Movin’ and Groovin’

I try not to let my blog stress me out. Most of the time I succeed by reminding myself that the lil’ blog is my hobby and that helps me to put things into perspective.

I did feel a little bit of blog-related stress yesterday as my blog made the move from WordPress to Bluehost. I’ve done nearly everything related to my blog myself (except for the wonderful redesign which I owe to The Blog Fairy).

I am not tech-savvy at all, but with the help of some online tutorials and many, many Google searches I’ve been able to get by… That is until I started looking into changing the host of my blog.

Time to Move

Holy information overload! Since I didn’t want to lose any of my blog in the transfer process, I knew I wanted to have a professional’s help, if not for their skill than for my peace of mind.

I want to give a huge shout out to Seth for being my go-to web guy! He was so, so easy to work with and answered all of my questions in a language I could understand (not web-speak). Thank you mucho, Seth! 😀

So, as you may have noticed my blog was flip-flipping back and forth bewteen my peanutbutterfingers.wordpress.com domain and it’s real home, right here at pbfingers.com.

Subscribing to PBF

Since many of you seemed to appreciate my previous blog post for the non-blog savvy folks, I thought I would quickly post easy-to-find links for those of you who may wish to subscribe to my blog or receive automatic updates.

Subscribe Me, Please!

• If you want to subscribe to this blog via email, click here.
• If you want to add this blog to your Google Reader, click here.
• If you want to add this blog to your Google homepage, click here.

I hope this helps!

Now let’s get away from the movin’ and head onto the groovin’…

Workout

My workout this morning was a sweaty one! I initially planned to take Sadie for a run, but it was pouring outside!

Plan B: Take a spinning class!

One of the benefits to keeping track of my workouts through the Exercise Log on this blog is that I can see when I last took certain classes. The last time I took a spin class was in March. Clearly I was long overdue!

I forgot two things about spinning classes:

• They make me unbelievably sweaty
• They’re really hard!

I think my time away from the bike made today’s class feel extra challenging.

The instructor said something that resonated with me though and made me push through.

“If you’re not working you’re not living.”

I know you can take this statement in many different ways, but I took it to mean that when we truly work our bodies and minds to our full potential, that’s when we’re really living!

I always feel so much more alive after a great workout and I kept telling myself that whenever I wanted to kick back and relax on the bike.

Breakfast

Breakfast today was a new combo!

Peach + Coconut Yogurt Bowl

I made myself a yogurt bowl that contained:

• 1 c. Fage plain Greek yogurt
• 1 sliced peach
• 1/2 c. old fashioned oats
• 1/2 scoop All the Whey cake batter protein powder
• Three pinches unsweetened coconut
• Dash of nutmeg

I cooked the oats and protein powder together with a bit of water in the microwave and let the mixture chill in the fridge for a bit before adding the remaining ingredients.

After topping the cake batter oats with the yogurt, fruit, coconut and nutmeg, my breakfast was ready!

Scoop it Up!

Tuesday Breakfast

Great combo! 😀

Peanut Butter Packets?

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

I thought this was Peanut Butter Fingers?

What’s with the packets?

Peanut Butter & Company

This lil’ packet you mean?

That packet of heaven was tucked into a gorgeous card sent to me by Lisa in honor of my one-year blogging anniversary.

Can you believe I’ve never tried Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter before?

They make about a bajillion different flavors of peanut butter but I’ve never actually purchased a jar for myself.

I’ve avoided buying Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter or Cinnamon Raisin Swirl for fear that an innocent peanut butter finger would turn into a peanut butter hand… and then peanut butter arm, and I would polish off the whole jar in one day.

This Would Be Me

Seriously, it could happen.

This morning the highlight of my breakfast was not the yummy yogurt bowl I created.

It was the packet of peanut butter I slurped down while making my actual breakfast.

See Any Boogs?

More. Give Me More.

So, so good. Thank goodness the packet provided built-in portion control.

Breakfast

After my pre-breakfast snack, I enjoyed my yogurt bowl which I made my combining a cup of Fage 0% Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, sweetener and a large handful of Gerber Graduates Apple Cinnamon Puffs.

Big Baby

These little puffs are full of flavor! Love ’em.

Yog + Pump + Puffs + Spice

The Token Food-On-Spoon Shot

The apple cinnamon puffs mixed with the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice tasted like fall in a bowl. Too bad the morning chill Central Floridians experienced yesterday was a big fat tease. The heat was back in full-force this morning!

Workout

My workout today was just what the doctor ordered… If I actually went to a doctor and they were to prescribe me a workout, that is.

I started off my gym session with 30 minutes on the elliptical before taking a yoga class.

Today’s yoga class made me sweat! I loved it.

I was really into everything that the teacher was saying. The woman who teaches the 6 a.m. yoga class at my gym has the most soothing voice, but still manages to make the class challenging at times. She’s fantastic.

Also noted during this morning’s class: I have the tightest hamstrings on the planet.

Alright mah friends, back to work fo’ me!

The Most Awkward Move at the Gym

Today’s workout included the most awkward move you can possibly do at the gym:

Hubba, Hubba

Doesn’t this move seem wildly inappropriate?

Despite the totally embarrassing nature of this move, it really is a great lil’ one to do to target your tushie.

I felt like a complete tool as I completed three sets of this weighted hip thrust, but my butt felt the burn and that’s what I was goin’ for!

Ryan and I have talked in the past about embarrassing moves to do at the gym. One of his favorites is the hip abductor machine.

"Hey, Baby!"

Something about the hip abductor machine just screams, “Hey, baby! Come look at my crotch!”

The things we do in the name of fitness… 😉

Along with 20 minutes of cardio split between the stair master and the elliptical, my workout included this total-body weights routine:

Work it Oooout

Breakfast

Breakfast today included a little experiment.

I read about Bethenny Frankel’s recipe for brown rice hot cereal in a magazine a couple of weeks ago and made a mental note to try to incorporate the healthy grain into my morning meal.

I started with a cup of Fage Greek yogurt.

Fage

Yog-a-Yog

On top of the yogurt, I added brown rice, sliced peaches and nutmeg for some added texture and sweetness.

Brown Rice Breakfast Bowl

I used brown rice from a packet of Uncle Ben’s whole grain brown Ready Rice which made this meal super easy to assemble.

Eat Up, Buttercup!

The verdict?

Deeeeelicious! It reminded me a lot of one of my barley breakfast bowls, but it was easier to prepare since the rice was pre-cooked thanks to good ol’ Uncle Ben.

Time to get to work, friends. See ya fo’ lunch! 😀

Question of the Morning

In your opinion, what is the most embarrassing move you can do in the name of fitness?

I’m sure you yoga-lovers have some good ones!

Patriotic Pride Continues

Sure the 4th of July was two days ago, but that doesn’t mean my patriotic pride has lessened.

Clearly I’m still lovin’ on America, as demonstrated by my red, white and blue breakfast.

Patriotic Yogurt Bowl

My messy breakfast bowl included a mix of Fage Greek yogurt, toasted walnuts, fresh raspberries and fresh blueberries.

Fage Greek Yogurt

Toppings

This was the perfect post-run meal!

Workout

My workout today was a simple 5-mile run with Sadie.

My lungs felt fine and my body didn’t feel tired at all even though I haven’t run since Thursday… but my calves were so tight!

They felt as hard as rocks and I stopped for 20 seconds after each mile to stretch them out. Unfortunately they remained super tight and moderately painful throughout my run. I know my calves were sore from yesterday’s workout, because I did step-ups, which always seem to make them a bit tight the next day.

In Case You Missed It

I know many of you were busy little bees over the holiday weekend, so here are links to some of my posts from the past couple of days in case you missed it:

• I went scuba diving and got sea sick in Key Largo
• My family and I fed tarpon in Islamorada
• Ryan and I registered for our wedding

Stay Tuned

Stay tuned for a fun Q & A post!

I’m finally getting around to answering the questions you guys submitted anonymously through my Q & A page and will post answers to these questions later today!

Messy Mango

I learned something very important this morning.

If a mango is squishy it will be a huge pain in the tookus to cup up.

Mango Mess

I had juice and mushy fruit everywhere.

I’d say about a third of the mango actually made it into my breakfast bowl. I slurped the remaining fruit right off the big pit. It wasn’t attractive, but it was tasty!

I added two handfuls of blueberry and a big scoop of Fage Greek yogurt to the mango to complete my breakfast.

Mangos + Blueberries

Fage Greek Yogurt

Fruit + Yog

After stirring everything up, I dug in!

Ready for Eatin'

I thought the texture of the mango might be slightly off-putting when combined with the yogurt, but surprisingly it blended very well added the sweet, fresh taste of summer to the bowl.

Workout + Snack

The mango yogurt bowl was actually my second breakfast of the day.

I scarfed down my first breakfast shortly after I completed a five mile run with Sadie.

My first meal included a pack of Brothers-All-Natural apple crisps with a cup of Publix coconut créme pie yogurt.

Apple Crisps

Coconut Yogurt

I almost always stick to Greek yogurt as my yogurt of choice because it’s packed with protein, extra thick and contains ingredients I understand, but at the grocery store last night this lil’ coconut guy was calling to me.

The coconut-lover in me just couldn’t resist and though the yogurt contains a list of sketchy ingredients, it still tastes pretty phenomenal. 🙂

Breakfast number one was a great end to a great run.

Though it was still nearly 80 degrees outside, it didn’t feel as hot as it did on our runs last week. Hallelujah!

Here are our stats:

5 Mile Stats

After our run, before digging into my first breakfast, I took 10 minutes or so to stretch on my brand new yoga mat!

Pink is Pretty

I actually stretched my way through the second half of the Bachelorette last night as well.

I think having a yoga mat readily available will make it much easier for me to stretch whenever I feel the desire. Since hardwood floors cover our apartment, I never want to sit down on such a hard surface to stretch. Hopefully this little purchase will help me incorporate some much-needed stretching into my day-to-day life.

Question of the Day

Do you do any fitness-related activities in your home? DVDs, stretching, weights, etc.?