Everyday should feel like a birthday.

A few weeks ago, I found this: 

On Monday I turned 21. I had a lovely day, which started with pink m&ms in my cereal and a nice treadmill run. Pretty ordinary (other than the pink m&ms) but at the same time, perfect. I didn't do anything too novel for my birthday - I realized how "normal" the whole day actually was. In the end, my sister organized for a handful of friends to be at my apartment when I got home from dinner, and that was really special. But other than that, birthdays are getting pretty routine for me! Not as exciting as they once were.

I saved this flavor LUNA bar to eat that day

Google wished me a happy birthday

I received some special goodies :) Alex gave me the warmest scarf and hat and my mom sent some clothes that I'd been eyeing. 

One of my dearest friends sent a couple great books. I've already plowed through the cookbook and marked all the recipes I would like to try. And last night I started reading Sherlock Holmes for a few minutes before I went to bed.

Thank you to everyone who wished me well for my birthday! I've been doing a lot of cooking and there's some foodie recipes coming up soon!

Cooking at my apartment.

My blogging was so sparse last semester that I don't think I ever talked in depth about how I was doing with the cooking at my first apartment. Throughout the semester, I never stopped loving being able to prepare my own foods and go to the grocery store. It's one of my favorite things about apartment life. I never once opted to eat out to avoid cooking. 

I try to stay organized about my grocery shopping so that I don't grab the wrong things that I won't use, or certain components for recipes but not others. For example, if I don't go in with a plan, I might come out with 3 boxes of delicious cereal but no milk. 4 cucumbers for a salad, but no lettuce or dressing. Or, 3 bunches of lettuce that I'll never be able to eat before it goes bad. Peanut butter, but no jelly. You get the idea. So, I always make a grocery list. I sit down and plan out the meals that I'd like to have for the next week. I like to write the list in the order that I go through the store; usually starting with produce and ending in dairy. I methodically work my way through the store, crossing stuff off my list as I go (or deleting it from my phone). 

One of my favorite parts of grocery shopping is that I generally bring Alex with me. For the majority of last semester, we always went to the grocery store midday on Fridays (which we both had free from classes). Often times, we didn't spend time together all week until Friday, so it became our "thing." However, while I try to be methodical about my grocery shopping, Alex is the opposite. He likes to run all of the store in no particular order, as things come to mind. It drives me CRAZY! The supermarket is giant, so I inevitably have to chase him so I don't lose him, all while trying to maintain my composure and grab the things I need along the way, trying not to allow my organized system to be disrupted. It's equal parts frustrating and hysterical. 

Towards the beginning of the semester, I did several crockpot recipes; usually thick soups or stew-type meals. I still have some leftovers from those in my freezer. As the semester went on, I got very obsessed with roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli and started eating those everyday. Post-marathon, I started making goals to meet a daily protein quota, so I started finding fancy ways to fix eggs so it wouldn't get boring. I also began eating a lot of vanilla Greek yogurt with cereal. And of course, lots of nut butters :)

I haven't busted out the crockpot yet, but I did make blueberry muffins on Sunday night while watching Downton Abbey. 

My mom has been recently obsessed with the cookbook "Thug Kitchen." It's pretty hilarious; take one glance at their website and you'll see why.  Once you get past the language, there are tons of amazing recipes to choose from. AND all of the recipes are vegan! Many of them offer non-vegan substitutions, but even so, most of these recipes are very healthy. A lot of them even offer tips on where to find certain ingredients in the grocery store, which I find helpful, particularly for the more obscure things. 

I made a list of the "Thug" recipes that I thought I would enjoy most, and I'm hoping to try a few soon!

Chickpea Tabbouleh.

"Hoppin' John."

Sweet potato & chickpea wraps.

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I've been running about 30 minutes every day since getting to Oxford - all treadmill miles since it's usually dark in the mornings when I'm running, or just too cold. 

This morning I had the pleasure of having the fitness center to myself the entire time. Loved it.

I loved being able to run without feeling self-conscious - and setting the TV to the channel I wanted!

Hopefully next week I'll go up to doing some 40 and 50 minute runs!

Recovery and 21.

It's been 8 days since my wisdom teeth were taken out, and I'm doing a lot better! I didn't do any activity (other than shopping and a short walk around my neighborhood) until yesterday, which marked a week post-op. Yesterday I took a short 1.4 mile run around the lake in my neighborhood, and it didn't feel to great on my mouth! Not sure if I'm going to try that again today or just wait another couple of days.

I have also developed a complication with one of my incision sites... it's called "dry socket" and it's even more unpleasant than it sounds. Won't go into too many details there, but even with that wrench in my recovery I'm feeling a lot better (and looking a lot better!) and returning to normal activities. The painful dry socket can take up to a month or so to start feeling better so I'm interested to see how that affects my cooking and exercise choices for the next few weeks... you might see a lot of soup recipes on here!

There's much more exciting things going on though! Tomorrow I'm headed back to school with my sister and Alex. I feel like I'm finally getting into a routine here after weeks of travel, then the flu, and then oral surgery. However, I'm excited and optimistic for this coming semester. 

Speaking of which, I've been thinking a lot about my running goals recently. As I've probably mentioned on here, I had been planning on training hard to run a (hopefully!) very speedy half-marathon this semester. It seemed like a good idea after the marathon. Half-marathons are a lot easier and less stressful to train for (particularly in terms of time commitment). It would also be easier on my body. However, my IT-band injury really complicated that plan. I'm only now starting to get to the point where I can run regularly, and I don't have any sort of base to build on so I should not start a training cycle. When I do run, I'm painfully slow. I've stayed in shape for the most part by doing a lot of rowing and spinning, but being sick for a week and then being out for this past week definitely didn't help. For right now, I have a short term running goal: build my base back up. Hopefully I can get started with that on Sunday or Monday when I'm settled back at school :)

I'm optimistic, because when I came back from Luxembourg, I definitely wasn't in tip-top running shape. I ran about 20-25 miles a week when I was lucky, and there were often chunks of time where I couldn't run at all for a week or two do to traveling logistics. When I did run, I ran VERY slowly. All my runs were easy and I never once did a "workout." However, I came home from Europe, did about 3 weeks of base running, and hit the marathon training hard. I fell into a groove right away. I'm hoping that happens again and I get my mojo back quickly. While I was abroad, it was hard for me to accept at the time, but I think my body really needed those 16 weeks of "easy." I've been constantly in training for something since I was 14, whether it be rowing or running. I try to think that way about this period since the marathon, too. In the 8 weeks between the marathon and winter break, I did a lot of elliptical, but I'm not sure that did much for me. Now I've had about 3.5 months low-intensity workouts and I hope to start this semester with a renewed energy, ready to work hard. 

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Last night, my parents took me out to dinner for my 21st birthday. It's not for another 1.5 weeks but they wanted to do something since I'm about to leave town. We had an amazing cake from Whole Foods for desert... It's called "Chocolate Dream."

For my birthday, my mom bought me my first suit. I found two amazing pieces at Express. I wasn't sure if I should pick pants and a jacket or a skirt and jacket, but I figured I can always add the component I don't have later on. I found trousers and a jacket that fit great. After trying about 47 different stores, I finally found pieces that I felt confident in. I think it's hard for women to find suits that are professional, yet appropriately attractive. I loved that Express had tailored pieces - I won't have to get these altered at all!

This is a very grown up present... Makes me wonder about my age. I'm not sure I feel any more mature or different than I did at 17, though I imagine I must be. In high school, one of my teachers told the class that 21 is the age that women start lying about their age and pretending to be younger. How depressing is that? I think it was hardest for me to turn 20 last year. 20 seemed a lot older than 19. If I have ever had any aging crisis, it was then. Fortunately, it was a bit hard to spend time dwelling on that since I was very busy traveling during that time.

It's also hard to complain when your boyfriend takes you to Paris for your birthday. On the day I turned 20, I got to look down at one of the most amazing cities in the entire world!

I've got a "recipes" post coming soon! Trying to uphold my goal of getting back into my blogging routine :)