Getting back on track... Monday

Jeff was off work yesterday so we spent the day together running errands and watching movies. Fun stuff!

I started my morning off with pb and apple butter oats. Oh how I missed them! It feels so nice to get back into my routine. We then headed out to pick up our kitchen tile that finally came in and also did some grocery shopping.

First stop was Trader Joe’s where we got some odds and ends. Peanut butter (I can’t live without it), frozen vegetables, pizza sauce, and other random things.

The most fun we had was at Sam’s club! With our Christmas money we decided to join the club and do a big grocery shop. We cursed up and down every isle in the store and Jeff tried every sample too :) Most were meat but I got to sample a soft pretzel that held me over till lunch.

From what I’ve heard we would probably enjoy a membership at Costco much more since they carry more foods that we eat but Sam’s is much more convenient. I did get some good deals on daily eats like my 9 pound box of oats!! They had great produce too so I stocked up on fruit and salad. We were a little bummed that they didn’t have a faux meat products but were happy to see lots of soymilk.

When we got home I made a big salad


Lots of veggies, slivered almonds, and hummus. I’m really trying to get back to healthy eating after all the holiday treats I had the last couple days.

We rented two movies for tonight: Paranormal Activity (Jeff’s pick) and Julie and Julia (my pick of course). I am not a huge fan of scary movies but somehow Jeff always talks me into watching them. Promising to hold me tight...blah blah blah… you get the drift. It never makes the movie any less scary and Paranormal Activity was no exception. Needless to say I didn’t sleep well last night.

Julie and Julia was very cute and made me want to cook a fancy meal. Jeff kept reminding me that I could never live off French cooking. I assumed because it would make my ass huge but he just meant that they cook with a lots of foods I don’t eat. Either way I don’t know how the French stay so thin.

Before eating dinner I had to fit in a workout after the weekend I've had. So I did Jillian's 30-Day Shred level 2. These are the best 20 minute workouts!

For dinner we had a very Americanized meal of salad and pasta.





It was nice to spend the day with my hubby but now we're back to the daily grind.

I need to get motivated to run this afternoon. It's so windy and cold outside that I'd much rather workout in the basement but I haven't ran for a week. Santa did bring some warm running gear so I'll head out a litte later hopefully it will warm up.

Is anyone else having a hard time heading outside in the cold weather? I could really use a running buddy to help keep me motivated.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Cabin Fever

Happy Monday everyone! We got over 12 inches of snow this weekend so I’ve been stuck in the house. Needless to say it was a pretty uneventful weekend. I stayed home today as well since the city still hasn’t plowed our side street where we park. Can you say Cabin Fever!

Still sore this morning from Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones that I did yesterday, and not able to run because of the conditions outside, I opted for yoga today. Every time I do yoga I describe it as “much needed” yoga. It feels that way since it gives my whole body the tender stretching it needs and leaves me feeling calm. The rest of my day seems so peaceful.

Back to yesterday, Jillian kicked my butt! I’ve been doing her 30-Day Shred on weekdays, when not running, since it’s only 20 minutes. I had extra time on Sunday for this other DVD that is 50 minutes total. What an amazing workout! I felt like I was in boot camp and sweated my ass off. I highly recommend this one but will have to get myself pumped up to do it again.

Not too much went on this weekend. While stuck inside I took the opportunity to wrap all our Christmas gifts, clean the house, do laundry, and play with Elli in the snow. Oh yeah and I had fun trying a few new recipes! I shared the pumpkin spice pancakes but we also made Mama Pea’s whole wheat pizza dough for dinner on Saturday. Jeff added some spices (garlic, oregano, parley, and what ever else) to make it an herb crust. This was so easy to make and it rolled out nicely. We may have found a replacement for the Trader Joe’s pizza dough- sorry TJ’s!

We we not able to get very creative with the toppings. Lack of groceries. But we doubled the recipe and got two of these.


I also have to fess up about my consumption of sweets over the weekend. We can’t wait to take all the baked goods to our family this week and get it out of the house. I’ve had absolutely no willpower and it’s driving me crazy. I wish I could just suck it up and move on but it bothers me when I eat healthy all day than blow it will cookies and crap. My goal this week is to stay away from sugar, period!!

That’s about all for today. Pretty boring, huh? I’ll leave you with the cutest pup ever :)


And this new book I found. If it wasn’t too late I’d add it to my Christmas list.

Namaste.

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?!

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!

Pumpkin muffins and holiday tea

‘Tis the season for everything pumpkin! I have been waiting for a chance to try this recipe for pumpkin muffins. I made them today to serve to our family Thanksgiving morning, something to hold them over until dinner. They smelled so good while baking and I had to sample one. I chose the biggest just incase it wasn’t baked through the center. It was still gooey so I put the rest back in the warm oven for a couple minutes. It had a nice flavor, not to sweet, but tasty for being under baked. The cinnamon and brown sugar topping was quite tasty :)

Pumpkin muffin batter



Ready for the oven



The finished product, check out the brown sugar and cinnamon topping!






Guess what I found?! The Celestial Seasoning holiday tea!!! I was at Safeway picking up last minute groceries and practically ran right into the display…. I’m so excited to try these flavors. The sugar cookie will be my after dinner treat and I plan on serving them along side coffee during the holiday.




Can't wait to try this...





Tonight is pizza night! Have I told you how much I love Trader Joe’s? They have fresh pizza dough for 99 cents and delish pizza sauce. This week we’re all about convenience meals and had fun making this pizza. I grated some fresh mozzarella for Jeff’s and chopped some veggies for mine. We may have created a new flag… The “stars” are made up of onion, green pepper, and broccoli :) Yummy…



We chose the garlic & herb crust but they also have whole wheat and plain. This one is probably not the healthiest but has the most flavor.






Only needed 1/2 the jar of sauce.




And finally the pizza is ready for the oven. Nice shape!



Dinner time




Time to relax with my tea and catch up on our recorded shows. Good night!

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!