Fast and easy lunch or dinner!

What you see before you is in my mind, undoubtedly the most delicious tomato soup in the world. So much better than Cambell's. It is organic, low calorie, and absolutely delicious. My mom buys it at Costco. Nutritional information as well as the picture can be found HERE. I kind of LIVE off of it in college. The best part about it is that it is fast. One shake of the carton, and I pour it into a bowl like milk. Two minutes covered in the microwave, and bam. Hot, filling soup. It is amazing.

Lately I've been making it with grill cheese. Kind of. I use a whole wheat pita pocket - it's 90 calories, and I fill it with a couple tablespoons of tomato basil feta. Then I put that sucker in the toaster, open part up, obviously, while I have the soup in the microwave. The sides get all crunchy and the top sort of closes in on itself. The feta gets all soft and sticks together, and it makes for the ultimate dipping tool while your soup cools to the point you can eat it with a spoon. I don't have exact caloric measurements - I do know 1 cup of the soup is 100 calories - but I'm pretty sure it's way good for you. And... definitely way good in your belly. It's a fast, filling, easy meal that won't give you a muffin-top, is the moral of the story. And I'm all about that.

Also. I'm on my third week of running now! No complaints, except that I'm hitting the point where I WANT to go on my rest days... Weird. So weird. I just feel better. So last night, rather than push my shins on a rest day, I opted for a Jillian Michael's DVD. I am now avoiding stairs today... that woman is terrifying. And kicked my butt.

Shin splints.

So, pretty much my whole life, I've heard people say they had shin splints and I'm like, good heavens, that's TERRIBLE... because you just know by the tone they're saying it that it is indeed terrible. But in all honesty, I had no idea what they were. Anyway. This Wednesday I found out! And it was weird. My right shin was just twanging with every impact and I was HYPER aware of it, like I shouldn't put weight on it. I finished my run/walk/interval/training thingy, and then Googled the heck out of it.

Apparently, shin splints are classified as pain along or just behind your shins and are the result of extreme impact or pressure activity - like gymnastics. Yeah... I'm not a gymnast. But it's a pretty common running injury - about 10-15 percent of running injuries are shin splints. In the world of all the wild things that can go wrong when running, that's actually a high percentage devoted to one thing!

Anyway. After researching that, I found a great article via Pinterest (oh, Pinterest) about how to prevent shin splints. If you're going to be running on our fitness journey, you should totally read it here: http://www.shape.com/blogs/working-it-out/no-more-shin-splints

Today was my last training interval thingy... "run" (but not really a run yet) of the week. I really, really didn't wanna go. I became a woman today - okay, in sixth grade, but today I was reminded of the fact - and I was feeling large and in charge, and also like someone was setting off fireworks in my uterus. Oh, TMI? Deal with it. :/ Sorry. Basically, does feeling like that doesn't really make me think, "Oh, I want to go hop on a treadmill now." But I went anyway, and I followed all those instructions beforehand to prevent shin spints! Not only do I feel fine, I feel soooo good now. Am I surprised? Majorly.

So I just wanted to say that working out really does make you feel better! Even if your couch and that brownie beg to differ. And. I reached my goal for the week, and followed the first schedule perfectly! That NEVER happens, people. I am hoping I keep this up!

I hope everyone else is kicking trash! First weigh ins, HOLY COW! You guys are so stinking amazing. :) Thanks for inspiring me and being such fabulous examples!

Starting next Monday.

Welp, this is the training program I'm going to follow. I'm starting next week, so that I can make exercise a part of my new schedule as I start the semester! Also... the fact that it says 27 min jog up there, like my body can do that, frrrreaks. me. out. But it can!

Thank you, Pinterest.

Graphic source:http://runtobefit.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/couch-to-5k-training-plan.png

Oh, just saying HEY.

My name is Shelby. I'm 18 years old, and I am a freshman at Utah Valley University. I live with ...crazy roommates, sometimes I feel like I have to try harder at school than the average person to achieve the same results, and I'm tired 85% of the time when I'm doing school. However, none of these reasons excuse the solid fact that good habits take a long time to form, and better nutrition = better quality of life. I also heard somewhere that those who run have better time management skills, and honestly, who couldn't go for that?

I'm not looking to "get skinny" or reach a certain weight. I'd be fine if my weight stayed exactly the same, or went up, due to muscle (eh. Cross your fingers). My goal is to get stronger. I've decided to define stronger as being able to run the Kaysville 4th of July 10k with my sister, Brittany. She's kind of a big deal. I found a really good training outline that I will share in a later post.

Anyway. I know a big part of being able to exercise successfully is the fuel you put into your body - just like a car being able to make it to its destination - so I'm going to really make the effort to make healthy choices in my eating. I'll share good tips as I find them!

Another thing is, I'm really looking forward to pushing myself. I'm really bad at that - at trusting myself, and believing that I truly am capable of things. I want to prove to myself that I can hit a point that feels like the end, and push past it. I can keep going. I want to learn to trust myself more, and I hope this goal will help me to do so!

And most of all, I want to support our amazing family as we start this thing together. Let's hop on this healthy train!

BRING IT ON, GUYS!