Sharing why I’m obsessed with barefoot shoes and how you can incorporate them into your fitness routine and life!

Hi friends! Happy Monday! How was the weekend? I had an amazing time in San Diego with Betsy attending the Lagree certification workshop at DEFINE. (San Diego friends, go take a class with my friend Carina! I’ve known her for years – we taught barre together in SD – and she’s an incredible instructor and person.)

So today, let’s talk about barefoot shoes.

(It was hilarious when I went to gather all of my shoes for this photoshoot. I was like wow I really do have five pairs and I use and love all of them!)

Barefoot shoes have been around for quite a while.

According to this website:

In the 20th century, barefoot shoes emerged as people began questioning the need for heavily cushioned and supportive shoes. In the 1960s and 1970s, the popularity of the “Jogging” movement led to the development of more minimalist running shoes, which aimed to mimic the barefoot experience.

I think many of us can remember the early 2000s, when barefoot shoes saw a resurgance as Vibrams came out. I remember seeing them for the first time —  they looked like duck feet to me. They were horrendous lol. But, it was definitely a lightbulb moment. I’ve worked in the fitness industry since 2008, and after multiple trainings and workshops (like the foot stretching and gait classes I took and then taught at Canyon Ranch), I realized the impact of footwear on overall function and how minimalist shoes can change your workouts and life.

Barefoot shoes are not only lightweight and super comfortable, but they enable us to have full function of our foot muscles, full toe splay (instead of our toes being crammed into narrow shoes), and can affect overall posture, alignement, and performance.

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Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal is one of our favorite breakfasts; my boys would happily eat this every single morning all fall long if I let them.

There is just something awesome about the way oatmeal changes when it is baked. Almost like a cake, but not nearly so sweet, this is a hearty breakfast that we all love.

This pumpkin baked oatmeal has been our Thanksgiving breakfast for the past few years. I’m in favor of anything that makes my holiday kitchen work easier.

There is enough other cooking happening for the holidays, an easy breakfast is ideal. This hearty oatmeal breakfast bake is as easy as it gets.

I stir the ingredients together the night before and pop the pan in the fridge until morning. About an hour before we want to eat breakfast, I give the oatmeal a quick stir in the pan and then pop the cold pan in the pre-heated oven.

The house smells wonderful while the oatmeal bakes and this breakfast puts a smile on everyone’s face as we get ready for a day of Thanksgiving feasting.

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

When it comes to oatmeal, my family means business. We eat oatmeal for breakfast many times a week and I’ve come up with plenty of variations on a plain bowl of oats to keep things exciting.

Of course, some oatmeal recipes we never get sick of. This baked pumpkin spice oatmeal is one of them!

Th

Pumpkin Pudding Cookies – 3 Ways

These pudding cookies are hands down the best pumpkin cookies we’ve ever had! THIS. IS. IT! It’s got the texture of a fluffy chocolate chip cookie but tastes like pumpkin. And best of all, we’re including three different ways to make it!

Years ago, my friend Krysta introduced me to a pudding in chocolate chip cookies recipe which we still obsess over to this day. When I saw pumpkin spice pudding mix hit the shelves of Walmart and Harmons this fall, I just knew I had to make a new version. The only problem was, which do I make?! I would normally shoot all three and do three different posts over the years, but this time I decided that since you all went nuts about it on instagram, I’d just get the recipe up ASAP!

You all know I can’t help myself when it comes to cookies! I have to try all kinds of different add-ins (kitchen sink cookies), toppings (peanut butter blossoms), stuffings (s’mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies) and techniques (lemon crinkle cookies).

We found 3 ways that we love these pumpkin pudding cookies – coated in cinnamon and sugar, loaded with chocolate chips, or stuffed with Rolos! We will detail each of those versions below.

Tips for the Best Pumpkin Pudding Cookies

Here are a few tips for the best pumpkin pudding cookies:

• You need 5.1 ounces of pudding but the pudding is only sold as 3.4 ounce boxes, so you’ll need to use 2 boxes and either weigh the powder into a bowl with a food scale, or just use about 1 1/2 boxes.
• If you go with the Rolos options, make sure there is a lot of dough on the bottom because the Rolos will seep out if there isn’t enough dough on the bottoms.
• If you make the chocolate chip version, save a few chocolate chips to place on top of each cookie. It makes them look so pretty and appetizing!

Ingredients for Pumpkin Pudding Cookies

These will just be your standard cookie ingredients here with the

Creamy orange sherbet is an old-fashioned frozen treat that I always associate with trips to visit my grandmother when I was a child. She loved sherbet and it was often found in her freezer.

Orange Sherbet

Orange sherbet is traditionally made with orange juice and milk, however, we’ve found that we like it best when made with heavy cream. It’s a richer combination of “ice cream” and “sherbet” when made this way.

Feel free to make this sherbet recipe with whatever dairy you happen to have on hand though, as it’s still tasty when made with just milk or with half and half in place of the cream.

Have you had orange sherbet punch? My mom made it for “fancy” occasions when we were growing up.

You can make an individual sherbet punch by filling a glass about halfway with pineapple juice, adding a scoop of sherbet, and then topping it off with lemon-lime soda. Stir gently, and enjoy!

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Hi friends! How’s the week going? I hope that you’re having an amazing week. It’s been wild around here as usual, working during the day and chasing the kids around in the afternoons and evenings. I feel like summer was so peaceful and that the school year is pure chaos. I’m still trying to figure out how to balance everything, especially since the kids are busy with their own activities + boatloads of homework.

For today’s post, I wanted to chat a little bit about my personal wellness and health journey and some of the things I had to learn the hard way. If you’re an OG blog reader (Hiiiii! Thank you for being here for so long!) you’ve had a front-row seat to how things have changed around time. You’ve seen the cardio queen days, the raw food days, the pregnancies, the good, the bad, the weird, and everything in between. 🙂

It’s funny because as a health and wellness professional, it’s easy to assume that we have it together most of the time and that we follow our own advice. The reality is that many of us are trying out different things, failing, and learning along the way. Even the things you *know* (like the value of sleep, stress management, and eating a dang vegetable) can still be challenging for those of us who work in this industry.

Here are some of the things that I had to learn the hard way.

Things I learned the hard way about health and wellness:

– Everything isn’t for everyone. As someone who has tried pretty much all the things (besides swim-related activities because I’m a float on a raft and doggy paddle kinda girl), I’ve learned that my body doesn’t like every type of exercise class or format. Since I’m still on my healing journey and trying to keep inflammation down, I know I still can’t do a ton of sprinting or HIIT right now, and that’s ok. Barre and yoga feel a million times better to me than box jumps and burpees, and I don’t feel like I have to nap afterwards.

The same goes for nutrition and supplements. Some people do really well on a high fat diet, while others don’t. Some people need more B vitamins and protein, and less carbs, while others need higher carbs and don’t digest protein as well.

Probiotics can be amazing tools, but if you have gut bacterial overgrowth, it can actually make it worse.

Cold therapy can tip over an already-full stress bucket.

It goes on and on.. It’s really about figuring out what works well for YOU 🙂

– Good shoes make such a huge difference! I think back to my first long distance runs wearing kids’ sized Nikes lol. I’m glad I’ve stepped up my shoe game!

I’ve tried out so many shoes and my #1 fave right now are Vivobarefoots. (<— that link gets you 20% off) I have a whole post coming ab