My quest

 I have a beyond amazing product to tell you about..

Quest Bars

I was introduced to these little bars of amazingness a couple months ago and I will never waste anymore of my money on other protein bars. For once, I am able to pronounce and recognize all the ingredients in my protein bar.

Quest was kind enough to send me a sample variety box. My favorite so far is the cinnamon roll. It has such a rich flavor, better than any other bar I've tasted before!

Ingredients:

Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate), Isomalto-Oligosaccharides (100% Prebiotic Fiber), Almonds, Water, Erythritol, Salt, Natural Flavoring, Stevia, Cinnamon, Lo Han Guo.

 

Pros of quest bars:

• No sugar alcohols
• No sugar used
• No artificial sweeteners
• No glycerine
• No junk ingredients
• No soy protein
• Gluten free
• Amazing variety of wonderful tasting flavors

Just look at these nutrition facts; 20 grams of protein, 2 grams of active carbs from nuts not sugar, and all for 170 cals...

incredible!

Green pancakes & a bum lift

    I wanted to share this amazing glute exercise with you...

One-legged cable glute kickback

  Attach a cable strap to the lower section of the cable machine. Grab ahold of the machine in front of you for stabilization. Slowly kick your leg back while trying to keep it as straight as possible. Once you have fully extended really squeeze your bum(in the pic above im about half  extended) Dig deep & feel the burn!

Do 12-15 reps each leg

Refuel with green monster pancakes!

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup egg whites

2 tbs plain Greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla & cinnamon 

1 tsp baking powder 

Handful of spinach

Put all ingredients in magic bullet and blend(batter will be very runny)

Poor into hot baking pan on stove and cook 1-2 minutes each side.

Top with whatever you please :)

Happy Monday

jacket:old navy, jeans:american eagle, shoes:payless, jewelry: forever 21

Happy Monday! Hope y'all had a great weekend.. 

Check back tomorrow because I'm doing a review on a necessity in my life. Of course it's a food item and I'm so excited to share all it's goodness with you!

  

Banana oatmeal

   Today started out with the most amazing oatmeal I've had in a long time

First on the stove I simmered half a banana with a half a cup of almond milk

After that simmered for about 5 minutes, I added a 1/4 cup of old fashioned oats

I let it simmer for about 5 more minutes until I could tell the oats were done.

I poured into a bowl and added a couple teaspoons of cinnamon, and of course a spoon spoonfuls of whole foods fresh ground almond(this stuff is beyond amaze if you haven't tried it, do it!!)

Pure deliciousness!

Ingredients 

One ripe banana

1/2 cup of almond milk

1/4 cup old fashioned oats 

2 tsp cinnamon

Walnuts(optional)

Slice up banana and simmer with almond milk on the stove for 5 minutes.

Add the old fashioned oats to the pot and cook til the oats are done, about another 5 minutes.

Pour into a bowl and top with cinnamon, walnuts, nut butter or any other deliciousness you can think of.

Enjoy!

Feeling chesty

 Today was all about the chest and my husband.

I love going to the gym with my husband because he always pushes me to my maximum limits.

Today we focused and chest with a workout that looked like this 

15 min warm up on arc trainer

Bench press 4 sets of 10 reps

Superset with 10 burpees

Seated decline press 3 sets of 12 reps

Seated incline press 3 sets of 12 reps

After these exercises we went over to the cables and did different chest exercises with  cables, here are a few of the variations we did

1 set of 12 reps for every different variation 

Finally finished off with this machine

3 sets of 12 reps

Have a good rest of your hump day!

Ps. Sorry for the overload of photos, it's a rarity to have my photographer(husband) with me.

AND sorry for the horrendous faces mid exercise...I don't go to the gym to look pretty :)

Sunny Days

 

Happy Tuesday!

Today started out with an amazing spin class, then I hit the weight room to do a little back and tricep workout that looked like this:

Wide grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 12 reps

Superset with assisted pull ups x 3

Seated cable row 3 sets of 15 reps

Tricep cable push down 3 sets of 12 reps

Skull crusher 3 sets of 12 reps

Tricep kickback 3 sets of 12 reps

Reverse fly 3 sets of 10 reps

Back extension 4 sets of 10 reps holding 25 lb weight

The weather is absolutely perfect today. I will take sunny and 70s anytime of the year. This gorgeous weather called for a little stroll with our fluff ball

OH almost forgot to mention, Happy national pancake day!! Husband and I are heading to snag some free pancakes at IHOP...I mean it's the only logical thing to do on such a wonderful holiday ;)

This book

I absolutely adore my days off because my mornings get to look like this...

This book has been my newest obsession. I absolutely love the insight it has given me to the most important book of all.

This bottom paragraph really stood out to me today because so many times I catch myself reading the bible then walking away and not applying one thing I've read at all. Just like this book says I need to retain it, possess it and claim it as MINE. One of the 2386364537 things I need to work on in my life :) I am loving theses little reminders and hope you enjoyed it too!

Feeling like Dorothy

  

earlier today..

my current situation...

we take tornado warnings very seriously here...oooobviously.

note to self: buy bear a helmet tomorrow I think he's feeling left out.

we are supposed to lose power soon so I'm keeping this short..any of you going through this storm system as well please stay safe! 

Today's workout

spin class 

and

a tricep workout that looked like this:

	Dips on a bench with feet raised	15,12,12, 10
	Tricep kickback 15 lb dumbbell	12, 10, 10
	Skull crusher	12, 12, 12
	Overhead tricep extension 20 lb dumbbell	12, 10, 10
	Close grip barbell press	12, 10, 10
	Straight bar push down 30 lb	15,12, 10, 8

My favorite national holiday

hat: wal-mart, shirt: tj maxx, jacket: target, jeans: gap, shoes: target

Look who got a haircut! This is the only pic I could snap of the little nugget cause let's just say someone's a littttttle embarrassed of his new bald self. 

 I'm not sure if any of you were aware of the national holiday yesterday, it just so happens to be my absolute most favorite national day ever. January 24 is national peanut butter day....whoever thought of making it a national holiday is my new favorite person.

So, in honor of this glorious holiday I decided to do a little experiment in my kitchen and here is how it turned out

Amazing!

Dark chocolate peanut butter

2-3 cups roasted unsalted peanuts

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Place roasted peanuts in food processor and start blending away.

It will start to clump together, so stop the processor and scrape down the sides. You are going to have do this multiple times.

Once you get a peanut butter like consistency, add in dark chocolate chips.

Process until peanut butter and choc chips are fully combined.

Place in air tight container and enjoy!

Cardio & Ab Circuit

  Today's Workout:

 I spent half hour on the death machine aka step machine. For those who don't know what I'm talking about..this little beauty right here

My only advice is do not hold the side rails. You will completely defeat the purpose of this machine so get those hands off and pick up your booty.

After the death machine I did a quick cardio abs circuit that looked a little like this...

           Complete each exercise for 60 seconds

 Jump Rope

Mountain climbers

Bicycle crunches

Abdominal twist

Atomic sit up

Knees to elbow 

 Jump Rope

Mountain climbers

Flutter kick

Straight leg raise

Hip raise

 Jump Rope

Mountain climbers

Plank

Left side plank 

Right side plank

After the gym I came home to a beautiful little box on our front porch that contained these goodies..

Perfect post workout snack :)

Oh Arkansas

 I am from Oregon.

 In Oregon the weather is pretty much always predictable. Granted its usually all rain, but it is still predictable. In the south it is the complete opposite . Snow one day and then warm sunshine the next...oh and don't forget to throw a tornado in there somewhere.

So this whole 70 degree weather in January gets me...

scarf:forever 21, jacket:a&f, dress:target, tights:forever 21 shoes:tjmaxx 

But hey no complaints over here....We had an amazing 3 day weekend filled with bbqs in tshirts and shorts and hiking(Bear is now officially a mountain dog) 

Have a blessed day!