Last Saturday I treated myself to a lot of “me time” with the most relaxing and productive day. I started by checking out The Freya Project Run Club. It’s been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but just haven’t yet. With the start of a new year I figured there was no better time to start. It was great to actually run with people again (I have been going solo for so long!) and to run in a new part of town. It reinvigorated me a little bit.

Later I went to hang out at Cafe Europa all afternoon. I love coffee shop afternoons and haven’t had one in a while. It was pretty amazing. I sat there for at least 4 hours sipping on coffee, working on various things and getting lost in the internet. It was my first time there and I will definitely be back.

The rest of the evening was spent with a delicious, healthy dinner, In Defense of Food, and lots of blog reading.

It might be a difficult Saturday to top, but Katie and I are going into the mountains this Saturday, soooo… you know, that’ll be cool.

Cool like these things:

• It’s time for all the salads: crunchy taco kale salad, chickpea shawarma salad, quinoa and kale protein power salad, killer kale salad, the mean green detox salad, and citrus avocado salad.
• But also: salted tahini chocolate chip cookies.
• I rarely get glam (um, hi, I work in a gym), but these 5 reasons make me kind of want to.
• 14 Drake lyrics to inspire you in business and Drake on cake to inspire you in the kitchen.
• The insider’s guide to Nashville. It really is an awesome city.

Okkkkk. Enjoy your first official Thursday of 2016!!!

xoxjd

This weekend I went skiing for the first time in 5 years. It was amazing, but slightly frightening at the same time. I need lessons. Any tips?

After driving up to Arapahoe Basin last Saturday through snow and fog, my friends and I decided to have a beer before hitting the slopes. By the time we finished our beers, got geared up, and went down the bunny hill 3 times they announced last call. Oops. We made it down the bunny hill one more time for an approximate 15 minutes of skiing.

On Sunday morning we planned to get to Keystone by 8:30, but instead we slept until 8:30 (because we uhhh… had some fun in Breckenridge) and got there at 10:00. By the time we geared up, rode the bus, and actually made it up the chairlift it was 11:30. Our goal was to leave Keystone at 12:00 so that we would miss traffic and get home in time for my friend to make it to work. Oops again. We had time to go down once. Good thing it was a 3.5-mile run, so at least it was somewhat worth it. Also, the beauty of having a ski pass is that you don’t have to pay lots of dollars in lift tickets for a little amount of skiing!

One thing we did do right was to make sure we left the mountains at a decent hour. We hit the road by 12:30 and had essentially no traffic. To celebrate we had brunch at Sputnik when we got back.

Overall, the weekend was such a blast and did teach us a few lessons:

• The ski lifts stop running at 4:00 pm (unless there is night skiing).
• Don’t leave your snow pants, jackets, gloves, and boots in the car overnight, because they will be freezing when you put them on in the morning, especially when it’s only 8 degrees outside.
• Frozen boots will take you about 15 painful minutes to put on.
• Be patient. There is a lot of “hurry up and wait” involved with skiing (on busy days at least).
• Leaving at noon is a good idea, because there will be minimal traffic.

Rookie mistakes, but at least we learned from them! I’m looking forward to going again and skiing for more than 15 minutes.

Then there are also these things unrelated to skiing, but all very fun:

• What does your favorite holiday cookie say about you?
• How to setup a holiday bubbly bar. This really needs to happen in my life.
• Find the best red lipstick for your skintone. Just in time for the holidays.
• These travel bucket list experiences are all amazing. I’ve hiked Machu Picchu. 1 down, 19 to go.
• An awesome article about 3 damaging lies women believe about their bodies.

I hope you get your holiday on this weekend! Katie and I are having a roomie brunch on Saturday with quiche, mimosas, and Christmas movies. It’ll be great.

I feel like I’ve been slacking on my posts a little bit here. It’s not that I’m crazy busy, but rather that I don’t have a consistent schedule like I used to in Minneapolis. At General Mills I knew I would be working Monday-Friday 8:30ish-5:00ish and could properly plan my schedule around it: when to bake, when to blog, when to run, when to meet up with friends. Now I may be at work from 8:00-7:30 one day and only 11:00-2:00 the next – all depending on my clients. For a Type A planner such as myself this throws me a little bit off of my game. I think it’s probably good for me though.

The great thing is that the days absolutely fly by! On Tuesday I was at 24 Hour Fitness for just shy of 12 hours. I trained 6 clients, consulted with 2 new members, attended a meeting with the other trainers, and fit in a quick workout myself. It went faster than any 8-hour day at General Mills. Needless to say, I’m happy with my career change so far.

So anyways, I’m going to try to work on my hustle and stay consistent with my posting. Otherwise my mom will call me out.

Also, the Denver sunrises are insanely fierce and I like these things:

• I forgot how genius chocolate bark. Check all these out: dark chocolate cherry quinoa bark, pretzel peanut butter stuffed chocolate bark, mint chocolate swirl bark, chocolate almond ginger bark and cherry almond bark. I think I need to make some.
• Then there are all of these amazing cookies on Sally’s Christmas Cookie Palooza.
• Settl, a great new online dating app 😉
• Do you have an RBF (Running Bitch Face)?
• A guide to craft beer, just in case you need it.

Oh! And did you see that my Chocolate Pistachio Meringue recipe made it to a post on Buzzfeed -> 17 Fantastic Recipes for Meringue Cookies. It made me just a leeeetle bit excited.

Have a great Thursday!!!

It’s been getting cold here, so the snow is actually starting to stick to the ground and accumulate. Let me tell you, 25 degrees in Denver does not feel like 25 degrees in Minneapolis. Thank you, sunshine. It’s pretty incredible.

And these things are pretty cool too.

• Last weekend I was really tempted to watch Christmas movies, but decided to wait and watch old movies instead (while knitting, naturally). I watched How to Marry a Millionaire, High Society, Roman Holiday, His Girl Friday, and Anchors Aweigh and just can’t get enough. Any recommendations?
• A pretty updo that is casual, but would be awesome for any upcoming holiday parties.
• Let’s go to all these fairy-tale towns in Germany, but then also make a stop in Berlin (because, Berlin).
• All of these cookbooks are gorgeous.
• I’m really tempted to buy this sweatshirt.

The picture above is an exception to what I mentioned earlier about the sun. Normally there are less clouds and more rays.

Happy Thursday!

JD