Last weekend was my birthday weekend and it was filled with so much delicious food and wine! This whole month (like every other summer) I've kind of let myself relax a lot in terms of eating and working out. I've really been enjoying life and eating all the good things. I've also been a little less strict about my workouts because I started to feel a bit burnt out with everything going on. Going into this new month I'm going to try to be a little bit better about my eating habits and try to switch up my workouts a little bit. 

Buck's County Wineries

Last Saturday we took a little tour of the Buck's County wineries - such a cheap and fun thing to do! We stopped by Rose Bank Winery, Wycombe (my personal favorite), Buckingham Farms and Rushland Ridge Winery. 

Wycombe Winery was my favorite overall because of the delicious wines and complimentary food. They had this olive garlic dip that was so tasty I've already re-created it at home and it's already gone. Rushland Ridge was a close favorite, mostly because of our expectations. We read this Yelp review before going there:

This review was a blessing in disguise - we all love dogs, 'abundantly poured' tastings sounded pretty great to us, and 'personal residence' sounded like a laid back and relaxing environment! And then we went and were greeted by the most adorable black lab, we got to pour our tastings on our OWN, and the laid back feeling was everything. Melissa from Conshohocken, you suck. AND my favorite wine I tried all day was from this winery. I thought it was "up to snuff," Melissa. RUDE. 

Recent Eats

Anyway, here's what I've been eating lately...lots of eggs, salads, chicken, beef, the usual!! 

Breakfast of eggs, spinach, tomato, banana and peaches with peanut butter.

An egg, spinach, avocado, Sriracha, and a banana with peanut butter! 

A delicious lunch salad with romaine, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, castelvetrano olives (best olives ever), basil, a burger and my homemade olive garlic spread from Wycombe Winery (told you I made it).  

Another hearty salad this time with avocado, feta and chicken made in the crockpot. 

I've been making whole chickens lately either in the crockpot or in the oven and it's the best. Such a cheap way to have delicious protein all week. Look at that beauty. I've been saving the carcasses to make homemade bone broth. No food goes wasted! 

We went down to DC for a wedding this past weekend and all healthy eating goes out the door when on vacation - here's a pic of us devouring a Mortadella and Fontina pizza in the car...

And a pic from the wedding to capture that I do in fact sometimes shower...

Workouts

Monday - Unite Fitness class - I'm going to start coaching group fitness classes at Unite so I try to pop in when I can! This workout was great. All of the workouts focus on 30 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes of strength circuits and 15 minutes of yoga! 

Tuesday - 20 mins incline treadmill walking + a Thrive strength workout

Wednesday - Thrive strength workout. Butt was sore from this one - lots of split squats! I did this workout with one of my clients and it was fun to push each other! 

Thursday - taught 60 minute spin + Thrive team workout:

3x: Overhead slams, broad jumps and bear crawls 

3x: 10 KB swings, 3/3 KB snatches, 5 KB Goblet squats, 5 push-ups

10 min: one lower, one upper and one core (moving with purpose) I did jump squats, chin-ups and weighted sit-ups. 

We then ended with a nice little burst of spin that I taught! I don't know if these guys had fun with it but I certainly did ;)

Friday - Hill sprints with my co-workers. We only did about 20 minutes (if that) and my hamstrings were sore ALL WEEKEND!!! 

Saturday and Sunday - Heavy lifting of the fork to my mouth. Best workouts all week. 

Happy Tuesday!! Hope everyone's week is off to a great start. Running to work now to train clients for the rest of the night :)

How was your weekend?

Wineries or breweries?

What was your favorite meal all week?

Happy Tuesday :) Since I've started at my new job, meal prep has been very important because I eat pretty much every meal but breakfast at work. However, I steer clear from eating the same thing every day or else I get bored and I crave things like Rita's (which is right across the street from the gym) or all the chocolate and french fries. Variety is the spice of life!! So in attempt to make my ground turkey and rice more exciting, I created an asian style stir fry that I served with Trader Joe's Jasmine rice, which is probably my favorite rice right now. So tasty and comforting. 

Healthy Asian Turkey Stir Fry

It's really the spices that make this dish! I used the simplest ingredients. Serve on top of a bed of steamy Jasmine rice and top your dish with some Sriracha, soy sauce, chopped cashews and green onions. 

[yumprint-recipe id='19'] XO - Rach

Do you meal prep?

What's your favorite way to make ground turkey? 

Any fun weekend plans?

Hi! I wanted to share something a bit different today - all my eats from yesterday plus a day in the life of my new job! So as most of you know, I did leave my job in advertising and I started a new job as a full time Thrive trainer at City Fitness here in Philly! I am also still teaching group fitness classes as well, so I'm totally immersed in what I freaking love to do. It's a WHOLE different schedule and new challenge but I'm so ready for it. I am training semi-private groups with the Thrive training modality (learn more about it here, it's an AWESOME functional training program) and I'm already amazed by the support of my new bosses, co-workers and the motivation of the few clients that I'm starting with! 

WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday) 

So here's a little sneak peak into what it looks like to work in fitness (when you're first starting out)...

7 AM: Alarm goes off, I have coffee and a little pre-workout snack (too sleepy to get a pic) of half a mashed sweet potato, half a banana, a tablespoon of Sunbutter and some raisins. I got this sweet potato breakfast bowl idea from Jen at peanutbutterrunner.com and I am OBSESSED!! Michael also used to mash sweet potato and banana together in college for a side at dinner. It's a winning combo, please try it. 

8-9:30 AM: I head to the gym near my apartment and practice a few of the strength moves in the Thrive training library as well as put myself through a workout that I will be putting my clients through eventually. This helps me gage the intensity and helps me to program my workouts for them. 

9:30-11:30 AM: I eat my (second) breakfast (pictured below) of an AMAZINGGGG chocolate smoothie bowl - recipe coming soon, this one was a winner!! It was packed with protein and healthy carbs. I also pack my day's worth of food, work on this blog post, take care of a few emails and get ready for the day. I also had a few handfuls of trail mix on the side.

11:45-12:30 PM: I commute to Center City by train and head to City Fitness. My current hours are afternoons/evenings, so I've been getting to work around noon and leaving around 9:30 at night. The gym is slow until about 5:30, but I try my best to work the floor, meet new people and set up some assessments! 

2 PM: I train a client. She does AWESOME. 

3-3:30 PM: Eat a delicious salad with spinach, grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, cucumber, olive oil & balsamic and an apple on the side. I'm really craving a coffee but resist the urge to spend $5 on an almond milk latte, because I can't ever just buy a plain old coffee...

3:30-6:30 PM: Shadow a few of the trainers, work the floor and get ready for my clients in the evening. I also noshed on a couple of these protein balls, they're so good! I have been making The Healthy Maven's protein bites every week. They're great. Actually kind of addictive...I made a batch of 20 on Monday and they're already gone. Whoops.

6:45-8:45: Train a few clients and I also had a couple people come in for an assessment! 

9:00: I eat this combo of veggies, rice, brussels sprouts, sweet potato and ground beef before I got ready to make the commute home (I walk about 15 mins to the train station and the train ride home is about a half hour). The wind was CRAZZYYY last night and literally almost knocked me over getting to the train station. 

10:30 I am HOME!!! I had a snack of cottage cheese, PB and jelly (yes, it looks disgusting, but trust me it's so, so good) before bed and then hit the hay at around 11. This morning I'm up and at em' - teaching an 8 AM cycle class at Body Cycle Studio before heading to City Fitness for a team workout, several assessments and some client sessions. It will be another long day and I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

Have a GREAT one, you guys. 

XO- Rach

Is there something you just CAN'T go without eating every day?