Category Archives: Food for Thought

Lovin’ Oatmeal & Chilly Run

Food for Thought, Workouts, , ,

I don’t know what it is about my tummy this week, but I have been cravin’ and lovin’ oatmeal everyday! I’ve always liked oatmeal (and make it often), but this week it’s been my breakfast everyday. Something about how the warm oats fill up my hungry belly makes me feel so cozy and ready to take on my day! So this morning’s food obviously followed suit.

Breakfast

Blueberries and oatmeal and Greek yogurt, oh my! It was delicious and filling as always. Plus I was excited to find a plain vanilla Greek yogurt in my fridge this morning so I could mix in my remaining blueberries. I love to eat blueberries plain, but when I’m having coffee with my breakfast, this is never okay to do. Plain blueberries + hot coffee = YUCK! If you’ve never tried it, just don’t. It’s terrible. So I had yet another blueberry-filled breakfast but mixing them into my oats and then into my yogurt as well. All yummy!

photo(33)Workout

I woke up a little later than usual when I’m wanting to complete a morning workout because I knew I only wanted to run outside this morning as practice for my 5K coming up in less than 2 weeks! I woke up at 5:40 and rolled out of bed and into my running gear. Mac was wide awake but had to stay home since he can’t run farther than 1.2 miles without me dragging him. We’ll just blame it on his extra short legs. 🙂

It was still dark when I headed out, but my RunKeeper app kept me company and provided a little light on the dark streets. My extra motivation this morning?? It was COLD when I set out! I had on a tank knowing that I would be hot by the time I got to mile 2. But I was wishing I had on a little more clothing! It was pretty glorious to run in the cool morning. It felt like Fall might actually be upon us very soon. If only the whole day would stay that cool…haha. Forecasted high of 86 degrees today here in Springfield-land. Oh well…

I completed 3.5 miles in 31m 15s which is an average pace of 8:55 per mile. Yay me! For a girl that has NEVER been a runner and struggles through just about every run I complete, this is a great time. Especially when I’m running alone in the dark at 6 AM. After this, I think it’s safe to say I’ll hopefully breeze through the Glow Run on the 14th. Let’s hope my girlfriend that I’m running with is ready too! We’re gonna rock it! In our best neon running attire, that is. 🙂

Hope your Thursday is off to a great start. We’re almost to the weekend already!

Teaching Body Sculpting

Food for Thought, Jazzercise

Wednesdays are usually my days off from teaching Jazzercise, but tonight was a little different as I was asked to sub for a fellow instructor who is on her honeymoon! I’m very jealous as they are somewhere warm and tropical, and I’m stuck here in SW Missouri waiting for Fall to arrive. Anyways, the 6:45 class on Wednesday evenings at our center is a Body Sculpting class. It’s a Jazzercise class format that focuses on building and strengthening muscles with a 40 minute set of strength training routines.

It’s a completely normal and widely used class format in Jazzercise centers – it’s just something I’ve never taught before! So last night I was frantically searching through all my Jazzercise materials to make sure I didn’t fudge this thing up. The outcome? It was super fun and challenging to do something new for a change!

Typical classes are around 40 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of the strength training songs. So basically, I cut out the cardio and just about triple the strength training requirements, and voila! You get one awesome muscle toning session.

I arrived home sweaty and exhausted. This little lady is gonna be sore tomorrow!

Lunch

Lunch today was extra quick and half of it was eaten in the car on the way back to work. (I was busy finishing up my bodysculpting music set!) I threw together a salad with romaine lettuce, snap peas, and some more sweet peppers!

photo(29)Those sweet little babies are also getting ready to go bad, so I need to eat them up quick! Still crisp and delicious as of today 🙂  And I had some cottage cheese with a spoonful of mango salsa mixed in for a little extra flavor. After inhaling this, I quickly walked King Mac who couldn’t seem to quit crying for my food! Whiny and annoying as always during meals…

picstitchI made a quick turkey and mustard sandwich on wheat to finish off my lunch. This was eaten as I was driving back to work, and therefore, it is not pictured. There are crumbs all over my drivers seat now as proof though!

Dinner

Dinner needed to be substantial tonight after 2 workouts and a faster-than-normal lunch.

I downed some yogurt as soon as I walked in the door along with a banana. I literally inhaled this stuff so fast that I couldn’t snap a picture! I then hopped in the shower and thought about what else I wanted….decisions, decisions.

photo(22)I decided to keep it carb free and go for some steamed broccoli and cauliflower and ham! The mix of warm veggies and ham definitely hit the spot. And I now have leftover steamed veggies for lunch tomorrow. Win!

And now Nick, Mac, and I are lounging on the couch getting ready for a new Duck Dynasty! Wednesdays really are the best weekdays when there is a new Duck Dynasty to be watched 🙂 I love me some silly rednecks!

Have a great night!

Family, Friends, & Jazzercise

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, Jazzercise

Priorities play a big role in our everyday life. Today, I made it a priority to get to work on time, to walk my dog, to say I love you to Nicholas…the list could go on and on. And thinking of your own priorities, you could probably get very profound and serious or keep it on a lighter note and say you made it a priority do something like eat a bowl of yummy ice cream. 🙂

These thoughts come rushing into my mind tonight after I received an email from my Jazzercise center’s owner that one of my fellow instructor’s mother-in-laws passed away today. She concluded her email to our center’s owner (which was forwarded) saying that she would teach tomorrow morning at 5:40 AM and would teach her classes the rest of the week. She just wanted us to know what was going on. Talk about making Jazzercise a priority!

But the point of this is that we need to fill our lives with things that we love so much that we strive to make it a priority each and everyday. Yes, sometimes life makes it difficult to get to the gym or to eat a healthy dinner. It’s probably not going to be the easy route for Nancy to come teach her classes the rest of this week with this burden weighing on her family and husband. But she’s made a commitment to her students and is keeping her workout a priority even through tough times. And if you think about it, during hard times such as a death, a great workout will do a body a lot of good! Endorphins are our friends!

What are you going to make a priority tomorrow and the rest of week? I think I personally am going to make it a priority to keep a positive attitude during my workday and to eat as many veggies as possible at each meal!

So let’s back up through the day…

Lunch

Lunch was mildly disappointing, but I didn’t have time to waste!

picstitchMy fresh cucumbers were yummm. And my Lean Cuisine? Was not so yum. It was steak tips and mushrooms. Not super awesome, but it did fill me up which was a win.

Dinner

Dinner was veggie filled and light! After my weekend of eating too much, I wanted to keep today light to set me back on track. Plus I had a fun and energetic Jazzercise class, which always seems to suppress my crazy appetite for a bit. These Green Giant veggies were absolutely amazing!

photo(19)I ate the entire box (2 servings for 100 cal total) along with some tuna and mustard.

photo(20) photo(21)Yes, I’m a little weird and LOVE tuna. I could possibly eat it everyday. Plus it’s a great protein!

I hope you all have had a great day! Get some rest and we’ll see ya in the morning!