November Mix Giveaway! Thankful Tunes

Well, November has been good to us. It has brought with it some good new tunes as well, so of course...I have decided to share. This months mix giveaway has some great songs that I have been blasting in the gym, in my house, and in my car. That is when you know they are good ones.

The songs of the month are...

Video Games - Lana Del Rey
Bittersweet - Ellie Goulding
Thinking About You - Calvin Harris
Where I Come From - Passion Pit
Girl On Fire - Alicia Keys
Jump - Rihanna
Holy Ground - Taylor Swift
Diamonds - Rihanna
Born To Die - Lana Del Ray
Found My Swag - The Bangz
Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
How to Love - Justin Bieber
Anything Could Happen - Ellie Goulding
I Cry - Flo Rida
Turn Up The Music -  Chris Brown
Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey
Nothing Fancy - David Barnes

To enter to win this mix...
1) Become a follower and leave a comment letting me know that you are one!
2) For an additional entry...leave a separate comment telling me what you are grateful for this November!
3) For more additional entries...tweet about the giveaway, blog about it, pin it, etc. and leave a separate comment for each telling me you did so!

Good Luck! The contest will end Monday December 3rd at midnight! The winner will be announced on Wednesday the 4th.

For previous workout playlists click HERE.

Paleo Zucchini Bread

I am ALWAYS looking for new fun and delicious Paleo recipes to try out. I have a whole Pinterest board full of them, HERE. Because of this, I love when people give me new ones to try out. My sweet friend Chels sent me the link to a website I'd never seen before that is full of fabulous looking recipes. The site is againstallgrain.com and I highly recommend checking it out! It is where I found the recipe for this delicious Zucchini bread.

Paleo Almond Flour Zucchini Bread
recipe from Against All Grain

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups blanched almond flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs beaten
1/4 cup honey
1 ripe banana
1 finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place eggs in bowl and beat them gently. Add honey and banana, and beat until frothy. Stir in shredded zucchini to combine. Add in dry ingredients and combine. Place in two mini loaf pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. SO TASTY! Thanks Danielle from Against All Grain for the great recipe, and Chels for finding it for me!

 

Now, tell me that doesn't make your mouth water? 

Get Your Family Moving!

On Saturday, my family decided to take a hike to the Wind Caves. My family definitely loves to eat, go to movies, sit and play games, and relax...BUT we always try to do some things that are active as well. Sometimes we run together, like we did for our Turkey Trot...and sometimes we shop together. (I totally count that as physical activity.) But on Friday, we hiked together. 

I think this is SO important for parents! Helping your kids to get physical activity is crucial. It is really easy to let them sit and watch TV or play on the computer all day, but that isn't doing much for their health.

We had a great time hiking, talking, and laughing...and of course taking all sorts of photos. Aren't those cacti unreal? I think they are such weird plants. Don't mind that I am the shrimp of the family. 

Plus, when you get to spend time outside, you will probably find some amazing sights to behold. It is a gorgeous world out there.

 The view from the top was awesome!

The scenery is so different from the pretty Utah landscape I am used to, but this is a definite desert kind of beautiful.

It was such a fun thing to do with the whole family! It definitely felt good to get moving after all sorts of Thanksgiving eating had gone down! Do you have fun ways to get your family moving?

Let Them Eat Turkey!

Thanksgiving dinner most definitely happened here. I think I am still full from it.

 We ate outside, which was awesome. It was in the eighties, and I loved every second of it! (You know I love everything having to do with the 80's...temperature, decade, music, those born in the decade...) My job was to create the veggie tray that looked like a turkey.

 Who said eating healthy wasn't fun? I think I may have a future in food art. Don't you? I was actually pretty close to my paleo self with my turkey day meal. The one exception being my mom's corn bread stuffing, which is absolutely to die for.

 My other standard Turkey day job is to roll out the rolls. I may or may not have made some as large as footballs...your welcome family. My nephew Blake, threw down about five of them...nbd.

 Yes, that is a roll in his hands. It is smothered in my mom's homemade jam. Elaine doesn't disappoint! I had so much fun spending the day with my family, and then of course getting to relax with a full tummy!

 The Smith Family turns out some good people, I must say.

We spent a lot of the day playing games. Our traditional bocce tourney was so much fun...maybe because I won...

And let's be honest, I don't hate winning at all... ;)

 It was such a great holiday! I have so much to be grateful for! I hope your holiday was just as fabulous! :)

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving! This fabulous day has just begun, and I already love it. We started off the morning with the Gilbert Turkey Trot that my brother-in-law puts on. We all know there is a LOT of eating that goes into this fabulous holiday, and so getting active first thing is a GREAT way to start the day!

My sister and I got up and ran 4 miles prior to the trot, to make sure we got some good mileage in.

We ended up doing the 5K as well, so we totaled at around 7 miles. Not a bad start tot he day. 

Now...onto the food! 

The 1-10-20-30 Workout

I'm home! Arizona home that is. I planned on sleeping in...which for me means not setting my alarm and getting up whenever I happen to wake up. Today that was 7:00 AM, and instead of lying in bed I decided to get up and go for a run. The weather here is SO nice! I was loving my life. Just running along, listening to T-Swift as the sun came up...delightful.

I got back from my run and I wanted to do some core/strength exercises to finish, but I didn't want to be too loud so I went through this simple series of exercises a few times. This is an AWESOME workout that you can literally do anywhere. On vacation, in your bedroom, at the gym, at the park...you name it...chances are you can do it there too.

Start with a one minute plank. You can make this harder by taking it to one foot, widening your leg stance, or adding in hip dips, etc.
Next, go to your walking push ups. Start standing, keep your legs straight and bend at the hips, putting your hands down on the floor. Walk yourself out to a push up position. Do a push up, walk back, and stand up. That counts as one.
Next, do 20 air squats in place. Go as deep as you possibly can, and stand and tuck those glutes. The bigger the motion the more you will be working it!
Lastly, do 30 full sit ups. Start lying all the way down on the ground, arms over your head, knees bent. Bring your arms over your head and sit up, until you can touch your shoe laces. That counts as one.

The great thing about this workout is you can repeat this simple process as many times as you need to. You could even add in some cardio bursts after the sit ups to elevate that heart rate. Awesome right? Try it out!

Going Going Gone.

Whenever I know I am leaving to go out of town my supply of fresh fruits and veggies tends to dwindle. I HATE not having fresh produce. It is one thing that really stresses me out. I know that lack of good food leads to increase of poor eating decisions. It's all about the preparation people. Luckily, one of my favorite salad bars is just down the street.

Enter, Brick Oven.

Doesn't that look awesome? If you only knew how excited I get when I am the first one to dive into this fresh deliciousness. I highly suggest you find a healthy "go to" quick place to get some healthy food, so you don't turn to bad decisions when you are short on time or groceries!

Today I am driving to Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my family, and I can hardly wait!!! My sister sent me this yesterday...

Yes, Nichole. Yes, I am ready.