Why Staying in is Better

It was rainy and gloomy for most of the weekend here in Portland. I have no complaints because it allowed me to sleep in, to nap, to watch the entire Season 3 of Game of Thrones and to do very little housework. 

The only mini-complaint I do have is that I made plans and had to leave the house/put pants on. This wasn't too bad after-all considering that I got to witness the Portland Trail Blazers beat the mean 'ole Memphis Grizzlies for the first time this year AND was in bed before 9pm (win!).

For me the weekend has become 2.5 days and nights of pure me time. Time where I'm not on the clock, I'm not attached to my cell phone or my work email. I don't have to do my hair or 'put my face on'. The friends I talk to on the weekends don't care how put-together I come across. It's my absolute favorite, you guys are amazing. 

When I woke up on both Saturday and Sunday morning to texts from 11pm the night before, all I could do was laugh. Don't my friends know about my early bedtime on Fridays because the work week leaves me exhausted? Or that binge-watching an entire season of Game of Thrones would mean no extra time to go out or even meet my mom for coffee?

I'm a homebody at heart and my 26 year old less-worried-about-what-people-think self isn't sorry about it for a single minute.

This gif perfectly captures the way I feel. 

Now that you think I'm awkward and you'll never want to invite me to a party, here's a fun one sided argument for your entertainment:
+ "How to Cure a Hangover" is not in my google search history
+ More likely to get quality workouts in
+ No "cover charge" to hop in your own bed see what I did there?
+ Less likely to "drunk-eat" all of your weekend calorie budget
+ Weekends in have given birth to my new blog design and nerdy shortcuts at work
+ Beer from my fridge is already paid for, and I don't have to tip.
+ No heel-wearing walking injuries
+ What's a taxi?
+ No trying to remember if the new contact in your phone named "John - Weird Laugh" was cute or not
+ And the best of all, I believe that we mentioned above... "no pants".

What do you love about staying in? Or would you drag me off my couch and make me come play?

ASAP Tuesday: The Snooze Button

Okay, So I do love my TED Tuesdays, but every once in a while I want to share something that's a little bit more fun and for everyone to enjoy - not just if you want to work on rejection therapy or if you need to know how you can boost your self confidence. 

Even though I'm moving away from a TED Talk today, I'm still going to throw some education on your faces because I'm nice and we come here to learn don't we? Get ready, here it comes. 

So today we are going to learn about AsapSCIENCE. You can get lost on this YouTube Channel for hours and the beauty of it is that they take anybody's questions, break down the answers into layman's terms, and feed it to us beautifully and entertainingly. 

Since I've been the worst at this lately, we are going to talk about the question of 'should I use the sleep button?'

I try hard to set all the alarms to work out in the morning, but what usually happens is I fight with the alarms every 9 minutes until I am forced to go to get up, take a quick shower and go to work with dirty hair for the 3rd day in a row.

When we look at the science of what's going on in your sleep schedule, hitting that snooze and going back to sleep can actually re-start your sleep patterns and cause you to wake up even more tired than if you would have not had the jolted awakening. Your body should be naturally waking up and has a few processes to go through in order to give you the energy you need to take on your day, and unfortunately we can be harming ourselves by not just setting the alarm for what time we actually need to get up.

We are also harming ourselves by falling asleep to the glow of our laptops and phones in our faces right before shut-eye, but that's a different topic for a different day, isn't it!

Enjoy the next two and a half minutes, I promise you'll learn something. 

As for me, I'm going to sleep in just a little later and maybe get on a better schedule (starting tonight!)

All Over the Place

Today's post might be a little scattered seeing that I'm so happy the weekend is here. at last. 

First Point.

I have a confession to make. I haven't gone for a run the entire month of December. First reason is because the temperature has been in the teen's to high 20's for a few weeks here in Portland. You know that I'm no stranger to running in the rain - but running when my feet will freeze off?? Uh no thanks! 

When I was out on the road for the quick 4 miles on my usual route I realized how much I missed the meditation run provides to a wandering mind. For me, it's not just the cardio for the body, it's the therapy for the mind! 

The second reason I've only done 4 miles this month is that I've been strength training instead! After my run I grabbed some weights and did a squat-press, push-up, ab circuit then stood in front of the mirror [flexin'] amazed at how I'm starting to see definition and tone. Moral of the story? More weights, less running (but still running!)

Second Point.

The next topic today is how I've had a disastrous week of trying to wake up. I don't know what's going on, but I'm somewhat convinced that the alarms aren't really going off. I do hear the first one then hit snooze - but the other 14 I sleep right through I have zero explanation for. When I wake up finally 15 minutes after my "Last chance safety net" alarm was supposed to go off, I shoot up out of bed and try to make something out of my dirty hair. Thank goodness the 5-minute makeup challenge that I call "shit to chic" is perfected. 

Maybe this article on 11 surefire ways to get my azz outta bed will help a sister out. 

Third Point. 
Taking my macros for a spin this week was simply amazing. I've never felt more productive and the reactions from my co-workers on how much time was saved was a validation of my hard work. Every 'standardized' thing that my job requires of me is not completed with the click of a button. Can we get a round of applause?

Fourth Point.

I'm a huge advocate of treating yourself to massage therapy, mani/pedi's and spa experiences. Yesterday I scheduled my first 90 minute float session at the Float Shoppe here in Portland and will be going to visit next week. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

All random posts like this one should end with a pensive sloth.

Stay cool this weekend, you. 

Don't Make Me Get Out Of Bed

There's something about end-of-summer weekends with long runs, football and cozy time that make it difficult to find the motivation to pull out the laptop and blog about my weekend - much less blog five posts for the entire week! I've come to terms with being an inconsistent blogger with so much travel and added work hours lately, but I also attribute it to doing my best to enjoy the last few days of summer before the forecast turns to muck.

I have a happy boyfriend today because his Chicago Bears won a close one yesterday and he has the entire week off from the office.

You have a tired Jessi today because, well, it's Monday and I have a list of reasons why I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. 

1. I fell asleep at midnight after we watched the 3rd to last episode of Breaking Bad.

2. Dan and I are house sitting for my jet-setting parents and their puppies are just too cute.

3. Dan has the entire week off from work. (booo-hissss!)

4. It's dark all the way through to 7am and I'm on the road by 5:20am (get a life Jessi)

5. The commute while house-sitting is 20 minutes longer

6. We destroyed the Steak & Endless Shrimp dinner at Outback Steakhouse last night (something about weekends and endless shrimp)

7. Destroying the eats below = no desire to wear pants. period.

So there you have it!

Running, Football, Cuddles, Naps and Face-stuffing filled my wonderful weekend.

Can you blame me for wanting to hang out with these adorable faces all day? (Bailey not pictured)

Linking up with Sami!

Belated Anniversary Weekend

Let me tell you about the wonderful weekend we just had.

Dan and I had our actual anniversary on August 19th and unfortunately hadn't yet been able to celebrate.  We both think that this weekend was exactly what the doctor called for.

This handsome guy treated me to dinner and a movie Friday evening (Yes, some nights I consider popcorn 'dinner'):

We made it home that evening at a decent time and the next thing I knew I woke up Saturday morning at 10am. While my facebook and instagram feeds were going crazy with collegiate tailgates and trash talking, my dear and I laid in bed falling in and out of sleep - not actually getting out of bed until 3:30 PM!

Trying to be normal human beings, we watched a few of the remaining evening games while I caught up on some work and went out for a run.

To cap the day off, Dan surprised me with an incredibly sweet dinner where we left the house at 10pm.

He said that he was taking me to Red Lobster for endless shrimp to symbolize our 'endless relationship'. Ha-ha I sure love him.

At first he shaved his pokeys and put on a dress shirt - then I told him he had better put some comfortable clothes on as we were about to go get heavy with some meat sweats!

Sunday of course was non-stop NFL with a happy Chicago Bears fan at my side. I went for two different runs and did my best to remember which players he has on his Fantasy Football team and why he gets upset when the team he wants to win is doing well but it's because of a player on the opposing fantasy player's team.

I'll get better - honey, I swear!

JE

Linking up my weekend with Sami

Spin Me 'Round

Yes Friday - you are here finally!

I may be complaining a bit too much about a "long week" since I didn't have to participate in our normal beginning of month craziness. But seriously - days why are you so long?

I think that my boss said it best coming back from 5 weeks vacation that "we have gone backwards". Spin spin spin spin - so much spin it will make you dizzy.

Time to #Backthatazzup and Spin Me Right Round {baby}

Happy Friday!

Backing it Up to Toronto

How fantastic does it feel that Friday is here?

Sometimes Fridays make me feel like dancing, and I mean really dancing.

This week was hard. That kind of hard where you don't know how you got here, how you can take back your life and thoughts like 'how will I ever have a family with this type of workload?'. That can be emotionally distressing for anyone right?  I am thankful to have a guy in my life who doesn't care about mascara and eyeliner smeared on his polo shirts at the end of a long day.

After yesterday's goal setting I really want to start the month off right with some thank you's that are necessary.

Are you ready for a list? 

|| Thanks Mom and Dad for inviting us over last night for amazing Paleo Meatloaf (look for a recipe here soon!)

|| Thanks Dan for letting me vent and understanding what I'm going through.

|| Thanks teammates at work who are undeniably the greatest teammates a girl could have. I know you'll never read this but you keep me going.

|| Thanks Portland for the gloomy and rainy day yesterday, I am a lover of Fall and can't wait for sweater weather.

|| Thanks alarm for getting me an extra hour of sleep yesterday.

|| Thanks kind hearted people who always lend a hand when they see someone who is upset and in need.

|| Thanks to my wonderful friends who haven't given up on me - you know who you are!

|| Thanks to Canada, for having a holiday on Monday and a technical "free day" in the city. Bless your maple leaves.

|| Thanks to Saturday, because you my friend are for sleeping!

And maybe Saturday is also for flying, take it away Sinatra!

Fly Me to The Moon

TED Tuesday: Get More Sleep

Ladies, what do you think about joining me in my mission to sleep my way to the top?

And by sleeping I really do mean getting the best night's rest possible, no strings attached.

I love this TED Talk because it glorifies one of the most wonderful things Dan and I cherish on weeknights and weekends -some quality Zz's.

Through college, I lived off of short naps and craved those long weekends where I could shut down my brain and re-group on my sleep. I wasn't losing sleep because I was out having a great time, I was losing sleep because my day was full of classes and practice and my part-time job.

At that point in my life I didn't have any other time to cram in my homework other than in the ugly hours of the night. I'd force myself to stay awake by doing laundry at 1am, brewing coffee, setting an alarm for every 40 minutes, just in case I accidentally fell asleep while cramming for my next big exam. I'd hunt out the best late night coffee shops and would even become a regular at these places, occasionally scoring a cute guy's phone number out of the deal who was the same kind of 'crazy' that I was.

Because I was still successful and "able to function" with this snooze schedule, I fooled myself into believing that little sleep made me highly productive. It was a poor illusion that I had where I truly believed that those who slept in on weekends, didn't take 8am classes and didn't have bags under their eyes were fools for all the hours they were missing out on.

No Sleep Til' Brooklyn was my jam.

As I've grown older I understand and appreciate the beauty and benefit from a wonderful night's rest. My skin looks better, my eyes are brighter, I'm enthusiastic, I'm driven and all the way around I'm an easier person to communicate with. As a Type A woman driven to make a difference in my world, sleep deprivation is my very worst enemy and Dan's done a great job of getting me into that routine. We are in bed by 9pm most nights and still get 7-8 hours, depending on whether we decide to run or rest in the morning.

More sleep, less caffeine, better decisions and healthier outlook. It's easy.

So thanks for the great reminder, Arianna. We could all use a better night's rest and an opportunity to shut down our engines.

[ted id=1044]

TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading

Catching Z's

This weekend was what every weekend should be.

On Friday Dan and I were able to escape the West side at 4:15pm and we headed straight to the restaurant we go to as a reward if we make it home before 6pm. This restaurant isn't necessarily our 'favorite', but it's a checkpoint for whether we suck at life or if we have a good work-life balance. Most days we don't make it home before 6pm and since that's when happy hour ends we use it as our benchmark. We haven't been able to make it for a few months so I'd say we are failing, but it makes the reward SO worth it when we're good.

What's the reward? Margarita's for $2.45!

But what's even better than happy hour after a long week's work? The sleep that comes after filling yourself with tortilla chips and margaritas.

Dan and I, no joke, were in our pajamas and sawing logs by 6:15 pm on Friday night. You'd think we would have woken up at some weird time and couldn't fall back to sleep, but no - we slept all the way until the morning. It was THE best Friday I've had in a long time. I wasn't even mad that I broke my Fuelband streak, the rest was unbeatable.

Dan had to wake up early on Saturday {sucker!} for a double-work day, but I made the most of the empty bed and slept until 9:30 before heading out for a 9 mile run.

After the run any guesses what I did? I napped. For four hours.

The rest I needed this weekend was long overdue and Dan agrees that we need to spend more time dreaming about bunnies than stressing over spreadsheets.

Of course I didn't just lay around, I had to catch up on a few runs to get to my 33 miles by June 10th checkpoint.

Running Stats:

• Saturday: 9 Miles
• Sunday: 9 Miles
• Monday at 4:15am : 5 Miles

I happily wore no makeup this weekend, had the first samples of the raspberries growing in our backyard, prepped my meals for the week and pre-wrote a few posts for you. Nothing like productivity to start the week off on the right foot.

Even better was having the two golden sisters over to visit Sunday night.

What did you do this weekend? I can't wait to hear about it!