I was able to convince my husband to watch the Super Bowl with me, which was quite a feat since he only supports the Eagles and since they weren’t there (duh) he wasn’t into the game. But I was, I love the whole event.

I have to say I was proud of myself, at the start of the game we each declared who we thought the winner would be and by how many points… my prediction: Giants by 4… oh yea baby!

I was really pissed because we don’t have television so I had to watch it on the computer and wouldn’t you know it that the commercials didn’t air online streaming! Uggg… so I did what any commercial fan would do:

Watched them on YouTube afterwards. Here were my favorites:

Volkswagon’s Dog Strikes Back: EVEN THE DOG CAN RESIST TEMPTING FOODS!

M&M’s Just My Shell… This just made me giggle, too cute!

Were you disappointed with the whole Super Bowl experience this year?

I can not believe that we didn’t take one single picture from Christmas. Well… there is a good reason actually: I was sick as a dog!

This pretty much sums it up...

By time our flight landed in Phili, my head was aching, my nose completed stuffed, and my ears burning. I felt awful and the second I walked into my in-law’s house I went to the guest bedroom and slept for 2 hours.

Luckily my father-in-law is a doctor, so I had in check my ears which had decided to to have an ear infection (I haven’t had one since I was a little kid), my fever was 101 and he quickly put me on antibiotics and some amazing cold medicine.

I slept off and on for the next two days… not exactly the way I had planned on my vacation!

The second night we were there I took enough Dayquil to get all dolled up for the ballet and a full course meal. It was amazing, I only wished that I could have tasted all of my delicious food! But I will say the fraction I could taste, I could tell it was AMAZING!

For starters I had grilled calamari… for main course I had baked lamb (something I never eat)… and for dessert I had a cappacino and traditional Greek walnut bread (did I mention we were at a Greek restaurant?).

The ballet was breath taking! I loved every second of it! It amazes me the strength and elegance the dancers have.

It was a great night, and of course I passed out right when we got home!

For Christmas eve, I was feeling a little better, so we all decided what better way to spend Christmas eve than ice skating? It was freezing, and we lasted a good hour. I think I held my own being the southern girl in a very northern sporting activity.

Then time for mass, dinner (grilled scallops), and the traditional Boyle Christmas Book.

The family's Book 2011 Christmas

I LOVE this tradition and Dan and I have started it on our own too. Each Christmas Eve, “Santa” leaves a book under the tree as an early gift. We open it and Dan’s dad reads it out loud as we all pile onto one couch: Dan’s dad, mom, sister, Dan and me.

Then the two of us go upstairs to our room, open our book (which is wrapped) and Dan now has the prividge of reading aloud… then again, I passed out!

That’s part one of the trip… I will stop here and finish up tomorrow!

How was your Christmas? Any special traditions you and your family have?

We are getting attempting to get organized for our holiday trip up to Phili. That means that on top of training boot camps, updating The Art of Weight Lifting, blogging, and everything else that I normally do I am rushing around trying to get keys made, clothes (and pets) washed, house cleaned, presents wrapped, well…

You know the deal. You’re probably rushing around doing much of the same things!

So I am taking a break from fitness and wanted to share a few pictures of the younger loves in my life!

This is my beautiful niece Lainey, she just turned 6 months old!

"Is Santa really bringing me gifts??"

And this is Mayson, Her parents are one of our closest friends. I just love her and her little personality! We had her calling up the chimney to Santa the other night reminding him of the gifts she wants! Hilarious!

Aunt Taylor reading her new Christmas book!

We fly out Thursday morning! I am fighting a throat thing right now but am dosing up on AirBorne and drinking LOTS of water! I refuse to let it bring me down!

If you have kids, what’s you’re favorite thing to do with them during the holidays? 

Sorry, this has absolutely nothing about fitness today. But it’s a lot of fun regardless!

My Christmas Story… 

I found this survey and it brought back memories of my best friend Amber sitting around filling things like this out when we were kids/teenagers. And I decided what better way to share my love of Christmas!! 

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I love hot chocolate and I love egg nog but between the two, plus my love of clean eating the hot chocolate wins. I make my own that is less than 75 calories and delicious!h.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps presents and delivers them Christmas morning to my parents house. My parents are great, they treat Christmas the same as they did when we were little kids.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Both… I have our real tree set in the living room with white lights, which is what I prefer. So classy and angelic! But my husband, Dan, loves colored lights so I have a second tree in the dining room with colored lights for him.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, though every year I say I will.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? This is a tough one but I think my favorite food would be my mom’s homemade fudge… not necessarily a dish but a holiday staple.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? There are so many wonderful memories, christmas has always been important in our home, but as a kid the best memory would be trying to plan a way for my brother and I to get to our presents without waking up my parents… we would wake up at like 3 am to tip top down stairs.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What do you mean? Santa lives in all of us!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to open up a special gift from my dad after Christmas Eve mass as a kid but he won’t let us do that any longer.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Dan and I have a collection of gorgeous ornaments, one for each year we’ve been together plus some great ones we received as wedding gifts. They are all from the Old World Christmas collection. I then fill in with butterflies and peacocks… I am slightly obsessed. For the smaller tree in the dining room, this gets regular balls and and random ornaments.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I will let you know after I spend my first Christmas in Philly.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes… Dan was a hockey player in high school so we sometimes go to the local indoor ice rink and skate for fun.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes… my engagement ring two years ago!

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with my family and friends. It’s important to remember what the Holidays are all about and not get wrapped up in the commercial parts (though I do LOVE buying gifts for people).

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? This is a tough one because I bake every year… overall it has to be my mom’s fudge but my own favorite to make are decorated sugar cookies and biscotti.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I have a ton growing up, but now my husband and I started a new one together… he buys a Christmas book and wraps it up. Christmas eve it gets left under the tree so we can open it and read it out loud together. I love this. We hope that our kids will appreciate the early gift from Santa one day when we have them.

17. What tops your tree? A silver bow.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving for sure! I love buying gifts for people and watching them open them up.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum, especially if dipped in dark chocolate.

20. Favorite Christmas show? Movie? I have a lot but here are just three… I love White Christmas (watch it every year), I love Love Actually, Elf, and Charlie Brown Christmas!

21. Saddest Christmas Song? The one about buying the Christmas Shoes… I turn it when it comes on the radio.

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? Baby It’s Cold Outside (Martina McBride); and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas

If you are new to reading my blog you may not be familiar yet with my 6 month old kitten… Nike. She is my baby and to be honest I never thought I would love a cat! But I adore her, however, that being said she is driving us up the roof right now.

She is very mischevious, as most cats are… plus in cat years I think she’s going through her terrible twos. She knows “NO” but will just give me this look that says… “Good try mom, but it’s not going to work.”

Tired after lots of climbing and pulling down ornaments and lights

So when we got our Christmas tree this past weekend I was nervous about her reaction. I had these crazy visions of the tree coming down and all of our gorgeous (and quite pricy) ornaments cracking to tiny, unrecognizable pieces.

It hasn’t gotten that bad… yet.

We got the tree in the house and once it was in the stand Dan could see my nervousness and told me not to worry, the branches were close together and he didn’t think she would be able to climb even if she tried… okay, cool…

Well then it happened: I started working on the lights and looked up. Guess who’s little eyes were starring at me from the top of the 7 ft tree! Yup, Nike.

Since then half of my lights have already been pulled down, one of the big bottom branches is broken and hanging on by a thread and I have about 5 ornaments laying on the ground.

So, the tree is putting up a brave fight but will it make it up the end??

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I hope that the day is filled with great times with those closest to you.

I love Thanksgiving, after all it’s the kick off to the holidays! Starting tomorrow I get to listen to Christmas Music, start decorating the house and get busy buying Christmas presents! It’s absolutely, without a doubt, my most favorite time of the year!

We are having Thanksgiving with my parents this year, along with my brother, his wife, my baby niece, my Grandmama, and my sister-in-law’s parents.

Are we eating clean? Umm, I wish, but no. With my mom in the kitchen I will expect to walk in the house and see Paula Deen’s cookbook sitting on the counter.

I will help my mom cook while the boys watch football (how typical). I promised Dan mimosas so the champagne is chilling now. I was in charge the the dessert this year and have t be honest, pretty proud of how it turned out… and the cake is clean (I won’t mention it to the family until they have devoured it).

Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry and Chocolate Ganache Filling... Buttercream Icing... Hand made chocolate leaves!

Dan and I started our own tradition a few years ago, it really began because he hates the parade and wanted to figure out a way to make me happy without him being tortured (who hates the Macy’s Day Parade)… any who… he turns on my favorite move “LOVE ACTUALLY” while I get ready in the morning. That’s about it.

Friday we will get our tree and the house will be “Christmas-fied”, and Saturday is the Clemson Vs Carolina game, and then Sunday it’s back to my parents to decorate their tree! Fun filled weekend of holiday enjoyment had by all!

What about you… what do you do this weekend?? 

This made me laugh:

By now you’ve probably put together your Thanksgiving menu. I love this time of the year and am so excited to spend it with my family!

I am not in charge of the meal this year… that goes to my mom; but I was the host last year and managed to put together not only a great tasting meal but also a healthy Thanksgiving meal that even my southern parents loved.

Waiting to dig in!

So just incase you’re still on edge on what to cook here are some of the things I made last year:

Appetizers:

• Pesto crostinis
• Bruschetta crostinis
• Mixed olives and wine

The Big Thanksgiving Dinner

• Baked turkey (of course)
• Orange cranberry sauce
• Short grain, brown rice
• Green beans with an almond topping
• Sweet potatoes
• Stuffing (this was my dad’s contribution and was not clean)

Hummingbird Cake

Putting it all together:

Table set... waiting for food! Menu cards set on each plate!

For the turkey, I found a great recipe from Alton Brown on the Food Network. I had never brined a turkey before but I heard this was the best way to get a juicy baked turkey, so went for it and it turned out amazing! Here’s the recipe.

The cranberry sauce, I love cranberry sauce but I didn’t want to use the gelled canned version, I wanted a 100% homemade. It was really easy and I loved it! But I will say that everyone else thought I could have used less orange. Plus the left overs are awesome over oatmeal!

This recipe is at The Art of Weight Lifting, but I am going to share it here!

The rice, I got from Whole Foods, cooked it up, sauteed garlic and onions and stirred it all together. I topped it off with stirring in some rosemary and thyme.

The sweet potatoes I baked them, cut them all open and drizzled a mix of agave nectar, pecans and cinnamon. A great alternative to the normal casserole we always had in the past.

Hummingbird cake... not too heavy. It proved to be the perfect dessert after a big meal. Great with coffee.

And last… the Hummingbird cake. This was my favorite! It was so clean and light. I enjoyed it for breakfast a few mornings in a row. The recipe is at The Art of Weight Lifting: HummingBird Cake Recipe Here.

I just got home from 4 days of relaxation! My mom and I had an amazing girls’ weekend at St Simon’s Island, GA. It was gorgeous! Trust me… it was much needed. In fact, I have not slept in past 5:30 am since my wedding last September!

View from our room at the King and Prince Resort

And while I knew that the chances of really sleeping in were slim to none, I just looked forward to not having an alarm clock go off. I didn’t care if I woke up at 5:00 am as long as I did it on my own accord. I did manage to sleep until 6:45 each morning.

My mom isn’t an early bird (in fact, I am the only one in the family) so I laid my workout clothes out in the bathroom each night so when I work up I could slip them on and head out to workout on the beach to allow her to sleep longer.

Working Out On Vaca

Both Friday and Saturday mornings I work up in time to watch the sunrise as I worked out… it was amazing! And I worked hard!

On Friday my workout looked like this:

• 5 Min Run
• 20 Burpees
• 5 Min Run
• 50 Lunges; 20 Push-ups
• 5 Min Run
• 20 Burpees
• 5 Min Run
• 50 Lunges; 20 Push-ups

Overall I got in a little over 2 miles and a great bodyweight workout! Go me!

The next day I didn’t run, I did a “Onesie” workout with burpees, squats and push-ups. I did 10 reps of each, then 9, then 8… all the way down to 1… it was great! And of course I did it as quickly as possible. Then I did 5 quick sprints and a few core moves.

We also rented bikes yesterday and got in an extra workout with my mom. It was great to see the island from bikes and I had never ridden on the beach before… whooo what a workout!

Eating On Vaca

I let myself go a little, I did have a few desserts and I enjoyed 2 glasses of wine each day. I know, not crazy but for me it was letting lose! My meals were pretty clean though… steamed or grilled seafood at every meal! And I loved every minute of it!

My mom and I's breakfast... mine included 2 scrambled eggs and fruit! Yum

Breakfast was always 2 eggs and fresh fruit with a cup of coffee. I love eggs and I love eggs even more when someone else makes them for me!

Other Vaca Perks:

Simply watching the sunrise, and enjoying the island was plenty but we pushed one step further and had amazing massages!

The masseuse kept telling me that I was tense, my muscles were tight and I needed to relax… easier said that done! But he did get a ton of knots out for me!

And finally, yesterday I found a new favorite cocktail.. a mango mojito! Delish… the freshness of the mint leaves and the beachiness of the mango created a freaking awesome drink!

This post has nothing to do with fitness or health… I just couldn’t resist sharing this adorable pictures of our babies!

This is Zoe (7 yr old Silky Terrier) and Nike (12-Week Kitten)

Never in a 1000yrs would I have thought Zoe would get along so well with another animal!

Actually I will post one fitness thing… since the kitten has come into our home, Zoe has been running around playing 3 times as much as she was when she was the only baby. Because of it she has lost quite a bit of  fat lately. Might sound funny, but I can tell she has more energy and stamina now!

I think two pets is a great thing, especially for an older animal, like Zoe. The kitten has really perked her up and I hope it will add more years to her life! And because Zoe is the older one, the kitten now things she is more of a dog.

Nap Time

This weekend was incredibly busy but incredibly fun! Made a ton of great memories with friends and really just let loose!

A friend of ours was getting married so starting Thursday we had some friends come from out of town… well, I had to teach boot camps early Friday morning so I let Dan have boys day with them.

On Friday I knew that we were going to be running all over the place and that I wouldn’t get to the gym, so between boot camps I set my GymBoss for 20-minutes and did a killer burpee workout. In fact, I did a total of 110 complete burpees, but every 10 the style got changed. For example, some I did 1-legged burpees, some I did Candlestick burpees…

By the end I was a big pile of sweat, my arms were exhausted my legs were angry at me and I felt great!

Once boot camps were wrapped up, I headed home for a quick shower before be met up with a friend to head downtown. He had left his shoes at his house in DC so dress shoe shopping was a must. We went for him, but of course Aldo was have a huge sale and I couldn’t pass these up:

I rationalized that they were my treat for working so hard and hitting some goals!

Then we went and found a great little wine and cheese bar, I had a glass of proseco while the boys had a few Belgium beers. I was proud of myself for sticking to just one.

Then it was time for dinner… We had dinner here:

Crosby's Seafood

They have this great back patio and deck, on Friday nights there is a band and fresh, local seafood (see the shrimp boats)… you can’t get more fresh! Dan and I split broiled shrimp and green beans. This was the only item not fried on the menu. Overall, not too bad… but the scenery made it amazing!

Then came Saturday… I taught a great boot camp in the morning, got some things done around the house, and then time to get ready for the wedding!

No joke... all of a sudden the DJ introduced the Clemson Mascot! The REAL mascot came to the wedding, took picts, dance like crazy and made a great memory for all the Clemson grads (Dan included)

It was beautiful! I wish I had pictures, friends took some that I will get eventually. The bride and groom were stunning: CONGRATS TO TIM AND BRITANY!

Then it was time to party it up! The food was surprisingly healthy (especially for a Charleston Wedding!) We enjoyed baked chicken, more green beans, salad, shrimp (they had grits but I stayed away). Overall amazing!

Of course Dan and I danced the night away. We love dancing together and my legs were actually really tired from the workout. I calculated we burned over 300 calories.

The part I was most proud of? I only had two glasses of wine the entire night! I did however enjoy a piece of cake… guilt-free! I had been planning on it all week!

What did you do?

Happy Belated 4th of July! I know it’s been a bit longer than normal for a post, but Dan and I have had our hands full the past few days! We added a family member to our home.

Dan is a cat person and we’ve been thinking of adding a new kitty for quite a while but with a 7-year old spoiled rotten silky terrior, we were a bit nervous to bring in another animal. Zoe gets jealous even when Dan just sits by me!

But with her getting older, we thought now was the best time, since they say younger animals help older ones live longer, happier lives. So we took a trip to our local SPCA which was double capacity for cats and kittens and found our new baby.

We instantly feel in love and believe it or not Zoe has done amazing at being a big sister! I am sure it helped she got a new “I’m The Big Sister” Bone out of it all!

So meet our new baby… Nike. She’s a handful and absolutely adorable!

Nike was the Goddess of Victory and Success, a motivating Goddess for us! So that is how we decided her name.