I started this blog when I was getting ready for my first fitness competition back in October 2009. Wow, that seems a lot longer than 3 years ago!

As it tends to, life has taken a lot of unexpected turns, ups & downs and lessons learned since then, and I owe you all a huge thank you for following along and being so amazingly supportive through all of it.

But I’m not completely gone! Please find me over at AlysonBoyd.com for..

• Posts (when the mood strikes) on anything from yoga, to social media, to fitness, favorite recipes, online community strategy, advocacy, women’s health, eating disorder awareness, pugs, etc, etc.
• Or if you’re a blogger, health coach, yoga teacher or personal trainer in need of a new website design, browse my Website services and Portfolio.

THANK YOU and of course NAMASTE 

Saturday rocked with a great mix of yoga and workouts, fun and food (ok maybe too much food).

A friend and I went to see Josh Turner at ACL Live. If you’re ever in Austin and have a chance to go there for a show, do! It’s a fantastic venue with really no bad seats. It’s also where they record the TV show ACL Live, and you can win tickets to tappings. I went to Wilco’s tapping the last time they were in town and it was absolutely phenomenal. It’s much different then a regular concert. Yes you still get to cheer but it’s silent while they’re playing and all about the music. Really cool experience!

Afterwards we headed out downtown, but first made the mistake of stopping at Bar Congress. It has been getting great reviews in town, and I see why. I am totally NOT a burger and fries sort of gal, but we ordered two things that where crazy good..

Black Truffle Pomme Frites (below) and the Veal Meatball and Sweetbread Slider with Gruyere, Arugula and White Truffle Aioli. Definitely a major treat meal to say the least, but if I’m doing it I’m doing it right, and this was one of those snacks that was worth the calories!

It’s September – Get Excited!

Yes for the obvious reasons. We all now blog world goes crazy for pumpkin, and I am so ok with being on that bandwagon! But beyond pumpkin fall is my favorite time of year.. football’s back, the weather is just right (especially if you live in someplace where it likes to be over 100 all summer), and some of my favorite foods and flavors are back in season (beyond pumpkin)! Just this morning I ran across these too fall recipe posts from

Jenna at Eat, Live, Run, and

Michelle of the Brown Eyed Baker

Yum!

September is also National Yoga Month. Click the link to find events near you!

Fitness – Functional Fun

Before going over the top with treats, I got in a great Saturday afternoon workout. The fitness class room at my gym was open, so I was able to plug in my iPod to their speaker system and get after it!

Weekends are for functional workouts

Cranks = 4-5 exercises, do giant set with 10-20 reps for each exercise, repeat 3-4 times. You mostly use body weight and plyometric actions.

This style of condition is really similar to what I did in my past life as a gymnast. Considering back then I could knock out multiple sets of 15 pull-up pull-overs, it’s probably a good way to go!

Today’s cranks involved but were not limited to:

• Handstand push-ups
• Tricep Push-Up
• Lunge kicks
• High kicks
• Curtsy lunges
• Jump to handstands
• Handstand walks
• Squat jumps

Man, my heart was pounding from the start, and 40 minutes and 400 calories later I felt great!

Why go running when you can flip, lunge, press, and walk on your hands?!

Nutrition

I’m predictable…

Yup that would be Pumpkin Oats! My favorite mix is:

Pumpkin Oatmeal

• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk + 1/2 cup H20
• 1/4 cup oats
• 2 tbsp Oat Bran
• 1/8 – 1/4 cup Pumpkin
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• oodles of Pumpkin Spice

Simply bring your liquids to a boil, add Oats & Oatbran. When your oats reach your desired consistency remove from heat and stir in Vanilla, Pumpkin and Spice. Top with your favorite protein of choice, but I suggest Greek or Goat’s Milk yogurt or Egg Whites. Yum!

Today’s food prep today. Last week went really well with planning meals and eating clean.. until Saturday that is. A little too much “fun having” (haha) left meal feeling pretty gross yesterday. But only one thing I can do.. sweat it out and do even better this week!

Pin of the Day

 Tell me about your Labor Day weekend? Enjoying any fun fall foods already?

Savory Breakfast Bowl

• 1/2 cup low-sodium Vegetable or Chicken Broth + 1/2 cup Water
• 1/4 cup Oatmeal
• 2 tbsp Oat Bran
• 1 tbsp Nutritional Yeast (or regular cheese)
• 1 Turkey Sausage, diced
• 1/4 Avocado
• Salsa

Bring broth + water to a bowl. Add oats and oat bran. Cook stove top, stirring frequently until it reaches your desired thickness. Remove from heat. Stir in nutritional yeast (or cheese). Top with sausage, avocado and salsa (plain greek yogurt as a sub for sour cream would be fantastic too). Enjoy!

Pin of the Day

I have a fitness crush on Andreia Brazier. She competed (and I believe won), her division of the WBFF World Championships last weekend. Great symmetry all around.

Happy Friday! Any fun Labor Day weekend plans?

Frankly though, yoga’s been a mental battle lately. I’ve been enjoying teaching and assisting, but my personal practice has been.. well.. painful, and it’s getting so old and frustrating. I’ve been dealing with a hip injury for the last 4 months so basically everything I do on my right side hurts. I feel lopsided! It seems if I lay off it just gets more stiff, if I push through and really stretch it out it looses up during that class (but hurts & is loose), and never seems to get better! grr.. I’ve put off going to the doctor (even tried acupuncture) but I might give in soon.

On a happier note, I whipped together these muffins tonight, and they rock! I think they could be called muffins against muffin tops

Power Packed Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 c Almond Flour/Meal

2 scoops Protein Powder (I used Cake Batter flavored Whey Isolate) – could leave this out and use more flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

dash Salt

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

~2.5 cups of grated Zucchini

1 tbsp Coconut Oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease muffin tins or use muffin liners. Whip together eggs and vanilla. In a separate large bowl mix together Almond Flour, Protein Powder, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Salt and Cocoa Powder. Mix Zucchini and Egg mixture into your dry ingredients. Mix in Coconut Oil. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full. Baking for 30+ minutes or until firm in the center. Makes 16 muffins.

Stats:

Pin of the Day

Happy Hump Day!

My car that I’ve had for 10 years decided to tucker out last week.

I’ve been shopping around and today it’s lovely blue replacement joined my little family (as in me and my cat killer :p)

I’ve had that first car since senior year of high school.. it’s driven from Seattle to San Francisco, up & down the California coast a few times, San Francisco back to Seattle, Seattle to Baltimore, Baltimore to Arizona and Arizona to Austin. Crazy.. we’d been through a lot together. But onto new adventures in .. yet to be named vehicle

Fitness

Leg day!

• Squats with reps of 15-12-10-10-8-8-5-5-5 increasing weight along the way. I got up to 175 for the last set (though did make all 5), but was pretty excited since it’s the 2nd time I’ve lifted legs in 6 months. Looking forward to progress there!
• Leg Press superset with narrow squats – both for higher reps 15-20
• Laying leg curls superset with single leg deadlifts

SS Cardio

• 15 min. Intervals on the Elliptical
• 15 min Incline treadmill – increasing incline every minute

Nutrition

Same as yesterday plus a Quest Bar on the go. Yes really food is always better but sometimes too messy for a grab & go. Love the short ingredient list of Question bars and especially the ‘natural’ line which is sweetened with Stevia.

Pin(s) of the Day

This one’s double awesome because not only does it fit with my current theme but it’s of my super fitness bad ass friend Anja! If you’re need of a little motivation check out her Facebook page, and if you’re in need of a butt-kickin get to one of her classes in the LA area or on DailyBurn!

And this simply because it sounds great and I have big plans for a healthy version..

Pop  Tarts.. yay or nay?

Killer spin class tonight. Well actually it was “Total Cycle,” or in other words super spin with a variety of shoulder presses and curls thrown in. Yeah basically I got my butt kicked! Kicked as in heart rate at 180 within 10 minutes, then stayed there for the next 50.. have I mentioned I’m out of shape? haha.. ok not funny. But it’s a start, and it’s going to get better!

Afterwards I spent 15 minutes or so stretching since I didn’t get in yoga today. Stretching after a great working is one of my favorite things, it feels so good and I feel like I earned it. It’s like a reward at the end ← I’m a dork!

 Nutrition

I’m not planning on making this a ‘here is everything I ate today’ deal, but more of an accountability sort of thing while I get myself back on track. I hope ya’ll don’t feel used

It was a good day. Enjoyed homemade mini-bran muffins (perfecting the recipe, then I’ll post), protein shake, ground turkey, spaghetti squash, red peppers, chicken sausage, roasted cauliflower, avocado, a little raw cheese and salsa.. and most likely a slice of lightened lemon loaf for dessert.

Pin(s) of the Day

I found this in a book I’m currently reading, ‘Yamas & Niyamas,’ and I suppose it’s become sort of a theme for the moment. I was starting to feel stuck. Letting myself do the same thing day after day, and being unhappy. For no reason at all. Then feeling guilty for feeling sad when I’m so damn lucky and have so much to feel grateful for. I believe they call that a rut. Well the best way to get out of a rut, in my opinion, is to mix things up! And 9 times out of 10, for me, that involves getting out of my head and back into my body. Whether it’s yoga, lifting, boxing, whatever.. it clears out the cobwebs. I focus on movement and breath and not silliness, and I feel alive again.

And this one matches quite well:

Any current themes in your life?

At the same time, after talking to a couple friends and reading an article in Oxygen I realize that it happens to all of us.. sometime we stop practicing what we preach.

Since finishing up my 2nd week of yoga teacher training in mid-July I’ve been working to finish my “outside of class” assignments which includes teaching 10 classes, assisting 5 classes and observing 5 classes. All weeknight evenings and weekend time has gone into new projects andsites, sites, sites, sites and sites not yet launched.

All great stuff, but I have failed at keeping workouts and yoga in balance. It’s so easy for me to get sucked into projects and not step away. Of course the smart side of me knows that a 90 minute workout or yoga class will only make me more productive and energetic.. but the logical side has not been prevailing. And when I spend that much time working in front of the computer any form of nutrition balance tends to go out the window too.. boo

Well I’ve reached the point where I’m tired of feeling crappy!

And I miss lifting.

So that’s a good combination

No major proclamations to make just yet.. though of course I still know that I want to compete again.. but when.. TBD

Just taking it one day at a time. Getting my but to the gym, and to yoga, and eating nice and clean.

Nutrition

Prepped a bunch of food yesterday, and I’m set for the week!

The prep list included: roasted cauliflower, roasted red pepper, spaghetti squash, ground turkey with onions, tilapia and bran muffins.

Fitness

The gym I’ve been working out at lately is brand new, and although their focus is actually group fitness, they have a pretty good weight area which is almost always as empty as this:

Why hello strangers..

They also have an indoor/outdoor turf.. which was perfect for playing around with some fitness-styling tumbling yesterday

Sunday Workout: Shoulders & Chest

• Hang Clean & Press
• Smith Rows
• Inclined Shoulder Press
• Flat bench Chest Press (it looked funny when I just wrote ‘flat chest press’ haha)
• Rear Delt Flys
• Push-Ups

Cardio: Steady State

• 15 min Jog
• 15 mi Stair Mill

Yup.. Pretty Much..

So in summation.. Sunday was great.. now takin’ on Monday!

Hope you make it a good one too!

If you’re reading from RSS, click over and see what I’ve been up to.. or if you’re reading “live,” then what do you think? I’ve been missing making updates and changes around the blog.. so now it’s time to get to actually posting!

Besides the design change I have a couple other new additions:

• I moved all of my favorite recipes over to a new searchable system! You can also sort by dietary needs, course, season and cooking method.
• I added a few new pages combining some of my favorite sites for healthy recipes, motivation & inspiration, and healthy-related news. There over there in the sidebar under ‘Health Curations’!

Yum

I LOVE lemon dessert.. LOVE. So much so that I would choose lemon over chocolate.. oh 71% of the time. I know, crazy right. And those rich lemon loaf slices you can get at Starbucks and local bake shops, yum! So naturally I had to try to make a lightened up version of my own.

Lightened Up Lemon Loaf

1.5 cups Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup non-fat Greek Yogurt

 2 tsp Lemon zest (orange works too)

2 Eggs

Stevia to taste (I happened to have Lemon flavor Stevia drops floating around, which of course worked fantastic)

6 oz natural Apple Sauce

1/3 cup Lemon Juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a loaf pan. Mix together Flour, Baking Powder and Salt. In a separate bowl mix together remaining ingredients in order. Combine wet & dry ingredients. Pour into your pan and bake for 50 min. or until done in the center. Let cool and enjoy. Makes 10 slices.

If you would like to sweeten it up a bit more (might have to take the ‘Light’ out of the title of this recipe though), mix up this Lemon Glaze and drizzle it over the loaf after it’s out of the oven for ~20 minutes.

Lemon Glaze

1 cup Powdered Sugar

5-6 tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tbsp Butter, softened

Mix it all together until smooth.

Completely opposite of Lemon Loaf..