Friday Fun: Truth (and CHO Giveaway winner!)

Oh, guys. I’m sorry. Twice this week, I didn’t post.

I’m a jerk.

In my defense, I just. didn’t. have. time.

I’ll make it up to you, though. Promise.

And I’m even still kind of ruining it because my Friday Fun isn’t that fun this week. It is, however, something that means something to me that I want to share.

This is a clip from one of my favorite shows, “Brothers & Sisters,” which I only discovered last weekend while home sick. I haven’t stopped watching it in my free time (AKA when I should have been sleeping) since.

I’d like to share one of my favorite quotes from it today, as I feel it is extremely relevant in my life at the moment.

“The world is too fragile for people to be untrue. There’s too much at stake, and life’s too short for lies.”

So poignant, so beautiful, and so true.

Truth matters. Be true to yourself and be true to others. There’s no point in anything else.

In happier news, our Chobani Giveaway winner is….

Hooray! Congratulations, Lisa! I’ll email you to get things rolling.

I’d really love it if you guys would share some of your favorite quotes this weekend — especially if they have to do with truth.

Happy Friday. 🙂

Aren’t CHO Glad? Giveaway!

Check out what’s happening in my fridge:

I know, right? And they’re all delicious.

There are three flavors…

0% Blood Orange:

0% Apple Cinnamon:

and 2% Passion Fruit:

(Please excuse the blurry picture. It was on a rainy day that I took these.)

I’ve had the pleasure of tasting these, through multiple breakfasts (but I’ll just share three — one of each!)

I tried the Blood Orange in overnight oats with oats, chia seeds, and flax seed.

You may recall this next breakfast — I tried the Passion Fruit in my Valentine’s Day breakfast, with my Chocolate Granola and strawberries.

And, this morning, I had the Apple Cinnamon in overnight oats(simple — just the yogurt and 1/3 cup oats) with a spoonful of organic, natural peanut butter.

Desk picture!

Smelled like cake batter, tasted like happy.

Want to pop open your own new Chobani flavor?

Of course you do.

So aren’t CHO lucky (ok, I swear, I’m done with that) that Chobani sent me these flavors to try for free (well, I guess I’m the lucky one there) and then offer to you guys as a giveaway?

Of course you are.

Three ways to enter (US residents only, please — sorry, international friends!):

1. Comment here telling me a funny joke. (Make me laugh! I need a few good laughs this week).

2. Tweet about this giveaway, including me @HoneyKaitlin and Chobani @Chobani, linking to this post. Then, comment here linking to your tweet.

3. “Like” me on facebook, then comment here telling me you did.

The giveaway will close at 3pm PST on Thursday, February 23. I’ll announce the winner on my Friday Fun post this Friday, February 24.

Happy entering!

Chobani Giveaway

Yay! First giveaway of the new year! And it’s CHOBANI!

As you know, my New Year’s Resolutions can basically be boiled down to “be healthy this year.”

It’s been very easy so far, much in thanks to Chobani. I’ve had some pretty kick-butt yogurt bowls.

I want you to be able to keep up your healthy resolutions, too. Everyone should be able to have delicious yogurt bowls!

I mean, okay, obviously you can all go out and buy some Chobani. And seriously — you should. These big containers are very cost-effective if you eat yogurt as much as I do… which, of course, you should, because it’s so good for you.

However, I also want to be able to help one of you get some Chobani for free! The company was nice enough to reach out to me and offer me these free samples plus a set to offer for one of you.

These 32oz containers are new and so convenient! They include….

0% Plain:

0% Vanilla:

and 2% Plain:

My favorite is Vanilla, as you probably know (since I eat it all. the. time.) but I love all of them and you will too!

The containers also each have a unique recipe on them that use the yogurts. These are the ones I got:

• Cranberry Orange Bread
• Pumpkin Mini Tarts
• Chobani Gorgonzola Crostini

There are also a bunch more on their recipe page.

To enter the giveaway and help your New Year’s Resolutions by winning these awesome new yogurt containers, you can enter in two different ways (so, up to two entries per person):

1. Enter a comment below with your favorite ingredients in a yogurt bowl.

2. Tweet about the giveaway, linking to this post and copying me (@honeykaitlin) and Chobani (@chobani) in the tweet, then comment here again linking to your tweet.

USA & Canada residents only please (sorry, international readers!) but Canadian readers, please know that unfortunately Chobani can currently only offer the 0% Plain and the container will not have a recipe on the packaging.

UPDATED 1/9/12: I forgot to add an end date/ time to the giveaway! Please enter by noon on Thursday, January 12. I will randomly pick the winner and announce it on Friday, January 13.

Enter away!

My Other Office

So, just as I did back in April, I’ve picked up a little freelance writing work.

I have trouble focusing at home. The TV is there, Mark is there, and my pantry is there.. and all of a sudden I need to know what’s happening on Regis & Kelly and in Mark’s life, and I’m far hungrier than usual.

In other words, if I want to get anything done, I need to go somewhere else.

Enter: Panera. Just like it did in April.

Naturally, instead of working on my freelance work, I’m blogging.

Nothing has changed since high school. Nothing. Anyway, as it turns out, I’m good at finding distractions no matter where I go. But at least when I go to Panera, I know I have to get to work at some point.

I’ve been subsisting largely on coffee ever since I found out they gave free refills.

Seriously, guys. Free refills on coffee. Free refills on coffee! As much coffee as you can drink!!!!

I should probably cut back. I’m feeling a little buzzy.

I also got breakfast at Panera yesterday because I’d just gotten bloodwork done for my surgery after fasting and I was starving. I used to get bagels at Panera all the time back in college when I spent days there doing homework. One of my favorite combinations was the asiago cheese bagel with sun-dried tomato cream cheese.

I was very disappointed to learn that said cream cheese is seriously gone forever. I decided to try the same bagel with veggie cream cheese.

It worked, but it wasn’t the same.

Le sigh.

Anyway, this morning I had no such excuse of fasting and bloodwork and couldn’t rationalize buying breakfast out when I had perfectly good stuff at home, so I made myself breakfast before heading out.

A yogurt bowl, to be specific.

Into the mix went:

• TJ’s Nonfat Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt
• Kashi Go Lean Crunch! Honey Almond Flax
• blueberries
• TJ’s pumpkin butter

Yumsauce.

And now I’m at Panera, sipping my coffee and procrastinating writing a blog post. I should probably get to work.

Oh, but I first “had to” take these beautiful self-portraits to send to my mom. Because, obviously, she misses me. Who wouldn’t?

God, I’m a freak.

And yes, I did do that at Panera. And yes, people were around. And yes, people did look at me like I was crazy and probably considered moving away to a further table.

Whatever. I’m focusing. Duh.

Okay. No more distractions. Time to get to work!

Where do you go to get work done?

Oats & Yogurt, Yogurt & Oats

I have had a stress headache nearly every of this week.

I don’t want you to get the wrong idea — everything is actually fantastic and I’m stressed for good reasons! — but this week has been, without a doubt, completely overwhelming. My life is going through a ton of changes right now (again, good ones!) and I’ve had to make a lot of decisions. While it’s all very exciting, I also feel like I’m not on stable ground.

In order to maintain a state of any normalcy, I’ve needed the simple things to stay simple.

One of those simple things is breakfast. Invariably, every day this week, I’ve had some version of oats and yogurt and fruit.

Whether it’s been a yogurt bowl (man, it’s been SO LONG since I’ve posted a yogurt bowl on here — this is exciting!)…

… or overnight oats (that’s my very first post! crazy!) in a nut butter jar…

… or a pracitcally famous Cake Batter Smoothie…

… I’ve seriously been having oats and yogurt and fruit every day.

The “into the mix“es:

Yogurt Bowl

• 1 container TJ’s Honey 0% Greek Yogurt
• blueberries
• 1/4 cup raw oats
• 1/3 banana
• drizzle peanut butter

Overnight Oats

• leftover almond butter in the jar
• 1/3 cup oats
• 1 container TJ’s Honey 0% Greek Yogurt
• 1 tbs unsweetened almond milk
• dash cinnamon
• blackberries

Cake Batter Smoothie

(this is a new take on it and I loved it!)

• 5 ice cubes
• 1 tbs plain whey protein powder
• 1 tbs carob powder
• 1/4 cup raw oats
• 2/3 banana
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1 tbs 0% plain greek yogurt
• drizzle sunflower butter (made it!)

Oh, and I totally used a different glass for the picture than I actually used for transport/ drinking. I have a blogging vanity problem.

In the midst of changing glasses, I also added a broken up chunk of Cacao Bliss…

Best. Idea. Ever.

It was amazing.

Let’s see, what else? I haven’t updated my rehab recaps all week.

Rehab Day 51 (Thursday)

Okay. I don’t want to lie to you. I honestly don’t remember. I’ve been staring at the screen for three minutes trying to recall what I did. I likely did the PreCor for 50 minutes. I know I did something but all I remember is not being able to go to my strength class for some reason.

Rehab Day 52 (Friday)

Nothin’ but a 2-mile walk with Mark to get coffee. I was out super late the night before!

Rehab Day 53 (Saturday)

65 minutes PreCor

Rehab Day 54 (Sunday)

Glorious rest day.

Rehab Day 55 (Monday)

50 minutes ProCor

Rehab Day 56 (Tuesday)

45 minutes elliptical.

I was supposed to go swimming, but I couldn’t find my bathing suit or towel anywhere! I decided a quick elliptical workout was better than nothing.

Oh, and the bathing suit and towel have since been found. They were somehow in Mark’s laundry? Weird.

Rehab Day 57 (Wednesday)

50 minutes PreCor

Rehab Day 58 (Thursday)

30 minutes PreCor + 45 minutes strength training circuit

Rehab Day 59 (Friday)

1 hour yoga with Mark

And now, time for a CRAZY weekend! I am so excited for everything I have planned but I’m already exhausted just thinking about it.

What have YOU been eating for breakfast lately? Maybe I need some new ideas. I might burn out on oats & yogurt! (Doubtful).