Mexican Rice & Bean Wrap

Lacey, here!

Wraps are an easy way to incorporate all those veggies & beans in a quick & tasty way. Here's a recent one that we've made and love!

Ingredients:
1 cup rice (and appropriate water/veggie broth according to package directions)
1 can kidney beans or black beans
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
Dash of cayenne red pepper
Fresh chopped cilantro
Lettuce
Diced tomato
Salsa
Whole Wheat tortillas

Directions:
1. Cook rice according to package directions.
2. Add your beans and stir in seasonings (chili powder, cumin, cayenne red pepper). Let it sit on low heat for a couple minutes to allow the beans to warm.
3. Warm your tortillas in the microwave for 10 seconds.
4. Place rice & bean mixture into a tortilla and add all of your toppings...fresh cilantro, lettuce, diced tomato, salsa, etc)

Booty-licious Workout

Lacey, here!

In need of a quick workout to tone your butt and thighs? I use this workout as my strength training for cycling.

Here's the deal, I'll be the first to admit that the voice-over instructions are pretty bland. Feel free, after watching the video once, to put the audio on mute and blast your favorite music. If you have more than twenty minutes, do this workout again! Trust me, you'll feel the burn the next morning.

Since I've been doing this, I really can feel the strength in my legs when I'm biking. It's given me more endurance for those long rides and more power to get up those hills!

To a happy booty!

Super Easy Chicken, Rice & Veggies Dinner

Steph here, and I totally agree with Lacey about Keeping Dinners Simple. I constantly struggle with cooking a healthy meal and making it quick and easy. I was trying on a ton of new recipes which was fun, but not all of them were gluten and dairy free. I'm on a strict healthy eating kick right now (hellooooo summer) so I wanted to my make cooking nights easier.

Enter: Chicken, Rice & Veggies
- Chicken ~ we stock up and keep it frozen so we can just pull it out that morning when we need it
- Brown rice ~ boil in a bag is too damn easy
- Veggies ~ we buy a variety of frozen mixed bags

Love these veggie mixes - and no time for chopping!

Life saver / dish saver / time saver

I add in a hodge podge of spices

Dicing up the chicken - we may do this in advance over the weekend now

Finished product - delicious and healthy

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Walk Your Weight Down

I swear that living in Manhattan and walking around everywhere without a car has kept me at least 10 pounds lighter. You don't realize how many extra calories you burn while walking, but when you have to walk 1/2 mile to the grocery store and carry it all back every single week - it makes a difference for sure. I also live in a 5th floor walk up - so on any given day I am walking at least 10 flights of stairs - but it's usually more on weekends when we're running errands and exploring outside.

Running track right outside our home :)

So I am here to suggest you get out and WALK! Even though you may have a car and it's super easy to hop in to get somewhere - figure out where you can walk to. Or maybe drive to a park and just walk around. It can be peaceful and mind clearing - and you can drop a few + pounds by just getting out more.

Northern Central Park (where the tourists don't go) :)

These Central Park pictures are from a long exploration walk my husband and I took the other weekend. It was so nice to be outside for 2+ hours enjoying the weather and the beautiful Central Park sites. And I bet we burned off a bunch of calories walking up and down Great Hill and all over the Park :)

Top of Great Hill - Central Park

Walking is also a great into to an exercise program if you haven't been working out lately. Walk around the running track - get a feel for it, try to walk faster. Get your body used to moving every day before you start any high intensity work out and you'll be more likely to stick with it since you'll be easing into it. Always consult your doctor if you have any questions about how to exercise safely.

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Home Workouts

Now that nicer weather has rolled around, I've started running in the mornings before work. Def have some winter weight to run off - but I really just love starting my day with a run. I feel so accomplished after AND it keeps me eating healthy all day. I'm a lot less likely to reach for a soda when I know I took the time to work out already that day.

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I don't have much extra time in the morning to stretch and get some other exercises in, so I wanted to starting doing something after work to start to tone up. My husband prefers to run after work, so I use that time to rock some Pilates and work on toning my legs, arms and abs :)

I found some great (free) classes On Demand (I have Time Warner Cable in NYC). It feels great to add in toning exercises - without having to pay like $20 per class (welcome to the city haha).

My choice of the day:

And welcome to exercising in a 1 bedroom apartment:

#makeitwork

I always need running motivation ~

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