Happy Wednesday, friends! Although I think it should already be Friday. This week just drags on and on and on and on and…you get it. At least I had a nice little break today. I woke up fully relaxed, thanks to a certain little baby sleeping 12 hours straight (!!!) last night for me. Pretend to be excited for me, okay? It’s big news in these parts. After helping M potty, I got to ease myself awake with a nice, long stretch.

I questioned moving my rest day to the middle of the week, but I liked the break. It also allowed me the time to hang out with a friend. Where else to do that than…the gym? On a rest day? Why, yes!

My good friend, Danielle, asked me to visit her gym with her and help her set up a couple of weight workouts. I whipped a few goodies together and happily hung out with her at the gym to walk her through all the moves.  Call me crazy, but even when not working out I still like being around fitness. I had a lot of fun playing “trainer” for the day. In fact, personal training is a career I highly consider pursuing when I decide to go back to more traditional forms of work (aka not blogging for a teensy weensy bit of side money) in a few years as the kiddos go to school.

It got me excited to consider that option perhaps playing out in my future. Honestly, I have so many different things I want to pursue and passions that fulfill me, so it will be interesting to see the paths life leads me down. I enjoy helping people achieve fitness goals. I love sharing insight and supporting those struggling with whole wellness. I adore writing and blogging and would love to include those in my life for, well, forever. Only God knows what I’ll be doing 5 years from now and I’m cool with that. I plan to just make the most of each day, follow my gut, and trust it will bring me to the right place. Reminds me of an awesome quote I came across recently – “Focus on achievements and forget about success. The former will bring about the latter.” So true!

Obviously, I had some time to think today. I had to distract myself from the raging hunger beast that attacked me after I got home. I wanted lunch right away but had to get the kiddos fed and down for naps first. I was chained to the rocker feeding baby B and doing all I could to take my mind off the unruly noises my stomach kept making. Once I could finally grab food, I went for fast and easy. Hence, the frozen meal pizza.

You know what? It sounded good. And it tasted good. I keep things like Amy’s frozen burritos & lasagnas, Lean Cuisine pizzas & paninis, and the occasional Kashi meals on hand for such emergency situations. Ain’t no shame in busting out the frozen meal! Some situations just call for it. Now, I must concern myself with eating some more. A delicious dinner that I cannot wait to share with you tomorrow!

PS - Check out my interview on the Fit Moms Fit Kids Club site!

Question of the Day – Do you ever do frozen meals? What is your favorite?

While I do tend to listen to my music rather loudly, I don’t mean turn up the music volume. I mean turn up the FOOD volume! While I certainly don’t consider myself a foodie in the sense of salivating at the thought of cooking or wetting myself over a new gourmet food or cool kitchen gadget, I’m still a “foodie”. I love to eat!

In order to make my love of eating fit into a healthy lifestyle, and still manage to drop those baby pounds, I do what I can to make my food stretch as far as possible. I turn up the volume! In every way I possibly can. And while I never shy away from eating or focus much on calories, I do have a voracious appetite to keep in check for my progress. 

Take today’s breakfast round two for example. (It’s round two because I always eat a little something before the gym as well). After my morning’s full body weight workout, I opted for my traditional oats. Why? Well, it fills me up like nothing else can. I stretch my oats far. I prepare them in the microwave (you caught me!) and always add extra liquid. I can do this by extending the cooking time using 50% power. This allows the oats to soak up more liquid and “puff up” more. Then, I always add extra almond milk before all my toppings to really get things nice and voluminous.

That ain’t no hold in the palm of your hand measly bowl there! <—Good grammar, eh?

For lunch, I said “no thank you” to the sandwich thins and made a sandwich with some of my favorite hearty bread. I love sandwich thins for certain things (like burgers), but for a sandwich with lighter innards, I want the full on bread! Pump up that volume even more with extra fruit and veggies. Stack that sandwich high with extra thick slices of tomato and a handful of spinach. Take some time chomping on two large carrots. Eat an entire mound of grapes and strawberries and make that tummy happy.

Veggies are my best friend at dinner. Boy, do they know how to bulk up a meal! My pasta bowls should really be called veggie bowls with some pasta thrown in. Tonight’s dinner was no exception. I sat down with a bowl of Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili. Full of fiber, protein, and veggies, I can eat a couple bowls full and feel 100% satisfied without breaking the food intake bank. My kind of meal!

Obviously, I enjoy things that give me the most bang for my calorie buck. So, I had to stop myself in my tracks today when I opened up my pre-run snack.

It’s been awhile since I have had a Larabar. I now remember why. The taste, nutrition, ingredients all live up to my standards. But…where’s the volume?! My stomach would make loud cries of anger to me if that is all I fed it! I made it work by halving the Larabar ( Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip flavor)and making half an English muffin with peanut butter and banana on the side.

This satisfied my need for a bit more volume and my need to get my taste on with one of the new flavors (finally!). Plus it’s more fun to have a variety of flavors. And you know what? My little need for volume helped me discover a BANGING pre-run snack.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!!! I felt supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with this combo. I decided to do a 5K distance and see how quickly I could comfortably run. The first mile I couldn’t keep my pace down to a 9:00 like I anticipated. Then, I decided to just go with it.  I surprised myself with an average 8:32 pace!

Side note: surprised that “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is in the spell checker AND that I spelled it correctly on the 1st try…both times. End side note. Because now – ding ding ding! We have another winner!!!

SARENA! Your liking of FFF on Facebook won you a knit workout skort from 4all by jofit! Congratulations! I will email you soon with information on how to claim your prize. 🙂 And remember – if you didn’t win, you can still use the coupon code SPRING11 to get 20% off your own knit skort order on the 4all website.

Question of the Day – What foods do you add extra volume to? How?