I’m short on time, but not on photos – so let’s mix it up with a little Blend Retreat fun!

The “rules” were created by Lindsay, labeling each picture with one word. It MUST be the first word that comes to mind (and yes, you can put two words together, hashtag-style if need be).

Prepping

Smiling

TwinSandwich

Party!

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Blending Up One Word Wednesday was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

I’m having one of those weeks where I have too much to write and too little time! Blend Retreat was too awesome to rush, so I’m going to focus on the workouts this post. More is coming, I promise!!

Today is really more about LiveFit Trainer anyway, so it’s the perfect place to start. I’m officially halfway through the program!! That’s absolutely crazy to say – how did I already do 6 full weeks?

I have to admit that I missed one LiveFit workout this week, but the GPP Fitness bootcamp sufficiently trashed my legs to make up for it!

My favorite workouts right now are arm day – I can feel myself getting stronger there every week and it’s fun! My least favorite this week was probably leg day, because I was sloppy on one of the squats and actually strained my back a bit. A visit to my favorite Colorado sports chiro helped get that worked out in time for Blend. Gotta be careful on the heavy squats!

For cardio this week, I only ran once (trying to baby my back) and did elliptical for my other two sessions at home. My fourth cardio session of the week was Saturday’s Blend Retreat bootcamp, hosted by Neil of GPP Fitness!

GPP Fitness Bootcamp

Can  you pick out see Lindsay, Janetha, Katie, Brittany, Calee, Heather, Heather, Lindsay, & Meg in this photo?

The workout was very different than what I’m used to and very fun! We started with these super-short sprints that you took off FAST & then stopped short. It didn’t seem to be doing a thing, but my legs told me otherwise on Sunday. :)

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LiveFit Trainer: Week 6 Recap & Blend Workouts! was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

Recently, I feel like I rarely have time to sit down and relax. There’s so much going on between work, workouts, friends, & family that there’s little time to just sit and relax. Good stuff, but it still leaves less time that I would like for laziness. I do enjoy being lazy from time to time.

This weekend was no exception with non-stop fun at Blend Retreat 2013! The second event was as fun as I remembered, with a lots of new people to spend time with throughout the event.

Last week was busy getting things done and ready to leave, which left Sunday night (again) for my MMAZ recipe. I have to say I was THRILLED that this week was cook, so I could rely on someone else’s recipe for success. And since simple was what I wanted, I had to make Lauren’s Salted Chocolate Coffee Clusters.

Well, actually Kirk made them while I typed this post. We teamed up to get to bed as early as possible – teamwork for the win! And yes, we forgot the salt. :)

MMAZ Memorial Day Break

One important announcement before I turn things over to the MMAZ participants this week. Next week is Memorial Day!! Okay, so you already know that. But I didn’t realize that when I planned this month’s MMAZ ingredients. I like to give everyone holidays off, so MMAZ Eggplant will have to wait until  June 3rd!!

That means you have 2 full weeks to get ready with your meatless eggplant creation. An extra week to brainstorm or bask in your successful recipe creation skills. Your choice! I’ll actually be on vacation for both weeks of Eggplant fun, so I’ll get my act together early.

Okay…enough talk for today – let’s see what dark chocolate recipes you chose to cook this week!! You should also see all of the original creations submitted last week!

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Questions for you:

• How was your weekend?
• When was the last time you made time for lazy?

Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans {MMAZ #34} was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

It’s time for your weekly reminder about this week’s MMAZ challenge!

This week your challenge is to COOK a meatless recipe featuring Dark Chocolate. Although you can choose any dark chocolate recipe, I encourage you to choose one of the many options created for MMAZ this past week.

If you haven’t participated before, check out the MMAZ page for full details on how it works – and to get the logo for your post on Monday.

So get in the kitchen and start cooking up a storm this weekend, if you haven’t already. See you on Monday!

Ready to Cook with Dark Chocolate? was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

Today is going to be a great day! Why? It’s the day I head to Utah for Blend 2013 – the event I’ve been looking forward to since the end of Blend 2012! If you think I’m exaggerating, you weren’t at Blend last year.

My suitcase is (over)packed with cute & casual outfits (many that you saw in my Stitch Fix review earlier this week), daily vitamins & supplements are stashed in one pocket, and more than enough business cards are ready to be distributed.

And, of course, I packed my Vega shirt to make sure everyone knows who to see about some great Vega Sport samples throughout the weekend – if you’re going make sure you find me or Amanda!

What’s on the agenda for the weekend?

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It’s time to #Blend2013 with Vega!! was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

On Monday night, I got my third Stitch Fix box! Yes, third. I haven’t shared about it on the blog yet, but I realized I HAD to talk about it. Otherwise you might think I’m starting to get some style all on my own. ;) Plus they have a great member referral program, so if you sign-up using the links on this page, I do get Stitch Fix credits (which means I can order more boxes!)

I do NOT enjoy shopping. It’s boring, frustrating, and way too many annoying people around. Plus you have to try to remember what you have at home and what might go with whatever you’re trying on. Then you get it home & realize it doesn’t really match what was in your head.

Yea…I’m not a shopper.

But I do love cute clothes! A dilemma, right?

When Kalli first posted about Stitchfix, I had already started with Ellie for my workout clothes & loved having someone pick that out. I thought it would be worth a try for non-workout clothes and decided to give it a try!

I registered for an account at StitchFix and filled out the extensive profile. If you sign up, I recommend finding time when you at least 15 minutes to take some time with the style profile. You’ll answer questions about your size, shape, style preferences, price preferences, and a little about your life (where you’ll wear your clothes). They show you pictures of different styles & you decide what you like & don’t. You can even provide a link to your pinterest style board.

All this information helps your personal stylist get to know your preferences, so they can pick out pieces that you are more likely to enjoy! And they include little pictures with each item that shows ideas for how to style it, which can be REALLY helpful!

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Gotta Have My (Stitch) Fix was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

I’m firmly in Phase 2 now! Week 5 was the hardest week of workouts yet, but still completely doable for where I am today. I have to haul butt in the gym to get through in my 1 hour target window, and then we add 30 minutes of cardio to the mix.

I did two runs last week (don’t want to overdo it!) and really enjoyed the feeling of running! It’s freeing to run without a time goal or pressure – something I needed to bring the JOY back! This week I did 2 runs, 1 elliptical, and 1 yoga. It’s really fun to figure out what I feel like doing for cardio each day!

I still prefer to try to fit that all in before work, but some days I’m more successful than others. Have I mentioned I’m still having fun?! :)

As much as Laura told me I’d love lifting, I really didn’t expect to be having so much fun. I love the feeling of strength it gives me and doing “strange” things that girls don’t typically do. I’m not gonna lie, it makes me feel tough sometimes!

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LiveFit Trainer: Week 5 Recap was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

So far I’ve gotten pretty lucky with Meatless Mondays from A-Z. Even when I don’t know what to make, an idea comes to me by Sunday night.

I had a few ideas floating around in my head this week, but I couldn’t figure out the details. I tried a spicy chocolate ball/cookie, but it didn’t turn out right. Not terrible, but not something that are ready to share either.

I guess that means my luck ran out this week! A little disappointing when I’m hosting the MMAZ challenge, but I am out of time.

What I CAN do is share some of the chocolate recipes that I created in the past:

German Chocolate Donuts

Pumpkin Protein Breakfast Cake

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The Recipe That Wasn’t {MMAZ #33} was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

It’s time for your weekly reminder about this week’s MMAZ challenge!

This week your challenge is to CREATE a meatless recipe featuring Dark Chocolate. It can be a simple snack, a fun lunch idea, or a complicated creation – whatever inspires you. No recipe is to simple, just have fun with it!

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Ready to CREATE with Dark Chocolate? was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon

When I first started the LiveFit Trainer, I wanted to find a snack that was easy to cook in bulk, tasted good, and was loaded with protein. One of the snacks I saw all over was meatloaf or turkey muffins, which don’t fit with my mostly plant-based diet. So I decided to create something better….

I’ve been on a bit of a tempeh kick recently. It’s a soy-based protein that is lightly fermented and very delicious. It can be a bit bitter raw, but if you steam prior to eating it mellows to a great flavor. Depending on the brand, it also packs 18+ grams of protein per serving!

I started with a recipe I found on Oxygen magazine and adapted over a few batches. It’s been my afternoon snack for most of the past month and now that I’ve got this one down, I have several more varieties in mind!

Tempeh Protein Muffins was originally published on Better With Veggies and written by Heather Blackmon