I cheat. I admit it.

In college I was afraid to eat a poppyseed muffin because I was drug tested so much for the NCAA’s supposed “random” drug testing. (Didn’t feel so random when it was always me who got chosen. LOL!) I never even took a multi-vitamin! Of course, I also justified my entire order of breadsticks the night before each meet as “carbo loading”. This is funny mind you because my events (I was a thrower) lasted all of about 6 seconds/throw. Not exactly endurance.

I wish I’d known then about Spark and Muscle Fuel and many of the other AdvoCare products. Just the other day I was SO, NOT in the mood to workout, and I took a Muscle Fuel as I often do, and I was once again WOW’d at the workout I got. The energy just shows up about 15 minutes after I drink this stuff! Every time. I love it!

I was telling my class about that experience the other day and moments later my husband came home from his workout. He announced in amazement, “Muscle Fuel is ridiculous! I just had the BEST workout!” It was pretty funny timing.

I would just be a bad friend if I did not at least share with you my favorite things. Here is a clip below about a study they did on it a while back.

And now you know my “secret”.

So as you know I’ve been playing tennis lately. My husband is thrilled about this because he’s played for years and it’s something we can do together as a family when Izak is old enough to play. So I’m playing on a ladder this summer. I have yet to win a single match.

I was warned by more than one of the girls about “Carolyn”. People are willing to talk once they’ve kicked your butt and more than one girl offered me the advise of not under-estimating this opponent. “Don’t let her saunter fool you! She’s good!”

Sure enough. Carolyn kicked my fanny. Handily. But she was so fun to play I’ve played her two more times since then. And she’s kicked my butt every single time. One match at Wash Park these men were gathered around watching whispering to me through the fence, “She’s fit!” She’s amazing.

I always confess my losses to my husband (who’s likely pretty disappointed in my progression) and I’d admitted that Carolyn was much older. She hasn’t offered her age, and I refuse to ask. But I will tell you, I’m beyond impressed. I have been caught more than once on my heels thinking “there’s no way that will come back” and sure enough! She gets to it! “Don’t rest on your laurels!” she’ll scold. And I giggle at the truth of the lesson. She cheers me on when I do something good. She’s teaching me how to keep score. She’s wonderful! I’m having so much fun playing her I haven’t been making my way through the ladder as I’m supposed to.

I asked her when we played yesterday if I could take her picture and put it on my blog. Of course, she doesn’t even know what a blog is, but she was happy to oblige. By the way, she attributes her fitness to years of running, and eating “lots of vegetables”!

My new friend and inspiration, Carolyn.

I warmed up for a few minutes with a light jog.

I repeated this 4 minute cycle 4 times. It wasn’t terribly difficult.

• 1 minute at 6mph, 1% grade
• 1 minute at 6.5 mph, 1% grade
• 1 minute at 6 mph, 1% grade
• 1 minute walking at 4mph

Then, I repeated the same thing at 2% grade. (The 4 minute cycle, 4 times through).

Then again, the 4 minute cycle at 3% grade.

Nice little run! A little over 4 miles. Watched a little Dr Oz and caught up on the news. First time in a while I’ve actually watched the news I hate to admit. On the 2% and 3% sets my heart rate was getting up to around 145 and in the walk it would drop to 120 or so. When you break things up into one minute chunks like this, your brain is too busy to get too bored. I actually really enjoyed this little workout! And considering I almost didn’t do one at all, it was WONDERFUL!

Greek yogurt recently became relatively popular as a healthy snack and so what did they do? They started offering it in individual servings, sugared it up with a bunch of “fruit” and now we’re back to 18+ grams of sugar! I agree, plain, fat free greek yogurt is not delish. And I’m all about eating YUMMY as well as healthy. So  here’s what I do.

Who says eating healthy can't be yummy too?

I flavor up plain greek yogurt with some vanilla protein powder (I use AdvoCare’s Muscle Gain), and just enough almond milk to be able to mix it. I used to add berries, but lately I’ve been adding chia, hemp or flax seeds. Sometimes walnuts! Be creative to suit you. Cinnamon? Cocoa?

So! In a mixing bowl I combined

• 1 c oats. I used gluten free and I actually blended half of them in the magic bullet too. So I had 1/2 c regular and 1/2 c blended like flour.
• 6 slightly rounded scoops chocolate protein powder (I used AdvoCare’s Muscle Gain of course.)
• 1/4 c PB2 (it’s powdered peanut butter and I used the chocolate flavor)
• 2 Tablespoons flax seeds
• 1/3 c slivered almonds (I browned them in a little coconut oil on the stove first too. I think walnuts or pecans would be good too.)

Sounding good yet? I then added in (about) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 5 tablespoons of chunky all natural peanut butter and just enough almond milk (added a bit at a time) to be able to make it all into a doughy mixture. I then spread it in a 9×9 pan that I’d lightly greased and smashed down with the back of a wet spoon. I put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes then the fridge until they hardened enough to cut into 12 squares and individually wrap for on the go snacking.

NOTES: I like salt. And I have really low blood pressure, sweat like a crazy person, and eat nearly no processed foods so I don’t worry about getting too much. So I added salt to the above mixture and liked them even better. Another option is of course honey or other acceptable sweetener to make them a bit more sweet. Remember, you should look forward to everything you eat in my opinion. If you’re eating something simply because it’s healthy and you’re getting no joy from it, you’ll just keep eating until you find that yumminess you’re looking for so make them how YOU like them!

Eating healthy can and SHOULD be yummy too!

This made 12 “bars”. Each bar has (about)

• Calories 120
• Fat 5.5 g
• Protein 10g
• Carbohydrates 9g
• Sugars <2g
• Fiber 2g

I have countless pictures of Izak in a full squat. Cavemen didn't have chairs to sit on. We were meant to squat like this contrary to "popular" belief. If you don't use it, you'll lose it.

The butt and hamstrings are some of my favorite muscles to train. Many knee issues are caused by the hamstrings being too weak in comparison to the quads. In a lunge or squat the hamstrings kick in when the knee gets to 90 (degrees). If you’re not going deep enough on your lunges and squats, you need to find another supplemental exercise to work the hamstrings across the butt. (The hamstrings cross your knee and your butt. This is why seated hamstring curls are silly. They do not work the hamstring across the butt.)

Many people experience knee pain when they go this deep. This pain could be caused by a multitude of reasons and I do not advocate ignoring it! Go as deep as you can WITHOUT knee pain. And for those of you who don’t have knee pain, I’m not suggesting the “ass to ankles” squat shown above, but go deep enough to activate the hamstrings (just below 90 degrees). We’re almost all of us born with this ability, we lose it because we don’t use it!

This is a yummy cross between a muffin and a pancake. No guilt involved. Just easy, quick, on-the-go, clean eating.

Mix 1 egg + 2 egg whites or the equivalent in eggs, 1/4 cup cottage cheese (use pumpkin puree if you’re dairy free), 1 big scoop protein powder (I use AdvoCare’s Vanilla Muscle Gain), 1 tablespoon chia seeds, 1 tablespoon hemp seeds and 1/3 cup oats (I use gluten free now). You can blend if you want but I like the varying consistency. If you do add spinach, I do recommend you blend it however. Heat a little coconut oil in a pan and fry up the pancakes as big as you want them. I make each about the size of my palm. When I make these I double the recipe because they keep in the fridge just fine. Izak loves them! I add cinnamon to some too. Did you know that cinnamon is good for stabilizing blood sugar? I also sometimes add some chopped up walnuts to add some crunch too. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. I suppose you could do it with chocolate protein powder as well…. maybe add some cocoa or chocolate chips? Be creative!

I don't think it's a coincidence that children are constantly moving... and learning.

In college I minored in Spanish. I remember sitting for (what seemed like) hours at night studying flashcards to memorize words and not getting anywhere. The next morning I would review the cards on my walk to class and low and behold, I’d remember them! This was astonishing to me. There are studies that show people learn differently. Do any of you remember having that teacher somewhere along the way that noticed your learning style was different so they did something about it, or gave you a tip you’ve never forgotten? God bless good teachers! Well, I never put the coincidence together until reading something long after school about the power of movement while learning. If you are a student, or someone who is studying anything you need to remember, take it with you to the bike or the elliptical sometime. It won’t be your most vigorous workout– doesn’t need to be! My friend Samina would go for a walk around her neighborhood in the evenings to study while in school to become a PA. She rocked it! I can’t recommend this however as some of us need to watch where we’re going to avoid trips etc. But it’s harder to fall off of an elliptical or bike. Try it sometime!