Excuses, excuses!!

Hungry Grizzly Bear!

This was me last night when I got home from work.
Why, you ask?
I was hungry.  Really hungry. I was way beyond "Diva" mode like in the Snicker's commercials. I was a hungry angry killer Grizzly Bear. You can feel very bad for my boyfriend (Sorry D!). Unfortunately he experienced the wrath of his hungry Grizzly Bear girlfriend. But then I ate dinner and felt better.

Sometimes I think I pack myself enough for my 12-13 hour days and then I get through all my food and Im still hungry!! Other days I can go through and not have that much.  Thats why listening to your body is so important. Its crucial to eat when you are hungry, but to make healthy choices. This week I just didn't plan enough because I hadn't gone to the grocery store to get food for the week.

It was a good lesson learned though this week. I hate going to the grocery store and had run out of pretty much everything which is why I didn't have reinforcements on Tuesday.  I need to remember this feeling to motivate me to GO to the store before my pantry gets to this point!!

Luckily I later went to the grocery store and found LOTS of produce on sale. I stocked up on green beans, tomatoes, baby red potatoes, zucchini, squash, bell peppers, strawberries, watermelon, and more!! It was crazy! I am so excited about cooking and grilling up some yummy dinners this week!

Break time, me time :)

Sunday after we finished photographing the Surefire Horse Trials I was headed home and stopped at Boxwood Estate Winery. It was such a nice place.  It was almost closing time but the two employees were so nice to give a tour and a tasting.  The winery grows only red grapes, which I am still trying to like. It was nice though to have an option of going to white wines. I had to try the reds and they were actually pretty good! I settled on a glass of the Rose to relax after the weekend.

If you are ever in the Middleburg, Northern Virginia area I would definitely recommend stopping off at some of the awesome Vineyards. There are a bunch more that I'd love to try sometime!!

Running Reunion in Leesburg

Good Morning Sweet Little Town of Leesburg! 

What I do all day...no, not the riding...the photography

My sweet little house I used to live in! 

Dusky in downtown Historic Leesburg

After being on vacation last week it was great getting back into the swing of teaching classes this week.  I left Friday evening to photograph the Surefire Horse Trials near Leesburg, VA for the weekend.

One of the things I was looking forward to the most was getting to run around the town I used to live! I moved to Leesburg right after I graduated from college. I lived here for a year while I worked at the Marion DuPont Scott Equine Medical Center and Nike.  Most days I would go to work from 7-4, come home (and sometimes take a nap) and go running or to the gym before dinner. I was a member of Ida Lee Recreation Center, which I highly recommend. It was a great gym with an indoor pool too.  I loved my running routes and was so happy to get a chance to run them again.

Tonight after I got done photographing I came back to the hotel to change, eat dinner and went out to run around.  I ate one of the best Veggie Burgers of my life at Melt.  I went downtown and parked in the garage and ran through the town, out to Ida Lee Park and around, then down through the town to my old street, out to the school where I'd go do speedwork around the track, then back through the historic area and around again to the garage. It was such a beautiful evening I cooled out with some stretching in a little park and enjoyed the weather.  Of course after all that work, a trip to SweetFrogs was in order  =)

Wednesday Recipes!

Ok, we're back on track with Wednesdays! Tonight I had the taste for grilling out so I put tomatoes, green peppers, and onions on skewers and we grilled those and corn.  I also heated up some of my black beluga lentils to mix in.  They were SOOOO good! I also made sweet potato chips because I knew I had a SP that needed to be eaten but I was too full to eat those!!   It would have been an even healthier dinner if I hadn't accompanied my meal with a skinny margarita :) 

I did bootcamp today AND went for a 4.5 mile run with my friend Katie though, so I think I cancelled it out pretty well!! 

Duck, Duck, RUN!

I was on vacation last week in Duck, NC and went on lots of great runs and even squeezed in a bike ride. I ran mostly 4 milers with a 5 miler thrown in on Friday.  My knee was feeling great until that last 5 miler and then it was achy for most of the rest of the evening. Nothing a little ibuprofen couldn't handle though! I loved running on Flag Day-the town had gotten all decked out with large and small flags lining the road.  Ahhhhh running in small southern towns...I love it! 

Running on Flag Day

View of the sound during a morning run

side planks! 

Biking with my honey! :) 

Octane Fitness: Cross Circuit training

 I had a training workshop in McLean, VA on Friday that provided me with lots of great ideas, information and CECs for my certifications.
The master trainer, Heather took us through a few different workouts that were great sweat sessions and can easily be adapted for my clients. These octane ellipticals pictured above have weights resting behind them so you can quickly do strength and cardio intervals.

I definitely earned my date night dinner at Plaza Azteca with D that evening! :)

Hitting the trails again

I was able to go for a run along one of my favorite trails before our softball game last evening. It was a bit more taxing than I had planned despite my mild pace. I couldn't quite figure out what was different until I finished with my run and reviewed my trip on my Nike + Running App. It has a temperature feature which recorded the temp at 90 degrees! No wonder!! :)  It was great to be out there and I didn't' feel any pain in my knees! Yey!

Fresh eats!!

A look at some of the delicious fresh meals I've had lately!! I love spring and summer for all the yummy fresh foods you can use for meals!

Salad with lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, croutons and cranberries!! 

Scrambled Eggs, feta cheese and tomatoes!! So good!!  Also really good wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla!

Sauteed squash, broiled red potatoes, cooked fresh green beans and homemade biscuits!

Baked sweet potato fries, pasta salad, and garden burgers for Memorial Day!

Bruschetta with fresh basil from the garden! LOVE! 

Cross training

Well its been a while since I last posted. Mainly because for some reason I couldn't get blogger to upload any of my photos and I wanted to include them!! 

Ive gotten a chance to ride a few times in the last few weeks.  Its the best cross training around in my opinion!! At least mentally!! :) I had the best rides on my horse Chick. Such a huge blessing to have the opportunity to ride him and just relax in nature. 

Riding my horse Chick

Enjoying the view :) 

Trail ride on Chick

Further down the trail