"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.

"I Have an Irrational Love for Train."

My name is Jonna, and I love Train.

I do, I can't help it. At the risk of making all my friends and the readers of this blog think I'm ultra lame, I'll say it. I'm a proud, Train-loving, 26-year-old.

My friend Eddie and I once went to a Train concert. Actually, we sat through an entire rodeo, complete with bull-riding and calf-roping (or whatever it's called) and then watched Train. And, it was freakin' incredible.

You know how bright and lively and energetic Train sounds through your car speakers? You know how "Hey, Soul Sister" makes you want to sing and smile and be happy? That's how they sound live. The lead singer runs around the entire stage and takes pictures and he belts it out to the crowd, which is mostly full of women straddling the 40-year-old line of life.

So, why am I professing my undying love for Train? Because I am head-over-heels for their new album. This album is totally worth the $10.99 that iTunes sold it to me for. And, because I'm hoping that I can get a group of friends to buy tickets and go up to Dallas in September and watch them with me.

But, because I don't want to bore you too much, I'll just share with you my three favorite songs from the new album, in no particular order.

1. "50 Ways to Say Goodbye" 

It's a really upbeat song, which is semi-challenging since it's starts off talking about an "it's not you, it's me" situation. This should be pretty unsurprising from the title but the vocalist rattles off a series of hilarious, and inventive, excuses he'll give his friends who ask, "where's your girl." For instance, he maintains that maybe his ex isn't around because she got "run over by a crappy purple Scion. This is something I find particularly entertaining, mostly because I have a friend that has a Scion. But his isn't crappy. Or purple.

2. "You Can Finally Meet My Mom" 

This little nugget is really about taking advantage of any time you have with loved ones. Not a new, crazy innovative song theme. But still good. Now, while this song is insanely peppered with pop culture references (I think Bieber, Whitney Houston, Steve Jobs, AND pop rocks all weasel their way into this one), it's actually pretty awesome. I find this lyrics especially memorable: 

... There's so much that we miss
Trying to be rich, and famous
Pretty and thin, to win 
It's a shame that youth is wasted on the young ... 

That lyrics is just screaming to be a status update, if you ask me.

3. "This'll Be My Year" 

I think I have a thing for songs with pop culture references. These lyrics highlight different pivotal events from the world and the songwriter's life. And, for any other 26-27 year olds who are reading, this song starts recounting events in 1985 and makes it all the way up to 2012. Gotta love it.


And, if you didn't believe me when I said Train was awesome live, listen to this one. Proof.

The Best Stuff on the Internet: Lip-Dubbing, JCPenney's, "Heroes," and Doritos

Some people have jobs where they are always up and about. Always moving, never sitting still, and definitely never sitting at a computer screen for hours.

I envy those people. More often than not, you can find me sitting at a computer screen pretending to work. I know, I know, I ought to be working. They pay me to do a job and I should be doing it. But, I like to work under pressure. It's the college student in me. Don't give me something with a completion date two weeks from now because I will wait until two days before you need it to start.

And, despite my work's best efforts to block most of the Internet, I still manage to stumble upon fantastic-ness online.

So, here are the highlights, in no particular order:

1. Lip-Dub Proposal. Do yourself a favor and watch this. In a time where real-life humans are literally eating the faces off other humans, videos like this find a way to make you smile. Not only is the proposal incredibly well thought-out and thoughtful, you've gotta love seeing a group of family and friends come together just out of the kindness of their hearts. I sat at my desk and cried a stream of happy tears a minute into this. You might just do the same.

2. JCPenney's Gay-Friendly Ads. I have a mother that loves JCPenney's. She loves the place. Shops there all the time. Was abnormally upset when they closed the location nearest her house. As for me, I think the last thing I bought there was my Jessica McClintock senior prom dress. But, JCPenney's may just earn a few more dollars from me. In addition to seeking out Ellen as a spokeswoman, they've come out with these incredibly awesome, incredibly progressive Mother's Day and Father's Day advertisements that feature same-sex couples. 

3. On Calling All Soldiers "Heroes." My place of employment blocks about 99.2% of all websites that provide any ounce of fun. However, Thought Catalog has somehow slipped under the radar of our web filter. (Hope I didn't just jinx myself.) Well Thought Catalog is full of entertaining, but kinda pointless articles. So, when I came across this article, the title was initially off-putting. It seemed to assert that our country's courageous soldiers maybe shouldn't all be called heroes. Um, what? Can you say that? Isn't that like, really bad? But the article's author makes really good points about not cheapening the word "hero" and using it in for individuals and circumstances that really are heroic. It's definitely worth the read. 

4. Doritos have MSG?! So, this may be kind of ignorant / naive, but I thought that food ceased to contain MSG. I thought we were done with all that. So, imagine my surprise when I saw THIS tweet: 

You learn something new everyday! By the way, the day that I read this, I went to Target during lunch, and got a bad of Doritos to accompany (and negate) my Lean Cuisine lunch. 

Well, there you have it. 

It's not an exclusive list of all Internet goodies, but it's stuff I think is pretty cool. 

Have a good week everyone!

"It Was a Paula Deen Day."

If you have a Twitter, you need to be following Chrissy Teigen (@chrissyteigen).

Wondering why?

She's so funny.
She follows pop culture.
She tweets offensive stuff, just to get a rise out of the weirdos on Twitter.

And, she's real pretty. Every once in awhile, she'll tweet a picture of her in a bikini. It makes me hate life.

And it makes me want to give up Mexican food.

I couldn't ever give up Mexican food. I love queso way too much for that business.

At any rate, because of following Chrissy, I came across her blog. She blogs foods that I'm not daring enough to try.

But, lucky for me, Ray is all about trying new, different dishes. So when I came across Chrissy's blog about Paula Deen's Country Potato Salad, I knew it was right in Ray's wheelhouse.

So, we made plans to make it on Memorial Day. No idea what the main course would be, but this potato salad was going to be a part of it. No questions asked.

It was delicious. Chock full of bacon, egg, and mayonnaise. Nothing good for you but totally good. Do yourself a favor and make it.

Ray and I have a recipe book full of recipes we love. Way back in the day, we came across this recipe for Dry Rubbed Baby Back Ribs. This is also a recipe from the Deen fam. We made them. They were good. So good. These ribs are the kind of ribs where you don't even need barbecue sauce. They were fabulous.

Oh, and I tried deviled eggs for the first time ever. I know this makes me a freak, the fact that I've never had a deviled egg. But, lucky for me, Chrissy posted a recipe for them. That included bacon. Bacon + Chrissy = me and Ray buying a dozen eggs and trying them.

I'm not saying deviled eggs are something I'll eat every day, but they were good. They have a lot of the same flavors as the potato salad. I can appreciate what they bring to the table.

So for our Memorial Day, we woke up uncomfortably early (I'm talking before 7AM), cooked these recipes, and watched approximately 5 hours of CNBC. I wish I was kidding. But, it was awesome. Good food and good company. I highly recommend these recipes. You won't be sorry.

We also made a dessert. Mini apple pies. I'll post it soon. Get ready, people. That is a get-off-your-couch-and-make-it-now kind of recipe.

"It's Called 'The Bear' For a Reason!'

I did no formal working out with weekend. In lieu of CrossFitting, I packed. And packed. And took a break to hang out with friends. And packed some more. I'm not done, mostly because I ran out of boxes.

My legs think we worked out. Lost of lifting and bending and walking back and forth makes for tired legs.

In between packing boxes, I've gotten a chance to reflect on some of the actual workouts I've done thus far in CrossFit. Do you guys remember high school superlatives? "Most Likely to ________" or "Best _________," those sort of things. Well, in the spirit of that, I present to you my CrossFit Superlatives.

Longest WOD in the History of WODs: The Random Hodge-Podge Workout I Did On Friday 

Last Friday, Sarah and I went to CrossFit. Last time I went, I scanned the whiteboard and saw that it was going to be a partner workout, one that involved planks. I was excited and ready. But, when we got to class that morning, that's not what we ended up doing. The class was uncharacteristically large. And, the teachers we not the usual teachers. (The usual morning teachers were prepping for the CrossFit Regionals). So, they modified the workout. It was good. But so long. So very long.

First, they split us into 5 groups, one for each exercise (burpee pull-ups, wall balls, kettle-ball swings, lift-hand pull-ups, box jumps). Then, you alternate from station to station, spending a minute at each one. THEN, you do that 3 times. AND, they expected us to keep count (186 reps total). It was long. And brutal. But mostly long.

So, after that, I thought we were done. I had my water in hand, ready to go shower. BUT, then the teachers said, "Wait! You guys all need to cash-out!" New term for Jonna.

Our cash-out was squats and sit-ups. I did 115 and 78, respectively. I was sad and pitiful by the time I got to those sit-ups.

Most Fun Workout: CrossFit Baseball 

When I saw this on the board, I was pumped about it. I was going to be at that class. Well, we started with an extremely intense warm-up. It went a little something like this:

- 800m run
- 15 jump squats
- 400m run
- 15 jump squats
- 200m run
- 15 jump squats

Yeah. That's the WARM-UP. It took me 8:39. Not great, but I was lucky I finished. Running is not my forte.

Then, CrossFit Baseball finally began. The class split into two groups and we "ran bases."


- 1st Base - 20 lift-hand push-ups
- 2nd Base - 20 kettle-ball swings
- 3rd Base - 15 slam balls
- Home - 200m run

My team ... WON!! I contributed three "runs."

This workout wins the most fun award because it was actually a pretty good time. It was challenging, sure, but the competitiveness of it all made it more lighthearted and not so intense and scary. It helps that my team won.

Most Likely To Make Me Tear Up: The Bear 

Whe I first read this WOD on the board, I thought, "that doesn't sound so bad." I was wrong. I was so wrong. Sooo wrong.

Here's what you do:

You start in a deadlift. Then, you do a power clean. Then front squat, and push up to a push press. Then, put the bar on your shoulders and do a back squat. And finally, you do one final push press.

Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. You have to do this circuit seven times to equal one round. Oh, and you're supposed to do five rounds. AND, if you can't make it through a round, you are supposed to start over. Death. After I finally finished, I turned to Kale and Sarah and said "It's called the [expletive] bear for a reason!!"

I teared up. I welled. I held it together but it was definitely touch-and-go.

Most Likely To Make Me Push Myself: The Chipper 

Kale and I did this WOD together. It's a partner WOD. My first partner WOD. Here's what you do.

One partner does an overhead carry in the parking lot. I don't know exactly how far we had to hold the overhead carry, but it was three parking stalls. It was far. And it was hard.

Well, while one partner is doing the overhead carry, the other is inside "chipping away" at these:

- 100 air squats
- 80 sit-ups
- 60 kettle-ball swings
- 40 toe-to-bars
- 20 goblet squats
- 10 handstand push-ups

Well, that's hard enough as it is. But, if you can no longer hold the carry, you have to drop the bar, run in, get your partner, and do 10 burpees.

This wins my favorite CrossFit superlative because I really felt like I couldn't keep going. But I felt like I had to, for my own edification and because I did't want to let my partner down. My arms felt like jello by the end and I didn't' think I could make it but we did. We did a lot of burpees, but we made it. And that's all that matters.

This CrossFit thing is getting easier. So says the girl that hasn't been to CrossFit in two days but is drinking a glass of wine.

"I Just Hate Moving."

When I started this post, here was my thought process: 

- "Man, I never blog anymore. I kinda suck." 

- "Well, it's okay. You can't blog at work anymore because you're actually having to work. That sucks." 

- "Well, even with my free time, I've been spending a lot of my time setting up my moving arrangements."

- "Maybe I'll blog about how much moving sucks." 

Then, I started writing about how much moving sucks. And how it's expensive. And how I suck at packing. And how I still don't have any boxes. And how I'm afraid my movers won't ever show and my cable won't get installed and the entire moving process will be awful. 

But, all that blog would do is stress me out and bore the living daylights out of all of you. 

Delete. 

Instead, I decided to find the silver lining in moving. 

Sure, moving is like a fresh start for your material possessions. You can place your things juuuuuust so. 

You can make sure that mirror is at your eye level. You can find a good place for your potholders. And, you can rearrange your DVDs by genre this time, and not alphabetically. Now, as much as I hate unpacking, I thoroughly love that moment when you are finally unpacked. When everything is in its place and you can finally just be in your home. It's awesome. You can breathe again. 

Moving is also an opportunity for a psychological new start. I've moved a lot over the past few years. And, I feel like every time I move to a new place, it's like moving into a new phase of life. When I first moved to San Antonio a year ago, I felt like it marked the end of my quarter-life crisis. I had a hunch that I was going to get all my shit together when I moved. I knew it was going to be good. 

And, it was. 

I can't wait for my new apartment and I can't wait for what's next. I'll keep you posted.