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    I'm Lauren and this is a blog dedicated to living life with a healthy balance. I love to run, strength train, bike and just be downright active. I'm a marathoner as of April 24, 2010 and am currently looking forward to qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

    I absolutely love to eat and enjoy great food but doing it all in moderation. You'll see healthy, organic foods on here frequently but you'll also run into things such as pizza and sweets. I believe you can have it all... just not all at once.

    I'm always learning and discovering new foods, recipes, workouts and ways to live a healthy lifestyle. Join me on my journey towards becoming my healthiest self.

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Party Number 1- Done

We’re back from Patrick’s graduation party and we had fun hanging out, enjoying our rooftop deck and eating some good food.

We love our rooftop deck for parties but I love it especially for laying out and getting some sun.  They had some cornhole set up for gaming later.

And I got to show off my now normal looking toes!!!  So excited that my toes are completely back to normal as of last night!  Summer, flip-flop weather ready!

We had a photo shoot on the rooftop before the party began.

He’s pretty stinkin’ sexy.

Take one for me:

Take two because I didn’t like the first one as much.

Much better!  Now onto the par-tay!!!

I had a couple of bites of potato salad, baked beans, taco dip, a few chips and a hot dog.  Not too filling but just right.

Just right, especially after a few bites of decadent dessert.

A chocolate chip cheesecake ball which I didn’t finish all of and two bites of each cupcake (chocolate fudge and lemon).

I’m learning to share my food more and more so I don’t find myself overindulging.  Works like a charm.  Such a simple concept but being raised in the South, I was taught to clean my plate and it’s hard to get out of that mentality most of the time.

When we went inside to say goodbye, they had the fondue rolling so I dipped one strawberry, one piece of pineapple and one bite of banana in the melted chocolate.  With a couple of plain pieces of pineapple too.

The hubs, me, Jack, and the college graduate, Patrick.

The sweet dog, Marie.  They had to adorn her with a barrette with the University of Louisville’s colors for where Patrick graduated from.  I love little Miss Marie.

And she loves me, obviously.

We couldn’t stay long because we’re off and running to a wedding after a quick wardrobe change.  I have loved today already and I know it’s only to get better with witnessing another man and woman entering into the blessing of marriage.  It only gets better by the day, people, better by the day.  Can’t wait to go throw on my party dress and have a blast tonight with my groom!!  See you later gators.

Hop in My Step

Guess who was in bed at 9 o’clock last night? And asleep by 10? Yep, me. I never seem to be able to climb into bed that early so I felt extremely spoiled with some good wind down time and almost 8 hours of sleep.

I woke up with a hop in my step because I didn’t feel toe pain upon walking! Hallelujah. Maybe I’m closer to recovery than I thought. I wouldn’t complain.

I happily biked into work this morning in some nice 68 degree weather. I’m loving the fact that it’s getting closer and closer to not needing a light jacket on my morning bike rides.

We had an educator visit this morning and teach on post partum nutrition which was very appealing to me because I love educating my patients on nutrition and how to treat their bodies.

Food was involved, as usual and she brought a healthy spread of whole wheat bagels, muffins, fruit, and yogurt. I grabbed a bagel and fruit for another time but did go ahead and eat the fruit for breakfast.

I had about two servings. Not much else to report. It’s busy, busy here today so I gotta get back to it! Hope you’re having a great day so far. Get excited because the weekend us almost here!! Wheeeee!!!

Community Supported Agriculture

Before I get into too much I figured I’d tell you all what happened last night.

After I blogged, I ended up doing some arm, shoulder and ab strength training.  I got ready for bed shortly after and decided to look at my poor toenail that was hanging by a thread.  Lo and behold, I discovered that a new toenail had already grow in under the older toenail.  I guess that all started happening when I started marathon training because it had apparently been lifting off the nail bed for a while.  I was extremely happy about this.  This meant I could cancel my podiatry appointment, wear toenail polish this summer and not have a jacked looking toe for the rest of my life.  So I proceeded to take the old toenail off.  I got it 99% of the way off and realized the right side was still attached deep into the cuticle bed.  I then proceeded to be even more bull headed and poked and prodded on my toe for over an hour.  With no such look of having it budge, I decided to stop.

I headed to bed and fell asleep by 10:30, only to wake up at 1 a.m. with a throbbing, pulsating pain in my toe that I had worked on.  Being even more stubborn, I decided the only solution was to work on it some more and get that last part out of my skin.  After another hour of nothing, I sat there and just cried.  What had I done to myself?  I wrapped it with a bandaid and tried to lay back down and sleep.  After a long while of it throbbing, I guess my finally was exhausted enough to fall back asleep.  So needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep last night and my toe still hurts majorly.  I spoke with one of our doctors at work today who has run several marathons and he even looked at my toe and said it looks like it is infection free and that I just need to keep it covered and let the new nail push that part of the old nail out.  No running until that happens though!  So I was just completely exhausted from last night.  Me and my stubborn self, all my fault.  My mind immediately went to seeing my toe having to be amputated, all because of me being so head strong.  Thankfully it is already feeling better and I’m keeping my hands off.  So pray for a quick and speedy recovery and no infection.  I’ve definitely learned my lessons from all this toe drama.

Alright… onto the rest of the day.  We had an afternoon nurses reception and they had much better choices to eat than this morning’s reception.

Fountain flowing of chocolate?  Yes, please and thank you.

Lots of cream filled puff pastries and mini cheesecakes.  Glad I don’t care for either two.

Lot of cheeseballs, cracker, hummus, pimento sandwiches, veggie wraps and veggies.

Veggie Bruschetta

My plate of goods.

I ended up not eating but one veggie wrap because they were so dry.  I loved everything else though and might have had a few spoonfuls of chocolate too.  Because that’s how I roll.

Hence the reason I am completely not hungry for dinner tonight.

I biked home in some hot, humid, muggy, 80 degree weather and was extremely excited to open our refrigerator and see this.

And then I saw this on the counter!  All free stuff from Kraft foods.

Ok, onto the big blue box which is NOT from Kraft foods.

It’s from the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that we joined this year.  We’ve been interested in joining a food co-op and thought it was the perfect opportunity when some of our friends from church decided to start their own with a farm they bought just a few miles away from Louisville in New Albany, Indiana.

For 26 weeks we will be receiving fresh fruits and veggies at our doorstep.  This was our first week and we couldn’t wait to see our goods.  We believe this is a great way to continue to eat organically for a fraction of the cost of what it would cost to buy at the store and support our local farmers, or in this case, friends who are breaking out into this venture.

Radishes.

Pok Choy. (Not Bok Choy)

Scallions.

A bag of various lettuce mix for salads or what not.

All of the organic, perfect goodness.  Fresh from the earth!

I can’t wait to dig in.  The first few weeks will be a lot of spring, lettuce mixes but I can’t wait to watch our boxes grow as the season matures!  I’ll definitely be eating things I’ve never tried before or that we’ve never cooked at home.  It’s going to be a fun 26 weeks!

We also will be receiving a dozen farm fresh eggs every 3 weeks as well.  We had the option of a weekly dozen but we definitely don’t eat eggs that often so I think every three weeks will be just right.  And who knows, we might be receiving fresh chicken to be cooked too!  We’re extremely excited about this opportunity.  You can count on me definitely sharing all of this new knowledge with you as we jump on this venture.

I decided I needed a little fruit to balance out all the carbs and chocolate I ate today to cap me off for the night.

I’m perfectly content now.  I’ve showered, packed the lunch for work tomorrow and will definitely be in bed and chilled out way before my 10 o’clock bedtime goal!  Hope you had a happy hump day!

Have you ever joined a CSA?  Do you prefer to go to the farmer’s market during the season or just shop at the store?

No Sleep

I got virtually no sleep last night. I’ll have to into the full story tonight after I get home and have more time to type it out. But let’s just say there were many tears shed last night and much pain.

It has to do with my toes, of course, but I’m exhausted today. I’m so tired of all my toe trouble! Anyway, you’ll hear the full run down tonight.

I was a stubborn girl this morning and went ahead and biked into work. I needed to wake myself up and pedal out some frustration.

They had a breakfast nurses reception this morning and you should’ve seen the ginormous boxes filled with sugary cake breakfast pastries. I wanted to snap a picture badly to portray to you all how big these pastries were but I figured my nursing director wouldn’t appreciate it.

Imagine pastries two times the size of your hand and boxes and boxes of them!

Then right in the middle they had one platter of cut up fruit. I dove right in and avoided those artery cloggers in a box. Don’t get me wrong, I do love me a doughnut and sugary pastry every once in a while but not ones the size of my head!

Here’s my plate of fruit goodies.

A perfect, clean breakfast. Please think about me today as I am in much pain from my toes making it uncomfortable to walk. I’m praying this painful season passes soon. See you at lunch!

Edited to add: Here’s a big pastry bear claw one of my co-worker’s brought up to the floor. See how big it is compared to my fist! And it’s at least one inch thick!!

Happy Birthday!

I want to take the time to publically wish the most beautiful, precious woman on earth and extremely Happy Birthday! My mom turned 21 today and looks just as amazing as she did when she was 20. 🙂

She has been such a great influence in my life and is always there when I need her. The hubs and I both love the mess out of her. We couldn’t ask for a better mom or mother-in-law. I so wish we didn’t live 6 hours from each other so I could give her a big ole hug and smooch! So join me in wishing the woman who birthed my huge 8 lb. 9 oz. self! She’s a warrior I tell ya!

Isn’t she the cutest?

I ended up eating some different fruit someone brought into work today for an afternoon snack instead of my grapes and mandarin so I’m good to go for breakfast in the morning! One less meal to worry about packing something for.

I biked home to eat some dinner, strength train and cook some homemade peanut butter cookies.

I love these cookies and they’re so easy! Not so healthy but fabulous still!

1 c. Sugar
1 c. Peanut Butter
1 Egg

Mix, shape into balls on cookie sheet and press down on top of cookie with a fork to make grooves.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes depending on the thickness and size of the cookies. Voilà! You’re finished!

I ended up getting 49 cookies out of the one batch.  The most I’ve gotten yet!

And then you eat them all. Well, I, unfortunately couldn’t eat any of them because I’m taking them to work for a party tomorrow so I has to keep my paws off.

We ate an absolutely delicious dinner tonight.  The hubs did good!

Big green salad with feta, veggies and balsamic viniagrette.

Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese.

With grilled chicken and a whole wheat roll with flax seed.

I had to have dessert since I couldn’t have any cookies!  I had maybe 1/2 a cup of vanilla ice cream with a crumbled Reese’s Cup on top.  Perfecto!

It’s time to get some strength training in while I watch The Biggest Loser!  I’ll see you tomorrow friends!

What’s your favorite kind of cookie?