Howdy Friends,

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start! I must admit, mine started off a little rough, but we pushed through and made the best of it. Annabelle was still getting over her cold Sunday night, so she woke up A LOT during the night. Poor thing just couldn't breathe very well. This made for one tired mama when she woke up for her feeding at 5 AM. I also think she gave me a little bit of her gunk because I woke up with a very sore throat. Normally, I just go straight into my workout after feeding her, but I just wasn't feeling it this morning. Yep, I admit it, I sooo did not want to workout. After contemplating hiding under my covers, I reminded myself how much better I would feel after a good workout and forced myself into the garage. After my warm-up set of burpees (I'm participating in a 100 burpee challenge), I felt loads better. Although the workout was definitely harder than most, since I was so tired, it was totally worth it!

I did a nice combination of kettlebell and TRX work for a total body workout that took 25 minutes. I can already tell I am going to feel the split jump lunges and TRX tricep extensions tomorrow. Those two get me every time!


After my workout, I did a some work until little bit woke back up at 7:30 AM. We hung out until it was time for me to head to the studio to teach my 11 AM Barre class. Luckily, E had the day off so he could stay home with Belle and let her rest.

I came home for a quick lunch and then headed back up to the studio for a meeting at 1:45 PM. After I got home from the meeting, we took Belle for a stroll around the neighborhood since it was so nice outside.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with little bit, and getting a few things done around the house. Luckily, I think she is starting to feel a little bit better.




Hopefully, she will be back to her normal spunky self tomorrow! I'm off to grab a cup of throat coat tea and do a little work before she wakes up from her evening nap. I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

How do you summon motivation on days you're just not feeling like working out?

In health,

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Howdy!

Happy first full week of 2015! I hope this year has been treating you well so far. Yesterday, I told you about my New Year's resolutions for a stronger Mind, Body, and Soul. Today, I thought I would give you a peak at a few of the EASY recipes I am using to work towards my goal of a stronger body through less sugar and processed foods. Additionally, my good friends over at Spartan, are keeping me motivated to work towards my stronger body with a ton of exciting new events for 2015. They have even been generous enough to offer all Fun, Fit, and Fabulous readers a discount on any race in the continental U.S. and one lucky reader will win a 100 % FREE RACE ENTRY!

So let's start where all healthy days start..... with breakfast! As you guys know, I am a HUGE oatmeal fan. I would eat it every day if I could, and not that there is anything wrong with oatmeal, but I have been trying to increase my protein intake in the mornings. I get tired of scrambled eggs pretty quickly, so I am always looking for ways to jazz them up. After my noodle arm making workout (full post on that tomorrow) yesterday, I whipped up an easy breakfast scramble. I had left over sweet potato fries from Sunday night and some delicious turkey sausage begging to be used in the fridge.

To make this scramble, I chopped up roughly 1/2 a cup of left over sweet potato fries and 2 small links of breakfast turkey sausage. Next, I heated up a non-stick skillet with 1 tsp of coconut oil and tossed in my sausage and sweet potatoes (remember the sweet potatoes were already cooked). After I felt like they were warm, I added three eggs (pre whisked). Mix until the eggs are completely cooked and voila!

Next up, is my new favorite lunch - Avocado Tuna Salad (zero mayonnaise to be found here). All I did was combine 1/2 a ripe avocado with 1 can of chunk white tuna in water, 1 tbs lemon juice, and a dash of salt and pepper to taste. I am really not a huge tuna fan, but I know how good it is for you so I try to incorporate it into my diet whenever possible. Now that I have found this combination, I will be eating it A LOT more often. I think avocados just make everything better! Yes, those green apple slices are gigantic!!



Last but not least, we have yesterday's dinner. This recipe comes to you compliments of Pinterest and You Hunt I Gather. We all know E is just an overgrown (a very intelligent one of course) 12 year old, and he definitely has the taste buds to go with it. When I saw this recipe for Almond Crusted Chicken Tenders, I knew I had to give it a try! They were so easy to make and delicious. Since I baked them instead of frying them, there was no messy grease to deal with. I will definitely be making these babies again very soon!



My second New Year's resolution for a strong body was to focus on increasing my strength in 2015. I specifically set the goal of increasing the number of pull-ups I can do throughout the year. I am definitely going to need that strength to conquer in a Spartan Race! I'm hoping to compete in one of the races when Spartan comes to Austin in May!!

The goal of the Spartan Race team is to bring the excitement of obstacle racing to spectators and athletes (even if you don't consider yourself an athlete) alike! With course lengths of 3+ miles (sprint), 8+ miles (super), and 12+ miles (beast), each course is filled with mud, water, and signature obstacles designed to help you discover your inner Spartan. Athletes of all fitness levels can participate and enjoy these challenging and invigorating obstacle courses! Spartan Race even has events for kids! They believe that fitness and adventure should involve the whole family. Now, that is something I can get excited about!

They have some exciting new things coming out in 2015! The new 2015 Spartan season pass has just been released with tons of great perks such as unlimited racing, special travel discounts, free bag check, and much more. The 2015 World Championship Spartan Race is also moving to Lake Tahoe California (somewhere on the top of my list of places to visit)! For all my podcast lovers (I love to listen to them when I'm walking or running), Joe Desena's "Spartan Up!" podcast is launching soon. Last but not least, the first ever Spartan Cruise is happening in March. Talk about not letting your workouts slide during vacation!

If that's not exciting enough, the Spartan Race team wants to offer all Fun, Fit, and Fabulous readers 10% off any race. Simply use the code SPARTANBLOGGER at checkout! They are also going to be giving one lucky reader a FREE RACE ENTRY into any race in the continental U.S.! Enter below for your chance to win!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Ours was pretty laid back with a little Christmas shopping, present wrapping, Belle's first basketball game, and lots of family time! Can you believe we are already in week 4 of our Happy Healthy Holidays Challenge? How are things going so far for you? I must say, my body enjoyed focusing more on strength work than running last week. My hips very much appreciated the break and it felt good to push around heavy weights again! :)



The title of our first workout, "No Equipment, No Nonsense Plyo Workout," says it all. This workout is a no nonsense get down to business workout with lots of plyometrics built in to spike your heart rate! If you're not quite ready for all the jumping, step back into your burpees instead of jumping, exchange the jump lunges for alternating reverse lunges, and hold a plank instead of doing mountain climbers.
For our next workout, it's time to grab a barbell and get ready to work. The combination of jumping rope and resistance exercises that target large muscle groups, will keep your heart rate elevated while working your entire body in 30 minutes or less.



Remember, your goal is to fit in three workouts this week. You can do one of these workouts 3 times, do each one once, make up your own workout, or attend you favorite group fitness class. We are shooting for three intentional strength focused workout each week and 10,000 steps every day!

What is your workout schedule for the week look like?
My workout schedule for the week: 
Monday: Drop It Like A Squat workout + Barre class
Tuesday: Pilates Mat class + Barre class
Wednesday: Barre class + Pilates Mat class
Thursday: 12X4 Circuit + Pilates Mat + Barre
Friday: Barre class x's 2
Saturday: No Equipment, No Nonsense Workout
Sunday: Rest

In health,

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Happy Monday Everyone!

The holidays are literally just around the corner, and I don't know about you, but I like to have a plan for how I am going to keep my fitness on track throughout the busy holiday season. Between shopping, traveling, parties, food, food, and more food, it is easy to get derailed from your normal workout routine. This holiday season, I want us all to commit to stay on track together with The 1st Annual Happy Healthy Holiday Challenge!

The Happy Healthy Holidays Challenge is simple. Commit to 3 workouts a week and 10,000 steps a day between Thanksgiving (November 27th) and New Years. This plan will help you increase your muscular and cardiovascular strength while warding off pesky holiday weight gain.

I will provide new workouts for you each week that require minimal equipment and take 30 minutes or less. The workouts will combine cardio and strength segments so you get both elements in one workout while increasing your strength, torching calories, and firing up your metabolism. There will always be one workout a week that requires zero equipment and can be done in a hotel room in case you are traveling.

Have a favorite workout you don't want to miss out on during the challenge? No problem, replace 1 or all three workouts with your favorite activity. The goal is to fit 3 workouts in each week no matter how you do it. For best results, I recommend at least 2 of your workouts include some form of resistance training (strenth training, Pilates, Barre, Power Yoga, etc). If you live in Austin, come join me for a workout at ToddPilates and participate in the Holiday Perkville Rewards challenge we have going on at the stuio as well. Double bonus!

The first part of the challenge is the workouts, the second part is the community of accountability I hope to create with everyone. If you are participating in the challenge, I encourage you to share on the Fun, Fit, and Fabulous facebook page,  post to twitter, and  share on Instagram using the hastag #hhhchallenge14 so we can all cheer each other on! I will also be posting extra tips, workouts, and recipes to these social media outlets as well!

So without futher ado, here are your workouts for this week. Even though the challenge doesn't techniqually start until Thursday, I wanted to go ahead and give you workouts today incase you wanted to get a head start.

The first workout is perfect to take with you if you are traveling for Thanksgiving. It requires zero equipment and works all the major muscle groups of the body while giving you a cardio workout as well! For my wonderful pregnant ladies participating in the challenge, you will want to trade the squat jumps for regular squats, jumping jacks for high knees, and take the plank down to your knees if you need to.


The second workout for the week is a tabata workout. I love tabatas because they get down to sweaty business right away. No gym socializing between sets here. A tabata alternates between 20 seconds of all out work followed by 10 seconds of rest. You repeat that sequence 8x's for 1 complete tabata. This workout includes 3 different tabata sets of two exercises each. Repeat exercise #1 for the first 4 rounds and then repeat exercise #2 for the next 4 rounds to complete 1 tabata. Rest for 1-3 minutes until you have caught your breath and then move on to the next tabata. Be sure to start and end with an adequate warm-up and cool down!

Our final workout of the week is a HIIT (high intensity inveral training) Kettlebell workout. In the video, I demonstrate the 4 exercises you will need to complete this workout. Repeat 12 reps of each exercise and go through the entire circuit as many times as possible in 20 minutes resting when you need to. Enjoy!



Remember, on top of our workouts, we are trying to acquire 10,000+ steps throughout the day as well. If you don't have a fitness tracker to keep track of your steps, you can pick up a fairly inexpensive pedometer at Target, Wal-Mart, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, Academy, or pretty much any other sporting goods store. I promise they are worth the investment. If you haven't ever worn one, it could be eye opening to see how many steps you get in every day. Did you know the average American only walks about 3,000 steps each day? Yikes! That is far less than the recommended 10,000. Check back in tomorrow for a post with lots of tips on how to increase the number of steps you take. You'll be hitting 10,000 steps in no time!


In health,

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I'm off to get a little work done before heading back up to the studio to teach my 11 AM Mat class. I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday!

In health,

Lauren

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Howdy Friends,

I hope you're week is going well. This morning, I woke up dark and early at 4:30 AM when I heard Belle starting to fuss in her room. I had hoped to fit in a run this morning so I ran outside to see if it was raining before going in to feed Annabelle. The ground was wet, but there wasn't any rain falling at that point. I fed the tiny human, got dressed, grabbed my ipod and headed outside to fit in a quick run before class. As soon as I stepped out from under the porch, I got hit in the face with a cold mist. Dang it!! I was too invested in the run at this point to turn back, so I decided to race the down pour that was coming and run anyways. Since I knew it needed to be a super fast workout, I decided to do a speed work focused run to make my short amount of time count. Since I was just running around my neighborhood (and my Garmin was dead) I had no way of tracking exact distances for sprint repeats, so I decided to go with a fartlek workout instead. Funny name I know!

Fartlek is a Sweedish word meaning "speed play." Sounds like a party already right? Fartlek training is simply a form of interval training where you alternate between intervals of high intensity exercise(sprinting) and shorter periods of low intensity exercise (jogging or walking). Unlike tempo and regular interval runs, fartlek training is unstructured. There is no set ratio of work to rest, and you can vary your intensity throughout your run. After a warm-up, you play with speed by running at faster efforts for shorter periods of time (say, to that red car on the corner) followed by easy effort running to recover.

This morning, I ran about .25 miles to warm-up and then would pick random landmarks (aka street sign, cars, mailboxes) to sprint to (about an 8-9 on the effort scale) and then I would jog to recover until I had caught my breath (about a 3-4 on the efforct scale). I tried to keep my sprint to recovery ratio pretty even this morning since I was trying to get out of the rain quickly, but you can do whatever ratio works for you.

Benefits of Farlek Training:

• Great mental break from structured speed work.
• Endless variety of intervals.
• Improves cardiovascular strength.
• Improves running stamina.
• Fun to do in a group because you can alternate who is the leader that gets to dictate the pace and distance.
• Great for when you are limited on time but want to get in a good workout.
• Helps improve running speed.

I don't have easy access to a track to do my speed work on so I love Fartlek training sessions. They always leave me feeling strong and accomplished but go by super quickly. Give it a try next time your training schedule calls for speed work and let me know what you think!

After a quick shower, it was time to head up to the studio for my 7 AM Pilates mat class. We had a great turnout despite the dreary weather and had a blast in class. After Pilates, E dropped of Belle sporting her super cute Barre outfit my friend Lacey, owner of Lacey Kaye Creations, made her. Her onesie said "Party at the Barre with my mommy!" She's a Pilates baby through and through!


After she partied at the barre with mommy, it was time to head home for a nap and work time for mom. I hope you all have a fabulous rest of your day.

What is your favorite kind of speed work to incorporate into your training?

In health,

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Howdy Friends,

Happy Happy Thursday! This morning started out bright and early at 4:00 AM (my tiny human wanted to make sure I didn't miss my training run). I got up, fed Annabelle, and headed out on my run with the intention of climbing back in bed once I finished. However, after I got out of the shower, I was too awake and hungry to fall back asleep so I decided to do a little work instead (please Lord let her sleep later so I can nap!). It's really amazing what you can crank out at 5:30 AM in the morning when no one else is awake and only infomercials are on tv. :) Although there was nothing on TV, I did check a few of my favorite blogs, and came across this great list on Nutrition Nut On The Run. Minus Annabelle's monthly updates, I don't do many non health and fitness related posts, so I thought this might be fun.

Here it goes!

Making | my favorite oatmeal with egg whites, almond butter, cinnamon, and slice bananas

Cooking | anything and everything with pumpkin and yummy GF banana bread

Drinking | coffee! I stick to half-caff, but 4 AM feedings make you crave coffee.

Reading | Gina Harney’s “Build Up Your Blog”

Wanting | a facelift for the blog

Looking | forward to celebrating the holiday’s with Annabelle for the first time!

Playing | Florida Georgia Line’s new album.

Wasting | time worrying. It’s just the natural worry wart in me.

Wishing | I could see the leaves changing for Fall in Colorado

Enjoying | spending time every day with my sweet tiny human

Waiting | for the weekends when E is off and we all three get to hang out together

Liking | expirementing with workout videos for the blog like my Spartan Arms & Abs video.

Wondering | what Belle will be like at 1, 5, 10, 16, and 18. Yikes!

Loving | tiny baby giggles and gummy smiles.

Hoping | my training for the half marathon in December keeps going well

Marveling | at how quickly babies grow up. Slow down!

Needing | to check a few things off my to-do list I’ve been procrastinating on

Smelling | pumpkin spice candles

Wearing | spandex, spandex, and more spandex. Living in workout clothes is a definite bonus of the job.

Following | my fellow healthy living bloggers

Noticing | more core strength returning with each and every Pilates and Barre workout.

Knowing | life’s an adventure I can’t plan (well I’m trying to tell myself that until I stop fighting the urge to plan out everything).

Thinking | about the future (hence the previous note about trying to relax my overzealous planning gene)

Feeling | thankful and oh so blessed

Bookmarking | parenting advice on Pinterest

Opening | a new chapter of life as a mom and fitness professional

Giggling | because Annabelle makes the funniest faces!

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Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was a blast. E's parent's came up for the weekend to spend time with Annabelle, E, and I (but mainly Belle). They arrived Saturday morning, and we all headed out to the Pumpkin Patch to take pictures of Belle and purchase some pumpkins (more pictures of our pumpkin patch adventure will be up later in the week). She was a ham all morning, but as soon as we took out the camera, she got very serious!

Belle was way more interested in watching the cars go zooming by than posing for pictures!

After the pumpkin patch, we headed back to the house to grab lunch and watch the A&M vs. Alabama game. Lunch was great......... the game was awful! You win some, you lose some. By about half time, we had seen enough so we decided to head towards campus for the UT vs. Iowa State Game. Grandma George was nice enough to volunteer to stay home with Annabelle while E, Grandpa, and I went to the game. Although we were hoping for a bit more of a stomping on UT's part, overall, it was a pretty good game! We even got to check out the operations booth and press box during the third quarter!


On Sunday morning, I got up early and did a little grocery shopping, made brunch for everyone, and then it was time for more football. Annabelle and E set up stadium seating for the Cowboy's game.



A Cowboy's win was the perfect way to end a great weekend!

It's been a little over 3 months since Annabelle arrived, and I would venture to say I feel pretty much back to normal physically. Well, that is if you don't count feeling like a zombie most days from lack of sleep, but other than that, I feel great! Since this was my first baby, I didn't really know what to expect from the recovery process. Sure, I was hopeful that staying active during pregnancy would help me recover quickly, but there was definitely some worry deep down in my brain that getting back to my normal activity level would take awhile. Those first few weeks after delivery were definitely interesting, but I couldn't believe how quickly I felt relatively normal again (like our bodies were made to do this or something). :)

I started walking at about the 2 week mark, added light weights at 3 weeks, core work at 4 weeks, and running at 6 weeks. My first few runs I took quite a few walk breaks, but after 2-3 weeks, I was back up to running 3 miles at a decent pace without stopping! I can't tell you how excited I was the first time I ran 3 miles without stopping to walk. I literally finished, realized I hadn't stopped to walk, and threw a little party in the middle of my driveway. Luckily, it was about 5:30 AM so there were no witnesses! Being able to feel like myself again so quickly after delivery, made all of the times I worked out while pregnant despite being tired and nausous TOTALY WORTH IT! Exercise is my happy place, and when I can workout regularly I feel like I can be a better instructor, wife, friend an mom.

It's been quite a while since I've ran an organized race. Work, moving, and football seem to keep the weekends pretty busy. However, there is something about having a baby that makes me want to prove to myself that my body can do anything post baby it did pre baby, and maybe even do it better. So with that being said, last week marked the official start of my half marathon training plan. I am going to be running the Spicewood Vineyards Half Marathon on December 6th and I'm down right pumped about it! :)




Finding time to run with a newborn can definitely be a challenge, but I know I can make it work with a little planning. Since the tiny human's nap schedule is still pretty sketchy, the only time I can really plan runs are in the early early morning when she is still asleep. She usually wakes up to eat sometime between 4:30 AM and 6:00 AM, so I feed her and then head out for a run before she wakes up for the day. This usually works pretty well, but with babies, right when you think you have it down they change! :) So keeping that in mind, I am trying to build in a little flexibility with my training schedule. My goal is to run 4 days a week, but if I only manage 3 runs some weeks due to unexpected wake ups, I should be fine. I will also be teaching my normal 9 Pilates/Barre classes a week so that will definitely take care of my cross training.

Training plan week of October 20th - October 26th:
Monday: 3 miles + barre
Tuesday: 3 miles + Pilates + barre
Wednesday: Pilates + barre
Thursday: 4 miles + Pilates + barre
Friday: barre class x2
Saturday: 5 miles
Sunday: rest

Since I teach early morning classes every weekday, my Tuesday/Thursday runs will have to happen before my 7 AM Pilates class. Wish me luck! :) I think it will be challenging, but I am looking forward to it.

Anyone else training for a race in the upcoming months? I would love to hear how your training is going.

In health,

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Happy Monday!

How was you weekend? Wonderful, I hope! Mine was very eventful and a ton of fun!

This weekend, I hosted one of my best friends, Jenny's, bachelorette party here in Austin. She is marrying the love of her life, Garrett, in 3 weeks in Utah, so we had to send her off to marital bliss in style. Jenny and I first met when we were both teaching aerobics at Texas A&M and quickly became good friends. She is one of the most outgoing, caring, and fun people I know!

Party prep started a few weeks ago, but by Friday, I had a gazillion errands to run with a baby that hates the car seat. Luckily, my saint like mother-in-law came in to save the day and stay with Annabelle while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off getting everything for the party.

The festivities began at noon on Saturday with a little pool time at our hotel. At around 4:00 PM we all went back to our room to change and get ready for the shower part of the evening. We all gathered in one room for snacks, sangria, and presents!

After presents, we headed out for dinner and dancing! We ate dinner at Gloria's in downtown Austin and then walked down to West 6th Street to raise our glasses to Jenny.

Cheers to Jenny and Garrett!



A peddy cab was 100% necessary by the end of the night. All of our feet were killing us from walking around in heels.


After everyone was safely back to the hotel, I headed home for the night so I could give little bit her middle of the night feeding and get in some cuddles. I was only gone for a few hours, but I missed her so much! The next day, I met the crew at Olivia's for brunch. I was the photographer for this picture.


After brunch, it was back to the normal Sunday duties of grocery store and laundry. Overall, it was an amazing weekend celebrating an even more amazing friend!

This morning, I felt like I needed to detox from all the sugar I ate over the weekend (how can you turn down gluten free cupcakes?), so I started my morning off with a Chocolate Frappuccino Green Smoothie.


Ingredients:

• 1-2 large handfuls of spinach
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder of choice
• 1 packet instant coffee (I used decaf since I'm breastfeeding)
• 2 packets of stevia
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 cup almond milk or milk of choice
• handful of ice

Blend and enjoy. this smoothie reminds me of a frappuccino from Starbucks and keeps me full until lunch. Win and win! After my smoothie, Annabelle went down for a nap and it was time for me to hit the treadmill. I did 4.5 miles of intervals. Since I'm building my running back up I alternated 1 song of running with 1 song of power walking. Focusing on the music, rather than time, makes the workout fly by. Time to feed the tiny human again.  I hope you all have a great day!

What did you do this weekend?

How do you reset after a weekend of indulgences?

In health,

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Happy Saturday Friends,

With a baby at home, the weekends are even more precious because daddy is home to help out! It's fun to get to spend time together as a whole family and to have an extra set of hands to hold baby girl so I can do things like shower and go to the restroom. :)

This morning was the perfect Saturday morning! I got some work done for an upcoming project, squeezed in a workout, and showered, all while the tiny human was taking her morning nap. This is a huge success in my book!

For my workout, I tackled a quick total body TRX workout. I tried to keep the rest to a minimum so I kept my heart rate up while challenging the major muscle groups of the body. I was nice and sweaty by the end and I can already tell my triceps will be sore tomorrow.

I'm getting pretty good at squeezing in quick and effective workouts while Annabelle naps. Thank goodness for my TRX and treadmill! Operation body after baby healthy eating went pretty well this week. I tried to focus on increasing my lean protein and vegetable intake while decreasing my sugar consumption (dang chocolate cravings). On Thursday night, I made one of E's favorites, fajitas, but swapped my normal corn tortillas for romain lettuce. It was absolutely delicious and made the meat and avocado more of the focus of the meal versus the tortilla. It was an easy swap that I will definitely continue from now on.


I can't believe it, but Annabelle is 1 month old today!! Sometimes it feels like the time has flown by, and other times it feels like she has been a part of our family forever. She has been such a blessing in our lives, and I can't imagine that my heart could hold any more love for my perfect tiny human. I'll be back with a full 1 month Annabelle update next week including better pictures, but here is a quick comparison from when we brought her home from the hospital to now.


Isn't she cute!! She passed out in her swing this morning so it gave us the perfect opportunity to finish her room by putting up her newborn pictures above her dresser. My wonderful friend, Josie, took her newborn picture and did an amazing job. I'm so lucky to have such a talented and generous friend!



Little bit is calling so I have to run. I hope you all hae a wonderful rest of your Saturday!

What is your favorite healthy dinner swap?

In health,

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