Life is Short Make it Count. #24

Life has been moving fast and slow at the same time lately. This is going to be a short update but I wanted to post it anyway because I like to go back and look at the pictures. :)

MY SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED! That's what comes to mind over the last few weeks. I went with her a few weeks ago to look at a venue in North Georgia and then this past weekend Scott and I went to look at a few more with her. She's my only sibling and only 17 months older than me. :) The wedding will likely be next June or July.

Our life has also been consumed with postseason baseball. As I type this the Cubs are getting ready to play game 4 of the NLCS. They are down by 3 games so this is a must-win if they want to have a chance to make it to the World Series!

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Workouts

I'm on Week 4 of the She Sweats 12-Week Transformation. I've completed all of the workouts so far and can't wait to move onto the next segment! I love checking stuff off and knowing exactly what I have left to do!

Two weekends ago we went to the Smokies with plans to climb Mt LeConte. We made it to the Smokies (a three-hour drive) and it was raining. We had been checking the forecast, which called for rain earlier in the week but then changed to no rain. We forgot our rain gear and didn't want to do this extremely difficult and long hike without rain gear and take the chance at getting sick. We were bummed but determined to make the most of it. The Chimney Tops trail had just re-opened so we decided we would do that trail instead. This trail was closed for over a year due to the (human-caused) fires last fall. It isn't open to the very top (the actual chimney tops) anymore so I'm glad we did it before the fires. I'm not sure if they are every going to re-open the whole thing which is a huge bummer.

Below is what I posted on Instagram about our hike:

It was a year ago that I posted about my aunt being in the hospital & then the day before Thanksgiving she was taken off life support. She's been on my mind a lot lately & I saw a lot of her today. Our day didn't go as planned...we drove 3 hours to the Smokies but forgot our rain gear (because it wasn't supposed to rain!) so we ended up doing a hike much shorter (but still hard!) than the one we had planned. I saw her in everything on the hike. When we left the Smokies to go to Scott's brothers to watch the Cubs (who lost) we stopped by a produce stand to buy a pumpkin. She was there again in these little birds and owls that were hand carved out of tree bark. She LOVED birds (and I've never been a big fan!). If we would have been able to do the hike we planned I would have missed out on these moments because we would have been rushed. Sometimes it's nice to have time to absorb what is going on around you.

"In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir

Hiking Chimney Tops in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Nutrition

After our hike to Chimney Tops we went to Athens and stopped by Trader Joes. We love Trader Joes but we have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to the closest one so we don't get to go as often as we would like to. We bought a lot of random things like brown rice pasta, black bean pasta, cereal, produce, and beer (Scott's!). Of course we did our normal weekly Costco shopping too!

Until next week, have a good one! Let us know if you ever have any questions or comments! I've loved hearing from you about the updates! Click here to read all of our updates.

Life is Short Make it Count. #23

I've always loved the quote above but it really rings true after the horrible act of violence/terrorism in Las Vegas Sunday night.

• Quit saying "yes" to things you don't want to do.
• Spend time with the ones you love.
• Do what makes you happy.
• Quit obsessing over things that do not matter.
• Live your life.

Interested in donating to the Las Vegas Victims' Fund? Click here.

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Well, we are obviously back from Colorado (I'm working on finishing up the trip recap!). Getting back was an adventure itself. When we landed back in Atlanta Saturday night, we walked to the shuttle to ride to Park N Fly (where we always park!). I was looking for the ticket that shows where we parked and we realized we had someone else's bag. This bag is not black and is not your standard looking bag! Scott ran the bag all the way back up to the airport (this isn't that short of a walk). The lady must have grabbed ours but turned around and came back to the airport. After waiting for her and finally getting that sorted out we headed home. We use Waze (the GPS app) and it told us about a terrible accident on 85 that had all lanes closed. I tried to exit where it told me but ended up back on the highway (not used to the area!) in the traffic. However, we also have Peach Pass so we worked our way over to the Peach Pass lane and never even really had to slow down while the other lanes were backed up for miles. I couldn't help but think that if we had our suitcase and left on time, we could have been involved in that accident. You never know, but it could have been a blessing in disguise.

Since we've been back, besides working on the website, I'm back to coaching Playball and volunteering with Girls on the Run. A few weeks before we went out of town I started coaching for Girls on the Run. I'm loving it so far! If you have daughters, check to see if there is a chapter near you! It's an excellent girls empowerment program.

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Workouts

After getting back into the groove of being home, working, etc. we had mountain withdrawals so this past Saturday we headed up to Pisgah National Forest in Brevard, NC. We did two hikes, Art Loeb Trail and also Looking Glass Rock Trail. This wasn't our first time on either trail but both trails were considerably more crowded than we remember. Hiking is a very popular sport now it seems.

Our workout during our trip was hiking (obviously!). The Monday after we got home I started doing the She Sweats 12-Week Transformation. I AM IN LOVE AGAIN. I can't tell you how good it feels to be lifting again. I haven't truly lifted to my fullest potential in months because of stress, our move, hurting my neck, and signing up for a 6-week boot camp. Boot camp is great for some people but it definitely isn't for me. I took Sunday off after we got back and have been on track with the workout plan ever since starting last Monday. Normally when I do this workout plan I'll start on week 5 but I started from week 1 this time since I feel like I've lost so much muscle over the last year. I was so sore last week...my arms, chest, and legs!

I'm having to flip-flop some days because of hiking or other commitments that I have but I'm completing each workout as listed during the week listed!

In case you've missed it, we do have a challenge going on right now for the She Sweats 12-Week Transformation. Learn more about it here. Disclaimer: The plan is a download you receive via email, the picture below is of something that my sister had made for me (the workout plan in book form!).

Nutrition

Like I mentioned, we came back late Saturday night. We took Sunday to grocery shop and prep some food for the week ahead. We made Bison Chili and Grilled Orange Chicken. Our eating out consisted of Zoes Kitchen and Pescados Burritos (after our hikes!).

I've been meaning to share this for months now but I always forget! We always get questions about hiking nutrition. I'll do a more in-depth post on this soon but NOW Foods sent us their BCAA Big 6 to try (DISCLAIMER: We were sent the product for free. All opinions are ours.). We have tried both the grape (which smells like bubble gum!) and watermelon. They both taste excellent. BCAA Big 6 is caffeine-free and aids in recovery from intense exercise. It's perfect after our hikes. We just add water and the powder to a blender bottle and drink it up!

You can read more about and purchase NOW Foods products (including the BCAA Big 6) here on Amazon or browse NOW Foods products here. They have so many products! Things like the maple syrup, sugarless sugar, supplements, and even delicious energy/trail mixes!

Until next week, have a good one! Let us know if you ever have any questions or comments! I've loved hearing from you about the updates! Click here to read all of our updates.

Life is Short Make it Count. #22

Life has been INSANE lately. We are currently in Colorado on our hiking trip. As you probably know, we were supposed to going to Washington and Oregon. Those states are and have been devasted by wildfires and/or wildfire smoke. We made the decision to change our plans since the air quality was so bad. We changed our flights to go to New Hampshire and Maine instead. Since it was so last minute, we were having a hard time finding any affordable lodging in Maine this time of year. There were only a few options near where we wanted to hike and they were way out of our price range. So, we ended up changing our flights again to fly into Denver (really the only place out west we could find that didn't have terrible air quality). We decided we would hike near Aspen and drive up to Wyoming to hike. Now they are calling for quite a bit of snow in Wyoming so we will see if that portion of the trip actually pans out. No matter what happens we will make an adventure out of it!

While all of this was going on, Hurricane Irma was on the way. As you know, it devasted every place that it touched - Georgia included. We live in NE Georgia, about an hour outside of Atlanta. At our house we got a lot of rain and really high winds but no damage, thankfully and we also only lost power for a few hours. We actually had a few of our neighbors over to play games and we ate chili (this recipe) and cookie cake! There are still many people in North Georgia without power! While we didn't experience the devastation that many other states did, a huge tree did fall on my uncle's house. No one was injured as it hit the carport and deck area but it's still heartbreaking. This is the house that my grandparents lived in until they passed and it has been in my family forever. This weather with the wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding lately is frightening! We are so thankful to the first responders, linemen, and others who go into harms way when disasters like this occur. If you have experienced anything from these storms and need any assistance please reach out to us! We donate through charities but would love to help any of our readers who need it, if we can!

Be sure to follow us on the following social media accounts (and snapchat under hesheeatclean) and also sign up for our newsletter so you never miss anything!

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Nutrition

We've been all over the place. Since we were planning on leaving earlier to go on our trip we didn't have any food in our house so we had to eat out more than normal. We went to a place near us called Diablos (similar to Moes and Chipotle). Since a lot of you ask what we order here, we typically order similar to what we do at Moes or Chipotle. You can read about our order here and also some tips when you do order! We also ate at Zoes Kitchen. We forgot how good it was! I was very impressed with my salad (and the salad dressing) and Scott loved his power bowl too!

Zoes Kitchen's Greek Dressing has an impressive lack of ingredients!

Workouts

Can I just say that I am SO EXCITED to start the She Sweats 12-Week Transformation when we get back home?! While it's good to change up your style of workout occasionally, I have discovered that I love (and my body respond the best to) weight lifting workouts. I plan on taking a few days off when we get home and then going into the transformation plan which will take me until the end of the year! I don't think I've ever been so excited to start a workout plan.

On Sunday (the day before the tropical storm hit us) we were going to drive up to North Carolina to hike but we got about an hour from our house and realized both of us forgot our wallets! We wouldn't have enough gas to get back without needing them so we turned around and headed to Blood Mountain, we got almost all the way there and decided we just weren't feeling it. We went home so we could finish planning our trip and decided to go back to Blood Mountain and hike that evening. I'm glad we did because it was beautiful and a great warm-up hike for our trip! Now that I look at my pictures, we've done Blood Mountain twice since I last posted. I guess it's officially our go-to hike!

Home Updates

We made some of our own artwork and one of my friends made some signs for us too! Our house is coming together and taking on a mind of its own with the travel/adventure theme! I'll do a tutorial on these DIY Canvas signs soon!

Below is a picture of all of the signs my friend, Sarah, made us. She did a fantastic job and even Rambo loves them! If you want one of these signs or want her to make a custom one, contact her. She does great work and has a great heart! :) She's on Etsy under lilrusticseastar, here is a link.

Until next week, have a good one! Let us know if you ever have any questions or comments! I've loved hearing from you about the updates! Click here to read all of our updates.