"It's Just Not About Chicken."

When it comes to Chic-fil-a, if someone is bold enough to state their stance on Facebook, they take one of two positions.

There are individuals that vehemently denounce the company. These are the people that simply cannot be a patron to a company with views that differ so sharply from their beliefs, values, and / or lifestyle.

Then, there are those individuals that maintain that those chicken sandwiches and sauces are just too darn delicious and it is silly to think that a boycott would curb the company's sales in any way. And besides, why are you surprised, the company is from the South. They were founded on Christian values. And by golly, they aren't even open on Sundays which, by the way, is the day when you crave waffle fries something fierce. (For the record, this is them talking, not me ...) 

These two schools of thought will never agree. Thank goodness they aren't having this disagreement face-to-face because that's just a fight waiting to happen.

However, what I will carry with me once this bickering subsides is this:

(Source)

 (Source)

Now, once you move past the adorable factor of these advertisements, pay attention to the message, the spirit of these ads. These ads say, we don't support close-mindedness of any kind. We embrace differences. We want to make sure that the children's lives that we touch know that they are loved and accepted no matter what. They are rooting for those young, fearful kids that are figuring out who they are right now. 

But it's not just the Sesame Street gang that's rooting for a brighter future for our world's future.

Look at these other print ads from companies you might know, love, and patron. 

Allstate Insurance Company (Source)

Gap (Source)

 General Electric (Source)

JCPenney (Source and Source) 

Nabisco, a Division of Kraft Foods (Source)

Kaiser Permanente (Source)

Target (Source)

Chevrolet (Source)

Wells Fargo (Source)

Our world is changing and evolving. We are starting to live in a world that doesn't just tolerate differences, but accepts them. This isn't everything. This doesn't mean that our world is a hate-free place to be. It doesn't mean that awful things don't happen. But, it's a start. And, I'll happily take it. 

I'll end on a personal note, I am an individual that loved what Chic-fil-a had to offer, food-wise. But, the fact remains that their beliefs are such a sharp departure from mine, I will no longer visit their establishments.

It's 2012, and I believe that we have to start changing and evolving with the world around us. Get your chicken sandwiches and your waffle fries elsewhere.

"I Have Writer's Block."

I have writer's block, I think. I have all these stems of ideas, but every time a blog starts to take form, I get too in my head to finish them and publish them. Or, I get too into the heads of my millions of readers (please note the sarcasm) and stop writing. So, to break the writer's block, I'll just start writing out some of those stems. Don't expected any real connection between the next few items.

1. Today, after work, I came home, ate some dinner, watched "Heartburn," (the Nora Ephron film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson) and then tidied up around my home. And, it was incredibly satisfying. I'm fed, my romantic comedy hunger has been fed, and my apartment is clean and smells of candles and Glade Plug-Ins.

2.Similarly, me weekend was fulfilling and and thoroughly enjoyable. I had the kind of weekend where you actually emerge rested and ready for the week. I mean, as ready as you can be about an impending 40-hour work week.

First, we lucked into a wine tour. The wine? Eh. The experience? Fabulous.

And, we watched 5 1/2 movies:

• Single White Female -- I had never seen it, it's a piece of work. In a good way. 
• Crazy Stupid Love -- I've seen it probably 5 times. Ray and I both own it. We both love it. It's the movie that made me fall in love with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone at the same time. 
• The Vow -- Channing Tatum. I can't get enough of him. I've loved him since Coach Carter. I don't care at all that his actor is mediocre at best. 
• Being Elmo -- A recommendation from a friend. Such a cool documentary about the guy who operates Elmo. 
• Life as We Know It -- One of my new favorite rom-coms. 
• 1/2 of I Love You, Man -- Hey, it was late and I had made my way through two-thirds of a bottle of wine. 

Oh, and we saw a double rainbow.

Which made me think about this video, which made me laugh. 

3. I have a theory about 20-somethings and jobs. I don't know if we'll ever been truly happy. I think we spend so much time thinking, dwelling, and working toward our future careers that when we luck into something that is a good career-esque job we start to question things. Is this what I was working toward? Is this the lane that I should be in? Aren't I supposed to love waking up and going to work every single day?

Maybe, maybe not.

What I'm hoping is, you don't have to love your job, but you have to have passion in your life. You have to have something that excites you, exhilarates you, and makes you feel alive. And wherever it is that you happen to find that, live there. Marinate there. Exist there. And use your job as a tool that helps you do the things that really tickle your tooter.

4. Two Saturdays ago, Ray and I drank. A lot. Then, in an effort to continue my training, I said, "We need to go run a 5K." It was after noon. In July. In humid Texas heat. It was miserable. I walked. I whimpered. I was all-around pathetic. And slow. But, THIS morning, Sarah and I ran a 5K. And, this is what happened:

I didn't stop. And, I didn't whimper. I didn't take a century to finish. And, it felt awesome. It was the first time I thought to myself, "This half-marathon thing. Maybe I can rock this shiz out."

5. And now, I think I will congratulate myself with some bad summer programming (Big Brother to be exact), some wine, and some of this by my side:

I know, I can't handle it either.

"Man, I Really Want Some Cheesecake."

The other day I had this conversation with myself, in my head (hopefully not out loud, I was at work after all):

Man, I really want some cheesecake. 
I wonder if I can make cheesecake on my own. 
Cheesecake can’t be thaaat hard, right? 
Isn’t it just like, cream cheese and a couple other things, right? 
You can totally do it. Make a cheesecake. 
Oh, marathon training, eating clean, working out, psh, overrated! 
Make yourself a cheesecake. It’ll be delicious and totally worth it. 
Maybe put in sweet potatoes! 
Why? 
Well, they are delicious for one. 
And healthy. I know, I know, their healthfulness kinda goes out the window once you add butter and sugar and all, but whatever, do it anyway. 

So, after all that, I went to Pinterest and Google and stumbled across this recipe for Sweet Potato Cheesecake Bites.

I know, right? Sounds amazing.

I tweaked the recipe a tad, but here’s what you'll need:

Kitchen utensils: 

• Hand mixer
• Parchment paper
• and 8 x 8 pan 

For the base: 

• 8 Tbsp. butter (1 stick)
• 1 1/2 cups sweet potato puree 
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar 
• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1 egg + 1 egg white (reserve yolk for topping) 
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 

For topping: 

• 1 (8 oz.) package reduced-fat cream cheese 
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 
• 1 egg yolk 
• 5 Tbsp. light brown sugar

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then, grease the pan. This next part takes a little finesse. Trim two pieces of baker’s parchment so they can sit flat on the bottom the the pan and so they are long enough to hang over the sides by a few inches. Butter the paper. 

At the grocery store, if you're lucky, you'll be able to find pure sweet potato puree. If you're unlucky like me, you can't find any. In that case grab a couple sweet potatoes from the produce section (literally, like two), peel them, cut them into cubes and boil them. 

You can stop boiling them once they are soft and you can easily stab them with a knife. 

Next, whip them as smooth as you can. Then, take your stick of butter, melt it in the microwave and then mix it with your sweet potatoes. 

Then, use a hand mixer (or a whisk if you're in the market for an arm workout) and add the brown sugar to the mixture. 

Next, add the egg, the egg white, and the vanilla. 

Now add the flour and salt to the mixture. 

Finally, add your sweet potato mixture to your buttered pan. 

The next step is the cheesecake part. 

This is simple. You just blend all the topping ingredients, the cream cheese, the vanilla, the egg yolk, and the sugar. 

(I may have forgotten to take pictures of this. My b.) 

At any rate, take this mixture and spoon 6-8 large dollops of it onto your sweet potato mixture. It doesn't have to be pretty. 

Then, swirl it around and make it pretty. 

Then, pop this into your oven for 30-40 minutes, how ever long it takes for the cheesecake to turn golden brown. Poke it with a toothpick. When it comes out clean, it's good to go. 

Ta-da!!

Give it some time to cool before you use the hanging pieces of parchment paper to life it out and cut it. 

I recommend cutting it into bite-sized pieces. (This recipe makes about 30 pieces). 

Now, I have to admit that these are like 80% sweet potato pie filling and 20% cheesecake-ness but they are still 100% delicious. Really creamy and smooth and comforting. And, not too sweet. They’re more naturally sweet tasting instead of out-of-control, in-your- face, man-you-must-have-dumped-a-lot-of-sugar-in-here sweet. 

In case you’re wondering how much damage these will do to your diet, I Googled some more and calculated the nutritional damage.

But forget about that! Imagine this in your belly. 

"Thursday Night Snack: Brownie in a Mug!"

If I had to list out the not-so-fun parts of living alone, one of the things that ranks high on the list is not being able to ever make desserts.

Now, I know, technically, I could make desserts. But here's how it usually goes: 

- Jonna makes a pan of brownies

- Jonna eats a bit of the brownies that night

- Jonna takes slivers from the pan of brownies every day until they are so hard they are inedible

- Jonna throws away 2/3 of a pan of brownies 

Well, thanks to Pinterest, I've found a workaround ... 

Brownie in a Mug! 

It's awesome because it is one-serving of deliciousness. Here's how you make it. 

1. Grab a mug. All my mugs are these tiny 8-oz things. But, lucky for me, when my friend Kale moved out after living with me, she left this massive 16-oz mug. If you have one of those, use it. If not, just watch your mug carefully, so that it doesn't spill over. 

2. Mix the following ingredients in your mug: 

- 1/4c. sugar 

- 1/4c. flour

- 2 tbsp. (unsweetened) cocoa powder

- pinch of salt 

3. Then add: 

- 2 tbsp. of olive oil 

- 3 tbsp. of water

4. Stir, stir, stir until its consistent. 

5. Then cook for 1 minute 40 seconds. 

6. Voila!! 

7. And because I can't leave well enough alone sometimes, I added this: 

It made something that was already good, better. 

I highly recommend this one. I'll bet you have almost all these ingredients on hand in your pantry right now. So, if you get a hankering for something sweet, this is the perfect quick, easy dessert for one. 

"I'm Gonna Sign Up for the (Half) Marathon."

Yeah, I can't believe it either.

See, I'm not a runner. I'm really not good at it. I've been told that I look like a runner before, to which I have to be like, "Oh no, I do not run ... Nope, no runners here!"

A marathon, even if it's "just" a halfie seems insane to me right now.

But then again, the thought of completing a 60 Bikram Yoga Challenge once seemed ludicrous and I did it.

And then, the thought of doing this once seemed like crazy talk and I did it.

This is me, at 5:30 AM, deadlifting my own body weight. Freaking heavy.   

So, I think this is something  I can do. And I think it will feel amazing when I do it.

Have you ever been at the finish line of a long race like that? The people there are soo happy. They go through the finish line with the biggest smiles on their faces. They are simultaneously so exhausted but so fulfilled. It warms my heart and makes my eyeballs hot.

I know my training regimen will be tough. I didn't want to give up my CrossFit to train so I talked to one of the CrossFit coaches about how to do both.

He told me that, contrary to popular belief, it isn't necessary to train up to the 13.1 miles to complete the half marathon. Instead you can train at a higher intensity most of the time and then slow that intensity down and the actual race will be cake. So to speak. He let me know that you may be more successful at training if you can get it out of your head that you muuuuuuust be able to run 13.1 miles prior to the race. It's more about be in great shape, pushing yourself, and not letting giving up an option.

So, that's what I'm going with.

I developed a training schedule that had CrossFit in mind. Right now, it looks like this:

Mondays: CrossFit
Tuesdays: Interval Run
Wednesdays: CrossFit
Thursdays: CrossFit AND Interval Run
Fridays: CrossFit
Saturdays: OFF (thank goodness)
Sundays: Long Run

 Fun stuff.

Do you have any tips for first-time half marathoners? Give me all you got.