A fun family experiment!

A couple weeks ago my cousin and his wife asked me to write them a four week fitness and nutrition plan to give them a jump start on a healthy lifestyle. 

I am so excited to introduce you to John and Jesse and welcome them to my blog! 

For the next four weeks they will be blogging and instagramming pics of their trials and tribulations of healthy diet and exercise. 

These two are by far the coolest cousins and parents to LJ that anyone could ask for.

I am so excited that they have asked for my help and I can't wait to see what happens over the next few weeks. 

Xoxo, 

C

Priorities

I am busy. I work 3 jobs. I am training for a marathon. I workout 6 days a week for at least two hours a day. I'm dedicated. 

Recently I have taken a lot of heat from both friends and family for the way that I live my life. I'm 21 and I've gone out twice since I've been home for the summer. I spend too much time working and not enough time with friends...yep I've heard it all. 

And I'm ready to tell my side of things. 

I'll admit it is not uncommon for me to have to cancel or change plans a day or two in advance because someone called in sick for work or needs time off. It comes with the territory of having your family's name on the building. When other employees call in its your job to step up no questions asked. Do I often enjoy it? No. Do I get jealous seeing pictures of you having fun? Of course. It wouldn't be human not to. But I wouldn't change my life for a second. I work my butt off for everything I want in my life.

With all of that responsibility comes a certain freedom in knowing that I can support myself completely on my own. Anything I want to do in life I can do if I work hard enough. 

I may not be "normal" and I can tell you that I have lost more than a few friends over my lifestyle this summer, but I wouldn't change it for the world. 

I'm stronger and becoming a better person every single day because I am chasing my goals not the ideals of others.

My priorities are: 

1) health

2) work

3) family 

4) happiness

What are yours?  

Xoxo, 

C 

Adventures in life

It has been a whirlwind since we got back from Nashville.  Lots of exciting things happening in life and I thought I would take a minute to share something other than a recipe.  Which apparently I have been finding a lot of  lately. 

Last weekend I got to hang out with Emmie at a family wedding and I cannot believe how big and beautiful she's getting.  It seems like just yesterday she was born and now she's almost a year! 

Katie and I tried a new restaurant called the Smilin' Moose in Hudson.  It's a great place to catch up and spend some time by the river. 

I ran 10 miles.  Mom biked with me and I am so glad that she did because on mile 1 we saw a black bear...I can definitely skip seeing one of those that close again. 

In the wonderful world of being a nanny we've been going on lots of outdoor adventures. 

Here are some pictures of the kiddos and Riley at Fawn-dow-rossa in St. Croix Falls.  I would definitely recommend taking any kid (big or small) we all had a blast. 

We have been trying out a bunch of new parks and the kids loved seeing the Lucy statue at St. Croix Prep! 

The kids had never been spelunching so I took them to the Boom site and we searched for bats and climbed around the cave.  They had tons of fun.  Of all the pictures that we took when we were there this was their favorite because they decided it didn't seem cool to smile in front of a cave.  It was way better to be serious. 

On Wednesday we got a special surprise when Riley stopped by in the squad car so the kids could see what it was like inside!  They were SO excited.  He even let them turn on the lights and sirens.  

The kids think it's pretty cool that Riley is a police officer and he comes to hang out with us!

Thursday meant workout 15.3 for the Granite Games Qualifier.  I seriously thought that training for and running a marathon was difficult, but this experience has surpassed that training 10 fold.  You don't realize how much your body is capable of until it has reached it's breaking point.  I reached mine yesterday.  

In the words of Kelly Clarkson, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" 

And believe me I feel stronger and more powerful every time I workout with this awesome 4:30 bunch.  They are some of the strongest people I have ever met. 

How was your week?

C

Whole food granola

We've all been to the point where we no longer want to "diet" and we just want to eat and live a healthy lifestyle. With that being said I am really trying to just stick to whole foods. Remember the saying "if it doesn't come from the ground or hav a mom you shouldn't eat it?" Well that's going to be my life motto again. Maybe this will spark son additional muscle gain and fat loss.

Anyway, apparently I am on fire in the kitchen lately because everything I try is turning out great! 

Here is a super easy granola recipe that can be tweaked to your liking! I made it this morning for the kids for breakfast. So easy and fast! 

For nuts I used: walnuts, pecans, and cashews

Seeds: pumpkin and sunflower 

Fruit: golden raisins, regular raisins, and unsweetened dried cranberries 

It is even kid approved!! 

I ate mine with unsweetened almond milk when it was fresh from the oven. Lucy and Isaac ate theirs with Greek yogurt. 

You could also bump up the nut content and make it a super healthy trail mix. 

Hope you like it! 

C

Banana ice cream

Tonight I tried a new treat and it was yummy, so I knew I had to share! 

Toss 2 frozen (peeled) bananas

2T pb2 (normal pb or Nutella would be awesome too) 

Splash of unsweetened almond milk

Blend in a food processor until smooth! 

It is so easy and delicious I still can't believe it. 

Has anyone tried it with other fruit? 

I'd love to hear! 

C 

Nashville...will I ever come home?

I may never return to Minnesota and that's the truth. I'm loving the trip so far in Nashville! 

Trace Atkins at the Grand Ole Opry

Sitting at Elvis' favorite piano at RCA Studio B

We've been crazy busy with tours and touristy things, but last night we got to spend time with a songwriter and his wife at their home. We went and had a real southern fish fry complete with hush puppies, coleslaw from the garden, Cajun catfish, watermelon, and chocolate cake. What more could you ask for? 

Here are some pictures from a gig we got to see Buddy (songwriter) and Jenae (fiddle player for Blake Shelton) play on Wednesday night at the Station Inn 

Maybe the gold and platinum albums that were hanging on the wall. To me it was life changing, but to them it was no big deal. It's just the "normal".  They have people like Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert's  cell phone numbers in their phone and they have the chance to hear there songs and ideas played to hundreds of thousands of people. Buddy wrote Blake's song Red River Blue and Just Gettin Started (he co-wrote with Jenae). And these people are the most down to earth and lovely people I've ever met. It has been such a cool experience to hear their stories and get to spend time with them! 

During my two short days actually in Nashville it has been amazing to hear about the birthplace of country music. And getting to see the amazing up and coming talent that is present in every honkey tonk bar and street corner isn't difficult either. 

Even though this trip isn't playing out to be exactly what I imagined it just goes to show you that you have to look for the upsides to things. Not everything is how you play it out to be in your head, but you never know who you're going to meet or where you'll end up.

Stay tuned for more details, 

C 

Adjusting to the nanny life

This summer is absolutely flying by.  I have this immense fear that I am going to wake up and it'll be August 25th and it'll be time to say goodbye to these amazing kiddos.  For the summer I am working with two kids, full time, as both their nanny and their tutor and it is a perfect fit. I get paid to do tons of fun activities and we spend about an hour a day on educational stuff; the perfect balance. 

I have fallen in love with a new cross fit gym called the Stillwater Workhouse.  The people are amazing and the workouts are kick ass.  

This beauty is the result of a failed box jump...now the question is how to disguise it in cute clothes for Nashville tomorrow?

Oh, and I signed up for my first cross fit competition!


With crossfit comes half training.  It has been trixie to fit into my schedule lately, but last weekend I ran 9 miles and it was absolutely pouring rain.  It was horrible and completely invigorating at the same time.


Have you guys tried this?  It's amazing.  Obviously liking the texture of pudding is a requirement, but it is delicious and good for you, so WIN WIN!!



A necessary Croix pic because look at him, he's adorable.




This summer has been a bit of a struggle in finding myself and people/things that I have in my life to make me happy.  Let me tell you that without these two I would be struggling.  Riley is always ready for a run, bike ride, or an ice cream date.  And let's be real, Mom is just always there.

I can't even begin to explain how grateful I am to have them both in my life.



Here's to a long weekend in Nashville with Uncle Mark, Kim, and Jaimie!  There will most definitely be a recap post next week :)

Much love,

C