Back in Action

Welcome back! It's been a week since I've been on vacation at Bonnaroo in Tennessee and sadly I'm back to the real world.  It literally was a real vacation. No working out or running. No serious healthy eating. Lots of sunshine and music and good people.  It was relaxing and fun.

I saw Paul McCartney play for 3 hours (!!!),the Lumineers, Django Django, The xx, David Byrne and St. Vincent, and so many other amazing musicians.  The weather was pretty great until Sunday evening when it got stormy.

A couple mornings I went to a Roo vinyasa yoga session, and it was so wonderful to stretch out my body in the sunshine with a bunch of other yogis.  I actually spent a lot of the day walking around so even though I ate pizza and beer and a funnel cake the size of my face, I still fit into my clothes guys, don't worry.  Taking time off from anything can be rejuvenating. I'd been feeling kind of in a rut lately where I didn't see much fitness progress and was just going through the motions.  Now I'm ready to take on the week (well what's left) and get ready for the Baltimore Women's Classic 5K this Sunday!

Road Trip Healthy Snacking

Guess what everybody, I'll be away on a mini vacation again from blogging because-I'm going to BONNAROO!  

I'm super excited to live like a hippie and see acts such as The Lumineers, Paul McCartney, Passion Pit, Macklemore, and Grizzly Bear (and a ton others but I'm not going to list them all for you because that would be boring)!

The past two days have been filled with packing everything I'll need for a 4 day camping trip including some healthy snacks. I know I'm definitely going to indulge in the food vendors they have there and many adult beverages with not so much exercising.  I wanted to pack some healthy snacks to grab for the car ride and to keep on me during the day so I'm not eating french fries for every meal :)

Here's some things I've packed that are great for roadtrips, vacations, camping, or music festivals!

1. Easy Grab and Go Snacks:
-fruit: bag of apples, bananas, and other handheld fruit such as peaches
-trail mix or nuts (I love the 100 calorie packs of cocoa roasted almonds!)
-baby carrots and celery (goes great with hummus!)

Importance of Catching Zzzs

I had another one of those weekends where I'm just going going going and feeling exhausted when I wake up. I took about 6 naps this past weekend and still feel drained.  After my  vacation (Bonnaroo!!!)  through the end of this week I'm going to work on getting better sleep. I was going to post something else but decided that this was something important to discuss after I realized yet again I was exhausted this morning.  

 On my run on Sunday I felt crappy which is mostly due to the fact that I was just exhausted combined with the heat and humidity.  That's not going to cut it when I start marathon training in a week!

A 2006 Harvard Study found that chronic sleep loss majorly affects our health in a negative way. I am usually getting from around 4-6 hours of sleep lately.  Apparently most people sleep less than 6 hours a night, which can lead to weight gain, higher blood pressure, and suppressed immune system.  Mostly people need at least 7.5-8.5  hours of sleep (and I know I do!).  During sleep the brain is committing new information to memory which is clearly important.  Constantly being sleep deprived also causes weight gain due to altering appetite-affecting hormone levels.  Another obvious effect of sleep deprivation is that my mood is definitely more irritable and less focused.  

MIMM #2 6/10/13

Hello! It's been another crazy weekend so sorry for the lack of updates. Here's what's Marvelous in my Monday!

Marvelous is leaving work early on Friday to go to a wedding.

Marvelous is these healthy donuts from Blogilates which are not loaded with sugar.  The batch I made yesterday is already gone. Whoops.

Not so marvelous is being exhausted today after a weekend of getting up early and then napping.

Happy National Running Day 2013!

If you haven't heard, today is national running day! 

I really became a runner (who runs races and all that jazz) a little less than two years ago. It's crazy to think it has not been longer because of how big a part of my life it is. It has become the ultimate stress reliever and way for me to meditate. I'm thankful for all the people I've met and the running community in general for being so wonderful! 

Here are some fun ways to celebrate: 

1. Go for a run! Duh! Maybe try leaving your watch, HRM, and Ipod at home and just run for fun!

MIMM #1 6/3/13

Life has been CRAZY lately so I missed my Friday Favorites posting this week, sorry! To make up for it I'm going to do my first ever Marvelous in my Monday post for you guys to catch you up on something things I was loving this weekend!

All weekend I've been running on not as much sleep and have been a hungry monster so I've been trying to up my protein intake.  I was sent some Ripped Cream coffee creamer to try out and LOVE it It's a high-protein, all natural AND gluten free coffee creamer which also contains vitamin D3 and 11 amino acids. I usually am a black coffee or splash of almond milk lady, so getting some extra protein in the morning was great! Each serving has as much protein as an egg (5g per 2 tablespoon serving) and less than 10g of sugar.  I'm sure your favorite flavor of CoffeeMate has more sugar and less protein than that!

Thoughts of Giving Up-Crossfit is Hard

Everybody goes through cycles in life and that includes ruts. I've been consciously trying to remove negativity and things that bring that into my life out the past year.  My biggest enemy is doubt. "I don't think I can" and "I'm not good enough"  are the worst demons I have in my head (which never seems to shut up).  Yesterday was one of those days where I just could not shake them.

I've been trying to get on a sleep, workout, life schedule the past couple of weeks and failing. I can't seem to make it to bed early enough, get up in the morning to workout so it's done for the day, or get things done off my long to-do list. I haven't even blogged much. I don't want to tell everyone that no, I'm not doing 2 a day workouts like you, or seeing ab progress, or eating 100% clean, or rocking my workouts, or getting enough sleep. 

Then yesterday I went to crossfit after having a couple of weeks of only making it 2x a week and going on vacation. We were trying the rope climb for the strength WOD.  I could barely get my initial stance on the rope let alone actually climb it. Yes, I have never climbed a rope before so I didn't know what to expect.  Still, I looked at all these other strong girls, most who could at least get up the rope a little bit and some who could climb the whole things.  

They had strong muscles and backs and toned bodies and could do the WODs Rx.  Then for our WOD there were deadlifts and burpees over the bar.  I did my deadlift with 90 lb (Rx was 100) which was challenging for me.  Multiple times the coach had to tell me to watch my back position and eventually on the last set come over and help me fix it. 

Friday Favorites 5/24/13

Hello all! This week has been so stressful and messy since I came back from vacation mid-week so I've been all off track.  Here's a just a few Friday Favorites to hold you over until I get myself together :)

1. Favorite Workout Song- Default by Django Django

I am OBSESSED with this song. It's catchy and upbeat and will have you bopping your head to it in no time. I'm hoping to catch Django Django when I'm down at Bonnaroo in a couple of weeks!

2. Favorite Recipe to Try this Weekend- Chocolate Chip Cherry Garcia Frozen Yogurt from Chocolate Covered Katie

Recipe is here on the CCK site!

I am a big fan of Chocolate Covered Katie's recipes because most of them are sweets and all of them are healthier versions, with many being gluten free or vegan! I just saw this recipe for chocolate chip cherry garcia frozen yogurt on her blog and am swooning. The Ben and Jerry's version of this flavor is probably my favorite (unless I'm having a massive chocolate craving!) so I'm excited to see a lower calorie version.  A long weekend will be the perfect time to break out the ice cream maker and make a cool treat!