Friday Favorites, 8.10 - I'm baaaack!!!

I’m baaaaaack! 

So much has been going on this week and I have so much to fill you in on!  I do have to say, I MISS my daily blogging therapy and promise to never take such a long break again!  Today is Friday, and I normally do Friday Favorites, but honestly, these are going to be more like tangents since I have so many random things to fill you in on!  Umm, yeah, this is gonna be a bit of a long one! J

Here are my Friday Favorites (a.k.a. tangents).  Let’s start from the beginning!

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 On Tuesday I had a couple of people who deserved TROPHIES in my book: 

1.     Rachel, the bestie!  She received a HUGE promotion at work, and is going to be a big boss at her school now.  Wooohooo!  So proud of her and I know she is going to do a fantastic job!!!  We went to the school board meeting to watch her get officially announced in her new position and then went out to dinner at PF Chang’s afterward to celebrate.

2.     Javier, the hubby.  He receives a huge trophy for being so thoughtful!  He met us at the restaurant because he was coming straight from an appointment that he had been at all day.  And when he walked in, guess what he had in his hand?  Flowers.  For the bestie on her special day.  That’s one of the things that I love about him, his attention to detail.

3.     Who doesn’t get a trophy?  Me!!  I hurt myself during my workout on Tuesday.  I know this may be a silly question, but do women have groin muscles like men do?  Well if we do, I hurt mine!  I went to an earlier class than I normally do on Tuesday’s because I needed to make it to the board meeting on time to see my friend.  The class that I go to on Wednesday’s with the instructor that totally kicks my butt…well, that same instructor gives the same class on Tuesday’s too, and that’s the one I went to.  When I walked in (about ten minutes late) they were already fully into the workout!  So of course, I did the smart thing and instead of taking a couple of minutes to warm-up off to the side, I jumped right into the workout!  This is the instructor that I told you recently got certified in CrossFit and has since changed the structure of his class to make it straight CF.  I definitely ain’t complaining!!!  We were standing on steps with 3 rizers under each side doing lunges, forward and backward, and I had a 10 pound weight plate in each hand.  On one of the lunges backward, off of the step, I felt a pop in my muscle at the top of my leg where the thigh meets the hip.  The pop was weird; it was so shocking and quick!  That’s when I did smart thing #2 and kept going full-force for the rest of the class instead of stopping.  Oh, and then I ran 2 miles on it later too.  Needless to say, that was noooooot the smartest thing I’ve ever done!  It took me back to my high school days when I continued to play basketball after I had torn my ACL and when it popped out I would just pop it back in and kept going like nothing was wrong.  Ouch!!  #craziness 

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A quick Run streak update:

RUNstreak: as of tonight, 70 days and counting…

My “groin” or whatever it is that I hurt is feeling much better after taking it easy during my workouts for a couple of days.  I continued with my runs, though so as not to break my run streak.  I have to admit, though, that Tuesday night’s run and Wednesday morning’s run were ROUGH.  I was hurting sooo bad that I had to stop and walk some.  Way more often than I would have liked!  And while I was able to finish the two miles each time, I did end up having to walk quite a bit, and being that I don’t normally do this, my anal-retentive self is having a hard time calling those real “runs.”  My hubs tells me that I should give myself a break and give myself credit for even trying to run while injured.  I guess I’ll listen to him!  I may have  had to stop and walk some but I still did more running than walking so I’ll still count it!  I felt muuuuuch better during yesterday’s run and am feeling almost back to normal today!

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The “Greatness is ours” Nike commercial.  The Pr and Marketing people at Nike are amazingly good at their jobs!!  They are right on the money. Every. Single. Time.  This latest commercial, in two words?  Inspiring and motivating!  I read a little bit of background about the young man who made the commercial and his story is great!!  You can read about his story here.  What I love most about this campaign is the fact that it lets us believe that there is already greatness within us all.  In a time where we are all inspired yet humbled watching the Olympic greats, Nike tells us that we may not all be Olympic athletes but we all have miracles within us.  It’s beautiful, really!

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Friday favorites – OLYMPIC edition:

-         Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings win gold – love, love, love them and have been following them since High School!!!  I know I mostly talk about Basketball, which was undoubtedly my favorite, but I played (and loved) Volleyball too.  They were my favs then and they continue to be my favs now…and I WISH they would go for Gold in Rio in 2016 too!

-         Alison Felix – 200m gold FINALLY!!

-         Kenya’s David Rashida setting the World Record in the Men’s 200m race – love his story because he is such a nice, simple man from humble roots…and he runs to make his country and fellow tribesmen proud!

-         Women’s Soccer team wins the gold…and gains redemption from losing the World Cup to the same team last year

-         Ashton Eaton winning gold in the Decathlon – although no one really doubted he could do it, it was nice that he actually did do it.  I love that he’s so down-to-Earth, and in an interview I watched with him and the silver medallist, Trey Hardee, whom he considers a friend, Ashton credited him Hardee with helping him train to be more successful.  Talk about humble, which is an unknown concept for some athletes celebrating their Olympic success.  I don’t wish to take anything away from Usain bolt because his athletic accomplishments are impressive to say the least, but it’s nice when an athlete doesn’t’ feel the need to toot his own horn.

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And my last favorite and something you GOTTA TRY – I made this crazy simple crockpot Bar-b-que chicken earlier this week and it was thebomb.com!!!!  I can’t take credit for this recipe; I didn’t make it up myself, I actually saw it somewhere, I just can’t remember where!!   Here’s my version of the recipe:

 

“Crazy good” Crockpot Bar-b-que Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

1/2 c diced red onion

1 cup diced pineapple

1 bottle bar-b-que sauce

Preparation:

1.        Place the chicken breasts at the bottom of the crockpot and put the onion, pineapple, and sauce over the top of it.

2.      Put the lid on, turn it to LOW and cook it for 6-8 hours.  Enjoy!

That’s it.  So easy and delicious, my favorite two things!  I made drop biscuits, homemade coleslaw, baked beans, and corn to go along with it.  We had lots of leftovers of the chicken and I froze it for a quick meal sometime next week.  I’m thinking next time we’ll make pulled-chicken bar-b-que sandwiches.  I will definitely be putting this one on the menu rotation!

Five questions for you:

1.     What are some of your favorite things right now?
2.     What was your favorite workout this week?  When you get injured, do you take it easy like you should?
3.     Have you seen the Nike commercial?  What are some of your favorite inspiring commercials being played right now?
4.     What are some of your favorite Olympic moments so far?
5.     What was your favorite meal that you made this week?

"Make-It-Happen-Monday", 8.6

Here are the things that I am hoping to make happen this week.

What we’ll be grubbing on this week:

 

GET IN MY BELLY!!! Grub Menu (8/6 – 8/12)
MONDAY	BOLIVIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY meal – to include the colors of the Bolivian flag (red, yellow, green) in honor of my Bolivian hubby! Baked Basil Tilapia w/ Sriracha (red), Saffron Rice (yellow), steamed peas (green)
Tuesday	Crockpot bar-b-que chicken w/pineapple, coleslaw, corn on the cob, drop biscuits…and pickles
Wednesday	Stuffed Bell peppers (ground turkey, brown rice, veggies, etc)
Thursday	Ceviche
Friday	Steak, chimichurri, roasted veggies
Saturday	Burritos – made with ground turkey, whole wheat, high fiber tortillas, Mexican rice, avocado pico de gallo, black beans
Sunday	- Lasagna (ground turkey, whole wheat lasagna noodles)

How I’ll be getting-my-sweat-on this week:

 

Work Out Schedule (August 6 – August 12)
	Run	Cross Train	Weights
Monday	2.5	---	---
Tuesday	4	Zumba, CrossFit	Whole body (CF session)
Wednesday	2	Step, CrossFit	Whole body (CF session)
Thursday	5	Zumba, Spin	---
Friday	3	Pilates	Legs
Saturday	3	Step	Arms: biceps, triceps, shoulders
Sunday	7	---	---

What I’m ___________ this week:

Right Now I’m…
Reading…	Legend, The Uglies, Charlotte’s Web (still reading it with my little one)
Listening to…	lots of shake-your-groove-thang music! I’ve been in a DANCING mood lately, ever since getting-my-dance-on this weekend.  So I’ve been listening to get-up-and-dance pop like Rihanna and Calvin Harris (on mu running playlist), SALSA (my favs include Marc Anthony, Victor Manuelle, Joe Arroyo, and Grupo Niche), and Samba!!
Watching…	The OLYMPICS!!!! …and lots of movies with my daughter.  Right now we are watching “Marmaduke” and watched “Dispicable Me” earlier.
Craving…	a fat juicy dill pickle…so I added it onto the menu for Tuesday’s meal!
Loving…	all the family time I’ve had this summer!
Wishing…	that my last two weeks of summer vacation turn out to be as fantastic and the other month and a half was!

One last little update:

Last night I did a Sunday evening long run and ran 6.5 miles, the longest I’ve run in a looooong time.  I swear it was just a COINCIDENCE but it just so happens that I ran 6.5 miles on Day #65 of my RUNstreak!!  I promise I didn’t do that on purpose; even I am not that nerdy!  Although I must admit, I wish I had thought about it ahead of time and had done it on purpose! J

This evening my daughter and our dog Bella came on my run with me.  I ran 2.5 miles while they did about 1.5.  I dropped them off at the neighborhood playground and then ran around it a couple of times to complete a mile.  I didn’t feel guilty about running such a little amount; the knees (especially the left one, which is the one that has two knee surgeries) are still a little sore from my long run last night.  I’m proud to announce:

RUNstreak: as of tonight, 66 days and counting…

I just may complete my Summer RUNstreak after all!! 

Hello August!!

Wow, I cannot believe that it is August already!  July – and the whole summer in general – feels like it just flew by!  While I’m sad to see July go, I’m excited for everything that August has in store for me!  Besides that, it also means that we are one month closer to my birthday, my daughter’s birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I LOVE fall!!!

AUGUST being here means quite a few things for this lady:

1. My vacation is almost over…and it's Back-to-School time!
2. …so no more staying in my PJ’s all day (unless I have something really fun and important to do) until it’s time to get dressed for the gym.
3. School will be starting soon and this tends to be a little bit of a stressful time for me.  New school year = moving to my new classroom, lots of boring insightful teacher meetings, setting up my classroom, and getting back into routine and the daily real-life “swing-of-things.” 
4. This year I’m getting a new partner after four years of being with the same awesome lady. L  At my campus, which is a 5^th grade/6^th grade only campus, we team-teach.  In my case, I teach the Reading/Writing, we co-teach social Studies and my partner teaches the Math/Science.  While I am looking forward to working with my new partner, I will definitely miss my old one!!
5. It also happens to be fun and exciting too, though!  New school year means seeing all of my work friends again, a fresh new batch of students with new personalities, and a new opportunity to get kids obsessed with books!!!!

I just need to make sure to enjoy these last few weeks of vacation and mentally prepare myself for the first month of school, which is always so busy, busy, busy!  I have a classroom to set up, routines to set in place and kids to scare train!  I must admit I can’t wait!!  Rest up, Leti!!

With that being said, I also took some time today to reflect upon my July goals and made new ones for August.  Here are my goals for August:

AUGUST Goals

- plan, execute, and enjoy our yearly family vacation!!!…sometime in the next three weeks! J  Think it’s possible?!?!

- complete these projects in the next two weeks: 1.      Make a new vision board. 2.      Finish cleaning out the closets and make a Goodwill pile.  3.      Make a cute pin board for little one’s room. 4.      Spring Summer Clean!

- read at least 4 more books by the end of this month.  I’m being much more realistic than I was in July when I said 8 and then only read 4. J

- continue my Summer RUNstreak and try to log at least 25 miles per week all month.  I’m at a Day #61, a little over 8 weeks, and only have the month of August to go to complete my Summer RUNstreak!!

- start early with the moving/unpacking/setting up of my classroom so that I may take my time to do it just right…which will alleviate lots of unnecessary stress for this anal-retentive perfectionist!

- continue to tighten up on my eating.  I want to continue to meal plan…and grocery shop from the meal plan.  I tried that last month and it really worked!! Plus, I want to get really good at it since school is starting soon.  Also, I’m currently shopping for a digital kitchen scale (anyone have any recommendations??) to help with measuring out food portions.  The hubby thinks he’s in for a shocker when we start doing this.  I think he’s right. J

- do CrossFit at least once a week, and try out the new 5:45 am Cycle classes on Tuesday and Thursdays to see if it’s something I might possibly continue throughout the school year.  Once upon a time I used to go to these early morning sweat fests at another gym but had to drive too far to get there so I stopped going.  I was ecstatic when I found out tonight that our gym will have this class from now on too!

 Speaking of CrossFit, I just realized it’s Wednesday, which means it’s WORKOUT WEDNESDAY!!  This particular “Workout Wednesday” was exciting because I had my first CrossFit workout ever!!!  The guy that gives the Wednesday killer class that the Hubs and I love so much kicked our butts today!!  We talked to him afterward and he told us he had just recently got certified to teach CrossFit, which was where he got the inspiration to do the things he had us do in class today.  I wish I could remember them, and I distinctly remember repeating the stuff to myself so that I might remember it to type up for the blog, but I think all of the sweat and endorphins from my gym session washed it all away.  Today was a heavy cardio day; I did the CrossFit class, ran 2 miles on the treadmill and then did the last 45 minutes of my favorite Step Aerobics class.  Yep, that one is definitely going to hurt in the morning!  And probably worse the morning after that.  Ohhhh, but it hurt sooooo good and I think it’s safe to say I may have a new obsession on my hands! #CrossFitistheshiznit

Five questions for you:

1. What are some of your goals for August?
2. Read any good books lately that you can recommend to me? 
3. What’s your favorite dish on your dinner menu for this week?
4. Have you ever tried Cross Fit? 
5. What is your favorite type of workout?