Augustathon Recap

Let's get down to business.

While I did very poorly to blog about my Augustathon challenge, I still managed to stay active and do something everyday. My cardio workouts weren't as extensive as I'd hoped but my push-ups/crunches/lunges regimen were strong (pun intended). Here's the breakdown.

 18 days of cardio.
31 days of strength/core.
48 miles.
4200 calories burned

Headband from Bic Bands - Aqua Sparkle

My workout buddy in the AM at the gym.

Lovely pink Compression socks from ProCompression

Stay active. Keep up with what you're doing. Stay hydrated.

Source: chasefear.com via Tori on Pinterest

Source: chasefear.com via Tori on Pinterest

Source: backonpointe.tumblr.com via Amy on Pinterest

Have a great weekend! Enjoy family and friends and time with loved ones. Remember all those who can not be with us at this time and all those who are not with their loved ones. Take a moment to remember all of them. Be safe.

Juneathon Day 11

Daily progress on the Juneathon challenge. If you want to know more about the challenge, check out the Juneathon page.


Day 11:


Type: Swimming
Duration: 45 min
Distance: ~3/4 mile
Calories: n/a
Juneathon total: 22.28 miles (I'll just keep it the same)


While I wasn't able to sleep today in preparation for my overnight shift, Jackson and I went and swam for a bit. We've been trying to go out and swim a couple nights a week for just a bit to get him used to the water. He absolutely loves the bath water so this is just a large scale for him. 

Our very own personal pool. Wanna come swim?

It takes him a bit to get into swimming. Especially if there are other people there, he gets shy and just people watches :)


Gosh I love this kid!

Juneathon Day 10

Daily progress on the Juneathon challenge. If you want to know more about the challenge, check out the Juneathon page.


Day 9:


Type: Elliptical
Duration: 30 min
Distance: 2.3 miles
Calories: 310
Juneathon total: 22.28 miles 


Doing pretty well. This week I'll be on zombie overnight shifts so my time of day for workouts will be off and the postings may come at an odd hour, but I'm still striving to get a post done! Even if I'm a day off :)


Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I'd like to see if I can get to 100 miles for this month. I think I may be able to come close so we'll see. Finding time to workout with a little guy is kinda tough, but I'm making it work!

Source: 25.media.tumblr.com via Hugh on Pinterest

Source: 25.media.tumblr.com via Hugh on Pinterest

Happy Running & working out!

Juneathon -- Day 2

Daily progress on the Juneathon challenge. If you want to know more about the challenge, check out the Juneathon page.


Day 2:


Type: Elliptical (seems nicer on the knees, until I get good enough to run more)
Duration: 32 min
Distance: 2.6 miles
Calories: 350
Juneathon total: 4.8 miles

Nice good workout this morning. I'm getting more efficient at the elliptical. Gonna 

Juneathon -- I'm In!

So thanks to my amazing blogger friend Hanna over at {bouffe e bambini} and the motivation I've been storing to start running/training for a half marathon, I've decided to join Juneathon. A month long challenge to exercise/run every single day, and blog about it.

My only downfall, the blogging part. I can see finding the time to get the exercise in, even with my crazy schedule. The blogging part might be tough. If I can't get that done, then obviously I'm not as cool and great as the rest of the people signed up, but if I can get 2-3 posts a week, that's my goal. If I surpass, awesome. 

I think this is great motivation for everyone to get out, get moving and get in shape. Enjoy summer! I'll have to figure something out to compensate, since running outside in 105+ degree weather will be tough. Lots and lots of water!


Today I started my challenge, yes two days early, who cares!


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Cross - Elliptical
Duration:	0:35:00
Distance:	2.75 mi
Calories:	305

What are you excited to get out and do this summer? Anything new you're trying for the first time?

Motivation & Inspiration

Some motivation & inspiration to start the day & week off right.

Source: Uploaded by user via Lindsey on Pinterest

Source: piccsy.com via Jana on Pinterest

A few quotes and help from Pinterest to get some great motivation and inspiration for the week.

Source: apartment34.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

Anyone else a big fan of Pinterest? I like it and like exploring all of the ideas. Just don't have a lot of time to sit on there. 

Source: google.com via Tonya on Pinterest

Source: blue-dreams-revisited.tumblr.com via Agne on Pinterest

Sometimes I think we (using we as a generalization statement) get all caught up in the day to day hustle and chores and forget to stop and literally smell the flowers.

Source: y0unqq-wild-and-free.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

While looking at the big picture of things, I feel it is not necessary to get caught up in how to get there and what you have to do to get there and all the struggles with how hard, difficult and challenging it will be, but to focus on the now.

Source: goddamnyourebeautiful.tumblr.com via Cathy on Pinterest

Here's to a new day living in the here and now. 


Smile more.
Laugh twice as much.
Don't worry so much.
Say 'yes' to doing something new.


Have a great week!

Quotable Tuesday

“To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

“The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”

“The most important things in life aren't things.”

On the Menu: What's for dinner?

Ok everyone I need some advice, suggestions and ideas. Please send all of them my way. I'm looking to make a bunch of food to have in the freezer so when its 115 degrees out this summer and I'm as big as a cow (pregnant) and don't feel like cooking I can pop something out of the freezer and into the oven/microwave to eat. This will also help once baby comes and I don't have the time to cook up something amazing.

{Image found here}

I've only come up with a few, very few, ideas and want to know what others think or like. What goes good being frozen and then heated back up?

In the meantime, I'll be back in the kitchen cooking up some yummy food ideas. One bonus to being pregnant, because there are quite a few bonuses, is being hungry ALL THE TIME and almost EVERYTHING sounds good to eat. Nothing too weird over here for me.

Any suggestions or challenges anyone has for me to cook will also be gladly taken into consideration (meaning if I can do it or not!).


Happy Eating and thank you for your ideas!

And since I found this over on my friend Amy's blog, I thought I'd join in since it's Friday and all :)

always one foot on the ground

The moment this song comes on I immediately picture myself dancing out in the rain barefoot on a warm summer evening just minding my own business without a care in the world. This is today's song and today's outlook: one foot on the ground... 

[I remember a picture just like this of me when I was young!]

"Fidelity" - Regina Spektor

(Shake it up)

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart
And it breaks my heart
It breaks my heart

And suppose I never ever met you
Suppose we never fell in love
Suppose I never ever let you kiss me so sweet and so soft
Suppose I never ever saw you
Suppose we never ever called
Suppose I kept on singing love songs just to break my own fall
Just to break my fall
Just to break my fall
Break my fall
Break my fall

All my friends say that of course its gonna get better
Gonna get better
Better better better better
Better better better

I never love nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting by heart truly
I got lost
In the sounds
I hear in my mind
All these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind
All this music
And it breaks my heart
It breaks my heart

I hear in my mind all of these voices
I hear in my mind all of these words
I hear in my mind all of this music

Breaks my
Heart
Breaks my heart 

all images found here

Quotable Wednesday & Fall Pictures

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey

“If you can't be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped” -Anonymous

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Walt Emerson 

"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."  -Audrey Hepburn 

Here's to a wonderful Wednesday and an even better rest of the week. Hard to believe it is the end of October all ready; November is just around the corner and thus bringing the Holiday season. What is even harder to believe is it is still, or only depending how you look at it, near 80 degrees at the end of October. This girl is used to snow on the ground by now and freezing temperatures. Not this year though. Too bad I wasn't 8 years old and still dressing up for Halloween to go trick-or-treating; every other year I dressed up growing up I had to wear a coat per my mom's request due to it being near freezing temperatures outside. This year, I will be lucky enough to have my Mom, Dad and brother out to visit for the Halloween weekend. AND, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Halloween. More to come about that later.

Thought I'd add some random Fall pictures, that were taken during Fall over the last couple of years.



AMS Club at the Corn Maze, yearly tradition




Ahh, the traditional Corn Maze!




Credit Dann Cianca for this picture




The "4 Musketeers" at Super Science Saturday



Veggie & Beef Stew with Char-Friendly Cornbread

Does anyone remember the show that was on Friday nights (if I remember right) that played movies and during commercial breaks they were cooking something that kind of went along with the movie or theme? I believe the theme song was "Beans and Cornbread" and had a little catchy jingle to it. Well I've been singing that all night while I made this great tasting cornbread, which by the way is DAIRY-FREE (or lactose tolerant)! So maybe not completely dairy-free, since it has an egg and some milk and butter, but I used soy milk and lactose-free butter/margarine! The stew was super easy since I got everything ready last night and threw it all in the crock pot this morning before I left for work and man did the house smell awesome when we came home from work. The cornbread was super easy to do when I got home and I had time to clean up the kitchen while it was cooking, multi-tasker!

Since I'm such a veggie freak there are a lot more veggies in this stew than meat, more veggie to meat ratio, plus I didn't have enough meat on hand so I just went with it. The stew was all made up by me and thrown together. The cornbread was followed along with a recipe in Taste of Home cookbook with the dairy substitutions and an added secret ingredient that I'll share with you!

6 small yellow potatoes, cut in large chunks (smaller than russet potatoes, probably4-5 cups worth)
1 small green bell pepper, cut in large chunks
1 medium white onion, sliced and chopped in larger chunks (smaller peices if you don't want big chunks)
1 medium zucchini, sliced in 1/4" slices
1 small bag of bite size carrots, cut in half (next time I would use regular size carrots and more of them)
3 garlic cloves, smashed

Put all veggies in a large zip lock bag and drizzle about 1/8 or 1/4 cup EVOO over to coat veggies. I added some spices to this: salt, pepper, garlic salt, red pepper flakes....you can add whatever you want. Some pre-mixed spices may offer great flavor. Especially some you would season beef or steak with, since we'll be using beef. I let these marinade overnight in the fridge.

I had 1.5 lbs of beef for stew, chunked beef. I threw this in the bottom of the crock pot first. I always spray non-stick spray on the bottom of the crock pot, makes clean up SO much easier!

To the crock pot I added 2 cans of beef broth and 1 can of chicken broth. I would have liked to have used all 3 cans beef broth, but this is what I had. You couldn't even tell I used chicken broth, it just helped moisten and flavor the veggies and meat while cooking. After adding the meat, I seasoned with garlic salt, then added the bag of veggies and then the cans of broth. Turned the crock pot on high and it cooked for about 9.5 - 10 hours then I turned it on low/warm when I got home until we ate. WOW!!

Now on to the cornbread!

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream (However...I substituted dairy-free greek yougurt)

1/3 cup milk (I used soy milk)

1/4 cup butter, melted (I used dairy free margarine)

In a separate bowl mix all wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Secret Ingredient: Honey/Agave Nectar. This wasn't in the recipe and I thought it would be good. Everyone I know eats their cornbread with honey, so I added light agave nectar, very similar basically the same as honey but an organic-better for you type of honey. Tastes exactly the same. I added about 3-4 tablespoons worth, and tasting it after it was cooked, I would have added more. It was very light and just added that extra sweet, moistness. Add mix to a greased 8 inch square dish and bake for 25-28 minutes until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

It has been too long since I've had cornbread. I've never made it from scratch like I did here, always just had a mix and added water. And I worked at a BBQ restaurant for 6+ years and made cornbread by the dozens daily so I know how to made it, but it was nice to make it my own way.

I hope your weekend is warm and cozy if it's cold outside. It's almsot the end of October and its only 75 degress here, some fall!

Inspiration

Inspired by Hey Gorgeous's blog I decided to do a post on inspiration. A little bit wise this morning :)

I'm not perfect.

I'm just me. 

I love the rain.

I could sit and stare at the clouds or stars for hours.

I love to learn  new things.

Science makes me happy.

I love watching, playing and talking sports.

Grew up playing outside with the boys, so I'm tough.

I love a good love-story, chick-flick, tear-jerker movie.

I look forward to tomorrow and what the future holds.

I'm a pretty positive person.

I love my family & friends more than they know.

The little things in life make me happy.

I dance for no reason at any time.

I think people who look for the good & fun in things have more fun.

People who believe in themselves first are happier.

I laugh at myself.

I'm afraid of the dark. Seriously.

I'll leave with this lyric from KC & The Sunshine Band:
"I'm walking on sunshine, Whoa-oh, and don't it feel good!"

images found here and here