Jillian Michaels and Chipmunk Cheeks

Hello! Just checking in at the end of an uneventful weekend and the beginning of finals… hell week. But this will be the last one ever of my collegiate career! Since that part of my life is almost over… crazy how time flies. The above picture is me driving home from school on Thursday afternoon, all bright eyed and bushy tailed because it was a beautiful and sunny afternoon and I had no idea what awaited me Friday morning. Well, I did, but no idea of how annoying it would be.

Wisdom teeth surgery! Yahooooo! Happy happy joy joy. Friday after the surgery wasn’t so bad. Doctor said that I would not be able to focus on schoolwork so I took the excuse to lay around on the couch all day and catch up on magazines. Mum and I went to the store and I stocked up on smoothie ingredients, and the day felt like a nice, relaxing and detoxifying vacation. Then Saturday the chipmunk cheeks arrived. I slacked on the icing, went out shopping with Mum, and am paying for it today.

I am sore, hungry, hangry, grumpy, and my belly is squirmy because it is too full of juices, soups, and smoothies. It doesn’t help that the weather has been gorgeous all weekend so Mum has been BBQing on the grill and it smells heavenly. Oh I cannot wait to be able to bite into a juicy turkey burger again! And go for a RUN! My body is probably loving this break though, from alcohol and all the pounding of the pavement that I have been doing lately. I am going to study hard tonight, get to bed early, and hopefully be a little more de-puffed by tomorrow.

In other news, Thursday night my friend scored us SECOND ROW SEATS to the Jillian Michaels show!! I knew that she was on tour, but never in a million years thought that she would actually be coming to Hartford. But she was! And she touched my hand! And we made eye contact for 3.7 seconds! (I counted).

The show was great. I was shocked, even though I shouldnt have been, at how much energy that woman had! She must have spoke for almost 3 hours with only a 15 minute intermission. And she was jumping around the stage and yelling and laughing. Your probably wondering how on earth could you listen to her talk for 3 full hours? It actually went by super fast. She broke the show up in to 3 parts, all important to reaching your weight loss goals and being the healthiest you that you can be. The 3 parts were Science, Sweat, and Self. 

For Science, she went through all of the important tools and calculators used to measure your calories taken in and weight loss goals. Her weight loss philosophy was so simple and true, that it was comical: “Eat less, move more!” So plain and easy, yet millions of people struggle to do this. And there are so many simple equations to make sure that you are not eating too much. For example, she gave a formula to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, which is an estimate of how many calories you would burn by simply doing nothing, being at rest. It is the minimum amount of energy that your body needs simply to breath and keep your body functioning.

My BMR is about 1,579.9 calories per day. This means, that on days that I do not exercise, if I do not eat more than that amount of calories, then I will not gain weight. Multiplied by my exercise expenditure for a light physical activity level (x 1.2) I get 1,895.88 calories per day that I am allowed. If I do some exercise that day, then I can eat more! Woo!

Jillian also talked about all of the bad things and chemicals that you should watch out for in your food, the things that are really making Americans fat. This included trans-fats, hydrogenated oils, pesticides, antibiotics, and even bug spray. She showed a picture of a pumped up on steroids fat cow, and a cow that had been naturally raised and grass-fed. The slabs of meat were identical, but the cow on steroids’ meat was huge, with fatty white streaks running throughout it, and compared to the lean slice of darker red meat that was the grass-fed cow. Almost just put me off red meat in general. Almost.

Another interesting topic Jillian brought up was the importance of counting calories, at least to start off with your weight loss plan to keep you accountable and so you really know how much you were consuming in a day, since all of those “extra” calories do add up. She suggested treating your  calories like money to be cashed in each day. You should really be choosy and picky on how you want to “spend” those cash calories and how much that cupcake is really worth to you. If you have extra calories to spend, go for it, but if it is breaking the bank, then hold back. I need to refocus my financial goals at this moment and work on reigning in that spending, so I like the idea of treating calories the same way. Choosing wisely what to “spend” my calories on throughout the day is a really interesting and novel way to look at food recording. Lately I havent had to worry too much, since ive been spending my calories on healthy fruit smoothies and blenderized soups. I wonder if I will lose any weight on this liquid diet or just turn into a bloated ball of watermelon.

While we are on the topic of soft foods and I am trying to think of something to make to satisfy my growling stomach, lets talk about some of the smoothie creations I have come up with! I have become quite the smoothie master if I do say so myself.

This morning’s one was worth mentioning:

Strawberry-Banana PB and J Smoothie: 

• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 2 tbsp PB
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 2 oz vanilla greek yogurt

“Good for your Skin” Avocado Mango Strawberry Smoothie: 

• half of an avocado
• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 1/2 cup mango
• 2 oz vanilla greek yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Tropical Banana Mango Pineapple Smoothie: 

• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup pineapple
• 1/2 cup frozen mango
• Naked mango juice (optional, I had it on hand)
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

I made this one for dessert the other night:

“Dirty Monkey”: 

• 1 banana
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp pb
• 2 oz vanilla greek yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Blueberry-Banana Smoothie: 

• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1 banana
• 2 oz vanilla greek yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• cinnamon

And I am gonna whip up this one for dessert tonight:

Chocolate Covered Cherry & Berry Smoothie: 

• Frozen mixed berries and cherries
• 1 tbsp chocolate chips
• 2 oz vanilla greek yogurt
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Told ya I have been making a TON of smoothies! Anyways, I am off to get some more studying done and prepare for this week. Wish me luck and some de-puffiness tomorrow!

Burgers, Sushi, and Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Goobers

Today is a giddy, elated, tingly, weird-feeling-kind of day. After a lazy and out of sorts weekend (read, hungover), I am anxious and excited to start this week off fresh, on the right foot, healthy, motivated, detoxed, and ready to focus. The case of senioritis has plagued me deep, and refuses to be shook off. I cannot seem to find a cure. So, I am going to roll with it. Because, in all honesty, I should be feeling at the top of the world right now, elated, happy, fulfilled, relieved, and proud. I graduate college in 4 weeks. I get a month to relax and enjoy myself, and in June I get to move to Toronto for 4 months on a yet another new adventure and phase of my life. Am I nervous? Hell yes. But these are excited-nervous butterflies.

Why am I not waking up feeling like it is Christmas morning every morning? This weekend was great, and spent with my amazing friends who I do not get to see enough, but it left me with a sense of emptiness in my stomach, and a weird nagging feeling that there is something else that needs to be done, something I am missing out on or forgetting. But even as I sit here pondering it, I still cannot hit the nail on the head. What is this feeling? Is it the fact that my body is angry with me for running so much and my hip/foot are constantly reminding me of that, keeping me from participating in one of my most loved activities? Is is the fact that I keep procrastinating planning this speech that I have to make on Thursday in front of 150+ people (as I am blogging right now instead of planning it), or is it the fact that in less than 4 weeks, all this, my life as I have known it for the past 4 years, will abruptly come to an end, and a new phase will begin? No more classes, college schedules, meetings with professors, Thursday & Saturday night shenanigans, shots after shots to make the bars more enjoyable (although my body will appreciate me for this)?

But first lets recap this weekend. Don’t get me wrong, it was a blast! But gave me an important life lesson: I fail at functioning at life when I am hungover. I must remember this. The next day will be shot and worthless.

Thursday night Steph and I made bunless roasted red pepper and feta stuffed turkey burgers on lettuce wraps for dinner, to go with our malibu bay breezes. Cleo came up and we went to Jaimies, and then went to the bar. It was your typical drunken Thursday night. Poor Cleo finished off a bottle of champagne and was struggling the next morning. I was feeling pretty useless as well after 8 too many shots.

Friday night my dear Kara came to visit and Chelsea, Sarah, Kara, and I all ordered sushi. This was my plate —>

The girls had their own platters unpictured. Only joking, sadly. Asian Bistro compiled all of our sushi rolls onto one platter, which we found quite amusing. Yummm hungry girls love their sushi. I had a spicy crabmeat roll, and shared the salmon avocado roll and Paradise roll with Kara. Paradise roll = heaven in your mouth. No other way to describe it. Shrimp and Banana (BANANA) tempura, drizzled with mango sauce. Hollyyyy goodness.

And what girls night would be complete without chocolate? At least none of my girls nights. As soon as dinner is over, the sweet tooth flares. And on this particular night, it flared for dark chocolate melted and layered around juicy strawberries.

We also experimented with frozen banana bites, and my oh my these will definitely be becoming a new staple in my diet. They are so simple and easy to make, and I am already planning on the little banana and peanut butter frozen sandwiches covered in a layer of melted dark chocolate that I will be making tonight. Must buy more chocolate chips…..

I had a great chest/back/leg strength training workout this morning and spinning class afterwards kicked my Monday blues.

Triathlon training starts now. 10 weeks until the Toronto Triathlon Festival, on June 21st. My first sprint distance tri. I am so pumped. I need this break from running, and I think the workout adjustment will do my body good. I am going to do a complete post soon about my training plan and equipment, but I plan to spin while still at school twice per week, then get out on my bike about 3 times per week when I get home. I am going to up my swimming sessions to twice per week, and incorporate more sprint workouts into them. I am going to run about 3-4 times per week, and still try and do one interval session and one long run on the weekends (if my nagging body will allow it, it isent too happy with my running at the moment). I also still want to get in 3 good strength training sessions, and keep incorporating leg weights. Phew. See what I mean? Who has time to worry about schoolwork anyway with all of this good stuff going on?

This is the picture of my girls from Saturday night, when we all finally got together to go out to the bar for Ladies Night. It has been so soo long since the 5 of us (Chelsea is unpictured) have gone out together, and that night may have been the last before graduation. But I truly hope not! These girls have been my core 4 friends since we all met and lived on the same dorm floor back in sophomore year. Times have changed and so have we, but we still know how to drink and have a great time together when it matters.

Last night’s dinner is worth mentioning. I have been on a spaghetti squash kick lately, and found a roasted red pepper sauce recipe that I had to try. It really was so simple. You can cook up a spaghetti squash by poking holes in it with a fork and cooking it in the microwave for 15-20 min, depending on the size of your squash. Then toss it with whatever your heart desires and it will usually end up being delicious!

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:

I cooked the spaghetti squash like mentioned above. While it was cooking, I sautéed one onion and two garlic cloves in olive oil, added one can of diced tomatoes and half a jar of chopped fire roasted red peppers, and a little bit of red wine vinegar. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and add basil, oregano, and spinach. Once the squash is cooked, peel the spaghetti strands out and add it to the sauce mixture, stir to combine, sprinkle in some feta cheese so it gets nice and melty (goat cheese or parmesan would be delicious as well). Once stirred and all the strands are coated in the sauce, but in bowls, top with your favorite toppings, and enjoy! I love walnuts on pasta so I served mine with chopped walnuts, kalamata olives, and some more feta cheese. Deeeeeelicious and nutritious.

Finished off dinner with some more of those frozen banana bites and strawberries topped with melted peanut butter. 

One more picture —> I had to show you the gorgeous sunrise that greeted me before my 6am strength session at the gym this morning. It was great motivation, pays to be an early riser! I got rewarded for getting my butt out of my warm bed, where it was soo tempting to snooze my alarm this morning. Thank god I didn’t; I ended up getting in a great workout and enjoying this beautiful view and some perspective on my week. I hope that your Monday is just as rewarding and introspective! 🙂

Danger: Slutty Brownie Recipe and Breckenridge, CO

Hi from Breckenridge, CO! We just arrived today, and the effect that the increase in elevation has on all of us already is crazy. We flew into Denver, and it was sunny and warm and we walked around the U of Denver without any problems. But then once we drove two hours out into the mountains, we were all so out of breath and lightheaded simply walking up the stairs! My run tomorrow morning should be interesting… hopefully there are no stories of me passing out on the side of the road. We are staying in a really nice condo right by the mountain, and there is a gorgeous and picturesque ski town that we will go explore tomorrow.

Lets go back to the events of this past week shall we? Cleo came over Tuesday and if course that meant wine, pizza, and copious amounts of chocolate in some sort of form.

When the two of us are together, we always crave something sweet and delicious. So, using inspiration from our favorite European blogger, we created these sweet babies:

Slutty Brownies. 

I give you, the heavenly, filthy, delectable, delicious, tantalizing, dangerous, slutty brownies. Oh boy are these filthy, in so many ways. So named because of the gooey, globby, fudgy, chocolately mess of a form that they are in when you eat them fresh out of the oven. Once you let these babies cool, they harden like a thick rock of sweet and rich chocolate tantalization. And they are literally 25 pounds each. They turn into chocolate sugar bricks. Your probably like ok… slutty brownies… what the heck are these? Let me explain. 

Take a box of cookie mix, or prepared dough (because life is too short to actually make cookie dough from scratch), patten it onto the bottom of the pan, layer with Double Stuffed Oreos (the more stuffing the better), and then cover with brownie mix. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes. Take out of oven. Drool, salivate, dont burn yourself as you dig into the fudgy goodness because you simply cannot wait any longer. 

Cleo and I were debating whether or not to make these, she even suggested that she bring some fresh fruit over for us to snack on instead because we had been over doing it in the chocolate department lately. But then I realized, and as cliche as it is, you only live once. When am I going to have another chance to make and eat a slutty brownie? We told ourselves we would enjoy and savor just one and then throw the rest away. Wellllll you can probably guess that didnt happen. I enjoyed a sliver the next morning, and again the next day. And then I gave some away and threw the rest out. Sad, sad times. But it had to be done. Just means that I need to make them again soon… and this time, with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups in the middle ….. 

Random picture of my dinner the other night because it turned out so well and I was so proud: Greek Feta Cucumber Salmon Burger 

This morning I had a 3:30 am wake up call to meet my family at the airport for the plane ride to Denver! See the mountains when we landed? 

And I am now a proud owner of a new mug to add to my Starbucks collection. I now have Tampa, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C, and now Denver! And I am proud to say that I have actually been to all of these places to personally collect these mugs. 

The view from the balcony of our condo. Pure gorgeousness. I cannot wait to get out on the mountains. Tomorrow we are taking it easy in order to get acclimated to the higher elevation, I think we are like 9,000+ feet above sea level! And it is even higher up on the mountains. I am going to attempt to go for a light jog tomorrow and see how my breathing is, and then hopefully do some lifting in the little gym here. 

Have a good weekend people! I will be back with what will hopefully be gorgeous pictures of skiing in the mountains 🙂

My Body Is Not Built For Marathons

New Update in the Hip Flexor Department: I am currently on a running hiatus :(. There will not be a marathon for me anytime soon in my future. Here is the low down on the past few days. When I left you, I had just tried running on it at the Hyannis Half Marathon, felt pain, so decided to take a week of rest from running. Last Sunday, tried to run again, and felt pain a mile in. So that was when the waterworks started, and I knew that something serious was up. I went to physical therapy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, where they heated it, massaged it, stretched it, electrocuted it (just kidding), did everything in their power to try and relax the aggravated tendon, but to no avail. The guy there is great, and was confident that he would have me running, but my hip seems to think otherwise. He referred me to an orthopedic surgeon to have an x ray done to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong, and the x ray came back confirming this, which is a good thing and something I should be happy about.

So both the PT guy and the doctor said it is up to my discretion whether I choose to run in D.C or not. I definitely cannot do the marathon with this hip pain, so if I do choose to run, I will be dropping down to the half. Argh. How aggravating. At this point, I would not even mind doing the half, I love running for 2 hours rather than 4, I just want to be able to do it PAIN FREE! I am resting the hip today, Friday, and Saturday, and attempting the Putnam 5k on Sunday. It will be my test run, to assess my pain tolerance and if I could bear to run with the pain for 13 miles. The doctors said there is not a chance that I could seriously tear anything, so I am able to run on it, I am just worried that it will not get better for my races in April (Fitness Women’s Half Marathon, Rock n Roll Nashville Half Marathon). What a mess. I seriously hate this. Yesterday I was depressed and let myself cry, today is a new day and I am going to take my aggravation out on the weights at the gym and then enjoy the weekend with my friends.

Its funny how much this is getting to me. Running is such a little thing, but such a big part of my life, as this is showing. I am lost without it, and have zero motivation to do anything. You do NOT want me to tell you how many classes I have skipped this week (0 Mom, dont worry….). But really, this not being able to run thing is doing serious damage to my already bad case of seniorialreadyhaveajob-itis. I totally just made that up.

Ok I will stop boring you with my hip woes, thanks for bearing with me while I vent! I will let you know how the Putnam 5k on Sunday goes, and I have another PT appointment on Monday. Pray for my hip flexor to chill!

Now what would this blog post be without food? made a big batch of Quinoa Taco Salad the other night, and have been eating it with my meals throughout the week. I love quinoa, it is so versatile and tastes good mixed with almost anything!

Quinoa Taco Salad: 

1. Cook up a big batch of quinoa, I used 1 cup dry and 2 cups of chicken cooking broth
2. Combine with tomatoes, drained black beans, avocado, cumin, garlic powder, salsa, and anything else your mexican heart desires! I just threw it all in a bowl, no exact measurements, just for taste.
3. Best served hot or cold!

For weekly pizza night with our beloved Trader Joe’s whole wheat dough, we topped it with pesto, fresh mozzarella, olives, sun dried tomatoes, and spinach. Yum. Always a winner. 

And just because I miss her and she is on a cruise right now sailing somewhere in the warm Caribbean, here is a picture of Becca. I am supposed to be flying to Nashville at the end of April to run the Rock n Roll Nashville Half Marathon with her, so lets pray that my hip decides to heal and behave by then. That is a whole month and a half away at least! PRAYPRAYPRAY. This was taken when we ran our own little half marathon on the morning of Christmas Eve. I miss her and winter break and running. I am doing a killer elliptical, bike and leg workout at the gym later today, ill post it later!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza & Toronto News!

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!

• Crossed a bunch of assignments off of my to-do list
• Got in a good swim this morning
• Punta Cana is less than 20 days away
• I GOT AN OFFER AT AN AWESOME FIRM FOR A TEMPORARY POSITION IN TORONTO THIS SUMMER

It is actually happening. I get to spend the summer in a city, a big city, and not just any city, Toronto! With gorgeous Lake Ontario and awesome shopping and my Nana and Grandad and their beautiful cottage only an hour up north, and all of my cousins so close! This is unreal. I am beyond excited. Next step is to choose which firm… and find housing!!

It is hard to believe that I actually have a plan. Everything is finally starting to fall into place. My schedule is going to be crazy for the rest of the year, but I am so fortunate and so lucky and looking forward to everything on it!!

March: Washington D.C MARATHON, spring break in PUNTA CANA, then wisdom teeth… (it cant all be fun and games)

April: NYC for a half marathon, NASHVILLE to visit Becca

May: GRADUATION, lots of running, a duathlon, Burlington for the VERMONT CITY HALF MARATHON

June: TORONTO

July: TORONTO

August: TORONTO, with a week at CAPE COD for (im sure will be much needed) vacation with the family

September: TORONTO? for most of it?

October: EUROPE WITH CLEO

January 2014: START MY NEW CAREER AT GE

Gahhh life is good. If only my stupid hip flexor would heal so that I can RUN, I would be on cloud 9. Alright I promise I am done bragging now about how awesomely amazing my life is turning out.

Dinner last night is sooo worth mentioning. Stephanie made buffalo chicken pizza! Recipe adapted from our girl Tina’s blog.

Dinner: Pulled Buffalo Chicken Pizza 

I am pretty sure that Stephanie just combined half a cup of ranch dressing, blue cheese, three cloves of chopped garlic (girl loves garlic) and Franks hot sauce and used that as the base, topped it with the pulled buffalo chicken and topped that with some shredded mozzarella. We rolled out some Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough (love), piled it all on top, and baked for 10-12 minutes! Perfection.  

——-> This is all that was left of the poor pizza. Food around my roommate does not stand a chance. It barely had time to live its life, the poor piece of yeast. But oh boy, was it delicious.

I had mine with a side of celery and spinach salad. Stephanie had hers with a side of ranch because she is averse to anything green. and healthy. (jk steph, jk).

Tonight, I am going to try and relax a little, get some laundry done, and call my Mum! I miss her. I am beyond excited to head home this weekend. Have a good night!

 

Happy Days

Confession: I am addicted to sushi. And my best friend Kara Keane. But I have been getting sushi a ridiculous amount lately, but oh boy it is so satisfying. And Kara and I both popped our scorpion bowl cherries last night! We shared a small one and enjoyed some buzzed sushi, #lightweightproblems.

—> Those beauties consist of a spicy crab roll, a salmon avocado roll, a tuna avocado roll, and for the grand finale a PARADISE roll made with  BANANA tempura. Holy jesus. Anything with banana and I am sold. The mango sauce on top fully completed the paradise-tropical-island-in-your-mouth-sensation that that roll left you with. Good call Kara, good call.

I finally saw Chelsea last night and we went to Ted’s with Kitty and Meg, I was pretty sober but it was actually a lot of fun. It was good to see them again. There was a live band playing and we were singing along to some oldies. It was PACKED though, at times I felt like I was a little sardine smooshed in a can. Note to self: Dont get cranberry vodkas. Sooo sweet.

And of course the weekend wouldn’t be complete without my pancakes. I was craving them last night and woke up at 10 this morning knowing I had to have them. This pancake recipe is amazing. Its from my favorite blogger, and its called “A Really Good Pancake Recipe”. The words speak for themselves.

A Really Good Pancake Recipe: 

1. 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour 
2. 3 tsp baking power
3. 1 tsp salt
4. 1 tbsp sugar
5. 3 oz nonfat greek yogurt
6. 1.5 cups almond milk
7. 1 tsp canola oil
8. 1 egg

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix well. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat, cook, and enjoy! I usually add in some chopped banana, chocolate chips, and frozen blueberries as well.

Best served with Starbucks coffee and piles of melty nut butter goodness. Yummmm.

I am off to the gym soon to test out my hip flexor on the treadmill. If it hurts, then no half marathon for me tomorrow 😦 We are off to Hyannis tonight anyway, and Steph and Becca will be running the Hyannis Half Marathon tomorrow morning. I am bummed, but it is supposed to be a rainy and gross day anyway, so I will pack a book and magazines. Maybe schoolwork…? Being injured sucks, but I have to take care of myself and keep my eye on the prize: the RnR D.C Marathon that I have been working so hard towards. I know I am ready for it, and taking a week off wont kill me, it would probably do my joints some good.

I will be back tomorrow with a recap of the race and my decision of whether to run or not! I keep telling myself I need to be smart.. if theres pain, I will not run! I will post the meal plan for the week also 🙂 Happy Weekend!

Eggplant Fries and New Strength Routine

Morning! It has been a few days since I have posted.. but thats because nothing exciting or noteworthy has really been going on. Seriously. This week is dragging. Workout, Eat, Class, Study for Argus, thats about the extent of it. Argus Exam is on Friday, cant wait for that to be over with!

I made some Eggplant Fries on Monday night, recipe from Oxygen Magazine. They tasted like the ones I got at Max Burger once ——> soooo good.

Eggplant Fries w/ Yogurt dipping sauce: 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2. Slice up 1 large eggplant into wedges (this makes a lot of fries, you could use only half the eggplant)
3. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl, throw in some pepper or seasonings
4. Pour 3/4 cup of either panko breadcrumbs, oat flour, or almond flour (for gluten free) into another bowl (I used breadcrumbs and they were delicious)
5. Take your eggplant wedges and dredge them in the egg mixture, then roll in the flour mixture
6. Place on a baking sheet lined with tin foil or parchment paper
7. Slide into the oven, and bake for 25 minutes!
8. Optional: combine some hot sauce, paprika, and plain nonfat greek yogurt for a yummy, spicy dipping sauce
9. Enjoy! We had ours paired with a roasted red pepper and feta turkey burger.

In running news, I strained my hip flexor during my long run on Sunday, so I have been taking it easy this week. I have a half marathon in Hyannis on Sunday so I suppose I could call this my taper week. I am just praying that I will be okay to run it! I swam yesterday, and did 2 miles on the treadmill this morning, but it felt tight.

I am so excited for this marathon, but I am looking forward to focusing on weight lifting and getting stronger after it is done. Today I did Shoulders, Triceps and Biceps. I try to vary my workouts around to switch things up and use different muscles, but here is the routine that I am liking right now:

Shoulders, Triceps, and Biceps Strength Routine:

(Group each two together as a superset pair, do 10-12 reps of each, 3 sets)

1. Standing Shoulder PushPress
2. Hammer Bicep Curl

1. Incline Bench Bicep Curl
2. Lunges/Squats

1. Squat Overhead Shoulder Press
2. Seated Reverse Dumbbell Curl

1. Cable Curl
2. Lying Tricep Extension (try to do a triple stop at as you extend behind you and when you bring back to starting position)

1. Standing Triceps Pressdown
2. Dumbbell Side Lunge

1. Standing one-armed Tricep Extension 
2. Single-leg Bench Squat/ or Weighted Bench Step Up

1. Shoulder Raises (out to the side and out to the front)
2. Tricep dips (I usually do 20, but do to fatigue)

If your feeling ambitious and dont have a race or a 20 mile run coming up,  finish with the leg squat machine! And always finish with some sort of ab workout!

So that routine combined with my chest & back routine (which I posted about earlier) Is what I have been focusing on. I think I am seeing results, I have been pretty sore, and my shoulders did look good in the mirror at the gym this morning! 😉

Have a good day!

Vermont Weekend Wonderland

Hello! This weekend I had the chance to escape to Vermont with Steph to get in some skiing! The weather on Friday was gorgeous, 40 degrees and beautiful spring skiing, barely a cloud in the sky. Saturday was colder, and more crowded, so we got in a few runs early and called it a day.

I wanted to share my protein pancake recipe with you guys this morning. Its super easy, and only takes 2 or 3 ingredients, and is deeeeelicious piled with nut butter and fruit.

Protein Pancake:

1. Mash up a ripe banana

2. Add in 2 egg whites or 1/3 cup of liquid egg whites

3. 1 scoop of protein powder (I use vanilla)

4. Few shakes of cinnamon

5. Optional —-> add in blueberries

6. Spray a frying pan with cooking spray and heat on low heat

7. When warm, pour in the pancake mixture and cook on low heat until the top is bubbly and the edges look crispy (be patient, this pancake needs to cook slow and on low in order to form properly)

8. When bubbly on top, flip and cook on opposite side for 1-2 min, then serve warm topped with melty nut butters and fruit of your choosing! Yum!

Beautiful Breakfast Yogurt Parfait made in Vermont before skiing. 

Beauty on the mountain!! 

Such a gorgeous, breathtaking day. Perfect Mountain getaway, lots of sun and fresh air and skiing, just what I needed. It is a nice change to hang out with family and read magazines rather than stay at school taking shots and trying to pour over school books the next day.

Crockpot Pulled Buffalo Chicken

Warning: This Post is all about food. If your hungry, either dont read it or go grab a snack, now!

Lets talk about my crockpot. I love this thing so much, my mom told me I am going to burn it out. I got it as a gift from Santa for Christmas, and have probably used it about twice a week since. One of my favorite recipes is the first one I attempted, Pulled Buffalo Chicken. 

Deeeeeelicious. And the leftovers can be used to top salads, go in sandwiches, or make buffalo chicken pizza!

1. Take package of chicken breasts (I use a package that has 3 breasts and is a little over a pound usually)
2. Put them in the Crockpot (I usually partially defrost them first in the microwave)
3. Pour 3/4 of a bottle of FRANKS hot sauce over the chicken breasts —> now this is very important, Franks hot WING sauce is the KEY ingredient to the deliciousness
4. (Optional) Add in a packet of ranch seasoning
5. Cover, cook on low for 6 hours
6. Spoon out chicken, take two forks and literally pull the chicken pieces apart (it should be nice and tender and pull apart easily) (Optional —> take a few bites, drool over the delicious buffalo wing smell)
7. Put the shredded chicken back in the crockpot and stir, combine with a little more buffalo sauce
8. Wait 20-30 min or however long you can last, just so shredded chicken and added wing sauce marinate mmmm
9. Take out chicken, top with some ranch dressing on a toasty bun and have some brie cheese and celery for dipping on the side! (trust me, its a good choice)

Save leftovers for buffalo goodness for the rest of the week!

Example of how great it is on a spread with celery, crackers and brie cheese: 

Since this post is all about food, I had to include this amazing Trader Joe’s turkey burger that I had at Sarahs the other night, with sweet potato wedges and a spinach, walnut and goat cheese salad —-> BEST combination! 

And my new breakfast obsession of scrambled eggs atop an english muffin: this will definitely be a new breakfast staple Workout:

Had an AWESOME speedwork run today on the treadmill. I did a ladder workout that ended up being 7 miles total.

• 1 mile warm up
• .25 at 8.5 (7:03 pace)
• .50
• .75
• 1.00
• .75
• .50
• .25
• .50 cool down

All intervals were at 8.5 speed, and I took a .25 break in-between. Definitely got me working and sweating hard! But my legs felt great, even after doing 20 miles on Sunday! I am so proud of them. Looking forward to my 7 mile run tomorrow.

Walnut & Goat Cheese Spaghetti Squash with Chicken Sausage

I have had reader requests (shocking, I know) to post recipes, so here goes one! This is tonights dinner. It is a spin off of the walnut and goat cheese spaghetti I made the other night. —-> such a good combination. I had some leftover spaghetti squash in the fridge that needed to be eaten, so this magical entree was created. 

Spaghetti Squash with Walnuts, Goat Cheese, and Chicken Sausage:

1. Saute 2 cloves garlic.
2. Add in package of chicken sausage (I used Trader Joes!)
3. Cook until sausage is warmed and you can slice them in pieces
4. Add in pasta sauce
5. Chop up some shelled walnuts and goat cheese
6. Add spaghetti squash to pan, warm it up
7. Add in walnuts and goat cheese, combine and stir until creamy
8. Serve warm, a mushy creamy deliciousness!

ENJOY!! Best served with Sangria… oooops.