I Mustache You A Question {7 miles!}

Hi friends! 🙂

Yesterday Chad and I had verrrry long but super fun day planned! We slept in just a little and got to the gym around 6:30 to kill some shoulders and back. 😉 This is by far my favorite workout for some reason. I love it! It went a little like this…

Afterwards, we came home, fueled with a little protein powder + milk (almond milk for me), showered, and then got to work on a real breakfast.

One egg plus 2 egg white scramble with mozzarella, spinach, and ketchup 😉

We lounged around for most of the morning, cleaning, watching TV, and just hanging out before making some lunch. I started out with some carrots and almonds that were not pretty enough to photo. Then I fixed a very yummy yogurt mess of plain Chobani, a little vanilla, cinnamon, strawberries, and almond butter.

After lunch, we grabbed a snack for our afternoon of errands across the river in Florence. We had lots of places to go and lots of things to buy that we didn’t need. We were also meeting up with some friends for dinner at BWW!

Justin’s PB spotted at TJ Maxx!!

You bet I grabbed this as soon as I saw it! I left with a jar of this plus some Gnu bars, cupcake coffee, and Nike hair bands.

Target was another stop on our list. We went in for beach chairs and came out with 2 chairs, Luna/Lara bars, nail polish, queso dip, body wash, a loofah, and of course it’s not a trip to Target with out buying a new bathing suit. I swear I have a problem. I also found these at Target!!!

I’ve been seeing Courtney rave about these pancakes, so I was SUPER excited to try them out!

We still had some time to kill before dinner, so we went to play at the mall. What are we 13?? 😉

I mustache you a question…….

Saw that over on Julie’s blog today too! haha

When dinner rolled around, I was debating on whether to get the black bean burger or the naked tenders with a sauce for dipping……

The tenders won! They were yummy and juicy and the medium style sauce I ordered was perfect with them! I was dipping my fries in the sauce too. This wasn’t a bad meal for a place like Buffalo Wild Wings. About 500 calories for the tenders, sauce, and fries. I may have undone my good work when I got home and opened that jar of Justin’s PB! haha

*********

This morning I woke up with only one thing on my mind: SEVEN MILES. I had a 7 mile run on the schedule today and was kind of nervous about this one. This is the longest distance I have run so far, so it was intimidating. But, I geared up after having the Gatorade energy chews and hit the pavement!

This was a seriously tough run and I really regretted not bringing any water with me. But I kept going and finished those 7 miles! I was so so proud of myself! I called Chad and begged him to come pick me up though, because I couldn’t stand the thought of having to walk back home. 😉 What a great husband right??

After a shower, I new EXACTLY what we were having for breakfast…

Kodiak Cakes!!! Can you tell I loved them? I couldn’t even wait to take a picture before having my first bite! 😉 On top is some Justin’s PB and a drizzle of sugar free syrup. YUM!

Today agenda is going to consist of one thing.

PACKING.

I’m so ready for our family’s beach vacation in Fort Morgan next week! I just hope I can keep up with the blog while I’m lounging in the sand. 😉 Seriously though, if there’s wi-fi, I may blog from the iPad, but if not then you guys will just have to be without me for the week. I know you’re SO SAD.

Anyway, I’m off to do some laundry so that will have clothes to pack!

Have a great day! 🙂

Thursday Thoughts {Motivation}

Let’s talk about motivation!

What kinds of things motivate you to be healthy?? Motivation (IMO) is a HUGE factor in having success with your weight-loss/fitness/health goals. I thought I’d share with you some of my biggest fitness and health motivators! 🙂

When it comes to running and working out in general, I have a few key motivators that really keep me on top of my game…

1. Quality (and cute!) workout clothes/equipment. Everytime I buy new dry-fit shirts, tempo shorts, or even a new headband, I get really excited to workout! Knowing that I’m going to look cute while running or going to the gym really motivates me to actually GO! It may be a silly reason, but it works for me. 😉

2. Wear your gym clothes to bed! When I know I’m going to have to get up super early for a run or for the gym, I always wear my gym clothes to bed. That way, all I have to do is roll out of bed, put my shoes on, my hair up, and walk out the door.

3. Sign up for a race or competition. If you have something that you’re working towards and you’ve already signed up, then there’s no turning back and you know that you have to keep training! This is why I sign up for races really early. Knowing that I have to run 13.1 miles in less than 4 months motivates me to keep up with my running schedule so that I don’t fall behind. If you’re not in to running, go out on a limb and sign up for something else. Bikini competition???? haha But serisouly, if you know that you’ll have to walk out on stage in a bikini in a few months, you’ll definitely be motivated to keep working out! 😉

4. Get support from your friends and family. Tell people what you’re doing so that they can help keep you accountable and support you! Chad is a HUGE support system for me and always reminds me that I’m beautiful even when I’m not feeling great about myself. My family is also a major support system. In my last race I was running up a street that’s close to my house when I looked over and saw my mom and dad standing there cheering me on! They may not have realized it, but it gave me so much motivation to keep running! Little things like support with always keep you going. 🙂

What about EATING healthy?? Sometimes it’s harder to stay on track with healthy eating than it is to keep up your fitness routine. Here are some of the things that motivate me to eat healthier…

1. Find healthy foods that you LOVE and keep your kitchen stocked with them! There’s so many healthy foods that I love, and as long as I keep them in my kitchen, I have no problem grabbing those foods over something unhealthy. Some of my favorite healthy foods include:

Sweet potatoes, cucumbers w/hummus, fresh berries, greek yogurt, almond butter, Luna and Lara bars, eggs, oatmeal, zucchini, squash, asparagus, spinach, almonds, and the list can go on and on! Here’s my lunch from yesterday that included a leftover pork chop plus TONS of my favorite healthy foods!

2. Try new foods! Don’t be afraid to try something that’s new to you because you never know if you’ll like it or not! I never thought I’d like almond milk until I bought it for a special recipe and tried it by itself. Now I use it in place of milk! Another example is my breakfast this morning. I almost always have either an omelet or oatmeal for breakfast, but sometimes that gets old. So I tried something new with my eggs and made a scramble using spinach and a wedge of laughing cow garlic and herb cheese. So delicious! On the side is a piece of whole grain toast with almond butter.

3. DON’T STARVE YOURSELF. First of all, how you stay motivated if you wake up and know that you’re going to be miserable all day because of hunger??? This is just a recipe for disaster. I see this so often and used to be guilty of it too! If you’re eating less than 1000 calories a day, STOP IT! You’re body can’t function properly. Yes you might be losing weight… for now. But what happens when you finally reach your goal and go back to eating more? You’re body is going to FREAK OUT and store everything you eat as fat. Trust me, I’ve been down that road over and over and over. They key is to make eating healthy part of your life. If you do that plus stay active and workout, you’ll be amazed at what happens! Right now, I’m eating around 1470 calories per day, but only because I’m trying to lose a few pounds. If I wanted to maintain my weight, I’d be eating closer to 2,000 calories a day!

4. Plan for treats throughout the week. This is big one! I’m so much more motivated to stay healthy when I know that I get to have froyo on Friday night, or if I have a date night planned with Chad on Saturday. These treats also sometiems shock your body and boost your metabolism which eventaully helps your lose more weight! Isn’t it awesome? 🙂

5. Progress. I think this works for everyone. When I see that I’m making progress in losing wieght, or running, or lifting wieghts, I get so motivated to keep going! The more progress I see, the more motivated I get! Like placing 2nd in the 5 mile race last week! 🙂

All of these things I listed are awesome ways to stay motivated. But, I think that my number one motivator for living a healthy lifestyle is that no matter what you do or what happens to you, always make sure that you are happy. Nothing is worth losing your happiness! It’s taken me a long time to finally be happy with my healthy lifestyle. I went through years of starving myself, binging, starving myself, binging, and hating what I saw in the mirror. It wasn’t until I made the desicion to stop DIEting and to start living my life in a healthy way. It’s made a tremendous difference in my life, and even though I still go through times where I don’t feel “skinny” enough, or fast enough, or strong enough, I know that I am in am uch better place than I was this time last year. 🙂

I hope this helped you in some way! Please please please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions or  just want to talk! Have a great day. 🙂

WIAW {& Muscles!}

For this “episode” of What I Ate Wednesday, I’ve got food from Monday, Tuesday, AND today! Get excited. 😉

Monday Dinner

Lemon pepper chicken from the grill, roasted asparagus, and baked sweet potato.

Monday night treat

Skittles flavored shaved ice!

Tuesday Breakfast

Overnight OIAJ!! My favorite breakfast evaaaaa!

Tuesday Lunch

Cucumber, spinach, and hummus sandwich, baby carrots, and pomegranate Chobani.

Tuesday Dinner

Grilled seasoned pork chops, roasted zucchini “fries” and brussels sprouts, and scalloped potatoes from Betty Crocker 😉

Wednesday Breakfast

Protein powder and almond milk

Egg white omelet with spinach and ff mozzarella. This was my first time ever making an egg white omelet, and I really loved it!

This breakfast was the perfect fuel after a tough arms and chest workout with Chad this morning!

Exercise	Sets/Reps	Weight
Pull Downs	4/12	Level 3
Kick Backs	4/12	5 lbs
Skull Crushers	4/12	10 lbs total
Chest Press	3/12	30 lbs total
Flys	3/12	15 lbs
Incline Press	3/12	20 lbs total
Bicep Curls	4/12	10 lbs
Preacher Curls	4/12	10 lbs total
Concentration Curls	4/12	5 lbs

I can tell that I’m getting stronger because it’s gotten easier to get through the exercises and I’m able to use heavier weights on some of them. Yay for muscles! 🙂

I’m glued to the TV again this morning because MTV is showing season 2 of Laguna Beach! grrr…. I’m going to have to pry myself off the couch in a few to get in a run that I was supposed to do yesterday. OOPS. I seem to always have to skip my Tuesday run because my legs are so sore after Monday’s workout.

I guess it’s time to lace up and get off the couch…. have a great Wednesday! 🙂

Let the rain come down…..

Afternoon! I meant to have this post up right after lunch, but Chad and I decided to spend some time at the pool which delayed my blogging time. But no complaints over here! 🙂

Workout

After a week of “vacation,” it was time for Chad and I to get back to our workout routine. I was glad to get in a good leg session with him this morning, but boy was it tough!

4 sets of 15 presses(135 lbs), extensions(40 lbs), squats(95 lbs), & curls(45 lbs), followed by 3 sets of 30 lunges.

Breakfast

Hello old friend!!

I got absolutely nothing done this morning all thanks to RetroMTV. What’s a girl supposed to do when there’s a Laguna Beach season 1 marathon playing all morning???

I got so excited when I heard the theme song come on… Let the rain come down and wake my dreams! Seriously, I was obsessed with this show in high school! My favorite was always Lo because she was so nice, but I was definitely for L.C. over Kristin. Bleh.

Anyway, I snacked on some cinnamon roasted almonds mid-morning.

Lunch

I’ve been obsessed with this salad for a few days now. It’s just so tasty!

Spinach, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberry vinaigrette.

I also had a cucumber and hummus sandwich with the leftover cucumber on the side with more hummus! 😉

Like I said, after lunch Chad and I hit up the pool for some sunshine.

He decided to try to get Sasha into the pool…..

She was thrilled obviously.

When we came inside, I had an apple cinnamon Chobani that was intended for lunch but never made it to the table. Perfect post-swimming snack!

Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

What A Week

You can read about why I’ve been away from the blog world in this post!

The last time I posted, I was planning on riding down to Panama City Monday morning with my mom so that she could bring me back home on Wednesday morning. On the way down, I was feeling so bummed about not getting to stay for the whole trip, so just for kicks I started looking at flights into pcb. I just so happened to find an extremely cheap flight from Nashville, so I booked it right then and there! I know I’m crazy, but I really felt like I needed to go back so I could help Chad for the rest of the week. It was completely worth it! It was such an amazing week with all the youth and SO much fun!

When we got back on Friday, Chad and I unpacked and went to grab some dinner at Casa. Afterwards, I felt like I needed to get in some carbs and sugar in preparation for the 5 mile race I had the next morning. So we went to our favorite bakery for some cupcakes! I had two. TWO. It was awesome. I’m definitely making it a pre-race tradition. 😉

I woke up this morning (race day) and had an english muffin, half with peanut butter and half with a wedge of laughing cow cinnamon cream cheese plus a cup of coffee. I felt really good and was ready to run! I give credit to the cupcakes.

The race was great! I felt so good through out the entire race… until about the last half a mile, but that’s only because I picked up my speed quite a bit to finish faster. I’m glad I did though, because I finished in 53:29 which put me 2nd in my age group! Yay! 🙂

Chad got a pretty bad picture of me finishing, but here ya go. 😉

I was pretty pumped about my time! Even though my phone’s GPS said that I finished 5 miles in 50:40.

As I was waiting around after the race, my aunt found me and convinced me to run the mile run with her. I would have had 6 miles to run today anyway if I hadn’t had a race, so I thought why not? We ran a good 9 minute mile and once again, I felt really good! It was a great day to run! 🙂

I spent the rest of the day resting and hanging out with Chad. It’s been a super long and tiring week, so we didn’t feel like doing anything.

I’m ready to get back to my normal routine, but I only have about a week to do it because we’re going back to the beach next week with my family. This will be a very restful trip though, so I’m excited to get away again.

Regularly scheduled posts should be back up tomorrow! 🙂

A Little Miscommunication

I’ve unplugged from the computer/blog world for most of the weekend. It was nice to not worry about taking pictures of my food for the blog. 😉

I got some crazy news yesterday while celebrating Father’s Day with my family. I wont go into to too much detail, but basically these next few days are going to be insane. We’re taking our youth group to the beach this morning and the trip lasts until Friday. Yesterday I found out that I absolutely have to be in town on Wednesday night for something important. There was apparently a little miscommunication, and I was supposed to know about it a long time ago, but I never got the info. It’s no one’s fault, but it put me in a crazy spot because I’m supposed to be in Florida until Friday. This is where my amazing Mom came to the rescue! She offered to drive with us to the beach today so that she can bring me back on Wednesday morning. She’s basically the best. 🙂 I could have just stayed home the whole week, but that would mean there would be no female chaperone for the first half of the trip, and that’s no bueno with a group of 25 kids.

So more than likely there will be no blogging from me until after Wednesday. Wipe those tears people, it’ll be okay. 😉

But here’s just a little update since last we spoke…

My ME DAY on Friday turned into a morning hanging out with my mom, then an afternoon of online shopping (much better than leaving the house), and that night I finally went to see the show I had talked about on Thursday.

Saturday morning, I woke up early to run my 6 miles. My long runs are getting easier and easier! 🙂 Then I spent the morning celebrating the life of an amazing man from church who I loved dearly. He passed away last week and his ceremony was Saturday. Chad and I sang Revelation Song, and it was one of the hardest songs I’ve ever sung. Trying not to get choked up while singing during an emotional service is not an easy thing to do. The ceremony was beautiful and truly a celebration of his life.

The rest of the day Chad and I got everything together for our youth beach trip, then we crashed pretty early.

Sunday after church, we spent the first half of the day at my granddad’s with my family celebrating Father’s Day. Then I went with Chad later to visit his family for the night. It was during all of that when I found out I had to be somewhere on Wednesday! Yikes… but even with the all of the craziness, it was still a fun fun day!

And now, if you’ve actually made it this far in the post, it’s time for us to hit the road! I’ll try to take more pictures so that I can come back with a more interesting post. haha

Have a great day! 🙂

Five Things {for me} Friday

Happy Friday!!

Sometimes I like to do Five Facts Friday over here, but today I wanted to do it a little different.

Chad is still away for a wedding (but will be home tonight!!), and I’m by myself all day today. No work. Nothing to keep me occupied. So, when I ended up sleeping in past my workout time this morning, I took that as a sign that I should keep the fun times going and have a special ME day today. 😉 Here are 5 things that I hope to do today, all for me!

1. Mani/Pedi! Haven’t had one in over a year. A YEAR!! I had my nails done for my wedding and haven’t done it since. This one is a must.

2. Bargain shopping. May sound a little weird, but I love a good bargain, and there’s a few stores that I want to hit up to see if I can find some fun things for cheap!

3. Buy some new workout clothes. Seriously, cute workout gear is one of my biggest fitness motivators! And since I’m in love with all things Nike, I see some tempos and dry-fit tanks in my future.

4. Lay in the sun. Specifically by the pool. 🙂

5. Eat peanut butter out of the jar. Who am I kidding. I do this every day. 😉

Catch you guys later. Make it a Fabulous Friday!! 🙂

The Run That Almost Wasn’t

This is the (sweaty) face of accomplishment.

Okay, so lets hope that’s not really true because if so, we’re all in trouble.

But that IS the face of someone who just pushed herself through a very painful run, which is an accomplishment!

I’ll explain…

I laced up this afternoon to knock out my 3 miles. I had my new shoes on and was ready to go! Literally, the very second I started running, I felt a sharp shooting pain in my let hip. (Possibly IT band??) I stopped for a second, stretched my leg, and tried to keep going. Nope. So I started walking and was feeling extremely frustrated. I didn’t want to injure myself, but for some reason the thought of not finishing this run made me really mad. So as I rounded the corner to head back towards my house, I started running again. It hurt, a lot. But then, slowly the pain started to ease, and by the time I got to my house, it was almost gone. So I didn’t stop! I kept going past my house and didn’t stop running until I finished 3 miles. The pain came and went a little, but I pushed myself and got through it!

I couldn’t understand what happened at first, and then I remembered I was wearing my Mizunos, and it hit me…..

I have magic shoes.

*Cue angelic music*

Yep. My Mizunos are magic shoes that make pain go away.

So that’s the story of the run that almost wasn’t.

While I’ve got you here, let me show you my awesome dinner!!

Like I said, when Chad’s away I eat the most random things!

In the mix is some sauteed zucchini, squash, and brussels sprouts. On top is a crumbled Boca burger, tomato sauce, and fat free mozzarella cheese.

There were so many flavors and textures in this bowls, and it was so tasty! Here’s what it looked like after I mixed it all up…

Not as pretty as the first picture, but just as good!

Well, I’m off to enjoy the rest of the evening! 🙂

Do You Know What Today Is??

It’s Flag Day!

Admit it, you had no idea. I know I didn’t… at least until I got to work and heard one of the teachers talking about coloring flags. So I quickly grabbed a book of holiday songs and picked out some fun flag songs for the kids to sing in music.  I sure don’t want to miss out on ANY holidays! 😉

Let’s talk about yesterday for a second…

I’m thinking that I need to send out a huge thank you to Kelly from EatYourselfSkinny for the amazing banana bread recipe! I made Grandma’s Banana Bread yesterday using the verrrry ripe bananas I had, and it turned out amazing!

I immediately cut two small pieces off the ends of the loaf, spread a little almond butter on top, and dug in! SO GOOD!

And just when I though life couldn’t get any better than homemade (100 calorie!) banana bread, the UPS truck stopped by with a delivery….

HOLY GEEZ it was my Mizunos that I ordered on Monday!!! I wasn’t expecting them until Thursday (today) so that was a huge surprise!

Hello beautiful….

I didn’t waste any time trying them on, and they fit perfectly!

Too bad I had already gone on a run that morning or I would have tested them out right then and there!

A little while later, it was dinner time. I fixed the most random meal that included a bag of frozen veggies that I microwaved and an English muffin pizza.

Yes it’s weird, but when I’m just cooking for myself, I have the right to eat whatever I want! 🙂

The rest of the evening was spent at church followed by choir practice.

Now that I’ve gotten yesterday out of the way, let’s get back to today!

Breakfast

I couldn’t resist having another slice of banana bread with a spread of almond butter and also a vanilla Chobani for some protein. (16 grams!)

Outfit

Jeans: Target (these are actually my favorite pair); Top: A little boutique called Impulse; Sweater: TJ Mazz Necklace: Another boutique called Nellie Mae; Shoes: Steve Madden (same from Tuesday)

Here’s a closer shot of the top half of my outfit.

Yes, this is in my classroom. 😉

Snack

Breakfast actually kept me full for a really long time (must’ve been the protein!), but I did eventually have a mid-morning snack of baby carrots around 10:00.

Lunch

I loved yesterday’s sandwich so much, that I recreated it with turkey instead of egg! String cheese and grapes on the side.

Workout

This will be happening as soon as my lunch digests! I’ve got 3 miles on the agenda today and can’t wait to run them in my new shoes!!! 🙂

Plans for the Day

Eat more banana bread Clean the house because it’s gotten a little OOC. But later tonight, I’ll hopefully be going to see a show at the local theater.If not tonight, then tomorrow. I’ve also got to get a lot of laundry done so I can start packing for the beach trip next week with our youth group! 🙂 I’m pretty excited about this trip and can’t wait to see what God’s going to do with these kids.

WIAW {& Endorphins!}

It’s time fooooooooor….. What I Ate Wednesday! *cymbal crash*

Thanks Jenn!

Hello hello and welcome to this week’s edition of WIAW.

Tuesday night dinner

was inspired by these goodies from Target!

I whipped up some lightened up general tso’s chicken with a side of all natural chow mein for me and Chad. The chicken turned out delish, but we weren’t really fans of the noodles.

Snack

A couple of hours later, we had some low fat ice cream for dessert!

That’s a serving of vanilla bean ice cream with fresh blueberries and crushed graham cracker. That cracker in the background was used once I got through the first half of the ice cream. 😉

Workout

Arms and chest baby… arms and chest.

We did 3 sets of 12 for Chest and 4 sets of 12 for arms. I’ve been sticking with the same weight for the past 2 weeks.

Chest Press, Flys, Incline Press, Push-up to failure.

Bicep Curls, Preacher Curls, Concentration Curls

Pull Downs, Kickbacks, Skull Crushers

BOOM! 😉

Breakfast

I wasn’t going to eat an omelet, but then I made Chad some eggs and changed my mind. It smelled so good! I also had a side of toast with Bettern’ Peanut Butter.

Workout #2

Since I never got around to running yesterday, I convinced my self to go out for a quick 2 miler a few hours after breakfast! I ended up covering about 2.3 miles in 25 minutes.

YAY FOR RUNNING ENDORPHINS!!! 🙂

Snack

After my run, I made a quick peaches and cream smoothie using 1/2 cup of frozen peaches, 1/3 cup of vanilla yogurt, and 1/4 cup almond milk.

Perfect post-run treat!

I was also going to treat myself to some post-run online shopping, but then I remembered that I had to treat myself to my monthly prescription meds from Rite Aid…. boo

Lunch

Spinach, egg, and hummus sandwich with a side of baby carrots.

And a black cherry Chobani for more protein!

I don’t have much planned for this afternoon until church tonight, but I do see some verrrry ripe bananas that I may just have to use in a yummy recipe! Do you have any favorite recipes using bananas??? Send em’ my way! 🙂

HAPPY WIAW!