Spring Cleaning {internally}

I've been quite the stranger to blogging recently. Let's just go ahead and say life got in the way of all my extra time. I'm currently balancing 3 "mini" jobs, in addition to class 4 days a week. Needless to say, I stay busy every day from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep!

After all of the schedule craziness, I was more than excited about heading to Daytona for spring break. We flew down to Florida last Monday and stayed until Friday. The weather was a bit chillier than any of us had anticipated, but it was still wonderful to get away for a week and relax.

We climbed 203 stairs to the top of the second tallest Lighthouse. I'm terrified of heights but I was encouraged every step of the way. I will admit.. I didn't look over the edge!

With relaxing comes eating, and with eating comes laziness, and with laziness.. well you get the point.
I've mentioned before that I did a strict month of eating Paleo. That month transformed my metabolism, my attitude, and my body. After a month of eating so well, led to a few weeks of eating well with a "little bit of this, little bite of that" of things that aren't so great (treats, sugars, etc) and I started getting extremely sluggish. My body was yelling WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? I decided to have one last "free for all" week of eating at the beach during spring break, after all, what's a vacation without dessert every day?

I want to go back to strict paleo, but needed a little jump start to get me there. After a week of eating anything and everything, I decided to go on a paleo sugar detox.

I am doing a 3 week detox that goes back to strict paleo in the third week. The objective is to cleanse the body of all sugar, and to gradually start adding elements back in to reset my body and stabilize hormones. Have I mentioned that when I was eating poorly I had minimal to no energy. This cleanse should rid my body of any cravings and clean out my system to start eating strict paleo again. I've got to get ready for a wedding  in 5 months!

The rules for each week are slightly different. Week one is supposed to be the worst.

Following are the rules specifically laid out for each week…

Week 1 

No Sugar (including fruit), No Dairy, No grain, no legumes! No sugar includes artificial sweeteners, stevia, honey, agave.  NO Fruit.

Vegetables

Artichoke Beet greens Bell peppers Brussel sprouts Carrots Celery Cucumber Eggplant Green onions Mushrooms

Onions Parsnip Radish Seaweed Tomatillos Turnip greens Asparagus Beets Broccoli Cabbage

Cauliflower Collards Endive Lettuce Mustard Greens Parsley Spinach Tomato Turnips

Proteins

All fish Shellfish Any Game Meat Eggs

Lean Pork Lean beef Lean Poultry No Processed lunchmeat or bacon week 1

Fats

(with cutting out sugar and fruit will need fat as energy) Still don’t overdo !!!

Olive oil Coconut oil Avocado oil Almond oil Walnut oil Flaxseed oil Almonds Cashews

Pecans Pine nuts Pumpkin seeds Sunflower seeds Macadamia nuts Pistachios Sesame Seeds Walnuts

I am on day 3 of week one. I'll admit that I've missed my normal coffee and stevia every morning, but I've actually felt pretty good just eating protein, vegetables, and fats. Cutting out fruit for a week hasn't been as tough as I thought it would be, but I am still not even half way through the week. I've had a few minor headaches due to lack of sugar and caffeine, but nothing too unbearable.

On the brighter side, I've felt so much more energized and don't feel so weighed down by all the junk I was eating. Going strict again has led to new recipe discoveries, like my new personal favorite, kale chips (thanks Katie!) I'm also going to be trying some paleo pizzas later this week.

Check back in for another week 1 update! I'll also be blogging about weeks 2 and 3. Anyone care to join me?!

Happy cleansing!

Just a Little Spiel {for the ladies}

I bet you wouldn't have guessed that this is a post about CrossFit. Don't turn away just yet! Hear me out. I get a lot of questions about what CrossFit is and why I do it. I've had a few guys ask about locations, but usually its the girls who want to know intricate details. As soon as I mention that CrossFit uses weights I get the immediate response of "I don't want to get bulky, so that's not for me." What girl wants to get bulky, I know I sure don't.

Most girls think more cardio is the way to go, without incorporating any strength training into their workout routines. I say this because I was one of those girls a few years ago. Every day I would go to the gym and get on the elliptical, treadmill, or step climber for 45 minutes to an hour and watch tv or read a magazine. The machine always told me that I burned 500+ calories so I thought it was a job well done. Wrong. My body never really changed, so I thought that limiting my food intake + an hour doing cardio was the better way to go. Even more wrong.

I began strength training my Junior year in high school and loved it. I would go for a 30 minute tough session at a great gym - they incorporated weights with plyometrics (fast and powerful movements). I loved it, but it quickly became a love hate relationship. I got results immediately and then plateaued for quite a few months following, which in turn made me lose motivation to go. Enter the cardio cycle once again.

Once starting college my fitness routine was very up and down. My Junior year in college is when I really started my fitness routine on my own without a trainer. Let me just tell you, it's pretty hard to get yourself motivated after a long day of class when you know you're working out alone! I did pretty well, I'd do 15-20 minutes of quick cardio then 20-30 minutes of weights. I stayed in shape but I still hadn't busted out any goals or changed the way I looked.

Braden started CrossFit last year and would always come back and tell me how intense the workout was. He'd mention med ball cleans, rope climbing, hand stand push ups, and other ridiculous things that I thougtht sounded outrageous - I thought to myself "there's no way I could every do any of that!" Plus, I thought I'd never be able to afford it on a college budget (Is CrossFit Too Expensive). Well.. I decided to give it a try this summer and it literally took that first work out and I was sold. I understood why everyone loves it so much.

It's hard to explain to others, it really is. But if you mix a wonderful community who encourages you to push harder, go faster, and lift more weight - how could that not be a winning combo? I think we all love each other because we overcome fitness feats together. Now I don't consider my weight as a deterrent of my fitness successes. I used to go to the gym and use 15lb dumbbells because I didn't want to get bulky.. whereas now my weights are usually no less than 55-65lbs. I can deadlift more than my body weight 5 times for 3 rounds, and I can back squat even more than that! My goal is to get stronger, faster, and to do things I never thought I could!

If I haven't proven my point just yet...

If you're more logical, then here are a few of the health benefits of CrossFit:

• Increased and restored bone mineral density to combat osteoporosis
• Increased lean body mass - yes, this means curves ladies!
• Increased balance and coordination
• Increased metabolic rate - burn more calories when you're not working out
• Increased performance in everything you do - climbing stairs, picking up groceries,etc
• Feel better and look better - reduces overall body fat, gives you more energy, and boosts confidence!

Ladies, don't be afraid of lifting weights. The only way to become crazy bulky is to take supplements. Healthy, clean eating (paleo if you will) paired with high intensity workouts is bound to lead you down the path you want to go - one that's faster, more fit, and stronger than you've ever been! Have I mentioned that there's no age limit?

She's 74.. no big deal

I have decided to post my own results after 6 months of CrossFit, so that will come sometime in December. Posting results, weight, or anything of that sort has always been a touchy subject for me. But since starting CrossFit, I've gained so much confidence because I know that I'm working hard to achieve goals! The post title was a little misleading.. I guess this was more than just a "little" spiel.

This post may mean nothing to you, you may not change anything about your workout routine, and you may think this is all a big bit of bologna - and that's totally fine! I just wanted to share my own story and successes that have come from CrossFit. If you want to check it out for yourself, I'd love to take you to your first class! There's no better way to form your own opinion than to just try it for yourself. After all, we're all creatures of curiosity right.

Just some food for thought. This post is definitely geared towards the ladies, but the fellas are definitely welcome too!

What's Baking Wednesday

I thought it'd be pretty fun to start a little weekly blog post about recipes I've tried or made that week. We'll see how this plays out after a few weeks, but for now I like the idea :)

Two things I have been missing since starting Paleo are sweet breads and the sweet crunch of cereal with berries in the morning. So far this week I've tried two new Paleo recipes:  Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Paleo Cereal!

So here's how it went down.

I stumbled across this recipe for chocolate zucchini bread and was dying to try it! I'm a huge fan of regular zucchini bread, so adding chocolate into the mix definitely appealed to me.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

• 1 medium zucchini, shredded (equal to 1.5 cups shredded zucchini)

• 2 eggs, whisked

• 3/4 cup sunbutter (or nutbutter if you prefer)

• 1/3 cup raw honey

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• 2 tablespoons coconut (or almond)  flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, pinch of salt

First step:  Shred your zucchini with a cheese grater. Once the entire zucchini is shredded, place onto paper towels and squeeze out excess water.

Second step:  Mix together all ingredients without the zucchini, once elements are combined well, then add in the shredded zucchini.

Step 3:  Pour into an 8x5 loaf pan and bake at 375° for 25-35 minutes. I checked mine periodically with a tooth pick to make sure it wasn't over baking.

The bread was so moist and delicious. I definitely recommend this if you're craving that sweet bread you've been missing!

I used to eat a bowl of Kashi Go Lean or TJ's bran flakes topped with frozen blueberries every single morning (I'm a creature of habit). Since Paleo took over, I have either protein pancakes or a turkey bacon omelette every morning. The pancakes take care of my sweet fix, but for some reason I've specifically been craving some cereal with milk.

Enter the Paleo cereal phenomenon.

Paleo Cereal

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1 tbsp sunbutter (or nutbutter of choice)
• 1 tbsp almond butter (or nutbutter of choice)
• Drizzle with honey and cinnamon

Mix together all nuts, nutbutters, honey and cinnamon.

Put in baking dish (I used a pie pan) and pat down mixture.

Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Side note, this makes your house smell delicious!

Add in some frozen or fresh blueberries and coconut milk (or almond milk) and enjoy!

I'm heading to workout at Crossfit. Today's workout is 200 double unders for time, and a 5 burpee penalty every time you mess up.. YIKES. It looks like I'll be doing a lot of burpees, which is never ever a good thing. 

Hope all of you are having a fantastic wednesday, we're half way through the work week!

Hometown Showdown

Although I feel like I've traveled all over South Carolina, NC, and GA this summer - I haven't made it home more than once! With classes starting in two weeks I really felt the need for some quality time at home. It was so refreshing to visit some of my favorite places and getting to hang out with my mom and old friends.

Here's a simple little recap of a few of my adventures the past few days.

Madre and I visited the new house and then headed to one of my favorite places to eat, Red Bowl. When I go home I usually have Red Bowl for at least one dinner meal.. and lunch one day. Ask my why I love it so much, I honestly have no idea, but it is so good! I got my usual, steamed shrimp with fresh veggies.

After dinner we headed to my second favorite hot spot at home, Yumilicious. Seriously, I have a mild obsession with froyo. This particular stop included some Dulce de Leche, peanut butter, and some vanilla topped with heath bar pieces and strawberries. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

The next morning I made a coffee stop and then headed to my old gym to get in the WOD for Crossfit. It's always so great visiting the Bodyshop, I can always count on a warm welcome! 

I ventured into the back corner of the weights room to do my Crossfit workout. The workout consisted of a 20 min AMRAP: 5 hollow rocks, 10 push ups with hand release, and 15 squats. I seriously couldn't feel my arms after I finished!!

That night my mom and I wanted to make a delicious dinner, and we decided to invite Paige to join us. Madre had been telling me about the local meat market's crab stuffed flounder, so we thought that would be perfect for dinner! We paired it with asparagus and a baked sweet potato, needless to say I couldn't have asked for a more delicious meal!

The crab stuffed flounder was SO good, and so low maintenance. You literally take it out of the package and stick it in the oven frozen at 450° for 30 minutes. The meat market preps and seasons it prior to packaging it, talk about an easy meal. I stopped by and picked some up to bring back to the upstate with me :)

After dinner Paige and I went to her small group through Radius Church. Paige had previously told me that my small group leader Katie also goes to small group, so naturally I thought it was a great idea to show up and surprise her! It was quite the success with lots of hugging and catching up.. we were kind of a distraction for the rest of the group - whoops! It was so good to see her!

We read through Galatians 1, I really enjoyed being a part of a small group that mixed girls and guys. It's cool to hear a guys point of view, plus they are much more confrontational and love to argue points which was pretty entertaining.

The next morning started off right, with a Thanks A Latte coffee!

When I worked at the Bodyshop I would always stop by this little coffee stand before work. The woman who runs the stand knows all of her customers, I love the fact that even when I don't stop by for a few months while I'm away at school she still remembers me. I always order a sugar free hazelnut coffee, seriously the best coffee ever!

Although contradictory, I got my coffee to go and headed to iHop to meet up with my great friend Lachlan. He attends the University of South Carolina so I rarely get to see him. We took the time to catch up and I enjoyed a little fruit bowl paired with my coffee. 

Later that day I had a coffee run numero dos. I met my friend Macall at Starbucks and we both got cold coffees. I chose the Caramel Light Frappucino.. mmm. We both had the intention to catch up a little, but that "little" amount of time turned into 3 hours sitting and chatting. I would not trade time with that girl for anything, she is so wise and so easy to talk to. I'm totally okay with hanging at Starbucks for 3 hours when it's time well spent!

In natural fashion, Madre and I made one last dinner date to Red Bowl. This time we decided to get side salads with cucumber ranch and a bowl of egg drop soup, of course this was in addition to my steamed shrimp and veggie bowl!

This morning I had breakfast with Paige at my last and final favorite place to visit at home, The Other Pancake House. We chatted about reuniting next week and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast. I ordered the "Bodyshop omelette" which is an omelette made with veggies and egg beaters, and I added in some turkey bacon and a fruit bowl. 

I think it's pretty obvious that I make a point to enjoy all of my favorite places while I'm home, while accompanied by a few of  my favorite people. I loved being home and seeing everyone! There's never a way to gauge how often I'll get to travel home, but hopefully it won't be too long from now.

I'm heading to Crossfit around 6 and I'm hoping this huge storm passes before then! 

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week so far!

The Counting Game

Happy Friday! Today is a pretty chill day over here, I'm about to get a work out in with Bray and then we're going to make some banana nut muffins for this weekend. Someone donated a bunch of bananas to us at work, so I have about 12 bananas that I don't want to waste!

On a different note, I just read a post written by Katie, the wonderful owner of dashingdish.com. Her post "To count calories or not.. that is the question" was incredible, she had some great insight and I loved reading her understanding of this questionable matter. In high school, my love of fitness & food went too far, and I was constantly counting every single sliver of food I ate - I limited myself to no more than 1200 calories a day, sometimes only about 1000. This grew into an obsession that lasted for about 5 years. I wasn't taking in nearly enough calories for how much I was working out, and it hurt me more than it helped me. I felt more insecure, had less energy, and my body held on to every bit of food I allowed myself to eat rather than turn it into energy.

Last year, I started to be more lenient on how many calories I took in, but I still kept track due to the mental obsession I had. It gets so exhausting trying to keep track of everything you eat, food seriously ruled my day and would sometimes determine my mood if I ate well or "cheated." So many girls struggle with this, something as simple as counting calories. Up until this summer, I still tracked my calories on a daily basis. Katie summed up why keeping a running total of calories isn't healthy, and can really do the reverse of what you're wanting to accomplish. Now, don't get me wrong, but counting calories in the beginning of a weight loss / fitness journey is a different story. People embarking on a new health lifestyle should get comfortable with reading labels and being conscious of how many calories they are in-taking, but after a month or two of doing so it's time to listen to your body.

Here's Katie's reasoning:

So, although I am aware of what I am eating, I don’t keep a running total of calories for the day on paper, or in general. Here are a few reasons why I don’t count calories:

1. Eating with friends and family can get tricky if you are always counting calories. In general, if you don’t know what was put in the food, this can lead to anxiety… Or even a ‘bingeing’ mentality, when you throw all ‘care’ out the window because you don’t know what to write down. Instead, when I am at a get-together, I try to pick the healthiest choices that I see and make it my goal to focus more on enjoying the people I’m with rather than on the food…(after all that is really what life is all about isn’t it!?!)  And if I do pick a dessert, or something that I know isn’t so healthy, then I stick to one portion, and really spend time enjoying each bite (or I share it)!

2. If you count calories, you can actually over eat! Here’s what I mean… If you count calories, then chances are you will feel like you need to finish every single bite, even if you are truly full, in an effort to track the calories properly! This is a bit crazy if you think about it, because God really did put a ‘full’ signal inside each one of us for a reason! When I was first learning to pay attention to my body, I would take a few bites, put my fork down, and really pay attention to how I felt. Then, when I felt like my stomach was satisfied, I stopped, and saved the rest for later. Sure, it was tough to do this at first, and it does take practice (and prayer) in the beginning, but eventually you will be so in tune with your body, you won’t even have to think twice about it!

3. It can lead to bingeing. For me personally, counting calories led to binges when I let myself have ‘a day off’ of counting. This was most likely because I felt like I had to use my ‘freedom’ to it’s fullest  by eating whatever came across my path. Again, this is not entirely logical if you think about it, because there will always be another chance to eat any certain type of food again. However, on the days that I wasn’t counting calories, I felt as though I had to eat everything like it was my last chance to eat, knowing that the very next day I was going to be back to ‘tracking’.

Every point she made was definitely me in a nutshell for the past few years. Mentally, all of this can work you over and is honestly exhausting. Since starting Crossfit, I haven't felt the need to count calories at all. I know that I am working out enough to coincide with my caloric intake. I want to be healthier, I want to get stronger, and I want to treat my body the best that I can. Not allowing myself more than 1200 calories isn't the way to do it. In August, Crossfit is kicking of their Paleo challenge and I am super excited about it. It is a 30 day challenge to eat only whole foods (absolutely nothing processed), and it will be based on a point system. You calculate points from doing a fitness test at the beginning and end, eating healthy whole foods, drinking more water, etc - not how much weight or inches you lose. 

For anyone out there counting calories that truly does not need to, I encourage you to give it up for one week. Yes, just one week. Listen to your body - eat until you're satisfied, not stuffed. Your body will naturally send you cues to eat, and when to stop eating at a meal. Trust me, you will feel SO much better and such a feeling of freedom if you just give it up. I've had to take little steps - not counting for a few days, then a week, and so on. It's not one "end all" and I realize that. Let's do this together and live healthier happier lives!

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. {Romans 12: 1-2}

Favorite Moments of the Week

It's only Wednesday, I may be getting a little ahead of myself but this week has already been too good to me! What better way to celebrate the not-necessarily-over week than to share a few fun moments that have already made my week! I'll run in reverse and start this list of fav's on Friday night.

1.) Date night with Bray

Braden and I love heading to Greenville for date nights - think about it, you can have dinner, dessert, and entertainment all in one place! Plus we've had so many run-ins with incredibly nice people downtown, so it just makes for a great date place. On Friday we headed to Tako Sushi, one of our favs, and we sat at the end of the bar where we could see the sushi chefs working their magic! We started off with the Pork Pot stickers which were incredibly good! I ordered the Cucumber Salad Roll, Bray ordered the Seared Tilapia Takos, so naturally we shared to get a little taste of southwestern and sushi.

Crab, fresh shrimp, tomato, asparagus, and avocado rolled in cucumber and topped with wasabi vinaigrette!

After dinner we strolled around downtown for a little while and then headed to a new froyo place called Yogurtini. Oh my deliciousness, I'm pretty sure we tried every single flavor and then had the hardest time deciding which ones we wanted! We went with a cappuccino, cake batter, peanut butter, and red velvet cake concoction topped with a random assortment of yummy fruits and candy.

2.) Lake Day with the Nichols Fam.

Saturday we headed to the lake with the Nichols clan. We spent the day cruising and swimming, and eventually went and met up with a few of his parents friends. The afternoon quickly turned into wake surfing lessons for everyone, including the little ones!

If that's not the cutest thing you've ever seen then I don't know what is!

3.) Afternoon Rain Artsy-ness

We've been getting a lot of rain the past two weeks, which I'm not a huge fan of because it makes me want to stay in bed all day watching movies. However, the rain has made for some beautiful rainbows on a daily basis. Aside from the mountains and sunsets, I think rainbows are one of the most magnificent showings of God's beauty!

Even Bray got in on the action and sent me this super artsy photo - which makes me extremely proud :)

4.) CrossFit at Home

This week CrossFit was closed on Tuesday so Braden, Elliot, Alex and I decided that we wouldn't let that keep us from getting in a good work out. We (as in Elliot) came up with the idea to have a hill sprinting workout on the dikes, which initially sounded like a great idea. We came up with a workout of 4 rounds: 10 push ups, sprint up the hill, 10 burpees, back down the hill. Yes, it was as intense as it sounds! Alex and I modified a little and did 10 below-parallel squats in place of burpees, we felt it was necessary to still be able to breathe :)

I felt these socks were necessary, haha

Pre-workout agility

Everything about that picture cracks me up. Bray's just straight chilling, while Alex does a cartwheel warm-up. I guess everyone has their own methods of stretching and warming up prior to a workout, haha!

5.) She-Crab Sweetness

I had a surprise visitor at work today. Yep you guessed it, Braden showed up with she-crab soup from JPeters in hand. He knows me so well, and knows exactly how to make my day with one of my all time favorite soups! I mean really, how'd I get so lucky?!

 Tonight little Alex is coming to CrossFit with me for a trial run, but I already know she's going to love it! After our workout, Bray and Elliot are going to make all of us dinner, while Alex and I make a summer peach pie for Braden's family reunion this weekend. A post will be coming soon on the pie making method and on all of the fun family reunion festivities!

Until then, I hope everyone has a fabulous week - smile because we're halfway to the weekend!

Oh My Soreness

As I mentioned in my last post, I started working out at a CrossFit gym yesterday. Oh.. my.. goodness.. I'm hooked! Okay so here's my 5 minute rave about the place..

When I was on my way to the gym after work I've got to admit I was a little nervous, especially since I was going to a new place by myself. To my surprise everyone there was incredibly welcoming, I met so many people that I can hardly remember most of their names. I felt like I belonged almost immediately, it reminds me so much of my gym back at home where I worked last summer.

Our warm up was a 200 meter run, 10 squats, 10 push ups three times. I wouldn't necessarily call that a warm up because I was pretty breathless after it haha. Then one of the trainers went through each exercise to show us proper form. I am thankful that he took the time to show us step by step because CrossFit uses typical exercises, but they're turned up a notch. After our warm up everyone circles up and a trainer prays for us which I thought was awesome, yet another reason it reminds me of the Bodyshop. It's so cool to see how God can be worshiped in such a multitude of ways!

The actual work out was 100 sumo squat high pulls, 75 thrusters, and 50 pull ups for time. Since I was deemed as a "newbie" I was assigned level 1 of the workout. (50-25-15). I finished the workout in 6:28, and I literally said "am I seriously done?!" It's so fast and so intense that you literally have no time to think about what you're doing, but trust me, your body lets you know about 5 minutes later that it's going to be extremely sore!

I felt extremely accomplished, plus I loved how encouraging everyone was there. Everyone working out or hanging out cheer you on the entire way through the workout, which keeps you pushing harder. I think the guys who work there were a little surprised that I could hang in there as a "newbie," but it was great hearing that I did a great job and that I was a little underestimated! I have officially signed up for a month, but I'm sure I won't stop there. I'm excited to see how my body transforms and to accomplish things I never thought possible.

Okay.. I admit that was probably more than a 5 minute rave, but really, I can't say enough good things about his place!

I saw this beautiful rainbow on the drive home!

After working out I headed over to Emily's to make dinner before the Bachelorette. We made Parmesan crusted chicken with a zucchini pasta marinara, a Dashing Dish classic. It was seriously DELICIOUS! I was incredibly surprised at how flavorful it was.

Mmm delicousness!

We finished off dinner with some strawberry froyo that Emily bought from the grocery store, it was the perfect way to end such a savory meal. The girls showed up right at 8 for the Bachelorette and we had so much fun commentating, that show is so ridiculous but so addicting at the same time. Might I add that my boy Sean is still in the running!

This afternoon I'm going for a run and then to CrossFit's foundations class. Then Bray and I will be going to his grandparents to celebrate his grandpa's birthday. I can't wait to celebrate him!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday :)

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a great refresher. Friday consisted of planning for the next day, a full day on Lake Jocassee. We had to run around town to get things ready (food, gas, etc), which took a little longer than I had expected. I have never realized how much work goes into preparing for a lake day, major props to my boy who makes it happen! After all of the running around I made enchiladas for the first time, which were surprisingly good! After dinner Braden and I set off on a post-dinner walk to enjoy the weather, which turned into a 3 mile trek.

The sky was absolutely beautiful during our walk, and Bray made a point to pick every pretty flower we passed by! By the end I had a pretty little bouquet, he's quite the keeper :)

We've been on a big movie kick, so we thought we'd give "Like Crazy" a try.. I was so excited about this movie, only to find it highly disappointing. We turned it off after about 20 minutes of confusion and having no idea what's going on. I'd give this one a big bad movie rating.. sad day!

Saturday morning Braden, Elliot, Drew, and myself packed up the car and headed to the lake. I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably be spending lots of time with these 3, but what can I say, they're all great to have around! We spent the day cruising, wake surfing, and the boys climbed up rock walls. It was a pretty perfect day despite our few minor setbacks with boat mishaps.

Yesterday we went to Grace and then to Braden's parents for lunch. Overall a very laid back day with a little grocery shopping thrown in. Now it's the start of the work week, and I'm counting down the minutes until it's the weekend! We'll be attending our fourth wedding of the summer, with 3 more still to go, geez louise wedding season is definitely in full swing! I'm loving it though, I mean really, what girl doesn't?!

Oh side note: I'll be starting my first day at CrossFit today! I'm super pumped, nervous, excited, anxious, you name it I'm feelin' it! I've gotten so run down and bored with my normal weekly workouts (MWF strength and sprints, TTH cardio and stretching) I need something to push me harder and keep me entertained. I'm signing up for a month, so we'll see how this goes!

Tonight I'm making dinner with the lovely Emily, and then watching the Bachelorette with some wonderful ladies. I always look forward to Monday's because I know this time with these girls is always right around the corner. Plus I'm mildly obsessed with watching the guys on the show make fools of them self, but I must say I'm team Sean and I'm not ashamed to say it, haha!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Grapefruit goodness

I'm currently on a grapefruit kick - and I'm talking a breakfast, lunch, and dinner kick haha. I have a new favorite food at least every month! I figured since I'm eating so much of this tangy goodness, that I might as well see what the health benefits are. 

What I've found is that the power fruit has a high water content which an increased amount of water consumption can help increase metabolism.  It's a rich source of Vitamin C.  Grapefruit is rich in lycopene (the red color pigment) which helps to prevent the occurance of a tumor or cancer.  Grapefruit helps in cases of gallstones, colds, Pneumonia, and fever. The list goes on and on and on.

Needless to say, I'm totally okay with continuing this little grapefruit eating cycle I have going.  After looking at the benefits - how could you not want to grab a grapefruit and a spoon and have a yummy snack?!

Work those muscles

This is an email I got from my boss at the gym and I thought I'd pass it along!

I got to thinking the other day how the body is so much like life and our Christian walk. Question...How to you get bigger muscles? Working out right?  NO-

From the physical side, what makes the muscle grow is the phase you go through after the workout.

When you break down the actual muscle fiber or a workload is placed on it, or stress it placed upon it. It depends on how much it breaks down, by how much stress is placed on it.

I love working out and sometimes I overdo it a little.

You see, the muscle doesn’t grow, until it is fed and recovers. then over time the continual breakdown and rebuilding of the muscle, makes it grow. And the longer you do this, the stronger you get.

I feel that life is the same way.

The troubles and "stresses" of life have a strange way of helping us find how much courage we really have.

You know when the chips are down and life comes unfair to you, when people are hitting you from all different angles right?

These are the stresses of life that either make you or break you.   Because just like the biceps, if you don’t feed them and recover properly, they will never grow.

The bible says,

Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-4

So just like the physical muscles, we have to feed our spirit with a proper diet of prayer and scripture reading to make it recover properly.  We also have to "rest".  God said, "be still and KNOW that I am God. That is when you will find true rest.

So stress is a good thing physically and spiritually. But dont forget to take rest days in between your stresses. However, too much rest will just make your muscles atrophy (diminish).  So get busy today with your physical and spiritual exercise.  Because if we aren't growing, we are only wasting away!