Do The Olympics Inspire Anyone Else To Workout?

Despite the challenge to pull myself away from the TV, watching the Olympics inspires me to get my butt out there and train!  These athletes are truly amazing and so motivational!

Awkward angle that makes my upper body look enormous

My niece and nephew were so excited about opening ceremonies, that I got a call from my niece inviting me over for an Olympic party...of course I was in!  

Red, white and blue star necklace

Eventually turned into a pajama party

 They had no clue who they were rooting for, but they were totally enthralled in the opening ceremonies and won't stop talking about all the events they have seen since!  I have taught them well!

My favorite part of the night was when a Chobani commercial came on and I said "Yum, Chobani" and my three year old nephew, Oliver, repeats me, and I go, "Oliver, do you even know what Chobani is?"  With that he proceeded to hop around like a bunny, apparently he thought I was saying "yo bunny" or something!  Love that little kiddo!

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Random fact of the day.... I got a new cookbook (on sale at B.A.M.) and can't wait to try out some of the recipes in it!

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Fitness Plan

Monday: 35:00 lift + going for a short run now

Tuesday: Lift + 45:00 Cardio

Wednesday: 13-14 miles w/RB

Thursday: Lift + 30:00 Cardio

Friday: 6-8 miles 

Saturday: 4-7 miles

Sunday: Active Rest 

No One Ever Wants To...

No one ever wants to have to do this...

Yes that is three bags of food. No, it is not going to be put away in my refrigerator.  It is all going into the trash can :(   When we came home Tuesday we found out that our refrigerator stopped working!  Luckily it is the apartment's and not outs, so we didn't have to pay out of pocket to get a new one, but we did have to pay out of pocket to restock the refrigerator.  Thankfully I tried to use as much of the food in there as possible before we left, so it wasn't totally full, but there was at least $150 worth of meat, veggies, fruit and condiments in there.  The worst part...the condiments....it took me about a year to build up a good solid arsenal of condiments.  Now I'm back to square one and will be making a lot of special trips to the store I'm sure, I guess I'll have to do a better job of planning!  On a positive note though, they were very quick about getting us a new refrigerator.  

Workout

As noted in my fitness plan I lifted and will be playing basketball tonight.  My lift consisted of the following: 

After my run yesterday, I decided it would be best to go all arms so I could run in my game tonight and do a long run this weekend.  

What was your workout today? 

Have you ever had refrigerator mayhem?

Gulf Coast Adventures

Things we saw...

Sun Studio where so much magic happened

Beale Street in Memphis

Cape Girardeau, MO

Southern Miss

Hancock High School
(where J taught for 2 years)

The Dock 

Institute for Marine Mammal Studies...swimming with Bo the dolphin!

Beau Rivage

<3

Biloxi Beach 

Jackson Square 

WWII Museum 

Graceland 

Food we ate...

Biscuits and gravy 

Oysters...ehhh

Eggplant, shrimp and crawfish...one of my top two fav meals!

SnoBall

Beignets

Tennessee you will forever be the BBQ King in  my heart...YUM!

Fitness Plan 

While on vacation, I hoped to get a little more exercise than I did, but due to a lack of hotel gyms and safe running areas I only got two 3 milers in.  I'm getting back at it this week though!

Monday: 12 hours on the road

Tuesday: Crossfit 

800m run

50 pushups

50 pullups

50 wall ball

50 KB swings

50 burpees

800 m run 

1 round for time

(26:04)

Wednesday: 10.5 miles (it felt rough after so much time off and time sitting in the car!)

Thursday: Lift + basketball game

Friday: 4-6 miles

Saturday: 4 miles w/running group

Sunday: 12-13 miles 

What do you have planned for your week? 

Did I miss anything in the blogging world while I was gone this past week? 

Adios Wisconsin!

This week has been nutzo!  I spent the weekend at my uncles cabin....

OJ's first time kayaking

Sisters

Then spent all day yesterday running errands and trying to clean up the house yesterday...

Totally unrelated, but I love it :)

This came in the mail!  So stoked! I love it... thank you Sarah and Chike! I will gladly take free Chike off of anyone else's hands out there!

...and today I worked and am trying to do all the little things I need to do before we head off on our road trip tomorrow!

Nails...check!

Gulfport, Mississippi here we come!

Fitness Plan

Even though we're going on vacation this week, my workouts are still very important to me.  However, I am not going to stress out about whether or not I squeeze a workout in or not while away.  

Monday: 4 miles 

Tuesday: 4-6 miles + lift

Bench press

Shoulder press

EZ curls

Skull crushers

Pikes

10-8-6-4

(heavy weights)

Wednesday: Crossfit workout + 4-6 miles

Thursday: Run 

 Friday: Swim with dolphins!!!!!!

Saturday: Tabata

Sunday: ?

Fitness On The Fly + Beach Body Workout

My fitness plan didn't go exactly as planned, but I still got plenty of activity in over the week!

Thursday I took off, I'm not sure why I thought I would be ready to take on the world full force after the 4th of July.  I don't do well with little amounts of sleep! Friday was another story, my RB and I went out for 10 miles!  It took us 1:40, but that included a couple short walking breaks, a bathroom break and a pit stop at Kwik Trip for some liquids, so we were cruising while we were actually running.  We were able to beat most of the heat, but it was 73 degrees when we started at 6:30 am...and it felt cool (incredibly weird for WI)!  Saturday I led my work running group (we had eight people this week!), so I got back-to-back higher mileage days, which felt great to do.  I would like to keep doing back-to-back days like this, with a long and medium distance run, I think it would be good in preparing my legs for the marathon in October.  I took the group on a three mile loop, then a couple wanted to go more so we ended up with a total of 7 miles in 1:14, a slower pace but it felt just right for my legs. After the run I did a 30 minute "beach body" lift, yes that's what we call it at work when all you do is work your upper body.  

It was painful to finish the last few reps for each body part, but I felt good after finishing!  At 9:30 pm J was going to go workout, but wasn't feeling his traditional gym workout and asked if I wanted to go play tennis with him... of course!  This is the first time we have played together in a few years, last time he got frustrated because he had no finesse and the ball would go flying sky high.  But all of his Wimbeldon watching must have taught him something, because we were able to play a respectable game!  We were sweating it out for a 1:20:00, it was so much fun and a great workout, we're hoping to do it more often!  Yesterday reminded me of when I was a child, each day filled with activities... I love it!  

Breakfast this morning... Iced coffee + oats with blueberries, almond milk and sugar chocolate coffee grinder from TJ's + cake pop (not pictured)

Today all I will be doing is going for a short walk and then boating, like I have been the past couple days! 

My best friend

<3

Summer Snow

Have a wonderful Sunday Funday!

4th of July Recap + Cake Ball Recipe

I finally got a new camera, after being camera-less for about a month!   We didn't want anything extravagant, because lately our reputation with cameras has not been very good (2 cameras in one year) and for our purposes we don't need anything too fancy.  Here's my new baby...

It's a different brand than I had before (old- Nikon, new- Olympus VR 340), but it's an upgrade.  This baby has way better zoom, mega pixels and other features than my old Nikon did.  So far I'm happy with it! 

Part of my push to get my camera was that I needed one to document our 4th of July and we're going on a road trip in a couple of weeks!  Without further ado, here are some pictures from our delightfully, sweaty (98 degrees and no wind) 4th of July!

4th of July cake 

Homemade cake pops!

Cake Pops

1 box cake mix 

1 container frosting 

1 package almond bark 

After preparing the cake according to the box directions (let it cool), put the cake into a large bowl. Add the frosting and mix with your hands, coating all the cake until moist.  Form small balls with you hands.  While creating the balls, melt almond bark in a double boiler.  Coat cake balls in the almond bark, place on wax paper and stick a popsicle stick (or any type of stick) into the center of each ball. Let the balls cool and harden in the refrigerator once all are coated. Makes about 24 depending on the size. 

Ours didn't look that great, but they tasted fantastic! 

Go Express!

J, Carrie & I

Getting ready for fireworks 

Happy 4th of July!