Day Off Wednesday

Today was my day off from work. Creative title, huh? One part of blogging that I totally underestimated the difficulty of was coming up with titles. Seriously, I need some inspiration.

Yesterday when I was talking to the trainer at work about my workout routine, I told him that I had been lifting heavier weights for a while, but had recently switched things up to do more high intensity interval strength training and body weight exercises. I was starting to feel like I was putting on too much muscle. He suggested that I try doing just a few reps of heavy weights with some large muscle groups (legs, back, chest) to get the metabolism boost, and then do my interval stuff afterward.

I gave it a try this morning. I loaded up an ez curl bar with 50 lbs and did 3 reps of rows and deadlifts, and then I managed to lift the bar over my head and onto my shoulders so I could do some lunges. However, I didn't plan ahead as to how I was going to get the bar off of my shoulders when I was done. It was really heavy and I was afraid to lift it back over my head because I thought I might just knock my head right off. I managed to shimmy behind the bench and place it backward onto the rack, but I will need to plan better in advance next time.

I also did this BodyRock workout. I was only able to manage the full dive bomb push ups for the first minute, and then I had to do them modified. It was an awesome upper-body workout though! After that I went for a 3+ mile run outside (!!!!). I mostly had to run in the street because there is still a lot of ice everywhere. I was out about 8:30, so I had to deal with some traffic. But I was just happy to be outside!

Today was another day of seriously delicious food. It's really not hard to eat healthy when you are loving what you eat!

As promised, I did take pictures of my new breakfast oatmeal custard concoction today!


I did not toast the almonds this morning, though, and after eating I decided that I must do this in the future. It just adds so much more flavor! If you haven't toasted nuts before, you can just add the them to a dry pan over low heat and let them toast for a few minutes. They will start to smell delicious, and then you know they are done. Don't let them burn though! They will be really gross if burned. Below is a picture of what the oatmeal looks like on my spoon. Can you see the steam rising?! I kept trying to eat it while it was too hot and it burned my mouth.



I wanted something quick and easy for lunch so I threw together a salad of tuna, chickpeas, diced red onion, celery, apple, and broccoli. I made a super quick dressing of tahini, hummus, lemon juice, and dijon mustard and microwaved it for about 30 sec. Then I tossed everything together. It was so crunchy and just yum! I also had about an ounce of peanuts.




This afternoon we drove down to Elkhart to hang out with Andrew's mom and do laundry. When we got there I had a snack of three gingersnap cookies with peanut butter and some grapes. We had a fun afternoon activity : we made spring rolls! We made one recipe with chicken, and one with shrimp. They were lots of fun to make, but we decided that we have to work a little bit on our technique. Before you know it we will be spring roll masters! Next time I will be sure to bring my camera to document the process.

For dinner we had some really delicious filet mignon, baked sweet potato, roasted brussels sprouts, and shitake mushrooms. It was wonderful! My favorite part of eating at Mona's house is that we always get to bring home lots of leftovers. I love coming up with ways to re-purpose left over food. You will definitely be seeing some steak tomorrow!

Once we got home we had to put away all of the laundry (my least favorite part about doing laundry), and now it's time for bed already! I was feeling hungry when we got home, but I wasn't in the mood for something dessert-y, so I made a baby salad of spinach, broccoli, and hummus. I also had a cup of green tea.


Until recently, I always felt like I should be hungry when I went to bed. I thought that it was best for weight loss purposes if I didn't have anything in my stomach before I went to sleep. Although, I would always wake up ravenous. I felt like I couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough sometimes!

After Andrew and I read Set Your Metabolism on Fire, I started eating at night closer to the time I go to bed. I don't know if it really speeds up my metabolism while I sleep, but I definitely don't wake up as hungry anymore.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! How do you feel about night-eating? Do you eat before bed? Are you really hungry when you wake up in the morning?

Goodnight everyone!