Hello!

Did you know yesterday was National Pancake Day?? I did not until I read Corey's post yesterday. Since pancakes are one of my top 10 favorite foods, I was pretty stoked about the discovery!

Due to the fact that E is in the midst of busy season at work, I have been dining alone quite a bit lately. I miss my wonderful hubby, but I do love being able to eat breakfast for dinner a couple nights a week! Last night's dinner included GF protein pancakes topped with peanut butter and banana.

In honor of National Pancake day, I thought I would follow in Corey's footsteps and share my favorite pancake recipes with you.






I'm off to work on our March Madness challenge! Check back tomorrow to see what March has in store for us!

Any last votes for what body part our March Maddness challenge should focus on?

Did you celebrate National Pancake Day?

In health,

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Howdy!

How are you today?? Fabulous, I hope! Can you believe that it is almost March? Two months of 2012 have alrady come and gone, and the weather will be warming up soon! I had a great response to the Fab Ab February Challenge, so I was thinking about creating a March Madness challenge of my own.

So my question for you is, what body part should March Madness focus on?? We could do upper body, lower body, or may a trouble spots challenge..... Oh the possibilities! Since shorts and bikini season is right around the corner, what area would you pick for the March Madness challenge to focus on??? Give me a shout, and I'll start putting together our next fabulous challenge!

Monday was a nice sweaty day as always. I kicked things off bright and early with a 6:00am cardio barre class, followed by a reformer class at 9:30am. At noon, I taught Piloxing followed by about an hour of Booty Barre choreography practice! I love getting to do so many different types of workouts in one day! It's one of the best parts of my job! How did you get your sweat on yesterday?

E wanted fajitas for dinner last night, but when I went to pull out my corn tortillas, I realized they were expired. What do you do when you made fajitas but don't have tortillas...... you make a kitchen sink fajita salad of course.



I had some left over quinoa and corn from another meal so threw it on top of some lettuce with yummy black beans and grilled fajita chicken. It was quite delicious! I did not miss the tortilla one bit. :) Whenever I have 2 salads in one day, I definitely think it's safe to say I am on a salad kick. Lunch looked a bit like this.


Romaine, mushrooms, carrotts, green peas, chickpeas, and quinoa topped with a little light balsamic vinaigrette. It's the perfect filling and refreshing lunch. :)

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday!!

What body part would you like the March challenge to focus on?

What's in your lunch box today?

In health,

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Hello There Beautiful!

How was your weekend? Mine was nice and relaxing but busy at the same time. I had one weekend off from certifications, and I used it to catch up with friends and the hubby!

On Friday night, E and I tried out a new restaurant called Mint Asian Fusion Cafe.

It was super cute on the inside, but lets just say you could hear everything your neighbors were talking about. One of the best things about Mint, is that they had TONS of gluten-free options. There was even a big GF next to all of the gluten-free options so there was no guess work involved. We started our meal with some spring rolls. They were so fressh and delicious.


For my main entree, I ordered the pad thai woon sen with shrimp, chicken, tofu, and veggies. Apparently, this dish was made with some type of special noodles that are healthier and lower in carbs than regular pad thai noodles.



So it might not look that beutiful, but my tummy sure loved it!

On Saturday, I met my friend Katie for lunch. Whenever I go to lunch with Mrs. Katie I always make her try crazy places with me that I know E won't like. Luckily for me, she is very brave and usually down to try anything. This Saturday, Bliss Raw Cafe was our experiment of choice.


Everything here is completely raw and gluten-free. Talk about easy ordering for me. Katie ordered the Greek Pizza. Look at all those amazing veggies.


I ordered the Greek wrap. It was full of avocado hummus, carrots, tomatoes, bean sprouts, and capers all wrapped in a crisp piece of romaine.


It was seriously and explosion of amazingness in my mouth. I loved the hummus so much I am determined to try and recreate it somehow. If anyone has any avocado hummus recipes up their sleeves, please send them my way!

I did do things other than eat this weekend, but nothing worth taking pictures of. There was lots of walking with Champ, cleaning, and then of course on Sunday I watched E play football. Always fun!

I'm off now to finish cooking dinner so I can feed E before he heads to play basketball. Yes, I"m talking about my husband not an 8 year old boy. He plays more sports than some kiddos. Hahaha!

How was your weekend?

What was the best thing you ate this weekend?

In health,

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Well Hello There!

Happy Happy Friday!! Woohoooo, I'm so excited to have a weekend again. If you count workshops, I have worked 25 days in a row! I'm really not complaining. I was blessed to get to host an increadible workshop at our facility two weeks ago, and then last weekend I attended a fabulous Pilates workshop all weekend. Although, my brain is zapped I learned a ton!

On Wednesday, the Fitness Fairy (aka the postman) dropped off this little beauty at my door.

Meet the new Nike+ FuelBand. This was my birthday present from my wonderful in-laws. They were not released until Wednesday, so I had to wait patiently until it arrived! The FuelBand tracks your activity through a "sport-tested accelerometer and then translates every move into Nike Fuel (from thier website)." In other words, it tracks your steps, activity, and uses information you input about your height, weight, and activity level online to calculate your calorie expenditure! My first full day to wear it was yesterday and here are my totals for the day!







It's so neat to be able to see your steps, calories burned, and fuel points right on your writst. There is an awesome website and iPhone app that accompany the watch. You can synch your FuelBand to your iPhone to download all of your information instantly! Talk about on-the-spot motivation. Here are my numbers so far today! I upped my goal to 6,000 Fuel Points for today, and already met it! Yipppeeee!




The bottom picture is a snapshot of the screen that shows you at what time of the day you were the most active. The red part is when I was sleeping, and the large spike is when I was teaching Zumba. As you can imagaine, there was quite a bit of moving going on then! :) It's pretty safe to say, I LOVE my no fitness gizmo!

I'm off to finish cleaning the kitchen and getting ready for dinner! Looks like someone has already started his lazy weekend. He loves his heater!


I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Have you heard of the Nike+ Fuelband? Do you have one?

What are you up to this weekend?

In health,

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Hey!

It's Wednesday, and the week is probably rushing by at lightning speed between work, family and your to do list! Why don't you take a moment right now and just.....

source

Feel better? Sometimes you just need to take a moment and make a list of all of the good things in life instead of all of the things you have to do by the end of the day. Breathing is a powerful tool and one that we can all use anytime we need it. Next time you feel frazzled, just take a moment to close your eyes and take a few deep breathes, relax your shoulders, and unclench your jaw.

Yesterday's workouts included teachign a Piloxing class, cycle class, and core class, and taking a Pilates reformer class. Tuesday's are definitley my busy day when it comes to teaching but I love it!

I worked pretty late yesterday, so the crock pot came to my rescue. I made teriyaki chicken with brown rice and stir fry veggies. I simply put 2/3 cup teriyaki sauce and 1 cup of water in the crock pot with 3 chicken breasts for 4 hours and voila!


Super easy, delicious and nutritions! E even liked it! :) A few days ago I showed a clip of Sophia Grace and Rosie at the Grammy's. I think they are possibly two of the cutest girls ever! I just saw a clip of them singing one of Niki Minaj's songs and couldn't resist sharing. Sophie is the one singing and she is only 8 or 9 years old and sings the entire song from memory!! That is so impressive!! If this doesn't make your hump day brighter, I don't know what will.



I hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday. Don't forget to breathe, sweat, and laugh. Everything else will work itself out! :)

How did you get our sweat on this week?

In health,

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Hi Everyone,

How was your Monday? I must admit I had a slow start to the week. I think I am still recovering from my Pilates filled weekend. I learned so much, and I can't wait to start practicing all of the new stuff that I learned. I have one weekend off and then I start working on my reformer certifications. I have 3 reformer certifications and 1 more apparatus certification to go! Yep, that's a lot but I'm getting there. Never seen a reformer? Check it out!

source

I can't wait to start working with clients and teaching group reformer classes! I'm beyond excited! :)

So in honor of Fab Ab February, I have some new fantastic ab exercises to share with you!

Teaser (source)

The teaser is an extremely effective Pilates inspired ab exercise that works your entire core including your rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus, and internal and external obliques.

Reverse Curl & Lift (source)

To do it: Lay flat on your back with both hands behind your head, legs extended out with your heels lifted about six inches off the floor, toes pointed. Contract your abs, bend and draw your knees into your chest, and raise your hips slightly off the floor. Slowly lower back to the start position. Repeat 8 times, for 3 sets total. (shapemagazine.com)

Roll UP (source)

Booty Barre creator Tracey mallet demonstrates this fantastic core move. The red ball adds a great balance challenge. If you are knew to the roll up, try doing the move with your knees bent and feet on the mate.


We all can use new moves from time to time right? I don't know about you, but I get sick of crunches pretty quickly.

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

How was your weekend?

Do you ever do Pilates?

In health,

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Happy Saturday!

How are you today? I'm enjoying a little down time before I head back to my Pilates Apparatus level 2 training that starts at 12:30pm. We were in training from 5pm-9pm last night, go today from 12:30pm-7:00pm, and then tomorrow from 9am-3pm. My brain may be fried by the end of the weekend, but I love it! I get to spend the whole weekend playing on these guys.

Ok, so maybe we won't be doing that today, but someday! (source)

Pilates Chair (source)

It's a dreary rainy day here in the Big D. I saw this quote on Facebook this morning, and it was an amazing reminder that you really have to embrace every day! I will admit that I am an extreme planner. I like to plan out years in advance and often find myself waiting for the next stage in life instead of just embracing the one I am in. When I was in college, I couldn't wait to finish. When I was engaged, I couldn't wait to get married. etc. etc. Although I'm sure that's fairly normal, I always try to remind myself to just enjoy the present and what is right in front of me even if it's not exactly my ideal situation.


However, if there is a storm, like today, we can always take after Champ and lounge lazily in front of the space heater all day long! I'm pretty sure he thinks this is even more fun than dancing in the rain! :)


He absolutely loves this thing. As soon as we turn it on, he goes straight for it and doesn't move until we turn it off. It's hilarious!

I have two new gluten free food finds I am loving right now! As you know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE yogurt, but it's hard to find gluten free yogurt without a ton of sugar and calories. Allow me to introduce you to Chobani Champions. I'm pretty sure they were made to appeal to kids, but hey, I'm a kid at heart. These guys only have 100 calories, 8 grams of protein, and 11 grams of sugar. Some of the other brands I tried had anywhere between 16 and 22 grams of sugar. :(


I'm a huge fan of crackers, especially with my chili and soup so Nut-Thins are a must in my shopping cart. They are crunchy, delicious, and just a tad salty. Another bonus, a serving size includes 16 crackers for only 130 calories. Now that is a real serving size! No tricks here!


So I may have focused in on champ instead of the crackers which explains why they are blurry. Sorry, I couldn't help it. He's just so cute! :)

I'm off to do a little studying before I head back to class. I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!!

What are you doing this weekend?

What are two food items you couldn't live without?

In health,

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Howdy There!

How are you this evening? Did you have a nice Valentine's day? We had a pretty low-key and relaxing Valentine's day. We ate dinner, cuddled with Champ, and E ate tons of cake batter cookies! It was wonderful!

We are officially in the 7th week of 2012! Can you believe that? This is about the time that the gym crowd starts to thin out, the line at fast food restaurants start to pick up, and QVC goes back to selling makeup and sweaters instead of workout programs. How is your motivation holding up?

Just because it's February and maybe you haven't thought about your New Year's Resolutions since the second or third week of January, doesn't mean all is lost! Working out and eating healthy is a lifestyle and not something that only happens at the beginning of every year. We all get off track from time to time. That's just life. The successful people are the ones that know what it takes to get themselves back on track! :)

That's what I'm talking about. Let's be lifers!

If your motivation to exercise has been less than steller lately, give one of these tips a try!

1) Find a workout buddy and make a standing date with each other at least once a week. You probably hang out with your best friend at least once a week already right? So why not go for a walk instead of meeting for fro-yo. Ok who am I kidding, walk to fro-yo so you can have your yogurt and eat it too!

Tosca Reno (52) & Jamie Eason (35) are wonderful examples of strong women  who have made working out a lifestyle! (source)

2) Try a new group exercise class to spice things up. May I suggest Booty Barre, Zumba, Piloxing, or a Pilates reformer class? Let the instructor and other participants be your motivation to kick serious but!

3) Join a running group. I don't know about you, but running by myself in the cold winter months is not always my idea of a great time. Joining others on social runs, can make 5:30am much more appealing.

4) Try out some new recipes to spice up your healthy eating routine. I am definitely a creature of habit, and sometimes I need to be reminded to spice things up for my own sake. My new favorite recipe is Citrus Quinoa Veggie Salad.



5) Pick a  race to train for and mark it on your calendar. Write it in marker, and find a training plan that fits your timeline. When you have a big goal in mind, your workouts take on a new purpose.

6) Make an inspiration board, or move the one you already made to a new spot so you see it every day. Here is mine for this year!


7) Treat yourself to a new workout outfit. If you love your new top or pants you'll want to hit the gym just for an excuse to wear them! I just bought this little beauty, and the camo makes me feel like a beast (in the best possible way) every time I wear it. The back is by far the cutest part!

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8) Promise yourself that after 2 weeks of working out consistently or eating clean you will treat yourself to a pedicure or spa service of your choice. That's motivation enough for me right there! :)

9) Give yourself a pep talk. You may not have checked off all of the boxes on your to-do list for 2012 just yet, but as long as you are trying your hardest that is all that matters!


Repeat after me: I am strong, smart, beautiful, and powerful and I can do anything I set my mind to!


You are amazing and can do amazing things! Now go face week 7 of 2012 with your head held high and your tennis shoes laced tight! February here you come! :)

What are you going to do this week to work towards your goals?

How do you stay motivated?

In health,

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Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Do you have any big plans for this evening? We are keeping it low key around here. This is officially E's busy season at work, and between the Booty Barre training last weekend and the Pilates Certification I have coming up this weekend, I'm running around like mad.

The Booty Barre certification was an absolute blast last weekend. My booty is officially still sore, and I love it. Tracey Mallet was one of the best presenters I've ever had the opportunity of learning from, and has created an amazing program with Booty Barre. If you are an instructor, and are considering doing a barre certification, I would recommend this one hands down. She doesn't just teach you the exercises, but the why behind every exercise. The program is wonderfully structured and is put together to give students the safest and most efficient workout possible. Did I mention it is a blast as well?

Definitely not the best picture in the world of me, but hey you can only look so good sweaty! Hahaha :)

So on to the Valentine's day laugh. Did anyone see Sophia Grace & Rosie on Ellen? They are two little British girls who Ellen sent to the Grammy's to do interviews on the Red Carpet. Oh my goodness, they are too funny for words. I've already watched the video a few times because I couldn't stop cracking up! Check it out.



Alrighty, I'm off to finish whipping up our Valentine's dinner! I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's day!

In health,

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