Pinteresting Lately

Oh, how I love Pinterest. In the summer, I would get lost on there for way too long. But now, I only get so much time on there before I need to move on. I have still been finding some fun things, though! Here are some of my pinterests lately…

Brisket tacos in the crockpot -

Dijon Roasted New Potatoes -

Clean Chocolate Chunk Cookies -

A really intense workout -

I will definitely be trying all of these soon! Probably have them in the perfect order, too, since I will need that workout after all of the yummy food! :)

Circuit Workout

One of my new favorite blogs is called peanut butter fingers (pbfingers.com). She posts several workouts and some that really stuck out are circuit workouts. I pinned several the other day and tried this one tonight:

Oh my goodness! It was definitely a fantastic workout. She said it would take 30 minutes, but it ended up taking me 50 minutes. Of course, I did have to rest in the middle. Especially since I had my heart rate monitor on and I saw my heart rate going really high.

One thing to note is that I didn’t actually use a jump rope. I just did the motion of jumping rope. There is a lot of this!

I ended up burning a good amount of calories:

This is definitely a workout I will do again. Especially since this can be done at home. In the winter, it’s harder for me to actually get to the gym so it’s nice to have some workouts in my pocket I can do at home. And I got to watch some E! while working out. Love this!

Tennis

I know a lot of women say this about their husband… But I have to say it… My husband is the best! Seriously.

The other day he took extra long on a trip to Walmart. Turns out he was buying me presents! He gave me one each day for several days. They included a bike shirt, a crayon halloween costume, a halloween witch hat, and a bike odometer. All of which were awesome.

The last day, though, was the best. I have been asking him to play tennis with me for… Well, 6 years, I believe. And he bought me a tennis racket!!!

Better than that, though, was actually going to play together. We rode our bikes up to the middle school and had a blast. Thank you, Jonny. I love you!

P.S. See the lack of food lately? Yeah, it’s been lacking in my house, too. Home cooked real meals need to get back in the picture pronto. Pinterest has been giving me some good recipe ideas lately, too!

Bike trail by our house

Jonny and I have lived in our house for over 2 years and just now explored a bike trail just down the road.

It was a gravel trail with trees surrounding us. This was harder for me to ride than the smooth concrete trail I rode the other day with my dad.

We had a blast. And of course, Jonny had to explore. That’s one of my favorite things about him even though I am not always completely on board. We got off our bikes and walked just a little to see the river that flows next to the trail.

Just a little tidbit of information – when Jonny and I were just friends/talking or whatever you call it, we were coming back from my parents house when he just randomly exited the highway to explore. We ended up feeding donkeys some chocolate muffins. One of the moments I remember when I think about first falling for him.

Another reason I love him? He has such a good eye and we end up getting beautiful iPhone pictures on our bike ride. Love him.

After our bike ride, we were contemplating going out on a date, but the rangers were on, so we thought I could just cook and we could watch. We went back and forth in our plans when we finally decided to go to Palio’s to eat because the have T.V.’s. Perfect compromise. And a wonderful night with my hubby.

Bike riding!

Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day, but spending time with Jonny seems to always help things! I cooked a new dinner (recipe coming soon!) and of course, Jonny had to take some photos of it!

Then, we decided to go on a bike ride. I was going to go to a workout class but spending time with my hubby + being outside sounded much more appealing.

Check me out! This was basically terrifying to me. But I did it!

I love my husband so much. The Lord uses him so much in my life to grow me. He’s the best. And, he pushes me on bike rides! We ended up riding for exactly an hour. I have a heart rate/calories watch and it said I burned about 550 calories! It was a good, peaceful… yet challenging ride.

Pinterest-ing!

While visiting my sis-in-law last week, she showed me the world of Pinterest. I had heard things here and there… but had yet to go look at the website. Umm… amazing! I finally made myself one and am LOVING it.

Organized is a word I would use to describe myself and Pinterest feeds right into that. I can keep everything I find on the internet in one nice and neat place, with boards that categorize all of my finds. Yes!

You can follow me here: http://pinterest.com/skcarroll/ and check out my boards. Do you have a Pinterest? Do you love it as much as me?

By the way, some of my favorite things to find are ideas for my classroom. It’s opening up a whole new world of ideas to do with my kiddo’s. There just might be some blogging about my classroom and ideas of the sort in the future.

Guest Post!

Hello! We have a guest post today from my friend, Katy. She has a fabulous blog (Think Pretty Thoughts) and I had to get her to post on mine. I am always looking forward to her next posts to see what she has to say – especially about working out. She knows what she is talking about! Enjoy!

Hi everybody!
 
My name’s Katy! Let me just start out by saying how much I love Sarah’s blog. She just makes me wanna be more…woman. She’s obviously really good at being one! Cooking, sewing, more cooking! I’m lucky to be her real life friend.

I have my own little blog, too! It’s called Think Pretty Thoughts. A lifestyle blog about pretty stuff! I post outfits, nasty sweaty (not pretty) workouts, and random flowers that I’m sort of obsessed with. You know..the life essentials. When Sarah asked me to guest post, I was thrilled, of course! So, let’s talk.
 
One thing I discuss quite frequently on my blog is my love affair with fitness. What I really love about working out is the results it brings when done the right way. The moment I added weight training into my workouts- oh, baby. It was good.
 
Weight training can be intimidating for us ladies. The thought of bulking up makes us want to run so far away from the gym, we’d end up in Alaska. That’s far. But, have you ever thought about when does bulking actually happen to women? More of an assumption, right? Well, it happens very rarely. Did you catch that? Very rarely! If your diet is high-fat…yep, that’ll happen! If your diet is full of lean and healthy proteins, nope! Not gonna happen! Actually the opposite. You will begin to lean out…which is just what your little heart desired! AND…the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn ALL-DAY-LONG…{we like that!} Just one more reason why you won’t get thicker, you’ll get thinner! Um, what was that noise? Angels singing?

i love you weights. i really, really do. 

So where’s a good place to start with lifting weights? Well, your diet. Yeah, I said it. Please don’t be mad. If you want to be more toned, lean, and trim…your healthy diet paired with weights are your new BFF’s. No more 100 calorie packs. No more strawberry cheesecake yogurt packs, either. Are you guys hating me yet? Good. Please eat foods that are lean, clean, and fresh. If it don’t have a momma or come from the ground, don’t eat it!
 
Lifting weights 3-5 days a week (whatever your schedule allows) is perfect. Once a week full-body is not enough! 7 days a week, too much. You can either work one body part a day, or combine a couple if you’re short on time. If you have workout questions..don’t hesistate to ask me at my blog. I’d really love it!

This Week’s Workout Plan

So – I haven’t been consistently going to the gym the past two weeks. I just got out of the habit. One day it was this… the next it was that… you know how it is. But, man! Once I skipped one day – you know how easy it was to skip the next? and the next? So – I’m back! I went over the weekend and it felt. so. good. Yes, it hurt some… but that kinda felt good. You know?

Anyway – I have asked Jonny to keep me accountable for going to the gym. I am a calender girl. We are both really good about using a calender. What’s on the calender is what stands in the plans. So – my workouts are on and I thought I’d put them on here, too. You know, for more accountability. :)

Monday – Body Pump class at 24hour. I love this class. Yes, I hate it 30 minutes in. But – in the end, I love it. It is basically a full body bar workout. Favorite part? I have friends at work in this class. Talk about motivation.

Tuesday – no gym workout. I have church and literally only have an hour between work and getting to Denton.

Wednesday – Turbo Kick. FAVORITE. I’ll be honest, I used to like it more with another instructor… but it’s still fun with the new one. It gets me all pumped up!

Thursday – quick workout. I will do some intervals on the treadmill (see example on Katy’s blog.) And, I will do some free weight workouts.

Friday – Cardio Dance Party! Yes, that is the best name for a class ever. It’s fun. It’s not crazy intense, but does get a good cardio in. I will also do weight machines before/after the class.

Saturday – Yoga! Relaxing and so good for the body. Love!

Sunday – No workout – it’s Easter!

I also do a quick 15 minute workout each morning that a trainer put together for me. I will post that another time for you to check out. Bonus? It wakes me up!

Okay – so here we go! This is what my weeks typically looked like before my two week hiatus. Let me know if you have any advice/do anything similar. Do you like to go to classes? They work for my schedule oriented mind. What about you?