It's Dr. Official. I can run again.

I know. I know.  I ran outside a few miles this week, but today I went back to the DR. and NO surgery is needed to fix my foot and I can run!  I can run ALL the miles I want. 

PRAISE THE LORD! 

Woot woot! (Throwing a party over here)

I seriously can't even tell you how excited I am. 

Stay tuned for some fun posts this weekend :) 

Much love, 

C

Spring Break Recap

Spring break was a total blessing. 

Last week I put in my last few days at a job that has taught me more than I would've ever thought. The last two and a half years at granite have been great, but I was offered a full time nanny position for the summer and I couldn't say no. 

After that I got to spend some time with my family which was incredibly necessary. 

I mean baby time, empanadas, and beer = complete heaven. 

To end the week Annie came back to Minnesota on Friday and we worked with another one of my cousins at the food and wine experience at Target Field. It was tons of work but it was so much fun. Who can say no to an unlimited amount of free samples? 

After all that craziness I needed a fresh start. I met with my uncle over break and he helped me formulate a very high protein and low carb diet and exercise plan for the next 12 weeks. It has only been 2 days but it has been fun so far! All of these whole unprocessed foods are keeping me insanely full and it's difficult for me to eat everything I need to throughout my day. I'll take that over being hungry ANY day. 

I'll keep you up to date with all the fun improvements or workout changes this week :) 

Much love, 

C

Summit Pilates

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Barre Yoga Class at the new

Summit Pilates in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

This studio is absolutely stunning.  

The classes are capped at 5 participants, so you get a completely individualized workout.

It is a small space with a homey feel.  The dark woods and the fun chandeliers make this a perfectly relaxing place to re-discover muscles you were not aware existed.

Like I said, I took the Barre class.  I did Barre this summer so I wasn't sure what to expect since every teacher puts their own twist on things, but Tracy was great.  She made sure that everyone knew adjustments and extensions for the exercises that we were doing.

I would 100% recommend this studio for any beginner or intermediate yogi.  I had an absolute blast and cannot wait to go back to the reformer class tomorrow morning.

I’ll keep you posted,

C

Injury

Last week I finally went to the doctor to have my foot looked at.  

When I first started running I got a gross blister and it got infected and here I am two years later dealing with complications from not seeing a doctor originally.  

I now have an infected ganglion cyst on my left pinky toe. 

:( 

It sucks.  

My foot hurts all the time.  

I can only wear my TOMS and it is the coldest week of the year here in Minnesota, so TOMS are not the ideal shoe for the weather. 

The doctor perscribed me an antibiotic for the infection and I am now starting the removal process which is totally not pretty. 

I am hoping I can solve the issue without having it surgically removed because that would leave me out of commission for 6-8 weeks and I love my gym time way too much to have that happen. 

So a Ganglion Cyst is a common ailment in runners.  It is a small sack of fluid that is basically trapped in your skin between your joint and the surface.  When you wear any type of shoes it puts pressure on the sack of fluid, thus causing the pain.  The only way to treat it is to remove it completely. The fluid can be drained, but until the entire outer layer of the cyst is removed it will continue to come back. 

I have tons of pictures, but I am sure you'd rather not see my icky foot. 

Here's to a speedy recovery! 

C

The day of the deals.

Yesterday Annie and I had a wonderful little adventure. We decided to hit up a local outlet mall on the way to the cities for babysitting. 

Thank goodness we stopped because we scored some major deals. We spent $70 total and got 3 pairs of tennis shoes (one of those was a $30 pair of Nike's) and ALL of the clothes in these pictures. 

We got so lucky. It's not often Annie and I have a chance to escape and just have a relaxing day of fun. But yesterday was definitely one of those days. 

After our shopping spree we went to babysit with Bailey. It's always fun to catch up and eat some thin crust pizza and watch cartoons on a Saturday night in our pajamas. :) 

Have you had any major fitness finds lately? 

Much love, 

C

Weekly Goal Round 2

IIFYM is pretty much heaven.  You can eat pretty much whatever you want as long as you fit your daily allotment of Carbs, Protein, and Fat.

A diet where you can eat some occasional junk food?  Ummm YES! 

The one thing about IIFYM that takes some getting used to is weighing out everything you put into your beautiful tummy and log all of those grams into MFP. 

Since my second weekly challenge with Bailey is hitting my macros daily that means there have been a lot of funny IIFYM meme's being sent between Bails and I. 

Here are just a few:  

We'd love to have more of you, our readers, participate in these challenges with us. Please contact us if you're interested :) 

Much love, 

C

P.S. If you check Instagram you already know this, but over the last month school has been hosting an exercise around the world challenge.  The goal was to log 40 hours over the course of 6 weeks. Well friends...I was the first person on campus to hit 40 hours.  YESTERDAY at 28 days! #bossstatus 

Cauliflower "Fried Rice"

Bailey posted a recipe for this a couple of weeks ago here, but I tried something a little different and found that even my roommates enjoyed it which is huge!

*My adaptations to this recipe are in red*

Cauliflower "Fried Rice"
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 4 • Size: heaping 1 1/3 cups • Old Points: 2 pt • Points+: 3 pts
Calories: 108 • Fat: 3 g • Carbs: 14 • Fiber: 6 • Protein: 9 g • Sugar: 1
Sodium: 868 mg • Cholesterol: 47 mg

• 1 medium head (about 24 oz) cauliflower, rinsed
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2  whole eggs (scrambled) whites 
• 1 large egg
• pinch of salt
• cooking spray
• 1/2 small onion, diced fine
• 1/2 cup frozen peas and carrots
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 5 scallions, diced, whites and greens separated
• 3 tbsp soy sauce, or more to taste (Tamari for Gluten Free)
• 1 tbsp Teriyaki marinate
• 1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 2 shreadded carrots
• 1 cup minced bell peppers
• 2 (4oz) chicken breast

Directions:

Remove the core and let the cauliflower dry completely. Coarsely chop into florets, then place half of the cauliflower in a food processor and pulse until the cauliflower is small and has the texture of rice or couscous – don't over process or it will get mushy. Set aside and repeat with the remaining cauliflower.
Combine egg and egg whites in a small bowl and beat with a fork. Season with salt.

Heat a large saute pan or wok over medium heat and spray with oil. Add the eggs and cook, turning a few times until set; set aside.

Add the sesame oil and saute onions, scallion whites, peas and carrots and garlic about 3 to 4 minutes, or until soft.

Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the cauliflower "rice" to the saute pan along with soy sauce. Mix, cover and cook approximately 5 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is slightly crispy on the outside but tender on the inside. Add the egg then remove from heat and mix in scallion greens.

I honestly just threw everything in the pan and let it hang out for like 10 minutes while the chicken re-heated. SUPER EASY and a great way to use up extra veggies. 

Until tomorrow, 

C