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If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, I’m sure that you are aware that exercise and eating healthy are a pretty big part of my life. I’m fairly picky about what I put into my body, as I know that everything I eat and drink can affect how I feel and how I perform. For the last 4+ years, I’ve been teaching group exercise classes including Spinning and Bodypump- and many of them are super early in the morning (we’re talking 5:30 am start time!). Now that I’ve moved to Colorado and am looking for a new gym to teach at, I am making sure to stick to my early workout schedule, so that I’m not in shock when I suddenly have to wake up at the crack of dawn to teach again.
Getting up before (or even during) the 5:00 hour and hitting the gym for an intense workout requires a substantial amount of energy. I’ve tried various types of drinks/supplements to help get me going, but hadn’t heard of FRS Healthy Performance Products until I was presented with the opportunity to try them out through my ambassadorship with Fitfluential.
FRS sent me a package of some of their different Healthy Energy products to try out:
This package actually came at the perfect time- the very morning that we set out to move to Colorado! I knew that having a little energy boost would come in handy during that loooooong drive of nearly 1700 miles.
FRS products are unique in that they contain quercetin as a source of energy. Quercetin is a natural antioxidant found in certain foods that has shown to provide sustained energy, increased endurance and immune system support. There’s many other health benefits as well! Here’s some more info from FRS’s website on how quercetin works:
Continue reading Healthy Energy [FRS Review]
As I mentioned on Monday’s post, my first weekend as a Colorado resident was pretty close to perfect. I am definitely glad that Mother Nature decided to cooperate and give us fantastic weather for Saturday’s hike and farmers’ market visit! Saturdays have been the day that Greg and I both choose to sleep in and be lazy for quite a while now, and this past Saturday morning was no exception. We weren’t planning on meeting up with Paige and Natalie until 10:30 that morning, so we stayed in bed until about 8 or 8:30 (which is much nicer than waking up at 4:45 to hit the gym, like we had all week!).
When Greg and I eventually rolled out of bed and joined the living, I headed downstairs to make a delicious and simple breakfast:
Scrambled eggs (1 egg + 3 egg whites) with avocado and tomato, a slice of Dave’s Killer Bread (toasted) and half a banana with peanut butter.
I also had come coffee (before) and drank a bunch of water along our hike.  Breakfast kept me satisfied until our hike was over, when we ventured over to the Boulder Farmers Market to shop and get some lunch. There’s a bunch of different food vendors there, and it was really hard to choose which one to go to! I ultimately chose Mod Market because the line wasn’t too long and the food looked tasty.
Continue reading WIAW 39: On A Fantastic Saturday
Now that we are semi unpacked (at least on the main level, which is really the only one anyone needs to see), it’s nice to have friends come by! My wonderful friend Katie and I had made plans when I was still living in Maryland for her to come up for lunch one day this week. We both happened to be free yesterday, so she came up to my house and brought one of my favorite little girls in the world with her.
I met Katie for the first time (in person) at the Blend Retreat last year (she happens to be one of the three organizers of the event!). Ever since then, we’ve made sure to meet up for lunch when I’ve visited Colorado. It’s always fun to catch up with Katie, and her beautiful daughter Adrienne is about as charming as they get. It’s amazing how much more she grows up every time I see her! She’s one smart little girl, that Adrienne. I also have to mention that Katie brought a fantastic housewarming gift: beer from Lone Tree Brewery! She knows Greg and I too well.
I prepared a simple lunch: crackers, veggies and hummus (Sweet Potato Hope Hummus- it’s SO good!) to start:
Continue reading Lovely Lunch Dates
Hey everyone! I hope you had a rockin’ weekend and your Monday is off to a great start. I thoroughly enjoyed my first weekend as a Colorado resident and am already excited about the next one to come around. One thing about living here: there is always something cool to do. Actually, that’s not true- there are always several cool things to do. Choosing where to go is the hard part!
The weekend started Friday morning with an event in Lyons that was put on by Shape and Oakley. My connection to the event with through Heather and our Fitfluential ambassadorship.
Shortly after arriving, we also met up with Paige!
And I found another friendly face belonging to Heather!
The morning started off with a boot camp led by two Oakley ambassadors.
Continue reading I Think I Like It Here
Happy Friday, friends!
It certainly has been a busy, chaotic, stressful, but wonderful last few weeks! I’m really looking forward to settling into my new home here in Colorado and getting into a routine (including finding a job!). We are slowly but surely unpacking all of our boxes, which is a pretty huge task- but, it feels really good to put everything in its place. It’s funny- when I’m going on a trip I don’t mind the packing part of it- it’s the unpacking that I hate. With moving, it’s exactly the opposite! Neither are super fun ways to spend your day, but unpacking is definitely the lesser evil. It’s also a little tough to choose exactly what to unpack, since we’re planning to buy a house next year once we figure out exactly where in CO we want to live.
The community that I live in (Broomfield) is really nice. It’s definitely different than where I lived in Maryland! We are a lot closer in proximity to our neighbors, but everyone is super friendly. People seem to interact more in general. And, pretty much everything I need is within a 5-minute drive!
One of the many things that has changed over the last two weeks is my exercise routine. I planned on taking a week off from exercise all together at some point (#24 of my 33 While 33 list!), and can pretty much check that one off the list. However, it didn’t really go the way I planned (which was kind of the theme for the entire moving process!). I taught my final Spinning and Core Strength classes the Tuesday before we left, and planned on doing some kind of workout at home Wednesday and Thursday morning before we hit the road for the (nearly) 1700 mile drive. Things ended up being so chaotic that I didn’t make exercise a priority, and really- I didn’t need to since I got a totally different type of workout from packing and moving boxes and furniture all day! I had also planned on working out each morning during our 4 day drive, because I knew I’d be sitting on my butt all day in a car. Again, that didn’t happen. I pretty much always want to exercise, because I love the way my body and mind feel from a good workout. During all of this craziness, it was the furthest thing from my mind (which is weird for me!). Oddly enough, I felt more sore at the end of each long day of driving than I would if I taught 3 classes in a day!
Trust me, I am definitely all for taking rest days, but prefer not to take them when I’m getting pretty much zero activity otherwise and eating a bunch of crap. My body pretty much felt like a big bowl of Jell-o by the time we got to CO.
I’ve taught Bodypump and Spinning classes for a long time now- and because of that, haven’t really had a chance to switch up my exercise routine. Sure, I could do other things in addition to teaching, but when you are already doing anywhere from 7-14 classes a week, that pretty much rules your workout schedule! I figured that now would be the perfect time to try something different. For the first time in almost 4 1/2 years, I’m not teaching any classes at all. And, I’m going to keep it that way- just for a few more weeks. I absolutely love teaching Spinning and Bodypump, but it feels good to take a short break.
Greg and I got a membership to the rec center near our house the morning after we moved in, but quickly decided that (as nice as it is) it wasn’t really for us. The place is amazing- and even has an indoor water park and rock climbing wall! But, the weight area was really small, and that’s our primary purpose for going to an actual gym. After two days there, we canceled our memberships there and enrolled at 24 Hour Fitness instead, which has everything we were looking for.
I’ve heard Janetha talk about LiveFit Trainer many times, and always wanted to do it. However, the first four weeks require NO CARDIO, so when I was teaching Spinning classes several times a week, that wasn’t really going to work. Heather started doing the program a few weeks ago, and I realized- hey! I can do this now! The LiveFit Trainer program is 12 weeks long and divided into 3 4-week phases. Phase one focuses solely on strength training and clean eating. I’m following the eating plan loosely (because I don’t really want to eat egg whites and turkey for every meal) but focusing on the basic “rules” it has.
The exercise plan is pretty cool. Each day focuses on two major muscle groups, and the total workouts take 30-45 minutes. And- Greg even agreed to do the exercise program with me! He’s been lifting for years and honestly knows a lot more about that area of exercise than I do, so it’s nice to learn some new tips from him. We’ve been at the gym at 5:00 every morning, and home by 6:00!
Here’s how the first week went:
Continue reading So Many Changes: Exercise [LiveFit Trainer]
Just a quick reminder- if you haven’t checked out my guest post/giveaway on Janetha’s blog- go over there! The prize is pretty darn spectacular.
I’ve only been in Colorado for a few days now, but I must say- it feels SO GOOD to be able to eat fresh food and to cook- man, I missed cooking! Figuring out what to eat while driving from Maryland to Colorado for four days was a bit challenging. The biggest challenge came from having to have the dogs with us at all times. Luckily, the weather was great for almost the entire trip, so that made sitting outside with the dogs pretty easy.
We stayed at three different hotels and just had their continental breakfast each morning. The breakfast choices offered were mostly pre-packaged, not very healthy and just pretty… unappealing. I’ve been at hotels before that had an awesome free breakfast with tons of healthy (and not so healthy) choices, but on this particular trip, we had to just make due with what was there. Luckily, I had a jar of sunflower butter that I packed and the last half of a loaf of bread, so two out of the three mornings I had this:
Continue reading WIAW 38: Across The USA
Hey everyone!
Well, I made it- I am officially a Colorado resident! And, as of today, I no longer own my house in Maryland. It’s definitely bittersweet! I absolutely loved that house (and miss it!), but my heart is definitely here in Colorado. We’ve only been here for one full day so far- and it definitely has not sunken in that we actually live here. Greg and I come here for vacation so often, that it just kind of seems like we’re visiting again (except that we have our dogs with us!). I know that it will probably take a while to sink in that it’s real.
I could probably write about 5 different posts re-capping our trek across the country, but I’m going to try to keep it as short and sweet as possible here. We has planned on leaving last Thursday around noon, and stopping somewhere in Ohio for the night. Due to everything taking a lot longer than we thought it would, we actually didn’t leave until 7:30 that night. I’ll spare you the details- but I’ll just say that the three days leading up to us moving were pretty chaotic and physically exhausting. The last time we moved was 2 miles away- preparing for across the country is another thing entirely!
Even though it was a lot later and we didn’t want to drive 6 hours to Ohio, we knew that we had to at least hit the road and go somewhere (all of our stuff was packed up and the house was completely empty!). So, we decided to just head out on 70 West and drive to Morgantown, WV the first night (about 170 miles). By the time we got to our hotel, we were exhausted! The dogs happily took over the bed first thing:
We got up bright and early the next morning and made the decision that we would try to make up for the last time the day before. Our plan was to get all the way to St. Louis, MO – 650 miles away. We knew that it would suck, but it would make the two days that followed much easier.
Continue reading #md2co [Driving Across The Country]
I was shopping at Common Market one day, when I noticed a woman giving out samples of sauerkraut. I am most definitely a lover of kraut, so I walked right over to check out what she had to offer. The woman (Rachel) is actually the co-owner of the company Sweet Farm Sauerkraut.
I tasted each of the flavors and ended up purchasing the curtido. As soon as Rachel said that she often enjoyed curtido on top of pizza, I was sold!
I loved the sauerkraut so much that I contacted Rachel about coming over to learn how it was made. The funny thing is- it turns out that Rachel and her husband live right down the road from my aunt and uncle- and know them well! It sure is a small world. Rachel and I set up a time for me to come by the commercial kitchen where they manufacture the kraut so that I could learn all about the process.
Rachel and her husband had been making sauerkraut themselves for a while, and after multiple requests from friends and family who has tasted it, they decided to go into business. Things started small, but are growing rapidly! And it’s easy to see why – the delicious kraut speaks for itself! Sweet Farm creates four different flavors of sauerkraut:
Continue reading Sweet Farm Sauerkraut
Hey guys!
I’m somewhere on the road right now, hopefully enjoying the journey. if you’re on Instagram or Twitter, you can follow my trip through the hashtag #md2co
Thank you for all of your sweet comments of support and well wishes over the last few weeks- I need all the positive energy I can get! I should be in Colorado on Sunday, and I’ll be sure to catch you up on everything.
Until then, head over here to check out my guest post on Janetha’s blog to read about something that I really love and for a giveaway….
Continue reading Check It Out
I can’t believe today is really here…
MOVING DAY!!!
Greg and I are all packed up, and watched the moving truck leave with (most of) our stuff on Tuesday afternoon.
Today we sign all of the closing documents to sell our house and start the 1600+ mile drive to Colorado. I can’t believe it. (Did I say that already?)
Continue reading Goodbye, Maryland…
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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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