March to Fitness Day 4: Biceps & Banana Ice Cream

I'm kneeling down for Sweetpea to take the pic, in you were questioning my height. Not sure why I looked pissed.

Like most people, I have some muscular imbalances; my right is much stronger than my left. I do mostly dumb bell curls to try and get things evened out, and once my left is up to par with the right I'll start doing more barbell and cable curls. No tickets to the gun show....yet.

I've become a big fan of the banana "ice cream" that has been hot on Pinterest lately.

One ingredient: Frozen bananas.

Seriously! You just slice up the ripe banana(s), pop them in the freezer, and then put the frozen slices in the food processor. It takes some patience and a lot of scraping down the sides, but eventually it turns into creamy soft serve!

Sweetpea wanted things a little sweeter (imagine that) so I added a touch of vanilla and honey to hers. Topped it all off with some chocolate chips, and she was a happy girl. It was delicious either way, and much healthier than regular ice cream. New fave in our house!

Let me know if you give it a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

-Barbie

March to Fitness Day 3: Breakfast

Water, Mini Quiches, Toasted Paleo Bread with butter, and oranges slices

My breakfasts always include eggs. I never used to regularly eat them, but I've become a huge fan. I will hard boil a bunch on Sundays for a quick breakfast during the week or packed as my recovery protein after lifting. I also like them scrambled with some spinach, or as these Mini Quiches. I made a batch last Sunday and have been eating them all week, delish! I also always eat a citrus fruit at breakfast, the vitamin C aids with iron absorption. I love grapefruit, but a friend recently visited family in Florida and brought back oranges to share from her backyard. They are so sweet and juicy, makes me jealous of Floridians, and not just for the great weather. Bummed that I only have one left :(

Mini Quiches

Recipe by Angela from The Gym Cellar

8 oz cream cheese (I used neufchatel)
8 eggs
Chopped meat if you desire (I used organic sausage, pre-cooked)
Veggies of your choice (I used red pepper, onion)
Garlic, pepper, salt


Whip. Pour into greased pie pan or divide in cupcake pan. Bake at 325 degrees
until center is slightly wiggly. Pull out of oven and let sit. The eggs will continue
to cook once out of the oven. If you cook until it is solid it will be dry and rubbery.

March to Fitness Challenge

As always, I'm super busy. I need something to blog about that ties in with what's going on with my life since I just don't have the time or energy to be creative. I haven't even been thrifting in a while! Tisk Tisk. 

I've been working out a ton though, and completely loving it. Finishing up week 6 of my Paleo Challenge. Living a healthy lifestyle really makes me happy, when I'm taking care of myself other things in life tend to just fall into place easier. Of course, I don't constantly have motivation, so I'm frequently looking for and pinning visual inspiration to my Fitspiration Board. I've been getting new followers daily with that board, which is really exciting! I always hope to inspire others to live happy, healthy lives.

I found this fun photo challenge yesterday and thought "Hey, that is perfect!" 

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Of course, I'm a day behind, so today is gonna be two shots. Most will probably be low-res phone pics, not about to look like a creeper with my Canon at the gym ;)

1. Progress Shot

Got a decent pump going hehe

To be honest, if I had to live my entire life looking like this I wouldn't be mad about it. However, I know that with hard work and dedication I can make myself even better. Hopefully by the end of the month I will be leaner with more definition. I really want to push my body to places it's never been before, which is really exciting and frightening at the same time.

2. Gym

In between sets, trying to be incognito with my peecture takin'

I work out a few different places. This is at one of the gyms on post, but I also workout on campus and at the small community gym across the street from my house. Where I go just depends on the day and my schedule. I prefer the big post gym because there are more machine and free weight options (plus a pool, a new cardio for me), but I can only get there during the small window of time when I'm not at school and Sweetpea is.

This should be fun, and will hopefully keep me in the blogosphere more. See you around!

-Barbie

Time is precious.

My days are very full lately. School for me and Sweetpea, working and activities in the evenings, and fitting in cleaning, cooking, and errands during "down time". I thrive when I am busy, I feel like I have purpose. My only regret is that I tend to drop the more creative aspects from my life, things like crafting, blogging, and taking pictures. 

I was talking to my husband on the phone the other night (brief but sweet conversations now a days) and he noted that I haven't been uploading photos to Facebook. Facebook is a very important tool to me because I have family and friends literally around the world. It is truly a blessing to be able to upload a photo from one of my daughter's numerous events and have it instantly available to my parents in Nebraska and my in laws in Japan. I argued that I've been uploading random phone pics, but don't have the desire to use my "nice" camera to make record of mundane, everyday activities. Until tonight.

As soon as my daughter stepped off the bus yesterday I knew something was wrong. She complained that her stomach hurt, and sure enough, she was vomiting about an hour later. She caught a nasty stomach bug that has been going around and I had to cancel my classes that I teach, skip my college classes today, and cancel several plans with friends over the weekend. Honestly, it was a blessing in disguise.

I've been going a mile a minute and I haven't taken the time recently to sit with my girl, hold her and cherish her. She still loves to snuggle and I spent as much time as I could today to do nothing. Watched a lot of Spongebob. Did some tidying up while she napped. Then I took the opportunity to give her a bath, scrubbing her not-so-little-anymore toes (that I painted a sparkly purple afterwards).  I know she is growing up so quickly now so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.

 It was unprovoked and absolutely necessary. 

I still need loads of practice with both using my camera and editing, but played a little tonight once she was in bed. Trying to get her eyes to pop more....

As you can see, she is feeling much better after her bath!

-Barbie

Day 5 of 56

It's Friday, and I feel great! 

This cutting out carbs and sugar thing really had me worried. I thought I would have massive cravings but honestly it's been smooth sailing. I have to give credit to the smarties who create delicious meals with unconventional ingredients and so graciously share them on the internet. Here is a sampling of some of my food from the week (in low-res phone pics, of course):

  

1. Spinach Smoothie
2. Grain-Free Apple Crisp
3. Grain-Free Fried Chicken with some salsa, avocado, and cauliflower "rice"
4. Salmon, green beans, butternut squash with toasted pecans 
5. Grain-Free "Pancakes" with berries
6. Baked Kale

Surprisingly, I've been able to get most of the unconventional ingredients that I've needed at the Commissary, where I normally do my grocery shopping. There were a couple items that I could only find at a local natural market. I've tried a lot of new foods and LOVED them. Cashew butter is amazing, and so is Sunbutter, although that has some sugar in it so that is just for Sweetpea at the moment. She is also trying everything with me, which I'm so proud of. I really hope to raise her as a curious eater.

Today was the first day I've ever made butternut squash, and man have I been missing out. It's like if a pumpkin and a sweet potato had a baby.

 A delicious, delicious baby. 

I've also been doing all the required workouts for the challenge. That, on top of ballet class and other random workouts that I throw in each day. I feel really good and I'm so excited about the next 51 days! I can't wait to see how I look and feel at the end.

Tomorrow I plan on making these for girl's night:

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Guac Poppers 
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...and possibly these:

Cauliflower Tots
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I'm not usually the biggest fan of cooking, but all of these things are easy and quick to make. And since I'm eating well and in a solid workout routine I have a lot more energy to commit to things like cooking and cleaning.

Who am I?!

My goal in sharing all of this is to hopefully inspire someone to start making healthy choices. In no way do you have to make big changes like I am right now (I'm kind of a health nut so this crap gets me giddy), but little things everyday will add up over the weeks, months, and years.

 Love your body and it will love you back!

-Barbie

Day 1 of 56

I've started a fitness challenge. It is 8 weeks long (56 days) and by the end I hope to be stronger, leaner, and most importantly, healthier.

I'm no rookie to working out. I really like getting my sweat on, but tend to do the same cardio and light lifting exercises, which give me the same results. I wanted to change things up a bit and see where it will get me. Working with the trainer over the holidays clued me into how awesome it is to feel strong!

So for 56 days I will be eating more lean protein and no refined carbohydrates. A paleo diet. I do love my carbs, so it will be a challenge. I normally am not an advocate of carb free diets, I just don't think it's healthy to eat a lot of meat because of the saturated fat, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Why not? It definitely won't be forever.

And of course I'll also be doing a different workout everyday. I get the workout sent to my email the night before so I have all of the following day to fit it into my schedule. 

Today was good, I'm optimistic. Hopefully by the end I have enough upper body strength to do at few pull ups. Can't even just do one, so part of my work out today was to just hang for one minute, which is actually much harder than you think it would be!

I've been pinning a bunch of "fitspiration" to get me motivated. Feel free to follow me on Pinterest!

And just to set the mood a little more...

Stay strong!

-Barbie

I was hibernating.

Random phone pic snapped during a layover today.
I like it.

Actually, I was in Omaha, Nebraska visiting family for the past month.

Got to visit with my friend Kim from The Wicopy for a day. I kick myself for not spending more time with friends while I was in the area, but honestly I didn't do much. Was a good vacation, minus Daniel being gone.

           Slept a lot. It was awesome.

Worked out a lot, too. Actually lost a teensy bit of weight over the holidays, and GAINED a good bit of muscle (my upper body is weak!) woot! If you are in Omaha and want a kick ass trainer hit up Aundrea.

And read the Hunger Games series. Pretty good, quick reads, and yeah I'll probably see the movie.

Don't have any big plans for the new year, just class and work like usual. No excited blog plans either. Maybe some fitness stuff? We'll see.

          Missing Daniel. Just waiting.