Hey guys!

Happy first Friday of December 🙂

Can you believe that Thanksgiving was over a week ago?  Me neither.

Things around the Rochford house are bustling away because Brian and I BOTH have finals starting next week…EEK!

If you need us, we will be somewhere under a pile of books and papers 😉

We are making time for a little fun, though.  Tonight, Brian and I are heading downtown for the Parade of Lights and tomorrow I will be cooking up my final batch of recipes for recipe testing!!

As fun as recipe testing has been, I’m not going to lie…I’m excited to give that big “to-do” a huge check off the list!

ALSO, next week I will be taking a little blogging break to really focus on my finals, but don’t worry, I won’t leave ya hangin’!! I’ve got some fun guest posts for you to enjoy 🙂

So, to start of the weekend on a fun note here is a little Five Things Friday Action for ya!

Five Things I Ate:

My meals this week were a little weird because I didn’t go grocery shopping and Brian was LOVING his Thanksgiving leftovers…I call these kind of meals “scrounging meals.”

• Chipotle Spaghetti Squash Fritters….so good! This was definitely a random “throw together a bunch of things and hope it turns out” type of dish, so I don’t have a recipe for you but I ate them with leftover egg casserole from Thanksgiving breakfast and hard boiled eggs…so random!

I also ate the leftover spaghetti squash fritters on this salad for lunch yesterday and they were great there too!!

• Tone It Up Perfect Fit Hot Cocoa…I had a craving and just happened to have ALL the ingredients for this sweet treat 🙂

• Shakeology 🙂

My friend Sarah, over at Creating a Better Tomorrow reached out to me not too long ago asking if I’d be willing to try out some Shakeology…of course I said yes!

While I prefer to get my nutrients from whole foods (when possible!) I do think it’s a great option to have a quality nutrition/protein powder on hand.  The holidays are a time of year when I really find myself needing something like this because of travel and wonky scheduling.

It’s so easy for me to pack something like this in my suitcase to have on hand to toss into some oats when eating breakfast on the go.

Oats with the Tropical Strawberry Vegan Shakeology and almond butter.  Delish!

That being said, I feel like I rotate through lots of different protein powders but I have found that the Shakeology Vegan Chocolate is definitely one of my favorites when it comes to flavor and texture.  Personally, I don’t consume much whey protein because it doesn’t always agree with my tummy, but I made a smoothie with the Vanilla Shakeology for Brian and he LOVED it…which is saying a lot because he is pretty picky about his smoothies 🙂

I mixed the Chocolate Vegan Shakeology with coffee and a banana…so yummy!

Sarah has TONS of different recipes for smoothies, oats, snack bars, etc that you can make with Shakeology, so if you have any questions please ask her…she is the pro! 🙂

• Lunch salad…spinach and romaine with leftover salmon, tomatoes, bell pepper, carrots, dijon, and nutritional yeast.

• Super Oats…I am in LOVE with these oats! So tasty!

Five Workouts:

This week I have been recovering from some sort of sinus congestion, so my workouts were pretty light in intensity.  I’m finally starting to feel better (less nose blowing), but I’m definitely not completely ready to go all out in my workouts.  That being said, I took a full 3 days off before getting back in the gym and made sure to listen to my body and rest when needed when I finally did go back.  It’s super important to be careful while you are sick and exercising.

• Tabata spin
• Taught Cardio HIIT (made sure to take the low options! My nose was running all over the place!)
• Yoga
• CXWORX
• Tabata/Total Strength

Five Pins:

I haven’t done too much blog reading this week due to all the studying, so I thought I would share some Pinterest finds with you.  If you want to follow me on Pinterest, you can find me here!!

I love the leg warmers and pink top of this cozy look.

pin here

I love the simplicity of these beautiful gifts.

pin here

This sounds amazing.

pin here

I LOVE the poncho look 🙂

pin here

This looks like a great travel workout…all you need to pack is a resistance band!

pin here

Five Things Making Me Happy:

• The Rockeffeler Christmas Tree Lighting 🙂  I am obsessed with all things NYC, so I make a point to watch the lighting every year.  So amazing!  A few years ago, Brian and I actually made a special trip to NYC right before Christmas and it was seriously magical!  I can’t wait to go back again!!

• Pentatonix “Mary Did You Know”–AMAZING! I have such a soft spot in my heart for a cappella music in general, but seriously this song is amazing…I think I need to buy their entire Christmas album!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE

•  FINALS! OK, so I’m honestly very nervous about these finals coming up BUT I can’t wait to be done with these classes and moving onto the next set of classes.
• My sister is visiting in a week!  YAY!
• I officially start teaching Bodypump on Monday and can’t wait!

OK, friends that is all I have for you today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Your Turn:

• Share something fun about your week/weekend with me!!  I love hearing about what is going on in your lives 🙂