Army Ten-Miler in DC!

I am registered for the 2011 Army Ten-Miler in DC (October 9th)! I am so excited for so many reasons!

     1.   I <3 DC! It is hands down one of my favorite places in the country! I grew up in Maryland for 8 years and have so many memories of going to the city... mainly for school field trips to the Smithsonian. I just love it! There is so much to do and it's so different from where I live now.

     2.   I am running the race with two of my awesome friends, Lu and Alexis (Lu and I are in the left picture, Lex and I in the right)! I can't wait to run the race with them, and more importantly, hang out and eat lots of yummy food the rest of the weekend! :)

     3.   The distance sounds perfect (not quite a half marathon but still a challenge for me!) and the course map looks AMAZING!!!! It'll be so cool to run past the Jefferson Memorial, down the National Mall, etc. Ahh can't wait! The ONLY bummer about it is they don't allow phones, cameras, etc. so I wont be able to take pictures along the way, but it'll be worth it for sure!

I think it's going to be a great race. I am a little nervous how big it will be though! This race is so popular I had to go on at midnight the night the registration opened to reserve our spots. It opened Sunday, 5/15 at midnight and it closed at 5:20pm on the same day, 5/15! Crazy!!! It was nuts trying to get registered too... the online system was so bogged down. I was so nervous I would get myself registered and then Lu or Alexis wouldn't get registered before it closed and I'd be doing it alone. lol!

I am also considering doing a half-marathon in November (more on that later) so if so, this should be a good distance to do at that time. We will see how my IT Band will hold up with all of this!!!! I haven't been running hardly at all lately and have been focusing on strength training and spin class, so I will have to start incorporating running back in.

I can't wait to share more about my training for this race and pictures afterwards. For now, I will leave you with some of my favorite pictures of DC from my past trips!

 

Have you ever been to DC? What was your favorite place to visit there? (If you haven't gone yet, you HAVE to go!!)

Weekend at Home- Finally!

Oops.... it's been a little while! Sorry! ;)

Things have been a little crazy lately! David and I went home last weekend (which is a 7 hr drive from where we live) for a friends wedding. It was SO nice to get to go somewhere together, see our friends get married and spend time with family and friends. David works a pretty weird schedule... it's not uncommon for him to work 14+ days in a row with no time off, and it's impossible to get more than 2 days off in a row unless it's one of his two 7-day vacations that have to be taken straight... so needless to say it's hard to do ANYTHING together sometimes!

We left Thursday night when he got home around 8pm and drove through the night (dogs in tow). It was a long night but well worth the drive! I always forget how much I miss the gulf coast until I am home... the blue waters and white sand beaches.... ahhh nothing beats it! I hadn't been home since last Memorial Day, and I don't think David has been home since we moved to Orlando! We were definitely due for a trip back. :)


The wedding was the next day. It was at the Emerald Grande on Destin Beach... absolutely beautiful!!!
 

The wedding was so beautiful... they are a great couple and we are so happy for them! David's parents were there too so we got to spend time with his parents at the wedding and reception. There's nothing like a wedding to reminisce about your own wedding and start feeling all sentimental. :)

The next day David had to leave so he could get back to work, but I was able to stay at my parents for a day and enjoy time with them! It was also a little sentimental as my parents are selling their house (sad!) to move closer to us (yay!). I love my parents house! It just feels so homey and I love their backyard.

Paisley even got to enjoy the swimming pool with her grandpa!

I was grateful my Dad drove me back to Orlando so I didn't have to drive alone! The doggies did pretty good for their second 7 hour drive in just one weekend! Paisley looks a mess as she had been rolling around in the dirt all weekend and at our lunch break that day. haha!

It was a great weekend, but I'm still exhausted! Haha. Here's to hoping the doggies let me sleep in past 7 tomorrow (and by doggies, I mean Paisley... who starts her "whine whistle" usually right at 7am no later...).

How far are you from "home"? How often are you able to travel back home? Do you get homesick?

Chocolate Avocado Milkshakes

I know, I know... you're probably going "EWWWW! Chocolate mixed with avocado???" That's what I thought too at first, but it is so yummy and healthy!

I read something about using avocados in a milkshake in Runners World I believe, and I googled it to find a recipe that sounded doable online. I found the recipe at Skinny Chef. It is actually a traditional treat in Vietnam! I think it tastes just like a chocolate shake, and I think the avocado really helps give it that creamy consistency.

Here is the recipe....

Chocolate Avocado Milkshakes

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 ripe hass avocado

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup skim milk

Directions

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend on high until smooth and serve over ice.

Easy enough right??? :) I used our magic bullet and it made it really easy to make one cup for myself, and one for my hubby!

Also on a sidenote- I LOVE our magic bullet! It's great for quick smoothies, milkshakes, etc. I love how there are twist on covers (see the blue and red rings on the right) so you can drink right out of the cup you blended in.

I told myself to take a picture of the cup filled with the ingredients before blending and forgot BOTH times I made a cup... sorry! Here is a picture of the yummyness after blending instead. :)

I definitely recommend it! It can satisfy a sweet tooth and get some good fats in from the avocado! Plus I love that there aren't a ton of ingredients and I have all of it on hand at any given time... except the one avocado which is easy enough to pick up at the store.

Even the hubby approves... and this comes from somone who may have eaten half a bag of cadbury mini eggs as well as half a bag of starbust jelly beans for lunch.... lol

The doggies wanted some chocolate too... Princess has been known to devour upwards of 100 hershey kisses in one sitting... (which made for a pretty horrible evening for all of us!).

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope you all try and enjoy the milkshakes. :)
 
What healthy recipes do you have for desserts that are low on guilt but still yummy and satisfying?

Run for the Trees 5K- Race Recap

This Saturday I decided somewhat last minute to do a 5k! I had thought about doing the Run for the Trees 5k, but didn't decide until Friday that I was for sure going to do it. My mom and brother were in town and so my brother said he'd run it with me. He said he was going to run a little slow though since he hadn't run in a week... just like a slow 19 minutes. HAHA! He's crazy!

After a late night on Friday, we woke up early around 5:30am or so on Saturday to get up and get ready for the drive to Winter Park for the race. I was sleepy but excited- I love 5k's! They are such a fun distance. I was a little mad at myself as I hadn't had the best workout/eating week, so I wasn't expecting to have that great of a race but I still wanted to push myself and have fun.



We headed out and got to the race plenty early, and found a parking spot... right next to a dumpster. lol. Kevin had to take off his regular shorts and wear his super short cross country star shorts.

Once we got all settled we headed to the race start. Kevin of course headed to the front of the lineup so he could go his super fast self. I kept closer to the back. ;)

Just a little background on this race. I believe they said it was the 19th Annual Run for the Trees. It is in a town called Winter Park which is basically an area of Orlando. Winter Park is well known for for large trees that form canopies over the streets, etc. The money for this race goes to the Winter Park Tree Replacement Fund. This helps replace many of the trees that were lost in hurricane damage during 2004, as well as other trees that may die during the year, etc.

The course itself is pretty cool too, as it runs through Winter Park and the last mile is on a privately owned wilderness dirt road that is complete tree-canopied. This area is only open to the public once a year for this specific event. The race started at one point and ended in the dirt road, so we did have to be shuttled back to the start line in buses.


OK so back to the race! I was ready to run! Even though I felt kind of gross and weak from a hectic weak, but oh well!

I started the race strong and was feeling good. The weather was really nice and not too hot or humid which was a pleasant surprise. It took me a little while to get in a groove because I had to do a lot of weaving around people and trying NOT to twist my ankle running up and down the curb. After a while it opened up and got easier. The race actually went by pretty fast, much faster than I remember the last two 5k's I did a few months ago. I was pushing myself and at that place where you feel like you can't catch your breath, especially at the last mile. 


The last mile was cool though since it was in the canopied dirt road, so that kept it interesting. Before I knew it I was at mile 3 and I pushed myself to sprint... well half way sprint haha... for the short rest of the way. I saw the clock at just over 30:00 and was a little disappointed... but then I realized I crossed the starting line a little after the clock started so I had hope for under 30.


I met my brother back at the starting line and we grabbed granola bars and water. I was pooped!!! 

We hung around and waited to see our results. One thing I will say that I don't love about races around here is the lack of yummy free food and things afterwards. Maybe I just got spoiled... but in Pensacola ALL of the races I did had SOOOOO much food. There was subs, pizza, hot dogs, beer, smoothies, etc. etc. etc. Lots of options! All the races I've done here basically have water, gatorade, bananas and granola bars. I mean it's fine and I shouldn't be eating all that junk at all, but I miss hanging out after a race and everything eating/drinking and having a good time. It seems to have a different feel here!

Anyways! So the race results came out and of course there was the typical mad rush to see. It took at least 15 minutes to squeeze my way through to see. See below. :) Please excuse my crude attempt at using paintbrush!

YAY!!! So while a chip time of 29:53 may not be reason to celebrate for most, I was very happy with my time! Especially after thinking I would do terrible due to my lack of exercise/good diet the past week. Now I'm really wanting to do another 5k where I'll actually be in a better place and hopefully get an even better time.

Afterwards we got to pick out free tree saplings as part of the race! I got a sycamore tree, and my brother got a river birth.

So all in all a great race! Afterwards my bro and I had a nice breakfast at starbucks with the pooches.

I had a good weekend after that too. My brother and husband and I went to Universal Studios that day for the last day of Mardi Gras celebration there and the 30 Seconds to Mars concert. We got some cajun food and watched the parade! 

Then today I went out and had breakfast with my mom, dad and brother out at Melbourne Beach! I went to the beach afterwards with my dad and it was SO nice... I hadn't been to the beach in so long.

I am pretty exhausted though! I am sure I will sleep great tonight. ;)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and has a great Monday tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

HOT as... Florida!

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while. I've been SO busy with work and things lately. I had an event on Saturday called OMGraduation! It's an event I came up with and planned (along with some fabulous co-workers!) for Seniors to get all of the information we educate students on in our office in a one-stop-shop format. It was great other than the fact that the AC was broken during the entire event... from 8:30am-3pm. PHEW!!! For anyone not in the South that may not mean a lot in this month, but here in Orlando it is SO HOT already!

So because of all that, I have been dragging a little this week and it's been hard to stay motivated to work out. Monday I set out to do 3 miles with my puppy dog Paisley. I was somewhat excited because it was my first chance to try out my new sunglasses I bought at Running Warehouse. They are the Tifosi Gavia SL Sunglasses in black. I love them! They were only $40 on Running Warehouse, which in my opinion, isn't bad for a nice pair of sunglasses. They even came with a nice fabric pouch to clean the lenses with, and a hard zip up glasses case. I LOVE Running Warehouse too because of their everyday free shipping and return shipping. There's nothing to lose!

We headed out around 5:30pm... it did not go as planned. I already had a feeling it'd be tough as I was just so run down from the weekend and hadn't ate good at all that day. After one mile I had to walk and I only did 2 miles total. Total fail! I was still happy I did SOMETHING though. Paisley was tired too... she normally can run further than me but she was dragging after the first quarter of a mile!

So I decided that I was just going to enjoy the walk. I just felt so exhausted and run down from work I needed the walk. I think Paisley did too... she was actually limping last night and I think it may have been from the run on Monday. :( She is doing better today though! I looked at my weather channel app on my iphone afterwards and it wasn't nearly as hot as I felt like it was which kind of dissapointed me, but it is what it is! I guess we all have off days... mine just happen frequently. Haha!

Even though my run didn't go as planned... my sunglasses worked GREAT! Despite my profuse sweating, they stayed put the entire time and I could see great. I love them! Definitely a good purchase.

In some other news... do you remember my last post where I mentioned hating my clothes and having such an issue clothes shopping? Well I decided to really force myself to go shop and not just give up if I get frustrated. I also decided to go to the Premium Outlets and shop at stores that I would normally avoid as they seemed too expensive in my mind, but I'm realizing I need to change where I shop to find places that compliment my figure, fit right, and are good quality that will last. I was excited as I got some really good deals!!!! I got several dresses, a skirt, shorts, work pants, and lots of tops at LOFT, Anne Taylor, and White House Black Market. Everything was heavily discounted- everything at Anne Taylor was 40% off, even clearance items which is where I got all of my items. I took a picture at work of one of my favorite dresses I bought because I'm a dork and wanted to send a pic to my mom. :)

 
I am super excited to have some clothes that make me feel good and more confident in myself, especially at work! I also went for the first time and got fitted for a bra, and let me tell you- if you haven't, GO DO IT asap! It is life changing!!! I found out I have been wearing the wrong size my whole life and now that I have the correct size, it's such a change. My staps don't fall down and I'm not constantly adjusting. I even feel a complete change in my posture. So go get fitted ladies! :)
 

What are some of your favorite stores to shop at? Do you have certain styles you wear that make you feel more confident?

Weekend Highs and Lows

The weekends are never long enough! Anyone else yawning at work this morning? I thought for this post I would post about my weekend in high points and low points for something a little different. :)

Highs:

• I ran 5 miles on Sunday with NO knee pain and I didn't have to walk!! I had some aches and pains in other places from soreness I had already from the body works class I did on Friday, but didn't feel any IT Band pain. I was SO excited, and SO SURPRISED! I thought it'd be a bad run- I hadn't worked out enough last week, only did my it band exercises ONCE (bad I know), was super tired that morning, sore from body works class, and it was pretty hot outside. Somehow though it went great! I was so excited. I even had a pretty decent time IMO for all of those factors.

• I had to go to a day long training on Saturday for a course I teach at UCF called SLS. It's a freshman success course. I was dreading going on a Saturday but was pleasantly surprised with the great information that was shared and a really good guest speaker. It was motivating and I left feeling pumped to teach!
• While I was walking the dogs on Saturday, I saw a bunch of little girls selling "tattoos" for 25 cents each. They were drawing them with washable markers. Nobody was buying so I thought I'd be nice and I gave them a dollar to draw a little heart with a red crayola marker on my wrist. These girls were SO excited and were running up and down the street screaming about getting a "customer." It was just so adorable! Then afterwards I met a neighbor on my street and her husband who both have two dogs similar to ours, and we talked and had a lot in common. I'm excited to have new friends in the neighborhood.
• David had Sunday off and we were able to spend some quality time in the lazy river at Typhoon Lagoon! We have annual passes to the Disney Water Parks and love going and relaxing.
• After Typhoon Lagoon, David and I bought a inflatable kiddie pool for us to cool off in at the house, as well as Paisley (our poodle mix who loves the water... Princess hates it). Paisley had so much fun in it! While we were filling it up Paisley jumped right in on her own and splashed around. It was adorable!

Low:

• After my SLS training on Saturday which I was surprised how much I enjoyed and left in a great mood... I walked out to my car and realized I had left my lights on and my battery was dead. I had to sit around in the sticky nasty heat until David could come and give my car a jump! At least I had my new Runners World magazine to read. haha.
• Saturday night David and I planned to go out to eat and go shopping but we (OK it was just ME) just couldn't get moving out the door. I tried to find something to wear and that prompted an hour long self-pity fest of how I have nothing to wear and how nothing looks good on me. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this?? So then we attempted to go shopping so I could find things to wear... well we forgot the mall closes at 9pm and we got there at 8:40. So then we went to Target since that's open until 10pm and I tried on at least 18 things and cried in the dressing room as nothing was working. Not my finest evening!
• David and I got rolled around on the concrete in the wave pool at Typhoon Lagoon. I have "concrete burn" all over my back, arm and knees. Ouch!!!

All in all, it was a good weekend, just TOO QUICK! I have an event at work next weekend so I'll be working all day Saturday again. I'm so excited for the weekend after that to have my full weekend back. :)

Do you have a hard time buying clothes that you like, are flattering to your figure, fit appropriately and are not super expensive? Where do you shop at?

Recipe- Chicken Stir Fry

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I love to be able to create things that I know what all is going into it, can choose healthy ingredients and substitutions, etc. I HATE grocery shopping, the time it takes, and doing the dishes and cleaning up afterwards. I think if I worked part-time or something I would cook much more, but I still do try to cook when I can.

One thing I do is look for recipes that are quick and easy so I don't get overwhelmed and frustrated. Also, I look for recipes that don't have a TON of ingredients, as well as things that I can stock up on that don't go bad.

One of my all-time favorite go to recipes is Chicken Stir-Fry. It's quick, easy, yummy, and pretty healthy in my opinion!

Here is the recipe... it's very interchangeable, and you can substitute things that you like. I found the original recipe from http://www.food.com/ and have played around with it a little bit. I love http://www.food.com/! Also, Cooking Light has some great recipes as well. Read the reviews too... they will give you more ideas on things to add or swap out!



Chicken Stir-Fry

Ingredients:
3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (or less or more depending on how much you like), cut into chunks

3 cloves garlic or equivalent in the jarred minced garlic

3 heads broccoli, cut

1/2-1 cup baby carrot, sliced thin

1 small onion, sliced

1 (16 ounce) package snow peas, fresh or frozen
    
 OR

substitute ALL fresh veggies (and time and chopping) for a bag of frozen veggies... I use the walmart brand frozen bags of veggies that specifically say stir-fry veggie medley... no preservatives and still full of flavor!

2 -4 teaspoons sesame oil (you can substitute olive oil, canola, etc. but I think it tastes better with sesame)

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce, to taste

2-4 cups hot cooked rice (I use Publix brand brown rice that you can microwave)

Directions:
1. Put rice in microwave/on stove to cook while you prep the chicken/veggies

2. Heat about a tsp or two of sesame oil over high heat in a large skillet.

3. Add garlic and sauté until golden.

4. Add chicken, sprinkled with salt and pepper if desired, and stir fry until no longer pink (you may need to lower the heat so garlic doesn't burn.) Remove chicken and garlic from pan.

5. Add another tsp or two of sesame oil and return to high heat.

6. Add all vegetables and stir fry until tender.

7. Add back chicken and garlic and add teriyaki sauce.

8. Stir fry another minute or two.

9. Serve over hot cooked rice.

ENJOY!!! :)

What are some of your favorite quick and healthy recipes? Do you look online for recipes or come up with them on your own?