This weekend was spent showering my sister and her baby! This is the first baby in my immediate family and saying we're excited, would be the understatement of the year. Kimberly and her husband, John, have chosen not to find out the sex. Rather than go with gender neutral colors, we chose to incorporate pinks and blues. Kimberly wore a beautiful off the shoulder baby blue dress with beautiful ruffles (similar style here and here) and John wore a dapper (I wanted to write dipper instead of dapper to be punny, but I restrained myself, sort of) pink shirt (similar here). The colors looks so cute together!
For the theme, we chose to keep it rustic to pay homage to their wedding day. Burlap banners for the gift table, fire place and room entrance continued the rustic feel (similar here). The prizes for the games were put onto the mantle to add a splash of color. The venue fit the theme perfectly. I wasn't able to find any information with regards to the historical aspect of it but based on the name, I'm guessing it was used a inn way back when. It's a gorgeous building, inside and out! The rustic ambiance oozes from the building and that continues as you make your way through the restaurant into the party room. The party room had a beautiful fireplace and huge windows, it was cozy and intimate. The restaurant did a great job setting up the tables in the room. It provided a really great flow. A round table for the parents-to-be and helpers (some of Kim's bridesmaids). One long table down the middle of the room, with enough room for people to get around it on all four sides, and three long table against the window, perpendicular to the middle long table. This allowed people to see Kimberly and John opening their presents and leave the room without having to walk in front. It also facilitated lots of mingling! Every place setting had the favors, which were mason jars filled with cheddar and caramel popcorn, the menu and our first two games. (Side note on the popcorn, it sounds like a weird combination, right? You've gotta try it! Those two flavors together are flipping delicious.) We tied each jar with twine, pink and blue ribbon and finished it off with a sticker saying "she's ready to pop". Everyone also got a small box of candy with pink and blue ribbon tied around it. The boxes looked like they were wood, which continued the rustic theme. There were five total tables for guests. A few tables had beautiful yellow and white flowers. Classic, simple and beautiful. There were six games to win prizes including games like bingo, guess the baby animal, baby word scramble and guess the belly size. As the self titled "master of the games", I tried to keep a nice flow between eating, mingling and presents. I didn't want anyone to feel rushed (except during the timed game!). When I felt the group's energy change, I knew it was time for a break and a game. Watching people open presents for hours can get boring. Plus, it can get taxing on the guest of honor, so I tried to keep it moving, so everyone was having fun! For the prizes, Kimberly's mother-in-law chose the super cute gifts. Each one had a spa theme and various spy type products or candles, plus they included a pumpkin facial mask! I mean, who wouldn't love a pumpkin face mask. I must admit, I'm sad I was ineligible to win. I'll have to find those masks on my own! All in all, I'd say it was a fantastic day celebrating the soon to be parents! I hope you all had an amazing weekend. XOXO, Chelsea
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Meal prep doesn’t have to be a chore. When I first started prepping lunches, I was overwhelmed and fumbled my way through it. A lot of the lunches were boring and just blah. Now that I’ve found turkey tacos, I eat the same thing for lunch every day and I really enjoy it. I save money prepping meals and it’s helped me fuel my body. I'm already looking forward to lunch on Monday! Here is how I make my favorite lunch ever. What you’ll need:
Have be a great weekend all! xoxo, Run Wilk I'm a self proclaimed picky eater "in recovery" aka I'm trying to be more open to foods. I'm very weird about textures, so I was hesitant to try this combination. The combination of the chicken, freshly sliced tomato and basil was ah-mazing. Plus, it was super easy! Serving size is 2 with some leftovers.
Here is what I used:
That's all! Now, you've got your self a quick, healthy and tasty meal! If you try it, let me know! I'd love to hear what you think. XOXO, Run Wilk Week 11 is the last "real" week of my program. Week 12 is race week and much less of an overall workload than I have been doing. I had debated making the week easier, but as the week went on all my aches and pains from last week had gone and I decided to continue to follow the plan. Monday: 3 easy miles to kick off week 11. My legs were tired from the long run, but it felt good to get back out there and get some miles in. Monday also consisted of food shopping, meal prep and lots of re-organizing. It was kind of like a spring cleaning but in the *almost* fall. I also cooked a nice dinner when I got home. Simple but flavorful. I plan on writing some blog posts about what meals I've been doing. I like quick and easy prep with only a few ingredients for weekdays. I don't have all night to spend cooking, so I've found some go-to easy recipes that I do. I've included some pictures of meals I've been eating below. Let me know if there is any in particular you'd like to know the recipe for. Otherwise, stay tuned! Tuesday: My body was still very sore, so I decided to pump my rest day up. In it's place, I did some more fall cleaning and outfit planning. My goal it to incorporate more of my clothes into my fall outfits. I've got so many items I've just forgotten about in my closet. If they don't get worn this fall, I'll be donating them. I also took some progress pictures. I haven't taken them in a while, so I was curious. I tried to find pictures from last year, but I didn't have any. June 2016 was the most recent I was able to find. I should also compare to my heaviest to see a full difference from where I've come. All in all, happy with the progress. The June picture, I'm wearing a loose top and bottoms. September a sports bra and tighter shorts, happy to see not to much bulging out! Wednesday: Aka Fantasy Football draft day! I'm in two leagues, first draft started at 8:00pm and the second at 8:30pm (PS - not a really smart idea! I ended up with back-to-back picks in one league the same time I had to make my first round pick in my other league). When I got home from work the one league still wasn't set up so I spent about an hour trying to get it set up properly so the draft could happen. Once I knew the league was good to go, I put on one of my favorite athletic outfits of recent days and headed out for a rainy run. The temperature was great and the rain wasn't too hard but hard enough that it kept me cool. Hal's plan only called for 3 miles, but it was a day where I was just really loving running so I let myself do an additional mile. Thursday: What a mess Thursday was! I brought all of my stuff to change at the track and headed over. There were soccer players on the field and a few people in the stands. There was also a little girl playing on the track. So, I decided it's okay to run! I'm about 1 lap in and hear people cheering. Is this a game? I think to myself. Then I spot two walkers coming onto the track. If they're walking on the track, I can run on the track. So, I pass them an begin lap two. When I finish lap two, I notice they are no longer on the track and realize it was a game, not practice! I felt like such a jerk. I packed up my stuff and headed home. Lesson learned! I'll be contacting the high school for a schedule so this won't happen again. Sorry parents and athletes! Friday: Diverting from my plan a bit, I decided to do 6 slow miles on Friday. I wasn't worried about pace, I just tried to keep my heart rate low and enjoy the run and the weather was beautiful. Saturday: I spent much of the day Saturday procrastinating (which would become a theme for the weekend). I ended up braiding my hair, which got me motivated to run. Why? Because I wanted to see if it would stay in! So, out I went. My goal was to do 6.3 miles, which would put me over 20 for the week. Went out for a nice and easy pace. I very strongly believe that slow miles are the best kind. Sunday: I've been tossing around the idea of not doing the 2 hour run that the plan had called for. I watched football (Go Eagles!!) and at about 6 pm figured it was time to get my butt in gear and get a run in. At around mile 2.5, my stomach started to grumble. I figured I'd go out another 1/2 mile, turn around and run home to use the restroom and then come back out and do another 4 miles. So I started asking myself some questions: Do I really need to go back? Am I just using this as an excuse to possible stop running? If you go back now, will you get back on the road or just call it a night? Why don't you just keep going and see what happens? So, that's that I did. Next time I looked at my watch, I'd be running for over 45 minutes. Only 15 more minutes and I'd be half way for the 2 hour mark. I can do that! So it was decided, I was going to complete the full two hours worth of running. I didn't get home until a little after 8pm. I was tired and hungry! Was it worth it? Heck yes! Completing that run was a great confidence builder. My body recovered faster than the last 2 hour run. I needed to be out for 2 hours and I'm glad I followed Hal's suggestion.
When my husband purchased the Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix :: Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods, I was skeptical at best. It turned out AMAZING. I'm a huge pizza lover. Since I've had this, I don't enjoy 'regular' pizza like I once did. Check out the super easy recipe below.
(Recipe available here, on their website) Ingredients
Crust mix available here: Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix - 16 oz - 2 pk
Halloween candy has really ruined my eating! I've been eating so bad it's spooky (I had to haha). Time to get the candy out of the house and get back on track. With only two full weeks left of the bikini body guide I need to buckle down so I can see results when I compare the start of the program to the finish. This week lunches are simple. 1/2 cup cooked brown rice and .33 lbs of chicken and a low fat yogurt. Still making sure I stay close to micros and drinking enough water. Tonight my workout will be week 11 resistance arms & 10 minutes of HIIT. How do you get back on track? To splash things up, I decided to carve a pineapple instead of the usual pumpkin. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it is! I used a knife to cut off the top and an ice cream scooper to core the inside. Then I used a knife to cut the face.
What's your favorite way to give a new take on a holiday classic? Another weekend is coming to a close, which means meal prep for the week! This week meal prep was very important because my 1/2 marathon is Sunday! Eating right as much as possible this week will give me the fuel I need to run a great race. Preparing meals for the week is a great way to keep on track. Since I've started prepping for the week on Sunday, I've been making great progress. While meal prep is a lot when you first start, each week it gets easier and you'll get better at it! I was horrible at meal prep when I first started, now I can get everything cooked and cleaned in under an hour.
This week, I wanted a tasty meal for lunch so I made bison 'burgers' sans the bun and rice. Each burger is 1/4 lb and they were crazy easy to make. Ingredients 1 cup of brown rice (uncooked) 1 1/2 lbs of ground bison Garlic powder 2 cups of chicken broth Rice: Add 2 cups of chicken broth to a pot. Add 1 cup of brown rice. Heat on high and bring to a boil. Lower temperature and continue to boil. Cook for 35-45 minutes (or until the rice has absorbed the broth). Bison 'Burger': Divide bison into 1/4 lb burger. Sprinkle garlic powder on top and bottom of each burger. Cook for 6 minutes on medium heat - inside should be 160 degrees. That's it! My lunch may seem small but I eat about every 3 hours throughout the day. This week my meals are: Breakfast: 1 Large organic hard boiled egg 1 Banana Snack 1: 6 oz. low fat yogurt 1 cup lettuce 2 tablespoons of low fat zesty Italian dressing Lunch: 1/4 lb (weight uncooked) Bison 'Burgers' 1/2 cup cooked brown rice Snack 2: 2 tablespoons of organic chunky peanut butter 1-2 cups Celery Dinner: This meal depends on the day - usually an organic meat with a veggie side. I would love to hear from you! When do you prepare your meals? Do you eat the same the same thing each day for a week like I do? I'm on Instagram now! Follow me to view my pictures of food, fashion, fitness & motivation: http://instagram.com/runwilk To celebrate the official 1 year mark of running I put together a before and after picture. Time has certainly flown. I was able to improve my 5k time by over 6 minutes and 20 seconds this year. I’m looking forward to seeing where I will be one year from now. If I can improve as much as I did this year my time will be under 21 minutes and that is my goal for the year! What are your running/ fitness goals for the year?
Clothes: sports bra & shorts: Lululemon, top: Marshall’s Meal Prep for the week I have been eating clean for about 7 weeks. I allow cheat meals here and there so the clean eating doesn't feel restrictive. Since I've started my energy has gone through the roof, my face is clearer and my hair and nails have been growing like crazy! I try to keep my lunches interesting and it was no different this week. I decided to make something a little different for lunch. Ground turkey wraps with a side of mashed sweet potatoes. Ingredients (makes 5 meals): 5 low calorie wraps 1/2 lb low fat cheese 1.5lbs ground turkey 2 sweet potatoes Turkey wrap: cook ground turkey until browned. Seperate into 5 dishes. Heat and serve on wrap with one slice of cheese. Mashed sweet potatoes are very easy. Peel, cut into cubes, put the cubes into a pot with cold water. Heat on high until it boils. Lower temperature and keep at a boil for 15 minutes or until soft. Mash using a hand masher or a food processor. Salt, butter or coconut oil to taste. Mmmmm! **TIP** When re-heating: cover with a damp paper towel so the food doesn't dry out. I would love to hear from you! What type of food do you eat for lunch? Do you eat clean? What have you experiences been with 'dieting'? |
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