smoothie time

Since the weather is still undecided on if it's going to be spring or not, I decided that regardless of what it was like outside, it was still time to bust out my blender and frozen fruit to whip up some smoothies for after my workouts.  (I usually only have these when it's warm outside, you see)

These smoothies are seriously my favorite and they taste like candy AND, they're good for you.  Double bonus.

Sometimes it's hard for me to eat all of the fruit I buy before it starts going bad, so instead of tossing it out, I cut it up and stick it in the freezer so that I can make fruit smoothies with them later on.

Last night I whipped up a batch that had frozen strawberries, blackberries, pineapple, and banana's in it.  I also add a little OJ and a carton of non-fat yogurt.  They're soooooo gooooood. 

I would give you a more accurate recipe but I don't have one.  Just toss some stuff in the blender, hit pulse a few times and you're good to go. 

I store mine in the fridge for a few days or you can put them in the freezer so that they last a little longer.  I usually finish the pitcher in no time, so I don't have a problem with these things going bad!

You could also add a little protein powder to yours too to help your muscles and stuff.  I have some but sometimes I think it tastes gross.  You be the judge.

like a rhinestone cowboy...

This is my dad. 

Those are his guns.

Have I mentioned before that he's weird?

Apparently, as the story goes, he got home from running one night, threw back on his work clothes (haphazardly-if you care to notice), and made my mom take a picture of him with all of his guns.

Let me just point out that my dad does not hunt.  He's a collecter of sorts.  So, I mean, why not take a picture with all of your guns?

It makes perfect sense.



icy hot

Over Easter break my dad had a very stiff neck.  So much so that instead of at least attempting to turn his neck to look in a general direction he would just shift his entire body to see what was going on. 

It was quite entertaining trying to watch him maneuver his body to look in a different direction.


After attempting many times to try to get him to stretch and begging him to visit a chiropractor he blatantly refused and muttered something about how a chiropractor wouldn't be able to help. 

Somehow or another, though, he was still able to run....strange how those neck pains just disappear, eh?


After everyone had pretty much left after lunch on Sunday, a few of us, including my aunt and uncle, my mom, and my boyfriend were discussing his neck pain. My aunt suggested that he try out some icy hot to help alleviate the pain in his neck.


My dad quickly chimes in with:


"You have to watch that icy hot stuff!  I've tried it before.  It burns; and it stays on your hands forever!  You know what I mean...I thought I got it off before but it can burn in places and it stays like that for a long time!"

via

Oh wow...not exactly the way I saw that story going...

easter loot

Happy Easter (a few days late)!

I raked in the candy at our annual Easter Egg hunt over the weekend! 

Yes, even as adults, my cousins and I still have an Easter egg hunt and it's pretty cut-throat.  We compete for eggs and who has the largest bag of candy and money at the end of the day. 

Sadly I didn't win (but I was leaving some eggs behind for the 2 year old participating, duh).

I also ate my way through the entire weekend so I'm thinking that the gym is a MUST every day this week.

How was your Easter?  Did you have an Easter egg hunt??

i dislike my arms

It seems that no matter how hard I try, I can't get those sleek toned arms like Michelle Obama.  Gaw. 

Recently at the gym we were doing skull crushers, or lying tricep extensions, if you will, and I decided I'd step it up a bit and do as much weight as the guys were doing that night. 

It was only a 25 lb metal free weight and it seemed pretty easy in the beginning.  Then I let the thing slam into my head. 

Maybe that's why our trainer calls them skull crushers?

Anyway, because tank top season is quickly approaching, I think it's time to step up the arm workouts. 

It just so happened, that yahoo agreed with me today as they had this article posted online this morning.  While these seem easy, I think with all of the reps involved your little biceps will be feeling the burn.

My goal:

via

There was also this interesting article that I found a few weeks ago: 7 Secrets of Slim People and while I am by no means slim, I do follow a lot of the "secrets" that they suggest, such as: eating breakfast every day, working out in the mornings, drinking tea, and being a creature of habit. 

My one HUGE flaw: I suck at drinking water. 

Anyone have any grand ideas to make me chug more water throughout the day?! 

sometimes i think my dog is a human

Isn't she so sweet?

This is where I find her when I get home from the gym in the mornings...all curled up under my comforter with her head resting on my pillow.  Just like a human. 

Not spoiled one single bit, I tell you.



have a looksee

I finally decided what to order from CSN! 

No, I didn't go with that big fancy chair, or a bookshelf, or anything for my office at all.

I bought new pots and pans and I LOVE them!

I decided that since the non-stick coating was chipping off in my food that it was probably time to replace my old set. (About time right?  Plus how sick is that!  Hopefully I don't get some mysterious illness now...or cancer. Gaw.)

After going back and forth on stainless steel or non-stick and conducting a very scientifc poll in my office on which to purchase, I decided on this set:




EarthPan Hard Anodized Eco Friendly 10 piece cookware set

Of course I couldn't just spend the $30 I was given.  I had to go way above and beyond that.  But hey, I needed  these.  For my health.  Obviously.


Not only do these pans heat up quickly and cook food evenly, but the clean-up was so easy!

And this is coming from the girl who throws everything in the dishwasher (this may be why my other set was so bad come to think of it...)!

I had to make room in my cabinets for this new set of pans because they are quite a bit larger than my last set, but it's perfectly fine with me as long as they look pretty and make my food taste delicious!

If you haven't already been over to the CSN website, you should go now, they seriously have everything under the sun.  Go already!

it was one of those weekends…

After reading this, you might think that I was trying to kill Lincoln last weekend.  I swear, I had nothing to do with all of the things that happened to him (minus the lovely time we had at the gym).  Anywho, boyfriend couldn't catch a break!  Read on:

This past weekend was one, I can safely say, I’ve never experienced before in my life. Overall, I can’t complain too much, but there were three specific events that will make it very memorable.

#1

Read Kristin’s last blog. She pretty much hit the nail on the head. One doesn’t realize how out of shape they are until they do five half-hour classes in a row! I know I’m not as young as I used to be, but that Saturday morning was BRUTAL!

Just so you know my legs are still recovering, (like still today, and it's almost been a week). My coworkers were making fun of me Monday for how slow I was walking. Seriously, a snail would’ve had a fighting chance against me that day.

#2

The next day, I experienced what may have been one of the worst nosebleeds of all time.  At first, I thought all it was a runny nose. Then, after seeing what looked like a murder scene, I realized I had more pressing issues.

The strange thing is I my nose never bleeds. It caught me by total surprise. I’m still trying to figure out why it happened!

#3

Apparently, at some point during the weekend, a spider or something bit me. I had noticed a red spot Saturday on my leg, but didn’t think much about it. By Sunday evening, it was hot to the touch and had gotten much larger.

By Monday, it was out of control. Like bigger than a softball.

I went to the doc that afternoon, where they gave me a shot. By the next morning, it was looking much better, but it was sooo strange!

Even with all the drama spread out over the weekend, I would still call it a successful one. I got to watch a Royals victory and had a great time with great company!

lots of food and a 3 hour workout

Oh. Hai.

I'm here, just slacking lately.  Work is bussssy. My laptop at home decided it didn't like the wireless card that it came with, so the geek squad said I have to take it to Best Buy to have them send it in for it to be fixed.  Bummer.

Anywho, this weekend the weather in KC was to die for.

Not only did we go to the Royals game but they also won the series against the Angels!

Saturday morning Lincoln and I went to this event at my gym, which consisted of 30 minutes of each of the 5 classes that they offer, so around 3 hours of working out. 

Lincoln hated me Saturday.  Like there were daggers coming out of his eyes I think.

Luckily during the boxing class he could pretend that he was hitting me (ok, not really, but kind of...). 

I kind of told him that this event wouldn't be that hard (and I didn't really think that it would be, but I was wrong, it was a wee bit harder than I remembered from last year).

I'm used to the punishments that are my daily workouts though since I've been going to my gym and these types of classes for two years, he...not so much.

Our day started out with lots and lots of lunges and squats.  Then we had to go outside and run suicides uphill.  Then some more lunges and running.  And then a boxing class and kickboxing class. 

One of our classes were led by these two Chiefs players:
 

Casey Wiegmann


 

Ryan Lilja


Needless to say a long nap was in order after the longest workout ever.

Because we did the almost three-hour workout, we decided that we could apparently eat whatever we wanted all weekend.

Saturday night, we ate at Stroud's, home of pan-fried chicken.  It was sooo delicious.

Sunday we tried a new-ish burger place called brgr.  It was heavenly.

Does anyone else have a problem importing pictures from their iPhone?! Gaw. Mine never save how they're supposed to!

I got the classic brgr and added an egg.  I hadn't tried an egg on a burger before, so I decided to give it a shot.  It was very tasty.  I was convinced that I was going to be able to finish the entire thing but I could barely eat half.

After doing a little walking around and shopping, we decided that ice cream was in order since it was like 90* outside yesterday.

Then, after trying to cool off in my house a tiny bit we grilled outside before the storm rolled into town.

Overall it was a fab weekend, and it appears that spring is finally making it's way to Kansas!