Foodie PenPals and Some Random FUN

My life has been chaotic to say the very least!  However, I think I see at least a little normalcy over the next couple of weeks!
Ughhhh it's been a mess, but you know what they say upward and onward...

Foodie Penpals was great this month!

Heather from Kiss My Broccoli totally hooked me up.

This package was filled with so many fun and yummy treats!  The cookie butter goes great with the chocolate cookies.  Thanks Heather!!! I will be making a trip to Trader Joe's this week!

Jealous? Do you want to be a foodie penpal? Here's How:

The amazing Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean organizes all of this.

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 
You must submit your information by June 4th as pairings will be emailed on June 5th!
Click HERE to get started!

I'm out for June because I will be traveling, but I will surely be back for July!!!

Now for the FUN!

Cheryl at Live Fit Daily nominated me for this:

She was actually my first Foodie PenPal!  We have so much in common it's crazy and she used to live in GA very near me, too bad we never got to meet.

So here's how this works:

1) Post the award logo and picture on your blog and link back to the person who nominated you.
2) Tell seven things about yourself.
3) Nominate up to 15 additional bloggers whom you think deserve the award.
4) Post a comment on the blog of each nominee to tell them they have been nominated!

Ok, My seven randoms:

1. My treadmill is in my kitchen
2. I rewatched the entire series of Felicity over 2 1/2 months entirely on my treadmill. Finished the last episode yesterday and I'm thinking of just watching it again. (Best show ever!!!)
3. I currently have 12 mosquito bites all from being outside for 5 min yesterday, with bug spray on... they literally swarm around me, meanwhile no one else has a single bite... please explain this!
4. My birthday is in 5 days! And I don't plan to age AT ALL after this one.
5. In a couple of weeks I'll have officially gone through 2 rounds of P90X, I've increased weights, can do push ups like nobody's business, and am overall happy with the results, but I want to join a gym.  I know I'll never get the results I really really want bc I do too much cardio... but I LOVE RUNNING... it's truly therapeutic.
6. We had a BBQ at the lake for memorial day... a scary guy tried to fight us because he said we took his grill... it was delightful... with 4 frightened kids and all...
7. egg whites are my favorite food, I would eat them 5 times a day if I could.

Now for my nominations:

• Pain, Pride, and Perseverance (I just have to say Julia is the sweetest person I've never met and I really hope I get to meet her in person one day... she is amazing!)
• Little B's Healthy Habits (b/c she is gorgeous and knows her stuff)
• Sprint 2 The Table (b/c she is from ATL too and know's how amazing the Dekalb Farmer's Market is!)

FITSpiration VS THINSpiration

It's literally all. Over. The. Place.  The "motivational" pictures of women with 10% body fat, followed by "100 crunches, 30 push-ups, etc" or "nothing tastes as good as fit feels" hmmmm...

Probably my ideal...

I can do all the abs and core I want! My booty aint ever going to look like that.

really?!?!

One of the quotes under this picture began with "I love this body..."  I'm not saying I DON'T but at 5'2 I'll never have it.

 

 source

Isn't this basically the same stuff that got BANNED all over the internet awhile back? You know the pictures of the girls with 10% body fat that weighed 90 lbs?  I know that all of this "fit"spiration is supposed to motivate us to eat better, exercise more, and love ourselves?  But, don't these images of an ideal most of us cannot achieve propagate the same negative connotations as the girls who have the narrow hips and thighs that don't touch?
More than likely the fitness models in these pictures spent the months, weeks, and days leading up to their photo shoot doing some un-healthy things to lean out.  Carb-cycling, twice a days at the gym, calorie and carb cutting, no water days before, ultimately dropping to an unhealthy body fat level to take a picture.  Much like a fashion model does. 
The truth is these women look great.  Better than great, but they way they look is not something most of us can maintain without extreme sacrifice and/or health consequences. As a society were trying to move forward with the "fit is the new skinny" mentality.  But, were still flooded with images that are not realistic, were still striving to be something that doesn't exist.  A person who is tanned, dehydrated, air brushed, in perfect lighting, at a perfect angle, holding her breath.  It's  a gorgeous picture, but we would all drop dead if we tried to walk around like that.

Being healthy and happy is not a number on a scale. It is not inches on a tape measure. It is not a percentage on a skin caliper.  It cannot be quantified by any measurement or number.  Being healthy and happy is being active, eating well, feeling good, and most importantly being comfortable in your own skin. 

Now don't get me wrong, I do find some of this stuff very motivational.  However, I am 28 years old, I am 100% dedicated to being active and eating healthfully.  I am no longer insecure and impressionable and I have enough knowledge to know, that women that look like that don't really exist in real life.

Everyone needs to find their happy place.  I know a lot of people who regularly do twice a days (heck I'm one of them) and eat 100% clean (not one of them).  But that is not necessarily the perfect lifestyle, it works for them. It takes sacrifice.  We need to stop ping ponging from one extreme to the other.  There is a perfectly lovely area in between 12% and 30%.
Were all women whether we have meat on our bones, 6 packs abs, thighs that don't touch, saggy skin, stretch marks, or belly pouches that will ALWAYS be there. We need to celebrate the inbetween.

Bummed, stressed, etc...

Things have been hectic, tense, and busy to say the very least.  The last few days have been a blur.  I've been sick, bronchitis?  It hurts! That's all I know.  That said my intelligent self decided to run on Saturday, only to stop at mile 4 in excruciating pain.  And I've been through completely natural child birth, I have a very high pain tolerance.  I almost fell, it hurt so bad.  I have no idea what caused it or even what really hurts.  It's at the top of the foot, I'm assuming somewhere under or around the ligament connecting the big toe.  When I feel around the area, nothing feels sore to the touch, but the area is very very sore when I flex my foot a certain way.  It is getting better, and hopefully will continue to do so.  I really really need to run! It's very frustrating I've been having foot issues for the last month and I have never ever had to deal with any kind of running injury so it's all new and upsetting to me.

The being sick, losing my voice, and coughing 24 hours a day kinda sucks too.

My husband's non-english speaking mother arrived for a month? long visit on Thursday.  She has not been to this country in 25 years and is from a town of maybe 1000 people.  So there is a definite culture shock going on for her.  I've actually never been out of the county, I only speak English, so this way of life is all I know.  So, obviously my life, is extremely normal to me.  It's amazing to see how my everyday things are such a foreign concept to someone else.  Things have been... interesting.

So you can see from the above why I so so desperately need to be running!

It's not ALL bad, just mostly bad (j/k), here is some of the good:

Mother's Day Flowers

Company cake! Strawberry!

My first school made mother's day gift, best gift I've ever been given.

I don't know when I will be running again.  I'm hoping this week. I am stubborn.

WIAW - I'm boring...

 What I ate Wednesday is hosted by Peas and Crayons head on over to here awesome blog and to see all of the other WIAW posts.  You can get so many ideas, but beware you will leave the page with some serious food envy.

Breakfast - La Tortilla Factory Tortilla (seriously AHHHHHHHHHHMazing!) I love those things!  Egg whites, spinach, mushrooms
Lunch - Spinach salad with Strawberries, walnuts, and Raspberry Vinaigrette + (more) egg whites, black beans, fresh salsa (I made it, it's delish!), and another La Tortilla.
After Running/Pre Strength - Protein shake w/ Chocolate Protein powder, 1/2 frozen banana, strawberries
Dinner- - Crockpot Taco Chicken (easiest thing in the world, boneless skinless chicken breasts + packet of taco seasoning) Roasted zucchini and yellow squash, black beans.... salad (not pictured).
***not pictured the copious amounts of peanuts and almonds I eat every time I walk by the  pantry... and plain 2% greek yogurt before bed, while watching LA Complex.

I eat a lot of salad.  I eat a salad with dinner every day and with lunch most days.  I really really like lettuce!  I eat basically the same food every day.  Well Mon - Fri anyways.  I think next week I will do a weekend day... one that includes a splurge!  I work from home which is nice as far as food goes, but I'm still always crunched for time.  I don't like to do a ton of food prep... (I'm not huge on left overs)  Egg whites take like 2 minutes to prepare and I adore them so yea I eat them for at least 2 meals a day most days.  Same with salad. 

Question?

Do you love egg whites? Do you eat them?

I LOVE them!!! I will never ever get sick of them, they are the only thing I ALWAYS look forward to eating!

I ran 5 miles!!!

... and all it took was a couple Motrin, Ben-gay, and ice.  So, maybe not the smartest thing.  But! as I was running the pain was less and less and pretty non existent by the time I was finished!  I'll try it again today! *finger's crossed*
I really want to run this 5k on 5/20.  I know at this point if I do, it won't be the sub 22:30 I was hoping for, but I would at least like to be pain free.  I don't run a lot of races so I want each one to be an all out effort and I've been running 22:30 "5k's" on the treadmill and would like to have actually done it in race.  So, I'm back and forth between running it know I won't do as well as I hoped and just waiting a running another next month.  

I had  a great strength workout and felt really motivated with the heavier weights.  I'm starting to feel stronger eeeeeeeeeeee!

Before working shoulders, triceps, and chest, oh and abs too!

Speaking of... I need new workout clothes.  I see a trip to the outlets sometime around memorial day (best sales).  I'm in survival mode for the next few weeks.  I really hope to be able to stay on track during what will be a very hectic and busy time! I'm such a creature of habit, it's so difficult for me to function efficiently when things get shaken up!  I think I'm going to start using my blog as my food/workout journal to keep myself accountable.  We will have company for the next 4-6 weeks... and that means there will be food around that I normally wouldn't keep around.  Hopefully it won't be a problem. My main issue is making sure to get my workouts in.  But I'm gonna do it!

Happy Tuesday!


Question?

Do you like routine or do you like constant change?

I crave routine!

When you have company, additional work, additional obligations, etc... do you find it hard to stay on track with diet and exercise?

Good Weekend/Bad Foot

My foot/ankle/heel/achillies is still bothering me.  I don't know what it is. I've iced, ben-gayed?, wrapped, elevated, massaged, and rested it and it still hurts when I try to run.  The weird thing is, it doesn't hurt when I walk.  GET BETTER FOOT!

I was on such a roll, as far as running goes.
I've still been doing the P90X workouts, and am increasing weights from 10-15 lbs today... Woo Hoo, finally getting up there!
I really need to refine my diet.  I know the whole 80/20 thing and that is usually my motto. But I really want to drop a couple of pounds of fat and "lean out"  and in order to do that, clean is the word.  I know this, but it's hard.  I definitely like to eat and I love food and I LOVE sweets.  I often wonder if this whole thing is easier for people that don't have large appetites or a large sweet tooth.   I have a large appetite, especially for someone my size.  I eat well and very clean maybe 85% - 90% of the time.  It's those bites of things here and there that get me. Plus not running consistently for 2 1/2 weeks hasn't helped either.  Yet another reason I need this foot to get better!!!

I got a new phone... My iphone 4 took a beating and kept on kicking, but I couldn't actually talk on it, yea that part didn't work.  So now I've got the iphone 4s... at least I can take "better" crappy pictures with it!  And, I've got a new friend in SIRI. (we already got in a fight).

The weekend was good.

• hanging out with friends having babies
• hanging out with friends with babies
• Ethiopian food
• Shopping
• more eating...

 I have A LOT going on this week.  I have a lot going on for the next 6 weeks and I just want to get through it, without pulling my hair out. 
 AHHHHHHHHH life.
 Gotta love it.

Happy Monday!  Hope your's is better than mine!