My goodness friends, what a week it was.

I’m actually pretty banged up right now, and Charlie and I tried to capture that, but this doesn’t show most of the bruises!

I also felt like I had zero time to spend with my own pets the several days prior to yesterday!

My Sunday involved a trip to the farmer’s market and dinner out with my friends and pups.

I think we should go ahead and start with the pups, since I’m guessing most people would prefer to see that!

My friend has a 10 week old Norwegian Buhund, who is absolutely adorable.

3 friends and I met for dinner with the dogs and sat outside, mostly spending the initial time managing the dogs.

I don’t think Chloe has ever met a little puppy; at least not since she’s been a full grown dog! They both did really, really well.

^Chloe sneaking in a lick. She LOVES my friend!

The two were interested in each other an interacted really well! I think they’re both going to love it when the little guy is old enough to run around and play with her!

In true puppy passion, he was passed out in my friend’s arms as we ate ice cream. Chloe settled down as well and chewed her bone.

Between the two of them, we had lots of people coming up to say hi!

In terms of food, I have some fun and sometimes different things to share, so we’ll break it down, shall we?

Breakfasts:

I made a super thick smoothie with banana, chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, and milk. I actually poured it into a bowl this time, and realized how massive it is! No wonder it fills me up! I normally just eat it out of my blender cup! On the side, I had a fig.

I packed this for breakfast to go straight from the gym to work. It’s “bread pudding” (recipe here), and it turned out surprisingly delicious! It’s sort of like overnight oats, but with bread instead of oats. I surprisingly liked the flavor as well; super warm and cinnamony! I modified the recipe a little bit; I only used 1 tablespoon of protein, used plain yogurt, and used 3 tsp of honey.

Mighty muffin and heirloom apricots from our CSA.

Maple blueberry bread and strawberries from the Farmer’s Market.

Lunches:

Bear and burrata salad with chicken and balsamic vinaigrette. I warmed up the pear to make it warm and sweet. Cheddar rice cakes on the side (obsessed with these…)

Fig, chicken, and burrata salad with a side of protein chips. I didn’t have a ton of chicken to use in my lunch so I used the chips as an extra source of protein!

Blueberry burrata salad.

Goat cheese, nectarine, and date salad.

Vegetable tamale from the farmer’s market with a side salad—goat cheese and white balsamic vinegar.

Mini salad with the last of the burrata and blackberries, and then leftover BBQ pulled chicken and cheddar rice cakes.

Snacks:

The usual.

Rice cake with whipped berry cream cheese.

Pre-Crossfit cheerios.

Mint NuGo.

Snack while cooking dinner one night because I came home from my workout STARVING.

Chocolate chip NuGo.

Farmer’s Market nectarine.

Dinners:

BBQ Chicken salad with guacamole.

Taco salad out with friends and pups.

Desserts:

Vanilla Halo Top with pumpkin gingerbread from the freezer.

Giant flan+gluten free baked goods from the farmer’s market. Baked goods included olive oil citrus cranberry muffins, frosted pumpkin muffins, and chocolate torte.

Adorable mini scoop of salted caramel ice cream.

Hello! I honestly don’t think I’ve really done a weekly workout post maybe since I had a broken foot….which is to say it’s not something I’ve done in a while! But hey, why not do one, right? I thought it might be fun, especially since I decided to do a little squat program. So here it is! This is the week of June 19.

Monday:

I went to a morning spin class at the local studio, and then Crossfit in the evening. For our strength, we worked on back squats. We did 5-3-1+ at 75%-85%-95%. Which means I did 5 at 145, 3 at 165, and as many as possible at 185. So, I haven’t lifted anything heavier than 175 in a while, so I didn’t have high hopes for 185. The first one went up well, which was surprising. The second one was hard. The third one, I had trouble coming up so I tried to fail it, but I was leaning a little too far forward to drop it behind me so I had to straighten up to fail…but instead of fail, when I straightened up, I surprised myself and just came all the way up, magically landing my last squat. What?? I did not expect that! Needless to say, I was happy with my 3 reps at 95%.

The WOD was a little different. It was max reps in a certain period of time: 1 minute of double unders, 1 minute of dumbbell snatches, 2 minutes DUs, 2 minutes of DB snatches, 3 minutes of DUs, 3 minutes of DB snatches. I think I ended up with 200 double unders, 79 snatches, and a nasty whip mark.

Tuesday:

I went to Crossfit before work. We did cleans and snatches, and then did a very uncomfortable WOD. It was 21-15-9 of muscle ups (in theory) and single arm dumbbell overhead squats. For muscle ups, I subbed pull ups and push ups. So why was this uncomfortable? If you have ever attempted a single arm overhead squat, you would understand! I just do not bend that way. At least on the right side. It was a great opportunity to again be reminded of how asymmetrical I am. My left shoulder has always been looser (partly why I partially dislocated it a couple of years ago). So these weren’t great, but still manageable on my left, and just straight ugly on the right. I used a 20# dumbbell on the right, which made it more manageable, and a 25# dumbbell on the left.

Wednesday:

Morning Crossfit! We did 75%-85%-95% for 5-3-1+ again, but this time for strict presses, which are one of my least favorite weight lifting movements. Partly because I’m pretty terrible at them. I did 80# for my 95% and did a whopping 1 rep.

The WOD was a fun one though! 3 rounds of: 250m row/ 12 cleans (65#)/ 21 push ups. I finished in just over 11:00

Thursday:

I started work at 7:45am, and was super torn between spin and Crossfit. Eventually I decided on a spin class, even though I would have to leave early!

I had my first slow pitch softball game that night, and it almost didn’t happen! Work has been crazy lately, and it was clear early on I would have to stay late. I got super lucky and my kind coworkers let me race off around 5:15 (for a 5:30 game). I had warned my team I would be late/unable to come, but I texted my sister (also on the team) when I was on my way. I showed up a good 10 minutes late, and they actually hadn’t started yet. We were super short on players, and if I hadn’t shown up literally within the minute, we would have had to forfeit! Phew! We still were 2 players short though!

Some of the longer time readers may remember how I played slow pitch in past years. I couldn’t play last year thanks to a wonderfully broken foot (and because I was in TN for the rest of the season), so I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. Well, it turns out muscle memory is a great thing. I was a hardcore softball player throughout middle and high school, and spent hours every single day practicing. I guess some of that stays with you, even with a 2 year gap! Somehow, despite being 2 players short of being able to field a full team, we managed to pull out a win! I had the joy of playing 2 outfield positions at once, haha! I also had zero warm up for the game, minus the running to my car on the way there! I realized about halfway through the game that thankfully, my tendonitis was feeling good!

I had such a blast playing again. I actually went 4-4 with solid contact, and the opposing team actually has a ton of people I know from the fall league I used to play in! Man, it felt so good to be back out there!

…That being said, starting Friday and especially Saturday, I was pretty darn sore!

Friday:

My own workout at the gym, continuing the squat program.

Back squats: 8-8-6 at 145#-155#-165#

From week to week, reps decrease and weight increases.

Deadlifts: 5-3-1 at 165-185-205

Single leg RDLS: I used a 50# dumbbell and did 4 sets of 6 per leg.

Conditioning: 6 Minute EMOM:

Min 1: 6 dumbbell snatches (35#), 1 burpee

Min 2: 5 snatches, 2 burpees

Min 3: 4 snatches, 3 burpees

Min 4: 3 snatches, 4 burpees

Min 5: 2 snatches, 5 burpees

Min 6: 1 snatch, 6 burpees

Abs: Most of this tried and true ab workout I got years ago; 25 reps per movement.

Saturday:

“Rest” day. Not entirely sure work qualifies as rest though!

Sunday:

3 mile hilly run through my neighborhood.

Today’s post is just a quick and easy meal idea! This one is so basic it will literally come together in less than 5 minutes.

If you’ve never tried burrata, you absolutely need to. It’s similar to fresh mozzarella, but even soften and creamier. The burrata is the star of this salad, complemented by sweet and tangy blueberries.

Toss lettuce with balsamic vinaigrette, and top with chicken (I used rotisserie), blueberries, and a dollop of burrata. Seriously, it’s that easy!