JavaChick's Blog

Weekend, Part 1

2009-11-14T20:29:00.002-04:00

Not much exciting going on this weekend, so just a quick recap…

Friday

The usual work day routine…

Oats for breakfast, with coconut butter, peanut butter and a little maple syrup.

Soup for lunch; I said that Thursday’s was the second-to-last container of Thai Green Curry Soup, but I actually found another one hiding in the freezer so Friday’s was the second-to-last.

I’ll be making it again though, because it’s good stuff. Had the apple as a mid-afternoon snack.

We usually stop for takeout on Friday’s, but we decided to make pizza at home instead. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things, and Husband suddenly started not feeling well. So when we got home he went to lay down. I did some kitchen cleanup (things got a little piled up with me being sick last week – Husband did make soup for me, but he doesn’t do dishes) and assembled the pizza.

I was going to put the pizza in the fridge and hit the treadmill while Husband was napping, but by the time I had the pizza put together he was up again and ready to eat. So, pizza instead of exercise.

And I ended up polishing off this package of Lindor truffles that were a party favor at the baby shower I went to a couple weekends ago. Yes, they sat in the kitchen for 2 weeks before I ate them. Amazing.

(photo taken of the empty box Saturday morning)

I was feeling a wee bit cranky because just as I thought I was getting over being sick, I got a stuffy head and I’ve been blowing my nose constantly for the past couple of days, decimating innocent Kleenex boxes all over the place. While I felt plenty miserable last weekend without adding extra symptoms, it would have been nice to get it all over at once.

I crawled into bed with my book at 9:30 and read until 11:00; then it was lights out.

Saturday

I slept through from 11 pm to 9:30 am. The cats did wake me up around 6 am wanting out, so I opened the window and went back to bed. When I woke up again, both cats were in and sleeping with me (Zappa on top of me and Frank close by my side).

Breakfast an English Muffin with peanut butter and jam, and coffee.

I spent a leisurely morning watching a bit of TV, thinking about meals for the week and writing up a grocery list.

Frank, of course, wanted a walk.

I, of course, obliged.

This is all I have for pictures because my camera started flashing the battery indicator at me.

Frank and I had a good, long ramble though, and then I took Zappa out.

Then I came in and got organized to go grocery shopping. It was around 1 pm by then, but i wasn’t hungry. I did have a small glass of grapefruit juice, then I got going.

I had to make a few stops today, and by the time I finished the grocery shopping it was around 3:30 and I was hungry. I loaded the groceries into the trunk, and pulled this out of the bags:

All photos from here on are iPhone pics.

I drank half of it sitting in the parking lot, then finished it when I got home. Once the groceries were put away (with help from Husband) I changed into workout gear and hit the treadmill for intervals.

Then we made supper. I knew I would want something quick & easy by the time I got finished with shopping and exercising, so I picked up a bottle of President’s Choice Madras Curry sauce and some Garlic Naan.

Most of the time I am a bit of a snob about bottled sauces – homemade is always better! But sometimes convenience wins out and this stuff is actually pretty good (or at least I like it).

The sauce went into the pan with chicken breasts, cauliflower and red bell pepper.

I also added some extra chilies.

The label on the curry jar might say hot, but for Husband and I it needs some extra kick.

Husband decided it was a rum & coke night as well. Haven’t had one in ages and I have to say it went down pretty good.

All together now:

So that was dinner and I am feeling quite contented.

Tomorrow the plan is a batch of soup to go into the freezer for work lunches, and a new slow cooker recipe to try out for supper. And house cleaning. And laundry. And a workout. You know, the usual weekend “relaxation.”

Edit: Wow. Just noticed the temperature is still 10 degrees Celsius. It's only supposed to go down to 9 degrees tonight and tomorrow it's supposed to be 16 degrees! Ok, so not exactly tropical, but at this time of year it could be much worse. I love it!

Another Frosty Morning

2009-11-12T21:24:00.001-04:00

Guess it’s time to get used to this.

The radio said –6 Celsius this morning. Brr!

Breakfast

Oat Bran, prepared with half Almond Breeze and half water, topped with coconut butter & almond butter. A little glass of grapefruit juice on the side.

Like my Winnie The Pooh glass?

I ate half of the oat bran, then decided I was full. I packed the rest in a container to take to work in case I got hungry.

Lunch

Turned out that I did not get hungry until lunch time. Then, I heated up my second-to-last container of Thai Green Curry Soup.

Which I forgot to take a picture of.

Tasty though. :)

A Walk and Second Breakfast

The day started out chilly, but warmed up to around 8 degrees (according to the weather page) and there was no wind, so it was very pleasant when I went out for my afternoon break. I didn’t want to go back to the office.

But I did go back to the office and decided it was time to eat my apple.

Then around 3:45 I started to feel hungry. At first I wasn’t going to bother to eat anything, but I still had the rest of my oat bran in the fridge and I planned on working out when I got home.

Second breakfast it was.

Hitting the <basement> gym!

Finally got back to my workouts. Here it is November 12 and I’ve only done each of the November Circuit Workouts once. Today I did Workout A for the second time. I remembered it really kicking my butt the first time, and I only made it through 2 rounds of the ab circuit that first time because I was feeling so nauseous.

Today being the first workout after being sick for almost a week, I did drop the weight a bit for one of the exercises that I found really hard the last time. But, the whole workout went much better today – amazing what a difference it makes when you don’t feel sick to your stomach! Now I’m wondering if I was starting to get sick when I did that first workout.

Anyway, felt great to get a workout in.

And dinner!

Then it was time for leftovers. I put the Chicken Chili on to reheat while I went and had a shower. Then dinner was really easy to throw together.

The veggie course:

And the main – Chili over microwave reheated rice:

I gave Husband some dip to go with his veggies, but I decided I’d rather have cheese on my chili.

Dessert (and Zappa):

Just for fun

See this?

That would be Frank, snoozing under the shower curtain. See the paw sticking out?

For some reason he likes to sleep under there. He crawled behind the curtain when I went to have a shower. He did magically reappear in time to mooch some of my chicken though.

Remembrance Day

2009-11-11T19:05:00.001-04:00

It was not as warm today, but still sunny and clear. Definitely a nice day to be at home.

I decided it was a good day for a hot breakfast and cooked some Red River Cereal for Husband and I. For those not familiar with it, it is a hot cereal made from wheat, rye and flax.

My brother-in-law once compared it to bird seed. It does look a little like that I suppose.

I’ve always prepared it with water, but today I did half water and half Almond breeze. I added a little extra Almond Breeze and a sprinkle of brown sugar to my bowl.

I had a pretty leisurely morning, then got some Chicken Chili going in the slow cooker. For lunch I had the other half can of Amy’s Organic Spicy Chili, topped with salsa & cheese.

I spent the afternoon getting a head start on some house cleaning – maybe I will actually make a dent in my to do list by the end of the weekend!

I also took the Fabulous Felines for a a walk.

Frankie first.

Then Zappa.

It’s really hard to get a picture of Zappa’s face because as soon as he sees the camera pointing at him he heads for it. Attention hog.

I may have had a few treats in the afternoon. More than show up in this picture…

I didn’t sit down all afternoon though, so at least I was burning some calories to make up for the treats.

For supper I cooked some basmati rice to go with the Chicken Chili – and of course added some cheese.

The chili was not bad, quite tasty with the rice and cheese. There are leftovers which means an easy night tomorrow.

Back to work tomorrow, and hopefully back to working out.

Now, where was I…

2009-11-10T20:01:00.001-04:00

Before I inconveniently got sick. I missed a weekend which makes me cranky. I missed some work which makes me feel guilty. I’m ready for life to get back to normal.

Starting with tomorrow being a holiday – Woo hoo! Tomorrow is Remembrance Day which is a stat holiday here in New Brunswick. So I have one more day to recuperate before diving back into the routine.

Today I worked from home – easing my way back into the whole work thing.

For breakfast I had toast with Olivina & Honey. Coffee x 2.

Around mid-morning I had an apple with some Almond Butter.

And lunch was half a can of Amy's Organic Spicy Chili topped with 1 ounce of Balderson Cheddar and some homemade salsa.

I’m almost out of my homemade frozen lunches (I had been planning to do some cooking on the weekend, but that didn’t happen) so I decided to save them and open a can today. It was actually a nice change.

In the afternoons at work I always take a break to get out of the office. I’ve barely been out of the house since Friday (I did go out briefly yesterday to get the mail and take Frank for a very short walk), so I decided I would do an afternoon cat walking break. I figured the fresh air would do me some good.

First I took my Frankie. He lets it be known when he wants to go.

He has different ways of communicating that he wants to go; today it was pawing at the door.

I don’t blame him because it was a beautiful day, so warm out, I really didn’t want to come in.

After Frank’s walk, I took Zappa. Who whines about being left behind, but as soon as I take him out he falls over and starts rolling on the ground. Or front step, as the case may be. It is usually hard to get him to go very far.

Today I wanted to stretch my legs a bit more, so I carried him up the hill. Once I got part way up, I put him down and he just started zooming along. Guess you just have to get him started. It was hard to take pictures because he barely stopped.

I have to tell you, when I came in I was feeling like I’d just had a workout. Guess I’m not quite back in fighting form yet.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working away. Husband came home around lunch time because he was not feeling great (did I do that?) so I guess it’s a good thing that we still had leftover chicken soup.

At supper time I put the soup on to reheat, and made myself a little cocktail…

I normally am not a juice drinker, but when I’m sick I find water doesn’t taste good and I want juice. I had Husband get me some Ruby Red Grapefruit juice, and I’ve put a good dent in the carton since Saturday. I’ve been drinking it straight, of course, but I also like it mixed with Club Soda. Husband had the other half of the Club Soda with orange juice (he can’t drink grapefruit juice because he’s on blood pressure medication).

I forgot to take a picture of supper though. It was a spicy Chinese Chicken soup. It was good, though I’ve been eating chicken soup since Friday so I can’t say I’m sorry it’s gone (not the same batch of soup the entire time, but still).

I also had some treats today that I forgot to photo – the downside of Husband grocery shopping is that he comes home with cookies and candy.

He did buy me these on Saturday though:

And I had one after supper.

It was lovely.

Happy Monday Everyone!

2009-11-09T10:38:00.003-04:00

No, it wasn't too nasty, but yes, I was sick all weekend. Sore throat and pounding headache for the most part, along with some muscle aches and feeling very tired.

So, yet another weekend goes by and my to do list gets longer instead of shorter. On the bright side, I caught up on a lot of TV shows that I had PVR'd and read a couple of books. It's a shame though - I think it was a really nice weekend weather wise. Or at least yesterday was, Saturday is actually a bit of a blur.

Husband took good care of me, did the grocery shopping and fed me lots of homemade chicken soup. I think I'll keep him. :)

I took today off. I am feeling better, but I don't want to be stuck at work if another one of those headaches comes on. Hopefully in another day or two I will be able to get back to the normal routine.

Thanks for all the comments over the weekend! It made me feel a little better.

I maybe-possibly-might be sick

2009-11-06T20:52:00.002-04:00

I woke up this morning feeling like a sore throat was coming on and head was filling kind of heavy. Ever feel that way? Mornings are not my best time of day and I hardly ever feel good in the morning, so sometimes it's hard to tell if it's just the normal morning feeling. So I went to work and I didn't feel great, but nothing some Advil couldn't take care of. Still, I was happy when Husband wanted to leave early.

I think we got home around 3-ish? I sat on the couch with my laptop in case anyone needed me for work and watched some TV. Husband was in playing computer games. We had talked about making chicken soup for supper but I really didn't feel like cooking. I eventually decided I felt like having some chocolate though. But there was none left in the bowl that I wanted, so I broke into the unopened package which I had planned to not do.

I picked out my candy and sat down on the couch and ate one piece before Husband came out and said it was time to make supper. I said I didn't want to get up and cook, but he took my candy away and made me get up. He really did. Took it right out of my lap and dropped it back in the box. Bastard.

Okay, so it was good soup and I ended up being glad we made it. Who knows, maybe it will even work the miracle chicken soup cure. There was lots of ginger and garlic in it.

But for now, I still feel kind of yucky so I'm going to take some more Advil and go to bed. I did take food photos today, up until the chocolate and the soup, but I'm too lazy to deal with all that. It was nothing new and exciting and no one reads blogs on the weekend anyway, right?

A Post About Nothing

2009-11-05T21:37:00.001-04:00

Some days – like yesterday – it’s easy to sit down and write a post. Other days I’m tired. Or it’s a day like today when there’s really not much to say. Went to work. Came home. Ate food. Exercised. Almost ready for bed. That’s my day…

Before work, Bolthouse Vanilla Chai.

At work, oat bran and coffee.

For lunch: Thai Green Curry Soup

Went for my afternoon walking break – the weather is getting pretty chilly and I’m not enjoying it so much.

Afternoon snack:

We left work right on time, and I was happy knowing we had leftovers to come home to.

First things first, got in my intervals on the treadmill. Then supper. More Crock Pot Mole with Beef and Black Beans, veggies on the side.

It was just as good tonight!

Oh, and there definitely was chocolate today that was un-pictured. I’ve decided to just go with it for the rest of the week and get it out of my system (I hope).

I guess I do have one thing to report on – I had said that my goal for November was to track calories. I’ve done it before, so it doesn’t seem like it should be a big deal to do it for a month, right?

I’ve always used online tracking sites. I’ve revisited a bunch that I have used in the past, and tried out a brand new one, and they all have something about them that irritates me. When it comes down to it, the minutiae shouldn’t matter…but if I’m doing it I want to be as detailed and accurate as possible and I don’t want it to take a whole lot of time. I suppose I could try the old fashioned method and just write things down…Or maybe I just need to do something different. At this point I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

The Return of the Slow Cooker

2009-11-04T21:30:00.001-04:00

This morning was fun because I had intended to get up a little earlier than usual so I’d have more time to get the Slow Cooker going and then I totally slept through the alarm. I’m a sound sleeper and I sleep with ear plugs because Husband snores like you would not believe. I have a clock radio and a Dawn Simulator alarm clock. Usually the light is what wakes me up enough to hear the alarm clock but I was somehow sleeping face down with the covers over my head.

I wasn’t late getting up for a normal day, I just didn’t have the extra time that I was hoping for. Oops.

So last Saturday, when I was wandering through the grocery store in a fog, with my list of things that I needed for the party that night and also trying to figure out what we’d eat this week, I picked up a package of Deluxe Stewing Beef. I have never bought Stew Meat in my life, which is not surprising when you consider the fact that I’ve never liked stew and I’m not that crazy about beef. So why I picked it up, I’ll never know…Like I said, I was in a bit of a fog.

I had the notion of something vaguely chili-like rolling around in my brain; something done in the slow cooker. I had also been thinking about Mole ever since I saw this recipe over at Soap & Chocolate. Husband would never go for that recipe though, since it had no meat in it. I started looking around and came up with a Crock Pot Mole recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking.

And the rest is history…

I made a few changes – based on what I wanted and what I had on hand (recipe is in a separate post below). Last night I chopped my veggies. This morning I had 3 burners going on the stove – one to toast almonds, one to brown meat and then saute veggies, and one to cook oat bran for breakfast. Things were flying in the kitchen this morning, that’s for sure, and if I’m being honest I left it in a bit of a disaster.

What I was cooking, I had a glass of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai.

Okay – maybe not that full; I actually forgot to take a photo in my frenzy, so I am copying one from another day.

Once I got to work, I ate my oat bran.

My oat bran was cooked with half water, half Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze. I added a smidge of vanilla at the end, plus some coconut butter and almond butter. At work, I added about a teaspoon of maple syrup (yes, I keep a bottle in the fridge at work – don’t you?).

I really want to like oat bran – I find it to be very filling, more so than regular or even steel cut oats (as a matter of fact, I didn’t finish all of this because I was too full). But I find the consistency a bit weird. I’m trying to get used to it.

For lunch, the last of the Ma Po Tofu and rice.

I overestimated how much I had and the bowl was too full for me to stir things around. There is Ma Po Tofu stir fry under that rice.

Later in the afternoon I ate my apple (totally forgot to take a photo but you can see it in the breakfast pic).

We actually left work early which was a big Whoo-Hoo! Especially after being there an hour late yesterday. We were on our way home about a half hour early, plus supper was ready. Good day.

I had completely forgotten the experience of walking into the house after the slow cooker has been going all day. It smelled goooood!

I stirred things around since I had just tossed the chocolate on top before turning on the co0ker and dashing out the door. It was melted, it just needed to be mixed around.

I left the slow cooker going while I fed the cats, changed my clothes and then did a workout. Today was the second new Strength Circuit for November; it was an easier workout than Workout A, though made difficult by the fact that my glutes are still killing me from Monday’s workout. Good stuff.

Then, since I had time, I hopped on the treadmill for 20 minutes. And broke my “take it easy” rule. I decided I wanted to do some running and as soon as I started I knew it was a bad idea, but I kept pushing through. I did come to my senses, but by then I had to drop back to a really slow walk to finish out my 20 minutes. Must remember advice from that wise sage Han Solo – don’t get cocky.

I had a good stretch, then headed upstairs for dinner. I prepared us each a dish of raw veggies, then heated up some leftover rice and ladled on the Mole concoction.

Here is Crock Pot Mole with Beef and Black Beans:

This was freaking awesome.

When I came home it smelled really good, but to me it also smelled like something was missing (if that makes sense). As I said, I stirred it all around to get the chocolate incorporated and let it continue cooking.

Before serving, I tasted and decided it needed a bit of salt. Then I decided it could use a bit of sweetening as well, so I added some Agave Nectar. It honestly turned out perfectly.

I was actually surprised that Husband only ate one bowl, but he said it was really filling (which I see as a good thing because it’s not like he needs two helpings of supper).

There is enough left for two more meals and I’ll definitely make this again.

I did have a little dessert to end off my meal:

However, I have to say that the sugar frenzy seems to be wearing off, so I may be back to normal next week without having to do anything drastic.

Now, if you will all excuse me…I have to go clean my kitchen.

Crock Pot Mole with Beef and Black Beans

2009-11-04T20:09:00.011-04:00

Adapted from: A Year of Slow Cooking: Crock Pot Mole Recipe

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 to 1 1/2 pounds stewing beef
1/2 cup raw slivered almonds
Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce, chopped (amount to taste - I used a lot because we like spicy)
1 can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 carrots (depending on size), finely diced
1 or 2 stalks celery (depending on size), finely diced
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1 cinnamon stick
1 (14-oz) can diced tomatoes (and juice)
1 (6-oz) can tomato paste
1/4 cup Tequila
1 1/2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup water
salt to taste
Agave Nectar to taste

Heat non-stick pan over medium heat; add coconut oil and stew meat and cook until meat is browned. Meanwhile, toast slivered almonds in a small pan over med-low heat.

Add meat and almonds to crock pot (I used a 4L slow cooker). Return pan that meat was browned in to heat and add onions, garlic, carrots & celery. Saute veggies until softened, then add tomato past and tequila.

Add veggie mixture and all other ingredients except Agave nectar to crock pot. Stir everything together and cook on low for 8 hours.

Before serving, remove cinnamon stick. Taste mixture and adjust seasonings, adding Agave nectar if desired.

Served over rice with veggies on the side:

In this photo, the Mole is garnished with Chipotle Cream (sour cream mixed with Chipotle Peppers) that we had left over from another recipe.

Husband commented that this was a filling meal, and it made enough to give us three meals.

Still Struggling

2009-11-03T22:00:00.001-04:00

Still not feeling great and still having a hard time staying out of the sugar. Wah!

Breakfast:

We had an office wide meeting today, from 11 – 12:00 and then they were bringing in pizza for lunch. The pizza ended up being really late arriving and I was starving for some reason. There were 3 different kinds of cookies and a bunch of other treats for the meeting, so I ended up having a molasses cookie.

I can’t remember the last time I had a molasses cookie – it was pretty good. Finally the pizza arrived and I went with my usual choice – the ham & pineapple.

Yes, that’s three pieces but the were skinny slices.

That kept me full for the afternoon though.

Last cruise ship of the season was in port today – the Queen Mary 2; I didn’t even realize it was here until we were heading home from work. Normally when there’s a ship in you see tourists everywhere, but I guess it’s too cold for that now. Poor tourists! Hopefully their other stops will be warmer (I have no idea what the route is).

I did get out for a short break around 2 pm, but for some reason I was squirming in my seat all afternoon. I wish our office was bigger so that I could walk around and stretch my legs when that happens. There’s really no where to go; I end up going to the bathroom every hour (or more) just to move my legs.

It was 6:00 before Husband was ready to head home. I was very happy that we had leftovers for supper and didn’t need to worry about cooking.

I walked in the door, fed the cats (that’s always the first thing I do), changed into my workout clothes. Then, I confess, I ate two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Then I hit the treadmill to do my intervals. I’m still alternating walking and running, and the running is still feeling great with the gel insoles in my sneakers. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

After my cardio session, I went up to the kitchen and started some rice in the rice cooker. While I waited for that, I prepped some carrots, celery, onion & garlic in anticipation of using the slow cooker tomorrow.

I had wanted to pull out the slow cooker last week, and that first night that we were late getting home, and were in the kitchen cooking soup & stir-fry, I was really cranky thinking to myself that if we had done what I wanted to do supper would have been ready. So this week I’m sticking to my guns. :)

So supper is not very exciting – a repeat of last night.

And after supper I had a bit more sugar.

I think next week I may have to reinstate the sugar ban.

I will say that I felt better after my cardio session than I have in days. Maybe that’s what I needed.

Tomorrow…The return of the slow cooker!

October Review/November Plan

2009-11-02T22:05:00.002-04:00

Completely forgot about this yesterday - I really was so tired and feeling crappy last night.

How Did I Do Overall?
So, October was Month One of the Fit Chick Express Lose 10 lb for the Holidays Challenge. I received an e-mail from Angie yesterday with the following questions:

It's been one month since we started the challenge!

*How are you doing?

*Have you set your weekly and monthly goals?

*Are you tracking your foods and getting in all of your workouts?

*Have you taken your measurements and before pictures?

My main goal has been to follow the workout plan, but of course I am making an effort to eat sensibly as well. The workouts went well, the eating was sometimes good/sometimes bad...In other words, pretty much status quo.

As usual, I tracked my workouts and almost got them all in. Food was being tracked via photos on the blog.

I did take measurements, but not really any "official" before pictures. As I stated at the beginning of the challenge, I don't actually expect to lose 10 lbs (based on experience), it's more about holding my own over the holidays.

October Workouts:
I'm actually pretty happy with how I did - I stuck to the schedule right up until the last week when life just wasn't going according to plan. I doubled up one night and did a strength workout and a cardio session, but I still ended up being short two workouts (1 strength, 1 cardio). I can live with that.

The fact that Angie's Challenge workouts are short really helps. Most of the time it's pretty easy to squeeze them in. If I have time, I will add on a bit, but if I don't have time for extra, at least I managed to do something.

Here's the recap:

Oct 29: Workout A + Treadmill walk/jog[40 mins]
Oct 27: Sun Salutation Flow #1 + Gentle Hatha Yoga #1[40 mins]
Oct 26: Workout B[20 mins]
Oct 25: Treadmill walk/jog[37 mins]
Oct 23: Workout A[20 mins]
Oct 22: Treadmill walk/jog[37 mins]
Oct 21: Workout B + extra strength/cardio[30 mins]
Oct 20: Treadmill walk/jog[30 mins]
Oct 19: Workout A + extra supersets[30]
Oct 18 Treadmill walk/jog[35 mins]
Oct 16: Workout B[20 mins]
Oct 15: Treadmill walk/jog[45 mins]
Oct 14: Workout A + light cardio[30 mins]
Oct 13: Treadmill walk/jog[30 mins]
Oct 12: Treadmill Warmup + Workout B[40 mins]
Oct 10: Treadmill Interval Walk[60 mins]
Oct 09: Cardio Warmup + Workout A + Stability Ball/Pilates/Yoga[30 mins]
Oct 08: Treadmill walk/jog[45 mins]
Oct 07: FCE Holiday Challenge October Workout B[20 mins]
Oct 06: Treadmill walk/jog[30 mins]
Oct 05: FCE Holiday Challenge October Workout A + Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Oct 03: 2 hrs in the garden
Oct 02: Treadmill walk/jog[45 mins]
Oct 01: Treadmill walk[47 mins]

November Plan:

For November I have a new workout plan - Intervals are still on the schedule for cardio, but two new strength routines to look forward to.

I'd also been kicking around the idea of tracking calories for a while, and as I mention in my post from earlier this evening, after seeing that Angie and Lynn have re-committed to Weight Watchers I decided that for this month I will start tracking my calories again. Ultimately, I'd like to never have to count again, but for now I feel like every once in a while I need to see how I'm doing.

So that is my goal for November, and to keep up with the food blogging as well, as I do think it helps.

A case of the Mondays

2009-11-02T22:01:00.001-04:00

We watched Office Space on Saturday night at our friends’ place and I’d never seen it before. Today I felt like “A case of the Mondays” was pretty accurate. I was really not ready for it to be Monday!

But there Monday was anyway. Funny how that goes.

Inspired by Angie and Lynn I decided that, for the month of November at least, I’m going to get back to calorie counting. I feel like I need a reality check, just to see how I’m doing.

On to my day…

I couldn’t figure out what I wanted for breakfast this morning – I’ve been feeling off since Thursday, it comes and goes, and I feel like I’m not sure what’s going to sit well. So, I had a half serving of Optimum Slim with Almond Breeze and a shot of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai.

Then around 11 am I had some almonds and an apple (finished off my container of almonds…must remember to get more).

I mentioned last week that the microwave at work was broken. We were expecting to have a new one today, so I went all prepared to have Thai Green Curry Soup for lunch only to find out that we still have no microwave. Boo.

So, I went out at lunch time with no clear idea of what I was going to have. I needed to pick up a couple of things at the drug store anyway, so I did that first, then I decided to walk over to Extreme Pita. I never go there because it’s off my “beaten path” as it were, but it really is not that far to go.

I had a Falafel Pita and it was really good. I checked the Nutrition Info when I got back, and the calories are right around where I like my lunch to be, so that was good.

It was a little messy to eat, but it definitely filled me up.

In the afternoon I did have a little treat:

We got out of work on time today. Yay! Off to a good start for the week.

I was all set to rock my first day of calorie counting. I would come home, do my workout, and have stir fry and rice for supper. Unfortunately I ended up making a pit stop at the bowl of Halloween candy sitting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, I didn’t eat much candy on the weekend. I was too busy and too tired and just not feeling it. Then I come home today and turbo snarf (as my roommate used to say) 4 mini chocolate bars.

But that’s ok, because now the bowl has been relocated to Husband’s computer room (he doesn’t loose control around chocolate the way I do) so it’s out of sight.

After my chocolate break I did do my workout. It was killer today – not sure how much of that is me not feeling great though (honestly, I don’t feel bad enough to say I’m sick, but I don’t feel 100% either. And yes, there is that little voice in the back of my head screaming ‘you’re getting the flu!’ but I don’t know…may just be overtired). I have to confess, I only made it through 2 sets of the Ab Circuit because I felt nauseous and every ab exercise I did made it worse. Even with cutting out the last set of ab exercises it took me a half hour to get through the routine. Good workout though!

Then Husband and I unloaded the dishwasher. Then we loaded more dishes into the dishwasher. And I asked how we could make such a mess when it felt like we were hardly home all weekend?

Since I knew we’d have bean sprouts left over after making spring rolls on the weekend, I planned my favorite Ma Po Tofu stir fry for supper.

Served over Jasmine rice.

And leftovers for tomorrow. Yay!

The Case of the Disappearing Weekend

2009-11-01T20:23:00.001-04:00

You know what I like to do on the weekends? Spend most of it puttering around at home. Sad but true.

That didn’t happen this weekend.

Frosty Friday

I did photograph all my meals on Friday, but it wasn’t all that exciting and I was really tired on Friday night.

Things were looking frosty Friday morning – the first morning I’ve seen frost this year.

There’s a crow flying through that picture as well.

We picked up our usual Thai takeout on the way home from work and I was thinking of going out to get the grocery shopping out of the way, but decided I was too tired. I baked a batch of cookies instead.

I baked chocolate cookies and planned on making frosting in the morning to turn them into sandwich cookies.

Spooky Saturday

Halloween! I had breakfast and a cup of coffee and went out to get groceries. I was still not feeling all that great and as I was wandering through the store I decided to cheat and buy frosting instead of making homemade. I’ve never actually bought premade frosting before, I don’t think, but I remembered a friend telling me that the Duncan Hines Home Style is pretty good.

After groceries I had a second cup of coffee and frosted cookies. I had one odd cookie, so I ate it – for taste test purposes of course!

In the afternoon I made spring rolls (Jerry Springrolls for those of you that have the Crazy Plates cookbook).

The filling has carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts, green onion, rice vermicelli and sesame oil.

You soak rice paper in hot water.

Then you add some filling and roll them up.

There is also a dipping sauce that goes with them – I didn’t think to get a photo.

The finished product.

We went out to a party for 5:00. Supper was all finger food/appetizers. I took the spring rolls and cookies. As usual, we had way too much food.

Yes, we wore costumes and no I don’t have pictures. I wanted to do pictures. We were ready in plenty of time. We don’t really have a good spot in our house to take pictures, plus my cameral works better in natural light, so I wanted to go out and get a few quick photos before we left. Husband did not want to because it was windy. Not sure why that was an issue – his hair is too short to get mussed by the wind.

So no pictures. We did have fun, but I have to admit that I was tired by 8:00. Apparently I’m getting old. We left around 11 pm and got home around 11:30.

Sleepy Sunday

I would have preferred to have a quiet day at home today, but I had a baby shower to go to in the afternoon.

The weather has been really mild the past couple of days, which is really nice. So Frank and I did take advantage of it and go for a walk this morning.

What would I do without my Frankie to make sure I get out for some fresh air?

After our walk, I tried to eat some lunch but only ate about half of it because I didn’t feel hungry and it was time to get ready to go anyway.

I drove out to the friend’s house where we had been for the party the night before so we could go to the shower together. The shower lasted for three hours (hate to be all bah-humbug, but I’m not a fan of showers to begin with and wow that was a long 3 hours). Got home and it was supper time and I had no interest in cooking so we’ve just been snacking on bits and pieces and now I feel even more crappy than I did before (I knew I’d be better off with a real meal, but just couldn’t make myself to do it).

Now I would like to go to bed.

It’s official.

I’m an old fogey.

Thursday

2009-10-29T22:03:00.002-03:00

This week flew by. I’m glad that it’s almost the weekend, even if it is going to be a busy one.

Yesterday was not necessarily a bad day, just a day where it seemed like nothing went according to plan. I thrive on routine and I can handle a few deviations, but when things go too far off plan I can get a little cranky. Today was better though. :)

This morning I was not hungry at all, so I just had a glass of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai.

And coffee once I got to work of course!

Around 11 I got hungry and had a LaraBar.

Yesterday when I went to heat up my lunch I discovered the microwave was not working and I ended up buying lunch. I was hoping it was just a blown fuse (it’s happened before) but it still was not working today. Since it’s Thursday I decided to hit Sister’s in the City Market for Mac & Cheese.

I ate it all, which was actually too much I think – I was pretty full.

After work I took Frankie for a walk. Bye Zappa!

Frank went exploring.

After our walk I did my Superset workout and a quick treadmill session.

For supper last night we made a new recipe that Husband wanted to try out – Ground Beef & Cilantro Soup; it was a very mild flavoured broth with ground beef. Husband is a big soup lover, particularly anything Asian (this was from a Chinese cookbook) so he loved it. For me, it was ok but it didn’t knock my socks off.

We had also made a stir-fry to go with it because the soup was lacking in vegetables. There was soup leftover, and I figured if I was going to cook something to go with it, I’d rather just make something that would be a meal for me and Husband could have both (no arguments from him).

I whipped up an old favourite, Soba Noodles with Peanut Sauce. This is one of those things that comes out a little differently each time, depending on what I have on hand.

Today I added some fresh ginger. My tummy has been feeling a little touchy, and I saw the ginger sitting there so I decided to throw it in.

I also added fresh Chilis from the Chili plant I have growing in my kitchen.

The Soba noodles are wrapped in bundles in the package. Usually when I’m making this for just myself, I will use two bundles and end up with enough to feed me for two meals.

When making it for both of us I will use 3 bundles, which is what I did tonight. However, with the soup it was really more than we needed so I ended up with leftovers (too bad the microwave at work is broken – would make a nice lunch for tomorrow).

I stir fried broccoli, cauliflower and red bell pepper, then added the cooked noodles.

And tossed it all together with the sauce. Once everything is chopped, it comes together pretty quickly. Which is nice, because this is one of those comfort food meals for me.

After supper I had a cup of peppermint tea and some Girl Guide cookies (that I actually did manage to forget about for a week and a half). I forgot to take a picture, but it looks pretty much the same as the tea and cookies I had last night:

And now I think I’m ready for bed. One more day til the weekend!

Soba Noodles With Peanut Sauce

2009-10-29T21:39:00.002-03:00

This is a recipe that I’ve mentioned – and posted photos of – before. I found it in Fitness Magazine years ago – in fact, I was living on PEI at the time, so that’s more than 10 years ago now.

The last time I searched for it on the Fitness Magazine website I couldn’t find it, so I decided to post it here.

Here is the recipe as it was printed in Fitness Magazine.

Soba Noodles With Peanut Sauce

Prep time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4

One 8.8 oz pkg Soba noodles

Spicy Peanut Sauce:

- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

- 2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

- 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 1/8 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

One 8-oz pkg frozen sugar snap peas

1 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1/2 cup fresh basil or mint

Cook Soba noodles in boiling water as directed (about 6-8 minutes). Meanwhile, make Spicy Peanut Sauce:

In a small saucepan, combine lemon juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; whisk in peanut butter stirring until smooth, and set aside.

Two minutes before noodles are done, add snap peas. Continue to boil until noodles are just cooked. Drain noodles and peas and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add bell peppers, scallions and basil. Pour sauce over noodles and toss to coat.

* * * * *

Of course, being incapable of sticking to a recipe as it is written, I like to do things a bit differently. I usually cook less noodles and stir-fry a bunch of veggies. I’ll use whatever veggies I have on hand – in fact, I have made it with red bell pepper and red onion if that’s all I have and it still came out great.

If making the recipe this way, you’ll want to rinse your soba noodles with cold water after cooking to keep them from sticking together. Then add them to the pan with your stir fried veggies and toss it all together – the easiest way is to us a big spoon and one of those spaghetti servers. Then add the sauce and toss to coat.

I have used fresh cilantro in place of the basil/mint, or if I have no fresh herbs, I have added some dried basil to the sauce.

I have also used fresh chilis in place of dried, and added fresh ginger (as shown in the photo above).

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T22:12:00.001-03:00

Apologies. I just don’t have an actual post in me tonight. Here are the day’s eats (missing – Triscuits & hummus that I didn’t get a photo of).

Tuesday

2009-10-27T21:43:00.001-03:00

Cupcake Monster

When I went to bed last night, there were two cupcakes left. When I woke up this morning, there was this:

Apparently there is a cupcake monster on the loose. I suspect he is Husband-shaped.

What’s for Breakfast?

This morning went a bit more smoothly, so I got to have the breakfast I had intended to have yesterday. I started off with the rest of my Bolthouse Mocha Cappuccino from Sunday and made some Oat Bran to take to work with me.

I’ve never tried Oat Bran before, but I was perusing the cereals in the Natural Food section of the grocery store, looking for something new, and this is what I came home with. I topped it with Almond Butter and packed it up to take to work.

When I got to work I added a touch of Almond Breeze and a smidge of Maple Syrup.

I ate about half of this and was stuffed beyond belief. It would seem that Oat Bran is more filling than oatmeal? Guess we’ll find out when I try it again tomorrow.

I Break for Curry

I was just starting to feel the teeniest bit hungry around 1 PM, but decided to eat lunch anyway because I wanted a break.

From the freezer, Thai Green Curry Soup.

Still in love with this soup. Not all that surprising I guess, since I love Thai Green Curry.

Around 2 PM I headed out for some fresh air, as usual. It was actually a couple of degrees cooler today than it was yesterday (according to the weather page) but there was no wind so it felt warmer. A much more pleasant walk.

Around 3 PM, I ate a Honeycrisp apple (see picture of lunch).

I was working away and the next thing I knew it was 5:00, so I expected to hear from Husband any time that he was ready to leave…Not so. It was 6:20 by the time he picked me up.

We were both hungry when we got home – I probably would have still exercised first anyway, but Husband wanted to eat. I’m still on my “eat what we have in the house” kick, and tonight we were looking for quick and easy so out came the box of frozen Taquitos (seriously – no sooner had I breathed a sigh of relief that the last box was gone when Husband came home from the store with a brand new box). Husband also had a microwave-and-serve package of Brussels sprouts from the freezer (I can’t stand ‘em) and I steamed some broccoli.

And here we have it:

Steamed broccoli with PC Blue Menu Szechwan Sauce and Taquitos with salsa. Szechwan Sauce and Taquitos may sound like odd things to combine in the same meal, but Szechwan Sauce is really good on broccoli. Even weirder, Husband decided to have Thai Chili Sauce with his Taquitos rather than salsa. We are not afraid of mixing and matching around here.

I sat down to watch Castle while eating my meal. It was awesome! Loved seeing Nathan Fillion in his Firefly wardrobe. And the Buffy reference. The whole episode was lots of fun.

After watching Castle, I got some things done around the house and now here I am blogging. Today was meant to a cardio day (intervals) but I decided I really don’t feel like doing it this late at night – I used to be able to work out and then pretty much go right to bed and fall asleep but lately I’m finding that doesn’t work so well. Thinking I might do a Yoga Download instead – I haven’t had time to do any yoga lately and I’ve been missing it.

It’s funny – I’ve read a few blogs lately where the poster was talking about skipping a workout for one reason or another. We tend to make excuses and be apologetic as if we are doing something wrong. But really, missing one workout when you are not feeling well, or you need some sleep, or whatever other reason you have, is not a big deal.

I think I’ve reached the point where I don’t feel the need to be apologetic about it. I know that if I miss one workout (or three or a week) I will pick right up and get back to it as soon as I can. It’s become such a habit now and I miss it when I’m not getting my workouts. So I’m not worried about it.

Off to do my yoga and then head to bed. Hope you all have a great Wednesday!

The sun is still shining

2009-10-26T22:06:00.002-03:00

I was hungry last night after I finished that massive weekend recap post, so I had a few more Triscuits with hummus. I crawled into bed around 10 pm and read until 11 pm. Then I passed right out and had an awesome sleep – thanks to all that fresh air and sunshine yesterday, I’m sure.

I woke up to another sunny day, though much cooler. I was in a pretty good mood though – just happy that I had a good sleep and it wasn’t raining. The news on the radio was all about flooding in different areas of Saint John after all the rain on Saturday. We are fortunate that our house is on a hill.

Then Husband was cranky because he did laundry late last night, and put it in the dryer before he came to bed and it wasn’t dry, so he didn’t have any jeans to wear. I reminded him that he has a pair of Khakis and helped him find them in the closet.

Then Zappa threw up on the carpet in the bedroom.

Yep, it’s Monday. But at least the sun is shining.

So, I know this is exactly what you are not supposed to do, but I decided to console myself by having my favorite Carrot Muffin from Java Moose for breakfast.

I worked away all morning – looking at Portuguese websites even though I don’t speak Portuguese. Yes, this is my job. Or part of it anyway. Then around noon I took a break for lunch and heated up the last of the Black Beans & Red Rice that I had put in the freezer last week. With some cheese on top.

Around 2 PM I went out for a walk. It was sunny but the wind was definitely cold. Brr!

Around 3 PM I had a snack – the last of my Greek yogurt with raspberries and honey. Kind of a pretty color isn’t it?

I think it was around 20 after 5 when Husband messaged me saying he was ready to leave – not really sure what time actually. But came home and fed the kitties and changed into my workout gear…And then I gave in and took Frank out for a walk. It was cold!

Our neighbor was out with her two little boys and they came over to see Frank. He barely tolerates it and only if I hold on to him (otherwise he tries to run away – he’s a wee bit skittish). So I sat on the step holding him for a while so they could pet his head. They’re cute kids, and perfectly gentle, Frank is just a nervous cat.

Once that was over Frank took off for up the hill; he was not wasting any time!

He was smelling something really interesting in the grass here and took quite a while to check things out.

And that’s pretty much all I got in the way of pictures tonight because once he finished sniffing around there he took off again and didn’t stop for much.

It was starting to get dark and my hands were cold anyway, so the camera went back in my pocket.

I brought Frank in and did a quickie workout – 20 minutes of Circuits – then went up to make supper.

We had some corn cakes leftover from last night, so we wanted to use those. I also wanted to do something quick and easy. So I can’t claim this was the healthiest meal, but it was tasty!

I scrambled some eggs with red bell pepper, onion and scallions.

That would have been enough for me with the Corn Cakes, but since we have to keep Husband happy as well we cooked some Johnsonville Brown Sugar & Honey breakfast sausages.

It was all very tasty, I have to say.

It’s supposed to go down to –3 Celsius tonight. Yuck! And it’s only supposed to go up to 4 Celsius tomorrow. But it is still supposed to be sunny, so at least that’s something.

Rainy Days and Sundays – Weekend Recap

2009-10-25T20:38:00.001-03:00

Settle in for a long one folks.

Out and About on Saturday Morning

We woke up to a rainy Saturday. Time for a quick breakfast before heading out.

Dreary mornings = lack of natural light for photos, unfortunately.

I had an appointment at 10:30 to get my hair cut. Then I did some shopping.

Among other things…

Shoes!

Or boots I suppose. They both feed the same addiction.

I also went to Bulk Barn in search of unprocessed cocoa, and while I was there I found Organic Red Quinoa. I had to laugh at the things I get excited about – Red Quinoa! Cool! I am also out of regular Quinoa, so I picked up some of both.

I finished my shopping and got home around 2 pm starving. I was very happy to see that Husband had not eaten the pasta leftover from Thursday night. It went straight into a pot on the stove while I put away groceries.

Then it went into a bowl and got topped with cheese.

Then it went into my tummy!

Then after some cleaning up in the kitchen I started baking.

Adventures in Baking, Part 1

Don’t ask me why, but I decided I wanted to try making Red Velvet Cupcakes for a Halloween party next weekend. On top of that I found a recipe that said the original/authentic way to make them red is to use unprocessed cocoa powder (though most of the recipes I looked at do use red food coloring). I did some research and there are some brands available but none that were available at my grocery store – of course.

So I went to Bulk Barn thinking maybe they would have some. They had two kinds – one labelled as alkalized (which is Dutch Processed like most of the cocoa on the market) and the other was labelled “pure cocoa powder, no additives” so I thought maybe that would be the right stuff.

Since this was a test run and I didn’t want too many cupcakes around the house, I halved the recipe. The recipe came together with no problems, but not red so I guess I will have to resort to food coloring.

Once I cleaned up from baking we made a Shrimp Stir-Fry for supper.

There are rice noodles under there, but it’s mostly veggies. :)

Adventures in Baking, Part 2

After supper I started on experiment #2 – Boiled Icing for the cupcakes which was apparently the traditional icing for Red Velvet Cake, though now Cream Cheese frosting is used more often. Husband won’t eat cream cheese, so I decided to give the Boiled Icing a try.

Again, I halved it. Unfortunately I didn’t have the candy thermometer sitting in the pot properly while cooking the sugar and water and I burned it. So I threw together a quick buttercream instead. Two cupcakes disappeared before I’d even finished frosting them, so I don’t think I need to worry about them getting eaten.

I had to taste test of course.

I ended up eating two, with a cup of Chai. But I can’t honestly say I was blown away by this recipe. To me they don’t have much flavour, so I will probably look at a few more recipes.

Sunday Morning

This morning I slept in until around 9 am. Breakfast looks familiar…

I had some relaxation time on the couch with my coffee and PVR, then my Mom called and we had a chat. By this time, the sun had come out and it was looking beautiful outside, so I decided I should seize the sunny day to get out and do some garden cleanup.

When I got off the phone, I hit the treadmill for an interval session, then had some

Bolthouse Mocha Cappuccino.

I was thinking I should probably eat something else, but by the time I had a shower, got dressed, threw in some laundry, I forgot. Oops.

I took Frankie for a little stroll.

Then I went out to start tidying the garden away for the winter.

I went through pulling out plant supports and dead plants.

I had 4 planters to empty. Last year I hauled all the dirt, bit by bit, all the way around the cat fence and dumped it in the empty lot next to us. It was a lot of trips carrying heavy loads and I only had 2 planters. This year I decided to dump the dirt on my garden, after I had pulled out all the plants.

I found 3 carrots that I missed the first time around.

Of course I had company.

I am amazed by the size of this catnip plant.

I don’t know how well you can see this, but you can see where the cats have chewed leaves and stems off the plant.

A short time later, I looked over and saw Zappa in the catnip.

I got my containers emptied…

Then I took my tired self inside. It was really warm – I was wearing a t-shirt, no sweater or jacket while I was working outside. When I came in I was really warm and Husband was walking around in shorts. Not complaining though – very happy to have a nice day!

For supper, we tried a recipe for Savoury Corn Cakes with Chipotle cream.

Since I forgot lunch I was pretty hungry by this point, so I had a snack while I was cooking.

We also cooked a Chipotle Pork Tenderloin, and I had some red bell pepper strips on the side.

The corn cakes were good, and not hard to make, I would definitely make them again (any excuse to eat pancakes really).

And dessert. Times 2.

While watching the show.

Now I am feeling all worn out. Still some laundry to finish up, but I’m just about ready to call it a night.

Fr-fr-fr-friday…

2009-10-23T20:35:00.001-03:00

I’m in the basement with the window open because Frank wanted to go out and it’s pretty chilly down here. Just lit a firelog in the wood stove, hopefully that will warm things up.

But it’s Friday! Looking forward to a not too busy weekend (I hope). Have an appointment tomorrow for a hair cut, and I’ll get the grocery shopping done. Other than that just hoping to get some things done around the house because next weekend is going to be busy.

Started today off with some Bolthouse Vanilla Chai.

When I got to work I had some coffee and between the protein drink and the coffee I didn’t get hungry until lunch.

A group of us from work went out to lunch today to try out a fairly new restaurant, Big Tide Brewing Company. It opened late in the summer and most of us had not yet been there.

I don’t have pictures, and I was going to link the website that was on the menu but when I went to check it out, it just said under construction. Anyway, I had the Veggie Burger which was a patty made from black beans, cornmeal and salsa, served on a bun with tomato, lettuce, onion and hummus. It was really good, I’d definitely order it again. I had fries on the side and ate about half of them but I polished off the whole burger.

Oh, and I had a 12 oz of their Nut Brown Ale (not sure what the exact name of it is) which was also very good. Made me kinda sleepy for the rest of the afternoon though.

We stopped on the way home from work for our usual Friday Thai takeout. When we got home Frank wanted a walk, but poor baby didn’t get one because a) it’s cold out there, and b) I wanted to get in a quick workout then get back to my supper before it was cold.

Poor kitty.

Today was Supersets. I completed the scheduled exercises plus 3 sets of 12 reps each of the following: Plie with Kettle bell, reverse lunges, squats. Done in 20 minutes!

Supper was Panang Tofu. I had asked for no mushrooms, and the person taking my order asked if I wanted to add a veggie to replace the mushrooms so I requested bean sprouts. I love bean sprouts for some reason, so I was quite looking forward to it. I dumped it into a bowl since the carton had leaked and was very messy.

Do you see what that is?

That would be a mushroom. And no bean sprouts. Someone in the kitchen was not paying attention to their orders.

However, my mom used to put mushrooms in everything (ok, maybe not everything), and I’ve never liked them so I’m pretty good at picking them out. I finished off all of the Panang & Rice (minus mushrooms of course) while watching Grey’s Anatomy. Pretty good episode.

Now I’m thinking I am going to clean the bathroom, have an epsom salt bath (I have some stiff muscles for some reason) and then maybe make some popcorn before I settle in to watch Dollhouse.

Real popcorn. With real butter. And salt. It’s Friday!

Dollhouse: Returns this FRIDAY 9/8c on FOX with best episode so far!

2009-10-23T15:08:00.001-03:00

Dollhouse: Returns this FRIDAY 9/8c on FOX with best episode so far!

Posted using ShareThis

Glee-ful Thursday

2009-10-22T21:57:00.002-03:00

It’s Thursday – which means the weekend is close! Even more gleeful, all day long I knew there was an episode of Glee sitting on my PVR, waiting to be watched.

A cool tidbit of news from earlier in the week – Joss Whedon will be directing an upcoming episode of Glee. I think that’s brilliant news; it’s like two of my favorite things wrapped up in one package. Glee + Joss Whedon TV! Heh. That rhymes.

On to regular business…

Last night after I finished my blogging I felt like I needed a little something, so I had a shot of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai.

And then this morning, I had the same thing. I also put together a dish of yogurt to take to work.

First order of business when I got to my desk – coffee!

Around 10 am I had my yogurt – homemade greek yogurt with raspberries, blueberries and a little honey.

For lunch I had the oatmeal that I didn’t eat for breakfast yesterday. One serving of steel cut oats with a bit of peanut butter & coconut butter. After heating in the microwave, I added about a teaspoon of maple syrup and some Almond Breeze.

It smelled like cookies. Kinda tasted like cookies too. It was pretty good. :)

I also had a Honeycrisp apple.

Around mid morning I happened to look out the window and notice it was snowing. Not a huge amount, and it was too warm for any accumulation anyway. But it’s just way to early for that mess to start. Hoping not to see any again for a good long while.

Around 2 pm I went out and it was chilly and damp, but no snow.

After work I hit the treadmill for another interval session (and listened to some tunes from Glee while I was at it) and I’m still having great success with the gel insoles in my sneakers. The running intervals felt great! I’m still being careful to not overdo it, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about running at the moment.

For supper, we defrosted pasta sauce from the freezer and I put together some raw veggies for each of us.

And then I sat down and watched Glee! And Eastwick. And a sure sign that winter is coming – I had a cat sleeping on my lap. Doesn’t happen during the summer, but once the weather cools off they sure enjoy cuddling up with me on the couch.

That’s it for today. Time to head for bed.

Wednesday

2009-10-21T21:47:00.001-03:00

Today turned out to be a lovely, warm sunny day. Too bad I spent it in an office, but what can you do?

Not much exciting going on, so without further ado, I present today’s eats.

For breakfast I had half a cup of homemade greek yogurt (made from 3.25% milk) with raspberries & blueberries (frozen, defosted in microwave) with a little bit of honey (maybe a teaspoon).

I also packed a container of steel cut oats to take to work, thinking I’d want them around mid-morning, but I didn’t get hungry at all.

For lunch, Thai Green Curry Soup. Sorry for the blurry photo – not sure what happened there.

I went out for my usual walking break around 2 pm and it was so beautiful out, I didn’t want to go back to work. It would have been a perfect day to be working in the yard, tidying away the gardens for the season.

This picture was taken standing on the street where my office building is, looking up the hill to the next street. Uptown Saint John has some steep hills.

When I got back from my break, I thought about eating the oatmeal, but decided I still wasn’t really feeling hungry. Then around 4 pm, I did start to feel hungry and I knew I would be doing a workout when I got home. I didn’t feel like oatmeal at that point, so I had a Larabar.

We got home at a decent time and it was so nice, I decided Frank and I deserved a walk. Poor Zappa, left behind as usual. See him yelling at me?

Don’t worry; he got cuddles later on and was happy with that.

It was pretty nice out, but it definitely felt like it was going to cool off when the sun went down. For the sake of reference, according to the Environment Canada weather page, we had a high of 11 degrees Celsius today (around 52 degrees F) and it’s down around 2 degrees C (35 degrees F) right now.

After our walk (and cuddles with Zappa), I did my workout – today was Circuits. I did the circuits on the plan, plus some extra to take me up to 30 minutes. I definitely kept my heart rate up and I needed a shower when I was finished.

Supper was easy – White Chicken Chili (Eat, Shrink and Be Merry) from the freezer. I put it in the fridge last night to defrost, and just had to heat it up. I had 1 serving (weighed out) of Tostitos Organic Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips on the side.

And that’s pretty much my day. I think I shall crawl into bed and read for a bit before lights out.

Tuesday

2009-10-20T21:53:00.001-03:00

We were an hour late getting home last night which sorta threw my schedule off, so quick recap of the day.

It was way foggy this morning.

All ready to go for the day.

Protein drink at home, steel cut oats with blueberries, Almond Breeze & maple syrup at work.

Late morning snack – Gala apple & 12 almonds.

Lunch around 1 pm – leftover Black Beans & Red Rice with grated cheddar on top.

Late getting home and Husband was hungry. Supper first thing.

Salad.

Pizza which I managed to really mess up. Long story.

For dessert, finished off the last 2 squares of this bar from from chocolate stash.

Let supper settle, and just finished a quick interval session on the treadmill. Another great run – so far so good with the gel insoles in my sneakers.

Now I have to go clean up the kitchen. Wah.

Getting Focused

2009-10-19T22:38:00.002-03:00

Two weeks of the Holiday Challenge behind me – two weeks of workouts done! And I think I’m ready to get back on track with my nutrition as well.

It seems that every so often I go through this crap eating phase, then suddenly I’m done with it. I’m ready to eat healthy stuff and not even missing the cookies and M&M’s. If only I could eliminate those crap phases…

I’ve mentioned this before, but I spent quite a few years really trying to lose weight and not getting anywhere. The only thing I ever managed to do was maintain where I was. As frustrating as it was not to lose weight, I was grateful to at least be maintaining.

Over the last little while my weight has slowly started to creep up and I couldn’t figure it out. What was I doing differently? Recently it hit me – I’ve stopped trying to lose. I won’t say I got to a place where I was happy with my weight, but I came to the realization that I’m not going to be the weight that I was 15 years ago, not without making myself miserable. So I stopped trying.

I’m not entirely sure what the solution is – I don’t want to live the rest of my life “dieting”. But I don’t want to gain any more either. I thought that I was doing ok with me eating, not perfect, but not terrible. But I’m thinking there are obviously some issues somewhere. So I’m going to try.

For now, that means getting back to what I started trying to do in the summer – just paying closer attention to what’s going in my mouth. For a while I felt like I was getting a pretty good grip on things, but then things went a bit off track. So that’s my starting point, and I’ll try to keep figuring things out as I go along.

So, today – quickly because I’ve been sitting at this computer for more than long enough already…

First thing this morning, finished off the rest of my Bolthouse Smoothie from yesterday.

All packed up, ready for the day:

At work, heated up my steel cut oats with some blueberries and added a little maple syrup & Almond Breeze. With coffee:

Lunch, around 1 pm - Thai Green Curry Soup – made yesterday and I have to say it turned out really well.

I got out for a short break this afternoon. The sun was shining, but it was windy and chilly – Environment Canada weather page said 7 degrees. Have to remind myself that once we hit this time of year, sunny does not necessarily mean warm.

Around 3 pm, ate my Honeycrisp apple.

For supper, we had the bland leftovers from last night. I jazzed it up a bit.

I added a small can of diced tomatoes, some sliced green olives and Sweet Chili & Peppers Grill seasoning. I put the leftover sausages on top and put the whole thing in the oven while I did my workout.

Today was Supersets. I did the exercises in the plan, plus added some of my own: Reverse Lunge with Bicep Curl (3 x 12 reps), Tricep Extension and Glute Lift (3 X 12 reps), then an extra set (12 each) of hammer curls and tricep extensions, 1 set of stability ball crunches and 1 set of back extensions. That took me 30 minutes.

Then I went upstairs to a pretty good smelling supper. Came out of the oven looking like this:

Threw together a quick salad.

Husband had the sausages and a big bowl of the rice and beans. I had rice and beans, to which I decided to add some cheese. Honestly, I’d rather have cheese than sausages any day.

This was much better today. Husband thought so too.

Usually if I’m having meat, I share some with Frank the cat, but since I didn’t have meat tonight I shared cheese. He seemed pretty happy with that.

There’s still leftover rice & beans. I divided it between two containers – one in the fridge for lunch tomorrow and one in the freezer.

And now it’s bedtime. Good night!