Hello Trails!

We had a birthday to celebrate amongst my friends today which called for our first trail run of the season!  Every time we head east, 2 minutes away from our homes and run up the mountain and above the city, we are always truly grateful that we live so close to such a beautiful place.  It was the perfect temperature too!  It’s 7 miles up and down.  Only one of us crashed on the way down this time.  Battle scars rock!

It’s such a great time of year to get active and moving!  I have my first client set up to personal train too!  Do I have any idea where to start?  Not really.  I called a friend of mine who is a personal trainer and who’s done a fitness competition too and I’ll have her give me a few pointers.  I know what I want, but I think my challenge will be devising a plan that someone else wants.  It’ll be fun of course.  The teaching part of my fit life might be on hold for a bit right now too.  Changes to the gym are not making me too happy and my favorite class has been cancelled.  Not a big deal.  Monday I’m going to get back into my Jamie Eason weight training and get very serious about my diet.  I looked up the fitness competition I want to do and it’s on October 19th!!!  5 months.  Next week I’m hoping to meet with trainers from Team Huegly and then I’ll get rolling.  It’ll be a fun challenge and I’m looking forward to learning a lot.

Life is too short.  Do what you love and go after every dream!  I need to get working on my yard and adding more plants and flowers.  Next week I’ll share my before and after shots of the front of my house that I want to work on.  We picked up a bunch of potted plants and hanging baskets this week and they are perfectly calming to me.  Here are a few from my yard.

Chocolate chip cookies are perfectly calming to me too!!  Yum!

Be happy and have a Fit and Fabulous weekend!!

 

 

Food Flowers Music

During one of my solo runs this past week I was contemplating professions I would have enjoyed doing in my life.  I shouldn’t speak in the past tense because my life is far from over and I could still do many of these, but one person can not have 5 professions.  I’ll call them interests or hobbies.  Here is my funny and random list of interests I have (:

• Architect
• Interior Decorator
• Real Estate Agent
• Florist
• Travel Agent
• Weather person
• Weight Loss consultant (That’s kind of the one I do!)
• Teacher
• Own a pastry shop and boutique
• Actress or singer
• Author

I could probably think of a bunch of other ones too.  I also know 2 things I wouldn’t want to do.  Anything doctor or nurse related or a hairdresser.  Too messy.

I thought I’d give an update on the house today!  We are going to paint the exterior of our house.  It has wood siding on top and brick on the bottom.  I’d like to paint it close to this color:

It’s an interesting dark gray blue green color.  I love the white trim.  In the farther future I really want to add a wood garage door and front door.  For now, I’ll probably just paint the door red!  I have several garden spots around my house I need to design too.  I have many favorite flowers.  Here are two of my favorite Spring trees I want in my yard.  My parents have both of these in their yard.  LOVE!!!!  Magnolia and Forsythia.

I also love flower boxes and I want to put some on the front windows of my house.  They would look perfect.  When I’m all done with these projects I’ll share the before and after photos.  While I was in Europe I took several flower shots.  Here are a few.  Flower boxes remind me of Espana.

O.K. enough decorating thoughts!  I do have a MONDAY MENU item to share!  Today is RAINY!!  I have the perfect yummy chili recipe that I tried over the weekend.  A friend of mine said her kids loved it.  That really got me!  I LOVE it when my family likes what I make.  It has an interesting SECRET INGREDIENT too!!!  Here is the recipe.  I’d of taken a picture, but it’s chili.  Does that really look good?

Cincinnati Chili

 

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 pounds ground beef

1/4 cup chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 bay leaf

1 ounce unsweetened bakers chocolate

2 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

 

Directions

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 6 minutes.  Add beef, in batches if necessary, and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned.  Add chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, chocolate, beef broth, tomato sauce, cider vinegar, and red pepper.  Stir to mix well.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.  It is best if you now refrigerate overnight.  Remove the bay leaf and surface fat.  Reheat gently over medium heat.  Top with shredded cheddar cheese.  Black beans, sour cream, avocados, and tomatoes also make great toppings.

The chocolate is what surprised me.  I added black beans to the pot too.  I ate it without toppings and it was completely delish!  Hope it warms you to your toes!

Lastly, I’ve been liking the country singer Luke Bryan.  This song brings a smile to my face and makes me happy on a rainy day ***

Always look up!

I came across a beautiful picture and a quote to go with it the other day.  If I was really good at the computer I would have put this quote in the poppy field.

I like to challenge myself and beat all odds.  This quote can be applied to many aspects of life!  Mostly, I would love to be running in a place like this and then collapse in a field of poppies*

Today is a busy day!  I’ll keep up with it…funny note, to be more FITish, I went to see what my body fat % was with the caliper method at Max Muscle.  He checked the back of my arm, side, and thigh.  Hmmm….I don’t believe it, 13.88%.  Really that’s 14% I know!  The hydrostatic way said 17.42% 6 months ago.  Interesting, either way.  I think I have more confidence in the water way. 

My cute elderly neighbor just stopped by and told me about a place I can go to and get tons of flowers already in bloom!  You bring your own pots and they fill them up!  I will check it out tomorrow!

I’m excited to design a garden on my front porch.  Till then, I’ll droll over this one!!!  Stay away from HOUZZ!  It’s the BEST!  I like the paint color on this house too.

Have a GREAT weekend and ENJOY the BREATH OF FRESH AIR!  So SWEET!