Getting enough rest:

Ugh, is it 6:30 a.m. already? If you constantly wake up in the morning exhausted and in a fog, here are eight reasons why. Again from fitsugar.com

1. Your room is like a cave. I love sleeping in utter darkness, but if blackout shades prevent daylight from streaming in and slowing waking you up, your internal clock won't know day from night. Exposure to sunshine in the morning will signal your brain that it's time for your body to waken. And when you do, it'll be gradual, so you'll wake up feeling rested.
2. You skipped yesterday's workout and actually can't remember the last time you sweat it out. Exercise burns calories, but it also burns up energy. If you have too much, you'll be too restless to settle. Stick to a regular exercise routine, working out at least three or four times a week in order to reap the benefits in the bedroom.
3. You stayed up late tweeting and looking at friends' Facebook photos. I know it's difficult to disconnect from the world, but when you check your email "real quick" it's easy to get sucked in and before you know it, an hour has gone by. Besides keeping you up late, the lights from your phone, computer, and TV stimulate you brain, so when you finally shut off the lights, it takes your mind a while to calm down enough to drift off to sleep. Make a promise to shut off all technology at least an hour before bedtime and read a book, take a bath, or do some stretches before bed instead.

Continue reading to find out other reasons why you're not waking up rested.

4. You ate sausage and onions for dinner. Heartburn is especially uncomfortable when you try to lie down. You won't be able to fall asleep or stay asleep if you're burping and dealing with a burning esophagus. When you can't sleep or stir several times in the middle of the night, you'll wake up feeling tired. To remedy this issue avoid spicy food, citrus fruits, tomato sauce, and other foods that cause indigestion.
5. You drank too much caffeine. Aside from the buzz caffeine gives, it can also cause heartburn. Stop drinking caffeinated beverages by midafternoon or earlier if you notice they're making you too hyper or gassy to chill out and sleep.
6. You polished off a bottle of wine right before bed. Not only does drinking too close to bedtime cause you to wake up to have to pee, but the alcohol can interfere with your body's sleep patterns. You might crash hard, but alcohol tends to cause tossing and turning during the night, and a morning after drinking almost always makes you feel groggy.
7. You forgot to put your phone on vibrate. There's nothing wrong with keeping your cell phone by your bed, but you don't need to know that you got email at 3 a.m. When a night of sleep is interrupted, it makes you feel like you haven't slept a wink. Any noises that could potentially rouse you from sleep need to be shut down. That goes for your air conditioner, birds chirping from an open window, a running toilet, or your barking dog. If you can't prevent certain noises, invest in a white noise machine or keep a fan on low to drone out any sounds that could wake you up.
8. You can't stop thinking about work, the fight you had with your BF, or your upcoming vacation. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad, if you're staying up late thinking about things, you're not sleeping. Keep a notebook and pen next to your bed and jot down lists, reminders, or write what you're feeling to get it all out of your brain so you can settle down and fall asleep.

Fitness Week:

This week I decided I'm going to post some of my favorite fitness regimens. Some of you may know these and some may not, either way ready away:

First off Foam Rolling from FitSugar

Wouldn't it be nice to end every active week with an intense deep-tissue massage to help ease your muscles? But since we can't always spring for a trip to the spa, here's what we can do — use the foam roll at the gym.

You may have seen people in the gym foam rolling and think it's just for serious athletes or gym rats, but that's not the case. But there are many reasons why massaging out the tight knots in muscles is an important part of your workout routine, even if you already stretch regularly. Why? Because no matter how much you stretch, the build up of fascia that creates muscle knots that won't go away, which can lead to many different problems.

I've been consistently seeing my trainer for a few weeks, and the aftermath is clear: not only am I working new sets of muscles (meaning new ways of being sore) but I'm also realizing how much more I need to be foam rolling. My trainer, Tim Rich at Crunch Gym, says that everyone, avid athlete or not, should be using those long spongy cylinders daily. Read on for why and how you should be foam rolling every day.

• Helps prevent common injuries. One of the most important reasons for a regular foam-rolling routine is to prevent those often too common exercise-related injuries. Many runners, for example, become painfully well acquainted with their IT band if they don't take care to massage the band of tissue. IT band syndrome and other similar flare-ups can be caused by too-tight muscles. Foam rolling every day ensures you are massaging away fascia buildup in your muscles, in order to help prevent those areas from becoming injury trigger points.
• Helps you de-stress. Had a hard day? Foam roll your worries away. Digging for those knots "releases tension that is built up in the connective tissue to keep you less stressed," says Tim. He recommends a simple all-over body routine in order to combat the "desk posture blues" that happen from sitting too long in the office.
• Keeps you flexible. Building up your flexibility is key for any fitness routine, Tim says, which means you constantly should be stretching and doing exercises that'll help you gain flexibility. Stretches that lengthen your hip flexors, for example, can help combat tightness from sitting as well as lower back pain.

The more regularly you use a foam roll on your tight muscles, the less painful it'll be.

daily links:

Thought I'd share a few of my daily website visits. Some funny, some practical, some shopping, some interesting, just a little bit of everything for every mood.

1. PopSugar love love LOVE this site. They have everything from celebrity gossip to fashion to fitness. Just click on the tabs on top for health, food, kids, beauty, and much more. I get some many great ideas and tips from this website. I check it more than once a day for updates too.

2. Dear Blank just recently stumbled upon this site and it instantly put a smile on my face. Great mid-day laugh if you need one.

3. The Beauty Department I have always been a fan of Lauren Conrad so I was excited when she launched this sight. Great hair, makeup, fashion, and just overall tips from her and her stylists. I love getting new ideas for hair and make up too. They put up video tutorials  quite often on some of LC's signature looks. 

4. Frugal-Fashionistas found this a few years back and have been an avid reader since. I love finding celebrity looks of my own so I was excited to fin a site that did it for me.   They take recent celeb looks and find them for less. Great for those of you who love Forever21 and H&M (also great sites I visit weekly)

5. Hello Giggles little bit of everything on here. Can keep me bus for hours.

6. Our Best Bites great recipes from sweets to healthy portions! I'm a pretty plain and simple eater so I love trying to find new ideas for the kitchen. 

7. Healthy Bitch  name says it all. GREAT website for you health nuts out there. I get weekly emails filled with advice, fitness tips, cooking secrets and more. 

best advice

Ladies and Gentlemen 

Wear sunscreen. 

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term 

benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis or 

reliable then my own meandering experience.  

I will dispense this advice....now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. 

Oh, never-mind, you won't understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded, but trust me in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. 

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind: the kind that blindsides you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy.  

Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.  

The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive; forget the insults. (if you succeed in doing this, tell me how).

Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.  The most interesting people 

I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year 

olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of Calcium.  

Be kind to your knees -- you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.  Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.  Maybe you'll 

divorce at 40; maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either.  

Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body: use it every way you can.  

Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it; it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have no where to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions (even if you don't follow them).

Do not read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents; you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings: they're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in 

the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but what a precious few should hold on.  

Work hard to bridge the gaps and geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you.  Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse, but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you are 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.  

Advice is a form of nostalgia; dispensing it is a way of wishing the past from the disposal--wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me, on the sunscreen. 

4th

Every year on the 4th of July my neighborhood back home hosts a race called 5 mile my way. Yo can walk, run, bike, rollerblade, skateboard, whatever you wish through the neighborhood for 3 or 5 miles. We used to do this when I was younger and I thought it would be a fun way to get my miles in on Monday. I guess this race seemed so much bigger when I was little, that or the turn out has shrunk quite a bit since back then.

Jeff and my God sister Lara ran it with me and we had a blast. It was fun to revisit the race after all these years and see how much had changed. Boy was it hot though! We all finished though and had a great time running it. Shirts to prove it haha.

Before the race:

After the race:

In TNT news we had our mission practice this past Saturday. I was out of town last season and never made it to mission practice so this was a first for me. It was pretty awesome hearing from one of our honored teammates and really reminds me of what I'm doing this for. I started a new concept to push myself when I feeling like walking or skipping a workout: There are people out there who don't have the option to skip a doctors appointment or surgery when they don't feel like it. So i push myself to finish and complete my runs to the best of my ability because I have the option to fight and I'm going to!

Don't forget every penny counts. I'll do the running all you have to do is type your CC info :)

Thanks again for all the love and support!