Mid-Week Blues

Hello world…it is Wednesday! As you all know, traditionally Wednesdays are my LEAST favorite day of the week but today I am determined to change that mindset! Keith calls it “stinkin thinkin” and I am not going to engage in it today! No way, not me, not today! Besides a mood is mental right…so bring it on Wednesday I am taking you on!!! :)  

Is That All You Got?

I am really good sore from my run and body pump yesterday! Love that “Hello Triceps” feeling! But as you know, when you are sore the best thing to do is keep moving! Thus I had a great 9 miler (8:20 pace) this morning followed by 10 minutes on the elliptical. Now I am sweaty, happy and smelling the coffee brewing. Ah coffee…why must you smell so amazing?!  

Dinner last night was (gasp) a total repeat! Do you ever do that? You eat something so yummy that you want it again the next night?! Well that was me…I did the cheesy tomato omelet with cantaloupe again. To see the picture (again)  just jump back to yesterday’s morning post (here) and there it is…in all its simple goodness!! I did make Keith gluten-free spaghetti with turkey meatballs! He was happy! :)  

How is that for a man meal??

Speaking of Keith…don’t forget today is Work It Out Wednesday and he will be posting this afternoon on Kettlebells! To see what you missed last Wednesday, go here!  

So let’s talk fruit! Did you know that eating fruit helps protect your eyesight?? Data reported in a study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology indicates that eating 3 or more servings of fruit per day may lower your risk of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), the primary cause of vision loss in older adults, by 36%, compared to persons who consume less than 1.5 servings of fruit daily.  Cool huh?

 What is your favorite fruit?   

When it comes to fruit I don’t discriminate but lately I have been craving the heck out of bananas!!

What Is A Sport?

Okay seriously I have to post a few pictures of my house right now. Keep in mind the following things: 1) I live in Austin, Texas and 2) it was 76 degrees here on Sunday (that was only 2 days ago)!!!

Texas Snow

My backyard

 Now I know this isn’t ‘real’ snow to some of you, but to us…this is CRAZINESS!!!

 Alright moving on, with the Olympics in full force I have constantly been hearing the age-old debate of what is versus what is not a “sport”. Example, is Ice Dancing a sport? Is Curling a sport? These are questions I am sure you have heard too if you have listened to ESPN or just random conversations regarding the Olympics these past few weeks. So I looked up the definition of a sport. According to The Free Dictionary.com:

sport //  (spôrt, sprt) n.

1. a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.

b. A particular form of this activity.

2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

 

3. An active pastime; recreation.

 

So, then according to this definition of a sport I would have to say that Ice Dancing and Curling are both sports. I may not completely get the whole curling thing but it obviously takes skill, it is obviously governed by a set of rules and it is engaged in competitively. So…sport?! I guess so.

How do you define a sport?

 

Two-for-Tuesday

Good morning!!! Today is my 2-a-day! I started the morning with a 10 mile run. After yesterday’s slow and steady long run I decided to pump up the volume today! I did 10 miles and now I am refueling and going to head to Body Pump around 9:30 to “PUMP ME UP!” haha! I am in a goofy mood today…can you tell?!

I wish I had some awesome dinner to report but since I am going meatless on Mondays and Keith HAS TO HAVE HIS MEAT he got leftovers and I made breakfast! I made a cheese omelet and had some cantaloupe. I have been craving the heck out of some cantaloupe lately and so I grabbed one the other day at the store…it did not disappoint! I love a good melon! :) My dessert went unpictured…oops…inhaled it too fast! But it was Fage Greek yogurt with cocoa powder and pecans mixed in. Even Keith wanted to sneak a bite! :)

I know it is hard to see but the inside is filled with tomatoes and cheddar!

Did anyone else see this article that an afternoon nap might make you smarter?! I thought this was a great read. I am NOT a napper. I wish I could be but I always just think about everything that is waiting for me to do and the nap becomes more stressful than helpful! (I know I know…I need to learn to CHILL) but Keith, on the other hand, is an A+ napper. He usually gets at least a 30 minute power nap everyday (waking up at 4:30, working out and then working until 7:30 at night…yeah he EARNS it). So I have proclaimed my husband the  new SMARTEST MAN ALIVE!! haha!

What about you, are you a napper?

Want to know something? Submit an anonymous question via my new ASK ME! Page. Every Friday afternoon I answer all the questions. Good ones so far…you guys are making me think!! haha! :)

Also OpenSky is still offering free shipping on anything over $25! This is awesome…especially when ordering weights or other heavy items! Go check my store for new products!!

The Interesting World of Food Blogging

I debated whether or not I wanted to post this but in the end I feel like it is important! I definitely do not consider myself a strictly “food blogger” meaning I do not post every meal I eat or take pictures of everything that goes into my mouth. I typically post a good dinner recipe and then other than that I feel my blog is just my personal “diarrhea of the mouth”. I blog about my exercise, running, movies, etc…but it is does not revolve strictly around food nor do I want it to. There is a lot more to me that just what I eat. With that said, I know a lot of food bloggers DO post every meal and snack that they eat throughout everyday. That is totally fine and I see no problem with that either. I think everyone has a blogging style and when they find it they go with it.

So, I find it so heartbreaking when other bloggers give themselves a hard time when they eat what they consider to be “bad foods”. They compare themselves to other bloggers and feel like a failure if their eats aren’t gluten-free, raw, organic, or healthy. Who ever said that pizza and beer is not okay? Or having nachos at the bowling alley was bad?! Or, gasp, busting out a TV dinner when you are too tired to do anything else? Who said?! Certainly not me! I have had my fair share of TV dinner nights and pizza and ice cream moments. It is OKAY! Really, it is!

I think the food blogging community is such a good one because I find recipes, tips, friendship and love. But I DO NOT compare myself to other food bloggers. Everyone has different eats and sometimes I see something that someone posts and I think I HAVE TO TRY THAT and other times I think…well if they liked it…good for them! But the point is, I am Kelly and that doesn’t mean I have to be like “Sally” or “Jane” or “Susie Q” I just need to be me. I need to eat for me and enjoy the things I like. Yes, I chose to eat healthy and gluten-free 90% of the time. Yes, I avoid dairy and soy and yes I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. But I do the “traditional crap food” too just not all the time.

So I just want to tell all of you followers out there (whether it is my blog or someone else’s) don’t compare what I eat or what someone else eats to what you eat! If you want to make a recipe of mine or someone else’s YAY! Do it. I love that! But don’t label yourself a failure simply because you don’t follow my same eating patterns. No one is perfect and everyone has those days where they just don’t care. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone.

The food blogging community is AWESOME! (let me repeat that, AWESOME!) But I think it can also drive you crazy if you are constantly in some kind of internal competition with yourself and your food. Enjoy the community but be YOU! Take the tips you read and apply them to your life if it makes sense for you! Try new ways of eating (Vegan, Gluten-free, Raw, etc.) and see if it works for you. If it doesn’t…that is OKAY. It really is!

Okay…that’s it from me today. I hope I didn’t offend anyone! I just hate to see people beat themselves up for not being like someone else!

Love you all….

Take THAT Monday!

Good Monday morning to YOU! It seems everyone really enjoyed my Remember When post from yesterday! It was definitely fun seeing what you guys remembered from the 80’s too! I hope everyone is now ready to ease back into the work week! I had a NICE 14 mile run this morning averaging 8:40 pace. Take that Monday morning! :) As predictably as always I am drinking slurping my coffee, enjoying my egg white scramble and my protein brownie. Which I did slightly differently this morning…1 scoop vanilla whey protein, dash of baking soda, 3 T. liquid egg whites, and a drop of coconut extract…another HIT! So good!! :) Then I am off to work! :)  

Dinner last night was a new experiment! I made Mustard Maple Chicken in the slow cooker! (JENN…are you reading?!?!) It was excellent…both Keith and I enjoyed it very much and it will be another make again! Basically, on Sunday morning I could already tell I wasn’t going to want to put a whole lot of effort into dinner that night so I raided the refrigerator and pantry to see what I had!  

Look at all that color!!

MUSTARD MAPLE CHICKEN  

• 1 lb chicken pieces (I used chicken thighs because this was all I had)
• 1-2 cups chicken broth (I think I used probably 1 1/2 cups total)
• 2 medium (or 1 large) sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp mustard (either Dijon or stone ground…I used stone ground because, again, this was all I had)
• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Put chicken in bottom of slow cooker and toss with thyme, maple syrup and mustard.  

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes and add to pot. Next, add the onions and garlic.  

Pour chicken broth on top (enough to cover) and add the bay leaves. Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours.  

Serves: 4  

258 Calories; 4.6g Fat (1.4g saturated fat); 87.8mg Cholesterol; 640.3mg Sodium; 29.9g Carbohydrates; 2.7g Fiber; 9.3g Sugar; 22.3g Protein  

Next, I really need to give a shout out to Nicole for giving me the Sunshine Award!! The sunshine award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world so I was very excited to get this!  

Sunshine Award

 So I am passing it on to a few of the bloggers who inspire me on a daily basis! Thanks to all of you for being the sunshine in my life!  

Pen of Pen At Peace  

Kate of The Eggplant Executrix  

Lily of Lily’s Health Pad  

Lee of In My Tummy  

Lindsay of Goodies Galore  

Katie of Making Food and Other Stuff  

Anna of Newlywed Newly Veg!  

Finally, tell me what the BEST part of your weekend was? Mine was definitely Sunday afternoon with the temperature topping out at 75 degrees! Woot Woot! Keith and I washed our cars…which means it will probably rain today, huh?  

What was the best part of your weekend?  

Oh and go here for an AWESOME give-a-way from I Heart Wellness! This looks like a good one peeps!! Or here for an AWESOME give-a-way from What Kate Ate!

‘Remember When’ Sunday

Last night Keith and I were totally going down memory lane. It was so fun. But what makes it so fun with Keith is that I are a decade apart! He was born in 1970 and I was born in 1981. So my ‘remember whens’ from childhood are more like Keith’s teenage ‘remember whens.’ But here a few notable things we covered last night:

Do you remember troll dolls?

Do you remember slap bracelets?

Do you remember New Kids On The Block?

Do you remember Saved By The Bell?

Do you remember Hypercolor Shirts?

Do you remember The Goonies?

Do you remember old school Oregon Trails?

Do you remember Keds?

Do you remember CapriSun?

Do you remember Brach’s Neapolitan Candies?

 

Do you remember Fun Dips?

Do you remember Rainbow Brite?

Do you remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Do you remember Etch-a-Sketch?

Do you remember Rock-Em Sock-Em Robots?

 

Do you remember Starter Jackets?

And lastly, do you remember crimped hair?

What are some of your favorite ‘remember whens?’

IT CAME!

So I have been lucky enough to become friends with Katie! She is pretty incredible and I HIGHLY recommend checking out her blog! Anyway…aside from being a PhD student (in biology no less), an active runner, and a foodie blogger she also sews! She has a store, Katie Jo Sews, and sells some cute stuff! Well I asked her to make me a custom order for a cute gym tote! I am a Nutrition Manager and active gym nut and I wanted a cute bag to hold all my junk! And boy did she deliver!!! Check it out: 

The cutest bag EVAH!

 

The inside...love all the pockets!

 

Be jealous fellow gym goers!

 

THANK YOU KATIE! And seriously people…go check out her store! TODAY!