threeculbersons

Archive for August, 2012|Monthly archive page

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CrossFit WOD

In CrossFit, endurance, exercise, Fitness, Running on August 30, 2012 at 6:45 pm

Thanks to Jess @ Blonde Ponytail for kicking my booty. She doesn’t even know it, but she’s MY trainer. 😉 I love her workouts that she posts and especially her CrossFIT WOD. They are seriously butt-kicking and heart-pumping.

My assignment:

5 rounds [for time]:

200M run/sprint – 15 burpees – 15 plank jacks – 15 hand-release push ups – 15 prisoner squats w/ knee tuck

I did an easy 200M jog, a few minutes of dynamic stretching and then busted those 5 rounds out. It took me 21 minutes because I’m slow and hate burpees. I made sure I sprinted those 200M, so I got some speed work in as well.

Go SWEAT!

Post workout.

You’ve got 24 hours, can you spare 30 minutes to being active? Resting up for my 5 miler on the beach tonight. Have a great weekend!!

 

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Trader Joe’s dinner.

In Baking, cooking, Food, Recipe on August 30, 2012 at 1:13 am

Yum!

I never shopped at Trader Joe’s until moving to San Diego. I had only been in one, one other time. It can be overwhelming to say the least. I would only browse the outer walls, sticking with my favorites – their produce, meats, & diary items. Boy, was a missing a world of yummy goodness! Their frozen section has some awesome foods and their chips are the best! Oh, their oatmeal and juices are great too! So, I love Trader Joe’s, yes.

I love Trader Joe’s so much, that a lot of our diners are all TJ products. Tonight we had grilled chicken, roasted potatoes and broccoli.

Roasted potatoes and broccoli.

I roasted the potatoes and broccoli in the oven. Lay tin foil down, spray with canola/olive oil. Toss broccoli with EVOO, salt, & garlic. Lay on baking sheet. Set oven to 400* and bake for 25 minutes. The potatoes, I cooked as stated. Once you pull the broccoli out, squirt with a little lemon or lime juice.

Only the best!

Another yummy Trader Joe’s dinner.

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Home Management Binder

In Life, Organization on August 27, 2012 at 10:36 pm

So with the impending deployment, I’ve been inspired to make a home management binder. Complete with calendar, weekly planner, budget, home projects, shopping lists, and a few other things to keep me on track these next 8 months. I made one the last deployment and it worked wonders and through budgeting and organization were able to pay off $13,000 car loan…go us! Having a child this go around, a home binder is a MUST! All the responsibility is on me now and having it organized and neatly in front of me will make it that much easier. I can’t take all the credit, thanks to a few awesome blogs, I was able to download all the templates I needed for my folder. All credit goes to their hard work!

Cover:

Home Management Binder

The Nest Effect has some awesome templates. Like the cover above. Download it here.

My first page is a monthly calendar. Found here.

Calendar

(Excuse my cheap tabs, I need to buy some on my next Target run.)

Next, we have the Weekly Overview and Planner. They are both found in the same template. Prepared Not Scared has TONS more.

Weekly Overview and Daily Planner

Daily planner part 2.

The weekly planner breaks each day down by ‘responsibilities/schedule, household maintenance, and projects’. The daily planner is more detailed with the schedule, cleaning, project list, to-do list, menu, etc…totally awesome!

Next in the same section is my grocery/shopping list. Found here and here. I break my grocery list down to bi-weekly.

Grocery checklist

In this section, I also have an ‘important receipts and coupons’ sleeve.

Receipts & Coupons

On to the budget section. I have about 6 sleeves in this section, it’s very detailed. I start out with our pay-stub page. I’m obviously not going to show it here, lots of important info on that stub.

Next is a monthly expense form. Again, I do this bi-weekly as we are paid. I keep a running log of expenses going out and our balance.

Monthly expense form

Download above form here. It’s page 4 in the downloads.

I also use the ‘Loan repayment log’ for our truck and credit card. Found here.

It’s never to late to start budgeting for Christmas. I have a budget list and envelope for cash. Download form.

Christmas Budget

Then I have a sleeve for monthly bills that I receive in the mail, which are very few, thanks to online bill pay. I also have a few cash envelopes (think Dave Ramsey envelope system). Mostly for ‘odd’ bills and monthly needs (clothing, emergency cash, etc).

Cash envelope system.

Next section is home projects. Download form. Page 20. I also slide magazine clippings of ideas in here as well.

Home Project Lists

My next section is just Misc. It includes – birthday/anniversary list, family yellow pages, travel packing & check list, and a ‘to mail’ folder.

Birthday/Anniversary list

So a rundown of the blogs that inspired me.

Organized Home – lots of great ideas and printables.

Miss Poppins – Family planner ideas.

The Nest Effect – awesome printables.

And if you want to see how I keep my workouts and diet organized, check out this post.

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Generation Disconnect.

In Life on August 25, 2012 at 10:34 pm

I’ve been thinking a lot today about how different generations view the times we are living in. It’s not a good or bad thing, but times are definitely changing. I feel like my generation is kind of ‘stuck’. Do we go on doing things as generations before? I know a lot of people in my generation are starting to interpret and see things differently, even differently from our parents. Nothing wrong with that, we are just growing up in a different time. I often wonder what it will be like in 18 years when my daughter is officially an adult. How will her generation view mine? Will they be proud? Will we have made real steps to improve their lives or leave them with a mess to wade through and fix. Will they even be able to fix it?

I feel now more than ever though, there is this huge generation disconnect. Generations before me still cling so tightly to their interpretation of how things should be. But times change, people change, nothing ever stays the same. I hear it all the time, my generation and younger don’t have respect for our elders. But you know what I’ve seen and experienced  first hand? Older people giving up because they no longer “connect”. Whether that be their spiritual beliefs differ or they don’t understand our interests. I definitely think it’s a two-way street. It’s something we could all work a little bit harder at. Understanding each other, and understanding that we all interpret things differently. And to realize change is inevitable.

Just some random thoughts (don’t worry, I have more)! 😉

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Crossfit-esque.

In exercise, Fitness on August 24, 2012 at 2:36 am

Today’s workouts.

10 burpees – 15 pushups – 20 plank toe taps – 25 scissor kicks – 30 squats. 

4 rounds.

I forgot to time it, but I’m guessing roughly 20 minutes with a few rests in between. So that’s 40 burpees, 50 pushups (because I got tired and my form was slipping), 80 plank toe taps, 100 scissor kicks, 120 squats.

Then I hopped on my bike trainer for 30 minutes to bust out some intervals. Not going to lie, my legs were super shaky.

Intervals playlist:

Warm-up: “As Long As You Love Me” – Justin Bieber (don’t hate)

“Hot in Herre” – Nelly

“How Low” – Ludacris

“Chop Me Up” – Justin Timberlake

“Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster the People

“Whistle” – Flo Rida

“Dani California” – Red Hot Chili Peppers

“Written in the Stars” – Tinie Tempah

“Runaway Baby” – Bruno Mars

“Scream” – Usher

“Wide Awake” – Katy Perry

Cool down: “Drunk On You” – Luke Bryan

Hope you found time to sweat profusely be active today!

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Lemon Parsley Tilapia

In cooking, Food on August 24, 2012 at 2:19 am

Using Trader Joe’s ingredients…so (mostly) organic and 100% healthy!

Prepared.

Ingredients:

EVOO, parsley, lemon, paprika, Adobo seasoning (red cap), s & p, tilapia filets.

Line baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with organic canola oil spray. Use brush and coat each filet with EVOO. Cut lemon in to wedges, sprinkle juice from one wedge per filet. Then sprinkle with s & p, Adobo seasoning (optional), paprika, & parsley flakes.

Bake at 350* for 15 minutes.

Serve with brown/white rice and your choice of veggie. Our choice you ask?

Cucumbers marinated in EVOO, lemon juice, salt/pepper, basil, & chili powder.


Murphy’s Law for Runners

In endurance, Running on August 23, 2012 at 6:11 am

 

 

 

I’m proud to say I’ve experience each and every “obstacle”. Just a laugh for us runners.

 

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Kid Approved.

In Food on August 21, 2012 at 5:04 pm

My ‘lil stinker!

Sometimes finding healthy snacks can be a challenge. I wanted to share what Sophie enjoys snacking on (which is mostly anything and everything). Picky, she is not! It seems there are better ‘snacky’ selections for adults, but most kids snacks are full of sugar and fake ingredients.

Thankfully, we have a great eater and she is very good about eating fruits/veggies.

Trader Joe’s is our go-to for all things produce. They have fantastic red grapes and strawberries. Other favorites…bananas, baby carrots, spinach, broccoli, blueberries, sliced apples, & oranges.

If you can, I suggest buying organic produce. If NOTHING else. I mean, have you walked through a Wal-Mart produce section lately? Enough said.

Another TJ favorite…mild cheddar cheese sticks. The BEST!! I even snack on them.

We both like these because they are a low calorie snack but have good protein. Plus they are organic.

Z Bar & Z Fruit Ropes

I am a HUGE fan of everything Cliff bar. Their Luna bars, granola bars, and kid snacks are the best! Cliff products are organic and these bars are baked. We both love the Iced Oatmeal Cookie. Sophie actually calls them cookies. You can’t go wrong with Cliff snacks!

Quick breakfast.

I was so excited when I ran across these. Organic whole grain oats & quinoa w/ blueberries. These are a great, quick breakfast. Target carries these.

Happy Baby pouches

So, think applesauce in a pouch. But with MUCH better varieties and even veggies thrown in the mix. This one is banana, beets, and blueberries. All organic, found at Target.

Gerber pouches

Even Gerber makes organic ones! I posted a few different brands, because these are the ones we like best. Gerber seems to have a better variety of fruits. Sophie loves all the combinations.

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Running Memories

In Scrapbooking on August 21, 2012 at 4:43 pm

I cherish all the races I’ve been a part of. I’ve learned something from each race I’ve run. I proudly display all my medals, but what about the bibs? I’ve had them in a folder for a while but wanted a better way to store them. A few nights ago I scanned each race bib and saved them to my computer.

Being the Shutterfly freak that I am, I started a running memories scrapbook. I have a few more races to finish out my year, so I’m not quite ready to order it. But now I have each bib documented in a scrapbook, along with the pictures from that race. I’m telling myself once it arrives I will toss all the loose bibs, but I still don’t know if I can. Either way, it’s still a great idea to have picture files of them.

Sample pages:

Cover

Marathon page.

San Diego 1/2 marathon page

Marine Corps 1/2 marathon page

The race that started it all, a 5k…

Four Score & Seven Blisters Ago

In Uncategorized on August 20, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Four Score & Seven Blisters Ago…
Ran my 4th half-marathon yesterday. Although, looking back I would rather just forget that run/race happened. Terrible finish time, it was 80 degrees and the humidity level was 69% at the start line…what??????? 
Start line view – how gorgeous, right?

So thankful to have had Laurie or I might not have finished. I have never had to walk during a race, even my marathon, but I actually had to stop and walk through every aid station because it was that hot.  No shade, just sun pounding down and sucking the energy from my legs. But honestly, it was run and felt awesome to finally finish, no matter my time.

Nikki, myself, and Laurie
Now, on to the next adventure!!