Hey there! How was everyone's Labor Day weekend?

Mine was great - considering the awesome protein pancakes recipe I'm about to share with you :) On Friday evening, Michael and I headed up to the Poconos to stay with a couple of our friends at their house. I had never been up there before and it was just beautiful. So peaceful, quiet and we couldn't have gotten more lucky with the weather. I don't have many pictures because I wanted to disconnect a bit this weekend from technology. On Friday night we sat on the porch and had a few too many drinks in the cool weather. We had intentions to get in a workout Saturday morning, but instead we slept in and drove up the road for a diner breakfast - you know, the greasy kind that cures all feelings of a hangover? So great.

After getting some food in our bellies, we geared up for a full day at the lake with a huge cooler filled with LOTS of beer and snacks. We got to the lake and headed into the water for a full day of floating - with our floating cooler. We swam (floated) all the way to the other side of the lake and back, and didn't get out of the water for a good 3-4 hours. 

Obviously in Gator gear for an awesome Gator win on Saturday night! Full of beer and all sunned out, we headed back home to relax and grill a delicious dinner of chicken, asparagus and zucchini. 

We headed back to Philadelphia yesterday late morning. Today has consisted of lots of relaxing! I got in a great workout earlier, mostly because I had all the time in the world and didn't have to rush! I love that, don't you? I'll post my workout later this week - it was a sweaty one! Now we're just enjoying being lazy (aka blogging + watching Arrested Development the rest of the day) before getting back into a busy working routine tomorrow.

Before working out, we woke up slow and I wanted pancakes, but after a weekend full of not the healthiest meals, I wanted a healthier version - cue the homemade protein pancakes! These are easy to make and if you're one of those "ew cottage cheese!" people, I'm sure greek yogurt would work just as well :) 

[yumprint-recipe id='1']

Good morning! I have a recipe to share with you along with some more weekend pics and a workout. Last night I came home from work and felt inspired to make a quick grab and go snack. I eyeballed a lot of this recipe so these are very rough measurements!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp rolled oats
• Roughly 1 cup almond butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp coconut flakes
• Water - as needed for consistency

Directions:

• Mix everything together besides water
• Add in water until mixture can easily be rolled into balls without falling apart

This is a super easy snack to make to have on hand and perfect for before or after a workout. I ate one after my early morning workout this morning. I tried a new gym only a couple blocks away from our new apartment. I wasn't feeling very creative in making up my own workout so I did this workout from one of my favorite bloggers, Jen at peanutbutterrunner.com. I switched the chest flies to pushups and added in 45 seconds of a cardio exercise after each round (burpees, skaters and jumping jacks.)

When I can get myself out of bed real early, I like to workout before hopping on the train to work because it gives me the freedom to come home and relax after work.

Before I go I wanted to share a couple more photos from last weekend. On Sunday we had brunch at Toast and it was delicious! I ordered the smoked salmon egg toasts. Such a perfect brunch meal. Michael ordered banana french toast and an egg sandwich. His french toast was definitely the best.

I also finally found a winter coat to help me survive when it gets cold...

In all seriousness though this is a SUPER warm down jacket that I got at Burlington for such a good price. And with that I'll leave you with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y3815zqDHQ

- Rach

Hi! I am annoyed I haven't posted in a about a week because I made a goal to myself to keep up to about three posts a week, but the past week and a half has just been CRAZY. I've been occupied with trying to finish these last couple classes of undergrad (where the HECK has the time gone?!) and just trying to enjoy the time I have left here because I am only in Gainesville for one more week and a half. And it is so bittersweet.

Today was the last day of classes. I actually didn't have any classes today. Just one yesterday and it was an exam that I probably didn't do so hot on (I KNOW I didn't do so hot on.) Anyway, the past week was awesome and unfortunately I don't even have pictures to share. What kind of blogger am I? I promise I am trying to get better at this. Michael came to visit and stayed for the week! He was here on work because his company (Men's Health Magazine) was able to use locations around UF's campus for an outdoor video shoot. Go Gators! I will be sharing those videos when they're released! Our week was busy and fun as I still had class and work and he had to work, but we fit in a lot! And we were very well fed...

The weekend consisted of a lot of brunches and a lot of beer!! We squeezed in brunch at Mi Apa, Peach Valley Cafe and The Flying Biscuit. Saturday morning we dropped in at Crossfit Lead for yoga with the beautiful YoginiLei (Leila) and a class that nothing but kicked my ass. It's a great gym, great coach and awesome atmosphere but I'm literally still sore. I'm not a crossfitter at all, don't think I ever will be, but it's always fun to try new things.The workout was a super hard partner workout and my least favorite exercise was a run carrying a kettle bell on my shoulder (torture.) Favorite exercise was the overhead walking lunges - those are more my speed ;).

After what felt like burning a million calories, we ate a huge brunch and then went to the Hogtown Craft Beer Fest, which was so much fun. There was 300 beers to sample, food trucks and it was a beautiful day. It was nice to disconnect for a little bit and spend time with Michael and his parents since I've only seen them a handful of times in the past year. Luckily that's all about to change...

As each day goes by it kind of hits me a little more that my time at UF is almost over and as much as I get sad thinking about it, I also get really excited for what's next. I accepted a job at an advertising agency in Philadelphia and could not be more excited and ready for this new adventure. I can't wait to write all about it! I feel so thankful for all of the opportunities that have come my way and it is still so surreal that I am moving and starting a real job up NORTH. Who am I? Why do I still feel 16 years old sometimes?? What is winter even like? Will I survive?

So that's kind of life lately! I hope to have more workouts, recipes and other healthy content up on here shortly when things slow down a little bit in the next week.

What are your post-grad plans? 

Is everyone ready for graduation?