The Westside Local

Hello: )

How was your weekend?? Ours has been good and what’s even better is that I have a three day weekend ; )

I got a package last week from NuNaturals and am looking forward to using it! I first tried NuNaturals products back in October when they send me some samples. I especially liked their liquid vanilla stevia … it goes great in oatmeal!

After church, Erik and I spent our Sunday in Kansas City.

Before we headed home, we stopped and ate at The Westside Local for dinner.

It’s located almost right across the street from another local KC restaurant that I’ve blogged about, Blue Bird.

While waiting for our food, we took a lot of pictures.

The Westside Local was cute, inviting and quaint. We sat right by the window and could feel a nice breeze from outside while soaking up the sun. Perfect!

Erik decided on the Summit Burger (made with local grass fed beef) with a side salad. It sounded so good that I got the exact same thing.

Turns out, I made the right decision ; ) We both thought it was really good and would definitely order it again.

I’m now excited for Monday because I’m off work and get to go stock the vending machines with Erik.

I’ll leave you with Adrian, Bubba and Rocky (unpictured) saying “hi!” : )

Bridal Boot Camp, Day in KC

Happy Weekend! :)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! We’ve been enjoying the beautiful Spring weather!

Here’s a little picture recap of our Saturday. We spent most of the day in Kansas City just driving around, walking around, taking pictures, eating good food, and loving the weather.

For lunch, we stopped at The Mixx.

“The Mixx is a locally-owned, fast-casual restaurant that cares about the quality of the food you eat. Using only the freshest ingredients, The Mixx’s grilled meats are hormone-free, fish is flown in fresh daily, and everything is made from scratch. The Mixx’s dishes are prepared with foods that are not processed and are preservative-free.”

 

We both got the “Classic Blue” which is a sandwich with marinated grilled steak, grilled sweet onions and balsamic mushrooms with a blue cheese aioli on a French baguette. Yum!

Erik stops at The Mixx a lot when he’s stocking our vending machines, but this was my first taste of it.

 

At the park.

Picture taking:

Erik likes to pose for the camera, haha.

 

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed it thoroughly! : )

 

Bridal Boot Camp

When someone with Fitness Magazine contacted me about their six week program, dubbed Bridal Boot Camp, I was excited to share it with all my readers. It’s something I can definitely get behind because of my own enjoyment in working out. I also know what it’s like to not have a clue where to start or how to get results without some help!

As told by Fitness Magazine, the program features:

“Bridal boot camp workout videos - everything from specific toning exercises, such as the balance arm curl, to nutrition tips. Most of them about one minute in length

Extra moves for specific dress types -  targeted workouts for brides with strapless, backless, form-fitting, or short styles.

Finally, because brides tend to be extremely busy, Fitnessmagazine.com has created a 20-minute circuit workout for buff brides. Between dealing with caterers, booking the florist and attending dress fittings, now any bride will be able to fit in cardio, strength training, and interval training in just over two hours a week.”

 

For more information, sign up for the bridal boot camp newsletter  that includes workout routines, nutrition tips, weight-loss plans and more.

I hope you all check it out, they have some great workouts and great tips to help you succeed and get the results you want! Happy Bridal Boot Camp’ing!! : )

 

Happy Easter! (+chest workout and Genghis Grill)

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has gotten to enjoy some good food and good times with family! I didn’t feel great this afternoon for awhile, but I’m feeling much better now so all is good ; )

I haven’t mentioned much of my working out lately, so I thought I’d share my chest workout from this past week. I haven’t taken any pictures in the gym because I just feel weird bringing my huge, nice camera in with me while I’m trying to workout, ha. Maaaaybe someday. For now, here’s some pictures from home … (to see progress in my muscle building, here’s some pictures from January and February for comparison) Monday’s chest workout:

• Bench press: 65lbs for 12 reps, 85 lbs for 8, 105 lbs for 4, 115 for 2, failed attempt at 125lbs, 65 for 17 reps (aka, to fail)
• Incline dumbbell chest press: 30lb dumbbells for 12 reps, 35lb dumbbells for 6, 30lb dumbbells for 6, 20lb dumbbells for 20 reps (aka, to fail)
• Decline bench press: 65lbs for 12 reps, 85lbs for 8 reps, 65 lbs for 10 reps, 45lbs (the bar) to fail
• Seated cable flies: 4 sets with 60 lbs (30lb cable on both arms) to fail (ended up being 6-8 reps)

It was a really good workout and I felt great when I was done.

Fast-forward to this weekend:

Yesterday Erik and I ventured to KC to hang out and enjoy the nice weather. I LOVE this time of year : ) For food, we decided on Genghis Grill in the Power & Light District. It’s build-your-own Mongolian stir fry. They had tons of options and basically you build your own bowl by going through a buffet and picking a protein, your seasonings, your veggies, your sauce, and  putting it all in a bowl. They then add your starch and cook it for you.   I decided upon (if I can remember it all) …

Sliced beef seasoned with granulated garlic and pepper with cabbage, a few mandarin oranges, onions, squash and zucchini with roasted tomato sauce, a little ginger citrus sauce, and garlic water. And for my starch, I picked Udon noodles. This picture was taken from the outside window, hence it’s quality, but there’s an idea of how they cook it …  I love the whole build-your-own concept that seems to be prevalent in emerging restaurants these days, because it makes knowing what you’re eating much easier. In fact, you can even put in your ingredients online and you’ll get the nutritional facts. Here was my bowl:

I tried to get most of the low sodium ingredients, because when eating out, if you don’t watch it, salt adds up QUICK. I probably could have done better, but for eating out, 600 mg isn’t that bad. (Especially considering how a serving of most of their proteins have 400-600 mg alone)

I really liked my combination but decided I put a little too much pepper in. Ha, and poor Erik couldn’t even finish his because he underestimated how hot (spicy hot) it would be.     

Have you ever been to a build-your-own stir fry restaurant and did you like it??

I was pretty picture happy yesterday in Kansas City, so I’ll have more to share later : )  Have a good one!!

 

P.S. My blog layout is having some technical issues today, so if you noticed it looks a little “off”, that’s why;)

Remember Me???

So … I have been severely neglecting Lesley Lifting Life for far too long!!

In fact, I’ve pretty much been neglecting the totality of my internet social life … Facebook, Twitter, Examiner, Gmail, etc. So for that, and for those that have e-mailed me with no response, I’m sorry!!

Apparently I needed a break? Ha, I really have no reason for the unplanned hiatus other than a busy life. But all is still well and we are still us :) See??

 

I have some fun things planned, but for now, here’s a recap from when I was away :)

• Had my 22nd birthday on March 18th
• My parents came to visit
• I scored a new BPA free, non porous material, 1 gallon water jug to bring to work each day. It’s nice because I can bring my reverse osmosis water to work now instead of drinking gross tap water.(People continue to ask, “Do you drink ALL of that in one day?” to which I respond, “Yes, I do”. Ha, it’s really not hard to drink a lot of water once you get used to it ; )
• Unintentionally neglected e-mails
• Took almost no pictures
• Ate good food. (via cell phone pictures).

• Continued to workout and still have this schedule with a lot of overtime at work.
• Have been slightly addicted to American Idol this season. (I miss Lily and Lacey)
• Decided to probably postpone my planned Oct/Sep figure competition.  We decided it would probably benefit me to spend some more time building muscle (it takes a lot of time and work and I started with just about nothing, ha). Also, I’d rather wait and do a show when I feel more confident and ready. (More updates to come).

Speaking of figure shows, shout out to Carrie for getting 2nd place in her first ever figure show this past weekend!! : )

Anyways, there’s the jist of my life lately. Hopefully I’ll get back to more regularly blogging. I miss you all when I stay away this long!

How have you all been?? And have a great week!