Well, hello again!

WOW - where does the time go?! I can't believe that I let so much time pass, but I'm ready to get back on the blogging-train. Maybe I'll make it more than two posts this time. ha!

Let's see... What's new? Well, as of May 19, 2012 I am officially a married women! Perhaps I'll do a wedding recap somewhere down the road, but for now, I'll leave you with this. A sneak peak, if you will...

Since my last post, I also completed marathon numero dos! Last month I ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and had. a. blast! I PRed (4:52!) AND Dusty and I got to spend some time catching up with our good friends, Ashley and Darrell who recently moved to Chicago. Ashley ran the race with me; it's makes it even better to have great friends with the same interests/passions! Um, and can I just tell you how much I LOVED Chicago?! What an awesome city! I've already made plans to visit again in April for Baconfest to visit Ashley and Darrell and see more of the beautiful city!

On the train heading to the start line!

 

Yay! We did it!

Beautiful Skyline

Celebrating Our Big Finish!

So, instead of boring you with all the details about where I've been the last couple of months, I thought I'd highlight two of my favorite memories over the last five to six months. Enjoy the rest of your Monday!

Hangry Decisions

Hey there! I hope you’re having a great week so far! It’s almost half-way over!

Tuesdays are one of my favorite workout days, because it’s one of the only days that Dusty and I actually get to workout together. Strength training is not my strong suit (especially upper-body), so I love having Dusty there on Tuesdays to help me through the workout.

I snacked on a half a banana with some almond butter as I headed out the door this morning. I must’ve hit “snooze'” a few more times than normal this morning, because I ended up getting to the gym a little late. I felt a tad rushed, but still got a good back and bicep workout in!

Breakfast

Chocolate Smoothie

1 scoop Barleans Chocolate Silk Greens

1 scoop vanilla SunWarrior Protein Powder

1/2 a frozen banana

1 cup almond-coconut milk

1 scoop of maca

1/2 tbsp raw cocoa powder (for extra chocolately-ness!)

dash of xanthan gum (thickening agent)

I’m not sure what was missing, but this smoothie was kind of… “blah.” Maybe I’ll use a full tbsp of cocoa powder next time?

Lunch

I packed my lunch for work today: a sandwich with Ezekiel break, Sabra hummus, baby spinach, alfalfa sprouts, avocado and some pickles (for good measure) and an organic fuju apple to go along side. Sounds healthy enough right?

Well, let’s just say it was one of ‘those days.’ We have three major events coming up at work in the next couple of weeks and things have just been hectic! So, I spent the morning running around and before I knew it, it was almost 2:00 and my stomach was HANGRY! hungry tummy + moody Kara = hangry Kara!

Hangry Kara also equals bad decisions. We had a couple of boxed lunches leftover from an earlier meeting that looked waaaay more enticing than my veggie sammie and apple.

So this happened…

And I hate to say it but, it was so good! I ate a half of the turkey and cheese wrap, the entire bag of sun chips, a couple bites of pasta salad and a cookie later on. Definitely not the healthiest meal, but what’s done is done… right? Movin’ on…

Dinner

Dusty is working late tonight. He’s an athletic trainer for a local high school, so he works late quite a bit. That means dinner was spent solo. Usually when he works late I’ll do something simple for dinner… soup and salad, eggs, veggie burger, etc.

But lucky for me, we had some delicious leftovers in the fridge from the weekend. We had our tasting for our wedding and we walked away with about 9 to-go boxes of amazing food. No joke!

We had company this weekend and they had no problems taking some of it off our hands!

I reheated some of the leftover salmon topped with sundried tomatoes and herbs and corn soufflé. I also sautéed some kale with peppers, garlic, and Bragg’s Liquid Amino seasoning. A delicious feast was prepared in about 10 minutes!

Well folks, I have a 5am core class and a 5:30am spin class on the agenda for tomorrow. My bed is calling my name!

Have a lovely night!

- Kara

Oh, and if anyone can tell me how to get rid of the white lines under my pictures and the write space around my smiley faces, I’d greatly appreciate it!

It’s About Time!

Hi there,

Welcome to my blog! I set up this page a couple of months ago and I am finally getting around to writing my first post.... Pretty exciting! I've been a "blog-stalker" for several years now, so it's about dang time that I started my own!

Let me start out by telling you all a bit about myself and the reason behind this blog. Well, I'm a twenty-five year old lover of all things health and fitness and a self-proclaimed foodie. I try to eat a clean diet filled with fresh fruits and veggies about 80% of the time, but I leave a little room for my favorite treats (hello, red wine and dark chocolate!) on occasion. But let's be honest... I'm human and sometimes those treats "on occasion" occur a little more often than they should and I could use an accountability partner. So, that's where you come in! I plan to use this blog as a means to keep myself accountable as I strive to live the healthiest lifestyle as possible, while still enjoying (in moderation) the occasional treats in life!

I don't know about you, but I am a stress-eater. When I'm stressed there is absolutely nothing I want more than a brownie or a sugar-laden cocktail. Well guess what?! I'm about 5 weeks away from marrying this handsome man and it is crunch time to make sure all the wedding planning is coming together.

To me, wedding planning means stress. But with you as my witness, I am determined to keep my cravings under control. Instead of giving in and scarfing down that cookie, I'm going to distract myself with other things.

My plan -

Whenever I have a craving for something sweet, I'm going to drop down and do 10 push ups. Kinda silly, I know. But I think that will be a great reminder that I have a wedding dress to wear in a few weeks and I want my arms to look great! What craving?...

Thanks for reading my first post! I'm not sure why I put it off for so long. It wasn't that bad!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

- Kara

Are you a stress or emotional eater, like me? How do you handle stress?