I’m Still Delicate

It’s someone’s big day…

Our funny, sometimes annoying, very entertaining doggie, Moose turns 4 today. Also known as Mooser, Moosebear, Big Bear, Booboo. He has big plans to lay around the house and dream of chasing squirrels and eating flies. Who knows he may even get to go running with his uncle Kevin. My brother Kevin is going to be staying with the big bear this weekend because Dana and I are heading up north to the Boundary Waters. We are meeting up with one of my other brothers, Scott, and his girlfriend Nicole for an adventurous weekend full of backpacking, canoeing, portaging, camping, fresh air, and wildlife.

I will be learning a lot this weekend. I am not the most “outdoorsy” person. I have always been what my family calls a delicate doily. I have always liked wearing dresses and jewelry. I hate killing bugs. I cried all the time in basketball. I cried all the time in general when my feelings were hurt. I was delicate then…

And delicate now…I can handle a lot more now than I used to though. I am realizing I am capable of a lot more than I ever thought I could be. I never in a million years would have thought I would be signed up for a half marathon that is now two and a half weeks away, but I am. This weekend will be very good for me. I am truly looking forward to it.

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Tuesday’s Breakfast

Gluten free english muffin with grape jelly on one half, and peach preserves on the other half. I ate one bite off one, then the next bite off the other (I ended on a peach bite).

Lunch

A half of a large precooked sweet potato with a sprinkle of cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Please make this! I am contemplating eating this for breakfast even. It is SO good. Either bake or microwave your washed sweet potato, mash it, microwave it, sprinkle with the condiments listed above, and devour. Melty peanut butter would probably be really good on this too. Yum.

Dinner from last night is almost too embarrassing to post. I didn’t snap any photos of it because it was truly nothing to be proud of. In fact, I am a little ashamed considering I am a healthy living blogger. We all know, no one is perfect. I just have to say that given my current health status, junky foods have the tendency to sit better in my system lately. This is no excuse for what I ate for dinner. Okay so I bought a medium bag of pretzel M & m’s at the grocery store today, and half the bag is gone. Foods that are made with enriched white flour like pretzels and Cheez-its are very tolerable for me right now too, and some of those were consumed as well. Yup, that’s just peachy.

Anyway. Guess what? Remember that dress I mentioned a few days ago that I bought at Target for $7.00? Well, it fits! I wore it to work yesterday.

Such a completely awkward loner photo but I had to show you. That photo actually really reminded me of the first day of school photos that mom and dad would take.

Sporting the jean skirt with the lace trim, ruffle socks, and purple and pink backpack (my favorite colors of course). I was all set for preschool and 21 some years of school after that. He he.

Alright, I am off to the North Country. I plan to capture some moments on camera and cannot wait to share my experiences with you when I get back. Don’t miss me too much while I am gone. 🙂

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Limiting the Roughage

Hello friends. I hope everyone has recovered from the weekend and is back into the grind of the work week. In case you missed it, here are the highlights of my weekend:

Will Run for Cake and Powerade

A Perfect Mother’s Day Weekend

Breakfast yesterday was an ol’ fav: Blueberry Overnight Chia Seed Yogurt Bowl. I snapped this photo out on our deck and wish I could have enjoyed it out there because it was oh so gorgeous, but unfortunately I had to eat it while doing my makeup. Always a super classy way to eat breakfast. It was super creamy and wonderful as always.

That was as much fiber as I could handle for the day. My body has been going through a bit of distress lately and my stomach has been pretty sour. I have some intestinal issues that I’ve been dealing with since I was young. Over the next few days, I am going to do my best to eat low residue foods, lower fiber foods, and limit the “roughage” types of foods. This means limiting my salads, raw veggies, blackberries, beans, and basically all of the foods I love and eat on a daily basis. But it’s only temporary.

I did a good job at lunch with sticking to the food plan. I forgot to take photos but will use a recycled photo. The only difference is my pb banana was much more rustic today. I did the scoop and spread on the nanner today.

I also ate an apple minus the peel, and some leftover birthday cake. Whoopsie. It is low fiber afterall, so it sat okay in my belly. It just wasn’t the healthiest choice.

After work I headed to the gym. I’m surprised I remembered where the gym was because it’s been so long since I’ve been there. Actually come to think of it, it hasn’t been that long, but I am noticing it has been less than normal lately because I have been amping up the outdoor running. Yay! I warmed up for 10 minutes on the elliptical before hitting the weights to work on leg strength. I finished up with some core work on the Bosu ball.

I stopped at Target on the way home to pick up a couple of sweet potatoes for dinner, and just so happened to stumble upon the clearance rack in the women’s clothing section, and found this adorable dress for just $7.48! Are you serious? I L.O.V.E. bargain shopping. Now let’s hope it fits. I love bargain shopping, but loathe the fitting room. I would rather bring it home, try it on, and bring it back to the store, than go into the fitting room. It’s one of my weird quirks.

For dinner I made homemade sweet potato fries. I washed the sweet potato, poked it all over with a fork, and cooked it first in the microwave: 5 minutes, then flipped them over and another 5 minutes. I cooked two at a time because I wanted leftovers which made for a longer cooking time. I then cut the sweet potato into fry size and baked in a 350° oven for about 10 minutes, then realizing the fries were already cooked from the microwave, I switched the oven to broil and let them crisp which was my intention of the oven in the first place. They didn’t get super crispy like I like them, but they were still real tasty.

I also made pulled chicken in the slow cooker. Put two and two together, add a squirt of ketchup and a squirt of BBQ sauce, and you have yourself a boring dinner. 🙂

Boring, but tasty.

But I have a confession. This whole staying away from “roughage” type foods is really difficult for me. I’m like a magnet to a fridge when it comes to my greens. So….I got into the leftover veggie salad from our get together with Dana’s family yesterday.

Not a lot, just a couple of bites, and it was good. Oh, so good. I realized I missed a bunch of the ingredients from the salad when I mentioned it the other day. Let’s see if I can get it this time: Mixed greens, edamame (mukimame), celery, bell peppers, water chestnuts, banana, bacon bits, some type of mayo mixture, and shredded cheddar cheese.

I couldn’t resist. My whole fridge is packed with things that I should really avoid right now including a brand new container of Costco-sized mixed greens with spinach, sugar snap peas, broccoli, fresh berries, and more. Let’s hope this is short-lived. I do feel better today. I think my body may have been a little shocked from the activity this past weekend and may just need to recover.

Anyway, I am off for now. I plan to get a little run in today after I make some dollahhhs. Happy day!

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A Perfect Mother’s Day Weekend

Another beautiful day to add to the books. This weekend was perfect. Both Saturday and Sunday were sunny with a little breeze and about mid 70’s. I love it.

This morning I woke up bright and early because I had a date with my mom. But first, a little breakfast. A piece of whole grain toast with PB2, honey, and cinnamon.

Then I was off to meet my mom to take part in the Race for the Cure 5k walk. This was our 5th year doing the walk/run and it is a tradition we hope will continue for a long time.

We got there nice and early so that we could enjoy the excitement and make our way to the front of the crowd at the starting line.

We ended up walking about 2.5 miles just to get to the starting line because of where we parked, so we had a nice little warm up. It gave us plenty of time to chit-chat which we always appreciate.

A couple of local news anchors (Kare11’s Erik Perkins and Julie Nelson for all of you local readers) kicked off the race by leading the group in a pep talk and a countdown. I snapped a photo as we were walking under their platform. I love local celebrities.

Mom and I really booked it through the 5k while thoroughly enjoying each other’s company, and taking in the wonderful moments of the walk. It is such an inspiring walk and it is heart warming to be surrounded by so many breast cancer survivors, those who have supported the survivors through the fight, those people walking to remember love one’s they had lost to breast cancer, and those just walking to support the cause in general. This race has an incredible amount of registrants. This year there were more than 50,000 registrants. We all gathered to show love and support for those we know who have been affected by this disease, and to help fund research to ultimately find a cure. Hence, Race for the Cure. It was a perfect way to spend the morning with my mom on Mother’s Day.

Mom wore a pedometer throughout our morning and we rocked approximately 16,000 steps which works out to about 8 miles. Our legs were starting to feel a little jello-ey towards the end of the walk. Seventeen miles in 2 days is pretty darn good for me.

After we gathered all of our goodies from the post-race kiosks, We made a pit-stop at Caribou Coffee for Mother’s Day BOGO coffee. I got a caramel iced coffee and mom got a Mango Key Lime smoothie. Thanks for a great morning mama!

I headed home to eat some lunch and run some errands with the hubs.

This afternoon we headed to Dana’s parents to celebrate Mother’s Day with them. They made us wonderful surf and turf kabobs on the grill as well as a sweet and crunchy salad inspired by Paula Deen: mixed greens, bell peppers, Craisins, bananas, water chestnuts, shredded cheese, mayo, and I’m not sure what else. All I know is I had three helpings of it because I love it so much. Sue said she cut out half of the mayo from the recipe and you never would have known. Delicious.

After dinner was dessert. We are celebrating after all. We had strawberry pie which was loaded with strawberries, so it was “healthier” pie. He he. It was so good.

The rest of the night was spent relaxing and sleeping. Talk about an amazing weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

 

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Will Run for Cake and Powerade

It has been a GREAT day so far. This morning I made my usual pre-run breakfast: peanut butter banana sandwich.

Then Dana and I headed out to St. Paul for a run along the Mississippi River. We had nine miles on the agenda today and mother nature surely lined up beautiful weather for us. It was about 60° and blue skies.

I ran with my iPhone and jammed out to 90’s Pop Radio. I was serenaded by the Spice Girls, LFO (what happened to them?), Meredith Brooks, Backstreet Boys, you name it. I knew every song that came on and thoroughly enjoyed having them cheering me on. It helped  keep my mind off of my aching knees, lower back, and hip flexors which I began to notice during the last couple of miles.

Please excuse the extremely unattractive photo. Who’s the nerd? Will run for Powerade!

After completing this 9 miler today, I am beginning to regain confidence in my endurance, and in my half marathon training progression. The half marathon is now just 3 weeks from tomorrow. We are going to be heading up north next weekend, which means we really only have one more weekend at home before the race. Yikes. However, I remind myself that I’m not out to set any world records, I’m just out to finish the race and then stuff my face with food.

I do know I need to keep working on the mental aspect of running because I can so easily tell myself that I’m struggling with a run and allow myself to call it quits early, when in retrospect I really could have kept running had I mentally told myself I was just fine. Last night, I pictured myself having a good run today, and finishing the run strong. I also read inspirational running quotes, and reminded myself of my personal tips for getting through runs such as using my arms to help pull myself up a hill and thinking about what I have to look forward to once the run was over (in this case: Powerade, family, pizza, and cake).

I felt incredibly accomplished after this run today. The last time I ran this far was August 2011 when Dana and I participated in a 15k in Edina, MN.

Once again, having Dana running by my side today made this run a whole lot better and much more enjoyable. I encouraged him to pose with his Powerade for this photo on our car  ride home.

After our run, we headed home. We cleaned up the house and I got busy in the kitchen in preparation for company. My mom, dad, and brother Kevin were coming over to celebrate my dad’s birthday and Mother’s Day.

I was in charge of the dessert today, and since I’d really like to improve upon my cake-making skills, I decided that this was a perfect opportunity for me to practice. I made two cakes and I baked them last night. I used a standard white cake recipe and a standard chocolate cake recipe and made one round pan of each because I was planning to make a layer cake. You know me though, I just had to try to make the cakes a little bit healthier, so I cut out the butter from the batter recipe and instead used Greek yogurt. How do you like that? The cakes turned out well! They were more dense than normal cake and we all seemed to enjoy the more moist texture, not to mention the flavor was great!

I made the two-layer cake starting with the vanilla white cake on the bottom, a layer of homemade buttercream frosting, then the chocolate cake, and lastly a whole lot more buttercream frosting. I did my best to decorate it but I’ll admit it looked pretty amateur. The frosting was NOT low-fat by the way.

The most important part was that everyone enjoyed it and I had a really fun time making it. I can’t wait to practice again.

Let’s back it up a tad here because we did eat lunch before dessert although I’m not opposed to doing the opposite. Dad wanted to compare two of our local pizza places for lunch, so they picked up one Hawaiian Pizza from one restaurant, and one Veggie Pizza from another restaurant. Mom also brought a fruit and veggie tray and we put out some snack mix.

Mmm..both pizzas were delicious but I preferred the Hawaiian Pizza which was from Red Savoy’s. Num. I went back for more goodies after this first plate of food.

Then we all hung out for a while and enjoyed the beautiful day together before diving into dessert (described above).

We sang “Happy Birthday” and dad blew out his candles. Another year younger, right dad?

I love my family so much. I don’t think I will ever be able to put into words just how much they mean to me. I know I have said this before and I will most definitely say it again.

They took off about an hour ago. Now the hubs is out cutting the grass and then we have a couple or errands to run before relaxing for the night. I am very excited to have a quiet night tonight.

I hope everyone is having an equally wonderful day, or has at least found one thing to smile about today. 🙂

Sorry this post was a little bit all over the place. I am in a very lovey mood. I’ll leave ya with this. Check out what mom brought me today.

Absolutely gorgeous. Thanks mama!

Don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers.

What made YOU smile today?

Continue Reading Will Run for Cake and Powerade

Food Photos Vacation Style

Happy Friday! Yay!

As you may know, I love food and I enjoy taking photos of my food. I decided to round up the rest of my food photos from my recent vaca to show some more of my eats while I was away.

Starting with our in flight breakfast of steel cut oats, fresh berries, and a bagel with jam.

In flight lunch…not my favorite chicken, not my favorite noodle dish, cooked veggies, an awesome greek salad, whole wheat roll, and cheesecake. I really enjoyed the salad and the bread, which ironically ended up being the theme the rest of the trip.

Some of my meals from our all-inclusive hotel, Celuisma, in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. You may have seen a couple of these photos from my previous posts.

A lot of veggies….

Creamy oatmeal and fruit…

Awesome omelets made by one of the hotel’s wonderful chefs, “Sixto”.

Fajitas from the Mexican-themed restaurant.

Kabobs from Kokomo’s, which is their restaurant on the beach.

A few of the many desserts…

More veggies…

A fish called Mori from the Caribbean-themed restaurant…

Tasty fresh rolls and breads…

Rice and beans…

Black bean soup…

I didn’t take photos of all of my meals and realize I neglected to take one photo of my four pasta meals I had while I was there. Not very authentic I am aware, but they had a build your own pasta bar nearly every night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mmmm carbs. My body had to have been so confused with the changes in my diet. I loved every second of it.

That wraps up most of my vacation talk. Now that it has been almost a week since we came home, it’s back to reality! I need to start getting creative in the kitchen. I’ve been slackin’.

Have a great day!

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My Thrilling Night

Well hello there. I am so happy it is a beautiful day out today because if it had been gloomy I think I may have had to hold my eyes open all day. I have been extremely tired this week and (wahh wahh) I think it’s because my body is readapting to normalcy versus being a lazy bum like I was all last week. I should be back in the swing of things by next week.

There has been a high need for the coffee this week.

Breakfast yesterday was a Melanie staple: Greek yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, and honey. I had a dentist appointment yesterday morning so I omitted the chia seeds because they have a tendency to get stuck in the teeth. You can view more about Eccella Smiles to take care of your teeth.

Dinner was a comfort to me. You have seen this salad before but in the mix is mixed greens, black beans, tomato, avocado, peas, broccoli, cheddar cheese, and my very favorite honey mustard dressing. It was a hit in my belly.

I worked late last night so after dinner it was already almost 8:00. I made a few phone calls then made my way to the couch to hang out with this handsome fellow and watch Modern Family.It was a hilarious episode as always. Mitch and Cam had Lily on a child leash at Disneyland and it was extra funny to me because I witnessed someone at Disneyland with a leashed child last time I was there. It is hilarious to me. I love that show.

After Modern Family we watched a recorded episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, Croatia. Moose really enjoyed it because the episode involved a dog sniffing out truffles. Any time he hears dog noises on the TV his head perks up and he becomes enthralled by the show. Clearly he was captured by this one. I wish we could teach Moose to sniff out truffles in the ground. Are you taking notes, doggy?

I finished the night off with freshly popped popcorn.

And that was my thrilling night. 😉 Can you stand the excitement?

I am happy it’s Thursday because that means tomorrow is Friday. I am hoping to get a run in after work today as I neglected to get up early this morning for a run.

I hope you all have a beautiful day.

Continue Reading My Thrilling Night

Nacho Apple Nachos

Hello, it’s Thursday which means tomorrow is Friday. Not only is Friday my favorite day of the week for obvious reasons, but it is also the day we leave for our trip to paradise. Dana and I will be flying out to the Dominican Republic for some major R and R and we are more than a little excited.

But first things first. I had a rocky day yesterday. Let’s just say my digestive tract was a little “off” throughout the entire day. I brushed it off as a nothing in the morning and hit the treadmill for a 3 mile run. It was rainy and dark outside so I nixed the outside run idea plus, given my stomach issues at that time, inside in the comfort of my own home was probably a better idea on many counts.

After the run, I ate a fairly usual breakfast: an overnight chia seed yogurt bowl with blueberries and banana. It tasted better than normal today.

The stomach issues continued, and then came the body aches, chills, and slight fever. Really? Right now? Right before vacation? It’s inevitable though. I rarely get sick and of course it happened to me right before an amazing vacation. But guess what? I am a fighter. I am kicking back the Emergen-C and zinc, staying hydrated, trying my best to eat a healthy diet although our refrigerator is getting fairly sparse, and getting adequate sleep.

For some reason my body was majorly craving sweet all day. My breakfast was sweet as shown above, lunch was a peanut butter banana wrap without honey, also sweet. And dinner….

Sweet again. Apple nachos. I small apple sliced, drizzled with natural peanut butter, and topped with walnuts and chocolate chips. This is the toned down version of the big plate of Apple Nachos I made for a work meeting in February. This time I made it single serve. Who’s apple nachos are they? Nacho apple nachos.

An hour later, after some more packing, I grabbed a banana to munch on. Then an hour after that, I ate a plain sandwich thin, and then some Greek yogurt. Random and unexciting dinner by far.

I realize 80% of my intake yesterday was from sugar (albeit mostly natural sugars), but I had decided to listen to my body and that is definitely what it was asking for. I aim to please. As much as I would have loved a big bowl of broccoli, my body would not have been okay with that. Sugar and peanut butter only says the dietitian. KIDDING. But I do really believe in listening to your body.

I am out for my last day of work for a bit! Enjoy your Thursday.

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Sweet and Creamy Salad

Happy Hump Day!

After my wonderful run yesterday (note the sarcasm), I made myself a giant bowl of Overnight Chia Seed Yogurt although instead of letting it combine overnight, I let it work for just a half hour. I also added strawberries to the mix.

I added a heavy amount of honey to the top and scraped the bowl clean. This was my brunch. I had a goofy schedule at work today so I made sure to pack a few snacks to tide me over through the afternoon: apple, sugar snap peas, carrots, and a string cheese.

For dinner, I used up ingredients we had on hand to make one of my all-time favorite salads.

Moose watched while I prepared dinner. Sorry Moose, I know this isn’t your most flattering angle. 😉

Here is the beautiful colorful plate of healthiness that I put together.

 

The combination of textures in this salad are so pleasing to me between the creaminess of the avocado, beans, and dressing, the juiciness of the fruit, and the crunch of the onion, it’s just perfect. It’s sweet, it’s creamy, it’s my…

Sweet and Creamy Salad

This salad is sweet and refreshing, and perfect any time of year.

Ingredients

Mixed greens

red onion, diced

fresh strawberries, diced (or frozen if you don’t have fresh on hand)

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

1 ripe avocado, diced

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

Newman’s Own Lite honey mustard dressing (or your favorite honey mustard)

Directions

Place mixed greens on large plate. Top with remaining ingredients. Drizzle with honey mustard. You could bulk up the salad with more protein by adding grilled chicken breast or shrimp.

I am off to work. Have a great day!

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They Can’t All Be Good

Last night, we made one of Dana’s favorite meals: Fish Tacos. I enjoy them as well, but they don’t rank as high as to me as they do for him.

Dana got to work on cooking the tilapia in a pan on the stove top with lemon juice, salt and pepper, while I got busy chopping the veggies. I chopped up the leftover iceberg lettuce, making some of it into shreds, and some of it into cups to use as my taco shell. I do use regular tortilla shells sometimes too, just didn’t feel like it today.

For our tacos, I chopped lettuce as mentioned, as well as tomato, cilantro, and avocado. I layered all of the veggies into my lettuce cup, placed my perfectly cooked tilapia next, and lastly topped it all with roasted tomatillo medium salsa which really gets my nose running.

Forgive my flash versus non-flash photos. I couldn’t decide which lighting was better as neither was really helping me out much.

With flash:

Without flash:

Dana’s fish tacos were way prettier than mine so I made sure we snapped a photo. See, you can accommodate everyone in your household….carb or no carb.

I tend to feel a lot better when I go lighter on my carb intake, which is why you’ll notice I tend to skimp on them and go bunless with burgers, shell-less with tacos, choose salad versus sandwich, etc.

I have a minor gluten intolerance so it’s not to say I don’t eat breads, tortillas, etc. because I do, I just pick my battles. Some days I can eat a bagel and have no repercussions whatsoever in the stomach ache department, and the next day I will eat a bagel and feel like there is a blown up balloon in my belly. I continue to learn about my body and what makes it happy and unhappy every single day. I do love fresh bread though. Mmm…

The rest of the night was spent doing more laundry, packing, and relaxing with the guys.

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My morning today started out with a pre-run breakfast/snack. Half of a banana with peanut butter, and half of a cup of coffee. I would have loved more coffee but know it’s not a good idea considering I will be running outside sans bathrooms.

I suited up in my asics and headed out the door for a 5.21 mile run.

I will start off by saying that the weather was perfect this morning. Blue skies, birds chirping, and a cool breeze, so at least that part of the run was beautiful. There are good workout days and bad workout days, and this morning I definitely had a bad workout day.

During my first mile, it’s standard for me to struggle a bit but I know that my body is warming up and after the first mile I will usually feel better. Today though, I felt that struggle throughout the entire run. I was getting side aches on each side and tried breathing through them to work them out, but didn’t have much luck. My ears felt like I was on an airplane and they were full of pressure and aches. I felt dehydrated and out of breath with no stamina at all. It was a hard run.

I kept comparing this run to my Saturday run and I couldn’t believe how different I felt. I know this is normal but you always hope each run is going to be a good run. You can’t always get what you waaaannnntt.

I ran and walked 5.21 miles in 55 minutes. Not my fastest by any means but hey, I finished it. Hopefully my next run will be more enjoyable.

I am off to drink the second half of my morning coffee and head out for the day. I hope you have an excellent Tuesday.

Question of the Day: How do you fight through a “bad” workout day?

Continue Reading They Can’t All Be Good

Thai Inspired Lettuce Cups with Basil

Dinner last night came from all things leftover. Ingredients on hand: carrots, tomato, iceberg lettuce, cilantro, basil, and shredded chicken. Once my brain started rolling, I came up with idea of Thai inspired lettuce cups.

Place the lettuce cups on your plate, next pile on all of the ingredients listed above in the center of the cup, top it with Kraft’s Asian Sesame Dressing (or some sort of peanut sauce would be good), and give it a go.

These came together in about 5 minutes which was even better. The fresh basil really made this dish. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

I am trying to think of other ways to cook with basil this week. It is too good to let go to waste.

Any healthy recipes ideas out there that include basil?

In the five minutes of prep work involved in this dinner, I managed to eat at least two large handfuls of those Tostitos Artisan chips we had bought for Saturday night’s shin-dig. They taste like an improved version of Doritos Cooler Ranch chips. They are so addicting. At least this kind is whole grain!

The rest of the day yesterday was spent doing laundry and packing for our upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic. We are so close it hurts.

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Breakfast this morning was sweet and comforting in the form of a bowl full of banana slices, topped with PB2, chia seeds, cinnamon, and honey.

That will be my Positive Monday Talk. It was just what I needed this morning.

After work I will heading to the gym and will probably hit the elliptical, stair stepper, and arm weights. We’ll see though. Have a happy Monday friends.

Continue Reading Thai Inspired Lettuce Cups with Basil
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