Good morning and happy Wednesday!

I am happy to report that after my post yesterday morning about busy days getting in the way of working out that I was able to get in a yoga practice and a 3 mile run on the treadmill. I teach a group private yoga class on Tuesday afternoons and two of the four didn’t attend so I ended up practicing with the other two. I think it was the first time I’ve ever taught and practiced at the same time. I definitely don’t prefer it but it felt good since I was so desperate to practice.

I had a meeting last night at Metro and stayed after to run on the treadmill. I was tempted to bail and go home but when you work in a gym, there’s really no making excuses. Especially when you announce that you might skip cardio and receive instant responses of, “it’s only 25 minutes of your life” and “you won’t regret doing it, you’ll regret skipping it.” Gah, twist my arm!

I had a late breakfast on Tuesday after teaching a 7 a.m. yoga class, teaching an 8 a.m. private and training a client at 9. I knew I couldn’t make it through all of that without a little something in my stomach so I ate half of one of Emily’s Hungry Bars (grabbed one out of the freezer – they freeze so well!) on the way to the gym. When I got home I made a Greek yogurt bowl with granola, fruit, chia seeds and sunflower butter.

Since I ate breakfast so late, my eating schedule was out of whack yesterday. I ended up not eating lunch until 3:30 when I got home from teaching another yoga class and private. I had to pretty much inhale this before running off to Y2 to teach a power mixed class (my very last Tuesday afternoon class…sad!). Spinach topped with leftover Trader Joe’s Harvest Blend with avocado, hummus and Greek yogurt. Sweet potato tortilla chips on the side.

And finally, a late post-gym dinner of apricot preserves, spinach, tempeh and brie on Great Harvest Whole Grain Goodness. I am on a major tempeh kick right now and craving it. It’s a great vegetarian protein source and I love the texture and flavor. I am planning on doing a whole post about tempeh – nutrition info and preparation – but not today!

My dinner looks kind of small but don’t worry…I finished it off with the last of the banana pudding. I didn’t take a photo because it never actually made it out of the tupperware and into a bowl.

Have a great day!

What is it about sitting for extended periods of time that makes you so tired? You know, things like long car rides, cramped flights, meetings and trainings? I sat in CPR/First Aid/Oxygen/AED re-certification for a little over four hours yesterday and it absolutely wiped me out for the rest of the day. Although we had a personable and efficient instructor, I still emerged from the training grumpy and hungry.

Pre-training breakfast was overnight oats in an almost empty (seriously almost empty – I had to add more PB on top!) peanut butter jar. The overnight mixture was oats, plain Greek yogurt, bananas, blueberries, raspberries, dried cranberries, cinnamon, chia seeds and almond milk. Extra peanut butter and Crofter’s on top.

A very late post-training lunch was a big salad with spinach, a Trader Joe’s Masala Burger, apples, avocado, dried cranberries, carrots and feta. Topped with a honey dijon balsamic vinaigrette. I love these veggie burgers – especially on salads. They’re slightly spicy and very flavorful.

I had a short break to catch up on work email before I had to head over to Y2 to teach the Monday evening hot class. I downed two mugs of hot tea (the best afternoon warm up when it’s chilly outside!) and tried to be as productive as possible. Things have been so crazy lately that I have to be very disciplined with my time. I know I’ve said this in several posts but I am really ready to be able to focus more on one thing and not be so all over the place all the time. It will be a very nice change of pace and hopefully allow me some room to breathe (and practice yoga again!).

Class was such a wonderful way to end the day but the icing on the cake was coming home to have dinner already prepared. My parents packaged up leftover beef stew and noodles (and banana pudding!) so dinner was as simple as heating leftovers and grabbing some green beans out of the freezer. Now, the only thing that would have made it better would’ve been to have my parents here to eat it with me!

I was hoping to get some cardio in after class but I just could not convince myself to do it. I had already taught BodyPump early and figured that would just have to be enough for the day. Dinner and relaxing sounded too good. I’ve been embracing rest and cutting back on cardio/running since I’ve been so overly active during the days. I know it’s just a cycle and once things even out a bit more I will be back to my normal workouts and yoga practices.

How do you juggle busy periods of life and working out? 

Happy President’s Day! I hope that some of you are enjoying a day off. Unfortunately, I am not. I taught 6 a.m. BodyPump (and had quite a few members who came for early class on their day off…so awesome!) and now I have to spend the rest of my day in CPR and First Aid certification. The Y requires all staff to renew annually so it’s that time again for me. They are actually requiring us to get CPR for the Professional Responder this year so the training is even longer and more in depth. It will be a long day!

If you’re catching up on weekend posts, I traveled down to Georgia and had dinner in Athens on Friday night and then helped a Y in Covington launch BodyPump 80 on Saturday before heading to Atlanta to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents. I got back to Charlotte around 8 p.m. last night. The traffic and the weather were both terrible for my drive. It was not relaxing whatsoever!

A look at Sunday eats plus some golden retriever cuteness!

I made a bowl of oatmeal when I finally drug myself out of bed a little after 9. I really like mixing oats and oat bran when I make oatmeal but my parents didn’t have oat bran. They did have cream of wheat. I ended up using a little over 1/4 cup of oats and one tablespoon of cream of wheat in this batch with bananas, blueberries and raspberries. Loved the fluffiness that the cream of wheat provided.

I was craving eggs yesterday so I made egg, avocado and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I made one for my mom too and she approved. Runny egg and cheese sandwiches are the best.

I swung into Whole Foods on my way out of Atlanta to pick up a kombucha for the road. It took me almost an hour to get out of Atlanta…the downtown connector was totally slammed so I had to get off and wind through town to pick up the interstate a little more north. I was annoyed that it took so long but at least my detour took me past Whole Foods.

It rained for my entire drive home but I tried to just listen to an audio book and zone out. At one point I was completely stopped on the Interstate about an hour out of Charlotte due to a wreck and feeling majorly anxious to get home. When I finally did get home I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner – pizza! I put together this pita pizza in about 10 minutes and it was amazing. I have homemade wheat pita in the freezer and it’s perfect for quick pizzas. I topped it with the last of the leftover roasted veggies and tofu from the fridge and mozzarella cheese.

Since I was so all over the place over the course of the weekend, I had to leave Sullie in Charlotte. Luckily, I had my parents golden, Sam, to fill the void. How cute is he? If you want to see even MORE golden retriever cuteness, you MUST check out Lee’s post today. She did a round up of golden retrievers of the blog world and it’s pretty much the most amazing post ever!

And a cute picture of Sullie just because she deserves some blog love too!

Have a great day!

I mentioned this in last night’s post but the reason for my weekend trip to Georgia was to visit with friend and blog reader, Louly, who is the director of the Y in Covington. They were launching BodyPump 80 this weekend so it was perfect timing for me to visit and participate in the launch. (Side note, read my review of BodyPump 80 in this post.)

Picking up where I left off (read about our amazing dinner on Friday night here)…

I awoke Saturday morning to this beautiful sunrise right outside my bedroom window. It made for such a relaxing and peaceful start to my day.

Louly had a big batch of apple cinnamon oatmeal waiting in the rice cooker. I couldn’t believe how fluffy and perfectly textured the oatmeal was. It made me want to get a rice cooker so that I can have perfect oatmeal ready and waiting when I wake up! I topped bowl with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter, Crofter’s, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. Oatmeal and lots of coffee was just what I needed to get energized to teach back-to-back BodyPump classes!

We arrived at the Y around 9:45 a.m. to get set up for the launch. There was so much demand that they had to offer two classes – 10:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. I have to share that the Covington Y just started offering BodyPump about a year ago and it has been really successful for them and the members are loving it! Louly and I e-mailed back and forth a bit when she was considering bringing the program in and I’m so happy to see that it was successful!

The launch was so much fun! We had five instructors and each of us taught two tracks while two instructors demoed along with the lead instructor and two walked around to correct form.

I taught biceps and cool down. I love the bicep track in BodyPump 80 – there’s no break! And it was great to lead the stretching at the end of class. It always feels so good after a tough strength workout.

Thank you so much to Louly (center) and Kelli (on the right…she’s the group ex coordinator) for hosting me this weekend. I can’t wait to come back and visit soon!

I was more than ready for lunch after two BodyPump classes (and some fun “by the numbers” stats…in doing two classes I completed around 300 squats and 100 push ups…crazy!). Louly and I picked up Southwestern Chicken Salads from Chick-Fil-A and took them back to her house. We doctored them up by heating up the chicken, adding some fresh fruit on the side and using dressing Louly had in the fridge. I went with a combo of honey mustard and balsamic vinaigrette at her suggestion and it was so good. I’m definitely going to start mixing my dressings now.

After lunch I made the short 35-minute trip over to my parents house and proceeded to spend the remainder of the day on the couch. I did get up for about 30 minutes to eat dinner!

We started with a salad (never enough green stuff! ) with mixed greens, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, aged cheddar and balsamic vinaigrette. Simple but delicious.

The main event was Hungarian Beef Stew over egg noodles and topped off with sour cream. I was so in the mood for this dinner. I have been craving red meat lately and it was cold and rainy out. It was nice to stay in and have a comforting dinner at home with my parents.

I was so excited to discover that my mom made one of my very favorite desserts of all-time, banana pudding from The Southern Living Cookbook. Seriously, this is one of those foods that only my mom can make for me and the first bite brings a big sigh of happiness!

And then we watched Worst Cooks in America. I think I have a new TV obsession. I laughed the whole hour. And then I slept for 10 hours.

Off to eat lunch and think about getting myself back to Charlotte. Hope you’re staying warm and dry today.

Happy weekend! I mentioned in my Friday post that I was traveling this weekend. I’ve been a little all over in the last 24 hours but here’s my final destination.

I’m at my parents house! I arrived exhausted and sweaty around 3:30 p.m. and was immediately sent off to shower. I then painted my nails and planted myself on the couch for the long haul. It’s rainy and cold and we’re eating dinner in tonight. I’m looking forward to an evening of relaxation!

I actually didn’t come to Georgia to visit my parents – getting to see them was just a bonus! I came down Friday night to visit a friend who is the director of a Y that is located right outside of Atlanta and to help them launch BodyPump 80 this morning.

We met in Athens last night for dinner at 5 & 10.

5 & 10 is my favorite restaurant in Athens and I was so excited when Louly suggested that we meet there for dinner. It was a good central location for me driving down from Charlotte and for her driving over from Covington. I was so ready for some bread and a glass of wine after three and a half hours in the car.

The chef sent out an amuse bouche featuring sautéed pompano that he’d just received in fresh.

I started with the butternut squash soup. It featured chicken stock, pureed butternut squash, roasted pear, candied pepitas and cream.

I could have ordered anything on the menu and been perfectly happy. I was really struggling with my decision…scallops, duck, short rib, pork chop…it all sounded delicious\. We had a wonderful server (Paul) and he told me the scallops were one of the best dishes on the menu. Actually, I’m pretty certain he said they were his number one pick. I love ordering seared scallops at restaurants so this was all the convincing I needed. They were served over rutabaga puree with lacinato kale, celery pine-nut salad and finished with lemon brown butter.

We ordered coffee after our meal and you can’t have coffee without dessert, right? What started with the idea to order two scoops of salted caramel ice cream turned into ordering the chocolate nemesis cake with candied pecans, seared bananas and two scoops of salted caramel. It was so good that we were speechless. The combination of flavors was perfect.

Fueled by coffee, I made the 45 minute drive to Louly’s beautiful lake home where I promptly took a hot shower and collapsed into bed. I was able to get almost 8 hours of sleep in and it was blissful.

I awoke this morning to a sunrise over the lake, breakfast and coffee. More details in my next post about the BodyPump launch and the rest of my Saturday. I had a great time teaching with the Covington Y team!

What is your favorite thing to order when you go out for nice dinners? The kind of things things you don’t cook at home.