Friday (Saturday) Push-Up Challenge: Week 4

I have been in a workout slump the last few days. The poopy weather that got my hopes up and then crushed them into tiny pieces has left me with no workout motivation whatsoever. I have been protesting by staying curled up in my bed with a book during all non-working hours.

I hurt my foot a few weeks ago while running, so I've had to take some time off, and the idea of doing cardio in the gym sounds like death, so I just haven't done it.

I also think I got a little over-ambitious with the Tracy Anderson method, because I burned out on that super fast. I skipped it Thursday and Friday. Saturday I did half....and tonight's not looking good. I even set out my yoga mat so I could guilt myself into it, but it doesn't really seem to be working.

However, all is not lost. I did my final day of push-ups on Saturday (only a day late!) and got to 21!!!

I have to admit I was a little scared before I started because I didn't think I was going to make it to 20, but I did and then even managed to crank out an extra one for good measure.

Tonight Andrew is on campus tutoring, so I was on my own for dinner. I like to take opportunities like this to eat more dessert than real food. I made myself an entire package of green beans and then a big bowl of fruit sorbet. This fruit sorbet is seriously awesome and the easiest thing to make.

You need: mixed frozen fruit + a food processor.

Just put the fruit in the processor and let it run until you have a sorbet-like consistency. I usually add a couple tablespoons of water to help it come together. The fruit mix I used has peaches, mango, pineapple, and strawberries so this resulting color is a really pretty peachy-pink. It's not as sweet as commercial sorbet, but you could always add some sweetener or sugar.

I just left it as-is, but topped it with some vanilla chips and sprinkles. I got these vanilla chips a few weeks ago when I thought I was buying white chocolate chips. They are basically hydrogenated oil (sorry arteries) and sugar, and have no redeeming qualities but they taste good so I will probably keep eating them until they are gone.

Back to book time. Have a good night :)

Midweek progress

I posted a couple days ago that I am doing the Tracy Anderson Method right now for my strength workouts. At first glance, a lot of the moves look pretty easy, but do not be fooled, this workout is HARD! I have completed 6 days of the 30-day program so far, and I already am noticing some changes. My stomach is much flatter and my arms and legs feel and look (to me) more toned. Awesome! The downside is that the workout is exactly the same for 10 days, and then is switches to a new sequence. Doing the same workout every day is getting pretty tedious.

The other day I thought I would give her dance cardio a try, and I after flailing around my living room like a crazy person for about 3 minutes, I gave it up. In Tracy's book she claims that repetitive activities like running and biking build muscles and make you bulky and because of that says that you are not allowed to do cardio aside from her dance cardio while on her program... Sorry Tracy, that's just not going to happen.

I've been having some foot pain for the last week when I run, so I haven't been doing much of that lately either. The nice weather over the weekend and early this week meant a couple of bike rides, but now that it's going to be cold again I might be hitting up the elliptical machine. Boo!

For dinner tonight I made a really tasty soup inspired by this recipe. It's really not like the original at all, because I didn't have many of the ingredients on hand, so lets consider this to be a loose interpretation.



Spring Greens Soup
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3.5 oz white onion, chopped
- 4 oz celery
- 4 oz frozen peas
- 1 package frozen spinach
- 4 oz white beans
- 4 oz chickpeas
- 1 cup whole wheat macaroni
- dried oregano, basil, thyme, dill
- salt and pepper

Sweat the garlic, onion, and celery for a few minutes on med-low. Add peas, spinach (no need to defrost), beans, macaroni, and 6 cups water (or broth or stock if you are so inclined). Add about 1 tsp. of each of the herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and cook until the pasta is al dente. Taste for seasonings.

I served it with some tilapia that I seasoned with Blackening Seasoning and pan-fried and an english muffin on the side. The whole meal was delicious and healthy and came together really quick!

Sorry for the lack of precise herb measurements and cook time. I am the queen of winging it in the kitchen. I rarely set a timer when I cook, because I usually have pretty good intuition about when things are done. However, this does not always work out for me. I made cookies last week, and over the weekend I opened up my oven to put something in and found a cookie sheet of week-old burned cookies. Whoops! I may or may not have eaten them anyway :)

Whirlwind weekend

This weekend was such a whirlwind. I can't believe it's already Sunday night!

We got in a lot of quality friend and family time, it was so much fun! Unfortunately, the only camera I have is a big dSLR that is a tiny bit cumbersome to drag around when I am out and about, so I didn't take any pictures. I lost our small camera last summer (with all of our honeymoon pictures on it) and we haven't been able to replace it yet.

On Thursday I picked up a new book at the library: Tracy Anderson's 30-Day Method


The book includes a 30-day workout plan with a strength, cardio, and meal plan component. The meal plan is downright ridiculous. I was a little bit in shock to read how little food she has you eating. A typical day includes about a cup of fruit for breakfast, a cup of soup for lunch, a small afternoon snack, and a piece of fish with veggies for dinner. I'm not sure if anyone could stick to that for 30 days.

The cardio is a little silly too. The book came with a DVD that has two 20 minute dance cardio sequences. They are basically Tracy jumping and flailing around.

Despite the goody cardio and meal plan, I was interested in trying her strengthening method. Rather than lifting weights, she does bodyweight exercises with very high reps (20-60 reps). Her exercises focus on the smaller accessory muscles rather than the bigger muscles (quads, biceps, etc). She says that this can help you "achieve a long, lean physique instead of a bulky look."

Since last summer, I have been doing traditional weight lifting, and while I do like the results I got, once my strength increased to the point where I was able to lift heavier weights, I was worried I was starting to look a little bulky, especially in my arms.

I am always up for mixing up my workouts, so I'm going to give Tracy a try. The 30 plan is broken down into 3 10-day segments. For 10-days, you do a sequence of 16 exercises, working up to 60 reps each, and then switch to a new exercise sequence for the next 10 days and so on.

Tonight I did 30 reps, and it took me about 45 minutes to get through it. This is definitely a time-consuming way of working out. On the plus side, I am feeling pretty sore, especially in my butt. I have been a little lazy about weight lifting the last couple weeks and I really miss the sore feeling.

I will report back on my progress!

Friday Push-Up Challenge: Week 3

18 today!!

I've really got to get it together this week so I can get to 20 by next Friday!

Somehow this day has managed to fly by. We just got home from the grocery store and we have friends coming from out of town who will be here at 6, so that gives me 1.5 hours to clean my house and myself and look presentable. I think I can handle it.

This is going to be a fun weekend...

Friday = out of town friends coming to visit
Saturday = celebrating a friend's birthday
Sunday = parents coming for lunch

Do you have fun weekend plans? This is going to be the most active weekend I've had in months and I am super excited about it.

Ok time to ninja clean!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey all! My laptop was out of commission for a few days, but now I am back in business!

Since I last posted, my life has pretty much consisted of work, Battlestart Galactica, running, and practicing my pushups for Friday. Yesterday was my first day off in two weeks, so it was a little sad to go back to work today.

Do you have any fun plans for today/tonight? No partying for us, but we are going for our first bike ride of the year this afternoon!!!!

I think I am way more excited about riding bikes than drinking.

Friday Pushup Challenge: Week 2

Friday push-up challenge!

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to up my number this morning, because I really didn't do a whole lot of practice push-ups throughout the last week. Friday kind of snuck up on me this week!

I managed 17 push- ups this morning! 3 more to go before the end of the month!

I am working this evening so we spent the morning and afternoon doing grocery shopping and laundry. I love doing grocery shopping trips at times when no one else is at the store! For lunch I made chicken salads with spinach, apple, broccoli, light honey mustard and some Fritos for croutons. This was awesome! They added a really nice salty crunchyness, and .5 oz (what you see on my plate) is only 80 cals.


I couldn't decide if I wanted salty or sweet for my afternoon snack, so I did an English muffin two ways: one half has an egg and sauteed spinach, the other half has sunflower butter, vanilla chips, and a sliced strawberry.


I've been a bit of a workout punk this week...It's funny, in January I would have been excited about a 35 degree day, but now 35-40 degrees and rainy makes me want to curl up in bed. Tomorrow I'm back on it though!

Andrew is having a friend visit from out of town this weekend, so I'll be mostly on my own because they'll be busy playing video games the whole time. I picked up some extra work shifts, but I've also got some fun solo activities planned...I think I'm going to make bread! I'll report back with my results!

Still figuring it out

When I was 19, I was at my highest weight ever. There have been lots of ups and downs throughout the years, but since then I have lost and kept off about 45 lbs.

Based on my experience, you would think that I would have a thing or two figured out about weight loss. But sometimes, it seems like I know nothing.

I posted a couple days ago that I was going to start counting calories again. I've been back on that train for a few days for a few days now, and like I said before, I really don't mind it. My problem is that I am not sure how many calories I should be eating to lose weight. It seems like when I don't count at all, I just maintain.

I know that there are plenty of calculators online to help you estimate how many calories you should be eating, but the numbers they offer are so disparate that it leaves me back at square 1. Some say eat 1200/day and some say eat 2200/day. Thanks a lot!

Last fall I was able to maintain a weekly average of 1400-1500 cals/week for a few weeks so I thought I would give that a try. I was going for 1300/day + a extra treat budget of about 1000/week. This would give me an average of 1450 or so for the week.

What I didn't take into account was that when I was eating this much in the fall, I wasn't exercising as much as I am now and I really was only able to maintain this for a couple weeks before I fell off the wagon. So, as you might expect, I spent the first couple days of this week absolutely obsessing about food. I spent hours (not exaggerating) looking at food porn and was starting to get really bitchy (sorry Andrew). That let to a total blowout on Tuesday night (frosted animal cookies and froot loops, and they were delicious). I woke up the next day feeling pretty bummed out about it but I know that I was not eating enough. So I got right back on the wagon, but this time I am going for about 1700 cals/ day.

I know I won't lose as fast as if I could force myself into a lower number, but being a crazy miserable mess is just not cool.

Important Question: For those of you who count calories, or even just those who watch what you eat, how do you decide how much to eat?

Our laptop is out of commission, and I can't find my memory card reader to load pictures onto the netbook right now, so I'll leave you with this picture of a dog driving an RV.

Have a good day everyone!

Chocolate Chip Soda Cake

Work was pretty lame today, but I managed to balance it out with two awesome things:

1. Run with Andrew. This afternoon when I got home from work I told Andrew I was going on a run and he asked if he could go with me. Um...Yeah!!! I love exercising with my man! We did about 3 miles. I didn't time us, but it felt like we kept a pretty good pace and even sprinted to the finish. I was so glad to have a workout buddy today, because when I walked in the door after work I was cranky and tired and wanted a beer, pizza, and ice cream to make me feel better. The run was fun, and afterward I felt great. Love when that happens!




2. Cake. I don't remember when I first came across the diet coke cake recipe, but I've been wanting to try it for a while. The basic idea is that you use a boxed cake mix, but you replace the eggs, oil, and water with a can of soda. I was skeptical, but tonight I decided to give it a try.

I used a yellow cake mix and plain soda water. I also threw in some chocolate chips. It was so easy and it turned out really well! Fluffy yellow cake + melty chocolate chips = happy Michelle!

It wasn't quite the same as a homemade cake made with butter and eggs, but it was still pretty darn good. And, as much as I would like to be the type of person who can have a small piece of a super rich dessert and be satisfied, sometimes I just want to eat a giant piece of cake, ok? I know I'm not alone here.

I'm definitely going to be trying this again, maybe next time I will try using a flavored diet soda.

Some possible tasty combinations...

Chocolate cake + Root beer?
Vanilla cake + Cherry 7-up?
Spice cake + Dr. Pepper?
Angel Food Cake + Squirt?
Strawberry Cake + Ginger Ale?

What other combos can you think of?

Check out my cake's plate halo

I am working on trying to eat more sloooooowwwwwly because I have a tendency to go crazy on my food and scarf it really fast. So, when it was cake time made myself a nice little set up with some tea and magazines. I kept the tv off and the laptop on the other side of the table, just out of arm's reach. I am always multitasking so it almost felt luxurious to just sit and eat without 1000 distractions.

Wow it's already late and pretty much my bed time. Tomorrow = interval workout on the treadmill. Yeah!

Course Correction

Yesterday I opened at work, which means getting up at 4 am. I don't really mind that shift too much, but for some reason I was really tired and out of it all yesterday after work, so I never got around to posting.

This morning I finally got around to doing this BodyRock workout. I had honestly been avoiding it for like a week. It just seemed so scary! I ended up cutting it in half, like Katie, and it wasn't so bad.

The high today is in the 40s, so I'm planning on going for a 3 mile run after work.

I want to talk about a course correction I'm going to be doing. I think that to be successful in any plan (weight loss, fitness, whatever else), you have to be flexible and willing to make changes as necessary. What works for a time may not work later on for any number of reasons.

When I started this blog, I decided I was going to take a break from weighing myself. Well, I broke down yesterday and did it. I just felt like I wasn't making progress anymore...and...I was right. I didn't gain, but I was maintaining.

Overall, I think that the break from weighing was good. It showed me that when I am ready to maintain my weight, I can do it without counting calories and weighing myself on a daily basis.

However, I also think that if I want to keep losing weight, I'm going to need to keep tracking. I am ok with this. There are 10 weeks left until May 14! I know I can make some great progress between now and then!

With that said, I'm going to be counting calories again as well. Of all of the weight-loss strategies that I have ever tried (a lot), counting calories seems to work best for me. Counting calories means weighing my food, so I busted out the digital scale when I made my breakfast this morning. I really don't mind weighing and measuring my food. Ok sure, sometimes it can become pretty tedious, but I am a numbers person, so I think it's kind of fun :)


Included in my bowl was 1/3 c. oats, 2 T. soy protein, 4.5 oz banana, 1 tsp. maple, 10g pecans.

I haven't had maple syrup in so long, and I didn't realize how much I missed it! Just a tiny bit adds such a great flavor! I'm glad to have you back in my life, maple.

Off to work now!

Important question:

Do you count calories (or have you before?)

Friday Push-Up Challenge: Week 1

Last night my brother stopped by unexpectedly with red velvet cupcakes from Starbucks (he works there) and corn fritters from a restaurant in our neighborhood. In case you aren't familiar, corn fritters are fried balls of doughy deliciousness covered in powdered sugar. I'm telling you, they are amazing.

They look like this (source)

Seeing as I had already spent an hour last night looking up cake recipes and pictures of cake online (fighting a major craving), I was pretty much powerless against them.

However, I'm not going to feel bad about it. They were delicious, and obviously exactly what I was looking for - cake craving is gone! I also scraped the frosting off the cupcake I ate because it wasn't that good. I will put that one in the 'win' column for me.

I often feel bad when I think I have eaten too much, but I am really working on trying not to feel guilty, because it usually just leads to a cycle of binging. If you ever feel this way too, you should read this article. So, today is a new day, and I am moving on!

Plus, I think that the carb-loading was beneficial because I had an awesome workout today! Here's the lowdown:

First up: The Friday Push-Up Challenge Week 1

I announced yesterday that I am challenging myself to to as many consecutive full push-ups as I can each Friday in March. I am working on using alternative metrics, other than the weight on the scale, to track my weight loss and fitness progress. I'm excited to see how my strength will progress over the course of this month!

I will post my scores each Friday for you to follow along. You should join me! Post your scores in the comments. If you can't do full push-ups right now, do them modified! It's all about pushing your own limits and seeing what you can accomplish!

This morning I got up, had a quick breakfast of brown rice microwaved with a splash of almond milk, a chopped apple, and a spoonful of peanut butter. I was a little nervous to do my push-ups, so I played 'Eye of the Tiger' on YouTube to get me motivated. Ok, this was a little pointless, because I only got through about 30 second of the song before my arms gave out....but here is my score:

Week 1 score is: 16

This is really exciting for me, because 6 months ago I don't think I could do a single full push-up. Pretty cool! My goal for the end of the month will be 20 consecutive push-ups. I think this will be a challenge, but still do-able.

What is your goal going to be?

After push-ups I set out on my long run for the week. I did 7.5 miles in 80 minutes. Not too bad! It was a really great run; not too hard, no music, nice temperature. Perfect start to a Friday. Also, this run puts my weekly mileage at 22 mi. Next week I am going to try for 25 miles.

I got paid today, so we finally did another big grocery shopping trip. I love having a kitchen stocked full of healthy food! I have some fun ideas for recipes this week!

How to make healthy fried rice

Since we skipped our big grocery shopping trip last week, our pantry is getting a little low right now. I actually kind of like times like this, because I feel like times when I have limited ingredients at my disposal are when I come up with some of my best recipes!

Today I had the idea of making a healthy fried rice. I actually don't think I've had "real" fried rice in years. It usually doesn't taste that good and is so greasy that it leaves a film in your mouth. So here's how you make healthy and tasty fried rice at home.

The basic principles:

1. Brown rice, not white
2. More veggies, less rice
3. Lean protein, rather than greasy mystery meat
4. A light touch with the added fat

You will need:
- 2 cups cooked brown rice

- 3 cups chopped veggies - I used carrot, celery, broccoli, orange bell pepper, and peas. You can use whatever you have on hand.

- 8 oz (about) protein - I used frozen uncooked shrimp, but any kind of lean meat or meat substitute would work.

- 2 eggs, beaten - Sub tofu or leave these out if you are vegan.

- Flavoring - I used soy sauce, hoisin, and Chinese 5-Spice. Fresh ginger, sesame oil, fish sauce or oyster sauce would make good additions as well.

- Garnish - I used chopped avocado and Sriracha hot sauce. Other ideas include chopped peanuts, cilantro, scallions, etc.


How to do it it:

Step 1. Cook the rice.

This afternoon I made brown rice in the oven. This is my favorite way to make brown rice. Because it takes a lot longer to cook than white rice, it's really a pain to have to babysit it on the stovetop for 45+ minutes. All you have to do for oven rice is combine 1 part rice to 2 parts water in a dutch oven (I used 2 cups rice and 4 cups water), and cook for about an hour at 400 degrees. Easy!

Step 2. Saute veggies.

I sprayed a pre-heated pan with olive oil and sauteed my broccoli, pepper, carrot and celery. I left out the peas because they are more delicate and I didn't want them to overcook.


Step 3. Add in your protein.

Cook for a few more minutes.


Step 4. Add in eggs, delicate veggies, and flavoring ingredients.

I used 1 T. soy sauce, 2 T. hoisin, and 1 T. 5-Spice. Stir until the eggs are cooked through and all of the ingredients are combined.


Step 5. Add garnishes. Eat!

My recipe made about 3 -4 servings. Leftovers, yay!


Overall the flavor of this dish was great! Not greasy, and no gross heavy feeling when you are done eating. The avocado was an amazing addition; I really recommend it!

Friday Push-Up Challenge

I've been doing a good job of keeping up with my workouts lately, but I feel like I need a fun new challenge to give me motivation.

I was talking with a coworker the other day, and he told me that he runs the same 3 mile loop every day for his workout and he hates every minute of it. How does he do it?!

I am currently training for my first half marathon, so I won't really be switching things up with cardio too much, and I've also been enjoying doing the bodyrock workouts as a nice change from the weightlifting that I have been doing for the past 6 months or so. But...I feel like I need a new goal to work toward!

Enter: the Friday Push-up Challenge!

When I first started lifting weights last summer, I don't think that I could do one full push-up. On Sunday after my run at the gym, on a whim I managed 15 full push-ups in a row.

Like I've said before, I feel like I was driving myself crazy weighing myself on a daily basis, so I've been looking for some alternative metrics that I can use to track my progress. It's pretty neat to think that in the span of a few months I have increased my strength so much.

So how is this going to work?

I'm going to work on incorporating push-ups into my regular workouts a few times a week. Every Friday in March, I'm going to do push-ups first thing in the morning (before I do any other working out) to find out the max that I can do in a row. This will be my score for the week and I will post it on the blog.

The Fridays this month are:

3/4
3/11
3/18
3/25

Feel free to play along!

____________________________________________________________________

Moving on to breakfast! Last night when I made my dessert oatmeal, I made an extra serving of oats nmmand left it in the fridge. This morning I added a chopped apple and cinnamon and then microwaved it for 90 sec. I added a spoonful of sunflower butter, a few chia seeds, and a few chopped pecans on top. I loved the bits of soft/crunchy warm apple throughout. Yum!


I slept in again this morning, so no workout before work. Although, it may have been a blessing in disguise because the high today is 48. Maybe there is a bike ride in my future?

Cat Post

I can't believe that I haven't posted any pictures of my cats yet! Here they are:

Burt

Ellie

I didn't have to work today, so I have lots of pictures. I woke up at 7, and made some oatmeal with a banana, and some peanut butter. I planned on waiting about an hour and then going for a run, but in true day-off fashion, I managed to put it off a few hours.

A while later I made an egg with spinach and buffalo sauce. Normally, I would have had two eggs, but we are running low so I decided to take one for the team and just have one.


I finally got my butt in gear and left the house at 11:30. Yesterday I left my water bottle at work, so my plan was to run over to the gym, lift weights for a little bit, and run home. It seemed like a pretty good idea ahead of time. Map My Run told me that the gym is 2.5 miles from my house, so a 5 mile run + a little bit of weight lifting seemed pretty reasonable.

I never run with a water bottle, and I totally underestimated what I difference it would make. I never thought about it being heavy before, but after running with it for 2.5 miles it suddenly seemed to weigh a lot more. The wind was also out of control today! But, I made it home in one piece, and sometimes having a workout that really wears you out is pretty fun!

Lunch was super easy thanks to leftovers from last night. I also had an apple with cinnamon.


A little while after lunch I started feeling crazy tired. I made myself a green smoothie with almond milk, soy protein, spinach, and banana because I thought maybe I needed more nutrients, but it kind of made me feel worse. I thought I might have to throw up...definitely the mark of a good workout! Ok - I'm not saying that I want to work out so hard that I throw up on a regular basis, but every once in a while I like feeling that I really pushed my body. I just slept it off today though, no barfing.


When I woke up I snacked on a carrot, and made some yummy spicy tuna croquettes. They turned out really well, but I'm going to tweak the recipe a bit before I post it. I had one with spinach and broccoli.

My brother came over for dinner, and he and Andrew had pizza. I managed to hold out, but I did scavenge the crust from my brother's pieces. He doesn't eat the crust, can you believe that? I had some spaghetti squash with avocado and hummus, a roasted sweet potato, and an apple.



For dessert a little while later I made a small bowl of oatmeal and mixed in a few spoonfuls of pumpkin, unsweetened cocoa powder, and a packet of stevia. No picture because it wasn't pretty.

Lessons

Like I predicted, my motivation was pretty low for working out last night after work. But, after some blog-stalking and eating a snack of an apple and some peanuts I was out the door! The weather was so nice yesterday I knew I couldn't let the day go to waste!

I did sprints yesterday - after warming up I alternated a few minutes of running at a near sprint with a recovery period of a few minutes. I don't have a sport watch, so I just eyeballed it (i.e. ran until I thought I was going to spew, then I slowed down). I did 2.5 in about 25 min (including about a .5 mile warm up and .5 mile cool down). Apparently my recovery times were sloooooow. There was definitely a little walking included here and there. But, it was starting to get dark so I just gave myself a pat on the back for getting it done and went home to make dinner.

Two things I learned from this workout:

1. Do not eat peanuts right before you run. My head knows that this is probably not a good idea, but my heart says yes, eat the peanuts.

2. I never thought I would say this, but I actually kind of like running on the treadmill. Ok, so let me qualify that statement....I definitely still prefer doing longer slow runs outside. It is so so so boring to do these on the treadmill for me. I just love being able to be outside and look around and enjoy the scenery. However, when I am trying to run for speed (sprint intervals or tempo runs), I think I like it better on the treadmill because I am able to monitor how fast I am going.

When I am outside, I tend to just poke along thinking about life and how great it is to be out there. Maybe someday I will have a Garmin and that will motivate me to go faster outside, but until then I think I'll keep mixing it up with the treadmill.

We skipped our big grocery shopping trip this week to try to save some money. We picked up a few essentials on Monday like fresh fruits and veggies, and buffalo sauce (very necessary), but we have been trying to eat down our pantry and freezer stock this week.

I love when dinner is a mish-mash of ingredients that are thrown together without a whole lot of forethought, and it ends up being amazing! Last night was one of those nights!

I chopped up the bag of carrots and peppers that I brought to work for a snack (I didn't eat them at work), and also chopped up a few stalks of celery. I let these sweat for about 10 min and then added in some blackening seasoning that I've had for ever but don't think I have ever used. I deglazed the pan with a little red wine vinegar.


Then I added in about half a bag of frozen okra, half a bag of frozen black-eyed peas, a couple big handfuls of spinach, about 1/3 c. BBQ sauce, and about 2 T. yellow mustard and let this cook for about 5 minutes.


In the meantime I toasted some almonds and chopped them up, then added them in to the mixture when it was heated through and the spinach was wilted.


Served with quinoa = super easy and delicious dinner + leftovers!


This reminded me a lot of Almond Chicken that you would get from a Chinese Restaurant. Not the flavor, but the texture of the carrot, celery, and almonds. Now I have almond chicken on the brain so that might be making an appearance soon.

A little while I made some fruit salad with apple, banana, and frozen blueberries. A few hours after that I had a grapefruit.



Important question: Do you like leftovers?

I love leftovers. I typically make more dinner than Andrew and I will be able to eat just so I will have leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day. It saves me from having to cook something new for every meal, and a lot of foods taste better the next day. I actually find it sort of crazy that some people don't like/don't eat leftovers. Are any of you out there?

Cravings

This morning I slept in a little bit and enjoyed taking a shower and eating breakfast at home before work. Typically, I work out before work and then just take a bird bath (as my mom would say), where I dry myself off and wipe myself down with baby wipes that I keep in my gym bag. I don't think it's really a big deal, because I work at a gym so it's not like I really need to look that nice. As long as I don't stink, I think I'm good.

Last night I got tired so early. I never got around to taking a shower in the evening, and I figured that if I went another day of workout + no shower that would be pretty gross. Plus I still needed to blog!

So I'm postponing my workout until this evening. Usually I have trouble with motivation if I try to wait until after work, but I'm hoping the nicer weather today will help me out a bit.

Yesterday's workout was a 4 mi treadmill run. It was a little rough. I kept thinking about stopping the whole time. I was actually bargaining with myself, but I stuck it out. We were running a little low on fruits and veggies, so as a pre-workout snack I grabbed a small handful of peanuts. This was not a good choice. I just felt sluggish the whole time. For breakfast as work I had a bowl with some leftover chicken, eggs, spinach, buffalo sauce, and a ripped up mini bagel. The mini-bagel was Andrew's idea and it was excellent!

Also at work I snacked on almonds. When I got home for lunch I was ravenous! I needed quick food fast! I made up a quick plate of eggs with spinach, carrots, and an apple with PB. Afternoon snacks included another apple, a banana, a grapefruit, and some more peanuts.


For dinner I made split pea soup! We found some bread in the freezer, so I had a piece with hummus. Dinner was the early bird special (i.e. 5pm), so I went back for two more small bowls of soup throughout the evening.


Since Tuesdays are my long work day, I got meals and snacks packed and ready to go. A smoothie for breakfast, soup and salad with hummus for lunch, and carrots and peppers for snack. I also stashed an apple in my purse.


Since I didn't workout this morning, I had my smoothie at home (almond milk, spinach, banana, blueberries, soy protein, and almond butter) and added a mini bagel. After I took the picture I added a tiny bit of cherry preserves. These mini bagels are the perfect size. Small enough that you don't get a carb coma, but you still get to enjoy some chewy bagel-y goodness.


All day yesterday I felt really out of whack. I was craving junk food so bad!! We ran a few errands in the afternoon - (meijer, sams, the office store), and at each place I insisted that we walk through the candy aisle to look at everything. I knew I wasn't going to buy anything...I just wanted to look. All day I kept listing the foods that I wanted to eat...thai food, pizza, taco bell, candy, milkshake from Steak and Shake.... I managed to hold out, and I'm hoping today will be a little better.

Too pooped to post.

I am too pooped to write a real post tonight. I am finishing up watching Detla Force with my man Chuck Norris, and then I am heading to bed.

More in the morning!

Oscar Night

No parties over here. I was actually barely able to convince Andrew to watch the the show with me for a bit. I don't really care that much, because I've only seen a couple of the movies, but I still like watching at least a little bit of it, to stay culturally up-to-date.

Workout today was a 15 min Bodyrock workout in the morning before work, then a 3 mile run after work. After I finished stretching after my run, I felt like doing some push ups, and to my surprise I was able to do 15 full push ups! Six months ago I could barely do 1.

I tried experimenting with some different backgrounds for my pictures last night and today...I don't know how successful I was, but I was getting a little sick of my faux-wood counter as the background for every picture I took.

Last night after posting I made a lazy girl version of Emily's Black Quinoa Blueberry Pudding. I had good intentions to make the real recipe, but it took me a while to get around to it, and then I ran out of almond milk. So, I just combined some blueberries, a spoonful of coconut milk, some frozen blueberries, and a packet of stevia in a bowl. It was so good I had a second serving!


Random evening snackage also included about .5 oz peanuts, 1/2 carrot, a few pieces of broccoli with hummus, and .5 oz cheese.

For breakfast I made chocolate souffle oatmeal! Similar to my custard oatmeal, but with cocoa powder. I topped it with sunflower butter and a handful of frozen blueberries.


At work I ate a bowl of spaghetti squash, broccoli, beans, turkey, and hummus. I also had a grande soy latte and a banana with a few almonds on my way over to the other work location for a meeting.


Dinner was truly random. I threw together some turkey, the rest of a can of black beans I had in the fridge, a little bit of quinoa, and a bag of brussels sprouts for Andrew and myself.

My absolute favorite way to eat frozen brussels sprouts is with an easy sauce of yellow mustard and a little bit of sugar. I just made extra sauce and put it all over everything in my bowl. Trust me on this. I know it sounds weird, but it's really really good.


For dessert I had a grapefruit and a Reese's PB cup that I snagged from the work meeting.


Have a lovely night!

Sick Day Boo!

Andrew and I had some fun plans for today. Work meeting in the morning (not fun), then heading to Mona's house (Andrew's mom) for laundry and dinner, then stopping to hang out with some friends on the way home.

Well...we woke up with sore throats, so we called the whole day off. I was pretty disappointed, but we've just been bumming around the house all day, which has been nice also. I even took a nap!

The days eats have included:

Breakfast smoothies!



His = chocolate whey protein, unsweetened almond milk, peanut butter, banana

Hers = plain soy protein, unsweetened almond milk, banana, blueberries, spinach

Lunch bowl with quinoa, chicken, black beans, broccoli, nutritional yeast, salsa, and mustard (weird, I know but it was delicious!)


We had an early dinner of steamed tofu, broccoli, bell pepper, and peanut sauce. This was an attempt to re-create the Rama Salad from my favorite Thai restaurant.


It was pretty good, but I think it just made me crave the real thing more! Thai food has been on my mind for a while. You will be mine soon!

Throughout the day I've also snacked on a couple apples and a grapefruit.

In other news we reactivated our Netflix account and Andrew set up an extra computer so we can stream through our TV. We have been watching Battlestar Galactica non.stop.seriously.

Taking it easy and a new kind of celebration

Ahhhhhhhhh. It really feels good to have the defense behind me! It went pretty well, I don't have any required corrections or additions that I have to make. The graduate school requires that I print out my final copies on fancy expensive paper, then I just have to get the signatures from my committee members and turn it in. I will do that next week.

Today I am taking it easy. I found someone to sub for me at work today, so I slept in until 9 am (wild child!) and decided no workout for today. Looking back over my workout calendar, I realized that I haven't had a day with no exercise in over a month. So I figured today would be a good day.

Andrew and I watched Walker:Texas Ranger (<3 you Chuck Norris!) and later we are going to some fun and free activities like cashing in a free instant lotto ticket that we've had for a while and visiting a pet store! Later might involve a movie rental.

So, back to yesterday... after the defense was over it was obviously time to celebrate! I have to tell you that up until this year celebrating for me and Andrew meant going all out. What can I say, we love to have fun! Unfortunately, 'overdoing it' was a pretty common occurrence (i.e. eating and or drinking so much that you feel sick).

Yesterday's celebration felt like a new kind of celebration, and it felt really really good. I had a lot of fun, and had some tasty treats, but I really don't feel like I overdid it, and I didn't feel like crap in the morning. Good stuff.

Thesis Defended!

That is all. Goodnight!