Today I’m joining up with the Lean Green Bean to share my five favorite pinworthy posts 
Follow me on Pinterest and be sure to check out Lindsay’s blog to see all the other amazing posts!
{Apple, Sausage, Kale & Quinoa}
{Pulled Pork Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with NC Style BBQ Sauce}
Are you on Pinterest?
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Today marks national running day. Huzzah! One of my favorite days of the year if I might say. Last year I likely got some miles in, and was fresh off a 10k PR. But this year? I’ll be going for a pseudo family run tonight at the track once the husband gets home this afternoon, I’d like to get a good 3-4 miles in, he wants to get in two. We’re going to do some 400m sprints and hand off baby for recovery since he’s too young for the jogging stroller/jogging in general so recovery will be a super slow jog/walk so it’ll be good for him. But for now…I wanted to share why I run.
Why do I run? To challenge myself. To stay in shape. To constantly be doing better. Going faster or farther. To be the best version of myself always and to always try my best whether I’m running 1 mile or 26. To have ten minutes or an hour to myself…just me and my thoughts.
Finally, I saw this over on Run Like a Lady and had to share.
So tell me, why do YOU run?
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I mentioned the other day that I had a delicious recipe to share. And delicious it is.
On Saturday, we went to a farewell party for a friend of mine in the league who’s moving. She’s is/was a teacher in Annapolis and was co-chair for one of the Junior League’s projects this year where we tutored middle/high school aged ESL students.
They had a great spread of food including bbq’ed meat, burgers, sausages, dips of all varieties and a salsa dip that inspired this recipe. 
{Black bean, Corn & Avocado salsa}
{ingredients}
1 can of black beans drained
1 can of whole kernel corn drained
15 oz. fresh salsa*
1 avocado diced
1 lime
Cilantro
{directions}
Dice avocado, mix ingredients well. Serve.
You can see why I enjoyed this recipe…based on the sheer simplicity of it. I found similar recipes on the interwebs as I was trying to find what to really go into it, but I decided against chopping a tomato, onion and garlic in lieu of getting the fresh stuff from Trader Joes that has all those ingredients in it…and just mixing it all together. No chopping or dicing necessary. Color me a lazy chef but what of it?
I used it to top some carnita tacos the other night, it was absolutely amazing. See below the final take. Love the colors, such a perfect summer recipe (after all, no one wants to be slaving in the kitchen on a 100 degree day right? Right.)
Bon appetite!
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So now that I’m back to setting weekly goals and menus for myself, I figure Monday’s are my re-boot days.
Last week…
Monday: Travel
Tuesday: barre method (done!)
Wednesday: Couch 2 5k
Thursday: Barre Method
Friday: Yoga
Saturday: Zooma
Woot! I finished them all! (generally I’m the queen of excuses so this is awesome!) Go me! I seem to be valueing fitness more and more than I did prior to my pregnancy because it’s my alone time, whereas I used to enjoy working out with the husband, now I savor the 30 minutes of solo running time. When i go to barre, it’s an hour where I just challenge myself. I should also note that I sign up for my barre classes a week in advance and if I don’t go, I get charged. Plus I’m paying for that membership so it makes sense to use it and use it well. Right? Right.
This week…
Monday: rest
Tuesday: barre
Wednesday: run
Thursday: barre or run (am currently on the waitlist for barre)
Friday: Yoga
Saturday: Run
I signed up for the Fitnessista’s Summer Shape Up which I’ll be incorporating into my workouts. Woot for strength training! Thankfully it’s not supposed to be super hot out the rest of this week so pending the husband’s schedule, I’m looking forward to getting out and running on my own this week, especially after the success of Zooma this past weekend – I mean…I finished didn’t I? There’s still work to be done obviously but progress is progress…yes this means I’m still working on Couch 2 5k.
I should mention that I’m most excited, not just about my workouts and finding time to go for a couple of runs this week, but that I’m most excited about the meal plan I’ve made for us.
M- leftovers. Corn/Blackbean/Avocado salsa & pork tacos (recipe tomorrow!!)
T - Kale & sausage pasta
W - BBQ Chicken Naan Pizzas
Th - sweet potato & black bean quesadillas
F - date night (I want sea food. Like…clams. Or crabs.)
Also, I’m making this tomorrow. Because it sounds delicious and will be perfect for a summery lunch.
What’s your week looking like this week?
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Saturday morning I had an early wake up call – my alarm was set for 5:15, baby of course had other ideas and woke me up at 2:30 and then at 5:15a. It was a rough night to say the least – mostly started by the fact that I had a hard time falling asleep and didn’t turn off my laptop til about 12a.
Still though, I showered, toasted my bagel and fed baby. Thankfully my gear was all laid out, my garmin and phone charged so I was ready to go and for the first time ever…we left the house on time.
I was super impressed by how easy it was to park – we took a back way rather than risking the traffic on Rowe Blvd, and it took us only about five minutes to get to the stadium and park. We took this as a perfect photo op for me and baby – it was baby’s first race as a spectator!
Ten weeks post partum and back to toeing the line!
We walked over and i headed towards the back of the pack. I had a general idea what my pace might be but I didn’t want to push it so I didn’t push my way too far forward. I started just behind the 2:30:00 half marathon pacers and felt really good about that. The race started on time and we were off!
They saw me just after mile 1 at the corner of Rowe Blvd and Taylor Ave – while I was still feeling really good! I was clocking about an 11:30 pace in the early miles and was walking for 1-1:30 minutes every 5-6 minutes or as needed.
Miles 2-3 were really good and were down Rowe Blvd, around Church Circle, down Main Street and over to King George Ave. This is where things got tricky and where I noticed my garmin was off by about .2 miles once I hit mile 4. Miles 4-5 were over the bridge and it seems as if there were no mile markers for that part of the course – or at least I saw mile 4 but don’t remember seeing mile 5. Maybe I just missed it. There was a water stop at the start of the bridge which was super helpful since the last water stop was just after mile 2 – running almost 3 miles without water was rough. I had anticipated more water stops on the course so I didn’t bring my fuel belt which I normally would have done in the heated circumstances. My bad.
I was expecting Adam and baby to be at the corner of 450 and King George but he texted me as I was hitting the turn around on top of the bridge saying they were at the finish on the left. The lululemon ladies at the top of the bridge gave me the extra boost to keep going – my feet were aching by this point in time and I was just feeling really hot but in my head, even though I said I didn’t have a time goal, I saw a sub 1:20 time – my slowest 10k was back in 2011 at 1:16 something which was the first race I ran with Adam so I largely stayed back with him. So I feel good knowing that I can get back into fighting shape back into my comfortable pace.
I finished strong, picking off people in my head, like “okay, they’re walking. If you keep running, you can pass them.” Then when I saw the 6 mile marker, I thought, okay less than 3 minutes left of running if I just push it. And I did. And I finished. Strong.
Official Time: 1:17:23
Average pace: 12:54 – yay! Sub 13 minutes!
As for the race, I love the Zooma race in Annapolis. I’m willing to pay a bit more than I normally would for a 10k based on the convenience and the fact that I don’t have any added expenses. As for the issues that many participants have aired their grievances about on the facebook page, I agree that $5 to park at the Loew’s for an ah-hem…lackluster expo was a bit ridiculous but, no matter where you park downtown, you’re going to have to pay so that’s a non-issue for me. The distance issue, however it came about that it was .25 miles short was just absurd. I heard there were issues with Annapolis PD; I heard it was misdirection (which I heard there was actually a lot of considering Jenn finished the race about 2 miles short because the course marshalls weren’t directing correctly), but whatever the issue was, it’s not acceptable for a race of this caliber, if it was a “direction” issue as many say, make sure your volunteers and course marshalls are trained properly. As one person mentioned, this race is more expensive than some marathons, so having these issues just seems like a rookie mistake in a race that’s been in Annapolis for a few years now (as a friend of mine said later that day… they’re a Northern Virginia based organization and the fact that they couldn’t come out to their hearing for their permit is disappointing). As for the swag? I definitely agree with the comments that it should be handed out at the expo. Carrying it around is a pain – unless you have a bad ass stroller to haul it in…like me.
That all being said, will I run Zooma again? Likely, mostly based on the sheer convenience and because I do believe that any organization can overcome obstacles like the ones this year. Five minutes from my house? A course that I run regularly? Why wouldn’t I? I had wanted to apply to be an ambassador this year (they had some awesome ones this year) but given that baby was born in March which would have been the beginning of my training, that was nixed. Maybe next year?
All in all, a successful first post-baby race. I can’t wait to start upping my distance in preparation for Army 10 miler training, and to find my NEXT race.
Did you run Zooma Annapolis? What did you think? Will you participate again next year?
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Because I keep seeing this in my Feedly reader (yes, I finally made the jump from Google Reader. No I don’t want to talk about it. I do however, love that I can read Feedly on my iPhone during our late night feedings…which have been drastically cut down might I add!)…I figured I’d share my currents with you this rainy Sunday evening since I needed a little bit of blogging inspiration.
Current Book…I’m reading two really. The Honest Life
Current Music…. I’ve been on a Darius Rucker kick since hearing “Wagon Wheel” on the way home from CT last weekend in the car. I don’t listen to counry often but when I do it always makes me think of summer time and summers in Vermont with the windows down. Otherwise, you can see my most recent mix that’s been playing on my iPhone here.
Current guilty pleasure: Fro-yo. And lots of it. With peanut butter chips. Omg. Could eat every day. Yolavie opened up in the mall down the street from us and I may be a convert. Seriously…cookies and cream froyo with a spoonful of peanut butter chips equals heaven.
Current nail color…Only my toes are painted currently. They’re a reddish orangish color from Essie. Time my monthly pedicure soon though. My feet are redic after yesterdays race.
Current drink…Chugging water lately. I’m going cold turkey on my caffeine intake – mainly my horrible Dr. Pepper addiction. I said I was going to cut it out of my diet cold turkey on June 1, and omg. I really want a Dr. P.
Current food…Just made dinner. I’ll be sharing this delicious recipe inspired by a dip we had yesterday at a BBQ. Stay tuned for a post with the amazingly easy recipe. It was delish.
Current Favorite show… The Next Food Network Star is premiering tonight. It’s a favorite of mine since the others have all gone into their summer hiatus’s.
Current wish list… This attachment
Current needs…a clean house. My house is such a sty. Ugh.
Current indulgence… .these. They’ve been in our freezer for almost a month. I figured it’s time to go to town in honor of my Zooma Finish. And by go to town I mean 1-2.
Current blessing…These guys. So blessed to have the most perfect family ever.
Current outfit… yoga pants and this top - it’s a new favorite of mine. Nothing too crazy, I changed out of shorts into yoga pants when I got home from doing grocery shopping.
Current excitement… for my book club to meet in June! We’ll be enjoying brunch at Red, Red, Wine downtown and discussing “The Smart One” (as aforementioned). Also, am excited to head up north in July for the 4th of July weekend.
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I’m a music runner. I’m not a huge fan of running without music unless I have company.
The other night at the End of Training party at Charm City Run for Zooma, one fellow runner was asking about it and Lara, a friend/colleague/inspiration of mine said she’s a purist – meaning she doesn’t run with tunes. I tried that out when I was running with Adam last spring, but for the most part there’s nothing more peaceful to me than a run downtown in the early AM or evening when it’s quieter with some of my favorite tunes playing so I can just zone out. This mostly works on early morning runs on the weekends or evening runs during the week. But still, nothing pumps me up more than the music (most) races play at the starting line. For instance, every Vermont City Marathon I’ve done (well…both…I’ve only done two) they’ve played “where the streets have no name” by U2 and that song never fails to pump me up. I should have put it on this playlist…
So, the other day, before I went out on a run, I downloaded a few new tunes and created a new playlist – something I haven’t done in almost a full year, just to reinvigorate me. Nothing says get out and move like some good tunes right? I had a good run for the most part, it was shorter (~3 miles) but I ran most of it and got myself into a good pace (with an average pace of sub 13:00 miles, I see that as a win!). Seeing paces in the 9 minutes and low 10 minutes – paces I haven’t seen since last July made me feel really, really good about tomorrow. Granted I was doing largely 3 minutes of running and 1-1:30 of walking (I’m planning on 5/1 tomorrow morning).
Anyhow, back to the music. I’ve been on a mostly 80′s kick lately but this particular mix has a little bit of everything – some newer stuff that I’ve fallen in love with in the car and a little bit of 80′s/90′s awesomeness. Though lately I’ve been playing classic rock mostly in the car, I occasionally turn on the Top 40 station (not that I’m ever in the car that long but still) and find a gem or two that doesn’t make me want to gauge my eyes out (I’m looking at you Justin Beiber).
With that, happy Friday night! If you’re running Zooma Annapolis tomorrow – stay hydrated and say hi if you see me! You can find me at the Barefoot after party after the race celebrating my first race as a mama!
What are your favorite songs to workout to? Do you have a favorite type of music or is it all mixed?
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Hey friends, I wanted to post this before this weekend but baby thwarted much of my blogging intentions this weekend and leading up to it. But I have an awesome guest post for you all on tips for staying healthy while traveling with your family which I can attest is no easy feat. I mean, staying healthy without baby wasn’t easy, but staying healthy with baby is even harder. Many thanks to Kendra – a full time mother of 3 and former communications director for Orbitz travel to sharing her tips with us today!
—————
We all work regularly to keep our families healthy; however, an important part of healthy living is taking time to relax and enjoy family! If you’re planning a family vacation, take time to consider ways to work healthy food, rest and activities into the adventure.
1. Healthy Eating En Route to Your Destination: Regardless of your means of transportation, pack your own healthy snacks to eat en route. My toddler likes to enjoy blanched carrots. They’re packed with nutrients and not very messy, and I keep them in a small lunch cooler during trips. My older kids enjoy raw almonds, fresh fruit and the occasional stick of string cheese.
2. Travel Activities: Prepare a “travel activity kit” in a canvas shoe bag. Kids can help pack and sort their crayons, games, books and toys so that they are convenient and easy to find during the journey to your destination. This is a great way to compartmentalize your kids’ stuff!
3. Prepare Travel Hygiene Kit: Put together portable hygiene kits for each family member. Include a hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes to use whenever necessary when water and soap aren’t as easily accessible.
4. Help the Kids Sleep: Unfamiliar surroundings can be unsettling for kids, especially at bedtime. Bring along items from home that will help them sleep such as special blankets, a nightlight or sleep machine, swaddles or pacifiers that you little ones are used to having when it is time to rest. Many destinations, particularly hotels in Orlando, provide quiet hours for families which makes it great for the kids to get a good night sleep!
5. Get a Great Breakfast Before Starting on Any Adventure: If you make sure your family gets a good, healthy breakfast every day of your vacation, the entire trip will go better. Many hotels offer healthy breakfast options along with the price of the room. Encourage kids to enjoy fresh fruit, whole-grain toast, delicious oatmeal; sugar-free yogurt and other filling foods that will help them remain full and energized through the morning.
Taking care of your family’s health is a full-time challenge. When traveling, this challenge is intensified by changes in your routine and other variables. By taking the time to plan ahead, you can minimize travel stress and help you children have an enjoyable time from the moment you set out on your journey to the moment you return home.
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In the past, I’ve largely succeeded in my fitness goals by setting weekly goals as far as my workouts go.
This time around, I set a goal (Zooma 10k) but getting there has been significantly more difficult than I expected. Not to say I gave up, I didn’t. I just found finding time to train more of a struggle than I anticipated. Am I ready for the race? Ehhh…questionable. Am I still going to run it? Hells yeah. Am I in better shape than I was two months ago after giving birth? Yep. I’m on the right track and really, that’s what matters most.
{last year’s zooma – around mile 5}
While my training didn’t go as planned, I told hubs the other day on our drive north (where we had 8 hours of car trip to discuss fun things like this), that I was just going to run it as a long run. It’ll be my first 3+ mile run since last September, so I’m just going to say okay, I’m going out for a long training run and my first race as a mama.
That’s doable. Right? Right.
This week…
Monday: Travel
Tuesday: barre method (done!)
Wednesday: Couch 2 5k
Thursday: Barre Method
Friday: Yoga
Saturday: Zooma
My goal is to keep myself accountable and to keep myself working out 3-5 days per week. I’m going to use tools like Gympact, the Couch to 5k app, and the 100 pushups app to keep myself accountable. And if I can’t do that using those tools and blogging like I used to, then well, we have much bigger issues my friends.
Last week, I did get through week 1 of the 100 pushups plan (woo!) and I made it through 2 days of week 1 of Couch to 5k so that’s a win. As I was running on Thursday afternoon, I thought about my 10k, visualizing if you will. Last year it was so fun, it was a PR, and while this year my training isn’t near where it was, it’ll be my first post-baby race. And really, I’m using this to spring myself back into running. It’ll be my longest run since last June or so, and I want to just enjoy it.
On top of my aspirations to really get back into running – and by that I mean where i was last year, I’ve truly fallen in love with Barre classes, which I’ve been taking at Evolutions in Annapolis. Holy strength training batman! I’ll do a post soon on barre method and what it is for those of you who don’t know but it’s pretty amazing and I highly recommend trying it out if you can.
I think that those classes (2x per week)combined with couch 2 5k to get me in shape for the beginning of Army 10 miler training in July will be a good fit. I probably shouldn’t have registered for Zooma, since I’m really not going to be prepared but since I have super low expectations, I don’t think it’s a big deal and I’m going to try not to be super disappointed by my expectedly super slow time. Just keep running right?
How did I do last week?
Tuesday: 3 mile bike, 1 mile run/walk (barre was full so I did some cardio and strength – I wasn’t wearing a good jog bra so I went easy on the cardio)
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 30 minutes running (day 1 of C25k)
Friday: car ride to CT
Saturday: family time/raining so no cardio
Sunday: traveled back to MD - we had intended on running in the AM but baby slept horribly and so that was…just not happening.
All in all, not horrible. I’m starting to find a routine. And…now that I can go to Evolutions and have child care while I work out it makes me have even less of an excuse. I won’t be running out on the streets with baby just yet (he’s still too little, womp womp), but I will be working on this plan and keeping up with our weekly walking dates because socializing + exercising = best of both worlds!
How did you get back into a routine after baby?
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I can’t believe we’re already at two months. It’s been a sleep deprived haze for the most part.
Ethan is…holding his head up for longer and longer these days. He doesn’t have full head control yet but he’s definitely getting there. He’s rolled over from front to back exactly once and it startled him so much he started wailing after, he hasn’t done it since, I almost think that first time was a fluke, maybe I was seeing things? Also, he’s getting more and more hand eye coordination! Today he was swiping at the hanging toys on his play mat and trying to grab at them – not a huge deal since I’ve seen him swipe at them but today he was more focused on one toy and trying to specifically grab at that one. Hello hand-eye coordination! Also, he smiles and coos regularly – he’s a happy fella generally excepting the usual suspects – gas, poop and hunger. Adam compared him to the kittens today but then decided that the cats could do more than Ethan can – which is true they can move around – but generally they’re content sleeping, eating and pooping too. Guess babies and kittens have more in common than we’d think.
Finally, if you must know, he is “sleeping through the night” considering his age which is 5-6 hours. He usually sleeps from 9:30-10:30ish til anywhere from 3:30-5. In general though he’s a pretty good sleeper which is awesome. Excepting that it’s always a bear to get him back to sleep. He doesn’t usually do another 4-5 hour stint after that first wake up, it’s usually up at 5 (for instance), up at 7 then up for reals to start the day around 9a. He doesn’t like to go back to sleep so usually it’ll be mama baby cuddle time. I know as well as anyone that my baby cuddle days are limited so I need to scoop them up while I can.
How I’m doing…well, I’m not feeling super trained for my 10k next weekend but that’s okay because I’m just running to run it and if that means I do the 5 minute run/1 minute walk then so be it It’s not going to be a PR by any means but it will be a fun morning out on the streets with some pretty amazing bloggers in the field also! I’ve also started barre method at Evolutions. While I’ve lost most of the baby weight (Tuesday I weighed in at the gym at 138.6, today 140.2…y), I’m feeling just…flabby. So I’ve started taking barre classes to hopefully get more strength and tone up. The gym membership was pretty inexpensive since I have a 12-4 membership (for now) which works well since Barre is at 12 on Tuesdays/Thursdays and child care is open til 2p – so I can even get in a shower after class. The gym membership itself is $40/month but if I paid per class it would have been $25/class soo…you see why this made sense. The other days, I run. I started the Couch to 5k yesterday on the app which worked out nicely since it was 30 minutes and was the perfect amount of time to be gone from Ethan. Also, I joined GymPact. If I can make up that $40/month by going to the gym through gym pact? Then that’s pretty baller and I’ll take it. More on all this later next week.
On top of all that I’m starting to think about what I want to do for work – realistically I should start looking for work sooner than later mostly for financial purposes, but I do love being with Ethan. Part time work would be the best of both worlds, part time from home would be most ideal excepting that we’d still need to get childcare since I find I’m most productive with my blogging after we put him down to bed but that’s really not helping the sleeping front since I don’t get to bed til 11-12a most nights because of that. So there’s still a lot to be figured out on this front, but there’s still another 4 weeks before my “maternity leave” is technically over so come July I’ll start moving towards some sort of plan or whatever.
As for Ethan’s stats? His 8 week check up is actually June 3 because of a change in insurance (thanks to hubs getting a new job), but I do know he’s over 10 lbs, and I do know that he is fitting into most 0-3 and 3 month stuff even if some of it is a touch big. He’s growing up way too fast. I can’t even handle it.
Happy weekend! We’re heading up to CT this weekend for Ethan’s first road trip…wish us luck!
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Comments? Questions? Email me: heidi(at)legallyheidi(dot)com
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