Building, Baking, Reading, Fitness, & Food

lhgqzAugust 27, 2023No tags

I need more than coffee to bring me back to life today. My brother is in town visiting for the holiday. We spent all day yesterday, touring breweries, and hopping all over the place (as you probably saw on my Instagram story.) Even though I didn’t drink, I still feel sluggish because of the heat. I think it was one of the hottest days in Charlotte. I’m sitting outside drinking coffee on the patio soaking up the last bit of breeze before the heat returns. We have another full day ahead of us, and I wanted to fit in a recap post! I will blog all about the breweries on the next recap This recap will be filled with some eats, workouts, and a couple of other little random things. I know a lot of people had to work today, so maybe you’ll enjoy this little reading material during a break

I hope you all have an amazing Fourth of July!
That blanket lasted one minute before I realized how muggy it was. The only heat I want right now is coffee! The next two to three months are going to be brutal here, and this is when I wish Fall would return. Not going to lie, I totally watched a Christmas movie last night. Anyways…on to the recap!

Note: I’ll be going through June 150 Walking Challenge to see who hit 150 miles! Please don’t forget to tag me! I hit 154 for the month, and I am so proud! It’s crazy what you can accomplish just by getting out there and doing little walks throughout the day. I really enjoyed all of your posts and couldn’t be more proud!
I left the last recap post off on Tuesday morning. After blogging, I made scrambled eggs and headed to the gym for an hour body blast class. The body blast is basically circuit training, and holy moly was it tough! My arms were on fire when I left.
For my post-workout recovery, I had water, Chocolate Muscle Milk mixed with almond milk, and a No Cow Bar.
My dad and I spent the entire day building backyard furniture for my porch. They turned out incredible, and I’ll be posting a dedicated post for the entire project. Right now, I am looking for outdoor plants and a bbq grill.
We finished up later in the evening. I made salmon, a quinoa salad, and green beans for dinner.
You can find my salmon & green bean recipe here! For the quinoa, I added two cups of cooked quinoa, 2 cups frozen peas, 2 cups chopped kale, 1/4 cup chopped green onion, garlic powder, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, and low sodium soy sauce to a frying pan. I cooked until the peas were fully cooked and the kale was wilted.

I ended up falling asleep before The Bachelorette came on. To be honest, this season is boring. They need to change up the show and make them all live in one house together. Real World style. Oh, wait…that’s why Bachelor in Paradise is so much more entertaining. They already do that!
My dad and I spent Wednesday morning and afternoon building one more couch and staining the other two. My dad isn’t the kind of person that is going to just build it for me. He makes me get the wood, measure, cut, drill, and do all the work. He wants me to know how to do everything, and I appreciate that about him.

We finished up around 6 pm. I headed straight to the pool with sparkling water (mixed with Truvia), and my book. I was so sucked into my book that I didn’t realize what time it was. Two hours had gone by, and I was still floating. I made scrambled eggs (not worthy of a photo) for dinner and fell asleep at 9 pm.
My dad and I loaded his trailer up with the furniture we built and headed to my place to put it on my back porch. It looked so good :)! I still have to wait until the deck’s treated wood drys before staining/or painting it. The boys seemed to love it.
For lunch, I made a green apple and pineapple smoothie. It had one pineapple core, 1/2 green apple, 1/2 cup spinach, 1/2 frozen banana, 2 tablespoons chia seeds, 1 scoop Orgain vanilla protein powder, and 1 cup unsweetened almond milk.

It felt so good to have the patio (almost) finished. I spent some time catching up on emails and then headed to the kitchen to make cinnamon banana oatmeal muffins to go with my afternoon cup of coffee. I needed coffee, or I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with Meighan during our intense boot camp class that evening.
We decided to walk 1.2 miles to boot camp since it was nice outside.

The boot camp was packed. We found a place where we could setup together. The class was intense, and I never fail to work up a sweat during them. The crazy part is how much stronger I felt this week compared to last week. I am excited to see how I feel in a month.
We walked the 1.2 miles back, and it was a struggle! It was a pretty one though
I made a grocery list for the week and stopped at the store on my way home from Meighan’s.
My grocery list had:
Oatmeal
Unsweetened/Organic/No Salt Added Peanut butter
Strawberries, Pineapple, Banana
3 Dozen Organic Eggs
Multi-Colored Bell Pepper, Onion, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Lettuce, Spinach, Cucumber
Chocolate & Vanilla Muscle Milk (for post workout)
2 Cartoons Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
Plain Greek Yogurt
Applegate Smoked Turkey
Havarti Cheese
Flatout Wraps Multigrain
Chicken Breast, Ground Turkey
Dark Chocolate.
I had a late dinner before watching The Handmaid’s Tale with Kyle. I had a multigrain Flatout wrap with smoked turkey, bell pepper, cucumber, Havarti cheese, yellow mustard, and lettuce.
I spent Friday morning having coffee and finishing my book on the patio with the pups. After my coffee, Kyle and I took them on a super long walk before the heat. Ohhhhhhhh that book was so good.
I decided to make a batch of egg cups to keep in the fridge for the week. I added sauteed bell peppers to the eggs (5 whole large eggs, 12 egg whites), and baked them until they were lightly brown around the edges. I didn’t add much flavor because I just wanted to make them for a quick protein fix.
At noon, I met up with Meighan for a workout. I needed to get them all in before my brother came to town.
For lunch, I had Panera Bread. I wanted something quick. I had their Apple Fuji Salad with extra vegetables (kale, cucumber, spinach) and no feta. I wish they had goat cheese!
A skim Cappuccino from Caribou! I always forget about how good their coffee drinks are.
I made a turkey wrap (same as earlier in the post) with strawberries for dinner. When I grocery shop, I like to buy things that I can eat for meals all week. I’m definitely OK wth repetitiveness.
I finally got around to getting a new living room rug! I scored an 8 x 10 rug at Target for only $170! If you are familiar with rug shopping, you know how frustrating or pricey it can get. Sometimes it’s better to wait until the right one comes along. Their outdoor section was 30% off, so I also scored a new outdoor rug. I really liked the blue one, but it did not match the couches. I’ll put it on the other side of the deck where the table and umbrella will be.
I woke up super early on Saturday morning to have coffee, and relax before meeting up with Meighan again for another great class. I always need my hour to myself in the morning to wake up. Everyone in my family is the same way. I absolutely LOVED the Saturday morning circuit/conditioning class. I would take it every day if it were available.
We probably burned 1000 calories in that one hour alone! It was nonstop strength and cardio. When I got home, I had my two egg cups, almond milk, and muscle milk. Perfect recovery! I knew Sunday was going to be a rest day for sure!
Oh, and how cute are these little cups and mugs? I got each one for twenty-five cents a piece at a thrift store. I also bought twenty picture frames. I am going to spray paint them and add photos for the office. I can’t wait to start that project later on this week.
I headed over to my parent’s house later Saturday to spend time with them and my brother. I packed my lunch (strawberries and my wrap) and sat by the pool with them.
We all headed out for dinner later that evening. I was still a bit full from lunch, so I just ordered a house salad and hot green tea.
I captured this rainbow on my way home from dinner. How gorgeous?
Sunday morning, I had coffee, went on a long walk with Kyle and the pups, recouped, and headed out for a long day with the family! I will be blogging that adventure with my 4th of July fun this week!