Try a Turkey Trot

A fun way to help ward off those holiday pounds, be physically active, and spend time with your loved ones is to sign up for a local turkey trot. A turkey trot is a short run or walk race that takes place on Thanksgiving Day. They start early in the morning, and typically have a finish line celebration  where you and your family can replenish, take pictures, enjoy music, and gather your awards after the event.  Make this fun activity a new family holiday tradition that will encourage others to be physically active year-round.   Many people travel to see family for the holidays, so look on running websites to find a race near you and your family. Larry & I will be running the Gobble Jog 10k in Marietta, GA. I can’t wait to see the town during the run!

For many, the holidays are synonymous with family. Show your family you care by creating new Thanksgiving Traditions.  A game of flag football the morning of Thanksgiving or a walk around the neighborhood to reminisce and chat with family and friends is a great way to incorporate physical activity into your other traditions.  Makeover your favorite family recipe and teach it to your other siblings.

Making health a priority year round will show your family and friends that you have their best interest at heart. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I love this time of year…

Today we are off to see Larry’s family in Georgia for Thanksgiving. I am so thankful that we have such amazing families that love our significant other.  We can recreate this picture in front of their house this year too. It’s one of my favorites.  I will be tweeting the events of the trip if you would like to follow, but I will have my laptop because I have mounds of school work to do. Hope you get to spend some quality time with your loved ones this time of year!

I’m looking forward to:

• Special time with special people
• Baking & decorating cupcakes w/ Larry’s niece
• My 1st trip to Trader Joe’s to drain my bank account
• Gobble Jog 10k
• Black Friday Shopping Madness
• Exploring the city w/ Lars
• Doing school work in any place that is not my apt or my office [theory paper, presentation, & portfolio] ugh
• Meeting any challenges to maintaining my fitness routine while traveling
• Relaxing a little…

Thanksgiving 2008

 

Meet Me Monday!

5 things you may not know about me from reading my blog:

1. I have a fleur de leis ring that Larry bought me from my birthday years ago that I consider good luck. When I don’t wear it I always have a bad day!
2. I love Spongebob Squarepants. He’s so sweet & sees the best in everyone (which is how everyone should be).
3. I am so uncreative/inartistic &  a little embarrassed by it sometimes.
4. I go through a large jar of salsa every week by myself!
5. I have tweeted 1480 times!!! Woah…

Tell me something I don’t know about you from reading your blog or otherwise.

 

Your Body Will Thank You…

There are many cooking techniques that you can adopt to make your favorite Thanksgiving dishes healthier but equally as yummy.

• Sneaking in vegetables into all your dishes will help your family reach the recommended amount of servings per day & increase the overall nutrient density of your dishes. Try adding mild flavored veggies like squash or zucchini to your stuffing or dressing.
• In many baking recipes you can decrease the fat and calorie content by substituting 2 egg whites for each whole egg or half the amount of unsweetened applesauce for oil or butter.
• Whenever a recipe calls for flour, try using half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour to increase the amount of protein and whole grains of the dish.
• Offering individual portion sized desserts will help your family avoid overindulging. Making tartlets instead of a whole pie.
• Offer flavored vinegars to dress salads instead of salad dressing.
• Cut back on salt by adding fresh or dried herbs to season or flavor your dishes.

These are just a few ideas.

Question:

What is your favorite way to “healthify” your favorite holiday dish?

 

No Equipment Workout for Travelers

Just because you are traveling and away from the gym does not mean that you have to stop your fitness routine. Circuit training is a type of interval training that includes strength training mixed with bouts of cardiovascular training.  Circuit training allows you to get the best workout for a short amount of time.  Here is a simple circuit training routine that will help you keep off holiday weight and maintain your fitness level while away.

Complete each cardio move 30 seconds three times. Between each bout complete the strength exercise listed.

Warm up with jumping jacks or jogging in place for 2-3 minutes. Follow up with a few light stretches of major muscle groups.

• Run in place with high knees
• ~ 10 Push Ups
• Squat jumps (feet parallel & knees straight forward, sit back into a squat then jump up as high as you can landing softly on the balls of your feet.)
• ~ 15 crunches
• Jumping jacks
• ~ Stationary lunges alternating right & left for 45 seconds (during lunges be sure to lead with your heel & maintain posture throughout the exercise)
• Mountain climbers
• ~ 15 squats
• Cool down for 5 minutes by bringing your heart rate back down to its resting values and light stretching.

This workout is short & sweet so it doesn’t take away from your time with your loved ones.  I love the challenge of maintaining my fitness regimen while away. I hope these simple yet effective exercises help you overcome any barriers while visiting family & friends for Thanksgiving.

 

And it feels like me on a good day…

I can not believe it’s here…Thanksgiving Break!!!

I’ve been waiting for this break from school all semester. Granted I will spend most of my time working on assignments & my thesis, it will be nice to not worry about teaching, waking up early (to teach), or being stuck on campus & in my office 8am -630pm.  After Thanksgiving Break we have one more week of school then final exams…then 5 delicious weeks of freedom! I cannot believe I am going to be entering my last semester of graduate school! In about 6 short months I will have my long-awaited Master’s Degree (assuming my thesis & statistics goes as planned).

Anyway, back to the present! When school gets crazy my apartment looks horrendous! So I spent most of today cleaning & running errands. We grabbed lunch at the very crowded Boure on the Square. It is crazy in town for the LSU game. Afterwards, Lars & I went to the Clay Canvas to paint pottery. Last time we went I really wanted to paint a mug, but they were out. I settled for a tea cup & saucer which I use in my office now. Today, I painted an obnoxiously large mug…it’s more of a bowl with a handle. My mind was spinning with possibilities…not for painting but for what I planned to eat in it! I’m not very creative or artsy so the painting was a little difficult. In the end, I came up with a design that I liked. They won’t be ready until Tuesday & we will be out of town so we will have to pick them up when we get back from Atlanta.  Of course there will be pictures & my mug/bowl will probably have food in it.

I love getting mail. Today was special because I got the sweetest letter from my mom. She knows that I’m a little stressed with school. So she sent me some encouraging words & 2 of her favorite prayers to get through tough times. I told you that woman was amazing

I also received the handheld running water bottles I ordered.  I chose the 10 ounce Fuel Belt bottle. I cannot hold liquids so I knew I needed the smaller one or I would have to “go” during my runs. Larry opted for the Nathan Quickdraw 22 ounce bottle. They both have little zippered pockets on them. I think I will give it a whirl on our 8 mile run Sunday (a new PDR…I’m super nervous about it!). On a side note but related to running, I keep forgetting to log my miles for the Pile on the Miles Challenge. I can’t believe it’s almost over.

pictures from nathansports.com & fuelbelt.com

Larry's bottle is black

My bottle is black

Also in the mail were a few coupons from Bolthouse Farms for me to try a few of their products to review on the blog. I have tried a couple of their juices before & they are amazing! I cannot wait to share my review with you. I also learned a lot about their company from visiting the site. More to come later on that though…

For now I am patiently waiting for my sweet potato to come out of the oven so I can devour it! I hope to have a very productive yet relaxing weekend…away from the Ole Miss vs LSU crowds. Gotta get back to getting some QT.

 More later…

Question:

• What are your weekend plans? Are you traveling for Thanksgiving?

 

6 DAYS UNTIL MY 1ST 10K!!!

 

Honestly…

Good morning my dear readers.

Alyson at Nourished Fitness awarded me the Honest Scrap award. Part of this includes me stating 10 truths about myself then tagging 7 more bloggers who I believe will be 100% honest.  This was difficult…am I so simple that I can’t think of 10 things?

1. I do not like to borrow things ever. I like to have my own.
2. I love dance/electronic/house music. It was one of the first things that I loved about Larry. I never thought I would meet someone who enjoyed the same unique & varying music as me.
3. I have had very few cell phones. I get a really nice one…& I take care of it. Right now I’m rocking the T-Mobile G1…no drops, no scratches, etc. & I’ve had it since January.
4. Through my years of interview training I have somehow eliminated the word “um” from my vocabulary. Whenever I hear it in conversation, presentations, speeches it sounds magnified to me & it drives me crazy!!!
5. I have always been jealous of my brother & sister’s curly hair. Mine is more of a frizzy puff!
6. 4 years later, I still cry when I see Katrina footage & it’s hard for me to talk about.
7. It pisses me off when people think that my degree in Exercise Science means I want to be a personal trainer. You only need a high school diploma & to pass the exam…not a college degree! It’s called exercise SCIENCE…I know more than you think I know.
8. I’m not a big reader & it used to bother me. Then I realized it is because reading is a solo activity & I’m more social. I’m not the kind of person who needs “me” time. I guess because I always had my bro & sis around to entertain me…they are 1 & 3 years younger than me, respectively.
9. I think my mom is the shiz & I like to tell people…so deal with it! She has taught me so many amazing things that I pass on to my friends. They always say, “How do you know how to do that?”…I say, “My mom taught me!”
10. Some people like to have long, intense conversations about things that don’t have a true answer…not me. If someone starts a convo like that , I don’t even entertain the thought. I just shrug & change the subject. I have better things to talk about with my time then the insignificant “controversies” on campus.

That was pretty difficult. I’m not even sure that I did this correctly. Anyway, you learned a few new things about me!

* Alyson has her first fitness competition this weekend so stop by her blog & wish her luck!!! GOOD LUCK ALY!

 

Gotta get back to work making my class’s final exam. More to come later!

 

I’m Back!!!

I’m alive! I made it through one of the most difficult weeks of my graduate school career. I’m not in the clear just yet…I have my looming thesis proposal, stats homework & final exam, 2 presentations, a theory paper, & a portfolio. Oh yeah…with only 1 week of school left & then finals week I have all of that due!

Right now I’m relaxing on the couch & watching Modern Family. It’s the perfect show to release my nerves. Even though the events of today are behind me I now feel a bit of anxiety wanting to know how I did.  Enough about school work…

Tomorrow will make it one week until my 1st 10k! The Gobble Jog in Marietta, Georgia!  I am kind of nervous, but I know that for my first race of a new distance I will not set a time goal.  I still need to register!

Well nothing exciting happened while my head was buried in research articles.  Hopefully that will turn around soon. I still want to get lots of work done tomorrow on my thesis & prepare for the work I need to pack when we leave for Atlanta for Thanksgiving.

I’m so ready for Christmas break. Not only for no school…but to see my wonderous friends! Great festivities are in the works.  I can’t wait to see my little nephew too! These mobile pics from my mom are just teasers!

Did you miss me?

Did you even realize I was away?!?!

 

Who Dat?!?!

That’s the most I will ever talk about sport, especially football on here.

Today’s Agenda:

• Stats 10-1115
• Lunch @ 1130
• Meeting w/ Advisor about Thesis @ 1230
• Study, Study, Study until
• Teach circuit training @ 2
• Teach pilates @ 3
• Foundations in Health Promotion Final Exam
• Finally head home @ about 7ish
• Upper Body & Whittle My Middle workout
• Gossip Girl
• Study, Study, Study, Study

 

Meet Me Monday!

5 things you may not know about me from reading my blog:

1. I love home scents. Especially Sandalwood Vanilla!
2. I wish Natalie Portman would be my best friend.
3. My mom & I text each other “virtual hugs”. I really need one this week. Hugs are my favorite.
4. I have tweeted 1395 times…whoa!
5. I had a dream the other night that I was the athletic trainer for an elite basketball team of NBA players, WNBA players, & professional international players and I was fired because 2 players got into a fight because they had a crush on me. HOW RIDICULOUS?!?!?!? I laughed out loud when I woke up.

Tell me something I may not know about you from reading your blog or otherwise!