Happy Monday and last day of August!  With September starting tomorrow, that means all the fall things are going to be out and about.  While I love decorating for a new season, wearing different clothes, and cooking new produce I am planning on clinging to every last ounce of summer I can get while I can 🙂

August (and really all of summer) was pretty darn busy with school, which didn’t allow me to blog as much as I would have liked.  I made sure to share recipes and some workouts, but the posts that share my personality and life were the posts that didn’t quite make the cut.  Because I do as many Five Things Friday posts or other “lifestyle” posts, I thought I would share a monthly recap of all things that have been making me happy!

Products/Services I am Loving:

• Butter London Nail Polish and Bloody Brilliant Lip Crayon

A few months ago, I received the Butter London Bloody Brilliant Lip Crayon in the mail to test out and I have absolutely loved using it.  It goes on so smooth, and the color has a hint of shine (which I love!) so there is no need to apply a gloss on top of the color.

Butter London was kind enough to send me their new “arm candy” nail polish collection.  While I love painting my nails, I’m always a little hesitant because my nails chip so quickly.  Usually, I will paint them at night and then I wake up with all kinds of bumps on them and they are chipped by that afternoon.  Last week, when we were home visiting Indiana I painted my nails with the Butter London nail polish on Monday and it lasted all the way until Sunday with no chips! Amazing 🙂

• Plum Organics Baby Food as Running Fuel

I have been using baby food packets like this for fuel on my long runs and I really love it!  It’s so easy to consume, I feel the little extra energy burst after eating, there is no digestive discomfort, the products have minimal ingredients (the one above has banana, pumpkin and water!), and they taste really good.

• Pure & Good Foods Super Spread

Guys, this stuff is GOOD.  When we were home in Indiana, we visited an adorable local shop called R2Go .  This small grocery carried many fun and unique items, and several were from local companies.  I seriously could have spent many hours and many dollars in that store.  Unfortunately, we were flying home later that day so I knew I could only purchase something small.

I chose this almond butter spread because it was something unique, the ingredients look amazing and it’s made in Indianapolis! This spread has almonds, chia, flax, hemp protein, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and salt.  It’s SO amazing! Thankfully, you can purchase it online so I don’t have to wait until my next trip to Indy to stock up!

• August Rocksbox!

For a free month of Rocksbox, use the code trebleinthekitchenxoxo!

This was my third month of receiving a Rocksbox, and just like the previous two boxes I received (Rocksbox 1, Rocksbox 2) I really loved everything that I received!

I love how delicate this necklace is.  It goes well with many different outfits, and I love the triangle shape!

I am seriously obsessed with this bracelet.  I love that it is slightly sparkly without being too dressy, flashy or overwhelming.

It also looks great with my watch!  I loved this bracelet so much that I actually purchased it 🙂

I also purchased these earrings.

I love having different studs to wear every day, and these were a fun addition to my collection.

• Root Down at the Denver International Airport

When Brian and I were flying home a couple of weeks ago, our flight out of Denver was right around lunch time.  I knew that I would need something to munch on during the flight but we didn’t have any food at home to pack, so I was left to purchase something at the airport.

The folks at Root Down were kind enough to put together a personalized little snack box full of cucumber, tomato, grapes, hardboiled egg, and Justin’s peanut butter.  I was so thankful for the healthy and delicious meal.

Personal Favorites:

• Completing my First Semester of RD School and Beginning My Second Semester

This kind of blows my mind, but I have officially completed my first semester of RD school…crazy!

I really enjoyed everything I learned last semester and I am looking forward to really digging in and learning even more this semester!  Also, I plan on blogging in more detail about my program but there are a lot of details so I am in the process of figuring out the best way to get the information out to you 🙂

• Bernie at the dog park

This will never get old 🙂

• Idina Menzel at Red Rocks

Brian and I went to our first concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheater and it was amazing! We saw Idina Menzel (from Wicked, Rent, and Frozen) and she was absolutely phenomenal.

• Visiting Butler University

When we were visiting home, Brian and I made a trip to our old stomping grounds at Butler University! It was so much fun to drive around to see all of the construction projects going on right now.  They are building so many new things!   I can’t wait to see what it will look like when all the projects are complete.

• Our long weekend in Grand Haven, MI to celebrate my mom’s birthday

I feel so lucky that Brian and I were able to go home for 10 days to be with both of our families.  We had so much fun spending time with everyone!

During our trip home, we celebrated my mom’s birthday by spending a long weekend in Grand Haven, MI and it was just fantastic.  I want to do it again!

• Meeting Katie’s baby, Tucker!

While we were home, Brian and I made sure to visit our friend Katie to meet her brand new baby Tucker.  Isn’t he a cutie!?

Workouts I’ve Been Loving:

• Running my First Half Marathon in Over a Year

At the beginning of the month, I ran my first half marathon in over a year as part of my training for a full marathon.  I love the adrenaline rush that comes with racing, and I love that Marisa did the race too!

• Marathon Training

I can’t believe it, but I have completed a 14 mile run and a 16 mile run as part of training.  Not only did I complete the runs, but I felt pretty good after!  Let’s hope the rest of training stays that way 🙂

• Yoga

While I would love to fit MORE yoga into my life, I am happy that I was able to get a few good yoga sessions in this month.

While in Indy we visited Practice Indie.

We also did Yoga on the Rocks!

• Superset Resistance Band Workout

I’ve been loving my resistance band this month.  I love that I can take it anywhere I go, I can do my workouts at home, and I love that it gives me necessary strength training to balance out all this running.

Foods I’ve Been Loving:

Foods I’ve Eaten

• Homemade pesto

The pesto tastes great with zucchini noodles and shrimp or in my pesto potato salad.  🙂 YUM!

• Easy dinners (sauteed greens, roasted veggies and grilled chicken).  This meal is pretty much a staple in our house!

I like to make extra of everything when we have meals like the one pictured above so I can just throw everything into a pan and heat it up the next day for lunch.

• Smoothie bowls and iced almond milk lattes.  This is one of my favorite things to have post long run.

• Acai bowl!!!  If you guys haven’t tried one, I highly recommend it.  I have been hearing about acai bowls for quite sometime now and never really knew what the hype was about.  Well, I tried my first acai bowl from Twenty Two Juice and now I know what the hype is about.  They are so amazing!

• I had REAL dairy ice cream in Michigan and it tasted amazing 🙂  (I haven’t had real ice cream in about 8 months!)

Blogs/Shows/Podcasts I’ve Been Loving:

Blogs

• 6 Easy Recipes Rich in Magnesium from Cotter Crunch | So many delicious looking recipes!
• How to Build a Home Gym from Blonde Ponytail | Great advice for getting your workout in at home.
• Freezer Essentials from Uproot from Oregon | Excellent ideas for things to always have on hand!

Shows

• Friends Still working my way through the entire series and LOVING it.
• OITNB Season 3 (still working on it) Brian and I started this a while ago and we still have a few more episodes left.  We just don’t watch that much TV and each episode is kind of long, so it feels like a bit of a commitment to start an episode.
• Next Food Network Star (mom recorded the most recent season for me since Brian and I don’t have cable)

Podcasts

• Balanced Bites Podcast
• Ancestral RDs
• Chalene Show
• Build a Badass Business

Old Posts I’ve Been Loving:

• Tips to get the most out of your Bodypump Class | This post is from a few years ago when I started teaching Bodypump.  I still recommend these tips to new participants in my classes, and this post consistently gets the most views on the blog.
• Indianapolis Bucket List | So many good things on this list! After visiting Indy last week, we got to see that there are so many new things in Indy!  While the things on this list are super fun, I definitely need to add some new things to the list.
• 30 Minute Tabata Interval Spin Workout | Excellent workout on the spin bike
• Clean and Simple Black Bean Dip | Would be great for a Labor Day cookout 🙂

And that’s a wrap!  I’m off to get my study on 🙂  I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Your turn:

• What are some of your favorite things from August?