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Girls on the Run

Good Morning! How was your weekend?  As always, I’m a little sad it’s over and now I’m getting ready for another day of work.  Luckily, I enjoy my job, but who would rather be at work than relaxing on a weekend?  Not any sane person.

Friday night, I went over to Nick’s mom house to have dinner with his family while we waited for him to get in town! I made some delicious banana oatmeal cookies to share with everyone and they turned out better than the first batch I ever made, so that was pretty exciting!  I used them as a breakfast cookie and then later on as a post-workout snack.  They were officially gone by Saturday!

On Saturday, I woke up for my Girls on the Run Training!  I have been so excited for this program.  I originally heard about it from Julie @ Peanut Butter Fingers and enjoyed checking in each week as her enthusiasm for the program grew throughout the season.  I can’t wait to meet my co-coach and meet our girls in a few short weeks.  I hope this is an empowering program for them and a beautiful continuation of ending obesity, teen pregnancy, and diabetes in Mississippi.

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I’m currently waiting to hear back from my co-coach so we can set up a time for us to get to know each other and plan out our first couple of lessons.

After training I met up with Nick’s family for lunch at Piccadilly’s and it was delicious!  I had never been, but I got an assortment of different vegetable dishes and the most wonderful Mexican cornbread!

I may have mentioned that Nick is running in my place for the Mercedes Marathon.  After lunch, it was time for one of Nick’s training runs – the longest run he’ll do before the actual marathon.  So we set out to do 15 miles – him on foot, of course, and I decided to ride my bike with him to keep him company and help him out with water & snacks throughout the run.  He finished the 15 miles a little over 3 hours so I have no doubt he’ll survive the marathon in under 6 hours!  Now he’s focusing on stretching and endurance.  I look forward to seeing how he does!  Since he did so great on the run, I treated him to some Japanese that night – he loves sushi!

Sunday was pretty low key around here – I went and hung out with a friend and her daughter then Nick and I headed out to Engine 2 Graduation!  Nick has done excellent on the Engine 2 Challenge and lost almost 10 pounds with it.  He plans to continue it until the marathon so the weight loss will help him run easier.  I also didn’t do great on the last week of the diet, so I’ll be sticking to the diet for another few weeks during the week day, but I’ll splurge a little on the weekends due to being out of town and such.

Mary Lindsey did such a great job on the dinner and in true bad blogger fashion, I forgot to get a great picture of the meal, but I did happen to snap a picture of the delicious chocolate cupcakes she made.  Seriously, how can you call this a diet when you can eat wonderful things like this?!

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Switching gears here…. this is my workout schedule for the week:

Monday – Leg Strength Training, Stretching, run 1/4 mile

Tuesday – Arms, Abs, Stretching, run 1/4 mile

Wednesday – Pilates Reformer (my first time!)

Thursday – Leg Strength Training, Stretching, run 1/4  mile

Friday – Arms, Abs, Stretching, run 1/4 mile

Saturday & Sunday – I’m going to do a 1/2 mile each day and see how my knee feels!

  • Have you participated in Girls on the Run?
  • What workouts are you doing this week?  Trying anything new?

Favorite Things #3

Happy Hump Day Everyone!  Hope you’re having a great week.  I’m keeping to my New Year’s Goals and we’re moving right along to my 3rd installment of Favorite Things this year!

  • Corn Flakes

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I’ve been wishing & hoping for a light cereal that doesn’t feel like I’m gnawing on fiber & cardboard with this Engine 2 Challenge.  I finally found one that was allowed on the Engine 2 Diet and it’s these light and flaky cornflakes that are sweetened with fruit juice and have no oils.  They remind me of eating fruity or cocoa pebbles with their airiness.  I have to be careful not to make them an entire meal though because they are not full of protein or fiber like the other Engine 2 cereals out there.

  • Hemp Hearts

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The other night at the Engine 2 Meet-up, Mary Lindsey passed out samples of Hemp Hearts.  I’ve never had Hemp Hearts before, but I know Mary Lindsey loves them and puts them on a lot of stuff.  To improve the nutrition of the Corn Flake cereal and provide more fiber & protein, I tossed the packet of hemp hearts with the cereal and it’s been great!  I’m going to buy a bag of these to start adding to lots of stuff for an extra punch of nutrition.  I look forward to seeing what it tastes like on my Ezekial Bread Toast in the mornings.

  • Coconut Water

coconut-water

This past week, I’ve been working out a lot more than I had been the past few weeks.  I’m actually feeling sore and straining my muscles to fatigue.  I love this feeling of accomplishment, especially after so much knee pain – I’m feeling stronger and I actually ran a 1/4 mile last night on the treadmill.  The other day after an intense leg work out, my muscles were cramping a little so I threw in some coconut water to my smoothie.  I love the benefits of coconut water, it has so much more potassium than bananas so it helped my cramping really well that night.  I was afraid I’d wake up with Charlie Horses  throughout the night, but that didn’t happen!

  • Mississippi Women Bloggers Community

I’m so thankful for this wonderful community and I look forward to everything we have planned for the future!  I enjoyed our first meet-up and meeting some other MS bloggers was exactly what I needed.  We’re planning a “work day” to all focus on our blogs and help each other improve.  It’s going to be great!

  • Nick’s Sister-In-Law & Nephew in Town!!!!!

This is probably my favorite thing in the world right now!  Nick’s brother is also in town, but because of work, I doubt I’ll get to see him.  Today after work, I’ll be meeting Kathryn & Cade for a  walk and then tomorrow we’re having lunch at Whole Foods together!  I am just so excited to see them and see sweet baby Cade.  Just from pictures I’ve seen, he’s already grown up so much!  These next two days are going to be amazing!!

  • Whole Foods Market Jackson One-Year Anniversary

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It’s not surprise that I love love love Whole Foods and I was so excited when they arrived to Jackson, MS.  Today is their One Year Anniversary of being here and I’m excited to stop by over lunch to see what all they have going on.  I’m sure there will be samples & demonstrations, plus I’ll probably grab a little snack while I’m there.  I’ve highlighted some of my favorite posts from there over the past year!

Whole Foods Market Tour before Grand Opening

Health Starts Here Graduation

Sushi Class

Healthy Holiday Cooking Class

Couponing at Whole Foods

Engine 2 Stuffed Bell Peppers

Helllloooo There!  How is your week going so far?  Mine has been pretty great, my Monday wasn’t a typical Monday – I didn’t have any “oh, it’s just a Monday!” thoughts and we weren’t overly busy at work and I was able to get some other things done that I usually post-pone at work.  After work, I headed to the Chiropractor and he said I’m looking good with my knee and he can tell that I’m taking initiative to strengthen it up (my sore muscles can certainly attest to that!) and he said I don’t have to come back for 2 weeks and then we’ll spread it out to once a month.  I’ve been seeing him twice a week and then once a week, so I’m making improvement!  Once I feel stronger, I’ll be able to slowly start running again on my own.  After my appointment, I headed straight over to the 4th week of the Engine 2 Diet Meet-up!  The topic was on fitness, so I enjoyed that a lot.  I love incorporating healthy eating and fitness into the same discussion.  The speaker mentioned a Reformer Pilate’s class at our local Y and it sounded really cool, I’m definitely putting that on my list of classes to try – I’ll go check out the schedule after this post.

I have a deliciously healthy recipe for y’all today that is Engine 2 Diet approved and full of flavor!  I’d like to also mention that it was quick & easy to make!

stuffed-bell-peppers

Servings: 2 Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients

  • 2 Bell Peppers
  • 1 Tomato, chopped
  • 1/2 cup of frozen corn
  • 1 cup of cooked brown rice
  • 2 Poblano Black Bean Burger
  • 1 tbsp Cumin
  • 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tbsp Sea Salt
  • 1 tbsp Pepper
  • 1 tbsp Paprika

Directions

**Preheat oven to 350 degrees**

1. Start by cooking your brown rice.  I did 2 cups of water to 1 cup of dry rice and it simmered for 30 minutes.

2. While the rice is cooking, prep the rest of your stuffing – defrost the black bean burgers and chop, chop the tomato, core the bell pepper and flatten the bottom so it stands upright.

3. Mix all stuffing ingredients together – vegetables, black bean burger, and spices

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4. Overstuff the pepper because it will cook down just a bit and once you start eating, you’ll have plenty of bell pepper to eat with the excessive stuffing.

5.  Bake the Pepper for 20 minutes.

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ENJOY!  I was very impressed with the flavors & the texture of these Engine 2 stuffed bell peppers.  Look how beautiful and vibrantly colored this dish turned out!  I have an intense love for bell peppers – I’d never had an orange bell pepper, but it was just as delicious as the green or red.  I will add bell peppers to just about any dish, so I love making it the star of the show in this simple recipe!

  • What would you have stuffed in this bell pepper?
  • Have you tried Pilate’s Reformer?  Thoughts? Tips?

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