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Some Semblance of Normalcy

This week has been a whirlwind. I’m sorry that I haven’t been posting more but right now the most important thing is that I’m here for my family as a daughter. Thank you for your feedback thus far on the new blog design. It’s been a long work in progress but I’m so excited to see how far it’s come!

In order to keep some sort of semblance of normalcy in my day, I’ve been running each morning from 8-9am. While my runs have only been 3-4 miles each day due to timing, it’s been a wonderful way for me to just get out and have time to think and process everything taking place this week. Two of my runs were sans music which allowed me to focus on breathing. It has also been a nice practice run before the summer heat as my body is slowly getting adjusted to the Savannah heat and humidity again. Yesterday’s high was 90 degrees with humidity of near 80%!

 

In addition to working out, my mom and I have tried to ensure that we continue to eat healthy. During mourning, Southerners love to bring food. It’s there way of helping the family out. But thus far we’ve received delicious, rich food from more people than you could imagine. We’re balancing this out with healthy breakfast and lunch each day.

 

I forgot how much fun it is to sit around a kitchen table enjoying a meal with others. We’ve been talking, reflecting, and laughing during every meal together! Every family and person deals with death in a different way but for us, we’ve dealt with it by talking and being open about our feelings. Hey, it’s okay if you break down during a pedicure- you have a great excuse!

In addition, we’re enjoying the time with family members who are in town for the funeral. Last night my aunt arrived from North Caroline and provided us with a wonderful excuse to enjoy rooftop happy hour drinks and then a delicious dinner downtown.

If you ever make it down to Savannah, I highly recommend getting drinks at the Bohemian Hotel’s bar, Rocks on the Rooftop. The prices are reasonable and the views are gorgeous.

 

 

 

Best Friends!

For dinner, we walked down the block to Vic’s on the River. Located along historic Savannah’s River Street, their food is always reliable and the service is even better. Their specialties include the freshest crab cakes I’ve ever enjoyed and a filet mignon that leaves my dad and brother raving. Last night especially, I can’t say enough about the service. We were waiting on my brother to arrive and therefore wanted to make dinner last longer. My personal favorites last night were the fried green tomato appetizers we shared and my crab cake entrée. I didn’t touch the risotto as it was just too rich but the crab cakes were made from lump crab and seasoned perfectly!

 

Our waitress coursed our appetizers and kept our wine glasses full so we never realized that it had been an hour by the time Ryan arrived. Two hours later we left satiated by the Southern food and thankful for the amazing family we have.

As you can tell from the breakfast picture above, my parents and I are in the midst of planning our trip to Maui. Are there any places you’d recommend or things we can’t miss while we’re there in April?

 

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Ashley D /

Healthier Indulgences

Good morning gang! As I promised, there are some great guest posts on the way this week which will range in topics from food to workouts. Hopefully yesterday’s booty busting workout has you ready to mix up your workout while today’s post will leave you with some healthy inspiration.

Thank you so much for all your kind comments and warm thoughts regarding my Papa’s passing. It was been a very draining week thus far but I’ve been so thankful to be here to support my mom and family. Who knew there was so much to do?! Without further adieu, I’ll turn it over to Gretchen, my hilarious DC blogger diva who has a knack not only for delicious food but fun, inspired photography.

Hey there, healthy & happier folks! My name is Gretchen and I blog about life, my love of food, and my 60-pound (so far!) weight loss over at Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen!

As mentioned, I am an avid lover of food (hence the necessity to start a weight loss blog in the first place, haha), and am always trying to find a way to balance life’s necessary indulgences with a healthy lifestyle. Diets that deprive you of certain dishes or ingredients in the name of "health" never work, in my opinion. It takes an approach of moderation and balance in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle when it comes to food! One of my favorite ways to do this is to "healthify" some of my favorite foods with natural ingredients — we’re not just talking about swapping out sugar for Splenda here.
By keeping a few healthy item swaps in my back pocket, I’m able to eat more of my favorite foods without any fallout. The following recipes take advantage of these easy ingredient replacements to create final dishes that are just as decadent as the originals with far less fat and calories.
Chicken salad is a deli favorite of mine, but it’s usually dripped with mayo and goodness knows what else. My recipe for healthy chicken salad uses lean chicken breast and a dressing that includes plain, nonfat Greek yogurt (which tastes just like sour cream!) instead of mayonnaise. It’s also full of veggies to pack an extra healthy punch! It tastes great on its own as well as between two slices of bread. Yum!
I make no secret of the fact that potatoes are my true weakness. Baked, fried, au gratin, you name it, I love ’em all, but my hands-down favorite has always been mashed. Mashed potatoes are not generally known for being low on the caloric spectrum, however, with all the butter and cream (otherwise known as "deliciousness") that usually goes into them. My recipe for Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes replaces all of that with roasted garlic and a little bit of heart-healthy olive oil instead. This dish turns out so creamy and decadent, you’ll never believe there’s no butter in there! It’s my best excuse for eating mashed potatoes on days other than Thanksgiving.
No healthy recipe repertoire would be complete without at least one dessert in there! This easy, no-bake recipe for chocolate crème pie uses silken tofu as its secret ingredient that packs in a whopping 8 grams of protein per slice. Don’t balk at the thought of putting tofu in a dessert — you really can’t taste it at all! All that you end up with is creamy, dreamy, chocolatey bliss with a whole lot of nutrition behind it. So there you have it! Three recipes that make use of healthy ingredient swaps and don’t take away from the taste, texture, or general indulgence of each dish. Experiment by creating your own "healthified" recipes, and enjoy your favorite dishes without that extra side of guilt!
If you’d like to read more about me, weight loss journey, or my healthy recipes, please visit my blog, Honey, I Shrunk the Gretchen!

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Ashley D /

Last Resort Workout

On Friday, when I asked for guest posts, I was lucky enough to have some followers send posts over within minutes! The last thing someone wants to think about after a death is what to blog about. Therefore, over the next four days, you’ll see a mixture of posts such as the ones I wrote yesterday and Saturday, along with guest posts.

Today’s guest post comes from Katie, the creator and blogger of MomsLittleRunningBuddy.com, fitness junkie, former fitness competitor, runner, triathlete and working mom in the healthcare industry.  She’s been blogging since 2009 and has a passion for sharing her experiences and tips for staying fit and healthy while trying to maintain a balance. 

She carries that love of fitness into her extracurricular activities, which include sitting on the planning committee for Celebrate Fitness in St. Louis and motivating anyone who needs it. 

Her motto is “Make it Worth it” and wants everyone to know that it is possible to make time for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  Even if its 10 minutes to cook, make sure that 10 minutes is focused and purposeful.

I’m pretty sure I have some attention issues. There are days where I feel like that little kid in the outfield of a little league game who cannot pay attention to anything. It is on those days that I find it hard to have a consistent workout. Running for an hour seems insane and focusing long and hard enough to do a good weight workout is out of the question. So what do I do? I turn my gym into a big obstacle course of sorts.

This workout can take as long or as little time as you want but the goal is to burn calories. Remember, this workout is best used when you didn’t really even want to workout to begin with. Ready?! Let’s go:

Let’s start with a small cardio circuit:

1. Walk for 5 min

2. Jog/Run for 5 min (for me this is about a 6.2 or so)

3. SWITCH…Elliptical for 10 min (every minute increase your resistance)

4. SWITCH…Stair Machine (Every 2 minutes increase your speed)

Wow, that was a quick 30 min huh?! Now we should do some resistance training. Compound movements are the name of the game here. I will not lie; these are a combo of some of my own and favorites from the Nike Training Club App. Repeat these three moves three times resting only for a few seconds between.

1. Pushup/Chaturanga – Starting on the ground in the push up position, push up, then move arms so that your upper arm is sitting right by your rib cage, lower down to just above the floor and hold it for 2 or 3 seconds. Then raise back up, replace your arms in pushup position, execute a pushup and repeat. (I can do about 10 of these and then I’m shaking).

2. Alternating Forward Lunge with Arm Curl – You’ll need some weights for this. I use 10 lb dumbbells. Step one foot out, and drive down through your front heel, bring leg back in and curl the dumbbells up to your shoulders. (15/20 each side)

3. Sumo Squat with Lateral Raises – You’ll need some weights for this. With feet wide and toes out, squat and bring the dumbbells down towards the floor in front of you. Come up and lift your arms out to the side parallel to the ground. (15)

Then it is back to the cardio circuit for a final 20 minutes:

1. Run for 10 minutes. I like to try to be my best 1 mile time here and then some, so in other words…RUN FAST!

2. SWITCH…Elliptical. Cool down by doing a nice easy 10 minutes at your own pace.

Ok, that’s it. Pretty crazy huh? I usually leave the gym on nights where I do this working feeling like I really accomplished something. I have burned some calories and probably got a little extra energy back after a VERY long day. I hope that you will feel the same. Go ahead; try it. Let me know what you think.

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