New Shoes (Eeee!) + A Leave of Absence

On the way home from the gym yesterday I stopped at my favorite store in the world….Nordstrom Rack!  Over the years I have found so many awesome, high quality, CHEAP things there that I love!

Woo hoo.

Well…..I will let you in on a little secret.

Maybe I’ll regret putting it out there.  But, because I love you all I will tell you!

Nordstrom Rack is the best place ever to buy running shoes!!

Love it!

Kev and I have bought several pairs there.  They always have a great selection of high quality running shoes and have GREAT deals!

So, this is what I found yesterday….

Asics Kayano 17

So cute! Love them!

Eeeee!  I feel like a little kid at Christmas!  Oh, and the best part is they retailed for $139 and I got them for $79!

How ’bout them apples???

Kev and I both really love Asics.  They have always been great running shoes for us.  However, you just gotta find what works for YOU.  My bro-in-law always wears Saucony and my sis loves Nike.  Whatever works.

Oh, and if you aren’t a mega runner or are just getting into running, Nordstrom Rack has a lot of cheaper options too.  I found several pairs of Asics that were in the $40-$50 range (regularly priced about $80 or so).

And….if you don’t live by a Nordstrom Rack, I also found my exact same running shoes online at 6pm.com.  They are $84 (free shipping!) there.  I really love 6pm too.  Love a good deal!

So there’s my little secret.

Happy shopping….and happy running!

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This morning I was going to go on a 3 mile run with my 8 year old son.  Sooo, I woke him up and he said he was just too tired. 😦  However, a little while later he came down and said, “Let’s go!”  So, we both scrambled to get ready to go, but we didn’t have a lot of time.  We only ran a mile and a half and then I had to get home to get the kids off to school.

Very lame, but I’m still glad we went!  So, we plan to run again after he gets home from school.  Pain in the bum….but fun.

This is what I had for breakfast this morning!!!

CHOCOLATE Protein Pancakes topped with almond butter, fruit and a little agave. Served with a side of 3 egg whites seasoned with Mrs. Dash and topped with low sugar ketchup! YUM!

I love love love Protein Pancakes!  I’m sorry to say I’m not ready to put the recipe on here yet.  I’m still tweakin’ it a bit.  It’s almost there…..when I finally get it right I will share it with y’all (of course!)  In the meantime, you can enjoy the other Protein Pancake recipe I put on here.  I love them too!

This breakfast tastes more like a treat, but it’s good for you!!!  Love it!

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Finally, on a sad note….I am going to take a short leave of absence for a bit.

Here’s my deal….I’m in the process of moving my blog.  I love WordPress.com, but it is very limited with what I can and cannot do.  Sooooo, I’m moving to WordPress.org and it is a royal pain.

I’m building a lot of the site myself and learning as I go.  Makes for a fun deal.

As you can imagine, I’m having a hard time finding the time to build my new blog and keep this one updated!  Auuughh!  Sooooo, I’m going to take a brief “leave of absence” from this one while I finish the new one!!!

However, when my new blog is finished, I hope you will all love it!  I’m going to update all my recipes and make it easier to navigate.  I also want to update my exercise section too.  It will be great!

Sooooo, until then I will miss you all!

Stay healthy and happy….mmmm k?

I’m a Price Matcher. Woo Hoo!

So…….when I’m feeling ambitious, I love to sit down with my stack of circulars from all the local grocery stores and make a list of all the things I want.  Then I go over to good ‘ol Walmart and Price Match.

Yes, I’m a bargain shopper! 🙂

I try not to do too many at a time though because I know it’s a little obnoxious.  But, hey it’s also pretty awesome too. 😉

Here I am pretty proud of my 5 dozen eggs for $5.89 (usually $9.50ish.)  Woo Hoo.

Excuse my psychopathic smile. It’s been a long day and I was beat!

Once in a while I buy the Omega 3 eggs or free range eggs, but most of the time I just buy good ‘ol regular eggs.  I eat a bazillion of them and since I’m raising 5 kids, I gotta pick and choose the food items I want to spend more on.

Eggs didn’t make the list. 😦

I’ve heard that Omega 3 eggs are pretty dang awesome though, so if you wanna splurge, it’s probably worth it.

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We’ve had a busy, busy day.  I went to a 7:00 AM cardio class with my friend.  This class is INSANE.  I kind of have a love/hate relationship with it.  It’s ALL OUT cardio for an hour!  Sprints, tuck jumps, burpees, jump squats, jump ropes, etc…..with NO BREAKS.  It’s really crazy.

When the class was over, my friend and I looked at each other and said, “Ya, that kind of…..sucked.”  I know it’s so good for me though, so I keep on going.

After my class, I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon at a dance competition for my daughter.  It was fun, but made for a VERY LONG day, especially since we were trying to keep an (almost) 2 year old and an (almost) 4 year old entertained the whole time.  Joy.

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Here’s a couple dinners we’ve had the past couple nights…

Tacos!

I love tacos!  They are a staple in our home.  Actually they aren’t my favorite, but all my kids LOVE them and Kev LOVES them too.  They also take me about 10 minutes to make and I can make them healthy.  So, I LOVE them!  I just had one taco on a low-carb tortilla.  Fat free refried beans, taco meat, cottage cheese, a little shredded cheddar, lettuce and salsa!  It was pretty yummy.

Protein pancakes and eggs!

Last night, I made whole wheat waffles and eggs for the kids and I pulled out a couple protein pancakes I had in the freezer for me.  Love it.  Easy, no nonsense and my kids love them.

I really love these protein pancakes.  They aren’t as light and fluffy as regular pancakes, but they are really good.  It kind of reminded me of strawberry shortcake!  I topped them with almond butter, strawberries and a little agave.  I finished up the scrambled eggs I made and topped them with low sugar ketchup.  I was stuffed and this felt indulgent.  The perfect Friday night dinner.

Well, I hope you are all having a great weekend!!!  Til next time!

Weekend Recap

Well, I have a whole lotta random things to share on here.  It’s been a few days since I’ve posted, so bear with me.

First off, I felt terrible on Friday.  I had been a slacker sleeper and was really dragging all day.  I worried I was getting sick or coming down with a cold or something.  It was a bummer.  So, I decided to forgo my run and just chill :-(.

That night I was a little concerned because I really really wanted to go to my cardio class at the gym Saturday morning, but didn’t know if I could hack it.  Soooooo, I took a Melatonin (a very safe, natural sleep promoting pill) and decided to go to bed early.  If you want to know more about Melatonin, click here.  It really helps me because sometimes at night I get a little hyper (imagine that!) and my mind has a hard time calming down.  I kind of get a second wind, end up staying up too late and regretting it in morning.  So, Melatonin is my “chill pill.”

When my alarm went off at 6:15 AM (early for me!), I felt GREAT!  I had so much energy and felt so refreshed!  Just another reminder to me that I NEED SLEEP!!!  It’s amazing how much more productive, happy and energized I feel when I get adequate sleep!

Before I left for the gym, I ate two of my little Peanut Butter Protein Balls.

They were awesome (tastes kind of like “legal” peanut butter cups!) and they gave me just the energy I needed!

When I got home, I made the kids pancakes with all the fixin’s and I made Kev and I some Protein Pancakes (love them!)

I topped mine with a little fruit, agave and almond butter.  YUM!  The fruity one reminded me of Strawberry Shortcake.  It was the bomb.

After I cleaned up breakfast and things, I decided to go on a run (since I missed my run on Friday).  It felt so good!  The weather was perfect, although it was a little windy.  In fact, I started out wearing my hooded running jacket (hood on) and halfway through, I took it off and finished my run wearing a tank top!!!  In January!  Crazy.  It felt great though. 

Also, since I’m not training for a race or anything, I just let myself run as fast or as slow as I wanted to.  It was nice.  I ended up running 4.2 miles (8:25 pace) and felt great!  Yay!

I gotta tell ya, one of my favorite things about running is listening to music!!  Love it!  I’m a huge music lover and it is so motivating to me when I exercise.  I like songs that have a good beat, but I LOVE songs that have a great, motivational message as well.

While I was running, the song “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi (love him!) came on my iPod.  I actually started to belt it out and sing along (yes, I tend to do that sometimes and forget I have headphones on!)  Anyway, I love the message of that song and it really made me think.  Here’s the lyrics from the chorus….

It’s my life
It’s now or never
I ain’t gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I’m alive
It’s my life

And here’s the video if you care to listen….

LOVE IT!  It just made me want to take control of my life and make it what I want it to be!  It made me want to work harder, love more, be more disciplined and stop making excuses!   Oh, and it made me run faster too! 😉  I love music and am so grateful for the affect it has on me.

Anyway, it was a perfect Saturday morning, but it went a little downhill from there (starting with my post-run slice of Little Caesar’s Pizza!)  Hey, I needed the carbs after 2 workouts, right???  I didn’t eat terribly the rest of the day, I just lacked discipline!  Lame.

Anyway, on Sunday we went up to my parents house to have dinner with the fam.  It was nice.  My mom asked if I would bring dessert for everyone!!!  Really!!??  Mooooom!!???  So, I “took one for the team” and agreed to do it.  She actually asked me to make 2 desserts so we would have enough!

So, I first thought, “Fine, I’ll just make something I don’t really like.”  So I thought and thought…..and thought, and couldn’t come up with anything!  Very sad, I know.

My family’s a big fan of chocolate, so if it doesn’t have chocolate in it, it’s not dessert!  And, I love everything with chocolate, so I realized I had a problem.  I ended up making chocolate chip cookies and a yellow cake with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting.  Yum!

Here I am stressing.... (Oh, and the cake wasn't frosted yet so it looks a little funky.)

I’m sorry to say that I had to do some “taste testing” just to make sure it wasn’t “poisoned” and things.

Yes, I was a slacker.

I really just can’t have it in my house.  My willpower goes to zero.

It was a fun night though and it was fun to hang out with my lovely family.

I’m back “on” today and going strong.  I went to the gym tonight with my sister and it just about killed me.  I loved it!

Well, that my friends is my very random “Weekend Recap.”

Crazy.

I hope you are all healthy and happy!!!  xoxo

Protein Packed Pancakes!

Happy Day After Christmas!

I gotta say I think the day after Christmas is kind of depressing, but kind of relieving at the same time!

I’m sad it’s over, but HAPPY I can get on with life and have a little more free time!

Yay!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas BTW.

😉

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I had a great day today!

My sister came to my Bootcamp class at the gym with me tonight!

She lives 1/2 hour away from me, so it was fun to have her come!

It was a great workout, but the gym was pretty empty!

I loved it though.

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I also have a quick recipe I want to share with you all that I love!

I found it in an old copy of Oxygen Magazine (love that magazine, btw).

It’s in the December 2010 issue.

Just check out the AWESOME ingredients in these babies!
Nothing bad AT ALL and every ingredient is a health powerhouse!
Woo Hoo!

Here ya go…

Oxygen Magazine’s Pre-workout Pancakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (or I’m sure you could use any flavor)
3 egg whites
1/3 cup low-fat cottage cheese

Optional Toppings:
Agave Nectar
Honey
Sugar-free syrup
Almond/Peanut Butter
Nuts
Bananas
Berries
Whatever you like!

• Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.

 

• Refrigerate batter for 3 minutes while heating a pan over medium heat.
• Drop by spoonful to create 3 equal sized pancakes.
• When it starts to bubble gently flip and cook other side.

• Top with favorite toppings!
  I used Almond Butter, Agave, Sugar-free syrup and bananas!

 

• Eat and enjoy!
  These were really tasty!  Not your typical melt-in-your-mouth fluffy pancakes, but still yummy!  And considering how healthy they are, I think they are awesome!
  

Yum!

Nutritional Information (for 3 pancakes):

Calories: 380, Fat 6g, Cholesterol: 20mg, Sodium: 170mg, Total Carbohydrates: 35g, Sugars: 4g, Protein: 42g

Oh, and I thought 3 pancakes was a GIANT serving!  I could not finish all of them!  I think 2 would be perfect or even 1 as a pre-workout meal (even though they called these “pre-workout” pancakes, I think I would hurl if I ate all 3 before a workout!)

Next time I make these, I’m going to triple the recipe and freeze some.

Then when I need a quick meal or snack, I’ll throw one in the toaster!
I love simple, easy and convenient meals!

I hope you all enjoy them as much as I did!