Mobility Homework // Communities In Schools // Cupcakes

Happy Monday! I hope your week is off to a great start.

Given that it’s “focus on mobility month” and I haven’t shared much with you on that topic, I thought I would start today’s post off with some existing resources I have on the blog.

• Foam Rolling 101 – I actually made instructional videos about foam rolling for the upper and lower body almost two years ago. I know some of you are much newer to the blog so I thought it would be beneficial to share again. I will be doing some updated videos/tutorials soon with additional info/stretches/things to do.
• Three Yoga Poses for Every Runner – this post details three MUST do yoga poses for runners along with the hows and whys.

So there’s some homework for you early this week and I’ll have more for you later this week that will focus on using balls in mobility work. Sound like a plan?

Breakfast this morning was museli, banana and Greek yogurt topped with pumpkin butter, peanut butter and cranberry sauce. I really wanted an egg and cheese bagel but talked myself into this instead. And I felt much better afterwards than I had I eaten a carby-greasy breakfast. I’ll save the bagel sandwich for the weekend.

I spent the morning at a Communities In Schools event. And lucky for me they had a big breakfast spread with bagels so I did have some of an asiago bagel with veggie cream cheese.

Back to the event, Metro was invited to participate in a staff meeting focused on “Caring for the Caregivers.” If you aren’t familiar with the organization, Communities In Schools is a nationwide network of professionals who work in public schools to support students, provide them with needed resources and empower them to stay in school.  While their work is extremely rewarding, it is also challenging and stressful. The staff spends so much time and energy taking care of others that they don’t often slow down to take care of themselves. For example, one woman I spoke with heads up the team that works with teen moms. They are tasked with keeping them in school, helping to prevent a second pregnancy and encouraging the girls to pursue college or a technical career path. She shared that the day-to-day is tough but they have some incredible success stories.

The Caring for Caregivers event was a time for the staff to get a chance to unwind, relax and team build. They rotated between five stations including fitness, relaxation/meditation, nutrition and more. We headed up the fitness station along with a local Zumba instructor. W e talked about general fitness, CrossFit and then warmed them up with dynamic stretching and tabata air squats.

It was awesome to start Monday by serving those who are doing so much to elevate our youth!

Lunch after training a client was a hybrid salad/grain dish based on what I had in the fridge and pantry. I can always come up with something! Brown rice with white beans, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, artichokes, feta and arugula. Topped with hummus and Greek yogurt and served with pita chips for dipping (way more pita chips than pictured were consumed). This was SO good and filling.

After I got the kitchen cleaned up I sat down to get some work done with a cup of Trader Joe’s Vanilla Black Tea and a homemade chocolate cupcake with salted caramel frosting. Recipe to come soon.

Off to yoga!