Back to the Grind

Tonight was my first workout since coming back from vacation and I was really glad that I went.  Exercise is just one of those things that you never regret doing.

The morning that we left on vacation, I got up and went for run around our neighborhood because I knew it might be difficult to get my workouts done while on vacation.  I have to admit that I had Kara in my head that morning.  She's an ulta-marathon runner and she is also the mother of a toddler!  People ask her how she has time to run all the time and her response is "I make time."  If I want to be fit and healthy and want my daughter to see that fitness is important, then I definitely need to make time for it and make it a priority.

This doesn't apply to anything I just wrote about, but aren't we cute? Haha

Last night's workout with Patrice was pretty good.  To be honest, I wasn't hurting as much as I thought I would be.  Don't tell her this, but I thought she could have pushed me more.  I have been toying with the idea of not continuing on with the personal training but investing in some weights for my home instead.  I was thinking about doing it alone for some time and then possibly hiring her again a couple months before our wedding (still no date yet....).  Good idea or no?

After my workout with Patrice, I had a delicious smoothie.  It had frozen peaches, fresh raspberries, spinach, and vanila whey protein.  Yum :)  I really like the spinach in smoothies; you don't taste it at all.  Alex even had some so you know it was at least decent to the normal person.

I do feel that I have come out of my rut a little.  I have felt like there has been a little more swagger in my strut (haha!) and my mood has definitely been elevated.  I did not get up this morning for my workout so I am will work out tonight. 

So I'm feeling good again and I love it!  Today is my "Friday" and it's a holiday weekend so I am off for the next four days!!  Woo hoo :)  My plan for the weekend is to clean my house (read: unpack from vacay), run every day, and do some scrapbooking!  Alex's parents have also set up and official meeting of our families on Saturday too :)  I will let you know how it goes!

What are your holiday plans?

~Andrea

Just peachy!

Happy Tuesday!  I had an exciting weekend with my daughter, Julia.  We finally got to meet her little brother Austin Michael :)  She is very excited and loves being an older sister.  (Now just for the record for those of you who might not know me, Austin is Julia's Dad's child and not mine....what do we call this?  A blended family?)

To celebrate after we got home from the hospital, we made some peach cobbler!  My mom bought a million peaches through her church so it was a waste not, want not situation. 

Julia has always loved helping in the kitchen.  Peach cobbler was the perfect thing for her to help with too.  It was my job to skin the peaches and cut them in half.  Julia's job was to cut them into slices.  Hold on folks, peaches are pretty soft and she was only using a butter knife.

This was a modified recipe that turned out to be quite delicious :)

Peach Cobbler

Filling:

• 4 cups peeled and sliced fresh peaches
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon chia seed
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed

Cobbler Crust:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons coconut sugar
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2/3 cup soy milk
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar, for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Generously butter a 1 1/2-quart shallow baking dish. Place the sliced peaches in the dish and sprinkle with coconut sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and flour. Mix gently and spread evenly again. Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile combine all dry ingredients for cobbler crust in a bowl. Cut in the coconut oil with a pastry cutter or your fingers, to make the texture like coarse crumbs. Add soy milk and stir to form a soft dough.

Remove fruit from oven and drop rounded spoonfuls of dough on top. Sprinkle with last tablespoon of coconut sugar and return to oven. Bake until fruit is bubbly and crust topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

That's the worst picture ever...something must have gone wrong when I was loading it haha....maybe I will fix that later....maybe...

The cobbler was very good.  Of course, it was not the standard super-sweet cobbler but it was ooey, gooey and delicious all the same!  I really liked the topping.  It was very nutty and earthy tasting.  I would definitely make this again.

So in not-so-peachy things, I noticed as I was walking into work this morning that I had a slight twinge in my left calf.  Not legitimate pain but the feeling of some possibly brewing for the future.  As some of you may know, I was training for a half-marathon last summer and got a pain in my right leg.  Some said it was shin splints.  I went to an orthopedic surgeon that wanted to inject radioactive materials into me to determine if I had a stress fracture or not.  The end result would have been the same for shin splints:  stop running and rest.  I chose to go straight to the treatment without the radioactive diagnostics.

So anyway, I stopped training and have only recently started running again.  Is my mind playing tricks on me?  Or could something be happening that I need to address?  I have been warming up and focusing on stretching but maybe this isn't enough?

How do you run injury free?

~Andrea