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My weekend began with the meeting of some new friends:

oh, hey there

Andy and I had an appointment on Saturday to get our soon-to-be new home inspected. I didn’t realize it came with some pets too!

They were cute!

The home inspection went well and there was nothing major that was wrong (thank goodness!). There were a few minor things that we asked the sellers to fix though.

It looks as though we are finally on our way to making the house ours! Assuming all of the financial business gets done in a timely manor, we should be moving in at the end of April. Woo!

Andy and I started looking at homes back in November and it’s been a long few months, though I’ve actually enjoyed the process. I don’t know if Andy would say the same, but I love looking at homes. I think it’s from watching endless hours of Property Virgins and House Hunters on HGTV! It’s amazing how you can walk in a house and know instantly that you love it. And the same goes for not liking a house. I found that I knew I liked it or didn’t like it within the first few steps in the house. I trusted my “vibes” throughout this process and we stuck to our “must have” list (having a basement and at least 3 bedrooms to name a couple) and we ended up finding a home that we both really love. I’m excited for this next chapter!

After the home inspection, Andy’s mom (who was at the inspection with us) and I headed out to catch a 3:15pm showing of the Hunger Games. We both had read the series so we were really pumped to see it on the big screen.

The movie did such justice to the book and I thought it was really good. It was packed with action and adventure and kept my attention the entire time. I thought the length of the movie was perfect, at just over 2 hours and 20 minutes. It actually flew by! The casting was brilliant. I want to see it again!

After the movie Andy’s mom and I headed over to meet the guys for dinner at El Rodeo, a local Mexican restaurant. It’s actually right by our new house so I see many visits for happy hour in our future!

For my entree I got the shrimp quesadilla, which was delicious. It was larger than my head though, so I brought half home and had it for lunch on Sunday. To drink I had two peach margaritas. They were happy hour price and I didn’t have to drive so getting a little buzz was OK with me.

Andy and I lounged around for the rest of the evening and relaxed. It was a fun Saturday!

Seven Days of Green

Jen over at Peanut Butter Runner is hosting a new green smoothie challenge along with Real Food Runner. I decided to sign myself up for the challenge and commit to seven days of green drinks. If you are interested, just start blending away! Let me know if you want to join the challenge!

Since getting a Vitamix for Christmas Andy and I have been really good at blending up smoothies each day and incorporating different fruits and veggies. It’s been a great way to improve my diet that is for sure since I don’t typically like salads. Instead, I drink them!

To start off my week long challenge yesterday, I blended up the following:

Fresh Spinach
Frozen Broccoli
Frozen Blueberries
Frozen Pineapple
Fresh Carrots
1 Scoop of Amazing Grass Superfood, Berry Flavor

This was more a juice than a smoothie, which I prefer if I’m having it along side a meal. I had a more substantial breakfast about an hour later. I really do notice such a difference in my energy since adding in fresh juices and smoothies to my diet.

Home Practice

Along with feeling more energized from the added fruits and veggies, I find that a morning Yoga practice also kick starts my day.

This morning I did a home practice instead of going to the studio. Currently I follow along this DVD which is an Ashtanga style Yoga. I like Ashtanga because it flows really well. It’s powerful, yet relaxing. It’s a nice blend.

Some of my favorite poses are ones that stretch the hamstrings and low back. My low back gets tight so I find that forward fold stretches really help to alleviate that, along with incorporating stretches for my hips and legs.

One stretch I didn’t know of until I started practicing at a studio was Gorilla Pose, or Pada Hastasana:

This pose feels great on my back and provides a nice stretch for the hamstrings. The hands under the feet provide a leverage to go deeper into the pose.

Other poses that I find beneficial for the spine are twists:

I try to incorporate some sort of twist, whether lying down or seated, into my workouts each day. My back certainly thanks me for it!

Though the DVD didn’t include headstand, I still threw one in there for my own benefit. I’ve finally mastered it without the wall!

Though I was able to do headstand without having my legs touching the wall before, I still felt like I “needed” the wall behind me or I would fall. One day in class, I decided to just go for it and sure enough, I found stability and calmness in the pose just like I do with the wall behind me. Since then, I’ve been able to trust in my strength and abilities and have been able to do them at my own mat, without any back-up. I’ve become OK with the fact that I may fall…but I can always get back up and try it again! So far though, I have not fallen. Phew!

Have a great day everyone!

My foot has been feeling much better this month. Since November, I had cut way back on my activity and didn’t do any formal cardio until a couple of weeks ago. I’ve slowly been introducing it back into my routine.

I started with 10 minutes on my elliptical 3 days per week and I’ve been increasing by 3 minutes each week. I’m up to 16 minutes this week (woohoo!) and it feels great to have carido back in my life. As much as I love doing Yoga and strength training, I do miss my cardio! I especially miss running with my dogs, but I’m not ready for that quite yet. I did test the water and ran about 5 minutes yesterday, but I didn’t want to push it. It did feel good though!

Good thing my foot has been feeling better because the weather has been amazing in Cleveland for the past several weeks and I’ve enjoyed going for walks with Andy and the pups.

In the blink of an eye it went from this:

And this:

To this:

It’s been lovely to take Boo and Sophia out for walks around the neighborhood and get some sun after hibernating all winter.

We took a stroll this morning after I did my quick workout on the elliptical.

They walked and sniffed, and I sipped my fresh juice while enjoying the cool, morning breeze. Fun was had by all

Into the Vitamix went:

Fresh red pepper
Fresh baby carrots
Frozen broccoli
Frozen mixed berries
1 scoop of Amazing Grass Superfood, berry flavor

This is my “pre-breakfast” before I have something more substantial that will keep me full until lunchtime. I had a big bowl of Kashi cereal mixed with a little Honey Bunches of Oats and sliced strawberries and topped with soy milk. Cereal is probably my favorite breakfast – it never let’s me down!

While cereal fills me up until lunch, I do need a little pick-me-up in the late afternoon between lunch and dinner. As of late I’ve had to make my afternoon snack a bit bigger since my hunger has suddenly increased. I’ve noticed that since I started adding in more activity, like cardio on the elliptical and daily walks with the dogs, that my appetite has increased. I was ravenous the other day at work and my typical afternoon snack of yogurt and fruit wasn’t cutting it. I ended up making one of my “emergency” packs of oatmeal that I keep in my desk. It certainly came in handy!

Though my cardio isn’t nearly as intense as it was in the past, my body certainly notices the addition of activity by making it known that I am hungry! But I don’t worry about the additional calories because it really just evens out in the end. When I wasn’t doing any cardio, I didn’t need as many snacks during the day. Now that I am getting back into more activity, I’ll be better prepared with more snacks because I tend to need them. This reminds me…I need to restock my emergency snack drawer!

House Update:

Remember when I said Andy and I placed a bid on a short sale and our offer was accepted? Well, we decided that we didn’t want to deal with a short sale anymore and actually found another house that suits our needs and is a traditional sale. We get the home inspected tomorrow so if all goes well we should be moving into our first home sometime at the end of April! Wish us luck!

Have a great weekend everyone!