What the Haps?

Happy Friday lovelies!

I'm currently writing this from the comfort of my soft couch, with my husband by my side. Not to brag, but this morning has been a good one. The hubs has to work late tonight, so he doesn't have to go into work until 1pm, luckily I don't have to work either, so today has been spent lounging, doing school work (my hubs), and brunching at our favorite place.

From brunch a few weeks ago

I still feel like I haven't gotten back into the swing of things on my blog, maybe if I schedule blogging time into my week I'll be better? Who knows. I'm a profesional procrastinator.

Anywho, I just wanted to take a little time to share some exciting news with all of you! This week has been a little tough, so to have some positive news is much needed right now!

1. We are officially moving out of our dreadful apartment!! This is a HUGE blessing! We will be moving to a beautiful, spacious, 2 bedroom basement apartment with no weird neighbors. Praise Jesus I don't have to play the "neighbor games" anymore! 

2. I am starting my Masters in March! Some of you may know that I want to attend Medical School- this is still a dream of mine, but right now I feel as if getting my Masters is a good strategic move. Plus, I get my education fo freeeee through my husband's job, so I really can't pass that up! 

3. I had a job interview last week and one of the women who interviewed me seems to like me! I'll still have to go through a couple more interviews, but I'm hoping and praying that I can get the position, having a full time job would be a huge blessing right now : )

4. Our wedding was featured in Chapel Hill magazine! It's really great to think that someone thought our wedding was nice enough to be featured in a magazine, I mean, I thought it was beautiful but I'm totally biased. It's an honor to me to be featured because Chapel Hill has such a special piece of my heart! My mom is all kinds of excited, she even took the liberty to find this picture of our spread.

Thanks for reading my sporadic post, I can't wait to link up on Monday to share some more about my fitness journey!

Xx,

LG

Gluten free/Clean Eggplant Parmesan {Recipe}

Good morning babes!

How's everyone doing this week?? I hope that the polar vortex didn't freeze your little bums too much!

I'm happy to be linking up again with the Brittany, from Happy Is a Choice and Sam from Life Style Love! I'm proud to say that the past few weeks have been great for me health/fitness wise. I've been eating well, hitting the gym, and spending lots of time with friends. I know that it'll be hard to keep up withe everything once life gets more hectic, but for now I'm enjoying my progress!

I'm also excited to report that my hubs and I purchased a juicer! I've been wanting to juice for quite a while, but I wasn't really sure if I could sell my husband on the whole idea. Well I was wrong. He is all about jucing and I love it! If you're curious about it there are some great resources online, there's also a great documentary called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" which I highly recommend! I'll be chatting more about my juicer in weeks to come but today I'm excited to share a great recipe with you!

I love italian food, especially eggplant parm! Being gluten free and cutting out most dairy hasn't always been the easiest and I'll admit that I thought this recipe would be tricky to substitute for, but in all actuality it is easy peasy! 

Here's what you'll need:

1 eggplant

Olive oil

Gluten free bread crumbs (can be found at your local grocery store)

Spaghetti sauce (or you can make your own)

GF pasta- I used quinoa pasta and it was ah-mazing!

Directions:

1. Rinse your eggplant and then slice it into rounds (not very thick). Begin heating olive oil in a pan. Also preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly cover the slices in olive oil, salt and pepper

3. Roll the slices in the GF bread crumbs

4. Place the slices in the skillet and cook them for a few minutes on each side, until a little crispy

5. Place slices to a casserole dish and bake in the over for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. 

6. About 5 minutes before removing from the oven, cover the eggplant in pasta sauce and allow to bake.

7. Serve the eggplant and sauce over the pasta and voila!

So it technically isn't eggplant parmesan but it's close enough! This recipe was super easy and a big hit! Give it a try and tell me what you think!

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Xx,

LG

The Battle of The Neighbors

Good morning y'all!

I hope that everyone is having a beautiful, and warm day. I know that our temps aren't as bad as many, but it is pretty frigid here in good ole' Virginny!

Today I'm going to rant about our horrendous neighbors, if you've ever lived in an apartment then you can probably relate.

Case 1: "Sketchy Neighbor"

This was our neighbor right across from us, I gave him his beloved nickname mainly because he was sketchy, but also because I never knew his actual name. Why was he sketchy? Well, he used to wait for my husband to get home, then right as his car pulled up, he'd run outside to chat with him. That may seem totally harmless, but it was weird the way he always timed it out. Then he would walk my husband to our door and when the hubs entered our apartment, HE TRIED TO FOLLOW HIM IN! This happened on more than one occasion. Once he asked me for a ride, and I said I couldn't, but while we were chatting both he and his friend tried to come in my apartment. Not cool, bro, things like that will get you shot around here.
He'd also ask us for rides to places, knock on our door multiple times a day to see if we had any money for the laundromat, and once, I looked through the peephole on our door to see who was knocking, and he waved at me through the peephole. Creepy. He also put a sign on his door that read "Donating plasma, be back in 30 minutes." Y'all, I'm pretty sure he was on drugs.

Now, I'm not trying to be hateful, but the man needed to pick up on some social queues, ya dig? There were plenty of times that my husband drove him places or helped him out. He was a nice guy, just very...special.

Case 2: Little Drummer Boy

This little fella was something else. He would sing at the top of his lungs, not well I might add, while strumming his little guitar, and often he banged on the drums. It was just down right obnoxious, especially because according to our lease, musical instruments can't be played in the apartments. If you tried to knock on his door to ask him to stop, he'd suddenly get quiet and pretend like no one was there. Real smooth, you definitely fooled us.
The worst thing about Little Drummer Boy is that when confronted, he would totally deny it! My hubs once went downstairs to politely ask him to stop, and he was like "What? I wasn't playing any music." even though we knew he was, and there were musical instruments everywhere.

Luckily LDB has since moved out and peace has been restored to our community.

Case 3: McGang Bang, Sexy Times, Dog Abuser

Get ready because this is the worst offender of all, which is one of the reasons he has so many nicknames. This guy has the loudest sex of anyone on the planet. If National Geography and Hugh Heffner teamed up to make an "adult film" they'd both be offended by the noise.
Now, I'm not one to shoot a man's horse, especially if he's having sexy times, but a person can only withstand so much. His girlfriend literally screams at the top of her lungs and yelps like a dog being beaten. It's just too much.

To combat the annoyance, I left a nice note on his door, it read:

Merry Christmas, neighbor! I'm so excited that you're getting laid so often, but if you could do all of us in ----- 549 a favor and keep it down, that would be great! It sounds like someone is being tortured. Thanks!

Okay, I admit, it isn't my best work but I was desperate.

Mr. Sexy Times has so much sex I can't even imagine how it's humanly possible. If his girlfriend is over, basically there will be noises. They've woken us up at 2:30 in the morning, disturbed our guests, and made us consider whether or not someone was actually being abused. We are so irritated that we've jokingly plotted dropping some sort of foul something through his air duct. Don't worry y'all, we won't actually do it.


So there you have it! Have you been graced with horrible neighbors? Tell me all about them!

Xx,

LG

Get Your Gym On

Happy Monday, readers!

Today I'm excited to be linking up with some wonderful ladies. Brittany and Sam are the hosts behind this wonderful link-up, which is about health, so I'm very excited to be joining! Follow along and join in, so see where we're going in 2014!

I've mentioned before that the last year has been a struggle for me in terms of diet and feeling ill. I'm proud to be a more informed and aware 'eater' and I can now manage my diet in a way that keeps me feeling good! A few months ago I also got a gym membership and it has been a huge blessing for me; I have a healthy way to release stress and I can get fit and healthy while doing so! I log my workouts on the Cody app (check it out in the app store) and it's great to see the progress I'm making. My goal for 2014 is to stick to my gym routine and get fit, hopefully fit enough to run a 5k, which would be huge for me considering I've never been a runner!

The past few weeks I've really settled into a gym routine and I feel better than ever! If you're a gym newbie, it may be hard to decide what you want to do once you get there. Sure, there's Susie Sweats-a-lot with her sculpted hiney and perky ta-tas, but even Susie had to start at square 1 (unless surgeons are able to sculpt babies so that they come out looking like that). Moving on.

The easiest thing for me is to map out what I'm going to do that day at the gym, sort of like meal planning, but for my muscles. If I'm doing 'legs day' I look up workouts for legs, figure out which ones will work for me, and then make a routine. I then write down the exercises (I actually put them in my phone) so that when I get to the gym, a.) I can remember what the heck I'm doing, and b.) not talk myself out of anything. I always start out my workouts with some sort of cardio, and I end with stretching! It's important to switch things up, and if you're feeling lousy, put on some fun tunes and crank out your workout!

So there you have it, ladies! Tell me, what are some of your favorite exercises?

Tune in next week, I'll be sharing more about my fitness routine!

Xx,

LG

New Year, New Fitness, New You {Sticking to your plan}

Good afternoon beauties!

With the New Year coming up, I know many (if not all) if you are working on your resolutions and goals for the upcoming year. I'll be joining you with the list making, though some of my goals will be built upon things I've accomplished in this past year.

I'd say most of the resolutions people make involve their health, fitness, or weight. Loads of men and women vow to stay on their diets or even wake up at 5 am every day to go for a run. While those goals may be great, they may also be unrealistic in some ways. But don't worry, today I'm going to help you stick to your plans!

This last year I have spent a great deal of time researching health-related subjects, particularly nutrition. I've never been one to crash diet because those don't work for me, and chances are they may not be working for you either! I've recently (the past year) become more aware of what I eat, and how that affects my body and how I feel. For the first 3-4 months of marriage, I was waking up every morning feeling nauseous, and often getting sick. No, I wasn't pregnant! I was eating foods that were terrible for me. Now, I cook 'clean' just about 95% of the time, so what was up? Gluten. I have become more sensitive to gluten, and when I eat it regularly I suffer a multitude of unsavory symptoms. Dealing with my new dietary changes has been a challenge but it has also opened my eyes and shed new light onto my eating habits! In this new year I'm working on adapting my diet and eating even better.

When you're making plans to change your diet, or fitness routine, there are some key things to remember. Firstly, you are making a lifestyle change, not going on a diet. I can't stress this enough. You're not on a diet, you're changing old habits and making new ones, for the sake of your health and wellness.

Source: pinterest

Secondly, indulge occasionally, and plan your 'cheat meals/days'. I eat well but I still enjoy chocolate, pizza, and other goodies. The key? Moderation. Plan your treats accordingly so you don't go coco-crazy and demolish a carton of chocolate ice cream.

Lastly, every day is a new opportunity to change. Just because you fell off the wagon, that doesn't mean that you have to give up! With that being said, remember that you don't have to go cold turkey and change everything at once! Start making small changes (give up alcohol, only eat pizza once a month, etc.) and then gradually build up to what you're working towards.

Source: pinterest

I hope that these help a bit, if you need encouragement feel free to email me anytime ; )

So....what are your goals/resolutions for 2014?

Xx,

LG

Holidays are Hard

Helloooooo out there!


I have been gone a. long. time. In all seriousness, I am sort of embarrassed that I've left my blog for over a month, but my time away has been packed with work, friends, and a lot of stress.

The day before Thanksgiving my family went through a pretty unfortunate event. I won't give any details (at least as of right now) but let's just say it is a situation that has been tough for all of us. I was so shaken up after the incident that I sort of shut down, and I couldn't bring myself to write, especially not on my blog. Here I am, two holidays later finally getting my footing back.

As of right now I also work retail, and as many of you may know, retail during the holidays is quite a whirlwind adventure (to put it nicely). I have seen some cookey crazy people, been chewed out for the silliest things, and realized what the season is truly about. Yes, I'm a cheeseball.

I feel like I have so much to fill you in on, so stay tuned for future posts (which are soon to come), and in the meantime, excuse me while I catch up on all of my lovely reader's lives!

Xx,

LG

Hiatus

Good morning beautiful babes!

So....I haven't blogged in quite some time, I promise I can explain!

In all honesty, things have been nuts, I've been dealing with some family stuff, and I left my computer charger at my in-law's so my laptop is currently hibernating.

I'm working on a few posts for you but in the meantime enjoy this Friday inspiration!








Xx,

LG