Things I’m Loving Lately: July 2012 Edition

I skipped June.  Oops.  I’m totally neglecting my blog series lately!  First slacking on Move of the Week, then slacking on my Favorite Things posts.  Shame on me.  Anyways, here you have it – my July edition.

Salad and Scrambled Eggs
Extra heap of delicious protein on my salad?  Brilliant.  The taste of scrambled eggs mixed with avocado?  Even more brilliant.  Not sure why I never combined salad and scrambled eggs before.  Okay, now I just have the Frazier theme song in my head.  “But I don’t know what to do with those tossed salad and scrambled eggs…they’re callin’ again…”

 

Sandcastles
How do people MAKE these?!!  I can’t even get your everyday ole sandcastle from a boring cylindrical bucket to stand up straight without part of it caving in.

 

Foam Rolling
Why I never foam rolled ALL THE TIME before my hip issues (aside from my Paul Bunion days in college) is beyond me.  I’ve tried to foam roll every day — so good for relieving muscle tension, correcting muscle imbalances, increasing your range of motion, and probably most importantly to help prevent injury.  I need all the help I can get with all the above!  Plus foam rolling hurts…so…good!

 

Keep Calm and…
Have you guys seen the “Keep Calm and Carry On?” posters?  I always wondered who invented this and apparently the “Keep Calm and Carry On” saying originated on a morale boosting poster in Britain during World War II.  Who knew?  Anyways, nowadays there’s a ton of these keep calm sayings out there!  I spent some time the other day browsing through a lot of these on Etsy, and they have SO MANY cute ones.  My favorites are “Keep Calm and Dance On,” “Keep Calm and Get Fit,”  “Keep Calm and Eat Cupcakes,” “Keep Calm and Blog On,” and “Keep Calm and Coffee On.”  Oh, and I may just have happened to buy the “Keep Calm and Wine On” for my new kitchen.  

 

Kayaking
Finally, kayaking!  I posted in my Pre-Vacation Vacation post that I recently went kayaking on the Charles River.  I had never been kayaking before until I started dating Tim (a kayaking fanatic), and I love it.  First of all, it’s an amazing upper body workout.  Holy sore shoulders the next day!  It’s just a nice way to switch things up from my normal workout routine, and plus it’s so relaxing.  It was kind of awesome being “in the middle” of Memorial Drive and Storrow, but having such a pretty view and feeling so peaceful on the water as traffic whizzed by.  Kind of want to invest in my own kayak now!   Sidenote:  I used a calorie calculating thing online and someone of my weight (128 lbs) burns 437 calories during 90 minutes of kayaking.  Pretty good!

What are you guys loving this month?!

Something Extra:  Check out this article that my friend Jess forwarded to me today.  About moms that workout all the time.  That is pretty much my ideal life someday.  The best quote in there?  “We call our customer ‘happy crazy.'”  For us exercise obsessed folks, that’s pretty spot on don’t you think!?

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

You know what?  I’ve never really hopped on the smoothie bandwagon before.  They’re everywhere too — I see them in so many other healthy living blogs.  I don’t know why I never was into them — maybe getting the blender out (and having to wash it) seemed like too much effort for a drink I’d slug down in about 2.5 seconds?  I don’t know, but over my vacation week I realized that all this time I’ve been missing out.

Here’s one of my fave smoothies that I’ve been whipping up lately.  Because as you know, I’m a sucker for anything with bananas.  And peanut butter.

Recipe makes one smoothie

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup milk of choice
• 2 ice cubes
• 1 medium-sized banana, broken into a few pieces
• 1 spoonful of peanut butter (I prefer Teddie’s unsalted smooth!)
• About 2 tsp. agave (or honey/syrup/sweetener of choice)
• 1/2 tbsp. chia or flax seeds (optional)

Directions

1. Put everything in the blender (or Magic Bullet).
2. Blend!

Voila, you’re done.  🙂

Um, super easy.  And I love the combo of peanut butter and banana, so this concoction is a winner.  If you want it a little thicker (that’s what she said?) you can try adding a scoop of plain Greek yogurt into the mix.

Great for a post workout snack, a grab n go breakfast, and do it yourself is much more wallet friendly than splurging at the local coffee shop or smoothie joint.

Anyone on a smoothie kick?  What’s your favorite smoothie flavor?  Any good “That’s What She Said” lines?  😉

Long day today, consisting of:  Teaching 6am circuit, 8 hours at the full-time job, Teaching kickboxing, training a client, FACEPLANT.  Catch ya later!