Wow you guys are so inspirational!

I loved reading your Own Your Strength stories! Click here to view them or add your own.

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I heard an interesting song on the radio today – “Head Full of Doubt” by Avett Brothers. Good tune. The line that caught my attention was:

“Decide what to be and go be it.”

I love this quote. It’s so simple but so true. I think sometimes we hold ourselves back from achieving a goal because we let self-doubt, worry and fear get in the way. Sometimes we think we need to put 10,000 years of planning something before we move forward with it. Sometimes we procrastinate. Most of the time, I’m guilty of all of these things. And sometimes the problem isn’t the “go be it.” Sometimes the problem is being able to decide what to be. Know what I mean?

Do you know what you want to be?

Hubby made breakfast today – scrambled cage-free eggs and WW toast with coffee.

I had lots of water and a banana to help recover from my double-workout-day (yoga and zumba in one day!) and they totally helped. Especially the water – it really helped my muscles loosen up.

Later in the day I remembered I had 3 precious Green Monster muffins left in my fridge. I heated (in my over-fresh-encore style) 2 up for me and 1 for hubby.

Someone help me- I think I’m addicted!

Lunch started with a huge veggie salad: baby spinach, farmers market cucumber, carrots, celery, tomatoes from our garden, and sunflower seeds.

Lookie what Girard’s sent me! I got 4 salad dressings (*): Champagne, Peach Mimosa, Creamy Balsamic and Apple Poppyseed. (there will be a chance for you to win these same flavors very soon, so stay tuned!)

Hubby and I decided to try Girard’s best-selling Champagne dressing (*). We both really liked it. Hubby said it reminded him a bit of Italian. I could see that except minus all the spices. The dressing was sweet but not sweet. Light yet flavorful. It was really good, even though it’s a bit hard to describe.

I also had leftover Lemony Lentil soup and more WW toast but with a dab of real butter.

A Cashew Cookie Larabar was my pre-workout snack today.

Pre-workout for what??

For teaching my FIRST Zumba class! I mean, I’ve led songs solo and I’ve even led classes solo, but tonight was the first class I led as an official instructor. It was too cool! Class was with a local company who signed up for some private sessions so sorry if you’re local and were hoping to go. I’m hoping to have a public class soon.

Anywho, here are some of my fave songs from the night:

• La Colegiala
• Let Me Think About It
• El Alacran
• Billionaire (my cool down)

Class was a blast! I surprised myself with all the energy I had give my intense workout schedule the last couple days. Guess it’s easier to find energy to share when you have so many people to share it with! Luckily, I have a rest day planned for tomorrow. Phew!

This is the exact type of place where I put the above quote to good use. I decide to be an energetic, enthusiastic, loud and fun zumba instructor and just be that way in class. Seriously, that’s what I try to do for real. Since I have a little stage fright, this is easier said than done for me, but I try to push out of my comfort zone to be a better instructor. It makes things more fun, too!

Post class I had a half scoop of Vega Whole Healthy Optimizer mixed with just water to help recover from class.

Then I hit up the grocery store.

Here are some buys:

They had this Pacifica body butter $6 off!

Chocolate syrup to top my homemade vegan ice cream. Also on sale.

Sweet Cacao nibs were on sale.

A mini Justin’s Natural Maple Almond Butter.

Organic spelt flour

More hemp seeds.

Organic cherries.

And plenty of applesauce so we hopefully don’t run out next time I’m baking.

Got some other stuff, too, but you don’t need to see everything….riiight?

Dinner was Robin Miller-esque. I roasted 4 chicken breasts – 2 to eat tonight for me and hubby and 2 to make something different tomorrow! Need it twice, cook it once, right?

And since I went to Earthfare for groceries tonight, I definitely got a vegan WW chocolate chip cookie for dessert. (Hubby got a PB Choc chip). Nommm!

***

I get the feeling I’m going to be saying the quote in the title of this blog post a lot. Could it be a new motto for me for awhile? Maybe?

What’s your current motivational motto/quote?

I can hardly believe I actually did yoga this morning at 6:30am! I usually don’t even wake up that early!

Yoga was one of the best decision’s I made all day. I’d forgotten how yoga puts me in the THE BEST mood for the REST of the day. Even a Monday work day couldn’t take the happiness away. I was so cheerful and smiley all day! lol

Yoga with friends = best part of day (except for maybe zumba which may tie) – so glad I went!

Saying “see you later” (you guys know I don’t like “goodbyes”) to Kath who’s moving this week = worst part of day. I hate farewells, and I’m going to miss my friend! Hopefully, she visits us again soon!

I celebrated Starbucks Monday and got a spinach feta wrap and grande vanilla soy latte.

My last fancy green tea in my desk. Guess it’s time to re-stock.

Lunch was leftover Lemony Lentil Soup and a piece of GH Whole Grain Goodness.

PS I had lots of leftovers of that soup! I stored 2 medium sized containers in the fridge for lunch this week. The rest are going in the freezer to be meals when I need a quick, convenient, but healthful meal at a later time.

Plus vegan chocolate cat cookies leftover from the vegan homemade ice cream I made this past weekend (and boy are there a TON left!).

Larabar in Cherry Pie was my pre-workout snack of choice.

***

Post work I decided a second workout for the day was in order – ZUMBA! Yes, I pushed my way through a fun-filled hour of zumba the same day I already did an hour of yoga. I’m not normally a fan of multiple workouts in one day since I like to give my body plenty of rest, but what can I say….I really wanted to zumba and my body felt up to it. Guess I was just owning my strength.

***

Post zumba I had a date with some friends.

These friends: L back to R: Michelle, Jessie, Katie, Kelly, Jen, Jen, Brittney, me.

We met up at Dandelion Market thanks to a Groupon we all purchased to try the restaurant out. We paid $10 for $20 gift certificates! Score! Click here to check out Groupon for yourself – it’s all over the country.

Loved their table water pitchers.

I tried the Blue Point Toasted Lager. The beer was served a little warm but the flavor was really nice.

Michelle and I split 3 tapas:

Aged Cheddar + Ale Fondue.

Stuffed zucchini.

Flat bread with caramelized onions and truffle oil.

We chatted and snacked and chatted some more.

I love my food blogger dinners!

Apple crisp. The topping was a puff pastry like topping, not so much a crisp. Perhaps the menu had a different name and I’m remembering it wrong, but it was a lovely, hearty dessert. I ended up saving some for hubby to try later.

Btw, if you check out Dandelion Market, be sure to ask for Rick – he’s very nice and will take great care of you!

Back home, it was treat time for Bailey.

Gimme five!

Booyah!

Nom nom nom time for Bailey.

Remember to tell me your strength story!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really a fan of running, even though I’d like to be. In fact, the idea of running a race terrifies me!

But the fact that a race terrifies me also really makes me want to challenge myself to rise up to the occasion. Heck, at one point I was afraid to do zumba and now look how things turned out!

As Eleanor Roosevelt said:

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

So today, with the encouragement of some really fantastic friends, I did something I thought I couldn’t do.

I ran.

Here’s my support group: Michelle, Kath, (me), and Caitlin. (Caitlin’s photo) Talk about a great group to be there for my first big running adventure!

These wonderful, running-expert ladies were kind enough to take a break from their fast-paced running to do a Couch-to-5K style of interval running (2 minutes running and 1 minute walking) for 3 whole miles – probably the farthest I’ve ever gone running…EVER! Not one mile. Not two miles. THREE!

Stepping back, I woke up 2 hours before run time to get some fuel in my system and give my body time to digest.

Hot coffee.

Banana oatmeal in my fantastic new bowl!

Pre-cooking ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut milk (carton kind this time, not can)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp chia seeds

Cooked stovetop till thickened up.

Post-cooking:

• 1/2 sliced banana (stirred in at end – I ate the other half, minus a bite for Bailey)
• ground flaxseed on top
• sliced almonds on top

Nom!

After breakfast, I decided it was a good idea to make my trial batch #2 of my Green Monster muffins. If you read earlier, you probably already saw the recipe because they were a success!! Hazzah!

Click here for my Green Monster muffin recipe.

Anywho, I pulled these babies out the oven just as it was time to leave the house. Cutting it close time-wise!

Then, it was off to Caitlin’s place to meet up for our run. It was suuuuper hot outside! Eeks!

Michelle and I made friends with Caitlin’s “new cat” till Caitlin and Kath showed up to for our group run.

I still can’t believe how patient every one was with me. I was worried about slowing them down, but everyone was so encouraging, it was great!

We did running / walking intervals for 3 miles. I felt pretty good when we started out but started feeling tired around mile one. I pushed through the rest of the way and it seemed like it was over before I knew it! I thank zumba for keeping me in good cardio shape.

Caitlin used her Garmin for some lap stats:

• Mile 1: 12:28
• Mile 2: 12:53
• Mile 3: 12:38

I’ve never tracked miles time-wise before, so I don’t really know what they mean, but Caitlin said they were pretty good for both running and walking the miles.

Future runner? Future racer? Either way I was just proud for running today. I had a great time! I think I need to hire Caitlin or Michelle to be my running coach! I’d hire Kath but she’s moving!!

Michelle and I toyed around with the idea of running a 5K later this year on the car ride home. I’ve always thought it would be cool to run in a costume so I suggested we get a group to wear matching tutus (any takers?). Then Michelle said we could get shirts made too! Sweet! Hey, I am a sorority girl. Give me a costume party and event shirts and I’m in!

After heading home, showering and changing, a few of us met up at The Flying Biscuit for brunch.

We had a pretty long wait in the heat outside, but it was worth it! I brought green monster muffins with me to help tide everyone over during the wait (which was like an hour!)

Hot coffee (what? it was cool inside) with sugar cubes and creamer.

I got the high flyer: 2 fried eggs over medium, creamy grits and potatoes (you can get 1/2 and 1/2!! neat ordering trick for TFB), chicken sausages (I don’t normally like meat sausages but they’re pretty darn tasty here), a famous biscuit and apple butter.

Oatmeal pancake and peach topping.

So freakin good!

I worked up a sweat and appetite this morning and guzzled a lot of water at brunch and ate quite a bit of my plate. More than normal at least, though I did end up taking some home to hubby.

Michelle, Ben, Kath, Matt and me headed out to IKEA post-brunch. I brought a coconut water with passion fruit to help recover from the hot run earlier. I got these coconut waters with fruit flavors to test out because I saw them on sale at Earthfare but I definitely prefer the taste of just coconut water.

Michelle and Ben got cinnamon rolls!

They shared a bite with me!

The goods: a laundry basket for our towels/linens, stools for our outside patio (inspired by Caitlin’s), plus some curtains (not pictured).

Poor Bailey was kind of bored today with me running all around.

I broke out a fave vegetarian ingredient for dinner. Both hubby and I were feeling something “light” so soup sounded good to me.

I loved the big bunch of kale added to this soup.

Dinner = Ellie Krieger’s Lemony Lentil Soup from her So Easy cookbook.

Lucky you I found the recipe online here!

Plus some Great Harvest Whole Grain Goodness toast with real butter.

And for dessert – Yoforia!!

Hubby and I met up with Karen, Matt, and Kath for dessert. We even brought Bailey for some fresh air and socializing. That ham!

I got some tart plain and some taro. Toppings = coconut, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries and pineapple.

Is this stuff addicting or what?!

***

Another fabulous day guys! I feel so lucky to have such great friends to play with all day!

***

I think I’ve signed myself up for 6:30 am yoga with the girls tomorrow. Eeks! This means 2 back-to-back morning exercises for me and I never work out in the morning! I must say, while post-work workouts seem to work better in my schedule, I think morning workouts are a great way to start the day! Guess I’d better go dig out my yoga mat…get to bed! G’night!

Do you prefer morning, afternoon or post-work/night workouts? Why?

Ever feel like you couldn’t jam-pack more awesomeness into a single day? I’ve been having a lot of those lately thanks to my friends! Today was wonderful and full of positive energy!

• I played photojournalist for my friends at a 4 mile race this morning
• Enjoyed a fabulous brunch al fresco
• Went Shopping for new plate…er…glassware
• Made vegan cookies and cream ice cream
• Had a great lunch

And now…we have dinner…

…with all these fabulous people: (top row) Kath, (middle row) Michelle, Emily, Moi, Jen, Katie, (lower row) Caitlin, Kelly

It’s like a blogger sorority! jk

Michelle & Ben hosted a farewell party for Kath and Matt and Emily and Casey.

Best part of hanging out with food bloggers – all the healthy eats! Lots of veggies.

Black bean burgers (with toothpicks marking the Kath-safe aka onion-free burgers).

Special made Great Harvest buns.

More veggies for toppings.

Lots of chips and dips. I nibbled on these a bit over the night.

Got to hang out with Michelle’s adorable pup – Cooper!

After much chit-chatting, dinner was ready!

I poured myself a little of this Bordeaux.

I had a fabulous black bean burger with onions (lettuce, tomato, ketchup), plus grilled veggies, orzo salad, cucumber salad and corn. Everything was sooo good! We tried asking Michelle for her recipe, but she said she just threw some stuff together.

And then it was time for dessert!

Katie’s vegan cupcakes with a vegan cream cheese frosting.

Kath found a PB cookie Larabar at Earthfare and was kind enough to split it up so we could all taste it. It was delish!

I brought the rest of my Green Monster muffins (the dry batch). I still need to try out another version of the recipe to see if I can correct the texture.

Yay dessert!

I had a cupcake and half a muffin. Yummers!

Gonna miss these guys. *sniff*

Going to miss Emily + Casey too of course, but we have more with them. Kath and Matt are leaving NEXT WEEK!

***
Big thanks to Ben and Michelle for the wonderful party and eats!

When was the last time you had a day you thought was especially awesome? Tell me about it.

After all the adventure earlier today, I decided to try out a kitchen experiment

Homemade Vegan Ice Cream

Vegan ice cream!

I was inspired to try Mama Pea’s Cookies & Cream vegan ice cream – click here for recipe.

I have an ice cream machine that requires the bowl to be frozen pre-ice-cream-making, so I got that prepped and placed in the freezer earlier this week.

So, today I simply had to gather my ingredients and mix some stuff together. Gosh, ice cream is easy!

Xantham Gum

I think hubby nearly passed out when I asked him to get the Xantham Gum and he saw it was $12.99! I know that we only need a little bit at a time, but $13 is a lot at one time.

I considered omitting the xanthan gum, but I read online that it was best to use it (unless you had an allergy or something) because it helps ice cream stay creamy instead of getting icy.

I also learned (from my google search) that Xanthan Gum is a thickener commonly used in sauces and dressings and gluten free baking. You may have even noticed on the ingredient list of products you buy, if you read them.

Bottom line, I decided that we needed it, and now we have enough to make batches and batches and batches of ice cream!

My ice cream machine was a cinch to put together and then I just had to turn it on and start adding my ice cream mixture.

The machine ran for roughly 20 minutes before I checked it for consistency. It looked like it was close to being done (it seemed pretty well thickened to me at least) and I considered adding the cup of crushed chocolate cookies at this point…till I realized my 1 quart ice cream maker was TOO FULL! Doh!

So, I just let the machine run an extra 5 minutes, then turned the machine off and poured it into a mixing bowl. I mixed the ice cream and cookie pieces by hand.

Totally got to lick the spatula…to check the flavor of course!

I placed my ice cream in the freezer to thicken up while I worked on some other stuff around the house.

Shopping Spree

Check out my latest shopping spree goodies! My new breakfast bowls! Ok, they’re “cups” but I got them more for eating purposes than drinking.

I bought these glasses from Crate + Barrel today for breakfasts and snacks.

I strategically selected each of these glasses for size, shape and usability.

The smaller mug will be for my mini ice cream and yogurt parfait snacks. At 4 ounces, this means it will be the perfect 1/2 cup snack size.

The larger cups are going to be for full-sized breakfast parfaits or if I’m especially craving a large portion of ice cream, etc. At 9 ounces, this cup is really better for a cup-ish worth of yogurt and granola and fruit, or even a smoothie, but we’ll see.

I also picked up these snazzy mini spoons. They’ll be perfect for eating from my small glassware or as condiment spoons when we’re entertaining. I love the pattern on the silver spoon.

I also got this bowl for morning oatmeal. No size reasoning on this one, I just liked the size and shape.

Lunchtime Eats

While my ice cream thickened up, I whipped up a quick lunch: breaded halibut, steamed broccoli and toasted Whole Grain Goodness with a wee bit of real butter.

I picked up this Honest Ade – Pomegranate Blue from the race earlier. (What? Other spectators were getting it too!) It had a great flavor and I liked how it was “just a tad sweet.”

After lunch I dove straight into my homemade vegan ice cream!

Decorated with 2 cookies.

Loved it! The recipe was super easy and the flavor was great. Thanks Mama Pea!

Reader question – Have you tried coconut milk ice cream before (homemade or store-bought)? What did you think?