Tag Archives: publix

On The Up and Up in Florida!

I hope you guys enjoyed my recap of my father/daughter traditional trip to NYC! It was a great time but the food and drinks definitely got to me and my travel day to Florida this past Sunday was a bit rough in a mental sense. I just felt gross the entire day after getting up really early for my flight (I got around 6 or 7 hours of sleep but Sarah understands…I swear any less than 8 and I’m a mess). I was wearing a slobby travel outfit, had on my glasses, and my hair was in a not-so-chic rat’s nest bun. I felt ridiculously dehydrated, so much so that I couldn’t even finish a little bit of coffee. My pants felt tight (even pants of the yoga variety!) and all I felt like doing once we got to yoga was 40 minutes of P90X Yoga…not nearly “enough”, in my head. To be honest with you, I found myself restricting my intake all that day. I just wanted to feel better about myself. It didn’t really work…it often doesn’t. That’s the lesson I seem to still be learning.

A very Florida Christmas.

A very Florida Christmas.

What DID make me feel better was having a snack after yoga, taking a shower, and deciding to make myself look presentable for our dinner at Duffy’s. I always visit this local chain when I visit; my family consistently looks forward to our Duffy’s dinner. So that was a perfect destination for our first night in town. Putting in some extra effort to blow-dry and straighten my hair, and also putting on a cute breezy outfit, definitely had me feeling better upon our arrival at the restaurant.

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The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: My Last Meal

I don’t think most are interested in reading a book review unless they’ve either read the book or are definitely planning to read it. That’s why I’m such a big fan of the concept of the From Left to Write online blogger book club. Instead of writing a book review, the book is meant to serve as a writing prompt or inspiration for a post in which I can draw on and blog about my own personal experiences.

July’s book is a debut fiction novel by Elizabeth L. Silver – The Execution of Noa P. SingletonThe story switches between narration by Noa in the first person and narration by the mother of the girl Noa is in prison for killing – in the form of letters to her dead daughter. Immediately Noa is revealed as being on death row for the murder of a girl named Sarah, but we don’t know how said murder or its trial occurred. Slowly, those occurrences are revealed. However, I’m not going to write about them. I’m going to write about a topic discussed at length in one chapter of the book – the last meal.

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WIAW: Additional Florida Edition

Oo bet that title confused you just a little bit, huh? Stay quick on your feet folks, because this post will be speedy. I miss blogging so much and have not felt at all satisfied with what I have had time to post which is not much. I had a nice chat with my girl Meg about this yesterday – I also miss reading and commenting on all of YOUR wonderful blogs. But it also doesn’t do me any good to place stress on myself and try to make time for everything, because then what I do end up doing will suffer. I would rather do a few things to my best ability, and right now my top priorities are school and (alas, as much as I hate to say it) work. Hey, I gotta pay the restaurant bills. I have so much more than just FL vacation food recaps to share – there’s a lot of feelings associated with that food and the vacation and my birthday. I hope I will get to go deeper into that soon.

For now though I’m going to quickly use What I Ate Wednesday to recap my eats during my latest vacation to Florida. Alas I haven’t even had time to upload my camera photos so I only have Instagram photos to share for now but will try to share camera pics later when I discuss my feelings on the vacation food/drinks. I’ve recapped FL eats before in this photo-dump manner and it seemed to work well! So let’s get this Jenn-hosted party underway. I landed in Florida on Sunday afternoon 3/24 after some bothersome flight delays, and wasted no time stocking our condo with…provisions.

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WIAW: Florida Vaca Eats!

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway for a copy of the Tone It Up Beach Babe DVD! Check out my thoughts on the post and enter if you are interested!

It’s time to do another notdailyeats take on Jen‘s What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW). I’ve already done that, and if I shared typical workday eats each WIAW, this blog would be Snoozeville, Population: ALL OF YOU.

After all, you’d much rather read/see a recap of the food & drink I enjoyed during my Christmas vacation to Florida, right? I thought so. I already shared my raw/vegan lunch experience at Christopher’s Kitchen with Brittany, and my apricot beer and TooJay’s takeout on Christmas Day, so start there if you haven’t seen those posts!

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Greetings from Florida!

Oh my goodness. I am so excited to be in Florida right now for my first paid-week off from work! I am currently devouring Publix birthday cake, AKA the best grocery store birthday cake ever, and feeling a bit stressed over the pile of recaps I need to do for the blog. But my dad has declared 2012 “the year of chill” AKA “chill twenty-twelve“, and I am trying to take a cue from his book, and worry less. Already with his new chill attitude, I’ve noticed less stress on this vacation – it’s contagious!

A meal from what seems like eons ago, AKA dinner on the 21st.

Baked potato w/Sweetfire Salsa courtesy of Tara, turkey sausage and turkey burger w/spicy yellow mustard, and coleslaw.

I’m still sharing things from a week ago – and that’s a bad sign, since every single day has been absolutely packed with good times, good food, and good workouts! OK, maybe not so much the good workouts.

The fitness center at the hotel where my parents are staying (my siblings and I prefer to shack up at our grandparents’ apartment, which is way cozier to me than any hotel) is quite sub-par and has been forcing me to use the treadmill for my cardio. Still better than running outside in this FL weather I’m no longer used to! I did manage to score a free pass to an LA Fitness, but it was good for only today. I took a Bootcamp class, which was pretty hard, though not as challenging as I’d like. Still, I thought I’d post the routine for you guys since it would be pretty easy to replicate at home!

Bootcamp Workout (created by Janina of LA Fitness in Palm Beach Gardens, FL):

Super easy, right? No equipment necessary (except a mat or a soft surface in general). Remember I did not create this workout and I am not a personal trainer so proceed to use it at your own risk!

The beloved belated Publix birthday cake for my mom.

I have been sticking to my early sleep schedule and just finished my cake, so it’s time to go read and then hit the hay. Gotta be up early to hit the hotel gym again – treadmill, blahhh.

Do you work out while on vacation? What is your attitude towards doing so?