Tag Archives: giveaway

30 Days of Fitness and Cookbook Giveaway!

Oh man, here come the holidays. The food, the fun, the family, the cheer. The weight gain, the stress, the dysfunction, the drama. I’m not trying to be negative – I’m just seeing the future for what it is and always has been from this personal trainer’s point of view – a time everyone forgets about their health. So what do I propose we do about it? We embark on 30 Days of Fitness.

30 Days of Fitness

Starting Saturday, November 1st I’m going to be either blogging or Facebook’ing (is that officially a verb yet?) once a day to highlight ONE thing you can do each day in the name of your health. What for? My goal is to keep you – you who are interested and open to it – as healthy and sane as possible before December hits. Maybe it’s a fitness tip, a workout, or a way to be more mindful of what you’re consuming. Maybe it’s just a reminder to take 5 minutes to appreciate your body for what it does for you. I don’t know yet, I only have about 10 days planned out right now, but I’ve got lots of stuff in this noggin’ and it’ll be good. I think it’s appropriate to start on November 1st for these reasons:

  1. It’s the day after Halloween. I don’t know about you but my kids have already acquired bags of candy and Halloween isn’t for two more days. I’d love to tell you I have super-human willpower and am not interested in sweets but if they’re in my house someone’s going to eat them and it won’t just be my kids. I’ll be getting rid of most of it on November 1st. And before you might “mean mom” me, please know I do allow my children plenty of sweets. It’s not my fault my 3-year-old loves dark chocolate. Okay, maybe it is my fault a little bit.
  2. November has 30 days in it, what a crazy coincidence!
  3. November brings with it my absolute most-favorite holiday of the year. People eat on that day – a lot. We’re going to do some damage control all month.
  4. I’ve found it nearly pointless to do any kind of fitness challenge in the month of December. People are way too busy. My goal with doing this in November is to hopefully instill some basic good habits in all of us that will stick throughout the holidays, chaos and all.

Here’s how it’s going down:

  1. Look for either a blog post or Facebook post the night before. So this Saturday’s post will be up on Friday night. This way you won’t be waiting on me all day for something you could have done already. If you don’t already ‘Like’ my Facebook page, you can do so here, or on the left sidebar of this page, so you get each day’s updates.
  2. Share with others, please! This keeps you accountable and reminds others who might be interested in their health to do the same. Sharing is caring and around here good friends don’t let friends feel like crap.
  3. Be open. This isn’t some crazy workout challenge. I do those too, but 30 Days of Fitness is meant to encourage you and keep you mindful. So some days it may be little things, other days I may ask more of you. Do what you can and always keep your health in the forefront of your brain every day, because no one else will.
  4. Comment whenever you have questions, concerns, disagree with my approach or love something. If you want more info on a topic, I am happy to dive in for you. I’m kind of a geek like that.
  5. Subscribe and win. <—- See that little sign-up box in the left sidebar? That’s a neat tool that, if you enter your email address, will automatically deliver my new blog posts to your inbox for you. All those who subscribe for email updates between TODAY and NOVEMBER 30th will be entered in a drawing to win this REALLY terrific cookbook from Lisa Leake over at the 100 Days of Real Food blog: “100 Days of Real Food: How We Did It, What We Learned, and 100 Easy, Wholesome Recipes Your Family Will Love.” What’s not to love about winning that book at the most appropriate time of year? Check it out here!

100 Days Cookbook That’s it. Are you ready? See you soon!

Cherry Basil Green Smoothie + Dirty Dash Entry Giveaway!

In case you’re interested in the Dirty Dash Boise race but haven’t yet signed up because the entry fee just went up AGAIN last week, I think you’ll want to check out this post for a sweet giveaway! They’ve added more waves like they do every year and when the rep from the company dropped off 2 free entry cards to me the other day she also gave me a code to give out to my clients, family, and friends to get 20% off registration. So drop me a line if you want it!

More on how you can win one of two free entries in a bit. But first…I’ve got a new green smoothie recipe for you that you’ll love if your basil obsession mirrors mine. And if you’re new to green smoothies (smoothies made with spinach or kale, usually) and you’re thinking it sounds gross, well…you’re wrong. ;)

There, I said it.
There, I said it.

For the most part I typically use baby spinach because it’s really mild and I honestly don’t even taste it when I blend it up with all the other ingredients. So you get all that green vitamin-packed Popeye goodness without feeling like you’re sipping bitter grass. Another little trick when making green smoothies: A banana makes a world of difference. I always add one.

This is my new favorite smoothie recipe and I can definitely see me drinking it most mornings over the course of the basil season. It’s light, refreshing and the right amount of filling!

Cherry Basil Green Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or your favorite milk/milk substitute
  • 1/2 cup frozen cherries
  • 1 banana
  • 5-10 leaves fresh basil (I used closer to 10 leaves because. as I mentioned, I really like basil)
  • 1 cup or heaping handful baby spinach
  • 6 oz container plain Greek yogurt
  • 2 tbsp. ground flaxseed
  • 3-4 ice cubes (especially if you’re not using frozen fruit, the ice makes a difference)
  • 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
  • Optional: 1/2 tbsp. bee pollen granules (I throw this into all my smoothies to help keep my allergies at bay. Some people can’t stand the flavor, I honestly don’t notice it anymore. Von thinks it tastes like he imagines bee poop would, so there’s that visual for you.)
  • Also optional: Drizzle a small amount of honey or pure maple syrup as you’re blending if you like it a little sweeter.

Blend it all together until you have a smoothie that looks kinda green/kinda purple/kinda red, depending on various things you’ll have no control over.

Cheers!
Cheers!

So good!

If you’re interested in the nutrition stats, here you go:

(This does not include the bee pollen or honey/maple syrup)

378 calories, 7.4g fat (0.8g saturated), 274mg sodium, 1263mg potassium, 48.8g carbohydrates, 10.3g fiber, 28.6g sugar, 23.5g protein

So about that giveaway!

Who knew mud mad us all so happy?
Who knew mud made us all so happy?

Right now entry for the Boise Dirty Dash (held Saturday, August 2nd at Bogus Basin) will run you $60. I would love nothing more than to help two of you get in for FREE! Okay, I would like some things more, like my own personal assistant to bring me wine and cherry tomatoes whenever my cravings strike. But seriously, if you’ve ever wanted to try the Dirty Dash or have done it and want to see how they’ve up’ed the ante this year, here’s how you can win:

Simply comment on this post by telling me what your favorite summer outdoor activity is. That’s it! I’ll choose 2 lucky winners at random and will announce them this Thursday, July 17th. Really, it will be random and if you’re worried about any favoritism I’ll even the playing field and let Luke pick the winners based on his responses to your comments. He pretty much says “no” or “yeah” to everything, so I don’t know how it gets any fairer than that. And if you don’t win but still want to register, contact me for the 20% off code!

And please, don’t mess up your ankle like Von did last year while doing the tire runs. While I am proud of him for finishing the race on one leg and without complaint, I don’t wish the resulting walking boot on anyone! Except for that jerk at the grocery store who rammed into me with her grocery cart…