Indoor and Outdoor Slushies

Since it has been freezing, what better thing to do than make slushies?  But not just any slushies, WINE slushies!  I have a few packages of wine slushie mix and we are on a big "use up everything in the apartment" kick (I can explain that too), so we decided to make one.  Basically, you mix a bottle of wine, equal parts water, and this slushie mix (we used the peach mango flavor) and let it freeze for 3 hours.  Lauren, Maggie, and I enjoyed these while watching The Awakening.

And then I decided to run outside yesterday which was a big slushy mess.

I was debating between going to the gym to the treadmill again or to try running outside.  When I checked the weather, it was a whole 9 degrees!  That's like a 40+ degree improvement over what it was  the previous 2 days.  Usually I set 20 degrees as my minimum for running outside, but I decided to go for it.

At first, my face started to feel numb, as did my hands.  I was wearing gloves and all the other necessities, but sometimes they just aren't enough.  I knew I would warm up eventually though.  Less than half mile into the route I was planning to take, I ran into a sidewalk that was not cleared in the slightest.  I thought most had been by this point, but I guess not.  So I turned a different way instead.  About a mile in, my toes were getting cold, but not anything to make me stop.  The terrain was still not the greatest.  I stayed on the sidewalks and some part were clear or at least clear enough, but other parts were miserable and I felt like I was going to fall or roll an ankle the whole time.

So I headed back to my apartment and finished at 2 miles. Splits were 8:44 and 9:13, which normall I wouldn't be too happy with but this was like running through sand at parts and the effort was all there as much as it could be for 2 miles I guess. I got home and did my ab work and foam rolled.  My legs and butt are definitely feeling Tuesday's squats and lunges!

Today's run isn't going to happen until later...or might turn into spinning instead.  So more on that tomorrow.  In the mean time, I need to tell you what I meant by Lauren and I trying to use up everything in the apartment.

We did a major apartment cleaning for the new year and tried to do a lot of organization of cabinets and such.  We (mostly me) have a lot of food items that haven't been used.  I tend to buy freezer food and then forget I have it and it never gets eaten, or have jars of pasta sauce that I never use.  So we went through everything and got rid of anything expired, brought home to our parents houses' anything that we didn't want that they might use, and resolved to eat everything else we have before going grocery shopping again and starting completely anew.  So far it's going pretty well...I do have 3 boxes of pasta and a box of oatmeal that I'll need to eat up, so some days might be a little carb-heavy, but that's OK with me.

We've also been doing the same with beauty products.  We found we have a TON of free sample or travel size items - shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, mouth wash, etc. and are going to use up a lot of that before buying regular sized items again.  I'll keep some of my travel size items of course - like for my trip to Phoenix next week :)

Do you have a lot of food or beauty items that you never use?

What is your temperature minimum for running outside?

No Spend November & Other Monthly Goals

Since boys do No Shave November (which is gross, btw), I decided to make up my own thing called No Spend November.  Maybe it's already a thing somewhere, I don't know, but I made it up in my world.  I know I'm a little late on this post, but here's my plan for No Spend November and a few other monthly goals I just made.

I had a very expensive October.  And really a lot of it was one-time expenses, like my new iPod, a flight to Denver (going next weekend!), a lot of gas for the weekend I drove to Dayton and then to St. Louis, etc.  But there was also a lot of other "discretionary" spending that I would like to get rid of just to save some money.

So basically here's what I'm planning to cut out for the month of November:

- Stabucks - This sucks because it's Gingerbread Latte season and it's cold out, but Starbucks is so dang expensive and I can make free coffee at work.  Obviously the quality is a thousand percent different and the reason I drink work coffee (for caffeine) and the reason I drink Starbucks (for delicious-ness) are completely different.

- Buying clothes -  I've been good about this lately and haven't bought myself many new clothes at all.  And the ones I have bought have been running clothes.

- Eating out for lunch during the week - I do love eating out for lunch and it's so easy, but luckily I've found some good alternative options to pack for lunch, because eating out sure adds up!  It's like $10 a day, plus the $4-5 for Starbucks a few times a week.  I can save hundreds of dollars this month.  Instead, I can just make the best turkey sandwich ever, and also an awesome new salad I've been making:

It is lettuce, turkey chunks, hardboiled eggs, cucumbers, and poppyseed dressing...in a HUGE bowl.  And since I can't go without some type of bread, I've been having half a bagel with it.  But this isn't just any bagel, it's a gingerbread bagel with cookie butter.  It's so amazing and like a dessert.  And if the hardboiled eggs and turkey isn't enough protein, I've been drinking the Bolthouse Farms Protein Plus shakes.  The one in the picture (in my Hangover glass from Grace) is mango flavored and it's really good.

OK, back to my No Spend November though.  Weekend spending on food and alcohol will still be happening.  I have lots of plans for this weekend already, including brunch with Catherine, going out for Christina's birthday, Sunday Funday for the Bears game with Brittany, and hopefully meeting up with Alex while she's in town!  And then a fun weekend with Anne in Denver next weekend!  I'm not going to give up the social life to save money, where's the fun in that?  I even splurge and buy Bud Light now instead of Natty Light.  OK, now we are really off topic.

So here's a random picture to go along with this randomness:

(from the UD Magazine Facebook page)

November running goals:

- Run 100 miles - November is kind of a rebuilding month for me now that the marathon is over and I took some time off.  So time to get back into it and training for the Phoenix Half Marathon.

- Get in at least 2 days of weight training per week - This is something fairly new I'm working on.  I occassionally get into moods where I try weight training, but it never really sticks.  I made up a circuit earlier this week and am going to try to keep doing that or making up new ones.  I'll post them soon!

November blogging goals:

- 20 Posts - This post is only my 4th of the month, but I'm making it my goal to do 20 posts this month!

- Over 500 unique visitors to my site - Google Analytics is super fun.  In October I had 398 unique visitors.

- Get new Twitter Followers - I currently have 146 Twitter followers.  I would like to be at 200 by the end of the year, so I'll go with that I'd like to be at 170 by the end of November.  Follow me here :)

- Get over 100 likes on my Facebook page -I just made a Facebook page for the blog a few weeks ago and it has 87 likes so far.

- My first giveaway! - I am currently being shipped a sample of a fitness-related product for me to try and review and then some to offer in a giveaway to my readers!!  So be on the lookout for that!  And as a heads up, you'll be able to gain more entries to this and future giveaways if you are a twitter follower or fan of my Facebook page, so you might as well get on that now :)

My blogging goals are really quantitative as you can tell!  I like measurable things!  Which is why I like running.

I have a few other personal goals to accomplish before the end of the month or end of the year, but I can't share all those just yet...some big projects I'm working on though.

What are your November goals?

How do you cut your spending when you try to save money?