Backyard Haircut

Since BodyPump totally dominated my morning post, lemme catch you up! 

(Special thanks to Vee, who is in the process of becoming a certified BodyPump instructor, for requesting a BodyPump post!) 

Breakfast 

I kept breakfast light this morning since I was heading out to the gym within 30 minutes of waking, and didn’t want to feel like a two-ton whale. 

I’m not someone who can workout on a completely full belly. I do much better on light fuel because a full belly makes me cramp up or want to curl up and go to sleep, neither of which are conducive to a good workout! 

This morning’s breakfast was brownie batter hot cereal. 

Pre-Cooked

The mix included: 

• 1 serving Flax-Z-Snax chocolate cream hot cereal
• 1 scoop All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• Water

Microwaved for 90 seconds, stirring regularly to prevent ooooverflow… 

"A Spoonful of Chocolate Helps the Medicine Go Doooown..."

Brownie Batter Hot Cereal

This combination is so rich and chocolatey. I think I could bathe in this stuff. 😉 

After the gym, I came home, grabbed a Balance Bar, and took Sadie on a walk around the lake near our apartment. 

"Walk Me!"

There was a festival with lots of different arts and crafts and food vendors surrounding the lake. 

Festival

"I Saw the Sign"

I loved the sign that read, “If we are what we eat, I’m fast, easy and cheap.” 😀 

I think my sign would say, “If we are what we eat, I’m cheesy, fruity and sweet!” 

While walking around, Sadie and I both enjoyed a free sample of kettle corn. That stuff is dang delicious! 

I stopped to say hi to some of the dogs up for adoption and fell in love with these two pups: 

Puppy Eyes

Brody Look-a-Like

The second one reminded me so much of my friend Minda’s dog, Brody. He was adorable! 

Here’s the name of the rescue in case any of you out there live in Florida and want to adopt one of these cuties: 

A New Beginning Pet Rescue

When we arrived home from our walk, I was huuuungry. 

I made myself a bowl of roasted Nasoya tofu, broccoli and zucchini, ricotta cheese and marinara meat sauce. 

Veggies + Tofu

Cheese + Sauce

Stirred Up

Wanna know something crazy? I didn’t know you could bake tofu until like a month ago. Well you can, and it’s delicious! 

Backyard Haircut 

After lunch, Ryan and I headed to the backyard to catch some rays. 

Taking Pictures in a Mirror is Hard...

Another Mirror Pic Fail... Practicing on Sadie...

We both got antsy after a while and Ryan asked me if I would give him a haircut. 

Trusting, no? 

Of course I agreed. Check out Barber Julie’s masterpiece: 

Sad Long-Haired Boy

Happy Short-Haired Boy

Ryan's Please Stop Taking My Picture Face

Ryan now owes me $25, but I may settle for some soft serve. 😉 

Today’s Plans 

The rest of our Saturday will be spent running errands to work out some kinks with our cable box (ugh), and tracking down people on craigslist to get a boxspring and a mattress for the bed in our guest room! 

Catch ya lataaa.

Awesome Month

Three cheers for April!!!

I love this month. Yes, it’s probably because it’s my birthday month (April 27, baby!), but I also feel like April is when the weather starts really changing for the better and the sun starts shining a little brighter (in between the “April showers” of course).

What are you most looking forward to in April?

This month I have a bunch of exciting things to look forward to:

• 5K Doggie Race with Sadie on Saturday
• Easter
• My sister’s sorority’s mother/daughter/sister weekend
• Meeting the designer of my wedding dress
• My 25th birthday!!!

It should be a good month!

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast was a chocolatey delight: Brownie batter hot cereal! Ahhhhhh!

Get in Mah Belly!

I combined Flax-Z-Snax chocolate cream hot cereal with a scoop of All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder, a tablespoon of cocoa powder and some water and microwaved it until it was hot and super thick!

Flax-Z-Snax

Coo-coo for Cocoa

Thiiiick Brownie Batter Hot Cereal

I enjoyed my hot cereal with a tumbler full of my gym’s free coffee in Barnie’s cinnamon butter cookie flavor (the best flavor everrrr).

Thursday's Breakfast

It was a great breakfast after a sch-weaty workout.

Workout

My workout today was pretty random. I felt like running, but decided against it since Sadie and I are running in a doggie 5k together on Saturday. I wanted to give my legs a good rest because I feel like I run better in races when I haven’t run several days prior to race day.

My run-less cardio workout looked like this:

• 10 min. stair master
• 10 min. adaptive motion trainer
• 5 min. stair master
• 25 min. elliptical

Can you tell I was easily bored today?

April Fools’ Day

Happy April Fools Day!

Are you playing any good jokes today? Have you ever had a good joke played on you?

One year when my sister was pretty young, my mom and I convinced her to come running down the stairs because we told her that our cat (who was a boy) had kittens. 🙂 Poor Leslie was pretty disappointed to see that no baby kitties could be found.

Two years ago my mom really got me. I had NO idea it was April Fools’ Day, and when I got to work I had a really long email from her saying that she and my dad were adopting a young boy because they were so sad that both my sister and I were out of the house (it was my sister’s first year away at college). I was shocked and even told my boss that I couldn’t believe I was getting a brother. It was then that I realized what day it was and felt like one stoooopid lil’ blonde. 🙂

“Sweet Dreams…”

“…are made of this…”

Great song!

I had very sweet dreams last night… literally! I dreamt that I was in a bakery shop owned by Kathy Nijimy (aka the bubbly nun from Sister Act and the fun witch from Hocus Pocus).

Kathy Nijimy

I couldn’t decide between all the baked goods, so Kathy let me try everything. I was in dream heaven!

Should Kathy Nijimy ever open a bakery, I highly recommend the red velvet cupcakes. 😀

YUM

Breakfast

My breakfast was also nice ‘n’ sweet.

I made a bowl of butter pecan cake batter banana hot cereal. How’s that for a mouthful?

Banana-Topped Hot Cereal

Creamy

Into the mix went:

• 1/4 c. Flax-Z-Snax butter pecan hot cereal
• 1 scoop All the Whey cup cake batter protein powder
• 1 small frozen banana

I enjoyed my breakfast with a hot mug of Yogi triple echinacea green tea. Warm belly!

Now I’m off to watch Ryan’s soccer game. Cross your fingers for a win!

What’s your favorite sport to watch?

My favorite sport to watch is diving (probably because I was a diver) or gymnastics, but if I had to pick a more “main stream” sport, I’d definitely pick basketball.

EarthGrains Giveaway & Healthified Brownie Batter

Giveaway fun in un momento, but first, breakfast!

Breakfast

I am officially addicted to my big bowl of chocolate goodness.

Cocoa Breakfast Bowl

If you love chocolate and have a sweet tooth that kicks in first thing in the morning, you should give this breakfast a try!

• 1/4 c. dry Flax-Z-Snax chocolate cream hot cereal (I buy this at Netrition.com)
• 1 scoop All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder (I buy this at Nutraplanet.com)
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• Water

I mix everything together before heating the mixture in the microwave for about a minute, stirring it up and heating it again for another 20 seconds or so. It “grows” in the microwave and becomes really thick. It really does taste like “healthified” brownie batter.

Wednesday's Breakfast

Ryan tried it this weekend and gave it a thumbs up, but said it was a little too chocolatey for him first thing in the morning (Ha! Too chocolatey… What is that?). Nothing is ever too chocolatey for me… at any time of the day.

EarthGrains Giveaway

Are you a bread lover like me? If so, than this is the giveaway for you!

EarthGrains 7-Grain Bread

I was contacted by EarthGrains and informed of the company’s new product and initiative to “plot to save the earth, one field at a time,” by introducing Eco-Grain wheat into its 100% whole grain, 100% natural line of breads.

According to EarthGrains, “Eco-Grain wheat is grown using innovative farming techniques that benefit the environment because they promote more sustainable agricultural practices.”

One giveaway winner will receive EarthGrains bread made with Eco-Grain! EarthGrain will send the bread to the winner and the winner will receive one of the following breads:

• 100% Natural Whole Wheat
• 100% Natural 7-Grain
• 100% Natural Wheat Berry with Honey
• 100% Natural Multi-Grain
• 100% Natural Oat
• 100% Natural Double-Fiber Whole Wheat

The winner will also receive an EarthGrains reusable shopping bag. Go green!

To enter this giveaway, simply comment on you favorite way to enjoy bread. Are you a sandwich lover? Can’t get enough of French toast? Let me know! 😀

A winner will be selected randomly and announced tomorrow morning. Good luck!

Celebrating Six Years

Today is my six year anniversary with Ryan. I cannot believe we’ve been together for six years!

6 Years!

In honor of our six years of loooove, I figured I would share six facts about our relationship with you:

• We met at our university’s gym during my freshman year of college. (Our “how we met” story can be found here, if you’re interested. It’s the last question at the bottom of the page.)

UCF Gym

• Our first date was dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The restaurant was more than 20 minutes away and I remember being so worried that we wouldn’t have enough to talk about on the way there and back… ha!

The Cheesecake Factory

• Our first kiss was on our second date at Ryan’s apartment. We watched a movie, ate mint chocolate chip ice cream out of the container and played mancala.

Mancala

• Ryan first told me he loved me four months after we first started dating. I went on a trip to Bermuda with my family and he said my absence made him realize how much he missed me and wanted me in his life. 🙂
• We’ve never broken up once during our six years of dating… Slow and steady wins the race. 😉
• Ryan proposed on Oct. 3, 2009, two days before his 26th birthday. He planned an elaborate scavenger hunt, that ended in a proposal. He arranged for our families to surprise me at dinner at one of our favorite restaurants afterward. It was perfect!

Anniversary Plans

In keeping with tradition, tonight Ryan and I are heading out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, the location of our first date. We’ve gone there every year since our first date.

Though the date is always wonderful, I have a bad track record with our anniversary dinner. Two of the last five times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night puking! Not fun. Now when we go there I try to order “safer” dishes since I’ve had two icky experiences that I can only attribute to my dinner.

If you’re in a relationship, what do you do to celebrate your anniversary?

I’m excited for a hot anniversary date with my fiancé!

Workout + Breakfast

Ryan and I hit the gym nice and early this morning. I went to BodyPump while he did his own he-man workout. 🙂 The new BodyPump release is growing on me a bit. I was a hater last week, but I think a couple days away from the class made me enjoy it more this morning.

After BodyPump, I did 25 minutes of cardio, divided between the elliptical and the treadmill.

Breakfast was a filling bowl of cocoa cupcake batter hot cereal.

Cupcake Cocoa Oats

My breakfast bowl contained:

• Chocolate cream Flax-Z-Snax hot cereal
• All the Whey cupcake batter protein powder
• Cocoa powder

I think I prefer total chocolate indulgence and like the chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder better in this mix than the cupcake batter, but it was still yummy and I ate it up quickly.

Monday's Breakfast

I enjoyed it with a hot mug of sugar cookie tea.

Hope your week is off to a good start!