Row Spin Flow
Hey guys! Just popping in quickly today to tell you about the September POPSUGAR Must Have Box.
If you remember, I reviewed this subscription before and I absolutely LOVE it.
So here are some of my favorite items from the September box:Continue Reading
Hi guys! Special announcement today! Well, actually I got two announcements – one really special, and one a little less special 🙂
I’ll start with BIG news.
Remember my interview with John for the ICI/PRO Podcast? While we were talking I mentioned how my fitness journey started – with a personal 30 Days Active challenge. After the interview was over, John had an idea to create a similar Indoor Cycling Instructor Challenge.
Well, fast forward a few weeks, and today marks the day we announced the challenge!
Hey my foodies! Happy Tasty Tuesday!
Are you ready for some tasty recipes? Me too!
Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?
Don’t forget to check out other link up participants and there’s only one rule to the linkup – link back to this blog or grab the link up badge from the sidebar. Let’s spread the word so we can have more people checking out your posts next week!
Hey-hey! Happy Sunday, guys! Having a good weekend so far?
This time, instead of showing you just what I ate day-by-day, I wanted to share more of how I felt during my Whole30 Days 11-20. And some things I ate, too 🙂
Here we go!
Hey guys!
Since this week started off so awesomely amazing and threw all my blogging schedule off, this is not your usual Workout Wednesday post, BUT – it is fitness related.
Gonna drop some knowledge on you today 🙂
Have you ever experienced the dilemma before going for a run/grocery shopping/picking up the kids/to the gym of whether or not you should bring your purse with you, or in case of workouts – what to do with all this stuff you need (car/house keys, phone, etc..) once you get to the gym?
Don’t answer, we all did. 🙂
Well, I got a solution for you – FlipBelt.
Hey-hey! Happy Tuesday, you guys!
Is your week off to a good start? Mine is pretty darn awesome so far.
Today we’re interrupting out regular broadcasting for some breaking news 🙂Continue Reading
So I am 1/3 of the way through – done with my Whole30 Days 1-10.
In case you missed the beginning – after some thinking I decided to try this program with my buddy over in the Netherlands – Yuliya.
Ok, now that you have all the links, go ahead and read – I’ll wait 🙂
Welcome back!
So. 10 days later I decided I’d recap the highlights of the first 10 days of the program, let you guys know how it feels and what it takes.
After careful consideration, my Whole30 Challenge is a go!
Won’t go into much detail as to why – I guess there’s both pro and con opinions out there – and plenty of both, too. I just feel it’s the right thing for me to do at this point in my health journey.
I’m missing something. And I’m hoping that Whole30 will help me find that “something”.
Anywho. It just so happens that Yuliya over at Welcome to Mommyhood is starting another round of hers over there in the Netherlands as well. How exciting is that? I have a Whole30 buddy!
We decided to cheer each other on and post recaps on our blogs for every 10 days of the challenge.
We will also be posting daily highlights over at Lean Lena and Welcome to Mommyhood Instagram pages.
Make sure you follow both our blogs and Instagram pages if you would like to follow along and find out what the first Whole30 feels like (that would be me telling you that) and how to make it enjoyable with Yuliya’s recipes and previous experience with this program. 🙂
Don’t miss out on the real experience and true recaps!
This weekend I sat down to plan my meals for the week. I’m saying “my” because my family is not following me along. They’re not crazy enough 🙂 Joking. They are. They just love pizza too much 🙂
The good thing is we don’t have the kids with us for the first 7 days of my Whole30, my husband is very flexible with food so we can eat program-friendly meals and hopefully, I will ease into it pretty quickly with less temptations.
So, back to the weekend prep.
On Saturday we went berry picking. It was so awesome! The place is wonderful and we had so much fun. If you’re in the area, check out the Yellow Hill Farm.
We picked a ton of blackberries.
We made blackberry cobbler that night, and I lie to you not – on Sunday morning my family sat down for breakfast and put away the whole 8″x8″ of it – right out of the pan 🙂 Ok, well…that wasn’t very Whole30 friendly 🙂
Back to the good stuff now.
On the way back from the berry picking we stopped by at the Peach Festival, and got a whole huge bag of peaches!
On Sunday our hot water heater said “I’m done!” My husband and the girl worked on it all day and ended up replacing the whole thing, while I was getting busy in the kitchen.
I made these awesome Turkey Ginger Breakfast Patties (stay tuned for the recipe tomorrow):
Got the pork roast in homemade marinade ready and in the over for dinner.
Cut up some fruit for my smoothies during the week:
Boiled some eggs, too.
I may or may not have made another 2 cobblers (peach and blackberry) for my hungry family 🙂
So, there you have it, guys! I’m ready for the Whole30 and I feel good about it. Bring it on!
Take care and stay healthy. Come back tomorrow for the awesome breakfast patties recipe!
Last night half of me was thinking about Whole30.
Why just half? Well, because there are 2 halves to everything – including me 🙂 🙂 Don’t mind me…Back to the Whole30.
You know I’m pro real food and really not that much into restrictions. I believe in moderation and common sense when it comes to choosing what to eat.
I know people (both in real life and online) who did Whole30 and loved it and made it their life style.
I’m not sure if there’s anybody who hated it – if yes,  I don’t know them. 🙂
But anyway, I’ve had some digestive issues lately and I kinda blame dairy for it. For as long as I can remember myself I couldn’t have milk for breakfast – it always felt like I had a stone in my stomach if I had it first thing in the morning.
What’s it all about? Basically – real food in any amounts – love that! No tracking or calorie counting. Freedom!
No Dairy (or any dairy byproducts) – the only 2 things I’d miss in this category are cheese and Greek yogurt. Ok, maybe cottage cheese too (I like adding it to my smoothies sometimes).
No added sugar (both natural and artificial sweeteners) – I have no problem quitting sugar if/when I can recognize it – I’m not very good at reading labels. But then again this problem is eliminated if you don’t eat stuff that comes in a box, right? No label, nothing to read 🙂
No grains – I’d really miss quinoa, rice and corn. We eat a lot of those. Oh and that piece of toast with mashed avocado in the morning. Pretty much all the energy/snack bars are off limits, too as a lot of them are oats-based (+sugar).
No Legumes (beans, peanuts) – I like black beans and add them to my salads occasionally. Hummus (chickpeas) and peanuts being off limits would be a challenge, too. But I’d say this part is pretty doable for me.
No alcohol – not a problem, I rarely drink it anyway.
No scale or measurements for 30 days – easy, who cares anyway as long as I feel good. If I put those pounds back on – trust me, I feel them immediately 🙂
Basically means I can still eat this:
yep, that’s a big a$$ steak you see 🙂
And as long as you can eat steak, life is not bad at all – at least for me.
So I just ordered the Whole30Â book – It Starts With Food
I think I’m gonna do it. I need to feel better after eating. I don’t think there’s any other way than changing what I eat.
For now I will keep reading, getting ready and I might start on Monday.
Tell me: have you ever tried the Whole30? If yes – what do you think? If not – why not?
Stay tuned for more news on the Whole30 subject, friends.
Hugs,
Hey, hey my Foodies! How was your weekend?
It’s that time of the week again – Tasty Tuesday!
Every Tuesday I post a recipe, a collection of recipes, a restaurant review or anything related to food. There is then a linkup at the end of the post where you can add links to your food-related blog posts! The linkup stays open for a week – right until the next one comes around. How awesome is that?
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!
So! This week I wanted to share an amazing cooking class experience we had a couple weeks ago.
But let me start from the beginning.
There is an Asian restaurant in my town called Issei Noodle. It is a family owned business and it is famous for it’s fresh and delicious food, honest ingredients and fast and courteous service. Any time you walk in – it’s packed with people, and nobody leaves unhappy. Yep, they are the ones who make my favorite Thai tea (now with bubbles!):
AND my favorite Chicken Pho:
Anyway, it is not far from our house so we naturally go there A LOT! 🙂 On one of our visits I noticed an ad at the check out saying they are now accepting sign ups for cooking classes. Imagine my excitement! Learn how to make their delicious food and get to know the family secrets of fine cooking we enjoy so much? 😉 Count me in!
I signed us up as part of the birthday present for my husband, and a couple Sundays ago we grabbed our cutting boards and knives and went off to the restaurant. I have to say, just being there at the time when they’re usually closed, walking through the restaurant with no guests in it, and walking around their open kitchen was an incredible experience!
The owners (Robert and Naomi) are super nice people! It was the very first cooking class they held, and there were 4 other couples there (total of 10 people).
The first dish we made was Pineapple Curry Fried Rice. With all the ingredients on the table, it didn’t look all that difficult to make at all.
Before we knew it, we learned how to peel and slice a pineapple, and got everything ready to go for the actual cooking process.
Both teachers were guiding us along the way as we prepped the vegetables (yep, that’s us in the actual kitchen):
We got to use the wok, too! It was pretty heavy so I let my husband “do the shakin’ ” 🙂
All that shakin’ resulted in this beauty:
It was super delicious! And the fact that we made it ourselves made it even better 🙂 We enjoyed the plate of fried rice while other couples were cooking theirs (we were the first to go).
So, without further ado here’s the recipe for the Pineapple Curry Fried Rice. My advice – since the only way of learning how to do it the right way is to actually go to their cooking class, do it if you get a chance! If you don’t – experiment! It’s a dish that leaves you a lot of room for creativity – other that mandatory ingredients, you can switch and swap pretty much anything! Fun-Fun!
So here we go:
And that’s how easy it is, guys!
HUGE thanks to Issei Noodle for an incredible experience, sharing their wisdom with us and letting us have such a great time at their restaurant.
Take a moment to check them out on:
Now it’s your turn to share your Tasty Tuesday post, guys! Link ’em up!
Loading InLinkz ...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:
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 🙂
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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}Â 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}Â 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}Â 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.
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!
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!
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.
Loading InLinkz ...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!
Loading InLinkz ...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!
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