#Obsessed

I've been trying to cut back diet pop. I used to guzzle one to two cans of it a day... Sometimes more if I went out to eat at a restaurant for dinner. When you're running 3-4 times a week, you begin to better understand your relationship between food and your body. Your energy level. Your mood. Your digestive system. The importance of hydration. Pop is okay, as a treat, not an all the time thing. Certainly not an everyday thing, and certain not as a replacement for water. What's a beverage addict to do?

Enter iced tea. Sweet. Low calories. And tea is ACTUALLY good for you. (Just look at every study ever done...ever.) I got the idea to try this method at home after someone ordered a custom iced tea at Starbucks the other day. It's easy, quick, and the best part is, you brew it by the cup, so if you make a less than stellar batch, you only have one glass of it to get through. I made three or four different versions of this stuff yesterday alone. Tea is the new water. You heard it here first.

Home Brewed Iced Tea
Serves 1

What You'll Need AKA What I use. Do whatever you want:

Kettle or stove top... some way to boil water basically.
1 hot travel mug
1 cold drink tumbler
Sweetener of choice
2 tea bags of choice
ice, crushed or cubed

flavour variables: lemons, limes, mint leaves, orange slices... Go crazy.

Method:

1. Make tea. Make it in the hot travel mug (or some other heat resistant measuring container. I just use the travel mugs for volume accuracy.) If you want to add sweetener, add it to this step, so it dissolves. I use Stevia, but sugar, honey, anything goes. :3 Steep it like it's going out of style, to your own taste. Stronger the better to me, but I like FLAYVURRRR.

Notes on flavour: PLAY with your tea a little bit. If you want traditional iced tea, black tea works nicely. But then, one black tea bag and one blueberry tea bag is also good! Or peppermint tea and green tea. Run wild! Your options are only as limited as those countless boxes of tea you have stashed in your pantry.

2. Fill the cold tumbler (I just used an Iced Venti Starbucks cup) all the way up with as much ice as you can. When the hot tea is steeped to your liking, pour it into the cold tumbler, over the ice so it melts. You can either chill it further for a few minutes to make it uber cold, or drink as is.

3. Garnish with lemon, throw on some shades and go outside! Drink it. Repeat. REPEAT A LOT.


OTHER STUFF I'M OBSESSED WITH RIGHT NOW

Torches - Foster the People
The album by itself is a stellar piece of work, but I ran to it the other day and I found it so easy to open up my stride and fly faster and push harder. The energy challenges you to match it, but the light MGMT-esque techno keeps your mood light while you're tearing up the pavement.

So the running song of the week is:


Peeps
I talk a big game about eating healthy, but sometimes it's just to remind myself that I have to do it. With it being Easter weekend, I thought I had better come clean about my big obsession: PEEPS. I only find them around Easter, and then I buy them in a huge 99 cent package onslaught and spend the next few days sneaking off to devour them in small bursts of becoming sugar high. I hoard them away like a sugary squirell. And I admit it, I know Peeps don't taste like anything. (I've never found any flavoured ones. Sad.) They're marshmallows covered in SUGAR. They're literally so simple, but they have such a profound hold on me.

I found a recipe for homemade ones here, but since I work all weekend, I might have to run to the store and hunt down just one...sweet...package...

Ridiculously Photogenic Guy Meme
I am the last person to hear about this but..GAH, ADORABLE.