For my fellow circuit workout fans, the Circuit Workouts page was updated this morning!
I added a small handful of new workouts to the bottom of the page underneath the “NEW Workouts” section.
I like to be overly obvious like that. 
Hope you enjoy!
Lunch
For some reason my lunchtime seems to be getting earlier and earlier. I normally eat closer to 1 p.m., but by 11:30 a.m., I was ready to eat.
I think I was ready to dig into my midday meal early because I was so excited to eat this salad.
When I bought the watermelon and feta cheese yesterday, I knew this salad was in my future!
I usually make the watermelon and feta cheese salad with arugula rather then spinach, but bags of fresh, baby spinach were buy one, get one free at Publix, so the cheap bag of greens reigned supreme.
On the side I had some fantastic G.H. Cretors all natural kettle corn.
It was sweet and salty and had a delicious buttery flavor. It reminded me of the authentic kettle corn I’ve purchased straight from the kettle at the Downtown Orlando farmer’s market that somehow keeps me going back for handful after handful.
The company sent me the kettle corn and the Chicago Mix (cheddar cheese + caramel popcorn) to try and both were incredible. Ryan and I ate the entire bag of the Chicago Mix in one sitting on Sunday as we hung out on the couch.
Most Popular Baby Names of 2011
Last night when I was blogging on the couch and Ryan was browsing CNN.com, he told me that the most popular baby names from 2011 were released and Noah, the name of our friends’ Dru and Carrie’s baby, made the list!
For some reason silly information like this interests me far too much, so I immediately had him list the top names:
(Source)
Today I noticed a lot of follow up articles on the internet about the release of this information, but the little nugget of information I found most interesting is that the name Jacob has held the number one spot for boy names in the United States for the past 13 years!
Sophia beat out Isabella, the front runner from the past two years, to claim the number one spot for girls.
Where is Julie!?
I’m actually quite fine with my name not being a “top name.” I’ve met a small handful of Julies in my life, but not a ton, and yet everyone knows how to pronounce it and spell it. It has been good to me.
Question of the Afternoon
- From the above list of top names, what are your two favorites?
For a boy my favorite is Ethan. For a baby girl, I like Emma or Ava.
Of Possible Interest
- Full Body Circuit Workout (FitSugar.com)
- 25 Best U.S. Cities for Walking (Fitbie.MSN.com)
- Interview with Yours Truly on Healthy Page (HealthyPage.com)
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I love popular baby names lists! Each year our province puts one out and also includes some bizarre names. Some of them were pretty bad, but I think the worst was Moo.
As an Abby (really Abigail) I never knew any growing up. It’s getting to be quite popular now though!
Noah and Ava were top names for me when I was pregnant last year; I’m kind of glad we went with a name not on the list, even though it rhymes with two of the top boy names (Hayden)!
My maiden name is May and we’ve toyed with Mayson as a girls name. And I’m glad it’s not on the girls list. I want my future kids to have original (but not weird) names that no one else has. I have the best name for a girl (Mayson is 2nd or 3rd on the list) but I won’t tell anyone because I’m worried they’ll steal it hahah.
Ethan and Emily! And the obviousness on the workouts page is much appreciated! 🙂
In Ireland the top two names at the moment are Jack and Sophie.I’d probably make a point of picking a name that was way down the list!
When I named my son “Jacob” in 1994, it was not a popular name. In 1995, it was the most popular boys name. *face palm*
My favorite on the girls side would be Emily, my friend just named her daughter Emily!
That salad looks amazing. I’m starving now!
my name is emma and i was the only emma i knew until i started my first professional job. then i met three emma’s (who were 15 years younger than me as i work in a school). i had never met another emma before that and i always HATED, let me stress HAAAAAAATED my name! i always wanted to be an emily, then in 6th grade i met my best friend named emily. i also now have a mother-in-law emily. a few years ago emma and emily held the 1st and 2nd slots.
the boys names are all terrible. i say terrible because i work in a school and i can associate a monster child with each name on the boy’s list. when i have a child i am going to have to give my child some obscure name like the celebs do. ‘house’ sounds particularly favorable.
We saw this on the news last night! My cousin just had a baby and named him Noah, such a cute name 🙂 Ava and Emma on our list when we were thinking of names for our daughter!
I really love all those girl names…super cute! I love Ava and Emma! Also…I need to try that salad. I wouldn’t think of watermelon and feta!!
From the list, my favorite boy name is Jacob and girl name is Mia but I don’t think I would choose any of them for my own babies haha
I’m a sucker for any sort of popcorn. I have to stop every time we go through the Chicago airports for real Chicago popcorn mix. I’m glad to see that the top 10 list has pretty normal names on it. One of my friends just named her baby William and will call him Liam. I thought that was cute!
I love Sofia with an F not a PH and I love the name JAcob as well!
I bet I’m not the only teacher with this issue, but when I have kids, I’ll need to name them something that doesn’t bring horrible kid-related memories to mind. Some kids I’ve taught have unfortunately tainted their names forever! Does that make me a terrible person?!
I use to teach swimming lessons in my hometown and I remember thinking that most of the teachers’ children had unique names. Nothing too out there just names that are not overly common. I totally think this is because of the reason you brought up.
I’m with you, Hillary! I’ll NEVER name a child Trevor because I associate it with a student I did not care for.
You are so right! If we ever decide to have kids, I’ll have to have a separate “not an option” list of names because of some of the kids I’ve taught!
I have always liked Lydia for a girl
A friend of mine just had a baby girl and they named her Nahla .. like from the Lion King. It’s cute but a little weird at the same time, all I can think of when I see her now is Lion King lol!!
Another friend has a daughter named Mika (which is a combo of her and her boyfriends names) and there new daugher who will be joining them soon will be named Kami which is just another arrangment of those letters .. there cute names but I think it’s a but odd to name your kids after yourselves lol!
Mason and Olivia. If I were having kids, I’d name my son Mason. I have a cousin named Olivia, although I never see her and we aren’t close, but I probably wouldn’t name my daughter that.
I heard that the name Emma became popular because of Friends (Racheal names her baby Emma), and that girls names usually come from pop culture. They also said that boys names usually come from biblical names – Jacob, Daniel, Noah. I thought that was pretty interesting!
I like Ava. I’d love to have twins and name them Ava Grace and Emma Faith.
I like Jayden and Chloe
I’m not too crazy about ANY of those names but I’d probably pick William for a boy (Will!) & Chloe for a girl.
My favorite names are those I gave my 4 children…Vanessa, Tatiana, Brayden and Paloma. Loved them 20, 17, 15 and 12 years ago and they still rock,,
My names Tatiana 🙂 I’ve never met another person in Canada with it, but met quite a few in Russia lol! I mostly just go by Tia
My daughter is named Julia after her great great grandmother Julie. We love those names! I’m also very glad her name is easy to pronounce and spell, but not so common that it’s on this list.
Oh heck I’m going to have to start thinking of names! We didn’t have any trouble with our girls Kierra and Meika, but the boy was much harder. We kept it in the family and named him Reinhardt after my husband. I couldn’t imagine 4 kids so naming another one, a surprise baby… Crazy.
My almost 9 year old son is Ethan! It definitely wasn’t in the top ten back then! My favorite from the girls’ list is Olivia, although I somewhat associate it with a co-worker I didn’t care for.
Jacob and Bella are seriously two of the most popular names?
That kills me.
(Only figuratively, of course.)
My name Lauren but not pronounced the normal way its leerean! If that makes any since! haha
My favorites on that list are Ethan and Olivia!
I don’t like any of the boy names… not fun enough! For girl names, I like a few, but I’d only name my daughter Chloe, if I never have one of course. A lot of them seem to be so common!
All the girls’ name are so pretty-sounding! As common as it is, I LOVE the name Alexander…and don’t know why people shorten it to Alex…sounds so good as it is!
Baby names fascinate me! Since I was a little girl, I’ve created lists of baby names that I like. Out of this list, I like Michael and Aidan for boys and Emma and Ava for girls. Isabella is pretty also, but I like the name Anabelle better. I’ve always liked the name Skylar (for a boy or girl) and recently “created” the name Skyleigh as an alternative to Skylar (although it’s so uncommon I’m not sure I would name my girl that!). Thanks for sharing this, Julie!
Actually, I like most of the names on the list, but never used them because I too didn’t want my kids to have to be referred to as First Name, Last initial. My name, Sarah, has been common for decades, but believe it or not, I rarely had another Sarah in my class or at my place of work. I grew up during the Jennifer/Jessica/Jamie decades and was saved from that fate!
I love the names Julie and Julia and really wanted to name a future daughter that since I was a little girl. Unfortunately, two people we knew beat us to the punch (oh, the joys of years of infertility). So, now we have a Jolie which sounds similiar and I’m just as happy with. But you know what? Since naming our child that, we suddenly are hearing this name more and more. Oh well. I still like it and it suits my daughter well. I guess that’s really all that matters.
I named my daughter Ava a year ago, knowing it was popular. I was trying to stay away from the popular names but I loved quite a few of them and Ava was one of the few names my husband and I completely agreed on. I’m a Jessica so I definitely know what it was like growing up with a popular name and when I think back, it honestly was not that bad. Even though Ava is a popular name it is still a pretty and classy name. Unlike some of the weird or trendy names you hear sometimes!
When Craig & I first found out that I was pregnant we were discussing names & guess what one of his favorite girls’ names was?! Julie 🙂 We don’t know what the sex of the baby is…YET…but the name we have picked out for a girl is similar to Julie, (not Julia), but similar nicknames to someone with the name Julie! (we’ll reveal the name once we know if it’s a boy or girl) But I love your name! I think it’s classic- perfect for any era, not some of these off the wall names that I have been hearing about lately.
Did you know you can look up the top baby names for a specific year and state? I once looked up the top baby names for my birth year (1986) in Massachusetts, and Megan was one of the top 10. No surprise there because I knew a ton of Megans growing up!
From those names, I’ve always loved Jacob for a boy (so classic), and I love Olivia and Sophia for a girl.
My name is Bret, so everyone thinks I’m a boy when I go in for appointments or whatever, but it’s worth it to see their faces everytime I show up and tell them who I am. I love it haha! The only downside is when everyone spells it with two t’s. When I was little, I used to yell, “My name is BRET. NOT BRET-T.” with the added “tah” sound at the end haha. I suppose I was always a little fireball.
My sister named her DAUGHTER Aidyn, which is on the boy’s list (different spelling) and I love that, although now she basically goes by Ada. I also love Emma.
Well I’ve been looking at names lately since i’m expecting in January 🙂 i LOVE the name Julia, for a boy I like Jack. And I’m glad neither are on the most popular list!!
I was actually having a similar conversation with my coworker earlier today! I work for a small company where the average age is about 26 – we have 3 Matts, 3 Ryans, 2 Alyssas, 2 Allisons, 2 Erikas, 2 Erins, etc….People have had to go by their last names because it got too confusing! I think the duplications are so common because we are all in same generation; whereas, our children will have tons of Masons and Sophias in their workplaces. Too funny.
I prefer Isabella, as that was almost my name 🙂
I love the name Mason, but for a girl. I also like Madison (mainly because I think Maddie is the cutest name ever!). My husband’s name (Daniel) made the list, and I can’t wait to tell him! I’m the same way about my name – it’s like everyone knows a Natalie, but there are rarely two of them in the same room at the same time.
It is amazing how often I see some of these names & how little I hear about others, even though they are the “most popular”. My husband and I love the name Ayla for a girl and Nolan for a boy.
Everyone always calls me “Melissa”. God, I hate that! I’m MARISSA!!
I love my name though. 🙂
I like Mason and Mia the best!! I have two students right now named Mason…good thing I enjoy them a lot, they haven’t ruined the name yet 😉 But if I were to name my children it would probably be Anderson or Andrew for a boy and Aubrey or Caroline for a girl.
I love Emma. My favorite two girls names are Emma Grace and Olivia Kate 😀
I like Noah for a boy and Abigail or Mia for a girl.
I’m really surprised Jackson or Jack isn’t on the list, I have so many friends that have named their little boys these names. I, like many others, avoid the popular names so they don’t have to add an initial to their first name when they start school. I named my little boy Patrick (after my dad). There are so many Emmas out there, I love the name but would never use it because it is definitely overused. I have a niece named Emma already! 🙂
Another Sarah here. I too won’t be naming my children anything popular when we have them. My maiden name was 1 syllable, so instead of “Sarah F” people basically just called me by my full name. And I hated my maiden name. Some people still call me that even now that I’m married. My husband has a really unique name which I love, Cale, (like Kale but with a “C”!) and he’s never minded when it’s mispronounced so he’s good with naming our future children unique names. I also don’t want anyone to steal them so I’m not going to share them until the time comes that we have kids and find out the sex. We already told a few family members who prefer more traditional names and were met with a bad reaction. But I think it’s your kid, who cares if anyone else likes the name or not! Even if someone names their child a crazy name, which ours is not, it doesn’t affect you so it doesn’t matter.
Mason was the name of the little boy I nannied for so I’m a little partial to it 🙂
Julie is a super common name down here in Australia!