After we finished sweating out the friday night branding celebrations at Fight Gone MAD, and after we kicked off the prelude to our ‘Real Food Freedom’ at Cristina’s ’28 to Life’ seminar, Dar and I beelined to Whole Foods immediately to feed our own personal hunger games.  In the spirit of keeping things in line with not only our normal clean eating efforts, but also the re-doubled guidelines of the challenge, we went for the staples.

Within the first 5 minutes we came across the product testing table for Tessemae’s all natural salad dressings, which were ah-mazing.  The ingredients were all A) words we can pronounce and B) on the list of approved items from Cristina.  Double win. So, we bought 4 bottles… and a few other bottles of beverages that are not relevant to this post.

Just kidding.  We’re not starting the challenge until Monday (the 11th) so drinking is still allowed, and it’s a good thing because if it weren’t this weekend would have officially (and forcibly) ejected us off of the wagon.

In addition to some staples (asparagus, avocado, tomato, spinach/arugula mix and flank steak), we hit up the salad bar to build a quick salad since we had made afternoon plans for a family mall trip with Bill, Lex & Gwen.  The salad was exactly the right choice to fuel that adventure.

One of the big rules for the 28 to life challenge (and long term eating plan) is balancing carbs, fats and proteins. Since vegetables are carbs, we added turkey, avocado, and pecans to the salad to balance it out.   More on this later as we get in to meal planning, but just keep it in mind (you need all three, but you don’t need wheat or starches as carbs).

After we devoured the salad, the whole crew crammed into the big car and hit up the absurdly packed Southpark Mall.  As a short reprieve from the chaos, and because my body was already ‘thanking’ me for the Fight Gone MAD workout i did in the morning, we found refuge in the Brookstone massage section.  Dar and Lex certainly had no problem settling into the comfort.

We made some pretty good time, in and out of stores that were part of the agenda, and then (of course) stopped in to visit the ladies + gents in the Southpark lululemon. We didn’t take pictures, but things were purchased, and worn on Sunday. Pretty par for the course since I don’t remember a time my uniform didn’t come entirely from lululemon.

By the time we made it back home, we were all dragging, so we put our groceries to work.  The flank steak was (eventually) grilled to perfection by grill master Bill.

We then mixed together (thanks to Dar’s newly mastered chopping skills) tomatoes, avocado, and cucumber with garlic powder + sea salt, balsamic vinegar and light olive oil.  While that was being thrown together, the asparagus was broiled on high (6 minutes) with light olive oil, and the same ground garlic + sea salt seasoning.

Add wine to that combination, and you’ve got an awesome Saturday night dinner, and leftovers that will likely carry over into the next day.  And that’s exactly what happened here.

Sunday we had a 4pm sweat date with Gwen, out at Flywheel in Ballantyne, to ride with one of our favorite Charlotte fitness leaders: Jenna.  I’m yet to meet a Flywheel class I don’t like, and I try to take class in any city I find one, but  Jenna still remains one of my favorites.

I don’t know if it was the Saturday night dinner, or the warmup I got touring Ikea Sunday morning, but I somehow managed to rebound from my friday/saturday exhaustion to rock a total power output of 321, which is right up in the range of my personal best scores.  The last time I hit the 320’s was up at Flywheel Gold Coast with my other top fly lady, Candy.

Still on my endorphin high, we scooted up to the other Charlotte Flywheel to stop in for our good friend Erin McDermott‘s jewelry Trunk Show with Social Dress Shop.  Erin is a great friend and fellow UVa grad, but more importantly (?) makes my favorite jewelry, ever.  So check her out, and I dare you to not buy something.  Just kidding –  go ahead and indulge yourself, you deserve it.

Social Dress Shop is also one of my new favorite addictions (thanks to Pink Toast Ink‘s own Carrie Barker who does their graphics/branding/ word of mouth peddling).  They’re pairing up with Fight Gone MAD and Cristina for a full fledged Bridal Bootcamp package that looks amazing, so if you’re in Charlotte, check it out.  .

When we got home we had one of my favorite dinners: leftover dinner!

This particular version included the leftover steak and asparagus, which went on top of the spinach + arugula mix.   Avocado and our new favorite Tessemae salad dressing (seriously, it’s amazing) topped it all, restoring our energy levels to a borderline normal range.  It was exactly what we needed to recover from the weekend, and prepare for what turned out to be a week of chaos.