You Choose Ryan’s Outfit (+ Q & A!)

In lieu of a dinner post, I hope you will all enjoy a fashion post!

Please join me as we take a trip back in time to the ’80s! 😀

Ryan is leaving on his bachelor party cruise tomorrow and instead of donning a spiffy suit on the cruise’s formal night, he and his buddies are dressing in formal ’80s attire.

Please help him choose his ensemble:

Option One:

Option One

Option Two:

Option Two

Option Three:

Option Three

To encourage participation in this serious dilemma, Ryan wants to offer one random commenter a prize: A personal thank you email from him. Isn’t he generous? 😉

Q & A: Round 5 Billion

It’s that time again! I’m catching up with questions you guys have submitted through my Q & A page or through the anonymous form. I’m almost all caught up! Woop, woop! 🙂

If I didn’t answer your question below, please check my Q & A page. I also may have answered it in a previous Ask Me Anything post and didn’t want to bore people with the same questions and answers every time.

Aaaand we’re off!!!

Do you ever experience the “afternoon slump” at work? If so, what do you do to get some energy?

Oh lord, yes. One day at work I said I had the “3 o’clock itch” which my coworkers found humorous for some reason. Now we all talk about having “the itch.” 🙂 To combat an afternoon slump, I always pack a snack to enjoy between 3 and 4 p.m. I find that eating something wakes me up a bit! I will also often make a cup of tea (mainly because it’s so darn cold in my office), which also helps me feel rejuvenated.

I have a hard time coming up with healthy snacks. Can you provide some suggestions?

• String cheese microwaved on a whole wheat tortilla folded (a microwavable quesadilla!)
• Cinnamon peanut butter chickpeas
• Greek yogurt with nuts and fruit
• Yogurt pudding
• Apple or pear with peanut butter
• Homemade trail mix (nuts, whole-grain cereal, peanut butter/butterscotch/chocolate chips)
• Cherry tomatoes with goat cheese
• Edamame
• Popcorn sprinkled with protein powder
• Sandwich thin with peanut butter
• Healthy homemade chips and dip

Do you color your hair?

Nope. Never have.

Did you ever feel pressure to become engaged with you and Ryan were dating? If so, how did you deal with it?

No, I didn’t. Ryan never pressured me and my parents are all about taking your time and waiting until you’re 100 percent ready.

What is your favorite brand of peanut butter?

Though I love all the delicious gourmet peanut butters out there, I am a little partial to Skippy Natural peanut butter because it tastes exactly like the peanut butter we all grew up loving.

Have you ever modeled?

No. I was in a commercial when I was like 5 years old, but it was for the credit union my dad worked for and was only shown on local stations. I’m famous!!! 😀

Do your parents and Ryan’s parents get along?

Yes! Thankfully everyone gets along really well! My mom and Ryan’s mom actually got together for lunch a month or so ago without us. It makes me happy!

It looks like you’re pretty into reading labels and only eating things you can pronounce (awesome!) but then you use stuff like Splenda and sugar-free syrup which aren’t natural at all. Why not just use real sugar?

I wish I had some fantastic answer to this question, but my answer is simply because I like Splenda and I like sugar-free syrup. I like the fact that I only need a half a packet of Splenda to make my coffee taste as sweet as a lot of sugar since it’s sweeter than regular sugar. I also like that sugar-free syrup is typically runnier than regular syrup, which I find too thick and sticky and I don’t like how it doesn’t disperse over my pancakes as easily. I know Splenda is basically shunned in the healthy-living blogging world, but I like it and stand by my Splenda! I am a cautious eater for the most part, so I think a half of a packet of Splenda or some sugar-free syrup every now and then is a-okay… but that’s just me! You may make the decision that’s right for you. Splenda haters, feel free to ostracize me.

What time do you typically go to bed?

We try to be in bed by 10 p.m. every night.

Have you ever tried spinning?

Yes. I love spinning! I haven’t taken a spinning class recently though because my cardio workouts have been limited to running since I’ve been training for a half marathon. I’m excited to incorporate more spinning into my workout routine now that the half marathon is overrrr.

Does Sadie sleep in a kennel at night or is she free to sleep wherever she pleases?

For the most part, Sadie is free to sleep wherever she pleases, which is usually in bed with us. We’ll kick her out on occasion though and she’ll usually sleep on the couch or in our guest room.

Have you ever considered becoming a vegetarian/vegan due to animal rights or any other reason?

Yes, I have. I do, however, believe that we can make educated decisions about our meat and select meat products that come from farms (or the wild!) where animals are treated humanely. I have reduced the amount of meat in my diet significantly in the past year, but don’t want to put a label on myself. Sometimes I’ll go several days without eating meat without even realizing it. If I want to eat meat once a week or once a year, that’s fine with me, but I hesitate to fully declare myself a vegetarian because I believe I can still fuel my body with meat that comes from a good place that treats animals humanely.

What is your advice for someone looking to break into the public relations or writing field?

I get this question a lot! As far as finding a job in the public relations or writing field, I would highly recommend checking out websites for professional organizations such as the Public Relations Society of America (Florida folks can check out FPRA, too!) because many companies will post jobs there to avoid receiving applications from all different types of people that they may get by posting on craigslist.com or through CareerBuilder.com.

As far as writing jobs are concerned, when we’re looking to hire new writers at my company, I always look for quality writing samples (examples from class are great, too) because it’s very easy for someone to SAY they can write, but it can be a lot harder to actually find decent writers (it’s actually VERY hard). I strongly encourage anyone interested in writing to have some quality samples handy for this very reason! If you’re a student, try to write for your college newspaper or get something published in a local magazine so you have something tangible to bring to an interview. Also, if you’re familiar with certain writing styles (like AP), list this as a skill on your resume to alert potential employers of your solid base in a certain professional writing style.

***

I’m off to spend the rest of the night hangin’ with Ryan since I’m gonna miss him when he’s gone!

See ya in the mornin’!

Once Sad, Now Glad

Arugula is one heck of a flavorful salad green. It makes iceberg lettuce seem like crunchy water.

I love the peppery taste of the leaves and find that it adds a lot of flavor to an otherwise simple salad.

When I saw a 50/50 combination of organicgirl baby spinach and arugula on sale at the grocery store on Monday night, I scooped it up and planned to use the leafy greens as the base for a yummy salad.

organicgirl Arugula + Spinach

This afternoon that’s just what I did! 😀

Colorful Salad

My salad contained:

• organicgirl baby spinach and arugula
• roasted Brussels sprouts
• carrots
• green pepper
• grape tomatoes
• ½ c. Seapoint Farms edamame
• Kerry and Loni’s Bean Tastico salsa

The Goods

On the side I enjoyed a fresh peach and a blue raspberry Ring Pop, leftover from the bachelorette party fun!

Plump Peach

Fun fact about Ring Pops: In my advertising campaigns class in college we had to re-market a product currently on the market to a new niche. I re-marketed Ring Pops as wedding favors to young adult women.

Ring Popper

Everythaaaang

Once Sad, Now Glad

Enjoying the Ring Pop after lunch today made me think about childhood candy and the things I was and wasn’t allowed to eat growing up.

My parents never let me and my sister drink soda, unless we were at a special event (then we’d always order a kiddie cocktail)! At the time I was sad that I couldn’t offer my friends a can of soda when they’d come over to my house to hang out, and I was sad I couldn’t sip on a cold can of Dr. Pepper whenever I wanted.

Now I’m honestly glad I wasn’t allowed to drink soda. I never crave it and don’t think to order it in restaurants. I guess my parents were on to something…

What is something you weren’t allowed to eat or drink growing up? Do you still avoid it today?

The Elusive Pint

Ooooh breakfast. You are my reason for waking up in the morning. 🙂

I love a filling breakfast and find that my morning meals that contain peanut butter are some of the most satisfying. Gotta love those healthy fats that stick to yo’ ribs!

Today’s breakfast was a peanut butter and peach sandwich that I prepared on an Arnold multi-grain sandwich thin.

Hump Day Breakfast

I sprinkled the nut butter and peach slices with pumpkin pie spice to make it look extra purdy for you guys and also add a little bit o’ flava.

Peachy Keen

On the side I enjoyed several fresh strawberries.

Sweet Strawberries

I love how sweet strawberries are in the summer. They’re so touch-and-go in the winter, but summer berries are always perfectly ripe.

Workout

I woke up a little nervous about my workout this morning. After a week away from strength training, I had a feeling my usual 5:45 a.m. Wednesday BodyPump class would kick my little tooshie.

I was right… kind of. I figured I would struggle through the squats and lunges since I assumed my legs would feel fatigued after Sunday’s half marathon, but I actually found the bicep and should tracks the most challenging. Go figure!

It felt great to feel the burn again! Healthy Julie is back!  We’ll just forget about that little bowl of Ben & Jerry’s peanut butter cup ice cream I had last night, mmm kay? 😉

Actually… Let’s talk about Ben & Jerry’s for a second.

In college Ryan and I fell in love with Ben & Jerry’s oatmeal cookie chunk ice cream.

Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk

It is seriously amazing. Sweet cinnamon ice cream with chunks of oatmeal cookies and a ribbon of fudge. It’s heaven in a pint.

Well, we haven’t been able to find this ice cream for years! The grocery store by Ryan’s old apartment is the only location we’ve ever seen carry it. We literally check every grocery store we visit for a pint of this stuff with no luck.

It’s quite the elusive little guy.

Questions of the Morning

• Have you ever had a product you love be discontinued or suddenly become very hard to find?
  
• Which cookie do you prefer: Oatmeal or chocolate chip?