11 Facts About Me:

1. I am the oldest of 6 kids and completely live up to the Type A, over controlling, Mama bear oldest child stereo type! Just ask my younger siblings. :)
2. I am 110% obsessed with the mountains. Give me mountain trails over the beach any day. If I could live somewhere with a mountain out my back door and no neighbors anywhere around, I would be one happy camper (not that I'm anti-social, but nothing makes me happier than a great nature view and plenty of trails to explore).
3. Following up on #2, my favorite thing to do is go on a hike or walk with friends. 
4. I love visiting new places and will take experiences of material things every time. 
5. Jason's Deli is my favorite restaurant. Yep, you read that right, nothing fancy for this girl. A salad bar and some free chocolate and vanilla swirled frozen yogurt make me a happy as a lark. 
6. I am probably the biggest light weight in the world. Two glasses of wine, and someone better drive me home and tuck me in bed. 
7. Since graduating college 4.5 years ago, I've lived in 5 different houses, 4 cities, and 2 states. 
8. Unless I'm at the lake, pool, or beach, I HATE extremely hot weather (not so good for a girl who lives in Texas). 
9. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and I would probably eat it for every meal of the day if I could. Well I guess I could, but it probably wouldn't be the most nutritious choice. 
10. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for five years this May, and he is the absolute love of my life. Thanks for putting up with me for 11 years E! :) 
11. If I could choose one word to describe me, it would be "mom," because nothing in this entire world brings me more joy than being Annabelle's mom. Everyone tell you that you never truly understand how much you can love someone until you have a child, and that is definitely the truth. 

DeAun in the white jacket with just a few of her girls at Dallas Mania.

In health,

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Howdy Friends,

As I grow another year older, I think back on all of the wonderful things that have happened in my life, the beautiful memories that are being made right now, and all of the hopes and dreams that I have for the future. As a constant planner, remembering to stay in the present is definitely something I have to work at constantly. So in honor of living in the present, and creating joyful memories, I am going to keep this post short and sweet so I can get a few things done around the house and then play with my tiny human when she wakes up!

Relish The Past:

I have many many happy memories that make me smile, but there are definitely two that stand out.

1) The moment they opened the doors at the back of the church and I saw Eric waiting at the end of the aisle for me on our wedding day is something I will never forget. It literally took my breath away and was the first step towards the rest of my life. I feel so incredibly blessed to be married to such an amazing, loving, and smart man!





2) The first time I ever held Annabelle in my arms had the be one of the most awe inspiring feelings in the world. There are literally no words to describe how much love I felt at that very moment. After I thought my heart couldn't handle much more, seeing E with Belle literally made my heart explode. She has completely changed our lives forever and taught us to love on a whole new level.


Live In The Present:

There are so many amazing things happening in my life right now, I could go on forever; however, I really want to focus on soaking up every moment I can with Annabelle. They really do grow and change so fast, and I can never get this time back. So for right now, it is ALL about her and I love it!



Dream Of The Future:

I have too many dreams for the future of my little family to write down in one post, but I'll just start with a few. I dream of all of the wonderful and exciting moments that are going to happen in Belle's life.... first steps, first words, going to school, her first crush, homecoming, sporting events, prom, family trips, graduating high school, going to college, getting married (officially tearing up as I type now), and one day babies. I am so excited to see her grow through all of these stages, but I hope she grows very very very very slowly. I truly wish there was a pause or rewind button on life so it didn't fly by so fast.

I also dream of continuing to improve as a fitness professional and hopefully positively impacting my students and future fitness professionals. My goal is that each person that walks into my class leaves feeling better than when they came in. Additionally, I feel so blessed to have found a career I am overly passionate about, I hope to be able to help other individuals looking to pursue a career in fitness.

Memories are beautiful, and the future is fun to dream about, but don't forget to enjoy the right here and now every single day!

Share with me your favorite memory, what you are thankful for right now, or something you are dreaming about for the future. 

Wishing you a beautiful Tuesday!

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Howdy Guys!

Things look a little different here in blog land today thanks to the wonderful Jana, at Little Web Writing Hood. I have been wanting to do a blog makeover for some time now, but knew it was way above my techy skill set (or lack of techy skills)! I decided to give myself a little early Christmas present in the form of a new look for the blog. Jana had done one of my friend's blogs a while back, and I loved how it looked so I contacted her right away. She was so easy to work with and made any and all changes I asked for, and let's just say, I can be a picky client. She explained any techy things I didn't understand, and made sure I was 100% happy with the look before applying it to my blog. If you are looking for help to spruce up your blog, I would definitely recommend checking out her Etsy shop!

Once Thanksgiving is over, it's ok to start wearing Christmas clothes right? That's the theory Belle is going with. She rocked this super cute My 1st Christmas onesie compliments of my friend, Erin, yesterday. Her sweet giggles get me every time. She was cracking up the whole time I was taking pictures of her.

The Christmas cheer just kept rolling in yesterday in the form of Old Factory soy candles. These all natural soy based candles are hand poured right here in the U.S.


I received the Winter Wonderland set which included a Hot Cocoa, First Snow, and Roasted Chestnut flavored candle. These little guys are too cute and would make the perfect present or stocking stuffer!


I am currently burning the Roasted Chestnut candle, and it smells delicious! I think the Hot Cocoa candle is going to make me crave chocolate like mad it smells so good. I am going to have to be careful when I burn that one so I don't scarf down an entire chocolate cake in one sitting!


Thank you Old Factory for letting me try out your delicious candles! I can't wait to burn all three of them and have my house smell like Christmas.


When do you start wearing or dressing your kids in Christmas clothes? 

In health,

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Howdy Everyone,

After a month hiatus, a million papers, 1 thesis paper, and three finals (1 still to go), I finally have time to blog again without losing my mind. I can't tell you how much I have missed you guys and the whole blogging world! I feel like I learn so much from reading other blogs and sharing my experiences on this blog that it's been hard to take a break, but I was stretching myself way to thin between school, work, blogging, friends and of course E! Anyways, I'm glad to be back!

Even though I have been neglecting my blogging duties, I have sill managed to squeeze in some training. I am currently training for the CowTown Marathon.

Yep, I'm going for the full sha-bang! Am I nervous? He** yes! The last two times I trained for a full marathon I ended up with a stress fracture, but I am determined to train the right way and listen to my body this time. I am following a training plan that has me running 3 days a week - 1 easy run, 1 tempo run, and 1 long run. This weeks long run was a 12 miler. The weather was a little chilly (34 degrees), but not too terrible. I live a little over 1.5 miles away from White Rock Lake, so I ran over to the lake, ran all the way around (9 miles), and then ran back. It ended up being 12.5 miles.



I finished the 12.5 miles in 1:57, and I even beat Garmina (aka my goal pace) by 1 minute 58 seconds! Whoot Whoot! It was a great run, and I feel ready to take on 14 miles (my longest run to date) next weekend! :)

Yesterday was also full of Christmas shopping, lunch with a friend, Cajun food for dinner (yummmm), and a movie night. We saw Margin Call which was about the 2008 financial crisis. I would not suggest it. It was pretty anti-climatic and a tad boring. :(

I had to wake up early this morning to take my second to last final online, and then it was time to feast on protein oatmeal pancakes!


They are so easy to make, healthy and delicious!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup whole oats (ground up in a food processor)
1 tablespoon vanilla protein powder (optional)
2 egg whites
1 packet stevia sweetener
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons almond milk or milk of choice (may want to add more depending on how thin you like your batter)


Directions:
1. Grind up oats in the food processor. If you don't have a food processor, whole wheat pastry flour will work instead of oats.
2. Mix all ingredients together.
3. Cook in a skillet covered in non-stick cooking spray.
4. Top with the fruit of your choice and ENJOY!

I'm off to finish laundry and go grocery shopping! I'm hoping to try out some fun new recipes compliments of Pinterest this week! :)

How was your weekend?

What is your favorite thing to make during the Holiday's?

In health,

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Happy 4th of July!!

I have to apologize for my incredibly long absence from the blogging world! The last two months have been extremely crazy around here. Between summer school, getting a new job, working my new and old job at the same time, buying a house, moving into said house, and attending a million weddings, blogging got left out in the cold. I have to admit, some days I would get home from work and would just pass right out on the couch from exhaustion!! The good news is work is rolling along nicely, we moved into our house and are settled in, and summer school is still.... well summer school. I have really missed blogging and all my blogging friends, so I am excited to be back!!!

What are you up to on America's Birthday? E and I went to Kaboom Town in Addison yesterday, and it was amazing. Kaboom Town's 30 minute firework extravaganza is ranked the 3rd best firework show in the Nation! I can definitely see why. Eric and I watched the fireworks from a nearby park, and they were jaw dropping!

source

Tonight, we are grilling burgers and heading over to a nearby country club to watch even more fireworks. I am going to attempt to make portobello mushroom burgers, so I will be sure to let you know how it goes! This morning, I went for a run around White Rock Lake, and boy was it hot! I left my house at 8:30am (way too late) and was drenched in sweat before I even reached the end of my driveway! It seriously felt like the longest 4.5 miles of my life! The lake was beautiful, and everyone was out and about getting ready for 4th of July celebrations so it was definitely an entertaining run, just a scorching one too. :)

I stumbled across this fun website the other day called Greatist "Your relateable fitness, health, and happiness guide." (That's the tag line from the website.) They have great tips and really interesting articles. One of my favorite things about their website is the cool infographics they post. Check this one out all about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) vs. regular Interval Training. It's AWESOME!


More Health and Fitness News & Tips at Greatist.

I"m off to make some breakfast and wake up the beast so we can start celebrating!! I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!!

Q's & A's:
Have you ever gone through a transition in your life that just zaps you of all of your energy?
What are you doing for the 4th of July?

In health,

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Happy Hump Day!

Guess What! Christmas came early in the George household! My wonderful husband knew just what a blogger needs for Christmas....... a new computer of course! I got my old computer for high school graduation (thanks mom & dad), but it was nearing the end of its life. It still works pretty well, but it is pretty slow and likes to freeze mid-blog post! Argh!

I was supposed to wait until Christmas to receive my shiny new laptop, but Eric wanted to make sure I got the one I wanted so he let me come with him to pick it out (he's such a smarty pants). We went to Best Buy on Sunday, and I scoped out all of the laptops. I really wanted one of those tiny ones so I could carry it with me, but apparently they don't have very much memory and can get really slow if you have too much stuff on them. Since I like to save everything, I didn't think that would be a good idea! Meet my new little beauty. Yep, that's right it's pink!

He even got me a super cute case to carry it in. (Side note: I tried like 10 times to flip this picture, but it kept inserting vertically. I have no idea why, but I'm just going to roll with it)

Needless to say, I am overly excited to be typing this post on my brand new computer! Now, on to the fitness topic of the day. I'm not sure how the weather is where you live, but it was a very brisk 35 degrees when I woke up this morning. I usually like to get a run in as soon as I wake up, but there is no way I'm heading out to pound the pavement with a windchill below 30. I am simply not that tough! With that being said, I have had to move my workouts inside to the dreaded treadmill!

I already told you how I think the treadmill can somehow magically turn 5 miles into 20, but sometimes you just have no choice but to head inside. So what can you do to make your treadmill workouts more bearable? Here are a few tricks that people have shared with me or that I use personally to fight boredom on the treadmill.

[source]
Treadmill Tricks:

1. Spice up your playlist. A new playlist can make any workout feel easier and more interesting.
2. People watch while your run. I always try and pick the treadmill with the best view of the gym. I am a big people watcher (not in a creepy way, geeze), so this can entertain me for quite a while. People can come up with some crazy exercises.
3. If you are lucky enough to have access to a treadmill with one of those little personal TV screens on them, take advantage of it. My apartment complex has 3 treadmills with TV's on them, and I always go in there and watch the morning news while I run. It definitely makes the time past faster.
4. Save your speed workouts for the treadmill. If you save your sprint workouts for days you know you will need to take your run inside, you can minimize the amount of time spent on the treadmill while still maximizing results.
5. Do an interval workout. Alternating between running at a fairly speedy pace and jogging will keep you focused on your workout and help prevent boredom. Warm up for about 5 minutes, then alternate between 1-2 minutes at a slightly slower than sprint pace, and 2-3 minutes at a comfortable jog. When you are constantly switching speeds, you don't have time to get bored.
6. Try a hill repeat. The fact that you can control the incline on a treadmill is an awesome tool. Try warming up for 5 minutes, then performing hill repeats. Increase your incline to 8-10% and climb for 2 minutes, then drop you incline back to to 0 and recover for 2 minutes (still jogging). You can increase your incline and climb duration over time. This is a killer workout! Trust me your legs will be talking to you so loudly, you won't be able to think about anything else!  
7. For more treadmill workouts check out: Fitnessmagazine.comhttp://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/cardio/treadmill/, www.runnersworld.comhttp://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263--608-0,00.html

Well, I'm off to work! I hope everyone has a great day! Don't forget to check out the great discounts going on at the Shop FF&F page!

Food for thought:
Do you prefer working out indoors or outdoors?
Do you have any tricks to spice up your treadmill workouts?

In health,

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Howdy!

As I sit down to work on my blog today, I think I am suffering from a case of of split personality. Every time I start to write, I am torn between writing about the hilarious joke Eric just told me and covering the latest news article regarding the health and fitness world. I love reading blogs that are entertaining and light hearted, but I'm not a huge fan of the ones that just talk about how much they work out or what they ate that day. What am I learning from that?? On the other hand, if I wanted to read a research paper, I would just go pick up one of my textbooks. I strive to find a healthy balance of information and humor. What are your thoughts on this matter? Do you read blogs to be entertained or to find out new information?

The October Veggie Challenge is going pretty well so far. I have found so many fun ways to use mushrooms (or I just use a lot of them when I do use them), that I have already finished off and entire bag! Today, I stuffed as many mushrooms as I could fit into the pita I packed for lunch! The mushrooms had to make friends with black beans, hummus, avocado, and spinach, as they were all sandwiched into the pita as well. Talk about a veggie party! Yes, yes I know that was corny.


Half-marathon training is off and running (no pun intended). I am really enjoying the cooler weather and taking my runs outside whenever possible. I have started adding hills to my  runs to prepare for the hilly terrain of the White Rock. "Terrain" sounds a little dramatic, but there will definitely be some decent size hills during the race. Although my legs complain the entire way up, I know running hills is a killer workout.

According to Runners World, adding hills into your training routine can help you:

• increase leg strength (I can feel my glutes lifting and my hamstrings tightening all the way up!)
• increase speed
• increase muscular endurance
• prevent injury (by increasing leg strength)
• burn more calories compared to the same distance on a flat surface

Even knowing all of those benefits, I still have to give myself a little pep talk every time I leave our neighborhood. So far, I have found 3 different routes near our house. If I take a left out of our neighborhoodd, I find myself on one of the two nice flat and inviting routes. However, if I take a right, I know my legs are going to be talking to me before I even finish my warm-up. Not that that's a bad thing! So here's to going Right! Check out this article by runnersworld.com to learn how to add hills to your training program. I have been adding, "hilly power runs," to my routine twice a week.

Food for thought:
What makes a good blog?
Have you found any good veggie recipes lately?

Yours truly,

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