New Routine

as i had mentioned in a previous post, i wanted to take a break from running after my race. running was feeling forced and i wanted to enjoy it. but not running meant no exercise plans. i knew i needed a change of pace.

after searching a bit, i finally took the plunge and bought Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. ive liked alot of Jillian's workouts and i love her on the biggest loser (my most favorite show besides the big bang theory), so i figured this would be a good fit for me.

the workouts are only 30 mins long. and its 6 days a week. ill do a further review on it when i get more into it, but so far im loving it! short, brutle, and to the point. its a good mix of cardio and weights which was just what i was looking for. and the workouts change every 2 weeks so i wont get too bored. its a 90 day program, so i still have a ways to go. but im ready to see some changes. but first i need to change my eating habits. cant lose weight eating cookies at every meal. darn it ;) ill talk more about my eating plans later this week.

ive decided id do a little running too. im going to just casually add in runs when i see fit. i dont wanna lose the running ive built up so far, so im gonna run when i feel like it, not forced. tonight i went for a 1 mile loop around the neighborhood and pushed myself a little. i shaved 20 seconds off my fastest mile! can i get a woot woot! i love progress :)

happy tuesday!

the color run - recap

going into this race i wasnt sure how i was gonna do. on tuesday i had only ran one mile. and i didnt run the rest of the week. and on thursday i slightly twisted my ankle in some cute wedges i wanted to wear. i shoulda just worn flats. thankfully my ankle didnt bother me one bit during the race.

me and the hubs got to baton rouge friday afternoon to pick up my race packet. we didnt do much that night cuz i wanted to rest my leg and foot (my calf has been tight lately, but thankfully foam rolling has helped). the next morning my parents arrived in BR to cheer me on. i have the best parents :) after they arrived i knew i had to get my breakfast in so it could settle. i had a banana and a luna bar, my usual breakfast ive had before a run lately.

we had a corner hotel room where i could see the start line and the finish line right on either side of the hotel. pretty cool. and i saw TONS of people. when the email said 10,000 people.. i really didnt think there would be that many people. but there was. so i suited up to head out and join everyone.

after figuring out where to actually start at (there were 3 start banners?) i made my way over, and some how made my way pretty far to the front. after waiting around for 30 mins they finally gave the go ahead for us to start. right at 10. since there was so many people, they let us go in waves, a few hundred at a time. i was released in the 3rd wave. my family said that by the time the first people were finishing, everyone still hadnt even started!

as i took off i felt pretty good. besides sticking my phone in my tiny back pocket of my capris, and have it drag my capris down the WHOLE race. i quickly realized i was trying to keep up with everyone and was getting more tired than usual in the first mile. and once i hit an incline in the road i started walking. i had told myself that this was gonna be a fun race so if i didnt run it all so be it.

i quickly learned thru the first color zone that you had to get up right next to the people with the color or you werent gonna get anything. i sadly didnt take pictures during the race. they said you had to keep your phone in a plastic bag if you were gonna have it out and i didnt wanna deal with that. i already had to carry my color packet for the color fest at the end.

though i walked some of the race, i ran most of it. and when i checked my pace i was running wayyy too fast. like 10 min/ mi pace. i like never do that. i think i was trying to keep up with all the people passing me. but i kept pushing thru and made it to the end.

when i got to the end i grabbed water and found the family. soon after they anncounced they were about to do their next color fest. i went to the crowd and joined in the fest. and got covered with even more color. here is a few pics from a later one.

and one for boston

this race was sooo much fun. and i loved having the hubby and parents there to see me and cheer me on during the race. this is definitely a race to run with friends. it was slightly boring by myself. they are coming back to new orleans in november, so im rounding up a group to do it again!

find a race near you!  http://thecolorrun.com/

the professional pictures will be posted on thursday, so maybe ill have more pics to show you then!

Saturday

i havent forgotten to recap you on my race saturday. im just trying to round up some pictures to show you all what went down.

the race was so much fun though. im ready to do another one. ill give you the spoiler now that i didnt run the whole thing. i was running way too fast and there were some inclines in the road. im use to running in flat lake charles. but im not super upset i walked. it was a freaking blast. hope to update you soon with photos!

BBQ Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas

every sunday if im having salad for lunch the next week or jamie is eating chicken wraps, i always do some prep work. i cook a bunch of chicken and a batch of bacon. sometimes i slack on lunches and we always have leftovers. i usually just make wraps or use the chicken for buffalo chicken sandwiches.

but all that seemed boring today when i looked in the fridge and saw the leftovers. i try to clean out the leftovers on sunday for a fresh start in the new week. and i knew i had leftover tortillas from the tostadas i made earlier this week. so how about some quesadillas.

cool, quesadillas. but what kind? bbq sounded good, and i was out of anything else to make any other kind of quesadilla, so decision made.

BBQ Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas
makes 5

Ingredients:
10 small flour tortilla
3 chicken breast
6 slices of bacon
cheese (i used sharp)
bbq sauce (i used Kraft Honey Hickory Smoke, but use whatever you have on hand)

Directions:

1. Cook chicken and shred. Add just enough bbq sauce to coat the chicken.
2. Cook bacon just til lightly crispy. Cut into pieces and add to chicken.

 

3. Start assembling quesadilla. Add a spoonful and half to one tortilla of meat mixture, top with cheese, and a little more bbq sauce.

4. Heat pan and add cooking spray. Place quesadilla in pan and spray top with cooking spray. cook for 2 mins before flipping. cook til crispy.

5. Plate and cut in halves or quarters. Enjoy!

One week

one week from today ill be in baton rouge for my color run. and i must say, im quite nervous. i dont think im even ready. i cant run a continuous 3 miles. some running is better than nothing, but i wanna run the whole thing!

thursday i decided to ditch the training plan on my ipod an do my own thing. i did about 2 miles on thursday, but i knew today i had to tackle the 2 miles. ill be doing 3 more runs before next saturday to try and prep me for these 3 miles. i met my goal of doing it under 45 mins. but i still wanna do better. i did about a half mile of walking all together.

one thing i need to do is clean up my eating. sweets and french fries wont win ya a race. i need to up my veggies and cut back on those fries. and start hydrating early. the race is a 10 am. a time ive never fueled for, so this should be an interesting test. ill probably fuel for and run at 10 am tomorrow to get see how i handle it all.

hope tomorrow goes better than today!
 

Easy Bean and Beef Tostadas

i knew on the meal plan this week i wanted to have some kinda of mexican dish. but i was tired of the normal tacos, burritos, and enchiladas that we usually have. so i started to think of other easy mexican dishes.

when we go eat at Casa Ole here in town, i alway get a dinner plate so i can get the cold plate before. usually its a  chalupa and chile con queso tostada. which is probably my favorite part of the meal. so i decided to just make my own. even though i have Casa Ole coupons staring at me on my fridge.

 

 though i would love a tostada covered in queso i knew it wasnt my best option for a dinner. so i decided to just do a bean and beef one, covered in cheese.

Easy Bean and Beef Tostada
makes 6
Ingredients:
6 small flour tortillas (or you can use corn and skip the toasting step)
cooking spray
1 lb ground beef (or turkey)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
1 cup of blended mexican cheese (i used krogers taco cheese)
 any tops youd like: sour cream, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, olives

Directions:

1.Brown meat, drain if necessary. Mix in taco seasoning as directed.

2. Warm up beans in a small pot. i added a little chili powder and a dash of taco sauce to add a little flavor. you can add anything youd like, or nothing at all.

3.Lay out tortillas on a pan lined in parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray (i have the butter kind) and put in the over under the broiler. Broil for 5 minutes or until you get a crispness youd like.

4. Once everything is cooked, warmed, and toasted its time to assemble. add a layer of beans, meat mixture, and top with cheese for each one. i had beans left over so i just put them up for a bean burrito snack for the weekend. put back in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5-10 mins. just to get the cheese melted.

5. Remove tostadas from oven and top as youd like and enjoy!

over run

im kinda shocked how far ive come with this 5k training. im on week 7 this week. ive never reached this far in the program, and well, its kinda scary. each time i go to run, i sigh when i see how much i have to run. which is kinda funny when i say it now, cuz i wanna run for 3 miles, its gonna take awhile.

i have done every run it has requested of me. not perfectly, but itll take time. ive also done my extra runs as i had planned. which i surprised myself this weekend on my 2 mile run. i didnt continuously run 2 miles, but i continuously ran 2 separate miles, with a 4 min walk in between.

but ive never been one to really keep up with anything. those 90 day programs? yea.. i last about 20 days. previous 5k trainings? lasted about 3 weeks.

so basically im saying... im over this running thing. like i cant wait for the race to be here so i can take a break from running. i still like running. just not 4 days a week. i think 2 would be cool. but i do wanna finish this and prove to myself that i actually can stick with a program and complete it. thought  might not be able to run 3 continuous miles by race time, im sure gonna try my hardest.

only 5 runs, and 11 days til race day!

Wedding DIY's: the invites

since i didnt update the blog about wedding things like i wanted, i figured now is better than any time to share with you all the DIY's i did of the wedding. and all the special details i added in to the wedding.

after searching online for far too long, i decided that none of the invites that i saw really jumped out at me. i had thrown the idea of doing them myself around for awhile, but it seemed like such a big task. i mean these were going out to alot of people and i wanted to look great! so i started a search on etsy for invites on there that people designed. i saw a few i liked and decided to try and come up with something on my own. i mean, i am quite artsy, so i knew i could come up with something. then an idea came to me. and i started drawing it by hand, yet it did not look good. so i imported it into the only drawing program i really knew how to use, Autocad. its the program i use to do the drafting at work. and after a little work, my save the date, invite, and rsvp cards came to life. i loved how they came out!

 

catch my typo? i apparently never did, til after printing :(

i went to our local print place and told them what i wanted, and they worked with me to get me exactly what i wanted. and at a great price too. much cheaper than i would have ordering them.

 after i designed these, i pretty much had the theme i wanted. and the rest just developed from there.

i loved how they came out, and i got so many compliments on them. i loved that it was personal, and not just one i ordered online. youll see how it all played into the rest of the wedding details :)

week 6

happy april fools day! this the day i hate the most out of the whole year. i am super gullible and people love using it to their advantage. hope no one tried to fool you today!

i thought i would update yall on my training. i started week 6 today. i can say that ive never made it to week 6 before in all the time ive done the 5k training. i usually quit around week 4. but this time is different!

i was quite scared going into this week. todays training went a little something like this: 5 min warm-up walk, 10 min run, 5 min walk, 10 min run, 5 min cool down walk. and i am happy to say i completed it all with only a 30 sec walk break in the second 10 min run. this is HUGE for me. the last couple weeks i have been taking more walking breaks than id like to admit, and it really discouraged me. and i think the only reason i took the little walk break in the second run was i felt really hot. the whole time ive been training, its been cool, not so sunny weather. but spring is coming and its starting to get hooot. but once i cooled a bit, it was back to running and i was able to finish without another walk break.

i only have 3 weeks left to train, and i was actually starting to think i wouldnt do very well. but after today, i have a bit more confidence that i can do it. mind over matter!! we shall see how the rest of the training goes!

on another note, we tried something new for dinner. i decided to take a look on my food board on pinterest to find something new. i stumbled upon this: haystack dinner and i can say, it was pretty good! you should give it a try if you are looking for something new to try.

happy monday!