Workouts, Food, and Life

Happy Friday!

I’ve got another week of traveling coming up on Sunday, so I’ve been using this week to relax and enjoy my off time (besides the 2 hours of work I had Mon-Thurs).

Workouts

Workouts have been good this week minus the non existent workout on Monday.

Tuesday: Track speed run

Wednesday: Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders all by my lonesome.

Thursday: Treadmill interval run

Friday: Back and Biceps with my gym buddy!

Food

Clean eating has been so easy this week! Maybe my body is craving healthy foods after 2 weeks of crap? Who knows, but I’m not complaining.

I’ve been having oatmeal or eggs for breakfast.

I’ve also been LOVING wraps for lunch, and they always include avocado.

I’ve really been craving avocado because last night’s dinner was a huge taco salad (made with ground turkey) topped with, you guessed it, avocado.

Life

I’ve been spending the rest of my free time lounging, laying out/swimming, and hanging out at my parents’ house. I know, how cool am I? haha I love being at my mom’s though, especially when the whole family is together. And getting to cuddle with this big buddy is a plus.

I’m hoping to get in some more pool time today and figure out something fun to do tonight. Tomorrow I’m planning on a 5 mile run on the TVA trails. Then I’ll be spending some time with my father-in-law and dad for Father’s Day weekend! We’re heading out of town Sunday afternoon, so we’ve got to do all our Father’s Day stuff before then.

Have a happy Friday and Father’s Day Weekend!

I’m Really Bad at This

You guys… I can’t even begin to explain how busy I’ve been over the past three weeks! I’m glad blogging isn’t my job because I’m really bad at it when my life gets too crazy.

First up on my list of things I had to do was to get through the last week of school which included lots of graduations and special services at church for our seniors. Then we went on a 5 days cruise to the Eastern Caribbean islands. It was wonderful, but sadly the weather wasn’t the best. We had fun anyway!

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We got home from the cruise on a Saturday night and left the very next Sunday afternoon to attend the Methodist Annual Conference in Birmingham. It was a three day conference, but I didn’t go to many of the events. Mostly I was just Chad’s chauffeur. I did run in a charity 5k for missions on Sunday night though. It was hot, late (the race started at 9:30 pm), and SUPER hilly. We ran about 3 laps around the Birmingham Southern College campus, and it might have been my worst race ever. haha Oh well, all for a good cause!

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I had one day to recover before heading out for another three day event. This time I attended a spiritual retreat called The Walk to Emmaus. It was such a special weekend that I can’t even describe with words, so I wont try! All I can say is if you ever get a chance to attend, DO IT! Going on an Emmaus Walk was also part of my 30 Before 30 list. So I can officially cross it off!

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I got home late Sunday night and crashed into bed. This week I teach music at our summer school program, so on Monday I woke up early to get my room and lessons ready. I have a very short schedule and only teach two 30 minute classes with 1 hour of planning time built into the schedule. So I’m only working for 2 hours a day. After lunch on Monday I accidentally took a 3 hour nap. I guess I was more tired than I thought. Chad and I went to get groceries and ended up picking up Subway for dinner and going to bed shortly after eating.

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Tuesday I got back into the swing of things by doing some speed intervals at the high school track. I ran to the track for a 1/2 mile warm-up, stretched, and then completed the following intervals:

10 seconds: Sprint  20 seconds: Run  30 seconds: Walk

After 4 rounds of that, I jogged for 2 minutes before doing it again. Then I ran/walked home.

I followed up my run with some overnight oats topped with fresh blueberries and almond butter!

After work, I came home and made a wrap for lunch that had spinach, black beans, avocado, cucumber, and sriracha.

I spent the afternoon in my favorite spot!

Then made dinner: Chicken breast with a roasted tomato salsa and a side of fresh pineapple. (I swear there’s chicken underneath all that salsa!) You can find the recipe for the chicken and salsa here. It was so good!

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I’m sure this is more information that you want right now. I hate when I’m away from the blog for so long because I feel like I have so much catching up to do, but I don’t want to bore you all with long posts. I’ll have to catch up on yesterday and today’s workouts/food later tonight or tomorrow. Until then….

Thanks for reading. Happy Thursday!

Celebrating Two Years!

I haven’t had much to write about lately, which should explain why I’ve been away from the blog. The school year is winding down (it’s our last week!!!), my meals have been pretty average, and since I’m not training for anything in particular, my workouts haven’t really been anything special.

But today is a very special day for me and Chad. I figured it was worth writing about.

Today is our two year wedding anniversary!

I can’t believe two years went by so fast, but at the same time, I can’t believe it’s only been two years! We’ve actually been together for over seven years, so that may explain why it seems like we’ve been married longer. I’m not a good writer, so I can’t really put into words how I feel about Chad. But I know that he understands how much I love him, and that’s all that matters.

I just wanted take the time to wish Chad a happy anniversary here on the blog. So happy anniversary Chad!! I love you more than peanut butter and running combined! And that’s a big deal.

We have a very low-key evening planned. We’re just going out for dinner to celebrate tonight because the BIG celebration is next week, and I am SO excited! At the last minute, we decided that we’d like to try to take a vacation during the only week this summer that we don’t already have plans. So yesterday, we officially booked a cruise…. and we leave on Monday!!! We have never done something this spontaneous, and though it felt kind of crazy, I’m so glad we decided to do it! We’re still young and want to make sure we take time to do fun, crazy, and sometimes expensive things while we still can. (read: before we have kids) Just six days until we’re sailing on the Carnival Victory!

Needless to say, I’m a little anxious to get through this last week of school. Tomorrow is my last day of teaching, Thursday is a half day for students, and Friday is a workday for teachers. I. Am. So. Close. I just hope these next 6 days go by fast!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

3 Ingredient Cookies

Hello! I don’t have much to share with you from the past few days. My weekend was great but not exciting enough to talk about here. We had a fabulous Mother’s Day lunch with my family and then spent the rest of the afternoon with Chad’s family. No pictures to share because I like to get away from all of that on Sundays.

Anyway, I’m not here to tell you about my weekend, or runs, or workouts. I’m here to give you an easy cookie recipe that you can make in 5 minutes. Plus they’re HEALTHY! Whaaaa?? Yep. These cookies are so healthy, you can eat them for breakfast.

3 Ingredient Cookies

• 1 very ripe banana (the more ripe it is, the sweeter the cookies will be!)
• 1/2 old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup almond butter

Mash the banana and oats together. Then, add in the almond butter and mash again. Plop the cookies onto a plate and stick them in the fridge for an hour or so. I like putting mine in the freezer!

If you make 6 cookies, they’re about 100 calories each and full of delicious natural ingredients. No added sugar! (As long as your almond butter is natural)

These cookies are seriously yummy. Chad loves them, so you know they’re good.

Enjoy the cookies! Now I’m off on a run.

Happy Tuesday!

Five Things Friday

 

1. Chad got a new toy yesterday.

Yep, that’s a blow gun. I tried it a few times, but I wasn’t very good. There’s no telling what kind of shenanigans he’ll be getting into with that thing.

2. I ran out of protein powder a few weeks ago and haven’t gotten anymore yet, so I haven’t been able to make my protein pancakes lately. I discovered that we had a box of chocolate flavored Carnation Instant Breakfast packets in the pantry, so I used that instead this morning. It turned out really good!

Stop being jealous of my dirty stove.

3. Chad and I didn’t go to the gym all week, so this morning we decided to do a full upper body strength workout that targeted biceps, triceps, back, shoulders, and chest. It looked like this one, minus the leg stuff.

I found this workout on Pinterest and have NO idea where it came from. Sorry.

4. Today was the last day of music for my Friday classes (next Friday is field day and the next Friday we are out!), so in 2nd grade we did a project where the students wrote their favorite thing about music. One of the most precious answers was “Mrs. Kennington because she’s nice, pretty, and funny.” Seriously made me tear up!

5. I’m so torn on whether or not I want to train for a fall/winter marathon! Part of me really wants to accomplish this goal, but another part of me wants to spend the fall running for fun and improving my 5k, 10k, and even 1/2 marathon times. I absolutely love running the half distance, and there are so many races I want to do. If I choose to run a marathon, most of my money will be going towards the entry, hotel, travel expenses, etc. and I wont have much leftover for other races. HELP!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Back to Normal

Oh man, after two days of pure craziness, we finally had a normal day yesterday. Tuesday night Chad and I got in the bed around 6:30…… 6:30 y’all. That’s how tired we were, and I know Chad was even worse than me. Thanks for all your kind words and prayers for our little situation. Everything seems to be okay now, so we’re very thankful!

Like I said, yesterday we were able to get back to our normal routine. I even squeezed in an afternoon run after not working out for 3 days.

It felt so good to sweat and get those endorphins flowing, even though I wanted to die 5 minutes in to the run. lol

 

This morning, Chad and I went on a 2 mile walk together. I love our morning walks.

For breakfast, I enjoyed a big bowl of oats with peanut butter as always.

 

During my lunch break, I snacked on some red peppers and carrots to hold me over until our teacher appreciation lunch at 1:00.

 

We ordered out from a local cafe, and I got the grilled chicken and strawberry salad with strawberry vinaigrette. Delicious!

 

I also had a teeny slice of some kind of amazing pie that had pecans and chocolate chips in it. I think it’s called Derby Pie? I’m not sure, but it was good!

After work, I went out for a little speed work. I really want to get faster and improve my 5k time. Right now, I’m hoping to get a sub-28. Eventually (in a few years??), I will work my way to that sub-25!!

After a shower and a snack, I had to take care of some things that I’d put off all week like dishes and laundry… boo. Then I got a little time to relax before getting dinner ready.

On the menu tonight: Parmesan tilapia, roasted asparagus, and sweet glazed carrots.

 

And now while Chad is off to a youth thing, I’m spending my evening on the couch with my fur-friends. I’m so happy we’re back to normal over here.

Happy Thursday!

Snapshots from the Weekend

Well friends, I had every intention of writing yesterday and linking up for Marvelous in My Monday, but we’re having some family issues over here. Nothing life threatening, but definitely some serious stuff. Just keep us in your prayers if you would please. Thank you.

Instead of writing a long and wordy post on how my weekend went, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking for me.

Saturday

Sunday – Cinco de Mayo!

There was lots of fun family time over the weekend.

Yesterday and last night were pretty crazy though. I only got about 3 good hours of sleep, so I’m feeling it and dragging this morning. Like I said before, there are some issues right now that me and mainly Chad are dealing with right now, and we could really use your prayers.

I’ll be back again soon with the recipe for those cookies up there! Happy Tuesday!!