#sunsational ... My review of Sunshine Burgers!

#SUNSATIONAL is a great way to describe Sunshine Burgers! I was a little apprehensive when Fit Approach offered the opportunity to be reviewer for the burgers. I had never tried anything like them and I am so glad I jumped out of my little box. My husband and I LOVE them! 

Carol Debberman began making these little gems for her own children at home, since then Sunshine Burgers has become America's #1 brand organic veggie burger. Sunshine Burgers are made with certified organic ingredients. They are free of gluten, soy, corn, canola, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy or eggs. 

We were so excited after we received our box of samples, we couldn't wait to give them all a try. My favorite was Garden Herb flavored burgers. The Garden Herb is the original recipe, no wonder it is the top seller! They were great when simply cooked as directed on the package and paired with a salad!! 

Yumminess! 

The burgers are very convenient for taking lunches to work. One day I added the Loco Chipotle to my salad for the day. Just a simple spinach mix salad with tomato, a little blue cheese and a vingeratte dressing. This may become my "go-to" meal of the week. 

Lunch On The Go! 

That same evening my husband ate the other Loco Chipotle burger alongside a bowl of soup. This is by far his favorite. He loves a good spicy meal so this was perfect for him! Sadly, I forgot to get a photo of his awesome dinner. 

Sunshine Burgers can be found in various locations such as Whole Foods and Publix. You can check out their website and use to the store locator to find a retailer new you. I was very excited to spot these little boxes of flavor at our local Publix over the weekend. So much so that I might have danced a little then snapped this photo: 

In the frozen section... BBQ! 

Well, I guess we will going to Publix to try that flavor next! 

Notice how popular they are, the shelves are almost empty. 

Also, on their website you will find a recipe section. We've been on the go so much lately that we haven't had a chance to try any of these yet. I can't wait for life to slow a little bit so we can pick one to cook for the family! 

Aside from the overall healthiness of these burgers, they are excellent. They will be a common item found in my freezer! 

Be sure to follow Sunshine Burgers: 

Facebook: facebook.com/sunshineburger

Twitter: @SunshineBurger

Thanks Fit Approach and Sunshine Burgers for helping me get out my box! 

Keep Calm and Love Yourself

So this is the week of Love, everything around us seems to be trying to get us to show others how much we love them. Our husbands, our children, our friends, etc.. I am a fan of Valentine's Day because I love surprising people; however, I love surprising others every other day of the year not just every February 14th. This excitement of surprising others comes from my Mom as she too loves a good surprise. She enjoys this not for herself but for the pure joy of seeing others around her feel loved and watch them smile. This could be why she is everyone's favorite GiGi! While I agree 100% that we need to show our loved ones how much we appreciate them we also need to show ourselves how much we love us! 

This morning during our Tabata Bootcamp warm up Allison had us perform a unique exercise. We did four rounds of 20 second Tabata style squats with a partner, during each rest time we were to find a new partner. While we were with our partners we had to share one thing that we love about ourselves. Not only did we have to come up with one thing we actually had to come up with four as we were not allowed to repeat anything throughout the exercise. WOW! That seems so much easier when writing it out but participating in this drill was rough for me. I could come up with one but two, three and four were difficult! After we completed the four rounds Allison reminded us that we are own worst critics. She wanted us to take that minute or so of warm up to focus on the good things we can appreciate about ourselves and love on ourselves for a change. She had no way of knowing what my week had held for me; therefore, she had no way of knowing that I had to fight tears this morning while completing this simple warm up. 

You see this week has been full of comparison…both by myself and of me by others. I will spare you the ugly details and share only that this week I have come to realize that we all suffer from the pain of comparison and we need to stop. We need to stop comparing our past with our present, we need stop comparing our body style/shape to our neighbors, we only need to focus on ourselves and what we can accomplish. We have so many wonderful things to be thankful that it is a waste of time and energy to worry about the rest. 

I also need to remember as a Christian the only comparison I should think about is being more Christ-like and relying on him to direct my path. I will never have something that I "want" without counsel and prayer about it first. During my reading yesterday in the devotion "Jesus Calling" I received a little smack in the face, see for yourself: 

"Collaborate with Me in this training" is the line that grabbed my attention. If I would focus on his "wants" for my life I might not get where I want to be but I will certainly get where I need to be in my life. (maybe if I stepped away from the girl scout cookies I could accomplish this, too. Oops, that's a different post for a different day!) I am going to do my best to refocus and not worry about that silly little word "comparison" and I hope you will do the same! 

The remainder of this week while you are loving on those special folks in your life, don't forget about yourself! You are valuable and loved, too! 

A sweet little note for us all! 

Happy Valentine's Week! 

Mitzi 

Giving Back....

Today myself, my husband and many friends joined together to operate a water / aid station for the 40th annual Tallahassee Marathon! To say that we had a blast, would not even do it justice!! 

Our crew was amazing! 

Most of us who volunteered are runners by hobby; however, we were not 100% sure to what to expect being on the "other" side of the table. I think it's safe to say we were all pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had cheering on friends and strangers. We were a tiny bit overwhelmed at the number of folks asking for Gatorade on their way out at the 2 mile mark. That overwhelming feeling did not stop us from working hard and serving all those runners to the best of our ability! 

By the time the runners got back to us, we were more than ready to welcome them back  with cheers, hugs, water, Gatorade, cookies, candy, medicine or anything else they might need to finish the last mile or so of their races. Some of them just seemed to enjoy our silliness and wanted nothing except to exchange a smile and a high five! 

What did I take away from this experience today? I learned that our sport is in fact a team sport, we all need each other's encouragement to make it to the finish line sometimes! We were able to be a blessing to someone today, wow that's a pretty amazing feeling! I am reminded that my pace doesn't matter, just place one foot in front of the other and move. 

Sharing this day with my love made it even better! 

There are so many ways that we as runners can give back. We can volunteer for local races, we can donate our time to help plan local races, we  canmake donations or  we can run "for" someone.  All of these are great opportunities to support your local running communities! I am so happy to have spent the day giving back to our local running club today! 

I'm excited to share with you a virtual race, Run for Hope 5/10K, being hosted by one of my best friends and her running buddies. Dawn E. and the rest of her team Warriors for William are a team of St. Jude's Heroes that are raising awareness to help continue research and lifesaving care by fundraising as they run for William. 

Warriors for William at the Hot Chocolate 15K in Atlanta, Ga

To read their story and register for their Run for Hope Virtual 5/10K please visit this link: http://stjudesheroeswarriorsforwilliam.weebly.com. . Registration is open through the end of March. I'm excited to see their team come up with more fundraising ideas before they hit Nashville for the final race for William! 

I strongly encourage you to get on the "other" side for the table! Volunteer or find a cause to run for as it will change your perspective on our sport and yourself! 

Happy Running! 
Mitzi 

"Frozen" Hot Chocolate 15/5K Recap

You may recall from October that I was chosen as an ambassador for the Hot Chocolate 15/5K event in Atlanta, GA. I enjoyed promoting the event, RAM Racing was a great company to work with during the months leading up to the race! 

The past weekend the BadassBabes made our trek to Atlanta to participate in the HC15K. Our ride there was nothing short of epic. 

Off we go! 

After resting a bit on Saturday we headed for the expo, thankfully it was located across the street from our hotel. We didn't have to spend much time outside in the 30 degree weather! The expo was small, which we expected but was packed full of fun and treats! Once everyone had their packet and bib, we headed out to do a little shopping. We attempted to shop around the Atlantic Station area, did I mention it was 30 something degrees? Yeah, it was cold! We opted for indoor shopping at Lenox. There were many good sales and the Badass Babes found some sweet deals! We ended the evening with a little surprise birthday dinner for Erin / pre-race dinner for everyone else! 

Packet Pick Up

The Badass Babes... love this photo! 

Lovely dinner dates! 

The alarm went off at 4:30am on Sunday... 4:30am! We had been warned of terrible traffic getting to Turner Field and decided we didn't want to get caught up in all that. So we loaded up the Suburban with the Babes and off we went. There was no traffic...we arrived at Turner Field at 5:30am, we left the hotel at 5:15...FAIL! We could've slept another hour, this brought on much silliness for the next few hours in the car together! The clock finally struck 7:15am and it was time to wish our girl Ashley well in the 5K. Then the rest of us made our way to the start line for the 15K. Thankfully the race started right on time and we didn't have to stand around in the 30 degree weather for very long. We wound our way through the neighborhoods of the midtown and uptown areas of Atlanta. It was a beautiful run, very hilly but fun! The last few miles were on the downtown streets past the beautiful gold domed Georgia Capital. The finish line was just outside the former outfield fence of the original Braves Stadium, being a Braves fan I thought this was very neat. 

I finished with a 15K PR of 1:36 and headed straight for my finishers mug full of sweet treats. They call it the "Sweetest Race" and they lived up to their name. We received a mug full of goodies, including the best Hot Chocolate that I have had in quite a while. 

Let's do this! 

Yummy! 

My BFF and I with our CHOCOLATE! 

The best finish photo!! 

Overall the experience was awesome! RAM Racing knows how to put on a great event from the ease of registration to keeping everything so well organized on race day with 20,000 people at the event. I hope to be able to keep working with them in the future as ambassador for the next event in our area. If you have a chance to run a Hot Chocolate 15K near you, I highly recommend participating! 

After a quick shower we all changed into our awesome HC15K sweatshirts that were part of our goodie bags! Then we had a yummy lunch and the Badass Babes made our way down I-85 south back to Tallahassee. This time we had two cars so we split up. I'm certain we left our mark at the gas station just north of Lumpkin, GA. The fake argument between myself and Shannon had everyone rolling!! The poor people in Coolidge, GA are probably still talking about the three girls running around the white car during a fire drill, oh yeah at a green light! 

Who wouldn't want to spend 

4 1/2 hrs in a car with this crew?! 

We LOVE our sweatshirts! Thanks HC15K!

Starbucks in the CNN Center before we left town! 

This weekend provided much downtime and laughter that we all needed. It's been a stressful few weeks for the Badass Babes and we let loose! Next up for us is the 26.2 with Donna (half marathon) in Jacksonville, FL on February 23rd. The stories from that road trip are always good so stay tuned! 

Bowlegs 5K

This year I have decided to run 14 races in 2014. The only difference between this year and last year is I will be including races of all distances! The first of those races came this past weekend at the Billy Bowlegs 5K. This race is held annually at the FSU/FAMU College of Engineering. 

The Bowlegs 5K benefits a scholarship fund within the College of Engineering. I love supporting all things FSU, including academics. Crystal and I decided to run this race at the last minute. As the week progressed we realized the weather was going to be a little colder than we hoped for but we agreed to run regardless of the temps. 

Saturday morning came along and the temps were in low 30's, actually it was 27 at the start. Before you roll your eyes and laugh at us, remember that's cold for us Florida girls. We grabbed our gloves, bondi bands and running jackets then headed to the start line. The race started right one time, always a good thing! 

The race course took us through the Innovation Park area of FSU's campus. It was a great course, very hilly but fun. I appreciated the areas with direct sunlight as it helped me battle the chilly temps a little better. I did have to walk up one of the bigger hills, my legs just felt tight! That tightness didn't stop me from grabbing a PR to kickoff the 5K racing season. I finished with a time of 27:36, an average pace at 8:48. Clearly the cold weather makes me move  a tad faster!! 

As you can see we were bundled up but still smiling!! 

Crystal and I with our friend Kim. 

She hates the cold even more than we do!! 

Sole Sisters 

This 5K provided the perfect opportunity to test my cold weather running gear. Our BadassBabes crew is heading to Altanta for the Hot Chocolate 15/5K this weekend. The race temps will rival the temps from Saturday. I think based on my last few cold weather running experiences I am prepared with the correct gear. Thankful for my Nike compression pants and my YMX long sleeve top!! 

Be on the lookout for a Hot Chocolate update next week! 

Back to Tabata...

Today I kicked off my 3rd round of Tabata Bootcamp at Badass Fitness! I had the pleasure of being apart of the inaugural group in May 2013. When I first started with the program I was up a few pounds, a little slower paced and not very confident in my physical strength. 7 months later I have learned how to maintain the number on the scale, I'm a little faster and a lot more confident, truthfully I am a lot stronger!!

You may be asking "What is Tabata Bootcamp"?
Tabata Bootcamp is an 8 week High Intensity Interval Training program. The workouts are 45 minutes each. We meet 3 times a week consisting of combination of 20-10 drills and 40-30-20 drills during each class. We are fortunate to have two of the most experienced Tabata Bootcamp trainers in the area as our instructors: Shannon Colavecchio, Master Trainer and Allison Carter, Tabata Trainer.

If you are just starting Tabata Bootcamp you may feel a little nervous. Remember, we all started somewhere and this will get "easier"! You have 8 weeks to master the drills of the workouts and you will do great!

My top three successful tips:
1 - Do not miss a class... you have to get in 3 bootcamps a week so schedule it on your busy calendar as you would any other meeting and be there!

2 - Log into the portal every day & do the homework! I have found it best to do the homework prior to class, it gets my mind set for the class ahead. Yes, that's right I get up even earlier and watch the 10 minute video before I hit the front door of the studio. That won't work for everyone and that's okay. Just don't forget to do the homework every single day!!

3 - Eat Clean / Train Dirty - I love this statement! Eating clean along with the workouts will give you the best results. I can honestly say this is where I struggle. I love food! I'm counting on my friends to keep me in check with my diet, I hate that word! This program is not about a diet but an overall change in how you handle your food choices. You can not out work your bad food choices.

I'm looking forward to forming new friendships with all the new faces that came to class today. It is so much fun to cheer on the other attendees as they see inches go away, numbers on the scale drop and smiles on their faces light up! Celebrating the accomplishments of others is just a blessing!!

I'm excited to see how much I discover about myself in the next 8 weeks. Will I loose a few more pounds? Will I get even stronger? Will I get even faster? I hope to accomplish all of this plus become a certified Tabata Bootcamp Trainer myself next month. Most of all, I plan to take the next 8 weeks and learn as much as possible while having the time of my life!! 

Need a little inspiration, I hope this helps! 

Top Photo : May 2013 - the very first Tabata Bootcamp 

Bottom Photo: January 2014 - Excited to see even more changes in 8 weeks

We have assessments every two weeks so be on the lookout for lots of updates!!! I'm counting on you all for accountability so please feel free to send me a shout out along the way. 

xoxo,
Mitzi 

Hello 2014!

WOW, 2014 is off to a great start! 

Our little family of three ended 2013 with the best Christmas present ever…tickets to the BCS National Championship in Pasadena, CA! I'm not sure who was more excited the grandparents, the parents, the aunt, the cousins or the child. On January 3rd we flew to LA for a weekend of fun new adventures and on January 6th we sat through the most grueling game of RJ's little life! It was a battle til the end but when the clock struck 0:00 The Florida State University Seminoles had won the BCS National Championship. The Rose Bowl erupted and my little RJ experienced a night he will never forget! 

The family at Disneyland! 

Rose Bowl

That trip alone could have several blogs, we had a blast. The whole time we were out there I couldn't help but think how awesome it was to kick off 2014 with such excitement. Now, we are home and settling back into routine. Our little crew thrives on routine, yep - we are all Type A and we love each other for it! During all of this I've been praying about goals for the year, I realize I am two weeks behind in sharing those goals. The trip got in the way of the blog and one of my goals, oops! 

Just before the Christmas break Shannon with Badass Fitness posted her "determinations" for the year. I love how she called them determinations and not resolutions. Resolutions seem so final and for me these are not the "end", they are not resolving anything! They are hopefully going to make me and my family better people, healthier people and happier people. (We are a pretty happy bunch so that's a scary thought for many, I am sure!)

So here goes nothing… my list of Determinations for 2014: 

I will spend more time concentrating on my faith journey in 2014.

I will enjoy my time with RJ, no matter how long or short it may be in 2014. 

I will appreciate my husband more in 2014. 

I will complete 100 push-ups and 100 crunches every day of 2014. 

I will complete Tabata Bootcamp instructor training in 2014…actually in February. 

I will attend a fitness conference and add another fitness certification in 2014. 

I will set a PR for 5K, 10K, 15K and Half Marathon in 2014. 

I will work to inspire people to get more active, be healthier. (This may include borrowing inspiration from people around me as well! )

This little photo from the ladies at Fellow Flowers was a well timed post! 

I have printed this so that every time I want to avoid one of these determinations I can remind myself I CAN DO IT! 

There you have it! I am counting on you to keep me accountable through much of this. I am sure as the year goes by I will add more goals/determinations to my list. 

I'd love to hear what your determinations are so I can return the favor of accountability as well! So comment and let me know… 

Cheers to an awesome 2014! 
Mitzi