Archives for January 2024

Categories: Food

The 5 Best Places to eat in Little Rock, Arkansas

Whether you’re looking to try something new local to you or you’re just passing through on a road trip and you want a good foodie experience, then you’ve got to check out the 5 best places to eat in Little Rock, Arkansas!

photo of woman eating food — Photo by Lucas Bordignon on Pexels.com

As a local and native to Arkansas but someone who lives a couple of hours from Little Rock, I sometimes travel down there JUST for a good foodie experience. We love food and having new experiences, trying new cuisines, checking out new spots, etc.

So I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 rated restaurants in Little Rock based on Google and I hope you’ll check them out! If you’ve ever eaten at any of these, comment below and let us all know which is your favorite and why!

I’m sharing these is no specific order so make sure you pin this article to save it for later and you get by all 5, especially if you’re local!

Layla’s Gyro

9501 N Rodney Parham Rd #7, Little Rock, AR 72227

Open Sundays 11 AM–4:30 PM and 11 AM–8:15 PM the rest of the week.

Check out their website here!

Images from Google Reviews

If you’re looking for an authentic Greek experience that offers not only superb food but also a welcome feeling from the staff like you’re family, then you’ve got to try Layla’s! Locals call it a hole in the wall place as the exterior and the interior decor are not fancy but the food is what will have you bragging and coming back for more!

Images from Google Reviews

With a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on Google and over 1,400 reviews…they can’t be wrong!

Image from Google Reviews

El Sur Street Food Co

1214 Main St, Little Rock, AR 72202

Sundays 11 AM–3 PM, closed Tuesdays and 11 AM–9 PM the rest of the week.

Check out their website here!

Where Central Arkansas meets Honduras and Latin America!
El Sur Street Food Co Website

Image from ElSurStreetfoodCo.com

Man, if you’re looking for Latin American flavors AND a great vibe, stop by this place!

Image from Google Reviews

This business was formed by a few guys who wanted to offer Honduran and Latin American food to Arkansas and share their love of this food with the locals! They’ve done a great job setting up a winning vibe in their shop down on Main Street! It’s easy to see why this shop makes the 5 best places to eat in Little Rock, Arkansas!

Images from Google Reviews

With a 4.8 out of 5 star review, it’s easy to see why this place tops the list. You can tell they’re using fresh, local and seasonal ingredients in their recipes. They are garnishing with fresh herbs and including flowers in their mixed drinks! The Sangria is highly recommended and they even have a back room with ping pong tables and other games!

Images from Google Reviews

You can order online and they have vegan options! Parking in this area downtown is easy so that makes it convenient too! Their menu online has pictures of MOST of the food items and I really love that when I’m researching new places to try, especially if I’m not local to the area or have never been there! Stop by and give these guys a try!

The Pantry Eateries

They’re so loved they have two locations in Little Rock, named “West” and “Crest” so check their website for addresses and hours for each. They also offer slightly different menus.

You can check out their website here!

Photos from Google Reviews and littlerockpantry.com

The Pantry Eateries offer Czech and German classics as well as delightful appetizers, burgers, salads, and flatbreads.
littlerockpantry.com

The Crest location in Little Rock is in an old home so the atmosphere is very pleasant and homey! You can have a meal on the front porch or the side deck offers ample room for outdoor dining for up to 20-ish.

Photos from Google Reviews

With a google review rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, it’s easy to see why this delicious European cuisine has locals raving! From the hefty meat platter served on a cutting board to the whimsical deviled eggs, you get a unique experience and menu here.

Photos from Google Reviews

One patron described the food as “elevated comfort food” while also mentioning to be prepared to not find parking super close due to how the area is setup. There is dining upstairs also and navigating the residential/old staircase with a lot of people can be troublesome. In general though they felt the food and service made up for those minor inconveniences.

Photos from littlerockpantry.com

The service is phenomenal and the drink selection is outstanding.
One Hungry Possum, Google Local Guide.

No wonder this one made the list for 5 best places to eat in Little Rock, Arkansas, I’d go just for the deviled eggs honestly!

Ciao Baci

605 Beechwood St #3846, Little Rock, AR 72205

Closed Sundays, open 4–10:30 PM every other day of the week.

Check their website for full menu and other info here!

Images from Google Reviews

Nestled in the beautiful Hillcrest neighborhood in Little Rock, Arkansas, Ciao Baci has been proudly elevating dining, drinking, and relaxing since its inception in 2001.
ciaobacilr.com

Images from Google Reviews

I must admit I’m a sucker for a restaurant in an old home! Throw some good food and candle light in an old bungalow and buddy I’m there! Sign me up for that! It just creates a whole vibe that puts you in the MOOD to try something new and different, slow down and enjoy the experience. It elevates “going out to eat” and turns it into having a slow, present moment with whoever you’re with to focus on food and socializing, something we really don’t do enough in our culture while Europeans nail it!

Images from Google Reviews

From flat breads, empanadas or Lamb Gyro, gorgonzola cheese to lavender lemonade this place offers a wide range of interesting foods you won’t find just anywhere in Little Rock! Their rave reviews state everything tastes so fresh and the general atmosphere and servers are very welcoming and cozy!

Images from Google Reviews

They offer a nightly “Chef’s Tasting Menu” which is a 5 course meal and the spontaneity of that sounds really fun and interesting! If you’ve had that please comment below, I’m dying to know how it was! #foodenvy

The Faded Rose

1619 Rebsamen Park Rd, Little Rock, AR 72202

Open 11 AM–9 PM daily but stays open to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Cajun & Creole-influenced seafood, steaks & more dished up in a roadhouse-style venue with a patio.
The Faded Rose

You can check out their website here!

Images from Google Reviews and http://thefadedrose.com/

Opened in 1982 by a New Orleans local couple and still ran by them today, over 30 years later, in the same location! So from seafood boils to po boys, they’ve got your Creole cravings covered!

Images from Google Reviews and http://thefadedrose.com/

Everyone raves that the creole dishes are authentic creole and I’m sure that tickles the owners heart being as it has always been his mission to bring some good Creole to Arkansas!

Images from Google Reviews and http://thefadedrose.com/

For me I can’t wait to try the shrimp and grits, apparently it is as good as it looks and for that alone I’d make a trip down there! The Faded Rose here I come! I’m glad The Faded Rose made it on the top 5 places to eat in Little Rock, Arkansas LIST so now we all know about them!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and if so why not give me a follow or subscribe, as I’m always sharing more about great places to eat, Airbnb recommendations, traveling, health tips, recipes and more! Thanks for the read!

If you’d like to read my personal story, you can find it here!

xoxo,

Elizabeth Richey

About the Author: Elizabeth Richey, living and thriving in rural Arkansas, Aquarian and iced coffee enthusiast. When she’s not writing, gardening, playing with her chocolate lab Maple or sharing videos on YouTube (Elizabeth’s Many Adventures) you can find her enjoying time with her family or traveling somewhere new! Most of the time she’s dreaming of being kicked back in her hammock in her cottage garden listening to the birds sing.

Photo of Author =)

Categories: Wellness

Top 3 Self Care Tips for Mental Health

Elizabeth R

A lot of us have experienced situations lately that have made us curious about what the top 3 self care tips for mental health would be! I have discovered over the last 30-something years that we just really have to take care of ourselves. If we don’t fill our own glass, we have nothing to pour from.

Long, hot, relaxing baths!

a romantic setting in the bathroom — Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com

drink and candles in bath — Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com

My #1 tip in the top 3 self care tips for mental health has got to be long, relaxing baths. If you haven’t had a really relaxing bath, maybe you’ve been doing it wrong. I like the get the water really hot but some people don’t love that. Don’t underestimate the value of “funness” of bubbles. I always use my bubble baths because it just feels more luxurious and like you’re not there just to bathe. Epsom salts are also wonderful because they benefit your skin and mood!

If you keep even a single candle in your bathroom, it really makes a difference for the mood or vibe of a relaxing bath. I love to read in the bath as well but you could also listen to an audio book on your phone! Imagine that, propping it up and just relaxing into the bubbles while enjoying the story!

person reading book on bathtub — Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

I think the reason a bath can be so beneficial is because usually we unplug from technology. Also the dim lighting from having a candle lit and the main light off sends some kind of signal to your brain. Maybe it is reminding us of the calmer days before electricity or it reminds us of the darkness just after a sunset.

Also, warm water relaxes your blood vessels so this can actually allow blood pressure to drop. This creates a calming affect by either restoring you to a normal blood pressure or by reducing you to a lower blood pressure like you’d find when you meditate and everything slows down in your body.

Meditation

woman meditating beside her dog — Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

I could write an entire article on why meditation is wonderful for you so here I just want to sing it’s praises as a wonderful way for self care. In today’s modern fast paced world we all spend so much of our day plugged in, tuned in, talked to and at and we’re overloaded and over-stimulated. Meditation starts out solely beneficial as a moment to unplug and just sit and be with yourself and see what is happening in your brain.

Then it is even more beneficial when you learn how to calm your brain and make sense of the circling thoughts you find within. You can sit as pictured above or even just kicked back on your bed but the importance is what you hear. You either want to hear nothing, silence or use a specific meditation track.

Meditation tracks can have specific sound waves and frequencies to bring on specific moods or feelings of calmness, love, healing, etc.

woman meditating in the outdoors — Photo by Oluremi Adebayo on Pexels.com

By using this time to calm down and tap into ourselves, we can do a mental check in. As soon as you silence the outside world, your inside world will begin to yell at you. Before you know it you’re going over grocery order lists, what did you forget to do, who do you need to call, etc. Once you calm those thoughts you’re left with your own inner musings and questions to life.

This is where we can reach a calm space and begin to either dissect or just enjoy what we see, hear or feel inside ourselves. With more practice you learn to get calmer, deeper, faster. With more practice you learn whether you need to have a moment of peace within or if you want to seek the answer to a burning question…and how to do both.

The reason meditation is one of the 3 top self care tips for mental health is because it teaches us the control we have over our minds, our thoughts, how we talk to ourselves and even our unconscious thoughts and decisions. You learn how to take the power back from your most important organ.

And by learning how to tune out the outside world and tune into you, you learn to listen to what you need to relax and to feel recharged. It is completely mind mending relaxing when done properly and can be as efficient as a 15 minute complete mood reset, once you know what you’re doing.

Learning how to set healthy boundaries in relationships and enforce them.

man people woman sitting — Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

This is a hard lesson for a lot of people and a good majority of people think that others having boundaries could be them being rude. Not only does it have to do with HOW you choose to enforce your boundaries but it also depends just how to interact with people.

If you have a lot of people in your life constantly asking for favors and you always say yes but you know you are being taken advantage of, you may start trying to say no. Which, if this is you, then saying no probably isn’t that easy for you. But so say you finally do it and those same users are going to think you’re being rude or mean all the sudden because your behavior pattern changed. It isn’t rude at all to stand up for yourself and refuse to do something you don’t want to do. But to someone who has never heard you say no, it can be taken as rude.

It is important we have healthy boundaries in our most intimate, close relationships because these are the ones who should love us enough to want to have healthy boundaries and not do things to hurt or use us in the first place.

photo of man lying on bed while reading book — Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

For you setting a new healthy boundary in order to take better care of yourself may just be that from now on you’ll practice saying no when a friend invites you out when you’d rather stay home.

It could be that you have a co-worker always saying super rude things to you and you decide to finally bring it up with your boss and document it.

Or it could be that you have a really toxic relative who always manages to make you feel like crap for whatever reason and you choose to unfollow them on socials and just take a break from seeing or talking to them. I think social media breaks are super helpful because it gets us out of that same thought pattern about someone or something for a bit and helps us to refocus on things that matter more.

I hope these tips were helpful and you give them a try!

If you’d like to read my personal story, you can find it here!

Please do follow my blog or subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when I share new recipes or health & fitness tips! <3

Xoxo, Elizabeth

I’d love if you’d subscribe to my newsletter to get updates on new articles!

Categories: Fitness, Wellness

5 Things to love about Samsung Galaxy Watch

I used to think a smart watch was just another tech thing for “techie” people to “stand in line” for and so I pretty much ignored them the first few years they were on the market. But today I’m sharing 5 things to love about Samsung Galaxy Watch! Eventually I was upping my own health and fitness game and came across some recommendations for a smart watch! And I never looked back!

I’ve been wearing my Samsung Galaxy Watch now for about 5 months and in that time I’ve learned so much about myself, my routines and habits! I’ve also been able to use that information to IMPROVE all of those things!

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

Exercise Tracking

One of the top 5 things to love about Samsung Galaxy watch is how great it is for exercise! If you already have a fitness routine then you’ll love how much the Galaxy watch can compliment it! OR if you’re like me and were hoping to ADD fitness to your life then the watch will be a huge motivator! As seen above, it can track all sorts of workouts. During the work out it monitors your heart rate. After you add your health profile, it’ll let you know what ranges are good for you!

There are so many types of workouts you can do and track. For me personally I’ve used the walking, running, yoga, dancing and weight lifting and it’s super easy! Another thing I love about this is the app on your phone gives you a daily and weekly overview of how much you’ve worked out that week! You can set daily step goals as well as daily activity minutes goals.

Above is a look at my week last week of light exercises! It gives you a nice overview and then a total for the week. I like this as it helps keep me mindful of how active I’ve been throughout the week.

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

Convenient with alarms, texts, codes, etc.

Although I don’t respond to texts via my watch, when I get on eit’s easy to say “Ok” from my watch. I have also taken calls from my watch time to time when I was away from my phone. Or if my hands weren’t free and a call came in and I could easily accept on my watch screen. Watch calls just sound like it’s in speaker mode!

I also am the type to have a lot of alarms set throughout my day to remind me of numerous work things. So those popping up on my phone are very handy! I also have the “I AM” app setup on my phone to share positive affirmations throughout the day!

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

Sleep Tracker

The 2nd best top 5 things to love about Samsung Galaxy Watch is sleep tracking! Not to sound too dramatic but I think this sleep tracker has changed my life! We all know that we need to be getting 7+ hours of sleep per night and most of us don’t. I am not too bad about that but I am really bad about keeping a consistent routine. Some nights I go to bed at 10pm and other nights 2am so you can see how this affects my routine and amount of sleep.

The watch tracks how many hours you sleep, all your sleep cycles, time in bed vs. time asleep, REM sleep, deep sleep and an overall sleep score. If you sleep too little or too much, your sleep score is lower. It has been really eye opening for me. It helps remind me that even if my score isn’t great, that I need to put more effort into being consistent!

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

Stress level

This watch has the capability to measure your STRESS LEVELS! The watch photo above shows that you can see a snapshot of the day on the watch. But since the screen is small it can be hard to see. The other image is a screenshot from my own app for this last week. This has been so eye opening for me. Prior to me quitting vaping in September 2023 I would have never guessed I was such a stressy person.

When I quit vaping, I had so many moments of high stress and near panic attacks. I had just started using the watch a few weeks prior and so I began keeping an eye on it. You can see from my screenshot that I am still experiencing stress and it affects me daily. I have been able to resist returning to vaping, which was my go to tasks before if I was stressed. I have been working the last few months to catch when I feel this way and find new positive ways to deal with stress.

With meditation each morning and you can see the nice bright green section in the morning. But I’m trying to figure out what is triggering these red spikes! Nonetheless, I think this is a very handy tool! You may be like me and have underlying stress that you’re used to. You might not even know that you’re doing it. It’s good to find out if we are experiencing stress so we can reduce it because stress causes illness, diseases and premature death.

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

Other stuff; body composition, cycle tracking and water tracking

Some other cool functions include menstrual cycle tracking, body composition scan and water tracking.

The cycle tracking is very interesting, you can add the date of your last cycle and then it’ll give you warnings or alerts for your ovulation week and a few days count down up to your cycle. You can log symptoms too if you want.

The body composition scanner supposedly scans yours wrists, obviously I’m curious as to the validity of this feature, and then it tells you your body fat %, pounds of muscle, % of water, etc. I’d like to think it is accurate-ish but the body fat % is off by like 9% compared to my scale in my bedroom. Still, even if you don’t trust it as super accurate, I can attest that as you low weight the figures do change and update!

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

If you’d like to read my personal story, you can find it here!

Please do follow my blog or subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when I share new recipes or health & fitness tips! <3

Xoxo, Elizabeth

I’d love if you’d subscribe to my newsletter to get updates on new articles!

Categories: Food

Top 4 Coziest Soups for Winter

If you’re like me and freeze to the bone every winter and love some good comforting food, you’ve got to try all 4 of these cozy soups for winter. I honestly couldn’t even tell you which one is the COZIEST, because we love them all so much in our home! If you’re looking for the top 4 coziest soups for winter, look no further!

Zuppa Toscano

I’ve got to start out with this one because if I don’t everyone in my family will call me a fraud because I obsess over this soup! This is one soup I literally always eat way too much of but there is just something about the flavor profile after cooking that Italian Sausage in the soup for awhile! Oh mercy!

This soup is a copycat recipe stolen from Olive Garden and I tell ya, the first few times I made it I was just stoked that it tasted as good as theirs. But since then I’ve somehow tweaked it in a way that mine is BETTER than Olive Garden’s now!

Not everyone in my family loves the spinach but it literally has no flavor and no crunch, I think it all just goes together wonderfully into this creamy, comforting, cozy potato soup with Italian Sausage. You can find the RECIPE HERE!

Creamy Chicken Potato Soup

Now this recipe we literally just had for the first time last week and my husband and I both stuffed ourselves because it was so over the top delicious! Imagine this, a potato soup base plus some shredded chicken and the carrots give you chicken soup vibes! We shredded the chicken really small and you cook the soup long enough the starch from the potatoes make it a thicker soup so you couldn’t even see the chicken in it. We also diced up our celery smaller so it cooks away! Absolutely loved it! I’m a cheese lover so I topped mine with a good amount of shredded cheddar and it. did. not. disappoint.

You can find the scrumptious RECIPE HERE for this glorious soup! You won’t regret trying it!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla soup is another one that is a very cozy soup and the bomb-diggity in our house! I’ve been making this recipe for years and instead of buying those pre-made tortilla crisps, I make them homemade and my family swoons every time! I have tried this recipe on the stove top and in the crock pot, same basic idea but if you’ve got time to prep in advance I do it in the morning in the crock pot. But I also sometimes just decide on a whim to throw this together so I do it on the stove and just allow at least an hour for everything to simmer together so that the flavors really marry!

To make my homemade tortilla crisps I literally take flour tortillas and cut them the size I want, get a pan on the stove hot with some vegetable oil in it just about 1/4″ deep, then I drop them in and cook them maybe 20-30 seconds on each side if I’ve got the burner on high. By the time I turn each one it’s time to turn again then they’re all done. I put the smallest amount of salt on these and done! Some people add more salt and my husband has wondered what they’d taste like if they had some taco seasoning on them but just plain is a fantastic companion to the soup so I’ve not steered away from that.

You can find the full recipe here and note this version is for the crock pot but like I said above, if you need to rush it alone, you can accomplish this in one hours on the stove top!

Cheddar Broccoli Potato Soup

Imagine broccoli cheddar soup and potato soup had a love child and BAM, you get this!!! This is so creamy, so cheesy and so cozy! This recipe is also so easy to throw together! Cups of cheese, carrots, good ol’ potatoes and of course, for the love of broccoli! I sometimes opt to use bigger broccoli heads in mine, just depends on my mood! I also almost always add MORE cheese to this recipe than it calls for because I am 100% a self proclaimed cheese head! You should try it, (recipe here) you’ll never be disappointed in adding more cheese!

If you’d like to read my personal story, you can find it here!

Please do follow my blog or subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when I share new recipes or health & fitness tips! <3

Xoxo, Elizabeth

I’d love if you’d subscribe to my newsletter to get updates on new articles!

Categories: Fitness

Prepare to Run a 5K

If you’ve ever been encouraged or motivated by someone who ran a 5k and wish you could too, then this is the article for you on how to get started! It’s easy to prepare to run a 5k in 12 weeks, it just takes some organized planning and commitment.

The #1 Tip to prepare to run a 5k is to just…get started!!! Before you can do anything or change anything, you have to be motivated to get up and move! So if you need to buy some decent shoes, then get them. Try not to make too many excuses to hold yourself back. Do you feel like there is something stopping you? If so, what can you tell yourself to combat that issue?

When you are either a couch potato or just can’t walk through Walmart without getting tired, then you need to build up your endurance. Endurance not only refers to your muscles but also your lung stamina and endurance (strengthening your ability to breath while exerting yourself), to prepare to run a 5k.

The biggest secret to prepare to run a 5k is to obsess over the numbers! By that I mean you want to time yourself and start small. You’re going to stretch pretty good then go for a walk and after walking for 2 minutes you’re going to lightly job for 30 or 60 seconds.

Start where ever you are and move up from there. If you can handle 30 seconds straight then push yourself to get to 60 seconds. If you have a really hard time getting to 30 seconds then just start there and focus on improving that over time!

So you’re going to walk 2 minutes, jog 30-60 seconds, walk 2 minutes, jog 30-60 seconds. You repeat this as long as you can. For example, if you have 20 minutes to work out then you’d get in 6-7 cycles. Make sure you stretch again after every run, as this helps reduce the odds of muscle injury!

You might keep this same routine for 1-3x and then plan to increase your 30 second run to a 60 second run or that 60 second run to 90 seconds of running! So again you could be graduating up to the follow:

Walk 2 minutes, run 60 seconds, walk 2 minutes, run 60 seconds, repeat.

Walk 2 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes, run 90 seconds, repeat.

One great thing to help prepare to run a 5k is to use a Smart Watch! Any type of wearable tech is going to be super handy for a new fitness routine! I personally love mine and use it almost daily for yoga, dancing, walking, etc and that’s just on the exercise front, it does so much more!

I highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy watch and you can find it here on Amazon!

You also want to use some good headphones but keep in mind if you’re running outside only have one headphone in as you need to be aware of sounds and traffic around you! Safety first!

Your Chart for improvements could look something like this if you did a 20 minutes walk/run 3x a week.

Week 1: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 30 seconds, Walk 2 minutes, repeat 7x, end with walking then stretch.

Week 2: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 60 seconds, Walk 2 minutes, repeat 7x, end with walking then stretch.

Week 3: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 90 seconds, Walk 2 minutes, repeat 5x, end with walking then stretch.

Week 4: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 2 minutes, Walk 2 minutes, repeat 4x, end with walking then stretch.

After the First Month

By now you’ve stuck with this routine for a month and not only are you running for a solid 120 seconds, which is awesome, but you’ve also just stuck with it! Consistency is the key to accomplishing any goal! Once you stick with anything for 30+ days you are well on your way! Good job!

Week 5: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 3 minutes, Walk 1 minutes, repeat 3x, end with walking then stretch.

Week 6: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 4 minutes, Walk 1 minutes, repeat 2x, end with walking then stretch.

Week 7: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 6 minutes, Walk 1 minutes, repeat 2x, end with walking then stretch.

Week 8: Stretch, Walk 2 minutes, Run 8 minutes, Walk 1 minutes, repeat 1x, end with walking then stretch.

Now that you’ve stuck with it for 60 days and gradually added wins on top of wins you are more than likely running a solid 8 minutes at once! Can you believe that!? You are officially a runner now!

Week 9: Stretch, Walk 1 minutes, Run 10 minutes, Walk 1 minutes, repeat 1x, end with walking then stretch.

After Week 9

Once you get to this point you can increase your run either by 2 minutes or 5 minutes, whatever you feel like you can handle. If you have several months before you get to your 5k, then take your time and add 1-2 minutes per week and just go with it!

I highly recommend you add 2 minutes at a time because by now you’ve noticed how when you’re running for 6-8 minutes you really get into a roll with it, most things feel numb and you feel robotic! So after you get into that run flow, it’s easy to go 2 more minutes!

Statistically a “relatively healthy” person in “average shape” runs a mile in 9-10 minutes. So at week 9 of your training you could be completing 2 miles or more during your training! A 5k is 3.1 miles now that you’ve built up the muscles and endurance to run 8-10 minutes at a time, likely almost an entire mile, now you need to set mileage goals.

If you are running a solid 10 minutes then you are probably doing a mile so this is how I’d shape my next several weeks:

Week 10: Stretch, Walk 1/2 mile, run 1 & 1/2 miles, walk 1/2 mile to cool down, stretch.

Week 11: Stretch, Walk 1/2 mile, run 2 miles, walk 1/2 mile to cool down, stretch.

Week 12: Stretch, Walk 1/2 mile, run 2 & 1/2 miles, walk 1/2 mile to cool down, stretch.

Week 13: Stretch, Walk 1/2 mile, run 3 miles, walk 1/2 mile to cool down, stretch.

You’ve ran a 5k!!!!! The day you can jog or run 3 or 3.1 miles, that is your k5! Once you’ve built up the stamina and endurance to do that, you can do it again and again! So if you’re starting from super basic, you can be 5k ready within 12-13 weeks, depending on how hard you push yourself!

If you’d like to read my personal story, you can find it here!

Please do follow my blog or subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when I share new recipes or health & fitness tips! <3

Xoxo, Elizabeth

I’d love if you’d subscribe to my newsletter to get updates on new articles!