Doughnut Dreaming

Hi Guys! I recently had my first work trip out to Chicago! Of course I did have some work things to do, but we did have a decent amount of time to explore and do some touristy things. Day 1 This trip I got to go out there with one of my teammates which was fun. We did some of things we felt you HAVE to do when you are in Chi Town.  Obviously the first thing we did after getting checked into our hotel was go find pizza! We went to Lou Malanati's and got these cute personal pizzas.  This was a butter crust filled with cheese, a layer of sausage and a layer of sauce! I'm partial to pizza from my area of the country (NY, NJ).  But for me you can't ever go wrong with extra carbs and cheese! After pizza we went to Cloud Gate, aka The Bean! I loved how the whole park was Chicago's version of Rockefeller Center.  There was an ice skating rink, and a big pine tree decorated with lights! Our last stop for the day was the top of the John Hancock building...

It's no secret in our household that NYC is our favorite place to be. Scott was raised there, and ever since I was young I have always loved it there.  Honestly it's where we talk about retiring to!  Strange right? So a few Friday's ago we got to drop the little man of the house off at grandma's, and we had a night out.  He saw Disney on ice, and we had a delicious dinner in Brooklyn! We decided to try out a restaurant called The Buttermilk Channel, and man it did NOT disappoint! Let's first start with the drink I had called the Lucha Vavoom, which was mezcal, tequila, honey, and lemon. Have you ever had an expensive drink that makes big promises and is basically a watered down alcoholic drink? Yeah... this was NOT that.  Off to a great start with that! We started our meal with a bacon appetizer.  House cured bacon with whiskey poached figs, and black garlic to be exact! It was between this and the cornbread...but we are bacon people.  ...

Happy winter... I mean Fall! Wouldn't believe it with how cold it's suddenly been.  The fall  is definitely my favorite time of the year, and I feel like we are skipping right over all my cute fall  jackets! :( Regardless of what the weather is doing, I am still fully celebrating fall.  I figured I would dedicate this post to all things fall . Fall decor, fall activities, fall clothing, fall makeup and fall  cuteness!  Side note, how many times do you think I can say the word fall  in this post? Let's start with the most beautiful  fall wedding I attended in the middle of the month.  A friend from high school finally tied the knot in the loveliest way.  Everything about the wedding was genuine, full of love, and just beautiful.  The flowers and colors were the star in my opinion though.  They really embraced the fall  and it was simply my favorite!  And while are on the wedding, let's discuss m...

Good Morning! Fall is in the air, and I couldn't be more thrilled! I know that many people would agree that fall is one of the best times during the year.  The crisp air, and the changing colors just really make me happiest. This year is the first year I have a place of my own to decorate, so I am extra excited.  I had pumpkins in our house the first day it was even a little bit chilly! So since I now have a house to host things in, its becoming my favorite season, AND I've been able to decorate for fall, I felt it was appropriate to host a fall themed brunch with my 3 oldest and closest friends! With us all living in different directions and having separate lives it's been a WHILE since the four of us got together.  I'm so happy they all made it out here this weekend.  It was a lovely day of laughing, drinking mimosas and casually annoying Scott while he tried to watch football.  I'm also glad that I now have the opportunity to host casual events with m...

Good morning. Happy Fridayyyy ! Today is the most bittersweet day for my career. It is my last day working with the team I've been with since day one at my current company (though this is the first company I started working for once out of college). Now I'm not leaving the company I work for, but I recently got promoted to a different department. This means I move up a floor, and will really only see my current coworkers in passing! I am EXTREMELY excited to start this new chapter in my life.  This is a position I have been wanting, and felt was the right next move for my career.  But I think it's difficult to let go of things you are comfortable with, and it's especially hard when you love all your coworkers! It's not just my team I will miss either! My current boss is really the reason I have gained the momentum I have in the working world. He has always been dedicated to my growth, and has been someone to help guide me through life.  I could easily thank ...

Happy Monday! Over the last few weeks I have acquired yet another unnecessary amount of makeup/ beauty products. See I've developed quite a bit of a makeup addiction in the last year.  I would like to say all of my recent purchases were my way of "catching up" and obtaining all the "necessary" products to create a full make up look... but I would be lying. I have gotten carried away! And personally I don't mind.  I love it! It's just that my bank account doesn't always agree with me. Such a downer ya know?! Anyway. the products below are my current daily necessity products :)  Jaclyn Hill x Morphe Eye Master Brush Collection $62  $42 Maybe I'm just a loyal fan to Jaclyn Hill, but this collection has become my holy grail.  The blending brushes are amazing.  I like to think I'm pretty great at blending to begin with but I think this is a great starting place if you're not!  There is also this little tiny brush that is the most ...

Recently we were woken up by what seemed like life just throwing annoying house issues at us. The closet "system", which was really just a long pole stuck into the two ends of the room came crashing down one morning!  I had been saying this was going to happen for days, but it finally happened.  All of our clothes, boxes, and random junk we kept in the closet now sprawled all over the floor. WHAT A WAY TO WAKE UP...am I right?!  See, with me recently moving in with Scott (my boyfriend of 4 years 😋), came a lot more stuff that the closet wasn't equipped to handle apparently! I was "slowly" moving bags of clothes and hanging them up without Scott knowing. (I did it when he wasn't home... shhh....).  But because the closet was being used by a man who has far less clothes, and really only likes maybe 4 t-shirts it became very noticeable it was an issue. But we just continued living hoping for the best.   Now to be completely honest, this closet nee...

Happy Monday! I've had an unusually busy start to the week this week, but I wanted to pop on and mention a song I've been really loving. Hundred Thousand Hearts by Holy Child I have been following the progression of this band since college.  I actually occasionally hung out with the lead singers sister from time to time.... Well we ran in the same circle of friends.  She must have mentioned the band, or posted it somewhere and I took a listen! Turns out their music is quite quirky, but in the best way! The lead singer, Liz Nistico has a unique voice that fits well with their electric pop song. And the chorus is always something catchy that keeps you coming back.  This particular song has a simple start, that picks up at that chorus. One thing I always love is how a song starts out in the most simple way and the gradually picks up through the song, until eventually you have this full band, choir, and additional instruments. The build up of a song like that alw...

Hey blogging world, it's been a while! A lot has changed since the last time I made a post. I feel as though it's time to give this blogging thing a real try.  Only I'm going to have to change things up a bit.  Looking back at my previous posts I've come to realize a lot of what was relevant to me then, no long applies. My life has changed completely in the couple of years that have passed and I feel I would be much better suited as lifestyle blogger now. At one time, all my previous posts were very important to me and could still be important in helping someone else's struggles.  So for that reason I am going to leave them on the blog.  I believe that I had to get through that part of my life to be where I am now! Moving forward I am hoping to provide home decor hauls, fun outings with my little non traditional family, make up looks and style, music I'm really digging, and OF COURSE snacks and doughnuts. I know this is nothing new, but I find myself a...

Imagine you're floating above yourself. You can see yourself, but you can't rationalize with yourself, and you can't stop your actions. You can feel the struggle, and the pain that you are causing yourself, but nothing can stop your behavior.  You want to stop, you want to cry, and you want to take back the last 10 minutes to an hour. But you can't. All that consumes you in that moment is this anxiety and desire to eat every single delicious thing you can find until you truly hate yourself. That's what a binge is...at least for me.  Last time I posted I had mentioned I would explain a "normal" binge for me. Maybe you can identify  (to all my readers...lucky if I have one!), or maybe you aren't sure if you are experiencing the same thing, but I think its helpful to get it out in the universe.  We are never alone in our struggles.  People experience a lot of the things we do, we just tend to think we are at the only ones.  To my knowledge I do...

Hey internet, it's been a while.  Seems I blogged for the month October and only the month of October. Let me explain what happened... As you can see my posts were mainly about how I adopted iifym macro practice, and how well it was working for me. Honestly I had seen so much progress and success with this idea of eating for a while.  I thought I have finally gotten myself on a path I was happy and successful with. I thought I had finally beat the binging. Unfortunately that was not the case. In fact right when I stopped blogging is when my binging worked its way back to my life. Correlation? Yes.  How could one write positive messages and healthy eating support, when you are unhappy and can't even control your own eating?! For the months following October, I would eat and eat and eat until I felt sick.  I felt so sick sometimes I could have sworn I was going to die. Every morning I would wake up saying "yesterday was the last day."  So I would restrict al...

So since it's now fall and of course the season of pumpkin, I'm goin to share a little pumpkin recipe! I have been making pumpkin waffles and pancakes quite a bit. And I love to add sugar free pumpkin syrup (from target) to my coffee. BUT my job situation recently changed a bit leaving me poorer, but with more free time. So now some baking is to follow... Because who actually wants to use extra free time to study right?! I made some Pumpkin Cookie Butter Chocolate Chips Squares :D To start, as soon as I caught sight of Trader Joes pumpkin cookie butter I had to have it. If there is anything that I have more of a problem with than peanut butter, it's that damn cookie butter. I can't keep it in the house. Only every time I go to trader joes I feel obligated to buy it. Bad planning. Can't help what you love right? Just how do I make an entire jar fit my macros regularly!!! Thankfully the recipe used most of this beauty up. (Though there may have been some sp...

There she is, a Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Cheesecake doughnut square :D She was a beauty, and a tasty little thing that was gone too fast. Haha sorry, getting carried away. So today I had to get my car looked at by my insurance, (thanks to some lovely human who hit my car and ran :'( while I was in, you guessed it, Dunkin Donuts last week) I also had a long day of studying ahead of me.  I decided I wanted a doughnut to help fuel my day.  I also needed to go back to the Dunkin to see if they had cameras so I could find the guy that banged up my car! No such luck.  So I got a doughnut and was on my way a little less disappointed. Now if you couldn't guess it I obviously have a love for doughnuts! I don't eat them all the time, though I wish I could.  But one of the luxuries of counting macros is that I can eat a doughnut and not feel guilty about it! I won't feel as though it has messed up my progress.  What I want to say today is actually quite the opposite! ...

Afternoon! So I'm gonna talk about something kinda big...sorta, at least for me. Today was my LAST day at my first real job.  I worked there for 7 years.  I basically grew up there! It's insane to think come next Monday I will not be getting up and going to work  in the dark at my usual place of work! I can't say I worked very hard today...or the two weeks leading up to today ...but can you really blame me!? haha They sent me off today very nicely though.  I got a lovely signed card from everyone,  balloons, a lovely bag of peanut butter goodies, and of course CAKE.  Ice cream cake to be exact. YES. It fit my macros. But only after I did some moving things around.  I like to start my day knowing what I am going to eat.  So by 2pm I had a full day of eating accounted for. What I would like to say about that is, this.  Two years ago, maybe even last year this cake would have haunted me.  I would have dreaded every minute leadin...