Babes and Birthdays

Good Morning! Happy Monday.

Yesterday was Phoebe Buffay’s birthday! Yes my little girl turned 2 years old. Hard to believe. Having Phoebe around has brought such joy into my life and she always makes me smile even when I’m down. So of course I had to repay the favor and spoil her little hiney rotten!

A new small red birdie! Oh la la 🙂

I made her a cake! Everything in this I could eat. Just not the milk bones on top 😉 I tweaked the recipe from a Pinterest recipe.

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg

Everything goes in a mixer and pop it in a greased cake tin on 350 degrees for 30 minutes!

The frosting? 

• 3/4 of one container of vanilla yogurt
• 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter
• 1/4 cup flour to thicken things

Sprinkles and milkbones on the top for decoration!

No I didn’t count Phoebes macros on this one 😉

We went over the G Mamas and the pups opened some presents. I gave Phoebe a few of her own ahead of time, but Shelby needed something too 🙂 PetSmart can get expensive, I can’t imagine if I ever had a child. I would go crazy!

Shelby went to town on this new chewy. It’s coated in bully. Pups love that stuff! I also sliced them a piece of cake.

Phoebe ate some right before we left. I plan on freezing the rest and giving it to her that way.

Besides birthday stuff, this weekend I hit the gym hard with lifts, made it to Zumba with my girls Friday evening, and did some fasted cardio. After thinking long and hard about my body and where I want to be I realized I need to up my cardio game a bit. Coach didn’t exactly agree with it, but I had to put my foot down. I know my body better than anyone else and I know if I don’t start leaning now (11 weeks out) I won’t be ready in time. So we came to the agreement that he will just help with the lifts and I’ll do everything else. I was very successful the first time and I will be again! As long as I start now 😉

I posted this little picture on my Instagram on Friday.

This is me doing fasted cardio on an elliptical. I like to think that ellipticals are the easy way out for getting in cardio, HOWEVER you can make it super challenging. If I did 30 minutes straight on this machine I wouldn’t break a sweat at all. Basically you can make any piece of cardio equipment your own, you just have to learn how to play with it. Here is what I did for 30 minutes:

• 5 minute warm up
• 20 second sprint, 30 second recovery for 10 minutes
• 45 second sprint, 1 minute recovery for 8 minutes
• 10 second squat as low as possible, ONLY legs moving- NO BOUNCING, 30 second recovery x 5
• Finish out the workout squatting up and down to the beat of the music!

I was really sweating! See an awesome workout on an elliptical! It can happen 🙂

This weekend I was also fortunate enough to meet one of the people that inspire me! I was in my gym Saturday finishing glutes and shoulders and I went up to the locker room to grab my bag and there was an awesome NPC bikini competitor and NGA pro, Pam. I follow her on instagram and have talked to her a few times via comments back and forth, but was caught by surprise when she was in there getting ready for an event they were holding at my gym (it was a posing clinic). I can be shy in person, but when it comes to something like that, I pretty much will walk up to anyone and say “hey we are insta-friends… or social media friends” 😉 She thought I was there for the clinic, but I told her that gym was my stomping grounds! Of course she looked beautiful, lean and fit! I was a little gross after finishing my workout, but I still had to get a picture with her.

We chatted a little while about shows and prep. She was such a sweet heart. It’s so cool when you get to meet internet friends in person. Especially people that you see daily when you open your account. I guess you could say it’s a little weird… like “hey I know everything about your life, but I don’t really know you”. But that’s the internet! You could say the same thing about me! So if by some chance you ever see me out and about just say “hey we internet know each other” and I’ll think it’s pretty awesome 😉

So a good weekend. Back to the work week I go! One full week then next week I’m there only Monday and Tuesday! California here I come and I cannot wait to get away!

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

Minnie