So much to update you guys on…where do I even start? I think I’ll just go in chronological order. The last time you heard from me it was Sunday morning and I was off to make breakfast and get my day started. Well, breakfast ended up being extra tasty. I made pumpkin waffles!

I topped mine with almond butter, pumpkin butter, plain greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup. Brandon always looks at me like I’m crazy when I put together this concoction but I swear, it’s delicious! Pear and black coffee on the side. And bacon for the man but I opted out of that.

I spent most of Sunday morning working on my class plan for teaching Total Strength that afternoon. Wow, all that work really paid off. I hardly survived the class and was dripping in sweat. I tried a new method of having them work for 45 seconds and then take a 15 second recovery rather than counting out a ton of reps. It worked out great and allowed me to coach more effectively.

Here it is:

I had extra special guests in my class – Meg and Mimi from Lululemon surprised me with a fun balloon to announce that I’m the new “Peanut Butter Ambassador” – exciting!

Clearly this is before I sweated my life away on stage. 😉

Over the past few months, I have had to opportunity to get to know the girls from the Charlotte Lululemon showroom. They are so involved in the community and attend about a million yoga and group exercise classes a week (seriously, I don’t know how they do it!). Meg and Mimi frequent my BodyPump class and I run into them often at Y2. I am looking forward to partnering with them and getting out there to support healthy living in our city!

After class, Brandon and I went shopping for our Operation Christmas Child box. We decided to go with “boy age 10-14” and enjoyed picking out Christmas goodies! Definitely a great way to kickstart the holiday season. Can you even believe that next week is Thanksgiving!? Crazy!

Unfortunately, Brandon is battling the same cold that I had last week so we kept dinner simple Sunday night.

I made soba noodle soup with tofu, spinach, carrots, mushrooms, onion, garlic and vegetable stock. This was really easy to put together and was actually quite filling.

It was not easy (I repeat – not easy!) to get up at 5 this morning for BodyPump. I was feeling so tight from teaching Saturday and Sunday but was able to pull it together and make it through class. Just for the record…it is not recommended to total body strength train on back to back days. When you’re strength training you’re tearing the muscles down and you need at least a one day break before working that muscle again to allow for optimum muscle recovery and building. I should take my own advice before agreeing to teach all these classes, right? 😀

My breakfast totally made up for it – pumpkin banana oats in a nearly empty Trader Joe’s peanut butter jar. Yum, yum, yum. I worked the morning away and then came home for lunch.

I had a tofu sandwich with mashed avocado, spinach and pepper jack cheese on Great Harvest Whole Grain Goodness. Of course I put it under the broiler and made this a million times better with melty cheese!

Although I was tight and a little sore all I could think about was yoga after work. I made plans to meet Sarah at Charlotte Yoga for a power 2 class. Class was incredible for a couple of reasons. First, this was my first time seeing Sarah since her wedding and she looked beautiful and happy! Second, the class was just exactly what I needed tonight. I could go into detail but I know I’ll just bore you but I am just happy I went. Sarah and I might make this class a Monday night committment.

Before yoga I whipped up this English Muffin Egg Casserole for dinner (it had to sit for a while in the fridge). Brandon put it in the oven before I came home from class so dinner was waiting.

It was so good that I’ve already posted the recipe on Bakin’ and Eggs. Check it out. I had apple slices on the side and the last piglet cupcake for dessert.

And that was a lot of information! Did you make it this far? If so, have an amazing week!!!