HIIT It Up!

Hello blog world! It's time for another ramped up workout edition of my blog posts! This past Sunday was such a beautiful day! The weather was cool in the morning, which is a nice change of pace for where I live, and lends itself quite nicely to working out in the great outdoors! On this beautiful morning my training buddy, Olive, and I decided to hit the ground running...or walking. We started out with a nice walk and then decided to throw in some HIIT! In case you are reading this and are unaware of what HIIT stands for, it is High Intensity Interval Training. There are many different definitions of what this means, but for me, I was walking about 1 minute to 1 1/2 minutes of brisk walking with 30-60seconds of thigh burning sprints! It was great! We kept at it for about 60 minutes, including warming up and cooling down, so we definitely got a great workout! I was whipped! But it felt great! I definitely want to make Sundays my HIIT day! And that means Monday will become either a weights day or a day off!

Olive was pooped after our workout

Do you enjoy HIIT? 

Pint sized poultry

Have a delicious healthy dinner after a long busy day is probably one of life's greatest things. I know that I am always happy to sit down with my husband, kick back, and enjoy a lovely dinner and conversation. What's even better is when said dinner is quick and delicious, like one we just enjoyed the other night!

Oh the deliciousness

As you can see we had quite the spread! Wild rice, sauteed vegetable, arugula salad, red wine, and cornish hens! It was all to die for, but the little hens were especially delicious! I tried out a new recipe and it was simply delicious! And because I'm sure you'd love to prepare such a dinner yourself, here is the recipe (And trust me, it's a cinch!) :

Ingredients :

• 2 Cornish hens  
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade  
• 1 tablespoon bold and spicy mustard  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger  
• 1 tablespoon salt-free herb-and-spice steak sauce

Rinse your  hens and remove the skin and fat. Cut the hens in half lengthwise, and set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until heated through. Cook hens, bone side up,on a covered grill for about 15 minutes. Baste the hens with the orange glaze, and turn over. Grill an additional 10 minutes or until done. Be sure to baste as you go!

 

It's as easy as that! And then enjoy!

Bon appetit!

Adventure Time part 2

The adventure continues...

So on the second leg of our adventure we decided to stick a little closer to home, and better yet, to include Olive! Like I said previously, we have lived here for a while, but there are still many places we have left untouched! Slowly though, I am hoping to unturn each local stone, or at least many of them. On this particular day it was unseasonably cool and comfortable so I knew we had to do something outdoorsy and adventurous! We, I, realized that one place we hadn't gone to but had been wanting to check out had great potential for our day; so we headed out!

It was a beautiful day for a "hike" in the woods of Florida! We decided to check out the local park that had great hiking and biking trails, as well as one of the countries first forts. Sadly, we didn't see much wildlife, the typical squirrels, and a few birds, but no alligators even though there were warning signs along the paths to look out for them! We did, however, see a spider making it's web :

Can you see it in the foreground?



Olive really enjoyed being with us and smelling all the news smells and hearing the chatter of the forest. She even tried her hand..paw?..at stalking some prey!

The great hunter

Trail hound

We even saw some old ruins from when the fort was active and before the light house was created.

Was once an oil house

An oil house is a place that, taadaa, they held oil for the beacons to help guide the ships around the coast of the island. On the placard they said it was typical to find only the remains of the oil houses and no signs of the beacon because the beacons were made of wood, where as the oil houses were made of bricks. They were also kept far away to prevent the spread of fire in case of an explosion.

All in all we had a great time!

What I eat when I'm alone....

We've all heard of closet eaters, right? They hide what they're eating from everyone because they don't want people to know that they are eating a bag of donuts or an entire pizza. Well, sometimes I too am a closet eater..... But it's not what you think!

I am here to confess that many times while my husband is working late and I am on my own for dinner, I eat some slightly different things. Like vegan cheese..... What is that? .....and vegetables I haven't tried in a few years because I didn't think I liked them.

So the other night whilst alone, I made a grilled eggplant with cheese, grilled onion, arugula, and tomatoes. It was great!!!! :) but definitely not my hubby's idea of a great dinner.

Do you "closet eat" healthy things while you are alone?

Adventure Time!!! part 1

Hello blog world! It has been a fun couple of days! Plenty of activity and adventure, and best of all I got to spend it all with the hubby!We did so much, and had so much fun, that it is actually going to take me two blog posts just to catch you guys up on how awesome it was! So let's start with day 1; Monday, October 8, Columbus Day holiday.

Thankfully, I am one of those lucky Americans that gets (nearly) every holiday off. From the main stream to the obscure, I am free to run around, sleep, veg out, or run a race, on those days...assuming there isn't some crazy thing happening at work. And Monday, happened to be one of those glorious, days off freedom, where not only do you get to sleep in, do what you want, not go to work, but, you get paid. Being a hard working sapp has it's advantages sometimes. So, in honor of Columbus, the great adventurer that has been completely twisted and morphed in the American psyche into a hero even though....let's face it, he brought on the genocide of entire continent, and basically hemisphere....still, we celebrate his lack of fear and adventurous nature every year by giving about 2% of all workers the day off. YAY! And to really get into the spirit this year, the hubs and I decided to become adventurers for the day!

We have lived in this "one horse town" since graduating college and getting jobs; which was over 4 years ago now...yikes! And in this said four years we have hardly scratched the surface at finding out what there truly is to do around here! So, thanks to the internet, google, urbanspoon, and trip advisor, we hatched a plan and headed downtown!

Our first priority; breakfast! As you know, seeing as I have a blog about it that you are currently reading, I am into wholesome food, organic when possible, and natural at it's core, so I decided to find a place like that to start our day!

Oooo hipster style...you know it's going to be good!

So this place, Chamblin's Uptown, was delicious! Organic! Homemade! Fresh! And even the hubs loved it!

NOM!!!

I got a deliciously fresh bagel with TONS of veggies, cheese, and vinaigrette on it. So good! It was basically a salad slammed in the middle of a bagel! This puppy kept me fueled for hours! I think the coffee helped a bit too.

So after a filling and yummy breakfast, it was time to start exploring! So we walked down by the river and tried to see what we could see...which wasn't much along the river walk. We then decided to head back towards our little breakfast place and see what might be hiding around there, but before we got back there we noticed something. The skytram. Free. Which we found out leads directly to one of the places we had hoped to go to, and it was one of those things that we knew existed but had never used; so, we hoped on and took a ride!

Just like Disney World!

 Weeeee!!!!

Over the river we went! And we hopped off at the station right near the Museum of Science and History! This museum is a lot of fun! They have a lot of great permanent exhibits as well as a great rotation of traveling exhibits that come from all across the country! Since we live right on the coast there is, of course, a huge marine history section, including fossils and replicas, as well as information about how marine mammals and humans are similar, yet different!

WHALES!

There is also a section about local land animals, including turtles, lizards, opossums, owls, and....snakes. Bleh.

Moving on....there is also a section detailing how the human body works, from flatulence, to the heart, to robotic limbs! They even had a robotic limb that you could try out to see if you could control it to pick things up!

He snagged the grapes!

Full of interesting facts about the human body.

After spending quite a while in the museum, including seeing a show in the planetarium!!! (Which is one of only 3 singe lens planetariums in the country) We decided to head out and attempt to find a shopping and dining district near by! After walking what was probably about a mile to a mile and a half, we realized that this isn't the most pedestrian friendly city! We found no cute shops like I'm used to in a city, and while we did finally find a watering hole, it was still extremely far from the museum. It didn't damper our spirits too much, so we stopped in to enjoy the air conditioning and wet our whistles with a local brew!

Apple-y  beer goodness!

Finally, after a long day in the city, we knew we needed to head home. So we walked the mile or so back to a different tram station and rode it back to our original embarkation spot and traveled back home to let little miss Olive out and relax for the evening.

Whoosh. Well, if you read all of that, then thank you! If you just scrolled through and looked at the pictures, I hope you enjoyed them! And if you clicked on my blog saw this and decided it was too long and did not listen, then I am sorry. Until next time!



Beautiful nutrition

Have you ever noticed that the most nutritious food is also some of the most beautiful food? I was thinking about this very the yesterday as I sat down to enjoy my highly nutritious and absolutely delicious lunch. Here is a lovely picture of it :

droooool!

Look how yummy! In case you can't determine what everything is, and besides I like going into detail on such things, here is the list of what I ate(all organic of course except for the cheese...and water); 1/4 of a cantaloupe, ~1/4 of a cucumber, a few grape tomatoes, ~a dozen raspberries, a babybel original cheese, a carrot, a peach, a sprouted ezekial cinnamon raisin english muffin toasted with a tbsp of almond butter, 1/2 cup of whole milk yogurt, and a bottle of water. Needless to say I was stuffed afterwards! But just look at the colors! A rainbow of nutrition! This is my typical lunch, or somewhere close to this anyways. Typically a lot of fruits and veggies and some protein thrown in, with a bit of dairy. You just feel good eating like this. I know that when I am indulging my husband and going to restaurants that suffer from a severe lack of freshness, I always feel bloated and heavy afterwards, which I HATE! Thankfully, I cook 99% of our meals!

So go out and enjoy your Sunday! And don't forget to enjoy some delicious, and beautiful, fresh food today!

Back in the saddle!

Well, in case you were wondering, yes I am still alive! And feeling fully recovered from the race. Today was my first post race workout and it went great! I was hoping to run and walk outside today, but alas, it was raining, bummer. So, I had to return to my old friend/enemy, the treadmill. Without it I would not have been able to do the race, but I still hate the darn thing. It is so boring, no matter what I do; music, movies, tv, looking out the window (overlooking my backyard pictured below) and trying varying workouts, I still can't forget that I am running in place. Thankfully, it is becoming that time of year again where I can run outside! I can't wait to put my new shoes to the pavement! They treated me well on the treadmill today, so that's a good sign!

I hope you are having fun enjoying the welcoming autumn weather and getting active!

Victory!!!

Well, hello blog world!!! Since I am typing this, you can all safely assume that I survived the weekend! The Tower of Terror 10 miler weekend was AWESOME! We headed down Friday morning, and didn't return until Sunday afternoon! It was a whirlwind to say the least! RunDisney put on an amazing fitness expo the days before (and the day of) the race which included vendors, fitness experts, snack peddlers, and the like. We got to meet Jeff Galloway!!!! For those that don't know who Jeff Galloway is, he is an expert runner, and the face of RunDisney! So that was a bit exciting, but the more exciting thing about him; I finished only 6 minutes after him.....WHAT?!?!?!!!! OK ok ok....I know, he OBVIOUSLY wasn't giving it 100% and I was, but that is still pretty awesome! And regardless of whether he was actually running it backwards or crawling and I was giving it 150%, that doesn't change the fact that we finished near each other; amazing. And to top it all of I completed every one of my goals I had mentally set for myself! Which included;

1. Finish
2. Run the whole thing
3. Finish sub 2 hours

I was sooo happy with myself! So here were my time splits :

• 5K - 36:17
• 10K - 1:13:48
• Finish 10 miles - 1:59

So, I barely finished under two hours, but I did, and that's what mattered..to me. But, I feel pretty good about my 5K and 10K times as well, seeing as I was only running at about 80% when I reached the 5K distance, and by the 10K I was starting to feel a bit tired but I was digging deep and giving it about 100%  effort.

Overall, it was great, I totally kicked ass and I was taking names! I finished 3055 out of over 10,000 runners! Which was great! And I finished 1564 out of the 5653 women that finished, which for me, is pretty darn great! In order to remember my great accomplishment and to commemorate the great weekend my friends and I each order one of these :

Oooooo!!!! :)

It comes complete with a duplicate medal, duplicate bib, and a spot to put your own photo in. I can't wait for this to arrive! Oh and speaking of medal, here is the medal I won for completing the race! 

Taa daa!!!

So, yes, the race was fun, it had the Disney charm and fun you'd expect, plus I was able to do my personal best, and most of all, I survived! And what's crazier?! My friends and I have decided to try for the Princess Half Marathon back down in Disney in February. Am I crazy? Insane? A glutton for punishment? Yes, to all three, but we're going for it! What's another 3 miles?!