>26.2 and Giveaway winner

>Hi everyone, I hope you had a bueno day. First thing’s first, I can hardly hold in my excitement…

I’m officially registered for the SunTrust Richmond Marathon on November 13th! This will be my 6th marathon 🙂 I haven’t run one since 2007 so I’m extra excited!

source

*Also, check out my new Marathon Training tab and track my training progress!

——

I woke this morning and inhaled some Tropical Chia Oats – again. And a BIG ole mug of coffee + steamed almond milk.

Feeling very rejuvenated from yesterday’s Bikram Yoga class, I jogged to the gym (10 mins; my warm-up) for a 60 min Spinning class. Fantastic music and heart-PUMPING drills. Love.

In between cleaning and lots of errands I threw together a quick veggie salad with hummus & nutritional yeast dressing:

Spinach, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and Hummut dressing (2 T hummus, 1 T nutritional yeast, 1 T H20)

*To read about the many benefits of Nutritional Yeast or “noosh”, click here.

Craving some additional protein, I made a Peanut Butter and Chocolate Protein Cupcake:

Recipe here

And made dinner to take with me to work:

Trader Joe’s Herb Dijon Salmon (added some red pepper flakes) cooked on the stove top served over sauteed spinach (satay in 1 T EVOO, dash sea salt, pepper, drizzle balsamic vinegar)

Although I had to cancel a dinner date with Lauren because I was called into work (we are rescheduling), it was a very exciting shift! I can’t wait to be a physician assistant someday 🙂

Alright, I’m off to read and enjoy a new (simple) snack obsession:

Partially thawed fruit (banana, mango, raspberries)

—-

Tomorrow I have a busy/exciting day that includes:

– 6 mile run

– Volunteering at YMCA as health/wellness coach for middle schoolers

– Date night with The Manfriend ❤

—–

Oh, ya want to know the winner of the Modern Bedding Giveaway???

Using a random number generator (aka asking Seth to blindly pick a number, haha), THE WINNER of my giveaway IS….

KATIE from Making Food and Other Stuff! Katie, e-mail me at Biochemista@gmail.com and I’ll send you the promo code!

——

Goodnight all!

>TGIF and Bedding Giveaway!

>Happy Friday! Have anything fun planned for the weekend? I’m meeting up with some friends tonight for a little vino. I’ve been promising myself an expensive glass of Shiraz if I do well in the productivity department 🙂 Then Sunday is my Half Marathon!

Last night after work, I went for a 4-mile run around the Potomac River, stretched a lot, then Kelsey (sister) and I ordered sushi. Delivery sushi has to be one of the best discoveries I’ve made.

I went with the salmon-avocado roll

Seaweed salad

And split some steamed veggie dumplings

Hit.the.spot.

—-

This morning I woke with an excruciating migraine. Sadly I had to postpone a coffee date with Alex (we’re going this weekend instead). I rested for a while, took ibuprofen, then went to a BodyPump class to shake the pain. Although all I want to do is lay in bed when a migraine hits, exercise 95% of the time makes me feel better. I attribute it to the increased oxygen to the brain!

Feeling much better, I made coffee and a protein smoothie to enjoy on the deck in the (California-like) beautiful weather:

Today’s coffee a la Keurig was Caribou + warmed almond milk:

Raspberry-Chocolate Green Smoothie:

Scoop chocolate protein powder (SunWarrior is my fav)

1/3 cup frozen raspberries

1/2 frozen banana

Fresh spinach (hand full)

stevia (to taste)

Pinch sea salt (to bring out sweetness)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum (t0 thicken; optional)

1/2 tsp maca powder (optional; source of vitamin C, also for energy)

1 tsp PB (to promote absorption of fat soluble vitamins)

Ice

H20

I absolutely love our deck. It spans the width of our apartment and looks up to a canopy of trees providing some shade but also let’s in the perfect amount of sunshine.

The pup also enjoys it…

Watching the neighbors’ dogs

Happily chewing on a leaf

I really believe mornings that start out right set the pace for a productive and enjoyable day. For me this includes, waking up early to exercise and enjoying a healthy/substantial breakfast either on the deck or reading the news.

Do you agree?? How do you start your day?

—–

Well I’m off to grocery shop, run some errands, and do a little bit of reading before meeting up with friends. Have a great weekend!

Lauren

*To those that asked about PB Flour, read here 🙂

—–

It’s GIVEAWAY time!!!!!!

Do you want to update your bedroom decor?? Looking for new bedding? The lovely people at allmodern.com have offered an amazing modern bedding giveaway to my readers! All you must do is:

1) Visit the site and tell me what you would do with a $35 gift certificate
2) Link this post to your next blog post and leave me comment and link to your site (if you don’t have a blog just leave me a comment saying so)
3) Add me to your Blogroll, leave me a comment letting me know you did


Enter as many ways as you like and it will increase your chances of winning!

Good luck!!!! I’ll announce the winner Tuesday evening!