25 | July | 2013 | Chocolate Covered Race Medals

So. . . thank you for sticking with me after the quintessential introduction post. I hope I have this blog years from now and look back on it and laugh…how silly and young I was!

Please bear with me as I work on this (I’m really speaking to myself, as I’m sure I have no readers quite yet…). I have been reading and loving healthy living blogs for over a year now — and have finally just decided to jump in and make one of my own, even if it is just for myself. In true Ashley style, I went out and dove right in, purchasing a domain page without even realizing I actually need something like wordpress to blog…not just a domain. Back to the point of “bear with me,” I currently have no idea how people are going to be directed to my page (chocolatemedals.com ? anabbett.wordpress.com ?), but that certainly is just a minor detail, yes?

Including in my blogging transition will hopefully be tons of fun pictures of fun adventures, runs, yummy food, and my lovely family. . . it’s all in the plans! But for now, it’s a little embarrassingly bare bones while I learn.

In my dreams, this lovely little blog will have:

-daily workouts / fun eats

-workout plans for the week AND updates at the end of the week on how said plan went…

-general goings ons in my day-today 🙂

Sooo…that’s the plan for this little diddy. I’m excited because, like I mentioned, I am already so passionate about the healthy living blogging community and an hopeful even just being connected with it in some small way. So I’ll just leave you with, I’m excited and looking forward to what I can do.

So anyways… on that point, I can get into what might look like a normal daily afternoon blog post…

To start: My workout for this morning:

60 minutes on the stationary bike.

I was actually looking forward to this light cross training day — I mean honestly, a workout with a cup of coffee in one cup holder, delish gummy vitamins in the other, and a book (Currently reading: Where We Belong by Emily Griffin…I plan to post about that later as well :)…that workout ain’t so bad. Today is also my late start day at work, so I didn’t have to get up at 6 AM to squeeze in an hour. Awesome!

As for foods — I’m in a carb/bar kind of mood today, so I munched on a cliff bar right away, have a think thin bar I’m already excited about, and some fruit…just as some snacks. Zach’s grabbing some fresh veggies and produce from a new market today, so looking forward to dinner!

Maybe I’ll catch up again tonight?

A little behind on the healthy living blog craze?

Ehh, that’s kind of my style anyways – never really have been a trend setter J.

First off: let me introduce myself, and hopefully explain why I’m interesting enough to read all about (or at least I’ll try and convince myself of that)

1. Easy demographics: 27/f/Denver (anybody else remember the old a/s/l or did I just really age myself?). My fiancé and I, along with our two adorable furry children, Gus and August, moved to Denver around August 2012 kind of on a whim, and are loving every minute of it. I’m 27, sometimes going on 35, sometimes going on 12, depending . And yes, I am a lady….I think that covers the basics?

2. I love being active – with running being my passion, even though I’m not very good at it. I have always had a bit of an obsessive tendency, and fitness has certainly fallen prey to that. For years, I was an avid CORE POWER YOGA fanatic, going at least 5-6 days a week (hey, at least that made the price tag seem a littttle more reasonable). Now-a-days, I love running, hiking, yoga, biking, and am even working on loving weights and strength training.

3. I love FOOD. Primarily, chocolate. I’m one of those people that genuinely LOVES salads and fresh foods, and can eat that ALL day, but MUST have sometime (large) sweet at the end of everyday. It’s all about balance, and following what I crave. I love the healthy crunch of fresh food, followed by the delicious creaminess of chocolate. Honestly, it’s what gets me through most days. Whether that’s a huge chocolate chip cookie (current obsession), a large dark chocolate bar (who says you eat less when it’s dark?), or a 1/3 of a large bag of Hershey’s Drops, sweets are the only way I cap off a day. That and sometimes a nice glass of wine….sometimes.

4. Along the lines of number two: I really want to be a natural runner. I started running on a whim about a year and a half ago. Funny story: the only running I’d really ever done previously was the mile in high school and some conditioning in cheerleading (also H.S.), so always thought I just couldn’t do it. Well, one summer day when I decided hot yoga was no longer going to do it for me, I joined a gym (my fiancé loves me and my total sporadic nature). That day, I ran a mile on the treadmill without stopping and I came home jumping for joy to tell Zach….and the love connection began.

That’s really where I’d say my blogging hopes and thoughts begin. I have a strong passion for healthy living, just in general. For me, that includes eating healthy (through most of the day) and being as active as my body lets me. Currently, I find that love and challenge in running. After that first day at the gym, I kept at it. Within a week, I had gotten up to 3 miles in under 30 minutes, and knew I was at the beginning of a long journey. A few weeks later, I signed up for the 2012 Chicago Rock’N’Roll half marathon, and never looked back. Now today, a little over a year has past, I’ve run a few smaller races (this 5k’s and 4 milers), another half (Steamboat, I’ll definitely write about that one day. What an experience), and I now have 2 halves (that I need to choose between, only run ONE, but we can discuss this at a different time) planned for October.

As I am about to embark on my training session, I am also about 45 days away from getting married, and in the midst of the busiest Summer of my life. I have so much crazy, fun things going on… Is there really a better time to start a blog?

I thought so. So here I go. I hope you stick along for the ride J.