Lean Lena

Lean Lena July 24, 2014

Pro Compression Socks Review and Special Discount!

Hey guys! Happy Monday!

How was you weekend? Mine was busy and active, as always 🙂

Even though I am just training for my first 5K, you might remember me wondering about the benefits/lack thereof of running in compression socks. Well, shortly after I wrote that post I got an opportunity to review Pro Compression socks through my Sweat Pink Ambassadorship.

I decided to see for myself if compression socks make any difference while training and recovering!

We were given the choice of reviewing Marathon Socks or Calf Sleeves. I opted for the socks.

I ordered the Marathon Socks in white and got them in the mail just a few days later.

Well, I just couldn’t wait to try them in action!

That same day when I got them in the mail, hubby and I had our next run scheduled with the C25K, so I put my socks on about 15 minutes before the run, kept them on and off we went!

Ok, here’s what happened: I felt like my legs were running ahead of the rest of my body that day. One of the reasons why was that it was the first cool day after a few sweaty exhausting runs. Another reason was that we had a 2 day rest since last run, and 1 day rest since the leg-related activity (the cycling class I taught that Monday).

But I know my legs – it wasn’t just cooler weather and rest. Those socks worked, too! For the first time since I re-started running I felt like moving my feet was not hard work, but pleasure.

I got home, took a shower and put them on that evening for a while for recovery.

Added in some foam rolling and next day my legs felt like that run never happened! No. Tightness. At. All.

From that day forward, I’ve been running in those socks and leaving them on for 15-30 minutes after runs.

Here are the Key Features of the Pro Compression products:

1. True Graduated Compression

2. Arch support with just the right amount of compression

3. Stabilization zone through the sides to mid foot. Helps provide foot bed comfort.

4. Open toe box so it will not keep your toes to tight.

5. Wide cuff for added comfort.

6. Moisture wicking materials

7. No blisters!

Testified: ALL TRUE! I have decided that I am definitely a compression socks kinda girl! 🙂

Best part?

You guys can use the discount code “PINK” to get 40% OFF an entire purchase at the PRO Compression online store.

Click on the link below to tell your twitter friends about this awesome chance to get high quality product at 40% OFF:
Tweet: I #KeepItTight w/ @PROCompression! Use the code PINK for 40% OFF your entire purchase! http://ctt.ec/W2UDL+ @fitapproach #sweatpink

Stay fit, friends, and #keepittight 🙂

Filed Under: fitness, fitness review, Motivation Monday, new experiences, Product Reviews, running, Sweat Pink Tagged With: C25K, compression socks, fitness, fitness review, new experience, product review, running 7 Comments

Lean Lena July 23, 2014

C25K and Week 3 of 30 Days Active Challenge

Hey-hey my fitness gang! How is that hump day going over there?

I’m feeling pretty happy here 🙂 Oh! That’s right! Happy Birthday to me 🙂

Yep, I get to eat at least one of those today 🙂 Image Source

So I’m done with the 3rd week of my 30 Days Active Challenge and I have to say – it has been the toughest yet. Not only because I felt unmotivated for most of it, but also due to the family/life circumstances playing against me.

So here’s the Week 3 recap of the 30 days active challenge I brought onto myself.

{WEDNESDAY} was a C25K run day.

Hubby and I went on another adventure with C25K – Day 2 of Week 2 is where we’re at. We ran/walked for 2.3 miles at about 13 min. average pace.

The stars were stacked against us that night – my Mr. H. pulled something around his knee and is out of running for now 🙁

{THURSDAY} His knee didn’t start hearting until Thursday night after we got home from work.

I ended up staying at home and taking care of him/dinner/house stuff. I tried to make up for no official workout on Thursday by eating well and at least walking more.

{FRIDAY} was a nightmare

Family issue came up big time, which pretty much screwed up my entire weekend until late Sunday evening.

No official workout on Friday, but I did try to stay active and take more steps (I think I pretty much went up and down the stairs at work like every 30 minutes).

{SATURDAY}

I was so tired after Friday events that I was only capable of yoga – or so I thought in the morning anyway.

So I did yoga with Fiona.

I haven’t been to her class in a while and was so happy to get a chance to go – it was wonderful to see how her teaching style has evolved to showcase the strength that I always knew she had. It was a great class and really helped me relax after the stress of my Friday and tune out of everything but what my body was doing in that hour.

Thank you, Fiona. I’m really grateful for that class.

{SUNDAY} Active Day

The family train got back on it’s tracks – everybody was relieved and happy again.

I took a quick bike ride to the swim club choosing to move my legs rather than take a car ride with my folks:

Got a quick refreshment in the pool, got back home and went for a run with C25K!

Lessons learnt: more that 2 days’ gap between runs does not feel good; it’s not the heat it’s the humidity that’s the “run killer”. Temperature was nice and pleasant, but it was still very humid. Besides, I chose a route that had me going uphill most of the time (silly). Oh well. That was done and felt good afterwards.

All my efforts on Sunday were rewarded by the FitBit stats in the evening:

{MONDAY} is my new favorite day of the week.

Why? Because that’s when I teach at the YMCA at 5:30 PM and get to see my cycling gang, ride with them and share this incredible energy they create.

I had 7 people in my class this Monday, no newbies, all my regulars and familiar faces. We had a blast!

If you’re a cycling/Spinning® instructor looking for new ideas for your playlists, check out this page here to see the playlists I use for my rides.

{TUESDAY} Swimming

It was hot yesterday! Really-really hot. So we grilled some chicken thighs, packed some watermelon and went over to the swim club, where I did some laps and then we had dinner there.

And then I got home and picked all this goodness in my garden to fuel my challenged body 🙂 🙂 🙂

So, what did I learn from this week of the Challenge?

First of all – I learned not to turn one slip up into a slip up week. Life got in the way of my workouts on Thursday and Friday, but I didn’t quit or stop the 30 Days Active Challenge. I kept going. Because it is not a failure. It’s a slip up. You get up and keep going.

Because I pretty much missed two days, I am going to extend my challenge until August 2 instead of finishing on July 31.

And that’s how it’s going to be. Bring on the final week of the 30 Days Active Challenge!

Tell me, guys: what was the best work out you had this/last week?

Stay fit, and keep going!

Come cheer @LeanLena101 on her #C25K adventure! #fitness #fitfam

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Linked to: Work Out Wednesdays Linkup, The Hump Day Blog Hop, Wine’d Down Wednesday

Filed Under: Cycling, fitness, Fitness Challenges, Girls Gone Sporty, running, spinning, Spinning Instructor, Sweat Pink, Workout Wednesday Tagged With: bicycling, C25K, cycling, fitness, fitness motivation, fitness review, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, running, spinning, spinning instructor, weight loss, yoga 19 Comments

Lean Lena July 22, 2014

Cheesecake Cupcakes Recipe – No Guilt and Lots of Flavor!

Hey my foodies! How was your weekend?

Mine was an emotional roller-coaster, but I don’t want to go there right now – more on that on Wednesday!

I hope you enjoyed yours and are ready for some tasty stuff!

As always, it’s Tasty Tuesday Linkup time!

Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more participants next week!

My tasty find this week – Cheesecake Cupcakes.

Do you love cheesecake? Is it hard to stop before you finish the whole piece once you have it on your plate? You bet it is (for me)! These cheesecake cupcakes are going to save your calorie budget 🙂 They are bite size, and I made some healthy substitutions to the ingredients on the original recipe (which was shared by a co-worker of mine). So here you go – paradise on earth – cheesecake cupcakes!

You will need (for 12 cupcakes):

For the crust:

1 cup Graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup very ripe avocado (who needs butter when you have avocado?)

For the filling:

1 block Philadelphia cream cheese

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 can condensed milk

1/4 can evaporated milk

Strawberries and fresh mint leaves (to garnish), or

1 can of crushed pineapple and 1/4 cup condensed milk (to top)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F

Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners

Mix Graham cracker crumbs with avocado until well combined

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners (about 2 tsp per liner), and press down with the spoon to make crust:

Bake crust for 10 minutes at 350°F.

While the crust is in the oven, prep the filling by combining all the ingredients for the filling and mixing until smooth and creamy.

Pour filling into the cups over the prebaked crusts when they are ready. Normally you’d fill the cups until they are 2/3 full (for regular cupcakes). However, cheesecake normally rises pretty well, but falls back when you take it out of the oven. So, I filled mine almost all the way to the top:

Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F.

They should look like this when they’re done and just out of the oven (cracked on top).

Slice the strawberries, and put on top of the cupcakes while they’re still hot, garnish with fresh mint leaves if you like. Another tipping idea: mix crashed pineapple and some condensed milk and spread on top:

Refrigerate for at least a couple hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Your turn, guys! Link it up!

This post was shared on Healthy Tuesday Hop, Recipe of the Week Linkup

Check out this #Cheesecake cupcakes #recipe via @LeanLena101 #food #foodporn #yum

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Filed Under: dessert, Link Up, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: baking, cupcakes, dessert, good food, healthy dessert, recipes 14 Comments

Lean Lena July 18, 2014

They Didn’t Make the Cut or Daily Struggles of a Selfie Taker

Hey guys! Happy Friday!

Thought I’d share something funny with you today for a change. Now this takes a lot of guts, ok? 🙂 I’m sharing 5 pics from the past that didn’t make the cut. Why? Because I look ugly in them, that’s why 🙂 But such are the struggles of a selfie taker – it takes a lot of tries to get that perfect (or near perfect, or acceptable) selfie.

Here we go!

{ONE} Cookie Monster

Cookies don’t cross the threshold of my house very often, but when they do, they don’t stay long. On such a rare and wonderful occasion one just has to take selfies, right?

Yeah…it’s hard to stay focused when you have two difficult tasks at the same time – taking a selfie and eating a cookie.

{TWO} That plank…

You know how there’s a ton of plank streaks on the Internet and everybody is posting screenshots of their iPhones with the timer and that’s awful BOOOOH-RIIIIIING? Well, some of us take it to the next level – we take pics of ourselves while planking. Now, that’s a difficult thing to do. But we try:

After a bazillion attempts that leave you with the disaster shots like above, you finally say “what the heck” and ask your husband (daughter, son, mom, dog) to take a more presentable picture of your effort to share with the #fitfam.

{THREE} Yoga Pics

I’m sharing a lot of my workouts on social media. That being said, I also do a lot of yoga and I always struggle with ideas when it comes to sharing my practice after having it. What? Take pics of your yoga mat with your feet on it every time? Booooooohriiiiing… So. This time I decided to be a little more creative and take a selfie with my yoga mat bag which has the OM sign on it.

But while I was trying to do that in from of my back door, a UFO with aliens in it came around with very bright lights:

When they were gone, I finally managed to take that selfie with my mat bag. Yeah!

I look like I have no lips, but that’s ok 🙂

{FOUR} Don’t even ask….

I have no idea, how I turned this:

Into that:

All I know it required an early Sunday morning, strawberries and 5689 attempts. 🙂

{FIVE} That one time…

…when I was alone at the YMCA locker room after my workout and decided to get creative with my selfie again.

So before I produced this:

a lot of things happened…(WARNING: graphic content, may be disturbing):

And that’s that about the tough life of a blogger and how hard it is to take that perfect selfie.

Have a wonderful weekend, guys!

Filed Under: Five on Friday, plankaday Tagged With: five on friday 9 Comments

Lean Lena July 16, 2014

30 Days Active Challenge Follow Up Report – Week 2

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Hey guys! The Hump Day is here!

Are you having a good week so far? I’m pretty excited to be back here with my Week 2 of the 30 Days Active challenge report.

This challenge to myself started with this post where I wrote a Tough Love Letter to myself following a session at FitBloggin’ 14.

And I’m happy to report that the challenge is going very well and I am staying active every day. Here’s how:

{WEDNESDAY} last week was a yoga night! My legs were SORE from biking and running the week before, so yoga just felt super nice and relaxing.

I chose to walk to the Y instead of driving

{THURSDAY} was HOT! Didn’t really feel like spending any time indoors though, so hubby and I went on a nice long walk together.

Sporting our Vibram Five Fingers (Stats on the right are for the day. Yeah, I know…I have a desk job)

Check out what we saw in one of the yards while walking:

Some people are amazingly creative!

{FRIDAY} was another run day – this time my husband decided to join me and train for a 5K too!

And that run marked the end of my Week 1 of 8 with Coach to 5K.

{SATURDAY} I did not feel the energy AT ALL.

All I could push myself to was a yoga class and a few laps in the pool. But I did it! And that was it 🙂

{SUNDAY} was another C25K Day

Hubby and I agreed to leave the house early in the morning (before the major heat kicked in) and go for a run. It was supposed to be the hottest day of the week, that’s why we wanted to get that run in early so we don’t have to suffer through it.

Well, Mr. H slept in and I waited for him patiently (because I am a good wife, you know). And then we suffered through it.

Not only was it miserably hot, but it was also the day in C25K when you switch to longer running sets.

That run was the worst of my life so far! I was drenched in sweat, breathless and a little dizzy when we got home. It took me a while to recover from that one…

The numbers above probably look funny to someone who runs regularly – nearly 14 minute miles… But I’m not sweating it. I’m getting there and working on it.

And I’m still lapping everybody on the couch 🙂 🙂 🙂

{MONDAY} was a work day – I taught my regular Indoor Cycling Class at the Y.

It was raining outside, so I had 7 (!!!) people in my class – a record number for summer time 🙂 It also so happened that the class mostly consisted of my regular riders and good friends (Mr. H attended, too!).

We had a BLAST! I felt such wonderful energy exchange and inspiration! Don’t forget to check out the latest playlist right here to get the feel of what it was like 😉

{TUESDAY} was a weird day…

Mr. H and I were originally planning to go for another run with C25K, but he had to get up really early and leave, so we decided to re-schedule that run for Wednesday.

I had to do SOMETHING! I felt like peace and quiet. So I went upstairs, lit up some candles and did yoga.

And that was it, my friends!

Missed the Week 1 Report? No problem, check it out here.

Do share: what was your most favorite workout of the past week or so?

Stay fit, friends!

This post was shared on the Workout Wednesdays linkup.

Filed Under: Cycling, FitFluential, fitness, Fitness Challenges, Girls Gone Sporty, new experiences, running, spinning, Spinning Instructor, Sweat Pink, Weight Lifting, Weight Loss, Workout Wednesday Tagged With: bicycling, C25K, cycling, fitness, fitness motivation, fitness review, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, new experience, running, spinning, spinning instructor, weight loss, yoga 14 Comments

Lean Lena July 15, 2014

Pro Cakes Review and Tasty Tuesday Linkup

Good morning, Healthy Eaters 🙂 Happy Tasty Tuesday to ya!

As always, I am sharing my tasty finds with you today and hosting a linkup for you to share yours!

So, let’s get down to the tasty business here. A while ago, I got an opportunity through FitFluential to review Pro Cakes.

Pro Cakes is a high protein pancake mix, which is also gluten free, wheat free, contains 14 net carbs and over 20 grams of protein per serving.

I received this single serving of pancake mix in the mail shortly after I signed up for the review with an information card and a thank you note from the Pro Cakes founder.

I have to say – pancakes are my guilty pleasure – I could eat them for breakfast every day. Making a batch from scratch is not always feasible with my busy schedule. Making a batch from the store bought mix is not always healthy. So we make pancakes very occasionally.

This mix is a great solution to both issues above – you get a mix that just needs 1/3 cup of milk and an egg added to it (substitute with almond milk and an egg white if you feel like it) and is healthy and packed with protein. (see the full list of ingredients here)

Another thing that I loved about Pro Cakes mix is that it comes both in 13 oz bags and in 1.6 oz singe serving bags (makes 3 medium size pancakes) that are super convenient if you’re making breakfast for one or two people on a busy morning when you just have no time to measure those ingredients.

I made 4 small pancakes from my single serving sample that I received.

The pancakes were fluffy and oh SO delicious! I have to say I was skeptical to begin with – mostly because I don’t like the artificial taste of pretty much any type of added protein.

I could not taste anything funky in these pancakes.

There was no artificial powder aftertaste whatsoever.

I punched in the numbers for just the pancakes into MyFitnessPal that morning and here’s what I got:

Of course that’s not everything I ate that day, but looks pretty balanced to me for one meal – especially taking into account that the meal was PANCAKES!

I loved these pancakes and the fact that they are packed with protein without the artificial aftertaste. I would definitely recommend them!

Now tell me all about your tasty finds, guys, and don’t forget to link up your tasty posts below. Please, share, link back or grab the linkup party badge from the sidebar.

Have a wonderful week!

DISCLAIMER: Pro Cakes has provided me with the complementary product in exchange for this review. All the opinions above are my own.

This post was shared on Healthy Tuesday Blog Hop.

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Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, FitFluential, Fitness Challenges, fitness review, Link Up, new experiences, Product Reviews, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: breakfast, fitness review, good food, healthy breakfast, new experience 15 Comments

Lean Lena July 11, 2014

Five on Friday: Running and Fitness Edition

Hello, hello, my friends!

It’s Friday!

Source

I’m tired this week! I’m tired OF this week and I want it to be over already. Things are not so bad, no. I’m just tired.

But anyway, guys, it’s Five on Friday time – talking about 5 things I’m loving/hating lately – this time it’s Running and Fitness Edition. Here we go!

{ONE} Lifestyle Accountability Show.

If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you probably saw this news already. If not – I’m super excited to share the link to my interview with Adam and Devon Bate for this show.

I met Adam at FitBloggin’ in Savannah this year – he’s a super nice guy and it was great to put a face to a name and chat with Adam in real life.

Anyway, click here to hear what your blogger sounds like 🙂

Thank you, Adam and Devon, for having me on your awesome show!

{TWO} Women’s Tek Gear Active Clothing + Soybu

Love the Tek Gear brand! Relatively inexpensive and SO comfortable!

Got me this outfit before going to FitBloggin’ 14 and I’ve been enjoying working out in it ever since (erm…yeah, I washed it quite a few times).

Tek Gear Performance Capris – $20.99 at Kohl’s

Tek Gear® Striped Racerback Yoga Tank – $17.99 at Kohl’s

Top that with the Soybu headband that Kia gave us at her yoga class at Fitbloggin’ and I got me a perfect outfit!

Sweaty post-run selfie

{THREE} Garmin Forerunner 210

Yeah, I know…I’m just trying to get back into running and I already want an expensive dedicated running device. Well, that’s just the way I am – gadget-head 🙂

Doesn’t mean I’m gonna go buy this $200 watch, but we’re talking things I’m liking, tight? So I like me this watch 🙂

{FOUR} Compression Socks

Yey or Ney?

I need to do some research on that one – as to whether there are actual benefits of wearing them while running or not – there seems to be a lot of different opinions out there. At this point I just love that there are so many fun designs out there! Check it out:

Image Source

I’d run in those! I’d even walk around in those 🙂

{FIVE} Google “Running”

Google “Running”. It’s amazing what you find!

Here’s a cool visual on how NOT to run:

Image Source

Cool T’s like this one that I need desperately:

Buy here

You’ll find inspirational quotes:

Source

And inspirational people:

Source

Yeah…I don’t know what she’s doing 🙂

That’s one of my favorite things this week – google “running”. Then get inspired and go run.

Have a great weekend, guys!

And move – all the time.

Filed Under: fitness, Five on Friday, gadget-head, running Tagged With: fitness, gadget-head, running, yoga 14 Comments

Lean Lena July 9, 2014

30 Days Active Challenge Follow Up Report – Week 1

Hey guys! Happy Hump Day!

As you may remember, last week I posted a Tough Love Letter to myself where I promised to go back to basics and workout every day for 30 days, and post weekly progress reports here.

So here is Part 1 of the 30 Days Active challenge recap, as promised.

{WEDNESDAY}

Last Wednesday, after I published the tough love letter, I was all jazzed up to get started on my new challenge!

So I grabbed my husband and we hit the weight room together (followed by a yoga class for me).

It felt awesome to be back in the weight room! I ran into a couple of my cycling students, which is always a pleasure. Love my people!

{THURSDAY}

Oh, was I sore on Thursday! I think I pulled a muscle in my arm as it still hurts today – been working too hard 🙂

Since I couldn’t really use my arms to workout, hubby and I went on a long walk on Thursday evening.

{FRIDAY}

On Friday I woke up with an itch only a run could “scratch”. 🙂

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that I got injured running about a year ago (on my first run in forever), went through a long and expensive PT, got a pair of expensive running shoes and never got back to running – story of my life…

Until the 4th of July 2014.

So at about 7 AM on the 4th of July, I dusted those Brooks off, laced ’em up, left a note for my husband (who was still asleep like most of sane people out there), and went for a run with the C25K® – 5K Trainer.

No, my bad knees didn’t give out and I ran/walked for about 1.7 miles. I know people who eat marathons for breakfast, and I’m awful proud of them and proud to be friends with them. But you know what? There’s no feeling like being proud of yourself for making those first 1.7 miles after ~~a long period of being a lazy ass~~ injury!

I felt horrible every step of the 1.7 miles, and felt awful proud of myself afterwards!

No knee pain so far (and it’s been almost a week), so I decided to stick with the C25K for now.

{SATURDAY}

It was my turn to teach Saturday Cycle at the Y at 8:00 am last week. The Y has dropped the 9:00 am class for the summer and made the 8:00 am class an hour long instead of the usual 45 minutes.

I have to admit, I dislike an hour long cycling classes. I think 45 minute format is ideal for getting a good workout and not overdoing it.

But hey, the boss is the boss, so I put together a hilly, one hour long nightmare plan on Friday night 🙂

It is VERY schematic though – the height and steepness of the hills in the drawing above had nothing to do with the actual intensity of the class profile elements. I just did that so I could better visualize the terrain I planned out for the class.

So on Saturday morning I grabbed my husband again (gotta love that guy for everything he takes from me!), and we headed out the door for the morning cycling madness 🙂

We killed it! It was a wonderful class – great energy from my students, lots of compliments from the class on my playlist. By the way, you can check out the playlists I use in my indoor cycling classes here.

After getting home, taking a quick shower and grabbing breakfast, I went back to the Y for a yoga class. Oh did that feel good to my sore legs and arms and shoulders!

{SUNDAY}

Regular workout was just not playing out for me on Sunday. The evening was approaching fast so I had to come up with something to stay active.

When the family decided to drive to our local swim club, I decided to bike there.

It’s not far – just about 1.73 miles one way, but that was better than nothing.

It felt great to do some laps at the pool afterwards, too!

{MONDAY}

On Monday I taught my regular indoor cycling class to my regular 3 summer students 🙂 You know, you might see a lot of instructors complaining about attendance numbers dropping in the summer time. I LOVE this time – I use this opportunity to try new things in the class that I wouldn’t be able to try with a bigger group, use it to bond with my students and give them more attention during and after class.

Love-love-love small classes. They might not be blasting the bigger class energy, but they sure feel rewarding and challenging!

{TUESDAY}

It was HOT here on Tuesday. I kind of gave up on the idea of going for a run since early morning – it was sticky! Options were: home yoga DVD or weight room at the Y.

Since my arm is still not 100%, I decided to wait with the weight room.

Home yoga DVD seemed a little boring….It cooled down after the rain…So I ended up going for a run 🙂

I love that feeling of freedom running gives you…All you need is a pair of shoes and some motivation to lift yourself off the couch and get out of the door – and you won’t regret it.

I felt so much energy after the run last night!

So, friends. Here are the results of Week 1 of the 30 Days Active Challenge:

I. AM. SORE. Like, all the time and everywhere 🙂
I am 2.8 lb lighter (that’s after a 6 months plateau and then a gain – I couldn’t believe the number on the scale finally moved in the right direction!)
I look at my FitBit more than I look at my watch 🙂 Sometimes I feel like I look at my FitBit more than I look at my husband! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I feel empowered!

That’s it for now, guys.

Remember to check back next Wednesday for the Week 2 recap of my 30 Days Active challenge I brought onto myself 🙂

Stay strong!

This post has been shared on the Work Out Wednesdays Linkup. I am also a featured blogger there this week! Check it out – it is a great weekly linkup with wonderful people.

Filed Under: Cycling, FitFluential, fitness, Fitness Challenges, fitness events, Girls Gone Sporty, running, spinning, Spinning Instructor, Sweat Pink, Weight Lifting, Weight Loss, Workout Wednesday Tagged With: 30 Days Active Challenge, bicycling, C25K, cycling, fitbloggin, fitbloggin' 14, fitness, fitness motivation, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, justtrollin, running, spinning, spinning instructor, toughlove, tribelove, weight loss, yoga 29 Comments

Lean Lena July 8, 2014

Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party and Quinoa Taco Salad Recipe

Hey, guys! Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!

I had a great weekend! Full of family time, laughs, fun activities and good food. Yep, there were fireworks, too 🙂 Back to the salt mine today, but all recharged and ready for it.

As always, it’s the Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party time here on Lean Lena. Here’s the new badge (you can grab the code for it on the right sidebar), and I’m hosting it alone for now.

We’ll see what happens 🙂

So! If you have a recipe on the blog, a restaurant review, a meal plan, a “what’s on my plate” kind of post or anything food related – you can link it up below.

This linkup is open for 1 week – right until the next one starts. So, if you didn’t get a chance to link up today – come back tomorrow!

Any shares and spreading the word is greatly appreciated!

Today I’m sharing yet another salad recipe with you – and this one is also quinoa based. I just love quinoa in salads! Have you seen my post featuring recipes with quinoa yet? Head over here to check it out in case you missed it.

Then come back inspired and make this super-salad!

YOU WILL NEED:

Quinoa, cooked according to package instructions – about 1/2 cup uncooked, and cooled down
Canned Black Beans (rinsed and drained well)
Fresh tomatoes
Fresh leeks or purple onion
Corn (I “shaved” my corn on the cob that I had handy but you can use canned corn as well, just rinse and drain well before adding to the salad)
Fresh cilantro
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Taco seasoning, salt and pepper to taste
Tri-Color Tortilla Strips to garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Combine quinoa and all vegetables (except tomatoes) in a salad bowl.

Add lemon juice, olive oil, taco seasoning, salt and pepper and mix until well combined.

Fold in tomatoes.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy!

How wonderfully easy is this salad?

The best part of it is that the longer it stays in the fridge, the tastier it gets (within reason, of course 🙂 )

Now tell me, what was the tastiest thing you ate last week?

Got a post about it? Link it up below!

Happy Tasty Tuesday and I will see you tomorrow right here with my report to follow up on my resolutions I talked about in the Tough Love post last week.

Stay tuned!

Be sure to check out the linkups this post was shared on:

Real Food Wednesdays

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Filed Under: dinner, fitness, Link Up, lunch, recipes, Tasty Tuesday Tagged With: dinner, good food, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, lunch, quinoa, recipes, salad 22 Comments

Lean Lena July 4, 2014

Five on Friday: Random Likes and Dislikes

Hey-hey, guys! Happy Friday and the 4th of July!

What fun things are you doing today? Grilling? Family visiting?

It is Five on Friday time and I have five things to tell you about that I’m loving/disliking lately. This week these are totally random likes and dislikes without any theme.

{ONE} FitBit Flex – Wireless Activity Tracker

Isn’t it a pretty blue I picked out?

I’ve been eyeing activity trackers of all sorts for a while… It is very easy to get lost in the variety offered by Nike, FitBit, Polar….Besides, I am not the kind of person who reads instruction manuals for more than 2 minutes, and that’s usually when it is trouble shooting time 🙂

Anyway, I got lost – in the variety.

I am a Polar girl…but their Loop seemed a little too big to me.

Then two of my co-workers showed up at work with 2 different activity trackers! One had Nike and the other had Fitbit. That was just what I needed!

I asked both if I could try their activity trackers on and the decision was easy to make. Fitbit felt much lighter, much more flexible and compact. Fitbit it was!

I ordered mine on their official website and got it in the mail a few days later.

Fun Fact: you can connect it to your My Fitness Pal account – Fitbit will get the calories consumed data from My Fitness Pal and sync the activity calories back to it. FUN!

It also supports a whole bunch of other apps. Told ya – FUN! 🙂

If you read The New Yorker – there was a fun article about Fitbit in one of the latest issues – “Stepping Out” by David Sedaris. Click here to read online.

{TWO} Gardening

I just realized the other day that I haven’t shared my gardening pictures with you yet this year! Here we go.

Left to right, top to bottom: peppers, tomatoes and more peppers, sage, basil and cilantro, tomatoes, purple basil, egg plants, more peppers

Never thought I’d be so excited about gardening! But hey, those tomatoes taste a whole lot different from store bought ones. They just TASTE.

Salads with home grown tomatoes are to die for!

Besides, it is super Zen to tend to a garden 🙂 Try it! Best meditation practice ever 🙂

{THREE} Worst Smoothie Recipe – EVER!

So last Friday I made myself a smoothie. I did it before work and I was kind of in a rush…So I threw in everything I had that I could classify as a smoothie ingredient into my blender. That included:

fresh strawberries (not bad)
frozen banana (done that before)
almond milk (well, that turned out to be bad, so I dumped it and added some regular milk)
vanilla extract (ok, I guess)
watermelon (oooooops….baaaaaad idea)

So anyway, it looked beautiful! I snapped a picture and rushed to work.

Imagine my surprise when I got to work and decided to sip on my smoothie. It. Was. Disgusting! I have no idea why, but the combination above tastes horrible – must be the watermelon and milk 🙂

{FOUR} Roasted Vegetables

Roasted carrots and potatoes

It seems like any roasted vegetable becomes a great hit in my family this summer. They are so good for you and super easy to make: just mix with spices and olive oil and roast in the oven at 400° F for 40 minutes, turning at 20. Done! Comes together while you’re grilling and makes a great side for pretty much anything.

{FIVE} Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

You guys probably read this book in high school 🙂 I’m from a different country so I’ve just discovered it for myself before going on my trip to Savannah last week.

The action actually takes place in Savannah and that’s the reason why I wanted to read it. LOVE this book. Still working on but I don’t think it’s going to get worse 🙂

And that’s my Five on Friday! Have a wonderful weekend, guys, and I’ll see you next week!

DISCLAIMER: I have not been compensated in any way by any of the brands mentioned in this post for writing about their product/service. All the opinions above are my own and provided voluntarily and independently from any brand mentioned herein.

Filed Under: dinner, fitness, Five on Friday, gadget-head, Gift Ideas Tagged With: dinner, fitness, five on friday, good food, healthy dinner, smoothie 10 Comments

Lean Lena July 2, 2014

Tough Love: I Choose Today To Be My Hump Day

Tough love letter to myself we all agreed to write at the “Fitblogger Tough Love” session with Mrs. Fatass last week at FitBloggin’.

Dear Lena.

You’ve been slacking a lot lately – both in terms of healthy eating (yes, there’s a lot of ice cream pictures that didn’t make it to this blog) and exercising.

I guess when you reach a certain point in your journey (for you it was loosing 20lb) you start thinking that this is it – you’re happy with what you have accomplished, you can cut yourself a little slack.

You start saying “yes” to more and more of those ice cream outings with your family.

You start saying “10 more minutes” in the mornings more often and snoozing your alarm set to go to the gym, and never going after all.

You start saying more often “Oh, I’m so tired, I can skip my workout today”.

You start snacking when you don’t really have to.

You reach for that extra helping at dinner thinking “I worked out today, I deserved it”.

You choose elevator over stairs.

You think teaching indoor cycling one-two times a week is going to be enough to keep you in good shape.

You think that goal set on your FitBit is going to reach itself if you just walk up and down the stairs a couple extra times during work day and say to yourself “Tomorrow for sure” when you don’t hit that goal; and then tomorrow it doesn’t happen either.

You think that as long as this blog looks like that of a fit person you can slack and no one will know (that is horrible hypocrisy by the way).

You forget that all that is EXACTLY what led you to the tipping point when you decided to change everything.

You need to get your shit back together, Lena.

And you’re going to start by going back to basics: 30 days of working out every day – just as you did when you first started this journey.

STARTING TODAY!

No excuses and no slacking.

Just doing it – one day at a time.

No, it’s not the first of the month, but we’re not going to hear that “I will start on Monday/the first of next month/new moon” crap again, are we?

We’re going to start today, Lena.

You will then come back here weekly on Wednesdays and report to all the people reading this blog what you did on every one of the past seven days.

I will check back with you in 30 days to see how you did. Remember, that I will also see you every one of those 30 days.

To remind you where you’re going and how it all started.

To kick your butt and give you the tough love you need to wake up and keep going.

There will be no consoling hugs and patting on the back.

Just kicks and cracking the whip.

Because this is what you need right now.

Let’s see what you’re really made of in the next 30 days.

I choose today to be your Hump Day.

Love,

Filed Under: fitness, Weight Loss, Workout Wednesday Tagged With: back to basics, fitness, weight loss 23 Comments

Lean Lena July 1, 2014

FitBloggin’ 14: Tastes and Sights of Savannah

Hey guys! How was Monday?

I was dragging after the FitBloggin’ weekend. Lil’ better today, but still catching up on my sleep and getting back to my routine.

So! As you may have noticed, yesterday’s brief overview of the whole experience did not touch the two exciting parts of the trip to Savannah – food and sights 🙂

Since it is Tasty Tuesday, I’m going to tell you what I ate in Savannah as well is what I saw.

If you get to Savannah by air, here’s what you see when you get to the airport:

yep, that is INSIDE the airport

Most of the meals were provided so we had just a few chances to go and explore Savannah and eat out. Here’s a glance at our typical breakfast:

fruit, eggs, sausage, potatoes and a muffin

On the first night, Jennifer and I decided to eat at the hotel we were staying at (Hyatt Regency Savannah) at their Lounge called “Windows”

I ordered a crab cake sandwich looking forward to tasting the delicious fresh crab in it!

Mmmmmm

Well, that crab cake was HOT! It was so spicy I could not eat it. Thankfully Jennifer came to my rescue and we swapped halves of our sandwiches. The lounge was so nice as to give us 50% off that crab cake sandwich since I didn’t like it.

After dinner we headed out for the Ghost Tour with Peg Leg Ron and his shipmate Jacob 🙂 It was a ghost tour in a real hearse!

Ready to Roll! Photo credit

I didn’t take many pictures on the tour. I mean I did but none of them really turned out. Mysterious, isn’t it? 🙂

except this one pic of this spooky house!

But don’t you think Savannah is all that spooky and dark. It’s not. It is a very beautiful place – full of history and beautiful places to see and go to.

View from our hotel terrace

One of the 23 squares in Savannah

City Hall

But back to the food….

FitBloggin’ 14 was sponsored by many yummy brands 🙂

California Almonds had a whole snack bar set up for us to use!

California Avocado Commission made THE BEST blueberry muffins ever!

Run Disney provided lunch one of the days while presenting to all the runners in the audience 🙂

We also had a chance to explore Savannah and grab some food outside of the conference venue, so Jennifer and I went wondering around and found this:

Pralines from River Street Sweets

Remember I got a Foodie Penpals box from Tiffani with a bear claw from this store in Charlston? Yep, that was the same chain and their sweets are ahhhhhh-mazing! They deliver, you know? 🙂

On Saturday we had dinner to ourselves (not arranged) so we ventured out to Ruan Thai Cuisine where I had this delicious reminder of my days in Thailand:

Fried rice with scallops. YUM!

All in all, guys – I am in love with Savannah! Despite the heat and humidity – I’m ready to go back TODAY!

Now link it up! Share your recipes or any food related posts below. Nothing to share? Tell your friends!

Take care and talk to you soon!

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Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, dinner, events, fitness, fitness events, healthy snack ideas, Link Up, lunch, new experiences, Tasty Tuesday, travel Tagged With: breakfast, dessert, dining out, dinner, fitness, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experience, salad 8 Comments

Lean Lena June 30, 2014

FitBloggin’ 2014 – Recap

Hey guys! I’m back from FitBloggin’ 2014 in Savannah, GA!

I am so overwhelmed with emotions, information and experiences that I kept my husband up real late on the day I came back telling him all about it. Just couldn’t shut up 🙂 I think he fell asleep while I was talking…and so did I. 🙂

Anyway, here’s a brief recap of the conference and I will be getting back to it again and again and will give you more details on just about everything I experienced there in the next few posts as it is just too much for one.

Let’s see…

{THE TRIP}

Giving some last minute instructions to hubs at the airport while he’s taking a picture

The trip itself was awful – every flight I was on (both ways) was delayed. I had to make a run through Dalles Airport for a gate change and all that kind of “fun” stuff.

Tweeted my unhappy face to United and got this in return:

a compliment!

The view was totally worth it, though.

Chicago on the way back

Beautiful sunset in the sky on the way back

{THE SESSIONS} were so much fun!

Great information, a lot of food for thought and ideas! Just a few favorites:

Brooklyn Fit Chic talking about how to pitch to brands. Yep, that’s right. THAT Brooklyn Fit Chic. 🙂 Click here to view the live blog of the session.

Dan Morris from Blogging Concentrated talking about monetizing your blog. Was stoked to meet this guy! I’ve been reading his newsletter for a while. He is even a better speaker than he is a writer.

Dan Morris and his session on monetizing your blog

Cutting Edge Culinary with Michelle Dudash was a great presentation of a whole new way to cut and peel an avocado 🙂

Cutting Edge Culinary with Michelle Dudash, RD

Can you believe they trusted the demo part of that one to A Hungry Runner? 🙂 Seriously? 🙂

{WORKOUTS} were numerous!

I slept in on the Boot Camp morning but was there bright an early for the Yoga with Kia.

Photo credit: Carrie D Photography

I didn’t go to any other workouts. They looked like they were ton of fun but I chose to attend sessions instead.

{PEOPLE} oh my….

This is a one crazy crowd those fitness bloggers, let me tell ya 🙂

Well, first of all, I finally met my blogging buddy Jennifer aka A Hungry Runner. We shared the room – if anybody tells you that she snores – don’t believe them, it’s a lie 🙂

Rocking the Sweat Pink glasses 🙂

I also met another wonderful Jen – from over at Cranky Fitness. Click-click on that link over to her blog – she’s awesome, I promise 🙂

Just about the only two weirdoes who didn’t take a celebrity selfie when they had a chance

I met a whole lot of wonderful people! It was awesome to be a part of this event even though it was at times overwhelming and awkward being a newbie in the crowd mostly consisting of “seasoned” bloggers who had met before and are having a reunion.

I wish there were more activities for new attendees’ assimilation.

{ORGANIZERS} – last but not least.

Roni and her wonderful team did an AMAZING job making sure everything was running smooth. Seriously, this team needs to be delegated to organize Academy Awards they are so good!

This is Roni and her bloggers 🙂

Yep, that pretty much sums it up 🙂 Photo credit: Carrie D Photography

Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for the food and sights of Savannah recap as part of the Tasty Tuesday Linkup Party! Feel free to come link up your recipes, food adventures and other tastiness on tomorrow’s post.

Bye for now!

Filed Under: events, fitness, fitness events, Girls Gone Sporty, new experiences, Sweat Pink Tagged With: fitbloggin' 14, fitness motivation, fitness review, GGS, Girls Gone Sporty Ambassador, new experience, yoga 19 Comments

Lean Lena June 25, 2014

Latest Playlists for Indoor Cycling Classes and a Couple Learning Moments

Hi friends! Happy Hump Day!

Today I’m packing for FitBloggin’ 2014 and sharing my latest playlists for indoor cycling classes with you!

FitBloggin’ starts tomorrow, so I fly out tomorrow morning and get to Savannah around 2:00 pm.

I have SO many people I am excited to meet in person there that I had to make the list! Not kidding you. I did totally just make a list.

Don’t want to rank my list – I will be equally happy to meet everyone on it, and whoever is not on it, but here are a few people I am particularly excited about meeting:

A Hungry Runner

The Lean Green Bean

Manifest Yourself

Fit and Free with Emily and many-many-many other wonderful bloggers!

I am pretty sure I won’t have time to blog while I’m there – it is my very first blogging and fitness conference, so I will probably walk around with my mouth open most of the time 🙂

I will sure tell you all about the adventures in Savannah when I get back on Monday!

Now back to our regular broadcasting 🙂 It is workout Wednesday after all!

So after the previous post I took a couple yoga classes as part of my stretching/recovery/rest day routine (that was on Saturday and Wednesday).

On Saturday I taught one of those super exciting cycling classes where you don’t know whatcha gonna get 🙂 Meaning the crowd is changing from week to week and there are a few regulars.

This past Saturday I had a wonderful group of people! Most of them experienced cyclists (either indoor or outdoor). It was easy and super rewarding to teach them!

I got a thousand compliments on the playlist – one from one of my regular students (“Good sounds, kid”), another one from another fairly regular attendee of Saturday classes (“You were born too late! Love your music!”), another one from a teenage girl (“I LOVED your soundtrack”) and more. 🙂

SO nice to hear that people are happy about the music in the class. It is hard to please everyone. So, may be those who didn’t say anything didn’t like it all that much. But everybody was sweating 🙂 That’s for sure.

This time the class was a lot quieter that the Saturday before – it was a gloomy rainy day, 8 AM…I guess it took my students a while to wake up and stop asking themselves the “what the heck am I doing up and on a bike so early” question 🙂

Anyway, here’s the playlist everybody liked on Saturday in case you need song ideas to incorporate into the playlists for your next indoor cycling classes.

On Monday I suddenly found myself teaching my regular class to 8 (!!!) people instead of my regular 3-4 summer indoor riders 🙂 That was exciting!

Here’s what we rode to:

Couple of people in my class were indoor riders getting back on tack after a couple years of break, so I had to set up their bikes and remind them how the Pilots work. Thankfully they came in with enough time before the class so I could do that.

But here’s a tip and note to self: GET THERE EARLY. Make sure you’re the first one in the room and greet your students when they come in. ASK them if they have ever done indoor cycling before. If they say “Yes” and you see them struggling with the bike set up – GO HELP. A lot of people feel embarrassed to admit they’re new thinking “It’s just a bike. I can figure it out myself”.

No, they can’t.

You need to help them.

It’s like being a doctor – you can’t walk by someone who needs medical help. You simply MUST NOT or you’re in the wrong job.

Anyway 🙂

The Monday class also got me thinking about something else…

Every time we’d get out of the saddle to a standing flat, there would be this one person leaning forward onto the handlebars and isolating the upper body.

I kept saying “Light grip on the handlebars, just to keep you balanced. Don’t lean forward. Relax your shoulders”.

Nothing helped.

I tried getting frustrated but I’m too kind 🙂

Just kidding.

He stopped by after the class and said his back really hurt whenever he was out of the saddle, and that’s why he was leaning forward carrying a lot of weight on his arms on standing flats.

I told him to just stay in the saddle next time if getting out of it bothers his back.

But here’s the thought: next time you see that stubborn rider in your class who just wouldn’t do the right thing despite your instructions – think twice before getting frustrated or thinking they are just another “know-it-all” and “know-it-better”. I’m glad this person told me after the class what his issue was and let me help him out the best way I know how. Think how many of them will never talk to you about their health issues and why they can’t do certain things. Think about how many of them will never admit it even to themselves.

Talk to them. Offer help. Ask questions. Be discreet and polite. Find the key to every one of them.

That’s what this job is about for me: building your own community of like-minded people and making everybody feel welcome and “at home”.

There you have it – a couple playlist ideas and a couple pieces of valuable advice 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ready to start this Wednesday now!

Question of the day: What’s the worst case of a “know-it-all” student you’ve ever witnessed in your/somebody else’s class?

Take care, friends, and talk to you soon.

This post has been shared on Workout Wednesdays Linkup.

Filed Under: blog news, Cycling, fitness, fitness events, new experiences, spinning, Spinning Instructor, Workout Wednesday Tagged With: bicycling, cycling, fitness, fitness motivation, new experience, spinning, spinning instructor, yoga 20 Comments

Lean Lena June 24, 2014

Quinoa the Queen and 5 Ways to Easily Incorporate it into Your Diet

Happy Tasty Tuesday morning to you, my friends!

What fun things did you do this weekend? I was on a cleaning spree – so I scrubbed and cleaned, and washed and dusted, and vacuumed and what not 🙂

Love to have a clean house! Great feeling.

There was also some pool time on Sunday and hubby’s company picnic on Saturday.

FUN!

But back to tasty things 🙂 It’s linkup party time! Do you have something tasty you’re talking about on your blog? A new recipe? A restaurant review? Link it up below!

Don’t forget to check out other links!

Me? I am talking Quinoa today 🙂

Image Source

Quinoa is a wonder-seed. Rich in protein (8 g, 16%), magnesium (118 mg, 30%) and fiber (5 g, 21%) it has become extremely popular among people with various dietary restrictions, preferences and tastes.

I personally discovered it about a year ago (thank you, Internet 🙂 ), and I have been hooked ever since I tried it for the first time.

If you’re looking into trying quinoa, here are some tasty ways to incorporate it into your diet.

{ONE} Salads

I usually make a whole batch of it on Sunday and add it pretty much to all my salads.