The Sweet Spot

I've finally found the sweet spot in my workouts, the three days on and one day off is working perfectly. My legs feel fantastic and last week I was able to push out 6 quick miles (for me) on my 3rd day. My lats and biceps were pretty sore today from yesterdays workout but because of the way this week lays out I had to get a gym workout in today. Here are the details:

Cardio: Run on treadmill for 15 minutes @ 1.5% incline with varying speeds. Average speed was probably right around 7.4mph. 5 minute cooldown

DB Chest press on stability ball: 3x10 @ 22.5 (I wanted 27.5's but they were in use as were the 25's. I can do 30's but it's hard to get them up on the ball without a friend).

DB shoulder fly: 3x10 @ 10lb dbs (still getting my right shoulder back in shape, at least the pain is gone).

Tricep kickback with pronation: 3x10 @ 12.5lb db

Cardio: HIIT sprints for 6 minutes (alternating 1 minute @ 6.0, :30 @ 10.0). 3 minute cooldown

Tricep dips 3x10 bodyweight
Vogue press 3x10 @ 15lb db
Pushups: 3x10

Cardio: Elliptical for 15 minutes. Varying ramp and resistence (between 7-11).

Tonight for dinner I made the delicious Pulled chicken in the crockpot. I just eat mine out of a bowl since I'd rather have baked sweet potato fries than a bun. I also sauteed some squash, zucchini, and mushrooms in a little olive oil and then drizzled some balsamic vinegar over them. So ono!

I have a late morning run planned for tomorrow morning, not sure how far I'm going to go. I'm thinking 4-5 miles since Wednesday is an off day again.

Productive Sunday

I admit I didn't sleep much last night, maybe six hours total. This is not adequate for my body so I was hurting today. DH and I left early this morning and stopped by Starbucks, we went down to Husky stadium again today for picture day. Admittedly we didn't stay for player pix....we just went to upgrade our seats finally. They are pretty great, I don't know how these two seats were still available. We did some grocery shopping on the way home and then I forced myself to the gym (I took yesterday off and it was much needed as my legs were SOOOOOOOO sore). They felt great today though and I was not mad at my decision to get to the gym (despite how tired I was). Here is my workout

Cardio: HIIT 24 minutes.
0:00 - 5:00 7.0mph
5:00-6:00 8.0
6:00 - 7:00 6.0
7:00 - 8:00 8.0
8:00 - 9:00 6.0
9:00 - 10:00 8.0
10:00 - 11:00 6.0
11:00 - 11:45 9.0
11:45 - 12:45 6.0
12:45 - 13:30 9.0
13:30 - 14:30 6.0
14:30 - 15:15 9.0
15:15 - 16:15 6.0
16:15 - 17:00 9.0
17:00 - 18:00 6.0
18:00 - 18:30 10
18:30 - 19:30 6.0
19:30 - 20:00 10
20:00 - 21:00 6.0
21:00 - 21:30 10
21:30 - 22:30 6.0
22:30 - 23:00 10
23:00 - 24:00 8.0
5 minute cooldown

Pull ups: 1x10 @ 30lbs assist. 2x10 @ 50lbs assist for negatives.
DB curls: 3x10 @ 15lbs very slowly/concentrated
DB pullovers: 3x10 @ 20lb db
Y's T's and I's: 3x10 @ 5lb dbs
Cable curls w/ rope attachment: 3x10 @ 50lbs

Tonight for dinner I made the chicken and spinach cheesy stuffed shells again, they were excellent. DH and I had them with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

Slacker!!!

I've been slacking big time the past few days. Not really super busy, just not into blogging I guess.

Wednesday's run:

Yesterday's workout:

Cardio: 10 minutes + 3 minute cooldown (roughly a 8:20 mile)

DB front squat 3x10 @ 17.5lb dbs
Romanian deadlift 3x10 @ 25lb dbs
Plie Squat with calf raise 3x10 w/ 30lb db:

Cardio: 10 minutes of hills @ 8:30 mile pace. 3 minute cooldown

Sumo squat and leg raise 3x10 with 30lb barbell
Toe touch 3x15
Ball twist (3x15

Cardio: 18 minutes on the elliptical plus 5 minutes cooldown.

5 minutes of stretching

I thought when I went out for my run this morning that I would keep it slow, my quads were tired like crazy. I kept glancing at my Garmin and making myself back off. I'm happy about these splits but I wish I could have gone slower (I couldn't make myself). I will probably pay the price tomorrow but fortunately it is an off-day. I think this 3 on, 1 off schedule is perfect for me.
I'm really looking forward to sushi tonight with DH! I haven't had sushi in far too long. I wanted to go see The Time Traveler's Wife but he suggested we go next weekend instead since we have a busy day planned tomorrow. We are going to the early Husky football practice at 8:45. Get some errands done and then we are going to the Taste of Edmonds in the evening with some friends (DH's bff from KINDERGARTEN and his wife...they've been friends for 31 years)

Another day at the gym

My eye is still all gross but it seems to be healing a little bit more. I feel like I've been so busy lately but I honestly don't know what I'm so busy with. Does that make sense? I ate most of the usual suspects today. Dinner was a new recipe for chicken enchiladas (I've been burnt out on the one I used to use). I found this simple recipe on Jenna's blog and ran with it. The only change I made is that I used 2 4oz cans of green chiles (one inside the enchiladas and one on top). What can I say, I love green chiles! I also used 9 whole wheat soft taco sized tortillas. I love the Safeway Select enchilada sauce, it is so good and was the perfect amount.

Here is my workout for the day:

Cardio warmup: 8 minutes run (avg pace 7.0mph)

Dumbbell skull crusher (on incline bench) 3x10 @ 12.5lb dbs
Push press 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Push ups 3x10

Cardio burst: 8 minutes (avg pace 7.5 mph)

Cable crossover 3x10 @ 12.5lbs each side of the machine
Dumbbell frontal raise 3x10 @ 15lb dbs

Cardio: 22 minute run varying speeds between 7.0mph and 8.5. Average pace ended up being 7.8mph. 5 minute cooldown

Crunches 3x20
Stetched out for 10 minutes or so afterwards.

I'm going to go finish up Season 2 of Entourage and read a little more of my book. Nite!

Sunday run

I admit, I had a hard time getting the shoes on and heading out for a run this morning. I finally just put the new shoes on and took off. I ran some pretty nice splits today, not quite negative splits (hill put me a little down). The 'skid' is still sleeping so I can't get upstairs to upload the Garmin so here are my stats:

Time: 43:44
Miles: 5.37
Calories: 578
Average Pace: 8:08

From my memory, I will update with the actual numbers...

Mile 1: 8:40
Mile 2: 8:20
Mile 3: 7:55
Mile 4: 8:08
Mile 5: 7:47

I stretched out really good after my run, I'm trying to make this a habit since I've been bad about stretching and as I start ramping up for a half marathon next spring I need to make it a habit NOW. I'm enjoying a nice Green Monster right now to refuel my body and then need to shower and go to Costco.

Behind schedule!

So this morning I got up at 7 and was going to be off and running to get in a gym session before meeting my friend Debra for some shopping at the outlet mall. I went to put in my contacts and found this...I've never had this so it freaked me the F out. Excuse the extremely attractive pic LOL. It's bloody all the way up. I waited until 8 and called my eye doctor and found out that I shouldn't be freaked and it should heal on its own in a few days. Whew. I don't mess around with my eyes.


So I got out the door an hour early but still got in a full workout! Here is what I did:

Cardio: 5 minutes warmup on treadmill (roughly .8 miles with my cooldown).

Pullups 3x10 @40lbs assist
21s 3x10 @ 30lb barbell

Cardio: 5 minutes on treadmill (roughly .9 miles with my cooldown)

Superman: 3x for 1 minute count
(Superset) Dumbbell hammer curls 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Crunches on stability ball 3x25

Cardio: 5 minutes on treadmill (roughly .9 miles with my cooldown)

Bentover DB row 3x10 (each arm) @ 25lb db
(Superset) Flat bench crunches 3x15

Cardio: 15 minutes on the elliptical

I came back home to shower and have a Green Monster and headed off to meet Debra. I didn't end up buying much, I got some new running shoes at the Nike Outlet since they had the shoes I'd been looking for in my size. The only size 9! All the others were either 12's or like 5/6. I also got DH some dri fit socks, hopefully those will help his feet along with his new Skechers steel toe work shoes. His feet have been killing him for awhile now. They had so many pairs of Nike Tempo shorts in so many colors, they had my purple ones but only in Large or X-Large. BOOO I would have bought some. I was hoping to find a rain jacket for running and a warmer pullover but I didn't like the colors they had. I am going to buy those online since the Clearance prices online are very comparable to the outlet store. We wandered around a bit and then headed to Bob's Burgers and Brew for a late lunch. I had a cajun chicken wrap and fries (and a lot of water) which really hit the spot. I was STARVING, all I had after my GM was an americano lol.

So I'm just relaxing now, see my super sexy sweats lol (the bottoms are actually the VS Pink Huskies capris from last year, I don't like the latest ones. :().

I am so excited for football season...I am watching a 'classic' game on Fox Sports right now (Oregon State/Washington from 2000, which I was at of course). I also watched the first press conference of the season online yesterday. What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment?

Leg day!

Today was leg day at the gym, here is my workout:

Cardio: 15 minutes on treadmill avg pace 7.5mph. 5 minute cooldown.

Double Leg Lift 3x15
Calf raise with stability ball 3x15
Reverse lunge with dumbbells 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Booty blaster on stability ball (can't find my link to it grr) 3x15
Stability ball pass 3x10 my abs were still sore from Tuesday so these were killer.

Cardio: 15 minutes on treadmill avg pace 7.5mph. 5 minute cooldown.

All the typical food for today, for dinner I didn't feel like doing much since I was only cooking for me. I sliced up a zucchini that I desperately needed to use, also about five jumbo mushrooms. I sauteed those in some olive oil and seasoned with black pepper and cayenne pepper. I then cooked up a box of Annie's shells and cheese and threw a can of tuna fish in. I ate about half the mac n cheese and tuna with a healthy portion of hot sauce (gotta have hot sauce on mac n cheese).

I finished Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum novel last night, Finger Lickin' Fifteen. It was very funny, almost back to her usual. I have to admit, I'd like to see her mix it up and have Stephanie finally pick a love interest. Lula was hilarious as usual, there could have been more Grandma Mazur too. But overall plenty of laugh out loud moments.

I'm going to watch another chick flick tonight, this time Confessions of a Shopaholic. I've already seen it but had put it into my Netflix queue anyways for fun. I really enjoyed the Shopaholic series of books (even though Bex is an idiot). So I already know that it is light, humorous, and something to veg out to.

I did like Bride Wars last night, again just something light to veg too...totally unrealistic but you can just drone out the real world and use it as escapism.

I've got a lot on my mind right now so it's nice to escape in a dvd or a book. I'm also starting a new book tonight, I can't wait to curl up in bed with it. I hope Cooper joins me (Jada won't sit still she just wants to rub on the book and stand on me). The book is A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand, this is my first book by her so I'm curious if I will like her writing. Has anyone read any of her stuff? I love to chat about books. :)

It's amazing what a good run will do....

for one's mood! It's gonna be a quick one tonight, I just popped Bride Wars into the DVD player and am going to watch that. I'm a single lady until Saturday, gotta enjoy my time! I went to dinner tonight with one of my BFF's, Michelle. We did Indian. Yum yum, split an order of vegetable samosas, and I had baigan bharta and roti. Sooo yum. I wanted to lick the little dish clean.

Did a run with the 'skid' today. Temps are sooo much lower than last week. Last Wednesday our high was 103 in Seattle, today it was barely 70. My body was in heaven, I even ran in a long sleeved shirt today because the 62 at noon was FREEZING to me. I loved that we did negative splits, what a great workout.

For lunch I had mongolian grill leftovers from last night (brown rice, chicken, tofu, a million veggies).

One of my fave stores just started carrying Chobani, I picked up a couple of things of it last night and will be sure to give my opinion. I'm a total Fage girl out of necessity so we'll see how it compares. My mom said she much prefers Fage to Chobani so we'll see what I think.

Okay, I'm going to kick back and watch this movie. :)

Happy Birthday to Me

So today is my 31st birthday...I don't feel any older, and quite frankly feel younger than I did when I was 21. I'm in a lot better shape, y'all I wish I had my old pics somewhere. I think around 2001 I gave up on dropping the weight and trashed all my old pictures. I'm glad I didn't give up, I don't know when it hit but in May of 2006 was when I had my weight loss epiphany. I never thought I could control my portion sizes...one day I said 'f' it and started going to 5-6 smaller meals a day. That did the trick for me, I stopped feeling hungry and overindulging. At the peak I know that I weighed 178lbs, this was in 2000. I could have weighed more but that is the highest I ever knew of. In 2001 I got down to 155lbs with exercise alone. But I couldn't ever break the plateau. Between 2001 and 2006 I hovered between 155 and 165lbs. On May 14, 2006 I weighed 165lbs. By late Summer 2006 I was down to 145lbs. PORTION CONTROL was my friend. In the Fall I got engaged to the hubs but I was feeling a plateau, I had lifted weights a lot in high school so I started adding weight training back into my routine.

By the time we were married I'd gotten down to 135lbs and felt great. I don't really consider myself to be in a 'maintenance' mode. I honestly don't want to necessarily lose weight. I want to get stronger. I want my muscles stronger for lifting and running. I want my mind stronger for learning. I try hard to keep my nutrition in line because I straight up feel better when I eat better. I know that the number hasn't really changed on the scale over the last 2.5 years but I see the differences, I feel the differences in my performance.

So yeah, that was one big useless tangent. LOL. I guess it was just a recap of where I am today...

For breakfast this morning I had a big Green Monster. Same ingredients as yesterday. I have a small sample of PB2, how should I use it? I was thinking in a Green Monster, or maybe mixed with some greek yogurt and puffins? Any ideas?

For my snack I had greek yogurt, pb puffins, kashi heart to heart, and strawberries.

For my lunch I am going to eat leftovers of the delicious cheesy chicken shells from last night.

I have an amazing workout planned for after work, I wrote it all out even! Here it is, obvi weights could change.

Cardio: 5 minute warm up on tread (varied speeds)

Dip assist machine 3x10 @ 30lbs
DB Shoulder press 3x10 @ 25lb dbs

Cardio: 5 minutes gradually increasing incline @ 7.0mph

Leaning lateral raises 3x10 @ 10lb db
Supine chest press 3x10 @ 25lb dbs

Cardio: 5 minutes of speed intervals (7.0 for 40 seconds/9.0 for 20 seconds repeat)

Frog crunches 3x15
Bicycle crunches 3x25

Cardio: 15 or 20 minutes of moderate running (7.0mph or so). Depending on how much time I have and how I feel.

I almost forgot! I have a couple of new songs on my little iPod Shuffle too, I love when a new song comes on. Here are my new faves:

• El Gitano Del Amor by Latin Soul Syndicate
• Love, Sex, and Magic by Ciara (feat. Justin Timberlake - yum)
• Whatcha Think About That by The Pussycat Dolls (feat. Missy Elliott)
  

Okay I'm going to go make my lunch in a few! Have a good afternoon all!

Happy Rest Day

So I've been doing a 3 on, 1 off rotation with working out lately. I think this is best for my body, after that 3rd day of exercise I need to rest my legs. I didn't do a dang thing today and loved it. I had this rather scary looking Green Monster this morning.

Don't fear, it was delicious. I bought a huge thing of Strawberries at Costco yesterday so we are eating a lot of them right now. In the GM was:

1 cup of Cow's milk 1 scoop Optimum Nutrition vanilla whey protein powder 1 TB Trader Joe's raw creamy Almond butter 5 strawberries 1/2 frozen banana 4c spinach 1/2c frozen blueberries 1.5c crushed ice

I just haven't really been feeling like taking pics of my food, I think it makes me self conscious. Maybe more than 4 people would read my blog if I took more pics, what do you all think? Though, I eat the same stuff most every day so it really isn't exciting. I'm much better about workout blogging than food, which is true to form because I'm a good exerciser but am pretty lax about my nutrition.

For my morning snack the strawberries made another appearance....

1/2c Fage 0%
1/2c Peanut Butter Puffins
1/2 Kashi Heart to Heart cereal
6 sliced strawberries

I was starvin marvin' by lunch time...

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Lunch was a wrap:
Morningstar Farms tomato basil pizza burger
1 Flat Out wrap
1c spinach
1/2 tomato
1 Laughing Cow Light Swiss

All grilled up because it sounded freaking good...served along side a handful of riceworks sweet chili brown rice chips.

Afternoon snack was a Kashi Honey Almond Flax bar (my least fave of the Costco variety pack, but DH won't touch 'em so someone has to eat them while he gets the nummy Trail mix ones...how is THAT fair?) and a big juicy peach.

For dinner I tried something new, I went out on a limb that the 'skid' would eat it but he isn't a super picky eater so I wasn't too worried (DH said he thought he'd eat it). Thanks to Danica for this delicious recipe! I only had a 10oz package of frozen spinach so I went double chicken (DH is a huge carnivore and I need the extra protein on my rest day). OMG, so delicious. I ate two of the shells along with about a cup of steamed broccoli and cauliflower. The 'skid' actually said (unprompted) 'This is really good!'. So two thumbs up for Danica's recipe. I used Newman's Own marinara since I haven't been to Trader Joe's in a few weeks.

I plan to eat a serving of Dreyer's Tart Honey froyo later. I picked up a tub last week because all Dreyer's was $2.99 at Safeway. I really like this but I don't like that the honey is a swirl, I wish it was more mixed in. There's definitely a tart lemon taste (which isn't suprising because there is lemon juice concentrate in the ingredient list). It doesn't compare to my fave froyo with coconut but it will do for a treat, it's a lot cheaper.

picture courtesy of Dreyer's

Okay I'm off to get some laundry done and to read some more of the latest Stephanie Plum novel, Finger Lickin' Fifteen. It's hilarious!

Quick Sunday post!

Last night was really fun, DH and I went out to dinner and to the theatre. We saw Catch Me if You Can, I've never seen the movie or read the book so it was all new viewing for me. Overall we both really liked it.

Dinner was amazing, we went to Palisade. I hadn't been there in YEARS. It was just as good as I remembered (if not better). I forgot my camera, which bummed me out because the restaurant is beautiful. We started with drinks, a lilikoi mojito for me and a mai tai for DH. Then we split a calamari appetizer, unlike a lot of restaurants they use big strips of calamari. They soak it in buttermilk and then do a very light breading. I loved the wasabi aioli they served for dipping, even DH liked it (and he isn't a fan of wasabi). After that we made the fatal mistake and went for the seafood chowder. It was delicious but soooo rich. For entrees DH had a big NY strip steak with mushrooms, mashed Yukon Gold potatoes, and asparagas. I had crab and mac nut stuffed prawns. They served it over summer veggies (delicious) and mashed potatoes (I had like 3 bites). The prawns were so much bigger than I thought they would be, I think there were six and I was able to eat 4.5 (and all of my veggies). This is so rare for me to feel full like that, I'm normally the bottomless pit. I think the richness of the food just did me in, I don't normally eat really rich foods. Sooo delicious though!

After dinner we had time before we had to head downtown to go for a walk around the marina, I think this really helped me digest so I didn't fall asleep during the show!

This morning I got up for a good workout. It was already hot and I didn't want to deal with it so I did a treadmill workout.

I did a variation of this workout from Fitness magazine.

Minutes	Pace
0:00–10:00	Warm-up jog; worked my way up from 3.5mph to 6.5mph gradually.
10:00–10:20	Sprint at 9.5 mph
10:20–11:20	Jog at 6.5 mph
11:20–14:00	Repeat minutes 10:00–11:20 twice
14:00–17:00	Jog at 6.5 mph
17:00–27:00	Run at 7.5 mph
27:00–31:00	Jog at 6.5 mph
31:00–35:00	Run at 7.5 mph
35:00–39:00	Jog at 6.5 mph
39:00–55:00	Repeat minutes 31:00–39:00 twice
55:00–60:00	Gradually slow pace to cool down at jog/walk

This ended up burning 700 calories for me with the cooldown, I varied incline between 1.0% and 2.5%.

After that I had to go to Costco to get more spinach. YUM!

Saturday....

Ugh, I woke up with a pounding ass headache this morning. I tried to get it to go away naturally but it just wouldn't go. I ended up heading out for my run, which quite frankly sucked (I slept later than I wanted and it was already hot in the sun plus the headache). Here are the stats, I'm too lazy to upload and quite frankly it is one of my slowest runs in 5 years. I originally wanted to do a 6.75 mile loop but knew my headache would prevent that.

Time: 41:04
Distance: 4.5miles
Calories Burned: 478
Best Pace: 7:38
Avg. Pace: 9:07

I came home and treated myself to a huge Green Monster and shower. LOL.

I then went for a much needed pedicure and manicure. I'm now back home eating some lunch. I had some leftover Sloppy Joe's (without a bun, just the meat and veggies) and some sweet potato discs. I finally gave in and turned on the oven, I had to have them. Seasoned with some Johnny's Seasoning Salt and cayenne pepper.

I'm just relaxing and enjoying a little Beverly Hills 90210 on the SOAP network.

Happy Friday!

This Friday is extra happy, our temperatures have finally cooled off. Yesterday was a busy day for me at work and then I met my mom after work to see Jewel at Zoo Tunes. Zoo Tunes was a lot of fun, plus it benefits the Zoo...what is not to love? I would definitely go again, even if it wasn't someone I was super interested in seeing. It's a small venue, all general admission lawn seating. I was afraid that we weren't going to get any shade so it would be super hot (it was 93 when we got out of the car). Fortunately the entire West side of the lawn area has trees so we weren't in the sun for long (maybe 5 minutes).

Here is a picture of Cooper trying to stay cool! So he really only stayed like this for a few minutes before he got up. One thing I found about him is that he doesn't mind water (or maybe he was so hot he didn't care?). I would wring a towel out on him and wet him down. He also liked me putting a frozen bottle of water (wrapped in a towel) in his little cat house with him.


I'm currently enjoying a delicious Green Monster.


I have to work super late tonight for our quarterly server updates so I'm going to hit the gym for a long lunch (and take a long dinner break LOL).

Here is the workout I have planned (weights are all estimates):

Cardio: 10 minutes on treadmill
Bicep curl 3x10 @ 20lb dbs
Lat pulldown 3x10 @ 75lbs
Cable hammer curl with rope attachment 3x10 @ 40lbs
Two arm dumbbell row 3x10 @ 15 or 20lbs
Stability ball back extension
Cardio: Run on treadmill probably 2.5 miles (20 minutes) plus 5 minute cool down.

Okay, time to get to work!!!

More Hotness

I've been a bad blogger, actually I've just been straight up lazy. It is so hot outside and Seattle just isn't equipped for this shiz. Today was the hottest day EVER in Seattle. We did eventually hit 103 at my house...in the shade. I really wasn't wanting to workout at all today, the 'skid' and I got our portable AC (usually lives in our bedroom) downstairs to try to keep the living room cool. Fortunately the temp stayed steady down here all day, so it worked. However my work laptop has a steaming pile of ish for a wireless network card so I kept getting dumped offline all day and got next to nothing accomplished. I finally found a solution around 1:30pm and got an old USB wireless card I had working on it and just disabled my crappy POS internal card. Whew.

I was frustrated with it all so I went to the gym at lunch. I was trying to be super quick so my workout was much abbreviated (I figured something is better than nothing). Here are my stats:

Cardio: 20 minute run (2.61 miles). Plus five minute cooldown.

Box Step Ups with dumbbells 3x10 @ 17.5lb dbs


Calf raises on the step with dbs 3x15 @ 17.5lb dbs (superset)


Seated Oblique Twists w/ medicine ball 3x15 @ 10lb ball


Wall squat with stability ball 3x15


Stability ball crunches 3x25


Hamstring curls 3x10 @ 60lbs

I had a Green Monster for lunch as my appetite was finally a little off from the hotness. It also turns out that Cooper doesn't mind water, he let me wet him down to cool off. I even placed a frozen towel over him and he didn't mind. My sweet boy.

The 'skid' and I went to Starbucks when I finished work just to enjoy some AC (and iced drinks). I had a venti iced americano with caramel and the 'skid' had the strawberry banana smoothie. He said it was really good, and the nutritionals weren't horrible (although I'm sure there is added sugar in the strawberry puree they add).

For dinner we all went to a new Mongolian Grill tonight. It was so delicious! They had a great selection of veggies, I went with mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, broccoli, onions, celery, tofu, chicken, and brown rice with their mongolian sauce. I had tons leftover (I did the one bowl option while the 'skid' and DH did the all you can eat option). So I got to bring my leftovers home. :) They also gave us a sample of their tart frozen yogurt...I loved it but DH wasn't a fan (I ate both of ours lol).

Hopefully the pic I posted works...I'm using a different computer than usual (and IE 6) and it's not showing up in my Compose screen...I added it via HTML code so hopefully it will work. Note: yeah it didn't work and I don't have the patience to deal with it...so I'll post it tomorrow from my other computer.

It's getting hot in here...

Le sigh! At 10:00 last night when I went to bed it was 85 degrees in my living room....this morning when I got up at 5:45am it was still 79. I'm just thankful we have AC in our bedroom so we can sleep at night...I actually moved my work laptop in there yesterday afternoon and worked on documentation from bed. LOL.

Last night I made a delicious dinner though I was breaking a sweat the whole time. I really wanted sweet potato fries but really didn't want to turn on the oven. No SP fries for me. :(

Super Sloppy Joe's
Adapted from Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
• 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey breast
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon steak seasoning blend, such as McCormick brand Montreal Seasoning
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2c chopped carrots
  
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Trader Joe's multi grain hamburger buns

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and meat to the pan. Spread the meat around the pan and begin to break it up.

Add sugar and Montreal Steak seasoning to the skillet and combine. When the meat has browned, add onion and red peppers to the skillet. Reduce heat to medium and cook onions, peppers, red wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce with meat for 5 minutes.

Add tomato sauce and paste to pan. Stir to combine. Cover and reduce heat to simmer and cook Sloppy Joe mixture 5 minutes longer. Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, pile sloppy meat onto bun bottoms and cover with bun tops. I personally eat mine open faced so I can fit more meat/veggies.

This recipe is a fave of ours, and it appeared the 'skid' liked it a lot as well (he went back for a 2nd sandwich). The hubs wasn't hungry when he got home from his 2nd job, when it gets hot he doesn't eat as much. I hear a lot of people say that, I am so envious...my appetite is not deterred by anything (except for stomach viruses). I swear I am a bottomless pit.

We also went for froyo before DH had to go to his 2nd job yesterday...which hit the spot.

Last night when I went to bed I asked the 'skid' if he wanted me to wake him up this morning for a run. He said yes...I figured he'd just roll over and go back to sleep at 5:45 when I woke him up but he got up and was ready to run. Here are the stats from our run, I think the ascent/descent numbers are a little high but I could be wrong I suppose. Our first mile was all uphill and we were still waking up. I'm very happy with miles 2 and 3. I woke up with a raging headache this morning (despite drinking a gallon of water yesterday easily), so I wasn't into more than 3 miles.

We came back and made protein shakes, mine was a Green Monster with the following:
1 cup ff cow's milk
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition chocolate whey
1/3 frozen banana
5 strawberries
1 TB Natural Peanut butter
4c baby spinach

The 'skid' had
1 cup Simply Orange Orange Mango juice
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition vanilla whey
2/3 frozen banana
5 strawberries

Definitely hits the spot after a sweaty morning run (it was pretty humid).

I think we'll either hole up in the bedroom with laptops or maybe make a trek to Starbucks for awhile to keep cool. Our house has zero shade and has east/west facing windows so we just get hammered, oh and crappy insulation. I'm bitter, can you tell? Oh well, I guess at least our house is still worth more than the mortgage so I should be thankful for that!

We're Jammin'

I can't think of a better way to start a sunny Summer day than a little Bob Marley, so that's what I listened to on my way home from the gym this morning. It's going to be mucho hot here all week so early morning workouts are in my cards for the week. I find that I entirely lack motivation by about 2pm on days when it is HOT in my house, so even a gym workout is going to be in the morning.

I got up at 5am with the hubs, ate a slice of Faux-zekial cinnamon raisin toast with some blackberry preserves and headed out to the gym.

Here is my workout:

Cardio warmup: Treadmill, 7 minutes - .9 miles.

Dumbbell lateral raise 3x10 @ 15lbs
Standing Dumbbell Triceps extension 3x10 @ 20lb db

Cardio burst: 5 minutes (1 minute @ 6.0mph, 30 seconds at 10mph for 5 minutes alternating) 2 min cooldown

Dumbbell chest fly 3x10 @ 15lb dbs
Dumbbell upright row 3x10 @ 15lb dbs

Cardio burst: 5 minutes + 2minute cooldown
0:00 - 1:00 6.5mph
1:00 - 2:00 7.0mph
2:00 - 3:00 7.5mph
3:00 - 4:00 8.0mph
4:00 - 5:00 8.5mph

Dumbbell bench press 3x10 @ 30lb dbs
Pushups 3x10
Crunches 3x25

Cardio: 10 minutes on the treadmill average 7:50 pace I think. 5 minutes cooldown.

I came home and made a big bowl of yum, 1/2c Fage, 1/2c Kashi Heart 2 Heart, 1/2c Kashi Go Lean crunch, and a bunch of sliced strawberries. Sooo good.

Megan @ MegaNerdRuns is having a sweet Chobani giveaway! Check it out now. :)

Lazy Sunday

So I had the intention of running this morning but decided to take the day off. LOL. I got up and had a delicious berry green monster and read blogs. I finished the new Jennifer Weiner book today, Best Friends Forever. I'm a fan of most of her books, but I was a little hesitant on this one. I took my book and headed down to the local Starbucks this morning for an iced, venti americano with caramel drizzle and settled down to read for awhile. I ended up finishing the book this afternoon and really enjoyed it, the book definitely did not end the way that I thought it would (in a good way). It had a little bit of a mystery to it, but basically told the story of two girls that were best friends growing up but drifted apart during high school. I highly recommend this book.

I went to Trader Joe's after a little reading to get my Fage and Morningstar pizza burger fix. I came home and made myself a big bowl of Fage, kashi go lean crunch, and some strawberries.

For lunch I had leftovers from last night's dinner, dinner tonight is flank steak, chicken satay, roasted zucchini/squash/mushrooms, and some whole wheat sourdough from TJ's.

It's so freaking hot in my house, it's supposed to be very hot here all week so I'll be getting up early this week for my workouts. I find that by this time of the day I have ZERO energy when it's hot, so even a gym workout is out of the question.

Happy Saturday!

So my morning was super busy and I didn't have time to blog, hopefully I can remember my workout.

Last night I went to Happy Hour with two of my oldest friends (from Middle School) and a couple of newer friends. :) What I thought was going to be a fairly early evening ended up being 6 hours of happy hour. No complaints, and I kept myself in check by only having 3 Corona Lights. But even that was enough to make me retain water all day long, alcohol has that effect on me. I knew at the gym this morning before I stepped on the scale that the number would be up. My engagement ring is pretty loose most of the time and it took a few pulls to get it off. So when I hopped on the scale and the number was UP 4lbs this week, no biggie. No way did I consume enough calories this week to actually gain 4lbs LOL.

Here's my workout from today:

8 minute treadmill warmup (avg 8:45 mile).

DB bicep curls 3x10 @ 17.5lbs
DB pullover on stability ball 3x10 @ 15lbs
Hammer curl with rope attachment 3x10 @ 40lbs
Triceps pushdown with rope attachment 3x10 @ 50lbs
Lying dumbbell triceps extensions 3x10 @ 12.5lb dbs

HIIT cardio session 23 minutes.
5 minute warmup (6.5mph)
3 sets (1:00 @ 8.0 mph/1:00 @ 6.0mph)
4 sets (:45s @ 9.0mph/ 1:00 @ 6.0mph)
4 sets (:30s @ 10.0mph/ 1:00 @ 6.0mph)
5 minute cooldown

I then rushed home for a green monster and shower.

Then off to meet the BFF for an early matinee. We saw The Ugly Truth which I actually really enjoyed, I laughed out loud a lot and was entertained. I was naughty and snuck in a big bottle of water and some of the peanut buttery bars I made the other night for us to share. I also bought a small popcorn because quite frankly I have a hard time watching a movie without it in the theater. I could probably eat a whole large size by myself (and then feel like warmed over ass after the movie, I lack the filter that tells me I am full).

I went into mall because I wanted to get some new running socks, all of mine are losing their elasticity. With the Nordstorm Anniversary Sale going on I thought they might have some socks on sale and they did! I got 2 packs of new socks to try.

Nike no-show Shox cushioned socks Normally $16 for 2 pair, on sale for $10.00
Nike Drifit no-show sports socks Normally $15 for 2 pair, on sale for $9.

I'm thinking I'll try out the cushioned socks tomorrow since I'm planning a 6.5 mile run when I get up.

I also may have stopped for froyo on the way home. I stopped at Coldstone first but they only have some berry froyo and I'm a plain girl. So I got back in the car and went to my usual place. Mmmmmm.....plain froyo with coconut. I sat outside and caught up on some blog reading while I ate. :)

Okay, my Netflix of Entourage season 1 arrived today so I'm vegging out to that tonight and cooking dinner at home (quinoa, veggies, marinara).

TGIF!

Busy, busy Friday. I've been on the phone all day it seems. :)

Quick update for the middle of my day, and a few fun links.

Breakfast this morning was the last of my container of Fage (I used the tub for a bowl LOL). 1/2c Kashi Go Lean Crunch (Honey Almond Flax) and 1/2 Multi-grain Cheerios, and 6 sliced strawberries.

Morning snack was a Key Lime Pie Larabar. This was my first time with a Larabar and it will NOT be my last. This was so delicious, the texture was great and I love the short ingredients list of whole foods that I recognize.

• Dates
• Cashews
• Almonds
• Unsweetened Coconut
• Lime Juice Concentrate

I managed to sneak away for a lunch break run, the 'skid' wanted to go with so off the two of us went. I don't know if he was going easy on me, or if I'm not as old and slow as I think but there was never any separation in our running. At the end he was going fast and I kept up (though his legs are WAY longer) and even pulled ahead! Here are the stats from our run, I am going to really like running with him while he's here and quite honestly it is nice to have something that just him and I can do WITHOUT the hubs.

After our run I made a quick Green Monster and got back to work. I made my choco PB cup flavor one, the 'skid' had a sip and I could tell he was surprised it didn't taste like spinach (I could see him watching me add the spinach). Maybe we'll get another convert to the GM Movement?

Without further adieu, here are some fun links if you need some Friday/Weekend reading material.

First off some EYE candy for the ladies.... Becks courtesy of Twirlit.
Yummy Tummy courtesy of Twirlit, I'd like to give the cami a try!
Electronic Cigarettes? WTF! Courtesy of Fit Sugar.

My laptop can suck it

I had this great post planned out that I wanted to write....about 4 hours ago. I finally have my laptop up and running again, from a July 7th restore point. Go me. I have gotten through 4 episodes of Entourage. I'm officially HOOKED. I was watching last season on HBO On Demand. I need to get my hands on the first 5 seasons ASAP.

Anyways, I also made some of Tina's Peanut Buttery Bars too. This time I used honey in place of agave nectar, I think I like the honey better.

Okay, I'm tired and want to read. I took today off from working out, my body needed it.

P.S. I also wanted to thank everyone for their kind words yesterday, I think it was a lot of PMS and stress from being the 'go-to' support person for a week that just drained my sanity. I was much better today, it's hard when everyone is testing for new deployment and I just want to help out (and the only thing I can really do is to take support analysis off their shoulders).

Colossal Meltdown

Okay, I admit it. I had a freaking meltdown this afternoon. I don't know if it's the heat (and lack of AC in my office) getting to me, or the fact that I've been doing email support for work for like a week straight now due to vacations...or some PMS. I think it's likely a combination of all three. To be honest, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I wish I did. I like to think something to do with fitness and nutrition would fit me, but maybe I'd get sick of that too. In an ideal world I'd of course be independently wealthy, travel a lot, and of course sit by a pool with handsome pool boys to fan me with huge leaves. But we all know it isn't an ideal world. So I sucked it up and finished my work just in time to sign off and head to the gym.

I did the following workout (variation of Gina's Summer Shape up)

Warmup: 10 minutes on the treadmill plus 5 minute cooldown (worked out to about 1.7 miles).

-Leg extension machine 1x10 @ 100lbs, 2x10 @ 80lbs
-Calf raises on a step 3x10
-Squat jumps (as many as you can for 1 minute total)
-Lunges (twisting with medicine ball) 3x10 @ 10lb ball
-Jumping jacks (as many as you can for 1 minute)
-Stability ball hamstring curl 3x10
-Wall squats (Hold for 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest in between; 3 times)
-Dolphin plank (hold 30 seconds) then do a side plank for 30 seconds, other side 30 seconds, then back to dolphin plank for 30 seconds) - I did 3 of these.

Cardio: 10 minutes on the treadmill plus 5 minute cooldown (worked out to about 1.7 miles).

After that I went to Costco because I needed spinach (fortunately Costco is right around the corner from the gym).

So I made a new recipe for dinner tonight. It was VERY easy and VERY delicious. I was nervous, I admit....but it was delicious. I made the following recipe (from recipezaar.com) for pulled chicken sandwiches in the Crock Pot.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Pulled-Chicken-Sandwiches-Crock-Pot-242547

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced or 1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
  Note: When I make this again I will likely use 2 onions, they were the star of the dish.
  
  
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Sauce

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
  Note: I didn't have any on hand so I omitted this and it was fine.
  
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. Cut the onion in half and slice into thin half rings. Line the bottom of the crock pot with the onions.

2. Trim the chicken breasts and place on top of the bed of onions.

3. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together and pour on top of the chicken covering completely.
   

4. Cook for 6 hours on low setting. The sauce thickens and turns into a dark rich brown during cooking. At the same time the onions dissolve into the sauce.

5. When the chicken is falling apart tender, take two forks and shred the chicken.

I actually had mine in a bowl since I didn't feel like a sandwich roll.

I also had a sweet potato (wanted fries but didn't want to turn on oven) and some sauteed zucchini, summer squash, and 'shrooms.

Jada has been busy tonight sleeping in her saucer bed. We call it the Little Grey Bed. For a little grey cat, obviously!
Cooper is lounging on the couch with me.

Make sure to get in your last minute votes for Danica!!!!!! Danica's Nectarine Raspberry Sorbet

Super Busy!

Today is one of those days were I just can't seem to eat enough. It's weird because it has been hot here, and I know the heat lessens the appetite of a lot of people. I wish it would reduce my appetite! I seem to eat as much as ever. Last night we ended up just going out to Thai food for dinner because we wanted to sit in the air conditioning. The hubs and I shared some chicken pad thai and chicken pad see ew. I was craving pad thai (which is rare for me...lol). It was really good though.

I came back home and chatted with my friend Brian online while the hubs went somewhere with his son. I was so tired last night from my lack of sleep the night before. I took a melatonin too, I don't know if it was just being tired but about 20 minutes later we were watching tv and I just passed out. I slept until DH's alarm without even a potty break. I usually wake up at least once to pee, I drink a lot of water and it's just par for the course. Even if I don't drink any for a few hours before bed I still wake up at some point and have to go.

I'm planning to hit the gym and Costco (need spinach) after work. It's a pretty light legs workout (okay a lot of legs, not much cardio which I'm cool with).

I had oats for b-fast this morning (1/2c oats, 3/4c water, 1/4c ff cow's milk, 1/2 mashed banana, 1 big TB natural chunky PB, and a sprinkle of Kashi Go Lean Crunch). I also had a small bowl of cold watermelon.

I had a pb cup Green Monster mid-morning. But only had about 3 cups of spinach left.

Lunch was a leftover bb burger, some pepperjack cheese, avocado, and tomato on a toasted Orowheat sandwich thin with 1 wedge of Laughing Cow Light Swiss smeared on. It was soooo good. I also ate a Kashi Trail Mix bar...I really want to eat more.

Janetha is having a sweet 100th post giveaway you should checkout!

Labor of Love

This morning was TUFF (yes, I meant to misspell tough...inside joke). I knew I had to be up at 5:30 for my run, to start work at 6:30 since I have to leave at 8:30 to pickup the 'skid' from the aeropuerto. I tried to go to sleep at 10, but of course I had another bout of insomnia (mental note: pickup melatonin tonight). I don't think I fell asleep until 11:30 or closer to midnight. The hubs overslept this morning (his alarm goes off at 4:45, which he turned OFF. I told him at 5 that it was 5 and he bit my head off....so of course I was gloating when he freaked out at 5:15 about the time). I couldn't fall back asleep so I just got up (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).

I choked down a Kashi TLC bar because my tummy was about to eat itself. Leaving the house at 5:30am is as close to a sunrise run as you'll get in Seattle in the Summer. It was already very light out, but the sun was just starting to rise. I didn't take my running sunglasses 'cause it wasn't super bright, thankfully I didn't regret that decision.

I started off super slow, as you can see by my Garmin stats:

I think it takes a few miles for my legs to wake up. I did my fave 4.2 mile loop (with the monster hill). Some dude was hanging out the window of his truck waving at me, I seriously wonder about people sometimes. I ran to the top of our hill, and wanted to run a little more so I ran around our little neighborhood a few times. Came in the house to this:


His tummy was also eating itself...you can see their catnip banana in the background. The hubs laughed at me when I brought it home for them, but the love it. What can I say, my cats like fruit? They also LOVE their catnip cherry (they've gone through two of them, one had the stuffing coming out).

Fed the beasts, took a shower, then made a green monster. I'm a nice kitty mommy and don't turn on the blender while they are eating since they hate loud noises.

By request...a pic of my haircut. The cut looks the same, I just got color done. I should have taken a pic on Saturday, I have ZERO patience for doing my own hair, so it never looks as good.
Pardon my messy kitchen.

I have my Starbizzle FREE PASTRY coupon printed out. For those on the West Coast you have until 10:30 to get your free pastry. :) I'm going to stop and get mine on the way to the airport. :)

ALSO! Make sure to vote for Danica's Nectarine Raspberry Sorbet over fresh fruit! She's in the top 5 for the myrecipes.net best summer dessert contest! The contest ends on THURSDAY!

Enjoy the Silence!

Tomorrow morning my stepson is arriving in town to stay with us for three weeks. So tonight I enjoy my freedom LOL (kidding, kinda). It's funny but it does change a lot in our household when he's here. The little things really. He's 16 so it's not like he's a little kid, but I still like to make sure he eats while the hubs is at work. LOL. I'm trying to plan dinners for the week, tomorrow night is kind of up in the air but I am thinking about making shrimp and goat cheese risotto. Wednesday night is pulled bbq chicken sammiches (easy because I can dump it all in the crock pot on Weds morning). Thursday I'm thinking about making the Shrimp po' boys in this month's Cooking Light that Jenna was raving about a few weeks ago.

Not much went on this afternoon, just work and then I ran to the library to pick up the new Jennifer Weiner book (I was lucky enough to get on the hold list as soon as they opened it up, so I got a "first" copy).

My bestie is in town this weekend from Spokane so I've got plans with her Friday and Saturday. YAY!

My afternoon snack was the usual...1/2c 0% Fage, sliced strawberries, 1/4c of Kashi Go Lean Crunch - Honey Almond Flax.

Dinner tonight was chopped veggies and chicken in TJ's Thai red curry sauce with quinoa. I chopped up 1 zucchini, 1 red bell pepper, 1 can of bamboo shoots, 1/2 Walla Walla sweet onion, and a bunch of mushrooms. Quick and easy. :)

At the request of the hubs I made Choc. Chip cookies for his co-workers. I did not eat a single one, yet it is the only food I took a pic of today. LOL. I did lick the Kitchen Aid paddle though (hellooooo Salmonella). He already picked up the cookies to take to them, so no chance of eating one.

This recipe is delicious and I like how 'pretty' the cookies come out looking. I use this recipe from allrecipes.net.

Amanda @ Run To The Finish has a great tofu giveaway going on make sure to check it out!

Manic Monday!

Okay not really. But the weekend was pretty busy. My eating choices weren't always the best but I did manage to abstain from alcohol, which is something that is a huge trigger point for poor eating decisions for me. It's like a double whammy, not only do you get all the added calories from the alcohol (plus the water retention) but then Taco Bell sounds gourmet and you want to eat about 10 dang quesadillas. Who else is with me on this?

Work is busy today, I have a co-worker out on vacay for a few weeks. But I like being busy. I took a little extra time and did my workout at lunch today, tomorrow is super busy so I have to have a run EARLY in the morning.

Today's workout:

Cardio warmup: 7 minutes (.92 miles I think). Plus 3 minutes cooldown.

Lat pulldowns: 3x10 @ 75lbs
DB Chest press: 3x10 @ 35lb dbs (my arms were shaking)
DB Shoulder press: 3x8 @ 20lb dbs (my arms were too tired to go for 10 reps)

Cardio: 7 minutes (.95 miles) Plus 3 minutes cooldown

Standing barbell Upright Row: 3x10 @ 40lb
Cross body shoulder raises: 3x10 @ 8lb dbs (I can't actually find a pic of this, it's like a snatch motion with a lateral raise). I'll keep looking and update if I find one. LOL

Cardio: 17 minutes (2.2 miles approx). 5 minutes cooldown

I slept a lot last night, I only got 6 hours of crappy sleep on Saturday night. Last night I seriously was dosing off between 7:30 - 9:00 and finally fell asleep at 9 for good. Woke up at 6:00 feeling great.

Eats:

2 cups of coffee

Oatmeal (1/2c oats, 3/4 c water, 1/2 mashed banana, 1/2TB natural PB, and a couple of melted chocolate chips + 2TB ff cow's milk).

Mid morning snack was a PB cup Green Monster.

Lunch was a leftover Black Bean burger from last week (with a little pepperjack cheese melted on top to hold it together) with guac, spinach, and tomato on a Orowheat whole wheat sandwich thin. A bunch of grapes and a handful of pistachios.

This post officially sucks because there is no picture...so I shall pick something random out of the My Pictures folder to entertain all 7.75 readers.

First two images are of course courtesy of LOLCats.



I have NO idea where I got the pic of Mark Mangino and Obie (the Syracuse Orange mascot). Maybe here?

Taking it Easy yo!

Last night the husband and I cooked up a delicious dinner! He manned the grill, we had 3 small steaks we needed to use up (two little pieces of filet mignon and one small top sirloin). I sauteed up some shrimp in a little olive oil and canola margarine with some garlic and cajun seasoning. I also sauteed some zucchini and mushrooms in olive oil and cayenne pepper for some zip. Dinner was delicious. We also went for froyo after dinner, I had my usual a plain yogurt with coconut on top. Sooo good, I just love the texture.

This morning the hubs had to go into work for awhile, I more or less woke up with him at 5:45. I got a solid 8 hours of sleep last night and felt great this morning. I laid in bed and petted Cooper and Jada. I got up and fed them (and myself). I had a slice of spelt flour cinnamon raisin toast with a touch of almond butter and headed out to the gym.

I knew I needed to take it easy on the legs so I started with 12 minutes on the elliptical at a moderate pace.

I then did bits and pieces of Gina's Summer Shape up.
Dumbbell hammer curl 3x10 @ 20lb dbs
reverse plank (hold 30-45 seconds) 3 x held for 45 seconds each

I then did a cardio burst on the tread. I did 4 x of 1:00 @ 6.5mph and 1:00 @ 9.0mph. Then did a 4 minute gradual cooldown.

Triceps dip assist 3x8 @ 24lbs assist.
Straight bar cable bicep curl 3x10 @ 50lbs
standing triceps extension 3x10 @ 20lbs
long arm crunch 3x20

I skipped the rest of the cardio to rest my legs, came home and made a huge Green Monster.

There are a few sweet giveaways going on!

Erica is giving away some Mix1!
Ruby is giving away a copy of Jillian Michaels' book Making The Cut.

I'm about to shower and head out to get my hairs did. Enjoy your Saturday everyone. :)

Friday's run stats

Here they are:

Friday Almuerzo

I got up at 5:45 for my mile repeats this morning, my legs felt like bricks to be honest. I didn't get 8 hours of sleep last night, whether that played into it or not I don't know. What I do know is that I felt like I weighed 400lbs, but my times were less than last week so I obviously pushed through it but I never felt great during my run. I have the stats on my Garmin but they are upstairs, will upload a pic in a bit. I did 3 mile repeats and then a cooldown of a slow 1.5 miles (I just kinda kept going, it was a beautiful morning and there was a beautiful hawk sitting on the fence by the track, so I was intrigued by him/her when it left, I left LOL).

I came home, gave the cats breakfast. Once they were done eating I made a Green Monster (Chocolate PB cup style, soooo good).

Morning snack was 1/2c 0% Fage, 1/2c Kashi go lean crunch, last of my strawberries all sliced up.

Lunch was leftover chicken/beans/corn from last night into a flat out with some hummus and pepperjack cheese like a dang quesadilla. And the last of my riceworks Sweet Chili brown rice chips (it's mostly crumbs though, sadness). I'm sure I'll have some grapes after for dessert.

Never mind our crappy coffee table, I'm watching some fine tv (Real World: Cancun) on the DVR.

Freebie alert: Print this out for a free pastry (with beverage purchase) from their new line on 7/21! Starbucks is debuting their newly remastered pastries, I'm excited about the changes they've made. :)

Changes include: no trans fat, no artificial ingredient and no high fructose/corn syrup. I'll be stopping by for sure. :)

Happy Friday Eve!

It's a beautiful, warm evening here in the Seattle area. I was so happy I got my run in early, and I'm going to do the same tomorrow (mile repeats at the track) since I know it's going to be warm again tomorrow. Saturday morning I'll hit the gym for my bicep/tricep workout.

I was feeling lazy after work today so I did some basic strength workout. I did 4x10 sets of scorpion push ups. I also did some bicycle crunches.

I'm sitting here watching the KFC World Cup of Softball. I admit, I am super in love with Jennie Finch's hamstrings, I know weird fascination right? I seriously cannot stop staring at them. Sadly I cannot find a good pic of her hamstrings (surprising some dude hasn't put up a picture to gawk at her butt). But this pic shows just how strong her legs are, love 'em seriously.

So for lunch today I had leftover quinoa, chicken, and veggies from last night. Seriously so good, I'm obsessed with this meal.

My snack was 1/2c 0% Fage, 1/3c Kashi Go Lean Crunch - Honey Almond Flax, and some sliced strawberries.

Dinner tonight was a Hugh Jass taco salad. It had: romaine, chicken, corn, black beans, red bell pepper, tomato, guac, and a lot of salsa. I also added a few riceworks red chili chips for crunch. It was delicious!

And now some cute kitty pix!

Cooper stretched out on the floor, you can see the tip of Jada's ear along the bottom, she was trying to get all up in my bidness. :)


I guess what goes around comes around, Cooper stuck his tail in Jada's pic.

I can't think of anything better...

Nice title, right? I don't think anyone reads them anyways.

So I actually woke up before my alarm went off this morning (only 4 minutes early). Which is surprising because it was far less than my usual 8 hours. I strapped up with my gear and took off for a run. My intention was to take it super slow this morning, which is good because my body didn't want to go any faster. I didn't think about it, but I did my leg workout yesterday afternoon and I finished at 5:15pm. I left for my run at 5:50am, yeah barely more than 12 hours of rest.

I also didn't eat anything before I left, but I really don't think they played into it. One thing I've noticed is that when I workout first thing I don't drink as much coffee (if any). I did drink one cup this morning after my delicious Green Monster (chocolate peanut butter cup style).

I have to leave at 9:30 for a 10:30am meeting, I'll probably be home at 1:30pm. I have a quick Costco stop I'll make on the way home because I need more spinach, and I will drive right by a Costco. I'm trying to figure out what food to take with me to eat during my meeting. Probably a wrap and some grapes. I'm already the weird food person and I rarely go into the office. The last lunch time meeting we had there was pizza, I took a bar of some sort to eat while everyone else had pizza. I made a deal with myself that if it was GOOD pizza I would eat some (like Pagliacci, for the Seattle locals). But if it was crap like Domino's I would eat the bar. Yeah, it didn't look good so I ate the bar.

I don't think I look overly skinny (I hate that word btw) because I do carry a lot of muscle mass (especially around my shoulders) but I got some comments like "you need to eat some pizza, put some meat on your bones". Ahh, typical "Lazy B" culture...

I digress, I suppose I should do some work before I leave. ;)

Over the Hump

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, I'm getting my hair done Saturday morning and hopefully meeting the lovely Debra for lunch after. :)

I was a busy bee again this afternoon, I like being busy at work though it keeps me out of trouble. Tomorrow will be super busy so I will probably only do an evening post. I have support duties again tomorrow, and have to drive into the office for a meeting in the middle of the day (in Renton, at least it is after the morning rush hour(s) and before the afternoon rush). I'm going to try to wake up early to get in a run BEFORE work hours. LOL. Famous last words (although I'm usually very good about it when I know that is the only time I have during the day).

I had a pre-workout snack before I headed out to the gym (a Kashi TLC trail mix bar and a couple of dried apricots). I'm trying to decide if I should buy a foot pod for my Garmin so that I can use it at the gym on the treadmill, the husband rolled his eyes at me when I suggested it (okay so we were on the phone, but I KNOW he was rolling them). What do y'all think?

My workout was A-MAZING (like I predicted HA).

It was based off of Gina's Summer Shape up Leg day, but I didn't like some of the exercises so I mixed and matched.

Warmup:
10 minutes on the tread (2.25 miles) plus 3 minute gradual cooldown.

Stability ball back extension - 3x15
reverse lunge 3x10 @ 15lb db
captain's chair leg raise 3x15

Treadmill hill run: 9 minutes alternating incline between 1.0 and 6.0 @ 7.0mph. 3 minute gradual cooldown.

booty booster (slide 5) 3x15
dumbbell squat 2x12 @ 22.5lb dbs
dumbbell front squat 2x12 @ 15lb dbs
Stability ball Ab crunch 3x15 done very slow with a pause on both passes (abs were on FIRE)

Cardio: 17 minutes on elliptical, varying incline, resistence between 7 and 12.

I came home and fed Cooper & Jada, took a quick shower, and made dinner. I was so hungry I forgot to take a pic. I cut up 1 whole Walla Walla sweet onion (love), 1.5 red pepper, 1 zucchini, and a bunch of big mushrooms (stuffing size), and 1 chicken boobie. Sauteed in a little extra virgin olive oil (1 turn of the pan). Added 1 cup of marinara and simmered while I cooked up 1/2c quinoa. This was two HUGE servings (and I was HANGRY).

Gonna kick back and rot my brain with some Bejeweled Blitz.

Oh, I almost forgot. Danica @ Danica's Daily has an AMAZING Annie's giveaway, you'd be CRAZY not to enter.