I am a 44 year old wife, mom and athlete. I started running in high school and have loved it ever since. As I got older, I had to stop running every day so I added in weight training and all sorts of fun work-outs like Insanity, P90X and Turbo Fire. I'm a certified personal trainer and I love all aspects of fitness.
Sadly, even at my age (44) there are many foods that for one reason or another, I have never tried. This is the year that I’m working on changing that!!
Hopefully when my boys are adults, they will have many less ingredients on their list of things they have never tried!!!
Barley is one of those things that I had never tried.
However, this week I changed that not only for myself but also for my husband and boys!!!
Greek Barley Salad
1 t olive oil
3 c chicken broth
1 c uncooked pearl barley
1 cucumber, diced
1 c grape tomatoes, halved
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 small can sliced olives
1 container (4 oz) Feta cheese
3 T olive oil
1 t grated lemon rind
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 T minced fresh basil
1 t minced fresh thyme
1 t red wine vinegar
salt to taste
minced garlic (3 cloves or 1.5 t)
Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan; add barley. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 35 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
Combine barley, cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, olives and feta in a large bowl.
Combine oil, lemon rind and juice, basil, thyme, vinegar, salt and garlic; stir well. Add to barley mixture and mix well. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
this was so tasty!!
And, if you wanted to turn this into a meal (especially in the summer), you could easily add some chicken!!
Caprese might be one of my favorite combinations of flavors ever – mozzarella, tomatoes and basil!!
The other night for dinner I took those flavors and turned them into a delicious meal!!!
This was actually the first time that I’ve ever used flatbreads but it won’t be the last time!!!
Caprese Chicken Wraps
2 T olive oil
2 T white wine vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
1 head chopped Romaine lettuce
fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped (I used less than a cup)
1/2 c fresh basil, chopped
1 container grape tomatoes, quartered
minced garlic (about a just over a teaspoon)
4 flatbreads
1 bag diced cooked chicken breast
this stuff is a lifesaver!
Combine oil, vinegar, salt and pepper with a fork or whisk. Add lettuce, chicken, cheese, tomatoes and basil – toss to coat.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray. Place 1 flatbread at a time in skillet and cook about 1 minute per side to soften.
Put chicken mixture on flatbread –
loaded up
Fold and eat!!!
ready to eat
This was delicious! I think that in the summer it will be a regular!!!
Today’s 44 was one of those that worked multiple muscle groups – my favorite kind of moves!!!
I used 1 dumbbell (10 pounds) and started with it in my right hand –
ready
Step back to right lunge with your leg extended and touch the dumbbell to the ground –
back to lunge
Stand with a knee lift and bicep curl –
up and curl
And, after you finish 44 on the right side you have to switch sides and do 44 more!!
readybackup and curl
I enjoyed this move because it was pretty much a full body move and since I was working upper and lower at the same time, I really got my heart rate up.
Today was a fun workout day – Turbo Fire!!! I did Fire 55EZ which is not easy but a 55 minute workout that flies by!!!
I feel like sometimes I talk about stuff on here and then never really get back to it so today I thought I would share a few
1. I don’t set New Year’s resolutions but in January I did share a post with some things I wanted to do and try this year. So far I haven’t made a lot of progress but we did try something new to us the other night!! I made a Greek Barley Salad –
this was so tasty!!
We had never tried barley – not sure why??? The entire family enjoyed this side dish!!!
2. I’ve been wearing a FitBit Force since the start of the year and I reviewed it after just a few days. I still pretty much just use it as a pedometer but that is working out well!! The first few weeks I didn’t really do anything different – just wore it to track and I realized that the only days I reached 10,000 steps were running days. Now, I try to get 10,000 steps in addition to whatever number I reach during my workout.
One way that I increase my steps is through the use of my Christmas gift – my standing desk!!
old picture but…
I love using this desk and when I read blogs I either pace around in between each one or I jog in place while I read!! Yesterday I hit 20,000 steps by the end of the day!!!
3. I mentioned that Hunter wants to run a half marathon this spring to celebrate turning 13 and we all know that I think running your age for your birthday is the best way to celebrate so we are going to do one together. We were going to run a large one in Kansas City in April but when it came time to start training and the weather looked like this –
lots of snow
Hunter wasn’t a fan of the training (and I’ve made it clear how much I hate running in the snow and cold!). For some reason Hunter didn’t want to log his miles here –
Weird but true!
So we picked a different race that I think will work better. We are going to do a race that is smaller the first weekend in June. He will start his official training in March and hopefully by then all of his runs can be outside.
4. Last week I shared a dilemma concerning our event venue and a couple who had sort of strung me along about turning in a contract and paying. Well, they did turn in the contract and full payment by the weekend so they are officially booked.
However, they are still causing me stress!!! They called early this week to set up another meeting at the venue. I let them set the day and time. Yesterday at 11:00 we were supposed to meet. I drove over in the sleet – waited for 20 minutes (past the time) – drove home in blowing snow – in other words I wasted an hour of my day and never saw them!
You know how sometimes you just don’t have a good feeling about a situation? That’s pretty much me with this whole deal!!!
5. I have mentioned that this year I’m trying to increase my mileage and still be smart about it and this morning I looked to see how many miles I have for the year compared to this time last year. I have more than 2x the miles already compared to last year at this point!!! Actually, it is about 2.36 times more!!! (yes – I did the real math!!!)
Today’s 44 is one of those moves that looks like it’s no big deal but after you do a few you will feel it for sure!!!
Start with weights in each hand and arms in an upright row position –
start
From this position, flip your arms out and up over head –
top position
Roll your arms back in front of you to the start to complete the first rep. I started with 8 pound dumbbells but dropped down to 5 pounds after the first 22 because I could feel myself trying to swing the dumbbells. 44 of these were a challenge!!
Today is the 4th day of 100 jumping lunges – not my favorite but such an effective move – thanks, Taylor for really challenging me!!!
And, another day on the treadmill – always a happy thing!!! Today was a quick 7 miles (1.5% incline – 47:51) and then 1.5 easy miles to finish up.
Some days my heart is happy to the point of overflowing!! Today is a happy heart day for sure!
This week has been a week of exciting new things for both of my boys.
Hunter has really been busy with cello stuff this year – school, Youth Philharmonic, private lessons, group…..In early January he submitted an entry to the Topeka Young Musician Awards. Only 4 sting instruments (from all the 7th graders in Topeka) advance to the next level. We found out Saturday that Hunter is one of those 4!!!
picture from last year
Hunter is nervous because this will be his first big solo in front of a large audience but he will be great. The winner gets $200 and 2nd place $100 – he’s hoping to get his first cash prize!!!
Jordan did something at the beginning of this week that is completely outside of his comfort zone – he auditioned for a play with the Topeka Civic Theater. Jordan is very quiet outside of our home except with a few good friends but a friend who has been acting for years talked him into it because it is his favorite book, movie…..
We found out yesterday that he has a couple of roles in the play!!!! I’m so proud of him for even trying out and now he will be doing something that makes him nervous but that he is excited about!!!
I’m proud of both boys for even trying these things and I’m proud of them for being willing to push themselves outside of their comfort zones to perform in front of others!!!
Today’s 44 really worked my hamstrings!!! I did a single leg dead lift (starting with the right leg) followed by a right kick. About the time my right leg was jelly, I switched to the left for a second set of 44!!
Yikes – I should have sucked in my stomach during this move – oops!! I used 15 pound dumbbells for this move and I know that I will feel this in my hamstrings and butt later!!
Still trying to juggle Michelle Bridges with other workouts. I’m pulling out parts of some of the daily MB workouts to do in addition to other workouts and that is working well for me. Today I did TaeBo – Extremely Ripped. This is 60 minutes of fast pace TaeBo with weights for the 2nd half!!! I started with 8 pound weights but because of the fast pace had to drop down to 5s!!
The other day Chris and I watched this movie. It wasn’t at all what either one of us were expecting!!! I truly thought the premise of the movie was gambling – WRONG!!!
The basic premise is that Matthew McConaughey’s character has AIDS. He is given 30 days to live – goes to Mexico finds a DR that is using medicine that hasn’t been FDA approved yet and 3 months later has improved. He sneaks the drugs in and instead of selling the drugs/vitamins he sells monthly “memberships” to the Dallas Buyers Club with access to unlimited meds.
Beyond the movie itself, I think what really got me was the drastic weight loss that McConaughey underwent for this role. Depending on what source you read he lost approximately 38 pounds and went from being fit to a skeleton.
He is about 5’11” -6′ (again depending on the source) and went from 170ish pounds down closer to 130 for this movie.
Actually, several of the actors in this movie underwent drastic weight loss to play their roles.
Here is my problem – actors do this kind of extreme weight loss (or weight gain) for roles fairly often and aren’t criticized by the media. In fact, often they are praised and rewarded by nominations for awards.
However, for 2 weeks now, Rachel from the Biggest Loser has been blasted by the media for her weight loss. Whether she lost too much or not isn’t up to me to judge – I think that she played a game (because that is what The Biggest Loser really is all about) to win and she did just that.
I don’t think she looks any worse than McConaughey and he lost the weight much quicker than she did!!
I guess my whole point is that the extreme weight loss happens in lots of areas and while I don’t think it is ever healthy, I don’t understand why in one case the person is overly criticized and in the other case they are praised.
Have you seen The Dallas Buyers Club?
Do you think that it is more acceptable when actors go through extreme weight changes (very quickly) to play a role than when other people do the same thing?
is one of those things that I had never tried.
