Happy Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Thanks to my sweet hubby and beautiful daughter, mine was fantastic! Since my birthday falls on a weekday this year, they spoiled me with lots of birthday fun this weekend!

Saturday we ran some errands, did a little shopping, and spent some quality family time at home. In true kiddo fashion, Belle has a gazillion toys but loves the remote. Luckily, her wonderful grandparents had an old remote that they shipped her. This way she can chew to her hearts delight without mom having to worry about her getting to the batteries or dad having to worry about her reprogramming the TV!

Sunday morning, I met up with my friend Erin for a run. She is training for a marathon in April and was doing an 18 miler (I know, she's a total bad a**!). Since I haven't ran since my 1/2 marathon in December, I was a little worried about how my hips would hold up (and I didn't want to slow her down), but they felt great and I gabbed her ear off for 7 miles and then she continued on her way. It was the perfect way to start my last day as 26! Thanks for letting me join you Erin!


After our run, I grabbed a speedy shower before the tiny human woke up. Then it was a quick breakfast for her, protein shake for me, and we were off to the grocery store to try to beat some of the Super Bowl madness. It was busy, but not too bad. Ms. Belle had a lot to say while we were shopping and pretty much had a running commentary going the entire time. This picture was mid one of her very entertaining stories.



When we finally made it home from the grocery store, Belle was ready for her morning nap. She napped while E and I finished getting ready. Once she woke up, it was time for brunch, but first she had to get dressed in her super cute new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa George.




As you can tell, she's a big fan of the new threads! :) We headed to brunch at my all time favorite spot in Austin, Wildwood Bake House! It is a 100% gluten free bakery and restaurant. They have the most delicious cupcakes, cakes, cheesecakes, muffins, and breads, and on Sunday they do a to die for brunch buffet! I'm talking everything you could ever want... migas, bacon, potatoes, french toast, waffles, biscuits, pulled pork, and so much more.......... and it's all gluten free!!! I am so used to not being able to eat things, I passed right by the biscuits and then when I saw it on Eric's plate I was like, "wait, I can try that!" Hahaha! I was in gluten free breakfast Heaven!


Belle had a great time a brunch as well. She's getting to the point now where she is a lot easier to take to restaurants. She still doesn't really get the concept of inside voices when she tells us stories in baby language, but she's getting there.




Belle was ready for nap round 2 when we got home from brunch and so were dad and I since we were stuffed with gluten free french toast (AH-MAZING)! Belle napped for about an hour and a half then we had to take advantage of the beautiful day (it cleared up since my rainy morning run). We went for a family walk around the neighborhood with the pup to try to help burn off a little brunch. Dad got a little dramatic when I asked him to cover up Annabelle with a blanket, but she didn't seem to mind. :)


We spent the rest of the evening doing laundry, grilling, and watching a slightly disappointing Super Bowl (I was routing for the Sea Hawks). It was an absolutely amazing pre-birthday weekend with my sweet little family. I feel like I am the most blessed girl in the world to be surrounded by so much love! I hope you all have a marvelous Monday!



What did you do over the weekend?

Are you a brunch fan? If so, what is your favorite part of brunch? The GF french toast was definitely my favorite this week!

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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Howdy Friends,

Happy Workout Wednesday! I seriously feel like I just wrote last week's WOW post. The weeks seem to be flying by! In honor of the extremely hill half marathon I ran last weekend, I decided to do a hill repeat workout for today. I should probably have done a few more of these workouts BEFORE the race. But oh well! Live and learn right?

This workout is designed to be done on a treadmill; however, you could do it outside if you had a large enough hill. You would simply time yourself as you ran up, and turn around when you hit the corresponding time.


The whole workout should take about 30 minutes and trust me, 30 minutes is PLENTY! Let me know if you give it a try! If you need more workout ideas, be sure to check out my workouts page!

This past weekend, we took Belle to have her picture taken with Santa. She doesn't really have stranger anxiety yet, but I was a little worried about how she might react to the beard. It didn't seem to phase her one bit. She sat on Santa's lap like a champ and even smiled for pictures. There were a bunch of kids playing off to the side on snow they brought in (no snow here in Austin), so she was a bit distracted.





After meeting Santa, we snapped a few more pictures in front of the giant Christmas tree. Then, of course, we had to do a little shopping since we were already at The Galleria after all. Daddy introduced Annabelle to his favorite store, Dick's Sporting Goods. She seemed pretty impressed.



This is definitely going to be the best Christmas yet!! How did I get so lucky to get the sweetest tiny human around (I'm not biased or anything)?

Do you ever do hill repeat workouts?

What is your favorite way to incorporate the treadmill into your training?

In health,

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Howdy,

This past weekend I had the opportunity to run the Spicewood Half Marathon in Spicewood, Texas. I had to stop running pretty quickly after I found out I was pregnant due to some hip issues, so I was determined to get back to running as soon as possible after Annabelle arrived. I knew I wanted to do a race in early December (after football season slowed down) and near Austin so we wouldn't have to leave Belle (I'm so not ready for that yet). After looking around at my options, I decided on the Spicewood half.

Since it was my first race back in the saddle after baby, I liked the idea of starting with a smaller race. Additionally, the pictures of the course looked absolutely beautiful so I was excited to check out the scenery as I ran. Everyone raved about how intimate and beautiful the race was, so I decided I had to sign up. I admit, I was a tad bit nervous about doing a race in the hill country, but a few hills never killed anyone right?

WRONG!!! This was by far the hardest and hilliest race I have EVER done. I know, I know.... what did I expect? It was in the HILL COUNTRY after all. I guess I just assumed there would be a few hills here or there, but it felt like we were running up and down the entire time. Yikes!

Let's start from the beginning. It was such a small race, you actually picked up your packet the morning of the race. They had parking and packet pick-up so organized, it was a piece of cake. I don't think we had to wait in line for more than 5 minutes! They also had an indoor area you could wait in before the race started so you didn't have to stand in the cold (although it really wasn't all that cold at all). I stretched, drank a few sips of coffee, ate my banana, and go ready to run. At 8:25 AM they lined us all up and then we were off!





The first 2 miles of the race were not too bad at all, a few hills here or there, but pretty similar to my training runs. As we went, the hills started to get steeper and steeper and more frequent. At around mile 5, we came around a corner and I looked up and saw what I thought was "the hill." O-M-G! I shuffled my way to the top and even made myself stop to take a picture of the view and how high we were.


I jogged down, went around another corner, and saw another gigantic hill and thought, "oh crap, what did I get myself into?" It continued on like this until the turn around point. Yep, it was an out and back, so we got to climb those killer hills again going the other way. That had to be the most brutal part. The steepest hills were between miles 5 and 6.5 which is about where we turned around so you got to climb then again immediately.

To say my legs were on fire would have been an understatement. My right glute actually cramped a bit at one point. I shortened my stride and it worked itself out. Luckily, the gorgeous hill country views were a nice distraction. After I made it back over the killer hills on my return trip, I was still feeling fairly strong. My hips were starting to bother me a bit, but less than I was expecting. I was still holding strong at about 3 minutes under my goal pace.

With two miles to go the hills started to level out a bit which was just in time. This was the point that my hips really started to beg for mercy. Luckily, they held strong for me until the end and I finished in 2:06. That's 20 minutes slower than my last half marathon. I keep trying to remind myself that my last half was pre-baby and on a very flat surface, but I still don't love it! :) Oh, well, it gives me a good goal for next time!



After the race, I grabbed some water and a little bit of BBQ. They had lots of post race beverages to choose from. I grabbed a glass of red wine in a super nice wine glass that was engraved with the half marathon logo. Who needs a medal when you get a wine glass? I only drank about 1/2 of it before I decided that might be a little bit too much sugar for my system.



Overall, it was a great race! It was definitely the hardest half marathon I have ever done, but I would totally do it again. It was so easy to get to, packet pick-up was a breeze, the course wasn't ever over crowded, the views were awesome, and the post race party was great! If you are looking for a half marathon in the Austin area, I would totally suggest it!

For now, I am going to take a little bit of time off from heavy running to let my hips heal up a bit. I think I may have jumped back in to running a little too quickly post pregnancy. I will still run a few times a week, but I am going to focus my individual workouts on strength training for awhile to build my muscle mass back up!

Did anyone else race this weekend?

Has anyone else done the Spicewood Vineyards Half Marathon? What did you think?

In health,

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We headed down to College Station Wednesday afternoon and got stuck in HORRIBLE traffic. It took us almost 4 hours to get there when it usually takes us less than 2. Needless to say, by the time we arrived, we were worn out. I headed over to my parents house to help cook and Annabelle stayed with Dad so she could catch up with Uncle Greg and Aunt Meredith who live in Georgia.

On Thursday morning, I woke up early, fed the tiny human and then went for a quick 4 mile run. It was cool but not too cold and the run felt great! After my run, it was time for Annabelle to get dressed for Thanksgiving. Se decided she would represent the Indians at the Thanksgiving table!

Practicing her Indian yells!

After lunch, we headed back over to E's parents house to get ready for the A&M vs. LSU game. Not much to tell here. It was a rough game with some very questionable calls. Sadly, the Aggies lost. We did have fun tailgating with friends and family before the game. We even got a quick sister shot that was quickly photo bombed by Uncle Bryan.




Friday morning was D-day. Time for my 11 mile training run. Again, it was cold, but not too cold. Really, perfect running weather if you ask me. The first 8 miles felt great. Miles 9 and 10 were a little rough, and by mile 11, my hips were screaming for mercy. I'm not sure what exactly is causing the problem. I stretch, make sure I build in an extra long warm up, and foam roll, but nothing seems to help. I think they are still a little out of whack from my pregnancy. Anyways, I finished the 11 miles in a decent time and quickly showered and got ready to take Christmas pictures.


Eric's brother is a great photographer so he graciously took a bunch of photos for us (preview of those to come later). After pictures, it was time to celebrate Thanksgiving again George style. More delicious food and great times with the family.  After lunch, we headed up to Cleburne to visit with Eric's grandmother and extended family.


Belle visited with everyone and tried out her cute baby rocking chair. We headed back home Saturday afternoon so we would have Sunday to decorate the Christmas tree and get life back in order for the week to come. We took a quick break from decorating and laundry to take little bit for a walk. It was her first time sitting like a big girl in the BOB stroller and she really liked it. I think she enjoyed being able to see everything.


It was a busy and fun filled Thanksgiving! I feel like I have so much to be thankful for this year. I have a wonderful husband, great friends and family, a fun job, and the most amazing daughter on earth. I seriously don't know if my heart could handle much more happiness.

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Favorite Thanksgiving food? Sweet potato casserole over here! 

In health,

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