This week started out at the beach, on what was a last-ditch attempt to get away and have some semblance of a vacation before all the MADness hits the fan, and ended with 4 days that felt like 4 weeks, with hours of to-do’s crammed into half-hour time slots.  We’ve all been there, so I’m sure you get the picture.  It was chaotic, it was all over the place, and despite some major logistical debacles, was pretty productive.

My sweat schedule went like this:

Monday: Run

Tuesday: Flywheel w/Jenna!

Wednesday: Fight Gone MAD w/Brandon (and the ever present coach, Kirk, working out with us)

Thursday: 16 oz curls (read: pool grilling and drinking)

Friday: Fight Gone MAD w/Kirk

Saturday: a last minute, totally stressed out squeeze into an empty bike in Jenna’s class.

Today: another Flywheel, because it’s so darn convenient, and tomorrow it’s time to roll back into the MADness.

I haven’t been cooking much as of late, so I’ve been subject to the menu options of restaurants all over Charlotte.  Before I get into that, I’d like to personal thank Starbucks and the fine iced coffee brewers over at Sunflour Baking Company for sponsoring my caffeine fixes, and keeping my brain functioning.

As for food, here’s some of what fueled me this week

A (very) late breakfast at Cheesecake factory consisted of their Energy Breakfast: scrambled egg whites, roasted tomatoes, and grilled chicken over a spinach + mushroom sauté.  It’s one of my favorite daytime items on their menu, and if you’re so inclined can be requested to NOT be cooked in butter.

Another on-the-go lunch took place at one of my favorite spots in Charlotte, The Cowfish Sushi + Burger Bar.

This particular meal was a create your own with a regular burger on a lettuce wrap (sort of…the lettuce wrap was kind of weak) with lettuce, tomato, onion, roasted red peppers, avocado, and a side of grilled veggies).  I have to say, I have infrequently (in the past) opted for the veggies over their sweet potato fries, but the squash stalks were amazing.

On Wednesday night we had a little Fight Gone MAD ‘owners dinner’ of our own at 1900 Mexican in Elizabeth.  Dar was also in Charlotte getting ready for her big Main Stage Show this weekend, so we met up with Tracie + Roland who recently announced that they will be opening the Fight Gone MAD in Lake Norman (north charlotte).

I love the food at 1900 Mexican, and the food was amazing, but I didn’t take pictures of it.  I did however capture the most important new menu item, and that was this Breakfast Margarita.  The addition of grapefruit juice and either grapefruit or orange zest was perfection.

Thursday was a really long day for me so I was happy to get a text from Dar and our friend Billy in the mid-afternoon saying that grilling and beer-ing (or in my case, cider-ing) was underway out by Billy and Gwen’s pool, so I hightailed it over there as soon as I was able to wrap up a few more to-do’s and errands.

Food credit on this meal goes entirely to Dar who has in the last year not only learned how to feed herself, but now also others.  And well.

We had amazing skirt steak and filets from Whole Foods, grilled zucchini + yellow squash, and a huge awesome salad, a la the summer fruit trend.

Even Bug, who has recently NOT been eating the same way she used to, enjoyed herself and a new toy that she got for being good (well, pretty much for no reason at all, actually).

Friday I took myself to the mall during lunch to get a few errands under my belt and break up the work day, which worked, and also allowed me to catch up with some of my favorite lemons at the lululemon in Southpark, and then capped off the late afternoon with an early evening Fight Gone MAD class, and dinner at the Peculiar Rabbit with Kelli, another FGM regular and a great friend.

What I didn’t anticipate was the craziness of the rest of the weekend (not in the going-out-hard way), or the impending chaos of the upcoming week.  The good news is everyone survived, no one got injured, and I managed to knock out a big load of necessary tasks in the last 24 hours to ease the harsh return of Monday.