Oh boy...

This is Clove's new yoga position. He wanted everyone to see. :)

Can it be January yet??

In January we'll be returning to our favorite place in the world--Soho New York! It's going to be our very best Christmas present ever. :)

Converted to Breakfast

I'll be the first to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with breakfast. Generally if I'm not working out very much breakfast just isn't that appealing to me. If I start working out more, however, I get hungrier much earlier (like 9:30...still can't eat as soon as I get up yet). I was advised by a friend that if you eat crap while trying to train for a race, it's going to affect you more than you think. Now this isn't going to stop me from having a little sweet treat or anything :), but it is making me want to make healthier choices if possible.

Ok on to breakfast. A few years ago I went on an oatmeal kick. I would boil steel cut oats, put in a few tablespoons of pureed pumpkin, blueberries, and spices. It is really delicious and kept me full for a long time. Then I just got sick of it and needed a break. Now I am trying to find some healthy and fun varieties for breakfast. Here are a few finds that I am currently loving.


To me this tastes exactly how Cheerios SHOULD taste. I love pairing it with blueberries and raspberries. :)



I love this oatmeal because it has flax seeds and quinoa in it so there's a bit of crunch. The oats aren't as cut and smushy as instant oats are either.


I love Greek yogurt because it has much more protein that regular yogurt. Greek yogurt is also much thicker than regular yogurt because the majority of the water is strained out. It is a little higher in calories than some yogurt, but I don't mind because it has so much protein. The honey is my favorite! It tastes delicious with a little bit of granola added to it.

These are my breakfasts picks for now. Please comment below about your favorites so I have some good recommendations of foods to try. Sorry if you don't like posts about food but I love reading others people's recommendations about foods on their blogs--maybe I'm weird. :)

Yikes, it's been awhile.

Yikes! I didn't realize that it's been so long since I've written something on here. April 25  was the last blog...sorry about that. :/

It has been insanely busy in the Hackett household as of lately. We had an absolutely wonderful vacation in Florida! I think we both came back relaxed and rested--and without air conditioning. Every time we go on vacation we come back and our air conditioning is out. We have now lived in our apartment for about a year and half and just guess how often our AC has gone out. 7 times. Yes, 7 times. We will be moving out when our lease is up in February. :) We're thinking of renting a house somewhere around East Memphis or Midtown...I'm leaning more towards East Memphis because I think it'll be a little safer for me if Mark is gone at work or something. (We really just want to be near Fresh Market, that's pretty much all that matters to us. We're kind of obsessed with it right now).

Back to the AC situation: my sister was nice enough to let us borrow their standup AC unit which was a LIFESAVER. We plugged it up in our room, gathered up the kitties and hibernated in our bedroom until they fixed our AC. She's letting us keep it for the month just in case it breaks again; it will, don't you worry. :/

I got a haircut and got my bangs cut, as seen in the picture below. It was one of those moments where you're indecisive with your bangs. It's either 'they've grown out a lot so I'll just let them be' or 'just cut them b/c I'm bored.' We all know which one won.

Last weekend one of my very best friends Pamela got married. :) It was a beautiful wedding and I'm so very excited for her and Dwight. Here's a picture from the reception:

 Yes the goatee is now gone. I approve :)

When we were in Destin we went to Books-a-Million and I of course immediately when to look at the cookbooks in the sale area (some habits never die). I found this Cooking Light cookbook and knew that it had to have some delicious recipes because my grandmother bought me a subscription to the magazine once and I loved it. So far I've made a Chicken and Rice casserole (it was delicious) and a Vegetable Lasagna (see below). Both recipes were really easy and absolutely delicious. I might be weird, but I kind of like that it has the nutrition info for all the recipes. It's nice to know just in case you need to nibble a little bit more later on. :)

I've also decided, after trying 2 years and failing, to run the St. Jude half marathon in December. In the past I've had 2 stress fractures trying to train for it so I'm trying a different method of training this time. Technically the training doesn't start until around 8 weeks before the race so right now I'm just getting comfortable with running around 3-4 miles and just taking it easier than how hardcore I tried last time. I'm already feeling so much better after a week of working out. It's nice to have a motivator. When I get home from work and all I want to do is be lazy, but I know in the back of my mind that the more training I do the better the race will be. So that's about it, sorry it's been so long since I've last posted. I'll try and be better. :)