I’m getting ready for another cabining adventure! I’ll be spending Memorial weekend at Ponca State Park in northeast Nebraska. 

The photo above is me last fall at Platte River State Park in southeast Nebraska. I like to have a little style while I’m in the wilderness. 

This will be my third cabin adventure with the BF and our wonderful group of friends. Cabin trips are becoming my fave vacation. There’s very little planning involved, we get to go hiking, we sit around the campfire, we eat s’mores, we laugh and we relax. 

Our group has a great meal system. Each couple or individual is responsible for one meal during the trip. Since we are staying in a cabin, we have a full kitchen with a refrigerator and stove. We also have a grill and a fire, of course. Everyone comes up with delish meals. Click here to see what we ate during our Platte River State Park trip.

As with all of my vacations, I try to make lots of healthy choices and indulge in a few of my favorite foods and drinks.

I plan to pack some healthy snacks so I’m not tempted to munch on junk food in between meals. The meal the BF and I prepare for everyone will also be healthy and delish.

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Nothing expresses love better than a healthy, home cooked meal.

Make your mom a delicious brunch this Mother’s Day and she will know how much you appreciate her.

Try some of these healthy and delish recipes:

This Strawberry Fig Salad is perfect for brunch. The sweetness of the strawberries, coconut and figs is just so delicious.

Or serve this light Spring Salad with Poached Eggs. Absolutely amazing!

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Tuesdays are my busiest day of the week. I teach three fitness classes - 5:30 a.m. cycle class, 5:30 p.m. deep water aerobics and 6:45 p.m. Piloxing.

What I eat is even more important on days like this because the food I eat helps me recover from my workouts and gives me energy to make it through the 2 hours and 45 minutes I spend exercising on Tuesdays.

I started the day with my cycle class. I don’t eat anything before class. I just don’t get up early enough. But I do drink some water before and during class.

For breakfast, I had a Protein Pancake. This recipe is from Tone It Up. I’m currently doing the Tone It Up Bikini Series, so I’ve been eating this for breakfast a couple of times a week. Yesterday, I topped my pancake with fresh pineapple, honey and unsweetened coconut. I change my pancake toppings every time I eat it - strawberries and pure maple syrup, blueberries and honey, diced sauteed apples with cinnamon, etc.

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When I stepped out of bed this morning, I was instantly reminded of the 13.1 miles I ran yesterday.

My glutes, hamstrings and quads were feeling the pain of the run.

After tough workouts, I always try to recover with protein, lots of water and stretching, but there are certain foods and drinks that can help prevent muscle soreness.

I started drinking tart cherry juice awhile ago to help prevent muscle soreness.

According to Livestrong, tart cherries or tart cherry juice has powerful anti-inflammatory properties and helps prevent symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage.

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Happy Monday! 

I have been thinking about the food and fitness choices I make on the weekends compared to weekdays. I usually indulge a bit more on the weekends (see cupcakes below), but I always make sure to fit in exercise on the weekends.

The reason that I’m bringing this up is because we tend to relax our healthy eating habits on the weekends by enjoying cocktails (see margaritas below), eating out and eating treats. I’m totally OK with indulging a bit on the weekend, but I think it’s important to stay committed to your healthy lifestyle all the time.

To put it in perspective - if you eat whatever you want and skip workouts Friday evening through Sunday, that’s basically 10 days of the month (8 Saturdays and Sundays and 4 Friday evenings) that you are indulging and not being active. That’s 1/3 of the month! You will never reach your health and fitness goals if weekends aren’t as healthy as your weekdays.

I’ve decided to share my weekend with you - the good, the bad and the ugly…

Saturday, the BF and I had to do our last training run before the Lincoln Half-Marathon, which is this Sunday! We ran 10 miles together. I admit, it was a rough run. I started to struggle at about the third mile and wanted to quit at five miles. But I pushed through and felt stronger towards the end.

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This week has been a little crazy.

I got really sick Monday night and was up until 2:30 a.m. I had to teach a cycling class at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and didn’t feel like I could cancel at the last minute. So I got two and a half hours of sleep!! I went in to work a little late and stayed home to get a few hours of sleep, but I was still feeling pretty terrible. I had a lot to do at work, so I sucked it up and went to the office.

The lack of sleep and not eating  very much because of my tummy trouble caused me to get a migraine Tuesday afternoon. So, overall, the day was pretty terrible.

Luckily, I was feeling much better by Wednesday!

I skipped my usual CrossFit class Wednesday morning because I felt like I needed the sleep after my terrible night of sleep the night before.

I started the day with some coffee and Goji Berry, Banana, Coconut Oatmeal! Super yummy! 1/2 cup old fashioned oats, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp. chia seeds, 1 tbsp. ground flax seeds, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 tbsp. goji berries, 1 sliced banana, 1 tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut and 2 tsp. pure maple syrup. (I forgot to take a photo!)

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I’m not sure why, but I’ve been craving doughnuts. 

Whenever I pass a bakery, I think about how lovely a fresh doughnut would taste. 

The problem is that I always feel terrible after eating a doughnut. My stomach aches from the sugary, fried treat and I end up craving more sugar later.

One of my fave things in my kitchen is my doughnut pan. I picked mine up at Look What’s Cookin’ downtown. I love being able to bake healthier doughnuts!!

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People often ask me what I eat. What I eat varies from day to day and week to week. But I always try to eat a variety of fresh produce, consume enough protein to help my muscles repair from my workouts and eat foods that will energize me. And, of course, have a special treat occasionally!

To give you an idea of what I typically eat, I will share a page out of my food and fitness diary once a week.

Check out what I ate on Friday! This is really what my meals and workouts look like on a typical weekday, although I did have a few treats toward the end of the day!

I started my day with CrossFit! Our WOD (Workout of the Day) was 5 rounds of 1 rope climb, 10 toes to bar, 20 lunges with a 45 lb. bar overhead and 30 jump rope double unders. 

I had to modify a bit. Rope climbing gives me flashbacks of elementary school (when I was an overweight child) and could barely pull myself off the ground. I always felt so embarrassed. Well, I’m no longer overweight, but I still can’t pull myself up a rope. Luckily, I never feel embarrassed in my CrossFit class and always just do what I can. My CrossFit coach, Bryce, draped towels over the pull up bar and I did little jumps pulling myself up with the towel. It, surprisingly, made my arms burn.

The whole workout was tough and intense. I always struggle with toes to bar and lunges with a bar overhead always get my heart rate going.

When I got home, I made a cup of Traditional Medicinals Ginger Tea. Ginger is really good for digestion and having a cup of hot water or hot tea in the morning helps get your digestive system going.

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