Hello Friday where did you come from?!?!

Happy Friday everyone! I have no idea where this week has gone but I feel like it has been an extremely long at the same time....

This week has been full of really delicious meals and me realizing I really really like beets!

Last night I made the most delicious beef soup I have EVER made! I mean it was beef soup but overall really the best soup I've made. My husband who doesn't really like soup LOVED it and asked if there was enough for his lunch today! It included grass feed beef, tomatoes, celery, carrots, peas, onions, garlic, basil, & water. Sounds simple it was DELICIOUS! I put mine over kale and the rest of my family ate it over quinoa. Healthy, Delicious and in demand! WINNING!!!

I would show you a picture but I was too hungry and didn't think about it till after we were done eating and the kitchen was cleaned up...Next time

So beets....

Who knew they were so delicious! 

I've been adding them to my salads and OMGOODNESS!

I've also started adding some of this amazing salad dressing....

My Salads are quickly becoming my favorite part of my meals....I actually had a salad for breakfast... weird but its what my body wanted!

So I made Salmon this week...

accompanied with an delicious salad and lemon asparagus...SO delicious

Another night was burger night this week....

It's a shame I couldn't fit more green on my plate :)

Lettuce wrapped grass feed beef, kale salad, and green beans.

I have to say I feel so much better then I have in a really long time. There is REALLY something to this eating clean thing! Yes I have known it for years and could have told you all the right things to do. But realizing the importance of fueling my body and the significant difference it makes is really eye opening! 

I have lots to say on the Whole30 I have been doing but I must run. I realized I left my phone in my coat pocket which my daughter has now worn to school. Looks like today is going to be AMAZING :-P Thank goodness I have hot yoga this afternoon to look forward to!

~A

20 things on Monday

So I propose that Monday's will now be 20 random things about this weekend, what's going on, things on my brain ect ect,.... In no order whatsoever.....

Let's see how this goes....

1. I Tried Hot Yoga this weekend.

 First time for everything and since my challenge is to add some yoga in my life, my dear friend and I made our way to an 8:30am Hot Yoga on Sunday morning. It was hot!!! there was a really fit woman in a very little bit of clothes that I swear I tried not to stare daggers at!!! ( But REALLY no one should look like that! ) and a not so fit guy in only swim shorts I was happy to avert my eyes....!  I loved loved loved the class and can't wait to go back! 

2. I'm kinda freaking out this week over Choreography!

 So I teach several Les Mills Group Exercise classes and we have our big launch coming up next week. Learning all the new choreography and keeping it straight always kills my brain. So if I seem brain dead over the next week please forgive I am in choreography overload!

3. I am rather disturbed by my daughters choice of dress up clothes....

 Yes I made this picture smaller cause it disturbs me hahaha

Those boots were immediately removed . She didn't understand the issue ... " it was just her favorite ballet outfit and her favorite pair of mommy's shoes".....I'm going to need a really good boarding school!!!!

4. I watched the Fighter last night....

 It wasn't awful! :)

5. I drank a lot of water yesterday....

 Like 3 of these bottles.... I peed all day like my pregnant sister! 

6. I am SO glad the weather is finally warming up!!!!  I'll take this weeks weather!!!!

JUST ALLERGIES STAY AWAY!!!! ...Hey a girl can hope!

7. I went Grocery shopping with my BFF....Apparently I am a bad influence while shopping....

I just felt the need to point out lots of yummy foods! :) So much more fun to go shopping with a friend and no kids

8. My dinner was better than your dinner! No questions about it!!!

  

Grass fed slow cooked ribs, garlic mashed cauliflower, and peas! Everyone is the house LOVED dinner!!!!

9. I read a book

 

I enjoyed it! and am going to give it a try....The Whole30 anyone want to join me? I start today!

10 (OMG how am I only at 10?!?!) I'm really hungry for breakfast and I can't think past the number 10 at the moment ....

11. Already got my first workout in for today! Taught GRIT (Click on the link for an awesome video!!!) at 6am this morning! My body wasn't quite ready for it, but pulled it out anyways!!!! Those are the best workouts!

12. I am having a debate with myself on if I should open all the windows. Most of me says yes, the itching eyes and sneezing side of me says HELL NO!!! 

13. We went for a walk yesterday!

Well the girls rode their scooters but it still counts!

14.  I know way too many people with the stomach virus.... Please stay away!

15. I really want to be right here .... Right now! 

16. You all should mark your calendars to join me on April 22nd at 6pm for a dance party to benefit Relay for Life! If you would like to join our team for the actual Relay for Life event it is on May 4, 2013 and our team is called "MAC Attack" we would LOVE to have you join us!

17. The healthier I eat the more I want to go grocery shopping! So if anyone would like to contribute to my shopping and cooking addiction I will happily cook for you as well! Seriously we should chat! I am so in love with cooking now!

18. I admit it I am ADDICTED... to food journaling and my food journal app Lose it I won't bore with you the details of my addiction but seriously I have a problem :)

19. (almost done! ) Boiled eggs are my nemesis!!! Don't believe me?!?! 

Can you see how awful those turned out?!?!

I have tried ALL The tricks in the book, I usually just end up screaming dirty four letter words. Today I will attempt them in the oven 1 more time.... Go ahead and let me hear your tips on boiled eggs!!! PRETTY PLEASE! 

20. YAY I DID IT!!! I couldn't decide how to finish...Food something, hot guy, yoga something....SO....

There is a point to this picture.... other than to smile :)....

I can't do my hands like that behind my back... I did it once last week and now my wrist refuse to bend that way....I blame the 3x's it's been broken...

Happy Monday! Have a great day!

~A

Resting....

Rest days?!?! 

This has been my theory on that....

Well for the most part anyways, this weekend however, my body decided to have other plans and it is forcing me to go along with a rest. 

Learning to listen to your body is maybe the HARDEST part about training! We get ourselves in the habit/routine, whatever you want to call it, to push hard, get our workouts in every time whether we are tired or not. Learning and knowing the difference between "I just don't want to" and "A rest day is NEEDED" has ALWAYS been my biggest challenge! 

The never give up attitude, going tenaciously HARD and not quitting when it gets hard is one of my characteristics I am super proud of. But it is also one of the things that beats me up the most! I mean I ran every day with NO rest to the point where I required knee surgery ... at 22!!!!!

So this morning when I rolled out of bed and made my way to the couch to drink some lemon water and wake-up ( exciting morning in my house... ), even though I felt like crap and every time I moved anything it hurt, I somehow convinced myself I just needed to go for a run and I would feel better. So I PEELED myself off the couch, put on some running clothes, threw my headphones on, looked longingly at my heart-rate monitor that needs a new battery, then had the every occurring wish that I had an awesome one like the nike fuelband, body bug, or some other really cool device I don't know about, but ( another trait of mine ) I just don't buy stuff for myself unless absolutely necessary. But I got off track.... I headed out for a run...got two miles down the road and had no push in me left so I decided to walk. It was COLD and I had dressed for running, not walking. I lost a glove some how....I'm still not sure how.... and I was getting annoyed with the honkers....so I called my sister to chat with and walked my sorry butt home.

At some point I eased up on myself and thought about all the things I knew and tell others but just don't do myself...Listen to your body, give it a rest so it can recover, ect ect ect.....

So today I rest! I know with my body rested I will be ready to take on the next week. 

Hope you all have a great Saturday and listen to your bodies!

~A

Food and a good Challenge, I love them both!

Good morning all! I am getting a late start today as I got distracted by recipes on pinterst....I think time speeds up the moment you sign on to pinterst! 

Anyways I must start by saying thank you! I received so many nice notes from my last blog and even got a comment on my blog ( Thanks Mallory! Check out her blog sometime Mal's Miles ) I love comments they make me happy! So thank you!

The past two days have been all about cooking in my house. Today has started out the same as I woke up with the worst craving for pancakes. So I got out of bed and whipped this up....

Coconut-Banana Pancakes - Amy's version

3 eggs & 3 egg whites
1 banana mashed
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1tsp Cinnamon
1 tbs honey
4tbs coconut flour

Coconut oil for cooking

I put my swimsuit on yesterday and I swore I was way motivated, but apparently not that motivated to say no to coconut-banana pancakes :) I will say I took a healthy recipe and altered it a little more to make it even healthier.  The original recipe called for 4tbs honey and 6 eggs, but these came out delicious and Malia even approved, which she is one of the hardest to convince!

Some of our other baking adventures this week was our own version of Monkey Bread.

Monkey Bread

4 Very ripe banana's mashed
4 tbs coconut butter or oil
3 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 coconut flour
1/4 cup arrowroot flour
2 tbs flax meal ( we had to make our own cause we only had flaxseed
1 tsp baking powder, baking soda, & cinnamon
1/2 tsp  sea salt

Options: Mix in nuts or chocolate 

We all enjoyed these! Malia and Ava added some of their leftover easter m&m's but actually liked the ones without m&m's.

All my other cooking time was devoted to my YDF ( Your Daily Fitness ) Meal Prepping.

Weekly Meal plan of healthy foods prepped so my clients can just throw healthy meals together without thinking about it! Everything includedm ... healthy proteins, healthy carbs and lots of ready to eat veggies! I offer 10% off first orders... I'm just saying
The rest of our cooking was dinner

Good Old Fashion Pot Roast

I also made some delicious sweet potatoes to snack on during the week

Half have cinnamon and maple syrup and have are seasoned with curry seasoning for a nice little kick! I like the curry ones and my girls already ate all the cinnamon ones! Kids asking to eat sweet potatoes .... WINNING!

And now I feel all cooked out! Thankfully I have all the healthy YDF meal prep in my fridge so healthy meals the rest of the week with not a lot of cooking!

Now a Challenge.... Who likes a good challenge? I ALWAYS do.

So my Awesome sister 

Has created a challenge on facebook to encourage people to find a goal and go for it over the next 60 days.

We have a group page  Run, Do Yoga & Try not to Die

 Please join our group all fitness levels. It's more about encouraging each other to live a healthy lifestyle, I would LOVE to have you join us!!!

Have a great day!

~A

I think it is time for a story, Why I removed Gluten from my life

 Good Morning All. I am trying out a new look to my page, not sure I like it yet, you?

I am really loving this Spring Break with my girls, letting them sleep in and being able to sip some hot tea, blog, and just enjoy the morning before spending the day with my two little favorite people in the world! I am not enjoying allergies! I am so ready for summer so I can stop sneezing and blowing my nose! And the itchy eyes OMG!!!!

Last night we got in a discussion about my diet and someone in my class asked, "What diet are you on?" Seems like a reasonable question. When I started explaining the guidelines, I WISH you could have seen her face! So I want to give a little background into SOME of the reasons I have made this diet change. 

*Please know I am sharing this not for sympathy but to be honest. This is my life and I don't feel like I should hide it!*

As some of you know and others may not know I was diagnosed with breast cancer last September. But I was lucky!!! ( Bet that sentence doesn't often follow the previous one!) I was able to have surgery and remove it all and am keeping a close eye on it this year, fingers crossed for 1 year clean. I find out on my birthday how crazy is that!

Icing after surgery!

So after recovering and receiving the all clear from my doctor, I was ready to get back to life! My body had different ideas. I could never fully recover it felt and get back to my normal self, instead I started passing out, A LOT. dizzy, night sweats, really fatigued, just exhausted ALL the time, and headaches ( in part I am sure from hitting my head from all the passing out! ) 

I just wasn't doing well and it was driving me CRAZY! So back to the doctors for a million and 1 test. They thought it was my thyroid. But then every time they took my blood they thought I had been fasting. To the point where I had to bring food in and eat there, sit and wait a bit then have blood drawn. My body STILL showed I was fasting... WTF?!?! for real! So then they wanted to start doing heart and brain scans cause nothing was making sense. Maybe it was the wrong call but I had had ENOUGH ( this was about the end of January so I'd been getting test after test for months by this point! ) I said NOPE I have too many medical bills already and we are getting no where! Started doing some research on my own into foods and different allergies, ect. 

Let's pause this portion of the story and jump back to earlier in the year before I was diagnosed with breast cancer...

March/April-ish ...

My whole home was a war zone it felt. Steve started going crazy, at least that's what I thought. He wasn't the person I knew. Mood swings, never wanting to do things, not sleeping, the list goes on and one! At first I thought it was me, our marriage was bad, he hated me, I had no idea! It got to the point I never wanted to come home and just felt sick to my stomach at the thought of it!

 Then he started getting violent for no reason. Punching walls mainly, I had never had a reason to be scared of him, well except that time when he had just returned from Iraq and he tried to kill me in the middle of the night with a GIANT tv. I looked at him told him to put it down and go back to bed ( I didn't know what else to do ) and he did. The next morning, he didn't even believe me it happened, until he saw the tv he had moved on the floor by the bed!  But as it progressed I was getting a little scared.

That's when I started suspecting perhaps he was having flashbacks again. It took me a while to convince him that's what was happening. So in the mean time, I spent many many nights ( think 2-3 months ) of sleeping in my girls room sitting up against the door just to make sure they stayed safe. FINALLY towards the end of July, he was ready to reach out for help and we headed into the ER at the VA hospital, which is the only way to start getting help for whatever was going on. He was diagnosed with sever PTSD and was to be placed in counseling and some sort of drug therapy. 

Knowing he wasn't crazy helped him some, and he did get 2 counseling sessions which seemed to make a difference. I was hopeful! Then they cancelled the sessions till further notice ... We are STILL waiting for that notice, even though I check in weekly to see if anything is available... nothing.....

So now back to the beginning of this year..... 

I'm sick, passing out all the freaking time, stressed beyond imagination because while we have good days the bad days are frequent enough to never fully relax. We are both frustrated with the  lack  absences of help from the VA, and other organizations we have reached out to, I feel guilty anytime I get mad at him because I know he can't control it and he is TRYING to get help, he is frustrated that he is like this and it is all one big miserable stressful mess! 

So I read everything I can find and look for any possible means of help available! 

That's when I saw an article about Gluten allergies. Symptoms for allergies to gluten include depression, mood swings, thyroid issues, digestion and nutrition absorption problems and MANY MANY more that could have been written specifically for Steve and I. 

So in February I started trying a few days without this or that in my diet. I noticed changes and I stopped passing out! That's when I said I'm jumping in with both feet! Set my start date for March 1st and am so happy I did.

Steve is still not convinced to stick with this but I am hoping at least cutting back will help. My girls seem to be doing much better without gluten and I am keeping them on it as much as possible. 

So now you know why I chose gluten free. Questions? Comments? I'd love to hear them! Another day I will tackle why I avoid soy, dairy and anything else there may be questions or curiosity about.

 As I said when I started this challenge, I don't think I have all the answers I am just trying and learning as I go. It's a journey, not always easy but I'm up for the challenge .... most days .... :)

~A

  

Hello April! My weekend in Charleston

Happy April! 

I have so many things I want to write about and I am tempted to try and squeeze it all into 1 blog. But that would be awful! 

1. Way too much info in 1 blog

2. Ridiculously sporadic and would have no flow 

3. I sat in the car for way too long yesterday and I am not sitting around all day!

So Let's see what I cover this morning!

My Trip to Charleston was great as always! Seeing my family is the best thing ever, especially when they are super awesome like mine! 

The weather wasn't awesome beach weather but that's ok we had plenty of other things to keep us going all weekend long! 

Friday we played all day and since Steve and the girls were tired from traveling the night before they took afternoon naps and I was able to sneak away for some much needed sister time! 

WARNING RANT MAY FOLLOW

So The three of us went to Earth Fare ( I think that's what is was ) grabbed a snack ( because we can always eat! Right ladies! ) and this older guy starts to walk by us and then says rather loudly " OH Lordy we have Twins...AHHH 3 of them!" ( Say it in a really good southern accent to get the right affect) Once clarifying we are not twins, but yes sisters, he proceeds to stare at us to try and decide who is oldest. This is not a rare happening we seem to be some rare exhibit of similar looks and beauty ( Hahaha ) that people feel is perfectly fine to stare at! As this man walks away he yells make sure to take a picture for mom on Easter I am sure she would love a picture of all the twins. All the Twins, what does that even mean?!?! HAHAH! So we laugh it off as usual and carry on with our eating and sister time! 

After lots of chatting and laughing and seeing a man in really tight pants walking WAY Too happy we head out to stop at another grocery store to pick up food for dinner.

 I will say Steve Malia and Ava went completely off the diet this weekend, but let's be honest - there was a complete melt down ( on Steve's Part ) On Wednesday after a fish taco dinner.... Long story but the short of it was - he heard Taco's instantly thought of all the "yumminess" of cheese and Greek yogurt on top ( we stopped using sour cream years ago and replaced it with plain Greek Yogurt, if you eat dairy this is a healthy alternative! ) So instead of the taco's he had in his head we had Fish Taco's on Corn Tortilla's - Which NOBODY liked the tortilla's ( I didn't try them ) - The Girls and I enjoyed the Fish Taco's ( once we removed their tortilla's ). Which I was way proud of, they included Tilapia, Shrimp, fresh home made mango salsa, cabbage and avocado with a side of "Spanish Rice"  Quinoa. 

Steve was NOT a fan and spent the rest of the evening ranting and raving about how he will NEVER eat anything good again! So I washed my hands and said eat what you want ... at least for this weekend! I can't see the point and forcing someone to eat in a way they don't want. It's not always easy and so why force someone to do something they don't want! 

But I got off track ( See I really have so much to write about....)

So My sisters and I stopped by the store picked up dinner ingredients and headed back to the house. I only mention this because Stacy headed back to the store MUCH later that night and picked up something and was stopped be 3 different people we never spoke with who stopped her and said weren't you in here earlier with your sisters? WHAT?!?! So freaking STRANGE!!!!

Dinner was Soup and Salad and Pizza for the boys and kids. The best part of dinner was right before when Melissa and Billy FINALLY told Malia and Ava they are having a baby! 

There was lots of squealing and the girls can't wait to be big cousins! 

After dinner we headed to the bowling alley for some fun! I wish I had taken pictures because it was great! Made even better by the really drunk old man next to us doing the moon walk and other great dance moves! 

Saturday we headed out for and EGGStraveganza with the most chaotic Easter Egg hunt EVER! There was also some tree climbing ( and little kid saving thanks to Billy! ), moon bouncing and LOTS of walking! 

Followed by Lunch at Mellow Mushroom

I believe there is one coming to Richmond soon ( if it's not already here) but if you have never been you should try it out! There were options for everyone! Gluten free pizza, Vegan pizza for Melissa, a protein packed salad for Stacy and the normal regular pizza options as well! SO Delicious! I actually had a huge plate of hummus with LOTS of veggies I was so stuffed I thought my stomach might pop.... Luckily it didn't'!

We spent the afternoon relaxing and resting before heading out for dinner ( Sure seems we eat a lot ! ) I forgot to take pictures of dinner but I had a delicious green curry with chicken. I forget the name of the restaurant (  Billy, Mel, or Stacy feel free to comment ). We have been there before and it is always delicious! Dinner was fun of course ..... 

Dinner was followed by a riveting game of clue where Malia fooled us all! Then we crashed after watching a little Jimmy Fallon with Justin Timberlake!

 

I LOVE that combo! SOOOOO Funny!

Easter morning Stacy Mel and I snuck away for one last sister coffee time. Then headed back to pack up and hit the road. I was hoping to get home early but got stuck in AWFUL traffic and it took us almost 6 hours just to get through NC. I took pictures of me pouting while parked on 95 for over an hour but I didn't think I looked great hahaha.... Ava did learn how to whistle on the drive home, LUCKY LUCKY US!

By the time we pulled in we were all car sick and tired of sitting! We ordered Chinese food for dinner. We have a place close by that has a great "Diet" section so I got steamed chicken and veggies and added my own seasoning when it got here. I crashed early because I had GRIT at 6am!

I had a wonderful time with my family and I miss them more than imaginable already! Count down to seeing them again had already begun!

Happy Monday Friends!

~A