Fresh Fruit for Fitness

These beautiful berries are from a bush in our backyard! They were so delicious and I had to restrain myself to keep from eating them all so there would some left for others :-) 

Blueberries are a wonderful source of natural fiber and it's one of the best fruits you can eat for antioxidants which fight free radicals. 

It might be down right wrong for me to share this next photo with you after the above... but I will anyways :P 

We savored these delicious peanut butter cookies this week... Oh my, they were so yummy! I'll see if I can snag the recipe for you sometime in the future :)

Memorial day weekend was kicked off for us starting Thursday evening with house guests from out of state. So fun and so refreshing! And, I should have mentioned this was the reason for the cookies. No, unfortunately we don't make cookies around here on a regular basis and it wasn't a "just because". Purpose, folks, purpose :P

Here's a picture of the food spread. Homemade chicken salad with walnuts & apples, quinoa with tomatoes & avocado, dill flavored deviled eggs, pineapple & strawberry fruit bowl, fresh bell pepper salad, poppy seed bow tie pasta, green salad with goat cheese and bakery fresh whole wheat rolls with butter & jam.

We have lots of leftovers so if you're hungry, come on over! :-)

Here's a up close of the quinoa! If you'd like to check out the original recipe, here's the link. We ended up having to do something a little bit different with the recipe because our grocery store didn't have the plain quinoa and instead it was a brown rice/quinoa mix with rosemary seasoning. Anyways, this recipe looks great and I'm planning to try it once I get some plain quinoa :)

And, here's the workout run down from the week: 

Mon - 1 hour full body workout

Tues - 1.5 mile run, 30 min FIRM sculpt workout

Wed - 30 min full body workout (kick boxing included), ran total of 3 miles

Thurs - .65 mile run in 5 min, 20 min FIRM burst DVD, upper body sculpting: bicep curls, overhead presses, tricep dips, push-ups, etc...

Fri - day off

Sat - 3.25 mile run, randomness (i.e.: push ups, lung & squat plyos-- so fun!), barefoot workout :)

Alrighty, y'all! I hope you enjoy the weekend and the extra day off. Remember to find a veteran and express your gratitude. Life as we know it would be completely different without their sacrifice.

Last summer I went to Normandy with a group of students and was privileged to walk beside some of the men that fought in WWII as they returned to the beaches of Juno & Omaha. After personal encounters, hearing their stories, and watching them tear up as they spoke of their fellow soldiers who never returned homes gives this Memorial day a whole new meaning for me. Here's the link to the trip which shows a final celebration for these brave men who were willing to give up everything so that we could be free.

How do you plan to spend your Memorial day weekend? Any plans?