Healthy Tipping Point

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BUBBA Burger for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

On our awesome but super short beach trip, we had to feed 21 people – 5 men, 5 women, and 11 children, of which 9 actually eat solids. Suffice it to say that meal planning was key!

On the first night, we kept things super simple with frozen pizzas.  But on the next night, we jazzed it up with burgers.  The whole group tried the new BUBBA Veggie Burger. Normally, I make veggie burgers from scratch, so I’m pretty finicky about them.  These were totally delicious veggie burgers – all natural, no GMOs, gluten-free, and vegan to boot.  Plus, you can actually see the VEGGIES in the veggie burger – little pieces of corn and carrots!

The kids really loved them – and the adults did, too!

I had mine with a lettuce wrap.  I’m lovin’ the lettuce wrap lately – it’s so refreshing. 

We didn’t have anything left over – I was sad because I was hoping for burgers for breakfast…

But when we got home, I discovered an extra package in the back of my fridge.  Wahoo!  While we made our burgers at the beach on the grill (and they held up over the flames pretty well, which is hard for veggie burgers), I made these burgers on the stove top.  Served over a bunch of stir-fry veggies with some mustard.  Perfect.

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I have a LONG list on my phone of everything I need to do before my race.  Here are the highlights:

Figure out what shoes to run in and install my LockLaces.

I have been training in the New Balance 880s and the Asics Gel Nimbus 17s.  I really like both (and will do detailed reviews down the road) but I can’t decide which to run in.  The NB feel like they have a wider toe box, and the Asics have that nice gel cushioning… Decisions, decisions.  I also need to put LockLaces on the shoe of my choice – I don’t want to deal with loose laces during the race!

Figure out my bra situation.

Since I’m currently a card-carrying member of the Big Titty Committee (and I mean that in the nicest way possible to the boobies), I need to think hard about what I’m going to do bra-wise during the race.  I think I’m going to wear my Enell bra (<— click for a review, or click the picture above) under my tri-suit throughout the whole race – even in the swim.  Normally, I pull on a bra AFTER the swim in T1, but I don’t think I could physically stand to run into transition without a bra on.

On that note…

Figure out breastfeeding.

I’m probably leaving the kids at home, so I’m going to pump in the car before the start of the race.  I’ve done this a few times with success.  I just need to remember to bring my cooler so I can keep the milk instead of tossing it out!

SLEEP!  Or try to…

Sleep has been lacking in our house lately.  I can handle one wake-up a night, but I’m crabby after two.  For the past few nights, I’ve been woken up by the kids at least four times in total – I feel delirious.  I’m really going to try to get to bed early for the next few nights, and I plan to sleep downstairs away from the kiddos on Saturday night.

Rest!  No more workouts.

I haven’t had any long workouts this week, but I have done a bunch of tough ones.  Like – so tough that I wake up super sore.  This morning’s really challenging spin class is probably my last workout before the race, giving me two days of rest. 

And last, but not least, I need to…

Review the race website and study the course maps.

Go to a bike store and buy new gloves because I cannot find mine for the life of me.

Make sure I have everything I need in my flat kit (pray for no flats!).

Buy some HEED or something similar for bike fueling.

Find my USAT card.

GET EXCITED <— check!  I’m already so excited!

I bought Claire a new exersaucer on consignment – she is so pleased.  I’ve never seen a baby love exersaucers and jumpers more than Claire (and Henry was super into them).  She’s been having the time of her life in this new one!

Some days, I feel like I have the motherhood thing down.  I am on schedule and on point.  We do everything we need to do that day and have tons of fun in between.  Other days, I feel like the kids are eating me alive and I can barely function.  Yesterday was one of those days!  Mainly because I’m attempting to potty train Henry.  I swear to God – if I utter the words, “Do you need to go sit on the potty?” one more time, my head will explode. 

I would LOVE potty training tips.  So far, I’m using a bribe and reward system with M&Ms.  Except I keep stress eating all the M&Ms… 

We’re also working to a grand prize of a new toy.  Bribing is my #1 parenting technique (kidding but not really) so… seems to be working so far.

(The sad face was on request by Henry – he got bored with the happy faces and then switched to sad faces, cat faces, and an alligator head.)

Henry’s almost 3 years old (HOW?!) and I’ve kind of been waiting for him to take the lead with potty training – but recently, I realized that he was probably not going to do it anytime soon without a little direction from me.  I also think he regressed a bit overall after Claire’s birth – lots of talk about wanting to be a baby, too.  Anyway – I would really love any advice and tips that you all may have.  It seems so overwhelming to someone who has never done this before!  So far, the best tip that I’ve heard is to keep a little potty in your car – we have definitely used that already!

And apparently, because I like to torture myself, next week, I’ll be sleep training Claire (I think).  I know from sleep training Henry (Part I and Part II) hat it’s no fun for anyone but well worth it in the end.  I would love for us all to sleep through the night again!

Baby Henry – awww!

Enough of the kiddo stuff – I have two race training –related things to share.  First of all, have you seen this video? It’s kind of old, but I keep watching it before my hard workouts.  Super motivating and fun!

And secondly, I posted this question in the Tri-Fecta Facebook group.  What do you think about spray sunscreens mid-race?

Thoughts on all my burning training questions?

FIVE DAYS until my first triathlon of the season! I think training buddy Brandi and I are ready… Well, I sure hope so!

I’m curious to see how this race goes because I trained very differently for this event.   For my other races, I followed a training plan diligently and focused on swimming, running, and biking with a heavy lean towards running.  This time, I didn’t follow a plan at all – I just tried to do the three sports AND threw boot camp into the mix. I also ran much shorter weekly totals.  I probably focused more of my cardio time on swimming.  I think it will translate to a good race – but we’ll see.

Yesterday, I did a double swim/boot camp workout.  I managed to time this really well with the kids – I put them in gym childcare for my swim, left the pool to walk Henry out of childcare and over to school (it’s all in the same complex), and then pulled Claire out of childcare after I finished boot camp.  Figuring out what to do with the kiddos is my fifth sport of triathlons (the other ones are swimming, biking, running, and strength training)!

We swam 1000 yards and practiced sighting for 150 – I forgot how hard sighting is…

We also did three sets of 200 yards on the 4:00.  It is HARD for me to swim 200 yards in 4:00 – I went over 2 of the 3 sets.  Whoops.

Brandi and I felt like toast after – I think she wanted to take a nap on the ledge, hah.

SUN’S OUT, GUNS OUT!

I try to always keep a variety of non-perishable snacks in my gym bag and fill it with a few pieces of fruit every Monday.  That way, I don’t have to hustle up something to eat every single time I go to the gym.  Grab and go – it’s key!  Before boot camp, I killed a banana and some of the CVS Gold Emblem Abound Fruit and Nut Fiber Trail Mix. 

This is the favorite thing I’ve tried as part of my ambassador partnership with CVS.   Love the big, juicy raisins and all the crunchy nuts.  This is a nice trail mix because the nuts are not TOO salty – know what I mean?

And then it was time for STRENGTH.  Monday is always the hardest day!

Let me translate boot camp gibberish:

5 Rounds:

14 bench presses with dumbbells (I used 15 lbs) on the stability ball

14 dumbbell goblet squats (again with 15 lbs) with an overheard press

60 seconds of running in place – 10 seconds high knees, 10 seconds jogging, repeat

60 second plank

1 Round:

50 tricep dips or extensions (in the TRX machine or on a bench)

100 twisting lunges with a DYNA ball (I used 10 pounds and only made it to 50 lunges – ugh!)

4 laps around the track holding that DYNA ball over your head

Boot camp participants are working towards 50,000 burpees and 5,000 miles in 30 days.  I bet we do it in half the time!  I’m surrounded by crazy beasts in that class.

Post-workout sweaty chin bottle.  Claire does not look amused.

I’m proud to partner with CVS/pharmacy as one of the “Gold Emblem Abound Trail Makers” this year! I am being sponsored by CVS/pharmacy for my Trail Makers posts and activities, but all opinions expressed are my own, and all product claims or program details shared should be verified at CVS.com or with the appropriate manufacturers.