friends? There are a few people I have become very close with in the last year, just from blogging and reading each others blogs. Text messages, phone calls, vacation plans, and even unexpected gifts have taken place!

  

  The best gifts are the ones that are personal. If you know me, you know I love to bake (specifically cupcakes) and I LOVE CATS! HELLO cutest cupcake liners I have ever seen! This amazing gift came from one of my FAVORITE bloggers Lily. I love this girl so much I am planning to attend her wedding next year with another favorite blogger, Megan! It takes a blogger to understand the bonds we form from all over the world, and it’s a bond I wouldn’t trade for anything. Not even cupcakes! THANK you again Lily, this made my day!

  Megan and I met in real life two months ago when she was visiting Seattle, and we became instant BFF’s. I am so excited to road trip it to Michigan with her next March!! Any other bloggers in the DC/Virginia area should HOLLLERRR for a giant blogger party meet up!

  

  My best friend sent me this picture on NYE, it made my day life.

  Happy Friday everyone!!

  Q: Who’s coming over for kitty cupcakes!?

  

  | 56 Comments Tagged Blog, Bloggers, Cats, Cupcake, Running

• Hot Hot HOT!

  Posted at 7:13 AM by Brittany, on July 8, 2013

  The temperatures have been (finally) rising in Washington and we are away from 50-60 degrees and into the 80 degree range. This is nothing for some of you, but for me I die. I die at night when I can’t sleep because it’s too hot, I die in the day when I get into my car and can’t breathe until my AC gets going, and I die when I try to run while it’s still 80 out.

  

  The heat just ZAPS my energy, but I am really loving the fact that this is my “slower” pace lately. My slower pace used to be 10:30-11:00 miles, but for the last month it’s been 9:30-9:40 miles. I can feel the difference when I am running slower, but even this “slow” pace is fast for me. I talk about pace too much, but only because I get so excited!

  

  Check out that vein in my hand…

  The real test will be when I start running longer distances again, but I am still content with my 3-5milers. On top of melting out of my own skin, I am 90% positive I had a slight case of strep last week. Aside from having someone in a lab coat swab my tonsils and smear my mouth bacteria on some agar agar, I let the symptoms describe themselves. My tonsils were the size of ping pong balls, my throat keept me awake at night it hurt so bad, and there were small white bumps on my throat. So gross, and def strep symptoms. I rode it out though, and tried at home remedies like ACV and honey with cayenne.

  I mentioned in my last post that I just can’t hang when it comes to eating ice cream on a hot day, but give me a cupcake and I will pummel through walls. Even poorly frosted cupcakes get a chance. This frosting melted into a sad puddle, but was delicious!

  

  Much less heavy than ice cream, but still satisfies my ferocious sweet beast. I also like my brownies and cakes cold, so they get put into the fridge immediately. Along with cold cakes my diet has been consisting of cold fruit and cold grains. Starbucks just started selling the most epic salad, and it just so happens to be vegan!! I am so obsessed, man I love my job.

  

  

  Gorgeous layering!

  The dressing is delicious, but way too oily so I only use a skosh, just enough to give the kale some flavor. I’m a plain grain eater anyway. Well done Starbucks, well done.

  While I enjoy the heat in moderation, I have to admit that I am already looking forward to the fall months. October is my favorite month of the year, and I’m already day dreaming about all the pumpkin and cinnamon I will be consuming around Thanksgiving. Too soon?

  Q: How do you handle the heat?? I’m a big wimp, I like 65F and sunny..anything more and I wine like a squeaky door handle. I don’t know how my family in Arizona handles the 120F months. Too hot, TOOOO HOT! 

  

  | 63 Comments Tagged Cupcake, Garmin, Hot, Running, Summer, Vegan

• Early Morning Confessions

  Posted at 7:51 AM by Brittany, on June 23, 2013

  1. My black cat is starting to get grey hair. He is five, which means he is around a million years old in cat years. I’ve been helping him by plucking any that I find, he needs to find himself a nice girl to settle down with. Just kidding, he’s a mamas boy.

  2. I have been enjoying a lot of nature. Big surprise.

  

  3. My soul feels full of life after spending time with old friends.

  4. I have been eating the most random food creations. I have been coming home at the end of my days ravenous, and waiting even 5 minutes for some cous cous to cook just isn’t going to work. Insert, “anything I can wrap inside a tortilla.”

  

  5. I ate a few things this week that had dairy in them. Oops. C’est la vie.

  6. My running has been amazing. I just don’t know where my “speed” is coming from, but I am surely not complaining. My last run was exactly one second faster per mile than my fastest pace. Making this overall time 7 seconds faster than my fastest time. Every single second counts. EVERY SINGLE ONE! 8:xx/miles here I come!

  

  7. I have a blog post in my drafts that has been there for almost a month. I am struggling to find the courage to post it.

  8. Lately I have had a lot of faith. Faith in life, faith in my future, and faith in myself. I found a new ring that I promptly bought for myself without a second thought. I love it.

  

  It’s perfect.

  9. My blogging has been very lazy lately. I’ve been rather boring, and rather busy. Instead of blogging about my cats diarrhea, and boring meals, I just don’t blog. You all understand.

  10. Most recipes I make are a one time deal unless I drool excessively. There are a few recipes I swear by, and my energy bites are one of them. I make them way too much.

  

  Q: What’s your confession?

  

  | 85 Comments Tagged Confessions, Energy Bites, Random, Running, Vegan

• 

• 

• Search for:
• BRITTANY- Self proclaimed minimalistic nomad striving to maintain a balanced, healthy life with good food, long hikes, deep connections, exploration, and lots of potatoes.

• If this blog does not meet your standards, please lower your standards.

• Contact: blissfulbritt@yahoo.com

• ¿Quieres Más?

  Like my witty attitude and delightful charm? Enter your
  e-mail below for the party to come straight to your inbox!

  Email Address:

  Follow the adventure

  Join 4,725 other subscribers
• 

•