Weekend Happiness

Things bringing me happiness this weekend:

1. Farmer’s market finds
We stopped by the farmer’s market on Saturday and not only did I find my new favorite lunch spot in Naples — a food truck called Organically Twisted (look at that deliciousness) — but I also found this adorable succulent. I can’t help but buy every succulent I see.
2. Sunshine & Trails.3. Saying “husband.”
Yep, I’m still in that newlywed-bliss phase where the word “husband” is really fun to say. I wanted to buy Cameron a Valentine from the husband section, but of course none of them were even slightly funny. So instead I went over to the romance section and found the perfect hilariously-inappropriate card. Baby steps.
4. A Kick Ass Valentine’s Day Workout.
Seriously…this workout kicked my butt in the best way possible. Try this with your husband/boyfriend/boy-toy/best friend:
Couple’s Workout:
Buy-in: 100 Wall Balls (switch every 25) and 1000m Row (switch every 250m)
One person works at a time, dividing these reps evenly however you choose:
100 total hang cleans (I did 85#, Cameron did 135#)
100 total box jumps
100 total push ups
Cash-out: 400m farmers carry (53# kettlebell) (Each person holding handle of KB)
Sounds adorable, right?

5. A Winning Wedding Present.
A bow might be a strange wedding present, but it was a huge hit.
6. Sunday Vibes.
Nothing better.

What made your weekend happy?

This Week’s Workouts + Gluten-free Banana Pancakes

Happy Monday!!! This weekend flew by but it was so fun to finally spend a weekend in Naples. When people tell me they live in Naples but don’t go to the beach, I get so confused. Why else would you live here!? I can’t get enough of this.

Here’s a look at this week’s workouts:

Monday  – Iron Tribe
A. 100 Double unders
40 Plate lunges (25#)
20 Kettlebell swings (I used 35#)
400m Run
20 KB swings
40 Plate lunges
100 Double unders
B. 3 rounds of:
50m Farmer’s walk each arm (I used 35#)
3×7 Second hanging L hold

I can officially do 30 double unders in a row! But once I get past that number they start getting reeeeally difficult to string together. Does anyone else catch yourself holding your breath during these? I’m guilty.

Tuesday: 5 mile Run

Wednesday: Iron Tribe
10 Min EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) of:
3 Hang cleans + 3 Burpees (I worked up to 115#)
*Build weight through the course of 10 sets
Rest 1 Min.
B. 8 Min AMRAP of the following:
5 Hang cleans (I used 95#)
10 Hand release push ups

Usually when I see EMOMs like this I go into it thinking it will be a good strength workout without much cardio. Well this one was both and was WAY harder than I anticipated. Getting in 3 heavy hang cleans, 3 burpees, AND switching your weight out in one minute means there is literally zero rest.

Thursday: Iron Tribe
For time:
400m Run
20 Deadlifts (I used 105#)
10 Pistols
400m Run
15 Deadlifts
10 Pistols
400m Run
10 Deadlifts
10 Pistols

I talked about my love for pistol squats on Friday, but this WOD was a good balance of my strengths and weaknesses. Deadlifts being my weakness. I can clean more than I can deadlift….not normal.

Friday: Hot Power Yoga @ BV Yoga
How many times do you attend a random yoga class and think “I need to do this more” but then don’t go back for another two months? This is the vicious cycle yoga & I play with each other. I’m considering getting a yoga package because I’m sick of lying to myself. If you pay money…you will show up. It works, people.

Saturday: Iron Tribe
3 Rounds of the following:
200m Run
20 Russian kettlebell swings (I used 26# for all of the movements)
20 1-Arm KB thrusters (10 each arm)
100m KB carry
10 KB goblet squats
10 Strict pull-ups
*Must use same kettlebell weight for all movements.
Becky joined me for this WOD and I was so happy to have her a workout buddy! This girl is running for two and is still REALLY fast! Don’t judge our sweatyness…it was very hot outside.

Sunday: Pancakes + Beach time
Ahhh…my two favorite things. We were having such a perfect beach day…and then Cameron got stung by a yellow jacket. His foot is super swollen, but it was still a really great day minus that incident. P.S. We found lots of coconuts!

Gluten-Free Banana Pancakes
I made these on Sunday morning (because Sundays don’t count unless you make pancakes) and deemed them share-worthy.
Served with bacon, because bacon makes everything even better.

*Makes about 10 pancakes
Ingredients:
1.5 cups almond flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup cream cheese (yep…the ingredient that makes them super delish)
2 tbs. melted butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 banana chopped in very small pieces

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients and mix until mostly smooth.
2. Fold in banana pieces.
3. Heat pan over medium heat and coat with coconut oil/non-stick spray.
4. Pour batter onto pan. Cook each pancake about 2-3 minutes before flipping. Cook other side for about 1 minute.
5. Top pancakes with maple syrup, almond butter, fruit…whatever you like!

 

Scenes from Thanksgiving

A hellacious Wednesday afternoon WOD. Cameron & I did this and then got in the car for the 4 hour drive to Orlando. Probably not our smartest idea.

Macaroon recovery for the win.

Orlando Turkey Trot time! This race is HUGE and so much fun.

Post-race happy baby stretch (obviously). And even though I’ve talked some smack, Cameron was the winner this year. We were neck and neck until the last straight away to the finish line. He is freakishly good at sprinting and I just couldn’t keep up. I’ll be back for him next year!

Our pretty table decor inspired by Williams-Sonoma. Yes, that is brussels in the middle.

Having fun with my favorite veg.

Delicious not-too-sweet pear cider. If you like cider, try this!

Making apple pie bites!!! YUM.

The stars of the show – a smoked turk and my cute momma!

Sistas ready to feast. After eating all this plus dessert – it was time to watch the best Christmas chick flick of all – Serendipity -followed by an early bedtime. We had a great Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for this year. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving relaxing with friends and family!

GRIZ IS BACK! + Weekly Workouts

You may have been wondering where the heck that dog has been that appears in some of the photos of this blog. Well, he was on a sabbatical in Birmingham, Alabama, livin’ it up with his grandparents, but HE’S BACK!!! (que the glamour shots from our engagement shoot…sorry but I love them.)

We went to Birmingham this weekend for our couple’s shower, and Griz flew back to Naples with us. I didn’t know what to expect since I’ve never flown with a dog before, but it was a piece of cake. He just sat by our feet in a carrier bag and didn’t make a peep! He wasn’t so sure about the airport though.

Everyone assumes Griz is mine because he’s not your typical “guy” dog, but Cameron actually got him before we were even dating.  Apparently, real men love little dogs. Here’s the first time I ever met Griz my junior year of college — he was just a puppy! Sorry for the low quality pic, I blame the iPhone 2g I was probably using.
This weekend was a good one…filled with wedding excitement, awesome people, some relatives I hadn’t seen in a while, and lots of good eats, of course. I’ve had my fair share of cake, cornbread and wine this weekend, so instead of dreading Monday, I’m welcoming it and ready to get back on the health bandwagon. P.S. why is wedding (shower?) cake so darn delicious?

I’m trying to get inspired to werk it this week, so here are last week’s workouts:

Monday: 5 Mile Run
These runs are slowly getting easier. I’ve been forcing myself to run slower than I ever thought possible for that first mile in order to get negative splits. I start running slow, and then challenge myself to run even slower. I’m essentially walking with a slight hop,  but my body loves to run really fast the first mile and then suffer through the next 4, so this is a work in progress.

Tuesday: Iron Tribe
16-14-12-10 Ring Rows + Ring Dips
16-14-12-10 Pistols
100 Double Unders (2:1 Singles)
Pistols are weirdly easy for me. I did 200 single unders though, because my double unders are inconsistent and 100 of them would make me super pissed off. Happiness and single unders for the win.

Wednesday: Iron Tribe
Buy in: 400m Overhead Medball Carry (14# ball)
10! (10, 9, 8,….rep scheme) of the following:
Push Press (I used 75#)
Knees to Elbows
Cash out: 400m Overhead Medball Carry (14# ball)

I did this workout extremely slow. In fact I think I was the slowest one. My shoulders were just over it by the time we were doing the cash out and they had no interest in carrying a medball overhead. So I stopped to rest, chat with people, and basically took my sweet time…and it was still hard!

Thursday: Iron Tribe
Every 90 seconds for 12 sets (18 min total)
6 Front Squats (I did 85#)
8 Box Jumps (20″)

Friday: 5 mile run

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday: Rest Day

Tell me about your weekly workouts — I need motivation!!

My First Bridal Shower + Weekly Workouts

This weekend was really exciting because it was my first bridal shower! I wasn’t sure how the whole shower thing would go because I don’t love having all the attention on me (surprising, I know, since apparently I share my life to the whole internet). BUT it was so much fun to be surrounded by friends and family and of course, eat delicious foods. The shower was back home in Orlando, and I hadn’t seen my parents/friends in 2 months so I loved being surrounded by girlfriends and family. I’ve been making big efforts recently to make new friends in Naples, but it’s so nice to be surrounded by people who already know and accept my weird sense of humor/personality.

My MOH/sister is an event planner, so she kind of rocks at the whole shower-throwing-thing. She just threw together these flowers herself and made that pumpkin-spiced naked cake that I’m obsessed with, NBD.




My favorite drink is a Moscow Mule so one of my friends got me tin cups and ginger beer!

As for workouts this week…do you ever have those weeks where your workouts completely exhaust you? That was last week for me. Looking back at my week of workouts, it’s not very surprising why. Going to Iron Tribe 4 days in a row is tough. I just thought every workout looked like torturous fun that I didn’t want to miss out on. I really need to tell them to make their programming less fun so I start getting more run days in for my quickly approaching race.

Monday
5 Kettlebell swings (35#)
10 Double unders
100m run
10 Kettlebell swings
20 Double unders
200m run
20 Kettlebell swings
40 Double unders (I started doing the scaled 3:1 singles at this point because double unders are my nemesis and for some reason I refuse to practice them)
400m run
40 Kettlebell swings
80 Double unders
800m run

Tuesday
Buy in: 1000m row
5 rounds of:
12 pull ups
6 power cleans (I did 85#)

Wednesday
10-8-6-4-2-4-6-8-10 of the following:
Overhead Squats (I did 65#)
Burpees

Accessory Work:
3 rounds (not for time) of:
100m farmers cary (I used a 35# kettlebell)
30sec handstand hold

Thursday:
4 rounds of:
10 Deadlifts (I did 110#)
100m Run
10 Wall balls (14#)
100m Run
10 Knees to elbows
100m Run
10 Hand release push ups
100m Run

I’ve been going lighter with deadlifts because it’s the lift that I struggle with most. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to get the form down just right. This is the workout that did me in and left me like this:

Friday
Rest day because see above photo.

Saturday
Run
I didn’t use a GPS tracker to see how far I went, I just ran and enjoyed looking at my hometown. I think I covered somewhere between 4 – 5 miles.

This is my favorite spot in Winter Park — it’s a brick street and the houses have water in both their front and backyards. Fun fact: Carrot Top lives on this street and yes, his house is orange.

I grabbed drinks with my dad & stepmom, and my dad really wanted to be on the blog and he also took his first selfie ever, so I think this is a pretty monumental moment. PS I took this with my dad’s iPhone6 and I don’t think Apple was thinking about selfie feasibility when making these new gigantic phones…how dare they.

Sunday
Short walk with mom and went to my shower where I ate way too many of these:

Scenes from the Weekend + Easy Healthy Chicken Fingers

Best part of Friday? Going from professional to most comfortable outfit I own within .5 seconds of getting home from work. I hate real people clothes. Cameron thought he ordered a normal frozen margarita. What he got was a frozen margarita on steroids. Oh yeah, my spicy watermelon margarita was perfection. So were the chips & salsa. Great lunch at a new-to-us raw foods restaurant, Cider Press Cafe. I got the raw pad thai and it was delicious, although I couldn’t help but think how much better it would be with some chicken 🙂 Post-lunch football, beer, pingpong and Jenga. I made Jenga fall and I lost 3 games of ping pong that Cameron played me in left-handed, but I will be back. Trader Joe’s, you’ve done it again. Combination of all things I love. Went outside for a run this morning and our ducks started running toward me. We basically live in a cabin in the woods complete with lots of animals, all of which our landlord feeds, so they are NOT afraid of people. I was sick of spending money by Saturday night, so I made my easy chicken fingers for dinner. Growing up, my diet was probably 80% chicken fingers. I’ve toned it down a bit since then, but still make these often as a healthier version of my favorite comfort food.

Easy Healthy Chicken Fingers

Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken cutlets
1 egg
1 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
2 tbs garlic powder
2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt & pepper, to taste
Ketchup/honey mustard/BBQ sauce/etc. for dipping (my favorite part!)

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 400.
Line a pan with aluminum foil and grease the pan.
Whisk the egg in a bowl.
Add the flours and spices in a separate bowl and combine.
Dredge each chicken cutlet first in the egg, then the flour, and place on the pan.
Put in oven for 20 minutes, flipping the cutlets halfway through.      

Is it Really Sunday if you Don’t Make Pancakes?

After traveling every weekend in July, it’s been so nice to have relaxing weekends with very few plans as summer winds down.

Friday night was a dinner and Froyo date! Coconut froyo with gummy bears and sprinkles for me. (Yes, I’m aware that I have the topping selections of a 5 year old.)

Saturday I went to an awesome seminar at Iron Tribe on how to move naturally. This was full of great advice on how to improve things like coordination, balance and mobility — which effects everything from how we run to more complex lifts like snatches and cleans. First, we talked about shoes. Our coach said that while most people workout/run/do all exercises in running shoes with a thick cushiony sole, this is actually hindering our workouts and our running. These shoes inhibit foot flexibility and do not allow our feet to move as they were designed to move. He recommended transitioning from running shoes to a cross-training shoe, and eventually a minimalisitic shoe. Here are the recommended brands:

Aside from shoe talk, we also learned how to jump, crawl and move naturally, focusing on mobility, foot/ankle flexibility and landing lightly on our feet. Our coach also brought up a big misconception: squatting is bad for your knees. Squatting is actually good for your knees – it’s what our joints were meant to do! But the reason squatting can be painful is because we have sedentary lifestyles and are not practicing this movement on a regular basis, which makes our joints stiff and eventually begin to calcify. Our coach recommended sitting in a squat for 5 minutes a day. (Loading a bar with heavy weight is not what he was referring to when he said “squats” — air squats!) We also did all of this barefoot! It was a great seminar and a lot of fun.

The rest of Saturday looked like this:

 Poppin’ cider bottles on the beach 🙂

 Sunday was a pancakes, church and chill all day on the couch kind of day. Aren’t Sundays the greatest?

Is it really Sunday if you don’t make pancakes?

Dinner was slow cooker BBQ pulled pork (heaven), lemon garlic butter broccolini, and a brown rice/quinoa mix. For the pulled pork, it was as easy as covering a pork tenderloin in beef broth, cooked on low for 8 hours, shredded the meat with 2 forks, dumped a bunch of Steve’s paleo peach BBQ sauce on it – and boom – deliciousness. The slow cooker makes everything taste better.

Anyone else tried minimalistic shoes? How has it effected your workouts?