Dogs, Spiders, and Beef (ha, weird combo, I know)

Hey everyone!

How's your week been going?? I'm staying busy just cleaning up dog hair! ha. And here is a nasty spider (but neat web) that was outside of my house the other night. I hate spiders! That's one thing about summer I could definitely do without. And there are many more spiders in MO than there ever was when I lived in NE. Moving onto something a lot less gross (I'm not sure if I should follow-up a spider with some food but here I go anyways, ha). We don't normally eat beef (we stick to turkey) because we just really don't know what beef to get. Especially after watching Food, Inc, I sure don't want to eat just any beef :s!

So anyways, we were at our Hyvee and we asked them about their over the counter beef. We got either 93 or 97% lean? I can't remember now. Anyways, the beef comes from Iowa (Amana beef). The guy behind the counter said they're an Amish community and they are fed an "organic corn based diet". I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean?? At least it's organic?? Well, we decided to try some because Erik was in the mood for a burger. They were cooked on the Forman because we didn't feel like messing with our charcoal grill (pathetic but true)! Just because of that, they could have tasted better. I had mine with a regular light laughing cow cheese wedge, some fresh tomatoes, and some Heinz less sugar ketchup. It definitely satisfied the burger craving but I still don't know what to think about what beef to get and where to get it ...

Eaten on an Ezekiel bun ... we've been getting a cheaper brand of sprouted bread than Ezekiel lately but I really love me some Ezekiel! That's about all I've got for tonight. The weekend is almost upon us ... hooray!!! : )

I've got a few more Examiner articles up too in case you want to check them out ; )

"It's not enough that we do our best. Sometimes we have to do what's reqired."
-Winston Churchill-

P.S. I thought this article was interesting, "Does Marriage Make You Fat?" Ha, I always suspected this could happen easily and it seems like it very often does.

Lifting and Clean Eating Part VI; Motivation and Results

Lifting and Clean Eating Part VI; Motivation and Results

An obvious important part to working out and eating clean is motivation. If we're not motivated, how will we get it done, especially when the last thing we feel like doing is working out instead of watching TV or drinking that tea instead of pop. So what's a person supposed to do to keep on keeping on when they'd just rather give up or quit???

Here's some things that motivate me:

• My husband. (aka someone to work out with that will keep you accountable, especially if you are just starting out). I could never have come this far without my husband's prodding, advice, motivation, and help!
• Fitness/Health Magazines. My favorites are Clean Eating Magazine, Oxygen, Muscle & Fitness Hers, and Woman's Health.  I like magazines that have workouts posted in them.
• Others’ success stories
• Blogging & Blogging Friends. You guys are all a great inspiration to me and motivation to keep going! Reading all about other’s workouts and fun healthy recipes inspire me to keep going. Whether you just comment or have a blog yourself, thanks for being there, you're awesome! : )
• Online Articles. I love being able to Google random things about food, fitness, etc if I wonder what something is, how to do something, etc. I just love reading fitness and nutrition tips and they motivate me to keep going too.
• New Equipment/Workout Clothes. Okay, it sounds kinda shallow but who's with me here? Getting new workout clothes, tennis shoes, or workout equipment can really give me a kick in the rear and get me going even stronger.
• Goals of what I want to look like, be like and feel like. 

So what's changed about me since before I began eating clean and working out??? Many things! Well, first off, upon starting to eat clean I was immediately amazed at how much energy and zest for life I felt! I began feeling so much more fresh and upbeat. And it feels amazing to know you're doing good to your body and feeding it foods that nourish it the best that you can.

I've always been a pretty shy person and very intimidated by others. I really saw myself as shy, weak, non athletic, not fit, intimidated, "bad" at running, sports, working out, etc. And can I speak for anyone else when I say that affects your confidence in every area of life?? I've always just been kind of a follower and too shy and afraid to be much of a leader.

But now I'm seeing myself differently. I'm seeing that I can do what I never thought I could and I don’t have to be shy and I don’t have to feel intimidated by people I somehow think are "better" than me because I am good enough and I can be an athlete and I can be fit if I want to be. It sounds cheesy, but it's true!

The best part is, I have just begun! And as I've said before, this is the last thing I ever thought I would be doing since I've always been so afraid and intimidated when it comes to fitness.

All that being said, hopefully this has motivated you to realize that YOU can do whatever you never thought you could, too!! Whether it's becoming healthy, loosing weight, gaining weight, building muscle, or something entirely different, YOU REALLY CAN DO IT no matter how much of a struggle or obstacle it is to you right now!

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."
-George Elliot-

Lifting and Clean Eating Part V; My current workouts

Lifting and Clean Eating Part V; My current workouts

After we'd been working out at the gym for awhile, Erik and I both got different jobs in which we began working longer hours. That made it even harder for us to get to the gym, but we did our best. My mother-in-law let us take her treadmill to our house, so I began doing cardio on it in our basement (with the help of the TV! ha). We shortly after decided to buy a Boflex and cancel our gym membership.

[Since, we have kind of switched from working out at home and at the gym, depending on how busy life is in the moment].

At that point, we had a treadmill, the Boflex, and 10 and 15 lb dumbbells. I was walking on incline for about 45 minutes 5-6 mornings a week and doing a weight schedule that was three days a week. 

At first I hated lifting and it was a definite struggle to get through my workouts. However, we soon after got a bench press and dumbbell set (ranging from 5 to 50 lbs) off of Craigslist and that's when I began to get "serious" about my lifting.

So without further ado, here is what my more regular workouts consist of:

• Cardio: 5-6 mornings before work I do around 30 minutes of cardio. It typically ranges from Tae Bo, walking on incline on the treadmill at around 3.8, with the occasional jog/sprint interval.
• Lifting: around 5 days a week in the evenings and lift by particular muscle groups split up normally as: Chest, Bis/Tris, Shoulders, Back, and Legs. I throw abs into random days whenever I feel like it.

I typically do around 4 sets of 4 different exercises in the muscle group of the day with varying reps (some days I push myself harder with heavy weight, lower reps and other days do lights weights, more reps). To me, it's all about switching it up every few weeks! Then, after each lifting workout I have a protein shake.

"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not."
-Mark Twain-
(ha, or at least it sure seemed like it at first ; )

Yard Work Weekend

Hello!!

Once again, I'm just here with a quick post. Where do the weekends go?? (it seems like I say that every Sunday and/or Monday, ha). Today we decided we wished we could go to Puerto Rico for a week and do absolutely nothing and our real lives could go on "pause" while we were there. Maybe someday someone could invent something like that? HA, just kidding ; )

in puerto rico about a year ago

Yesterday I was "away" from my computer a lot doing yard work. Erik and I hauled off around 2500 pounds worth of brick, stone, blocks, old fence, etc. (We knocked down a cement/brick wall and redid our fence not too long ago). It was a hot day so I was sweating tons, I got all dirty, and had to lift heavy things ... and I actually had fun doing it, ha. I didn't workout that morning, so it was nice to get a "workout" in while doing yard work.

Along with that we got Bubba (see previous post), and figured out how to separate him and our dogs, etc. I was going to take pictures of our pickup load we hauled to the dump buuuut I forgot my camera, so you'll just have to imagine it.

I did at least take a picture of dinner. Whole wheat penne pasta with a ground turkey & tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms and snap peas. It actually tasted a bit bland though because of no salt tomato sauce, buuuut oh well.

What did you do this weekend??

"If we all did the things we are capable of,
we would astound ourselves."
Thomas Edison

-I have a new article up on Examiner, aaand Lifting and Clean Eating Part V is still coming soon!

Weekend, Bubba, and Examiner

Hello everyone!! : )

I'm taking a "break" today from regular scheduled posting because after I got off work today, I just haven't done much of anything! Ha. But anyways, I just wanted to say ....

HAPPY WEEKEND!! : )

Couple random things:

I plan on ending my Lifting and Clean Eating Series with a bang so keep reading with anticipation! ;) I've got a couple more parts left but I'm close to wrapping it up.

Tonight we went to visit Bubba (aka Erik's dad's dog) because he's lonely by himself. Erik's dad is back in the hospital right now, so we might actually consider bringing Bubba to our house, except we need to figure out a way to separate him from our dogs. (Bubba is a huge 150 lb old, crabby-if-you-mess-with-him dog and just will not mix with our hyper annoying dogs). Here's a picture of him but it does not do his size justice at all. And here's an old cell phone picture of him. What's your weekend plans??? Whatever they are, I hope you have a great one!! I'll be back tomorrow : )

Oh, and I'm also now the Kansas City Healthy Living Examiner so you can visit me here. I only have one article up so far, but there will be more soon!

"When you do the best you can, you never know what miracle is wrought in your life, or in the life of another."
-Helen Keller-

Lifting and Clean Eating Part IV: My Current Diet

Lifting and Clean Eating Part IV: My Current Diet

As mentioned in Part II, after making the initial changes in my diet and sticking with them for awhile, it became easier and easier to pick less calorie, less fattening foods and I became more and more interested in healthy eating. Once I lost all the weight I wanted to loose and as my knowledge increased, I began making even more healthy changes such as "real" foods vs. processed and artificial sweeteners vs. "real" sweeteners.

 This was a slow process that started with one thing at a time. As we saw fit, healthy and more "real" items were slowly added in to replace less "real" foods. For example:

• We begun getting sprouted bread or 100% whole wheat instead of 45 calorie bread
• I started eating old fashioned oats for breakfast vs. FiberOne cereal
• Began using Stevia based sweeteners vs. Splenda
• Having Larabars, Pure bars, Kind, or Weil bars vs. Quaker 90 Calorie granola bars
• 2% cheese vs. fat free cheese
• More Almond milk, less skim milk
• Natural Peanut Butter vs. things like sugar free jelly
• Greek yogurt vs. popcorn for snacks
• More water vs. crystal light and other artificially flavored zero calorie drinks
• No more dependency on sugar free gum
• I began consuming more healthy fats (don't be afraid of them!!)
• More complex carbs
• More protein
• More balanced portion of veggiesAfter slow adjustments I ended up at these as my current daily stats:
  
• 1800-2200 calories (non lifting days) 2300-2800 (lifting days) … basically, depending on my activity level
• 30-60 grams healthy fat
• 130-150 grams protein
• 140-150 grams complex carbs

And here is an approximate day of eats:
Breakfast: 1/3 cup oats with frozen berries & 2 egg whites, 1 egg w/ hot tea
AM Snack: One or two pieces toasted sprouted/whole wheat bread with a serving of peanut butter and half sliced banana on top
Lunch: Around 1/3 lb of some type of meat and/or eggs (aka some type of protein), with little less than 1 cup brown rice, and some type of veggies
PM Snack: Piece of fruit w/ PB, or Lara bar, etc w/ tea
Post Lifting Shake (if I lift that day and also means stats will be higher that day):
Dinner: Same type of meal as lunch but will less carbs
Before Bed: 1/2 cup cottage cheese with a few walnuts or almonds, cinnamon, and 1 packet of stevia

On top of that, I typically shoot for about a gallon of water a day.

I feel very good about my current diet.  I never feel restricted or hungry and I’m able to build muscle and loose fat at the same time.  And I splurge when needed : ) 

All this being said .... if I can go from McDonald's and Taco Johns (I used to always get a bean burrito with sour cream, small order of potato oles with a side of ranch and of course a medium or large pop) to this .... anyone can do it!!! This is really the last thing I ever thought I'd be doing, but here I am doing it. It's just a matter of getting enough help, knowledge, and motivation to get going and stick with it. And it takes time!

"If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."
-Sam Walton-

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Lifting and Clean Eating Part III; My Initial Workouts

Lifting and Clean Eating Part III: My Initial Workouts

When I started working out, I was incredibly intimidated by the gym and by the thought of working out because I had no idea what I was doing but for some reason, I thought everyone else did and that it was stupid for not knowing. I mean, I considered myself pretty "in shape".

I used to ride my bike and roller blade all the time when I was younger, and in high school I golfed on our varsity team all four years (that equals a lot of walking). And yet  I always hated gym class, running, lifting … they made me majorly intimidated!  I didn’t know how to do these things, I didn’t feel like I could do any of them, and I didn’t want to do them at all.

Well, my husband decided to get a gym membership as he had kind of taken a break from lifting for awhile after his last show, etc, and he was ready to get back with it. So a few weeks went by and he kept hinting that I should join him. I finally gave in and started going with him. The first few times we went were unbusy times when I thought no one else would be there (ha, yes, I'm serious because I felt embarrassed to have to have Erik tell me what I should be doing for some reason?) Overtime, he helped me and showed me how some of the weight equipment worked, and advised what I should start out doing with cardio, etc.

I started out by:

• Exercising on the elliptical for 15-30 minutes and running through the nautilus weight equipment a few times

I'm a little low on iron already and with my body used to a fast food diet and hardly any water, I got lightheaded quickly when doing cardio. I can't say that I enjoyed myself at first, either. It was a fight to stick with it. Thankfully, our gym had TVs on each piece of cardio equipment so I brought my headphones and tried to focus on the TV. I was slowly able to increase my distance and level of difficulty and pretty well stuck to the elliptical because it was what I was most comfortable with and at that point, I had no idea how anyone could stay on a treadmill for longer than two seconds without getting bored out of their mind, ha. (I love the treadmill now but I sure hated it then).

Eventually I got to the point where I was faithfully doing at least 45 minutes on the elliptical and going through each piece nautilus weight equipment (3 set of 12 reps) 4-5 days a week. I even sometimes would stay on the elliptical for a hour (or a little more) but because it felt so good that I could actually do it!

Along with the new foods that I was consuming I was able to actually fairly quickly drop the extra 20 pounds I had put on. At that point the question of "What next?" came up. I lost the weight, I'd grown to really like how I felt when working out, and I felt amazing. I was as small as I wanted to be, as much smaller and I probably wouldn't have been my healthiest self.

I had come to realize that even despite the fake ingredients I was still eating I had so much more energy, my self confidence was rising, and I was feeling awesome!

So now that I had lost all my excess weight, I had to decide what was next and figure out how to tweak my diet and workouts while maintaining my weight loss.

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
-Gandhi-

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Lifting and Clean Eating, Part II: My Initial Weight Loss Diet

Missed Part I: How It All Began?

Lifting and Clean Eating Part II: My initial weight loss diet

I've decided to split my diet and workouts into "initially" and “currently” because how I started my journey to becoming healthier and what I maintain are quite a bit different. The further along I got, the more I moved into “real” foods rather than the more “artificial” ingredient foods that I started out with. So without further ado, here is how the change in my diet began.

*Disclaimer: this is what worked for me and I'm not suggesting it's the very best way or only way to go about anything, it's just simply what I went through to get to where I'm at today in my diet and workouts.

Before: When switching my diet from "I eat whatever I want whenever I want" to "clean and healthy", I didn't just all of a sudden go cold turkey and start eating clean, unprocessed, real foods. It wasn't ever that easy for me. I had to take little steps, a couple things at a time. I was in this for the long run. It wasn't just going to be a diet to loose weight, but it was about finding how to eat better in a way that worked for me at the time.

At least for me, it would have been nearly impossible to just all of a sudden not eat sugar-filled, salt-filled, and fat-filled foods. I had to wean myself off of them. Here are some things I did to really start on my road to healthier eating:

• I began by calorie counting and reading labels. I had no idea how many calories I was eating in a day until I actually counted them and it really gave me a great idea how to gauge how much to eat at any given meal, etc. I was shooting for around 1200-1300 calories a day to start out. (Click here for a way to estimate how many calories you should be eating a day when loosing weight.)

• I began eating 5-6 times a day. This one is what really helped me the very most. It wasn't that hard when I got to eat something every 2-3 hours. It kept me full and satisfied and I didn't crave bad food because I literally felt like I was eating all the time. (A little more info on benefits of doing this.)

• I started out by using a lot of sugar free/fat free products. While I knew artificial sweeteners really weren't good for me either, I felt that were better than regular full fledged fat and sugar products and also helped wean me off of so much of the real stuff. I pretty much bought everything I could sugar free/fat free.

• I researched ways to boost my metabolism and therefore faithfully did these things: 
  *started drinking a lot of hot green tea and other hot teas (I used Splenda to sweeten)
  * drank only water, tea, and artificially sweetened zero calorie drinks (aka Crystal Light, vitamin water, etc ... I had an occasional diet pop, but kept it as a “treat”)
  * tried to drink water right upon waking up
  * started to always eat breakfast (very important)

• Read a lot about healthy eating online and in my husband's old nutrition textbooks. Becoming more knowledgeable on what those greasy, fatty foods I used to not mind eating actually did to my body and what healthy foods would do for my body was an eye opener.
   
• Started taking a multivitamin every day.

• Despite my best efforts when all I wanted to do was eat more, sugar free gum, water and flavored artificially sweetened drinks became my friend.
  
   

A sample day of what I used to eat in a day:

- Breakfast: a serving of Original FiberOne cereal with skim milk (or almond milk), some frozen berries and some hot tea (I used Splenda to sweeten at the time) with 1 egg and 1 egg white

- A.M. snack: a 90 calorie or a less sugar Quaker granola bar

- Lunch: A sandwich on 45 calorie per slice bread with cut up chicken breast, piece of fat free cheese and mustard with a serving of fat free, sugar free pudding

- Afternoon snack: A serving of fruit with a couple almonds or another granola bar; mini bag of kettle corn microwaveable popcorn (or no butter popcorn) with some tea

- Dinner: A servings of lean meat (chicken breast, salmon, tuna, lean ground turkey, etc) with veggies and a small amount of brown rice or some low calorie soup with a piece of toasted 45 calorie bread with a piece of fat free cheese

- Before bed: A serving of almonds

I was pretty strict on myself at the beginning of all this because I really did want to see results and I knew the more I followed my guidelines, the faster I would see results. My husband was a GREAT motivator at this time, though I often got frustrated and mad at him when he gave me disapproving eyes when I wanted to eat something I shouldn't, or gave me advice I didn't feel like following but that I knew was true. (I needed someone in my life to do that though, or I would have had too much "cheating").

After: It was really tough at times and these changes were not always easy … I understand what it's like to struggle and get mad and disappointed with yourself. And at times I would think, why am I making myself do this?? I don't have to! Buuuuut, I stuck with it! And with a mix of working out/staying active, it did produce results! It became easier and easier to pick less calorie, less fattening foods and I became more and more interested in healthy eating. Once I lost all the weight I wanted to loose and as my knowledge increased, I began making even more healthy changes and far as "real" foods vs. processed and artificial sweeteners vs. "real" sweeteners.

"We are what we believe we are."
-CS Lewis-

What To Do With Excess Zucchini

As I previously posted, I recently made zucchini lasagna. I was pleasantly surprised because it was very good! Since then, Erik seems to always be asking me to make it again. So I decided to share it with you all in more depth. It's a great way to use up excess zucchini and a nice alternative to lasagna with noodles.

I used this recipe with these changes: (I realize I mentioned these in my other post about it but here they are again)
- I doubled it
- I used lean turkey instead of beef
- And I didn't use the flour

Zucchini Lasagna

Start out by slicing your zucchini into "noodles" as thinly as possible and soak them in boiling water until they become very tender (the more tender the better in my opinion!)
*Note: I used yellow zucchini squash because I didn't have enough regular zucchini Meanwhile, brown the turkey and add the onions, tomatoes, tomato sauce (or paste), garlic, water and seasonings. While that is simmering all together, put together your egg, cottage cheese, and cheese mixture. After you have drained the water out of the now very tender zucchini strips, begin your layering! Start with half of the meat mixture, then half of the zucchini on top of that. Next up, all of the cottage cheese/egg mixture, followed by the rest of the meat and zucchini. Top with cheese and voila, into the oven! Bake at around 350 uncovered for 30 minutes, let cool and then consume! Yum! (I think it was better the next day). You should definitely try it! Let me know what you think ; )

And don't forget to keep checking for Part II of Lifting and Clean Eating. It's coming soon!!

"But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac."
-Gandhi-

Have a great day!!!

Update, Salsa, Smart Cars and Kohlrabi

Does the weekend have to be over already??

This weekend definitely had it's good moments and it's hard! Things are kind of crazy right now since Erik's dad has been sick. Since I haven't given an update, he's got a type of cancer, Multiple Myeloma, so at the moment he can't do much on his own because 5 of his vertebrae are broken in his back due to the cancer. He started chemo on Friday and so far it's going well. Needless to say, it's made life feel hectic and hard lately, but we take it day by day and do what we have to do! : ) Thanks for keeping him in your prayers.

Anyways, on Saturday we got to "get away" for a few hours and went to KC. We, of course, stopped at Whole Foods to eat and grab Erik's dad some food to bring back. Yum, yum! Recently, we were just joking about Smart Cars and then we actually got to thinking about it and we decided to test drive one to see what they were actually like. I really like my car and have only had it for a year so I don't know that I would want to get a different one. I don't know that it'd be a smart thing to do, and I don't know that I'd have a good reason to sell my car and get a Smart Car, other than I like them and in the long run it would end up saving us some money in car payments. However, I really don't know that it'd be something we'd actually do. None the less, we thought we'd try one out before we thought anymore about it at all. So here I am .... It was such a fun little car to buzz around in! Ha, I loved it. And they're actually a lot more spacious feeling inside than you'd think. Surprisingly enough, Erik even really liked it, and was more comfortable in it then my current vehicle (a Scion XB). It's ironic because he always complains about the seats in my Scion hurting his back but he was really comfortable in the Smart Car. Who would have thought? Ha. They're also neat because you can drive them as a stick or automatic.

If nothing else, it was a fun thing for us to do after a hectic, busy week and another one on the way. My mother-in-law made tons of salsa this weekend and gave us a bunch ... thanks, Linda!! : ) It's very tasty!!! I had some on a toasted piece of sprouted bread with a Laughing Cow cheese wedge and it was SO good!! And last but not least, here are some veggies I picked up this Sunday for the surplus of our church's community garden. Some yellow tomatoes and kohlrabi. (I was SO excited to see kohlrobi there!) Anyways, hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I can't wait to continue my Lifting and Clean Eating series this week! Here's Part One in case you missed it! ; )

"We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."
-Mother Teresa-

Lifting and Clean Eating, Part I; Where It All Began

Lifting and Clean Eating, Part I: Where it all began

A little over a year ago is when I decided to start eating cleaning and working out. Before then, I just didn't really care! I did a few weights here and there but my main focus was on cardio.

Well, I found myself getting rather bored of just cardio while trying to figure out what weight I wanted to try and maintain, etc. I got really skinny but none the less, I knew that would be unrealistic to maintain and I didn’t want to get any smaller.

At my skinniest (and need I say whitest? : ) don't pay attention to the date either, it's wrong):

Erik suggested I start lifting more and I felt like being challenged, as I had come to love eating healthy and the feeling of working out. So, at that point I started to lift regularly and include more complex carbs and protein into my diet (both important things when building muscle).

Let me tell you, at first I hated lifting! But, I pressed on and grew to really love it.  I can now look back and see how far I really came both mentally and physically.

Here's February ‘09 when I could barely get a set of 12 reps benching the bar (45 lbs).

And later … after benching my max thus far, 135 lbs. 

   My husband and personal trainer:  
 
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
- Burton Hill-

And the Winner Is ....

I thought about putting this at the very end, buuuuuut decided the top would be more exciting. Thank you for all who entered!! I wish you could have all won, I really do! However, without further ado, randomly selected using Random.org, the lucky winner of the Livin' Life Giveaway is ..........

Emily, of the health nut!! (Just don't forget to e-mail me your address, Emily, and congrats! ; )
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Now onto regularly scheduled posting:

Yay for weekends!!!!

Any rhubarb fans out there? Growing up, my mom always had rhubarb in her garden and would make rhubarb just about anything; pie, jelly, bread, etc. (here was her garden about a month ago ... I'm sure it looks even better now)So since it's summertime and I'm not close enough to have her rhubarb and I haven't had any in a long time, I got this: I put them in my oats just to see if I'd like it and needless to say, they were found wanting. I knew it wouldn't be like right out of the garden but I was expecting a little more from them. Anyone have healthy ideas or recipes using rhubarb?? (because now I have a whole bag of frozen rhubarb that I don't know what to do with, ha).

Here's an idea of how much my lovely pooches are shedding .... in this picture you will find Adrian looking like she has mange. You may also note the floor around them looking dirty. Well, it's from all their hair that makes it necessary to sweep just about every day. (And as you can maybe tell, I didn't sweep yesterday, ha). And yesterday Adrian simply brushed up against my black work pants and my pants turned white. Erik brushed them not too long ago but they need it again!

Along with doing some cleaning, laundry, etc, and spending time with the hubby, here's my current magazine stack I'd like to catch up on. Mother Earth News, Oxygen, and Clean Eating (P.S. as you can prob tell by the Oxgyen and Clean Eating magazines, I'm a fan of Tosca ; )

As I came for lunch today, I found a package from Foodbuzz at my doorstep with this inside:
Thanks, Foodbuzz and Emeril! I'm especially excited to try out some of that mustard. More to come later ...

Have a great Friday night!

"Beauty is the final objective of God’s gracious work, and ashes seem to be His favorite medium. God is the creator of beauty and a connoisseur of all that is truly beautiful. God is an artist, His canvas is creation, and in our lives tears and ashes are often His oil and clay as He works relentlessly to make something beautiful."

--Brian Zahnd, "What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life" (aka the book that was in my giveaway;)

Ending giveaway, Favorite Laras, Back

Friday already? Yes! and Yay!!

I've you've missed it all week, hurry up and enter my giveaway that ends IN LESS THAN A DAY at 3:00 Central Time, Friday. I'll be announcing the winner later on Friday afternoon/evening.

Thanks for all the running tips. I suppose it's just not smart to take my cardio from only incline walking to 40 minutes of jogging/sprints (I should have thought that one through more, ha)! I'm happy that cardiovascularly I could do it, but my poor little knee ligaments just weren't ready for it. I didn't even see it coming ... they seem to be feeling a bit better and I'm hoping I can at least lightly walk in the morning.

I've recently decided I think my two favorite Lara flavors thus far are Lemon Bar and Key Lime Pie. (Though I still need to try all the flavors!) Whenever I want a quick snack or bar, I've been buying Laras lately because they're the cheapest bars at my local Hyvee .... way to be the cheapest, Lara, I appreciate it! ; ) Dinner last night was simple and quick. Ground turkey with frozen Asian stir-fry veggies and brown rice, assortment of seasonings, sesame seeds, and balsamic vinegar. As always I made a huge pot of rice because we eat brown rice like it's our job!

Today on my lifting schedule was back. I did:
-lat pull downs
-reverse lat pull downs
-seated lat rows
-lawn mowers (ha, I don't know what these are technically called but you get the idea).

I did four sets of each and the reps varied, but they were mostly long reps. Here's a little reverse grip lat pull down action on the Boflex. (I'm thankful for our Boflex). I consider back to be one of my easier lifting days, but I find I really have to concentrate on working my back and using just my back to complete the exercises so that I don't use my bis and arms, etc. I'm learning! I just know that the more I lift, the more I love it! (I had nothing better to do that take pictures of myself between sets :p)

Have a wonderful Friday, friends!!! : )

"The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
- Allan K. Chalmers -

Happy Thursday!

Quick Reminder: my Livin' Life Giveaway ends tomorrow!!!

So, I'm currently blogging instead of doing my usual morning cardio routine. Apparently I wasn't smart enough to realize that if you haven't ran much in your life (aka me), and then you all of a sudden do this jog/sprint workout also every other day for almost two weeks, your knees would start hurting. Any running tips here? How much do you run in a week?

I guess I was too eager. I love walking on incline but I saw that workout in Oxygen Magazine and thought, I want to do that! I didn't know how I'd be at it since as previously mentioned running hasn't been my forte. But I wanted to know I could run. And sure enough, I did it! And I loved it! But I loved it too much I guess because now I have to do nothing for a few days and let me knees recoup. Boo! So here's some eats from the past few nights:

Chicken breast over a bed of chick pea puree topped with sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Annnnnd I couldn't help but try some of this banana softserve going around the blog world lately. I simply peeled and chopped a few bananas, froze them, put them in the food processor, added a spoonful of pb aaand some cinnamon. Yum! And here's a slightly weird picture of me doing shoulder presses yesterday (if I can't do cardio, you better believe I'm going to for sure lift!) My shoulder workout went something like this, in case you are curious.(If I look like I'm kind of straining while smiling, I am ... ha. That was near the end of my shoulder presses and I was trying not to fade)

Well, hope you have a happy Thursday, all!!! : )

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
-Gandhi