**For most of you, the following post might seem a little out of left field, but if you keep reading on, I think you’ll see what’s up!

If you had asked me two years ago what I’d be doing on this very day, January 27th, 2012, I can guarantee you that my answer then would have been a whole lot different than it is today.

I probably would have told you that I’d be fully submersed in a classroom full of kiddos, teaching them all about “X,Y, and Z.” I most likely would have told you that I was completely and utterly in love with my job…but I also would have been lying to you. Because, you see, it was about two years ago when things started to change.

In April of 2010, I began this little ‘ol blog, Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life as a hobby. Something to do when I actually had some spare time on my hands. As anyone who has ever started a blog of their own, you know that feeling of “hearing crickets” wondering if anyone is even out there. It started off quite small, with my readership basically consisting of Jay, my parents, and maybe a few friends. But I was okay with that. I was okay with it because it didn’t matter to me who was reading…it mattered to me because I just simply loved what I was doing.

As I began to immerse more and more of my time into blogging, I suddenly found that my once mild appreciation for health and fitness was quickly sparking into something more. Something great, in fact. And my career in education – the one that I spent six years in college for – the one that (I thought) was once undoubtedly my direction in life, slowly began to fizzle out.

It took me a long time to really, fully understand what was happening, but it finally got to a point where it could no longer be ignored. I was evolving as an individual. What were once hobbies for me were now so much more than that. It was time to make a change.

So that’s what I did. I said goodbye to the field of teaching, and this past September, I began pursuing my newfound passions. I worked hard and I studied harder. My quest for a new career as a personal trainer was now in full swing.

In December, I passed my exam, and now, not even two months later, I am gearing up to begin a brand new job as a full-time personal trainer.

I often wonder…if I hadn’t started this blog, where would I be today? Would I still be teaching? Would I be as passionate about fitness as I am now? But you know what? I don’t like to live in a land of what-if’s. I’ve long believed that everything happens for a reason. There’s a reason why I had to endure those tough moments this past year, and honestly, I couldn’t be more glad that I did.

Doors that I never knew existed have begun opening for me, and my life has changed in ways that I never knew could. I have evolved, and this blog has evolved more than I would have ever imagined. I’ve had so many amazing opportunities presented to me, and today, I have another one right at my fingertips.

As many of you know, I am an ambassador with FitFluential, a nationwide network of fitness enthusiasts sharing their journey both online and offline through multiple social media platforms.

Right now, FitFluential has presented me with an opportunity to write for some pretty big, pretty amazing, nationally-acclaimed healthy living magazines. Yes, the ones I’ve been reading since high school. The ones that have graced my coffee tables, night stands, gym bags, and book bags for years.

So what makes me think I should be chosen for this job? Well, in case I haven’t convinced you a little bit already, let me quickly tell you why…

***Aaaand this is where my audition video SHOULD go, however I apparently am a video dummy and am still having problems putting it together. If I get my act together, I’ll add it in. I spent all day long working on it, so I’m not giving up yet. Promise!***

But hey, sometimes we gotta roll with the punches, so here’s what my audition video WOULD have said is…

Over the past year a half, health and fitness have become one of my greatest passions of all. I decided to start writing this blog, and what began as a small hobby quickly developed into a full-blown passion. After a whole lot of sleepless nights, tears, and uncertainty, one day it all finally clicked for me, and that’s when I decided to leave my teaching career behind me and begin pursuing what I felt most strongly about: health and fitness.

There is not a day that goes by where I don’t absolutely love sitting down and typing my little heart away on this blog. Whether it’s a new healthy recipe, a fun new workout, or me just sharing my daily musings with the fur ball, I love sharing it all.

I think, however, one of my favorite parts of blogging is the interaction I get with my readers. I often get emails about lots of different topics; sometimes they tell me how something I’ve said or done has inspired them to make healthier decisions. Sometimes they might thank me for showing them that life is too short to be stuck doing something that you don’t love…and they’ve decided to follow their passions and do what they truly want to do.

Sometimes, though, I’ll get emails or comments from readers thanking me just for being relatable…and THAT is why you want me to write for you. Me and your readers? We could be like *this* – I live a life of balance, and I like to show that health and fitness, and healthy living, can be attainable for anyone. I’m not a hardcore runner, I’m not a major body builder, and I’m definitely not the cleanest eater in the bunch, but that’s just what makes me…me.

So you see, this is why you want me to write for you. And if I haven’t already convinced you yet, come out and join me tonight and I’ll buy you a drink. Or, you know, a green smoothie…

Don’t worry, it’ll be our little secret.

WOO HOO, it’s Friday! I’m really hoping that today goes by quick because I’ve got some super fun plans for tonight.

For the past few years, Jay and I have hosted a fun little birthday party at our house, since it’s the perfect excuse to get together with friends in the dead of winter. While I’ve only been blogging long enough to recap one of these parties, they are always quite a blast. A couple of those years, we’ve even incorporated a luau theme because, hey, who doesn’t want to dress up in grass skirts and tank tops in January, right?

There have been many, many fun memories made at the luau birthday parties.

Especially this year, in 2009. That red bucket right there? Filled with some of the most delicious and dangerous “Agent Orange” punch you’ll ever drink. All I’ll say is, Jay and my brother did not find it necessary to drink the punch out of cups…

‘Nuff said.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out a way to finagle a party this year, so instead, we invited a bunch of our friends out to a local bar/restaurant for a casual little birthday celebration. It may not be a luau, but I’m just so looking forward to getting to see everyone. It’s gonna be a blast!

*****

Last Night’s Dinner

Since I really only shared my new birthday week flowers last night, I never got a chance to catch ya’ll up on dinner.

I’m telling you, I am LOVING these quinoa bowls!

I mixed up a quinoa bowl, which was filled to the max with sundried tomato chicken sausage, spinach, tomatoes, red onion, and roasted cauliflower. I then mixed it all together with a few splashes of sundried tomato basil vinaigrette and a wedge of The Laughing Cow Light Swiss Cheese, which made everything super creamy.

It.was.awesome.

Breakfast

Since I have the time this week, I’m really enjoying having breakfast first and THEN taking care of my workout a little later (I start full time at the new job next week). So this morning, I got right to work on the good stuff.

Another egg, provolone, turkey bacon, and jam sandwich made on a toasted whole wheat English muffin.

I can’t even tell you how excited I am that I found some turkey bacon that I actually like and actually tastes somewhat similar to the actual stuff (it’s Jennie-O brand, btw).

Coffee was another delicious mug of English Toffee. Mmmm mmmm.

I’ve got a few things to try and take care of this afternoon, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for productivity.

Happy Friday!!

Today marked Day 4 of Birthday Week.

And this evening, I was greeted with a lovely surprise bouquet of tulips. But not just any tulips…purple tulips.

My most favorite color.

Boy, I sure do love Birthday Week…

And I sure do love this guy, too.

I’ve only got about another hour left until I officially have my new car starter and I can.not.wait. From the looks of it, it seems like it’s a good thing I got it done today because it’s starting to look more and more wintery out there. Booo.

Earlier today, before heading out, I wound up doing a quick superset workout which was great. I’ll definitely be sharing soon because I loved everything about it – quick and effective for sure!

Once I had that checked off my to-do list, I dropped off my car to get worked on and then it was time for my lunch date. We ended up at a place in downtown Albany called Wolf’s 1-11; I’ve been here once but it went by a different name. Nothing mind-blowing, but we did score a seat upstairs which left us with a pretty cool view.

For lunch, I decided to order their Waldorf Salad.

The chicken was nice and fresh, which I loved, but it wasn’t until I finished taking the photos that I realized that half of my order was wrong.

The waitress remembered to get my walnuts and blue cheese on the side, but I had no apples, no grapes, no croutons, and the completely wrong dressing. Luckily, she was very sweet and got it switched out pretty quick…but then my dad went and got me paranoid that somebody probably went and peed on it.

Oy vey. I can always count on dad to crack jokes. Always.

After my fun lunch date with that handsome devil above, I headed out to the mall quick to pick up a few necessities.

Since I’ll be starting up at the new job full time next week, I figured it’d be a good idea to stock up on a few extra pairs of black stretch pants. I’ve always loved the Stretch Fold-Over Pants from Express, and they were even buy 1 get one 50% off. Pair that with my $15.00 off birthday coupon, and it wasn’t too bad of a deal!

I was also in need of some new studs, so I went and picked up my trusty “buy 2 get 1 free’s” from Claire’s (aka, my favorite place to buy earrings – I don’t care what anyone else says). My typical purchase is almost always two pairs of studs (since I have three holes and leave these in the top two) and one pair of fun ones. These hoops totally stood out to me today.

Once I got my necessities, I bolted out of that mall as fast as I could in order to stop myself from doing major damage with the credit card. Today was definitely one of those days where everywhere I turned, I thought “wow, I need that.” It was not good.

BUT, I managed to get out without doing any harm to the plastic, and rewarded myself with a pit stop at Starbucks for an iced coffee.

Don’t worry…I had a gift card.

Now I’m planning on catching up on a few more things while I’m here before heading back out to pick up my car. Hopefully this snow lets up a bit because I really, really dislike driving in it…especially during rush hour!

Happy Thursday, friends! How’s life treatin’ ya this morning?

I woke up a little on the groggy side this morning, thanks to two glasses of wine last night at trivia. Yes, apparently I’ve become that girl. A two beer wine queer.

Ehh, that doesn’t really go well, now does it? Ahh well. You get the gist.

I decided to hold off on an early morning workout and get right to breakfast because it was all I could think of from the minute I got up. Not that that’s any different from any other day, but you know.

Check out all of those colorful berries!

Apparently, I had a craving for them during my last shopping trip, wouldn’t ya say? Either way, I’m glad I did because today’s bowl of mixed berry oats was super yummy. To make the oats, I used

• 1/3 cup Coach’s Oats
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tsp chia seeds
• 1/2 scoop vanilla SunWarrior protein powder
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (<—YUM!)
• cinnamon & nutmeg

I nixed my usual banana today, since mine aren’t nearly ripe enough…and if you’ve ever tried making whipped banana oats with a non-ripe banana, then you know what I’m talkin’ about. But with all the sweetness of these berries, I didn’t even miss it.

The mixed berries (both stirred in at the end of cooking and on top) were amazingly delicious, especially when paired with a sprinkling of Love Grown Foods granola. This bowl totally had me thinking spring & summer time…don’t I wish.

I also made sure to try my new English Toffee liquid stevia in this morning’s coffee, and I’m happy to report that I am definitely a fan.

I’m pretty sure Code-man wanted in on the goods this morning, too.

He couldn’t keep his eyes off of it and even went in for a swig of coffee twice. He’s a ballzy little thing, I’ll tell ya!

*****

This afternoon, I have an appointment to get a brand new car starter installed in my car (a gift from Christmas) and I could not be more excited about it. Even though my last car had absolutely nothing power about it, it did have a car starter installed, which I just loved.

So while I’m out getting the new one put in today, there’s also plans to have a lunch date with dad. Can’t wait!

Holy moly, my door step has been getting quite a workout this week! Does everyone else know that it’s Birthday Week or something?

Not only did I get that amazing box of Peanut Butter Cheerios, but I also found another equally amazing package waiting for me yesterday afternoon…

A Chobani care package, filled with all three of their newest flavors: Apple Cinnamon, Blood Orange, and Passion Fruit. I can already attest to the fact that the apple cinnamon and blood orange flavors are some of the most delicious things on the planet; I still have yet to try the passion fruit, but don’t worry, it’s on my agenda.

I debated on trying it for a mid-morning snack today, however, I just could not resist that darn apple cinnamon.

It’s just that good.

Fast-forward a few hours and it was time for lunch (which was actually eaten shortly after I took all of those crazy things out of my hair).

I had a simple turkey wrap today, made with a few slices of low-sodium deli turkey, a generous smear of hummus, lettuce, tomatoes, and bread & butter pickles, all on a LaTortilla Factory High Fiber Whole Wheat wrap.

I paired the wrap with some carrots and tomatoes with extra hummus to round out the meal.

Shortly after lunch, there was another ring of my doorbell, which turned out to be my most recent order from iHerb.com.

iHerb.com is my go-go website for buying my beloved PB2, and I noticed the other day that I was running low and figured I should stock up. Not only did I order two jars of the regular, but I also splurged and finally decided to go for the chocolate PB2.

I have high hopes for this dreamy little jar. Don’t you worry, I’m sure you guys will be seeing it around these parts soon enough and I’ll fill ya in. Has anyone else tried it yet? Is it as wonderful as I’m imagining?

Since peanut butter is sort of my thaaang lately, I decided to try another new one, in the form of Justin’s Honey Peanut Butter Blend. I’ve seen Justin’s PB around for a while, but I can’t remember ever trying it before.

Either way, it has honey, so I’m excited.

The last item in my order is another one that I’m also particularly psyched to try out. I ended up coming across this Sweet Leaf Liquid Stevia in English Toffee flavor and before I knew it, it was in my shopping cart.

I can only imagine how this is going to taste in my morning coffee tomorrow!

***And just a reminder, for those of you who may not know…all new customers to iHerb.com can receive $5.00 off their first purchase with the use of my coupon code: SAZ564. Just click here to start shopping!

*****

Tonight, Jay and I are actually heading out to trivia with some friends of ours, but before I go, I’ve got to announce the winner of my Valentine’s Day Gift Giveaway…

The winning entry is…#60!

Congratulations, Julie! Shoot me an email (sweettoothcourtney[@]gmail[.]com) so I can get you in contact with Christina!

Alrighty folks, time to go get my trivia on…it’s boys against girls tonight. Oh snap!

Sooo, I’m switching gears a little bit this afternoon. That cool? Ok, cool.

Hey, you guys want to see something funny?

Sexy, isn’t it? And that’s not even counting the fact that I’m wearing a men’s sweater from Old Navy that I bought for Jay a year ago, which shrunk and I was too lazy to return it. This is how I often end up with many of my cozies, FYI.

But anyway…let’s get back to that other mess going on up above. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always complained about my hair.

You see, my hair is pin straight…literally. Limp, lifeless, boring, with absolutely zero body. God forbid I get caught in the rain and I am going to end up looking like a drowned rat.

I can blow it dry, I can let it air dry; heck, I can even curl it, and within 15 minutes, all curls are GONE and it magically goes back to its wonderful straightness. I know that some people would long for this, but hey, I guess the grass is always greener, right?

So for Christmas this year, my mom ended up getting me a fun little contraption that she thought might help fulfill my desire for those bouncy, full of body curls, called the TopStyler by InStyler. She found it on QVC…and yes, she is addicted, but when her addiction benefits me I really can’t complain.

With somewhat of a similar idea to hot rollers, except not really, the TopStyler comes with a set of ceramic C-shells which hold the curl into place until it is completely cool. You have to do a special type of curl, called a finger curl, in order to get them to work, I guess. You can read more about it here.

The kit also comes with a bunch of other gizmos and gadgets that had me scratching my head wondering what the heck I was going to do with them. They did not end up getting used.

Honestly guys, you should have seen me trying to do these finger curls. I looked like a hot mess. I’ve never been good with hair, so attempting to wrap pieces of hair around my snazzy little fingers was pretty amusing, and somewhat frustrating.

In an attempt to get my curls to hold for more than ten minutes, I sprayed each small section of hair with this Redken Spray Starch.

It’s a heat memory styler, which actually works really well, but is quite sticky.

By the time all was said and done, I had one heck of a look going on. And wouldn’t you know, hubby comes home for lunch as soon as I finish getting them all in. He couldn’t have been 15 minutes later, right?

Go figure.

So I sat and let my funky little C-shells cool completely while catching up on some emails, and about a half hour later, it was time to see what damage had been done. I was nervous.

As I unraveled each finger curl, things were feeling a little more “Shirley Temple” than “sexy beach waves,” but I went with it. I played around, tousled it all a bit with my fingers, and attempted to see where it best fell into place.

I must say though, for it being my first attempt ever at these things, I am SUPER impressed! Look…my hair actually has some body to it. Who knew?!?

Now all I’ve got to do is work on that whole timing thing, since I’m pretty sure that I don’t have an extra hour every day just to do my hair…nor would I want to. Sheesh!

Then again…I am going to be working in a gym from now on. I suppose I can just save these for a special event, right?

**FYI: You still have a few more hours to enter my Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift Giveaway! I’ll be announcing the winner later this evening.**

Questions for the Afternoon:

What kind of hair do you have? Curly/wavy/straight?

What kind of hair would you LOVE to have?

On average, how much time do you spend on your hair every day?

So you guys want the skinny on these new Multi Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios?

You guys really seemed intrigued last night, so I saw no choice but to try them out ASAP. Jay had to laugh at me when I told him that I needed to make sure I had room after dinner for my evening snack. Ya know, I had a duty to fulfill…all for the sake of my beloved readers.

So I dug into the box shortly after dinner and here’s the facts.

If you love peanut butter…even if you just “like” peanut butter (which is crazy), go put on your shoes right now and head to the store to pick up a box of these amazing little morsels. They are SO good.

Since I knew that just pounding multiple handfuls of them after dinner would probably be a bad thing and definitely not fulfilling enough, I enjoyed one good-sized handful and then made myself a more substantial snack.

Random? Yes, maybe. But being National Peanut Butter Day and all, I figured I had to take part. So I topped an apple cinnamon rice cake with a smear of peanut butter and sprinkling of peanut butter Cheerios.

It was heavenly I tell you. Heavenly.

*****

Workout

This morning, I only slept through two snoozes of my alarm…I’m getting there! Once I finally got up, it was time to sweat. My body was telling me that I needed to take a break from the weights, so cardio + yoga it was!

• I started things off with the Insane Incline Run (<—yowsahs!)
• And finished things up with a 20-minute session of 10lb. Slimdown Yoga

The yoga felt amazing today, especially on my tight hip flexors. I know I’m going to beat this phrase into the ground soon enough, but I really need to incorporate yoga more often. I’ve just got to figure out a way to keep myself motivated to do it…any suggestions? Anyone want to start a challenge with me?

Breakfast

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

I whipped up a veggie & egg white scramble, made with 3 egg whites, about a cup of steamed broccoli, red peppers, red onion, and tomatoes, and a slice of crumbled mild cheddar cheese cooked right into the eggs.

I paired my eggs with two slices of turkey bacon, which is quickly becoming my new best breakfast pal. Or lunch, for that matter.

Once I finished breakfast and came in to type of my blog post, I turned on my computer screen and was promptly greeted with a surprise message from hubby.

Last night, I joked around with him asking where my surprise was for Day 2 of Birthday Week. He looked at me, dumbfounded, proclaiming, “I didn’t realize you needed a surprise EVERY DAY of Birthday Week?”

Well DUH. That’s why it’s called Birthday Week.

We laughed about it, because I know it’s a total stretch for him to even be participating at ALL. But, he is making an attempt for me, which is why I love him. Something like today’s surprise computer screen message is all I need.

Of course, if you’re looking for some other fun ideas, feel free to check out the list I put together last year on how to celebrate Birthday Week. And now, after reading that post, I have quickly been reminded that Jay made me that delicious dinner last year. Hmmmm…

I know, I know. I love this stuff wayyyy too much.

Tonight’s dinner was super delicious you guys.

Super delicious.

I noticed that tilapia was on sale this week at Price Chopper, so I decided to grab a couple filets while shopping the other day and see what I could come up with. It then dawned on me that I still have a ton of corn tortillas leftover from when I tried out the scrambled egg tacos recipe, and that’s when things started to come together.

I did a little bit of searching around online, found a few recipes that caught my attention, put my own little spin on them and VOILA…

We had ourselves some amazing Tilapia Tacos this evening.

They were actually pretty easy to make and could even be done a lot quicker by taking care of some of the prep work ahead of time (i.e., chopping vegetables). Other than that, this recipe came together in a cinch, and WOW, was it full of flavor!

As much as I loved the roasted corn relish topping, the seasoning on the tilapia was truly delicious; slightly spicy, yet slightly sweet, thanks to the addition of cinnamon. Yup, cinnamon. They.are.winners.

       Print This!    

This dinner, which was actually supposed to happen yesterday, was well worth the wait. If you wanted to, I’d suggest adding in some black beans, too. I’ll be doing that next time, as it was an afterthought for me this evening. Ahh well.

So what do ya think – do you see any fish tacos in your future now?

*****

As for tonight’s after dinner snack?

Welllll, did you guys know that it’s National Peanut Butter Day today? And would ya take a look at what just happened to come to my doorstep today?

Oh yes, my friends. Multi Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios. I can.not.wait to dig into these babies! Really, does life GET much better than this?

Yes, it probably does…but, ya know. I like to exaggerate every now and then.

So apparently I’m all about scouring some awesome blogs for workout ideas this week? Yesterday, I incorporated Tina’s upper body workout (which has my arms way more sore than I had anticipated!) and today, I tried out a new workout from Brittany.

I was skimming through and found a workout of Brittany’s called the 10-10-10 Quick Interval Workout. I honestly didn’t know what I was in the mood to do today, but as soon as I saw this, it totally appealed to me. It was pretty fun to switch back and forth between the treadmill sprints and the weight exercises, and I loved that it was all done in less than 30 minutes.

I followed up that interval workout with a few moves to focus on the ‘ol abs:

• 20 roll ups with 5lb. dumbbell
• 25 floor leg lifts
• 50 bicycle crunches
• 50 forearm side plank hip raises (25 per side)
• 90 second plank (<—killerrrrr!!)

Post-workout, I made myself a protein shake made with 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 scoop vanilla SunWarrior protein powder, 2 tsp chia seeds, and a few drops of cocoa bean liquid stevia.

It was tasty but I will admit – drinking chia seeds is definitely an acquired taste. Especially if you’re a texture person (aka, my husband).

Lunch

A couple hours later, the tummy was ready to be fed again.

Ya know, sometimes breakfast is just too good to only be enjoyed in the morning…am I right?

This morning, I was actually really cravings cereal AND eggs, but cereal ended up winning me over. Luckily, since I knew I’d be home this afternoon, I decided to just postpone my eggs until lunchtime.

I put together an incredibly savory and delicious egg and cheese sandwich, made with 1/2 cup Egg Beaters (in my microwave egg cooker), provolone cheese, turkey bacon, fresh spinach, and a smear of hummus on a toasted whole wheat English muffin.

On the side, I added some carrot sticks and grape tomatoes for munching.

A little later this afternoon I have a meeting about work, which should hopefully give me a better idea of what I’ll be looking at for a schedule. I have no idea what to expect, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough!

Oh yeah, and I still need to get my act together and finish those darn cupcakes.