Gotta exercise the debit card

Hey everyone! How was your weekend?

Mine was successful.

Ashley, Jeni and I made a road trip to Jacksonville yesterday for a little shopping action:

I brought a smoothie for the drive and a ‘taster’ for them to try 😀

That sludge had frozen banana, fresh pineapple, spinach, water (out of coconut water), Vega smoothie infusion, sea salt, vanilla extract, Stevia and cinnamon.

By the time we got there, we decided to fuel up for our shopping extravaganza at the CHEESECAKE FACTORY.

We started with some of the best wheat-y bread I’ve had a restaurant:

(I always take the end piece)

And I ordered the vegetable chopped salad, with goat cheese instead of cheddar, add grilled salmon instead of chicken and balsamic on the side.

That was an APPETIZER salad.. and I took the pic after I gave about 1/3 of the salmon to Jeni and Ashley to try (because that was way too much for me). Portion sizes are seriously outta control.

The salad was GLORIOUS. It had roasted beets, cucumbers, asparagus, apples, edamame, tomatoes and greens. Dayum good.

The best part about the meal….

You can’t go to Cheesecake Factory without getting cheesecake 😀

The girls and I shared that piece of Red Velvet cake cheesecake (their new flavor) and well, it rocked my face off.

Complete with food babies, we were ready to shop it up and spent the entire day at St John’s Town Center. We were pretty much exhausted when we were done (and did some impressive damage) and grabbed a snack before hitting the road.

The girls got pretzels and Jeni and I shared this veggie sandwich on Ezekiel (no cheese) from Healthy Way Cafe

I won’t get cheese on my sandwiches or salads, but you can bet your booty I’ll eat cheese when it’s in cheesecake 😉 It’s a different kind, right? Haha.

I’m not sure if I’m going to post my purchases yet (I went a little buck wild) but I will tell you I’m beyond excited about this little gem:

I haven’t written about this on the blog yet, but my IT band has been messing with me for the last month or so. I know it’s because I’ve been teaching 3 aerobics classes in one day (which is too much when they’re the hardcore cardio classes I instruct) and have been looking for ways to help the pain. The part that bothers me is the upper part of the IT band, where it connects to the hip. After teaching for a couple of days, it’s TIGHT (not in the “cool” way) and hurts to touch it. I’m very lucky to have two physical therapists, one massage therapist and a few marathon runners in my circle of friends who were talking to me about ways to avoid symptoms and they recommended that I get a foam roller.

I spent some quality time with that bad boy last night and my hip is feeling muuuuuuch better. I’m also thankful that I don’t have 3-a-day aerobics classes in August- the max I teach in one day is two, which isn’t bad at all.

Does anyone else have IT band issues?? Any tips would be so appreciated 😀

Well I’m off to catch up on your blogs, as I’ve been MIA from the blogworld for the past 24 hours (the scandal!!!).

See ya for lunch!

xoxo,

G

Mayjah love and prayers to Andrea and Meghann <3