Breakfast of Champions

I just love smoothies. You can pack so many nutrients into them and mask the taste of vegetables. The smoothie pictured contains blueberries, peaches, pineapple, spinach, fruit and vegetable boosters, almond milk and a tiny bit of orange juice. The boosters meet the daily intake required of fruits and vegetables. Granted I try to eat more fruit and vegetables throughout the day for snacks. Most of the time I have non-fat greek yogurt on hand and that adds lots of protein to the mix.

This week's workouts have been going well. I have added weight and doing lots more stairs. Every other day I do my runs and today I did 2.6 miles. I can't wait to run some races this fall. There is such a rush as you run with a large group of people.

I feel that over the past few months, I have become in touch with my body and it's needs. I'm an emotional eater, so whenever things start getting crazy in my life, I comfort myself with food. I did that on Monday and boy did I feel terrible. I recognized it and was able to stop the bad behavior. I didn't even beat myself up about it! That's definitely a first.  I'm learning how to cope with my stresses and channel that energy into other parts of my life. I am so thankful for these little benchmarks that I'm experiencing and hope that they continue throughout my life.

 

Back in the saddle

After 1 month and 1 day of travelling around the country by car, I am happy to be back home and back in my gym routine! During my travels, I swam, took the stairs at the hotel. 5 flights up and 5 flights down and walked as much as I could.

This morning I got up at 6am, went to the gym and lifted weights and did stairs. I was scared at the thought of how I would feel. The result, it felt great!!! I was even able to add weight and do more stair reps than when I left. I guess this past month of not doing my normal routine, still helped keep my strength.

So now that you have an update on my fitness, here's the update our lives. As noted in a previous post, we attended Ben's family reunion in Branson. We had so much fun with the family riding the Ducks, seeing Chinese acrobats, swimming and playing LOTS of games. After that, we hopped in the car and headed to Salt Lake City to help Ben's aunt get her house ready to sell. One of my favorite perks was seeing my bf Jenny and my "nephews". She just had her 4th boy a few weeks prior to our arrival. I was lucky to be able to spend an entire day with her and the kiddos. By the end of the week, Ben had an interview for a marketing position in Dallas, TX, so we packed up the car and drove to Dallas via Albuquerque. After the interview, we had to go to the restaurant and observe. Ben took copious notes and did a store audit. After we were finished with lunch, we hopped back in the car and headed to Mesa, AZ. We spent a week there spending time with Ben's grandparents. While we were there, Ben was asked to come back to Dallas for more interviews with the same company. We left AZ early on July 4th and spent the evening watching fireworks in Amarillo. July 5th we got into Dallas early and started looking at areas we could possibly move to if he got this job. On that Monday, he had 3 separate interviews including a lunch interview. I had packed up everything and we were so excited to be heading home finally. Once Ben had changed out of his interview clothes, we got in the car and Ben offerred a prayer for our safety and that if it be God's will, he would get this job. Not 30 seconds later as we were about to leave the parking lot of the hotel, Ben got a call that they wanted 2 more interviews on Tuesday. We drove up to a different hotel we had stayed in earlier and literally booked our hotel from the parking lot. I'm so thankful Ben travelled a ton for his last job, so we could use points to book. Two minutes later we walked into the hotel and got our room. That afternoon we went shopping for a different sports coat and shirt. Tuesday came and the interviews went well. We hopped in the car that afternoon and headed to Fayetteville, AR. Wednesday we finally made it home around 6:45 pm, warn out and ready to relax. On Friday we received word that they were going to offer Ben the job and this morning he signed the written offer.  Ben's 1st day will be July 29th. I will follow soon thereafter. We are sad to be leaving our families again. We love spending time with them.

I am so thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers that have been offerred in our behalf over the past 4 months. We have felt their power and are excited for this new adventure in our lives. I know Heavenly Father knows each of us personally and knows what is best for us. I'm grateful for the experiences that I have had thus far and look forward to many more.

My Last and Final Breakup with Facebook.

This has been a very adventurous month. We have been travelling all around the country visiting and helping family. I've also been working along the way. We have been to Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas and Texas. I can't wait to be home early next week. I got a sinus infection along the way, which affected my workouts. After recovering, I was able to go to the pool everyday and swim for an hour. I look forward to lifting weights again next week.

So, the real reason that I'm blogging is that I'm finished with Facebook. It clogs up too much of my time, and I'm too busy with life, to be engulfed in status updates. I love seeing photos of my friends' families, so I'm keeping my Instagram account. If you'd like to follow me there, my username is doodlerae79. You can also drop me a line at crazyraester@gmail.com or call me.

I look forward in the near future to letting everyone in on what is keeping me busy. :)