Good morning everyone – welcome to a brand new week!

Dinner last night was great and dessert was even BETTER. We had a Dairy Queen Tagalong Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream Cake!!!

Can you say rich cake, layered with gooey chocolate fudge crunch, peanut-buttery Tagalong cookies and creamy vanilla ice cream? Oh…my…this was divine! What’s your favorite Girl Scout Cookies? Mine are frozen Thin Mints, followed closely by Tagalongs. But, lets be real, I love ALL GS cookies!

This morning my Mom and I headed out on freezing cold walk. Really? It’s July…really? Eh, it’s cool, we warmed up soon enough!

After our 1.5 mile loop, I said goodbye and continued on to run another two loops. As I was finishing up the first one, I did a mental check-in and asked myself two questions:

1. Could you be breathing harder?
2. Could you be running faster?

The answer to both questions was – YES! I realized that I was exercising at about 60% of my ability. I then realized that I am not doing myself any favors by getting up at 5:30 on a Monday morning to exercise and only giving 60%. I geared up and steamrolled that last loop – and I.felt.great.!!!

I think too often, I kind of la-di-da my way through workouts. I don’t do it consciously, but sometimes I’m out there you know, running, ellipticaling, etc. and not really concentrating on giving all of my effort to what I’m doing. Really – if I’m going to be taking the time out of my busy day to get sweaty, work out and spend some time on ME, then I should really be giving it 100%. You know what I mean? Go big or go home?! This is something that I’m going to be more aware of in the future and continue to push myself past the limits I may subconsciously be setting for myself. To success!

At any rate, after my run I made a deeelightful breakfast A Toasted English Muffin with Almond Butter, Sugar-Free Raspberry Jelly and a Sliced Peach.

This peach smelled so peachy. Don’t you just love that smell?

Trader Joe’s Almond Butter – so THICK! I love to put peanut/almond butter on hot english muffins/toast/bagels, because it gets so melty and perfect

Sugar-Free raspberry jam is just the right amount of sweet and such a fab contrast to the almond butter. Did you eat a lot of PB&Js growing up? I ate a lot of PBs – not a lot of J present

Since I didn’t get to drink my spinach with a Green Monster this morning, I decided to chew it for once! For lunch I packed a Spinach, Cucumber, Strawberry & Feta salad.

In the mix:

• 2 big handfuls spinach
• ~8 strawberries, sliced
• 1 medium cucumber, seeded & sliced
• sprinkle of feta cheese

I had a chunk of this cucumber as I was slicing it up – it’s from the garden of one of my Mom’s friends and is soooo sweet and crunchy. I just love produce from small vegetable gardens, I can totally taste the difference!

I also packed a Lemon Chiffon Yogurt. Sweet.

Alrighty friends – I hope you had a fabulous weekend and are ready to face the week ahead. I’ve got a four-day work week to look forward to – wheeeee!!

Have a great day!

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Do you push yourself 100% when you’re working out? Do you see room for improvement in that department?