hiatus

woooahh! major blogging hiatus!
i've been on vacation in the north woods for ten days, which, paired with the fourth of july, has really slowed me down!
i'll be back tonight :)

Confession

I have a confession to make. I get up at five every morning for a completely irrational, stupid and highly enjoyable reason.

I get up at five to get a morning workout in before work. This believe it or not, this isn't the confession though. The confession is the reason why. Though it is what I usually tell people, it is not because I don't have any motivation to hit the gym after work's over, or even because I don't have enough energy leftover. Nope, it's for a much more embarrassing reason.

I hit the gym at 5:45 every morning... to watch... BOY MEETS WORLD.

There's nothing like a little Corey, Sean, Topanga and Eric to get my day started off right :) Speaking of, I'm running late so gotta go!! Be back around 7:30 with breakfast!

Do you have any guilty TV pleasures?

Boy Meets World, The Bachelorette, any crime show... hahah.

Mrs. Bentley

That's right. Tomorrow I will officially begin my long awaited journey to become Mrs. Brooke Bentley. And no, I am not talking about the creeptastic perveball Bentley of this seasons Bachelorette.

Bleck.

I am talking about a much more important man in my life.. Mr. DIERKS BENTLEY!! Aka this beautiful hunk of man:

Can you say YUM?

For those of you who have been living under a rock don't listen to country music ;), this man right here pretty much owns my heart. And tomorrow, I am beginning my trip to Country Fest, to see him IN PERSON, where we will probably meet by some odd coincidence and end up running away to elope together. That's the plan anyways.

Ps: I know I'm creepy. Creepy and excited.

On another note, my morning began with another banana smoothie, I'm not even going to post another picture because it's just starting to get repetitive. But I can't help it, I just really love bananas. And cold breakfasts. And smoothies.

Lunch was boring. No pictures needed. But dinner was pretty dang great. I started out with some sugar snapped peas that I smothered sauteed in garlic. These babies were GARLICKY. (Is that a word? Don't care.)

Then I was going to make fish, but daddy surprised me with SUBWAY! For the record, I am a little bit obsessed with Subway. Just a little bit. Especially now that they offer avocado. Yum.

Now it's off to bed so that I can get up early to hit the gym, go to work and then go to COUNTRY FEST!! Yay :)

Who is your celeb crush?

Dierks Bentley, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal, Leo Dicaprio (since the ripe age of 7).. to name a few ;)

Raindance

I woke up at 5 this morning for my usual routine of making breakfast and squeezing in my workout before work at 8, and I slurped down a big banana smoothie and enjoyed a few sliced strawberries before heading to the gym!

Please enjoy my Packer cup and bad wallpaper. Gotta love Grandma's house.

When I got in my car, it looked scary outside! The clouds were really weird.. don't really know how to describe them, but it looked like night time! I snapped a pic on the way because I was seriously just confused by the whole thing!

Yes I do live in the middle of nowhere. It is fun.

About 20 minutes into my workout, it started pouring. The roof of the gym was rattling and I could hear the thunder over the Nsync blasting through my headphones (not embarrassed). 

Knowing I had to work outside all day long, I did a little raindance right there on the treadmill. Okay, kidding, but you KNOW I was thinking it!

I headed out early to get home in time to quickly wash my sweaty face before calling my boss and asking if he needed me to come in today. HE SAID NO!! And so I had the day off. And I was a very happy girl :) Proof that crazy raindances do work! 

I made myself a celebratory breakfast part 2, and loved every bite!

A waffle with PB, bananas and Julie's Peanut Butter Granola!

I was feeling restless and since I didn't get a very good workout in during the morning, I headed back to the gym around noon to walk on the treadmill at an incline for 40 minutes before heading home to watch "I Survived" and not leave my couch for the rest of the day.

I'd say today was a success :)

Foodzie Made My Day

So I came home from work today to find a surprise waiting for me on my doorstep..

MY FOODZIE TASTING BOX ARRIVED TODAY!

I might have been a little too excited.. I was snapping pics on my phone like a crazy person! Haha!

In case you've never heard of Foodzie, it is a website dedicated to promoting and selling local, and Artisian foods. As a subscriber to the site, you can sign up to receive a Foodzie Tasting Box each month.  The box includes 6 food samples from the site, and you receive a new box every month! (You can cancel your subscription any time.)

After looking the site over, I signed up and was delighted to find that my first box was FREE! And after experiencing this box, I will definitely be keeping my subscription to Foodzie! I am in LOVE!

June's tasting box!

It was all wrapped up, so cute!

Now to break into the yummy goodies.. so far I've tried (and almost finished) everything but the Green Tomato Relish! Good thing I took these pictures quickly.. I scarfed down the Falafel Chips and Blueberry Acai Gummies in about 30 minutes flat!

Let me give you the tour...

Green Tomato Relish

Naturally, I'll start out with the only goodie I haven't tried- Wayne's Foods Green Tomato Relish.

-Wayne's Foods is a company based in La Grange Park, IL.

-Foodzie describes the Green Tomato Relish as being "such a favorite at the Macon County Fair that founder Wayne Cox started a business featuring his blue ribbon creation", the Green Tomato Relish. 

-Foodzie describes the relish as having a "piquant-sweet" flavor, using green tomatoes instead of pickles, and going great on grilled and spiced foods.

Blueberry Acai Gummies

Bissinger's Blueberry Acai Gummy Pandas win the blue ribbon as my personal favorite item in the Foodzie box!! I absolutely devoured these gummies! This is especially impressive when you take into consideration that I hate blueberries. I know, I'm crazy, but the texture of blueberries really freaks me out and I've never been crazy about the flavor either. However, these gummies stole my heart! They were soft, chewy, and bursting with fruity flavor! These will definitely be purchased within the next couple of days :)

Falafel Chips

As soon as I saw these chips in the box, I ran to the fridge and grabbed my roasted garlic hummus and cracked the bag! It was the PERFECT combination! These are an unbelieveably flavorful, crunchy, healthy alternative to pita chips. The flavor was fantastic! Definitely a close second to the gummies!

Coconut Oat Bar

"Made with love in Boulder, CO", Bobo's Oat Bars were a nice treat! The texture was perfect, slightly chewy, slightly gooey, and perfectly sized. I didn't like that the bar was considered "two serving sizes".. but the flavor was great nonetheless!

Spiced Almonds

Mrs. Sipps Spiced Almonds are the perfect combo of spicy and sweet! The flavor is indescribable.. a truly unique nut! A must try :)

Miso Chocolate Brownie

Kyotofu's Miso Chocolate brownie is a rich, gooey, chocolatey dessert in a small package. What more could you ask for? Except for one more :)

and there you have it..

FOODZIE YOU OFFICIALLY HAVE MY HEART.

Weekend at Home

What an amazing weekend in Madison!! It was so, so, good to see all of the old v-town crew after a couple of weekends apart! Things were back to normal in no time at all :)

On Friday after work, I drove down to Madison for the weekend. When I got there, I immidiately picked up my life long friend, Meaghan, for a little Red Mango stop :) We tried the new Raspberry Cheesecake flavor, which we both topped with raspberries and yogurt chips! It was FANTASTIC.

love me some froyo!

While walking on State after our yogurt break, we walked past a new store that we'd never seen before and had to do a double take.. Campus Candy is now officially our new favorite place!

view of State from the store

Once we got inside, we found out that they not only sold copious amounts of delicious, old-fashioned and new candies, but also four flavors of froyo and a massive amount of toppings.. WIN! We might have served ourselves to a little more soft serve.. because you really can never have enough froyo!

We obviously had to sit in this giant booth so I could snap an awkward picture of Meaghan.

We had soo much fun! The rest of my weekend consisted of nights full of drinks, popcorn and endless campfire smores, so this morning, I was ready for a little fruit intervention!

I treated myself to a yummy Banana Smoothie!

Sweet, cold, delicious-ness!

Ingredients:

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 frozen banana

1 cup Almond Breeze

1 pinch xanthan gum

Now it's off to the gym and then work. Happy Monday everyone!!

Grad Party Food Coma

Why is grad party food SO GOOD? After attending my cousin Marina's graduation party tonight, I am officially in a FOOD COMA.

I shoved down a pulled pork sandwich, cheesy potatoes and a TON of fruit. It. Was. Awesome.

I didn't have cake, because I have never been a big cake person (unless it's a DQ ice cream cake.. because they are the tits). Buuuuttt, I am thinking about having a PB banana waffle for dessert.. once my stomach deflates :)

Yummmmy!

So today I went to Best Buy to get my camera fixed and they told me that there was nothing they could do, and that it would cost more to get it fixed than it would to buy a new one.. dumb. So I guess I'm getting a new camera! Any suggestions? I am thinking about a Nikon D3000.. :) Come onnnn paycheck!

Job Fun!

Summer is officially here on the lake! The first few weeks of summer felt more like spring, the weather was a little chilly and it was seriously windy for four straight days! But after a beautiful, sunny, 87 degree day on the lake yesterday, summer has officially begun :) 

View from my pier!

And now that summer is officially here, I have some exciting news!! I FINALLY GOT A SUMMER JOB! 

After a two week long job hunt, I hit the jackpot yesterday! I went to my great uncles house to see if his landscaper needed any help with yardwork over the summer, and it turns out they were looking for someone to do just that! They live on the most beautiful piece of property on our lake, on their own island, and I am so, so excited! I'll be working four hour days, five days a week for good pay, so I am ecstatic! I start tomorrow! So I'll keep you all posted :)

Breakfast this morning consisted of two of my favorite things: smoothies and raspberries!

Another crappy phone picture to start your day.. haha!

Someone please drag my lazy butt to Best Buy!

Chocolate Protein Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 TBS chocolate protein powder

1 TBS cocoa powder

1 frozen banana

1 cup Almond Breeze

2 ice cubes

1 pinch xantham gum

Now it's off to figure out what I want to do for my workout today! Sundays are my rest days, but I like to incorporate some light activity. Perhaps a bike ride or a short run/walk around Lake Wazeecha? I'll let you know :)

What do you like to do on your days off from the gym?

30 Minute Treadmill Blast

Life is so, SO good today!

Why? I incorporated running back into my workout again yesterday and my hips are still feeling fine this morning. I am feeling so much better, and it feels amazing just to be running again! Take my advice: taking a break from your usual workout routine due to an injury or setback might seem terrible at the time, but you'll feel so much better in the long run. Now that I'm starting to feel like my old self again, I feel like I can't stress the importance of rest enough :) Life. Is. Good.

I started off my workout yesterday with a short 5 minute walk/warmup and a slow 1 mile run. I ran at a 9 min. mile pace, and I definitely felt slow, but the overwhelming rush of happiness that I felt while running made everything a-okay!

I also read my new Women's Health while warming up.. and let me just say:

I love Heather Morris!

After warming up, I completed my version of Julie's 30 Minute Treadmill Workout. I adapted her workout to make it easier since I'm trying to recover and this workout is TOUGH! I was seriously sweatin' when I was done!

So here's my version: 30 Minute Treadmill Blast

Whooof! That one left me sweaty and satisfied :) I completed my workout with an easy 20 minutes on the elliptical (mostly so I could finish my Women's Health magazine and wish I was Heather Morris). A wonderful workout overall!

This morning's breakfast consisted of one of my favorite staples... SMOOTHIES! I have a serious smoothie obsession. So serious, that when I realized that we were out of bananas this morning I might have had a mini-meltdown and hoofed it to the grocery store at 6 a.m. before my workout. I might be an addict.

Chocolatey Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 banana (I usually use freeze my bananas first, but as I mentioned earlier, I didn't have time for that during my banana breakdown)

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 cup Almond Breeze (I use unsweetened vanilla)

1/2 TBS peanut butter

3 ice cubes (I wouldn't use if my banana had been frozen.. I am obviously really hung up on this)

1 pinch Xanthan Gum (for thickness.. I like my smoothies THICK)

Yum, yum, yum! Super delicious way to start the day! Now it's off to crank out a late morning workout! My 6'5" "baby" brother Matt is home for the summer and I'm dragging him along :)

Q: Do you have a favorite SMOOTHIE recipe?

Blogging From The Future

Hey guys!

I was soo busy yesterday that I didn't even get a chance to look at my blog, so now I'm "blogging from the future". Today's post will be up at lunchtime :)

I started out my day with high hopes for my workout, and things went PERFECTLY! I wanted to try to incorporate a little running back into my routine without further injuring my hips and it went suprisingly well!

I started out my workout by walking for about ten minutes on the treadmill, then I challenged myself with one of my favorite workouts.

I made up this workout a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to incorporate run/walk intervals into my treadmill workout for the day. I love intervals! How is it that the five minutes of walking always flies by? ;) This workout is challenging, but definitely one of the easier easier treadmill workouts that I stick to. 

I was a little nervous about running with my hip injury at first, so I took it slowly and decided that if I felt any pain at all I would just walk for the rest of my workout. However, I was completely fine! I didn't push myself to go any faster than I felt comfortable with, and I am still feeling great this morning!! I am sooo happy!! It felt wonderful to be running again!

After my workout, I headed over to my cousin/best friend Lauren's house, since she is leaving me tomorrow to travel to London for an internship over the summer! I am soo happy for her, but I'm definitely going to miss my LoLo in my everyday life :( 

We've been attached at the hip since I can remember! (L-R: Lauren, Me)

She'll be in London until September, so I'm squeezing in as much time with her as humanly possible until Saturday morning comes.

We spent the day relaxing and chatting, and then went to one of her favorite restaurants, IHOP, for dinner :) I had the completely unhealthy, super delicious Nutella crepes and just about died. SO GOOD. 

Now it's off to power through todays workout!! Wish me luck!!

Choco-Banana Muffin Madness

How were all of your weekends?! 

Mine was SO amazing, but I am definitely ready to get back into my normal routine and hopefully be able to run/work out again tomorrow morning without injuring my IT band any further! But back to my perfect weekend.. :)

I started it off with my best friend Britta's birthday party on Saturday night! It was so fun to have all of my friends together at Britta's new house in Whitewater :) We had a blast!

Me (right) with the birthday girl, Britta (left) and her cake :)

I also got to be with all of my favorite girls, which is difficult because we all go to different schools, so we obviously had the time of our lives!

All of my favorite ladies! (from left to right) Katie, Britta (birthday girl!), Me, and Emily

I bought Britta the giant margarita glass in the photo above after we saw it in a store a few days earlier and she thought it was hilarious. Obviously, I knew that it needed to be a part of her birthday present!

Clearly we put it to good use ;)

After a crazy, amazing night in Whitewater, I was ready for a relaxing Memorial Day weekend! So I headed back up north to spend the next couple of days relaxing and eating copious amounts of food with my family. It was wonderful.

However, I am definitely ready to get back into the swing of things. My legs are aching for a good run! I think I have restless leg syndrome. Probably. 

To settle my obvious case of R.L.S, I went on a 4 mile walk with my cousin Lauren and her lunatic dog, Buster around Lake Wazeecha tonight. It was a beautiful night, and it was nice to just get out and MOVE!

When I got home, I had a craving for one of my favorite baked goods (as if you couldn't already tell, I have a sweet tooth that CANNOT be tamed). So I headed to the kitchen to make my adaptation to Katie's Single Lady Cupcake! I absolutely LOVE Katie's site! She is soo creative in the kitchen, and she always has a solution for my sugar addiction!

I adapted the recipe a little bit (since I am not a vegan), and came up with this winner: 

Choco-Banana Muffin

Once again, I apologize for the bad photo quality. I am still using my phone because I'm too lazy to drive to Best Buy to fix my camera :)

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons flour (I use whole-wheat)

1 Tablespoon sugar (or Stevia/Splenda)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/16 teaspoon salt

1 pinch baking soda

1/2-1 Tablespoon mini semisweet chocolate chips

1 Tablespoon mashed banana

1 Tablespoon applesauce

1 1/2 Tablespoons water or milk (I like Almond Breeze)

Instructions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.) Grease muffin pan for 1 muffin

3.) Combine all dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and stir until combined

4.) Scoop batter into greased muffin pan

5.) Bake for 12-14 minutes

6.) Remove from oven and allow to cool (slightly if you're like me and LOVE melted chocolate and a warm muffin :) )

DIG IN :)

1.) Do you have a sweet tooth?

Dealing With Injuries

WARNING: This post might be a bit boring, but I feel like I've been M.I.A. from fitHAPPYness and I have a good reason that has left me with nothing to blog about.

I'm sure anyone who loves fitness as much as I do will agree with me when I say, "Injuries SUCK!" Why am I so insanely bitter? Well... I am basically bouncing off the walls with energy because I've been cooped up since I got back from Montana with a hip injury :(

While on my morning runs in Montana, I started to feel a little bit of hip pain, which I attributed to the fact that I usually hoof it out on the treadmill, and my body probably wasn't used to the dirt roads. Boy, was I wrong!

After my first run in Montana, my hips were feeling really achy before bed, so I took it relatively easy for the rest of the trip, reducing my mileage significantly from the amount that I should have been running according to my half-marathon training plan.

When I got back to Wisconsin, I went to the gym the following morning to burn off a little bit of the pizza and ice cream that I  scarfed down with my family during my trip (I swear, my dad and brother can put junk food away like it's nobody's business!).

I hopped on the treadmill first, and my hips were immediately in intense pain! I stopped and walked for a little bit, then decided not to push it and headed home. When I got home, I went online and researched my pain. After a ton of research, I am pretty confident that I have an IT band injury. I've been taking it easy for the last five days, which is why I've been M.I.A. from this blog!

Lack of exercise combined with a big weekend of eating (my best friend Britta's birthday weekend AND Memorial Day) has left me feeling sluggish and just plain BORED. The good news is my hips are feeling much better and I think I'll finally be able to slowly start working out again tomorrow morning :)


1.) Has anyone else recently suffered an injury? How have you overcome it?


2.) What's your best way to deal with injuries/setbacks?

Banana Soft Serve For Breakfast?

Absolutely.

I think it's only fitting that my first recipe that I share with you be the easiest recipe I've ever known. So here we have... BANANA "SOFT SERVE"!! yum yum yum.

The best part?
It only requires 1 ingredient. All you need for this delicious soft serve is 2 frozen bananas. (I only used 1 banana this morning, but that's only because I only had 1 banana frozen and this soft serve was calling my name!)

Ingredients:

2-3 frozen bananas

1.) Break up each banana into three parts and put all of the bananas in a food processor.

2.) Turn the food processor on, and process the bananas for 5 minutes, stopping the processor every couple of minutes to scrape the bananas off of the sides with a spatula.

3.) Put your "soft serve" in a bowl.

4.) Grab a spoon.

5.) ENJOY :)

Apple Jack Crack

I honestly cannot control myself around cereal.
Let me explain.

Whenever I start logging more running miles, I tend to crave sweets and carbs at nighttime. So when I saw a commercial for Apple Jacks last night I NEEDED to have them. I didn't hop in the car and go get them (thankfully I have enough self-control left to not run Forrest Gump style to the nearest grocery store), but when my mom asked me if there was anything she could pick up for me at the store today, I jumped at the opportunity to ask for my kiddy craving. 

I basically ripped the box from her hands as soon as she walked in the door, and went on to consume my body weight in Apple Jacks. For about an hour, I was feeling like my 5-year-old ADHD wild-child self again. Two hours later, I'm feeling the full-on sluggish after effects of my sugar-fueled energy craze :( 

Do you have a specific type of food that you crave after a long run?

Back To Reality

It's back to reality for this girl after a long weekend in Montana!

I'm going to apologize in advance for the bad quality of these pictures, I had to use my phone's camera since my camera is being repaired. They didn't turn out too bad!

On Thursday, I flew out west with my mom and dad to go see my "baby" brother's high school graduation!

So proud of Matt :) Congrats buddy!

Thursday was a LONG day of travel, and we started our day off at 4:30 a.m. when my dad picked up my mom and I to drive us to the airport!

Our first flight departed from the Madison airport at 6:00 a.m, and we touched down in Chicago about 45 minutes later. From Chicago, we flew to Seattle, which was a four hour flight that seemed like it went on forever, but the view from the window seat was incredible!

Yes, we flew on a tiny plane, complete with propellers.

Did I mention Matt lives in the middle of nowhere?

We stopped and had sushi at the Panda Express in the Seattle airport, which was surprisingly good! I'll admit that I was a little iffy about it at first, but my entire family was pleasantly suprised!

After lunch, we headed to the terminal for our next flight, which was from Seattle to Spokane, Washington. Spokane is the nearest airport to where Matt lives in Montana, and after we landed in Spokane we still had a 3-hour drive until we reached our final destination, Trout Creek, Montana! Yikes!

It was worth it! Trout Creek is literally in the middle of nowhere and it is beautiful.

As you can probably guess, there's not a whole lot to do in Trout Creek.. haha! However, we did our fair share of sightseeing and overall had an amazing trip!

I even got to go on a couple of runs in the mornings when my parents had things arranged to do with my brother! I can honestly say that I have never been on a more beautiful run in my entire life! The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and running alongside the mountains was very distracting. Before I knew it I had logged 5 miles!!

I even managed to stop and take a couple of pictures on my phone for you all :)

I started off on the road that my brother lives on, and headed for the mountains!

Once I got there, I ran along side the lake for a while :)

The lake is really high this year, so the water turned a weird green color.

I snapped this one while running back to the house, haha!

Needless to say, the treadmill seemed a little boring this morning! But after a long weekend of eating massive amounts of grad party food and missing the gym, I was ready for a good run! I guess I was just spoiled this weekend :)

I ended up cranking out a pretty good workout! I started out with a 3 mile run on the treadmill, my designated daily workout for my training plan.. (I will put a link here with more info about my half-marathon training plan shortly!)

After I finished my run, I was still feeling really energetic, so I went to one of my go-to workouts from my favorite fitness blogger, Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers. Julie's blog is one of the first fitness blogs that I really got into, and it is my go-to daily blog. I am completely addicted!! 

The workout that I chose is Julie's 20 Minute Treadmill Blast. 

Julie's version looks like this:

I adapted it to make it a little bit easier, since I had just run. I kept all of the 4.5 mph walking intervals the same, but instead of starting the running intervals at 8 mph, I started at 7 mph and still increased them by .5, with the fastest running interval being at 8.5 mph.

The end of this workout is a killer!! You really have to work to walk at 4.5 at a pretty intense incline! Plus, you're done in 20 minutes flat. Could it get any better than this? I LOVE THIS WORKOUT. Enough said. 

I was planning on doing weights after my cardio, but the weights circuit was pretty packed today, so I decided to stick to cardio only today.

Now that I'm done, I'm starving! So it's off to make lunch :) I'll let you know all about it later!

My First Post!

During the last year I've fallen in love with fitness blogs. They're so addicting! So as a result, I have been thinking about making one of my own for a while now. Now that summer's finally here, I couldn't think of a better time to start!

Sooo... welcome to fitHAPPYness!

I created this blog to share stories of my day-to-day life, focusing on fitness and living an active lifestyle. In this blog you will find my workouts, recipes (some of my favorites, as well as some of my own), and every day information about my quest to live the healthiest life possible.

I am not a registered dietitian, cook or even fitness professional.. just a girl with a passion for healthy living :)