Nashville in a nuttshell

I went to Nashville TN last week for work and it was an experience to say the least:

It was so sad leaving these sleeping boys



This MAN had some killer shape ups on the plane...with his business suit.



While waiting to change planes I found this mother ASLEEP at the terminal while her little girl ran amuck.



The map of my hotel for the week. We stayed at the Gaylord Opryland, super nice, super huge. I got lost multiple times.


One of the "islands" inside the hotel. Looks like the river walk if you ask me.




Elvis at a tech expo. Only in Nashville.


80's cover band and free airbrush tattoos one night. This conference was crrrrrazy haha.




Yummy room service my last night there. The food was amazing the whole stay.



Finally home with these two love birds.



All in all it was a good trip but I missed my routine and boys way too much :)

Happy Monday!

Chocolate before a workout...YES PLEASE

GREAT NEWS from FitSugar

Add another benefit of chocolate to your justification list: not only does dark chocolate help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, soothe a cough, and increase blood flow, but a new study now says it also can help you perform better if you eat it right before a workout.

The study looked at rats given either water or liquid extract of epicatechin, the healthy flavonoid found in dark chocolate that gives the sweet its many benefits, and found that rats who drank the extract ran as much as 50 percent farther than rats who drank only water. Epicatechin, the study found, binds to receptors in muscles, which may help them resist fatigue.

Wait, don't start gobbling the good stuff just yet! Read on for how much chocolate you should eat before a workout.

Good news, right? But don't take this research to mean you should chow down on a huge chocolate bar right before you hop on the treadmill. Only a small amount of dark chocolate is needed to reap the performance-enhancing benefits of the sweet, says the study's lead researcher, who also notes that eating a lot would undo any benefits by overloading muscle receptors. Small means five grams, or only about half a square of a dark chocolate bar. Also, don't think you can get by with a milk chocolate treat — too much processing undoes any positive effects of epicatechin, he says.

If you are looking for some dark chocolaty preworkout snack ideas, try these:

A sprinkle of dark cocoa in your Greek yogurt (with some honey if needed).

A handful of high-quality dark chocolate chips right before your workout.

A few dark-chocolate-covered mini pretzels.

A sprinkle of cocoa into a cup of coffee for even more endurance benefits.

A handful of trail mix containing cocoa nibs, nuts, and dried fruit.

A piece of Alter Eco Dark Quinoa Chocolate for another mix of proteins and carbs.

Still craving chocolate after your workout? Reach for some chocolate milk after an intense session — chocolate milk makes a great recovery drink!

Are bee's really that busy?

You know the expression "busy bee"? Where did it come from? How do we know bee's are busy and not sitting on the couch enjoying a glass of honey? 

I guess you could say I've been a busy bee lately. I've kicked up my training this season and have been running 5 mornings a week at 6am. It's gotten to the point where I don't even need an alarm to get up at 5am, which is good I guess. Then I usually do weights 2 nights, cycle 2 nights, and yoga saturday and sunday. CRAZY! But I am addicted and really focusing on being healthy and fit. I've also started reading The Skinny Bitch. Such a good eye opening book! I haven't finished it yet but I love it so far. I really like the tone they use, it's more real rather then someone sugar coating it to you.

Jeff and I make a point to cook and have dinner together every night of the week. I really enjoy that time together. We are both so busy and it's nice to have an hour or two of just us cooking, eating , and chatting about our week. We try and catch a movie every week ((I'm a HUGE movie goer)), have a late night dip in the pool to calm down at the end of the day, or take cooper for a really long walk on the greenbelt. 

Is it just our house or are you constantly doing laundry? I guess when you think aout it I change clothes almost 4 times daily. 1. Morning run 2. Work clothes 3. afternoon work out and 4. PJ's. I feel like as soon as the laundry is all done and put away the hamper is full again. The circle of laundry I guess. 

Anyways jam packed weekend filled with 9 miles Saturday morning and Footloose in Zilker Park!

Expect a better update on Monday! Happy almost weekend blogworld.

track team back again

So Kristen and I went to our first track practice today! Wasn't as bad as I though it would be. It was actually an awesome work out. Looking forward to many Tuesday mornings to come.

On a side note: be careful in this heat. It is getting crazy hot out there and the humidity doesn't help one bit. I think that is the main motivation for getting up at 5am...20 degree difference in heat. I don't mind the early mornings anymore, that is until about 1pm. Then it starts to hit me that I've been up for 8 hours already.

Another side note: I love our team this season. It's a lot of newbies and everyones is always so supportive and motivating.

Only 3 months and 13 days left until marathon #2. 

I can't believe that by the end of 2011 I will have run 2 full marathons and 3 1/2 marathons. Not to forget over 500 miles of running in just practice alone. 

It's defiantly become 2nd nature, not the running so much, but the getting up at 5am and starting the day out with a nice little 4 miles run. I will tell you I canNOT wait for this humidity to let up a little. Coming into the worse and final month of summer and I hope and pray it flies by.

Stay cool today ladies and gents! Don't forget to DONATE.

Please and Thank you.

ily

I love my BF. That is all for this busy little Monday.

xoxo

Reesa

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.