Business Card

This just spoke to me. It's really true. It makes me want to be more conscientious of my actions. I love that I find so much inspiration from social media. The internet is so awesome. I'm really glad it exists.

Chill day

This morning I wasn't able to get to the gym before the kiddos woke up, so I would have had to go tonight. Which I hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns!!!!!!! The night crowd at the gym is supremely obnoxious and it's so congested. I also really hate taking that time from my family if I don't have to. Pen wasn't feeling kids klub, and I didn't have the fight in me so we just chilled at home. In keeping grounded during prep, I've learned that it's critical to not beat myself up for having days that are less than perfect. Those days are going to happen. When you've got a family, prep is simply never your #1 priority. That's not to say that you can't make it a priority in your life. You HAVE to in order to make it on stage. It will simply never be a priority that resides above my family's well-being.  So today I rest, and 6:30am tomorrow I am right back at it! 

Life's storms

As life has become increasingly hectic I've found myself wanting to turn to food for comfort. Which is what I've always done when I get really stressed out. I eat. I take my family down with me during these stressful times, because we eat out a ton, and our cabinets are full of garbage. (I mean that literally as well, when I'm stressed the house also goes to hell.) Anyways, I'm having a really tough time being on prep and not being able to turn to my vices. I'm so grateful to be confronted with this challenge though! I mean that seriously. Emotional eating has been a huge issue for me. In the past, if I had a few stressful months in a row(new baby, new business, family issues) I could easily throw on 15 pounds in 2 months. I kid you not. Emotional eating is still very much a reality in my life, but I plan on changing that. I relistened to Kori Propst's, Emotional Eating pod cast and it is so helpful. Bottomed line, life is humbling. Sometimes I actually feel like I have a few things figured out, and then the storms of life hit and I realize just how weak I am. Yes, I am stronger than I was last year. No doubt about that. But man oh man do I still have a hell of a long way to go!!!! Never let anyone fool you, that bc they've reached a certain level of fitness or they've conquered their self-control demons, that they somehow have life figured out. Life will continue to humble us all, and most painfully when we're prideful. It's my goal to stay grounded and to keep my priorities straight. I just want to live my life in a way that I can look back with pride when it's all said and done. 

St George Expansion

We're in the process of expanding The Crepery to St George. Our loan is finalized but we are still deciding between 2 different locations. We drove down today to see the places again(12.5 drive for 2 hrs in town). That's what we get for doing business on opposite sides of the state! I really hope the spot next to 'The Egg and I' will work out. We shall see. Gabe and I swore we'd never open another restaurant after the hassle we went through in Logan, but here we are a few years later doing it all over again! You never where life is going to take you, and unless you keep an open mind you'll miss out on some incredible opportunities. This process has taken much longer than we had hoped for, but that is the case with much of life! Gabe and I are 9 weeks to his exhibit, 10 weeks to my competition, and we're only a fews weeks out from starting our build-out for this restaurant. It's a lot to have on our plate but I feel totally at peace that we're doing what we're supposed to. We've learned to trust our intuition, even when we're unsure of how it'll all come together. It's an exciting time of life! Now for some Qudoba and back to our babies!...

Few of my favorite things

Today came with one hell of a delivery from Amazon! 3 of my favorite things: 1. NLA Chocolate Eclair protein-absolutely, no doubt about it, all time favorite protein 2. Tiger Blood ISO-animos. Mix it with ice, and you have one delightful slushy. 3. Only the best game ever! They're not lying when they say it's for horrible people. But gosh damn it, it's for horribly HILARIOUS people! Without question I get the tweener giggles every time I play. You know those kind of uncontrollable fits of laughter you'd get during sleep-overs with a few of your 13 yr old best buddies, and one of you invariably squeaks out a noisy little fart. It's all over then. The giggles just keep on coming, and an hour later you forget what you're even laughing about but you just keep on going. That's Cards Against Humanity, every.single.time. Buy these things, thank me later.

WEAVE!!!!

Who's got a weave??? I've got a weave! My New York students would be so proud of me(I was a guidance counselor at an over-aged, under credited high school in South Brooklyn right when I graduated college.) I was always in awe at all the amazing weaves my students sported! And now I've got my own!! I'm in love with having such luscious locks. The extreme ombré will take a little getting used to, I may have to dye my own locks darker to tone it down. I'm a pretty low maintence girl, so it was kind of hard to decide if I wanted to take on the work of extensions but I knew I'd love them. As I get older, I definitely embrace upping the beauty routine. You do what you got to, to keep it fresh! Maybe it's not just getting older, perhaps it's the longer I live in Utah. I'm originally from Denver. Colorado as a whole is a much more natural state. Utah women are more done up in general. They pay much more attention to hair and make-up. Anyways, whatever got me to being a weave-wearer, I'm happy! 

I'm hungry!!

My macros were recently lowered, SIGNIFICANTLY. I have forgotten how sacred each morsel of food becomes during the latter stage of prep. These carb master yogurts have awesome macros-9 g protein, 4 g carbs, 2 g fat. They are sort of an IIFYM prep diet,  power food. Yum, yum, yum. Thank you Kroger!

Supp Addicts Anonymous

There needs to be help for Supplement Addicts. We'd call it Supp Addicts Anonymous. We'd meet once a month and shamefully admit how much money we spent. We would discuss how we hadn't even tried some of them, we simply couldn't resist the promised results of bulging biceps and slim waists. We'd admit that sometimes we hide our supp purchases from our partners. Group members of SAA would understand and emphathize with the problems of no longer having enough room to store all our supps, and how we gradually had to take over the majority of kitchen storage and sometimes even monopolize entire closets...you know what, now that I think about it, we actually could make this addiction a positive community building experience. What we REALLY need is to have quarterly supp swaps!!! Oh my gosh I'm on to something here. We could trade out the proteins, pre-workouts, flavored BCAA's, or thermogenics that we're sick of or didn't do the trick for us. I know plenty of people that love the flavors that I detest and vise versa. Perhaps I am behind and such groups already exist. If so, please tell me about them!! Ah blogging can be so cathartic. A few minutes ago I thought I had a real problem, and now I realize it's only an oppurtunity to meet more like minded meatheads! Now to find or establish such group...

Top Fit Foodie IG Accounts

I want to share with you my top IG accounts for fit recipes. These ladies are fairly insta-famous so it's likely you're already following at least 1 of them. I've grown to love these women, they have saved me from many food ruts!!! Whenever I'm feeling at a loss for appetizing fit meals, rest assured I will find something that excites my taste buds on one of these accounts...

Megan is a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen! She brings attention to ingredients that I typically have available but would never think to pair. She puts together really filling meals and her love of food just oozes from her posts. I appreciate that her ingredients are budget friendly, and that she's super humble. I just love her posts.

Oh Jazzy! Most of you are probably already following this lady but just in case. She's truly one of kind, and is obviously doing something right with how she's blown up on IG. She is so darn passionate about reinventing recipes to fit a clean and fit lifestyle. She lists lots of fabulous recipes on IG but I also highly recommend her Crockpot ebook. Jasmine has introduced me to many of my favorite products and staple recipes. She's a must follow!

Kenzie is pretty adorable. She's a super ambitious college student. Her recipes tend be especially time efficient, which is oh so practical! Her recipes are simple and crowd pleasing. 

Danielle does a beautiful job with low carb concoctions! She has offered me some prep diet essentials. It's refreshing that I can always fit her recipes into my macros. She's kind of a magician when it comes to transforming recipes. Her food definitely packs a powerful punch! If you want a lot of bang for your macro buck, she's your woman. 

...with a little research you can satisfy any craving, on any macro plan. The farther I've come in this lifestyle, the more I've learned that it is absolutely maintainable. Utilize social media. Be on the constant lookout for fun new recipes. Always keep it interesting, and you'll be able to stick with your goals. Yah for Instagram!

Mom life

Today was exhausting. The kids are fighting a cold, so they couldn't get enough of my attention. Gabe had a really long day at the university. He felt bad for our babies when he got home so he made frozen cupcakes with them. They loved it. Mama not so much. Cupcakes usually aren't that tempting, but this mix is ridiculous. I made the selfless decision and gave half of them to our old neighbors. They don't want them, and I knew that, but I knew they'd want some snuggles from the kiddos. The kids ability to wreak havoc in the home was on pointe today as is evidenced by these pics. All I wanted to do tonight was eat the remainder of the cupcakes and curl up in bed comatosed. But gosh damn it my judgement got the better of me! I gave myself a pep talk, wrapped the cupcakes up, got them out of the way, and got to cleaning...

Being a mom, cleaning the house is obviously nothing heroic(although wouldn't it be awesome if it was??!) It was simply a small feat for me, to stay in control of my emotions, rather than eating them. I have a tremendous amount of respect for moms who live the prep life, it's seriously not easy. But man is it satisfying to put in a good days work, to know you gave it your all. Sometimes our ALL means not bingeing on your kids cupcakes, and cleaning your shi* storm of a house. That was my all today, hopefully tomorrow I'll have more gas in the tank.

Getting work done

HIIT is what's going down in my ghetto basement these days! I bought a used bike off KSL yesterday, and it's pretty awesome. Super stoked that sweet seat cover came with it! Bonus! I made a commitment to Gabe that I will only watch MY shows(real housewives, anything kardashians) while getting work done on this bike. I set my bike up in the corner of my basement in hopes I could drown out distraction. I've done 45 min collectively in the last 2 days, so you could pretty much say it's working. Cardio ain't got nothing on me!!!! Helpful Hint: Download the APP Interval Timer for your HIIT workouts. It'll beep at you through your music. Not staring at your clock the entire workout makes it go SO much faster!!

Try one more time

This montage up here documents only a few of my "before" pics. I kind of can't express how grateful I am that human beings are evolutionarily designed to be optimistic about our ability to change. If we weren't then we would just give up and die. The end. Thankfully our survival instincts are engineered to help us WANT to pick ourselves up and give it another go. I suppose it's our survival instincts or anti-depressants...prob both in most cases. If you don't want to try anymore you should probably consider an anti-depressant. I can say that bc I take quite the cocktail myself! Anyways, we must continue to try. In the process we are eliminating what doesn't work. There truly are no failed attempts, we are just weeding all the BS out. I'm grateful for all I've learned through my "failed" attempts. They allow me to help others to reach their potential that much faster. I have learned what doesn't work, and what works for a few weeks-perhaps months, then fails miserably. I'm humbled that I've found my place with flexible dieting. I'm proud of myself that I kept trying one more time. We're given a beautiful oppurtunity to transform every day. Tomorrow could be the fresh start you need. Never.stop.trying.

Feeding the fam

This week has been rough getting back into the swing of real life after the glory that was the holidays. I've been trying to find my stride with prepping hard and supporting Gabe during this super high pressure time. (He's supposed to graduate with his MFA in 2 months and we still have a bunch of furniture that needs to be manufactured as well as negotiating terms for our St George Crepery). As I'm trying to figure our ways to lighten his load, I'm thinking I really need to take the bull by the horns and cook dinner & prepare lunches for him on a regular basis. To most, I realize that this is a, no duh!, moment. But for me and the dynamics of our family it has been a very difficult task to tackle. There are a few reasons I can easily name for this difficulty...Gabe is a foodie, and he can really cook. He only wants to eat good food. What I mean by good food is-obnoxiously long recipes, high maintainence cooking procedures, with absolutely no fat-free, lean meat, low carb alternatives. You can empathize with me that I have a hard time living up to this!? I don't know where or when he became this foodie, because he is the youngest of 9 children. I can guaran-damn-tee that his Mom wasn't making any gourmet faire!! I do know she cooked with a ton of butter and refined starches, so I can't even petition her help. Top it off with 2 kids that only want easy Mac and hot dogs. To say the least, it's a painful task to find recipes that please the entire crew! When we do find one everyone will eat, I still have to make my own variation to cater to my prep needs-but that's fine. As long as it works with my macros and is cooked long enough(no pink meat!!) then I can use enough condiments to make it edible. What I've learned works for our fam, is, cooking a lot of a crowd pleasing recipe that will feed us lunches for days. Tonight we made a fav that I've posted previously on my blog, and that's Bobby Flay's Balsamic Meatloaf. It has tons of veggies and it doesn't get old for an entire week with the many variations meatloaf lends itself to. Gabe got home earlier than planned so he ended up cooking BUT I did the hard work in shopping and cleaning it all up! Pen loves helping Daddy!! Check this recipe out, it's legit.

I guess this isn't the most appetizing pic but it's sort of unbelievable.

Your calling

I truly believe this. I'm so grateful to live in a time and day when we have so many opportunities to live our dreams. I am very blessed to be married to a man who is so talented, inventive, and business minded. These qualities, paired with my complete lack of fear or inhibition in taking risks have allowed us to work for our selves successfully. We have a slew of endeavors that we are currently pursuing that will come to fruition this year. I have learned that many of the ventures we pursue, end up taking us on a path we never anticipated and we have learned to welcome that part of the journey. Gabe and I dream big, we try to never put limits to our potential. We have been very humbled by how hard business ownership proves to be. We've made mistakes and learned so much in our realitively short time doing this. One thing that has never faultered, is that we believe in each other and have confidence in one another, even we don't possess it in ourselves. We have one life, one shot to experience it all. We will never look back and wish we lived more safely. Here's to taking risks! To believing in ourselves! And to pursing that which makes us feel alive!!

Book Review Part 1

Chapter 1: I Will, I Won't, I Want: What Willpower Is, and Why It Matters
-" 'I will' and 'I won't' power are the 2 sides of self-control, but they alone don't constitute willpower. To say no when you need to say no, and yes when you need to say yes, you need a third power: the ability to remember what you really want."
* This is such a powerful reminder. It's imperative to reach our goals! Sometimes we think we want that cookie, to sleep in, or to eat out...well at least these are the things I often think I want. But its so powerful to know that what I REALLY want is to reach my highest fitness potential, I want to complete my workout by 8am, and I want to feed my family nutritious meals around our dinner table.  I only want these things in that very moment, and they pass very quickly, if I allow myself to stop and reevaluate my goals. This book has taught me the benefits of meditation. I'll be honest, I need to be much better at practicing my meditation but I know when I do, that I am much better equipped to meet my goals.
-"Breath focus is a simple but powerful meditation technique for training your brain and increasing willpower. It reduces stress and teaches the mind how to handle both inner distractions (cravings, worries, desires) and outer temptations (sounds, sights, and smells).
Here's how to get started:
1. Sit still and stay put. You're learning not to automatically follow every single impulse that your brain and body produce.
2. Turn your attention to the breath. Begin to notice your breathing. Silently say in your mind 'inhale' as you breath in and 'exhale' as you breath out. When you notice your mind wandering (and it will), just bring it back to the breath.
3. Notice how it feels to breathe, and notice how the mind wanders. After a few minutes, drop the labels 'inhale/exhale.' Try focusing on just the feeling of breathing. When you notice yourself thinking about something else, bring your attention back to the breath.
-Start with 5 minutes a day."
*I am making it a goal to apply these meditation techniques as often as possible. With little children needing me I may need to shorten my sessions, but I know every bit will help strengthen my will power muscle.

Chapter 2: The Willpower Instinct: Your Body Was Born to Resist Cheesecake
-"Sometimes your instincts are pushing you toward a potentially bad decision. What's needed, therefore, is protection of yourself by yourself. The most helpful response will be to slow you down, not speed you up. This is what the plan-and-pause response does. By keeping you from immediately following your impulses, the pause-and-plan response gives you the time for more flexible, thoughtful action."
*I have learned that when I am tempted to make a bad decision, it is impulsive. If I allow myself time to slow down, and give thought to my goals, then rest assured I make the better decision.
-"Exercise turns out to be the closest thing to a wonder drug that self-control scientists have discovered."
*Couldn't agree more with this!!! It is absolutely my miracle drug! I also love this helpful tip...
-"If you tell yourself that you are too tired or don't have the time to exercise, start thinking of exercise at something that restores, not drains, your energy and willpower."
*We all know that we feel better after working out. Sometimes it takes drowning our excuses out and just mechanically driving to the gym and before you know it, the workout is done. Rest assured you'll feel completely rejuvenated afterwards.
-"When you're tired, your cells have trouble absorbing glucose from the bloodstream. This leaves them underfeed, and you exhausted. So for better willpower, go to sleep already."
*Amen!!! I do not function on little sleep, so this one is so easy for me to accept! The only difficult part is having the willpower to go to bed at a decent hour in order to get my butt out of bed for early morning workouts.

...I can't wait to share my reviews of the rest of this powerful book. Stay tuned!

The Willpower Instinct

This is a total must read! I've learned so much that I'm super excited to share!! I'm going to have to break up my notes into 3 posts bc it's so chalk full of useful knowledge. The book immediately caught my attention with this thought provoking quote, "The intelligent want self-control; children want candy.-Rumi" I thought to myself, oh hell, I need this book. I definitely want both, and that's not going to help me reach my goals! Kelly goes on to further sell me on will-power, "People who have better control of their attention, emotions, and actions are better off almost any way you look at it." Couldn't agree more, that is why I will read every single book on the subject and then gift you with my new found knowledge! Prob not every book, but I WILL read this one and take good notes...This is all I have time for tonight but look forward to the first few chapters review tomorrow! Seriously look forward to it bc it's crazy life changing material.

New Years reality

I was going to upload an inspirational quote for this post but my hubby insisted I share my ridiculous pj's. I am definitely wearing a Mickey Mouse onesie right now. It's unreasonably unflattering but that's more than made up for in comfortability! I digress...so today as everyone went back to work and school and real life, the reality of our New Years Resolutions reared their ugly head. It was exciting to make my goals for this year over the holidays when I was lax on my diet, enjoying more rest, and having fun with my family. It was a lot less fun to wake up at the butt crack of dawn, to sub zero temps, and hit the gym. It wasn't the most fun to trade the spaghetti and sausage I fed my family for dinner, for raw zucchini noodles and 99% lean ground turkey. I made those sacrifices for a reason though. I have a goal that I am going to reach and nothing is going to get in my way. I know that when we apply this attitude with conviction to our lives, that we can truly achieve greatness. A sort of greatness that at this point we couldn't even dream of. Knowing our potential makes sacrifice meaningful. Transformation become less about the sacrifice and more about getting that much closer to our goal. That's how I'm going to try to look at my 6am workout tomorrow at least!

January's Playlist

I'm going to put together a playlist to inspire your workouts every month! They aren't necessarily new songs, just whatever I'm feeling at the moment. Here's January's list for you...

1. David Guetta: Dangerous feat. Sam Martin

2. J. Cole: Apparently

3. Fall Out Boy: Centuries

4. Uptown Funk: Mark Ronson

5. Kongos: Come With Me Now

6. Hozier: Take Me To Church

7. Meghan Trainor: Dear Future Husband

8. Awolnation: Sail

9. Macklemore: Can't Hold Us feat. Ray Dalton

10. Avicci: Wake Me Up

11. Kanye West: Power

12. Fatman Scoop: Be Faithful

13. Tove Lo: Habits

14. Keisza: Hideaway

15. Nicki Minaj: Anaconda

Hope this gives you some inspo for the gym! 

Friday night food prep

I can tell you the last thing I felt like doing tonight was food prep! But I have to go out of town tomorrow so it's a must to stay on track. Tonight I prepped:

-dried apples

-chicken tenders 

-turkey sausage

-sweet potatoes

This instant read thermometer (ThermaPen) is an absolute life saver! My food is actually edible thanks to it! Wa-hoo for that!! 

Game Time

I totally get that social media is obnoxiously over saturated with New Years quotes, but when I found this It felt like it was made specifically for me. It's interesting the process it's takes for a dream to come to fruition. If we really look back on our lives, anything we've accomplished that we're truly proud of, we can see that in most cases a seed was planted years prior. Personally I've experienced the process to go like this...

1. something piques my interest 

2. immediately become tremendously passionate about it 

3. very briefly research what it'll take to achieve this goal

4. impulsively dive in, usually with an ass load of over-confidence, and unwarranted optimism 

5. reality kicks me in the head, then spits in my face

6. arrive at cross-roads. Choose 1 of 2 options...Option 1. Pursue with reckless abandon or Option 2. Quietly toss it into the massive pile of unmentioned failed attempts & horrible ideas 

7. In the event that I choose Option 1 I gear up for a hard and bumpy ride. Usually happens to take about 4+ times longer than anticipated or hoped for. It requires more patience than I'm comfortable with, a huge leap of faith, and a commitment to deep sacrifice from myself and my family

8. When Option 1 has been seen through I reap rewards that I never thought possible and realize that I'm capable of so much more than I ever dreamed of. 

**Thankfully I have an extremely patient husband that takes my endeavors in stride, all the while having faith and confidence that it is through this arduous process that our lives will become great.**

2013 & 2014 required the ground work for what my family will begin to harvest in 2015. Can't wait to share the journey with everyone!