Past Workouts and Weekly Meal Plan

I know it’s late, but I wanted to drop in real quick to share my workouts from last week and the meals I am planning this week. This will be short and sweet! 🙂

Here was last week’s workouts.

Monday: 4 Mile strength run similar to this one, except between each run I did 15 squats, 15 push-ups, and 50 mountain climbers

Tuesday: 5 mile run

Wednesday: This full body circuit workout from Heather over at fitncookies

Thursday: 5 mile run and some abs

Friday: 30 minute bike ride and my Autumn Arms workout

Saturday: 7 mile run

Sunday: Rest

It was a good week of workouts, except for my bad run on Saturday. But that’s okay; I talked about my feelings on bad runs in my last post.

Now for this week’s meals! 

Monday: This recipe for ground turkey enchiladas with guacamole and veggies

Tuesday: Creamy Crockpot Chicken and Tomato Soup

Wednesday: Avocado Chicken Parmesan

Thursday: Honey Barbecue Meatloaf

Friday: Cheeseburger Wraps with sweet potato wraps and vegetables

I usually plan the main course of our meals and then we have whatever vegetables and sides we have at home for me to make. When I do my grocery shopping I try to get the vegetables that are on sale, so I don’t plan the sides as much. 

I had a pretty busy weekend so I didn’t get to do as much food prep as I usually like to do, but tomorrow I am going to try to make my pumpkin cranberry nut bars and some granola to have for the week. 

So there you go! Quick and easy post! 

Questions:

1. How were your workouts last week? 

2. Do you meal plan for the upcoming week? 

3. What is your go to meal when you don’t have much time?

When You Have a Bad Run…

Sadly, as runners, not all of our runs are good, fast, or full of energy. Some of our runs are slow, hard, and just not enjoyable. Sadly, this morning was not my best run. 😦

I have tried to increase my mileage in my long runs, so last Saturday I ran the longest distance I have ever run, 14 miles. I felt great, was happy with my time, and was so ecstatic I was smiling at the end of my run. Today, I decided to only run 7 miles since Ryan and I stayed with my parents last night and I didn’t want to spend as much of my Saturday morning running. As I was running today I just felt tired. Not like I can’t run tired, just I need more sleep tired. I couldn’t seem to push myself to run faster than I was going, even though I knew I was more than capable to go much faster than I was going. Several times during my run I considered stopping and ending early. But I couldn’t bring myself to do that and ended up finishing the seven miles I set out to do. My time was much slower than normal, but when I was finished I was at least happy that I finished what I said I would do that morning.

So what do I do when I have bad runs like this? Obviously tell myself that I am a horrible runner and I will be slow for the rest of my life. Just kidding. Please don’t ever tell yourself that. Everyone has bad runs just like every athlete has bad games, and just like every person has bad days. You have to tell yourself the next time will be better and then…GET OVER IT! Don’t kill yourself. I mean after all, it was just a run. It’s not life or death. 

But you should think about why you had a bad run so that you can try to have a better run the next time. For me this morning, I knew I had not had enough sleep (I went to bed at 11:00 pm last night! My body was probably in shock since I like to be in bed by 9:30 🙂 ) I think I was also just tired from the week. So since I knew I needed more sleep, after I came home and had breakfast (oatmeal with a banana, blueberries, and peanut butter. Yum!) I took a much needed hour nap. Tomorrow is also my rest day, so I am sure that by then I will feel much better and I look forward to a successful, enjoyable run!

Some other reasons you might not have a good run is because of lack of proper nutrition the night before, an overworked body, or lack of good running apparel. Just take the time to think about what it is that you need to do to make sure your next run is better.

Okay, on a brighter note, let’s take it back to yesterday morning. Fridays I like to do some other form of exercise besides running since I like to go for a long run on Saturday. I started out and rode 30 minutes on my bike. Since it was dark I obviously had to bring the headlamp out.

Please ignore my sleepy, no make-up face, and my crazy hair. It is 5 something in the morning, give me a break. 🙂

After my bike ride I wanted to do a strength workout for my arms, but I didn’t have much time before I started getting ready. I was determined to use my time wisely so I made up this hard-core ten minute Autumn Arms Workout. We still need pretty, strong arms for Autumn even if we aren’t wearing those tank tops from the summer!

I did this and definitely felt the burn! It is the perfect workout if you don’t have much time! Make use of every minute you have! If you do this workout, let me know your thoughts. I would love some feedback!

Now I have to go get ready for Kaleigh’s (my brother’s fiance) bachelorette party tonight! They get married in two weeks!! 🙂 I hope everyone has a great Saturday!

Questions:

1. What do you do if you have a bad run? Are you hard on yourself after a bad run?

2. Favorite body part to workout? 

3. What fun thing are you doing today? 

My Eats Lately

First off, I want to thank everyone for all of their kind words after yesterday’s post. Y’all were so sweet, and reading all of your comments and tweets made me smile! 🙂 Now let’s get to the food!

I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I would just show some pictures of what I have been eating lately and then share a recipe I tried out this week and loved! These are all just pictures from the last few weeks, so I haven’t eaten all of this today. 🙂

I have been on a smoothie kick lately. It is still in the 90’s during the day here in Texas, so the cold drinks still taste so good! This was Melissa’s Apple Cinnamon Protein Oat Smoothie. I highly recommend it.

I tried Zeggs after reading this post over at the littlehoneybee. (You will notice I have been trying a lot of Amy’s recipes! After making her banana protein muffins from Heather’s blog, I had to try more of her creations!) My first picture was the zeggs before I added anything in, and the second picture is when I mixed in half of a banana, strawberries, blueberries, and peanut butter. My thoughts, it was okay, but I made it a second time and it was much better because I shredded the zucchini into smaller pieces. I think oatmeal tastes better, but I love knowing that I have a whole zucchini with this breakfast! Talk about full of nutrition! I have had it twice and will have it again.

Some more of Amy’s recipes! I made her cranberry almond bars, which were seriously to die for!! I made them two weeks in a row I love them so much! The second picture was Amy’s black bean brownies.  I am not really a big chocolate fan, so I really made these for Ryan so that he could have a healthier dessert or snack. I followed the exact recipe for the brownies except I didn’t use chocolate chips since I knew Ryan would like them better without that extra ingredient. I wasn’t sure if he would like them, but he loved them! I was so glad they were husband approved!

I tried this new flavor (well new to me) of Oikos Greek yogurt, and I think it was my favorite flavor I have ever had. The banana cream  felt like I was eating froyo. I was sad that I only bought one of this flavor that week. (First world problems, right?)

Eggs with veggies never gets old. 🙂 I always have more vegetables than eggs, but I love it that way! Topped with avocado is what really tops it off though! And then a piece of Ezekial bread with sugar free grape jelly.

Football season is here, so on the first Sunday that the Dallas Cowboys played I made Ryan and I some healthier football food! Homemade chicken nuggets, sweet potato fries, and zucchini fries!

This week I made my spaghetti squash casserole again. This recipe is definitely a winner. Ryan and I both love it! I

I did a little experimenting with this recipe, and I was extremely happy with how it turned out! These are pumpkin cranberry nut bars, and they are so good! Perfect for fall! (Actually perfect for anytime of the year, because I think pumpkin is too good to not eat year around 🙂 ) I am going to make this one more time to get my exact measurements down and then I will be posting the recipe!

Lastly, this week I finally tried a black bean veggie burger!

I ate mine on a bed of spinach with a tomato and avocado. Then on the side I had a sweet potato, broccoli, and corn. No meat for this meal! Coming from a traditional southern family, I have grown up almost always having meat, potatoes, and bread at almost every meal. As I have gotten older and researched more about nutrition and health, I have definitely started adding more vegetables into my diet, and I am still trying to add more. I definitely think having vegetarian meals like this one are good to have sometimes because you end up eating more vegetables than you normally would otherwise. More vegetables is always a good thing! I am not saying meat is a bad thing, I just don’t think we have to have it at every meal like we so often think.

I want to post this recipe because I think  a lot of you might want to try them, but this is not my yummy creation. Go here to check out the Dreaming Foodie’s smoky black bean and cilantro veggie burger!

So there’s just a few things I have eaten lately and really enjoyed! Now it’s time for a date night with the Hubs!

Questions:

What have you ate lately? 

Do you like to experiment in the kitchen or always go off of a recipe?

Do you enjoy having vegetarian meals? If you have any favorite recipes please share them with me! I would love to incorporate some more of them into our menu for the week!

 

 

How Great is Thy Faithfulness

 

So I really am hoping that I can get better at this whole regularly blogging thing, and that I can somehow figure out a way to have time in my day to write and post more. I love blogging so much, but I just seem to get so busy and don’t have the time. 😦 It is okay though, I will keep trying my best! I definitely have some news to catch y’all up on though! 🙂

So the last two weeks the hymn, How Great is thy Faithfulness has been in my head, and for a very good reason. Some of you who have read my blog this summer might have noticed me saying that Ryan has to work most weekends, meaning we are on totally different schedules, and we can’t see each other as much as we like. This also means Ryan can hardly ever go to church because he works all day Sunday and Saturday, so Saturday night church isn’t even an option for us. I have been going by myself, but I have greatly missed going with my new husband, and I know he really misses going to church too. Being a minister’s son, he has grown up in the church his whole life, so not being able to go now is very hard.

Ryan and I have been praying hard all summer for the Lord to provide Ryan with a new job. We were both very thankful that Ryan had a job and could support us both, but his long work schedule was really wearing on him and me. We desperately cried out to the Lord for him to reveal His plan to us, and give us a peace for where we were at that time. We knew we had so much to be thankful for, and that the Lord had a reason for putting Ryan in a job where we didn’t get to see each other much and where Ryan couldn’t go to church.

At the beginning of August my in-laws came and stayed with us for a few days. They knew Ryan wanted a new job, and my mother-in-law shared this bible verse with me.

Psalm 91:14-15 “‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.'”

I immediately began to pray this verse for Ryan daily. I started back to school in the middle of August, and there were still no signs of Ryan getting a new job. We were very discouraged, especially Ryan.

Well about a month ago Ryan started looking into working for a Christian company. There was a job opening and Ryan applied for it. It sounded like the perfect job for Ryan. We prayed and asked the Lord to just open doors, and if this wasn’t the job for Ryan, to close the door and make that clear to us. We said no matter what we will give God all the glory.

About a week after Ryan applied for the job he was contacted and told they wanted to interview him. We were so excited! This was going to be Ryan’s first interview, and he really wanted this job. We spent the whole week until the interview prepping and getting ready. Ryan took his suit to the dry cleaners and the night before the interview we stayed up late so I could ask him possible interview questions.

We both prayed hard about the interview and that God would give Ryan a peace during the interview and give him the words to say. After the interview Ryan called me and said all of the prayers paid off. He felt great about it, and knew that if he didn’t get the job then it wasn’t in the Lord’s plan. We continued to pray and trust in the Lord.

A week later Ryan got a call. THEY OFFERED HIM THE JOB!!! I screamed when I found out, and we immediately prayed and thanked God for answering our prayers better than we could have ever imagined! With his new job, Ryan will get to work with Christians, he gets every other Friday off, and he gets three weeks of vacation. We feel so blessed, and we could not be more thankful. This was such a great reminder that God’s plan is so much better than ours, and we have to be patient and let God’s plan have time to pan out.

Now earlier I wrote that we knew God had Ryan at his old job for a reason. Here are some major life lessons we both learned from the job Ryan has had the last four months.

• God’s plan is so much better than ours! We have to trust him and be patient!
• Be thankful in all circumstances, no matter how hard they may be!
• Be thankful that you have the opportunity to go to church and serve. Everyone is not able to do this, so church should not be taken for granted. 
• Family time should not be taken for granted. Many families cannot spend as much time together as they like because their work schedules are opposite.

Ryan’s last day at his job is tomorrow and Monday he begins his new job! We are so excited! To celebrate his last day, tomorrow night we are having a date night! 🙂 We might even go to Studio Movie Grill. 🙂

I know I haven’t written in so long, and I have so much to share with y’all, but this is the biggest thing in our lives right now, and I had to share God’s faithfulness! I will try to write more regularly, because I have some fitness related things to share and some yummy recipes! 🙂

Also, if I nominated you for the Sunshine award in my last post and you emailed me about the questions, I am still working on getting those to you! Sorry! 🙂

Questions:
1. How has God proved his faithfulness to you lately? 

2. Do you like to pray Scripture?

3. Have you ever been to Studio Movie Grill? I have only gone once, but it was so fun!

Sunshine Award

Hey there! I know it has been a while since I last posted; the beginning of the school year was very busy for me! I will try to get back in a regular routine, key word, try.  🙂 I wish I could write every day, but I no longer let myself feel so bad if I can’t post as often as I like because of the reasons I posted here about the business of life. 

I still feel like such an amateur at blogging (because I am!) so if I ever get an award I am ecstatic, to say the least!  I was nominated for one a few months ago, and a couple of weeks ago Melissa over at FreeingImperfections nominated me for the Sunshine Award!

When I saw that I was nominated I was seriously so excited! I still can’t believe that people actually read my blog, so even just getting comments on posts still excites me! Melissa is one of my favorite bloggers, so being nominated by her was such an honor! This is how this award works:

1. Include the award logo on your blog or in a post.

2. Link to the person that nominated you.

3. Answer 10 questions about yourself.

4. Nominate 10 other bloggers to receive the award.  Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

Here are Melissa’s questions for me:

1. If money were no option, what one option would you go buy tomorrow? I would buy a cabin in Colorado for sure! When I was little my grandparents had a cabin in Colorado so we went there every summer and sometimes other times during the year. Ryan also has grown up going to Colorado with his family during the summer, so both of us would love to have our own cabin to go to and stay. It’s the perfect vacation to me. 🙂

This was Ryan and I kayaking last Summer in Colorado. We went with his family there on vacation.

2. What chore do you enjoy doing the least and why? Dusting has always been one of my least favorite chores because I hate having to take off everything that is on top of what I am dusting to then put it right back on when I am finished. I also hate washing sheets because they are such a hassle to put back on!

3. Most of the clothes in your closet can be fond from what three stores? Um, this is tricky for me because a lot of my clothes I have gotten over the years and they are from totally different places. The first two stores that come to my mind though are Macy’s and Forever 21. But honestly, I just go wherever the good sales are. 🙂

4. If you could only use one beauty product for the rest of your life, what would you choose? Well, I’m not too much of a makeup person. To be honest, I have only been wearing makeup for about two years. I started wearing it my sophomore year of college, while all of my other friends started wearing it in sixth grade. I would probably pick either moisturizer to keep my skin healthy or some type of eye makeup to hide my natural dark eye circles that are ALWAYS underneath my eyes.

5. Do you have any nicknames from friends or family? What are they? When I was little my family would call me Becky Boo (embarrassing to say now), and when I was in high school my teammates called me Becky The Beast. I was given this name since I was usually always the smallest one on the court. 🙂

A picture of “The Beast” back in high school. 🙂 (Sorry about the finger in the top left corner of the picture, haha!)

6. Why did you start your blog? I started my blog because I loved reading other healthy living blogs, I love to write, and I was always coming up with things in my head that I would blog about if I had a blog. So finally one day I though, “hey, I can actually do this.” I especially loved finding new workouts and recipes from other people who also lived healthy, fit lifestyles, so I wanted to be able to share some of my own too! Then once I got started I knew I wanted my faith to be a big part of my blog too.

7. Shoes or purses? SHOES!!!! Believe me, I like my purses too, but I LOVE SHOES! Especially running shoes. 🙂

8. Describe your perfect day from start to finish. I would wake up early, but not too early, maybe about 7:00 am, go for a long run, and come back to have breakfast with Ryan. After that we would go for a bike ride on a trail and pack a lunch for a picnic somewhere. Once we got back home we would go swimming somewhere, layout by the pool, and read. We would get to relax/play games/do whatever we felt like for the rest of the afternoon, and then go out to dinner to wherever we were feeling like that night. We would come home to either watch a movie, play a game, or just talk.

9. Who do you look to for style inspiration or advice? I honestly have no idea on this one. I definitely don’t call myself the fashion queen. I just buy clothes that I think look cute and that I like. I can’t think of one single person I go to for inspiration; sometimes I might see someone (in real life or on the Internet), and be like, “I like what they are wearing.” If I am shopping with my friends, my mom, or Ryan, I like to ask them what they think of something before I buy it, but that’s about it.

10. What are you too afraid to pursue right now, whether in your dreams, work, or relationships? I am a little afraid to pursue a triathlon, which is an accomplishment I would love to say that I did! The swimming is the part that scares me, and it’s just because of the unknown. I have never done any type of swimming competition, and I definitely am not a swimmer. Sure, I know how to swim and I have swam laps before, but I know my form is horrible, and I have so much to improve on in that area. I have ran and biked so I would be completely comfortable to do that, but swimming sounds so hard and it is so new to me. Hopefully one day I will get over this fear and complete a triathlon. (But in order for this to happen I also need a pool where I can train; I don’t have access to a lap pool at this time.)

So there is a little bit more information about me, if you cared. 🙂

Now for my Nominees!

Jamie @ FitForTheRun

Danica @ItsProgression

Sarah @ThePickyRunner

Heather @FitnCookies

Amy @LongDriveJourney

Ellie @FitForTheSoul

Kim @HealthyHungryGirl

Cori @OlivetoRun

Amy @TheLittleHoneyBee

Becky @OlivesnWine

If y’all will email me if I have nominated you, then I will send you my ten questions for you to answer. 🙂

Now feel free to tell me anything about yourself! Or answer any of the ten questions I answered from Melissa!