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You’re probably well aware that I’m a big fan of drinking smoothies. I drink them all year long- even in the dead of winter when they leave me freezing for hours… it’s worth it. I was thrilled to be able to review some products from Designer Whey through my ambassadorship through Fitfluential.
I’ll be completely honest here. I’ve noticed Designer Whey brand protein powder in the store before, and I’ve passed it by. It’s generally considerably less expensive than other brands, and I guess that I just figured maybe it wasn’t as good. Boy was I wrong! Not only is it just as delicious as other brands- it’s even better! As in, it’s the tastiest whey protein powder I’ve tried!
I was stoked when my products arrived, because I didn’t really know that I’d be getting anything other than protein powder.
The package contained two different flavors of protein powder, 3 different flavors of bars, 3 different flavors of Protein 2GO Recovery Drink Mix and two different flavors of protein shakes.
I was so excited to try the White Chocolate flavored Protein Powder, and make a smoothie with it after my workout the next morning using 1 scoop of powder, 1/2 of a frozen banana, water and lots of ice.
Continue reading Get Your Protein On [With Designer Whey]
As promised, I’m back with the second (and final!) recap of the Blend 2013 Retreat. In case you missed it, please go back to the first recap post to see what happened during my first two days in Utah.
To pick up right where I left off, I’ll start with Saturday morning. Even though I was dead tired, I woke up for the 7:00 am GPP workout. I was really excited to work out with Neil, the founder of GPP, because I’ve read so much about the workouts on Janetha’s blog. I am definitely a big fan of anything challenging and new, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed by this workout! Neil explained to us the science behind GPP before the workout got started.
We started out by doing sprints, and stopping hard. This made for a crazy quad workout that I could still feel three days later. And then Neil pulled out a deck of cards… I knew what that meant from my fitmixer bootcamp days! We had to do full sit-ups, push-ups, squats and burpees depending on which card was pulled.
And guess what? I still hate burpees.
We also had to run laps when a Joker card was pulled… so I kind of cheated on LiveFit Trainer again by breaking the “no cardio in the first four weeks” rule. Oops.
Continue reading Blend 2013 Recap #2
Happy Wednesday friends! I’m still trying to recover from my long weekend away, and also to prepare for the visit of my friend Brie’s visit tomorrow (yay!). I’m so excited to have a little piece of Maryland visit me here! Speaking of friends visiting, Calee flew back with me after Blend to hang out in CO for a few days and left to go back home last night.
We had a good time exploring Boulder one day and went down to Red Rocks to hike the next:
So, today I’m playing catch up all over the place. I have a busy, exciting few days ahead with my friend Brie and I can’t wait!
Today’s WIAW post shows my eats from last Thursday, which is the day that I left for Salt Lake City.
Continue reading WIAW 41: Traveling to Utah
It certainly has been a crazy, fun, whirlwind past couple of days, and I think it’s still going to take a few more to recover. It’s hard to believe, but The Blend Retreat has come and gone… and I’m already looking forward to next year! Just a slight warning before you get much further ahead: I am not very good at simplifying re-caps and like to look back and remember everything, so this post is going to be super long with a lot of photos. And the next re-cap probably will be too.
Just like last year, Blend proved to be one of the most fun weekends filled with laughter, friendship and fun- and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! This year, however, I was able to get a slightly different and behind-the-scenes perspective of how everything came together. I offered to fly out early to help Katie, Janetha and Lindsay get everything set up and I’m so glad that I did. We worked really hard, but we had so much fun in the process. I flew into Salt Lake City early on Thursday morning and met up with Katie, Lindsay and Travis (L’s husband) at the airport and we all set off for one crazy, busy day. We stopped to get a bite to eat before all of the craziness began.
We also ran a few errands and I managed to buy my first ever purchase at Lululemon (that Lindsay is a very bad influence!). After that, we headed to Janetha’s moms to load up a huge truck with all of the swag and headed over to the Hyatt Escala Lodge in Park City.
Continue reading Blend 2013 Recap #1
Happy Friday, friends! I’m so excited for today- because it’s finally here- BLEND!! I can assure you that I’ll be having a crazy fun time with my fellow blogger friends in Park City, Utah this weekend (and I’ll be back to re-cap it all next week!). You can search the hashtag #blend2013 on Twitter or Instagram or follow @blendretreat for photos from the whole weekend.
Speaking of Instagram…
I’ve mentioned it once or twice before on this blog, but I’m slightly obsessed with Instagram. I never really got into the whole Twitter thing, but as soon as I downloaded the Instagram app a little over a year ago, it was love at first sight. Sometimes I’m a little out of control with and I think that I might need to force an intervention for myself. I love taking pictures (I have two art degrees and taught high school photography for seven years!) and documenting things day to day. Feel free to follow me @OatmealLauren (I’ll admit it though… at least 25% of my photos are of my dogs).
Today I thought I’d take a look back at some of the Instagram photos I’ve posted in the last week.
A collage of my pedicure/lunch date with Tiffany:
Continue reading A Week of Instagrams
I left early this morning to visit a state that I’ve never been to before (well, unless you count a layover in the airport during my honeymoon!): Utah! Park City, Utah is the site of this year’s Blend Retreat! I decided to head out early to help my friends Janetha, Katie and Lindsay finalize some of the last-minute details for the event. I love these girls and the retreat so much, that I am more than happy to lend a hand! Plus, it’s also nice to be able to spend a little more time exploring Utah!
I am honored to be representing Silk at this year’s Blend Retreat. Silk is not only sponsoring me to attend Blend- they’re also sponsoring the cocktail hour! I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work with this incredible company on a few projects so far, and will try to do them proud this weekend. I am really excited for what we’ve been working on for the cocktail hour, all of which will be revealed on Friday evening at the retreat. Let’s just say that it involves some tasty, creative alcoholic beverages.
Today I thought it would be appropriate to reminisce about Blend 2012 a bit. If you were a reader of my blog back in May 2012, you may remember the many re-caps of Blend that I wrote (maybe even to an excessive degree?). I can’t help it though- this retreat has truly changed my life.
It’s funny to think that this time last year I was a high school teacher living in Maryland. I dreamed of quitting my job to pursue something that I was truly passionate about and one day making the move to the place I loved the most: Colorado. It’s definitely surreal that one year later, I’ve thrown caution to the wind (with the help and support of Greg, of course) and made both of those dreams come true. Well, I’m still working on finding that “dream” job, but at least I’m about fifty steps closer than I was a year ago!
Continue reading Flashback to Blend
Well, lookie here- it’s my 40th WIAW post! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun… am I right?
Instead of going through what I ate in a specific day, I thought I’d show a round-up of some of the delicious things I’ve been eating over the last week.
First up: an incredibly delicious sandwich from the Sunday’s post-hike picnic at El Dorado Canyon:
Continue reading WIAW 40: Recent Eats [+ Beer!]
There are many different tastes that I love in this world, and two that are very high up on the list are coffee and chocolate. I usually have a cup of coffee every morning and some type of chocolate at some point during the day (even if it’s just a little tiny square to curb my sweet tooth). The only thing that I can think of that might top my love for coffee and chocolate is beer.
But beer didn’t really have a place in this recipe…
Here’s a confession: I eat coffee beans. Not by the handful or anything- but I always sneak a few beans while pouring them into the coffee grinder to get my French Press on. I like good coffee. One of the things that I miss most about Maryland (besides my friends and family of course) is my beloved Baltimore Coffee and Tea, where I would stock up on bags of delicious whole bean coffee on a regular basis. On that note- if anyone in the Boulder/Denver area knows of a great place to buy whole beans, I’m all ears!
Let’s get back on topic, shall we? The whole reason I brought up eating whole coffee beans is that each time I am snacking on them, I think Hey! I should make some chocolate-covered coffee beans! When Heather announced that her “D” ingredient was dark chocolate, it was finally motivation for me to experiment. And really, how hard could it be? Chocolate + coffee beans. We’re not baking a souffle here.
I thought about using a chili-infused chocolate, and might do that with a future batch. As soon as the idea of salt + chocolate entered into my mind, there was no going back.
Continue reading Salted Chocolate Coffee Clusters
I say this in the most non-complaining, loving, happy way possible: I’M EXHAUSTED!
You can probably tell (especially if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook) that I am still quite smitten with Colorado- and I don’t see that going away any time soon. For months, I have read Paige and Heather write about how every single weekend living here is like vacation- and it’s so true! I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to take a short drive in any direction and have numerous places to go explore. I know I said the same thing last weekend, but sometimes there’s just too many great things to choose from!
It was rainy all week long (which apparently is rare here), but the sun decided to come out for the weekend. I wanted to take full advantage of that and spend time doing to my favorite outdoor activity: hiking! My friend Amanda, who lives in San Francisco, contacted me a few weeks ago saying that she was flying into Denver and driving north to her grandparents’ house in Wyoming. Amanda and I have known each other since middle school, but hadn’t seen each other in years. She was interested in going for a hike in Boulder with me before she drove up north, and I was more than happy to oblige! Since it had rained so much during the week, I decided that Mt. Sanitas would be a safe choice. I’d been there before after it had recently rained, and it wasn’t too muddy. And on Friday, it was a beautiful, sunny day.
The funny thing is, when it’s 50˚ here, it feels like summer. You can wear a tank top and not get cold! I guess it’s all that sunshine.
Continue reading A Weekend of Boulder County Hiking
As a Fitfluential Ambassador, I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to be involved in some pretty cool events, campaigns and promotions. Perhaps the one that I’m most excited about is being part of the Fitfluential sponsored Under Armour What’s Beautiful campaign. When I first heard about this campaign, I knew I had to get involved. I’m a huge fan of Under Armour clothing (which you can probably tell from looking at any photo I post of me wearing workout gear), but this particular campaign is about so much more than that. It’s about setting goals. Facing fears. Challenging yourself.
And I think it’s something that each and every one of us can relate to and benefit from.
The What’s Beautiful campaign is all about accountability- pushing past your goals and setting new ones- and sharing your journey along the way. And what better way is there to be held accountable than to offer a little incentive? Under Armour has set up a contest to see who is going after their goal and really making some badass changes. Each week, they will select some impressive women to receive swag bags full of Under Armour gear. These women will also be featured on the “top performers” section of their website, so that everyone else can get inspired from their hard work! At the end of the competition (8 weeks), the top ten finalists will be selected, and three of which will win the ultimate prize. And, I have to say… the prize is pretty darn good. This is how it is described on the What’s Beautiful website:
Three winners will be flown to Costa Rica to attend a four-day yoga and surf retreat. In addition to the lessons led by world-class instructors, winners will be treated to transformative massages, spa treatments and healthy, locally-sourced meals prepared by personal chefs. All while staying in plush accommodations looking out at the ocean. A retreat worthy of the women who earn it.
Sounds pretty amazing, right? Here’s what you do:
Continue reading Under Armour What’s Beautiful Campaign [#IWILL]
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Hi, I'm Lauren.I love good food, craft beer, fitness and my two crazy dogs. I am a NESTA certified Personal trainer, Spinning and Bodypump instructor. Thanks for spending some time with me and my thoughts!
Race PR Times 5k: 24:31 (Frederick Running Festival '10)
8k: 40:51 (Wild Woman 8k '10)
10k: 50:24 (Pikes Peek 10k '10)
1/2 Marathon: 1:58:03 (Baltimore Marathon '08)
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