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?

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!

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.

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!

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?

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.

The Best Laid Plans...

So I had actually planned to lunch/relax during my lunch break today. Unfortunately for me it didn't happen. :( I decided to spend my time chopping veggies for tonight's dinner, I'm heading to the gym after work and it's nice to be able to just throw dinner on the stove after I get home and shower. By then my stomach is usually about to start eating itself. While chopping veggies, the DH called and needed computer help so I was multi tasking. UGH...but here is the cute kitty pic of Cooper and Jada yesterday. We have this ugly as sin old Ikea chair that they love to sleep on (they also have a heated cat bed that detects their weight and activates, but I unplugged it for the Summer). Spoiled little beasts!

Breakfast was what I call the GI Jane Green Monster. It came out Army Green today. Lots of spinach, blueberries, and strawberries. LOL. It tasted amazing though!

Morning snack was 1/2c 0% Fage, 1/2c Kashi Go Lean Crunch (Honey Almond Flax), and some sliced strawberries.

For lunch I heated up one of my leftover black bean burgers for a wrap. A wrap is much better because they are super fragile.


Leftover roasted sweet potato wedges

And a bunch of camera shy grapes that I am currently munching on as I type this (and listen to a conference call). I cannot wait for my workout this afternoon, I have a feeling it's going to be a good one.

There are some fantastic giveaways right now!

Some compression shorts and amazing running socks @ Run To The Finish.

Kelly from Every Gym's Nightmare has an amazing Artisana nut butter giveaway.

Busy Worker Bee

So I've been meaning to post since before lunch but I've been too busy with work, every time I clear something off my plate something else comes up. Tuesdays are always busy for me at my job, it's the day I have to answer all support queries for our project so it's a lot of email all day long. I was happy that I got my run in at lunch (I pretty much cleared my plate and marked myself away for lunch as fast as possible LOL). I'm happy that I shaved about 5 seconds off my time for the hilly mile. But otherwise my times are almost identical to the times I ran this route at a few weeks ago.


So I was going to post last night after I made the black bean burgers...but I was really just too pissy and wanted to wallow in self pity. First I blended the peppers and onions together, which resulted in an epic failure because I blended too much and it was liquefied. A food processor is really necessary for this. Next time I'd just saute the peppers and onions and call it good. So to try to save my mixture I added ANOTHER can of beans and another scoop of oatmeal. It helped but they were still a little soft.

Well to add insult to injury I was slicing a sweet potato for oven fries, and a couple of baby reds for DH and I freaking cut my finger with the sharp knife. Right around the finger nail bed. BRILLIANT! Stupid thing wouldn't freaking stop bleeding, it didn't hurt but was just an annoyance. So yeah, all I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself. I had my burger on an Orowheat sandwich thin (my first time with one), some TJ's guacamole and tomato. The flavor of the burgers was outstanding (I used cumin, chili powder, and Tapatio hot sauce). I can't wait to make them again and recitfy the issues I had.

I had a delicious Green Monster for breakfast (along with my java). Morning snack was pre-run fuel (Rainier Organic bakery cinnamon raisin toast with TB of Almond butter).

Lunch was a wrap (morningstar farms, hummus, tomato, avocado, cucumber, and spinach), some rice works sweet chili chips, and a bunch of grapes.

I have a cute cat picture but I don't have time to upload it now (have to use my other computer), but I will post it later. :) Work beckons.....the things we do for a paycheck!

Sleep!

Yeah last night I slept like crap, I took a long nap yesterday afternoon so I know that factored in. There was also a cop that pulled someone over right in front of our house flashing his lights in the window. I went to bed at like 9:30 and finally feel asleep around midnight I'd guess, got up a few times and used the computer to try to make my eyes tired. This rarely happens to me anymore, and it is usually when DH is gone (which he wasn't last night). As a kid I had a lot of sleep issues, horrible insomnia all the way through high school. College wasn't an issue because I rarely went to bed before 3am, and was always exhausted when my head hit the pillow. Usually I don't have an issue with sleep now but when I do I get so frustrated, and it only makes it worse because I want to sleep so badly. Sometimes I think that I might try melatonin but I don't know if it is worth it since it's usually only when DH is gone.

So I got up this morning and thought I had a doctor's appointment in Seattle with my cardiologist. I had a couple of cups of coffee and a most delicious GM. It was ugly looking!

1 cup of nonfat cow's milk
1 scoop ON vanilla whey
4 cups of spinach
1TB almond butter
4 strawberries
1/4 cup of frozen blueberries
1/4 cup of frozen raspberries
1/2 frozen banana
1.5c of crushed ice

This one was a total winner!

My appointment ended up getting rescheduled because my cardiologist had an emergency patient. I already had the time scheduled off so I decided to just take the afternoon off. :)

Ate a slice of Rainier Organic Bakery cinnamon raisin toast with some almond butter for a pre-workout snack. This toast is tasty, mostly the same as Ezekial but was a lot cheaper at TJ's and is also a local bakery! SCORE!

I had an insane workout today and I freaking loved it. I used Gina's Summer Shape up Week 9.

Warmup: 2 miles @ 15:34. 5 minute cooldown

Assisted pull up 1x10 @ 30lbs assist. 1x10 @ 35lbs assist. 1x10 @ 54lbs assist focusing on negatives to really build my back.
Unilateral shoulder press 3x10 each side w/ 15lb db. Love these, and my shoulders feel so much better this week after a full week on the new mattress. Next week I'm going to bump back up to what I was lifting before.
Walk out push up 3x10 (I hate these...really, HATE...)
Cardio blast- mountain climbers (1 minute)
double-arm dumbbell raise 3x10 @ 20lb db
incline fly press-out combo (can do on the floor instead) 3x10 @ 15lb dbs on an incline bench
medicine ball pullover 3x10 w/ 15 lb medicine ball.

3x25 stability ball crunches

Cardio: 20 minutes on treadmill. Roughly 2.6 miles. 5 minute cooldown.

I threw some lunch together when I got home (was famished). Spinach salad with hummus, cucumber, and tomato. And a crack wrap (flat out, hummus, a little jalepeno cheese).

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these new Nike dri fit tanks I picked up, I hate wearing shirts with sleeves when I work out. These are cut perfect, are nice and long in length (helps a lot when doing pushups and such). Sports Authority near me had them on sale for $15.99 through 7/18 (normally $20.99). I might have to go pick up a few more in some other colors.

I'm looking forward to dinner tonight. Both Danica and Megan have made black bean burgers lately, so I'm going to make some tonight! Yum!

Whit is a fan of giving, so make sure to go enter her birthday giveaway. So much good stuff!

Quick Weekend check in

This is going to be a quick one, this weekend has been so busy and I'm trying to clean the house. I thought I'd post really quick while a load of laundry finishes. :)

Yesterday I did my mile repeats (3 miles, plus one super slow mile cooldown). My legs wanted to give up, I ended up taking today off of all physical activity (sans cleaning). I screwed up my timing with the Garmin so my first lap around the track was a total wash time wise. Oh get this, I went to the local high school at like 6:15 yesterday morning to get this workout in since I knew the rest of the day would be busy.

There was a group of guys doing landscaping and no one else using the facilities. Since I have all these random irrational fears, I figured better safe than sorry. As I went to get in my car and leave they were mowing the field in that area so I'm walking with the key to my car (Volkswagen switchblade key) out thinking if they try to kidnap me I'll be all tough and stab them with my key. Yeah, I'm genius.


Went home, showered and got dressed and hit Starbucks with the hubby. I was so happy! They had the venti cold cups there, so I got one. These are so great (and BPA free), I find that I drink a lot more water when I have a straw. LOL. They had about ten there, of course after that we find out they are super hard to find, so we went back this morning to buy the rest and of course they were sold out. C'est la vie!

Quick run down of eats...

Friday dinner: Indian. DH and I split an order of lamb tikka masala and baigan burtha with some roti. We were stuffed but went for froyo. I got a small plain with coconut and white choco chips. DH got a kids size (lol) plain with peanut butter cup pieces. We both ate about three bites and got lids to take it home.

Saturday: pre-workout fuel was a Kashi honey almond flax bar. After workout recovery was a green monster with protein. Lunch was a grilled chicken sandwich and a small salad. Dinner was naughty...we went to the local bar and shared an order of boneless buffalo wings (extra hot) and a chicken fajita wrap.

Today: Worst...Green...Monster.... EVER. Seriously. It was so gross I plugged my nose to drink. Here's the combo to never do...

1 cup cow's milk
4 cups spinach
1/2c frozen blueberries
1/2c frozen raspberries
1/2 frozen banana
1TB almond butter

I think it was the blueberries and raspberries together, but it was freaking gross.

DH and I went to Sports Authority to get some gear, I found some Nike tanks for cheap! Then we did Pho for lunch since it's grey and gross today.

Ok, laundry done. Lates!

TGIF!

Ahhh happy Friday all! I was looking out my office window this morning and saw the following:

Very low, I hope everything was okay with it though there is a park on the other side of the trees so maybe they were just putting it down there. We see a lot of balloons here in the summer, they are so pretty. :)

I had one of my most delicious Green Monsters this morning. I think it was the fresh spinach I bought last night...it was my regular PB cup but it just tasted perfect.

I had a boring snack a few hours later, oats sounded good. I made a bowl that consisted of: 1/2c of quick oats, 1/2 mashed banana, drizzle of unsweetened vanilla almond breeze. It was tasty, though boring looking. :)

After that I hit the gym for an early lunch. I did day 6 of Gina's Summer shape up. I had to make it fast so I did very little rest between sets.

Warmup: 1 mile @ 7:53. 3 minutes of gradual cooldown.

rope pressdown - 3x10 @ 50lbs
Cross chest dumbbell curl - 3x10 @ 17.5lb dumbbells (each arm)
Prestretch triceps extension - 3x10 @ 10lb dbs

Cardio blast: 8 minutes on treadmill variety hill program @ 7.0 mph. 3 minute cooldown.

Tricep pushups - 3x10 full push ups, not on the knees like in the vid.
Dumbbell hammer curl - 3x10 @ 15lb dbs.

Cardio: 13 minutes at around an 8 minute mile. 5 minute cooldown.

I was super hungry when I got home....I made another quesadilla with the crappy fake chicken (it smells really bad cooking, can you tell I am not a fan?)

And a delicious spinach salad with mushrooms, cucumber, tomatoes, and hummus.

And a unpictured bowl of red grapes that I'm eating right now.

I can't wait for the weekend! Though I have to get up early tomorrow morning to do mile repeats (ugh).

Blah

So I set the alarm to get up at 5:45 this morning to run before work....THAT didn't happen. I got up and re-set alarm for 6:30 and went back to bed with Cooper. Had the two cups of coffee like usual, and a PURPLE monster. I had to throw away a few cups of spinach because it went bad (I just bought it on Sunday...grrr). So I only had like 3 cups for my monster, and I forgot to put nut butter in. Doh.


Contents included:

• 1 scoop vanilla whey protein
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 4 sliced strawberries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 3 cups of spinach
• 1/2c of frozen blueberries
• 1.5c of crushed ice
  

It definitely didn't have the sticking power without the fat from the nut butter. :( I really want to get some macadamia nut butter for smoothies, to try to replicate a white chocolate mac nut smoothie. How freakin good would THAT be?

I had a snack around 10:30 of a Kashi trail mix bar and some pistachios (to make up the fat I was missing).

I headed out for a run around 11:30 when my meetings were finished. I'm such a dumbass, I forgot to start my Garmin so I'm missing about a quarter of a mile of time/distance. :( I was really feeling my leg workout from yesterday, I felt exhausted, and wanted to quit...but I was on a loop that takes me far from home so quitting wasn't an option (muahahahaha).


I took a quick shower when I got back, and made some lunch. NOTHING sounded good today, but I was starving. I tried out the MorningStar grillers chicken burger (not the one that is breaded). It looks like it is new since I can't find it on their website. It's not super good, I put it in a flat out with some hummus, shredded pepper jack cheese, black beans, and corn like a dang quesadilla.


To be honest the breaded style "chicken" burger is leaps and bounds better, I don't think I'll buy these again. Fortunately the hummus hid most of the weird taste. I was so hungry I forgot to take a pic. :(

Off to finish the rest of my work day and go to Costco for more spinach.

Wednesday

I'd like to say I was too busy to post today, but really just too lazy. I more or less eat the same stuff every day until dinner time, I'd like to say I mix it up but really I find stuff I like and eat it until I get tired of it. Fortunately since I started blogging I noticed that a lot of people are the same way. I think it is the convenience factor. Anyways...I started my day off with two cups of coffee and then made a sludge monster.

• 1 scoop of ON vanilla whey protein powder
• 1 cup of vanilla unsweetened Almond Breeze
• 4 sliced strawberries
• 4 cups of spinach (the spinach I bought at Costco is going bad FAST this week)
• 1/2c of frozen blueberries
• 1 TB almond butter
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1.5c crushed ice

My morning snack was 1/2c 0% Fage, 6 sliced strawberries.

LUNCH, I was really craving sweet potato fries but we are out of sweet potatoes (cry). Fortunately I had bought a bag of organic red potatoes for DH so I sliced one of those up and baked it with some cayenne pepper. Pretty good, but still not a sweet potato. I also made a wrap today: 1 morningstar burger, hummus, spinach (gotta use it fast), 1/4 'cado, 1/4 tomato. I even grilled it today. Fancy pants!

Hopefully you all have noticed that the quality of my pictures is improving, I started to use my digital camera instead of my craptastic cell camera. Of course this also contributes to the laziness of my posts, see my desktop computer that I use most of the day has no reader for the memory card...so I'm posting now with my laptop since it has the little reader built in. Yeah, I'm lazy.

I grazed a bit for my afternoon snack, I had 6 cubes of fresh pineapple, a few TJ's chocolatey cats (whatever was left in the tub, like 6). Right as I left for the gym I had a Kashi trail mix bar (no pic).

Here is my workout today. I did Gina's summer shape up day 2.

Warmup: 1 mile @ 8:02 + 3 minutes cooldown.

split squats 1x10 @ 20lb dumbbells. 2x10 @ 15lb dbs.
Pilates side leg lift 1x30 each side
Pike up with the ball 3x10 - these are HARD
Seated calf raise 3x12 @ 100lbs

Cardio: Hill intervals
0-1:00 7.0mph 0.0 incline
1:00-2:00 7mph 3.0 incline
2:00 - 3:00 7.0mph 0.0 incline
3:00 - 4:00 7mph 4.0 incline
4:00 - 5:00 7.0mph 0.0 incline
5:00 - 6:00 6.5mph 6.0 incline
6:00 - 7:00 7.0mph 0.0 incline
7:00 - 8:00 7.0mph 6.0 incline
3 minute cooldown

leg extension 3x10 @ 75lbs (legs were TIIIRED after hills)
stability ball hamstring curl 3x12 (I love doing these, I hold for a few seconds at the top)
Weighted plie with calf raise 3x12 with a 30lb db

Cardio: 14 minutes on the elliptical at varying resistence (7-13) and varying crossramp (between 6-13). 5 minute cooldown and stretch.

After that I made dinner. I was totally wanting a big ol taco salad. I poached a few chix breasts early in the day so that all I had to do was shred and cook in seasonings at dinner time.


In my salad: 1 shredded chix breast, 2 cups of mixed greens, 1/2 tomato, handful of corn, a lot of salsa, a little plain yogurt, a little shredded pepper jack cheese, and 1/2 c of black beans...oh and a handful of riceworks sweet chili chips for a little crunch.

And with this I leave you with some random pics that I found on my camera!

Jada!

Cooper! This picture was actually on the local news, they have a morning "pet walk" forecast, and I submitted this picture for Apple Cup petwalk last year. I still have the clip saved on our DVR, such a proud kitty mommy.

And a pic from our last trip to Maui (February 2009), this is at the Ho'okipa Lookout on the North shore of Maui. This is a big windsurfing spot, though none where there the day we stopped in.

Aloha!

Once Upon a Mattress...

Okay so it was a really odd musical, one I played in the band in high school...but I digress. Our new mattress was delivered today and I caught the tail end of DH's nap this afternoon. It is pretty amazing, I can't wait to sleep tonight!

Onto my eats for today, I made something somewhat new for dinner tonight and it came out pretty well.

Lunch:

Hugh Jass salad (baby spinach, 1/4 red bell pepper, 1/4 cucumber, tomato, 1 MorningStar tomato basil pizza burger, 1 TB Sabra's sun dried tomato hummus)
Crack Wrap (total Sarah lunch apparently) 1 FlatOut wrap, 1TB hummus, 1 slice 2% Swiss cheese

Afternoon snack was kinda all over the place because the guys came to deliver the mattress...1/2c pineapple, 1 serving of riceworks Sweet Chili "chips"

I got the idea of Turkey and Spinach meatballs from Jess' creation.

Estimated recipe, Serves 4

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1.25 lbs ground turkey breast
• 1 package of frozen, chopped spinach
• 1/4 cup of quick oats
  
• 1 jar marinara sauce of choice
• 2 zucchini, quartered and diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1/4 sweet onion VERY fine dice
  
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 7 mushrooms, sliced
• 10 spicy kalamata olives, diced

Thaw spinach according to directions, make sure to place the spinach in a CLEAN kitchen towel and wring all of the water out, you want it dry. Combine with turkey, oats, finely diced onion, and seasoning (I used crushed red pepper, oregano, poultry seasoning, and some black pepper). I was able to form 22 golf ball sized meatballs out of this.

Sautee zucchini, red pepper, onion, and mushrooms in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil (1 turn of pan). Set aside.

I put half the meatballs in my large skillet and browned them in two batches, I'm ADHD in the kitchen and get side tracked easily, so working in smaller groups is good so I don't burn them. Once the second set of balls (lol, I'm also 13) is browned put all of the veggies back in and the rest of the balls. Top with the marinara sauce of choice (I used a roasted tomato and garlic one). Simmer.

At this point I start the quinoa, I think the time it takes to cook a batch of quinoa is perfect to simmer the 'balls in the sauce and veggies. Since I wanted this to also feed us tomorrow night (Tuesdays are DH softball night) I only made quinoa to serve two (I'll make the quinoa for tomorrow night when it's time to eat). Place 1/2c quinoa in a pot with 1 cup of water (or broth), bring to boil and cover. It usually takes 10 minutes for my quinoa to be done (you know it's done when the liquid is done and the quinoa gets that 'ring' around the outside).

Place 1/2 quinoa on a plate, 5 meatballs and some sauce/veggies on top, and some of the olives. I also topped mine with shredded cheese, since there is very little fat in this meal I knew it needed some more.

And a Cooper & Jada pic to end the evening....I think it is funny that her tail is wrapped around his shoulders. Please ignore the ugly futon they are sleeping on...it needs to be burned.


Peace out!

It's Getting Hot in Here...

Seriously, it is 76 freaking degrees IN my house right now. Down from 80 earlier. Thankfully we have a portable A/C unit for our bedroom because it is probably 10 degrees hotter up there. Yay for crappy insulation.

Today's eating was pretty sporadic. DH and I went to Sushi Zen for lunch, I adore their lunch bento boxes. For $7.95 you get salad, miso soup, and a bento that includes your choice of two items (I got salmon teriyaki and spicy tuna roll), 3 pieces of California roll, and the appetizer which is some scallop thing. Being the piglet I am I inhaled my whole bento (except for some of the rice that went with the 'yaki) and stole two pieces of spicy tuna roll from DH because he was full. Oink, Oink.

We wandered over to the mall because they have A/C, went to the Shane Co. to get my rings and earrings cleaned and inspected....I ended up getting DH a chain that he liked since he complained that I always get the jewelry. I'll try to take a pic tomorrow, it looks good on him. Wandered over to Old Navy to get some wife beaters tank tops for me, and grabbed a pair of the capris they had on special for $9 this week. They rock, I don't like capris that are more like cropped pants. These have ties so I can tie them off right below the knee, just like I like!

After that we went to TCBY, where I was super disappointed. They do not have coconut topping, wtf? Also their plain yogurt is not as good as this little local place (The Inside Scoop in Mill Creek for any locals that read this blog). I should have waited another 30 minutes because we went right by that place, bummer. We also went to Sleep Country to look at mattresses. I so wish we didn't have to buy a new one, but somehow this one made it 11 years and really needs to be replaced (my right shoulder has been bugging me for months now). They are having a GREAT deal through the weekend so I think we will go back and buy one...it's $250 cheaper than normal and includes free delivery and removal of the old one.

After that we came home, DH went to go help his brother move furniture. Now for the kicker, when I was 11 I was in love with The Babysitters Club books....I did not know until last night that they actually made a movie. It was on HBO at like 11:30 so I set the DVR to record....and I indulged myself in some BSC goodness while DH was gone. LOL. You can all laugh WITH me, instead of AT me.

DH got thai on the way home, I got the Spicy basil chicken and DH got the chicken pad see ew. We shared of course. :)

I baked a few treats for tomorrow...from Tina's recipe vault @ Carrots 'n Cake I made coconut macaroons and her peanuty butter bars. I of course taste tested each (as did DH), very good and super easy. I spent one hour from start to finish including baking time for BOTH batches of treats.

I think I'm going to go over to the high school near our house early tomorrow morning and run mile repeats, it's really a beautiful school with an amazing view of the Snohomish River valley. If I seriously thought I could be up at sunrise (not bloody likely), it is an amazing sight. Ok I'm off to watch some tv!

Yawn

It is so nice here in the Seattle area, and the forecast for the weekend is just as amazing. We rarely get nice weather for the 4th of July it seems so I'm super happy!

I got up a little early this morning because I had to be in Kirkland @ 7:30 when the lab opened for my blood work. I hit zero traffic and was out of there by 7:45. I ate another Luna Lemon Zest bar after they took my blood (Cullen?), Amanda @ Run To The Finish asked earlier what I thought of these bars. I love most anything lemon and these are no exception. They have the perfect lemony taste, and the texture is very light (almost reminds me of a rice krispy treat with a frosting). The macros aren't bad, but I don't think they are super great. Honestly, for 180 calories I'd like a little more than 9g of protein. However, I love the taste so I have them from time to time. :)

I was happy to be back home by a little after 8 and able to start my work day. I was also happy to have coffee finally (fasting = no coffee = grumpy Danielle). I made another Green Monster again today (same combo I've had all week) but I think I went a little lighter on the blueberries and it turned a greyish color. Whatevs, it still tasted good.

Around 11:30 I was feeling good despite them taking my blood so I thought I'd have a short run today, yeah my body said otherwise after one hill. Since I was already pretty far from home I just stuck it out, which may not have been my most brilliant move ever but the stats from my Garmin aren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be.
I'm pretty tired now so I think I'm going to take a nap after work lol.

After my run I did a few planks.
2x 60 seconds regular plank
2x 60 seconds right-side plank
2x 60 seconds left-side plank

Then I had my usual lunch wrap, a handful of baby carrots, and 1 bunch of grapes. I just have to make it another 90 minutes at work and then it's three day weekend time! Woo hoo! I'm definitely going to take a quick nap when I'm done working, then I need to run to the store to get stuff to make some treats for the 4th of July BBQ we're going to at Brian and Debra's. :)

Wednesday

I woke up this morning and felt a little tired, not sure why since I was at probably about 7.5 hours of sleep last night. Started off with a two cups of java with vanilla creamer, caught up on email (work and personal), and watched the news. Apparently there was an earthquake overnight, of course the local news beats the drum forever and finds every bored person that wants to talk to them on the news. That got old FAST. After I finished my coffee I made my Green Monster, which was a greyish color, I also screwed up the texture by blending the ice too long. I had spilled something on the floor and was trying to clean it up. Ooops. Into the GM went the following:

1 cup unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
1 scoop of ON vanilla whey protein powder
1/2 frozen banana
1/2 c frozen blueberries
5 small strawberries
4 cups of baby spinach
1.5 c of crushed ice

I ended up helping my coworker with some benchmarking for installation of our new software package, going to finish that up this afternoon for some fun times.

Morning snack was: 1/2c of 0% Fage, 6 small sliced strawberries, crumbled Kashi TLC honey almond flax bar

For lunch I was craving sweet potato fries something fierce, so I quartered up a sweet potato, tossed it with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a little sea salt, and some chili powder. Put them on a baking sheet and baked for 25 minutes at 400 to be honest they were too mushy, I tried to put them under the broiler for a few minutes but they didn't crisp up. OH WELL, I still ate them with some ketchup.

I also had a salad of some baby spinach, 1/4 red pepper, 2 sliced mushrooms, and 2TB of Sabra's sundried tomato crack and a MorningStar tomato basil pizza burger.
Followed by a bowl of red seedless grapes (not pictured).

Trying to figure out a good pre-workout snack for later before my workout. I'm going to make it a good one because I'm not sure that I will run tomorrow. I have to get some blood work done first thing in the morning (and have to fast...joy). Sometimes my iron levels are super out of wack after that so I'll just see what my body feels like tomorrow. :) Maybe a big GM when I get home will pump me back up with iron.

I wish I could join Cooper in a nap....

I love my Garmin

Wow, just wow...where has this been all my life? Oh, I just didn't own one. LOL. Finally a post-run pic too, really unattractive but I wasn't aiming to turn heads. ;)

So what I love about the Garmin is it's honesty...I know what really happened on my run and can look for ways to improve (and track improvement!). So here are today's stats (the full picture hopefully will show it lol):


What interested me a lot was looking at elevations, I feel like I can't possibly find a flat route around here. I'd be curious to see the elevation shots off other people's.
Onto today's eats:

Two cups of java with vanilla creamer.

One poop monster (same as yesterday).

Morning snack (pre-run) 1 slice Ezekial Cinnamon raisin toast (I'm out, I had to eat the heel today) with 1 TB Almond butter and 1/2 c cantaloupe on the side.

Lunch: Usual wrap, bunch of grapes, handful of carrots.

If anyone else has a Garmin watch I'm curious to see the elevation stats from your runs, post 'em up!

One down, Three to go!

Yay for short weeks! Most of my day was super uneventful and very routine. So I won't bore with the details LOL.

Lunch was a Flat out wrap, MorningStar tomato basil pizza burger, spinach, broccoli slaw, Sabra's sundried tomato hummus, 1/4 avocado, 1/2 tomato. Plus 1/2 c of cantaloupe, a couple of grapes, and a handful of baby carrots.

Afternoon snack = 1 slice Ezekial cinnamon raisin toast with 1TB TJ's raw almond butter. As soon as I ate the last bite of toast I left for the gym. My workout isn't exact because I have a crappy memory.

Workout (modified from Gina's Summer Shape up Challenge - to be honest I did the last day on Saturday and it had shoulders too and I'm still sore so I moved some of the exercises around).

Warmup: 1 mile @ 7:57, cooldown for 3 minutes.

Unilateral shoulder press : 3x10 with 15lb db's, my right shoulder is still tender on me so I can't lift as much as I'd like

Lat pulldowns : 3x10 @ 60lbs

Walk out push up : 3x10

Cardio blast- mountain climbers (1 minute)

double-arm dumbbell raise : 3x10 w/ 15lb db

incline fly press-out combo : 3x10 w/ 15lb db's (I love this exercise, I may have a new fave!)

medicine ball pullover 3x10 w/ 15lb medicine ball

Double crunch : 3x15

Cardio: I can't remember the exact splits. I ran for 27 minutes and probably did about 3.4 miles. I then did 5 minutes of cooldown and stretched out good.


Dinner = Thai red chicken curry. I cut up the following veggies, sauteed in 1tsp of sesame oil and then set aside. 1 zucchini, 1 red bell pepper, 4 mushrooms, 1/2 sweet onion. I then cut up 2 chicken breasts and sauteed those on the stove, once cooked through add the veggies in and 3/4c of TJ's Thai red curry sauce and a sprinkle of diced cilantro. I ate half of the veggies and chicken over 3/4c cooked brown rice. The rest is for the hubs to eat when he gets home. I swear there is rice hiding under it all.


After dinner snack was 1/2c of Dreyer's Neapolitan ice cream. I'm just sitting here playing some Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook and watching Sporscenter while I wait for the hubs to get home. There isn't anything on tv right now. :( Boo, I really watch way too much crappy tv.