Baby its Cold Outside

Burr… it was a cold 38 degrees this morning. December has arrived!

I feel like I have so much to share today- hopefully I don’t ramble too much.

I finally registered for my next race! I’ll be running the Virginia Beach Shamrock Half-Marathon on my birthday, 3/21. I went online last night only to see that the cost went up so I eagerly paid my $80 registration and now the training begins. I needed something to keep me motivated through the winter and signing up for a spring race is just what I needed. I haven’t found a training schedule that I’ll follow yet but I started this morning out with a 3 mile run. I set the treadmill for the 5K loop and kept my speed between 6.5-6.7, about an average 9-minute mile. It felt great to start off my morning and training with this run! After my run I was sure to stretch well and work my abs.


On my way to work this morning I had some iced coffee with soymilk and agave nectar. I made it last night using Tina’s directions from Carrots-N-Cake.


For breakfast I packed some oatmeal:

½ c. quick oats
1 tsp. Agave nectar
Dash of cinnamon
1 tbs. Natural peanut butter

This is a great breakfast for work since it’s easy to “cook” with the hot water from our water cooler. All I was missing was some banana. I just got a bunch but they’re not quite ripe- bummer.



I wanted to give an update on the new gym. I really like the gym that I’ve been going to for my trail membership. It’s small but offers good classes however it’s not somewhere that Jeff and I can both benefit. There is a larger gym in a neighbor (luckily we have options) that has a basketball court, a pool, lots of classes, and all the regular equipment. Jeff agreed that if I join this gym that he would join with me, since we would both benefit from their amenities. I scheduled a tour tonight so we can get some membership info. I will let you know how it goes but this may be a win-win for both of us.

Since we have the gym tour tonight we’re having a quick dinner: Boca burgers with green beans on the side. We really threw off our meal plan for this week. Last night we were in the mood for pasta so instead of making the Asian broccoli and rice, we steamed the broccoli and tossed it with whole-wheat linguine and marinara sauce. It taste so good! After fixing it we both realized that pasta was on the menu for tonight so we made some changes. Tomorrow is leftover and/or clean out the frig night.

Shot of dinner prep.



Steaming green beans with garlic and earth balance.



Took this picture in a hurry before adding mustard and ketchup. Pretty boring: Beans, Boca, and soy cheese.





We have really been “winging” our meals this week. It’s always fun to see what you can make while clearing out the refrigerator and pantry.


Rewind a bit to lunch. Today I tried a new brand (new to me anyway) of miso soup from TJ’s: Annie Chun’s All Natural Asian Cuisine. This soup stood out to me for a few reasons: it wasn’t the normal TJ’s packaging since it’s not their brand, and this miso soup has udon noodles which I’ve never noticed before, it’s low fat, dairy free, and ready in 2 minutes! Sounded great and turned out it taste great too. The noodles were a little big which made it difficult to eat without flinging broth all over my desk. So I decided to only eat the smaller noodles that fit in my spoon, that way I saved some carbs along with a mess. Oh yeah, I recognized every item on the ingredients list. That’s a plus!



Miso with Udon noodles.



Under the packaging was a $1.00 off coupon so I’ll be sure to try some more of these products.

I’m going out of town for work Thursday and need to start packing.

Cuddle up with a loved one and stay warm…. Nighty-night.

Back to the grind today after 5 days off work!

To my surprise the gym was practically empty this morning. Here’s what my workout looked like: 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical and ran 1 mile on the treadmill. It felt great to start off the week with a sweat. Hopefully I don’t get sick since I came home and took Elli out in shorts- it was 48 degrees outside but I was still hot from the gym.

We didn’t have our official Monday weigh in but I jumped on the scale anyway. I was worried that I gained a few over the holiday but was exactly the same, 130 lbs. I can handle that but plan on working really hard this week to loose some more.

Once I got to work I had my morning coffee, regular with unsweetened soymilk and breakfast. This is totally outside of my normal routine of oatmeal- I had a breakfast burrito. Something different taste good once in awhile. I enjoyed Amy’s breakfast burrito made with black beans, tomatoes, tofu, and some other veggies. Pretty tasty and packed with protein that should hold me over till lunch.





Today for lunch I packed soup and salad. We ordered lunch out yesterday from a local pizzeria; Jeff had pizza and had a garden salad big enough for two. It worked well since I needed something to pair with my TJ’s black bean soup. Who knew that it would be ugly outside and raining all day- perfect soup day!

Black bean soup isn’t the nicest looking soup but it is hardy and filling. I brought new salad dressing today: Cape Cod Sesame Ginger dressing. We found this while bargain shopping Saturday. It has a nice subtle taste and we’re going to use this to flavor our dinner tonight as well.



Since I am posting this before dinner I’ll spare you those pictures and details. We’re planning to throw together an Asian inspired dish with steamed broccoli and brown rice, using the dressing as I mentioned.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and healthy week! Can you believe tomorrow is December?!

Mexican Night and Week's Plan

Today was catching up day around the house. Didn’t get into too much just laundry, a little touch up cleaning, football, and we both managed to get a nap in. I’m really excited about dinner tonight- it’s my favorite MEXICAN! Since we had lots of leftover veggies in the frig we’re making grilled vegetable fajitas with refried beans and sweet potatoes fries. Strange combo but hubby was hungry for fries and since they’re so good I couldn’t resist.

I usually microwave sliced sweet potatoes in water before baking them. It seems to speed up the baking and allows them to get cruncher. However I’m sure you could omit this step but I microwave two sliced potatoes for 8 minutes. Then placed them on a pan, brushed them with canola oil, sprinkled with paprika and pepper, then into the oven. I just guess on time and temp but went with 425 degrees until brown, flipping after about 20 minutes. These fries are one of our favorite sides to make and we usually have them at least once a week.

Ready for the oven



After baking for about 40 minutes



For the fajitas we grilled sliced red onion, red and green peppers, tossed in olive oil and seasoning. I make my own taco seasoning and found a great recipe here.

Here are the veggies on the grill... love this grill pan!



To finish them off, we topped with Amy’s Kitchen traditional refried beans. Yummy!

Here is my plate, I decided to go without a tortilla.



Earlier today we planned our meals for this week, here’s what will fill our bellies:

Monday: Asian broccoli with brown rice
Tuesday: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce and vegetable side
Wednesday: Boca burgers with sweet potato fries
Thursday: Jeff is on his own since I’ll be out of town for work
Friday: Shrimp and vegetable pad Thai

I plan on hitting the gym everyday this week. It’s my last trial week before I make my decision, to join or not to join? Anyway, Wednesday night we’ve planned a quick dinner since Jeff has basketball and I want to take the “Rock Your Skinnies” class at the gym. What a catchy name!

Well that’s all for tonight. I’ve had a sweet tooth since dinner so I think I’ll curl up with some sugar cookie tea. Good Night :)

Spin class and Elli's return home

Finally made it to spin class! I needed a kick-butt workout after the holiday so I went to a cycle class this morning. I got there early and did a 20 minute ab routine then asked the cycle instructor to help me with the bike since it was my first class at this gym. I really enjoyed the 65 minute class and look forward to going back again next week.

While I was at the gym Jeff picked Elli up from doggie daycare. She was there throughout the holiday since we had a lot of company. It’s nice to have her back, we missed her! Last night we went out and got her a new toy and a birthday treat. She turned 1 year old last week and we forgot to get her a treat. Of course I didn’t take a picture but it was so cute- a homemade cookie with icing that said Happy Birthday in pink. We left it in her food bowl and she noticed it right away. The toy we bought her is pretty cool. It’s a heavy plastic bone that screws apart and holds treats in the middle and has these brushes that spin around to clean her teeth…. Very interesting to say the least. She wasn’t sure about it at first since it’s really heavy but Jeff tourmented her with it and now she won’t leave it alone.

Elli checking out her toy basket and her new toy! (The lines on her back are from the sun coming through the blinds).

After spin class I was ready for a yummy lunch. We had broccoli leftover from Thanksgiving so I steamed some with pepper and made a “cheese sandwich”. I used TJ’s soy cheese slices to maked my grilled sandwich and put tomatoes in the middle. Served up with a side of raw green pepper slices. So tasty…

Now for the shopping part- after lunch we decided to get out of the house and do a little shopping. We really don’t need anything but like to poke around in discount stores to see what we can find. So we headed out to Ollie’s and Big Lots. You never know what kind of deals you’ll find at these stores. We came home with a few bags from each store of toiletrees and a few convenience food items. I love to find good brands like Kashi and Cascadian Farm organics so cheap and we never pass them up!

Now that we're home for the day it's time to chill out. There are a few things to finish around the house but it's feeling like a movie and popcorn kind of night.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Hectic Morning during Day 3 at the Gym

What a morning so far…. I got up super early, for me anyway, at 5:10 to take Elli out and head to the gym. My legs were feeling sore for some reason (probably didn’t stretch enough, duh) so I kept my workout light. Went for 25 minute intervals on the elliptical then did some abs: 50 bicycles, 25 side crunches, plank and side planks, then stretched really well. By then I had to leave in order to make it to work on time. As a “trial” member you are given parking coupon to get out of the secured lot. I tried 3 coupons before we (myself and the front desk attended) realized that they expired yesterday! I had to go to the security desk for them to open the gate for me to exit. What do you know, the guard who had the key for the gate didn’t come in until 7 am!! At this point I was beyond irritated and kept thinking about Elli who still needed to go out a second time and work. Yeah I have a job to go to and a 40 minute commute. I ended up sitting in the parking lot for 20 minutes waiting for the guard to arrive and let me out. There were other cars waiting so it took another few minutes to finally leave.

What a wonderful start to my day…. Luckily I have a very understanding boss who has allowed me to work from home. This way I don’t have to stress over being on time today.

Now that I’m home and Elli has been out, I can sit down for breakfast. I grabbed my packed lunched bag out of the refrigerator where I had some prepared oatmeal for this morning. Unfortunately there was no fruit to go along with it but I wasn't that hungry anyway.

Here’s my oatmeal and morning coffee. My oatmeal was made up of 1 cup oats, 1 tsp agave nectar, 1 spoon of pb, and a dash of cinnamon. I just had a small cup of regular coffee with unsweetened soy milk.



On to a better note…. Last night I polished our silver for Thanksgiving. My great-aunt left me her silver which is probably over 100 years old. As much as I didn’t feel like taking the time to polish it, I felt a bit of pride doing so. It turned out gorgeous!






It's about time to get ready for my real job. Oh yeah, all most forgot that I'm off tomorrow and the rest of this week! I am going to try a cycle class at the gym tomorrow between all my holiday preparations so I'll post how it goes.

Hope today is wonderful!

Gym Trial Day 2 and Monday Weigh In

Today was my second of the fourteen-day trial at the gym. This period is going to give me the opportunity to see how the gym will fit into my schedule. The gym is open 24 hours for members but during the trial period you have to be there when they have an attendant, 6am – 9pm. If it were up to me I’d be there right at 5:30am since that would allow enough time to get ready for work.

This morning my alarm went off at 5:20 and I quickly got up to make it to the gym by 6 am. I was buzzing the door at 6 am on the dot. I got a decent workout in: 2.25 mi on the treadmill, stretched, abs workout. I had to be out of there by 6:40 to get home and take Elli out then get ready for the day. I made it to work on time, which proves to me that if I can start going at 5:30am I’ll have more workout time and will not have to rush.

Monday is “weigh in” day at work. I work with two other ladies and we’ve been tracking our weight over the last two months. When we started I weighed 135lbs and today I came in at 130lbs. Not bad- my goal weight is 120 so I have a ways to go!



Here’s what the rest of the day looked like…

A hearty breakfast of TJ’s steel cut oats, pb, and ½ banana with a cup of Celestial Seasonings cinnamon apple spice tea.



For lunch I packed some veggies, hummus, and Amy’s chunky vegetable soup.



Ended up snacking on this later in the afternoon.






It looks like we’ll be having chili again for dinner tonight. Yesterday during football we threw some chili in the crock pot. Jeff makes the best chili and we love how many meals we get out of it. I threw together some corn beard for the side. We had some for dinner last night and ended up with 3 large containers leftover. Two went in the freezer for future use and I left one out for dinner this week.




We never follow a recipe for chili but here’s the run down of our ingredients:

Morningstar Farm crumbles
Dark and light kidney beans
Black beans
Tomato paste
Diced tomatoes (we found some with chili seasoning added)
Chopped onion
1 bag frozen pepper slices (red, yellow, & green)
Chili powder
H2O
Whatever else Jeff threw in to make it delicious!




My smokin' hot dinner...


We just got finished eating and Jeff ended up having chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese instead. We are both feeling a bit under the weather and that sounded better to him. I made him a grilled cheese with TJ's american soy cheese and to my surprise he actually liked it! Another keeper :)

Since my computer is being crappy and not letting me upload pictures... and I need to polish our silver for Thanksgiving dinner.... I'm going to jump off here.

Have a great evening!

New Gym

I just got back from Canton Club, a gym that I'm thinking about joining. They offer a 14 day trial membership which I started today. It seems like a pretty nice gym and the view is amazing. It's located right on the water overlooking the marina. They offer a lot of classes that I look forward to attending. While I was there I jumped on an elliptical for 35 minutes and just did some intervals and stretching afterwards. Tomorrow I'll try to squeeze in a workout before work. This trial period will allow me to see how well I can schedule visits around my 9-5.

I took Elli for a walk then sat down for lunch. Once I get cleaned up I will probably go meet Jeff for some crabs, beer, and football.

Since there was salad leftover from dinner last night, I made a wrap and added tofu salad with carrots on the side.



I will keep you posted on the gym experience.

Are you ready for some football?