Help Meghan Run

Happy June everyone! I’m ready to make June the best month ever, how about you?

It has started off great for me so far. I woke up and went for a little run (never felt any lingering effects from Saturday’s run!). Then I came back and tried Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred for the first time. I touched on this in my last post, but I have heard a lot about this workout and its intensity so I decided to try it. Overall: a thumbs up from me.

I really like the concept of the workout: a warm up; three circuits consisting of three minutes strength, two minutes cardio, and one minute abs; and a cool down. I enjoyed the cardio and some of the combination strength moves (such as lunges with bicep curls, side lunges with front raises, etc.), but the other strength exercises and the abs were too easy. I think I’ll keep with the format of the workout but substitute some of my own exercises. I want to keep up with this consistently and look for measurable differences. Try it!

Next came breakfast. I wanted an especially tasty meal after my workouts and to celebrate June, so this one certainly did the trick! I used my favorite pancake recipe and made my usual substitutions: halved the recipe, used whole wheat pastry flour, and doubled the egg. Today I tried another change, as well: I swapped two tablespoons of oats for two tablespoons of flour. I didn’t notice that much of a difference, so I might try more oats next time.

My first one was a berry pancake. It had blueberries in it and then sliced strawberries on top. (Keep in mind these are smaller dessert plates.)

Look at those huge blueberries! This one was awesome. (And aren’t you impressed I didn’t make a “that was berry delicious!” joke?)

The second was a banana pancake with banana slices in it.

Wow! This really was delicious. I topped it with an almond butter glaze of sorts. I mixed a tablespoon of almond butter, a little soy milk, and a couple drops of maple syrup to make it spreadable.

What an awesome way to start a new month!