Howdy!

It's Monday again and time to get back to the daily grind. That sounds so negative huh? Let's think about it as another opportunity for a great week!

This weekend E was away for a bachelor party, so I got to spend some quality time with my girls. We went for sushi on Friday (I stuck to California rolls since they are cooked). Saturday morning, I worked at the studio for a little bit, and then met up with them for lunch before enjoying the beautiful weather on a long walk. That night, it was time for a new dinner spot, New Dahlia. It was amazing!! We set outside so it was too dark for pictures, but I would highly recommend it. Afterwards, we watched a hilarious chick flick. Sunday, I taught a barre class in the morning, followed by brunch with some awesome ladies and then grocery shopping.

When E got home we went on another long walk (it was 70 degrees and sunny) and then he grilled up dinner. He made his famous burgers, and I whipped up some roasted carrots. Oh my gosh, I forgot how amazing these are. All you have to do is peel of the skin and toss them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Throw them on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes at 425 rotating about every 10 or so minutes and viola! Even E loved them!

Monday morning, I woke up a little bit later than planned so I had to make my workout time count! What better way to do that than with a Tabata workout? A Tabata consists of 20 seconds of all out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest. You repeat this series 8x's for a total of 4 minutes. I split my Tabatas up between two exercises. So I would do the first exercise for 4 rounds and the second exercise for 4 rounds for a total of 8 rounds. When you include your warm-up and cool down, the whole workout lasts around 30 minutes.



For my fellow moms-to-be or those new to working out, you can swap the kettlebell swings for alternating reverse lunges and the mountain climbers for a plank. I left in the kettlebell swings and mountain climbers and am 17 weeks pregnant, but everyone is different so listen to your body! After my workout, it was time to refuel with blueberry chia pudding and egg whites.



Blueberry Chia Pudding:
1 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1/3 cup blueberries
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 packet of stevia

Mix all ingredients together and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes or overnight in the fridge. Enjoy!



After breakfast, I headed to the studio to teach a 9:45 am Pilates class and attend a meeting. We had a great group of ladies in class this morning so it was extra fun! At around 12:30 PM it was time to head home for a big 'ol salad for lunch. Today's salad consisted of romaine lettuce, carrots, hummus, avocado, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, and nutritional yeast.


I also enjoyed a So Delicious strawberry coconut milk yogurt with my salad. I think I can officially say this is one of my first pregnancy cravings. I absolutely adore this stuff and have to keep myself from eating 3 a day! It is thick, creamy, full of fiber, and low on sugar compared to other yogurts.




Now it's time for this lady to do a little bit of work for the studio, maybe sneak in a quick nap, and then head back up to teach another barre class at 4:45 PM.

How was your weekend?

In health,

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Howdy!

How is your week going so far? I have a final and presentation today in class so yesterday was full of PowerPoint and reading!! I did squeeze in time for a kickboxing class, cycle class, and some core work! :)

I have kept the salad challenge going through this week. I am currently trying to avoid artificial sweeteners to see if it helps my headaches. I usually get headaches between 2-3 times a week, and I have read a lot of studies that show artificial sweeteners can trigger headaches in some people. I have avoided almost all artificial sweeteners since last Sunday and have only experienced 2 headaches, which is a minor improvement, I guess. Since Diet Coke and Crystal Light with energy both have artificial sweeteners and caffeine, my caffeine intake has also gone down with my artificial sweetener intake. Even with a decrease in caffeine, my energy in the afternoon has been up! I think it's thanks to all of the greens!

I love moves that work your total body in one move! This total body toner sculpts your buns, hamstrings, core, back, and triceps all in one efficient move!! Thank you Women's Health Magazine.

Place a pair of 5 to 10 pound dumbbells shoulder-width apart on a 12-inch-high step. Get in plank position with your hands on the dumbbells (A). In one motion, lift the right dumbbell until your elbow passes your torso and raise your left leg to hip height (B). Lower and repeat with the opposite arm and leg. That’s one rep.

I hope y'all have a fabulous day!

Q's and A's:
What is your favorite total body toner?

In health,

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Happy Friday!!

E and I have some big news!! We decided on Wednesday to adopt the cutest baby boy you have ever seen!

How precious is he?? He is a mixture between a Border collie and a Rhodesian ridgeback. One of our friends dog had 10 puppies, and she was sweet enough to let us make this little guy a part of our family. Ever since I saw the movie Babe, I have loved border collies. We are beyond excited and cannot wait until next weekend when we get to pick him up! We haven't quite settled on a name yet, so I am open for any suggestions!!


Don't you just want to cuddle with him?? I know I sure do! I will have a full update once we bring him home next Sunday!

I rocked the salad challenge for lunch and dinner today. I was at an all day training for work, and they fed us lunch. Luckily, salad was one of the options. They only had two salads to choose from - grilled salmon ceasar salad or a grilled chicken ceasar salad. I went with the grilled salmon, ditched the croutons, and tried to keep the dressing to a bare minimum. Overall, it was ok.


After the seminar, I headed back over to the gym for a much needed sweat session. I didn't have much time so pounded out 30 minutes on the stair master and 15 minutes on one of the spin bikes in the cycle room. On the bike, I alternated between a 1 minute seated climb and a 1 minute standing climb. Do that for 15 minutes, and let me know how your legs feel. I'll tell you what, mine were talking! When I ran out of sweat, my friend Kelli and I met up at Jason's Deli for round two of veggie fest and some much needed catching up! The salad choices were endless here. I think I met my veggie quota for the entire week today! Not a bad thing. Can you tell I was VERY hungry? :)


Alrighty guys, I'm off to bed. I have a big day tomorrow. Training all day and then I am driving down to Galveston to see some of my wonderful friends from A&M and my old boss who is like my second mom and best friend all rolled into one! I am so excited I can't wait!!

Q's and A's:
Any name suggestions for the little guy?
What are you up to this weekend?

In health,

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Howdy,

How are you today? I hope you are having a nice week so far!! I have recently started incorporating barre work into some of my classes, and I love it! It works your body in a whole new way, and you can really FEEL that it's working. I am sore after every workout! Barre exercises consist of ballet inspired isometric exercises that work the deep muscles of your hips, buns and thighs! Even if your gym does't offer barre classes, that doesn't mean you can't do them on your own in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a chair and a towel to wipe of your sweat! :)




The salad challenge is still going strong although I am running out of lettuce. Yikes! I think Wednesday's salad was my favorite of the week.

Wednesday's Salad:
- Romaine Lettuce
- Spinach
- Mushrooms
- Carrotts
- Red cabbage
- Black beans
- Soy Beans
- Avocado
- Low-fat Feta Cheese

I hope you enjoy the workout and let me know if you try it out!!

Q's and A's:
What is your favorite kind of group exercise class to attend?

In health,

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Happy Hump Day!

How are you today? It's Wednesday already, can you believe it? How have you got your sweat on this week? Yesterday, I taught a kickboxing class, got my but kicked by one of our personal trainers on the TRX (he needed someone to "test out his circuit for him"), jammed out to the 90's in my cycle class, and then had a party in my core class. Overall, it was one sweaty and fantastic Tuesday!

I'm still going strong with the salad challenge. Check out Tuesday's salad creation. I was so hungry after my cycle class that I started eating before I took the picture. Whoops!

Tuesday's Salad (very similar to Monday's, but oh well):
- Romaine Lettuce
- Spinach
- Chickpeas
- Soy beans
- Carrots
- Red Cabbage
- Mushrooms
- Low-fat Feta

E and I were blessed with the ability to buy a new house in May. We moved in in June and have been busy settling in and decorating. We could not have done it without the help of Eric's parents. They helped us paint, clean, move, and repair everything that came our way. Our house was built in 1948, so it needed a little tender love and care. We are finally done hanging all of the pictures and almost finished decorating, so I thought I would show you around. Welcome to our home!

Come on in!

Here is our living room. Yes, E's tv takes up the entire wall. Crazy I know! Please ignore the glasses on the table, photographer Eric didn't think we should move those.

Living room part two. Check out E's favorite chair.

Dining room - I hope the light doesn't blind you! :)

Kitchen part one. I love the cottage cabinets and black granite counter tops!

Hello Mr. Oven!

E's office/guest bedroom. This is the boy room of the house!

Our throwback bathroom. At fist, I thought we would redo it right away, but now I kind of like the vintage feel! :) Again, E was the photographer, please ignore the toilet seat! Hahaha

Master bedroom - peace and tranquility!

view #2

That is E's house. The room on the left is a guest house which he is turning into his gym and his pride and joy, aka the garage, is on the right. I'm pretty  sure this is why we bought this house.

Well there you have it, our little piece of Heaven! We feel extremely blessed to have such a wonderful place to call home. It's less than 10 minutes from both of our work and many of our friends live close by!

Stay tuned tomorrow for a special Try This Thursday. I will be posting a video with some of my new favorite barre exercises!

Q's and A's:
Has anyone taken a barre class like Pure Barre or the Barre method?
What did you think?
In health,

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Howdy Everyone,

How is your Tuesday treating you so far? I apologize for posting so late. E and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend Aggie Coaches Night last night, and I was one pooped puppy when we got home. We had a blast at Coaches Night and now I am even more pumped for football season to begin!! When the Spirit of Aggieland came on I got goose bumps! :) Coach Sherman is an excellent speaker and had everyone cracking up the entire time.

source

More exciting news came yesterday when we got home from the event. I was so excited to find a package waiting for me on the front porch upon our arrival. I have been searching Dallas high and low for peanut flour and I could not find it anywhere!! I finally just gave up and ordered it from NutsOnline.com. They have almost anything nut related you could ever want! I got a 1lb bag of peanut flour for only $3.99 plus shipping. That was such a great deal I had to order two.


There are many uses for peanut flour, but my favorite is to use it in my oatmeal. I love topping my oatmeal with a heaping scoop of peanut butter but that can pile on the calories and fat pretty quickly. With peanut flour you get that peanut taste for only 110 calories, 4g of fat, and 16g of protein in a 1/4 cup serving!! Those are some impressive stats. I mix a couple of tablespoons with water to create a peanut paste and mix it in my oatmeal. It's amazing!! I can't wait to try baking with it as well. Stay tuned for fun peanut flour recipes in the future.

Monday was day two of my salad challenge and things are going well. I love how refreshed and energized I feel all afternoon after eating a lunch full of veggies!


Monday's Salad:
- Romaine Lettuce
- Spinach
- Carrots
- Chickpeas
- Soy beans
- Mushrooms
- Low-fat Feta

I want to introduce you to my new favorite snack. Sometimes a girl just needs something sweet and fulfilling but doesn't want to bust her calorie budget. Please allow me to introduce you to L's Fruit Cake!


Simply take a rice cake, smear a laughing cow low-fat Swiss cheese wedge on top, and then finish it off with your favorite fruit!! How easy and delicious is that? It satisfies your sweet tooth, curbs your hunger, and gives you much needed antioxidants all in one delicious little cake! :)

I'm off to cook some dinner. I hope you all have a wonderful evening!

Q's and A's:
Is anyone else as pumped for football season as I am?
Has anyone ever cooked with peanut flour? Link your recipes here!



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Howdy!

It's Monday, and back to work we all go. Why do weekends always fly by at the speed of light? I swear, sometimes I just want to hold on to Saturday and never let go. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be possible.

This weekend was a lot of fun. When I got off work on Friday, I headed over the Half Price Books to try and hunt down Brandon Brazier's book Thrive that I talked about in Friday's post. This was my first time to visit this particular Half Price Books, and woah is it HUGE!! Bigger than any Barnes and Noble I have ever been in and just a tab bit over whelming.

I decided to start my search in the section labled Health. It seemed like pretty good idea at the time....


Unfortunately, I did not find the book anywhere in this cute little corner. Next, I tried searching in the sports section, then the diet section, and then the vegetarian cook book section. Each section was as big, if not bigger, than the section pictured above. According to their computers, the book was somewhere in the building, they just weren't quite sure where. After about an hour of searching and perusing other books, I settled on ordering Thrive from Amazon; however, I did not leave empty handed. As I was walking out the door, the 7th Harry Potter book caught my eye. I always enjoy reading Harry Potter because it is a wonderful distraction from any stress that is going on in your life. The book is so detailed that you simply cannot think about anything else while you are reading it! :)

Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends from Houston that we don't get to see that often so it was wonderful catching up with them! On Saturday morning I woke up, ate breakfast, packed, and then read Harry Potter (it's ok if you think I'm a dork, I know I am) until it was time to leave for the wedding I was attending later that evening. One of my friends from college was getting married in a little town about 3 hours away from Dallas. I was so excited to see all of my old girlfriends that I could hardly wait! Poor E had to stay behind and work. :(

The weddng and the bride were absolutely beautiful! I was a total space cadet and didn't think to take any pictures. These pictures are compliments of my wonderful and camera savvy friend Kelley!

Shelly, the beautiful bride, and Kelley the beautiful photographer!

How many Aggies does it take to cut a cake? Apparently, two per cake.

The wedding was an absolute blast, and it was so good to catch up with the girls. It's so crazy to think that we all used to work together everyday, and now we are spread out in eight different cities! I headed back home pretty early on Sunday so I could finish grocery shopping and laundry in time to hang out with the hubby before we both headed back to work on Monday.

Lesson 2 of the Thrive challenge arrived in my inbox this weekend, and it talked all about eating nutrient dense foods such as raw frutis and vegetables. One of the action steps Brandon suggests is to have a large veggie packed salad every day for lunch. I love salads and eat them quite often, but eating one every day for lunch is taking it to a whole new level. My problem is that I love salads from salad bars like Jason's Deli, Snappy Salad, or Whole Foods because you can have so much variety. Whenever I make salads at home, they always end up just being lettuce, carrots and cheese, but that is coming to an end this week. I went to the grocery store today and stocked up on all kids of veggies to prepare for this week's SALAD CHALLENGE!  I will attempt to have a salad every single day for lunch and experiment with different toppings along the way. The Salad Challenge began today with this little beauty!


Sunday Salad:
- Romaine lettuce
- Spinach
- Carrotts
- Mushrooms
- Chickpeas
- Low- fat Feta Cheese

It was delicious! Perfect for a hot summer day. Now, I have to figure out what is going in tomorrow's salad! I'm off to hang out with the hubsters. Have a fabulous Monday!

Q's and A's:
What are your favorite salad ingredients?
How was your weekend?

In health,

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