November Foodie Pen Pal Reveal

Happy Friday y’all!

I have been really bad about remembering to do these posts.  I have my packages delivered to work because I have had packages sent to my home stolen in the past.  So I rip them open right away and start going to town on all the goodies before I even take pictures.

Notice the bars I got this month…see how the Almond and Coconut KIND bar is empty?

This is just the beginning of the lovely package I got from Rebecca.  She doesn’t blog…she just Foodie Pen Pals  for the fun of it!

I guess I should start with the cute card.  One of the requirements of Foodie Pen Pals is having a hand written note.  It is a nice little touch!

I didn’t take a picture of her note but she mentioned she thought the goodies she got me were boring.  Far from it sister!   I did tell her I was trying to go Paleo and that I was interested in finding new kinds of protein powders.  Here are the goods:

Baby Belle loves this stuff.   I have only had a little taste.  I am waiting to stock up on my yogurt stash to have this as a topping.

She definitely hooked me up with my protein powder request.  Check this out!

I have never tried Plant Fusion before so I am excited to give it a whirl.  I will tell you what I think next week as I plan to try it out here in the next day or so!  I have all 4 flavors here so I can review them all!

She also added some Body by Vi flavor mix in’s that I can use to flavor my shakes.  Great way to change things up so I don’t get bored as protein shakes are what I use after crossfit since it is about a 25 minute drive to and from.

I know the Neuro is also from Body by Vi and I have tried it before and loved it.  I haven’t tried the Lights On or Lights Off before and they are from DynaMAXX.  I will fill you in on those when I give them a try.

And then I got these as a bonus.  I gave Kevin the mints and the salve went straight to the medicine cabinet.  This will be great for winter colds!

Thank you so much Rebecca!  I love EVERYTHING!

Remember that you don’t have to be a blogger to join Foodie Pen Pals.  Go here to sign up and to read the rules :)!

And….if any of you are smart with computers can you help me figure out how to put the Foodie Pen Pals button on my blog?  I’ll love you forever!

Have a great weekend!

Do you have any fun weekend plans?

Shaunna

 

 

 

Progress!!!!!

Hi y’all!

I made some huge progress lately and I am so excited I want to shout it off the rooftops!

1.  I got brave at crossfit today.  Really brave.  🙂  We had pull ups today and I used my normal purple band (which makes pull ups the easiest).  I did the WOD and felt okay about it.  I don’t sweat as much as the others in class so I sometimes feel like I could be pushing myself a little more…anyway…after class I noticed that someone was using a green band which is the band that makes it easier but no where close to the purple band.  I got up there and tried it.  I was inches from getting over the bar but it was nice to see my body moving up there.  The coach (a female who I have seen working out with us but never coaching) asked if I had tried the black band before, which is the band that would be my next hardest level.  I said no and grabbed it and easily did 5 pull ups with it.  Then another girl asked if anyone had talked to me about moving my arms closer together.  I tried that and it was even better!  I shyly told the group I was struggling with pull ups but until today had never asked questions about it.  Yay!  I felt so cool walking out of class, making connections and PROGRESS!

2.  I have been tracking my calories.  EVERY DAY this week so far.  I have gone over about 200 calories every day but at least I am getting in the habit of tracking!  Go me!  I have still been wavering in the 144-146 range since I last reported my  weight and I won’t get weighed again until Saturday so I hope to see some good results.

3.  I bought my first stash of grass fed beef.  The nutritional guru at Primal recommended Wallace Farms to me after I had questioned how he was able to buy all the healthy stuff with a limited budget.  I would go to my local Hy-Vee and their grass fed beef was $7.99 a pound.  I couldn’t justify that when I can get regular beef for $2.99.  Wallace Farms was decently priced and I felt good dealing with a local company.  They have their ground beef at $6.50 and it is less the more you buy.  The process was simple, you register online,  pick a date and location for pick up, order your product and pay and they have it all ready for you.  I am making a taco soup tonight with some of the ground beef!  I can’t wait to try it although I hope to make hamburgers or something soon so I can really taste the difference.

4.  Baby Belle is making some hair-do progress.

Look at this pony tail!

What are some jazzy things that you have been making progress on?

Tomorrow is Friday!

Shaunna

 

I Am A Warrior

Good golly!  Guess what I did!

Time to get my booty into gear.  I am going to continue going to Crossfit Primal to work on my strength but need to focus on the running part…in the cold.

I need your ideas and suggestions….pretty please.

Have any of you done the Warrior Dash before?  How was your experience?

Have a great day!

Shaunna

	Hello Shaunna Maxwell, Thank you for joining 2013 Warrior Dash Iowa. Your event registration is complete, your event details are below.2013 Warrior Dash Iowa Location: 137th Street, Earlham, IA 50072 Date: 07/27/2013 Time: 09:00 am Number of Participants: 1 Name: ShaunnaMaxwell

Toddler Tuesday-Bathtub Painting

Happy Tuesday!

I am hoping to make Toddler Tuesday a regular thing.  I have a bunch of fun ideas to try with Baby Belle so I will keep rolling it out until I run out of ideas!  Today’s idea unfortunately was a big giant FAIL!

I made cornstarch paint.  I was too lazy to look on my Pinterest page to get the exact recipe so I made it up.  What I came up with was an ooey, gooey paint slime.  It was perfect.  I mixed them up in a muffin tin so Baby Belle could have fun learning the different colors.

I stripped Baby Belle down into her diaper and planned to let her go nuts!

She did this.  Looked.  Didn’t touch.  I tried painting on the tub to show her the concept but she wanted no part in it.  I put some on her belly to show her she could get messy with it and whoops!  She didn’t like that….at all!

(Sorry for the crappy pictures.  I didn’t realize I had my flash on the whole time!)  She screamed!  Finally she stopped crying but I think that I traumatized her and I was the only one that was a mess!

I may have to try this another time!  I thought she would love it…..but maybe she didn’t like being confined to the bath tub so we might try again this summer and let her go outside.

Do you have any fun ideas for us to try?  Feel free to leave a link to an idea!

Follow me on Pinterest here!

Until tomorrow!

Shaunna

YOLO-Brush Your Shoulders Off

I had a great YOLO Thanksgiving break.  I mean great.

Date night with my sister.  We went to Orange Leaf for fro yo and then went to see Pitch Perfect.  It was pretty funny and the music was awesome!

Made these brownies for dessert for our Lasagna Thanksgiving feast.  Cookie dough in the bottom, a Reeses Peanut Butter cup in the middle and covered in brownie batter.  I totally used box and pouch mixes.  Set the oven at 375 and it took about 10 minutes.  Warm them in the microwave or eat them warm…..to die for!!!!!

I drank a bottle of wine over the course of the long weekend.  I also ate an entire cup of cookie dough.  YOLO!

I ate all that junk.  I didn’t work out.  I promised I wouldn’t feel guilty.  Guess what?  I don’t.  I know that I didn’t do my body right.  I know the scale will show it.  But my body feels and looks the same and it was damn tasty.

I am throwing all of the promises I have made to myself out the window.  I will continue making goals for myself and will strive for them but I am also remembering YOLO and cutting myself some slack.

So…through the end of the year I will:

1.  Work out at least 5 days a week.

2.  Eat healthy most of the time.  Eat cookie dough and drink wine the rest of the time.

3.  Enjoy the holiday season with my friends and family.

🙂

Shaunna

Habits

Ugh.  I can feel myself getting in a slump.  I am not fighting it…I am going with the flow.  This slump is caused by bad habits that I just can’t seem to shake.  Let us pretend I am participating in a 12 step program.  Here is the part where I admit some of my many habits that are slumpifying me 😦

1.  I never finish anything that I set my mind to.  My will power completely sucks.
Um…Turkey Day Challenge anyone?  I owe the hungry about $1500.  When it comes to my health I have a really hard time being a hard ass on myself and diving WAYYYYY too far into the YOLO (You only live once) mindset.  I can’t find a happy medium and I can’t muster up enough will power not to fizzle out of every challenge I set my mind too.  I frustrate myself!  😦

2.  Snooze.  I hate hitting snooze yet I still hit it 3 times every single day.  At least 3 times….

3.  My patience still stinks.  I think I need to start reading self help books.

4.  I have been wanting to read the bible.  Remember my 30 in 30 list?.  I even bought a bible study book and haven’t picked either of them up.  I guess this would go back to how I never finish what I start right?

5.  I have a horrible habit of making huge to do lists…only to have them stay in my purse and not get completed.  Watching The Voice is way more important right?

6.  This blog.  Re-read #1.

I am gonna hang in there and think about this over the weekend.

I am going to eat lasagna.

I will clean my office and sit in there and get my goals prioritized.

I will announce them on Monday.

That is unless I don’t finish that either.  🙂

Shaunna

Fitmixer Boot Camp=Healthy New Year

Hey friends!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  I had a fabulous weekend that included a little bit of this:

 

So this blog is something that I had been wanting to do for a looooong time.  I have been plodding along and really enjoy sharing my health and mama experience with my friends, family and readers!  It never would have happened without Fitmixer you know.  In my first few posts I talked a little bit about my Fitmixer bootcamp experience which I loved.  I have a really hard time following through with things and I really puttered out in the end but it was an awesome thing for me.  Here are a few things I learned:

1.  To love my body no matter what.  I truly struggled with my kangaroo pouch (this is what I call my baby belly aftermath).  Despite the fact that I weighed LESS during and after the bootcamp than I did BEFORE getting pregnant I still had a midsection that was less than attractive to me.  I hated working out and being diligent about what I was eating when I knew that no matter what I did my stomach would still look stretched out and tiger striped.  Fitmixer had us do homework assignments, weekly calls and videos to help us learn to love our bodies NO MATTER WHAT.  In the end I learned not to focus on my belly (which I should be eternally grateful about the fact I was able to carry Baby Belle in there for 9 months) and focus on things that I could see improvements on like my guns!  🙂

2.  I learned cool workouts that I have never seen or heard of before.  Fitmixer really did a great job keeping the daily workouts fresh, fun and inventive!

3.  I met some great blogger friends while doing the bootcamp which has inspired Mama’s 13 Minute Mile.

So Fitmixer is starting a new bootcamp on January 14th of next year.  What a great way to start off the new year with a healthy bang!  Here are the details of what is included in the bootcamp:

Here’s a reminder of what the $149.95 fee will include:

• $154.45 worth of fitmixer® product(at retail value):
  • One (1) six-pound bag of chocolate or vanilla fitmixer® slim®
  • One (1) six-pound bag of chocolate or vanilla fitmixer® protein®
  • One (1) one-pound bottle of fruit punch fitmixer® amino®
  • One (1) one-pound bottle of grape fitmixer® amino®
  • One (1) fitmixer® Boot Camp shaker bottle
• A personalized, improved nutrition plan created by our Registered Dietitian
• 40 daily workouts created by a certified group fitness trainer
• Eight (8) weekly webcasts lead by our Registered Dietitian and Fitness Expert
• Lessons on healthy eating, healthy living, physical fitness, and mental fitness that will last a lifetime
• Support from fellow Boot Camp participants through fitmixer.com and the private fitmixer® Boot Camp Facebook Group
• Direct contact with our Registered Dietician, Fitness Expert, and fitmixer® staff
• Access to write blogs and leave comments on the fitmixer® website

Participants can register for the Boot Camp now at our registration page.

I would definitely recommend it.  The protein and slim shakes taste great and you have a wonderful team helping you hit your goals!

Feel free to email me with any questions at shulrick@yahoo.com and if you do sign up please let them know I referred you!

Shaunna

Out and About

I have been a pretty social gal here lately.  I am a pretty big deal.  Last week met some of my Supper Club pals at Exile Brewing Company which is a fairly new joint in downtown Des Moines.  It is a pretty hip place and I felt pretty jazzy being in there.

Their menu is pretty awesome but this girl is on a budget so I ended up getting this:

“father guido sarducci,” hand pattied burger, pancetta, parmesan crisps, lettuce, tomato, onion, italian dressing

I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture but I ate the hell out of that burger.  Each and every bite was delish and the burger was cooked to perfection.  It came with french fries that were crisp and seasoned!

I paired it with the Hannah.  Yum.

Pretty good times.  If you are in the area and want to join a fun group of gals we generally meet up the 2nd Thursday of the month.  Once I know where we are going next month (huh Kim?) I will announce here so you can join us if you want.

 

Just one night after Exile…I went to a concert.  I haven’t gone to a concert since I was hugely pregnant with Baby Belle and Kevin drug me to a Further concert.  I was miserable.  Wilson Phillips on the other hand was much better!

I went with group of my girlfriends and it was so fun.  A couple of them were old pals from high school that I haven’t seen in FOREVER!

They played a lot of cover songs which I wasn’t that big of a fan of but when they played some of their hits…oh I was in heaven.

Clearly I am a big fan.

So that is what I have been up to lately.

What fun things have you been doing?

Tomorrow is Friday!!!!

Shaunna

Turkey Day Lasagna Feast

I am hosting Thanksgiving at my house this year and decided against the big turkey dinner because the thought of cooking a bird and all the fixins’ totally intimidates me.  Instead I have decided to make a few different lasagnas, make fresh bread and a salad.  I plan on making a traditional lasagna but thought about making a couple cray cray ones as well.  Here are some ideas:

This butternut squash and sage lasagna from marthastewart.com looks delish.

Or this cheesy chicken ranch lasagna…holla!

I love spinach and artichoke dip so wouldn’t I love this spinach and artichoke lasagna?

And because I am trying to limit my carbs…this lasagna that uses zucchini instead of noodles would be a great alternative!

Which lasagna would you like best?  Be sure to comment so I can make it and tell you how it was!

Make it a great day!

Shaunna

Toddler Tuesday-Pop Bottle Bowling

My goodness.  I am sure you can tell from my lack of posts that I haven’t been in tune with my goals thus far.  I owe the food bank another $10 but I still do not suck.  I feel really great about where I am at but I fully intend on going full force from here on out 🙂

I thought a great Tuesday theme would be Toddler Tuesday.  I love testing out new ideas with Baby Belle to see how she likes them.  On my Pinterest page I found a little tidbit on bowling with pop bottles.  Kevin and my sis use cans so my lovely mother (hi mom!) was kind enough to send us some empty bottles.  I meant to have Baby Belle decorate them but I didn’t get to that…maybe for another day.

It took her a while to get the concept.  She also doesn’t have the best arm right now.  Her throws go pretty wild and it took her awhile to finally throw the ball toward the pins.

When she didn’t knock them down with the ball she took matters into her own hands.

Despite my efforts to cheer her on she lost interest in bowling pretty quickly.  But she still played with the bottles in her own way.

I thought letting her paint them and then having me add a piece of brightly colored paper with the numbers 1-10 might be fun as she could work on her numbers as well.  We will continue to hold on to these “pins” and work with them more.

Do you have any fun ideas or activities I can try with Baby Belle? 

Until tomorrow!

Shaunna